The Scorched Desert's Sand Mage (Novel) - Chapter 155
Chapter 155
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Translated by Pratt
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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Zeon asked, “Why would I?”
“It is Shao Lun’s summons.”
“If he calls, do I have to go? I’m not his dog.”
“Do you dare defy Shao Lun’s command?”
Pan Cheng-tian’s expression turned fierce. Zeon replied with a look of genuine incomprehension, “I have no relationship with him at all. So why should I obey his order?”
“Shao Lun is the ruler of the South District.”
“Perhaps you forgot, but this place where I live isn’t the South District. It’s the slums.”
“So you mean to refuse?”
“Then tell me why I should go to the South District. Tell me in a way I can actually accept.”
“You seem to be mistaken about something.”
“Oh?”
“I am not asking you right now. I am ordering you.”
“It seems to me that you’re the one mistaken. I’m not someone who has any reason to obey your orders.”
At Zeon’s cold response, Pan Cheng-tian’s face went stiff.
“So you’re saying you won’t go?”
“That’s right.”
“You’ll regret this.”
“We’ll see who’s going to regret it.”
“Do not forget what you just said.”
Bang. No sooner had the words left his mouth than an explosive impact rang out. Pan Cheng-tian had thrown a punch. Zeon’s body went flying backward. He had taken the sudden strike head-on. Pan Cheng-tian threw his own body forward after Zeon. His hand had already begun glowing red. It was Bamboo Leaf Hand, Pan Cheng-tian’s main skill. It was his own personal skill combined with an ancient Chinese martial art. It converted mana into aura and then gave that converted aura a hardness like forged steel. Its power was great enough to cut off even the life of a large demonic beast. Bang. Pan Cheng-tian unleashed Bamboo Leaf Hand once more.
Zeon, struck by the edge of his hand, went flying into the distance yet again.
Watching Zeon roll disgracefully across the ground, Pan Cheng-tian spoke.
“I disliked you from the very beginning. I know the type of man you are. Stubborn, and convinced you’re the best person in the world. Outwardly you look mild, but inside you’re a viper raising dozens of sly serpents. Tajik probably died because of you too.”
He was convinced that Zeon had killed Tajik.
He and Tajik had not been especially close. That did not mean he underestimated Tajik’s ability.
Tajik had been a man arrogant enough, but also competent enough to match it.
And yet that man had suddenly gone mad, run wild, and ended up becoming food for a sandworm in the desert.
If there had not been someone’s handiwork behind it, such a thing would never have happened.
Pan Cheng-tian believed Zeon was the one responsible.
Bang.
He used Bamboo Leaf Hand against Zeon once again.
Zeon rolled along the ground in disgrace once more.
Pan Cheng-tian walked toward the place where Zeon had fallen.
“I’ll break all four of your limbs and drag you away like a dog. Then Shao Lun will finally change his opinion of you.”
Shao Lun had ordered him to recruit Zeon no matter what.
That alone showed how highly he evaluated Zeon’s Awakened ability.
But Pan Cheng-tian thought differently.
Zeon’s ability was certainly great, but not enough to be brought into the South District.
He had obeyed only because it was Shao Lun’s command, but if Zeon resisted like this, then the situation changed.
It would be easy enough to explain it away as crippling him because he resisted.
“Go ahead and resist all you want, brat.”
Pan Cheng-tian used Bamboo Leaf Hand once more.
This time, his target was Zeon’s knee.
He intended to shatter the joint and cripple him.
Bang.
An explosive impact rang out.
“Urgh.”
The one who had thrown the punch was Pan Cheng-tian.
And the one groaning was also Pan Cheng-tian.
Clutching his fist, Pan Cheng-tian staggered backward.
What had struck his fist was Zeon’s own.
Just before Bamboo Leaf Hand could land, Zeon had swung out his gauntleted fist to meet it directly.
Pan Cheng-tian’s fist had swollen badly.
He had used the skill Bamboo Leaf Hand, and yet it had still taken a major impact.
Meanwhile, Zeon was calmly getting back to his feet.
