Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 114 - Final Gate (4)

Chapter 114 – Final Gate (4)

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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At the moment when Mok Gyeong-un was being driven back after taking Mu Jang-yak’s hidden trump card in the ribs and chest.

-Chwarrrrrr!

“Ha!”

In an instant, exclamations burst out from the spectator seats beside the platform where the match was being watched.

And it was not only them.

The trainees, who had to wait for the next match, also could not contain their astonishment at the scene before their eyes.

‘……So that is what it meant.’

Mok Yu-cheon clicked his tongue as he looked at the retreating Mok Gyeong-un.

There had only been one chance for him to gauge Mu Jang-yak’s martial level, and it made him recall that moment.

[Are you perhaps left-handed?]

[Who knows.]

At the time, he had only briefly wondered why Mu Jang-yak had answered so vaguely, then forgotten it.

But upon seeing Right Fist, Left Palm, which used different forms for each hand, he understood.

That was not a method just anyone could use casually.

‘Amazing.’

Mok Yu-cheon was sincerely impressed.

If one could unfold different martial arts with both hands, then one could do the work of two people alone.

Since it was not two separate people unfolding them in the first place, it could even become more precise.

Of course, the act of doing so at all was difficult, because one had to split one’s thoughts.

In any case, upon seeing this secret art of Mu Jang-yak’s, he felt a thrill violent enough to make his heart race.

-Thump! Thump! Thump!

As expected, the world was wide.

To think there was such a monster even among his peers.

‘As expected, I was no more than a frog in a well.’

What he had learned upon coming here was that there was no need to be arrogant.

Mok Yu-cheon clicked his tongue as he watched Mok Gyeong-un.

It seemed Mok Gyeong-un had truly met his match.

‘It is impossible.’

Even if he had learned strange arts, this contest was, in the end, a place to prove one’s martial level.

He still did not know why Mok Gyeong-un had grown so rapidly, but the opponent was simply too bad.

Mu Jang-yak truly deserved to be called a genius.

-Pat!

It seemed Mu Jang-yak was about to finish it now.

As Mu Jang-yak unfolded Right Fist, Left Palm, even Mok Yu-cheon himself felt at a loss as to how he could possibly deal with that.

At this point, there seemed nothing to do but create distance…

‘!?’

At that moment, Mok Yu-cheon’s eyes widened.

-Pak!

So astonished was he that he sprang to his feet on the spot.

‘This is insane……’

For an instant, he doubted his own eyes.

That was because Mok Gyeong-un, like Mu Jang-yak, was unfolding different martial forms with both hands.

With the right hand he used sword forms, and with the left hand fist forms,

‘……Is that even possible?’

He was not imitating it clumsily. He was truly showing proper forms.

At this spectacle, Mok Yu-cheon could not contain his shock.

He had been convinced that a bizarre method like Right Fist, Left Palm could not be imitated easily even by a peerless master, so what in the world was this?

‘Impossible.’

He could not believe it even while seeing it.

How could anyone look at something once and copy it?

And Mok Yu-cheon was not the only one astonished.

“…….Ha!”

Hang Yeo-ryang, the Sound-Summoning Valley Master, let out a thin exclamation.

Upon seeing Mu Jang-yak’s Right Fist, Left Palm, she had already judged that victory and defeat had completely tilted.

Yet something entirely unexpected had happened.

‘He copied that?’

To unfold different martial forms with both hands.

Unlike the simplicity of the idea, it was a method whose actual execution was itself difficult.

If it were so easy, then countless martial artists would already have been unfolding different martial arts with both hands.

‘……..So the true genius was someone else.’

She had seen Mu Jang-yak’s Right Fist, Left Palm and thought him a genius appearing after a long interval.

Yet now that thought had changed in an instant.

If Mok Gyeong-un had truly seen Right Fist, Left Palm just once and made it his own in an instant, then she might now be looking upon a monstrous genius of the kind seen perhaps once in several hundred years.

-Ssk!

Hang Yeo-ryang glanced toward the Shadow Sect Master.

