162
Chapter 162: This Frontline Ends Today.
A purple light flickered before their eyes.
The martial artist from the Paewangseong gritted his teeth and swung his axe to split the dazzling light.
Shatter!
The axe, imbued with extreme internal energy, shattered effortlessly, and a gaping hole opened in the chest of the martial artist who had swung it.
The beam of light that had cleanly pierced his chest shot straight toward the other martial artists of the Paewangseong behind him.
The light showed no intention of stopping, and the number of fallen warriors from the Paewangseong only grew.
"Guhk!"
"Eek! Run away!"
The purple sword light filled their vision.
Every time the purple light flashed, the martial artists before it sprayed blood and collapsed to the ground.
If it had been some specific master slaughtering the warriors of the Paewangseong, it might have been somewhat bearable. At least then, the warriors would have charged in, ready to die.
But the culprit who had already slaughtered three martial forces was none other than a single sword flying alone.
Like a streak of light, it crossed through space, cutting down anything in its path—be it weapons or people—without discrimination.
Terrified by its dreadful power, the warriors of the Paewangseong lost all will to fight.
"This is insane!"
Hearing the reports from his subordinates, the First King Lord, who had rushed to the scene, let out a curse.
Even the First King Lord clearly witnessed the single sword that had turned the encampment into ruins.
When he saw the Sim-myeong Sword, trailing a purple light like a meteor in the sky, the First King Lord was shocked.
"Sword Flight by Qi!"
When the subtlety of the intangible sword, usually confined to the limbs, is extended to the entire body, unifying natural energy and will into one, it achieves the state of Body and Sword as One.
Body and Sword as One is a new horizon of swordsmanship.
Sword Flight by Qi and Heart Sword—these are the legendary martial arts that all swordsmen dream of, and the starting point to enter that realm is Body and Sword as One.
Some amateurs might say that Sword Flight by Qi is no different from telekinesis, where the sword moves on its own, but that only proves their ignorance.
The most terrifying aspect of Sword Flight by Qi lies in its freedom.
A sword moves by the swordsman's hands.
The length of the arms, the strength of the muscles and bones, and the precision of the nerves controlling the body's movements all determine the sword's path, making it vastly different yet extremely limited.
No matter how much one trains their body, there is a limit to the range of human movement.
But Sword Flight by Qi transcends the swordsman's hands, moving as if alive on its own.
Breaking free from the limitations of sword techniques performed with two hands, even the same stance or slash can be interpreted entirely differently and executed freely.
It also escapes the inherent advantages and disadvantages of weapons based on distance and length.
'Even now. The Hwasan Sword Saint is toying with the warriors of the Paewangseong without even showing himself.'
Depending on the situation, wielding the sword directly might be better, but there was no denying that Sword Flight by Qi was a realm of swordsmanship that stood at the pinnacle of mastery.
Experiencing Sword Flight by Qi firsthand, something he had only known in theory, doubled his fear and even evoked a sense of awe.
The First King Lord bit his lip until it bled, then roughly drew his sword.
Staring at the Sim-myeong Sword floating high in the sky, wrapped in purple sword energy, the First King Lord shouted:
"Come out! Hwasan Sword Saint!"
"Alright. I’m out. What now?"
Mu Hwi revealed himself at the same time as he answered the shout.
Seeing Mu Hwi suddenly appear in the middle of the open plain as if he had sprung from the sky, the First King Lord sucked in a breath.
It made sense that even he, a supreme master, couldn’t sense Mu Hwi’s movements at all.
But the aura surrounding Mu Hwi made the First King Lord’s heart pound as if it would burst.
There was no oppressive or lofty energy befitting an absolute master like the Ghost Whip King of the Five Armies or the Poison Dragon of Sacheon.
Instead, Mu Hwi emitted no energy at all, like an ordinary man who had never learned martial arts.
'But how is this possible?!'
The First King Lord’s tightly clenched fists were drenched in sweat.
"You were so desperate to find me, yet now you have no reaction? Come. The Hwasan Sword Saint you were looking for is right here."
Though Mu Hwi sneered as he spoke, the First King Lord couldn’t move a single step.
Even the slightest movement of Mu Hwi’s fingers, or the way his hair fluttered in the wind, filled the First King Lord with an overwhelming fear of death.
It felt as if invisible blades were piercing his entire body just from Mu Hwi’s gaze.
The Hwasan Sword Saint before him seemed to have become a living sword—an extremely sharp, legendary blade that could cut anything.
"Kgh..."
Unnoticed, a trail of bright red blood trickled down the First King Lord’s jawline.
"As expected of the First King Lord. Your instincts are sharp."
Mu Hwi curled his lips as he looked at the surviving warriors of the Paewangseong gathered around the First King Lord.
"The First King Unit. And five martial forces of the Paewangseong."
If these troops joined the fierce battle at the frontline in Cheongseong, the tide of war would undoubtedly turn for the worse.
Though no killing intent flowed from him, the First King Lord noticed the chilling glint in Mu Hwi’s eyes and hastily spoke.
