Hwang Jeong-cheol could not understand the situation before him.
No matter that the man had brought back a secret manual while carrying out a covert investigation, he must have gone a long stretch without training in martial arts.
It was because he knew that, surely, that he had asked to observe.
Having skipped lessons and roamed about since childhood, he had to be first-rate at best.
So he had been confident that he, a peak realm master and a Black Steel Corps member, could not lose.
Right up until the spar began, he had meant to do just as the telepathy told him: crush this Young Master who ran wild without knowing his place and make him face reality.
That was what he had thought.
'But what is this?'
Only with his hand braced against the cold, gritty floor of the training ground did he realize it.
That Tang Yu-hyeon's martial attainment overwhelmed him.
'Beyond-peak realm? No. At least the peak realm.'
He could not begin to guess when the man had built up such martial arts.
"What are you doing? Get up."
Tang Yu-hyeon looked down at Hwang Jeong-cheol with an unfeeling expression.
He had never intended to end this with a victory.
His victory was a foregone conclusion.
What he wanted was only to restore his senses and, if possible, to set the Black Steel Corps straight.
So he could not simply wait on Hwang Jeong-cheol like this.
"Are you admitting defeat?"
"I am not!"
Hwang Jeong-cheol sprang up and took his stance again.
'He'd do better to throw one more blade in the time that takes.'
A pity, but there was no help for it.
He was still young; what could he know?
'Until I get my feel back I'll return everything just as it comes, so watch closely and learn.'
FWOOOOSH—!
When Tang Yu-hyeon did not move, Hwang Jeong-cheol loosed his blades again.
Blades holding seven directions shot out like lightning.
'The Soul-Stealing Seven Stars.'
Tang Yu-hyeon wrapped a thin layer of qi around his blades and unfolded the very same throwing blade art.
CLANG! CLANG-CLANG!
New blades fell atop the ones he had not yet recovered.
"What?!"
"Your stance isn't bad. But your strength is weak. At this rate you'll be cut down before you ever pierce your opponent."
"And where exactly is it lacking?!"
THUMP!
Hwang Jeong-cheol kicked off the ground.
At the same time, the hand hidden by his fluttering sleeve loosed a blade.
WHISH—!
Two throwing blades flew out, drawing wide arcs.
Pressure from left and right with the Soul-Chasing Flying Butterfly, then close the distance and settle it head-on.
Not a bad choice.
Only, his proficiency fell short of carrying it out.
'What sort of butterfly is that? Flapping about limp like that, one look and it's a rag.'
At this rate he had no appetite for teaching.
'For now I'd better focus on sharpening my own senses.'
Tang Yu-hyeon pulled his body back and crossed both arms.
FWOOOOSH—!
Blades spinning at fearsome speed left silver lines in the air.
Drawing butterfly wings in unwavering straight lines, they moved in a dizzying flurry before shooting in from left and right.
"Damn it!"
Hwang Jeong-cheol, about to charge at Tang Yu-hyeon, had no choice but to stop and knock the blades aside.
CLAAANG! CLAAANG!
But the blades slipped subtly past his expectations and grazed his shoulder.
"Kh—!"
"Making a fuss over nothing."
Tang Yu-hyeon knocked aside a late-arriving blade with ease and clicked his tongue.
"That's enough playing along. Now I'll ask for a proper lesson myself."
Tang Yu-hyeon tightened his grip on the blade.
"I'm not sure how long this will take either, so don't give up too easily."
White teeth showed between his twisted lips.
WHIIIISH—!
Three throwing blades shot out at intervals.
One head-on. Two from the flanks.
With the strength to hold, the one flying in head-on could be blocked without much trouble, but in that moment the remaining two would pierce his torso.
"You throw a nasty blade.......!"
Hwang Jeong-cheol threw his blades as though dropping them and raised a wall of sword qi.
CLANG! CLAAANG!
The two blades that arrived first struck it and bounced away.
'But with only one left, nothing could be easier!'
CLAAANG!
Hwang Jeong-cheol swung his arm wide and struck the blade away, but he could do nothing about the trembling of his hand.
The wrist that had knocked it aside throbbed.
How much force had been put into it, that a single parry alone should strain his body?!
WHIIISH—!
While he marveled, blades came flying again.
"What the.......!"
It was not one.
Three. Five. Ten.
Blades of differing speed and spin piled up one after another.
'The Chained Ten Blades?'
But the blades he could see alone numbered more than ten.
"You've got time to count blades? Feeling relaxed, are you?"
Tang Yu-hyeon snorted a laugh and threw blade after blade, adding in the ones Hwang Jeong-cheol had failed to recover.
"If you don't knock them away soon, you'll be in trouble."
"Nnnghhh!"
GRIT.
Hwang Jeong-cheol ground his teeth.
Rage surged to the heavens in him, and without a thought for tending his wound he took up his blades again.
"New recruit though I may be, you should not take me lightly!"
From his momentum alone it looked as though he would throw back as many blades as Tang Yu-hyeon had, perhaps more, but Hwang Jeong-cheol's blades no longer flew toward Tang Yu-hyeon.
SLASH! SLASH!
The blades stretching out without a target made a different sound than before.
Not piercing, but cutting cloth to a pattern.
SLASH! SLAAAASH!
Blades falling like petals and blades drawing level lines to left and right crossed again and again.
Sword qi layered as densely as cloth woven on a loom took the shape of a net.
CLANG-CLANG! CLANG-CLANG!
Blades meeting the blue-green net bounced away with a clear ringing note.
But it did not end there.
The net was uneven, jutting out here and there, and blades whose paths had been twisted came back at Tang Yu-hyeon.
