Chapter 112. The End (3)

For a moment, Hyeok Ilso grinned with that detestable face of his.

He took a sudden step forward and swung his sword.

A trajectory already embroidered in the air, timed to the moment he took that step.

Observing that trajectory, I also took a step forward.

The moment I dodged his strike, a strange sight entered my eyes.

Before his sword had even fully extended, a new trajectory was embroidered in the air.

Soon after, his sword flew at me again.

A second strike, flying in by using the momentum from the first.

It wasn’t so surprising that I couldn’t react.

I had already seen that trajectory while launching the pincer attack with the trashy old man.

Swish.

“Well then, keep dodging.”

Hyeok Ilso, still smiling, swung his sword consecutively.

And as his chain of attacks continued, the speed at which the sword flew became faster, and the power contained within it also grew more ferocious.

It was a movement befitting the name Heavenly Wind Sword Art.

At first, it might just be a chilly wind, but as that wind accumulated, it would later be reborn as a great typhoon that could shake the world.

This was also the biggest difference between the Mighty Sword Art I taught Nam Geon and the Heavenly Wind Sword Art.

They were both sword arts that held their subtlety in strength and weight, but the Mighty Sword Art I taught Nam Geon didn’t connect so naturally.

No, the forms themselves connected, but there was no such function as doubling the power with each swing.

Before I knew it, the energy surging on his sword had grown even larger, now looking like a ball of yarn.

At this rate, it seemed his sword would become so ferocious that I wouldn’t be able to block it at all.

Dodging his offensive, I divided the energy I had raised into six strands and wrapped them around the Restoring Name Sword.

The sword silk of One Sun, Ten Thousand Lights clashed with his sword, and a metallic sound echoed.

Clang!!

“Hoh. It seems you haven’t just been playing around.”

Even while running his mouth, inner energy flowed unobstructed from his body.

Soon after, a trajectory was once again embroidered in the air.

Clang!

Clang!!

I continuously parried his chain of attacks with the Restoring Name Sword.

After blocking it a few times, an absurd sight entered my eyes.

“If this is all you’ve prepared, it’s quite disappointing in many ways.”

Even though I was clearly blocking with the Restoring Name Sword, the power contained in his sword was gradually growing stronger.

Hyeok Ilso was using the rebound force generated from the clash of swords to increase his power.

Blocking his sword was, in a way, helping him.

I almost let out a hollow laugh.

To think that man had obtained the Heavenly Wind Sword Art just twenty days ago, yet he was already wielding it so proficiently.

But I had no time to be amazed by his talent.

Hyeok Ilso’s sword flew at me again.

With a sliver of hope, I rotated the Restoring Name Sword towards the incoming trajectory.

The sword qi flowing along the Restoring Name Sword spread wide, forming a sword screen.

And.

Crack!!

It was torn apart with absurd simplicity.

Why was it?

The smile disappeared from the lips of the man who had torn apart my secret technique.

It was an expression of, what should I say, disappointment.

“What do you think you’re doing? Did you think you could block it with something like a sword screen?”

I had a thought of ‘as expected’.

For the ten days it took to reach Yichang, I had trained in the Moonlight Coiling Sword with all my might.

Thanks to that, I could now perform the Moonlight Coiling Sword to some extent.

Sadly, it was only after learning the Moonlight Coiling Sword that I realized something was strange.

Just as that bastard Hyeok Ilso said, the Moonlight Coiling Sword I unleashed was just a sword screen.

It was the same as the spear screen that the self-proclaimed Number One Person in Chongqing, Yun Geunpyeong, had used.

A wide screen of qi.

It might be useful for blocking a wide-range attack, but it was lacking when it came to blocking a force concentrated on a single point.

And that bastard’s Heavenly Wind Sword Art was a technique that concentrated power on a single point.

The compatibility was bad.

This was why I had saved the Moonlight Coiling Sword until now.

I had tried it thinking that maybe it would work, but the result was as expected.

It was torn apart with absurd simplicity.

What on earth was the problem?

Was the fourth form, the Moonlight Coiling Sword, really just a technique for creating a sword screen?

“What did I miss again?”

The Sun Moon Divine Sword master had written so in the secret manual.

That no matter how ferocious the power, it would be useless before the moonlight.

Of course, it wasn’t written so explicitly. As always, it was written in poetic expressions that were hard to understand.

“Did the master have dementia or something?”

Like that Blood Fist Golden Ghost bastard who had just died.

I shook my head.

My past experiences were telling me. Probably not.

