Chapter 457: A Journey in Search of the Truth (7)
“Oh, looks like they’ve started.”
Yeon Hojeong, Jeongan, and the thirty-odd warriors arrived at the battlefield and watched the two men fight.
“Looks like he managed to land a few hits.”
They were still some distance away, but Yeon Hojeong’s keen eyes could clearly make out the sword wounds carved across Jeon Hong’s chest and shoulder.
Jeongan’s eyes gleamed.
“That’s impressive.”
“Who? Gangryang?”
“Yes.”
“In what way?”
“That man may be excessively ferocious, but his body is incredibly tough. His protective qi has permeated every individual strand of muscle. I doubt an ordinary swordsman could even scratch him with a direct hit.”
“Good eye.”
“If Swordsman Gang managed to leave two sword wounds on a master like that, just how sharp must his sword power be?”
Yeon Hojeong nodded.
“Sharp. Extremely sharp. The Black-Iron Ghost Sword is an art worthy of being counted among the finest under heaven when it comes to cutting power and pressure. It’s difficult to master, but once someone reaches its heights, there are few martial arts that can match it in a head-on clash.”
“Impressive.”
“It is. But like I said, reaching those heights is difficult. Fundamentally, martial arts have trouble embodying multiple qualities at once. If an art is fast, it loses weight. If it’s sharp, it tends to be fragile. If it’s soft, it can’t also be hard.”
Yeon Hojeong’s eyes gleamed.
In the distance, Gangryang’s ghostly swordsmanship tore through the air with a shriek like the wailing of spirits.
“Normally, reconciling those contradictions is something a martial artist can only achieve through personal enlightenment. The Black-Iron Ghost Sword takes those profound martial principles and builds them directly into a divine art. In this world, mastering even one such quality is difficult enough. Imagine mastering two.”
“The barrier to entry must be enormous.”
“Fortunately, he’s already achieved complete mastery of the Ghost Shadow Sword, the gateway into the Ghost Sword. Now all he needs is to grow his wings.”
Yeon Hojeong had been watching Gangryang intently, but now he glanced behind him.
Yang Il and the thirty-odd warriors stood there awkwardly.
Yeon Hojeong and Jeongan had their backs completely exposed, yet not one of the men dared even consider launching a surprise attack.
The single move Yeon Hojeong had displayed inside the restaurant had been that terrifying.
But they could not simply abandon Jeon Hong, whom they served, and flee either.
They were thoroughly trapped between two impossible choices.
Yeon Hojeong watched them for a moment, chuckled, then turned his attention back to the fight.
WHOOOOOSH.
Jeon Hong stood wreathed in blood-red True Qi, savage Killing Intent rolling off him.
Across from him, Gangryang calmly gathered an invisible force.
“Once you see through him, he’s nothing special. Crush him cleanly and move on.”
BOOM!
Jeon Hong changed his method of attack.
Alongside his distinctive physical combat style of grabbing, tearing, and choking, he began unleashing fist techniques of tremendous destructive power.
He’s punching craters into the ground.
Gangryang clicked his tongue despite himself.
He could produce marks like that too, if he deliberately put his mind to it.
The problem was that he had to deliberately put his mind to it.
For Jeon Hong, every ordinary punch carried that much force.
Even a glancing blow could break bone and cause internal injury.
“You bastard!”
Jeon Hong roared and hurled punch after punch.
“You planning to scurry around like a rat forever?!”
RUMBLE!
The fist wind blasting from his strikes shook the surrounding air.
This immensely powerful fist art was one of Yangcheon’s many supreme techniques—
the Rock-Shattering Divine Fist.
Yangcheon possessed three true signature arts in all.
But those three were merely the arts he had selected, developed, and altered to best suit himself. The number of martial arts he actually knew was far greater.
One of them was the Monstrous Rock Art, which Jeon Hong was using now.
In terms of the destructive force of the bare hands and the sheer weight behind its attacks, the art was virtually peerless. It was a supreme martial art fully worthy of comparison to the secret inheritances of the Nine Sects.
FWOOSH!
RUMBLE!
And Jeon Hong did not limit himself to fist techniques.
Making use of his extraordinary bodily flexibility, he lashed out with one fully extended leg and snapped an entire massive tree in half.
The elasticity and power behind the strike were astounding.
Following the Rock-Shattering Divine Fist came the Rock-Striking Kick.
