Chapter 188 - Chemistry
More than a decade ago.
Amidst the mountain of corpses, the World’s Fastest Sword, Yeongbi, asked the man before him.
“Shouldn’t the Ten Great Masters of Jianghu be re-selected?”
The man simply smiled faintly without saying a word.
A mont ago, the World’s Fastest Sword had given the man before him the highest praise he could offer.
The Ten Great Masters of Jianghu, selected from only the top masters of each sect.
Although the Mount Hua Sect had an outstanding swordsman nad Mae Jirip, the World’s Fastest Sword’s thoughts were quite different.
He had felt that this man before him was, in fact, the greatest master of the Mount Hua Sect.
The blood of the Demonic Cult, which had pooled and flowed like a river at his feet, proved this.
Silent Thousand Plums, Mae Ji-ho.
It was the na of the supre master of the Mount Hua Sect, said to make a thousand plum blossoms bloom without a sound.
Shing.
As if to belie his praise, the tip of Mae Ji-ho’s sword pointed toward the World’s Fastest Sword.
“Huh?”
The World’s Fastest Sword’s eyes widened, but he did not ask for the reason.
As one could tell from his title, Silent Thousand Plums, Mae Ji-ho was a mute who could not speak.
Swoosh.
The tip of Mae Ji-ho’s sword pointed at himself again.
Then, he imitated the exact sa sword strike that the World’s Fastest Sword had just perford.
Paat!
“Oh…”
Though not perfect, it was a rather plausible Sun-Shooting Sword Art.
Biyoung wore a bitter smile as he watched Mae Ji-ho’s swordplay.
They said that when it ca to eccentricities in the Mount Hua Sect, no one could match Mae Ji-ho.
At the end of this tireso battle, Mae Ji-ho was proposing that they perform each other’s sword arts.
If the sect leaders of each sect had known this, they might have coughed up blood and collapsed.
But Biyoung readily accepted Mae Ji-ho’s proposal.
Perhaps Mae Ji-ho wanted to shake off the bloody scene of massacre, even in this way.
“Let’s see… was it like this?”
The World’s Fastest Sword raised his blood-stained sword and drew a new sword path.
It was a bit awkward, but because the plum blossoms Mae Ji-ho had shown so far were so perfect, a clear afterimage remained.
The Qilian Bloodbath, where over a thousand casualties occurred, combining the Murim Alliance and the Demonic Cult followers.
At the end of that brutal battle, the two of them enjoyed their own amusent.
This was a story from seven days and nights before Mae Ji-ho died in the Heavenly Demon War.
***
A sword path once drawn does not disappear but remains as an afterimage, adding another line.
The various variations that lie within the splendor.
The plum blossom of Mount Hua is as soft as a petal and as sharp as a thorn.
A crimson flower that many martial artists have feared and, at the sa ti, admired.
A plum blossom that blooms in profusion is enchanting, and a plum blossom that blooms simply is neat and weighty.
Shhhh……!
The dazzling Sword Aura had blood only a single plum blossom.
The plum blossom, made in the small size of a palm, gradually grew larger, and soon it beca as large as the upper body of a sturdy man.
As the plum blossom grew larger, the sword path also changed to beco larger and more brilliant.
Now this space had beco the exclusive property of the one who embroidered the plum blossom.
The Solitary Plum Strike, which will be clearly rembered in everyone’s mind.
This is, without a doubt, the sword of Mount Hua.
But there was just one thing.
Sothing was different from before.
The color of the Twenty-Four Hands Plum Blossom Sword Art, which had always dyed the surroundings crimson, was shining blue.
It was because the one who had executed the Solitary Plum Strike was not a swordsman from the Mount Hua Sect, but from the Diancang Sect.
“Absurd…!”
The sect leader of the Mount Hua Sect, who was as withered as a dead tree, shot up from his seat.
At the sa ti, two Solitary Plum Strikes that looked remarkably different to anyone’s eyes clashed in mid-air.
Swish…….
The end of the Twenty-Four Hands Plum Blossom Sword Art is always quiet.
Before the swords clash, nurous variations dig into each other’s gaps.
It was not difficult to predict who the winner was between Biyoung and Hong Myeong.
