Song Un-chan had once been the leader of a local underworld faction.
When the Black Tiger Gang had swept through and absorbed Yichang's existing criminal organizations, he had been reduced to overseeing a backwater like Yinghua Village.
But that also meant, in reverse, that the Gang Master had recognized his skill enough to spare his life and take him in.
Which was precisely why the situation was so absurd.
'What? He won't kill me?'
Jin Cheong-un, having shut the gate behind him, cracked his neck side to side and sauntered forward.
A back-alley thug if ever there was one. The man's mannerisms were more underworld than their own—and they were the actual criminals.
'What a joke. The man's bearing is pathetic.'
Spirit and capacity. Together, they formed one's bearing. A martial artist who had cultivated inner arts naturally radiated this bearing outward.
So what about Jin Cheong-un?
He could sense something. About as much as a gnat's eye crust, perhaps?
Song Un-chan smirked.
He had seen plenty of men like this. The type who picked up some third-rate martial art sold on the street and thought they were masters. They were exactly like this.
"Decent nerve, I'll give you that. But let's see if you can keep that up after getting pummeled in front of your student—or niece—or whatever she is."
That remark seemed to hit a nerve. Jin Cheong-un narrowed his eyes.
"This won't do."
He tossed out the words and curled his hands into fists.
"Let's start by having you take a hit."
WHOOSH!
In that instant, Song Un-chan sucked in a startled breath.
Jin Cheong-un, who had been sauntering lazily, had suddenly burst forward.
"St-strike!"
Song Un-chan and two gang members frantically swung their blades.
CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG—!
In the early evening stillness, the sunset that had settled over Jeong Manor's courtyard shattered wildly against blue-edged steel.
And Jin Cheong-un's body came threading through that sunset.
A single fist, piercing through the trajectories of blade after blade with unerring precision.
Song Un-chan stared, wide-eyed, at the fist hurtling toward his face.
CRAAACK—!
His jaw snapped to the side.
The world went black for an instant, then bright again.
By the time he barely regained his senses, Song Un-chan heard the sound of air splitting—SHREEEE!—racing toward his solar plexus.
THUUUUUD—!
The pain of being skewered by an arrow ripped his mouth wide open.
Driven backward, Song Un-chan dropped to his knees and slammed his forehead into the ground.
BOOM!
"Gkh!"
The breath was literally being squeezed from him, and tears welled in his eyes.
Even as he writhed in agony, Song Un-chan could not comprehend what had just happened.
He walks straight into oncoming steel?
Without even using inner arts, that was possible?
Something—something did not add up!
"B-Boss!"
"You bastard!"
The remaining gang members came to their senses a beat too late and charged at Jin Cheong-un's exposed back.
"No! U-Uncle! Watch out!"
Jeong So-so, watching from behind, screamed.
But.
SWISH!
The blade sweeping from the left barely grazed Jin Cheong-un's coat.
SMACK!
The thrust from the right pierced nothing but empty air.
"Wha—huh?"
The gang member turned his head with the look of a man possessed by a ghost.
That instant, Jin Cheong-un's fist filled his vision.
CRAAAAAACK—!
Jeong So-so had never heard such a meaty impact in her entire life.
The other gang member watched his comrade fly backward, nose gushing blood like a fountain, and recoiled in terror.
"Th-this is insane!"
He lurched spasmodically and brought his blade crashing down toward Jin Cheong-un's back.
GRAB!
But it was caught midway.
Jin Cheong-un's left hand seized his wrist, and his right shot out like lightning to clutch the man by the collar.
"Huh?"
WHOOOOSH!
The gang member's body was hoisted skyward.
His vision tilted and the world spun.
He flew through the air like a sack of cargo before he could even resist.
CRAAASH—!
Having sailed a good ten feet, he was pile-driven into the dirt. A cloud of dust erupted around his crater.
"Wh-what in the......"
Song Un-chan scrambled to his feet on wobbling legs, shaking uncontrollably.
'What is happening?!'
The man was clearly using martial arts. But he was not using inner arts.
That made no sense. Martial arts without the backing of internal cultivation was only half the art, was it not?
To put it another way, Jin Cheong-un was running on broken legs.
How do you run on broken legs, you ask?
That was exactly why it made no sense!
He was running better than Song Un-chan on both his legs!
'No matter how skilled a master...... a master?'
In that instant, Song Un-chan realized something and his eyes went wide.
"B-Boss."
"Cough! A-at this rate, we really......"
His subordinates, having regained their senses by now, limped to Song Un-chan's side.
Song Un-chan whispered.
"Get a hold of yourselves. I've found that man's weakness."
"Sir?"
"It's not that his bearing is nonexistent—I can sense it faintly. But he's not using his inner power. On top of that, he even looks a little winded. What do you think that means?"
The gang members' eyes went wide.
Looking closely, he was right. His shoulders were rising slightly, and the hair at his temples was damp, was it not?
Breath control was the most fundamental of fundamentals. The man had obviously trained in some martial art, but he was clearly not in normal condition.
"I'll create an opening. Rush him all at once. One hit is all we need. Just one."
After their huddle, Song Un-chan faced Jin Cheong-un once more, composed.
"So you have learned some martial arts after all......"
The corner of his mouth twisted upward.
"But judging by that sorry bearing, you've either got internal injuries or you've lost your inner arts. Heh heh heh!"
Jin Cheong-un, who had been staring at him blankly, nodded.
