Those Who Meet Must Part
Long ago, Lü Meng of the Kingdom of Wu was an outstanding warrior, but his scholarship was so shallow that he was mocked as the simpleton of Wu. Then one day, after receiving a stern lecture from his lord, Sun Quan, he threw himself into his studies. His achievements eventually rivaled those of any scholar, greatly astonishing Lu Su when they met.
At that time, Lü Meng said:
"If you do not meet a man for three days, you must open your eyes wide and look at him anew." This is the origin of the idiom gwalmok-sangdae, which signifies that someone has changed beyond recognition in a short time.
But the Sword Devil thought: Can this really be explained by such a simple idiom?
The surroundings fell dead silent. On the small island of West Lake, a place of peerless beauty, those gathered had lost their words. They stared at one spot—no, at one person.
Swoosh— The wind rustled through the bamboo, gently swaying silver hair. Blue eyes shone like embedded jewels. A face so beautiful it seemed plucked straight from a portrait of a legendary beauty, standing proudly with sword in hand.
As the Sword Devil watched, the name of a famous female master flashed through his mind.
"The Sword Empress!"
The absolute master who had single-handedly held back the North Sea Ice Palace. But he had heard she had gone into seclusion ten years ago. Furthermore, though she was younger than the Sword Devil, she should still be of a certain age—yet she possessed such a face.
"The Youth-Preserving Art?"
He had heard of minor arts that used internal energy to preserve youth. They were mostly practiced by women. However, unlike Rebirth or Rejuvenation, it was merely a form of cosmetic transformation that only altered the surface. A true master would never obsess over such trivialities.
And above all...
"Could it be... have we met before?"
The familiar attire and sword stance. At his questioning, Yoo Jeong replied coldly.
"You broke our ten-move promise, and now you have the nerve to act shameless."
"Hah."
The Sword Devil let out a long, genuinely astonished sigh. The Divine Physician and Namgung Sua were equally shocked. Confused by the sight of a girl who looked completely different from the original owner of that familiar attire and sword, Namgung Sua carefully spoke up.
"...Young Hero Yoo?"
Her voice trembled slightly. When Yoo Jeong glanced back and gave a small nod, Namgung Sua's jaw dropped. She immediately turned her gaze to the Divine Physician, demanding an explanation with her eyes.
"...Even I didn't expect it to have such an effect."
The Divine Physician was also deeply flustered. Her bewilderment, however, was of a slightly different nature than Namgung Sua's. What the Divine Physician focused on was the silver hair and blue eyes—an appearance that vividly recalled the Sword Empress in her prime. But the Divine Physician knew exactly how the Sword Empress had acquired such features.
"How could a child who doesn't even have the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians...? Is it the influence of the Extreme Yin Qi?"
"Lady Namgung."
Whether aware of their confusion or not, a remarkably calm and beautiful voice snapped them back to reality.
"Please take care of my master."
"Ah... yes!"
She had been completely dazed by the shocking entrance. As she and the Divine Physician hurriedly looked toward the Pavilion Mistress and the Sword Empress...
"Ugh..."
The Demonic Cult warrior who had captured and brought them here was trembling violently, just as they had when crushed by the Sword Devil's internal energy.
"He blocked the Sword Devil's sword qi, and at the same time, he was suppressing this side."
It was a truly marvelous manipulation of true qi, so subtle that even they, Peak Experts, had failed to notice. Though they stared at his back with trembling eyes, wondering what on earth had happened...
Yoo Jeong's gaze was fixed solely on the Sword Devil.
"Mmm. A bizarre occurrence indeed. The clothes and sword are undoubtedly those of the boy I saw yesterday, yet he has returned as a woman."
The martial robes Yoo Jeong wore—the top was slashed diagonally, exposing a pale shoulder, the tear perfectly matching the trajectory of the Sword Devil's blade. Yet the firm, trained chest of a male warrior was gone, replaced by breasts as soft and round as ripe peaches, tightly bound in bandages. Furthermore...
"Your dantian was surely shattered. Did you employ some secret art?"
The energy wrapping Yoo Jeong's sword was unmistakably sword qi. Far from showing any signs of internal injury, his aura was even more robust than yesterday.
"Who knows."
Yoo Jeong raised his sword, pointing the tip at the Sword Devil. His fair shoulder shimmered under the moonlight.
"You can hear the answer in the afterlife."
The Sword Devil let out a dry chuckle at the strangely familiar response. But before he could say another word...
Yoo Jeong instantly breached the Sword Devil's domain and thrust his sword.
Fifth Form: Firefly's Oblivious Piercing
A succession of rapid thrusts. In the blink of an eye, the sword darted in and out, the energy gathered on the gleaming blade flickering like fireflies in a midsummer forest.
