Chapter 242
Chapter 242: Yeop Bi-hwa (2)
He did not answer.
"……"
To say he could not answer would be more accurate.
The sword's tip remained before the man's throat. More precisely, it had not remained there by choice—it had come to remain there.
The palm gripping the blade had erased every path the sword could travel, leaving Yeop Bi-hwa able to do nothing but stand there holding the hilt.
She already knew that stabbing and twisting were all useless. She needed to withdraw the sword, but it would not budge so much as an inch. She had tried surging her internal energy, but Falling Flower Leaf Needle would not move—as if driven into eternal bedrock.
The man's face still wore a smile.
"……Why are you smiling?"
"Whether to kill you or not. Call it a dilemma—as Kim Rae-won."
At that, the tips of Yeop Bi-hwa's fingers moved. That was her answer.
If it cannot be drawn out, change the path.
She reversed the flow of the Sword Rigidity. The force that had been flowing forward was inverted in its entirety. The thin layer of One-Line Sword Rigidity that had been hovering over the blade began to seethe and swell outward from the inside.
Wuuuung—
The Sword Rigidity expanded to the very limit the slender blade of Falling Flower Leaf Needle could endure. The trembling of air on the verge of being rent apart. The vibration traveled up to the wrist bones of Yeop Bi-hwa's hand holding the hilt.
And then.
Like a snake shedding its skin, Falling Flower Leaf Needle shed its Sword Rigidity and went hurtling backward in a violent burst.
Claaaaaang—!
Retreat Strike.
The palm that had been gripping the blade and the Sword Rigidity collided head-on.
Claaang—!
At that impact, the sound of air splitting rang out and shook the area near the main gate. The dust on the ground and all the surrounding air centered on the sword's tip were driven back in a circle, and cracks ran through both pillars on either side of the main gate.
Rumblerumblerumble—!
The aftershock shook the entire area. The Hero Gate disciples and Vast Heaven warriors who had come swarming out near the main gate swallowed their screams and were pushed back in a rush. Jin Ha-gyeong spread both arms to block the people behind him, but even Jin Ha-gyeong himself was sent sliding back, his martial attire flapping mercilessly.
In tandem, trees dozens of meters away shook to their roots, and the wall beside the main gate caved inward, spilling out clumps of earth.
Kim Rae-won was also pushed back several meters.
"An interesting technique."
Tap tap—Kim Rae-won lightly dusting himself off.
'To receive a Sword Blast Rigidity head-on and be completely unfazed……'
And with his bare body at that.
Yeop Bi-hwa was inwardly greatly astonished, but outwardly her face showed nothing. For Iron-Faced Lady Yeop Bi-hwa had always been that way.
"Take up a weapon. I do not engage those who have not drawn one."
Whoooosh—
A faint gust of wind blew through the grounds. At the same moment, dozens of fallen leaves that had been scattering down from the single impact just now fluttered and drifted into Hero Gate.
Kim Rae-won quietly extended his palm and lifted one corner of his mouth.
"Already drawn."
The tips of Yeop Bi-hwa's sharp eyebrows quivered faintly.
Kim Rae-won's hands were still empty. Not even the faintest trace of energy could be felt from those hands.
"Is this one—Iron-Faced Lady Yeop Bi-hwa—being looked down upon right now?"
At that moment, flutter flutter, a single leaf settled down onto Kim Rae-won's outstretched palm. He held it up to show her and wrinkled his nose.
"See? Drew it."
"……Kim Rae-won wielded a sword by nature. What you are saying and doing right now is an admission that you are an imposter."
"Aah, is that so?"
"……"
"That interpretation would actually be more accurate. What am I to do?"
Again, instead of answering, Yeop Bi-hwa kicked off the ground.
A straight line.
It was immediately after she had poured out all her Sword Rigidity with the Retreat Strike. To layer Sword Rigidity onto Falling Flower Leaf Needle again, she would need to draw up her internal energy and Spiritual Energy from her Inner Core. It did not matter. Even a Falling Flower Leaf Needle without Sword Rigidity—there was no one in all the world who could receive Yeop Bi-hwa's Vertical Strike with bare hands.
