Chapter 21 – A Painfully Blue Light

Chapter 21 – A Painfully Blue Light

Did they say that the hottest flame is blue?

When I saw the eyes that quietly held a chilling blue light, I knew what I had to do.

It was watching from the front row.

Namgung Yeon extended the sharp tip of his sword toward the men in black who were closing the distance from the front and back. Namgung Yeon and one of the men in black, who had clashed swords with a sharp tearing sound of air before backing away, glared at each other with fierce eyes.

After a moment, one of the men in black, who appeared to be their leader, stepped forward.

"……My, young masters from prestigious families draw their swords so fearlessly. Have you not grasped the situation?"

"No way. I understand the situation perfectly. It is a good opportunity to get recognition from my older brother."

Seeing Namgung Yeon reply without showing the slightest bit of fear, the man in black let out a scoff.

"Uhahaha, your courage is commendable. Fine, I will give you one last chance. Just hand over what you have. Consider it a stroke of luck that you ran into us."

"………"

As Namgung Yeon frowned without replying, a voice followed as if coaxing a young child.

"Young master, I am not doing this because I have ill will toward you. Hmm? Do you know how much those poison-mongers have been stirring up Chengdu lately, under the pretext of preparing for some assembly or whatever?"

"…Huh?"

At those words, a small murmur of doubt escaped my mouth as I watched from the side.

No, what on earth does their attack on us have to do with the Tang Clan?

"Those wicked poison-mongers are disrupting our business under the guise of cleaning up. What can we do? We can't just quietly let them steal our rice bowl. You understand this much by now, right?"

After speaking, the man in black stretched out his left hand, which was not holding a sword, toward Namgung Yeon. It meant that if he wanted to live, he should place his money pouch on top of his hand.

At that moment, a fierce sword cry rang out.

*Swoosh!*

It was the sound made by Namgung Yeon's sword, which slashed toward that hand in an instant.

Consequently, instead of having his wrist severed and rolling on the ground, the man in black, who had narrowly pulled his hand back, shut his mouth for a moment.

"Are you stupid…? Did you not understand my words?"

"I understood. It means that you are the ones targeted for the Tang Clan's clean-up."

"……"

"Now that I know that, what else can I do? I have no choice but to help with that clean-up."

The man in black's eyebrows twitched at Namgung Yeon's reply, which threw his own words right back at him.

I was able to grasp the situation from the short conversation.

It seemed that the Sichuan Tang Clan, with the assembly ahead, was clearing out the underworld gangs near Chengdu before the guests of the Great Families arrived. It was similar to tightening crackdowns and beautifying the streets to lower the crime rate at an Olympic host city.

Since the crackdown had become so severe that they could no longer openly act as thugs, they had planned to attack a wealthy young master in a secluded place.

'Should I call this bad luck or good luck…?'

My encountering the underworld gang was indeed bad luck, but to think that cleaning up these guys happened to be a family affair. I fell into thought for a moment.

"………Boys."

At that moment, the man in black who had stepped forward gestured with his hand toward the remaining four.

*Swoooosh!*

At the same time, a fierce sound cutting through the air rushed toward Namgung Yeon.

It was something that happened in a mere split second.

*Swish.*

A blue sword qi bloomed from the coldly settled tip of Namgung Yeon's sword.

His posture was not one to dodge the attack of the man in black rushing toward him. The direction of the sword was not protecting his body, either. Namgung Yeon simply stared straight at the sword that had reached right in front of his nose, and thrust the sword in his hand straight forward.

*Stab!*

Having deflected the opponent's sword with just a slight tilt of his head, Namgung Yeon's sword had already pierced through the shoulder of the man in black.

"…Argh, aaaargh!"

As the shoulder of the side holding the sword was pierced, a clear metallic sound clanged against the ground.

Namgung Yeon pulled the sword out of the shoulder of the man in black, from whom a wild scream erupted, without hesitation. Hot blood splattered from that spot, overlaying a vivid bloodstain on Namgung Yeon's fair cheek.

"You son of a bitch!"

The two guys rushing from the back spat out curses and swung their swords.

But this time too, Namgung Yeon's sword reached the two guys first. Namgung Yeon's eyes were as fierce as a sharply forged blade, and he slashed down the guys blocking his sight without hesitation.

*Swiiish!*

Although there were four guys rushing with swords, the sharp sound of metal clashing against metal was not heard even once.

Namgung Yeon's sword was vastly faster than theirs, and incomparably sharper.

"Urgh, uuuugh!"

"Pant, pant… pant."

The tip of the sword, passing by like a grazing touch, cut the arms and legs of the men in black.

It did not seem life-threatening as the wounds did not cut deep, but they could no longer hold their swords. Blood soaked through the clothes of the guys who had fallen to the ground. They attempted a few more attacks like that, but nothing changed.

