Chapter 262. I Am a Swordsman.

I sprayed lightning qi at the Solitary Walker’s face. It was an overt attack, raking my five fingers through the air.

Was it because even the sound was so conspicuous?

When the Solitary Walker dodged the lightning qi without much difficulty, the five strands of it poured down on the clustered subordinates of the Life-Chasing Scholar.

“Aaaaaaargh!”

As five or six men screamed, trembling in grotesque contortions,

the Ghost Demon moved through them, cutting off their arms and necks. In the meantime, the Solitary Walker attacked me without the slightest concern for his comrades’ deaths.

He was a tenacious man.

I, on the other hand, kept my field of vision broad.

I noted where the Lust Demon was intermittently bursting cold qi in midair, and I confirmed the path the Ghost Demon took as he swung his sword.

All the while, the Solitary Walker’s gaze remained stubbornly fixed on me.

In an instant, the Lust Demon was sent flying by someone’s palm force before righting his stance.

A thunderous boom erupted from where the Ghost Demon was fighting as well.

The old man who had guided us was attacking the Lust Demon, while the Life-Chasing Scholar watched and issued various orders as if commanding soldiers.

Even amid all that, the Solitary Walker’s sword moved swiftly, aiming for my neck and chest, but I deflected it precisely with my wooden sword.

However, his attacks were so fast that it was difficult for me to counterattack.

Should I use Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven?

Should I unleash Thunder Dragon Ascension?

Strangely, today I wanted to fight more with the sword.

When I knocked away the Solitary Walker’s sword with precision, his left palm came flying. I met his left palm with Ice Art, then seized his hand. Because of the Ice Art, our palms were stuck together and would not separate easily.

In that instant, the Solitary Walker unleashed a mutual-destruction technique.

“……!”

The sword clashing on my right slid, then changed direction and aimed for my neck. I could thrust my own sword with the same method, but if I did, we would both die.

I raised my sword vertically and barely blocked the point of the Solitary Walker’s blade, then changed the Ice Art I had been pouring into my left hand into the Heavenly Jade Star-Absorbing Great Art.

It was too urgent. I had no other choice.

‘Ah, to hell with it.’

As I used the Heavenly Jade Star-Absorbing Great Art, which I had deliberately avoided using until now, the Solitary Walker’s internal energy surged into my body.

Only then did the Solitary Walker’s expression twist horribly.

“What is this?”

I had no leisure to answer his question, so we clashed swords while still gripping each other’s hands.

In an instant, my forearm was cut, and the Solitary Walker’s forearm was pierced.

We met each other’s eyes as we sprayed blood with every swing of our swords. Each time I looked into the Solitary Walker’s murderous eyes, the thought that I wanted to tear him to pieces came to me, and laughter rose on its own.

“Heh heh.”

In any case, I continued absorbing the Solitary Walker’s internal energy with my left hand. The Solitary Walker was also pouring out palm force, so absorbing his internal energy was not easy, but because of the vicious clash of swords on the right, I could feel his composure wavering as well.

If the fight dragged on, I was confident I could kill the Solitary Walker without getting hurt, but if I fought for too long, the Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon were likely to suffer serious injuries.

When there was no other choice, the process was bound to become violent.

The Solitary Walker spoke in a squeezed-out voice.

“Let go.”

Ordinarily, there was no way I would let go, but…

I immediately pulled my hand away, then used the Star-Absorbing Great Art to pull at the Solitary Walker’s sword.

It was a move accompanied by a mental ambush.

At the instant the Solitary Walker resisted so his sword would not be taken, I thrust out my wooden sword and stabbed his arm, clashed swords three or four times, then sprayed Ice Art from my left palm.

When the scattering cold qi moved like great brushstrokes and blocked the Solitary Walker’s vision,

the moment I confirmed his movement, I drew my wooden sword vertically and released sword qi.

Pwack!

