Chapter 311

“Quest accepted.”

Ding.

System

• You have accepted the Sudden Quest Crisis of the Yongbong Escort Bureau!

You’ve really grown up, Jin Taekyung. Now you can even create Quests on your own.

I smiled proudly and extended my right hand. My palm, glowing red with the heat of the Flame Divine Palm, struck the side of the axe at terrifying speed.

Boom!

The deafening impact sent Heavenly Axe’s massive body sliding backward. He staggered back three jang¹, his face twisted with confusion and fury.

“W-What is the meaning of this…?”

“What do you think? You messed with the wrong guy.”

I grinned and looked Heavenly Axe up and down.

This wasn’t the fake Level 10 Heavenly Axe I’d encountered long ago. This was the real Heavenly Axe, a whopping Level 90.

Wow. The real thing really is different.

He was much larger, his face so vicious that it would have been a crime for him not to be a bandit, and his martial arts were on an entirely different level.

The sight of him brought old memories bubbling back to the surface.

I gained quite a bit of Fame when that false rumor about me taking him down spread.

That was around the time people within the Jin Family of Taiyuan began to reevaluate me.

They had mistaken the fake Heavenly Axe for the real one and spread the rumor, allowing me to gradually shed the stigma of being the family’s disgrace.

Damn, it feels like yesterday.

Heavenly Axe glared at me warily as I sank into nostalgia.

“Who… the hell are you?”

“Me? The man who’s going to kill you twice.”

“W-What did you say?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Kill me twice? What kind of bullshit is that…? Wait. Could it be…?”

Heavenly Axe’s voice abruptly cut off.

He stared at me, his face rigid. Then a thunderous cry burst from his lips.

“The Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi!”

“Huh? You know me?”

“I heard a rumor like that about a year ago… No, that’s not the point.”

Heavenly Axe continued in a stammer, the way he addressed me already changing.

“A-Are you truly Young Hero Jin Taekyung of the Jin Family of Taiyuan?”

“I’m not a Young Hero, but I am Jin Taekyung.”

When I nodded readily, startled gasps escaped from all around us.

Bandits and escorts alike stared at me in shock. The gaze from beside me was especially intense.

System

Level 88: Ju Hwaran

Her smooth lips parted slightly, and a clear voice flowed out.

“You’re… the Sleeping Dragon of Shanxi?”

“Hmm. That’s what people call me.”

She stared up at me with wide black eyes, then abruptly gave me a formal fist-and-palm salute.

“I am Ju Hwaran, Young Bureau Head of the Yongbong Escort Bureau. It is an honor to meet you, Young Hero Jin.”

“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you.”

I guess I’m more famous than I thought.

I’d never expected to run into hundreds of people who knew me on a mountain road in the dead of night, thousands of li² from Shanxi Province.

Even less had I expected the most beautiful woman I’d seen in all my twenty-eight years to recognize me first.

Can a person really look like this?

There was no way to properly describe Ju Hwaran’s beauty with simple words like pretty or beautiful.

I was still staring at her, cursing my inadequate vocabulary, when—

“Ahem. Come to think of it, don’t we have repairs to do at the stronghold today?”

“Y-You’re right, Chief. I completely forgot.”

Amid awkward coughs, hundreds of bandits began cautiously edging away.

I turned to find Heavenly Axe and the Green Forest bandits of Black Stone Stronghold slowly backing off.

I waved at Heavenly Axe.

“Hey, Axe.”

His body stiffened.

“…Axe?”

“Yeah. Our Axe. Where are you going?”

His expression was a sight to behold. It twisted, smoothed out, then twisted again.

Rising fury warred with his patience, leaving his face twisted into a ridiculous grimace. Heavenly Axe barely managed to squeeze out a reply.

“I have some business to attend to at the stronghold, so I should be going.”

“Exactly. Why are you leaving without permission?”

