Chapter 3

Chapter 3

In Dazhu, Sichuan Province, there was a street called Sword-Selling Street.

From the outside, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary avenue connected on all four sides.

But once night fell, the story changed.

After the sun set and red lanterns began to light one by one, the street started to spew out a heat even fiercer than it had during the day.

Sword-Selling Street was filled with thick dust, the smell of strong liquor, and the rough breathing of men chasing instant riches.

“Cut him down! Don’t give him an opening!”

“Do you know how much money I bet on you?! Get up right now!”

At the center of the street, four sparring stages surrounded by a vast crowd gleamed precariously beneath the torches.

CLANG—! CRUNCH!

A sharp, tearing sound rang out from the third sparring stage.

The outcome was decided in an instant.

When one wanderer staggered and collapsed to the floor, the spectators hurled coins while screaming in fanatic cheers toward the victor rather than worrying about the loser.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about! Kuhahaha!”

On the sparring stage, only the victor’s rough breathing and the loser’s groans remained.

Above them, on a tall pavilion overlooking the scene, honored guests dressed in silk robes sat before tables of wine and food, watching the fierce battles indifferently, as if they were mere amusements.

“Next! Send up the next one!”

The announcer shouted while shaking a ledger that recorded victories and losses.

Moths chasing blind money and empty honor rushed toward the stairs of the sparring stages, each trying to get ahead of the others.

Into that noisy and merciless gap of desire, one man walked in without a sound.

He wore an old, worn martial arts uniform and a bamboo hat pulled low enough to cover half his face.

On his back, he carried something long wrapped in black cloth.

Judging only by his appearance, he was no different from the common third-rate wanderers rolling around in the corners of Sword-Selling Street.

However, each time he moved forward, the wanderers around him, who had been rampaging in drunken excitement, instinctively flinched and cleared a path.

It was an alien sense of pressure, as if a wolf with an indifferent expression had slipped into a noisy pack of wild dogs.

‘W-what is he?’

‘Why did I……?’

They wore expressions that said they disliked their own reactions, but no one said anything to the man in the bamboo hat.

He was none other than Dokgo Jin.

Dokgo Jin’s pitch-black eyes, visible beneath the bamboo hat, swept over the four sparring stages gleaming in the torchlight.

‘So this is Sword-Selling Street.’

Even within that blood-reeking pandemonium, his gaze did not waver in the slightest.

Sword-Selling Street was a place where wanderers paid an entry fee and fought life-and-death duels while gambling rings opened around them, but its true purpose lay elsewhere.

Dokgo Jin’s gaze turned toward the pavilion.

Having sharpened his qi sense to its limit, he nodded.

‘……Four.’

There were more than ten people on the pavilion, but only four were experts who had properly learned martial arts.

‘Their temperaments are clearly different. Are they paired two and two?’

They, too, were dressed splendidly and seemed to be enjoying the entertainment.

However, their true purpose was to watch the duels and find useful martial artists to bring under their command.

‘They are making a needlessly noisy affair of it.’

The Northern Heaven Alliance was close to being between the orthodox and unorthodox sides, and it pursued powerful ‘martial force.’

Victory and defeat were important to them as well, but they judged wanderers mainly by pure skill.

By contrast, the Red Blood Gang was a group closer to an unorthodox faction, and it valued surviving and winning above all else, no matter the means.

In that respect, it was only natural for them to recruit martial artists who managed to win in a gambling arena like this.

Of course, the income earned from operating Sword-Selling Street would also be considerable.

Aside from the experts belonging to the Northern Heaven Alliance and the Red Blood Gang, the others were likely wealthy men with considerable means who paid money to watch the slaughter.

‘Two birds with one stone, I suppose.’

It was then.

“Number thirty-three! Where is number thirty-three?”

The announcer on the second sparring stage raised his voice.

‘My turn.’

After checking his token, Dokgo Jin took off his bamboo hat and climbed onto the sparring stage.

The large, bald announcer looked at Dokgo Jin and asked,

“You’re number thirty-three?”

“That is right.”

The announcer scowled.

“You bastard…… You show up late and speak casually to me?”

“Is that a problem?”

“You insolent brat. Do you really want me to teach you a lesson?”

Before Dokgo Jin could answer, the announcer waved his hand dismissively.

“Forget it. If I mess with a participant for no reason, I’m the one who loses out.”

Dokgo Jin had already assessed the level of the announcers earlier.

They were not as strong as the experts on the pavilion, but they were quite skilled.

“See that bastard over there?”

The announcer pointed to a giant man on the opposite side, holding a massive axe as large as his own torso.

“That one is your opponent. It looks like this is your first time, but to think your opponent is Black Bear of all people. You have no luck.”

He looked Dokgo Jin up and down and continued,

“……From the look of it, this will end quickly.”

Dokgo Jin glanced at the man called Black Bear and soon measured his skill.

‘Should I call him suitable?’

Dokgo Jin nodded readily.

“That is not wrong.”

“Heh heh, I hope you at least keep your life. Begin!”

After declaring the start, the announcer turned away.

‘I hope he cuts off that arrogant tongue.’

Black Bear roared as he swung his axe with a whooshing sound.

“Kuhahaha! What is this scrawny bastard? I’ll crush you so badly they won’t even find your bones!”

Each time he swung the axe through the air, a heavy tearing sound rumbled and struck the spectators’ eardrums.

However, in Dokgo Jin’s eyes, it looked like nothing more than the dance of a scarecrow using far too much strength.