Unlike Hong Myeong’s sohow clumsy and underdeveloped Solitary Plum Strike, the single plum blossom that Biyoung had blood was clearly visible even from a distance.
Pabababak!
“Kuaaaak!”
With a terrible scream, blood spurted from Hong Myeong’s entire body.
The Twenty-Four Hands Plum Blossom Sword Art was a sword art that was beautiful on the outside but had a deadly lethality.
Hong Myeong soon lost consciousness and collapsed to the ground, and the blood he shed soaked the floor.
“Seeing that fellow, it seems that the day when the student surpasses the master is still far off for Mount Hua.”
The river of blood that flowed at the Qilian Bloodbath and the blood of Hong Myeong that soaked the floor of the fighting stage ford a strange contrast.
It was as if it showed the difference in caliber between Mae Ji-ho and Hong Myeong.
Mae Ji-ho was probably a swordsman who was terrible at politics.
Otherwise, the Mount Hua Sect would not have sent Mae Ji-ho to only the most dangerous frontiers.
“Q-quickly, a stretcher!”
The monk who was refereeing called for the rescue team quickly instead of declaring the winner.
Although his life was not in danger, it was an injury that would take a long ti to recover from if left alone.
“………….”
The crowd stared blankly down at Biyoung, forgetting even to cheer.
When Biyoung had imitated the martial arts of other sects before, there had been those who were enthusiastic and those who looked on with displeasure.
But for this round of 16 match, everyone had only one reaction.
‘Is this even possible?’
To draw the plum blossom of Mount Hua.
That was a fundantally different story from imitating the basic fist and foot techniques of the Ei Sect.
Even those who had entered Mount Hua and trained for several years would often beco frustrated and shed tears, unable to draw a plum blossom.
But what kind of ghost’s work was this?
Hong Myeong had managed to bloom a plum blossom in his own way, but in terms of the completeness of the created plum blossom, it was embarrassing to even compare them.
If the deceased Mae Ji-ho had seen the Solitary Plum Strike just now, he would have applauded and given a thumbs-up.
The only problem was that the color of that plum blossom was not crimson but blue.
“…………!”
The cheeks of the Mount Hua Sect leader were trembling so much it was embarrassing to watch.
It had been quite a while since he had shot up from his seat, but it seed he had forgotten to even sit down on his chair.
In fact, it could not be helped.
After all, a swordsman from another sect had blood a perfect plum blossom right before his eyes.
Did the sect leaders of other sects feel this way when they faced Biyoung?
Although Mae Jisin himself was now in the sa situation, unfortunately, there was no one who sympathized with him.
They recalled how he had looked down on the Mount Heng Sect leader the day before.
‘Hmph. Serves him right.’
‘He probably didn’t expect him to create a plum blossom.’
‘I feel like the undigested food from last night is finally going down.’
‘So in the end, even the Mount Hua Sect could not draw out the sword of Diancang.’
The gazes of the senior mbers on the high seats turned to Biyoung again.
Now, beyond surprise, a feeling of fear was beginning to set in.
Those who had reached the rank of sect leader were bound to feel fear not of strength, but of the ‘unknown.’
In that sense, Biyoung was enough to make everyone afraid.
Leaving everything else aside, they had no way of knowing how he knew the martial arts of other sects so well when he should have been busy learning the martial arts of the Diancang Sect.
Amidst the silence of the spectators and the suspicion of the sect leaders, Biyoung soon disappeared from the fighting stage.
***
“Senior Brother, they’re probably feeling really good right now.”
Biyoung gave a strange smile to Solbo, who was about to face the round of 16.
“Wh-what do you an? Feeling good?”
Solbo, who had been lost in thought for a mont while looking at the Wudang Sect swordsman, soon blushed.
“Are they feeling good because I’m an easy opponent?”
“Hah…”
Biyoung let out a sigh.
Jeong-i was unaware of her own beauty, and Solbo also did not know how great his own martial arts were.
This was the swordsman of the Gale Sword who had already received absolute trust from Namgung Chu.
It would be good for him to be a little more objective about himself.
“It’s not because you’re easy… but more like… they’ve already achieved their goal?”
“Achieved their goal…?”
