Chapter 118. Five Dragons Fight for a Pearl (14)
From what Woo-Moon had just personally seen, the martial skills of the Wind Sword Squadron members were incredible. So much so that he wondered why they hadn’t been selected to compete for the Righteous Warrior Squadron.
“And who the hell are you supposed to be, you bastard?!” the bald young man shouted.
As if he didn’t want to lose to Woo-Moon, he opened his mouth wide as he yelled, and even the blood vessels in his neck were obviously swelling.
Woo-Moon refused to back up and responded by shouting in the same manner, “I am your new captain!”
Although Woo-Moon told the bald young man that he was the captain, the bald young man didn’t show any signs of shock or respect.
“And? The hell do you want me to do with that?!”
“How dare you talk down to your captain?”
The two took turns yelling back and forth.
“Fuck off! I’m busy, so go stay quiet!”
After shouting one last time, the bald young man rushed toward the white-clothed young man and Young Master Tang again and resumed fighting. Then, the young man who had been plucking the gayageum started fighting Mu Bi again as well.
The sleeping beauty hadn’t woken up even when Woo-Moon and the bald young man had been shouting back and forth, and she was still the same now.
Things didn’t change in any way from before Woo-Moon entered.
“These brats really have some balls!”
Woo-Moon decided he couldn’t let things go on like this anymore. He rushed forward using his movement technique and entered the hall.
He first aimed for where the three-way melee was taking place.
The white-clothed young man noticed Woo-Moon and swung his scissors sharply, aiming to cleave through his shoulder.
The blades of the scissors were so long that they seemed that they could cut through the waist of more than one person at the same time, and his attack was even sharper than Woo-Moon could have expected!
He was sure of it now. These people’s skills were comparable to those of Cheong Oh and Yu Cho—people considered strong even within the Righteous Warrior Squadron.
However, Cheong Oh and Yu Cho weren’t qualified for Woo-Moon’s attention in the first place.
His figure blurred as he deftly took a step toward the side of the white-clothed young man. Grabbing him by the collar, Woo-Moon tossed him to the other side.
“Huh??!”
As the white-clothed young man was flying over Woo-Moon’s head, three of Young Master Tang’s hidden weapons flew out with a sharp screech as they pierced toward the white-clothed young man.
Even as Woo-Moon was teaching his fresh subordinate a lesson, he still easily noticed Young Master Tang’s attack and used Raging Wind with his free hand.
Thwack, thwack, thwack!
It was as if the hidden weapons had hit a tree. Immediately after, the sound of the white-clothed young man hitting the ground filled the room.
THUD!
“Ugh!”
“You dare! AHHH!!!”
The bald young man rushed forward, sticking out his shoulder as if he was about to use the Leaning Iron Mountain technique.
“Hmpf!”
Woo-Moon sneered and leaped forward, and his figure blurred again.
As the bald young man was momentarily taken aback by Woo-Moon’s movement, Woo-Moon sank down and swept forward with his foot, kicking the bald young man’s legs out from underneath him. The young man fell forward.
“Agk!”
Woo-Moon rose up and stomped hard on one side of a floor plank, causing the other side of the plank to rise upward.
Thunk!
The heavy bald young man was hit square by the plank and sent flying into the air. It was right at this moment that Woo-Moon sensed five hidden projectiles approaching him!
They were the hidden weapons that Young Master Tang had thrown! Each hidden weapon flew toward him from different directions and at different speeds. Both from sight and thanks to the instincts granted by the Forbidden Divine Art, Woo-Moon guessed that two of the hidden weapons were covered in poison as well.
Judging by the intensity of the warning he felt, it seemed as though it wasn’t a strong poison, but rather a type of qi suppression drug.
Woo-Moon grabbed the wooden plank he had used to hit the bald young man and held it firmly, standing solidly on the ground and only moving his upper body.
In Young Master Tang’s eyes, it seemed as though Woo-Moon’s upper body had suddenly divided itself into five parts before merging back into one, with all five of the hidden weapons embedded into the plank.
“Wha—”
As Young Master Tang shouted, Woo-Moon’s figure blurred a third time and rushed him with frightening speed, grabbing Young Master Tang by the collar and throwing him straight toward the ceiling.
BANG!
“Agk!”
“Ooof!”
