Chapter 57: Just Cause for Battle (1)

Ming Onji was rattled.

‘What is that?’

Wumm! Wumm! Wumm!

A flickering, translucent blue aura formed the shape of a serpent threading through a tortoise shell.

It was a startling sight. When Qi is dense, its color will show to the naked eye as inner force is released—but this shape was something else.

‘Intent!’

Yes. It wasn’t mere Qi. It was a scene of Qi taking form along trained intent.

Ming Onji was purely astonished. Having Qi embody the shape set by intent is, at the level of a pinnacle master, close to impossible.

“You...... what are you?”

Just then—

“Kaa! You bastard!”

A soft golden radiance spread off Ming Do’s body.

Ming Onji’s eyes shook.

“Ming Do! No!”

Whap!

Eyes flipped with rage, he charged Yeon Hojeong.

Yeon Hojeong grinned.

Thud!

Ming Do’s fist met Yeon Hojeong’s palm.

‘Considerable.’

The fist-force traveling through his palm was no joke. He caught it easily by filling his hand with Black Tortoise Qi, but it was power that would have shattered a thick tree to chips.

Crack.

Ming Do’s eye twitched. The fingers coiling his fist felt like they would crush it any instant. The grip strength was monstrous.

“You cur!”

Thwoom!

He chopped down at the forearm with his palm to free his fist, then swung [N O V E L I G H T] like mad.

Pa-ba-ba-bak!

Ming Do’s eyes went round.

The art he unleashed was the Ming Clan’s Iron Chain Eight Fists—

A refined form of sanda’s Iron Chain Smashes, a powerful boxing that hounds the opponent with chained strikes.

Amazingly, Yeon Hojeong parried all of it with one hand.

“Looks like that art the Third Young Master used.”

Whap! Crack!

Bloodshot, Ming Do watched Yeon Hojeong slap aside sixteen punches in a row and—like a ghost—snatch his wrist.

‘Kh!’

His wrist bent. Then his entire body warped to the right.

The grip was too strong; he couldn’t break free. No—far from escaping, his forearm felt about to snap under the tightening force.

Cr-r-rack!

“Graaaah!”

Just as Yeon Hojeong was about to break the arm completely—

Flash!

Swordsmen spread out around them unfurled their sword arts. They were even more cautious than before, but the keenness of their blades remained.

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed.

Thud!

His foot sank into Ming Do’s lower abdomen. Ming Do’s mouth flew open as he dropped to his knees.

Right then, the Shadow-Death Division blades came within arm’s reach.

Thoom!

Crouching, he whipped Ming Do around.

‘Gasp!’

They hadn’t expected him to grab a man’s arm and swing him like an object—and at that speed.

Startled, the operatives recovered their swords.

Yeon Hojeong let Ming Do go. Three operatives caught the flying man.

Ming Onji’s eyes flashed.

‘Now!’

Boom!

She drove in on Yeon Hojeong in a heartbeat—blisteringly fast.

At the same time, Yeon Hojeong’s body blurred like mist.

‘Hah!’

Ming Onji was taken aback. As if he’d expected it, Yeon Hojeong was also charging straight at her.

The speed of that instant approach beggared belief. The moment he kicked off, Yeon Hojeong was already within half a span ahead.

Kraang!

Ming Onji’s body flew back in great arcs.

The shock wasn’t heavy. Her martial path centered on Grafting-the-Pear Branch; ordinary attacks couldn’t jar her.

What shocked her wasn’t the strength, but the attack itself.

‘A body ram?’

He’d blasted a person away with a headlong crash like that?

‘What kind of force......?’

And that wasn’t all.

Boom!

He sent Ming Onji flying and, turning again, rushed the outermost operative—the movement smooth as flowing water.

In an instant, Yeon Hojeong closed.

At last, he swung the massive axe.

Jjeo-ooong!

With a single blow, the sword snapped.

The startled operative dropped the blade and tried to go to forearm fighting.

Punk!

“Urk!”

The operative crumpled on the spot. The shockwave bursting off the shoulder had broken bone.

It was the Yeon Clan’s Linked Flying Swallow Palm. Seeing it, you still couldn’t tell how he’d employed it out of a broken stance while wielding a heavy weapon.

“Take him!”

Sasak!

The Shadow-Death operatives darting at Yeon Hojeong moved soft and quick. Even moving so fast, they made no footfalls.

They swarmed in again.

From the rear, Ming Onji gathered True Qi, waiting on a decisive instant.

Then—

‘......!!’

At the sidelong glance Yeon Hojeong threw her, Ming Onji’s face changed.

‘This bastard......?’

Vumm! Puh-ung!

That strike that broke the sword hadn’t been full power.

There, where everyone was rushing him, he swung the axe at merciless speed, and the shockwaves radiating in a ring kept the operatives from closing.

‘He knows our tactic?!’

Whap!

And that wasn’t all.

After checking them all for a beat, he dashed at an operative at a just-so distance and thrust the axe.

An axe is a weapon for hewing and splitting. Not for thrusting like a spear. But at eighty catties of weight, that heavy weapon was a terrifying attack as-is.

Crunch!

The operative didn’t even scream—he spat blood and flew. Judging by the axe’s mass, three or four ribs had to be broken. Lucky to be alive at all.

But that thrust created an opening. The operatives swung their swords at Yeon Hojeong’s back.

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes spat an icy glare.

Jj-je-je-je-jeong!

It was like a typhoon rolling in.

With a single sweep, ten swords snapped like reeds.

Gooseflesh rippled across Ming Onji’s skin.

‘Impossible!’

Martial arts beyond imagining. Overwhelming force.

