Chapter 59

Chapter 59.

“If you wish to challenge the Gang Leader, you will have to get through me first!”

Little Dragon spoke with resolute eyes.

Kang Hwi snorted and raised blood-red killing intent from his entire body.

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

Bloodstained Wolf.

Befitting that title, red energy gathered at the tips of his ten fingers and formed sharp qi waves.

“Do you really want to die this time, Little Dragon?”

At Kang Hwi’s shout, Little Dragon clenched his teeth.

It felt as if the sensation of his skin being brutally torn apart by those red claws three years ago had come back to life.

In the past, because Little Dragon had been unable to build inner arts, he had possessed an external art close to First Rate, yet had been helplessly ravaged by Kang Hwi’s sharp inner arts.

‘The limits of external arts alone are clear.’

A shell without the support of inner arts would ultimately be pierced by sharply honed energy.

That was the common sense Kang Hwi knew.

“It seems the wounds torn open back then have already healed. I will tear apart your Black Iron Steel Body in the same place once again!”

BOOM—!

Kang Hwi kicked off the ground and charged.

Blood energy in the shape of a red wolf shot toward Little Dragon’s heart.

It was his ultimate skill that reeked of blood, Blood Wolf Claw.

Befitting the title Bloodstained Wolf, five streaks of red light were drawn clearly through the air.

‘That is it!’

The memory of Black Iron Steel Body being pierced by that strike in the past, making him vomit blood in a miserable state.

A cold fear brushed past Little Dragon’s spine.

Just as his body was about to shrink back instinctively.

On the platform, Uncheon’s gaze entered Little Dragon’s sight as he sat indifferently with Black-Steel Cold Iron fastened to him.

The gaze of the lord who had acknowledged him as a complete martial artist and given him a chance to prove his worth.

Uncheon’s cold, sunken pupils calmly dissected Kang Hwi’s martial art.

‘If it were Little Dragon of the past, he would have been pierced... but now it should be different.’

In Uncheon’s gaze as Little Dragon saw it, there was not the slightest trace of doubt.

‘The Gang Leader... believes in me!’

The fear vanished, and Little Dragon’s eyes shone fiercely.

‘I am... no longer half-finished!’

Uncheon brought his teacup to his lips and murmured.

‘Yes, that is it. Have confidence, Little Dragon.’

As Kang Hwi’s blood-red killing intent dyed the training ground red, the true qi of Black Dragon Dynamic Art swirled through Little Dragon’s entire body.

“It will be different from then!”

Crunch!

Little Dragon’s skin began to gleam like a pitch-black, dark red lump of iron.

It was not simply externally swelling his muscles.

It was the true Black Iron Steel Body, in which inner arts had finally been added to external arts raised to the extreme.

Blood Wolf Claw and Black Iron Steel Body collided.

It was the moment when blood should have sprayed upward with the sound of flesh being torn.

However, what burst out was a chilling metallic sound that broke everyone’s expectations.

Clang—!

“......?!”

Blood Wolf Claw failed to pierce Little Dragon’s Black Iron Steel Body and was bounced away in vain.

“Kuaaaak!”

Kang Hwi clutched his hand and stepped back.

His pupils shook violently as if an earthquake had struck them.

The sensation transmitted through his fingertips was not that of a human body.

As if he had clawed at a giant iron pillar, a rebound instead surged back, strong enough to nearly break his own nails.

“Wh-What is that true qi flowing inside your body? You should not be able to use inner arts as the price for learning Black Iron Steel Body!”

The flustered Kang Hwi hurriedly widened the distance and shouted.

“Hmph! That was only because I had not found an inner arts cultivation method suited to Black Iron Steel Body!”

“What! Do you mean... you restored the past inner arts cultivation method paired with Black Iron Steel Body?”

At Kang Hwi’s words, Little Dragon shook his head and looked down at his own chest.

‘There is no helping a martial art that has already been lost... but with the Gang Leader’s Black Dragon Dynamic Art, we can regain our former renown!’

Black Iron Steel Body had once been torn apart helplessly, but now the skin revealed through his torn clothes was perfectly intact, without a single scratch.

