Chapter 262

What awaited us when we arrived at full speed was a scene so horrific it was almost impossible to look at.

Corpses, pools of blood, arms and legs with no owners…

If the Shaolin Temple I had seen with my own eyes a year ago had been a beautiful painting of a utopian paradise, then what lay before me now was a painting of hell.

These fucking lunatics.

They had clearly been killing civilians and Murim warriors alike, indiscriminately.

Beyond the masked men fighting Shaolin’s monks, I saw an old man with a red beard.

“The Fire King…!”

Without taking my eyes off the old man, I asked:

“Do you know him?”

“No.”

“What about the monk pinned beneath him?”

“Hongcheon. Hong Dao’s youngest Junior Brother. He’s grown a lot since I last saw him.”

“……That’s for sure.”

He had grown so much he looked well over seventy.

Just as I was left speechless, the old man’s burning gaze swept over us.

“Are you the only ones?”

Jeok Cheongang answered in an indifferent voice.

“What if we are?”

“Heh heh. Looks like you’ve finally found a place to die, old man.”

“Even if your head is empty, you should still speak properly. It isn’t a place to die. It’s a place to kill—and that includes every one of you.”

The old man’s eyebrow twitched.

“How arrogant. You haven’t changed.”

“Haven’t changed? Have we met before?”

“I saw you once from a distance. I regretted it for years that we never got to test which of us was stronger.”

“What’s your name?”

“Flame Tiger! I am the tiger of Nanman!”

“The Yin-Yang Twin Freaks? Good. There should be one more of you, so there’s no need to capture you alive. Killing you will be fine.”

Jeok Cheongang clicked his tongue.

“Still, you’re one hell of a lucky bastard. You turned around with the Sanzu River right in front of you.”

“Is that really so?”

Flame Tiger’s eyes blazed. At the same time, fist force gathered around his rough, rock-hard fist.

I had expected as much, but the old man was also a Supreme Peak master. He had even trained in the same kind of Scorching Yang Qi as us.

“You arrived much sooner than I’d heard… but that changes nothing.”

Than he’d heard?

For an instant, I wondered how Flame Tiger could have received information so quickly.

Even if he used a messenger pigeon, we should have been faster.

But I had to put that question aside for the moment. Flame Tiger had tightened his grip around Hongcheon’s head as though he intended to crush it.

Blood trickled from the mouth of the old monk, who was drenched in it from head to toe.

“Cough. Cough.”

“Do you want to keep this monk alive?”

“……”

I felt Jeok Cheongang’s body tense.

The distance between Flame Tiger and us was more than thirty jang.¹ Even Jeok Cheongang could not recklessly charge forward. If he did, Hongcheon’s head would be crushed like tofu.

“Put him down at once.”

Beneath Jeok Cheongang’s calm voice, I could feel anger boiling like lava.

Flame Tiger grinned.

“I heard you were close to that bald monk, Dharma King Hong Dao. I guess it’s true. Did he ask you to look after his Junior Brother as he died?”

“Hong Dao was a wiser and more virtuous monk than anyone. His name is not fit to pass through your filthy mouth.”

“He’s already dead, either way. I wonder if he’s crossing the Sanzu River by now.”

Jeok Cheongang stared at Flame Tiger with sunken eyes before parting his lips.

“Keep going.”

“What?”

“I said keep going. Do you really think you can shake this old man with that?”

“Y-You damn old monster.”

Flame Tiger’s face flushed red as he shook Hongcheon’s head.

“You’re saying it doesn’t matter if this monk dies?”

“It doesn’t.”

“What?”

“It’s regrettable that I can’t save him, but Hong Dao did not ask me to look after his Junior Brother. He entrusted Shaolin to me.”

Tss-tss-tss-tss!

At that moment, immense internal energy gathered in Jeok Cheongang’s hand.

It quickly took shape and shot forward like an arrow.

Not at Flame Tiger, but at the masked men who had been ceaselessly swinging their swords.

Kwooooooong!

