Chapter 21
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Translator: MJK
Chapter: 8.3
Chapter Title: Chapter 8. Mi Bang
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The title of Radiant Sword was nothing more than a nickname slapped on by the Mi Family to save face.
In truth, Blood Sword was a far more fitting name.
The mere fact that he had wiped out an entire clan just for sheltering someone he was hunting sent chills down the spine.
Shing.
The moment he drew his sword, it became clear his infamous reputation was no exaggeration.
An overwhelming wave of killing intent surged from him.
"Hoo... You mangy mutt!"
Facing that murderous aura head-on, White Wolf spat a curse and launched himself forward.
His blade flashed, unleashing a streak of blade qi. Mi Bang's sword gleamed in response, whipping up a massive gust of wind.
Rumble!
With that, White Wolf's blade qi warped and shattered into pieces.
White Wolf's face twisted in shock.
He couldn't believe his blade qi had been eroded away like mist in the wind by sword wind rather than sword qi.
Only then did he realize Mi Bang was a far greater master than he'd imagined.
But retreat was the last thing on his mind.
He knew martial prowess wasn't everything in a fight.
Grit.
Clenching his teeth, he began unleashing the White Wolf Celestial Charge—the essence of the White Wolf Sword Art left behind by the man once called Blade Ghost.
A momentum on an entirely different level erupted from his blade.
It was a primal ferocity too savage to belong to a human.
"Excellent!"
Mi Bang welcomed the brutal killing intent that seemed ready to shred him to pieces.
As if to say, "Now that's more like it," a stream of sword qi finally poured from his blade, brimming with malice.
Kakakang! Kaaang!
Boomb boom boom!
The air trembled violently from the ceaseless clashes of sword qi and blade qi.
Malice and bloodlust tore at each other's throats in a savage frenzy.
Despite the glaring difference in their levels, White Wolf refused to yield.
His life had been one endless struggle, and it continued now.
His fighting spirit wouldn't break until death—and so he unleashed the White Wolf Celestial Charge with all the fury of a blaze consuming everything.
Shh shh shh slash!
Boomb boom boom!
Was it the influence of his unyielding defiance?
The Black Sword and White Blade duo, who had been battling Mi Bang alongside White Wolf, gathered every ounce of their strength to join the fray.
Their combined assault was legendary.
Rumors even claimed they could stand against Superlative Realm experts.
There might have been some exaggeration, but the whispers weren't entirely false.
Boomb boom boom!
One could tell from how their razor-sharp sword winds and blade winds frequently pierced Mi Bang's defenses.
"Annoying!"
Mi Bang furrowed his brow. He wanted to push White Wolf's White Wolf Celestial Charge to its limits and crush him, but these interlopers were disrupting his flow, and he couldn't hide his irritation.
As his sword strokes grew wilder, the White Wolf Celestial Charge seized the opening. Its honed fangs bared in ferocious hunger.
"Hmph!"
Boom!
Seeing this, Mi Bang scoffed and stomped the ground hard.
Rumble rumble!
In an instant, his silhouette blurred like a raging gale, twisting the flow of the White Wolf Celestial Charge that had been about to end him, fangs and all.
"!!!"
White Wolf's eyes wavered.
He never imagined his White Wolf Celestial Charge could be deflected like this.
Meanwhile, Black Sword and White Blade were gripped by terror.
The horrific malice that had targeted White Wolf now turned on them, leaving them utterly unable to resist.
"...Is this the end?"
Having survived through tenacious battles, they felt a strange sense of relief amid the fear upon realizing their end had come like this.
At least they weren't dying to some nobody.
Whoooosh!
Seeing Mi Bang's sword arcing toward them, they finally closed their eyes.
"...?"
Yet as time passed with no pain, they opened them in confusion.
They had braced for being bisected at the waist, so their bewilderment only grew.
Were they already dead? But the chill of the swords still gripped in their hands proved otherwise.
Only then did Black Sword and White Blade cautiously open their eyes.
But what they saw only deepened the mystery.
A small boy, barely reaching their shoulders, stood facing Mi Bang.
Even more astonishing was Mi Bang's demeanor.
His face was a mask of shock and disbelief, as if he'd beheld a ghost.
'What the hell just happened?'
'That inhuman bastard is making that face?'
From their perspective, the questions only multiplied.
What could have happened in a mere few seconds?
They weren't the only ones wondering.
Even White Wolf, sword drawn and watching from five zhang away behind Mi Bang's obscured view, doubted his own eyes.
He replayed the moment in his mind.
"Urgh!"
Having missed Mi Bang's movement, White Wolf hurriedly swung his blade to interfere.
But the half-breath gap was too wide.
His body and sword felt agonizingly slow as he helplessly watched the enemy's strike incoming.
He expected the sword qi extending from Mi Bang's blade to tear them apart, but what followed was different.
Mi Bang's body seemed to split in two for a split second before he sheathed his sword and retreated half a step.
"!!!"
White Wolf's eyes widened once more.
He recognized what Mi Bang had just performed.
