There Must Be a Reason
"Whoaaa!"
A gasp of awe rippled through the crowd as Lee Tae-hyun traded blows with Kim Jin on even footing. A clash of Ink Fist and Ink Spear — rare enough that it alone was worth the price of admission.
It wasn't just the stands. The live broadcast chat was a raging inferno. An A-rank hunter versus an F-rank hunter — by all rights, a match like this shouldn't even have been a contest. Yet Lee Tae-hyun wasn't yielding an inch, turning back Kim Jin's fists again and again. Worse, he was slowly but surely seizing the upper hand.
"Xuanwu Ink Spear."
Denser than before — ink qi of deep, abyssal color bloomed along his spearhead.
"Second Stroke."
Swish!
Two strokes, drawn in rapid succession. Flowing and bending like a brush tracing a path, they deflected Kim Jin's fist and let it slide harmlessly past — the way one might seize a snake by the head and twist it aside.
"Wha—?!"
Kim Jin bit his lip in disbelief. His face said it plainly: he couldn't believe the sixth stroke had been stopped with a mere two.
A spear that blocks and flows — that's my specialty, after all.
Tae-hyun didn't pause, chaining the next stroke without breath. Xuanwu Ink Spear, Third Stroke. Ink qi coiled around the shaft with the sensation of Reinforcement.
"Now I'm finally starting to get it."
It had truly taken a long time — the ink arts, the ink fist, and understanding the subtlety of a power that grew stronger the more it was wielded.
"Brace yourself."
Tae-hyun raised an eyebrow with a bright, irreverent grin.
"Because I'm not stopping."
Fourth Stroke.
CRRAAASH!
A strike faster and heavier than any before it.
This guy—!
Kim Jin threw up his guard and retreated fast, but the spear chased the movement without mercy, pressing the attack. Fifth Stroke.
The spear kissed Kim Jin's forearm. Skin split, blood welled. Despite his formidable defense, wounds began spreading across his body with unsettling ease.
"H-how is this possible?! A mere F-rank, mastering Ink Arts this fast—!"
"That's exactly why you're getting left behind — you're still whining about ranks."
Tae-hyun clamped both hands around the shaft and twisted tight. Behind him, a black shape began to shimmer like a mirage.
Sshaa!
A black serpent. Tae-hyun's Ink Serpent bared its needle-sharp fangs.
Sixth Stroke.
"Gwahk!"
An impact like a collapsing mountain. Kim Jin's body, struck dead-center by the spear, launched into the air.
Impossible.
Shock crawled up his spine. He'd actually reached the sixth stroke — the threshold where the Ink Serpent manifested. Kim Jin himself had poured no small amount of sweat into climbing to that same height.
How could Lee Tae-hyun manifest the Ink Serpent?!
It defied everything. The Ink Fist was honest strength. No amount of clever tricks could carry anyone past the fifth stroke. Only relentless effort — the kind paid for in shattered bones and torn flesh — could open that gate.
"Ugh...!"
Kim Jin, sprawled on the ground, dragged his battered body upright. Joints creaked, muscles screamed. But the single-minded resolve to crush the man before him burned away every lesser pain.
"Wow. You can still stand? I'll give you credit for toughness."
"……"
Two fists rose in silence. Then, quietly, Kim Jin spoke.
"Lee Tae-hyun. I've been underestimating you all this time."
A famously gifted chaebol heir. A decadent wastrel who craved attention. That was all Kim Jin had ever seen in him — until this fight taught him otherwise. The ink arts Tae-hyun wielded were no fluke, no sleight of hand. He couldn't fathom how or why, but Tae-hyun carried experience and effort equal to his own, layer upon layer of them. And if that was true, then only one thing remained to do.
"From here on, I'm beating you for real."
Man against man. Hunter against hunter. Simply fighting with everything he had and seizing the victory.
Krrrrrzzz!
Black energy storming around Kim Jin like a gale. Two serpents crossing paths wound the entire arena's air taut with tension.
"Finally — an attitude worth watching."
Until now, Kim Jin's attacks had felt like a child's tantrum — capricious and raw. The strike he was preparing now looked as deliberate as could be.
Then it's only right I return the courtesy.
Tae-hyun wrung his ink arts to their absolute limit.
Sshaaaaa!
A pair of Ink Serpents. The massive serpent surveyed its prey with a hunter's cold gaze.
"Xuanwu Ink Fist."
"Xuanwu Ink Spear."
Two pairs of feet kicked off the ground at the same instant. At the midpoint between them, spear and fist met —
"Seventh Stroke."
KWAAAAAANG!
The ground heaved as if struck by an earthquake. A blistering gale shredded the forest around them. And at the epicenter of that shockwave stood two men.
KAGAGAGAK!
Where spearhead met fist, hot sparks scattered. A ferocious deadlock — the instant either one's strength wavered even slightly, the match would be decided.
"GRRRAAAAAH!"
Kim Jin's neck corded with blood as he shoved forward.
"Give it up already!"
A monstrous impact resonated through Tae-hyun's entire body. Every second renewed the sensation of his body hitting its limits. Blood surged up from somewhere deep in his dantian.
"Why do you go this far?!"
No matter how he turned it over, it was too much. Calling this a rich man's game didn't explain it — the situation had gone far beyond strange.
I came this far to stand beside Ju-ah as an equal — to protect her.
