The Talent Heaven Abandoned
The information flooding my vision, encompassing every space I traversed, should not have been dizzying.
Yet paired with the constant cultivation to maintain Sword Qi, it grew even more overwhelming.
And now, with the added cultivation that let me consciously perceive every auditory cue during every moment I walked, the strain was unbearable.
‘This is maddening.’
Trying to process all of it at once left my head pounding, but the vertigo threatened to send me to my knees.
With this state, could I even fight?
‘Especially since there’s no sect left willing to spar.’
For the past thirty years I had wandered across every corner of Yeon Kingdom, challenging small and medium sects alike.
Larger sects had been no exception; they too had taken their turn.
Now there was nowhere left in Yeon Kingdom that I hadn’t visited.
I had long since moved from sparring with wandering bandits or pirates to capturing them.
The real problem was that these dark-cultivation scum never fought fairly.
Some even tossed wall-thunder talismans from hiding.
So facing them in this dizzying state was a nightmare.
‘Will I even survive?’
Whew.
I sighed, tightened my grip on the sword.
This path had been my choice.
Even if I died, I would walk it.
* * *
I stared at the six books stacked before me.
“You’ve survived again.”
“Yeah… again.”
Fifteen years had passed.
In my regression loop, that was forty-five years.
I had met Kim Young-hoon three more times, taken three more of his insights, so the total I now held reached six volumes.
During this time I had mastered not only sight and sound, but also touch, taste, and smell, processing every sense flawlessly at all times.
Now, against a peak first-class martial artist, I could instantly read their intent through all five senses.
Combined with my understanding of Sword Qi and decades of real combat, I started every fight with a guaranteed seventy percent win rate.
Of course, that assumed I wasn’t using Danak Sword Art’s full power.
Once I did, the win rate rose to ninety-nine percent.
If real combat was allowed, including poison and hidden weapons, I could claim a hundred percent victory.
Add the information-processing ability from my senses and the constant Sword Qi and I could now clash evenly with a peak martial artist for twenty exchanges.
Of course, anything beyond that was impossible.
And that was the end of it.
I had not.
Still.
A peak martial artist.
I was not.
I was not!!!
“Among Core Formation monks, word has spread that my bounty is active. Two Core Formation monks were waiting in ambush.”
“I barely escaped. Still, I managed to cut one of their cheeks.”
“You’ve obtained even more insights.”
“Insights? What good is that when I still can’t stand against a Core Formation monk… unless I assume they never run. Then I’ll never be able to land a meaningful strike.”
He looked up at the sky with hollow eyes and muttered to himself.
“Honestly, I’ve started thinking… Is this ultimate of Five Qi Consorting with the Origin the true end for a martial artist…?”
“Maybe even the creator of the Sword Thread Technique felt the same. No matter how hard you flew, you could never beat a monk with martial power.”
I watched Kim Young-hoon in silence.
Holding a tiny teacup, he smiled with empty eyes despite having dumped six volumes of insights that could shake the entire world.
He clearly possessed the talent Heaven had bestowed.
And I carried the talent Heaven had abandoned.
We were polar opposites.
Yet somehow I saw my own reflection in him.
After countless lives of effort I still could not grasp the peak realm.
After countless lives I still saw no hope of beating a monk.
Heaven had given one of us genius.
And abandoned the other.
Why did we look so alike?
“For now, I’m still wondering why I can’t reach the peak. I’m just as frustrated as you.”
Kim Young-hoon looked at me with a wry smile.
“I tried to mimic the world of peak experts, including Sword Qi… and still couldn’t reach it. What could be missing? I can’t even guess.”
He chuckled, stood up, and clapped his hands.
“Let’s do a long-awaited spar.”
“Good news, indeed.”
We left the inn and headed toward the nearby forest.
Upon reaching a suitable clearing I drew my sword without hesitation.
The Sword Qi that never ceased day or night flared across my blade.
“Your Sword Qi understanding is outstanding. Once you reach the peak you’ll climb to Sword Thread in no time.”
Kim Young-hoon’s eyes lit up as he watched.
I gave a bitter smile.
