The Blood Spider Crone (血蛛老婆).A name given because she was like a spider full of blood. Just as a spider delicately handles its legs, so did the Blood Spider Crone’s fingers.
Her elongated fingernails, full of Blood Qi, were red. When her fingers moved with a clattering sound like insects, deadly red trajectories appeared in all directions.
Swish swish swish swish!
“I’ll teach you a lesson, you allll!!”
“Kuh!”
“Myeong’er, be careful!”
Under the Blood Spider Crone’s aura, which had swollen about three times, Namgung Myeong and Namgung Seungah, who had been barely holding on with irregular movements, were greatly pushed back and bounced away.
Just grazing her nails would split them in two, bones and all. Only then did the Namgung siblings draw their swords. It was to hold on just a little longer.
The Evil God Hee Yeonghyeon inwardly yawned at this farce.
The created beings were mechanically interlocking like gears to fulfill their roles. Those things called Namgung or Blood Spider Crone were created for such fights.It was obvious without even looking. They would fight staggeringly until the participant Cheonghwi arrives, then open a gap for him to conveniently burst in.
So whether Hee Yeonghyeon helped or not, the result would be the same.
Tuk Tuk.
It was enough to just scatter some daggers around. Just doing this much should avoid getting scolded later. There shouldn’t be any strangeness in the development either.
“Come on, try to act up againnn!”
“Noonim, below!”
The dolls tangled messily. The sound of swords and nails clashing was heard, and it was the swords that were cut off along with sparks. The Namgung siblings fell into crisis.
Tools hads appropriate uses.
Blades were for killing, books wereare for reading.
Those are for puppet shows, and she… was a being created to drive humans into the abyss of pain and despair. That fact, at least, was undeniable.
She didn’t know the reason. She was just made that way.
So this situation could only be boring and tedious. How could it not be tedious when you tell a sword to read a book?
Why does the Crazy Wizard only use me like this? He made me submit long ago, and even personally put on an explosive necklace to eliminate me in case of emergency.
There was no need to go far.
If she had thrown herself into Roderus’ mind, she could have driven him mad in 3 days. If released among the Academy students, it would have been fully possible to brainwash them to fanatically worship the Crazy Wizard.
If he hated his blade so much that he didn’t want to use it, why didn’t he just smash it to pieces?
There was no way to resolve these questions by pondering alone. Hee Yeonghyeon spoke to Cheonghwi, who was preparing for a sneak attack, with her arms crossed.
“What do you think? Daoist.”
“…About what?”
“About tools. Is it even reasonable to use a sword that cuts people so well to trim plants?”
“You are asking something irrelevant in this situation…?”
Hee Yeonghyeon’s question seemed detached from the situation. Cheonghwi seemed momentarily flustered, but soon gathered his thoughts and answered.
“About the Dog Beating Staff Technique. Why do you think the name of the martial art is a Staff Technique for beating dogs?”
“Because it was created while beating dogs, I suppose.”
“But the name is shabby, is it not? If it is a martial art representing a sect, wouldn’t a more decorated name like Infinite Dog Killing Staff Technique or Mountain-Splitting Staff Technique be fine?”
But what was the reason for specifically naming it the Dog Beating Staff Technique? Cheonghwi offered his own answer.
“The meaning must not be important.”
“The meaning, you say.”
“Why did beggars need to beat dogs? It must have been to welcome new family members. They beat dogs because there were more mouths to feed. So beating dogs was not the important part.”
“……”
If asked why the Dog Beating Staff Technique was the foundation of the Beggar’s Union, wasn’t it because at its core was a heart welcoming family members? That’s what Cheonghwi thought.
In the dusty world, only other beggars could comfort beggars, so they gathered together in their miserable state and became family, which made them even closer.
They accept a new beggar. A skinny, emaciated beggar on the verge of death. The Beggar’s Union boiled dogs to try to keep their new family member alive. They care for and share with each other.
“So… even if it is a sword that cuts people very well, if the wielder’s intent is such, there is nothing strange about it, is there?”
“What nonsense. In the end, the essence won’t change.”
“But what accumulates on top of the essence will change.”
Cheonghwi answered thus, then leapt between the Blood Spider Crone and the Namgung siblings. Another festival of blade clashing unfolded with metallic sounds.
