Chapter 12
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: This Got Smashed
Crash.
A loud clatter echoed as the instructor toppled onto the dining table.
"Urk. Which bastard...?"
He hauled himself up, face twisted in rage. Ha Mu-baek had struck him with pure physical force, no internal energy involved, so despite the massive noise, he looked mostly fine.
Or so it seemed.
Drip.
A thin trickle of blood ran from his nose.
"You son of a bitch!!"
The blood from his nose sent him into an even greater frenzy.
Ha Mu-baek watched him with cold eyes.
"Not every word that spills from a loose mouth makes sense. Who the hell gave you the right to humiliate my kid?"
Ha Mu-baek's voice was icy. His fury seeped through every syllable.
"Was it you?"
The instructor glowered at Ha Mu-baek with murder in his eyes, like he was about to devour him whole.
"I-Instructor..."
"What urgent business dragged you here, only to end up like that? Tsk. Come over here."
As Ha Mu-baek pulled her close, Yeon Ha-min slipped behind him.
"A mere Fierce Dragon Corps instructor dares lay hands on me? Do you even know who I am?"
"You were spitting all that trash talk without a care, but now your tongue's suddenly too long for its own good. Scared?"
It was a brazen taunt.
At Ha Mu-baek's words, the man's eyes rolled back as he ground his teeth.
The surrounding instructors watched the standoff with amused expressions. Only Jegal Myeong fidgeted anxiously.
He knew exactly who the opponent was.
"You punk!"
The instructor's uniform bulged wildly.
"Listen up. I am Han Pyeong, the fourth-year cadet instructor from Wa Dragon Corps, dispatched here from the Dorim Sect to the Dragon Training Pavilion. You dare insult me like this? You think you'll get away unscathed?"
With a booming shout, a fierce aura erupted from Han Pyeong's body. It was the presence of a peak expert, beyond first-rate.
A force incomparable to Sado Gwang's.
First-rate versus peak.
No matter how much Sado Gwang clung to the edge of first-rate, the wall to peak was insurmountable.
Han Pyeong had crossed that wall.
He radiated a terrifying energy in his rage.
Yet he still held back his last shred of restraint, not reaching for the sword at his waist.
"Hoo. Dorim Sect, huh. Same sect as the Alliance Leader."
Ha Mu-baek shook his head.
"How dare you mention the Alliance Leader with that filthy mouth!"
Dorim Sect.
One of the eight rising sects, the origin of the current Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader, So Hwi-woong.
Ha Mu-baek smirked.
"I wonder if your precious Alliance Leader knows you're spending your days harassing—no, abusing—female cadets here. Does Dorim Sect send its disciples here as instructors just to prey on the women?"
Han Pyeong trembled with fury at Ha Mu-baek's words.
"I'll rip that arrogant mouth off you right now. Yank out that filthy tongue and sever your limb meridians to turn you into a cripple!"
"Sado Gwang talked a big game too."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd at Ha Mu-baek's remark.
They hadn't expected him to be the very man they'd been gossiping about.
"Hah. So you're that guy? Surprising, but you're comparing me to a moron like Sado Gwang?"
"With a tongue that wags so uselessly, you don't seem all that different."
"You bastard!"
With that shout, Han Pyeong kicked off the floor and lunged at Ha Mu-baek.
His lightning-fast fist sliced through empty air.
Instead, Ha Mu-baek's fist smashed squarely into his face.
Bang!
Han Pyeong flew back, crashing pathetically into a wall once more.
"Urk."
Clutching his face, he staggered to his feet.
Realizing he was outmatched, he reached for his sword—but Ha Mu-baek was faster.
He closed in instantly and unleashed a kick.
Thud.
Boom!
Ha Mu-baek's foot slammed perfectly into Han Pyeong's gut, sending him flying backward.
He burst through one wall of the Devouring Dragon Pavilion and tumbled outside.
"Tsk. This got smashed."
Ha Mu-baek clicked his tongue.
Yeon Ha-min watched wide-eyed from the side.
The hideous man who had made her feel so powerless and pathetic was being toyed with like a ragdoll.
She'd thought he might be strong, but to toy with a Dorim Sect instructor like this?
She'd heard back at her clan that Dorim—thanks to the Alliance Leader's influence—took the Dragon Training Pavilion seriously and only sent top talents as instructors.
Once the dust settled, Ha Mu-baek slowly walked toward the wall he'd shattered.
Yeon Ha-min followed as if entranced.
The moment Ha Mu-baek stepped outside...
"Die!!!"
A storm of sword energy hurtled toward him with a roar.
Han Pyeong, blood streaming from his mouth, swung his blade with a demonic grimace.
Ha Mu-baek planted his foot firmly and charged forward.
With Yeon Ha-min behind him, dodging wasn't an option.
He plunged straight into the heart of the sword energy storm.
[Watch closely.]
Yeon Ha-min's eyes widened again at the transmission in her ear, staring at Ha Mu-baek and Han Pyeong.
Ha Mu-baek dove into the sword storm barehanded.
Yet Han Pyeong was the one being pushed back.
He unleashed his sword arts madly, but he retreated step by step.
That was all Yeon Ha-min could discern at her level.
She could only guess Ha Mu-baek held the advantage.
A crowd began to gather.
Such a commotion couldn't stay quiet.
And with Han Pyeong swinging his blade like a maniac, even the oblivious were drawn in.
Soon, throngs of people surrounded the Devouring Dragon Pavilion.
