CHAPTER: Chapter 22
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Chapter 22
“Now then, shall we go again, Instructor?”
Uncheon’s words were neither mockery nor provocation.
They were a courteous invitation offered by one pure martial artist to another.
“K-Khaha!”
Jeok Mugwang was delighted.
How much had he longed for this while teaching cadets who stood beneath him?
For someone to truly throw themselves at him.
However, what he truly desired was not a cadet beneath him, but a battle against a strong opponent.
‘…I only wanted to leave Hidden Demon Cave behind. Yet after so long, I have finally met an interesting one!’
The veins on the hand gripping the wooden saber bulged like snakes.
“Hehehe… This instructor has certainly been caught off guard. You removed the Iron Weights from your legs. Are you certain you do not need to remove the ones on your wrists?”
“…I am not confident I can receive your saber with my bare hands, Instructor.”
Iron Weights were still fastened around Uncheon’s wrists.
Reducing weight was important, but receiving the saber strike of a Peak Realm master with bare hands and no internal energy was impossible.
“That is true enough… Very well. Prepare yourself. From this point onward, it will be different from before.”
With that shout, the forms of the Mad Blood Saber erupted from the tip of Jeok Mugwang’s wooden saber.
SWISH—!
Along with a sound that tore through the air, the saber strike rushed toward Uncheon.
Even though it did not carry internal energy, it was still the main weapon held in the hands of a Peak Realm master.
It was on an entirely different level from the fists and kicks Jeok Mugwang had used until now.
But that was not the only thing that had changed.
‘As expected… he is fast. But…!’
Uncheon had finally been released from the restriction he had placed upon himself.
Now that he had thrown off the Iron Weights, his form no longer clung solely to the footwork of slowness.
‘Slowness and swiftness are a single pair!’
CLANG!
That was the sound of Uncheon receiving Jeok Mugwang’s saber with the Iron Weight remaining on his arm.
When the wooden saber, swung with full force, collided with the Iron Weight, sparks flew.
As befitted his epithet, the Mad Blood Saber, a blood-red madness swirled in Jeok Mugwang’s eyes, and his saber strikes began to pour down like a storm.
CLANG CLANG—! CLANG CLANG CLANG—!
The initiative in the exchange seemed to pass to Jeok Mugwang once again.
“That is the true Mad Blood Saber!”
“I-I cannot follow it with my eyes!”
Each time Uncheon received a saber strike, the impact passed beyond the Iron Weight and into his bones.
It was a tremendously heavy blow, powerful enough to numb Uncheon’s wrists.
‘Kgh… He is striking steel with wood, yet it feels this heavy!’
In an instant, dozens of consecutive exchanges came crashing down.
However, Uncheon did not retreat easily either.
The two figures traced a chaotic pattern across the sparring platform.
The entire training ground sank into complete silence, absorbed in the suffocating duel.
The cadets merely stared blankly at the clash between the two, even forgetting to blink.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!
The ceaseless sound of the Iron Weights and wooden saber colliding rang out as if it would tear through their eardrums.
In the midst of that fierce exchange, Uncheon’s brow furrowed slightly for the first time.
‘This sensation is…!’
The quality of the impact traveling through his wrists was changing.
At first, the Iron Weights had endured solidly.
But even they now seemed to have reached their limit.
As if screaming, the Iron Weights were giving off an unpleasant vibration.
CLANK—.
After repeated collisions, the paradox was that it was not the wooden saber, but the steel Iron Weights that reached their limit first.
‘To think he can do this much without using internal energy. As expected of a martial artist at the Peak Realm….’
It was a realm where a weapon, an extension of the body, became one with its wielder as naturally as his own hands and feet.
By contrast, the Iron Weights Uncheon wore were merely tools for training.
They had already fulfilled their purpose simply by blocking the instructor’s wooden saber until now.
‘I cannot receive that wooden saber with my bare body. Is this as far as I go…?’
For the past year, Uncheon had lived almost as if he were attached to the Iron Weights in order to devote himself to tempering his body, but in essence, he was a swordsman.
‘…But if I draw a sword or a saber here, it will only invite suspicion.’
The secret manuals and instruction provided by Hidden Demon Cave covered only the martial arts he had displayed so far.
The first one to notice that change was none other than Chief Instructor Gal Muheun.
‘…Ha, what a pity. Is the difference in main weapons deciding the match?’
The wooden saber might have been made of fragile wood, but to the martial artist Jeok Mugwang, it was a saber—the lifelong companion of his martial path.
On the other hand, even though the Iron Weights were made of steel, they were only objects hastily made to meet the bare requirements in a forge.
That difference decided the match.
