“Heh heh heh.”
Geumpyo laughed as if he’d lost his mind.
Eunho, standing beside him, laughed just as wildly.
“Heh heh.”
Dongryong watched his older brothers and laughed along with them.
Eunho, sprawled on the floor, looked at the startled Saryeon and asked, “What do you think, Senior Sister?”
After seeing the three Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers demonstrate their new sword formation, Saryeon still couldn’t close her hanging jaw.
“What in the world was that?”
“It’s the White Tiger Deathblow Sword Formation.”
“Deathblow?”
Saryeon knew that the three brothers’ skills had improved by leaps and bounds after they went through the Hell Official Exam.
But the formation they’d just shown had far surpassed her expectations.
“We’ve been studying the sword forms Dongryong uses.”
At Eunho’s words, Saryeon turned her gaze to Dongryong.
Wasn’t he said to have the Heavenly Slaughter Star?
Fortunately, she’d heard that he had suppressed his murderous star through the Taeul True Scripture and persistent mental-image training.
And she’d heard that Geumpyo and Eunho had learned to imitate the killing sword forms born from the Heavenly Slaughter Star’s innate talent…
“On top of that, we added the Ten Thousand Seas and Heaven-Earth Sword Art.”
The formation the three had performed was clearly a simple White Tiger Formation, but its destructive power was unlike anything one could expect from the same formation.
“………”
She could gauge its power just by looking around the sparring grounds.
The marble floor was cracked, and the wooden training dummy had been smashed to pieces.
She’d never heard of a formation performed by three people having that kind of destructive power.
“……But you’re saying that isn’t even the end of it?”
At Saryeon’s bewildered question, Eunho answered smugly.
“You’ve also begun learning the Ten Thousand Seas and Heaven-Earth Sword Art, haven’t you, Senior Sister?”
Saryeon nodded.
Since entering the academy, she had learned the martial arts of the Taeul Sword Emperor. But thanks to the marrow cleansing she received from the Divine Sword and her own painstaking efforts, she had recently managed to forge a single Myriad Sword through the Ten Thousand Seas and Heaven-Earth Sword Art, an ultimate technique of the Taeul Sword Emperor.
“The four of us will perform the formation together.”
“……Will that work? I’ve never practiced the formation with you before…”
“The White Tiger Formation was designed so that even people who learned different sword arts could join together without difficulty. Besides, we’ve all learned the same martial art.”
Saryeon nodded at Eunho’s explanation, then a question occurred to her.
“But why do I need to join? You three have had plenty of time to coordinate with each other.”
“Because the formation will grow even stronger with you in it, Senior Sister.”
“Stronger?”
The White Tiger Formation was more effective on defense than offense.
Why would they want to increase the offensive power of a formation like that?
“We’re planning to use it on Eldest Senior Brother.”
“Huh?”
“Eldest Senior Brother has been terribly worried about us junior disciples all this time. Shouldn’t we take this chance to knock him down a peg and prove he doesn’t need to worry about us?”
“……Are you planning to get revenge on him?”
“………”
That look on their faces said she’d hit the mark.
Dongryong was so mild-mannered and kind that he’d never do something like that, but Geumpyo and Eunho were such troublemakers that Jin Sowoon often ended up beating them.
Could it be that this was why they’d been training so hard all this time?
“……Of course not. How could we possibly seek revenge on our revered Eldest Senior Brother? We have no such intention whatsoever. We only want to show him how much we’ve improved.”
Somehow, every word they said sounded like a lie.
……Still, whatever their intentions, the thought of landing a blow on him didn’t sound too bad.
“If you’re going to land a blow on him, you might as well do it properly.”
“Huh?”
“Where do I stand?”
For the first time in a while, Hong Saryeon felt her enthusiasm for training flare up.
I brought Sword Demon the book he’d been looking for in the Grand Library.
Sword Demon read it over and over again.
He read it with tears in his eyes, then turned the pages with a stony expression.
After reading it several times, Sword Demon prepared to leave at once to find them, and I had to stop him.
“……Where do you think you’re going, rushing off like this?”
Seop Sojeong had left her location as Jilin Province.
It was somewhere one had to pass through Beijing and Liaoning to reach.
“And you said you received that letter five years ago. How can you be sure they’re still living there?”
“If they aren’t, I’ll start searching from there.”
“What if this is a fake?”
“……….”
“Are you going to scour the whole world?”
Of course, judging by the letter’s contents and the private message, it was hard to believe it could be fake. It contained too many secrets known only to the two of them.
But even that wasn’t certain.
Besides, Sword Demon had plenty of enemies.
The man who was an eyesore to both the righteous and heretical factions was none other than Sword Demon.
