Prologue
"We've fallen into a trap! I believed there would be hope if we held on, but it seems the trash from the Alliance had other ideas."
It was a war that couldn't be won from the start.
Still, I never imagined it would end with a knife in the back like this.
"This is the Heavenly Net of the Demonic Cult, from which not even an ant can escape. Moreover, the Demonic Cult's Blood Fiend Sword Unit has co to the forefront. It seems this is the end of the road for our Azure Blade Unit."
The eyes of the Azure Blade Unit mbers looking at were unusually grim.
If I had known it would end like this today, I would have had a drink with these guys last night...
"Therefore, as the commander of the Azure Blade Unit, I give my final order. One! All unit mbers are to escape this place at maximum speed. Avoid conflict and never look back. I will remain here. Two! Once you escape, survive no matter what. Whether you flee beyond the borders or hide in the mountains. Even in this hellish world, you must survive for there to be a next ti. As of this mont, the Azure Blade Unit is disbanded."
The final order. It hurts my heart...
What's with these bastards who are drawing their swords with clenched teeth when I told them to run?
They're treating their commander's final order like earwax.
...I wonder how many of them will survive?
There are quite a few who borrowed money and never paid it back.
Anyway, I feel relieved.
I'm no longer the commander of the Azure Blade Unit.
I've returned to being Jin Danyeong, the One-Ard Tyrant Saber who road freely with a single saber.
I should at least buy them enough ti.
I'll run wild to my heart's content for the first ti in a long ti!
Since today seems to be the last anyway...
Chapter 1: I may not be able to win, but I can kill him, can't I?
The setting sun hanging between the mountain peaks was dazzling.
The end is always more brilliant.
Seeing the sun go down, it seems I've been blocking, cutting, and stabbing, rolling on the ground for half a day already.
All one hundred mbers of the Demonic Cult's Blood Fiend Sword Unit clung to .
That's a relief.
That I could at least hold them here.
When the Demonic Cult broke its hundred-year silence and reappeared with the Heavenly Demon at its head, no one expected the Martial Alliance to be so overwhelmingly pushed back.
The nurous masters of the orthodox factions who had boasted they would finish off the Heavenly Demon with a single strike were now nowhere to be found, their nas not even remaining.
At least the Azure Blade Unit, ford by gathering ronin, assassins, and even mbers of the unorthodox and greenwood factions who had flocked to the Alliance, did its part. And the commander of the Azure Blade Unit was , Jin Danyeong.
One of the Blood Fiend Sword Unit mbers thrust at my throat.
I grabbed his thrusting right arm and slashed his side.
Bending down, I cut his ankle and threw him at the one rushing from the side.
Taking a step back, I finally had a mont to breathe.
Looking back, I saw the vice-commander of the Azure Blade Unit surrounded by Demonic Cult mbers on a pile of countless corpses.
This man was a forr assassin, so his finishing moves were always clean.
He was a man who, even while lopping off an opponent's head with a single strike, was careful not to get a single drop of blood on his uniform.
Now, his hair was a ss, his whole body was caked in blood, and he was swinging a chipped sword in all directions.
He was shouting sothing at at the top of his lungs, but my ears must be damaged because I couldn't hear him well.
What was he saying? Was he blaming for ending up like this after eting soone like ?
As the screeching sounds that had been cluttering my ears subsided, it seed his end was near as well.
Rest now. You've suffered much...
Finally, I cut off the head of the last mber of the Sword Unit. As the tension released, one of my knees gave way.
I plunged my blood-stained saber into the ground and sat down.
Ah, I don't like this posture, it's humiliating...
I lifted my head and t his eyes.
That crazy bastard sitting aloof in the distance, watching the stinking battlefield as if enjoying a sword dance, was the Heavenly Demon. When I cut down the very last one, he even clapped and cheered.
Crazy... Are you on our side?
Damn it. I don't even have the strength to walk over there.
You co here.
I'll just rest for a bit...
* * *
"Are you coming to your senses now?"
It seems I had lost consciousness for a mont while sitting.
The voice right in front of was distant.
"Oh. I must have dozed off. The battle was a bit tedious."
As I struggled to support my collapsing body, he graciously knelt down to et my eye level.
"This is why I like you. You definitely shine among those guys who are only looking for a way to save their own skin."
At the end of his pathetic gaze was a group of people standing around the Alliance Leader, avoiding my eyes. Only the Alliance Leader, for so reason, t my gaze with dignity.
Trash-like traitors...
I've morized all your faces.
- Cough!
