Chapter 562:
The sword slowly droops downward.
Wei Yan-ho had recently been feeling a strange sensation from time to time.
‘Am I holding a sword right now?’
He lowered his head to check with his eyes. The pure white sword was definitely there.
Such a strange thing.
It wasn’t that the sensation in his fingertips had dulled. He could clearly feel the sensation of the handle touching his fingertips. But his recognition of holding the sword became vague.
‘I must be going crazy.’
He knew what this was called.
Sword-Self Unity.
The realm where one becomes one with the sword through synchronization. The realm called Sword-Self Unity or Body-Sword Harmony.
But it was slightly different.
It wasn’t that he felt unity with the sword. Even though a sword was clearly in his hand, he forgot the existence of that sword. He was forgetting something he shouldn’t forget.
It wasn’t the sense of synchronization that some spoke of, where the sword feels like part of one’s own body.
‘If I had a master, I would have asked.’
To the current Wei Yan-ho, his master was like a guidepost. A star shining aloft in the distant sky. A guidepost that would lead him down the right path just by looking at and following that star.
But that guidepost was terribly unhelpful.
How much further he had to go, whether it was right to cross that mountain, or whether crossing the river would be faster, when exactly he could arrive if he continued like this… it told him nothing.
It was the same now.
No one told him whether this was one of the processes that those who ascend naturally had to experience, or whether he had taken the wrong path.
‘Master must have been the same.’
At least Wei Yan-ho had the guidepost of a master, but his master had nothing. When he surpassed his prime and became the greatest under heaven, who could have taught him the way?
There was no reason to complain.
His master had reached that lofty position under even harsher conditions. Compared to that, wasn’t Wei Yan-ho in relatively better circumstances?
‘Quite leisurely.’
And to be thinking all these thoughts.
Of course, thinking wasn’t wrong. Reflecting on one’s state and clearly setting the direction to move forward was absolutely necessary for a martial artist.
The problem was the current situation.
Wei Yan-ho, who raised his head slightly, could clearly see Sa-ma and Dok-ma fiercely charging at him.
‘So slow.’
The world was incredibly slow.
His mind was processing excessive information simultaneously, slowing down his time.
When did this slowed world become familiar?
At some point, he felt it.
Something was sprouting within him.
‘So damn slow.‘
The moment he felt he needed to become stronger, he became stronger. The moment he felt he needed to become even stronger, he became even stronger.
When others climbed cliffs, he ascended the mountain through a well-maintained hiking trail. While people stood helpless before seemingly endless cliffs, he climbed up and up along the comfortable path his master had prepared, without hesitation.
Yet still, it wasn’t visible.
How high he had to climb.
The rising mountain extended beyond the clouds to the ends of the sky. He had climbed high enough to amaze everyone. Yet still, the end of this mountain remained invisible.
‘Even so, this is really too much.’
Even if he could see it, it would be a height he couldn’t climb. Then wouldn’t it be fine to at least show him the end?
— It’s not that I’m not showing you. You’re too lacking to see it, you fool.
‘I know.’
Wei Yan-ho pouted.
The stronger he became, the more he realized. How large, how enormous the shadow his master cast over him was.
Compared to that enormous shadow, the bishops charging at him now were nothing.
Yes, truly nothing.
Sa-ma’s nails grew long. More precisely, it appeared as if pitch-black Steel Claws had grown long at the tips of his nails.
Sharp.
Just brushing against those Steel Claws would tear flesh and cause it to rot. Come to think of it, he seemed to have heard about those claws from his father. What was it called, some kind of Demonic Claw…
He hadn’t listened with particular interest, so he couldn’t remember well. Well, even if he had been interested, he probably wouldn’t have remembered anyway.
It didn’t matter.
Whatever claw technique it was, he didn’t need to know. In the end, all martial arts connected as one. All martial arts couldn’t escape thrusting, swinging, grabbing, and pushing.
Forms were nothing more than combinations of these four things. At most, adding psychological warfare of stopping and waiting.
— What will you do?
‘I’ll just avoid it.’
— If you can’t avoid it?
‘I’ll just block it.’
Simple.
He had thought the world would become complex as he climbed higher and higher. But the higher he climbed, the simpler the world became. Just like now.
Sa-ma’s hand stretched forward as the Steel Claws at his fingertips grew long. Five lines appeared in the air, piercing toward Wei Yan-ho’s throat.
‘Obvious.‘
Those claws weren’t trying to stab Wei Yan-ho’s throat now. If he twisted his body to dodge, the plan was to swing in the direction he dodged and cut him down.
The energy at his fingertips, the direction of his nails, Sa-ma’s gaze trying to preemptively claim where he would dodge—all told him this fact.
Then what should he do?
‘I said it’s obvious.’
Wei Yan-ho’s sword cut down the incoming Steel Claws.
Once.
Once more.
And once again.
The shattered Steel Claws scattered in all directions. The Steel Claws, filled with chilling sharpness, dug into the blue stone floor as easily as if cutting through tofu.
Sa-ma’s eyes widening clearly entered Wei Yan-ho’s vision.
‘What’s so surprising.’
He understood.
The Steel Claws filled with all his strength were being cut like straw, so it was worth being surprised about.
But that level of sword energy couldn’t stop Wei Yan-ho.
‘I was the one who got beaten by the sword energy Master swung around like a joke.’
