Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 497.14 – Side Story 4 Part 3

Madman (3)

The Ten Martial Arts Madman, Cho Jin-geuk.

Though now stained with infamy, he was originally born in Gansu province and renowned as the “Ten Weapons Prodigy,” the head of the prestigious martial arts family Cho of Jinchang.

While most martial arts families focused on unarmed combat and mastering a single weapon, their family had excelled in many weapons for generations.

The Jinchang Cho family, possessing excellent martial arts in saber, spear, sword, halberd, staff, fist, palm, leg, finger, and claw techniques, had firmly established their power to the point where they were known to have no rivals in Gansu province.

However, this renowned Jinchang Cho family never clashed or interacted with other sects, so as time passed, many martial artists in Gansu began to doubt their skills.

“They’re said to be excellent, but has anyone actually seen them compete?”

“Isn’t this just an exaggerated rumor?”

“Is it even possible to be proficient in ten weapons in the first place?”

“It could be possible. If they’re all mediocre.”

“Ah! That makes sense.”

Such rumors began to be accepted as fact at some point.

The Jinchang Cho family was also aware of this.

However, they didn’t make any big moves despite the outside skepticism and ridicule.

But someone appeared who couldn’t stand it and broke this pattern.

That person was Cho Jin-geuk.

Generally, it takes a long time to master even one weapon, but most martial artists of the Jinchang Cho family were talented enough to master five or six.

Among them, Cho Jin-geuk was known as a genius who had mastered all the martial arts of the Jinchang Cho family in just over 200 years.

With his innate talent, he didn’t stop there but developed the family’s martial arts and even created new ones, showing qualities of a great grandmaster.

This outstanding talent led him to change even the long-standing rules of the family.

The retired patriarch Cho Moon-hyung asked:

[Do you really want to step forward even if it means changing the family rules?]

[Long ago, our ancestors established such rules because they couldn’t control the killing nature. But haven’t we overcome this with the Steadfast Mind Anchor now?]

[Though no major problems have occurred yet, it’s not perfect.]

[Then how long do you intend to be bound by the family rules? Will you keep hearing that we can’t fulfill our role as a martial arts family because of the innate tendency passed down for generations?]

[As men born, no, as martial artists who have cultivated martial arts, shouldn’t we rule over the world?]

[Rule over the world…]

Thus, he persuaded the retired patriarch and family members, amended the family rules for the first time in hundreds of years, and declared their advancement to the outside world.

With great ambition, he subdued all the martial artists in Gansu province in just a month to claim the title of the world’s strongest, then advanced to Sichuan province in the south. Before long, he achieved the feat of defeating and subjugating the strongest masters of over ten small and medium-sized sects.

Filled with confidence, his next targets were the major sects called Qingcheng Sect, Sichuan Tang Family, and Emei Sect.

These three groups could be called the major orthodox sects representing Sichuan and belonging to the Righteous Alliance.

If he could defeat them, it would prove that the Jinchang Cho family had become a force capable of subjugating even major sects.

‘Should I choose the Qingcheng Swordsman[1] Jin Sok-ja, Qingcheng Sect’s best swordsman, or Tang In-hae, the rising supermaster of the Tang family known as Thousand Poison Hand?’

After deliberation, he chose the Sichuan Tang Family, one of the Seven Great Families.

Despite being a prestigious martial arts family, the Jinchang Cho family wasn’t included in the Seven Great Families, so he intended to show that this structure was wrong.

But here, a variable arose.

Before he could even reach the Sichuan Tang Family, his ambition was thwarted by an unknown being.

[Are you the Ten Weapons Prodigy?]

This person had a body developed to the extreme, more than any martial artist he had ever seen.

Feeling a strange competitive spirit towards him, from whom he couldn’t sense any energy even with his qi sense, Cho Jin-geuk engaged in a fight, but

Bang bang bang bang!

‘What the hell is this guy?’

Despite giving it his all for dozens of seconds, he couldn’t inflict any damage on this monster.

He had never heard of or seen such a monster in Sichuan province.

It was a shock for him, who thought he had come infinitely close to being the world’s strongest after mastering the supreme techniques of the Ten Weapons.

‘Damn it.’

