Chapter 319
Chapter 319
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 319
Chapter Title: Taiji Wisdom Sword
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Hahaha."
Suddenly, Ok Kirin burst into laughter.
Despite being rejected, he looked at Cheonhwi with a smile creeping onto his lips.
It was a smile as if he understood.
"You're still being shy. But since we'll be carrying out this mission together, even if it's awkward, we should build a bit of camaraderie..."
As Ok Kirin continued with words laced in goodwill, Cheonhwi cut him off with an air of annoyance.
"Forget it. Let's just go."
It was practically a command to leave.
Only then did Ok Kirin realize that Cheonhwi truly had no desire to converse, and he cautiously asked.
"Is there a reason for this?"
He wore an utterly serious expression.
Perhaps he had unknowingly made some blunder with Cheonhwi.
He waited for a reply.
Ready to apologize immediately if he had erred.
Soon, Cheonhwi's mouth opened.
But the response utterly defied his expectations.
"I just don't feel like it."
"...Pardon?"
At the absurd answer, Ok Kirin unwittingly let out a deflated sound through his slightly parted lips.
'Just because he doesn't like it? Talking to me?'
His mind couldn't process it.
It was something he had never even imagined.
In the martial world, unless there was some deep grudge, people usually exchanged pleasant words to build connections.
Yet to so openly say he disliked it.
After staring blankly at Cheonhwi in stunned silence for a long while, he shook his head to clear his thoughts.
"Is that really the only reason?"
He asked again to confirm.
"What about it?"
The reply was the same.
"..."
At those utterly resolute words, Ok Kirin had no idea what to say.
In the end, he subtly turned his head to glance at Cheonhyang, who was walking side by side with Cheonhwi.
His eyes conveyed the meaning: 'Is that for real?'
Cheonhyang shrugged wordlessly.
A gesture close to affirmation.
Ok Kirin shifted his gaze back to Cheonhwi, mumbling with his lips.
"...I'll visit you later."
"No need."
Cheonhwi said dismissively.
While gesturing for him to leave.
Ok Kirin opened his mouth as if to protest Cheonhwi's behavior, but ultimately closed it and turned his horse around.
As he began to ride away.
"Is that okay?"
Cheonhyang said, watching Ok Kirin's back grow smaller in the distance.
Ok Kirin was the leader of the Cheonjeong Corps, with whom they would share this mission.
To reject conversation just because it was bothersome—how could it not worry her?
"We'll be carrying out the mission together from now on, so if we make an enemy of him..."
"Carrying out the mission together?"
Cheonhwi interrupted Cheonhyang as if questioning what she meant.
"It's not like we're doomed or anything."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Cheonhyang tilted her head.
Unable to grasp his meaning.
Cheonhwi clicked his tongue at her reaction.
Can't you tell just by looking?
His gaze turned to the Cheonjeong Corps charging forward, kicking up dust from all directions.
Nearly three hundred strong.
Like an army.
But in Cheonhwi's eyes, as he swiftly scanned them, there was only doubt.
"A rabble is a rabble, no matter how many."
That was Cheonhwi's assessment.
Impressive on the outside, hollow within.
They looked grand, but a closer look revealed no substance.
A few had decent skill, but not even a hundred.
'Better to train a small elite unit like the Extermination Squad and hone their coordination for real combat.'
Cheonhwi muttered inwardly as he stared at Ok Kirin.
'They hastily formed this detachment and took everyone who applied...'
He could guess his mindset.
The quickest way to bolster a unit's strength was to increase numbers.
But that was a clear mistake.
The more members, the harder to manage.
Especially in army-like formations requiring unified movement—martial artists made uniformity difficult as numbers grew.
'Half of them will die.'
Cheonhwi's cold gaze flashed.
A conviction born of experience.
Withdrawing his scanning gaze from Ok Kirin and the Cheonjeong Corps, Cheonhwi spoke.
"We just focus on the mission, not them."
"Act separately?"
"Yes."
Cheonhwi answered calmly.
He had never intended to attack alongside Ok Kirin and the Cheonjeong Corps.
"They said carry out the mission together, not move together, right?"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Darkness blanketed the world.
As starlight and the full moon began to rise, illuminating the gloom, numerous campfires blazed across the plain.
The Extermination Squad and Cheonjeong Corps.
After riding nearly a full day into the night, they prepared to camp.
All but the night watch had fallen into deep slumber.
Exhaustion at its peak, perhaps.
Only the snoring of those wrapped in their wind capes as blankets filled the air.
Silence dominated the area.
In that silence.
"Hup!"
A figure bolted upright with a ragged breath.
It was Ok Kirin.
"Hah, hah."
Sitting up, he gasped for air.
Hot breath escaped his lips, vanishing swiftly like the wind.
"Again?"
Ok Kirin murmured softly.
Then, he quietly looked up at the sky.
Against the night sky with moon and stars, the nightmare he had just had replayed vividly.
'C-Captain!'
'Help... guk!'
The moments when his squad members lay cold as corpses and he himself suffered wounds severe enough to leave the Cheonjeong Corps...
Biting his lower lip, his eyes brimmed with bitter anguish.