A body that had reached the extreme of external arts, with the heavy true qi of Black Dragon Dynamic Art added to it.

The result was more than a simple arithmetical combination.

‘This is... the harmony of internal and external arts!’

Even though the amount of inner arts was still small, it was on a completely different level from when he had learned only external arts.

An explosive synergistic effect.

Overwhelming joy bloomed on Little Dragon’s face.

‘The Gang Leader’s teaching... is real!’

Little Dragon’s shoulders, which had unconsciously shrunk back, finally straightened.

“Is... is that really Little Dragon?”

“Was Black Iron Steel Body that solid?!”

“Little Dragon, who was pushed out from beyond the one-hundredth rank... withstood Bloodstained Wolf’s Blood Wolf Claw?”

“No, to be exact, he bounced it away!”

Shocked murmurs burst out among the wanderers in the spectator seats as well.

Once he confirmed that Black Iron Steel Body could perfectly block Blood Wolf Claw, Little Dragon’s tension eased considerably.

“At this rate, you are not a wolf, but just a son of a bitch, are you?”

Kang Hwi’s face flushed red with humiliation.

“Do not get arrogant just because you blocked it once! You half-finished bastard!”

Kang Hwi lost his reason and began to draw up his inner arts recklessly.

‘Even if he has learned inner arts... it has only been a short time! The amount of inner arts can never match mine!’

Kang Hwi’s guess was correct.

No matter how Little Dragon’s internal and external arts had become one, he was still at the stage where he had just begun building inner arts.

As far as the total amount was concerned, there was a clear difference equal to the time spent training inner arts.

BOOM! BANG! CRASH!

Consumed by malice, Kang Hwi poured out a fierce assault.

Unable to withstand the wave-like offensive filled with overwhelming inner arts, Little Dragon began to be pushed back one or two steps at a time.

A cruel smile spread across Kang Hwi’s lips.

“Die! Die!”

Sensing danger, Little Dragon’s gaze turned once again toward Uncheon atop the platform.

The moment Little Dragon’s eyes met his, Uncheon’s lips moved faintly.

[Armor covering the whole body is only heavy. Gather the scattered energy and concentrate it into a single point.]

“......!”

Little Dragon’s eyes flashed open.

He released the force he had been trying to forcefully wrap around his entire body.

A duel between Little Dragon, who had only just learned inner arts, and Kang Hwi, who possessed more than twice his amount of inner arts.

Since the difference in inner arts was large, protecting his entire body with Black Iron Steel Body had been impossible from the beginning.

But what if he gathered his internal force into only one place?

‘Just once. I will stake everything on my right fist!’

Following Gang Leader Uncheon’s teaching, Little Dragon instantly withdrew the true qi of Black Dragon Dynamic Art that had covered his whole body.

It was a decision to abandon full-body defense, literally giving flesh to take bone.

However, in Kang Hwi’s eyes, Little Dragon withdrawing his true qi looked different.

“Hah! I knew it. Have you run out of energy? Then die already!”

The force of Black Iron Steel Body that had been stretched taut around Little Dragon’s body drained away in an instant like an ebbing tide.

Kang Hwi saw that gap as an opportunity and did not miss it.

The blood-red energy bursting from his ten fingers rushed toward Little Dragon.

Kang Hwi’s Blood Wolf Claw rained down, tearing apart Little Dragon’s shoulder and thigh where the true qi had drained away.

“Kugh...!”

Blood spattered here and there, but Little Dragon did not dodge.

Paradoxically, the more wounds increased on his body, the more explosively the energy gathering in his right fist compressed.

The true qi of Black Dragon Dynamic Art gathered into one single point, his right fist, and emitted a pitch-black sheen.

‘It is done!’

Seeing that his attacks were working, Kang Hwi’s eyes flashed.

“You were rather impressive, but... this is the end! You half-finished bastard!”

Kang Hwi leaped into the air and squeezed out every last bit of his remaining inner arts.

At the instant his sure-kill strike drove down toward Little Dragon’s head.

