Myst, Might, Mayhem (Novel) - Chapter 137 - Encroachment (4)
Chapter 137 – Encroachment (4)
===================
Translated by Jinmu
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
===================
Back to the present again.
To Wi Maeng-cheon, the blind Second Peak of the Five Peaks Assembly, who was thrown into confusion by the dead Ji Hang, Mok Gyeong-un sneered and said,
“It seems you are greatly disappointed that the result was different from what you intended.”
“You bastard…”
“It looks like you worked your head quite a lot, so it is unfortunate. If it had been others, it would have worked smoothly enough.”
-Grind!
The blind Wi Maeng-cheon ground his teeth.
Though he did not know how things had come to this, one thing was certain: his scheme had failed.
It was a plan calculated through dozens of simulations.
He had arranged it so that he could respond to any ordinary variable, so just how had this man slipped free?
But the important thing now was not to inquire into the reason for the failure of the plan.
-Clench!
Strength entered the hand of Wi Maeng-cheon, which gripped the sword hilt.
Now that the original plan had gone awry, the only answer was to kill the bastard directly.
If he did not, the matter would pass beyond his own control.
Wi Maeng-cheon quietly opened his mouth.
“I do not know how you escaped suspicion, but I will tell you this: coming here was an enormous mistake.”
“An enormous mistake?”
-Slash!
The moment Mok Gyeong-un’s return question ended, Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword cut across empty air.
In that instant, Mok Gyeong-un had already opened a distance of about half a step.
As a result, the blade barely failed to cut Mok Gyeong-un’s throat and merely brushed past it.
“You are fast.”
“……..”
At those words, Wi Maeng-cheon said nothing.
Unlike the last time, when he had tried only to test his martial skill, this time he had struck with the intent to kill, yet he had not expected him to evade.
‘…He has definitely gone beyond the peak realm.’
He had been estimating him at the entrance to the transcendent peak.
Because they had already exchanged several moves, and if one took into account the power carried in his sword, that estimate seemed almost certain.
That alone was already astonishing.
A mere seventeen.
That one not yet even of age had reached such a realm forced him to acknowledge his martial talent.
However,
‘You die here.’
-Pap!
Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword charged at Mok Gyeong-un while drawing a complicated trajectory.
Mok Gyeong-un’s pupils shook rapidly at the sword that grew ever faster.
After obtaining fortuitous encounters in Corpse Blood Valley, this was the first time he had faced a proper master.
Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword was certainly beyond imagination.
-Shwack shwack shwack!
It was not at a level that could simply be evaded.
So Mok Gyeong-un, too, unfolded a defensive form with his sword and responded against Wi Maeng-cheon’s fierce assault.
-Cha cha cha cha cha clang!
The swords of the two men clashed over more than ten exchanges in an instant, blue sparks scattering through the darkness.
Each time sword met sword, Mok Gyeong-un’s body was pushed back little by little.
This clearly meant that he was being pressed in terms of inner force.
‘Even if he has reached the transcendent realm through innate martial talent, I suppose those two shortcomings cannot be escaped after all.’
The first was inner force.
When people spoke of the number of years of one’s internal power, it was because the amount accumulated naturally increased with the passage of time.
No matter how exceptional Mok Gyeong-un’s martial talent was and how high a realm he had reached, he could not rival Wi Maeng-cheon, who had accumulated internal power for several decades.
And the second was,
-Cha cha cha clang!
While they were clashing almost evenly, Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword suddenly broke from its trajectory and twisted from a wholly unexpected direction, stabbing toward Mok Gyeong-un’s thigh.
As a result, Mok Gyeong-un also had no choice but to alter his sword path to block it.
-Clang!
In that very moment,
-Thud!
Wi Maeng-cheon’s heavy kick struck Mok Gyeong-un in the abdomen.
Along with it, Mok Gyeong-un’s body was once again pushed back about four steps.
Sensing this through hearing, Wi Maeng-cheon’s lips curled upward.
