Monochrome Sovereign (Novel) - Chapter 122 - The Moment of Decision (4)
Chapter 122 – The Moment of Decision (4)
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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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‘Young Master Yeon!’
Muk Bi bit her lip.
She was hiding herself at the top of a tree about twenty jang away from the battleground. She hadn’t particularly learned a hiding technique, but she had a knack for hiding.
An archer was like that. For sniping, specialized hiding and cover abilities were essential.
Seureureu.
Before she knew it, she had placed an arrow on the string of the Red Lotus Bow.
She recalled Yeon Ho-jeong’s sound transmission.
‘The assassins are not all. There is an expert. You must save your arrows for that expert.’
An expert? She hadn’t felt that level of presence.
However, now in her eyes, one swordsman spewing out an aura greater than Yeon Ho-jeong was visible.
‘Amazing!’
Muk Bi gulped down her saliva without realizing it.
‘He might perhaps be stronger than Young Master Yeon. Besides, Young Master Yeon consumed quite a lot of internal energy and stamina from the battle with the assassins.’
It was dangerous.
It is said that fights between experts have their victory and defeat decided by the difference of a single sheet of paper. Considering that, it was dangerous even if it were a one-on-one confrontation where the assassins didn’t participate.
‘I absolutely cannot let that happen.’
Muk Bi made thorough preparations.
If the enemy’s sword threatened Yeon Ho-jeong, she would fire away even a few arrows.
* * *
Mong Ui examined Yeon Ho-jeong’s body.
‘It’s well-tempered.’
Unlike his slender outer appearance, his body’s balance was ideal. The muscles of his entire body were also evenly developed without lacking anywhere.
Furthermore, that axe.
‘Divine Weapon.’
He didn’t know who made it, but it was a great weapon enough for admiration to come out naturally. It was to the extent that even Mong Ui, who used a sword as his main weapon, felt greed arise for a moment.
“Indeed.”
The edges of Mong Ui’s eyes gradually darkened.
“I heard you were a tremendous expert. Since you received the Myeong Clan’s military force alone, I naturally thought you’d be worthy of that. But I didn’t know you would be at this level.”
Yeon Ho-jeong furrowed his brows.
‘What is it, this guy?’
His dull eyes were strangely annoying.
He was a guy with a thick smell of blood. A fishy blood scent was deeply imbued throughout his entire body.
‘However, the guy has mastered orthodox arts. And of an incredible level at that.’
Seureureung.
Mong Ui drew the sword behind his back.
His sword was unique. It was a longsword exceeding three cheok and reaching four cheok, but the width of the sword body was only half of an ordinary longsword.
Was it because of that? It looked longer and sharper. It was as if he was looking at an awl with a sharpened edge.
‘It is similar to a Narrow-Blade Sword.’
A Narrow-Blade Sword was a cylindrical sword made round by dulling the edge of the sword body. It should be seen as a sword that brought the power of thrusting to its limit.
Standing an edge on that Narrow-Blade Sword was exactly Mong Ui’s sword.
Tssssss.
An unusual energy flowed out from Mong Ui’s body.
Yeon Ho-jeong’s face stiffened.
‘He’s strong.’
He was a person who surpassed his current physical abilities and internal energy.
He had accumulated surprising martial arts at an age that looked around forty. He was not a super peak master, but it was enough to see him as the person standing at the very front among those called so-called peak masters.
Mong Ui looked around and shouted.
“You all will be useless. Leave now.”
The assassins were silent without answering.
Their eyes were dyed with confusion. The target was Yeon Ho-jeong, but the client was telling them to go. Then it was right to go.
However, the client had killed their leader. Since their ally was attacked, it was proper to kill him, but that didn’t seem easy at all.
Mong Ui shook his head.
“This is why you become nothing but tools.”
It was then.
Yeon Ho-jeong captured Mong Ui’s sword scattering like an afterimage.
Pubububububok!
Small holes were pierced between the eyebrows of the dozen or so assassins standing close to Mong Ui.
Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes widened roundly.
Mong Ui said calmly.
“You cannot handle me anyway. Since you lost your leader, you also won’t be able to do systematic attacks.”
“…”
“Get lost already.”
Seuseuseuk.
The assassins retreated. There was no more reason to fight.
Mong Ui took a deep breath.
“The air is good. It’s the blood smell of filthy scumbags, but… I always missed the air of this battlefield.”
“You, what are you?”
Mong Ui looked at Yeon Ho-jeong.
Wooooong.
