Repaying the Ambush (4)
At first, they ignored his words, but that didn't last long.
Plop, clink!
Weapons began dropping one after another as more surrendered.
"I'll surrender!"
"I won't fight anymore."
They were all the younger generation of the Swift Sword Hall.
"We never wanted to invade the Demon Sword Sect in the first place..."
They were also the senior brothers and juniors of Ok Jangcheon, who had just become the new hall leader.
Led by them, the fighting ground to a halt one by one.
In truth, the young ones of Swift Sword Hall had no desire to clash with the Demon Sword Sect.
Or, to be more precise, they yearned to befriend Hyeon Yucheon, the hope of the unorthodox factions and their rising sun—and to fight alongside him.
"What are you doing?! Fight! I said fight!"
Seeing most raise the white flag, former hall leader Bi Ryudam foamed at the mouth and bellowed.
"Have you no pride as Swift Sword Hall members?"
"Exactly! How long ago was it that our Swift Sword Hall suffered at the Demon Sword Sect's hands?!"
Even the elders chimed in, pointing fingers and hurling abuse.
"We'd heard the stories, but honestly, we never bought into them."
"Right. Why envy and resent the Demon Sword Sect's superior martial arts? Why justify it like that?"
The surrendering youths fired back instead.
The jealousy and envy toward the Demon Sword Sect was the old generation's racket, not theirs.
"Flash Demon Sword Unit! Black Wolf Three Swords seniors, stand down too!"
As Swift Sword Hall lost its will to fight, Hyeon Yucheon signaled his own men to halt.
In the end, the all-out clash between the two sects fizzled out all too anticlimactically.
Everything was unfolding exactly as Hyeon Yucheon willed.
At his command, the Demon Sword Sect group ceased all action and now surrounded Bi Ryudam and the elders.
"A wise call, Swift Sword Hall Leader. You look the part."
Hyeon Yucheon praised the new leader for ordering the fight to stop—the right decision.
This had been a test of him, really.
He'd wondered if the man could still act properly with the hall leader's hat on his head.
And the test wasn't over yet.
"Any more orders?"
Hyeon Yucheon asked again, and after a moment's hesitation, Ok Jangcheon spoke.
"Now... drive out those who are no longer part of our Swift Sword Hall."
He squeezed his eyes shut as he said it.
The ones he pointed to—those no longer of Swift Sword Hall—were Bi Ryudam and the elders.
There was one reason Ok Jangcheon phrased it that way.
'For our reborn Swift Sword Hall to endure, we must cut out the rot.'
It pained him to forsake old ties, but there was no choice.
New wine belongs in new wineskins, after all.
"I was going to anyway."
Hyeon Yucheon nodded at the new leader's words and strode calmly toward Bi Ryudam.
"Shouldn't we help, Captain?"
Dohyeonbo, leader of the Flash Demon Sword Unit and the Flying Spirit Sword Guest, asked.
"You still don't know the sect leader."
"Yeah, you think he'd bat an eye at that?"
"He'd just get angrier if we butted in."
The Black Wolf Three Swords chuckled in response.
In truth, aside from Bi Ryudam—one of the Sapa's Ten Great Experts and the One Extreme One Swift— the elders were merely at the peak realm at best.
And even that was past their prime.
"You filthy traitor bastard."
Bi Ryudam ground his teeth at Ok Jangcheon more than at the approaching Hyeon Yucheon.
"Why blame him? Shouldn't you curse your own thick skull for ignoring your hall leader and taking the Beggars' Sect's side to attack your own home?"
Hyeon Yucheon said coolly.
Truth like that was brutal violence to some.
"I'll kill youuuu!"
Bi Ryudam finally exploded.
He knew full well this opponent had bested Seon Ganggyun, Dark Heaven Leg Fist master of Great Dark Valley and his lifelong rival at a higher realm.
'But with the elders backing me...!'
He could create variables that way.
Of course, a few elders wouldn't change a thing.
If they just didn't get in the way, that'd be lucky.
Still, Bi Ryudam thought in his favor.
Humans were like that.
Extreme Swift One Heaven!
Bi Ryudam unleashed the Swift Sword Hall's signature art. If the Demon Sword Sect had the Formless Flash Quick Sword, then Swift Sword Hall boasted the Extreme Swift Heaven-Shaking Sword.
Shwaaaaa!
Like Hyeon Yucheon's art, it pursued ultimate speed.
No detours—just the fastest path!
The fastest sword is the strongest sword!
That was the martial principle piercing the Extreme Swift Heaven-Shaking Sword.
And sure enough?
Bi Ryudam's sword was blindingly fast.
Hyeon Yucheon could vouch: excluding Demon Sword Sect blades, this was the swiftest he'd seen under heaven.
Swish!
His strike even grazed Hyeon Yucheon's nape, severing a few strands of hair that fluttered away.
