episode_0034

After roughly purchasing all the necessary items, Baek-ryun and I hurriedly left the city and headed to Dandung.

Actually, only Baek-ryun was hurrying; I wasn’t in much of a rush.

“Couldn’t we have taken our time a bit more?”

“I, I’m so embarrassed! Master!!….”

“Are you embarrassed, or am I?”

“…Uu-uuut!!”

At my leisurely tone, Baek-ryun’s face turned as red as a beet, and she burst out in anger.

Well, it sounds more like she’s complaining out of embarrassment rather than actually being angry.

At that sight, I recalled Baek-ryun’s cute moans from last night, and the corners of my mouth naturally lifted.

“Well, who told you to let out such loud moans.”

“M-Master!!….”

As I teased her on purpose, Baek-ryun sulked a lot and turned her head away.

Even that appearance was so lovely that, just as I was about to approach Baek-ryun to ease her anger, she suddenly stopped walking.

Why is she suddenly like this?

“Baek-ryun?”

“Master, over there.”

Looking in the direction Baek-ryun pointed, a familiar beauty was leaning against a tree.

She still hasn’t given up….

I took a step forward and simultaneously put on my mask and wig.

Deliberately making noise with my footsteps, I took one step, then another, and the other party seemed to have noticed my presence as well, as she pushed herself off the tree and stood up straight, looking at me. We exchanged glances without a word. After a very short while, I spoke her name.

“Dang Seol-rin.”

“Jang Cheon-woo, I’ve been waiting for you.”

“I wasn’t waiting.”

I really wasn’t waiting.

But I thought that with this woman’s personality, she wouldn’t give up easily.

“Fight me.”

“Why should I?”

“I’ll prove it. My strength.”

“Is there something to prove? I fought your father and it was a draw. Are you even going to say you’ve surpassed your father?”

At my words, Dang Seol-rin closed her mouth.

Yeah, even if you had 100 mouths, you couldn’t say that.

“….At least, right now, I can fight better than my father.”

Is she really saying this?

“So…, just once is fine. Test if I can come with you.”

“How are you going to set the criteria for that test? You can’t beat me anyway.”

“….I will win. It’s not like the Dang family to fight to lose.”

“Easy for you to say.”

I took out my sword from my inventory.

Dang Seol-rin confirmed that I had taken out my sword and then opened her mouth.

“This is a road where ordinary commoners pass by. If we fought with all our might in a place like this, innocent commoners would be harmed. So let’s change locations.”

Huh?….

What, why is she suddenly making normal remarks?

I suddenly became suspicious of such extremely normal and common-sense remarks, but it was the right thing to say.

“Okay. Then let’s move the location.”

“Follow me. I have a place prepared.”

With those words, Dang Seol-rin disappeared.

….Couldn’t I just go my way at this timing?

“Master, what will you do?”

“For a moment, I thought, ‘Couldn’t I just go?’ But when I think about it, I have no idea what kind of things she’ll do later if I just leave with that kind of personality, so I’m just going to go.”

“Hmm. I think it’s good for you too.”

Together with Baek-ryun, I moved my steps in the direction Dang Seol-rin went.

After going for a while, a wide open space certainly appeared. And Dang Seol-rin was waiting for me in the middle of it.

“You really found a good place.”

“….”

It wasn’t too far from the road, and it wasn’t too close either.

If I just controlled my strength properly, it didn’t seem like the road would be damaged.

“Okay, then the judging conditions are…, I’ll judge based on my subjectivity.”

“Okay.”

“Then…, Baek-ryun. Start the match.”

“Okay.”

Baek-ryun slowly moved her steps to the center of the open space.

She moved between me and Dang Seol-rin. Then she pulled out her Hwando and raised it high into the sky.

“Sparring…, start!”

Baek-ryun’s Hwando is lowered and touches the ground.

And at the same time, I rushed towards Dang Seol-rin.

“?!”

“Euk?!…”

Dang Seol-rin herself, and even Baek-ryun, who announced the start of the match, flinched and were surprised.