"Observant for a street thug. You're right."
His admission came so freely that Song Un-chan was momentarily thrown.
"......You're not going to hide it?"
"I never was hiding it."
At those words, Jeong So-so, watching from a distance, wanted to scream.
'Keep it a secret! Hide it! How can you say that right now?!'
After his brief flash of confusion, Song Un-chan flared his eyes open again.
"Regardless, there's no way someone like you came to the gang's territory without a reason."
"......?"
"I'll drag you before the Gang Master and make my name. HRAAAHH!"
Song Un-chan closed his eyes as if to focus, then let out a bizarre battle cry.
HISSSSSS!
Dust swirled up around him and a chilling wave of energy rippled outward.
Jin Cheong-un's eyes widened slightly.
"Huff! Huff! I didn't want to resort to this...... but this is a killing technique I learned from the Gang Master himself. I'll end this now."
Jin Cheong-un was privately impressed.
A hidden power. What a classically villainous thing to say.
'He's trying to turn this into a contest of raw force and finish it in one blow.'
This Black Tiger Gang Master was no pushover, it seemed.
Temporarily raising one's inner fire like that was a technique found only in orthodox underworld martial arts, and yet he had taught it to a mere subordinate.
"I'll destroy you!"
BOOOOOM—!
Song Un-chan launched off the ground with a sound utterly different from before.
TAP.
Jin Cheong-un stepped his left foot forward.
Then he drew his fist far back. Rather than dodging, he looked as though he meant to meet the charge head-on.
'Imbecile!'
The instant Song Un-chan flashed a triumphant grin, Jin Cheong-un's fist shot out like a thunderbolt.
CLAAAAAANG—!
An explosion like the roar of a smithy's forge erupted.
Song Un-chan's eyes stretched wide enough to tear.
'Wha—?'
Something was breaking.
Not the fist—his own blade.
Flesh and bone had collided with steel, and the flesh was crushing the steel and still coming.
CRAAACK—!
Song Un-chan's body soared through the air like a pebble kicked by a boot.
The gang members who had been charging in behind him gaped at the spectacle.
Having spun several times through the air, Song Un-chan crashed straight into the earth.
"Grrgh! Uuuughh......"
Only after thrashing on the ground for some time could he raise his upper body.
He looked up at Jin Cheong-un with bewildered eyes.
"Cough! Y-you clearly...... lost your inner arts......"
"I did suffer internal injuries, true. But I never said I had no inner arts."
"......?"
"I just don't know how to use them."
He has legs but does not know how to run? Then how is he running?!
Confusion flooded Song Un-chan's eyes.
'Can't blame him for not understanding.'
He himself had no idea what was going on, after all.
But it was no lie.
After taking the Heaven-Slaying Divine Demon's final blow, Jin Cheong-un had sustained severe external trauma along with internal injuries that cost him a significant portion of his inner arts.
Every physician at the Alliance had diagnosed it as a miracle he was even alive, declaring that martial arts were out of the question and he would live with permanent damage for the rest of his life.
But Jin Cheong-un had recovered.
In a form no one—not even he himself—had anticipated.
His cracked qi center.
His torn and severed qi vessels.
His shattered body.
A new and unknown true qi had settled into all of those places, restoring him as if by miracle.
However.
'Since I never learned whatever this is, it's no wonder I can't use it.'
HISSS!
The unidentified true qi that had been emitted from his palm vanished in an instant. Even when forced out, it could not hold for even a moment.
'Well, it's not entirely unidentified.'
It was the martial art that had endured the Esoteric Sect Master's final blow in that last moment, and the martial art he had once learned and practiced right here at the Blue Cloud Martial Arts School.
"......P-please spare me."
THUD!
Song Un-chan dropped to his knees, blood streaming from his nose.
"What are you waiting for?! All of you, on your knees!"
"Yessir!"
"Please, spare us!"
Song Un-chan cried out in desperation.
"I-I misjudged you. We were just following orders. If you kill us, the gang won't let it go—you don't want that, do you? Please, just spare us!"
Jin Cheong-un replied flatly.
"I never said I'd kill you."
"......?"
"I made a promise to someone I know. I've resolved to live without bloodshed whenever possible. I won't kill you, so don't worry."
Song Un-chan's face lit up. He had only thrown it out there as a last resort!
But when he raised his head, what he saw was Jin Cheong-un cracking his knuckles one by one.
"......?"
"Once more—I'm not going to kill you. I'm not."
Song Un-chan leapt to his feet in terror.
'I-I've picked the wrong fight. He really is insane.'
He tried to bolt, but the collar already in Jin Cheong-un's grip would not come free.
"P-please sp—! GACK!"
THWACK!
"I-I was wr—! HURK!"
CRACK! CRUNCH!
"I-I'm sorry! I was wrong! Please spare—EEEACK!"
SMAAACK—!
The gruesome sounds continued.
A moment later, Song Un-chan was not released until he had been pounded into a literal pulp.
Jin Cheong-un dusted off his hands with a refreshed expression.
'Ah......'
Jeong So-ryong stood watching the entire scene, mouth hanging open.
His body was trembling. Cold sweat beaded on his palms.
For a young boy, it was an excessively brutal and shocking sight.
'That was incredible.'
And yet he could not tear his eyes away from Jin Cheong-un.
'I want to become that strong, too......'
Jeong So-ryong's eyes shone and sparkled.