Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Individual Battles
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Before the Poison Iron Sword could regain his stance, Pa-sun's fierce assault rained down. Countless spear strikes plunged from the air, rushing to end his life with the ferocity and speed of thunder and lightning.
Just then.
Pa-sun and Un-pyo, their concentration at its peak, continued their offense and defense, thinking.
‘He just expended a great deal of energy, so he won't have the strength to focus on defense! If we keep attacking like this, even if we can't kill him, he won't escape unscathed. If we continue to chip away at him, victory will be ours.’
Pa-sun and Un-pyo were of the same mind.
‘We've seized the advantage.’
After exchanging a few blows, they realized. The Poison Iron Sword was stronger than them. Or more accurately, stronger than each of them ‘individually’.
It didn't matter. Pa-sun and Un-pyo had been coordinating their attacks longer than any of Mu-heun's other subordinates.
Before leaving the Divine Cult.
Whenever Mu-heun would oversee their training spars, there was something he said most often.
[ "It's a hassle, so come at me all at once. Coordinated attacks are fine. Don't hold back on any means or methods. Use every trick you have to try and fluster me. If you fail, there will be night training." ]
At first, they didn't think much of it. Night training… what wouldn't they do to become stronger? However, it didn't take them long to realize that this was a grave miscalculation born from their own arrogance.
Night training. It could hardly be called training at all.
There was only the one who hit and the ones who were hit.
Un-pyo and Pa-sun were beaten like cold iron on a blacksmith's anvil.
Mu-heun was like a vicious and merciless blacksmith, as if declaring this piece to be his masterpiece.
He hammered Pa-sun and Un-pyo countless times. The sound was less like a blacksmith's hammer and more like thunder crashing in the sky.
The two became like cold iron, struck hard and powerfully. The only problem was, they were not literally cold iron, but men.
After that hellish experience, the two tried all sorts of things to fluster Mu-heun. Predictable tricks like throwing sand or hidden weapons were abandoned after a week.
Not only were they useless, but the dirtier the tricks they used, the dirtier the beatings they received at night. Mu-heun didn't condemn them for being cowardly, but he treated them all the more mercilessly for it.
[ "If you're going to use underhanded tactics, do it properly. Half-hearted methods will only bring you more trouble." ]
And so, born from Pa-sun and Un-pyo's efforts and experiences to avoid night training, was a coordinated attack that capitalized on each other's strengths.
Moreover, their joint attacks grew even stronger after training under Pae-seon. Just as the ever-changing Phantom Sword and the powerful, elegant Severing Sword combined in a coordinated assault, so too did Un-pyo's greatsword and Pa-sun's spear.
That coordination was now shining in this real battle.
As Pa-sun thrust his spear forward, seizing the advantage…!
Something unexpected happened.
*Kagagagagakang!*
The Poison Iron Sword's longsword blocked every one of Pa-sun's thunderstorm-like spear thrusts.
A powerful clang of metal echoed through the air. A startled Pa-sun gathered his internal energy and unleashed it in the final exchange. However, he was sent flying back by the Poison Iron Sword's even greater power.
The problem was that he was pushed back all the way to Un-pyo's side, who had been a full ten feet away.
In other words, the gap in their power was still immense.
‘H-how…?’
The Poison Iron Sword had clearly clashed head-on with Un-pyo's Black Cloud; his stance should have been broken. He shouldn't have had the capacity to block all the spear thrusts coming from his blind spot…?
As if to shatter Pa-sun's assumptions, the Poison Iron Sword not only leaped toward Pa-sun and blocked every thrust but also tore his collar with his longsword.
"What a shame. If I had cut your skin, I could have injected some poison."
"......!"
Un-pyo and Pa-sun were utterly bewildered.
The reason was that the Poison Iron Sword before them now appeared to be two separate people.
"I-Illusionary Body Switch?"
The Poison Iron Sword laughed loudly, as if their surprised reaction was exactly what he had expected.
"Khahahahahaha! No! You fools."
"Wh-what is it?"
There were clearly two of them standing there… yet they were also one. The exact same face, poison-laced longswords that were impossible to tell apart, and even the same dark red robes! There was no way to distinguish between them.