Dang Seol-rin mainly uses throwing stars and poison.

Therefore, the distance from the opponent is more important than anything else.

The power of throwing stars is maximized when maintaining a distance that is neither too far nor too close.

Considering Dang Seol-rin, I stood away from her by the distance she intended before the start.

However, at the moment Baek-ryun announced the start of the sparring.

I leaped and stood in front of Dang Seol-rin as if erasing the distance between Dang Seol-rin and me.

“Let’s end this.”

“!!”

Swae-aek!!!

Dang Seol-rin hurriedly rolls her body to avoid the sword strike.

Of course, I already knew that Dang Seol-rin would avoid it. If it’s not a sword strike with all my might, but a sword strike with remaining strength, I can change its direction even while swinging the sword.

“The trajectory of the sword?!”

Kwaaaang!!!

The sword strike, in a form that deviates from common sense, twists and aims at Dang Seol-rin.

Dang Seol-rin hurriedly tried to parry the sword by covering her hand with green energy, as Poisonous Lord Dang Seol-pung had done before, but she was overwhelmingly pushed back in terms of strength and flew away as is.

“Seo, Seol-rin!!!”

“Don’t worry. I slapped her with the flat side.”

It’s different from Dang Seol-pung’s case.

He was strong enough, even if he was worse than me. That’s why his energy was enough to receive my sword, and that’s why I could use the blade without any burden, but Dang Seol-rin is not at that level.

If I had tried to cut her with the blade, the green energy would have been cut as is, and her hand would have been cut into pieces.

‘….Then Dang Seol-pung, that human, won’t let it go.’

Now that we’ve decided to cooperate, we should reduce unnecessary friction.

Just as I was thinking that, a strange presence flowed out from where Dang Seol-rin flew.

Of course, I can tell who it is.

“Blood Demon Incarnation, huh.”

With a bang! and an exploding sound, Dang Seol-rin in Blood Demon Incarnation form throws throwing stars.

“Soul Chasing Swallow Dart!!”

Three throwing stars fly towards me, leaving behind green tails.

Since the throwing stars are imbued with energy, if I try to parry them normally, the sword might break, or my wrist might break, or I might not be able to block them and be pierced by the throwing stars, causing poison to spread throughout my body.

In a normal case, that is.

Kang!!

“Lightweight.”

It’s hopelessly insufficient compared to Dang Seol-pung’s throwing star technique.

The speed of the throwing stars, the weight, there is no area where it surpasses.

I don’t know what confidence she had to start a fight.

Jeo-jeok.

At that moment, a strange sound was heard from the ground.

The moment I turn my gaze from Dang Seol-rin to the ground where the sound came from…

Pueong!!

“?!”

With the sound of fireworks exploding, hazy smokes like things started to surge from the ground.

“This is!….”

【Five Poison Divine Mist(五毒神霧)】

【Detailed Explanation: The Dang family’s poison. By combining 5 types of poison, a thick poisonous mist is created. The effect varies greatly depending on the types of the 5 poisons used in advance. Depending on the skill level, it is a type of technique close to a result that can create poisonous mist ranging from extremely subtle power that can’t even kill one person to powerful poisonous mist that can instantly kill a person in 3 seconds after inhaling it.】

Poison?!…

At that moment, Dang Seol-rin’s words flashed through my mind.

‘I have a place prepared.’

Those words weren’t just about finding a place to fight. The Dang family’s specialty is throwing stars and poison.

Among them, poison has this characteristic.

It has a unique characteristic that it can be prepared in advance at the desired location.

This place right now is!…

“Poisonous Land Ten Thousand Miles. I had a hard time constructing this formation alone. I hope you enjoy it to your heart’s content.”

“This crazy bitch….”

Dang Seol-rin’s own stage that she prepared.

Not just a simple sparring match, but a trap of poison created with a strong desire and will to win against the opponent, putting down all pride and everything else. Fortunately, the poison itself that makes up the poisonous mist doesn’t seem to have extreme poison.

“Hup!!”

Huu-uung!!!

