Chapter 99
Chapter 99: Third-rate Martial Family Becomes the Best Under Heaven
“Brother Tang! Look out!”
Yanghwi instantly launched Tang Gun toward the spot where Chudal had collapsed, pivoting on his heel without missing a beat.
“Adu! Fall back!”
“It stings! It stings so bad!”
“Hey! This won’t work without you, so stay close!”
The Iron Poison Bats hurtled down like suicidal projectiles, striking with the impact of launched hidden weapons. Having not yet crossed into the apex realm, Yanghwi lacked the raw might to slice through a cloud numbering in the hundreds or thousands through brute force alone.
To make this count, he had to reach the dead center of the swarm.
It was no different from plunging directly into the heart of the Tang Clan’s secret technique, Mantianhauyu, weaving through a tempest of lethal darts. Placing his faith in Adu, who was retreating with a tear-streaked grimace, Yanghwi pressed forward directly on the monk’s heels.
“Ow! Ouch! Gah!”
Adu lashed out with a straight punch, crushing an Iron Poison Bat upon impact and reducing it to pulp.
A monk of Shaolin, casually taking lives over a few pinpricks.
Still, calling him out on it right now was hardly practical.
“Great hit!”
“I did good?”
“Fantastic! Keep doing exactly that!”
With the beasts swarming in the thousands, more than a hundred grazed past Yanghwi as they penetrated toward the center of the cloud. Adu remained unscathed, but Yanghwi’s garments were shredded in multiple places, scarlet soaking into the fabric.
A past life forged in hardship meant he would hardly flinch at something like this.
A handful of shallow gashes meant nothing. After all, he had lived through qi deviation in his former existence.
BZZZZZZ!
Each time Yanghwi swung his arm, the blade began to shudder with violent frequency, humming with the persistent thrum of bee wings.
Will this work?
Having pushed this deep, failure was not an option. Even if the attempt misfired, he could always fall back after enduring a few poisoned nicks, but spending eternity fleeing from flying vermin was out of the question.
SKREEEE! SKREEEE!
The shrieks tearing from the Iron Poison Bats were shriller and thinner than any beast Yanghwi had ever encountered.
Setting aside the endless screeching, their frames flinched in rhythm with every cry.
He was, after all, a disciple of the Wave-Piercing Sound Empress of the Ten Paragons Under Heaven, an elite figure who held a seat among the ten greatest masters under heaven purely through sound techniques. Through her tutelage, he had mastered the foundational principles of sound techniques and cultivated an acute sensitivity to acoustics.
Acoustics. These creatures navigate without eyes. They see entirely through sound.
Light and sound shared identical traits, rippling outward in every direction from their origin. That meant an offensive strike laced with the principles of sound techniques could potentially wipe out the entire flock in one motion. In truth, he was certain of it.
The sole dilemma was generating a sound potent enough to overwhelm thousands of them simultaneously.
Handling this alone was impossible. Bee Wing Resonating Vibration lacked sufficient explosive weight on its own.
His thoughts spun with rapid speed. Sharp adaptability was both the privilege and duty of an unmatched genius. Scanning his surroundings for any usable tool, Yanghwi’s gaze locked onto Adu’s thick, boulder-like skull.
A strike from a first-rate swordsman could shatter solid stone. Yet Adu’s skull appeared utterly impenetrable. Which meant…
“Adu! You know the Iron Cloth Third Layer, right?! What star have you reached?!”
“Star?”
“Dammit, how tough is your head?!”
“Ah, really tough!”
It was doubtful the boy had already attained the realm of Vajra Indestructibility, but…
“I’m putting my trust in you! Brace yourself! I’m hitting your skull!”
“Huh? All right!”
A brilliant golden glow blazed from the youth’s smooth scalp, radiating an intensity bright enough to blind onlookers.
“Brace for it!”
Pouring half of his one gapja of internal energy into the attack, Yanghwi channeled the principles of the Hundred and Eight Heaven-Splitting Swords into his weapon. The steel trembled violently, releasing a deafening resonance — a pure wall of sound.
VRRRRRRRR!
Gathering every ounce of focus and power within him, he brought the blade down.
Hundred and Eight Heaven-Splitting Swords, Fourth Form: White Feathers Press the Crown, Eighth Variation.
