So Cheong was startled.
“What, what did you say?!”
“He asked to tell you he was sorry, that he apologizes.”
He looked at the corpse lying on the floor.
It wore fine clothes; both hands were folded neatly. On the faintly exposed chest, there was a round, hollowed mark.
‘His heart was pierced?’
So Cheong looked at the woman.
Her hair was loose, veiling her face. Even so, one glance told him she was a young woman.
At her waist hung a quiver, and on her back was a fairly large horn bow.
“Don’t tell ... you, miss, did this to him?”
The woman inclined her head by a hair. Still, her expression could not be seen.
So Cheong gazed blankly at the woman, then let out a sigh.
He was as quick on the uptake as anyone.
“What were you to each other?”
“...He was one of my elder brothers.”
“...!”
“He regretted it very much. I, too, offer my apology.”
The woman went to her knees and bowed.
Looking down at her with a troubled face, So Cheong shut his eyes.
“Rise.”
“......”
“Who bows to a beggar? I’m afraid soone might see. Up you get.”
Only then did the woman stand.
So Cheong opened his eyes and looked at her.
“What could I possibly say? The beggars killed by this man had no ties anyway.”
“......”
“Only—since you also struck down your own blood, I expect your heart bears a heavy burden. I can introduce you to a physician I know so you can tend your mind and body...”
“I’m fine.”
The voice was unexpectedly firm.
After a brief silence, So Cheong dipped his head, powerless.
“Very well.”
“In exchange, allow a single question.”
“A question?”
“The man nad Yeon Hojeong—you know where he is right now, don’t you?”
In an instant, a glint flashed in both of So Cheong’s eyes.
“Why do you seek him?”
It was clear, unhidden vigilance.
The woman, Baek Hyang, spoke.
“He told to co find him.”
“...Young Lord Yeon told you to co?”
“Yes.”
Her tone was stiff—like a man speaking his first words in the world, Baek Hyang spoke that way.
“Do you have proof? Young Lord Yeon is an important guest of our Union. If even the slightest harm were to befall him, our Union could not show its face in the martial world.”
Anything concerning Yeon Hojeong was top secret.
Hugae had ordered the entire Beggars’ Union to treat Yeon Hojeong as they would treat him. That is how trustworthy he deed Yeon.
To So Cheong, this woman was dangerous.
A current of nihilism poured off her whole body. That she had killed her own brother with her own hand would explain it, yes—but even setting that aside, the subtle, spreading force of her presence was so chillingly strong it raised gooseflesh.
‘She might rival Elder Dong.’
The East Wind Beggar was the one who had beco an elder the latest. For that reason he was often judged a step or two below the other elders.
Even so, he was an elder of the Great Beggars’ Union. For the thought of an elder-class level of force to spring to mind while looking at a woman who seed barely in her early twenties—that was no ordinary thing.
Baek Hyang shook her head.
With the tilt of her head, her hair swayed in a way that felt eerily ominous.
“I don’t know about things like that. If you don’t intend to tell , then I’ll simply wait.”
She would wait.
What a girl without a plan. So Cheong fell into a brief quandary.
‘She doesn’t seem to be lying.’
The reason he had beco a branch chief at a young age was less martial skill than discernnt.
To that discerning eye, Baek Hyang’s words were not lies. That was how it felt.
‘But if by any chance...’
What if this woman bore a grudge against Yeon Hojeong?
After wrestling with it, So Cheong let out a sigh.
“I’ll guide you.”
“...?”
“You don’t seem to be lying. But I can’t handle matters on feeling alone. Nor can I leave you in this beggar’s den for a thousand years. I’ll guide you myself.”
Baek Hyang bowed her head.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank like that. If you deceive and attack Young Lord Yeon, you’ll beco the number-one enemy of the Beggars’ Union.”
The words were a threat, but Baek Hyang’s expression did not change.
So Cheong called in a beggar under his command, gave a few instructions, then stepped out.
“I’ll say this in advance—maybe not in other things, but in body thod I fall behind no one. Please, keep up.”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go.”
