Chapter 258 - Someone to Talk Swordsmanship With

After leaving Heavenly Demon Hall, I headed to the Northern Heaven Sword House.

Why struggle on my own when I had someone to talk swordsmanship with?

Yes, this was my way. Ask when I didn't know, find insight while talking about something else. And if I still couldn't figure it out, say to hell with it and go have fun.

I had neglected the Single Flower Sword Supreme while busy with the other Demon Supremes and all manner of incidents. This time, I intended to make up for it.

The wayward sparring partner was coming home.

Just as I had changed in the meantime, so had the Single Flower Sword Supreme.

When I arrived at her cottage in the Northern Heaven Sword House, I was startled. Her home had changed. The little cottage of old was now a large mansion. The yard was bigger, as was the flower garden she tended.

The only thing unchanged was her lovely appearance, which still seemed to grow younger with each passing year. She welcomed me warmly.

"Welcome, young lord."

"Have you been well?"

"I'm the same as ever."

"Your house isn't."

Following my gaze around the grounds, she smiled calmly.

"I thought I'd change the atmosphere."

Her old cottage had been a home meant for others to see. It proclaimed that she was an aloof soul who had cast off worldly desires to walk only the martial path.

Now she had shed that pretense and was openly showing what she wanted. What had changed her mind?

"You must be busy these days. What brings you here?"

"I wanted to see you, Sword Supreme."

"I'm glad you came. Let's go inside."

I followed her into the house. The interior was lavishly decorated.

"May I look around? I've taken quite an interest in decorating my rooms lately."

"Make yourself at home."

I took my time looking around. The furniture and decorations were lavish and luxurious. She made no attempt to hide how much money she had spent on the interior.

"It's truly splendid."

Then something caught my eye.

'What's this?'

A book lay on a table. It was the collection of poetry and paintings I had seen on the Blood Heaven Saber Demon's bookshelf.

Of course, she could simply own another copy. But the reason a single book drew my attention so strongly had to be that this involved the Saber Demon and the Sword Supreme.

"I'll have to get a display cabinet like that for my room. I love it."

"I didn't know you had such interests, young lord."

After looking around, we sat opposite each other at the tea table.

The tea tasted familiar. It was the same tea I had drunk at the Blood Heaven Saber Demon's home.

"I believe Elder Saber Demon drinks this tea too."

"Does he?"

I didn't miss her momentary flinch. First the book, now the tea.

'These two!'

I laughed inwardly. If the book and tea weren't a coincidence, something had definitely changed between them.

"You're curious why I changed the house, aren't you?"

"Did you have a change of heart?"

"I found myself wanting to live a little differently."

Looking around once more, I said, "To be honest, this room suits you much better than the old one, Senior. Splendid and beautiful."

"Does it?"

She smiled with pleasure.

Though we were smiling and chatting like this, a certain distance remained between us. Neither very close nor very far apart. Certainly more than a single step, but not so far that it felt uncomfortable.

About five steps. That was how I saw the distance between the Single Flower Sword Supreme and me.

"Today, I've come as your sparring partner."

I asked her for a match. Thankfully, she readily agreed.

"I'd be delighted. Though I don't know whether sparring with me will be of any help to you."

"I learn a great deal just from watching you draw your sword, Senior. If I didn't think it would help, would I have asked you to spar?"

"Couldn't you leave that mouth of yours here?"

"I'm afraid not. There are far too many places that need it."

We went out to the training ground and stood facing one another a little over ten steps apart. Her qi presence changed, as though we had never exchanged those jokes.

It wasn't just her house that had changed. I could feel that her qi presence was different from before.

'She's been devoting herself to training!'

She had been honed as keenly as a treasured sword. I had once compared the Demon Supremes' efforts to a swan's paddling feet, and no one suited that comparison better than the Single Flower Sword Supreme.

Behind her swanlike grace lay unseen effort.

What had brought about this change in her?

I, too, revealed my true qi presence without concealing it. Tension crept into her face as she looked at me, and her gaze turned cold.

She launched herself forward first.

WHOOOOSH!

A sword came flying toward me. She was nowhere to be seen. With her body concealed completely behind the blade, she and her sword had become one.

