Welcome Back, Mount Hua Sword Hero (1)
The world fell into a silence so suffocating it seemed to press down on every breath.
Though more than a hundred people had gathered here, not even the faintest sound could be heard. Their gazes were fixed on one point, as if they had forgotten how to breathe.
That was because an astonishing, almost absurd scene was unfolding before them.
A throwing dagger no longer than a single span was—quite literally—floating in midair. It hovered there as though tied to an invisible thread, as if it had broken free of every law governing the world.
Then, at last, the dagger began to move. Slowly. At a pace so maddeningly sluggish it looked like a beetle crawling across the ground.
Yet none of the faces watching that ridiculous sight were smiling.
Instead, their faces had gone pale. Their lips trembled while they kept their mouths shut tight. That expression was the very image of the feelings stirred by the dagger’s eerie movement.
“I...”
Baek Cheon found himself clenching his fist.
The dagger was cutting through the air. So slowly that one could almost doubt whether it was moving at all.
And yet Baek Cheon could feel it. The force radiating from that dagger was so tremendous that his own inner energy had begun to turn of its own accord, circling through his body to protect him against its pressure.
He knew.
He knew just how dangerous that dagger was. He knew how much had been packed into it.
Cold sweat beaded on Baek Cheon’s forehead.
What about Chung Myung?
His gaze snapped away from the dagger and raced to the figure it was aimed at.
Somewhere along the way, Chung Myung’s feet had stopped too. His steps, which had looked as if they would cut through everything in the world and keep advancing, were now planted flat on the ground for the first time since the bout had begun.
More than the dagger hanging in the air and suppressing everything around it, more than Tang Gun-ak’s face gone pale from releasing it, Chung Myung’s expression—lips sealed tight, all his attention concentrated on the dagger flying at him—filled Baek Cheon with a far greater sense of danger.
“M-my lord...”
Then a very small voice reached him. Turning around, he saw Dang So-so with her eyes squeezed shut, both hands clasped so tightly together her fingers had interlocked white.
Of course she would be conflicted. She could not rejoice in anyone’s victory.
But Baek Cheon wanted to see the outcome of this fight with his own eyes, no matter what. The others here must have felt the same way.
Tang Gun-ak, the Poison King whose name thundered across the world.
What did that name mean?
For the younger generation, Baek Cheon included, that name was nothing less than the order of the martial world, the very symbol of its present power.
Could Chung Myung truly surpass that heavy, fearsome name?
Go beyond him!
Baek Cheon bit his lip hard.
Chung Myung!
With a heart fit to burst, he threw his gaze toward Chung Myung. Chung Myung was still staring at the dagger flying toward him.
Wooooooooong!
As though refusing to allow any counterattack just yet, the dagger advanced slowly toward Chung Myung.
Chung Myung’s muscles tightened all over.
What is this...?
It was as if a venomous snake so deadly that even the slightest brush would claim his life was glaring at him from outside its lair.
The tension was such that if he moved even a hair’s breadth, those poison-filled fangs would strike like lightning and bury themselves in his throat.
Dark Explosion Dagger?
No.
This was something even he did not know.
At the very least, it was not one of the techniques Tang Bo had used in the Twelve Flying Daggers.
Then was it a move even Tang Bo himself had never mastered?
No, that was impossible.
Tang Bo had perfected every aspect of the Twelve Flying Daggers. That was precisely why he had been called the Dark Saint.
There was no way Tang Bo had failed to learn a technique from the Twelve Flying Daggers, and no way he had hidden one from Chung Myung.
If that was so...
Grrrrrip.
Chung Myung’s hand clenched around the sword hilt hard enough to feel as if it might snap.
I’ll just have to find out.
The moment Chung Myung moved, the dagger that had been advancing so slowly suddenly picked up speed.
Wooooooong!
At the same time, it began to howl.
The dagger, which had moved like a beetle, now flew like a snail. Increasing speed little by little, then a little more, it now moved quickly enough for the eye to clearly follow.
And then—
Kuurururururuung!
The instant a rough sword cry erupted from the dagger, the thing hurtling toward him began to spin. It turned faster and faster until it was whirling with such ferocity that the eye could no longer track it.
Chwaaaaaaak!
The force spreading out from the dagger curled in on itself. The wind pressure created by that motion shoved the dirt on the ground to both sides, then began to pull it back in again.
Soil and gravel rattled and rose, sucked into the enormous vortex.
Kwaaaaaaaaaa!
Centered on the dagger, a massive tornado roared to life. The vast whirlpool stained with the color of yellow earth was less like wind and more like a great yellow dragon preparing to ascend to the heavens.
