Chapter 108. Five Dragons Fight for a Pearl (4)
‘Damn it, what the hell...!’
Cursing to himself, Mu Eui-Yeong threw two other throwing knives.
He intended to tear apart both plum blossoms with a single blow. However, both throwing knives melted after dispelling the first plum blossom.
‘Ugh. I’ll be in trouble if I’m not careful.’
Mu Eui-Yeong used the infamous donkey roll to dodge the second flaming plum blossom. It was just too much of an embarrassment for him.
To think that flame had strength comparable to sword aura!
Without even realizing it, Bi Yeo-Jeong started tearing up as she watched with her hands clasped in front of her chest. All she could see was Woo-Gang leaping toward Mu Eui-Yeong while thrusting his sword in front of him.
Woosh!
With the sound of a great wave crashing against the shore, a long flame stretched out from the tip of his sword and flew toward Mu Eui-Yeong.
‘Just what the hell kind of martial arts is this?!’
Mu Eui-Yeong jumped up and spun in the air, simultaneously throwing the last five knives that remained in his hands as he did so.
With his extended sword, Woo-Gang drew a circle in the air, as if he were painting a taiji symbol. As he did so, the long flame extending from the sword moved like a whip and swirled through the air.
Not only did the throwing knives not pierce through the vortex of flames, but they almost instantly melted in the air, while the flames struck Mu Eui-Yeong.
“AGHHHH!”
The spar was over.
When Woo-Gang pulled his sword back, the blaze of Transcendent Flash disappeared. However, that brief attack was more than enough for Mu Eui-Yeong to suffer burns all over. All of his clothes had turned to ash, and he had lost consciousness.
With tears in her eyes, Bi Yeo-Jeong opened her mouth.
“Ah...”
Woo-Gang had displayed an amazing performance, single-handedly defeating two opponents with incredible skills. This was all she had ever wished for—to see him standing proudly like that.
Now, finally seeing it happen, an almost uncontainable joy bloomed inside of her.
‘You did good, you did good, senior brother Song. Please continue to shine as brightly as you do right now, even if someone like me isn’t standing by you. Please...’
Crack.
Seeing Bi Yeo-Jeong’s expression, Yu Cho grimaced and gritted his teeth as if he were a vicious villain.
Suddenly, Woo-Gang subconsciously turned around and saw Bi Yeo-Jeong.
And when he saw her tears...he no longer saw anything apart from them.
Woo-Gang shivered as if struck by lightning as he suddenly realized that he was still in her heart.
Bi Yeo-Jeong hurriedly turned her head to avoid his gaze and wiped away her tears.
‘No, I can’t do this. It’ll only hurt him even more. It’ll just make it harder for him to forget me.’
She just couldn’t handle making Woo-Gang’s heartbreak recovery even harder than it already was.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and bring him down!”
As So Myeong-Chan shouted irritably, the Hegemon Clan members went up and brought Mu Eui-Yeong down from the stage.
‘Damn it! How dare you idiots lose to that brat twice in a row!’
Furious, So Myeong-Chan looked back at San Woo-Gyeol, who was standing behind him. Realizing what So Myeong-Chan wanted, San Woo-Gyeol walked up the stage with a bitter smile.
Standing on the stage, he cupped a fist at Woo-Gang and said bluntly, “I’m San Woo-Gyeol of the Hegemon Clan’s Dominating Fist San Family.”
Woo-Gang, whose heart was pounding after seeing Bi Yeo-Jeong, bit his tongue to calm his emotions and cupped his fist in return.
“I’m Song Woo-Gang of the Mount Hua Sect.”
Suddenly, Woo-Gang got an urgent voice transmission from his older brother.
—Give up and come down immediately, Woo-Gang. Right now!
—Why?
—Your opponent is an expert you can’t beat. Hurry up and come down right now!
Woo-Gang hesitated.
He knew there was no way his hyung would lie to him. Moreover, he knew there wasn’t any reason to doubt his hyung’s intuition. If Woo-Moon was telling him that his opponent was strong, then his opponent was strong.
