Wolf And Cat (5)

Two days later.

“…”

Jin-hyeon, circulating qi in the training yard, opened his eyes.

‘I’m truly almost there now.’

Only a single step remained to the Body-Refining Art’s ten-tenths.

He felt it not only in his internal energy, but in his body. Subtle changes were detectable here and there.

When those changes finished, it would be complete.

“Thank you for waiting.”

Seol Hong-baek, who had been meditating opposite him, rose with a smile.

“Have you finished circulating qi?”

“Yes.”

“Then, shall we match each other cleanly?”

“Gladly.”

A short staff had been shoved into the left side of Jin-hyeon’s waist sash. Forged of pure iron, it should endure even his grip strength.

Seol Hong-baek likewise wore an identical staff at his waist. Though a swordsman, he meant to fight with the same weapon.

Around the yard, the Seol Clan’s swordsmen gathered in small clusters.

Not only the White Lotus Squad, but nearly all the swordsmen had come. They too were curious about Jin-hyeon’s true skill.

Naturally, Seol So-ha and Do-min had also taken spots around the yard.

Seol Hong-baek cupped his fist in salute.

“I’ll be using the Tianshan arts as you correctly imparted. As this is a spar to gauge each other’s skill, I ask you to grant me great instruction.”

It was exceedingly humble.

Jin-hyeon scratched his cheek. Such formalities always felt awkward.

The Eight Wastes Alliance Leader had never really done “polite spars.” Drawing a blade meant a fight to the death. Believing a warrior’s skill blossomed in life-and-death, he had repeated only merciless battles.

Even so, with formal salutes exchanged, he couldn’t just strike first out of nowhere.

Jin-hyeon nodded back and said one line.

“I ask to learn a move from you.”

Seol Hong-baek smiled.

“Come, let us begin.”

Paaaak!

Jin-hyeon and Seol Hong-baek charged each other at the same time.

Most watching the spar were startled.

In formal spars, it was customary for the expert to accept three seconds from the lesser. Yet without any such accord, the two simply rushed each other.

Jin-hyeon did so because he lacked sparring experience; Seol Hong-baek did so because he didn’t deem his foe beneath him.

And both were sure the other wouldn’t be rattled no matter what he showed.

The first clash burst.

Jjeoeoeong!

The two short staffs struck, unleashing a tremendous resonance.

People clapped hands to ears. Even for staves, the ring could only be large, yet even so it was brutal.

Huk.

Seol Hong-baek withdrew.

It was not from lack of strength. He was bleeding the shock from his grip to connect the next strike.

Jin-hyeon stamped the ground.

Even without Heavenly Evasion Steps or Moon-Blade Divine Steps, his movement was arrow-fast.

Wooong!

His staff, thrumming with Body-Refining Qi, aimed at Seol Hong-baek’s middle line.

It was a formless technique. Plain, but fast.

Ting!

Flicking it aside with his tip, Seol Hong-baek flowed into supple sword forms.

Jin-hyeon’s eyes lit.

A form that climbs the arm to stab the shoulder—quick and supple, yet aggressive enough.

‘Seven Purities Sword!’

It was the Seven Purities Sword Art.

The Tianshan Art’s foundational sword was simple, yet at complete mastery, it was worthy of being praised as first-rate.

Driven by the Tianshan Light-and-Shadow Divine Art, the Seven Purities Sword was even more graceful and swift than usual.

‘As expected.’

He slipped it with Iron-Plate Bridge, turned, and swept his staff to force a retreat.

But Seol Hong-baek didn’t give ground. Unfazed by the miss, he thrust again between Jin-hyeon’s staff lines.

It was again the Seven Purities Sword. His forms threaded through Jin-hyeon’s guard.

‘He’s embodied it to this point already.’

To attain mastery of the Moon Kingdom Eight Purities Sword, one had to master the Seven Purities Sword perfectly.

Even so, forging it into his body in so short a time and refining it into his own Martial Dao was no easy feat. Seol So-ha might outstrip him slightly in feel, but in interpreting martial arts, Seol Hong-baek was far superior.

Jin-hyeon’s staff grew busy.

Jjeojeojeong! Jjeong!

Seol Hong-baek’s Seven Purities Sword was unrelentingly tenacious.

When meeting attacks, it deflected while aiming for vital points, when retreating, it sought to wrap the foe’s steps within a sword-circle. Through his sword technique and internal energy released, he established a domain of his own.

Jin-hyeon was honestly impressed.

