Chapter 41. Twin Swords of the Wind and Clouds (16)
Within the Justice Coalition, there was an organization made up of brilliant young heroes under the age of thirty—the Five Swords of Heavenly Justice.
The organization was made up of five Squadrons: the Gold, Fire, Wood, Wind, and Water Sword Squadrons.
Overseeing the five Squadrons was the Battalion Leader of the Five Swords of Heavenly Justice also known as the Master of the Five Swords.
The Master of the Five Swords was selected once every three years by assessing the martial skills and achievements of the members. As a result, the brilliant young members of the Five Swords of Heavenly Justice were eager to build up their own reputations, even at the cost of their own fellow members.
Thus, the competition between the Squadrons was bound to be fierce. After all, if one could become the Master of the Five Swords, they would, in essence, be recognized as the leading figure in the younger generation of the Righteous Faction.
Among the five Squadrons of the Five Swords of Heavenly Justice, the Wind Sword Squadron was an outlier—it was made up entirely of oddballs and was generally considered the weakest.
Barring the current Captain of the Wind Sword Squadron, the only one who wasn’t an eccentric misfit, the other members had absolutely no interest in increasing their reputation by accumulating achievements. That was why the current Captain of the Wind Sword Squadron, Xiahou Jinxian, who had dragged his comrades Mu Bi and Peng Tianhao here against their wishes, felt as if he was going to spit steam out of his ears in anger.
Peng Tianhao, a member of the Wind Sword Squadron contemptuously called the ‘Peng Family’s bastard,’ immediately understood what was going on. In a tone dripping with sarcasm, he inquired about the next step in their plan.
“Oh my, Lord Captain, what should we do about this? Your honorable self even came all this way personally to carry out such a trivial mission. It’s such a shame your valiant efforts were in vain!”
Peng Tianhao had accumulated a great deal of negative emotions toward Xiahou Jinxian, who had forcibly brought him along, even against his wishes, by stating that it was an order from the Captain of the Wind Sword Squadron rather than the individual Xiahou Jinxian wanting extra points.
‘If you want to accumulate achievements, just go and do it on your own. Why the hell do you insist on bringing Mu Bi and me? Are we just decorations meant to make you look better?’ Peng Tianhao thought as he glared over at Xiahou Jinxian, leaving the Captain of Wind Sword Squadron gritting his teeth.
‘You bastard!’
Putting his anger toward Peng Tianhao aside for now, Xiahou Jinxian glared at Song Woo-Moon.
“Did you just destroy the Inksmoke Gang?”
For some reason, his tone was aggressive, almost as if he was arguing with Woo-Moon.
Woo-Moon was very kind to those who were kind to him. Naturally, he was generally the type of person to give others back exactly what he was given.
“Yeah, I guess I might’ve done that. So?”
Due to the horrid reputation of the eccentric misfits, the Wind Sword Squadron was not often given missions. Thus, they were given few important missions or opportunities to improve their status.
In all fairness, the Inksmoke Gang itself wasn’t some big force or anything, to the point where, according to the gossip going around the Justice Coalition, it was barely even considered a small and weak power on the periphery of the Black Hand. It was so small that it didn’t even receive the protection of the Black Hand proper.
Considering its pitiful status, even if they had destroyed the Inksmoke Gang, it wouldn’t have done much for them anyway. Still, it was rare for Wind Sword Squadron to get any kind of mission, so even a small mission like this was exceedingly important to Xiahou Jinxian.
However, because that damned Peng Tianhao was causing trouble, they ended up being late. In the meantime, some random asshole had destroyed the Inksmoke Gang by himself. How could Xiahou Jinxian not be irked? He had come all the way here just to find out he had nothing left to do.
“What is your name?” Xiahou Jinxian asked.
“My name is Song Woo-Moon.”
It was a name he had never heard of.
“State your affiliation!”
“Affiliation? Uh...I don’t think I have anything like that.”
“So you’re saying you have no clan or sect? You’re an independent warrior?”
“...Hmm... Well, until recently, I was working as a porter at the Leebi Merchant Guild in Unhan.”
“Pffft!!”
Mu Bi, the Mount Tai disciple, erupted into laughter. Peng Tianhao also looked over at Woo-Moon with an amused expression.
Although the Inksmoke Gang wasn’t a very impressive group, it was still definitely an impressive feat for the man before them to be able to deal with them alone at that age without even showing any signs of exhaustion, much less injuries.
Thus, when Woo-Moon had said that he was a random porter, they thought that he was making fun of their captain.
“Pfft!”
Even Hyeon Yu-Yeon, who had been trying to hold herself back, eventually burst into laughter.
It was an exceedingly hilarious situation. Although Woo-Moon was telling the truth, in that situation, anyone who had met him for the first time was bound to misunderstand him.
There was only one person other than Woo-Moon who wasn’t smiling. Xiahou Jinxuan’s face was bright red with anger.
“A porter? Are you taking the piss out of me right now?”
