Chapter 95. Zhong Zhihang
Immediately after that, he turned his body and tried to go back the way he had been going.
"Hey!"
A woman in red clothes with a figure fluttering like plum blossom petals came out from Qingqing Pavilion and once again stopped the blue-robed man's steps.
The sword with a red plum-blossom tassel hanging from it made it clear she was a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect.
"I'm still here. If you're just going to leave like that... "
"Draw ... not ... for women ... "
Without even turning around, the blue-robed man cut off the woman's words.
Perhaps the words that he would not draw his sword for a woman touched her pride. The beautiful woman in red, looking offended, raised her eyebrows—straight like a honed blade—into an inverted eight (八) shape and shouted.
"Are you looking down on me just because I'm a woman?!"
Tabrak, tabrak.
Instead of answering, the blue-robed man moved his steps back toward the ferry.
That alone was answer enough.
Chang!
"Stop! If you don't stop, this sword of mine, Hua Ruizhi, will not forgive you...!"
Sssssk.
Only when Hua Ruizhi drew her sword did the blue-robed man move. His body once again stepped along the seven paths of the Big Dipper and approached Hua Ruizhi. He was so fast it almost looked as if his body had stretched.
Unlike before, the blue-robed man did not draw his longsword. He merely raised his right hand, stretched out his index finger, and lightly poked Hua Ruizhi on the forehead.
At the same time, he muttered inarticulate words.
"Poked ... you.... I'm ... more ... strong. Than you..."
"...…."
Hua Ruizhi could not say anything.
Seen up close, the man's eyes were frighteningly transparent. So much so that her own figure was reflected in them in full. Hua Ruizhi felt that the appearance of herself reflected in those eyes was terribly ugly.
Whish.
The blue-robed man folded the finger that had cut through Hua Ruizhi's heart, and then walked again toward the ferry.
"Y-you, what's your name?"
At Hua Ruizhi's sudden words, the blue-robed man stopped again. Then he lowered his head, as if he could not remember his own name.
All the eyes and ears of everyone present at this place were directed at him. It was nothing special, just a small action, but he had a strange power to draw everyone's gaze.
"Zhong ... Zhihang ... maybe ... "
Zhong Zhihang.
Leaving behind those three characters of his name, he soon went so far away that he could no longer be seen from Qingqing Pavilion.
"Zhong ... Zhi ... Hang ...!"
Hua Ruizhi was still standing there, staring in the direction where the man had disappeared.
Soon, the disciples of the Mount Hua Sect and the Kunlun Sect who had been rolling on the ground got up and said something to her, but she remained silent and only kept staring into the distance.
In fact, not only her, but many people had been deeply impressed by Zhong Zhihang's entrance and exit.
"He's an incredible fellow."
Among them, Eulji Tae, who had been watching everything from the second floor of Qingqing Pavilion, said that.
From right across, Dong Gwang-cheon... no, Dong Bong-su, who had also been watching the entire scene, agreed.
In fact, Dong Gwang-cheon was Dong Bong-su, whose hair had grown longer after leaving the Northern Plains.
He left Guisui and returned straight to Datong. Before going to the Central Plains, he had to meet the Weapon Monster. He needed to receive the item made by melting down [Novice's Sword]. So he went to the Eight Directions Armory, but the Weapon Monster was already not there.
Instead, there was another supreme expert, enough for even spiritual vision to issue a warning. That man said the Weapon Monster was currently at the Martial Alliance.
Whether the Weapon Monster had some scheme, or there was some twist, or something sudden had happened, Dong Bong-su did not know. But he decided to follow that very expert, Eulji Tae. As a first step into the Central Plains, Zhengzhou did not seem like a bad choice.
At present, no matter what anyone says, the center of the Central Plains martial world is Zhengzhou.
Because the Martial Alliance Headquarters is in Zhengzhou.
Dong Bong-su had not yet decided what he would do, or how he would do it, after going to the Central Plains.
If he was going to run a "ranch," he first needed to find good breeding stock. No one gives good breeding stock for free. Especially not in this wilderness called the martial world.
He thought about many things.
How, and what kind of ranch should he build? After building it, would he really be able to secure breeding stock? And the money?
Then suddenly another thought occurred to him.
Why must he build a new ranch? How about taking over the biggest and best ranch currently in the martial world? A ranch where, even if you just sit still, large amounts of money and good breeding stock would pour in...
The Martial Alliance, Heavenly Demon Castle, and the Hall of Gathering Evils.
At present, these three places are the best ranches—that is, talent-gathering grounds. There is no need for further words.
Then which of these three should he go to? And how should he take it over?
Nothing had been decided yet.
Dong Bong-su left all possibilities open in every direction.
As long as he could continue his hobby life and grow efficiently, any of them was fine. And just in time, he got a chance to visit the Martial Alliance, so he was heading to Zhengzhou like this.
And then Zhong Zhihang appeared before Dong Bong-su.
Just as Eulji Tae said, he was incredible. So incredible that this thought even occurred to him.
'He's like the protagonist of a martial arts movie or novel.'
That was Dong Bong-su's completely unvarnished, objective evaluation.
The Zhong Zhihang he saw briefly was a mysterious person with an interesting aura that turned everyone around him into mere supporting roles.
"To cause trouble with one phoenix and one dragon each before even arriving in Zhengzhou... Should I really call him the Great Heavenly Steel Sword Master?"
The dragon Eulji Tae was talking about would be Kunlun White Dragon Woo Sim-gi, and the phoenix would probably be that woman, Hua Ruizhi.
