Gongdong Storm (3)

Finding the place where Godan’s group had hidden was not that difficult. Even so, their movements were quite subtle, so even Neung Je-gang, who was accustomed to tracking arts, had to pay attention.

He approached the place where they were hiding with illusion arts and listened to what they were saying. If he was lucky enough to pick up even the name of the mountain where they lived, would that not be a true windfall?

“Territory Lord! Are you all right?”

“I am fine. But that sly bastard Secret Shadow truly does not appear until the end. I thought he would appear if he saw me collapse.”

“Phew! We thought you had really collapsed.”

“Kuhuhu! As if I would collapse so easily. If Secret Shadow had appeared, I was going to immediately launch the sixth fist of the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists, so it is only regrettable that it ended in failure.”

“In any case, I did not know you had learned the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists. It would have been better if you had used it before our comrades died.”

“The Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists cannot be used carelessly. This consumes too much internal power, so it cannot be deployed twice in succession. That is why I do not use it unless my life is truly hanging by a thread. At any rate, all of you treat your internal injuries. I must recover my internal power too.”

“Understood.”

Neung Je-gang felt a chill at Godan’s scheming mind. That was because his collapse after the Gongdong Taoists had retreated had been intended to lure him out.

And he learned another weakness of the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists. It could not be deployed in succession.

However, considering Godan’s scheming mind, that too could have been said because he anticipated that Neung Je-gang was listening.

‘I suppose I must draw the Gongdong Taoists here.’

He had to keep Godan’s group from recovering their strength. Neung Je-gang’s plan was to drive them until they were exhausted and exhausted, until they no longer had even the strength to flee.

Neung Je-gang moved to a place near where Godan’s group was hiding and took out one signal flare from his robe.

‘How do I use this? Did he pull this?’

He held the middle of the signal flare and pulled one thread that was sticking out.

Tak, whiiiiing, bang!

Fortunately, perhaps because the direction of the signal flare he was holding was correct, five-colored fireworks bloomed high in the air.

After setting off the signal flare, Neung Je-gang quickly left the spot. Since a needless misunderstanding could arise for no reason, he still had to avoid Gongdong Sect finding out that he had entered Gongdong Mountain.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Neung Je-gang, who had hurriedly hidden himself, was startled by the figures that flew toward the place where the signal flare had exploded. There were four old Taoists in all.

‘The elders of Gongdong Sect have stepped forward.’

It was an extremely natural matter. Since the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists had appeared, those who could handle it had to step forward.

“The signal exploded here…….”

“There is the smell of gunpowder.”

“But where did the fellow who set off the signal flare go?”

“Be quiet. Those fellows might be hiding somewhere here.”

The old Taoists flew in and again each chattered as they pleased.

‘They are incredibly noisy old Taoists.’

Neung Je-gang was dumbfounded by the behavior of the chattering old Taoists. The enemy was hiding right beside them, yet they were not even thinking of finding them.

About fifteen minutes passed. Even until then, the old Taoists simply kept chattering.

Neung Je-gang wanted to leap out and tell them where Godan’s group was hiding. However, it seemed there were those who found it even harder to endure than Neung Je-gang.

“You dog-like old men! Stop chattering.”

Godan, who had to recover his strength through Breathing Cultivation, had leaped out. Behind him, his subordinates also crawled out one after another.

“See? I told you they would come out on their own if we talked.”

“But we did not tell them to come out.”

“Exactly. Why did these children come out?”

“They said they came out because you bastards were too loud. Did you not hear them telling you to stop chattering?”

The old Taoists still did not stop their gossip.

“You unlucky old men. Are you pretending ignorance after continuously firing sound waves into the place where we were hiding?”

“Sound waves? What sound waves? Did you do that?”

“No, it was not me.”

“It was not me either.”

“Then was it me? It seems like me. I must have done it.”

“Tsk, tsk! At any rate, that fellow cannot stand seeing others rest comfortably.”

“It is because we raised him too indulgently just because he was the youngest.”

“That is why I said long ago that we should have raised him while beating him.”

“You old bastards! What are you doing? Strike!”

Godan’s anger surged as he saw the old Taoists chattering among themselves without even paying attention to them. He blindly shouted at his subordinates to attack.

‘That is truly something! They make their opponents excited through a bizarre method. But did he say sound waves? To think there is a way to torment people with something like that, Gongdong Sect truly has remarkable Taoists. Indeed, there was a reason the fame of the Nine Sects and One Gang does not sink.’

Neung Je-gang was impressed by the brilliant method of the old Taoists who made the hidden ones leap out.

Chaeaeang.

At any rate, the ones who moved in perfect order at Godan’s command to attack were instead the old Taoists. The way they drew their swords happened truly in an instant, so it felt as though one person had drawn a sword.

