Chapter 242: Life is Not Always Smooth-Sailing (2)

Cheok Cheong-Yeong furrowed his brow. Something felt wrong. His chest felt stifled, as though a great stone had been placed on it.

A master of his level was barely affected by his surroundings. Only another master of similar caliber prodding at his senses, or a shift in the situation so violent that it could no longer be controlled, would affect him.

Something was clearly and ominously scraping at his nerves.

“Am I uneasy? Me?”

Cheok Cheong-Yeong bit his lip gently and looked ahead. Something flashed in the distance. On instinct, he drew his broadsword and positioned it in front of him.

CLAANG!

Sparks burst from the blade with a shriek of metal, rocking Cheok Cheong-Yeong’s frame.

Stone fragments crumbled and scattered before his eyes. Someone had thrown a rock at him.

“Keuk!”

“Huk!”

The Supreme Demon Squad warriors on either side of him groaned and fell from their saddles. Similar small rocks were buried deep in their shoulders and abdomens.

“Who goes there?” Cheok Cheong-Yeong roared, leveling his broadsword in the direction from which the stones had been thrown.

WHOOOSH!

An intense wave of energy washed over him. He glanced around, but his subordinates were still scanning the surroundings, apparently unable to detect anything.

He clenched his teeth. The wave was sharp and sophisticated, too subtle for anyone below his caliber to detect. His opponent was taunting him, singling him out.

Throughout his years traveling the world as General of the Supreme Demon Squad, he had never experienced anything like this.

He scowled angrily. “You dare challenge me? Me?”

SWISH!

Four more stones flew through the air. Unfazed, Cheok Cheong-Yeong swung his broadsword, shattering each one. As the fragments turned to powder and scattered in the wind, however, an intense wave of energy rolled in from the other side.

“Keuk!”

The Supreme Demon Squad groaned, and their horses foamed at the mouth and thrashed wildly. With over a hundred animals bolting at once, the area collapsed into utter chaos.

The Supreme Demon Squad rode warhorses that were trained to never feel terror and to obey their masters’ will under any circumstances. The fact that these horses could panic and bolt defied everything Cheok Cheong-Yeong knew. And yet, this unknown opponent had driven over a hundred of them into a vortex of terror and chaos with nothing but his aura,

Even Cheok Cheong-Yeong’s own warhorse grew agitated and was about to bolt. He was spared only because he pinned it down with his spirit and inner qi. Without that, he would have fared no better than the rest of the Supreme Demon Squad.

“Fine! I’ll face you myself!”

Cheok Cheong-Yeong kicked off his saddle and hurled himself forward.

Some ninety meters out, he caught sight of his opponent. The figure confirmed his identity, then leaped backward as if he had been waiting for exactly that.

“Hmph! Are you trying to lure me away?”

The enemy’s intention was obvious. The man wanted to separate him from the Supreme Demon Squad.

Cheok Cheong-Yeong knew this, yet he followed the man anyway. He was confident in his own strength and wanted to see the man’s face.

It’s him!

His instincts told him that this was the martial master who had hidden among the Demon Slaying Army and the mercenaries to slaughter Hong Ak-San’s Supreme Demon Squad.

The shadowy figure ran nearly eight kilometers from the Supreme Demon Squad’s location to a marsh thick with reeds before stopping.

“Who are you? Reveal yourself!”

The man did not answer. Moonlight fell across his face. He was plain and ordinary, without a single feature that stood out.

He was Jin Mu-Won, disguised as Dan Cheon-Woon. Jin Mu-Won silently raised a tree branch at him.

Cheok Cheong-Yeong’s gaze turned colder than a grave. “How insolent!”

He kicked off the ground and charged.

SHIIING!

His broadsword emitted a ghastly blue light as he unleashed his signature technique, the Eight Wastelands Demonic Blade. This technique boasted enough power to rank among the ten greatest blade arts in the world, and he had mastered it to its absolute peak.

Compared to it, the tree branch in Jin Mu-Won’s hand seemed pitifully fragile. At least, anyone would have thought so. Except, the man holding the branch showed not a flicker of wavering or unease.

TING! TING! TING!

Broadsword and branch met with a faint clink instead of the expected impact.

Cheok Cheong-Yeong’s broadsword radiated a fearsome enhanced blade qi. Even a masterwork dao forged by a master smith could not withstand that power, let alone a flimsy tree branch.

Even so, everything Cheok Cheong-Yeong took for granted was turned upside down. Not only did the branch in Jin Mu-Won’s hand survive the relentless waves of enhanced blade qi, it also bent pliably, slipping into every opening he left.

Where did a man like this come from?

Cheok Cheong-Yeong was dumbfounded. Every time he struck the branch, a powerful recoil shook him to the core. Nothing like this had happened since the day he mastered the Eight Wastelands Demonic Blade.

This one is strong.

His gaze clouded over, and goosebumps erupted across his body.

Since birth, Cheok Cheong-Yeong had fought his way up through the Silent Night, a world where strength alone determined one’s worth. He had fought more battles than he could count, always walking the line between life and death.

The strongest foes he had ever faced were the Four Great Demon Generals, beings the world regarded as calamities. They were truly formidable, and he had never held the upper hand against them.

Right now, he felt the same way about Jin Mu-Won as he did about the Four Great Demon Generals. The idea that someone so young could be so skilled was absurd. Yet, the mere fact that he evoked the same sensation was enough to send a chill down his spine.

How could he be anywhere near as strong as the Four Great Demon Generals? What am I thinking...?

Cheok Cheong-Yeong denied his own instincts and poured out one ultimate technique of the Eight Wastelands Demonic Blade after another.

FWOOOOSH!

