Wolf And Cat (2)

Wooong!

A subtle resonance hummed from Wi Chang-gun’s fist.

Seeking calm was not easy. His wavering mind made his internal energy stir.

He steadied himself with another deep breath and spoke frankly.

“Fine, I will be blunt.”

“…”

“It is true that we were after you. Because of some nobody from nowhere, a stain was left on Black Tiger’s history. That is not something to leave alone.”

“…”

“But we will overlook it for now. For the next three months, Black Tiger will not target you. That should be enough time to leave Sichuan, yes?”

A chilly smile touched Jin-hyeon’s lips.

For a moment Wi Chang-gun flinched. That damned smile felt strangely dangerous.

Yet he did not stop speaking.

“As you know, this is a big concession from me. You even abducted my children. It is hard to forgive, but I will endure for now. So hand the two over quietly.”

Jin-hyeon tilted his head slightly left. It was a strange motion with unclear meaning.

It had no real meaning. Yet Wi Chang-gun became oddly conscious of it. He knew it was nothing, but it nagged at him.

Jin-hyeon spoke.

“You will forgive me?”

“For now.”

“You have my thanks.”

“If you understand, then quickly…”

“But should I not consider whether I will forgive you?”

“…What?”

Jin-hyeon’s foot pressed gently on Wi Seong-woo’s neck.

Wi Seong-woo’s face turned beyond red to dark. Even unconscious, his body trembled.

Wi Chang-gun’s face turned ashen.

“S-stay your foot!”

“For the first time I could have my own home. Your brats interfered with that.”

“You madman! You can get a house like that anytime! Release the children and I will get you two, no three more! First, take that foot off!”

“What matters if you get me a hundred. The point is a wretch like you dared to lay a hand on me.”

A voice that sank in frighteningly.

On a night thick with yin energy, his Body-Refining Qi on the cusp of reaching completion blazed with anger.

Jin-hyeon’s eyes gleamed and the aura leaking out was snakelike and chilling. He was clearly different from before. It was not depth of skill but a change in temperament.

This eerie temperament was one that would be hard to find a match for in a hundred years.

Shouting curses, Wi Chang-gun unconsciously stepped back. His body reacted first to Jin-hyeon’s aura.

His face stiffened.

‘What is that bastard?’

Jin-hyeon’s left hand gripped Wi Gyo-hwa’s nape.

The killing aura choking up her wind made Wi Gyo-hwa freeze.

Wi Chang-gun swallowed dryly again and again. Pathetic as he was, Wi Seong-woo was his son. In particular, Wi Gyo-hwa was more precious than gold.

“From now on, answer what I ask properly.”

“Y-you bastard!”

“Where did you place the forces you brought?”

“I said I came alone! What forces!”

Strength tightened in Jin-hyeon’s left hand.

Wi Gyo-hwa’s body shivered. Seated, she was slowly lifted upward. A little force and her neck would snap.

Wi Chang-gun cried in haste.

“They are stationed three hundred meters out! Kill those kids and we will strike the Seol Clan first!”

For a moment Jin-hyeon’s hand twitched.

“You will strike the Seol Clan, you say?”

“So do not kill them! Hand them over. I will turn back without a glance!”

Of course this was false.

Wi Chang-gun had no intention of leaving Jin-hyeon be.

From the start he planned to kill him soon if he judged he truly had no backing. And this damned wretch dared to bargain with his children’s lives?

There was no need to think further. Wi Chang-gun decided to kill him now.

Flash!

A faint killing intent rising from his body was caught by Jin-hyeon’s sharpened senses.

Jin-hyeon lifted Wi Gyo-hwa.

A person dangling in midair while seated was uncanny and chilling. As his daughter’s face turned bluer, Wi Chang-gun panicked.

“Y-you wretch!!”

“Ah, my mistake. You said you favor your daughter over your son?”

Jin-hyeon did not hesitate.

Kwadeuk!

“!!”

