Tangmunjeon - Chapter 304



Only Noblemtl

Episode 304 Hong Gyeon

The non-competition competition started the very next day.

As Dang Mu-jin and his party appeared near the non-competition hall, a martial artist approached them stealthily and started talking to them.

“Hello. Are you the owner of the party?”

“Yes.”

“I am Jangju Son Ui-gun, the head of the Bongyang Son family. It is fate that we have met, so may I talk to you for a moment?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

That was a mistake.

The speed at which people who wanted to talk to him gathered was faster than the speed at which Dangmujin accepted their stories and sent people away.

‘What is this, why is it like this?’

The party leader was very embarrassed.

I thought at best one or two people would just give their names and move on, but I didn’t know so many people would flock here.

However, it was not easy to just cut off the conversation and leave.

Unlike the experienced heads of households, Dang Mu-jin was somewhat clumsy in this direction. He had no idea how to react or how to shake it off.

Ding, ding, ding-

As I listened to the endless stream of small talk, I heard the sound of a drum signaling the start of the competition.

Dang Mu-jin did not miss the opportunity.

“The non-competition is about to begin. I’ll see you again later when I have the chance!”

After shaking off some of the people, Dang Mu-jin headed straight to the military parade hall.

Namgung Myung asked Dang Mujin.

“Why were you listening to all that useless talk?”

“I didn’t accept it because I wanted to. I didn’t even have a clue how to get out of it. I thought this is what it would feel like to be caught up in the Thirty-Six Arhats.”

Namgung Myung chuckled.

“I guess you don’t know how to deal with it. It’s essentially the same as fighting.”

“How should I deal with it?”

“Just draw your sword and cut down the weakest looking guy, and you’ll be able to escape. Everyone will be scared and retreat. Do that next time.”

“···Yeah. I was like, why aren’t you talking nonsense?”

“I guess you didn’t know. All the famous Sega’s do that.”

Since it was a joke that even a fool would fall for, Dang Mu-jin returned the favor by giving Namgung Myung an insulting gesture.

The sound of the drums stopped and the voice of the announcer of the non-event competition was heard.

It didn’t seem like he had used his inner strength to raise his voice or anything, but rather that he was just someone who was naturally good at singing.

“Ah, the raffle will begin! Participants, please gather immediately!”

However, judging from the atmosphere, it seemed like they had no intention of starting the match by drawing up a matchup list from the beginning. Dang Mu-jin thought about it carefully.

‘Well, there would be too many participants for that. There are no restrictions for the non-competitive event except for age.’

In fact, the age limit itself was a bit tricky. Who was to determine whether someone was over thirty or not?

The receptionist just looked at your face and accepted you as long as it wasn’t something out of the ordinary.

The host took out each plaque from a large box in front of him and read the words written on each plaque.

“The mighty sound of Geonyang Jinryongmun!”

“Wow! Wow! The hope of the True Dragon Gate!”

“The curve of the Hubei Man family!”

“Curved! Curved! Knock them all down!”

Every time a name was called, people who knew the person raised their voices and cheered the participant’s name.

Most people left a fairly concise self-introduction on their plaque, but some did not.

“A promising swordsman, Hakhaedong, who has taken the top spot among the Eight Swords of Gansu with his sharp swordsmanship like a ray of light!”

To this extent, it was rather normal to put a profanity before my name.

“At the age of twelve, he killed a tiger with his bare hands, and the following year, he received the energy of the black dragon sleeping at the bottom of the Heilongjiang River and ascended to heaven with the Supreme Emperor Laojun, only to return to the human world two days ago…”

There were even people who wrote on their signs content that was clearly a joke.

Even as the gathered people burst into laughter, the host read the contents of the signboard with a very serious expression. This was because such pranks were a tradition at the Non-Mu Competition.

Of course, Mr. Lee, who was said to have ascended to heaven with Taesang No-gun, did not appear at the non-combat event.

When twenty people finally gathered unarmed, the host shouted powerfully.

“Let’s decide the winner! The condition is until five people remain! If you sustain a serious injury or roll around on the ground, you will be disqualified! If you use a strange secret weapon, you will also be disqualified!”

