Chapter 15: Peerless. -04
Despite being in a situation where his waist could have been severed in an instant, Ban Hojin’s voice remained utterly calm.
That brushed against the Green Forest Great Lord’s nerves.
Even if one was not afraid, one should at least be tense, yet there was no such sign at all.
What that ant was only one thing, so the Green Forest Great Lord twitched his characteristically tiger-like eyes and raised his inner power another level.
Tok.
At that mont, sothing astonishing happened.
Even by sheer size alone, there was no comparison, yet Ban Hojin stopped the Horse-Cleaving Saber of the Green Forest Great Lord.
He did not rely block or deflect it—he caught the Horse-Cleaving Saber, imbued with terrifying strength and true energy, with an ordinary Azure Steel Sword.
At that sight, the Green Forest Great Lord’s eyes went wide.
“Well, for , this is good.”
Geugeuk.
Having precisely cut off the flow and stopped the Horse-Cleaving Saber, Ban Hojin moved his sword along the blade itself.
With a sliding motion, he closed in on the hilt in an instant, causing the Green Forest Great Lord to flinch and retreat backward.
If he made one wrong move, his wrist could have been severed, so he first widened the distance.
And even after retreating, Ban Hojin’s sword could no longer reach him—but the Horse-Cleaving Saber was different.
Buuung!
It was easily more than twice the size of the Azure Steel Sword, and considering the reach of the arm as well, it was more than enough to reach Ban Hojin.
The Green Forest Great Lord made full use of that advantage.
Kwaaang!
The strike he swung as he retreated split toward Ban Hojin.
No—it only looked as though it had split him.
That was, until Ban Hojin’s afterimage scattered.
“Hup!”
However, the Green Forest Great Lord realized it before the afterimage even dispersed.
There had been no familiar sense of impact from the Horse-Cleaving Saber, so the mont the Blade Force slamd uselessly into the ground, he unleashed consecutive slashes.
He raised his inner power another level and swung the Horse-Cleaving Saber like a storm.
Kkwaaang! Kwang! Jjeojeojeok!
The Green Forest Great Lord’s Horse-Cleaving Saber raged like a tempest.
He pressed the montum and launched a relentless wave of attacks.
As a result, the area around Ban Hojin was instantly reduced to scorched earth.
It was because streams of Blade Force extended from the Horse-Cleaving Saber and swept in all directions.
Gulp!
“B-Brother, will he be alright?”
Still standing at the spot where he had been from the start, Seo Joun, who had been watching the duel between Ban Hojin and the Green Forest Great Lord, cautiously opened his mouth.
His gaze remained fixed on the battleground where massive Blade Force raged.
The sa was true for Seonwu Bang beside him.
At the sight of the Green Forest Great Lord’s Blade Force madly sweeping everything away, he swallowed dryly.
“He hasn’t been properly hit yet. In other words, there’s been no fatal blow.”
“But can you see clearly, Brother? I can’t see well because of the dust cloud.”
“Even without the dust cloud, it’d be hard to follow their movents.”
“You can see them?”
“To be honest, faintly. Both of them are on a higher level than .”
Seonwu Bang pressed his lower lip tightly.
He knew they were stronger than him.
He honestly acknowledged that fact.
But he had never imagined the gap would be this great, so Seonwu Bang was truly shocked.
“Can he win? If they rush in from over there, it feels like we’ll have to charge out too.”
“It looks like he’s being pushed back, but there’s no real damage. There hasn’t even been a direct clash. That ans he’s perfectly avoiding the Green Forest Great Lord’s relentless offensive. If anything, if this continues, the one at a disadvantage will be the Green Forest Great Lord. After all, the one attacking inevitably consus more stamina.”
“He’s not the type to end things by just dodging like this, but I’m worried. It’s not just bandits here.”
Seo Joun’s gaze quietly shifted toward Geum Sangryong, who was calmly reorganizing his formation.
With Ban Hojin’s appearance, the battlefield had fallen into a lull, and taking advantage of that gap, Geum Sangryong had reorganized his lines.
He quietly recalled his warriors and established a formation.
“They won’t move rashly. The fight isn’t over yet, and now our side has the superior forces.”
“Couldn’t they charge in with the intention of dying together? With the mindset that if they can’t have it, they’ll destroy it?”