A technique is a method to subdue or kill an opponent most efficiently.

But if it doesn’t work from the start, it’s useless.

‘I can’t handle this monster with conventional methods. Then I need to pierce through that seemingly indestructible body, but…’

How can one wound a body that even internal energy can’t affect?

Then it’s only possible by refining the internal energy more minutely or exerting power beyond that.

Suddenly, something flashed through Cho Jin-geuk’s mind.

‘No. That’s not it.’

The curse of the family passed down since the ancestors’ time.

It was that their bloodline was born with a killing nature for generations.

This wasn’t simply having strong killing intent.

Those seized by the killing nature could exert transcendent power through the killing intent inherent in their blood.

But there was a problem here.

Once seized by killing intent, they couldn’t control it and had to kill someone to calm it down.

Because of this, their ancestors, seized by the killing nature, ended up killing many people, and believing they couldn’t control it, they forbade their descendants from interacting or competing with other martial artists.

As time passed, the descendants of the Jinchang Cho family devised numerous methods to control the killing nature, and the Steadfast Mind Anchor[2], which almost perfectly suppressed it, was the result.

The Steadfast Mind Anchor was a mind technique that calmed the mind and suppressed the killing heart, allowing the descendants of the Jinchang Cho family to no longer be seized by killing intent.

However, Cho Jin-geuk, sensing the crisis of defeat, thought of a method he shouldn’t have.

‘If I could only control the power of the killing nature…’

He might be able to pierce through those thick muscles as hard as vajra.

As he was contemplating this choice he shouldn’t make, his opponent approached, emitting steam-like vapor from his entire body.

Cho Jin-geuk shouted at him:

[Why have you blocked my way?]

[You’re not asking because you don’t know, right?]

[What?]

[You’ve stirred up quite a commotion in the Sichuan martial world. Do you want to conquer the world or something?]

At this question, Cho Jin-geuk snorted as if dumbfounded.

[Is that not allowed?]

[There’s nothing that can’t be done.]

[Then are you also trying to conquer the world?]

[No. I’m just trying to prevent a crisis for a certain family, following someone’s will.]

[A certain family?]

What on earth is he talking about?

As Cho Jin-geuk wondered, the opponent approached him step by step and said:

[I was going to let you go since it didn’t seem worth worrying about, but what’s contained inside you can’t be overlooked.]

What the opponent pointed to was Cho Jin-geuk’s chest.

At these words, Cho Jin-geuk’s eyes took on a strange light.

Could this person have sensed that inherent in his family’s bloodline?

Cho Jin-geuk straightened his posture, took a stance, and asked:

[The world is truly vast. I thought no one could match me, but you’re the first peerless master I’ve met. What’s your name?]

[Is that important?]

[It is. I need to remember it.]

[Moo-jeok.]

Moo-jeok (Invincible)?

Is this really his name?

It was far too arrogant to be a name, and he had never heard it before.

He seemed to be a reclusive eccentric.

However, what mattered wasn’t names or fame anyway.

Cho Jin-geuk, in his stance, slowly regulated his breathing and stopped the energy circulation method of the Steadfast Mind Anchor, which he had built as a foundation and always maintained.

Then,

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a dark red energy rose like a mirage from his body, and even his eyes became bloodshot.

At this ominous aura full of killing intent, the man who called himself Moo-jeok’s eyes sharpened.

Thus, having released the killing nature he had suppressed for so long, he fought Moo-jeok again.

And when he came to his senses, he woke up in a doctor’s place with all the bones in his body shattered and his muscles twisted.

Upon waking, he couldn’t bear this first defeat he had ever experienced.

[Aaaaargh!]

Defeat and a terribly damaged body.

Everything made him despair.

His dantian was intact, but with all his muscles twisted and every bone in his body shattered into pieces, what could he do when he couldn’t even move?

He was now practically crippled.

For nearly two weeks, he barely ate or drank, in shock and agony.

But then, something amazing happened.

[How is this possible?]

The doctor caring for him spoke the results of his pulse diagnosis as if he couldn’t believe it.

In just two weeks, half of his shattered bones had reattached, and his twisted muscles were gradually returning to their original positions.

This was great news for him who had been unable to move, unable to even budge.