The Shadow Sect Master too seemed greatly shocked, his lips slightly parted, unable to take his eyes off Mok Gyeong-un in the slightest.

Who could look on this and not be startled?

At that, her eyes gleamed in a peculiar way.

As far as the wager was concerned, she had already effectively lost.

But that no longer mattered.

‘Mok Gyeong-un……..’

Originally, she had no interest at all in boys and had come only intending to take Mo Ha-rang of Mo Hwa House, but now that thought had completely changed.

There was no such thing as letting talent that extraordinary slip away.

‘Could it be that in the end this worked out for the best?’

Since she had lost the wager, she could yield the girl from Mo Hwa House to the Shadow Sect Master under that pretext and instead take away that monster-like boy, which would be far more beneficial.

Meanwhile, the pattern of the match itself began to change visibly.

-Papapak!

“Kgh!”

The sword forms from Mok Gyeong-un’s right hand pierced the acupoints of the left chest, Milk Root and Sun-Moon, and the Shaohai point of Mu Jang-yak’s left arm, causing Mu Jang-yak’s body to stagger and slide to the side.

‘The changes in those sword forms are too severe.’

The fist art unfolded by the left hand was rigid enough that blocking it was not overly difficult, but the sword forms from the right hand changed so variedly that he had already missed three forms.

‘You monstrous bastard!’

Mu Jang-yak was sincerely dumbfounded.

He had thought that the right-sword left-fist combination Mok Gyeong-un was unfolding might only be a temporary tactic meant to throw him into confusion.

From the outset, to unfold different forms with both hands, one needed not only split thought, but also a special circulation method, and there was no way Mok Gyeong-un could have learned that.

And yet,

-Papapapapap!

The forms Mok Gyeong-un was unfolding with both hands were absolutely no bluff.

He was truly wielding different forms.

‘At this rate I will be the one getting dragged around.’

It seemed Mu Jang-yak had decided it would not do.

His concentration was becoming too scattered.

Originally, when he unfolded Right Fist, Left Palm, the opponent would panic and become unable to respond to both forms, but since Mok Gyeong-un too was using right-sword left-fist, the exchange of forms had become far too complex.

‘This is dizzying.’

Even Mu Jang-yak himself, the originator, was becoming dizzy.

So,

-Tatatatatak!

Mu Jang-yak unfolded his lightness movement and tried to open as much distance as possible between himself and Mok Gyeong-un.

But there was no way Mok Gyeong-un would let such an opportunity pass.

“Where do you think you are going?”

-Pat!

Mok Gyeong-un launched his body toward Mu Jang-yak without hesitation.

‘Tch.’

Thinking it could not be helped, Mu Jang-yak gathered true qi into the soles of his feet and stomped down toward the ground.

-Kung!

-Paaaaaa!

At once, the floor of the square split, and stone fragments flew upward.

The qi-laden shards became dozens of tiny concealed weapons and flew toward Mok Gyeong-un.

Naturally, it was a situation where one would have no choice but to evade.

Yet in that fleeting instant,

-Chwarrrrrr!

Mok Gyeong-un bent his knees backward and arched his waist as if sliding across the floor, evading the fragments.

‘What?’

How had he thought to evade in such a low backward posture?

The strength of his waist and legs was no ordinary thing.

Yet it was good that he had evaded as though performing an acrobatic feat, but by doing so he had inevitably created a fatal opening.

‘You fool. You made a mistake!’

-Pat!

Not letting that pass, Mu Jang-yak twisted his body, launched himself, and brought down a domineering palm toward Mok Gyeong-un’s abdomen.

It was at that very instant.

-Papapapapap!

“Ugeugeuk!”

Mu Jang-yak had thought that from such a posture Mok Gyeong-un would be unable to respond immediately because of the blind angle.

And yet the moment he brought his palm down, Mok Gyeong-un’s body, which had been almost lying backward, spun sideways, and his kicking technique struck Mu Jang-yak’s jaw repeatedly.

‘H-how from this posture?’