This wasn’t at a level to haggle over who was stronger.

He’d adhered new martial arts to his body, interpreted and altered them to fit himself, and tempered them for use in battle. All that was done in less than four months.

In such short time, he’d made the Seven Purities Sword this splendid.

‘I did not misjudge this man.’

Jjeojeojeojeong!

Clashing again and again while easing back, Jin-hyeon’s gaze traced Seol Hong-baek’s staff, feet, and eyes in turn.

Eyes deep as an abyss.

Cold like permafrost that won’t melt before a sun-hot blaze, and clear like streamwater running between winter ice, those eyes proved a gift beyond mere talent.

‘With the Patriarch’s gifts, he can surpass Tianshan’s last sect master.’

Seol Hong-baek’s use of the Seven Purities Sword was not only to instruct the swordsmen watching this duel. Above all, it was to prove something to Jin-hyeon.

He had not let the favor granted him fade.

Jin-hyeon received that heart fully.

Tiiing!

This time Jin-hyeon’s staff knocked aside Seol Hong-baek’s attack.

Saaak!

A sound no heavy short staff should make.

Slipping to point-blank in an instant, Jin-hyeon’s left hand targeted his shoulder. It was the Ten-Fingers Soul-Slaughter Art’s Eagle Killing Strike.

Against a life-and-death foe, he’d have aimed for the neck, but this was a spar. Therefore, even Jin-hyeon had to temper his killing moves.

Even restrained, his hand was blazingly fast. Calmly twisting away, Seol Hong-baek drove a knee up.

Peoek!

Knee met knee with a vicious crack.

At a distance where they could hear each other’s breath, their staffs and hands moved like lightning.

Jjeojeojeong! Pang! Jji-iik!

Resonance from staff on staff, the air-bursts of fists and palms cutting the air, even the tear of cloth from what couldn’t be avoided.

They traded at lightning speed at knifing range, yet still couldn’t land telling blows. It was not a death match, but even so, few could sustain exchanges this fast.

The swordsmen’s mouths hung open. They could see staves and limbs move, but the speed was too great.

‘He doesn’t fall away.’

Pabababak!

He tried to widen the distance by taking short steps back, but the other followed each one, pressing the attack all the way.

Seol Hong-baek couldn’t help admiring his fighting ability. The staffwork, no, the shapeless swordwork, paired with deadly hand-techniques, yet clinging on to trade to the last.

His offense was fast, but truly astounding were his reaction speed and fluid movement.

‘He’s different from me. I react through embodied sword-forms, but he’s responding solely by reading my attacks — completely, with precision.’

No, that wasn’t all.

He moved as if by instinct, yet clearly read what would come next. From seeing the opponent’s martial arts a few times, he calculated what moves would follow.

‘A genius!’

A gift wholly apart from deep internal energy or keen analysis of martial arts.

A lightning mind that the body followed in kind. A superb head and a marvelously trained body moving in perfect match, lacking in neither.

It was the ideal Martial itself. He hadn’t reached a realm to speak for the world, but his vessel seemed deeper and broader than anyone’s.

Seol Hong-baek’s gaze firmed.

Seeing Jin-hyeon’s fighting ability, he finally began to reveal the martial art he’d kept hidden.

Flash!

Moon-Blade Divine Steps, driven to the limit.

He retreated backward while advancing on a diagonal, slipping out of Jin-hyeon’s attack zone.

Jin-hyeon likewise grasped a proper assault was coming.

‘Moon Kingdom Eight Purities Sword.’

Wooooong!

A chill force poured from the staff.

In an instant it shrouded the whole yard. Unfurling the Tianshan Light-and-Shadow Divine Art fully, he advanced a step and deployed the Moon Kingdom Eight Purities Sword.

Flash!

His footwork seemed twice as fast again.

Jin-hyeon likewise drew his Body-Refining Qi to the extreme.

Jjeojeojeojeojeong! Sagak!

Even with the Body-Refining Qi hauled to the utmost, he couldn’t fully block it.

Driven back madly, blood stained here and there on his body.

Even wielded with a blunt staff, sword-wounds appeared, even though he hadn’t wrapped it in formless sword-qi.

Seol Hong-baek’s blade aura was carried wholly into the staff. It was the sharp aura only a true swordsman, who lived gazing at the sword alone, could exude.

‘He is strong.’

He was truly astonished.

‘At this level, he surpasses Wi Chang-gun with ease!’

