Chapter 25
Baek Mugeuk launched a sudden strike, but Namgung Cheon blocked the sword far too easily, as if mocking the effort.
"Bold of you. As you said, that's one move."
Since this was a duel between orthodox martial artists, it would have been fair for him to act startled or accuse Baek Mugeuk of playing dirty, but Namgung Cheon simply carried on as if nothing had happened.
At that, Baek Mugeuk smiled faintly and took his opening stance once more.
"Hoo. Then I'll continue."
He swung his second sword strike, but once again it was effortlessly stopped by the Alliance Leader's blade. Baek Mugeuk did not pause, however, and sent the third and fourth strikes in rapid succession. And just as he was blocking them, the Alliance Leader murmured,
"That makes five."
Namgung Cheon casually fended off Baek Mugeuk's flurry. More interesting still, while blocking those four attacks, he had not once channeled his inner power, nor had he moved a single step.
As if to say that those attacks were no threat to him whatsoever.
"As expected, you're incredible."
Baek Mugeuk laughed awkwardly, then his expression grew serious again as he took his stance. At that moment, Namgung Cheon felt it. The boy's momentum had changed.
Is he trying to show me something this time?
When Baek Mugeuk stepped forward, Namgung Cheon began to anticipate what sort of sword would come next. Then phantasmic sword shadows burst from Baek Mugeuk's blade.
It was the sword Namgung Cheon had been expecting.
Baek Mugeuk's sword slowly extended toward him. Yet even as it drew near, Namgung Cheon's own sword did not move.
And just before that slow blade could land, Namgung Cheon's sword snapped out like a bolt of lightning and knocked it aside.
What was the proper answer to a sword that was both a real strike and a feint? The conclusion Namgung Cheon reached was surprisingly simple.
Wait until it becomes the real strike, then block it.
Baek Mugeuk found himself inwardly admiring Namgung Cheon's judgment. But he did not stop there. Once his strike had been blocked, he quietly intoned a sword form and pressed onward.
"Phantasm."
His sword path grew richer, spreading outward in all directions as he continued to thrust and cut. Gradually, the number of his lines increased, and the scent of plum blossoms began to fill the air more strongly. With that, Baek Mugeuk's sword rain began to pour down on Namgung Cheon.
"Oh... Plum Blossom Sword Art, is it? I heard you were expelled from Mount Hwa, but to display it at this level is astonishing."
"Expelled? I left on my own."
"Very well, let us leave it at that."
Even while they spoke, Namgung Cheon and Baek Mugeuk repeatedly thrust and parried at incredible speed. Yet Baek Mugeuk's sword never once reached Namgung Cheon.
It had become much like the duel between Gwak Pung and Baek Mugeuk: one-sided offense on one side, defense on the other.
Namgung Cheon was enjoying himself. When was the last time he had swung a sword and truly felt pleasure? When had he last grown excited enough that his own blade moved before he was fully aware of it?
It was a strange feeling, finding that enjoyment in a younger junior far beneath him.
"Is that all you're able to show me? Then that's a little disappointing, isn't it?"
Even though the agreed five exchanges had already passed, Namgung Cheon spoke as if he were genuinely disappointed. Baek Mugeuk's mouth curved upward.
"What good would it do to show the Alliance Leader anything?"
He sounded humble, but he was smiling. For a moment, Namgung Cheon felt a faint sense of unease. It was the instinctive warning of a martial artist that something big was coming.
"Gang."
At Baek Mugeuk's murmur, the phantasmal sword became even faster. Then, just before Namgung Cheon could block it, he withdrew the blade on his own. At the same time, he drew deeply upon the inner power within his body and sent out a heavy, forceful strike.
"Hup!"
At Baek Mugeuk's shout, he judged that it would be impossible to stop the charging sword without using his inner power. So Namgung Cheon quickly unleashed his own and thrust his blade toward it.
Kiiiiiik.
Steel met steel, and the unpleasant screech of metal grinding against metal rang out. For an instant, Namgung Cheon felt puzzled.
With a strike like that, there shouldn't be a sound like this...
That was right. Baek Mugeuk had unleashed a heavy sword strike, and Namgung Cheon had reinforced his own power to block it. There should have been, at the very least, a thunderous boom. But Baek Mugeuk's blade felt light.
A genius of the ages.
Namgung Cheon's confusion vanished in an instant. Baek Mugeuk's sword had not stopped moving. From the beginning, even that heavy strike had been a feint. He withdrew his blade again and immediately struck once more.
Kaaang.
Baek Mugeuk's attack was blocked by a hair's breadth.
Namgung Cheon, chilled to the bone, pressed his lips together and replayed what had just happened in his mind.
That was truly a split second. If I had been even a fraction slower, Baek Mugeuk's sword would have touched my abdomen.
"It took a little while, but that was the fifth exchange."