“Child! Were you the one who deployed the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists?”

Three old Taoists faced Godan’s subordinates and swung their swords freely, while the remaining old Taoist approached Godan.

“What exactly are these old men?”

Godan felt dumbfounded as he watched the three old Taoists handle his subordinates as if they were children. Gongdong Sect was known as the weakest among the Nine Sects.

But what was this? There were not just one or two old men who looked stronger than anyone he knew, but four of them. This was something he had never expected at all.

Godan repeatedly realized how dangerous his own action of trying to set a trap on Gongdong Mountain had been.

“Try deploying the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists once.”

What the old Taoist wanted was precisely that. It could be called behavior befitting a martial artist who lived and died by martial arts.

But it was too dangerous. Neung Je-gang, who had already seen the power of the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists once, was worried that the old Taoist would fall into danger.

Godan thought the same. He knew that once the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists was deployed, almost nothing could block it. Yet the old man was waiting as though he wanted to test it, so he was either crazed with a desire to die or simply insane.

If Godan had followed his feelings, he wanted to burst the old Taoist to death in a single blow with the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists. However, he was a body that had already deployed the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists once not long ago. If he deployed it again here, his own body might fail to endure and die before killing the old Taoist.

“Old man, do not talk nonsense!”

Godan swung the Crane-Feather Fan and charged at the old Taoist.

Whoosh, whoosh.

The sound of wind rang out, and fierce energy surged toward the old Taoist.

“Oh-ho! Seeing this now, it seems you have not learned only the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists.”

The old Taoist immediately swung his sword and met Godan’s Crane-Feather Fan, clashing as though dancing a sword dance. Against that soft sword dance, Godan’s Crane-Feather Fan could not properly deploy its techniques.

Godan was going mad. Having his techniques forcibly cut off was already something that could hardly be called martial arts.

Papapapak.

The firing of the Crane-Feather Fan’s feathers, which could be called an emergency measure, was deployed.

Moved by mechanism, the feathers shot toward the old Taoist’s front with a speed truly invisible to the eye. It was an attack where there was neither time to dodge nor space to dodge.

Whoooooong.

However, the old Taoist lightly rotated his body and stirred his sword. It was a sword method that made one feel as though he were seeing Wudang Sect’s Taiji Sword.

Tuduk, tududuk.

Godan could not gather his senses.

“To think he blocked that…….”

Although the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists was his strongest martial art, what he was most confident in was precisely the hidden-weapon art deployed through that Crane-Feather Fan. He had never once seen someone avoid the feathers of the Crane-Feather Fan that fired without warning. Yet to think there was someone who could block it from such close range, and with only one sword.

“Uheoeong!”

In the end, Godan threw away the Crane-Feather Fan. Now what remained to him was only the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists, and now there was no method to escape Gongdong Mountain alive without using it.

Before he knew it, the fights of the other old Taoists had ended. The other warriors of Hyeonok Territory were no match for the old Taoists. They had all collapsed, wounded and with their acupoints sealed.

Boom.

Once again, the forbidden martial art Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists rang through the night sky of Gongdong Mountain.

Bang.

“Huk!”

As if he had resolved to die, the old Taoist did not even try to dodge and simply received Godan’s attack with his bare body. It seemed as though he was trying to test how much power it had.

“Senior Brother! Are you crazy?”

“He has gone senile, senile.”

“Does it hurt? Does it hurt?”

The three old Taoists chattered as if they did not know it was an emergency.

However, the old Taoist could not answer their words as usual. If he opened his mouth, blood seemed like it would pour from his throat at any moment.

He had no choice but to raise his sword. Receiving it with his bare body was certainly too much.

Boom.

Another explosive sound rang out. The old Taoist was already swinging his sword.

Baaang.

The explosive sound was clearly heard, but the old Taoist was not injured in the slightest. It was clear that he had blocked the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists with his sword.

“See? I told you the Infinite Sword would be enough.”

“When did you say that? You said he had to dodge unconditionally.”

“I said it. I said it. I am the one who said we should run away, me.”

The three old Taoists began noisily arguing again. Even Neung Je-gang, who was watching, felt dizzy from it.

Flinch.

When the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists displayed no effect, Godan unknowingly flinched. His body was already sending signals that it could no longer continue.

In truth, his Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists was incomplete. Because he had only barely reached the sixth stage, six punches were his limit.

Yet he had already thrown five punches, and although he knew he must not deploy it in succession, he had newly deployed it twice. If he punched again, even if he did not die, he might become a body that could never use martial arts again.

However, what could not stop even in death was a man’s stubbornness. In any case, whether he died this way or that way, was it not the same? He had never heard that the Gongdong Sect spared an enemy who killed the disciples of their sect.

Boom.

He forcibly drew up his internal power and threw out another punch.

