Unrivaled Spear Demon
51 Tragic Grief(2)
Chui and Do Mak-saeng headed toward the garden at the center of the pavilions.
The servants who had been in the garden tactfully retreated into the central pavilion.
Since it was the only structure still standing, it was an inevitable choice.
Ssssssssss...
A dark red energy erupted from Chui’s body.
He had reached the second tier of Iol, a state attained after consuming Namgung Paengsaeng.
As the Blood Cult had yet to reveal itself to the world, no one knew this to be demonic arts.
Do Mak-saeng was no exception.
“You wield a strange martial art. Is it a deceitful trick, or demonic arts?”
“See it however you wish.”
Chui answered curtly.
In the sense that the method of learning it is corrupt and drives the practitioner to madness, the Changwi-ching is indeed a demonic art.
However, Chui had completely overcome the latter drawback. As for the former, he had already steeled himself for it.
The sun sets and the road is long; one goes against the natural order.
Chui recalled his childhood.
The faces of his tribesmen, now vividly remembered.
The unique breathing technique passed down to him by them.
A strange method of circulating energy: inhaling nature for six hours, and exhaling it for six hours.
Hoooooo-
Chui exhaled the breath he had been holding.
Each time he did, the madness of the Changwi, which had been seething like molten iron in a furnace, slowly subsided.
The heat remained, but the explosive, destructive volatility calmed, allowing the delicate meridians within his skull to be preserved without injury.
That was how he could maintain a clear mind without going insane or becoming a living corpse.
Seeing Chui’s breathing technique, Do Mak-saeng spoke.
“The breathing of the Miao people. It must be a mental method for forging a Copper Head and Iron Forehead.”
“You know of the Miao?”
“I do. Aren’t they those filthy barbarians from the south?”
Do Mak-saeng smirked.
“My father was a soldier. He wiped out those filthy barbarians until he fell on the southern battlefield. I suspect your parents and siblings might have been among them.”
Chui was slightly surprised. Do Mak-saeng was unexpectedly knowledgeable about martial arts from beyond the borders.
Of course, it was no disadvantage to Chui that his enemy was intelligent.
“I must kill you and turn you into a Changwi.”
“……?”
The moment Do Mak-saeng wore a puzzled expression, Chui lunged forward.
Clang!
The staff and the great blade met, creating a resonance like the tolling of a giant bell.
“……!”
Chui furrowed his brow.
Since the Staff Fiend’s staff had come into his hands, it had never encountered a weapon as heavy as itself. That was why it was currently vibrating with such a high-pitched whine.
Meanwhile.
“……!”
Do Mak-saeng was also surprised.
His nickname was none other than Hegemon Blade of Great Strength.
The title was earned due to his height of nearly eight feet, a physique so massive he could devour a whole cow in a day, and the enormous blade he carried, capable of cleaving mountains.
Do Mak-saeng could truly be called a titan who claimed dominion over Hubei Province.
Yet, a mere stripling who hadn't even reached adulthood had squarely parried such a master’s strike. And he had done so without yielding an inch.
Setting aside hatred or the desire for revenge, it was a feat that was purely astonishing.
Clang! Crack! Crash!
Heavy weapon met heavy weapon, generating an immense shockwave.
The decorative rocks nearby shattered and crumbled like sand, and the bark of the trees split vertically, leaving them bare and stripped.
Screeeech-
Do Mak-saeng handled his massive blade as if it were a feather. Of course, Chui did the same.
Thrusting, blocking, swinging, and countering—this entire sequence unfolded at blinding speed.
Chui and Do Mak-saeng were exchanging dozens of blows in the time it took an ordinary person, ignorant of martial arts, to blink.
Boom! Cra-a-ack!
Unable to withstand the shockwaves, the ground collapsed in several stages.
Now, Chui and Do Mak-saeng appeared to be fighting within a pit surrounded by circular stairs.
