Chapter 138 - The Black Flame Dragon Meets the Monster of Manseogo (2)

"Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for your hard work."

Three times to each of the servants at Manseogo.

The hunchbacked old man, who offered greetings that no one bothered to accept, left Manseogo and slowly walked toward his lodgings.

Since he was not an official servant of the Murim Academy, he could not use the dormitories and instead headed to a small hut somewhere in the Murim Academy.

STEP, DRAG.

As a hunchback with a bent waist who even limped on one leg, his movements looked strained, but he walked diligently without resting.

When he entered a deserted forest path, a young man appeared before him.

"Ack! Oh my, you startled me!"

The old man always moved with his head bowed down due to being a hunchback.

He only spotted the young man when he had approached at close range, and stepped back in great surprise, looking as if he would fall backward.

"W-Who are you?"

The young man respectfully performed a martial salute and introduced himself.

"I am a disciple of the Taiyi Sect and the academy representative of the Murim Academy, Jin Sowoon."

"Ah...? Ah, I, I see. But what brings you here? This isn't a place where people usually walk."

Jin Sowoon scratched the back of his head and spoke.

"It's nothing else but the fact that I recently hit a wall, and it's not easy to overcome it... I was hoping you could help me, Elder."

"M-Me? No, what could a crippled hunchback like me..."

"Well, I'm not asking you to pass down your martial arts. I'm just asking if you could teach me the knack for Sword Force from among the martial arts you use, Elder."

"S-Sword Force?"

"Yes."

"Y-Young Master. I have never once been able to look up at the sky properly since I was born. How could someone like me know Sword Force?"

"... Hmm, is that so?"

"Of course it is. No matter who you grab and ask among the passersby, wouldn't you get a better answer than from me?"

At the hunchbacked old man's words, Jin Sowoon stroked his chin as if lost in thought.

"By any chance, could you tell me your reason for staying here? If you do, I think we can make a deal."

"... Reason, you say. What reason could an old man with nowhere to go possibly have for doing menial chores to earn a few pennies?"

"Even so, isn't the Murim Academy's Manseogo a rather inappropriate place for the Sword Demon, who is called the pinnacle of the Underworld Murim, to be?"

"..."

The hunchbacked old man let his mouth hang open, seemingly at a loss for words at such an absurd statement.

"... Young Master, are you sick somewhere by any chance?"

"Hmm... As expected, you have no intention of simply revealing your identity, do you?"

"What are you..."

The moment the hunchbacked old man turned his head to look at Jin Sowoon's face.

Jin Sowoon's hands trembled violently, and dozens of fist shadows appeared in the air.

Then, as if to crush the old man at any moment, they began striking his entire body without missing a single spot.

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

The hunchbacked old man, who was attacked before he even realized it, flew a whopping two jang and smashed into the ground, vomiting blood at the same time.

"Keugh."

The hunchbacked old man was collapsed on the ground in a miserable state, but Jin Sowoon spoke while looking at his own fist.

"You're truly amazing. How were you able to disperse all those fist strikes right before they hit you?"

"Urgh."

As if to answer Jin Sowoon's words, the old man vomited blood once again. With his pale complexion, he looked as if he would die at any moment.

Even so, Jin Sowoon slowly drew his sword, seemingly unbothered.

"Did you know? The blood coughed up from an internal injury is dark red. On the other hand, the fake blood coughed up by biting the inside of your mouth has a bright crimson color. I know this because I've done it many times."

"..."

"What I will show you now is a unique martial art of my sect, and I would appreciate it if you could take a look."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jin Sowoon's Black Dragon Sword was swung, and five swords appeared in the air.

As those five swords moved individually and began to unfold sword forms, dozens of phantom swords, centered around those swords, began to fill the four directions.

"This is called Ten Thousand Swords. It can block Sword Force, but it doesn't seem to be at a level to overwhelm Sword Force. Please evaluate it once, Elder."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Black Dragon Swords filling the air began to uniformly blast toward the hunchbacked old man.

