Chapter 105: Opening Act 3

Translator: HH Editor: HH

“Did you call for me?”

Yeon-woo went to the Martial King’s side.

“It’s hard dealing with all those oldies, right?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Well. Seemed like it. People like us don’t care about what other people think of us.”

The Martial King chortled, as if he had been told a funny joke.

“The reason why I called you is so I can teach you about Eight Extreme Fists before we start our siege on Kuram. Starting from today, I’ll be teaching you one movement at a time. I said it before, but I won’t teach you the same movement twice.”

Yeon-woo’s eyes shined. It seemed like he would be able to learn faster than he had expected, since he thought the Martial King’s lessons would start after the battle had ended.

“First. Before you actually start learning. Why do you think I am trying to teach you this? You’re already a pretty good fighter. Do you know the reason?

Yeon-woo answered without hesitation.

“Isn’t it to increase the efficiency of the release magic power?”

“Oho. You’ve already thought about that?”

The Martial King satisfyingly nodded.

“You’re correct. In addition, Mugong is a word that combines mu, to fight, and gong, to build up. To build up fight. Meaning, to build up fighting skills. The concept of building up entails a lot of things as well.”

Yeon-woo nodded his head. It was something he already knew from making Heaven Wing Mana Control.

Mugong wasn’t something you could learn from Inner Cultivation. You had to have a vessel, a body, that could endure the accumulation of magic power.

But recently, he had been thinking that Mugong was also about releasing magic power.

“Mugong consists of three things: Shim, Gi, and Chae.”

‘Shim, Gi, and Chae.’

“Shim is Naegong; it’s what you guys call mana. Chae is the vessel. Gi is the string that connects the two, and allows Mugong to be used properly.”

The Martial King grinned.

“Sword skills, spear skills….well, it means those things The Eight Extreme Fists I’m trying to teach is one of the most superior Gi. Why? Duh. Since I made it.”

The Martial King was busy laughing and trying to show off.

“So that means you should be really thankful. Only two people have ever learned Eight Extreme Fists. And with you, it’s three.”

Yeon-woo thought of the people who were the Martial King’s disciples.

That meant that people who learned Eight Extreme Fists were people to carry on the Martial King’s powers.

“Anyways. If I explain the theory of Eight Extreme Fists. The Eight Extreme Fists isn’t a simple fist skill. It works with any kind of weapon. Because I don’t like to be choosy about the weapons I use.”

The Martial King bragged once more.

“And it means that the eight extremes are all focused on me. Senses are thrown away, and regardless of if your opponent is many or few, it is a skill that works every time. That is the goal of the Eight Extreme Fists.

Yeon-woo nodded his head.

“From now on, I’ll show you one step at a time, so look carefully. First, Gunbo.”

*Tak*

The Martial King took a big step forward.

It appeared as if it was just a step, but at that moment, his aura suddenly increased.

Yeon-woo clenched his fists. It was similar to the movement before he split the Sun into two.

“Next is Taegak, Leegwon…..”

He moved slowly so Yeon-woo could see the steps.

Yeon-woo used Draconic Eyes to follow the movements. And he was suddenly struck with the thought that the King’s movements were similar to something.

‘Flaws!’

Yeon-woo’s eyes became bigger once he realized what it was.

Was it a simple coincidence?

The Martial King was moving along the flaws.

From everywhere his feet landed and where his arms spread out, it was along the stream of flaws.

Yeon-woo realized the reason why.

Flaws signified the center of objects.

Then surely, the best out of all the Mugongs would follow the stream of flaws.

[You have understood the significance of ‘Flaws.’]

[The proficiency of Draconic Eyes has increased. 27.6%]

Once he understood, he started to understand what the Martial King was showing him.

“There. So this is the first step out of the thirty-two total steps of the first section of Eight Extreme Fists. It’s called Gungonjinjin. Do you think you can do it?”

The Martial King smiled devilishly.

