I Became the Hidden Ruler of the Martial World Chapter 76

-Suhye. I'm going to be a great hero!

A long ti ago.

A scene from a very long ti ago unfolded before Cheon Suhye's eyes.

-Stop talking nonsense and just pick the plums, older brother.

A mory from the distant past.

In that mory, a young Cheon Suhye was looking pathetically at her older brother who was doing sothing foolish instead of picking plums.

Cheon Suhye's family was a poor farming family, far from being martial artists.

In a family with only two children, her older brother was always doing sothing foolish.

-Look. How can I stay still when the plum blossoms are in full bloom like this?

Today too, her older brother was talking nonsense and began to swing a black tree branch that he had picked up from sowhere.

-My sword flutters with the plum blossoms on Mount Hua, so this is the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.

-The plum blossoms have long since fallen this year, so stop your foolishness and just pick the fruit.

Although the words that ca out of her brother's mouth were grand, in reality, he was just flailing a stick around.

His movents were so ssy that a butterfly flying nearby landed lightly on her older brother's stick.

-Sujin! Suhye! Ti to eat!

While her brother was doing sothing foolish and Cheon Suhye was picking plums, the siblings' mother climbed the mountain and called for them.

That day's al was a watery barley porridge.

It would be barley porridge yesterday, the next day, and the day after that.

Still, Cheon Suhye was not particularly dissatisfied.

Because her parents were alive and she was not starving.

She thought that days like this would continue.

Then one day.

Her daily life began to change.

As usual, the plum blossoms on the plum trees of Mount Hua fell and bore fruit, and she and her brother climbed the mountain to pick the fruit.

For so reason, on that day, it seed that a resident had climbed the mountain before the siblings, and the plums were all gone.

-There are no plums?

At the thought of having to return without any gains, she made a choice she would not normally make.

-Should we go up further?

-Sister. Greed brings misfortune.

-Where did you hear that from?

-From a martial artist at the village tavern.

Cheon Suhye looked at her brother with a noticeably disgusted face.

The unattached martial artists who frequented the tavern were half-ruffians.

At least in Cheon Suhye's perception, it was so.

'Where did he get that from?'

On her brother's back was sothing wrapped in a long cloth that she had not seen before, and it seed to be an item he had received from the group he hung out with at the tavern.

So it seed a small rebellion had arisen.

Leaving her restraining brother behind, Cheon Suhye headed for a deeper part of Mount Hua.

Perhaps because Mount Hua was mostly made of stone, wild animals were not often seen, and since Cheon Suhye also knew that fact, there was no hesitation in her steps.

But the words 'not often seen' were just 'not often seen', not 'never'.

-Grrrrr.

In front of Cheon Suhye, who had gone deep and was picking plums, a group of skinny wild dogs were growling.

Unfortunately, she was separated from her brother.

-H-hic!!

Crying, Cheon Suhye stepped back.

Then she tripped on a stone and fell.

-Keoheong!!

The wild dogs did not miss the incapacitated prey and rushed at her.

-Suhye!!

At that ti, her brother rushed over in a hurry and shielded her.

Thanks to her brother's shielding, Cheon Suhye was not injured at all, but.

-Keuk! You damn wild dog bastards!

Cheon Suhye's brother was bitten all over by the wild dogs, and a handful of blood was flowing out.

-But it's a good thing.

Her brother untied the cloth on his back.

What was revealed was a single sword of a crude form, with even the scabbard painted black.

-I'll cut you all down! You damn beasts!

Her brother, who had drawn his sword, swung it at the wild dogs.

Although it couldn't even be called a sword technique, and his skill was clumsy, and the blade was not properly sharpened. Fortunately, it was sowhat effective against the skinny wild dogs.

In fact, it was closer to a club than a sword, but the wild dogs that were hit whimpered and crawled on the ground.

In that process, her brother was bitten and scratched countless tis.

Just by the atmosphere, it was a life-and-death battle and a fierce fight.

-Whimper! Whine!

And so, her brother succeeded in driving away the wild dogs.

With a clumsy movent that was embarrassing to call a martial art, with a black club that was embarrassing to call a sword.

-Did you see? This is the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.

Her brother, with a shabby appearance, grinned and patted Cheon Suhye's head, ssing it up.

Although Cheon Suhye was inwardly grateful, her heart ached at the sight of her brother's injured body.

