Chapter 159 – Hope We Can Get Closer

Swish!

The sound of wind being cut through, along with a massive sword swinging into my field of vision. I wrapped my inner strength around me and reflexively deflected the blue glowing strike.

Clang!

The clear sound of metal echoed as the sword bounced off. However, the giant sword was still firmly grasped in her hand.

“Haap!”

This time, a flashing sword came from the opposite side. The speed and power seemed to have increased even more, perhaps due to using some of the rebound force from the previous strike.

Of course, it didn’t reach me now.

There was no such thing as a novice who would prepare for a stance like Pang So-so, who was still in a disheveled state.

However, the state of the union of the sword and the body allowed me to take the best possible action in this situation, which resulted in blocking Pang So-so’s attacks with a quick counter-attack.

Kang!

“Not yet! Not yet!”

Perhaps because she had limited the output of her sword, Pang So-so was only slightly pushed back from the previous attack and did not completely collapse.

Then the next strike will be even stronger.

How many times did Pang So-so swing her sword again, using the elasticity of her whole body?

Pang So-so’s attack was as fierce and persistent as a hungry beast trying to claw at its prey’s throat.

Most people would have been pushed back by her momentum and made mistakes or been subdued without showing their full strength.

However, it doesn’t work on me.

“Heup!”

I breathed in and mobilized all the muscles in my body. My inner strength rushed through the slightly changed path of my blood vessels in response.

Thus, the maximum power I could exert was solely contained in the tip of my sword. It was the moment when the ordinary diagonal slash contained the essence of the Taesanapjeong.

Kwaaang!

“Kyaa!”

A tremendous sound that was incomparable to before. And Pang So-so screaming as she flew backward.

As I had already anticipated, I quickly ran towards her and caught her before she fell.

“Eutcha.”

The softness of a woman’s skin touching my arm. However, inside, I could feel Pang So-so’s unique firm muscles.

She seemed to have naturally taken a posture that gathered her breasts because of the way she slightly shrugged her shoulders while being held in my arms. She smiled awkwardly.

“Hehe. I lost again.”

“I can’t help it. But aren’t you much stronger than before?”

“Ah, still a long way to go.”

The technique that Pang So-so had just shown was a technique that became more powerful the more it was divided.

Of course, there is a clear limit. If the force being handled becomes too great and the posture is not adjusted in time, it will be the end.

“So you always need to know exactly how much you can control.”

Usually, someone would take Pang So-so’s attack to the limit like before and confirm it.

In the past, Hong Yeon-hwa or Pang O-jin helped, but this time they were both busy, so I took their place.

“By the way, do you remember?”

“What?”

Pang So-so smiled and entrusted her body to me, rather than standing up, and gave me a playful smile.

“Do you remember when I first sparred with Jin Ga-ga?”

“Of course. Later, I taught you how to avoid the Ohodanmun gatekeeper so you wouldn’t get beaten up. …But we still got caught.”

“Hehe….”

I hugged Pang So-so, who was still giggling, and headed towards the nearby floor.

It was time to rest a little.

I sat on the floor and put Pang So-so’s head on my thigh.

The appropriate weight I felt on my legs and the stronger scent of sweat than usual from Pang So-so, perhaps due to the exercise.

As I stroked Pang So-so’s cheek for no reason, suddenly Pang So-so also reached out and started playing with my face.

“At that time, it was the opposite of now. Jin Ga-ga was much weaker than me, so every time the duel ended, he would be lying down like this, and do you remember when I used to put my knees as a pillow for him?”

“Oh, that could move, but sometimes I pretended I couldn’t move because your knees felt good.”

“Like me now?”

“Yeah. Like you now.”

Pang So-so said with a chuckle.

“It’s amazing how I became so strong in such a short time….”

“There were various things. Do you hate it because of that?”

“Of course not. I just feel like I caught a good man.”

Pang So-so’s finger tapped my lips as if to say not to say such things. It was cute, so I pretended to be still and suddenly bit her finger.

“Hehe!”

Not painful, but with enough force that she couldn’t easily pull it out, Pang So-so’s scream, not a scream of pain, was heard.