In the instant that Yeop Bi-hwa's sword tip, having closed several meters as though in a single bound, was about to run straight through the man's solar plexus—
Clang—!
Falling Flower Leaf Needle stopped again.
Something solid. The sensation transmitted to the sword's tip was no different from stabbing a lump of iron.
But……
That iron was 'green.'
Yeop Bi-hwa's eyes looked past her own sword.
What was held in the man's hand was a leaf—blown in by the wind just moments ago. And not just one, but dozens. Dozens of leaves had somehow joined together end to end and taken the form of a sword. The leaf veins formed a grain, the stems interlocked with each other, as if they had always been one from the beginning.
A sword made of leaves had blocked Falling Flower Leaf Needle, laden with Sword Energy.
"See? Holding it."
Yeop Bi-hwa's wrist turned.
She twisted Falling Flower Leaf Needle to split the grain of the leaf sword. Mere leaves—if twisted they would tear……
"……!"
……They did not.
Instead, the surface of the leaves slid in an instant as if to wrap around her blade.
Scraaape scraaaape scraaape—
The sound of metal grinding against metal.
'Energy is packed into each individual leaf vein?'
Thinly and evenly. Without a single gap.
Spt—
Yeop Bi-hwa swiftly withdrew a dozen meters back and drew her sword back to her hip. In that exact posture she began layering Sword Rigidity onto Falling Flower Leaf Needle again. Energy rose and clung to the slender blade. Thinly, and swiftly.
As though bubbles rising to a boil, the One-Line Sword Rigidity rapidly coated the entire blade of Falling Flower Leaf Needle.
Kim Rae-won simply stood there with the leaf sword hanging at his side. He neither chased after her nor pressed with any additional attack.
Whether that was composure or some other reason, Yeop Bi-hwa had no way of knowing. But one thing was certain.
'He truly……made a sword out of leaves.'
And with it he had blocked Rigid Energy.
The Martial World has several classical rumors.
And among them, the most famous of all.
―If one becomes the greatest sword master of past and present, one can defeat every sword in the world with even a single blade of straw.
Yeop Bi-hwa had believed that saying to some extent and pursued it. The realm where swinging a brush makes the brush a sword, where picking up a tree branch makes the branch a sword. And to some degree, Yeop Bi-hwa had personally encountered masters who had reached such a realm.
But even all those masters had something in common. What they chose was always one.
A single brush, a single tree branch, a single weapon.
However one looked at it, they would select one object and load their energy into it.
Yet this man was different.
Something scattered—and mere dozens of leaves at that—he had simultaneously seized, connecting things of differing grains into a single sword. What connected them was solely the man's energy. It was not that the medium had become a weapon, but that the energy itself had taken the form of a weapon.
That did not belong to any sword technique Yeop Bi-hwa knew. It was not an energy art. Nor was it a technique. Breathing one's energy into surrounding objects and transforming them into a weapon.
Perhaps, if it were this man, even without leaves……he could create a sword?
Formless Sword.
This was only possible when the handling of energy had surpassed the realm of immortals.
'This was a domain I had thought possible only in legend……'
The One-Line Sword Rigidity settled fully onto the blade once more.
Even having keenly felt her opponent's immensity, Yeop Bi-hwa raised her sword. No—precisely because of it, she had to raise it all the more.
Whether the opponent was Kim Rae-won or not no longer mattered. She had come to want to confirm it as a sword master.
Spt—!
Again, a straight line.
Falling Flower Leaf Needle stabbed the air. Toward Kim Rae-won's shoulder.
The swiftest advancing form of the One-Line Sword Technique. The tip of the blade always arrives before the opponent's gaze.
But the straight-line energy wave curved as it traveled.
Subtly, but it was unmistakably curved. Yeop Bi-hwa had not bent it. The sword wave had found its own path.
It was because the thickness of the air and the density of the medium differed, centered on where the man stood.
In every part of that space, there were thick areas and thin areas, and the sword's tip found and passed through the thinnest among them of its own accord.
'An Energy Field?'
The entire area around the man was filled with his own energy.
The entirety of Hero Gate's main gate. No, all of Hero Gate……. Perhaps even all of Gangdo. The man before her was that powerful.
