Chapter 58

Chapter 58.

In front of the heavy gate of the Black Dragon Gang.

That place was boiling with the killing intent spat out by lives from the very bottom.

Wanderers who had flocked in from all over the Central Plains.

Worn leather shoes, chipped sabers, and ragged appearances covered everywhere in clear signs of patching.

Ptui.

One man spat yellowish saliva and ground his teeth.

“Those hypocritical Orthodox Faction bastards. ‘Your energy is muddy,’ ‘your bones and muscles have hardened’... Being turned away at the gate gets old after a while....”

“Hmph, have you still not given up hope? Is it not their nature to chase people out as brats once they pass twenty?”

“They are telling bastards like us, who ate blade-rice on the streets, to spend our whole lives as fertilizer. If I knew it would be like this, I would have joined the Unorthodox Faction from the beginning.”

Beside him, an old wanderer who had been drinking strong fire liquor roughly set down his bottle and replied.

“Do you think the Unorthodox Faction is any different? When you are useful, you are a blade shield. When you break, you are a lump of meat.”

“...Tsk, my lifelong wish was to learn even a single proper heart method....”

Each voice was soaked in grief deeper than anger.

A life without a master or a secret manual.

Most lives lived by the blade were like that.

With miscellaneous skills picked up on the road, one could not escape the shackles of third-rate status until death.

What hurt more deeply than the countless scars carved into their bodies was their unfilled thirst for “learning.”

Their gazes rested on a corner of the torn notice.

[One-Hundredth Rank on the Wind and Cloud Ranking, Black Dragon Uncheon]

“If I can just defeat that bastard....”

Someone traced over the name with a trembling finger.

“If I take even the lowest seat in the ranking, will I not at least be able to serve as a guest retainer in a small or mid-sized faction?”

“They say the Black Dragon Gang’s Gang Leader has changed, but it is still only a den of thugs.”

“It is worth trying. No, I have to do it. This is my last lifeline.”

If one wanted to properly earn even a living by the blade, making a name for oneself was more important than anything else.

Only with fame could one at least get a meal somewhere and serve as a guest retainer.

Then those men heard the rumor of the Black Dragon Gang, which had supposedly been making business out of challenge rights, only to lose and hand over the entire faction to an outsider.

‘What a complete mess....’

‘That bastard they call the new Gang Leader must be nothing special either.’

‘If I can just secure a place here!’

Wanderers harboring such thoughts flowed all the way here to Qinghai Province, a borderland of the Central Plains.

“Open the gate! How long do you plan to hide?”

“The title of dragon is wasted on you, you cowardly bastard!”

At the moment their jeering reached its peak.

Creeeeak—.

With a heavy groan, the giant gate of the Black Dragon Gang opened its jaws.

“It is opening!”

“Move! I am first!”

The steps of the wanderers who had been surging forward like angry waves froze stiffly before they could cross the threshold.

“......!”

What they faced was not a den of thugs holding a drinking party.

A pitch-black Black Dragon flag.

Beneath it, more than a hundred martial artists stood in proper lines and columns.

A chilling silence.

And a razor-sharp force that pricked the skin.

It was the spirit of true martial artists, something the third-rate wanderers had never seen in their lives.

“Wh-What... Why do those bastards’ eyes look like that?”

“I heard they were definitely a third-rate thug group....”

At the center of the formation, on a high platform, Uncheon stood with his arms crossed, looking down at them with indifferent eyes.

Little Dragon stepped forward and shouted.

“Anyone who crosses that gate will be considered an enemy. Only those who are prepared should enter.”

The wanderers flinched, but theirs were lives with nothing left to lose, so they could not retreat.

“Do not make me laugh! You are just thugs, yet you put on airs?”

One hot-tempered wanderer drew his saber and crossed the line.

At that moment.

“We already warned you.”

Along with a cold voice, the woman at the front of the formation moved.

Swoosh—!

The banner spear Jin Sowol swung let out a heavy tearing sound and blocked his vision.

At the instant the fluttering flag disturbed the wanderer’s sight, the spear shaft dug in like a snake and struck his abdomen.

Thwack—!

“Guhuk!”

With a short scream, the wanderer’s body was flung outside the gate.

It was a clean expulsion without spilling a drop of blood.

Jin Sowol swung the banner spear in succession and pushed back the wanderers who came rushing in.

“Wh-What is that?”

“Is... is this woman the Black Dragon?”

“No, they said the Black Dragon Gang Leader is a man!”

One fairly well-known expert among the group ground his teeth and drew his sword.

“Hmph, using a flag to dazzle the eyes! That will not work on me!”

This time, Little Dragon stepped forward.

When Black Iron Steel Body was activated, a dark red-black sheen circled over his skin.

Clang—!

The sharp sword blade struck Little Dragon’s shoulder, but what returned was only a metallic sound sharp enough to chill the teeth.

“......!”