The terrifying mass of internal energy unleashed from Jeok Cheongang’s hand pierced straight through the center of the masked men.

Like a hungry fire dragon, it rampaged through them, devouring and burning everything it brushed against.

Whoosh!

For the first time, emotion appeared in the masked men’s otherwise lifeless eyes.

Fear and pain.

“Aaaaaagh!”

“Aaaaargh!”

Flames surged into the air amid horrific screams.

Several dozen men staggered away with their bodies ablaze. Several dozen more had already stopped breathing.

The masked men froze at the sight, and the monks’ precept blades and Zen staffs flew toward them.

“We’re not finished yet!”

“Drive out the evil fiends!”

Fwoosh! Slash!

Jeok Cheongang had overturned the situation in an instant. He glared coldly at Flame Tiger.

“If you’re going to kill him, kill him. If not, put him down properly. Don’t try to play the fox when you’re a bear, you bastard.”

“Y-You damn old man!”

Whoosh!

Flame Tiger kept pretending to be a fox until the very end.

He threw Hongcheon at us and charged in close behind him.

His intention was obvious. He planned to use Hongcheon’s body as a shield and exploit the opening.

—You take Hongcheon.

A single thread of Sound Transmission pierced my ear.

Without waiting for the other to move, Jeok Cheongang and I kicked off the ground.

Four silhouettes shot toward one another.

I caught Hongcheon’s body, while Jeok Cheongang leaped over him and attacked the fox—or rather, the bear—hiding behind him.

Kwoooong!

I let myself ride the pressure wave that erupted from the terrifying clash.

After sliding more than twenty jang, I laid Hongcheon down in a nearby patch of grass. Then I leaped toward the two Supreme Peak masters locked in a fierce exchange.

Of course, Flame Tiger was not the sort of man who would stand there grinning and watch me come at him.

“You bastard!”

Fwoosh—thud!

My knee rang with a sharp vibration as it blocked a foot as thick as a log.

But that was all.

The gap between Supreme Peak and Peak was impossible to bridge, no matter how much luck one had.

But I did not have mere luck.

I had heaven’s luck.

The System.

I can take him.

I could not handle him one-on-one under normal circumstances, but Flame Tiger was already struggling just to contend with Jeok Cheongang.

The old man’s only mistake was underestimating my existence far too much.

“I’m confiscating your dentures for four months.”

At my broad grin, Flame Tiger’s face turned red enough to burst.

“You green little brat!”

“You yellow old geezer!”

“Kraaaagh!”

Flame Tiger threw off Jeok Cheongang and charged at me with a roar.

“I’ll kill you first!”

Whoosh!

It was a tremendously powerful punch. If I took that fist wrapped in fist force with my bare body, I would not escape unscathed.

I stepped back, grabbed White Flame from my back, and swung it.

Clang!

The punch stopped with a thunderous sound.

Flame Tiger’s eyes grew as wide as lanterns.

“Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron?”

“As expected, expensive weapons are the best. Isn’t that right, Old Master?”

Jeok Cheongang did not answer.

Instead, his fist, dyed blue-white, was already flying toward Flame Tiger.

Kwoong!

The ground shook with the thunderous impact.

The two fists had met perfectly, but one man’s fist had its bones crushed and was charred black.

Flame Tiger muttered with a dazed expression.

“H-How?”

“Did you think everyone who practiced Scorching Yang Qi was the same?”

Jeok Cheongang spoke indifferently, but lava burned in his eyes.

Heat incomparable to the flames of Flame Tiger surged from his entire body and pressed down on everything around him.

Flame Tiger muttered like a groan.

“The Fire King…”

“That’s right. I am Jeok Cheongang, the Fire King and the eighteenth-generation successor of the Fire Gate Clan.”

“This can’t be… Cough!”

I launched myself at Flame Tiger as he spat blood and tried to flee.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Crack!

My foot came down hard, crushing his instep and driving deep into the ground.

A pained groan escaped between Flame Tiger’s teeth, followed by a spray of blood.

The next moment, two streaks of light pierced into his abdomen as his upper body staggered.

