Chapter 50: Blood Wolf Tiger Yeopae

Regaining his senses, Muchideok looked at Gangchan, who was staring back at him with indifferent eyes.

He instinctively knew he would not get many more chances.

‘I’ll end this in one move.’

To perform the Layered Soul Destruction, the final technique of the Closed Blood Hand, he bent his knees slightly to fix his lower body firmly.

Standing at a diagonal angle, he slowly crossed his hands.

Every time his hands crossed, Muchideok’s hands seemed to multiply one by one.

Eventually, ten completed hands overlapped into one and shot toward Gangchan like a bolt of lightning.

‘Is this a type of Multi-Layered Palm?’

The thought was brief, and his action was even faster.

His Ghost Soul Step, which reacted even before his thoughts, was exerted to its limit.

Gangchan’s body moved backward as if vanishing.

However, Muchideok’s Closed Blood Hand did not lose sight of him and pursued him fiercely.

The moment Gangchan took another step back, Muchideok rotated his body like a spinning top, and his powerfully extended Closed Blood Hand grazed past Gangchan’s side.

At the same time, Gangchan’s right foot flew toward Muchideok’s head.

The kick arrived even before he could pull back his hands, thanks to the terrifying speed of the Ghost Soul Step.

It was difficult to even discern from which direction it was coming with the naked eye.

‘The way to dodge a kick is simple.’

One, move outside the kick’s rotation radius.

Two, dig inside to eliminate the rotation radius itself.

If he moved outside, the distance between him and his opponent would widen, meaning Muchideok, who fought barehanded, would lose his attack range.

Given Gangchan’s martial arts, it would not be easy to regain that lost distance.

Having made a quick judgment, Muchideok used all his internal energy to dig inward.

He attempted to defend against the kick with his left hand while simultaneously preparing to strike with his right using the Closed Blood Hand.

However, at that moment, Gangchan’s right foot, which had been flying toward him, vanished.

In an instant, his left foot appeared.

As Gangchan’s body rose into the air, he bent his knees and wrapped both legs around Muchideok’s left arm and head.

It was the manifestation of the ‘Entangle’ move from the Heavenly Spirit Dance.

Once Muchideok’s left arm and head were trapped by Gangchan’s legs, Gangchan slammed his knees into the ground just as they were.

Thud!

Muchideok’s breath was slowly being cut off.

As his consciousness began to fade, Muchideok desperately thrust the energy of the Closed Blood Hand gathered in his right hand toward Gangchan’s left flank.

Thump!

A dull striking sound echoed.

However, the right hand that performed the Closed Blood Hand was blocked by Gangchan’s left arm.

His fingertips stopped right in front of Gangchan’s side.

Nevertheless, the energy of the Closed Blood Hand gathered in his right hand flowed into Gangchan’s body through his left arm.

‘It’s over.

I won.’

Muchideok was certain of his victory.

The energy of the Closed Blood Hand was swollen in sections, like knots tied in a string, and the size of these knots grew progressively larger toward the end.

These knots would penetrate the opponent’s blood vessels and flow through them.

Eventually, a knot larger than the vessel would block it, resulting in a kill.

Therefore, to deal with both those with thin and thick blood vessels, one had to infiltrate the opponent with the knots in order, from smallest to largest.

A martial art of energy that maximized utility—that was the essence of the Closed Blood Hand.

“You use an interesting method.”

Muchideok did not hear Gangchan’s mumbled words.

The energy of the Closed Blood Hand that entered Gangchan’s body thinned and spread throughout his entire frame, like ink diluted in a river.

The Earth Origin could transform and gather or release all the energy in the world according to Gangchan’s will.

How could Muchideok possibly know that?

The Ascending Limitless Origin first contained all the energy in the world.

Then, it allowed that energy to be used by changing it into a desired property or using it as it was.

Thus, one needed a body that could contain all energy through the Man Origin, and since the Earth Origin absorbed all energy, one naturally required the Heaven Origin—the Unshakable Heart—to endure the nature of that energy.

Muchideok, whose right hand was now sealed by Gangchan following his left arm and head, thought Gangchan would soon collapse and he would be free.

However, no matter how much he struggled, his body would not move.

Then came the sensation of suffocation.

Slowly, his consciousness faded away.

