novelraw Chapter 21 : Chapter 21
Chapter 21 : Chapter 21
Chapter 21 - A prodigy sent from the heavens!
“Heo…….”
When something too dumbfounding happens, one loses their sense of reality.
That was exactly the state Jo Seom was in as he looked at Biyoung.
After delivering a lightning-like blow in the heart of the enemy's camp, he was provoking Jang Pae, as if daring him to come at him.
The very same Jang Pae who was called the master of Duhua Mountain.
“You son of a bitch, I’ll chew you up!!”
Jang Pae, enraged to the tip of his head, swung his sword horizontally.
It was a simple attack, but countless people had lost their lives to it.
However,
Paaang!
Jang Pae’s sword only left behind a sharp sound of cutting through the air as it sliced through empty space in vain.
“What?!”
Biyoung had vanished as if he were a mirage.
He had already moved to the very front of the group of bandits.
‘How did he get there so fast…….’
It was a situation that would make a ghost weep.
At first, one might think it was simply a coincidence, but now, it truly felt like something was off.
The first time he leaped, and now again.
Jang Pae couldn't read Biyoung's movements at all.
“This…… this rat-like bastard dodged my sword?!”
Dodged?
No.
To even call this dodging was embarrassing.
Usually, one wouldn't retreat three jang away just to avoid a sword.
Coming right up to his face as he pleased, then moving far away.
Seeing Biyoung move through the space controlled by the stronghold's men as if it were his own living room made him feel like he was being played with.
“What are you all doing! Tear him limb from limb!”
“Yes!”
As the distance widened, Jang Pae gave orders to his subordinates.
Then, he too aimed his sword and took a step toward Biyoung.
Biyoung, who had just shown a ghost-like movement, gave a slightly peculiar smile.
“It’s a waste to use on bandits, but……”
Didn't they say real combat was the best practice?
What Biyoung's body lacked the most right now was muscular strength and real combat experience.
He had plenty of memories of real combat, but feeling it with his own skin was another story.
So, Biyoung decided to try using one of the forms of the Sun-Shooting Sword Art.
An assault sword art that instantly penetrates and annihilates a mixed group of enemies.
Click.
Biyoung placed his scabbard on the ground and slightly bent one knee.
It was a posture that looked like it could spring out at any moment, like a tautly drawn bowstring.
In the meantime, the bandits who received Jang Pae's order rushed forward in a group.
As long as they had eyes, they could feel that there was something unusual about Biyoung's movements.
They gripped their weapons with murderous eyes, as if to say they wouldn't go easy on him just because he was a child.
The moment the axe of the bandit at the forefront was about to strike down as if to split Biyoung’s head.
“Watch out!”
As if taking Jo Seom's scream-filled shout as a signal, Biyoung's body, which had been maintaining an unmoving posture, momentarily wavered.
Sreureureureut!
“!”
A single flower petal floating in a turbulent wave.
Biyoung's body, like a rapidly drifting petal, fluttered here and there, brushing past the bandits.
And every time a bandit's body touched the petal, they let out a terrible scream.
Pabababak!
“Uwaaaaaaaack!”
“Keok!”
“Ggureuk……!!”
It wasn't just being randomly swayed by the flowing waves.
Rather, it was making the waves its own to add to its speed.
Flowing Water Shooting Leaf.
The assault sword art of the Sun-Shooting Sword Art, used to annihilate multiple enemies with a single sword stroke.
With that one form, over a dozen bandits were rendered incapable of fighting.
“My goodness…….”
The jaws of the merchants, including Jo Seom, were about to hit the floor, and,
“Th-th-th-this……!!”
Jang Pae couldn't even finish his sentence, his bloodshot eyes darting around the front.
He couldn't even properly grasp what had happened or how.
It was as if a single gust of wind had swept through the area, and in an instant, all of his subordinates were either unconscious or half-crippled.
‘A master…… he’s a master……!!’
Only then could Jang Pae realize Biyoung's true skill.
This brat wasn't just an arrogant punk.
