Revealed
Extreme Sword, who had severed Gangta Sword’s neck, slowly turned her head and looked at Harin.
The fact that she had just cut off Gangta Sword’s head wasn’t the important part.
What mattered now was confirming something else.
“Girl. Come, let us speak a while.”
“Yes, Senior Sister.”
Harin answered politely, and Extreme Sword stared at her for a moment before speaking.
“The man whose neck I just took was the one called Gangta Sword, was he not? Do you know why that nickname was given to him?”
“I’m afraid I know too little to answer that, Senior Sister.”
Well, Harin hadn’t even recognized Extreme Sword herself. So Extreme Sword nodded and answered at once.
“That man was famed for his incredible strength. It would have been strange if he’d had any other title. It is called Gangta Sword because when one meets his blade, it feels like striking stone.”
“I see….”
“And yet you caught that sort of man’s sword as if it were nothing. More than that, even if he was exhausted and injured, he was still a man who had reached the Transcendent Peak. And you brought him down so easily. In one strike, no less.”
That was the part Extreme Sword could not understand at all.
He hadn’t been properly rested, had a wound on his thigh, and beyond that he’d carried a handful of minor injuries; from the look of him, even one eye seemed cloudy.
So she had handed him to Harin, wanting to see how far Harin could go against such a man.
If things became truly dangerous, she’d endure the disgrace and intervene herself.
But no. Harin had stopped Gangta Sword’s blade far too easily and neutralized him with a single Ice Soul Divine Palm.
Even that Ice Soul Divine Palm had been strange. Even if Gangta Sword had been a wreck, he was not so weak that his protective qi should have failed him entirely.
There would have been damage, yes, but not enough to leave his insides in such disorder that he spat blood from the mouth in a single blow.
“Is there something I do not know about you?”
Extreme Sword spoke as gently as she could.
Normally, when she talked like that, the edge in her voice made it sound as if she were picking a fight. So many misunderstandings and conflicts had been born that way it was impossible to count them.
That was why she was being so careful now.
She did not want that sort of thing with Harin.
Hearing Extreme Sword’s words, I finally felt it had arrived.
Ah. So the expert really is an expert.
I’d only blocked a blade once and sent out one palm strike, and she’d already figured everything out?
Moyong Jua and Paeng Jeon-ho had just seemed to take it at face value.
Still, I wasn’t panicking or getting flustered at the question.
I’d already expected this moment would come.
I never thought I could keep this a secret for a thousand years or anything.
“I haven’t had the chance to say so yet, but… perhaps I’ve learned some external arts.”
“If you learned them, then say you learned them. What do you mean, perhaps? Ah! Could it be that you do not remember that either?”
“Yes, Senior Sister.”
There was a little lie mixed in there, so I felt a bit guilty, but it wasn’t entirely false.
This body had no memory of learning external arts. It just wasn’t the whole truth.
In any case, saying I couldn’t remember was a very convenient excuse.
If the other person didn’t trust me, there was no more insincere answer than that.
But Extreme Sword was not like that. She already looked at me favorably.
So she’d let it slide. Honestly, if I said I couldn’t remember, what else could she do?
“You learned external arts. Hm. That is a little strange. External arts are not something one learns simply by memorizing formulas. So then—what sort of external arts do you think you have learned? Were you able to tell?”
“I’m not sure what kind, exactly. Only that it makes me strong and my body hard.”
“Strong and hard-bodied, you say? Hmm. Something like Ten Thousand Strength Art or Iron Cloth Skill, then?”
“I’m not sure about that either.”
“Hold out your hand.”
When I extended my hand, Extreme Sword took it and gently felt it over.
Even though she was simply checking my body with no ulterior motive, her touch was so meticulous that I felt a little embarrassed.
“Not a single callus, and smooth as polished jade. Are you truly saying you’ve learned external arts? Now, try putting some strength into it.”
As she said that, Extreme Sword linked her fingers with mine.
No, why are you lacing your fingers like that? This is seriously embarrassing.
But when I saw how serious she looked, I felt a little ashamed for thinking such things.
Extreme Sword was terrifying.
She wasn’t even aware of it, and yet she was making this kind of move.
If her personality had been even a little nicer, there was no doubt this jianghu would be overflowing with admirers.
Or maybe the whole land would have been covered in lovesick men?
Anyway, I applied force, and Extreme Sword jolted in surprise before holding against it.
It looked as if she was circulating her inner energy to resist it, and honestly, I was impressed.
So inner energy can do that? Then does learning external arts even matter?
Of course, if you strengthened the body with inner energy and then added the effects of external arts on top of that, the result would probably be several times greater.
But then again, learning external arts couldn’t be easy.
That was probably why most such arts never truly spread and ended up abandoned.
“Is that all?”
“Pardon? No… I haven’t even used half of my strength yet.”
“What? Hah. Then show me all the strength you can possibly muster.”
So I did as I was told.
The strength I had never once used at full output since coming here.