But what about Tae-hyun? What drove him to clench his teeth and claw his way to strength like this?
"...Why do I go this far, you ask?"
In that instant, Kim Jin's gaze locked with Tae-hyun's.
"...?!"
There wasn't a trace of playfulness or lightness in Tae-hyun's eyes. No — what remained was something closer to a devastating, gut-wrenching desperation. A desolation so complete that the word parched would have fit it.
"There has to be a reason, doesn't there?"
A single sentence weighed down with meaning. The corner of Tae-hyun's mouth curved faintly as he pivoted the spear.
KA-CHAK!
The direction of their force slipped apart in an instant, spear tip and fist bouncing away from each other.
"You... what on earth have you been through—"
"Thanks for the meal."
Tae-hyun offered his gratitude with brief sincerity — then compressed every last drop of mana in his body to its limit.
"Dinner's served!"
The final stroke of the ink arts. And it took the shape of no serpent.
"...!"
A body vast as a mountain range, a shell like a fortress shield — a divine beast with the head of a serpent.
Xuanwu.
The strike that would end the match. The Black Tortoise seized the serpent's neck in its jaws and bit down.
Xuanwu Ink Spear — Eighth Stroke.
The eighth stroke, unfolding in the form of a thrust, stopped dead an inch from Kim Jin. It didn't need to land. The sheer shockwave of that concentrated impact sent Kim Jin flying like a rag doll.
"...!"
Kim Jin's body shot backward at a speed closer to being launched than falling. And what he finally collided with was the crimson crystal.
THUD!
Unconscious, Kim Jin slammed into the red crystal — and it shattered to pieces on impact.
[M-match complete!]
[The Crimson Crystal has been destroyed!]
[The winner is Shinseong! Victory goes to Shinseong Guild!]
The announcer, who had been gawping slack-jawed through the entire finish, scrambled to declare the winner. Then the familiar chime — the one he'd been waiting for.
[You have acquired the skill Xuanwu Ink Spear.]
[Xuanwu Ink Spear has resonated with the Ascension Martial Art the user possesses!]
[Xuanwu Ink Spear is now bound to Nameless Spear Art.]
"There it is."
Only after checking the notification he'd been hoping for did a satisfied smile finally settle on Lee Tae-hyun's lips.
The moment the match ended, chatter of every conceivable kind came flooding out about the fight.
He'd been shattering his own ceiling again and again, but this victory meant something different entirely — he'd toppled the strongest team of the entire Guild War in the round of 64, a feat so absurd it bordered on legendary. Expectations for the Guild War had shot through the stratosphere. Honestly, a twist like this drew far more eyes than a tournament unfolding the way everyone predicted. The internet churned on and on about Lee Tae-hyun and the Guild War.
And of course, Shinseong Guild right along with them.
▷ A spear art that has yet to earn a name. It waits for the moment when the pieces that will complete it gather as one.
▷ Bound Skills:
① Azure Dragon Seven Forms
② Xuanwu Ink Spear
③ (empty)
④ (empty)
A trait born from the binding of Xuanwu Ink Spear. The power of the spear art rises the more consecutive strokes you chain.
"As expected."
The moment the Ink Spear was completed, it had bound itself straight into the Nameless Spear Art. Watching it sit there so boldly in its slot warmed something in the corner of his heart, and he couldn't help it. This was the change the newly bound Xuanwu Ink Spear had brought: Xuanwu's Momentum. The ink spear's signature trait — growing stronger with every successive stroke — had been carried over wholesale into the Nameless Spear Art. A spear art that grew mightier the longer you fought with it.
"Aww, you beautiful thing."
He honestly wanted to give it a kiss. He was already dying to know what it would look like once every piece clicked into place. It would surely reach a level in a different dimension altogether from the Peerless Ghost Spear of his life before regression.
"...You seem to be in a good mood."
He was snickering at his skill window when a guest wrapped in bandages from head to toe lowered his voice in visible displeasure.
"Something good happened, that's all."
"Beating me, you mean. Hmph... I suppose that's reason enough to celebrate."
"What was that?"
Tae-hyun deliberately stuck out his tongue and made a show of dry-heaving.
"Anyway, I'll admit this is a surprise. I never thought you'd come looking for me first."
The very next day after the round of 64 ended, Kim Jin had shown up at his door — still dragging his unhealed body behind him. At first Tae-hyun assumed he'd come to pick a fight or nitpick about the match. Instead—
"I came because there was something I needed to say."
—he was calmer than expected. And somehow, that calm made Tae-hyun more uneasy, not less. When he awkwardly rolled his eyes away, Kim Jin let out a hearty laugh.
"I don't intend to give you grief about any of it. Ju-ah came to see me first and we cleared up most of the misunderstanding... and besides, I'm not so foolish that I'd lunge at the man who beat me. Not again."
"Good to hear."
Which only deepened the mystery. If he wasn't here to hash out old grudges, and he wasn't here to pick a fight — then why had he come at all?
"Lee Tae-hyun. I'll get straight to the point."
Kim Jin drew something square from inside his coat. A small box, the kind that might hold a ring.
"Do you have any idea what this is?"
"What is it?"
Tae-hyun accepted the box with casual indifference.
Click!
He flipped it open, and its contents were revealed to the world.
"Th-this is—?!"