Chapter 71

The Jin Family’s Spear Technique consisted of seven forms in total. The final form, Sky-Piercing Strike, smashed into the steel dummy.

Boom!

With a deafening crash, the steel dummy’s chest caved in and it slammed into the wall. As I withdrew my spear, Jin Mukyung’s voice reached my ears.

“The Jin Family’s Spear Technique is passable.”

“Uh, yes.”

“The Jin Family’s Manoeuvre Technique is similar.”

Wait. Had I ever told him what martial arts I had learned?

As I searched my memory, Jin Mukyung gave a quiet laugh.

“Do you know why I entered Heaven’s Gate Temple?”

“Um. Because you couldn’t stand the sight of me?”

“…That’s not entirely wrong.”

He muttered under his breath and nodded, then suddenly came to his senses.

“Ahem. There was a more important reason than that.”

“What was it?”

“There was nothing left for me to learn in our family.”

“What?”

“I needed something new. As luck would have it, Heaven’s Gate Temple offered me admission, and I had no reason to refuse.”

“Then what about the Jin Family’s Spear Technique?”

“I just told you. There was nothing left for me to learn.”

“No, but you’re a swordsman.”

“So?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t you eat side dishes with your rice?”

“That’s different.”

“It’s the same to me.”

It’s different to me.

I’ve learned several different weapons, too, but…

My situation was completely different from Jin Mukyung’s. That had not been martial arts. It had been a desperate struggle to survive my battles with monsters.

Once I became accustomed to the spear, I had not had the time to look elsewhere.

Focusing on just one thing was already difficult enough.

“You look like you don’t understand. It’ll be faster if I show you.”

Shing.

Jin Mukyung drew his sword and stood before the steel dummy.

After casually warming up with a few movements of his hands, he spoke in a quiet voice.

“Let’s try this.”

His legs crossed rapidly. A flash shot out right after and slammed into the steel dummy’s chest.

Swoooosh! Boom!

I was speechless. The form was slightly different, but the movements were familiar. There was no way I could fail to recognize them.

“This is…”

“Sky-Piercing Strike. The final form of the Jin Family’s Spear Technique. Though in this case, I suppose I should call it the Jin Sword Technique.”

For a moment, I could not speak. Then I remembered something I had temporarily forgotten.

Jin Mukyung was a genius. An ordinary person might struggle just to finish a bowl of plain rice, but Jin Mukyung could digest an eight-dish spread without trouble.

Genius. Genius. I’d only ever heard the word before.

With just a few simple changes to the movements, he had transformed the Jin Family’s Spear Technique into a sword technique.

He truly was a genius of martial arts. The rumors had not been exaggerated.

This bastard… He’s the real deal.

The System helped its user grow quickly. It did not turn them into a genius. But Jin Mukyung had been born one.

The move he had just shown me had probably been no more than the tip of the iceberg. A chill ran down my spine.

“Are you listening to me?”

I only came to my senses when I heard his cold voice.

“Ah, yes.”

“Your hyung went to the trouble of giving you a demonstration, and you dare look away?”

Flick!

“Gah.”

My vision flashed. Jin Mukyung watched me suffer with satisfaction before speaking again.

“I’ll explain it one more time, so concentrate. Understand?”

“Gnh. Yes, sir.”

“Anyway, martial arts are…”

“…”

“Uh, martial arts are… Ah, damn it.”

Jin Mukyung’s face flushed red as he shouted.

“I forgot because of you!”

Whack!

You fucking bastard…

In the end, Jin Mukyung chose conversation as his method.

A physical conversation.

“You don’t understand very well when things are explained verbally. It’s faster for you to experience them with your body.”

“W-Wait a moment.”

“There’s no such thing as ‘wait a moment’ in real combat. Would you say that to someone who came to kill you? ‘I’m nervous, so I’ll go take a piss first.’ Would you expect him to say, ‘Then go take a shit, too’?”

“We’re sparring right now!”

“Huh? You’re using informal speech again. You’re dead.”

Jin Mukyung gripped his wooden sword tightly and charged at me like a leopard.

I launched myself away without waiting to see what happened.

Boom!

Leaving the bone-rattling crash behind me, I snatched a wooden practice spear from the rack. An ominous voice followed me.

“From now on, I’ll teach you a lesson.”

Swoooosh!

The sound of the air being torn apart was anything but ordinary. I turned and swung my spear at the same time, but I was already too late. The faintly upturned corner of Jin Mukyung’s mouth was right in front of me.

