Invincible with Twin Swords

Chapter 2 : It Wasn't Coincidence, It Was Fate!

The Great Art of Ten Thousand Kalpas Reincarnation Soul Plunder.

It was said to be one of the soul-subduing arts secretly transmitted only to the leader of the Blood Cult. Gwideukja, who was an elder, somehow managed to learn it amidst the chaos.

Originally, soul-subduing arts were dark techniques that suppressed the target's soul and forcefully infused the caster's will into the body to control it.

However, this great art was different in that it didn't suppress the target's soul but sent it completely out of the body. If done properly, one could obtain a more powerful puppet. It was like entering an empty house without a soul.

But Gwideukja's explanation was that if the soul sent out of the body in this process couldn't find a place to go, it could return to its past self.

"Extract the soul and reverse time to return to my past self? But it's not that I will return, but that I 'can' return?"

"Isn't that why I said the possibility is thirty percent?"

"What happens if I can't go back?"

"I don't know either. It has never succeeded even once in the history of the Blood Cult. You'll probably become a vengeful ghost that has lost its place to return to."

"Then where on earth did that thirty percent possibility come from?"

"It's just my gut feeling! The gut feeling of this Gwideukja, who has experienced almost all the sorcery in the world and was even kidnapped by the Blood Cult to learn dark arts!"

"And if by any chance it succeeds, what happens to my past self? Will he be okay?"

"Hmm... I don't know about that. The soul might change while he's briefly asleep, or maybe..."

"Maybe?"

"He might suddenly collapse and stop breathing for a moment. Wouldn't you know that only when you go back to the past? I can only hope that nothing happens."

This man is more irresponsible than he looks.

It feels like he's just spouting nonsense because it's someone else's business, right?

Let's think!

Even if I don't follow this proposal, I will continue to train. Then I will reach a certain level. But even then, it will be difficult to face even one member of the Sword Unit. That's not the future I want.

If I follow the proposal, there are two possible outcomes.

Either I succeed and go back to the past to find that Heavenly Demon bastard and tear him to shreds, or I fail and become a vengeful ghost wandering the nine heavens...

If I become a vengeful ghost, I'll stick to the Heavenly Demon and at least give him nightmares.

In less than a quarter of an hour, I made my decision.

"Let's do it!"

* * *

After making the decision, I felt indifferent. There was no fear of failure. It wasn't something I could control.

I just do what I can.

Rather, Gwideukja was more restless.

"Hey, you... Why did you agree to do it if you were going to be so anxious? How did a man with no legs get up there anyway?"

Gwideukja was now on top of the tallest tree in the Valley of Abandoned Bugs, muttering something with his hands clasped together.

"Why are you offering prayers up there? Aren't you the best sorcerer in the Central Plains? Didn't you say even the Blood Cult leader deferred to you? If you're an expert, let's be calm like an expert."

The preparations went well, and the day came.

"Before I perform the great art, I have something to give you."

Gwideukja rolled up the sleeve of his right arm. A dark red tattoo of a bizarre shape covered his entire arm.

"Were you from the underworld? You don't look like it, but you must have played around a bit in your youth."

"It's a curse mark. A curse mark that seals power!"

Gwideukja picked up a rough stone from the ground and scraped off a corner of the curse mark. Then the blood vessels in the peeled part swelled up as if they would burst. It looked as if something alive was wriggling inside the blood vessels.

"It's a Black-Scaled Blood Serpent. It's a rare one born with black scales among the red-scaled blood serpents. Moreover, this one had been coiled up for hundreds of years in the Myriad Poisons Evil Barren Pond, where no living thing can even dip its foot."

"It's an amazing creature, isn't it? So did you take out its inner core and eat it?"

"The Black-Scaled Blood Serpent has no inner core. Many spiritual beasts gather their power in their inner core, but the Black-Scaled Blood Serpent lets its power flow with its blood."

It's a rare one, isn't it?

"If you draw all that blood and condense it to the very end, only one drop remains. That one drop is now flowing in my right arm. No, it would be more accurate to say it's pooled. It entered me, but this fellow didn't flow with my bloodstream. It just stays in my right arm."

Even as he explained, the blood vessels in his right arm, where the curse mark was peeled off, were wriggling like a snake. As if it would pop out at any moment.

"This is just from peeling off a part of the curse mark. I foolishly injected it because of this fellow's curiosity, which was hidden in the Blood Cult's secret archives... I couldn't control it with my abilities, so I sealed it with a curse mark."