Even if it was the first step, it was composed of 64 different smaller steps. Obviously, a beginner would never be able to memorize just by looking at it once.

When he had said that he would only show it once, it was just a joke.

If Yeon-woo wasn’t able to memorize the steps right away, he was planning on using that to show his “greatness” to Yeon-woo.

However.

“Yes. I have memorized it all.”

“…What?”

Yeon-woo confidently nodded his head.

As the Martial King let out baffled words, Yeon-woo copied the movements the Martial King had done.

They were exactly the same. It was perfect.

‘What is this nonsense….!’

Usually, it was easy to copy the basic steps, but it was hard to copy it down to the tiny details.

But that didn’t affect Yeon-woo.

It was like he copy and pasted the Martial King.

For the Martial King, who didn’t know that Yeon-woo had used his Draconic Eyes, it was a mind-blowing sight.

‘He’s more of a monster than I thought!’

Of course, he didn’t let Yeon-woo read his thoughts.

Instead he feigned a laugh like everything was normal.

“Good job. You wouldn’t be my disciple if you already got confused, right? Now, moving on to the next step. It’s called Gonisungsan.”

The Martial King was curious if Yeon-woo could copy the movements again.

*Ding*

[You have started training the Mugong ‘Eight Extreme Fists.’ With ‘Draconic Eyes’ supporting you, you are able to learn at a fast pace.]

[You have perfectly learned the form.]

[You have perfectly learned the style.]

[You have realized the move.]

…..

[Congratulations! You have successfully completely learned the ‘Eight Extreme Fists.’ A skill is being created.]

[The skill ‘Eight Extreme Fists (Superior)’ has been created. 0.0%]

[Eight Extreme Fists (Superior)]

Proficiency: 0.0%

Descriptions: An art that has confronted the Eight Points of the Compass and the Eight Trigrams for Divination. It can be used with swords and spears. It is a high ranking Mugong.]

*Step of the Eight Trigrams of Divination

Every step you take the power of the Eight Trigrams (Gun, Tae, Yi, Jin, Son, Gam, Gan, Gon) increases by 5%.

*Mana of the Eight Points

Strengthens senses and blocks blind spots. You are able to use your mana more thoroughly.

**The second and third sections of the ‘Eight Extreme Fists’ are left. Please find the rest of the pieces and complete the skill.

Yeon-woo had finished the 32 steps in the first section by the time they could see Kuram.

The Martial King, Edora, Phante, and the other warriors were looking on with their mouths agape.

“Ahem! As expected. You should be able to do this much if you’re my disciple.”

The onlookers were all relieved of the arrogance of the Martial King.

‘He’s flustered.’

‘He’s extremely uncomfortable.’

‘Whoa. Our father can make that face? Wow, this feels great. Hyungnim [1], you’re doing great!

‘Wow, it feels like 10 years of indigestion has been resolved. Hehehe.’

‘How did Lady Edora find such a monster?’

All of the people who had pulled their hair out because of their frustration with the Martial King had happy expressions.

Yeon-woo felt as if his mana circulation had gotten smoother. Before it had just been an engine, but now it was a sports car that could speed up or slow down whenever he wanted to.

Of course, he had only just learned the basics, so it would take some time for it to be natural, but he felt this could be solved with more training.

‘I want to try using it.’

Yeon-woo could feel that he had changed quite a lot over the span of days.

So he wanted to test it out. How much he had changed.

He lifted his head.

He could see the outline of Kuram.

A city unaware of the disaster that would soon befall them.

“Your Majesty.”

“Seseung-nim”

“….?”

“Call me Seseung-nim [2].”

To Yeon-woo, the concept of “teacher” was awkward, but since the Martial King was indeed someone who taught him things, it was probably right to address him that way.

But he was still embarrassed.

“…Ok. Seseung-nim.”

“What. Is there something else you want?”

Yeon-woo seriously looked at the Martial King.

