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By the time they'd both gone all out, feints had already become meaningless.
Killing intent laced every sword strike. Before the plum blossom fragrance could even bloom from the tip of the blade, the Sword Immortal was already pulling his sword back, thrusting somewhere else.
Head, chest, thigh, arm, leg.
Close your eyes for one blink, and when you open them, he's already driven the blade into five spots at once. These attacks were nowhere near shallow enough to be called feints.
Every sword carried killing intent. Take even a scratch, and he'd definitely hound that wound relentlessly.
Quick Sword (快劍).
The Mount Hua Sect isn't without its own quick sword. Under that torrent of swift, piercing thrusts, I focused entirely on defending.
"What is this, some kind of Rain of Ten Thousand Flowers!"
"Haha! Shall I call it Plum Blossom in Full Bloom?"
Slash, slash!
Drawing on the energy of the Ice White Divine Art, I used my sword to protect my vital points. For places like my thighs or arms, I wrapped myself in Protective Qi Aura and parried.
"Tch!"
Though he was clearly getting worked up pressing the attack, the Sword Immortal let out a low grumble at the sight of none of his strikes going as he intended.
I guarded my vitals thoroughly, deflecting with my sword each time, and wherever wasn't vital, the Ice White Divine Art's Protective Qi Aura simply bounced his blade away.
As if I'd donned armor of ice, the Sword Immortal couldn't pierce through that Protective Qi Aura.
Clang, clang!
But he was steadily chipping away at it. I had become an unmoving block of ice, and the Sword Immortal had become a sculptor, carving and cutting that block with a single sword.
"How long do you intend only to block!"
"Sometimes a fight is won just by blocking long enough."
There was no need to hurry. This man had long since exceeded two gapja in age, while I was still young and fresh.
If the inner energy accumulated in our bodies was comparable, then in the end, our duel was bound to become a battle of stamina, a war of attrition.
"More, use more of your other martial arts!"
The Sword Immortal knew that if things dragged on, he'd lose. Yet when it came to swinging his sword, he showed not a hint of hesitation.
"Then I suppose I'll have to show you first!"
"...!!"
Seven Absolute Plum Blossom Sword.
The Mount Hua Sect's ultimate technique, said to be learned only by the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, unfolded before my eyes.
As if he intended to pour out everything he had against me, he drove the Violet Mist Divine Art to its peak and swung his sword.
"If your opponent does nothing but block, all you have to do is keep attacking the same spot until it breaks."
Clang!
A violet trajectory aimed for my heart. I swung my Silver Rainbow Sword, now stained white, and deflected it.
Clang, clang!
Once more, the quick sword came piercing toward my heart. The path of the blade varied subtly, but the tip always aimed for my heart.
Sometimes it came by way of the solar plexus, sometimes it surged upward from the ribs, and sometimes it pretended to thrust from the front before circling behind to stab from the back.
The Sword Immortal went after my heart with almost obsessive persistence. It was partly to kill me, yes, but also a ploy to force me out of the ice fortress I'd built up around myself.
"Plum Shadow Turbulent World (梅影亂世)...!"
"Haha, so you know it!"
Before the shadow of the plum blossom that burst from the tip of his sword energy could fade, a new blossom bloomed.
Amid the sword energy that boasted the strongest quick sword even among the Seven Absolute Plum Blossom Swords, the scent of plum blossoms filled the air around me.
Twenty-four Forms Plum Blossom Sword.
Fourteen Forms Plum Blossom Sword.
Seven Absolute Plum Blossom Sword.
Every single stance, built up from the lowest warriors of Mount Hua all the way to the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, now converged through the single Flying Smoke Sword, all aimed at my heart.
"How long will you hide your true foundation!"
Clang!
The Ice White Divine Art was pierced. The instant that violet sword energy grazed my Sword Aura, I turned my body sharply, retreating from the blossoms and widening the gap.
"Show me, show me at once! Your true power!"
"I've already shown you the Taiji Wisdom Sword, the Dragon Emperor Sword, and the Ice White Divine Art. What more could you want?"
"Don't be like that!!"
The Sword Immortal began to whine like a child. As undignified as it was for someone his age, I could feel his final fighting spirit in it.
Final Radiance.
"Won't you let me enjoy myself a little longer before I go?"
His body had already been on the brink of ascension. Knowing full well that every use of martial arts would only accelerate that ascension, he hadn't given up crossing swords with me.
"The greatest sword of the greatest under heaven! Even if I fail to ascend, I must see it before I die!"
"This is exactly why I hate dealing with people who've got 'Immortal' in their title."
Why else do you think they'd earn the epithet of a Taoist immortal? Because they're such troublesome figures in the mortal world that it's just as well to shove them into the mountains and tell them to go prepare for ascension.
"Sword-Human Unity."
"!!"
As I raised my Silver Rainbow Sword vertically, the Sword Immortal also raised his sword to his side and drew up every ounce of his momentum.
Just as the Silver Rainbow Sword and I had become one, the Sword Immortal and his Flying Smoke Sword had become one as well.
"I'll end this in one strike."
"Excellent!"
