Return of the Heavenly Sword

Chapter 27. The Steel Sinew Clan (2)

Before my regression. A life of repeating only life-and-death duels, matches, and training.

Upon hearing the rumor that the Danmok Clan's swordsmanship was excellent, I had willingly visited the Danmok Clan and requested a duel.

But I couldn't even meet Danmok Hwan, the head of the Danmok Clan and known as one of the Ten Swords North of the River.

Instead, the young master greeted me.

- I have heard of the alias Contemptible Sword Returning to the Origin. Ah, I suppose I wouldn't be able to forget it even if I only heard it once. Where else would you find an alias that includes the character for contemptible?

With a look of blatant contempt.

I was quite used to such treatment, so I didn't care.

All that mattered was that I could witness excellent swordsmanship and improve my skills even just a little.

- I'm sorry, but it seems there is no need to use a real sword against a contemptible sword ghost.

The young master uttered these words and took up a wooden sword for the duel.

The sword art that the young master used at that time was the same Flying Swallow Sword Art as the Steel Sinew Sect Leader's, and the duel ended with my defeat.

Of course, even up to this point, it was not a big deal.

The problem was what happened after.

- If you have witnessed the swordsmanship of the great Danmok Clan, shouldn't you pay the price?

Although it was clearly a duel and not a life-and-death battle, the victorious young master tried to shatter all my limbs.

To make a cripple out of me, who had dared to visit the Danmok Clan and request a duel.

Since they were outwardly playing the role of a righteous sect, it seemed they had chosen to make me a cripple instead of killing me.

They could just announce that my limbs were accidentally broken because the fight got heated during the duel.

Even if I, who was treated like a gray figure, were to complain about the injustice, it was obvious that everyone in the martial world would listen to the Danmok Clan.

It was certain that he had used a wooden sword instead of a real sword with that intention from the beginning.

Although I managed to escape the Danmok Clan, it was a duel where I lost more than I gained.

Thanks to the Poison Immortal's treatment, I was able to recover to some extent, but I could no longer use my left arm, which had been broken by his wooden sword, as well as before.

The Danmok Clan.

Outwardly, they acted like a righteous sect, but they were arrogant hypocrites.

At least, the Danmok Clan I remembered was like that.

And yet, to think I would see the Danmok Clan's swordsmanship here.

However, even though I had figured out what her swordsmanship was, a question still remained.

“You bitch. What is your relationship with the Danmok Clan?”

The Flying Swallow Sword Art was a martial art only permitted to the direct lineage of the Danmok Clan.

It was not taught to the martial artists of the outer hall, nor was it permitted to the branch families.

As if she hadn't expected me to recognize the sword art, the Steel Sinew Sect Leader, who had been launching an offensive, stopped in her tracks.

She asked with a completely stiff face.

“How do you know of the Danmok Clan?”

Seeing her reaction, such a thought suddenly came to mind.

Was the Steel Sinew Sect actually a heretical group created by the Danmok Clan to secretly seize other territories? That was the question.

If she was a direct descendant of the Danmok Clan, it would be natural for her to have settled here according to the Danmok Clan's will.

As I was forming that deduction, a thick killing intent, incomparable to anything before, swirled in the Steel Sinew Sect Leader's eyes.

I wondered if she intended to kill me to silence me and hide her identity, but the words that came out of the leader's mouth were completely unexpected.

“You bastard!! I see now, you were a bastard from the Danmok Clan!!”

With a sharp shout that felt like it would burst my eardrums, the leader charged at me again.

She had to be a crazy bitch.

While performing the Danmok Clan's sword art, she was suspecting me of being from the Danmok Clan?

The question of what the relationship between that crazy bitch and the Danmok Clan was arose again, but.

“Die!!”

Slash.

The moment the sword she swung grazed my neck, all such distracting thoughts disappeared.

“Right. It's just a matter of cleaning up trash anyway.”

The specific details didn't matter.

Swoooooosh!

As if the antidote to be fed to Nam Seup was no longer of any concern, her sword, filled with killing intent, flew at me, even faster than before.

I dodged the strike flying towards my heart with my footwork, and blocked the second strike that twisted strangely and aimed for my thigh by swinging my sword.

Clang!