As he brushed the dust from his pants with one hand, Zeon muttered, “So attacking in the middle of a conversation is the South District’s style?”
“A sneak attack is just another method of battle. The fool is the one who gets hit by it.”
Pan Cheng-tian replied as he shook his swollen fist.
His fist quickly returned to normal.
Pan Cheng-tian was a B-rank martial-type Awakened.
On top of that, he had mastered martial arts handed down through his ancestors.
The activity level of his body was on a completely different level from that of ordinary Awakened.
Though he was a B-rank martial-type Awakened, in reality he could display destructive power close to A-rank.
Even his physical recovery ability was exceptional.
Anyone ignorant of the truth might have mistaken him for some kind of troll, so fast was his rate of recovery.
Of course, the price for that was a tremendous expenditure of mana.
“You…”
Bang.
Before Pan Cheng-tian could finish speaking, a powerful impact slammed into him.
This time, it was Zeon who had rushed him and landed a blow.
Pan Cheng-tian went flying away like a bowling pin.
Zeon chased after him.
Closing the distance in an instant, Zeon threw a punch.
“Tch. How dare you.”
True to being a master of martial arts, even in that situation Pan Cheng-tian twisted his body and blocked Zeon’s attack.
Bbeok.
Along with a violent impact, both their bodies staggered at the same time.
But that was only for a moment.
Soon, they both surged toward one another again.
Peobeobeobeok.
The two of them moved at speeds invisible to the eye, striking and defending in turn.
A look of bewilderment appeared on Pan Cheng-tian’s face.
‘What is this? He’s not even martial-type, so why is his body movement so fast? Does he know martial arts too, like I do?’
Zeon’s movements were that far beyond his expectations.
He had not even used sand, the power everyone said was his Awakened ability.
He was fighting Pan Cheng-tian evenly using only pure physical ability.
Swaeek.
Zeon lowered his body and approached, then swung his fist upward.
Pan Cheng-tian blocked Zeon’s fist with Bamboo Leaf Hand and then unleashed a powerful kick.
Bang.
With an explosive crash, Zeon’s body staggered.
But only for an instant.
Before anyone knew it, his hand had already wrapped around the very leg Pan Cheng-tian had used to strike him.
“You…”
Pan Cheng-tian’s eyes shook.
He could see Zeon’s eyes gripping his leg.
There was not the slightest hesitation in them.
Zeon twisted Pan Cheng-tian’s leg exactly as it was.
Brrudeuk.
With a sickening crack, Pan Cheng-tian’s knee joint shattered.
“Kgh!”
Pan Cheng-tian screamed and was sent flying backward.
No matter how monstrous his recovery was, Pan Cheng-tian still could not step beyond the bounds of humanity.
Recovering a major area like a knee joint would inevitably be slow.
The problem was that Zeon had no intention whatsoever of waiting for him to recover.
Zeon’s fist exploded into Pan Cheng-tian’s chest.
Bang.
“Kehk!”
Pan Cheng-tian flew backward, vomiting blood.
In the next instant, Zeon leaped into the air.
Having shot high into the sky, Zeon plunged straight down toward the place where Pan Cheng-tian was falling.
Kwaaang.
With a thunderous impact, Pan Cheng-tian’s head snapped backward.
Zeon’s knee had struck him square in the face.
The shock that blasted through him was so great that an ordinary person would either have died or lost consciousness instantly.
But Pan Cheng-tian was not an ordinary Awakened.
In that brief instant between the strike to his chest and the strike to his face, he had drawn up mana to protect himself.
It was a skill called Aura Shield.
Thanks to that, Pan Cheng-tian was able to avoid fatal injury.
His face was twisted hideously with bewilderment and rage.
The fact that he, a martial-type Awakened, had been pushed around one-sidedly by Zeon, who was not of the same type, had deeply wounded his pride.
“I won’t forgive this, bastard.”
Kuuuu.
He drew up all of his mana.
At once, red aura covered his entire body.
Wrapped in that state, Pan Cheng-tian charged.