"Why did you do something you couldn't handle? Tsk tsk. You were a person who quietly caused trouble. So what kind of power does that Black-Scale or whatever have?"

"Anyone can take its power, but it's difficult to control. The records say that it chooses its master and gives them an uncontrollable power, but I was not chosen."

So you don't know what kind of power it is? Are you trying to pass on something you don't know?

"It is said to instantaneously explode the power of one's internal energy by several times."

"Can I be chosen? No, even if I'm chosen now, will this power be carried over to the past?"

Even if I go back to the past, facing that monstrous Heavenly Demon will still converge on impossibility. I have to get everything I can get.

"If you want, I will pass this power on to you. If you are not chosen either, we just have to hurry with the great art before the power explodes."

Simply put, he doesn't know for sure, but he's saying let's just try it.

"I don't know if this power will be carried over even if you go back to the past. The possibility is high enough! This fellow tried to push its way into my consciousness and settle down, so it might be carried over to the past with your soul."

"It doesn't seem like there's anything to lose. Let's do that too. We're risking our lives anyway, so what the hell."

Once the conclusion was reached, Gwideukja pointed to several acupoints on his right shoulder, including the Jianjing point, and then cut off his right arm with a single stroke.

Gasp! This man is more decisive than he looks. If this was the process, I would have said no.

A man with no legs has now lost one arm, so how will he live here without me?

The red blood flowing from the severed arm gradually turned black, then clung together like a leech and began to move like a living snake. I've never seen it, but if the Black-Scaled Blood Serpent were alive, it would look like that.

Gwideukja took that arm, which looked like dozens of black snakes wriggling, and brought it under my empty right shoulder. Then, as if a leech was sucking blood, it dug into my old wound and attached itself as if it were my original arm.

Of course, I still had no sensation below my shoulder.

"How is it? Do you feel a pain as if your arm is being torn off and a feeling as if your bloodstream is reversing? If so, you were not chosen, so we must hurry with the great art."

"Pain? My shoulder just feels a little ticklish."

"Oh! Then were you chosen? Do you feel an unbearably hot energy from your right arm?"

"It's been five years since I last lifted a spoon with my right hand. What kind of energy would I feel?"

"Ahem..."

Gwideukja made a face as if he couldn't understand.

"I don't know what's going on. It doesn't seem to have been transmitted properly. It seems it was a power that couldn't be transmitted in the first place. Or the power disappeared the moment my arm was cut off."

It was a pity, but I had to accept it. It seemed it was a power that was not fated for me.

"Anyway, we have to hurry with the great art now. As you can see, I'm not in good condition. Hurry and move me."

I carried Gwideukja on my back, with Gwideukja's right arm dangling from my body, and headed to the open space in the Valley of Abandoned Bugs where the preparations for the Great Art of Ten Thousand Kalpas Reincarnation Soul Plunder were complete.

Unlike other places, not a single blade of grass remained. They were the traces of my efforts for five years. I also received good teachings from the Sword Emperor here.

I could only hope that the great art would succeed and I would get a last chance.

"Remember one last thing. If by any chance the power of the Black-Scaled Blood Serpent remains, and you can't control it, go to Jinping County in Yunnan and find a girl named Na Yeryeong."

Na Yeryeong of Jinping County, Yunnan...

"She's my daughter, but she's more talented than me. She'll be of no small help to you. It would be good if you could take care of her while you're at it."

He probably wanted to say 'please take care of her' more.

"I understand."

Finding and killing the Heavenly Demon and turning this world back is important, but what in this world is more heart-wrenching than one's own flesh and blood?

Knowing that feeling, my heart ached.

I hope you live well here at least.

"Lie down in the center!"

On the ground, bizarre patterns were intricately drawn with the blood of birds, prepared at some point. I lay down in the middle of it.

He said that during the casting of the great art, there would be a pain as if all the bones in my body were being torn apart and burned. Still, he urged me not to move at all and not to resist the external energy.

The pain of the flesh is nothing. I can endure it even if all the bones in my body are ground to powder and I'm burned alive.

I hear the sound of an unknown incantation in my ears. The sound gets louder and sweat flows endlessly from Gwideukja's forehead. The bird's blood pooled on the floor began to boil and emit light according to the shape of the pattern.

