Chapter 137: The Knight Is Using the Whip? (2)

Divine Power.

One of the ‘first Mystics’ given to humans by the Gods.

The Sun God and Moon God who had existed since ancient civilizations and still have the greatest influence in the Western and Eastern Continents. There were also the Sea God, Earth God, Sky God, and many more who were relatively old but had a small number of believers.

The first thing these ancient gods gave to mankind was the flame called Divine Power. The more devout the believers were, the more powerful their Divine Power became.

That was why most ancient nations were often religious nations. First, they expanded their territory using their Divine Power. From there, they developed an agricultural society, and eventually laid the foundation to establish a nation.

However, as the number of people abusing their Divine Power for their own wealth and power began to increase, religious nations became more and more corrupted. People then started to see those guys as those who defiled the name of God and punished them. Those people were called the first inquisitors, the [Heretic Inquisitors].

It was said that the first Heretic Inquisitors used the Divine Power as if it were their own hands and feet, and it was only later that they realized that these methods were similar to the principles behind magic and Combat Technique.

However, there were methods that were much easier to use and more powerful than Divine Power. It prevailed against the test of time and stayed superior even in the present age.

Divine Technique. A fighting technique that used the Divine Power as base that was said to be created by an unknown wandering monk. However, no matter how convenient it was, it still had its limits.

-The Divine Technique is ultimately nothing more than a shortcut. If you want to become truly strong, it is important to constantly train yourself by instilling the Divine Power in your body, not just by blindly honing your Divine Technique.

That was what the wandering monk said.

It was indeed a convenient technique, but ultimately, it was nothing more than a ‘shortcut’ to utilize the Divine Power. That kind of power would never surpass the ‘real thing’.

However, even after hundreds, if not thousands of years, the Divine Technique was still one of the temple’s greatest combat powers. It was the fighting method that symbolized the Heretic Inquisitors. Even after thousands of years had passed, they still hadn’t stopped developing it.

Perhaps, if the founder of the Divine Technique saw its current state, he’d take back the words that he had said.

That was how confident the inquisitors were in their Divine Technique.

…And they held the same confidence even now.

“We’ve been had. Get ready to unleash the Great Divine Technique!”

“Understood!”

As soon as the Heretic Inquisitors saw their fellow battle priests being defeated so easily by the knight, they quickly reorganized their ranks. They knew that their comrade wasn’t someone who could be beaten so easily, yet he fell in an instant. This meant the knight was even stronger than they had expected.

Because of that…

“We’ll match our treatment with his ability.”

Great Divine Technique. A sacred technique that would take more than 30 priests to perform, but since each inquisitor held the power of 10 priests, they could perform it even if there were only 9 of them here. And so, they…

“[Please bring down the Mace on the heretics].”

Protection of the Mace.

It was a Great Divine Technique used to catch violent and large monsters like wyverns or drakes. The other name for this technique was [Earth’s Trap].

And then…

Rumble-!

As soon as the Great Divine Technique was activated, an enormous pressure poured down on the earth. Rocks were crushed like sand, and trees were crushed like weeds. It was a Divine Technique that literally overwhelmed the entire surroundings like a ‘mace’ falling from the sky.

Even if the opponent was a knight commander, there was no way they would be able to escape from this technique. Of course, they wouldn’t be able to break through it either.

“Woah! This thing’s pretty nice for a workout!”

“…”

“See, see? It stimulates my muscles nicely! How long will this last? Can it last for 2 hours at least?”

“W-What…?!”

“I asked you a question, so answer me, you bastards.”

Crack-!

“!!!”

One of the battle priests who was performing the Great Divine Technique suddenly fell to the ground with his jaw turned. It happened in an instant, leaving the battle priest who appeared to be the commander bewildered.

What just happened…?

Bang–!

Bang-!

Rumble-!

However, his bewilderment didn’t end with just that.

The battle priests who were performing the Great Divine Technique were hit by an unknown blow and fell to the ground one after another.

“Y-You! W-What did you do!!”

“Hitting A Cow Across The Mountain.”

“…What?”

“You don’t know? Then you deserve to get hit.”

Bang-!

Seemingly annoyed by one of the battle priest’s loud, high-pitched voice, the knight gifted him a special punch. Because of that, the battle priest’s face was dented with a fist mark.

It was a completely different type of attack.

“By the way, this one’s called Hundred Steps Divine Fist.”

Thud…

The priest fell down without being able to respond properly.

Bang-!

Even after knocking down the annoying guys in front, there were still some guys who hadn’t moved yet. At that moment, Lee Han saw two priests on both of his sides trying to attack him with tremendous acceleration. They were swinging their awls to stab him with it.

He felt a strong murderous intent from them, but…

Bang-!

