Chapter 85
Chapter 85
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Zhenzhou Yan Clan (3)
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Who had won?
The warriors of the Zhenzhou Yan Clan naturally expected it to be Yan Yang-gun. It wasn't just a matter of simple loyalty.
The martial prowess of Yan Yang-gun they had witnessed at the main house.
It was something no ordinary person could ever hope to approach. Even a genius would need to train diligently for twenty years to reach such a realm.
There wasn't one chance in ten thousand, no, one in a hundred thousand, that Ouyang Jue could have won.
Having made this judgment, the warriors calmly waited for the dust cloud to settle. They assumed he was standing there, stunned, simply reveling in his victory.
And then.
“…Ah!”
A short cry escaped from within the sandstorm. It was a mixture of anger and lament, like a death rattle.
There was no room for doubt. It was unmistakably Yan Yang-gun's voice.
“Uwaaaaaah! That bastard, Ouyang Jue!”
*Whoosh-!*
A lion's roar, infused with powerful internal energy, blew the dust cloud away as if it had never been there.
And the warriors saw.
Yan Yang-gun, standing alone, and Ouyang Jue, who had vanished somewhere.
“Where did you go!”
*Grit, grind!*
Yan Yang-gun's expression was not that of a victor. He was like a beast wounded by an unexpected blow.
A seething rage, ready to explode at the slightest touch, weighed heavily on the air.
Even the warriors, his own clan members, could not carelessly approach him.
‘...My god.’
‘What in the world is that?’
*Crackle, spa-crack!*
Small bolts of lightning sparked between the grains of sand and Yan Yang-gun. It was lightning energy, created with an internal power no less formidable than his own.
For a moment, they doubted Ouyang Jue's identity.
The Mount Hua Sect couldn't possibly possess such a powerful lightning art.
A master with favorable intentions towards Mount Hua must have appeared... But the thought was quickly cut short.
“What are you doing! Find that bastard Ouyang Jue, now!”
“…Yes!”
The response was a little late, its edge dulled.
Yan Yang-gun clicked his tongue forcefully.
‘Dammit, I can't be held up here…!’
He never should have believed his enemy's words in the first place. Yan Yang-gun bit his lower lip hard.
At the very moment he was about to unleash the pinnacle of the Yan Clan Fist, Ouyang Jue had stomped his foot, kicking up the sand.
There were no feints or variations in the move.
He had thought it was just the turbulent force generated by a powerful fist, much like the arts of Shaolin.
But he was wrong.
Ouyang Jue hadn't used a Shaolin fist technique as he'd claimed. No, it belonged to someone he didn't want to believe.
‘If my eyes didn't deceive me, that was... the Thunderbolt Palm of the Divine Demon Fist, the greatest eccentric under the heavens!’
But the exchange of blows just now had deepened the mystery.
It was only a graze, but it had touched him.
The blow, at the apex of the Yan Clan Fist, had passed forcefully between his clothes and the underside of his chin.
He hadn't felt the texture of a human-skin mask. A master who had reached the pinnacle of perfection shouldn't have been grazed in the first place.
There was only one answer, unbelievable as it was.
*Grit!*
Yan Yang-gun clenched his teeth and shouted.
“Do not let your guard down just because he is young! Stay sharp so you won't be caught!”
“Understood!”
*Ssssk.*
At his words, the warriors of the Zhenzhou Yan Clan fanned out in different directions.
In their eyes, there was no disappointment in Yan Yang-gun, nor was there any hint of fear towards Ouyang Jue.
Nor did they show any fighting spirit.
They simply acted as ordered by their clan head, Yan Yang-gun. What was more remarkable was that this loyalty was not born of poison or sorcery.
‘The Zhenzhou Yan Clan... an unexpected obstacle.’
Ouyang Jue watched their movements from atop a large tree, concealing his presence.
And he, too, had realized something in the moment their blows crossed.
‘They say the Yan Clan Fist can rival Shaolin's fist arts when it comes to raw power. It seems that wasn't an exaggeration.’
It had only grazed him, and he had even deployed his Protective Aura with Purple Mist True Energy. Yet, a faint abrasion from the intense heat already stung his cheek.
If he hadn't unleashed the Thunderbolt Palm in that instant, the smell of his own searing flesh would have given away his position. The power of the Yan Clan Fist was truly beyond its reputation.
Moreover, to think that the Thunderbolt Palm, which he had used with killing intent, had only managed to stop his opponent's movement.
‘If we fight for real, with my external arts being currently weak, I could lose.’
Ouyang Jue decided to switch from the best plan to the next best one.
“Hey!”
“...?!”
“Over here!”
Ouyang Jue's smile became exceptionally bright. There was no need for taunts anymore.
A battle of fist against fist. In short, for Yan Yang-gun, the Yan Clan Fist was like a secret art he had spent his entire life perfecting.
He had been pushed back in such a close-quarters fight, his body frozen. No matter how careless he had been, that fact remained.
Could Yan Yang-gun truly endure such humiliation?
Ouyang Jue shook his head.
‘Unless he's a Buddha, it's impossible. How could a martial artist bear the moment he is betrayed by the arts he has built his entire life upon?’
Ouyang Jue swung his arm wide. With a *crackle*, a light stream of lightning energy shot out.
“Since I've single-handedly broken the ultimate technique of the Yan Clan Fist, I suppose I can call myself the number one fist in Hebei now, right?”
“...You baaastaaard!”
He hadn't seized victory; he had merely caught his opponent off guard and paralyzed him.
But Yan Yang-gun's pride was even greater than Ouyang Jue had anticipated.
