Tension filled the first floor of the inn.
Only a single table stood between the two martial artists.
Zhuge Hyang could feel the gazes of the spectators looking down from above.
There hadn’t been that many guests on the second floor, but it was ridiculous how they had all moved to the railing, eyes gleaming.
The guests on the first floor went even further. Even after having their tables taken, they pressed themselves to the pillars and whispered in {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} excited voices.
To Zhuge Hyang, this entire situation was absurd.
On top of that, the young clan head, with a determined face like a puppy that didn’t know enough to fear a tiger, was waiting for his opening move.
In his heart, Zhuge Hyang wanted to send out a cutting gust sharp enough to tear the boy’s limbs apart, but he suppressed his anger.
There was no one to blame. It was all his own doing.
Just as he had thought he could not act as he pleased against the Young Clan Head because he was from an allied family, likewise, he could not just tear apart the puppy in front of him at his own whim.
He had to finish this as quickly as possible, and gently, as if bestowing favor.
Zhuge Hyang took an iron wire from his bosom. But instead of gripping it, he placed it on the table as it was.
Thunk.
“The Young Clan Head yielded the first move, so I must yield as well.”
Zhuge Hyang narrowed his eyes and spoke to Tang Hak.
“Of course, the Young Clan Head may use concealed weapons.”
For a moment, Tang Hak, not understanding his meaning, blinked.
“Are you saying you will not use a weapon?”
“I’m fighting a junior who isn’t even half my age. I should at least place that much restriction on myself. Now then, I’ll come in first.”
Zhuge Hyang was making sport of Tang Hak.
He even announced his attack aloud, like teaching a child who had just learned to walk.
In truth, since they were already close to each other, Tang Hak could not have escaped even after hearing the sound.
Zhuge Hyang thrust his hand out swiftly. Intending to end the fight by inflicting heavy internal injury from the outset, he aimed for Tang Hak’s middle dantian.
Whoosh.
But the arm that had shot out straight suddenly changed direction. Zhuge Hyang had withdrawn his hand. He covered his cheek and stepped back one full pace.
With an expression of disbelief, Zhuge Hyang’s lips moved.
“......Did you just attack my face?”
The Young Clan Head, who had thrust out his empty hand, confirmed it.
“I would also like to discard my weapon and match your level, but as you know, my martial arts are concealed weapons arts, so I cannot discard them. Instead, I will fight with just this one token.”
Clang.
The token that had fallen to the floor returned to Tang Hak’s hand.
On one small protrusion, there was a single drop of Zhuge Hyang’s blood.
Zhuge Hyang’s small eyes grew even narrower.
Feeling his shoulders stiffen, Tang Hak deliberately straightened his back.
Murderous intent thickened around them.
It was because the energy Zhuge Hyang had been suppressing under an air of gentleness burst forth. Tang Hak realized he had truly made him angry. And he also knew he still was not a match for him.
His goal was not to win.
'I’ll drag your honor down into the dirt too.'
Tang Hak gripped the token.
He intended to leave as many cuts as possible.
That he had clashed with a twenty-year-old Young Clan Head in the middle of the street, and as a result received wounds.
A man who held a high position like Zhuge Hyang met many people, and accordingly had many enemies. If he went around with wounds on his face, many disgraceful rumors would spread.
If he badmouthed the Tang Clan with that face, people would think he had a grudge because he had suffered at the hands of the Tang Clan’s Young Clan Head.
For a high-ranking Martial Alliance figure who had pretended to be gentle to the end while worrying about his own reputation, there could be no worse humiliation.
Tang Hak focused and drew the energy that began in his dantian upward. A gentle warmth swept over his shoulders and back, loosening his tense muscles.
The moment inner energy gathered at the acupoints in his fingertips, he threw the token again.
Clang.
Zhuge Hyang was not caught a second time.
He turned his head aside and charged at Tang Hak, whose hand was now empty.
Thud.
“Urgh!”
This time, Zhuge Hyang’s hand struck his solar plexus squarely.
It felt as if his flesh had been roughly chopped away by an axe.
Tang Hak’s upper body folded forward. At that, Zhuge Hyang struck the back of his neck, then leaped up and stamped down on Tang Hak’s back.
Thud. Thump.
It happened in an instant.
Fists and kicks filled with inner energy struck the Young Clan Head’s acupoints exactly, cutting off the flow of his qi.
Tang Hak’s inner energy, trapped with nowhere to go, collided inside with the invading energy. It was like a powder magazine exploding. From the severe internal injuries, Tang Hak spat blood.
“Keuk.”
Only three attacks had landed, yet his body was gravely damaged.
