Chapter 62 : True Crushing Defeat (2)

Seori Hyeonggae’s killing intent was immediately transmitted to Ah Geol.

‘Hmm!’

Ah Geol groaned inwardly.

Although he had told Mongseol that he could get her body out, it was really difficult. Escaping from a Single-Instant Sect martial artist was as difficult as going to the afterlife and coming back alive.

Seori Hyeonggae harbored killing intent.

He also had to have killing intent.

If you thought of running away, you would be hit. It was hard to pull your body out because you wanted to run away, but if you thought like that, you would be even less able to fight. Even if it didn’t work, you had to fight with the mindset of seeing the outcome here.

Pat!

A deep green light flowed from Ah Geol’s eyes.

It was the eye of a wild dog. The eye that was about to rush in, aiming for its prey, the eye of certain death that was determined to eat it.

“Even if I ask you this and that, you won’t answer. Then shall we see your skills?”

Swish!

Seori Hyeonggae raised his blade.

He flicked the tip of his blade. It was a signal to attack.

Ah Geol did not attack. He held the half-iron blade with both hands, held the blade close to his chest, and half-opened his eyes.

It was defense rather than attack.

Seori Hyeonggae’s Three Blades One Kill was a waterfall blade that burst out while rushing in very roughly. If you were swept away by the waterfall, you would die without fail. But if you could get out of the waterfall, wouldn’t you be able to counterattack?

So far, only one person had escaped the waterfall, and that was his master.

Ah Geol thought of his master’s blade.

At the middle peak, his master had not launched a preemptive attack. He had waited until his disciples rushed in. And in one blow, he had knocked down both disciples.

That one blow, he remembered.

The weakness of the waterfall blade was in the stomach. You had to deflect the waterfall and strike the stomach.

Swoooosh!

He slightly extended his left foot forward.

If the waterfall rushed in, he would receive it with his left shoulder and back, and strike the abdomen with the blade in his right hand.

“Huhu! You, were you really at the middle peak? Where were you hiding? You would have been just a kid back then, but you remember this stance until now? Huhu! This… I also have a grudge.”

Seori Hyeonggae also thought of his master in Ah Geol’s appearance.

“Let’s do it!”

Seori Hyeonggae started to run.

The distance between the two was only five zhang. If he executed a movement technique, he could close it in one breath.

So Seori Hyeonggae did not attack directly, but circled around Ah Geol. He executed a movement technique and began to rotate around him very quickly. Faster and faster, faster.

If he had simply intended to attack Ah Geol, he would not have taken this method. In fact, it didn’t make sense for a martial artist of Seori Hyeonggae’s level to circle around because he couldn’t attack Ah Geol.

He was circling around after seeing Ah Geol’s starting stance.

The starting stance that Ah Geol had taken was similar to the starting stance that his master had taken at the middle peak. And at that time, the waterfall sword had collapsed and his stomach had been cut. It was the same starting stance as that time.

“Taat!”

He floated his body up as if he were attacking his master.

In that instant, his blade split into exactly three. The two on the left and right came attacking very quickly. The blade in the middle followed a breath later.

Seori Hyeonggae had executed the Three Blades.

It was not the Three Blades that he had executed with a light heart until now, but the true ultimate technique, the Three Blades, executed with all his might.

He had to dodge these Three Blades.

Simply dodging was meaningless. He had to cut the abdomen while dodging the Three Blades.

The half-iron blade shot out from Ah Geol’s hand.

The Eyeless was looking at Seori Hyeonggae’s abdomen. It did not see the Three Blades that were coming, aiming for him. He would receive Seori Hyeonggae’s blade with his body. And he would also strike the abdomen. But,

Suddenly, the sound of a leather drum bursting came from his side.

‘I’m hit!’

It was an intuition.

There was no pain. No, in a little while, a truly unbearable pain would rush in. Right now, at this moment… at the moment he was hit by the blade, there was no feeling at all.

The half-iron blade stirred the empty air. It was a miss.

“Kuk!”

Ah Geol let out a belated scream.

Now the pain rushed in. It felt as if a chunk of flesh from his side had been torn off. Should I say that it felt as if his side had been completely pierced and his intestines were pouring out?