The Solitary Walker’s arm flew into the air.

In the midst of that, the Solitary Walker caught the soaring sword with his unharmed left hand, broke through the cold qi, and appeared, thrusting the sword toward me.

This sword, I could grab.

After all, because of the Star-Absorbing Great Art, that hand of his could not truly be unharmed.

I seized the sword with my left hand, into which I had infused Ice Art, then extended my wooden sword in the same motion and drove it into the Solitary Walker’s neck.

Thud!

In the midst of it, the Solitary Walker lowered his chin and stopped the sword’s advance. I twisted the sword, pulled it out slightly, then stabbed him in the face, neck, and chest in succession.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The moment I felt the sword held in my left hand loosen, I cut off the Solitary Walker’s neck and turned around.

Before I could even hear the Solitary Walker’s sword and head fall behind me, the Life-Chasing Scholar’s sword qi was already surging before my eyes like a wave.

I barely blocked it with my sword and palm force.

Kwoooooooong!

By the time the thunderous roar struck my eardrums, my body was already in the air.

Then the Life-Chasing Scholar’s body seemed to shrink as he crouched, and with a leap, he flew toward me.

Sword qi flew at me on the way, so I extended my wooden sword forward and supported it from behind with my left palm.

This time, I heard no explosion.

My ears had gone numb.

A ringing—eeeeeng—swallowed every sound.

I felt warmth, as if blood was flowing from my forearm, and my face stung quite a bit too. When I landed on the ground some distance away, blood dripped from my body.

It seemed the wound the Solitary Walker had cut into me had torn wider when I blocked the sword qi.

“…….”

The Life-Chasing Scholar approached me and said,

“You are stronger than expected, but you are certainly weaker than Junior Brother Silmyeong. The Solitary Walker’s sword could not even touch a hair on his head.”

“So what, you damned scholar bastard?”

“It means if you take the poison I give you, you can still save your life.”

“You eat it yourself.”

I looked at the Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon, and they were struggling quite a bit as well. They were probably having a hard time dealing with the old man and the Life-Chasing Scholar’s direct disciples.

I said to the villains,

“…If it’s hard, run.”

The calm voices of the Ghost Demon and the Lust Demon sounded at the same time.

“Bullshit.”

“You run.”

The Life-Chasing Scholar said with a laugh,

“With that level of skill, just how did you kill Silmyeong?”

By the time he finished saying, “how did you,” I was already knocking away the Life-Chasing Scholar’s sword.

Kaang!

Perhaps because his internal energy was so deep, every time I struck away his sword, my entire right arm trembled, and pain shot through me as if my wrist would bend in the opposite direction.

‘Wow, he’s strong.’

The scholars’ internal energy was uniformly profound. Since all of them had built up their internal energy for well over a decade longer than I had, I did not feel wronged by it. However, as our swords clashed, I did not get the sense that the Life-Chasing Scholar’s swordsmanship or martial learning overwhelmed me.

That did not mean his level was low, however, so no clever move to break through the situation came to mind.

Before I knew it, the weaklings around us had fallen, leaving only the strong to clash like evil spirits. The Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon did not seem to have it easy either, but for the moment, I was the bigger problem.

It struck me anew that the Blind Scholar’s senior brother was the Life-Chasing Scholar.

His eyes were perfectly fine, and his internal energy was deeper than mine, so he had no real weakness to speak of. If we kept fighting like this, there was a high chance I would lose in vain.

And defeat would, of course, mean death.

How was I supposed to break through this difficulty?

I kept thinking as I deflected the Life-Chasing Scholar’s sword. I came up with schemes, then erased them; thought of tricks, then gave up on them; settled on psychological warfare, then did not attempt it.

Nothing would work.

If I tried to decide the match with the Great Art of Absorbing Stars, my palm center (掌心, the center of the palm) might burst first.

Perfectly, utterly, there was no method.

