The dical Immortal is the Sect Master of the Mount Hua Sect.
At those words, my head went blank for a mont.
“Wh—what...?”
What kind of insane bullshit is that?
The dical Immortal...
‘The dical Immortal is the Sect Master of the Mount Hua Sect...?’
No matter how I tried to understand it, it wasn’t easy. What could possibly be more insane than this?
‘If we’re talking about the Sect Master of the Mount Hua Sect...’
That would be the famous Plum Blossom Single Sword.
One of the Heaven-Beyond-Heaven, one of the candidates for the Greatest Under Heaven alongside Divine Spear—and soone who’d even been put forward as a contender for the Alliance Leader’s seat.
If you looked at reputation, recognition, and the weight of people’s support, Plum Blossom Single Sword should’ve been the one to beco Alliance Leader, not Divine Spear.
‘But he turned it down.’
They said he refused, claiming Mount Hua was enough for him, and that taking even the Martial Alliance into his arms was beyond the capacity of his vessel.
A master famous for being gentle and virtuous, with no great greed.
And that man...
‘...is the dical Immortal?’
The legendary Therapist said to save even the dead.
The fact that they were the sa person left pretty damn shaken.
“You’re joking, right?”
It was absurd. I asked again, like that would make it less impossible.
[What’s absurd about it?]
Yoo Cheongil answered flatly.
“No... how is the dical Immortal Plum Blossom Single Sword?”
[Why wouldn’t he be?]
“It doesn’t make any sense.”
Even just learning martial arts was enough to keep soone busy to death. How was it supposed to make sense that, on top of that, he beca a legendary Therapist?
I kept spitting out disbelief at this world that refused to be trusted.
[Ha.]
Yoo Cheongil let out a laugh like I’d said sothing ridiculous, then—
[You can believe you see ghosts, though?]
“...”
I lost my words for a mont.
Confusion hit, but my mouth still worked.
“That and this are different.”
[They’re not different.]
Yoo Cheongil was firm.
[There are plenty of strange bastards in this world. He was just a little strange too.]
Strange. Calling it that didn’t make it any less unbelievable.
But—
[He liked saving people more than swinging a sword. Just...]
Yoo Cheongil’s expression hardened as he said the last part.
[He loved plum blossoms even more than that.]
“...”
Was that his way of promising he wouldn’t say that with a smile?
I couldn’t tell what kind of feeling he’d put into it.
“Like how you like the moon, sir?”
If I had to compare, wasn’t that what it ant? I said it with that thought, but—
[Huh? What are you talking about?]
Yoo Cheongil tilted his head.
[Why would I like the moon?]
“Excuse ?”
What was this now?
“You were always saying I had to beco the moon, that I had to pursue the moon. Weren’t you?”
When you’d been going on and on about the moon every other sentence, and now you’re acting like that’s a weird question?
[Hahaha.]
Yoo Cheongil laughed at my confusion. The way he laughed—like he’d gone a little crazy—made flinch.
[You’re wrong. I don’t like the moon. I pursue it, and that’s different from affection. If we’re being precise...]
SSSS—!
“......!”
I rubbed my arms. The air had turned sharply cold all of a sudden.
[I hate the moon.]
“......”
Hate.
The mont he said it, my skin crawled.
[If you insist, you could call it love and hate. But whatever. This isn’t important.]
It looks very important.
This didn’t feel like sothing you just “move on” from, but it was awkward to ask more, so I shut my mouth.
Yoo Cheongil hates the moon.
I just stored that fact in my head.
Strangely enough...
More than the shocking fact that Plum Blossom Single Sword was the dical Immortal, for so reason, that was what kept echoing in my mind.
Really strangely.
*****
I went back to my quarters. Honestly, I wanted to train more, but it wasn’t realistic to spend more ti than that.
‘After hearing sothing like that, how the hell could I?’
Yoo Cheongil saying I had a bomb strapped inside my body.
He’d said the power that had suddenly exploded inside wasn’t properly contained, and that I was in a dangerous state.
‘...I can’t use too much strength, and I can’t increase it.’
If I absorbed any more power, it would overload my ridians and my body would go BANG!—and burst.
