Chapter 158: Chapter 158
Even though midwinter had arrived, the current Mount Hua Sect was burning hot.
It was none other than the three people who visited today.
It was because the name of each and every one of them was by no means light.
An elder of the Beggars’ Sect, Heavenly Ear Beggar (Heavenly Ear Beggar), who was said to know all the information in the world!
One of the Wudang Three Heroes who supported the Wudang Sect in the past, the Taiji Gentleman, known for his chivalry and intellect that pierced the sky.
And even the Zhongnan Sword Saint Go Hyeon, the number one person in the Zhongnan Sect and an absolute master whose reputation made even the previous two pale in comparison!
The Sect Leader looked at the three people opposite him.
‘The Zhongnan Sect has drawn its sword.’
Not to mention the Zhongnan Sword Saint, everyone was of a higher generation than him.
If they moved, even the Wudang Sect and the Beggars’ Sect would not be able to make a peep.
“Welcome to our sect.”
“Thank you for welcoming us.”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint smiled gently.
“It has been a long time since I came to Mount Hua.”
The Taiji Gentleman also smiled and welcomed it, but.
“Why is the road so rough. This is why I didn’t want to come to Mount Hua.”
Heavenly Ear Beggar grumbled.
“You have no manners.”
The Taiji Gentleman frowned and scolded him, but Heavenly Ear Beggar ignored him.
“Since when did beggars care about manners. More than that, aren’t you going to serve tea or something when guests have arrived?”
The Taiji Gentleman pressed his temples.
“This reckless old man.”
“Please wait a moment.”
The Sect Leader poured and served tea.
“Mhm, it smells good.”
Heavenly Ear Beggar, who was picking his ear, sipped the tea and then opened his eyes wide.
“What kind of tea is this?”
“I brewed it with personally dried tea leaves.”
Heavenly Ear Beggar looked at him as if surprised.
“Wow, you have good dexterity. To personally dry tea leaves with such a strong fragrance.”
“I will pack a generous amount for you.”
Heavenly Ear Beggar’s mouth corners went up.
“Hehe, then that’s good for me.”
Excited, Heavenly Ear Beggar drank the tea.
“Sigh. I am sorry, Sect Leader.”
The Taiji Gentleman bowed his head.
“That damn beggar still hasn’t found his senses…….”
“Don’t be like that and try a sip too. The scent and taste are completely different.”
Just as a vein was about to pop out on the Taiji Gentleman’s forehead.
“I heard that the Sect Leader accepted our sect’s proposal.”
When the Zhongnan Sword Saint opened his mouth, it became quiet.
The Sect Leader was surprised to see the Zhongnan Sword Saint silence the two with just a single word.
‘……A Sword Saint is a Sword Saint, is it.’
In the history of Jianghu, there was only one person per era who earned the title of Sword Saint.
And the Sword Saint of the current era was…….
‘That person.’
The Sect Leader made eye contact with the Zhongnan Sword Saint.
“That is correct.”
“I express my gratitude.”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint bowed his head.
As the Sect Leader looked at him in surprise at that action, the Zhongnan Sword Saint smiled gently.
“Then I shall begin now.”
As soon as those words finished.
“Let’s see.”
Heavenly Ear Beggar rummaged through his arms, and spread out a crumpled paper wide open.
Under the paper, which was densely written with details about the joint operation between the Zhongnan Sect and the Mount Hua Sect, a red fingerprint was clearly stamped.
At that moment, Heavenly Ear Beggar bit his thumb.
Drip…
Heavenly Ear Beggar, who was looking at his bleeding thumb, applied force and stamped it on the paper.
Following that, the Taiji Gentleman stamped it.
“I will stamp it first.”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint also finished stamping it.
The Sect Leader looked at the four fingerprints stamped on the paper, and bit his thumb.
Five fingerprints stamped on the paper.
Heavenly Ear Beggar handed the paper over to the Sect Leader, and took out three other sheets of paper.
“Then let’s stamp here too and share them.”
A moment later, as the four of them took one sheet each.
Swish…
The Zhongnan Sword Saint stood up from his seat.
“Where are you going?”
When Heavenly Ear Beggar asked, the Zhongnan Sword Saint smiled.
“There is a promise I must keep.”
* * *
The end of the Falling Goose Peak.
On top of the precariously soaring peak, Cheon-hwi was sitting in a lotus position.
Presently, his eyelids lifted.
“Have you arrived?”
As soon as those words finished.
“I have come to keep my promise.”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint revealed his figure.
