WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 118: Dongha Sword Saint (3)
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Twelve swords stood in formation around Shin Ui-gyeom, the Eastern River Sword Sage.
It was like watching an army array itself for battle.
Sword Twelve.
It was the signature absolute art of Shin Ui-gyeom, hailed as the greatest swordsman in the current martial world. Among master swordsmen, there was likely no one who did not know of it.
Yet few had actually witnessed Shin Ui-gyeom use Sword Twelve.
The reason was surprisingly simple.
There were very few masters capable of enduring it.
Sword Twelve was a technique only someone who had reached the very pinnacle of swordsmanship could wield, controlling twelve swords through Sword Kinesis.
Even in the martial world, the only people who could somewhat withstand it were the other Four Immortal Masters.
‘...Master is even preparing to use Sword Twelve. Does that mean this child called Mumu is a monster on par with the Four Immortal Masters?’
That was why Yeong Ga-dong, the Martial March Battle Sword, was so shocked.
This was the first time he had seen his master use Sword Twelve since Shin Ui-gyeom's battle with the Northern Heaven Fist Hero, another of the Four Immortal Masters, six years ago.
He was not the only one astonished.
Everyone present watched Shin Ui-gyeom prepare Sword Twelve with awe, and they began to see Mumu differently.
‘Has the Eastern River Sword Sage acknowledged that child as an opponent?’
They all came to a similar conclusion.
Sword Twelve was the very sword that symbolized Shin Ui-gyeom, the Eastern River Sword Sage.
Then Shin Ui-gyeom spoke.
“Let us move somewhere else.”
Shhk!
With that, Shin Ui-gyeom extended his sword-finger seal toward the ceiling of the holding cell.
At that moment, the twelve swords arrayed around him shone blue and began spinning. Then, all at once...
Kwakwakwakwakwang!
They shot toward one spot in the black iron ceiling.
“Ah!”
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong let out an exclamation at the massive hole the twelve swords of Sword Kinesis had created in an instant.
‘Ki manifestation in the swords? Then is this Sword Kinesis Ki Manifestation?’
The amount of internal energy involved was enough to leave anyone speechless.
Even infusing a single blade with ki manifestation would consume a tremendous amount of internal energy. Even if he had only raised ki manifestation in all twelve swords temporarily for efficiency's sake, the amount of internal energy required was impossible to measure.
‘...They are on entirely different levels.’
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu looked at Mumu with concern.
Mumu too radiated a pressure intense enough to stir the five senses, but after witnessing such a high-level technique, Dan Pil-hu could not imagine Mumu winning no matter how he tried.
Mumu's greatest strength was his monstrous physical power.
Until now, he had crushed countless opponents with overwhelming strength, overpowering even their techniques. This time was different.
‘A powerhouse whose internal energy and technique have already surpassed human limits.’
That was what the Four Immortal Masters were.
Mumu's monstrous strength might be comparable to the Eastern River Sword Sage's internal energy at its peak.
Yet the Eastern River Sword Sage possessed more than that. He had mastered excellent techniques and had spent many long years fighting nothing but powerful opponents.
‘...He is at a disadvantage. This is nothing like before.’
The Eastern River Sword Sage, Shin Ui-gyeom, had already given Mumu several chances.
Mumu had refused them.
Now that Shin Ui-gyeom had revealed his full strength, it meant he intended to defeat Mumu without question.
‘He could die.’
Mumu was only a seventeen-year-old boy.
If he possessed enough power to make Shin Ui-gyeom use Sword Twelve, then from the Eastern River Sword Sage's perspective, Mumu was a rival who could threaten his position in the future.
The Eastern River Sword Sage would not go easy on him.
For the sake of the future, he would either kill Mumu or leave him unable to rise again.
Grit!
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu clenched his teeth.
Stupid fool.
Dan Pil-hu had no idea what sort of deal Mumu had made with that man, but it had been a foolish choice.
Was Mumu going to wither before he could even bloom?
As Dan Pil-hu worried fiercely, Shin Ui-gyeom spoke.
“You two, protect that child.”
“Yes!”
“Understood.”
After ordering his disciples to guard Kang Mu-i, Shin Ui-gyeom gestured upward to Mumu.
“Follow me.”
Pat!
Shin Ui-gyeom took the lead, shooting toward the hole he had opened in the ceiling.
Mumu was about to follow when Dan Pil-hu hurriedly shouted.
“Mumu! Stop even now. Your opponent is one of the Four Immortal Masters. This time, not even you can...”
“Please do not worry so much.”
Mumu smiled faintly despite Dan Pil-hu's attempt to stop him. He bent his knees, then launched himself toward the ceiling.
Kwang!
