Chapter 45. Black Market (5)

“What nonsense have you been spouting since a while ago!”

With a slow voice, the Branch Leader shouted and thrust his blade.

At the same time, a trajectory was embroidered in the air, a path that could avoid the Branch Leader's trajectory and take his neck.

Yes.

All that was left for my stripped-bare self was to follow that trajectory.

A newborn baby with nothing.

Like a child who had just begun to take its first steps, stumbling as it chased its mother’s hand, I followed that sword path.

But it is a distant dream for a child to walk straight from the beginning.

Slice.

Every time I failed to follow it perfectly, wounds gradually accumulated on my body.

What a heartless mother she was.

To cut my body just because I was a little late in taking my first steps.

“You son of a Steel Sinew Sect Leader!!”

“You crazy bastard!!”

Right after hurling insults at each other.

Slice!

A cutting sound was heard from each of our forearms as blood flowed faintly.

It was a minor wound, but it meant that my sword had properly touched his body for the first time.

“Just a little more, and I think I can walk properly.”

The Branch Leader frowned once and then took a step back.

“Where are you going!”

I willingly came out of the corner and closed in on him.

Then, as if he had been waiting, he swung his blade.

It was not the thrusts from before, but a concise yet fast slash.

I was not flustered.

“Excellent!!”

It had become more dangerous, which was the situation I had been hoping for.

How long had I been clashing with the man who had started to freely mix thrusts and slashes?

The more I immersed myself in the trajectory I saw, a certain feeling that could not be described in words surged up.

It reached a point where even the stinging pain from the skin cut by the Branch Leader’s blade felt ecstatic.

Also, it was not just my sword that was visible in the slow world.

The trajectory drawn by his blade.

“Hahahaha. You’re just as pathetic!”

That trajectory, which I had been struggling to even dodge, was just as messy.

He had a lot of real battle experience, but it seemed he hadn't reached Sword Unification.

No, since he used a blade, it would be Blade Unification.

Rather, perhaps because he had a lot of real battle experience, the trajectory looked even messier.

Wielding a pathetic sword and clashing with a moron no less pathetic than myself, my spirits naturally soared.

Isn't it that a moron gets excited when they mingle with a similar fool?

I entrusted everything to that excitement.

Beyond the Branch Leader.

Screams and shouts raged from a place that felt close yet so far away.

It was the sound of Nam Geon fighting the guys related to the Black Market.

But from a certain moment, that sound no longer reached my ears.

“You. Cra! Zy! Bas! Tard-!”

The moron Branch Leader shouting in a slow voice.

The blade he wields.

And the correct path that my eyes show me, the one I must take.

These were all that existed in the world.

Drunk on excitement, how long had I been clashing, letting my skin be cut by his blade?

At some point.

In a sensation as if the world had stopped, a single line came into my eyes.

A straight trajectory that was truly like an ideal.

A single, perfect line, so perfect that just looking at it felt like it would blind me.

Like a sleepwalker, I was drawn to move my body along that trajectory.

I wanted to draw that line myself.

Soon after, another line was carved in the air.

The crooked trajectory of the moron Branch Leader intersects with that perfect trajectory.

If I continue like this, his blade and my sword will clash.

The sword might break, and my neck could be cut by his blade.

Smirk.

It didn’t matter.

If I could just draw that perfect line myself even once in my entire life, I felt I wouldn't regret dying.

I thrust my sword without a moment's hesitation.

Accordingly, the internal energy remaining in my Dantian exited all at once and headed towards my acupoints.

Was it because there were no obstacles?

The internal energy galloped through my acupoints like a thousand-li horse.

The internal energy, which started from the Dantian and ran through my entire body, reached the hand holding the sword.

Was it because the horse with its reins released had nothing to fear?

The remaining internal energy, as if the sword were a part of my body, exited my palm and surged towards the sword.

Soon after, my sword and the Branch Leader’s blade clashed.

Clang!!!