It was an art of the highest order, said to be capable at its pinnacle of reproducing even the heavy-hand methods of internal styles through kicking techniques.
WHOOSH!
Gangryang, who had been slipping around Jeon Hong’s attacks like a phantom, suddenly moved like a bolt of lightning.
SWISH!
He shot past Jeon Hong and soared into the air like a bird.
His tremendous movement speed merged seamlessly with the Ghost Sword One-Cut, carving yet another sword wound into Jeon Hong’s body.
This one, however, was shallower than the previous wounds.
With his Blood Lion Qi driven to its peak and the Monstrous Rock Art in full operation, Jeon Hong’s body had reached a toughness that was practically impervious to swords and sabers.
Gangryang was not disappointed.
Jeon Hong roared again and threw another punch.
“This isn’t enough to—!”
BOOM!
Before he could finish speaking, his body slid backward across the ground.
Jeon Hong’s eyes flashed.
A palm art?!
The palm force fired from a distance had struck at the exact instant the Rock-Shattering Divine Fist released its power.
As a result, both the force emission and the fist wind had been dispersed completely.
It was an exquisite maneuver—using a smaller force to erase a much greater one.
This bastard.
BOOM!
Jeon Hong closed the distance with a stamping step and thrust out both palms.
FWOOSH!
Gangryang tried to retreat again, only to feel a powerful suction seize his body and rob him of his freedom of movement.
It was the Blood Lion Qi’s Blood-Wind Draw.
Fueled by Jeon Hong’s full Inner Qi, the technique generated astonishing pulling force.
Gangryang’s face reddened.
He lowered his stance and tried to brace himself, but his body was being dragged steadily toward Jeon Hong.
What incredible Inner Qi.
The force was powerful enough to pull him forward even while he resisted with all his strength.
The technique itself was extraordinary, but it could never have displayed such power without immense Inner Qi behind it.
Jeon Hong grinned.
“Finally caught you, you damn rat.”
WHOOOOOSH!
WHOOOOSH!
Maintaining the Blood-Wind Draw, he clenched his right fist.
HMMMMMM!
Immense power gathered around that fist.
The power of the Rock-Shattering Divine Fist.
It was an extraordinary feat.
The Blood-Wind Draw alone consumed tremendous amounts of Inner Qi. Its formula and circulation method were also complicated enough that combining it with another martial art was extremely difficult.
And the Blood-Wind Draw was hardly unique in that respect.
Manifesting two different martial arts at the same time was difficult for anyone.
Yet Jeon Hong was doing precisely that.
And he had not even crossed the Wall of Martial Arts.
A genius.
Gangryang had no choice but to acknowledge Jeon Hong’s talent.
His talent was remarkable, but so was the amount of effort he must have invested.
This was not something talent alone could accomplish.
So at least he isn’t just some spoiled brat with an oversized ego.
Jeon Hong gave a crazed sneer.
“Let’s end this!”
BOOM!
The fist wind of the Rock-Shattering Divine Fist exploded through the air toward Gangryang.
The pulling force of the Blood-Wind Draw.
A body deprived of freedom.
And an overwhelmingly powerful fist technique launched into that opening.
Even Gangryang seemed certain to be struck.
Then—
......?!
In an instant carved from the smallest fraction of a heartbeat, Jeon Hong felt the powerful resistance transmitted through his left hand vanish completely.
WHOOSH!
Gangryang, who had been resisting the pull, suddenly used his movement art and rushed directly toward Jeon Hong.
Not only had he stopped fighting the force dragging him inward—
he had surrendered to it and accelerated himself even further.
It was a startling maneuver.
Gangryang even altered the angle of his charge, causing the fist wind from the Rock-Shattering Divine Fist to miss entirely.
Just as I thought.
Gangryang was already directly in front of him.
The point of his sword was aimed precisely at Jeon Hong’s throat.
It was nearly impossible to evade.
Unless one had anticipated it beforehand.
I figured a scheming bastard like you might try something like this.
Stop resisting, surrender to the pulling force, then use it to launch an unexpected counterattack?
Without extraordinary nerve, most people would never even attempt something so dangerous.
Gangryang had.
The problem was that Jeon Hong had already seen it coming.
RUMBLE!
Jeon Hong folded the arm that had thrown the Rock-Shattering Divine Fist and drove his elbow toward Gangryang’s sword.
The timing was flawless.
Gangryang was a swordsman.