The idea of reaching the peak was meaningless now.
This regression had already lasted forty-five years.
My remaining lifespan was only about five years, and the chance of reaching the peak within that window was slim.
I had spent my entire life chasing it and still hadn’t reached it.
What special insight could possibly come in five years?
“Then I’m starting.”
I locked my stance with a bright smile.
Danak Sword Art.
Sixteen strikes.
Mountain Stronghold Hero.
Whooosh!
Six streams of Sword Qi lanced from upper-left to lower-right, another six from upper-right to lower-left.
Twelve streams in total, all aimed straight at Kim Young-hoon’s heart.
Ting!
He didn’t even draw his sword.
Just flicked his fingers and every strike vanished into thin air.
Undeterred, I immediately launched another stance.
Danak Sword Art.
Twelve strikes.
Nine Radiant Sunrise Peak.
The evolved form shot nine streams at him.
“You’ve removed almost every opening.”
Shuush!
Kim Young-hoon slipped sideways, dodging all the streams, and offered a quiet praise.
I answered nothing and immediately reset my stance.
Danak Sword Art.
Seventeen strikes.
Ridge Valley Change.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
I hurled Sword Qi in all eight directions, letting them pierce underground according to the principle of penetration, then detonated them with a time-delay trigger.
Kwaaang! Kwaaang!
Kwaaak!
The entire surrounding terrain instantly warped beneath my will.
From underground, several Sword Qi bursts erupted toward him.
Booom!
But when he flicked his fingers in a sideways arc, every stream I had fired lost all momentum and scattered into the air.
“Danak, eight strikes, Mountain Waist.”
Booom!
And again he extended his fingers.
“…”
Kuuuak!
The blade qi he unleashed overturned the ground and charged at me like a surging river.
Danak Sword Art.
Eighteen strikes.
Empty Valley Echo.
Booom!
I filled the blade with Sword Qi and pulled all intent and extraneous energy from it, leaving only pure qi.
“Ha… ha… ha…”
I poured every ounce of my lifetime’s focus into maintaining the empty form and slammed the blade against the incoming blade qi.
Kuuuung!
A crushing pressure raced down my arm.
At the same moment the blade qi that had charged at me flooded into my blade.
I emptied my own intent and filled it with his.
Then I spun half a circle and hurled all remaining qi in the opposite direction.
Kuuuak!
The place where his Mountain Waist strike had vanished was now a wasteland of fallen trees and shattered cliffs.
“Hah… hah…”
I broke out in cold sweat and trembled.
Empty Valley Echo was supposed to be a counter that stored the opponent’s qi and intent before returning it.
But I could only barely push his strike away.
‘Still far away.’
I clenched my teeth and reset my stance again.
Danak Sword Art.
Nineteen strikes.
Mountain Echo Valley Response.
Tung!
The sword’s resonant sound echoed.
Then the qi flowed like a river and instantly converged on him.
An unbeatable technique!
But he grinned and raised his hand.
Blade qi erupted from his fingertips.
Booom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
He danced in a circle.
Every time he flicked his wrist, the Sword Qi streams aimed at him were repelled.
Tung! Tong! Tong! Tong! Tong!
After repelling countless streams, he lowered his hand again.
“Danak, nine strikes, Dragon Tomb.”
Kuuuugu!
Another massive blade qi surged toward me like a twisting dragon.
‘Can I block it?’
Even touching the blade would cause my entire body to tear apart from the sudden change.
‘I’ll have to force it.’
Danak Sword Art.
Twenty strikes.
Nine Mountains Eight Seas.
I spun once, then again, nine times total, each rotation growing faster and stronger.
When I finished, the qi inside my blade was colossal.
Then, with every ounce of strength I sliced the incoming blade qi from all eight directions.
Kwaaak!
A thunderous boom rang out as my blade shattered in my grip.
Immediately I was blown backward by the shockwave.
“Kuhk…!”
I slammed into a massive tree trunk and vomited blood, then dropped to my knees.
I had lost again.
“Damn it… what exactly is the problem?”
“…”
Kim Young-hoon sighed softly.
“I don’t know. Why haven’t you reached that realm yet? You should have been a peak expert long ago.”
