Monochrome Sovereign [EN]: Chapter 483

Thud!

Cheon Gang’s face contorted in pain.

He dug his feet into the ground, trying to maintain his balance. However, without his internal energy, his muscles and joints throbbed with intense agony.

Swoosh!

Cheon Gang’s fist shot out at an awkward angle. It was a strike with a fixed form and style, yet it was incredibly practical. Even without internal energy, a whirlwind of fiery energy seemed to erupt from his fist.

Whoosh!

Cheon Gang’s fist grazed past Yeon Ho-Jeong’s chin.

Whack!

Yeon Ho-Jeong, having released Cheon Gang’s collar, struck Cheon Gang’s nose with the back of his right hand.

Thud!

“Ugh!” Cheon Gang staggered, involuntarily closing his eyes. Tears streamed from his closed eyes.

It wasn’t a blow infused with internal energy, nor was it a strike using his full physical strength. Yet, it was enough to cause a nosebleed and tears. The pain, focused on that area, was enough to jolt him awake.

And it ignited a fury that surpassed the pain.

“You bastard!”

Swoosh!

Even with his vision blurred by tears, Cheon Gang’s senses were not dulled. His body might have been weakened by his long confinement, but the blood vessels and nerves, tempered by extreme internal energy, were still intact.

Thwack! Thwack thwack!

Cheon Gang’s fiery fists failed to land on Yeon Ho-Jeong’s body. Yeon Ho-Jeong casually deflected Cheon Gang’s twin fists with a flick of his left hand.

Yeon Ho-Jeong spoke in a monotonous voice.

“You’re nothing special.”

Cheon Gang, about to shout again about what they were doing, suddenly felt as if the top of his head was exploding.

“You son of a bitch!”

Bang!

This blow was considerable. Yeon Ho-Jeong also blocked his fist without using internal energy, but the fact that he felt a slight pain in his grip was significant.

‘Indeed.’

Cheon Gang’s dantian [an area in the abdomen believed to be the center of internal energy] was not completely destroyed. It was closer to being half-destroyed.

Perhaps that was why? Although he couldn’t properly control it, the fire energy of the Golden Emperor Purification Art, a high-level martial art of the Shin Hwa Sect [a martial arts sect], was circulating throughout Cheon Gang’s body. He couldn’t control it as he wished, but he could exert strength beyond that of an ordinary person.

“You people are all so irritating!”

Thwack thwack thwack!

It was incomparable to the destructive power of the martial arts he had used in the past. However, the dazzling and fast techniques of that time were still there, or even better.

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes gleamed as he blocked Cheon Gang’s fists and palm strikes.

‘He’s full of venom.’

There was no need to insult him or reveal killing intent like Moyong Gun. Just provoking his pride was enough. Just grabbing his collar and swinging him once was enough to make Cheon Gang’s emotions explode.

‘That’s why it’s better.’

He was on the verge of losing his reason. In that state, the martial arts he displayed were free of any extraneous thoughts. The martial arts he had honed his entire life, ingrained in his body, were instinctively bursting forth.

‘I can see all his movements.’

Because it wasn’t infused with internal energy, he couldn’t unleash that terrifying speed. So, his forms were clearly visible.

Moyong Gun, who had turned his back, was also standing to one side, watching Cheon Gang’s martial arts with interest.

‘Fist techniques, palm techniques… and there.’

Swoosh!

A swift series of fist and palm strikes followed by a fierce hand blade strike.

It was the Shin Hwa Sect’s Fire Dragon Demon Blade. The cutting technique performed with the hand blade was truly exceptional in its momentum and destructive power.

‘Impressive.’

The trajectory of the forms as they penetrated.

Although he was an enemy, he couldn’t help but acknowledge the fluidity and practicality of his martial arts. Yet, it maintained a certain framework, revealing the traces of tens of thousands of repetitions.

Suddenly, Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes flashed.

Cheon Gang screamed.

“I can tell just by looking! You all deserve to be burned to ashes! There’s no need to treat mad dogs who know nothing of honor or anything else like people… !”

Thwack!

Cheon Gang’s martial arts stopped. His two hands and wrists were caught in Yeon Ho-Jeong’s hands.

Cheon Gang gritted his teeth.

His wrists ached as if they would break. Even without using internal energy, his grip was terrifying.

