Chapter 166:


    Pursuit (4)


    While Cheongsu Dojang was immersed in Muah Ji-kyung.


    Mu-yul, Ling-ling, Mu-gung, and Mu-gyeong were pushing through the surrounding bandits to break the encirclement.


    The bandits, who had chased them faster than the carriage, were elite with considerable skills, but the Muja Trio were no pushovers either.


    Especially, having exerted themselves using Qinggong to chase the carriage, the bandits were at a significant disadvantagepared to the trio who had rested briefly in the carriage.


    As the trio and their lonerade dealt with the bandits,


    Bang!


    Mu-jin, who had briefly assessed the battlefield, barely blocked Cheok Gwang’s fierce punch.


    “Just need to take care of this one, then we can break through the encirclement.”In that short time, Mu-jin realized hispanions had dealt with a significant number of bandits.


    Of course, new bandits kept joining as quickly as the ones hispanions defeated, but Mu-jin didn’t mind.


    Laters meant they were less adept at Qinggong.


    If they dealt with the initial pursuers and used Qinggong to escape, the slower reinforcements wouldn’t be able to keep up.


    The only problem was,


    Bang!!


    This fierce bandit was exceptionally skilled.


    “You’re quiteposed, Thunder Barefoot!”


    The momentary distraction from assessing the battlefield left Mu-jin at a disadvantage.


    Cheok Gwang, even bigger than Mu-gung, was a natural-born fighter with immense strength.


    Though his martial arts emphasized the essence of power, his richbat experience made him far more adept than Mu-gung.


    “Hahaha! You make a great punching bag!”


    Mu-jin, relying on his tough body forged by the Jade Vajra Technique and six years of external martial arts training, was just barely holding on.


    “This isn’t an opponent to hold back against!”


    To quickly break the encirclement, Mu-jin unleashed the Golden Turtle Technique at full force.


    As golden qi enveloped his body, Mu-jin ignored defense and charged at Cheok Gwang.


    “Hahaha! Good!”


    Cheok Gwang, seeing his opponent finally unleash a hidden move, brightened his eyes and struck with full force.


    As their energies shed, creating a loud boom,


    While their energies were neutralized, Mu-jin closed in and aimed a double-handed strike at Cheok Gwang’s weak points.


    It was the surprise submission move that had always brought Mu-jin victory.


    “Hahaha!!”


    Cheok Gwang responded with a heartyugh.


    As Mu-jin grabbed his weak points, Cheok Gwang bent his knees, lowering his center of gravity, and pressed down on Mu-jin with his arms and upper body.


    “I didn’t expect you to be a junior from my homnd!”


    After securing the superior position, he muttered something incoherent.


    Cheok Gwang, originally a young nomadic warrior from the northern grasnds of Central ins, had been a promising future leader of his tribe.


    Captured by the imperial army during their northern campaign, he was sold into very.


    Eventually ending up at an illegal fighting ring in Guangdong Province, his body and face bore scars from both his capture and the fights.


    “Hehe. Thanks foring to your death willingly.”


    Once a promising young warrior, Cheok Gwang was a master of Mongolian wrestling (Bukh).


    In his tribe, no one could withstand his wrestling skills, and in the illegal fighting rings, those skills kept him alive.


    Though he learned some techniques like stepping and striking to lure opponents into his wrestling holds, his mainstay was wrestling.


    “Hmph!”


    Mu-jin, gritting his teeth, twisted and moved his limbs against the grappling Cheok Gwang.


    Unlike the martial artists Mu-jin had faced in Central ins, Cheok Gwang responded swiftly to the grappling battle.


    In their body-to-bodybat, Mu-jin whispered as if they were sharing secrets.


    “Since we’re from the same ce, why not let me go?”


    “Hahaha. I’d like to, but Chongpyo Paja is very angry with you!”


    Mu-jin, attempting to gain the upper hand as Cheok Gwang spoke, found his efforts futile.


    The more he moved to improve his position, the more his stance worsened, as if sinking into quicksand.


    “Damn it. Where did this guye from?”


    Realizing Cheok Gwang’s superior grappling skills, Mu-jin gritted his teeth.


    However, he wasn’t one to give up just because of a skill gap.


    If skills fell short, he’d rely on strength.


    “Hup!”


    With his body bent backward, caught in an inner leg hook, Mu-jin concentrated all his strength in his muscles, holding his breath.


    As Cheok Gwang mocked him while pressing down, Mu-jin’s body, against all odds, began to rise.


    “Hahaha! Let’s see how long you can hold out!”


    Cheok Gwang, usually unmatched in sheer strength,ughed at Mu-jin’s futile resistance.


    But for some reason, no matter how much Cheok Gwang pressed, Mu-jin didn’t fall.


    In fact, Mu-jin’s body started to rise, pushing Cheok Gwang back.


    “Lower body and core training is fundamental!”


    With a determined shout, Mu-jin expelled his held breath and stood up fully, not stopping there.


    While Cheok Gwang was stunned by the unexpected turn, Mu-jin bent his knees, lowered his stance, and grabbed Cheok Gwang’s weak points with both hands.


    Pouring all his strength into lifting the massive Cheok Gwang, who was at least seven inches taller, Mu-jin began to lift him.


    Despite using the Celestial Weight Technique, Cheok Gwang was surprised to find his enormous body being lifted.


    But he, too, was a veteran of countless battles, and instinctively adapted.