Right before the hunchbacked old man's frail body could be torn to shreds by the dozens of swords raining down while emitting killing intent before he could even react.

ZING!

The hunchbacked old man's eyes flashed open, and in his hand was suddenly held a tree branch as thin as a chopstick.

And from that tree branch, a massive Sword Force reaching five cheok soared up.

KABOOOOOOM!

Ten Thousand Swords and Sword Force clashed, erupting in a massive explosion.

The Sword Force pouring down immediately overturned all of Ten Thousand Swords and swallowed even Jin Sowoon.

---------------!

A booming shockwave spread in all four directions.

The mountain birds that had been quietly resting took flight all at once, etching dots in the sky.

The untamed trees of the hill collapsed in an instant, and the fallen leaves that had piled up thickly on the ground scattered in all four directions as if carried by a wave.

And the clothes of Jin Sowoon, who had taken a direct hit from the wave of Sword Force, were reduced to rags.

"Keugh."

As if he had suffered an internal injury, Jin Sowoon coughed up blood.

Jin Sowoon showed the bloodstain he had coughed up to the hunchbacked old man and grinned.

"Look at this. A true internal injury produces dark red blood like this."

Having said that, Jin Sowoon collapsed lifelessly.

The hunchbacked old man, holding the tree branch, could not hide his dumbfounded expression as he looked at Jin Sowoon.

"What a crazy bastard..."

Throughout his life sprinting through Murim, he had met all sorts of humans.

However, it was his first time seeing a bastard as out of his mind as Jin Sowoon.

"Ugh..."

The hunchbacked old man could not even begin to grasp how to clean up the current situation.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I was inside a shabby hut.

The roof was placed so haphazardly that sunlight streamed in, and not a single piece of the household goods was intact.

'Even so, he's the Sword Demon in name...'

Seeing how he was living like this, I had to assume he was truly serious about staying at the Murim Academy.

The Sword Demon was caught in my qi sense.

However, I did not get up and leave immediately.

Because my insides had been shaken from the bout with the Sword Demon, to the point where I even coughed up blood, I needed to gather myself before going out.

I sat in the lotus position and drew upon the Taiyi True Scripture.

As I raised my true qi and examined the various parts of my interior, fortunately, it wasn't a major injury.

After treating my internal injury like that, I left the hut, and the Sword Demon was reading a book on the wooden platform.

Perhaps he had given up on imitating a hunchback anymore, as he was sitting with his back straight, and even though I had come out, he didn't even turn his head in my direction.

'To think the Sword Demon is reading a book.'

He was someone who had gone so crazy for the sword that he even received the alias of Demon.

I was curious about what reason such a person had for staying at the Murim Academy and reading books.

When I casually approached and checked, he was bringing over and reading the theses of the academy graduates.

"Why are you reading something like that(?)"

What the Sword Demon was reading was a thesis written by a swordsman who was a graduate of the Murim Academy and was called by the alias Blue Flower Formless Sword in the past.

Since the Blue Flower Formless Sword himself was not a particularly outstanding swordsman, the thesis he submitted was not very excellent either.

It was merely an empty-shell thesis that just added a few details to the theses written by his seniors to make up the numbers.

Seeing the world-renowned Sword Demon meticulously scouring such a thesis as if it were a secret manual felt fascinating.

"Do you know what 'The Dao begets One, and the One becomes Taiji' means?"

"I know."

"Spit it out."

"Why are you curious about that?"

"I have looked through as many as three thousand theses so far, and they all have the exact same thing written in them."

"But for a crippled hunchback, your tone of asking sounds incredibly arrogant."

"..."

Only then did the Sword Demon lift his head and look at me.

"Did you come to meet the crippled hunchback?"

"I came to see the Sword Demon, of course."

"Then isn't that settled?"

"I suppose so."

"Spit it out."

"What you just asked is the basic teaching of a Daoist sect. During the process in which all creation is born..."

The Sword Demon threw the book and cut me off.

I reached out and snatched the book the Sword Demon threw.