“It’s not impossible, but until a conclusion is reached, they won’t move. For the First Young Lord, the best situation is for us and the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds to wound each other.”
“Then we just have to hope Brother wins decisively.”
“I believe he will.”
Unlike everyone else, who was shocked and stiff with tension, Geum Hoyeon remained calm.
From the beginning, he had never doubted that Ban Hojin would take down the Green Forest Great Lord.
Rather, Geum Hoyeon was thinking about what ca after.
‘More than the remnants of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds, the First Young Lord’s camp is the bigger problem.’
Geum Hoyeon’s gaze turned toward Geum Sangryong.
As the price for underestimating the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds, Geum Sangryong’s forces had been halved in an instant.
However, since most of his core strength—including those he had recruited—remained intact, he could not be taken lightly.
Even so, a faint smile ford on Geum Hoyeon’s lips.
‘They might dare to deal with the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds, but they won’t rashly attack our side.’
The elders of the Gongdong Sect and the Peng Family of Hebei had co here for a transaction, not to support the succession struggle of the Geum Family Estate.
Moreover, Geum Hoyeon’s camp included the Seonwu Family and the Seo Family Estate.
Since they all belonged to the Orthodox Martial World, no matter if it was the Peng Family of Hebei or the Gongdong Sect, using assassins was impossible.
That was, unless there was proper justification.
‘On top of that, Great Hero Ban is a disciple of Damhyeon, the Abbot of Shaolin.’
And there was Ban Hojin as well.
Even if he beca unable to fight because he was dealing with the Green Forest Great Lord, having seen all this, they would not dare rush in lightly.
The backing of Shaolin would surely exert considerable deterrence as well.
In that case, the battle would have to be fought with only the forces of the Geum Family Estate, and if it ca to that, Geum Hoyeon held the advantage.
‘The variable is the Red King.’
Geum Hoyeon’s gaze moved to the woman wearing particularly eye-catching red martial robes.
Unlike the elders of the Peng Family of Hebei and the Gongdong Sect, she was a wandering warrior.
In other words, depending on her employer’s orders, she could freely join the succession struggle of the Geum Family Estate, so Geum Hoyeon narrowed his brows.
‘Even so, it won’t change much.’
She was the one he paid the most attention to, but only to that extent.
If Ban Hojin won his duel with the Green Forest Great Lord, then no matter if it was the Red King, there would be nothing she could do.
After all, she would not want to beco hostile with Shaolin.
Kkwaaaang!
At that mont, a thunderous roar echoed out once more.
At the explosion that was twice as loud as anything heard before, Geum Hoyeon’s head turned back toward the battlefield.
‘At this rate, I’ll be the one to tire out first.’
The Green Forest Great Lord, who had been ceaselessly swinging his Horse-Cleaving Saber, ground his teeth.
From the mont he had lightly sent his sworn younger brother flying, he had known that Ban Hojin was no ordinary martial artist.
He confird it again when they first exchanged blows.
However, he honestly had not expected it to be to this extent.
‘Where did a monster like this co from.’
By a margin as thin as a sheet of paper, Ban Hojin barely avoided his strike.
But the Green Forest Great Lord knew.
He could tell that this insolent brat before his eyes still had room to spare.
Moreover, unlike Ban Hojin, who moved with concise efficiency, he himself was wielding a heavy weapon, so his movents inevitably had to be large.
And that ant his stamina was being consud more quickly than Ban Hojin’s.
On top of that, he had been relentlessly scattering Blade Force, so his Inner Energy consumption was considerable.
Ssaeeaek!
The mont his thoughts reached that point, the Green Forest Great Lord’s blade montum changed.
He switched from a thod of crushing down with brute force to unfolding his techniques with precision.
Ferocious techniques could decisively send soone flying if they hit, but conversely, they were useless if they did not.
That was why the Green Forest Great Lord changed his thod of attack.
“Looks like you’re starting to get tired.”
At the clearly altered techniques, Ban Hojin curled his lips in a sneer.
Changing thods would not change anything.
If anything, it was like wearing clothes that did not fit.
Soone who had fought by relying on innate divine strength could not suddenly produce refined blade techniques just by changing his mindset.
Twoong!
Instead, it only made his crudeness stand out even more.