From phantasmic sword to heavy sword and back to phantasmic sword, Baek Mugeuk's swordsmanship had escaped the bounds of Namgung Cheon's imagination. Yes, switching from phantasmic sword to heavy sword in itself was not all that difficult.
But to perform a phantasmic sword that could be mistaken for a heavy strike? He had never even imagined such a thing.
"Remarkable."
"Not really. If the Alliance Leader hadn't held back, that would have been a one-move kill. Still, doesn't this mean I did pretty well?"
Baek Mugeuk gestured toward Namgung Cheon's feet.
The foot that had seemed as though it would never move had been pushed back a single step. Namgung Cheon lowered his head slightly and muttered,
"Interesting."
At the same time, a fierce aura burst from his body. Aura? No, not merely aura. It carried a fighter's thirst for battle within it.
* * *
"Let's enjoy ourselves a little longer."
With those words, the Alliance Leader extended his sword once more. In that instant, I felt it. A vast, overwhelming presence. His sword was... how should I put it? It needed no explanation. It was a pure orthodox sword.
"Hah!"
I found myself grinding my teeth.
Every time we collided, a blow that felt as though it would shatter my body washed over me.
His swordsmanship was close to textbook perfect, which made it even harder to block. Each time I fended off one of the Alliance Leader's strikes, a chill ran down my spine. Every single exchange was dangerous.
"Alliance Leader. Maybe we can stop now?"
I spoke while blocking another strike that made my back go cold, but the Alliance Leader said nothing. At that moment, I looked into his eyes and thought,
I'm screwed.
All I could see in them was his thirst for battle. Right. He had slipped into a state of pure combat absorption. In his eyes, there was no one before him except the opponent holding a sword. Which meant I had to wake him from that state.
"Alliance Leader? At this rate, I'm going to die."
But it's not easy to break a peak master's trance once they've entered it. At first, the Alliance Leader's sword had been adjusted to my level, but little by little, it began to speed up and gain momentum. Along with it, the inner power he was using became increasingly enormous.
How many strikes had I blocked? It hadn't been very long, really. Yet I could feel the inner power in my body drying up at a rapid pace.
My body was starting to accumulate wounds. That was the difference between the Alliance Leader and me right now. If the Alliance Leader had truly intended to kill me, it would have been impossible to block this much at all.
Crack.
It wasn't the time to be thinking such things. I clenched my jaw and moved again. But in that instant, the Alliance Leader's sword shot toward me with frightening speed.
This one is real.
It was a simple thrust. But it was a thrust from the Alliance Leader, the pinnacle of orthodox martial arts. If I failed to block it, I would definitely die.
"Fuck off!"
I lowered my stance, angled my sword diagonally against his, and poured out every last drop of inner power I had left. In that instant, I knew it. I couldn't stop it. The Alliance Leader's overwhelming inner power was bending the sword's path toward my throat.
I was angry. No, furious. I had never imagined I would die so pointlessly after winning this life back.
Then I heard it in my ear. The crisp snap of a finger being flicked.
Clack.
For a moment, time seemed to stop. Literally just a moment, an instant's worth of time. But in combat between martial artists, that instant was worth a fortune. It could kill a man or save his life.
I didn't question the situation. I simply twisted my body quickly to the side and turned my blade.
Then the Alliance Leader's sword slid along mine and shot past to the side. His sword embedded itself in the wall behind me, and in an instant, with a huge explosion, it turned the wall behind us to dust.
"Barely managed to deflect it."
I drove one knee into the ground. I felt like I might black out any second. Because my inner power had dried up? No. This felt different. I could feel something like an abyss closing in on me.
I turned my head and looked at the Alliance Leader. He had gone pale, as though realizing he had almost made a grave mistake.
"Are you all right?"
With a worried expression, the Alliance Leader came toward me. He had come to his senses.
Of course, the words never actually left his mouth.
Fuck... he came to his senses fast!
With the thought I never got to voice, I lost consciousness.
* * *
At some point, I came to. But I couldn't see anything. By reflex, I tried to move my body. Yet not a single muscle responded.
Given the intermittent sounds around me and the strong scent of medicine, it seemed I was in an infirmary.
It was strange. I had never experienced anything like this in my life. My mind was clear, but my body refused to move.
The moment I was certain I couldn't move, my head filled with the duel against the Alliance Leader.
Well, whether calling it a duel was appropriate was another matter.
Still, the Alliance Leader was extremely strong. At my original level, I would naturally have won, but with my current level of skill, there was no way I could.
I wondered whether there had been any way to win at all from where I was now. My thoughts began to sharpen rapidly.
With my current cultivation, was there no way to beat the Alliance Leader?
Should I have blocked this sword and dodged that one?
Should I have fought not to defend, but with the intent to kill him?
I didn't know whether I could still reach that state of total absorption, but in my own judgment, I had entered it.
