Chapter 522

Chapter 522

At that instant, Jin Ja-gang’s hand flew toward Ghost Hand’s face.

Ghost Hand was startled and raised his arms to block, but Jin Ja-gang’s palm deflected Ghost Hand’s arms and slapped his cheek as is.

Smack!

Ghost Hand’s head turned.

If it were Jin Ja-gang with the power of the Nine Light Dikes, he could have slapped the cheek to break the neck and burst the head. However, he didn’t do that and released his strength at the last moment.

He only slapped the cheek without internal energy.

The cheek stung. Ghost Hand’s cheek turned red like his own palm.

“You bastard…!”

Jin Ja-gang said.

“What did you say just now? I didn’t hear clearly.”

Ghost Hand got angry.

“Your wife and child…!”

Jin Ja-gang slapped the opposite cheek again. Ghost Hand blocked his face with both arms. However, Jin Ja-gang’s hand brutishly forced its way through the arms. Crack! Ghost Hand’s elbow and wrist twisted.

Ghost Hand couldn’t block Jin Ja-gang’s slap this time either. Jin Ja-gang released his strength at the last moment and slapped.

Smack.

Jin Ja-gang asked again.

“I’d appreciate it if you spoke clearly.”

Another master ambushed Jin Ja-gang from behind. A giant struck down crushing with his fist as if to burst Jin Ja-gang’s head.

Whooom! The giant’s fist missed the air. Jin Ja-gang’s body disappeared and appeared above the giant’s head. Jin Ja-gang grabbed and twisted the giant’s head and chin, thicker than an ordinary person’s calf. The giant put strength in his neck and endured. His trapezius and neck swelled greatly and veins bulged. Having learned external martial arts, his strength was not ordinary.

Jin Ja-gang’s arm muscles also tensed.

The giant was pushed back in the contest of strength. The giant’s chin turned half a span.

Snap.

The giant shouted and put in more strength. Disgusting veins rose on the giant’s neck and chin.

“Kyaaa!”

Jin Ja-gang put in strength once more and twisted his arms.

Snap.

Another half span turned. Now the head was just before being laid completely sideways.

“Kgh.”

The giant’s face turned red and foam began flowing from his mouth.

Jin Ja-gang said coldly.

“Don’t you see? I’m talking with this person right now.”

Crack crack crack! Along with a rupturing sound making the veins on the neck meaningless, the giant’s chin turned completely. His head laid sideways and his neck broke with the chin facing the sky.

Jin Ja-gang stepped on the giant’s shoulder and got up, placed one foot on the turned head and pressed down with tremendous weight.

Bang! The giant’s head was deeply slammed into the ground.

Jin Ja-gang stood trampling the giant, tore off his annoying upper garment, then looked at Ghost Hand.

“Please speak. What did you say?”

Ghost Hand was also a master who made a name in an era, so he wasn’t intimidated this much. He was more angry at his wounded pride than the pain in his cheek.

“Your wife…”

But while his cheek burned, his gums hurt piercingly.

Before he knew it, his tongue had swollen completely, filling his mouth. The flesh of his swollen cheeks turned black and died, and blood filled his eyes. A nosebleed flowed. Blood flowed from his gums and pooled between his teeth. Ghost Hand’s lips even swelled. His tongue completely filled his mouth and blocked his throat. He couldn’t speak, let alone breathe.

“Kghhh… Kgh. Kgh.”

Nevertheless, Ghost Hand squeezed out his remaining strength and smiled. He could see red veins extending across Jin Ja-gang’s upper body. The Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy was digging into the qi and blood, heading toward Jin Ja-gang’s heart.

Jin Ja-gang saw Ghost Hand’s gaze and smile, then indifferently looked down at his own chest. He confirmed the scene of the Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy rising from his back, circling around the Belt Vessel of his waist, as if a bright red bloodstain was being drawn.

Jin Ja-gang raised his hand, gathered his fingertips, and thrust them between his waist and ribs.

Stab.

It was the path of qi and blood where the Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy was rising. Then when the Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy arrived, he pulled out his hand.

Splash!

