Chapter 39 : One on One (4)

The moment Ah Geol felt the danger, he immediately pulled his body back.

The moment he felt it!

If the word ‘moment’ was included, it was already too late. At the same time as the feeling, you had to pull your body back so quickly that there was no room for the word ‘moment’ to enter. Only a beast-like instinct remained.

It was the only way to avoid the Single-Instant Blade.

Chwaaaak!

Lightning flashed before his eyes.

“Kuk!”

Ah Geol let out a short scream.

A pain he had never experienced before arose in his chest. A flame flared up.

Even though he had done his best, he had not been able to avoid Dongbak’s blade.

‘Amazing!’

It was a shock that made his hair stand on end.

He had not seen the blade that Dongbak had executed.

The Single-Instant Blade did not give you the leisure to look at it. You had to see it with your senses while clashing directly.

For a moment, Ah Geol’s senses were blocked.

Shwiiit!

Back, back, back… Ah Geol did not think of stopping and continued to retreat.

He had already escaped the blade’s circle, the blade’s distance.

Unless Dongbak continued to chase him, he had widened the distance enough to be able to avoid it if he stopped and then used his blade again. And yet, he continued to retreat like a frightened mouse.

Teok!

He had finally reached a place where he could not retreat any further.

A rock wall… a rock wall touched his back.

In that instant, Ah Geol shot up the rock wall without a hint of hesitation.

Shuuuuut!

Ah Geol’s body was sucked up the rock wall as if caught in a huge suction force.

“A rope? Kuk! Kukuk!”

Dongbak was so dumbfounded that he let out a laugh.

How far had Ah Geol prepared for the fight? To think that he had even laid out a rope on the rock wall.

Ah Geol climbed the rock wall, holding the rope he had prepared in advance.

Looking at him climbing the rock wall, it was not the skill of someone who had climbed it once or twice. It seemed that he had climbed it countless times before.

“What? You’ve prepared a rope? Hahaha! That’s why you lost. Haha!”

Dongbak laughed.

A person who was sure to win, a person who thought they would absolutely win, would not prepare for an escape.

An escape was not necessary.

They would not worry about what would happen if things went wrong and they were hit.

Let’s say a strong man and a newborn baby were fighting. If you told the strong man to prepare an escape route in case the newborn baby counterattacked, what kind of reaction would he show?

He would laugh. Anyone would laugh.

The strong man did not need an escape route. He would not even think of an escape route. No, he would not even think that he would lose. If he didn’t think he would lose, how could he think of an escape route?

This was the fight of an absolute strong person.

A disciple of the Single-Instant Sect had always fought such a fight.

The fact that Ah Geol had prepared an escape route meant that he had thought that he might lose.

The assumption that he could lose!

If you made an ominous assumption, the possibility of actually being defeated would become much greater.

If it was a fight with a fifty percent chance of winning, the moment you prepared an escape route, your chances of winning would drop that much. The psychology of having a place to run to would greatly lower your chances of winning. At least, you would lose ten percent of your chances of winning.

Ah Geol had even prepared a rope on the cliff.

He would have made these preparations in the process of luring him… he did not spare any praise for his meticulousness in secretly preparing a rope. But how could he win like this?

“How great would it be if you could escape like this? Surely you didn’t think I couldn’t chase you this much, did you? Yes, you’re not that much of a fool. Haha!”

Dongbak chased after Ah Geol and climbed the rock wall.

Ah Geol had climbed with a rope, but he was climbing the hundred-zhang rock wall with his bare hands and body.

Before learning martial arts, a disciple of the Single-Instant Sect would undergo a hellish training that ordinary people could not even imagine.

Have you seen a mountain goat standing on a cliff? The reason why a mountain goat climbs a cliff well is because of its sturdy hooves. It would push its hooves into a small crack in the cliff so that its body would not slip.

A disciple of the Single-Instant Sect also did such training.

Since humans did not have sturdy hooves like a mountain goat, they would train their ten fingers to be as hard as iron armor. To the extent that they could sleep with their fingers pushed into a crack in a cliff.