Young Master Tang flew toward the bald young man who had hit the ceiling after being propelled in the air by the plank and was finally coming down to the ground again.
Almost exquisitely, the two fell toward the white-clothed young man who was finally standing up with a grimace.
“Ugh!”
With a single scream, the three fell together as one.
Now that he had handled the three of them, the only thing left was to deal with Mu Bi and the young man plucking the gayageum. Thus Woo-Moon turned and ran toward them.
The two who had become his new targets had also clearly seen Woo-Moon easily taking down their three teammates.
The gayageum-playing young man turned to look at Mu Bi, then nodded.
Mu Bi hurriedly put on two black gauntlets and stepped forward, while the young man behind him placed the gayageum vertically on a table and plucked it once with his slender, woman-like fingers.
Thrum!
“Huh!”
This was the first time that Woo-Moon had encountered a proper sound technique. Suddenly, he felt an invisible power flying in his direction. He quickly punched forward with the Raging Wind Fist, colliding directly with it.
The sound of something being torn screeched through the air before an ear-splitting explosion rang out. If any ordinary person without any cultivation had been nearby, their eardrums would have instantly ruptured.
The hands of the young man holding the gayageum moved rapidly.
Thrum, thrum, thrum!
Compressed sound waves continuously flew toward Woo-Moon.
‘Hey, this is pretty good!’
As it was Woo-Moon’s first time experiencing a sound technique, he decided to experiment. He first tested out the first sound wave with Raging Wind Fist. Then, he withstood the second sound wave with his own body to see how much of an impact it would have. Finally, for the third attack, he pulled out his sword and tested what cleaving the wave felt like.
“T-that’s insane!”
The young man plucking the gayageum was astonished as he watched Woo-Moon doing something, from his perspective, ridiculous. He couldn’t believe that Woo-Moon had taken his attack on purpose and was even more surprised upon seeing Woo-Moon moving without any issues afterward.
As he was standing there, agape in shock, Woo-Moon arrived in front of Mu Bi.
“I’m going!” Mu Bi shouted, clenching both fists tightly. He struck at Woo-Moon’s head, shoulders, chest, and abdomen with both fists, eight times in total. His fists flew so fast that an ordinary person would have been beaten bloody and knocked out without even being able to see them properly.
However, something at that level couldn’t even faze Woo-Moon. He responded with Heavy Rain Fist, canceling out each of Mu Bi’s attacks with equal speed and force.
There was surprise in Mu Bi’s gaze, as he was well aware how difficult it was to pull of what Woo-Moon had done just now.
‘Well if that’s the case....’
Mu Bi turned around and kicked hard. When Woo-Moon raised his knee high and checked his roundhouse kick with the shin, Mu Bi did another half-turn and kicked off the ground before raising his elbow and striking down hard.
His aim was Woo-Moon’s Baihui acupoint.[1] It was a surprisingly quick and effective combination!
Sadly, Woo-Moon was simply faster than Mu Bi.
“Ugh!”
Before his elbow could reach his target, Mu Bi’s neck was caught in Woo-Moon’s grasp. As he couldn’t reach Woo-Moon with his elbow anymore, he tried to switch to a punch. However, because he was relatively short, he couldn’t reach Woo-Moon that way either.
Bang!
As soon as Mu Bi slammed headfirst into the ground, three sound waves pierced toward Woo-Moon again.
“We should stop now, don’t you think?”
With a single phrase, Woo-Moon disappeared, reappearing in front of the young man plucking the gayageum.
‘Illusive Shift!’
Right as he jumped up in surprise, the young man with the gayageum saw something flash before his eyes, then fell on his back unconscious.
“Mmm... this should be right about it, I think.”
As Woo-Moon muttered to himself and looked around the dining area, the beautiful woman who had been sleeping quietly up until now opened her eyes and walked toward him with faltering steps, as if she were walking on clouds.
“You... you’re strong.”
She hadn’t been able to see what had happened properly as she had been sleeping, only hazily seeing Woo-Moon completely overpowering her fellow Wind Sword Squadron members.
However, the stinging qi aura that she could feel even while asleep and the collapsed figures of her colleagues were more than enough for her to realize that Woo-Moon was incredibly strong.
On the other hand, Woo-Moon also felt that his original judgment hadn’t been wrong.