It might have worked against a diocre opponent, but unfortunately, Ban Hojin was not one.
“Huh?”
As the Green Forest Great Lord scattered his blade toward Ban Hojin with even greater speed and precision, he blinked in surprise.
A sword thrust that appeared out of nowhere knocked his Horse-Cleaving Saber aside.
What was astonishing was that Ban Hojin, whose weight seed less than half of his own, pushed the Horse-Cleaving Saber away with ease.
No—more precisely, he twisted its trajectory, yet strangely, the Green Forest Great Lord could not deflect it away.
Tung! Twoong!
“Grrk!”
No matter how fiercely he swung the Horse-Cleaving Saber, nothing changed.
Before he could even fully unfold his techniques, Ban Hojin’s sword precisely cut off the flow, and the Green Forest Great Lord’s face twisted hideously.
He did not want to admit it, but he could tell that in terms of technique, Ban Hojin was superior.
Even so, he did not give up.
Woong woong woong!
He still had one final move left.
Even if Ban Hojin possessed absurd swordsmanship, that alone was not the absolute asure that decided victory.
Ban Hojin also had weaknesses, and the Green Forest Great Lord intended to dig into them relentlessly.
“I’ll tear you to shreds!”
“G-Ganghwan!”
Unlike before, when Blade Force had been scattered in streams, now everyone could see the duel between Ban Hojin and the Green Forest Great Lord.
And so everyone watching was shocked.
They knew all too well what the brilliantly shining orb on the Green Forest Great Lord’s Horse-Cleaving Saber was.
At the sa ti, the morale of the Green Forest bandits, which had been tightly shriveled, exploded upward.
“He’s won!”
“With Ganghwan, that punk won’t stand a chance!”
“Crush him!”
“Uwaaaah!”
At the Green Forest Great Lord’s Ganghwan, the bandits erupted in cheers.
Even if Ban Hojin had displayed unexpected martial might, he was still just a greenhorn.
There was a limit to the power a Rising Junior could accumulate, so the bandits were confident.
They were certain that Ban Hojin would be torn to pieces by this single strike.
“Die!”
And the Green Forest Great Lord thought the sa.
Though he had been an unforeseen formidable opponent, the ending would not change.
In the end, the one who would win was him, and with this incident, he planned to thoroughly strip the Geum Family Estate bare.
By capturing both Geum Sangryong and Geum Hoyeon, who were fighting over the succession.
“To think you’d run wild relying on such a crude Ganghwan.”
“Huh?”
The Green Forest Great Lord, who had been arrogantly thrusting the blade strike imbued with Ganghwan toward Ban Hojin, widened his eyes.
He was struck dumb by the unbelievable sight unfolding right before him.
But whether he was shocked or not, Ban Hojin leisurely completed his sword swing.
Then, the unstable, flickering Ganghwan split in two.
Kkuaaaang!
At the sa ti, an enormous explosion erupted where the two blades t.
The already unstable Ganghwan, once split, detonated outright.
“Keuk!”
Along with a blinding flash, a massive explosion instantly engulfed the surroundings.
It swallowed both the Green Forest Great Lord and Ban Hojin, who were closest to it, in one gulp.
Not only that, but a terrifying shockwave swept out in all directions.
Jeobeok jeobeok.
Amid the horrific explosion where fragnts of Protective Energy raged, the Green Forest Great Lord’s entire body was drenched in blood.
Even after raising his Protective Energy, he had been unable to completely block the blast.
Then, at that mont, footsteps were heard nearby.
Despite the explosion not yet having settled, the sound carried a sense of leisure, and as the Green Forest Great Lord turned his head, sothing flashed.
“Kkeuaaaak!”
At the sa ti, the Green Forest Great Lord scread.
The instant a searing pain shot through his left shoulder, he realized his left arm had been severed.
“Brother!”
“What are you doing! Everyone, charge!”
“Just stab everything in—swords, axes, all of it!”
The mont the Green Forest Great Lord’s scream rang out, Jo Yang-hyeok and the Stronghold Masters of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds surged forward all at once.
While everyone else was reeling from the shockwave, Jo Yang-hyeok moved quietly.
Preparing for any contingency, he had secretly led the Stronghold Masters who were still able to fight and aid for Ban Hojin’s back.
“Hmph.”
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