Chapter 1667
There, too… a future exists. (2)
Thud!
On a steep slope, the swordsmen of Wudang, dressed in black and white uniforms, darted like flying squirrels.
“There they are!”
“Cut them all down!”
Swish!
Swords, tinged red by the setting sun, were launched at the bodies of the enemies climbing the slope.
“Aaargh!”
Sapaeryeon’s warriors, their bodies scorched and distorted, screamed as they swung their blades at the incoming swords. Their fierce momentum suggested they could easily break the seemingly insignificant thin swords with a single strike.
In truth, iron swords that cut through the air without even a common aura might be fearsome weapons to ordinary people, but to those trained in martial arts, they were just iron sticks that posed no real threat.
Thus, the confidence of Sapaeryeon was not unfounded.
Whoosh!
Especially since their blades, cutting through the wind, weighed fifty geun, Sapaeryeon’s warriors were convinced their weapons could easily slice through the delicate iron swords.
“I’ll show you what real power is, you scholarly weaklings!”
This strong confidence was perhaps a result of their extensive experience.
They had already humiliated Wudang at the Yangtze River. Even here, on Mount Wudang, which could be considered the home of Wudang, they were pushing the pitiful Taoist monks into a corner, leaving them unable to make a move.
In the past, the mere mention of Wudang might have made them tremble, but not anymore. Having already erased Qingcheng and Emei and defeated Shaolin, Paeng and Kongtong, the name of Wudang no longer instilled fear in the members of Sapaeryeon as it once did.
They believed they could face them. They could easily defeat them.
The members of Sapaeryeon held this belief. Their past experiences proved this to be true.
The disruption to their firm conviction occurred the moment the swords and heavy blades clashed. A sharp, grating sound pierced their ears.
Clang!
‘Huh?’
In that fleeting moment of the weapons’ collision, Sapaeryeon’s warrior sensed something was wrong. The sound was unusual. Even if there was no aura in the sword, it didn’t make sense for a sound like iron being scraped by a needle to occur when a sword and a heavy blade, both made of metal, collided at such speed.
‘What…?’
The next thing he noticed was the odd movement of his blade. The blade, which should have shattered the thin sword and immediately embedded itself in the Taoist’s body, was veering off in an unusual direction beyond his control.
What was even stranger was that the man holding the blade didn’t feel like he was twisting it at all.
He was still gripping the handle, but he couldn’t move it in the desired direction. Instead, it was cutting through empty air as if he had intended to swing it that way from the beginning.
Such bizarre sights unfolded one after another before his eyes.
‘H-how..?’
But Sapaeryeon’s warrior couldn’t continue his thoughts any further. With a sharp sword flying toward his neck, there was no way he could think of a way to evade it.
“A g-ghost…”
The sword wasn’t even that fast. It sliced through his neck smoothly and cleanly. It was a gentle movement with no haste, yet it left no room for evasion.
Swish!
If it weren’t for the chilling sensation felt on his neck, he wouldn’t have believed that the sword harbored any killing intent.
The sword strike was as light and smooth as a leaf brushing by, but the outcome was devastating.
The enemy crumpled helplessly on the spot, unable to let out a groan. Even in that moment, he didn’t understand what had happened to him.
This was different from the ‘strength’ they knew. Like a thunderstorm raging, thunder tearing the sky, or a massive earthquake splitting a mountain. The pinnacle of swordsmanship was supposed to embody such power.
But the swordsmanship demonstrated by Wudang swordsman was far more terrifying and superior than any pinnacle sword strike filled with such raw power.
‘Th-this is Wudang..’
In his final moment, Sapaeryeon’s warrior finally understood. He was up against the sword of Wudang that commanded the world.
Overcoming strength with gentleness [能柔制强]. This is the essence of Wudang’s sword and the secret behind Wudang’s fame as the best swordmen in the world.
Swish! Swish!
The same thing happened all around. The smooth swords, like flowing water, brushed past the bodies of Sapaeryeon’s warriors who had relentlessly climbed the cliff, swinging their fearsome weapons.
“Ugh!”
“Aaaargh!”
Namgung Clan subdues the world with domination [패(霸)], and Hwasan toys with it through constant change [환(換)]. But Wudang is simply softness [유(柔)], coexisting with the world through its infinite gentleness.
“You bastards…!”
One of Sapaeryeon’s warriors gritted his teeth and swung his blade at the neck of Wudang swordsman in a fit of rage. But immediately, the Wudang’s flexible Pine Crest Sword rushed toward the blade.
Tap!
The sword, barely touching the blade like a butterfly in spring, lightly tapped the side of the blade.
A complete circle [원(圓)] formed. The softly maneuvering Pine Crest Sword drew endless circles in the air, pushing, pulling, and caressing.
As countless forces of attraction and repulsion intersected in a brief moment, the direction of the blade suddenly reversed.
“What!”
The heavy blade, which had been thrusting like lightning, maintained its full force and speed but flew in the opposite direction. The owner of the blade widened his eyes in disbelief, twisting his neck violently to avoid it.
Swish!
His cherished weapon sliced halfway through his neck.
As blood gushed from his neck, the Wudang’s Pine Crest Sword flew in.
“No, it can’t be…”
Snap!
With a noise like snapping a light string, the sword of Wudang, engraved with a pine crest, pierced through the man’s neck.
