Chapter 199
Chapter 199
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 199
Chapter Title: The Sword That Reaches the End
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I swung my sword.
I always swung my sword.
But I had no idea what I was swinging it for.
I just swung it endlessly, grasping at some invisible something.
The world was silent, not even the sound of wind reaching my ears. Everything was still, as if time itself had stopped, tightening around my throat.
Every moment felt like death. No, perhaps I was already dead.
Yet still, I gripped my sword. For some reason, I moved what existed to begin something and aimed for its end.
I took a step forward.
And brought my sword down.
Then I began to crawl toward the sky.
Even if the entire world stood still, I kept moving. I had forgotten my goal, but I didn't stop.
That was everything for me. Repeating moments like the frayed edge of life, never letting go of my sword for my own sake.
Blood dripped from the swinging blade. It thrashed about, losing even its shape.
Still, I didn't stop. I crawled toward the unseen place.
It didn't matter if I wandered the nine heavens. It didn't matter if I lost everything in the world.
I was the sword.
And the sword was me.
The sword I swung endlessly in the halted world finally reached its end. At some point, it touched the wall and could go no further, coming to a halt.
And I...
Heard a sound.
I turned my head. I moved my feet toward the sound.
Colors growing gradually deeper. In the stopped world, I discovered the black thread tied to my arm.
Someone guided my hand. Someone pushed my back.
And...
"Third Brother."
I saw him.
"You're too early."
"......."
I couldn't remember his face.
But from that voice, that tone, I uttered his name without thinking.
"...Ja-myeong?"
"Go. Won't the one calling forget?"
The voice still echoed. The figure pushing my back and leading me forward came into view.
A small child and a tall woman.
A girl with white hair and...
A woman with black hair.
"Third Brother. Let's share drinks later."
"...Ja-myeong."
"Good to see you."
My friend.
Seong Ja-myeong smiled.
"See you later, friend."
In an instant, my body was shoved away, falling downward. I closed my eyes without flailing.
The voice grew clearer. The black thread tied to my hand pulled taut.
...Right.
I need to climb higher.
Higher than this blockage...
Even higher.
High enough to touch the sky.
...
I opened my eyes.
I heard crying.
But I didn't know why it was audible.
Who am I? I couldn't remember that.
I couldn't understand the crying coming from in front of me either. Whose voice was it, and why were they crying?
I just wanted to swing my sword.
Like always.
"......."
My head hurt. And with that, the world slowly came into view beyond my open eyes.
Whispers reached me too. Unlike the crying, something whispered endlessly toward me.
It seemed mixed with faint sobs. Like shaking the head, refusing to part.
Something that made it impossible to close my eyes again. And amid it all...
A beast-like growl hid.
"......"
It groaned as if urging me to return. I listened quietly.
What are we, and why must we return?
I quietly asked it. And it answered me.
Don't you have dreams yet unfulfilled?
"......"
Dreams?
What is that?
I asked sincerely. Then the beast's frail cry gradually faded.
As if exhausted, it no longer howled. But I mulled over that final question.
Dreams... huh.
I must have been dreaming of something. But what was it?
I had forgotten everything. Life and death are like that from the start, aren't they?
No matter what feats you achieve, they're eventually forgotten. Even if you live joyfully, laughing and chatting with everyone, it all fades away in the end.
That's what time is. Why return to such meaningless things?
...But.
I focused on the ongoing cries.
Someone was crying. I realized the voice resembled someone's, yet didn't.
Who? Who did I think it resembled?
Unfulfilled dreams...
What were they?
"......."
At that moment.
A small sigh reached me.
Reality thickening, the heavens fading. Between them, a voice both new and familiar sounded.
And that voice...
Was connected to the sword I had drawn only once after obtaining it, then never again.
Born devouring Heavenly Tribulation.
The sword that refused to be drawn by my own hand, carried only.
In that instant, I realized.
Who I was...
And what I had to do.
"...Gu...mang..."
I called its name. I drew breath. In a flash, the deepened colors brought the world fully back.
I moved my hand. Starting from my fingers, I focused, moving my body by my will for the first time in ages.
"...Is that... you...?"
The voice answered. In a frail tone.
Yes.
I let out a small sigh. The body I quietly raised creaked as it moved.
The sensation of movement felt foreign. But it wasn't that hard.
What puzzled me instead was right before my eyes.
"Daddy... Daddyyy..."
A small one was crying.
A girl about Sua's age.
I looked down at her quietly.
In her sobs, unaware I had awakened, I heard the weeping of the daughter I had left behind.
"...Ah."
My actual voice touched reality. The child collapsed before me flinched.
A gaze looking up. With it, waves of memory slowly returned.
Within them, I realized I had truly crossed the 'death line' and come back.
"...B-Big brother...?"
Why was the child before me calling me big brother?
But I reached out. I wiped the young girl's tears.
I didn't know the full story, but I didn't want to see the child cry.
"......"
I fully raised my body. Dirt and clinging vines fell away.
In the gradually returning sensations, I felt my changed body.
The swords had reduced from four to one.
But they hadn't vanished somewhere.
I sensed the spirit energies drifting around me. With senses sharper than before. As one who had truly tasted death and returned to life, I realized my eyes were now open to sights I had never seen.
Not a stroke of fortune... but inevitability.
What brought it to me was the beast's faint cry.
I felt the Heavenly Tribulation writhing within me. This child had led me, and the spirits of the Ghost Sword, having lost their form and drifting around, had held me to the present world.
"...Baekya. Heukju."
Yin and yang energies.