A tingling pain shot up from my hand and arm from the clashing swords.

It meant that the leader was superior in both internal and external energy, even though I had come here after eating a ten-thousand-year He Shou Wu on Wondrous Ridge Mountain.

“Around the edge of the first-rate, I suppose.”

While I was assessing her level, a smirk escaped my lips without me realizing it.

The edge of the first-rate.

It was a familiar level.

It was the level I had barely reached in my previous life after repeating all sorts of hardships.

It had only been about a month since I started learning martial arts, yet I was in a life-and-death battle with a martial artist of a level that I had taken over thirty years of training to reach in my previous life.

It didn't feel unfair or unjust.

I was used to seeking out and killing trash stronger than me.

Furthermore.

“If I kill you bitch, I can go even higher.”

It was an opportunity to test my limits.

Clang!!

“Then, I'll be able to clean up even more trash.”

It meant that if I could kill that crazy bitch now, the number of trash I could hunt in the future would increase significantly.

“What nonsense has that madman been spouting since before!!”

The leader swung her sword fiercely with a venomous shout.

Her sword had changed again.

Before I mentioned the Danmok Clan, the leader had been calmly performing the Flying Swallow Sword Art like an assassin, but after I mentioned the Danmok Clan, she had been swinging her sword like a crazy bitch.

Seeing her perform a sword art filled with killing intent while disregarding defense, such a thought naturally came to mind.

“They say that in the eyes of a mad person, a sane person seems mad. Indeed.”

Not only was she trash, but she was crazy trash.

She seemed to need to be killed quickly.

“You madman!”

As expected, the leader performed the Flying Swallow Sword Art again while spouting nonsense.

A trajectory reminiscent of a swallow gliding through the sky.

The trajectory that I hadn't been able to withstand for even ten exchanges in my previous life was embroidered in the empty air.

However, it was subtly different somewhere.

Right after I parried the sword that twisted strangely and flew towards my head, I opened my mouth as the thought came to me.

“Try harder! Compared to the young master's Flying Swallow Sword Art, it's too shabby!”

I wasn't sure if it was a misunderstanding, but even though it was the same Flying Swallow Sword Art, it was subtly different from what the young master had performed.

I thought it might be due to the difference in skill between the two.

The young master of the Danmok Clan was an experienced martial artist in his late forties, and he was even a master who had reached the peak level, unlike the leader who was at the edge of the first-rate.

For some reason.

As soon as my shout was finished, the Steel Sinew Sect Leader let out a scream-like shout.

“You bastaaard!!! How dare you mention that filthy bastard Danmok Hwan in front of me!!”

The leader, who was already a crazy bitch, became even more crazed and swung her sword.

It was a strange thing.

“Danmok Hwan? He should be the clan head.”

As I muttered that, something suddenly came to mind.

It was thirty-odd years from now that I visited the Danmok Clan.

So at this point in time, Danmok Hwan might have been the young master.

But in front of the countless trajectories embroidered in the empty air, it didn't matter.

“Hahaha! This is great!”

I willingly stepped towards the trajectory she had embroidered.

As the Steel Sinew Sect Leader's wrist and shoulder twisted, a strangely bending sword path was engraved in the empty air.

A trajectory that drew a bizarre path and aimed for my heart.

Slash.

I dodged it by taking a step to the side, but my left forearm was grazed, and blood splattered.

Even though I saw it with my own eyes, I couldn't dodge it completely.

Aiming for the leader's opening that my eyes showed me, I thrust my sword towards her neck.

Swoooooosh!

Slash!

Blood flowed from her neck, but it didn't pierce her throat.

Because the Steel Sinew Sect Leader had twisted her upper body at the last moment, all I had managed to do was create a small scratch.

Even though I saw it with my own eyes, I couldn't follow it completely.

No, because I was trying to follow the trajectory accurately, my speed was slow.

But there was nothing to be disappointed about.

Failure was all too familiar.

I asked the leader, who was caressing her neck from which a faint stream of blood was flowing.

“Even a crazy bitch is afraid of dying, it seems?”

Only then did the leader's slightly surprised expression return to its original one.

“Madman. So that you can't run your mouth anymore, I'll tear your mouth apart.”

The crazy bitch with a venomous expression thrusts her sword again.

