Chapter 101
Ugly Eighth Pig Monster, Bang Dong-yeong.
I had never met him personally, but I had heard his name from time to time when I accompanied Eom Papa out into the martial world.
‘I heard he’s absolutely obsessed with women.’
That ugly pig of a man was so obsessed with women that he went around harming them.
Whenever Ugly Eighth Pig Monster saw a woman who was even a little pretty or caught his fancy, he would obtain her by whatever means necessary. Then he would play with her as he pleased, and once he grew tired of her, he would either kill her or sell her off.
Countless women had lost their lives at his hands. Unable to stand by and watch his atrocities any longer, a master personally stepped forward and dealt with Ugly Eighth Pig Monster. After that, he could no longer be seen in the martial world.
I had thought he had probably died, or that even if he had barely survived, he must have become an invalid…
‘To think he was acting as the chieftain of a stronghold here.’
“Come here, Sohyang.”
Suddenly, Ugly Eighth Pig Monster… no, Bang Cheong-seung, who was now the chieftain of Yongcheok Stronghold, held out his hand toward the young lady.
I glanced sideways at her. The moment Bang Cheong-seung appeared, the young lady, who had gone pale with terror, hurriedly got up from the bed and ran toward him.
“B-Bang-nang…!”
Grab.
Then she threw herself into Bang Cheong-seung’s arms.
Watching that, I clicked my tongue.
‘She runs pretty well…’
She said her leg was injured.
Had everything been a lie from the very beginning to the very end? Her strangely shadowed expression bothered me a little, but I wasn’t in a position to worry about such things.
‘I need to take the medicine quickly.’
While Bang Cheong-seung’s attention was on the young lady, I quickly rummaged inside my clothes and pulled out a pill.
It was an antidote Eom Papa had given me. This antidote was effective against most poisons, but its effects took a very long time to circulate. On top of that, since I could no longer use my internal energy to accelerate its effects, it would take even longer.
‘I needed to stall for time…’
Pretending to lower my head, I quickly tossed the pill into my mouth.
Just then, Bang Cheong-seung’s gaze turned toward me.
“Flower-Glutton, we finally meet.”
Without showing any sign of panic, I smiled brightly and replied,
“I’m honored to meet you as well. I never expected to see you here, Senior Ugly Eighth Pig Monster.”
Bang Cheong-seung asked with interest,
“Oh-ho, you know who I am?”
“Of course. How could I not know the man who was once famous as a lecher? Thanks to you, this junior has had to shoulder even your scandalous reputation. I don’t know how I’m supposed to repay such a favor.”
Even though I had no personal grudge against him, that didn’t mean I hadn’t suffered because of him.
I had been lumped together with him as a lecher and consequently treated with excessive suspicion. No wonder whenever people heard that an ugly man was obsessed with women, every single one of them immediately hated him…
‘It was all because of that bastard.’
Whether he understood my words in that way or not, Bang Cheong-seung suddenly burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahahaha! Why make such a fuss over something like that? You should be proud of it. It’s only those good-for-nothing bastards who point fingers and call it a scandal. For a real man, what’s so strange about seducing a few women?”
“Is that so?”
“Of course, of course. I had days like that once. If I saw a woman I liked, I’d grab her and have some fun, then once I got tired of her, I’d find another woman. Women would tremble in fear just hearing my name. Those were good days…”
“……”
“But then it was all ruined.”
In an instant, Bang Cheong-seung sharply raised his eyes. Then he pointed a finger at me and roared.
“You ruined everything, Flower-Glutton!”
I asked incredulously,
“What exactly did I ruin?”
“You really don’t know what I mean? You took everything away from me, didn’t you? My reputation, the achievements I had built, even the attention the women used to give me… You took all of it!”
“What?”
“Now the women only talk about you. As if I had never even existed, they’ve forgotten my nickname and only talk about you. Wherever I go, every woman is saying the same thing. Flower-Glutton, Flower-Glutton, Flower-Glutton, Flower-Glutton…”
“…”
“They just keep blabbering about Flower-Glutton, Flower-Glutton! Do you know how humiliating that is? Do you know what it feels like to have all the women’s attention stolen from you?!”
‘How the hell would I know?’
Though I found the whole thing utterly absurd, I still took a step backward.
Bang Cheong-seung had already pushed the young lady away from his arms and was beginning to approach me.
Clank.
Bang Cheong-seung raised his hand and pulled out the chained iron mace strapped to his back. A long chain was attached to a short club, and a large iron weight hung from the end of the chain.
Bang Cheong-seung continued muttering.
“At some point, just hearing that nickname would make my chest feel suffocated, and I’d be tormented by the urge to tear you apart. No matter how many birds I caught and killed, my anger wouldn’t subside. I thought that this time, I really had to catch the real thing…”
“So you spread the rumors?”
“That’s right. Honestly, I was surprised. No matter how weak Flower-Glutton is to beautiful women, I never expected you to get caught this easily. But thanks to that…”
Thud.
Suddenly, Bang Cheong-seung stopped in place. I lowered my body slightly at the same time.
Bang Cheong-seung grinned, exposing his yellow teeth.
“I can kill you!”
Whoosh!
At the same moment, Bang Cheong-seung shot forward. His speed was completely at odds with his enormous body.
Since I had been preparing myself as well, I immediately dodged to the side.
Crash!
The spot where I had been standing was smashed to pieces by a hair’s breadth.
He had swung it with such tremendous force that the floor caved in and dust scattered everywhere. My blood ran cold, but another iron weight was already flying in from the side, so I hurriedly moved my feet.
‘Damn it.’
