Chapter 258

I saw red.

“Where the hell are you going, you son of a bitch!”

If this had happened before, my first thought would have been Why is he suddenly leaving? Maybe I would even have breathed an inward sigh of relief at having escaped the crisis.

But not now.

This bastard beats the hell out of me and then runs?

Unlike me, who was still at the Peak realm, Jongni Chu was unquestionably a master of Supreme Peak. I acknowledged that his skill was several levels above mine.

But to leave before the duel had even been decided?

I gritted my teeth. Ignoring the Internal Injury needling my insides, I focused all my internal energy on my lower body.

“Stand right there.”

Crack. Boom!

I leaped into the air with a thunderous roar. A cold wind slapped my face, and Jongni Chu’s foot appeared right in front of me.

He was close enough to reach if I simply stretched out my hand. One certainty flashed through my mind.

Got you.

Whoosh!

But the spearhead I thrust out with a triumphant smile passed uselessly through empty air.

I blinked, unable to understand what had happened.

How?

Even with my seventh-tier grades, I knew the law of universal gravitation. Jongni Chu’s body had already reached its highest point and was falling, while I was still rising with the momentum of my leap.

He had unquestionably been close enough for me to grab his ankle with my bare hand.

But captivated by that certainty, I had overlooked one crucial fact.

Martial artists—and Supreme Peak masters in particular—were beings who shattered common sense.

“What the hell…”

A curse escaped through my parted lips. The sight unfolding before my eyes was that shocking.

Papapapat!

He was stepping on the air.

On empty space, where there were no walls or branches.

As though invisible stairs had appeared beneath his feet, Jongni Chu stepped on the air and soared higher. And higher still.

Stepping on Empty Air…

What the actual fuck? How was I supposed to catch him?

I muttered a curse inwardly as my falling field of vision took in the faces of the people thrown into confusion below.

Among them stood a tiny old man whose eyes shone coldly.

“You bastard! How dare you run!”

The Fire King, Jeok Cheongang.

Along with his roar, which shook the heavens, red rays shot from his wrinkled hand. A sword carrying Extreme Yang internal energy crossed dozens of zhang in an instant and struck its target.

Rumble-rumble-boom!

The trembling air and flash of light that erupted in midair stabbed at my retinas. When I opened my eyes again, I saw Jongni Chu falling.

No. I had to correct myself.

That isn’t falling.

Unfortunately, unlike my previous prediction, I was right this time.

Jeok Cheongang’s muffled groan was the proof, and Jongni Chu’s body shooting away like an arrow was the result.

He blocked it.

Jongni Chu had not only blocked Jeok Cheongang’s sword. He had also used the enormous internal energy contained in it as propulsion, accelerating toward the direction he wanted.

It was an astonishingly clever and efficient choice—one that was difficult to believe he had made in that brief instant.

Screeeeeech!

Nothing could stop Jongni Chu as he shot through the sky like a meteor from that dizzying height.

Tap.

At the same moment I landed on the devastated dueling platform after personally experiencing the law of universal gravitation, Jeok Cheongang’s furious voice rang out.

“What are you doing? Chase that bastard immediately!”

The whole thing had happened so suddenly. Only when Jeok Cheongang’s shout rang out did the leaders in the seats of honor finally realize what was happening and spring into action.

“Capture Jongni Chu, the Always-Victorious Sword!”

“Seize the Demonic Cult spy plotting some vile scheme! Whoever captures him, dead or alive, will receive a great reward!”

The Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families. On top of them, influential sects that wielded considerable power in their respective provinces.

Everyone gathered here was a key figure who moved the Murim.

Naturally, their attendants were all renowned Peak masters as well.

“Yes, sir!”

Hundreds of martial artists scattered in every direction. At their head were Jeok Cheongang, me, the Thunderbolt Saber King, and several other leaders.

Screeeeeech!

We raced ahead of everyone else. I could not keep pace with Jeok Cheongang, who had mastered the Fire Gate Clan’s signature movement technique, Flamefire Path, to the ninth stage, but I was fast enough to follow while keeping his back in sight.

If you don’t have teeth, use your gums.

Although my movement-technique realm was low and my martial arts were still lingering at the very edge of the Peak realm, my physical abilities had already broken free of their limits. That made it possible.

“How’s your Internal Injury?”

“I can endure it.”

