Chapter 321: Each to Their Own (2)
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‘It feels as if my skin is burning.’
Such was the sensation of directly facing the qi wave of one of the Five Great Sword Masters Under Heaven. As expected, my martial prowess was still lacking to confront one of the Five Great Sword Masters Under Heaven.
It was time to raise my current Grade 4 talent to Grade 3 as soon as possible, and even consider unlocking the talents above that.
Though of course, that was only a conversation for after I survived here.
“What kind of person did the Vice Palace Master think would create the orthodox sect?”
“I did not want someone who swept everything under the rug and gathered everyone haphazardly. I wanted someone who would build a certain, secure, and enduring orthodox sect.”
“Are you saying I am someone who sweeps everything under the rug and takes everyone in?”
“Are you going to claim otherwise? Right now, the Demonic Cult is inside you. At the very least, you are not someone who would discard the cultists who follow you.”
“That is also true.”
“That is what I dislike. Let us say I could make an exception for you as an individual. But the moment I make an exception for that, cultists will emerge who use you as a shield to operate in secret. Cultists who dream of Demonic Domination Over the World!”
“Why must you assume the cultists would do that?”
“Cultists are simply that kind of existence. They were born that way.”
Right now, I held the opposite view from Su Je-heon. The idea that belonging to an orthodox faction or the Demonic Cult had zero bearing on one’s humanity. To the point where I thought it was close to a malicious play on words using the characters for Orthodox and Demonic.
“Not all orthodox martial artists are good, are they? Just like you.”
“I do not wish to be evaluated as good. I wish to be evaluated as having walked the right path.”
“It does not seem like the right path to me either.”
“That is your judgment.”
“If you put it that way, I suppose I must say it is your judgment as well.”
“Then our negotiations have broken down.”
“I suppose one could see it that way.”
In the blink of an eye, Su Je-heon vanished from my field of vision. A fierce wind blew past my ears. Before that, I sensed the flow of nature with Wind God. I saw the energy in the atmosphere being sucked behind me.
I immediately swung my sword backward. Tremendous force transmitted into my grip.
With a cracking sound, the web between my thumb and index finger gripping the sword hilt tore open. Internally, I was astonished. My body was one that could now take pride in having swung a sword for quite some time.
It was skin that had only torn when I had first picked up a sword, yet this place that had formed calluses hundreds of times tore in a single instant. It was truly immense power.
“I intended to finish this in one strike.”
Su Je-heon clicked his tongue. Fortunately, he was not faster than Sword Demon Ma Cheon-wi. Instead, his weight was of a different caliber than Ma Cheon-wi’s.
If one considered Su Je-heon as having subtracted speed from Ma Cheon-wi and added weight, Su Je-heon was actually a better match for my affinity. After all, I was also a swordsman who mainly employed the subtle mysteries of speed. There were few situations as hopeless as being overwhelmingly outmatched while using the same principles.
“Do you know why I was given the name Ink Sword Hero?”
Su Je-heon’s eyes sparkled. Come to think of it, while facing Su Je-heon, I had yet to see any stance that brought to mind why the character ‘Ink’ was used.
“I do not know.”
“It is only fun if you do not know. You see, it is……”
Su Je-heon swept his hand along his blade from the spine to the tip. At that gesture, the pristine white blade was dyed in the color of ink.
“Heh.”
It was quite an extraordinary sight, so much so that I forgot my situation and let out an exclamation. Su Je-heon smiled as if proud of my reaction.
“It is called the Ink Sword.”
“It looks cool.”
“Thank you.”
Su Je-heon grinned.
“Do you know why the Ink Sword is black?”
I thought about it for a moment. Originally, every sect, clan, or internal energy possessed its own distinct color. The Wudang Sect was an antique blue, demonic qi was purple, and my Primordial Mixed Qi was gray.
As I pondered, I arrived at a reasonable hypothesis.
“Is it because the Vice Palace Master’s heart is black?”
“No way. It is because I combined every swordsmanship and qigong together.”
