Chapter 79: What’s So Great About the Monster King. -01
As if the Blade King’s praise had not been empty words, Ban Hojin stepped forward after sensing his montum.
Yet surprisingly, when the middle-aged man recognized him at a glance, he showed an expression of unexpected surprise.
“Isn’t this our first eting?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Then how did you recognize
right away?”
“The martial robes you’re wearing, for one, and the aura you’re giving off tells
enough. On top of that, your appearance is widely known throughout the Jianghu. That said, it doesn’t seem like you’ve co with good intentions.”
Ban Hojin’s gaze turned cold.
From the aura the man had deliberately revealed, he could feel it.
That the middle-aged man had not co looking for him with any good intentions.
“Sharp instincts.”
“Are you from the Shangguan Family?”
“Oh ho. I’d heard you were insolent, and it seems that rumor wasn’t entirely false. To probe like this right off the bat.”
“Do you really think you could hide it even if you tried?”
“Kuhahaha!”
When he should have frozen stiff instead, Ban Hojin provoked him outright, and at that sight the middle-aged man burst into hearty laughter.
He had never imagined that there would be a rising junior who would dare provoke him like this to his face.
No rising junior— not even the successors of the Five Great Families or the Nine Great Sects— had ever dared act at ease before him.
At best, they only pretended to remain calm, but Ban Hojin was different.
“What’s going on?”
“Who is that?”
“Hmm!”
At the loud laughter of the middle-aged man, the companions who had been in their respective rooms all rushed out.
The uproarious laughter had been ominous enough that everyone had co running.
Among them, only Seonwu Bang recognized the middle-aged man and let out a low groan.
On the other hand, Seo Joun and Murong Cheok glared at him with crooked expressions.
“One of you seems to know who I am.”
“Why has Great Hero Dan co to this place?”
“Well, because I have so business here.”
At Seonwu Bang’s words, Seo Joun, Murong Cheok, and Jeong Iryong’s minds began spinning rapidly.
However, hearing only the surna made it difficult to pin down exactly who he was.
The three of them were also unfamiliar with the current state of the Jianghu.
“Stand back. I ca here because I have business with him.”
“……Hojin.”
“Just watch.”
Seonwu Bang’s pupils trembled.
Unlike when they had faced Pang Mancheol of the Hebei Pang Family, the situation was different now, and without realizing it, Seonwu Bang swallowed his dry saliva.
At the sa ti, he wondered—
Shouldn’t he go find the Abbot even now?
At present, the only one in Shaolin who could reliably suppress this middle-aged man was Damhyeon.
“Just as I heard, you’re quick-witted.”
“You’re scattering such a ferocious aura around; it would be stranger not to notice. You probably don’t want my Master to co, do you?”
“That’s right. But you even figured that out?”
“It wasn’t difficult.”
“I like your personality. But it’s a sha. Because after today, it’ll be hard to see that personality again.”
Paaaah!
The middle-aged man stirred his energy.
He was unfolding a barrier of qi to block all sound from escaping this place.
If force energies clashed, it would be difficult to block the aftershocks, but at least he could buy so ti.
“Well, I think differently.”
“I’ll say this in advance— it’s best not to do anything foolish. If you want both your legs to remain intact, that is.”
The middle-aged man’s gaze passed Ban Hojin and turned toward the four of them.
That gaze was chilling.
He did not bother concealing his killing intent, as though he ant to kill them.
“Can we take that statent as aning you intend to make the Murong Family your enemy?”
“Oh dear. You’ve misunderstood . I never said I’d kill anyone. And it’s not as though you have to have your legs cut off or holes punched through you to be unable to move. So let’s all take this nicely. I know you’re acquainted, but your relationship isn’t worth risking your lives over, is it? Bluntly speaking, do you think I ca all this way just to kill this brat? Hm?”
The middle-aged man sneered as he looked at Murong Cheok.
But unlike his smiling mouth, his eyes did not smile at all.
And the aura leaking out of him only grew more ferocious.