'Shifting Form Exchange Position...'
It was imperfect, but unmistakably the legendary technique known only in name.
Yet what truly shook him came next.
The reason Mi Bang had needed to use Shifting Form Exchange Position.
The young warrior An Hoe—who had drawn him here—stood right there, his sword tip precisely aimed at Mi Bang's heart from half a step away.
"Ho?"
Mi Bang felt goosebumps at the boy's intrigued expression, as if he'd never expected his strike to miss.
A half-step from the Flower Realm, he could tell just how absurd that sword was.
'If I hadn't grasped even a fraction of Shifting Form Exchange Position's principles...'
He would have died to that single blow, no doubt.
The implications were enormous.
Even though it was a surprise attack, he had completely missed the boy's sword and movement.
As if to emphasize it wasn't luck, the boy shook his head.
"This just got troublesome."
"..."
Despite the child chattering away at him like that, Mi Bang couldn't muster a word.
His innate instincts screamed that this boy was dangerous.
Arrogant as he was, he wasn't foolish enough to ignore them.
He considered retreating for a moment, but knew it was impossible.
White Wolf loomed behind him, Black Sword and White Blade on the other side.
Escaping this setup would cost him at least an arm.
"Quick judgment too... I was right to draw these fools in."
"!!"
Mi Bang's face paled further at An Hoe's words.
This bizarre arrangement felt like a trap—and clearly wasn't coincidence.
An Hoe readjusted his grip on his sword and asked,
"Nice blade you've got. What's its name?"
"??"
"Looks like it's on the verge of completion."
Gulp...
Mi Bang swallowed hard.
The "completion of the sword" he mentioned was tantamount to perfecting his own sword art.
"Wind Thunder Divine Sword."
"Wind Thunder Divine Sword, huh? Fine name. Alright! If you don't run, I'll show you its finale."
"...You mad bastard!"
Mi Bang couldn't hold back the curse at the outrageous arrogance.
But as An Hoe silently raised his sword, he hurriedly braced himself and fell back.
A demon harboring malice on a level beyond his own had appeared before him.
Tzzzzzt!
As the demon swung, the world seemed to split with the impact.
Startled, Mi Bang hastily unleashed his Wind Thunder Divine Sword.
He poured in all his inner force, but the clash's outcome was shocking.
Rumble rumble!
Boom! Boom!
He was blasted back twice, hard.
It defied logic.
Mi Bang's Wind Thunder Divine Sword surpassed in refinement and power.
Yet the demon's blade carried something inexplicable.
As the demon struck down again, Mi Bang retreated while swinging with everything he had.
But he was repelled once more.
That marked the start of his desperate struggle.
Kakakakang!
His Wind Thunder Divine Sword, piercing all like thunder, was blocked by the demon's playful swings and went nowhere.
Burst burst burst!
In turn, the demon's downward strikes shattered and crushed everything he threw at it.
It flew in the face of common sense.
As if his entire life's work was being denied outright.
His face contorted, complexion ashen.
But unlike his crumbling mind, his body mechanically swung the blade, etched with countless repetitions.
Over ten thousand slashes and thrusts, repeated in a state of no-thought.
Kaaang!
From then on, his sword no longer yielded helplessly to the demon's strikes.
Little by little, it began to live up to the name Wind Thunder Divine Sword.
Naturally, he noticed soon enough.
"Ah!"
Amid the dizzying battle, an incongruous exclamation escaped him.
A resonance of ecstasy and emptiness.
The final piece of his sword art, sought for over a decade, had been right there in his grasp all along.
To him, An Hoe sheathed his sword and stepped back, saying,
"True enlightenment is always like that. Infuriatingly close, yet impossible to see or touch... so all you can do is awaken to it."
"My thanks."
"No, thank you. Sword completion is a rare sight."
"......"
Mi Bang showed no reaction to An Hoe's cryptic words. A faint smile lingered on his lips, nothing more.
Click.
An Hoe shrugged and sheathed his sword.
Nearby, Black Sword and White Blade—who had held their breath watching—grew frantic.
From the looks of it, the boy who wielded his sword like a demon had just completed Mi Bang's technique.
But as he sheathed it and withdrew, they didn't know what to do.
White Wolf's reaction differed.
The more one knows, the more one sees—and having grasped how terrifying An Hoe's sword was, he felt his breath catch.
Only after An Hoe sheathed his blade and retreated did he realize.
Mi Bang was already dead.
Whoooosh!
A scorching hot wind brushed past him, but he shuddered as if struck by frost.
He didn't dare glance at An Hoe's retreating back, only turning his head once the boy had vanished completely.
What entered his view were Black Sword and White Blade, tense and at a loss.
"Ha..."
The sight sapped his strength.
Shing. Click.
He sheathed his white-edged blade and said,
"That man's dead."
"Pardon? Dead?"
"When...? He looks alive, though?"
No pierced heart, no severed head.
No heavy bleeding either, so they struggled to accept White Wolf's claim.
Like them, White Wolf had no idea how it happened.
But denial wouldn't change the facts.