The World's Greatest is Dead Chapter 128

KGGGGK—!!

A spark jumped off the blade. The impact shoved my body back. It was a fierce force.

But because I’d already shifted half a step and twisted my upper body, I was pushed back with my posture slightly turned.

Thanks to that, my body rotated in a way that let the attack slide off naturally.

The incoming strike was carried away along the tilted spine of my sword.

KIIIK—!

The one who had attacked , whose strike had been deflected, shifted to the side, and I wrapped qi around the Divine Sword as if I refused to let him get away.

Right as I was about to unleash a sword form—

“...Hm?”

—I had to stop as soon as I saw the attacker’s face.

“...Mister Mujeong?”

At my words, the middle-aged man who had ambushed dropped to one knee with a THUD.

“Please forgive my rudeness.”

He lowered his head deeply, setting his sword down on the ground.

I frowned as I looked at him.

He was soone I’d t a few tis back in Liaoning.

Strictly speaking, he was one of Murong Yeongsun’s escorts.

So why would soone like that launch a surprise attack on ?

The reason was obvious as fire. So, still frowning between the brows, I looked toward a certain spot.

The entrance to the training ground—and sure enough, there was a woman leaning her back against it, looking at .

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

I shoved the drawn sword back into its scabbard as I asked.

“...You really blocked it?”

Murong Yeongsun sounded a bit surprised as she said that to , and I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

Then—

“Hey.”

I spoke to her with a blank, expressionless face.

“Did you lose your mind?”

“I’ll apologize. There was sothing I wanted to check.”

“Check my ass.”

STEP. I turned and walked straight toward Murong Yeongsun.

“What do you take for? I’m already pissed off enough I could die.”

I’d had too much pile up lately to just let this slide. Especially when it ca to her.

“...”

Murong Yeongsun just looked at with those sunken eyes of hers.

Normally I might have held back a bit, but this ti I couldn’t.

“Hey.”

“Yeah.”

“I clearly told you before I left Liaoning.”

It had been winter, on one of those days she ca by according to her little seasonal schedule.

“I told you not to cling to because it’s [N O V E L I G H T] annoying. That no matter what you did, there would never be a day when I looked at you.”

“...”

At those words, the corners of Murong Yeongsun’s eyes twitched.

Back then, after hearing that, she’d looked at with reddened eyes and said—

‘Can’t you cut a little slack...?’

Her expression had been so pitiful, and then even more pitiful, that I’d ended up giving in at the ti.

“But I also told you not to cross the line. So what the hell do you call this?”

Now was different.

“Why are you coming all the way to Sichuan just to piss off?”

There’s a mountain of things to do and even more I have to keep an eye on.

By luck, it was still barely within what I could endure, so I was hanging on—but I had no room left to spare for crap like this.

“Why did you do it?”

I kept my voice from rising and asked for her reason.

“I wanted to see if the rumors were true.”

Yeongsun answered with that.

“See if what? Whether I really got stronger or not?”

Little Sword Saint. Killed an absolute master the Poison King himself supposedly couldn’t finish off.

Saved the Poison King and Tang Clan.

That was the ridiculous rumor about that had started to spread a bit inside Sichuan.

Just hearing an exaggerated, blown-up rumor like that was laughable.

An absolute master? Soone even the Poison King couldn’t kill?

As if. He wasn’t that much of a monster.

...Was he?

‘He was a monster, but still...’

I hadn’t even killed him myself, so I didn’t feel much about it.

If anything, the only impression it left was—

‘That I could catch a guy like that with this body.’

I’d learned that it all depended on how well you handled your own body.

I’d felt that down to the bone in the spirit-dream too.

‘...I really thought I was going to lose my mind.’

I died over and over until I awakened sword force.

And even after awakening sword force, how many more tis did I die?

It was long enough that I gave up even trying to count.

‘And the condition was just to block a single strike.’

Ignite sword force and block the opponent’s sword force.

I’d been clinging on just to fulfill that one condition, and yet I had no idea how many hells I’d gotten a glimpse of because I couldn’t do it.