The holding cell's floor caved in beneath Mumu's feet.
Everyone inside clicked their tongues at the sight.
The Eastern River Sword Sage was naturally astounding, but Mumu's monstrous strength was no less astonishing.
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong, still amazed, spoke to Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu.
“Let us follow them.”
“Very well.”
They could not simply stand by and watch.
They also wanted to know how the battle would unfold.
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong and Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu followed the two through the hole in the ceiling.
Watching them leave, Yeong Chu-seo, the Howling Sword, muttered regretfully.
“Ah. We have missed a wonderful sight, Senior Brother.”
“...”
Yeong Ga-dong, the Martial March Battle Sword, could not deny it.
Even as disciples, they did not often get the chance to see their master, Shin Ui-gyeom, unleash his Martial Arts at full strength.
It would have been a valuable lesson, which made it all the more regrettable.
* * *
Outside, the Eastern River Sword Sage, Shin Ui-gyeom, rose high into the air and pointed northward at Mumu, who had followed him out.
“That place will do.”
The largest plaza within Changcheon Martial Academy lay there.
It could hold a hundred thousand people and had been prepared for group training and major academy events. Since there were no cadets around at the moment, it was quiet as well.
Papapat!
Shin Ui-gyeom stepped through the air and shot toward the plaza.
It was true Walking on Air.
Mumu kicked off the air after him and flew toward the plaza.
Paaang!
The two landed in the center of the plaza.
They stood facing each other.
It was fortunate no one was nearby. If word got out that someone was fighting the Eastern River Sword Sage, crowds would gather at once.
Shin Ui-gyeom did not want anything to interrupt him.
‘It has been six years.’
The feeling of battle intent boiling inside him.
It was not bad.
He had already promised to face the Northern Heaven Fist Hero again in a few months. Mumu was more than enough to loosen him up beforehand.
Shin Ui-gyeom spoke to Mumu.
“I hope you are prepared to die. Otherwise, this may end rather blandly.”
The instant he finished speaking, Shin Ui-gyeom extended his sword-finger seal.
Two of the twelve swords spinning around him in formation shot toward Mumu at the same time like lightning.
Shuk! Shuk!
The flying swords moved beyond imagination.
Being lighter than a human body, they reached Mumu in the blink of an eye.
‘Fast.’
Mumu hurriedly bent his upper body backward and avoided the two swords.
Shuk!
In that instant, the swords changed direction and stabbed toward Mumu's back.
“What?”
It was his first time facing Sword Kinesis.
Its movements were far more flexible than he had imagined.
Normally, when wielding a sword or weapon, its movements were affected by the body's movements. A weapon's motion was inevitably limited by the body's range of motion.
Sword Kinesis did not have that limitation because the swords were not held in the hand.
Chwak! Chwak!
‘There is nowhere to dodge.’
The two swords crossed as they slashed toward him.
There was no room to escape.
Mumu tried to knock aside the slashing swords.
But...
Hwiriririk! Hwirik!
The swords moved freely, evaded both his fists, and cut his shoulder and thigh.
Chwachak! Chak!
‘His movements are simple.’
A faint look of disappointment entered Shin Ui-gyeom's eyes.
He had only used two swords as a probing sword movement, yet Mumu's movements were less systematic than expected.
Even a Master-level master would have dealt with this more flexibly.
Then...
Pak! Pak!
The moment the swords cut him, Mumu did not miss the chance to seize their blades.
Shin Ui-gyeom's eyes lit up.
‘They did not cut him.’
He had thought the swords had sliced Mumu's body, but no blood flowed from the wounds.
There was not even a trace of being cut.
The swords carried life energy, and all twelve had been forged by master craftsmen. Their sharpness was difficult to compare to ordinary swords.
What an incredible body.
Ujijijik!
Mumu tightened his grip, trying to break the swords.
Shin Ui-gyeom shot toward him and extended his left sword-finger seal.
Wooooong!
Blue ki manifestation rose from the two swords in Mumu's hands.
Its intensity was incomparable to that of his disciple, Yeong Ga-dong, the Martial March Battle Sword.
Pain dug into Mumu's hands, making him frown.
‘He is enduring it?’
Shin Ui-gyeom pulled back his left sword-finger seal.
The swords trapped in Mumu's hands trembled as they tried to escape.
Mumu put even more strength into his grip.
Squeeze!
Crackcrackcrack!
Cracks began spreading across the two swords covered in ki manifestation.
Shin Ui-gyeom's lips twitched at the sight.
‘Good.’
If Mumu had shown nothing and let go of the swords, Shin Ui-gyeom would have been even more disappointed.
Yet Mumu's monstrous strength exceeded expectations.
He was trying to break even swords infused with ki manifestation.
