Chapter 224
The two men who had caused that tremendous clash—Sun Woo-jin and Yoon Sak—stood facing each other across the sinking flagship.
Each was perched atop the mast of a ship flanking the flagship, completely unmoved despite the violent rocking of the massive vessels.
Grinding his teeth, Yoon Sak muttered through clenched jaws, “You bastard…”
His eyes burned with seething rage.
If looks alone could kill, Sun Woo-jin would have been torn apart on the spot.
But in the face of that murderous glare, Sun Woo-jin merely grinned.
He could see the flicker of surprise and unease hidden beneath Yoon Sak’s murderous intent.
Clearly, Yoon Sak was rattled by Sun Woo-jin’s “Gaechun” technique, which had deflected his draw head-on.
With a cold smile, Sun Woo-jin spoke toward the mast where Yoon Sak stood opposite him.
“Blood Sea Demon Yoon Sak! Is that all you’ve got? Honestly, I’m disappointed. If that’s your full strength, saving your child is going to be pretty difficult.”
That hit Yoon Sak’s most vulnerable spot—the fear of failing to save his child.
His expression twisted into something demonic.
“Argh! I’ll kill you!”
With a roar, he launched himself like a fired arrow.
Bang!
He stepped once on the sinking flagship, then lunged straight at Sun Woo-jin, sword drawn and ready to strike.
But this time, Sun Woo-jin didn’t meet him head-on.
Smirking at Yoon Sak’s frenzied charge, he slipped gracefully beneath the mast, dropping down like a breeze flowing through the air.
Whoosh!
“Think you can catch me?!”
Yoon Sak slashed at the spot where Sun Woo-jin had just been.
Shing!
A streak of light cut horizontally across the ship and the river.
Moments later, the ship began to slowly shift at a diagonal.
At first, it slid apart gently, but soon the waves caught it, and with a loud crack, the ship split in two.
The sudden disaster sent the crew aboard into screams.
“Ahhh! The ship’s breaking!”
“B-Bangju! Why are you destroying our ship?!”
“We’re falling! Help!”
Yoon Sak paid no heed to his men’s cries.
His focus was solely on Sun Woo-jin’s position—the one who had slipped beyond his strike.
Though he had cut through the ship and the water, he had failed to land a blow on Sun Woo-jin.
Like the wind, Sun Woo-jin now soared toward Yoon Sak.
Clang!
He smiled coldly and brought his sword down.
Having drawn out his opponent’s strike, it was now his turn.
The Mukrang Sword Technique—Ilcho.
Gaechun.
Shraaak!
Sun Woo-jin’s blade tore through the air, crashing down on Yoon Sak.
Before him, a vast chasm seemed to open.
“Ugh?!”
Yoon Sak realized too late that he had been reckless.
Facing someone with such a sword technique, it was a grave mistake to throw out a careless strike and leave an opening.
But regret always comes too late.
Gritting his teeth, Yoon Sak summoned all his strength and swung his sword.
Though not as powerful as a draw strike, it was a devastating blow infused with all his experience.
Sshhh!
Kraaaang!
The collision produced a deafening roar unlike any sword clash.
Yoon Sak was blasted backward like a cannonball.
His strike had failed to break through Sun Woo-jin’s Gaechun.
Splash!
He crashed into the river with a huge spray.
The speed was so fierce it seemed he might be dragged to the riverbed.
Tap.
Sun Woo-jin landed back on the ship and waited briefly for Yoon Sak to resurface.
He knew that although the Gaechun hadn’t broken through, Yoon Sak was not dead yet.
But no matter how long he waited, Yoon Sak did not rise.
It was as if he had drowned right there.
Sun Woo-jin stared into the dark water, then leapt toward another ship.
There was no time to linger on a sinking vessel.
Splash!
Just as Sun Woo-jin flew through the air toward the next ship, Yoon Sak suddenly burst from the water like a dolphin, sending a huge spray.
Shraaak!