Before long, the only one standing on his feet was the man in black who had been leading the guys at the front.

Having subdued the four in an instant, Namgung Yeon lightly flicked his sword to shake off the blood, and then spoke in a low voice toward the guy standing there without running away.

"Are you stupid…? Have you still not understood?"

The man in black's face distorted at those words. Having his own words thrown back at him, the man in black adjusted his grip on his sword and spoke.

"…I must admit it. You were not someone to be taken lightly. But I will be different."

"Lord Ghost Shadow……!!"

At that moment, the name of the man in black escaped the mouth of one of the fallen men. The man in black called Ghost Shadow walked past his subordinates to face Namgung Yeon. The energy rising from him was a momentum distinct from the previous four.

However, facing that momentum, only a sneer hung on the corners of Namgung Yeon's lips.

"…Well, we shall see."

"Ha, arrogant brat."

*Dash!*

Closing the distance in an instant, Ghost Shadow's body shot toward Namgung Yeon.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

Except for the metallic sound heard at the very beginning, this was the first time the sharp sound of clashing swords rang out. Ghost Shadow's sword rained down fiercely toward Namgung Yeon, beginning to push him back.

*Claaang!*

The swords, laden with weight, slashed fiercely at each other before colliding in midair.

Sparks flew from the met eyes of Namgung Yeon and Ghost Shadow, and from the tips of their blades. A dizzying clash where a single mistake could cost a neck ensued.

*Clang! Clang!*

'Wow…… The Namgung Clan is not called a prestigious family of the sword for nothing.'

Watching this situation peacefully from the side as Namgung Yeon had requested, I could not help but admire him.

The men in black had pushed with sheer numbers, as they say there is no match for a mob.

But even so, would the formula 0+0+0+0=0 change? In short, even if four underlings combined, their attack power converged to zero. Although Namgung Yeon's martial prowess in cleaning up the four in an instant was quite something, this side of the fight was definitely more exciting.

'I guess it wasn't baseless confidence?'

Ghost Shadow's sword, which had claimed to be different, was distinctly different from the swords of the previous four. The fact that he was clashing swords with Namgung Yeon, unlike the four who could not even touch him, showed that he was no common street thug.

However, his opponent was a direct descendant of the Namgung Clan.

I noticed that Namgung Yeon was not performing the high-level sword arts of the Namgung Clan against Ghost Shadow. Seeing that he also covered and held the patterns on the sword, it seemed he was trying to hide that he was a martial artist of the Namgung Clan.

Therefore, the outcome of this fight was obvious.

There was no way Ghost Shadow, clashing with all his might, could defeat Namgung Yeon, who was clashing swords while pacing himself.

'It will end soon…… Huh?'

Just then, I felt a presence rapidly approaching.

Since we had deliberately come to a deserted place after feeling their gaze initially, it would not be a random passerby.

I furrowed my brow slightly and looked in the direction where the presence was felt.

'It was just getting interesting…… Who is interfering?'

Even if it was not a high-level sword art like the Namgung Clan's Boundless Sky Sword Art or Heavenly Wind Sword Art , the scene of a Namgung Clan swordsman subduing an underworld gangster was too good to miss.

Having my front-row view interrupted, I habitually put my hand into my sleeve. It was to take out the hidden weapons kept inside the robe I was wearing.

'Wait… but if I do this, there is no point in not wearing the green robe. Since he is also fighting using only basic sword arts, he seems to want to hide it.'

Suddenly, it occurred to me that Namgung Yeon and I were currently 'the runaway young master of the Namgung Family' and 'the temporary guardian'. There was no benefit in making a big deal out of it by unnecessarily revealing our affiliations.

"…Ugh."

I withdrew my hand that was heading toward my sleeve and looked around. Conveniently, a few pebbles of suitable size caught my eye. I picked up a pebble about the size of a finger joint and concentrated my qi sense.

'Three to the right. The distance is……'

Rapidly calculating the speed at which the pebble would fly and the closing distance, I placed the pebble on my finger.

*Flick! Flick-flick!*

I shot the pebbles toward the two who were slightly in the lead on both sides.

The Finger Flicking Art, which I had trained by catching spiders and centipedes, accurately struck both of their foreheads. The pebbles, finely adjusted with just enough power to make them faint without piercing through, shook their brains, and they fell flat on the ground.

'I think catching humans is much easier than catching spiders hanging on spiderwebs…… Is this right?'

To think that knocking out a human is easier than a bug.

I aimed at the last silhouette with the delicacy developed through my foraging life.

*Flick!*

However, the moment I threw the last pebble, the person, startled by the silhouettes on both sides collapsing, unconsciously reduced his speed slightly.