White True Qi flickered on the Crazy Dragon Axe. It was an energy spewing out a magnificent and tough energy wave.
“Why is a swordsman of the Diancang Sect targeting me?”
In an instant, Mong Ui’s eyes shook.
“You, do you know me?”
“It’s harder not to know.”
Yeon Ho-jeong pointed at his sword with his chin.
“The sword technique you just used, it’s the Diancang’s Sun-Piercing Sword Method, isn’t it.”
The Sun-Shooting Sword Method.
It was a martial art evaluated as the Diancang Sect’s best and strongest sword technique, and was a legendary absolute art that was once called the Number One Fast Sword Under Heaven.
The reason Mong Ui held such a special sword was because the Sun-Shooting Sword Method was a thrust-oriented sword technique. Except for one form, all the forms of the Sun-Piercing Sword Method were thrusting strikes.
“To recognize the Sun-Piercing Sword Method… a sword technique that has died out even in the Diancang of the present era.”
There was no way that was true.
The reason Yeon Ho-jeong recognized the Sun-Piercing Sword Method was because the leadership of the Diancang had used it during the Evil Lust Cult’s Rebellion. There was no way the Diancang Sect could have lost the Sun-Piercing Sword Method.
‘Or did this guy return it?’
Woooong.
A dull murderous intent arose in Mong Ui’s eyes.
It was the gaze of a murderer who had killed countless people.
“You must not be left alive.”
“You came to kill me anyway, it’s not even funny.”
“I deliberately sent the assassins. I wanted to find out if you were a guy worth receiving my sword.”
“…”
“It’s beyond expectation. You are sufficiently qualified to receive my sword. If I knew you were an expert of this level, I should have rather not brought in the assassins.”
Yeon Ho-jeong looked at Mong Ui with peculiar eyes.
Mong Ui’s cheek twitched. Yeon Ho-jeong’s gaze had the power to strangely get on a person’s nerves.
“Hey.”
“…You’re a guy with absolutely no manners.”
“You, who is behind you?”
“What?”
“I’m asking who is behind you. Is it the Myeong Clan’s hidden remnants? Or Murong Jun? It doesn’t seem like it’s the Namgung Clan.”
Mong Ui was inwardly startled, but he didn’t show it.
“There’s no need to know.”
“Is that so?”
Yeon Ho-jeong smiled.
“Anyway, it means we just have to fight, right?”
Mong Ui let out a sneer.
“Do you think it will be a fight?”
Paaaaang!
Yeon Ho-jeong’s body moved like a ray of light.
Mong Ui was startled.
He was preparing for the opponent’s surprise attack, but he didn’t know he would be this fast. Besides, wasn’t he holding a heavy weapon that would weigh dozens of geun?
Boom!
While holding an axe, he attacked with a fist technique. This was also a strike that caught him off guard.
‘He’s fast! However…’
Paaaak!
Yeon Ho-jeong pulled his arm back.
There was a long sword wound on his forearm. He had been cut by Mong Ui’s longsword.
‘He’s fast.’
He’s fast even though he didn’t deploy the Sun-Piercing Sword Method. In the first place, his martial art itself was specialized in fastness.
“I will see how long you can hold out with that dull and heavy weapon.”
In an instant, Mong Ui’s sword split into dozens.
Yeon Ho-jeong’s eye light flashed.
Jjeojeojeojeojeong!
The four-cheok longsword moved at tremendous speed and targeted Yeon Ho-jeong’s death acupoints.
It was a speed unbelievable even when seen with the eyes. Even though he didn’t use the Sun-Piercing Sword Method this time as well, he was deploying a sword technique that far exceeded the dynamic visual acuity of a peak master.
‘…’
Yeon Ho-jeong’s eyes deepened.
Jjeojeojeojeong!
Dozens of sparks bounced off the axe body of the Crazy Dragon Axe and then disappeared.
The shock remaining on the axe blade was considerable. Originally, it was normal for weight not to be loaded into a fast sword, but Mong Ui’s sword was even loaded with sufficient weight.
However.
Kuung!
Yeon Ho-jeong, who stepped one step of White Tiger’s Sovereign, struck up the Crazy Dragon Axe from the lower position to the upper position.
A sneer lingered on Mong Ui’s face.
‘Foolish guy.’
It was fast for a heavy weapon. But before the axe blade even reached him, he could feed him ten sword strikes.
Mong Ui’s sword moved like lightning.
Pabababak!
Blood splattered from all over Yeon Ho-jeong’s body. They were traces where Mong Ui’s longsword had cut past.
