Martial Arts Ain't Anything Special-Chapter 38: The Black Serpent (3)

As soon as two of his subordinates were cut in half with a single strike, Jang Sanhong, a martial artist of the Black Serpent, shouted.

“Everyone get in formation! This is no ordinary opponent!”

His eyes moved quickly as he assessed the enemy.

The opponent was a young man who still looked green behind the ears, and the other was a small child.

Even if the brat could be ignored, the young man was unexpectedly strong.

Swish—

Jang Sanhong sent a simple hand signal to issue orders to his subordinates.

The opponent must have used up a lot of qi with that earlier sword qi. If they could drag this battle out until their strength was exhausted, they could win without too much trouble.

Based on his ability to fire sword qi, his estimated realm was around Peak. They had three Peak Realm martial artists on their side including himself, so if they didn’t overdo it, they might even win without casualties.

“Attack!”

Jang Sanhong took the lead of the formation and advanced.

Seojun stood in their way.

Boom!

The ground began to freeze starting from where he stomped his foot.

The Black Serpent martial artists quickly wrapped their feet in qi to block the seeping yin qi.

Seojun clicked his tongue in disappointment and charged at the enemies.

The man who seemed to be the leader’s eyes flashed as he thrust his sword.

“Hah...!”

A sword aimed at the right side of his chest. Seojun deflected it with the Flowing Clouds over the Clear River from the Yellow Cloud Divine Sword.

Seizing advantage of that opening, the other martial artists surrounding him targeted all sides. Seojun gave up on counterattacking and crouched down before suddenly springing up.

Whoosh!

As Seojun’s body shot to the right, his eyes met one of the martial artists.

“Sup.”

“Ugh...!”

He swung his sword.

Clang!

The martial artist barely managed to block with his sword, and then the rest of the group thrust their swords from all directions except the front.

So this is their formation.

Since they were all swordsmen, it could be called a sword formation. Actually experiencing the formation he had only seen with his eyes at the Clear River Sect, it was trickier than expected.

“Just hold on a bit longer!”

Chunbong shouted as she drew her sword and rushed in.

But it would damage his pride to escape a crisis with his little sister’s help.

Seojun carefully observed the swords swinging towards him before looking away. Then, ignoring the swords, he thrust at the martial artist in front of him again.

“Lee Seojun...!”

Chunbong cried out in shock.

Clang!

The swords bounced off Seojun’s skin without piercing it.

This time it was the Black Serpent martial artists who gaped in shock.

“Blade and Sword Invulnerability!?”

That wasn’t it. Even Seojun would be pierced if stabbed with a sword normally.

This was just the result of researching the protective qi used by Armored Demons.

In fact, probably due to the difference between humans and demonic creatures, its efficiency was quite poor. It wasn’t a technique he could use often.

But the Black Serpent martial artists who had no way of knowing that were extremely bewildered.

The martial artist right in front of him was so stunned that he allowed Seojun to strike him.

Slash!

A long gash appeared on the man’s shoulder.

“Ugh...!”

Bang! Seojun concentrated qi in his foot and exploded forth.

When the man’s body brushed past him, Seojun grinned and swung his leg.

Thud!

The man got hit in the abdomen and went flying.

Then the others rushed at Seojun instead of catching their comrade, but that was a poor decision.

Because the solar plexus of the man hit by Seojun’s foot had yin qi engraved there.

Seojun held his middle finger with his thumb.

Primordial Sun-Moon Finger.

The yang qi bullet flew and formed a crude Supreme Polarity with the yin qi lodged in the man’s solar plexus, and—

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────────────!!!!

—caused a massive explosion.

“Heh...”

Seojun smirked.

A tingling sensation rose from his fingertips and ran up his spine.

The Black Serpent, was it? As expected, proper opponents are a bit different.

Except for the Clear River Sect Leader, this was pretty much his first time fighting proper opponents, and perhaps because of that, the feeling was on a whole different level from before.

While Seojun was grinning, Chunbong arrived.

“Hey! Are you okay!?”

She hurried over and checked his body.

His clothes were torn and there were some slightly red swollen areas where swords had grazed him, but not a single drop of blood was shed.