Wasn’t it the Wall Gecko Art that was talked about in the martial world? That’s right. But a Single-Instant martial artist could skillfully execute something like the Wall Gecko Art without specially learning it.

It was about pushing the physical abilities to the limit.

When you reached this state, you were already a martial artist even if you hadn’t learned martial arts. Martial arts were passed on after that. Only after the bones, muscles, and nerves had reached their best state did they encounter something called martial arts.

An energy circulation method that could lead true energy, forms that were operated with true energy… movement techniques, heart techniques, sword arts, blade arts…

All martial arts were acquired in a flash.

The fact that Ah Geol was climbing the rock wall using a rope… what should I say? It was proof that he was not yet a complete disciple of the Single-Instant Sect. He should have acquired this much before he even held a blade.

Shwiiit!

Dongbak climbed the rock wall at a fast speed.

He could see Ah Geol.

He was panting for breath, tired even while using the rope.

But he had no leisure. Because Dongbak was already climbing the rock wall.

His head was visible, and his upper body was visible.

Ah Geol quickly jumped into the rapids.

The current flowing towards the waterfall, he made his way through the current in a precariousness that seemed as if he would be swept away without a doubt.

“Hahahaha!”

Looking at Ah Geol who was struggling to move forward one step at a time, Dongbak couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

Ah Geol had calculated meticulously. The rapids flowing towards the waterfall were quite wide. It was too much to jump over in one breath. You had to step on it a couple of times in the middle.

Ah Geol had aimed for that.

He had laid out a rope from this side of the rapids to that side.

It seemed that he had thought that he could shake off Dongbak if he crossed the rapids.

“Hahaha! Hahahaha!”

Dongbak laughed.

Ah Geol’s actions were not the actions that a disciple of the Single-Instant Sect would take. No, it was a shameful action that a disciple of the Single-Instant Sect would not even think of in their dreams.

A disciple of the Single-Instant Sect could maintain their center of gravity even in a huge rapid, just like climbing a cliff.

They would attach a thousand-jin weight of lead to their two feet.

A thousand-jin lead!

It was similar to the thousand-jin drop that martial artists talked about. But the thousand-jin drop was a martial art executed with true energy, and the thousand-jin lead was a physical ability achieved solely by the weight of the lower body.

If your two feet were rooted to the ground, no matter how strong the rapids were, they could not push your body away.

Ah Geol… was he really a junior brother? You don’t know what kind of place the Single-Instant Sect is at all. You don’t know at all how far, how much a disciple of the Single-Instant Sect can do.

Splash!

Dongbak walked into the rapids without hesitation.

His two legs became iron pillars and were stuck in the riverbed. Every time he lifted his foot and moved forward, it would sink in up to his ankles.

The rapids pushed him without hesitation. But he was not pushed. Because his lower body was so firmly stuck, he only swayed a little and could not be pushed away.

On the other hand, Ah Geol was so precarious that it seemed he would be swept away at any moment.

He was relying on the rope, but his lower body was already being pushed away. He was making his way through the current, relying on his two hands that were holding the rope.

Dongbak even had the thought of teasing Ah Geol.

What if he cut the rope? Then Ah Geol would be swept away without a thought. Since he had already crossed more than half, he would not fall under the waterfall.

Looking at the remaining length of the rope, even if he cut the rope, he would be swept to the other side.

If it was just that much, he would cut it… but he could see the rocks stuck in the water. If Ah Geol was swept away, he would surely hit his head on the rocks.

A useless person like Ah Geol would not be able to avoid even such a rock.

Did it make sense for a disciple of the Single-Instant Sect to die by having his head hit by a mere rock? He had to show him the Single-Instant Blade. He was still a junior brother, so even if he died, he had to die by a blade. There was no need to play a prank.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Dongbak quickly made his way through the rapids.

As soon as Ah Geol reached the other side of the riverbank, he began to run with all his might.

Beyond the riverbank was a jungle.

He had seen it while chasing him, but the two had entered a very deep mountain.

