Chapter 70
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Blade King - 1
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He was a son so precious, you could put him in your eyes and it wouldn't hurt.
He never gave him a moment's worry. He grew up straight and true amid the Pang Clan's strict family traditions, never buckling under even the grueling training of the Five Tigers Gate Swordsmanship.
The Blade King himself, bearer of that empty title, remembered sneaking out under the cover of night at least once. Yet his son never once let it show.
He had ascended to the seat of the Four Dragons—a position even the Blade King three years prior couldn't claim—and still he never ceased his tempering. Flawless in every way, truly the joy of his life.
"Why!"
A storm borrowed the sword's form and raged.
"Why did you do it!"
Ever since his son was born, he had been cautious in his conduct. The position of clan head drew hatred simply by existing.
He always kept watch around him, lest harm come. He had abandoned his long-held ambition to command the world, deeming it an empty dream. No regrets.
Advancing into Hebei's outer reaches or amassing a fortune for the clan paled in comparison to his son—they were no different from roadside pebbles, utterly worthless.
Pang Soyoung was upright and radiant. Such a son would never invite enmity, so as long as he himself stayed cautious, all would be well.
"What twisted motive drove you to it!"
"..."
The great blade bent, slashed, repelled, and flew, bullying the Divine Maiden.
The storm became fury and raged on. Fiercely, more fiercely still. It was a question, a wail.
The rising wind's howl was heartbreaking. The Divine Maiden offered no reply.
Silent, she moved her hand.
Kaaang!
Blood flowed from the hand that blocked the great blade. Her body was covered in scratches.
From her disheveled hair, only her black pupils gazed at the father who had lost his son.
Yet what reflected in those eyes was no Blade King.
—You will live.
Gangil was cold.
Gangil's body was pathetically light. Every moment he carried him and ran, it dangled powerlessly.
In truth, he had known even then. Instinctively realized it. That he was on a path of no return. For the next three days, he desperately tried to deny it.
Nothing helped.
The Tian Clan gatekeeper muttered nonsense no one understood. No one in the village dared step forward, fearing the Dragon Star Clan.
When he finally returned, wildfire was spreading. The rice paddies he had tended all year, even through illness and back pain, were ablaze.
—It was all for nothing.
For that one sentence.
So many lived killing, taking, bullying, and laughing in satisfaction for futile things.
They drove people to hell and thought nothing of it. No apologies, no atonement, no compensation.
Only the solemn laws of the martial world stood before the girl. No one could overcome the laws forged by swords, blades, and fists.
—If you're in the martial world, you must follow its laws.
I never entered the martial world.
You dragged me in.
Someone has to take responsibility.
Drip. The girl's whites flickered black. Her heart pounded each time her demonic arts rose higher.
The enemy was strong. The elder wielding the massive blade moved with precision amid thick rage and hatred. Even seeing the flow of qi clearly, she couldn't predict where it would strike.
Speed and skill.
Small shocks accumulated from slashes in unexpected places. Fresh throbs layered over familiar pains.
Her head throbbed, irritation boiling. It felt ready to burst. Swaek! The gusts whipping up with each swing were unpleasant.
At a glance, it seemed one-sided.
The Blade King attacked, the Divine Maiden endured. Even blocking with her slender hands, some slipped through. Small but certain wounds piled up one by one.
Yet gradually...
"Get that away..."
Thud. Her footwork changed. From the Divine Maiden's plain steps to heavy strides imbued with qi.
Resembling the Huangfu Clan's Ghost Rock Step, infused with unchanging insights. With each step, thick barriers of power arose to oppose the wind.
Her hand movements shifted too. No longer the slow, crude gestures of before, but something closer to orthodox forms.
The masters she had faced. Wudang's softness, Huangfu's thickness. Nangong's thunderbolt. Insights dismantled and reassembled into something grotesque.
And at last, it encroached even on the Pang Clan's elegance.
Shak! Her repelling palm strike was light. Dark winds lifted her body.
The Divine Maiden furrowed her brow, trying to control the Five Tigers Gate Swordsmanship's winds.
"You fiend!"
