The Martial Arts Prodigy Who Grows Through

Chapter 060. Eve

Three days after Dam Jeok-san had a duel with Lee Myeong-gi at the Squad Leader meeting.

When the Northern Wind Sword Corps had just finished preparing to set out.

The North was already in a chaotic situation that happens perhaps once every few years.

Starting with the Demonic Realm located at the northernmost point pouring out monsters almost to the point of going berserk.

Three Entering Transformation Realm masters, including the Sword Addict and the Blood Death Lord, as well as the Great General of the Imperial Army, were deployed to the Demonic Realm to block this.

However, this was only the beginning.

High-ranking monsters, which would normally only appear in lands bordering the Demonic Realm, appeared all over the North, including the desert.

It reached a point where an incident occurred in which three patrol teams composed of first-rate experts belonging to the Righteous Heaven Alliance were annihilated.

Accordingly, the Righteous Heaven Alliance dispatched the Divine Dragon Squad (新龍隊), formed mainly of rising stars from the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families, to the desert region, ordering them to investigate the truth and subjugate the monsters.

There was a brief debate about the Divine Dragon Squad's lack of actual combat experience and poor organizational power due to being centered on rising stars, but because the situation was extremely urgent, the dispatch was carried out as is.

* * *

Three days later, Martial Sovereign Castle Northern Branch.

Only then could Dam Jeok-san properly realize the meaning of taking the vanguard.

"We will accompany the Monster Repelling Squad on this mission."

Because the Northern Heaven Sword Venerable and Dark Heaven came to him wearing the martial arts uniforms of the Monster Repelling Squad, which they got from somewhere.

"However, we plan not to reveal our existence at all until we reach the Cardinal."

Un Wol-hyang continued speaking with her eyes shining sharply.

"May I ask the reason?"

At Dam Jeok-san's question, Un Wol-hyang started explaining as if it were obvious.

The entire Northern Wind Sword Corps will scatter and march toward the desert where the Cardinal is holding out. However, the sharpest blade of the Martial Sovereign Castle Northern Branch is the Sword Venerable Un Wol-hyang.

However, if she blatantly reveals herself, the Cardinal will try to block her using whatever means necessary. So she chose to hide herself in the gaps of the Monster Repelling Squad.

"I understood."

Dam Jeok-san, who listened to Un Wol-hyang's explanation attentively, slowly nodded his head.

"I guess I will have to take the role of the Martial Aunt."

Dam Jeok-san continued speaking with a slightly tense look.

This matter is a major event enough to make the entire North stir. The Cardinal must have also prepared this ritual through gnashing of teeth for at least 10 years, and at most decades. There's no way he can approach easily.

Then,

‘I must break through with force.’

Originally it is the Northern Heaven Sword Venerable's role, but since she decided to hide her existence, now Dam Jeok-san has to take on that task.

"Right, but don't worry too much. Because he won't be able to use the moves he prepared to deal with me. Since he doesn't know where I will appear."

Un Wol-hyang smiled faintly and said.

"...That is truly fortunate."

Dam Jeok-san also answered, pulling up the corners of his mouth.

Even if there are no traps to catch the Sword Venerable, breaking through the desert and reaching the Cardinal will never be easy.

"I think I know why you said I have to defeat at least the Severing Sword Squad Leader."

Dam Jeok-san continued speaking while clenching and unclenching his fist.

"Yes, your mission is something not easy even for a master who has reached the realm of Ultra-Peak."

"I know, but I can do it."

Dam Jeok-san answered with a calm demeanor as if talking about something obvious.

Like Un Wol-hyang said, reaching the Cardinal with only the power of a single armed force is difficult even for an Ultra-Peak master.

Even if Lee Myeong-gi and the Severing Sword Squad were here, success could not be guaranteed. But Dam Jeok-san was certain of his success.

‘Because I am much stronger than the Severing Sword Squad Leader? That's not it.’

The duel with Lee Myeong-gi was truly neck and neck. If he had been a little unlucky, he would have been the one defeated. But Dam Jeok-san has the ability of Predation.

If the opponents were pure martial artists, it might be different, but if they are those who handle the power of monsters, he was confident he could win somehow by drawing out capabilities beyond what he possesses.

"It is fortunate that you look confident."

Un Wol-hyang smirked and opened her mouth.

"But do not forget. This mission is very important not only for you, the Monster Repelling Squad Leader, but also for the safety of the entire Central Plains."

"Of course, I am not forgetting."

Dam Jeok-san answered Un Wol-hyang's warning in a low voice.

"I will show you with results."

