Return of the Heavenly Sword

Chapter 16. Young Master Ghost Sword (2)

It had been about four hours since I started walking through the mountain following the pharmacist, Mr. Bang.

“Haat!”

It was right after I swung my sword again at an imaginary bandit. The pharmacist, who had been leading the way, shouted in alarm.

“Be, be careful!”

When I looked past the pharmacist who had stepped aside, the ground had abruptly disappeared.

It seemed we had arrived at the cliff the pharmacist had spoken of.

“Don’t worry. I may not look it, but I’m swinging my sword while keeping an eye on my surroundings.”

Swinging a sword while paying close attention to the surrounding terrain was the most basic of basics.

I couldn’t afford to do something as stupid as tripping over a rock and falling in the middle of a fight.

But for some reason.

The pharmacist looked at me with an expression that seemed to have much to say, but he soon opened his mouth with an awkward smile.

“……A-anyway, we’ve arrived at the place I mentioned. Would you please look down there?”

When I approached the pharmacist’s side to look down the cliff, he inexplicably took two steps back.

“Y-you don’t need to stand so close.”

I had felt it since I first saw him, but he seemed to be a man who was very shy for his age, which looked to be over forty.

Out of consideration for him, I examined the area below the cliff from a short distance away.

I felt a sense of relief.

At least it wasn't a cliff so severe that it could be called a ten-thousand-zhang precipice.

In terms of slope, it was a steep cliff that a person could not easily climb up or down, but it was not very deep.

By eye, it looked to be more than ten Zhang but less than twenty Zhang.

Considering my current level, it seemed I could try descending it once if I put my life on the line.

As I was looking down the cliff, the pharmacist spoke from two steps away.

“As you can see, there’s a fairly wide basin formed down there. If it were too deep or the width of the cliffs surrounding the basin were too narrow, it would be a different story, but that much is enough for sunlight to enter, allowing medicinal herbs to fully absorb the sun's energy. Also, seeing how lush the grass is, it seems there’s ample moisture. In addition, there are many shady spots here and there, so it’s a very good place for medicinal herbs to grow.”

“Now that I hear it, that certainly seems to be the case.”

In truth, it wasn’t that I had completely missed this place during the eight days I wandered Wondrous Ridge Mountain in search of the spiritual medicine.

I had passed by it fleetingly.

The reason I hadn’t even thought to search here was simple.

I had been searching for the spiritual medicine mainly in places where the bandits were likely to frequent.

And the area below that cliff was, at a glance, a place where those bandits would have no reason to set up camp.

Those bastards were worse than dung, making a living by extorting the wealth of others. Naturally, they needed to be able to move easily to extort valuables.

They would have to risk their lives every time they went up and down the cliff to the basin, and there was no way that trash, lacking the courage to live honestly, would do such a thing.

My head nodded on its own.

Seeing that it hadn’t turned up even after I searched all the places where the bandits might have set up camp, it seemed this was the right place.

However, one question remained.

In a place like that, which the bandits had no reason to frequent, how did the leader of the Great Tiger Fortress manage to obtain the spiritual medicine?

A few possibilities came to mind.

He could have been unlucky enough to run into a master while banditry and fell while fleeing, or he could have slipped and fallen while sneaking out at night to take a dump without his subordinates knowing. Come to think of it, the possibilities were endless.

Seeing things like this, the heavens were indeed unfair.

Whether he fell while being chased by a chivalrous hero or while trying to take a dump. How absurd was it that a piece of trash who did nothing but commit banditry could obtain a miraculous encounter by falling off a cliff.

Well, then again, if the heavens were fair, there was no way those crazy bastards like the Three Disasters and the Four Demons would be living so extravagantly.

Thinking of the villains who ran rampant as they pleased all over the world, anger naturally welled up inside me.

And to catch and crush all those bastards, I had to become stronger, no matter what.

Once my thoughts reached that point, my feet moved on their own.

“Be, be careful!”

Ignoring the pharmacist’s warning from behind, I immediately began to descend the cliff.

Like a cicada clinging to an old tree, I descended by grabbing the small protruding rocks and tree branches here and there with my hands and feet.

It was a perilous act where a single slip of a hand or foot could mean death, but it was something I had to do.

If I left the spiritual medicine at the bottom of that cliff, that damn bandit leader would end up taking it.