Perhaps someone had set him up to keep him from continuing his endless journey of sparring, in which he barged into the homes of people who wanted nothing to do with him and challenged them.
“Send someone to confirm it first. And if they’ve moved somewhere else, it’ll be easier to find them through other people than for you to search on your own. Besides, you promised to teach me martial arts.”
“You mean I should hire the Beggar Gang? But I don’t have any money…”
“……I’ll pay for it. Think of it as tuition.”
While we waited to confirm Seop Sojeong’s whereabouts, my private martial arts training with Sword Demon began.
“Who taught you to wrap sword energy around your blade like that? Are you trying to use your sword energy as a torch?”
“Your sword energy doesn’t need to be big. In fact, the smaller it is, the better.”
“What? If it’s small, you’ll be overwhelmed by your opponent’s presence. Why are you so obsessed with size? Is there some other part of you that’s lacking?”
“Sword energy is about density. You wrap your sword in it to increase its density. If you can raise the density, its size doesn’t matter.”
Sword Demon’s training was rough, and he often got under my skin. Still, his lessons were practical and clearly useful in a real fight.
He was the first proper martial arts instructor I’d had since Hall Master Kang Chaeseok, so I began asking him about all the things I’d been curious about and the areas where I still felt lacking.
Whenever I asked a question based on righteous faction martial arts, Sword Demon would explain it through his own original insights. His answers were so concise and straightforward that they made me want to laugh.
“Forms and techniques, you mean? Of course they’re important. But what use are they if you can’t use them in a real fight? That doesn’t mean you should throw them away.”
“What? You think you have to abandon techniques to reach the next stage of enlightenment? You lunatic! Have you reached some transcendent stage or something?”
“Sword aura? Haven’t I told you not to obsess over sword aura? Damn it, did a ghost who died without learning sword aura possess you in a past life? Look at those bastards in the Cheongang Sect. They use palm aura and fist aura, yet one swift sword strike can chop off their limbs. You could study sword aura for a hundred years and it still wouldn’t help.”
“Your sword energy has to be complete. Sword aura follows only after your sword energy is complete. Sword aura made before your sword energy is complete is nothing more than a scrap of paper…… Does that sound like nonsense to you? Want to test your sword aura against my sword energy right now?”
Of course, he was so hot-tempered and ill-mannered that learning from him wasn’t easy.
Still, we became close enough that I no longer had to go back and forth to the dormitory. I even stayed with him in his hut and trained all day.
Then one day, while training with Sword Demon, I sensed something strange and slowly lowered the Blood Dragon Sword.
Sword Demon’s brow furrowed deeply.
“We’re still training. Raise your sword.”
“What you just showed me—that’s your unique martial art, isn’t it?”
“Oh? So your eyes work after all. You can recognize an outstanding sword art at a glance?”
Damn, did he have to put it like that?
“I told you before, my eye for detail and my memory are pretty good.”
“Puhahaha. Even if you memorize my sword forms, do you think you can copy them?”
“………”
“It’s the Three Forms of the White Moon that Subdues Heaven.”
I knew that well.
In the future, Sword Demon would use that sword art to unify the heretical murim.
“Go ahead and copy it if you can.”
He was utterly confident that I would never manage it.
As he’d said, I faced the Three Forms of the White Moon that Subdues Heaven every day, but I couldn’t even understand the first technique properly.
“Why does my Myriad Sword break against a branch that isn’t even wrapped in sword energy?”
“The ultimate principle of the first technique is extreme speed. What do you need to be the fastest?”
“Strength?”
“You need nothing.”
“……….”
“To be the fastest, you have to be as light as possible. If nothing can catch up to you, then nothing can stop you. Don’t you think?”
“But it definitely clashed with the Myriad Sword I used.”
“I blocked its path before the Myriad Sword was complete. Didn’t I tell you sword energy is about density? An incomplete sword is nothing more than a sandcastle that can crumble at any moment. Your Myriad Sword is no different.”
A month passed. By the time word came back from the people we’d sent to Jilin Province to look for Seop Sojeong, I still hadn’t managed to break through Sword Demon’s first technique.
Sword Demon watched me intently as I prepared to read the message the Haomun had sent.
“What does it say?”
“……I’ve only just opened it.”
Sword Demon swallowed, urging me to read it quickly.
I shook my head and began reading the message.
Then—
“They’re living in Liaoning Province now.”
At the news, Sword Demon’s eyes trembled.
“Are those two…… the people I’m looking for?”
“A mother and daughter of extraordinary beauty are living there, making a living by cultivating fields.”
“……….”
I passed the details about Seop Sojeong to Sword Demon, who had gone as still as a wooden statue.
