Book 17 Chapter 2

From

--regression (回歸)

"I still don't see it……."

The man paused and looked at the stretch of road that lay beneath his feet. The path he had traveled so far lay behind him, still unmarked.

The road is far, far away. The road that pierces the horizon and leads to the world beyond instills in the minds of mere mortals the anxiety of wondering if it will ever end.

At first glance, I couldn't guess the man's age. To make matters worse, he wore a wide-brimmed chopper on his head. However, in an era when there were many vagabonds wandering the rivers without a specific place of residence, it was nothing special. If there was one thing that stood out, it was the fact that his long bangs covered more than half of his face, making it hard to see him. He doesn't seem to get his hair done very often, but that's not a big deal either. The only thing that distinguishes him from the rest of us is the depth of his eyes, which peek out from under his long hair and seem to stare into the abyss.

He gazed at the infinite road before him with a deep gaze, as if contemplating the universe. His tousled bangs were no hindrance to him. His eyes could perceive only what was reflected in his field of vision-and his field of vision was more than five times that of his captor-but his mind saw beyond it, penetrating to where he must one day reach.

As he strained his eyes to focus, a heavy shadow on the horizon came into view. It was the shadow of a mountain, cut off at the boundary between earth and sky, and it was the best I could do to catch a glimpse of it. Looking around, I could see nothing but open fields and mountains rising above them, or in other words, trees and grass. The road is deserted. It was an ordinary road that ran through the middle of nowhere, but it didn't mean ordinary to this man.

What awaits you at the end of this journey? Where is this path leading you?

It's a constant stream of questions from the inside, none of which are answered with any clarity.

What awaits at the end of the road: the end, or a new beginning beyond the end?

Thump!

The man lifted his right foot abruptly and rolled it across the ground a couple of times. The firmness of the earth beneath his feet sent a small but clear rumble through his heart. His heart was still beating strongly.

"I am here now.

He didn't care if he was laughed at as childish, he just wanted to see where he stood with a small struggle of his being. Before the weight of what he had to do crushed him.

All flow back to one. Just as all rivers flow into the sea, all reason returns to the same source.

But it wasn't the ocean that he could see. It's just the fountain from which he came. Perhaps, then, you are not looking for the ocean, but rather a salmon swimming against the current to return to its source.

"I thought I'd never come back here again……."

The tides of the world were too strong for his resolve.

He wanted to get out of the cradle and go out into the world to validate his existence, but he ended up in the cradle he was so desperate to get out of.

But this is where it has to be.

He knew instinctively that even in this wide world, only at the end of this road would he find the answers he wanted and sought.

He began to walk toward the horizon again, assuming it could be called a stride. If it was a commoner who began to walk with him, he would soon notice the back of a man who had become a black mole. If the other person is a martial artist who has learned some of the basics of kung fu, he will soon realize it. If you ask him if he's practicing chi kung, he'll say no, no matter how fast he is or how much he strains his muscles, he can't overtake this man. No matter how fast he was, it was impossible for him to leap over the horizon. Still, there was a fork in the road ahead.

He could barely make out the head of the mountain, or, in human terms, the whorl of a head, but now he could see the whole shape very clearly. He stood at a fork in the road and looked left and right. One path was wide, the other narrow. One was very straight and level, as if it had been well manicured and tidied. The other was unkempt and largely neglected. It was so narrow and bumpy that a horse-drawn carriage could barely get around.

At the end of the boulevard leading to the left at the fork in the road is a famous mountain, and its name is Amishan! The Amifa sect, famous for its swords and women, and a stalwart among the old schools of thought, is entrenched within its ranks. But that's not where the man wants to go; he's headed for an unnamed peak far away from the Amifa's home base. The Land of Beginnings, where a forgotten past lies buried in fond memories, along with an immature childhood. A place he swore he would never set foot on again.

"Has it finally come to this……. I thought I'd never come to this crossroads again."

He ruminated bitterly in a self-help voice. Just like then, this crossroads was forcing him to make a choice.

That was it.

"Huh?!

His body stirred slightly. And then, after a moment, his mouth, which had been closed as hard as a rock, opened briefly.

"…What a ruckus."

Standing in the middle of the deserted road, he mumbled to himself, but the silence was still consistent all around him, and his mutterings were too faint to break the stillness.

Perhaps the road didn't like him standing on it. Is he trying to argue that the road is meant to be walked on, not stood on?

The man began to walk again. Slowly. He waited for the moment to break the silence, for the arrow of time to fly toward him. The omen began with a faint rumbling of the earth.

In the distance, from over the horizon, there was a man coming across the road at an alarming rate of speed.

An hour or so after he had resumed his walk, he heard the faint sound of hooves in the distance. Judging by the multi-resonant hoofbeats pounding the earth, it was a sadhu carriage drawn by four horses, but it would take more time to clear the fog that had settled in. It was more than half an angle later that the carriage suddenly appeared within the range of normal human vision.

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!

Pooh-pooh-pooh!

"Yay, yay, yay, yay!"

Bam, bam, bam, bam!

The sound of horses' hooves was now loud and clear in my ears.

The sound of horses' hooves pounding the earth, the crack of the whip as it fell over the panting bodies of the horses, the coachman's frantic exhortations, the whinnying of the horses as they grew weary of the inexcusable lashing, caught his ears all too vividly.

A luxurious, if unspectacular, sadhu carriage rumbled through the dusty streets of Guandao. The burly coachman cracked his whip relentlessly with his log-like forearms, urging his horses on, and his mouth opened in an increasingly harsh and vicious rant.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

It looked like he was trying to shoo away a cow that had unwisely stuck its rump in front of a moving carriage. But it was the independent man walking down the street who was being treated like a cow.

The road wasn't very narrow, but it could have been filled by a single sadhu carriage. One thing was for sure, this carriage was not going to stop without prioritizing the safety of its passengers. It was clear from the harsh words that followed that it had no intention of dodging.

"Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Get out of the way! Hey, there! Get out of the way, you stupid bastard! You're gonna get yourself killed!"

The gaunt coachman was ready to give a passerby a taste of the stinging whip if he could. The rough and tumble of it brought to mind one of the faded words in the man's memory, one that sounded quite familiar. After a moment, he was able to lightly slap his left palm with his right fist.

"Oh, by the way, that's what rudeness is, right?

When his memory finally returned, he rejoiced like a patient recovering from amnesia.

"Mmmm."

The man nodded long and hard. It was refreshing to be treated like this after so long. It even felt nostalgic.

Now the distance between the galloping carriage, which did not understand the concept of halting, and the superintendent was immeasurable. If he was going to be crushed beneath those ferocious hooves, he should have given up all thought of struggling. But the man continued on his way, nodding curiously, as if he had no intention of moving aside. Of course not. Why should he comply with such a rude and unilateral demand?

"Holy shit!"

Heeeeeeeee!

The coachman finally pulled back on the reins. It was an instinctive action. He would have done so even if his conscience hadn't called his actions to a halt at the very last moment and reined him in. But there is a time and a place for everything. It is not, at least in this world, the case that a last-minute slowing of the reins can make a great speed disappear in an instant. The carriage, racing furiously, had already crushed the man, despite the coachman's efforts to stop it. Leaving a trail of dusty dust behind.

Yay!

Heeeeeeeeeee!

After about ten more chapters, the stampede finally understood what a pause was.

The sadhu wagon was a well-maintained object with good workmanship and finishing, but it was probably not durable enough to withstand this sudden change.

Boom!

With a loud clatter, the left wheel bounced off the axle, and the wagon tilted sharply to the left, as nature would have it.

"Whoa!"

The coachman desperately tried to control the carriage, but even his two strong forearms could not help the situation. The situation had already reached a point where his armor could not handle it.

"Hmph!"

A slender hand stuck out of the carriage's window, followed by a resounding "poof!" as the ground shook once, and the precarious carriage lurched forward. The ground shook once, and the precarious carriage jerked violently from the recoil. The carriage lost some speed and landed roughly on the ground, and after a half-dozen "wudang wudangs" and a dizzying dance, the carriage finally stabilized. The earth breathed out an ochre-colored breath, excited by the carriage's frenzied dance. A cloud of dirt rose like a cloud and settled around them.

"Boom!"

Emerging from the dense dust, groaning and clutching the back of his head, was the coachman, a sturdy man with a wirey beard. He limped to the carriage's cabin door and knocked in an urgent voice.

"Miss, are you all right, Miss!"

His rugged appearance from a few moments ago is nowhere to be seen. His face, fit for a bandit, was now filled with worry.

A moment later, voices were heard from inside the carriage.

"…I'm fine. There's no need to make a fuss."

His voice was surprisingly calm for such a crowded place. Judging by his young voice, he couldn't be much older, but he was calmer than most adults, especially the coachman. Apparently, age doesn't have much to do with it.

The carriage door opened and a pure white foot swept out. The girl lifted herself up gracefully and dropped to the ground, feather-light.

Maybe eighteen? Fair skin, a prominent nose, dark, clear eyes filled with determination, unruly but shiny hair, moderately puffy, firm breasts, a slender figure, and a waist as wide as a willow branch. She was young, but certainly strikingly beautiful. The girl in white was a ripe bud, ready to burst into petals at any moment.

"I see you're safe, young lady!"

The man apparently didn't have the intelligence to realize that he'd misspoken, "Thanks to you, I'm safe," but he was desperate to prevent the wagon from being turned into firewood, so you have to give him credit for the virtuality of the effort.

Then I heard another voice, this one a man's.

"Kolokolok, ouch, is he still alive……."

In addition to the girl, there was another person in the carriage. It was a young man of about twenty years of age. His face paled in brightness compared to that of the white girl, who was as noble as a trembling lily, but he still had a fairly normal face. His left forearm was lightly bandaged, suggesting that he had suffered a minor injury. Both men wore swords at their waists. At least neither of their swords seemed to be decorative. And it was for their own good.

"Kolokolok, are you all right, Gene Sojae?"

The young man coughed repeatedly, his throat tickling from the thick, ochre-colored dust, and asked the girl how she was doing. His normally handsome face was now covered with the dust of a refugee.

"I'm fine. Is Confucius Yu okay with the wounds they inflicted on him?"

"Don't worry, I'm still in one piece, and it's no dignity to whine about getting a few cuts from those scumbags."

Mr. Yu waved his left arm in the air and replied, "It doesn't hurt. I'm not sick, but at my age, I always want to bluff in front of women. I'm sure you're swallowing your tears.

As the dust settled, the shape of the wagon became clearer, and to my surprise, it was riddled with wounds-unquestionably sword wounds. Moreover, it was clear that the arrows stuck in it were not for decoration. It looked as if it had come from the middle of a battlefield.

"Sin, I'm sorry, miss, if it hadn't been for that madman who stood in front of the moving carriage, things wouldn't have turned out the way they did, and if anything were to happen to you, how could I ever see your master's face… I'm so sorry!"

The wire-bearded coachman clenched his rock-hard fists in frustration. Apparently, the life and death of a madman who had already passed by was of no interest to him. It was easier to convince people that he was a bandit than a coachman.

"Crazy… that's a bit harsh, I was just walking down the street."

A calm voice from out of nowhere.

The coachman, shaking with rage, whipped his head toward the source of the noise, disregarding the risk of dislocating his cervical spine. The girl and the young man were also startled and did the same thing without anyone telling them to.

The three of them were aghast together, but for different reasons. The bandit-looking coachman was amazed that the madman was alive and well without being turned into a flattened cannonball; the young man was amazed that a human being had been sitting so close by, so comfortable and relaxed, and that he hadn't noticed a thing; and the girl was amazed that, in the midst of such a dense yellow cloud, there wasn't a speck of dust on the man's old, faded clothes.