And then, wouldn't that bandit leader go on a rampage and torment countless common people?

On top of that, I knew the limits of my talent very well.

With my talent, I couldn't catch up to them through ordinary training anyway.

Thanks to my experience from my previous life, I would be able to get stronger faster than before.

But even so, it was impossible to reach a level close to the top masters of Jianghu. Not with the same methods as my past life.

I had no intention of fighting only the easy villains that matched my level, just like in my past life.

If I were to repeat that feeling of resentment and humiliation of turning a blind eye even when I saw people dying unfairly before my eyes, what was the use of being alive again?

Therefore, I had to become stronger in a way that surpassed my previous life. By risking my life not just in real combat, but also in training.

How long had I been descending the cliff?

“Hoo.”

Before I knew it, sweat was pouring down my whole body like rain, and my limbs were trembling like crazy.

The screams of my body, pushed to its limit, somehow felt delightful.

The spiritual medicine was one thing, but this was also quite good training.

As I had keenly felt on my way to Wondrous Ridge Mountain, the human body is forged stronger the more it is struck.

Perhaps because I was young and recovered quickly, it felt like I was getting stronger faster the more I recklessly pushed myself.

I continued to descend for a while longer, enjoying the screams of my body. My sweat-soaked left hand slipped on a rock, and I nearly lost my balance.

Feeling the fine hairs on my body stand on end, a bitter smile naturally hung on my lips.

“Ehei. Yuseong. Are you going to die like an idiot like this? Get a grip. You have to survive somehow. Right?”

Teasing my body, which was desperately sounding warnings according to my survival instincts, I gladly took the next step.

My limbs trembled, and blood trickled from my hands, which had been bumped here and there, yet my body moved tenaciously.

Indeed, the body's desire for survival was truly amazing.

It had long since broken through the limits I knew, and yet it was trying to do it somehow.

“You could do this much, so why did you always pretend it was hard. Yuseong. Huh?”

The thought that I should push my body more harshly in the future naturally came to mind.

But I wasn't just recklessly pushing my body.

Because my physical strength was still lacking, I was constantly operating the Jade Cloud Divine Art at this very moment.

By operating the cotton-like internal energy in my small Dantian, I compensated even a little for my lacking physical strength.

When my internal energy ran out, I would refill my Dantian with Dynamic Cultivation and continue down the cliff.

When I descended using internal energy, my speed increased slightly, and during inhalation, I would barely take one step at a time, descending like a snail.

Was it a process of finding spiritual medicine, or was it extreme training with my life on the line? How long did I continue this act?

Thud.

At some point, my right foot touched a flat surface.

“Ah?”

I had been completely focused on descending the cliff, so it was only then that I realized I had arrived in the basin.

“I feel like I could have gone a little further.”

A strange sense of disappointment remained, as if I hadn't been able to push my body to its true limit.

Was it because of the sense of relief from reaching a safe place? As soon as I had that thought, the muscles all over my body screamed as if to say, ‘don't talk nonsense.’

Of course, that was none of my business.

My purpose was to find the spiritual medicine, not to come down the cliff for a walk.

“Now then. Where could the spiritual medicine be hidden?”

By what means could the bandit leader have found the spiritual medicine?

“Whether he fell while running away or fell while taking a dump. He wouldn't have wanted to die, so he must have wandered around looking for something to eat.”

Putting myself in the bandit leader’s shoes, I began to search for places he might have gone.

“Where are you, bandit leader bastard.”

Just walking around would be a waste of time.

Clang.

Drawing the sword I wore at my side again, I set out to find the bandit leader.

Swish!

With a motion that was now completely familiar to my body, I swung my sword and cut off the head of the bandit leader hiding behind the bushes.

“Farewell. Bandit Leader Number One!”

Since it was a sword path that cut down the grass and thereby executed the bandit hiding behind it, it could be called the technique of 'Cutting Weeds to Eliminate Thieves'.

How long did I wander through the bushes, swinging my sword like that again?

This time, a slightly special memory came to mind.

A bandit taking a dump in a secluded corner of the mountain, hidden from his comrades. The memory of ambushing and killing that bandit.

“A guy who fell off a cliff while taking a dump is taking a dump again. What a shithead!”

Swish!

After cleanly cutting off that bandit’s head, his corpse collapsed with a plop onto the excrement.