Wi Chang-gun’s mouth fell open.

With a cool kick, Wi Seong-woo’s neck snapped. Unconscious, he died on the spot.

‘There is only one chance.’

Hwaaak!

A heat like fire swept the yard in an instant.

“You son of a bitch!!”

The moment Wi Chang-gun could not hold back and charged.

“Here.”

Jin-hyeon threw Wi Gyo-hwa.

She was still paralyzed. Eyes white with fury, Wi Chang-gun suddenly realized his mistake.

If he met the charge as is, the daughter freed from the foe’s grasp would be hurt. Instinctively he killed his aura.

And in that instant.

Jin-hyeon moved.

Huk.

As ethereal as wind and hollow as smoke.

With his view taken by Wi Gyo-hwa, Wi Chang-gun felt as if Jin-hyeon vanished.

‘Right!’

A streak of black shadow approached from the right.

In a split second he was startled. To move this fast and stealthily from over nine meters? He had never seen such steps.

But once caught, it was no problem. Twisting to safely receive his daughter, Wi Chang-gun kicked toward Jin-hyeon.

Pang!

A strong air-burst rang from his toes as they struck air. Sudden though it was, the kick could easily break bone and muscle.

But Jin-hyeon was not hit. With both hands on the ground, he evaded low like a beast, then swept upward. It was the Ten-Fingers Soul-Slaughter Art’s Eagle Killing Strike.

Jjiiiiik!

Blood sprayed from Wi Chang-gun’s thigh.

His pants tore and flesh gouged deep. It did not reach bone, but it was dangerous enough.

Gritting his teeth, Wi Chang-gun quickly folded and withdrew his leg.

‘!!’

When he set the wounded leg down, chills rose from hips to crown.

The gouged part felt air. He could not guess how much flesh had been torn.

‘Impossible!’

A body protected by the Tiger God Art has hardness hard to cut even with a fine blade. Such a tough leg was ripped by one claw technique. He could not believe it.

‘Tch!’

He tried to retreat with his daughter in his arms, but it was not simple.

She was stiff seated, hard to carry or sling. He could hold her somehow, but both arms would be tied and his posture awkward.

While the tiger faltered, the wolf moved again.

This time it was head-on. His stance was low, but the extending fist targeted Wi Chang-gun’s shoulder precisely.

Huk!

Wi Chang-gun’s evasion was superb. Even with one leg in that state, he perfectly avoided a punch aimed at a gap.

‘Damn!’

But evasion was a poor choice.

‘A feint!’

Without fully extending his fist, Jin-hyeon rotated and appeared on his left. Wi Chang-gun recoiled in alarm.

For a boxer, the most important thing is the ability to control distance.

Jin-hyeon’s body produced whatever movement he wanted, built on over a thousand years of practical experience. It was not clumsy like when he fought the assassin Gong-du. With the Body-Refining Art near ten-tenths, his body was polished to reproduce some of the Alliance Leader’s experience.

By contrast, Wi Chang-gun could not move as he wished. He held his daughter and had an injured leg, awkward no matter what.

Jin-hyeon’s foot hacked at the outside of his knee.

Ppaggak!

His body reeled. Without instinctively pouring out internal energy, the knee joint would have torn.

‘How?!’

What shocked him was that Jin-hyeon’s attacks worked on this body at all.

Normally the fingers that clawed his leg should have broken, and the foot that kicked his knee should have shattered. With the Tiger God Art active, strikes by those of the later-generation should not damage him. That was natural.

Yet each blow was fatal.

‘Could his internal energy be at my level?’

It was not quantity but quality. Did this mean that the quality of his internal energy rivaled the leaders of the Eight Houses of Sichuan? It was hard to believe even experiencing it.

Pababak!

Jin-hyeon persistently targeted openings, and Wi Chang-gun retreated precariously.

He retreated six times and allowed three hits. His left leg swelled, and the sensation on his right, with flesh torn away, was faint.