I don't recall receiving any training that was so unnerving that I couldn't detect a single person within a ten-pace radius. Had their senses been confused? Not ten paces away, on the side of the road, sat a man in a robe.

"Who are you?"

The young man asked warily. The man in his eyes already had a label on his forehead: suspicious, so there was no room for politeness in his question.

And so it came to pass that Mr. Chorip had the rare experience of being disrespected twice in one day. A slight smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"You mean me?"

The young man nodded at the man's words.

"Just a passerby."

Then the coachman got impatient and yelled at him.

"Ma'am, that's him! He's the reason our carriage overturned! If he'd only gotten out of the way, it wouldn't have overturned! The damned bastard should have been crushed under the carriage and bled to death!"

In his excitement, the coachman even shouted at the man.

"Bloodsucker? That's a very insensitive thing to say. It's not good to have such a blatant disregard for human life. You should respect it. Haven't you ever heard of the phrase, "All things come from one, so we're all brothers?"

The man from Chorip shook his head in disbelief.

But something was off. The kind of awkwardness you feel when something so out of place is happening right in front of you. The girl was the first to realize it.

Not dodging? Not dodging?!

"I didn't dodge, how can he be okay?"

The man's limbs were still attached, and his torso was free of wheel marks. The man's immaculate black robes contrasted sharply with his coachman's, which had faded from white to yellow.

I carefully examined it, but unfortunately, it was very peaceful. It didn't look like it had just been trampled by four horses.

"Hmm? I don't know what you're talking about. I was just going about my business. Weren't you the ones who suddenly and ferociously swooped in and overthrew me without warning? I don't know."

The coachman's face reddened once more at the man's casual ticking of the clock, and he shouted.

"Don't lie!"

The man looked at the coachman, who looked ready to pounce, and said something.

"Is that your servant? He's really loud, can you get him to be quiet?"

The man said in a nonchalant tone. The girl calmed the coachman, who was ready to turn into a runaway carriage at any moment.

"Calm down. Let me talk to you."

The coachman was getting too excited. His problem was that when he got excited, he growled at anyone who would listen. The girl didn't want to take any more chances here, so she took matters into her own hands.

"May I ask why you didn't duck?"

The girl asked. Her demeanor was much better than the two bald men's, which pleased the man.

"I think it's because of you."

The man replied.

"Why me? I don't understand."

She replied calmly, not excited.

"If that's her, then you have to blame yourself for teaching her bad manners."

"The word is……."

You're a quick-thinking young lady, he said, nodding.

"Isn't it only natural to be polite when asking for a favor? If you want to win someone's heart, you need to be prepared. I shouldn't have to be the one to get out of the way if you're not prepared."

You mean to tell me you ignore a galloping carriage for such a trivial reason? The coachman and the young man's eyes widened. But the girl remained calm.

"Aha, so it's my fault then."

The girl accepted the man's words coolly. If anything, she looked like she was glad to hear it.

"Heh, heh, heh, you're a cool girl. I like that. I'll look at your face and forget my rudeness a moment ago. It would have been better if it had never happened, but since that's impossible, we'll just have to move on."

It sounded very patronizing.

"Right, because the past can't go away, and even if we've created it for ourselves, all we can do is turn our backs on it and look away, or conveniently forget it ever happened, just as people these days live with the tragedy of the Tetrarchy."

He looked at her, a little surprised. The more he looked at her, the more he liked her.

"Miss!"

"Gene Sojae!"

The coachman cried out in frustration. The young man shouted back. They didn't understand the girl's behavior. They had hoped that she would challenge the man's insistence, but she had simply given in to him. And then they're just chatting idly, even though they're in the middle of a desperate crisis. Honestly, there was no time for such idle questions and answers, not with Chu Ho's nodding head. The storm of spears that threatened to engulf them was close at hand.

"Miss, you must be busy right now?"

"Yeah, I'm being chased."

It was a far cry from the urgency that always characterizes the tone of someone being chased.

"Hmmm, do I have to run away?"

"Nope. It's too late."

The girl replied in a sullen voice. She was a very cute little thing.

"You're a smart girl. I like that. And bold, too. A hundred times better than a bunch of men, yes."

The man in the chrysalis smiled and praised the girl.

The more I look at her, the more I like her, a rare thing in this world. Realizing that it was too late to run away, she mustered up the strength to meet him head-on. It was a very smart decision, and one that was difficult to make in this situation.

"Amipa has made a good disciple."

The man said with a smirk. The girl's eyes widened.

"Oh, how did you know that? I'm Qin Shaolin, a disciple of Amifa… but I don't have the Mark of the Dead right now."

"What are you surprised about?"

At the girl's suspicion, he laughed and replied.

"You eat according to Ami's teachings, you sleep according to Ami's teachings, you walk, stand, sit, and lie down according to Ami's ways, and you move your body's qi and practice martial arts according to Ami's teachings. Even your breathing, the most basic act of life, is done in Ami's way. Isn't that so? Your every action and sympathy is a manifestation of the Ami way itself, and how could you not see that unless you were blind?"

"Is that so, and if you're right, most people in the world are blind?"

"Hehe, do you know that now? I would have thought a woman as intelligent as you would have realized that sooner."

The man in blue smiled, confirming her words.

"Well, congratulations anyway. You have just learned one of the secrets of the hidden world."

"So you're telling me that you know where I'm from?"

The young man interrupted their conversation. When he asked, he meant he didn't believe it yet, and the flames of disbelief and questioning burned brightly in his eyes.

Its eyes swept the young man from head to toe.

"The sword that hangs from your waist is thin and light, but it is just as fast, isn't it? Isn't the place you're in a place where you've abandoned the heaviness of power in favor of speed, a place where you're pursuing the reason of the four days? You're a descendant of a descendant."

He quickly realized the young man's identity.

"Yeah, that's right. That's correct. I'm Yu Yunsheng, disciple of Jichang."

It's a coincidence once, but when it happens again, it's hard to dismiss it as a coincidence anymore. At this point, Qin Xiaoling and Yoo Eun-sung had no choice but to acknowledge the snowstorm in the supermarket.

Clearly, the man in front of me was no ordinary man. Who the hell is this guy?

It was then.

"Here he comes."

The supercalifragilisticexpialidocious raised his index finger and said.

"Here they come!"

Qin Xiaoling replied.

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!

The sound of dozens of hooves shattered the silence of the land. In a cloud of dust, a group of horsemen were galloping toward them. It was the sight of death coming in like a tidal wave.

The blood drained from the coachman's face like a tide. The tension on Qin Shaolin and Yue Yun's faces was like a sea of waves. Qin Xiaoling had tried to remain nonchalant, but she couldn't help but feel an uncontrollable sense of dread as the moment of confrontation drew near. She was still seventeen.

"Ah, miss, it's a thousand horsemen. I can't believe they've already followed us here… What a bunch of bastards……. What shall we do now, young lady?"

The coachman's voice was nervous, and he looked back and forth to see if his throat was sore. The thunder was rumbling higher and higher. He cursed the detached man once more as it occurred to him that he could have gotten away with much more if he hadn't flirted with the mysterious man. He still hadn't noticed that his mistress had given up running and decided to fight back.

"Gene Sojae!"

Yoo Eun-sung was also seeking her opinion. Although she was the youngest, it was clear that she was the center of this group. Sanae watched them with interest.

It was easy to see what they were worried about. No, he could definitely feel it. It must be at the source of the sound that had been plaguing his ears since earlier.

"We need to get away before they get any closer!"

Yoo Eun-sung exclaimed, but Qin Xiaoling shook his head.

"It's too late, running away now will only waste my stamina, I have no choice but to stay and fight."

The path she was taking might not be the best way to save their lives, but it was the best she could do for now. It was unfortunate, but it had to be done.

"Chit, I was just a little further along……."

Qin Xiaolong bit his lip slightly in frustration. He felt like biting off a finger. He had been faking nonchalance all this time, but it was getting to be too much. The lake in his heart was stirring.

"I'm still not practicing enough.

She gave a self-deprecating laugh and muttered inwardly.

Still, I wasn't going to take it lying down.

Still, she had one last trick up her sleeve.

The Lord of the Thousand Horses, Wu Ma Guang, must have been furious, for he would not have personally led nearly eighty of his men on a thousand li in pursuit of two children. As the name "Little Castle with a Thousand Horses" suggests, Chen Mabo's original business was horse farming, and he had access to a large number of strong, soundly trained quarter horses, so he could literally chase them at high speed without worrying about them.

"Stop!"

The leader raised his hand and his men halted their horses in unison. Their horsemanship was remarkable, as they had once operated as a band of horse thieves before becoming a stable. They owed their ability to open a stable to the funds and skills they had gained from horse robbery.

The eyes of Qin Xiaolong and the former Demon Lord collided in midair. A sneer appeared in Oma Guang's eyes.

"Well, what the hell, I thought you'd be running like a dog with its ass on fire by now!"

Decades of experience had led them to expect the creature to be panting and exhausted by now, but to find it not fleeing, but looking them straight in the eye and waiting, fearlessly, was quite a surprise to the Oma fanatic. Usually, whenever they chased others, they had only seen the backs of those who fled, and they had always been generous with their blades. It was very rare to see a face in a chase like this.

"Phew, I don't have to run away anymore."

Qin Xiaoling replied in a confident voice. Had he come up with some kind of breakthrough?

"Ho-ho, is that so?"

Omagwang wasn't foolish enough to fall for the obvious bluff. His face, still calm and smiling, suddenly changed drastically. It was after he saw the canister in Qin Xiaolong's arms.

"It can't be……!"

Without answering Wu Maoguang's question, Qin Xiaoling tugged hard on the tinderbox.

Peeeeeeeeeeeee!

Red smoke rose into the sky in a long tail.

A smile of conversion tugged at the corners of her mouth. A murmur rose from the crowd of pursuers.

"He's agitating!

That's what she was aiming for. She puffed out her chest and called out in a confident voice.

"Hmph, I knew this would happen, so I prepared for it! Since you've drank some of the waters of the River Lake, I'm sure you know what that red signal that just went up means! It's Amifa's emergency signal, the 'red lantern', which is fired when an Amifa disciple is in a critical situation! Where you're treading on your dirty feet is already Amifa territory, and Amifa disciples who've seen the signal will be flocking to it! Why don't you go home before you get your asses handed to you, and we'll pretend we never saw your disrespect, though it would be better if it never happened in the first place."

Then a murmur came from Chen Mabo's camp. After all, the name of the Old School had always been a difficult one for the Sect to deal with. There had yet to be a person or organization that could turn the Old School into an enemy and see the good in it. Except for one group that had already become a symbol of fear.

Qin Shaolin nervously waited for his opponent's response.

'Best wishes for success…….'

In an instant, the chatter stopped. Qin Shaolin glared at them, his gaze unwavering. The leader of the group who was standing at the forefront, Big Brother Omagwang, spoke in a respectful tone.

"Well, very well, I apologize to Mr. Sojae for our rudeness, and we'll leave you to it."

Just as Qin Xiaoling was about to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Did you think I was going to say…, you sassy little bitch?"

The pretense of politeness had morphed into a gruff, walled-off voice.

"How dare a young wench, who hasn't even dried the blood on her bald head yet, try to humiliate an old man! Don't you think so, children?"

Omagwang looked back at his men and asked.

"Fuhahahahahahahahaha, yes, when you fall for that slut's crude nonsense, you cry, cry, in the name of Chen Mabo!"

Here and there, there were bursts of maniacal laughter. Some of the guys were telling bad jokes.

"Still, my lord, it's cute to watch the little sissy's antics, so why don't we just go along with it and pamper her while she tries out a bunch of things she can't put in her mouth?"

"Oh, that's nice."

