Book 13 Chapter 7

The third gateway!

- Sword Tomb (劍墓)

"They're stuck in the shackles of the past!"

Na Yerin said, stepping through the second gateway and toward the third.

"……."

Bi Ryuyeon, who was walking alongside her, remained silent and offered no answer. It was a rare occurrence, so rare that one sometimes wondered if his mouth had come to regard rest as a sin.

"What were you thinking about earlier? "

After asking the question, Na Yerin surprised herself.

You're asking yourself. The answer is coming. I'm curious! I'm curious! Why? Because I want to know! What?

"…his thoughts?

Is this what we call curiosity?

Curiosity is one of those very foreign emotions that she still hasn't quite gotten used to.

"The sky is so blue, isn't it? "

Ryu-yeon Bi was in a different mood. A hawk flies across the wind in the blue sky. Strong, wide wings, blue feathers. A thundering hawk.

"Ryuyeon!"

She raised her voice a little in warning, and I was surprised to see that she was once again doing what she called coercion.

Is this also motivated by curiosity?

"…crackers……."

"What?"

The first words were so faint that I could barely understand them.

"I was thinking about an unsolvable riddle, maybe I should solve it……."

"……?! "

Then she closed her mouth again. For the first time, Na Yerin felt the wall that existed in Bi Ryuyeon's mind, a solid wall that would not allow her access.

Suddenly, a pit in my stomach ached for no reason.

The bounty of the ripe fall season was covering the entire mountain, but it seemed that only that one place was left out of the benefits.

What do we call it? A wide-open expanse of land with a steep slope that breaks off abruptly. It was a desolate, barren land where not a single blade of grass grew. It felt ominous……. But there was something else growing in this barren land, and it looked like there were well over a hundred of them.

Grow?

They didn't know what it was at first, just that a small tree had sprouted life in this desert-like barrenness. But it had no branches or leaves.

I took a closer look. People's eyes widened. They finally knew what it was.

It was clear that it had been hanging on to this spot for many years.

Yi Jinxue put her hand on one of them and touched it here and there. The dirt wrapped around it like blood fell away with a crunch. An intense light flashed for a moment.

"Yuck!"

The girl quickly withdrew her hand. Standing like a monk, Hyorong's right saber twitched for a moment. But that was all.

Na Yerin and Dokgoryeong rushed to the girl's side and examined her. The girl was shaken. Her eyes, like jeweled ones, gazed at her white, milky fingers. Crimson blood dripped like dew from the wound. It was like a carnelian.

Na Yerin and Dokgoryeong's gazes turned to 'it'. Bi Ryuyeon's gaze also turned to it. The blade shimmered brightly in the sunlight. It was a sword, an exquisite sword whose blade had not been dulled by a hundred years of weather. It couldn't possibly belong to an ordinary person. The people looked around.

'So these are all swords?

But these swords were not complete. They were broken in half and stuck in the ground, like tombstones. Yes, like tombstones…….

"Do you like the desolation of this cemetery?"

An old man walked up to them. He wore a faded robe, a chest-high beard, and shaggy gray hair. If the apprentice's eyes were as hot as fire and as fierce as day, this old man's were as cold as ice and as still as night.

The sleeve where the old man's right hand should have been was empty. Just like the apprentice. Not fashionable, that was for sure. Several of the innkeepers who shifted their gaze to examine the old man's face let out a short groan and turned their heads in alarm. The old man's face was covered in horrifyingly hideous sword marks. Traces that looked like dozens of snakes had slithered and crawled across it, with blades instead of scales. It was a face so terrifying, so frightening, that it sent shivers down the spine of anyone who dared to look him in the eye.

"Who is Senior Noh?"

The ice sword bowed politely. A strange sword skill. There was no sword in the old man's hand, but in the old man's heart, there was a sharpened hilt. Ice Sword could feel it acutely through the goosebumps on his skin. He was polite in his greeting, but unwilling to let his guard down.

"Me? I'm just an ordinary gravedigger guarding this tomb!"

At the old man's answer, Bing'er asked in confusion.

"What do you mean, there are graves here? "

I looked around and didn't see any round, turtle-backed mounds of dirt. Neither did the tombstone.

"This whole land is a graveyard. Do your eyes not see the many swords that lie upon this earth?"

Sure, I could see them. Swords of all colors, surely, stood there, embedded in the earth, a part of nature, weathered by time. Some beveled, some straight, all different.

"There are exactly 108 swords here. And they all had masters a hundred years ago."

Needless to say, the resonance was ominous.

"Well, that is……."

The sword is a man's life. A foolish swordsman who would leave his life in such a remote place would not be found in all the nine provinces. There was only one way for a man to lose his sword. Moreover, if the swords were all in two pieces, as if they had been promised, then further explanation would be pointless.

"…so many lives have oxidized here."

Suddenly, the air turned solemn. These were all people who didn't take care of themselves to protect the strong. Is peace and happiness unattainable without someone's efforts and sacrifices? No one can answer this question.

"Senior Noh, what is your respectful family name?"

Yeomdo asked politely. Inwardly resolving that he would never be surprised by whoever this old man was!

Then the old man said.

"I don't see how knowing Nobu's insignificant name can be of any use, but for the record, Nobu is called Providence! …and those in the know also call him Sword Qi."

"Huh!"

In the end, Yin Dao was unable to keep his resolve. However, it was much better than Binggum, who shouted uncontrollably from the sidelines, "Nonsense! Urrrrgh!

Sword Qi (劍痴) Leaf Cloud Fate (葉雲鳴).

He had a star sign that meant "sword-crazy fool," but no one ever accused him of being a lunatic.

The man who, more than a hundred years ago, fought the best kendo masters in the world with a randomly cut branch, and who is therefore also a star hodo (一枝飜天: turning the heavens upside down with a branch), is a true royal fool.

A legend of the kendo world, a hundred years ago, with many stories to tell!

"If the sword has a one-eyed apprentice, Yong Jingyue, then the sword has a one-eyed sword master, Yi Jiaben Tian," was the saying that was circulating in Jianghu at the time, but when it came to comparing the two, people always raised their hands in favor of Yong Jingyue. At that time, the Sword Saint Mo Yongzheng Tian, the foremost of the three Heavenly Martial Saints, had yet to make a name for himself.

A hundred years! That was enough time for countless swordsmen to be forgotten in the minds of the people, and indeed they were. However, even now, in the mouths of the great and the good, Mo Yongzheng's skill was often compared to that of the legendary swordsman from a hundred years ago, Sword Qi Yunming. From this alone, one could clearly see what an outstanding swordsman he was.

"Am I alive right now?

He grumbled about meeting too many people from the graveyard who were supposed to be wandering the nameless scenic spots of the afterlife by now.