“Kugh!”
“Fall back!”
Those watching the duel from a distance lowered their stances. It felt as if that monstrous pull might drag them in as well.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
The tornado, which was spinning furiously and swallowing everything around it, still hadn’t reached its full speed.
It merely kept twisting and circling in place, threatening Chung Myung.
A brilliant blue light burst from Chung Myung’s eyes. Even as he looked upon that unimaginable whirl of force, his mouth curled upward. He even bared his teeth in a grin.
As if this situation delighted him beyond words.
There it is!
And then.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
A sudden transformation occurred.
The dagger, which had seemed as though it would take a full day to reach Chung Myung, exploded forward at a terrifying speed in a single burst.
In that instant, Chung Myung saw it.
Amid time that seemed to slow around him, he saw the dagger spinning madly as though it had been carried into a different current of time altogether. He saw the vortex it created sucking in everything around it.
Even Chung Myung’s own body was being drawn toward the dagger flying at him.
At that moment, Chung Myung’s eyes flew wide open.
Not only because it was an attack beyond anything he could have imagined, even for someone like him who had survived countless battlefields and overcome innumerable martial arts with his own body, but for another reason entirely.
So many hidden weapons he had blocked, neutralized, and shattered. Those that had long since spent their usefulness and lay strewn across the ground now rose in response to that vortex and began flying toward the dagger all at once.
What...?
It was like the earth itself had surged up to engulf him.
If Mancheon-hwaeu spread from the heavens to cover the world, this technique devoured everything from the earth below.
Even Chung Myung could not help but be shaken.
Before him, the dagger wrapped in Sanhon-sa and Ghost King Token shot forward as though it meant to tear his body apart, while behind it, hidden weapons stained with deadly poison whipped at him like a storm of arrows.
There was nowhere to escape. Not even above him.
At that moment of utter peril, what entered Chung Myung’s eyes was neither the dagger flying toward him nor Tang Gun-ak standing pale-faced behind it.
It was Baek Cheon and the others, mouths open wide as they shouted something at him.
Th... those fools.
Seeing their desperate faces, which even now hinted at despair, Chung Myung’s expression twisted faintly.
Idiots.
Why were they panicking?
Because they feared he’d lose? Or because they feared the swords of Mount Hua wouldn’t be enough to stop it?
Chung Myung’s sword drew a gentle arc.
Watch carefully.
Who had never imagined it?
Who had never wished for it?
Since the moment their ancestors had settled on Mount Hua and taken up the sword, all anyone had ever wanted was to see the end of that sword’s path.
That was why the elders passed their will down to the younger generation.
That was why the younger generation learned and preserved the teachings of those before them.
Hak and beop—two words with different origins, but the same meaning held by those who shared the same purpose. Beop was the will of those who lived in different ages but held the same heart.
That was why it became sword learning, and why it became sword law.
It’s here.
Within the sword of Mount Hua lay everything those who had borne Mount Hua’s name from the past until now had wished for.
And now, that sword would carry the will of those standing here as well as Chung Myung’s own.
Bloom.
A red plum blossom bloomed at the tip of Chung Myung’s sword.
Blooming. That was the stirring of gestation and the nobility of birth.
And after that?
Spread outward.
If they rightly upheld their will, believed in it, and carried it through, it would spread across the entire world. Until the fragrance of plum blossoms filled all under heaven and the lands of the Nine Provinces.
“Plum blossoms... swirling across the Nine Provinces...”
The blossoming flowers trembled softly. They fluttered in the wind, scattered in the gentle rustle of grass, and danced among the drifting clouds.
Plum blossoms that were all different, none the same.
Some lacked petals. Some had not yet fully opened. Some were lush and full. Even amid the riot of blossoms in full bloom, there were flowers with pale color that seemed out of place.
Yet as more blossoms opened, every one of those different flowers became part of a single current, merging into waves and mingling together.
The plum blossoms did not resist the wind blowing against them; instead, they rode it, drifting slowly through the air.
Sometimes briskly, sometimes gently.
They rode the surging gusts, spun and rose, settled softly, then drifted far away once more.
The plum petals that swirled around Chung Myung’s body spread out and blocked the hidden weapons rushing toward his back.
Crack!
And then the hidden weapons hurtling forward with ferocious speed pierced straight through the flower petals without mercy.
But before a single petal could shatter, a new one interposed itself in its place, and by the time another petal had begun to crumble, yet another had flown in to wrap around the cold metal.
Clang!