Bursting. What kind of terrifying word is that?
‘Especially the hair, too.’
It was the influence of Moon Heaven, sure—but Yoo Cheongil had judged the surging Blue Moon Heart Art itself was affecting my physical body.
He’d said it would take three years for that power to stabilize and calm down, right?
‘...Three years isn’t bad.’
Honestly, that’s what I thought.
Three years with my realm and strength frozen? So what?
‘I already got an unbelievable stroke of fortune.’
A body that started at third-rate—less than a year later, pinnacle. And not just pinnacle—supre pinnacle was right in front of .
If three more years passed like this, what would the problem be?
‘But it doesn’t look that way to the old man.’
Yoo Cheongil said I didn’t have that kind of ti.
Even if he said three years, he didn’t know what could happen in the anti.
So...
‘Finding the dical Immortal right now is a huge advantage.’
He said it was actually good for .
‘Hmph...’
The dical Immortal thing, too.
‘Plum Blossom Single Sword is the dical Immortal...’
What are the odds that a great Therapist is also a Heaven-Beyond-Heaven-level swordmaster?
Is that really true?
It probably is.
‘Yoo Cheongil has no reason to lie to about that too.’
Which ans Plum Blossom Single Sword really is the dical Immortal.
I had no idea how it was possible, but it was probably the truth.
‘Mount Hua...’
A place I’d never been.
Given the situation, I could go if I had to, but—
‘Going all the way to Shaanxi in this situation...’
I didn’t know if that was really okay.
As I worked myself into a headache thinking about it—
[What are you agonizing over?]
Yoo Cheongil floated there, speaking.
[You have to go anyway. What do you get from worrying?]
“...”
[And besides. Whether it’s your body or that Divine Spear bastard’s situation... there’s more to gain too.]
“...More to gain?”
What else was there? I asked, puzzled.
[That thing. The thing that Mount Hua girl brought.]
“...What... ah.”
For a second I didn’t get it, then I rembered. The robe with white fur.
That was what he ant.
[Since you’re already holding it, just go and trade it back, just like that.]
“...Hmmm.”
The black robe I had.
Swapping it with the Sword Saint’s robe that the Mount Hua Sect had.
Hearing that made sigh.
So much had piled up. aning: I had a ridiculous number of reasons I had to go.
‘...There’s no way I can just take the robe, huh.’
If it was an exchange, I’d have to go in person no matter what.
‘Hmph.’
When you looked at it this way, the fact that Yuyeon brought that robe in the first place was honestly weird.
‘Why did she bring it?’
Why bring a robe at all? And—
‘...She, too...’
The problem with Yuyeon I’d realized during the last incident.
Thinking about it, I shook my head.
‘Later.’
Not sothing to think about right now.
I wiped all the thoughts away.
For now, sleep.
After I sleep—
‘I’ll handle what’s left.’
I closed my eyes.
A night full of thoughts passed like that.
*****
The mont it beca the next day, I stepped outside my quarters.
The first place I headed was the dical station.
There was soone I needed to see.
“Oh! Little Azure Sword Saint! AHAHAHA!”
The bastard who laughed at full volu the mont he saw .
I narrowed my eyes. Damn. Should I not have co?
“No—! Now I gotta call ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) you Moon Knight!”
Sitting on the bed and waving those huge biceps around—
Black-Grand Saber greeted .
“...Are you feeling any better?”
“Of course I’m lively. Hey, since you’re here, say sothing for .”
“...About what.”
“They keep blocking when I try to leave even though I’m told I can go.”
“Then doesn’t that an you can’t go?”
“All that’s left is stuff that’ll heal if you spit on it.”
“......”
Bullshit. As always, he was talking nonsense, so I ignored it lightly.
“You’re not gonna help?”
“Just lie down quietly.”
“...Tch. My father too—everyone’s dying to keep sitting down.”
“......”
Father. The word he used for Blade Absolute made one of my eyebrows twitch.
“Oh. Right—so you t my father, yeah?”
“...We brushed past each other.”
“Hahaha. Looking at your face, my father must’ve run his mouth again. Right?”
“...It wasn’t like that.”