"Whoops. Is the explanation too difficult?"

"Do I still look like a crippled hunchback to you? You think I don't even know Supreme Simplicity, Supreme Origin, and Supreme Beginning?"

"Ah, did you already know?"

"What I am curious about is why everyone wrote down the exact same content, only changing the words."

"Well, that's because they have to submit it to graduate."

"You're saying they submit it just to graduate, rather than entirely for the sake of their own enlightenment?"

"That's right."

"Damn it, it's a good thing I didn't enter the academy."

"Then may I ask a question now?"

"There's no need. Go back. And do not cross paths with me ever again. Because next time, I will definitely kill you."

"Hmm... Wouldn't that be a bit difficult?"

"Hah, do you think I can't do it?"

I shook my head.

"No. That's not it. If I die, you won't be able to stay here any longer, Sword Demon."

"Do you think I'd leave behind any traces?"

"No. I'll be the one leaving them behind. Because whenever I come to meet you like today, I'll be telling people that I'm going to see the hunchbacked elder of Manseogo."

"..."

Looking at the academy students' theses scattered haphazardly on the wooden platform, I asked.

"Aren't you staying at the Murim Academy because you have some sort of purpose?"

"..."

"It's just that, although I may not be much, I am the representative of the Murim Academy in my own right. If I die, the hunchbacked elder, whose position is somewhat uncomfortable anyway, will be chased out of this place... Are you fine with that?"

Just half a day ago, his eyeballs would shake violently whenever he saw me, but now, he is as unshakeable as a massive lake.

If one's martial realm reaches the extreme, can they even control the physical changes caused by emotions?

"How did you know my identity?"

Truthfully, this was only possible due to pure luck.

During the period when I was memorizing the books in Manseogo, I always saw the Sword Demon, who was a hunchback at the time, up close.

But later, during the Orthodox-Demonic Great War, the Sword Demon who rallied the Underworld Murim had the exact same gait and behavior as the hunchbacked old man of Manseogo.

Humans tend to act differently depending on the environments they have lived in, their habits, and their quirks.

No matter how identical twins are, they cannot erase those subtle differences.

However, the hunchbacked old man and the Sword Demon acted the exact same way, as if a person had been copied exactly.

"I found out when I saw you lay a hand on my peer, So Cheonsu."

"You saw that?"

"It looked quite clear to me, though?"

Of course, it was only possible because I carefully observed him with the awareness that he was the Sword Demon, and even then, I couldn't see everything properly.

However, since I couldn't tell him the inside story of how I knew he was the Sword Demon, I had no choice but to roughly make up an excuse like this.

It really feels like my lies just keep increasing after returning to the past.

Phew, I used to be a gentleman-like person who didn't even know how to tell lies.

"Why is a guy who saw through my move asking me to teach him martial arts?"

"Ah, well. Couldn't you just roughly think of it as me being crazy about martial arts, just like you, Elder Sword Demon?"

The Sword Demon had originally been a person from an Orthodox sect.

His actions of being fascinated with the sword, indiscriminately going on sparring journeys regardless of the opponent, and going through fire and water for the sake of his martial arts achievements, had turned his alias into Demon.

Therefore, rather than calmly persuading him, I decided to request a piece of teaching using the method he used to use.

"You crazy son of a bitch..."

However, the Sword Demon glared at me as if to kill me, wearing a dumbfounded expression.

Being called a 'crazy son of a bitch' by a person who even had Demon attached to his alias made my heart feel deeply uncomfortable.

Furthermore, even though I was doing the exact same actions he had done in the past, this person seemed to have no intention of accepting me.

What a selfish human who only thinks of himself.

Tsk, I guess that's why he became a practitioner of the Underworld.

I looked at the theses scattered haphazardly on the wooden platform he was sitting on, and then looked at him.

"Then, how about we make a deal just like I mentioned earlier? I will give you what you want, and you will give me what I want, Sword Demon."

The Sword Demon was one of the few experts who could go up against Kwak Gung.

I definitely have to learn a thing or two from you.