Sword God Reborn

Chapter 66 : Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique

Eight lines and shapes.

Cheon Mubaeck's legs spread apart to shoulder width. The posture of holding the sword spread out perfectly.

'It's different.'

Neung-heo, who had been standing with a sullen face, felt the surrounding air current change.

Usually, Cheon Mubaeck was so serious when he held a sword that it was scary.

But now it was more so.

Beyond seriousness, he looked like a Taoist who had fallen into a state of self-forgetfulness.

Seuk.

He took an upper stance.

Neung-heo, like a person possessed by a ghost, could not take his eyes off Cheon Mubaeck.

Wouldn't he?

The energy of the underground plaza, which was unusually full of natural qi, shook greatly.

And at that moment.

Cheon Mubaeck's sword drew a line. Very slowly.

From bottom to top, from top to bottom, from front to back, from left to right.

After drawing lines in all directions around himself, he returned again and became a shape.

'It's perfect.'

Neung-heo did not know much about the sword.

To him, the sword was just a means to make a living. It was just a means to survive. He had never thought seriously about the sword.

But... now, in Cheon Mubaeck's appearance, he felt his heart pound.

'Originally, I was much ahead of Lü Dongbin.'

An old memory gently came to Cheon Mubaeck's mind.

At some point, they had become equal.

It was right after Lü Dongbin had learned the Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique from somewhere.

'It was that scary of a sword technique.'

The only sword technique that did not exist in Cheon Mubaeck's mind, who had gone through numerous past lives.

Cheon Mubaeck's body moved again.

From line to shape, from shape to line again.

Those numerous movements continued without end.

From line to line, from line to shape, from shape to shape, from shape to line.

All of them combined and bloomed into eight forms.

If someone had seen it, they would have tilted their head.

Is that the legendary Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique?

How could that be an ultimate secret manual of heaven's grace?

A sword dance unfolded as if watching a single painting.

If he had taught it to the gisaengs of the Lotus Pavilion, it was a dance that would have been quite popular.

'This is Lü Dongbin's original form. As if dancing, as if an immortal is playing in the sky, it is free and unrestrained, but if you get sucked in, no one can survive.'

Cheon Mubaeck felt it clearly.

Although it might look like a beautiful sword dance to those watching from the side.

At Cheon Mubaeck's sword form, the surrounding natural qi shook violently.

A strong qi formed, swirling around the sword.

When he stabbed, the strong qi stretched out in a straight line.

When he withdrew, the surrounding natural qi gathered into a strong qi.

When he cut, when he struck, and when he blocked.

So naturally.

'Is this all?'

Cheon Mubaeck's eyes looked at the floor.

That's right. This was Lü Dongbin's Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique. What he had seen, what he had experienced.

But Cheon Mubaeck had a strong intuition that this was not all.

It was a sense that only he, who had held a sword for his entire life, no, for dozens, hundreds of past lives, could feel.

Cheon Mubaeck did not stop and drew his sword again.

'Huh?'

Neung-heo, who had been watching, his eyes widened.

'It's different.'

If it had been like a beautiful sword dance just now, this time it was different.

'No, it's the same?'

It was not for nothing that Cheon Mubaeck had kept Neung-heo by his side and had taken him around.

Neung-heo's eye for things was so outstanding that even Cheon Mubaeck would sometimes be inwardly impressed.

'Shit, what is it? It's the same but different?'

That's right.

Cheon Mubaeck's sword form was the same. He cut and stabbed just like the sword dance he had shown before. He struck, withdrew, blocked, and stabbed again.

It was the same sword form.

But, it was different.

'It's fierce. It's not a sword dance, but it's so fierce and scary.'

It was destructive and fast.

If the previous one had felt like a sword dance, or rather, not even a sword technique, now it was different.

It was fast and fierce. It was so intense that anyone who went near would have holes pierced all over their body and would be torn apart.

A smile slowly bloomed on Cheon Mubaeck's lips.

'This is the one of the Mute Red Demon. As per his nature, it is destructive, fast, and fierce.'

Cheon Mubaeck then unfolded the sword form according to the pictures that Huashan, Cheonghyeonjin, and Gukbo had seen.

'Plum blossoms. The flowers are blooming.'

Cut, and stab.

