## Ch-100.
—
The spar that had been suddenly arranged in the middle of the street was about to begin immediately, without delay.
Hundreds of martial artists who had come wary of the Tang Clan blocked off the street, forming an impromptu arena. Tang Seo-jin, covering his mouth with a fully opened folding fan, stood leisurely with one hand clasped behind his back.
—How did it come to this?
“Yuri, wait.”
Haryeong did not sink into her thoughts; she moved quickly. Yuri, who had been sitting on the ground massaging his knees and shoulder joints, did not even glance at her as she approached.
“Just watch from behind.”
“Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
“Like what?”
“You are not someone who behaves so aggressively.”
“I have often read the atmosphere and bowed slightly when needed.”
Yuri replied indifferently, flicking his wrist.
“When someone was stronger than me, when I did not wish to make an enemy, or when I couldn’t discern their intentions.”
“The Tang Clan is…”
“They’re stronger than me, most likely. I don’t want them as enemies. And I don’t even know why they’re suddenly pulling this nonsense. So—do you want to go to the Tang Clan?”
At the question, Haryeong fell silent for a moment. The thought crossed her mind—why was this man suddenly stepping forward for her sake? But now was not the time to question his motives. It was time to answer.
“I…”
This time, she did not avoid it. Haryeong looked straight into Yuri’s face and spoke slowly.
“Not yet… No, I do not wish to be dragged there like this. And I especially do not wish to go with those irritating nieces and nephews.”
“Understood.”
Preparations complete, Yuri rose to his feet and removed the robe he had been wearing, handing it to Haryeong.
“If you don’t want to go, then you simply don’t go.”
He did not ask whether he could win.
What Yuri was doing now was unlike his usual self—but Haryeong believed one thing had not changed.
If he were thinking of defeat, he would not step into this spar. He must believe he could win.
‘Death-Defying Banner?’
Was he planning to test the sacred relic of the War Church? No—more likely…
‘Geburah.’
That was not the entire reason, but as Haryeong suspected, Yuri wanted to test the performance of Geburah.
He could not use Death-Defying Banner in a spar that was not a fight to the death. But Geburah was different. Geburah’s power already resided within him, and the serpent of flame dwelled within the flames of the Evil-Quelling Heavenly Principle Technique.
“I will yield the first move.”
Tang Seo-jin, one arm still clasped behind his back, spoke with a thin smile. Behind him stood Tang Mu-seok and Tang Seou. Tang Mu-seok looked none too pleased with the situation, but Tang Seou’s eyes sparkled as she stared at Yuri.
She imagined him suffering a miserable defeat. The audacity—to belittle the name of the Tang Clan without knowing his place. It was a spar, so he could not be killed—but she hoped he would suffer a crushing loss that would drag his fame into the gutter.
How amusing would it be if the man called Cloud Dragon, shoulders puffed with pride, ended up crawling on the ground like an earthworm in front of all these people?
‘And what would that wench think when she sees it?’
The thought alone made her smile widen.
“Thank you for yielding the first move.”
Yuri nodded and extended his right fist forward.
In sparring or training, it was common for the one with higher rank and seniority to yield the first strike. Tang Seo-jin was thirty-three—eleven years older than Yuri—and stood at a higher Rank. It was only natural.
Of course, yielding the first move did not mean he would simply take the hit. He could evade or block. But he would not counterattack. Usually, one deflected the attack and then began the exchange.
‘The first blow.’
Then all he had to do was deliver a strike that could neither be evaded nor blocked.
Yuri steadied his breathing and circulated the Evil-Quelling Heavenly Principle Technique.
—Whoosh.
Scarlet flames coiled around his right arm like a living serpent, gathering into his fist.
“…?”
Tang Seo-jin’s eyes widened behind the folding fan.
Flame-like aura. No—it was not merely that. Even at a glance, that flame was fundamentally different from ordinary aura.
‘What… is that?’
Whatever Tang Seo-jin thought was irrelevant to Yuri. He continued to guide the roaring flames within him into his fist.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The pulsing fire swelled and shrank, gradually compressing into a single “point.”
He concentrated all power into one point. He even embedded Intent within it.
It was Tang Seo-jin who had said Yuri could fight at full strength.
So Yuri did not hesitate.
He stopped just before breaking into the Sixth Rank.
Though his current Rank stood at the very end of the Fifth, what he could accomplish far surpassed it. Especially in the manipulation of Intent, he would not fall short even compared to those of the Sixth Rank.
“Wai—”
The moment Tang Seo-jin judged that he could not allow this to continue and tried to speak, Yuri’s foot pushed off the ground.
What he desired was a first strike that could neither be blocked nor evaded.