****
KWAANG!
A fearso shockwave swept the surroundings.
“Kh!”
His back burned hot.
It felt like running to avoid being swallowed by a rapidly spreading wildfire. That was how potent the martial art was.
Ming Heorim, who had flung himself aside, twisted midair and lashed out with a palm.
Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed.
PWEOEONG!
Shock surged over Ming Heorim’s face.
‘Monster!!’
It was the Phoenix Canon he had cultivated while taking the Ming Clan’s finest elixirs—three of them, no less. His attainnt in the canon might trail his father’s, but as for inner-power reserve he believed he rivaled his father.
Yet the flaming strike of Phoenix Hand he had thrown on the back of that strong inner power scattered at a re wave of the opponent’s hand.
That wasn’t all.
HWAREUREUK.
The crimson fire-qi seed to flutter and disperse—then seeped into Yeon Hojeong’s body. Like paper drinking in ink.
PWEOEONG!
It was blazingly fast.
The footwork that closed distance was as swift as a thunderbolt crashing down. What had been five jang apart shrank in an instant to a single jang.
Ming Heorim gave up trying to stand and fight.
PABABABABAK!
Yeon Hojeong knit his brows.
‘Fast.’
Phoenix Flight was not a battle-usable body thod like Blood Wing Sweeps the Heavens. Unless one was a master on the level of Ming Cheon, it was difficult to apply it in combat.
But when one used a body thod as a body thod, the story changed.
Even compared to Ming Cheon, the speed wasn’t far behind; to chase Ming Heorim streaking forward like a single bird was difficult even for Yeon Hojeong.
The Phoenix Canon—though a martial art that crushed the mind and body—had montary power so great it made the tongue click.
‘Damn it, he still has that much stamina?’
PABABAK!
He hauled the Jade Wave True Qi up to the limit to stave off the body’s strain and opened the Vermilion Bird Qi.
PUNG! PUNG! PUNG!
In just three steps, the gap with Ming Heorim narrowed sharply.
Yeon Hojeong poured that montum into his axe and swung.
KWAAANG!
A gale-like force ripped across the fore. A fairly large tree shattered, and leaves and earth strewn over the ground blasted in every direction.
For a mont, Ming Heorim’s stance broke. But only for a mont—he righted himself in a flash and ran out even faster than before.
Yeon Hojeong couldn’t help shouting.
“You’ve got to be kidding , that bastard!”
He was wringing out the last of his stamina and inner power to unfurl his body thod. It was a flight for life in every sense.
‘I thought too simply.’
He’d never given Ming Heorim much deep thought to begin with. What mattered to him was Mookbi; Ming Heorim was extra.
That didn’t an he took him lightly. He had rely judged that after dozens of days fleeing without eating or sleeping properly, the man’s condition couldn’t possibly be normal.
Not easy, but not particularly hard either. That was how he’d thought it—and it had been so, in fact.
The problem was, he had not expected the man’s body-thod realm to be this outstanding.
‘If only I could unfurl Seizing from the Void.’
In the days when he’d been called the Dark Emperor, with overwhelming inner power and ultimate insight he had used even Seizing from the Void. With Seizing from the Void, it would have been possible to grab a fleeing opponent and slow his speed.
But regrettably, his current body and martial attainnt had not yet reached the higher plane required to unfurl Seizing from the Void.
‘At this rate I’ll lose him.’
The gap widened, bit by bit. There was a limit even to deploying Blood Wing Sweeps the Heavens.
‘This is the last. I have to take him with one final move.’
The blue in Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flickered, then slowly exhaled a red blaze.
If Ming Heorim was carrying out a flight for life, Yeon Hojeong was mounting a pursuit for life.
At last, Yeon Hojeong drove himself into an extre state. Vermilion Bird Qi roared to life and granted him a step faster than ever before.
KWA-KWA-KWA-QUANG!
The ground under Yeon Hojeong’s feet blew apart in random bursts.
FLASH!
Ming Heorim’s face went ashen.
