<h4>Chapter 124. Five Dragons Fight for a Pearl (20)</h4>
<i>Bang!</i>
“Ugh!”
Woo-Moon took three steps back, pushed by the stronger-than-expectedbined technique of ck and White Impermanence.
<i>Tap, tap, tap!</i>
As Woo-Moon retreated, Ma-Ra crouched low and ran beside him, jumping straight into the shadow of ck Impermanence.
“They’re using assassination arts, be careful!”
Right as White Impermanence shouted in rm, Ma-Ra appeared behind not ck Impermanence but White Impermanence, and swung her sword.
“You bitch!”
With ck Impermanence’s aid, White Impermanenceshed out with the Frigid Yin Palm Force. It was such a terrifying attack that it made Ma-Ra frown, and she responded with a kick not to block the attack, but to push herself back.
<i>Woosh!</i>
She used the counterforce from the Frigid Yin Palm Force to fly back andnd behind Woo-Moon again, disying an excellent grasp of the concept of borrowing another’s power to string one’s bow. [1]
Woo-Moon immediately noticed her stumble, unlike herself, and he quickly grabbed her hand. He looked down at her feet and saw her frost quickly creep up her robes. White Impermanence’s Frigid Yin Palm Force was quite formidable. Although Ma-Ra had avoided the brunt of the palm force, she was still affected by the Frigid Yin Qi contained within it. Unfortunately, her outstanding martial skills made one easily forget that she was still very young, and her cultivation was not quite there yet.
Woo-Moon hurriedly circted the qi of the Forbidden Divine Art and imbued it into Ma-Ra’s body, gradually dissipating the creeping Frigid Yin Qi.
“These little brats are quite skilled.”
“Hehe, we should nip them in the bud, then. Since they’re here, they must have prepared themselves to die, right?”
The Ten Demon Generals were some of the ck Bull Gang’s most famous representative experts. Like Woo-Moon, they were Transcendent experts who had reached the threshold of the Absolute realm.
Woo-Moon smirked. “Big words, let’s see if you can pull that off with just the two of you.”
“You arrogant brat!”
“I’ll crush that arrogant mouth of yours!”
ck Impermanence’s ck palm force, filled with an absolute venom, and White Impermanence’s palm force imbued with cold qi rushed forward simultaneously.
“You seem to think you have the upper hand here, but you’re mistaken. We just haven’t shown our true skills yet!”
At Woo-Moon’s shout, Ma-Ra jumped into the air and disappeared. Woo-Moon gripped Lightsh firmly the moment she vanished and began to disy the Gentle Celestial Sword.
<i>‘For now, I’ll block their attack first!’</i>
Golden light spread brilliantly around Woo-Moon as a round wall appeared in front of him, blocking thebined palm force of ck and White Impermanence.
Although he wasn’t pushed back three steps like before, Woo-Moon''s feet still dug into the ground, leaving furrows.
<i>‘Imprable GoldenWall Second Form, Golden Wall Severing Void!’</i>
It was the second form of the Imprable Golden Wall—something he hadprehended after seeing Gong Do’s techniques during the spar with the Hegemon n.
As Woo-Moon spun and flung out the shield formed of sword aura, it molded into a massive disc and flew toward ck and White Impermanence.
Sensing something unusual about Woo-Moon’s blow, ck and White Impermanence suddenly stood shoulder to shoulder, each imbuing their palms with qi and unleashing them forward.
The two streams of palm aura, one ck and one white, stretched out like dragons and sted forward, wrapping around each other and merging into a single stream before colliding with Golden Wall Severing Void.
<i>BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!</i>
The sh was explosive, but Golden Wall Severing Void actually held up against the merged palm force of ck and White Impermanence! It was ground away eventually, but it had already fulfilled its mission.
<i>''North Wind!''</i>
Although Golden Wall Severing Void had been overwhelmed, it had significantly weakened ck and White Impermanence’s fusion technique. Thus, Woo-Moon quickly cleaved forward with his Lightsh d in sword aura, unleashing North Wind.
At the same time, Ma-Ra appeared between Woo-Moon and ck and White Impermanence, swinging both her arms forward at the same time.
<i>Thwip, thwip!</i>
Silver Moon Discs shot out from both sleeves, flying forward like beams of light.
“Be careful. Those are Silver Moon Discs!” ck Impermanence shouted, recognizing the weapons that used to be the Savage Twin Moon Monster’s signature weapons. The two narrowly avoided them; the weapons were hard to see, but they were not beyond the duo’s abilities.
However, Ma-Ra’s bombardment didn’t end there. The next moment, bolts poured out of their sleeves.
