The Tiger-Chasing Sect's Successor
Yoo Won-jik let out a frustrated shout!
As he rushed toward Ju Yuryeon's proximity, she twisted her body in a desperate attempt to evade the incoming attack, narrowly dodging it. The slight graze across her shoulder sent a sharp throb through her.
Yet the relief of escaping lasted only an instant. The fact that the next strike was already waiting left her tense once more.
“Damn it! I’ll catch you no matter what!”
Yoo Won-jik brushed his hand as if regretting his failure, then clenched his fist and lunged at Ju Yuryeon again.
Whoosh!
Unlike the fierce momentum at the start, his movements gradually slowed, as if the power had drained away.
Control over the fight had already shifted entirely to Ju Yuryeon. No matter how relentlessly he poured on consecutive attacks, she flowed with her body without the slightest hesitation. Though she maintained perfect composure, there was not the slightest trace of complacency in her movements.
Seeing this, Seong Jung-hyeok began to murmur under his breath.
“Strong Thousand Kick.”
Before Seong Jung-hyeok’s words could fully form, Yoo Won-jik’s movements suddenly transformed.
After launching his attack, his feet—never touching the ground once—now struck the ground and paused for a moment.
That instant was fleeting, yet the sudden surge of inner energy gathered in Yoo Won-jik’s body. His two feet immediately left the ground, and his figure soared into the air.
“Lord-Breaking Dragon Kick.”
While Seong Jung-hyeok murmured with another sigh of admiration, Yoo Won-jik’s flying kick—having become as fierce as a dragon—shot toward Ju Yuryeon with overwhelming force. It was a lethal strike far more vicious than the clumsy attacks from before.
“…Damn it.”
Intuitively sensing that there was no way to avoid this attack, Ju Yuryeon clicked her tongue. She considered for a moment, then raised the folding fan in her hand. It was unclear whether the fan could block the Lord-Breaking Dragon Kick, but it seemed like her only option. So the two charged forward relentlessly, pushing toward each other.
Kakak.
The moment the tip of Yoo Won-jik’s foot met the end of Ju Yuryeon’s folding fan, the power packed into the Lord-Breaking Dragon Kick proved too much. The fan curved sharply outward.
If it had been an ordinary sword, it would have snapped long ago.
“It’s over!”
At the light-hearted shout from Yoo Won-jik, Ju Yuryeon’s hand gripping the folding fan began to tremble slightly.
No matter how sturdy the folding fan was, the increasingly bent blade looked ready to break at any moment.
The instant the fan was bent to its maximum, Ju Yuryeon’s wrist, elbow, and shoulder twisted lightly.
Thud!
The balance shattered simultaneously, and the bent folding fan unfolded like an arrow, slicing past Yoo Won-jik’s leg.
“…Ugh!”
Blood spurted from Yoo Won-jik’s leg. He staggered for a moment from the pain, but soon straightened his body, which seemed to have only a deep wound.
After landing on the ground, Yoo Won-jik extended his two hands forward—the ones he had never shown before.
He then hurled his fist straight at Ju Yuryeon, whose posture had been disrupted by the aftershock of the previous collision. It was nothing more than a simple punch, yet its size appeared more than half again as large as a normal human’s fist.
‘Damn it!’
Even to an outsider, this attack looked impossible to withstand, yet Ju Yuryeon, unable to dodge due to the earlier exchanges, raised the folding fan as a last resort to block Yoo Won-jik’s fist.
Crack!
The sound echoed like striking wood against a rock. The folding fan twisted momentarily, and Ju Yuryeon was sent flying back about four steps.
Though no obvious wound was visible, her face turned faintly pale from the impact she had not fully absorbed.
“Ugh!”
When she coughed low, blood mixed in. It was not fatal, but it was clear she had sustained internal injuries.
After catching her breath, Ju Yuryeon wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand and sighed shortly while staring at the bent folding fan from the shock.
“Ugh… This is annoying to fix.”
Ju Yuryeon’s dry cough made her look slightly pale, her usual vitality drained.
Yet she seemed completely unaffected in her movements.
“Blocking the Double Hole-Breaking Fist…”
“The Consecutive Compression Heat Fist is a martial art that first shatters the opponent’s defense with a kick and then finishes it off with a fist. It’s far too famous to be new. That’s why I used a little trick at the end. If the axis leg isn’t intact, it can’t exert proper power.”
“Indeed… So you weren’t just attacking the leg.”
Yoo Won-jik glanced at his leg, clenching his teeth. The blood flowing from Yoo Won-jik’s leg had already stopped, but the slight tremor in it looked far from whole.
“Uiseon Suga’s sword technique. Ha Joo Sang-geom, perhaps? Indeed, no lies.”
As if guessing the situation, Seong Jung-hyeok murmured low. Yoo Eunhyeon glanced at him and asked Su Hwa-seon.
“Mother-in-law also uses a sword technique?”
“Yes. Ha Joo Sang-geom is a sword art specialized in piercing the vital points with the folding fan. The targeting varies by situation, but the key is to pierce the human body with a minimal attack to create a lethal strike. The Peak-Sparrow Bullet Sword that Yuryeon used is a move that maximizes the resonance of the sword and arm to stab the opponent, and its application range is wide enough to use in any situation.”
“It’s a martial art befitting a sect.”
