Chapter 384
Chapter 384
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 100
>Chapter Title: Joining Episode 100 (5)
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“As payment for sparring with you, I’ll take one year of yours.”
“One year? You don’t mean...”
“Yes, your loyalty.”
“......”
Ji Oe, the Mad Sword Guest, couldn’t hide his embarrassment at Mok Kyung-un’s direct demand.
And how could he? The price requested was the complete opposite of what was freely available to all who pursued the sword—entry into Sword Valley.
‘Loyalty?’
Ji Oe stared intently at Mok Kyung-un’s face, which held a hint of amusement.
To pledge loyalty in exchange for a spar.
Even if it was an opportunity that wouldn’t come again, it felt like a terribly lopsided deal.
Mok Kyung-un shrugged at him and spoke.
“I see from your hesitation that it’s not something you desperately want.”
“That’s...”
“I only asked for one year, and even that seems too much for you?”
“......”
“To think that someone who’s spent over twenty years honing nothing but the sword in this place would agonize over something like this—it’s beyond my understanding.”
“It wasn’t a waste.”
“If it wasn’t a waste, then what was it?”
-Swish!
Mok Kyung-un lightly thrust his sword manual toward him.
-Flinch!
In that instant, all the energy around him sharpened as if targeting Ji Oe.
It even felt like everything in all directions had turned into swords.
As he marveled at this, Mok Kyung-un spoke in a voice laced with mockery.
“If your twenty years don’t even match half a year of mine, then it was undoubtedly a wasted effort.”
“Half a year? What are you talking about?”
“The time I’ve properly trained in martial arts.”
‘!!!!!!’
At those words, Ji Oe’s eyes widened as if they might tear.
What did he just say?
That he’d only properly trained in martial arts for half a year?
Ji Oe wasn’t the only one shocked by Mok Kyung-un’s words.
Even Mok Kyung-un’s subordinates exchanged stunned glances.
They all already viewed his growth as monstrous, but no one knew exactly when he had begun learning martial arts.
Hearing it was only half a year, they couldn’t hold back their shock.
‘Half a year?’
‘......Impossible.’
‘He’s insane. Is he joking on purpose?’
‘To subjugate the Six Heavens after just half a year of martial arts training...’
Even they found it hard to believe.
Only Cheong-ryeong, who had watched him from the very beginning, regarded his talent as something monstrous.
‘Either blessed by heaven or not human at all.’
Had there ever been such a genius in the history of the Central Plains martial world?
It might only be possible for figures like Dharma the Great, the founder of Shaolin martial arts, the founder of Wudang Jang Sam-bong, the Sword Immortal who beheaded the Fire Dragon, legends of Mount Hua like Dugu Qiubai, or the like.
Even then, one had to wonder if they could achieve this.
At that moment, Ji Oe, his eyes still wide in shock, finally spoke.
“......Are you mocking me right now?”
“Mocking what?”
“No matter how much of a prodigy one is, how could they reach that level in just half a year...”
“If you can’t do it, does that mean no one else can?”
That question momentarily silenced Ji Oe.
Just because he couldn’t do something didn’t make it impossible for others.
Yet even those who started young rarely reached the highest realms, and most martial artists never even approached the superhuman level, let alone broke through their walls in a lifetime.
To reach a level capable of subjugating the Six Heavens after just half a year of training was virtually unprecedented.
‘This is madness.’
Looking at Mok Kyung-un’s unshaken eyes and expression, Ji Oe’s mind fell into chaos.
In truth, he had thought that despite appearing young, Mok Kyung-un must be an old master who had undergone marrow cleansing and body transformation.
But if this was true, he was a monster beyond even the realm of geniuses.
-Shiver!
A chill ran up his spine, covering his entire body in goosebumps.
A monster who had reached the pinnacle of the sword in half a year existed in the world.
Ji Oe trembled as if convulsing from the goosebumps before finally speaking.
“......Does one spar mean one year based on victory or defeat?”
“Yes. Have you made up your mind?”
“May I add one condition?”
“A condition?”
“Yes. Even if I pledge loyalty, as a lineage of the Sword Sect, a righteous faction, I have never once deviated from the righteous path in my life.”
“Never deviated from the righteous path... What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Even if I pledge loyalty to you, grant me the right to refuse if it means straying from the path.”
“Hah?”
Mok Kyung-un’s subordinates scoffed in unison at his proposal.
How ridiculous for someone pledging loyalty to attach such a condition.
“You madman. If you only do what suits your taste, you’re just a ronin—what loyalty is that? You don’t know your place.”
Even the Defiant Monk Ja Geum-jeong clicked his tongue.
But Ji Oe paid no mind to their reactions.
The Mok Kyung-un he had seen in Sword Valley was far removed from anything righteous.
He was clearly closer to the unorthodox factions.
Following such a person’s orders blindly would lead him astray from the righteous path he had upheld until now.
He did not want that.
“If you accept this one thing, then one year...”
“Interesting.”
“......Interesting, you say?”
“Yes. Loyalty with conditions... Have you never considered that I might ignore all proposals and just kill you?”
Despite the menacing words, there was no killing intent in his voice.
Ji Oe took it as mere warning.
Thus, he cautiously replied.
“I am not your enemy. You seem reasonable, so I believe you won’t go that far.”
“Who knows. It wasn’t out of reasonableness that I sealed off a place like the Tang Clan for sixty years.”
“The Tang Clan? ...You don’t mean the Sacheon Tang Clan?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, what do you mean by...”
Before he could finish,
Seop Chun spoke up proudly.