And yet no matter what method I imagined, I couldn't picture defeating Namgung Cheon in a duel. And once I reached that answer of failure...
A calm scent of tea drifted into my nose. Then I slowly opened my eyes.
"You're awake?"
I slowly turned my head. There stood the Alliance Leader, Namgung Cheon. He scratched his head as if embarrassed.
"How's your body?"
"Does it look fine to you?"
"Heh heh..."
He gave a light laugh, then drew a small wooden case from inside his robe.
"I do apologize. I got carried away like a fool. Take this and let that irritation go, all right?"
...
In truth, the Namgung Cheon who had stood in the Alliance Leader's hall had looked like an authoritative man who crushed everything through force. But the man before me now seemed rather different from that image.
"What is it?"
"Namgung Bosimdan."
"What's that? I've never heard of it."
"An elixir passed down only to the direct descendants of Namgung. It's especially good for nourishing the body."
"Why are you giving something this precious to me?"
"At the end of the day, it was my fault, wasn't it? Well, if you hadn't used up all your inner power, you wouldn't have collapsed like this either, but still."
...
What Namgung Cheon was saying now was simple. The sword I had truly believed would kill me had, in fact, left him room to withdraw it right before it reached me, even though he had entered that state of combat absorption.
"That's not very believable."
"Believe it or not, it's the truth."
He'd launched a killing strike and now he was being shameless about it.
I pouted and pointed at the Namgung Bosimdan in his hand.
"Then why give me this?"
"Let's just say you were worth it. Though I suppose we'll have to see about that in the future."
"Haah. Fine, I'll take it as a gift because you're sorry. Is saying 'I'm sorry' really that hard?"
I muttered under my breath, making sure he could hear me.
At that, the Alliance Leader cleared his throat and looked away. Then, as if a good idea had just struck him, he clapped his hands together.
"All right. I'll grant you one thing you want. Let that grievance go with that, how about it?"
"Really?"
"But only if it's something I can realistically give you."
"You're being awfully vague about that."
"Can't be helped."
I thought for a moment. What should I ask for?
Actually, did I even need to think about it? It wasn't exactly the way I had imagined it, but there was only one reason I had come to Henan in the first place.
"I want to recover from my internal injuries in peace."
"I'll give you one manor."
"I don't want anyone disturbing me."
"Which is precisely why I'm giving you one manor, isn't it?"
"In that manor? The one where martial artists from the Murim Alliance can come and go every day to teach me?"
"...Then what exactly do you want me to do?"
"Give me a space completely cut off from the outside."
"There's no such place in Henan..."
Namgung Cheon began to sound troubled, then stopped short.
Yes, there had to be one thing coming to mind.
A place completely cut off from the outside, surrounded on all sides by walls, where even light did not enter.
Namgung Cheon, having taken the bait, hesitated and then spoke with difficulty.
"There is one. But that place is a bit... much to send as a favor."
"Just say it plainly."
"The Murim Alliance's prison."
"Huh?"
Perfect.
I barely managed to drag the corners of my mouth back down and frowned.
Namgung Cheon must have realized how strange his suggestion sounded, because he spoke gently.
"The only place that can block off the outside to the extent you want is a solitary cell in the prison. If you dislike it, give me some time and I'll look into other options."
"Hmm... I'm not satisfied, but I do want to deal with my internal injuries quickly, so... I guess I don't have a choice."
"Then I'll make the arrangements."
"Understood..."
I had gotten what I wanted, but I couldn't be happy about it so easily.
Being sent to prison hardly seemed like something to celebrate.
Besides, if I pressed a little more...
...something else might come out of this.
Keeping my head bowed, I murmured in a low voice, making myself sound as miserable as possible.
"Sending a patient to prison... and that being the best the Alliance Leader can do..."
Seeing me like that, Namgung Cheon let out a light sigh. Then he spoke again.
"Fine... I understand. Let's say that one doesn't count as a request. Tell me one more thing you want."
"Really?"
I lifted my head a little. Namgung Cheon nodded.
This... works?
I hadn't known this sort of sulking would work on the Alliance Leader. Maybe the old man was softer than he looked. If I could keep using this in the future...
It would be a great help.
"Then I'll save that promise for later."
"You should. But as I said before."
"Yes, yes. Something you can realistically do, Alliance Leader."
"Understood."
When he finished speaking, Namgung Cheon gave a small shake of his head. I smiled faintly at the sight and reached toward the wooden case.
"Now give it to me."
"Eat it in front of me."
"Yes. It's a family secret medicine or whatever, so fine."
Even though I said I understood, the Alliance Leader still did not hand me the elixir.
"I have one more thing to ask."
"Yes. Go ahead."
"How exactly did you block that sword?"
"Pardon?"
You damned old man.
So the claim that he had left room to withdraw the strike was a lie after all. Otherwise, he wouldn't be asking me that question.