Chapter 209 – Haven’t Changed A Bit

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Translated by Heavenly Cat
Edited by Celestial Knight

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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At Ju-seong’s declaration, Taoist Xiangyun momentarily felt dizzy and almost grabbed the back of his neck.

All the “worthless bastards” who had been causing chaos throughout the Jiangxi jianghu lately were all one person?

Thinking about it, trouble had never erupted in multiple places simultaneously.

Furthermore, the point when madmen began rampaging in Jiangxi was exactly after the Poison Demon had destroyed the Palace of Pleasure and vanished.

Small and ugly… a giant beggar… a sword-wielding madman…

A witness account of an unnaturally handsome man had also been heard, as well as stories of a small, gaunt man with slanted, treacherous eyes.

That they were all one person… Taoist Xiangyun was now starting to feel a sense of grievance.

‘Just what kind of grudge does that young brat hold against the Jiangxi jianghu…’

Regardless of whether Taoist Xiangyun was clutching his neck, Ju-seong was busy mocking his “wicked friend” whom he hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Whoa… It’s been a while, you Cho guy. But you still haven’t kicked that habit? Creating fake Sword Energy. I told you not to do that…”

Cho Yu-gyeong narrowed his eyes and countered coldly.

“The situation was urgent, so I had no choice, you clown. And where do you get off talking, you who couldn’t even imitate Sword Energy before…”

“Huh? Imitate Sword Energy? Even without that, I beat you at the Ascending Dragon Assembly. You’re bad at martial arts. You have no talent.”

“You son of a bitch.”

For an instant, Cho Yu-gyeong flared up enough to completely forget the enemy was right in front of him. He almost fired off sword-qi but barely managed to calm down.

‘I shouldn’t do this. He’s someone who appeared to help, after all.’

Ju-seong, still wearing a mocking smile, raised his hand.

“Watch closely.”

-WHIRRRRR!

A Sword Energy began to glow brilliantly in a scarlet hue, wrapping around Ju-seong’s black handguards. Within it, shimmering particles of qi were embedded and shining like constellations.

Cho Yu-gyeong’s eyes immediately became bloodshot.

When a friend fails, tears fall; but when a friend succeeds better than you, tears of blood fall.

“H-how…”

Cho Yu-gyeong even stuttered. As if immensely satisfied by his reaction, Ju-seong let out a hearty laugh.

“Aha, this is it. That Red Beggar fellow has such a broad heart that he’d be as happy as if it were his own achievement. I needed exactly you, my friend.”

Ju-seong was truly satisfied to be tormenting a fellow mean-spirited person.

“Now, behold the power of this ‘super-peak master’…”

Personally, Ju-seong didn’t prefer frivolous terms like “super-peak,” but he emphasized the word specifically to tease Cho Yu-gyeong.

Ju-seong charged at Taoist Xiangyun with Sword Energy wrapped around both hands.

Taoist Xiangyun made a quick judgment.

“The rest of you, block the Martial Alliance! Yeon-il, only you help me!”

Taoist Xiangyun was, in fact, only a Taoist in appearance; naturally, he was a human who didn’t know how to recite a single character of Taoist scripture.

Clueless about Taoist titles, he had simply named himself Xiangyun because his name meant “Auspicious Cloud.”

His disciples went a step further… the first seven he took were named sequentially from Yeon-il to Yeon-chil using the character ‘Yeon.’

The next eight were named Heo-il to Heo-pal using the character ‘Heo.’

Thus, Yeon-il was his top disciple and the one with the greatest achievement among them.

‘If I face him together with Yeon-il, I can easily defeat this Poison Demon!’

Yeon-il was a reasonably talented disciple who had reached the mid-peak level by his forties.

* * *

Meanwhile, Cho Yu-gyeong and the fourteen members of the Martial Alliance’s Sixth Combat Squad maintained steady gazes even as they watched the enemies charging at them.

Enemies at a level difficult for them to handle.

Three at the peak level, the rest appearing to be first-rate.

On the other hand, with the exception of Cho Yu-gyeong, the entire Sixth Combat Squad was merely at the first-rate level.

‘But we are not afraid.’

In a short year, there had been dozens of battles, large and small. The training pushed during the intervals had been harsh enough to drive one mad.

Personnel died and were replaced frequently, but they also quickly melted into the Sixth Combat Squad.

Under the superb leader that was Cho Yu-gyeong, the Sixth Combat Squad was like a pack of wolves moving as one.

Cho Yu-gyeong whistled through his teeth.

-FWEE… SHIT!

A long blow followed by a short, rising cut.

Third Joint Attack Formation.

The iron-blood tempered warriors moved coldly to their respective positions.