One of his legs was ruined, but that posed no problem.
Merely driving off the ground with his other intact leg gave him tremendous momentum.
The sight of him charging with his whole body wrapped in red aura looked like a meteor flying through the air.
Zeon stretched out his hand into the air.
At that moment, the sand lying on rooftops and across the ground was pulled toward him as though drawn by a magnet.
Whirrr.
The grains of sand whirled around Zeon in a vortex.
In an instant, Zeon’s form vanished behind the sand.
‘So he really does control sand. But sand can’t stop me.’
Pan Cheng-tian had poured all his power into this strike.
It was a skill called Meteor Hammer.
There was no way mere sand could block his Meteor Hammer.
“Die.”
Pan Cheng-tian threw his entire body at Zeon.
But his attack never reached Zeon.
Before he could hit Zeon, the sand that had been swirling around Zeon’s body shot forward.
Zeon’s own skill, which compressed sand under high pressure and fired it out.
It was Sand Blaster.
Puhk.
Sand Blaster struck Pan Cheng-tian.
The power was fairly strong, but not enough to deal him a major shock.
That was because of the Aura Shield protecting his body.
Pan Cheng-tian trusted in his Aura Shield and tried to keep advancing.
But there was something he had failed to consider.
Zeon did not fire only a single strand of Sand Blaster.
Shu shu shu shu.
Dozens of Sand Blasters came flying almost simultaneously with almost no delay between them.
Peobeobeobeok.
Pan Cheng-tian was struck again and again by Sand Blaster.
Each hit slowed the speed of his charge.
One shot, two shots, ten shots, and then the final twenty shots all struck Pan Cheng-tian.
Kwaaang.
“Kraaagh!”
At that point, even Pan Cheng-tian could no longer endure and collapsed.
The red aura wrapping his body had long since disappeared.
Zeon made one final swing with his hand.
In that instant, an impact on a completely different level from anything before slammed into Pan Cheng-tian.
Zeon had fired Sand Missile.
Peeoong.
With a thunderous blast, Pan Cheng-tian flew backward and crashed to the ground.
His entire body was left in complete ruin.
His limbs were grotesquely twisted, and his chest was dyed red with blood.
The only reason he survived was because, as a martial-type Awakened, his body was extremely tough.
If not for that, he would have died from the final attack.
“Cough. Urgh.”
Pan Cheng-tian spat blood.
His neck and chest, already soaked with blood, turned even redder.
Pan Cheng-tian struggled to get up somehow.
But no matter how hard he tried, strength would not enter his body.
In the end, he gave up trying to rise and lay there sprawled out like a starfish.
“God… damn it. Using sand like that is cowardly.”
“Controlling sand is my ability, though. The fool is the one who gets hit by it.”
Zeon threw Pan Cheng-tian’s own words back at him exactly as he had used them.
Pan Cheng-tian could offer no excuse.
Zeon said to him, “Go tell Shao Lun this clearly. If he has business with me, he should come himself.”
“Just because you defeated me doesn’t mean you should get so full of yourself. You don’t even measure up to the tip of Shao Lun’s foot.”
“Then if he’s that confident, he should come himself. Or invite me properly. No matter how lacking in manners you are, trying to kidnap someone by sending men after him…”
“Urgh.”
“In any case, I’ve made my intentions clear. If it goes like this again, it’s war.”
“War? Do you think that would really be possible? No matter how strong you are, you can’t defeat the entire South District.”
“What if I cooperated with City Hall? What if I joined hands with the North District? Or with the West District? Would you still think you could handle it?”
“…”
Pan Cheng-tian fell silent.
Now that he had fought Zeon himself, he knew.
He knew just how absurdly broken Zeon’s ability was.
If that power were combined with the forces of another district, the result was obvious.
That was something that absolutely had to be prevented.
“I… apologize.”
“What?”
“What happened today was not Shao Lun’s will. It was my own decision, so do not take it as the South District’s intent.”
Pan Cheng-tian cast aside his pride and apologized.
His shoulders trembled with humiliation.