Jong Risungrak’s eyes sizzled with rage. The pure rage was visible from his eyes.

“What…did you just say?”

You could sense the presence of a controlled urge to kill from Jong Risungrak’s body.

Then Gyeongwan quietly blocked Taesan with his body.

Taesan was not a normal person, but he had still not fully recovered.

It was not good to expose him to such maliciousness.

Besides the opponent was a professional from an elite household. From the looks of it he seemed to be a senior, if someone like him decided to make a sudden attack, he wasn’t sure if Taesan would be able to block such an attack.

With him in the middle at least he would be able to block an attack, which should give Taesan the time to react?

“Do you really think someone like you can stop my attacks?”

The rage of Jung Risungrak was now directed at Gyeongwan.

Taesan then laughed.

“Weren’t you going to kill him anyway? You were going to kidnap only me, right?”

His words must have hit home as Jong Risungrak’s eyes calmed down.

“I never mentioned a killing, that was you.”

“Your habits are displayed in your actions and words. Your mind was set on killing so no matter what your end goal is always the same.”

Taesan looked up and down at Jong Risungrak

“No wonder your conscious mind is such a mess. You…must have lead a filthy life.”

He who was already furious reached a peak after hearing such comments.

“Youuuuuu!”

Jong Risungrak filled his power and rage into his shouting. If they had not guarded themselves, they would have burst and eardrums.

It was not fancy but he displayed the ability to attack using the sense of hearing and sound.

Gyeongwan grimaced.

He had used his power to stop the attack, yet there was a sense of pain throughout his body.

Gyeongwan was worried for Taesan who was standing behind him. Had Taesan been able to withstand the attack?

As though he had read his mind, Taesan replied.

“Are you not able to reflect such a pathetic attack?? Really…you lack training.”

Gyeongwan shuddered at the comment that he lacked training.

Jong Risungrak’s energy cooled down. He had realized that continuing a conversation would only fuel his rage.

They wouldn’t be able to continue a proper conversation like this. He intended to kill one and catch the other to talk later on.

Taesan immediately noticed the change in Jong Risungrak. So he asked Gyeongwan.

“How long do you think you can withstand him?”

“Honestly I am not too sure.”

“Guess we’ll know once we try. Just don’t get too hurt or the doctor won’t be able to fix you.”

Gyeongwan smiled bitterly. As if that was something he could control.

“I will try my best.”

Taesan nodded.

“The best way to grow is to take on someone stronger than you.”

Gyeongwan took a deep breath and yielded his sword.

Sarong

Jong Risungrak glared at him as though he was annoyed.

“I will cut your throat off in one blow.”

Jong Risungrak’s body seemed to blink and soon before he knew it he was right in front of Gyeongwan.

Gyeonwan calmly but swiftly lifted his sword.

Clang!

He blocked the sword that was invisibly fast.

“You blocked that?”

Jong Risungrak’s eyes widened. That attack had been a combination of his surprise attack and his powers.

But Gyeongwan had been able to block him.

Jong Risungrak swiftly moved his sword and laid out a series of attacks.

Clang clang clang!

Jong Risungrak’s blows were fast and strong. And every blow was with the intent to kill which was a tremendous strain to the body.

But Gyeongwasn was withstanding these attacks.

Of course, he was not able to reflect his powers fully so the impact was present, even so, this was unexpected.

Would the Gyeongwan of the past have been able to withstand even a single blow?

No, this was only possible now because he was aware of the Jong clan’s weakness. If not his neck would already be detached from his body by now.

“I can do it!”

Confidence rose in Gyeongwan.

Jong Risungrak did not like the look of confidence and started putting more strength into his blows.

Kwang! Kwang! Kwang! Kwang!

Every time he blocked an attack the sound increased and caused explosively loud sounds.

Gyeongwan blocked the attacks with his mouth clenched. Blood was flowing from his mouth.

He had sustained an internal wound.

Even so, his fighting spirit did not falter, in fact, his spirit had grown.

Jong Risungrak was amazed at Gyonegwan. After a few more blows he pushed Gyeongwan away and stepped back.

“You possess a skill too good to be wasted in the golden wall clan. Why don’t you join our clan? I will make sure I raise you up.”

Jong Risungrak looked at Taesan behind Gyeongwan.

There was a lingering smile on Taesan.

The smile was displeasing, so Jong Risungrak frowned slightly.

“I will personally oversee your training. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. You won’t be betraying the one behind you. You will die eventually. So pretend you are dead and step out of the way.”

But Gyeongwan did not react nor falter.

Gyeongwan held his sword tightly and ran towards Jong Risungrak as though that was his reply.

Klaaaang!

Jong Risungrak blocked Gyeongwan’s attack. Each time the power blew off and blood spluttered from various parts of Gyeongwan’s body.

Then Gyeongwan’s blade silently attacked Jong Risungrak’s blindspot.

Swoosh!

A thin line was cut on Jong Risungrak’s cheek and blood splattered.

Rage lit up in his eyes.

“How dare you!”

Jong Risungrak’s sword started to adopt a white shade.

Swoosh!

Gyeongwan’s sword was cut smoothly in half.

Then Jong Risungrak’s sword stabbed Gyeongwan’s shoulder.

“Gahhh!”

Gyeongwan flew backwards while spluttering blood from his mouth.

Clang clang thud!

After rolling over a few rounds on the floor he stood back up.

Jong Risungrak squinted his eyes.

Just now he had aimed for the heart, not the shoulder. His attack had been reflected.

The more he fought, the more he felt he was going off track. So his irritation grew.

Jong Risungrak directed his irritation in the form of rage and glared at Gyeongwan.