Along with blood, the Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy burst out. A hole was also punched below Jin Ja-gang’s ribs.

Blood flowed profusely. However, Jin Ja-gang didn’t even furrow his brows. He still looked at the wound with a cold expression, then just raised his head and looked at Ghost Hand. Ghost Hand was speechless and couldn’t show any reaction.

Even if one could block the Heart-Urging Palm that way, how many could casually punch a hole in their own body like Jin Ja-gang?

Come to think of it, not just himself but in dealing with each person, his hands were very heavy. He didn’t treat people’s lives lightly like fly lives, but treated each one like an enemy.

What sincerity is shown to this extent to kill one person inferior to himself? Ghost Hand wouldn’t do that even if annoyed.

But Jin Ja-gang was doing that.

Ghost Hand felt despair.

Before entering under Wang Yan’s command, he had been active in jianghu for over sixty years, but this was the first time he felt this way.

Why did they make such a monster an enemy from the start?

Ghost Hand realized only just before death.

“This is… gurgle… something wrong…”

Jin Ja-gang cut off the words Ghost Hand barely spat out in one stroke.

“That’s not what you said earlier.”

Jin Ja-gang touched Ghost Hand’s forehead with his finger as if he no longer needed to hear more.

Ghost Hand’s eyes were stained with despair.

Thud.

Ghost Hand’s head disappeared without form.

As the view blocked by Ghost Hand’s head opened up, Jin Ja-gang’s gaze met Wang Yan’s, who was just about to enter the estate, over Ghost Hand’s empty shoulders.

Wang Yan’s face was tightly hardened.

There were still more living masters than dead ones.

However, the initiative of the battle had already tilted in an instant.

Wang Yan shut his mouth tightly, turned his body, and returned inside the estate.

Soon the masters regained their senses and began attacking Jin Ja-gang.

“Ah…”

Watching Jin Ja-gang’s fight, Yeong-gwi felt an unknown emotion welling up.

Jin Ja-gang seemed advantageous but couldn’t necessarily be said to be advantageous. If it were that advantageous, there would have been no reason to remember Wang Yan’s face. He could just kill all the masters and immediately catch Wang Yan.

However, because Jin Ja-gang also recognized that it wasn’t easy to kill all these masters and chase Wang Yan, he had no choice but to postpone killing Wang Yan to later.

Yeong-gwi realized why Jin Ja-gang hadn’t thrown questions at Wang Yan while circling Crescent Moon Spring.

Instead of asking questions to Wang Yan, he must have focused his mind exploring the surroundings.

He detected in advance the number of masters and possible traps in the surroundings, and devised response methods.

Yeong-gwi gritted her teeth and stood up. She fitted her broken ribs back together.

Jin Ja-gang would win. She believed that. Then there was work for her to do.

In the current situation, what Yeong-gwi should do wasn’t fighting alongside Jin Ja-gang, but lightening Jin Ja-gang’s work after the fight ended.

The numerous horses and empty wagons at the back of the estate and pavilion had been bothering her from earlier. Wang Yan returning to the estate meant he was planning to safely exit to the rear and take a wagon.

Yeong-gwi quietly withdrew to the rear and moved aside from the battle’s sphere of influence.

* * *

The masters became much more cautious than before. As cautious as they became, they lacked boldness in action. Because the masters were so passive and didn’t approach Jin Ja-gang recklessly but avoided him, Jin Ja-gang couldn’t kill the masters as easily as before.

However, Jin Ja-gang didn’t rush and reduced the masters’ numbers one by one.

The Nameless Slave’s face twisted.

Eighty supreme masters who once commanded jianghu couldn’t do anything to Jin Ja-gang alone. Military power that could sweep away one major sect in jianghu in half a day!

Would unfolding wheel tactics to drain Jin Ja-gang’s strength truly have meaning?

Because their response was too passive, Jin Ja-gang was killing the masters with almost no damage. Jin Ja-gang’s whole body was stained with blood, but the only real damage he actually received was the hole he made in his own body.

Already more than ten had died. At this rate, even if a considerable number decreased further, it would be difficult to inflict damage on Jin Ja-gang.