These human bastards really have too many useless thoughts.
The Evil God pondered for a moment, then returned to being Hee Yeonghyeon and drew her dagger. The play wasn’t over yet, so she had to do her job as a character.
Thinking could wait until later.
===============================================================
Clang! Screech──!!
The red nails ground right through the blade of the longsword as they went down. Slowly, the longsword split in half. At the end of that trajectory was Namgung Myeong’s body.
Namgung Myeong, overwhelmed by the difference in strength, couldn’t even dodge and trembled while gripping the sword handle. And just before Namgung Myeong was about to be split in two along with the sword──
Clang-!!
Cheonghwi struck upwards from below, deflecting the Blood Spider Crone’s hand.
“Daoist Cheonghwi!”
“I have arrived!”
“Noonim was hit by the old monster’s Palm Technique and lost consciousness!”
“I saw. I just moved her near Hee Yeonghyeon, who will move her to a safe place. You should retreat too, Young Expert!”
At Cheonghwi’s words, Namgung Myeong bit his lip and shook his head. Until now, he had only been saved and received. How could he run away again?
“I, I want to be of help too. Until just now I was able to buy time, and my dantian has healed, so surely…”
Cheonghwi read the stubbornness in Namgung Myeong’s eyes. Had the accumulated burden become too great? Words like ‘It’s okay because you’re young’ or ‘You can repay me later’ didn’t seem like they would work.
Fighting together with Namgung Myeong would surely be helpful, but if he got hurt again, who knows what might happen, and besides…
Shouldn’t an elder brother protect his younger sibling? Cheonghwi dug out and borrowed the meanest tone he could remember from his memories, grabbed Namgung Myeong, and threw him far towards Hee Yeonghyeon.
“…I’m saying you’re in the way, low-life!”
“Uwah…!!”
Trying to imitate Roderus felt strange.
After seeing Hee Yeonghyeon take care of the Namgung siblings, Cheonghwi avoided the nails flying from his blind spot using Gaze Insight and swept the ground low with his leg.
The Blood Spider Crone jumped to avoid it and created distance. Seeing Cheonghwi arrive unscathed, she frowned deeply, her face full of wrinkles.
“…Are you saying the Sleep-Killing Stepfather was defeateddd?”
“He was a Master, but I stabbed his vital point with a surprise attack before he could display his skills. So I was able to win easily.”
“You, vile bastarddd!”
“Who are you calling such names…”
Whoosh-!
Blood Qi flew from the Blood Spider Crone’s nails as if being sprayed. Judging by her ability to materialize and release Qi, the old monster had reached the realm of a Peak Realm Master.
While Cheonghwi avoided the Blood Qi, the Blood Spider Crone closed the distance like an arrow and swung her nails wildly. Then Cheonghwi aimed for her hands, not her nails. A tightly clenched fist shot out.
“Ignition!”
Pop, papapak!
Since grabbing blades with bare hands would cause injury, he struck the hands and arms that were the source of the extending nails to disrupt the attack trajectory.
As Cheonghwi’s short, sharp strikes frequently foiled her attacks, the Blood Spider Crone, her face red with anger, pulled out her ultimate move.
“Uwaaaaah! Circling Hand Flying Claw!”
Whoosh!!
Ominous Blood Qi spread out in a round net shape. It was an area attack that left no room to dodge, but Cheonghwi calmly stepped back while drawing his rapier and swinging it.
A flash of light glimmered. He repeatedly stabbed the weak points of the net to tear it apart, and Cheonghwi threw himself through that gap.
At the same time, he threw the rapier like a javelin, aiming for the Blood Spider Crone’s head.
Swish!!
“Heuk…!!”
Faced with that fierce momentum, the Blood Spider Crone hurriedly twisted her body, but couldn’t completely avoid it and ended up getting stabbed in the shoulder.
It was manageable. He could fight.
He didn’t feel like he was going to lose. Then suddenly.
[Pursuit of Power: Reach Peak Realm Master (Achieve Breakthrough, Fill, and Tuning)]
Breakthrough by reading movements with Qi Sense and Gaze Insight to counter.
Fill and Tuning by compensating for the lack of mana quantity and control due to injury with mature techniques.