Relieved at that sight, Chunbong drew out her platinum sword qi and watched the area where the Primordial Sun-Moon Finger had exploded.

“Lee Seojun.”

“What?”

“I’m not planning to leave everything to you, so leave your back to me.”

Seojun chuckled.

“How reliable.”

Almost simultaneously, the wind blew and the dust cleared.

The man whose stomach had been hit by the Primordial Sun-Moon Finger was obliterated beyond recognition, and most of the others were either dead or severely injured.

Only three people looked capable of fighting.

They all appeared to be Peak Realm martial artists.

“How could this happen...”

The leader snapped at his dazed companions.

“Snap out of it! We’ll all die if we lose focus!”

“Wrong answer.”

The correct answer is: you’ll all die even if you focus!

Seojun charged at the leader with Chunbong closely behind.

In his mind, a fierce wind began to blow. Rain fell and thunder crashed. The evergrowing river flowed violently and finally engulfed the entire surroundings.

All Rivers Return to the Ocean.

The sword technique modeled after the Clear Flowing Sword unfolded in Seojun’s hands.

Whoosh!

The sword fell roughly.

The leader, Jang Sanhong, used all of his strength to block it.

BOOM!

Along with the sound of an explosion, the wind burst out in all directions.

Primordial Chaos. Sharp thorns erupted from Seojun’s darkened sword qi.

Jang Sanhong quickly tilted his head to dodge and shouted.

“How many martial arts have you mastered...!”

“Would you tell me if you were in my position?”

Primordial Chaos is the foundation of the Primordial Divine Art. It can be called the one qi that is the beginning of all things.

In a split second, Seojun converted the qi imbued in his sword to yang qi and swung in an arc.

Golden flames exploded outward, following the path of his sword.

“Ugh...!”

Jang Sanhong stepped back.

Seojun quickly glanced at Chunbong. Surprisingly, she was gaining the upper hand against two Peak Realm martial artists.

Of all people, SHE’S the one lecturing me about talent?

He grumbled as he pulled back his sword.

The qi he had recovered with the Primordial Divine Art even during battle was fully channeled into his sword.

Heaven. Earth. Man.

Embodying Man among the Three Principles to form the Immortal Pointing the Way.

The path an immortal walks may be winding, but what lies at its end is the destination they sought to reach.

If swordsmanship is lacking, replace it with qi arts.

Seojun explosively thrust forward the sword he had pulled back. At the same time, countless branches of sword qi split off from the main blade and filled the air.

“This is...!”

Jang Sanhong quickly swung his sword to deflect most of them, but three branches remained that he couldn’t deflect.

“This is the Phantom Sword, no?”

Though quite different from the Immortal Pointing the Way of the Three Principles Sword Technique, the end result of stabbing with a sword was the same.

The three branches twisted and turned as they pierced Jang Sanhong’s chest.

“Guh...!”

Before he could realize it, Seojun had plunged his sword into the man’s chest, his lips curling into a sinister smile.

“Farewell.”

Splash!

Blood gushed out as he pulled out his sword.

Seojun licked the blood on his lips with his tongue. It was foul. He spat it out with his saliva and charged at the remaining two martial artists.

“Big brother’s here, Chunbong!”

It didn’t take long to finish off the two men.

*After the battle, Seojun let out a refreshed sigh.

“Haah... I feel alive.”

“You crazy bastard.”

Chunbong clicked her tongue and sheathed her sword.

While that Lee Seojun bastard seemed to have recklessly charged in swinging his sword first, she didn’t really have any problem with it.

When Unorthodox Faction elites, oozing evil qi, were operating so deep in Shaanxi in an organized manner, it was okay to attack first.

It was the same as secretly entering an enemy country and causing trouble.

If they had entered openly, they wouldn’t be skulking around like this in the first place.

But that guy...

Did he swing his sword knowing that? Honestly, probably not.

He probably just recklessly charged in after feeling the killing intent they had carelessly leaked out.

Chunbong felt uneasy about it.

She had already known, but he really had no hesitation in killing people.

So she needed to keep him in check because that bastard’s conscience was clearly detachable.

And that detachable conscience’s owner, Seojun, was chuckling as he looked around at the dead Unorthodox Faction martial artists strewn about.

Evil qi, huh...

