Chapter 58: Just Cause for Battle (2)

After running through the woods for a long time, Dark Seven finally saw the edge of the forest.

‘If I can just get past there...!’

It was then.

“Where are you going?”

“—Hup!”

WHUD!

Launched by a single blow, Dark Seven slammed into a tree and coughed blood.

Because he’d been sprinting, the impact hit that much harder. If the ambusher hadn’t withdrawn his inner force in the instant after the strike, his heart would have burst on the spot.

“Better than I thought, huh? You look like just a rank-and-file, but your level’s high. So this is what they mean—Ming Clan is Ming Clan, eh?”

“Kh—!”

Dark Seven spat a rasping cough and asked in a trembling voice.

“W-Who are you?!”

“Me?”

Ga Deoksang grinned.

“A street janitor, you bastard.”

He swung his foot.

CRACK!

The kick smashed into Dark Seven’s temple. He went limp and blacked out.

Ga Deoksang looked down at him with cold eyes.

“What you people are doing is real entertaining. And I’m the sort who shares anything entertaining. I want everyone under heaven to know.”

Rustle.

Two beggars appeared with clubs and hoisted Dark Seven up.

“What should we do, Rear Beggar?”

“What do you mean what? Tie him up with the ones we already grabbed.”

“But is this okay?”

“What is?”

“They’re Ming Clan personnel, after all...”

“So what? You want us to hold back? After seeing the crap these bastards pulled, are we supposed to go, ‘oh dear, they’re powerful, so we must endure,’ that kind of nonsense?”

“...That’s not what I meant.”

“Cut the crap and take him.”

“Yessir.”

Rear Beggar was clearly furious. Afraid of catching a stray spark, the beggars hurried off with Dark Seven.

Ga Deoksang stood there a long while, glaring at the trees, then let out a sigh.

“Damn it. That fortune-teller’s disgustingly on point. Kept babbling about the ‘turn of the times’ like I’d understand. Said I’d be running my soles raw starting this spring—and nailed it.”

He ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) was furious to the core, yes, but he wasn’t moving on pure emotion. If he were that simple, he’d never have become Rear Beggar.

‘No time. Same as when I was a spy. If the Shadow-Death Division doesn’t report back, the Ming Clan will take their own measures.’

He wanted to blow it open right now, shouting what kind of filth this was, but he couldn’t.

The Ming Clan of the Nine Provinces is the Greatest Under Heaven. Push with half-baked evidence, and the backlash could slam right back.

If that happened, it would get messy. Whether the Beggars’ Union or the Yeon Clan, public opinion could turn and flog us. And the Ming Clan would only burrow in deeper, for sure.

They needed more proof—at least enough that the other side couldn’t lay a hand on them.

“Well, first let the Young Master Yeon finish netting the remnants, then we’ll think about—”

It was then.

‘...!!’

Ga Deoksang snapped his gaze east.

In the dark forest, riding a cold wind, a murderous aura was flowing.

So familiar. Even though he wasn’t its target, it was the kind of chill ferocity that felt like a giant beast pressing its fangs to your nape.

“...That brat!”

BOOM!

Ga Deoksang unleashed the Beggars’ Union’s secret movement art, Autumn Wind Step, urgency flooding his face.

“I said capture—who told you to kill!!”

****

KRAK! RRRRRUMBLE!

A tree burst from the stump and toppled whole.

Even as he shattered trunks, his speed didn’t drop at all. A massive axe edge was scything in at her flank.

Snap!

With a nimble movement art, Ming Onji vaulted up and slipped past the axe.

Not only that. The instant she evaded, she booted a thick branch, then swept a palm at Yeon Hojeong’s head.

It wasn’t a kill-stroke. It was a palm meant to knock him out in one hit.

Right then, Yeon Hojeong’s axe met a strange change.

It writhed like a serpent—and the vector of the attack flexed. The axe edge, lifting up into an uppercut, radiated a terrifying pressure.

Urgency flashed across Ming Onji’s face.

The timing of that rising strike was too perfect—she couldn’t withdraw her hand. And the force riding that axe edge was too strong to deflect.

THUNK!

She twisted her body and somehow retracted the palm, but the keen edge still sliced her forearm in one go.

Pat, pat.

Hot drops spattered the ground.

“Kh!”

Landing, Ming Onji’s face went pale.

‘An artery.’

The cut was deep. Blood was streaming. Pressing with a hand wouldn’t stop that bleed.

VMMMM!

Yeon Hojeong stayed cold. He closed the distance in a blink and pressed the attack, carrying the air of someone who didn’t care if she died in the process.

KRANG!

The axe blew a small tree to splinters.

BOOOOM!

Ming Onji bolted again.

She’d meant to bait him far enough and subdue him—but that was no longer possible.

Yeon Hojeong wasn’t someone she could subdue with her current means. Power aside, his stamina was too overwhelming.

Tap.

She sealed an acupoint, forcing the blood flow to halt.

But there was a limit. As her inner force continued to drain, the seal would release on its own—and the bleeding would resume.

There was no time. She couldn’t die trying to capture him.

KRAAAASH!

A frigid thunderclap rattled her spine.

‘Monster!’

Gooseflesh raced over her.

A heavy weapon drains more inner force than a light one. You have to lift the weight with energy while preserving the destructive power; the longer the fight, the faster the inner force burns.

And stamina? Also a problem.

However trained the master of inner force, there’s a limit to how much stamina one can build. Unless you’ve got the inner force of a Clan Lord of the Seven Great Clans or the head of one of the Nine Sects and One Union, there’s no way to make up for the drop in power that comes from flagging stamina.

