Book 10: Chapter 8: The Swordless One

The hiding Cheong Ho-wi suppressed his breath, squeezed out true qi from the air remaining in his lungs, and slowly circulated it throughout his body.

Moving his true qi enough to launch an ambush, yet not enough to be caught by the enemies' search.

“…….”

That if he waited like that, the appropriate moment for an ambush would come.

The Eldest Young Master had said so.

And.

The appropriate moment for an ambush was.

[Now.] the moment the Eldest Young Master ordered.

“……!”

Cheong Ho-wi kicked open the wardrobe, popped out, and flatly delivered a single palm strike to the enemy at the very front.

Despite the ambush, worthy of a member of the notorious Greedy Wolf, the opponent succeeded in defending, minimizing the damage.

It was a scene that showed what kind of training they usually underwent and what kind of carnage they had passed through.

“Ugh!”

Even so, he broke the railing of the fourth-floor corridor and fell below.

* * *

When is the appropriate moment for an ambush?

“…….”

“…….”

At least to the current Yeon So-hyeon and the Greedy Wolf commander, it was a meaningless phrase.

Because right now, they were targeting every part of each other's body.

However.

[Now.] when Yeon So-hyeon sent the telepathic message, the hidden heroes launched their ambush on the enemies all at once.

“Ugh!”

And that brief moment when a hunting dog of Greedy Wolf began to fall through the fourth-floor railing.

“……!”

Lowering his posture, the Greedy Wolf commander completed all preparations for a strike.

The opening of the battle, starting from a perfect natural body stance, was his most preferred situation.

Whether taking a strong attack or choosing defense.

The natural body stance always allowed him to move far more swiftly and one step faster than the opponent.

Tap!

The tip of the subordinate's foot, who fell from the fourth floor, touched the floor.

The moment until that foot tip touched the ground felt long to the Greedy Wolf commander, as if stretching infinitely.

Transcending an instant piercing through a brief moment, reaching the blink of an eye.

Even before his eyelids could blink once as he noticed something when the subordinate's foot touched the floor the Greedy Wolf commander's long saber was leaving its scabbard.

Chiiiiik—!

As the blade of the long saber left the scabbard, it screamed as if burning the air.

The incandescent blade violently convulsed like a marlin pierced by a harpoon.

The hunting dog of Greedy Wolf, realizing that he was included in the trajectory of that ruthless drawing of the sword, opened his eyes wide.

The commander had ignored him and chosen him as a target of attack along with the Eldest Young Master behind him.

“……!”

Those wide-open eyes met the commander's gaze.

“…….”

Emotionless, as usual.

The empty eyes of the Greedy Wolf commander, where no thought could be read.

The commander's gaze, devoid of blood or tears, which he knew all too well.

'Since this is the life of a hunting dog—.'

The moment when the hunting dog of Greedy Wolf, who summarized his life in that brief instant, tried to close his eyes at that moment, before the blade could even touch him, his body exploded as if smashed to pieces.

Strong doubt dwelled in the empty eyes of the Greedy Wolf commander.

'How—?!'

Piercing through the subordinate's body that was scattering in shattered pieces, the blood-drenched figure of the Eldest Young Master was charging toward him.

'His reaction is faster than a natural body stance—?!'

Even before his astonishment ended, the single palm strike Yeon So-hyeon thrust out hit his chest.

Boom—!

Shaolin.

Seventy-Two Ultimate Arts, no sooner did a sound so loud that everyone inside the building flinched reflexively ring out, yeon So-hyeon gathered both hands and thrust out dual palm strikes.

Great Hand Seal.

Shaolin.

Seventy-Two Ultimate Arts subduing Demon and Taming Tiger Palm.

Before the force could completely pierce through the commander's body yeon So-hyeon's elbow dug into his solar plexus, shaolin.

Seventy-Two Ultimate Arts, one Hundred Paths of Hardness.

Arhat Fist.

