NOVEL NEXT Chapter 981
<981 - Sword Saint (5)>
Sword Saint Reinhardt.
A genius of the sword capable of unearthing one’s talent with just one duel.
Ziang and Sing finally steeled themselves to point their blades at him.
“Sister. How strong is that person?”
“Probably at the level of a Sage.”
Having seized a small dimension to create a World Domain, he’s often referred to as a Sage of a minor world, but when considering the legendary prowess of Sword Saints passed down through tales, he was undoubtedly someone who could reach Sage level even in the Middle Realm.
– The young days of the Sword Saint? In my time, I dealt with Apostles of God.
– I sliced through the words of a great evil, a Giant, just because he blocked the sunlight.
– They say he drew his sword in the Hwanggung of the Seonhwang and escaped alive. Not sure if that’s true.
A competent person stronger than an Apostle and at the level that could survive against the great evil of the Seonhwang.
There was no doubt he was no ordinary individual.
“I guess we should think of him as being as strong as the Awakened Demon King Oknodie and the Seonhwang. Ah, Sister Sia, you wouldn’t know since you’ve only just arrived from the Eastern Empire?”
“I have a rough idea. I heard it from Oknodie, who was close with Sing.”
“Sis, why are you suddenly sweating?”
“I’m just nervous about fighting the Sword Saint.”
Sing, who had direct intuitive knowledge of the scene, was dripping with sweat yet trying to act cool.
But when it came to actually fighting the Sword Saint, a problem arose.
Although he felt the presence of the Sword Saint across the whole world, he couldn’t figure out his exact location.
“How did everyone else fight against the Sword Saint?”
“The Sword Saint threw out five duel bracelets.”
In response to Ziang’s question, the Ghost Swordsmen answered.
“There are many ghosts, but the Sword Saint has only one body, so he places the qualifying conditions for the duel on the duel bracelets so that he won’t lose his time.”
“The most skilled among the ghosts, the Ghost Warlords, hold the duel bracelets.”
“Even those with duel bracelets avoid ambush or teamwork, keeping their mouths shut to hide, so it’s not easy to find them.”
After all, Sword Saint Reinhardt was a human before he became a ghost trapped in the underworld.
It was understandable that he drawn aggro with duel bracelets to avoid being ambushed daily.
“I heard there’s a Ghost Warlord among you. It would be great if I could borrow three duel bracelets for the duel with the Sword Saint.”
At Ziang’s words, the vast Tomb of the Sword fell silent, as if a lie.
The ghostly crowd, who’d been noisily training their swordsmanship, all suddenly zipped their mouths shut in unison.
Seeing the extraordinary unity among the ghosts, Ziang made a sour face.
“Can’t you just hand them over freely?”
“Don’t provoke me. It’ll take an eternity.”
Sing understood the horror of hiding with a purpose.
There were very few who could recognize his presence hidden within the base realm, aside from Oknodie.
If even he could do it, how meticulous must the techniques that Reinhardt developed to hide in the crowd be?
“Ha. I know, Sis. For now, I’m an Assassin, after all.”
Ziang was naturally an expert in hiding.
The flower of an assassin is stealth.
Ziang’s stealth, having risen to the highest level beyond the upper grades, could even traverse shadows.
“Ritual Table Payback Event.”
“!”
“What do you think, Cooking Oknodie? Can you do it?”
Even the Cooking Oknodie, prepared with the two, boldly shouted while holding a spatula.
“I can flip it without ruining the battle, serve more on the ritual table, and settle everything!”
Since the good-hearted Cooking Oknodie boldly stepped forward, promising to guarantee the ritual table, the Ghost Warlords could no longer hide behind anonymity.
*
Outside, Irene, who was watching the artwork titled Tomb of the Sword, threw a question.
“Oknodie, did your doppelganger face off against the Ghost Warlords?”
“No? I just found the tombstone!”
“How did you do that among so many tombstones?”
It sounded absurd.
There were so many tombstones that it could be tiresome.
“If a doppelganger wants to come back to the Middle Realm, they have to find it through hard physical labor!”
“…”
Whether annoying or not, it was about the doppelganger.