But Woo-Gang turned to look at Bi Yeo-Jeong for a moment. Then, he slightly shook his head to tell his brother what he thought.
—You, you insane child! Come down right now! Not only is he strong, but he also has a terrifying bloodlust! You might actually die there!
—I’m sorry, but I can’t run away without a fight. That would not only hurt the sect’s reputation but also stain the honor of our grandfather, who is legendary for never turning his back in battle. Even if I die, I can’t run away.
—You fucking idiot! Get down NOW!
However, Woo-Gang no longer responded to Woo-Moon and rather got ready for battle against San Woo-Gyeol—actually, the Dealer of Death and Destruction, Sha Xiao.
San Woo-Gyeol only sneered eerily and didn’t even raise a hand.
Although he seemed so defenseless, Woo-Gang couldn’t let his guard down whatsoever. Woo-Moon had warned him, after all.
“D-damn it! Something isn’t right! No, something is terribly wrong!”
“Pardon? What do you mean something is wrong?” Baek Yo asked, puzzled in the midst of her intoxicating joy at Woo-Gang’s victory.
“That bastard San Woo-Gyeol or whatever. Even if he’s supposed to be strong, this is too much! Even I can’t guarantee that I’d be able to defeat him! This is impossible. That’s not the level of a younger generation talent. Being so strong under thirty is just not possible!”
To some, Woo-Moon’s words may have sounded arrogant. However, none of those around him felt like he was being ridiculous, because they knew his abilities all too well. The talents of the Three Great Sword Families suddenly looked over at San Woo-Gyeol, while the members of the Baek Family looked at Woo-Gang in surprise and concern.
This was an opponent that even Woo-Moon himself wasn’t sure he could win against!
“Then, let me make the first move!”
With a shout, Woo-Gang squeezed out all of his remaining strength and unleashed the greatest Transcendent Flash that he was capable of. Flames erupted from his sword, forming thirty-six flame threads that spread out like a dense net. Then, they quickly tightened in front of San Woo-Gyeol, releasing a tremendous blaze.
“T-that’s incredible!” “That might be enough!” Baekri Yeong-Woon and Namgoong Sung said in succession.
Even though San Woo-Gyeol was someone that Woo-Moon had acknowledged, after seeing that incredible attack, they thought that Woo-Gang might actually win.
In contrast, Woo-Moon just bit his lip.
‘No, it’s impossible for him to win,’ he thought.
However, Woo-Gang seemed to think completely differently from his brother.
‘I can win this!’
Woo-Gang had just perfectly performed the Transcendent Flash Heaven's Net, one of the ultimate techniques of the Transcendent Flash Sword, for the first time. It gave him confidence.
“Ke... keke.”
However, all that confidence disappeared in an instant as the lip of San Woo-Gyeol lifted up into a sneer and he let loose a laughter more terrifying than that of a devil from hell.
‘Is he laughing?’
Suddenly, a black aura rose up around San Woo-Gyeol, and the flames around him were instantly snuffed.
Swish—
It was all over when Woo-Gang saw San Woo-Gyeol’s hand move slightly.
“Ugh!”
The black aura and the flames dispersed as San Woo-Gyeol disappeared like an illusion, his hand suddenly grabbing Woo-Gang’s neck.
San Woo-Gyeol’s head was tilted to the side, but unnaturally so, as if he were a doll with a very flexible neck joint. His head formed a perfect right angle with the rest of his body as he laughed in a disgusting, deranged manner.
“Kekeke...”
“Cough, cough, cough!”
Woo-Gang drew on his dantian to the point that it started to crack to gather the strength to kick San Woo-Gyeol’s torso. But it was to no avail.
San Woo-Gyeol just held him up by the neck while his free hand formed a crane shape, subtly coating itself with aura. It was a black, grotesque aura that appeared clearly evil at just a glance.
Everyone knew that this next attack would kill Woo-Gang. It was an almost instinctive realization, as the sticking feeling of San Woo-Gyeol’s bloodlust had already spread to the entire sparring ground.
“S-stop it!”
As Bi Yeo-Jeong unknowingly rushed forward to the stage, Yu Cho quickly caught her.