In the end I did pull it off, but what I gained from it... wasn’t anything fancy.

‘Just that I can move a bit faster.’

Even at the sa realm, with the sa body, the power and speed you can show are different.

I had to recognize that.

I had to draw out the absolute maximum power and speed my body could produce.

That spirit-dream had been a fight over whether I could recognize that or not.

So what Yoo Cheongil had wanted to teach there wasn’t simply that a body that hadn’t fully reached the pinnacle could still use sword force, but—

‘How far you can push your body’s full potential.’

I figured that’s what he’d wanted to show .

‘Anyway.’

This wasn’t what mattered right now, so I set it aside.

“Did you get your confirmation? Are you satisfied now?”

“...”

I practically hurled the words at Murong Yeongsun.

“I’ll allow that part of this is my fault for dodging the conversation.”

I said it without smoothing the wrinkle out of my brow.

“But at the very least, you shouldn’t have used a shitty thod like—”

“Who is it?”

“What?”

Murong Yeongsun cut off.

Who? What the hell is she suddenly talking about?

“What do you an.”

I asked her back, but Yeongsun didn’t answer; she was too busy looking around.

After she’d searched the surroundings for quite a while, Yeongsun looked at , eyes gone utterly cold, and spoke.

“What do you see this ti?”

“...”

“Who did this to you?”

[Oh?]

At Yeongsun’s words, Yoo Cheongil was flustered.

[What the? Can that girl see things too?]

His words were so loaded with aning that it sounded like he was worried. If she could see, there’d be far more than one or two problems—

[Then I gotta hop over there right now! That hairy bastard’s nothing, this girl’s way better, hell yeah!]

“...”

Crazy old man. What the hell am I supposed to do with him?

I barely managed to hold back the sigh trying to burst out.

If I let it out as I was, it’d be obvious sothing was off, so I endured for a mont, then let out a shallow breath.

“Hoo...”

I exhaled softly, pushed my hair back, and called out to Yeongsun.

“Yeongsun.”

“...”

The mont I called her by na, a cross-shaped vein popped on Murong Yeongsun’s forehead, but unlike last ti, she didn’t get angry.

I could feel her holding it back.

“I told you before too. It’s not like that.”

“Lies.”

Yeongsun cut my words off sharply.

“You’re tangled up in sothing. There’s no way you’d be like this otherwise.”

“...What are you so sure about?”

“Because you’re not that kind of person.”

“Don’t make pronouncents. What do you even know about ?”

“I know. I’ve watched you for years. How could I not know?”

I let out a short, involuntary laugh at that.

“You can’t learn anything from just a few years.”

At best, a few years.

And it’s not like she saw every day of my life without missing one. Using an engagent as a pretext, just briefly.

Using the breaking of that engagent as a pretext, for a mont.

After that—

“What could you possibly see with eyes clouded by leftover attachnt and obsession. You don’t know anything.”

“...”

“Whatever you’re thinking, it’s all pointless and aningless. So just stop.”

“...Stop?”

At my words, Murong Yeongsun’s petal-like lips pressed together.

Her emotions were laid bare in a way that was rare for her.

Then—

FWIP—!

“...!”

Suddenly, Murong Yeongsun loosened her front and bared the area around her collarbone.

“You’re out of your fucking—!”

What the hell is she doing all of a sudden? I grabbed at her clothes—

“Then why did you save ?”

“...”

I froze for a mont at the dark scar on her collarbone.

Because I knew very well why that was there.

“If you saved , you should take responsibility.”

“What kind of bullshit is that?”

It was absurd.

“What, you figure you can’t get married because your body’s got a scar, so I should take responsibility for you?”

“No.”

Yeongsun shook her head, as if that wasn’t what she ant at all.

“You think I can’t get married just because of a little scar like this? I’m pretty. Really pretty. Enough that sothing like this doesn’t even register as a flaw.”

“...”

She wasn’t wrong, which made it that much more irritating.

It was even worse because I’d heard almost the exact sa line sowhere else.

‘I’m pretty, you know.’