After a few exchanges, the Closed Blood Hand Muchideok lay sprawled out on the ground.

The bandits could not even judge what kind of martial art his opponent was using.

“Go get the Leader!

Hurry!”

Someone’s desperate shout spread in all directions.

Gangchan stood up without even glancing at the unconscious Muchideok and fixed his gaze on the watchtower at the far left end.

Bzzt!

He sent a telepathic message to the man in blue light-armor who was looking this way from atop the watchtower.

‘Who are you?’

‘You recognized me in the middle of all that?

Impressive.’

‘Don’t worry about it.

Just wait a bit.

If you’re related to the Blood Wolf Band, I’ll show you something interesting.’

White teeth were revealed through Gangchan’s blood-stained face.

He was smiling at the man.

In that instant, goosebumps erupted all over Hae Byeok’s body.

Hae Byeok had been watching Gangchan fight Muchideok from the beginning.

Muchideok was a skilled individual who would have required Hae Byeok to fight dozens of exchanges, yet that young man had taken him down in just a few moves.

Furthermore, it was done in an ingenious way he had never expected.

A competitive spirit surged within him.

However, his identity could not be revealed yet.

‘I’m leaving due to circumstances, but we’ll meet soon.

Ah, could you tell me your name?’

‘Why would I need to know the name of a man who will die when we meet again?

If you want to know, find out for yourself.

Also, if you’re going, go quickly.

If I suddenly change my mind, I might kill you first.’

Hae Byeok hurriedly left the area, thinking that Gangchan might truly attack him first.

‘I’ll show you whose head falls next time.’

The man who left the telepathic message disappeared over the left wooden fence.

‘Should I have just let him go?’

A brief conflict arose in Gangchan’s mind.

‘Well, it’s certain he isn’t from the Blood Wolf Band.’

Organizing his thoughts, Gangchan turned his gaze back to the bandits.

However, Hae Byeok only pretended to leave and hid himself on the left side of the mountain.

He could not leave without confirming the result.

The opponent’s martial power was extraordinary.

If things went wrong, the Blood Wolf Band could disappear entirely.

‘He’s a piece of trash, but he has so many subordinates.

He won’t lose, right?

I have to see how this ends.’

Arriving at a spot quite a distance from the Blood Wolf Band’s headquarters, Hae Byeok found a place where he could comfortably observe the battle.

‘This should be enough.’

Having settled in, Hae Byeok focused his attention on Gangchan.

The bandits who received Gangchan’s gaze were slowly backing away.

At that moment, a man with a displeased expression came forward from the back with a loud voice.

“Who is making such a fuss since dawn?

If you’re going to fight, do it after the sun is up!”

The bandits, turning their eyes toward the source of the sound, hurriedly made a path and bowed their heads.

The Leader of the Blood Wolf Band, Blood Wolf Tiger Yeopae, appeared from among the bandits.

Stepping forward, Yeopae frowned at the gruesome sight of the front gate.

“What bad luck, right from dawn.”

From those few words alone, it was all too easy to see how he normally viewed his subordinates.

Perhaps because of that, some of the bandits who heard him frowned and dropped their gazes to the ground.

However, Yeopae, who had mumbled to himself, had no interest in his subordinates’ reactions.

He merely watched Gangchan, who had been staring at him intently for a while.

A young man who appeared to be in his early twenties stood there, covered in blood.

The five men standing behind him looked like his bodyguards.

The strange thing was that the clothes of those five men were relatively clean.

However, Yeopae did not seem to care about such trivialities; he looked only at Gangchan.

After a moment, Yeopae smirked and spoke.

“You’ve killed quite a lot before breakfast.

But are you injured too?

You should have taken it easy.”

To an outsider, his attitude might have sounded like a conversation between old friends.

Gangchan barely held back a laugh.

“But what are those guys standing behind you?

Are they decorations?”

At those words, Du Ilchung became enraged and tried to step forward, but Gangchan stopped him with a gesture.

“I’m truly curious.

Just where did you guys come from?”

Gangchan, who was observing Yeopae, replied quietly.

“You don’t deviate an inch from my expectations.

You’re less than trash.

Shall I tell you where I came from?”

“…”

“Gui. Hon. Village.”

