Chapter 8 : Chapter 8
Chapter 08 - Give it
Whack!
Whack!
Whack!
“…………?”
Hongchil came to his senses at the dull sound coming from somewhere.
“Uuek……!”
An indescribable, terrible pain was felt in his nose.
Hongchil, who had difficulty breathing through his nose due to the blood, had to force his mouth open to breathe.
‘What in the world happened?’
He couldn't remember well.
Right.
It was all good up to the point where he dragged Biyoung's grandfather, whom he had met by chance.
The moment he was about to threaten the kid…….
‘Paaaaaak.’
‘Ujijik’
He had lost consciousness with the feeling of his nasal bone collapsing.
Now that he recalled that moment, a chilling cold crept over his entire body.
‘A ghost…… it was a ghost-like movement.’
It was a terrifying speed, so much so that he couldn't grasp the situation even as he was sent flying by the punch.
It was when Hongchil was trembling from the throbbing pain and fear.
Whack!
The sound that had awakened Hongchil's consciousness once again struck his eardrums.
Hongchil, who turned his head towards the source of the sound, flinched.
“You should be ashamed of yourselves!”
Whack!
“Aack!”
“Grown adults, I tell you!”
Whack!
“Ueok!”
Every time Biyoung let out a roar and swung the dog-beating staff, a crisp sound was heard, followed by the screams of the ruffians.
The pattern repeated so consistently that one could almost feel a rhythm.
“Attacking one person?!”
Whack!
“And with weapons, too!”
Whack!
The ruffians were receiving a harsh beating from Biyoung.
The sight of the burly men, who were a head taller, being beaten like a dog on a hot day by a single boy was truly a scene that couldn't be watched without tears.
“A frail child! Huh?!”
Whack!
A frail child?
Who?
Don't tell me…
You..?
“Keuak!”
The lantern-jawed man, unable to withstand the persistent and harsh beating of the ‘frail child’, finally passed out.
Biyoung, who had been panting and continuously swinging the dog-beating staff, turned his back.
Had his anger finally subsided somewhat?
“Hey.”
-Tuk-tuk
“………….”
“I know you're awake, so open your eyes if you don't want to die.”
“…………!”
……It hadn't.
He woke up another burly man who was pretending to be unconscious and lying face down, and once again finely minced him here and there.
He was even trying to forcibly wake up one burly man who had really fainted.
“I told you to get up.”
‘Th… that relentless bastard!!’
Waking up a fainted person to beat them again was something unheard of.
Only then could the flat-nosed Hongchil realize.
How lucky of a person he had been.
Getting hit by a single blow at Hoyul Martial Arts Hall and being knocked out flat was an incredible stroke of luck for him.
The other guys who went outside had at least three or more bones shattered.
‘No wonder none of the guys stepped forward even when I said let's go punish that bastard…….’
Before the blood on his wrapped cotton cloth had even dried, Hongchil had gone to find the injured gang members.
He had told his father, so he suggested they go and make mincemeat of Biyoung with the ruffians.
But not a single one followed Hongchil's suggestion.
Although their injured bodies made it difficult to move, it was because of a large emotion that had taken root in their hearts.
Fear.
The fear imprinted on them when they were beaten by Biyoung had made them lose the will for revenge.
Hongchil had sneered at them, calling them cowards, and climbed the mountain with the ruffians.
No matter how well Biyoung fought, how could he possibly handle three burly men ganging up on him?
“Hey, hey. Aren't you going to line up?”
However, Hongchil's prediction had completely missed the mark, like an arrow in a typhoon.
Far from being beaten by the burly men, Biyoung had instead beaten them to a pulp and was making them kneel in a line.
“Even if you're uneducated market wolves, to drag a frail old man like that? Did you eat your manners for breakfast?”
Manners?
Was that something a child who had beaten up adults and made them kneel in a line should say?
A look of suspicion appeared on the burly men's faces, but none of them dared to open their mouths carelessly.
Seuk.
