The Battle for the Heavenly Sword - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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8
Woo Geom-san Challenges for Supremacy
About fifty bandits were collapsed on the ground, groaning.
“Grrrgh!”
Zhang Pei, the leader of the bandits, foamed at the mouth and convulsed.
Even his eyes were rolled back, looking seriously ill.
In fact, Baek Ho-yang had dealt with Zhang Pei and his trusted henchmen with exceptional severity.
“I have specially applied a restriction to you all.”
“Kugh! A… restriction?”
“I have completely sealed off every meridian leading to your dantian, so you won’t be able to use martial arts for at least ten years.”
The restriction Baek Ho-yang applied to the bandits was a restriction technique called the Heavenly Punishment Restriction Art, which blocked all acupoints and meridians leading to the dantian, making it impossible to use internal strength.
A restriction applied via the Heavenly Punishment Restriction Art lasts for a full ten years.
It meant they would be unable to use internal strength for at least ten years.
It was a punishment inflicted upon Zhang Pei and his henchmen, who had committed atrocities relying solely on their strength and martial arts.
After ten years, the restriction would lift on its own.
Whether they would reform remained to be seen, but at least until then, they would not be able to commit atrocities.
He did not apply any separate restriction to those whose martial arts were weak or those who had not learned it. There was no need to.
“C-Cruel…”
Barely regaining consciousness, Zhang Pei shuddered at Baek Ho-yang’s method.
Not a shred of Qi could be felt in his dantian, and he barely had any strength even in his limbs.
The Heavenly Punishment Restriction Art had stripped him of not just his internal strength, but even his innate divine strength.
Now, he was merely large in stature, possessing physical strength inferior to that of an ordinary person.
The same went for Zhang Pei’s henchmen.
“Fuck! I can’t get any strength into my arms.”
“Cough! I can’t feel any internal strength at all.”
Despair settled over the faces of the henchmen.
They were bandits who had lived their entire lives relying on their superior strength and martial arts to commit all sorts of evils.
Now that they had become weaker than ordinary people, it was easy to guess how miserable and difficult their future would be.
Baek Ho-yang had handed down a punishment more terrifying than death.
Zhang Pei glared with bloodshot eyes and shouted.
“What grudge did we bear against you for you to use such a cruel method? Just kill us instead, old man!”
“Then what grudge did you hold against these village people to try to kill and plunder them all?”
“That’s…”
“Don’t give me that nonsense about how it’s only natural for the strong to take everything, or how the Jianghu is originally a world where survival of the fittest rules. I’m already sick and tired of hearing those excuses.”
Baek Ho-yang had experienced a vast spectrum of humanity through the war between the Cheonmyeong Association and the Nine Great Sects.
To Baek Ho-yang, who had experienced the absolute rock bottom of how ugly humans could become, Zhang Pei’s sophistry did not work.
Baek Ho-yang looked at the Village Chief.
“Do as you wish with their disposal. Whether you kill them or drive them out, I don’t care.”
“That is…”
“Discuss it with the young men.”
Finishing those words, Baek Ho-yang returned to his original spot.
The Village Chief stared blankly at Baek Ho-yang for a moment.
“He is truly an eccentric expert of the Jianghu. Since we took such a person into our village instead of driving him out, heaven has surely helped us.”
If Baek Ho-yang hadn’t entered the village just in time, they would have lost everything to the bandits.
Just imagining it made his skin crawl.
The Village Chief thought he should treat Baek Ho-yang with even greater devotion, and looked at the young men of the village.
The Village Chief and the young men quickly decided on the disposal of the bandits.
That was, to drive all the bandits out.
Killing was not an option from the beginning.
No matter how much you put weapons into the hands of people who had done nothing but farm their whole lives, they couldn’t easily kill others.
Above all, it felt dirty to see blood on a celebratory day when the Village Chief had gained a grandson.
They worried whether the events of this day would have an adverse effect on the Village Chief’s grandson.
Even if they let them live and sent them away, the bandits couldn’t retaliate.
They had already confirmed it, but those guys had less strength than a young child.
In that physical condition, rather than revenge, they had to worry about surviving.
The young men dragged all the crippled bandits outside the village.