    As Mu-jin lifted his legs, Cheok Gwang’s cheeks pulled inward momentarily.


    “Ptooey!”


    Cheok Gwang spat, and the saliva flew toward Mu-jin’s face. Ordinary spit would just be unpleasant, but a high-level martial artist like Cheok Gwang could infuse it with internal energy, turning it into a deadly projectile.


    However, as soon as Mu-jin noticed Cheok Gwang’s cheeks inwardlypress, he activated the Golden Turtle Technique.


    Chiiing!!


    The spit produced an eerie sound, but thankfully, it was blocked by Mu-jin’s golden energy barrier.


    In the meantime, Cheok Gwang’s legs were nowpletely lifted off the ground.


    “Stop, stop this!”


    Cheok Gwang iled his arms and legs in the air like a child clinging to his mother, hitting Mu-jin’s body.


    However, in this position, with his legs lifted and his knees held, Cheok Gwang’s kicks and punchescked power.


    “Your lower body is weak, you mongrel!”


    With the toughness of his Jade Vajra Technique and the Golden Turtle Technique, Mu-jin endured the attacks and executed the Iron nk Bridge technique.


    Just like when Cheok Gwang had executed an inner leg hook, Mu-jin’s upper body bent backward like a bow, but this time the oue was different.


    As Mu-jin bent backward, Cheok Gwang’s body was lifted higher until he was flipped over, with the sky and earth reversing.


    Crash!!


    Cheok Gwang’s head struck the hard ground with a tremendous crash from a perfect suplex.


    The result was gruesome, to say the least. Cheok Gwang’s already scarred face was now unrecognizable, shattered into a horrifying mess.


    “Hoo.”


    Mu-jin let out a deep sigh, having finally defeated the formidable opponent.


    He didn’t gain any significant new insights about submission techniques from this skilled opponent.


    “If it weren’t for these damned bandits causing muscle loss.”


    Mu-jinmented not being able to train properly due to being pursued by bandits, thinking his weakened muscles had made the fight more difficult.


    But this wasn’t the time to vent his frustrations on the bandits.


    ‘Now we just need to break the encirclement and escape with Baek Ga-hwan and Ju Kyung-il.’


    As Mu-jin was formting his next move, a small yet significant change urred on the battlefield.


    * * *


    “Damn it.”


    From a distance, No-seo, who had been using his subordinates and Cheok Gwang as shields while shooting arrows, muttered a curse.


    Everything was going wrong.


    From the moment he aimed at the two civilians and the swordsman, thinking they were weaknesses, things started to go awry.


    The swordsman, who had initially been preupied with deflecting arrows, soon started grinning maniacally and began redirecting the arrows back at his ownrades.


    Each time he fired an arrow, it would follow the path of the swordsman’s de and fly back at the bandits, hitting their heads, necks, or hearts with terrifying precision.


    No-seo found the swordsman’s eerie smile and the sight of hisrades being struck down deeply unsettling.


    Eventually, he decided to target the trio and the monkey fighting the other bandits instead of the crazy swordsman.


    Although they didn’t redirect his arrows as the swordsman did, they still managed to block or evade them while fighting the bandits.


    Though his arrows prevented them from fighting effectively, all it did was dy the inevitable fall of the bandits.


    Even though more bandits were joining the fray, reinforcing the encirclement, over twenty bandits had already fallen.


    In a force of nearly a thousand, this might not seem significant, but the bandits present were all considered elite.


    ‘What the hell is that idiot Cheok Gwang doing?’


    No-seo cursed Cheok Gwang, who was supposed to be in charge of this operation, for the severe losses.


    Cheok Gwang had been grappling with a young opponent for a while, their bodies closely entwined, preventing No-seo from providing support with his arrows.


    Trying to ignore it, he focused elsewhere, but the prolonged fight frustrated him, making him nce back.


    Crash!!


    What No-seo saw was Cheok Gwang’s body being hurled into the ground, and the horrifying sound of his head hitting the earth.


    ‘…Damn fool.’


    No-seo couldn’t afford to think that it served Cheok Gwang right. Now that he was dead, No-seo had to take responsibility.


    “They must be exhausted! Push harder!!”


    He ordered his subordinates to press the attack, thinking of using a revolving wheel tactic to wear them down.


    Naturally, he excluded himself from this sacrifice, nning to continue shooting arrows from a distance.


    But as he aimed his next arrow at the enemies, he heard a strange noise.


    sh!


    Crash!


    “Argh!!”


    The sounds of cutting and crushing, followed by chilling screams, began erupting one after another.


    No-seo initially thought the sounds wereing from the front, but something didn’t match the scene he was seeing.


    Even as he sensed something was off, the sounds grew closer,ing from behind.


    When he finally turned to look, he saw…


    A wild-looking man who seemed like one of their kind,


    Swish!!


    And a grotesque sword flying towards his face.


    sh!


    That was thest sight No-seo ever saw.


    * * *


    “Argh!!”


    The screams and sounds of cutting and crushing wereing in quick session.


    Mu-jin and his group, in the midst of fighting the bandits, naturally turned their attention to the source of the noise.


    What they saw was the head of the archery bandit who had been harassing them, now separated from his body.


    ‘Wolf King…’


    Seeing the wild-looking man wielding a wolf-sword, Mu-jin couldn’t help but gulp audibly, swallowing his dry spit.