Chapter 322 – Responding from Within and Shaking from Without (1)

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Tang Sa-il’s eyes trembled violently.

His bloodshot, wide-open eyes and tightly pressed lips showed how angry he was.

Tang Sa-il had run on a smooth road since birth. Born as the eldest son of the previous clan head, he became the Tang Clan’s successor without much difficulty. Moreover, his talent and intelligence were exceptional, so his martial arts improved day by day.

It was natural for Tang Sa-il to become the Tang Clan’s head. Even after becoming the head, he didn’t neglect training in martial arts and hidden weapons. His achievements rose day by day, and before he knew it, he broke through the high wall and set foot in the realm of absolute mastery.

Until then, Tang Sa-il had never fought properly even once. Not only within the Tang Clan, but martial artists from the Qingcheng Sect and Emei Sect also didn’t try to fight him.

The Tang Clan head was tacitly acknowledged as Sichuan’s greatest martial artist, and no one had the courage to challenge the current head Tang Sa-il.

The only recent opportunity he had to fight was when they forced the Qingcheng Sect to close its gates. But since Master Hoguang, the sect leader of the Qingcheng Sect, gave up fighting, he didn’t get a chance to properly display his martial arts.

Because of this, until meeting Dam-ho, he had been in a very restless state. But such feelings were shaking mercilessly like a quaking aspen the moment he directly faced Dam-ho.

It wasn’t because of the level or strength of martial arts. The human being called Dam-ho himself made Tang Sa-il sick and afraid.

In his eighty years of life, he had never been this afraid. Tang Sa-il really never expected he would come to fear another person like this.

Shuffle!

Dam-ho walked forward, dragging his left foot on the ground.

Thump!

His right foot struck the earth. That resonance traveled through the ground and reached Tang Sa-il.

Dam-ho’s entire body was torn and ripped like a rag, with blood flowing down. Even with wounds that would have killed an ordinary person, Dam-ho was still moving.

That’s why he dragged his feet more than usual. He dragged them because he didn’t even have the strength to lift them. But Dam-ho’s eyes still shone brilliantly.

Fierce, rough eyes full of fighting spirit. Tang Sa-il’s face reflected in them showed undeniable fear.

Though over eighty years old, his body was still as solid as young people’s, but his mind was that of an old man.

“Kreuk!”

A groaning sound flowed through Tang Sa-il’s lips.

Dam-ho’s momentum pressed down on him.

Thump! Shuffle! Thump! Shuffle!

The sound of dragging feet was particularly loud. And that sound made Tang Sa-il’s heart pound. It felt like his heart would jump out of his mouth.

Dam-ho’s mouth opened.

“Coward!”

“How dare! No… no one can call me that.”

CRASH!

At that moment, Dam-ho charged straight into Tang Sa-il. Instead of deploying Explosive Star Strike, he rammed with his body.

“Kreuk!”

Though he drew up protective energy and didn’t suffer physical damage, Tang Sa-il’s spirit was greatly shaken instead.

He made the mistake he should never have made. He allowed Dam-ho to close the distance.

Like most hidden weapon techniques, the Tang Clan’s supreme technique Myriad Heavens Flower Rain required a certain distance to deploy. But overwhelmed by Dam-ho’s momentum, he lost the distance needed to deploy Myriad Heavens Flower Rain.

Tang Sa-il eventually gave up Myriad Heavens Flower Rain and deployed the Tang Clan’s ultimate technique Nine Ring Soul Connection Palm.

Nine Ring Soul Connection Palm was one of the Tang Clan’s supreme techniques, with the subtlety of deploying nine palm strikes consecutively in a single moment. If struck by Nine Ring Soul Connection Palm, nine different forces would each work to completely collapse the human body’s interior.

Swoosh!

Tang Sa-il’s Nine Ring Soul Connection Palm was very perfect. So it seemed to strike Dam-ho’s body very cleanly.

Snap!

At that moment, Dam-ho’s hand grabbed his wrist. Because the trajectory was too clean, it was rather easily caught.

Tang Sa-il frowned and tried to shake off Dam-ho’s hand. But Dam-ho’s grip strength was too strong to shake off.

Whoosh!

