Hyeok Ryeon Pae decided he would subdue Hyeok Ryeon Ho.
He would pin him down, knock sense back into him, and then force his return to the clan.
Seeing his father’s intent, Hyeok Ryeon Ho understood he would not be allowed to walk away easily.
If they fought, he would surely lose.
For monts like this, Yeon Woo Jin had taught him a movent art.
Gale Lightning Steps.
Use it when you face soone you can’t possibly match, he’d said.
Hyeok Ryeon Ho began to pour his inner power into his legs.
“Father.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll see you next ti.”
“Next ti? You think I’m letting you go?”
“I don’t think you will. That’s why I’m saying goodbye now.”
“You think you can run?”
“You never know until you try.”
“Try, then. See if you can flee from .”
FWISH—
Before Hyeok Ryeon Pae even finished speaking, Hyeok Ryeon Ho left a mirage behind and vanished.
“Damn it!”
He lunged to give chase, but he’d never seen speed like this; he couldn’t close the gap.
“What movent art is that?”
It was absurdly fast.
“So that ‘great opportunity’ he got—he only learned to run?”
A pity.
Had he known such a movent art was in play, he wouldn’t have closed in so casually.
“Let see you next ti.”
He’d seize him on the spot.
Hyeok Ryeon Pae called out,
“Bi Yeong.”
SHASH—
A figure slipped from the shadows.
“I told you to dig up information on this Yeom Woo Jin. Did you?”
“I’m digging. There’s nothing to find.”
“What?”
“We’ve asked everywhere, pulled every thread—we get nothing.”
“What’s that supposed to an?”
“It ans soone is controlling all information about him.”
He could guess who that soone was.
“Tch. Sama Cheon... That fox moved his hand.”
If Sama Cheon set his mind to it, burying information would be child’s play.
“He didn’t fall from the sky. Either ask every last person in Martial Deity Heaven, or put the Afternoon Gate and the Beggars’ Sect on it—use everything we have and find out!”
“Yes, sir.”
Bi Yeong vanished, and Hyeok Ryeon Pae, left alone, ground his teeth.
“Damn it. What a perfectly rotten day.”
The son who finally returned had co back hostile—and despite his own elder brother being a Little Heavenly Lord candidate, he’d attached himself to the other side’s Little Heavenly Lord.
“Impudent brat.”
The more he thought on it, the angrier he beca.
At the sa ti, his curiosity about this Yeom Woo Jin grew.
Sama Cheon’s disciple.
Sama Cheon wasn’t a powerful martial artist.
He was a scholar who’d learned a bit of martial arts.
Yet no one touched him because he was the Heaven Lord’s only true friend and Martial Deity Heaven’s principal strategist.
To strike at him or his clan was to strike at the Lord of Martial Deity Heaven.
That was how a clan of scholars alone held rank six in Martial Deity Heaven’s hierarchy.
A world where strength was power—and they were the single exception, high-ranked without great strength.
Would such a man’s disciple be strong in martial arts?
Doubtful.
So what would he be strong at?
No doubt his mind would be as keen as Sama Cheon’s.
And his tongue, just as sharp.
At last, the puzzle fit.
Why make a simple matter—have a straight fight and let the winner be Little Heavenly Lord—so convoluted?
To seat his disciple as Little Heavenly Lord, of course.
Lacking confidence in martial strength, he’d changed the board this way.
“Cunning bastard. Knows one thing and not the rest.”
Becoming Little Heavenly Lord isn’t the end.
Until you ascend to Heaven Lord, you must hold that seat.
If soone drags the Little Heavenly Lord down, the one who drags him down becos the next Little Heavenly Lord.
Frankly, that might be the easiest way to take the seat.
Either way, even after you sit, you must keep beating off challengers who co endlessly.
That is the Little Heavenly Lord’s burden.
Well, when the ti cos, who knows what filthy tricks he’ll use to keep the seat.
A strategist like him won’t be ignorant of this.
First things first—he needed to learn about this Yeom Woo Jin.
“So he hid every scrap of information...”
He could guess the effort that took.
No doubt they’d registered his candidacy late because they were preparing this airtight cover.
“Old fox...”
Hyeok Ryeon Pae stood.
He couldn’t sit idle.
At this rate, it felt like Sama Cheon would make a fool of him.
He should alert the other clans as well.
Only then would Sama Cheon be properly checked.
But there was sowhere he had to go first.
“Boy, you can run all you want—you’re still in the palm of my hand.”
He knew.
He knew what Hyeok Ryeon Ho treasured most.
****
“What is this? Where did they go?”
Arriving at the quarters of Hyeok Ryeon Ho’s birth mother, Pung Yer Yeong, Hyeok Ryeon Pae looked around with a startled face.
No matter how he searched, the one person who should be there was nowhere to be seen.
He fired a question at the guards posted there.
“M—my lady left about an hour ago.”
“An hour?”
Damn.
That was when he’d been with Hyeok Ryeon Ho.
She had already guessed he would try to seize her—and slipped away.
“Damn it!”
The room’s belongings still in place told him she had fled in haste with only her person.
Hyeok Ryeon Pae snapped,
“Find her.”
At his order, the guards sprinted out into the streets.
But how do you find soone who left an hour ago?
She would already be gone.
“RRRRAAAAH!”
His temper boiling over, Hyeok Ryeon Pae let out a roar of rage.
“Let catch you—you’ll pay for making this angry!”
****
Jangson Cheongi stood before the Jangson Clan.
He couldn’t bring himself to step in; he only stared at the front gate from afar.
“Haah...”
It was Yeon Woo Jin’s order; he had to pay his respects.
But his feet wouldn’t move.
He thought of Hyeok Ryeon Ho.
What had he done?