-This human! If you're a great hero, you should win without any injuries, what's with this shabby appearance!

-Hmph, sister. This is a glorious wound obtained at the end of a bloody battle.

Cheon Suhye hit her brother's back repeatedly.

Although her brother laughed heartily, it seed to hurt, as his lips twitched slightly.

At that pathetic appearance, Cheon Suhye also couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

Cheon Suhye did not know.

That this was the last day the siblings could face each other and laugh.

After that day, her brother could not get up from his seat.

His body beca stiff, he suffered from a high fever, and he beca unable to even have a proper conversation.

-I have no way of treating this.

The village doctor gave up on her brother's illness.

But still, her family did not give up.

-I heard there is a skilled doctor in Sichuan, so I will go and co back.

Her father left on a journey to find a doctor.

Although a young Cheon Suhye cried and clung to her father, since it was for the sake of saving her brother, she had no choice but to let her father go.

And after that day, her father did not return.

With the son bedridden and the head of the household gone, the family's fortunes declined rapidly.

Although they had not been wealthy from the beginning, now days continued where they could not even eat watery porridge.

Her brother's condition worsened day by day.

Her mother also beca thinner day by day and fell ill.

Then one day, the father they had been waiting for did not return, and instead, a doctor accompanied by a daughter younger than Cheon Suhye arrived in the village.

-Doctor, please save my child!

Her mother cried and clung to the doctor, begging for treatnt, and the doctor readily examined her brother.

-It is rabies.

-Isn't rabies a disease that causes madness? My child's body has just beco stiff.

-The symptoms of rabies are largely of two types. One is that madness, and the other is the body becoming stiff like this.

The doctor was a doctor with the surna Tang from Sichuan, a doctor with so reputation, and the doctor that her father had set out to find.

Naturally, Cheon Suhye and her mother asked about her father's whereabouts.

-He left before , so it seems our paths have crossed.

The answer that ca back was that the doctor also did not know her father's whereabouts.

Still, it was okay.

Because a skilled doctor who could treat her brother had arrived.

So her father would also return soday.

Cheon Suhye's family embraced such a hopeful thought in their hearts.

-Unfortunately, the dicinal herbs I have now will not be enough.

Doctor Tang said that since the dicinal herbs needed to treat rabies were insufficient, he would go to Sichuan and co back.

But the doctor did not co back.

And her mother, who had been getting thinner day by day than her brother, passed away first.

Following that, her brother also passed away.

The whereabouts of the father they had been waiting for were still unknown.

It seed that the hope that he was alive had to be abandoned now.

And so, she was left alone.

Baek Yoonjun glared at Cheon Suhye, who had beco a jiangshi, in front of him.

As he had checked with his senses, it was just a corpse with no life.

'Sister Suhye is no longer human. But.'

Baek Yoonjun could not draw his sword.

He just dodged the attacking Cheon Suhye by stepping on his movent technique.

Since he had also faced dozens of jiangshi, dodging was not a particularly difficult task.

The option of retreating without drawing his sword also ca to his mind.

'But is it the right choice to leave Sister Suhye like this and leave?'

Baek Yoonjun was unable to do either, with complicated thoughts in his mind.

'What kind of martial artist am I! I'm only good at cutting, but I can't even save one person!!'

At that ti, the useless words of his friend ca to Baek Yoonjun's mind.

-A sword that cuts a person is a killing sword, and a sword that saves a person is a life-saving sword.

-Isn't a sword a tool for cutting people in the first place?

-That depends on the heart of the person who wields the sword.

-Anyway, it cuts.

Although he wondered if there was a way in his friend's words, it was just a useless statent.

Baek Yoonjun blad himself like crazy inwardly.

It was a useless act.

And so, useless ti continued to pass.

Baek Yoonjun could not do anything.

'Damn it! Why! Why! Can't I do anything?!'

At that ti, a thought flashed through Baek Yoonjun's mind.

'The bolt of the heart!'

Sothing that the unidentified man had given him when he was caught up in a strange phenonon.

Although he had said he could use it only three tis, he had a hunch that if he didn't use it now, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

'How should I use this?'

He didn't know how to use it.

Since he didn't know, he thought of putting a bolt on his heart while dodging the attacking Cheon Suhye.

At that mont.

Sothing changed in Baek Yoonjun.

Baek Yoonjun himself had not changed.