That clear friction sound awakened my mind, which had been intoxicated by the ideal.

For just a moment, I saw it clearly.

The haze-like energy that had formed on my sword.

Sword Qi.

A skill that was called the symbol of a Peak Realm master, which I had never been able to perform in my life.

Soon after, a ghastly sensation was felt at my fingertips through the sword that had withstood his blade qi.

Crack.

The sensation of piercing his heart, which was at the end of the perfect line.

As I blankly stared at the sword blade from which the sword qi had formed and vanished like a mirage.

The Branch Leader’s voice pierced my ears.

“Peak Realm……. You. You hid your skills……. Cough.”

The Branch Leader, whose heart had been pierced, coughed up a handful of blood and collapsed just like that.

It was a pathetic last word and nonsense, befitting of trash.

“It’s not Peak Realm, but Sword Unification. Trash.”

Yes.

It vanished like a mirage, but I knew instinctively.

That was Sword Unification.

For a brief moment, I had felt the ecstatic sensation of my body and sword being connected as one.

For a moment, I just blankly looked back and forth between the hole in his heart and the heavily chipped sword blade.

Belatedly, I realized one important fact.

“Tsk. I should have kept him alive.”

I should have tortured the Branch Leader to get information about the Golden Demon Hyeok Ilso.

But I couldn't just keep regretting.

Bang!!

“Huaaaah!”

Beyond the Branch Leader’s corpse, from the direction of the tea shop entrance, the sound of something exploding and Nam Geon’s shout were heard.

Along with the screams of the trash.

“Well, if I beat up the rest of the trash, something will probably come out.”

Leaving the scattered corpse of the Branch Leader behind, I threw my body to help Nam Geon.

I could see an underworld figure, who had struck Nam Geon’s iron-like body with a palm technique, whining in pain as his own palm hurt in return.

Slice!

To remove the source of the pain, I willingly cut off that guy's arm.

“Kuaaaack!”

Leaving the underworld figure’s thanks behind, I shouted to Nam Geon.

“Subdue them alive, Nam Geon! I have things to ask these guys.”

At my shout, Nam Geon replied with a troubled expression.

“H-how do I keep them alive, brother?”

To think he hadn't even considered leaving the trash alive.

Nam Geon also had the qualities of an excellent cleaner.

“I-I can’t control my strength.”

“Then aim for their arms or legs with all your might!”

“Ah! A-as expected, brother is smart!”

Soon after, Nam Geon switched his job from a skull crusher to a limb dismantler.

Slice.

After neatly cutting off the leg of one underworld figure below the knee.

I glanced to the side.

Crack.

With a ghastly noise, the two legs of one underworld figure were crushed and torn off.

“Hmm. Was I too kind?”

Looking at Nam Geon, my neat method seemed angelic.

After that, after subduing the rest of the remnants with Nam Geon for a while.

“P-please spare me. P-please.”

The few who were relatively unharmed threw down their weapons and knelt, and the few whose arms or legs were cut or crushed lay on the ground, screaming and groaning.

“Hoo.”

As I let out a light sigh, Nam Geon looked at me with a worried expression.

“B-brother. Are you going to collapse again?”

“Don’t worry. The injuries aren’t as serious as last time.”

There were many cut or stab wounds, but most of them were shallow.

As I tore my already half-ragged clothes to stop the bleeding, Nam Geon asked.

“B-but brother. W-why did you look for our mom?”

“Mom?”

“I-I heard you earlier. C-calling him Steel Sinew Sect Leader.”

“Ah……”

When I was engrossed in the fight.

I remembered the words I had spouted as they came to mind.

“It’s nothing.”

After answering appropriately, I asked the trash who were watching me cautiously.

“Where is Hyeok Ilso?”

“W-who is Hyeok Ilso?”

It seemed they had no intention of responding to the conversation yet.

I willingly broke their intact fingers or toes and continued to ask.

However, the answers that came back were more or less the same.

“Kuaaaack!! I-I really don’t know!!”