A lump of red blood gushed from my throat.
I have so many people to kill, so I need to live a long and healthy life, but my body is not in good shape.
This pretty boy I'm making eye contact with right now is the Heavenly Demon.
The absolute ruler of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
The lord of all demons.
An incomprehensible, monstrous being.
In the Battle of Hyeongmun Mountain, known as the Alliance's third great defeat, the Sword Emperor and the Saber Emperor had swallowed their pride and launched a joint attack, but it ended in defeat. I heard the Sword Emperor's two arms were cut off, and the Saber Emperor's head was severed.
The Heavenly Demon is bestowed by the heavens.
It was said that it was not a position one could ascend to by will.
The heavens decide the ti and send it down, and it is transmitted through a revelation.
All Demonic Cult mbers must wait until they receive the revelation.
The Heavenly Demon chosen after waiting for a hundred years was this guy right in front of my eyes.
"I've heard a lot about you, but this is the first ti I've seen your face. It's an honor for a ronin like to be face to face with the venerable Heavenly Demon and exchange words."
"The honor is mine. It was fun watching you fight. You have the wildness of a beast."
You had fun? I thought I was going to die.
Damn it. He's right in front of , but I can't even touch him.
Even in perfect condition, I wouldn't have been able to touch a single hair on his head.
Just being face to face and breathing like this is overwhelming.
He was never on a level that could be asured by human standards in the first place.
"Hey, I want to rest now. Make it clean, please."
The Heavenly Demon wiped the blood flowing down my face with his hand, a pitiful expression on his face.
"You know... I have no intention of killing you."
That's good to hear.
If you were going to let live, you shouldn't have put through such a ordeal.
"Oh? That's good too. You're a better guy than you're known to be, huh? To be honest, you were a bit disappointed too, weren't you? Let's prepare properly and have a go at it."
"Haha. Fun! This is really fun!"
A shiver ran down my spine at the sight of his lips curling up in a bizarre smile.
Regardless of the level of his martial arts, this man is not of the sa kind as us.
Even if I were to be reborn a hundred tis, I would never be able to understand this man.
"There seems to have been a misunderstanding. Saying I won't kill you doesn't an I'm giving you another chance."
The Heavenly Demon's white face, as he swept back his long hair, wore a very satisfied smile.
His black eyes, which seed to pull you in, were filled with an unbearable curiosity.
Like a child with a new toy in front of him.
"The reason I don't kill a bug when I play with it is..."
His smile was eerie.
"Because it's more fun to keep it alive. If you're born a bug, you should squirm with all your might. And..."
He whispered affectionately in my ear in a low voice, as if telling a big secret.
"It's more fun if you tear off one wing."
That day, my right arm was cut off.
* * *
The Valley of Abandoned Bugs.
It was probably sowhere in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
It had a single entrance and was shaped like a gourd surrounded by cliffs on all sides, but the only way out was blocked by a large wall.
I never thought about escaping. In fact, what could I do in this world, which is a Demonic Cult's paradise, even if I escaped with this body?
It was literally a place where abandoned bugs gathered. Those who had held a sword or a saber had all lost their arms. Those with strange talents had their eyes gouged out or their legs cut off.
I have already spent five years here.
I swung my sword every mont I was awake.
With my left arm...
I didn't want to hold a saber with my left hand again. The saber was the share of my right arm, which was now gone.
So I learned the left-handed sword anew.
Fortunately, I received the swordsmanship of the Sword Emperor, whom I t here. He also wanted to pass it on to soone. He probably didn't want the martial arts he had achieved over a lifeti to disappear just like that.
The Sword Emperor's Heaven and Earth Hundred Severing Sword Manual was a great swordsmanship. If the Sword Emperor and the Heavenly Demon had competed in a sword duel, the Sword Emperor would have won.
Of course, since I couldn't infuse my sword with internal energy, it was a half-baked, no, not even half-baked imitation.
Born with a Heavenly Martial Body, my understanding of martial arts was twice as easy as others. But I still couldn't be sure if I had properly understood and learned this swordsmanship.
The Sword Emperor's two arms were both cut off, so he couldn't even show a demonstration once. He wasn't very good at explaining compared to his martial prowess, so if it wasn't for soone like , they wouldn't have even been able to imitate it.
And last winter, when it snowed a lot, the Sword Emperor, covered in a straw mat, shivered and passed away at dawn.
It seems that even a martial artist of the Sword Emperor's caliber becos just an ordinary old man after losing his internal energy.
