Book 13 Chapter 8

What you don't want to hear!

"The masters of these swords are gathered here to resist one man. And it was only then that we finally came to the conclusion that we had underestimated him, that he was darkness itself, fear and despair itself, a conclusion that was long overdue."

The story is about to begin again. It's about 'him'. Now I hate it. I'm afraid. I wanted to scream, "No more, please stop!

When Sword Qi Yun Yun began to tell the old story of the ungrateful Zhong Xing and the apprentice Yong Jing Yi, the delegates of the Heavenly Martial Academy honestly wanted to cover their ears. They didn't want to hear it. It was time to stop listening to a story that was only building more despair than hope.

I had a strong sense of foreboding that if I listened to him any longer, I might lose my confidence completely.

Only then did they realize the true meaning of Zhongqing's warning to them.

'If you let your guard down, you might get swallowed up by the afterimage!

Perhaps because they had ignored the warning, their minds were slowly being consumed by fear.

It was the first time they had ever been considered so insignificant, as they had always been praised, envied, and scrutinized by their peers, but reality was forcing them to break through that barrier, and failure to do so would only lead to frustration. But no matter how young and flexible their minds were, there were limits.

Inwardly, I was praying for them to stop, but the swordsmen were not willing to, and they had no right to, so I could only listen helplessly as the story began again.

"You should know how surprised we were when he appeared here. We stared at him as if he were a mirage or an illusion."

"He" was not thought to be human.

"As you know, we were the third gateway to the Triumvirate. The third and final one, too, and yet we heard nothing until he arrived here!"

A few people gave me a "what does that matter?" look, but most of the time, it was a gasp of wonder.

"Ah!"

Junho Yoon was no exception.

Sword Qi glanced at Yun Jun and said.

"The first and second gateways aren't very close to this place, but they're not so far away that sound can't reach them!"

A light bulb went off in most people's heads.

"Actually, we were expecting a big fight, so we should have heard something big and loud. Whether it was the shouting of the cavalry, the screams of the terminus, or whatever. But there was no sound, as if the entire mountain was covered in a veil of silence and stillness. It was not that our ears refused to hear."

A moment of silence.

"His appearance was like something out of the ground! He had already rattled us by his mere presence, and that gave him the upper hand."

Sword Qi Yunming looked around with a dark expression, as if recalling the time, before speaking.

"We called it the Hundred Eight Destroyers Sword Test. It was a deadly test that was based on a variation of Shaolin's Hundred Eighty Nine Swords, analyzing the Volcano Sect's Plum Blossom Test, the Shaman Sect's Big Dipper River Test, and the Blood Sword Gate's Blood Chain Test. No other jinjutsu of the time could surpass its subtlety."

It was the work of dozens of the world's best and brightest swordsmen and brains, who put their heads together for hundreds of days, forgetting about erosion. It was not without pride.

"There were quite a few famous people there. It's safe to say that everyone worthy of the title of sword master was there. If they disappeared, the sword seeds scattered throughout the Great Lake would dry up!"

I had to make sure I had a backup plan for that.

"There was also the owner of the Nephrite Godsword you wear at your waist, the Void Ambassador?"

Sword Qi pointed to one of the two swords hanging from Long Tianming's waist.

"He, that would be my master's master… my master. I've only heard that he entered during the Heavenly Blood Tax, but I haven't heard any other details, only that he was one of the most accomplished martial artists in Shaolin history……."

"His largest organ was actually his sword. He was there, too, guarding the right side of Nobu and Qian Jin. He was a great man who would never hesitate to sacrifice himself for the sake of the sentient beings of Jianghu……. However, not even the sword light of the goddess could stop his hand."

Long Tianming's body trembled with a shudder.

I had never heard of such a secretary before, but none of the adults in the school spoke of her work, even though it was by no means dishonorable, but rather something to be proud of…….

'Surely it wasn't because you didn't want to change the undefeated legend of the Dharma Sword?'

The elders of the school would not want to see Shaolin's last hope extinguished.

Paying no attention to Long Tianming, who was reeling in shock, Sword Qi continued.

"He wasn't the only one, there was also Guo Yue, the Hua Shan Only Sword, then called the Hua Shan First Sword, now called the Plum Blossom Sword Line. He was a close friend of mine…, but he was a waste. I've lost so many friends who shared sword intentions over drinks that day……."

The disciples of the Volcano Sect, Cho Tianwu, Hua Seol-ok, and Yun Jun-ho, gave a short gasp of surprise. If he was the godbrother of the Taoist Lady Liu Huanqing, he was too high to be apportioned.

Gumchi didn't stop there.

"There, too, was Chu Yi, the opening hermit sword."

"Yes? No. In the opening, a certain swordsman is……."

The old man's eyes narrowed.

