Chapter 15: The Four Divine Arts Activated (5)

Whump!

With a drum-burst sound, the throwing blades scattered in every direction.

She had unleashed a powerful technique, yet left no opening. Along with the qualitative rise in her qi, her posture had grown exquisitely precise.

“Ho?!”

Surprise flickered across the face of the Thunderfire Hall Lord, Ma Bang.

White, austere energy was pouring off Je Gal Ahyeon as she sank her stance with Je Gal Jun behind her.

It was gentle and clean yet fiercely strong. Though not a Daoist divine art, its depth was extraordinarily pure. It even seemed to carry the pleasant scent of sandalwood.

It was the Je Gal Clan’s vaunted Profound Origin Sandalwood Divine Art—one of their secret arts that none could learn without the Clan Lord and elders’ leave.

“Magnificent! Even if you’re a woman, you’re better than your brother, is that it?”

“Shut up!”

Thoom!

Je Gal Ahyeon sprang at Ma Bang.

Once she opened the sealed secret art, her movement turned quicker, lighter. Startled, Ma Bang slashed about with the dagger in his left hand.

Ping! Piing!

Je Gal Ahyeon’s torso flowed, slipping past every arc of the dagger’s path.

The blade was poisoned. If she took even one clean hit, her fighting power would plummet. That sense of mortal threat drove her five senses to a razor edge.

Her palm smashed into Ma Bang’s abdomen.

Whump!

Landed!

Ma Bang staggered back, reeling.

It was the Lesser Heavenly Star Palm Method linked with the Sandalwood Divine Art. A clear grade above Je Gal Jun’s—and the True Qi driving it was much stronger.

Chain the follow-up immediately—

A flash flared.

About to press the attack, Je Gal Ahyeon jerked her head down in alarm. The sudden twist dumped brutal stress into her lower body.

“Kugh! Tear you to pieces, bitch?!”

Hacking a dry cough, Ma Bang glared at her.

Je Gal Ahyeon blinked.

How did he counter?

She had struck with the Zhen-character segment of the Lesser Heavenly Star Palm Method, loaded with Sandalwood True Qi. Without internal defense his entrails would have burst; even with defense, the inner vibration should have made movement agony.

“Ptoo! You bitch. I treat you nice and you get blind to your betters!”

Papapapah!

Nine daggers shot for her death acupoints.

Ting-ting-ting!

Again, Je Gal Ahyeon slipped them all. Though she’d never crossed hands with an equal master in true combat, her reactive speed was keen.

But only to that point.

Thud!

“Kh!”

A heavy shock thumped her flank. Ma Bang had closed somehow and slammed her with leg technique.

Had she not blocked by sheer instinct, her ribs would have snapped. Sliding back, Je Gal Ahyeon drove a punch at his chest.

Thud!

“Urgh!”

Ma Bang lurched away—but he wasn’t felled, nor even truly weakened.

How?!

What was that body made of?

“Huff... huff...”

“So. I thought as much.”

Shing.

Ma Bang drew another dagger.

“That art’s beyond you. For now.”

Trickle.

Sweat beaded on Je Gal Ahyeon’s brow.

He was right. The Profound Origin Sandalwood Divine Art could deliver a decisive hand—but sustaining it was hard. Her level—her internal strength—couldn’t yet fully carry its might.

Ma Bang glanced around and barked,

“What are you afraid of? She’s flagging—pile on!”

The Thunderfire hall thugs, who had hesitated, howled and charged.

Despair shaded Je Gal Ahyeon’s face.

Is this the end?

Her breathing hitched—and the Sandalwood qi snapped.

Qi always follows intent. With breath unsettled and worry edging out will, her internal energy faltered.

Her limbs felt hollowed. As the enemies’ killing intent closed, a strange feeling rose from deep within.

It was fear.

“Cut them down!”

“Uraaah!”

Rustle—thud!

The many-on-one melee exploded.

****

“B—Brother!”

“......”

No answer came back from Yeon Hojeong.

Yeon Jipyeong clenched his teeth.

“If you won’t go... I will!”

Thap!

In one bound he cleared the railing, hit the second-floor balustrade, then dropped to the first.

At last, Yeon Hojeong lowered his head from where he’d fixed on Je Gal Ahyeon for so long. Down on the first floor, Yeon Jipyeong was sprinting for the front gate.

Yeon Hojeong let out a breath.

Fwoooosh!

From the first floor he could see the blaze outside the gate. Given the wall’s height, the flames were absurdly tall.

Tch!

Yeon Jipyeong flinched before he knew it.

Stay trapped here, and even if your body lasted, your mind would crack. Right now he had to fight to stretch himself open against the shrink of heart and muscle.

It’s nothing. Help the Je Gal Clan—beat down the flames!

He drew a deep breath and reached to heave the gate—

BWAAAM! KRAAANG!

With a sound like air burning, the gate’s bar shattered.

Splinters of the gate fed the fire bigger still. At the same time a gale slammed forward, shoving the ravenous flames like a wall.

Yeon Jipyeong’s eyes widened.

In his clear gaze, he caught a blue radiance spiraling through the flames and bursting out.

“Brother!!”

****

Thud!

“Ghk!”

A steel cudgel crushed into her flank, and Je Gal Ahyeon finally spat blood.

My organs are hit.

Her mind snapped clear, but her body was still leaden. The Thunderfire thugs weren’t within a toe’s reach of Ma Bang’s skill, but they knew to load True Qi into each blow.