Cough-
Unable to overcome the overload of internal energy, Do Mak-saeng spat out blood. Chui was the same.
The two stood facing each other fiercely, blood streaming from their lips.
“Die!”
The blade aura erupting from Do Mak-saeng’s weapon scattered into the air.
Chui, hiding behind his staff, launched a thrust forward.
Swoosh!
The pitch-black staff extended, tearing off the tip of Do Mak-saeng’s beard.
Do Mak-saeng jerked his head back to dodge the staff, then immediately retracted his blade to sever Chui’s arm.
At that moment.
Ptooey-
The spit Chui ejected struck Do Mak-saeng in the left eye.
“Ugh!?”
At first, he thought it was merely a desperate act, but it was not.
As his eye burned with a stinging heat, Do Mak-saeng felt the internal energy within his body slowly drying up.
“What is this!? What kind of poison is this! You barbarian cur!”
With Do Mak-saeng blinded, his great blade was blinded as well.
The sightless blade hacked and smashed at the surroundings like a madman.
But Chui, like a ghost, seeped into the empty space left in the wake of the blade.
“Your son suffered this as well.”
“……!”
At Chui’s words, Do Mak-saeng’s blood and energy surged in reverse.
“You dog-like bastard, how dare you……!”
A scarlet blade aura began to overflow from Do Mak-saeng’s weapon.
Something massive was coming. Half by reason, half by instinct, Chui jerked his head back.
Flash!
A trajectory of light grazed the tip of Chui’s nose.
It flew toward the vast lake, diagonally cleaving and shattering the bridge to the west.
KABOOM! Splash!
The destroyed bridge sank into the lake, creating a massive wave.
“You’re certainly smashing everything to pieces.”
Chui shrugged. Then, with an expression no different from usual, he gripped his staff and swung it toward Do Mak-saeng.
Thwack!
The staff struck Do Mak-saeng’s shoulder.
Because of the wide swing, there were many openings. Do Mak-saeng hurriedly retracted his blade, but he had already been struck on the shoulder and thigh by Chui’s staff.
‘An ordinary man would have had his limbs severed, but…….’
Chui observed the state of Do Mak-saeng, who had been struck by the staff.
Aside from a few scrapes on his shoulder and thigh, Do Mak-saeng remained as fierce as a bull with its tail on fire.
‘Indeed, I have no choice but to give it my all.’
Chui gathered all the Changwi into one place.
At the tip of the black staff, the original owner of the weapon shed tears of blood.
Staff Fiend Gu Gang-ryong. As his face flickered at the tip of the staff, Do Mak-saeng flinched in surprise.
‘What is this? I just saw a human face…….’
It was even a face he recognized quite well. It felt like someone he had met once when he visited the Unorthodox Alliance.
But he had no leisure to ponder it deeply.
…Pop-pop-pop!
Chui had swung his staff to strike the ground, sending sand and gravel flying at a terrifying speed.
“You cur! You’ve been relying on cheap tricks from the start!”
Do Mak-saeng held his blade sideways to block the shrapnel flying toward him.
Of course, he couldn't block it all, and some of it drew blood from his body.
Watching this, Chui felt a slight doubt.
‘……What is this?’
The previous strike had been a trap.
It was merely a shallow deception: using the flying sand to force a dodge, then thrusting the staff into the expected path half a beat early.
Yet, Do Mak-saeng had fallen for that shallow trap completely. No, he hadn't just fallen for it; he had even bled.
In terms of a game of Go, it was like capturing a stone for free during an endgame move intended to gain half a point. In other words, he had gained two points.
‘Is he aiming for something else?’
Chui swung his staff.
Clang!
As expected, Do Mak-saeng extended his blade to block it.
Chui leaped backward. Then, just as before, he swept the ground with his staff to fire off gravel.
“You cur!”
Do Mak-saeng didn't dodge this time either. He simply raised his blade to block the shrapnel.
He did so even at the cost of becoming covered in blood.