For him, it must have been even harder to take that first step than it was for Cheongi.
“Alright. I’ll go in, bow, and walk out. Quick and simple.”
Jangson Cheongi slapped his cheeks twice, then started for the gate.
As he approached, the Jangson Clan guards looked at him.
Faces that seed familiar made them tilt their heads.
Then one of them shouted,
“Huh? Young master Cheongi!”
“Young master Cheongi? Oh—right!”
The guards spotted him—
—and suddenly broke into a run.
Jangson Cheongi smiled.
So they still welcod him as family.
So he thought.
But—
“Grab him!”
“Don’t let him get away!”
“Call for backup! Move!”
“Inform them young master Cheongi has appeared!”
...what?
As n sward to ring him in an instant, Jangson Cheongi asked, flustered,
“Wh—what is this? Why are you doing this?”
“Forgive us, young master.”
“The Clan Head gave strict orders: if we spot you, we are to seize you and bring you in, no matter what.”
“Not just the Clan Head—young master Mugi personally insisted. If we see you, we are to bring you back by any ans necessary.”
“Please submit quietly, young master.”
Absurd.
“Hey, I ca here on my own two feet. I’m not running. So get out of the way.”
“We cannot.”
“If you an it, then accept restraints.”
“I’m not a criminal. Why would I accept restraints?”
“Then we have no choice but to restrain you by force.”
“I said I’m going ho. I’m going to walk in with my head up.”
“We cannot. Those are our orders.”
“Damn it.”
So inflexible.
With brains this stiff and no sense of context, no wonder they were always bottom rung among the Five Guardian Clans.
It was suffocating.
“Forgive our discourtesy!”
The guards charged him all at once.
“You think I’m getting caught?”
Jangson Cheongi’s body slid sideways like a skater.
“Uh—?”
He slipped their ring with such ease that the guards panicked.
Before, doing that would have gotten him caught.
They grew frantic.
What if they lost him?
Fortunately, the alarm that Cheongi had appeared sent a flood of clan fighters pouring out—
—including chief-level experts.
“Young master! Where are you going?”
“I said I’m going inside. I’m going ho!”
“Then please accept restraints.”
“No! Why would I? I just said I’m going ho. Do I look like I’m running?”
How had he lived among people this hopeless?
“Orders from the Clan Head. If we find you, we are to restrain you and bring you in imdiately.”
“I said I’ll walk in on my own! How many tis do I have to say it?”
“Please submit and accept restraints.”
“Hey! You’re not listening, are you?”
At last, Jangson Cheongi snapped. He turned his back on them and headed for the gate.
“Stop him!”
“Stop what? Let go ho and get out of the way!”
“We cannot! Submit to restraints!”
“No! Why would I accept restraints to go into my own ho?”
“Clan Head’s orders!”
“He gave that order because he thought I’d run if you found ! Use your heads! I’m going ho! To see my father!”
“In that case, accept restraints.”
“For—!”
There was no getting through.
Now it was a matter of pride.
“Let’s see you restrain . It’s not happening.”
“Forgive our discourtesy!”
The chief-level fighters rushed him.
They were sure Jangson Cheongi was as good as caught.
But—
THUD-THUD-THUD—
“Guhk!”
“Ggehk!”
—it was the chief-level n who went flying.
“Huh?”
“What?”
No one could process what ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) they were seeing.
Fifth Stage, Transformation, experts were struggling against Jangson Cheongi.
“What is this? Does that make sense?”
“Since when was the young master that strong?”
“How do you do that to chief-levels?”
Jangson Cheongi moved like flowing water, smooth and unbroken.
In a blink, the chief-level n were reversed and sprawled on the ground.
“How lazy have you been to lose to ? Be embarrassed.”
At his words, the chief-level n lowered their heads—
—and wore looks of shock.
To grow this strong in two years—
—it was hard to believe.
Even so, orders had to be carried out.
They looked at one another and nodded—
—then surged up together and charged him again.
FWOOSH—
Chief-level fighters ca in from every direction.
Jangson Cheongi smirked and shifted his body.
“Thousand-Change Chain Fist!”
Dozens of fists blurred from his body like phantoms, spreading in all directions.
PAPAPAPAP—
“Wagh!”
The chief-level fighters flinched and twisted aside, barely dodging as they ca in.
WHOOSH—
In the instant they thought they’d slipped past—
—the phantom fists that had brushed by them curved back.
“Huh?”
They hadn’t expected that—
—and the incoming fists landed square.
THUD-THUD-THUD—
“Guhk!”
“Khuk!”
Groaning in pain, the chief-level n tumbled across the ground.
TAP-TAP—
Looking down at them, Jangson Cheongi dusted his hands.
“Which is why I told you to just move.”
As he turned, pleased with himself—
—a chill ran up his spine, and he twisted hard.
WHOOSH—
A flash of white lanced past his nose.
TATAT—
He steadied himself and focused on the figure’s face.
“Unit Chief Jo?”
The man who had just skimd past him was Jo Bongseok, leader of the Jangson Clan’s White Dragon Corps.
He was an Eighth Stage, Transformation, master.
Jo Bongseok stared, astonished.
“Young master—so you could dodge that. Impressive.”
“Is jumping without a word your idea of hello?”
“Hahaha. I was happy to see you.”
“Another hello like that and soone dies. You’re here to restrain too?”
“Orders are orders.”
“Haah. Can’t I just walk in? I ca to see my father.”
“Could you accept restraints and then walk in? You know our position.”
“I can’t ekly accept restraints.”
“Hahaha. Our young master Cheongi. When did you grow this much? I’m proud.”
“Hmph! Flattery won’t save you.”
“Oh! You’d even consider going easy on ? Then why don’t I see what our young master can really do?”
Reviews
All reviews (0)