“I was worried you might forget the promise from that day, but it is a relief.”
“Haha, how could I forget that.”
“Heave-ho.”
Cheon-hwi undid his lotus position and stood up.
“Then as I said last time, this time is a spar, right?”
“Haha, that’s right.”
“Then.”
Along with his words, Cheon-hwi lightly kicked the ground, and stood in front of the Zhongnan Sword Saint.
“I am already looking forward to it.”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint’s eyebrows curved.
Following that, he drew his sword.
The sword that came out of the shabby scabbard was so transparent that one could see snow reflecting off it.
“This is my friend, Jade Dew, who has been with me since I entered Mount Zhongnan.”
Cheon-hwi grinned.
Those words were also not a single particle different from the time of the spar with Hyeon-do.
Cheon-hwi also drew his sword.
“What is the name of that sword?”
“Name? It doesn’t have one. Why does a sword even need a name. A sword is just a sword.”
“But isn’t a sword a friend to a swordsman.”
“That thought is different for every person.”
“That is also true.”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint nodded his head.
Following that, he looked at the other scabbard hanging at Cheon-hwi’s waist and opened his mouth.
“By the way, are you not going to draw the other sword?”
“I’ll draw it if this sword breaks.”
“Haha.”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint let out a laugh.
“It makes me want to challenge it once.”
“If it’s a challenge, sure.”
Even at Cheon-hwi’s provocation, he kept maintaining his smile and opened his mouth.
“I will concede the first move.”
“I won’t refuse it.”
Cheon-hwi raised his sword high.
And slashed it down from top to bottom.
Mount Tai Crushes the Crown.
It was a simple sword form that even a third-rate martial artist would never unfold as their first move.
However, the Zhongnan Sword Saint immediately grasped why Cheon-hwi unfolded Mount Tai Crushes the Crown.
‘Is it the sword discussion from that time.’
The Zhongnan Sword Saint drew up his internal energy.
In an instant, his Daoist robe swelled up, and the snowflakes blowing around shattered away.
Srrk…
At the same time, his sword lightly deflected Mount Tai Crushes the Crown to the side and sought a variation.
“Then show me.”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint whispered lowly.
“Your sword discussion that had blocked this World’s Dense Secrets…….”
At that moment, a formidable thing happened.
Just as the Jade Dew Sword seemed to occupy the Eight Directions, dozens, hundreds of sword shadows instantly rose, sweeping the surroundings in a flash.
Swaaaaek…
The speed was so fast that the snow settled around them evaporated quickly.
‘He really does offense and defense at the same time.’
Cheon-hwi closely observed the World’s Dense Secrets.
The defensive technique he saw a long time ago, World’s Dense Secrets, and the World’s Dense Secrets currently unfolded by the Zhongnan Sword Saint were different.
The current one was more outstanding.
‘Then shall I try it like I said back then.’
Cheon-hwi withdrew Mount Tai Crushes the Crown.
However, as if he wouldn’t just watch Cheon-hwi withdraw Mount Tai Crushes the Crown, the Zhongnan Sword Saint swung his sword faster.
Smirk…
At that, Cheon-hwi smiled and kicked the ground.
Unfolding the Dark Fragrance Drift, in the moment the World’s Dense Secrets was swung to the top right, he.
Whoosh…
Dug into the gap.
“…….”
For a moment, he made eye contact with the Zhongnan Sword Saint.
However, without any thought of swinging the sword further, he was quietly watching.
‘Oho. You’re waiting, you mean?’
At the gaze that seemed to tell him to quickly try the next move, Cheon-hwi imbued the internal energy of the Plum Blossom Divine Art into his sword and swung it.
Falling Shooting Star!
Slashing down from top to bottom just like a shooting star, the sword clashed with the World’s Dense Secrets.
Clang!
The World’s Dense Secrets clashed with the Falling Shooting Star, bouncing sparks in all directions.
The clash did not end with just once.
Once, twice, three times…….
As the number gradually increased.
The World’s Dense Secrets couldn’t endure the heavy weight of the Falling Shooting Star, which was counted on one hand among heavy swords, any longer, and its balance shook.
“How could this be……!”
The Zhongnan Sword Saint’s eyes shook.
‘To use such a heavy sword while unfolding that drifting footwork…….’
Having actually seen the method that was hard to believe at the time they had done the sword discussion, the Zhongnan Sword Saint found it difficult to hide his surprise.
However, that was only for a moment.
He withdrew the World’s Dense Secrets sword, unfolded the Cloud Dragon Pacing, and aimed for the flank.