“Bandit Leader Number Seventeen. You filthy bastard.”

It wasn't because of the poop.

Bandits were worse than dung in the first place, so it wasn’t that the bandit became dirty from being covered in poop, but that the poop became dirty from being covered by the bandit.

“So you were the one hiding it.”

Behind the dirty and petty Bandit Leader Number Seventeen. There was what I had been searching for for the past eight days.

The pure flower petals exuding a spiritual aura.

It was the Ten-Thousand Year He Shou Wu.

***

Around the time Jin Yuseong had begun to descend the cliff.

“C-crazy.”

The pharmacist, Mr. Bang, was looking down the cliff with a pale face.

The sight of the boy descending the cliff looked so precarious that just watching him made his hands and feet tingle.

But there was nothing he could do. He couldn't go down the cliff with him, saying he would pull the boy back up.

His foxy wife and rabbit-like daughter were eagerly waiting for his return.

No, in the first place, the boy was crazy, so there was no way he would listen even if he followed him and tried to stop him.

Swish, swish.

Just watching was only making him anxious, so in the end, the pharmacist, Mr. Bang, turned his body and left the cliff.

He went straight down the mountain and returned to the village.

Thanks to the medicinal herbs the boy had gifted him, he had earned enough income that he wouldn't have to go to work for a few days.

When he returned home with the rice and meat he received in exchange for the herbs, a smile graced the faces of his waiting wife and daughter.

“Hohoho. I’ll prepare dinner, so please wash up first.”

“It’s not like we have water to waste. Why do I need to wash up just from one trip to the mountain?”

At Mr. Bang’s response, his foxy wife smiled strangely for some reason.

“Hohoho. Since we can have a lavish dinner tonight, you’ll have to put in some effort at night. Jumi needs a younger sibling, don’t you think?”

At his wife’s smile, Mr. Bang felt a different kind of creepiness than when he had faced the boy.

“Ahem. There’s still some time until dinner, so I’ll go to the village for a bit. Please take care of Jumi first.”

Mr. Bang hurriedly left the house and headed for the inn.

It seemed he needed to borrow the power of alcohol.

After asking the innkeeper for some cheap unfiltered rice wine and downing a few glasses, the boy’s face came to mind for some reason.

The boy he had guided to the cliff. The boy whose fate, dead or alive, he did not know.

The man shook his head vigorously and opened his mouth towards the innkeeper.

“You know what? I went up the mountain today and met a possessed boy.”

That's right. It wasn't him who led the boy into a deadly situation.

That possessed boy, who was muttering to himself and swinging a sword in the air, had headed down the cliff of his own accord.

Trying to shake off his guilt, Mr. Bang rambled on to the innkeeper about the boy he saw today.

After Mr. Bang finished his rant, as if performing an exorcism, and left.

At a table on one side of the inn, some rough-looking men who had been eavesdropping on Mr. Bang’s story opened their mouths.

“Big Brother. He says it’s a possessed boy.”

“Come to think of it, wasn't there a rumor like that on our way here? That there’s a guy going around killing every Black Path bastard in the vicinity. What was his alias again?”

“You mean the Young Master Ghost Sword?”

“Yes. That’s right. That guy. Isn't he on Wondrous Ridge Mountain?”

As his younger brothers looked at him with worried expressions, the man called Big Brother snorted.

“You stupid fools. Did you even hear the rumor about that Young Master Ghost Sword guy properly? Isn’t he called the Young Master Ghost Sword because his swordsmanship is as fearsome as a ghost, and his nature is as cruel as a ghost? But what did that guy just say? He said he’s a possessed madman, didn't he? Is being as fearsome as a ghost and being a possessed madman the same thing?”

At the confident man’s words, the younger brothers finally breathed a sigh of relief with reassured expressions.

“Hahaha. Hearing it like that, you’re right, Big Brother.”

“More importantly, we’ll be climbing Wondrous Ridge Mountain tomorrow, so what will you do about the name, Big Brother?”

At one of the younger brother’s questions, the man called Big Brother grinned and replied.

From the very beginning when he set out for Wondrous Ridge Mountain with these younger brothers, he had a name in mind.

“A man ought to have the spirit of a tiger. The name of our mountain fortress will be the Great Tiger Fortress.”