“So I’m the only one who lost out here. I didn’t even get proper lessons.”
Sword Demon’s body stiffened as he read the message, and his brow furrowed.
“Still, you can now draw out sword aura, can’t you?”
“Ah, well, that’s true.”
I had reached the realm of sword aura that I’d wanted so badly.
But after spending a month watching the ultimate technique that was practically the pinnacle of his art, I couldn’t hide my disappointment, even though I’d finally managed to draw out the sword aura I’d longed for.
“You’re going to see them right away, aren’t you?”
“………”
“Are you not going?”
“Seop Sojeong was once the successor to the Baekhwa Palace. I don’t know what to make of the fact that she’s now living as a farmer.”
Sword Demon, who hadn’t even flinched when I unleashed the full force of the Ten Thousand Seas and Heaven-Earth Sword Art before him, drooped his shoulders as if he were carrying a heavy burden.
“She had a child with a man from the heretical faction, even though she belonged to the Baekhwa Palace. So she’s living like a sinner. That’s all.”
“What?”
“Isn’t that the truth?”
“………”
“Anyway, I’ve been thinking about it. Why didn’t Seop Sojeong reveal her location right away? Why make you wander around the Grand Library?”
“Maybe she wanted you to make a decision.”
“A decision?”
If she wanted him to take responsibility for the child, she could have brought the child to him.
If that wasn’t what she wanted, there would have been no need to tell Sword Demon about the child at all.
But Seop Sojeong had deliberately chosen a complicated and difficult path.
“I think she left you with a choice. She gave up her place in the Baekhwa Palace. Perhaps she wanted to know whether you, too, could give up the burden you’ve been carrying.”
“Maybe she’s telling you that if you still want to live as Sword Demon, you shouldn’t show up in front of them.”
Sword Demon’s eyelids trembled, as if he’d just come to an understanding.
“……I think you’re right.”
“Are you still attached to the name Sword Demon?”
Sword Demon looked at his own hand.
A brief silence fell between us.
At last, he shook his head.
His face looked more unburdened than ever, with not a trace of lingering attachment.
I was rather surprised that Sword Demon could look so at peace.
“How does it feel? Does it fit?”
Sword Demon, adjusting his clothes, rolled his shoulders several times as if he felt awkward.
“It’s a little too flashy.”
The clothes Sword Demon was wearing had been made at my personal request to the seamstress.
It was an ordinary long robe with a tasteful mix of white and blue, but even that seemed flashy to Sword Demon, who had never paid any attention to his clothes.
“You need to wear something like this if you want to blend in.”
“I’d be better off just running.”
“You could do that where there aren’t any people, but wouldn’t you stand out if you ran through a crowded place?”
“Is that so……?”
Sword Demon had now completely stopped pretending to be a hunchbacked old man.
After undoing the Bone-Reversing Art and disguise art, he looked like an ordinary middle-aged man.
“This is a horse token you can use at the stables run by the Wang Family Estate. And this is a Haomun token. If you need help, wear it on your belt, and someone from the Haomun will come find you.”
“……I’m not a child. I can find my way there just fine—”
“Come on, enough. You started searching the very first library hall for the book Seop Sojeong had hidden. How am I supposed to trust you?”
“………”
Sword Demon took the horse token and Haomun token, then stared blankly at me.
“Why are you being so kind to me?”
I didn’t know what lay ahead for Sword Demon, but if the Righteous-Demonic War broke out, he would return to the murim world.
I could spare this much for the sake of that day.
“Still, you’re my martial arts instructor. It’s a disciple’s job to take care of things like this.”
“Tch……! What disciple? With your lousy skills? Don’t go around telling people you learned even a single thing from me. I won’t let you off.”
“Yes, yes.”
I handed him a money pouch.
“Try not to use the gold coins inside. Whenever you need to spend money, use only silver coins and copper coins—”
“Do you take me for an idiot?”
Sword Demon snapped at me, checked the pouch, then tucked it neatly inside his robe.
“When I leave, erase every trace I’ve left here.”
“I was going to do that anyway.”
“And take this and throw it away, too.”
Sword Demon handed me a booklet and a wooden case that had been lying on the platform.
“You were still reading the treatise……?”
As I read the book, my eyes stopped on the words in front of me.
Hundreds of characters describing the three sword forms.
Along with the weaknesses of the sparring opponents he’d faced throughout his life and the lessons he’d learned from those matches.
It was, in essence, a book containing the whole of Sword Demon’s knowledge.
“Isn’t this the Three Forms of the White Moon that Subdues Heaven?”
Sword Demon didn’t answer. He only nodded toward the wooden case.
I quickly opened it.
With a soft pop, a clear, forest-like fragrance wafted out.