Qin Xiaoling's face flushed red at the baptism of insults that stirred her greed and lust. Her slender shoulders shook with anger. She didn't know how to react to this treatment she had never experienced before.

"Shut up!"

It was Yoo Eun-sung, a disciple of the Jumchang school, who stepped forward and spoke up.

"You filthy bastards, how dare you insult anyone! If you insult Jin Sojae anymore, my sword will not stand still!"

He was shaking with rage and shouting, and his face was as hot as forged iron. What kind of man is he to stand by while the woman he loves is being insulted right under his nose? He was tempted to rush into the midst of the unruly ruffians, ignoring all odds, and swing his sword like a madman, but his volcanic rage seemed to have no more effect on them than the wind on the wings of a fly.

"Who is this? Isn't this the young swordsman who was stabbed in front of me the other day? How is your left forearm, which was struck by my katana?"

The man who had taunted the young man with his sneering voice was the Blood Sword Wu Jing, a vice captain of a thousand mavos. I didn't expect an apology or an expression of regret, but I also didn't expect to be humiliated.

"Shut up! I was just caught off guard, and how dare you think I'm afraid of your filthy knife!"

Yoo Eun-sung's face flushed again as she remembered the numbers.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you're young, young, young! To be so easily swayed by mild provocation. It's all well and good to be spirited, but I don't know how you're going to get out of this……."

The man watching stuck his tongue under the grain. It was still half-ripe. He would have to continue to cut it to get to the unripe part.

"Aren't you even afraid of Amifa? How can you be so relaxed after seeing Hong Lianxing just ascend to the sky, and now you're going to be surrounded by the Master's companions?"

But Qin Shaolin's voice was already trembling violently. A roar of laughter erupted from the wide-open mouth of the Heavenly Jewel Omega Light.

"Foohahahahaha, you old fool! Did you think the old man would fall for such a shallow charade, eh? Did you think that the name Amifa would make this mighty old man run away with his tail between his legs like a ragged dog? Don't you know that signals don't reach Amifa from here? So put aside your foolish theatrics and get ready to be peeled, for this old man's two axes will soon be peeling away your years, one by one!"

Qin Shaolin barely managed to keep his shaking body from collapsing.

"Uh, how do I… get that……."

The confident and confident demeanor of a moment ago had vanished, and her face was pale as if it had lost all its color.

His words were true. The red flame that would save their lives would be lost to the wind and distance here. If it weren't for that mysterious man. He wished he could claim damages, but even that was impossible now.

"Just a little further… just a little further… just a little further……."

Qin Xiaolong muttered in a pitiful tone. If they could run to their deaths a little longer, they would be able to enter Amifa's realm, and the red rope that Hong Lianxing had thrown into the sky would soon become their lifeline.

Not even the Jiangnan Four Families, whose members had recently been ascending to the ascendancy, would dare to touch her. She was Amifa's immediate disciple, and her master was the current Amifa Elder, Hui Ming. No sect would stand idly by and watch their pampered heir to the throne be murdered; it was a matter of honor. But, to her chagrin and resentment, this was not yet truly Amifa territory, as the villain had said. This was Amifa territory in the broadest sense, of course, but it was not a place where the safety of the disciples could be absolutely guaranteed.

As the cunning bastard said, no amount of emergency signaling from here would have any chance of reaching the gates. The distance and wind would scatter the red signal into thin air. The red lotus stem was too short to be a lifeline.

"Do you think this outburst will be forgiven?"

The answer came back immediately.

"I don't know, and I don't want to know! All I know is that you are my son's enemy!"

Omagwang shouted in a deep, fleshy voice.

'I wonder what happened? He doesn't seem like the type of kid to go around holding grudges.

A question flashed through the minds of the watchers. If this is revenge for the murder of his child, then he certainly has a cause.

"Hmph, such an unscrupulous person who harasses a father and daughter deserves to die!"

Qin Shaolin shouted at the top of his lungs. He was at the threshold of life and death, but his momentum hadn't completely died yet.

"Hmm, is that what happened?"

The girl's one-word answer was enough to give me a rough idea of the situation.

Here's what happened

After three months of closed-door training, which he had begun under the strictures of his master, Qin Shaolin was granted a long break.

She decided to travel a little further afield with a few friends, including Yoo Eun-sung of the Jumchang school, who was a student of the same old school and with whom she had always been close. They chose Hangzhou. As they were hanging out together at Geolan Guest House, a reputable tavern in Hangzhou, there was a trashy slug who dared to flirt with her because of her beauty. Even now, when I think of those greed-glazed eyes and those pouty lips that looked like they could drool at any moment, I shudder with physiological revulsion.

It was clear that the damned, damned bastard had a lot of faith in his backing. Even after hearing the names of the Nine Great Families and the Eight Great Families, the world's darkest gnome was unwilling to back down. The gnome's father was an orb of the Darkness of Hangzhou, and the gnome himself was the Three Great Readers. The Tianmabo were a large group of horse traders in the front, but behind the scenes, they were an armed organization that controlled the night of Hangzhou through force. Although he started a business, he didn't leave behind any of his old habits.

Naturally, his father doted on him to the point where he would give his liver for anything he said, and gave in to any unreasonable request. There is a saying that a parent's love for their children is unconditional, but Omagwang's love for his children was not only unconditional, but also unrestrained and conceptless. It is said that a parent's love is like the Great Sea, but neither the vastness of the sky nor the depth of the ocean can compare to the love of a child.

When his son first broke some of his friends' teeth and cracked their foreheads and came back bloody, Omagwang patted him on the head for being so brave, and when, at the age of ten, he rudely disrespected his teacher and made him come to the house to complain, Omagwang did not hesitate to crush the teacher's legs to shut him up. When his son harassed and intimidated five married women at the age of fifteen, when Confucius had set his sights on scholarship, he gave him a thumbs-up for his manhood and bravery, and when his son told him at eighteen that he needed to settle his affairs with a married woman and her husband, he gave him two competent henchmen who specialized in killing. He would not allow anything to stand in his son's way, so how innocently his son, the object of his undying love, was allowed to enjoy his freedom. It is no wonder that he cast concepts and common sense forever into oblivion.

This method of education, which is the height of indiscipline, has, as always, resulted in the total loss of a child's brains. With the birth of another irredeemable bastard into the world, the word irredeemable found its use. The tragic rascal was named Oh Dae-gwang, and Byeol-ho was a rampaging mad stallion. Still, there was at least a shred of reason, nay, instinct, left in this thoughtless parent, and there was only one thing he didn't recommend: incest. But it didn't matter if they'd learned their lesson by now. Maybe they just hadn't found the right opportunity yet.

The fact that he had never gotten his way had crippled him mentally, so he firmly believed that once he had gotten his way, there was nothing that could exist against his will. Chen Mabo's background has always given him a sense of invincible power. It was probably the first time he had ever met someone whose name didn't quite ring true.

This side of the boulevard was dark about the situation in the back world, but they thought they would not dare to touch the old school. This difference in thinking naturally led to a clash.

Wu Daoguang was too deeply immersed in his man-made position as the Three Great Readers of the Heavenly Mabo, but in the background, she and her allies were no slouches either. Arguments were made, swords were drawn.

There was no such thing as shoddy training, losing to a scumbag who was more interested in his father's backstory than his own divine abilities.

After three months of solitude, Qin Shaolin's sword was refined, and it cut through the wind and overwhelmed his opponent. The sword light flashed relentlessly without giving him a moment's respite, forcing Wu Daoguang to flee. Even his trusted bodyguards, who had always stood by his side like shadows and had participated in countless acts of evil and violence on his behalf, were helpless against the onslaught of Yu Eun-sung and his companions.

His true colors came to the fore when he was faced with a situation where his vaunted background, as well as his bodyguards, who had been his staunchest supporters of his despicable violence, were of no use to him. He was, for all intents and purposes, a ten-second enemy.

It took him less than ten seconds to fulfill his assessment: three seconds to gauge his opponent's skill, six seconds to punish him for his insolence, and the final one to take his breath away. I had no intention of actually killing him, even though that was my intention. But she was enraged by the cowardly slash between his thighs, and the unreasoning blade of her sword was not to be trifled with. And so, at the tip of a girl's blade, the once thriving lineage of the Sect's Tianmabo was cut short. It was obviously a self-inflicted wound, but no such logic could be applied to the Tianmabo's master, the mighty Wu Ma Guang, who had lost the Three Great Readers and had fallen into an extremely illogical and emotional state.

The chase was on. Even the best of the Old Dynasty's later generals were no match for the onslaught of more than a hundred thousand martial artists, so they decided to be flexible in their tactics. They decided to flee.

The nearest Nine Sects' territory was Amifa, and it was also the temple of Qin Shaolin, where Wu Ma Guang had once declared that he would skin the Heavenly Jewel and hang it by its entrails.

It was not an easy escape. The arrows that pierced the wagon were a bitter reminder that their escape had been anything but easy.

"Why don't you think about it again?"

Qin Shaolin spoke again.

"Do you think the Ami Sect will stay quiet if you kill me? Even a fool would be able to figure that out, and besides, this Yu Confucius is the founding disciple of the Jumchang Sect. I can't imagine there's any sect in this Sichuan that would be okay with turning Ami and Jumchang into enemies, unless you're one of 'his descendants'?"

At her last words, the superluminal twitched for a moment. It was a brief flicker, and that was all; he had remained silent since their arrival, watching the situation unfold as if he were a statue.

"Hmm, who knows?"

Omagwang said with a wry smile.

"There won't be a single bone left, don't worry, I'll grind it up and drink it, and you don't have to worry about leaving a mark on the world!"

It was a scary threat.

"Heaven and earth must be watching."

Biting his lip, Qin Xiaoling said.

"Hmph, the testimony of heaven and earth is of no effect!"

He had done many evil deeds in the past, but no punishment had fallen upon him. In the wilderness, when the blood of hundreds of people was spilled on his hands and feet, and when dozens of people were killed by his words, he was still alive and well. He himself symbolized the meaninglessness of the heavens.

"There must be witnesses."

"I'll kill you all!"

It was clear from Chuho's unhesitating and decisive answer that he was willing to be diligent and do his best to destroy the evidence.

"That's right, you two softies, and that one over there!"

Omagwang's thick fingers pointed to a man sitting nonchalantly in the center of the murderous hall.

The supersanite scratched his head as he was forced to become a witness.

"That's a little awkward……."

He didn't mind being a witness, but he didn't want to be a murderer. He still had a long way to go.

"The Eighteen Horses of Heaven, come forward!"

"Fuck!"

Eight men dismounted from their horses, forming a semilunar formation, and slowly approached the three.

"Bring that damned bitch before me alive, and I will skin her and hang her alive on a pole to comfort the soul of my dead son who has ascended to heaven!"

The lowly but terrifying threat sent chills down Qin Xiaoling's spine. The author would be perfectly capable of such barbaric behavior.

"Hmph, I've already fallen into the nothingness, so what's the point?"

Qin Shaolin deliberately shouted loudly to avoid being overwhelmed by the momentum.

"Shut up, I'll see if you can still run that mouth after being stripped naked and humiliated!"

Its eyes glowed red as a rabid dog's, and a vicious, sinister flesh glowed from them.

"Well, you won't be able to take my corpse either."

It was better to die than to be insulted. Besides, I'd rather see the sun rise in the west than expect them to have any respect for a corpse.

"Unleash the Ten Horsemen!"

He extended his scarred right hand and thrust it forward. At the same time, the eighteen horses began to scatter in unison.

A large man in the center of the eight, with at least five scars on his face, was apparently the leader of the group. He gave the order, and the other seven, called the Eight, began to circle around them to form a camp. The word "wei" means guardian, and they were holding up their swords to attack first.