It was a joint attack formation commonly distributed to members by the Martial Alliance, but that didn’t mean its quality was low.

The power of a joint attack formation increases greatly as members trust each other and their breathing aligns.

And the Sixth Combat Squad, though all were blunt and untalkative, were as tightly knit as a pack of beasts.

Taoist Xiangyun’s disciples, who had charged spiritedly, began to feel the atmosphere turn strange.

* * *

A combined attack by Taoist Xiangyun and his top disciple, Yeon-il.

Ju-seong watched as one Sword Energy and several sword-qi lunged toward him.

The master personally charged, swinging a sword imbued with Blade Force, while his disciple produced five sword-shadows at once from the right.

‘They’re not mere illusions.’

They were all substantial sword-shadows created by repeating the discharge of force during a single swing.

Ju-seong pulled back slightly and flicked his right hand toward the five sword-shadows.

-BOOM!

A palm-wind erupted in a wide range with his fingers spread.

This was a technique where the palm-force didn’t maintain its shape to travel far, but rather lost its form and exploded simultaneously with the discharge.

Generally inefficient, but like all techniques, there are situations where it fits.

Along with a scarlet wave of qi, the five sword-shadows were erased. Ju-seong subtly extended his hand toward the sword Taoist Xiangyun was swinging.

Utilizing the subtleties of the Crimson Lotus Palm, he entangled his hand as if dancing, and the force contained in the sword was neutralized as if by magic.

Ju-seong didn’t stop there; trusting in the durability of the Heavenly Silkworm handguards and the Sword Aura coating them, he pushed his hand further.

-SCREEEEECH!

A grating sound echoed as two different types of energy ground against each other.

Taoist Xiangyun realized Ju-seong’s hand was burrowing in like a viper, aiming for a grappling technique.

He let out a roar and flicked his fly-whisk.

Originally a tool for dusting Buddha statues, these had been used quite often by Taoists since the Northern and Southern Dynasties period.

Many martial artists of Buddhist or Taoist lineages used them as weapons.

This was because, along with the power of a soft weapon, the wave of qi erupting from hundreds of strands when flicked while infused with qi was quite threatening.

‘That looked dangerous since earlier.’

Since it was a weapon Ju-seong was facing for the first time, he had been wary of it rather than the sword from the start.

“Gotcha, you bastard!”

Ju-seong’s eyes gleamed cunningly as he reached out with his left hand and grabbed the tassel of the fly-whisk.

-GRAB!

Taoist Xiangyun’s internal energy contained in the fly-whisk struggled frantically within Ju-seong’s hand.

“Ugh, Yeon-il!”

Taoist Xiangyun urgently called his top disciple.

With both of Ju-seong’s hands tied up now, if Yeon-il struck from behind, the battle would be as good as won.

“Yes, Master!”

Yeon-il shouted determinedly and lunged, but Ju-seong didn’t even blink.

“You’d better stay still.”

Ju-seong murmured in a low voice.

Naturally, Yeon-il didn’t even pretend to hear and lunged with spirit, swinging his sword.

Ju-seong’s right hand, which was holding Taoist Xiangyun’s sword…

When Ju-seong slightly flicked the middle finger of his right hand…

-SLICE.

“…Eh?”

In an instant, a scarlet line appeared in the air.

The Heavenly Silkworm Thread, imbued with Ju-seong’s Sword Aura, had revealed itself.

The Heavenly Silkworm Thread was connected to Ju-seong’s middle finger, and that thread had formed a noose tied around Yeon-il’s ankle.

“Since when…?”

Yeon-il murmured in a bewildered voice, then rolled on the ground with one ankle missing.

Ju-seong said coldly.

“I told you to stay still.”

The Heavenly Silkworm Thread.

It was a profound and mysterious item.

As Ju-seong’s capacity grew, the Heavenly Silkworm Thread opened new horizons.

Not only was its ability to receive qi excellent, but it also moved freely like an extension of his limbs beyond simply holding qi.

Through the battle with the Palace Master of Pleasure, Ju-seong’s upper dantian had advanced significantly.

Handling the Heavenly Silkworm Thread with an enhanced upper dantian made such things possible.

Connected to Ju-seong’s middle finger, the Heavenly Silkworm Thread had secretly crawled along the floor like a viper and wrapped around Yeon-il’s ankle in a noose.

An equal-level martial artist would have noticed through qi-sensing, but…

‘He was far below me and lacked caution.’

Because of that, Yeon-il had to roll on the ground as a cripple before he could even properly fight.

“You half-baked brat…!”

Taoist Xiangyun gnashed his teeth in fury.