“First.”

Thud!

His fist shot up from below and struck my lower jaw. My feet left the ground against my will.

Through my shaking vision, Jin Mukyung’s voice continued.

“When fighting someone more skilled than yourself, be cautious.”

The next moment, Jin Mukyung’s palm struck my chest. With a bang like a bursting balloon, I flew backward and slid all the way into the wall.

“Cough.”

My organs did not spill out with a mouthful of blood. When I lifted my head, I saw Jin Mukyung slowly walking toward me.

“You’re such a coward. Did you really think your hyung would use internal energy against his younger brother?”

I answered gruffly.

“Then throw away the wooden sword.”

“I can’t. The feel of hitting things is better with this.”

That was the confidence of the strong. Even so, he was not careless enough to discard his weapon.

This is going to be difficult.

Fortunately, Jin Mukyung was easy to provoke.

Especially when it came to me.

“Did you chicken out?”

“What?”

The smile disappeared from Jin Mukyung’s face. I was afraid of what he’d do to me later, but that was a problem for later. Right now, I wanted to beat the bastard in front of me somehow.

“I asked if you chickened out.”

“I don’t really know what that means… but it’s really pissing me off.”

The moment I finished speaking, Jin Mukyung rushed toward me. His movements were noticeably rougher than before. I knocked aside the wooden sword descending toward my shoulder with the shaft of my spear.

Krrrk.

Did they coat this wooden sword with glue?

I needed to widen the distance, but the sword would not come away. It wrapped around my spear shaft like a snake and stabbed inward.

“What the hell is this?”

“What else would it be? The Jin Family’s Spear Technique. No, the Jin Sword Technique.”

The Jin Sword Technique? This?

“It’s completely different from what you showed me earlier!”

“Ah. I mixed in a few other sword techniques.”

“That’s cheating!”

“Second. Never forget that while you were drinking your ass off with women, I was training until I was covered in blood and sweat.”

At the same time, the wooden sword slammed into my side.

Thud!

The pain was secondary to the wave of fury that surged through me.

What? Drinking with women?

While everyone else was holding their girlfriends’ hands and going on dates for Christmas, I was having a group date with monsters in a Gate, you fucking bastard!

Whack-whack-whack!

The wooden sword pounded my thigh and forearm in succession, but I felt nothing. My anger had overwhelmed the pain.

I gritted my teeth and sent my spear flying in every direction.

Sshh-shh-shhk! Clang!

Under my sharp offensive, Jin Mukyung began to retreat little by little. Combat was all about momentum. My instincts, honed through countless real battles, whispered to me.

Now!

I brought my spear down with all my strength toward the crown of his head.

Boom!

The crash was loud enough to leave my ears ringing. But the attack had not landed properly.

Jin Mukyung raised his sword and blocked the spear with ease. He snorted.

“Too obvious.”

“Yeah. If it’s too obvious, it’s no fun.”

With a triumphant grin, I thrust one fist toward his abdomen.

It’s a feint, you bastard!

The provocation and the attack before it had all been for this moment.

When you were standing this close, martial arts did not matter. One punch to the solar plexus, and not even a Peak master’s grandfather would stand a chance.

It’s over.

My fist, carrying all the resentment I had built up, slammed into Jin Mukyung’s solar plexus.

Clang!

…Clang?

What the hell was that?

I was confused for only a moment before a scream burst out.

From my mouth.

“Argh! My hand!”

It hurt! And it hurt like hell!

Through my pain-filled vision, I saw Jin Mukyung shyly lifting his shirt. A bulging leather vest beneath his martial arts uniform came into view.

What is that?

A bulletproof vest? No, it was not one. But it looked like it could stop bullets. Every pocket in the leather vest had been packed full of iron ingots.

“Third…”

Jin Mukyung pulled a dented iron ingot from one of the pockets near his solar plexus. My fistprint was clearly visible.

“Fight only after discerning your opponent’s intentions.”

“Why the hell are you wearing that?”

“Fourth. Never neglect physical conditioning, even in everyday life.”

“Damn it!”

Martial arts? Forms? There was no more of that nonsense. I threw off the awkward appearance of a martial artist and returned to being a Hunter with seven years of experience.

My hand was already injured, so properly using the Jin Family’s Spear Technique would be difficult. Besides, Jin Mukyung knew every martial art I had learned.

I’ll show you what a real fight looks like.