Victory or defeat would be decided by a margin as thin as a single sheet of paper. One of us would die here, and the other would live.
We called it a spar, but in truth, this was a duel with life and death on the line. I would kill the Sword Immortal and take the Silver Rainbow Sword, and the Sword Immortal would kill me and ascend as a true Sword Immortal.
If the Sword Immortal died by my hand, then his ascension wouldn't be the true Ascension to Immortality—it would simply mean dying and turning his back on the world of men.
"Take a good look at the foundation of Mount Hua."
Rustle.
Plum blossoms began to bloom all around us. They scattered thickly over the peak that my and the Sword Immortal's sword energies had already scorched.
It was nothing more than a release of inner energy, yet the Sword Immortal's sword energy was already so powerful it encroached upon reality. The Violet Mist Divine Art turned the tournament ground where we fought into a flower bed thick with fallen plum blossoms. My body began to stiffen under the plum blossom fragrance soaking into my entire being.
Slash, slash.
Everything I thought was fragrance was sword energy.
Each time the energy of the Violet Mist Divine Art brushed past me, my Protective Qi Aura began to be dyed, little by little, with its violet hue.
As if spattering with blood, as if blood blossoms were blooming, the plum blossom fragrance lingering around me began to eat into me.
All of it was illusion. All of it was Illusion Sword.
Not merely hiding among feints to swing his blade, he was turning the whole area around me into an illusion, deceiving my senses. A hair's breadth situation where I no longer knew when or where the Sword Immortal's sword might come piercing in.
Soft rustle.
I lightly trampled a plum blossom that had bloomed on the ground and channeled my inner energy into my lower body. Leaping up with a lightened body, I stepped on the scattering plum blossom petals and vaulted even higher.
Rustle—
The plum blossom petals surged viciously, as if trying to seize me. The Violet Mist Divine Art's energy lunged at my legs like light, as though trying to hold me to the ground. I swung my sword downward, then escaped that space by leaping even higher.
Leaping up out of the space where the Violet Mist Divine Art had spread, I broke free of the flower bed of blooming plum blossoms and soared high into the sky.
"...Tch!"
The Sword Immortal's low groan resounded from below. The full spectacle of the peak, invisible when I'd had my feet on that flower field, now came into view all at once.
"Flowers are meant to fall downward."
No matter how much the Violet Mist Divine Art's sword technique was one of Extreme Yang Energy, if you built sword energy up from below, layer by layer, using the power of the Infinite Taiyi Sword, it could never surge upward.
"No matter how chaotically they flutter, in the end, they fall."
If I could break free of the Violet Mist Divine Art's energy blanketing the ground, I could escape the realm of the Illusion Sword and see its true form.
"Haha! You say the same thing that woman did!!"
Flinch.
I was just about to kick off the sky again and leap even higher when I was startled. Before I knew it, the plum blossoms that had lain thick upon the ground had begun to surge upward, bit by bit.
"That's why I prepared! Nine Palaces Heaven Reversal (九宮反天)!!"
Heaven and earth flipped. The plum blossoms that had covered the ground now began to rush toward me, soaring into the air like a geyser.
"Tch?!"
Hidden in the energy of the Violet Mist Divine Art, the Flying Smoke Sword grazed my neck. If I'd sensed it even a little later, that blade would have pierced my throat and I'd be spewing blood.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Putting power into my foot, I stomped down on the Sword Immortal's solar plexus. Instead of stepping on the tip of the sword hidden in the plum blossom fragrance, I shot toward the sky, used the Sword Immortal's own body—hidden in that fragrance—as a foothold, and vaulted one more time even higher.
Thanks to the Sword Immortal leaping up, and thanks to me having flown high enough.
"Finally broke free."
I was able to escape the mirage of the plum blossom field he had spread out. The altar had been scorched by the Mount Hua Sect's distinctive sword energy, and the Sword Immortal, who had aimed to reverse the heavens by making all sword energy surge skyward with the Infinite Taiyi Sword, withdrew his Flying Smoke Sword and landed atop the altar.
"Haha, I'll throw your own words right back at you!"
Whoosh!
The Sword Immortal drew an arc with his sword across all four directions, then raised his blade toward me. Standing at the center of the sword energy he'd spread out to the east, west, south, and north, he focused every bit of it on me, still suspended in the sky.
"It's not only flower petals that fall!"
People, too, are destined to fall in the end.
No matter how much you tread on sword energy and leap using your lightness skill, as a human being, you are fated to fall like a flower, following the laws of nature.
"If you won't come, then I shall flip the heavens once more!"
The energy of the Violet Mist Divine Art, scattered across the ground, began to gather into the Sword Immortal's body. Seeing the killing intent gleaming in his eyes, my intuition told me exactly what attack he was about to launch.
A two-choice dilemma.
Would it be my heart, or my already wounded neck?
The tip of the sword, wavering toward me, was targeting both vitals simultaneously. Hidden amid the clear-blossoming plum blossom petals, one of them was without a doubt aiming for my life.
If I block, I lose.
In that case, the only option was to launch a counterattack from my side as well.