But soon, Pang So-so, who raised the corners of her mouth, as if she wouldn’t give up, began to wiggle her finger.

“Hey! Hey! Just stay still. It’s hard to touch you.”

“What are you going to do by touching my tongue…?”

Anyway, the confrontation between me, who gently nibbled on Pang So-so, and Pang So-so, who tickled me in my mouth, was quite enjoyable, but it didn’t last long.

Kwoong!

A loud noise heard from far away. And a powerful ki that even I, who was at the peak, would be frightened of.

As Pang So-so and I turned our heads as if being led by something, Hong Yeon-hwa, who was surrounded by black ki all over her body, was striking a flashy blow in the air.

“Wow….”

“This is no joke….”

It’s not as if the ki was inflated to the point of covering the sky, like it was shown at the Yongbongjihoe.

It resembled the shape of a demon, but it was only the size of the ki that wrapped around one’s body.

However, its power was undeniable.

Bang! Bang! Kwaang!

It wasn’t the sound of something breaking. The control of the power was so perfect that even though the ki was wrapped around the whole body, the ground didn’t even dent.

It was just the sound of the impact.

Hong Yeon-hwa, who reinforced her small body with ki like armor, punched, clawed, and kicked.

Every time she did, the air cracked, tore, and twisted.

Of course, she wasn’t really breaking the space or anything like that. The power of Hong Yeon-hwa’s every gesture was just enough to make one think so.

After hearing that she shouldn’t rush into the enemy’s camp, Hong Yeon-hwa changed her training method.

She used to focus on meditation and trained enough not to rust, but now she was more actively moving her body and training herself.

That’s why she had less time to watch our training, and this time I was Pang So-so’s opponent.

Even though I was adjusting my strength appropriately, it was still this powerful….

“How many Hwakyung-level masters are there that Hong Yeon-hwa can’t just go out and fight? I know there are a lot, but I can’t feel it because I don’t know the exact number.”

“Well. It’s confidential, so you can’t talk about it anywhere else.”

Pang So-so, who was lucky, told me a story she heard from Pang O-jin when she was young.

“The Hwakyung masters’ ki made from the bodies of the dead is so strong. That’s why they call it the Thousand-Year Ki, meaning it can move for over a thousand years. As far as I know, there were four Thousand-Year Ki near the northern border close to Habukseong. If you add the ones deployed in other borders or in the palace, it might be close to twenty?”

There were roughly that many Hwakyung-level masters alive in this era. I remember there were a total of 18 when you combined both the Jeongpa and Sapa.

Of course, if you add the retired masters who finished their golden years and are hiding somewhere, there might be more… but the number of Hwakyung masters that can be confirmed is roughly that much.

But to think that someone is controlling that many Thousand-Year Ki alone. And since they joined forces with the enemy, even Hong Yeon-hwa would be in danger if she touched them recklessly.

However, there are a few things that I don’t understand about the Thousand-Year Ki and the person controlling them.

“I heard last time that except for the minimum amount of ki needed for the person controlling them, the rest of the Thousand-Year Ki are under the emperor’s command. And even though the ki made from the body of a Hwakyung master is very strong, it can’t handle the will, so it can’t be used, right?”

“That’s right. Everyone knew that. But who was the first one to tell that story?”

“Someone deceived the royal family from the beginning?”

“That’s what I think. They might have prepared some new secret technique later, but… the important thing is that the gangshis are out of the emperor’s control, and the Thousand-Year Ki are being used.”

“Yeah… whether I understand it or not, it’s already happened….”

There was another unbelievable thing that someone had done.

According to the letter Pang O-jin received, someone had contacted the samaryeon by sprinkling a part of their vision martial arts on them.

For example, the Salgok’s salsoo were able to deceive the highly skilled samamaeng because of a special earthenware method that was based on the gangshi technique that someone had received.

When the corpse pack or something attacked Jinjuwon before, they should have used someone even if they had to force Hong Yeon-hwa to do it.

Sigh….