Without accepting damage, they couldn’t defeat that monster.

The Nameless Slave shouted.

“We have the numbers! If each person just cuts his body once, we win!”

Don’t spare your body, inflict at least minimal damage and die.

He ordered mutual destruction.

The masters gritted their teeth.

The Nameless Slave was right. If they fought sparing their bodies like now, they would all just die in turn. Now only this remained: die after landing one cut, or just die.

The masters who no longer had a choice steeled their hearts and emitted killing intent.

The masters’ eyes changed. Being formidable masters without exception, piercing killing intent covered all of Crescent Moon Spring. Waves continuously rose on Crescent Moon Spring’s water surface. The tied horses and livestock screamed and ran wild.

From now on, every move, every attack would be a killing technique and mutual destruction technique.

The livestock’s cries seemed to warn Jin Ja-gang thus.

Jin Ja-gang had fully anticipated the current situation from the beginning.

The opponents weren’t riffraff but a group of masters. If they used wheel tactics, time would drag and he’d miss the Hungry Ghost King, and if they tried to die violently through mutual destruction, Jin Ja-gang would also suffer great damage and ultimately be unable to chase the Hungry Ghost King.

If it’s the same result anyway, from their position the latter was more profitable.

Sure enough. As expected, the Nameless Slave chose the latter among them.

Jin Ja-gang stopped without making a move and looked back at the Nameless Slave and masters.

Then he asked back.

“If you just cut once each, you win… Is that really true?”

The Nameless Slave glared at Jin Ja-gang with wide eyes and shouted.

“Don’t listen to his words!”

However, since people have ears, they couldn’t discard words already heard.

Jin Ja-gang said to the masters with his blood-stained face.

“Try once and see if those words are correct.”

As if Jin Ja-gang had a hidden technique, shouting confidently to try it, the masters also suddenly felt hesitant.

However, they were also those with considerable jianghu experience.

One stepped forward.

“I’ll try.”

It was an old swordsman with a Taoist air who grew his beard long to his chest. No, he was a Taoist.

“Before being expelled, this one had the alias Falling Sun Sword while active in the Taoist sect. It was before you were even born. Young one, will you receive my sword?”

Jin Ja-gang looked intently at Falling Sun Sword and said.

“If you’re a Taoist, you should be like a Taoist. As trash who broke Taoist rules and was expelled, who are you calling young?”

Falling Sun Sword’s eyebrows twitched and shot up.

The Nameless Slave shouted.

“I told you not to exchange words!”

But it was already too late. Falling Sun Sword, angered that he was treated like a third-rate hoodlum, responded to Jin Ja-gang’s words.

“I was voluntarily expelled to repay the Wang family’s grace, not expelled for doing hooligan acts!”

A smile bloomed on Jin Ja-gang’s lips.

Seeing Jin Ja-gang’s smile, Falling Sun Sword thought “oh no.” He realized he had misspoken.

“I see. I was puzzled how the Hungry Ghost King shook and controlled all of jianghu while leaving no traces, how he recruited such masters, but now I understand.”

Jin Ja-gang said.

“The Nurturing Hall with over two hundred years of tradition. You’re from Nurturing Hall. Am I right?”

Falling Sun Sword didn’t answer, but it was the same as already answering.

“Merchants, couriers, accountants, administrators, warriors… From long ago, they selected children who could become talents and sent them to necessary places, spreading influence throughout all of jianghu. The Great Buddha who entered Shaolin Temple was also one of them.”

Jin Ja-gang nodded and gestured to Falling Sun Sword.

“Thanks to you, my question is solved, so I’ll receive one technique. Come.”

“You bastard…”

Falling Sun Sword trembled even his fists in anger. Internal energy filled his whole body tightly and his hair soared to the sky.

Falling Sun Sword stomped his foot.

Bang!

“Brothers! I’ll go first!”

Man and sword united. Falling Sun Sword immediately deployed the greatest killing technique he could unfold and flew toward Jin Ja-gang together with his sword.

☕ Support on Ko-Fi

At that instant, Jin Ja-gang’s hand flew toward Ghost Hand’s face.