‘A noisy bastard.’

“Kill him! Black Bear!”

“Is that bastard so scared he pissed himself?”

“Puhahahaha!”

At the very moment the spectators’ mocking jeers poured out, Black Bear kicked off the ground and charged.

“Die!”

With momentum that seemed capable of splitting a mountain, the enormous axe blade fell vertically toward the crown of Dokgo Jin’s head.

WHOOOSH!

To the spectators, it looked like a terrifying slash, but not to Dokgo Jin.

‘Tsk.’

He clicked his tongue briefly.

The path of the descending axe was clear and slow, as if it were being swung underwater.

BOOM—!

What the axe struck was not Dokgo Jin’s head, but only the wooden planks of the floor where he had been standing.

Dokgo Jin had vanished cleanly, without even leaving an afterimage.

“……Huh?”

In that brief opening as the axe was buried in the floor, Black Bear’s eyes shook.

It was because he had met Dokgo Jin’s cold gaze, which had somehow slipped into his chest.

‘You are full of openings.’

His shoulder twitched.

THUD!

A dull impact rang out, like an iron hammer smashing a watermelon.

“Keuk!”

Black Bear’s enormous body floated into the air for an instant.

THUMP!

With the whites of his eyes showing, Black Bear could not even scream before he toppled backward and crashed to the floor.

Only the axe he had dropped remained abandoned on the ground.

“……!”

The spectators did not even know what kind of attack Dokgo Jin had used to send Black Bear flying.

Sword-Selling Street, which had been boiling with cheers, was swallowed by silence as if cold water had been poured over it.

Receiving their disbelieving gazes, Dokgo Jin wore a calm expression.

‘It will be troublesome if they are surprised by only this much.’

The bald announcer’s face had also stiffened.

‘Was it…… his shoulder?’

Even he could not be certain, because he had only seen a hazy afterimage.

Without realizing it, the bald announcer looked toward the pavilion.

‘Did they see it?’

Belatedly, the spectators’ cheers erupted.

Waaaaaah!

“That was impressive, wasn’t it?”

“What the hell did he get hit with?”

“I-I have no idea!?”

Dokgo Jin looked at the announcer and said,

“That was not even enough for a warm-up. Bring me a useful opponent next.”

“……!”

The announcer could not bring himself to answer.

Dokgo Jin fought three more times after that.

The result was four consecutive victories.

There had been four duels, but they had not even taken a full quarter-hour.

Including Black Bear, all of the matches were similar.

No one could withstand a single blow from Dokgo Jin before being defeated.

“How dull.”

“…….”

The bald announcer swallowed without realizing it.

Now, he had no choice but to acknowledge it.

‘This bastard is strong!’

Perhaps even he might not be able to win.

‘Where did a skilled man like this come from……?’

He looked toward the pavilion again.

There, two people were looking down at this side with interested eyes.

“…….”

Dokgo Jin also felt their gazes.

‘I have succeeded in drawing attention.’

The corners of his mouth rose slightly.

***

The two people standing on the pavilion and paying attention to Dokgo Jin were experts sent by the Red Blood Gang.

The man with pale skin and a thin frame was a figure known as Blood Flight Woo Gwang, the Unit Leader of the Red Blood Gang’s ‘Human Recruitment Unit.’

He wore black iron claws on the tips of his unusually long fingers.

The other was a beautiful young man holding a feather fan, Flower Asura Do Gyeol.

He was also a martial artist belonging to the Human Recruitment Unit.

Do Gyeol pressed himself close to the railing and muttered,

“You saw that, right?”

“I saw.”

“The first was his shoulder, the second was his elbow, the third was a knife-hand strike, and the fourth was his fist.”

Do Gyeol’s eyes blazed.

“The parts he used were different, but the point of impact was the same every time. He struck the jaw joint precisely and shook the brain. He brought his opponent down in the most efficient way.”

Woo Gwang nodded as if acknowledging it.

“That is not a technique some mere wanderer could use.”

At Woo Gwang’s dry reply, Do Gyeol smiled so brightly it was chilling.

He took a red sugar candy from his chest, crunched it between his teeth, and smacked his lips.

“Clean. There was not a single wasted motion. It was an attack as smooth as my silk robes.”

“Do you like him?”

At Woo Gwang’s question, madness flashed in Do Gyeol’s eyes.

“Yes. Can’t you just give that bastard to me as my ‘toy’? I want to play with him properly. A bastard like that would scream so clearly and beautifully.”

Woo Gwang frowned.

“Do Gyeol, do not forget why we are here. Your hobbies can wait.”

“Hmph, Unit Leader Woo, you are far too cold.”

“Hm.”

Woo Gwang, who had been staring intently at Dokgo Jin, tapped the railing with his iron claws.

Deep scratches were gouged into the wooden railing.

“I like his eyes. They are the eyes of a man who has crossed the threshold of death at least dozens of times. That cannot be all he has.”

“Is that so?”

“We will not be able to draw out his true skill with an ordinary opponent.”

“What are you going to do?”

After thinking for a moment, Woo Gwang opened his mouth again.

“……We will put him against Ghost-Faced Wolf.”

At those words, Do Gyeol’s eyes rounded.

“We had already decided to take that fellow to the main headquarters, hadn’t we?”

“Tell him this is his final test. If he passes even this, we will treat him better.”

“Wow, this is going to be fun!”

Do Gyeol clapped his hands like a child, delighted.

“I obey your command.”

Do Gyeol’s body instantly dropped down beneath the pavilion.