The Single Flower Sword and the Black Demon Sword collided in midair, striking sparks. Dozens of trails traced by the two blades embroidered the air in an instant, then vanished.

She might have lost to me in our previous match, but a Sword Supreme was still a Sword Supreme. Moreover, her recent hard training shone through, taking this match to an even higher level.

Our blades flashing, we soared into the sky together. The Demon Swords of the Northern Heaven Sword House stopped in their tracks to watch the sword light gleaming overhead. Glittering in the sunlight, it was a magnificent sight.

CLAAANG!

With one last lingering ring of steel, we landed.

Even without a sword being knocked from anyone's hand or a blade held to anyone's throat, she would have known. She had lost.

"There's no end to your growth."

She couldn't hide her bitterness. Her training had failed to keep pace with my growth.

I took care to spare her pride.

"Only because you held back, Senior. I've shown everything I have, but you still have your final move, don't you?"

Every Demon Supreme kept one move hidden for the very end. She was no exception.

"A move I hope never to use in my lifetime."

In other words, it was a trump card that would put her own life on the line.

"Let's go inside."

Back inside, we moistened our throats with the cooled tea and talked swordsmanship.

We discussed the match we had just fought. Then I went a step further, sharing what I had felt upon recently attaining twelfth-level complete mastery of the Heaven-Soaring Sword Art.

She listened closely and asked questions whenever something puzzled her.

Someone of her skill would naturally understand how sincerely I was sharing this with her. These were the essence of martial learning, insights I would never give to someone I didn't care about.

Her face grew increasingly flushed.

When I finished speaking, she rushed out to the training ground.

"Just a moment! Wait just a moment."

Standing alone in its center, she swung her sword. Then she suddenly stopped, lost in thought. She swung again, then stopped once more.

She had gained an insight. Through our conversation, she had found a way past a wall she couldn't overcome by training alone.

She must have trained on her own for a very long time after becoming a Demon Supreme. And at the end of that lonely road, where her progress had come to a halt, she had met me.

After swinging her sword on the training ground for quite some time, she returned, still flushed.

"Didn't you come to me hoping to gain insight into swordsmanship?"

"I did. To be honest, my swordsmanship has hit a wall lately."

"Then why are you imparting your martial knowledge to me?"

I settled my qi presence and spoke with dignity.

"Because you'll be my Demon Supreme one day."

As she stared at me silently, I continued calmly.

"There are two other reasons as well."

"Two?"

"First, I believe that when you break through your limits, those insights will find their way back to me. We're sparring partners, aren't we?"

She nodded and asked, "And the second reason?"

"You're the only Demon Supreme who uses a sword, Senior. You're the only person I can talk swordsmanship with. You know what Father is like. Who else can I learn swordsmanship from? Who else can I influence? You're the only one I have."

Of the three reasons, this seemed to touch her most deeply. A surge of emotion passed through her.

"That's why I should have visited you first, and most often..."

I spoke honestly.

"I felt as though you would always be here, just as you are. That's selfish and wrong of me. I should look after the good people first."

She replied with a touch of self-mockery in her voice.

"I'm not such a good person. Perhaps you were looking after us in the right order after all..."

A hint of regret crossed her eyes.

For a while, we sat in silence, each lost in thought.

I didn't offer some trite reassurance such as, "No, Sword Supreme, you're a good person."

What she needed to hear now was this.

"May I come again tomorrow?"

She nodded, her expression saying I was welcome not merely tomorrow, but for the rest of my life.

* * *

"Since when have you liked flowers?"

Despite the Blood Heaven Saber Demon's question, I kept staring at the flowerpot by the window.

"This one looks rather sly."

I had stopped by his home on the way back to my residence and noticed something new by the window: a pot of flowers. Had I come here first, I would simply have assumed he had bought it.

"What goes on in the head of someone who looks at a flower and calls it sly?"

"Where did you get it?"

"Someone gave it to me."

He must have given the Single Flower Sword Supreme the book and tea, and she had given him the flowerpot in return. Or perhaps it had been the other way around.

'Drunken Demon, my friend, you're amazing!'

It seemed his efforts to reconcile the two had finally borne fruit.

"Who?"

"Someone I know."

"Yes, but who?"