Ju-seong smirked and began to draw up his internal energy.

“He’s the disciple you raised. Endure it with grit and guts.”

“An arrogant young brat keeps accumulating karma with his mouth!”

At Xiangyun’s scolding, Ju-seong’s gaze turned cold.

“It’s hard to even keep my senses because of the stench of evil karma you’ve built up… how dare you speak of karma?”

The sixth sense created by the fusion of the Three Celestial Senses.

Through it, Ju-seong could trace the path of evil Taoist Xiangyun had walked.

-GRIIIIIND…

The struggle of strength between Ju-seong and Taoist Xiangyun was neck and neck. Ju-seong’s physical body was superior, but given the years he’d lived, Taoist Xiangyun’s internal energy output was higher.

To begin with, a fraudulent Taoist becoming the head of the Jiangxi evil path wasn’t something that could be done with ordinary talent.

If anything, Taoist Xiangyun was the one bewildered that Ju-seong was holding out like this against him.

Taoist Xiangyun’s mouth puffed slightly, then he fiercely spat something out.

“Tuh!”

Matching him, Ju-seong’s mouth also puffed, and he spat something out.

“Pah!”

-CLANG!

Taoist Xiangyun had fired a poisoned needle from a short tube hidden in his mouth, and Ju-seong had fired a Myriad-Year Cold Iron bead he’d been rolling in his mouth.

Though the Myriad-Year Cold Iron bead was much heavier, they both lost their force and fell at the exact midpoint due to the difference in internal energy.

A pair of petty bastards using the same underhanded tricks.

Taoist Xiangyun shouted.

“How underhanded, you brat!”

Ju-seong also shouted back.

“You old geezer, you’re full of nothing but trivial tricks!”

Two despicable men of the heartless jianghu were indignant at each other’s pettiness.

Thus, an intense standoff where neither would back down continued.

Whenever Ju-seong tried to slide his hand along the blade to apply a grappling technique, Taoist Xiangyun would unleash a powerful repulsive force to block the approach.

Whenever Taoist Xiangyun tried to infuse the fly-whisk strands with energy and explode them all at once, Ju-seong would block it by holding on with a clamp-like grip.

‘What kind of external cultivation realm is this…!’

While Taoist Xiangyun was superior in internal energy output and volume, Ju-seong was maintaining parity with his monstrous physical body.

Just then, Ju-seong looked behind Taoist Xiangyun and let out a roar.

“Hey, you son of a bitch Cho! What are you doing just standing there!”

No sooner had Ju-seong spoken than Cho Yu-gyeong shrugged indifferently.

Before they knew it, he and his men had subdued Taoist Xiangyun’s disciples with a systematic joint attack formation.

The overall level of martial power might have been slightly lower for the Martial Alliance’s Sixth Combat Squad, but with them moving as one with amazing coordination, there was no way the fragmented fake Taoists could stand against them.

Cho Yu-gyeong immediately charged with his sword leveled. His target was Taoist Xiangyun’s back.

“Wait… I thought we were having a fair one-on-one!”

Taoist Xiangyun’s face turned pale as he screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Let’s do it one-on-one! Do you lot have no jianghu principles!”

Ju-seong let out a hearty laugh like a devil from hell.

“Jianghu principles my ass! That guy is from the evil path!”

Taoist Xiangyun urgently tried to leap into the air by unleashing internal energy through his Yongquan acupoints to escape the situation.

Ju-seong targeted that exact moment, deploying a leg technique as if stomping down with his heel.

-CRACK!

With Ju-seong’s kick, Taoist Xiangyun’s aged shin snapped backward.

“HWA-GA-GAK…!”

Taoist Xiangyun’s eyes bulged in pain, and the body that had been about to leap fell.

Cho Yu-gyeong, who had rushed in, had initially targeted Xiangyun’s back, but…

-STAB!

Because the posture of Taoist Xiangyun, whose shin was shattered, lowered, Cho Yu-gyeong’s sword pierced through the back of his head and came out through his mouth.

“Ugh.”

Ju-seong shuddered and let go of Taoist Xiangyun’s hands.

“Today’s lesson: in jianghu, you need reliable comrades.”

Seeing Ju-seong talk so casually, Cho Yu-gyeong murmured in bewilderment.

“You haven’t changed a bit.”

Ju-seong smirked.

Was that true? He had traveled a long road, tasting biting pain, the warmth of love on a moonlit night, and terrible solitude.

But Ju-seong replied without a long explanation.

“People shouldn’t change easily. Good to see you, Cho.”

At his rival’s banter, Cho Yu-gyeong also let out a reluctant smirk.

“It’s been a while, you clown.”