“This battle at Kuram, can you leave it to me?”

“What? Hu!”

The Martial King wasn’t even surprised anymore.

How far did this child’s greed reach?

He guessed it was because Yeon-woo wanted to try the Eight Extreme Fists.

Of course, the Martial King understood him because when he was the same age, he felt the same way.

But the Martial King strongly refused.

“You can’t. There’s other members of the One-horned tribe who want to have a go at it too.

The Martial King pointedly looked at the other warriors.

They all nodded enthusiastically. Like they would never let their prey go.

Even if the Martial King gave his permission, it was likely they would run in anyway.

That’s how excited they were to be outside of the tribe’s territory. It was a wonder how they were able to stay confined in the tribe’s land for such a long time.

“And the same goes for me.”

Yeon-woo looked at the sparkling Martial King’s eyes.

“But there definitely is a need to see how much Mugong you learned. Hmm.”

He stroked his chin. He wanted to see the power of the new Inner Cultivation Yeon-woo made and the Eight Extreme Fists together.

He was planning on adjusting some things if Heaven Wing Mana COntrol and EIght Extreme Fists didn’t go well together.

A way to calm down the warriors and confirm Yeon-woo’s skills.

He was thinking about what he should do, and he had a god idea.

“Then how’s this?”

***

The city of Kuram was under the control of Nau Clan, a subsidiary of the Red Dragon clan, for quite a while now.

But after the confrontation between the Hoarder and the alliance of clans, half of Nau clan’s fighting force had been destroyed, and things got twisted.

So the Red Dragon decided to send some forces to the 11th floor to quickly gather more sources.

They were called ‘White Draconian.’

Of the 81 groups of the Red Dragon, they were the hunting dogs of the clan.

Of course, it wasn’t the entire White Draconian but just Team 8.

But they were enough to take control of Kuran, and the citizens of Kuram had to be careful of everything they did in case they they got on the bad side of Team 8.

The Team Leader, Shanon, of Team 8 didn’t like this situation at all.

‘Foolish beings. They’re only like that in front of us while they curse us behind our backs. Well, they’re just bastards who aren’t going to climb any higher anyway.’

He hated the players on the lower floors.

No, it was more appropriate to say that he despised them.

He felt like throwing up when he saw them being weak against strong players and strong against weak players.

So he could only think that the residents who threw smiles at him were pathetic.

And he was very interested in the Hoarder, who the Nau clan said would kill the next time they saw him.

‘He’s someone who messed with them despite knowing we’re behind them. Someone with that much confidence is deserving to be with us. Even Bahal-nim said he was interested in the Hoarder.’

Shanon respected Bahal, and wanted to be in Flame Beast one day.

So his passion to find the Hoarder grew.

But he had suddenly disappeared without a trace.

He didn’t know if he had cleared the stage and gone on to the 12th floor or if he was still on the 11th floor.

Many people were trying to find his tail, but they couldn’t find anything.

Thanks to his disappearance, the rumors about the Hoarder were only growing.

No one knew what he was planning to do next.

‘It would be nice if I could see him before the war starts.’

Shanon wet his lips.

*Crash*

There was a loud sound that almost made his ears fall off.

He lost his balance and fell over, but quickly got up using his cane. He had a hard expression.

That loud sound just now was definitely something exploding. And it wasn’t an ordinary explosion.

He turned his head and looked out the window. Past the fallen desk and the broken window, he could see red flames and black smoke rising up to the sky.

“Who dares…?”

Shanon wanted to know who dared to attack the city that he was in.

Then, the door burst open and his assistant came in. He said in an urgent voice.

“Bad news, sir!” Our enemies have attacked. But…”

“Who is it? Cheonghwado?”

“It-it’s the One-horned tribe!”

“…What?”

Shanon’s face hardened at the unexpected words.

[1] Polite way of addressing hyung

[2] Polite way of addressing teacher