Solbo felt like he was falling into a labyrinth the more they talked.
The martial arts tournant was not even over yet, so what on earth was the goal of the Wudang Sect?
“Senior Brother. People have a strange habit. If soone offered to give you ten thousand nyang of gold for free, would you take it or not?”
“You an they’d just give it to for free?”
“Yes.”
Solbo answered promptly as if there was nothing more to consider.
“Of course, I’d take it.”
“Good. But, let’s say there’s a condition that in exchange for giving you ten thousand nyang, they’ll give your enemy one million nyang. What would you do then?”
“A million nyang to my enemy?”
Solbo’s large eyes, which had answered so readily, shook uncontrollably from side to side.
Solbo imagined a rain of money falling on the head of Dancheong of the Ghost Face Gang.
Then he soon shook his head vigorously.
“I don’t want that. I’d rather not take the ten thousand nyang.”
“Haha. Human psychology is a strange thing, isn’t it? Just because your enemy has a lot of money doesn’t an your own money disappears, but you’d refuse the money offered to you just to make it not happen.”
Biyoung gestured toward the Wudang Sect with his chin.
“It’s the sa with them. Their own sect’s performance is important, but they were also desperately wishing for their rival to fall.”
The rival Biyoung ntioned.
That rival was none other than the Mount Hua Sect.
Mount Hua and Wudang had been discreetly checking and competing with each other even when the World’s Fastest Sword was active.
“They’re the kind of guys who act like allies to your face while scheming behind your back on how to trip you up.”
“H-how do you know that?”
“Um… there are just so things like that. Just accept it as it is.”
“I see.”
Accepting things as they were even when he was being vague.
For Biyoung, that was Solbo’s greatest strength.
“Th-then. Are you saying that the fact that the Mount Hua Sect has all been eliminated is half the success?”
“That’s right. Wudang still has two survivors left, and even if both of them are eliminated, they’ve put two people in the round of 16, so they save more face than Mount Hua, right?”
Solbo could not understand.
Weren’t they the two great sects of the Murim Alliance, an honorable group whose na alone made one’s heart pound?
To think that such people would wish for their opponent’s downfall while competing in a martial arts tournant.
It was a story so different from the Jianghu Murim he had always known.
Solbo frankly confessed the emotions he felt.
“Truly… my heart feels so petty.”
“Kikil. Unfortunately, that’s reality.”
As Solbo got ready with his sword, Biyoung offered words of encouragent from behind him.
“Let them know, Senior Brother. That Wudang or Mount Hua, they’re all the sa.”
“O-okay.”
Although his answer was far from confident, the sword of Solbo, who had broken out of his shell, was rciless.
CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE!
From his ti in Simao, he was a fellow who was said to have no match once he drew his sword.
Solbo, who had broken out of his egg in the Phantasmal Confusion Forest, no longer hesitated to use his sword.
Moreover, had he not even realized the Vast Sky Eagle Body thod after being on the run for so long?
The Gale Sword and the Vast Sky Eagle Body thod were martial arts that had very good chemistry for adding power.
‘Which is completely different from your chemistry of just trying to trip each other up.’
Clang!
Biyoung had such thoughts as he watched the sword of the Wudang Sect’s rising star soar into the sky.
“This match is the victory of Solbo of the Diancang Sect!”
“Waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Following Biyoung, Solbo achieved the feat of advancing to the quarterfinals of the martial arts tournant.
The Diancang Sect is the only sect to have multiple mbers advance to the quarterfinals, not just among the Nine Sects One Union, but in the entire Murim region.
What was even more surprising was the fact that the Diancang Sect still had three swordsn left.
Depending on the circumstances, the possibility arose that half of the quarterfinals could be covered by the nas of the Diancang Sect.
And…….
“I don’t know how many tis I’ve run into you in such a short ti. It seems you and I may have been a married couple in a past life.”
The ugly man, dressed in a splendid blue robe, took out his Judge’s Brush and grinned.
The young man with a heroic deanor standing opposite him also stealthily drew his sword.
“I would absolutely hate that.”
Namgung Chu and Eung Gajin.
The two young dragons who had opened their Governor and Conception Vessels began their second duel.
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