Four of them were holding long spears, and the other four were holding a series of swords of the same shape and length. In fact, it is very difficult to use differently spaced weapons in the practice of chi kung. Each weapon has different characteristics depending on its shape and length, and it is not easy to combine all these different personalities in one place. Even if one were to create a system that would allow eight different weapons to move in harmony, the system would naturally become complicated and difficult to execute, and it would take a great deal of skill to actually make it work.

If a jin is composed of only two types of weapons, it means that their power is not very high. However, as you reduce the number of weapons and unify them, the tighter and more cohesive they become, the more powerful they can be, even if you're not a first-class master. This is why they cannot be underestimated. They have been slowly and leisurely closing in, trusting their numbers.

Qin Xiaoling and Yue Eunsung stood motionless, their swords pointed at the halberd, watching the action. The tension was palpable.

The superintendent, who had been watching the showdown from a first-class seat, frowned slightly.

"Look, lady. I don't mean to be a nag. But I don't think I'd be sitting around lazily sucking my fingers waiting for the siege to be completed if I were you. Wouldn't it be advantageous to know where your position is, and to be the first to seize it?"

Chu Lipsan's words shook Qin Shaolin as if he had been struck by lightning.

"Exactly. What am I waiting for, stupid?

How foolish of me to intentionally give away a geographic advantage!

Relationships don't happen in isolation. The dynamics within a network are always relative. It's similar to everyday relationships. How do I position myself in relation to my opponent? How do I position myself in a way that gives me an advantage? The same goes for fighting. However, a life-and-death duel is not Go. Your opponent won't wait for you to make a move, so you need to be able to read your opponent, make quick judgments, and be quick and agile in the blink of an eye. This is the art of adaptation, of changing yourself in the most appropriate form to match your opponent's changes. I had forgotten the importance of this.

If you allow the flow of the fight to revolve around your opponent, you are fooling yourself. No one in the world needs to be a part of your opponent's elaborate funeral arrangements for your murder.

In times like this, a preemptive strike was best. Qin Shaolin was clever and quick to understand, and she immediately signaled to Yu Eunsung, and the two of them charged, their swords swinging sharply to tear through the slowly narrowing web of encirclement.

"Uh, huh?"

Unexpectedly, the eight minions were momentarily stunned.

"Uh, that's not it.

Their modus operandi, as always, was to be overwhelmed by fear, to panic, and to persecute the cowering minority with the overwhelming majority. Never before in their memories had a persecuted minority been so brazen. Eight heads, even the not-so-great ones that preferred violence to reason, might make things better, but this one didn't even exist in their memory.

They say that even mice bite cats when cornered, and these two were far more capable and brave than the mice.

Distractions, as always, provided an opening.

Qin Shaolin and Yue Eunsung took advantage of the gap and slashed their swords together. A piercing blue sword qi exploded from the tips of their swords.

"The best way to destroy a truth is to prevent it from being completed. You're still a young lady, fortunately your ears are not dark. No… is it because you're still young?"

He nodded, seemingly pleased with her out-of-the-blue behavior.

Now I thought the matchup would be interesting to watch.

The duo's ambush, which struck a chord with the lazy minds of the conventionally minded, was very effective, but not as much fun as they had hoped. The surprise was not enough to overcome their numerical disadvantage. But it wasn't all for naught; their greatest gain was that they had managed to keep the enemy's strategy in an unfinished state. Qin Xiaolong and Yue Yunsheng were relentless in their disruption. Without an overwhelming disparity in power, the chances were that once the formulas were complete, the Sevuli would be insurmountable. So they were desperate.

Her movements were as swift as a swallow and as smooth as a cloud, and she was able to control her mind and body to such a degree even in the midst of such a fierce battle, which could only indicate her skill.

Chopra smiled with satisfaction and nodded.

"Ami has some good disciples. Are they future girders?"

The head, on the other hand, didn't like it at all. What's with that pathetic little shit?

Yoo Eun-sung swung his sword relentlessly at the four enemies who took turns charging at him. The fierce sword winds swirling around him made him look quite valiant.

However, the particulate matter was still unhappy. Given the ingredient list, that shouldn't have happened.

He had already figured out that this was an attack that looked flashy and glamorous at first glance, but had no substance.

"Hey, bachelor, what are you doing?"

He turned to the young man, who was still preoccupied with the dilemma, and spoke in a voice filled with frustration.

"Yes?"

The words were blunt, but they rang true and intelligent, as if they were being spoken right in my ear.

"Aren't you a disciple of the Jichang School?"

"Yeah, that's right."

Yoo Eun-sung replied as she furiously swung her sword to block their attacks. It seemed he still had that much spirit.

Even in the middle of a conversation, the enemy doesn't wait. Rather, it takes advantage of the distraction to launch an even more fierce attack.

"But you, what are you doing?"

"Yes? No, what do you mean……?"

To say this, he had to discern seven herbs, dodge two stabs by twisting into a new shape, and then parry three slashes in quick succession.

The man clicked his tongue at Yoo Eun-sung's bewildered reply, now at an even greater disadvantage than before. Even as he answered, he had to parry a total of eight crossbow attacks. Chisahage Shiri. Wasn't it supposed to be polite to wait during a conversation? Reality was certainly colder than fantasy.

"Tsk, tsk, a disciple of Zhu Qiang is wielding a sword! What are you doing?"

The man asked, unable to understand.

"Have you mastered the Silent Sword Technique, the single-handed vision of the Jiaqiang Sect?"

"Sure, I've got it."

Again he parried, spilled, and dodged three stabs and five slashes.

"If you've learned it, shouldn't you use it? If you've learned it and don't use it, why did you go to the trouble of learning it? Do you want to waste your time?"

The internal criticism was stinging.

"I still don't understand what you're talking about."

As he nervously replied, his mind became even more distracted, and eventually a strike from one of his enemies grazed his shoulder, tearing his clothing and drawing a thin line of blood. Fortunately, it wasn't a major wound.

"I'm asking you what you're doing, wielding a sword against a disciple of the Dao of Divination. You shouldn't be doing such a foolish thing, unless you're trying to discard your strengths and take on your weaknesses. You can't!"

Then he delivered the final blow.

"What kind of disgrace is it for a man to claim to have mastered a sword that can pierce the sun beyond the heavens?!"

The man's voice pierced Yue Yun's heart faster than light, and he shuddered as if struck by lightning.

-The sword of the spear is light, but it pierces the heavens.

It was a classic line that was often uttered by aristocrats when they praised the Sword of Jiaqiang.

Swords are meant to be swung and stabbed, but in the Silent Sword method, swinging and stabbing are only secondary. The primary action is always the thrust. The essence of the Silken Sword was the ultra-fast, terrifyingly fast stab, often described as an arrow.

Pavabat!

He paid no attention to the swarms of blades grazing his skin. He didn't even hear Qin Xiaolong's voice, worried for his safety. It was the voice of the super-relief that brought him back to reality.

"How many suns can your arrow knock off?"

"Uh, how do you do that?"

The young man was surprised once more. The only person who could have asked such a question was Jumchang Moonha. What is this man's identity?

"Five."

Yoo answered honestly.

"Yeah, that's a lot of accomplishment for a young man, except you never got to use it in the real world, and you almost got yourself killed. And……."

The man said.

"There are four of them."

That was all he said, but it was enough.

Yoo Eun-sung trembled with excitement, like a priest who had received a divine revelation.

Eunseong's demeanor was noticeably different. His passive posture, which was more defensive than offensive, was gone, and he began to radiate an aura of expectancy from his entire body, like a pair of sharp awls.

The stance of the sword has also changed.

First, my tendon-sprouting grip loosened. His wrists became flexible and his grip lighter. Turn slightly, extend your right arm out in front of you, and hold your sword out in front of you like a light willow branch, pointing slightly above the horizontal. The tip of the sword is pointed at the enemy's heart, which symbolizes fire.

His flesh tensed like a strongbow drawn tight. Like a tiger reserving its strength for a leap before it catches its prey.

He was now ready to take off like a shotgun blast.

A bow is always meant for offense, never for defense. If the arrow doesn't pierce the enemy, you're the one who dies.

One-shot kill (一擊必殺)! Literally, one shot and one of you must die. If it penetrates, it kills the opponent, and if it fails, it kills you. It is a true one-hit kill, because one of you must die. The stab of the Silken Sword, a vision of the Zhu Chang School, was a martial art built on this philosophy.

Four of the ten horsemen dared not approach and were on guard, but that was their undoing.

"Jessa!"

Push!

Yoo Eun-sung's sword became a single arrow and shot out into the silence.

A lightning-fast stab that pushed the boundaries of sound. There was nothing it could not penetrate.

"Boom!"

The knife-wielder, who wore a uniform emblazoned with the number "three," let out a short scream. The next moment, a spray of blood erupted from his right shoulder blade. Yoo Eun-sung's stab had pierced exactly there.

Pah-bah-bah-bah!

Again his sword shot out like an arrow. This time it was a series of stabs that split into five.

"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The blackness of the spear pierces even the sun. The name "four days" was not given for nothing.

With Yoo Eun-sung doing her part, much of the pressure on Jin So-ryung's side was lifted, and her movements became much lighter and quicker with the reduced pressure.

The tide is starting to turn.

"Stop!"

What Chu-Tae had seen so far was enough to make Omagwang's brain boil.

"Stand down!"

The Thousand Horse Eight immediately retreated, having already experienced the futility of their attacks many times before. They didn't have the courage to dare to disobey the Orb Lord's orders. Moreover, they were in no condition to do so.

It was impossible to tell what happened in the middle, but the stabbing of the naked Yue Yunsheng was swift and relentless. His sharp blade was very obsessed with turning their bodies into a honeycomb, and it seemed that his intention was about to succeed. Qin Xiaolong's sword was also imbued with a subtlety that one would not expect from a girl who was not yet twenty years old, and she, too, was actively supporting his intentions.

It wasn't enough to stop these two with their unfinished moves.

The faces of the eight of them were grim. When they returned to the borough, they would be held fully accountable for their disgrace and incompetence.

Jin was convinced.

"The author is going to get his hands dirty!

The Gangnam Four was the name given to the four most dominant groups in Gangnam, but it also referred to the leaders of those groups.

The toughest of them all was Omagwang, the hulking man who was now looming over the two of them, exuding a defiant fleshiness.

Bam!

With each step he took, the black chains around his body screeched menacingly. The solid chain between his axe and axe, especially in the jousting arena, was like a gust of wind, overpowering people.

He was followed by his right-hand man, a man known as Tzu Chi Do. It seemed they were going to ease their master's labor a bit.

'Indeed, the name of Gangnam Sapa was not earned lightly. Such a domineering aura……. I'm about to choke.'

The nerves in her body were sending out warnings. Yoo Eun-sung, who was standing next to her, also tensed up, straining her body.

Finally, the tyrant's march was halted.

"I'll do it in ten seconds!"

There was too much pent-up anger to sit around and talk about.

Boom!

Without warning, his arm swung out. There was no preliminary movement.

Ssshhhhhhhhhhhh!

A huge double-edged axe on a thick chain cut the wind. The giant axe, which must have been a dozen in number, struck the two men like a gale. This was his organ, the Gale Slayer.

Qin Xiaoling and Yue Eunsung ducked, not daring to take it head-on. Their thin swords felt like they would shatter like toys in the face of that ferocious gale. Their judgment was correct.

"Huh, you think you can get away with that?"

A sickening sneer curled his lips and he swung the chain in his right hand.

Boom!

A bizarrely shaped crescent moon rose vertically into the sky, as if a giant black bat had spread its wings wide.

Walled Garden (霹靂斷地)!

His right hand, thick as a log, yanked the chains downward with a vengeance.

The axe soared into the sky, striking the earth like a thunderbolt.

