Chapter 23
I crossed the night sky on Sodam’s lead.
With light-footed movement powering my body, I wrapped myself in wind and shot forward as fast as a phoenix in flight.
For some reason, I feel like I’ve spent way too much time on skywalks today.
It was like I’d been running across the heavens for the umpteenth time because the author had completely botched the chapter length—
Wait, no. Focus.
Even in this situation, he’s still not leaving the mountain.
That monster—no, that guy—was heading for the summit, isolating himself even when the smart move was to run.
It wasn’t like some Maseok spirit had possessed him, so the only thing left to assume was...
“There’s something there.”
Something he couldn’t afford to leave behind, even with an enemy chasing him who might not be killable—or even beatable.
As I passed over the treetops, I stepped on a branch with the technique of Leaping Through the Air and vaulted higher.
“Hwah—!”
In one breath, I jumped nearly fifty meters, and Mount Mui spread out beneath me at a glance.
I sharpened my vision and surveyed the mountain.
I could see the Taeho Sect’s surviving stragglers—those who had barely lived thanks to the swarm of vassals I’d thrown at them.
They were either hiding deep in the mountain or fleeing down its slopes.
Their numbers had already shrunk a great deal compared to when they’d first left Gangneung.
That’s not the important part right now.
Just as I was about to share sight with Sodam, who was scanning the area while falling gracefully through the air, I felt it.
“!?”
A massive flow of qi surged through my senses.
“Don’t tell me... it’s the mountain’s energy?”
Something that large wasn’t the sort of thing a single person could possess.
“Kki-eek!”
Then Sodam sent over its shared vision, clearly telling me to look at this directly.
When my sight switched to Sodam’s, qi became visible as though it had been drawn in lines.
It was one of the White-Headed Heavenly Awakening Eagle’s abilities—the power to see what ordinary eyes could never catch.
Just as I’d felt, the mountain’s natural qi was flowing toward one place—no, being sucked in there.
Those strands of natural qi should have been spread widely across the whole mountain, and yet here they were, all converging like this.
The blatant abnormality made my face harden without me even noticing.
From experience, whenever qi moved on this kind of scale, it meant something seriously bad was about to happen.
And there was another oddity.
“There’s yin qi and demonic energy mixed into the natural qi.”
The natural qi was in no normal state.
I looked toward the point where the qi gathered near the summit.
“So that’s where it was going. To the dragon vein.”
There, beyond the natural qi, I could sense two other currents of energy.
No, wait.
“Two?”
That blood-red mass growing at a ridiculous rate had to belong to the vampire who’d run away, but what the hell was that other black thing?
So it hadn’t been alone?
Between Sodam’s vision and my own qi sense, both of them felt equally alien.
“So that bastard isn’t human either.”
Wooooom—!!
Then a burst of qi exploded from the dragon vein.
“!?”
The vampire’s qi, after swallowing the mountain’s natural energy, began to merge with the unknown presence.
“Sodam! Get back!”
Seeing that, Geom Mujin shouted at Sodam and kicked off empty air.
Wind-Phoenix Wandering Divine Dance.
Swift Empty-Stepping.
Bang, bang, bang—!!
He raced toward the dragon vein, stepping through the air at a speed that made everything before look like a joke.
His expression had turned utterly grave.
That burst of qi had sent a warning signal.
Not the signal of some wandering swordsman, but of one of the Seven Martial Stars’ great swordmasters.
That was how dangerous he judged the fusion to be.
Six Extremes Sword Nether Art.
First Extreme.
Sword Qi Hurts Men.
Red sword qi coiled around the blade.
Chwhaaaak—!
But it didn’t stop there; the sword qi stretched longer and longer, like a Ruyi Jingu Bang.
Mujin Sword Style.
Burning Demon Sword.
Immortal Current Slash.
Geom Mujin swung the sword qi, now long enough to kill a dragon, and unleashed a cleaving strike.
When the red flash of light blinked out, a huge sword scar had been carved into the summit of Mount Mui.
