Episode 210. We Are Not Invincible.

I watched as Geomma clashed with Elder Byeok and spoke.

"...Listen well, all of you, as you watch. The inn has burned down, so we have nothing to eat now."

"...."

"As you know, if we break away from here, we'll be attacked by the Mong clan first. Look at those bastards' posture—it's not that they've trapped us to wage a war of attrition. It seems they're trying to hold out for three or four days."

Gwima tilted his head.

"Why do you think so?"

"Because they brought such forces and are fighting one-on-one. Look at that old man. He's fighting quite well. But if he dies or flees, he'll declare defeat and another bastard will crawl out to propose a one-on-one. Big Brother will have to fight for three days and nights. It'll be the same even if we join the wheel battle."

"Hmm."

"If three or four days pass and we're exhausted, then the Bright Right Emissary or another great lord's force, or that crazy White-Robed Scholar bastard on their side appears and turns on us, something very unpleasant could happen."

Saekma agreed.

"Indeed. Naturally, that is possible. Master will continue to accept such one-on-one duels. I apologize for saying this, but Master has the bearing of an old-school expert."

I also agreed that Geomma had the bearing of an old-school expert. Because Geomma respected martial artists regardless of whether they were enemies or allies.

I asked the Third Young Lord.

"Earlier, some bastard said Geomma was invincible... or something like that. What did that mean?"

The Third Young Lord answered.

"Those were the Cult Leader's words. 'If the Left Emissary achieves mastery, he may well be called invincible.' It was the Cult Leader's plan to later have the fully mastered Left and Right Emissaries kill the remaining Samjae."

"So the reason he'd be invincible upon achieving mastery is?"

Saekma answered this question.

"Because of the Invulnerability to Blades and Swords (刀劍不侵). He has already stepped into that realm, but he seems to be wary of complete binding himself."

I answered with narrowed brows.

"Are you saying Invulnerability to Blades and Swords is possible?"

Saekma answered.

"The stronger the binding with the Demonic Sword grows, the closer one comes to Invulnerability to Blades and Swords. He is merely wary of the aftereffects."

"Aftereffects?"

"The moment perfect Invulnerability to Blades and Swords is achieved, it may not be that he himself has grown stronger, but rather that he can no longer distinguish between the Demonic Sword and himself. There was concern that if it comes to that, he may no longer be human."

A sigh escaped me on its own.

"That's just like hell. If it comes to that, your master is living as though in hell."

Saekma said nothing and simply stared blankly at Geomma, who was fighting Elder Byeok.

"So it is."

Gwima asked me.

"Lord, what should we do?"

At Gwima's question, everyone looked at me. Even though Geomma was fighting Elder Byeok, this was still the very first fight, so no one was worried about Geomma. If he had the skill to lose to an old man like that, he wouldn't even have become the Left Emissary of the Demonic Cult in the first place.

I spoke to Saekma, Gwima, the Third Young Lord, and Sambok.

"This fight is a mess anyway. Our lives have been a mess too. So this time, we're doing it messy as well. If we start observing etiquette like Big Brother, we'll surely die of thirst or starve to death in the Thousand-Li Desert. Screw one-on-one duels. We're already trapped in the Demonic Cult's heavenly net and earthly mesh. Their goal is to hold out for three or four days. If, at that time, the truly intact Four Heavenly Kings appear at once, or the Bright Right Emissary appears, then we will have been strategically defeated. Did you understand what I said?"

Saekma, Gwima, and the Third Young Lord nodded, and Sambok alone replied.

"I understood."

I spoke with a serious expression.

"This is what I think. We have to make the Demonic Cult retreat on their own here, so that we can eat a meal in peace."

Sambok nodded.

"It's really hard just to eat a meal."

I spoke coldly.

"No matter how I look at it, Senior Geomma is fighting such one-on-one duels because he respects the Demonic Cult people to some extent. This is the Demonic Cult exploiting Big Brother's etiquette. They'll definitely stab us in the back."

That was my judgment—that this was why the Geomma of my previous life had been done in.

Just then, a thunderous sound erupted, and everyone turned their heads to see Elder Byeok flying toward the red canopy.

As the canopy concealed Elder Byeok, his voice soon flowed out.

"Left Emissary, I have lost."

"...If you lost, you should die. Are you shamelessly hiding behind the canopy?"

"Since I have lost, I shall relinquish my position as Left Emissary. I still have much to do for the cult—how could an apostate tell me to live or die? The only one who can give such an order is the Cult Leader. You are no longer even the Left Emissary—on what authority do you command?"

Immediately after, a skinny, emaciated old man flew atop the canopy and landed near Geomma.

"You insolent Geomma bastard, it's been a while. There were rampant rumors that you trained with a wooden sword—with what face do you swing the Bright Light Sword?"