Qin Xiaoling and Yoo Eunsung hurriedly threw themselves backward.

"Do you think you're going to get caught in that big of a move?"

It was powerful, but useless if it didn't hit.

Then he swung the chain wildly.

Koo-koo-koo-koo-koo-koo!

From the axe that struck the earth, two strands of shockwave dug into the ground and ran. This was the goal. The flashy, ignorant attack was a bluff. To twist and open the hardened heart, to create an opening.

Qin Xiaoling and Yu Eunsung hurriedly moved their swords to the front to block the ochre-colored shockwave that washed over them like a tidal wave, but they were half a breath too late.

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

Screams erupted from both men's mouths. A split second of inattention can decide the entire game. If they hadn't blocked in time, there was no way they could have released the full force. The unharnessed power rushed through their bodies.

They were both scrabbling on the ground, and it was only after they had retreated about three feet that they managed to stop themselves.

Woof!

He had been wounded. Red blood dripped from the corners of Qin Shaolin's mouth.

"What a power! I can still feel my insides vibrating.

Qin Shaolin felt a chill run down his spine.

"Shockwaves alone? If you're hit by that axe, you're going to be…….

There was no way I could afford it.

Yoo Eun-sung was even more alarmed. His grip tingled and his insides shook. This was a far cry from the Thousand Horse Eight Weapons he had fought earlier.

Moreover, his span was much longer than theirs. And, beyond their wildest dreams, his gigantic double moon was swift and agile. Omagwang had kept them completely within his domain.

If he didn't change this, it would only be a matter of time before the blade of his black axe would be at their backs. The problem was pacing.

"We have no choice but to be adventurous!

The only consolation is that his amphibious movements are loud and colorful. And there were two of them. Even with the Five Lords at his back, he didn't look like he was going anywhere. In fact, his organ, the Qi Feng Slaughter, was a martial art that was nearly impossible to coordinate with others. It was an unrecognized martial art that would sweep away even his friends and subordinates if they interfered. While the movements were large and powerful, they were difficult to control in detail, and therein lies the beauty.

Qin Shaolin sent his opinion to Yue Eunsung with a glance. They weren't decades-old acquaintances, comrades-in-arms who had crossed the line between life and death together, or lovers who were passionately in love. They weren't intellectuals who understood each other as soon as they met, so they weren't willing to risk their lives on vague, unclear, and irresponsible words like this. To understand each other, we needed to talk.

This time, as if in demonstration, Omagwang was spinning his massive black axe like a windmill in a large circle above his head.

The first to move was Yu Eun-sung, who played the role of bait. He drew on all of his accumulated Qi and injected it into a single point at the tip of his sword. A large amount of sword qi flowed into a single point that was smaller than a grain of rice.

"Heavy Rain Shot!"

With a roaring cheer, dozens of beams of sword energy shot from the tip of his blade toward Omagwang. His job was to hold his opponent's attention as loudly and spectacularly as possible, even from a distance.

"It doesn't work!"

Laughing at his reckless attack, Omagwang crossed the chains a couple of times, and the shower of sword energy that had been flying around dissipated as if washed away.

"Die!"

Quickly parrying Yue Yun's attack, Omagwang did not forget to retaliate. Once again, his right hand flicked out, and the chain moved like a nimble whip, sending out a silvery axe dangling from its end.

"I knew it was reckless anyway!

Sword Qi that has been shot will naturally dissipate after traveling a certain distance. Once it leaves the body's vessel, it does not linger in the air for long. It dissolves into the entirety of the vast collection of chi that is the universe. The distance may increase or decrease in proportion to one's level of cultivation and the quality of one's inner workings, but it never lasts forever. Yue Yun's level of achievement was not yet high enough to make the distance of ten zhang into nothingness. Knowing this, he summoned all his strength and drew his gaze. Then, as he had intended, his axe flew toward him.

Ten sheets was never a short distance.

Qin Xiaoling didn't miss this opportunity to punish Xin Xing. It was a water lily step, the fastest of all the Amphibian non-steps. She closed the distance in an instant, like an arrow being shot.

"Shuriken Ilshi (彈劍一矢)!"

Dodging the razor sharp teeth of the flying axe, Yue Yunsheng's hand unfurled one of the Four Sword Technique's three spleen slashes. The sword left his hand and flew in a straight line toward Omagwang's brow, as fast as an arrow of light shot from a god's bow. It was the best and final slash he could currently perform. If it failed, he would die as well. A killing move was called a killing move because if it failed to kill the opponent, it would kill him. It is inevitable that one of us will die. The enemy or you.

"Great!"

An exclamation burst from the mouths of those watching.

"It's over, bastard!"

At the same time as his shout, Qin Lie's sword burst into colorful bloom, and the Amphibian Poisonous Lotus blossomed in the air.

But they forgot one important fact: why his asterisks had two parts.

For once, even the vaunted Omagwang was surprised enough to change color; he hadn't expected the blue kids to push him this far. This time, the attack was precise and sharp.

His star sign, however, was the Big Dipper. He wasn't called that because he used a double-edged wand.

"Foreclosure! Don't look down on me!"

Omagwang had a trick up his sleeve, too: his other axe was sheathed in a belt on his back. It was as small as he was, and as fast as he was. There is a sword art, but there is no such thing as a sword art. The axe had always been at a disadvantage in terms of speed because it was a dull, dull, dull thing to begin with. However, it was hard to find any other word to describe the axe skill that Omagwang's left hand displayed now.

The speed and variation of his movements was astonishing, as he freely maneuvered over a dozen ships, a small, lightweight saber in his hand.

Pah-bah-bah-bah!

His axe, swung wildly, was the first to strike the sword of Eunseom as it flew toward his brow.

Cha-ching!

With a precise strike to the side, Yue Yun's sword bounced up towards the sun. Before it could even hit the ground again, his axe had already slashed through Qin Shaolin's entire body. The blood-red glow in his eyes was reminiscent of a demon crawling up from the depths of hell.

The fierce axe blow shattered her sword herbs like shards of glass.

"Ouch!"

Unable to overcome its power, Qin Lie lost his grip on the sword. His grip was torn open and blood dripped from his hands. His vision became disoriented as the Five Elements shook. His mind went blank.

His axe disappeared behind his back as quickly as it had been drawn. The next moment, Qin Xiaolong's slender neck was caught in Omagwang's crude grip.

At any moment, her slender neck would snap like a plant in the hands of a bully.

Oma Guang's eyes burned red as he looked at the pained expression on Qin Shaolin's face as he floated in midair. He had originally planned to kill him slowly and take his time. If he didn't kill him now, his intuition would not be released.

"No, no, no, no, Gene Sojae!"

A desperate scream erupted from Yoo Eun-sung's mouth, but what could he do without his sword, his last resort?

"Die!"

Having breathed in the blood of countless human beings, the demonic beast of Omarwang moved to take another life.

Eunseong's eyes narrowed.

It wasn't until a little later that Yoo Eun-sung, who had fled into the darkness, noticed something strange. The first thing that struck her as odd was that she didn't hear Qin Xiaoling's final death knell. The second thing that struck her as odd was that she could not hear the fierce laughter of her enemies, who would have taken the life of a beautiful woman.

It was very frightening to face reality, but Yue Eun-sung had the courage to open one eye and look ahead. The unfortunate thing was that Qin Xiaoling was still in the clutches of that vicious beast, and the fortunate thing was that her neck was not still attached to her shoulder. Intuitively, he could feel that she was still breathing.

"This… this……."

Omagwang's face was flushed bright red.

His forearms were bulging with sinew and blood, and he struggled to grasp the left hand that held Qin Liege, but his grip was unyielding, as if he were caught in a web of time.

His eyes went wide, unable to comprehend why. Even the bright-eyed Eunseom could see it.

"Seo, are you kidding me?"

Something long and black and slender protruded from the outside of his thick left wrist.

"Who are you, the bastard who hurled such a slur at this old man?"

But it wasn't a sting, and it certainly wasn't a poisonous one. It wasn't any of that junk.

Eunseong's eyes widened. So did the omagwang, which was something she'd always seen a lot of, except it was overly stiff. Especially overhead or in a fluttering field of vision on a windy day.

"Seriously, hair?"

I rubbed my eyes a few times to make sure it wasn't the wrong eye, but nothing was wrong.

It was a single hair.

Bam!

"That's it!"

With a quiet, gentle, but firm voice, the superintendent shuffled out of his seat and stood up.

What happened next must have left everyone, including Eunseong, bewildered; it happened so quickly that it took a while for the information to be processed and reprocessed within the perceptual field, and for the information to be re-entered and understood.

"Who the hell are you, you're about to die!"

A ferocious gust of wind blew toward the man from Omagwang's right hand, which was still intact unlike his crippled left, and in the next moment, his gut froze. It was as if time had stood still.

In the man's hand, a black saber with the power to crush even the largest of rocks came to rest. With a casual flick of his hand, he turned the axe's attack into nothing.

"What can you do with a toy like this?"

Wow!

With a light squeeze, the axe crumbled to blackened steel and began to fall to the floor. In the next instant, he had closed the distance between him and Omagwang to nothing, and then he twisted the man's right arm, the once-strong bicep twisting like wringing laundry.

"Ouch!"

A blood-curdling scream erupted from the mouth of Chen Maboju, who had always let screams come from the mouths of others.

By this time, the vice-crown prince Heng Qidao, who still had a bit of sanity left in him, had rushed to his aid, carrying a giant sword that seemed to be dripping with blood. He wielded a vicious sword with a saw-like blade and was always the first to kill, hence his nickname, "Feng Qidao." But his girdle, which held the hopes of so many, was snapped like a sorghum can by the light breeze of a man's cuff, and his entire body was torn apart as if by the claws of a fierce beast, and he flew backwards, spewing blood. After floating in the air for a moment, Qin Xiaolong's body slowly fell like a feather into Chu Lixuan's arms. An invisible hand seemed to be supporting her body.

"Are you all right, little lady?"

The man who extended his hands and gently took the girl in his arms asked with a kindly smile. Qin Xiaolong blushed and nodded her head a couple of times, unable to answer. She was very confused after being so abruptly pulled from the other side of life and death.

With his heart pounding in his chest, Qin Lie cautiously looked up at his lifesaver, but he could barely make it out through the shadows and hair of the chrysalis. Slightly dejected, Qin Lie replied, "I'm sorry, sir.

"I'm not a little girl."

"Hehe, I must have made a mistake on this one. Sorry Mian. As I get older, I sometimes make that mistake, forgetting that the amount of time I spend in a place has nothing to do with what I get out of it. There are a lot of poor cheeses out there with mud in their eyes for the rest of their lives. Will you forgive me?"

There has never been a time in history when people who spend their entire lives wasting away pointlessly have been removed from many positions. Qin Shaolin blushed, then nodded.

"But at least you're not one to let time pass meaninglessly. I forgive you for your mistake, and I thank you for saving my life. Now, will you please let me off?"

Qin Xiaoling, who was still in the man's arms, blushed and said.

"Sorry. I don't want to remain a bystander until the end, so I'll have to tie the knot at least as tightly as the spiral, because it doesn't seem to be willing to look at itself yet, otherwise it would have realized what it is pretty quickly."

When they looked in the same place, they saw a human being whinnying like a mad horse.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

Snapped out of the momentary lull brought on by physical pain and mental trauma, Omagwang cried out in anguish. His rage, now incarnated in vengeance, caused the seventy-seven men who had been waiting behind him on horseback to spur their horses and rush forward. A tidal wave of hooves came crashing down to bloody Chou Lipsan and the little bird in his arms.

"Stupid!"

The Supersanae began to speak quietly as he paced, still holding the girl in his arms.

