Chapter 33

The passageway was extremely narrow.

Men wielding swords glared at Danwooseong, leaving only enough space for one person to pass.

As Danwooseong tried to walk through the gap, he slapped the cheek of the man scowling at the very front and said.

“It’s cramped.”

Thud—with a sound like that, the man tumbled into the room he had been waiting in. Clatter and crash—furniture shattered, and the sound of bottles smashing could be heard.

Jikye spoke again from inside.

“…It’s too noisy. Just let him go.”

At Jikye’s words, the men waiting on either side took a step back.

Danwooseong said.

“What an atmospheric man.”

Black-clad men were good at creating this kind of atmosphere.

Dan Woo-sung liked this kind of atmosphere too. Somehow, it made hitting him feel even better. Anyway, just hearing that bastard Jikye’s voice made him seem cold-hearted and cruel.

As Dan Wooseong arrived, the door swung open on its own, and a half-naked woman staggered out, her eyes glazed over. Dan Wooseong, unable to look away, swayed unsteadily as he walked down the narrow hallway, meeting the indifferent stares of the men watching him.

Dan Woo-sung wasn’t looking at the enemy; he turned his head away, glaring as if at the staggering woman. Blood stained the inside of her thigh, as if she had been bleeding internally.

Dan Wooseong also remembered the men’s indifferent gazes fixed on the woman.

Jikye’s voice reached him.

“Stop staring and come inside. Close the door.”

When Dan Wooseong turned around, Jikye was sitting alone on the bedding in the room. So the instruction to close the door was meant for Dan Wooseong.

After entering the room and closing the door, Dan Wooseong stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at Jikye.

Her physique was breathtaking.

He was so large, one might think he was of a different race. Large enough that he could grasp a woman’s head with one hand. Wearing only pants, his upper body was exposed, revealing the marks of long years training in external martial arts.

He was literally a muscular giant. His external energy was powerful enough to crush the internal energy of most martial artists.

Zhiye said.

“You must have some skill to stand before me. Who are you, and where are you from?”

In response to the enemy’s question, the man waiting outside revealed his identity instead.

“The eldest son of the Eunha Trading Guild. His appearance matches the description.”

Jikye frowned.

“It was you? You came alone?”

Danwooseong ignored Jikye’s words, pacing the room and looking around at various things.

He treated Jikye as if she were already dead.

He examined the desk, glanced out the window for a moment, then went to the bedding where Jikye was sitting and lifted the quilt like someone who had come to clean.

Rather than fresh blood splattered everywhere, pink-tinged blood was smeared in circular shapes here and there.

It only made it look more pitiful.

Jikye was quite startled that Danwooseong was wandering around without saying a word. It was all the more so because no man had ever ignored her like this before.

Wandering around, Dan Woo-sung glanced at Jikye’s expression and eyes, muttering to himself.

“…This one seems beyond redemption. How should I kill him to make the rumors spread far and wide?”

Jikye laughed as if finding him pathetic and said,

“Rumors? Fine. Let’s fight in the street. Gather a crowd and put on a show. I’ll give you what you want.”

As Jikye rose to his feet, he grew so large he could look down on Danwooseong.

Jikyeo glanced at the window once, then swung his right foot in a motion incongruous with his large frame, aiming for Danwooseong’s cheek. He intended to send him flying straight out the window.

Danwooseong slipped back slightly, and Jikye’s foot and the wind whizzed past his face. Immediately after, Danwooseong executed the same motion, kicking with his left foot in a sweeping arc. Jikye raised his right arm to block it.

But blocking wasn’t enough to end the attack.

CRACK- BOOM!

The massive body of the enemy guard who blocked the kick smashed through the window and flew out beyond the Ongeong Pavilion. It wasn’t just the window that shattered—the entire wall where the window had been was now breached.

With a loud bang, the door swung open. Jikye’s guards alternately stared at the gaping hole in the wall and Danwooseong.

Danwooseong walked over to the gaping hole in the wall, stood leisurely, and watched the enemy commander lying outside.