It was just that all the things related to his heart, such as the stray thoughts that were always overflowing and his crazy low self-esteem, had disappeared at that mont.

Baek Yoonjun's mind, which had been in a state of utter confusion, beca calm.

A calmness he had never felt in his life.

'I myself have not changed into another being.'

It was just that his mind had beco calm.

-Kuaaaaaaah!!

Baek Yoonjun lightly dodged the attacking Cheon Suhye.

His physical condition or martial arts itself had not improved.

But on a different level from just before, Baek Yoonjun's progress was unhindered.

He had a premonition that if he continued like this, he could draw his sword and cut down the being whose life had ended in front of him.

Baek Yoonjun calmly analyzed Cheon Suhye's condition with his hand on the hilt of his sword.

'Her heart is not beating, and there is no blood flow. If this continues, even her blood will dry up.'

No matter how he looked at it, it was a state that was difficult to call alive.

'Even her muscles and blood vessels are becoming stiff, so it's incomprehensible how she is moving.'

No matter how he looked at it, it seed there was no answer other than to cut her down.

But.

'I wanted to save her.'

Since he had made a decision, Baek Yoonjun reviewed everything.

His own condition.

'My internal energy is still not filling up.'

The things he had.

'It's more than enough to cut her down.'

His current situation.

'I can easily dodge for as long as I want.'

Many thoughts passed, and he reached one thought.

'I have to cut.'

The best choice Baek Yoonjun could make now.

'I have to cut what cannot be cut.'

And yet, a choice that was sowhat absurd, not the usual cutting.

'It's not that there's no possibility. The realm after what I've seen so far. The answer is there.'

He calmly observed the realm after, which he had not been able to see calmly until now due to his self-esteem being buried in the ground.

'Life and death, among them, what I know is only death.'

It was still not enough to move on to the next realm.

But.

'Still, I can imitate it. No, although it's unstable, I can step into it.'

Baek Yoonjun decided to move on to the next realm with only the death he knew.

Although it was a realm that would normally require a long ti and effort to step into, there was no such luxury now.

Baek Yoonjun moved his feet in the pitch-black space that was spread out in front of him, where nothing could be seen.

He set foot on a path that no one had stepped on, and at the sa ti, his internal energy began to evaporate from Baek Yoonjun's body.

As if it were escaping from a hole in a dam, his internal energy was disappearing like crazy.

But Baek Yoonjun, who had put a bolt on his heart and was looking at everything calmly, was able to find out the cause quickly.

'Internal energy is not disappearing. It is just becoming a foundation to move on to the next realm.'

Baek Yoonjun continued to observe his inside.

Baek Yoonjun's internal energy disappeared, and all the upper, middle, and lower dantians disappeared.

The current Baek Yoonjun looked like an ordinary person, not a martial artist, to anyone.

But he himself knew that that was not the case.

'It has not disappeared.'

Baek Yoonjun's observation explored a deeper place and dug in.

The place he reached was a deep world of ntal images.

In other words, the heart.

There, sothing very unstable was wriggling.

Although its shape was unstable, Baek Yoonjun unconsciously knew what it was.

'This is a sword.'

It was a sword.

A sword that had taken root in his heart.

'A heart sword.'

Baek Yoonjun reached out and grabbed the unstable sword.

At the sa ti, Baek Yoonjun, who had returned to reality, also drew his sword.

Baek Yoonjun swung his sword at Cheon Suhye.

The blade of the Black Iron Night dug into Cheon Suhye's flesh.

'It cuts the flesh, but it does not cut the flesh.'

The Black Iron Night did not cut Cheon Suhye's flesh.

Soon, the blade reached the bone.

'It cuts the bone, but it does not cut the bone.'

Baek Yoonjun's sword continued to move forward, not cutting what should not be cut.

'What I will cut is only one thing.'

The heart sword was united with Baek Yoonjun's will, and it moved forward, cutting what should be cut.

'I cut evil.'

While Baek Yoonjun was cutting without cutting, Cheon Suhye was not just standing still.

-Kuaaaaaaah!

Ignoring the sword that Baek Yoonjun was swinging, she stretched out her arm.

To concentrate on the act he was performing for the first ti, Baek Yoonjun did not avoid Cheon Suhye's hand.

Puk.

As a result, Cheon Suhye's hand dug into Baek Yoonjun's chest.

'Now!'

Baek Yoonjun cut what he wanted to cut.

(End of Chapter)