Chapter 103 – Trial of the Movie Spirit (9)

This swordsmanship is not compatible with me in many ways.

It’s difficult to follow the constantly changing trajectory with the Samjae swordsmanship, and even trying to respond by memorizing the patterns like I did with the Gwoseung, it was useless because it was flexible and changed depending on the situation.

I can endure the pain. It’s not as painful as being poisoned, so I can endure this no matter how many times it happens.

The problem is that I couldn’t properly counterattack until my clothes were torn and there were more cuts than intact areas.

I’ve clashed swords many times, but I’ve never broken through the prince’s sword with my attacks.

When I thought there was a gap and tried to strike deeper, his sword suddenly bent and blocked my sword, leaving a cut on my arm.

If I had gone deeper with the intention of sacrificing flesh and taking bones, I would have had a cut on my neck instead of my arm.

Even though they are the same patterns, they always change differently, so I can never get used to it.

I even wonder if there will be any changes even if I regress and try again.

How… how can I…

My head became hazy due to the excessive bleeding. Inside it, the half-broken survival instinct warned me of the direction of life, experiencing repeated deaths.

Muryeongsingong is a martial art of the mind.

As long as the pillar of determination that supports my body does not break, I will not collapse.

And as long as I don’t give up, my determination will never break.

I haven’t given up yet. But is this just a opponent that I can’t do anything about just by not giving up?

There must be a way…

Suddenly, a very old memory came to mind.

It was a trivial memory that I wouldn’t have remembered if I hadn’t been reviewing my memories related to swords while holding the sword in my imagination.

When I realized that I had no talent in my childhood and was discouraged, my teacher patted my shoulder and said something.

“There is a saying that there is no perfect swordsmanship in the world.”

“I’ve never heard of it, but it sounds plausible.”

“Aigoo! It’s not just plausible, it’s true. After all, it’s a person who wields the sword, so where in the world can there be a perfect person?”

“Uh… I see. But why are you suddenly talking about this…?”

“Think about it, Sochan. If you put it differently, can’t we say that if the person wielding the sword is strong, the swordsmanship also becomes strong?”

After saying that, my teacher started to create Muryeongsingong from the next day.

In fact, I have been able to win overwhelmingly with Muryeongsingong until now, so my teacher’s words were not nonsense.

“Right. There is no perfect swordsmanship in the world. Maybe there is, but the person wielding the sword can never be perfect.”

As I thought about it, the fog in my mind began to clear.

Beyond my clear vision, the plum blossoms bloomed, soaked in my blood.

It was a useless sword that I couldn’t block and wouldn’t kill me even if it hit me. I pretended to block and used all my remaining energy to strike back.

“….!”

My eyes burned with pain. The world slowed down as if it was a price to pay.

Sometimes, a sword breaks under the pressure of a sword strike, just like a human body.

I tried to ignore the warning from my body that it was too much. Then I opened my eyes in the slow world.

The prince’s sword, which had been moving so complexly, was now starting to become visible.

Of course, it was still impossible to find a gap, but that didn’t matter. After all, what I wanted to see was not the sword, but the prince himself.

I watched every movement of the prince. His breathing, blinking, muscle twitching, and so on.

And I discovered something.

It was something that was so obvious that I should have realized it sooner. No matter how amazing the changes were, it was ultimately a skill that one person created with one sword.

So there was no reason why I couldn’t face him with the same sword.

I shouldn’t doubt myself or my sword.

My heart, which had been shaking back and forth following the fluttering plum blossoms in front of my eyes, finally stopped in its place. I was no longer swept away by the life around me.

Instead, my concentration expanded abnormally, only focusing on my consciousness.

A moment was split into pieces.

I saw the side of the prince’s sword and the trajectory of the line that made up that side.

…And then I felt the gaze of the prince scanning my body, trying to find a weakness.

Now was the time.

I tightly gripped the sword in my imagination. At the same time, I also tightly gripped the real sword.