Geomma answered.

"Elder Yong, you've lived this long only to fawn on the Cult Leader—it's pointless to tell you anything."

Saekma spoke to me.

"Now?"

"Wait."

Saekma turned and fixed his gaze on me.

"Just use that thing that blows everything up. But let's coordinate. I'll advance first. You asked me before—how many I could strike with my strongest technique. This time, seventy or eighty. I'll unleash Moonlight Flash and pull out. You blast it there. Looking at those bastards' posture, I think we have to kill them all."

I grabbed the excited Saekma's shoulder.

"The cult has many experts too. If you run in and leap into the air, you'll get pelted with hundreds of hidden weapons."

"Then?"

"Walk. As if taking a stroll. As if sightseeing the canopies."

Saekma met my eyes.

"Confirming what you mean."

"Go."

I sat cross-legged with my back to the remains of the Thousand-Li Inn and spoke to the other three.

"Cover me."

Gwima, the Third Young Lord, and Sambok awkwardly blocked around me. Saekma approached the southeast direction opposite where Geomma was fighting, his hands clasped behind his back.

While Geomma and Elder Yong were clashing...

Saekma looked around as he headed toward the canopy.

"Hey, clear those canopies away."

"...."

Just then, the canopy lowered with a swish, and the Demonic Cult troops, who had planted a large shield in the ground, poked only their heads out to speak to Saekma.

"What is it?"

"...."

While sitting cross-legged, I confirmed the large rectangular shields beyond the canopy. Seeing shields that seemed fit for an army, I too was left speechless. It wasn't just the front line holding shields; large shields capable of blocking the front or the air above were packed thickly here and there.

It was a shield unit capable of blocking not only Saekma's Moonlight Flash, but even my Sun-Moon Light Stream, while minimizing damage.

Saekma nodded his head and then spoke toward the shield unit.

"Confirmed."

I stopped in the middle of preparing the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven and watched the Lecherous Demon return. He laughed with a flustered expression.

“That’s a lot of shields. Haha. The code of the jianghu has truly fallen to the ground. What place do shields have in a fight like this?”

A relatively young voice answered from the Demon Cult’s side.

“The martial arts of the Hao Sect Master and Young Master Mong are so formidable that we prepared them specially. I wonder if they are to your liking. We welcome an all-out battle at any time.”

The Lecherous Demon approached with a smile, but the moment he arrived in front of Cheolli Inn, the smile vanished from his face.

“The Demon Cult prepared well, didn’t they? For now, it seems they’ll block ice arts efficiently.”

Considering the nature of ice arts, if the Lecherous Demon used his ultimate technique above their forces, there was a very high chance it would be neutralized by the shields.

Since everyone was looking at me, I smiled brightly in bewilderment.

“…….”

The Lecherous Demon glared at me.

“Don’t smile. It’s scary.”

I snickered, then unfolded my lotus position and stood up.

“Now this is the Demon Cult. I thought some neighborhood black-path gang had come swarming in.”

To be honest, I felt like I was going insane. In my previous life, I had fallen off a cliff while being chased by the Demon Cult, and now, after turning back the years, it felt as if I was being tormented by them again. It was absurd that even if we killed all those bastards, it would barely be a blow to the Cult Leader. The fact that the Cult Leader was still stronger than us weighed heavily on me as well. The White-Robed Scholar’s subordinate, who was only sneaking glances at us from the side, was hateful too. And the White-Robed Scholar, who had made such a damn fuss as if he were going to appear but still hadn’t, made my blood boil.

Above all, when I thought that in my previous life, the Sword Demon must have fought alone for a long time in this very situation, worn himself down, and died, I felt as if my insides were turning over.

The Sword Demon is not invincible.

The Sword Demon is human.

Because he was a man, not a devil, he must have fought while observing propriety, until he finally exhausted himself, until he could not eat, until he thirsted to death.

Unaware that I was being swept up by madness, I chewed over the Sword Demon’s previous life and the present life that had befallen us, letting the two overlap.

Before my eyes, the Sword Demon was still wielding his demonic sword and fighting Elder Yong, but I felt as if I were witnessing the Sword Demon’s previous life, as if I were dreaming. Suddenly, I heard Sambok’s voice.

“Sect Master seems a little strange.”

The Ghost Demon and the Lecherous Demon looked at me in shock.

“Third Brother.”

“Hey, Hao Sect Master.”

I answered the two of them with all sincerity.

“What?”

The Lecherous Demon said,

“Your eyes are red right now.”

“It’s because I couldn’t sleep.”

“They’re far too red for that.”

In that instant, my ears clogged up, and I could no longer hear the words of the wicked. I looked around with a frown, but as the phenomenon of my blood and qi overturning surged in, the suffocating sensation of qi deviation rising all the way to my throat took over my entire body.