“Combined them?”
“Yes. As you know, I do not hail from a prestigious lineage. So I snatched all the martial arts. And like a patchwork of rags, I pasted them piece by piece onto my own martial arts. That is also the reason I do not use the term ‘sword style’. Where in the world is there a rule that uses everything? As I ended up using everything like that, the energies also began to mix little by little.”
“It became so turbid that it turned black.”
“Indeed. Since I possess turbid qi, let alone ascending to immortality, this body will not even enjoy longevity.”
Certainly, a person with turbid qi was bound to live a shorter life than someone with clear qi. That was like a law of the world.
If, as Su Je-heon said, that was created by stealing a little bit of everyone’s cultivation methods, I could not even fathom how turbid it must be. Was it not a miracle that he had lived this long?
“If you are going to die early, you should go down to the countryside and recuperate.”
“Possessing power and not wielding it is not righteous. That is why I despise the sort known as hermits. That is why I dislike the old fogies who have emerged now, whether from the orthodox factions or the Imperial Palace.”
“Did you not say there was a pact?”
“One should think about turning the mortal realm into a paradise, not just escaping to paradise on one’s own. How much of a paradise could a paradise populated by such people really be?”
Su Je-heon’s words had a fairly reasonable aspect. Even I thought that made some sense.
However, we had not gathered right now to hold such a debate.
“At any rate. You said you could not understand me. Now, let me try to make you understand.”
“Pardon?”
“It has been a while since I drew the Ink Sword.”
A curve formed at the corners of Su Je-heon’s mouth. Mobilizing all five senses and every perception, I tracked Su Je-heon’s footwork.
It was an orthodox, overly predictable move aiming for the Juque acupoint near the solar plexus. Of course, only the move was orthodox; when accompanied by overwhelming speed and destructive power, it became not a predictable move, but an ultimate technique.
I immediately raised my sword vertically to block. And then, spinning my body around, I tried to strike Su Je-heon’s temple with my elbow. At that moment, Su Je-heon’s sword moved bizarrely. I thought Su Je-heon would shift his head to dodge, but he naturally altered the trajectory of his sword and parried my elbow with the pommel.
Instantly, Su Je-heon’s ink-colored sword qi split into two branches. It was a move aiming for the Shaohai acupoint on the elbow and the Xuehai acupoint on the knee.
As expected, these were key acupoints in their respective areas, and seizing them was an efficient move that could render an opponent combat-ineffective in an instant.
Yet, on the contrary, this method felt unfamiliar to me. As one reached the realm of masters, one avoided using such direct moves. Because it was obvious they would be blocked.
Therefore, one often used methods where, assuming the move would be blocked from the start, one blurred the enemy’s vision with feints and then gradually narrowed inward from non-dangerous acupoints to dangerous ones. As my martial attainment rose, I had also naturally come to employ such techniques.
Yet right now, Su Je-heon’s swordsmanship was hardly any different from the movements when I first learned the Five Elements Sword. The only difference was that it was terrifyingly fast and powerful.
Being orthodox meant it could respond to all movements. I immediately deployed the consummate lightness art of Shifting Form and Changing Position to aim for Su Je-heon’s back, but Su Je-heon aimed for my elbow once more, ultimately forcing me to retract my sword.
“It is truly a peculiar sword art.”
I said as I stepped backward.
I had probably moved twice or three times more than him. No, I must have moved ten times more. He had fended me off with minimal movement, and none of it deviated from the fundamentals.
“Did you think it would be chaotic just because I incorporated every sword art?”
Su Je-heon chuckled.
“No. Rather, as I whittled and whittled it down in my own way, the form remained similar. That is my sword.”
A sword of efficiency. Now I seemed to understand. The person named Su Je-heon. I could even feel the pain he must have endured while whittling down the martial arts he had learned with great difficulty.
Yet he must have endured even that pain for the sake of his goal. With the single-minded determination to eradicate cultists and properly establish the orthodox faction he envisioned.