Sun Woo-jin caught sight of Yoon Sak’s bloodied body, wounds streaming with fresh blood, yet his eyes flashed fiercely like a wild beast’s.
Though filled with deadly intent as before, this time his gaze was cold and composed, not frenzied.
Mukrang said, “So he was waiting for this.”
“Seems so,” Sun Woo-jin replied.
From his past battles with the Haenam faction, Sun Woo-jin knew that fighting Yoon Sak on water put him at a severe disadvantage due to his lack of aquatic skills.
That was why he had tried to unbalance Yoon Sak and make him lose his composure.
But the seasoned veteran had clearly seen through the tactic.
Sshhh!
Yoon Sak’s sword drew a line through the air again.
Including Sun Woo-jin, who was already in midair, the slash seemed to split the sky in two.
Shraaak!
The strike gave the illusion of cleaving the heavens.
In the next instant, Sun Woo-jin landed safely on the ship he had aimed for.
Tap.
His perfected movement technique kicked off the air, allowing him to evade Yoon Sak’s slash.
His movement skill was clearly superior.
Yoon Sak’s sharp gaze followed Sun Woo-jin as he dropped back into the water.
Splash!
Sun Woo-jin watched the spot where Yoon Sak disappeared beneath the surface.
But in the dimming light, he couldn’t pinpoint his opponent’s location by sight.
Nor could his keen senses detect any movement underwater.
Unless he dove in himself, Sun Woo-jin had no way to sense Yoon Sak’s movements beneath the river.
Frustration crept in at being unable to read his opponent after so long.
Then—
Shraaak!
The ship Sun Woo-jin had just left suddenly split in two.
The crew watching silently gasped and screamed at the sudden rupture.
“Ahhh!”
“The ship’s breaking?!”
In that moment, Sun Woo-jin understood Yoon Sak’s plan.
He was trying to remove his foothold, creating an opening.
Without hesitation, Sun Woo-jin leapt toward another nearby ship.
Splash!
Having just used his sword technique, he needed a moment before he could use it again.
He took advantage of that brief window to move quickly.
Tap.
He landed safely on the next ship.
As expected, Yoon Sak couldn’t attack again immediately after using his technique.
But just as he thought that, the ship beneath him split apart.
Shraaak!
“Hmph.”
Yoon Sak seemed determined to destroy all his platforms.
Sun Woo-jin clicked his tongue and leapt to yet another ship.
“Tch!”
Splash!
Moments later, that ship too split in two and began to sink.
Yoon Sak’s ruthless advance showed no concern for the fact that his own men were aboard those vessels.
Sun Woo-jin frowned as he jumped again.
“This is troublesome.”
If Yoon Sak was willing to kill his own men and sink every ship, this was no ordinary fight.
It could easily end like Jung Chil’s battle against Oh Ik-deok of the Haenam faction.
He needed a plan.
Blood Sea Demon Yoon Sak surfaced between the broken ships, took a breath, then dove back down like a dolphin.
He pressed on toward the next ship.
Though the thought that his precious son might be in danger gnawed at him, the seasoned warrior knew better.
The longest route is often the fastest.
The one who loses patience here will be defeated.
Moreover, facing an opponent who could match his sword technique, exploiting weaknesses was the quickest way to finish the fight.
Above all, his body was far from whole.
“Ugh!”
Swimming like a dolphin toward the next ship, Yoon Sak suddenly clutched his chest and spat blood.
The price of recklessly enduring Sun Woo-jin’s sword strike.
Though he had stemmed the bleeding from his torn flesh with pressure points, the internal injuries continued to tighten around his breath.
He didn’t know how much longer he could keep moving.
Still, after coughing up a mouthful of blood, Yoon Sak pushed forward through the water.
He had a vague sense of the battle’s nature.
It was a test of endurance.
If he could just hold on and destroy all the platforms, victory would be his.
And in the end, he did just that.
Crackle!
Enduring the stabbing pain in his chest, Yoon Sak finally shattered the last ship.