‘Experience…he lacks experience.’
While Mok Gyeong-un’s forms were perfect enough to find no fault in, it seemed that because he lacked practical combat experience or fights against true masters, he was unable to respond to altered techniques.
His sword forms were far too straightforward.
He was responding with the proper techniques at the proper moments, but that alone was not enough.
In the world of contests where life and death were decided, experience could not be ignored.
-Pap!
Catching up to Mok Gyeong-un, who had been driven back, Wi Maeng-cheon drew out even more inner force and pressed him harder.
Now that he had found the opponent’s deficiency, he intended to press hard and settle victory and defeat with certainty.
‘Dazzling Star Force Sword, Fourth Form, Reckless Constant Flash and Panic.’
-Shwack shwack shwack shwack!
Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword produced countless sword shadows, pressing Mok Gyeong-un with a dazzling trajectory.
It was a tremendous sword form, hard to believe it came from a blind man.
Even Mok Gyeong-un inwardly found himself admiring it.
Through the many manuals he had seen in the Corpse Blood Valley report, Mok Gyeong-un had developed a sharp eye for sword arts.
The completion of Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword forms was high enough that they were almost impossible to fault.
That was perhaps why he wanted to clash with them properly.
-Cha cha cha cha clang!
Mok Gyeong-un’s Evil-Answering Sword and Wi Maeng-cheon’s Jukmyeong Sword collided, and the metallic peals rang out in every direction.
The two swords were so fast that they were no longer visible to ordinary eyes.
-Slash!
The sword grazed Mok Gyeong-un’s cheek, leaving a wound.
Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword form had once again produced an unexpected type of changed move.
‘Interesting.’
It was more interesting than when he had fought the trainees of Corpse Blood Valley.
Their attacks had been more intuitive and simple, whereas Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword was changing unexpectedly and pressing him from directions he had not foreseen.
-Slash!
Once again the sword brushed past Mok Gyeong-un’s ribs.
Every strike was passing dangerously close to vital points.
If he made a single mistake, the result of the match could be decided at once, as Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword was tightening around his life more and more precisely.
‘You are unlucky.’
The face of Wi Maeng-cheon, who kept pressing Mok Gyeong-un, grew more and more triumphant.
The victor of this duel had already been decided.
Perhaps it might have been different five or ten years later, but the current Mok Gyeong-un absolutely could not match him.
In both experience and inner force, Wi Maeng-cheon stood far above him.
‘You were foolish, Mok Gyeong-un.’
You should not have come seeking me out alone.
Though I admit your martial prowess is not befitting your age, you chose the wrong target for your vengeance.
If you had possessed enough cunning to escape my scheme, then rather than coming here yourself, you should have used Ji Hang’s death as leverage and pressured me through your master, the Shadow Sect Master.
Blame your own foolishness.
-Slash!
-Clang!
Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword flicked Mok Gyeong-un’s sword upward.
At the same time, at last a decisive opening appeared in Mok Gyeong-un.
The corners of Wi Maeng-cheon’s mouth lifted sharply.
‘Overconfidence in yourself. That is the cause of your defeat.’
Confident that he had completely seized victory, Wi Maeng-cheon drove his sword toward the critical opening that had appeared in Mok Gyeong-un: his throat.
At Mok Gyeong-un’s current posture, there was absolutely no way for him to evade or block it.
‘It is over.’
Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword tried to bore into Mok Gyeong-un’s throat.
But then,
-Shraaak!
In that moment, the tip of Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword touched Mok Gyeong-un’s throat, then merely skimmed across its surface as though sliding and passed by.
‘What is this?’
Just what had happened?
That had been a perfect finishing strike.
So why had it suddenly failed to pierce Mok Gyeong-un’s throat and instead slid away as though blocked by something?
He could not understand at all what sort of phenomenon this was.
-Pak!
At that moment, as the distance narrowed, Mok Gyeong-un’s knee tried to kick upward into Wi Maeng-cheon’s jaw.
