This Is My Power (3)
Gal Sa-Ryang and I stepped into the tavern.
“It really has been a long time since I drank in broad daylight.”
“The same goes for me.”
As we went inside, someone recognized me and was startled.
To my surprise, Lin Yan-Qing and No. Seven were there, drinking.
Lin Yan-Qing said loudly,
“To meet again? This must be fate!”
The last time, I had run into them at an inn while I was eating.
This time, we were the ones who had come in and run into them, so if one insisted on calling it fate, perhaps it could be fate.
“We can’t simply let such a precious connection pass us by, can we?”
Lin Yan-Qing asked Gal Sa-Ryang, who was beside me. Quick-witted as she was, she had realized that whether this meeting led to sharing a table depended on Gal Sa-Ryang.
And right now, Gal Sa-Ryang was in an extremely good mood.
“If it means sharing a table with such beautiful ladies, I would welcome it anytime.”
“Then please, have a seat.”
We naturally joined them at their table.
Gal Sa-Ryang had met No. Seven before, when she had come as an inspector.
So I only introduced Gal Sa-Ryang and Lin Yan-Qing to each other.
“Oh! It’s an honor to meet the Chief Strategist of the Grand Martial Alliance in person like this.”
“It is a position I will have to step down from immediately once the new Alliance Lord ascends in a few days.”
“How fortunate, then, that I got to meet you before you stepped down.”
“Is that so? Haha.”
Gal Sa-Ryang immediately grasped the nature of this gathering. He realized that the women felt favorably toward me.
Gal Sa-Ryang and Lin Yan-Qing exchanged conversation and naturally led the mood.
No. Seven and I silently drank while listening to their cheerful conversation.
I could not know what No. Seven was feeling. The last time we had met, she had been told that if she stayed with Gal Sa-Ryang, she would end up dying with him. And yet, as if fate were playing a trick, she had met us again while I was with Gal Sa-Ryang.
“Please take good care of our Strategist Byeok from now on.”
At Lin Yan-Qing’s words, Gal Sa-Ryang pretended to be surprised. It was because of the word “our.”
“Did you say ‘our’?”
“Strategist Byeok is a strategist whom my younger sister here and I greatly respect. Especially my younger sister. She likes him very much.”
No. Seven looked at Lin Yan-Qing. She sent a signal that this was getting troublesome, but Lin Yan-Qing only went a step further.
“She says you are pure in a way that is rare for someone of the Jianghu these days. My younger sister’s ideal type is a pure person, you see.”
In the end, No. Seven lowered her head deeply.
I laughed inwardly. I knew No. Seven’s personality well. There was no way she would have said such a thing. Just as she had done in the field last time, Lin Yan-Qing was trying hard to bring No. Seven and me together.
Would she still feel that way if she knew I was the Nameless Great Hero?
I suddenly became curious.
As if something had just occurred to him, Gal Sa-Ryang asked No. Seven,
“Come to think of it, I still have not heard your name. Inspector, what is your name?”
For an instant, No. Seven was flustered. Lin Yan-Qing was flustered as well.
That was when I spoke.
“Baek Ryeon. Her name is Baek Ryeon.”
The person most surprised was, of course, No. Seven. She likely had never even dreamed that I would give her a name.
I could not forget the sight of her gazing at a white lotus in the pond. That was why the name Baek Ryeon came to mind.
“Oh, what a beautiful name.”
Even at Gal Sa-Ryang’s admiration, No. Seven only stared straight at me.
Had I done something unnecessary? Just as I lifted my cup with a feeling of apology, No. Seven silently held out her own cup and clinked it against mine. I could tell that it meant thank you.
She and I emptied our cups at the same time.
The drinking gathering that had begun in the afternoon continued until late evening.
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I walked side by side with Gal Sa-Ryang along the night road.
We had parted from the women and were on our way back to our residence.
“What is your relationship with those young ladies?”
“Nothing much.”
