Chapter 109. Martial Match Hammer Eccentric
The Martial Match Hammer Eccentric truly appeared in the martial world as if he had fallen straight down from the sky.
Holding a single strangely shaped war hammer, he went around visiting various sects and asked for martial matches. At first, all the martial artists laughed, saying that some crazy bastard had come out into the martial world.
But
It did not take long to realize that this madman was not just an ordinary maniac.
Victory after victory.
Defeat after defeat.
The Martial Match Hammer Eccentric won every time he fought.
The experts of the sects who faced him kept losing.
Although it was a martial match and not a fight to the death, each sect suffered considerable humiliation. To lose without even being able to properly exert one's strength against a newcomer who had just entered the martial world was no different from splashing filthy ink all over the sect's name.
Still, they could not blame him.
To blame an opponent after losing in a formal martial match was a petty thing to do. Moreover, there was no sinister energy mixed into his martial arts. His cultivation power was extremely upright and pure, to the point that people said there was such vital essence in his hammer strikes that anyone struck by them would come to their senses with a jolt.
What was strange was that among the orthodox path, even the smallest martial art was known, yet the hammer technique he practiced and used was extremely unfamiliar. As if it had really fallen straight from the sky.
Furthermore, people of the orthodox path do not use hammers as weapons. No, if one is a martial artist, no one uses a hammer as a weapon. In such established theory, there is no distinction between orthodox, unorthodox, or demonic. No one wanted to use such a crude and inefficient weapon.
Its destructive power was far inferior to that of a mace – which uses the same character as hammer – and it was also very difficult to wield freely. Even so, Bukgung Gi skillfully swung his war hammer and knocked down the heads of small and medium sects one by one.
Gansu, Jiangxi, Jiangsu.....
Bukgung Gi roamed east, west, south, and north, defeating experts without discrimination.
When that strange martial match contestant had defeated a hundred small and medium sects, even the great sects and the Five Great Families of the Central Plains began to grow tense.
If they were to lose to him when he came to them, there would be no greater humiliation than that.
Trembling with fear, unable to sit still.
And then, one day, while the worries of the great sects were deepening.
The Martial Match Hammer Eccentric, Bukgung Gi, suddenly vanished.
There was no sign at all. Just as he had appeared, he disappeared from the martial world without leaving any trace.
According to one story, one of the Twenty Great Masters Under Heaven went to find him and defeated him.
According to another rumor, the armed group of a great sect attacked him together and killed him.
Many rumors circulated at the time, but in the end, nothing was ever confirmed.
Thus, he was forgotten.
And now, ten years later, that very man had suddenly appeared at the Martial Alliance. The surname Bukgung was not that common, and among those, if there was an expert with such movements,
then there was a very high chance that he was that Bukgung Gi.
"Then, earlier... was that person called Dong Gwang-cheon his disciple?"
Ha Seon-hyang said.
At that, Hua Ruizhi immediately shook her head.
"No, probably not. Bukgung Gi said...…."
[To have that kind of talent and still be doing something like being a mercenary. What a pity, what a pity.]
[This fellow lived in that rough and foul-smelling northern region, so he has no manners at all. Please understand, beautiful young lady.]
"That's what he said."
"A mercenary? You mean a wanderer hired with money by the army when they need one? That's what you mean, right?"
"Yes, that's probably it. That person called Dong Gwang-cheon probably lived as a wanderer in the north."
At Hua Ruizhi's words, this time Ha Seon-hyang shook her head, puffed out her cheeks, then deflated them and said.
"Huh? But does that make sense? I definitely saw it earlier too. Really, really, that Slender Willow Drifting was natural. It might even have been better than mine. But there's no way some mere wanderer could do something like that."
At Ha Seon-hyang's words, Hua Ruizhi recalled the situation from earlier.
Yes, that was right. What that person had displayed at that time was clearly—
"Slender Willow Drifting... it was definitely Slender Willow Drifting. Even though he must have only seen it once... it was the orthodox Slender Willow Drifting."
"Eh, can you really call that seeing it once? We just brushed past each other while flying up, just for a moment, didn't we?"
Yes, it was hard to even call it seeing it once. It was just an improvisation.
That was why it made even less sense.
"Yes. It doesn't make sense. It really doesn't. And that with only external cultivation."
"What? Only external cultivation? What do you mean, senior sister?"
"The Martial Match Hammer Eccentric said...."
[I'm not looking down on you, but with only a barely usable level of external cultivation, you can't be a match for those guys over there.]
"That's what he said."
"That can't be... I can't believe it."
It was hard to believe. There were no other words that could represent their feelings.
But what Dong Gwang-cheon had displayed was definitely the Slender Willow Drifting Movement Technique.
They had never seen, heard, or even imagined someone using a movement technique to that extent without internal energy. And that from just a brief moment of secretly watching, at that.
So it was all the more absurd.
"Maybe Bukgung... uncle? No, let's call him great swordsman. He probably learned it properly from Great Swordsman Bukgung. Otherwise, something like that would be impossible."
"Well. Can you really say he learned it?"
"Well, that's true. Hehe -. There's no one like that even in Mount Hua Sect, right?"
Ha Seon-hyang smiled lightly for some reason, but the content itself was not simple. Even in that great Mount Hua Sect, there was not a single person who could do such a thing.
