Chapter 4
Chapter 4
School Ghost Stories 2
“Gahk!”
The moment the halberd pierced my throat, the sensation of flesh tearing and bones shattering felt absurdly real. I instinctively grabbed at my neck in panic.
“Haah… haah…”
I rolled on the ground, clutching my throat, unable to reconcile what my senses were telling me with what my body felt.
I didn’t know how long I stayed like that.
“….”
A white, empty ceiling came into view. My head was still attached.
I had definitely died, and yet I was alive.
I had lived next to death for ten years. I thought I was prepared. But facing it directly was something else entirely.
A translucent window appeared in my vision.
[What matters is an unbreakable heart]
Grade: Unique
You return upon death.
Return.
So I had returned.
The man who had been waiting for death was now unable to die.
It was ironic, but strangely, it didn’t feel real.
Instead of relief at being alive, what lingered was the frustration of being killed so easily, and the freezing sensation of the blade that had gone through my neck.
The feeling of falling onto a damp floor still remained vivid.
Still clutching my neck, I slowly pushed myself up.
Thump. Thump.
It was still there.
The “Flame of Creation” formed through the Heavenly Demon Art still remained.
If anything, it felt slightly stronger than before.
[23:51:16]
The time limit in the waiting room had reset.
“…haah.”
I took a deep breath.
Now I could feel the flow of qi in the air naturally.
The first attack from the statue had been real.
Damn Kim Yu-sin. A sword-loving execution maniac who cut throats like it was nothing—he had taken my head off in a single strike.
The problem was that I hadn’t even perceived its speed.
With a body like that… and that speed.
Thinking alone wouldn’t give me answers.
I opened the gallery.
[Nameless Bodhisattva]
[He died before even starting lol]
[Proof that the newbie got wiped again]
[Where did he go this time☆]
They were already holding another cyber funeral.
Strangely, the gallery didn’t reset with the return.
I immediately hit the post button.
Title: I died the moment I entered floor 1 but I didn’t actually die
Author: 8.8
I decided to reveal my abilities here.
If I wanted to properly learn even a fragment of martial arts, hiding things would only slow me down.
Fortunately, there was no warning like “you’ll die if you reveal your return ability in the gallery.”
Reply: Kawaii Highschool Girl:
Return??? That’s insanely broken lol
So the girl from another world understood instantly.
Reply: Chief Monk of Salvation:
Return is nothing compared to the honor of receiving the First Ancestor’s Heavenly Demon Art. Hmph.
Reply: Kawaii Highschool Girl:
Shut up you cult freak
A question suddenly came to me.
Reply: 8.8:
Does return not affect the gallery?
Reply: Kawaii Highschool Girl:
Different dimensions, so obviously not
Reply: Chief Monk of Salvation:
This gallery is maintained by the First Ancestor’s divine authority. Even outer gods cannot interfere. There is no being above the First Ancestor. Hmph.
Reply: Blood Demon:
Immortality, huh. Interesting.
Reply: Kawaii Highschool Girl:
So why did you die?
Right. That mattered more.
Reply: 8.8:
The Kim Yu-sin statue in School Ghost Stories. It cut my head off.
Reply: Blood Demon:
Tsk. To think someone who learned Heavenly Demon Art would be defeated so easily.
Reply: 8.8:
I only had about 24 hours in the waiting room. Is there any way to handle this?
Reply: GalaxySmileGirl:
To break a statue with a sword, you need to coat it with qi. But at your level, there’s no way. Maybe you can just die a hundred times and keep swinging lol☆ since you return anyway.
A hundred deaths?
Ridiculous. My mind would break before my body did.
Reply: 8.8:
Is there no way to learn swordsmanship?
Reply: GalaxySmileGirl:
No teacher and just phone-swordsmanship? You’re better off learning through combat.
Reply: 8.8:
I already learned Heavenly Demon Art from text though
Reply: GalaxySmileGirl:
That’s because it was personally written by the First Ancestor☆
Reply: GoldHairBlueEyes:
Blood Demon, what do you think?