I nodded at Jeok Cheongang’s voice through the fierce wind.

At that moment—

Ding.

System

• Under the rules, ???, who left the dueling platform first, has been recorded as an out-of-bounds loss!

• Quest, Star-Array Grand Banquet, completed successfully!

• Great Achievement, Star-Array Grand Banquet Victory, achieved!

• Rewards will be distributed according to the participants’ caliber and the difficulty of the competition!

• You have obtained a vast amount of EXP and Fame, as well as additional Points!

• Level up!

• Level up!

• Level up!

.

.

.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

As the System notifications relentlessly pierced my ears, the changes began.

Vitality filled my exhausted body, and the Internal Injury that had been stabbing at my lungs was completely healed. The fire dragon in my dantian, which had lost its strength after our all-out exchange, writhed like a dragon and spread through my limbs and every part of my body.

I never expected to win the Star-Array Grand Banquet like this.

But I was not given even a moment to check the System messages.

Finding Jongni Chu, who had disappeared ahead of us, was the priority.

“Damn it. I don’t know what kind of bastard he is, but he sure is fast.”

As Myriad-Mile Pursuit, the Beggars’ Sect Leader and a master of movement techniques, had said, Jongni Chu was absurdly fast.

Jongni Chu’s figure had already vanished from everyone’s sight a long time ago. Jeok Cheongang rapidly issued orders.

“We’ll lose him if we continue like this. The Beggars’ Sect will take the west. The Kunlun Sect and the rest of you cover everything in between.”

“Yes, Great Hero Jeok.”

“Understood.”

Papapat!

The Sect Leaders of the Beggars’ Sect and Kunlun Sect—two sects renowned for their movement techniques—disappeared with their disciples in tow. Jeok Cheongang then turned his gaze toward the Thunderbolt Saber King.

“You take the east.”

“Then what about here?”

“I’ll handle it.”

The Thunderbolt Saber King spoke with a grim expression.

“Be careful. That bastard calling himself the Always-Victorious Sword… You’ll have a hard time handling him alone.”

A hard time handling him?

Those words had come from the Thunderbolt Saber King, a man whose pride was so fierce that no one could surpass him in that regard.

In other words, Jongni Chu was comparable to the Ten Kings—or perhaps even stronger.

Jongni Chu was that powerful?

How had someone so young reached such a realm?

He was a monster among monsters. As I swallowed my surprise, Jeok Cheongang snorted.

“That only applies to weaklings like you. You shouldn’t lump this old man in with you.”

He spoke as though he were joking, but it was obvious that he had not dismissed the Thunderbolt Saber King’s words.

Despite the corners of his mouth being raised, Jeok Cheongang’s eyes had turned cold and still.

“That’s enough grumbling. Go.”

“Damn it. Even the heavens are heartless. Why did Hong Dao, that damn monk, have to disappear at a time like this?”

After leaving behind a single lament, the Thunderbolt Saber King turned away and vanished from sight.

Now only Jeok Cheongang and I remained.

We continued moving at high speed, leaping over and passing through the hundreds of buildings stretching endlessly before us as we exchanged words.

“When you find him, do not act rashly. Understood?”

“I can’t promise that. I have a score to settle.”

“Jongni Chu is a master you cannot fight. Do not step forward until I give you permission.”

“Just how strong is he?”

After a brief silence, Jeok Cheongang’s lips parted.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean by that…?”

“Even with my eyes, I could not determine what martial arts he had learned or what realm he had reached.”

“…”

After the famously proud Thunderbolt Saber King, even Jeok Cheongang—who was counted among the very strongest of the Ten Kings in terms of martial power—had given that answer.

I was licking my parched lips when—

Kwoooong!

Far away, a dust cloud rose with a thunderous roar. The screams of people and the shrill sounds of whistles rang out from every direction, announcing the appearance of an enemy.

I opened my senses wide and took in the information.

West. More than five hundred zhang away.

That was the direction of the Beggars’ Sect.

It was also close enough to reach within a few breaths if I used my movement technique with all my strength.

“Master!”

“I know.”

Boom!

Jeok Cheongang and I shot forward like cannonballs.

The scenery around us began to change as it blurred past with every step. The pavilions that had stretched endlessly across the area grew fewer one by one, and tall city walls came into view.

The harder we ran against the fierce pressure of the wind, the heavier my chest felt.