[Achieved]
Cheonghwi realized that he had somehow crossed a wall. The repeated fateful encounters and experiences had pushed him up to the middle of a high mountain.
And it seemed that the Blood Spider Crone he was facing also felt this.
“How can such a young bastarddddd already be at the realm of a Masterrr…!!”
“Hup!”
Cheonghwi closed the distance while taking a firm stance.
He had learned various martial arts. Thus, his techniques changed with every extension of his hand.
He thrust sharply with techniques for killing wizards, struck and grappled with techniques for catching Imoogi, flowed and dodged with techniques for reading gazes, and hit with techniques for bursting.
The Blood Spider Crone tried to fend off the rain-like barrage of attacks, but she started allowing one or two attacks through, like rainwater seeping in.
Thud, thwack!
“Urgh…!!”
The Blood Spider Crone also counterattacked. Blood splattered and flesh split every time her nails grazed him. However, Cheonghwi knew even before being hit that these wouldn’t be fatal wounds.
He moved with confidence, analyzing the patterns and habits of her movements. He extended his hand, calculating angles acutely. He danced like the moonlight flickering in his heart.
Like divided rivers gathering into the sea, all experiences lined up in a row to draw a single stroke. Cheonghwi was feeling that flow.
It resembled the Heavenly Demon’s movements, but something important was different.
“I shall imbue this movement with the intent of Straightforward Advance. My martial arts will become the vessel that contains my heart.”
“Uwaaaaah-!”
Whoosh.
The sound wasn’t loud.
Cheonghwi’s fist deeply embedded itself in the Blood Spider Crone’s solar plexus. The old monster spat blood as she flew and was thrown to the ground.
The battle was over.
===============================================================
Namgung Myeong’s eyes filled with sorrow. It was understandable, given the personal attack he had suffered.
“That’s too much…!”
“No, that, in the heat of the moment… I could not easily distinguish what words to use. I did not mean to make a personal attack. It is just that I have an elder brother with bad speaking habits, but that… that word ‘low-life’ did not mean that and.”
Envers tried to explain in a roundabout way that he had tried to act like an elder brother in his own way, but since the only elder brother he knew was Roderus, this was how it turned out.
Namgung Myeong’s sorrow only subsided after chattering for 20 minutes, and Cheonghwi leaned against the carriage wall with a sigh of relief.
Clop clop, clop clop.
The group was riding in a carriage returning to the Namgung Clan.
Hee Yeonghyeon, whose destination was similar, was also in the same carriage. She was looking outside with a somewhat blank expression.
Leaving Namgung Myeong to Namgung Seungah, Cheonghwi spoke to Hee Yeonghyeon.
“Please accept the Dog Beating Staff Technique. Much time has passed, and it might differ from the intent (意) of the Beggar’s Union you pursue… but still, would it not be of some reference?”
“…I’ll enshrine it somewhere. Perhaps someone among the beggars, maybe the next generation’s leader, might become someone as meddlesome as that. Give it to me for now.”
“Gladly!”
[Flowing Together with History: Return the Dog Beating Staff Technique to the Beggar’s Union]
[Achieved]
Cheonghwi smiled, wrapped in bandages.
However, he had one thing left to do. He needed to confront the mastermind trying to kill Namgung Myeong.
Cheonghwi put his hand in his bosom and fingered the rough edge of a paper. This was a letter found on the Sleep-Killing Stepfather’s corpse, as well as clear evidence.
The carriage wheels rolled diligently. Just like the flowing of time.
===============================================================
A shower of congratulations poured down on the group that returned with Namgung Myeong’s dantian completely healed. How could they not be happy when the Namgung Clan’s talent had returned?
Cheonghwi became a great benefactor of the Namgung Clan.
Namgung Chaegong called Cheonghwi and the Namgung siblings separately to hear their story, and after finishing, he casually asked this:
“How about marrying Seungah?”
Cheonghwi answered sharply.
“Excuse me? No… I do not want to.”
“…I, I don’t want to either?! Don’t make it sound like you rejected me, Daoist Cheonghwi!!”
Accept this punishment; the sin of failing to read a woman’s heart. Cheonghwi had to be grabbed by the collar and shaken vigorously by Namgung Seungah.