Chapter 74: The Main Tournament
I quickly bit my lip.
Trying to swallow back the words that had just slipped out.
I need to be careful.
This was the Righteous Alliance.
Even if I couldn't see them, there were probably countless eyes and ears watching from all over the place.
I had to be careful with every word I spoke.
But...
the moment Lee Munjeong passed by me, I had definitely smelled it.
A faint medicinal scent.
...No mistake.
Death-Stealing Pill.
The cursed pill the Shadow Corps fed to test subjects.
A drug that burned away the user's Innate Qi in exchange for explosively increasing internal energy.
Literally...
a pill that traded life for power.
I had spent decades being experimented on while taking that drug.
Of course I could recognize the faint scent that lingered on someone who had consumed it.
And that wasn't all.
Lee Munjeong's hand.
Partially hidden beneath his sleeve...
dark-red veins bulged across the back of his hand, writhing beneath the skin.
That symptom only appeared in people who had taken too much Death-Stealing Pill.
When someone first consumed it...
their body became lighter and their internal energy surged explosively.
But at the same time...
their blood vessels began burning hot.
Soon, dark veins would rise visibly all across the body.
First on the backs of the hands.
Then across the face and chest.
At the same time...
an inexplicable killing intent would begin boiling from somewhere deep inside.
...Is that man a test subject too?
I immediately shook my head.
The Shadow Corps was a disgrace the Righteous Alliance desperately wanted to keep hidden.
Why would they risk exposing themselves by sending a test subject into the Dragon-Phoenix Awakening Tournament?
There was nothing to gain from it.
That makes no sense....
If he were a test subject...
he should already have lost his reason because of the Soul-Dissolving Pill.
But the eyes I'd just seen...
were clearly different from the dead, empty eyes of the test subjects.
I stared at Lee Munjeong's distant back.
Should I follow him?
I took one step after him.
Then stopped.
No.
This was the Righteous Alliance.
If I acted carelessly...
it could create trouble later.
Even if Lee Munjeong really was connected to the Shadow Corps...
there wasn't much I could do right now.
And...
...At that rate, he won't last much longer anyway.
A normal person who consumed Death-Stealing Pills...
would die within six months at most.
If Lee Munjeong's current level of martial arts really came from the pill...
he didn't have long left.
...A few days at most.
Maybe ten.
Before long...
Lee Munjeong disappeared completely into the crowd.
I quietly stared in the direction he'd gone.
For some reason...
a vague sense of unease began spreading through me.
Three days passed after the first preliminary matches.
Despite the uneasiness I'd felt at first...
the Dragon-Phoenix Awakening Tournament continued without any major problems.
After three days of fierce preliminaries...
the final eight participants for the main tournament were finally decided.
Jinwon of Mount Hua.
Namgung Hyeon of the Namgung Family.
The black-masked Nameless.
And Lee Munjeong of the Pyeongsan Sword Hall.
As for the remaining four spots...
surprisingly, all of them belonged to Kunlun.
On the morning of the quarterfinals...
Jin Gwangung looked at the four of us as we left our lodging.
“I seriously didn't expect all four of you brats to make it into the main tournament.”
He shook his head in disbelief.
“If the Sect Leader finds out, his mouth's going to split from smiling.”
Myeongjeon immediately replied,
“Isn't that simply because we're all that good?”
Jin Gwangung snorted.
“Hmph.”
“It's because you had good luck with the brackets.”
He glanced at us.
“Not running into any of the stronger disciples from the other Nine Great Sects during the preliminaries helped a lot.”
He wasn't wrong.
Surprisingly...
Wudang and Shaolin, two of the strongest among the Nine Great Sects, hadn't sent participants this time.
And many of the other strong competitors in the tournament had also been placed in different preliminary groups from ours.
Because of that...
we had reached the main tournament relatively comfortably.
Jin Gwangung's expression turned serious.
“But from here on...”
“not a single opponent will be easy.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“So keep your heads straight.”
The four of us nodded.
Right.
This was where the real tournament began.
We steeled ourselves and headed toward the Grand Training Ground.
By the time we arrived...
the place was already in chaos.
The spectator stands surrounding the Grand Training Ground were packed so tightly that not even a single empty spot could be seen.
The crowd shouted the names of their favorite participants until their throats went hoarse.
“Namgung Hyeon! Show us the power of the Firmament Sword Art!”
“Nameless! Hope of ordinary martial artists!”
“Jinwon! Jinwon!”
The cheers were deafening.
And among those voices...
I heard some familiar names.
“Kunlun's Young Hero Han Mujin! You're the best!”
“Win it all! Kunlun's Young Hero!”
“Kyaaaaa! Yu Seola!”
“Blue-Flame Dragon Spear! You were awesome!”
The crowd was going wild.
Naturally...
Yu Seola and I, as proper Taoists, didn't openly show how pleased we were.
We simply nodded calmly and composed ourselves.
Of course...
not every Taoist was as detached from worldly fame as I was.
“Hahahaha! Louder! The Blue-Flame Dragon Spear is here!”
“Don't forget! Azure Cloud Phoenix Step is here too!”
Hyeongwon and Myeongjeon shouted back at the crowd.
Somehow...
they looked even more excited than the spectators.
"..."
I let out a small sigh and kept walking.
Then I took my seat in the area prepared near the arena for the eight finalists.
The other finalists were already there.
Namgung Hyeon.
Jinwon.
The suspicious masked man.
And Lee Munjeong.
Then a Righteous Alliance martial artist stepped forward and shouted,
“We will now reveal today's quarterfinal bracket!”
He posted a huge sheet of paper on the wall.
It was large enough to cover nearly the entire surface.
My eyes naturally moved toward it.
The first thing I saw...
was my own name.
Han Mujin of Kunlun vs. Jinwon of Mount Hua
Finally!
I'd been wanting to fight Jinwon ever since we met.
When I glanced to the side...
our eyes met.
He seemed to have been looking at me too.
Jinwon and I exchanged small smiles.
Then I checked the next matchup.
Namgung Hyeon of the Namgung Family vs. Nameless
Hm... this should be interesting.
The Namgung Family was a prestigious sword clan that had built its reputation around the Firmament Sword Art.
And Namgung Hyeon was a genius among geniuses...
having already reached the fourth stage of that renowned family art.
Judging by reputation alone...
he was one of the people considered closest to winning the tournament.
But Nameless was no easy opponent either.
The swordsmanship he'd shown during the preliminaries had been incredible.
Every opponent he'd faced had been forced to surrender within around ten moves.
One of the tournament favorites...
against an unknown powerhouse.
From my perspective...
it was probably the most interesting matchup.
Then that leaves four people....
Another pairing entered my view.
Yu Seola of Kunlun vs. Lee Munjeong of Pyeongsan Sword Hall
Damn... of all people, she got him.
From everything I'd observed so far...