Jikye must have used a falling technique during the fall. He was turning his neck this way and that, stretching his body.

Danwooseong had intended to finish him off anyway, in a place where everyone was gathered.

Danwooseong, who had been watching Jikye, looked around after lightly leaping down from the fifth floor.

Jikye was more startled by Danwooseong landing with astonishingly little noise from the fifth floor height than by the kick he’d received.

Jie Ye’s subordinates were already swarming the area. They seemed to have witnessed Jie Ye fight before, as they had cleared a wide space and were waiting.

The Jangsanpa, Nopobang, Gyoryongbang, and Hongrakbo factions pushed others aside and secured positions at the front.

It wasn’t just young men either.

Men who looked like they’d been rolling around in the martial world for decades were also waiting, weapons in hand.

A single kick wouldn’t have scared the enemy.

Danwooseong wanted many people to witness the outcome of this fight.

Whether his men all charged or not, Jikye would die right here.

Had even a few men helped the bleeding woman or looked at her with pity, Dan Wooseong wouldn’t have been this enraged.

Dan Wooseong said nothing at all.

His rage was so intense that he needed time to calm himself.

From somewhere came a clang… Two men laboriously dragged over an incredibly heavy-looking iron chain and handed it over.

The enemy warrior caught the iron chain and spun it round and round with one hand.

It was a meteor hammer of rare, immense size. Regardless of whether they were foot soldiers or cavalry, most weapons wouldn’t even get close before being struck by the meteor hammer and sent flying.

Only then did Jikye laugh and charge forward. The massive meteor hammer drew a curve as it flew toward Danwooseong.

Clang!

Danwooseong ducked once, then caught the passing meteor hammer with his right hand and slowly pulled it back like a tug-of-war.

Clang! Zing-!

In an instant, the meteor hammer’s shaft stretched taut and straight. The massive Jikyeo was dragged along, both feet planted firmly on the ground.

Zzzzzzzz…

Even as Jikyeo pulled the meteor hammer with both hands, the distance between them steadily closed.

Using the recoil from pulling the meteor hammer, the enemy archer soared into the air and charged at Danwooseong at breakneck speed. It was a swift and powerful movement, like a giant beast pouncing.

Regrettably, it seemed he had trained in both the meteor hammer and fist techniques.

His movements clearly showed he hadn’t mastered them alone, but had inherited martial arts from a true master. It seemed he had long trained in using his overwhelming physique to overpower weapons.

However, every time he unleashed a strike, the flow of his movements was clearly visible, and since Danwooseong was faster, he had no intention of prolonging the exchange.

The opponent of the martial arts master who mastered the fist was the Fist King.

Could there be a worse matchup than this?

After dodging several punches and kicks, Dan Wooseong used his lightness skill to get behind Jikye, then drove a single punch into his side.

Only the one struck understands the agony of a blow to the side.

“Crack.”

Dan Woo-sung’s fist sank deep into the torso before pulling out.

With a short groan, Jikye swung his left arm backward in a backhand strike.

Dan Wooseong thought his opponent’s large frame offered many targets to strike. Approaching with a short, abrupt strike-like motion using his lightness skill, Dan Wooseong struck up at the enemy’s abdomen.

Thud.

Once again, his fist buried itself deep into Jikye’s abdominal muscles before pulling back out. Even amidst the pain, Jikye unleashed the fist technique he had painstakingly trained, attacking Dan Wooseong.

But with each attack he launched, Dan Wooseong’s fist landed precisely. A rhythmic series of loud thuds echoed from his face, abdomen, thighs, and then his side.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

As Jikye’s knees buckled, Danwooseong grabbed his collar and slammed him to the ground in a sweeping takedown.

Thud!

It was as if he’d lifted that massive frame with the harmony of internal and external power, then slammed it down.

Yet Jikye still didn’t lose consciousness.

Dan Wooseong pressed Jikye’s neck with his left knee, then grabbed Jikye’s face with his right hand, squeezing it as if to crush it.

“Gwaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Dan Woosung looked at the onlookers while injecting the brain-piercing energy of the Ten Thousand Battles, Ten Thousand Deaths technique.