The spirits that had protected me even without bodies were sucked into the one remaining sword at my brief call.
I slowly drew the sword. Its blade, gleaming like blood, contained my very life.
The sword that returned when all had forgotten.
Nine Forgets.
Gathering fragments of the shattered Blood Sword and Ghost Sword...
The blade forged directly by Nine Forgets itself gleamed in the sunlight.
I recognized it was made of my blood and sweat over that time. It wasn't an exaggeration to say the time I had honed was melted in, solidifying the gaps between fragments.
The Nine Heavens Blood Demon Sword itself...
Now fused with Blood Sword, Baekya, Heukju... into one true Ghost Sword.
"...Hoo."
I raised my eyes and looked ahead. It wasn't just seeing natural energies; no matter what I dreamed, it felt like I could wield more than that from my fingertips.
How much time had passed? I didn't know. But one thing was clear.
Time to move.
Toward the crying child.
That should be the start.
"Do you... need help?"
"......."
The child slowly nodded. I carefully picked her up.
Where was Sua now? Had she safely reached the cult?
What had become of the current world to begin with?
...For now.
Handle what's in front of me.
"Let's go."
If not for this child, I might have slept longer.
"To your parents."
...
The great war between the Heavenly Dragon Society and the Apostle Alliance.
Two years had passed since then, they said.
It felt like I had just blinked, yet two years. And not just that-rumors swirled that the cult, the Apostle Alliance, and the Murim Alliance were now locked in territorial wars, fighting almost daily.
"B-Big brother... are you an immortal?"
"Who knows."
I'm no immortal.
But it felt like I'd brushed that threshold...
I had skipped a stage. To explain precisely: death.
The sword I swung within it elevated my level further.
I had refined what I learned, aiming to see its end.
And during that, I might as well have been truly dead.
The Nine Heavens Blood Demon Sword grows stronger the closer to death. And for two years, it had truly bordered death.
Without missing a day, I swung my sword within.
I had already broken through countless walls. And so, I was now far beyond my former realm.
Transcendent Realm.
I must have at least entered what Jin Baek-cheon called that.
If I refine what I've learned myself...
I might go beyond even that.
It felt like I could see more than what met the eye. And I felt it in my body too.
The boundary between life and death. The vivid line of blood between them.
I had become one with Heavenly Tribulation. It was me, and I was it.
A human body bearing the weight of countless karmas.
This must be...
Similar to the world Sua sees.
It wasn't just a rise in realm. I realized the acute senses at my fingertips and my gaze brought vast information.
Mind's Eye.
With it awakened, any movement seemed easy to follow. Moreover, my body-crushed to nothing and reformed-was reborn as the optimal vessel for learning martial arts.
Third life...
That might be how to put it.
It's odd saying it myself, but... persistent, aren't I? Truly.
But good. That's why it's good.
Isn't this a life built from what I've stacked myself?
Tearing the heavens and crawling back down, forcibly grasping...
Talent piled through effort.
I reflected on the life I'd lived. And in it, I caught the scent of a dream that still burned.
Heavenly Tribulation.
Baekya.
Heukju.
Nine Forgets.
And above all...
The Blood Sword I had forged myself had led me here.
So, I must show results worthy of that.
"An immortal, huh."
"......."
"Not quite."
"R-Really...?"
"But I'm planning to catch up to someone like that."
With Yuk Hae-won in my arms, I walked in the direction she pointed.
Yuk Hae-won and Yuk Nam-pyeong.
They had taken care of me, they said. Repaying that kindness was only right, in my way.
The nearby village teemed with people. But the atmosphere wasn't cheerful.
Everyone passing by had grim expressions. Some kept their heads so low their faces were hidden.
Strange vibe. I set Yuk Hae-won down. I grabbed a passerby and asked.
"Is there a man named Yuk Nam-pyeong around here?"
He flinched.
"A friend of Nam-pyeong...? N-No time for that! Run, quick!"
The man pushed me firmly.
"Nam-pyeong's done for! He's caught!"
"...Caught by what?"
"Forced conscription! One of the Apostle Alliance's military officers is randomly grabbing able-bodied young men for the fight! Nam-pyeong was forcibly drafted and is headed to the Apostle Alliance now! The officer's still prowling around, so hurry and get out! You can't leave that child alone...!"
"You there!"
The old man flinched. He was shoved to the ground by a man.
The man standing before me looked me up and down. Several warriors stood behind him.
All in the same attire. But the one before me wore clothes marked with "Armor."
Apostle Alliance warrior... I suppose?
"Good build, sharp eyes. Join the Apostle Alliance."
"Oh no! Sir! He's the man watching after Nam-pyeong's only daughter! If the father leaves and even he goes, what happens to Nam-pyeong's little girl?!"
The old man clung to his pant leg. The warrior kicked him away irritably and eyed Yuk Hae-won beside me.
His gaze gleamed with desire.
"Leave the child to me. I'll take good care of her personally."
Blunt. I sighed.
Still, out of courtesy, I asked politely once.
"Where is Yuk Nam-pyeong?"
"Hand over the kid! Yuk Nam-pyeong or whatever isn't my problem! Didn't I say I'd raise her well?!"
With those words, I decided his fate. I snapped the hand reaching for Yuk Hae-won.
---Crack.
"...Huh?"
His limp arms dangled, bones crushed, swaying dangerously. He blinked, looking between me and his arms.
Belated screams erupted. The flinching warriors reached for their swords.
So I said.
"Only those who know Yuk Nam-pyeong's location should speak."
I grabbed the howling warrior's face with my hand.
As an example.
"Next time, it won't end with just breaking."