Chapter 418. You Nearly Became One-Armed.
Resting together with the Cult Leader?
An uncomfortable yet awkward, awkward yet subtly speechless stretch of time flowed by like an eternity.
During that rest, short if one called it short and long if one called it long, not a single person joked comfortably. Even I, who was always teasing someone and pondering deeply in search of jokes, had no sharp idea with which to break this silence.
In that silent atmosphere, the Lecher would occasionally let out a sigh, so we often found ourselves watching his expression.
At a glance, he looked to be in a complicated state of mind. When the gathered people kept staring at him, the Lecher finally opened his mouth.
“Cult Leader, may I propose the method for the spar?”
The Cult Leader answered.
“What is it?”
The Lecher said something unexpected.
“The truth is, I am skilled at the Lazy Donkey Roll. It is a kind of habit.”
“…….”
“It sounds a little strange, but I do not understand why the Lazy Donkey Roll should be shameful in a fight. Perhaps because I fought many-on-many brawls since I was young, rolling and crawling are also included within the realm of combat for me. Surviving even by rolling and crawling is more important than dying for the sake of face.”
I added a word.
“That can happen.”
“I think it is a habit that formed because I fought often even before I learned martial arts. Perhaps because that habit remained, I have actually fought the Sect Leader while grabbing his hair, throwing dirt in his eyes, and rolling around on the ground. That truly was a feast of Lazy Donkey Rolls.”
This time, everyone looked at me.
“…….”
The White-Clad Scholar asked me with an absurd expression.
“Is that true?”
“I cannot deny it.”
Eldest Brother chimed in from the side.
“Actually, I saw it. They were not lazy donkeys, but mad donkeys fighting. That was the first time even I saw a fight that made the spectators feel ashamed.”
Could there be any testimony more reliable and certain than this?
The Lecher said.
“So, because dogfighting is familiar to my body, even in this spar, there were often moments when I nearly used the Lazy Donkey Roll even when it was not dangerous. It was an extremely disadvantageous spar for me.”
I responded to the Lecher’s words in a serious tone.
“I understand. Everyone may not know this, but the nickname Shitter was actually born because when he fought me, he really fought while leaking diarrhea.”
“Why are you bringing that up now?”
“It means your words are not false.”
“Why did that have to be the example?”
The Blood Cult Leader asked the Lecher.
“Is that true? How could such a thing happen?”
I answered.
“He soiled himself after being struck by the poison made by Moyong Baek here. If it had been me, I would have already retired from the martial world the moment I soiled myself.”
The Lecher suddenly glared at Moyong Baek.
“It was a poison you made? To think I have only now found the culprit.”
Moyong Baek answered in an indifferent tone.
“Culprit? Of course, I did not know Young Master Mong was the one who would eat it. At the time, the Sect Leader, who was even more frightening than he is now, requested it, so I merely made it.”
Cheonak, who had been listening from a little distance away, asked.
“He was more frightening back then? Why?”
Moyong Baek looked around at us and said.
“Back then, the Sect Leader’s madness was far more severe than it is now. He sent a subordinate and ordered me to manufacture the finest laxative in the martial world. How could a mere physician refuse to make it?”
“…….”
Eldest Brother cut off the flow of the conversation.
“Let us end the stinking talk here.”
Despite being told to stop, the Blood Cult Leader asked me a question.
“Then why am I the Blood-Shitter? I have never shit myself.”
I clicked my tongue and replied.
“Eldest Brother said to stop. Stop.”
A person must know clearly when to begin and when to end.
The Lecher said.
“The talk went a little astray. The method I propose for the spar is a contest of freezing and melting. The Cult Leader may extend his sword, or I may extend my dagger. If I personally feel the Cult Leader’s level, it will help with my future training. Whether I fight filthily by using the Lazy Donkey Roll or fight by competing in internal energy, the result will be similar. Of course… ah, never mind.”
Judging by what would have followed, it seemed he wanted to say a life-and-death duel would be different, but in truth, that was the same for the Cult Leader as well. If the battle on Mount Hua had been a life-and-death duel, the Cult Leader would not have fought this way in the first place.
Surprisingly, the Cult Leader immediately realized what the Lecher had been about to say.
“Did you wish to say that a life-and-death duel is different?”
The Lecher answered with a surprised expression.
“Yes.”
“What is different?”
The Lecher looked straight at the Cult Leader.
“I would have fought prepared to die. Thinking it was my final battle.”
“And victory or defeat?”
“Victory or defeat would be meaningless. I would have seized one of the Cult Leader’s arms and perished together with you.”
When the Lecher grinned, the Cult Leader asked.
“Would you have died satisfied with one of my arms?”
“It would have been better than all of us dying.”
