Chapter 99
Chapter 99
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Part 24: Opening
-----------------------------------------------------------------
No one, especially not the elite Special Task Force members, could fail to sense the surge of killing intent right in front of their headquarters.
“What’s going on? What’s this?”
“A duel? A spar?”
As Jeong-a and the Three Absolutes Warrior faced off, every Special Task Force member who’d been awake in the headquarters rushed out without exception.
Those with superior lightness skills didn’t even bother with the gates, leaping straight over the three-story rooftop to appear.
How could self-proclaimed swordsmen miss out on a fight to watch?
Finally, unlike the others, the Escape Ghost Sword strolled out in full uniform.
“What’s the commotion?”
A Special Task Force member called Hwang answered him.
“The head maid of Won-gak Pavilion and the Third Young Master’s Three Absolutes Warrior are about to throw down.”
“The head maid...?”
“We know she’s trained in martial arts, but a Three Absolutes Warrior won’t be an easy opponent.”
“Hmm. Maybe we step in only if it turns into the worst-case scenario.”
The Special Task Force members spread out, making space for the Escape Ghost Sword.
Sure enough, the scene revealed a man and woman facing off, neither having drawn their swords yet.
“Hah...”
At the Escape Ghost Sword’s sigh-like exhale, Hwang glanced at the pair on the brink of clash and spoke.
“You always treated the head maid like your own daughter—didn’t you teach her even a little swordplay?”
The Escape Ghost Sword shook his head firmly.
“Never.”
Just then, another Special Task Force member asked the Escape Ghost Sword.
“If it has to happen, I’d rather see the head maid beat that hulking brute. Think she’s got a shot?”
He was mincing words, but no Special Task Force member here truly disliked the women of Won-gak Pavilion.
All eyes turned to the Escape Ghost Sword.
Ignoring the stares, he muttered.
“If she gets one-sidedly crushed in front of this many people, it’ll hit her hard mentally too...”
He clicked his tongue softly, and Hwang asked.
“One-sidedly? Who’s getting crushed?”
As the Escape Ghost Sword opened his mouth to reply, the Three Absolutes Warrior spoke first, addressing Jeong-a.
“Wench. The crowd’s gathered plenty now—I’ll beat that rotten habit out of you for good.”
Surrounded by onlookers radiating serious menace, the Three Absolutes Warrior paid them no mind.
Warriors of the main family wouldn’t interfere in a duel, after all.
If anything, this was a golden opportunity.
Once he properly thrashed her, she’d never dare call herself a warrior again.
“If you’re ready, draw your sword, wench.”
He warned Jeong-a, whose left hand still rested casually on her sword hilt.
Within his knowledge, no proper stance allowed such sloppiness.
But Jeong-a merely gazed at him leisurely, holding the same posture, showing no intent to draw.
He lowered his stance, radiating killing intent.
“If you’re not ready, then drop the sword now, apologize to all these seniors here and me for your warrior nonsense, and...”
Jeong-a, who’d been silent, let out a small sigh.
“Do all the Third Young Master’s warriors fight with their mouths?”
“What...?!”
His courtesy to an inferior was over.
Enraged, he gripped his leather-wrapped hilt with a twisting motion, and the sword screamed from its sheath.
Dropping into an extreme low stance, he twisted his body to conceal the blade behind him as his internal energy surged.
“Whoa...!”
The watching Special Task Force members let out soft exclamations.
“He’s mastered the Drawing Sword Stance to its limit...!”
“Impressive form.”
“One of the Three Absolutes must be the Drawing Sword Stance.”
Their gazes shifted to Jeong-a.
Even as tension peaked, she maintained her relaxed posture—left hand on hilt, bordering on arrogant.
“If he’s perfected the Drawing Sword Stance, what comes next is its essence...”
“Wonder if the head maid can withstand that first strike in her stance.”
“Too close, for one.”
Hwang, who’d been quietly studying Jeong-a’s posture, smacked his lips and tilted his head.
“That stance... I’ve seen it somewhere...”
At that moment, the Three Absolutes Warrior’s strike cleaved through everyone’s breaths like lightning.
It erupted like a cannon shot, shattering the sheath, the launched blade.
This was Sword Heart Sword Cry, the essence of the Drawing Sword Stance: Surge!
The Special Task Force members who witnessed that perfect strike instantly sensed Jeong-a’s defeat.
Everyone except two: the Escape Ghost Sword and Hwang.
A ear-splitting metallic screech rang out, and a sword soared high.
It spun wildly through the air.
Then it plummeted, bounced twice on the stone pavement, and clattered to the ground.
Crimson blood streamed from the Three Absolutes Warrior’s mangled grip.
His eyes fixed on the bluish blade pressed to his throat.
He couldn’t believe it.
He couldn’t comprehend what had happened.
His eyes shook uncontrollably.
One Special Task Force member, staring at Jeong-a’s stance, muttered in disbelief.
“Left-Hand Reverse Grip?”
Jeong-a held her sword in her left hand, upside down, blade to the Three Absolutes Warrior’s throat.
“She mastered an evil path among evil paths...?”
Left-Hand Sword and Reverse-Hand Sword had long been called demonic paths, but in Sword Clan terms, that was just standard parlance—no contempt intended.
The maids, who’d silently trusted in her victory till now, erupted in applause all at once.
“His draw was clearly faster...?”
“Posterior-first Strike subtlety in a bout like this?”