Riding the momentum, Zhuge Hyang gathered strength at the tip of his foot to kick Tang Hak’s side.
Crack.
But he withdrew his foot and landed on top of the table.
'......Damn it.'
Zhuge Hyang rubbed his other cheek.
While all his attention had been focused on his foot, the returning token had once again cut his face.
Judging from the lack of pain, it was only a hairline wound, but even so, there were a few drops of blood on his hand.
Beside himself with rage, Zhuge Hyang flew straight at Tang Hak.
With his internal injuries severe, Tang Hak could not gather inner energy and simply threw the token.
Once more, it grazed Zhuge Hyang’s cheek exactly, but Zhuge Hyang ignored it and extended a single finger.
Thud.
Perhaps intending to keep him from throwing concealed weapons, he sent a palm wind into the inside of Tang Hak’s elbow. Immediately after, Zhuge Hyang shot palm winds in succession at the Young Clan Head’s waist and chest as if throwing concealed weapons.
Whizz.
But the arrow-like gusts of wind did not pierce flesh, scattering in midair.
Tang Hak rolled across the floor to avoid the palm winds and picked up the fallen token.
Zhuge Hyang sent another palm wind as he approached, but Tang Hak simply turned his body and threw the token. The token did not block the palm wind, but instead sliced Zhuge Hyang’s cheek once more as it flew past.
“Khgh.”
Unable to hold back his fury, Zhuge Hyang groaned through clenched teeth and grabbed his cheek.
'Why in the world is that lunatic so obsessed with my face?!'
He was insane. And the way he was moving made no sense either.
Tang Hak clearly should have been severely injured internally, yet he merely brushed the dust from his upper body as if he were someone who had just taken a few punches. His inner energy was twisted, making it hard to gather inner power, and yet his concealed weapon had exactly grazed Zhuge Hyang’s face.
When Tang Hak tried to get back up, Zhuge Hyang’s brow twitched.
'I have to finish this before he regains his momentum.'
He reached out and threw a palm wind at Tang Hak’s lower dantian. Tang Hak grabbed the table leg beside him and yanked it forward.
Boom.
A large hole opened in the thick wooden table.
Some of the martial artists watching let out fascinated exclamations, while others whispered among themselves that Zhuge Hyang was fighting in earnest.
The reason Zhuge Hyang was focusing on internal injuries and not wounding the Young Clan Head’s body was so that he could gain a reputation for having gone easy on him. But seeing the table destroyed like that, people began to realize Zhuge Hyang was fighting with all his strength.
'Damn.'
Thinking it a disaster, Zhuge Hyang leaped onto the tabletop and vaulted over it. But there was no one behind the table.
The moment he landed on the ground and quickly turned his head—
Whoosh.
A blade brushed across his cheek.
Tang Hak, blood smeared at the corner of his mouth, was standing beside a pillar, letting out a faint laugh.
Zhuge Hyang shut his mouth.
That lunatic truly was obsessed with his cheeks.
If things had gone according to plan, Tang Hak should already have been sprawled on the floor by now, and Zhuge Hyang should have been taking the Young Clan Head’s hand and helping him up, praising him as a junior whose future he looked forward to.
But Tang Hak was no longer the timid Young Clan Head Zhuge Hyang had known.
'I’d heard he was training under the Mad Green Frog, but to think he changed this much.'
It was troublesome.
Thinking he should not have thrown away the iron wire, Zhuge Hyang clenched his fist.
At that moment, Tang Hak’s gaze flicked toward where the token had fallen. Without thinking further, Zhuge Hyang charged at him.
Whoosh.
The Young Clan Head grabbed the fist that dug into his solar plexus. Zhuge Hyang’s punches rained down like a beating, but Tang Hak struck his wrist, making the attacks slide aside.
Whenever the Black Heaven Dark Ghost was angry, he would randomly hurl objects at Tang Hak, and on some days, using training as an excuse, he would even throw dozens of actual throwing daggers at once. Having trained by risking his life to avoid them, for Tang Hak, dodging Zhuge Hyang’s barrage of punches was as easy as eating porridge.
It was the moment when the body that had endured two years of abuse produced an unexpected result.
“Wow, I can’t even see their hands. How is he blocking all of that?”
“It has to be instinct. I heard a rumor that the Tang Clan’s Young Clan Head is a genius on par with Namgung Jin, and it doesn’t sound like nonsense now, does it?”
“I’ve heard it too. They say he slaughtered a hundred Blood Cultists by himself.”
“They said he’s stronger in real combat than in formal duels, and wow, seeing it up close makes it real. To think he’s holding out this long against Zhuge Hyang.”
