Chapter 67 : The Rusted Blade
"You… you've only been fighting weaklings, haven't you?"
"Wh-what!?"
As if he had been hit where it hurt, Han Chuyeong looked at Jang Baekseo in surprise.
"You don't have to answer. Aren't martial artists supposed to speak with their martial arts? Just by looking at the way you fight, I can tell. You've clearly only been slaughtering those weaker than you one-sidedly!"
"Sh-shut up! What do you know!!"
Although he retorted loudly, Han Chuyeong could not hide his anxiety in his heart. That was because all of Jang Baekseo's words were true.
Han Chuyeong, who had reached the peak realm at a young age and had entered the Righteous Sword Squad, had been recognized for his talent and had joined the Hundred Rivers Association.
After that, he had been able to quickly reach the transcendent realm with the support of the council.
Since then, Han Chuyeong had hidden his transcendent realm and had been living while receiving secret orders from the council, belonging to the Righteous Sword Squad.
He had no complaints. If it weren't for the support of the council, he wouldn't have been able to enter the transcendent realm so quickly. He didn't have much of a complaint about only being assigned missions to kill those much weaker than him.
There was nothing to be gained by taking on a dangerous mission that risked his life.
Although he was just a member of the Righteous Sword Squad now, as long as he belonged to the Hundred Rivers Association, his future was secure… but now, those lazy days were holding him back.
"Tsk, tsk. What's the use of making a good sword? You've only been using a sword for catching cows to catch pigs and chickens, so it's useless when you actually have to catch a cow…"
"…Are you saying you're a cow, not a chicken or a pig?"
"Ah! I misspoke."
Looking at Han Chuyeong, who was gritting his teeth at the reality he did not want to admit, Jang Baekseo said with a sly smile.
"How can you catch a dragon with a sword that's only for catching cows in the first place?"
"!?"
"You're arrogant…"
Han Chuyeong gritted his teeth.
And.
Han Chuyeong, who showed a resolute expression as if he had made up his mind, suddenly had a red light shoot out from his eyes.
"…Raging Blood Art."
"Kekeke! If you know, the story is easy!!"
No matter how much of a master he was who had reached the transcendent realm, he could not completely avoid the side effects of the Raging Blood Art.
Nevertheless, Han Chuyeong used the Raging Blood Art without hesitation.
'No matter what, I'll kill you!!'
He was that angry at Jang Baekseo.
Kwaang!!
Han Chuyeong's sword technique, which had flown at a speed clearly different from before, was swung, aiming for the vital points of Jang Baekseo's four limbs.
At Han Chuyeong's attack, which was definitely faster than before, Jang Baekseo could not respond with as much leisure as before.
Although Jang Baekseo had dodged the attack by a hair's breadth, shorter than a finger joint, he could not easily seize an opportunity to counterattack.
That was because Han Chuyeong's movements, using the Raging Blood Art, were that fast and powerful.
The rocks and trees, whatever was caught in his sword force, were all shattered into powder without exception.
Jang Pangyo, who had been watching their fight from a relatively close distance, also hurriedly dodged his body at the brutal power and watched the scene, holding his breath, hiding in a relatively safe place.
Unlike the fight with Myeonggwang before, since Jang Baekseo had also reached the peak realm, the stone fragments or wood fragments that flew with the sword force due to the sword force were not a great danger.
That's why he had decided to 'focus' on avoiding Han Chuyeong's attacks.
"Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha!"
The roar, like that of a beast, turned into laughter, and the more it did, the more fiercely Han Chuyeong developed his attacks.
But.
'What? What's going on? It's true that this guy has less leisure in dodging than before… but why!? Why aren't my attacks hitting!?'
Although Han Chuyeong was excited at the sight of Jang Baekseo dodging one-sidedly and was increasing his speed even more.
What was going on? The guy who had been dodging by a paper's breadth at first was still dodging by a paper's breadth even though he had increased his speed even more.
'How on earth is this…'
The ultimate principle of the empty space.
This was the identity of the sense of déjà vu that Han Chuyeong was feeling from Jang Baekseo.
It was natural for those who had learned martial arts to learn the technique of sensing the opponent's movements and presence.
The qi sense learned while cultivating qi art, the supernaturally developed five senses, and in addition to that, depending on the type of martial art learned or the sect, each had their own sensing technique.
Among them, the most commonly learned techniques were called the blue realm and the red realm.
The red realm was a technique to predict the opponent's movements when a part of the body was in contact, and the blue realm was a technique that surpassed that and predicted the opponent's movements just by looking.
And the ultimate principle of the empty space that Jang Baekseo was using now was a technique that integrated the various sensing abilities that a martial artist had, such as the blue realm and the red realm, the qi sense and the five senses, and in addition to that, the metaphysical sixth sense, into one.
The sensing ability integrated into one in that way allowed one to grasp a certain range around oneself as if it were in one's hand.
The technique or sense of grasping a certain area of space around oneself as if it were in one's hand was called the empty space.
There was a difference as big as the sky and the earth in the accuracy and speed of information between simply using the sensing abilities separately and forming an empty space by gathering all of them into one. And any master who had reached a certain level would have their own empty space without exception.
From there, the one that had gone beyond that empty space and had developed it one step further was the ultimate principle of the empty space.
Although the empty space, which sensed a certain area around oneself, was an excellent technique, its weakness was that the sensing ability would decrease as the part moved away from one's center. And the one that had overcome this weakness was the ultimate principle of the empty space.
The ultimate principle of the empty space was a technique that created another empty space centered on an arbitrary space between oneself and the enemy, in addition to the empty space centered on oneself.