Following the host’s instructions, a melee began in which five out of twenty people fought until only one remained.

This was a very clever way to do it. Not only could they quickly wipe out the rabble in one fell swoop, but they could also supplement the often tedious fights between lower-ranking men with numbers and scale.

Even if the level of the fight is not high, as long as the scale is large, a certain level of excitement is guaranteed.

At first, it seemed like a couple of people with insufficient skills would quickly drop out, but the people gathered unarmed naturally split into two factions. A minority with relatively good skills and a majority with less skills.

If the goal was to have just one final winner, everyone would have joined forces to eliminate the strongest one.

But since there were five winners, there was no reason for those with better skills to point their swords at each other.

“Eww!”

“Stand there!”

After fighting for a long time, the winner was decided.

Of the five who had formed an implicit alliance and were relatively good at it, four remained until the end. And one of the mixed group luckily advanced to the main event.

The next round was similar in terms of the situation itself. A few people with decent skills, and a majority who wanted to break through them and advance to the main event. The only difference was that Namgung Hyun was in the mix.

Namgung Hyun didn’t even mix in with the crowd. To Namgung Hyun, who had already reached the peak at the age of twenty-six, the other nineteen were all equal underdogs.

Even though there was one more person among the nineteen who had crossed the climax wall, it was the same.

There were no surprises in the second group. Only three players, including two top-class players, advanced to the main tournament.

Namgung Hyeon looked around with a blunt yet arrogant expression, then met eyes with Namgung Myeong.

Namgung Hyeon’s eyes grew as big as lanterns, as if he didn’t know that Namgung Myung would be there. Soon, Namgung Hyeon bowed his head to Namgung Myung and gave him a prize.

Dang Mu-jin poked Namgung Myung in the side.

“What? I can tell right away.”

“We’re from the same Namgung family, so of course we should get to know each other.”

“What is your relationship with that guy named Namgung Hyeon?”

“He’s my cousin. We used to hang out together often when we were kids.”

He spoke as if he had grown old and stopped hanging out with them, but in reality, he had simply been kicked out of the family and was unable to hang out with them.

I didn’t want to talk about my embarrassing past in front of the two congressmen and Seolhwa, so I just expressed it indirectly.

“If he’s a cousin… is he related to Elder Namgung Jinya?”

“I am not Uncle Jinya’s child.”

“Ahem.”

And the third group match.

“···Hong Gyeon, the open-minded person from Juulchon!”

Finally, Hong Geol-gae’s pseudonym was called.

Hong Geol-gae entered unarmed, bare-handed, because he thought his identity might be revealed if he went in with a stick.

Dang Mu-jin examined Hong Geol-gae’s face. Hong Geol-gae’s face was very unfamiliar and his expression was a bit unnaturally stiff, but there was nothing particularly strange about it.

‘Will anyone recognize Hong Geol-gae’s true identity?’

The group looked at the unarmed man, half in the hope that others would not recognize Hong Geol-gae, and half in the hope of seeing Hong Geol-gae’s true identity revealed and humiliated.

However, not only was there no one who recognized Hong Geol-gae’s true identity, but no one paid even the slightest attention to him. This was the case for both the participants and the people watching the martial arts competition.

It was the first time that the technique called reverse tactic took effect.

Congressman Yang whispered quietly.

“It was a success, right?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god!”

The two members were particularly pleased.

It was a very moving thing to see him leave his mark on the Central Plains martial arts world with skills that could hardly be called third-rate, and whose quality was only just beginning to be felt.

I wasn’t sure if this technique called reverse magic would be able to continue.

Namgung Myung also seemed secretly pleased. He was a guy who often did dirty work behind the scenes, so he would definitely be able to use his reverse tactics well.

“Okay, let’s begin.”

The third match was played with a similar structure to the previous two matches: a small number of skilled players and a large number of mediocre players.

Dang Mu-jin and his party looked at the stadium, anticipating the moment when Hong Geol-gae would show off his skills.

‘How can I sweep it away?’

Since you didn’t bring a stick, you won’t be able to perform the Tagu Bong method. Should you perform the Chwipal Seonbo? Or should you perform the Hangryong Sipaljang?

