Reincarnated Sword Ghost

Chapter 26 : Body-Strengthening Art

Body-Strengthening Art

It was deep in the night. Even the moon was veiled behind clouds, its outline blurred.

Several gatekeepers of the Dragon Heart Gate were drowsily guarding the entrance.

As always, Jeong-un was meditating with his sword in his sleeping quarters.

Then, quite naturally, he fastened his sword at his waist and stepped outside.

He felt that the Heavenly Martial Hall's black uniform was perfect for moving under the cover of darkness.

The grudges in the martial world, they say, are just the shallow vendettas of narrow-minded martial artists.

He thought this saying wasn't entirely wrong.

After all, he himself was moving like this now.

'I saw that bastard burying the children.'

Furthermore, he even cut off the bastard's ankle and brought him here.

If that bastard had someone backing him up, then Jeong-un ended up making enemies with them as well.

On the other hand, Jeong-un still remembered all too vividly the wretched appearance of the dead children.

A horrific sight—eyes gouged out, head torn open—as if the tastiest parts had been selectively eaten.

He had never intended to let people like them be from the start.

So, a grudge remained between him and those fiends that they had to settle themselves.

Yet now that the mission was resolved, was he supposed to just return?

That could never happen. The moment he heard it, he thought of moving on his own.

So calling him narrow-minded wasn't completely wrong.

He simply thought of it as a natural action for someone of the martial world.

'Besides, it's a chance to build real combat experience.'

Aside from not being able to leave those villains be, it was also an opportunity to face swords in moments where life and death hung in the balance.

From the beginning, Jeong-un had no greed for making achievements. Joining the Heavenly Martial Hall was never about gaining fame.

He simply killed trash like them, and any martial arts achievements gained were just a bonus.

Could he be struck down instead?

If such things scared him, he shouldn't even think about practicing martial arts.

Swsssh—

He vaulted over the wall of the Dragon Heart Gate in an instant.

Even as he stepped on the wall, there was not a sound.

He moved like he was flying, heading toward the foothills where he had found the villain.

He had already taken this path before, so there was no hesitation in his steps.

Moreover, this time he didn't have anything slung over his shoulder, so he was even faster.

Soon, he arrived and found that the land Ja Un-yeop had dug to bury the children had been restored.

It looked like the disciples of the Dragon Heart Gate had collected the children's bodies and covered them with soil again.

'The energy still lingers.'

A foul, sinister aura that instinctively furrowed his brow.

The chilling presence that had led him to track the villain still remained.

This time, though, it pointed deeper, up into the mountain.

'So their base is higher up.'

It wasn't all that close. But the direction was crystal clear.

Jeong-un started walking without hesitation.

He focused on the sensations of the area around him.

From this point, it was the villains' territory. It wouldn't be strange if someone popped up at any moment.

He continued climbing the mountain for a while.

Jeong-un suddenly stopped in his tracks.

'... This is absurd.'

Between the thick leaves, he saw people sitting and holding others in their arms.

They didn't really seem inclined to hide themselves.

It was a crude campsite with grass and trees cut down at random, made in a hurry.

About ten silhouettes were sitting in a circle, eating people.

"......"

So this was the Evil Faction. A surreal sight, utterly devoid of even the most basic human guilt.

Instead of anger, he felt a sense of absurdity.

Eating people together in a circle?

It was hard to believe, even as he saw it with his own eyes.

Thud!

He stomped on the ground without hesitation.

He didn't bother to suppress the noise. After all, ambush wasn't his forte.

'I'll cut one down right away and begin.'

Then, while they were flustered, he'd take down another.

That was as far as the plan went. From there, he'd just move as he wished.

After all, killing was all he knew how to do.

As he thought it, he was already right in front of one of them.

Slash—

He cut off the neck of one from behind.

Even as he did, he was careful to leave enough space so that the arm of the person the villain was holding wouldn't be harmed.

The sight of parents sobbing as they matched up pieces of their children's corpses was still vivid in his memory.

"What the—!"

A villain next to him turned his head and tried to shout.

Puuk!

