novelraw Chapter 116 : Chapter 116
Chapter 116 : Chapter 116
Chapter 116 - The Extreme Point
“Senior Brother Uma.”
The conversation began after Uma had defeated the First Line Leader of the Syndicate of Ten Thousand Eyes.
“What.”
“Senior Brother, how long do you think you have left to live?”
“What kind of unlucky question is that?”
Uma’s face crumpled in displeasure.
If it were the usual Biyoung, he would have been startled and looked away, but for some reason, he now faced Uma with a rather serious expression.
“Five years. No, three years at best?”
“…………?”
“If you keep fighting like that, Senior Brother, you’ll be dead within three years.”
For a moment, Uma’s face hardened.
But whether he was bold or just thoughtless, it wasn’t long before Uma bared his teeth and laughed.
“So what. If I die, I die.”
“No. It’ll be a problem if you die. Senior Brother, you have to live a long, long time for the sake of our sect.”
“Sounds like you’re telling me to suffer a long, long time, is that it?”
“Well. I won’t deny it.”
Unlike Uma’s smile, a handsome, warm breeze played across Biyoung’s face.
“The swordsmanship isn’t the problem. After all, both your swordsmanship and Senior Brother Solbo’s are terrible, you see?”
“Thanks for the high praise, you bastard.”
“But Senior Brother Solbo will live several times longer than you, Senior Brother Uma. Because he knows when to be cautious.”
“………….”
In other words, he was saying that Uma did not know when to be cautious.
In fact, the more wounds and injuries Uma sustained, the more excited and rampant he became.
Such a personality could produce unexpected effects when facing a similar swordsman, but when there was a clear difference in skill, it would only hasten death.
Biyoung was talking about that very point.
“For a swordsman, composure is the most basic of basics. The saying ‘a cool head and a hot heart’ is a lie. Both your head and your heart must be completely cold.”
“That’s impossible for me.”
Uma twisted his lips and sneered.
The saying that one must maintain composure.
Of course, Uma knew that fact well.
But if everyone could put it into practice just by understanding it in their heads, there would be no low-level masters in the Murim.
“I constantly repeat it to myself every time I cross swords. That I must be calm, that I must be composed. But once the blade starts touching my body, to hell with composure and all that, I just get fired up.”
“Hmm.”
Biyoung paused for a moment and was lost in thought.
Unlike his usual self, he seemed to be hesitating about something.
“I won’t say I understand you, Senior Brother. Because I never lose my composure when using a sword.”
“Your shit stinks, too.”
“But I know a similar swordsman.”
“A similar swordsman?”
“Yes, a mad dog-like bastard who doesn’t care about fire or water when crossing swords, just like you, Senior Brother…”
Watching Uma’s face contort further, Biyoung corrected himself.
“…There was a flame-like swordsman.”
“Did that man live long?”
“He lived for over 20 years after he entered Jianghu.”
“His skills?”
Biyoung answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“He was a master.”
“If the word ‘master’ comes out of your mouth, he must have been something.”
Of course.
Even within the small, elite Diancang Sect, he was skilled enough to be selected for the war against the Heavenly Demon.
Biyoung swallowed the rest of his words and gave a bitter smile.
Hwang Bi of the Sole-Killing Extreme Point.
He was a master of the Diancang Sect who had once roamed the battlefields with the World’s Fastest Sword.
“Then I’m curious. How did that master live so long despite having a foul personality like mine?”
“The extreme point.”
“The extreme point…?”
“He said there was an extreme point that could only be seen by moving forward.”
“I don’t quite understand what that means.”
“I only heard about it myself. They say there’s an escape route that you can never see if you hesitate during a battle or think of retreating. He said there’s a special point that you can only see when you’re filled solely with the determination to strike down your opponent. And every time he dug into that point…”
The more Biyoung spoke of Hwang Bi of the Sole-Killing Extreme Point, the more his eyes shone brightly.
“He said he had never lost a fight. Because that extreme point always became the best move.”
“…………!”
He got excited easily and lost his composure.
But on the contrary, if he poured that heart to the extreme, a path he couldn’t see would appear.
The sword that maximized its strengths without compensating for its weaknesses was the Sole-Killing Extreme Point.
And that was the secret to how he could become a comrade of the World’s Fastest Sword in the war against the Heavenly Demon.
“How can I learn that?”
Even Uma, who was rarely moved, seemed to be tempted at this moment.
But Biyoung just shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t know either. As I said before, I’m always calm and composed.”
“……This bastard?”