“What do you mean?”
I asked, breathing heavily.
It sounded ridiculous.
I had never even touched the realm, let alone gained similar insight.
“It’s strange… very strange. Why does this happen?”
After a moment of thought he looked at me seriously.
“Maybe you lack the trigger.”
“Trigger…?”
“Yes. The trigger. Something like desperation or inner drive. Something that can force you past the limits of talent…”
“What trigger are you talking about!”
I cut him off, veins bulging in my eyes, and roared.
“I’ve been swinging a sword for over fifty years! My entire life! I prayed with everything I had to step into the next realm! How much more desperation do you think I need?! How much more!!”
I ignored the pain throbbing through my body and screamed like a madman.
“I fought my way out of first-class for my entire life! What is still missing?! What do I need to do more of?! My three major meridians are burned out and even when I sleep I hold the sword and let qi drip from it! In my dreams I combine and process every piece of scenery and information! Why! Why!!! Why won’t you show me the next realm!!
Why!!!”
I thrashed in the dirt and shouted at the sky.
I knew the sight of a seventy-year-old body behaving this way was pathetic.
I was aware.
But after a lifetime of chasing the next realm with the sword, I still couldn’t even sense what it was.
How could it not hurt?
“Why… why… why…”
Sobs choked me.
I looked up at the sky, tears streaming down my face.
Kim Young-hoon watched me with a heavy heart, then flicked his fingers and shattered the ancient tree I had crashed into.
Spot!
Countless martial manuals flooded into the tree.
“I created these techniques to fill the gaps I saw in your fighting during our spar. It’s not much, but I hope you can master them and control your heart.”
Kim Young-hoon vanished like a ghost from the spot.
I stared at the sky for a while, then turned my gaze to the manuals.
He had left two.
Mountain Sovereign Martial Art and Moon Mountain Step.
After only a short spar he had created two entire techniques.
I stared in awe at his talent, then slowly studied both manuals.
Mountain Sovereign Martial Art belonged to body technique.
It used the pressure of the Mountain Sovereign to suppress enemies and create movements like a beast.
Moon Mountain Step was a footwork technique.
The special feature was that no matter which footwork step you took, you could immediately enter the stance of one strike, Moon Mountain, thanks to Danak Sword Art’s nature. This allowed endless chaining of techniques while walking.
‘If I use both at once.’
Pressing the enemy with the Mountain Sovereign’s pressure while constantly chasing with Moon Mountain Step would be possible.
It was a technique that drained the blood of its prey.
‘And both are perfectly tailored for Danak Sword Art.’
They would complement it perfectly and be easy to learn in conjunction.
I suddenly thought about my own power and clicked my tongue.
“Now… against a peak first-class martial artist I can win with a hundred percent rate without even using poison or hidden weapons.”
I had completely left the first-class realm.
But I still had not reached the peak.
Somewhere between first-class and peak was my current strength.
How long would I have to stay in this realm?
“…Trigger.”
I replayed his words.
What was I still missing?
I couldn’t tell.
* * *
Time flowed like a river once more.
Again.
Fifty years had passed since my regression.
My death was only days away.
I was still beyond first-class but not yet at the peak.
Even swinging the sword was now exhausting.
In my last life I had swung it until the very end, but this life, despite being stronger, had become a chore.
I could guess why.
‘Because there’s no meaning.’
I had swung the sword for fifty years.
And still hadn’t become a peak expert.
What was the point of swinging it again when death was near?
It would be the same.
“…Am I dead?”
On that day I still swung the sword and looked up at the sky.
Kim Young-hoon had not appeared in five years.
When we last met he was being chased by Core Formation monks, so maybe he had been cornered and killed by two of them.
“I guess this really is my destined fate.”
When was my death coming?
In just a few days my vital energy would run out and I would die.
I was swinging the sword with every ounce of willpower I had left.
“At the limit.”
Booom!
“Even if I try to cross it.”
Booom!
“As long as I am human.”
Booom!
“I can’t go any further…”
Booom! Booom! Booome!
Whew…
I sighed deeply and stared at the sky in despair.