“What are you doing? They’re still in the middle of a spar.”
Although he said that, his gaze seemed to waver slightly as he looked over at San Woo-Gyeol and Woo-Moon.
“Let him go! The winner has already been decided,” he called out.
“Hmpf! These things are decided by the people on the stage!” So Myeong-Chan retorted, his voice mixed with ridicule.
‘We can’t stop this.’
Yu Cho and Hyeon Mu-Cheol were thinking the same thing in their hearts.
‘They wouldn’t really kill him, would they?’
They certainly didn’t like their junior brother, but that didn’t mean they wanted him to die like this.
“Kekeke...”
As the sparkling bloodlust in San Woo-Gyeol’s eyes reached a peak, his hand seemed to flash like a beam of light.
—Stay your hand or you’re a dead man.
A voice transmission pierced San Woo-Gyeol’s ears as a suffocating force, bloodlust, and pressure rushed through his entire body. Woo-Moon had timed it exquisitely, just so that it interfered with San Woo-Gyeol’s breathing, forcing his hand to falter as it went for the kill.
In the end, he stopped his attack altogether.
“Hehe...”
San Woo-Gyeol glared at Woo-Moon, his eyes shining and pupils constricted to the size of pinpoints.
—You... I’ll definitely kill you.
—Do whatever you want. But I think you’ll be the one who dies, not me.
After going back and forth with Woo-Moon, San Woo-Gyeol looked at Woo-Gang.
‘You’re not interesting anymore,’ he seemed to say.
He simply threw Woo-Gang off to the side as if he was throwing away a bag of trash.
So Myeong-Cham said with a wry smile, “So we’ve won this spar, right? Do you have any complaints? If not, we can just end this farce here.”
“... We lost this one,” Yu Cho answered as So Myeong-Chan burst into happy laughter.
“Hahahahahahaha!”
Amid So Myeong-Chan’s ridicule, Woo-Gang stood up unsteadily and walked off the stage. Although he had won twice, the mood around the stage wasn’t that great due to how badly he had lost to San Woo-Gyeol.
Then, one of the talents began to applaud.
Clap, clap, clap, clap!
Starting from one person, it gradually spread to several people and eventually turned into loud cheers.
“You did well!”
“As expected of one of the Three Legendary Plum Blossoms!”
“The Mount Hua Sect is truly unmatched!”
Seeing the people cheering for him, Woo-Gang smiled slightly and entered the stands where the Mount Hua disciples were located.
“Hmpf! To think you almost died at the hands of trash like him,” Hyeon Mu-Cheol mocked him, while Yu Cho just ignored Woo-Gang’s existence.
“Those lunatics. How could losers like them be so excited?” So Myeong-Chan muttered. He was pissed. To think that those bastards could still react in that way even after seeing San Woo-Gyeol’s incredible martial skills!
Then, he noticed San Woo-Gyeol looking at someone across the sparring stage.
‘Just who is that psychopath staring at?’
When he followed San Woo-Gyeol’s gaze, he turned to see Woo-Moon. Suddenly, his younger brother, So Geom-Rak, came to mind again. His warning—to watch out for Song Woo-Moon.
‘Does that bastard really have something up his sleeve? He doesn’t look like much...’
No one else had noticed when Woo-Moon had compressed all of his aura, bloodlust, and pressure into a single point earlier to interfere with San Woo-Gyeol’s attack. Moreover, no one, including So Myeong-Chan, knew about the threats, as their entire conversation had been through voice transmissions.
However, So Myeong-Chan’s suspicions were still raised just from the bloodlust San Woo-Gyeol was emitting as he kept an eye on Woo-Moon.
‘Hmpf! He doesn’t seem like much to worry about. Either way, there isn’t anyone among those talents that can beat this psychopath, anyway.’
As no one else from the Righteous Warrior Squadron seemed to walk up on the stage, So Myeong-Chan began to shout.
“What? Are you all scared? Do you really plan on having us stay up all night or something? What the hell are you doing? Send someone on stage already!”
Possibly because San Woo-Gyeol looked so strong, Yu Cho’s eyes turned to Woo-Moon without even realizing it.