The sword was knocked away, and Little Dragon’s rock-like brute strength drove into the wanderer’s chest.

Boom—!

“Kuaaaak!”

A steel-like body that could even deflect a sword, and overwhelming brute strength.

“What is this monster now......!”

“This is... the level of a faction ranked only one-hundredth on the Wind and Cloud Ranking?”

The challengers backed away in terror.

The wanderers’ faces turned deathly pale.

They realized it.

The Black Dragon Gang was no longer a lifeline they could cling to in order to sell their names.

It was a vast swamp that would swallow them whole without leaving even their bones intact if they touched it wrongly.

“This is different from the rumors...!”

“They are not a thug group! Just what are these bastards?”

As shocked murmurs spread like waves, Uncheon slowly descended from the platform.

With each step, a heavy inner pressure pressed down on the training ground.

“The Black Dragon Gang does not avoid challenges.”

His voice was quiet, but carried on inner arts, it rang clearly against the wanderers’ eardrums.

“Every day at noon, we will accept challenges at the sparring stage in front of the Black Dragon Inn. If you wish to face me, first defeat this gang’s instructors and prove your qualifications.”

“Instructors? The Gang Leader is not going to face us himself?”

“Hmph, is this another trick to waste time?”

“But... the instructors’ skills were anything but ordinary.”

Cynical voices sprang out, but they could not continue for long.

Because Uncheon’s cold gaze pierced straight through them.

“However, there is a condition. Those who lose in a match must follow the rules of the Black Dragon Gang.”

“The price of defeat? What... are you telling us to give up our lives?”

“Hmph. Do you think we will back down just because you threaten us like that?”

Uncheon quietly shook his head.

“No. After the match ends, those who wish to ask for instruction may remain, and those who do not may leave.”

At that instant, silence came as if time had stopped.

“...What? Instruction?”

“A-Are you saying you will give us teachings?”

“...Is... is that really true?”

The wanderers’ eyes shook violently.

“You are martial artists who came to the Black Dragon Gang despite the long road. That passion deserves respect. To those who see their own limits through martial power, we will point out a suitable path.”

They were men who had lived their whole lives being turned away at the gates of countless sects.

“You have no qualifications.”

“You are too old.”

“You have no foundation.”

The sorrow of being rejected all their lives for all kinds of reasons.

And yet the Gang Leader of the Black Dragon Gang, whom they had mocked as thugs, was treating them with courtesy as “martial artists.”

“I... I will challenge you! Please teach me as well!”

“Give me a chance too!”

The wanderers’ reaction was explosive.

“There is no need to rush. The four instructors will take turns accepting challenges.”

***

Noon.

The sparring stage in front of the Black Dragon Inn.

The crowd that had gathered like clouds held its breath.

The first one to step onto the sparring stage was Yayul Hui.

Her opponent was a wanderer who said he had lived by rough blade-rice for seven years.

His appearance was shabby, but his gaze alone was sincere.

Swoosh!

The wanderer swung his saber as if pouring out his grief, but Yayul Hui’s figure slipped past its trajectory like a strand of breeze.

Thwack!

Yayul Hui did not even draw her saber.

The match ended with only the tip of her Saber Case lightly touching the wanderer’s solar plexus.

“...Kugh... I... lost.”

A humiliating defeat.

The wanderer lowered his head.

However, what came from Yayul Hui’s mouth was not mockery.

“When you swing the saber, there is too much strength in your shoulder. That is why your trajectory can be read. You would do well to rebuild your lower-body center first.”

The wanderer’s head shot up.

It was not ridicule.

It was a sharp piece of advice pointing out his own problem, something no one had ever told him in his life.

It was a “teaching” he had never received before.

“Th-Thank you! I will gratefully receive your teaching!”

Thud!

The wanderer struck his head against the floor of the sparring stage and was deeply moved.

The matches that followed were the same.

Jin Sowol taught the distance of long weapons, Little Dragon taught the honesty of external arts, and Yi Mok pointed out bad habits that even the wanderers themselves did not know they had.

‘It feels like an acupoint that had been blocked for ten years has opened....’

‘It is like facing a lamp for the first time in a lifetime of darkness....’

The wanderers admired the instructors’ teachings, which struck the core of their issues, and felt grateful to the Black Dragon Gang.

The gazes of the spectators and wanderers watching them began to change.

It was awe beyond shock.

“Those skilled people are only instructors?”

“They give teachings through sparring without even taking a separate lesson fee... Is this not better than most martial halls?”

“I also... I also want to challenge them!”

Before anyone knew it, a long line of wanderers wanting to challenge had formed in front of the sparring stage.

They were no longer lining up for money or fame.

They were lining up to obtain the chance for “learning” that they had longed for all their lives.

Among the wanderers watching that sight, a new question bloomed.

“Wait, if the instructors are that skilled....”