Clang! Clang, clang! Yet the Sword Devil calmly deflected the barrage of thrusts. Though he was forced back a few steps to withstand the onslaught, he proved that his title of Sword Devil was not won by mere luck.
However, the astonishment in his eyes only deepened. Soon, the Sword Devil pivoted on his heel and charged toward Yoo Jeong with a ferocity unimaginable for an old man.
Boom! The swords clashed with a deafening roar. As expected, the Sword Devil's astonishment turned into sheer horror.
"How can you withstand my sword gang?"
"My sword is just that good."
But both the questioning Sword Devil and the replying Yoo Jeong knew it wasn't simply because of the masterwork sword, Cheonru.
The old man's lips curled into a crooked smirk.
"Let's see how long you can hold out."
As they locked blades, testing each other's strength, the Sword Devil's wrist flicked rapidly. It was as if the weapon in his hand were not a sword, but a slithering serpent.
Sss. Though the two blades remained in contact, his sword naturally glided over Yoo Jeong's. With his posture shifting in an instant, the Sword Devil's blade swept toward Yoo Jeong's throat.
Tap, tap! This time, Yoo Jeong's feet moved in a flurry. While blocking the opponent's blade, he continuously executed footwork to secure enough space to swing his own sword, but...
The Sword Devil pursued him relentlessly, refusing to let him escape.
It was a mirror image of the ten-move promise at Hyeoljeonmun. Of course, the roles of offense and defense were now reversed.
Ultimately, just like before, it was the pressured one, Yoo Jeong, who made the first move.
With a sharp intake of breath...
Rumble! Internal energy concentrated into Cheonru. Over the pure white sword qi, which contrasted sharply with the Sword Devil's black sword gang, a blue energy began to overlay.
It was not sword gang. It was merely the Extreme Yin Qi that had been slumbering in Yoo Jeong's dantian, coating the sword qi of the Heavenly Light Unobstructed Divine Art.
Even so, Yoo Jeong thought: With this...?
Crash! I can do this.
Even though they clashed head-on without dispersing the force, it was different from before. Previously, every time their swords collided, the shockwave would reverberate deep within his body.
"It's different now."
The layered Extreme Yin Qi cushioned the impact. Sensing this, the Sword Devil's aura grew even more ferocious.
"What trick did you use?"
"Who knows?"
"You did use a secret art! Hand it over!"
Unleashing a sinister demonic energy, the Sword Devil closed in once more. But the situation was different now. Yoo Jeong no longer had to forcefully twist his sword to block and minimize damage.
Thus, Yoo Jeong did not back down and met him head-on.
Eighth Form: Fleeting Brilliance of Ten Thousand Li
He recalled the voice of his master, who used to hold him close and teach him the sword during his childhood.
"The flash of light is but momentary, so plant your feet firmly upon the earth. Let the tip of your sword point toward the ground."
"That light will fill the world in an instant, so swing it wide."
The moment he focused, his internal energy surged through his body as if it would burst. Yoo Jeong thought:
"With the resolve to cut down anything that stands in my way."
The Sword Devil was now enveloped in a churning shroud of demonic energy. Eyes glowing with a crimson light, he brought his sword down in a massive arc.
But Yoo Jeong did not dodge. Cheonru swept upward diagonally, clashing directly with the Sword Devil's sword gang.
—Boom!
A split second later, an earth-shattering roar reverberated across West Lake.
Crunch. Yoo Jeong's feet dug deep into the ground. His attack failed to pierce through the Sword Devil.
However...
"I wasn't pierced either."
Amidst the thunderous roar that battered his eardrums, he clearly heard it—the sickening crack of the old man's arm straining under the pressure.
The Sword Devil realized it too. He could no longer dominate the battle with his sword gang as he had in their previous encounter.
Lamenting the cruelty of time, yet refusing to retreat, the Sword Devil unleashed his sword once more. Barely parrying the sword tip, striking with the hilt, thrusting, slashing horizontally and vertically.
In the span of just a few breaths, the two exchanged dozens of blows. Sword gang and sword qi tangled together, savagely tearing up the earth.
And then...
"Phew..."
"Cough, cough..."
As the dust settled, their contrasting fates were revealed. The one forced back by the sheer momentum, coughing up dark red blood, was the Sword Devil.
"My internal injuries have flared up."
The Sword Devil was old. His remaining days were too few to sustain a fierce battle using sword gang with such an aged body. Since the internal injuries he had suffered from Yoo Jeong yesterday had not yet fully healed, the impact of this clash was twice as devastating.
"You are strong. You cannot even be compared to yesterday."
Even as he repeatedly spat out dark blood, the Sword Devil did not give up. Instead, his fighting spirit burned even hotter.
"If I can obtain that secret art..."
It had restored a shattered dantian and even increased internal energy. Above all, that Extreme Yin Qi flowing through the sword—if he could possess an Extreme Yin Qi so potent it recalled the ice crystals of the North Sea...