“With my talent, no matter how hard I fight, I’ll stay here. Your talent must have the same limit.”
Yes.
From the next life I would look for a different path.
Since I already knew peak experts could never be reached in a lifetime, I might as well beg for a medicine that could grab the hem of a monk’s robe and grant immortality.
That was the best I could do.
“Even if we try our hardest against Heaven’s decree, we cannot escape…”
“Kuhk!”
“Huh…!”
Suddenly Kim Young-hoon appeared beside me like a ghost.
Vomit spilled from his lips.
“Kuhk, cough… what the hell are you saying? Seo Eun-hyun.”
“Ah, no…”
“Kuhk… kuhk. Hrrng…”
He was smiling even as he vomited blood.
Both arms were severed; one eye was missing, replaced by a scar.
“Damn it, what happened? Your condition is terrible.”
I was startled and rushed to check his pulse, intending to fetch medical tools.
Then something grabbed my collar.
“Eh?”
What?
His arms were cut off. Yet something invisible was clutching my collar.
And Kim Young-hoon was laughing with his mouth torn open while spitting blood.
“Look!!! I’ve torn off one arm of a Core Formation monk!!! I, I, I actually managed to land a meaningful hit on a Core Formation monk!”
“What…?”
“I did!!!”
His eyes were bloodshot.
And inside them burned pure madness.
“I did!!! I reached the realm beyond Five Qi Consorting with the Origin that even martial artists cannot touch!!! I saw it with these two eyes!!”
He continued to vomit blood while speaking.
“I burned my life and risked everything to reach it! Look! I traveled hundreds of li just to show you! Because I decided to entrust my final words to you!”
Uuuung!
Blade qi condensed above his head.
But I wasn’t surprised.
Projecting inner energy into the air to wrap qi around something had been one of his tricks after reaching the realm.
Gradually the blade qi began to glow and change shape.
It had become Gang Qi.
‘Even at the Five Qi realm they can do this.’
But his Gang Qi changed again.
“This…”
The Gang Qi coiled into a perfect sphere and compressed.
Something I had never seen in all my lives.
Just like the day he first entered the Five Qi realm, with five small spheres floating above his head.
The Gang Qi took the form of a tiny pill.
“With this… I can burst a Core Formation monk’s arm. Before, I could only fight sneak attacks against Core Formation monks. Now I can fight them head-on! Look, Eun-hyun! This is the result of a lifetime of pursuit that surpassed the martial arts of this world!”
Booom!
Kim Young-hoon hurled the pill-shaped Gang Qi toward my house.
Kwaaak!
A deafening explosion shook the ground as my house detonated.
The grand residence I had built with every coin I earned over fifty years in the Infinite Abyss had been destroyed in one strike.
“My… house…”
My head spun with rage, but I forced it down and examined the technique.
‘Three entire floors exploded. Almost no debris left. Fortunately the servants were away; otherwise he could have killed hundreds in one hit.’
And most importantly.
Countless blade marks on the remaining rubble—hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands.
The Gang Qi had condensed thousands of blade qi inside it.
‘Unbelievable power. Stronger than any technique Kim Young-hoon showed me after reaching Five Qi.’
His claim that he could fight a Core Formation monk head-on didn’t sound like boasting anymore.
Plus, the martial arts he began with Wansuigungmurok were specialized in sneak attacks and evasion. Sneaking a Core Formation monk was more than enough to burst an arm.
“I came… to show you this. Eun-hyun…”
He gasped his last words in a small voice.
“Remember… these manuals… They are the insights I obtained, compressed. Please… pass my martial arts to future generations… future generations…”
“Don’t say that. I’ll treat you.”
I pressed his acupoints to stop the bleeding and started toward the nearest doctor.
Booom!
A middle-aged man in blue robes flew overhead.
“Found you. The Martial Extremist. You ran here? Hey, mortal! He’s a criminal who harmed the monk sect that once tried to ascend to heaven. Leave him alone!”
“You’ve come to punish this man?”
“Yes. Do you think you can stop me? Do you know who the Martial Extremist is? Trying to protect him? Pointless…”
Tat!