"Three martial forces have already been annihilated. More than half of our forces are dead. We’ve lost. We won’t join the Cheongseong frontline and will retreat here."
The First King Lord gritted his teeth.
The Seven Great Swords of the Paewangseong were the elite martial forces of the Paewangseong.
Among them, the First King Unit, alongside the Five Armies, symbolized the martial might of the Castle.
As the leader of such a force, admitting defeat and retreating was the greatest humiliation.
At the First King Lord’s words, Mu Hwi’s smile deepened.
"Who said I’d let you leave? You’re out of your mind."
Mu Hwi’s hand, holding a sword command seal, lightly lowered.
Boom!
The Sim-myeong Sword, floating in the air, plunged down like lightning and embedded itself in the ground right before Mu Hwi’s feet.
Watching Mu Hwi slowly reach for the Sim-myeong Sword, the First King Lord asked with a stiff face:
"Will you slaughter enemies who have given up the fight and are fleeing? For a righteous Taoist, you seem to enjoy bloodshed too much."
Mu Hwi laughed mockingly.
"You vermin. You turned all of Sacheon into a bloodbath, yet you expect to run and live?"
The atmosphere around them began to change.
With every word Mu Hwi spoke, tearing through the air, the wind felt as sharp and stinging as a blade.
"If you thought I was just another righteous martial artist, you misjudged me."
Other righteous sects or the Martial Alliance might have let them go.
They wouldn’t force the slaughter of fleeing enemies who had lost their will to fight.
But Mu Hwi was different.
Mu Hwi valued practicality.
Though the Five Armies of the Paewangseong had been crushed, the Castle itself remained a powerful force. Even without the Five Armies, the Seven Great Swords of the Paewangseong were pressuring the Sacheon Alliance Union—proof enough.
So even if the conflict settled temporarily, there was no telling when it would flare up again.
Mu Hwi felt the need to completely break the Paewangseong’s momentum this time.
"That way, there’ll be no trouble later."
Though he was called the Hwasan Sword Saint in the righteous sect, the identity of the Sword Devil, once known as the First Sword of the Evil Path in his past life, still remained.
An opportunity like today was rare.
Mu Hwi intended to use this chance to clean up thoroughly.
Whoooosh!
The clear sword cry of the Sim-myeong Sword.
But to the warriors of the Paewangseong, that beautiful sound was the eerie wail of a ghost announcing their death.
As the Sim-myeong Sword left Mu Hwi’s hand and soared into the sky again, the First King Lord roared.
"Hwasan Sword Saint!"
Refusing to die quietly, the First King Lord lunged like lightning—a movement worthy of a master leading the First King Unit.
Clang!
But before he could strike, Dokgo Yul blocked his path.
"Ghostblade! You’re alive too!"
Recognizing Dokgo Yul instantly, the First King Lord twisted his body, gathering dense sword energy as he aimed for Dokgo Yul’s shoulder.
But Dokgo Yul lightly swung the Ghost Eternal Sword diagonally, deflecting the First King Lord’s blade.
"Kgh!"
Pushed back by the terrifying sword force, the First King Lord stared at Dokgo Yul in shock.
A large shadow fell over the First King Lord’s face as Dokgo Yul leaped into the air and slashed vertically with the Ghost Eternal Sword.
Crash!
The First King Lord’s feet dug into the ground as he blocked the Ghost Eternal Sword.
'How has this bastard grown so strong?!'
Panicked, the First King Lord tilted his sword to deflect the slash.
Kwaaaang!
Mu Hwi cut off his attention toward the First King Lord and focused on Sword Flight by Qi with the hand holding the sword command seal.
In a way, Sword Flight by Qi was a realm that shed the constraints of sword techniques.
Transcending all standards and limitations, Sword Flight by Qi danced in the realm of the absolute, allowing swordsmen to walk a new path of swordsmanship.
Sizzle!
"Gaaah!"
"Dammit! How do we fight that?!"
The Sim-myeong Sword, freely drawing sword paths according to Mu Hwi’s gestures, was nothing short of a disaster for the warriors of the Paewangseong.
Countless plum blossoms bloomed in the air, regardless of distance. Like petals scattering in the spring breeze, sword-energy petals covered the plains.
At the tip of Mu Hwi’s sword command seal, the Purple Sunset Divine Energy burned like flames.
'For now, Hand-Guided Sword Flight is my limit.'
Hand-Guided Sword Flight (手馭劍)—controlling Sword Flight by Qi with the hand.
If he reached Heart-Guided Sword Flight (心馭劍), the realm where the sword moved by the heart, he wouldn’t need to move the sword command seal like this.
Then, with both hands free while using Sword Flight by Qi, he could perform other martial arts and even challenge the Heart Sword.
'Even after reaching the peak of the absolute, I see there are higher peaks.'
Yet, Mu Hwi didn’t look weary—instead, his face was filled with amusement. The endless horizons of martial arts only fueled his passion further.
'The Three Seats. And the Black Heaven.'
If these absolute masters had once felt impossibly distant, now they didn’t seem so far away.