Jeong-un spun around and sliced with his sword.

The villain's upper half slid off his lower half and thudded to the ground.

The remaining torso swayed before collapsing.

"This crazy bastard!"

Only now did the others gather their wits, each pulling out their weapons.

'Nine left.'

After killing two, there were still nearly ten.

But perhaps wary of what they'd just witnessed, they didn't rush in.

For Evil Faction scum who had just been eating people, they acted with surprising caution.

"Are all of you that bastard's teachers?"

Ja Un-yeop had definitely called them his teachers. So it wasn't just one guy, which he'd already expected.

But facing them directly, he could sense they all exuded the same aura.

Did Ja Un-yeop serve all of them as his teachers?

'How many bows did he have to make?'

His arm would fall off if he wrote out all their names in a disciple registry.

He muttered, thinking of Ja Un-yeop, who must have spent ages like that.

"Teachers?"

One of them echoed his words in puzzlement, then, as if remembering something, burst out laughing.

"Are you talking about that scholar brat? Our disciple?"

"He seemed to call you his teachers."

"Of course, since we taught him martial arts!"

Then, exchanging glances, they started snickering like they'd heard a hilarious joke.

It was a bizarre scene, with a corpse lying right in front of them.

"He was quite an amusing one. You'd think he'd run after seeing us kill someone, but instead, he got on his knees and begged us to teach him martial arts. Even though I could tell at a glance he was good for nothing, I played along and told him I'd teach him if he brought us a fresh child. And he really brought one. So, we taught him a few moves."

Ja Un-yeop said he'd learned a single phrase from them for each child.

Ten children disappeared, so he gained only a few lines' worth.

"For that, his aura seemed pretty thick."

Not quite as much as these villains, but he definitely exuded a martial artist's presence.

No average person could handle that.

At that, the villain just snickered.

"Of course, because he practiced a cultivation method that chips away at your own life."

"Chips away at your life?"

"Since he couldn't gather true ki with abdominal breathing, I taught him how to bind his innate ki to our martial art and store it in the lower dantian. I also told him, if he couldn't handle it, to consume other martial artists like medicine. It was worth watching."

"......"

After saying that, they all burst out laughing again as if it were the funniest thing.

Then, as if realizing something, they let out a murmur of surprise.

"Ah! Did you come here because of him?"

They paused, exchanging meaningful glances. Then the one speaking stepped forward and started rambling.

"If so, you should let go of your resentment. We've got nothing to do with him. We just gave him what he wanted. The two you killed earlier were a misunderstanding, so please show mercy and let's call it even...!"

Slash—

Jeong-un cut the villain down without pause. The villain's eyes showed he hadn't realized what was happening until the end.

'I heard all I need to.'

He now understood everything.

They were all utterly revolting. He didn't plan to let any of them live.

"Kill him!"

Several swords charged in at once, crackling with filthy energy.

He parried the sword that came at him first.

Cliiiing—!

The sound was like a wailing blade, and the villain who clashed swords with him recoiled in shock, clutching his wrist.

But there were too many swords coming in from both sides for Jeong-un to block them all, even though he was fairly confident in his speed.

'Is this... the end?'

He hadn't had many true fights for his life so far. In fact, compared to his peers, he lacked experience.

Fighting multiple martial artists alone?

Even for others, this was hardly common. It was, without question, a desperate situation.

'No.'

But he didn't feel afraid.

Couldn't keep up with the swords? Was his life truly in danger?

'This is what I wanted.'

As the swords drew close from all sides, he could see on several faces a twisted pleasure, as if they were already savoring the kill.

One villain even licked his lips, eyes focused on Jeong-un's nape.

Did they really eat martial artists like medicine? He could believe it from the look in their eyes.

Swish—

Jeong-un's body moved like a ghost. Just one sidestep and a backward lean were enough.

Still, a couple of blades grazed his body and left red lines on his uniform.

In that moment, he realized—

'These are movements to survive...'

Swords slashing at his head, neck, chest, waist, thighs, ankles from every direction.

Just because he could sense all of them didn't mean he could block them all.

