Chapter 53. Connection (3)
“Let’s see if you can still wag your tongue after your heart is pierced!”
The mont the red-faced Blood Shadow Ghost Spear twisted his body, a straight trajectory was embroidered in the air with the spear he held as the starting point.
As soon as the trajectory appeared, a spearhead flew in, tearing it apart.
As I stepped on the Eight Trigrams Flying Stream Steps and took a step to the right, a chilling sound ca from my forearm.
Slice.*
The sound of my clothes being pierced.
I willingly took a step towards him.
No. I tried to take a step.
He had already retrieved the spear he had thrust, and the spearhead flew in again in succession.
Pababak!
Countless shadows of the spear embroidered the air.
It was to the point where it looked like four or five spears were being thrust at the sa ti.
He was displaying a series of concise and fast stabs.
By the ti I dodged one trajectory embroidered in the air, the next trajectory would already be drawn towards my vital point.
I hastily rolled on the ground and dodged the spearhead flying towards my heart.
“Hahahaha. The way you roll on the ground is just like a coward!”
Did the word ‘coward’ bother him that much?
“You talk a lot. Coward hiding behind a spear because you're scared.”
A vein pops on his forehead.
I wondered if he had ever been despised for using a spear.
It was actually a good thing.
“Coward. Try stabbing harder!”
“I’ll kill you!!”
Countless spear shadows fly towards again as I get up from rolling on the floor.
A few tis I narrowly dodged them.
Slice.
A few tis I couldn't dodge perfectly, and my skin was slightly cut.
It seed that just dodging wouldn't be enough to close in.
I stared intently at the trajectory visible in the air.
While recalling the thod I used to deal with one of the n in black a mont ago.
Then a new trajectory is drawn in the air.
A trajectory that could deflect his spear to the side.
I willingly swung my sword towards that trajectory.
Clang!
Right after the sound of tal rang out, a sly smile forms on his lips.
Whooosh!
His spear lets out a cry, and a blood-red energy gathers on the spearhead.
Crack.
Instantly, the edge of my sword started to chip, and it scread as if it would break at any mont.
I withdrew my sword and hastily took a step back.
“You're skilled for a coward.”
He was only forming his spear qi when striking sothing as sturdy as a lump of iron or even stronger.
I thought it was probably to minimize the loss of internal energy.
But there was sothing he was most skilled at.
Footwork.
I kept looking for an angle to close in while dodging and parrying his spear, but it wasn't easy.
He chased exactly as much as I retreated, and retreated as much as I closed in, continuing to stab with his spear.
Since I couldn't shorten the distance, I couldn't shove my sword into his vital points.
Grit.
As I bite my tongue, the fishy taste of blood fills my mouth.
I roused my mind.
Sword Unification is not what's important right now.
I have to close in to the distance where my sword can reach.
At that mont. As he took his stance again, a trajectory was drawn in the air.
Just dodging is not enough.
I will close in no matter what.
As I stared intently at the trajectory with that mindset, a new trajectory was drawn in the air.
A single path to close in to his chest while dodging the spearhead with a graze.
I took a step towards that path.
Slice.
My neck is grazed, and blood flows out.
It was because my reaction was late. Also, I couldn't perfectly follow the trajectory I saw.
“Do you want to die, Jin Yuseong.”
While I was cursing at myself.
The spear that the Blood Shadow Ghost Spear had instantly retrieved flies in again.
Another trajectory was already drawn next to it.
I once again took a step along that trajectory.
I threw my body, focusing only on the single-minded determination to close in.
Slice.
Like a moth flying towards a fla.
Slice.
With every step I take, the wounds on my body increase.
Slice.
It didn't matter.
“Hehehehe.”
On the verge of life and death, the world was already flowing slowly.
A spearhead flying like a snail. This damn body that moves even slower than that spearhead.
There was only one thing in this world that maintained its original speed.
It was the trajectory visible to these eyes.
The trajectory drawn as he took his stance again.
The path to approach him by avoiding that trajectory.
I advance towards that path.
“More! Faster!!”
Whipping my slow self.
Slice!
The spearhead I dodged with a graze cuts my collar.
Thud.
I finally succeeded in shortening the distance with him by one step.
I tried to pull down the corners of my mouth that kept trying to rise.
It's not over yet.
I have to shorten it by two more steps for the sword to reach.
A strange sight ca into view.
He changed the position of the hand holding the spear.
By holding the spear shaft short, he was adjusting the length of the spear by the shortened distance.
“Di-! e-! Nooow-!!”
Then, the spearhead flew at a faster speed than before.
Slice!
A much faster speed. Again, my forearm is cut, and blood splatters.
Laughter burst out on its own.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!”
I could be pierced in the blink of an eye.
That pressure was strangely welco.
I watch his movents with my eyes wide open.
Is it because of the excessive use of my eyes? Is it because I can't even dare to blink?
A throbbing pain rushes through my eyes, and further, it feels as if my brain is burning up.
Paradoxically, in that pain, the world flows even more slowly.
Now there is only one thing to see.
It was only the path I had to take to step forward.
Thud.
The distance shortened again.
The muscles of my lower body and waist, squeezed to the limit for a single step, scream.
I clearly realized how insufficient my movent art and footwork training had been.
“Sh-! ut-! u-! p-!”
Shouting at my pitiful body that was screaming in pain, I take another step.
So as not to forget the sensation of this mont.
After a mont of throwing my body, focusing only on the footwork.
At so point, I realized.
That I had finally reached the distance where the sword could reach.
The mont I recognized that fact, the trajectory I saw changed.
I see a single beautiful line advancing straight towards his heart.