<i>Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip!</i>
ck and White Impermanence separated, dodging to the sides in the nick of time. Bolts continued to pop out, following their escape paths.
“My turn!”
Taking advantage of the growing distance between their enemies, Woo-Moon rushed toward ck Impermanence.
ck Impermanence was busy dodging the bolts, and when he saw Woo-Moon approaching at incredible speed, he was flustered.
“Huh?!”
Ma-Ra caught the Silver Moon Discs, which had returned to her after a long flight, and promptly disappeared, while Cold Snow blew forward from Woo-Moon’s sword.
Although it seemed slow at first, Cold Snow hid an infinite array of transformations!
Thinking Woo-Moon’s attack was nothing special beyond the momentary surprise, ck Impermanence immediately struck back with his own palm. However, he was shocked to see Woo-Moon’s swording down on his arm after cleverly avoiding his palm force with an unimaginable snake-like movement.
Seeing ck Impermanence losing momentum as he fought against Woo-Moon alone, White Impermanence made to rush over. However, he suddenly sensed dangering from beneath his feet and quickly jumped back.
<i>Swish!</i>
In a split second, Ma-Ra had whipped out the Formless Silk in an effort to cut through his ankles. However, she failed to achieve her goal due to his quick reaction and only ended up slicing off a part of his shoes.
<i>‘J-just what the hell is with these brats? How can these children be so strong?!’</i>
<i>ng!!!</i>
Suddenly, an explosion forced White Impermanence to raise his head hurriedly. He looked up to see ck Impermanence falling back with blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. Although ck Impermanence had managed to block Woo-Moon’s Cold Snow, he suffered a significant loss after blocking Woo-Moon’s subsequent Raging Wind Palm with a hasty Poison Palm.
<i>‘We’re both going to lose if things continue like this!’</i>
Neither had any idea that their opponents were going to be such experts. If they had known beforehand, they would have definitely called over more of the experts on their side as well.
Fortunately for ck and White Impermanence, as they faced an unexpected struggle, one of the higher-ranked of the Ten Demon Generals, Blood Knight, rushed over to save them.
Running over with his dark-red sickle and chain, Blood Knight soared into the sky and hurled his sickle viciously.
Woo-Moon was unaware of Blood Knight, and he only noticed thetter’s approach when he heard the abrupt screech of the sickle and chain cleaving down from behind. Woo-Moon was barely able to turn around and swing his sword at the sickle.
<i>ng!</i>
Although he thought he had knocked the sickle aside, as soon as the dark red sickle hit his sword, it spun in a circle, and the chain wrapped around the de.
Thinking that he had caught Woo-Moon, Blood Knight smiled eerily and pulled back on his chain, trapping Woo-Moon’s sword even more securely.
“Tsk!”
Although Woo-Moon tried to break through the chain with an incredibly fierce sword aura, things didn’t work out as he intended, as Blood Knight also imbued his sickle and chain with aura to match.
<i>‘The chain must be forged out of Thousand Year Cold Iron!’</i>
Thousand Year Cold Iron was an incredibly tough metal, difficult to cut even when using sword aura.
Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra instantly fell into crisis following Blood Knight''s intervention. No matter how strong Woo-Moon was, there was no way he would be fine when he was taking on three of the Ten Demon Generals, who were rumored to be able to go toe to toe with Absolute Masters if they worked together.
Seeing that Woo-Moon was locked inbat, White Impermanence rushed over so as not to miss the opportunity. And since Woo-Moon was in danger, Ma-Ra wasn’t able to wait for an opening; instead, she was forced to show up in the open and block him directly.
“You bitch!”
White Impermanence fired two streams of palm force directly at Ma-Ra. He indiscriminately attacked both her and the surroundings, worried that she might disappear once again.
Ma-Ra knew that she wouldn’t stand a chance if she faced White Impermanence head-on.
However...
Even amid her crisis, she briefly nced at Woo-Moon, who was struggling to break free from the chain behind her. Determination sparkled in her eyes as she hurled her two Silver Moon Discs with as much strength as she could muster.
“Ma-Ra!”
Woo-Moon''s urgent shout came from behind her.
<i>ng!!</i>
In the end, the Silver Moon Discs were unable to withstand White Impermanence’s double-palm attack and were knocked into the sky. Moreover, the streams didn’t dissipate there, and the Frigid Yin Palm Force continued to rush forward, threatening to destroy Ma-Ra’s petite figure.
In her moment of desperation, as she was about to face an attack impossible to block, her vision suddenly grew dark.
All she could see was a broad back, the figure of someone she trusted.
Woo-Moon.
