Chapter 217: I’m Ready

A fog-shrouded coast on a deserted island beneath a dim moon.

Two vessels faced each other, casting hazy light across the water.

“Well... you certainly had me fooled.”

Yang Seonu gave an awkward smile as he wiped the sailors’ blood from his hands onto his clothes.

His expression appeared calm, but his eyes were carefully examining Choi Geon and the vessel that had brought him here.

How many came with him? Are there any non-martial artists aboard?

There had to be other people inside that vessel, whoever they were. They were the only shield capable of stopping the Sword Demon’s blade.

The Sword Demon, Choi Geon, never compromised with evil.

But when innocent civilians might be sacrificed, he could not swing his sword recklessly.

Yang had seen him let captured prey escape and then frustratingly chase it down all over again for that very reason. He intended to exploit that weakness to the fullest.

I only need to evade him once or twice. If I can take a hostage in the meantime...

“Your eyes are darting about rather busily. Thinking of taking a hostage and making your escape?”

But just as Yang Seonu knew Choi Geon well, Choi Geon knew him just as thoroughly.

Kim Muhyuk and Shin Kangheon appeared on either side of Choi Geon.

Kim Bokja, Hwang Suksu, and Han Jaechun emerged behind them, glaring at Yang.

“That’s the bastard?”

“One look at his face and you can tell he was born to betray people.”

“You’re fucking dead today!”

Not one of them had an ordinary presence.

With every member of Blue Wolves aboard, avoiding the Sword Demon’s attacks long enough to reach any civilians inside the vessel seemed impossible.

“...You prepared quite thoroughly just to catch me.”

A sense of defeat bled into Yang Seonu’s words, but Choi Geon merely smiled.

Then Yang put on a bitter smile and spoke in a trembling voice.

“I... struggled in my own way. Do you think betraying my master left me at peace? I’ve suffered under that guilt all this time. Now I’m abandoning everything I built and trying to leave, yet you chased me all the way here. Must you truly kill your own disciple?”

A trembling voice. Unsteady eyes.

Yang Seonu had changed tactics. He appealed to emotion, displaying sorrow and anger with his entire body.

“Master, you always believe you alone are right! Did you ever stop to consider how the ten-year-old child beside you must have felt?”

“...Are you saying I was at fault?”

At Choi Geon’s quiet question, Yang nodded as tears ran down his face.

“Your teachings strangled me. Justice, justice, justice! All you cared about was punishing evil. Nothing else in life meant anything to you. And you expected me to become exactly like you!”

Yang was brazenly turning the blame around on him, but Choi Geon offered no rebuttal. He simply listened.

“Where was my life in any of that? I wanted honor as a martial artist. I wanted to become rich. Aren’t those natural desires for any human being?”

He looked heartbroken and desolate. Tears pooled in his bloodshot eyes.

Someone who knew nothing about Yang Seonu might have sympathized with his words and nodded along.

“The Martial Alliance’s Shadow Sword? Perhaps you were satisfied with a title no one would ever acknowledge, but I wasn’t! I never wanted to become like you...”

Like a child confessing the scars left by a parent’s behavior, Yang sought to stir Choi Geon’s guilt.

It was possible only because their relationship had been no different from that of father and son.

“...Seonu. My disciple, whom I loved as my own son.”

Before overcoming his Inner Demon, Choi Geon would have suffered terribly at those words.

He would have wondered thousands of times whether he had truly been at fault—whether his mistakes had twisted his disciple into what he had become.

“You truly have not changed at all. And I am glad of it.”

“...What?”

But now, not the slightest tremor could be found in Choi Geon’s eyes.

“When you lie, your brow draws together slightly before relaxing. When events fail to go your way, you bite your lip. And when you are cornered, you begin appealing to emotion. You, who normally does nothing but smile pleasantly without the faintest change in mood.”

“...”

Choi Geon remembered even Yang Seonu’s smallest habits.

They were the sort of things one learned only after raising someone with all the sincerity one would give a child.

“You wanted to succeed? You wanted to earn money and become rich? Do you truly believe I stood in your way?”

“...Didn’t you?”

Choi Geon shook his head.

“You were my child. What parent would oppose their child’s success? One Shadow Sword was more than enough. You were the one who asked me to teach you martial arts in the first place. I never wished for you to enter the martial world and become like me.”

It had happened so long ago that Yang Seonu barely remembered it.

Choi Geon remembered it perfectly.

“Master...”

When Choi Geon failed to waver as easily as he had expected, Yang drew the word out.

Long ago, Choi Geon’s gaze had held boundless love whenever he looked at him.

But Yang had never known.

Even had he known, the choice he made twenty years ago would not have changed.

Thud.

The cunning villain cared only about exploiting the situation to escape his predicament.

Yang Seonu dropped to his knees and begged through his tears.

“...I’m sorry. Greed blinded me, and I betrayed you. Please give me just one more chance. I want to return as your disciple and make amends.”

Choi Geon smiled and drew his sword.

“Your crime was not betraying me.”

“...?”

“Your true crime was selling information to the Heavenly Demon Cult and causing righteous heroic swordsmen to die.”

He knew everything.

Yang Seonu glared viciously at Choi Geon.

The eyes of his master, now a peerless master, were clear enough to feel cold.

Realizing that emotional appeals would get him nowhere, Yang slowly rose to his feet.

“I have spent my life cutting down villains such as those. You are no exception.”

Sssssss...

Black energy spread from Choi Geon.

It was the prelude to the Transcendence-Level Ultimate Technique, The Devil’s Walk Through the Dark Night.

Yang flinched and slowly backed away, grinding his teeth.