Plum blossoms bloomed in the empty air. Although they were not flashy, the fully bloomed plum blossoms created a shadow. The sword shadows created in the numerous sword forms.

They swayed, were swept away, and spread around according to Cheon Mubaeck's sword.

'And this is Neung-heo's.'

Cheon Mubaeck's eyes sank low.

The numerous plum blossoms disappeared in an instant. Like an illusion.

And again, the Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique flowed out.

This time...

'Ah, this bastard, his identity is certain.'

Cheon Mubaeck, without even realizing it, burst into laughter inwardly.

'He's as cunning as a snake.'

It was not a bad meaning.

'He is cunning, and also wicked.'

A snake sticks out its tongue with a 'shik shik' sound and is wary, and when it finds a weakness, it thrusts its head in like a shot and bites.

It injects poison with its fangs, and it suffocates the helpless enemy by wrapping around it.

'It's different. Everyone is different.'

Cheon Mubaeck felt something welling up in his chest.

This was also the Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique.

The forms that Cheon Mubaeck had unfolded now had not changed.

He had just followed the lines and shapes drawn in the pictures.

But they were all ever-changing.

A single form was unfolded in each person's own way.

Although it was the same form, the power and appearance were different depending on the way each person had lived, their experience, and their attitude towards the sword.

Then.

"Then what about my form?"

Cheon Mubaeck erased the original form from his mind.

He erased everything.

He temporarily erased all the sword techniques he knew from his mind.

Everything he had unfolded until just now.

And he drew his sword again.

It was concise.

"Eum?"

Neung-heo tilted his head.

'What is it? Why is he doing it so carelessly?'

It was so concise that it felt like that for a moment.

The flashy variations hidden between the forms, the continuous and unbroken flow, the beautiful sword dance that flowed like water.

All of that was omitted.

It was just cutting, stabbing, and conciseness.

It was a sword form as if everything had disappeared in a handful.

But Neung-heo swallowed his dry saliva.

'I don't think I can block any of it.'

Although it was all about conciseness, surprisingly, there seemed to be no way to face that conciseness.

Cheon Mubaeck's sword, armed with honesty and conciseness, was full of sword forms that looked like a child's play at a glance.

But no one had the courage to jump in between.

Cheon Mubaeck's sword was compression and actual battle.

After omission, only the main points were left.

It was an instinctive sense.

A terrible movement that was engraved in the muscles, engraved in the bones, no, engraved in the spirit.

Cheon Mubaeck's deeply sunken gaze was directed at the tip of his sword.

To him, even the Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique was full of superfluities.

He erased all the unnecessary actions, and he pushed away all the useless sword forms.

He only unfolded the necessary sword forms.

A sword that moved concisely. But it never became faster, never became rushed, and never became impatient.

At the power contained in a single sword form, the natural qi shook, and the internal energy of the upper dantian shook.

Numerous qi whirlwinds were created around the sword, and a ruthless power was contained in a single sword form.

This was.

"My Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique."

Cheon Mubaeck slowly withdrew his sword.

"..."

Although it was just a concise sword form, the scene that had happened in front of him was not concise.

The altar in front was split open, and the walls were collapsed here and there.

The walls of the plaza had cracked and had collapsed, unable to withstand the strong qi that had poured out from Cheon Mubaeck's sword form.

Kugugugung!

"Damn it! Why are you collapsing the plaza again! Oh, really!"

"..."

"Let's go out. Let's go!"

Even at Neung-heo's urging, Cheon Mubaeck just stood still.

His eyes were directed at the empty air.

'I see. Lü Dongbin.'

Cheon Mubaeck now understood everything.

Lü Dongbin, who had insisted that the forms must be absolutely kept.

On the other hand, Cheon Mubaeck had always insisted that one must break away from the forms.

Conflicting opinions.

But now, Lü Dongbin had ignored the forms.

'He expressed the Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique with just lines and shapes, not eight forms. So those who saw it all created a new form in their own way.'

Surprisingly, in the end, Lü Dongbin had accepted Cheon Mubaeck's argument, not his own will.

Was it because it was right?

'No, it's not.'

He had just accepted someone else's thoughts.

Cheon Mubaeck smirked.

'You bastard. You said you became an immortal, so did you come to my dream and give me advice?'

His words, that even if you don't accept someone else's path of the sword, you should at least try to understand it once.

'Right.'

Cheon Mubaeck nodded his head.

