NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8 - After a Hundred Deaths
Two months had passed in Mistilteinn’s world time.
Dan Cheonwoo hadn’t held a wooden sword for a month now.
Because what Lee Dojin would have to face outside in the world were ultimately weapons with blades.
“Do you understand the sword now?”
Sword Emperor Dan Cheonwoo sat down in front of Lee Dojin, who was sitting in a cross-legged position.
“I still don’t understand.”
Two months.
Even after clashing swords thousands of times with Dan Cheonwoo over two months, Lee Dojin had no choice but to answer that he didn’t understand the sword.
Rather, the ‘sword’ that he seemed to vaguely understand when he swung the wooden sword hundreds of times alone.
It seemed to get further away every time he clashed swords with Dan Cheonwoo.
“The only thing I can be sure of is that what material the sword in my hand is made of doesn’t seem to matter much.”
Dan Cheonwoo nodded.
“That’s right. Whether it’s iron or wood, a sword is just a sword. For those who have transcended a certain level, such things aren’t very important. Though it’s too early for those words to come out of your mouth.”
Dan Cheonwoo grinned.
“Do you know why I haven’t taught you a single sword technique form for two months?”
“I don’t know.”
“It was to see how much desire you have for the sword, for martial arts. If you had whined even for a moment or put down the wooden sword, I was thinking of turning this place into a wasteland and disappearing, disciple or not.”
Dan Cheonwoo raised the corners of his mouth.
“But you never let go of the sword. You swung it stubbornly as if possessed by a ghost.”
Lee Dojin met Dan Cheonwoo’s eyes.
“What result are you trying to achieve by swinging the sword so stubbornly, disciple?”
After thinking for a moment, Lee Dojin opened his mouth. He decided to speak the thoughts that came to his mind.
“To receive the reward for my efforts.”
Lee Dojin looked at Mistilteinn, who was sitting on a wooden chair watching him.
“I experienced having years of accumulated effort denied all at once.”
Mana inability.
“I don’t want to feel that misery ever again. I’ll keep making efforts. And become that much stronger. That’s all I’m thinking about now.”
Dan Cheonwoo saw it.
The longing for strength flickering in Lee Dojin’s pupils.
“I see, I understand well the driving force that moved your body.”
The desire to become stronger.
That was the most important virtue for a martial artist.
“Now I’ll teach you the Reverse Heaven Sword.”
Dan Cheonwoo picked up a sword.
“It’s a sword technique that saved the world, and also destroyed it.”
Reverse Heaven Sword (逆天劍).
Master showed me something.
But I couldn’t see it properly.
The slash drawn from the sword in an instant distorted Mistilteinn’s space.
Crack-
No.
Should I say it destroyed it in an instant?
The great trees and rivers full of water faded away like paint spreading in a wet brush stroke.
The nature torn apart as if swept away by a typhoon was restored by Mistilteinn’s gesture.
“…Can I do this? This?”
Master grinned.
“Someday.”
That “someday” felt so far away.
“The Reverse Heaven Sword was conceived by my master and completed by me.”
Master began to explain about the Reverse Heaven Sword.
“My master conceived the Reverse Heaven Sword to destroy the demons that appeared in the Central Plains, and I completed the sword technique to cut down the heretics and those who strayed from the right path.”
A sword technique created in the midst of desperate struggles.
That was the Reverse Heaven Sword.
“The Reverse Heaven Sword has only 4 forms. I’ll show you all 4 forms now.”
I understood only two of the four forms.
To be precise, I could only see two forms with my eyes.
Master also wrote down the forms of the Reverse Heaven Sword.
I read the sword manual, increased my internal energy with the Reverse Heaven Divine Technique, and sparred with Master.
Three months passed like that.
I felt a terrible limit. A wall. The wall of talent and the wall of time.
The only thing I could properly accomplish was the First Form, Soul Pursuit (追魂).
If things continued like this, I would end up wasting the remaining time here and sitting down.
I was certain of that.
There’s a line in front of me. A line that will hold me back forever if I don’t tear it apart.
I didn’t want to lose something again and regret it. I had to break through all limitations.
I had to cross the line.
I swung the wooden sword.
Clang!
The sword path of Soul Pursuit, struck with all my might, shatters against Master’s sword.
Swoosh!
Master’s sword stops abruptly in front of my Adam’s apple.
“Don’t be impatient. It’s not a sword technique that can be learned in a year in the first place. Even if I disappear from here, you’ll be able to reach my sword path with the books I left and the memories of this place.”
I felt worry and affection in Master’s reproach.
That’s right. There’s not enough time.
Is there no way to draw out the best results in this limited time?
I was able to digest the First Form thanks to my madness.