He was being ridiculed by someone whom he had never met, and the shame of the mocking grew even greater as the other three people laughed.
Unhan? Leebi Merchant Guild? Who the fuck were those people?
Xiahou Jinxuan had already made up his mind that Woo-Moon was making fun of him.
‘This bastard really is arrogant, huh. All this just because he beat up some random trash like the Inksmoke Gang?!’
Xiahou Jinxuan wanted to go out and teach Woo-Moon a lesson right at this very moment, but he held himself back as there was still something he had to confirm first. Suppressing his anger, he followed through with his interrogation.
“Then, who is your master?”
Woo-Moon frowned slightly at that question. Although he had originally told Jin Won-Myeong that he had no master, after meeting with the old Daoist in his dream on that night, he had come to think of the Daoist as his master.
“I do have a master, but I don’t actually know his name.”
“You’re saying...you don’t...know your own master’s name?”
“That’s right. Well...as far as I know, he was probably around before the Three Kingdoms Period began, but at this point, I think he’s more of a legend. Dunno if anyone else has ever met him.”
As Xiahou Jinxuan’s enraged expression suggested, he was being very serious with his questions. However, Woo-Moon’s nonsensical answer left Mu-Bi rolling on the ground in laughter once more.
As the roaring laughter grew even more boisterous, Xiahou Jinxuan’s anger toward Woo-Moon also grew.
Woo-Moon himself was also not in a good mood. He had been answering all the questions in earnest, but for some reason, it was as if he was on trial here.
“Actually, who the hell are you to be interrogating me?” Woo-Moon asked.
Xiahou Jinxuan’s demeanor finally changed. He rudely said, “So you don’t have any backing, and you don’t even know who your master is.... It seems like I really came off as a pushover. I can take this as you trying to start some beef with me, right?”
From Woo-Moon’s perspective, Xiahou Jinxuan’s reaction was absurd. From the looks of it, it didn’t even seem like the person in front of him had some special relationship or whatever with the Inksmoke Gang, so why was this man meddling with his affairs?
“Yeah, whatever. So what if I am? Are you trying to start a fight over it or something?”
“You sure have a massive fucking gall.[1] How dare you pick a fight with the Captain of the Wind Sword Squadron?”
“Yeah, yeah, it’s all fine and whatever, but all you have to say is your name. Do you really say you’re the big captain or boss or whatever whenever you introduce yourself? Aren’t you a little embarrassed to say all of that about yourself with your very own mouth?”
In the end, the person Woo-Moon was speaking to was Xiahou Jinxuan, the scion of a famous family. Xiahou Jinxuan’s anger had reached the peak; all he wanted was to abandon all decorum and act like a tyrant. However, he took a deep breath and spoke with great patience.
“Fine, if that’s how it is, then there’s nothing we can do. Draw your sword! I’ll teach that filthy little mouth a lesson for humiliating me!”
However, Woo-Moon responded with a smile that deeply resembled that of his grandfather—in other words, a smile that intensely irritated whomever it was pointed at.
“Oh, this? No, no, it’s just a decoration. At the very least, if you’re my opponent, it’s really nothing more than a decoration. So just come at me, Mr. Captain of the Wind Sword Squadron who reigns over the Four Seas~”
Xiahou Jinxuan’s hands were shaking.
Where else in the world had he ever been mocked like this?
“Alright, boy. If I don’t turn that smirk into a grimace of pain, my surname is not Xiahou!”
Xiahou Jinxuan was a scion of the Xiahou Family, a family famous for its palm techniques. Among them, one of their greatest secret techniques was the Golden Snake Divine Palm (金蛇神掌).
On the off chance that he might be humiliated, Xiahou Jinxuan went all out and used the Golden Snake Divine Palm from the very beginning.
A sharp palm wind flew in two directions at the same time, like a snake's forked tongue, aimed at both of Woo-Moon’s shoulders.
If the straightforward Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms was known for its strength, the Golden Snake Divine Palm was renowned for its extreme flexibility and sharpness.
But, although the Golden Snake Divine Palm was an incredible technique, the problem with the blow was that the person using the technique was Xiahou Jinxuan and his opponent was Woo-Moon. Even leaving their personal skill aside, Xiahou Jinxuan was using a palm technique in front of someone whose grandfather was Baek Sang-Woon, the Palm Martial Emperor.
‘Wow, you’re using that against me? Wow. Let’s see how well that works for you.’
Woo-Moon’s figure swayed like a sailboat drifting in a storm as he dodged Xiahou Jinxian’s attack.
Just like how if a sailboat would be broken into pieces by the waves or keel over and sink from a single wrong move in the ocean, Woo-Moon also looked as if he was in extreme danger at every moment as he narrowly avoided Xiahou Jinxuan's attacks.
Seeing Woo-Moon’s predicament, Xiahou Jinxian put more effort into his blows, thinking that he would be able to defeat the disrespectful brat if he attacked just a little bit fiercer.
Mu Bi and Peng Tianhao, in the meantime, clicked their tongues. ‘What on earth are you scheming?’
