Kwadeudeuk!
The instant Jin Taekyung ripped out dozens of whiskers at once, the Mutated Water God Dragon opened wide its one remaining eye.
—Krrrrrk…!
It could not believe it.
That tiny, insignificant human had torn out its whiskers—with his bare hands, without even a weapon.
It was impossible. It should have been impossible. Even for the Water God Dragon, which had lived for hundreds of years, this was a shocking first.
Then, in the next moment, the Water God Dragon realized something.
The human who had ripped out its whiskers through sheer physical strength was completely fucking insane.
“Baldy!”
Pop!
“Baldy!”
Pop-pop!
“Smooth, shiny baldy!”
Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!
—Gwooooooooooar!
A scream rose from the depths of its soul.
The Mutated Water God Dragon thrashed and howled in agony. For some inexplicable reason, the pain and sorrow surging through it were dozens of times worse than when it had first lost its eye.
It had to get this mad human off it as quickly as possible.
No—before every last whisker was torn out, it had to save at least one!
—Kroaaaaaah!
But despite the Water God Dragon’s desperate wish, Jin Taekyung had no intention of stopping.
Puhuk!
Jin Taekyung drove the spearhead between the scales covering the bridge of its nose, anchoring himself in place, and spoke in a sinister voice.
“Hey, know why you can’t walk?”
—Krrk…?
“Because you don’t have two feet.”
Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!
—Gwooooooar!
“Multiply the number of hairs on every spiritual creature in the world together and you still get zero. Because you don’t have any hair. You just don’t. You don’t have a single goddamn hair!”
Kwadeudeudeuk!
Jin Taekyung’s methods were more ruthless than ever.
Whenever the whiskers flew at him in a tangled mass, he caught them with one hand and yanked them out like weeds. Iron-hard skin split open, and the whiskers—tougher and sharper than Heavenly Silkworm Thread—were ripped out by the roots.
Every last one of them. Not a single strand remained.
—Uooh, uwooooooar!
Even through its reason, now as murky as a sky smothered by storm clouds, the Mutated Water God Dragon was consumed by overwhelming rage and sorrow.
What kind of whiskers were these?
Those whiskers had grown alongside it for hundreds of years. They were companions to its very soul.
They were excellent weapons for destroying intruders who harbored impudent thoughts, and symbols of its power and majesty.
And now they were gone. They had been pulled out as helplessly as weak, useless seaweed.
By the hands of a human far smaller and more insignificant than itself!
—Kyaaaaaaaaaow!
A savage roar shook heaven and earth.
As the master that had ruled Dongting Lake and the Yangtze for hundreds of years radiated its baleful presence, everything around it held its breath.
No. Everything changed in response to its fury.
Krrrrrung! Kwa-gwang!
It was a truly frightening and bizarre sight. Lightning struck without pause from a sky shrouded in unusually thick black clouds, while rain poured down in a deluge unlike anything seen in the past fifty years.
Swollen several times over by the abnormal weather of the past several shichen,1 the river formed whirlpools large and small that circled the Water God Dragon.
Kwaaaaaaaaa!
And in the middle of that landscape, which resembled a minor catastrophe, stood an enormous body towering like a steel tower.
At the sight of the monster, its eye glowing bloodred, the people on the ground groaned quietly.
“Good heavens.”
“Damn it. This old man really has lived a long time. I never thought I’d see something so absurd.”
Jeok Cheongang and Mungyeong stared at the unbelievable scene in astonishment.
They had long known that beings called spiritual creatures and evil creatures possessed astonishing power, but what was unfolding before them lay far beyond anything they had imagined.
A monster as large as a small mountain.
When it swung its tail, cliffs collapsed. When it roared, the world shook in every direction.
And that was not all. Mountains, rivers, plants, and trees held their breath beneath its surging baleful presence, while lightning and water responded to its fury.
Something that belonged in an old, faded legend was happening in reality.
At that moment, a single thought arose in the minds of the two old masters.
Supernatural powers.
Things of the strange, prodigious force, rebellion, and ghosts.
Everything embodied by that four-character phrase was unfolding before them.
An inexplicable being and phenomena beyond the understanding of even two men who had spent long years in the Murim were appearing before their eyes.
But the words supernatural powers did not belong to only one being.
Kwadeuk!
The sound of flesh tearing rang out clearly even amid the thunder and lightning.
The next moment, scales drenched in dark-blue blood poured down over Jeok Cheongang and Mungyeong’s heads.
One, two, three…
Soon, dozens of scales pattered down like a sudden shower.
With eyesight like birds of prey, the two men saw what was happening high above and were rendered speechless.
“Flesh! Let’s see the flesh underneath!”
“……!”
“……!”
Kwadeudeudeuk!
A young man shouted like a lunatic as his hands moved furiously.
One hand gripped the shaft of his spear with all his strength. The other held no weapon at all as his bare fingers seized a scale.
Then he yanked hard.
The scale tore free helplessly, trailing dark-blue blood.
—Kwoooooooooar!
The Mutated Water God Dragon thrashed its enormous body and let out a savage cry, but it was useless.
Whenever Jin Taekyung caught a hint of an attack, he darted like a ghost into the gaping hollow where its eye had melted away. Once the monster’s rampage ended, he popped his head back out and resumed his work.
He even threw in a few furious punches for good measure.
“You fucking bastard!”