‘It seems he has a hidden plan, but……’
Chui tilted his head.
When he entered the fray directly with his staff, Do Mak-saeng countered with all his might.
But for some reason, whenever Chui created distance and destroyed the surrounding terrain, the man stood rooted to the spot, taking every attack with his own body.
‘I don’t know what he’s aiming for, but if I’m missing something, it’s simply the limit of my own insight.’
Chui decided to keep it simple.
Whoosh!
The Staff Fiend’s staff swung, aiming for Do Mak-saeng’s waist.
Do Mak-saeng raised his blade to block Chui’s staff.
A battle of strength against strength.
The one who seized the upper hand in that dynamic was none other than Do Mak-saeng.
Crunch!
The skin on Chui’s palms, gripping the staff, peeled away. The capillaries in his forearms burst, spraying fountains of crimson blood.
...Boom!
Do Mak-saeng pushed Chui back.
Do Mak-saeng’s internal energy surged out of control, repelling Chui’s own, forcing Chui to crash through the wall of the central pavilion.
“……!”
Chui rose to his feet, bracing for the follow-up attack.
Where would it come from? The head? The neck? The waist?
Prepared to sacrifice a chunk of flesh regardless of where it landed, Chui searched for an opening to counterattack.
But.
“……?”
There was no follow-up attack.
Chui, having emerged through the debris of the broken wall, saw Do Mak-saeng standing leisurely in the distance.
He had walked to the center of the training ground, even further away than before, and stood with a relaxed posture. Only the bloodshot intensity in his eyes remained unchanged.
“You’re so weak it makes me yawn. Come at me properly, you barbarian.”
“…….”
Chui tilted his head.
Despite seizing a golden opportunity, why hadn't he pursued him immediately, instead choosing to increase the distance? And what was with that clumsy provocation?
It was strange to call it a trap.
A trap was merely an additional means to secure victory; if one could win without setting a trap, there was no reason to do so.
Was it similar to a cat playing with a mouse before killing it?
That wasn't it either.
The gap in skill between Chui and Do Mak-saeng was not so one-sided as that. As he had mused before, in the language of Go, it was a difference of a mere half-point.
‘Then what is it?’
Chui did not know what Do Mak-saeng was aiming for. Regardless, this was a favorable opportunity to turn the situation around.
…Boom!
Chui kicked off the floor and burst out of the pavilion.
Clang!
Staff and blade collided, sending a shower of sparks flying.
Whoosh—shhh-shhh!
Chui’s staff bent like a serpent, striking Do Mak-saeng’s body in various places.
Do Mak-saeng did nothing but retreat frantically, his mind solely focused on dodging backward without a single thought of counterattacking.
Sensing an opening, Chui swung his staff with even greater speed.
Every time the tip of the staff spun and struck, fist-sized chunks of flesh fell away from Do Mak-saeng’s massive frame.
At that very moment.
Hummm!
Chui felt a chilling sensation graze just below his Adam’s apple. It was the sixth sense that had saved his life time and again on the hellish battlefields of the past.
…Zip!
Chui withdrew the staff he had been raining down on Do Mak-saeng and retreated back toward the pavilion.
In that instant, a red and blue slash carved a cross through the air. It was the exact spot where Chui had been standing just a moment before.
“My, what a shame.”
Soon after, a new shadow descended onto the central pavilion.
With hair cropped short like a man’s and a scar running across the bridge of her nose, the Butcher of the Yangtze River’s Twelve Pirate Fleets stood there.
She gripped a pair of red and blue twin swords and gestured toward Do Mak-saeng with her eyes.
“Hey, Master of the Paedo Guild. Our agreement to cooperate is still valid, right? Let’s split the corpse of that guy fifty-fifty.”
“……”
Hearing the Butcher’s words, Chui thought to himself.
‘First the Master of the Paedo Guild, and now the Thousand-Head of the Yangtze.’
Things were about to become a little more troublesome.
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