Dong Gwang-cheon was someone who had done it.
An unidentified mercenary from the north.
It was interesting.
Just as interesting as that person over there.
Hua Ruizhi's eyes once again took in Zhong Zhihang.
Aside from his name, she knew nothing about that person, but just the fact that he had come out of the Inner Hall together with a famous and important person like Namgung Hye was enough to make her guess many things. It meant that he was an important guest of the Martial Alliance. Perhaps he was even a guest of True Immortal Hyeon-cheon, the Martial Alliance Leader.
It meant that he was not a nameless drifter as she had first thought.
Zhong Zhihang and Dong Gwang-cheon.
Two nameless people were planting great ripples and fantasies in the heart of her, who had just stepped into the martial world.
"Senior sister. Coming down this time was really a good choice, right?"
"Yes. It was a good choice."
"While we're at it, maybe I should grab myself a man and go back to Mount Hua. Hehe -."
The direction Ha Seon-hyang was pouting and looking toward was where Dong Bong-su and Weapon Eccentric were.
On the other hand, Hua Ruizhi was alternating her gaze between Zhong Zhihang and Dong Bong-su. As if weighing them, though she did not even know whether such a thing was possible.
***
Pararak -.
Dong Bong-su was already walking across the Main Avenue toward the opposite side where the Guest Residence Pavilion was, even before Weapon Eccentric came down. Weapon Eccentric flew down behind Dong Bong-su.
Some members of the Martial World Protection Unit, who were spread throughout the Martial Alliance looking for suspicious people, looked at him strangely when he dropped from the roof. However, they did not come close or make any particular move. That was because they saw the nameplates hanging on the chests of Dong Bong-su and Weapon Eccentric.
Among the many people who had entered this place, those wearing Martial Alliance nameplates were rare enough to count on one hand, and all of them were guests specially invited by the Martial Alliance.
Dong Bong-su habitually swept his surroundings with his eyes and checked all the positions of the Martial World Protection Unit.
Such small things were important to him. In fact, they were important to everyone who lived in a jungle like the martial world, but not many people actually did them. You could not know whether something was important or not until something happened.
At that moment, Weapon Eccentric came up beside Dong Bong-su and said.
"You, how did you know where I was going and go ahead by yourself like that?"
"Isn't it that building over there?"
Dong Bong-su, while resuming his steps, pointed with his chin to the building at the far corner behind them on the opposite side.
A structure attached to the very corner of the tall wall that divided the Inner Hall and the Outer Hall.
It was so small that it was embarrassing to even call it a building. If Dong Bong-su had not said anything, it would have been taken for just an auxiliary building of the protruding pavilion next to it.
Thud.
Weapon Eccentric stopped for a moment.
But soon he followed right next to Dong Bong-su again and said.
"... You really are like a ghost. How did you know?"
"I saw you looking at it carefully."
"I was looking there? Carefully? When, where?"
"A little while ago, on the roof."
"...."
Weapon Eccentric was dumbfounded.
He must have glanced that way.
After all, he had gone up to the roof to go there, so he had to check the location. But he had absolutely not looked at it that carefully. He had just glanced once, and the one he had looked at more carefully was not that building, but this guy walking beside him.
And yet, this guy had seen that and guessed—no, had become certain of—the next destination and moved.
'...… Is this guy really human?'
Now it was scary.
A guy who was strange and gave him goosebumps.
That was Dong Bong-su in Weapon Eccentric's eyes. He was exactly the ideal image of a human being that he had been looking for and pursuing. Too... far too much.
Dong Bong-su, whether Weapon Eccentric thought so or not, just kept walking forward.
Weapon Eccentric shook his head vigorously, looked at Dong Bong-su's back, then followed again and said.
"You, tell me honestly. Who is your master?"
Dong Bong-su kept walking and asked back.
"Why do you ask that?"
"Well, isn't that obvious? No matter how I think about it, there's no way someone like you just fell straight from the sky. Of course, it doesn't look like you learned martial arts properly, but in every other way, it's too much to see you as just a mercenary. You definitely learned from some famous master. And that sword made of divine metal must also have been inherited from that person."
Tap.
Dong Bong-su stopped.
Fell straight from the sky. In a way, that was correct. He had been playing a game, logged out, and then became this body.
It was also true that he had not properly learned martial arts. Although he had read various secret manuals and could imitate their movements, he had never formally learned them.
It was also true that he had often shown things that made it hard to see him as just a mercenary. What he had shown to Weapon Eccentric and Eulji Tae had been mixed with deliberate acting. Of course, it was also somewhat close to his real self.
Lastly, the divine metal— that was a lump of iron made by melting down the [Novice's Sword].
A gift like something given to him by the New Murim Online system.
'If you put it that way, then my master really is the system.'
What should one call the system in the language of this world?
If translated directly, it would be something like system or institution, but it did not feel like that meaning quite fit.
Then Dong Bong-su turned his head and swept his gaze around.
The noisy onlookers, the Chinese-style pavilions, the high sky, and the madmen.
All of them were parts belonging to this place called New Murim Online.
Yes, the system was this world.
Dong Bong-su turned his head back to the front and moved forward again as he said.
"The world. My master is the world. And unless something special happens, my master will probably remain that way forever."
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