"Why didn't I help you? I had the power to keep you out of harm's way from the beginning; I could have pulled you out of a crisis; I could have kept you from suffering this much; why did I wait until now to save you?"

Qin Xiaolong shook his head in silence. He continued.

"Because I am not you. It is always, in the end, up to you to make your own way through life. You are thrown into this world of existence and you have to make your own way through it. That's life, that's your life, and life is the act of defining yourself for yourself. I'm just another person in your life. I can advise you and help you navigate the waves of destiny, but you're always the last one standing. I'm not a nanny, I can't just show up and save you anytime, anywhere."

The girl just stood still and listened. Dozens of horses were galloping along, shaking the ground, but a soft, gentle, powerful horse was wrapped around her. She felt strength, confidence, and certainty in that horse.

"What a coincidence!"

In a very firm voice, he said.

"A very, very special, rare, unexpected coincidence, something that is not inevitable. The fact that I happened to meet you at the right moment and lent you my power is one of many such coincidences, coincidences of coincidences. This is probably what you call being overly lucky, but you can't count on it. There is no such thing as a coincidence that happens whenever you need it. You have to build your own strength and fight the waves of fate and win. That's why I haven't helped you all this time. To honor your own life, its fierce struggle, to prevent my will from intervening as much as possible in the path of your will. So forget about this coincidence, as if it never happened."

He held the girl in his 'two. Arms." and walked leisurely toward his horse as if he were taking a stroll.

"All things change. Everything is always changing. Constantly. There is nothing in this world that ever stops changing. Infinite change is the true nature of this world. The world is sustained by a never-ending dance, an eternal flow, and a constant shifting of interactions. It's the same with fights: change and change are just two sides of the same coin, vying for dominance."

He was now only a short distance from the charging horde. A properly trained horse has no qualms about trampling humans. But it was a shame to cut them down to bring these men down. Rather, the horses would help the humans, while these humans would only harm them.

The man didn't mind saying it. Tools are merely mirrors that reflect the nature of the people who use them, and breaking the mirror does not change the person.

"Of course, the changes that occur between relationships are much more complex than that. No matter how complex the change, if you can get to the heart of it, you can dominate the whole picture. That's called centralization. That's what it is."

It would be hard to say that it was a useful, valid, educational demonstration, because the girl was completely unaware of what was happening around her, just as a flower is not a flower until it is called a flower, and it does not exist until it is recognized.

None of the horsemanship had harmed his body. He was still cheerful and gentle, and his steps were easy, and his arms were still wrapped around her, as if to protect her. And she realized that what he was telling her now was not mere life wisdom. What she was seeing now was the resurrection of a vision, a vision that had died in words and had come to life. It was, as he had said, a coincidence, a kismet, a coincidence brought about by a lack of inevitability.

When he and the girl had finished their short walk across the field among the seventy or so horses, there was no one else on horseback. All of the former foes, weapons of all sorts of ugly shapes drawn and ready to pounce on a single woman, had fallen from their saddles and were sprawled on the ground. Some had been trampled by hooves, broken ribs, shattered shins, crushed ankles, disemboweled, and even had their testicles squeezed out.

I squinted my eyes, but I couldn't recognize my hand at all; it felt like a fleeting dream that took place in another dimension.

"Über… Über… Über……."

Stunned by the sight of the authority of a heavenly deity wielded for a moment on earth, Omagwang's mouth twitched like a carp having trouble breathing.

A chilling silence settled over the area. Only one man stood silently at the center of it all. Cradling in his arms a small bird of infinite possibilities.

"Uh… can you drop me off now? I think you're done with your business."

Blushing, the girl spoke in a small voice.

"Of course, Sojae!"

Smiling again, he dutifully listened to the girl.

Reflecting on the afterimages of his short walk earlier, he felt a bittersweet sadness. Worst of all, he realized that he had been the decisive cause of the scene.

'Still there is strife in the world,' he said, 'and though the coming of disaster is so clearly before them, men prefer to quarrel with each other than to unite with one another to meet that trial.'

Have we lost the power of foresight, the ability to see farther afield? Foresight is not as supernatural as many people imagine it to be. It is a combination of logical reasoning, intuition, and insight, and it is a very real ability that can be acquired through learning and the discipline of thought. It is very rare for something to fall out of the sky one day, and it is wiser to reject the claims of anyone who claims to do so than to accept them. Especially those who use the name of God as a selling point and the horrors of the afterlife as a sales tactic.

The foundation of foresight is imagination. If you take things at face value, you'll only get a shell. If you want to see the inside of a phenomenon and get to its essence, you need to cultivate the imagination and insight to see beyond the shell.

It doesn't take a lot of imagination to realize that, especially in this case, you just need to take a breath and think about it. All the "you're better, I'm better" arguments in the world don't matter in the face of a giant scary thing.

The foretold catastrophe to come will be a tidal wave that will sweep away all of this childlike play. It will take a united decision of the minds to prevent the tidal wave from overwhelming the world that is still in a fragile state of peace. It is no one else's business but their own, their own descendants', and their own future. And yet, most people refuse to understand it at all. They are not interested in their own future at all. It's as if they are in denial that they are part of the world.

Then, behind them again, there was a dusty rustle. It was not the sound of horses. It was the sound of a strong man moving. It was the sound of an opening salvo.

The seventy-nine men lying on the floor now were certainly not the entirety of the thousand mavos.

The tension between Qin Shaolin, Yue Yunsheng, and the coachman was back. Their bodies were already exhausted from the grueling fight. There was no strength left to fight anymore.

But Qin Xiaolong's face soon brightened. He saw familiar faces in the rushing horde. She was so overjoyed that tears threatened to fall. She felt the tension that had been clamping down on her limbs like the ropes of the gallows loosen at once. But a question soon arose.

"But how, the signal wouldn't have reached the prose?

And the turnaround time was faster than expected.

"And him?!

The old woman at the head of the pack, leading a group of about fifty disciples, looked very familiar. She was Hye Yue, one of the five elders of the Amifa and a feared figure among some of the disciples, known as the White-Haired Demon. She was a survivor of the Heavenly Blood Tax, so you can imagine how old she was.

Elder Hui Yue had good eyesight for someone over a hundred years old, so he could recognize Qin Xiaolong's identity from a distance.

Her heart sank at the thought of one of Ami's most promising students being in such dire straits. She called out to the man she had saved and to her students.

"I'll go first!"

Her usual rule of thumb was that men could not be trusted, and the first thing she stepped on was the mysterious man standing right next to the Major. Her pace quickened, and with a gust of wind, she spun around, squeezed between the two men, then stepped into the middle of them, and shouted, "Let go.

"I don't know who you are or what your purpose is, but stay away from this child, you wolf!"

It was a statement that spoke volumes about her values, that she thought all men were wolves and that Seung-nyang was the best candidate. The absurdity was, of course, on the male side. Cholipsan shook her head in disbelief.

"Hye-wol, your man-phobia is still there!"

Jin So-ryung sprained his ankle and Yoo Eun-sung had hiccups.

"Hye-wol~?"

The horse's tail soared high in the air.

"No, you rotten bastard, do you think I'm your friend, how dare you……!"

Her exasperated voice broke through as she recognized the man's face.

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee… cackle cackle!"

The scream caught in her throat, and she couldn't hear it. A coughing fit that threatened to take her lungs out of her throat. It was unbecoming, but she was in no condition to care about such things now.

Her spirit escaped her body due to mental trauma beyond the threshold of what her body could handle and reached Yeomrajeon, but through consultation with the King of Yeomra, it was discovered that the date recorded in the Life and Death Book was different, so two of her spirit guards were severely reprimanded for neglect of duty and her spirit was allowed to return to her original body. Hai Yue, her face reddening from the after-effects of the fluid escape, quickly threw herself to the ground and wailed. This was an example that even a master of the main sect had never seen.

"Ah, Ami's Hye Wol sees Joe, Jonan!"

Elder Hui Yue's voice was trembling as he spoke, an elder known within the Amifa for his short temper and grumpiness.

Qin Xiaoling and Yoo Eun-sung had to rub their eyes, which had once again grown to the size of firelight glasses.

"Powerful greeting, thank you. It's been a while."

Chu Lipsanai laughed. Then Hui Yue's body shrank even further, as if it couldn't handle the emptiness.

"I will not ask for forgiveness, but I will pay for this, this lowly insolence with death."

Hui Yue's voice was trembling like an aspen tree.

"Hehe, that's a bit harsh for a greeting after all these years. What if I told you that you're not good enough? What if I told you that you're not good enough? What if I told you that you're not good enough? What if I told you that you're not good enough? Get up."

"Oh, no, I don't dare stand up."

But before she knew it, her body was lifted by an invisible hand and she stood perpendicular to the ground. She quickly ducked her head. She didn't dare face it.

"It's because I'm uncomfortable. It hurts my throat to look down at you and talk to you. But what happened? The kid said that Hong Lianxak's signal couldn't have reached Ami from here."

Then Hye-wol began to explain herself. The reason was this.

For the past few days, he'd heard rumors of hordes of blind bandits rampaging through the area, ignoring Amifa's face… and he'd been on edge… but instead, as an exemplary elder with a sense of justice and mission, he'd led his children to slay the bandits. Along the way, he even saved a boy. His name was Zhang, and he was about to be left penniless by the bandits when she saved him. He bragged that he was so pathetic that he even taught her a lesson when she was robbed by bandits.

"So, are you feeling a little refreshed after all this time?"

"Ah, yes, of course. I've been stuck in prose for a while now, and it's kind of… sore!"

Hai Yue's nonchalant reply was quickly interrupted by a flurry of tongue movements. Qin Shaolin suddenly began to have doubts about the fact that he was Amifa's disciple.

Chrysanthemum laughed.

"Hehehe, you're still going strong."

"Boo, shame on you."

It had been some fifty years since he had gone into hiding. The man who had been said to be dead had reappeared before their eyes. Hui Yue was genuinely thrilled. He was genuinely overwhelmed by the fact that he had once again encountered a legend in person.

At this time, Qin Xiaoling, Yue Eunsung, and the coachman were frozen and restless.

Who in the world is Hui Yue, one of the eldest members of the Sichuan Martial Forest, a figure that they hold in such awe, that they would be so disrespectful to someone of his stature?

How would Hye-wol react if I told her that when we first met, I had no idea what to expect. She might even try to dust off the dust of her past reputation, where she had once been called 'Pibora'.

"I'll get in touch with the head of the family right away to see if he's available."

At Haiyue's words, which sounded like an obligation, Chu Lipsan raised his hand to stop her. He didn't want to add any more hassle to his journey, and his meeting with them was unscheduled in the first place.

"But I guess that's what fate is for, and if so, I can only hope that this seed of serendipity will grow into something good.

"No need. That's not where we're going. We can't afford to bother a long-winded man like that."

"No, it's not a hassle, how dare you harbor such impious thoughts. If you were to visit our Amifa, we would consider it an honor not to be repeated in three lives, and the room you stay in would be preserved in perpetuity, yes. If word of this gets out, the Ximen Sect and the rest of the Nine Sects will probably go crazy with envy. So please don't say no, just come and stay with us for a few days……."

Hye-wol's saliva splashed from her mouth as she fervently wished for his return, her eyes dancing like a girl's, but the man's will was stubborn.

"I'm sorry. I don't have much time. Let's part ways here."

Disappointment was evident on Haiyue's face. She looked as if she had just witnessed the sky fall. She was truly dejected.

"……I understand, please do as you wish."

There was no doubt in my mind that it was a reluctant answer.

"Thanks. And take care of those guys."

"Yes, don't worry. I'll give you a taste of bitterness so you don't do this again."

Hye-wol lightly licked her upper lip with her red tongue. It was an old habit that had popped up unconsciously.