“…”

A chilly silence settled over the clearing. Heavenly Axe’s hand turned white around the haft of his weapon, but that was as far as it went.

We had exchanged only a single blow.

But Heavenly Axe—and everyone else present—must have realized it. I was a master on a higher level than him.

Of course, that wasn’t the only source of the fear making Heavenly Axe hesitate.

“W-Where is the Fire King?”

Where else? Sleeping soundly on the pack frame strapped to my back.

I had covered him with layers of fur in case anything happened. No one could possibly imagine that the terrifying Fire King was lying unconscious on the pack frame.

Besides, no one can find out that Old Master has collapsed.

If that happened, all kinds of vermin, including Dark Heaven, would come crawling out of the woodwork.

I concealed my thoughts and laughed quietly.

“Why do you ask about my Master?”

“I only asked because I wanted to meet him.”

“Why? Are you close to my Master?”

“Well, he is someone I’ve always respected…”

“If you ever do meet him, don’t say that. He’ll be offended if a bandit bastard like you pretends to be close to him. He’ll start by breaking three or four of your ribs.”

“…Your joke is in poor taste.”

“Does it sound like a joke?”

Heavenly Axe bit down hard on his lip and rolled his eyes.

His gaze swept over me, Ju Hwaran and the other members of the Yongbong Escort Bureau, then the faces of the Bermuda Triangle slowly descending the hill. Finally, his eyes returned to me.

“Then he isn’t here?”

“What if he isn’t?”

“If that’s the case…”

Swish. Clunk.

Heavenly Axe raised his axe and rested it on his shoulder.

“Then that changes things considerably.”

“Like the way you’re talking now?”

“It was exhausting, humoring a young punk like you.”

“That’s strange. Nothing seems to have changed whether my Master is here or not.”

“That’s because you’re a greenhorn who knows nothing about the ways of the world.”

“How so?”

“I admit your martial arts are more impressive than I expected. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re your Master’s equal.”

Heavenly Axe raised one hand, his face filled with contempt.

At once, nearly five hundred Green Forest bandits lifted their weapons and stepped forward.

The mere fact that the Fire King was not present seemed to have restored their confidence.

“The Fire King, Jeok Cheongang, is undoubtedly a master beyond the human realm. But can you really turn the tide of this battle all by yourself?”

“Hmm.”

I looked around.

There were only a little more than seventy people from the Yongbong Escort Bureau.

Half were caravan porters who didn’t know so much as a single move of martial arts, and even the escorts who would have to fight were visibly exhausted.

By contrast, Heavenly Axe commanded nearly five hundred Green Forest bandits.

They had more than ten times as many fighters. Heavenly Axe certainly had reason to be confident.

But…

“I might as well turn it around while I have the chance.”

“Hahaha! Go ahead and try.”

“That’s the plan.”

The smile vanished from Heavenly Axe’s lips.

By then, I had already crossed five jang¹ in a single step and thrown my fist.

Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist.

Vroooom.

Compressed air exploded outward. The wind split, and Extreme Yang heat surged forward.

The same strike that had brought down an unnamed cliff on Mount Song shot toward the five hundred Green Forest bandits massed together like a swarm of ants.

Heavenly Axe stood at their head.

Baaaaang!

A roar split the sky, sending clouds of dust and steam billowing upward.

Ding. Ding. Ding.

System notifications continued boring into my ears without pause.

These bandits were too low-Level to grant me any EXP. I had neither the need nor any reason to use my spear.

I simply unleashed my martial arts indiscriminately at the enemies beyond the chaotic fog.

Baaaaang!

I tore, struck, and smashed everything in my path.

Blood and screams flooded the shattered ground as it heaved like it had been struck by an artillery barrage.

“Gaaaaah!”

“Kill him!”

“He’s over there!”

Whoooosh! Thud!

Dozens of blades came flying too late and buried themselves in the innocent ground.

Their every movement was sluggish. I could clearly see the exact path each weapon would take.