Boom.

In succession, the fourth punch stretched forward.

“Keok!”

Godan did not stop here. Having resolved to drag even one old man down to hell with him even if he died, he drew up even all of his Primordial Yang True Qi and once again swung his final punch with all his strength.

Wooooong, boom!

“Kheuheok!”

Pwaaak.

Blood spurted from Godan’s mouth like a fountain. The qi and blood inside his body had completely burst. As Godan slowly fell backward, he saw the face of the old Taoist, which had completely turned black. It was already the face of a dead man.

“Satisfi…….”

Godan could not finish saying that he was satisfied to take the old Taoist with him to hell, and as he fell backward, his breath was completely cut off.

Whether Godan died or not, the old Taoist was deploying the Infinite Sword and blocking the third punch. Then his complexion suddenly changed. He had not yet fully resolved the power of the third punch, yet the fourth fist wind, which had become twice as strong, was flying toward him.

On top of that, adding frost on top of snow, just before Godan collapsed while spewing blood, he had launched another punch, and unlike until now, it came breaking through his Infinite Sword with tremendous power that had to be called fist aura, not fist wind.

“Th-that…….”

Even the other talkative old Taoists had not known that Godan would throw away his life and use even his Primordial Yang True Qi to launch fist aura. Because of that, they could not think of any method to save the old Taoist.

Moreover, since it was fist aura accompanied by fist wind equal to sixteen times the first strike, even if there were a method, there was no one who could put it into practice.

Rurururung, kwakwakwakwakwak!

But it was precisely at that moment. Suddenly, thunder sounded, and there was a huge stream of wind that rushed like a storm toward the reverse force of the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists that was covering the old Taoist.

Kwaaaang, whiiiing!

Along with a tremendous collision sound, the old Taoist’s body was flung backward like a fallen leaf swept away by autumn wind. Right in front of him, two terrifying forces collided, and another force derived from them blew him away.

And a short time passed. The three old Taoists, who came to their senses at a glance, saw that another person besides themselves had appeared there. And their eldest senior brother, whom they had thought might have died, was being held in that new person’s arms while blood flowed from his mouth.

“Senior Brother!”

When the old Taoists approached, Neung Je-gang held out the old Taoist he had been carrying to them. Fortunately, the old Taoist was not dead. His body had merely been shaken, causing severe internal injury, and he had lost consciousness.

Considering his age, it was no different from death, but a martial artist was not a martial artist for no reason. After the three old Taoists fed him medicine and treated his internal injuries through acupoint circulation, his breathing soon returned to stability.

Cold sweat streamed down Neung Je-gang’s back. If by any chance he had been even a little late, the old Taoist would have already arrived in the underworld. Fortunately, he had been able to block the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists, which had even raised fist aura, with Heaven-Shattering Thunderbolt Sovereign deployed at its peak.

“Who are you?”

For Neung Je-gang, it was an enormous relief that the old Taoists no longer played around with words. Well, since one person had nearly died, they would not be in the mood for that.

“This junior is called Secret Shadow.”

Neung Je-gang clasped his fists together and greeted them.

Flinch.

As expected, even the old Taoists did not seem able to remain calm before the name Secret Shadow.

“Then that must have been Heaven-Shattering Thunderbolt Sovereign. Well, that is the only palm force that can block the Nine Thunderclap Divine Fists. It is indeed tremendous. The senior martial artists did not designate it a forbidden art for no reason.”

“In any case, even the Infinite Sword we trusted cannot match the power of a forbidden art.”

“Let us stop chattering here and go. We must carry Senior Brother to a comfortable place.”

The three old men rose from where they had been sitting.

Neung Je-gang also rose along with them. Now he intended to see them off, then interrogate the warriors of Hyeonok Territory whom the three old Taoists had captured.

However, the old Taoists merely stood up, and none of them carried their senior brother on their back. Then they stared silently at Neung Je-gang.

“Me?”

Neung Je-gang pointed at himself with his finger. The old Taoists nodded.

“I am busy, though.”

“Then should we, who are so old we are near death, carry him?”

Unable to endure their pressure, Neung Je-gang ultimately had to carry the old Taoist on his back and follow them.

After they disappeared,

Sssssk.

One strange man armed entirely in black appeared there. He approached the warriors belonging to Hyeon-ok Territory who had collapsed with their acupoints sealed.

Puuuk.

It was a thick golden needle that seemed easily long enough to be seven chi. With it, he thrust deep below the ears of the surviving people. The golden needle burrowed into their brains and cut off their breaths one by one.

After confirming that everyone had died like that, he soon concealed himself in the darkness again and disappeared as secretly as he had appeared.

However, there was something even he did not know. There was one shadow in that place that had completely assimilated into the darkness as much as he had, and that shadow was secretly following behind him.