Suddenly, I realized that the Violet Haze Divine Art was not activating. Had my anger vanished because I had eaten delicious food and been treated well at the Wei Clan? Was this to say that a happy pig could not use the Violet Haze Divine Art? If my body was not unleashing the Violet Haze Divine Art, it meant there was still a method left.

There had to be one, no matter what.

I came up with about four hundred and forty-eight schemes, then my head grew dizzy, so I wiped it blank and looked at the Life-Chasing Scholar. He was not a swordsman overwhelmingly superior to me.

It occurred to me anew that I was quite a decent swordsman myself.

Since I felt like I was about to fall into qi deviation from wavering back and forth, I let out a long breath and focused my mind.

Nothing but offense.

I thrust my wooden sword into the Life-Chasing Scholar’s opening, and when I anticipated his counterattack, I drove my sword into the next opening. The moment I succeeded in only two attacks, I restored the martial theory of the Dugu Heavy Sword that I had read in front of Zaha Inn. Since the opponent was only in a state where his internal energy was deeper than mine, the only way to break through the situation was to attack and force him onto the defensive.

Fortunately, in all the world, only the Dugu Heavy Sword had such a method.

Fortunately, I had read it.

I had never trained in it, but if I wanted to survive, I had no choice but to unfold it in actual combat. Reciting the names of great generals I had heard of, I unconditionally extended my sword and stabbed at the Life-Chasing Scholar’s openings.

Was this what it felt like for one’s heart to tighten?

As I forcibly poured out only attacks, I realized that there was a kind of rhythm even in this movement. My breathing and motions, even the trajectory of my sword, had to follow that rhythm.

Why was I talking about rhythm in a sword art……

Though I felt ashamed of myself, I unfolded the Dugu Heavy Sword as if clinging to the trouser leg of that rhythm.

The Dugu Heavy Sword was not a swift sword that was merely swung recklessly and quickly.

It required a sense of anticipation (豫想), by which one confirmed or predicted the opponent’s reaction to some extent before striking.

At that moment, I completely understood why a heavy sword (重劍) was necessary. In order to lengthen, even slightly, the time afforded by that anticipatory sense that confirmed the opponent’s response, it was advantageous for me to pressure him with a heavy sword.

In other words, the essence of the Dugu Heavy Sword was to strike hard and “buy myself a split second to think.”

Was I a genius? Or just insane?

While attacking the Life-Chasing Scholar, I grasped the essence of the Dugu Heavy Sword.

It was a pity that my wooden sword was too light, so I filled that gap with the Hundred Battles Ten Stage Art. The instant lightning qi welled up along the blade of the wooden sword with a crackle, the Life-Chasing Scholar’s brow furrowed deeply.

After exerting such an extreme level of concentration and even using the Hundred Battles Ten Stage Art, the crown of my head grew hot. It felt as if I were swinging a sword while suffering from a headache. Even so, to survive, I had already pressured the Life-Chasing Scholar by unleashing nothing but attacks more than thirty times.

To think there would come a moment in my life when I felt proud of myself.

Perhaps because I had practiced the Dugu Heavy Sword against a high-level swordsman, after pouring out seventy or eighty attacks, the rhythm of the heavy sword grew familiar to my body. Now, even while blocking the Life-Chasing Scholar’s attacks, I could naturally transition into the Dugu Heavy Sword.

If someone asks what sort of man the Hao Sect Master is.

Tell them he is a swordsman.

I am a swordsman.

The anticipatory sense of the Dugu Heavy Sword told me the position and posture I needed to take. Because I had to extend my sword from precisely that position to force my opponent to defend, footwork was important to the Dugu Heavy Sword. If so, just how outstanding must the movements and horsemanship of those great generals have been?

Thinking about it, I guessed that in moments when they could not attack, they must have simply spurred their horses and moved. In any case, generals would have been tasked with charging at the vanguard, cutting down the enemy as they advanced.

