Chapter 122 - Lecherous Dragon

And yet...

A single move had put him at a disadvantage...

Danmok Gu refused to give up, continuing to throw flying sabers as he retreated. Even so, he could not shake Moyong Byeong, who was rapidly closing in. Retreating and charging forward were fundamentally incomparable in speed. That went without saying when the gulf between their martial arts was so stark.

Moyong Byeong brought his sword down.

CLANG-CLANG!

By the nature of the Heaven's Net Sword Art, a dense wall of qi naturally formed along the sword's path the moment it struck the flying sabers. Gusts of qi leaked through the gaps in that wall, mercilessly tearing the skin of Danmok Gu's face and shoulders.

"Urgh!"

Stifling a groan, Danmok Gu dropped to one knee. He had hastily drawn his short blades to block, but they had not been enough.

Just two exchanges. Perhaps a single breath.

Danmok Gu had already lost.

The cheering crowd fell silent in an instant. The skill of a member of the Nine Dragons, witnessed with their own eyes, far surpassed their expectations. They had entertained a glimmer of hope, but the Moyong Clan and the Nine Dragons were indeed a towering wall. A few of those who had met Moyong Byeong's eyes while jeering at him earlier were even leaving the grounds.

THUD-THUD-THUD!

"Aaargh!"

A one-sided beating began.

Having seized the upper hand, Moyong Byeong battered Danmok Gu all over as the latter reeled, barely aware of his surroundings. He did not even swing the sword in his hand. Using only leg techniques—no, simply a barrage of indiscriminate kicks—he drove Danmok Gu into a corner. As his legs swept lightly across the platform, livid bruises spread over Danmok Gu's body and streams of blood spurted from his mouth.

Watching from the rooftop, Ha Seonhyang frowned.

"The fight seems to be over already... This is going too far."

As she said, it was no longer a fight, but no one intervened. Danmok Gu had not declared his surrender.

Dong Bongsu, too, saw no further value in watching that fight.

Just as Ha Seonhyang had said, it was already over. He scanned the distances beyond the reach of his Super True Qi Field, searching once more for the lunatics he had seen on the first day.

Jong Jihang, the other powerful figures whose names he did not know, and Yeon Youngha.

None were in sight. Apparently, they were all competing in the preliminaries at the other platforms.

It happened then.

THUD-THUD-THUD!

With a loud crash, Danmok Gu fell flat on his face on the platform. He had lost consciousness. His blood had already stained one whole side of it, showing just how savagely he had been beaten. Even if he survived, he would need several months of quiet recuperation to recover.

Perhaps...

He might never recover at all.

"Waaaaah!"

A roar of cheers shook the sky.

Except...

It was not coming from here.

It came from outside Martial Harmony Gate and from the inner compound.

Apparently, someone there had also overwhelmed an opponent with sheer martial might. Here, however, the crowd was silent despite the equally overwhelming fight.

A fight that had ended exactly as foretold, though no one had wanted it...

Such was the impotent revenge of the powerless. No one who had witnessed it could cheer.

After watching a moment longer, Namgung Hye climbed onto the platform and examined Danmok Gu, then summoned a Murim Defense Corps member to carry him to the medicine room. She gave Moyong Byeong a perfunctory reprimand for his excessive force before returning to the observers' seats.

The tournament had to continue. Even if people died.

Moyong Byeong still stood on the platform, looking angry. Some insect had flown at him and buzzed in his ears; that must have irritated him considerably. Whoever stepped onto the platform next would probably fare poorly as well.

Ha Seonhyang looked around the crowd, then shook her head and turned to Dong Bongsu.

"There doesn't seem to be any point in waiting, does there?"

She meant that no one would step forward for the next meal's worth of time. Dong Bongsu quietly studied the crowd a little longer, then agreed.

"It would seem so."

Few young experts here surpassed Moyong Byeong. Even those were so evenly matched with him that it was difficult to say who was superior.

As for those who could defeat him with certainty, there was Namgung Hye, who had just climbed onto the platform over there to ring the bell, and...

"But when do you intend to take the platform, Young Hero Dong...?!"

Himself. No one else.

He sprang away.

In the middle of Ha Seonhyang's question, Dong Bongsu answered with action rather than words.

He had already kicked off the roof and was flying toward the platform. His timing was so exquisite that every eye in the grounds turned to him at once. As though that stage belonged to him alone.

