Staring at the pale-faced Jeong Sam, I unsheathed my sword, and my heart settled.
I had sensed that something was off about his dark demeanor the moment he showed up. To be honest, when comparing our match, I had the upper hand.
The reason for that? Jeong Sam’s weapon is a type of deformed weapon. Anyone could see that the Half-Moon Blade has a distinctive shape, gaining an advantage with its atypical techniques. The ability to easily catch an opponent off guard is the benefit of a deformed weapon.
But Jeong Sam and I had faced each other for seven years. By this point, I understood every detail about that Half-Moon Blade, diminishing its advantages significantly.
So here we are today, my first opponent.
“You think I wouldn’t realize you were planning to win today and then run away for life?”
Jeong Sam flinched at the point I hit.
As a member of the Sacheon Outcasts, my skills would dramatically improve from practical experience as I accepted requests. Before that happened, I had to win decisively! That must have been the thought behind offering myself as his opponent today.
“I’m going in.”
I unleashed the One Thousand Sword Techniques, launching the first attack on Jeong Sam.
Thwang!
What advantage does having a 1.5-foot handle bring? Well, depending on where you grip it, the benefits of the weapon can change. Grip it short for more shock resistance, or long for increased distance.
And that’s not all! The wider the grip of both hands, the more it can resist lateral strikes, and narrowing the grip increases the power.
The heavy blade and long handle meant my thrusts couldn’t deliver proper shocks and were bouncing off uselessly. But I paid no mind as I closed the gap on Jeong Sam.
In a typical sparring match, diving straight in like this would be risky. You can’t know what your opponent might do next and bet everything on the outcome.
But Jeong Sam and I had seen each other’s faces for seven long years. We’d gone on many missions together. We both knew well which tricks the other would pull.
“Uck..!”
In an instant, the distance between Jeong Sam and me shrank.
It was hard for me to swing my sword adequately at such close range. But this distance was much more troublesome for Jeong Sam. That long handle of his was bound to be a hindrance.
From that tight spot, I executed the Thousand Sword Techniques’ initial move, the Heaven Piercing Thrust.
After a low thrust, it immediately transitioned into an upper thrust. Jeong Sam rotated the Half-Moon Blade to block the low thrust, but he barely twisted his body to dodge the upper thrust.
As expected, his responses to weaknesses were still lacking.
The Half-Moon Blade is a weapon that stands out, so Jeong Sam had no choice but to go into missions wielding typical swords. That left him with little practical experience using the Half-Moon Blade.
Thud. Thud!
I pressed forward with a series of thrusts against Jeong Sam. It might be because of the five years of gap, but while I pushed him hard, Jeong Sam stubbornly held his ground.
“Ugh!”
For my final attack, I prepared the One Thousand Sword Techniques’ Falling Sun. A powerful blade came crashing down onto Jeong Sam, but…
Clang!!
It was deflected off the Half-Moon Blade. He easily parried the blow by stabilizing with the long handle against the side strike.
After trading a few blows, we both stepped back and caught our breaths.
In ordinary sparring, one would trade three moves and swap roles, but our retreating to catch our breath was for different reasons.
Jeong Sam needed time to recover from his defensive position. Meanwhile, I had to pull back to avoid leaving any openings if I continued attacking.
“Here we go!”
Jeong Sam launched the first attack.
Whoosh!
The Half-Moon Blade made a heavy slicing sound as it fell diagonally. Feeling that I had no need to take on Jeong Sam’s powerful attack, I moved sideways to close the gap.
Quickly retrieving his blade, Jeong Sam prepared to counter me, swinging horizontally.
The trajectory of the Half-Moon Blade stretched out. Gripping the end of that long handle, he maximized his attack range. As I leaned back to avoid, I saw the blade’s path zip past me.
I thought I had enough room to dodge, but it was tight.
“Yah!”
Unlike before, I found myself in a situation where I had to retreat. Jeong Sam seemed determined to make his move as he stepped forward, transforming his horizontal rotation into a thrust.
During his horizontal slash, Jeong Sam’s shoulder remained parallel to the ground. Instead of absorbing the recoil, he leaned forward and twisted his body diagonally.
That twist would turn his shoulder, once horizontal to the ground, to vertical.
His momentum shifted from horizontal to vertical aiming to cleave me from head to groin.
Using the horizontal rotation’s inertia to transition into a vertical one at full force is a risky maneuver. Should he miscalculate his body twist or leg extension, he could easily break himself.
The reason he could perform such a move was that he had strengthened his body using Qi.
A top-level martial art that assumed the use of Qi to execute.
And that top-grade ability came crashing down on me at a moment where I had no room to dodge.
“Oh!”
The other outcasts gasped in admiration at Jeong Sam’s audacious move. Did they think I was in danger now?
It was half right and half wrong.
The truth was, with a quick roll to the side, I could narrowly evade that attack. However, doing so would leave Jeong Sam’s Half-Moon Blade buried in the ground while he would expose a critical opening. And my social standing would bury right along with that blade.
If it were Iryu, Ho Cheon-an, I would have no choice but to unleash a reversal technique here. But a first-class martial artist like Ho Cheon-an is different.
My choice to counter Jeong Sam’s decisive blow was to employ the Reflected River technique. The defensive move containing the flow of Hwa-gyeong, it collided with Jeong Sam’s Half-Moon Blade.
I too drew upon my Qi to respond to his thrust. Normally, a sword would’ve been deflected, but mine held firm against the initial impact.
Kaaang!!
The sword trembled as if it would snap, but the intricacies of the Reflected River allowed it to barely keep the blade in check.