Yeon Ho-Jeong smiled like a ghost.

“Is this the end?”

“Grrr!”

“It seems like it is.”

Thud!

“Cough!” Cheon Gang coughed up blood and collapsed after being struck in the abdomen with a knee.

Yeon Ho-Jeong dusted off his hands and pondered.

‘I roughly understand.’

The majority of the fist techniques, palm techniques, and cutting techniques that Cheon Gang had used were imprinted in his mind.

He wouldn’t be able to reproduce them perfectly without any errors. However, he had a sense of the weaknesses and countermeasures of those martial arts.

Knowing the countermeasures allowed him to predict what kind of movements would be made. Instead of copying the opponent’s martial arts exactly, he was piercing through the flaws and memorizing them, essentially grasping the core of the martial arts.

It was this insight that supported Yeon Ho-Jeong’s terrifying practical abilities.

Yeon Ho-Jeong asked Moyong Gun.

“Do you roughly understand?”

“It’s just a rough understanding. I could display something similar to a certain extent. What about you?”

“Same here.”

“That’s unexpected. With your talent, I thought you’d be able to reproduce it perfectly without any errors.”

Yeon Ho-Jeong chuckled.

“I’m not that kind of genius.”

“Don’t say that in front of others. You’ll get ridiculed.”

“Anyway, I’ve seen enough.”

Moyong Gun nodded.

Yeon Ho-Jeong shouted to the guard who was standing far away.

“Take the prisoner away.”

Shortly after, the guard approached and chained Cheon Gang’s arms.

Cheon Gang gasped and said.

“You, you bastards! I knew it! All that talk about releasing me was a lie!”

Moyong Gun tilted his head.

“Don’t misunderstand. It was true.”

“Wh-what?”

“To be precise, it was true. For me.”

“…?!”

“I was the one who had business with you. But didn’t you get beaten up by someone else and collapse? Do you even know what I wanted in the first place?”

“Y-you… you!”

“If you want to blame someone, blame this monster-like young man. I didn’t break my promise. Of course…”

Moyong Gun smiled coldly.

“I didn’t intend to keep it either.”

“You son of a bitch!”

“Get lost.”

With that, the guard took Cheon Gang away.

Moyong Gun stared intently at Yeon Ho-Jeong.

Yeon Ho-Jeong frowned.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“This is also unexpected.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought that you, even if it was an enemy, would keep your promise.”

“Didn’t you say it? The promise was made by you, not me.”

“That’s just a petty wordplay. You know that, don’t you?”

“Of course, I know.”

Yeon Ho-Jeong smiled.

In that instant, Moyong Gun felt a chill run down his spine. Yeon Ho-Jeong’s smile didn’t feel like a smile at all.

“I’d like to ask you. Who do you think is the most hateful person towards the Three Teachings [referring to Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism] in the current martial world? You? Or the leaders of the Nine Great Sects? Or the officials of the government?”

“…”

“Perhaps it’s because you got so angry that I was able to maintain my composure.”

Yeon Ho-Jeong turned his body.

“Let’s go. We need to properly review his martial arts.”

Moyong Gun, who had been quietly watching Yeon Ho-Jeong, followed him.

Moyong Gun thought.

‘What is it?’

It was something he had been wondering about for a long time.

Moyong Gun, or rather, the older members of the Moyong clan, all fiercely hated the foreign tribes, not the people of the Central Plains. That hatred was almost pathological, a problem that was deeply connected to the origins of the Moyong clan.

However, Yeon Ho-Jeong was different.

His family could die due to foreign invasions? Of course, he should prepare for it. He would be angry, and he might want to kill them.

But even considering that, the hatred that Yeon Ho-Jeong showed was in an incomprehensible realm. He usually didn’t show it, but when he revealed his cold fangs like just now, it was enough to make one’s hair stand on end.

It was completely different from the hatred that the Moyong clan had for foreigners or the hatred that the people of the Central Plains had for invaders.

‘It’s a killing intent that seems almost blind.’

What connection could there be?

What kind of hatred was intertwined between Yeon Ho-Jeong, or rather, the Yeon family, and the Three Teachings?

“Let’s go quickly. Why are you so slow?”

Moyong Gun smiled.

“I’m coming.”

* * *

Whoosh!

Yeon Ho-Jeong finished his demonstration and sat down.