Hongchil very slowly got up.
Holding his breath so that Biyoung wouldn't notice.
‘I have to run……!’
Coming to find Biyoung was an act of kicking away the great fortune he had received.
If he had just stayed at home, it could have ended with a few teeth.
But it was too late to regret.
Hongchil planned to run away quickly while Biyoung's attention was on the ruffians.
His face was a mess, but his legs were still movable.
‘I'm confident in my running……!’
Among the gang members, there were two things Hongchil was particularly good at.
Tormenting his victims skillfully.
And the other was running.
“Aren't you going to answer? I'm asking from where did you drag my grandfather?”
It was when Biyoung glared and raised the dog-beating staff towards the ruffian.
‘Now!’
Hongchil quickly got up from his spot and ran with all his might.
Hwiik!
Until the dog-beating staff that had flown in from somewhere got caught in his legs.
Udang-tang-tang!
“Keuaaaak!”
This time, a cracking sound was heard from his jaw.
Mouth, nose, and now even the jaw.
Hongchil's face, which already had a severe flat nose, now had no normal part to be found.
“Aigooooo. You're awake?”
He had known that Hongchil had come to his senses long ago.
He had been watching to see how he would act, but to think he would run away like a dog with its tail on fire.
Biyoung approached Hongchil with sparkling eyes.
Hongchil, forgetting his pain, dragged his feet on the ground with a terrified face.
“Now. Shall we get up?”
But then.
It was strange.
He had expected him to throw a punch immediately, but instead, he helped Hongchil up with a gentle voice.
He even brushed off the dirt on Hongchil's clothes with his hand!
His smiling face was very handsome, but to Hongchil, it felt more frightening than a messenger from hell.
‘Why is he suddenly acting like this?’
It would have been better to be beaten to a pulp…… not that it would have been, but it was confusing nonetheless.
“If you've come to your senses, you should have said so. We have something to settle between us.”
“Se, settle?”
“Yeah. You have to pay the treatment fees. Give it here now.”
Hongchil, with his battered face dripping with blood.
Biyoung, demanding treatment fees from such a Hongchil.
……Hongchil felt as if something was wrong with the world.
“You…… you don't look hurt at all.”
“Not hurt? Right here……”
Biyoung fumbled to undo the front of his clothes and scratched his head.
It was because his bruises and wounds had completely healed while he was circulating Profound Heaven's True Energy Unification Art.
“Uh…… it did heal, but it hurt like hell in the meantime. If that's the case, let's call it emotional damage.”
“……!”
He wanted to ask what kind of absurd logic that was, but he couldn't.
Biyoung's face was so handsome it was breathtaking, but the light shining from his eyes was incomparably eerie.
It was something that could only be seen in swordsmen who had crossed the line of death countless times.
“Don't tell me you don't have money, right? You must have brought the remaining payment to give to the ruffians if you smashed me up.”
“!”
Hongchil's eyelids trembled slightly.
Biyoung's words were true.
Hongchil's father had paid a deposit as a down payment, and Hongchil was planning to give the remaining payment when the job was finished.
“What! You don't want to?! Aigoo! It hurts like hell! I wonder if it's going to rain, my bruised spots are aching!”
“I, I'll give it to you! Just a moment!”
He had only raised his voice, but Hongchil was terrified and took out three silver coins from his bosom.
“You spent a lot. To catch one little kid.”
Biyoung chuckled and this time approached the ruffians.
“You received a down payment, right? Give it.”
“W, we didn't even hurt him……!!”
“I know. I'm telling you to give it because you failed the mission.”
Then shouldn't you give it to the flat-nosed boy who made the request, why are you giving it to him?
But the already thoroughly minced burly men had no choice but to obediently hand over the down payment to Biyoung.
“Th… then can we go now?”
“Go where. The settlement isn't over yet.”
“Not over?! We gave you the money?!”
The ruffians jumped up and down with faces that looked like they were going crazy from the injustice.