The bandits tried to resist, but it was useless.
With their strength, they were no match for the village youths.
Instead, they were beaten black and blue for resisting.
The bandits, including Zhang Pei, were abandoned in the deep forest, covered in blood.
The remote village was situated literally in the deep wilderness.
Not to mention wolves, beasts like bears also held territory nearby.
It was unknown whether they could avoid the beasts and safely reach a big city. Frankly, no one cared.
Whether they lived or died depended on the bandits’ luck and effort.
The leader of the youths spoke in a cold voice.
“You should be grateful just for the fact that we aren’t killing you with our own hands.”
“You little piece of shit… If my body were intact, you’d already be dead by my hands!”
Zhang Pei glared at the youth leader with bloodshot eyes wide open. But it wasn’t the least bit threatening to the youth leader.
He snorted and said.
“Hmph! But you’re not intact right now. I don’t know if you’ll be able to make it out of this forest alive with that body. There are especially many wolves and bears in this forest. Anyway, try your best to survive and go back.”
The weapons the bandits carried had already been thoroughly confiscated.
They had to escape this dark forest empty-handed.
Their situation was different from the village youths, who knew the local geography like the back of their hands.
The village youths who abandoned them vanished leisurely into the darkness.
Left entirely alone, Zhang Pei and the bandits wailed.
“Fuck! This can’t be happening. It can’t…”
Awooo!
At that moment, as if in response, the howling of wolves echoed from nearby.
A shadow of despair fell over the faces of the bandits.
“Fuck!”
***
The expressions of the village people changed after seeing Baek Ho-yang defeat the bandits so easily.
Respect and fear coexisted on their faces.
Understanding the village people’s feelings, Baek Ho-yang immediately returned to his quarters. Woo Geom-san naturally followed Baek Ho-yang as well.
The two of them laid out their bedding and lay down early.
Because if they wanted to set off on a long journey at dawn tomorrow, it was best to sleep early.
Woo Geom-san, who lay down covered by his blanket, could not fall asleep easily and tossed and turned.
Because whenever he closed his eyes, Baek Ho-yang’s movements came to mind.
‘Smooth flow, stepping on the void, and the Flowing Void Steps.’
He had never imagined in his wildest dreams that what Baek Ho-yang called proper walking would lead to a supreme art like the Flowing Void Steps.
The Flowing Void Steps was a supreme art that transcended Woo Geom-san’s common sense by far.
‘Would such movements be possible if one attained grand mastery in Shaolin’s Nine Ranks of the Lotus Pedestal or Immovable Step?’
Woo Geom-san couldn’t be certain either.
Because he had never once personally seen the footwork of the Shaolin Temple.
However, a vague thought he had was that the Flowing Void Steps would absolutely not lose to the legendary footwork of the Shaolin Temple.
‘Proper walking, proper walking…’
Woo Geom-san recalled Baek Ho-yang’s steps.
Following behind Baek Ho-yang for the past three days, he had seen his steps enough to be sick of it. And he had tried to imitate it too.
Even so, he couldn’t find out what the difference between himself and the old man was.
He had to find out what on earth created the difference between Baek Ho-yang and himself.
It was then.
“It’s so noisy I can’t sleep.”
Suddenly, Baek Ho-yang’s thunderous scolding fell.
“Pardon?”
“I’m saying it’s noisy because I can hear the sound of you rolling your brains.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s no use trying to understand it with your head. Proper walking is not something to understand, it’s something to feel.”
“Something to feel?”
“Yes! Don’t try to understand it impatiently. You must feel it with your body, and try to accept nature just as it is. So stop rolling your brains and just sleep.”
“Yes!”
Woo Geom-san closed his eyes along with his reply.
A smile appeared on the corner of Baek Ho-yang’s mouth.
A goal too grand or a vague hope easily makes a person exhausted.
No matter how firm one’s will was, the mind was bound to waver.
Baek Ho-yang felt the need to plant hope and will into Woo Geom-san. That was why he showed him the Flowing Void Steps, the final completed form of proper walking.
Just as he intended, Woo Geom-san had received a great shock and was unable to sleep easily.
Perhaps from tomorrow, he would gather his strength again and walk with him.