Before he finished, I slung Kim Young-hoon over my shoulder and fled toward the mountains.
“Tsk. He must be one of the monk sect’s allies. Did you not hear about our sect from the Martial Extremist?”
The middle-aged man’s voice boomed across the heavens.
“Haha, what can I do? I’m treating this like a final treat. Come on, run.”
Chaaak!
From the direction he had come, emerald-green light exploded, followed by six dark blobs crashing to the ground.
Kung! Kung! Kung!
The blobs rolled upright, stood up, and chased after me.
‘Those… are corpses?’
Moving corpses.
Gang Corpses.
Kiyaaa!
Krrrr!
Kweeeak!
The Gang Corpses charged at me.
The middle-aged man floated above, watching with amusement.
“Damn it, at my age this is the last thing I need.”
I cursed and fled into the dense forest.
The Gang Corpses pursued relentlessly.
Unlike me, they were dead and never tired.
“By the way, you call yourself the Martial Extremist? Unusual name.”
“…”
I kept talking to keep Kim Young-hoon conscious while running.
“Chasing a Martial Extremist with Gang Corpses in the twilight… truly bizarre.”
“Damn it, I knew this would happen the moment I challenged the monk sect.”
“If you knew, why didn’t you just win or at least break one arm? What now?”
Kiyaaak!
The closest Gang Corpse reached me and stretched its nails.
“Damn it, corpses don’t feel poison.”
Puuuk!
I hurled a hidden weapon and buried it in the joint of its ankle.
The corpse collapsed, buying me precious seconds as I ran farther.
“Damn it. You should be carrying a young body on your back. You’re panting to death. Why did you keep cutting off my arms?”
Kiaaaaa!
The Gang Corpses kept coming without tiring.
I gritted my teeth and ran.
Morning passed, noon passed, night fell.
How many times had the sun risen and set?
“Hah… hah…”
I finally reached a dead end.
A massive cliff blocked my back; the Gang Corpses surrounded me in front.
“Impressive. A mortal who lasted three days and nights against my Gang Corpses.”
“Hah… hah…”
I looked up at the floating middle-aged man and took a deep breath.
“I can’t escape now. And I don’t need to. Isn’t he already dead? Mortal.”
“Hah… hah…”
Sweat poured like rain.
My legs trembled.
But I, the last warrior to survive fifty years of training, answered the monk.
“I know. Even a first-class doctor would have trouble diagnosing a corpse. I know Kim Young-hoon, this lunatic, died from excessive bleeding.”
“Then why did you run? Mortal, I only care about the Martial Extremist’s head. Your worthless corpse is worthless. You should have just dumped it and run.”
“Haa… hahaha…”
I laughed madly and gently laid Kim Young-hoon’s body on the ground.
“Because he was my master. Isn’t it right to let the corpse of a master be desecrated by outsiders, even if they call themselves monks?”
Danak Sword Art.
Dragon Pulse Gong.
Mountain Sovereign Martial Art and Moon Mountain Step.
All the other techniques that let me reach this realm.
All thanks to Kim Young-hoon.
He was both my hometown friend and my master.
“To take my master’s head, you must first take mine!”
“Tsk. A mortal dares to raise his voice at a monk? Ballsy. You’re running out of energy, aren’t you? Trying to act tough when your life is almost gone?”
The monk’s face twisted in disgust.
“You mortals don’t understand what monks are. You fear death too little because you’ll die soon? Then I’ll show you. The ability to inflict pain on a monk that is worse than death…”
Uuuung!
The middle-aged man began muttering an incantation.
He reached toward me.
I instinctively dodged.
But the spell landed on Kim Young-hoon’s corpse.
At the same time the dead man began to rise.
Uduk! Udduk!
The two Gang Corpses that surrounded us tore off one arm each and hurled it at the revived corpse.
The arm slammed into the shoulder with a wet sound.
“Gang Corpses…?”
The monk had turned Kim Young-hoon into one with his spell.
“You filthy mortal. I’ll make you pay for shouting at a monk’s face. Come on, Martial Extremist. Kill your own disciple with your own hands.”
