Chapter 220: I’m Truly Grateful, Senior Brother

Yang Seonu stared at Kim Muhyuk in disbelief.

“You’ve already become a supreme master...?”

Kim Muhyuk strode toward him, looking little different from how he had that morning.

Yet a supreme master’s razor-sharp senses detected the true change within him.

The Kim Muhyuk standing before him now...

...had become a sword fully capable of killing him.

“You truly are insane. Just how obsessed with martial arts must a man be to accomplish something like this...?”

Yang Seonu backed away, his voice trembling with fear.

Over the past three days, his sword had carved into Kim Muhyuk more times than he could count.

Many of those wounds had come within an inch of turning fatal.

Any one of them could have left an ordinary person traumatized for life.

Even martial artists who pride themselves on knowing no fear would have broken or gone mad after enduring that much...

Yet Kim Muhyuk had simply administered emergency treatment and charged back into battle as though nothing had happened. After resting for a moment, he would come running out again, asking to resume the fight.

Whenever he was wounded, his eyes would shine even brighter as he muttered about some new realization.

And so, in the brief span of three days, the two of them had fought dozens of life-or-death battles.

In the end, Kim Muhyuk had shattered the wall within reach and emerged on the other side.

“Senior Brother, let’s finish this. I’m running out of time to prepare the surprise.”

Speaking words Yang Seonu could not begin to understand, Kim Muhyuk raised his sword.

At that very instant, Yang Seonu drew upon every last reserve of internal energy he had been conserving and expelled it through the Bubbling Spring pressure points in his soles.

He spun around and bolted in the opposite direction.

WHOOSH—!

“...I thought you hated playing tag?”

Kim Muhyuk stared after him in bewilderment, then gave chase.

Hunter and prey had traded places.

Yang Seonu fled for his life, while Kim Muhyuk raced fiercely behind him.

“Where are you planning to go? You know better than anyone that there’s nowhere to hide on an island this small.”

“...Ghk.”

Ignoring the voice behind him, Yang Seonu clenched his teeth.

To any observer, he would have appeared completely cornered.

But with his face turned away from Kim Muhyuk, Yang Seonu was grinning so hard that his features twisted.

Yes. Keep following me.

He struggled to contain his exhilaration.

Yang Seonu glanced back at Kim Muhyuk. Confidence filled the young man’s face.

Now that you’ve become a supreme master, you want to test your newfound power to your heart’s content, don’t you? You want to kill me and prove yourself, don’t you?

It would not have been an exaggeration to say that Yang Seonu had been waiting for Kim Muhyuk to become a supreme master more eagerly than anyone.

The moment a martial artist gained enlightenment and stepped into a new realm...

No matter how composed they usually were, excitement would inevitably loosen their guard.

You think someone like me will be easy to kill now, don’t you? After seeing the hunter who chased you turn and flee, there’s no way you can resist.

Yang Seonu had waited for the exact moment when Kim Muhyuk would be at his most relaxed.

He had deliberately acted as though he had lost even more of his reason.

But now his eyes were ice-cold.

He licked his dry lips and forced down his excitement.

That will be your fatal mistake.

Only after reaching the coast at the far end of the island did Yang Seonu finally stop.

“Fuuuh...”

With the open sea stretching behind him, he turned and took a moment to steady his breathing.

Kim Muhyuk arrived soon afterward and slowly looked around.

“This is where you chose to be buried, Senior Brother? The sunset is beautiful.”

“The view isn’t bad, is it? I’ll come visit whenever I miss you, Junior Brother.”

After briefly wishing each other peace in the afterlife, the two men smiled brightly.

“Now then. Shall we try to kill each other in earnest?”

“I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”

BOOM—!

They stomped the ground at the same time, blasting sand into the air.

Their figures pierced through the swirling sandstorm and collided.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!

Their swords tangled savagely, drawing dozens of flashing arcs.

Fragments scattered in every direction whenever the blades struck or crossed.

More than thirty exchanges passed in the blink of an eye without either man leaving his position.

Their clothes quickly turned to rags and began soaking through with blood.

I’m no longer being overpowered.

Kim Muhyuk took another step forward.

What had once been impossible because he lacked the raw strength behind his sword was now within his reach.

Just like this.

HUMMM—!

A dazzling blue radiance grew from Kim Muhyuk’s sword until it enveloped the blade completely.

Yang Seonu retreated, staring at it as he muttered in something close to awe.

“Sword force...”

It was commonly regarded as the symbol—and proof—of a supreme master.

But it consumed enormous amounts of internal energy and concentration, so even supreme masters rarely used it freely in real combat.

When they did, they usually manifested it only for the brief instant it was needed.

And yet...

“Looks cool, doesn’t it?”

“You can’t possibly...!”

As though he had discovered an amusing new toy, Kim Muhyuk poured a tremendous amount of internal energy into his sword and swung it diagonally with all his might.

“You lunatic!”

The arc was short but devastatingly intense.

Yang Seonu did not dare underestimate its power. He immediately formed sword force of his own.

Ash-gray force coiled around his blade.

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!

A barrage of thunderous explosions erupted.