Ghost Hand was startled and raised his arms to block, but Jin Ja-gang’s palm deflected Ghost Hand’s arms and slapped his cheek as is.

Smack!

Ghost Hand’s head turned.

If it were Jin Ja-gang with the power of the Nine Light Dikes, he could have slapped the cheek to break the neck and burst the head. However, he didn’t do that and released his strength at the last moment.

He only slapped the cheek without internal energy.

The cheek stung. Ghost Hand’s cheek turned red like his own palm.

“You bastard…!”

Jin Ja-gang said.

“What did you say just now? I didn’t hear clearly.”

Ghost Hand got angry.

“Your wife and child…!”

Jin Ja-gang slapped the opposite cheek again. Ghost Hand blocked his face with both arms. However, Jin Ja-gang’s hand brutishly forced its way through the arms. Crack! Ghost Hand’s elbow and wrist twisted.

Ghost Hand couldn’t block Jin Ja-gang’s slap this time either. Jin Ja-gang released his strength at the last moment and slapped.

Smack.

Jin Ja-gang asked again.

“I’d appreciate it if you spoke clearly.”

Another master ambushed Jin Ja-gang from behind. A giant struck down crushing with his fist as if to burst Jin Ja-gang’s head.

Whooom! The giant’s fist missed the air. Jin Ja-gang’s body disappeared and appeared above the giant’s head. Jin Ja-gang grabbed and twisted the giant’s head and chin, thicker than an ordinary person’s calf. The giant put strength in his neck and endured. His trapezius and neck swelled greatly and veins bulged. Having learned external martial arts, his strength was not ordinary.

Jin Ja-gang’s arm muscles also tensed.

The giant was pushed back in the contest of strength. The giant’s chin turned half a span.

Snap.

The giant shouted and put in more strength. Disgusting veins rose on the giant’s neck and chin.

“Kyaaa!”

Jin Ja-gang put in strength once more and twisted his arms.

Snap.

Another half span turned. Now the head was just before being laid completely sideways.

“Kgh.”

The giant’s face turned red and foam began flowing from his mouth.

Jin Ja-gang said coldly.

“Don’t you see? I’m talking with this person right now.”

Crack crack crack! Along with a rupturing sound making the veins on the neck meaningless, the giant’s chin turned completely. His head laid sideways and his neck broke with the chin facing the sky.

Jin Ja-gang stepped on the giant’s shoulder and got up, placed one foot on the turned head and pressed down with tremendous weight.

Bang! The giant’s head was deeply slammed into the ground.

Jin Ja-gang stood trampling the giant, tore off his annoying upper garment, then looked at Ghost Hand.

“Please speak. What did you say?”

Ghost Hand was also a master who made a name in an era, so he wasn’t intimidated this much. He was more angry at his wounded pride than the pain in his cheek.

“Your wife…”

But while his cheek burned, his gums hurt piercingly.

Before he knew it, his tongue had swollen completely, filling his mouth. The flesh of his swollen cheeks turned black and died, and blood filled his eyes. A nosebleed flowed. Blood flowed from his gums and pooled between his teeth. Ghost Hand’s lips even swelled. His tongue completely filled his mouth and blocked his throat. He couldn’t speak, let alone breathe.

“Kghhh… Kgh. Kgh.”

Nevertheless, Ghost Hand squeezed out his remaining strength and smiled. He could see red veins extending across Jin Ja-gang’s upper body. The Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy was digging into the qi and blood, heading toward Jin Ja-gang’s heart.

Jin Ja-gang saw Ghost Hand’s gaze and smile, then indifferently looked down at his own chest. He confirmed the scene of the Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy rising from his back, circling around the Belt Vessel of his waist, as if a bright red bloodstain was being drawn.

Jin Ja-gang raised his hand, gathered his fingertips, and thrust them between his waist and ribs.

Stab.

It was the path of qi and blood where the Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy was rising. Then when the Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy arrived, he pulled out his hand.

Splash!

Along with blood, the Heart-Urging Palm’s internal energy burst out. A hole was also punched below Jin Ja-gang’s ribs.

