Chapter 32
Chapter 32
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Heavenly Demon Rana - [3]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Heo Pung-gae opened his mouth to say something, but Rana wasn't listening.
She raised her submachine gun and spoke.
"Get out of the way. I'm going to shoot."
Heo Pung-gae barely managed to steady his flinching body. It had always been like this, whether in the past or now—every time a gun was pointed at him.
Damn that repulsive thing anyway.
During the Japanese occupation, he'd fought yakuza armed with machine guns. In the early days after independence, he'd taken down political thugs spraying pistol rounds.
But he'd never faced one head-on like this.
What was a gun? It was more vicious than any hidden weapon devised by the Sichuan Tang Clan. Even a Tang Clan master couldn't outdo the bullets fired by a seven-year-old child.
The martial artists' tactics against foes with such weapons were simple: grab a gun yourself and fire first, before they could shoot. Heo Pung-gae's approach, without so much as a knife in hand, was to attack unilaterally from a space where bullets couldn't reach, using bullet-dodging techniques.
Standing in front of a gun and doing anything was never a viable tactic. Especially not against someone with reflexes matching his own level of peerless mastery.
And Heo Pung-gae didn't move aside.
Rana tilted her head quizzically and asked,
"You didn't practice longevity arts just to live a long life?"
"Of course I did. I'd like to live forever if possible."
"Then is this okay?"
Heo Pung-gae assumed his stance.
"This is how I have to do it."
He straightened his back and held his neck rigid.
It was the foundational Taijiquan stance of standing upright and centered, designed to maximize the smooth flow of qi and blood—a posture that blatantly increased his hit area, one no one would recommend in front of a gun.
He bent his knees firmly, drawing the earth's qi up through his feet planted on the ground. Whispering to himself, Heo Pung-gae thought,
This moment will rack up a huge score on the merit-demerit ledger once it passes.
To grasp eternity, he had to stake this instant. Even if death came in a flash, it was better than a slow, inevitable end.
How many hundreds of life-or-death crises had he faced, despite craving longevity more than anyone? Each time, he'd whispered the same to himself, willingly gambling his most precious life.
Rana muttered,
"You're insane."
She didn't seem pleased with the situation, but she had no intention of letting him off.
Her slender index finger touched the trigger.
Heo Pung-gae began regulating his breathing to suppress tension and heighten focus. He activated his entire body's qi, absorbing not just his own but the surrounding energy.
His nerves, sharper than ever, took in every object around him.
Behind him, the Patriot Great Hero muttered,
"Don't do something stupid, move aside...... If a peerless master like you ends up as a meat shield, what kind of backlash am I gonna face later......"
He was trying to sound tough, but his breathing was ragged.
His heart was pounding like mad; he clearly understood the situation and was terrified.
Heo Pung-gae's heart raced too, despite his efforts at controlled breathing. His eyes locked straight on the opponent before him.
Rana sighed.
The instant her finger pulled the trigger, lead slugs leaped from the muzzle, outpacing sound. Three of them.
At that moment, Heo Pung-gae's arms moved before Rana's fingers— in a bizarre motion.
It wasn't a polished technique; he was just mimicking what he'd seen earlier.
Three thunderclaps followed. Bang bang bang! Not real thunder, but that's how it sounded to everyone there.
Then, silence fell.
Everyone stared at Heo Pung-gae wordlessly.
He stood straight. How?
Did the bullets miss? No, they were impossibly off-target.
Even Rana fell silent for a moment.
"Huh?"
She stared blankly at her gun.
The metal lump was shattered—because she'd gotten her own bullet back.
The other two rounds rolled on the floor beside her feet, leaving clear bullet marks.
Once again, he'd survived.
Heo Pung-gae showed his bleeding palms and grinned. Then he asked,
"Is this right? Qiankun Bullet Barrage......?"
Rana's eyes widened. She let out an exclamation.
"Whoa...... how?"
"Saw you do it."
"I only use it against pistols sometimes; never against full-auto."
"Can't do it?"
"Dunno, never tried! Should I test it at home? But it seems risky......"
Rana turned her gaze to a Martial Alliance enforcer secretly filming on his phone.
"Did you get that? It was awesome!"
Then she looked back at Heo Pung-gae, apparently forgetting the insolent fool who'd just shot at her.
Rana asked,
"Thanks for the show. So, wanna be a guardian elder?"