However, despite this good news, he was consumed by revenge rather than joy.

‘Unforgivable.’

He was enraged that his ambition to rule the world with his superior martial arts had been shattered by an unknown eccentric whose name wasn’t even known.

And that anger eventually led to endless killing intent.

The killing nature in his bloodline, which had been closed for a long time as he maintained the Steadfast Mind Anchor, had awakened.

Five days passed, and with his abnormal recovery ability, his bones had completely reattached and his twisted muscles had found their place, but

[W-why are you doing this? Please, just spare my life—ack!]

Seized by unstoppable killing intent during his energy circulation, he killed the doctor and all the patients there before leaving.

Initially, he hadn’t intended to kill the doctor, but sensing that his killing nature had gone berserk from what he had done, he tried to control it by using the Steadfast Mind Anchor again.

However, once out of control, the killing intent could no longer be regulated at will with just the Steadfast Mind Anchor.

‘No. At this rate, I’ll just be dragged around by the killing nature.’

Knowing that if he couldn’t control the killing nature, he would inevitably degenerate into a crazy murderer like his ancestors, he decided to use his outstanding talent to create a new internal energy technique to control it.

While his ancestors had only suppressed it until now,

‘Let’s sublimate the killing nature into martial arts.’

The killing nature inherent in their bloodline possessed transcendent power, so it was too precious to simply give up.

And to rule the world and face that man, he needed to make this power completely his own.

Despite this resolution, he didn’t return to his family.

It was to avoid a situation where he might harm his family members if he went berserk, or be abandoned by them.

‘Let’s go somewhere with few people.’

The place he chose was Mount Tian, a remote area covered in snow all year round.

He thought that in this place full of cold, no one would live, so few would come looking, and he wouldn’t clash with anyone.

Or so he thought.

However, contrary to his expectations, Mount Tian was a pilgrimage site for a religious group.

They were the Fire Faith Order believers.

Unfortunately, Cho Jin-geuk encountered them just as his killing nature was going berserk and indiscriminately killed the Fire Faith Order believers, and not content with that, he even killed all the people in a nearby village not far from Mount Tian.

Realizing that it was harder to control the killing nature just by avoiding people than he had expected, Cho Jin-geuk decided this wouldn’t do.

So, believing that confining himself was the only answer, he found a strange mineral that wouldn’t break even under internal energy and absorbed that energy, made chains from it, and restrained himself.

Thus, after a long time passed, he finally created a new internal energy technique to completely control the killing nature and utilize its power with his innate talent worthy of a great grandmaster.

That was the Blood Killing Qi Technique.

[Hahahahahahaha!]

After completing the technique, he was confident.

Having completed the supreme martial art Ten Martial Ways, which could handle ten weapons at once through energy control, and the Blood Killing Qi Technique, now no one could match him.

Now he just needed to return to the martial world, deal with the one who first defeated him long ago, and conquer the world.

Of course, there was something to resolve first.

‘That mixed-blood bastard.’

He had shown mercy because the guy was related to his past mistakes, but the bastard had tried to kill him by targeting only when he was mad, seized by killing nature while cultivating his new technique.

Every time he came to his senses, he had been greatly annoyed by the remaining traces of battle from the bastard.

So he was going to kill him first before leaving, but

“I see you had a companion. How unfortunate.”

Bang!

‘!?’

Cho Jin-geuk, whose body was suddenly slammed into the cave wall, couldn’t hide his bewilderment for a moment.

What on earth is going on?

He had just completed his technique, and his whole body’s qi sense had become extremely sensitive.

Yet he hadn’t even perceived someone approaching before being slammed into the wall by an overwhelming force.

Grr!

Whoever it was, he could tell clearly from this one strike.

This was no ordinary master.

‘At least an equal, or even superior.’

If so, to widen the gap, he needed to use the Blood Killing Qi Technique in one go.

During his seclusion in the cave, he hadn’t just spent time controlling the killing nature.

In the process of creating a martial art to harmonize the ten weapons, he had completed the Ten Martial Ways and surpassed the Wall of Walls.

He had reached the Profound Realm, a realm only the pinnacles of the martial world approached.

