Chronicles of the Silver Dragon: Episode 5
“Graaaaaaack!”
Jehwa, who had been staring blankly at the tree, suddenly grabbed his head and screamed.
“My napping treeeeee!”
That tree was one he had climbed to nap in since childhood; to him, it was incredibly precious.
Jehwa’s eyes, which had been spewing cries of anguish, flashed sharply.
“Has this wench gone mad? Daring to cut down my napping tree? Has she lost her damn mind?!”
“What? It’s just a tree, why are you acti—… Hieek!”
Sawollin, who had been about to talk back at Jehwa’s shout, couldn’t help but panic as she saw him instantly close the distance, grab her by the collar, and shake her violently.
“Hey, you rotten wench! Pay me back! Pay me back! Pay me back! My tree! My tree! My tree!”
“Eueeeek!”
Overwhelmed by Jehwa’s ferocious aura, Sawollin couldn’t resist in the slightest and simply swayed back and forth at his mercy.
Seeing that, the Heugwoldan finally moved.
“You brat! Release that disrespectful hand this instant!”
Heugwol, the leader of the Heugwoldan, shouted while radiating killing intent, but Jehwa didn’t even pretend to listen.
In the end, Heugwol pulled a hidden weapon from his bosom and hurled it at Jehwa. He had sensed the opponent’s strength was no trivial matter and thrown it infused with powerful inner force. But…….
*Snatch!*
The hidden weapon was caught in Jehwa’s hand all too effortlessly.
With one hand still gripping Sawollin’s collar and the other holding the hidden weapon Heugwol had thrown, Jehwa’s gaze turned toward Heugwol.
“Hoo?”
Heugwol flinched and stepped back upon meeting Jehwa’s flashing eyes, but soon, as if being pushed back by his aura had wounded his pride, he raised his own momentum.
How could it make any sense that he, an expert counted among the best within the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, was being pushed back by a mere child’s aura?
“Kekekeke.”
But Heugwol, who had been glaring at Jehwa with all his might, gradually grew uneasy at that laughter.
‘Wh-what is this?’
He instinctively felt a threat from Jehwa, and at the alarm bells ringing in accordance with that instinct, he unconsciously distanced himself from Jehwa bit by bit.
“Are you offering to be my punching bags? Well, you certainly have more places to hit than a frail woman.”
Jehwa released his grip on Sawollin’s collar and slowly approached the Heugwoldan.
*Crack-crack! Crack-crack!*
As Jehwa approached with refreshing pops from his bones and a wicked smile, Heugwol shouted.
“He’s no ordinary opponent! Attack!”
With those words, twenty-five Heugwoldan members lunged at Jehwa all at once.
If righteous faction members had seen this, they would have pointed fingers calling it cowardly, but Heugwol never did stupid things like fighting to preserve his pride against a dangerous-looking opponent only to be taken down one by one.
What cowardice or righteousness is there in a fight? The victor is the law!
Jehwa looked at the Heugwoldan charging at him all at once, flashed an innocent smile, and muttered.
“Die.”
With that word, Jehwa’s figure vanished in an instant.
“Eueee…….”
Sawollin, who had been violently shaken by the collar by Jehwa, grabbed her head and came to her senses.
“What on earth just happened…….”
She remembered up to the point where an impudent guy had lunged at her after she cut down the tree he was sitting in, but after that, her memory was hazy.
She must have blacked out for a moment.
Just as Sawollin was regaining her senses, she froze solid at the sight before her.
*Smack! Crack! Thud! Crunch!*
*Thud-thud-thud!*
What she saw before her eyes, along with clear sounds of beating, were black-clad warriors being mercilessly beaten by Jehwa.
If these black-clad warriors were the ones who came with her, they were unmistakably the Heugwoldan.
If her memory was correct, the brat who had just acted impudently toward her was clearly the one beating the Heugwoldan.
And if her memory served her correctly once more, the Heugwoldan was a unit composed only of experts, ranked within the top ten of the Elder Council’s direct military forces, and among them, the 1st Division that came with her was a unit made up of the strongest experts.
What kind of situation was it that such experts were getting beaten by a frail-looking boy in his late teens?
“Wuhahahahaha!”
Furthermore, what on earth was the identity of that devil-like bastard who wore such an innocent smile while beating the Heugwoldan?
‘Ah, he’s a devil! Definitely a devil! How can he beat the Heugwoldan like that? And how can he smile while beating them so cruelly!’
She firmly branded Jehwa a devil.
‘Huk! Could I be the next one beaten like that after the Heugwoldan?’
Just as she was panicking like that!
“Vengeance for my tree! I’ll definitely pay you back!”
Jehwa’s shout rang out.
‘What do I do…… He must be crazy…… Am I really going to die?’
Sawollin was in serious trouble right now.
“Keuk!”
Heugwol glared at Jehwa with wide eyes.
To think he would be this strong! He had expected him to be strong, but never in his dreams did he think he would be an opponent that even the Heugwoldan’s 1st Division and himself, the leader, could do nothing against together.
‘Moreover……’
The opponent showed no sign of fatigue, instead taking them down one by one with an innocent smile.