The fist extended from the posture bowed to use the elbow struck his philtrum (Dharma's Eighteen Hands), both hand blades struck both sides of his skull like striking a bell (Shaolin Five Fists), and before the commander's shaken brain could feel dizziness, Yeon So-hyeon's fists battered his entire body (Arhat Divine Fist).

“Kahak?!”

When the commander's lungs twisted and he let out a scream of deflating air without realizing it shaolin.

Seventy-Two Ultimate Arts, single Match Ending Kick.

Supreme Kick.

Yeon So-hyeon's figure agilely spun once in the air and kicked his chest.

Bam—!

With a sound like firing a cannon, the commander's body flew crumpled and disappeared after smashing through the wall.

Up to here was the consecutive technique Yeon So-hyeon had personally woven and improved from Shaolin's Seventy-Two Ultimate Arts.

Shaolin's One Hundred and Eight Consecutive Qi Gong.

“Did you not say you knew that this Eldest Young Master uses Shaolin's martial arts?”

Yeon So-hyeon, who landed lightly on the floor, regulated his rough breathing and shrugged his shoulders.

“For saying that, your coping was terrible.”

Was it a shock that his commander was terribly beaten?

“……?!”

The sword of the deputy, who was exchanging sword blows with Jeong-ah, shook for a very brief moment.

And.

Jeong-ah's Dragon Eyes did not allow the opponent even that very brief moment of shaking.

Slash!

The deputy's skull flew through the air.

The headless torso spun half a turn on the spot and fell flat.

“I have carried out the Master's order.”

“Well done.”

The appropriate moment for an ambush was.

The moment when one could entirely choose that point in time.

And Yeon So-hyeon created that point in time himself.

The instruction he had given to the heroes of the Spring of Luoyang, including Cheong Ho-wi.

[Now.] if the Greedy Wolf commander had prepared to draw his sword from the moment his subordinate began to fall through the fourth-floor railing, yeon So-hyeon had 'finished preparations' at the same time he gave the instruction.

And that difference.

Against the Greedy Wolf commander who had achieved a completed natural body stance, led to a perfect advantage for Yeon So-hyeon in the first exchange of hands.

And it also brought complete victory in the combat with the opponent who could create tricky variables.

“You are a shameless fellow.”

Yeon So-hyeon spoke toward the hole blown open in the wall.

“I know all too well that you are not dead yet. How long do you intend to regulate your internal injuries and breathing?”

The plain cotton clothes on Yeon So-hyeon's chest as he said so were in tatters.

Even amidst the ruthless successive attacks, the Greedy Wolf commander had landed a blade strike on Yeon So-hyeon's chest.

And three times, at that.

If Yeon So-hyeon had not appropriately used his Black Silkworm coat, he would have been bleeding three streams of blood from his chest by now.

Because they had transcended boundaries and entered the realm of a true superhuman.

Without a doubt, it was the strength of those called masters.

“…You are strong, Eldest Young Master.”

The Greedy Wolf commander, who staggered out of the hole, spat on the floor.

It was too thick to be called spit.

Along with dark, dead blood, pieces of internal organs splattered on the floor.

“Absurd.”

He said, pulling out the remnants of his eyeball that had exploded and flowed out due to Yeon So-hyeon's hidden force when his head was struck.

“It was Shaolin's martial arts, but also not Shaolin's martial arts.”

Assuming combat with Yeon So-hyeon, he had once again familiarized himself with all Shaolin martial arts prior to the operation.

Accessing the Sword Family's Martial Arts Academy would have normally been impossible given his status but it was possible through the power of the Third Young Master's Strategist Department.

However, all those preparations were useless.

Because the martial arts Yeon So-hyeon used were Shaolin's, but not entirely Shaolin's.

“Of course. Because it is martial arts that this Eldest Young Master personally refined.”

The commander of Greedy Wolf forgot what to say for a moment.

“…….”

Although Yeon So-hyeon said it as if it were nothing even as far as he, who transcended boundaries, could grasp, all Shaolin martial arts Yeon So-hyeon exerted barely had only their foundations remaining.

Their forms and principles were all different from the originals.