At Dam Jeok-san's following words, the shred of worry dwelling on Un Wol-hyang's face disappeared as if scattering.

If her martial nephew said that much, he will definitely pull it off. Even if something twice as dangerous as expected happens.

That day, the Monster Repelling Squad led by Dam Jeok-san left the Northern Branch and marched into the desert together with about 10 armed forces under the Northern Wind Sword Corps.

* * *

Northern land, in the middle of the barren desert.

Peng Wu-yeol, a martial artist belonging to the Divine Dragon Squad under the Righteous Heaven Alliance, was trembling in fear there.

"Cough...!"

"Please, save, me..."

Death agonies heard from everywhere.

Grotesque monsters with heterogeneous forms, as if crawled up from the underworld, were slaughtering the Divine Dragon Squad members.

Even among those defeated just now, there was a Peak master who had hunted dozens of monsters.

Amidst this, Peng Wu-yeol, who barely survived, examined the surroundings with trembling eyes.

‘There is no hope.’

Although they say they lack actual combat experience, the Divine Dragon Squad is an elite armed force packed with outstanding rising stars boasted by the Orthodox Murim.

Yet how could they collapse so instantly? The reason was clear.

Enough for even Peng Wu-yeol, whose intuition isn't that good, to realize at once.

‘It's because of that monster...’

Peng Wu-yeol thought while looking at the eccentric covered entirely in a black cloak.

"Hehehe... They called it the Righteous Heaven Alliance Divine Dragon Squad Leader, but only the name is grand and the skill is terrible."

The eccentric was licking the blood dripping from his fingertips and sneering.

And in front of him, the dead Divine Dragon Squad Leader was visible with a huge hole pierced through his heart.

A shape where his heart was pierced in a single blow without even being able to resist properly.

‘...The Squad Leader is an Ultra-Peak master.’

Divine Dragon Squad Leader Ban Mu-jin. As a lay disciple of the Diancang Sect, he is a swordsman who reached the realm of Ultra-Peak at the young age of thirty-five. It was definitely so.

That eccentric, who suddenly appeared as if falling from the sky, killed Ban Mu-jin in just one breath, And simultaneously, monsters much more grotesque and ferocious than general monsters appeared and raided the Divine Dragon Squad.

Literally pandemonium. Even those who strutted around acting like masters died without being able to resist properly. In the meantime, Peng Wu-yeol survived simply because he was lucky.

Because after the eccentric killed the Divine Dragon Squad Leader, he was just standing by with his hands behind his back watching the situation. And because powerful monsters didn't rush at him.

However, that luck was also slowly showing its bottom.

CRUNCH―

A fellow martial artist right next to him was crushed by a monster's teeth.

Fragments of those intestines and flesh brushed past Peng Wu-yeol's cheek.

"Damn it!"

Peng Wu-yeol spat out curses and gripped his saber again.

When he took the starting stance of the Peng Clan saber technique. The monster was already looking at Peng Wu-yeol with bright yellow eyes.

Inorganic eyes different from humans. Peng Wu-yeol felt appetite, not killing intent, from the monster's eyes. Peng Wu-yeol could feel desperately that the opponent was a monster, not a human.

It is not fighting to relieve hatred and anger, or to win honor and glory. It is just rushing in for feeding.

If he gets eaten by it, Peng Wu-yeol will end his life as a worthless chunk of meat.

For Peng Wu-yeol, who was born and raised in a martial family, that was more shameful than any death.

"...That cannot happen."

Peng Wu-yeol firmly fixed his lower body and swung his blade according to the principle of the Five Tigers Saber.

A strike faster and more accurate than ever. A smile settled on Peng Wu-yeol's lips. Right, even if I die, let's die after swinging the blade refreshingly at least once. Like a swordsman.

His blade cut through the air refreshingly and rushed toward the monster.

Grrr―

The bright yellow-eyed monster growled as if mocking such Peng Wu-yeol. Simultaneously, it lifted its forefoot engraved with stripes like that of a fierce tiger.

At the tip of that foot, huge and sharp claws capable of easily tearing a person apart were embedded. The very claws that slaughtered even the Peak masters of the Divine Dragon Squad.

Peng Wu-yeol felt a chilling premonition of death watching the trajectory drawn by those claws. But he moved forward without caring. The only thing important to him was completing this blade strike.

The monster's claws fell toward Peng Wu-yeol with a snap. The man who lived steeped in inferiority complex all his life awakened at the threshold of death, but everything was already too late.

‘I cannot avoid death.’

Knowing that, Peng Wu-yeol swung his saber.