I tried to blow away the poisonous mist with the wind pressure caused by swinging my sword, but this poisonous mist doesn’t move as I expected.

It doesn’t fall off as if it’s stuck to this space.

Then there’s only one way.

【Sword King’s Secret Technique】

“Mountain Divide”

A flash.

A silent horizontal trajectory of the sword drawn horizontally.

And at the same time, the poisonous mist was swept away by the trajectory and flew away.

‘To think I’d use Sword King’s Secret Technique, which I didn’t even use against Baek-ryun, against Dang Seol-rin.’

That’s why you can’t ignore compatibility.

While I was thinking that, the moment the poisonous mist that blocked my vision completely disappeared, what greeted me were countless throwing stars.

“Ten Thousand Falling Flowers Rain Empty(虛)”

Ten Thousand Falling Flowers Rain Empty.

That is, a technique that is only a shell that imitates the form.

But even that alone is threatening enough for an ordinary enemy.

But, it seems like it’s not a good choice to bet on that technique at the last moment?

“I’ve already cracked the real Ten Thousand Falling Flowers Rain. If you think you can defeat me with a technique that’s just an imitation…, I’ve been underestimated too much!”

Pa-ba-ba-ba-ba-bat!!! Ting! Ka-ka-ka-ka-ka-kang!!!

It’s not necessary to deflect all the throwing stars.

Among the countless pouring throwing stars, there are a few cores.

I only deflected those.

Even with just that, the deflected throwing stars deflected another throwing star, and the deflected throwing stars deflected another, and so on, creating a kind of safe zone among the throwing stars pouring down like rain.

“If I were to name it, it would be something like Ten Thousand Falling Flowers Rain Solution(解).”

Um. I think I named it well…

Pueo-peo-peong!!

“!?”

“That’s right. The same technique won’t work on you. Above all, my technique is a technique close to an incomplete illusion. But that’s why I chose this technique. Because this is the only technique among the techniques I chose that can hide poison in the throwing stars themselves without the opponent knowing.”

Some of the deflected throwing stars scatter another poison.

Of course, the poison immediately flew to me, and it would be quite troublesome if I were to be poisoned by the poison as is.

“….Haa.”

【Sword King’s Secret Technique】

“Okay, you win.”

【Earth Divide】

From top to bottom, a clean vertical slash that is plunged down.

With that single strike, all the throwing stars, all the poison that was approaching me, were pushed back and scattered into the air.

* * *

“Haa…, haa…, haa…”

“Haa….”

Dang Seol-rin, as if exhausted, with her Blood Demon Incarnation released, gasped for breath and then collapsed as is.

And I looked at that figure and let out a deep sigh.

“Why do you want to follow me so badly?”

“….I want to get stronger.”

“You’re strong enough.”

“It’s not enough!”

Dang Seol-rin firmly retorted even in the midst of being exhausted and with her eyes half-closed.

“At that time, during the attack of the Beastman Alliance… I couldn’t do anything.”

“I remember you protecting everyone in the Dang family until Baek-ryun went?”

“But in the end, I couldn’t save them. I reached my limit. That’s not enough. I’m from the Dang family. I must have the power to retaliate against the enemies who show their teeth to the Dang family.”

“Then learn from the Dang family.”

Baek-ryun is the same close-range weapon, but whatever.

She throws throwing stars, so why is she sticking to me.

“I feel like I’ll get stronger if I’m by your side.”

“….”

Hearing those words, I looked at Baek-ryun.

Baek-ryun shrugged her shoulders and looked at me.

There’s another guy who says the same thing as Baek-ryun.

“Okay. Then it’s the last test.”

“Eh, there was no such thing as that….”

“I am currently contemplating the betrayers of the Dang family with Dang Seol-pung.”

“!”

Dang Seol-rin stiffened at my words.

Then, as if asking if it was a sincere remark, she looks at me.

“Then here’s a question for you. Who are the betrayer candidates that Dang Seol-pung and I are thinking of?”

Dang Seol-rin pondered for a moment at my question, then opened her mouth.

“Dang Seol-ryun.”