“I stopped counting after twenty exchanges. Among martial artists of that age group, is there anyone who can trade that many moves with an elder of the Zhuge family?”
“Maybe Namgung Jin? Even so, the Young Clan Head’s main strength is concealed weapons, yet he’s holding out for over half a quarter of an hour against Zhuge Hyang with just one token. It’s a miracle.”
The martial artists chattered without pause, clearly fascinated.
Most outsiders had already left, so there were many locals of Wuhan in the inn. They lived within the Zhuge family’s sphere of influence, and everyone had heard Zhuge Hyang’s name. But seeing that famous martial artist struggling this much against a martial artist who had just turned twenty, they could not help but be impressed.
Even so, Zhuge Hyang was still an elder of the Zhuge family.
As the exchanges grew more out of balance, Tang Hak began to be pushed back.
Thud.
The moment Tang Hak failed to block, Zhuge Hyang’s palm heel struck his heart.
Tang Hak flew backward without even making a sound.
Boom.
The inner energy that extended from the palm heel struck his heart exactly.
Normally, it might have been a fatal blow that would have killed him.
Zhuge Hyang swallowed rough breaths and walked toward Tang Hak. The Young Clan Head leaned against a broken pillar, groaning.
'It took longer than I thought, but still.'
Zhuge Hyang steadied his breathing and waited for a moment, intending to speak.
That was when it happened.
Clang.
A blade scraped across his other cheek as it flew by.
Ridiculously, the token then returned precisely to the Tang Clan’s Young Clan Head’s hand.
Lifting his head, Tang Hak blinked his heavy eyelids and looked up at him.
Then, as if trying to say something, his blood-stained lips moved—and he smiled.
Thunk.
In the end, Tang Hak lost strength and let his head droop.
Silence settled over the inn.
He was not dead.
The Young Clan Head’s body rose and fell slightly with his breathing.
Zhuge Hyang swallowed dryly.
'Why did he smile?'
He could not understand it, but he did not feel good about it.
He had the uncomfortable sense of having been overwhelmed in momentum, but Zhuge Hyang cleared his throat and turned his body.
All the inn patrons’ eyes were fixed on him.
But their expressions were strange.
They did not look surprised or frightened.
Their lips were tightly shut, and their brows and cheeks twitched.
The Black Heaven Dark Ghost and Hwangbo Rim wore similar expressions. Zhuge Hyang had thought they would be worried, since Tang Hak was injured, but they did not seem particularly concerned.
Well, the boy wasn’t dead, and with that level of internal injury, he would recover quickly if the Black Heaven Dark Ghost treated him.
'So they do have consciences, at least.'
He had been quietly worried they might come charging in because he had harmed the Young Clan Head, but the Black Heaven Dark Ghost did not seem angry.
Just then, Zhuge Daejeong cautiously came over.
“U-uncle. Let’s go now.”
Watching his nephew still cowed, Zhuge Hyang swallowed a sigh as the latter glanced around and urged him to leave.
It was a fight he had won, yet he had gained nothing.
He nodded and clasped his fists toward the Black Heaven Dark Ghost.
“I’ll be going now. Please tell him it was a good fight.”
“All right. Don’t worry about the Young Clan Head. He’ll be up and about just fine tomorrow.”
“Elder Zhuge Hyang, if at all possible, you should use lightness skill and hurry home...... ugh.”
Hwangbo Rim had tried to say something urgently, but he shut his mouth at once under the Black Heaven Dark Ghost’s fist. A pricey liquor bottle rolled around at Hwangbo Rim’s side. Had he said something foolish because he was drunk?
But the mood was too strange to dismiss it as that.
Ignoring the uneasy feeling, Zhuge Hyang left the inn.
Not long after Zhuge Hyang left, laughter burst out inside the inn.
“Haha, what a cat.”
“Zhuge Hyang mustn’t look in a mirror, or it’ll be a disaster.”
“Isn’t that Young Clan Head out of his mind? No, how could he do something like that.......”
“They say you should never curse someone’s parents, but still, Zhuge Hyang crossed the line. Calling his father and sister Blood Cult spies—compared to that, this level of insult is nothing.”
“From now on, we’ll have to call him Zhuge Meow instead of Zhuge Hyang.”
The drunken men laughed as they mocked Zhuge Hyang.
The Black Heaven Dark Ghost approached Tang Hak and tapped his head.
“You all right?”
“Yes.......”
The Black Heaven Dark Ghost let out a small laugh.
“Did you see?”
“Yes.”
He patted Tang Hak’s head.
“Good job.”
The corners of Tang Hak’s mouth lifted as well. But his face was gloomy. With some unfathomable worry on his mind, Tang Hak closed his eyes.
