Chapter 430: A Past Entwined by the Four Spirits (5)

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes widened like full moons.

What?

The Martial Emperor of the Four Directions had never taken a disciple?

To have no disciple meant there was no one to inherit his teachings. And if there was no one to inherit them, then the martial path he had forged could never have been passed down intact to later generations.

What is that supposed to mean?

Yeon Hojeong looked back and forth between Lee Beon and Tamgyeong.

Both men wore perfectly calm expressions. At the very least, what Lee Beon had just said did not seem to be a lie.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“Oh, but you do, boy. You already know exactly what I mean.”

Yeon Hojeong’s cheek twitched faintly.

“Are you suggesting that my master was the Martial Emperor of the Four Directions himself—the man who suppressed the Blood Cult uprising three hundred years ago?”

Lee Beon simply stared at him.

His gaze possessed the depth of an old man and a clarity that seemed almost too pure for someone of his age. He looked wise enough to see through any truth in the world at a glance.

Silence stretched between them for a moment.

Then—

“Bwahahahaha!”

Lee Beon suddenly burst into laughter.

The grave tension that had filled the air dissolved at once.

His laughter was so exaggerated it almost seemed forced, yet at the same time, he genuinely appeared to be having the time of his life.

Pointing at Yeon Hojeong, he slapped Beomo repeatedly on the shoulder.

“Look at that idiot! He actually believed me! Hahahaha!”

Yeon Hojeong’s face twisted into a scowl.

Still chuckling, Lee Beon said,

“You fool, how could that possibly be true? How would the Martial Emperor of the Four Directions still be alive after three hundred years? I said he was the strongest martial artist in history, not an immortal! Good grief. You’re far more gullible than I expected.”

Should I kill him?

For a moment, Yeon Hojeong seriously considered it.

This concerned his lineage—his own master—and the old man had apparently been toying with him the entire time. It was difficult not to feel his temper flare.

Still, Yeon Hojeong forced the anger back down.

Even if the talk about the Martial Emperor of the Four Directions had been a joke, what these old men were doing was not. Whatever their purpose was, it was clearly tied closely to the Four Spirit Martial Art.

Watching Yeon Hojeong struggle to keep his expression under control, Lee Beon let out a low whistle.

“You really are something. Gullible as you may be, your ability to read a situation is exceptional. You know this isn’t the time to vent your temper.”

“Thank you for the compliment, but I wouldn’t call myself especially patient.”

“That much is obvious. You look ready to take my hand off if I play one more joke. Haven’t you ever heard of respecting your elders?”

“What does my lineage—what do my martial arts—have to do with what all of you are doing?”

Lee Beon smirked.

“A great deal. But explaining everything from the beginning will take some time.”

“I would say I’ve at least earned the right to hear that explanation.”

“Earned the right, have you? Well, I suppose you aren’t wrong.”

Lee Beon thumped his lower back.

“Ugh. I must really be nearing the grave. One good laugh and now my back and stomach both ache. Brother, you explain the rest.”

Tamgyeong clicked his tongue.

“You’re the one who put murder in the young man’s eyes. Why am I the one cleaning up after you?”

“If we’re assigning responsibility, weren’t you the one who brought him here? That makes him your problem.”

“I’ll say this much. You’ve grown even more shameless with age.”

“That happens when your time’s almost up.”

Turning away, Lee Beon started back toward the cave entrance.

“If you two are going to have at it, take it far away. Judging by that boy’s aura and the look in his eyes, one wrong move and you’ll bring down this cave we spent so much effort making. Tsk. They say the Martial Emperor of the Four Directions had a fiery temper too. Seems everyone from that lineage is the same.”

Still muttering, Lee Beon disappeared into the cave.

An odd silence settled over the three who remained.

Wooooosh.

A damp wind swept between them.

Yeon Hojeong looked at Tamgyeong.

Tamgyeong shrugged.

“I meant to introduce you to everyone, but somehow things took a turn.”

“I have no particular interest in meeting the rest of the old masters. What I want is—”

“No. We should begin with what I want. Or rather, what we want. That was our bargain, wasn’t it?”