“…You personally improved the martial arts?”

Is not an improvement of this level something possible only for those who would be called Grandmasters in history?

“How can you be so strong at that age?”

Moreover, that was not all.

He had not bought time to regulate his internal injuries and breathing inside the hole in the wall.

It was just that Yeon So-hyeon knew and did not deliver a follow-up blow.

'The Eldest Young Master is fully utilizing the time right now.'

Time is on the Eldest Young Master's side.

Even at this very moment, his subordinates were being attacked on each floor.

[Seriously wounded occurred!] by now, the heroes killed by his hands would have been numerous.

[Put your backs to each other! Do not let the enemy take your back!] although they were not just taking it due to their experience and training, even so, the heroes' level was not low enough for them to cleanly reorganize and counterattack in a situation where they had been ambushed.

'If… I had gone down to the underground waterways directly…'

The Eldest Young Master had called the squad directly under the commander, which included himself, here with blatant intent from the beginning.

From the moment he manifested the natural body stance, the Eldest Young Master devised a plan to break that confidence in reverse.

The Eldest Young Master knew all too well that even at this moment, the fleeing heroes of the Spring of Luoyang were getting farther away.

Against him whose sharp edge was already broken and could not exert his real skill, he was leisurely utilizing time.

“What on earth…”

This was not just a matter of the level of martial arts.

An absurdly wide vision.

An absurdly deep scheming mind.

That was a problem prior to the level of martial arts.

“What is your identity—” the hem of Yeon So-hyeon's Black Silkworm coat fluttered.

The hidden weapons that the Greedy Wolf commander had secretly projected while he was talking to induce carelessness bounced off the Black Silkworm coat.

“An interesting method.”

Yeon So-hyeon, who had even avoided all the irregular sword qi generated as the long saber following that bent here and there, spoke.

As if piercing through everything.

The Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family.

The first son of that Sword Lord showed a twisted smile toward him.

“Try more.”

Obviously, the Eldest Young Master was short compared to the Greedy Wolf commander himself but for some reason, it felt as if that boy were looking down on him.

“Because those bizarre methods that Greedy Wolf is said to possess are not even in the Main Family's Martial Arts Academy.”

Yeon So-hyeon chuckled.

“So use them all. Without leaving a single one. Try them all.”

Even while laughing like that, his gaze did not drift away from the Greedy Wolf commander even a bit.

As if to take everything of his.

As if to take all of Greedy Wolf.

“…….”

Just then the hunting dogs of Greedy Wolf, who dropped silently from the ceiling and tried to ambush Yeon So-hyeon, were torn apart in midair.

Splat—!

A rain of blood and flesh fell.

Thud. Thud.

The fragments of the body split here and there fell to the floor.

“Interesting.”

Yeon So-hyeon stroked his chin.

“Even I did not feel any presence. Did they build a separate stealth system that completely differs from the martial arts of the State of Zhongyuan?”

Yeon So-hyeon did not look, nor did he react.

In any case, let alone the State of Zhongyuan, no one under heaven could launch a true ambush on Yeon So-hyeon.

Because blind spots did not exist for the Golden-Eyed Witch.

“…Fuu.”

The sound of regulating breath came from behind Yeon So-hyeon.

Yeon So-hyeon's head maid.

Jeong-ah, shining her Dragon Eyes, shook the blood off her sword.

“Now.”

Yeon So-hyeon gestured to the Greedy Wolf commander who was gritting his teeth.

“You have no choice anyway.”

He spoke as if looking into the Greedy Wolf commander's mind.

“Do you not have no choice but to hold onto even a thread of hope of fighting to the end here and defeating me?”

The Greedy Wolf commander's expressionless face broke, and his face completely distorted.

“Graaaaaah—!”

He rushed toward Yeon So-hyeon, letting out a roar he did not know how long it had been since he last did in his life.

'From now on, the name of the Swordless One will ring through heaven with a completely different meaning than before.'

That was the Greedy Wolf commander's the last thought he could logically think at least.