It was not the original.
For Oknodie, it was just auto-hunting!
“Should we only make doppelgangers who have experience in being scouts…?”
“Not recommended!”
Oknodie suddenly straightened up like a furious small animal.
Irene wasn’t sure if the movement was comically small, more like a squirrel trying to frighten her, but she suppressed her inner feeling of “this is cute” and put on a mildly frightened expression.
“Don’t make doppelgangers carelessly!”
“But you do just fine!”
“Amateurs don’t know how to retrieve ‘lost fragments’ when their doppelganger dies. If they unintentionally lose injected memories and functions, they end up becoming desolate machine beings?”
If Oknodie’s ‘fragile nature’ was imbued into the doppelganger and sealed in the underworld, they’d be pulling an operation to save Cooking Oknodie that would make Sing and Ziang grab their necks.
Unfortunately, seeing the scenes in the underworld was like watching a movie at 100 times speed.
Even that was only with the angle the frame allowed.
The limits were clearly set in what both could see and hear.
Oknodie was unaware that his persona was being held hostage.
Irene, who was not aware of the situation and was focusing on intuition from the side, similarly joined her hands together quietly.
“Sorry. I’ll reflect on it.”
“Phew. I’m glad that Irene is a good child!”
“But can’t you do it just once?”
“Oh come on, are you a kid asking for a toy?”
“Sorry.”
Chatting away, seeing Oknodie who was worrying about him made Irene feel satisfied.
Irene thought it might be fun to tease him like this from now on to draw reactions.
Having been stained by Oknodie’s evil nature, she had ended up picking up bad habits.
“Wait a minute.”
Just as she was about to conclude with some warm teasing of Oknodie, a sudden brake was put on.
“Something feels off.”
“What is it?”
“Something… feels like there’s a seriously creepy premise underlying this, right?”
As she engaged in mischief, her naturally expanding bad thoughts reflected onto Oknodie, and Irene sensed it unintentionally.
One very chilling premise.
Oknodie recovered the experiences of his doppelganger.
And there was only one way to recover the experiences of a doppelganger.
By having the doppelganger ‘die’ to reclaim the experience.
*
The Ghost Warlords revealed themselves.
As owners of duel bracelets who had the rights to challenge the Sword Saint, their momentum was anything but ordinary.
“Oh, it’s Harabuji who received the sweet red bean jelly!”
“Cough!”
“The lady who received the fluffy pudding too!”
“Why are you saying that!!”
With the embarrassing revelations from the start, the spirits took a significant hit to their morale.
Hearing the laughter from the ghosts watching from a distance burned their faces red.
“Don’t put us down!”
“How could you humiliate a ghost coming to help, that’s something even ghosts wouldn’t do!”
“Ah, I’m so sorry…!”
After the harmless teasing passed, one of the somewhat angry Ghost Warlords shrugged off the mood and lazily leaned his back against a distant tombstone.
“My name is Ryu-wan. In my life, I was the strongest swordsman renowned in the Eastern Empire, and hearing about this Sword Saint in the far Western world, I came looking for a duel.”
“Wow! The strongest swordsman from half the continent, that’s amazing! I want to be that strong too!!”
“I might be shy to say it myself, but I didn’t die by the Sword Saint. I got into a scuffle with the Evil Dragon Omoshiroi while crossing the Cheonryeong Mountain Range, and that’s how I met my end.”
Not only Cooking Oknodie and Ziang and Sing but even the other Ghost Warlords displayed expressions of sympathy as they wondered how such a pitiful death could happen.
“That Principal is truly a bad one! In the memory of the original Oknodie, it was he who randomly mixed up the contents of the Christmas gift boxes on campus!”
Ziang and Sing took note of this valuable information.
Sing thought of giving the wrapped Christmas present to Oknodie without wrapping it up.
Ziang considered putting stones in the gift box and switching it with random presents to benefit.
“But how did you get into a fight then?”
“I was eating at an inn halfway up the mountain when some brat barged in, chewing with no table manners. It was disgusting, so I went to smash him, and ended up getting torn to shreds.”