“Enough. My father’s behavior isn’t a one-ti thing. Don’t bother caring. My father’s just a narrow-minded man with nothing but greed in his vessel.”
“......”
That’s a brutal way to judge your own father.
And he looked dead serious about it.
“...It seems you and Peng Clan Head aren’t on good terms?”
“Huh? No, we’re close.”
“But you’re saying that.”
“Being close and what I said are separate. As a father, I love him. As a clan head, I don’t respect him.”
“......”
A strangely rational, clean-cut judgnt.
“Anyway, they’re calling you Moon Knight. How’s it feel to be a hero?”
“It’s whatever.”
“HAHAHAHA—!! Looking at your face, just like I thought. I knew you’d be like this.”
“What am I supposed to be?”
“Sothing like, ‘A nickna like that doesn’t matter. Only what you’ve done matters.’ Right?”
No, not really.
But Black-Grand Saber looked like he’d already decided that was who I was, so I didn’t bother denying it.
Think whatever you want.
“What a sha... If my body was intact, I’d want to match blades with you one more ti.”
His eyes looked genuinely regretful.
“No—actually, that wouldn’t even be possible. Thinking back to when you fought Sword Demon... I can tell how much you held back against in the tournant.”
“......”
The story of Yoo Cheongil fighting Sword Demon.
I’d heard that he used my body to take Sword Demon’s head.
And Black-Grand Saber had said he got hurt in that process and was receiving treatnt.
“How can you be that strong?”
Black-Grand Saber pressed like he was honestly curious.
“...No idea.”
I want to know too.
It would’ve been the sa body and the sa power.
So how did he kill a monster like Sword Demon with my body?
It still felt bizarre to , but—
“If you keep at it, doesn’t it turn out that way?”
I gave up on understanding it.
If you keep at it. Yeah—if you keep at it.
Yoo Cheongil said it. He said he’d make the Greatest Under Heaven.
So if I just do what he tells to do, won’t I beco like that soday?
That’s what I ant, but—
“...If you keep at it... is that so.”
Black-Grand Saber nodded, then—
“So it ans you just shut up and work yourself to death, and if you keep doing that, you’ll get sothing in the end.”
“......”
“Yeah. You really are different.”
When did I ever say “work yourself to death”?
No matter how I thought about it, I didn’t.
I shook my head at Black-Grand Saber, who was misunderstanding things in his own cool way again.
Then—
“Next ti will be different. Look forward to it. I’ll... really do it properly, too.”
Black-Grand Saber spoke to with a strangely serious gaze.
“......”
Next ti will be different? He was saying he was going to work even harder than this.
How much more ridiculous was he trying to beco?
I wanted to tell him not to. That I wasn’t that kind of person. That it was fine to just try a reasonable amount.
I wanted to say it, but—
“Yes. Go on, then. Let’s see you do it.”
I spat out an arrogant line that didn’t suit at all.
I don’t even know why I said that.
“AHAHAHAHA—!!”
Black-Grand Saber threw his head back laughing. He must’ve liked that answer.
“Y-young master Peng... please. There are other patients too... the noise...”
A Therapist hurriedly tried to rein him in, and Black-Grand Saber covered his mouth with his big hand.
Every ti I see him, I think it—he looks a little slow, but he doesn’t seem like a bad bastard.
In other words: he’s a weird bastard.
Watching him, I couldn’t help letting out a small smile.
Then I tried to bring up the reason I’d co in the first place.
“And, Black-Grand Saber.”
“Hm?”
“About Miss Murong—”
But right as I was about to say it—
“Moon Knight. So you’re here.”
“...Hm?”
Soone called from behind.
I stopped and turned my head.
“Huh?”
An unexpected figure was standing there.
Not short, but a skinny-looking man.
He wore a gray martial uniform and had a blank, detached expression that reminded of soone.
His na was...
“Pleased to et you. I am... Jegal Hyeongyeon, the young clan head of the Jegal Clan. May I speak with you for a mont?”
Jegal Hyeongyeon.
The current young clan head of the Jegal Clan, and—
‘...My mother’s older brother.’
If you got technical, he was my maternal uncle.
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