Chapter 318. Like a Swordsman of the Orthodox Path

Could Eldest Brother truly defeat the Sword King in the form of a spar?

No.

And what if he lost?

What would we gain through this spar?

One thing was certain: even the Sword King would never have an easy fight against the Sword Demon.

A man who had earned the title of king through the sword on the Orthodox Path.

A man who had survived in the Demonic Path with a sword in hand, using the epithet Sword Demon in place of his name.

The two examined their wooden swords, then looked at each other.

“…….”

Without exchanging warm words or formal courtesies, each gave a single nod, and that signaled the beginning of the spar.

In a martial artist’s body, one could naturally see an energy far stronger than that of ordinary people. The higher that energy’s level, the more it formed into presence, allowing masters to gauge an opponent’s level to some extent.

As the Sword Demon and the Sword King looked at each other, their presences were changing.

The two remained silent, but by waiting, they were showing sufficient courtesy.

‘They’re going in.’

The Sword Demon rushed forward. First the wooden swords clashed, then he thrust out his left palm, and their palm forces collided as well. A crack— rang out, overlapped by a hollow thoom—, and then the sound of wooden swords striking each other crushed down upon the entire area.

The fight had only just begun…….

Yet the butterfly that had been wandering around the sparring stage was already nowhere to be seen.

With several stomps, dust billowed up thickly, only to vanish without a trace under the wooden swords slicing through the air.

Had they always been such aggressive swordsmen?

At the very spot where they first clashed, they merely changed directions with each other; not once did either get pushed back as they exchanged extraordinarily fast techniques. The only words the Sovereign Sword King let out were the shouts contained in his attacks, while the Sword Demon answered only with the occasional sharp sound of his breath.

Since the two were so fiercely overflowing with fighting spirit…….

They blended together like generals who had met on a battlefield, each leading their troops, and were settling the outcome in the middle of a plain.

If the White-Clad Scholar’s spar had unfolded like watching movement at the very edge of what lightness skill could reach…….

These two were waging an entirely different kind of war.

And even to my eyes, Eldest Brother was fighting exceptionally well today.

People began standing up here and there to watch, so the Lecherous Demon and I had no choice but to stand as well and look at the spar. Even the alliance members who had been waiting nearby now crowded toward the sparring stage on tiptoe, staring at the two men.

It was a fight in which I did not want to miss even a moment of attack and defense, yet unconsciously, I looked at Im Sobaek, who had crossed swords with the Sword Demon.

Im Sobaek was watching the spar with a calm expression, without the slightest excitement.

I thought that all of this was a moment befitting a spar of the Orthodox Path.

‘Good.’

I was startled without realizing it by a sharp crack— and focused on the sparring stage again. As if they had exchanged violent blows, the distance between the two had finally opened up for the first time.

As the Sovereign Sword King rotated his shoulder and walked with perfect ease, the Sword Demon also let out a long breath and walked in the opposite direction.

The Sovereign Sword King looked down at the ground and nodded several times.

The Sword Demon, his head slightly raised, was rotating his wrist.

Though they had fought viciously, like rare rivals meeting after a long time to determine superiority, the two still had not said a word. They looked as if they had fallen completely into a state of selflessness, absorbed only in the match.

In that case…….

Even now, at this very moment, weren’t the skills of the two growing little by little? Suddenly, the Sword Demon stopped walking as if defenseless, placed his left hand to his forehead, and looked up at the clear sky where white clouds were drifting slowly by.

“…….”

When the Sword Demon looked up at the sky without guarding himself, the Sovereign Sword King lowered his wooden sword to the lower right and said,

“Sword Demon, what are you staring at like that?”

The Sword Demon lowered his gaze as if he had forgotten himself and answered,

“The weather was fine, so I looked for a moment.”

The Sovereign Sword King nodded.

“Come to your senses.”

“I should.”

When the Sword Demon nodded once as if to say he was ready, this time the Sovereign Sword King charged first.

His sword was faster than when they had crossed blades before. The Sword Demon retreated several times to avoid it, then struck away the Sword King’s wooden sword.

At some point, the Sword Demon leapt lightly backward and greatly widened the distance…….

Then, switching back to offense, he entered what looked to me like an unmistakable Dugu Heavy Sword. It was because it was a sword art consisting solely of charging attacks.

The Sword King blocked low, then blocked high, knocked aside the rotating sword, and even swept away the Sword Demon’s thrust in succession before blocking the vertically descending sword and simultaneously pouring out palm force with his left palm.