After the first clash, my shoulder and wrist ached, but I could tell that the path of the blade twisted.
It was slipping along the blade’s surface.
Jeong Sam had been too hasty. Or maybe he boldly targeted what he thought was my weakness.
Instead of the usual exchanges of blows, Jeong Sam could only lead the fight with how to manage Qi. Instantly, he thrust a technique utilizing Qi and pressured me into a defensive position.
I had to admit it.
Jeong Sam is reckless on ordinary days, creating a mess of woes, but that swift decisiveness shines in life-or-death situations. Realizing he shouldn’t exchange typical attacks with me, he immediately unleashed an ultimate technique, a quick decision not easily made.
However, the problem was that I didn’t possess such a simple level of competence.
Jeong Sam probably thought of me as easy prey. If our strengths crashed without tricks, I would surely win. By claiming an advantageous position and employing my Qi fully, I’d guarantee victory. That conviction must have given him the confidence to show off his techniques like this.
Surely, had I been training alone after entering first-class, I might not have been able to fend off his current attack.
But I am Ho Cheon-an.
I had listened to Yeo Il-ye’s lecture on the training techniques of the Jeomchang Faction buried in her mind and sweated under the instruction of the Peak Expert, Black Cat, during my return from Yunnan while the studies on the Poison Doctor progressed.
Though the time spent sweating was less than three weeks, the efficiency in a well-structured environment compared to self-study is worlds apart. The passion I bottled up for five years exploded; how fast do you think my skills have improved?
Boom!
Unable to wound me, the deviated trajectory of the Half-Moon Blade slammed deep into the training hall floor. Jeong Sam looked at me in complete disbelief. It seemed he was shocked that I had cleanly parried his ultimate technique.
“My… my Solitary Setting Sun…”
The match was over. Jeong Sam’s Half-Moon Blade lay firmly at my feet, and his balance was entirely lost as he toppled over. I pointed my sword at him for the final blow.
“I lost…”
Jeong Sam hung his head in acknowledgment.
“I underestimated you. I thought that even if you reached first-class, you hadn’t trained at all… I never imagined you’d possess such skill.”
Seeing his genuinely amazed expression, I silently extended my arm. Jeong Sam took my hand, stood up, and clapped my back.
“I’m so proud of you, my friend! After living entangled in gambling and martial arts literature, you’ve finally returned as a martial artist! Congratulations!”
“Hahaha…”
I laughed and handed him back the Half-Moon Blade.
“Thanks for the kind words, but you’re still ranked 28!”
Jeong Sam’s face froze. Hah, Jeong Sam. After seven years of facing you, do you think I would fall for such an obvious ploy?
As soon as Jeong Sam realized his flattery wouldn’t work, he immediately showed his true colors.
“This is cheating! I refuse to accept it! Where did you collect luck to pull this off? Ecological disruption! Absurdity! Aaaah!”
Looking at Jeong Sam jumping around, I couldn’t help but smile.
“No matter how much you deny it, the fact that you’re the ‘weakest’ in the Sacheon Outcasts remains unchanged.”
“I’m the weakest?! I refuse to accept that! There are plenty weaker than me!”
Jeong Sam lost his sanity and dug his own grave.
“Jeong-hyung, I understand you’re upset about losing, but your words are a bit much!”
“You have to accept the outcome. You thought Senior Ho was the weakest, so now you losing to the weakest makes you the weakest, doesn’t it?”
“That’s true!”
“What? What was that! You all! You’re weaker than me! Let’s match up now!”
“You think I can’t do it!”
Just then, a fellow outcast, pointed out by Jeong Sam, snorted and lifted their weapon, but another outcast stopped them.
“Hey, if you go out there and beat Jeong Sam, wouldn’t you only be ranked 27?”
“No, how does that calculation work?”
“Isn’t it obvious? The rankings are only established between 28 and 27. You beat the 28th, so you’re 27th. And the 27th is Senior Ho, so beating him only puts you in 26th.”
A hellish logic? I hadn’t thought such merciless ranking battles existed. No wonder the Sacheon Outcasts thought differently than me.
The outcast, who had seemed ready to unsheathe their weapon, suddenly adopted a calm voice.
“Hm. I can’t fight someone right after a heated sparring match, it goes against my pride as a martial artist! Let’s save it for the next chance!”
“Hey, hey! Wait there!”
Jeong Sam rushed out after the outcast, grabbing their pants leg.
Hmm. This isn’t bad for me. Everyone seems to want to avoid sparring with me right now. If I point someone out, those who are avoiding me might trap them in the training hall!
“Ah, right. Then I’ll have the ranking match with Yeo Jin-sang tomorrow.”
Yeo Jin-sang’s complexion turned pale instantly.
“N-no, I’m in the upper mid-tier here in the Outcast Inn! Shouldn’t I fight someone lower to maintain the objectivity of the ranking match!”
“Oh! Upper mid-tier? Where does such nonsense come from! You can only tell how long something is when you measure it! Your arrogant statements suggest you need to taste some lower tiers!”
“True words! Since we started, it seems fitting we determine the order from among ourselves!”
“Indeed! Indeed!”
I looked on with satisfaction as the outcasts piled onto Yeo Jin-sang.
It seems I had misjudged. The outcasts’ eagerness to help me gain martial experience would lead them to severe education under the guise of cherishing our friendship.
These were good, kind-hearted people!
Training began at dawn with sparring for experience and went on to quests during the day. The sound of improving skills echoed in my ears.
“Hahahaha!”
I felt a premonition of rapidly reaching the pinnacle of first-class, erupting into laughter.
