I Can't Possibly Be a Demon!
There's no way I'm a demon! Sword Demon Yeo Hwi-bin had been a prodigy of the blade since childhood, blessed with unparalleled insight. Her five senses surpassed anyone of her generation, her lineage traced back to Sword Immortal Yeo Dong-bin, and her physique was far sturdier than any woman's ought to be.
Perhaps that was her misfortune.
If one could gaze upon the blue sky, it was only natural to lift one's head. Yet she was never meant to look up. Even if she held a blade, it should never have been one meant to take life. She should have wielded only a kitchen knife.
When asked why, the answer was simple: that was the natural order.
The generous and wise Taoists and their sects simply forbade women from holding swords.
Yeo Hwi-bin had her talent for martial arts acknowledged, but never her right to wield them.
Had she been born into a prestigious clan, or even a humble commoner's household, she would have become a celebrated rising star of the righteous sects.
But Yeo Hwi-bin could not hold a sword.
She could only carry baskets piled high with laundry and watch her father and brothers swing their blades from afar. That was her sole happiness around the age of twelve, the only value in her life.
She etched the Heavenly Escape Sword, passed down from Sword Immortal Yeo Dong-bin, into her eyes countless times.
Then, one day, Yeo Hwi-bin suddenly attained enlightenment.
Why must she live like this when her family was desperate to hide their own existence? Why could she not roam the world, gaze upon the sky, when her very breath felt stifled? Why must she hide herself instead of being rejected by her own kin?
The realization came simply to one who had spent her life suppressing every desire and will beneath the roof.
Reveal yourself.
While others cowered and concealed themselves in cowardice, she learned how to make her presence known.
Yeo Dong-bin's sword was called the Heavenly Escape Sword because it hid its wielder beneath the sky. At thirteen, Yeo Hwi-bin realized how to sever that very sky which concealed her.
It was the result of secretly swinging tree branches for an entire year.
She decided to call her sword the Sky-Severing Sword.
At fifteen, she slaughtered her own clan that had bound her and joined the Demonic Cult. The one who had severed the sky climbed the mountain once more to revere it. No, to live beneath the true sky.
Not long after, she earned the epithet Sword Ghost and, for the first time, had her existence acknowledged.
The Demonic Cult was a world where the strong reigned supreme, a fitting place for one who breathed only to sever the sky.
So Yeo Hwi-bin continued to live that way.
She killed to swing her sword and even severed the lofty heavens themselves. When she stabbed the Cult Leader's heart and claimed the title of Sword Demon, she was not yet twenty.
More years passed, and Yeo Hwi-bin had truly become worthy of being called a demon of the sword.
Perhaps one day she could ascend above the heavens like her ancestor Yeo Dong-bin.
With quiet expectation and certainty, Sword Demon Yeo Hwi-bin had walked the martial world until she arrived here.
Kkigigigigik──!!!
Sword met sword with an unpleasant screech. The blades did not slice through each other in a single stroke as usual, but instead snarled viciously, each seeking to kill the other.
Receiving the sword wreathed in crimson energy, Yeo Hwi-bin felt an unfamiliar sensation.
She had encountered countless practitioners of demonic arts within the Cult, yet this was different.
The woman, drenched in blood, swung her sword down with wild abandon, as if she had gone mad.
Kwajik! Kwajik! Kwadududuk!
While parrying each strike, Sword Demon Yeo Hwi-bin felt a chill run down her spine.
To reach such a realm yet treat the sword, one's lifelong companion, as mere expendable material…
The opponent seemed to notice her thoughts. Her blood-red eyes gleamed as she burst into maniacal laughter.
“Hahahahahahaha!!! Why have you been swinging your sword so timidly this whole time?”
The woman sneered, lips curling upward.
“Like this.”
The sword that had until now radiated only ferocious momentum suddenly reached the pinnacle of delicacy. The overwhelming force that could split mountains vanished, leaving only a trajectory that seemed to dance across the sky.
It felt as though her own sword was being reflected in a mirror. Sword Demon Yeo Hwi-bin's eyes widened as she blocked the strike.
Kwaaaang──!!!
The blade carried not the will to sever the sky like hers, but absolute, unbridled ferocity.
Unable to comprehend such violence, Yeo Hwi-bin coughed up blood and was sent flying through the air.
Is that woman a monster? Or a genius?
