Flawless
Clang!
A tremendous shower of sparks erupted as the two blades crossed. Pure muscular strength against pure muscular strength.
“Not enough!”
Yeon Seo-rin, rain-soaked hair hanging wild about her face, bared her teeth like a yaksha out of hell.
“Is this all the great Mount Hua can muster?! Mount Hua Sword Dragon!”
She showed not the slightest hint of fatigue. A ghostly, demonic aura of fighting spirit blazed from her eyes. At the same time the muscles coiled around her massive frame—tempered to the absolute limit—unleashed overwhelming power.
Crunch!
The rear foot of Gam Woo-hyeon, the Mount Hua Sword Dragon, sank straight into the ground.
“Kh…!”
A groan slipped involuntarily through his clenched teeth. The pressure was like contending with some spirit beast whose weight class could not even be compared to a human’s.
W-what kind of human strength is this…?!
Both of them were superhumans who had broken through the same wall, yet in bulk, height, and sheer mass she crushed him utterly. Twisting a bull’s horn clean out of its skull would barely have counted as a light after-dinner exercise for her. It was strength that bordered on madness.
If this keeps up I’ll be crushed to death…!
This was not a strength that could be endured simply by enduring.
“Hup…!”
With a refined technique he managed to twist his own blade free of hers by the barest fraction.
Screeech!
At once his sword flexed like a phantom willow branch and, with the method of grafting one flower onto another’s stem, turned Yeon Seo-rin’s power against her.
Mount Hua Sect — Ultimate Form: Mixed Origin Raging Current
Against an opponent who relied solely on brute force, nothing could have been more devastatingly effective than this pinnacle of the Mount Hua willow-sword arts. It was the strike of a lifetime.
Yet—
“Oh-ho!”
Even while being driven back, Yeon Seo-rin let out a cry of pure admiration.
“So this is the Plum Blossom Willow Sword!”
At her reaction Gam Woo-hyeon’s brow twitched with irritation.
She’s only pretending composure…!
Judging so, he drew up still more inner power.
“Haaah…!”
Under that massive transfer of force Yeon Seo-rin’s waist bent far backward. She looked ready to snap at any moment. Gam Woo-hyeon was about to seize the chance and overwhelm her in a single surge when a strange sensation struck him.
What…?
Grrrk—
Even as the blades screamed against each other, the waist that had seemed on the verge of breaking, the stance that had seemed about to collapse, simply… stopped yielding.
“……!”
Gam Woo-hyeon’s face contorted in shock.
She’s draining the willow sword’s force with nothing but pure bodily elasticity…?!
What kind of absurd physical ability was this?
Grrrrrk!
“But.”
Bit by bit Yeon Seo-rin reversed the flow, shedding the willow sword’s power and, with transcendent muscular strength, began hauling her bent waist upright again.
“If this… is all… then Mount Hua’s… Plum Blossom Willow Sword… isn’t… much to write home about… either…!”
Veins stood out across her entire face as she spoke in broken gasps, steadily forcing her body back up. With her superhuman physique alone she already overwhelmed Gam Woo-hyeon.
“Ugh… uuugh…!”
Even though he was the one pressing down, Gam Woo-hyeon’s face twisted with the naked realization that he himself was being pressed.
In the past.
The training grounds of the Luoyang Sword House.
“What’s this?”
Young Yeon Seo-rin looked around and snorted a laugh.
“You’re all worn out already?”
The sturdy warriors of the clan who had tried to teach her close-combat techniques lay sprawled across the sand, overwhelmed not by any technique of hers but by her sheer strength and stamina.
“Huff… huff…!”
“W-what kind of… impossible…!”
They gasped for breath and stared at her with bulging eyes, as if she were a monster. Completely helpless. When they tried to overpower her with strength, strength crushed them. When they sought to win with the flexibility born of muscle, her elasticity proved far superior. There was simply no way to handle Yeon Seo-rin.
“Tsk tsk.”
The child Yeon Seo-rin dusted sand from her hands and clicked her tongue at them.
“So this is the limit of the Sword House’s famous strongmen? The title ‘warrior’ is wasted on you.”
“Young Mistress.”
Her personal maid approached and reported.
“As you ordered, I have brought the most renowned strongman in all of Luoyang.”
“Oh-ho.”
Young Yeon Seo-rin smiled and licked her lips.
“I hope this one will at least be worth sparring with.”
I am Gam Woo-hyeon…!
It could not end like this.
I am the Mount Hua Sword Dragon…!
He could not fall here.
If the sword is not enough…!
Unable to withstand the crushing pressure in his blood vessels, capillaries burst in his eyes.
“KRAAAAAAH—!”
With a battle cry wrenched from the deepest pit of his gut, Gam Woo-hyeon desperately flung the blades apart.
Mount Hua Sect — Literary Star: Concealment
Clang!
The ancient Daoist technique aimed at disarming both parties worked. Their swords buried themselves halfway into the half-collapsed ceiling, and the two plunged straight into bare-handed combat.
Thud-thud-thud!
Yeon Seo-rin’s rock-like fists smashed into Gam Woo-hyeon’s skull in an instant, turning his face into a bloody mess.
“Ugh…!”
Yet even then, with broken teeth dangling, Gam Woo-hyeon clenched his jaw and drove both palms squarely into her abdomen.
Mount Hua Sect — Army-Breaking Star: Eruption
In the history of Mount Hua, the sword is merely one weapon among many…!
Tremendous palm force exploded from his hands.
BOOM!
The sound of a hundred leather drums struck at once, and bright blood sprayed from Yeon Seo-rin’s mouth.
“Heh…!”
