Chapter 126. Dong Bong-su vs Paeng Ho-ryu (2)
Moreover, that wasn't the end!
Kiring, kiring.
The Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade let out a resonant vibration. Then, at some point, Paeng Ho-ryu's entire body began to tremble as if he had caught malaria.
"Keuk!"
Paeng Ho-ryu let out a shallow groan and stumbled backward. If things went wrong, he felt as if he might lose control of the Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade. It even felt like it might break. If that state had continued even for a moment longer, that would surely have happened. Going further, even his limbs and body might have been torn apart.
Super Resonance.
It was a phenomenon that occurred when the waveforms of the Super True Energy Wave and the blade wave converged to almost the same frequency.
A thin line of blood was flowing from the corner of Paeng Ho-ryu's mouth. Because of the resonance phenomenon of the Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade, his insides had been shaken as well.
However, it wasn't only Paeng Ho-ryu.
Faint traces of blood could also be seen outside Dong Bong-su's lips. It was the result of forcing his true energy too hard. For the first time, he had suffered a proper internal injury.
Although he had found a new way to operate the Super True Energy Field, it was still a technique that came with a burden.
"What kind of martial art is this?"
Paeng Ho-ryu asked.
"Super True Energy Resonance."
Dong Bong-su answered.
Paeng Ho-ryu didn't know what that was, but for some reason, he thought it suited it.
"Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade, 1st form, Ranging the Four Seas."
Even though no one had asked, Paeng Ho-ryu told him the form he had just used.
He just felt like doing so. The opponent was someone who was more than qualified to be the first opponent of the blade art he had created.
At that moment, Dong Bong-su's indifferent voice reached his ears.
"This is the martial arena."
A short sentence.
Paeng Ho-ryu immediately realized its meaning. He had said it earlier to Murong Bing. On the martial arena, words were useless.
That's right. This was the martial arena. Here, the mouth was useless.
When the sword asks... the blade answers, and that's enough.
"Hahahah! I see. Then come! Hyaaat!"
Once again, the first move belonged to Paeng Ho-ryu.
The snow-white blade body roamed across the martial arena.
And then, five visible blade lights. The Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade occupied the five directions and stabbed toward Dong Bong-su's entire body.
Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade, 2nd form, Five Tigers Shattering Stone.
It was named because it was like five tigers rushing in to smash a huge stone placed in the center.
Pung-peobeobeobeong!
Even though the form hadn't even been fully 펼쳐진 yet, the floor of the martial arena surrounding Dong Bong-su was mercilessly gouged out.
East, west, south, north, and above.
Physically, there was no hole for Dong Bong-su to escape through.
His white hair whipped wildly in the blade wind.
His eyes, revealed beneath it, were so emotionless that they were chilling to the bone. In fact, if he used the skill [Movement Technique] right now, he could escape this crisis in an instant. But he didn't.
Dong Bong-su's Wanderer Sword began to spin at high speed like a top, using his arm as an axis. It was a martial art that applied Timur Khan's Self-Rotating Sword or Mamorota's Great Power Dominating Rotation. But its speed was far faster than either Timur Khan's or Mamorota's. The reason was that, in addition to the snap of his hand and fingers, the Super True Energy Wave was constantly coiling and spinning around the sword.
Wooooong!
Was this what the sound of tens of thousands of bees crying would be like?
Dozens, hundreds of layers of Self-Rotating Sword Energy wrapped around the Wanderer Sword howled violently. The Self-Rotating Sword Energy, which had developed into a Sword Ring, gradually expanded its domain, and soon collided with the Five-Direction Blade Energy created by the Five Tigers Severing Gate Blade.
Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang! Kwaang!
A thunderous explosion, as if heaven and earth were collapsing, covered the martial arena. At the same time, the bluestones around Dong Bong-su and Paeng Ho-ryu all burst apart and flew into the sky. It was enough to block the view of the assembled martial heroes all at once.
In just the first preliminary match, the martial arena that the Martial Alliance had worked so hard to build was completely wrecked.
But that wasn't important at all to Dong Bong-su and Paeng Ho-ryu. Inside the bluestone dust swirling like smoke, they were exchanging blows like mad.
Like a tiger rampaging and a dragon soaring, the dust was swept this way and that.
Was this really a battle between humans made of flesh and cloth?
The martial heroes could only gape and swallow their dry saliva. They couldn't tell at all who had the upper hand. But within the actual battle, the superiority was slowly being decided.
[5-hit chain failed. The player enters Frenzy.]
Because of the effect of [Chain Strike Lv.2], Dong Bong-su had entered the [Frenzy] state.
Dong Bong-su's attack power in [Frenzy] increased by 1% for 1 minute. But....
2%, 3%, 4% ...
It kept rising.
The effect of Frenzy could stack.
Since there had never been an enemy strong enough to block his attacks five times or more after [Chain Strike] became Lv.2, he hadn't been able to confirm its effect precisely. But this time, he found out for sure.