There was a high probability that he was a treasured prodigy raised by a prestigious orthodox sect, or the favored child of a renowned noble family.
Otherwise, how could his subordinates, who had been through all sorts of things at the stronghold, fall so futilely?
“You…… just who in the world are you!”
“You really make me repeat the same words. I told you, it's Biyoung?”
The boy before him was now speaking informally with a delinquent face.
From Jang Pae's perspective, it might have felt like a sudden change in attitude, but this was the most similar he had been to the past ‘World's Fastest Sword’.
After executing the Flowing Water Shooting Leaf, his past life's habit had inadvertently emerged.
“I’m asking where you came from!”
“Where?”
Biyoung scratched his head and then gave a cynical smile.
“I came from hell.”
“!”
As if he wouldn't exchange any more words, Jang Pae snorted and raised his sword above his head.
“That’s……!”
Jo Seom's pupils trembled faintly, just like his leaking voice.
He had never seen it before, but he knew of it from what he had often heard from connoisseurs.
Jang Pae's signature technique, as infamous as his large build.
A form with a grandiose name, given because it was said to sever the sky with a single sword strike.
He had executed One Sword Cuts the Heavens.
“Uryaaa!”
A height of over seven cheok and arms longer than his torso.
And a large sword.
A sword art that extended all that length towards the sky and brought it down in a single blow.
To an ordinary person, it would look like a slash coming down from the literal sky.
Since Biyoung's physique was not yet fully developed, its power seemed even more formidable.
‘He’ll dodge it, right? He should be able to dodge it.’
Jo Seom's heart was now filled with cheers for Biyoung.
It was understandable, since an unexpected savior had appeared and swept away all the bandits.
He couldn't possibly imagine the boy overpowering Jang Pae, but still, with the ghost-like movements he had shown before…….
“Ah!”
A single cry burst from Jo Seom’s mouth.
Biyoung, who he had expected to dodge, was for some reason standing still.
‘He’s going to die……!!’
Anyone would think so.
A man who seemed twice, no, three times his size, held a sword high in the sky, and Biyoung was just staring at it blankly.
Was he so crushed by Jang Pae's momentum that his legs wouldn't move?
What was certain was that if he stayed in that spot, his body would be split in half and he would die.
Towards the sword coming down with grandiose momentum, Biyoung indifferently extended his blade.
KWANG!!!!!!!
“Uwaaat!!”
The ordinary merchants and the injured bandits fell on their behinds from the wind pressure alone.
The shockwave was so great that it felt like their eardrums would burst.
“Keung.”
Jo Seom, who had let out a groan, snapped his scrunched eyes wide open.
“Young Master!”
The impact was greater than he had imagined.
At this rate, he must have been turned to dust or his body split in half…….
“……He’s…… fine?”
He was fine.
The ground where his feet supported his body was slightly dented, but considering what he had feared, this was no damage at all.
The one who wasn't fine was rather Jang Pae.
Since his subordinates had been taken down, Jang Pae had no room for carelessness or leisure.
It was a strike he had swung with all his might, gripping the sword with both hands.
But ridiculously, the boy before him had blocked the sword that was as big as his own body.
And that, with one arm……!
“!!!”
The one striking from above and the one holding on from below.
Even with the same strength, there was no need to explain which side had the advantage.
The direction of the force, muscular strength, and build. Even his voice.
He thought there wasn't a single condition favorable to Biyoung.
But what was this sight now?
Even martial artists who prided themselves on their strength would mostly try to evade or deflect One Sword Cuts the Heavens when they saw it.
This was because it could strain not only their muscles and nerves, but also their internal energy.
However, the boy before him, far from evading, had blocked his One Sword Cuts the Heavens head-on.
“Eeeeek!”
Kwaaak!
As if to deny reality, Jang Pae pushed his sword with all his might while the blades were still in contact.
But no matter how much force he applied, the sword couldn't push Biyoung's blade back even a single chi.
How.
How on earth could something like this happen?
It was normal for the boy's sword to be pushed back, if only because of his body weight.