Jeagal Mun-Ho looked at Moyong Gun. Moyong Gun nodded.

“There might be slight differences in the angles and distances, but it’s almost identical.”

“Hmm.”

Jeagal Mun-Ho, who had memorized all of Yeon Ho-Jeong’s movements, quickly analyzed them.

In a way, the Jeagal clan, who were overwhelmingly outstanding in observing, memorizing, and analyzing, were the most talented family in the martial world. While putting the martial arts they possessed into practice was a different matter, if they had focused solely on martial arts, excluding astronomy, geography, and mechanical formations, they might have been reigning as the leaders of the Six Great Clans by now.

That was how formidable the brainpower of Jeagal Mun-Ho and Jeagal Ayeon was. Especially the process of deconstructing, analyzing, and reassembling a phenomenon was on a different level from others.

After a while, Jeagal Mun-Ho asked Jeagal Ayeon.

“Which of the Five Elements’ [a traditional Chinese philosophy concept] mutual restraint is it a reversal of?”

“It’s Water and Wood.”

While she was lacking in other areas, Jeagal Ayeon was at least one step ahead of Jeagal Mun-Ho when it came to formations and mechanical formations.

It was the result of her outstanding talent and her dedication to formations for several months.

“I see.”

Jeagal Mun-Ho looked at Yeon Ho-Jeong with a face full of disbelief.

“Really… I can’t believe this is possible.”

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s expression hardened.

“Is it similar?”

“It’s not just similar.”

Jeagal Mun-Ho brought out a map and unfolded it.

“The terrain here, which Ayeon had questions about, if we apply the equation of the formation here and remove all the useless imaginary numbers of the formation axis…”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I don’t quite understand what you’re saying…”

“Simply put, it means that even though we don’t know what kind of formation the Shin Hwa Sect is using, we’ve figured out the basic axis of the formation.”

Yeon Ho-Jeong and Moyong Gun’s eyes flashed.

“So, the martial arts of the Second Commander Cheon Gang?”

“It fits perfectly. Of course, there are many missing pieces, but if you connect the directions and dotted lines of the forms of the martial arts he uses, it matches the formation axis on the map exactly.”

“This is insane… !”

Yeon Ho-Jeong felt dumbfounded.

Not only that. Moyong Gun said with a bewildered expression.

“Are these guys out of their minds? From martial arts to strategy, they’re showing movements that fit into that shape? All of them?!”

What kind of place was the Shin Hwa Sect? With what kind of mindset were they trying to attack the Central Plains?

‘Of course, it would be difficult for anyone to question this kind of substitution. No, it’s safe to say that no one would. War is not a game. In a war where one side will be burned to ashes, no one would be thinking about this kind of thing.’

At that moment, Jeagal Ayeon spoke.

“So, it’s like this.”

Everyone looked at Jeagal Ayeon.

Jeagal Ayeon’s face was flushed as she looked at the map.

“I don’t know about the other heretical sects, but at least the Shin Hwa Sect is teaching its followers within a fixed framework. In other words, they are teaching by taking one principle, one truth, and incorporating it into martial arts, strategies, and scriptures.”

“It could be a generalization. But… the possibility seems high enough.”

The problem wasn’t just that.

“If, just if.”

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes trembled.

“If the Saeum Sect and the Gwanghyeol Sect also show similar movements…”

Jeagal Mun-Ho swallowed hard.

“This war might be easier to fight than we thought.”

“We can’t risk our lives on unconfirmed information. But it’s more than worth it to check.”

Yeon Ho-Jeong stood up from his seat.

“It hasn’t been confirmed yet which of the Three Teachings the spy was sent from, has it?”

“That’s right.”

“Has there been any other reaction since the rumor?”

“No, there hasn’t.”

“They’re being cautious. There’s no point in making a noticeable reaction at a time like this.”

“That’s probably true.”

“Is the background check on the Bonggong [a secret organization] still ongoing?”

“Yes, it is. It’s progressing slower than expected.”

“Share all the information you’ve gathered so far. It seems like we’ll need to deploy Lord Moyong, my father, and Lord Tang as well.”

“Does that mean?”

“Yes. It’s almost time.”

Bang!

Yeon Ho-Jeong slammed his fist on the map.

“After sharing the information, I will catch the spy within five days.”