‘But...’
As Shin Ui-gyeom drew closer, the ki manifestation around the two swords Mumu held began swelling as if it had gone berserk.
The closer the distance became, the more precisely Shin Ui-gyeom could send life energy into the swords.
Then...
Chwak!
Shin Ui-gyeom extended his right sword-finger seal toward Mumu.
Three swords flew at Mumu in unusual trajectories.
‘Sword Three. Pleiades Numerical Principle!’
The three swords overlapped and formed a single net.
It was a net of incomparable sharpness.
‘How will you stop this?’
Still gripping the two swords held back by ki manifestation, Mumu raised one foot, then stomped it down toward the ground.
Kwaaaaaang!
The stone slabs of the plaza cracked, and a massive earthen wall surged upward.
The sword movement of the Pleiades Numerical Principle crashed into the earthen wall.
In that moment, Mumu...
Clang!
Finally broke the two swords infused with ki manifestation.
Once the swords broke, his palms stung as if they had been burned, making it hard to clench them.
Shin Ui-gyeom's ki manifestation was on another level.
“Heh heh!”
Mumu blew on his palms.
Chwachwachwachwachwak!
The earthen wall split apart, and the three swords shot toward Mumu like flashes of lightning.
Wrapped in blue ki manifestation, the swords moved in even more refined trajectories as they relentlessly targeted Mumu's vital acupoints.
Papapapapak!
Mumu swung his fists at the incoming swords.
When his fists collided with the three swords infused with ki manifestation, blasts of wind spread through the area.
At the same time, Shin Ui-gyeom's sword-finger seals moved rapidly.
Pat!
Two figures arrived near the plaza.
They were Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong and Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu.
Both could not hide their amazement at the incredible battle unfolding in the center of the plaza.
Kwang! Kwakwakang! Crackcrackcrack!
Every time Mumu's fists collided with the three swords stained blue with ki manifestation, wind pressure and shockwaves spread in all directions, splitting apart the plaza.
Do Jeong-myeong clicked his tongue at the sight.
“...They truly are monsters, Vice-Master.”
Who could have imagined a battle at this level?
Even from this far away, the aftereffects of their fight made it frightening to approach.
It was astonishing to see Mumu holding his own against Shin Ui-gyeom far better than expected.
Papapapapak!
‘What?’
Shin Ui-gyeom extended his left sword-finger seal.
Two more swords flew toward Mumu, who was facing the three swords infused with ki manifestation.
Kwang!
Mumu hurriedly leaped into the air.
Then he flicked his fingers repeatedly at the two incoming swords.
Papap!
The wind pressure from his finger flicks knocked both swords away.
He was suppressing Sword Kinesis like that.
‘Ha!’
The two observers let out exclamations.
Shin Ui-gyeom was extraordinary for demonstrating the highest realm of the sword, but Mumu was holding out against him well through one unexpected method after another.
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong asked in a serious voice.
“Vice-Master... how do you think this battle will end?”
“...To be honest, Mumu is at a disadvantage.”
“My thoughts are the same.”
Their reasoning was simple.
Shin Ui-gyeom had not yet properly used Sword Twelve. He had been wielding only three swords, and he had only just added two more.
That meant he was not truly fighting at full strength.
Even excluding the two broken swords, if he deployed the remaining five, he could pressure Mumu even further.
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu spoke with concern.
“Mumu is a monster too, but the Eastern River Sword Sage is a monster who is already nearly complete. A monster still growing cannot easily defeat a completed monster.”
‘If it were ten years later...’
There might have been a chance then, but not now.
That was how Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu saw it.
At that moment, Shin Ui-gyeom made a motion as if pulling both his left and right sword-finger seals.
Shushushushuk!
The five swords fiercely clashing with Mumu immediately withdrew.
They were not retreating to evade him.
As Shin Ui-gyeom crossed his hands and moved his sword-finger seals in all directions, every sword around him began moving at once.
‘Finally!’
‘All the swords!’
It was the sign that he was about to fight at full strength.
As ten swords moved at the same time, the air itself changed.
Chwachwachwachwachwachwachwachwachwa!
“Ah...”
The ten swords each drew a blue trail as they filled the space around Mumu.
A storm of sharp ki weapons began to rise.
It grew fiercer and fiercer, trapping Mumu in a vortex as it closed in.
‘Sword Heaven Downpour!’
‘To think we would see this again!’
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong and Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu could not look away.
They had seen it seventeen years ago.
It was one of the secret arts Shin Ui-gyeom, the Eastern River Sword Sage, had used against the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter.
They remembered seeing a small mountain peak swept away and reduced to ruins by that single absolute technique.
‘...How can a human body produce something like this?’
‘Calling him a monster is not enough.’