Yet the distribution of that energy was not uniform. Because it was not uniform, there were thin paths in the medium, and Falling Flower Leaf Needle shot forward riding those thin paths. Just as in the heat of midsummer, light bends as it travels and creates a shimmer—like that.
The One-Line Sword Technique was not a straight line. It merely followed the fastest path. In ordinary circumstances, that path had simply been a straight line.
Scritch—
The sword's tip grazed the edge of the man's sleeve at his forearm. It did not cut the flesh. Because the man tilted his upper body half an inch and deflected the sword.
And then.
Kim Rae-won maintained his tilted upper body and positioned the leaf sword at his hip. A sword-drawing stance, as if there were an actual scabbard there.
Suu—Fwat—
The leaves cut through the air.
Exactly like hers. As if thrusting in a straight line but curving ever so subtly. Following the thin paths of the air.
Toward Yeop Bi-hwa's chest.
Crackle—!
Yeop Bi-hwa urgently leaned her body back to dodge, but the chest area of her martial attire was cleanly sliced clean through. Her sternum was thus exposed in full view, but she could not afford to care about that. She could not.
"So this is how it's done?"
Kim Rae-won's voice, laced with a smile.
"……"
"What did you just……How did you—!?"
"I imitated it."
"……"
"I'm naturally good at copying. Anyone, anything, anytime."
"……"
Yeop Bi-hwa stomped the ground hard once more.
The swift footwork she herself had devised in order to properly deploy the One-Line Sword Technique. One step equals the distance of one thrust. Steps that close in only with a single flash, matched to the sword that extends in one line.
Again a straight line.
But this time, twice, three times toward a single point. She aimed only at the same spot consecutively.
Consecutive Strike. A technique that digs at the same hole with a needle. If once is not enough then twice, if twice is not enough then three times. The very embodiment of Yeop Bi-hwa's unyielding nature.
Fwat—! Fwat—! Fwaaaaat—!
The leaf sword rose. All three times it was blocked with ease.
Sword Rigidity? Sword Energy? It was brushed aside as lightly as tofu being sliced by a sword.
But.
'Each time……the grain is different?'
The first block deflected it with a flowing redirect. The second caught it head-on and sent it bouncing back. The third turned the sword face and knocked it aside.
All three times the same leaf sword. Yet all three times a different sword technique.
'This is not one person's sword.'
"Haa, haa."
Yeop Bi-hwa withdrew a dozen meters, composing her breath.
Multiple sword masters resided within a single body.
The flowing move was the sword of one who was soft, the head-on move was the sword of one who was hard, the knocking move was the sword of one who was deft. Three sword techniques of completely different grains were contained within a single breath, yet they were not chaotic. Nor did they scatter.
They were melted together.
Fragments of different sword techniques were melted into one to become the sword of a single man.
And among those fragments, one.
'The last one.'
Yeop Bi-hwa's eyebrows trembled ever so slightly.
The grains overlapped. With a single sword from a memory long past. The same yet not the same. Overlapping yet different.
It was unmistakably Kim Rae-won's sword.
That very Kim Rae-won's sword that she had known.
'A sword cannot tell a lie.'
It had been Yeop Bi-hwa's lifelong conviction.
But.
This man's sword was telling neither lie nor truth.
It was Kim Rae-won's sword, yet not Kim Rae-won's sword alone. It overlapped yet was not the same, was the same yet was not one.
A Martial World person whose sword yielded no answer.
It was the first time in Yeop Bi-hwa's entire life.
Yeop Bi-hwa let Falling Flower Leaf Needle hang downward.
And then slowly raised it again.
Into a stance she had never once taken before.
The tip of the sword—no, the needle—aimed precisely at the space between the man's eyebrows. The full internal energy of her entire body began to gather into the two hands gripping the hilt.
If the sword yielded no answer, then she had no choice but to push the sword all the way to its end and pull the answer out.
The One-Line Sword Rigidity that had been hovering over Falling Flower Leaf Needle slowly retreated from the entirety of the blade. It had not disappeared—it was converging to a single point. One inch at the sword's tip. There, the sword principle of her entire lifetime converged.
"I will see the end."
Yeop Bi-hwa exhaled a long breath.
Whether it is this one's end.
Or yours.