“?”

“??”

He just hit the awl.

However, the awl didn’t pierce his skin at all, as if it was blocked by a wall.

“T-The Penetration Protection is on, s-so how…?”

“Do you think I will answer if you ask?”

Crack-!

After that, Lee Han lightly twisted their wrists, twisting them in the wrong direction, prompting them to glare at him.

“Oho, I see you guys are stronger than these bunch, huh?”

Judging by the fact that they didn’t even scream, it was clear that their strength was quite considerable.

And so…

Tap-!

“Since you seem to be good at enduring pain, try enduring this.”

Crackle-!

“!!!!?!!!!”

Twisting the Muscles and Bones

Originally, it was just a torture technique. Even in martial arts novels, it was rare to see it being used as a means of attack, but here, Lee Han did exactly that.

It wouldn’t be accurate to say that his understanding of human’s muscles and bones, extraordinary combat senses and various other things made it so that the technique was usable in real combat.

Of course, it sacrificed the intensity of the pain compared to when it was used as a torture technique, but it still didn’t diminish its effectiveness. It would still be difficult for anyone to endure it.

Whoooooosh-!

While appreciating his own work, Lee Han noticed a flying object flying towards him. An arrow. A gift from the sniper who had been sending out murderous intent from 1.5 km away.

It was as if the arrow had its own will, and Lee Han couldn’t help but observe the arrow as if amazed.

And then…

Whoosh!

He kicked a rock nearby as if it was a soccer ball. His gesture was light, as if he was playing, but the power contained within the rock was by no means light.

On the contrary, it was extremely heavy…

Bang-!

And astonishingly destructive.

Sun Piercing Spear, or rather, Sun Piercing Stone?

It was the arrow that got shattered midair. After that, Lee Han approached a nearby tree.

Crackle-!

He uprooted the tree, as easily as if plucking a flower. That was how extraordinary his strength had grown.

If someone wanted to overwhelm him with force, they would have to bring at least a thousand-year-old troll or ogre.

Crackle-!

At that moment, Lee Han took a stance.

A javelin throwing stance.

Wooong-!

Then, he used his entire body as a springboard and lightly bounced his body before he ran. Gathering all his strength, he delivered them all to the tree.

Lee Han couldn’t guarantee the accuracy, but as long as the tree hit the ground, its surroundings would be devastated. No matter how hard his enemy tried to run away, there was no way he’d be able to escape without a scratch.

Bang-!

It was just a simple throw—he didn’t use Sun Piercing Spear or anything. But, its power and speed was incomparable to the arrow that had just flown towards him.

And then…

─Banng!!

A sound like a bomb exploding echoed from a far away distance.

“…Did it hit?”

However, he couldn’t be sure that it actually hit the sniper. After all, he wasn’t properly aiming, just following his instincts.

At that moment…

“…You are even ignoring the Deadshot Protection? Your strength is truly unreasonable. Even if you’re not a heretic, that’s the kind of strength that you’d only get from a heretic’s sorcery.”

“So you’re the last one. Hm? Ah, so that’s why you felt familiar.”

“…”

“I let you off easy once already. You won’t expect me to do that twice, will you?”

“I am not that shameless.”

“That’s good to know.”

“…”

“By the way, you can take that out.”

“You already know?”

“How could I not when I smell so much gunpowder from you?”

“…Is that so?”

Clink-!

This priest was the same priest carrying the Bible and the small bell Lee Han had seen the night before. He took out a revolver from inside his Bible and just like that…

Bang-!

He fired towards Lee Han.

In this world, guns were just muskets invented for the nobles to hunt—it wasn’t a common weapon for combat. In the first place, guns weren’t that effective against monsters. Also, even if an intelligent monster got their hands on them, they wouldn’t be that threatening.

They could be developed more, but there was a risk that the commoners might use it to rebel in the future. Hence why the development and distribution of guns in this world was extremely slow.

Bang-!

But, if one were to say its research was being done carelessly because its development was slow…

Bang-!

That couldn’t be more wrong. Even though the gun Lee Han faced was just a revolver, its power was comparable to a sniper rifle. If it hit him, he wouldn’t be able to get out of it scot-free, even with Vajra Body.

Its power had transcended the laws of physics—not something a normal revolver could produce. They probably created it with Divine Power, or it was specially made.

Whoosh-!

However, Lee Han managed to read the bullet’s trajectory and dodged everything. Indeed, the eyes of a trained knight were fast enough to react to the movement of bullets.

He even thought that he could just approach the opponent and subdue him.

However…

Boom-!

“?”

“As expected, I can’t subdue you with my bare hands.”

“…No, you can try harder. Please.”

“…”

“I won’t kill you, so just keep going.”

