Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Elder, Let's Do One Thing Together (4)
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- I'm a sword?! I'm a sword?!
The master, opening his eyes within Regret, wailed as if he were a teacher at a mental hospital who had just awakened.
But there was no time right now for proper comfort or explanations.
'This place is about to collapse.'
And rightly so.
The aftermath of the formation laid in the stone chamber disappearing was no small matter, and on top of that, the waves of energy from the master dwelling in my sword kept surging one after another.
Because of that, the few corpses that had miraculously made it here intact from the traps and mechanisms ahead became the first sacrifices to the blast, their souls and flesh scattering.
Now, even this ancient tomb of indeterminable age was beginning to crumble.
'In the original story, the tomb didn't collapse, so the Demonic Cult's fiends invaded right away, leading into the next part.'
Hmm, wait.
Now that I've become a direct disciple of the Sword Demon, should I call those fiends "rabble" instead of "demons"?
Anyway.
That wasn't important right now—the situation was turning critical.
I urgently opened my mouth.
"As you can see, this place is about to collapse. For now, just know you've entered the sword, and I'll explain the details shortly. Master."
With that, I quickly sheathed the roaring master at my waist.
- You brat! You braaaat!
In truth, I could understand the master's outburst.
What kind of Japanese light novel title was this? "About How I, the World's Greatest Swordsman, Became an Actual Sword..."
But what could he do?
The master had literally become a sword, and I held the hilt.
Shing—
When I slid it into the scabbard.
Click—
He had no choice but to go in.
- ...Hmph! Fine, I'll wait a moment! But you'd better prepare a proper explanation! You disciple!
Having thus stowed the master away, I turned from the innermost stone chamber and began heading back out as the tomb started crumbling with thud-thud-thud sounds.
"Step here."
Unlike when we entered, the paths out had no vanguard scouts left due to losing the corpses to the various aftershocks, but it didn't matter.
"Jump over this in one go."
I had memorized the mechanisms and traps of the tomb on the way in.
Thus, I could dash through the tomb's paths like lightning.
Rumble!
Roooar!
"?!"
Of course, not everything went exactly as I planned.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
As the entire tomb collapsed, the pressure from the surging earth and sand twisted the mechanisms and traps, firing from completely unexpected directions at times.
But I always moved anticipating the worst-case scenario, so I had expected such mishaps.
Moreover, the mechanisms and traps weren't launching in perfect condition, halving their power.
"This is a piece of cake!"
I handled even the deviated mechanisms and traps without issue.
Soon, I reached the tomb's edge, where the foul outside air seeped in.
Crossing the entrance I'd made like a sprinter breaking the finish line.
Boom! Crash!
Roooar!
The entire tomb collapsed as if possessed.
Not long after, dawn breaking in the distance came into view.
"!"
Gazing at the intense red glow heralding morning after a long, perilous night, I let out a sigh of relief and muttered,
"If I'd delayed even a little longer, it would've been real trouble. But in the end, it all worked out, right?"
I'd become the Sword Demon elder's disciple,
And escaped unscathed amid the total collapse.
It was heartbreaking that a ruin(?) from the novel had crumbled.
But the tomb's destruction was something I welcomed.
'Even if someone comes snooping around, with it in that state, they won't find traces I was here.'
Thus, no one would connect the Sword Demon's legacy to me until I revealed it.
But a rebuttal flew from my waist.
- Worked out? What worked out?! Now give me that proper explanation you promised earlier! What in the world is going on?!
"...Uh. Well, Master, it's like this..."
That is...
- Yeah. Explain what "it's like this" means.
"Um, well, Master."
- ...If you flip it to "Sword Demon" or some nonsense again, I'll cut out your tongue.
Good grief.
I hold the hilt—how exactly are you going to cut out my tongue, Master?
But the old saying goes not to step on your master's shadow, and he's furious right now, so no need to say that.
"...How about thinking of it this way? Recall the realm at the end of the sword's path, where man and sword truly become one—Sword and Body as One, reaching the divine state of Shin-geom Hap-il...?"
- Damn it all.
"No, Master. You said you'd pull out my tongue earlier, now it's 'damn it'? Aren't you treating your one and only lovable disciple too harshly?!"
- You brat! Do I look in the mood to hold back?!
"Not sure about holding back. But you do look like you'd slice nicely."
- ?
"?"
- What did you just say? Say it again.
"Ah! But Master, before the explanation, there was something urgent I had to do earlier, and it just hit me now?!"
- Is there anything more important than this right now?! You brat! You brat!
'The old saying goes to avoid sudden downpours.'
I had things to say to my master.