I was in the midst of restoring a battlefield sword art through my imagination.

I summoned the swords of the generals who had roamed the battlefield into my wooden sword and unfolded them. Only now did my field of vision begin to widen again. The Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon had clearly been struggling separately at a distance, but now they were almost back-to-back, combining defense and offense to face their enemies.

Seeing those two, who had never suited each other at all, standing back-to-back to survive gave me a strange feeling. Since it was a combination of ice arts and an iron-wall defense, it did not seem they would be taken down easily.

The Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon, together?

Life truly cannot be predicted even one inch ahead.

I read the Life-Chasing Scholar’s movement as he tried to pour out palm force to create a variable, extended my sword ahead of time, and pierced his palm. When I continued pouring out attacks while maintaining the Dugu Heavy Sword, the Life-Chasing Scholar kicked off the ground and retreated far away.

The Life-Chasing Scholar spoke with a somewhat dazed expression.

“Retreat……”

The moment I judged that I could not finish off the Life-Chasing Scholar immediately, I joined the villains and slaughtered the disciples of the scholars who were trying to flee. Perhaps because they were certainly of a lower level than the Life-Chasing Scholar, their arms and legs fell off after three or four strikes of the Dugu Heavy Sword.

“Oh……”

So this was the feeling. The Dugu Heavy Sword I had learned while facing a strong foe had become a sword art capable of massacring the weak at random.

Was this what it felt like to become a great general on the battlefield?

I added the Dugu Heavy Sword to the movements of the Meteor Sword and massacred with my sword the disciples who had been harassing the Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon. A short distance away, the Life-Chasing Scholar watched with a pale face, but he did not seem to have any intention of joining the battle again to the very end.

In the end, when the surviving men retreated together and withdrew……

The Life-Chasing Scholar received the defeated soldiers.

The Fa Family’s forces, which had once numbered well over fifty or sixty, had been reduced to a little over ten.

Only then did I realize that my body was covered in blood.

The Lust Demon and the Ghost Demon stood to my left and right, silently looking at the Life-Chasing Scholar. The Life-Chasing Scholar glared at us endlessly.

Perhaps knowing that he could not settle things here, his frustration was obvious.

I said to the Life-Chasing Scholar,

“Do you understand now why the Blind Scholar died?”

“……”

The Life-Chasing Scholar said,

“What sword art was that, exactly? Your sword art changed midway.”

I answered with a calm expression.

“I cannot tell you that.”

Suddenly, the Ghost Demon grabbed my shoulder. A great deal of weight rested on it. He was using me to keep himself from collapsing. The Lust Demon’s breathing was also extremely rough.

Together with the two villains, I maintained my bluff to my heart’s content while standing stiffly.

“Shall we see this to the end? Scholar, do as you please.”

The Life-Chasing Scholar uttered frightening words.

“I shall withdraw. Next time, we will meet again together with the scholars. Sect Master, Young Master Meng, Liuhe…… see you again.”

The Ghost Demon nodded, then answered in a dignified tone.

"Seosaeng, take care on your way. We shall meet again soon."

Saekma replied in a calm tone.

"Next time, let us fight with even numbers. We are at too much of a disadvantage."

Chumyeong Seosaeng nodded his head.

"I shall do so."

I, too, bid farewell to Chumyeong Seosaeng.

"Chumyeong, since it was your martial brother who attacked me first, think of it as business and let us wipe away any grudge. It is not as though I could simply let myself be killed, is it?"

Chumyeong Seosaeng nodded his head, then turned around first and left with the disciples who had survived. The moment they turned away, Gwima slumped down on the spot and sat cross-legged.

The moment Saekma met my eyes, he muttered.

"Damn... I almost died. They seemed like Seosaeng's disciples—why are they so strong?"

I did not have much to say, so I patted Saekma's shoulder.

"You did well."

Looking around, I saw that the corpses of those we had beaten to death were strewn all around.