“Ah! Senior Ji Oe wouldn’t know. It was our lord who single-handedly subjugated the Sacheon Tang Clan and forced them into seclusion for sixty years.”
‘!?’
Ji Oe’s expression hardened.
The Sacheon Tang Clan had sealed their doors?
One of the pillars of the Righteous Alliance, the poison renowned among the Seven Great Clans, a place whose potential power rivaled even the Nine Great Sects and Great Families— they had secluded themselves?
Ji Oe was truly dumbfounded.
Whether true or not, if it was, it was an event that would shake the entire martial world, which had been quiet for some time.
Moreover,
‘Is he walking the path of hegemony?’
Forcing the Sacheon Tang Clan to seclude and subjugating Spirit Sword Manor, called the holy land of swords.
These two actions alone made it seem like he was treading the path of domination.
His lips dry, Ji Oe swallowed hard before finally speaking.
“......What exactly is your goal?”
“If you want to know that, you’ll have to join my ranks.”
“Your path is one I...”
“I think I know why you’ve stagnated.”
“What... do you mean?”
“Endlessly quibbling over righteousness and such sets clear limits. How can someone who draws a line in their mind from the start ever cross it?”
‘!?’
Ji Oe’s pupils shook at Mok Kyung-un’s rebuke.
It was like tossing a stone into a calm lake, sending ripples across his mind.
‘Drawn a line in my mind?’
He had never considered such a thing.
While training in the sword, he had also immersed himself in studies, deeply engraving Confucius’s words in his heart.
At seventy, I could follow my heart’s desire without transgressing the mean.
In the Analects’ chapter on governance, Confucius said that only at seventy did he follow his heart’s desires without overstepping propriety.
Ji Oe believed the righteous path was the same.
Having internalized this deeply, he lived believing that even acting as he wished would not lead him astray.
But was this mindset the very thing drawing his own limits?
‘Ahhh.’
He had spent over twenty years in Sword Valley, ignoring worldly gazes and taking pride in never straying from righteousness.
Yet all of it was self-imposed limits blocking him?
How futile.
Stunned into speechlessness for a moment, he soon opened his mouth with eyes as if freed from shackles.
“......You’re right. Righteousness, righteous sects—all of it was just drawing my own limits.”
“I’m glad you realized it, even if late.”
“To reach higher than now, I see I must embrace everything, not stop at righteous sects.”
“Words alone mean nothing.”
“......Since righteousness and unorthodoxy have leaned too far one way, I too must walk a new path like you.”
“A new path?”
“The demonic path.”
Mok Kyung-un chuckled at his words.
He told him not to draw limits, and now he declared he’d walk the demonic path.
A truly simplistic way of thinking, perhaps.
But there was no harm in it.
He seemed the type who needed to crash into something and break his nose to learn what to do.
-Shing!
But then Ji Oe drew his sword again and said.
“I’ll accept your proposal. If I lose, I’ll serve you loyally for one year without complaint.”
“I’ll take that as you’re prepared for anything?”
At the question, the resolute Ji Oe readily answered.
“The one year I pledge loyalty to you will be the time I embrace the demonic. I will become not a righteous sword guest, but a sword devil.”
“Sword devil... Nice. From now on, I’ll call you Sword Demon then.”
“Sword Demon. Not bad.”
-Swish!
With those words, Ji Oe assumed the starting stance of his sword art.
Looking at him, Mok Kyung-un half-drew the demon sword Yak-juk from his waist and said.
“Then let’s first take that one year.”
“No matter how lacking I am, you can only tell long from short after trying...”
-Swish!
‘!?’
Ji Oe’s words cut off abruptly.
The tip of Mok Kyung-un’s unique weapon, the demon sword Yak-juk, was already at his throat.
He had been watching clearly—why hadn’t he noticed it approaching?
As he felt bewildered, Mok Kyung-un smirked.
“One year. Shall we continue?”
“......This is just the beginning!”
-Clang!
With a shout, Ji Oe knocked Mok Kyung-un’s sword upward and unleashed his sword strikes.
* * *
Had about half a shichen passed?
Seop Chun, leaning against the guest hall’s wall, quietly asked Mong Mu-yak beside him.
“How many times now?”
“Twenty-six.”
“Oh man. Already twenty-six years.”
“......He’s so stubborn.”
Seop Chun nodded in agreement with Mong Mu-yak’s sigh-laced words.
If he’d realized after the first sword clash that he was no match, he should have stopped then.
But from the second exchange, Mok Kyung-un had let him land a few more moves, igniting his spirit and making him charge on relentlessly.
It was obviously intentional to anyone watching.
Yet Ji Oe’s mind right now held no such calculations.
With an ecstatic expression just from clashing with someone he believed had reached sword transcendence, what room was there for calculation?
Seop Chun shook his head.
“They’ll be together for a long, long time.”
“Indeed.”
-Clang!
Ji Oe’s sword slipped from his hand once more, embedding into the floor five paces away.
That made the accumulated time twenty-six years.
-Grit!
Ji Oe ground his teeth and extended his hand, using air-grasping to summon his sword from the ground.
As he prepared for another clash,
-Swish!
Mok Kyung-un suddenly furrowed his brow, extended his hand, and signaled to stop.
Puzzled by this, they saw one of Mok Kyung-un’s eyebrows arch up.
Cheong-ryeong, also curious, asked via transmission.
-What’s wrong?
-One of my bonds just severed.
-A bond severed? Don’t tell me...
-......It seems one of my spirit servants has been destroyed.
[Joining Episode 100 (5)] End