'What choice did I have in that situation?'
It nearly became the day the Heaven-Splitting Sword Sect fell, but I averted it with ingenuity—so really, the master should praise me, not rage.
'With just the master's lingering soul and me as disciple in this sect of two, if I tried forcing him into my body and fell to qi deviation, that'd be the end. What other way to fall?'
Ah, of course, the psychological repulsion of becoming an inanimate object—especially a tool he once wielded—being swung by his disciple is natural.
But objectively, offering space in my soul or entering the sword isn't much different.
No, entering the sword might even be better depending on the situation.
The master was angry now, but he'd understand in time.
Anyway, saying I had urgent business was partly to dodge his wrath for about thirty percent.
But it was true—I did have something to do.
"Not super urgent, but it needs doing."
Nothing major.
I had to hold a ritual to appease the spirits I'd summoned to find the master.
"I promised and used them, after all."
Pausing the back-and-forth with the master, I skipped rest and prepared the rite.
Grand as "requiem" sounds, for me it was simple.
Just keep the promise made with the corpses earlier.
I pulled bricks from the collapsed tomb, stacked them squarely, covered with cloth for an altar.
Roughly shaped nearby wood into crude bowls; by then, day had fully broken.
"Altar and bowls done. Now, fetch offerings for the top?"
Heading to Lake Tai's riverside, diligent merchants were already prepping the morning market.
From the stalls, I bought carp and beef the spirits mentioned craving in life, sweets to chew, and the promised silk, piling them generously on the wooden vessels.
"Now, just the spirit tablets left."
Important, but not hard.
Write the helping spirits' names on stiff paper.
Thus, I inscribed common names: so-and-so of the Jang family, Wang family, Oh family.
The spirits' gratitude transmitted through the paper.
But proper thanks balance the scales.
Grateful myself, I spoke.
"Thank you too. Thanks to you, I forged a bond with my master."
Exchanging farewells, I burned the name papers, silk, and paper money.
The tomb's murky death qi vanished like ghosts.
All but one ghost spoke from my waist.
- Watching quietly, you know how to do something admirable. Appeasing poor souls with no ties?
"Don't say it like I did a good deed. Less appeasing, more using hands for finding Master and paying the promised price."
- Hmph. I've seen your sorcery firsthand—no need to downplay. In life, I saw countless long-nosed shamans, but none treated spirits like this.
Hmm.
A slight misunderstanding...
This black magic just guzzles soul fuel, so this method saves...
- If I hadn't met my master by fate, I'd be one of those spirits.
Well, Master's anger cooled; let it slide...?
"Think what you will, Master."
Not a lie, since I said think freely?
How long was the master lost in sentiment?
He finally spoke after silence.
- No techniques taught, yet you keep calling me master—it's embarrassing. What now?
"Um. Just teach me? Ah! Should I formally request discipleship with rites?"
- Those formalities sufficed when we bonded; I'd rather skip, but did it thinking of my master.
"Then?"
- In this state, sword forms and footwork have limits! Even genius won't bridge hearing vs. seeing. "Seeing once beats hearing a hundred times"—not an empty saying.
True enough.
But no issue.
"Ah, that's fine. Once your soul settles in the sword, astral projection... er, sword projection?
- ?
"...Anyway, you can manifest. Until then, make do. Heart methods via oral formulas first?"
- Hmm, but teaching the heart method has issues.
"Pardon? You didn't memorize the formulas...?"
- Grab wha...? Not my problem—yours! Yours!!!
Eh?
Mine?
- Yes! Looks like you had the ablution as a child... but then abused your body? Impure qi clogs your meridians wildly. If rolling like that, better skip ablution. Blockages block, openings open—wouldn't be this mess.
Ah, past Yong-un grabs my ankle again.
- And soul-flesh balance oddly twisted? Died and revived?
Hmm.
From my possession?
Solution matters.
"Then what? If your sole disciple's body is wrecked, Heaven-Splitting Sword Sect closes today?"
- ...Who talks of closing?! Ngh... Headache. Our sect's elixir, Manbak Heart-Protecting Pill, would fix it, but tomb's wrecked... Need equivalent spirit medicine. Argh... With a body, I'd beat Shaolin monks or Wudang long-noses for Great Reversion Pill or Supreme Purity Pill...
Wait—Manbak Heart-Protecting Pill?
That mysterious elixir from the original, origin of late-game demonic great pill, found in master's slumbering tomb?
Of course I grabbed it on the way in.
"By any chance, this Manbak Heart-Protecting Pill?"
- Yes! With that...! Eh...? Why's that coming from there...?