“What the hell just happened?”
The Special Task Force members doubted their own eyes.
They were masters who’d reached profound realms and had clearly seen Jeong-a’s counter, yet they couldn’t grasp what they’d witnessed.
Then Hwang spoke with a hollow smile.
“You all still don’t recognize that sword art?”
All eyes turned to him.
Hwang shook his head, as if he could scarcely believe it himself.
“That’s the Sword Clan Secret Sword: Flash Shadow Instant Sword, isn’t it?”
At his words, disbelief first washed over their faces.
“Flash Shadow Instant Sword...?”
But in the next instant, their expressions turned to shock.
“Flash Shadow Instant Sword?!”
Not one Special Task Force member here hadn’t been called a prodigy in their youth.
And every one had eventually surpassed mortal limits.
Yet none had ever attempted to learn the Sword Clan’s most notoriously difficult technique: Flash Shadow Instant Sword.
Any Luoyang Sword Clan warrior with talent above a certain threshold would try to master this secret sword.
But even among those overflowing with talent, those who achieved great success were exceedingly rare.
A counter sword of posterior-first strike and one-hit kill.
The blade that manifested those two concepts at their extremes in the real world—eight forms existing solely for those purposes.
That was Flash Shadow Instant Sword.
As the Special Task Force members gaped in stunned silence, the Escape Ghost Sword gave a wry smile.
“Left-Hand Reverse Grip. The sixth form of Flash Shadow Instant Sword: Evil King Devours.”
He shook his head.
It was the most perfected Evil King Devours he’d ever seen.
‘To achieve great success in Flash Shadow Instant Sword in that time...’
He gazed at Jeong-a with an expression of witnessing the inexplicable.
‘Head maid. What in the world are you?’
* * *
“F-Flash Shadow Instant Sword...!”
The Three Absolutes Warrior shrieked like he was having a fit.
Blood trickled from where Jeong-a’s sword had nicked his throat, but he ignored it and bellowed.
“Don’t lie! This is sorcery! Sorcery!”
Jeong-a withdrew her sword with a look of utter absurdity.
“No way! Once more! Let’s go again! I-I was just off guard for a second!”
He staggered toward his fallen sword, fumbling with his right hand.
But his damaged tendons betrayed him, and he grabbed it with his left.
“This time I’ll fight for real! C-Come at me!”
The flustered Housekeeper Ho Won yelled without understanding the situation.
“Y-Yeah! Go again!”
But Jeong-a had no such intention.
“The guests will arrive soon. Everyone, stand down.”
At her words, the Three Absolutes Warrior shouted.
“Why would guests come to a dump like this? Running away like a coward?!”
Housekeeper Ho Won shouted too.
“No guest of the Eldest Young Master would come here anyway—what difference does it make?!”
The Escape Ghost Sword followed Jeong-a’s gaze.
It was down the main road.
“Any Special Task Force members not in proper uniform, return to headquarters immediately!”
“What’s that mean, Captain?”
The Escape Ghost Sword pointed ahead.
“The guests are arriving.”
* * *
As expected, the Luoyang Sword Clan’s own people arrived first.
“I bear the commendation letter and gifts from the Director of the Operations Division of the Supreme Operations Council!”
“We represent the full Elder Council to offer congratulations and gifts to the Eldest Young Master!”
“I am the Fifth-Rank Housekeeper from the Inner Pavilion, bearing the Chief Steward’s commendation letter.”
The front gate turned chaotic in an instant with messengers bearing gifts and letters anyone in the Luoyang Sword Clan would recognize.
The maids Jeong-a had brought guided them flawlessly to waiting rooms or into Won-gak Pavilion.
Next came the congratulatory envoys dispatched from the Luoyang Sword Clan’s vassal and branch families.
“We are envoys from the Kaifeng Yeon Family, a branch of the Luoyang Sword Clan. Take us to the Eldest Young Master.”
“I am the envoy from the Sagong Family of Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, representing our family head.”
But that was merely the beginning.
“We are from the Mei Family of the Imperial Capital, come to deliver our former family head’s gifts and letter to the Eldest Young Master.”
“I serve the retired Grand Preceptor.”
A procession of carts and packs followed, bearing congratulatory letters and gifts from figures of staggering status with personal ties to Yeon So-hyeon.
“From Ham, External Advisor to the Imperial Secretariat.”
Housekeeper Ho Won stared in disbelief.
“The Mei Family’s former head? The Imperial Grand Preceptor? External Advisor to the Imperial Secretariat...?”
These were connections even the Second Young Master lacked.
No, that wasn’t all.
From those already ushered inside Won-gak Pavilion, to those heading to waiting rooms, to the endless line pressing from behind.
Not one was a name a mere housekeeper could dare face head-on.
The Three Absolutes Warrior, dragged aside by Special Task Force members and shoved into a corner, merely gawked blankly at the unending parade.
Crowning it all was a mighty shout infused with internal energy.
“Clear the way, everyone!”
All eyes turned rearward.
“The Vice Chief Eunuch of the Ceremonial Directorate arrives bearing His Imperial Majesty the Emperor’s decree!”
At the words “His Imperial Majesty’s decree,” everyone prostrated themselves.
“...His Imperial Majesty’s decree?”
Housekeeper Ho Won, who’d been standing there muttering dumbly, was grabbed by startled onlookers and forced to his knees.
‘What’s happening? What in the world is going on? Have I still not woken from last night’s dream?’