BOOM—!

Little Dragon’s right foot stamped the ground heavily.

The stone slabs of the sparring stage shattered and scattered.

“I am no longer half-finished!”

The true qi from his qi center traveled through his waist and was violently shot out through his right fist.

It was a blow in which Black Iron Steel Body and Black Dragon Dynamic Art had fused into a single point.

That fist surged upward like a dragon soaring.

“How dare a toothless wolf bastard!”

Hidden Dragon Ascends to Heaven.

Thanks to the inner arts that now followed it, the ultimate skill Little Dragon had learned long ago but had been unable to use was realized in his hand.

THWAAAAACK—!

Along with the sound of facial bones shattering, Kang Hwi’s body floated into the air.

“Kuaaagh!”

The smile hanging on Kang Hwi’s face twisted grotesquely.

His figure flew past the front of the Black Dragon Inn and crashed pathetically into the ground where the wanderers were standing.

CRASH!

Kang Hwi rolled several times, foaming at the mouth, his limbs going limp.

A perfect loss of consciousness.

The ninetieth rank on the Wind and Cloud Ranking, Bloodstained Wolf Kang Hwi.

His hunt had ended in vain at the hands of Little Dragon, who had been pushed out from beyond the one-hundredth rank on the Wind and Cloud Ranking.

“Haa... Haa....”

As Little Dragon breathed roughly, covered in blood, white steam rose from his right fist.

The area around the sparring stage was wrapped in perfect silence, with not even the sound of breathing heard.

‘I... I won.’

Little Dragon looked down at his own two hands.

With his own strength, he had smashed the powerhouse who had made him feel the limits of his external-art-only self deep in his bones three years ago.

Little Dragon slowly turned.

‘All of this... is thanks to the Gang Leader!’

Thud.

Leaving the fallen Kang Hwi behind him, he knelt on one knee toward Uncheon, who sat atop the platform.

Then he shouted as if making an oath, his voice boiling with blood.

“Gang Leader, I, Little Dragon, have proven your teaching!”

At that overwhelming cry, Uncheon lowered the hand he had been resting his chin on indifferently and nodded.

“You did well.”

At that moment.

‘The Gang Leader did not even step forward...! Kang Hwi was crushed at Little Dragon’s level?!’

‘Little Dragon was definitely one step below that Kang Hwi. And yet, how long has it been since he received teaching from the Gang Leader that he became this strong?!’

The pupils of countless wanderers all rose toward one place at once, toward Uncheon atop the platform.

“Little Dragon, who had been pushed out beyond the one-hundredth rank... defeated the ninetieth rank!”

Someone shouted in a trembling voice.

And one chilling truth rose in everyone’s minds at the same time.

“If Little Dragon is at that level... then just how strong is the Black Dragon Gang Leader, who sent such a monster flying with a single kick?!”

“There is no way the Black Dragon Gang Leader is only ranked one-hundredth on the Wind and Cloud Ranking!”

The moment the fog of misunderstanding cleared and the overwhelming gap touched their skin.

Lightning struck the wanderers’ minds.

The number one-hundredth on the Wind and Cloud Ranking was not the Black Dragon Gang Leader’s true skill.

It was merely his starting point, the first time his name had appeared in the world.

“I-I also wish to join the Black Dragon Gang! Please accept me!”

“Please take me in! Please teach me!”

An extraordinary sight unfolded, with the wanderers who had thirsted for teaching all kneeling without distinction and bowing their heads at the Black Dragon Gang’s threshold.

***

At a place overlooking the Black Dragon Gang’s sparring stage at a glance.

The highest-floor pavilion of the Black Dragon Inn, which the Ilwol Merchant Guild had acquired and expanded on a grand scale.

A person leaned back in a soft chair laid with the finest carpet and leisurely tilted a wine cup.

It was Smiling Fox Yuha.

Beside him, Geum Budong, Qinghai Branch Manager of the Ilwol Merchant Guild, looked down outside the window and clicked his tongue.

“The Young Guild Master’s judgment was accurate. However... Black Dragon Uncheon does not seem like someone who should be placed at one-hundredth on the Wind and Cloud Ranking... Why did you...?”