However, rather than being glad that he had confirmed it, Dong Bong-su felt regret that the battle was coming to an end. It had been a fight he was going to win from the start anyway. He had the cheating existence called [Skill].
He had wanted to know where he stood using only pure martial arts without that....
What a pity.
Dong Bong-su learned the emotion called 'regret'.
For the first time since he was born, he regressed.
But...
He became even stronger.
Puk!
The Wanderer Sword struck Paeng Ho-ryu's shoulder. It didn't go in very deep. Even so, that was enough to decide the match between the two.
The defeated Paeng Ho-ryu was smiling.
The victorious Dong Bong-su was expressionless.
As the bluestone dust slowly settled, the figures of the two were revealed to all under heaven. The one who had allowed the sword was smiling, and the one who had cut the opponent's shoulder was expressionless? At a glance, the spectators couldn't easily tell who was the winner and who was the loser.
However.
"I have lost."
That declaration of defeat confirmed the result.
Sreuk.
Dong Bong-su pulled the sword out of Paeng Ho-ryu's shoulder and turned around.
In his eyes came into view the martial arena that had been completely wrecked. Along with that, the smell of Paeng Ho-ryu's blood newly smeared on the Wanderer Sword tickled his nose.
He lowered his head and stared at the Wanderer Sword. Even though he hadn't killed him, the Wanderer Sword had become even darker red.
And then.
"Wooooaaah!"
"The Rising Star has defeated the Hegemon Star!"
He took his first step as a false hero.
***
Woooooong-.
The Great Heavenly Steel Sword howled like mad.
Zhong Zhihang wanted to draw his sword. He wanted to climb onto the martial arena right away. But he no longer had the right to fight in the preliminaries. His preliminaries had already ended on another martial arena, and now he had to wait for the finals.
Following the trembling Great Heavenly Steel Sword, his hand was also shaking.
Was that why? A conversation he had once had with his master on Zhongnan Mountain surfaced in his mind like a trembling echo.
[Do you know what All-Under-Heaven Unmatched is called in other words? Try writing it.]
Zhong Zhihang wrote All-Under-Heaven Without Equal.
[No. Write it again.]
This time, he wrote All-Under-Heaven First.
[Tsk, tsk, tsk. No, that's not it either. Write it again. What do I always tell you?]
[ ...… ]
Since he didn't know what his master wanted, Zhong Zhihang couldn't write anything more.
[I told you it's the frog at the bottom of the well. There is another sky beyond the sky, but the frog in the well thinks the sky it sees is all there is. It only becomes the best under the sky it can see from inside the well, yet it boasts as if it were the best under the real sky that is so high and wide. That is what All-Under-Heaven Unmatched, All-Under-Heaven Without Equal, and All-Under-Heaven First are.]
[ ..... ]
[You're the same, you brat. You're just jumping around like a naked thunderbug in the narrow well called Zhongnan Mountain. Go out into the outside world. You'll see other big frogs jumping around outside the sky.]
[Then what should I do to become truly All-Under-Heaven Unmatched?]
[What should you do, you fool? Do you think going outside the well means that's the end of the sky and the end of the well? Once you leave one well, you're just inside another well. The more you leave wells behind, the wider the wells become and the higher the sky becomes. If you can't contain the sky entirely within your well, then break the well, and break it again. If you widen the well and raise the sky, won't the day come when you face the real sky?]
[But if I still can't truly face the sky in the end, what should this disciple do?]
[What should you do? Then you just do this, you fool. Hahahaha.]
...
….
…
..
.
With the sound of his master's hearty laughter, Zhong Zhihang came back from his recollection.
He raised his head and looked at the sky. It was the same sky and the same color as back then, but it had become far wider and higher.
He lifted his sword, still in its scabbard, and drew a single straight line toward the sky.
"Is this right? Is this how to do it, Master?"
Back then, his master had cut the character 'sky' that Zhong Zhihang had written with the Great Heavenly Steel Sword.
And so.
The remaining characters were Unmatched, Without Equal, and First.
[How is it? Once the sky is erased, isn't it just Unmatched, Without Equal, and First? Hahahaha.]
Zhong Zhihang lowered his head, looked at Dong Bong-su once more, then turned his body and left the Main Avenue.
At the same time.
Yeon Yeong-ha was also looking at Dong Bong-su from the opposite spectator seats of the martial arena.
She was clapping her hands along with the other spectators.
She had seen it three times already last time as well. Back then, she had thought that if she watched that guy, Dong Gwang-cheon, fight just one or two more times, she would be able to read the form of his fighting style... but that had been a misjudgment.
"Elder Noh, did you see?"
As always, Elder Noh was following behind her like a shadow.
"Yes, young lady."
"Then shall I hear your viewing evaluation?"
"...."
He had seen it, but it was the same as seeing nothing. Elder Noh had only managed to glimpse that man's movements; it wasn't something he could evaluate.
"Right, of course. There's no way Elder Noh could have properly seen it. But Elder Noh, do you know this? That guy, Guijeungwi, didn't use a single martial art that he used in the last fight. And yet he still subdued the family head of the Paeng Family."
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