All of Sun Woo-jin’s footholds were gone.
Though the river was now littered with debris, no one unfamiliar with aquatic combat could stand on such unstable ground and face him.
The fight was essentially over.
But as Yoon Sak endured the pain and sank the final ship, a sudden realization struck him.
With the last ship gone, so too had his opponent’s presence vanished.
“!”
Yoon Sak was stunned.
The man who had been darting across the ships like a grasshopper had vanished without a trace.
It was unbelievable.
“…Invisibility?”
That had to be it.
There was no other explanation.
But the idea that his senses could be fooled by invisibility was impossible to accept.
Was his opponent some kind of superhuman assassin?
Yoon Sak focused all his attention beneath the surface, trying to locate him.
But it was hopeless.
There were simply too many places to hide.
The river’s surface was littered with shards from the shattered boat.
Yoon Sak felt his breath growing shallow.
It was time to break the surface again and breathe.
But rising up wasn’t so simple.
Somewhere among those fragments, the enemy was surely lurking, waiting for him to surface.
If he, already wounded and gasping for air, were caught off guard by another attack, the fight could be over in an instant.
Yoon Sak gritted his teeth.
He had thought that once the boat was destroyed, the battle would be decided—but now the situation had completely flipped.
This opponent was truly infuriating.
At the same time, Sun Woo-jin concealed himself atop some floating debris, focusing intently to detect any movement beneath the water.
It was no easy task.
He had to use his energy control technique to lighten his body’s weight, reducing pressure on the debris, while simultaneously adapting to the unfamiliar vibrations underwater.
And yet, Yoon Sak made no move.
Surely, no living being could stay submerged indefinitely without surfacing for air—but he hadn’t risen.
If Yoon Sak had come up thoughtlessly, Sun Woo-jin could have ended the fight right then.
But it seemed the other man understood the situation perfectly.
He was no pushover.
But… how long can he keep this up?
Eventually, Yoon Sak would have to surface.
And the longer he stayed down, the more disadvantageous it became for him.
He couldn’t draw his sword again with so little breath left, and his internal injuries would only worsen with time.
So all Sun Woo-jin had to do was wait.
The moment Yoon Sak broke the surface, the outcome would be decided.
As Sun Woo-jin contemplated this, a sudden sharp vibration tingled at his fingertips, barely submerged in the water.
Something roughly the size of a person was rapidly ascending.
“Is that him?!”
Sun Woo-jin readied himself to strike.
He planned to unleash his ‘Stream Slash’ the instant the enemy surfaced.
With a splash, the figure burst upward.
Swish!
“?!”
Sun Woo-jin hesitated mid-swing.
At the last moment, he realized it wasn’t Yoon Sak.
A corpse?
Indeed.
What had risen was a dead body, likely thrown up from beneath the water.
Not a bad trick.
It was a clever ploy—he almost fell for it.
But since he had already considered such a possibility, the ruse was ultimately futile.
At least, that’s what Sun Woo-jin thought.
Until a sudden chill ran down his spine.
“?!”
His hair stood on end as he sprang up in alarm.
Slash!
The river split violently as the enemy’s sword strike came crashing from below.
Sun Woo-jin was caught completely off guard.
“Ugh!”
Yoon Sak was a man forged by a lifetime at sea.
His underwater swordsmanship far exceeded what Sun Woo-jin had anticipated.
Above all, his senses beneath the water rivaled Sun Woo-jin’s keen insight above the surface.
He had even detected Sun Woo-jin’s slight hesitation when the corpse was thrown up.
That was enough for Yoon Sak.
Hup!
Using his last breath, Yoon Sak drew his sword.
Shiiiiiik!
With all his strength, his strike sliced through the river and the enemy like a miracle.
If the opponent couldn’t sense vibrations underwater, this might have ended the fight.
Ka-BOOM!
A powerful impact reverberated.
The enemy had blocked his strike.
It seemed ending the fight with this blow was impossible.
