Jang Hyeon-ung's expression twisted at Namgung Geom's warning.
Namgung Geom's aura was indeed formidable, but that did not mean he could simply drop his weapon and surrender.
Jang Hyeon-ung put his faith in their numbers.
Above all, every member of Namgung Geom's group was barely past the Age of Twenty.
How strong could they possibly be at that age?
In all likelihood, they had never even seen blood before.
The Black Bear Gang members, on the other hand, were men who had clawed their way up from the very bottom.
In real combat, where blood and flesh flew and lives hung in the balance, the Black Bear Gang would have the advantage.
Setting everything else aside, Jang Hyeon-ung had a card up his sleeve.
The Black Bear Gang Leader.
Namgung Geom's aura was unsettling, but he would still be no match for the gang leader.
And right now, a distinguished guest from high above was staying at the Black Bear Gang.
Even if the gang leader could not handle Namgung Geom, that guest could step in.
"No one who trespasses on our grounds will be forgiven. Attack them!"
The moment Jang Hyeon-ung's order fell, the Black Bear Gang members launched their attack.
The aura Namgung Geom had displayed was frightening, but they placed their faith in their superior numbers.
"I gave you a chance. You kicked it away, so don't blame me."
Namgung Geom thrust his sword toward the gang members.
The Sword Wind that erupted from his blade poured out in every direction, sweeping through the gang members.
The gang members flinched at the razor-sharp Sword Wind tearing into them and scrambled to defend.
CRACK—!
But their defenses were shattered like wet paper.
The gang members caught in the Sword Wind sprayed blood as they were sent flying.
The remaining gang members, having witnessed Namgung Geom's power, flinched and froze in place.
"Leave the small fry to us. Everyone, attack!"
"How dare they attack our Class Leader! I'll smash every last one of them!"
Namgung Geom's peers charged at the gang members.
Having already fought Black Bear Gang members once before, they were brimming with confidence.
That said, they were not careless.
They trusted their own abilities and gave their full effort against the gang members.
Some had already been felled by Namgung Geom's attack, but the gang members still outnumbered them.
Even so, Namgung Geom's peers fought without yielding an inch.
'They can handle those guys without me.'
Even without his intervention, his peers seemed more than capable of subduing them.
Jang Hyeon-ung, the Black Bear Corps leader, did not need Namgung Geom's attention either.
Namgung Chang was already facing him.
Namgung Chang was not being pushed back at all against Jang Hyeon-ung.
If anything, he held the upper hand.
Their realms were roughly equal, but Namgung Chang surpassed Jang Hyeon-ung in the quality of his martial arts and his depth of comprehension.
Jang Hyeon-ung's Black Bear Saber Art was a step below Namgung Chang's Celestial Wind Sword Art.
On top of that, Namgung Chang exceeded him in both inner arts and martial comprehension.
The one thing Jang Hyeon-ung could claim was his real combat experience.
But Namgung Chang had sparred extensively against Namgung Geom, a powerful opponent.
That was far more beneficial for his martial development than most battlefield experience.
In short, Namgung Chang surpassed Jang Hyeon-ung in every respect.
So it was only natural for Namgung Chang to hold the advantage.
Jang Hyeon-ung was struck anew by the greatness of the Namgung Family.
His own realm was by no means low.
It was not a level that brats barely past the Age of Twenty should be able to match.
Yet here he was, being pushed back by Namgung Chang at the Age of Twenty.
And Namgung Chang was weaker than Namgung Geom.
That meant there was not just one but two masters of that caliber at the Age of Twenty.
Just how formidable must the Namgung Family be, to produce such prodigies at that age?
But Jang Hyeon-ung had no intention of falling to Namgung Chang without a fight.
He had a hidden trump card.
The rising prodigies of prestigious families like the Namgung Family always pursued fair and honorable duels.
The unorthodox factions like the Black Bear Gang, on the other hand, would resort to any underhanded means for victory.