Forty years gripping that blade. Forty years. Day by day, suppressing the urge to flee, honing it through blood and sweat. Was he the only one?
Clan head, master, hero. Titles earned only through effort. Forged solely by the grueling years of self-carving. They should be.
Yet the demon before him mimicked martial arts as if it were nothing.
An insult.
The Blade King's fury drove the blade.
From above, below. Then from the left. Just when it seemed from this side, it struck from the opposite. Too deep to grasp.
Like a tiger shredding prey with fangs, the massive blade tore at the Divine Maiden. Unpredictable as a storm's path.
Speed increased, as if no chance would come again.
Yet in the end, the tiger's fangs never reached the devil.
Chaeng!
Was that the sound of steel meeting flesh and sword?
The full-force blade halted after barely half an inch.
A half-inch wound.
The Five Tigers Gate Swordsmanship's momentum knew no despair there. Explosive true qi infiltrating the skin ravaged her meridians.
The aftermath alone should have been fatal.
"It hurts."
A curt remark was all.
The skin of her crossed arms blackened and died. Veins bulging red and blue writhed under the wind's power.
No mere scratch. If unlucky, arms unusable forever—a grave injury.
But to the Divine Maiden, it held no meaning.
She merely moved flesh on the brink of death with true qi. Less a wound to the body, more a nick on a tool.
"Kuh!"
A deep rebound like striking a great bell returned. Even that mimicked Huangfu Clan arts.
The Blade King faltered, stepping back. Fierce light qi rode the blade.
Jealousy at the transcendent talent stealing his arts before his eyes, self-loathing for efforts gone to waste.
Creeping despair. Fear of the incomprehensible.
"Not yet!"
Shoving aside emotions all martial artists felt, the Blade King gripped his blade again.
He didn't fight to win. Nor from longing for martial arts.
Not for the Pang Clan's enduring laws, not to save fleeing martial artists, not even for fame in capturing the Divine Maiden.
Before her, the Blade King set it all aside.
Because she killed his son.
That was all.
Killing intent mixed into his bellow. The thrusting blade's light brimmed with menace.
Hatred and grudge jutted from his blazing eyes. The storm at Flower Realm shifted form.
"Die!"
"How does it feel?"
"Shut your mouth!"
"See? Now it's finally getting interesting."
The Divine Maiden's lips twisted. Faint pleasure swept her groaning body amid the pain.
Her pounding heart spat black true qi as if delighted. Viscous demonic arts filled her entirely.
Perhaps this was what she had wanted.
The blade rampaged. The blade stormed.
Wounds torn by wind stung. Storm true qi coursing through meridians wrecked her body.
Yet tiresomely, she had experienced this.
She closed her eyes. Like with Bai Hui, she recalled the world seen when accepting his qi.
Instead of thick red trajectories, she etched violet ones. The lines of wind summoned by Five Tigers Gate Swordsmanship.
One wind connected per form. Wind inevitably followed each swing.
If she couldn't predict from the blade, she could trace from the wind.
"I'll kill you! Even if it costs me everything!"
Swaek—first wind deflected. Shaak—second wind brushed aside by hand.
Swaaaaak! Third wind felt. In that instant, the Divine Maiden's black eyes appeared.
Gazing into the Blade King's hate-filled pupils, she extended her hand.
No retreat. No flight.
Carrying irredeemable grudge and the vain hopes of the departed.
One step forward.
Her hand clenched into a fist. Borrowing fist art form.
Thud! Her step stamped true step. The ground cratered under the weak one's rage.
Piercing the blade-summoned wind, shattering the Blade King's seasoned forms, the fist advanced. Savage qi swirled in her pale arm.
A perfect counter with no escape. The final one?
Pouring power into his blade, eyes bulging with resolve to at least take her with him, the Blade King glared.
But it seemed his time had not yet come.
Kaaang!
A blue sword intervened. Faint vibrations hummed on the blade mirroring clear sky.
Though late night, surroundings brightened as if dawn broke. The massive blue sword in the sky signaled a new Flower Realm arrival here.
Master of the World's Supreme Clan, undefeated sword wielder, pinnacle of clan warriors.
"Sorry I'm late."
The Sword King had descended.