Among them were Squad Seven members who had finished eating quickly.
Rumors of a Wa Dragon Corps instructor going berserk with his sword had pulled them over—and their jaws dropped.
Wasn't their own instructor standing barehanded in the midst of that frenzied swordplay?
Confirming the growing crowd, Ha Mu-baek smirked.
Unlike when he'd first struck Han Pyeong, his eyes were now serene as a clear mirror.
Only Han Pyeong had lost his reason to rage.
Ha Mu-baek stoked the flames further.
"Judging by your sword arts, you really are from Dorim. What a waste—pearls before swine."
"Raaagh!"
Han Pyeong was already seething as Ha Mu-baek effortlessly dodged and landed casual punches.
The added taunt forced a beastly howl from his throat.
"The Heaven-Severing Demon-Slaying Blade isn't wielded like that."
With those words, Ha Mu-baek slipped past the blade into close range and threw a punch.
A perfect form from the Three Talents Fist Method.
But infused with a touch of internal energy, like his earlier kick.
"Guh..."
Han Pyeong spewed blood and collapsed backward.
Heaven-Severing Demon-Slaying Blade.
The supreme art that defined modern Dorim Sect, the famed technique of Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong.
And one all too familiar to Ha Mu-baek.
He had watched it endlessly at his side during the last two wars.
He'd observed its evolution through brutal combat firsthand.
He had covered for the Alliance Leader to let him unleash it freely, even striking in tandem.
Countless battlefields had ingrained the Heaven-Severing Demon-Slaying Blade into him through real combat.
In some ways, Ha Mu-baek knew it better than Han Pyeong.
Attacking him with such a technique...
Han Pyeong's Heaven-Severing Demon-Slaying Blade was unworthy of the name.
It wasn't the crude art Ha Mu-baek knew.
That's why he could evade it leisurely, like a stroll.
Every flaw in his opponent's movements was glaringly obvious.
Han Pyeong staggered to his feet.
The two internal injuries left him barely able to stand.
"You damn bastard. Blegh."
He glared at Ha Mu-baek and vomited a mouthful of blood.
Yet the killing intent in his eyes didn't fade. Things had gone too far—it was do or die.
"No matter what happens to me, you're dead..."
Han Pyeong muttered darkly.
His judgment was utterly gone. After such a one-sided beating, he should have recognized his opponent's superiority—but no such thought crossed his mind.
His trembling hand raised his sword. He poured every last drop of internal energy into it.
The bluish sword energy glowed with dazzling brilliance.
Not quite sword gang territory, but the pinnacle of sword energy nonetheless.
Ha Mu-baek eyed him with surprise.
He recognized the form all too well.
'He even learned the final stance? That loser?'
Was Dorim Sect out of talent? Or had this fool degenerated since arriving here?
It didn't matter.
"Hea... Heaven-Rending Demon Annihilation..."
Ha Mu-baek wasn't the only one who recognized it.
Someone in the crowd muttered it under their breath.
Murmurs spread as people backed away.
The final stance of the Heaven-Severing Demon-Slaying Blade.
True to its name—heaven crumbling, demons annihilated—it was a tyrannical move.
Fear of getting caught in the range made everyone retreat.
Rumors of its devastating power, as the Alliance Leader's signature technique, had spread across the martial world.
"Die!!!"
Was he ready?
Han Pyeong kicked off and swung.
Tyrannical yet subtle and beautiful.
The crowd swallowed hard, eyes glued to his blade.
Ha Mu-baek smirked at the oncoming Heaven-Rending Demon Annihilation aura.
Just as he thought.
What power could it hold from a fool like that, even if it bore the name?
Too crude to call Heaven-Rending Demon Annihilation.
The onlookers might think otherwise, but to Ha Mu-baek, it was utterly pathetic.
He stepped right into the storm of the blade.
"Wha..."
"Ah..."
The crowd gasped.
This was a far more domineering blade storm than before.
And he plunged in again.
It looked like offering his neck to the energy.
A triumphant smile crept onto Han Pyeong's lips, demonic fury fueling him.
Then, from the vicious storm, a fist shot out.
It uppercut straight into Han Pyeong's jaw.
Thwack.
No technique, no martial art.
Just a simple upward swing.
That was enough.
In one blow, Han Pyeong lost consciousness, soaring backward to crash ignobly into the dirt.
His sword clattered away.
The Heaven-Rending Demon Annihilation hadn't even reached half its form before vanishing.
"Sloppy. The Heaven-Severing Demon-Slaying Blade isn't some half-baked trash like that."
Han Pyeong couldn't hear him.
He was out cold.
Ha Mu-baek strode toward the fallen man without a care.
"What was it you said you'd do to me? Oh, right—rip out my tongue and sever my limb meridians to cripple me?"
Ha Mu-baek's foot pressed down on Han Pyeong's knee.
"S-Stop!"
Someone from Wa Dragon Corps shouted.
But no one dared intervene.
Ha Mu-baek's casual stroll into the blade storm was burned into their minds.
Crack.
A light press shattered Han Pyeong's right knee.
"Arghhh..."
The agony of splintering bone snapped him awake.
"Guhh... Y-You..."
"For the Alliance Leader's sake, I'll stop at one leg."
Ha Mu-baek turned and walked away.
The crowd stared blankly at his back.
Yesterday and today.
Who the hell was this man whipping up typhoons in the Dragon Training Pavilion?
"Our instructor... what kind of guy is he, really?"
Dang Jin-san muttered dazedly, having witnessed it all.