“...Fair enough.”

“Still, the martial art you cultivated is indeed connected to what we’re doing. So I’m willing to explain out of goodwill. Strictly speaking, our bargain doesn’t require me to tell you any of it.”

“I accept that.”

“Ha! Straightforward. I like that.”

Tamgyeong laughed heartily, then looked into the distance.

“See that forest over there? There’s a clearing inside. Before I explain anything, let us properly determine whether you truly are the disciple of the man I knew.”

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes gleamed.

“A spar?”

“Call it a spar if you like. Or a duel to the death.”

His words carried tremendous confidence.

Yeon Hojeong nodded.

“Fine. Let’s go.”

“Good.”

Tamgyeong glanced at Beomo.

“And what will you do?”

“...Me?”

“Are you going to sit there wrestling with your afflictions forever? Will you put some food in your stomach? Or would you rather come watch us fight?”

Beomo made his choice.

The clearing they arrived at was three or four times larger than the training ground of an average sect.

Beomo withdrew to one side and sat down.

He had neither strength nor presence of mind left, but his bloodshot eyes never once blinked as he stared at the two men.

“Well, then.”

Tamgyeong stood with his hands behind his back, then raised his left arm into a palm-up middle guard.

“Come.”

Yeon Hojeong studied him for a moment before casually asking,

“One question first.”

“Hmm?”

“From what that old man said earlier, it seems the two of you know quite a bit about both my martial art and the Martial Emperor of the Four Directions.”

Lee Beon had unmistakably said, that lineage.

He had even remarked that the Martial Emperor of the Four Directions possessed a fiery temper.

The world still remembered the Martial Emperor of the Four Directions, but most knew almost nothing about his personality or private life.

Lee Beon was different.

And the old man before him likely knew far more about the Martial Emperor of the Four Directions than Yeon Hojeong himself did.

“We know something of him.”

“And you said you once met my master.”

“Let me correct that. I met someone I believe may have been your master. If we want to confirm it, there’s no better way than exchanging a few blows.”

“...I suspect I already know the answer, but I’ll ask anyway.”

“Go ahead.”

Yeon Hojeong fell silent briefly before asking with unusual care,

“You people... no. You. Do you know where my master is now?”

“I do not.”

“...”

“If I knew that, I would never have gone to the trouble of making a bargain with you and bringing you all the way here. We would have sought him out ourselves.”

“I see.”

“Does that answer satisfy you?”

“Whew.”

Yeon Hojeong let out a long breath.

Then his eyes snapped upward.

Flash!

A bolt of lightning seemed to blaze from them.

“All right. I wasted enough time. Let’s do what we came here to do.”

“Good. Then come at—”

BANG!

Before Tamgyeong could even finish speaking, Yeon Hojeong exploded forward in a surprise charge.

Tamgyeong’s eyes flashed.

There had been no warning whatsoever, only a sudden burst of overwhelming acceleration.

Yet both the speed and pressure were astonishing.

He had not even gathered True Qi beforehand.

Closing the distance at terrifying speed, Yeon Hojeong drove one foot into the ground.

BOOOOM!

The stamping step was so violent that it seemed capable of shaking the entire peak, not merely the clearing.

It was a power-based stamping technique: White Tiger Sovereign Step.

Stopping the flame-like rush of Blood-Wing Sweeping Heaven in a single instant was impressive enough. But Yeon Hojeong went further, channeling all the momentum generated by that speed directly into the stamping step and converting it into even greater explosive force.

The seamless sequence had reached the level of divine skill.

Yeon Hojeong punched.

White Tiger Art—Tiger King’s Nine-Cleaving Stance.

WHOOOOOM! BANG!

His fist tore through the air and collided with Tamgyeong’s palm, unleashing a thunderous blast.

A shockwave erupted so violently that it seemed capable of evaporating every trace of moisture in the surrounding air. The stones scattered across the clearing leaped a full foot into the air before raining back down.

Hmm.

Tamgyeong felt his feet slide five inches backward.

What tremendous force.

There was only a single step between their realms.