The Eighth Variation of White Feathers Press the Crown was an uncompromising, deadly technique. Blending the core fundamentals of the first six forms while releasing the droning Bee Wing Sound, White Feathers Press the Crown carried the crushing weight of a collapsing peak. The downward cleave crashed directly against Adu’s radiant, bare skull.
“Amitabha!”
It held! The kid actually endured it!
GONGGGG—!
Accompanying the thunderous sonic boom, the distinctive golden Buddhist light of Immense Strength surged outward in concentric rings. Wherever the brilliance and sound struck an Iron Poison Bat, the beasts dropped from the air like mayflies in a downpour.
“Just what I’d expect from Shaolin! When it comes to iron heads, nobody beats Shaolin! I knew you could take it!”
Adu rubbed the faint mark between his brow and crown, smiling bashfully. “You can rely on me! I’m Adu!”
Caught up in the triumph, Yanghwi patted Adu’s bald scalp a couple of times before pausing. Success had made him lose his composure for a second. Regardless of the victory, one had to observe proper boundaries.
“You did remarkably well, Adu. Honestly.”
“Then do I get rice cakes?”
“Yeah. I’ll make sure you get plenty.”
Adu had carved through dense bedrock faster than most ground-shrinking techniques and had served as the cornerstone for breaking the Iron Poison Bats. Offering him a mountain of rice cakes was the least he deserved.
“Wait, they aren’t all dead.”
A handful had bled from their muzzles and perished, but roughly half appeared merely incapacitated. Watching their claws and wings twitch across the cavern floor, Yanghwi knew they were still breathing.
Should I finish them off? No, just in case.
Adopting an easy, casual stride, Yanghwi strolled back toward his companions.
“Little Brother! What in the world did you just pull off?!”
“Brother Hwi, I heard a massive chime. What happened?”
Before Yanghwi could answer, Adu piped up eagerly, “Yanghwi hit my head with his sword!”
“What?!”
“Wh-What did you just do, Boss?!”
“Were you trying to slaughter him?! Don’t tell me you threw the monk to the beasts so you could run!”
Yanghwi raised his eyes toward the ceiling, sighing heavily. After doing everything right, the boy had to go and frame the situation in the worst conceivable way.
“It wasn’t anything like that. It was entirely deliberate. The creatures are exceptionally sensitive to sound.”
“And?”
“Were you trying to extract a dying scream from the monk, Brother Hwi?”
“Of course not. I simply knew Adu’s skull was durable enough to take the strike.”
He walked them through the logic, explaining how Adu had cultivated the Iron Cloth technique to the rank of Iron Skull and had concentrated the power of Immense Strength into his scalp prior to impact.
“That’s all there was to it. As you can see, the plan succeeded without a hitch, and nobody suffered any real harm.”
“Hmm. Technically speaking, you’re the one who got hurt the most, Little Brother.”
Tang Gun was right; patches of blood had soaked through Yanghwi’s clothing. They were injuries sustained while forcing his way into the thick of the flock. Adu, who had complained about every prickle, had walked away completely untouched save for the superficial nick on his crown.
…Still, at least my blade outmatches an Iron Poison Bat’s fangs.
He wasn’t sure if that was supposed to make him feel better. Where did an anomaly like this even originate? Shaolin truly was something else.
To think someone like this died in my past life before his name could ever spread…
With his level of wit, walking into a deadly trap wouldn’t be surprising. Yet with the monstrous martial prowess he possessed, an ordinary snare would never have been enough to bring him down. Yanghwi found himself wondering what could have possibly claimed the monk’s life back then.
“Brother Hwi, come over here so I can tend to those cuts. Iron Poison Bats carry venom in their teeth and claws, so we need to neutralize it immediately.”
“Right. Thanks, Sister Tang.”
Once the salve was applied and an antidote swallowed, Yanghwi sat cross-legged to circulate his inner energy. Having partially achieved spirit transformation, he needed to purge the venom both as toxic qi and as a physical substance.
Breathing in, breathing out.
The principles of the Harmonious Heaven Primordial Art, capable of integrating and balancing all energies, pacified and expelled the contaminated qi. Completing a full cycle to recover a portion of his depleted reserves, Yanghwi pushed himself back up.
“Boss.”
Chudal, who had slipped away moments earlier, called out.
“Yeah. Where did you run off to?”
“While the Iron Poison Bats were incapacitated, I went ahead to inspect the far end of the hallway.”
