The Specter of the Battlefield
“What?”
Jeokmaryeong’s pupils trembled. He stared up into the silver eyes looking down on him. His eyes flew wide.
“It can’t be.”
He wrenched free of the hand that had seized his fist and leapt backward in a single bound.
…
Eun Seollyeong clenched her fist, then opened it again. She tightened the silver silk bandages that had slipped loose from her hand.
—Swaaah…
The rain was dying away. As it faded, a thick, dense fog rose with terrifying speed, as if it had been waiting for just this moment.
I cried out before I even realized it.
“Eun Seollyeong, what are you doing here?!”
She walked toward me.
—Thud. Thud.
With every step, muddy water splashed and sliced through the silence.
“I will say this only once.”
It was an archaic way of speaking that clashed strangely with a voice like rolling silver bells. She held out her hand to me as I sat there dazed.
“Hand over what you hold. In my present state of mind, if I carelessly move my hands…”
The sheer relief of being alive hit me late, and only then did I understand. The silver eyes looking at me now were nothing like the ones I had first met. They did not even register me. They were simply filled with a rage whose source I could not name.
“I will tear your arm off as well.”
“…H-here.”
With a trembling hand I held out the silver bell.
—Paht.
She snatched it at a speed the eye could not follow. Her eyes burned with a quiet, seething light.
“Why is this here? I have no memory of ever giving it to you.”
“…What the hell even is that?”
Eun Seollyeong muttered,
“Judging by that reaction, you truly know nothing.”
“What are you talking—”
“Is that a sword at your waist? Lend it to me.”
She snatched the iron sword from my hand.
—Whirik.
In my grip it had been a crude thing that looked barely capable of cutting radishes. The moment it entered hers, it seemed to radiate a chilling edge sharp enough to shear a single strand of hair.
“Hmm.”
Her expression as she regarded the blade was perfect blankness. Combined with a beauty that did not seem of this world, the complete absence of any expression made her terrifying. She was present, yet she did not feel like a person the same as me.
Jeokmaryeong roared,
“You bitch! No—impossible! Who the hell are you?!”
Eun Seollyeong turned. The thin cloth that began at her hip wrapped around a pale thigh and then slipped free again.
Host. Can you move?
“Mumyeong?”
Mumyeong spoke quietly into my mind.
If you can move, it would be best to flee as fast as possible right now. I have felt something strange since last time… but I was not certain then. Now I am.
“What?”
That woman.
Mumyeong’s senses were razor-sharp. He never joked. That was why his next words poured ice water straight into my skull.
She is not treating a single person standing here as something ‘alive.’
—Cheojeok.
The demonic cultists who had been watching drew their blades as one and stepped forward. The fight between Jeokmaryeong and me had been nothing more than entertainment to them. Their aura changed. Nearly fifty masters of the Heavenly Demon Cult were now on full guard against a single woman.
“Judging by the attire, you are certainly the Yeomrangwang of the Surayeomrang Squad… yet I have never seen your face. Has Ryu Majin retired? Well, of course he has. That much time has passed.”
“What?!”
Jeokmaryeong’s face twisted in pure shock.
“How do you know the previous Yeomrangwang’s name?! No—I wasn’t mistaken after all.”
He muttered in a daze.
“I thought it was just the ramblings of a senile old man. The Specter of the Battlefield was real…!”
“Specter of the Battlefield?”
Eun Seollyeong shook her head. Her long silver hair coiled around her waist and then spilled free again.
“Ryu Majin did an excellent job of spreading useless information to later generations. In that sense, there is something I wish to confirm.”
—Thud.
She stepped forward. She was shorter than I was. She was by no means a giant. Yet that single step carried the weight and mass of a mountain.
She spoke in a quiet, measured tone.
“You brought one of the regular units of the Heavenly Demon Cult—the Surayeomrang Squad—into Baekhakmubong, which lies within the territory of the Righteous path, and you were discovered by a martial artist of the Righteous path. Even after realizing that martial artist belonged to Cheonsubaekryeonsa, you still attempted to kill him and silence the witness. This despite the covenant between the Righteous and Demonic paths that neither Cheonsubaekryeonsa of the Righteous path nor the Shadow Branch of the Demonic Cult is to be touched. I have no hard proof, but from my experience, if I may offer a personal opinion regarding the actions you have taken…”
She slipped the silver bell into her robes.
“I am certain the cautious leadership of the Heavenly Demon Cult that I know would never have desired such a thing.”
“…You bastard!”
An explosive, hair-trigger silence filled the space between them. Eun Seollyeong spoke in a completely flat tone.
“I, Eun Seollyeong, in my capacity as Guardian of the Mount Hua Sect, formally propose to the Yeomrangwang with all due courtesy.”