*Smack!*

The pebble accurately struck the forehead of that silhouette, but because the opponent's speed had decreased, the force at the moment of impact was slightly lacking. Holding his forehead, the silhouette did not faint but staggered on the spot.

'Ah… Why did he have to reduce his speed.'

Tch.

I kicked up a pebble at my feet with the tip of my toe and placed it back on my finger.

*Flick!*

Once more.

With a faint thud, the last remaining silhouette also collapsed as if fainted. After neatly handling the interrupters who blocked my front-row view, I turned my head to see Namgung Yeon's sword again.

"………Ugh."

A sound full of dissatisfaction leaked from my mouth.

This was because Namgung Yeon's sword was pointing at Ghost Shadow's neck. Before I knew it, the sword fell from the hand of Ghost Shadow, who was kneeling in front of Namgung Yeon, and a clear metallic sound clanged against the ground once more.

'I missed it.'

If it weren't for those interrupters, I could have watched it until the end…

Clicking my tongue in regret at missing the final scene, I approached Namgung Yeon.

Seeing me approach, Namgung Yeon withdrew his sword from Ghost Shadow's neck and murmured softly.

"Do not trouble the Tang Clan any further."

"………"

As Ghost Shadow nodded with a grim expression, Namgung Yeon, sheathing his sword, tidied his disheveled clothes and spoke to me.

"I am hungry, brother."

The gently smiling Namgung Yeon had returned to being a squishy rice cake before I knew it. Smiling softly in a way that made it impossible to think of him as the swordsman who had subdued five underworld gangsters just moments ago, I stroked his head and said.

"Right. Now that you are done playing, let's go."

***

The edge of Chengdu.

"You pathetic fools……"

The resentful voice of Ghost Hand Sword Soul , the leader of the Red Blood Gang, boiled over.

"Are you saying that eight of you ended up in this state against a mere couple of brats?"

Unable to contain his anger, Ghost Hand Sword Soul roughly grabbed the armrest of the chair he was sitting on. Unable to withstand that force, the wooden armrest splintered into pieces, and cold sweat dripped down the spines of the watching men in black.

"Ghost Shadow, even you were there?"

Despite the indignant voice, Ghost Shadow only recalled the chill of having his neck nearly cut.

He was no ordinary fellow. The shock he received the moment he clashed swords with that young brat was still vivid. However, what was even more horrifying was that there was someone who stroked the head of that ghost-like young swordsman and acted as his guardian. If so, just thinking about how terrifying that guy must be sent shivers down his spine.

"You, you…! I can hear the mockery of the Black Tiger Gang from all the way here! Just who on earth are those guys!"

Ghost Hand Sword Soul shouted while looking at his eight battered subordinates. The rising murderous intent was enough to make one suffocate.

One of the subordinates, who was dripping cold sweat without even daring to make a sound, managed to open his mouth.

"T-That is… They were no ordinary fellows. With a sword art that could even be learned in the market streets, in an instant……"

*Crash!*

Throwing an object on the table, Ghost Hand Sword Soul muttered in a cold voice.

"Right… Then, are you saying that you lot were defeated by a third-rate martial artist who is not even of a Great Family's bloodline?"

"L-Leader! That guy alone is not the problem. The guy who was with him is more dangerous…… Ugh!"

The neck of Yukseo, the man in black whose black-and-blue forehead was exposed, was caught in Ghost Hand Sword Soul's grip.

"Did you not say there was only one guy using a sword!"

"Urgh, t-the guy who was with him took down three. Perhaps his qi sense is extraordinary, as he attacked even before we could close the distance……"

*Thud!*

Ghost Hand Sword Soul's eyebrows twitched as he threw Yukseo's body, which he was holding, onto the floor. Rolling on the floor with a dull thud, Yukseo quickly knelt and spoke.

"Cough, that guy threw…… pebbles, but with a strength exactly enough to knock us out without any murderous intent."

Yukseo was certain that the guy watching from the side was more dangerous than the one wielding the sword.

He had noticed them approaching quickly, and in the process, took down the two who were just a step ahead first. If he had not reduced his speed for the subsequent attack, he would have collapsed without even seeing it. The fact that another attack flew accurately once more when he did not faint proved it.

'At that distance, he accurately targeted the head of a moving silhouette.'

That was not all.

It was an attack that would have burst his head and then some if it had contained murderous intent. Yet, all three who had rushed in were alive. The opponent had intentionally controlled his power.

'…If such absurd precision is possible.'

What this implied was clear.

If that young fellow had a mind to……

It meant that all eight who were in that place would no longer be among the living.

Having heard Yukseo's words after Ghost Shadow's, Ghost Hand Sword Soul's face repeatedly turned red and back. After some time passed.

"I must capture those fellows myself. Yukseo and Ghost Shadow, follow me."

Ghost Hand Sword Soul's voice, sounding as if he would chew them alive, echoed low on the floor.