From the moment he had set foot in the canyon, he had not been able to find any trace of human footsteps.

A jungle was completely different from a well-organized forest.

It was very rough. The grass grew up to the height of his thighs. There was no way of knowing if there were snakes or wild boars in the grass.

Ah Geol ran into such a primeval forest at a lightning speed. He ran away without even looking back.

But he was not just running blindly.

He was a disciple of the Single-Instant Sect in his own way. So he tried quite hard not to leave a trace.

When he was luring Dongbak, he had deliberately left footprints. This time, he was running away while trying hard to erase his tracks. In fact, no trace was left at all. Since he had stepped on the grass, a trace should have been left, but he couldn’t find any.

“…He’s a complete fool.”

Dongbak muttered.

If he had intended to escape into the jungle, he should not have crossed the rapids.

Water droplets were splashing. The water droplets on his clothes were on the grass. When he gathered such traces and drew a straight line, he could clearly see where Ah Geol had escaped to.

He really wondered if this guy was a disciple of the Single-Instant Sect.

He had learned in a mess without being properly guided by his master, so it was possible that he was like this.

Did he learn the Single-Instant Blade from the dead Ah Sam?

Did Ah Sam learn a pseudo martial art and teach it in a mess? Looking at Ah Sam, it seemed that he knew the Single-Instant Sect well… so was he this much of a mess? He was only doing things that didn’t make sense.

If that was actually the case, he had learned it very wrongly. The martial arts of the Single-Instant Sect were not something that could be learned by watching. You could not know it at all unless you jumped into it yourself.

Dongbak followed slowly without hurrying.

Ah Geol was a fool. He could not escape. He would be caught before the water droplets on his clothes dried. And he would die.

* * *

“Ah!”

Ah Geol lamented.

The wound on his chest was surprisingly deep.

It seemed to have just grazed him, but his chest was split open.

Dongbak was much stronger than he had expected. Honestly, he had not thought that he would be this strong.

A person who was about three times stronger than he had thought?

In a duel, even a slight misreading of the opponent was fatal, but if he had misread by about three times, there was no way to save him. He had to be thankful that he was still alive and breathing.

The Single-Instant Blade ended a fight in an instant.

The blades did not even clash. It would let the opponent’s blade flow by, and then cut the flesh in an instant.

The Single-Instant Blade was capable of such a fight.

There were also times when they exchanged hands dozens of times.

Even at this time, there was no case where one side just took the blows. They exchanged blows. I couldn’t hit, and the opponent couldn’t hit either. But they continued to attack. They would attack dozens of times in one breath.

The Single-Instant Blade was always one breath. The attack did not drag on to two breaths.

The fact that he had avoided that one blade could only be said to be a heavenly fortune.

Of course, it wasn’t that he had only relied on heavenly fortune.

Ah Geol had also gone through all the processes that a Single-Instant martial artist had to train in. So he was more confident than anyone in his instantaneous movements. Of course, his senior brothers would also think the same.

Ah Geol took out a small bottle from his bosom.

He had thought that he would not have to use the green line leeches. But he had put only two in a small bottle just in case… and he had to use them in the first contact.

He took out two leeches and attached them to the wound.

“Kuk!”

A groan leaked out.

When a foreign object touched the split open wound, an extreme pain washed over him. For a moment, his mind became clear, as if he had fallen into an ice cave. It hurt so much that tears welled up in his eyes.

The juice that the green line leeches secreted would numb the wound. It was an immediate effect in suppressing the pain.

Juuuk!

The green line leeches wriggled and sucked the blood. They crawled along the wound.

The pain was already starting to subside.

Even though the bugs were crawling on the wound, the pain did not surge.

Of course, the green line leeches could not heal the wound cleanly. No matter how miraculous the green line leeches were, it was impossible to heal the entire wound with just two.

It was enough that he didn’t feel the pain. And since it even stopped the bleeding, there was nothing more to ask for.

A second chance was given.

He had gotten another chance to move his body.

Shwiiit!

Ah Geol moved quickly.

(End of Chapter)