Even when I first encountered her before the gates of Cheonsubaekryeonsa, she had called herself a Guardian.
Guardian.
Among the Righteous path stood the Nine Sects and One Gang—ten great powers that boasted the strongest forces. And in each of those sects there existed one being whose personal martial might equaled roughly thirty percent of the entire sect’s strength. They were called the blades pointed at the jianghu, living disasters given human form.
Mumyeong had once said that Eun Seollyeong’s face was far too young for her to be a Guardian, that I must have misheard or that she was lying.
I hadn’t misheard after all…!
Once again she was calling herself a Guardian. She spoke almost in a whisper.
“Yeomrangwang, I have seen enough of your martial prowess. How about knowing satisfaction at this point and quietly withdrawing?”
It was an arrogant declaration. Before the black tide of demonic masters that could grind everything to dust, the silver-haired woman showed not the slightest hint of being cowed.
“Knowing satisfaction? Fine. You said it well.”
Sparks flew in Jeokmaryeong’s eyes.
“In that same spirit, we absolutely cannot let any of you leave alive. If word of what happened today spreads, I will be in considerable trouble. Of course, that is not the whole of it.”
He stamped his foot. The sword that had fallen to the ground leapt into his hand.
—Srrrng.
The Yeomrangwang drew his true blade.
“Ever since I first made my name in the demonic path, every single bastard who dared humiliate me—save only the Cult Leader—I have torn apart and killed as I advanced. In that sense, the one standing behind you is someone I absolutely cannot leave alive. You, woman, I will spare. But hand over the one behind you. Then I will ‘consider’ knowing satisfaction as well.”
“That would be inconvenient. I rang the bell, you see.”
With those cryptic words, Eun Seollyeong cut him off coldly.
“Yes. If you are the Specter of the Battlefield I have heard of, I expected as much. Perfect. To stand before a being that every martial artist who calls himself a Guardian dreams of facing at least once, and still…”
Demonic energy erupted from Jeokmaryeong’s body.
“If I withdraw quietly, I am no Yeomrangwang!”
“How fortunate.”
“What?”
Eun Seollyeong lowered her head and looked at the ground. The place where she stood was solid bedrock.
“In truth… if it were not for the Covenant of the Sacred Mountain I once swore…”
She rose onto the balls of her feet and tapped the earth lightly with her toes.
—Jjeok. Jjeojeok.
That simple motion drove her toes into the hard rock, shattering it.
“I would never have made such a proposal to trash like you demonic cultists—!”
Still looking down, her eyes snapped upward.
“Never!”
—Kwa-reung!
The ground beneath her feet exploded as she shot forward.
“…! Surayeomrang Squad, scatter—!”
—Jjeoeong!
The sword Eun Seollyeong swung and Jeokmaryeong’s blade collided with a deafening roar. It was not the sound of steel meeting steel. It was a single peal of thunder.
“Keuk…!”
—Kwaduduk!
Jeokmaryeong’s feet dug into the earth, sending fragments flying in every direction. Violet demonic energy wrapped around his body.
The supreme internal art that explodes the user’s physical potential and latent energy, forcing every metabolic process in the body into overdrive.
Veins bulged across Jeokmaryeong’s entire body; bloodshot eyes glared.
—Kaang.
He hurled the full weight of his body into Eun Seollyeong and sent her flying. She spun twice in midair and landed on the earth. The tips of both her feet touched the ground—still within striking range of each other.
“Hmph!”
They moved at the same instant.
—Kwajik.
Jeokmaryeong stamped, driving both legs into the ground.
—Chijijik.
Eun Seollyeong spread her stance and settled into place.
Their gazes locked. Both of them gripped their sword hilts as if they meant to crush them. At the same moment they unleashed their blades with everything they had.
“—!”
—Kwakwakwakwa! Kwakwakwang!!!
It was not of this world. It was a movement I had never witnessed before. The blades themselves could not be seen. Twenty exchanges? Thirty? Before a single breath had passed?
No. It was impossible to count. It was as if time itself flowed differently in that space alone.
—Kwakwakwakwa!
A storm of blades filled every inch of the gap between them. When steel met steel it did not ring with the clear cry of metal. It sounded like two catapults colliding head-on. The fog was blasted away.
—Pibit! Pipipit!
The tips of Eun Seollyeong’s hair were sheared off. Her clothes tore. A cut opened on her cheek and blood sprayed. Matching her, Jeokmaryeong’s skin was also sliced open.
“Damn it!”
Jeokmaryeong bit his lip hard.
“From this moment the Surayeomrang Squad’s objective changes! Highest priority is the elimination of the Mount Hua Guardian! Deploy the Hyeonmajin formation with full force!”
“Yes, sir!”