Su Hwa-seon nodded slightly and then glanced at Yoo Won-jik.
“The match seems decided.”
“Already? Your leg looks a bit uncomfortable, but I don’t think you can’t fight.”
“Of course I can continue the spar. But the match has already been decided at the level of martial arts utilization. Further fighting is meaningless.”
Exactly as Su Hwa-seon said.
No matter how long the spar continued, Yoo Won-jik could no longer unleash his martial art, whose core was his leg.
Everyone gathered here already knew that fact.
“Not yet… I can still do more.”
“Splitting the muscles on the inner lower part of the thigh will make it hard to straighten your knee for a while, won’t it?”
“….”
“This is just a spar. If it hadn’t been a spar, I could have made your leg useless with the Peak-Sparrow Bullet Sword just now.”
As if denying the lie, Ju Yuryeon planted the folding fan in the ground. At Ju Yuryeon’s cool words, Yoo Won-jik clenched his teeth.
“I… I… won’t lose!”
However, Yoo Won-jik shouted loudly as if refusing to accept the defeat he had suffered.
His spirit was admirable, but everyone except Yoo Won-jik knew by now that it was not courage but recklessness.
When no more words could be exchanged, Ju Yuryeon narrowed her eyes and clicked her tongue.
“Tsk. Is that so? Good. Then let’s try more. Even if it costs me money, I have no choice.”
Her deeply sunken gaze conveyed that she would stop at nothing to do whatever she wanted. But it seemed Yoo Won-jik still hadn’t noticed.
Thus, Yoo Won-jik began to forcibly raise his inner energy once more, just as before.
However, his injured leg still trembled, and the sight was far from ordinary.
He had already hinted that his body was exceeding its limits.
“Wait!”
At that moment, Seong Jung-hyeok interrupted by shouting. Standing between the two, Seong Jung-hyeok apologized to Ju Yuryeon.
“I’m sorry for interrupting the spar. But as Yuryeon said, the match seems to have already been decided. Even if this kid is as he is, since he’s the successor of the Chukhobang, it would be troublesome if he gets seriously injured.”
Ju Yuryeon frowned as if questioning what he was saying now. But unlike Yoo Won-jik, Seong Jung-hyeok was not so lenient.
“Isn’t this enough? As she said, if she meant to win, she would have done it long ago. Not doing so is either because it wasn’t a spar or because he doesn’t want to stir up unnecessary trouble with the Chukhobang.”
“….”
Seong Jung-hyeok spoke as if he had read Ju Yuryeon’s intentions perfectly. He then said firmly to Ju Yuryeon, who had been standing silently for a moment.
“Of course, if the sect wants a feud, I’ll gladly accept it. If that is Uiseon Suga’s intention.”
Seong Jung-hyeok hurled his words as if urging decisive action while emitting an intimidating presence as if he would gladly fight if challenged. At that, Ju Yuryeon relaxed her furrowed brows and let out a low sigh.
As a sect that professed the middle path, Uiseon Suga would gain nothing from stirring up trouble with any other faction.
Ending it here would be, in many ways, the best choice.
“Huu. As expected, Vice Leader-nim isn’t one to underestimate. Good. Since winning alone is enough, but the winner’s declaration of defeat should come from the party involved, right?”
“Wise. And of course. I have no intention of stealing the victor’s rights. Won-jik.”
Seong Jung-hyeok relaxed his expression, lowering his spirits in response to Ju Yuryeon’s answer, and turned toward Yoo Won-jik, who stood awkwardly. Seong Jung-hyeok’s meaning was clear.
“Hah, but uncle… I mean, Vice Leader-nim. If I lose here, I…”
“You foolish boy! Do you think we live and die for honor? Losing to us demonic cultivators isn’t shameful. Even if you crawl on the ground, press your face into the dirt, and eat mud, as long as you survive by any means, that’s the duty of a demonic cultivator. Defeat can be reversed later, but a disabled leg cannot. Do you understand? Chew and swallow the pain of defeat and turn it into your nutrition.”
“Ku, kuugh… But this spar is…”
As if unable to accept defeat, Yoo Won-jik bit his lip. At that, Seong Jung-hyeok’s expression darkened and cut him off.
“Shut your mouth. You must know the full story of this incident. If you don’t even know that, you don’t have the qualifications to become the sect leader. If you prolong this, I’ll make you kneel by force. Now, what will you choose!”
There was the Black Lotus Trading Company behind this incident, but ultimately the Demonic Cult lay behind the Black Lotus Trading Company.
No matter how major the Chukhobang was, they could not dare defy the Demonic Cult’s orders.
“Ah, I understand… I lost.”
Yoo Won-jik was not foolish enough not to understand the situation. He judged that it was better to admit defeat himself than to stubbornly endure and kneel here.
He ultimately bowed his head toward Ju Yuryeon.
He had acknowledged his own defeat.
“That was a good match. Good work.”
With defeat now certain, Ju Yuryeon smiled brightly, as if the sharp atmosphere from before had been an illusion, and offered a polite bow.
Then she turned her body and slowly walked toward the direction where Yoo Eunhyeon was.
“…I thought this would end like this. No matter what means I use, I’ll definitely take you down…”
Staring at Ju Yuryeon’s retreating back, Yoo Won-jik murmured low with narrowed eyes.
His gaze held tangled emotions far different from the acceptance of defeat.