"Before I send you to the afterlife, I'll teach you something."
"Wh-what are you going to teach us?"
Pa-sun asked, and one of the Poison Iron Swords spoke.
"We are brothers, born on the same day at the same hour. We use a rare artifact, the Ghost Shadow Talisman, to appear as one person, only revealing our true forms in moments of crisis."
Then, the other Poison Iron Sword spoke.
"Ah, and for your information, our skills are nearly identical. Your coordinated attack was excellent, but it's over now. No matter how well you two synchronize, you can't compare to us brothers who have fought together our entire lives."
Two martial artists at the pinnacle of the Transcendent Realm. And they were even better synchronized. A desperate reality unfolded before Pa-sun and Un-pyo, who had just been confident of their victory.
In that moment, Pa-sun sensed death.
"Dammit… I was too complacent. Lord Un-pyo, we must flee."
However, in the very next moment, Pa-sun regretted his words.
The reason was that Un-pyo, upon hearing Pa-sun, immediately rebuked him with a resolute expression.
"Pa-sun!!"
"...L-Lord Un-pyo?"
"Grip your spear tightly!"
"......?"
Pa-sun was momentarily flustered, but he quickly composed himself, observed Un-pyo's expression and tone, and could feel his emotions.
Un-pyo was showing the same feeling of humiliation he had felt after losing to Yi-baek at the Divine Dragon Assembly.
He recalled the day he had been miserably defeated in front of everyone, failing to enhance the prestige of the lord he had sworn to serve. He even felt a sense of sorrow for not being of much help on the journey here.
Watching Seol Ha-ryeong and Gu Yang-baek, who had joined suddenly and yet achieved greater feats, he blamed himself, thinking it all stemmed from his own weakness.
Un-pyo was not pleased with any of this.
Despite pledging loyalty to his lord, he was assigned roles like stalling for time or handling weaker opponents. He hated to admit that he couldn't be entrusted with crucial parts of the plan.
This situation was a prime example. Their enemies were the so-called Three Hidden Blades of the Tang Clan. Seol Ha-ryeong took on the strongest of them, Gu Yang-baek took the next strongest, and he and Pa-sun were left with the last one.
He understood.
Because they were weak.
The fact that the two of them were assigned to the Poison Iron Sword, in order of strength, was infuriating but also completely understandable.
But even if he understood, it didn't make the resentment disappear.
The Heavenly Fragrance Owl and Heavenly Demonic Corpse Hyeok were his lord's subordinates. They were tasked with handling the other Tang Clan warriors, but that was a result of their special abilities.
The Heavenly Fragrance Owl's mobility and ice arts were truly remarkable.
Considering its use of extreme ultrasound for battlefield communication, it made sense for Cheon-hyang to provide support from the air. Moreover, given the Heavenly Demonic Corpse Hyeok's poison mist, hidden weapon techniques, and Myriad Blossoming Rain, it was logical for him to handle multiple warriors.
To be honest, he thought the Heavenly Demonic Corpse might even be stronger than him and Pa-sun. After all, it was originally the Golden Fang Poison Claw…
However.
How long would he remain like this? If all he was going to do was blame himself for his weakness, what was the point of practicing martial arts?
The successful Seol Ha-ryeong and Gu Yang-baek… weren't they also juniors who had participated in the Divine Dragon Assembly?
They weren't Elders, Pavilion Lords, or Palace Lords who had protected the Divine Cult for ages. Why couldn't he catch up?
Even his lord, who had just passed his coming-of-age, was overwhelmingly stronger than them. Watching his growth from the side was dazzling.
He could not fall behind like this any longer. It was time to overcome his limits. At the very least, he needed to become strong enough to take down a master who had conquered the Transcendent Realm on his own.
If he fled and failed while facing the weakest opponents, making all sorts of excuses…, it would be an indelible disgrace as a martial artist and as a retainer serving his lord from the shadows.
"Now… yes, now. There is no next time. So, now! I must surpass my limits!"
Overcoming one's limits takes a long time without crossing the line of death, and if he couldn't overcome that limit now, he would rather die.
Seeing Un-pyo's resolve, Pa-sun understood. He felt his heart stir. He had felt the same way, but when faced with death, he had faltered. He had lacked the resolve to take that one final step.