"You're making too much noise. I'm trying to read."

He refused to admit that the Single Flower Sword Supreme had given it to him. I didn't press him further. I also made an effort to hold back my teasing.

How happy must he be right now? This wasn't just anyone—it was the Single Flower Sword Supreme. They were clearing up past misunderstandings and conflicts, even exchanging gifts.

Hold back. If I was going to tease him, I could do it later.

"Stop staring at it! One careless release of qi and you'll kill the flowers."

If that happened, he might unleash a killing move on me.

Daeryong, this flowerpot is more precious than the one in your office. If you knock it over while training, you'll be subjected to at least a year of hellish training.

"I'll be going now."

"Why leave so soon?"

"I'm in the middle of hellish training myself these days. I probably train harder than anyone else in the Cult."

"You've already become young lord. What more wealth and glory are you after, working so hard?"

Our relationships were completely different from before my regression. If I died now, the Demon Supremes would all die too. Would the Blood Heaven Saber Demon simply stand by and watch me die?

That was why. To keep everyone alive.

'I'm doing this so that if someone has to plunge into hell, it'll be me.'

You should enjoy that wealth and glory, Elder. Spend your later years happily together with the Sword Supreme, traveling around the Central Plains.

* * *

The next day, I sparred with the Single Flower Sword Supreme again.

Her eyes were a little bloodshot, as though she hadn't slept all night.

"I lost a little sleep training yesterday."

It seemed she had spent the night working to turn yesterday's insights into actual skill.

I sparred with her again. Knowing each other's moves, we began using increasingly powerful ones. By the end, our exchanges were almost like a real fight.

Afterward, we discussed that day's match. Since it had unfolded much like the previous one, most of our conversation repeated yesterday's, but we spoke as though discussing it for the first time.

Sometimes our conversations branched into new subjects. We talked about our childhood sword training, and I even learned how to grow flowers.

I went the next day, and the day after that. I went determined to make up for all the times I hadn't visited. I went intending to keep coming until she grew sick of me and told me to stop.

Our matches followed similar patterns, but we could feel the changes.

Even the same move differed in speed and in the internal energy put into it. Some days it was fast, other days slow. Opportunities to test one's swordsmanship so freely were truly rare.

Then, this morning, I used Human Annihilation, the first form of the Nine Calamities Demonic Art.

SWIIIISH!

The sound was different.

SLICE! SLICE! SLICE! SLICE!

Startled, I rushed over and found the wooden dummy cut into exactly four pieces.

"I did it!"

At last, I had succeeded in sending sword qi at it simultaneously from four directions.

It seemed that sparring and talking with the Sword Supreme had helped in some way.

From that day onward, I devoted myself to training even more intensely.

I had a burning desire: to see the lesser evil spirits take shape in Human Annihilation. That desire drove me to the utmost effort.

Every day without fail, I visited the Sword Supreme to spar and discuss martial learning.

Anyone watching us might have thought we were repeating the same thing, but it wasn't the same.

Through the power of repetition, we grew.

As the Sword Supreme grew, so did I. My influence helped her grow, and in turn, I benefited from the influence of her growing strength. We were ablaze with a fervor shared only by those who wielded swords.

Our relationship changed as well.

"I changed the house because of Senior Saber Demon."

She opened up about her true feelings.

"Lately, we've been trying to put our old grievances behind us and get along. In the process, I've found myself thinking a great deal about the past. Back then, I loved splendid, pretty things. That was who I was. While thinking about that, I suddenly changed it on impulse. It's embarrassing, but it wasn't the result of any profound deliberation."

It must have been longing for her youth. For those days she wanted so desperately to return to.

"You did the right thing. If you miss the cottage later, you can change it again."

"Wouldn't that make me look terribly frivolous?"

"I think it would make you look like a free spirit."

She smiled happily, saying that, yes, she was past the age of living according to what others thought. In that moment, I realized the distance between us had shrunk from five steps to three.

Throughout all this, my training continued.

I trained day and night. Then, one day, as I repeated Human Annihilation countless times...

SWISH!

The sound of Human Annihilation changed again.

At that very instant, I saw it: a pitch-black being cutting off the wooden dummy's head.

'At last!'

One of the four evil spirits had appeared.