“It did not seem that way.”
“In truth, I have a woman to whom I am betrothed.”
“I know. The precious daughter of the Song Clan, correct?”
Of course he would know. He must have investigated me when I first entered the Hall of Justice.
“I heard there was a rumor that you broke off the engagement with her.”
“No. We have not broken off the engagement yet.”
“I see.”
We walked in silence for a while, and then Gal Sa-Ryang said,
“Human relationships are truly difficult, aren’t they?”
I obediently nodded.
The reason Gal Sa-Ryang said those words was likely because he was also speaking of his own feelings. His relationship with Ban Xu-Qing, the leader of the Heavenly Net Society, could not be easy either.
How long had we walked, drunk on the moonlight and on the pleasant excitement that came from being tipsy?
Three men blocked our path.
They were wearing tiger-skin clothes made from the hides of fierce beasts such as tigers and leopards.
The instant they appeared, I swiftly discharged the alcohol inside my body through the tips of my fingers. I had realized that the aura of our opponents was anything but ordinary.
“Who are you?”
At my question, the man in the middle of the three suddenly asked,
“Which one of you is Gal Sa-Ryang?”
“I am Gal Sa-Ryang.”
When I answered in Gal Sa-Ryang’s place, the man sneered. I could tell that he had known who Gal Sa-Ryang was from the start and had only asked anyway.
“If you knew, why did you ask?”
“To test your loyalty. To see whether you were someone willing to die in his place. The fact that you claimed to be Gal Sa-Ryang without hesitation means your loyalty is very high.”
“That does sound plausible.”
I nodded as if accepting it. Though I was acting calmly, I was studying my opponents. Since they had come after Gal Sa-Ryang, I had to be tense.
From behind me, Gal Sa-Ryang said quietly,
“They are the Three Beasts of Yunnan.”
The Three Beasts of Yunnan.
It was my first time facing them directly, but I had heard of them well. They were experts with Unorthodox Faction tendencies and were representative masters of Yunnan. It was known that the Martial Arts and weapons they used were unfamiliar, making them extremely difficult to deal with.
Gal Sa-Ryang secretly slipped his hand into his sleeve, then made a frustrated expression.
With several simple materials, he could create a formation that allowed him to hide his body for a very short time.
He had practiced it repeatedly and could truly make it in an instant. However, because he had been shut inside the formation these past few days doing nothing but work, he had left those materials inside the formation.
“I’m sorry. I left the materials behind.”
At Gal Sa-Ryang’s whisper, I looked back at him and said,
“It’s fine. Instead, did you not bring me?”
At my joke, Gal Sa-Ryang gave a faint laugh.
“Listen carefully to what I say from now on.”
“Please speak.”
“Stand right where you are and do not move a single step. It may even be more comfortable for you to stand there with your eyes closed.”
“Understood.”
Gal Sa-Ryang immediately closed his eyes. With his eyes closed, he said,
“May I sit down?”
Before I could answer that it was fine, the man in front spoke coldly.
“Since we have come to kill you, whether you sit, lie down, or stand on your head, the result of your death will not change.”
The man’s blatant killing intent covered Gal Sa-Ryang and me. Gal Sa-Ryang’s body trembled once. I did not deliberately raise my aura to block the killing intent for him. It was not bad for his body to remain tense to a certain degree.
“Make yourself comfortable.”
“Yes.”
After reassuring Gal Sa-Ryang, I slowly walked forward.
Considering the enemies who had appeared until now, it was not at all strange for experts from distant places like the Three Beasts of Yunnan to show up.
When I drew my sword, the Three Beasts of Yunnan spread out to the left and right while drawing their weapons.
The weapon held by the man in the middle was a pair of Twin Flying Claws. Twin Flying Claws were weapons made by attaching claw-shaped hooks to ropes. Each claw had blue, sharp blades, so even a graze could cut the body into several strips.
The man on the left held a segmented whip. A segmented whip was a weapon made by linking several rods together with iron chains.