This is easy. Almost bizarrely easy.

Crack!

My own movements, by contrast, were precise and carried tremendous destructive power. Each time I pressed forward without hesitation, three or four screams rang out.

The panicked bandits could no longer distinguish friend from foe. They simply swung their weapons like madmen.

Shhk! Slash!

“Gaaah! You crazy bastard!”

“W-Wangpal?”

“Yeah, it’s me! It’s me, you damned bastard!”

“Sorry. I thought you were him…”

I whispered into the flustered bandit’s ear.

“This time, it is me.”

“…!”

Crunch!

I seized his neck and twisted with exactly as much force and speed as necessary.

His body crumpled without so much as a scream.

Before it touched the ground, I was already moving again.

Flamefire Path.

The Fire Gate Clan’s signature cultivation technique.

I kicked off the ground and surged forward, a tail of fire piercing the haze.

For an instant, the surroundings lit up, revealing a giant man measuring eight cheok³.

Our gazes met through the air.

“There you are.”

“Jin Taekyung, you bastard…”

Grind.

Heavenly Axe ground his teeth as I stepped toward him.

I unleashed the Flame Divine Palm with all my internal energy behind it.

Red qi streamed from the enormous axe Heavenly Axe brought down with the momentum of splitting a person in two.

A lionlike roar burst from his mouth.

“Die!”

Whoooosh! Boom!

An immense wave of energy whirled outward from the collision.

We were so close that I could feel his breath against my cheek. My cold, impassive face was reflected in Heavenly Axe’s bulging eyes.

So were the broken axe and my hand, which had pierced through the weapon and his chest to emerge from his back.

Fwoosh!

“Ghk…!”

No blood gushed out like a waterfall.

The heat of the Flame Divine Palm had already vaporized it.

Heavenly Axe’s lips, cracked like a drought-stricken field, moved weakly.

“Y-You… just what…”

“Why? You told me to turn things around.”

Shhk.

With those words, I pulled my hand from his chest.

His entire body had been burned and melted after he failed to block the opening strike of the Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist.

Heavenly Axe looked down at his charred-black chest and muttered in a broken voice.

“This… can’t…”

The unfinished words became Heavenly Axe’s last.

Thud.

As his eight-cheok³ frame collapsed, a System notification rang out.

System

• You have defeated Level 93 Bangyeol!
• You have completed Defeat Heavenly Axe!
• You have gained a substantial amount of EXP!

Whoooosh.

Just then, a gust of wind swept around Black Stone Mountain and descended into the clearing.

The pale haze scattered, revealing the scene beneath it. Everyone’s eyes widened.

“This can’t be!”

Bangyeol, the Heavenly Axe.

Ranked twentieth in the Green Forest Alliance, he had been a Peak master counted among the foremost of the countless Green Forest bandits scattered across the continent.

Now he was dead.

The corpses of more than a hundred bandits slain in the melee lay scattered throughout the clearing.

The four hundred survivors stared at me with fear-filled eyes.

No. Everyone who had witnessed the scene was crying out.

“The Fire King…!”

The Fire King, Jeok Cheongang.

Fifty years ago, in an unnamed wilderness, he had annihilated a thousand Demonic Cultists—a martial artist who could stand against a thousand men alone.

The legend of the Fire Gate Clan had been proven through the Fire King’s myth.

And now, its spark had passed to me.

“Choose. Die here, or…”

My entire body burned hot. Extreme Yang heat flowed between my teeth, sending white steam billowing from my mouth.

I stared at my enemies with flames burning in my eyes.

“Kneel. Every last one of you.”

Clang.

Beginning with a single sword someone dropped helplessly, more than four hundred weapons rolled across the ground.

System

• You have completed Subdue Black Stone Stronghold!
• You have successfully completed the Quest Crisis of the Yongbong Escort Bureau!
• You have gained a substantial amount of EXP!
• Level Up!

The cheerful chime announced the end of the battle.