Gyeonwan’s arm looked limp. The stab to his shoulder must have made him momentarily lose the ability to move his arm.

Even so, Gyeongwan picked up his half-broken word and directed it at Jong Risungrak. He was in shambles and falling apart, yet his fighting spirit had not decreased.

Jong Risungrak laughed at him.

“I’ll kill you now.”

Jong Risungrak uttered those words as he approached him with his white sword in his hand.

Gyeongwan channeled his energy and power into his broken sword.

He was attempting to go down together with his opponent.

Just then he felt a hand on his shoulder.

It was Taesan.

“That’s enough. If you sustain any more injuries you might not be able to use your arm anymore.”

Had he sustained a normal sword injury, he would have easily recovered. But he was hurt with the energy of a sword. His injury might be more serious than it looked.

But at least he wasn’t injured from the full force.

Had he sustained a full blow his whole arm would be gone.

“Watch carefully and don’t blink. You never know, you might learn something.”

Taesan smirked.

He really must have changed, he had never been so kind as to share this sort of information.

Leaving Gyeongwan behind, Taesan approached Jong Risungrak.

“You…think you can yield a sword against me?”

Taesan smirked again.

“A sword? As if I need a sword to take you down? You kidding me?”

Taesan replied while he did a final body check.

Having frequented the brothels, his body condition was not at its worst.

Just a few moves, it shouldn’t be detrimental to him.

After all, he still had the energy he had sucked out of Woong just recently.

He should return the energy he had taken from their family to another family member.

“Huuu. Next time I will make sure I cut out that tongue of yours.”

Jong Risungrak replied before attempting a blow to Taesan’s thigh.

As he aimed his blow, he was confident that he wouldn’t be able to avoid this.

Shhoom!

Jong Risungrak’s eyes widened so wide his eyes looked like it would pop.

He had definitely aimed to stab the thigh but his sword had slid past it.

Before he had the time to figure out what was going on, Taesan was standing right in front of him.

He had simply walked over but had reached him already.

A panic alarm rang in the back of Jong Risungrak’s mind.

He had been a member of the Jong clan even before the Cheonma incident. And his exposure to that incident had taught him how to identify similarly dangerous situations.

As he sensed the danger, his body moved instinctively from the years of training and experiences in battles.

Taesan twisted the arm holding his pointed sword.

Crack!

His muscles and joints screamed in pain but he wasn’t able to react to it.

His twisted arm directed the sword to the back of Taesan’t throat.

Thud!

At that moment Taesan’s elbow hit Jong Risungrak’s arm.

The sword he had pointed out suddenly pointed upward.

The blade of the sword passed over Taesan’s head.

Taesan swung his arm from below to above.

And his hand hit Jong Risungrak’s chin.

Thud!

Suddenly Jong Risungrak saw the blue sky and the whole world seemed to shake before turning black.

Thud!

Jong Risungrak’s head tilted and he hit the ground.

Taesan had moved past him and was standing one foot away.

All his movements had occurred in the blink of an eye.

Gyeongwan was able to observe the whole situation.

His line of vision was fixated on Taesan’s back.

All of Taesan’s movements he had just shown were imprinted in his mind like a beautiful painting. His movements had been swift and graceful.

It was so beautiful.

“Will I…also be able to move like that one day?”

Gyeongwan regained the focus in his eyes. And in them, a strong and pure look of determination filled them instead.

***

“If it wasn’t for me you would have had to cut this off. You know that right?”

The doctor showed off as much as he could while treating him.

Gyeongwan nodded.

“I will forever be indebted to you for this favor.”

There really was nobody who could treat a wound like his besides the doctor.

“Yes, yes. As long as you know. Don’t forget to repay me someday, okay?”

Then he realized the doctor was talking to Gyeongwan informally.

Before they had come to the Yeon residence he had spoken to him formally. But while treating him today, he had started to treat him informally.

It may mean that he was more comfortable with him, but in a way was also a way of telling him that he was of a higher status.

He was a savior who had saved his arm from being amputated.

The doctor brainwashed Gyeongwan by reminding him of his good deed every chance he had.

Gyeongwan directed his gaze away from the boastful doctor to Yoo who was following them behind.

Yoo looked on at the doctor with gratitude.

Then the doctor noticed that Yoo’s look of gratitude had faded off as compared to before.

“I guess I should stop here.”

If he were to boast any further it would undo his good deed. He could have boasted more to Gyeongwan but Yoo seemed to be at her limit.

‘I can always boast separately when I’m alone with Gyeongwan.’

It was always best to boast as much as possible when he could. As there were too many ungrateful people out there.

The doctor then moved his place next to the prince.

“Prince, do you know what kind of offer I’ve just declined to be here?”

Taesan didn’t reply. The doctor had not asked to hear an answer.

“He offered so much money…and they offered to invest in many rare herbs and medicines, told me to ask for anything I wanted with ten or more servants and ladies to keep me company at night.”

Taesan smirked.

Then waved his hand at the doctor.

“I’m not stopping you. Go.”

“What?”

“I said go. Go to the Jong clan.”

“What… don’t be so small-hearted. How can I possibly leave you behind? What I meant was that I am one with such great skills to be in high demand…all I wanted was you to be aware of this fact.”

“Be honest. I bet you were convinced to go right? Then you heard about what happened at the Jong household and changed your mind, right?

“Wow, what a thing to say! I swear I had no idea that the Jong clan were going bankrupt until just now.”

Taesan smirked.

“Ya ya, alright. Sure I bet.”

“I am speaking the truth! I am disappointed that you don’t believe me.”

The doctor leaped up and down, to which Taesan just smiled.

All of them were now on their way back to the Golden wall clan.