Before my thoughts could intervene, my sword was already advancing along that trajectory.
Wavering here and there.
Like a fool.
I thought that because I had focused on footwork, I might have forgotten how to swing a sword again.
A shabby sword strike that had not reached Sword Unification.
Naturally, that sword strike was blocked by the Blood Shadow Ghost Spear's spear shaft.
Clang!
The blade that clashed with his spear shaft screams.
A sword whose edge was already worn out.
I could tell instinctively.
The sword is breaking.
Whether he felt the sa sensation, he smiles slyly.
Crack!!
Soon, along with the sword's last cry, the sword broke in two.
The sight of the broken blade flying into the air is seen slowly.
The sight of the slyly smiling Blood Shadow Ghost Spear swinging his spear, using the montum from parrying the sword, too.
I bent my upper body back with all my might, as if my waist would break.
Soon, the spearhead passed by, grazing the front of my nose.
I used my left arm to support myself on the ground and raised my upper body again.
“Cough.”
I saw the face of the man who was coughing up blood.
And the sight of the half-broken sword embedded in his solar plexus.
At the very last mont.
It was the result of throwing the half-broken sword in my right hand at the sa ti I bent my waist.
“Damn…… it…….”
At the sight of the Blood Shadow Ghost Spear spitting out curses, the slowed world returned to its original speed.
Thanks to the dying man's appearance, an important issue ca to mind belatedly.
“Where is Hyeok Ilso now?”
“How…… do you…… know that guy?”
“Shut up and just tell where Hyeok Ilso is.”
The man gritted his teeth, forced the corners of his mouth up, and answered.
“If you keep running wild like this…… you'll et him eventually……. And that day will be…… your death anniversary.”
He said it as if he was casting a curse, but it couldn't have been more welco news.
“This thod was the right answer.”
Because it sounded like I was heading straight for Hyeok Ilso.
The Blood Shadow Ghost Spear, who had tried to say sothing upon seeing my smile, seed to have lost strength in his legs and collapsed.
And he could never move his body again.
Soon, a shout ca from behind.
“Senior Brother!!”
“B-big bro! A-are you okay?”
I turned around and looked back.
The n in black were all sprawled out, and Junior Sister and Nam Geon were looking at with faces full of worry.
“I'm fine.”
After answering appropriately, I clasped my hands in a fist-and-palm salute towards the man standing next to Junior Sister.
Towards the man who had suddenly jumped into the fight a mont ago and helped us.
“I apologize for the late greeting. My surna is Jin, and my na is Yuseong. Thank you for helping us.”
At my greeting, that man also hurriedly returned the fist-and-palm salute.
“I am Yeongcheon, a disciple of the Mount Heng Sect.”
At the man's answer, a thought of ‘as expected’ ca to mind.
The voice I heard. And through the face I glimpsed during the battle, I had a thought of ‘what if.’
Yeongcheon. I had t this man before. To be precise, he looked ten years younger than the face I knew.
In my life before regression, when I had returned to Heavenly Sun Village after finishing ten years of training.
The man who saved when I was about to be killed by the Black Thugs sent from the Steel Sinew Sect.
The man who advised to leave Jianghu because I had no talent for martial arts.
The man who was torn to death by the Vajra Dog Nam Geon, no, Nam Seup, while confronting the Steel Sinew Sect, was none other than Yeongcheon.
But to think that man would help again.
The connections between people were truly sothing you could never figure out.
“More importantly, little brother. How about taking care of your wounds first? No matter how I look at it, you don't seem to be in a fine state.”
The man who had helped said with a worried expression.
It was a strange feeling.
The face of that man I knew was in his mid-thirties with a square jaw.
His expression was also resolute, but his eyes had a sohow grayish light in them.
A gaze that seed weary from life. Yet it was a face that seed to have gritted its teeth to move forward.
But the expression on the face of this young man in his mid-twenties was sowhat different.
He was full of life. It was a face that had not yet been beaten down by the harsh winds and waves of the world.
But there was also sothing that hadn't changed.
A worried gaze.
A sense of chivalry that would jump in without considering the consequences if soone was being treated unjustly.
It seed that he wasn't like that because he had gotten older, but that he had been that kind of person since he was young.
Perhaps because of that personality, ten years later, he had such a resolute face.
Having been beaten here and there by the storms of life.
And yet, the future him saved .
And yet, he fought against the trash like the Steel Sinew Sect.
Even though I had only t him once, I felt a sense of gladness.
“It is truly good to see that you haven't changed.”
As I said that with a smile, Yeongcheon tilted his head.
“Little brother. Have you seen before?”
Soon, Yeongcheon made an urgent expression.
“We must start treatnt at once. You kept talking to yourself while fighting earlier, so it seems you're seeing things due to severe blood loss.”
He had a worried expression, just like when he had saved that day.
At that mont. Nam Geon chid in from the side.
“I-it's okay, Taoist big bro. Our b-big bro often says strange things. B-but he's a good big bro.”
Yeongcheon looked back and forth between and Nam Geon with a confused expression.
It was a truly bizarre sight.
Originally, those two were supposed to et ten years later.
And on the day they t, Yeongcheon was fated to be torn to death by Nam Geon.
I wonder if Yeongcheon knows.
That I saved him from ten years in the future.
Laughter flowed out.
“Hahahaha.”
It didn't matter.
It wasn't as if I was going around cleaning up trash in the hopes that soone would recognize .
It was just self-satisfaction.
“Hahahahaha.”
Yes. Self-satisfaction.
I had saved a man who might beco a chivalrous hero in the future.
That fact was so delightful that laughter burst out without realizing it.
“Hahahahahaha.”
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