"Hyeon Yucheon! I've been rampaging through Sapa murim since before you were born!"
Bi Ryudam shouted, retreating slightly while signaling the elders.
Attack in my stead.
Boom!
The waiting elders unleashed their strikes, enduring even chattering teeth.
Of course, none would land on Hyeon Yucheon.
Heavenly Dominion Step!
He deftly evaded, rendering their assaults futile.
But a question arose in Hyeon Yucheon's mind.
'Why didn't Bi Ryudam press the attack?'
He wondered.
Bi Ryudam had infused his rage into that first strike and tasted some success.
Not total suppression, but a fine opening—yet he passed the follow-up to the elders instead of himself.
There had to be a reason.
"What are you scheming, you brat?!"
Right then, Bi Ryudam's next move flew in.
Heavenly Swift Violent Offering!
Faster than the first, this extreme swift sword strike accelerated relentlessly.
Screeeee!
The sound alone promised lethal wounds on a graze.
"Hup!"
Even Hyeon Yucheon struggled to dodge this tricky form.
'My sword is never slow!'
Bi Ryudam smirked, watching.
Pushing back the disciple of the Demon Sword Ghost Elder that Swift Sword Hall so envied—what could feel better?
Alas, it was but a sweet midsummer night's dream.
Formless Gas Sword!
If evasion failed, Hyeon Yucheon didn't bother.
He shattered the strike instead.
Bang!
In an instant, he erupted a beam of formless, radiant sword force and clashed with Bi Ryudam's incoming assault.
The result? Bi Ryudam's form scattered like mist.
"Wha—?!"
Bi Ryudam panicked at the unforeseen outcome.
"Fast. But your sword lacks weight."
Hyeon Yucheon's pinpoint critique followed.
An apt description.
Obsessed with extreme speed, Bi Ryudam's blade carried little heft.
Cheon Baeksang, the Demon Sword Ghost Elder, had always said:
Those of us who live by swift swords must beware most what?
A sword grown light.
No matter how fast, the swiftest under heaven—if it couldn't bear a warrior's weight and life's anguish in one stroke, it was useless, the most worthless blade.
Bi Ryudam's sword was precisely that now.
Plenty strong for one of Sapa's Ten Great Experts, but light on substance despite the speed.
And one more thing.
Formless Advance Sword!
Blocking the attack, Hyeon Yucheon swiftly unleashed sword force—not at Bi Ryudam, but the elders behind him.
Crack, boom!
The perfectly timed, exquisite strike pierced Bi Ryudam's blind spot; even the elders could barely react.
"Aaaagh!"
"Gah! Cough!"
Elders fell dead, pierced helplessly by the formless sword force.
Most over seventy, their vitality waned; Hyeon Yucheon's strikes snuffed their flickering flames.
"Why the elders all of a sudden?!"
Witnessing it, Bi Ryudam faltered in shock.
When facing many foes alone, strike the leader first—that was orthodoxy.
Yet Hyeon Yucheon did the opposite.
"Did you think I wouldn't know?"
Hyeon Yucheon uttered something eerie in reply.
"...!!"
Bi Ryudam jolted as if struck, eyes wide in horror.
He'd hit the nail on the head.
"Your Extreme Swift Heaven-Shaking Sword is truly superb. But it has a fatal flaw. Namely..."
Hyeon Yucheon gestured to the dying or fainted elders behind him.
"Each form is fast and mighty, but chaining follow-ups is exceedingly hard."
Hyeon Yucheon explained.
No martial art was perfect.
The Extreme Swift Heaven-Shaking Sword was remarkable, but its weakness lay in transitioning forms—requiring ample rest between strikes.
This stemmed from its assassin origins in Swift Sword Hall's lineage.
Assassins who failed to sever a throat in one stroke died to counters.
Unable to kill outright, they poured everything into single forms.
Thus, the sword demanded inevitable pauses post-strike.
"So you signaled the elders to attack, fooling the eye."
No one else might notice, but not Hyeon Yucheon.
Shiver!
All truths exposed, Bi Ryudam recoiled in terror, but Hyeon Yucheon wouldn't let him.
Time to end it properly.
Formless Spectrum Extreme Sword!
Hyeon Yucheon unleashed a mid-to-late Formless Flash Quick Sword form.
Some might ask why not the ultimate essence at the end—but no.
One doesn't slaughter chickens with an ox-cleaver.
Shwaaaaa!
In a contest to claim Sapa's swiftest sword, this form sufficed.
Hyeon Yucheon's formless sword force blazed with tremendous speed. Unlike Bi Ryudam's light blade, his brimmed with everything.
The difference was clear.
Slice!
Bi Ryudam's sword shattered pathetically. Unsated, Hyeon Yucheon's strike devoured onward, claiming his throat at last.
"You... too... fast...!"