Chapter 89 : Chapter 89
Chapter 089. General of the North (5)
There are those who become stronger when they discard their weapons. Those who have tempered their bodies to the extreme limit and forged them into a single lethal weapon. The General of the North Jin Ryeo was a person of such a kind.
The reason she carried the crescent blade was merely to harvest the heads of monsters rushing in like swarms of insects more quickly. There was no other reason.
If she met an opponent worth acknowledging, she discarded her blade. That in itself was a well-known story. However, very few people had actually seen Jin Ryeo put down her crescent blade and face someone solely using martial arts.
At most, those who had seen it were only the staff officers and generals who had served her closely for a long time, or super masters who had achieved the same status as her.
And today.
Jin Ryeo completely let go of her crescent blade. While facing merely a single Ultra-Peak master.
“It seems you have achieved your goal.”
Namgung Gwan said toward Un Wol-hyang in a low voice.
Her letting go of the crescent blade meant she acknowledged her opponent. Just with that, Un Wol-hyang and Dam Jeok-san's goal was as good as half-achieved.
Since Jin Ryeo of all people would not try to disparage the achievements of an opponent she acknowledged.
“Well, that is also a story for when he has survived.”
However, Un Wol-hyang shook her head calmly. She was looking at the General and Dam Jeok-san with an expression as cold as ice.
However, her inside was burning hotter than an active volcano.
It was because of the worry that perhaps, just perhaps, that crazy old woman might cause real harm to Dam Jeok-san. Her letting go of the crescent blade was practically a signal that she would pour out all her full power.
Dam Jeok-san's achievements were certainly surprising compared to his peers. Furthermore, he did not allow comparison even with masters in the entry of the Ultra-Peak stage. But if Jin Ryeo truly scattered attacks with killing intent, could he really endure five more moves?
It was something she started because she trusted Dam Jeok-san, but feeling anxious was force majeure.
“Look, you are the only one feeling so anxious. At least among us.”
Perhaps reading such inner feelings of Un Wol-hyang, Namgung Gwan spoke while gesturing with his chin toward where Sword Addict and Blood Death Lord were.
The ‘us’ he spoke of referred to the masters who had reached the Entering Transformation Realm.
Blood Death Lord, and Sword Addict too.
There was no one who thought Dam Jeok-san would possibly be beaten to death by the General. Rather, considering the repercussions today's duel would bring, they were only busy calculating with their abacuses.
Because the change in the successor structure of the Martial Sovereign Castle was not just their problem but a grave matter swaying the entire Murim under heaven.
“Hmm……. You are wrong, and I am right. The General is a person who can sufficiently beat my martial nephew to death.”
However, Un Wol-hyang firmly denied that opinion. She was probably the only person here who knew the General's true nature.
‘Because I have seen her true self.’
It was when she was an Ultra-Peak master. Un Wol-hyang had provoked the General just like Dam Jeok-san now. Of course, she could not make her throw away the crescent blade until the end.
The General, or rather the human Jin Ryeo, Un Wol-hyang saw at that time was truly an uncontrollable brawler. If she had made even a small mistake back then, she would have been beaten by Jin Ryeo's fist and become a lonely ghost.
Even then, Jin Ryeo did not harbor any particular dissatisfaction toward Un Wol-hyang. She just felt interest in her sword and fighting spirit.
“Well, I also trust my martial nephew. He will endure well. Since it is something he brought upon himself.”
Un Wol-hyang said with a slightly twisted smile on her mouth. She didn't want things to go this far. It was a voice containing a mix of admiration and dissatisfaction toward Dam Jeok-san who went ahead on his own.
* * *
“What long-winded people.”
The General of the North Jin Ryeo dismissed those chattering about her and Dam Jeok-san with that single remark.
“Still, that greenhorn was quite usable.”
She glared at the Sword Venerable very briefly and muttered.
Those words were right. She had absolutely no intention of going easy on Dam Jeok-san. She got excited after a long time, so she couldn't possibly hold back her hands just to not take his life, could she?
A single fist filled generously with killing intent and fighting spirit explodes on Dam Jeok-san's abdomen.
“……!”
Dam Jeok-san turned pale with fright and pulled his sword to block that fist, but.
WHACK!
The General struck Dam Jeok-san's sword without caring at all.
Dam Jeok-san floated into the air just like that along with the sword extended in the flurry.
“Five, you are slow.”
She said as if mocking Dam Jeok-san, who could not control his body properly. At the same time, the General's figure kicked off the ground lightly and leaped into the air.
However, the miracle started from there.
Tap, tap.
She leaped while stepping lightly on the empty air where nothing existed as if there were footholds, and caught up with Dam Jeok-san in an instant.
“Crazy……!”
Dam Jeok-san spat out curses roughly, seemingly genuinely flustered. Even before he could compose his expression, to think she would catch up using Void Treading.
“Greenhorn, you have a foul mouth. Even though I granted what you wanted.”
The General sneered and stretched out her palm. Then, formidable genuine qi condensed in her palm center, and the space wavered.
The moment Dam Jeok-san tried to do something to cope with that terrifying single blow.
―!
The palm technique exploded aiming for his solar plexus.
Dam Jeok-san realized it was no longer a situation where he could afford to think about the next move. Although his balance would completely collapse as he swung his sword with all his might in the air…….
‘Still, it would be better than being swept away by that palm force and dying.’
Thinking so, he twisted his body and unleashed a sword strike. The sword wrapped in blue flame barely offsets the General's palm force.
Even after that, the force not completely scattered left scratches on his body, but he had no time to mind mere injuries of that level.
Because his center of gravity collapsed as he swung the sword with all his strength, and as a price, his body was falling headlong.