“Kuh… aaaa…”
The revived corpse staggered, then charged at me like lightning.
I drew my sword and blocked the blow, stepping back.
“You cunning monk…!”
Desecrating the soul of the dead!
I gritted my teeth and blocked every attack.
‘Fortunately I can’t use my lifetime martial arts.’
He could only push me with raw strength and speed.
Of course, the power the monk had infused was monstrous, but it still pushed against my old body like an overwhelming force.
‘Damn it, damn it!’
With every swing my eyes filled with blood.
Each strike I landed on the dead Kim Young-hoon was an act of utter desecration.
‘I’m sorry.’
But I forced myself calm and reset my stance.
Since it had come to this, I would end it quickly.
Danak Sword Art.
Twenty-one strikes.
Heavenly Pool.
Old memories flooded back.
—The twenty-first strike of Danak Sword Art is called Heavenly Pool… but all the other strikes have names with valleys, peaks, or mountains. Why is this one called Heavenly Pool?
In the early days of this life, I had asked Kim Young-hoon.
—I don’t know. I just like the name Heavenly Pool. Reminds me of the lake on Mount Baekdu.
—Mount Baekdu?
—Haha, yeah. Is there a Heavenly Pool in this world too? Or did someone who came from Korea name it after our home?
—Hahahaha… you’re right.
Heavenly Pool.
A vast lake that reflected the sky.
A boundless pool nestled at the summit of the highest mountain.
The aura of its terrain naturally erupted from me.
Alongside the image of Heavenly Pool, countless moments I had received martial manuals from Kim Young-hoon flashed through my mind.
The manuals of Danak Sword Art flashed past.
Heavenly Pool contained every aspect of heaven, but it itself never changed.
The heaven symbolized in the manuals meant the opponent I challenged with martial arts.
The lake that held them was my own one sword.
Chaaak!
Sword Qi swept through Kim Young-hoon’s body and my blade sheathed itself.
In an instant his movements froze.
The twenty-first strike of Danak Sword Art, Heavenly Pool, temporarily pulled every ‘power’ flowing through the opponent’s meridians into my sword, suppressing their movement and trapping them inside the blade.
A technique only I, a first-class doctor and master of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, could perform.
A technique I could only execute because it was made for me alone.
Kuuuugu!
Inside the sheathed blade, the stolen power raged.
If left alone it would dissipate, but I preserved it and reset my stance.
“Danak Sword Art. Twenty-second strike.”
Leaving out the conceptual and theoretical twenty-third and twenty-fourth strikes, it was the true essence of Danak Sword Art.
‘If the corpse is intact, the monk might turn it into a Gang Corpse.’
Then I would not leave even a corpse.
‘Rest in peace.’
Danak Sword Art.
Essence.
“Danak.”
The content of the essence was not grand.
It was brutally simple—cutting mountains.
Starting from the first strike, Moon Mountain, through every subsequent strike up to Heavenly Pool, I poured all of them at the corpse in one wave!
That was the true essence of Danak Sword Art—Danak.
One strike, Moon Mountain.
With the first step, I followed the flow of power stolen from the corpse and cleaved him sideways.
Two strikes, Entering the Mountain.
I switched to a low stance and kicked his legs.
Three strikes, Ascending the Meridian.
Holding the sword in low stance and swinging upward.
Four strikes, Flowing Ridge.
I shot curved Sword Qi and stabbed.
Five strikes, Massive Rock.
I spun and delivered several slashes.
Six strikes, Strange Stone.
I changed the cutting method and added variations.
Seven strikes, Deep Mountain.
I returned to close range and slashed diagonally.
Eight strikes, Hidden Valley.
I twisted the incoming power so it dissipated.
Nine strikes, Landscape Painting.
I fired diagonal Sword Qi left and right three times, totaling six slashes.
Ten strikes, Dragon Meridian.
I pulled up the Dragon Pulse Gong and swung a massive cut.
Eleven strikes, Broken Cliff.
I swung upward from below.
Twelve strikes, Nine Radiant Sunrise Peak.
I shot nine streams beyond it.
At this point the corpse was barely recognizable.