At this, Wi Maeng-cheon used a palm technique with his left hand to push away Mok Gyeong-un’s knee and, by that recoil, opened the distance.
-Bang! Tatatatak!
When the distance widened to about six steps, Wi Maeng-cheon frowned as if unable to understand.
No matter how he thought about it, he could not understand.
What Mok Gyeong-un had just shown was an extraordinarily high-level principle that could not be displayed at Mok Gyeong-un’s level.
-Ha!
From atop the roof, sitting while smoking her pipe and watching, Blue Spirit let out an exclamation.
The reason she was so startled was simple.
-To think he has mastered the Form of Push.
The move Mok Gyeong-un had just shown was precisely the Form of Push, one of the Eight Forms of Mind-Breaking.
If the Form of Attachment could pull anything, then the Form of Push could repel anything that touched the body.
Even she, who had remained closest to him, had not realized it.
That was because Mok Gyeong-un had not spoken of the insight he had gained.
Of course, there was a reason for that.
‘It is difficult.’
The Form of Push differed from the Form of Attachment in how it manifested.
One could repel only if something touched the body precisely, and matching that single instant when the sword was about to touch was extremely difficult.
And because it was heavily influenced by the capacity and true qi of the caster, the stronger the force, the harder it was to push away.
That was why Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword had slid away rather than being flung off.
‘It is still far off.’
Because he considered it an incomplete method, he had not even mentioned it to Blue Spirit.
Still, even so, it was useful enough.
He had been able to let the lethal sword strike slip by.
At that moment Wi Maeng-cheon opened his mouth.
“…It seems you possess some sort of hidden secret. But do you think the same method will work again?”
-Pap!
The instant those words ended, Wi Maeng-cheon shot his body toward Mok Gyeong-un.
As befitted an expert who had reached the transcendent peak realm, in that short span he had already grasped how he ought to respond to the principle Mok Gyeong-un had just shown.
-Wooong!
Wi Maeng-cheon’s sword was completely covered in blue light.
This was nothing other than sword astral energy.
He judged that if it were sword astral energy, with its intent condensed even more finely, even the principle that made the blade slide aside would be unable to do anything.
‘This decides it.’
The reason he had not used astral energy up until now was to protect the sword with its sharp intent.
Since Mok Gyeong-un’s Evil-Answering Sword was harder and keener than the Jukmyeong Sword, each collision had placed strain upon his weapon, which was why he had chosen that method.
But if he turned all of that energy not into defense but into the hard strike of sword astral energy,
-Chaengaeng!
-Pa pa pak!
Though they had clashed only a single sword strike, Mok Gyeong-un’s body was driven back nearly three steps.
Its power had risen tremendously.
But instead,
-Crack.
Fine lines spread through the sword.
Though this was influenced by his switching between offense and defense, at the very least it seemed the sword would endure for several more forms.
That was more than enough time to decide the match.
-Pap!
Wi Maeng-cheon was just about to unleash yet another overbearing sword form against Mok Gyeong-un.
It was at that very moment.
“It seems your bag of tricks is empty now.”
“What?”
“Seeing as your forms are beginning to repeat.”
‘!?’
-Cha cha cha clang!
The instant sword struck sword, Wi Maeng-cheon’s face twisted.
He had unfolded his sword form with sword astral energy, yet Mok Gyeong-un was not being pushed back at all.
Rather, they were equal.
Yet more astonishing even than this was,
“You bastard…just what?”
That sword form from a moment ago had been completely identical to the Seventh Form of his own Dazzling Star Force Sword, Breaking the Constant without Trace.
What Mok Gyeong-un had just unfolded was a sword form exactly the same as his own.
Wi Maeng-cheon could not believe this situation at all.
At that,
-Shwack shwack shwack!
He once more unfolded his sword forms toward Mok Gyeong-un.
-Shwack shwack shwack!
And as though in a mirror, Mok Gyeong-un unfolded the very same sword form.