That was how that crazy woman from Blue Moon Sect had evaluated herself.

‘...Is this just their type?’

Both of them had similar atmospheres, and even the things they said sounded alike.

It was worse because their confidence actually had so real foundation behind it.

“Who are you thinking about right now?”

“...I wasn’t thinking about anything. I was just too dumbfounded to say sothing.”

“Those were eyes thinking about so other woman.”

“Don’t talk crap.”

Their damn intuition is annoyingly sharp too.

“And even if I was, so what. We’ve been done for a long ti.”

“Right. We’re done.”

It had been almost ten years since the engagent was broken.

You could safely say we were strangers now. We’d been strangers to begin with.

“So just quit and go your own way. You just said you’re not asking to take responsibility over a scar, so why are you doing this.”

That scar had ford right after the engagent was broken.

There’d been an incident, shitty as hell, and it had shown up during the cleanup.

It was also the root of why Murong Yeongsun had beco obsessed with .

“Whatever you want from , I can’t give it to you, and I have no intention of doing so. Did you forget why I ran away?”

“Yeah, why’d you run away so cowardly? If you were going to face it, you should’ve done it properly.”

“Properly my ass. You really are one funny woman, you know that?”

I wrinkled the bridge of my nose and spoke to Yeongsun.

“You got caught bribing one of our household servants to spy on , didn’t you? You got caught trying to slip money to my bastard brother to pull so stunt, didn’t you? Do you know how many other things there were besides that?”

I was sick to death of it.

At ho, they helped her because they were hoping maybe we could get engaged to the Murong Clan again.

I couldn’t stand the sight of it, so I had to run out.

That was also why I left for Anhui.

‘I tried so damn hard not to get caught in the end.’

I’d co to an agreent with my father, and I’d secretly coordinated with the Murong Clan Head too.

But then—

‘They both stabbed in the back?’

Had those old n lost their minds?

I’d done more than a few things for them on my way out, too.

My teeth clenched on their own.

“Just thinking about that ti still makes shake with rage, so what exactly do you expect to do with you.”

“Isn’t that enough for you to accept ?”

“What kind of brazen bullshit is that?”

I had no idea how many layers of iron plate she’d strapped over her face.

“I will never think that way. And that’s not changing in the future either. So stop being a damn nuisance and get lost. Before I send a letter to your father right this instant.”

I put every ounce of feeling I had into throwing the words at her.

Hearing that, Murong Yeongsun pressed her lips tightly together.

In her lowered gaze, I could see the corners of her eyes trembling.

Clicking my tongue briefly at that sight, I moved to leave.

Then, suddenly, I spoke to her again.

“Don’t expect anything from . What you’re doing isn’t so pretty emotion like love or affection.”

The reason I didn’t look kindly on Murong Yeongsun’s actions.

The reason I didn’t respect her and refused to bother accepting her.

“Stop trying to find your dead mother in .”

Because I knew that the root of her feelings was longing.

Her shoulders gave a tiny tremble when I ntioned her mother.

I glanced at that and spat out my last words.

“Well then, Young Lady Murong. I’ll be taking my leave first. Since you’ve been discourteous, I trust you’ll be more careful from now on.”

I went back to formal speech. It was my way of saying I wouldn’t be talking any further.

I walked straight out of the training ground.

And the mont I stepped outside, Yoo Cheongil spoke to like he’d been waiting.

[That girl can’t see, right?]

It seed he’d been hung up on Murong Yeongsun’s words.

“She can’t. Don’t worry.”

[...What a sha.]

“...So that wasn’t worry, that was regret?”

[It was a joke. Half of one.]

So the other half was serious.

[So, what happened.]

“...It’s nothing much. It just ca out of my own mistake.”

[Mistake?]

“Yes.”

Yeah, it was a mistake.

Seeing her mother’s soul when I was a kid.

Being unable to turn away from that desperate plea to please, please save her daughter.

Because of that, I’d stuck my nose in where it didn’t belong and saved Yeongsun.

And so—

‘The fact that girl is trying to see her mother through .’

All of it had started from my mistake.