“…Hmm.”

His opponent’s fists, or rather, his fighting technique were quite good. It was a fighting style that mixed joint locking techniques and striking techniques.

The closest thing Lee Han could think of when looking at his opponent’s fighting technique was…

Systema?

Damn!

Lee Han couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration. He never expected to see something like that in this world.

Seeing that, he thought that maybe…

[Gun Technique], huh?

A mix of martial arts and gun shooting.

It was a martial art often seen in movies that had a heavy focus on guns. If someone who was skilled enough to handle guns and learned a considerable level of martial arts used it, the martial arts would turn into a force to be reckoned with. No, actually, in this case, said force to be reckoned with was probably the gun instead of the martial arts.

Bang! Bang! Bang!!

The battle priest in front of him was not only skilled in martial arts, but also had considerable marksmanship. He controlled the recoil of the revolver using the Divine Technique, so his body didn’t even jerk back, his accuracy was also decent.

“How come you keep shooting me? How many bullets do you have in there?”

“This is also Divine Technique.”

“Wow~ Damn, what a broken technique!”

“…”

“Why are you looking like that?”

“…I just didn’t expect you’d say that.”

“?”

Lee Han was wondering what kind of nonsense he was spouting, but that thought only lasted for a moment. He then continued to fight. However, rather than a full-blown fight like when he fought Maximus, he only responded with bare-handed martial arts while adjusting his strength appropriately.

If he wanted to, he could end it anytime.

His fighting skill is not bad.

It was refreshing.

His technique was one thing, but his martial arts mixed with his gun shots stimulated Lee Han’s interest and made him want to mix things up a bit more.

That’s why…

“One hour.”

“?”

“If you can hold out for one hour, I’ll let you go.”

“??”

Lee Han’s meaningful statement made the battle priest confused for a moment, but after 30 minutes passed…

“So that’s why you said that…”

Drip-! Drip-!

The priest’s whole body trembled as his sweat poured down like rain.

One hour.

He finally realized that those words really meant that he’d let him go if he fought for an hour without fainting.

Unfortunately, his physical strength was already nearing its limit.

While his opponent…

“C’mon, you can keep going. Get up already, you gutless bastard.”

“…Are you even human?”

Didn’t shed a single drop of sweat. Even his breathing was still calm and steady.

“Cheer up, you can do it!”

“…Don’t you think it’s a bit much to cheer on your enemy?”

“My enemy? You?”

“…”

“And here I thought you guys came here to act cute. Heh…”

“…This is more humiliating than being treated like an insect.”

That was when the battle priest—Pierre—realized.

Their opponents didn’t even consider them as enemies, but mere toys that he could play around with as much as he wanted.

Realizing that fact…

Clack-!

“I’d rather die.”

Pierre aimed the gun between his own eyebrows and pulled the trigger. As if he wanted to pay for everything with his death.

However…

“You can’t do that.”

“…”

“You think you can just run away like that?”

“…”

…Watching the bullet that had been fired spin around between the knight’s thumb and index finger, Pierre was truly at a loss for words this time.

On the other hand, Lee Han…

“Seriously, you got decent skills and talent, but your mind is too rotten. How come a rotten bastard like you exists?”

As he spewed his anger like a dragon being targeted by royal ire, Lee Han picked up a stick that was rolling on the ground. It was just a plain wooden stick, but the moment he picked it up, it somehow came alive and felt as solid as iron.

“You rotten brained bastard! You deserve a thousand lashes!”

“…”

“Lay down on your belly.”

“What?”

“Lay down, you fucking rotten brained bastard!!”

After that, Lee Han continued to swing his whip regardless of what the battle priest was trying to say.

Whip-!

Pierre’s mind flew away.

After that, everytime he lost consciousness, the knight would pour water to wake him up. When he felt like he was going to die, he would pour a potion on him. When he was exhausted, he would feed, then he would swing his whip endlessly again.

This went on and on…

Pierre kept passing out from the intense pain that he could never get used to, and every time he woke up, he had to watch the whip hit him. It was as if he had fallen into a hell where he’d suffer eternal pain…

This went on for 4 days, and then he had an epiphany.

…This knight is actually keeping his word.

A thousand.

Just as the knight said, he was hit a thousand times over four days.

How did he know that?

“Assistant, how many times does this bastard have left?”

“Um, you have hit him 480 times?”

“Are you sure about the number?”

“I wrote it on the blackboard everytime you hit him.”

“There are so many people to hit, it’s a bit confusing.”

“T-That could be true.”

“Oh, you’re awake. You only need to be hit 520 more times. Assistant, count accurately.”

“Understood…”

…Because, the knight kindly told him how many times he had left every time he woke up.