At first, she had wielded the sword like a club, swinging wildly. Before long, it had become proper swordsmanship. And now, she was even imitating Yeo Hwi-bin's own techniques.
Yeo Hwi-bin knew that the Sky-Severing Sword was no ordinary technique that just anyone could learn. Yet the woman was learning it. She was stealing it through direct clashes.
Feeling an inexplicable sense of unfairness, Yeo Hwi-bin suddenly kicked off the air and severed the head of a blood dragon flying toward her from the side in one stroke.
As the dragon dissolved into blood upon being cut, the Sword Demon clicked her tongue.
She could not learn such mystical techniques, and the only things she could steal from the opponent's sword were overwhelming madness and domineering movements—things that did not suit her.
Yet just moments ago, she had thought otherwise.
That last move wasn't half bad.
Sword Demon Yeo Hwi-bin wiped the blood from her lips and felt the tingling sensation in her arms.
So there was this method as well. Until now, she had only thought of piercing and severing. Yes, there was also this kind of sword.
“You strike with the flat of the blade.”
Before she knew it, the Sword Demon was smiling broadly. She lowered her sword and swung it in an instant.
Kwaaaang!!
Just that single motion caused the ground to erupt.
Yes, this was it.
Yeo Hwi-bin realized a new sky, a new shell that had been enveloping her.
A new era of blooming was approaching.
Realizing this new joy, the Sword Demon laughed and charged forward.
Kwang! Kwaaaang!
The vast plains of Shaanxi were being ravaged by only two people.
Every time their swords clashed, lightning struck the earth. Every time they moved, tremors rippled outward.
Just moments ago, Sword Demon Yeo Hwi-bin had been parrying and countering with precise strikes to vital points. Now, it had devolved into a brutal slugfest.
“Hahahahahahaha!!!”
Watching her disciple's mad laughter, the Black Water Elder shook her head.
She had known the girl was insane from their first meeting, but she had not realized it was this severe until now.
Even when her arm was cut by a sword, she laughed. Even when the head of one of her summoned creatures exploded, she laughed. She was always laughing.
“……Tsk, why did I ever take such a girl as my disciple?”
The elder blamed her own fate and positioned herself atop a tree some distance from the battlefield.
She had not climbed the tree merely to spectate as Liz had suggested. She had long since snapped the sorcerer's neck while Yeo Hwi-bin was struggling in confusion.
The Sword Demon was supposed to protect her, yet even she had no time to spare. Having completed her own task, the elder could not intervene in the monsters' battle and had to keep her distance.
With her cultivation fallen due to internal injuries, she lacked the strength to join a fight that would have been difficult even in her prime.
She was now less useful than the black tentacles occasionally shooting from behind her disciple.
“So that is an Ascendant, and the Slaughter Star.”
The elder, who had lived long, knew vaguely of beings who walked the heavens above. Though something seemed to censor the name as '■■■■', she understood that another world existed.
She had realized long ago that her mad disciple was one of those Ascendants.
The girl lacked basic common sense, yet her five senses rivaled even Sword Demon Yeo Hwi-bin's, and she possessed strange talents that could only be called sorcery. If it had been one or two things, perhaps, but after spending several days together, it would have been stranger not to notice.
“I took in a strange disciple in my later years.”
The elder quietly caught her breath while watching the plain where countless bolts of steel lightning fell.
The world had suddenly encountered calamity, but all things must eventually end. Their battle, and her own life, had both reached their final stages.
Feeling wrinkles form even on her blackened hands, the elder continued to watch the fight.
What is an Asura?
I don't know. I just picked the Divine Art because it sounded cool, and somehow my sword-related trait changed into 'Asura Sword.' At this point, isn't the world just forcing me to become some kind of Asura?
I simply swung my sword while feeling a bit of curiosity and anger, immense joy, and always welcoming pleasure. Madly.
I wasn't actually crazy, so I swung the sword with all the excitement of someone on the verge of madness.
The sword I held never broke, and neither did my opponent's. So I could keep swinging it for a long time. I could keep clashing.
Because of that, I felt like I understood something, just a little.
I still didn't understand what an Asura was, but I gained a tiny bit of insight into the sword.
If I swung like this, I could break my opponent.
I swung the sword according to that realization.
Kwadududuk-!
At last, a crack appeared in Yeo Hwi-bin's beautiful smile and her single sword strike.