As far as he knows, there is no sword method for opening. It had long been established that the highest martial art in the opening of the beggar's horde was the thirty-six strikes.

"You mean to tell me you don't already know the story of the famous sword-wielding girl?"

"Sin, I'm sorry."

Nohak couldn't say he knew what he didn't know.

"Phew, how quickly the dead are forgotten."

The old man sighed deeply.

"Gulin Sword Chu Sheng was a very unusual beggar. He was a beggar, but he was interested in swords, so he spent his life studying the subject of whether or not he could turn his batting sticks into swordsmanship. After many decades, his efforts finally came to fruition, as he studied all the miscellaneous sword techniques that had accumulated in the open field, as well as most of the famous sword techniques of the great masters… That's strange. There must be a thirty-six-second sword technique in the open field that Chu Sheng left behind, and it's called the Thirty-Six Sword Technique!"

It was unheard of by everyone else, not even by gnomes, the promised beggars of openness. No, there was one thing that was similar. But I thought it was the ramblings of a bunch of grown-up beggars with a penchant for puffery…….

"How could it be that the rumored Gull King's Sword……."

"That seems a little inflated."

"I can't believe he had such a good thing, and he kept it from me. I'll have to ask him to tell me about it later.

This is a turning point in the life of a beggar who would later be known as the Queen.

Yue Yun Ming spoke, this time looking at the South Palace statue.

"Do you know the phrase "dangling iron" (螳螂拒轍)?"

Nangong Shang nodded quickly. He glanced over at Bi Ryuyeon, who not only knew what it meant, but had practiced it himself with some of his friends.

"It's a wart trying to stop a running cart, a term used to describe reckless people who try to do things that are out of their league."

And the price can be a very bitter one.

"That's exactly what we did."

'He' did not do the childish thing of uttering threats, nor did he need to; his mere standing there was itself a terror to them, and none of them could face it and fight back. They were as helpless as a child unable to leave its cradle.

His voice trembled as he recounted the situation.

"Maybe this time it will be fun! "

'He' said as he stood in front of an examination panel of 108 swordsmen.

The number of people was more than half the size of the second gateway's Gunglangsalhojin, but the spirit and momentum was more than equal, but to 'him', that fact seemed to be nothing more than entertainment.

'This overwhelming spirit is more than rumor!

Sword Qi Yunming could sense it at a glance, and he was soon seized with the urge to twist the necks of those who had diminished and spread the rumors.

I couldn't believe it. Suddenly, it seemed like the world was full of lies.

How is it possible to walk through two gateways that dozens of librarians have spent days and nights wrapping their heads around?

'If you send him away from here today, Kang Ho's reputation will be doomed!'

A wrought-iron box with eighteen padlocks firmly fastened to it! If it were to fall into his hands……. The spirit of Providence screamed in shuddering horror; it had to be stopped at all costs.

Yue Yun Ming shouted.

"108 swords! 108 warriors! We never retreat. Today we oxidize with our author. With your courage, your pride, your blood, and your life, the fate of Kang Ho will be secured!"

Waaaaaaaaaah!

A blood-curdling roar of determination erupted.

No one thought they'd make it out of here alive.

There was nothing more frightening than a man ready to die.

But the world was cruel. There was no such thing as force majeure in the world.

Foot Sword (拔劍)!

Gaejin (開陣)!

發動!

The 108 pure white swords reflected the sunlight, scattering countless rays of light. At Sword Qi's signal, the Hundred Eighty-Four Fearsome Test had finally been activated.

An examination based on the transformation of the Eight Vital Elements flashed its steel teeth to capture a ferocious beast, but the beast's ferocity and cleverness were beyond human imagination.

"Wow!"

The beast raised its claws toward its obstruction.

"He did not stand idly by as we formed a complete encirclement. He stretched out his hand, and darkness exploded from his fingertips. And then there was a gale."

A maddening storm, like blackened sunlight. The sky was blackened and the earth screamed, gravel and dirt tumbling wildly through space. I could barely keep my eyes open. It was a reaper's gale of death and despair.

"The claws of an unseen beast seemed to tear through space. It was as if a crazed wind god had gone on a rampage with a fierce sword! Blood was splashed, flesh was torn, and countless lives were lost……."

The wind swept in all directions on the wings of a blade.

Blood, screams, and death!

"…I felt like the statue of Samra was howling in blood……."

It was cut, cut, cut, cut.

Where the Dark Dragonwind swept, death was sure to follow. The intangible blade that flashed in the darkness was unforgiving. It knew no forgiveness, no mercy, only death and abnormality.

Countless swords were snapped in half without a trace, falling to the ground with their masters' lives to become tombstones. The rain of blood poured down upon them again. The earth gulped and gulped and gulped for their willed blood.