That desire shaped his martial art.
With Geburah’s flame added, Yuri’s body was strengthened beyond comparison to when he had faced the Agwi. Lightning infused the explosive force of that body.
—Violet Lightning Flash.
A violet bolt crowned with a crimson point tore through space.
In Tang Seo-jin’s wide-open eyes, it appeared only as a flood of blazing red surging toward him. The power concentrated to the point of distorting the surrounding scenery overwhelmed his vision.
‘Hrk—!’
Tang Seo-jin leapt back in haste, gathering protective aura around himself.
He must not counterattack. He must evade or block.
‘Too fast…!’
He lacked the confidence to evade cleanly.
Then he would have to block.
Could he block it?
—KWAANG!
His consciousness went hazy.
He could not immediately grasp what had happened to his body—but the sky spun in his vision. Then it flipped, and he saw the ground.
“Ghk—”
Crack, crack…!
His twisted arm snapped back into its original angle. His fading consciousness returned.
Before his face could smash into the earth, Tang Seo-jin forcibly halted his body midair.
Had his senses returned even a moment later, he would have struck the ground.
Drawing in a sharp breath, he rose. Even with protective aura raised, he had not been able to hold his ground—he had been sent flying. The left arm that had received the blow had its bones shattered, and the impact he failed to fully disperse churned his insides violently.
But it was fine.
Tang Seo-jin, as a direct descendant of the Tang Clan, was a Poisoned Body. His physique was fundamentally different from ordinary people—even from other martial artists or mages.
‘So he truly is Tang Clan direct lineage.’
Yuri did not panic and pivoted on his foot.
In the game, Tang Clan members were known for being difficult to kill despite not having large health pools. Most possessed high resistances to elemental attacks, and their regeneration speed was absurd.
The typical strategy was to calculate resistances and deal massive burst damage, stack debuffs, or beat them relentlessly so their regeneration could not keep up.
Yuri was most familiar with the last method.
“Grrk…!”
Tang Seo-jin staggered upright, thick green light dripping from his eyes.
He could not use killing techniques. He could not use poison. He could not kill.
The very conditions Tang Seo-jin himself had set for this spar now bound him.
The dividing line between the Fifth and Sixth Rank was the use of Intent.
As a direct descendant of a prestigious house who had mastered divine arts, Tang Seo-jin knew that Intent was not exclusively the domain of the Sixth Rank. With divine arts, one could wield Intent even at the Fifth.
Even so, the Intent of the Fifth could not match that of the Sixth. At that level, it was merely manipulating qi and blending it into aura to amplify power. Even if that man was no ordinary Fifth Rank, he could not be a match for Tang Seo-jin, who had formally ascended to the Sixth Rank through Tang Clan divine arts.
—Woooo…
A chilling sound scraped against Yuri’s eardrums.
He could not tell exactly where it came from.
The sound approached from all directions, clinging stickily to his mind. From the edges of his vision, darkness like spreading ink crept inward.
‘Sound technique… no, illusion?’
The tip of Yuri’s raised foot brushed the ground.
Tang Seo-jin’s body wavered like a phantom.
Beyond the creeping darkness invading the edges of his sight—
Tang Seo-jin vanished.
It was a footwork similar to Haryeong’s—yet far more advanced. That must be the Tang Clan martial art she had never properly learned.
‘He said he wouldn’t use poison. Is the Intent he spread with his qi clinging to my mind and becoming an illusion? Or is that sound truly functioning as a sound technique?’
Either way, it was an assassin’s art—conceal one’s presence, approach, and strike from a blind spot.
Yuri had no need to panic.
The web of Lightning Domain had already spread around him.
Thud!
Tang Seo-jin, who had approached like a ghost, recoiled in shock. The moment he closed the distance, an attack had flown at him.
‘How?’
An attack a Fifth Rank should not be able to perceive.
Then how had he known?
—His eyes?
‘He’s not even looking.’
Only now were Yuri’s eyes turning in that direction. He had perceived it without seeing?
What kind of monstrous sixth sense was that?
Instead of retreating further, Tang Seo-jin closed the distance again.
Pak!
The fully opened folding fan thrust toward Yuri.
‘Of course it isn’t a mere fan.’
Sharp enough to sever bone with the slightest graze. If that were all, a sword would have sufficed.
Wooooo—
Each time the fan cut through the air, a strange vibrating tone resonated.
A weapon for sound techniques, then.
The moment one becomes conscious of sound techniques, they cling to the mind—inducing hallucinations, shattering senses, shaking one’s consciousness itself.
The encroaching ink at the edges of Yuri’s vision quickened, and nausea welled up as though heaven and earth had inverted.
