Chapter 212: Plum Blossom Ten Thousand Li Fragrance
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 212: Plum Blossom Ten Thousand Li Fragrance
Unlike Gongbok, Ak Bulhwi wasn't strong enough to simply ignore my attacks.
In the future I had seen, I had clearly severed one of his arms.
Gongbok was stronger than Ak Bulhwi.
It might have been a matter of compatibility, but at least from my perspective, Gongbok was the far more difficult opponent.
Of course, that didn't mean I could take down Ak Bulhwi quickly.
That visible purple sword flux was dangerous, even for me.
Just as my claws could sever his arm, his sword could sever mine.
To defeat Ak Bulhwi, I had to give it my all.
“What are you thinking? I have shown you what I possess. Is it not common courtesy for you to reveal what you are hiding?”
He knew I was holding back.
My feelings toward him had surpassed simple anger.
If I failed to stop him, all my precious followers would die, and everyone connected to me would be harmed.
I had to kill him, no matter what.
My hidden card was gigantification.
I had been gradually applying miniaturization for a month, so if I were to release it now, I could grow to a size rivaling Gongbok’s.
But this was a card I had prepared specifically to deal with Gongbok.
Killing Ak Bulhwi wouldn't be the end.
This war would only truly be over when Gongbok was also defeated.
The Snake Queen and the King of Birds were holding their own against him, but they weren't managing to inflict any significant damage. They were merely keeping him at bay with a constant barrage of firepower. While they couldn't pierce his skin, they could push back his colossal body. The rock snakes, presumably Gongbok's minions, were being shattered by the aftershocks alone.
But if the battle dragged on, the chances of Gongbok eventually enduring their attacks and pushing forward would increase.
I had to finish Ak Bulhwi without using gigantification.
Only then could I save everyone.
“Krrrrr…”
I stood on two feet and shrouded both my hands in sword qi.
It was obvious what would happen if my sword qi clashed with his sword flux.
Which meant I just had to make sure they didn't.
I had to dodge all of his attacks with my utmost speed.
And every one of my attacks had to land.
“Do you intend to use your full strength only after I’ve cut off one of your arms? If that is your choice…”
The middle-aged swordsman walked slowly toward me.
“I shall respect it.”
His movements were slow, yet utterly devoid of openings.
So this is the full power of a sect leader, one of the ten strongest masters in the world.
My whole body trembled, but I shook off the fear.
Fshat!
The moment I was about to charge him—
FWOOOOSH!
KWAAANG!
A tremendous torrent of flame erupted between Ak Bulhwi and me.
A flame in the shape of the character for ‘great’ (大).
I knew in an instant whose flame it was.
“I was going to tell you to give up on some things, little one, but you’re just too mischievous. How did you know I swallowed the Gu to prepare for something like this?”
The Red Dragon, in her human form, walked toward me.
Tang Soyeong’s poison had completely neutralized the Gu inside her.
“Really… It’s been so long since I’ve felt this way. No, this might be the first time.”
FWOOOOOSH!
Once again, fierce flames soared into the air.
Swiiish!
Ak Bulhwi’s sword sliced through the inferno.
“Red Dragon. Have you finally betrayed us?”
Ak Bulhwi glared at the Red Dragon with cold eyes.
“Betrayed? Don’t make me laugh.”
The Red Dragon glared back, her eyes burning.
“Little one.”
She called out to me, her voice strained as if she were holding back some explosive emotion.
“No, my Divine Beast.”
Fwoosh.
“I’ll take it from here.”
She was going to face Ak Bulhwi alone?
Her joining the fray was certainly an advantage, but it was far too dangerous. Ak Bulhwi’s sword could easily pierce the Red Dragon’s scales.
“Didn’t you say you wouldn’t lose anyone?”
The Red Dragon smiled, just as she always did.
“I’ll handle Ak Bulhwi… so you, my Divine Beast, go do what you need to do.”
Even for her, victory would be difficult to guarantee.
But the moment our eyes met, I couldn't give any other answer.
Her gaze held the will to face anyone and anything.
“Gekgek.”
As the Divine Beast of Gaegaek, I issued a command to my follower.
Don’t die. And take responsibility for him.
*
Ak Bulhwi stood still, watching the Red Dragon.
She had betrayed them.
That meant she had neutralized the Gu.
He had confirmed time and again that even her fire couldn't affect the Gu. How could this be?
They hadn't prepared any major countermeasures for her betrayal, assuming she had more to gain by siding with them. If she went berserk and died, they could have taken her inner core, and witnessing such a sight would have shaken Gomodo’s psyche.
“Was she acting from the very beginning? She couldn’t have devised such a plan unless she was certain she could destroy the Gu.”
Ak Bulhwi murmured, a flicker of amusement in his voice.
He had let their leader escape.
To be precise, it was closer to say that Ak Bulhwi had chosen not to pursue him. He hadn't actively tried to stop him.
After all, there was no chance Gongbok would lose to him, and he couldn't afford to look away with a spirit beast like the Red Dragon standing before him.