'Tsk, tsk, that habit is still there. You're counting down the days until the thousand-mile sign comes down.

I suddenly felt a little sorry for the people of Tianmabo, but it was only a momentary pity: if you're going to harm others, you should be prepared to be harmed yourself. Wouldn't that be fair?

"You're older now, so don't look at too much blood."

I knew it was useless, but I said something anyway. A few days later, Chen Mabo disappeared from the scene.

But no one died.

No wonder. There have been many debates since the days of the whales, but kneading has never been recognized as a true death.

However, as many scholars recognize, there are real-life situations in which it is sometimes better to die than to live. The Buddha himself has already explained the concept of cessation of suffering: both heaven and hell are on earth, not off it.

Heaven or Hell? The choice is always a human one, not a divine one.

"Gu, thank you for saving… e… me… Daehyeop!"

Feeling that he should formally express his gratitude, Qin Xiaolong had to think long and hard about what to call this mysterious man. Mr. Xiao, Mr. Dai, Mr. Noya, Mr. Route, Brother, Brother-in-law, Brother, etc. etc. etc. In the end, she settled on the most casual of names, Dai Hao.

He shook his head.

"You saved yourself. It was your refusal to give up that touched my heart. So you don't need to thank me. Just give yourself a pat on the back for not giving up until the last possible moment: 'You tried, you tried hard, you did well, you're good, you're strong, you are you."

"I… well, I'm still grateful. Even if I had the most unyielding heart, I wouldn't be able to make a difference in reality if I didn't have the power to do so. Without your help, the girl would have been humiliated by those villains. Even if I thanked you a thousand times, it wouldn't be enough to repay the favor you've done for me. You've saved both my present and the future that remains a possibility, so thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much."

Sincere words of gratitude always have a pleasant ring to them. He smiled at the girl's sincerity, and he didn't forget her last piece of advice.

"But don't forget that this is really just a coincidence of coincidences. Luck is what you make of your own will and your own ability. Strive to overcome yourself and realize the Oneness of the Supreme."

"Your words are like golden sigils, I will engrave them in the girl's heart and never forget them. No matter how long time passes, your words will never fade away and remain in the girl's heart."

"I'll expect you to keep your word."

Now it's time.

"I guess that's goodbye then."

"Me……."

Qin Xiaoling opened his mouth to speak.

"Can I see you again?"

The girl's flushed cheeks looked very cute. The corners of the man's mouth were drawn into a kindly smile.

"If the stars align."

Qin Xiaolong smiled broadly and nodded. Finally, the man stroked her hair and said.

"You look a lot like your mom, but you're more beautiful and stronger, so goodbye."

Qin Shaolin's head snapped up.

"My mother is……."

It was only a brief moment, but his figure was already moving away down the street.

He waved one hand in response. And then he was out of her sight.

And with that, the two parted ways.

But the two never met again.

The man left. The people stared after him for a while, as if under a spell, especially Hui Yue, who was trembling with emotion. Grabbing the elder, who was still shaking with emotion, Qin Shaolin cautiously asked him a question.

"I… Elder?"

After repeating the process about five times, Qin Xiaoling was finally able to elicit a response, and even then, it was a fairly dry one, but he had to ask the question quickly before Hye Yue slipped back into her private world of delusion.

"Who is that?"

This was a position that could hardly be considered human. How could Hui Yue, one of the oldest men in Sichuan, be an ordinary man who was willing to show so much respect that he was willing to bring even the Elder of the Bon Fa to pay his respects?

"Wait, you mean you were with him without knowing who he was?"

"Yes……."

I nodded reluctantly. I couldn't say that the elder hadn't been rude and disrespectful at first, too. Nor did he reveal that he had been disrespected many times before. He had barely lived, and he didn't want to die again.

"Tsk, tsk, you were lucky today, you got to see him with your own two eyes… a tale to tell for generations to come. You saw a legend, breathed the same air as him for a moment, and shared the same story. If you're lucky, you'll even get to write your name into a long line of legends… though today's events are far too meager for that."

Then, with girlish eyes that still sparkled with longing and envy - it was quite frightening as it was for the eyes of a demonic grandmother over a hundred years old to change like that - Hai Yue leaned close to Qin Xiaolong's ear and whispered quietly.

"He is the one who created one of the two axes of change that sustain and move the current monarchy."

Boom!

For a moment, my head went blank. A voice that still rang in my ears. A kind, gentle smile. A pair of arms that became a fence to protect her.

"Are you all right, little lady?"

"You look a lot like your mom!"

A huge but warm shadow that still lingers in the back of my mind. The strong arms that saved my young self from falling out of a tree. That was more than a decade ago. But he knew who it was then. The legend, the myth, the savior of the mighty, the god of the martial arts, revered by all in the White and Black Islands.

"Well, then that's the one……. Huh!!!"

"Huh!"

Tsk!

Qin Shaolin froze, and then let go. She fainted while standing. The coffin of ice surrounding her would not melt in a million years.

* * *

There has never been a time since the beginning of time when the followers of chaos have completely and utterly surrendered to order. They have existed in every age, every time. With more tenacity than a cockroach. Common sense tells us that it's easier to create chaos than it is to maintain order. The slightest disturbance in the maintenance of order is enough to turn it into chaos, and there is nothing more awkward than order in the world of genetics. Is the search for order merely a reaction to the nature of the world that denies immortality?

Finally, the shadow of a mountain peak engulfed him completely. Pausing for a moment, he lifted it slightly with his right hand and looked ahead. A towering mountain peak loomed in the distance, its back to him as dusk fell with the setting sun.

"I walked out of here and I'm so changed, and this place hasn't changed at all, it's still the same as it was then……."

It must be nature's way of constantly changing, but to his eyes, it looked the same as it had that day, when he'd seen it in the dawn light as he'd left.

Pressing Initial again, he resumed his paused steps and walked silently into the mountain's embrace. Soon enough, he reaches his destination. There must be some other force at work, but the closer he gets to his destination, the heavier his steps become. His mind was weighing down his body.

Why shouldn't I take this path among the many paths? Even though Venerable Buddha preached the Dharma of Unity and preached that everything in this world is suffering, isn't this too much to ask for? If there was a heavenly department in charge of fate, I would have been willing to deliver a mountain of letters of protest.

It was a hastily concocted suggestion, based on an indelible regret that had taken root in his mind, but it was hard not to be tempted. From the depths of his consciousness erupted an uncontrollable desire to give in to the sweet temptation.

The easy way is always the sweet way. You just have to give up on the possibility. Hope always imposes too much suffering for the marginal results it points to. Suzy Tasan has never been hit.

But the man soon shook his head. It's not for nothing that it's said that if you stop on the way, you're not as good as a liver. You're not going anywhere, and you're thin. The distance is as bad as the loss. If he hadn't even started, he could have set a different destination!

"How many years have I been away from this place……."

In awe, the man gazed out at the jade-green world overlaid with dusk. Man had changed, but nature had remained the same, welcoming him into an immutable eternity.

The weather was sunny and there were only a few clouds floating lazily across the sky, blotting out the blue. The vastness of nature was infinite and he was alone.

He suddenly felt alone.

Many of his men are dead. They were his best friends, the ones he trusted and followed, and now they were gone. Those who looked to the same place as he did had already left his side. Leaving him alone. Only the most trusted of them remained. He knew he would have to carry the souls of those who had gone before him, the fire of their convictions, in his heart for the rest of his life.

Now the friend and yourself go their separate ways. He hopes these paths will one day lead to one, but he does not know if that day will ever come. It exists on the far side of the horizon of his vision, and the horizon of time before him is now close enough for him to measure.

"It's not long now."

A wry smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

He had realized eight decades earlier that he would never be able to adequately and effectively deal with the next crisis in its current form. His imagination was not one of those impoverished axes. But he couldn't give up. The world's system of laws was not such that inaction could lead to very good results.

So he and his trusted confidant looked to the next hundred years and formulated a grand plan. It was a vision of systematic education, and he had the will, determination, and ability to carry it out. And so two educational institutions emerged in Jianghu.

The rise of the Temple of Heaven and the Temple of Heavenly Peace.

The order of power was reorganized around these two axes. The world was turned upside down. Only then did people begin to give serious thought to the practice of disciplining themselves and teaching others. You should rejoice that things have changed for the better, because before this, there was no such virtue.

Yang alone does not create change. But neither can yin alone. It's only when yin and yang are in harmony that change happens.

"The seeds have been sown. All that remains is to pray that they will bloom into a magnificent flower."

You've done your part for the world. Now it was time to do his own work. He was going through the process in reverse: his former self had achieved self-overcoming, but he had the very shallow quality of thinking that this horizon was infinitely expandable.

It was time to push himself once again, and that's why he stepped into a place he thought he would never return to again.

To get over yourself.

The forest opened up and the sun greeted him.

At last he had reached the headwaters from which he had flowed.

It was a tiny, shabby little town. An old man with a greedy white beard sat at a table in the center of a large courtyard. In his hand, he held a goblet. The glass across from him was invisible.

The old man, who was living alone and tending to his crops, turned his head and looked at him. The man's heart pounded. His lips dried up. His throat burned, but the reaction was short-lived.

"Huh? Is that you?"

That was it. The old man tipped the bottle back into his glass, filled it to the brim without overflowing, and downed it in one swift gulp. The glass was still in his hand.

"Yes, it's me."

The man replied. What kind of face do you think you have now? There was an unexplainable disparity in his eyes, which were made to see things, but not himself.

"It's been a long time, Master."

Again, the man wrapped his left hand around his right fist and politely bowed his head in acknowledgment.

"It's been a while."

After a few moments of counting, the old man realized the futility of the act and stopped. He had no intention of letting go of the glass in his other hand anyway, and even if he did, it wouldn't be enough.

"…because it's been almost ninety years."

"Hmm, yeah, come to think of it, I guess I did."

"Are you already demented?"

"I remember you peeing on the sheets in your sleep and shaking with fear."

"You can consign that to the depths of oblivion."

"Or that he was passed out in a dumpster in front of somebody's back door, starving and groggy."

"……."

Suddenly, his heart sank. It was something he had forgotten. No, it would be more accurate to say he was desperate to forget. He owed his escape from that hell to this man.

"What's the matter? I thought our relationship was over, or do you need a place to die? I don't feel comfortable forcing you to be a penny-pinching funeral director. If you need a place to die, go find one elsewhere. I have no business."

The old man said bluntly.

The man's mouth curved into a thin smile, like a ray of sunshine.

"You haven't changed, Master."

He looked and acted exactly the same as he had when he left, and that was what surprised him the most.

"Oh, you forgot again. Well, it's been a while since we broke up, so I'll give you that."

"……."

"So here I am again, taking the trouble to remind you of something you're forgetting."

The old man spoke again in a clear tone.

"I am not your teacher!"

He was once the pinnacle of the warlords, a man who was said to have ascended to the throne of gods. He was, and still is, shamefully called a godless man.

'What makes those at the pinnacle different? There are two common sensations felt by superhumans throughout history who are said to have transcended the limits of humanity and pioneered the unexplored realm of the exalted, the one and only, the best of the best, the first of the best, the best of the best, the best of the best, the best of the best, the best of the best, the best of the best, the best of the best, the best of the best, the best of the best, the enlightened, the gods.'

One is the loneliness that comes from having no one to share what he's gained with, and the other is that they realize this isn't the end yet. They know. No, they realize. Inevitably, unquestionably, completely.

They know that there is another level, another realization, above this. When the common criminals look at them and say this is the end, they are looking at a vast new horizon before them. Only those who have reached the top can see the next step.

Whenever a world horizon is complete, it always points to another horizon of existence, and so the world extends itself.