‘Insane!’

At this rate he would die.

It was unbelievable, but he had to admit it. If things continued like this, he would truly die. The youngster’s hands had no mercy.

He wanted to set his daughter down for a moment, but could not. The foe gave no opening to put her down.

There was only one way.

‘If I cannot set her down, I must throw her.’

It was not a choice to make lightly.

If thrown, his paralyzed daughter would at least suffer fractures, likely be maimed, and at worst die with a broken neck.

Then if he released his hands while holding her?

Then she would surely die, used as a shield against the foe’s attacks. If even his body forged by the Tiger God Art felt impact, she could never endure it.

‘What do I do? How should I…?!’

Buuung! Jjiiik!

This strike was truly sharp.

The Eagle Killing Strike grazed his brow. A little deeper and his forehead would have split, and if within full reach his skull would have shattered.

Wi Chang-gun decided.

‘I am sorry.’

In a split second, father and daughter’s eyes crossed.

Horror dawned on Wi Gyo-hwa’s face. She read the apology rising in her father’s eyes.

“Fath—!”

Wi Chang-gun let Wi Gyo-hwa go.

As Wi Gyo-hwa fell to the floor, he fired a fist full of fury. It was the Black Tiger Fist Sect’s signature technique, Black Tiger Seven Fists.

However.

‘!!’

His whole body went cold.

Jin-hyeon, who should have been behind his falling daughter, was gone.

Kwaang! Peoeok!

His fist striking air produced a thunderous blast.

At the same time Jin-hyeon’s hand pierced his flank. He had slipped to the lower side and used the Eagle Killing Strike.

‘This bastard…!’

He recalled the ghostlike steps with which Jin-hyeon vanished when he caught his daughter. Stealthy and swift steps. It was an amazing technique, but not impossible to counter.

‘So that too was a feint.’

It had not been his best display of footwork.

At this very moment, the instant Wi Chang-gun let his daughter go, Jin-hyeon stepped at maximum output. The single chance he envisioned before the fight was this moment.

Pu-hwaak!

The hand that pierced his side came out with two ribs.

Clenching his teeth, Wi Chang-gun turned and swung. But under the pain and loss his vital energy broke and power did not live.

Blocking with his right forearm, Wi Chang-gun had his wrist seized and lifted as Jin-hyeon drove a fist into his flank.

Kwadeuk!

“Graaah!”

Above the pulled ribs shattered in a shower. Wi Chang-gun coughed blood and fell.

His shattered ribs stabbed his lung and liver and his breathing collapsed at once. Blood foam rose at his lips.

“Hoo, hoo.”

Jin-hyeon panted.

He had overpoured killing moves for this single moment. From the first strike to now, he finished in only two breaths.

‘Without Heavenly Evasion Steps, a long battle would have been inevitable.’

Heavenly Evasion Steps. The Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s main footwork.

Originally it had to be used with Heavenly Wolf Qi. Without the Body-Refining Art nearing completion, he would not have dared attempt it.

As a result, the internal energy drain was extreme. It was that kind of footwork, but forcing it twice consumed more than half his energy.

“Kreuruk! Y-you d-damned…”

Peok!

Wi Chang-gun’s mouth fell open.

A kick dug into his lower abdomen and stopped his breath. Cracks spread through his dantian and internal energy began to leak.

Jin-hyeon calmly raised his hand.

Distrust and injustice surfaced on Wi Chang-gun’s trembling face.

He had not imagined he would die here to a youth not even thirty. Much less one who smeared Black Tiger’s name with filth.

He had meant to torture him with every method and kill him miserably, yet he was the one to die.

“…It makes no sense.”

“It does.”

Jin-hyeon seized Wi Chang-gun’s neck.

Wi Chang-gun looked up at him with shaking eyes.

“Spare…”

Ududuk!

Wi Chang-gun’s neck bent at a right angle.

“Fine, I will spare your daughter.”