The clear ring of steel spread out like music.
Poison-laced sand, iron needles shooting upward while reflecting the sunlight—all of them lost their momentum as they became entangled in those weightless petals.
Was it not said that the net of heaven is vast and loose, yet never lets anything escape?
The petals flying in on the wind seemed just as scattered, and yet nothing aimed at Chung Myung slipped through them.
And in that instant, everyone saw it.
They saw the hidden weapons and poisonous sand that had seemed certain to overwhelm Chung Myung and reduce him to pulp rebounding off the plum blossoms and flying away.
“...!”
Plum blossoms gently pushed back against everything that clung and resisted, scattering wildly as they spread through the world—swirling across the Nine Provinces.
Beyond the broad training ground, farther and farther still.
The red-whirling petals spread out as if a giant plum tree had suddenly burst into bloom and opened all its leaves at once.
Kwa-dududududuk! Kwa-dududududuk!
Tang Gun-ak’s Chuhonbi, infused with all his power, pushed through the surging plum blossoms and advanced. Forward, and still forward.
Though it trembled violently as if it might crash to the ground at any moment, it never stopped.
It tore through the petals in a furious whirl, shoving them aside as it pushed forward with the last of its strength.
Chwaak.
It severed another petal.
Chwaak.
It shattered another streak of sword qi.
But the dagger that had been driving forward at last began to slow, trembling as if its strength had been exhausted.
At that sight, even Mount Hua’s disciples let out pained cries of admiration.
But just then—
KWAANG!
With an explosion that instantly shattered the stillness blanketing Mount Hua, Tang Gun-ak’s body shot like lightning toward the halted dagger.
The disciples of Mount Hua widened their eyes at the completely unimaginable movement.
Tang Gun-ak seized the dagger in an instant, crushing the plum blossom sword qi as he surged forward.
And Chung Myung, as if that were perfectly natural, charged at him in turn.
“Th—!”
“S-stop!”
From the mouths of the Mount Hua disciples came cries that sounded almost like screams. They honestly believed this could only end when one of the two died.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaang!
Chuhonbi and Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword collided head-on in midair.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Violent winds exploded in every direction, and terrifying pressure surged upward.
Woooooong.
The dagger pointed at Chung Myung’s throat trembled violently. Tang Gun-ak’s sleeve puffed out as though it might unleash hidden weapons at any moment.
Grrrip!
The sword that had come so close it looked as if it would split Tang Gun-ak’s face in two spat out crimson sword qi. It was as if it would cut him down together with the dagger itself if it had to.
A world frozen with blades pressed together.
In that moment, no one dared step forward. No one could speak.
Only one thing moved.
A single floating petal.
A fragile flower petal, lifted into the air by the force of their clash, drifted down slowly on the now-quiet current of air.
All eyes remained fixed on it.
As it fell, then lifted slightly again, swaying this way and that, the petal drifted toward the Chuhonbi and Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword still aimed at each other.
Then, as if meeting a quiet ending, it settled very lightly atop the dagger.
“...”
“...”
Their gazes shifted to the plum petal resting on the blue blade.
A real plum petal, not plum blossom sword qi.
The moment they saw that flower petal, so out of place amid such ferocious collision, both of their faces went blank at the same time.
Almost naturally, their blades lowered.
Looking back and forth between the petal and each other’s faces, a helpless smile soon spread across their mouths.
Chung Myung’s hand casually caught the blade of the dagger aimed at his throat with his left hand. Tang Gun-ak, too, lightly grasped the Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword pointed at his face with his left hand.
Having seized each other’s weapons as though disarming the other, the two silently examined the blades now in their hands.
“...I never thought the edge of this sword would actually go out like that.”
“That sounds more like something I should say. For a lord’s weapon to end up looking like this...”
The countless scars etched across the blades seemed to speak of the time they had each endured.
Tak.
Tang Gun-ak, who had caught the dagger Chung Myung had thrown, held out the Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword in his own hand toward Chung Myung.
The two men, who had spent a long while staring silently at each other, burst out laughing at the same time.
Chung Myung lifted one shoulder and asked with a grin,
“Keep going?”
“Hmm.”
Tang Gun-ak considered it for a moment, then shook his head.
“There is no point anymore.”
“...”
A smile warmer than anything else spread across his lips.
“Welcome back, Mount Hua Sword Hero.”
“Wooooaaahhhhh!”
At last, a thunderous cheer erupted from all around.
What they had witnessed was surely not only martial prowess.
Mount Hua and the Tang Family. The moment those two great names stood face to face after crossing the distance of three years.