The world of our existence is endless. The world can never go beyond existence. The void of emptiness has no end in sight. Whether it is happiness or misery depends on one's point of view.

This is called the true infinite.

* * *

The old man stands in a gray robe, his back to the light of the window, his head tilted toward the ceiling.

"Sure enough, he went back to where he came from……."

A sigh escaped the old man's mouth as he closed his eyes.

"Does this mean you've gone to a place where you'll never be seen again in this life……."

The old man's face fell, and he vented the sorrow he had been keeping bottled up in the deepest recesses of his heart for twenty years.

Intuitively, I felt it. The only intelligent being with whom he shared a soul and a will was gone from this world. But after receiving confirmation from his friend's descendants, the feeling was renewed. So this is what it feels like to be killed? Now he was left to fend for himself.

'박정한 친구…….'

You're too old to carry the world alone. Your back may be broken, but now the friend who shared the burden with you has gone down the road of no return. The seat next to you will always remain empty.

Yeomdo and Ice Sword were silent, their heads bowed, their faces sullen. They didn't dare to speak.

The one and only supreme wisdom that looked at the same place as him is gone. Who can he play life with now? There is no one who can feel the loss he feels now. It would be presumptuous and the height of arrogance to speak without having stood in his shoes. Even if one were in the unique position of being a friend's disciple, or even if one were one's own flesh and blood, one could not fully comprehend the emptiness of feeling as if half the world had vanished.

"Cause of death?"

He didn't want to joke about dying of old age. There was no way he could have died of natural causes when he was as healthy as he was and in the position he was in.

"You said you were going to be out for a while, that you had some business that needed to be tied up, and when you got back, it was already……."

"Already?"

"He came back wounded beyond repair, His chest torn like a rag, tiny veins like spider webs crisscrossing His flesh."

Bing'er's face frowned of its own accord as the horrific memories of that time resurfaced. Even his mind, which was said to be as cold as ice, hadn't completely frozen the memories. He still had nightmares about it, and would occasionally wake up with a start.

"Spidery veins? Is that a 'he'?

But the old man quickly shook his head.

It couldn't be. Besides, it was hard to imagine that "he" would have stayed quiet for twenty years.

"What did he say?"

There had to be a last word, and it was the only clue I could rely on now.

"This is what he wanted to do… this is what he had to do… this is what he had to do… this is what he had to do, and he told me not to think of revenge."

"Not to take revenge?"

"Yes."

"Was he remorseful?"

"No, he said he has no regrets. You said you got what you wanted… this is the price you pay… you're just disappointed."

"You got what you wanted……. You must have gotten what you wanted."

Yeomdo and Binggum took the halves of the mirror from their arms and held them out to Hyukjung. It was a dry harmonizing mirror.

"He broke it in half and gave one to each of us."

"I'm sure your friend's will is in it, and so is his mind, but……."

After a moment's pause, the old man glanced at the salt and ice sword alternately before asking.

"…has it ever been put together?"

"……."

No answer came back.

"Why is there no answer, yes or no?"

The old man's rebuke became the master's rebuke and struck them to the heart.

'Master…….'

Their bodies were in the present, but their eyes were looking into the past.

I'll never forget that day for the rest of my life.

The sight imprinted on their retinas that day would never be washed away by the torrents of time.

* * *

"Why are you weeping, children, or are you sad?"

Two young men and a young woman, their eyes brimming with tears, were shaking with emotion at the Master's gentle question. The once great master, who was like a heavenly god, was now lying on the cold floor. His breathing was ragged and his complexion pale. The two young men could feel it. The fire of the sun that had always shone brightly before them would soon be extinguished. The end of twilight was approaching.

"I'm sorry, but not sad. I knew this day would come. Since that day eighty years ago, I've been waiting for the time bomb inside me to go off. I'm lucky to have lived for eight decades. It's how I was able to meet you, isn't it?"

"Daddy, you can't go back, oops!"

A girl buried her face in a man's chest and sobbed. The girl's pretty face was covered in tears.

"…that's what made me happiest of all."

The master continued to speak with intermittent exhalations.

"If I'm worried, I'm worried that you two don't get along. Young-hee, you're too open-minded. You need to learn to hide your tears. Cheolsoo, you seem to be rational at first glance, but I'm worried about your fiery temper at times. Take this, both of you!"

What emerged from his arms was a smooth bronze mirror, its face covered with a scrawl that could have been a scripture.

"All I have to give you is a pair of swords and this mirror, Pullman!"

"Yes, Master!"

The boy in blue replied, not bothering to wipe away the tears running down both cheeks.

"I'm giving you the Ice Blade, a sword with icy properties that was once my left hand. It will help you master the sword techniques I have taught you. Yingxi!"

"Yes, Master, I'm here."

The boy in red, drenched in cascading tears, replied.

"I give you this sidewalk, the Red Flame, which has the properties of the flame that was once my right hand. It will help you to master the techniques I have passed on to you."

"Go… Thank you, Master, black black!"

"And… the Soviet Union!"

"Yes, Dad!"

"I'm sorry. I don't have anything for you, but I'll give you this jade horn instead. You have a talent for music, so you'll be able to use it better than I can. If you apply the sword techniques I've taught you, you'll have no trouble protecting yourself."

"Dad, you can't go back, you can't leave me behind."

The girl who accepted the jade horse cried and buried her face in her father's arms. He smiled quietly and stroked her hair. Then he spoke in a quiet but dignified voice.

"Listen to me, Cheol-su and Young-hee!"

"Yes, Master, please dismiss."

"Now I can teach you no more. It is a pity to leave you unfinished, but the priestly bond between you and me must come to an end today. But I have a concern: each of you has only mastered half of the martial arts I possess. That's enough to make a name for yourself among the greats, but it's not enough to prepare you for the dangers that lie ahead. There will come a time when the two of you must join forces. But you two don't get along like water and fire, and I'm worried about that, so I'm entrusting you each with half of this 'Book of Qianqiong', which contains my last thoughts."

The man grabbed the mirror and gave it a little squeeze, and the mirror split into two taiji patterns.

"Remember that although yin and yang have emerged from the Tai Chi pole, they are still one, not two. You will help each other, encourage each other, and strive for excellence, and if one day you meet someone who has the qualities to embody the profundity within, you will work together to give that child my profundity and all the profundity you have gained. Can you promise that?"

"I will keep that in mind, Master!"

He nodded in satisfaction.

"This is the end of my role. I'm sorry for you, but when you go out into the stronghold, do not reveal whose disciple you are, and do not let it be known that I am dead. I still need to be alive. I heard that the dead resonance sent Samajungdal away… I'm like him. I've put too much pressure on him… ……."

A bitter accusation formed at the corners of his mouth.

"My body will pass away, but my spirit will remain. Tai Chi's……. Kulkulkulk!"

Another bout of hemorrhaging followed with a violent cough.

"Master!"

"Master!"

"Dad!"

"It's okay. I'm fine, I just had an impatient friend rushing me. What's the big deal?"

He held up one hand to calm them down. Soon his breathing was steady. The look of anguish on his face had been washed away. He looked so relaxed. The fog of death had enveloped him.

"Find someone to carry on my spirit, someone of Tai Chi talent. Together, you two will be able to resurrect my spirit. May the light of my will shine brightly once more in your generation. And……."

He drew his last breath.

"Soviets, please."

And finally he was back where he came from.

One of the Murim's most brilliant binaries has fallen.

The god you thought was absolute is dead.

* * *

Finally, the silent old man spoke up.

Yidou and Iceblade buried their heads in their hands.

"Is that so, hasn't it ever been, he must be sad……."

The old man did not blame them. But that hurt them both more than any accusation could. Their throats closed, and no words came out.

"Still… it must not have been lonely for him to die with his disciples watching, for he had faith in you. That he had faith in you to carry on his will."

Yeomdo and Ice Sword did not dare to raise their heads; their small-minded pride had caused them to rebel against their heavenly master's maintenance. Their hearts felt like they would burst with guilt. The heat of the broken flame dwindled like a rain-soaked bonfire, and the transparency of the ice turned cloudy like an ashen haze with grief.

Hyuk-jung glanced at them and said.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, what's up with you weaklings? From the looks of you, you've only mastered the Late Heavenly Technique! Isn't that right?"

Flame and Ice looked up, startled.

"Well, how do you get it to……?"

"Why are you freaking out like a chick on fire? You're only pretending to be three thousand li."

In a nonchalant tone, Xue Zhong replied, but the salt and ice sword could never maintain their composure. No, they couldn't! They recognized their accomplishments at a glance……. Even for a master's closest allies, being able to penetrate the system of their own martial art was not something to be taken lightly, but they were in too much of a hurry to be alarmed.

"Not only that, but I know it's only half the story, so I guess it's a given that you haven't yet mastered the art of genius."

"Seo, you mean to tell me that you know from birth?!"

It's amazing that after all that eye-popping, I still had more to freak out about. My eyes had already been used up by my astonishment earlier, so I had to use something else. So this time, my mouth dropped open. To the point where I was worried my jaw might fall off.

"Is there a back without a front, in this relative world? Isn't there a front and a back and a back and a front? Just as left and right are a pair, just as yin and yang are one and not two, just as two and not one!"

The martial art of the Taijiquan Shingun is known as "dry and tired Taijiquan Musangi". But that's not quite true, and if you want to be precise, you could say it's the tip of the iceberg. No one can show you the deepest depths of their art. For to a martial artist, it is the greatest secret, the last trick, the last thing that remains hidden until the very end. By its very nature, the more it is known, the more it will do harm, not good. What good does it do to give the enemy a head start, except to add a little more danger and hardship to their lives? So what was known was always only a partial picture of the art, so to know the "innate qi," the highest vision of the martial art they had learned, was tantamount to knowing the entire picture of the art. It was no wonder they were surprised. Only a pervert would enjoy feeling naked in front of someone else.

The salt and ice swords were given martial arts with the properties of salt and ice, respectively. They were not the vessels their master had hoped for. They were not "Taijiquan talents," but that did not mean that the budding trees were yellow. If that were the case, the Five Great Daoists would have been renamed the Five Great Daoists and the Five Great Swords would have been renamed the Five Great Swordsmen. It's not that they were dull. It's just that their masters' talents were too good to be true.

In any case, they were woefully inadequate to master the Innate Qi, but instead of rejecting them, their master decided to give them a martial art that suited their characteristics and personalities, and so they were able to master the Late Qi, where detachment and sensitivity are at the center of change.

In the Hado, dry and wet form the two axes of yin and yang, but in the Graffiti, the center of yin and yang, the center of change, forms the two axes of fire and water, or simply put, fire and water. Hado is the world of bodies and Graffiti is the world of dragons, but it's complicated, so let's move on.

Originally, the training process of the Jinggon Ilwol Shingong was to realize the inherent constancy and stillness through acquired change and motion.

Yang's attribute of detachment was the most prominent in the phenomenal world, and the attribute of yin was the most prominent in the phenomenal world.

The "crimson seventy-seven salts" of the salt sword and the "ice spirit water flow sword" of the ice sword were released as a group based on the attributes of "tooth" and "sense." Therefore, those who had only cultivated one of the two "yangs" of the late Tian had cultivated less than a quarter of their original power. It's impossible to even estimate how much of a difference in power there would be if they were only in the later stages of cultivation and moved on to the innate stage.

They were ashamed beyond measure that they were casting a shadow on the radiance of their heavenly teacher, who was revered as a god, and that they were tarnishing a reputation higher than the mountains. Behold. Instead of inheriting their master's mantle, they are now merely disciples of a young boy. They couldn't even commit suicide for fear of seeing their master in the next world. If I were to meet him in the afterlife, how dare I speak of him as a stranger!

If I had a hundred mouths to feed, I couldn't think of anything to say.