Blood flowed profusely. However, Jin Ja-gang didn’t even furrow his brows. He still looked at the wound with a cold expression, then just raised his head and looked at Ghost Hand. Ghost Hand was speechless and couldn’t show any reaction.

Even if one could block the Heart-Urging Palm that way, how many could casually punch a hole in their own body like Jin Ja-gang?

Come to think of it, not just himself but in dealing with each person, his hands were very heavy. He didn’t treat people’s lives lightly like fly lives, but treated each one like an enemy.

What sincerity is shown to this extent to kill one person inferior to himself? Ghost Hand wouldn’t do that even if annoyed.

But Jin Ja-gang was doing that.

Ghost Hand felt despair.

Before entering under Wang Yan’s command, he had been active in jianghu for over sixty years, but this was the first time he felt this way.

Why did they make such a monster an enemy from the start?

Ghost Hand realized only just before death.

“This is… gurgle… something wrong…”

Jin Ja-gang cut off the words Ghost Hand barely spat out in one stroke.

“That’s not what you said earlier.”

Jin Ja-gang touched Ghost Hand’s forehead with his finger as if he no longer needed to hear more.

Ghost Hand’s eyes were stained with despair.

Thud.

Ghost Hand’s head disappeared without form.

As the view blocked by Ghost Hand’s head opened up, Jin Ja-gang’s gaze met Wang Yan’s, who was just about to enter the estate, over Ghost Hand’s empty shoulders.

Wang Yan’s face was tightly hardened.

There were still more living masters than dead ones.

However, the initiative of the battle had already tilted in an instant.

Wang Yan shut his mouth tightly, turned his body, and returned inside the estate.

Soon the masters regained their senses and began attacking Jin Ja-gang.

“Ah…”

Watching Jin Ja-gang’s fight, Yeong-gwi felt an unknown emotion welling up.

Jin Ja-gang seemed advantageous but couldn’t necessarily be said to be advantageous. If it were that advantageous, there would have been no reason to remember Wang Yan’s face. He could just kill all the masters and immediately catch Wang Yan.

However, because Jin Ja-gang also recognized that it wasn’t easy to kill all these masters and chase Wang Yan, he had no choice but to postpone killing Wang Yan to later.

Yeong-gwi realized why Jin Ja-gang hadn’t thrown questions at Wang Yan while circling Crescent Moon Spring.

Instead of asking questions to Wang Yan, he must have focused his mind exploring the surroundings.

He detected in advance the number of masters and possible traps in the surroundings, and devised response methods.

Yeong-gwi gritted her teeth and stood up. She fitted her broken ribs back together.

Jin Ja-gang would win. She believed that. Then there was work for her to do.

In the current situation, what Yeong-gwi should do wasn’t fighting alongside Jin Ja-gang, but lightening Jin Ja-gang’s work after the fight ended.

The numerous horses and empty wagons at the back of the estate and pavilion had been bothering her from earlier. Wang Yan returning to the estate meant he was planning to safely exit to the rear and take a wagon.

Yeong-gwi quietly withdrew to the rear and moved aside from the battle’s sphere of influence.

* * *

The masters became much more cautious than before. As cautious as they became, they lacked boldness in action. Because the masters were so passive and didn’t approach Jin Ja-gang recklessly but avoided him, Jin Ja-gang couldn’t kill the masters as easily as before.

However, Jin Ja-gang didn’t rush and reduced the masters’ numbers one by one.

The Nameless Slave’s face twisted.

Eighty supreme masters who once commanded jianghu couldn’t do anything to Jin Ja-gang alone. Military power that could sweep away one major sect in jianghu in half a day!

Would unfolding wheel tactics to drain Jin Ja-gang’s strength truly have meaning?

Because their response was too passive, Jin Ja-gang was killing the masters with almost no damage. Jin Ja-gang’s whole body was stained with blood, but the only real damage he actually received was the hole he made in his own body.

Already more than ten had died. At this rate, even if a considerable number decreased further, it would be difficult to inflict damage on Jin Ja-gang.