However, Hong Geol-gae displayed behavior different from expectations.

I erased my presence and hid my skills, and quietly sat down in a corner of the stadium. I looked like someone who had given up on the match, or someone who had participated in the match but was too scared to get involved in the fight.

“Why is he like that?”

“Well, I guess you’ll figure it out.”

Hong Geol-gae’s presence was so vague that not only the audience but also those fighting unarmed paid no attention to him at all.

There were some who found the red flag once in a while, but even they soon lost interest. A beggar with two knots and no weapons. It was clear that it would be neither helpful nor a hindrance in a fight.

Until the match was almost over, no special upsets occurred in Hong Geul-gae’s group.

In a situation where only five people with decent skills and Hong Geol-gae are left.

The group watched with bated breath to see how the situation would unfold.

‘What do you plan to do now?’

It was then that a small change occurred. As a man who looked to be of a first-class standard approached Hong Geol-gae for the last time, a man behind him kicked his shin.

Suddenly, a first-class, perfectly fine unmanned vehicle was rolling around on the floor.

The announcer shouted.

“The two winds of the Bowangmun Gate are eliminated!”

The man called Du Jin-pung looked around with a bewildered expression, then jumped up from his seat and shouted at the host.

“I’m eliminated? Why me?”

“If you roll around on the floor, you’re out!”

“What the heck, it was a surprise attack!”

“That’s the rule.”

Du Jinpung turned around and glared at the man who had kicked his shin.

Looking at the situation, it seemed like the man who kicked Dojinpung and Ogeum knew each other.

“You, Takjong’s! What are you doing?”

Tak Jong-i smiled bitterly.

“What the heck? I was just doing what your uncle did to my father.”

“You crazy bastard! That was over twenty years ago. Back when you and I were both snot-nosed!”

“A gentleman’s revenge is not too late, even after twenty years.”

“You brat! Revenge or whatever, the grudge between my uncle and your father was resolved more than ten years ago, so what revenge are you talking about?”

“Did you think you could wash away that shame by just wagging your tongue three inches?”

From what I heard, revenge seemed like an excuse. They just wanted to reduce the number of threatening opponents before advancing to the main tournament.

The two men argued bitterly for a long time, but whether there was ill will in their families or not was of no concern to the people who had come to watch the fight.

The crowd booed at Du Jinpung.

“Ow, get down! What the heck are you doing!”

“Get out of here now!”

It was not possible to continue the confrontation in this place. Doo Jin-pung approached the host and appealed to him about his grievances.

“That doesn’t make sense! It’s not me, it’s that beggar in the corner! He should get out!”

“But he wasn’t seriously injured, he wasn’t rolling around on the ground, and he didn’t show any intention to surrender.”

“Does that matter? He’s just a worthless guy! Do you think I’ve left him alone until now because I’m scared of a guy like that?”

Despite Du Jin-pung’s strong protests, the host was unwavering.

Because he knew that if he went outside the rules and exercised his discretion, he would end up creating problems for himself.

Then, Du Jinpung changed his method of dealing with the situation. He rushed straight at Hong Geolgae. Even his hairy arms went towards Hong Geolgae.

Dang Mu-jin expected that Hong Geol-gae would immediately unleash a golden whip and break Du Jin-pung’s wrist, but unexpectedly, Hong Geol-gae was lifted up obediently while Du Jin-pung grabbed him by the collar.

Even with a very nervous expression.

Du Jin-pung grabbed the red flag and shook it vigorously.

“Look! This is the guy! He’s someone I can finish off with one punch, and he’s going to advance to the finals instead of me?”

“There can be no exceptions to the rule.”

“This is no exception! This is a natural conclusion! Isn’t the purpose of the tournament to select the strongest? If the tournament is conducted like this, only cowards and fools will remain in the main event!”

Du Jinpung continued to swear for a while, as if his hair was hot, before he quickly threw down the red flag.

Hong Geol-gae displayed a very subtle method of enlightenment, and instead of rolling around on the floor, he raised his body appropriately.

And the party leader saw.

‘That kid is serious.’

Hong Geol-gae’s eyes were sparkling with joy and anticipation, and a faintly dark and satisfied smile was on his lips.