The altered Tianshan arts had been like a levee holding back Seol Hong-baek’s true might.

Learning the proper Tianshan arts, most of the sword principles he’d been unable to unravel were broken through—not due to the martial art’s level, but his body and qi, once misaligned, standing correct.

Insight arrives as the body changes as well. Seol Hong-baek was only now flowering into the strength he should have always possessed.

His short staff, like a treasured blade, surged fearsomely.

Pishuk! Jjeoeoeng! Parararak!

It was a tremendous assault.

The first five forms of the Moon Kingdom Eight Purities Sword swept in like waves. Its clean, resolute patterns blended with Seol Hong-baek’s supple heart to cast boundless freedom.

It was a beautiful sword art. Jin-hyeon truly wondered how splendid his blade would be when he stepped into the ultimate realm.

‘At this rate…’

His Body-Refining Qi stirred.

The changes rising throughout his body grew stronger. Facing a foe he’d struggle to beat as he was, his knowledge, experience, and even his martial art itself thirsted to evolve.

Jjeoeoeoeong!

Ignoring the pain of his tearing palms, he beat aside Seol Hong-baek’s blade.

Following his skewed staff with the Moon-Blade Divine Steps, Seol Hong-baek cut in for Jin-hyeon’s flank.

Then, Seol Hong-baek saw it.

Jin-hyeon, in a stance so low his left hand could touch the ground. His pupils shone blue.

Seol Hong-baek’s eyes widened.

Flash!

For a heartbeat, he seemed to vanish from sight.

Gone, yet already at his nose, Jin-hyeon swung.

‘Cross of Ten?’

The staff slashed in a cross. His vertical and horizontal cuts were so fast they felt a single motion.

He was struck before his Moon Kingdom Sword could enter; Seol Hong-baek hurried a guard form.

Kwaang!

Staff slammed staff with a thunderclap. Seol Hong-baek fell back wildly.

‘Impossible.’

A heavy shock ran from wrist to shoulder and into his torso. It was like receiving two straight, bone-numbing, fierce sword-strikes.

Fire sprayed from Jin-hyeon’s eyes.

Hwaaaak!

From his body, an energy shifting between bluish and jade spread like ink, shrouding the yard.

‘At last!’

The Body-Refining Art, ten-tenths consummation.

He felt bone and sinew cinch perfectly. A fierce confidence that whatever art he used, this hardened body would take it all, bloomed within him.

Riding that momentum, Jin-hyeon unfurled a sword form.

If the Ten-Fingers Soul-Slaughter Art was a fundamental art spanning bare-hand to weapon, what he now displayed was a battlefield sword art the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader forged through countless wars.

War-Sword Three Arts.

From a formless battle-sword, he shattered even his own habits to create this war swordsmanship.

It boasted vast versatility and practicality, with only three forms. Yet, within those three lay the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s distilled insights. Refining them alone yields high sword-principle.

On this War-Sword Three Arts he even devised the legendary demonic art that made the world tremble, the Hungry Wolf Sword.

Seol Hong-baek perceived Jin-hyeon’s instant change.

‘He’s grown again!’

It was joyful. Truly joyful.

Their clan’s benefactor had ascended through crossing him. Few joys would be greater for Seol Hong-baek.

Their staffs clashed once more.

War-Sword Three Arts and Moon Kingdom Eight Purities Sword—two martial arts that had once clashed through conquest and resistance—now intertwined beyond time itself in mutual harmony.

Chiriring!

The struck staves sprang lightly apart.

Each fell back three or four steps, then—like on cue—let their auras subside.

Seol Hong-baek saluted.

“I beheld Teacher’s high martial art splendidly.”

Jin-hyeon returned the bow in earnest.

“Thanks to the Patriarch, I could climb one more step. My thanks.”

Everyone who’d watched wore a flushed face.

Their match had been more than the testing of skill. They spurred each other toward higher realms, as if watching soulmates draw out a melody.

Seol Hong-baek asked with a smile.

“When will the construction be completed?”

“It’ll take another month.”

“Then you may stay here for the time being.”

“I’d be grateful.”

“You’ve made this man’s arm ache like this, tonight, I must drink the wine you buy.”

Jin-hyeon laughed heartily.

Thanks to him, he completely mastered the Body-Refining Art and laid the groundwork to begin the Heavenly Wolf Art, he wouldn’t begrudge even ten casks of drink.

“Let’s go. Tonight, let’s drink till our noses tilt.”