But the sword of the boy, who was smaller and thinner than average, stood still in its place like Mount Tai.
Jang Pae's large face flushed as if it would burst from the force he was exerting.
He glared at the two blades with his eyes wide open.
“?!”
At that moment, a strange light appeared in Jang Pae's eyes.
It wasn't that Jang Pae's eyes had flashed, but that they had reflected a special ‘light’.
A whitish halo formed on the boy's sword.
A special form of the blade's edge that only swordsmen who had reached the ranks of masters could possess.
Sword Aura.
That was Sword Aura.
“Sword Aura…… a prodigy sent from the heavens……!”
Jo Seom muttered to himself, forgetting that he was in the middle of a fight.
It wasn't the first time he had seen Sword Aura.
But to see such a young boy emit Sword Aura was a first in his life.
Seeing the Sword Aura bloom around the sharp blade, he finally understood how he had blocked Jang Pae's sword.
‘Oof. That’s stiff.’
Biyoung, who had activated his Sword Aura, grumbled inwardly.
If it were the Biyoung of his past life, he would have deflected something like One Sword Cuts the Heavens in a single breath.
His bones and muscles wouldn't have been aching like they were now.
Internal energy could explode with a special opportunity, but the body was not like that.
Biyoung had been training his external techniques and muscular strength day in and day out, but his body still couldn't support his internal energy.
‘Still…….’
It wasn't without its gains.
Not dodging One Sword Cuts the Heavens just now was a kind of test.
A test similar to the one when he had a showdown of internal energy with Hyeokri Hong.
There were some aftereffects, but this was worthy of being called a pass.
‘The Sword Aura is also usable at this level.’
After the Heaven-Shaking Divine Pill and the Earth-Drawing Spirit Pill were added to his spotlessly pure Dantian, it became possible for him to create Sword Aura at will.
It was still a long way off, but he had taken one step closer to the Vacuum Sword, praised as the ultimate martial art of the Diancang Sect.
“Heave-ho!”
With a clear shout, Biyoung put strength into his hand.
Then, Biyoung's sword, clad in Sword Aura, flicked the large sword upwards.
“!”
Because the hand holding the sword was also raised, his already large chest was wide open.
Through that open space, Biyoung's sword was swung like lightning.
Chwaaaaaak!
A grand fountain of blood, befitting his large build, shot up.
“Keuaaaaaaaack!”
Jang Pae let out a desperate scream as if the whole mountain would be shaken, and fell sideways.
The ground soon became soaked with the blood he had shed.
Biyoung silently crouched down next to Jang Pae.
“I know you’re not dead, so get up.”
“!”
Jang Pae's shoulder jolted once.
If he were an ordinary person, he might have fainted just from the blood he had lost.
But Jang Pae, the seven-cheok giant, was indeed a man with good stamina.
Of course, it was thanks to Biyoung holding back in the first place.
“If you don’t get up by the count of three, I’ll really kill you. One……”
Before he could even count to two, Jang Pae got up, twisting his whole body.
“Good. I like how straightforward you are.”
Biyoung grinned and straightened his bent knees.
‘Something’s…….’
Jo Seom was seized by a peculiar feeling.
A giant three times his size had been completely subdued by a man who had just entered the stage of youth.
This wasn't a matter of winning or losing in a battle.
Just like wild animals where predators and prey are decided from birth, Biyoung showed great skill in handling Jang Pae.
For Biyoung, who had beaten up countless Green Forest groups in his past life, it was an extremely natural action, but Jo Seom, who had no way of knowing this fact, couldn't help but find the sight strange.
“From now on, there must not be a single lie in your answers to my questions. Otherwise, where will you have dinner?”
“I-I’ll have it in the afterlife!”
“See. You’re all tensed up, so you’re speaking properly, right?”
Biyoung smiled brightly, revealing his neat white teeth.
It was the appearance of a handsome man rarely seen these days, but to Jang Pae, that sight looked more terrifying than a Yaksha that had leaped out of a painting of hell.
“Now. Tell me. What happened at the Tiger-Bear Stronghold?”