The Sword Demon struck away the palm force with his wooden sword, then poured out another barrage of attacks. To my eyes, it looked as if the realization born from countless worries had allowed him to link the Dugu Heavy Sword together even more smoothly.

Only then did Eldest Brother look, for the first time, like a swordsman of the Orthodox Path.

“……Mm.”

Just how far had the Sword Demon come around before becoming a swordsman?

Moreover, his opponent was the Sword King of the Orthodox Path.

Eldest Brother’s skill was not lacking either.

Only after feeling this…….

Did I understand why the Sword Demon had looked up at the sky. It seemed Eldest Brother, too, had been satisfied with the opening exchange in which he fiercely matched the Sword King without relying on demonic arts.

The sky must have suddenly seemed exceptionally beautiful.

The one actually fighting was the Sword Demon…….

Yet something difficult to put into words was welling up inside me as well. In truth, dragging the Sword Demon here and there had not been easy for me either. But seeing him now, blending into battle with the Sword King like this, I knew that not leaving the Sword Demon alone in loneliness had been the right choice.

At that moment, I was startled and looked at the side of the Lecherous Demon’s face beside me.

In a way that did not suit his folded arms at all, the Lecherous Demon was watching the spar with an expression as if he might burst into tears.

‘Crazy bastard, as always…….’

It was not incomprehensible. Watching until now, it did not seem easy to surpass the Sword King through the methods of the Orthodox Path.

I was not sure if this expression was correct…….

But the Sword King knew all swords.

He knew how to reverse attack and defense, how to mount an iron-wall defense and counterattack efficiently, and he seemed familiar with letting the momentum of a charging, fierce-general type of commander slide past him with the lightest touch.

In other words, he was a man with no shortcomings in the field of the sword. Rather, because this was a fight stripped of internal energy and stripped of demonic arts, the Sovereign Sword King looked even more solid.

And yet the reason the two were clashing so brutally…….

Was because the Sword Demon’s understanding of the sword was high in a completely different way. It was as if he had learned demonic arts from a master of the Demonic Path, while realizing the sword on his own.

On top of that, even to my eyes, there was the Dugu Heavy Sword, far more advanced than before.

At this point, it meant even Im Sobaek could not predict the outcome of this spar.

Of course, neither could I.

At times, it looked like Sword King versus Sword King.

At times, it looked like Sword Demon versus Sword Demon.

And from beginning to end, they fought with the murderous intensity of generals facing generals. I had never thought that, while watching a spar, I would find myself hoping it ended in a draw. But the parties involved had no such intention whatsoever, so the outcome would soon be decided one way or another. In the hearts of those seeking victory, there is always a single gambling move prepared.

Because that is what stirs one’s desire to win, the two of them would test their luck against some fleeting variable in this taut contest…….

So in truth, luck is also skill.

For without skill, one cannot even earn the chance to test one’s luck. They had fought enough that the Sword Demon was now employing techniques the Sword King had used, and the Sword King was imitating moves the Sword Demon had shown.

In the wake of every intent and deception…….

Their wooden swords met in midair in the shape of 乄. In that instant, with a crack—their left palms crossed and collided.

Would it end as a contest of inner force?

What the two had contested until now had been the sword, not internal energy.

So I had not expected this fight to conclude as a clash of palm force. The actual conversation regarding the spar was now being exchanged through the eyes of the Sword Demon and the Sword King…….

For a moment, I saw the surface of both their faces tremble faintly. Then the two erupted with palm force as if detonating it, pushing each other away, and thrust a sword stroke like a ray of light at one another.

‘Good grief, you can’t die in a spar.’

With a pak! the two wooden swords shattered in midair and scattered.

The Sword Demon had struck the Sword King above the shoulder with his wooden sword.

And the Sword King, in a cutting motion, had smashed the side of the Sword Demon’s shoulder.

My mind snapped awake.

“Huh?”

As soon as the spar ended, I met the Lust Demon’s eyes. It seemed this bastard had thought the same thing I did.

The Lust Demon looked at me and muttered.

“Master’s left shoulder?”

I hurriedly raised a finger to my lips.

“Shh.”

The Lust Demon nodded, then looked back at the sparring platform.

The Sword King and the Sword Demon looked at the wooden swords, now reduced to only their grips, and also gazed silently at one another.

In other words, after the Sword Demon fell into qi deviation while fighting the foremost figure of the unorthodox path, not only his left arm but even his shoulder and the left side of his neck had become practically impervious to blades. He had clearly offered up his left arm on purpose and cut down the Sword King’s shoulder.