For the last year, he had dentia and couldn't even control his bowels before he died.
For an old man who might have ascended to immortality if he hadn't lost his internal energy to get dentia in his later years.
For a few days before he died, he said he wanted to eat candy...
It was more that I felt so sorry I couldn't get it for him than that it was funny for an old man approaching a hundred to be whining for candy.
I tied the Sword Emperor's body firmly to my back. Then I climbed up to the middle of the right cliff, where the sun shines the longest in the Valley of Abandoned Bugs, with one hand and buried him.
You were the strongest in the Central Plains!
Excluding that Heavenly Demon bastard since he's not human.
Farewell.
I will use your swordsmanship for a good cause.
I will definitely get you candy later.
I don't know how the world is turning. I heard it's a living hell.
I heard that the trash from the Alliance who sold and the Azure Blade Unit out at that ti were all killed by the Heavenly Demon.
I should have killed them with my own hands.
That was my only regret.
* * *
"You're pretty good with your left hand now."
The old man who just spoke to is a forr elder of the Blood Cult with the nickna Gwideukja. If it weren't for a place like this, I would never have t a Blood Cult mber in my life.
Compared to the Demonic Cult, the Blood Cult could be called an orthodox sect. It's a group of people with talent but a bit gloomy who gather to research strange sorcery. Their reputation in the world is not good because of rumors that they perform human sacrifices, research zombies, and raise bugs like venomous insects.
Gwideukja said that human sacrifice was just a baseless rumor.
He trailed off when talking about zombies and venomous insects.
I thought they would last a little longer since they were equally evil, but in just three days, the Blood Demon's head was cut off, and the Blood Cult was scattered.
This man ca in with both his legs cut off, and whenever I turned around after swinging my wooden sword, he was always watching .
An old man with no legs is surprisingly elusive.
"Pretty good? This is quite good. It's because it's that I can do this much just by hearing it."
In fact, can a martial artist be called a martial artist after losing his dantian and right arm?
A form perford without internal energy is just like a sword dance.
But I swung my sword day and night.
This was the only thing I could do here.
"If you swing it day and night like that, will you be able to defeat the Heavenly Demon?"
This old man has a lot of questions today.
This is why I shouldn't have spoken to a Blood Cult mber in the first place.
Still, I've grown fond of him since I sotis give him a piggyback ride for a walk.
"No."
"Then will you be able to regain your forr martial prowess?"
"No."
"Then why are you so diligent?"
Ah... I can't concentrate.
"Since I've lost my dantian, my life as a martial artist is over. I won't even get close to regaining my forr martial prowess, let alone regain it. You already know that I can't beat that Heavenly Demon bastard whether I have a dantian or not."
As I was about to perform the Sword Emperor's second form again, this man opened his mouth again.
"So. Why are you so diligent when you can't even win?"
Ah, this man must be really bored today.
Today's training is ruined. Tsk...
I threw down my wooden sword and plopped down in front of Gwideukja.
"Even if I'm reborn a hundred tis, I won't be able to beat that Heavenly Demon bastard. He's that kind of being. But..."
"But...?"
"A being that doesn't seem human is still human in the end. He'll die if a sword is stuck in his heart."
My heart began to pound as I imagined thrusting a sword into the Heavenly Demon's chest.
"I may not be able to win, but..."
The veins on my only fist bulged.
"I can kill him, can't I?"
This was my goal and my will.
It was the reason for my life, which I repeated to myself every morning when I woke up, caressing my cleanly severed right shoulder.
Gwideukja's eyes flashed.
"The possibility?"
"About the sa as the Shaolin Abbot appearing tomorrow morning when I wake up, handing a wedding invitation, and begging to attend. Ah, was that old man dead?"
I thought he would at least chuckle, but this man is a bit stingy with his laughter.
"If there's sothing I must do, and the only thing I can do right now is train, what other reason do I need? The possibility is the next problem."
"That's true. But if there's a way to raise that possibility to thirty percent... would you try it?"
My ears perked up. He's not a person who talks nonsense.
There's sothing.
"I've spent five years in this Valley of Abandoned Bugs. I've watched many people during that ti."
I know that too.
Watching other people was this man's only daily routine.
"They were all the sa. They committed suicide, went mad, lost all aning, and lived in resignation. Only! You alone did not waver."
"There must have been people stronger than , right? First of all, the Sword Emperor..."
"He also recomnded you."
The fact that the Sword Emperor also knew ant that it wasn't a completely absurd story.
"Let's hear what that thod is!"
(End of Chapter)
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