============================ Author's Afterword========================================================================================================================================================================================================

Since this was so late, I was going to upload another chapter, but I found a critical error in the next installment. I'll fix it before posting. sob;;;;

'Hmm? He's stepping forward already...! Then that means...!'

Did that mean he could defeat Moyong Byeong?

JIN... GLE...

Namgung Hye caught the bell just as it was about to ring. Its sound stopped with it, postponing the decision on the first finalist.

With a new challenger present, there was no need for the bell. Not until one of the two men on the platform fell.

'Now, go on and enjoy yourself. Show me a match worthy of the All-Under-Heaven Youth Sparring Tournament's first finalist. And...'

Confirm that, alongside Jong Jihang, you are another variable in this tournament.

Namgung Hye tucked the little bell back into her robes and returned to the observers' seats. An inscrutable smile rested on her face.

Moyong Byeong's expression, on the other hand, was slightly twisted.

One reason he had beaten Danmok Gu so viciously was to make sure the man would never pester him again, but the greater reason was that he did not want any more meaningless matches.

After all, none of the favorites—the Three Stars, Five Phoenixes, and Nine Dragons or the entrants from the major sects—would participate in the preliminaries except him. That left only the weaklings who were a dime a dozen in Murim. Why bother testing his martial prowess against such people? The outcome was obvious before they even began.

On top of that, his original goal of showing off his martial arts before Namgung Hye had come to nothing. She had seen him being jeered at, and he had even received a warning for excessive force.

There was nothing left for him to gain from these preliminary bouts. No, he had only suffered losses.

Under those circumstances, seeing the slender Dong Bongsu step onto the platform, looking as though a mere tap would snap him in two, soured Moyong Byeong's mood considerably.

"Please introduce yourself."

Even if he was going to defeat the man, he must not forget his manners. He knew perfectly well how he already looked to the crowd and Namgung Hye, but he could not afford to make that impression any worse.

Dong Bongsu addressed him indifferently.

"Dong Gwangcheon."

Moyong Byeong's narrow eyes narrowed further.

"Is that all?"

He was asking whether he had a sobriquet.

"That's all."

A snicker escaped Moyong Byeong before he even realized it. Having no sobriquet could only mean the man had just entered Murim. Moreover, his very presence on a preliminary platform meant he was no disciple of a distinguished martial clan or major sect.

Absurd.

The saying about a newborn puppy having no fear of a tiger must have been coined for moments like this.

["It is not too late, even now. Why not step back down? I am quite a generous young master, so I will put in a good word with Lady Namgung. Ha. Ha. Ha."]

Moyong Byeong mocked Dong Bongsu through Sound Transmission.

'Is he laughing at me?'

Dong Bongsu had many memories of being mocked, ridiculed, and sneered at throughout his life. Especially in New Murim Online.

It was the result of hiding his excellence and striving to be average.

He had done so because being ordinary made it easier to conceal himself, and because the mask of mediocrity served him well in the hunt.

But now, there was no need.

Dong Bongsu glanced at Namgung Hye behind Moyong Byeong, then spoke without emotion.

"It is not too late, even now. The tournament's new rule still stands."

The corners of Moyong Byeong's eyes began to twitch violently.

"Are you saying I should accept automatic advancement to the finals?"

"Yes."

"If I intended to do that, I would never have stepped onto this platform or fought Brother Danmok in the first place. And if you wanted me to advance to the finals so badly, couldn't you simply have waited a little longer before coming up?"

"I felt like it."

A twitch. Now even the corners of Moyong Byeong's mouth were trembling, and his voice sank to a threatening pitch.

"What is that supposed to mean...?"

Despite the unbearable rage surging within him, Moyong Byeong maintained his courtesy. To the crowd, that only made him look more hypocritical.

Without answering, Dong Bongsu bent down and picked up a dagger caked with Danmok Gu's blood.

"I heard that questions and answers have no place on the sparring platform. You talk too much."

"... Like Brother Danmok, you will regret this."

Dong Bongsu wiped the dagger on his clothes. The gleaming white blade emerged, flashing harshly.

"You seem to have seven mouths and eight tongues."

Seven mouths and eight tongues.

It was an idiom used for a talkative person. And not in a good way.

At that indifferent insult, Moyong Byeong finally exploded.

"You...!"

His face, handsome as polished jade, contorted as he hurtled toward Dong Bongsu.

● ● ●

In truth, Paeng Horyu had little interest.