That my lacking insight had once again missed something important.

But what was important right now was not what I had missed.

“There you go, spouting nonsense to yourself again.”

Because Hyeok Ilso was charging at me again.

“Struggle some more. Just like last time.”

His sword danced.

Swwwaaaeeek!!

With each swing, it amassed more power, as if trying to evolve into a typhoon.

Blocking and parrying were all the same; it just added to its power.

Leaving it like this was dangerous, so I decided to create some distance instead.

Fwoosh!

I retreated, using various movement techniques.

He chased me, muttering indifferently.

“Didn’t you say you were going to kill me?”

Was it because of the difference in our levels of mastery in movement techniques, or the gap between the Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps and the Life and Death Blood Steps?

Even though I threw my body with all my might, the distance between us didn’t widen.

Hyeok Ilso’s now much more ferocious sword flew at me.

Giving up on creating distance, I suddenly closed in on him and thrust my sword.

I decided to trust these eyes.

These eyes that had saved me in the countless life-and-death battles so far.

The trajectory embroidered in the air. I observed the flow of inner energy rushing through his blood points and thrust my sword.

His ferocious sword grazed my neck.

Slice.

The Restoring Name Sword I thrust also pierced the side of his waist.

Unfortunately, it had only pierced his clothes a little.

There was no time to be disappointed.

Without delay, I threw my body and swung my sword again.

I dodged his sword and pierced his vitals.

No. If dodging was difficult, I would aim for mutual destruction instead.

Ignoring the sword flying towards my left arm, I once again thrust my sword towards his heart.

He bent his upper body back sharply, like a move from the Iron Plate Bridge technique.

Absurdly, even while in that strange posture, he swung his sword accurately.

Swwwaaaaeeeeek!!

Even though the flow of the world had slowed, his sword flew at a tremendous speed.

How could the flow of the Heavenly Wind Sword Art not break even in such a posture?

I could tell even without my second eye being wide open.

Because I was with a genius just like him, perhaps even more so than him, my junior sister Baek Hyang.

If I moved by seeing the future a moment ahead with the power of these two eyes.

Swwwaaaaeeek!

He, on the other hand, was creating the optimal flow through his insight at every single moment.

Using the momentum from thrusting my sword at his heart, I threw my body forward.

After rolling on the ground with the Lazy Donkey Rolls on the Ground technique, I sprang up.

This time, his sword flew, aiming for my leg.

At the very last moment, I stepped on the Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps to dodge it.

No. It grazed me, and a faint spray of blood flew out.

Aiming for that moment, I also swung my sword, aiming for his thigh.

A swift thrust.

Just as he was about to move with the Life and Death Blood Steps, the path of the sword twisted.

As expected, he reacted to my sword path without any problem.

The moment he tried to dodge by twisting only his upper body minimally.

A whitish strand of sword qi stealthily slipped out from the Restoring Name Sword and flew, aiming for his heart.

A cutting sound echoed.

Slice!

A faint spray of blood flew out.

And that was all.

He had managed to react to this surprise attack as well.

It was a relief, if anything, that the flow of the Heavenly Wind Sword Art had been broken because he had moved hastily.

Why was it?

A faint smile appeared on his indifferent face.

“Of course. You have to struggle this much to make it fun to play with.”

“Madman.”

He smirked.

“Hearing it from a madman feels different.”

With a smile, he closed in again.

I swung the Restoring Name Sword to meet his sword, which was flying at me again.

I would block it before the power accumulated in his sword could stack any further.

Of course, if we clashed, he would just use the rebound force to his advantage.

But it wasn’t like I was just swinging thoughtlessly either.

“Change!”

The flow of the trajectory embroidered in the air changed.

Not the trajectory flowing from his sword, but the trajectory I had to advance on.

Not clashing, but deflecting.

A technique I realized during the duel with the Azure Sword Sect Leader in the past.

Clang!!

A metallic sound echoed again, but it was a slightly different, duller noise than before.

It wasn’t perfect, but I had slightly twisted his sword path.

“Hahaha! Good!”

He burst into laughter and swung his sword again.

After disrupting the flow of the Heavenly Wind Sword Art a few times by using the subtlety of yielding.

His sword path twisted violently.

He was trying to use the force I was deflecting to his advantage.

“Madman.”

As a curse instinctively came out, I secretly shot out sword qi.

He easily dodged it by just turning his head.

After that, I exchanged blows with him a few more times.

As if he had adapted to the techniques I was using, the Heavenly Wind Sword Art began to find its flow again.