"...…."
To Dong Bong-su, it seemed that Eulji Tae knew something about Zhong Zhihang. And in his eyes, Dong Bong-su could also read an expectation toward the "Great Heavenly Steel Sword Master."
Eyes like those of a movie audience or a novel reader, hoping for the protagonist's exploits.
Dong Bong-su was absentminded for a moment.
At that moment, all the surrounding scenery seemed to freeze and get sucked into his eyes. Eulji Tae, Hua Ruizhi, Woo Sim-gi, and the others. Everyone was expressing different emotions, but all of them were thinking and feeling something about Zhong Zhihang, whether they liked it or not.
Should he say that, in one way or another, the appearance of the young hero named Zhong Zhihang was stirring up waves?
Then time started flowing again, and Dong Bong-su's thoughts jumped to a strange place.
The Great Heavenly Steel Sword Master and the Great Heavenly Steel Sword.
Zhong Zhihang and the sword he carried.
And.
A sudden thought.
What would happen if, in a movie or novel, the protagonist suddenly died?
Wouldn't that also become an interesting movie or novel?
Who says only the protagonist has to be the protagonist? Wouldn't it also be nice if an extra suddenly popped out and was cast as the lead?
Chop, chop.
Eulji Tae started eating.
Dong Bong-su also picked up his chopsticks and put a piece of meat into his mouth and chewed. The juice spread and filled his mouth, but he couldn't taste it. He couldn't feel it.
Because he had become curious about the taste of a true herbivore. The taste of an elephant.
***
The Zhongnan Sect.
A former member of the Nine Sects and Beggars' Sect. For a long time, the hegemon of Shaanxi Province.
However….
Now, a forgotten sect.
The Zhongnan Lone Sword. Or the Zhongnan Poison Sword.
Called Lone Sword because he was left alone. Called Poison Sword because he possessed a deadly sword.
However...
Likewise, a forgotten name.
It had truly been several decades. The Great Heavenly Steel Sword finally shook off the heavy accumulated dust and revealed its hidden inner flesh.
The last and symbolic sword of Zhongnan. The sword of the Lone Sword.
Zhong Zhihang was holding the Great Heavenly Steel Sword in his left hand, as before, and looking down at the Yellow River. It was not a beautiful sight, but a kind of manliness subtly seeped out. Whether it was the Yellow River or Zhong Zhihang.
Swaaah—.
The boat went east, eastward. Zhengzhou was not far.
Trouble had already happened as soon as he entered the martial world, but he had no regrets.
His master had once said:
[Do not draw your sword carelessly. But if you do draw it, wield it thoroughly. Make the mountains and rivers tremble, and make all martial artists wet their pants.]
He had drawn it, and he had wielded it roughly. He did not yet know whether all the mountains and rivers had trembled, but at least he had made one person wet their pants.
He had often heard about the Kunlun Sect from his master.
A sword sect full of empty show and bluff. That was his master's evaluation. After facing them directly, Zhong Zhihang also found it hard to give a different assessment.
A weak sword that smelled of women's powder.
That was his master's evaluation of the Mount Hua Sect that followed behind Kunlun. But this time, he thought a little differently. It smelled of powder, but it did not feel weak. For a very brief moment, he had wanted to see the Mount Hua plum blossom sword that had reached a certain realm.
In fact, that was the reason he had gotten into a quarrel with them earlier.
A strong scent of plum blossoms had wafted from that woman. Just because he looked at her a few times, fascinated by that mysterious fragrance that came out even when she was just standing still, things had gone wrong. Of course, the more fundamental problem was the other side's overreaction.
Zhong Zhihang briefly reviewed what had just happened, then erased it from his memory. If what a swordsman has to do is finished, there is no need to think about it further. That was something his master always said. He agreed. The fight was over, and a new fight would be waiting next. With that, the meaning of this fight disappeared.
Swaaah—.
Zhong Zhihang was standing alone, bored. At the edge of the boat, where the splitting current could be seen most clearly.
[Like splitting the current, split the world.]
He had never even seen a current split, and as for the world, there was no need to even talk about it. He had spent his whole life in Zhongnan, so to him, the world was Zhongnan. At least, up until the time he heard those words.
Zhong Zhihang had answered "I will," because it was not his place to argue with his master's dying instruction.
Now that he was facing a truly fierce current this close, he felt like he finally understood why his master had said such a thing.
Zhong Zhihang raised his right hand high above his head.
Swoosh—.
A hand-blade that fell as if nothing was special.
Nothing happened. The boat continued to majestically split the current and move forward, forward.
But what if that current were the world, and that hand-blade were the Great Heavenly Steel Sword? Zhong Zhihang was curious. To the point of madness.
Then suddenly, between the splitting currents, the faces of the two men who had been looking down at him from the second floor of Qingqing Pavilion came to mind.
One was a supreme expert. At a glance, the kind of supreme expert so outstanding that even the Great Heavenly Steel Sword reacted with a sharp tremor.
The other man was….
'Hmm.'
He couldn't remember. He didn't know why.
Zhong Zhihang soon stopped caring about him. His interest was in the strong. He had no interest in the weak, to the extent that the Great Heavenly Steel Sword did not even send a signal.
'Could I win?'
He raised his right hand again, then drew it downward.
In his imagination, the opponent drew his sword and blocked his hand-blade.
The imaginary battle that started like that went on for quite a while, and the other person, whose face he could not remember, disappeared even farther into distant memory.
And...
Like that, he was completely forgotten.
Because he did not seem important, nor did he seem strong.
At least, not yet....
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