Chapter 85 Jinju Family (3)

Chapter 85 Jinju Family (3)

Who had won?

The warriors of the Jinju Clan naturally assumed it would be Yunyang Jun. It wasn’t merely out of simple loyalty.

The martial prowess they had witnessed from Yunyang Jun at the main house.

That was something no ordinary person could ever hope to match. Even a genius would need twenty years of relentless training to reach that realm.

There was no way, not even one in ten thousand chances, that Gu Yangji could have won.

Having reached this conclusion, the warriors calmly waited for the dust cloud to clear. They assumed his motionless stance was simply intoxication from victory.

Then.

“…Ah!”

A short cry pierced through the sandstorm. A mixture of rage and despair, it sounded like a death rattle.

There was no doubt. It was undoubtedly Unyanggun’s voice.

“Gyaaaah! You bastard, Gu Yangjeok!”

Whoosh-!

The lion’s roar, imbued with mighty inner strength, sent the dust cloud flying far away as if it had never been there.

And the warriors saw.

Unyanggun, left alone, and Gu Yangjeok, vanished somewhere.

” Where did he go!”

Grit, grit!

Unyanggun’s expression was not that of a victor. He resembled a wounded beast struck by an unexpected blow.

A rage that seemed ready to erupt at the slightest touch weighed heavily upon the place.

Even the warriors, his own kin, dared not approach Unyanggun carelessly.

‘……Good heavens.’

‘What on earth is that?’

Crackle, crackle!

A small lightning bolt flashed between the sand grains and Unyang-gun. It was thunder energy, created with internal power no less formidable than Unyang-gun’s own.

They briefly doubted Gu Yangjeok’s identity.

The Huashan Sect couldn’t possibly possess such powerful thunder techniques.

Clearly, a master with favor toward the Huashan Sect had appeared… But the thought was quickly cut short.

“What are you doing! Hurry up and find that bastard Gu Yangji!”

“…Yes!”

A slightly delayed, blunt response.

Yanyanggun clicked his tongue sharply.

‘Damn it, I can’t get stuck here…!’

He shouldn’t have trusted the enemy’s words in the first place, but Eonyanggun bit down hard on his lower lip.

Just as he was about to unleash his full power with the Eon Ga Kwon strike, Gu Yangje stepped into the Jin Gak stance, kicking up sand.

There was no particular opening or weak point there.

He had assumed it was the whirlwind of force generated when a powerful fist was unleashed, as was often the case with Shaolin martial arts.

But he was wrong.

As mentioned earlier, Gu Yangji hadn’t used Shaolin fist techniques. No, it belonged to someone he refused to believe.

‘If my eyes deceive me not, that was… the Thunderclap Palm of the Heaven’s First Devil Fist!’

Yet the single strike just exchanged deepened the mystery.

It was slight, but it grazed him.

A strike reaching the pinnacle of the Yingquan technique had passed powerfully between his armor and his jaw.

The sensation held no trace of the protective faceplate. A master at the level of ‘Old Flower, Pure Sound’ should never have grazed him at all.

Unbelievable, yet the only answer he had to believe was one.

Grit!

Yun Yangjun clenched his teeth and shouted.

“Never underestimate them just because they’re young! Stay alert and don’t get hit!”

“Understood!”

Swish.

At his words, the warriors of the Jinju Yun Clan fanned out in different directions.

Their eyes showed no disappointment toward Unyang-gun, nor any fleeting fear toward Gyoyangjeok.

Nor did they show any arrogance.

It was strongly the case that they were simply acting as ordered by their leader, Unyang-gun. What was even more remarkable was that this loyalty wasn’t achieved through any magic or sorcery.

‘The Jinju Eon Clan… unexpectedly, they were ambushers.’

Gu Yangjeok watched their actions from atop a thick tree, concealing his presence.

And just now, in the instant their blows crossed, he realized something.

‘They say the Unga Fist can rival even Shaolin Kung Fu in raw power. Seems that wasn’t so far off after all.’

It was merely a glancing blow, and he had even employed his self-defense qi using the Jiaxinjing technique. Yet a faint graze, seared by intense heat, already marked his cheek.

Had he not unleashed the Thunderclap Fist in that instant, the smell of burning flesh would have given away his position. The Yungakwon strike was more formidable than its reputation suggested.

Moreover, the Thunderclap Fist, intended to kill, had only managed to halt his body.

‘If we fought seriously, with my current weakness in external martial arts, I might lose.’

Gu Yang-jeok resolved to fall back to his second-best option.

“Hey!”

“……?!”

“Over here!”

Gu Yang-jeok’s smile grew unusually bright. There was no need for mockery now.

A clash of fists. In short, for Yueyang Jun, the Yueyang Fist was like a secret technique honed over a lifetime.

He had been pushed back in that fierce clash, his body stiffening. No matter how careless he might have been, this fact remained unchanged.

Could Yeyangjun truly bear that humiliation?

Gu Yangji shook his head.

‘Unless he’s a Buddha, it’s impossible. How could a martial artist endure the moment his lifelong martial arts betray him?’

Gu Yangji swung his arm wide. A faint crack echoed as a light lightning bolt shot forth.

“Having broken the ultimate essence of the Un-ga-kwon single-handedly, I suppose I can now call myself the greatest fist in Hebei?”

“…You bastard!”

He hadn’t seized the momentum; he’d merely exploited a moment of carelessness to freeze him.