What is this feeling?

Could it be the pressure of facing Jongni Chu again?

I glanced sideways. Jeok Cheongang’s expression had hardened. The emotion etched across his face was unmistakable foreboding.

A moment later, we discovered the source of that inexplicable feeling.

“Chase that bastard!”

“Master! Please come to your senses, Master!”

A massive pit more than thirty zhang wide.

Between the gathered disciples of the Beggars’ Sect, a blood-soaked Buddhist robe came into view.

A wrinkled hand trembled intermittently. Beneath the two severed legs, a pool of blood had gathered, and prayer beads stained red with their owner’s blood floated across its surface.

“…Damn monk?”

Jeok Cheongang’s steps stopped dead when he saw his friend.

Jeok Cheongang’s vision went hazy.

Their last conversation echoed endlessly in his ears.

“Something came up. I need to step away for a while.”

“Now?”

“I’ll take care of it and be right back.”

“Is it something small or something serious?”

“Amitabha. As Shakyamuni said, if you resolve the greater matter first, the smaller matter will resolve itself.”

“That damn Amitabha. This is why people call you a damn monk.”

“What does it matter whether I’m a Buddha or a damn monk? Ha-ha-ha.”

He remembered clearly how Hong Dao had left half a shichen ago with a laugh.

But why…

Why are you lying here like this?

Splash.

Mud and bloodwater splashed through the air. The Beggars’ Sect disciples surrounding the fallen old monk hurriedly stepped aside and bowed their heads.

“G-Great Hero Jeok!”

“Our Sect Leader is pursuing Jongni Chu. B-but when we arrived, it was already too late…”

“Move.”

The voice that slipped through Jeok Cheongang’s lips was dry as spent ash.

Every sound stopped. It was as though the world itself had frozen.

His senses were already focused on only one person.

“I’m here.”

It was the same greeting as always. But instead of a sly voice, a strained cough answered him.

Cough. Cough.

The Dharma King Hong Dao’s chest heaved as black blood welled from the corner of his mouth.

A grave Internal Injury. Blood mixed with fragments of his organs had come out, so there was no need to examine him to know what condition his insides were in.

“Well, well. Your friend has come to visit, and you couldn’t even wait for me before lying down again?”

Jeok Cheongang spoke calmly as he dropped down beside Hong Dao.

He grasped the blood-soaked old monk’s wrist and sent internal energy into him. His suspicions became reality.

Beyond saving.

That grim, heavy verdict filled Jeok Cheongang’s mind.

“Do you remember when we first met? Back when we fought Demonic Cult bastards in Gansu almost every day?”

Did Hong Dao hear him? Could he even hear him?

Everyone shared the same question, but Jeok Cheongang paid it no mind and continued speaking.

“At first, I wondered what kind of damn monk you were. But they say even dislike can become affection, and when the time came to part with you, I found myself reluctant.”

Although he had never once said it aloud, Hong Dao was the only friend Jeok Cheongang had ever opened his heart to in his entire life.

To his own Master, he had to be a reliable Disciple. To the first Disciple he would later accept, he had to become a dependable Master.

But with Hong Dao, it was different.

When he was with Hong Dao, he did not have to be anyone’s anything. He could simply be Jeok Cheongang, an ordinary human being.

“Did you know?”

Jeok Cheongang sent internal energy into Hong Dao’s Mingmen acupoint and spoke in a low voice.

“You’re my best friend.”

The breath that had been so weak it seemed ready to stop at any moment eased. The eyelids that looked as though they would remain closed forever finally opened a sliver.

A final rally.

Jeok Cheongang looked into Hong Dao’s gray eyes as the last flame of life rose within them.

“Speak. Anything is fine.”

Hong Dao’s blood-drenched lips moved faintly. Jeok Cheongang pressed his ear to Hong Dao’s mouth to hear his final words, and his expression changed from moment to moment.

Anger. Shock. The realization of something.

And the final emotion to appear was sorrow.

Slowly. Then with a soft thud.

The voice mixed with coughing fell silent. The chest that had been heaving and the eyelids that had been trembling both settled peacefully.

Hong Dao closed his eyes as though he had fallen asleep, a satisfied smile still resting at the corners of his mouth.

Jeok Cheongang stared at him for a long moment before opening his mouth.

“We’re going to Shaolin.”

His voice boiled like molten lava.