‘But this is strange. In that case, that boy Uncheon does not seem to be a fist practitioner….’
The Iron Weights were also somewhat awkward to call weapons.
It was a question that had not arisen because Uncheon’s footwork was so outstanding, and because the leg arts woven into it had been so timely.
‘Do not tell me… he has been receiving Jeok Mugwang’s Mad Blood Saber until now with nothing but Iron Weights and leg arts?!’
What kind of absurd talent was this?
He was truly a genius, a talent bestowed by heaven.
A talent unmatched beneath the heavens.
While Gal Muheun was marveling, Yuha also sensed the abnormality.
‘Uncheon… has become strangely passive in the exchange! Did he suffer an injury somewhere?’
But for that to be the case, there was nothing to criticize about Uncheon’s movements themselves.
‘If it is not his body….’
Only then did Yuha’s eyes catch the sight of Uncheon actively using his footwork while avoiding direct collisions with the wooden saber as much as possible.
‘Could it be the Iron Weights?’
Not long after Gal Muheun and Yuha sensed the change, Jeok Mugwang truly discovered Uncheon’s weakness.
‘An opening!’
Sensing that Uncheon was trying to withdraw one step from the exchange, Jeok Mugwang sent his wooden saber flying toward Uncheon’s neck.
It was a strike impossible to avoid.
With no other choice, Uncheon raised his arm and deflected the saber strike with the Iron Weight.
CLAAANG—!
Only then did several sharp-eared Head Instructors and observers feel that something was strange.
‘The sound is different!’
The next moment, Uncheon’s Iron Weight visibly loosened and slid down his forearm.
‘Damn it, the Iron Weight is coming off!’
Without missing the opportunity, Jeok Mugwang’s ultimate technique, Mad Blood Slash, came rushing in.
‘I have you now, brat!’
At that instant, Uncheon retreated greatly and launched his body into the air.
With both hands and both feet floating in the air, he was in a desperate crisis with nowhere to evade.
Uncheon’s figure seemed about to be swallowed by Jeok Mugwang’s ultimate technique.
‘There is nowhere to dodge! Then…!’
Uncheon rotated his retreating body in a full circle.
Then, as if doing a handstand, he planted both hands on the ground and sprang away.
‘Hmph, this is the end. In that unstable posture, there is no way you can block my saber strike.’
Even the one executing the technique thought so.
SWISH—!
Suddenly, something shot out from around Uncheon’s wrist.
Jeok Mugwang instinctively slowed his saber strike, lowered his head, and avoided the object flying toward him.
THUD—!
“Wh-What was that?”
“What did that bastard throw?”
“Was it a hidden weapon?”
What had embedded itself in the wall of the spectator seats was none other than
the Iron Weight that had been dangling from Uncheon’s wrist.
“…That was not a hidden weapon! It was an Iron Weight!”
Senior Head Instructor Yajin sprang up from his seat, seized by a shudder.
“He… he manifested my Soul-Severing Dagger with an Iron Weight!”
The reason Uncheon had deliberately assumed a handstand posture in the middle of an evasive movement was because, in that moment, he had improvised and used the dangling Iron Weight as a hidden weapon.
Drip—.
At that moment, a single red drop fell onto the floor of the sparring platform.
A drop that had trickled down Jeok Mugwang’s cheek.
At that sight, the entire training ground held its breath.
“There is blood on the instructor’s cheek…!”
“A cadet… wounded an instructor who is a Peak Realm master?”
Yuha trembled more than anyone.
‘…He is beyond a monster! A genius! There is no other word that can describe him…!’
What Uncheon had shown was no simple surprise attack.
It was a move close to divine skill, one that overturned a desperate crisis.
Within that single move were not only mystical footwork, but also the principles of Yajin’s flying dagger art.
‘If what he had thrown had not been a bulky Iron Weight, but a sharp flying dagger….’
At that sight, even Chief Instructor Gal Muheun could not hide the greed in his eyes.
‘A fellow like that is a cadet picked up from the streets? They have brought back a treasure from the Central Plains. I always thought it was an inefficient method, but….’
The observers’ seats had already become pandemonium.
“I-I will take that boy! As long as I have him, I do not need anyone else!”
“Now, now…! Who decided that? Our Black Shadow Corps marked that child first!”
“Silence! Observers, maintain your dignity!”
Unable to watch any longer, Gal Muheun personally restrained them.
“The spar is not yet over. Do not cause a commotion. That child is still a cadet of this Hidden Demon Cave.”
While the audience was in a frenzy, Jeok Mugwang quietly wiped away the blood running down his cheek.
Before long, the promised sparring time was nearing its end.