Pa-sun felt a complex mix of emotions.
But watching Un-pyo steel his resolve before him, he grew ashamed of himself for thinking of escape first.
"I have greatly misjudged you, Lord Un-pyo."
"That's not important. Focus!"
"Yes! Let's each take one."
"Agreed!"
"Don't die."
"I'll risk my life, but I have no intention of throwing it away!"
Pa-sun and Un-pyo kicked off the ground and charged, each taking on one of the Poison Iron Sword brothers. Their opponents were clearly a cut above them. But the martial arts of the two men, who were prepared to die, seemed to have finished preparing to cross some threshold, poised for abnormal growth.
And there was another watching the scene: Mu-heun's subordinate, the Heavenly Fragrance Owl.
[ *Those guys are in big trouble.* ]
***
Seol Ha-ryeong was facing off against the Deadly Poison Dancer, Bang Sa-sa, on the roof of a pavilion.
Under the scorching heat, the leaves of the trees were a deep green, the same color as Bang Sa-sa's hair and eyes.
Light green veins bulged around her eyes, and the pallor of her skin was not like flawless jade but gave off a ghastly feeling.
Looking at Seol Ha-ryeong's jade-like skin, blue eyes, and beautiful features, she uttered a single phrase.
"A b-b-beauty... under the moon."
The emotion contained in those words was clear envy. The beauty she had desired as a woman, a wish that, for some reason, she could not attain—or rather, had only grown further from—had slipped out unconsciously.
"Hoho, shall I say you are beautiful as well?"
"You wench... I, I was an ex-experiment... I didn't w-want to become like this... I, I just... wanted to live... a normal life. Why are you tormenting... and making me fight..."
"Wench...? I have no intention of bickering with you. Come at me."
It wasn't that Seol Ha-ryeong didn't understand Bang Sa-sa.
Experiment, normal, torment…
She must have been raised through some horrific experiment in the Tang Clan… but judging by her diminished intelligence, she was likely a failure. No, the countless other failures were probably already dead… so to this extent, she was a success in her own right.
However,
Seol Ha-ryeong felt not a shred of pity.
Whatever the Deadly Poison Dancer had gone through, whatever her story was, it didn't matter. In the martial world, no one was without a story, and the powerless being killed was a common occurrence.
The abnormality in her own memories was probably something similar…
But this woman called Bang Sa-sa had obtained power. The problem was that she could have used that power to escape, yet she acted as a hidden blade for the Tang Clan and had taken countless lives.
She could picture the people who had died at her hands. As proof, the stench of blood emanated from Bang Sa-sa's hands and sleeves.
She wasn't saying the woman was evil. She herself hadn't stepped into the martial world of her own free will… she understood. It was a common thing in the ruthless martial world.
Among martial artists, at least half of them probably began training against their will.
What was clear was that as long as she was part of the martial world, as long as she belonged to the Demonic Cult, as long as she practiced martial arts, ice arts, and the art of the fan, she would kill and take what she wanted, just like any other cruel person.
Of course, strange thoughts occasionally surfaced in a corner of her memory, but the fact that she belonged to the Demonic Cult did not change.
Seol Ha-ryeong was aware of this fact. That was why, as a martial artist, she did not pity the story of another martial artist.
"You... you, I'll kill you and t-take it for myself..."
"Take what, may I ask?"
"A p-piece... of b-beauty..."
"Ha."
Ha-ryeong let out a cold sigh and spoke.
"I may have nothing to gain from you… but I do have something to give. And it's not beauty."
‘My opponent is a Transcendent Demon… a master who has reached the Divine Realm. I, too, have reached the Transcendent Demon level, but I am still lacking. However… it's enough. That is the nature of ice arts.’
Seol Ha-ryeong could feel it. This battle experience would elevate her state to the complete Transcendent Demon level. She soon unfolded her fan, stirring a cool chill in the air as she spoke.
"Instead, I will grant you a peaceful death."
Cold snowflakes began to fall.
The opponent she needed to conquer the realm of the Transcendent Demon was right before her. Seol Ha-ryeong's heart began to flutter at this inevitable rite of passage.