Rustle.
With one foot, I stepped on a cloud. Like a crane spreading its wings and taking flight, I vaulted lightly upward, disrupting the breathing the Sword Immortal had been carefully building. Stepping on the cloud, before gravity could pull me down, I flipped my body upside down.
"!!!"
The Sword Immortal's eyes trembled. From my stance alone, he immediately recognized the martial art I was about to employ—and the origin behind it.
"You are—"
"Sky-Soaring."
I kicked off the sky and shot downward. Faster than the sword the Sword Immortal swung.
"Grk...!"
The Sword Immortal also kicked off the ground and leaped. Still upside down, I stepped on the empty air and accelerated even more.
"Mount Hua is the best under heaven—!!"
The Sword Immortal's sword split into two trajectories. No matter how I twisted and turned my body, one tip was still aimed precisely at my neck, and the other at my heart.
"The best under heaven?"
In that split-second instant.
Amid the flurry of blossoms, I found the real one. No matter how much a person tries to defy or follow the laws of nature, 'stabbing two different places simultaneously with a single sword' was physically impossible.
Whether he stabbed my neck and then my heart, or my heart and then my neck—in the end, he needed the process of thrusting his sword, withdrawing it like a flash of light, and thrusting again.
Slash!
I stepped on the sky one final time, twisting my body into a spin. The Flying Smoke Sword flew up past my already-once-cut neck, grazing it by about an inch.
And just before the Sword Immortal could pull his sword back to thrust at my heart, just before the plum blossom could touch my heart!
"You can take what's under heaven (天下第一). But."
Slash.
"The sky is mine."
I brought the Silver Rainbow Sword down. A blue-tinged arc rode the silver blade, cleaving straight through the violet energy of the Violet Mist Divine Art.
"Cough, hack...!"
Red blood splattered across the plum blossoms. Having severed the Sword Immortal's arm along with his sword, I fell to the ground amid the spray of his blood.
Splash—!!
I crashed into a spring thick with plum blossom fragrance. As a cold energy filled my entire body, I slowly got to my feet.
Thud.
The Sword Immortal landed on the altar. Unlike me, who had plunged into the water in a sorry state, he dropped to one knee before the altar with an exceedingly graceful posture.
"They say that even when Mount Hua is dying, it never loses its flair. Why didn't you dodge? If you'd dodged, you could have defeated me in this state."
The Sword Immortal could have dodged my blade. If he'd held the thrust he had pulled back, or forced his body to twist, he could have landed without losing an arm.
"Cough, heh, dodge? That was impossible. After all... I am Mount Hua, hrrk."
Unlike me, who had the sword graze my neck but avoided a fatal wound, the Sword Immortal had lost his Flying Smoke Sword. The hand that held it, severed from the shoulder down, had tumbled beyond the mountain peak.
"Hoho, what a shame. Does Mount Hua still fail to surpass that man?"
"A human being cannot defeat the Sword God (劍神)."
Not a divine sword—the Sword God. I slumped down onto the pitifully ruined stone floor. Thanks to the 'ninth step,' where I'd forced myself to tread on the empty air at the last moment, my ankle was now completely shattered.
"Tell me your name. When I go to the underworld, I'll tell them I was killed by you."
"Sky-Soaring Lust Demon."
"...Hrgh, well, that's something."
The Sword Immortal laughed brightly and bowed his head.
"If I could have faced you... when I was young...."
Thud. The Sword Immortal collapsed. The altar was soaked with the blood pouring from his arm, and I lay flat on my back.
A deep sense of exhaustion spread through my entire body.
Was it because it'd been so long since I'd fought using pure 'sword techniques' alone? I had consumed far more inner energy than usual.
"Haa, haa, haa."
Before I knew it, the sky was dyed with the setting sun, and evening had already arrived.
I clearly remembered coming up before noon, so just how much time had passed?
"...I really almost died."
The nape of my neck stung. The wound throbbed with a damnable pain.
At the final moment.
If the Sword Immortal, even after reading the path of my blade, hadn't stubbornly chosen to clash head-on, I would surely have been the one to die. The instant my neck was cut, my ankle was already broken, so whether by a Lazy Donkey Roll or anything else—if he'd dodged my sword and then attacked me, I wouldn't have been able to avoid it.
There had been an easy path to victory, but I'd chosen the hard way and won.
If I'd layered the Dugu Nine Swords atop the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and achieved Sword-Human Unity, I could have won comfortably within three hundred exchanges at least. But I deliberately accepted the Sword Immortal's provocation and tried to win with swordsmanship alone.
Maybe that's why.
"...Old man, you must have rampaged quite splendidly when you were young."
Even if it meant dying by the sword, the Sword Immortal never once abandoned this life-or-death 'sparring match' until the very last breath. Not content merely to dodge each other's ultimate techniques, even knowing he would die, he never once altered the path of his blade.
"Damn it all. If you'd been a woman, I might have fallen for you."
Mount Hua, an unnamed peak.
"So this is Mount Hua."
I ended up getting utterly drunk on the warm plum blossom fragrance that still lingered beside me.