At first, he had planned to copy these guys’ cultivation techniques. They would probably love it if he demonstrated it right in front of them.

But the reason he didn’t was simple.

Not my style.

It felt fundamentally wrong. Neither here nor there—and there was something unsettlingly foul about it.

He could probably do it if he tried, but he didn’t particularly want to imitate it.

Above all, he didn’t want to copy the martial arts of the people who had massacred Chunbong’s family.

Or maybe not?

Would she actually be happy if I copied it and used it to humiliate them?

I’ll have to ask her about it later.

But first, I need to rest for a bit.

“Oh, man...”

His insides hurt. Not like the burning sensation from eating something spicy, but like they were being scraped with a knife.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay!?”

When Seojun sat down and started groaning, a startled Chunbong hurriedly felt his body.

Her small hands roamed over his body before she seemed to realize something and frowned.

“Ahh! You pain in the neck!”

Slap slap—

Her hands smacking his back felt refreshing.

“Ooh, a little lower.”

“Down here?”

“Yeah. Ah that feels good.”

“What the hell! This isn’t right! You fucking used it, didn’t you?! The GIant Spirit Divine Art!”

How did you know? Surprised, he looked at Chunbong who was jumping up and down in place.

“Urgh...! I’m seriously going to lose it! I told you to stop making and using weird martial arts! Are you trying to get yourself killed!?”

“Aww. My Chunbong will take good care of me, right?”

“Didn’t you say you’d support me before!”

“Of course I will, obviously.”

“Ughhh...!!”

Chunbong blew up.

Of course, it only took 5 minutes to calm her down.

*“We should probably hurry to Mount Hua.”

Chunbong chewed her lips with a serious expression as she rummaged through the martial artists’ corpses.

“Is there a need to hurry? There’s still quite some time until the martial arts tournament, right?”

“The tournament isn’t the problem. It’s that these bastards really are from the Black Serpent.”

“So is that a problem?”

“It is.”

Spit, Chunbong spat on the corpses and dusted off her hands.

Those bastards. Getting rewarded even in death. How fortune for them.

“Do you know what the Black Serpent is?”

“No idea.”

“I thought so.”

Seojun followed as Chunbong gestured. Her steps were quick.

If we’re going to do this, it’d be better if I carried her and ran.

He immediately put Chunbong on his back and started running across the mountain.

“Yahoo!”

Slap slap! Chunbong’s hands pounded his head.

“Hey! Hey! Listen while you run!”

“Yes ma’am~”

He slowed down and then she started explaining.

“Do you know about the Murim Alliance?”

“Somewhat? Isn’t it like a gathering of the Orthodox Faction?”

“Well... that’s not exactly wrong. The Black Serpent is similar. It’s a gathering of Unorthodox Faction guys.”

“Aha, so?”

“But the difference is unlike the Murim Alliance, their strong power isn’t just for show. You could even consider the Black Serpent itself as one huge sect.”

Seojun’s eyes rolled as he estimated their size, and then he let out a gasp of admiration.

“So it must be a huge sect then.”

“It is. And strong too. Above all, the evil qi imbued in the inner qi of Black Serpent martial artists is very dense.”

“Oh?”

So that unsettling energy I felt earlier must have been evil qi.

“Anyway, that’s not what’s important right now. The problem is that they’ve come all the way here.”

“Because it’s Mount Hua territory? Could a war break out if things go wrong?”

“It might already be in progress. Just not a full-scale war yet.”

That is a bit of a problem.

Seojun nodded seriously and lowered her from his shoulders.

“Ah.”

Chunbong made a disappointed sound, but it was better to carry her in his arms than on his back to run faster.

“Oh...”

He tightly hugged her who fit snugly in his arms and concentrated qi in the Bubbling Well point of his feet.

“Hold on tight.”

“...Okay.”

Whoosh!

Along with the sound of a bowstring releasing, Seojun’s body shot forth like an arrow.

It seemed playing the wandering swordsman would have to wait for later.

*Two and a half months later.

“Holy shit that took fucking forever. Are you kidding me? It’s not like we’re crossing the whole damned country. Why the hell is it taking this long just to travel across Shaanxi?”

They finally arrived at Mount Hua.