"I told you, no Demonic Cult leadership."
"You can eat elixirs instead of rice! If you need to manage merits and demerits, our cult does tons of charity—I'll get you a big role."
"Tempting offer, but why negotiate in front of everyone?"
"To hype your value! Letting it spread that you got scouted with great terms means even better treatment. You should be grateful for the consideration, right?"
With that, Rana pulled something from her suit pocket and held it out.
Heo Pung-gae took it—a business card with a YouTube link scribbled on it.
"Contact me if you change your mind."
Her eyes shifted again to the enforcer still holding his phone.
"What you're filming now—got sound too?"
"Uh? Y-yeah......"
"Then say a few words short. Hmm...... Korean martial world?"
Neither the Martial Alliance enforcer, unsure what backlash awaited if he let the public figure do as she pleased, nor Heo Pung-gae, unfit for combat with his mangled hands, could stop her declaration.
"The Heavenly Demon is invincible. No one can beat her. Because she's the Heavenly Demon...... You're all done for."
Show them this footage, and they might really believe it.
"Flee overseas or go into secluded training."
With that, Rana left the warehouse. No one dared stop her.
The Martial Alliance enforcer groaned. Struggling to accept the situation, he stood dazed for a while before snapping to and asking,
"Invincible Unaffiliated Hero? You okay? You need to get to a hospital......"
Heo Pung-gae looked at his hands. Blood streamed, muscles exposed, but no bone. This was fine for the price of life.
"Fingers are intact, so it's good. More importantly, we should tend to the others first. Patriot Great Hero's hand is wrecked too."
The enforcer prioritized the high-value masters.
He loaded O Eun-rim, who'd passed out from the gut punch, and Heo Pung-gae and the Patriot Great Hero with their bad hands into the car, heading to the Martial Alliance's hospital.
With everyone except the driver injured, the car was silent.
Suddenly, Heo Pung-gae muttered,
"Felt like reading an old wuxia novel. Even watching it happen, all these impossible feats......"
The enforcer almost said your stunts weren't half-bad either but held back. Sure, both were fantasy, but today's opponent was more blatantly so.
He asked cautiously,
"Could you beat her if you face her again?"
"Alone? Tough. Might need more forces. Call the Gangnam's Greatest Sword next time."
The enforcer's eyes wavered.
"That one is a bit......"
"Since he clashed with me last time, working together might be awkward?"
"Yes, exactly. Too bad......"
His gaze shifted away—he was lying. Heo Pung-gae couldn't pinpoint why, but he had a guess.
He didn't pry. Instead, he asked something else.
"What about the bandit boss? Can't call that guy?"
"Bandit boss? Oh, Manor Lord Gu Ja-seong. Probably hard to move him......"
"We have to. Easy or not, if we want that woman caught."
The enforcer started to argue but stopped.
True, calling that man would help more than any other master. He was a peerless expert too.
If the Alliance's two top peerless masters, including the Invincible Unaffiliated here, teamed up, even that absurd magician might fall.
The enforcer nodded firmly.
"I'll make every effort."
"Seen the video the Martial Alliance posted?"
"Yeah. Made me doubt my own eyes."
"It was insane!"
"Indeed. The sorcery? Qi arts? Whatever those from our Heavenly Demon here were, ridiculously amazing. And that Invincible Unaffiliated guy—Heo Pung-gae senior and Invincible BB Bullet, both lost to me...... They've grown strong this time. Looked young in the video; impressive."
"That Invincible Unaffiliated bro? Probably not that young."
"Maybe. So, miss, how old are you?"
Rana declared proudly,
"Seventeen!"
"I'll be ninety soon. Any day now."
"That's rough!"
"Moon Woman never aged from the start, but I can't hope for that after already getting old. Don't know if Return to Youth really works, but it'd be reassuring."
"You can do it if you try!"
"Should've cultivated proper inner arts when young. As a bandit, who cared about purity? Just went for efficient techniques. Now I envy those Daoist and Buddhist practitioners. Villain sects always suffer in old age; at this rate, keeling over tomorrow wouldn't surprise me......"
"You can stop now! No need to hint; I'll deliver the promised as fast as possible."
"I hope so."
"So we're friends now, right?"
"Yes."
Rana grinned at Gu Ja-seong's reply.
"Great. Now three of Korea's five peerless masters are on our side."