It would still take time for the Sanggong Poison to be neutralized.
‘And to do that, I had to stall for time…’
Just as the iron weight came flying toward my head, I hurriedly ducked. At the same time, another iron weight came sweeping toward my shoulder from the other side.
“Haaah!”
Suddenly, Paeng Ga sprang out from behind Bang Cheong-seung. He swung his sword toward Bang Cheong-seung’s back.
“Paeng Ga!”
“Brother Paeng!”
Zhuge Ye and I shouted at the same time, our voices filled with completely opposite emotions.
Bang Cheong-seung hurriedly dodged the sword coming from behind and retracted the iron weight he had been swinging at me.
Zhuge Ye shouted,
“Why did you jump in?! Our situation isn’t exactly good either!”
“Are we supposed to just stand around and do nothing? If that bastard takes us down, we’re next anyway. I’m not going to just sit around and let some pig bastard kill me without doing anything!”
I hurriedly shouted as well.
“Paeng Ga! Don’t clash your sword against his like you normally would! He’ll have infused his internal energy into it, so if your weapons collide, your sword will definitely break. Attack by dodging at an angle!”
“Damn it, you think I don’t know that?!”
Even so, he changed the trajectory of his sword according to my words and brought it down at an angle. It narrowly grazed the iron weight that had been raised to block the sword, sending sparks flying.
“Ah, screw it! I don’t know either!”
In the end, even Zhuge Ye joined in with his sword.
The two of them attacked Bang Cheong-seung from both sides. They seemed to have chosen a method where each of them took responsibility for one of the iron weights.
In reality, the two worked together quite well. Perhaps because they had gained experience while fighting bandits all this time, they calmly dealt with him, with one distracting the enemy whenever the other was at a disadvantage.
But their opponent was Ugly Eighth Pig Monster. A man who had once ranked among the Hundred Greatest Masters under Heaven.
Suddenly, Bang Cheong-seung thrust one foot forward and stomped down hard.
Boom!
Then, with a battle cry, he flung both hands out to either side.
Clatter!
The iron weights shot toward them like lightning.
There was no time to dodge. The two raised their swords to block the iron weights, but they could not withstand the iron weights infused with internal energy.
Clang!
Boom! Boom!
“Guh…”
“Aah!”
Their swords shattered, and the two of them, unable to withstand the impact, were slammed into the wall. Paeng Ga violently spat out blood, while Zhuge Ye fainted on the spot.
Soon, Bang Cheong-seung turned to look at me. Then he grinned, baring his teeth.
“Now you’re the only one left.”
I smiled back at him as well, then threw myself forward once again.
Boom!
The iron weight passed by me again and again. My clothes were torn, and countless minor wounds appeared across my body from the wind generated by the iron weight.
The thought that the thing could smash my skull at any moment made it difficult to breathe. But at the same time, my mind grew calm.
I remembered something Eom Papa had told me in the past, when I was deeply immersed in martial arts training.
“When you venture out into the martial world, you will encounter countless powerful enemies. You also won’t know what kind of unfavorable situations you may find yourself in. Do you know what determines life and death at such times?”
“I suppose… exquisite techniques? Profound internal energy?”
“Of course, those are all important as well. But there is something else that is even more important.”
“What is it?”
Back then, Eom Papa had said.
“An Immovable Mind.”
“…”
“If you can maintain a calm heart like still water, without wavering no matter what situation you find yourself in, you can calmly observe the circumstances. That, in turn, will become the foundation of victory.”
A heart that did not waver in any situation, tranquil like still water.
I stopped watching the trajectory of the iron weight.
Instead, I looked only ahead and began lightly stepping around, as if I had simply come out for a stroll.
Guangjin Sect’s advanced movement technique. Heavenly Transformation Four Symbols Step.
Yin and yang give birth to the Four Symbols, and the Four Symbols give birth to the Eight Trigrams. When another Eight Trigram is layered upon the Eight Trigrams, they become the sixty-four hexagrams.
The directions of the sixty-four hexagrams are also connected to the circulation and transformation of all things, meaning that through them, one can know all the changes of Heaven.
The principles of Heaven were embodied within the Heavenly Transformation Four Symbols Step. And the profound mysteries of the Heavenly Transformation Four Symbols Step were unfolding right beneath my feet.
Boom! Boom!
“Why… why is this happening?!”
Before long, the situation had reversed.
Unlike before, when I had been blindly following the movements of the iron weight, Bang Cheong-seung was now the one following me.
Only after I took a step did he hurriedly send the iron weight after me. Of course, whenever he sent the iron weight flying, I was already heading somewhere else.
His iron weight could no longer even touch the hem of my clothes.
‘Just a little more.’
I calmly observed the situation. Then, while Bang Cheong-seung was flustered, I quickly picked up a fragment of the broken sword and moved behind him.
Bang Cheong-seung was at a loss after my figure suddenly disappeared. His back was completely exposed. I stabbed his Dazhui Acupoint with the fragment of the sword.
Thrust.
“Ugh…!”
But… It was too shallow.
The tremendous internal energy filling Bang Cheong-seung’s body had created a repulsive force, which instead pushed the sword fragment away.
I clicked my tongue and hurriedly moved my feet. As expected, this wouldn’t be enough.
I could evade him indefinitely, but there was no way I could deal a meaningful blow like this.
If only my internal energy would return…
Just as I tightened my grip on the sword fragment again…
“Enough.”
A white figure descended onto the windowsill. For a moment, it felt as though my eyes had been dazzled.
My eyes slowly widened. That person.
That figure fluttering in pure-white robes was…
‘A fairy?’
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