Crack.
He already possessed a method to deal with mental attacks.
The instant he became aware of it, the Veil of Deception around his neck activated.
He had resisted even the nightmares conjured by the Agwi’s divine authority—this level of sound technique would not shake his mind.
The advance of the ink halted. His senses returned.
Before his eyes even registered it, the attack detected by Lightning Domain had already been met with a counter.
Bang!
The folding fan snapped backward.
Tang Seo-jin’s eyes widened in disbelief.
At this distance, and he does not even stagger under the sound technique?
‘What the hell is this bastard?’
Sound techniques failed. Illusions failed. Ambushes were perceived before reaching him.
How could such a thing be?
Forcing his dizzy mind into focus, Tang Seo-jin snapped the fan closed once—then opened it again.
Tak!
With the crisp sound, his stance shifted.
He began to properly unfold his martial art.
Ghost Sound Killing Fan Dance.
In harmony with his ghostlike wavering footwork, the folding fan moved slowly.
Sound techniques were not limited to inducing confusion.
When imbued with inner power, sound shook space itself.
If further imbued with Intent, sound could strike through space.
Ghost Sound Killing Fan Dance was such an art.
As Tang Seo-jin’s fan carved through the air, invisible slashes surged across the distance toward Yuri.
Lightning Domain.
The web of lightning perceived the slashes.
Yuri leisurely evaded and flicked his hand.
A small sphere of aura drifted between them.
—Crackle!
The sphere exploded, lightning bursting outward.
A hidden dagger thrown amidst the fan dance was halted by the lightning.
‘Damn it…’
He had mastered arts meant for killing—yet forbade killing techniques. He was a Poisoned Body—yet forbade poison.
He had not thought it would pose a problem.
Not because Tang Seo-jin was arrogant—
but because Yuri was utterly outside common sense.
Resisting confusion through the Veil of Deception, sealing ambushes at their root with Lightning Domain—while his firepower did not falter.
With killing techniques and poison forbidden, Yuri’s offensive power far surpassed his own.
Boom!
Once again, Tang Seo-jin’s body was driven backward.
He barely suppressed the poison boiling within his gut.
The spar had not lasted long—but already he had swallowed killing intent more than ten times.
Should he unleash the poison? Use a killing move?
He crushed those impulses again and again.
It was Tang Seo-jin who had said Yuri could fight at full strength.
So Yuri did not need to restrain himself.
He unleashed violence upon Tang Seo-jin freely and comfortably.
The cherished fan was gradually being chipped away.
His Poisoned Body healed most injuries instantly—
yet even a glancing blow from that fist made his bones ache.
No—not ache.
Burn.
As if seared by a branding iron.
“Could it be…”
“Really? The Tang Clan’s Dark Soul Venomous Dragon—losing to the Cloud Dragon?”
The murmurs of the onlookers grated on his ears.
Ignorant worms, prattling without knowing anything.
Losing?
How could this be a defeat when he had not fought at full power—had not used killing techniques or poison?
Victory and defeat are decided by life and death—not by some trivial spar.
This—this is merely… an exchange between martial artists to foster camaraderie—
“Brother?”
Tang Seou’s voice rang out.
Ah.
A fist grazed his jaw.
Heat surged violently, climbing to his brain.
Whether from the burning fist or his own rage, he could not tell.
Green light overflowed from Tang Seo-jin’s eyes.
Rumble!
The veins across his body bulged grotesquely. The nature of his protective aura shifted.
Poison surged from his dantian, staining his inner power.
‘You bastard—I’ll kill—’
Boom!
Before the poison could properly erupt, a fist slammed into his chest.
“Ghk—!”
Black blood sprayed from his gaping mouth.
Staggering backward, he was struck again in the chest.
BOOM!
Unable to hold his ground, Tang Seo-jin’s body flew backward and tumbled across the earth.
“Graaah!”
The moment he stopped rolling, he sprang upright.
Poison coiled around his arm as he prepared to charge again—
then he froze in place.
“You… what are you doing?”
“The spar is over.”
Yuri replied calmly, both arms raised high above his head.
“You said you would not use killing techniques. Nor poison.”
“…”
“But just now, you used poison. That means the spar is over.”
Tang Seo-jin’s lips trembled, unable to form a response.
“Thank you for the spar. I have gained a fine lesson.”
It was not something he had done often and felt unfamiliar—but Yuri cupped his fists in salute and smiled.
“Since this exchange has fostered camaraderie, perhaps one day I may call you elder brother, Lord Tang Seo-jin.”
The blatant provocation made Tang Seo-jin’s shoulders tremble violently.