As two figures charged from behind, blades drawn, Dan Woosung rose from his seat, formed his hand into a blade shape, and unleashed a relentless torrent of slashing strikes.

In a way, this attack was where Dan Wooseong truly demonstrated his skill.

Thud!

The necks of the charging attackers snapped clean off, their heads flying upward. Two torso-less corpses fell face-down on the floor, spurting fountains of blood.

As Jikyeo tried to rise, Danwooseong pressed down on his neck again with his left foot. Then Danwooseong knelt on one knee, grabbed Jikyeo’s face, and injected the brain-piercing energy of the Ten Thousand Battles, Ten Thousand Deaths technique. This time, it contained double the power.

“Gwaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Dan Woosung covered Jikye’s mouth with his left hand, then grabbed his head with his right, drawing up the brain energy of the Hundred Battles Ten-Fold Power.

As a man from the Dragon-Taming Sect cautiously took a step from the left, Dan Woosung’s head slowly turned away from the brain energy he was pouring out.

The man who had tried to move locked eyes with Dan Wooseong.

At that moment, Danwooseong thrust his right hand toward the man as if to sever it, unleashing a thunderous blast. A fist-shaped white thunderbolt, instantly magnified, engulfed the man’s entire body.

Kwaaaaang!

Not only the man, but also the five or six members of the Kyoryongbang group, uniformly dressed and waiting nearby, were simultaneously blown backward. Of course, those struck by the thunderbolt lay motionless on the cold floor.

Danwooseong, still holding onto the head of the enemy commander who was still resisting, injected the lightning energy once more.

A scream convulsed in Jie Ye’s throat.

It was likely a plea for mercy.

Dan Wooseong didn’t want to hear a single word.

With his mouth clamped shut, he steadily raised the brain energy. From the second tier to the third, from the third to the fourth, and when it reached the fifth tier, Dan Wooseong’s right hand was enveloped in white light. When peace settled upon the enemy’s body, which had been writhing as if glowing, Dan Wooseong quietly withdrew his hand.

Is it over?

No.

Kneeling on one knee, Dan Wooseong assumed the stance he used to shatter rocks. He raised his right hand, wrapped his fist, and drove it into Jikye’s face.

Thud! With a sound, Jikye’s head slammed into the ground.

The ground around it cracked in twisted, zigzagging lines, as if lightning had struck.

Only then did Dan Wooseong brush the dust off his knees and stand up. He crossed his arms and paused for a moment, hoping someone would charge at him. But who could possibly charge in the face of Jikye’s gruesome death? Finally, seeing no one was coming, Dan Wooseong looked around and said.

“Who the hell do you think you are, demanding tribute?”

No one could answer him.

Surrounded by a large number of black-clad men, Dan Wooseong looked like a spokesperson sent by those who had suffered torment or met their end somewhere.

Danwooseong stared at Gwangpyo, who looked quite strong, as if singling him out, and asked.

“What are you?” he demanded. “Answer me.”

When there was no answer, Dan Woo-sung’s figure flickered and vanished, only to reappear before Gwang-pyo and swing a single punch. With a thud, Gwang-pyo’s body flew through the air. Dan Woo-sung then lashed out at the remaining black-clad men, trampling them, grabbing the heads of those trying to flee and injecting them with brain energy, before unleashing a torrent of blade energy at those charging toward him.

.

.

.

A man fleeing a short distance away tripped over someone’s foot and fell. Startled, he turned his head to see a man wearing a bizarre mask holding up a completely black umbrella.

Just before the man brought the umbrella down, he spoke.

“…Two thousand eight hundred seventy-four.”

Thud!

Then, the heavy iron umbrella fell in a simple arc, smashing the man’s skull.

Of course, it was Cheol Myeong-ho.

“I remember every one of your faces. You bastards.”

Cheol Myeong-ho brought the umbrella down once more into the air, murmuring softly.

“Two thousand eight hundred seventy-five.”

ⓒ Yoo Jin-seong

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