But that one step represented a gulf so vast that even calling it the difference between heaven and earth hardly did it justice.

And yet, despite Tamgyeong not using his full strength, forcing him backward with a single punch was not something just anyone could accomplish.

It isn’t merely brute strength. His ability to transmit power all the way to the point of impact is superb, as is the way he adjusts the tempo and intensity of his force to suit the situation.

They had exchanged only a single blow.

Yet that alone had allowed Tamgyeong to feel, down to the roots, just how advanced the young man named Yeon Hojeong had become in the martial path.

A genius, indeed.

BANG!

Having driven him back with one fist, Yeon Hojeong immediately spun and drove an elbow toward Tamgyeong’s ribs.

Even while rotating like a vortex, he left no opening.

The entire motion—turning, lowering his stance, delivering the strike—was so clean it bordered on chilling.

Tamgyeong lifted his right leg.

BANG!

The elbow meant for his ribs smashed into his thigh instead.

A gleam flashed through Yeon Hojeong’s eyes.

Even balancing on one leg, Tamgyeong’s stance did not collapse.

His tremendous Inner Qi allowed him to maintain perfect control over every part of his body.

Yeon Hojeong’s fists erupted.

PAPAPAPAPANG!

A storm of chained punches poured forth from both hands, and Tamgyeong’s own hands moved just as rapidly.

His defense was effortless and flawless.

He parried every one of those lightning-fast blows with room to spare, and there was not the slightest opening in the posture he took to receive the next attack.

It was an ideal defensive stance.

It looked as though he could have received cannon fire head-on and still held his ground.

Then crimson light suddenly exploded from Yeon Hojeong’s knuckles.

BOOM! BOBOBOOM! BOOM!

Tamgyeong retreated with fluid ease.

He appeared to take only a single step, yet in the blink of an eye, thirty feet had opened between them.

Well, look at this brat.

Composure was one thing.

Surprise was another.

He erased my defensive technique that easily?

When his punches failed to break through, Yeon Hojeong had loaded explosive force into their tips to disrupt Tamgyeong’s stance.

Rather than answer an opponent he could not penetrate with an entirely new martial art, he forcibly created an opening where none existed.

He did not search for weaknesses.

He made them.

And once he had created one, his martial art was vicious enough to use a killing move without hesitation and leave the opponent incapable of continuing the fight.

I see.

Tamgyeong could not yet conclude that the martial arts Yeon Hojeong was displaying were truly the Four Spirit Martial Art of that mysterious man.

The man had never revealed enough of his real ability for comparison.

Still, Tamgyeong was growing steadily more certain.

The instant he saw one of my martial arts, he could see how to break it apart. But this boy goes one step further. He can force an art into a state where it can be broken.

Given the difference in their realms, even a genius like Yeon Hojeong would struggle to exploit one of Tamgyeong’s actual weaknesses.

Then the answer was simple.

Create one.

But that was anything but simple in practice.

Yeon Hojeong possessed the ability to do something extraordinarily difficult as naturally as breathing.

He had done so all his life.

And he would continue to do so.

Still... this isn’t enough to be certain.

Resolve settled into Tamgyeong’s eyes.

Whoosh.

A single gust of wind stirred.

In that instant, Tamgyeong’s figure appeared behind Yeon Hojeong and to his right.

Beomo’s eyes flew open so wide they seemed ready to split.

That footwork?!

It slipped directly into the opponent’s blind spot—an angle impossible to defend.

Shaolin’s supreme footwork, a movement art that neither sight nor sensory perception could follow, had finally awakened.

THOOM!

If Yeon Hojeong’s stamping step had been violent, Tamgyeong’s was deep.

Drawing power from that stamp, Tamgyeong drove his hand toward Yeon Hojeong’s back.

The golden formation power concentrated in his palm possessed unimaginable weight.

Now, how will you respond?

Yeon Hojeong was still running forward with his back turned.

Tamgyeong’s eyes gleamed.

Is this all?

Then Yeon Hojeong’s hand closed around the Black Dragon Axe at his waist.

Flash!

The axe blade swept upward on a diagonal.

A few drops of blood scattered through the air.