Then what was he?

As if he had infinite stamina, he’d mowed down the entire Shadow-Death detachment and was still using that kind of martial power. If anything, the axe was hitting harder than at the start.

BANG! KRA-ROOM!

It was like lightning was crashing down.

Even amid fear, curiosity gnawed at her. Ming Onji glanced back before she knew it.

‘...!!’

Two or three trees were collapsing in place.

No—“smashed” fit better. He barreled through, wrecking trunks at random like a cavalryman whose whole body was forged of steel.

A storm-charge.

‘Insane!’

That she had crossed hands with such a merciless thing made cold sweat bead.

It was the first time she’d failed to size up an opponent’s caliber on first meeting. She couldn’t even tell what martial system he’d trained.

‘Will I get caught? At this point, wouldn’t it be better to use the secret art?!’

Fear pried at desire. She wanted to rip open her hidden strength and drop him now.

‘...No. Not yet. That’s a power that mustn’t be exposed.’

FWIP!

Ming Onji kicked her speed up.

In that instant, Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed.

‘I was waiting.’

Thud!

With a supple cut, he lopped a small tree up—and then he soccer-kicked it.

KRANG!

It was like a powder charge went off. The trunk, hammered by monstrous leg force, shot in a straight line toward Ming Onji’s back.

“—Hah!”

At such speed, changing direction wasn’t easy. Ming Onji twisted and braced, taking the hurtling trunk.

KRRRRAAAK! WHUD!

“Ghk!”

She smashed through one tree and tumbled over it.

“Phew.”

Yeon Hojeong also broke off his movement art.

He looked like he had infinite stamina, but he was human. Using the Dark Emperor’s insight, he was managing his inner force to shore up stamina—but he couldn’t do that forever.

He’d grabbed the timing just right. With the beggars Rear Beggar had committed encircling the whole forest, the Shadow-Death stragglers would also be taken.

Yeon Hojeong started toward Ming Onji.

Once he caught her, the situation ended. Finally, it would be over.

It was then.

BOOOOM!

Yeon Hojeong’s body skidded backward.

FWOOSH!

From the pile of shattered wood burst a tremendous fighting aura.

Murder flared in Yeon Hojeong’s eyes.

‘...This martial art?!’

Fzzzz.

Rising to her feet, Ming Onji’s pupils glowed gold.

Not only that—power was whirling in both her hands.

“I wondered if I had to go this far...”

The vortex seeped slowly through her whole body. A presence utterly different from before.

“No helping it. Better to kill than be taken.”

Flash!

‘—What?!’

Ming Onji flinched and looked up.

A mass of killing intent was diving from above.

KRAANG!

A beastlike strike smashed across her forearms.

Amazingly, she crossed both arms and blocked the cut. The axe edge bit two inches into both her forearms, but they did not sever.

At this level, “impervious to blades” wasn’t an overstatement. Ming Onji barked:

“You son of a—!”

Yeon Hojeong spun and kicked her chest.

KRANG!

Ming Onji staggered back.

The power was monstrous—a wholly different level from earlier.

Ming Onji couldn’t believe it.

‘What is this?!’

Not long ago, the Ming Clan had obtained the Patriarch’s martial art.

It was truly tremendous. It not only solved the lifespan problem of Ming Clan cultivation, it raised their overall combat power.

It wasn’t the time to draw it, but at this rate she was going to be caught. Better to kill him outright—so she opened the secret.

But he had changed too.

More precisely, his temperament had changed.

Papapap!

In just three steps Yeon Hojeong closed and swung the axe.

A merciless savage flurry. Faster and fiercer than before, the axework poured out a roaring killing will.

‘Tch!’

KRA-CLANG! BANG!

Ming Onji whipped both hands, blocking the axe.

But Yeon Hojeong only grew more violent. Faster. More feral.

BANG! KRA-CLANG! THUD!

“—Hah!”

Her forearms, catching the axe, were getting ragged.

‘Impossible!’

This was the art that had completely blocked the Second Young Master’s martial skill. Yet it couldn’t stop Yeon Hojeong’s axework.

“Uraaa!”

WHUD!

“Aaagh!!”

At last a scream burst from Ming Onji. From the elbow down, her right arm was hacked clean off.

Yeon Hojeong didn’t stop there.

‘Kill—!’

He had seen one of the clan’s executioners use this martial art.

The burly brute who smashed the clan signboard and shattered the front gate. The adamantine strongman who charged through, taking the Yeon warriors’ fierce swordwork bare-bodied.

The moment he saw that martial art, his mind went white.

WHUD!

Hooking her leg and toppling her, Yeon Hojeong stood over Ming Onji and raised the axe.

BANG! KRANG! BANG!

“Ghk! Kahk!”

Her body was being driven into the earth.

Brutal axework. In a blink, her whole upper body ran red. Forearms, chest, shoulders—everywhere, axe marks.

Terror swam into Ming Onji’s face.

A mad killer was about to murder her with an axe. It was fear of an intensity she had never known in her life.

“S-Stop! I said stop, you bastard!”

KRANG! KRAANG!

“—Kh! Hurk!”

KRAAANG! KRAAANG!

“S-Save... me...”

“You didn’t.”

Yeon Hojeong lifted the axe again.

Looking down at her, his face looked monstrous.

“You didn’t.”

Just then, far off, Ga Deoksang came sprinting.

“Young Master Yeon! Don’t!!”

Pouring every last ounce of strength into it, he swung the axe down.

KRAAAANG!