A blue vortex storm created by ten swords.
The storm of ki weapons alone was enough to inspire fear and terror.
‘Mumu!’
Could Mumu truly stop this?
It was no different from a natural disaster.
Shhk!
At that moment, Mumu, standing in the eye of the storm of ki weapons, raised his fist.
Shin Ui-gyeom stared intently at him.
‘How does he intend to stop this technique?’
Even the Four Immortal Masters had struggled greatly against Sword Heaven Downpour.
By now, the movement had become more refined and more powerful than before, making it difficult to block under ordinary circumstances.
Squeeze!
Mumu put strength into his raised fist.
The muscles in his arm began compressing tightly.
They twisted as though he were wringing out wet laundry.
Kwachik! Kwachik!
The ground around Mumu's feet cracked and sank inward.
‘He can contract his muscles to that extent?’
Shin Ui-gyeom's eyes narrowed.
Mumu's muscles already displayed strength close to physical strength beyond human limits.
If those muscles contracted and then relaxed like that, the result would produce explosive power.
‘So he had a hidden card.’
Shin Ui-gyeom's lips curved upward.
Then he spread both arms wide, the arms that had been constantly moving his sword-finger seals.
He crossed them toward Mumu.
Pak!
At that exact moment...
Papapapapapapapapapapang!
The storm of ki weapons around Mumu violently closed in.
As the vortex compressed, even the surrounding space seemed to ripple.
Then Mumu relaxed the muscles that had been twisted tight like a rope.
Paeaeaeeng!
His relaxing muscles unleashed a whirlwind.
Mumu slammed his fist down toward the ground.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
The moment his fist struck, the entire area shook violently as if an earthquake had hit.
The stone slabs of the plaza shattered, and the compressed force exploded outward as devastating shockwaves.
As the two powers collided...
Kwaduk! Kwaduk! Papapapapapapapak!
The buildings around the plaza could not withstand the impact and crumbled.
Even buildings within a radius of three hundred jang were not spared. Their walls cracked and their windows burst apart.
Chwarararararar!
“Urgh!”
“W-what power...”
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong and Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu were pushed back more than several dozen steps, their arms crossed before them.
They had watched from far away, yet the aftereffects of the collision surpassed imagination.
They had even raised Ki Armor to block it, but neither had expected to be pushed back this far by its force.
Shuuuuuuuu!
The two stared at the plaza, now clouded with smoke.
The impact had been so powerful that debris and dust made it impossible to see ahead.
Soon, though, the ruined plaza came into view.
“Hah...”
A sigh escaped them.
The plaza, capable of holding tens of thousands of people, had been destroyed so thoroughly that it barely resembled its former self.
Even a war would have left less devastation.
‘What happened?’
They widened their eyes and looked ahead.
Then a figure emerged through the dust.
‘Ah!’
It was none other than Shin Ui-gyeom, the Eastern River Sword Sage.
Perhaps he had spent a considerable amount of internal energy, for he was breathing lightly. Around him floated two cracked swords and four that remained mostly intact.
Since the other four swords were nowhere to be seen, they appeared to have been destroyed by the impact.
‘...What incredible physical strength.’
Shin Ui-gyeom clicked his tongue inwardly.
He had never expected muscles compressed to such an extreme degree to produce this kind of destructive force.
To think that after the Northern Heaven Fist Hero, another monster with such power in bare-handed combat had emerged.
Shin Ui-gyeom acknowledged Mumu.
At this moment, Mumu was the person closest to the Four Immortal Masters.
But...
‘He still has a long way to go.’
About ten jang away, as the dust cleared, Mumu was on one knee, clutching his right wrist and groaning.
He appeared to be injured.
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu noticed it as well and shook his head.
‘As expected.’
The difference in their levels was clear.
Just as they thought that...
“Uuuugh...”
Clank!
A crack appeared in the Ki-Restraining Bracelet on Mumu's right arm, which had become so hot that it glowed red.
Crackcrackcrack!
Then...
Kwachijik! Thud!
The Ki-Restraining Bracelet on Mumu's right arm split in half and shattered.
‘What?’
That was not the end.
The adjustment screws of the other three Ki-Restraining Bracelets, which had heated up just as much as the one on his right arm, spun wildly. They squealed for a moment, then...
Clang! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The three Ki-Restraining Bracelets released themselves.
As Mumu was freed from their restraints...
Koooooo! Crack! Crack!
The darkened color of Mumu's skin returned to normal. His muscles became even more refined and condensed, then returned to their original size.
Flinch!
Shin Ui-gyeom, the Eastern River Sword Sage, who had believed the outcome was decided, had his eyes shaken.
‘...What is this?’
Footnotes:
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