NOVEL NEXT Chapter 28
The Era of Peace.
It has been about 25 years since the Heavenly Demon was defeated and the Central Plains began to enjoy peace.
Around the year I was born, the Heavenly Demon was defeated, and once people realized that the Demon Cult could no longer exert a negative influence on the Central Plains, many began to shout “Long Live!” throughout the land.
“Long Live!” may only be applicable to the Emperor, but since he also proclaimed “Long Live the Sword Saint” upon hearing of his victory, there was no major issue with it.
And as safety was somewhat assured, countless young men and women in the Central Plains began to fall in love in earnest.
Confident that their children would be safe, many skilled martial artists who had delayed childbirth began to have children one by one.
Love sprouts and children are born even during war.
Even before the defeat of the Heavenly Demon, children continued to be born, but since that defeat, the women of the Martial World started giving birth in earnest.
The Heavenly Demon didn’t kidnap orphans the moment he was defeated.
Rather, he spent time trying to restore the skills of the Heavenly Demon and suppressing revolts within the Demon Cult, and concluded that with the power of his generation, he couldn’t take revenge on the White Path Martial World, so he decided to target the next generation.
In other words, there was a significant amount of time from the defeat of the Heavenly Demon to the point when I was kidnapped as an orphan by the Demon Cult.
Thus, the period of peace in which the Martial World enjoyed was long.
Because of this, most martial artists, or perhaps those not living in areas like the province of Shaanxi that engaged in fierce battles with the Demon Cult, do not know much about the character of the Mo Yong Family.
The heroes of the Martial World who defeated the Heavenly Demon.
Some might think the Sword Saint is a cheerful and kind-hearted hero, but in reality, he is someone who reacts more sharply than anyone else.
In other words, he has no mercy in hand.
When an opponent challenges him, he contemplates whether to cut their throat or their wrist; he never laughs it off or shows mercy for forgiveness.
Whether it was due to a change in heart regarding the disappearance of his daughter’s incurable disease after treating her Absolute Meridian Sickness, I can certainly assert that the disposition of the ‘just hero’ many in the Central Plains Martial World think of is not accurate.
So what about his daughter, Mo Yongseol?
In my view, she is just beautiful, overflowing with affection, and capable of doing anything for the man she loves—a somewhat honest and lovable woman when it comes to her desires.
However, that is my perspective, and the blood of the Sword Saint certainly does not disappear within her.
In terms of martial prowess as well.
– First, she thinks after cutting.
The Sword Saint’s nature is the same with Mo Yongseol.
With a woosh, something red soared toward the ceiling.
At the same time, Mo Yongseol swept the blanket forward and I pressed tightly against the bed in line with her movements.
“Eh?”
Yu Gwain was slow to comprehend the situation.
No, his realization was delayed. Because he made a fool of the Mo Yong Family with his absurd antics, he didn’t even understand the scene unfolding before his eyes.
“Y-Yeonah?”
As a father with a daughter, he probably couldn’t understand what just happened to his own daughter at that moment.
Right. That reaction is typical.
Those who never expected the Mo Yong Family to wield their swords that way would naturally react like this.
Surely, it couldn’t happen.
The improbable actually occurred.
Mo Yongseol’s sword severed Yu Giyeon’s neck.
It wasn’t just a slice that spilled blood from the throat; it was as if the head and neck were sliced off along the trajectory of the blade as it passed through.
“What the—”
As Yu Giyeon’s body toppled back, the fountain of blood that shot up sprayed toward Yu Gwain’s face.
“…!!”
Only then did Yu Gwain grasp the situation, reaching for the sword at his waist, but Mo Yongseol’s leap from the bed was much faster.
Clang!
Mo Yongseol’s thrust precisely struck Yu Gwain’s sword hilt.
Instead of killing him, it knocked his blade back into its sheath with a force that stopped him from drawing it.
“!!”
Yu Gwain leapt back with an enormous jump.
Trying to create distance to confront a ‘master,’ but Mo Yongseol was already dashing forward, swinging her sword at him.
Boom!
The traces of her Absolute Meridian Sickness, like sky-blue sword energy flowing from her hair, shone and struck diagonally.
“Urk?!”
Too shallow.
If she’d gone just a bit deeper, it would have sliced through skin and flesh, but Yu Gwain barely avoided it, escaping with only his clothing torn.
“This—”
Realizing that his daughter was dead and that it was too late to draw his sword, he grasped the hilt of his sword, ready to retaliate against Mo Yongseol.
“……?!”
But, he made eye contact with me.
And after staring at me in shock, he lowered his head.
In that split second.
The moment he closed his eyes.
“Seven Stars.”
In that brief moment, Mo Yongseol lowered her body along with the sword, slipping out of Yu Gwain’s sight.
And as he awkwardly twisted his foot to execute a technique, Mo Yongseol’s hand had already swung upward.
“Heavenly Ascending Star.”
Swish!
This time, it connected.