“Ah…… is it qi deviation?”

I drew my wooden sword and headed toward the Demon Cult’s tents, but the moment I felt someone grab me from behind, I unleashed my lightness skill. It seemed to have been the Ghost Demon. When I came to my senses, I was floating high in the air.

Looking down, I saw pitch-black shields spread out, surging like a black sea. Without doing anything, I landed atop the shields and ran precariously across them. I still couldn’t hear. The moment I swung my sword, a man was split apart by my sword qi along with his shield, and I sank into the black sea.

I had fallen into the sea, so why couldn’t I hear a splash?

As I looked around, feeling as if I had entered the deep sea, countless black fish with only their eyes exposed crowded around me and stared.

The faint remnant of my cognition told me that these were not black fish, but black-clad men.

There, I swung my sword wrapped in Purple Haze Qi. With a single slash, the black fish were cut apart as if they had been fish from the very beginning. Had I gone mad again like this, with no strategy and no meticulous plan?

In truth, I feared qi deviation more than madness.

What would happen if I could no longer recognize the people around me? What would happen if I could no longer recognize my subordinates? What would happen if I could no longer find my way to the Zaha Inn being rebuilt? The fortunate thing was that the awareness remained in me that it was fine to kill the black-clad men.

The only problem was that I could not hear sound.

In the realm of silence, seized by fear, I swung my sword even more violently. Because the qi deviation had arisen within me, I expelled sword qi as if venting an internal problem outward. Mostly, shields were split apart. Only after a shield split did I see a human body being severed.

‘Wow, this place is a hell without sound.’

I grabbed the sword thrusting in from the left with a hand infused with ice arts, then swung my wooden sword and struck off the black-clad man’s head. After swinging diligently for a while, I realized that I was holding swords in both hands.

Whose sword is this?

In any case, I swung the sword of some dead bastard with my left hand, and the wooden sword Elder Heo had given me with my right. I had not intended it, but every time I swung my left hand, many fish froze solid, and every time I swung my right, the fish were engulfed in flames.

‘Absurd.’

People of the jianghu are absurd beings like this. Though I had cut through more than ten shields, pitch-black shields that appeared from somewhere surrounded me again. Suddenly, when I looked up, a single black longsword was flying through the air.

‘Heart Demon Sword Control?’

As I swung my twin swords, I looked at the man bursting white cold qi in the air some distance away.

That was the young Left Envoy of Radiance, the Lecherous Demon I hated.

I had no leisure to indulge in memories, so as I swung my twin swords, the young Ghost Demon was passing by my side, cutting down black fish. Judging from the shape of his mouth, he was calling me, “Third Brother.” Even as the Ghost Demon was swept away by the fish and disappeared somewhere, I continued swinging my twin swords without rest.

My ears were blocked, but I remembered cutting down falling petals beneath a plum tree once, so I swung my swords diligently and went around stabbing only the gleaming eyes. Ah, to think this would be so effective?

All I had to do was turn the black fish into blind fish.

After calming my mind, I moved while cutting out or stabbing the eyes of the black fish with my twin swords. Whenever a shield appeared, I wrapped my sword in sword qi and split it whole. I had been trapped by the Murim Alliance before, and I had been trapped by the Demon Cult before, but these bastards were no less than them. They were extraordinarily brave enemies.

Feeling as if some enormous danger was surging toward my back, I leaped lightly, stepped on a shield, and shot into the air. Then dozens of arrows burst out of the fishes’ mouths. I countered with sword wind, then curled up and spun.

“All of you, die.”

Wrapping both arms around my knees while holding my twin swords, I spun through the air as I erupted the Purple Haze Qi that was the cause of my qi deviation. Since my head had been dizzy from the start, it didn’t matter if I became dizzier. When I landed, I saw many shields split apart and strewn across the ground.

As I stood up holding my twin swords, a man holding a pitch-black longsword landed before my eyes with his back to me.

Astonishingly, it was the Sword Demon.

The Lecherous Demon landed on the left, and the Ghost Demon on the right.

I could not very well kill my allies, so I spun around once, and saw Third Young Master and Sambok. When I tried to break through, my allies from the east, west, south, and north grabbed me and forced me to sit down on the spot.

With no other choice, I sank down, then imitated Amitabha’s hand gesture.

“Asura-balbalta.”

At that, the Lecherous Demon and the Ghost Demon reached out and disturbed my hands. Since I still could not hear anything, communication was difficult. The Sword Demon suddenly turned around, knelt on one knee, then reached out both hands and examined my face this way and that.

Holding my face, the Sword Demon mouthed the words.

“Cir·cu·late·your·qi.”

I drew in a deep breath, then first closed my eyes.