Inside was a pill with an extraordinary aura, no less remarkable than the Small Rejuvenation Pill from Shaolin that I’d taken before.
I looked at him, unable to understand why he was giving it to me.
“……You need these more than I do right now. Go on, become the greatest under heaven, just as you wanted.”
How could he still remember something I’d said so long ago?
I was so moved that tears welled in my eyes.
“Ah, and if you pass that martial art on to anyone without my permission, you’ll regret it.”
The tears vanished at once.
He really was the sort of person who could make you feel indebted with a single sentence.
“Anyway, your disciple will bow to you.”
I couldn’t become his formal disciple, but hadn’t I inherited his teachings all the same?
Even if I couldn’t perform the full nine bows, three bows were the least I could do.
But—
My body wouldn’t move as I tried to bow.
It was as if an invisible force had pinned me in place.
Confused, I looked at Sword Demon. He spoke coldly.
“I have no intention of entering into a master-disciple relationship with you, so there’s no need to bow.”
“……Then what should I say if people ask where I learned this martial art?”
“Tell them you stole it.”
“……You’re insane.”
Stole martial arts from Sword Demon? Who under heaven would believe that?
“From Sword Demon?”
“……How long are you going to keep calling me Sword Demon? I gave up that name a long time ago.”
You only said you’d give it up two days ago.
“……Then tell me your name.”
“Baek Haegwang. That’s my name.”
Perhaps Baek Haegwang had said that because he didn’t want me to inherit the burden he carried.
He had a terrible way of speaking, but a good heart.
“What will you do after you meet Seop Sojeong?”
“……I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“Are you planning to keep living by cultivating fields?”
“No. But I don’t know where to begin.”
Neither Baek Haegwang nor Seop Sojeong could live an ordinary life, even if they wanted to.
“Then why not use this chance to establish a sect?”
“A sect?”
“Neither of you can return to your original sect or family. One of you came from the righteous faction, and the other is a notorious member of the heretical faction. No one would take you in.”
“……A sect.”
“Even a small but powerful sect could be a place where Seop Sojeong and your daughter can live in peace. You can’t spend your whole lives hiding and running away.”
Sword Demon nodded repeatedly.
“But as you know, I have nothing. Founding a sect isn’t easy, and I don’t have anyone who would follow me……”
“As it happens, I know an excellent patron. Why not stay as a guest in his sect for a while and lay the groundwork for founding your own?”
“A patron?”
“You’re not going to establish some sect with no roots, are you?”
If Sword Demon wanted, he could join any heretical sect and seize control by force before becoming its leader.
But what he wanted wasn’t a life among the heretical faction. He wanted protection for Seop Sojeong and his daughter.
Even if it was difficult, he had to build that protection himself, one step at a time.
“……But would this excellent patron support me?”
“The sect leader of the sect he belongs to is so generous that the villagers praise him. They say the disciple who learned from him is just as openhearted when it comes to making friends. I’m sure that person would become your patron.”
“Someone like that exists……? Who are you talking about?”
Who else?
“Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect. Who else?”
“………”
Good. He’d taken the bait.
“Heh heh heh.”
I couldn’t stop smiling, even as I wrote a message to my father.
Baek Haegwang had said he’d make his decision after meeting Seop Sojeong.
I was writing to give my father a heads-up before that happened.
Obtaining the Three Forms of the White Moon that Subdues Heaven and an elixir was impressive, but the best part was that Sword Demon might become a guest of the Taeul Sect.
And he’d bring Seop Sojeong and their daughter with him.
Where could Sword Demon, notorious throughout the world, possibly turn for support?
Besides, founding a sect wasn’t something that could be done in a day or two. It would take several years at least.
In the end, with nowhere else to go, Sword Demon would stay at the Taeul Sect for quite some time.
“Heh heh heh. If anyone messes with the Taeul Sect, they’re done for~ Because Sword Demon is our guest~”
As I wrote the message, I heard familiar voices along with the sound of someone approaching.
“Why does Eldest Senior Brother look so pleased?”
“Looks like he’s cooking up something devious. That’s the face he makes when he’s about to mess with someone.”
I scolded them.
“You say whatever you like about your Eldest Senior Brother.”
I was at a loss for words when Geumpyo, Eunho, and Dongryong entered with Saryeon.
“……What on earth have you all been doing?”
I could understand the Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers looking as rough as ever, being such easygoing fellows, but Saryeon looked like a beggar’s big brother.
Geumpyo exchanged glances with the others, then stepped forward and said, “Eldest Senior Brother, I have something to say.”
“Go ahead.”
“Let’s fight!!”
Oh? So you’ve finally decided to commit a rebellion against your senior.
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