The weapon held by the man on the right was a saw-toothed saber, a blade shaped like a saw.
Truly, all three of them carried weapons that were rarely seen. Among them, at least the saw-toothed saber was sometimes used by Green Forest bandits or wandering warriors.
Armed with unusual weapons, they looked, from outward appearance alone, as though they could somehow be underestimated. But doing so would lead to a serious mistake. These were masters capable of raising protective gangqi.
Swaaaang!
The Twin Flying Claws flew at me first.
Taang!
I swung my sword and struck them away. Almost at the same time, the claws from the opposite side flew at me again.
Tang. A sharp metallic sound rang out. My wrist throbbed. As expected, I could tell that my opponent’s internal energy was tremendous. On the other hand, because he was throwing the claws through the ropes, he did not feel pain.
This was the advantage of the Twin Flying Claws.
The two consecutive attacks were a kind of probing strike to examine my skill and reactions. I obediently played along.
Swaaaaaaaak!
This time, the segmented whip flew in. The iron rods flashing under the moonlight bent this way and that at unknowable angles, flying toward my head.
At the same time, the Twin Flying Claws flew in as well.
Tang! Tatang!
This time as well, I quickly swung my sword several times in succession and deflected them. Because I deflected them at such precisely calculated moments, to anyone watching, it would instead look like a dangerously close instant.
Even so, Gal Sa-Ryang was calmly watching the fight. It was partly because he knew I had learned the Soul-Chasing Asura Sword Art, but before that, Gal Sa-Ryang was a strategist who had spent his entire life on battlefields. His earlier question about whether he could sit had been a kind of amusement; it was never because he was afraid to watch a fight.
This time, the man holding the saw-toothed saber charged in at the same time as the Twin Flying Claws and segmented whip flew toward me. The Twin Flying Claws, the segmented whip, and the attack of the man holding the saw-toothed saber. To call it simply a probing strike would be far too generous. It was an extremely powerful attack.
Attacks from the three directions that were most difficult to defend against. They possessed nearly perfect combined attack techniques. They had probably killed many opponents with this joint assault.
But not this time.
I had been waiting for the move in which they had the greatest confidence. I had received the first move, then received the second. At the very instant when they naturally assumed I would receive the third as well.
I launched an unexpected attack.
Normally, attacking the man with the saw-toothed saber would have been the natural choice, but my target was the man with the segmented whip, the one farthest away.
If one were to attack the three of them, the man who seemed least likely to be attacked was precisely him. He was not the leader of the group, nor was he the nearest enemy.
In a flashing instant, I charged toward the man holding the segmented whip. I sensed my opponents becoming flustered. If the speed of my attack had been even slightly slower, I would have given them room to attack Gal Sa-Ryang.
But the moment they saw my movement, the three men could think of nothing else. It was movement of extreme swiftness, so fast that no martial artist could take their eyes off it.
Swaaaaaak.
The segmented whip twisted and flew toward me.
Kakakakakak!
The Asura Wisdom King Sword slid along the segmented whip and the chains connecting its sections.
And each time it tried to change angle, my sword struck them. Once against an iron rod, once against an iron chain.
Tang! Chak! Tang! Chaak! Tang!
Because of that, it could not move in the direction it was originally supposed to twist. This response of mine was likely the first he had encountered since he began training with the segmented whip.
……And it would be the last he ever encountered.
“Careful!”
By the time another man’s warning burst out, my sword had already passed through the many swaying sections and was cutting the man’s throat.
Slice.
Puaaaaaak!
Blood sprayed from his neck as the man collapsed. It had truly happened in an instant.
Killing intent surged in the eyes of the two remaining men.
Swaaaaaaaak!
I struck the incoming Twin Flying Claws head-on.
Chaaaaaaak!
The Twin Flying Claws split in half.
The man’s eyes widened. His Twin Flying Claws were not ordinary flying claws. They were weapons powerful enough to break all ordinary swords, yet they had been cut apart by a single sword strike.
