The World's Greatest is Dead

The spar ended. The result was Tang Cheonil’s victory. Woo Young Jin had even lost without being able to do anything.

“Oh... that’s actually pretty impressive.”

Peng Dojun spoke in admiration.

“I didn’t think he’d win that easily.”

I knew he would win. Peng Dojun and I had probably both figured that much out.

Peng Dojun’s concern had likely meant something else.

However, neither of us had expected him to take the victory that easily.

“Right?”

He had grown much stronger than I had thought. While I found Tang Cheonil’s growth surprising—

“This is impossible...!”

Woo Young Jin seemed unable to believe the current situation. He ground his teeth with a sharp crackle. Then he began manifesting fighting spirit and tensing his whole body.

“You used some pathetic trick...! How dare you use sorcery on me?”

“Sorcery?”

At those words, Tang Cheonil’s eyebrow rose.

“To look at this and call it sorcery. I suppose there is no need to say how low your level is.”

“What did you say?”

Perhaps provoked, Woo Young Jin’s body moved. He tried to attack Tang Cheonil again, but the dagger instead dug a little farther into Woo Young Jin’s neck.

Blood ran down.

At that moment, I sensed someone moving.

It seemed to be Woo Young Jin’s guard. He had been irritating me since earlier. I saw him shift slightly, as if he meant to intervene in this fight.

Seeing that, I moved. I appeared in front of the guard and blocked his way.

“...!”

“Where do you think you’re going?”

When I appeared and stopped him, the guard’s face stiffened.

I stared at him for a moment, then spoke to Tang Cheonil.

“Let him go. It’s already over.”

“...Yes.”

Hearing me, Tang Cheonil eased the strength in his hand and stepped back.

The moment distance opened between them, Woo Young Jin immediately tried to raise his energy again, but—

“You probably shouldn’t do that either. It’s a little ugly. This is our first impression, so shouldn’t you at least try not to look bad? And it’s not as if anything will change if you keep going, right?”

“What would you know...!”

“It isn’t about knowing anything or not. I’m saying if you keep going from there, it’ll only be your loss. You seem like a smart person. You don’t know that?”

“...”

He was the kind of person whose emotions got ahead of him, but he did not seem stupid.

At least, that was how he looked to me.

The fact that he froze silently at my point proved as much.

“You can keep going if you want, but... well, what will you do?”

If they were going to fight, Tang Cheonil would step forward again. If Woo Young Jin wanted to try winning again, they could fight again, but would he really do that?

When I asked with that question in my voice, his face flushed bright red. Then—

“...I will never forget this humiliation and insult.”

He spat out a cliché I felt like I had heard somewhere before and moved away. Only then did his guard hurry over to him.

“Young master... your neck is wounded...”

“Shut up.”

Look at his manners. Someone was worrying about him, and that was his attitude?

He does seem like the easy-to-handle type.

He seemed lacking, but smart.

Or smart, but easy to use.

That kind of person.

Well, it might be fine to just leave him as a lacking bastard too.

Woo Young Jin, who had made a mess of the situation, left just like that. Once he was gone, I scratched my cheek.

At the same time, I looked at Tang Cheonil.

“...Why are you smiling?”

For some reason, I could feel him standing there all smug. His shoulders seemed to have risen all the way up. He looked extremely annoying.

“I am not.”

“What do you mean, you aren’t? What is it?”

“...I would simply say I feel somewhat satisfied, as an orthodox martial artist, to have thoroughly taught a Demonic Cult figure a lesson...”

“...So you’re saying you’re happy you won.”

There was no way he was not a simple bastard.

Until a moment ago, I had been looking at him somewhat favorably because he fought well. But seeing him like that, I could not help sighing.

“Fine... good work. You fought well.”

Still, he had worked hard, so I praised him. Then I saw his shoulders rise even ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) higher.

What a simple bastard.

That aside.

Putting Tang Cheonil’s matter aside—

Woo Young Jin, huh?

The bastard who had just left. He bothered me more than I expected.

Something about him—

Feels unpleasant.

Judging from his nature, I did not think he would simply let this go. That was why he bothered me.

*****

“Damn it!”

Bang—!

After returning to his residence, Woo Young Jin threw out his fist. The wall immediately collapsed under the punch, which was saturated with energy.

Crash—!

Amid the falling debris, Woo Young Jin kept grinding his teeth. Seeing him, his guard knelt behind him.

“...Seo Hon.”

“Yes, young master.”

“What did you say that damned bastard’s name was?”

“...He said he was Tang Cheonil of the Tang Family of Sichuan.”

“Tang Cheonil... Tang Cheonil...”

That orthodox trash who had dared spit crude words at him. He had heard the man was a genius, but he had not expected him to be at that level.

Even if I was careless.

Woo Young Jin knew.

It was not merely an issue of carelessness. It was not something that could end with the word careless. There had clearly been a gap in skill as well.

I couldn’t sense him.

He had not been able to grasp the moment the bastard disappeared. The man had vanished right in front of him. That meant his mastery of concealment was extremely high, and failing to respond properly to it had been Woo Young Jin’s defeat.

“Arrogant bastard.”

Next time, it would not end so easily.

He had certainly remembered him.

That bastard named Tang Cheonil.

And—

That bastard.

Moon Hero.

The peerless genius currently called a symbolic younger-generation prodigy of the orthodox faction, and the inheritor of the Sword Saint who had killed the Cult Leader, the former Sky, in the past.