And,

SLASH―

With an inorganic cutting sound, the body of the tiger-like monster split, and sticky blood splattered up.

Clearly, he should have died.

‘Don't tell me...!’

Did the blade swung with the resolve to die reach a certain realm? Was that why he could kill the monster in a single cut?

Thinking so, thrilling pleasure filled his whole body.

"Kuhahaha!"

As if celebrating the moment of realization, a burst of laughter erupted from Peng Wu-yeol's mouth.

"Have you gone mad?"

At that moment.

A young man with a handsome impression, holding a sword in each hand, asked him sarcastically.

Not someone belonging to the Divine Dragon Squad. It's unknown since when he had been here. But in the very next moment, Peng Wu-yeol realized who the young man was.

"Dam Jeok-san!"

The man once called Sword Dragon. He, who stood up again despite falling miserably, was in front of Peng Wu-yeol.

The two swords he held were thickly smeared with monster blood and flesh.

"Ah..."

Only then could Peng Wu-yeol understand how he survived.

The realization that comes the moment death is imminent was merely an illusion. What killed the monster attacking him was none other than Dam Jeok-san's sword.

Peng Wu-yeol dropped his head deeply in surging shame.

"...Thank you for saving me."

He expressed gratitude in a voice small as an ant crawling. He doesn't know why Dam Jeok-san, who became the Monster Repelling Squad Leader of the Martial Sovereign Castle, is in this place. But it is a clear fact that he owes him his life.

"Please, the other colleagues too..."

Peng Wu-yeol muttered while looking around the surroundings which had become no different from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Dam Jeok-san expressed affirmation by smiling instead of answering, then disappeared like lightning. Along the path he moved, two swords wrapped in deep blue Sword Flame like the night sky flashed, and monster blood was scattered.

"...Beautiful."

Peng Wu-yeol, seeing that scene, muttered as if possessed.

Dam Jeok-san's sword technique was extremely elegant. Despite the fact that he was dryly repeating only necessary movements without superfluity.

That kind of person is merely a Peak master? In Peng Wu-yeol's view, Dam Jeok-san's sword was already much more sophisticated and threatening than that of the dead Divine Dragon Squad Leader.

"But..."

Where Dam Jeok-san's steps were heading was the direction where the eccentric who pierced the Divine Dragon Squad Leader's heart in a single blow was.

"The opponent is too strong."

An opponent whose strength Peng Wu-yeol cannot even guess with his humble discernment. No matter if it's Dam Jeok-san, it didn't seem like he could handle that guy.

Just as despair was slowly trying to fill his eyes again.

Unbelievably bright light began to explode from the side where Dam Jeok-san was.

Peng Wu-yeol decided at that moment.

If he gets out of here alive, he will never ignore Dam Jeok-san in the future.

* * *

Dam Jeok-san, who marched into the desert leading the Monster Repelling Squad.

He discovered the Divine Dragon Squad surrounded by layers of monsters in half a double hour.

An armed force where individual martial prowess is decent, but lacks actual combat experience. As if proving that evaluation, the Divine Dragon Squad was being divided and defeated individually.

However—

[To think even Dark Guests moved. As expected, that Cardinal bastard must have staked his life on this matter too.]

Dark Heaven, who was watching the situation disguised as a Monster Repelling Squad member, had a slightly different evaluation.

[What are Dark Guests?]

Dam Jeok-san asked back to Dark Heaven's telepathy.

[Hunting dogs used by the Yin God Cult Leader. They are loyal and dangerous things that follow only the Cult Leader's orders.]

Dark Guest is an existence born from the crossbreeding of monster and human, or a forbidden secret art uniting the two. They, who can be called Half-Demons in the true sense, are monsters where each one is comparable to an Ultra-Peak master.

If it's a Cardinal level, they can request and mobilize a few Dark Guests from the Cult Leader. Dark Heaven explained so.

[New Monster Repelling Squad Leader, you said it, right? That you don't want to kill me. That you might have a way.]

[...]

[Then prove it. That you have the power to cause a miracle. Break through the siege and cut off that Dark Guest's head and bring it. Then I will give you a chance.]

Dam Jeok-san frowned slightly at Dark Heaven's words. Attaching conditions like this to saving her, not killing her.

However, Dam Jeok-san did not refuse.

Since marching while leaving the Divine Dragon Squad as bait would only expose his rear to the Dark Guest, it was an enemy he had to deal with anyway.

"I will show you. That not even a miracle is needed to cut a hybrid like that."

Dam Jeok-san said while drawing the Red Cloud Sword and Sky Thunder simultaneously.