Chapter 38
Only one enemy remained before me, and he looked dumbfounded, as if he still couldn’t understand how two of his men had been brought down in a single exchange.
“How long are you planning to just stand there and watch?”
At my words, Unga raised his sword again. But there was no fighting spirit left in his eyes.
“You think being tough is your only good point?”
“……”
Unga said nothing. I looked at him and smiled faintly.
“If you’re hard, then I can make this hurt longer.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I launched myself at him. My sword flashed, and in an instant it began carving into his body.
Clang!
Claaang!
Metallic rings burst out where steel struck steel against his body. At first he tried to block with his sword, but soon realized that was impossible and poured everything into offense instead.
Not that his blade ever came close to reaching me.
“Damn, you really are hard.”
As if he couldn’t hear me, he swung wildly, almost like an insect flipping over and thrashing just before it died.
Of course, if I wanted to, I could have cut through his body all at once.
But there was no need to waste that much inner power splitting him in two. He’d given up defending himself completely.
There were all kinds of body-hardening martial arts in the Central Plains. No matter how tough you made your body, though, there were always places you couldn’t defend.
For example.
“Something I’m curious about. Is this part hard too?”
I tilted my head slightly, raised the height of my sword, and in a heartbeat slashed at his eyes.
“Ghk!”
It was the first sound that had escaped his mouth. Blood burst from his eyes in a red spray.
Unga clutched one eye with a hand and swung his sword with the other.
“Looks like your eyes haven’t been trained after all.”
I casually knocked his sword aside and placed a hand over his dantian.
Bang!
When my fist, packed with inner power, slammed into his dantian, I felt the thing shatter and the hardness of his body begin to melt away.
Unga coughed up blood as it surged backward and collapsed where he stood. I gave the back of his neck one last heavy press with my foot.
His body twitched once or twice, and then, as if his consciousness had finally gone out, all movement stopped.
“That’s the end here. I wonder how the Namgung brothers fared.”
My gaze shifted first to Namgung Mu.
“Well, this side went about as expected.”
Namgung Mu had already subdued two of them and was just about to finish the last.
The man really is something.
Namgung Mu had clearly been born different. His opponent was using orthodox techniques, so it would have been natural to hesitate or be caught off guard, but there was none of that in his movements.
His sword carried the imperial blade Namgung was known for. That was why there was no wavering in it.
“Now then, the only one left is…”
I turned my head and shifted my gaze to Namgung Gyeom.
“This side is about what I expected too, but…”
Unlike Namgung Mu, Namgung Gyeom still hadn’t properly subdued even one of the three.
No, he wasn’t just failing to subdue them. He looked like he was about to be sent to the afterlife any second now.
The fighters Namgung Gyeom was facing used simple coordination. Two of them attacked him head-on to disrupt his focus, while the third struck from the side.
It looked simple, but this was a combined assault by three peak experts. Naturally, it wouldn’t be easy to break through.
To my eye, Namgung Gyeom hadn’t improved much since the Treasury of the Divine Thief.
Of course, he wasn’t doing the reckless thing he had there, pouring all his strength into a blow that wouldn’t even land. If anything, his sword had become too cautious.
Do I have to spoon-feed him everything?
“Lift your right foot.”
At my transmission, Namgung Gyeom reflexively raised his right foot. At that exact moment, the blade from the man attacking his flank cut through the spot where his leg had been.
Namgung Gyeom let out a breath without meaning to. He must have realized it himself. If not for my voice, that leg would have been gone.
“Shut up. This is my fight!”
His angry voice exploded out. But before long he was breathing so hard that even anger became difficult.
Their swords were closing in on him, tightening the space he could move in.
“Twist your waist to the right.”
At my transmission, Namgung Gyeom twisted his waist once more.
At the same time, the enemies’ blades skimmed past the place his waist had been.
Instead of feeling relieved, he glared at me with an even more furious expression.
You should be too busy surviving to look at me right now. Keep that up and you’ll die.
At this rate, Namgung Gyeom was going to die by their hands.
Namgung Cheon didn’t seem inclined to help him either.
The old orthodox bastard was probably thinking something obvious.
It was Namgung Gyeom’s fight. Interfering would damage his honor. That sort of nonsense.
But I didn’t see it that way.
Honor?
That’s something the living win and claim for themselves.
Once you’re dead, that sort of thing is worthless.
I sighed and sent another transmission to Namgung Gyeom.
Quit acting up and listen carefully to what I’m saying. You’re stronger than those three. So why are you losing?
Namgung Gyeom’s face twisted at my words. Well, it did until the blade he was blocking grazed his left arm, and his expression turned to one of pain.
Because you’re swinging your sword like a moron. When you saw my sword in the Treasury of the Divine Thief, didn’t you feel anything? No, you don’t even need to look that far. When you see Namgung Mu’s sword, don’t you feel anything?
Don’t compare me to Namgung Mu!
It was the first time Namgung Gyeom had answered me through transmission. I could hear the rage in his voice.
That’s right. He was furious at being compared to Namgung Mu. Maybe more furious than at the idea of dying to those men.
The Boundless Sky Sword Technique, the Namgung sword, is not simply a sword swung with brute force. Namgung Gyeom. What you’re swinging right now isn’t a sword. It’s a club. Swing it like a sword.
Shut up!
I honestly wasn’t sure whether Namgung Gyeom understood me. In my eyes, the gap between his talent and Namgung Mu’s was the difference between heaven and earth.
That didn’t mean Namgung Gyeom lacked talent. It only meant Namgung Mu’s talent was absurdly monstrous.