My whole body is burning hot. I calmed my mind and gathered my hands neatly below my navel.

Will I succeed and return to the past?

Or will I fail and become a wandering vengeful ghost that has lost its body?

In the midst of the pain of my whole body burning, I smiled slightly.

And my vision blurred and my consciousness was cut off.

* * *

It's dark!

I couldn't even tell if I hadn't opened my eyes or if this place was dark. I couldn't move a single finger, and my mind was so jumbled that I couldn't even think. It was only after a long time that I was able to think.

Did I succeed?

Where is this place?

Is it somewhere I stayed in the past?

Or is it still the place where the great art was being performed?

My body still couldn't move, but my senses were slowly returning.

The smell of wet wood filled the air, and I also felt the pressure of the heavy air that had been in a small space for a long time.

It feels like I'm trapped in a very small place.

I stretched out my left arm and fumbled for the place where my right arm was, no, had been.

I can clearly feel my right arm. As its existence was confirmed, I also felt a slight energy in my right arm.

I succeeded!

This absurd method had finally succeeded. I felt a thrill welling up in my whole body, and tears flowed from my eyes.

I got a chance. A single chance to put everything back in its place!

Born with a Heavenly Martial Body, I had controlled my dantian with the family's core technique, the One Circle Core Method, from a young age. It seems I'm not that young, so there should be at least a small amount of internal energy accumulated.

I can feel the energy in my dantian. Looking at its size, I must be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

To a martial artist, the dantian is like life. I spent a long time after losing my dantian. As I felt the power of my internal energy squirming alive, my emotions welled up as if I had come back to life.

Understanding the situation is the priority. I took a deep breath to calm my trembling heart. It seemed that my energy had returned a little now.

A space where one person can barely lie down.

It was blocked by wooden planks on all sides, and I could smell wet soil.

...I'm in a coffin!

It seems I haven't been buried for long, as I can still breathe with difficulty.

It won't be heard even if I shout, and my voice won't come out anyway. I can't be buried in the ground like this as soon as I've returned to the past with such difficulty.

Let's be calm!

I calmed my mind and gathered the true energy of my dantian, and it was about a handful.

I shouldn't waste the small amount of true energy. I should still be able to breathe for about a quarter of an hour.

Without rushing, I slowly circulated the true energy throughout my body and recovered my strength. I concentrated the internal energy I had gathered in my right hand.

It's awkward to use my right hand after so many years, but it shouldn't be difficult to blow away the coffin in front of me.

The problem is that I can't gauge how deep I'm buried.

I won't know until I get out of here anyway. I can only hope that I'm not buried too deep.

I devoted my life to the saber, but that doesn't mean I didn't learn at least one palm technique.

With the technique of the Soul Severing Palm, I released all the internal energy of my right hand towards the lid of the coffin. It would be more accurate to say that I pushed the lid, as the space was small.

- Bang!

The coffin broke and wet soil poured in.

- Bang! Kaboom!

I continued to release my palm energy. If I get buried in the pouring soil like this, everything will be over. I shot out my palm energy until the internal energy I had gathered ran out, but the soil continued to pour in.

Is this the end? After returning with such difficulty, am I going to be buried in the ground again like this?

Holding my breath, I flailed my arms and cleared the soil in front of me. To live.

Bitter soil entered my mouth and nostrils, and just when I thought I couldn't hold my breath any longer...

"Danyeong! Oh, Danyeong!"

My name, which someone was calling out at the top of their lungs while wailing!

They were trying to dig me out, frantically digging through the soil with both hands.

And finally, someone grabbed my hand.

They cleared the soil piled on my face and opened my airway.

- Puha!

I exhaled the breath I had been holding and felt the cold air.

And now, with my eyes caked with soil, I looked at the person who had saved me.

Mother!

Her always neat hair was disheveled, and her face was covered in tears.

With her delicate and small hands, the hands that had lost all their fingernails from digging the ground, she kept stroking my face.

Tears continued to fall on my face, which was a mess with soil.

Gwideukja had accidentally learned the Blood Cult's secret great art, and he and I had met by chance in the Valley of Abandoned Bugs and were connected. And I returned to the past, overcoming a very small possibility.

This was a series of coincidences bestowed by the heavens.

But in the end, what saved me was not coincidence, but fate.

It was my mother.

I squeezed out my remaining strength, hugged my mother, and lost consciousness.

(End of Chapter)