It would be more beneficial to their victory for him to handle the Red Dragon himself.
From what he knew of Gongbok, the Red Dragon would be a more troublesome opponent for him than Gomodo.
“Very well. I did want to have a proper fight with you at least once.”
And the competitive spirit deep within him began to burn.
It wasn't a thought befitting the leader of a sect, but before he was a leader, he was a martial artist.
“But, are you capable?” Ak Bulhwi asked in a cold voice. “Will you dare to face the sword of Ak Bulhwi?”
The Red Dragon stared for a long moment in the direction Gomodo had disappeared, then picked up a random sword lying on the ground.
“Yes, it’s better to shrink your body to fight me.”
Fwoosh.
The Red Dragon’s flames enveloped the sword in her hand.
“A sword? Do you truly believe you can defeat me with a sword?”
The Fire Dragon said nothing, simply settling into a stance.
Ak Bulhwi mirrored her, taking his own stance and waiting for her to move.
Clang!
The Red Dragon moved first.
With swift footwork, she swung her sword in a horizontal arc. Ak Bulhwi, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, raised his own sword to block the attack.
KAAAANG!
Plum blossoms and flames clashed.
“So you have learned a thing or two!”
The Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art unfolded from Ak Bulhwi’s hands.
Butterflies seemed to gather around the plum blossom that was his sword, and it began to radiate an intense aura.
Kagagagagagang!
His profound internal energy was such that the mere swing of his sword made faint plum blossoms appear in the air.
Countering him, the Red Dragon’s swordsmanship was also the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art.
But hers was not of the Flower (花), but of Fire (火).
Scorching flames gathered on her blade, exploding as if to incinerate Ak Bulhwi’s plum blossoms.
Swiiiiiish!
FWOOOOOSH!
But in terms of pure swordsmanship, Ak Bulhwi was a cut above.
Furthermore, the difference in their weapons was stark.
Once a master could wield sword qi and sword flux, the quality of the sword itself became less critical.
But when two masters of equal standing fought a battle to the death, such a small difference could determine victory or defeat.
Ak Bulhwi wielded a treasured sword of Mount Hua, forged from meteoric iron, while the Red Dragon had literally just picked up a nameless blade from the ground.
Kagak!
Pshuk!
A petal of a plum blossom sliced across the Red Dragon’s thigh.
She staggered for a moment as if losing her balance, but quickly composed herself and swung her sword in a wide arc.
FWOOOOOSH!
KWAAAAANG!
Ak Bulhwi used his swift footwork to once again create distance.
“Your spirit is commendable… but to think you could defeat me with a sword. How arrogant.”
Lizamone heaved a ragged breath.
Though she had destroyed the Gu, it was not without its side effects.
It had consumed a portion of her internal energy, meaning her power output was inevitably lower than usual.
“You talk too damn much!”
Fwoooosh!
A rain of fire fell from the sky, and pillars of flame erupted from the ground.
KWAAAAAANG!
“Kuaaaargh!”
“Guuuhk!”
The Plum Blossom Swordsmen fighting nearby suffered immense damage from her flames.
Thanks to Baek Rang dashing across the battlefield and imbuing her allies with cold energy, Gomodo’s followers were safe from the fire.
Her destructive power could only be described as overwhelming.
The Red Dragon, a mid-tier dragonkin, said to possess power rivaling the leader of Mount Hua.
But in a one-on-one duel, she was bound to be outmatched by Ak Bulhwi.
As time passed, her flames grew weaker, while the scent of Ak Bulhwi’s plum blossoms grew stronger.
“Is this all you have? Why not return to your dragon form?”
KAAAANG!
“Huuuu…”
Ak Bulhwi was undeniably strong.
Her proud flames failed to inflict any serious damage on him, yet his sword continuously pierced her durable body.
The longer the fight went on, the more disadvantaged the Red Dragon became.
But she did not give up.
Grind.
The Red Dragon gritted her teeth and raised her sword once more.
“You still intend to fight with a sword?”
Ak Bulhwi’s face twisted into a frown.
Her skill with the sword was several levels below his.
She was a spirit beast, not a human to begin with.
There was no way she could have learned human swordsmanship.
He had tried to teach her once, but she had stopped at merely knowing that such techniques existed.
In other words, she was now facing him with a skill she was completely unfamiliar with.
“What do you hope to accomplish with such half-baked swordsmanship?”
Doubt crept into his mind.
Why did she insist on using a sword?
He was none other than the leader of Mount Hua.
To challenge him with a sword?
With the Plum Blossom Sword Art, no less?
No, what she was doing couldn't even be called the Plum Blossom Sword Art.
“Half-baked? Your words are hurtful, you know?”
“You wield it without knowing the first thing about the sword of Mount Hua. If that is not half-baked, then what is?”
The Red Dragon was an eccentric.
She had entered Mount Hua, but she did not know Mount Hua.
She was a dragon who had climbed the mountain simply because she liked the name.
She made a mockery of Mount Hua by calling her flame-wielding sword art the Plum Blossom Sword Art.