Namgung Gyeom, as long as you ignored freaks like Namgung Mu, was still someone who could easily be called a genius.
There was only one thing I wanted him to understand.
A sword swung hard is not the same as a hard sword.
You had to put the right amount of force into the right moment.
Only when you understood that feeling could you truly wield a hard sword. No, the true imperial sword.
“A little better, maybe.”
As if chewing over my words, the force in Namgung Gyeom’s body gradually loosened. Yes. His movements were starting to become lighter.
He took up the opening stance of the Boundless Sky Sword Technique. His breathing began to settle into a steady rhythm.
And he stopped choosing defense.
The moment he blocked the two blades rushing him head-on, he detonated his inner force and drove their swords back. In the same instant, he seemed about to turn toward the man attacking from the side.
Then, in one swift motion, he took the man’s neck.
From that point on, the flow belonged entirely to Namgung Gyeom.
His sword moved with sudden force and lightness. Perhaps the others sensed his momentum had changed, because they resisted even more fiercely, but it did no good.
Namgung Gyeom swung as though he meant to smash through even the swords in their hands.
To those men, his blade must have felt like the imperial sword itself, crushing everything in its path.
To me, it was still a fairly weak level.
Thud.
Riding the current he had created, Namgung Gyeom’s sword cut down two men in succession, and their bodies crumpled.
“Haa. Haa.”
Ragged breaths spilled from Namgung Gyeom’s mouth. Namgung Mu approached as if to help him back to his feet.
“I can stand on my own.”
“Well done, Gyeom.”
“……”
At Namgung Mu’s words, Namgung Gyeom didn’t answer. He simply straightened and stood beside him. Of course, he didn’t forget to glare at me either.
Baek Mugeuk. Don’t ever interfere in my fight again.
If you’d fought well, I wouldn’t have had to.
Shut up. The next time we meet, I won’t let that mouth of yours keep running.
Then don’t just flap your mouth. Prove it yourself.
With that, Namgung Gyeom’s transmission stopped.
I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t use Namgung Mu as a reference and build his martial skills from there.
If there’s a superior expert right in front of you, and especially if he uses the same art, shouldn’t you steal from him if that’s what it takes to learn?
Maybe I couldn’t understand because I didn’t have siblings. Whatever the case, if Namgung Gyeom wanted to use the same sword as Namgung Mu, there was only one way.
He had to build and prove his own sword path.
After checking Namgung Gyeom’s condition, Namgung Mu came over to me.
“Bright Destroying Sword. You aren’t injured, are you?”
“I’m fine.”
“That’s a relief. More importantly, as expected of you. To subdue them all so quickly.”
“The ones on my side were a little weaker.”
“And modest as well.”
Namgung Mu gave me a friendly smile, then turned and went to Namgung Cheon. He lowered his head and raised his voice.
“Leader of the Blue Dragon Guard, Namgung Mu. Namgung Gyeom of the Namgung Family. Baek Mugeuk of the Baek Family. I report to Alliance Leader that we have stopped the traitors who infiltrated the Alliance Leader’s Hall!”
At Namgung Mu’s cry, Namgung Gyeom also bowed his head. It seemed I should probably lower mine as well.
Once I did, Namgung Cheon’s voice rang through the entire Alliance Leader’s Hall.
“You all saw with your own eyes what happened here, so you should understand.”
His thunderous qi crackled once before bursting outward. Its intensity was so fierce it seemed as if it might burn the air itself, filling the surrounding area with crushing pressure.
“An ambush was carried out against the Martial Alliance, and in the Alliance Leader’s Hall, no less! They struck at the Martial Alliance leader. I, Namgung Cheon, stake the name of the Martial Alliance leader on this: I will not let this pass.”
Namgung Cheon’s gaze, which had been on Namgung Mu, Namgung Gyeom, and me, spread outward to every warrior in the hall.
He passed over us and moved his attention to the people before him.
“And you? Will you just stand there and watch these rats who have seeped into the righteous faction?”
A brief silence filled the Alliance Leader’s Hall. Then, not long after, an unfamiliar voice spoke up.
“How dare anyone try to shake the righteous faction! I won’t tolerate it either!”
That was the signal. After that, new voices began to rise one after another.
“That’s right. The righteous factions have never failed to overcome anything when they stood together!”
“Tell them to come out again! This time, I’ll cut them down myself!”
Starting with one voice, the volume gradually swelled.
At that moment, I had to admire him. Namgung Cheon hadn’t become Martial Alliance leader by chance. With that one incident, he had turned around every opinion that had been questioning his actions.
I was a martial artist. Not a politician.
But Namgung Cheon was both. He knew exactly what kind of practical interests moved the righteous factions.
Maybe even the ambush had been within his calculations.
Amid the increasingly heated atmosphere, Namgung Cheon turned his head slightly and looked at me. Then he continued.
“When Bright Destroying Sword first entered the Martial Alliance, he said something to me.”
What is that old bastard trying to say now?
I frowned before I even realized it.
“He told me he would give me something. Do you know what that was?”
No one answered Namgung Cheon’s question. It made sense. I had never actually told him I would give him anything.
“What was it, Alliance Leader?” Namgung Mu asked as if he had been waiting for this. A smile curved Namgung Cheon’s mouth.
“He said he would give me a single righteous faction.”
……I definitely had said something like that.
Damn old bastard. Why cut the front and back off the story like that?
“Starting today, I will build a single righteous faction!”
It was a declaration of war. One powerful enough to shake the entire Central Plains.