-Kung!

Still unable to contain his astonishment, Mu Jang-yak fell backward.

“Hoo.”

Mok Gyeong-un rose to his feet and looked down at the fallen Mu Jang-yak.

Having taken repeated hits to the jaw and face, it seemed Mu Jang-yak had fainted, his brain rattled by the blows.

‘The fifth form of Profound Flow Kick Art, Returning Wind Kick….. rather useful.’

This was not the sort of form meant to be used in this way, but when used from an unbalanced posture, it rather drew out the opponent’s carelessness perfectly.

Blue Spirit’s claim that it was a superior higher-level martial art had certainly been true.

At that moment, Blue Spirit’s voice sounded in Mok Gyeong-un’s ear.

-It seems you wanted to end it fairly quickly.

‘……..’

-Did you think I would fail to notice? On the final form, did you not add more force?

‘So I got caught.’

Mok Gyeong-un scratched his head.

His original plan had been to decide the outcome with forms alone while remaining within the level of the absolute realm.

But while unfolding the form of Returning Wind Kick, on the final strike he had raised the power from the twenty percent he normally used to thirty percent.

‘Well, even so, this much should be enough, should it not?’

He had done nothing that would expose his true level outright.

Most of the executives beside the platform were masters of the supreme-absolute realm, so in order not to reveal his true strength to them, he had limited himself to twenty percent power while fighting.

Moreover, even when Mu Jang-yak’s openings had appeared during the exchange, Mok Gyeong-un had let them pass several times.

-Do not let your guard down, mortal. If they learn that you have already reached the domain of the supreme-absolute realm, they will go beyond merely acknowledging your talent and begin guarding against you.

‘Yes, yes. I will keep that in mind.’

Was that not precisely why he had been controlling his strength?

If not for that, Mu Jang-yak would have been lying on the floor long ago.

Yet it also seemed that fighting while controlling his strength had been the right choice.

‘Thanks to it, I learned something interesting.’

Having reached the supreme-absolute realm, Mok Gyeong-un could now see the opponent’s qi far more clearly.

So although not in exact detail, he was able to roughly infer how Mu Jang-yak’s circulation flow was structured.

Curiously, Mu Jang-yak’s lower dantian was divided into two.

It was a rather strange form, and that seemed to be why he could unfold two different forms with one body.

Mok Gyeong-un applied this by drawing out some of the death aura from his middle dantian and unfolding different forms with each hand.

‘Useful.’

If used well, it seemed it would be helpful when fighting enemies of a similar level.

In any case, had he achieved his intended purpose now?

His goal in the Final Gate had been to plant in the minds of the observing executives the impression that he possessed outstanding martial talent while showing only the level of the absolute realm.

‘This should be enough, should it not?’

Of course, Mok Gyeong-un’s intent had worked.

He had clearly branded his talent into the minds of the observing executives.

But beyond merely working, a small contest of nerves had begun among the executives on the platform side.

“Brother Son. It seems I should take that child called Mok Gyeong-un as my own disciple.”

At those words from Won Byeong-hak, the Thunderbolt Fist King, Son Yun, the King of the Fate Blade, arched one eyebrow and replied,

“…….What are you saying? Did you not say earlier that you had chosen the child from Mirrored Scenery Gate?”

“I said I was considering it. But…… no. I will speak honestly. If I let that child slip away at today’s completion ceremony, I feel I will regret it for a long time.”

“Can a man who bears the title of King speak two different words with one mouth?”

“Huh. I said I had the child from Mirrored Scenery Gate in mind. When exactly did I ever say for certain that I would absolutely take that child? And besides, Brother Son, you already have many excellent disciples, so how is it that you too are growing greedy here?”

“Greedy? Did you just say I am being greedy?”

“If not, then what else should this be called?”

Before they knew it, the mood between the two had become rather dangerous.

‘This really is……’

He needed to announce that the first match had ended, but faced with the sudden tension between these two kings, Yi Ji-yeom, the Master of Corpse Blood Valley, could not help but be at a loss.