"I must seize it, no matter what."
Now that he had witnessed the fruits of the secret art, he had to steal it. That was why...
Whoosh— The flow of his energy shifted. The demonic energy that had half-shrouded the Sword Devil until a moment ago vanished without a trace.
It was not because his energy was depleted. It was the calm before the storm.
One breath. After a fleeting moment...
An aura incomparable to anything before erupted.
Innate True Qi. He was burning the very life force that had been forcibly keeping his dying body alive. It was a desperate, suicidal resolve.
Yoo Jeong's brow furrowed. The demonic energy that had merely covered the Sword Devil earlier had now swelled into an explosive force. No, it was still growing. Behind the Sword Devil, the phantom image of a wolf seemed to loom.
"He still has a major weakness."
The Sword Devil's old, wrinkled eyes locked onto his opponent. A silver-haired girl swordsman. She looked like an entirely different person from the boy of yesterday, but they shared a commonality. Unlike the Sword Devil, she had not achieved harmony.
The boy he had fought before lacked Qi among the Three Treasures of Jeong, Qi, and Shin. Just as the Sword Devil could not defy the flow of time, no matter how profound Yoo Jeong's martial arts were, he could not leap over the flow of years, preventing him from achieving harmony.
But what about now? Qi and Shin were overflowing. However, Jeong—the physical body—was out of alignment. It was only natural. Though their statures were similar, the physical structures of a man and a woman were fundamentally different. That minute discrepancy caused his movements to slightly deviate from the sword paths envisioned in his mind, creating small variables.
And in a battle between masters, victory and defeat were decided by a single minor error, such as a slight miscalculation of distance.
"Fhuuuuu..."
The reason the Sword Devil had burned even his Innate True Qi was because he saw his path to victory right there. Power surged through his entire body as if he had returned to his prime. But the Sword Devil knew better than anyone that this would not last long. Thus, he would not drag this out.
His arms and thighs, which had resembled withered old trees, swelled to the point of bursting. In an instant, he launched himself forward, thrusting his sword.
The ultimate strike that severed the neck of Immortal Taiyi, the Sword Immortal of Kunlun.
Like a wolf snapping at its prey's throat, the strike lunged forward without hesitation.
"Hah."
Yoo Jeong and the Sword Devil's eyes met. That split second felt like an eternity to the Sword Devil.
Looking into Yoo Jeong's chillingly calm eyes, the Sword Devil realized something had gone terribly wrong.
"You have achieved harmony!"
While the Sword Devil's body felt as if it were frozen in time, unable to move forward, Yoo Jeong's movements were crystal clear to him.
A technique he had faced before. Back then, it had been executed with sword-finger gestures, but this time, it was unleashed with an actual sword.
First Form: A Single Sweep Disperses the Clouds
A single sweep to disperse the clouds. An arrogant name representing the desire to reach the heavens with a sword. A power fitting that name unfolded before his eyes.
Crack! The sword gang of dark red demonic energy shattered, and the beloved sword that had accompanied him throughout his life snapped in half.
A vivid sword gang was condensed on Yoo Jeong's rushing blade.
"My Lady..."
Thinking of the young lord waiting for him in the Heavenly Mountains, the Sword Devil sensed his impending death.
Soon, the shockwave of the shattered sword gang rippled outward, kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
. . .
Cheonru stopped precisely in front of the Sword Devil's Adam's apple.
"...Cough."
Yoo Jeong coughed up blood.
"Ha. Unorthodox trash climbing all the way up here? Those beggar bastards aren't doing their jobs properly."
A woman in light armor, her hair neatly swept back. Despite her beautiful appearance, she wielded a saber larger than her own body, flicking it to scatter droplets of blood.
Scattered around her were corpses that looked not slashed by a blade, but crushed by a blunt weapon.
Every single one of the corpses bore a black demon tattoo on the nape of their neck—a tattoo the woman knew all too well.
The symbol of a highly suspicious unorthodox sect that had recently been expanding its influence in Guangdong Province.
The name of that sect was the Four Black Alliance.
And she had received no reports of the Four Black Alliance mobilizing.
Having missed the movements of their highest-priority target, the woman gnashed her teeth, vowing to turn the Beggar Sect upside down once she returned.
"By the way..."
The woman, Hwahwa-nachal, squinted toward Hangzhou.
"What is this insane energy? Did Lu Dongbin himself descend?"
Hwahwa-nachal was shocked enough to invoke the name of the legendary Sword Immortal.
It was only natural. The dense, pure energy vibrating vividly from afar was at a level she had never experienced, not even from the retired Number One Sword of Wudang.
Just what on earth was happening in Hangzhou?
Thinking of her disciple who must be somewhere in Hangzhou, Hwahwa-nachal kicked off the ground.
Naturally, her destination was Hangzhou.