'I can do it.'
A larger purple flame began to bloom in Mu Hwi’s hand, gripping the sword command seal.
***
With the fall of the Qingcheng Sect, the Sacheon Alliance’s main frontline was reorganized around Cheongseong, where the Sacheon Tang Family was based.
After facing the Paewangseong at Chamdan, the Hwasan Sword Saint and the leader of the Dokgo Association went missing, while the Baekri Family Sword King, who had come to reinforce Sacheon, died in battle.
Despite the consecutive bad news, the Sacheon Alliance's morale didn’t waver. Instead, they burned with vengeance as they fought the Paewangseong.
Among them, the Plum Blossom Swordsmen and the Dokgo Association were especially relentless in pushing back the Paewangseong.
Always at the forefront of battle, they crushed the warriors of the Paewangseong and advanced the frontline—all to reach Chamdan and find Mu Hwi and Dokgo Yul.
"Kgh!"
The Second King Lord dropped his halberd, split in half, and clutched his chest.
Though he quickly sealed his acupoints, the wound was too deep, and the bleeding wouldn’t stop.
"How dare you!"
The Second King Lord glared, but Mujin’s eyes, having slashed his chest, were icy cold.
"Today, we will annihilate the Second King Unit and break through the Paewangseong’s lines."
"Hmph. Even if you do, do you think your dead Sword Saint will come back to life? You’d be lucky to find his corpse at the bottom of the cliff."
Mujin didn’t respond to the Second King Lord’s laughter. Instead, the purple sword energy on his Plum Blossom Sword surged like flames.
After hearing of Mu Hwi’s fate, Mujin had cut down countless masters of the Paewangseong to reach Chamdan. In doing so, he shattered the peak barrier and ascended to the supreme master realm.
With that growth, Mujin had defeated the Second King Lord—an enemy he shouldn’t have been able to beat—driven solely by his determination to find Mu Hwi.
"The Senior Disciple is alive."
With those final words, Mujin beheaded the Second King Lord without hesitation.
Then, he turned around.
Not just the Second King Lord—the entire Second King Unit was being torn apart by the Plum Blossom Swordsmen.
Having come to Sacheon, the Plum Blossom Swordsmen had faced only the elite Seven Great Swords of the Paewangseong.
One by one, they crushed the Seven Great Swords, to the point where the Seven Great Swords now avoided them.
The reputation of the Plum Blossom Swordsmen soared to the heavens in Sacheon.
Slice!
Mu-hwa pierced the hearts of two Paewangseong warriors attempting a pincer attack almost simultaneously. Her sword carried more killing intent than ever before.
And it wasn’t just her—the eyes of all the Plum Blossom Swordsmen were filled with a ghostly aura.
Already growing rapidly, the news of Mu Hwi’s fate had imbued their swords with mercilessness.
Hyeon Gak’s Plum Blossom Sword tore through the warriors of the Paewangseong without mercy, his face twisted in rage. Blood sprayed in all directions, but his sword showed no compassion.
'Mu Hwi!'
The killing intent of the first-generation disciples was no less than that of the second-generation—no, it was even fiercer.
'How pathetic. We couldn’t protect our youngest, and now we’ve lost his disciple too! Hyeon Baek, Hyeon Baek. Have I lived this long only to be so useless?'
Unlike the second-generation disciples, who refused to accept Mu Hwi’s death, the first-generation had judged the situation more coldly. Though unspoken, they had already accepted Mu Hwi’s death.
They had lost Hyeon Jo, the previous Hwasan Sword Saint, and now even his disciple, Mu Hwi.
In that state, the First Generation Disciples were drowning in a sense of helplessness and self-blame far beyond what the Second Generation felt.
Amidst this, the Plum Blossom Swordsmen became a raging inferno, burning through the warriors of the Paewangseong.
"Plum Blossom Swordsmen. We pierce through the heart of the Paewangseong now."
With the Second King Unit subdued, no martial force on this frontline could dare block their path.
"Yes!"
As the cold command left Hyeon Baek’s lips, and the Plum Blossom Swordsmen prepared to break through the Paewangseong’s lines with the Twenty-Four Hands Plum Blossom Sword Formation, a deafening explosion erupted from the rear of the enemy’s camp.
Kwaaaang!
The thunderous roar spread across the entire stretched frontline, momentarily halting the battle as all eyes turned toward the sound.
Where the explosion had occurred, the flag of the First King Unit fluttered.
"The First King Unit. They’ve finally arrived."
As the Plum Blossom Swordsmen steeled themselves again, the flag of the First King Unit was torn to shreds.
The swordsmen froze.
A purple sword light soared, tearing the flag apart.
Within that purple light, they saw a jet-black sword.
The pitch-black blade streaked through the air, scattering faint traces of violet mist in all directions.
"No way!"
"Ah!"
Just as the killing intent of the Plum Blossom Swordsmen began to waver, a voice familiar with the battlefield echoed loudly.
Infused with powerful internal energy, the voice pierced clearly through the ears of everyone present.
"This frontline ends today."