Tang Sa-il felt his feet leave the ground and experienced a dizzying floating sensation at the same time. The positions of his head and legs changed instantly, and the ground expanded rapidly. Dam-ho’s Earth Crushing Strike had entered.

Until now, countless people had died with their heads bursting from Dam-ho’s Earth Crushing Strike. Among them were many masters who had made names for themselves in the martial world. But Tang Sa-il was a master of a different dimension from them. Naturally, his response was also extraordinary.

Snap!

He quickly pressed one hand to the ground to cushion the impact and twisted his body to try to escape from Dam-ho’s grip.

CRASH!

At that moment, Tang Sa-il’s head was flung away with intense impact. Dam-ho’s fist had struck his temple.

He drew up internal energy to prevent his head from bursting, but his consciousness became momentarily distant. Tang Sa-il quickly bit his lip to prevent his consciousness from flying away.

“Bastard!”

CRASH!

At that moment, a second strike burst forth.

Dam-ho’s fist had struck Tang Sa-il’s torso.

“Kreuk!”

Tang Sa-il’s face naturally contorted.

He tried to counterattack while enduring the pain. Though his reason judged he should retreat, his pride as the Tang Clan head was holding his ankle.

Crack!

“Kek!”

But when the third strike hit his shoulder, Tang Sa-il realized something was wrong. Tremendous pain spread from his spine throughout his entire body.

He stopped counterattacking and tried to create distance first. But his body was unbearably heavy as if he had fallen into a swamp. A strange attractive force generated from Dam-ho was holding his body.

“What?”

The moment he opened his eyes wide, Dam-ho’s fists struck consecutively.

CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH!

Six Harmonies Blood Mountain River.

The final chapter of Solitary Path was deployed.

The fist that had struck first was merely the prelude. Tang Sa-il’s body shook as if a leather drum was being beaten.

He quickly deployed protective energy to protect his entire body. But Dam-ho’s Six Harmonies Blood Mountain River tore through the protective energy like paper.

“Kraaak!”

A tragic scream burst from Tang Sa-il’s mouth.

His arms broke and muscles ruptured. Broken bone fragments dug into flesh, and his internal organs were crushed, making him vomit blood.

In an instant, his body was crushed like a rag.

“Heu!”

When Dam-ho stopped while exhaling rough breath, no human form could be found in Tang Sa-il.

Dam-ho’s body, having poured out everything in an instant, was glowing red as if it would explode at any moment. Blood and sweat were evaporating into vapor, and his roughly exhaled breath was full of heat.

His heart felt like it would burst. All the joints in his body were acting separately as if they would break at any moment. But Dam-ho endured and stood.

He used all the energy in his body. The internal energy that had filled his dantian was exhausted, and though he felt like he would collapse from extreme pain and emptiness, he still endured and stood.

Standing tall like that, he looked down at Tang Sa-il who had collapsed like a rag. His appearance was not just eerie but terrifying.

“Uu!”

“The clan head…”

The Tang Clan martial artists who had barely been enduring had to shed tears of blood seeing that scene.

“Kereuk!”

Tang Sa-il struggled. But his movements were merely the trembling that naturally came from the end of life.

Soon Tang Sa-il’s movements subsided, and the rough breathing sounds no longer flowed out. He had died.

It was the Tang Clan, Sichuan’s greatest family. It was the shocking death of the clan head who stood at the peak of such a Tang Clan. Because he was killed by Dam-ho, the shock was even greater and caused tremendous ripples.

“This can’t be!”

“How?”

The Tang Clan martial artists covered their mouths with both hands. They only wanted to deny the unbelievable reality. But what happened before their eyes was certainly reality.

“See? I told you he was a coward.”

At that moment, Dam-ho’s muttering was heard.

It was an insult to Tang Sa-il whose breath had already been cut off. Yet no one present could dare step forward to refute Dam-ho’s words.

He was swaying precariously as if he would collapse at any moment. But even before killing Tang Sa-il, he had been like that.

Dam-ho’s lingering presence dominated the battlefield.

The Tang Clan martial artists felt fear before revenge.

Then Black Ghost approached Dam-ho.

Dam-ho, who had been breathing roughly for a moment, barely got on Black Ghost. He didn’t have the strength to lift both arms and couldn’t properly hold the reins. Black Ghost carried such Dam-ho and escaped the battlefield.