“……You are likely the first cadet ever to wound an instructor. However, this instructor feels no shame. That is how outstanding your skill is.”
Jeok Mugwang had sincerely acknowledged Uncheon.
However, the states of the two were quite different.
A trail of blood ran down Jeok Mugwang’s cheek, but Uncheon’s robes were torn like rags, and his body was covered in small wounds.
“…Thank you.”
As the exchange lengthened, everything about Uncheon fell short compared to Jeok Mugwang, whose Essence, Qi, and Spirit had achieved unity.
Even without handling internal energy, the body of a Peak Realm martial artist was itself a weapon, refined and completed over decades.
It was not something a boy whose body had been rapidly built over a single year, and who had not yet fully grown, could endure.
In the end, his limits were exposed, and the color of defeat grew heavy.
Even so, Jeok Mugwang sincerely acknowledged Uncheon.
“You are not a mere cadet. You are a proper martial artist. I look forward to what you will become once you have fully matured.”
Drenched in sweat and blood, Uncheon’s eyes shone as he nodded.
To decide the victory, Jeok Mugwang brought out the greatest technique of the Mad Blood Saber Art.
‘Blood World Under Heaven.’
A massive saber force surged toward Uncheon as if to swallow him whole.
Uncheon faced it head-on.
‘Right now… I have no sword. This is the best move I have!’
Instead of evading, he unified the principles of the Heaven-and-Earth Dynamic Art, the Limitless Step, and the Blood Wind Leg that he had been operating until now.
‘With the Heaven-and-Earth Dynamic Art, I can wield the energy of nature, even without internal energy, if only for a moment!’
Then, wringing out the last of his strength, he rotated his body.
It was a whirlwind-like kick that reinterpreted Ma Chung’s Blood Wind Leg in his own way and maximized its power.
It was the creation of a new martial art.
“That is!”
At the sight, Head Instructor Ma Chung froze in place as if struck by lightning.
‘It is similar to the Blood Wind Leg, but it is not the Blood Wind Leg! Just what kind of martial art is that?’
Uncheon’s spinning foot met Jeok Mugwang’s wooden saber head-on.
A tremendous impact traveled through the tip of his foot.
However, at the final moment, Uncheon forced his other leg out as well.
BANG—!
Perhaps because its accumulated damage from striking the Iron Weights had built up until now, the middle of the wooden saber burst apart.
“The Head Instructor’s… wooden saber broke?”
“Could it be because of Uncheon’s strike just now?”
The match was decided.
“…I have seen something worthwhile.”
With Jeok Mugwang’s words, Uncheon’s body was thrown outside the sparring platform.
However, Jeok Mugwang was still standing on the platform.
“Haa, haa….”
Panting heavily, Uncheon, who had fallen outside the platform, raised himself and stared straight ahead.
No matter who looked at it, it was clearly Uncheon’s defeat.
However, the cadets did not shout Jeok Mugwang’s victory.
Instead, they cheered for Uncheon, who had shown an unbelievable performance against a Peak Realm master.
“Ah… that was incredible, Uncheon!”
“It was a splendid match! Against the instructor, no less!”
At that very moment,
“…Everyone, quiet!”
Jeok Mugwang quietly raised his hand.
“Cadet Uncheon, what was that final leg art? It seemed different from Ma Chung’s Blood Wind Leg….”
“It is called the Whirlwind Kick.”
“A fine name.”
Jeok Mugwang nodded.
Then he uttered words that shocked everyone.
“I lost.”
With those words, the Black Iron Plaque that had been hanging perfectly intact on Jeok Mugwang’s chest—cracks spread across its surface like a spiderweb.
And the next instant,
SHATTER—!
With a clear breaking sound, the Black Iron Plaque shattered and fell to the floor of the sparring platform.
Uncheon rose unsteadily and picked up one of the Black Iron Plaque fragments from the ground.
With a faint smile on his bloodied lips, he said,
“The spar with you, Instructor… was a precious lesson. I will gratefully accept the Black Iron Plaque.”
Jeok Mugwang stared blankly back and forth between his own chest and Uncheon.
Soon, a mad laugh burst from his face as if he could no longer hold it back.
“K-Khaha! Yes, the Black Iron Plaque is yours! A man like you is fully qualified to receive it!”
Everyone in the training ground witnessed the birth of a new legend.
“Th-The Black Iron Plaque!”
“What happens in a case like this?”
The cadets looked back and forth between Uncheon, who had fallen outside the sparring platform, and the shattered Black Iron Plaque in confusion.
It was at that very moment.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Upon the platform, the Demonic Martial Hall Master, Gal Muheun, who had watched everything without the slightest movement, slowly clapped and revealed himself.
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