Before he could even feel the cold metal fully embedded in his neck, his breath ceased, and his lifeless body slumped to the ground.
“You scoundrel!”
Sapaeryeon’s warriors shouted roughly as they charged at Wudang swordsmen. They aimed to stab their weapons into the bodies of those wielding these ghostly swords before they could pull them out.
But at that moment.
Thud!
With a sound like striking a leather drum, the pierced body was launched toward them like a cannonball.
“Gah!”
They gasped as the corpse flew towards them.
They were astonished by the lack of intermediate steps. Normally, launching a body would involve grabbing it and swinging it with force, but just now, the process was so swift that it seemed as if the body alone had crossed the space to appear in front of them.
‘Should we cut it down?’
This caused a brief delay in their judgment.
And Wudang’s sword did not miss this fleeting moment.
Crack!
Finally, a sword flew past the corpse and swept down like a willow leaf in the spring breeze, gently piercing through the heart of the enemy.
“Urgh…”
As the sword lodged in his heart, Sapaeryeon’s warrior quickly dropped his blade and gripped the sword with all his might.
Thick blood dripped from his mouth, but his eyes blazed with fierce determination. That fierce willpower gave his mortally wounded body a final burst of strength.
“Dieeeeeee!”
Taking advantage of this moment, a nearby warrior of Sapaeryeon swung his blade with all his might at the head of Wudang swordsman.
Boom!
The force of the swing was so tremendous that the grass flattened and sand whipped up from the ground. It was easy to imagine what would happen to a human head made of flesh and blood.
But instead of recklessly blocking with his sword, Wudang swordsman calmly raised his empty left hand. It seemed as futile as a mantis lifting its forelegs before a charging cart.
At that moment.
Swirl.
Wudang swordsman’s hand drew a small circle in the air.
A continuous, unbroken tension that seemed on the verge of snapping but never did. It created an overlapping spiral pattern before the incoming heavy blade.
With each rotation and dissolution of a circle, the fearsome blade energy clinging to the weapon gradually diminished. Of course, the circle drawn in the air also faltered, but as one circle faded, another arose, creating an endless sequence.
Thus, when the blade finally reached Wudang swordsman’s head, not a trace of the blade energy that had enveloped it remained.
Тар.
At that moment, the calm hand effortlessly grasped the blade.
The warrior of Sapaeryeon, lost for words at the astonishing sight he could hardly believe, stood stunned.
Thud!
Moments later, his body spun in the air and crashed miserably to the ground. As his back hit the earth, blood gushed from his seven orifices.
Death.
It was an inevitable conclusion.
A simple twist of the wrist, gripping the blade, ended the life of a member of the Evil Sect who had survived countless battlefields and reigned like a god of death for decades.
Seeing this, Sapaeryeon’s warriors, who had charged with terrifying momentum, hesitated and began to warily watch the swordsman.
Those climbing the slope behind them also halted their cries, sensing the tense atmosphere and slowly closed their mouths.
Sigh.
Wudang swordsman let out a short sigh.
He withdrew the sword that was still embedded in the enemy’s heart and gently shook it to remove the blood. His gaze towards Sapaeryeon’s warriors was equally calm.
“It seems l’ve been underestimated. Did Wudang’s martial arts seem so trivial to you?”
The sword embodies gentleness.
The hand embodies unyielding will.
Flowing water may seem as if it could be cut off at any moment, but it flows endlessly.
Sometimes it holds the gentleness of a child’s hand, and sometimes it possesses the power to twist a mountain – that is water.
Wudang’s martial arts merely strive to emulate the water.
“What are you doing! Attack!”
Sapaeryeon’s warriors, belatedly coming to their senses, shouted even more fiercely than before.
It wasn’t because they were angry over their comrade’s death or because they had a hot temper.
It was because they felt themselves shrinking. They shouted instinctively to bolster their own courage and urge their companions to action, knowing from experience that once caught in the flow, they would taste hell.
“Kill them all!”
In the face of such desperate fury, Wudang swordsman remained composed.
“No one will pass this point.”
The one embodying the flow of water, Jin Hyeon of Wudang, aimed his sword at Sapaeryeon.
“This is not the Yangtze River but Wudang. Let me make that clear to you.”
The Pine Crest Sword resonated as if echoing his words.
“What are you babbling about!”
A slight, yet merciless smile appeared on Jin Hyeon’s lips.
“And know this: today, you are the ones being hunted here.”
Swoosh!
At that moment, someone behind Jin Hyeon leaped up like a swallow taking flight.
Wudang swordsmen, who had leaped over Jin Hyeon at the front, descended upon the enemies, who had just managed to muster their spirits again.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The swords swung smoothly like water, drawing red lines across the bodies of Sapaeryeon’s warriors. Each strike was lethal.
“Aaaaargh!”
“Ahhhhh!”
Their desperate screams and the sound of flesh being cut mixed with the roar of the great inferno below, spreading outward.
“Do not underestimate us! We are the swordsmen of Wudang, the greatest swords under heaven!”
They had endured until now, for this very moment, to say those words.
Jin Hyeon gripped his sword firmly and charged forward.
‘I am not a coward!’
In his eyes, blood, swords, and ambition surged.
They were eyes unaware of the darkness descending behind them.
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