But it didn’t matter.
Just as he had taken damage, the enemy couldn’t have blocked without injury.
And now that he had revealed himself, the enemy could no longer fight effectively underwater.
Yoon Sak surged upward at full speed.
Puh!
He gasped in a deep breath, pushing his limits.
Then he swung his sword again toward the enemy.
As expected, blood dripped from the opponent’s mouth, evidence of a serious internal wound.
“This ends now!”
Yoon Sak aimed to finish it.
But the enemy was faster.
Despite his injuries, the opponent struck first while Yoon Sak was still breathing.
Fwaaah!
The moment the enemy’s sword spread open, Yoon Sak’s eyes widened in shock.
The blade fragmented into dozens, then hundreds of shimmering sword images.
It was like staring into a sun radiating light in all directions.
But Yoon Sak gritted his teeth.
Though dazzling, he instantly recognized it as mere illusions.
A flashy trick—a last desperate move.
Ignoring the phantom blades, Yoon Sak swung his sword again at the core.
This time, he was sure he could end it.
But then the enemy shouted first.
“Go!”
What?
Suspicion flickered in Yoon Sak’s eyes.
Then horror.
The hundreds of sword images, once illusions, suddenly took solid form and attacked from all sides.
Unbeknownst to Yoon Sak, Sun Woo-jin’s ‘Gongjikshisaek’ technique had come into play.
Shiiik!
“Ugh!”
Yoon Sak couldn’t comprehend the situation.
But he couldn’t just take the hits.
Realizing he couldn’t block every strike, he released his energy in a burst.
“Hah!”
A tangible aura radiated from his body, forming an impenetrable shield.
His protective energy.
Fwaaah!
Tutututututu-tung!
His shield effortlessly nullified Sun Woo-jin’s sword barrage.
But it wasn’t without cost.
“Cough!”
Yoon Sak withdrew his protective energy, coughing up blood.
His internal injuries were worsening.
Especially after overexerting himself with the shield.
He quickly spat out the blood and raised his sword again, preparing to block Sun Woo-jin’s next attack.
He knew the enemy wouldn’t miss the opening he’d just shown.
But—
“!”
Looking around, Yoon Sak realized something.
While he had been defending and coughing up blood, the enemy had vanished once more.
“That bastard…”
He ground his teeth.
He understood immediately.
The enemy was choosing a war of attrition against his wounded self.
Splash!
Yoon Sak plunged back underwater.
The same cycle repeated.
“Ugh!”
Clutching his chest beneath the surface, Yoon Sak grimaced.
This wasn’t good.
Though the situation was the same, his condition was far worse.
His internal injuries had deepened.
Using the protective energy had been a critical mistake.
His impatience was growing.
There was no time left.
If he wasn’t careful, he might collapse before even getting a proper fight.
Meanwhile, Sun Woo-jin’s condition was no better.
He had sustained internal injuries blocking Yoon Sak’s strike and immediately had to deploy his sword illusions and Gongjikshisaek technique.
Because of this, even though Yoon Sak showed a weakness, Sun Woo-jin couldn’t bring himself to attack recklessly.
If his assault was blocked, there might be no next move.
Barely maintaining concealment, Sun Woo-jin forced down the rising blood in his throat.
His injuries would worsen, but he had no choice.
If his bleeding gave away his position, it would be over.
Huuuu.
He took a quiet, deep breath to soothe his wounds.
Yoon Sak, one of the three great warriors of the South Sea, was no easy opponent.
Beyond martial skill, the man was terrifyingly resilient and experienced.
Sun Woo-jin had never imagined this would become a battle of endurance rather than technique.
He had thought that once he shook Yoon Sak, he could finish him easily.
But challenging him on the water’s surface had been reckless.
Still, regrets were useless now.
He had to hold on.
And this time, he had to end it.
If not, he wouldn’t have the strength to try anything else.
Tense and alert, Sun Woo-jin waited for the enemy to rise.