“Hahaha, what? Trash? It seems your courage is surging because you’re about to die. But what did you say? Guihon Village?”

“You don’t know it? See, I told you that you were trash.”

“Good grief, I’ve become trash because of some backwater village I don’t even remember. Hahaha!”

Around that time, murmurs began to rise among the bandits.

As Muchideok regained consciousness, several men were seen moving him to one side.

Yeopae also watched the scene.

“Since you made our Deputy Leader look like that, you can’t be a nobody. Let’s stop the games here and reveal your identity.”

“If Guihon Village doesn’t ring a bell, how about this? Cheongangmun, and the gold.”

“Cheongangmun? Gold? Ah, so that place was Guihon Village. The bumpkins who trusted the Deputy Leader’s promise and served us a feast just to stay alive.”

“From now on, the blades of those bumpkins will cut your body apart piece by piece.”

“This is why one must always pull things out by the roots. Anyway, if you lived, you should have lived quietly. I don’t know why you’d come all this way just to die.”

“If you’re done blathering, that’s enough. The smell of trash is too strong.”

“Fine by me. I’ve been frustrated lately because I didn’t know how much my martial arts had improved.”

Yeopae drew his favorite blade, the Beast Saber, and pointed it diagonally at Gangchan.

Suddenly, the attack began.

The Blood Wolf Tiger Yeopae’s signature martial art, the Blood Wolf Explosive Stream Saber, was unleashed.

The Blood Wolf Explosive Stream Saber was a saber technique completed by his father, the previous leader, specifically for the master of the Blood Wolf Band.

Yeopae had mastered this technique at the age of 30 and survived on the Plains.

Once unleashed, it was a wild and destructive continuous saber technique that only ended when the opponent was dead.

Wild and ferocious saber strikes poured toward Gangchan with immense sonic booms.

However, Gangchan used his Ghost Soul Step and dodged the blade like a phantom.

No matter how fast the saber strikes were, they could not catch up to Gangchan’s Ghost Soul Step.

Everyone watched in a daze at the movements of the two men, which were difficult to follow with the eye.

As he failed to cut even a single thread of Gangchan’s clothes despite the endless attacks, the composure gradually faded from Yeopae’s face.

Stopping his attack and taking a step back, Yeopae gave an order to his subordinates who had only been watching.

“What are you doing!

Kill them all!”

As soon as Yeopae’s command fell, the surrounding bandits rushed toward the five members of Squad One.

Thus, the battle began.

Numerous shouts and the sounds of clashing weapons echoed through the air.

*Clang!

Clang!*

“Aaaagh!”

“My arm!

Aaaagh!”

The five squad members blocked the indiscriminate attacks of the enemies and cut down the bandits with all their might.

At that moment, arrows flew in from behind the bandits.

“We’re here too!

You bastards!”

Baek Geombi attacked the rear of the bandits who had surrounded the squad members.

Gok Jeong and Baek Geombi, who had been hiding in the rear, could no longer contain themselves and revealed themselves once the squad members were surrounded.

For some reason, over 100 bandits, including Muchideok, did not join the fight and instead gathered to one side as if guarding Muchideok.

Fortunately, that meant fewer enemies to deal with.

Gangchan remained completely unperturbed even as he took on Yeopae’s fierce attacks.

Even his breathing was not disrupted.

Seeing Gangchan like this, Yeopae’s composure slowly shattered.

On the other hand, Gangchan was lost in other thoughts even while fighting Yeopae.

He could feel the man who had been on the watchtower earlier watching him from a mountain about 600 feet to the left.

‘He’s being a nuisance after all.

What should I do about him?’

Meanwhile, realizing that he could do nothing to Gangchan with the Blood Wolf Explosive Stream Saber, Yeopae adjusted his stance.

“This…

This is beyond imagination.

Then let’s do this for real.”

Yeopae held the Beast Saber at a middle guard and lowered his posture.

Finally, the Red Blood Invincible Saber, passed down through 500 years of time and space, revealed itself.

The Beast Saber, shrouded in a blood-red energy, flew toward Gangchan.

It delved into Gangchan’s openings with speed and precision.

As Gangchan pushed his Ascending Limitless Origin even further, the Three Soul Axes vibrated.

Zzzzzzzzzing!