The Taeho Sect disciples left on the mountain fell silent at the sight.
* * *
After sending out the sword qi, Geom Mujin landed lightly where the cave had once been and waved his hand.
Whoooosh—!
The dust that had filled the surroundings was swept aside in an instant.
“Don’t hide. Come out.”
As the drifting dust thinned, Geom Mujin fixed his gaze on one spot and said, “Come on out.”
At those words, the blood-black mist moved.
Ssssss—
Something within the hemisphere-shaped fog rose to its feet.
I couldn’t see the inside any better than before, but I knew.
That was the vampire I’d been fighting.
“You’ve changed a lot in the short time I didn’t see you.”
Setting the color of the mist aside, I clicked my tongue inwardly as I felt the starkly altered presence.
Tch. So I’m already a step late.
They’d been a little too far away, which had delayed me just enough to fail to stop the fusion.
The two had merged, and now the result stood right before me.
“We should start Round Two, right!?”
“.....”
Apparently thinking the same thing, the vampire attacked the instant I finished speaking.
As the mist spiraled, blades flooded out until they filled my entire field of view.
I used my footwork to dodge them.
Slash—! Sshk—! Crunch—!
The blades that missed went on to slice through the trees and rocks behind me as neatly as if they were cutting tofu.
Even though the attack had failed, the vampire didn’t stop.
As expected of the bastard who’d absorbed the mountain’s natural qi.
He rained down slashes over a wide area like a K2 on full-auto.
Clang, clang, clang—! Clang—!
Anything I couldn’t avoid with footwork, I knocked away with my sword.
...There are a lot of blades, but that’s about it.
He hadn’t adjusted yet to the sudden surge in power; his attacks were still blunt and repetitive.
That, however, was only true for Geom Mujin.
The blades, hurled faster than arrows, were so dangerous that even a peak expert would end up in chunks if they made one careless mistake.
Not everyone could receive attacks like that as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
In that case, I won’t give him time to adapt.
I shifted my grip on the sword.
Mujin Sword Style.
Morning-Tiger Sword.
Dragon-Tiger Play, Attract.
An attractive force formed around the sword body.
Fwoosh—!
Using my right foot as the pivot, Geom Mujin spun his body.
As the blade traced a circle with his turning body, the incoming blades climbed onto that path and had their course forcibly redirected.
Clang, clang, clang—!!
The blades that had been sent back the way they came collided with the blades following behind them.
At that moment, a path opened between Geom Mujin and the vampire.
Now!
With both legs reinforced by internal energy, Geom Mujin shot forward like an arrow.
The vampire sank mist into the ground.
Fapapapap—!
In response, spikes sprouted from the earth.
“Hup!”
With one sweep of my sword, all the spikes were cut down at once.
With the road cleared, I charged straight at him.
I’m not trying to kill him.
My instincts had sent me warning signals, sure, but my policy was still to take him alive.
I looked at the billowing blood-black mist.
The blades he’s throwing are made from that mist.
And I’d already measured its density while deflecting those blades.
They hadn’t been cut even by a sword wrapped in sword qi; they’d just bounced off.
Sword qi won’t be enough.
If the mist had been strengthened, that meant the armor protecting the bastard had been strengthened too.
Six Extremes Sword Nether Art.
Second Extreme.
Sword Qi Becomes Gang.
The sword qi, which had seemed liquid or gaseous before, took on form like crystals holding starlight.
First, I’ll strip away this mist!
As I swung the sword and cut through the fog,
Clang—!
It stopped halfway with a shower of sparks.
“!”
The sensation of the blade being blocked made Geom Mujin’s brow twitch.
There’s something in there.
The feeling transmitted through the sword body was unmistakable.
It was the same sensation he’d experienced tens of thousands of times since arriving in the Murim.
What had just happened was the feeling of sword meeting sword.
He was the man who had once split through an iron-clad demon beast whose whole body was armored in steel and killed it with a single slash.