The original form of the Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique that Lü Dongbin had unfolded, the sword technique with the plum blossoms of Cheonghyeonjin and Gukbo, the domineering Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique of the Mute Red Demon, and even the snake-like Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique of Neung-heo.

'Each person's own path of the sword is melted in it.'

And he could not say that all of them were wrong.

Because they were also their own paths of the sword, which contained a lifetime of experience in the martial world.

'But, Lü Dongbin.'

Cheon Mubaeck laughed.

'Still, I will walk my own path.'

Cheon Mubaeck did not forget this maze.

The fact that if the path changed, in the end, nothing would be left.

What Lü Dongbin was trying to say was probably that.

'Listen to and accept the things of others, but do not lose your own path.'

If so, as if he had finally made his way through the maze.

"I will reach the Sword Kiuk."

Cheon Mubaeck.

He had a glimpse of the Sword Kiuk.

* * *

"Ha. In the end, there's nothing, is there?"

Neung-heo did not understand the lines and shapes contained in the pictures.

The person who understood that would soon obtain their own Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique.

The level of understanding that was by no means easy.

Because among the martial artists who had entered the maze, the only one who had understood the lines and shapes contained in the pictures was Cheon Mubaeck.

So Neung-heo did not even know the original form of the Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique.

Someday, when Neung-heo's level was such that he could understand all that, he might be able to obtain the Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique.

'Well. It's not something that can be done just by being told.'

Neung-heo had tried to follow what Cheon Mubaeck had unfolded.

But you can't learn a sword technique just by following the forms in a situation you don't understand.

In the end, Neung-heo had no choice but to just let out a harsh sound.

"Huh? I went through all that trouble, but there should be something I got."

"Isn't that the martial world?"

"Yes, yes. It probably is. If it had been the real treasure map of the Red Blood Sword Demon, I wouldn't know. Who was it that tempted people with a useful left-handed sword technique from the Red Blood Sword Demon?"

"Neung-heo."

"What."

"How can a guy who is the Master of the Lotus Pavilion be so gullible?"

"I'll use it as a dumpling wrapper."

"You bastard. You're so sulky."

"What do you mean, sulky? Ah, of course, my lord, since you have mastered that great Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique, you probably have nothing to be sorry about. Yes, yes. You probably do."

"How old are you?"

"I'm forty-four, you bastard. Aren't you going to use honorifics?"

Ppeok!

Neung-heo shut his mouth.

It wasn't because he had been hit on the back of the head, but just because he was uncomfortable.

Cheon Mubaeck, at that sulky appearance, let out a hollow laugh.

"Anyone would think you're fourteen, not forty-four."

"I do look a little young."

"You don't lose a single word. Neung-heo, take out your sword."

"No, if you've hit me, that's enough. How much more are you going to beat me?"

Neung-heo grumbled and took out his crude broadsword. It was so natural, as if it were a familiar act.

Cheon Mubaeck, who had been watching that, sighed and gave him something else.

"No. Why are you giving me something that a dead guy used? It's bad luck."

The sword that Cheon Mubaeck had given him was the sword of the Ghost-Faced Asura, which looked like a skewer.

"This is good for stabbing. Better than that crude broadsword."

"Stabbing? I don't have many stabbing techniques in my skills."

"You have to learn now."

"Pardon?"

Cheon Mubaeck drew his sword.

"Do you know that the Red Blood Sword Demon was famous for his dual-wielding swords?"

"I don't."

"What do you know?"

"That I'm a pitiful person who is being hit and is being spoken to in informal language even though I'm much older than my lord."

"Using dual-wielding swords means that you have to be skilled in the left-handed sword technique."

"...?"

Cheon Mubaeck grinned.

"It doesn't have a name. You can name it later."

"Huh? Could it be..."

Neung-heo's pupils shook greatly.

"The left-handed sword technique of the Red Blood Sword Demon...?"

"Right. Pick up your sword."

"Wow, shit. What should I name it? Uh, Neung-heo's Left Sword? This is good. I'll have to go with Neung-heo's Left Sword."

"..."

Cheon Mubaeck felt strange that his sword technique was being named after Neung-heo.

"...Let's get hit a little before we learn."

"Pardon? No, why? Neung-heo's Left Sword is good."

"Let's get hit a little."

(End of Chapter)