The reason why Jinju-unga has survived until now is simple. The gangshi technique is special, but useful.

What is the reason why the strange ecology of the Murim can exist in the first place? It’s because it has been safe from external invasion for a long time.

If it was in the midst of a war, they would have been conscripted or something. Or they would have been thoroughly controlled to prevent them from being stabbed in the back.

They would have been pulled in like that, and the rest would have been pushed out, and it would have naturally become like a feudal system, right?

Some families or factions would have been the targets of a certain area, but they would all have been loyal to the emperor.

Or maybe an era of endless war would come.

…Ah, this is Hong Yeon-hwa’s world.

Didn’t they say that as the empire collapsed, those with power ran rampant as they pleased?

Anyway, the peaceful Jungwon was maintained because of the convenient power of the gangshi.

Then why did the royal family entrust it to someone like Ung-a instead of doing it themselves? Let’s think about it for a moment. Several guesses came to mind.

First of all, there’s no way that Ung-a would have just handed over the gangshi technique obediently. Regardless of their vision, if they were to lose the gangshi technique, they might be in trouble.

What if the gangshi technique was fully deployed during Ung-a’s desperate resistance?

Isn’t it like splitting the belly of a golden egg-laying duck?

Moreover, the gangshi technique is a special technique.

Whether it is actually special or not is not important. What is important is that it seems special because it deals with the dead.

Does the royal family officially deal with gangshi? It’s a perfect thing to hear from an evil empire.

“This is still an era where superstitions thrive. If a flood or a drought were to occur, I guarantee that people will come out claiming that it’s a natural disaster caused by the gangshi technique that the royal family has been dealing with.”

If public opinion plummets and riots break out everywhere, it will be too late.

As long as the emperor is referred to as the Heavenly Son, they cannot directly deal with the gangshi technique.

…But the problem is that someone who had been controlling it so tightly has now unlocked all the safety measures and defected.

“Wow. Come to think of it, the corpse of the Sura Blood Division that I caught. If I had taken it to Salgok, wouldn’t that guy have become a gangshi too?”

“Probably. It would be a shame to let the corpse of a highly skilled master just rot away.”

“Damn….”

We can’t just leave Samaryeon and Ung-a alone.

Even if I ignore the fact that I was attacked, Pang O-jin is joining this war, and isn’t Samaryeonju targeting Samamaeng?

We can’t back down. That’s why Hong Yeon-hwa is also putting all her effort into training.

As I let out a sigh, Pang Soso covered my mouth with her hand.

“There’s no need to keep sighing, Jin-ga. Look at Hong-unni. Who do you think she’ll lose to?”

Hong Yeon-hwa was now practicing her ganggi gong, creating a strong aura in the air, splitting it, and tracking a single point while also controlling the surrounding area.

“No. I can’t even imagine her losing like that.”

“Me neither.”

Pang Soso, who was watching Hong Yeon-hwa’s ganggi manipulation that reminded her of fireworks, wiped her saliva-stained finger on my sleeve and said,

“If it takes time for us to recover from the damage and gather our strength, Samaryeonju must be in the same situation. Since Ung-a has intervened in the alliance of the Four Nameless, they must be busy organizing their ranks, right?”

“Probably. It’s not urgent right now.”

Pang O-jin asked Hong Yeon-hwa to wait for a month. Maybe the preparation period will take that long.

After the war breaks out, we must focus only on Samaryeon, and we must finish some things we need to do during that time.

We have to visit Mosanpa, who asked us to come and try something, and since we’ve reached the pinnacle, we should also try opening the Chungdanjeon… but most importantly, we have to do something about Samayeryeong, who hasn’t looked me in the eye for a week.

Thinking about Samayeryeong, who turned and ran away as soon as she saw me today, I asked Pang Soso.

“Soso.”

“Yes?”

“Do you know what Sahwa likes?”

“….”

Pang Soso’s eyes chilled at my question.

“Jin-ga… even if you’re like that, asking me to help you seduce her within a month is a bit much, isn’t it?”

“That’s not what I’m asking?!”

“Then the family tree gets tangled….”

“I said no!”