I was a little worried about applying it with my fingers interlocked like this, but since Extreme Sword still looked perfectly fine, I decided to try.
“S-Stop!”
Extreme Sword cried out in alarm almost immediately. She quickly let go of my hand and began fussing over her own fingers.
“Ah, sorry. I….”
“No. It is fine. I asked you to do it, so what problem could there be? But… haah. What on earth is this nonsense….”
Extreme Sword stared at me in genuine shock, then fell deep into thought.
Well, of course she’d be shocked. This strength really wasn’t normal.
“Tsk. Since I know so little about external arts, this is maddening. Then there is no helping it. I will have to investigate directly. From now on, I shall try a few things with you. Is that acceptable?”
It looked like she’d already erased the idea of heading to Kaifeng.
Did I even have a right to refuse? It certainly didn’t look like it.
How was I supposed to say no when she was speaking with such an excited expression?
Still, it wasn’t a bad thing for me either.
Maybe this was my chance to find out exactly how far I had progressed.
“All right.”
At my answer, Extreme Sword smiled so brightly it almost dazzled.
But for some reason, that smile sent a chill down my spine, and before long, that feeling became reality.
As a true master of the Mount Zhongnan Sect, Extreme Sword began to examine me in a systematic, precise way.
She was especially terrifying when checking the Golden Dragon Body.
She altered the strength applied to her blade in tiny increments, striking me and observing my reactions, and she looked like someone who had spent her whole life doing nothing else.
Later, she even had me circulate inner energy while she wrapped qi around her sword and beat against me with it.
It was the hand of a true expert—someone pushing me right to my limits.
“Amazing. Truly amazing. At this level, even most cultivators at the Peak realm would struggle to leave a mark on you.”
That was Extreme Sword’s judgment. She must have reached that conclusion after more than a shichen of testing, so it was probably accurate.
And now it was time to examine my strength.
Extreme Sword told me to swing her sword at herself, and I kept doing as she said.
The more I did, the higher the corners of her mouth climbed.
Wait. This is getting a little scary, isn’t it? Is she okay?
I was the one who could easily lift and swing Paeng Jeon-ho’s Jungcheolbungdo.
So naturally, my raw strength was ridiculous.
It made sense that Extreme Sword’s eyes would gleam at the sight of it.
After confirming a fair amount, Extreme Sword looked around, then picked up the massive greatsword Gangta Sword had been carrying and tossed aside.
“Tsk. Of all things, why did it have to be a blade?”
She muttered that to herself, then held it out to me.
“Take it.”
“Yes.”
I took it without another word and raised the greatsword, which was not all that heavy, before giving it a swing.
The blade let out a powerful whoom whoom, its sound echoing with force.
It wasn’t a very good greatsword. It was made of cheap iron and the edge wasn’t sharpened properly.
It felt about the same as a metal club of the same weight.
“The Youyu Mugeom Sword Art I taught you, remember.”
“Yes, Senior Sister.”
“As you’ve already noticed, that sword is a heavy sword. It is slow, but once it connects, it can crush anything beneath it.”
“Yes. I understand it that way too.”
“Then what happens when you hold a greatsword and swing it at that blade?”
As she said that, Extreme Sword smiled brightly.
Only then did I finally understand why she’d been so pleased all along.
She was expecting to see her own sword become more complete.
Through me.
“That would be incredible.”
“Incredible, is that all?! If you complete the Youyu Mugeom Sword Art! No one will stand as your equal! No one will be able to block a single exchange of your sword!”
Oh… that was kind of tempting.
Originally, when I made this character, I’d already thought about having her use a greatsword or heavy blade.
So it made perfect sense that I’d be interested in Extreme Sword’s suggestion.
“But, Senior Sister. There’s something I’m curious about.”
“Of course. Ask anything you like.”
“Usually, women choose quick, graceful, or tricky sword styles. Why did you choose a heavy sword, Senior Sister?”
“Heh. That? I chose it because it was absurd to me. I wanted to show, personally, that those who use hard swords or heavy swords have been making a complete fool of themselves.”
“Show what, exactly?”
“That a heavy sword is not merely a matter of brute force.”
“Um… but didn’t you just say that because I’m naturally strong from external arts, I’d suit the Youyu Mugeom Sword Art…?”
When I asked that in confusion, Extreme Sword answered with the same calm smile as before.
“Even if one lacks strength, if one awakens to the subtle principles of the heavy sword, one can surpass those who simply force their way through with power alone. So then, what do you suppose happens if you add strength on top of that?”
Hearing that, I understood at once.
She had reached the grandmaster’s level by comprehending the heavy sword even while possessing little physical strength herself, so she could say something like that.
She wanted to see it through me—wanted to witness a version of herself that had gone beyond her own limits.
In a way, this might be the true end of the Youyu Mugeom Sword Art.
“So then, let us be off. Thanks to that fellow named Rippling Wave Sword, there are plenty of people who need sorting out, so this may turn into an opportunity after all.”
And with that, it became a sentence of doom for the evil sect rabble who had come prowling into this part of Hubei.