“Though the energy remained turbid instead, what can one do? That, too, is who I am.”
Su Je-heon was someone who did not care how others evaluated him. While I could not even imagine such a single-minded streak, on the other hand, because it was a path I could not walk, there was also an aspect of admiration.
“I respect that.”
“For those words to come from your mouth must mean you saw me in my sword.”
“I suppose it turned out that way.”
“Well, do you understand me now?”
“I understand.”
“Then can you join the orthodox sect I will create?”
Su Je-heon asked. Longing was contained in his voice. He had conviction in the orthodox sect he would build. It was something I did not yet have. I even envied that.
However, I had no choice but to shake my head. The life I had lived and the life Su Je-heon had lived were different.
“No. I am sorry.”
Su Je-heon smiled.
“No. I knew you would say that. In fact, had you accepted, I would have been disappointed.”
I raised my guard once more. But anticlimactically, Su Je-heon turned the ink-colored blade white again and returned it to the scabbard.
“It seems this is as far as we go. Between us, that is.”
“Are you not going to kill me?”
“Are you someone who dies just because someone tries to kill you? Right outside is the Taiji Sword Emperor; he would chase after me to the death.”
Su Je-heon said.
“For us to fight and sever each other’s necks right now, too many old fogies calling themselves immortals have descended. If not for them, I might have taken your head.”
At Su Je-heon’s words, I was actually relieved. It was the relief of feeling that I had accurately understood the person named Su Je-heon.
“The Taiji Sword Emperor and the Boundless Divine Sword still do not know you are the Heavenly Demon, right?”
“Yes. Will you inform them?”
Su Je-heon laughed.
“Well. What should I do?”
“If you are going to inform them, go ahead. Well, it cannot be helped.”
“For someone saying that, your pupils are shaking.”
“Because it is true that it would be troublesome.”
“It is fine. I will not tell them.”
That was quite an unexpected answer. Because based on Su Je-heon’s personality, I had thought he would definitely inform them.
“Why?”
“Even if I blow up the New Justice Association right now, there is nothing good in it, and personally, I also think it is not the right direction.”
“That is a bit surprising.”
“You complain even when I say I will not tell.”
Su Je-heon grumbled.
“I suppose it is because it is a sensitive matter for me.”
“I imagine so. Because they probably place limitless trust in you. Perhaps they might feel betrayed.”
“Rather than perhaps, wouldn’t it definitely happen?”
“Maybe. But that is none of my business.”
Suddenly, I wanted to seek advice from the person named Su Je-heon. Although he used insane methods, because he was someone who employed efficient means no matter what, I thought he might have some breakthrough in this situation.
“How can I wisely let the people of the New Justice Association know that I am the Heavenly Demon?”
“Heheh. Are you asking that of me? You and I are enemies.”
“Because for now, we are officially still in discussions.”
“You have a more childlike side than I thought. That must mean you also like and follow the people of the Wudang Sect that much.”
Su Je-heon burst into hearty laughter. I laughed along, feeling sheepish.
“As expected, it is a problem with no right answer.”
“No. It is a problem with only one right answer. You know it too.”
Wiping away his laughter, Su Je-heon looked at me with serious eyes.
“You must show them the person you are. When you showed yourself to me without hesitation, why are you afraid to show yourself to the people who believe in you?”
For a moment, I was dazed. Show them the person I am. Even so, I could not very well request a one-on-one duel with everyone.
“But what if they reject me?”
“Do not think that the people you know are everything. Right now, you had many things you were hiding from them too, did you not? Each is to their own. Does not perfect understanding stem from indifference? That is why people are something one must be all the more cautious about the more one gets to know them.”
Su Je-heon raised his scabbard, tapped my forearm, and walked out. Leaving behind a final remark.
“Clash with all your sincerity and everything you have. And if it does not work out, you can simply acknowledge it then and step back.”
Dazedly, I stared at the government office door Su Je-heon had walked out of. It was the moment he looked, for the first time, like a senior of the martial world.