Yet her laughter still held leisure. In that brief instant she had already channeled most of the impact through her rear foot into the earth—a transforming-energy technique refined to the peak.
“Tch…!”
Clicking his tongue as he tried to flow naturally into the next move, Gam Woo-hyeon felt Yeon Seo-rin’s hand clamp around the back of his neck.
“You dare come at me bare-handed?”
He must have felt exactly like the Monkey King with the golden headband locked tight. Before he could even resist the crushing pressure, light flashed before his eyes.
CRACK!
Yeon Seo-rin, cradling his head in both hands, drove her knee straight into his face.
“……!”
The impact felt as if his skull would shatter. He reflexively threw both arms up to guard, but she had already wrapped his head and locked his shoulders, pinning both arms completely.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Left knee, right knee, left knee again—lightning-fast alternating strikes. Gam Woo-hyeon’s body convulsed pitifully with every blow. A merciless barrage delivered with no space and no chance to absorb the shock.
“……!”
There was not even room for a groan to escape.
CRACK!
Teeth broke and scattered.
CRACK!
Eyelids and lips had long since split open.
CRACK!
The eye sockets caved in; the nose bone had been pulverized ages ago.
CRACK!
That he had not already died was purely thanks to the unimaginable durability of a body that had broken through the wall and been reinforced.
CRACK!
That he had not lost consciousness was purely thanks to the divine art known as the Purple Sunset Divine Art.
“Kehgh…!”
Gam Woo-hyeon was not simply taking the beating. He counterattacked at every possible opening with every technique he possessed.
Mount Hua Sect — Chapter Six, Verse Twenty-Seven: Wall-Hard Head
He timed the exact moment her knee flew and met it with his forehead.
THANG!
But her knee joint flexibly absorbed the blow, and because penetrating force was embedded in that knee, he could not even reduce the damage he received.
What is this…?!
Mount Hua Sect — Reverse Form: Heavenly Eagle Claw
His seized shoulder and elbow joints twisted grotesquely beyond their limits of motion and raked deep furrows into Yeon Seo-rin’s arm.
Shhk!
Her tough skin tore and blood sprayed in all directions. Yet it could not damage the wire-like muscles protected by her powerful rebound qi.
Just what… are you…?!
One moment she seemed to be mindlessly bullying him with raw strength; the next, techniques refined to the peak poured out as naturally as breathing. One moment she seemed to be applying sophisticated methods; the next she simply crushed him with overwhelming power.
Where the hell did a monster like this come from…!
No matter what technique he used or how he used it, Yeon Seo-rin responded as though she already knew it all. He could not even distinguish where her known martial knowledge ended and pure improvisation began.
Who the hell raised you…?!
“Young Mistress Yeon Seo-rin.”
A warrior practicing his sword forms on the training ground had once asked the child.
“So… you mean I should hold the sword like this?”
How could a warrior who had reached the wall follow the advice of a mere child on how to grip a sword?
“…Oh?”
“…Hmm.”
Yet no one present found the sight strange.
“Yes. If you hold it that way, the form you’re polishing right now will become much easier.”
“Thank you, Young Mistress!”
Joy bloomed across the warriors’ faces. They bowed repeatedly in gratitude as she left.
“Thank you!”
With her characteristic bright smile, young Yeon Seo-rin waved back. But inside, as always, a question lingered.
Why?
She tilted her head.
Why can’t they see something so obvious for themselves?
Things they could never grasp no matter how hard they studied, she knew as naturally as breathing. Things they could never reach no matter how hard they trained, she already possessed. That had been the greatest mystery of Yeon Seo-rin’s childhood.
“Young Mistress, where shall we go this time?”
Her answer was always the same.
“Won-gak-jeong.”
The only existence she could neither fully understand nor fully know resided there—her younger brother, the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword House. Only the still-tiny Yeon So-hyeon was her wall, her goal, and in truth her master.
If this continues, I die.
In his fading consciousness Gam Woo-hyeon knew it with absolute certainty. In a state so hazy he could no longer tell time, he thought he heard Yeon Seo-rin click her tongue.
“Tch.”
Still holding the rag-doll that had once been Gam Woo-hyeon, she looked up into empty air.
“Has the battle situation changed?”
She muttered the words with no information at all.
“The color of the air has shifted.”
It was a statement no one in the entire Central Plains—least of all Gam Woo-hyeon—could comprehend. That near-divine gift of Yeon Seo-rin’s, the super-sense that allowed her to intuitively grasp every situation, was something even Yeon So-hyeon himself marveled at.
“Indeed so, Cheonui Mubong.”
The answer came from the gaping hole in the ceiling.
“Therefore it would be wise to release the Mount Hua Sword Dragon quietly.”
What appeared were extraordinary martial artists clad in black combat robes, swords already drawn. Yeon Seo-rin recognized them at once.
“…Wudang Sect.”
Behind the Wudang martial artists the exhausted disciples of Mount Hua could also be seen.
“Master…!”
“Vanguard Commander…!”
Yeon Seo-rin snorted a laugh and released her grip on Gam Woo-hyeon. She could have snapped his neck then and there, but her super-sense was sending a crystal-clear warning.
Thud—
The half-dead Gam Woo-hyeon crumpled like a wet rag into the muddy floor, but her gaze, already bored with him, remained fixed upward.
“You.”
She bared her teeth in a smile at the young martial artist who had spoken—standing rigidly with wide eyes, looking down at her.
“So you’re Baek Cheong, Wudang’s Steel Dragon Fang.”
Baek Cheong, disciple of the former Wudang Sect Leader, answered with an expression of boiling bloodlust.
“That’s right. I am Baek Cheong.”