The unmatched beauty of Sword Saint Mo Yongcheon—the introductory technique of the Seven Stars Sword unfolded as her sword soared from the ground into the heavens.
“Urk, huff.”
Yu Gwain’s eyes rolled back.
No matter how great a master he was, if a blade swept up from below and split him down to the neck, he couldn’t help but be driven mad by the pain.
Boom!
Mo Yongseol leaped back heavily.
Landing next to me, still lying down, she quickly propped the sword’s hilt with her wrist and slid it down.
Boom!
She spun the sword rapidly with her wrist.
Her movements were as fast as the wind, and I couldn’t help but marvel at the circular shield glowing blue that seemed to appear before Mo Yongseol.
And.
Wahoo!
The split-up Yu Gwain sprayed blood wildly between his clothing, kneeling and collapsing.
Thud.
As soon as Yu Gwain fell, Mo Yongseol grasped the hilt of her sword.
No blood splattered toward the side of the bed she was defending, but our room instantly turned into a bloody chaos from the results of the two corpses sprawled across the floor and ceiling.
“Ha.”
In the blink of an eye, having beheaded the leader of a sect and his daughter—honestly speaking, killing them—Mo Yongseol didn’t sweat a drop, nor did she get a speck of blood on her.
The daughter of the number one in the world, and simultaneously, it’s no simple feat to be called ‘a natural-born talent.’
‘Before catching Absolute Meridian Sickness, she had already learned under her father’s martial arts; but to invoke the peak sword energy so soon after being cured…’
The natural-born talent.
At least in ‘talent,’ she possesses a martial talent regarded to surpass that of the Sword Saint Mo Yongcheon.
By merely envisioning a sword path in her mind, she could easily slay even a leader of the Purple Sword Gate before anyone noticed.
“…Ah!”
A swordsman like that.
“Y-you, Physician?!”
Her previously cool and dignified expression crumbled in an instant, showing me a face that was at a loss.
“I-I mean, my… my hand…!”
“This is nothing.”
I quietly rose, hugging Mo Yongseol from behind.
“You were beautiful.”
“Ah, uh, that…”
“I truly mean it.”
It might be an awkward thing to say in this situation, but.
“Truly, you are at your most beautiful when you wield a sword.”
I know better than anyone that I have a quite twisted sense of aesthetics.
But unless someone were connected to the Purple Sword Gate, I am confident that nine out of ten who watched from afar would agree.
In the cascading fountain of blood, a single white lily gracefully rose, soaring magnificently without a single drop of blood upon it, as if it were a lone flower atop a cliff.
Even if many corpses lay sprawled beneath the cliff in their quest to pick that flower, it would still hold an undeniable beauty.
“Well… I wish to be more lovely than beautiful…”
Mo Yongseol pouted and lowered her sword.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to kill them…”
“Is that your fault? It’s their fault.”
They committed a capital offense.
“It’s justifiable to die for dirtying the place where our first experience took place, sneaking into our bedroom.”
“I was trying not to kill them…”
Mo Yongseol glanced between the two and fiddled with her sword.
“I just felt like they would do something strange if I didn’t kill them…”
“You did well. That’s the right decision.”
“Huh?”
“If you don’t take them down immediately, beings like them tend to show ‘afterthoughts.'”
Bubbling.
Somewhere, it couldn’t be just my imagination that Yu Gwain and Yu Giyeon’s blood was boiling.
* * *
[Moments later, on the roof of the Medical Hall.]
“I see. You killed them.”
The warriors of the Mo Yong Family who had been watching the situation entered the room directly to clean up, and I met Sword Saint Mo Yongcheon on the roof of the Medical Hall with Mo Yongseol.
“Well done, Seol-ah.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
In a tone unexpected for someone of his stature, the Sword Saint spoke coldly to Mo Yongseol.
“You have no reason to apologize.”
“…….”
“If there’s something you should feel sorry about, it was when you broke your promise.”
“Eh?”
“You promised to protect the one you love with your sword. If you had harmed Physician Seok, that would’ve been worth apologizing for, but that’s not the case, so you haven’t sinned.”
“But…”
“It’s simply that.”
The Sword Saint continued, speaking in a voice that was chillingly harsh.
“Two evildoers died trying to pull tricks on us.”
“…….”
“Originally, the plan was to subdue them without killing, but it turned out well in the end. This is how the ‘true Mo Yong Family’ operates.”
Originally.
Though there’s a heaviness to his words, the mid-aged warriors of the Mo Yong Family who came to the Medical Hall swiftly cleaned the blood and collected the bodies with hands they were all too familiar with.
“Physician Seok. I’m sorry, but I want to change something I said.”
“Yes?”
“I said knowledge was a curse, but now I think you need to know.”
The Sword Saint pointed with his eyes at the two bodies collected by the family members.
“How is it… Can you save them?”
“…….”
Hmm.
“Why not give it a try.”
Let’s try and see—if it doesn’t work, then we’ll leave it at that.