Toward places that would trouble him if he did not dodge or strike back.
'He uses his head. He didn't get into the Black Steel Corps for nothing.'
Now this is getting interesting.
With a faint sound through his nose, Tang Yu-hyeon caught the returning blades and threw them again.
WHISH! CLANG-CLANG!
SLAAAASH! CLANG-CLANG!
An unbroken run of split air and ringing impacts, with not an inch conceded.
"It's already been half a double-hour. The drain on their inner arts must be considerable — impressive."
"True enough. Had it been me, I would have worn out and collapsed inside a quarter-hour."
"Their martial attainment must be close; neither is giving the other any quarter!"
"The Second Young Master is already at the peak realm?! My word. Was he truly a hidden dragon?"
Exclamations burst out here and there.
For Tang Yu-hyeon, who had built no name within the clan because of his conduct, and for Hwang Jeong-cheol, a recruit stuck with menial work and no outlet for his drive, this must have been exactly the situation both had longed for.
But the more exchanges they traded, the wider the gap between them grew.
"Haah! Haah!"
"Tired already, for a young one."
Unlike Tang Yu-hyeon, who was no different than at the start, Hwang Jeong-cheol's breathing turned ragged.
Pouring out inner arts without pause while calculating angles for a counterattack, both his body and his mind were reaching their limit.
Just when it seemed the spar would go on until one of them fell.
Tang Yu-hyeon murmured under his breath.
".......There."
The senses he had lost had returned.
At the exhilaration he had not felt in a long time, the corners of his mouth rose on their own.
At that ominous smile, Hwang Jeong-cheol recovered all his blades and opened the distance.
'What is this? All at once the air.......'
"You've waited a long time."
It was not a question.
It was a word to himself, and the herald of some declaration.
"So let's bring this to an end."
Tang Yu-hyeon laid a throwing blade across his palm and poured qi into it.
HUUUUUUM—!
The blade, trembling quietly with terrifying force, said it plainly.
That this was of a different class than every attack before it.
GULP.
Swallowing hard from the tension, Hwang Jeong-cheol drew lines with his blades once more.
SLASH! SLAAAASH!
Lines gathered into planes.
Planes gathered into a wall.
The moment he was certain a solid wall stood, the blade left Tang Yu-hyeon's hand and flew out slowly.
'Slow? Could it be....... the Dark Blast Dagger?!'
As if to lend certainty to his judgment, the blade, which had been minutely shifting the flow of the air, soon spun fast enough to spawn a whirlwind.
ROOOOOAAAAR—!
Dust rose along the path the whirlwind traveled.
Were it not for the sound of the wind, it would have been like the eve of a storm, fearful for not knowing what was to come.
BOOOOOOM—!
With a sudden blast, the blade shot out at explosive speed.
KLANG-KLANG-KLANG-KLANG—!
Striking the sword qi, the blade tore out a sound horrifying in its sharpness.
'I can't block this!'
Instinctive fear stood his hair on end.
Hwang Jeong-cheol hurriedly threw more blades to add to the sword qi.
But.
CRACK-CRACK! CRAAACK!
With a sound like shattering glass, the blade tore through the sword qi and flew to within a hair of his nose.
It happened in an instant; Hwang Jeong-cheol could not even cry out and dropped down onto the ground.
FLUTTER.
A moment later, a severed scrap of his robe drifted down onto the training ground.
As the dust settled and Tang Yu-hyeon came into view at last, he turned his head from Hwang Jeong-cheol and looked at Tang Roe.
At Tang Roe and Tang Jong-cheon, to be exact.
"I learned much, thanks to you."
THUD. THUD.
Tang Yu-hyeon walked over and held out a hand to Hwang Jeong-cheol.
"Time to get up, don't you think?"
".......Ah, yes."
Only then did Hwang Jeong-cheol come to his senses, scrambling up and giving a clasped hands greeting.
"I learned much."
"It was a good experience. I hope it was for you as well."
"It was for me too. Thank you."
Perhaps out of embarrassment, Hwang Jeong-cheol hurried down from the sparring platform.
Tang Yu-hyeon unhurriedly straightened his clothes and returned to Tang Jong-cheon's side.
Though the whole of the Black Steel Corps stirred at the unexpected outcome, Tang Roe was as calm as if he had known the result all along.
"Truly a splendid duel. It will have been a fine lesson for the members as well. Would you not agree?"
"Y-yes, sir."
Yang Mo-seol, who had eyed Tang Yu-hyeon with distaste, nodded along, seemingly with no objection to the result.
With attitudes shifting so abruptly, the outcome of the spar felt real.
"I thank you for thinking well of it."
Tang Roe smiled and turned his head to call out to the Black Steel Corps members.
"Black Steel Corps, continue your training!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Vice Captain, see that they carry it out properly."
"Understood!"
Once only the three of them remained, Tang Roe asked quietly.
"How did it look to you, Thirteenth Elder?"
"Still woefully lacking."
Tang Jong-cheon's harsh verdict was nothing new.
Since he did not care for Tang Yu-hyeon, he would see only the shortcomings.
"Ha ha. And yet it seems you are quite fond of him."
In what way?
Both Tang Yu-hyeon and Tang Jong-cheon asked it without a change in expression.
Tang Roe ignored both gazes and quietly drew up the corners of his mouth.
"Watching the Second Young Master's spar, one question came to me."
"Speak."
"What is it you intend to do?"
Tang Roe had caught a piece of Tang Yu-hyeon.
It was so small a fragment that it was hard to find unless one paid attention.
But it was also something Tang Yu-hyeon had always shown within the Tang Clan.
And so Tang Yu-hyeon answered with a faint smile.
"I mean to collect what is owed."