Whoosh!

The difference in realm meant a difference in power, but the martial art itself was the same.

Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist.

Thud!

The Body-Protecting Qi wrapped around his entire body like armor shattered.

A fountain of blood erupted from Flame Tiger’s wide-open mouth.

“Gueeegh!”

They were both Supreme Peak masters, but the difference between them was enormous.

Jeok Cheongang looked down at Flame Tiger, who was panting from his severe Internal Injury.

“Your luck ends here.”

“Cough. W-Wait a moment.”

“There is neither a reason nor time for that.”

“I’ll tell you everything! R-Right, Dark Heaven! Everything about Dark Heaven…”

“Didn’t this old man tell you not to play the fox?”

Fwoosh—thud!

There was not the slightest hesitation in Jeok Cheongang’s hand.

Flame Tiger’s head vanished. His body swayed before collapsing into a pool of blood.

I casually wiped the blood splattered across my face and said:

“Wouldn’t it have been better to keep him alive?”

“You don’t reveal important secrets to a bear as stupid as that.”

“Even so…”

“The bear is dead. Now we have to catch the fox.”

With those cryptic words, Jeok Cheongang turned his head.

More than a hundred jang away, an old man stood perfectly still, watching us.

A short staff glowing with green light was held in his hand.

“The Green Jade Buddha Staff!”

“Yin Ghost Han Su. He’s next.”

The next moment, as though he had understood those words, Han Su’s figure shot away at blinding speed.

Whoosh!

Han Su poured all his strength into his movement technique.

He could feel two auras drawing closer behind him, little by little—ever so slowly.

Damn it!

He had recognized him at first sight.

The Fire King, Jeok Cheongang.

He had never expected that a monster reputed to be among the very first of the Ten Kings would arrive so quickly.

But who’s the other young man?

The question briefly crossed his mind, but he soon erased it.

The identity of that young brat was unimportant.

What mattered was that Flame Tiger, whose martial prowess was equal to his own, had died at their hands.

What an idiot. He attacked the Fire King instead of the Thunderbolt Saber King.

Han Su had first met Flame Tiger during the Great Faction War and had spent several decades with him, but they were not sworn brothers who had pledged a Peach Garden Oath.² Han Su had no intention of dying on the same day and at the same hour as Flame Tiger.

Just a little farther. Just a little more!

His mission was complete.

The Green Jade Buddha Staff in his hand was proof of that. If he reached the designated location and rendezvoused with him…

He would survive for certain.

Because he was a master even the Fire King could not handle.

Flame Tiger. If that happens, I’ll avenge you.

Just as Han Su tightened his grip around the Green Jade Buddha Staff, his face hardened.

This is…!

Another aura was drawing closer in the distance.

This time, it was not behind him.

It was ahead.

At first, he thought it might be reinforcements from the orthodox faction, but the aura he sensed this time belonged to only one person. Its momentum was not particularly strong, either.

Damn it. Things are getting complicated.

If his path was obstructed even briefly, the Fire King might catch him.

Han Su bit down hard on his lip and squeezed every last ounce of strength from his body. The moment he broke through the undergrowth—

“Ah!”

A short exclamation escaped him, and his face filled with joy.

No emotion could compare to the relief of surviving when death had seemed certain.

Han Su called out to him in a voice filled with happiness.

“Blood Lord!”

As though we had planned it, Jeok Cheongang and I stopped at the same time.

Han Su, who had transformed from a frantic fugitive into a swaggering predator, was waiting for us.

“There they are! The Fire King—that goddamn old man—and the young brat killed Flame Tiger!”

No.

Han Su was not a predator.

He was merely a fox borrowing the might of a tiger.

The real predator was the man standing quietly beside Han Su.

It was strange that I could not sense anything from him.

And that made him seem even more dangerous.

Jeok Cheongang, however, was different.

His face stiffened as he asked:

“Who are you?”

“Your enemy.”

The young man smiled faintly before continuing.

“The enemy who killed your most precious friend.”

……What?