There was no killing intent, yet that made it all the more terrifying.
“I don’t want to make enemies of the Murong Family or the Seonwu Family either. Ah, that doesn’t an I’m afraid. It would just be a bit inconvenient, a bit awkward. I have friends of my own too, you know. Not quite on the level of those two families, but still. You from the Seonwu Family know who I am, so you understand what I an, right?”
“Yes. But I also have sothing to say.”
“What is it?”
The middle-aged man put on a magnanimous expression, as if telling him to speak.
Having said this much, he thought they would surely understand.
In the Jianghu, they might be called rising masters and gain so recognition from enthusiasts, but in the end they were nothing more than brats who had only just co of age.
Handling such brats was child’s play to him.
“If anything happens to Hojin, neither I nor my main house will remain idle.”
“The Seo Family Estate will be the sa!”
“The Murong Family will also have to be dealt with.”
“And neither I nor my Master will sit by and watch.”
“Kuhahaha!”
Instead of shrinking back in fear, the four bared their teeth, and at that sight the middle-aged man burst into peals of laughter that shook the sky.
He had never imagined they would go so far as to threaten him rather than rely provoke him.
Perhaps because of that, killing intent flickered in the middle-aged man’s eyes.
“You’re the objective, aren’t you?”
“That’s right. But when brats whose blood hasn’t even dried yet try to climb over my head, it doesn’t seem like a senior’s duty to just endure it.”
“Then face
first. After that, we’ll think about the rest. Of course, that won’t be necessary.”
“So arrogant just because you earned the Blade King’s recognition. But the situation is very different from the one at the Hebei Pang Family. Ah, do you believe that saying about even a mutt being half as fierce in its own yard? Too bad for you. You’ll be smashed to bits by my hand faster than the Law King can co to save you.”
The middle-aged man did not conceal his ominous aura.
Just as he said, he would not kill him, but the resolve to cripple Ban Hojin instead filled his eyes.
And in truth, he possessed the ability to do just that.
Yet Ban Hojin, faced with the murderous glare of the middle-aged man, smiled instead.
“I’m not trusting in my Master, you know.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. I’ve always trusted myself. That’s still the case now, and it will be the sa in the future. And besides, why are you already assuming you’ll win?”
Ban Hojin’s tone changed.
At the sa ti, his figure vanished.
A perfect displacent and transposition had unfolded.
However, the middle-aged man was no pushover either.
“Hmph!”
Even at a speed difficult to follow with the naked eye, the middle-aged man did not panic.
Rather, he t Ban Hojin’s strike head-on.
Jjeoeong!
Despite it being bare hand against bare hand, a sound like a massive bell tolling reverberated throughout the hall.
Yet Ban Hojin was no less unfazed.
Though he had so attainnt in the Long Arm and Long Leg Technique, Ban Hojin’s true inherited ultimate art was, no matter what anyone said, swordsmanship.
Sreung.
As if to show that, Ban Hojin slowly drew his sword.
As though saying to co at him as much as he liked.
The middle-aged man was well aware of the aning, and his face twisted in disbelief.
Still, once the sword was fully drawn, he thrust out a palm strike.
Wung wung wung wung!
Unlike Pang Mancheol, who had held back sowhat because Ban Hojin was a junior, the middle-aged man showed no such consideration.
From the very first move, he unleashed his true inherited technique in earnest.
As if determined to break at least one of Ban Hojin’s limbs.
Swiik.
A palm force surged forth with overwhelming montum, yet Ban Hojin lightly evaded it.
But the middle-aged man’s palm force was unlike ordinary force energy.
When Ban Hojin dodged, it followed his movent exactly.
As he moved, the palm force moved with him.
“There is nowhere for you to run.”
Watching that, the middle-aged man boasted confidently.
This exchange was not a simple contest of martial skill.
The middle-aged man had co here with a clear purpose, and he had no intention of dragging things out.
That was why he had gone all out from the very first move.
“That’s fortunate. I had no intention of running either.”