The Flowing Void Steps was a footwork technique completed over several generations after Hao Tianzi, the third patriarch of the Quanzhen Sect, established its concept.
This footwork technique, which occupied space by following the flow, was very special, so an ordinary person could never learn it.
In the long history of the Quanzhen Sect, those who completed the Flowing Void Steps numbered a mere five people.
The footwork that even Baek Ho-yang had completed only after painstaking effort was precisely the Flowing Void Steps.
Whether Woo Geom-san could complete the Flowing Void Steps was something even Baek Ho-yang couldn’t know. But he could be satisfied just by planting the will to challenge it into Woo Geom-san.
A moment ago, the sound of him rolling his brains had sounded so noisy, but now, only even breathing could be heard.
Before he knew it, he had fallen into a deep sleep.
‘Sleep well.’
Using Woo Geom-san’s breathing as a lullaby, Baek Ho-yang also quietly fell asleep.
Having slept deeply like that, the two opened their eyes early at dawn the next day.
The two immediately got up, folded their blankets, and came outside.
While they drew water from the well to wash their faces and prepared to set out on their long journey, someone cautiously approached.
It was precisely the Village Chief.
The Village Chief spoke cautiously with a maximally respectful attitude.
“Did you, perhaps, sleep well?”
“Thanks to you, I slept soundly.”
“That is a relief. Do you perhaps plan to leave the village right away?”
“That is so.”
“Please stay a few days more. We haven’t even properly repaid you yet.”
“It was not something done in expectation of repayment, so do not mind it.”
“Still…”
The Village Chief trailed off his words with a lingering regret.
If an expert like Baek Ho-yang stayed in the village, they wouldn’t have to worry about bandit raids in the future either.
Baek Ho-yang also read the mind of such a Village Chief.
“I have a place to go with my grandson. I know your heart, Village Chief, but I cannot stay here long. I am sorry!”
“No. In fact, we are fully grateful just for the help last night. This rustic old man was just harboring a vain greed, so please do not pay it any mind, benefactor.”
The Village Chief shook off his lingering regret completely and replied politely.
He held out a bundle he had prepared in advance to Baek Ho-yang.
“Instead, please accept this.”
“What is it?”
“I put in some food to eat along the way and a bit of travel expenses.”
“Travel expenses are unnecessary. I will gratefully accept the food.”
“Even if it’s called travel expenses, it’s only a few pennies. If you don’t accept even this, our hearts will be uneasy and we won’t be able to send you off.”
“Ha!”
“Please do not refuse the heart of us rustics.”
When the Village Chief pushed this far, Baek Ho-yang could no longer refuse either.
“Then I will gratefully accept.”
As soon as Baek Ho-yang’s permission fell, Woo Geom-san accepted the bundle the Village Chief held out instead.
Straps were attached so that the bundle could be slung over the back.
Grateful for the consideration of the Village Chief and the village people, Woo Geom-san shouldered the backpack.
Woo Geom-san bowed his head to greet the Village Chief.
“I will receive it gratefully. Thank you.”
“We are only the more grateful ones. I will pray that you travel the long road safely.”
The Village Chief bowed his head in succession to Baek Ho-yang and Woo Geom-san.
Baek Ho-yang spoke to Woo Geom-san.
“Receiving greetings repeatedly for something that is no big deal is rather burdensome. Let us leave quickly.”
“Yes! Let’s go.”
Woo Geom-san replied with a broad smile.
The two left the house, leaving the Village Chief behind.
Outside the house, many village people had also come out.
The village people expressed their deepest courtesy to Baek Ho-yang.
At their unexpected actions, Baek Ho-yang burst into a hearty laugh.
“Haha!”
After intervening in the war between the Nine Great Sects and the Cheonmyeong Association, his chest had felt heavy as if a lump of lead were placed upon it.
However, upon receiving such pure hospitality from the village people, the pressure that weighed down on his chest vanished a bit.
Baek Ho-yang slightly bowed his head to greet the people, and then left the village with Woo Geom-san.
Once they were a certain distance away from the village, Baek Ho-yang laughed loudly.
“Hahaha!”
Whoosh!
As if in response to his laughter, a gust of wild wind arose in the area.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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