Most scions of great houses, most high-grade martial men, did not favor the axe. Image aside, a single sword could deliver weighty offense enough.

In other words, among martial men who used great or heavy weapons, those with true skill were rare—tools for bandits with a bit of training, you might say.

But Yeon Hojeong was different.

Thud! Thud!

He crushed down with chopping blows, shoved and sent them flying with the shaft, thrust like a spear to snap bones, and in the gaps threw fist-strikes to topple them.

Not only did he shift the axe’s center of mass at will, he kicked and punched when needed. He wasn’t killing by biting with the blade; he clubbed with the broad face to render them combat-ineffective.

It was a gale.

Yeon Hojeong himself seemed a vast dragon-fist wind. The Shadow-Death operatives, bewitched into charging, were blown down like autumn leaves by his Heavy-Weapon Method.

‘Now!’

Seeing an opening, Ming Onji started in—and flinched.

The moment she moved, Yeon Hojeong’s eyes turned on her.

She’d lost count of how many times it had happened. As if he were reading their entire tactical book.

‘What are you, you—!’

Then—

“You son of a bitch!”

Blaaam!

Ming Do, with a ghost’s face, charged.

“I’ll tear you apart!”

Yeon Hojeong’s gaze flared.

Having just sent an operative flying with a punch, he poured Jade Wave True Qi into the axe.

Vvvvvmm!

A sharp blue current rose along the axe blade.

Ming Onji screamed.

“Ming Do!!”

Yeon Hojeong’s axe moved like lightning.

Splat!

Ming Do’s body split on the bias.

Squelch!

Driven by the force, the upper half smashed into a tree and fell to the ground.

Thud.

The lower half, as if to take a step, teetered—and collapsed.

Fwaaash!

A flood of arterial blood burst forth. Entrails spilled from the cleft torso and scattered across the ground.

“......!!”

Silence fell.

Yeon Hojeong grimaced.

‘No help for it.’

If possible, he’d meant not to kill. But you can’t show mercy to a man who dives in with the resolve to kill in earnest.

Ming Onji’s eyes shook, mercilessly.

“Do you have any idea what you just did?!”

Kraang!

An operative flew through the air and hung, dangling, from a branch.

There was now one operative left. Counting Ming Onji, the Shadow-Death Division had only two pieces of fighting strength remaining.

Hooking the war axe up on his shoulder ridge, Yeon Hojeong spoke coldly.

“Shall we move on to round two?”

Tsssss.

Killing intent finally crawled into Ming Onji’s eyes.

Yeon Hojeong had crossed a river that should not be crossed. Wounding to combat-ineffective was one thing—but he had killed. He had butchered the Ming Clan’s blood.

Even so, Ming Onji kept thinking like a division chief.

‘He’s strong. If I use that art, maybe—but short of that, a head-on match is folly.’

But this was a forest. Around the campfire there were no trees, but three spans further in, the trunks stood thick.

Ming Onji made her call.

“Dark Seven! Link up with the remaining five and get to the branch!”

Flaaash!

The remaining operative sprinted west.

At the same time, a golden radiance flared off Ming Onji—far higher-grade force than what Ming Do had spewed.

Thoom!

With a fierce Stamping Step, she shot out a single palm.

Bang!

With a thunderclap, Yeon Hojeong’s sleeve shredded away.

Tremendous power. Martial skill a few dimensions above Ming Do’s boxing.

Boom!

Ming Onji charged.

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes glittered.

‘Fast, as expected.’

The Shadow-Death Division’s tactics were simple yet efficient.

All operatives rush in to subdue the target. If the target’s skill makes that impossible, they split his attention to open a gap—and at that instant, Ming Onji strikes from blindside.

Simple, but effective. All the more so because her gentle face and Qi veiled the intent.

But taken alone, Ming Onji showed even greater prowess man-to-man than when matching hands and feet with many.

A fact proven over several clashes.

Pupupung! Jjeo-ong!

Fast.

With peacock grace and lightning speed, her fist-palms came, each strike carrying kill-level force.

Yeon Hojeong took the shaft in both hands.

Boom! KWA-ang!

Fast—the axe was no different.

Blows hammered down like a storm, and each made your life feel in peril. More: for all that massive arm, he left no openings as he swung.

Puh-ung!

‘Hup!’

Reeling, Ming Onji’s back struck a tree.

‘He pierced me!’

Her left hand was stained with blood. She had tried to flow off a chopping strike, but the destructive inner power in it was so great she’d been injured.

It wasn’t an attack you could simply divert. In offense, at least, he outclassed her by a tier.

“Tch!”

Ming Onji dove into the deeper wood.

Yeon Hojeong chased her straight in.

Ming Onji’s eyes brightened.

‘Yes—follow me.’

In open space she’d been pushed back, but in dense forest, it was different.

That iron axe wasn’t only heavy; it was long. A heavy/long weapon both. In a wood thick with trees on all sides, it would be hard to wield at full power.

On top of it, he’d burned stamina mowing down the Shadow-Death Division. The scales could tip.

Boom!

After coming in a good thirty spans, Ming Onji finally turned her back. She meant to strike from behind the largest nearby trunk.

‘Fool! I’ll end it he—’

Ming Onji’s eyes went saucer-wide.

Fwoooosh!

Her sightline was cut by the tree.

But to either side of the trunk, she saw blue light skitter like thunder.

Kra-BOOM!

The massive tree burst as if hit by a cannon.

Between the flying halves, Yeon Hojeong stepped in, war axe upraised, eyes blasting a terrifying light.

“That the best tactic you could come up with?”

“......?!”

“With that head? Intelligence work, my ass.”