Chapter 39
Chapter 39
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 39
Chapter Title: A Needle in the Satchel (10)
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Luckily, things went just as I'd hoped.
No matter how rigid the orthodox sects might be, they weren't the type to draw their swords the moment they saw you. Of course, the gatekeepers had been on high alert when I first showed up.
After I explained the whole situation, one of them nodded in understanding and headed inside to fetch someone. While I waited, I fanned myself nonstop to beat the sweltering heat.
"Tough day in this heat, huh?"
"Thanks for thinking of me, sir."
"How's the academy been lately?"
"Same as always, nothing much changes."
I was just killing time with small talk to pass the moments. Sure, bad blood had brought me here, but I had no reason to turn the entire academy against me.
"Still, this is taking longer than expected."
"Yeah, he should be back by now..."
"My apologies. I kept you waiting."
"...?"
They say even tigers come when you speak of them. No sooner had the words left my mouth than a sturdy-built young man emerged from beyond the gate. He looked to be around twenty-five or so.
The solid presence radiating from his frame marked him as no ordinary man. At least a first-rate expert, if not better. Maybe one of the instructors who trained the students?
That's what I thought, for a fleeting moment—until I spotted the blood on his hands. And in that split second, a thick killing intent flared in the young man's eyes before vanishing just as quickly.
Though it faded in an instant, I could tell it hadn't been aimed at me. It was directed straight at the gatekeeper. What the hell? Why target one of his own academy members?
Questions flooded my mind, but before I could dwell on them, my body had already moved. My hand shot to my waist, drawing the sword I'd sheathed there. Boom!! A thunderous explosion rocked the gate.
Death had brushed right past him, yet the gatekeeper merely blinked in stunned silence at the scene before him. Even so, my mind raced at full speed.
"Not coming for me, but the gatekeeper instead. And blood on his hands... Looks like the one who went inside first is already dead."
"Sharp as ever. Then again, that's how you survived this long."
"I've got the gist."
The sudden ambush threw me off, but I quickly pieced together what this guy was after. The reason he'd zeroed in on the gatekeeper, ignoring me.
"Trying to frame me, huh?"
"It's no frame job. It's the truth."
"You're out of your mind. But your plan's already failed."
"You really believe that?"
It was a bold scheme, one that could've put me in a real bind if it had worked. But I'd stopped it cold, so no harm done—or so I thought, until I sensed killing intent closing in from all sides.
"Assassins planted in the academy? You're truly insane."
"Preparation prevents regret. Cover all your bases, and there are no loose ends."
"......"
It felt like a hammer blow to the back of my skull. Stationing killers amid young students? The sheer madness. And the savage inner energy surging wildly around them.
"You lot... from the Demonic Cult."
"Piercing right through our identities at a glance. The Sword Demon's reputation is well-earned."
What the hell? Who's the Sword Demon?
They'd clearly mistaken me for someone else, but now wasn't the time to correct them. The killing intent had shifted past the gatekeeper and onto me.
"All at once... That's the play?"
"I don't expect this bunch to finish you off."
"Then what?"
"At least it'll guarantee the gatekeeper and I buy it. You'll be the madman who stormed the academy in broad daylight and slaughtered the gatekeeper and an instructor."
"Sacrificing your own life? You're certifiable."
I knew their brains were pickled in madness, but I never imagined they'd stake their own lives as collateral. The man said nothing more.
But as the killing intent intensified, it was clear they'd finished their setup. In this do-or-die moment, for some reason, the old man's teachings flashed through my mind once more.
[Seeing once is worth a hundred hearings. You must fully absorb an opponent's techniques and principles after experiencing them just once. That is...]
"The mark of a Sword Demon, the immovability I chose."
"What nonsense is...?!"
For the first time, I recalled my arch-rival from that life-or-death duel. A monster devoured by demonic arts, yet whose power was undeniably real. I remembered his sword aura and recreated it here and now.
Rain becomes a stream, the stream a river, and the river flows at last into the vast sea.
The dragon, having cycled through it all and grown, departs the sea, ascends to the heavens, and brings forth rain.
Dragon Stream Sword Art.
The all-encompassing sword aura of offense and defense manifested once more in this place.
Sword Demon.
The martial world remembered him merely as a monster who indiscriminately slaughtered orthodox sect members. But in truth, he hadn't been indiscriminate at all.
He was the only warrior who first detected the Demonic Cult's schemes and moved against them. Had he truly been a blood-mad butcher, he'd have massacred innocent commoners too.
Yet the Sword Demon methodically eliminated only those tied to the Demonic Cult—not on mere suspicion, but with eerie precision, killing those who belonged to it or had defected to it.
Over seventy percent of the Cult's forces fell to his blade alone, damage they still hadn't fully recovered from, even decades later.
The Cult's original plan had been to boldly reveal themselves and spread their doctrine across the world. But the Sword Demon forced them to revise it.
'His feats and prowess are undeniable. A monster who pushed back that one's plans by decades...'
Yi Kanghui himself was a genius who'd reached first-rate at twenty-five. Yet even he was overwhelmed by the Sword Demon's legend.
Raised within the Demonic Cult, he knew of the terrifying powerhouses there—fierce warriors he could never hope to touch. The Cult followed a strict law of strength.
The strong rose to the top through survival of the fittest; the weak were culled. Today's peace-drenched martial world, playing at games, was no match.
[With the Demonic Cult's current power, couldn't we conquer the martial world and establish a new order?]
[Impossible to say.]
[Why?]
[We haven't confirmed the Sword Demon's corpse.]
As mentioned, the Cult adhered rigidly to the logic of power. Admitting this meant acknowledging the Sword Demon's strength in driving them into hiding.
So they bided their time, lurking in the shadows, building their might for the day they could overpower him or any equal threat.
[Power isn't just brute force in battle. Using people in the right places and turning enemies to your advantage—that's power too.]
[Weak excuses. Think the Cult will buy that trickery?]
[That 'trickery' is what drove out the Sword Demon. History holds no future for the ignorant who ignore their lessons.]
Before the Sword Demon, such words would have fallen on deaf ears. But they'd inflicted a fatal wound through a joint assault exploiting the orthodox sects.
Unable to deny it, the Cult infiltrated both orthodox and unorthodox factions, using them as tools. To prepare for the Sword Demon's possible return.
Yi Kanghui, swayed by the Cult's worship of strength, still recognized the need. Lately, he'd grown even more convinced.
'Even for the Cult's sake... the Sword Demon dies here and now.'
For that, he'd gladly give his life—to repay those who'd taken in and trusted an abandoned bastard like him.
'Good thing I planted those extra assassins just in case. The old man's instincts were too sharp, so I could only prepare the top three... But this should suffice.'
Three elite assassins who could conceal their presence even from peak experts—the Cult's best. Plus Yi Kanghui himself, first-rate at twenty-five.
He didn't think this force alone could kill the Sword Demon. But sacrificing his life would create an opening to frame him.
That's what he'd thought.
Until he witnessed that blazing blue sword aura deflect all the assassins' hidden weapons. In a single strike. Just one swing.
The Cult's painstakingly nurtured killers—three of them, not one—lost their lives to their own thrown darts.
[The Sword Demon was the strongest foe the Demonic Cult ever faced.]
[We must be cautious above all. He might still live.]
[For us, outmatched in raw power, there's only one path.]
'So that's why the Cult feared him so much.'
A might that shattered all preconceptions of strength, near omnipotent. As the sword aura closed in before his eyes, Yi Kanghui's consciousness faded to black.