Of course, as Yu-Yeon already knew the extent of Woo-Moon’s skills, she could see the fight for what it was. Although it may have seemed like he was on the edge of defeat on the surface, Woo-Moon was relaxedly dodging everything, more nonchalant than even the observers themselves.
At this very moment, Woo-Moon wasn’t fighting, but analyzing and studying. Purposefully dodging the blows by the skin of his teeth, he was enjoying himself as he observed all of the changes in the Golden Snake Divine Palm.
Since it was a palm technique famed all throughout the gangho, the insights that could be obtained from it were definitely not negligible.
‘Aha, so that’s what that is. You move left in order to make the opponent move according to your intentions and eventually fall into a trap. In other words, this technique and the next are actually a combination.’
The battle between Woo-Moon, who was studying the opponent’s palm technique, and Xiahou Jinxuan, who had gritted his teeth with exertion as he tried to defeat his opponent, continued for over a hundred moves.
In that time, Xiahou Jinxuan had to repeat the first half of the Golden Snake Divine Palm, which consisted of forty-eight techniques, twice.
‘What the hell is up with this bastard?!’
Xiahou Jinxuan instinctively realized that something was wrong with Woo-Moon.
Then, irritation, impatience, and rage all bubbled up simultaneously. Without realizing it, he switched to the first technique of the latter half of the Golden Snake Divine Palm.
The Golden Snake Divine Palm consisted of ninety-six techniques, with the first and second halves having forty-eight techniques each.
The first half consisted of techniques that lacked killing intent, created with the intention of subduing rather than to kill the opponent. In contrast, the second half consisted of killing techniques, which existed solely to take the opponent down so that he could never rise again.
Although the latter half was supposed to be avoided as much as possible, both to prevent the accidental spread of the technique and to prevent unnecessary killings, Xiahou Jinxuan ended up using it out of sheer impatience.
Xiahou Jinxuan’s right hand moved downward in a semicircle. Then, suddenly, he burst forward with all the power of his accumulated qi, attacking quickly and flexibly like a snake snatching its prey.
His target was Woo-Moon’s heart.
‘Oho?!’
Woo-Moon was secretly impressed, because the move looked quite outstanding.
‘Too bad, though. Compared to my grandfather’s palm technique, it still falls far short!’
Woo-Moon suddenly used the Divine Phantasm Step, finally bringing out his real movement technique for the first time in the duel.
Woosh~
As Woo-Moon used his movement technique, his figure blurred and disappeared in front of his opponent’s eyes.
“That was pretty impressive there!”
Xiahou Jinxuan abruptly stopped as he heard Woo-Moon’s whisper next to his ear. He immediately realized that he had been just teased all along.
‘It’s not that you couldn’t counterattack because I was pushing you back. You did it on purpose! Are you trying to make me look like a fucking monkey?!’
Was there anyone who had as much pride as the leading figures of the younger generation of the great sects and families?
Moreover, to be treated like this in front of subordinates he didn’t even like—it was only natural for his anger to explode.
Xiahou Jinxuan’s face turned red.
“You bastard, I will kill you!”
In the end, after spewing out profanity like a slum rat, Xiahou Jinxuan resorted to using the Golden Snake Piercing Wall, the final form of the Golden Snake Divine Palm.
While it was the most potent form of the Golden Snake Divine Palm, it was also the most lethal, which meant that it was not often used.
Peng Tianhao and Mu Bi frowned as they saw Xiahou Jinxuan. They had never expected that he would go this far.
Of course, although they had confirmed that Woo-Moon had dealt with the Inksmoke Gang alone, that was something that Peng Tianhao and Mu Bi were more than capable of doing as well. Moreover, although Xiahou Jinxian had a bad personality, he was still talented enough to rise to the position of the Captain of the Wind Sword Squadron.
Thus, the two people thought that it would be difficult for Woo-Moon, who was already being pushed back, to block the coming blow properly.
They decided to save him if possible, mistakenly thinking that Woo-Moon was in danger. While Xiahou Jinxuan had already realized that Woo-Moon was a master while personally exchanging blows with him, those observing from the side were still misjudging him.
‘We need to be prepared to rescue him at any time.’
Of course, Yu-Yeon’s thoughts were going in a completely different direction.
‘Hehehe. The Captain of the Wind Sword Squadron is about to get a taste of embarrassment.’
Xiahou Jinxuan was clearly using a killing move, and Woo-Moon’s eyes turned cold as he sensed that his opponent was sincerely trying to kill him.
‘Alright, you want to kill me. Fine. I’ll show you a palm technique if you want one,’ Woo-Moon thought as he used the Raging Wind Palm.
1. In Eastern Philosophy, Zangfu is a classification of the internal organs and how they affect one’s body. One of the liver’s domains is courage, and thus, how your liver interacts with your body determines how much courage you have. The original says “your liver is too large for your body,” meaning that one has too much courage, at which point it becomes bravado. ☜