‘I will completely destroy it.’
So that even the soul had no place to hide!
Even in its tattered state it twitched and attacked.
Huge strength and speed!
‘I can’t dodge!’
No, I can’t dodge? My lifespan is ending.
This is already a dead man.
Right now I will burn every last bit of him so his soul is no longer desecrated!
“Haaaaaaa!!”
Thirteen strikes, Joyous Mountain Joyous Peak.
I brought down five slashes, then another five.
Ten slashes crisscrossed and covered him.
Kiyaaa!
But his hand pierced the slashes and slammed into me.
I will die.
‘I still can’t die.’
Just a little more!
Pull every last bit of energy!
My brain processed information at lightning speed.
The surrounding space, his voice, his scent, humidity, temperature, the metallic taste of blood on my tongue.
My brain felt ready to explode.
‘It will explode.’
More! More!
Until my brain burns!
Fourteen strikes, Qi Mountain Heart Heaven.
The Dragon Pulse Gong boiled violently and my aura swelled.
At the same time the Sword Qi condensed and took the form of Sword Thread!
It would be a fatal strike.
And then.
Crack!
The brain that felt like it would burst could no longer hold the pressure of facing death.
Aah…
This was…
A vision?
Red.
And blue.
All colors of the world vanished, leaving only these two.
Red.
And blue.
Aah…
This was…
The red line of lost opportunity extended from Kim Young-hoon’s fingertips to my head.
I instinctively knew it meant the next attack.
Booom!
I dodged the minimal movement and raised my sword.
The blue line extended from my blade toward his ribs.
I instinctively knew it was the optimal path.
In a trance I followed the blue line and swung.
Chaaak!
My blade severed his upper body.
Somehow he looked like he was still alive.
Kim Young-hoon’s face smiled.
Looking at that faint smile, I repeated an old thought.
The genius Heaven had given.
And the fool Heaven had abandoned.
Polar opposites, yet we looked alike.
The reason was simple.
We had both been desperately struggling against the fate Heaven decreed.
In this place there was no genius or fool.
Only a man who died struggling against fate for his whole life.
And I, who would die struggling against fate for my whole life.
Yes.
As long as we lived inside fate, talent was irrelevant.
We were simply humans who looked alike.
—Are you ending it like this?
His corpse. The face of living Kim Young-hoon seemed to appear on it.
‘Of course not.’
In a trance I continued swinging the sword.
Fifteen strikes, Layered Mountains.
Thousands of Sword Qi split into thin lines and became a storm that engulfed him.
The defensive strike I had used to dissipate his Sword Qi evolved into a killing move with optimal path.
Sixteen strikes, Mountain Stronghold Hero.
The claws and fangs of the Mountain Stronghold Hero inside the layered mountains concentrated on one point and tore his body apart.
Seventeen strikes, Ridge Valley Change.
Sword Qi shot to the ground and changed the terrain, shaking his center.
Eighteen strikes, Empty Valley Echo.
I emptied the blade to counter.
Nineteen strikes, Mountain Echo Valley Response.
The Sword Qi changed into a river form and tore his body to pieces with an unstoppable strike.
Twenty strikes, Nine Mountains Eight Seas.
After several spins at the spot, I used the eight-directional slash to tear the body apart.
Twenty-one strikes, Heavenly Pool.
I swung again, collecting every pattern, flow, and force I had ever created with the sword and sheathed it.
Guuguugu!
The force that gathered every pattern, flow, and force of the twenty-second strike of Danak Sword Art.
The vast qi was inside the sheathed blade.
I drew the sword exactly as before.
This final strike concentrated all the power into one slash.
Danak Sword Art.
“Twenty-second strike.”
Essence.
“Danak!”
The overall of Danak Sword Art contained in one sword!
As I swung the final strike, I saw my life’s milestone pass before my eyes.
Ah, yes.
This was the end.
Flash!
My one sword completely shattered Kim Young-hoon’s corpse into pieces that scattered in every direction.
Now, no matter what monk he was, he could never be desecrated again.
And so I reached the new realm I had yearned for and concluded this life that had been stubbornly hard.
This was my fourth regression.