Kwaang! Kwang! Kwajijik!
The Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist, one of the five most destructive techniques among the Fire Gate Clan’s various secret arts, combined with strength tremendous enough to call him superhuman.
The monster’s head, nearly the size of an average ship, shook violently as shattered scales rained down.
—Kyaaaaaaaaaow!
The Mutated Water God Dragon was at its wits’ end.
When it still had its whiskers, it had at least been able to attack.
But now that every last one had been pulled out, it had no idea what to do.
Whenever it thrashed to throw him off, he held on with the spear driven into its flesh. Whenever it seemed to calm down, he emerged and tore off more scales.
What the hell was it supposed to do?
Perhaps because it had smashed its head against the cliff so many times, it was even beginning to feel dizzy.
Kwaang! Kwaaaaaang!
Mungyeong and Jeok Cheongang could only open and close their mouths as they watched.
This fucking lunatic…
What is he doing? It’s not like he’s pulling radishes out of the ground…
Both men knew just how durable those scales were, which only made the sight more astonishing.
The crude Sword Energy of someone who had only just entered the Peak realm could barely cut them. Only Force could reliably split the scales and damage what lay beneath.
Those bizarre scales were absurdly hard.
And yet that young whelp had simply smashed them apart and ripped them off.
With nothing but his bare hands.
Did he draw up every last bit of his internal energy? Even so, a human’s physical strength should be nowhere near enough.
What in the… No, wait. That bastard could do it.
Mungyeong felt as though he were dreaming.
Jeok Cheongang, who had watched Jin Taekyung ever since Shanxi Province, found the whole thing absurd—and astonishing.
“What a goddamn lunatic! Hahahaha!”
It was not enough that Jin Taekyung had torn out every whisker, one of the monster’s weapons. Now he had begun stripping away its scales as well.
For a martial artist, it was like breaking all their weapons and stripping away the armor worn over their martial uniform.
From Jeok Cheongang’s perspective, Jin Taekyung’s current insight into martial arts was clearly inferior to that of both old masters—and even below Cheongpung’s.
But his very foundation was different.
He’s simply strong.
As a martial artist, Jin Taekyung was a powerful fighter who had reached the Supreme Peak realm.
Yet even if the internal energy and martial insight he had accumulated over several jiazi2 vanished, he would still be strong in his own right.
It was as though the power of heaven had taken residence in a human body made of mere flesh.
“Is that truly possible?”
Faint astonishment colored Mungyeong’s voice.
Jeok Cheongang laughed with delight.
It was a question he had asked himself countless times while training in the Fire Gate Cavern. And every time, Jin Taekyung had responded with an infuriatingly shameless answer.
Now it was time to pass that answer on to someone else.
“Yeah. Heavenly Martial Physique.”
“……!”
“Absurd, isn’t it? Good. Don’t bother trying to understand. That bastard has always been like that.”
Just as Jeok Cheongang shrugged, Cheongpung spoke with a determined expression.
“Come on, let’s go too. Mimi! Strike with lightning! Whip up a whirlwind!3”
……Chirik, chiriririk?
“Oh. You can’t.”
“……That idiot’s no different.”
Just as Jeok Cheongang threatened to make Cheongpung drink liquor made from a Thousand-Year Poison Horned Snake if he spouted one more load of bullshit, an eerie silence and oppressive presence bore down upon everything within a radius of several dozen jang.4
Gugugugugung!
Jeok Cheongang, Mungyeong, and Cheongpung felt a chill run down their spines and raised their heads.
Goooooooong.
The air rippled.
By then, the wind and rain that had been pouring down without pause had stopped.
So did the lightning.
Everything held its breath.
Everyone on the ground saw the monster’s bloodred pupil, which had been shedding a crimson aura, slowly turn pitch-black.
At the same time, its enormous maw slowly opened, revealing cavernous darkness, while a sphere of water churned as though being sucked into its depths.
What is that?
A single question flashed through everyone’s mind.
Then a shout came from high above.
No—a scream.
“Get out of the way—!”
Before they could even realize that the voice belonged to Jin Taekyung, the three figures shot away like the wind.
Though there were differences between them, great and small, each was a Supreme Peak master and an experienced martial artist with exceptional combat instincts.
They could not discern the true nature of that thing, but they could tell how terrifying the unknown power within it was.
Their prediction proved exactly right.
Kwaaaaaaaaa—!
With a deafening roar, the enormous sphere of water shot toward the ground.
There are many different kinds of monsters.
Some are bipedal, with bodies resembling humans. Others are beast-type monsters that walk and run on four legs like animals, yet are hundreds of times stronger than those bipedal monsters.
Their Intelligence varies just as widely from species to species.
Some are simple-minded brutes, but their insane physical abilities have earned them a place among the higher-level monsters.
Others, like goblins, hunt in packs and employ tactics involving poison and ambushes, but are classified among the lowest-level monsters because of their poor physical abilities.
With monsters possessing such diverse traits, arguments are inevitable whenever the subject comes up—both among actual experts and every fucking know-it-all on the internet.
Even so, when people talk about the strongest monsters, there is one type that everyone names first.
Dragonkin.
Beings blessed with extraordinary Intelligence and physiques.
And the mighty power granted exclusively to them.
Breath.
But why on earth?
Why?
Why?
Kwaaaaaaaaaah!
…Why the hell was this bastard using Breath?
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