Chapter 123 - Dong Bongsu Versus Moyong Byeong (1)

Whatever an idiot like Moyong Byeong might do, that is.

He had considered watching the tournament preliminaries a waste of time, but when Moyong Byeong said Namgung Hye would be attending as an observer today, he followed him out to Central Avenue. After all, a man of the Hebei Peng Clan who had no interest in women would have been an even bigger joke.

So he had come out as a mere spectator, to watch a few fights and admire a few women...

Only for that idiot to suddenly climb onto the sparring platform. Then he babbled some nonsense at Namgung Hye and secured permission to compete in the preliminaries. It was plainly a pathetic attempt to attract her attention.

And so the tournament began, to a shower of jeers.

Whatever Moyong Byeong had expected, people were hardly going to cheer for a bastard who stuck his filthy dick wherever he pleased.

A little later, one of those heckling Moyong Byeong—a man who apparently bore him some grudge—climbed onto the platform, and the preliminary bouts finally began. But Moyong Byeong beat the man to a pulp.

Just as expected.

He should have left his grudge at that and devoted his efforts to something realistic, something he could actually accomplish...

'He brought it on himself anyway.'

Paeng Horyu ran a hand up the long saber slung across his back, its length reaching half a jang, and turned his gaze away. There was no need to watch any more of the fight. Moyong Byeong might have the disposition of a worm, but he was skilled. None of the preliminary contestants here could match him. In fact, there probably wasn't another soul brave enough to challenge him in the first place.

His gaze swept over his surroundings before settling on Namgung Hye. With the fighting no longer worth watching, all that remained was admiring women. He intended to feast his eyes on her lovely appearance.

But something was odd about her.

Despite being an observer, she was looking somewhere entirely different from the sparring platform.

'What is she looking at?'

He followed her gaze. It led to the roof of the Guest Pavilion, to the left of Central Avenue.

'Ha Seonhyang?'

Someone he knew well was up there. A disciple of the Mount Hua Sect, and one of the tournament entrants.

Was she looking at that woman?

But that did not seem to be the case. Ha Seonhyang wasn't watching the sparring platform either, and beside her stood someone who seemed to be the object of Namgung Hye's attention.

'Who is that?'

It was an unfamiliar face. He wasn't a disciple of the Nine Great Sects or a scion of the Four Great Noble Clans. At the very least, Paeng Horyu had exchanged greetings with, or knew by sight, all the rising young talents from the major sects who had come here.

The man was quite tall and exceptionally slender, with long white hair spilling forward to hide more than half his face.

Even searching his memory again brought up no one like him. He had the sort of appearance that was hard to forget once seen, so this had to be their first encounter.

Just as Paeng Horyu tilted his head slightly in curiosity, Moyong Byeong's first bout ended. Whether it had been a sparring match or a beating was debatable.

The loser was hurried off to the medicine room. Shortly afterward, Namgung Hye climbed back onto the platform to announce Moyong Byeong's automatic advancement to the finals. But at the very instant she took out her bell and raised it to ring—

WHOOSH.

The man beside Ha Seonhyang leaped onto the sparring platform. He seemed to jump without any preparatory movement, yet he was already there.

"...!"

An impressive display of Qinggong. That single move alone suggested he was certainly no nameless nobody.

"Please introduce yourself."

Moyong Byeong spoke with a slight frown.

"Dong Gwangcheon."

As expected, a name he had never heard.

"Is that all?"

"All."

No sobriquet? Was this his first venture into the martial world?

Moyong Byeong let out a foolish snicker. No doubt he was looking down on his opponent. Paeng Horyu would never have made it so obvious himself, but that moron Moyong Byeong could never hide such things. Had he not even seen the man's outstanding Qinggong?

'Stupid bastard.'

As Paeng Horyu thought this, Moyong Byeong moved his lips slightly, saying something to his opponent through Sound Transmission.

He couldn't know the exact words, but he could guess. He knew Moyong Byeong's usual behavior well enough. He had probably told the man to get lost.

Unfazed—no, utterly devoid of emotion—Dong Gwangcheon spoke.

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

"Are you saying I should advance automatically to the finals?"

"Yes."

"If that were my intention, I would never have climbed onto the 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 do as I please."

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

Was this recklessness? Or a display of confidence?

Paeng Horyu couldn't yet decide. But the presence Dong Gwangcheon exuded was so powerful that it affected even him, standing below the platform.

Without answering Moyong Byeong, Dong Gwangcheon bent down and picked up one of Danmok Gu's fallen daggers.