Swiiiiiish!
This time, Ak Bulhwi struck first.
With every swing of his sword, the faint fragrance of plum blossoms spread through the air.
Plum Blossom Roadside, Plum Blossom Butterfly Dance, Plum Blossom Spitting Charm, Plum Blossom Leading the Way, Plum Blossom Falling Flash, Plum Blossom Falling, Plum Blossom Frequent Scattering, Plum Blossom Blood Rain, Plum Blossom Nine Transformations.
Nine consecutive forms, all aimed at the Red Dragon’s neck, poured out relentlessly.
Pshuk!
The Red Dragon gritted her teeth and continued to block, but the number of small cuts on her body steadily increased.
The Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art, Tenth Form.
Plum Blossom Full Bloom.
Pshwaaaaaak!
Ak Bulhwi’s sword cut deeply into the Red Dragon’s left shoulder.
Even for her, that last attack had been impossible to block.
“Foolish. Even if you nullified the Gu, your body was surely damaged in the process. It is only natural that you cannot withstand my sword.”
It was true that neutralizing the Gu had cost the Red Dragon a fair amount of her internal energy.
If not for that, she would never have allowed such a clean hit.
Fwoosh!
The Red Dragon didn't answer, instead pressing her flames to the wound to cauterize it.
The stench of burning flesh filled the air.
Enduring the pain, the Red Dragon charged at Ak Bulhwi once more.
He couldn't understand her.
The difference in their skill was now glaringly obvious.
In terms of raw power, they were more or less evenly matched.
Though she was injured, the Red Dragon, having reached the level of a mid-tier dragonkin, possessed strength incomparable to that of an ordinary human. Enough to not be pushed back by Ak Bulhwi, one of the ten strongest masters in the world. In terms of sheer firepower, she might even surpass him.
The reason she was losing was that she was fighting him sword to sword.
If she abandoned the sword and fought in a different way, she might have a chance of winning.
The Red Dragon had to know this better than anyone.
And yet, she stubbornly clung to her sword.
KAAAAAAAANG!
Sword met sword once again.
Ak Bulhwi decided it was time to end this fight.
He was just about to execute Plum Blossom Full Bloom again.
Pshwaaak!
A deep gash appeared on Ak Bulhwi’s thigh.
“Keuk!”
He instinctively swung his sword to block the Red Dragon’s advance and hastily retreated.
“Hm? What was that you were saying just now?”
A slight smile played on the Red Dragon’s lips.
Ak Bulhwi couldn't comprehend what had just happened.
The Red Dragon’s sword was fire incarnate.
It possessed the firepower to burn everything, but its movements were too wide to land a decisive blow on a master of his caliber.
And yet, he had been wounded.
Had he been careless?
No, he hadn't.
“Searing my flesh seems to have cleared my head. I couldn't concentrate because I kept thinking about my man.”
Ak Bulhwi glared at the Red Dragon.
It wasn't because of her words.
Nor was it because he had suffered an unexpected injury.
There was only one reason he was so stunned.
The technique she had just used on him was far too familiar.
An attack as natural as a plum blossom falling to the ground.
Like a single petal landing on his body, it was an attack he hadn't even thought to dodge.
“…What sorcery did you use?”
The sword strike just now was unmistakably the Plum Blossom Sword Art.
“You… made a plum blossom bloom?”
It was impossible for the Red Dragon to make a plum blossom bloom.
He could not accept that she, of all people, had managed to do it.
“You, who knows nothing of what a plum blossom is. How dare you, in my presence!”
He became uncharacteristically enraged.
The Red Dragon he knew was a being ignorant of plum blossoms.
A creature who arbitrarily slapped the name ‘Plum Blossom Sword Art’ onto her fire-wielding techniques could not possibly make a true plum blossom bloom.
Ignoring his injury, he thrust his sword with the speed of lightning.
Falling plum blossoms scattered in a chaotic dance.
Plum Blossom Scattering.
Ak Bulhwi’s killing blow flew toward the Red Dragon’s neck.
What is a plum blossom?
Is it only a plum blossom if it blooms a red flower?
Then why does Mount Hua strive to make plum blossoms bloom?
In the first place, plum blossoms do not grow on Mount Hua.
It is nothing but a barren, rocky mountain, with no hot lava, no flowers blooming in profusion.
The sword of Mount Hua is to make plum blossoms bloom where they do not grow, so why would one define it by such a narrow thing?
The essence of the plum blossom was never that.
“How dare youuuuuu!”
The plum blossom is the flower that blooms earliest.
It is the flower that endures the harsh winter and arrives with the first breath of spring.
Therefore, the flower bloomed by the Red Dragon, who had endured her own bitterly cold winter…
Fwoooosh.
…was, without a single shred of doubt, a plum blossom.
Plum Blossom Ten Thousand Li Fragrance.
Pshwaaaaaaaak!
The sword of the dragon who sought fire and ascended Mount Hua, the Mountain of Splendor, now made true plum blossoms bloom, turning it into a true Mountain of Flowers.