Then, the dull sword in my imagination, which had only the characteristic of a sword, transformed into the same shape as the sword I inherited from my master.

I instinctively realized it.

Holding the sword in my imagination, my body moved as I thought. And now, the sword would do the same.

“Hup!”

I swallowed my breath and straightened my sword.

A whirlwind of eight directions.

Just like no one can avoid being soaked in a storm that rages from all directions, this was an unavoidable blow. I would make it so.

The prince’s wrist bent, and his consciousness momentarily turned to another place.

I pierced through all his defenses and slipped a single drop of rain between them.

The startled prince hurriedly bent his wrist in the opposite direction to block my sword, but…

“The blade is not yet complete, and the speed at which the point of the sword touches is too fast for a single point to penetrate.”

“Cough!”

The guy with the sword in his heart coughed up blood. Then, he looked at the sword in his chest with a bewildered expression and asked, “What is the name of this sword?”

“Samjae Swordsmanship. The last move is the Eight Directions Wind and Rain.”

“Stop lying! How could I, a practitioner of the Hwasan Swordsmanship, lose to the likes of Samjae Swordsmanship…!”

I told him the truth, but he had a seizure, so I twisted the sword to the side first. The feeling of my heart being completely torn apart from my fingertips.

The guy who was acting tough gradually slowed down and finally looked at me.

“Ah… is that so… this damn sword…?”

Those were the last words of the completely unfocused Shin Murim Prince.

When I pulled the sword out of his body, blood poured out like a fountain. I didn’t have the energy to move quickly, so I just flipped the bloody sword and shook it.

“It’s called the Samjae Sword Dragon, but what’s the point of the Sword Demon?”

As I muttered, wiping the blood off the sword, I felt something behind me and turned around.

Was he trying to hit me in the back of the head while I was tired? There was an enemy approaching stealthily.

The guy who met my eyes hesitated for a moment, then turned blue as if he had seen a monster.

No, he even threw away the sword he was holding and ran away.

What the hell…?

I stared blankly at his back, and suddenly something shiny caught my eye.

It was the sword that the guy had thrown away earlier. A sword that sparkled like new, as I had never swung it before.

And what was reflected on its surface was… the sight of a crazy man with blood all over his armor, only his pupils shining brightly.

…Well, whatever. I’m in a state where I can’t fully recover even with the Muryeong Divine Art.

The remaining enemies are at best first-class, but if they see me like this, they’ll be scared.

I smirked and looked around.

There’s no way to escape from here. I know that better than anyone.

***

The last person who threw himself into the forest path where all kinds of traps were laid out.

He couldn’t even take a few steps and began to stumble in place.

Was that how it looked from the outside?

Without getting too close, I picked up a sword that had fallen to the ground and threw it.

As the last person’s life was cut off, I felt the tent-like thing that was wrapping around me dissipate into the air.

It seems like it was a formation that could be maintained even if only one person was left alive. Come to think of it, it was made by Jegal Se-ga, but I couldn’t find anyone who looked like they were from Jegal Se-ga’s lineage.

Did he not come to this place, or did he run away quickly when the situation turned against him?

Anyway, what’s certain is that the formation that was assumed to have the effect of suppressing the dimensional portal has been released.

I stumbled towards the center of the area. To the place where I always returned when I died.

Not long after, a huge energy swirled and gathered, and light began to form the shape of a door. Perhaps someone is opening the door over there.

As I expected, what I saw beyond the completed dimensional portal was the scenery where I threw Hong Yeon-hwa and Paeng So-so.

I put the sword that I had never put down before into the portal. Then, I wiped my face with my sleeve and straightened my clothes.

And as I took a step forward, trying to hold back the overwhelming feeling…

“You! You finally woke up.”

“Jin Ga-ga! Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

Suddenly, Hong Yeon-hwa and Paeng So-so were hugging me from both sides. What’s going on?

Come to think of it, the scenery seems a bit different now.

But most of all…

“Waking up? What are you talking about?”

This… could it be?