“Instead, I can tell you what that master said. What that master said was…”
***
Burn your anger.
To the point where your body trembles with the desire to beat the opponent.
Focus all the nerves in your entire body only on the target you want to shatter.
Then you will see it.
In that moment that crosses life and death, the escape route that decides the match.
Twinkle.
‘I can see it…!’
The saying ‘the best training is actual combat’ was indeed not an empty word.
The extreme point that he couldn’t see even when he was beaten to a pulp by Biyoung day in and day out, at this very moment, peeked its head into Uma’s vision.
He could instinctively feel that the path was an extremely difficult and rough one, but Uma threw himself towards that extreme point without a moment’s hesitation.
“Reckless!”
Jin Galsa of the Nine-Serpent Shadow Whip let out a jeering cry.
To clash head-on with the nine strands of the Thousand Blood Iron Whip, which was difficult to even retreat from or block with a sword?
‘The Eagle Talon Twelve Swords…’
But Uma felt neither the nine cruelly flying strands of the whip nor Jin Galsa’s sneer.
He just threw his body towards the extreme point before him.
It was far from composure, but it was a state of no-mind, a kind of selflessness created by pure anger.
The great flame itself.
From the end of the hotly flickering flame, a single blue Sword Aura stretched out.
‘First Form.’
Shatter the mirror-like clear sky with a sword.
A form of the Eagle Talon Twelve Swords named for containing such a light sword strike.
The Sky-Mirror Shattering Strike erupted from the tip of Uma’s sword.
Shwaeaek!
“?!”
Jin Galsa’s eyelids shot up to the sky.
It was because Uma’s sword was far sharper than he had expected.
Was it fast?
It was not.
Then was the swordsmanship domineering?
That wasn’t it either.
He had been a step above in internal energy from the start.
But.
Despite all that.
Jin Galsa was feeling a sense of defeat he had never experienced before in his life.
Because no composed swordsman had ever attacked his nine-stranded Thousand Blood Iron Whip like this.
Pahak!
Puhuk!
The unpleasant sound of flesh being pierced echoed from both sides.
The body of a sturdy man was pierced here and there like a skewer, and a single lightless blade was embedded in the body of the man holding the whip.
After some silence had passed.
A voice full of complaint leaked from the mouth of the man with the sturdy physique.
“How impudent…”
Jureureuk.
The man, his martial uniform soaked in blood, collapsed on the spot after his last words.
“To disappear… in the middle…”
Thud.
“………….”
And on the other side.
The man holding the whip was still silent.
To be more precise,
He could not speak.
Unlike Uma, whose body’s edges were injured, the sword embedded in his body had pierced his heart precisely.
The pupils of Jin Galsa, whose life had already ended, had lost their light and were clouded over.
As if to mock Biyoung’s request to buy time, Uma had completely made Jin Galsa a guest of no return.
Considering the difference in skill between the two martial artists, it could be called a truly miraculous victory.
“Damn… extreme point… you bastard…”
Those were the words Uma left behind before losing consciousness.
***
Around the time Uma was struggling against Jin Galsa.
On the other side, a question laden with a strange emotion was heard.
“Since when have you been like that?”
The voice was soft and slender, but for some reason, the thought that it was ‘pleasant to hear’ did not come to mind.
It was probably because of the ambiguity that made it impossible to determine the gender.
“What do you mean by that?”
At Jeong-i’s reply, the person who had asked the question curled the corner of their lips.
Their voice was like that, but their face made it even more difficult to distinguish their gender.
White skin and deep double eyelids.
A straight nose and a small Adam’s apple on their neck.
That was the appearance of the fourth of the Ghost Face Four Shadows, Ju Mil of the Unaware Death Shadow.
“I’m asking if you were always that pretty.”
“……?”
Jeong-i tilted her head.
Weren’t they about to engage in a life-or-death battle?
She thought it was not a question that such a person would ask.
“……I don’t particularly want to answer.”
“Hmph. Things like you always act so prim and proper, putting on a pretense.”
That’s not it.
Jeong-i drew her sword from its sheath with a bitter smile.
Jeong-i hadn’t realized it, but the emotion contained in Ju Mil’s voice was clear jealousy.
All the beauty that Ju Mil had desperately wanted.
Jeong-i possessed all the conditions that one could only acquire one by one after days of effort.
As if she were a person who had received all the blessings from birth.
“I hate bitches like you the most.”
Ju Mil ground their teeth viciously.
Their hand had already moved inside their robes.
“…….”
Jeong-i slowly moved her sword without a word.
From top to bottom.
From left to right.