“…”
The more you heard, the more pitiful the ghostly swordsman, Ryu-wan, sounded.
“Anyway, the reason I recounted my shameful past is to let you know that the Sword Saint is just as strong as ‘the Chairman’ who subdued me while I wandered as a vengeful spirit across the Cheonryeong Mountain Range.”
Ryu-wan vividly remembered their strength.
“The Chairman had incredible control over souls. Even after seeing his vast malice within his soul, I couldn’t bear it, and it scared the life out of me.”
“Whoa. So you even managed to stab the soul of the Chairman, that’s impressive!”
“Heh. Even saying that, I’m thankful. Getting in even one hit was a miracle. It wasn’t any different when facing the Sword Saint. The Chairman promised to release me into the underworld and provide a new body if I ever won against the Sword Saint, but I never succeeded even once.”
Ryu-wan’s face revealed an undeniable sense of defeat.
“The Sword Saint is a terrifying being. He overwhelmed me with my own swordsmanship. No, it wasn’t even that; the swordsmanship showed me the potential that lay beyond the peak, trampling my limits as a human.”
“Is it really that easy to learn if he’s showing you the evolution of his swordsmanship…?”
Ziang flinched at Cooking Oknodie’s zero empathy comment.
Wasn’t the good-hearted Cooking Oknodie, who always prepared ritual for the grandpas and grandmas, suddenly making remarks like this?
It was only natural to be surprised, and it was just as understandable for Cooking Oknodie to look puzzled.
“True. Cooking Oknodie has extraordinary learning abilities.”
“Yeah. In that regard, you really resemble Oknodie perfectly.”
Ziang and Sing declared that Cooking Oknodie was outstanding when it came to her learning skills.
For her, the story of Ryu-wan was left with only bafflement—what’s the problem?
Ryu-wan did not want to accept it.
Are you all ignoring me even the likes of these kids?
Not the Evil Dragon, not the Chairman, and not even the Sword Saint?
“I was defeated because of their strength, not because of you!”
Ryu-wan’s sword sent Ziang flying through the air while Sing took five steps back.
Even Ziang, who was about to retreat into the shadow for hidden mode, and Sing, who was accelerating to launch a counterattack from the base realm, were both greatly bewildered.
‘This strength is too much.’
The overwhelming great sword didn’t grant them the chance to hide or recover!
In an instant, a massive strike came crashing down on Cooking Oknodie, who was all alone.
‘No!’
The two, who had anticipated Cooking Oknodie’s defeat, were in for a surprise.
Clang!
Cooking Oknodie’s rose knife clashed against Ryu-wan’s sword.
The weight of a mountain.
The critical peak of a sword that carries the weight of a mountain.
The sword of Ryu-wan halted.
Thanks to the culinary know-how of cutting heavy ingredients precisely, the strike was rendered ineffective.
“I got it!”
Cooking Oknodie’s parry was exactly the same as the form created by the Sword Saint.
Just as the Sword Saint had realized the potential in Ryu-wan’s sword, Cooking Oknodie had instantaneously understood how to ‘cook’ Ryu-wan’s sword.
The combination of her experience creating and transforming numerous dishes and witnessing and practicing countless peak sword techniques skyrocketed Cooking Oknodie’s capability.
‘Is it losing? To someone as young as this? Is this what true power is!’
Despair flickered in Ryu-wan’s eyes.
But perhaps due to the tension of actual combat, Cooking Oknodie’s hands were starting to sweat.
The slipping rose knife wavered as Ryu-wan brought down his heavy sword.
Startled, Ryu-wan redirected his sword, and Cooking Oknodie, struck by the massive blade, fell to the ground with a yelp.
“Ugh… I didn’t expect this to happen…”
The technique that delivered both fear and insignificance!
The spirit swordman Ryu-wan was exhausted.
Even so, this much should mean it’s not at the level that warrants despair like he faced.
“Here you go. My duel bracelet. Don’t cry when you take it.”
“My head, my head really hurts!”
“If you cry, I won’t give it to you?”
With tears brimming in her eyes, Cooking Oknodie gently patted her own head with one hand and tightly clutched the duel bracelet with the other.