Even if he’d been holding back for the sake of capture, for his sword to be stopped like that...
How long had it been since that last happened?
Huu—fuu—
Without realizing it, his breathing had turned rough.
But even so, his mind was already analyzing the situation.
This isn’t being blocked by technique. It’s being blocked by the sword itself.
He wanted to find out what the thing really was, but the blade was wrapped in blood-black mist, so its shape wouldn’t show.
“What, is this some sword that promises victory?”
That sort of nonsense was reserved for the knight queen who ruled the island kingdoms of those Western barbarians.
And even then, that story ended in failure...
Just as he was about to keep the sword attached until the weapon dropped from his opponent’s hand, the vampire—no, the black sword controlling it—curved its eyes in a slow, knowing grin.
The black sword knew.
It knew that this monster, for reasons unknown, wanted to take its tool alive.
So it waited.
It waited for the moment he’d draw near again, once more holding back so he could capture it.
Kwaaaaang—!!
Qi burst from the sword in a single violent release.
“Kkh—!”
The cold that sank to my bones drew a suppressed groan from Geom Mujin’s mouth.
“What kind of yin qi is this...!”
People often say women are born with yin and men with yang, but that only means one side tends to be stronger in proportion.
There are individual differences, sure, but everyone is born with both yin and yang.
This was far beyond simply “having a lot of yin qi.” It was enough to be called extreme yin without exaggeration.
The moment that extreme yin was released, the surrounding area began to freeze over.
Then the vampire’s stance changed.
“That’s...”
Seeing the posture through the mist, Geom Mujin’s eyes flashed.
It was similar to the stance he himself had taken when firing sword qi from the air.
“Still sloppy, though.”
Just as he was about to show the imitation what the real thing looked like, the yin qi scattered around him twisted into something handlike and grabbed his ankle.
“Tricks like that.”
But something like this didn’t even take three seconds to cut through.
Slash—flash—!
The scarlet starlight of the swinging sword gang sparkled.
That starlight stirred, if only for an instant, a tiny mind that had been asleep where no one could notice it.
-......
The small mind squeezed out every last bit of strength and whispered in a tiny voice.
“.....!”
And that voice reached someone.
But because of that, he missed the timing for a counterattack.
The vampire seized the opening. The mist on its sword body whirled together instantly, and it swung the sword without hesitation.
Chajajajaja—!!
A storm of blades packed with yin qi swept across the front.
The storm ground apart everything standing in its path.
* * *
The vampire looked ahead.
Most of the area had been turned to ruins, but one thing remained intact.
It was the man sprawled on the ground before him—Geom Mujin.
Geom Mujin didn’t lose his form even inside the storm of blades.
Somehow, deep mist had spread all around, and within it, the yin qi slowly took shape and rose.
Sssssss—
Its long, massive body made it look like a serpent.
The incarnate form of yin qi glared down at Geom Mujin with dark, glinting eyes.
When he’d been alive, he’d been an irritating enemy worthy of being called a monster, but now that he was dead, there was no more tempting prey.
Chwaaaak—!
Smacking its lips, the yin qi opened its maw wide.
The inside was darker and colder than the deepest sea.
Just as the yin qi was about to swallow Geom Mujin whole—
“Yeah, sure.”
He answered in that same tiny voice.
Slash—!
A red line cut through the yin qi’s tongue.
Sasasasasa—!!
The yin qi thrashed in agony.
Every time its enormous body pounded the ground, the earth split apart and froze over.
“You’re a rude one.”
Meanwhile, the man who had never let go of the sword in his hand stood up, swinging it as he muttered, “Your type isn’t nearly rich enough to be eating this body.”
Kishaaaaaa—!!
Where the yin qi’s eyes flared as though it meant to devour him on the spot, Geom Mujin’s gaze sank cold and still.
“Especially for a parasite clinging to someone else’s body.”
He raised his sword.
The tip pointed at the yin qi, and his eyes looked beyond it.