But Yanyangjun’s pride ran deeper than Gu Yangji had anticipated.

The very fact that he’d been outmaneuvered for a single instant by that late-stage cultivator, that greenhorn not even in his prime, was a colossal humiliation.

The more Yanyangjun’s expression twisted in fury, the harder Gu Yangji laughed.

“Is that all you’ve got?”

Was that statement some kind of signal?

Kaboom!

Unyang-gun, unleashing his entire inner strength, glared up at Guyang-jeok with eyes like fire.

“I will kill you.”

“Words.”

“…Until you beg for death, I’ll treat you with utmost sincerity.”

Swoosh.

Unyang-gun launched himself forward. Thirty warriors followed in his wake.

Each one was top-tier, or at the peak of their art.

This was the full force mobilized to annihilate an entire clan. They were no pushovers. No matter how formidable Gu Yang-jeok was, if he fought them head-on, he would be crushed.

Gu Yang-jeok knew this well.

Therefore, he planned to strike when Unyang-gun let his guard down, aiming to sever his neck and shatter his will. He sought to throw the Jinju Clan into chaos with the martial arts of the Divine Fist.

‘But he failed.’

Even in this hair-trigger situation, Gu Yangjeok did not lose his composure.

“Come.”

Gu Yangjeok spoke softly.

“You weaklings, mere fleeting figures in the history of the martial world.”

* * *

Crack!

A single punch from Yanyangjun sent a tree crashing down. With a thud, the tree fell, taking another tree with it.

Even then, Yanyangjun was looking elsewhere. Trees were never his target to begin with.

Gu Yangjie.

The man who had inflicted the greatest humiliation of his entire life, the martial artist the Celestial Dragon had warned him to be wary of.

Unyang-gun spotted Gu Yang-jeok dashing toward another tree.

‘…As expected, the Celestial Dragon is the Celestial Dragon.’

His heart raced with the urge to strike Gu Yang-jeok down immediately.

But the mind that had sustained him as the Unyang Clan Master until now warned him. He must never underestimate him.

Yet, anger surged, demanding, “Must I acknowledge that latecomer?” He pounded his chest, asking if all the years spent learning martial arts were wasted.

Yet Eonyang-gun’s ears heard clearly.

Thwack, bang!

His retainers, who had willingly followed him despite his absurd demands to pursue Gu Yang-jeok and annihilate the Huashan Sect, were right behind him.

‘You will never have your way!’

Once his mind settled and transformed into immovable resolve, Unyanggun’s fist techniques grew even more profound.

Had it been a mere moment since they began pursuing Gu Yangjeok?

Kwaaah…!

Even a simple punch accompanied a noise comparable to cannon fire.

The pinnacle of the Unyang Fist is the Iron Fist.

The Strong Fist pursued not merely strength, but an immovable heart that would not rust even through a thousand years.

“…Ah!”

For Unyanggun, who had pursued only the perfection of the Un’ga Fist until now, this crisis was a turning point.

Like a pupa shedding its skin to transform, like a master craftsman hammering iron thousands of times to forge a legendary sword!

Watching this, Gu Yangjeok thought.

‘…Well now, fighting so many opponents really shows you all sorts of characters.’

Thwack.

Gu Yangji raised his fist and unleashed his internal energy. Forged from purple-tinged qi, it formed a sphere.

Seeing it, he felt a twinge of regret for Unyanggun, who had just entered a new realm.

And rightly so.

“All for naught.”

Because Gu Yangji had decided that Unyanggun’s heavenly mandate ended here.

Gu Yangji leapt to the top of the tree, tearing his collar to cover his mouth and nose.

The time it took was faster than a blink. Yet even that was enough for Unyanggun to sense something deeply unsettling.

An unstoppable despair, beyond human power to avert, was approaching.

But it was already too late.

CRASH!

A crimson inferno engulfed Unyang-gun and the warriors of the Jinju-U family on the ground.

* * *

A slightly distant past.

When he saw the pile of gunpowder buried in the Heulryongbang’s Shaanxi branch, Gu Yangjeok pondered how to handle it.

He didn’t know how Jik Hogwi had procured the gunpowder, and if mishandled, it could easily be treated as a martial arts crime.

‘Moreover, it’s an item of the underworld.’

Since those who employed methods darker than the heretical sects were involved, this too was likely a blood-stained item.

Therefore, Gu Yangjie had decided to store it away for the time being and watch how things unfolded.

So, in a way, the Jin Zhu Yan Family was unlucky.

If someone attacked when the Huashan Sect’s power hadn’t fully solidified.

If there was no way to stop it in time.

It was an item meant to be used only when absolutely necessary, after weighing all constraints.

Its destructive power goes without saying. Even Ha Jin-ak, a peak master, faced death from half a cartload of gunpowder.

But what if it were double that?

No, what if it were more than triple?

Even if one knew in advance and channeled all their inner energy into protective force, it couldn’t be blocked.

Gunpowder is death forged by human hands. That is why the authorities absolutely forbade its use by civilians.

It wasn’t for nothing that he was once called the Black Demon King.

‘This will be the last time I use gunpowder.’

Gyu Yangjeok watched the white-hot flames and black smoke billowing upward, anticipating that the authorities would order a massive investigation.

……Crackle, crackle.

What remained where the inferno had swept through were charred grass stalks, Gu Yangjeok, and…

Squeak, squeak.

It was Eonyanggun, his limbs’ muscles completely scorched, who had survived by sheer misfortune.