“So you intend to kill the disciple you raised like a son with your own hands? For something as trivial as justice? And you dare pretend you’re not a hypocrite.”

Even when Yang Seonu finally revealed his true face, Choi Geon showed no surprise.

He merely corrected one mistaken assumption.

“I will not be the one to kill you.”

“...?”

Choi Geon handed his sword to Kim Muhyuk beside him.

The moment he received his master’s sword, Kim leaped from the vessel.

Whoosh.

Landing on the deserted island’s shore, Kim crooked a finger at Yang Seonu.

“Come down. I don’t want to sail home with your filthy blood all over the boat.”

Yang’s face twisted at the openly contemptuous gesture.

“Ha! You certainly act bold with Master standing behind you, junior.”

Choi Geon folded his arms.

“I will not interfere. Defeat Muhyuk, and I will let you leave.”

“...Do you mean that?”

Yang asked again, clearly unable to believe him.

Choi Geon chuckled.

“Know your place, Seonu. What will you do if you refuse to believe me? Would you rather die by my hand this instant?”

Yang fell silent.

He looked back and forth between Choi Geon and Kim Muhyuk before speaking.

“...You have never lied to me, Master. So I will trust you this time as well.”

Suspicious by nature, Yang did not truly believe Choi Geon’s promise.

But he could not deny that this was his only chance of survival.

Whoosh!

Having made his decision, Yang leaped from the vessel and fled deeper into the island.

His figure vanished beyond the darkness in an instant. He glanced back at Kim Muhyuk and taunted him.

“Junior. Follow me, if you’re confident.”

As though he had expected exactly that, Kim turned back to his master.

“Master, I’ll be going, then.”

Choi Geon looked at his disciple with concern.

It was nothing like the way he had looked at Yang Seonu.

“Are you truly certain? Phantom Dream is not in your hands, and the darkness in there favors an assassin...”

Phantom Dream was still undergoing special training under the Namcheon Sword at AZURE SKY SWORD GATE.

And the deserted island’s pitch-black darkness inevitably gave the advantage to Yang Seonu, who had been trained as an assassin.

Yet Kim’s face brimmed with confidence.

“I may not have inherited your swordsmanship perfectly.”

The Sword Demon’s swordsmanship had formed the foundation of the Solitary Life-and-Death Sword.

Kim had watched Choi Geon’s recorded footage hundreds, even thousands of times. He had analyzed it and tried to develop counters on his own.

“But no one understands the Sword Demon’s swordsmanship better than I do. I’ll go prove it.”

The crew immediately bombarded him with nagging.

“You crazy bastard! If things go to shit, send your big brother an SOS!”

“Quit trying to look cool. If it gets dangerous, run straight back here. Got it?”

“Check your communications equipment, and tell us beforehand if it looks like this will take a while!”

“Be careful... We’ll make sure the preparations are ready!”

Pyaat!

Kim waved to the crew aboard the vessel, then stepped into the deserted island where Yang Seonu had vanished.

*****

Rustle.

The undergrowth stirred in the pitch-black darkness. A breeze passed through, gently disturbing the leaves.

In that fleeting instant, two blades slipped through gaps in the brush like serpents, each seeking the other’s throat.

CLANG!

Sparks flew, briefly revealing the two figures concealed in the darkness.

After confirming each other’s position, they disappeared into the brush once more.

Sssshhh.

Both men raced through the forest at the same time.

There were no footsteps.

The undergrowth shifted in silence, with blades flashing intermittently from within.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Each flash of steel in the silent forest sent startled birds flapping into the air. Insects stopped chirping, and small animals fled in terror.

After they had clashed several more times—

“You know something?”

Kim Muhyuk was the first to break the heavy silence.

“I was the one who attacked Investigator Ivan. I figured I had to make a bigger scene if I wanted to drag you out from behind the curtain.”

Yang Seonu did not respond.

Answering such a provocation and revealing his position would have been inefficient.

Especially when he had already pinpointed Kim’s location.

Slash!

A bead of blood formed on the tip of Yang’s sword.

The wound he had inflicted on Kim was shallow, but it had drawn blood.

Even so, Kim did not stop talking.

“Back then, I had no idea Master once had a disciple he treasured like his own child. Had I known, I would’ve come looking for you much sooner...”

Slash!

This time, a little more blood spilled.

Kim still did not fall silent.

“But were you really trained properly? Master’s sword is much sharper than yours. Or are you too distracted to focus?”

BOOM—!

Kim’s body was driven far backward.

He had lost the clash of internal energy.

Yang irritably flicked the blood from his sword and emerged before him.

“You prattle far too much.”

The two now stood facing each other in a wide clearing.

Kim’s breathing had grown somewhat rough.

Yang, by contrast, appeared composed.

The gap in their martial arts was plain to see.

And yet Kim was the one smiling as though he were enjoying himself.

“I understand you’re scared Master might come after you, but try to focus. This is a pretty important moment for me.”

“...What are you talking about?”

Yang frowned at the incomprehensible remark.

The wounded Kim’s eyes gleamed as he stepped toward him.

“I think I’m almost there. Just a little more—really, only a little more. So I’m going to need your help, senior.”

The moment he saw the madness in Kim’s eyes, Yang understood what he meant.

“You intend to kill me and cross into the next realm?”

To a martial artist, being treated as mere prey was the greatest possible insult.

But even more unnerving was the look in Kim Muhyuk’s eyes.

It was pure madness—the desire to become stronger, even at the cost of his own life.

“...You’re insane. Every bit as much as the Sword Demon.”

“I’m ready. Let’s fight for days, until we’re both sick of it.”

Though Kim was unquestionably weaker than he was, a chill suddenly crawled across Yang Seonu’s entire body.