Jang Hyeon-ung kept a sand pouch strapped to his waist.
Whenever the situation turned against him, he would pull sand from the pouch and throw it into his opponent's eyes.
Its name: Blinding Sand Cast.
Casting sand to blind the opponent's eyes.
It was Jang Hyeon-ung's hidden trump card.
He had used the Blinding Sand Cast many times to escape crises in the past.
And now, with the tide turning against him, he used it once more.
Jang Hyeon-ung grabbed a fistful of sand from the pouch and flung it straight at Namgung Chang's eyes.
"You coward!"
Namgung Chang hastily retreated and shielded his face with his sleeve.
Fortunately, his reaction was quick enough to block the sand.
But his vision was obscured, and he lost sight of Jang Hyeon-ung's movements.
Jang Hyeon-ung swiftly circled to Namgung Chang's flank and swung his saber.
Like a bear swiping its claws, Jang Hyeon-ung's saber drove into Namgung Chang's side.
Namgung Chang belatedly realized the attack was coming and twisted his body, swinging his sword.
CLANG—!
He barely managed to block Jang Hyeon-ung's saber, but the impact threw him off balance and sent him stumbling back.
He had blocked the saber itself, but could not absorb the force behind it.
Jang Hyeon-ung pressed his advantage, closing the distance and throwing another handful of sand.
Namgung Chang had no choice but to raise his sleeve to block it.
"Die!"
In that opening, Jang Hyeon-ung soared above Namgung Chang's head and brought his saber crashing down.
WHOOOM!
A heavy wave of saber force erupted from Jang Hyeon-ung's blade and bore down on Namgung Chang.
Namgung Chang, having just blocked the sand with his sleeve, spotted Jang Hyeon-ung's attack too late and tried to mount a defense—but there was no time.
Before Namgung Chang could raise his guard, Jang Hyeon-ung's saber had closed to arm's reach.
"Fall back!"
At that moment, Namgung Geom's voice rang out.
Namgung Chang instantly retreated.
At the same time, a razor-sharp Sword Wind sliced into Jang Hyeon-ung's flank.
Unable to pursue Namgung Chang, Jang Hyeon-ung desperately swung his saber sideways to deflect the Sword Wind.
CRASH—!
The instant his saber met the Sword Wind, Jang Hyeon-ung's body was sent reeling backward.
Namgung Geom flew toward Jang Hyeon-ung like the wind.
Jang Hyeon-ung frantically grabbed more sand and hurled it at Namgung Geom's face.
"What a pathetic trick!"
Namgung Geom scoffed and thrust out his sword.
WHOOSH—!
The Sword Wind that erupted from his blade scattered Jang Hyeon-ung's sand in every direction.
"That's impossible!"
Jang Hyeon-ung scrambled to block Namgung Geom's sword in a panic.
But the Sword Wind Namgung Geom had unleashed surged forward with a sudden burst of speed and pierced through Jang Hyeon-ung's shoulder.
CRUNCH—!
"ARGH!"
Jang Hyeon-ung sprayed blood and collapsed, a hole torn through his shoulder.
Namgung Geom moved to finish off Jang Hyeon-ung, then stopped in his tracks.
He had sensed a presence approaching rapidly from deeper within the estate.
"I'll leave him to you."
Namgung Geom handed Jang Hyeon-ung off to Namgung Chang and turned to face the interior of the grounds.
A middle-aged man and ten martial artists were rushing toward them.
Namgung Geom recognized at a glance that the middle-aged man was the Black Bear Gang Leader.
The men following him would be his escorts.
Without hesitation, Namgung Geom launched himself toward them.
"Insolent!"
The gang leader's escorts surged forward.
They spread wide to both flanks, then closed in from left and right, bearing down on Namgung Geom.
The saber force that rose from their blades unfurled like a net, engulfing Namgung Geom.
Even as attacks converged from three directions at once, Namgung Geom did not retreat. He thrust out his sword.