The black swarm of cultists moved like living rats, swiftly surrounding the storm of blades. Eun Seollyeong’s brush-stroke eyebrows twisted. The black tide that had been circling crashed over her like a breaking wave. Her eyes flew wide. Her long fingers reached for the center of the iron sword.
—Tok.
She flicked her finger. The iron sword snapped cleanly in half. The broken blade spun lazily in the air. She pointed a finger at the fragment.
—Ttaaang!
The blade shot forth like a hidden weapon, streaking straight for Jeokmaryeong’s brow.
“Keoeok!”
He caught the massively powered fragment and was hurled backward.
—Pababbat.
Eun Seollyeong leapt as if treading on empty air. The blade Jeokmaryeong had deflected was still spinning. She touched it with her finger again and flicked the fragment once more.
—Taaang!
“Dodge!”
It was a single straight storm of force. The first demonic cultist exploded. The second exploded. The third managed to block the fragment only for both arms to shatter as the trajectory twisted. The fragment buried itself more than halfway into the chest of the fourth, who carried an axe, and finally stopped.
Staring at the blade lodged in his chest, the cultist shouted,
“I’ve never heard of, never seen a Finger-Flicking Technique like—keok!!”
Eun Seollyeong closed the distance in an instant and swung the half-blade; his head flew.
—Pushut pushut.
She tore the axe from the twitching cultist’s hand and swung it. The heads of the cultists on either side flew.
—Ppaak!
She buried the axe in the forehead of the enemy charging straight at her. Empty-handed now, she deflected the blades rushing at her body to the side and took two steps back. The moment her big toe left the ground, a blade stabbed into that exact spot. She stepped onto that blade, rose, and opened her palm like a blade itself. Her open-hand strike flashed out like lightning.
—Peok! Peobeobeok!
Sounds like watermelons bursting filled the air as limbs of demonic cultists snapped and exploded.
“Gyaaah! My shoulder!”
She kicked the knee of the cultist screaming while clutching his dangling shoulder and shattered it outright.
“You bewitching bitch!”
Still on his knees, a demonic master’s hand seized her ankle. That hand was crushed under a single stamp of her foot. At the same time she snatched a spear that had bounced into the air. Her aura changed in an instant. She stamped both feet.
—Kwaang.
Eun Seollyeong’s feet sank deep into the earth. Her body went still. She formed a ring with the middle and index fingers of her left hand and rested the spear shaft across it. For the first time, white heat haze poured from her body—a storm of qi.
Jeokmaryeong screamed,
“Shit, everyone dodg—!”
Form Change: The Subtlety of Intercept-Seize-Thrust
—Kwadudududu!
People were torn apart. Bodies of demonic cultists exploded. Just as swinging a blade against a tidal wave was meaningless, defense meant nothing. The enemies before her burst outward in a radial pattern as if struck by thunder bombs. It did not take long to realize that the trajectories of those exploding bodies were the work of a monstrous spear technique that filled the entire air.
“Applying the Life-Seizing Linked Three Immortal Swords in spear form?!”
“Is this even human martial prowess?!”
For the first time, fear began to color the faces of the demonic cultists who had known none, whose eyes had been as cold as birds of prey. The path she walked was literally a road of blood. One cultist muttered while trembling,
“Just how many weapons did that monster use just now?”
Every martial artist has a specialty. There are those peerless with the sword, those peerless with the spear. There is no one who can handle everything well. The old saying goes that a tool that can do everything can do nothing properly, and that maxim is accepted by every faction in the jianghu—Righteous, Evil, or Demonic.
Yet every single demonic cultist had just witnessed it. In that fleeting instant, in the moment of life and death, the Guardian before their eyes had freely wielded dozens of weapons as if they were a single technique—and had even linked the transitions between them as seamlessly as one continuous form.
“I’ve never heard of, never seen anything like this.”
Every method of countering an opponent’s martial arts begins with identifying what weapon they use. That is fundamental. But the woman standing before them now made even that basic premise ambiguous.
It had taken only the blink of an eye. Thirty percent of the Surayeomrang Squad was dead.
“Then allow me to ask once more.”
Eun Seollyeong, still with her back to me, tossed the tattered spear to the ground.
“How about knowing satisfaction at this point and withdrawing?”
—Juchum.
The demonic cultists flinched.
“Tch…!”
Jeokmaryeong ground his teeth.
She should withdraw around now.
Mumyeong muttered.
“What?”
I almost asked what he meant. Her martial prowess had been so overwhelming. Crushing insects underfoot would have looked harder than this.
“What are you talking about? The tide of battle is completely—”
No. She is pushing herself.
At Mumyeong’s second pointed remark I finally noticed. A single cold bead of sweat was trickling down the nape of her neck.