The power contained in his sword gradually grew ferocious, and now it had reached a level where it was difficult to deflect even by using the subtlety of yielding.

“Let’s die together!”

The moment I was about to thrust my sword towards his neck with a technique of mutual destruction, a single, clean trajectory was embroidered in the air from his sword.

At the same time, the whitish sword qi that flowed from his sword flew at a tremendous speed.

I knew instinctively. That sword qi would reach me before my sword did.

Slice!!

I hastily took a step to the side, but I couldn’t dodge it completely.

As blood flowed down my forearm, a hollow laugh escaped me.

It was absurd.

He was imitating the technique I had just used, Azure Heaven’s Hidden Smile.

“I was wondering how to incorporate the Shadowless Blood Flash Sword, but it seems I’ve found a good way.”

For some, it was difficult enough to fight by mobilizing all the techniques they had learned over a lifetime, but that bastard was continuously growing in the middle of a fight.

“Thanks to you, I’ve gained a secret technique to use against that person, so I should at least offer a minimal return. If you get on your knees and beg for your life, I’ll consider it.”

I snorted.

“I don’t know who it is, but you won’t get to fight that person. There will be no tomorrow for you. Come to think of it, the trash you’re aiming for must be the Unwol Sect Leader.”

It was obvious. He didn’t have the personality to be under someone else.

Also, in the future, it was him who unified the Black Market of the Central Plains, not the Unwol Sect Leader.

“Hoh.”

At my point, he raised the corner of his lips and smiled.

But his eyes were cold.

“As expected of a madman, you spout such nonsense.”

“Hahahaha! You’re still scared of the Unwol Sect Leader. You were a slave just like Jang Ik.”

Was it because he had something to hide?

“Tsk.”

He lightly clicked his tongue and suddenly rushed at me.

His sword raged like a typhoon.

Between the ferocious sword strikes that grew stronger with each swing.

His sword qi would fly in stealthily, and he would even use the increased power to unleash lightning-fast thrusts.

The Life and Death Blood Steps, the Heavenly Wind Sword Art, and even the Shadowless Blood Flash Sword were gradually merging into one.

Slice.

Each time, wounds slowly accumulated on my body.

The strange thing was that at some point, his sword blatantly started aiming only for my limbs.

“Let’s see. If your arms and legs are all cut off, will that look in your eyes remain the same?”

“You idiot. If I have no arms and legs, I’ll just bite your neck with my teeth.”

“Seeing that would be interesting, but it feels a bit lacking.”

The eyes of the man who was continuously swinging his sword curved like a crescent moon.

“Ah. After I cut off your limbs, I’ll cut off your comrades’ limbs one by one as well. Until you beg me to please forgive you.”

I let the madman’s nonsense flow in one ear and out the other, focusing only on the sword.

Slice.

Every time a cutting sound echoed, the blood flowing from my arms and legs increased little by little.

The pain didn’t matter.

Somehow, I will kill this bastard.

That was the only thought in my head.

On the verge of life and death, I relentlessly threw my body and swung my sword.

His sword, which was slowly amassing power, flew at me.

At the same time, a trajectory was embroidered to deflect his sword.

The moment I was about to swing my sword blindly along that trajectory.

A strange thought came to me.

I swing the sword by using the subtlety of yielding.

Do I have to do it only with a sword?

In the endlessly slow world, his sword slowly approached. My thoughts continued ceaselessly.

The Sun Moon Divine Sword master had discussed it.

That the moonlight of the full moon would gently embrace the whole world.

Only then did I realize what I had been mistaken about.

At the same time as my realization, the trajectory I saw in the air changed.

The trajectory to deflect his sword disappeared.

Instead, a single circle appeared in my eyes.

A trajectory like a full moon.

I rotated the Restoring Name Sword along that trajectory.

A qi screen formed along the Restoring Name Sword.

A grotesque expression, a mixture of a sneer and disappointment, was drawn on Hyeok Ilso’s face.

Soon after, the full moon I had drawn and his Heavenly Wind Sword Art clashed.

But unlike before, the full moon did not shatter into pieces.

The full moon was merely a shape.

What was important was the way of handling the qi.

And like an idiot, I had missed the true meaning and was just obsessed with the shape.

It didn’t matter.

If I was wrong, I just had to fix it.

The center of the full moon, which touched the edge of his sword, was pushed back and stretched.

The qi screen of the full moon gently enveloped his sword.

For some reason, I felt like laughing.

Because what shattered this time was not the full moon, but the expression on Hyeok Ilso’s face.

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