The Cult Leader smiled faintly and said.
“I nearly became one-armed on Mount Hua.”
“I know that fights do not go according to one’s intentions. I spoke beyond my place.”
The Cult Leader said.
“Then I will accept your method and do this. First, you freeze my sword solid and offer the hilt to me. The contest begins the moment I grasp the sword. If I cannot pull the sword free intact, I will consider it my loss. This should suit a battle of freezing and melting.”
“Would the Cult Leader not be at a disadvantage if I freeze it first?”
“This is better than watching your Lazy Donkey Roll.”
“Yes.”
“Prepare at once.”
“Have you already rested enough?”
When the Cult Leader handed over the Heavenly Demon Sword without answering, the Lecher examined the sword for a moment, then held it upside down and injected his ice arts into it.
Even we, who were watching, could feel the cold energy spreading from the Heavenly Demon Sword in the Lecher’s grasp.
In this way, even while talking, the Mount Hua spar naturally continued.
The Heavenly Demon Sword held in the Lecher’s hand gradually turned pure white.
The Lecher held out the hilt to the Cult Leader and said.
“Cult Leader, following the ice pillar, I have prepared an ice sword.”
As the Cult Leader looked on, the Heavenly Demon Sword was wrapped in cold energy so thick that its shape was difficult to recognize.
The Lecher smiled.
“It is cold, so please be careful.”
“I should be careful.”
When the Cult Leader grasped the pure-white hilt of the Heavenly Demon Sword, his hand, too, immediately froze white.
It was the first time any of us had seen such a duel, so we simply kept our mouths shut and watched the two of them.
“……”
The Cult Leader’s hand was the first to regain its shape, and the cold clinging to the sword’s hilt slowly began to melt. Before long, the form of the hilt became clear, and then, past the guard, the portion corresponding to the blade gradually thawed as well.
When the Pervert Demon furrowed his brow and tilted his head, the melting cold energy halted for a moment.
It was a duel that flowed in considerable stillness, but the Pervert Demon’s expression was anything but still. His complexion grew paler by degrees, and he looked as though he was holding out by drawing up every scrap of his inner force. As if he himself was resisting the cold, hot steam rose from various parts of his body.
In the midst of this, the Cult Leader moved his eyes, sweeping over our situation as though preparing for a sudden ambush.
Had the Pervert Demon’s proposal been that excellent?
The shit-pants held out against the Cult Leader for quite a long while.
This was a slightly random conjecture, but……
If the Pervert Demon had suffered from cold poison for a long time, that meant he must have often had diarrhea in ordinary times as well. For this bastard, perhaps the nickname “shit-pants” was, in truth, a representative identity that pierced through to his very essence.
Or not.
The Cult Leader’s complexion had not changed even once.
Suddenly, the Cult Leader released the hand with which he had been holding the sword, spread his five fingers, and placed his palm against the end of the hilt.
Then a consummate technique that appeared to be palm force flowed from his palm. Three-colored rays of light slowly extended from the Cult Leader’s palm, coiling around the Heavenly Demon Sword as they advanced.
It seemed the Pervert Demon had forced the Cult Leader to reveal one of his techniques.
In any case, the Pervert Demon was helpless before the movement of this palm force.
As the three strands of light coiled around the Heavenly Demon Sword and melted the ice art without a trace, the Pervert Demon’s entire body trembled violently as he held out, and he seized his own right wrist with his left hand.
Tak!
It was a composition of him enduring with the cold energy of both palms. Thinking about it, this shit-pants truly was a stubborn man. Strangely enough, the three-colored rays of light halted their advance for a moment, as if blocked by the pure-white cold energy.
The Cult Leader looked at the Pervert Demon, then praised him as though to say he was holding out well.
“Good.”
Then the three-colored rays of light twisted together as though invading one another’s domains, tangled upon the elongated blade, and advanced once more. They looked like three snakes biting at one another.
Even I found it fascinating as I watched.
It was because the three snakes seemed to be emitting another kind of heat as they bit at one another. In other words, it looked as though the heat produced by the three differently-natured colored rays clashing with one another was melting the ice art.
If one were struck by that palm force, one would surely feel excruciating pain.
Was this the difference in class?
Unless it was Cheonak or Senior Divine Beggar, there seemed to be virtually no expert capable of withstanding that palm force. In other words, through this duel, I learned that the Cult Leader had not fought perfectly in the previous matches.
The Cult Leader looked at the Pervert Demon, and just as the three-colored palm force was about to touch the Pervert Demon’s hand, he grasped the hilt and pulled out the Heavenly Demon Sword as if it were nothing.
Sreung……!
Then, as the Pervert Demon staggered and was about to sink down where he stood, the nearby White-Robed Scholar flicked a chair with his foot and sent it flying over.