Already fifty dead, and over a hundred injured, minor ones included.
And winter had yet to fully pass.
"It won't let me rest easy."
Muttering to himself, he moved his hand.
He naturally grasped his lifelong companion, the sword laid carefully beside him.
His mind eased.
"Can't sleep tonight either, huh."
With a wry smile, he rose.
This wasn't the first sleepless night.
His troubled heart, perhaps.
Ever since leading the Cheonjeong Corps on that mission, nightmares had plagued him.
Ok Kirin moved familiarly.
When his mind wavered like this, only martial arts could soothe him.
He arrived at a nearby patch of reeds reaching his waist.
Whoosh―
A chill wind tickled him as it passed.
Even after winter's end, it carried the bite of northern gales.
But to Ok Kirin, feverish with tension, it felt refreshing.
Shing―
Feeling the wind, he drew his sword.
A practiced motion.
The blade rose to chest level, revealing its azure edge.
Ok Kirin gazed silently at his sword.
Given by his master upon entering the jianghu, called Blue Light.
True to its name, the blade reflected the full moon's glow in brilliant azure, scattering it everywhere.
A feast of beautiful blue light.
And then.
Swoosh―
The blue light trailed.
The sword moved.
From chest height, it swept left to right, tracing an arc.
But agonizingly slow.
Like a blunt sword.
Finally, after drawing a long arc left to right, the blade halted abruptly.
Slice―
Reeds fell belatedly.
Ok Kirin watched the flying reeds around him and continued moving.
A simple horizontal slash.
Yet with each second and third execution, the path varied slightly.
Sometimes tilting sideways, sometimes rising an inch.
As if Ok Kirin himself were unfamiliar with the sword he wielded.
After swinging for a while, suddenly.
Step―
He thrust his right foot forward.
The boot's toe pressed into the sprouting grass, rustling softly.
A low sound.
And with that.
Whoooosh―
A gentle wind arose.
Centered on him.
At once, his sword began tracing bizarre paths.
Up to down, left to right.
Then, abruptly, he paused.
A brief halt.
But in his immersed sword dance perception, it felt eternally long.
Soon, Ok Kirin regulated his breath.
Stimulating his lower dantian.
His resting internal energy, as if prepared since the dance began, surged to obey his will.
Energy emanated from his entire body.
Black and white.
Yin and yang.
Opposing forces.
Ok Kirin unified the conflicting energies in an instant and infused them into his sword.
Flash!
Brilliant azure permeated the heavens.
Sword qi.
"Guide yin and yang to draw a single harmonious wheel."
Muttering the incantation in his mind in a low voice, Ok Kirin let the sword qi flow gently through Blue Light.
The softly moving sword shed the moonlight like silk falling.
All the while, his footwork didn't cease; he spun his body.
Whirl―
His whole form rotated in one breath, and the black and white, yang and yin energies blooming around him mingled vigorously.
Mystical.
Black and white, seemingly incompatible, merged into one, ultimately drawing a single wheel in the air.
The Taiji.
Thus, forgetting the turmoil that had gripped his heart, he immersed himself in the sword dance.
Meanwhile, at a distance, atop a rock, someone watched Ok Kirin's sword dance.
Cheonhwi.
He had followed since Ok Kirin awoke and slipped away, now with eyes gleaming in interest, lips curling.
"Wudang Sect's swordsmanship. It's been a while."
While observing the dance, Cheonhwi's eyes sparkled as he stroked his chin.
"Wait, that sword art..."
Cheonhwi's gaze deepened.
Abyssal like the underworld, not missing a single movement.
After a moment.
"Taiji Wisdom Sword?"
Cheonhwi's eyes twinkled like stars.
The Taiji Wisdom Sword was one of the Orthodox Eight Great Sword Arts, an absolute sword technique.
In his previous life, even in Wudang, scarce had mastered it properly; he knew it only from texts.
Yet now, Ok Kirin performed it before him.
'Wudang has reason to expect great things. Entering the Taiji Wisdom Sword is impossible for average talent.'
No small anticipation.
In Wudang's long history, only five had achieved mastery in this absolute technique.
To pass it to young Ok Kirin.
"But it's sorely lacking."
Observing Ok Kirin, Cheonhwi clicked his tongue.
His disappointment grew.
"To wield that absolute sword art so poorly."
Ok Kirin hadn't truly comprehended the Taiji Wisdom Sword.
Proving it, from some point, Cheonhwi sensed an oddity in his movements during the dance.
A fragility as if it would shatter at a touch.
Right then.
Rumble!
Ok Kirin's energy wavered.
Simultaneously, frowning, he withdrew his sword mid-swing.
"...Kuh."
As if struck, Ok Kirin groaned briefly, clutching his chest.
The shock of uncontrolled internal energy swept his body.
"Here again..."
Muttering, he gritted his teeth.
It always happened here.
Every time he reached the mid-section of the Taiji Wisdom Sword, it derailed.
"What's wrong?"
As he murmured.
"Want me to tell you what's wrong?"
An unexpected voice rang out.
Startled, Ok Kirin looked up, locking eyes with Cheonhwi grinning down at him.