It was a move possible only because my weapon, my internal energy, and my level of Martial Arts were all above his.
Swaaaaaaaak!
This time, the man with the saw-toothed saber charged at me. The instant I struck away his blade and became entangled with him.
Ping!
Something flew in with the sound of wind.
It had been fired from extremely far away, yet it reached this place in an instant.
It was a single arrow, and its target was none other than Gal Sa-Ryang.
Puk! Kwak!
I heard the sound of an arrow tearing through flesh and lodging in bone.
Thud.
The sound of a body rolling on the ground.
Astonishingly, the man rolling across the ground with the arrow embedded in him was the man with the saw-toothed saber.
The instant I heard the sound of the arrow, my body moved as fast as lightning.
I had slipped into the saw-toothed saber man’s chest, smashed his ribs with my elbow, and in one motion thrown him down with an over-the-shoulder throw. I had used his body as a shield to block the incoming arrow.
Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!
Arrows flew in again in succession. They truly came from very far away, but they were fast, accurate, and powerful. Several arrows flew at the same time, but they were being fired by one person.
Chang! Chang! Chang! Chang!
I realized that the one shooting the arrows was an even greater master than the Three Beasts of Yunnan.
A master of such skill that I wondered whether anyone other than me could knock away these arrows. I was certain that even the leader of the Heavenly Bow Unit could not launch such attacks.
Swaaaaaaaak!
The other flying claw, which had not been cut, flew toward me.
Chararararak!
In the blink of an eye, the secret technique created by the Asura Wisdom King Sword unfolded.
The body of the man with the Twin Flying Claws was cut apart in the shape of a tilted cross and collapsed as it was.
Against him, the First Form of the Soul-Chasing Asura Sword Art, Instantaneous Seal, had been unleashed. Its power was on an entirely different level from the Instantaneous Seal I had used in the past when my internal energy had been insufficient.
Once he died, no more arrows flew in. I knew that the one who had shot the arrows was trying to flee. He was so far away that I could not know whether he had seen it or not, but since I had used the Soul-Chasing Asura Sword Art, I could not simply let him go.
I raised the Asura Wisdom King Sword, pointing it toward the air.
Srrrk.
The sword rose into the air. It seemed to float and fly through the air with such elegance.
Then, in the next instant.
Chuaaaaaaaaaang!
The Asura Wisdom King Sword emitted a pure white light and crossed the air as if exploding forward.
In an instant, it crossed space and flew toward the faraway place from which the arrows had come, becoming a dot in the distance.
The man who had been shooting the arrows turned his head at the alien sound coming from behind him. It was a distance across which only his arrows should have been able to come and go.
Puk!
The instant he saw the white light, his heart had already been pierced. It was not something he could avoid simply because he wished to avoid it.
The Asura Wisdom King Sword that had pierced the man’s heart circled once through the air and returned to its original place.
When it came before me at the end, it once again approached slowly with elegant movement and settled into my hand.
Gal Sa-Ryang said in a trembling voice,
“Qi-Controlled Sword Art!”
I looked back at him. Gal Sa-Ryang was truly swept up in emotion.
“You can even use Sword Control Art.”
I nodded.
“That is so.”
It was the first time I had used Qi-Controlled Sword Art since being reborn as Byeok Ri-Dan. Even after the sword had been retrieved, a thrilling sensation remained throughout my entire body.
Looking at me, Gal Sa-Ryang said,
“When I first saw Alliance Lord Cheon’s Sword Control Art in the past, I trembled greatly as well. I do not know why, but now I am trembling even more.”
While living in the Jianghu, opportunities to see Sword Control Art were not many. Before the Realm of the Heart Sword, it was the highest realm a martial artist could reach.
I said to Gal Sa-Ryang,
“From now on, never be afraid.”
My gaze shone brighter than ever.
“No matter what stands in our way.”
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