"I heard there is no use in exchanging words on a sparring platform. You talk far too much."

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

Dong Gwangcheon pressed the dagger against his thigh and rubbed it back and forth.

Was it his imagination?

Paeng Horyu had the impression that Moyong Byeong no longer even registered in the man's eyes. To think he could act so leisurely right in front of him.

Disregarding one of the Nine Dragons? Apart from the Three Stars, Five Phoenixes, and Nine Dragons, had there been anyone so young with such a bearing and such nerve?

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

Paeng Horyu chuckled at Dong Gwangcheon's mockery. There was no telling how things would turn out, but the mere fact that he could say such a thing to the Moyong Clan's heir deserved respect.

And he would wager that the man's skill, too...

Was considerable.

"Grr!"

Sure enough, Moyong Byeong lost his temper and lunged at Dong Bongsu.

The second bout began, and everyone around the platform, including Paeng Horyu, Namgung Hye, and Ha Seonhyang, fixed their eyes on the pair.

WHOOOSH!

Was he actually trying to kill his opponent?

Moyong Byeong's sword descended viciously toward Dong Bongsu's head. Anyone could see it was a killing move.

"Th-that's...!"

"Dodge!!"

The crowd stirred. The problem wasn't that the match might end in an instant. A man's life was in danger.

Yet Dong Bongsu's expression, revealed as the sword wind swept his hair aside, remained utterly composed. He even looked bored.

SWISH!

Moyong Byeong's sword showed no mercy and slashed straight down.

"Aaah!"

"... Ah!"

Everyone turned away. They couldn't bear to watch. Even for martial artists, seeing someone cleaved in half was hardly an everyday occurrence.

CLANG!

A clear metallic note rang out.

'Hm!? A metallic ring?'

Only then did those who had turned away look back at the platform.

But there—

Moyong Byeong's sword was embedded in the bluestone floor beside Dong Bongsu's foot.

Dong Bongsu merely stood straight in the same spot, still holding the dagger in exactly the same position. Without the slightest movement.

Had Moyong Byeong deliberately missed? No, that didn't seem right.

His face bore an expression of utter disbelief.

Wh-what... just happened?

That was what his expression said.

But it soon vanished, replaced once more by a vicious look. Moyong Byeong immediately pulled his sword out of the floor and swung with all his might, this time aiming for Dong Bongsu's side.

But then!

The closer the fiercely sweeping sword came to Dong Bongsu's body, the slower it moved. Then, at a certain point, it stopped altogether.

"G-graaah!"

He poured every last ounce of strength into driving the sword onward, but it would go no farther. Earlier, it had slid aside as though he had struck a slippery rock. Now it wouldn't budge, as though embedded in a thousand-year-old boulder.

"Useful."

Dong Bongsu spoke in an utterly ordinary, almost languid voice.

"Grr, grr!"

Adding even the strength he used on the privy to every last ounce he possessed, Moyong Byeong barely managed to pull his sword out of 'empty air.' Strange as that description might sound, it was exactly what the spectators saw. With all his might, he was hauling free a sword that had been 'embedded' in the empty space beside Dong Bongsu. If Moyong Byeong was acting, the greatest performer in the Central Plains would have to surrender his title to him at once.

"Hah, hah..."

All he had done was pull a sword out of empty air, yet his entire body was drenched in sweat and his breathing had become indescribably ragged.

"Damn it! What is this? Sorcery?"

A curse burst from Moyong Byeong's usually courteous lips. That was how absurd and bewildering this was. He had never seen or heard of martial arts like this. No, he couldn't even tell whether it was martial arts at all. No, no—it had to be sorcery. Otherwise, the martial arts he had spent his entire life cultivating would become a joke.

Perhaps...

The same would go for everyone here.

People naturally feared what was different or unknown. They had when science first emerged, and they did when first confronted with a monster like him.

Dong Bongsu was merely experimenting in various ways with the martial art he had discovered: the Super True Qi Field.

It differed a little from what others knew. He had simply opened a new path unknown to them.

"Damn it!"

Having recovered some of his stamina during that brief respite, Moyong Byeong roared and charged at Dong Bongsu again.

SWISH, SWISH! SHH, SHH, SHH!

Heaven's Net Sword Art, First Move: Casting Five Nets.

Heaven's Net Sword Art, Second Move: Shrouding Heaven, Darkening the World.

...

...

...

...

...

He slumped to the ground.

"..."