Without accepting damage, they couldn’t defeat that monster.

The Nameless Slave shouted.

“We have the numbers! If each person just cuts his body once, we win!”

Don’t spare your body, inflict at least minimal damage and die.

He ordered mutual destruction.

The masters gritted their teeth.

The Nameless Slave was right. If they fought sparing their bodies like now, they would all just die in turn. Now only this remained: die after landing one cut, or just die.

The masters who no longer had a choice steeled their hearts and emitted killing intent.

The masters’ eyes changed. Being formidable masters without exception, piercing killing intent covered all of Crescent Moon Spring. Waves continuously rose on Crescent Moon Spring’s water surface. The tied horses and livestock screamed and ran wild.

From now on, every move, every attack would be a killing technique and mutual destruction technique.

The livestock’s cries seemed to warn Jin Ja-gang thus.

Jin Ja-gang had fully anticipated the current situation from the beginning.

The opponents weren’t riffraff but a group of masters. If they used wheel tactics, time would drag and he’d miss the Hungry Ghost King, and if they tried to die violently through mutual destruction, Jin Ja-gang would also suffer great damage and ultimately be unable to chase the Hungry Ghost King.

If it’s the same result anyway, from their position the latter was more profitable.

Sure enough. As expected, the Nameless Slave chose the latter among them.

Jin Ja-gang stopped without making a move and looked back at the Nameless Slave and masters.

Then he asked back.

“If you just cut once each, you win… Is that really true?”

The Nameless Slave glared at Jin Ja-gang with wide eyes and shouted.

“Don’t listen to his words!”

However, since people have ears, they couldn’t discard words already heard.

Jin Ja-gang said to the masters with his blood-stained face.

“Try once and see if those words are correct.”

As if Jin Ja-gang had a hidden technique, shouting confidently to try it, the masters also suddenly felt hesitant.

However, they were also those with considerable jianghu experience.

One stepped forward.

“I’ll try.”

It was an old swordsman with a Taoist air who grew his beard long to his chest. No, he was a Taoist.

“Before being expelled, this one had the alias Falling Sun Sword while active in the Taoist sect. It was before you were even born. Young one, will you receive my sword?”

Jin Ja-gang looked intently at Falling Sun Sword and said.

“If you’re a Taoist, you should be like a Taoist. As trash who broke Taoist rules and was expelled, who are you calling young?”

Falling Sun Sword’s eyebrows twitched and shot up.

The Nameless Slave shouted.

“I told you not to exchange words!”

But it was already too late. Falling Sun Sword, angered that he was treated like a third-rate hoodlum, responded to Jin Ja-gang’s words.

“I was voluntarily expelled to repay the Wang family’s grace, not expelled for doing hooligan acts!”

A smile bloomed on Jin Ja-gang’s lips.

Seeing Jin Ja-gang’s smile, Falling Sun Sword thought “oh no.” He realized he had misspoken.

“I see. I was puzzled how the Hungry Ghost King shook and controlled all of jianghu while leaving no traces, how he recruited such masters, but now I understand.”

Jin Ja-gang said.

“The Nurturing Hall with over two hundred years of tradition. You’re from Nurturing Hall. Am I right?”

Falling Sun Sword didn’t answer, but it was the same as already answering.

“Merchants, couriers, accountants, administrators, warriors… From long ago, they selected children who could become talents and sent them to necessary places, spreading influence throughout all of jianghu. The Great Buddha who entered Shaolin Temple was also one of them.”

Jin Ja-gang nodded and gestured to Falling Sun Sword.

“Thanks to you, my question is solved, so I’ll receive one technique. Come.”

“You bastard…”

Falling Sun Sword trembled even his fists in anger. Internal energy filled his whole body tightly and his hair soared to the sky.

Falling Sun Sword stomped his foot.

Bang!

“Brothers! I’ll go first!”

Man and sword united. Falling Sun Sword immediately deployed the greatest killing technique he could unfold and flew toward Jin Ja-gang together with his sword.

☕ Support on Ko-Fi

☕ Support on Ko-Fi

☕ Support on Ko-Fi