Is that bastard...

Stronger than Poison Dragon?

Woo Young Jin bit his lip as he recalled that irritatingly handsome face. He could not even feel what level the man was at.

The large-built man beside him had been irritating and full of some uncomfortable air, but from the one called Moon Hero, he had not felt even the slightest force.

Only emptiness and numbness.

Was such a thing possible?

He could not understand it.

If there was anything he could sense—

He’s ominous.

So still that he was instead ominous.

He was a man with an impression Woo Young Jin could not understand. His instincts were telling him: the man was dangerous, so he should not get involved.

...Grrk.

He ground his teeth again and again.

Compared to how lightly he had gone out, he had gained nothing. Rather, he had returned with a loss.

Damned bastards.

How could he erase this humiliation?

He had to wash away the insult he had received from that bastard Tang Cheonil.

Otherwise, this would not end with a crack in his pride.

Because the others will bite and tear at me.

Not only the Young Cult Leader’s faction, but also the countless bastards who were gnashing their teeth, trying to take that seat for themselves.

At this point, he could not remain still.

Even putting that aside...

If news that he had lost to those bastards reached that person—

...That would be bad.

Crack.

He bit his fingernail and swallowed a deep groan.

The matter had grown larger than he had expected when he moved in such haste.

A needless wind was blowing through Xinjiang.

However, this was merely something inevitable that would have happened even if Woo Young Jin had not been the one to cause it.

*****

[Woo Young Jin? He came here?]

After returning to the inn, the person I sought out was Mi Yeonhwa. I called her over and immediately mentioned what had happened with Woo Young Jin.

At that, she reacted by taking off the mask she had been wearing.

“What? You’re allowed to take that off?”

“...What meaning is there, when both of us already know each other anyway?”

“That’s true too.”

“And... could you decide whether you’re going to speak formally or informally?”

“I’ll do whatever I feel like.”

Right now, I felt like speaking politely. I was originally the sort of person who did not speak informally unless the situation called for it.

Meanwhile, she had refused to take it off no matter what, so I had wondered if she was allowed to remove it at all. Yet she took off the mask far too easily.

“What do you mean, Woo Young Jin came here?”

“I mean exactly that. Someone named Woo Young Jin came by, picked a fight, and left.”

“...Picked a fight?”

“He fought Poison Dragon.”

“Then Woo Young Jin must have lost.”

“Yes.”

Mi Yeonhwa was an absolute master who belonged to the Eight Demons. She was young, but she was a strong fighter, so she must have already known the difference in level between Woo Young Jin and Tang Cheonil.

“...What did that idiot think he was doing?”

“You’re the one who called him an idiot. Maybe that’s why?”

“...No. It likely isn’t that simple.”

Right.

Even as I spoke, I had been thinking.

He looked somewhat stupid, but he also seemed to have a faction behind him.

Someone like that heard people from the orthodox faction had come and immediately came to smash into us?

I did not know much about the Demonic Cult, but I doubted they would choose a method on the level of primitive men.

“There must be someone stirring him up.”

A rabble-rouser.

There had been someone who encouraged Woo Young Jin to move.

That matched my judgment as well.

“Do you know who?”

“Not yet.”

“Then tell me what kind of person Woo Young Jin is.”

“...He is of the Woo Family bloodline, one of the three families that exist in the Demonic Cult.”

“So there are noble families here too?”

“They are not the same as the orthodox faction’s families, but they do exist.”

The Woo Family.

The Jeong Family.

The Hyeon Family.

Mi Yeonhwa explained the three families.

They were the families of elders who had existed under the Heavenly Demon. Apart from the elites called the Eight Demons, they were said to be old monsters who had existed since the founding of the Demonic Cult.

Among those old monsters, those three families were called the core, and they maintained the Demonic Cult’s current state.

They had been pushed close to extermination through the war with the orthodox faction, but it seemed the three families had survived.

How?

That was questionable. If they had lost the war, then the most important families being exterminated should have been the natural course.

Yet all three survived?

Was that possible?

A question rose in my mind, but that was not important right now, so I moved on.

“So those three are currently keeping one another in check over the Young Cult Leader’s position?”

“...”

“Even though the Young Cult Leader is already openly sitting there?”

“...Yes. Because the factions are divided.”

Strictly speaking, there were two sides.

The Jeong Family had attached itself to the Woo Family.

The Hyeon Family was said to be independently aiming for the Young Cult Leader’s position.

Interesting.

In other words, the Young Cult Leader’s position was not completely solid.

Which means they vaguely know.

It meant that although the current Young Cult Leader had the seat for now, there was something unstable about him.

Mi Yeonhwa had a displeased look in her eyes as she explained this.

Her face seemed to ask whether she should even be saying all of this, but—

They’re shaken all the same.

Because there was room to shake them, this came in easily. It meant this was a point where even a breeze would do, not a storm.

Good.

I understood.

This alone let me grasp the rough picture.

In that case...

It would be easy to make a move.

I felt I might be able to accomplish what the Murim Alliance wanted from me.

And along with that—

...I may be able to half accomplish what this man wants too.

The Heavenly Demon.

I felt I could also give this man, who had become a spirit and gotten stuck inside the Divine Sword, what he wanted.

However—

My way.

Not completely what the Heavenly Demon wanted.

Only in a way that would help me.

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