At Geum Budong’s words, mixed with admiration, Yuha smiled slyly and swirled his wine cup.

“Of course. But is it not more interesting for him to start from one-hundredth?”

“Pardon? Surely... for that reason...?”

“Branch Manager Geum. Why do you think I went through the trouble of creating the Wind and Cloud Ranking and posting it everywhere?”

At Yuha’s cold counter-question, Geum Budong was left speechless.

‘If it were to objectively evaluate the skill of young warriors... there would be no need to post the ranking. Rather, he would have monopolized the information. But Young Master... posted it. Why...?’

Geum Budong could not answer easily.

“From the beginning, the Wind and Cloud Ranking was not made to establish an objective ranking. That is separately inside my head.”

Yuha snapped open his fan and raised the corners of his mouth.

“The Wind and Cloud Ranking exists solely to move people according to my tastes. Besides, it is entertaining, earns profit, and makes information gathering easier. One stone, three birds, shall we say.”

“At first, you needed rankings that were accurate to a certain extent in order to secure credibility...!”

“Exactly. But now the situation has changed. Already, every young warrior of this Cult wants to place his name on the Wind and Cloud Ranking.”

Only then did Geum Budong slap his knee.

“By subtly arranging the rankings, you can incite fights and competition between the vested interests and the rising forces within the Cult!”

“Yes. People do not protest because they are dissatisfied with the Wind and Cloud Ranking. If they have skill, they step forward and prove it!”

“The Strong Are Exalted!”

Geum Budong inwardly trembled at Yuha’s scheme.

‘It is a brilliant move using the doctrine of this Cult! If this is done, no one inside the Cult can find fault with it.’

With a single Wind and Cloud Ranking, he moved young warriors, yet there was almost no burden of risk that came with it.

Moreover, the incidental effects were considerable.

Because Yuha had secretly distributed the Wind and Cloud Ranking mainly through inns and taverns managed by the Ilwol Merchant Guild.

As the number of customers at inns and taverns increased, revenue had doubled, and information gathering had become easier as well.

‘...As expected of Young Master Yuha! It is like seeing Grand Guild Master Yu Baekcheon in his youth!’

It was truly a move that saw several steps ahead.

Yuha looked down at Uncheon outside the window and murmured as if amused.

“Do not look at me with those eyes over something so insignificant. Uncheon probably roughly noticed the nature of the Wind and Cloud Ranking too. He knew, and yet he willingly climbed onto my chessboard. More importantly....”

At that moment, the smile vanished from Yuha’s face, and he ordered Geum Budong with a chilling expression.

“The one who gives you orders is not the Twin Elders, but me. Do not dare question my orders any further. Accept all the transaction terms that Uncheon proposed.”

When the smile disappeared from Yuha’s face, a cold chill spread.

‘He knew everything!’

Geum Budong’s face hardened.

It was an overwhelming force that closely resembled Yu Baekcheon, the Grand Guild Master of the Ilwol Merchant Guild.

‘...Honored Twin Elders. I am sorry, but the Young Guild Master is already not a vessel I can handle...!’

It was difficult even to breathe.

“...I... obey.”

Only then did Yuha release the taut force and put a smile on his face again.

Geum Budong wiped the cold sweat from his heart and made a vow.

He would never offend Yuha’s mood again.

“Now, this is the new Wind and Cloud Ranking. Distribute it tonight.”

The Wind and Cloud Ranking Yuha handed over had its ranks changed.

Uncheon was ninetieth.

Little Dragon was ninety-first.

Kang Hwi was ninety-second.

Unlike the public opinion around the sparring stage, it was the smallest possible rise in rank.

‘This time, he has not raised the Black Dragon Gang Leader’s ranking by much either...! Is the Young Guild Master growing the storm...?!’

Geum Budong immediately took the new Wind and Cloud Ranking and headed to where the Carrier Pigeons were kept.

A short while later, dozens of Carrier Pigeons rose into the sky all at once from behind the Black Dragon Inn.