Cheon-hwi twisted his sword to the side and deflected it.
Screeeech…
At the moment the Jade Dew Sword, which flowed along the blade body as if it had been like that from the start, soared into the sky.
Swoosh!
The Zhongnan Sword Saint’s sword momentum suddenly caused a rapid change and aimed at Cheon-hwi.
“It is the World’s Thirty-Six Swords Third Form, World’s Daily Wind.”
The moment the Zhongnan Sword Saint let out a calm voice, space tore apart and a sword appeared.
‘……This is it.’
Cheon-hwi’s mouth corner twisted.
How much had he wanted this all this time.
A spar with an absolute master who had learned martial arts that developed compared to his past life!
His chest beat hotly.
Instead, his head cooled down coldly.
‘Well then, let’s go.’
By lowering his posture, Cheon-hwi avoided the World’s Daily Wind and dug into his chest.
At the same time, his sword shook.
That shaking was bizarre.
It wasn’t undulating like a wave, nor was it shaking side to side.
It was as if a butterfly was fluttering.
However, as that sword moved, the snowflakes were cut in half by the sharp aura.
The Zhongnan Sword Saint narrowed his eyes.
“It’s the Plum Fragrance Drunken Butterfly.”
Having seen through the technique Cheon-hwi unfolded at once, he swung his sword roughly.
Whooosh!
As if a storm was rising, snowflakes scattered and flew high into the sky.
And inside that storm, beautiful sword flowers scattered in all directions.
The flowers that bloomed amidst the falling snowflakes bloomed without being swept away by the undulating, intense storm swung by the Zhongnan Sword Saint.
Meanwhile, in a place a distance away, two people were watching that sight.
They were Heavenly Ear Beggar and the Taiji Gentleman.
“……He’s a monster.”
The Taiji Gentleman clicked his tongue.
Although it was said that the Zhongnan Sword Saint wasn’t exerting his full strength right now, just that alone was a martial might that reached the elder level of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang.
“No wonder the Sect Leader told me to keep an eye on him.”
Heavenly Ear Beggar also burst into a hollow laugh.
The Beggars’ Sect Leader told him to make sure to see a kid named Cheon-hwi if he went to Mount Hua, so he came seeking him.
“The Limitless Realm at that age? It’s so absurd that a laugh doesn’t even come out.”
As he spoke, he looked at the Taiji Gentleman.
“How is it compared to the Jade Qilin that Wudang cherishes so much?”
“…….”
The Taiji Gentleman shook his head.
Although it was said that the Jade Qilin possessed superior skill even among the rising stars.
That was a story between rising stars.
That was…….
Of a different class.
To the point where, even compared to the masters in the world and not just rising stars, one could count his adversaries on one hand.
Boom! Boom!
The aftermath of the two people clashing was clearly transmitted even to this faraway place.
Blue sparks continuously flew.
Sword flowers continuously bloomed, and as if not to lose to that, the storm raged endlessly.
The snowflakes that were fluttering down shattered into pieces and scattered before they could even hit the ground due to the aftermath of their clash.
That sight was truly beautiful.
However, it was only on the outside.
“……It is vicious.”
“Could there be such a guy in the world.”
The sharp aura that burst out from the clash was eerie enough to cut the skin of the two, who didn’t flinch even in the cold weather.
The next moment, the two clashed again.
Kaaaaang!
Instantly, space couldn’t endure the impact and shook as if undulating.
Kiiiiing…
An ear-piercing sound burst out.
“Those guys!”
“Ugh!”
Heavenly Ear Beggar and the Taiji Gentleman blocked their ears.
Even amidst that, the two absolutely did not stop swinging their swords.
At that moment.
Step…
The Zhongnan Sword Saint stepped back one pace.
“Let us end the probing phase now.”
At his words, Heavenly Ear Beggar and the Taiji Gentleman looked at each other with flustered eyes.
“A probing phase?”
“That just now?”
Unlike the surprised two, Cheon-hwi looked at the Zhongnan Sword Saint and then rested his sword on his shoulder.
“I was just thinking the same thing. I was at the point of getting bored.”
Cheon-hwi’s eye corners went up.
Soon, as he drew up the internal energy of the Plum Blossom Divine Art, he revealed his stark white teeth.
“Then let’s do it properly from now on.”
Enjoyed the chapter?
If you like our work, consider supporting us on Ko-fi. This site solely runs on donations. Every donation helps us keep translating!
Support on Ko-fi