‘…?!’
Mong Ui opened his eyes wide.
‘What is it, this guy?’
Before he knew it, the axe had swept past the hem of his pants and came up to his knee.
‘Why didn’t he get cut?’
He did cut him. But what he cut was only flesh and skin.
Because there were many sword wounds, the amount of bleeding was considerable, but he couldn’t inflict a single fatal strike. It was an incomprehensible matter.
‘Is this guy’s body impervious to swords or something?!’
It was then.
In a split second that broke down a split second, he could see a translucent black energy flowing throughout Yeon Ho-jeong’s body.
‘What is that?’
For Mong Ui, he could not know that it was the Black Tortoise Qi of the Northern Dark Emperor.
Chills!
Before he knew it, the axe had gotten close enough to reach his crotch.
Buaaaaang!
Mong Ui swiftly retreated backwards. In that brief moment, he retreated five steps backwards. It was a tremendous speed.
Flash!
The Crazy Dragon Axe, which soared to the top with giant dirt dust, exploded with a radiant white energy.
Kwaaang!
It was an immense destructive power.
It was a strong attack rarely seen before. If he hadn’t immediately dodged seven more steps, he would have been swept up in the vigorous wind called forth by the axe and had his flesh ripped off and blown away.
‘It won’t do.’
Inside the whitely risen dirt dust, Yeon Ho-jeong’s black shadow was seen.
Mong Ui’s posture lowered.
‘I will finish it in one sword.’
Cheok.
Mong Ui withdrawing his sword to the rear. A brilliance as radiant as sunlight was spewed from his longsword.
It was the Sun-Piercing Sword Method.
At that time, Yeon Ho-jeong’s shadow raising its arm was seen.
‘You’re late. Die!’
Mong Ui swung his sword.
Flash!
A fast sword like a ray of light split the dirt dust and shot towards Yeon Ho-jeong’s heart. It was a fast sword faster than ever before.
It was then.
‘…?!’
In Mong Ui’s vision, three arrows shot while drawing a diagonal line were seen.
Jjeojeong!
“Keuk!”
One arrow missed and two arrows hit the sword body.
A tremendous internal energy was imbued in the arrows that flew from the side. Mong Ui’s fast sword cut past Yeon Ho-jeong’s thigh.
In an instant, the heavy black shaft that split the dirt dust was sucked in as if expanding into Mong Ui’s vision.
Crack!
“Keuaaaak!”
Mong Ui flew far backwards.
Taaaang!
Yeon Ho-jeong, who was about to see the end straight away, flashed his eyes. Mong Ui, who kicked off a tree, had shot towards him once again.
Even though his nose bridge was crushed and his front teeth were all broken, he launched an attack. It was a tremendous patience.
Yeon Ho-jeong clicked his tongue inwardly.
‘Farewell, punk.’
Huuuk!
Yeon Ho-jeong lowered his posture just like that. At that, Mong Ui’s sword split the empty air.
Pububok!
“Keok!”
Mong Ui rolled on the ground just like that.
Three arrows were embedded in his body. The left shoulder, the left thigh, and the left flank.
Paaaak!
Before he knew it, Muk Bi had entered the fighting range.
“Eek!”
Mong Ui, who was trying to stand up while ignoring the terrible pain, was momentarily startled. It was because he saw the woman approaching at a fearsome speed drawing the string without an arrow.
Muk Bi let go of the string.
Tiiing! Puuuk!
Mong Ui spat blood and fell flat on his face.
Paaang!
Muk Bi stepped on Mong Ui’s two legs in an instant, stood up, and pulled the string of the Red Lotus Bow.
Ultra-close range chain shooting.
Pubububok!
Five shots of Shadowless Bullets exploded intact on Mong Ui’s back. It was a merciless attack.
Mong Ui, who was trembling, soon closed his eyes. He had fainted from serious internal injuries.
“Phew, we barely caught him.”
“…”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You, are quite radical?”
“Yes?”
Yeon Ho-jeong shook his head.
“It is incomparably bloody.”
“Anyway, what do we do with this person?”
“We have to carry him. I have things to ask.”
“Okay.”
“I will carry him.”
“Aren’t you hurt?”
“There are enemies left.”
“Yes?”
Yeon Ho-jeong looked down towards the bottom of the mountain.
“The scattered wolves are vigilantly targeting this side.”
“Ah!”
“Let’s not find Ji-pyeong. He shouldn’t intervene in the fight by any chance.”
Muk Bi nodded.
“Yes!”