With a crooked grin, Ban Hojin slashed his sword.
There was not even a trace of sword force, let alone sword energy, as the blade simply cut through empty air.
Yet what followed was anything but light.
Seogeok.
The massive palm force that had been surging in with terrifying montum, as if to shatter Ban Hojin’s right leg, split apart.
As smoothly as cutting tofu, it was cleanly divided in two.
But that was not the end.
Seugeuk.
As if power still remained after cleaving the palm force, a streak of sword wind slashed across the middle-aged man’s chest.
It lightly cut the exact spot where the solar plexus lay.
“……!”
At that sight, the middle-aged man’s eyes widened to the point they could widen no further.
He could not believe it even as he saw it.
“If that much shocks you, that’s disappointing. The real thing starts now. Try dodging properly. For reference, if you fail to dodge, you’ll be cut. You can’t kill , but I can.”
Sseueuk.
With an utterly innocent smile, Ban Hojin swung his sword once more.
This ti, it was not a vertical cut but a horizontal slash.
Again, there was not even the slightest sword energy, but the mont Ban Hojin’s blade moved, the middle-aged man drew up every bit of power from his dantian.
Then he poured it all toward Ban Hojin’s sword strike.
Wung wung wung wung!
The true energy erupting from his entire body soon gathered into a single point.
The compressed force energy let out a murderous howl as it flew toward Ban Hojin.
Unlike before, this ti it carried a genuine intent to kill.
“I told you it’s useless.”
The leisure vanished from Ban Hojin’s previously relaxed expression, leaving only a deep, heavy killing intent, yet he did not so much as blink.
Though the middle-aged man was one of the Ten Great Masters Under Heaven, the Monster King, he was still only among the lowest ranks.
And in terms of level, he was inferior even to Sang Il-gi, the Bangcheon Sect Leader.
Jjeoeok!
As if to prove that fact, Ban Hojin’s single sword strike once again split the Monster King’s massive force ring cleanly in half.
He had effortlessly cleaved apart even an all-out attack.
“Sword and Self as One!”
“What good is recognizing it now? It’s already too late.”
“T-that’s impossible! How, at that age!”
The Monster King scread as if shrieking.
Because he so often committed bizarre and grotesque acts, he had been given the epithet Monster King, but his strength was genuine.
If it were not, he could never have survived in this harsh Jianghu without any notable backing.
It was precisely because he had the power to survive while doing whatever he pleased that he had lived on and co to be called the Monster King.
Yet now, that very man let out a monstrous cry with a face full of shock.
That was how unbelievable the current situation was to him.
“What does age have to do with the Jianghu? What matters is whether you’re strong or weak. Is there anything more important than that?”
“Hk!”
Unlike the astonished Monster King, Ban Hojin’s voice remained calm.
It was as though he did not care in the slightest whether the other shouted or raved.
Instead, he slowly swung his sword.
At that sight, the Monster King hastily shifted his figure.
Seugeuk.
But he was a step too late.
Even though he exerted his lightness skill to the extre, his left shin split open and blood flowed out.
Had he been even a little slower, it might not have been flesh but bone that was cut.
‘How could he cross the wall at that age?’
The Monster King’s face, moving without rest, was still etched with shock.
Even he, who was called the Monster King and counted among the Ten Great Masters Under Heaven, had only reached this realm well past the age of forty.
Yet Ban Hojin had reached that trendous realm—one officially attained by barely around ten people under heaven—and he could not believe it.
Setting age aside, only the chosen could cross that wall.
‘Then why!’
That was why the current situation was all the more unbelievable to him.
If not for the faint pain he felt from the place just cut, he would have thought it a dream or an illusion.
But the pain in his shin, and the sword strikes surging in once more, told him clearly.
That Ban Hojin had not rely stepped into that realm clumsily, but had firmly ascended it.
“You look like you have a lot on your mind. Are you regretting accepting their proposal now? But what can you do. There’s nothing in the Shangguan Family that you want.”
“……What did you say?”
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