"All the swords here were once their favorites. Now they are all swords that have lost their masters, lost their lives, and now there is a cemetery with their tombstones."

Once broken, a sword cannot be rebuilt. It has already spent its life and is no longer useful in combat.

"And…, in the midst of that nightmare, Nobu alone cowardly survived. No, it would be more accurate to say he saved it, as a messenger to spread the word of his deeds."

I still can't get over the shame and humiliation.

"Here, look!"

Gum Qi dusted off his shabby long gun.

"……! "

Biyou's eyes widened. He wasn't the only one. Na Yerin, Jang Hong, Lee Jin-sul, and Dok Go-ryeong did the same. Their eyes twitched as they watched.

The eyes of the entire delegation, including Yeomdo and Iceblade, were wide open.

His body was limp, like a dead tree standing in a barren land in the midst of a drought. But that wasn't what mattered.

They had seen the same marks just moments before. The sword marks that covered the swordsman's entire face were ugly, but they paled in comparison to the wounds on his body.

A dense, spiderwebbed wound that tore his upper half to shreds. It was the same type of wound they had seen on the scarred wall.

And it was a loser's stigma that would never go away, even after a hundred years.

"Oh, my God!"

Binggum and Yin Dao cried out at the same time. They had seen that wound in one of their past nightmares. It was the most painful and sorrowful moment in their entire lives.

They looked at each other at the same time and came to an unspoken agreement.

"This, this wound is……."

My voice was very turbulent. My throat locked up and I couldn't speak properly.

There was no mistaking it.

If their memories were not mistaken, the wounds were the same as they had been then, and it was as if they had been nailed to a plate. A hundred years and twenty years.

"Wait, you mean 'he' is still alive?"

An uneasy rumble pounded in my chest.

But there was something strange about it: if 'he' had been alive, their master, who had been lucid for some time, not in a daze, would not have warned them.

'Was it to prevent our reckless revenge? Or…….'

Answers didn't come quickly. The questions remained. But I couldn't. I knew it wasn't going to be a silver bullet.

"umm……."

Bi Ryuyeon continued to observe silently, not saying a word. His eyes sank like an abyss, and no one could tell what he was currently thinking. Not even me, Na Yerin.

The scattered pieces came together and fell apart in countless combinations in his mind, but no shape was yet complete.

"Then that arm is also the one that……."

Binggum pointed to Sword Qi's baggy sleeve. But the answer was a surprise.

"No! This is not his doing."

The old man shook his head.

"Then……?"

Who else would dare to take the sword-bearing right hand of the Sword of Fate?

"Fly!"

"Yes?"

In response to my bewilderment, Yue Yun replied once again.

"I'm the culprit! I'm the swordsman!"

"Such a stroke of genius……."

"…who has not done……."

Those who tried to be noncommittal (悲憤慷慨) were forced to seal their mouths in anger.

"I am the one who cut off this right hand. The scars on my face are mostly my own doing. They are the result of my despair at my own inadequacies and inadequacies, the indelible marks of a madness that I cannot and will not erase."

It is said that after his defeat by "him," Zhao Qi lost his mind for a time. He had lost all of his friends, all of the seniors he respected, all of the people he drank with and sword talked with. He had no one to talk to about swords anymore. He was grieved, and he blamed himself for not being able to protect them, or die with them.

His right hand was constantly shaking as if he was suffering from hydrocephalus. He couldn't even hold a bottle of wine properly, let alone a sword. He knew that his right hand would never hold the sword again, and he knew that he would never surpass him. He was already a great loser.

I'm furious. Unbearably angry.

Seething hatred, uncontrollable urges. I wanted to destroy everything.

In that moment, all the hatred, all the resentment, was focused on his right arm.

Useless!

He seized the sword with his left hand and cut off his right hand with a single stroke. With a crack, a howl like a beast's cry erupted from his throat, and for a while he was lost in the darkness. If it weren't for Mu Xin Yue Lin, he probably wouldn't have made it out of that deep darkness.

"It's because he couldn't control himself, he deserved to lose! Self-inflicted wounds…….? That's the height of stupidity!"

Another ungrateful word came out of Bi Ryuyeon's mouth. The air around them turned chilly in an instant. I looked around. All of the people around her were grim-faced, mouths twitching like crucians in a pond, unable to say anything. They were speechless.

"Liu, Ryuyeon!"

"Okay, what about you……."

What the heck…….

People couldn't understand what on earth she was doing, believing that she could just walk out like that, but she was shamelessly confident as ever.

Maybe we should give him credit for that one consistency. Or is it something to be vigorously criticized?

But it came as no surprise to Bi Ryuyeon, who considers suicide to be the most irrational and uncontrollable act in the world, the height of self-indulgence and stupidity.