“Ah!”

Only then did a sigh that had been suppressed burst from someone’s mouth. The sigh spread like a plague to all the Tang Clan martial artists and soon became crying.

“Clan head!”

“Kreheuk!”

Where Dam-ho had left, only people’s despair remained.

***

Yueyang in Hunan Province, where the Martial Alliance was established, was always full of vitality with countless people.

The Martial Alliance wasn’t simply a place where many people gathered. True to its name as the Martial Alliance, it was the center of the martial world, and all the leaders of the Martial Alliance were people whose fame resounded throughout the martial world. Naturally, their influence had to be tremendous.

Under the pretext of protecting justice in the martial world, countless martial artists came, and many others entered to support them.

As people gathered, many materials were needed, so merchants came. Goods circulated, people gathered, and a series of cycles continued endlessly. With things being like this, Yueyang’s system completely changed to center around the Martial Alliance. Everything was decided and done centered on the Martial Alliance. It had truly become the center of the martial world.

Countless ships came and went daily on Dongting Lake near the Martial Alliance. Previously, it was mostly poets and common people who came to see Dongting Lake, but now many merchants who came to trade with the Martial Alliance visited.

“Wow!”

People walking along Dongting Lake suddenly exclaimed. No ship entering Dongting Lake was small. But the ship now entering was unimaginably large.

A massive ship that looked two or three times larger than the biggest ship anchored in Dongting Lake was entering. A flag with “Chenghuo Merchant Group” written on it was fluttering from the ship’s mast.

“It’s the Chenghuo Merchant Group.”

“The world’s number one ship of the world’s number one merchant group is entering.”

The Chenghuo Merchant Group was a massive merchant group that everyone counted among the top in the world. The money they earned was truly astronomical, so no one knew the exact scale, not even Won Hoe-sang, the owner of the merchant group.

The Chenghuo Merchant Group had numerous ships under its command for smooth commerce, and the largest ship among them was called the World’s Number One Ship.

The World’s Number One Ship only moved when there were deals that ranked among the best even within the Chenghuo Merchant Group. That meant the Chenghuo Merchant Group had come here to make a big deal with the Martial Alliance.

“What kind of deal did they come to make?”

“Who came as the person in charge?”

People who recognized the World’s Number One Ship murmured. Their faces were full of anticipation.

The appearance of a massive ship like the World’s Number One Ship was enough to attract the interest of gossips.

At the dock, laborers mobilized to unload goods from the World’s Number One Ship were waiting. Finally, when the World’s Number One Ship docked, they boarded under the leader’s guidance.

“Everyone move carefully.”

“There are many precious goods, so be especially careful.”

The voices of merchants and workers who came on the World’s Number One Ship mingled, making the deck noisy like a marketplace.

Then two people came out of the cabin.

A woman of striking beauty and a middle-aged man in splendid attire. The Chenghuo Merchant Group’s merchants all bowed their heads upon seeing them.

“Miss!”

“Vice leader!”

The beautiful woman was Won Seol-hwa, daughter of Won Hoe-sang, the owner of the Chenghuo Merchant Group. And the middle-aged man in splendid attire was Vice Leader Lim Oh-yeon.

Won Seol-hwa’s existence was well known to people, but Lim Oh-yeon was barely known. However, to people within the Chenghuo Merchant Group, Lim Oh-yeon was more famous than anyone.

He was a legendary figure who had practically built up the Chenghuo Merchant Group together with Won Hoe-sang. Though his activity was sparse now, in the early days of the Chenghuo Merchant Group, he had stepped forward and pioneered numerous trade routes.

The nickname given to him then was Cloud-Breaking Sword.

Cloud-Breaking Sword Lim Oh-yeon.

Though he looked like he was barely middle-aged, he was actually over sixty years old. He was just suppressing aging with strong internal energy.

Wherever he appeared, the Chenghuo Merchant Group’s flag always flew high.

Lim Oh-yeon raised his head to look at the group of buildings standing tall on Dongting Lake’s shore.

“That place is the Martial Alliance.”

“That’s right.”

The woman Won Seol-hwa nodded. A gentle smile hung on her lips.