A veteran of a hundred battles, he performed his martial arts with precision, leaving no openings. A sharp wind raged in every direction as dozens of streams of enhanced blade qi burst forth. The marsh was flattened by the onslaught. Reeds scattered through the air, and ripples raced across the water.

Jin Mu-Won dived headfirst into the barrage. Cheok Cheong-Yeong is a warrior tempered by countless real battles. A fight with a man like that doesn’t come around often. This is a golden opportunity for me!

SWISH!

His movements were full of ingenious variations. At first glance, it appeared to be ordinary swordplay, but he incorporated the ultimate techniques of the Shadow Blade of Destruction into each stroke.

His martial arts were on the brink of entering a new realm. He was no longer merely combining the six forms of the Shadow Blade of Destruction, he was harmonizing them with traditional sword forms.

For example, he added the first form of the Shadow Blade of Destruction, Meteor Soul, to the basic form known as Sweeping the Thousand Armies. He wove the third form, Dividing the Heavenly Seas, into Sheer Cliff Severing Soul.

Each attack Jin Mu-Won executed carried the subtlety and power of the Shadow Blade of Destruction despite their simple outward appearance. Just because he wielded a tree branch, that power did not diminish.

“Keuk!” Cheok Cheong-Yeong retreated with a stifled groan. The skin between his thumb and forefinger split open and bled. His organs were rattled, and bile crawled up his throat.

Where did a monster like this come from?

He had never heard of such a man from Heaven’s Summit or from the Silent Night. If anyone like this existed in the jianghu, rumor should have spread long ago. Regardless, nowhere in the Silent Night’s intelligence network was any mention of such an expert.

“Who are you?” he asked, though he didn’t expect an answer since Jin Mu-Won hadn’t spoken a single word until now.

As if to mock his assumption, Jin Mu-Won replied, “My name is Dan Cheon-Woon.”

“Dan Cheon-Woon? Dan Cheon-Woon...” Cheok Cheong-Yeong repeated it several times over, as though burning it into memory.

Jin Mu-Won’s eyes gleamed. Soon, the world will come to know the name of a new rising master, Dan Cheon-Woon.

The man facing Cheok Cheong-Yeong was not Jin Mu-Won, but Dan Cheon-Woon. That was the name under which he would traverse the world now, and he had to build a reputation worthy of it.

SHRAAANK!

Cheok Cheong-Yeong’s broadsword flew toward his chest.

Countless lives met their end at that blade, and desperate killing intent was steeped into it. The killing intent alone would have scattered the mind and body of an ordinary martial artist, but it could not so much as ripple Jin Mu-Won’s unmoving heart.

Jin Mu-Won performed the Flowing Stream Steps, circling to Cheok Cheong-Yeong’s right. He extended his palm and gently pushed the broadsword aside.

Cheok Cheong-Yeong was no pushover, though. He used the force to swing the blade back the other way.

CRAAACK!

The great broadsword tore toward Jin Mu-Won’s opposite flank, preceded by a crescent of enhanced blade qi.

This was the Opening of the Eight Wastelands, the most powerful technique of the Eight Wastelands Demonic Blade. Heaven and earth themselves seemed trapped inside that crescent.

Countless enemies had fallen to the technique without managing a response, and Chok Cheong-Yeong had no doubt that this time would be no different.

Jin Mu-Won extended his arm toward the broadsword. He had disguised the second form of the Shadow Blade of Destruction, the Northern Heavenly Wall, as an ordinary swing of the sword.

KABOOM!

A deafening explosion erupted as branch and broadsword collided.

“Keuk!”

“Heup!”

The two men stifled groans simultaneously.

Cheok Cheong-Yeong dropped to one knee and braced himself with his broadsword. He caught sight of Jin Mu-Won flying backward and crashing down on the far side of the marsh, blood spraying everywhere.

“Keoheok!”

He coughed up a mouthful of blood. His chest was stained dark red. He tried to move but couldn’t, his whole body hurt as if it were coming apart. He had suffered a severe internal injury.

“General!”

The Supreme Demon Squad came running, calling out to him. They had finally calmed their horses and tracked him down.

“Are you alright, General?”

“I’m fine. But more importantly, find him. If he’s dead, at least bring me his body.”

Cheok Cheong-Yeong directed his men to the location where Jin Mu-Won had fallen.

I have to kill him.

He watched Jin Mu-Won cough up blood and collapse. The man was clearly gravely wounded. The Opening of the Eight Wastelands had clearly overwhelmed him.

Still, something felt off, like he had finished his business and walked away without wiping.

Cheok Cheong-Yeong coughed up another mouthful of blood. His injuries were so grave that losing consciousness was inevitable, yet he kept his eyes fixed on the spot where Jin Mu-Won had fallen.

The Supreme Demon Squad warriors rushed to the spot he had indicated. All they found were crushed reeds and bloodstains. Jin Mu-Won was gone.

“He isn’t here. Judging by the blood, he must be gravely wounded.”

“Find him... You must find him and kill him! Track him down!”

“General, your wounds are critical. You need treatment first.”

“I’m fi... find him... Uwek!”

Cheok Cheong-Yeong vomited blood again. His body trembled. The shame of defeat cut deeper than the pain of his wounds.

“I will kill you. I swear it...”

With bloodshot eyes, he glared in the direction Jin Mu-Won had vanished. Against every scrap of his will, however, his body would not obey him.

Jin Mu-Won wiped the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

My stomach is churning. I had to appear strong enough to capture the world’s attention, but I can’t let them see me as a serious threat.

Jin Mu-Won had shown exactly that much and no more, and he had accepted a measure of internal injury as the price.

This should be enough to hold them back.

His figure vanished into the darkness.