It was easy for the apprentice to let it slide because that was his nature, but this time, he thought, this time, the Sword Qi Fate was going to do what it said on the tin and leave Bi Ryuyeon alone with the branch. He had no intention of stopping her. No, she wanted to beg him to do it.

But Sword Qi silently betrayed the majority opinion, and with a bitter smile, he nodded.

"Yeah, maybe it was self-inflicted……."

"I did not feel fear or awe in him, but jealousy! Yes, what Nobu felt was intense jealousy-intense jealousy of a man who had transcended human limits in a human body!"

It was the jealousy of those who crawled at the bottom of the mountain against those who climbed to the top.

The problem was that it was a mountain that could never be climbed by effort alone. It was a mountain that could only be climbed by those who had been chosen by God, or by those who had defied God and rejected heaven.

Three people met the same person, but the feelings they felt were all wrong.

The terror of the unexpected end, the awe of the apprentice Yong Jingyue, and the jealousy of the swordsman Yue Yun!

"And then I'm disappointed in myself and set myself up as a loser."

Gumchi said in a gravelly voice.

All three of them were wrong about what they felt for him, but all three were the same: their souls were haunted by his visions.

"I can't tell you more, but I can tell you what happened next! After the miraculous defeat of the Blood God and the end of the Heavenly Blood Tax, the leaders of the Great Lake came to a single conclusion. They concluded that the marks of a man who had surpassed the limits of humanity could not be allowed to remain and breed more than fear. But there was only one place on the river where they could leave their mark, and that was here. A place to test whether the next generation of talent would be able to surpass 'him'. In order to prepare the soil for such talents to emerge in the Jianghu Clan, the Martial God and Martial Demon built the Heavenly Martial Academy and the Heavenly Martial Hall, respectively, and spent a hundred years training them. It was only after a hundred years that the seal of the Heavenly Sword was broken and you were brought here to be tested and tried!"

The swordsman's words were solemn.

"Still, the shadows of the Celestials have not been completely swept away, and their powers have only grown stronger in the darkness. Now show me what you can do! Show me your skills! I will test you to see if you are worthy to pass through this place."

"By the way, can I ask you a question?"

Ryuyeon Bi said.

"Of course, I won't bother you, so ask me anything! "

Xue Yunming nodded approvingly.

"umm……."

Then Bi Ryuyeon scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. She didn't want to mislead anyone.

"Hey, I never even hinted at being a nuisance? "

Then, Sword Qi's gaze swept over to Bi Ryuyeon.

"What an interesting young man!"

For the first time, something that could be called a pleasant emotion flashed across the stern old man's graying face.

This is pretty grotesque as it is, Maharishi thought, though he knew it was rude, so he didn't say anything.

"'He,' as they call him, is a man who huffs and puffs. Eh, so what does he look like, with the name of the Heavenly God of Blood, Wu Tianmu? I've been listening to him like this for so long, I'm suddenly wondering if he doesn't have eighteen hands and eighteen feet."

She felt a need to learn more about him, a premonition of sorts.

Gumchi was quick to answer his question.

"Twenty!"

"What?"

Is this some kind of ghost story?

"What's the big deal, I told you I had twenty fingers and toes!"

He was an old man who casually embarrassed people by acting like it was no big deal. Many onlookers were surprised by this behavior.

"Your grandfather is pretty good at it, too."

Bi Ryuyeon said admiringly.

Xue Yunming thought for a moment. Then he made a decision.

"No one has ever truly seen his face! It's safe to say that there is no one in the current clan who knows what he looks like. It may sound ridiculous, but even Nobu, who came face to face with him a hundred years ago, is at a loss for words when asked what he looks like. Because he always appeared in front of people wearing a strange silver mask that covered half of his face, and no one ever saw underneath it. But there is one thing they all remember."

It was a common occurrence, not only for the old man, but for everyone who met him: a memory that could never be forgotten, even if you wanted to.

"What is it?"

Bi Ryuyeon's curiosity was piqued, and he couldn't help but ask. A strange premonition had been plaguing him since earlier.

"He had one peculiar physical feature: his two eyes, which were revealed from their silver masks, sometimes flashed with golden light. People called them golden demon eyes, and feared him, calling him the Demon God of the Golden Eyes!"

'Golden Eye?

The cast members of the Southern Palace Statue felt as if they had seen it before. The golden eyes did not sound unfamiliar or unfamiliar to them at all. But they couldn't remember the details.

Na Yerin's eyes naturally turned to Bi Ryuyeon, and though it was impossible to tell from his bangs, his eyes were as calm as a lake on a windless day, and of course, no aura was emanating from them.

Na Yerin chuckled inwardly and turned her head back to the road.

Yes, it was a futile endeavor. Even she was dumbfounded by her own sudden foolishness.

"Have I been this bad?