Of course, both their shoulders were unharmed.

That was likely because they had infused a certain amount of internal energy and deployed protective arts.

Only we, the Four Great Villains, clearly recognized the fact that the Sword Demon had won. How would anyone else know that the Sword Demon’s left arm was close to being impervious to blades?

The Sword King spoke first.

“Sword Demon, are you satisfied?”

Our eldest brother let out a slight sigh, then tilted his head.

“Perhaps because they were wooden swords, it feels a little lacking.”

The Sword King tapped his own shoulder and answered.

“It aches quite a bit. Let us have another bout after it gets somewhat better. How is your arm?”

I held my breath and waited for the Sword Demon’s words.

The Sword Demon spoke lightly in a calm tone.

“……It should not be broken, but I will have to apply some medicine as well.”

The Sword King said to Im Sobaek.

“Alliance Leader Im, our public spar will end here. There is something questionable about it, so if we were to score it as Strategist Gongsun said, it seems I have lost. What do you think?”

Im Sobaek rose from his seat.

“Sword King, who would watch this fight and think that you lost? There are spars where victory and defeat are clear, and there are also spars where superiority cannot be determined even through scoring. That is because it was a spar. And even if the title of Sword King were handed over, it does not seem he is someone who would accept it. What do you say, Sword Demon?”

Our eldest brother nodded.

“The Sword King lacked nothing, so handing over the title is out of the question. I have confirmed that the Sword King was indeed the Sword King.”

I looked at our eldest brother standing on the sparring platform while smiling together with the Four Great Villains. In truth, the Sword Demon had won the spar, but it did not matter much even if only we knew that fact.

Rather, as the Sword King had said…….

I thought that from now on, the Sword Demon and the Sword King would meet and exchange thoughts on the sword, and perhaps that was an outcome even more valuable than the spar itself.

The swords of the swordsmen had been excellent, but it had also been a spar in which their states of mind lacked nothing.

Im Sobaek said.

“……The junior swordsmen who watched will remember the two of you, your breathing and every single movement, for a long time. Both of you have worked hard.”

When Im Sobaek extended his hand, the Sword King descended from the sparring platform. As he had said, his shoulder seemed to ache, and he looked in no condition for another immediate spar.

But even after the Sword King disappeared from the sparring platform…….

For a while, the Sword Demon stood alone on the platform and, out of nowhere, looked at us. The Lust Demon grew flustered and called to the Sword Demon, who had not come down from the platform.

“……Master?”

Just what was this dark man of the world thinking?

The Sword Demon, who had slowly looked around, opened his mouth.

“……Heroes of the righteous path.”

The surroundings fell silent.

“…….”

“I am a man who broke free from the Demon Cult. I do not remember my real name. Perhaps because I spent longer being called by the number Thirteen than by a name……. Even when those who had been dragged there like me trembled in fear, for some reason, I was not afraid. Those who brought us there soon told us their purpose. Beat one another to death as you please. The one who survives will be taken as a disciple. We ended up fighting on our own. Because the heads of those who hesitated were falling to the ground. What I trusted then was…….”

The Sword Demon showed the broken wooden sword to the crowd.

“Even then, I had nothing but this wooden sword. After witnessing futile deaths again and again, when I survived to the end, my name became the Sword Demon. The title of Sword King must be a meaningful title for those who strive to keep people like me from coming into existence. Today, thank you for inviting me, one who fled the Demon Cult, to the Martial Alliance without hesitation, and even arranging this spar. Alliance Leader Im.”

The Sword Demon looked at Im Sobaek.

Im Sobaek, who had been seated, stood up and smiled with a refreshing expression.

“You have left the demonic path, but there is no need for you to force yourself to become part of the righteous path. I simply think of you as an outstanding swordsman. That is enough. In any case, we are not people who kill recklessly just because we are strong.”

There were plenty of madmen in the righteous path too.

But Im Sobaek defined the righteous path simply as people who did not kill recklessly.

And in my eyes as well, the Sword Demon was not a man who killed recklessly.

Seeing it this way…….

Our eldest brother had formed a spiritual alliance with Im Sobaek, continued a bond with the Sword King through the sword, and I expected all of this would also affect the twisted mental world of the White-Robed Scholar, who had come to watch like a rat.

“Ah…….”

If so, this had truly been an extraordinary spar. I stood with the Four Great Villains and silently welcomed the Sword Demon as he returned after finishing his spar.