For an instant, Wi Maeng-cheon was left speechless.
What in the world was this?
His personal art, Dazzling Star Force Sword, was a secret sword art of a single-successor lineage, a secret absolutely unknown outside.
Yet this bastard was copying it.
He should not have known even the qi circulation method of the forms, and this should have been the first time he had seen it while crossing swords tonight.
‘Impossible.’
Yet how could such a thing be possible?
While waging a life-and-death battle, was it possible to learn the opponent’s sword art?
Could such a thing really exist?
No matter how great one’s martial talent, there had to be some limit.
This was too fraudulent.
-Grind!
His astonishment at facing such a situation for the first time lasted only a moment, and then Wi Maeng-cheon became so angry he felt his insides surge.
To see Mok Gyeong-un copy his personal sword art so easily, an art he had learned only through bloody hardship despite his blindness, filled him with hatred.
‘To dare steal my sword art.’
He could not forgive it.
Very well then. Could he copy this too?
One might copy the outer shell of the sword art somehow, but the true essence of the sword forms was another matter entirely.
Because he had practiced Dazzling Star Force Sword for decades and completely grasped its essence, he was able to bring diverse changes to the sword forms.
Could a bastard like you possibly even imitate such changed moves…
-Shwack shwack!
‘What?’
Wi Maeng-cheon hurriedly twisted his head to the side and flung his body backward, avoiding Mok Gyeong-un’s sword.
When he had opened the distance, a single drop of cold sweat ran down his forehead.
Those three sword forms from just now.
They had been changed moves.
Even if it were he himself, if he were to vary them, he would have changed them exactly as Mok Gyeong-un just had.
‘…Ha,’
What sort of monster was this?
Even the changed moves in the sword forms he was copying at almost the same level as him.
This went beyond merely possessing innate martial talent.
He was truly a monster.
-Gulp!
Perhaps because he had tensed up, Wi Maeng-cheon swallowed dryly.
If he did not kill the bastard here and now, he would become a great obstacle in the path of Jang Neung-ak, the second young master.
Even if he had to stake his life, he had to kill the bastard.
He had to deal with him now, before he grew further and reached a level that could no longer be touched.
At least for now, Wi Maeng-cheon still held the advantage in inner force, so if it was now, somehow…
-Flinch!
In that instant, a chill crawled down Wi Maeng-cheon’s spine.
Something ominous wrapped around his five senses, and it was a kind of ferocity.
Sensing it, Wi Maeng-cheon had no time even to think and hurriedly raised sword astral energy while lifting his sword.
But then,
-Clang!
The Jukmyeong Sword, which had been wrapped in sword astral energy, broke.
And then,
-Slash!
‘!!!!!!’
Something so cold it went beyond mere chill brushed past his throat in an instant.
Instinctively, Wi Maeng-cheon grabbed his own throat in a panic.
‘What…what is…’
The inner force in that sword strike had suddenly surged to nearly three times what it had been just moments before.
That abrupt rise in inner force was so absurd it left him dumbfounded.
Did that mean the bastard had not even been fighting with full strength until now?
As he stood in shock, Mok Gyeong-un leaned to his ear and whispered softly.
“Why did a man who cannot even see have to strut about like that? If only you had quietly kept your mouth shut, you would have preserved that neck of yours a little longer.”
‘Y-you bastard…’
“Now then, sleep deeply.”
With those words, Mok Gyeong-un brought his finger toward Wi Maeng-cheon’s forehead.
Feeling that, Wi Maeng-cheon screamed inwardly as if in desperate protest.
‘St-stop! Please! Please!’
But,
-Tap.
Wi Maeng-cheon’s consciousness was severed in a single instant.
That was because Mok Gyeong-un had pushed the forehead he had been barely holding together with a finger.
At the same time, Wi Maeng-cheon’s severed head dropped powerlessly to the ground, and blood burst from the cross-section of his neck like a fountain.
-Pshhk!