“Discover anything useful?”
“Yes. A fractured gate sits at the end of the corridor, but the path beyond is completely blocked by soil and rubble.”
Soil and rubble. That indicated the tunnel circled right back to the chamber where the other martial artists were trapped.
“I expected it to lead east, but it goes the exact opposite direction.”
“The layout in here is far more labyrinthine than we thought.”
“Agreed.”
Just how convoluted was this maze if the opposing direction looped right back to the main cavern? Without the architectural intelligence the Namgung noble house reportedly possessed, navigating this space would be near impossible. That assumed, of course, that one couldn’t sense immortal qi.
If I couldn’t sense immortal qi, we’d be just as trapped as the rest.
“So we should push eastward instead of west, right?”
“We have to. Unless you’re eager to excavate tons of dirt just to share a touching reunion with the martial artists trapped below.”
Just then, a dull crash echoed, sending a shower of grit raining down from the ceiling.
“I’m starving.”
“…Monk. No matter how hungry you get, why are you smashing the rock with that massive fist? If this cavern collapses, we’re all buried.”
They needed to eat something first.
“We’d be better off returning to our initial spot rather than eating down here.”
“My brother is right. Who knows what else might be lurking in this corridor.”
Together, the group crawled back through the tunnel Adu had burrowed. They had Adu carve out extra space around the opening so they could sit comfortably to share their provisions.
“I did everything you told me! Rice cake! Give me rice caaake!”
The monk roared like a ravenous beast ready to devour them whole if he went unfed.
“Here, take it.”
Yanghwi flipped one across, and Adu snapped it out of the air with his jaws without using his fingers, happily munching away. At the very least, he recognized that his hands were caked in mud from digging. It would have been better still had he rinsed them under the trickle seeping through the rock wall.
“Let’s get some food into ourselves as well.”
“Young Lord. Should I slip back down and collect a few bat corpses?”
“They’re poisonous beasts. You can’t eat them.”
“No, I was thinking we could douse them in oil and light them up for fuel. Their wings and limbs seem dry and tough enough to burn well.”
“Hmm. They would certainly work as kindling.”
As Chudal turned toward the hole, eager at the thought of a warm bite to eat, Yanghwi waved him off dismissively.
“Forget it. If the smoke and odor drift down, the martial artists below might realize something is off.”
Curious about their progress, Yanghwi peered through a slender crack in the stone to survey the chamber below. What he saw made his eyes widen.
What is this? Why are they already at each other’s throats?
While his party had been surveying the upper passages, the trapped crowd had excavated a substantial section of the floor. They hadn’t managed to uncover any hidden doorways or exits, yet instead of digging, the martial artists had unclasped their weapons.
“Boss, what’s going on down there?”
“Nothing on our end, but plenty on theirs.”
Focusing his internal energy to sharpen his hearing, Yanghwi tuned into the heated arguments floating up from the depths.
“Split the provisions equally right now! If you refuse, don’t expect us to stand down!”
“A bunch of common greenwood thugs thinks they can bark orders at Azure Sky Namgung?! Hahahaha!”
“Down here, neither the Namgung noble house nor the Greenwood holds any sway! There’s only an arrogant brat named Namgung Cheonhu, and myself, Iron Brow Iron Hand Maeng Ung!”
Chudal murmured quietly, “Boss, why are they brawling already? I figured disputes over food would take at least a few days to erupt.”
“That greenwood thug is sharper than he looks. Still, nobody is going to draw blood just yet. Neither camp is that foolish.”
Chudal looked at him, confused by the conflicting assessment. Leaving the observation unexplained, Yanghwi turned the situation over in his mind.
“Hold on. Chudal, we’re free to walk out whenever we feel like it, aren’t we?”
“I mean, yes? We still have the vertical shaft we climbed down through.”
Even with the stone polished smooth by water runoffs, scaling it was a simple matter of notching handholds with a blade and an axe.
“Is that so? Hehehe.”
Watching the expression settle on Yanghwi’s face, Chudal felt a sudden chill. It was a grin so sinister it could put any practitioner of the dark path to shame.
Comments for chapter "Chapter 99"
MANGA DISCUSSION
Madara Info
Madara stands as a beacon for those desiring to craft a captivating online comic and manga reading platform on WordPress
For custom work request, please send email to wpstylish(at)gmail(dot)com