A biting cold erupted from his blade, seizing the space in an instant and conjuring a massive pressure.
The sabers the escorts had swung froze mid-swing as if locked in ice.
Then a violent surge of sword qi blasted outward, knocking their sabers aside.
The impact sent the escorts tumbling back.
"The Azure Sky Sword Art?!"
Gwak Do-jin, the Black Bear Gang Leader, wore a look of shock upon seeing Namgung Geom's swordsmanship.
The cold embedded within it was puzzling, but the sword art that seized the space with overwhelming pressure was unmistakably the Namgung Family's Azure Sky Sword Art.
"To be precise, it's the Azure Sky Boundless Sword Art."
Namgung Geom kindly corrected him, then launched himself at Gwak Do-jin.
FLASH—!
Namgung Geom's sword unleashed a bolt of sword qi toward Gwak Do-jin, fast as lightning.
Gwak Do-jin's eyes went wide as he frantically swung his saber.
CRASH—!
The impact sent Gwak Do-jin sliding back with a grimace.
The cold mixed into the lightning-fast sword qi had traveled up through his saber.
'What is this?!'
Since when did the Namgung Family's martial arts carry cold qi?
Worse, the invasive cold was far from trivial.
Gwak Do-jin raised his inner arts and pushed the cold away.
Then Namgung Geom's sword came for him again.
FLASH—!
A bolt of lightning-fast sword qi drove into Gwak Do-jin's chest.
Gwak Do-jin twisted his body aside and swatted the sword qi away.
Once again, cold seeped relentlessly into his saber.
Gwak Do-jin's face twisted.
In that opening, Namgung Geom reversed his sword and launched another strike.
FLASH—!
Lightning-fast sword qi again.
But this time, there were two.
The Flash Lightning Thirteen Sword Thunders.
At its peak, this supreme sword art of the Namgung Family could unleash thirteen bolts of sword qi in a single strike.
Gwak Do-jin retreated from the two bolts converging on him from both sides and swung his saber left and right.
CRASH—!
He barely managed to deflect them, but the cold embedded in each bolt invaded his body once more.
As Gwak Do-jin raised his inner arts to disperse the cold, Namgung Geom's third strike followed.
FLASH—!
Three bolts of sword qi now, forming a triangle as they drove into Gwak Do-jin.
Gwak Do-jin clenched his teeth and swung his saber.
CRASH—!
"Ngh."
A groan escaped Gwak Do-jin's lips as he barely fended off the three bolts.
The cold carried in Namgung Geom's sword qi had penetrated his body and momentarily frozen his meridians.
His right arm, the one gripping the saber, felt as if frostbite had set in.
Gwak Do-jin frantically circulated his inner arts to thaw his frozen meridians.
But before he could fully recover, another volley of Namgung Geom's sword qi came flying in.
This time, there was one more—four.
Gwak Do-jin's eyes shook with alarm.
In his current state, blocking Namgung Geom's sword qi would be nearly impossible.
It was at that exact moment.
"Impressive skill for one so young."
A middle-aged voice rang out, and a spear came hurtling toward Namgung Geom.
Namgung Geom had no choice but to divert his sword from Gwak Do-jin and block the spear.
CRASH—!
A violent clash, and the spear was knocked upward.
A middle-aged man sailed through the air, caught the spear, and landed on the ground.
Namgung Geom's expression hardened slightly when he identified the man.
The pressure radiating from his opponent was no ordinary thing.
'His realm is higher than mine.'
He had heard nothing about a master of this caliber being at the Black Bear Gang.
That meant there was a high chance this man belonged to a force greater than the Black Bear Gang.
Namgung Geom's mind raced.
Many factions were larger than the Black Bear Gang.
But among the unorthodox masters who used a spear and had attained a realm above his own, he could count them on one hand.
Among them, one matched the middle-aged man's appearance most closely.
"Yama Spear—Ak Seung-do!!"