A smile naturally spread across my lips.

“Of course.”

My talent was meager.

So much so that I had to experience countless failures to barely achieve a single success.

So, facing a frightened leader wouldn't be helpful.

Because I wouldn't be able to experience countless failures.

Slash.

This time too, as a price for failing to dodge completely, her sword grazed past my thigh.

Slash.

The sword I swung aiming for the Steel Sinew Sect Leader's heart cut through her clothes.

The pressure of the life-and-death battle, where I could lose my life with a single minor mistake, was gradually pushing me into a deeper place.

A little faster.

A little more precise.

“More! More! More!”

“Shu-t u-p-!!”

The leader's furious shout is heard slowly, as if the flow of time has been distorted.

In the flow that has stretched like taffy, my mind was focused solely on the sword.

Only on the leader's sword trying to kill me, and my sword trying to slaughter her.

Clang!

Two swords boasting sharp edges.

Slash.

The trajectory in the empty air, drawn by the sword paths the two swords were trying to follow.

Clang!

How long had I been playing with the sword, lost in a state of self-forgetfulness, focusing only on those two things?

Slash!

At the moment when a faint stream of blood splattered from my body and hers again.

In the midst of extreme concentration, a memory from the past suddenly came to mind.

Along with the thought, was my prediction correct?

The future before my regression.

After escaping the Danmok Clan and receiving treatment from the Poison Immortal.

I trained with the sword as usual, with my twisted left arm.

- I don't know why I'm fixing a guy who's going to break down again soon. I shouldn't have made that promise. Tsk.

Ignoring the Poison Immortal's complaint from afar, I swung my sword without rest, to review the duel with the Danmok Clan's young master.

It was only natural.

I had visited the Danmok Clan to witness excellent swordsmanship, and the Flying Swallow Sword Art was an excellent sword art, to the point where I couldn't even last ten exchanges.

After several days of mimicking the form of the Flying Swallow Sword Art from memory.

I had realized two problems.

One was that with my meager talent, I couldn't completely imitate the Flying Swallow Sword Art, especially with just having seen a few techniques during a duel.

The second was a problem with the martial art of the Flying Swallow Sword Art itself.

The Flying Swallow Sword Art had one weakness.

But at the time, I had dismissed it as my own misunderstanding.

That I, with my contemptible talent, who was only at the first-rate level, had seen through the ultimate secret art of a lofty and prestigious righteous sect?

I had thought it was a misunderstanding due to my low level.

The things a master sees and the things a novice sees were different.

However, after several dozen exchanges with the Steel Sinew Sect Leader's Flying Swallow Sword Art.

A conviction slowly began to form.

A conviction that it might not have been my misunderstanding.

Just then, as the Steel Sinew Sect Leader twisted her body and re-gripped her sword again, the trajectory her sword was about to take was embroidered in the empty air.

Looking at the trajectory aiming for my heart, I thought.

Can I do it? Me?

A self-deprecating smile naturally escaped my lips.

What if it doesn't work? Failure is a familiar thing.

“I just have to do it until it works.”

Muttering to myself, I willingly swung my sword.

Not towards the leader's vitals, but towards her sword path.

To be precise, the midpoint of the sword path.

Right at the point just before the swallow sharply changed its course.

Was it because I had made up my mind to aim there?

The trajectory in the empty air that had been drawn towards her vitals changed to a trajectory heading exactly for that point.

In the endlessly slowed world, my sword slowly and straightly followed that trajectory.

Clang!!

Soon, a clear metallic sound echoed.

Following that, the Steel Sinew Sect Leader, her face crumpled, let out a faint groan.

“Keuk.”

It was a strange thing.

She was clearly superior in both external and internal energy.

Every time we directly clashed swords, I was always the one at a disadvantage.

However, it was also a natural principle.

Strong things do not bend, but break.

To draw that bizarrely twisting sword path, she had no choice but to swing her sword with some of her strength released.

At least, until just before she changed course.

The moment I gained the upper hand for the first time, a sneer naturally formed on my lips.

“I wasn't wrong.”

It was not a sneer directed at the Steel Sinew Sect Leader.

It was a sneer directed at my foolish past self, the one who didn't believe in himself, the one who found the answer and yet turned away.