The Pervert Demon plopped down onto the chair that had just arrived and looked at the Cult Leader.
While burning away every trace of moisture on the Heavenly Demon Sword’s blade, the Cult Leader said to the Pervert Demon,
“You held out well. To have achieved this much at your age is extremely impressive.”
“Yes, Cult Leader.”
The Pervert Demon’s expression held complicated emotions, but it did not seem easy for him to resolve them in an instant.
The Cult Leader said,
“It was an ice art that could not be melted quickly with simple inner force alone. I used palm force as well.”
“In any case, I lost. Had I known another method, I would have frozen it even more solidly.”
The Pervert Demon looked around at us and said,
“It isn’t right to continue one bout after another in a wheel battle all through the night. I think it would be better to rest tonight and resume. What does everyone think?”
The Cult Leader replied,
“No. It would be right for me to face the Blood Demon and White-Robe today, then settle matters with the Sect Leader tomorrow.”
The Cult Leader truly was no ordinary man either.
The eldest brother nodded, then said to the Pervert Demon as if suggesting he rest a little longer nonetheless,
“How did it feel to face the Cult Leader one-on-one?”
The Pervert Demon said,
“In truth, I told Yoran that once I achieved great mastery of my ice art, I would have no match, but I will consider that I have not yet achieved great mastery. The higher realms have aspects that are difficult to distinguish like steps on a staircase, so I myself do not know where the end of ice art lies. However, if someone who has achieved great mastery of ice art appears someday, I will study a way to make it so that nothing can melt it. Third Brother, how did you view the Cult Leader’s response?”
Why was he asking me, of all people?
I thought for a moment, then answered.
“He made conflicting qi clash within the sword and tore the cold energy apart, so it must have been difficult to block. Rather than saying he melted it, I think saying he tore it apart is more accurate. But holding out that long was impressive in itself. What was lacking in such a static duel was speed. From now on, the task left to you is the speed to spread cold energy rapidly in an instant. Though, in truth, if you meet an expert like the Cult Leader, who handles various forms of qi and can make them collide and explode, you’ll continue to struggle.”
The Pervert Demon nodded, then looked at the eldest brother.
“Master, how did you see it?”
“Remember the amount of time you just held out. Experts at the pinnacle will not grant you any longer than that, so as you said, it was a duel with much to learn from.”
The Pervert Demon nodded, then said to the Cult Leader,
“Cult Leader, I will remember this duel for a long time and review it again and again.”
Surprisingly……
I thought it had been the duel most fitting of the words “Mount Hua duel.”
The problem was me.
If the Cult Leader faced the White-Robed Scholar and the Blood Cult Leader and then took a rest, there was a very high chance I would be fighting the fully recovered Cult Leader one-on-one.
Even so, I hoped the White-Robed Scholar and the Blood Cult Leader would not drain the Cult Leader’s strength by some strange method. The situation was already more advantageous for me, and I disliked winning through petty tricks.
Because their turn had come……
The sly White-Robed Scholar and the mentally unstable Blood Cult Leader looked at each other. Just what did the Blood Cult Leader think of the White-Robed Scholar? He abruptly spoke down to him like this.
“You challenge him first.”
The White-Robed Scholar answered with a smile.
“I don’t want to.”
“……”
“You challenge him first.”
The Blood Cult Leader smiled as well.
“And what if I say I don’t want to?”
I applauded the two men, who in an instant had brutally dragged down the dignity of the Mount Hua duel.
Clap, clap, clap.
This was what made them the White-Robed Scholar and the bloody shit-pants. I took the Mukga Dagger from my robes and drove it into the table.
“I’ll decide simply.”
Everyone looked at me.
I pointed at the black carriage with my finger and said,
“Let’s settle the order with a brief qinggong contest. Senior Coachman will confirm whether a hand touches the carriage. After touching it and returning, whoever draws his dagger first wins. The loser’s qinggong will be the one that falls behind, so naturally he should fight first. Don’t bicker like children. If you don’t like this either, then you two can have a bout first. In any case, I’m curious about a duel between you two as well. What will you do?”
The White-Robed Scholar said,
“Let’s do it by qinggong.”
The Blood Cult Leader gave a faint laugh and replied,
“Let’s.”
Just then, the sudden neighing of a horse rang out, and the carriage moved.
“……!”
We all looked at the carriage at the same time, utterly dumbfounded. From the moving carriage, the coachman’s voice drifted out.
“You were too close, so I’m moving a little.”
“Wow……”
I applauded Senior Coachman as well. How could he be that quick on the uptake?
Come to think of it, to attend upon the Cult Leader, he would have to be the most perceptive man under heaven.