Break his sword, and his fighting ability would plummet.
Despite appearances, Jeon Hong was quite capable of thinking ahead himself.
This ends it!
And then—
THRUM.
Jeon Hong’s eyes widened.
Gangryang’s sword did not break when the elbow struck it.
No.
Rather than breaking, it simply fell toward the ground without resistance.
He let go of his sword?!
Jeon Hong’s gaze snapped toward Gangryang.
Gangryang had released his weapon.
His left hand was extended flat.
A knife-hand.
A sword-hand.
You—!
Time, which had seemed to slow to a crawl, suddenly accelerated with terrifying violence.
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!
“Ghk!”
Countless slashing blows erupted like flashes of light, turning Jeon Hong’s body bloody.
The strikes were terrifying.
A sword art performed with nothing but bare flesh and bone—
the manifestation of the Ghost Sword Divine Hand.
Jeon Hong’s eyes shook.
The sword-like wounds crisscrossing his upper body like a spiderweb were considerably deep.
An enormous amount of blood poured from them.
For a moment, his head swam.
“You crazy—!”
THUD!
Gangryang’s toes smashed into Jeon Hong’s throat.
No matter how close his body had come to being impervious to blades, the throat and face inevitably remained less protected.
Jeon Hong staggered, coughing up something resembling vomit.
The foot Gangryang had used to strike his throat came down on the pommel of the sword lying on the ground.
CHIRRING!
With a clear metallic note, the sword sprang into the air and dropped neatly in front of Gangryang.
GRIP!
Gangryang caught it in both hands.
Both hands, not one.
Having recognized that the decisive moment had arrived, Gangryang poured his Ghost King True Qi into his greatsword, and black haze began rising from the blade.
The Ghost-Slaying Sword of the Black-Iron Ghost Sword—
activated.
Gangryang’s eyes, cold and merciless, suddenly blazed with eerie blue ghostfire.
“SEVER!”
FLASH!
A brilliant line of sword light passed straight through Jeon Hong’s right arm.
SPLURT!
The arm fell cleanly to the ground.
Jeon Hong screamed.
“AAAAARGH!”
The pain was terrible, but the psychological shock of losing part of his own body was beyond imagining.
That shock became rage.
And the rage immediately transformed into murderous intent directed at Gangryang.
𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦
“You fucking bastard!”
Jeon Hong released the Blood-Wind Draw and once again unleashed the Rock-Shattering Divine Fist.
Even now, the speed of his Inner Qi circulation and the timing with which he manifested his martial art remained exceptional.
He truly was an extraordinary talent.
Gangryang’s eyes flashed.
“Net.”
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!
The Ghost-Slaying Sword moved as if possessed.
The Ghost-Slaying Net form once again carved a spiderweb of sword wounds across Jeon Hong’s entire body.
SPLASH!
Blood erupted in torrents.
No matter how tempered his body was, it could not withstand blood loss on this scale.
THUD!
Jeon Hong staggered before dropping heavily to the ground.
His legs had finally given out.
His horribly twisted face held an emotion almost impossible to describe.
“Th-This.......”
He was so furious and dumbfounded that he could barely speak.
The loss of blood kept dragging his eyelids downward, and his consciousness was steadily fading.
“I...... lost to some nobody like you......!”
Gangryang smirked.
“I don’t know about that. Seems to me you’re the nobody here.”
He drove a kick into Jeon Hong’s jaw.
CRACK!
Jeon Hong spat blood as he toppled backward and finally lost consciousness.
Five or six teeth had broken, and his jawbone had cracked, but even that pain failed to wake him.
His body truly was remarkably tough.
Even without the protection of Blood Lion Qi, his jaw had not shattered completely.
SHING.
Gangryang sheathed his sword and looked down at the fallen Jeon Hong with cold eyes.
“Like I promised, I’m taking one arm. Learn how to use chopsticks again.”
As though there were nothing more worth seeing, Gangryang turned and walked toward Yeon Hojeong.
Yeon Hojeong raised a thumb.
Gangryang scratched his head.
“I couldn’t kill him.”
“That’s why I stood back and watched, idiot.”
“But what about those guys......?”
“Oh, them?”
Yeon Hojeong looked toward the warriors.
Every one of their faces was frozen in abject terror.
“They’re the escort party. The gift’s all wrapped up, so we might as well send it off to our Manor Lord Yang.”