Now awake, the beauty felt like a sharpened sword, clearly stronger than any of the other members.
‘If she’s this at this level, she’s beyond Yu Cho and Cheong Oh, more similar to Woo-Gang the way he is right now.’
Now that he thought about it, it really was surprising how much Woo-Gang had grown recently.
However...
“Huh?”
The approaching beauty suddenly stopped her steps and fell asleep. Then, the feeling that he had felt until just a moment ago, as if he was facing an unsheathed sword, vanished in an instant.
The moment Woo-Moon was about to tilt his head in confusion a light flashed from the beauty’s waist.
“Heup!”
Woo-Moon hurriedly bent over backward to avoid a lightning-fast sword strike that seemed to cut through light.
‘Woohoo, that’s pretty incredible, isn’t it? She’s actually faster than little Woo-Gang!’
When her swift sword strike missed, the beauty quickly retreated three steps backward, widening the distance between them before getting into an appropriate stance to unleash her swift sword again.
Swish, swish.
The beauty walked slowly, like a lazy cat.
In complete contrast, her qi was as sharp as a freshly-honed razor.
‘When is she going to attack?’
The beauty gradually grew closer.
‘Right now? No... now!’
However, she fell asleep in the middle of her approach again. Moreover, it wasn’t like she was just pretending, either. Woo-Moon wasn’t one to be fooled by something like that. Her breathing pattern was unquestionably that of someone deeply asleep, and her sharp qi and fighting spirit were completely gone.
“What the hell is go—”
As soon as Woo-Moon said that, another light flashed.
‘Again!’
Woo-Moon was really curious as to how the beauty could unleash such a sharp blow with such incredible speed from that deep sleep state.
Although the people gathered in the pavilion were all unique and amazing in their own ways, this beauty seemed to be the best among them.
However, just like before, Woo-Moon dodged her swift sword strike. Moreover, this time, he followed in step as she tried to retreat to open up the distance once again.
‘How should I handle this one?’
He had to subdue her, but it seemed a little difficult to do so in the same way as the others.
After finally making up his mind, Woo-Moon rushed in faster than she retreated and struck at her acupoints.
Swish!
Her sword cut through the air, aiming at Woo-Moon’s forehead. He formed a sword with his hand, coating it in aura and trying to deflect her blade.
However, at the same time, the half-awake beauty’s eyes closed once more. Her powerful sword suddenly slowed and fell straight down, slashing at Woo-Moon’s chest.
“Wha—”
Woo-Moon was flustered.
The change in the beauty’s attack was impossibly sudden. Woo-Moon’s surprise and embarrassment were even greater, as Woo-Moon had simply guessed the trajectory of her swift sword and acted accordingly. He had done so almost automatically as he trusted his own skills to that degree.
Thus, as the change was something he never could have imagined, he was unable to dodge a slow blow that could have been easily blocked or avoided otherwise even if it was much faster.
A long tear split his clothes at the chest.
Then, the beauty’s closed eyes opened again as a fierce sword attack flashed out once more.
Aside from dealing with an Absolute Master, Woo-Moon had never been so nervous and struggling as he was now, and he even broke into a cold sweat.
It wasn’t because her martial skills were all that unbelievable. Yes, she was among the strongest young talents he knew, but she was still relatively weak compared to the Blood-Soaked Buddha Monster, Baek Hye-Ryeong, or Mu Heon.
However, she had something they didn’t have—an irregularity to her attacks that greatly flustered Woo-Moon.
‘D-damn it. I guess this is how people must feel dealing with my Raging Wind.’
In the end, Woo-Moon was able, albeit with great difficulty, to press her acupoints thanks to the stark difference in their cultivation.
“Whew. That was fucking exhausting.”
“Ugh... And here I thought it was great when Xiahou Jinxian left.... At least when Xiahou Jinxian was here, we could do anything we wanted, given how weak he was. With you, things will be more difficult,” Mu Bi said as he stood up, holding his head with both hands.
As he spoke, Mu Bi stared at Woo-Moon. He didn’t seem to remember Woo-Moon whatsoever. However, Woo-Moon was taken aback.
“You... haven’t I seen you before?”
1. The Baihui acupoint is at the center of one’s skull and is the center meeting point of many meridians. ☜