Considering the principle of the empty space, this was as absurd a technique as distinguishing and understanding all the sounds in a marketplace where dozens of sounds were heard, or reading the trend of all the fights at a glance on a battlefield where hundreds of people were entangled, or accurately picking out the raw materials from a perfume made by mixing dozens of fragrances.
Nevertheless, there were superhumans who achieved this, and Jang Baekseo was also one of those superhumans.
Not only using the empty space centered on an arbitrary place, not oneself, but also developing the empty space in duplicate. Although it was a high-level technique that could not be called anything but a divine skill, Jang Baekseo was doing both at the same time without any difficulty.
Since he could read the opponent's movements in duplicate through the ultimate principle of the empty space, he could know Han Chuyeong's movements more accurately than Han Chuyeong himself. And against such a Jang Baekseo, it was impossible to reach him with just speed.
No matter how fast the movement was, it did not accelerate the thought process.
No, even if it did accelerate the thought process, it was still a human body.
If you extended your arm, you had to retract it. If your center was disturbed, you had to recover it.
And for Jang Baekseo, who was using the ultimate principle of the empty space, all of Han Chuyeong's series of movements and the movement of his body were visible as if they were in his hand.
In this situation, there was no way that Han Chuyeong's attacks would work on Jang Baekseo.
"Kraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
And decisively…
Crack!!
"You've slowed down from before?"
Han Chuyeong had overused his internal energy in a short time.
Internal energy was not something that could be calculated like, 'I have a hundred internal energy now, and I used one, so I have ninety-nine left'.
Even if people had the same amount of internal energy under the same conditions, it would be affected by numerous factors such as the technique of handling the energy, how much energy was squeezed out at once, what martial art was used, what weapon was used, and so on.
The reason why Han Chuyeong's energy was showing its limit now was clear.
There was too much waste in the technique of using the energy itself.
Perhaps because he had only been dealing with those weaker than him until now, he had probably never had a proper long-term fight. And as such, it was clear that he was used to squeezing out his strength to the maximum, but he had no thought of using his strength efficiently.
And if he had started to slow down like that…
"He's my meal."
Crack!
"Kraaaaaaaaaaah!?"
Jang Baekseo once again flew a kick at the leg of Han Chuyeong, whose momentum had already been broken.
Unlike the sound from before, there was a sound of something hard breaking.
"My shin!!!"
His shin was broken.
Although he should not have felt any sensation in his four limbs thanks to the Raging Blood Art, the sight of his shin, which was broken and bent at a grotesque angle, was enough to throw him into confusion.
And.
Swish!
That one moment of confusion had completely disturbed the weave of his protective sword force.
And Jang Baekseo, who had not missed that moment, had cut Han Chuyeong's neck without hesitation.
Thud.
Han Chuyeong's face, which was rolling on the floor after being cut, was contorted with bewilderment, fear, and pain.
Jang Baekseo looked down at Han Chuyeong's face for a moment without emotion and then let out a breath.
"Hoo~"
"I-is it over?"
"Well, if this guy isn't a zombie that moves even after his head is cut off, it's over, right?"
"Hah… you… I thought you were amazing, but I never thought you were this amazing…"
The strength of Jang Baekseo, who had one-sidedly toyed with and killed a transcendent master, had already far surpassed the common sense that Jang Pangyo knew.
"Thank you… I've become indebted to you for my life like this. I don't know how I can repay this favor…"
"It's fine. As I said before I went down, it's enough if you interfere with the pursuit of the Righteous Sword Squad and the Strong Sword Squad."
"Ho ho… you are truly, truly a great hero… but how on earth did you know that I would be attacked and came running?"
At Jang Pangyo's question, Jang Baekseo scratched his cheek with an awkward face and said.
"Actually, I didn't know that you would be attacked. I have a favor to ask, but I couldn't, so I came to ask for it like this."
"A favor?"
What kind of favor was it that he had come all this way in a situation where it was not enough to run away right now? Jang Pangyo, who was curious, urged Jang Baekseo to hurry up and say it.
Jang Baekseo explained the details of the favor to Jang Pangyo.
Then, Jang Pangyo…
"Huh? What good would that do? No, rather, if you do that…"
"Yes, that might be the case. But I still want to trust your words, Great Hero Jang."
"Uh, huh? My words?"
"Yes, didn't you say so, Great Hero Jang?"
After saying that much, Jang Baekseo grinned at Jang Pangyo.
"That the people called martial artists like the words 'chivalry' and 'righteousness'."
"!?"
***
Jang Pangyo and Jang Baekseo, who had cleaned up the scene, parted ways there.
Jang Baekseo ran at full speed, developing his lightness skill as much as he had delayed, and Jang Pangyo also had to clean up Han Chuyeong's body as cleanly as possible and secretly return to the unit, as he knew well what would happen if this situation were discovered.
Even as he was moving his steps to return to the unit, Jang Pangyo's head was confused because of the favor that Jang Baekseo had asked.
'What on earth is Young Master Jang thinking?'
A method that a person with normal common sense would never try!
But even so, Jang Pangyo could not tell Jang Baekseo that this was a foolish method and that he should not do it.
Although Jang Pangyo had thought hard about what the reason was, the answer was surprisingly simple.
'He would be able to do it!'
Although it was an absurd plan, for some reason, he felt that he would be able to do it.
After that, Jang Baekseo, who had saved Jang Pangyo's life and had joined Hwa Mokyeon, joined Jang Yuran and Madam Ma as quickly as possible.
Jang Baekseo, who had explained the situation as quickly and concisely as possible, began to move northeast with the party.
Because they had no time to delay.
(End of Chapter)