He fixed his grip on the half-iron blade without even having time to look at his wound.

Where had he gone wrong? He had definitely aimed for the stomach with the Eyeless. He had found an opening, and he had attacked. But why had he hit the empty air? He had been prepared to be hit by the Three Blades. Although he had dodged, if he couldn’t dodge completely, there was nothing he could do.

Why? Why couldn’t he hit the stomach?

“Huhu! As expected. I thought it would be this level of martial arts. You’re very strange right now, right? You’re confused, right? Why couldn’t you cut the stomach? You didn’t even see him dodge.”

Seori Hyeonggae spoke in detail, as if a senior brother were giving martial arts guidance to a junior brother.

‘Body Protecting Blade.’

Ah Geol thought of the Single-Instant Blade of the twenty-fifth Single-Instant Sect Master.

The twenty-fifth Single-Instant Sect Master was thought to be among the strongest of the thirty-six Single-Instant Sect Masters.

He was so strong that he did not use a blade.

He only used a blade when there was a target worthy of him using his blade, but all the martial artists he had encountered were not worthy targets. They were all opponents whose superiority and inferiority were revealed before he even drew his blade.

So he did not use a blade.

But fights would break out. The opponent would rush in tenaciously, determined to kill the Single-Instant Sect Master.

The blade art he had executed at that time was the Body Protecting Blade.

If you interpreted the meaning of the words, it meant a blade that protected the body. And it was actually so. Although the Single-Instant Sect Master had drawn his blade, he had not cut his opponent. He had only used it to protect his own body.

The opponent had attacked dozens of times, but had eventually realized his inferiority and had retreated.

That’s right. The twenty-fifth Single-Instant Sect Master had not killed his opponent. The unwritten rule that the Single-Instant Blade must kill the opponent had not been observed by the twenty-fifth.

The reason why you had to kill your sparring partner was to prevent secrets from leaking. If it became known what the Single-Instant Blade was, a way to counter it would also be created. If you met again, you could be faced with a counter-method.

It was to block that part completely.

There were no secrets in the Body Protecting Blade. Since he had only blocked the attacking weapon, he had not executed any special forms. There were no forms that could be called secret, insidious, or fatal.

This was the Body Protecting Blade known to the world, but the Body Protecting Blade that Ah Geol knew was different.

His master had executed the Body protecting Blade by breaking it down into forms. He had swung the blade around his body, and it had a total of three hundred and sixty moves. It meant that the blade had three hundred and sixty paths.

When you could perfectly execute the three hundred and sixty moves, the blade would protect your body like an iron fortress.

Ah Geol held the half-iron blade with both hands.

One hand held the hilt, and the other hand held the blade.

It was the starting stance of the Body Protecting Blade. Of course, it didn’t look like a starting stance. You couldn’t just pass by it either. The way he held the blade was so unique that it aroused the curiosity of ‘he’s holding the blade strangely. What is it?’.

“What are you doing?”

Seori Hyeonggae asked.

It seemed that Seori Hyeonggae also did not know the Body Protecting Blade. No, in fact, he did not know the other Single-Instant Blades either. He had only heard about the martial arts of the previous Single-Instant Sect Masters through his master’s mouth.

Ah Geol was the first and the last person to whom he had demonstrated the Single-Instant Blade directly.

Although his master had shown him all the Single-Instant Blades, he probably had not expected that all thirty-six Single-Instant Blades would be remembered in one person’s head. Since Ah Geol had been so young.

There is also this kind of blade. Refer to it and create your own Single-Instant Blade. At least it has to be this level of blade to be called a Single-Instant Blade.

Wasn’t that the meaning of his master demonstrating the Single-Instant Blade?

“You seem to know all the previous Single-Instant Blades… how do you know? Did your master pass them on to you?”

“…”

“You can tell me this much, right?”

“…”

“Alright. Then go quickly. I should also go down quickly and take a bath in warm water. My body is stiff after spending the night in the mountains. Oh! A word of advice. From now on, use your own Single-Instant Blade. The previous Single-Instant Blades are clothes that don’t fit you. They’re too big or too small.”