Before he knew it, the opponent had leapt over his head and cut him off. His complexion looked strained from overexertion, but the baleful eyes did not waver in the slightest.
Yeon Hojeong thrust a single fist.
KWAANG!
“Guh!”
It was like being hit in the chest by an iron sledge. Ming Heorim spat blood and flew backward.
PABABAK!
Dropping to the earth in an instant and setting his stance, Yeon Hojeong fixed Ming Heorim in his sights.
“Hoo... at this level... ah, that lunatic!”
His ribs—at least a couple—had to be broken, yet the man bolted off again the other way. He was clearly slower, but not so slow one could call it sluggish.
His attachnt to life was terrifying. Even with broken bones and internal injury, he fled at that speed.
No more.
White wind howled off Yeon Hojeong’s body.
KWAANG!
A beast-king’s tread that shook the entire mountain.
‘This ti I take him!’
He gathered all the power drawn up by the White Tiger footwork into both hands. Yeon Hojeong swung the iron axe straight through.
BUUUUUNG!
The six-chi iron axe, packed full of White Tiger qi, spun at high speed and hurtled for Ming Heorim.
Despair ca into Ming Heorim’s eyes.
‘I... can’t dodge...’
PWEO-EOK! THUD!
“KUAAAH!”
Ming Heorim staggered and collapsed.
He’d dropped his stance but hadn’t evaded perfectly. His left arm was cut away from the shoulder.
TUK! TUDUK!
He hurried to press the acupoints, but he could not completely staunch the blood. His inner power was already severely depleted, and he’d suffered internal injury, too.
Ming Heorim reeled again and again.
And Yeon Hojeong stood before him.
“A ss.”
In that instant, a red glare burned in Ming Heorim’s eyes.
“You son of a—!”
Where he found the strength, who could say. Ming Heorim suddenly sprang and smashed his remaining right hand into Yeon Hojeong’s chest.
PWEO-EOK!
Yeon Hojeong’s body rocked.
That was all. He had gathered the last of his power to strike with Phoenix Hand, but even this final blow failed to inflict ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) any damage.
With a hollow face, Ming Heorim muttered,
“What... what are you? Are you a monster?!”
PWEOK!
Yeon Hojeong’s toe drove into Ming Heorim’s solar plexus. Ming Heorim collapsed on the spot.
With a bitter face, Yeon Hojeong brushed his chest.
“Aren’t you the monsters? It wasn’t enough to raise that chaos just to seize a single martial art—you moved to exterminate an innocent clan besides.”
“Khk—”
Blood ran from Ming Heorim’s nose and mouth where he lay.
Yeon Hojeong in one motion pinched his marrow acupoints. The man’s strength had waned so deeply he didn’t even resist the pinch.
“Hoo... I need to find a proper body thod worth the na and cultivate it fast. If I can’t even cleanly take down a whelp like this...”
From Ming Heorim’s standpoint, the words were outrageous.
Who was he? One of the Twin Dragons and Three Peaks, hailed as the greatest prodigy of the current martial world. With skill already close to a Nine Sects elder’s, he was the genius of geniuses whom people expected would one day take a seat among the Thirteen of Celestial Ascension.
And this man called him a whelp—what sort of monster was he?
THUNK!
He hefted the iron axe buried in the ground, tucked Ming Heorim under his arm like a sack, and moved along the path. He intended to hurry him to the Wild Wind Pavilion and be on his way.
How long did he walk like that?
‘Hm?’
Yeon Hojeong halted.
‘Presence?’
Not the presence of a commoner.
Trained steps, a blade-straight aura.
The aura of a sword refined to an astonishing sharpness was coming from beyond the mountain path he walked.
Familiar, yet unfamiliar. The reason being, he had felt a similar aura before—but the difference in level had been extre.
A mont later—
“Well now?”
An ash-haired man and so thirty swordsn stood facing Yeon Hojeong.
“Astonishing. At that young age, you’ve already grasped the Way of Martiality? Remarkable.”
Yeon Hojeong’s expression turned curious.
“Namgung?”
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