“Up to here, six moves, this is the seventh.”
However, the General did not even give such Dam Jeok-san a moment to catch his breath.
Golden light flashes from her shoulders. At the same time, the General's figure rushes toward him at a speed double that of the falling Dam Jeok-san.
A kind of shoulder check technique. It is truly the epitome of close-quarters combat utilizing the whole body.
Dam Jeok-san, who was slammed into the ground, rolled on the floor without an inch of hesitation. Lazy Donkey Rolling as if he had done it hundreds of times more.
Although it is a thought anyone can come up with, executing it without an inch of hesitation was not an easy task. Especially for someone who is an Ultra-Peak master.
Dam Jeok-san, who endured the disgrace of Lazy Donkey Rolling, could barely dodge her shoulder only after rolling on the floor more than two times.
When he got up leaning on his sword like a cane, the General stretched out both hands again as if she had been waiting.
A variation of the Shaolin supreme art, Divine Palm of Buddha. It differs from the movements Un Wol-hyang imitated clumsily starting from the momentum it emits.
Just with the wind pressure generated from the palms, Dam Jeok-san's clothes fluttered in the air and tore apart.
WHOOSH!
The palm technique containing the transcendent power of the Buddha approaches at a formidable speed without knowing how to stop. Pressure to the extent that one wonders if the whole world is trying to crumple Dam Jeok-san flat.
Advance and retreat. Neither can be chosen. If he advances, he will be swept away by that pressure, and if he runs backward, the result will not change.
Dam Jeok-san chose to advance even if he would be crushed to death.
SLASH!
His sword cuts off one layer of the world filled with pressure. Then the pressure of the Thousand-Hand Buddha rushes in without fail. Dam Jeok-san raised his sword again.
SLASH―
He cuts and cuts again. Every time he cuts, the unnecessary movements attached to the slash disappear, and only simplicity and efficiency remain.
When it was hard to even count how many slashes he poured out to advance just a single step like that. Thus, when an almost perfect slash was forged.
Only then.
Could he face the old woman imitating the Thousand-Hand Buddha with her double palms overlapped.
Sentient being, you have done well coming this far. Although the General was not saying anything, it seemed as if such an auditory hallucination was heard.
The Thousand-Hand Avalokitesvara is originally a Buddha who soothes the pain of sentient beings and looks after them with a thousand hands.
However, the thousand hands possessed by the General's Thousand-Hand Buddha were merely lethal weapons that crushed opponents and threw sinners into the path of hell.
Dam Jeok-san swung his sword to smash those lethal weapons.
FLASH!
A vivid trajectory of blue flame is engraved in the air. A slash without an inch of unnecessary movement, just like until now, or reaching beyond that.
That slash,
THUD!
Ended up being caught by the Buddha's hands.
“……!”
However, on the face of the General who spread her double palms and caught Dam Jeok-san's sword, there was bewilderment, not a sense of victory.
VROOOOM!
Because the power of the blue flame dwelling on his sword constantly emitted light and burned her golden auspicious energy.
“Surprisingly intense will, no, it is not just a matter of will.”
The General muttered while frowning her wrinkled forehead.
Why can Dam Jeok-san's blue flame burn her golden light? Because his intent is stronger? Or because his desperate desire awakened the blue flame?
No, that cannot be. When one reaches the transcendent stage, one realizes that martial arts are the manifestation of will. However, that will is not as simple as it sounds.
It means it cannot work ignoring all compatibilities and stages. For something like this to happen, at least his and Dam Jeok-san's stages should be similar.
If not that.
‘The martial art he learned is a martial art higher in rank than mine.’
However, that is also not easy.
The cultivation method Shaolin handed over to the Imperial Family corresponds to the treasure of the sect. Excluding something like the Supreme Great Ability, there is almost nothing that exists in a higher rank among Buddhist martial arts.
She looked at the blue flame burning the golden light wavering in her hands with an expression that she still could not understand.
The seventh move passed like that.
Unless it was a high monk of Shaolin who realized divine powers.
Even if she was the General, she could not know. The fact that Dam Jeok-san reached the ultimate of the Prajna Heart Technique, realized the true meaning of the Six Paths of Reincarnation, and faced his past life self.
“It is the eighth.”
Dam Jeok-san said with a triumphant expression for the first time. The situation just before was something even he did not expect. However, he was ready to seize the luck.
Dam Jeok-san's sword spews fire once again. The target is the General's chest. A sword move containing killing intent explodes.
However, the difference in status seemed to remain.
With a sound of BANG!, her fist that exploded blocks Dam Jeok-san's sword.
However, perhaps because the General also extended her fist in a hurry, she failed to give Dam Jeok-san that big of a hit.
Dam Jeok-san, who passed the eighth move with such a quick combo attack.
“Nine, is it…….”
The General opened her mouth without hiding her complicated feelings.
She thought he might endure all ten moves. But she did not know he would reach the ninth so easily like this.
“There is no need to scuffle clumsily two more times.”
The General muttered indifferently. That meant she would prepare something that could easily replace about two moves.
Her shoulders moved, and her arm was pulled tight.
At the same time, an honest single fist without any technique mixed in explodes toward Dam Jeok-san.
Massive power that could tear down even Mount Tai was contained in that fist strike.
Dam Jeok-san was certain the moment he faced the fist strike. That he would die if he was hit.
It is not some supreme art or esoteric truth. Just the power it contains itself is transcendent. Indeed, power worthy of saying she packed two moves' worth into it.
Dam Jeok-san.
“Here I go.”
Jumped toward that fist with both swords drawn. Like a person with no lingering attachment to life.