After learning that even if arms and legs were cut off here, they would be immediately restored by Mistilteinn’s will.
I told Master not to hold back.
To understand how Soul Pursuit (追魂) chases even the opponent’s soul, I had to become that prey.
Arms and legs cut off. Reattached dozens of times.
I obtained Soul Pursuit after terrible pain.
“I admit it, disciple. You’re a thoroughly crazy guy.”
Master Dan Cheonwoo said that, but still listened to me.
Greed for martial arts.
Longing for the sword. Master understood and sympathized with that.
That to surpass limits, one needs to be somewhat crazy.
That the regret of the future is scarier than the pain of the present.
Death line.
I was certain that if I stepped on this death line again, a clue about the Reverse Heaven Sword would come to mind.
I approached Mistilteinn.
“I’ll live even if my neck is cut off and my heart is pierced here, right?”
“…Of course. But death, even if it’s an illusion, takes a huge mental toll. Incomparable to having parts of your body cut off.”
I saw Mistilteinn’s hand trembling. I clearly felt her pity for me.
“We don’t know when this opportunity will come again.”
I believe in my mental strength. What I fear most is being defeated by reality again.
I gave myself over to madness.
“Hey, you crazy bastard. Not satisfied with cutting off your disciple’s arms and legs, you want me to take your neck too?”
Master Dan Cheonwoo furrowed his brow at my words as if he’d seen the craziest thing ever.
“Just until I accomplish the Second Form. I’ll be crazy just until then.”
Once I can handle the Second Form, I won’t die.
That was my promise.
“Master, if you fell into a place like this, you’d do the same as me, wouldn’t you?”
5 months.
In 5 months, Master and I learned quite a lot about each other.
When I rested, he always told stories about the old days.
Though they always concluded with him saying he was the strongest.
Master was even more obsessed with the sword than me.
I thought he would understand my madness this time too.
Master clicked his tongue and said.
“Just until the Second Form. The Second Form.”
I gripped the wooden sword.
My Soul Pursuit shattered, and Master’s sword didn’t stop in front of my Adam’s apple.
On the brink of death.
I glimpsed a part of the sword path that I couldn’t see before.
Slash!
Darkness.
For an instant, all bodily sensations died.
And then bloomed again.
“Huu…ugh…!”
I took a deep breath. My heart started beating again.
My method wasn’t wrong.
I stepped on the death line and saw a part I couldn’t see before.
I thrust the wooden sword again.
And died again.
:
:
Stab!
Master’s sword pierced my heart.
Slash!
My neck was cut off again.
My consciousness was hazy.
How many times have I died?
64 times my neck was cut, 36 times my heart was stabbed?
Only now did I fully ‘understand’ Master’s Second Form.
“How about taking a rest?”
I shook my head at Master’s words.
“No. Please.”
I can’t rest when I’ve finally grasped the feeling.
Thud-
I stepped firmly on the ground with my right foot.
And imbued the Second Form of the Reverse Heaven Sword, Moon Slicing (削月), into the wooden sword.
Cutting a huge full moon.
Two swords that cut the full moon clashed.
The air distorted.
Blade winds scattered in all directions.
At the tip of Master’s sword-
My wooden sword was facing it.
“…I’ve got it.”
After a hundred deaths.
It finally felt like I could see the edge of Master’s feet.
**
The students who became third-years greeted their close friends.
“Lee Dojin really isn’t here. Looks like he really dropped out.”
So Yueun’s friend Kim Minjeong muttered.
So Yueun just closed her eyes without saying anything.
‘Lee Dojin.’
The memories from the first year were still vivid in her mind.
The brilliant figure of Lee Dojin.
When he knocked down three second-year seniors in a martial arts match with rules not to use mana.
So Yueun was certain. That Lee Dojin would become an unprecedented hero like never before.
So she approached him and built a friendship.
Although the words “dating” never came out of their mouths, everyone thought So Yueun and Lee Dojin were dating.
Nutritious food, supplements.
Because So Yueun carried them all around and fed Lee Dojin.
So Yueun regretted all of that.
In the end, useless emotions.
It became a useless investment.
She opened her wallet.
Instead of the couple photo taken after dragging Lee Dojin in half-forcibly, there was a memo listing the promising third-year students.
‘It’s just a pathetic past.’
It was just an immature memory.
She had to become colder than anyone else.
To live in the hunter world as the youngest daughter of
She had to excel in either her own skills or recruiting talent.
“You’re here? Jin Hyunwoo.”
“Oh, yeah. Yueun.”
Jin Hyunwoo awkwardly smiled and received So Yueun’s greeting.
And So Yueun did her best for the latter.