At first glance, it was a movement like a starting posture, but for that, the process was too slow and continued for a long time.
‘What the hell is she doing?’
Ju Mil set their eyes fiercely and clenched the hand holding the hidden weapon tightly.
Their hidden weapon skill was so excellent that they were given the moniker for how one wouldn’t know when the shadow of death had fallen.
Ju Mil of the Unaware Death Shadow.
Soon, three flashes of lightning flew from their grasp towards Jeong-i.
Tadang!
With a deafening sound, Ju Mil’s three hidden weapons were embedded in the ceiling, wall, and floor.
The distance between Jeong-i and Ju Mil had narrowed by one zhang.
“Hmph!”
Ju Mil snorted and this time threw five wedges.
Tadang!
This time, she parried four and dodged one.
The edge of her sleeve was split, but no particular injury was visible.
The distance between the two narrowed once again.
‘This bitch…?’
The power of hidden weapons was greatest when they were deployed from an unseen place.
In a situation where they were aiming their weapons at each other, their power would naturally be halved.
But even considering that, despite the deadly wedges flying at her, there was not a single flaw in Jeong-i’s expression and movements.
If Uma was a man who had reached the extreme of fire, Jeong-i was a swordswoman standing on the opposite side.
Her vast and cold gaze, like the sea, was piercing through each and every weapon that flew at her.
Moreover, there was one more thing that was getting on Ju Mil’s nerves.
Seueuk.
That indifferent sword line.
It was neither a starting posture nor a sword art; what on earth was the identity of that slow movement?
Her movements were slow, but when a hidden weapon flew at her, the tip of her sword moved like a flash of lightning, as if that had never been the case.
How could she parry all the hidden weapons used with that slow preparatory motion?
It seemed as though no fast weapon could ever pierce through those slow sword lines.
‘Alright. You want to have a go, is that it?’
The growing pressure.
And the unknown movement made Ju Mil extremely agitated.
They soon grabbed large daggers from their sleeves.
They were daggers larger than a grown man’s palm, making the term hidden weapon seem inappropriate.
“That little talent show is over now!”
Shwaeaek!
A dagger filled with destructive internal energy shot towards Jeong-i’s forehead.
He hadn’t become one of the Ghost Face Four Shadows just by being good at throwing hidden weapons.
The greatest advantage of Ju Mil of the Unaware Death Shadow was the immense internal energy loaded into his hidden weapons.
Unlike their appearance, Ju Mil possessed a stronger internal energy than Jin Galsa, who wielded the Thousand Blood Iron Whip.
There were even rumors that Ju Mil might have learned a demonic art with a great cost, given their unique appearance.
But surprisingly,
Tang!
As always, Jeong-i’s indifferent sword line parried the dagger.
“!”
Seeing Ju Mil’s eyes roll back as they shuddered, they seemed to be quite surprised.
In fact, it couldn’t be helped.
Even if he conceded that their skills were evenly matched in terms of speed, he was confident that he would not lose in terms of internal energy.
A female swordswoman who seemed to have just passed twenty, how on earth could she have internal energy on par with his own?
Ju Mil had no way of knowing.
That in the body of the swordswoman before him, a great deal of spiritual medicine, which an ordinary master couldn’t obtain even in a lifetime, had accumulated.
And that the energy of that spiritual medicine was operated by a special internal energy cultivation method that had been famous throughout Jianghu.
The Profound Heaven's True Energy Unification Art.
She was now at a level where she could operate the Profound Heaven's True Energy Unification Art without Biyoung’s help.
“Grr!”
With a shrill sound, Ju Mil continuously threw daggers.
But as always, what was heard was not a scream but a deafening impact sound.
-Tadang!
The distance between Ju Mil and Jeong-i had narrowed to within two zhang.
She moved her sword line with the same, almost boring, motion.
And soon, for the first and last time, she took the offensive.
It was a sword strike even faster than when she was parrying the hidden weapons.
Chwaak!
The Sky-Mirror Shattering Strike.
It was the piercing form of the Eagle Talon Twelve Swords, the same one Uma had used to subdue Jin Galsa.
Although it was the same form, its energy felt as different as ice and fire.
But if there was a commonality, it was that it was a swift sword strike that was impossible to react to.
Literally, a quick sword.
Puuuk!
“Kwehek!”
The Sky-Mirror Shattering Strike, imbued with the energy of the Profound Heaven's True Energy Unification Art, pierced through Ju Mil’s chest.
It was the moment when a rising talent of the Diancang Sect subdued another of the Ghost Face Four Shadows.