The accumulated strikes had jellied her insides; this last one had torn vessels within.

Thump.

Her knees buckled against her will. For Je Gal Ahyeon, who’d never fought at the knife-edge, this was the limit.

“S-she dropped!”

“Heh! She was bucking like a mare in heat!”

“Hall Lord! Why not have a taste right here?”

Filthy banter rasped at her ears.

Fear and rage surged—but no matter how she strained, her body wouldn’t answer.

Je Gal Ahyeon lifted her head.

Far off, Ma Bang grinned a dank, shadowed smile. He looked ready to rape her on the spot.

Bite my tongue—

Then—

Whump!

With the sound of something smashing, a scalding liquid splattered her vision red.

Pat-pat—thud!

“Gasp!”

“W-what?!”

Thunderfire thugs stared, aghast, at the body that had toppled.

It was grotesque. As if crushed in a giant’s fist, everything above the neck had been raggedly torn away. The head had exploded into fragments strewn everywhere.

Head gone—yet the fingers still twitched. That only made the fear bite deeper.

And beside that body, a long iron staff stood buried in the earth.

Ma Bang’s eyes changed.

“What is that?”

The Thunderfire thugs looked toward the pavilion gate.

“Fuu.”

A young man was walking in, exhaling lightly.

Perhaps just shy of full age? He was tall, but his build was slender, almost scholarly. The overall impression was sharp—not so much hulking as straight as a blade.

Ma Bang’s face froze over with ice.

“Who are you?”

“Shut it, you arsonist lunatic.”

“...?”

“Why the hell are you torching a decent pavilion, you empty-skulled bastard? I ought to jam a piss bucket down your throat.”

It was pure, undiluted profanity.

Ma Bang faltered. He’d haunted back alleys for over twenty years, but he’d never heard abuse this savage.

Just then one thug, eyes blood-red with violence, came up with a club.

“You little punk, where do you think you—”

Thunk. Flop.

The thug dropped on the spot.

Ma Bang’s eyes widened.

What?

He didn’t get back up.

He wasn’t unconscious. He was dead.

How did he die?

Yeon [N O V E L I G H T] Hojeong—holding the dead man’s club—stamped his foot once.

A prickle ran up Ma Bang’s scalp.

“Stop him!”

Thud!

Before the words finished, a thug fell.

His skull had caved; blood ran in sheets. The skin wasn’t merely split—the dent matched the club’s face. Instant death.

Yeon Hojeong rolled his shoulder.

“Let’s see if the joint holds.”

Thud!

Another thug toppled while they gaped.

Again, the head. It hadn’t been enough to blast one skull off with a thrown iron staff—he was now pulping skulls with a club.

It was a killer’s work, without hesitation. Nothing like Je Gal Ahyeon’s formal arts—if he saw an opening, he smashed through with a one-strike kill.

Only now did the thugs grasp what they faced and snatched up their weapons.

“Th—that bastard?!”

“Kill him!”

Ma Bang barked,

“Idiots! Grab hostages and—”

Thud-thud-thud!

He never finished.

Yeon Hojeong slipped into their chests and swung like a man possessed. Yet that club work was strange.

It wasn’t fast, and it wasn’t heavy. To the eye, it looked like something you could dodge blindfolded.

But the thugs couldn’t block it and went down. One blow, one kill. Some died with skulls shattered; others died when chest or lumbar were struck.

Death acupoints!

Exactly.

Yeon Hojeong was picking death points and smashing them with the iron cudgel. When he went for the head he poured more power for a blowout; otherwise he stamped the nearest death point and ended it.

Ma Bang couldn’t believe it.

This wasn’t a blade—killing by striking death points with a club wasn’t something just anyone could do. Without the internal strength of a peak master, it wasn’t something you attempted lightly.

And yet—

He wasn’t a peak master. His movement, the inner energy leaking off him, said as much. At best, he was on Ma Bang’s level—or a shade below.

So how was he killing so easily?

“What are you clowns? The punks in the alley behind my house are more organized than you.”

Having dropped twenty men, Yeon Hojeong tossed the bloodied club aside, then yanked his own iron staff from the ground.

Ma Bang couldn’t smile anymore.

“What’s your name?”

Yeon Hojeong didn’t answer. He looked down at Je Gal Ahyeon.

Her eyes trembled faintly.

“Th... thank—”

Tchk!

“Kh!”

Yeon Hojeong snatched her wrist.

He focused on the pulse, clicked his tongue, and cast her hand away.

“At the moment, I’ll have to admit you’re not involved.”

“W-what?”

“Grab your brother and fall back.”

“......”

“You’re in the way. Move.”

Startled, Je Gal Ahyeon scrambled up.

There was iron in his voice—authority. Just hearing it sent strength rushing back into her legs.

Yeon Hojeong turned his gaze to Ma Bang.

The man’s face had tightened, ever so slightly.

“Still wet behind the ears, chick.”

“Not Yin-Cold White class... Yin-Fire Red, is it?”

“......!!”

Ma Bang went pale.

Yeon Hojeong smiled thinly.

“So that’s why you play with fire.”

“H-how do you know about Yin-Fire—?!”

Whuuum—

The heavy iron staff began to turn.

“Fire, hm? Perfect. Just what I need to cultivate Water.”

“...?!”

“What are you waiting for? Come on.”