“Just how strong is Black Dragon Uncheon, the Gang Leader who commands them?”

The instructors’ overwhelming martial prowess and Uncheon’s capacity to command them.

Before anyone knew it, people began to question the number of one-hundredth on the Wind and Cloud Ranking.

“Is the Black Dragon Gang Leader really only ranked one-hundredth...?”

“Could the Wind and Cloud Ranking be wrong?”

Even as they faced challengers who kept climbing onto the sparring stage without rest, the instructors showed no signs of fatigue.

‘As expected of the Gang Leader....’

Little Dragon also admired the new Gang Leader once again.

He himself had only thought of taking money from the wanderers, but he had never thought of openly giving instruction and increasing their power altogether.

‘Today’s matter will definitely spread as a great rumor! Now even more people will flock to the Black Dragon Gang.’

The reason most sects did not want to accept wanderers was because it was difficult for them to build “inner arts.”

Because wanderers who began martial arts late had muddy energy built up in their bodies, and common sense said that even if they learned a basic heart method, they could not expect high achievement.

However, Little Dragon, who had personally trained in Black Dragon Dynamic Art, knew.

‘With Black Dragon Dynamic Art... even if one begins martial arts late, one can properly build inner arts depending on effort! It may be somewhat late... but it is not impossible!’

Little Dragon himself was living proof.

A half-finished martial artist who had learned only external arts and had not been able to learn inner arts.

However, after learning Black Dragon Dynamic Art and training day and night, he could feel true qi flowing through his body, faint though it was.

‘I too... can become a true martial artist!’

Little Dragon did not feel tired even as he fought match after match.

Instead, a smile formed at the corners of his mouth.

That was when it happened.

BOOOOM—!

A thunderous sound tore apart the air of the sparring stage.

“G-Kugh...!”

The one who screamed and rolled across the floor was a wanderer who had just been about to apply for a challenge.

A bluish footprint was clearly stamped on his chest, and blood foam bubbled from his mouth.

“Wh-What happened?”

“Who cut in line...?”

Someone walked out while pushing through the wanderers standing in line and waiting for their turn.

The noisy crowd split apart.

At the end of the path, a man was walking toward them.

A face revealed between tangled red hair.

A face full of scars revealed between tangled red hair.

Most of all, the savage killing intent emanating from his entire body was on a different level from the wanderers until now.

“Th-That man? No way...?!”

He looked at the sight of the Black Dragon Gang’s instructors giving guidance, then spat on the ground.

“Ptui. You are all playing house like pathetic little bastards.”

His voice contained clear mockery and hostility.

The first one to react was Little Dragon.

“...Kang Hwi?!”

An old enemy of the Black Dragon Gang.

And the enemy who had once handed Little Dragon a bitter defeat.

The man took a crumpled bundle of paper from his bosom and threw it onto the ground.

It was the Wind and Cloud Ranking notice he had torn down from the Black Dragon Inn the previous night.

The man ground the word “Black Dragon” beneath his foot and growled.

“My name is Kang Hwi. I am ranked ninetieth on the Wind and Cloud Ranking. People call me the Bloodstained Wolf.”

Kang Hwi’s gaze fixed on Uncheon atop the platform. Suppressed inferiority and madness blazed in his eyes.

“Is it not laughable? I am only a wolf, yet some mere one-hundredth rank dares falsely claim to be a dragon.”

A dark blood-red light rose from the tips of his fingers.

It was not simply a matter of liking or disliking titles.

Anyone could see that there was a difference in rank between a dragon and a wolf.

Kang Hwi could not accept that someone ranked below him possessed the title of dragon.

“A bastard who does not know his place needs a lesson.”

Kang Hwi lowered his posture.

Just as he tried to take a step forward, Little Dragon clenched his teeth and blocked his path.

The feeling of defeat from the past crept up his spine, but now he could not step back.

However, Kang Hwi shouted at Little Dragon as if looking at an insect.

“Move aside, Little Dragon! A loser like you is not my opponent! My business is with that Earth Dragon bastard sitting over there.”

Little Dragon’s fists trembled.

At the instant fear and anger crossed, Little Dragon felt Uncheon’s indifferent gaze from atop the platform.

‘The Gang Leader... is watching. Besides... I am different now from who I was then!’

Little Dragon took one step forward.

At the sight of him not backing down, Kang Hwi’s eyebrow twitched.

“I told you to move, did I not? Do you truly want to die, Little Dragon?”

“Do not make me laugh, Kang Hwi! Our Gang Leader is not someone who will face you just because a bastard like you barks at him. If you came to the Black Dragon Gang, then follow the Black Dragon Gang’s law!”

The true qi of Black Dragon Dynamic Art began to circle over Little Dragon’s muscles.

Facing the wolf’s killing intent head-on, Little Dragon clenched his fist tightly.

“Your opponent is me, Kang Hwi. I will settle the debt from three years ago here and now!”