As soon as he saw that she was in danger, he actually just let go of Lightsh instead of continuing to struggle. It was such a simple solution that he was dumbfounded as to why he hadn’t thought of it earlier.
Naturally, Blood Knight never even entertained the notion that Woo-Moon would so easily give up his sword, which to a swordsman was more important than his life. He was thus forced to hurriedly dodge, as his own pulling force caused Lightsh to snap at his face at breakneck speed.
While Lightsh barely missed Blood Knight’s face and plunged into a nearby cliff, Woo-Moon used every ounce of qi in his body to bolster his movement technique. He dashed forward and stood in front of Ma-Ra, unleashing Heavy Rain before them.
<i>ng, ng, ng, ng!</i>
White Impermanence’s palm force and Woo-Moon’s Heavy Rain collided. However, this time, Woo-Moon’s attack broke through White Impermanence’s palm force.
At that time, ck Impermanence rushed over after finally being able to suppress his seething qi and internal injuries and unleashed another Poison Palm.
“Woo-Moon!”
Ma-Ra quickly thrust her sword and stabbed ck Impermanence in the heart. However, he had already nned on trading his life for Woo-Moon’s.
A squelch and a bang erupted at the same time.
“Bleergh!”
Woo-Moon vomited blood profusely, suffering internal injuries after being struck on the right side of his chest by ck Impermanence’s poison palm. At the same time, ck Impermanence died instantly after having his heart pierced by Ma-Ra.
On the other hand, White Impermanence, who had been pierced in the left shoulder by Woo-Moon’s Heavy Rain, cried out desperately.
“BLACK!!!!!”
The two had been disciple brothers with the same master and had forged a brotherhood closer than blood.
Rage filled White Impermanence’s eyes as he rushed Woo-Moon. Blood Knight also rushed from behind him, twirling his sickle and chain menacingly above his head.
“Woo-Moon.”
Ma-Ra touched Woo-Moon’s shoulder.
He had been hit with a palm force that contained all of the remaining qi in ck Impermanence’s body and had suffered significant internal injuries. Moreover, the poison contained in it also prated deep into his body, making his situation even worse.
Still, he fought hard to stand firm, bolstered by the amazing ability of the Forbidden Divine Art.
“It’s okay, I can still fight,” he said.
However, the situation wasn’t good.
Blood Knight, a formidable Transcendent expert, was still in good shape, while White Impermanence was still able to fight, with only a single arm disabled from the hole in his shoulder.
“We have to win. No matter what, Ma-Ra.”
“Okay!”
They had to win.
Because that was the only way they could survive!
Because only then could they protect each other!
Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra had both resolved themselves: they would win.
“Tsk! What the hell are they doing over there?”
“I mean, why did they have to push so far into enemy territory on their own?”
“Does he think he’s Zhao Yun or something?”[2]
“I think Xiahou Jinxian might have been less of an idiot...”
The members of the Wind Sword Squadron also saw Woo-Moon fighting for his life from afar. Even in the midst of their half-hearted efforts, they secretly worried about him.
They were all shocked during their first meeting, when Woo-Moon beat them all. Even though they didn’t care much about being severely underrated by their peers, deep down, they all felt that they were the best among the younger generation. However, Woo-Moon was an absolute monster that they didn’t even want to think about facing.
Thus, they had assumed that Woo-Moon would leverage his strength to control and pressure them,manding them as he pleased. It was only to be expected; they all knew that the only reason the previous captains hadn’t done so was not that they didn’t want to but that they were simply too weak.
Yet the exact opposite had unfolded: even though Woo-Moon could very well subdue them, he only disyed his force once at the very beginning. After that, he just let them do whatever they wanted.
Even now, they were fighting half-heartedly. Yet he did not force any of them to do anything; rather, he went deep into battle himself, in order to ovee the disadvantageous situation caused by the rear force’ste arrival and Lee Chung’s unreasonable orders.
Xiahou Jinxian certainlyined and bothered them if they made a fuss during dangerous missions, but they were well aware that he would never risk himself like that toplete a mission on his own. At most, all he would do was throw a tantrum behind their backs.
Thus, seeing Woo-Moon’s rxed nature, theyzed about even more and did as they pleased. They never would have expected that this would result in them being actually worried about this carefree captain of theirs.
“Damn it! Shit, are we really going to let Captain die like this?!”
1. Using one’s strength against them. This refers to how one has to brace a longbow on the ground and use one’s body weight to string a bow. ?
2. One of the Five Tiger Generals of Liu Bei. He was immortalized in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms for diving into enemy lines alone to save Liu Bei’s son and ughtering his way out after killing Cao Cao’s general. ?