To have lost even a single moment to a mere junior, a greenhorn not yet of age, was in itself a profound humiliation.
The more Yan Yang-gun's face twisted in rage, the more Ouyang Jue smiled.
“Was that all you had?”
Was that statement some kind of signal?
*KABOOM!*
Unleashing the internal energy from his entire body, Yan Yang-gun glared up at Ouyang Jue with burning eyes.
“I will kill you without fail.”
“So you say.”
“...I will handle you with the utmost sincerity, until you beg me to kill you.”
*Snap.*
Yan Yang-gun launched himself forward. Thirty warriors followed close behind him.
Each one a first-rate, or even a peak, master.
This was the full force mobilized to annihilate an entire sect. They were not to be underestimated, and even someone like Ouyang Jue would undoubtedly be defeated if he fought them head-on.
Ouyang Jue was well aware of this.
That was why he had tried to take him by the throat while he was off guard and break his will. He had intended to throw the Zhenzhou Yan Clan into chaos using the arts of the Divine Demon Fist.
‘But I failed.’
Even in this volatile, touch-and-go situation, Ouyang Jue did not lose his composure.
“Come.”
Ouyang Jue said softly.
“You weaklings, who are but a passing footnote in the history of the martial world.”
* * *
*CRACK!*
With a single punch from Yan Yang-gun, a tree toppled over. With a great rustling crash, it fell, taking another tree down with it.
Even amidst the chaos, Yan Yang-gun was looking elsewhere. The trees were never his concern.
Ouyang Jue.
The man who had dealt him the greatest humiliation of his life, and the warrior the Heavenly Dragon had warned him to be wary of.
Yan Yang-gun spotted Ouyang Jue leaping to another tree.
‘...As expected of the Heavenly Dragon.’
His heart pounded with the desire to strike Ouyang Jue down immediately.
But his mind, the very thing that had sustained him as the head of the Yan Clan, told him otherwise. He could not afford to underestimate his opponent.
But anger reared its head, questioning why he should acknowledge such a mere junior. It pounded in his chest, asking if all his years of martial training were for nothing.
However, Yan Yang-gun's ears heard clearly.
*Thump, pa-ang!*
The clan members who had readily followed him, chasing Ouyang Jue and obeying his absurd command to annihilate the Mount Hua Sect. They were right behind him.
‘I will never let you have your way!’
Once his calmed mind turned into an unshakeable resolve, the path of Yan Yang-gun's fist grew more profound.
Was it about a quarter of an hour after he began chasing Ouyang Jue?
*Kwoooosh...!*
Even a simple straight punch was accompanied by a noise comparable to a cannon blast.
The pinnacle of the Yan Clan Fist was the powerful fist.
The powerful fist does not merely seek strength; it is the unshakeable heart that does not waver even after a thousand years.
“...Ah!”
For Yan Yang-gun, who had only ever pursued the perfection of the Yan Clan Fist, this crisis was a turning point.
Like a chrysalis shedding its skin to emerge, like a master craftsman forging a legendary sword by striking the iron thousands of times!
Watching this, Ouyang Jue thought.
‘...Well, you see all kinds of strange things when you fight enough people.’
*Chk.*
Ouyang Jue raised his fist and projected his internal energy. It was a sphere tinged with purple, crafted from Purple Mist True Energy.
Seeing it made him feel a little sorry for Yan Yang-gun, who had just entered a new realm.
It made sense.
“All that effort for nothing.”
Because Ouyang Jue had decided that Yan Yang-gun's destiny ended here.
Ouyang Jue leaped to the top of a tree, tore a piece from his collar, and covered his mouth and nose.
It all happened in less than an instant. But from that alone, Yan Yang-gun felt something unsettling.
That an unfortunate and unstoppable despair, beyond any human power to prevent, was about to befall them.
But it was already too late.
*KABOOOOOM!*
A crimson explosion engulfed Yan Yang-gun and the warriors of the Zhenzhou Yan Clan on the ground.
* * *
A past, now somewhat distant.
When Ouyang Jue had seen the pile of gunpowder buried in the Shaanxi branch of the Black Dragon Gang, he had wondered how to deal with it.
He didn't know how the Red Tiger Demon had acquired the gunpowder, and there was a high chance he would be branded a public enemy of the martial world if he used it improperly.
‘Moreover, it's an item of the underworld.’
Since its users employed methods even darker than those of the Unorthodox Factions, this, too, was likely an item stained with much blood.
So Ouyang Jue had decided to store it for the time being and observe the situation.
So, in a way, the Zhenzhou Yan Clan was unlucky.
If someone were to invade before the Mount Hua Sect's power was fully consolidated.
If there was no way to stop them at the right time.
It was an item he had decided to use only when, after considering various constraints, he judged it absolutely necessary.
Its destructive power was beyond question. Even Ha Jin-ak, a peak master, had faced death from just half a cartload of gunpowder.
So what if there was twice that amount?
No, more than three times?
Even if one knew beforehand and channeled all their internal energy into a protective aura, it would be impossible to block.
Gunpowder is death created by man. That is why the government has strictly forbidden its use by civilians.
It wasn't called the Black Demon for nothing.
‘This will probably be the last time I use gunpowder.’
Watching the hazy explosion and black smoke rise, Ouyang Jue predicted that the government would order a massive investigation.
...*Crackle, crunch.*
All that remained in the spot swept by the inferno were patches of blackened grass, Ouyang Jue, and...
*Wheeze, wheeze.*
Yan Yang-gun, who had unluckily survived, the muscles in his limbs completely burned away.