“P-please!! A-ask something else.”

They cried and begged, but they insisted they didn’t know until the end.

Seeing this reaction even after interrogating several at the same time, it seemed to be the truth.

However, even with just this, I could infer the minimum amount of information.

The Branch Leader knew of Hyeok Ilso's existence, but the underlings did not.

In other words, it meant that only the executive level within the faction they belonged to knew.

Then, I just had to go to someone who might know Hyeok Ilso.

“Where is the other Black Market?”

The Branch Leader there was highly likely to know about Hyeok Ilso.

***

After finishing the interrogation and cleaning up all the trash.

I bought some medicinal herbs good for stopping bleeding and treating inflammation, and some clean cloth from the pharmacy in Zunyi, then returned to the inn.

After treating my wounds appropriately, the sky had already grown dark.

After finishing my meal.

I returned to the room, closed my eyes, and calmly organized my memories.

The final sword strike that killed the Branch Leader.

That was definitely Sword Unification.

Realizing that, I could understand the true meaning behind the words of that old sword tiger.

Why he called a Peak Realm master who had not reached Sword Unification a half-wit.

Sword Unification was not something like the next stage after the Peak Realm.

It was a separate realm.

If I had to categorize it, the Peak Realm was a realm related to internal energy, and Sword Unification was literally a realm related to sword arts.

A Peak Realm master who had opened the Ren and Du meridians had a much smoother circulation of internal energy, and the internal energy contained in their Dantian was also vast.

Thanks to that, they could forcibly pour internal energy into the sword to form sword qi.

On the other hand, Sword Unification was literally a realm where one could handle the sword completely as if it were their own body.

Because of that, they could naturally channel internal energy into the sword.

Then, why was it that only stories about the Peak Realm were widely known in Jianghu?

Was it because I had touched upon Sword Unification for just a moment?

I felt I could vaguely understand the reason.

It was because between Sword Unification and the Peak Realm, Sword Unification was the more difficult realm to reach.

The realm of the Peak Realm was simply a matter of successfully accumulating a gapja of internal energy.

Except for the risk of dying or becoming a cripple by falling into qi deviation while opening the Ren and Du meridians.

In the end, it was a realm that could be reached if one could consistently accumulate internal energy with a righteous energy, or if one was lucky enough to obtain a spirit herb.

On the other hand, what about Sword Unification?

A realm where one could perfectly handle a blade, which was not strictly a part of the body, as if it were their own.

A realm where the blade felt like a part of the body.

It was literally a realm no different from a mental illness.

It was to the point where one could feel an obsession and madness for the sword.

It was also a realm that those called geniuses could reach at the end of arduous efforts.

I had merely tasted a glimpse of it with the help of these eyes.

Could a mediocre person like me fully enter Sword Unification?

As soon as that question arose, a faint smile formed.

A genius would have completely entered Sword Unification with one experience today, but I was not.

But it didn't matter.

A genius has the way of a genius.

A mediocre person has the way of a mediocre person.

A mediocre person just had to do what a genius succeeds at in one try after repeating it a hundred, a thousand times.

Would the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain enlightenment come again a hundred, a thousand times?

For others, it would not.

But, I had these eyes.

Yes.

I just had to be able to enter that same world again.

Through a fight with a master.

And this was what I wanted.

Anyway, I got a clue about another Black Market through today’s interrogation.

In the process of chasing the Golden Demon Hyeok Ilso and raiding the Black Markets, I would surely continue to encounter masters like the Branch Leader I met today.

“Killing two birds with one stone.”

Find and kill the trash managing the Black Market.

If I could achieve Sword Unification with the help of my eyes in the process?

“Ah. It's not two birds, but three.”

If I reach a higher realm, I will be able to kill even stronger trash.

I got up and opened the window.

A half-hearted crescent moon, not yet a half-moon, was illuminating the world.

For some reason, that sight looked so beautiful.

To the point where I wanted to quickly find the next Black Market and kill a new underworld master.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.