“Watch it. Can't you see who's behind me?”
“……?”
Behind Biyoung was his grandpa, leaning against the porch.
“The crime of carelessly harming my grandfather's body. Pay for it with your death, or give up everything you have. Choose one of the two.”
“!”
His attire was similar to that of a young Taoist, but his way of thinking was worse than the ruffians'.
In their eyes, he might be just a young boy, but in reality, there was a mad wolf of the Diancang Sect inside.
A mad wolf who wasn't satisfied until he had thoroughly punished anyone who got on his bad side.
In the end, the ruffians and Hongchil had to go down the mountain in just their underwear.
“Come back anytime! But you have to bring a lot of money!”
Biyoung waved his hand affectionately, seeing them off as they descended.
‘What kind of monstrous guy is that?’
‘I shouldn't have set foot here in the first place.’
‘Fuck. When I get down, I'm going to find that flat-nosed bastard's father and have a word with him.’
Of course, the group descending the mountain had no intention of doing so.
***
“Eum……”
The grandfather let out a low moan.
His consciousness had still not returned.
Biyoung carefully checked his grandfather's condition.
‘His body isn't hurt or anything…….’
Although the burly man had thrown him down, it wasn't enough to make him faint like this.
Of course, he looked like he could be blown away by just the wind, but his body couldn't be called sickly.
It must be that he was exhausted from traveling here and there with a crippled body.
Biyoung put his clear and limpid internal energy into his fingertips and pressed the grandfather's acupoints.
Sssss.
As Biyoung's energy was transmitted, the old man's face became much calmer.
He brewed the tonic that Biyoung should have eaten and slowly poured it into the grandfather's mouth.
“…… Sect……”
Is he coming to his senses?
No.
He was dreaming.
A dream so vivid that his wrinkled fingers were constantly twitching.
“……that…… can’t…… be……”
I don't know what kind of dream it was, but his gestures and voice were truly mournful.
Biyoung silently listened to the old man's words.
But suddenly, Biyoung's eyelids shot up high.
“Sect Leader……”
“!”
Sect Leader?
Then does that mean his grandfather is a person of a sect?
Right.
Come to think of it, when I lost consciousness after eating the elixir, the old man had said he pressed my acupoints.
It would be something impossible to do without knowledge of martial arts.
It was reasonable to assume that the old man had learned martial arts in the past, or at least had background knowledge.
“To leave Diancang Mountain like this…… can’t be……”
“!!!”
A thunderbolt struck inside Biyoung's head.
He had suspected it since this Yiliang County was in Yunnan Province, but to think that the place his grandfather ‘used to live’ was Diancang Mountain.
It goes without saying, but there was only one sect in the world that had taken root in Diancang Mountain.
A sect that had once been a pillar of the Nine Sects One Union and had made a name for itself with its small elite.
It was the Diancang Sect, where Biyoung had dedicated his life.
For several days, Biyoung had searched high and low in Yiliang County for traces of the Diancang Sect.
However, now that fifteen years had passed, hearing rumors of the Diancang Sect in the market was like plucking a star from the sky.
Sedong, who had collected all sorts of stories out of his admiration for the martial world, was the one with the most information.
‘Wait…….’
Biyoung's pupils swayed like a pendulum.
It was because there was a part of the stories his grandfather told that connected into one.
The characteristics of the elixir.
Sect Leader.
And escape.
‘No way…… surely not.’
Biyoung couldn't wait any longer and leaned his body towards the old man's head.
Then, as if he had become the Sect Leader, he asked the old man.
“Can you protect the Heaven-Shaking Divine Pill well?”
The old man nodded his head even while dreaming.
“I will…… certainly do so.”
Thump.
With a feeling of his heart sinking, Biyoung fell on his butt.
“Oh my.”
Heaven-Shaking Divine Pill.
A precious treasure, said to be the only one in the sect.
It was the greatest elixir of the Diancang Sect, said to be passed down only to the Sect Leaders for generations.