If the profound internal energy of the Profound Realm combined with the Blood Killing Qi Technique, that power could be called the world’s strongest without exaggeration.

Boom boom boom boom!

Cho Jin-geuk, who had raised his power to the maximum in one breath, escaped from the wall.

As he emerged and used the Blood Killing Qi Technique, dark red energy surged from his entire body, dyeing the surroundings ominously.

Grooooowl!

‘Whoever you are, you’ll regret opposing me who has completed the Blood Killing Qi Technique!’

Cho Jin-geuk’s eyebrow raised.

His killing intent-infused energy filled the entire cave and even pressed down on the air, but the opponent wasn’t even showing wariness, let alone turning around.

Someone who had approached Ma Ra-hyeon with his hands behind his back opened his mouth.

“You look terrible.”

“My lord.”

Whoosh!

Ma Ra-hyeon clasped his hands together and knelt on one knee, showing respect towards him.

At their behavior,

Grr!

Cho Jin-geuk’s expression twisted fiercely. How dare they not only turn their back to him but not even show wariness?

He would show them what a great price such arrogance would bring.

‘Ten Martial Ways, Third Realm, Six Weapons Emerge!’

As Cho Jin-geuk swung his sword, raising the Blood Killing Energy that materialized his killing intent, six weapons covered in dark red internal energy flew in from outside the cave.

The weapons that flew in aimed at the target Cho Jin-geuk pointed his sword at.

That target was the someone standing with his hands behind his back.

But then,

Woong woong woong!

The six weapons that were flying with enough force to pierce through that someone in one go suddenly stopped in mid-air.

Cho Jin-geuk’s expression, who had maximized his power by even raising the Blood Killing Energy, froze.

He tried to raise the Blood Killing Energy even more, attempting to move the weapons somehow to unleash the techniques of the Ten Martial Ways’ energy control.

However,

Before he could, the weapons that had stopped in mid-air crumbled and scattered into dust.

‘What on earth?’

As he was bewildered, Ma Ra-hyeon, who had been showing respect, raised his head and spoke.

“Cho Jin-geuk. You said you could conquer the martial world?”

When he had said that, Ma Ra-hyeon had inwardly sneered.

The reason was simple.

“You dreamed a dream that you can’t achieve even in death.”

“What?”

“The one you’re looking at is my lord, the Heavenly Demon, the current pinnacle of the martial world.”

“Pinnacle?”

This guy is the current pinnacle of the martial world?

For a moment, Cho Jin-geuk’s expression went blank before his eyes sharpened.

And for good reason, as this was truly a fortuitous coincidence.

On the very day he overcame the curse of the killing nature and completed the Blood Killing Qi Technique, the one called the current pinnacle of the martial world appeared right before him.

This was an opportunity bestowed by heavenly fortune.

Without needing to defeat countless others, if he could subdue just this one person, it would be no different from conquering the world.

Groooowl!

Cho Jin-geuk, filled with fighting spirit, raised his Blood Killing Energy to the extreme in one go, something he had never done above 60% since completing his technique.

The surging dark red energy filled the cave and began to press down on all directions.

With tremendous wind pressure, even the walls began to crack from the aftermath.

Crack crack crack!

It was truly enormous power.

But then,

“How annoying.”

With those words, Heavenly Demon raised his hand to shoulder height and made a gesture of clenching his fist.

At that very moment,

Rumble rumble rumble!

Suddenly, as if an earthquake had occurred, the entire cave shook violently.

Then, Cho Jin-geuk’s field of view distorted, the space rippled, and

Whoosh!

All the dark red energy that had filled the entire cave converged to a single point, compressed into the form of a small sphere.

The sight was so astonishing that Cho Jin-geuk’s mouth had fallen open before he knew it.

How did he do that to the materialized Blood Killing Energy?

Then Heavenly Demon slightly turned his head, lightly flicked his finger towards the sphere, and said:

“Take it back.”

Boom!

It was the moment Heavenly Demon’s finger touched it.

The compressed sphere split the air and pierced straight through the center of Cho Jin-geuk’s chest.

Thud!

“Gah!”

With a dying scream, the staggering Cho Jin-geuk looked down at his pierced chest with eyes widened to the point of tearing.