Everything was within him.
His master had said he taught him everything. And those words were not wrong.
He kept learning.
He kept realizing.
What his master had taught him.
The playful thumps to his head contained all the mysteries of fist techniques. The fingertips that strangely swung to smack his bottom contained all the mysteries of the sword.
The image of his master appearing in dreams was nothing more than a mental image recreated from his master’s appearance he had seen in the cave in the past. But even so, Wei Yan-ho had never once beaten his master. Even in dreams, he had never even grazed him.
The gestures he thought were nothing gradually revealed their inner essence whenever he tried to avoid them.
‘Unbelievable, really.‘
Who would have ever imagined that the mysteries of fist techniques that would put Shaolin to shame were melted into the fingertips that thumped his head?
How could anyone have imagined that the realm of swordsmanship that even Wudang couldn’t dare approach was contained in the stick that beat sleeping Wei Yan-ho awake?
His master was that kind of person.
He was martial arts, and martial arts was him. He was no different from a god of martial arts who descended to the world in human form.
Compared to him?
‘Weak.’
Sa-ma, suppressing his panic, drew out Steel Claws once more. Wei Yan-ho, seeing this scene, charged toward Sa-ma without slowing down.
Sa-ma shouted something and swung his claws again.
This old man was quite strong too. That was certain. The momentum contained in the swinging Steel Claws was fierce beyond measure.
‘Could Grandfather Gwon-geuk handle this?’
He couldn’t definitively say which side would gain the upper hand. It was such a subtle difference that the outcome would be decided by that day’s condition and stamina.
But…
“I said you’re weak.”
Wei Yan-ho’s sword held light. Then it swung slowly.
Trajectory.
The trajectory following his master’s sword.
Even though he couldn’t understand it with his head, his body knew that trajectory, and Wei Yan-ho faithfully swung his sword following it.
Then it split.
Everything.
Everything that entered the sword’s range split as if it were naturally fated to be cut, unable even to resist.
As if the sword was tracing something that had already been cut.
The Steel Claws Sa-ma had drawn were cut like rice stalks before a sickle. But Wei Yan-ho wasn’t satisfied with just that.
He was greedy, after all.
The sword that cut the Steel Claws also cut into Sa-ma’s fingers. Sa-ma’s eyes, unable to find a place to escape, shook.
‘Hm?’
At that moment, Dok-ma began to move. Poison Energy that looked sickening just to see shot from his fingertips tinged with green, flying between Wei Yan-ho and Sa-ma.
Meaning to back away.
‘Who decided that?‘
Despite that clear warning, Wei Yan-ho didn’t back away. Instead, he charged one more step forward, thrusting his sword. Wei Yan-ho’s sword, containing explosive energy, trembled.
‘Good sword.‘
Next time he went to the Dang Family, he should thank that craftsman grandfather. This sword really seemed like it was made just for Wei Yan-ho. It felt like the sword moved before his hand moved when his mind moved.
It perfectly realized the movements Wei Yan-ho thought of.
Perfect martial arts and a perfect sword.
He had both. So what was there to worry about?
Sa-ma screamed and struck at Wei Yan-ho’s sword with both hands. From the right, sickening Poison Energy filled with poison flew in. Wei Yan-ho thrust his sword with his right hand while striking the Poison Energy with his left hand.
A tremendous roar.
Even that roar sounded sluggish.
Sa-ma spat blood and fell backward. Wei Yan-ho, not even giving a glance to Sa-ma flying through the air like a kite, had Poison Energy exploding at his fingertips.
The fishy smell of poison.
The tingling sensation of poison digging into his fingertips.
Pleasure appeared in Dok-ma’s eyes.
‘How stupid.‘
He must think he was poisoned.
He must think it couldn’t be stopped by force.
But he was wrong.
‘Master said so.’
Whether it’s Poison Energy or poison, in the end, it’s a type of martial arts. If I’m stronger than Poison Energy, my body will win, and if my energy is stronger than poison, the poison cannot invade the body.
Moreover…
‘There’s a scary person on this side.’
Before the energy in his dantian could even feel the poison that had penetrated his fingertips, Baek Mu-han’s inner core stirred.
Maybe because it was Baek Mu-han’s inner core, its personality was exactly the same as Baek Mu-han’s. Seeing the intruder that had entered its dwelling, it struggled and expelled energy toward his fingertips.
That was the end.
Baek Mu-han’s tremendous inner power, which was impossible to describe even with the word “ignorant,” instantly devoured the poison. It didn’t even push it out of the body. After grabbing and dragging it, it began to beat it down thoroughly. After the poison became completely submissive, it cleanly dismantled it and slily pushed it into the dantian.
‘The master’s grace is like heaven.‘
Inner power filled his dantian. All the poison was neutralized, and only inner power remained, filling Wei Yan-ho’s dantian. As if he had taken a good elixir.
Immunity to All Poisons.
It wasn’t a realm Wei Yan-ho had achieved. But with Baek Mu-han’s inner core residing in Wei Yan-ho’s body, it was impossible for poison to invade.
Maybe not before, but now it was.
Wei Yan-ho took a deep breath and grinned wickedly.
“A bit lacking… do you have a lot of poison, old man?”
Dok-ma’s face contorted horribly at Wei Yan-ho’s mockery.