“…”

Ah Geol did not answer.

In fact, he had no strength to answer. All his body’s true energy was concentrated on the half-iron blade. If he opened his mouth to speak, the tightly gathered true energy would scatter in an instant.

Swish! Swish!

Seori Hyeonggae walked towards Ah Geol.

He did not execute a movement technique and gallop like before. He had no intention of circling around his body either. The confidence that he could kill Ah Geol by just lightly moving his hand was overflowing from his entire body.

Ah Geol did not move a muscle, holding his blade.

The Three Blades flew. At first, the blade had split into three, but now it was stretched out in front and behind. It was true that there were three blades, but the three blades struck down sequentially.

The half-iron blade could only block one blade.

The second blade would split the half-iron blade. The third blade would squeeze through the split gap and split his chest.

Ah Geol swung the half-iron blade.

The Three Blades did not clash head-on. Instead, it struck the side of the Three Blades. Although it was not a strong push, the direction was sufficiently changed.

The Three Blades burst.

One blade fell on his right shoulder.

Ah Geol could not see where the other two blades of the Three Blades had flowed. He had missed them.

Another blade swept his back, and another blade came around to the front and swept past his chest.

“Hook!”

Ah Geol let out a rough breath and staggered back.

His entire body was stained with blood. The blood that had poured out from his shoulder, back, chest, and side flowed like rainwater.

Even if he didn’t die from the blade, he was on the verge of dying from excessive bleeding.

The wound was so large and wide that it was impossible to stop the bleeding by pressing on the blood vessels. There was also a limit to applying a wound medicine. To be honest, with a wound of this extent, no doctor would dare to treat it.

Seori Hyeonggae said with a laugh, “Did you enjoy it enough?”

“Not yet… the blade is surprisingly… dull.”

Ah Geol said with difficulty.

Right now, it was difficult for him to even stand. The wound was so severe that his two legs were trembling. Due to the heavy loss of blood, his mind was hazy, and his body was burning up.

Still, he said it while maintaining his composure.

There was still one more blade left. The last blade would take his life.

There was a reason why Seori Hyeonggae had not taken his life in one stroke.

He was exploring Ah Geol’s identity. In the process of killing Ah Geol, he was guessing through what path Ah Geol had learned the Single-Instant Blade. He was also analyzing the Single-Instant Blade that Ah Geol used.

Everything was helpful to him.

Currently, Seori Hyeonggae had no opponent to test his martial arts on. There was no one who could even block his Three Blades One Kill with their body. Although Ah Geol was collapsing helplessly, he was still holding on quite well compared to other martial artists.

These points made him take out a bit of his strength at the last moment.

Ah Geol would die anyway. He couldn’t get out. So he would test the Three Blades One Kill as much as possible.

But that was also the last.

Ah Geol was already half-dead. He was no longer a target to test the Three Blades One Kill on. Because he was on the verge of death, he would not be able to block even an ordinary blade art, let alone the Three Blades One Kill.

So the next blade would be a blade that took his life.

Suddenly, Ah Geol thought of his master. He also thought of Grandpa.

‘Hoo… I told you it wouldn’t work. These guys are ghosts. How can you tell me to fight a ghost with just a little bit of blade swinging? That’s why it’s like this.’

He grumbled to Grandpa.

The techniques that had worked on Dongbak were all blocked. Even the Body Protecting Blade of the twenty-fifth Single-Instant Sect Master was blocked. Even though he had executed the forms properly, he had been hit roughly as if he had done nothing.

The problem was that he had been hit accurately by the Three Blades, but he didn’t even know how he had been hit.

The difference in skill was so wide.

Although he had also fought with the Ten Lesser Swords, they were no match for Seori Hyeonggae. With this level of martial arts, he could easily handle the Ten Lesser Swords. Except for Duke Heo Dogi, he was the strongest.

‘If even the Body Protecting Blade doesn’t work… there’s no way…’

Ah Geol looked at Seori Hyeonggae with gloomy eyes.

He was raising his blade. He was raising it slowly, as if to show Ah Geol. He was saying that this was the last blade.

(End of Chapter)