Reply: Blood Demon:
Don’t call me that disgusting name.
If you can die and return, then the simplest method is preemptive striking.
Reply: GoldHairBlueEyes:
Right right, preemptive strike means go first☆ so what technique?
Reply: Chaos Demon:
HEAVENLY DEMON THREE SWORDS
Reply: GoldHairBlueEyes:
Oh right, that exists
Reply: 8.8:
Heavenly Demon Three Swords?
Reply: GoldHairBlueEyes:
A simple sword technique consisting of slash, vertical cut, and thrust.
Reply: 8.8:
That’s doable even alone.
Reply: GoldHairBlueEyes:
But the qi circulation method is different. It’s an advanced art. But for you, it might be possible☆
Reply: 8.8:
Can you teach it?
Reply: GoldHairBlueEyes:
Wait a bit☆
Soon, a new post appeared.
Title: For the newbie☆
Author: GoldHairBlueEyes
(A cute chibi drawing explaining something enthusiastically)
The diagram was far more refined than the crude meridian sketch from the Kawaii Highschool Girl. Even the explanation of qi flow was detailed.
The Heavenly Demon Three Swords consisted of three basic forms: splitting mountain, cleaving sea, and piercing heaven.
But despite the simple forms, the circulation method was complex, and it was fundamentally based on the Flame of Creation.
A sword technique designed specifically for those who had entered the Heavenly Demon Art.
The name Heavenly Demon wasn’t just for show.
I gripped the sword and swung.
Wobble.
My body nearly lost balance.
Even swinging an 80cm sword was difficult with raw strength alone.
But when I recalled the technique, the Flame of Creation in my dantian stirred.
Following the diagram, I guided the qi through my arm’s meridians.
It felt like fire burning through my blood vessels. Intense—but manageable.
So this was it.
I swung again.
Splitting Mountain.
Whoosh!
The sound of the air changed the moment qi was infused.
But something was off.
The flame should travel from the dantian, through the arm, and to the tip of the blade—but it scattered around the hilt.
Again.
Same result. The energy spread thinly along the blade before disappearing.
Better than before, but still incomplete.
[23:00:59]
23 hours remained.
Swing.
Swing.
Swing.
I repeated it like a madman, thinking of the pain of being beheaded.
My muscles screamed and recovered endlessly due to the waiting room effect.
Hours passed.
At some point, the sword no longer felt like an external object.
It felt like an extension of my body.
Then—
I swung.
The blade ignited with qi.
It worked.
[00:05:12]
Only minutes remained.
The gallery was silent.
Title: The sword started glowing red while practicing Heavenly Demon Three Swords
Author: 8.8
Reply: GalaxySmileGirl:
In just one day??
Reply: 8.8:
Yeah. It just happened while swinging.
Reply: GalaxySmileGirl:
You’re seriously insane lol☆ even among sealed-body geniuses, you’re something else
Reply: GoldHairBlueEyes:
Of course, that’s because the teacher is amazing☆
Reply: Kawaii Highschool Girl:
Kawaii Highschool Girl is gone?
Reply: Blood Demon:
Tch. Interesting.
Reply: Kawaii Highschool Girl:
Newbie, don’t look away from Kim Yu-sin’s eyes.
She suddenly posted advice.
“Don’t look away.”
The memory of those black worm-like eyes made my skin crawl.
I steadied my breathing.
“Right.”
I posted one final message.
Reply: 8.8:
I’ll break it.
[00:00:03]
[00:00:02]
[00:00:01]
I closed the window.
Even if I didn’t know their faces, they gave me a strange sense of support.
[Waiting room time has ended. Moving to First Sink World.]
The white room collapsed.
Darkness swallowed everything.
A damp, moldy smell filled my nose.
And then—
A heavy metallic sound echoed from somewhere far away, enough to make my neck ache instinctively.
I opened my eyes and immediately pushed off the ground, flames of creation surging through my body.
This time… it was my turn.
You execution-loving bastard.