So, he needed footwork that could dodge those swords at any moment, freely.

And that was—

'So this is footwork.'

He also needed to be able to react instantly with his body to any villain daring to attack him.

If he could see the trajectories and move his feet, then he could return swords in kind.

To move his body like that—

In a blink, all the veins in his body seemed to crackle with energy.

'... Body technique.'

Another villain's head soared through the air.

The sight briefly stunned the other villains.

Jeong-un rushed into the frozen group, spinning his body. His blade traced an arc, slashing in a semicircle.

Sraaash—

As if space was being ripped open, three villains inside the arc lost their heads.

As the sword strike claimed their lives and lost speed, others, sensing an opportunity, charged in again.

Clang!

One of the villains who locked swords with Jeong-un recoiled as if burned, clutching his hand and dropping his weapon.

"What kind of true ki is that?!"

A sword came thrusting at his solar plexus from the side.

But even at a glance, it didn't carry the same deadly energy as before.

Stealing a glance at the villain's face, Jeong-un saw there was no composure.

In fact, it looked like he planned to throw away his sword and run as soon as the blow landed.

'As if I'd let you.'

Jeong-un stepped forward. As his solar plexus neared the blade, the villain flinched instead.

But Jeong-un's torso twisted, flowing like water—

Slash!

In an instant, from shoulder to hip, he cleaved the villain in two.

The corpse fell in two pieces on top of the remains it had been eating.

Thud!

Jeong-un kicked it away.

He'd been careful even as he fought, distinguishing the corpses of the villains from those of the victims.

"W-wait!"

There were just three left now. Two of them dropped their swords to the ground as if flinging them away.

"We lost! Spare our lives, please—!"

Slash!

The one begging for mercy lost his upper lip and head in a single cut.

His jaw slackened as if life had left it before he pitched forward.

"Heo-eok!"

Another fell flat on the ground, shoving his face into the dirt and howling.

"Please spare me! I'll do anything, please!"

"Would you have spared someone who begged like that?"

"What?"

"Look beside you."

The one groveling lifted his head and looked to the side.

Right then, his eyes met the corpse he'd been eating.

"Th-this is...!"

Puuk!

His pupils went unfocused as a hole opened in the back of his head.

Jeong-un drew his sword and looked forward.

"... I felt you weren't one of the ordinary ones."

He was the only one who hadn't joined the fray since the beginning, watching as if it didn't concern him.

Leaning nonchalantly against a tree, he looked on, his eyes glinting oddly.

"That sword—and that uniform from the Heavenly Martial Hall—I've heard of you. They say a bunch of talented brats have been going around playing grim reaper. I can see you've cultivated your ki very well."

He looked Jeong-un up and down with a curious gaze.

Then he shot a glance at Jeong-un's hand holding the sword guard.

"The ones you killed were all trash. If it had been me, I'd have finished it in half the time you took."

He showed no sense of camaraderie toward the dead.

He almost sounded like someone working toward the same goal as Jeong-un.

"Were you the strongest here?"

"That's right. So be satisfied and leave. If the two of us fight now, both of us will..."

Jeong-un stepped forward immediately.

He needed to close the distance before his opponent noticed.

'No different after all.'

He already understood the movement of his own limbs. For the first time, it felt like he could use his body to its full potential.

It was different from simply infusing true ki and kicking off the ground.

Moving his feet to close the distance, it was as if he was stepping on the wind.

'So this is lightness skill.'

He could tell he was already outside the villain's range of perception.

He'd never left his field of vision, yet the villain couldn't keep up.

'Did you say you were the strongest?'

Even as Jeong-un swung his sword, the villain didn't sense it.

He hadn't even finished his sentence.

Slash—

Only when his neck was half severed did the villain's eyes widen.

Staring at Jeong-un right in front of him swinging his sword, the villain worked his mouth in denial.

"...!"

Thud.

But the words never came, and the head fell to the ground.

Jeong-un's indifferent gaze rested on the lifeless eyes.

"There's nothing left to hear. I just need to take your head."

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Clean up the trash!

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】