With all my strength, I kicked Jin Mukyung in the shin as he grinned triumphantly. It was a decisive technique known as a soccer kick, or simply a shin-kick.

I had never seen anyone stay fine after taking one of these.

Clang!

Add one more to the list.

“You fucking—”

“You idiot.”

Jin Mukyung looked down at me as I collapsed, clutching my foot. His expression seemed to say that I was the most pathetic person alive.

“Fifth… Never mind. Talking is exhausting.”

He pulled a flat metal plate from beneath his pant leg and strode toward me. I tried to stand, limping, but he kicked my ankle and made me sit back down.

Damn it.

It was over.

If I used Inventory, I might have a chance to turn things around, but I did not want to blatantly do something that would obviously make him suspicious. I lowered my head with a sigh.

“Let’s stop.”

“You want to stop?”

I lifted my head at his hard voice. Jin Mukyung’s face had gone cold.

“After only this much?”

The man who had been grinning and enthusiastically beating me only moments ago was nowhere to be seen.

His emotionless gaze made my skin prickle, and my Adam’s apple bobbed.

Gulp.

Almost simultaneously with the sound of me swallowing, the wooden sword slammed into my right shoulder.

With a thud, my arm bent uselessly and I lost my balance.

“Guh. What the hell are you doing…?”

Jin Mukyung did not care. He swung the wooden sword again. The Jin Mukyung standing before me now seemed unable to hear the voice of the defeated.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

He struck my left arm, then both legs. Only then did his hand stop.

“You just had all four limbs cut off. By a vicious Peak master of the dark path who is several times stronger than you.”

“…”

“If he were even nastier, there would be other methods, too.”

Tap-tap-tap.

The moment Jin Mukyung’s hand blurred, my entire body stiffened and my tongue curled up. The System immediately announced the abnormal condition.

Beep!

System

• The Paralysis Acupoint has been subdued. You will be paralyzed for two hours!

• The Mute Acupoint has been subdued. You will be unable to make a sound for two hours!

I could not move even a hair, and I could not speak.

A breathing corpse. In my current state, even a child could kill me.

Jin Mukyung. You insane bastard!

The curses circled only inside my head and could not escape my lips. All I could do was glare at him. Jin Mukyung calmly met my furious gaze.

“Tendon-Splitting and Bone-Twisting is a cruel technique. Within an hour at most, your qi and blood will twist and all the bones in your body will be crushed. Even if you miraculously survive, you’ll either become a madman or live the rest of your life crippled.”

“…”

“Do you think you could endure that pain? You’d probably forget who you are within fifteen minutes.”

My stomach churned. Not because of his explanation of Tendon-Splitting and Bone-Twisting.

It was Jin Mukyung’s eyes. There was no emotion in them. Those black eyes were unfamiliar and frightening.

Could Jin Mukyung really be about to kill me?

No. That was impossible. I was Jin Taekyung. A direct descendant of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, and Jin Mukyung’s only younger brother.

But what he did next went far beyond anything I had expected.

“Don’t worry. I’ll send you off without pain.”

A quiet voice accompanied something cold touching my throat. It was the metal plate Jin Mukyung had pulled out earlier. Its thin, sharp edge slowly pressed into my flesh.

Die? Like this?

I had survived dozens of brushes with death. In Gates, and in Murim. I had struggled all this time to survive somehow…

And now I was about to die without even being able to blink.

To a so-called biological older brother who did not share a single drop of blood with me!

What the fuck kind of situation is this?

My body rigid, I stared only at the ceiling. Then the voice of the Reaper reached my ears.

“Die.”

Slice.

The strength drained from my entire body. I felt hot blood trickling down my neck.

Jin Taekyung. Aged twenty-seven. Gone to sleep in Murim.

I slowly closed my eyes.

“…”

No, wait. Something was wrong.

I was hit at an acupoint, but I closed my eyes?

At that moment—

Ding.

System

• The Paralysis Acupoint has been released. The paralysis has ended!

• The Mute Acupoint has been released. You can speak freely!

“Get up.”

“…”

At Jin Mukyung’s voice, I slowly opened my eyes. All five of my senses were sharp and clear, proof that I was alive.

How?

I hurriedly felt the back of my neck. The cut stung, and blood came away on my fingers, but there were only a few drops of it. Everything had been an illusion brought on by the fear and tension of death.

“Remember.”

His cold voice continued—the same voice that had pronounced my death only seconds earlier.

“You died once today.”