To see an opponent knocking down sword qi-wielding warriors with his bare hands—goosebumps naturally rose all over his body.
‘Sword qi is useless if it doesn’t hit! Moreover, the opponent isn’t using internal energy at all.’
If he ever used internal energy, they would be finished on the spot.
‘The opponent is letting his guard down.’
Thick demonic energy and killing intent settled in Heugwol’s eyes.
‘I’ll finish this in one blow.’
Heugwol, who had muttered that internally, sent a voice transmission.
—Commander and Vice-Commander, listen! The opponent is letting his guard down. Aim for an instant opening and cut the enemy down with Sword Gang!
Gang Qi was something that couldn’t be used unless one reached the realm of a pinnacle expert, and coating one’s sword with it was called Sword Gang.
The Heugwoldan leader Heugwol, along with the 1st Division’s Commander and Vice-Commander, were all pinnacle experts capable of using Gang Qi.
As they secretly approached Jehwa, the gaze of Jehwa—who had been rampaging joyfully like a wolf among sheep—turned toward Heugwol.
“Bring it on! I’ll totally wreck you today!”
“You bastard!”
Provoked by Jehwa’s words, Heugwol swung his sword immediately.
*Swoosh!*
A dark Sword Gang arced toward Jehwa! Besides that, a sword coated in Sword Gang flew in from behind him as well.
“Wh-what is this?”
Jehwa, who had never seen Sword Gang before, dodged their swords in confusion.
But the swords kept flying at him, and Jehwa, realizing he couldn’t dodge, leaped into the air and struck the blades of the persistently chasing swords.
*Claaang!*
“Guaaaack!”
Spinning in midair, Jehwa struck the blade of Heugwol’s sword aiming for his chest with his palm, the 1st Division Commander’s sword aiming for his thigh with his knee, and the Vice-Commander’s sword aiming for his foot with the top of his foot, then landed on the ground and created distance from them.
“Why does this hurt so damn much~ Ack!”
The trio made expressions of shock as they watched Jehwa rolling on the ground screaming, rubbing the struck areas.
What did he mean by striking swords coated with Sword Gang with his bare flesh? ‘Hurts like hell?’ And that was it?
‘Is he an even greater expert than we thought?’
As Heugwol sweated coldly and muttered internally, Jehwa sprang up from the ground.
“You rotten shade bastards. You’re dead today!”
When Jehwa raised his fists, huffing, the three flinched.
*Stomp!*
Jehwa stamped on the ground and instantly appeared before Heugwol.
‘F-fast!’
As Jehwa approached in an instant, Heugwol made a shocked expression and raised his internal energy, covering his body in Protective Gang Qi.
*Baaam!*
Jehwa’s fist exploded against Heugwol’s face. The impact snapped the latter’s head around, creating numerous openings. But Jehwa couldn’t bring himself to pour down a follow-up attack and instead created distance.
“Graack! My hand!”
Jehwa grabbed his right hand that had struck Heugwol’s face and screamed again, hopping up and down.
At that sight, the faces of the Heugwoldan 1st Division Commander and Vice-Commander twisted.
‘What is he doing? Is he mocking us? Striking Protective Gang Qi with his bare hands?’
The two made unpleasant expressions thinking Jehwa was toying with them, but Heugwol had no time to think such thoughts.
‘B-bare hands…… Th-that too, a fist with purely physical strength, without any martial power imbued, has this much power?’
In Heugwol’s eyes, Jehwa had clearly used no inner strength. Because he couldn’t feel any momentum of inner strength from him.
Until now, Jehwa had been fighting purely with physical strength. The fist that had just struck him was no different.
But Heugwol, who had been hit by that fist, could only stiffen.
This was an attack he couldn’t comprehend with common sense. Such power even though he had covered himself in Protective Gang Qi? Heugwol realized his opponent’s physical strength already far exceeded human standards.
He had struck Protective Gang Qi with a bare fist, yet Heugwol felt dizzy, as if he had been hit by a fist brimming with tremendous inner force.
Then all the punches that had taken down the Heugwoldan until now were punches he’d held back on.
If inner strength were added to those fists, they would all be annihilated without being able to resist at all.
‘C-could it be! Is he a master who has achieved Reversion to Youth?’
Heugwol gulped dryly.
The boy before his eyes was a greater expert than he had imagined.
As Heugwol looked at Jehwa nervously, Jehwa too was lost in his own thoughts.
‘That bastard…… Why is his head so hard? Is it a rock head? No…… I’ve smashed rocks with my fist before, so it’s not a rock head. Then a steel head? Ow, my hand hurts.’
Jehwa rubbed his right hand and glared at Heugwol.
‘The swords those guys have…… are a bit strange?’
Jehwa tilted his head, looking at the three holding swords emitting black Sword Gang.
And besides them, dark light flickered from the swords of eight remaining men among the twenty-five who hadn’t been hit by his fists yet.
Of course, they looked weaker than the three who had just lunged at him.
‘Hmph…… Now that I think about it, when I struck that guy earlier too, a black light appeared on his body.’