Centered on the ground beneath them, sharp scars spread in every direction as though an enormous bird had raked the earth with its talons.

Both men were hurled backward and staggered in exactly the same way.

“Ghk...”

“...Ptooey.”

It had been only one collision, yet the aftermath shook the coast like an earthquake.

The shock wave was so powerful that even the incoming tide briefly recoiled.

Kim Muhyuk’s joints ached, and his pressure points burned as though they had been scorched.

Even so, he wiped the blood from his mouth and smiled.

“I can’t use that often yet. I’ll need more time before I can control it properly.”

“What a shame. Your carefully prepared finishing attack failed. What will you do now, Junior Brother? Run away again?”

Yang Seonu wiped the blood from his own lips and taunted him.

“Sorry, Senior Brother, but today is the last time.”

“That’s wonderful news. I’m sick to death of looking at your face.”

They glared at one another, then charged as though by agreement and crossed swords once more.

CRASH-CRASH-CRASH! SPLASH!

At first, Kim Muhyuk’s reactions lagged half a beat behind Yang Seonu’s.

As their exchanges continued, that gap could only widen.

Blood burst from all over Kim Muhyuk’s body, and fresh cuts opened over wounds that had only just begun to heal.

SHRAAAK!

A spray of crimson blood arced high into the air and scattered across the sand.

Every collision and glancing strike accumulated more shock within his body.

His internal injuries steadily worsened.

Before long, he was battered from head to toe.

I can endure this.

Kim Muhyuk did not stop.

Nothing prevented him from swinging his sword.

The adrenaline surging through his veins erased the pain.

As time passed, Yang Seonu was the one who began to grow anxious.

His expression stiffened as he glared at Kim Muhyuk.

He’s catching up.

At first, Yang Seonu had remained half a beat ahead.

At some point, however, he had lost that advantage.

When he barely shook off a sword path that had come right up beneath his chin, the next attack sliced through his hair.

SWISH!

Kim Muhyuk and Yang Seonu.

Though they now stood within the same realm, they had reached it at vastly different times.

The years they had spent wielding a sword could not be compared.

Nor could the time Yang Seonu had spent refining himself as a supreme master.

And yet...

I’m losing now.

Kim Muhyuk was closing the gap at an absurd rate.

No.

He had already begun to overtake him.

CLANG!

For the first time, Yang Seonu failed to react to Kim Muhyuk’s sword in time.

A gap smaller than half a beat had created an opening.

Yet Yang Seonu knew he could neither block nor evade what was coming.

He could only watch in a daze as his sword was knocked upward and Kim Muhyuk drove into his guard.

He’s still smiling.

Even now, Kim Muhyuk wore a radiant smile, as though he could barely contain his joy.

It was so pure that it sent a chill down Yang Seonu’s spine.

SHRAAAK!

Both of Yang Seonu’s arms flew through the air at once.

Blood spraying from the severed stumps, he staggered before collapsing onto the sand.

Agonizing pain tore through the wounds, but an empty laugh escaped him before any groan could.

“Haha... You really are... a monster...”

A martial prodigy consumed by madness.

Kim Muhyuk was a kind of monster Yang Seonu had never encountered in his entire life.

There was no excuse he could offer.

He had been utterly defeated.

But Yang Seonu had not yet abandoned his last thread of hope.

“...I know how to make contact with the Heavenly Demon Cult.”

Kim Muhyuk’s sword stopped in front of his throat.

The madness clouding his eyes vanished at once.

After staunching the bleeding from Yang Seonu’s severed arms, Kim Muhyuk spoke.

“Explain.”

“If I tell you, will you spare me?”

Kim Muhyuk shrugged as though the answer were obvious.

Of course not.

Yang Seonu frowned through the pain and grumbled.

“If I’m going to die even after giving you the information, why should I put myself at a disadvantage by telling you?”

Kim Muhyuk casually drove his sword into Yang Seonu’s lower abdomen.

“You’ll stay alive while you’re talking.”

“...That is not entirely wrong.”

Yang Seonu told him what Black Swallow had explained about going overseas and making contact with the Heavenly Demon Cult.

He included no lies.

Kim Muhyuk’s every sense had been honed to its absolute limit. In his current state, he might even be able to detect falsehood through intuition alone.

So Yang Seonu spoke as slowly and in as much detail as possible, dragging out every moment he could.

“I’ve told you... everything. And there’s one more important thing you should know.”

Yang Seonu chewed and swallowed the paper he had concealed inside his mouth, activating the trump-card spell he had kept hidden until the very end.

“Superior martial arts do not always guarantee victory.”

The instant Yang Seonu’s eyes seemed to turn red, the spell activated.

CLATTER-CLATTER-CLATTER!

Transparent chains burst from his heart and wrapped around Kim Muhyuk’s body.

It happened in an instant.

“Hahahahahahaha!”

“...”

Yang Seonu looked up at Kim Muhyuk, who had gone rigid before he could even react, and burst into wild laughter.

“You fool! Did you think I intended to fight you with martial arts alone?”

CREEEAK.

The chains emerging from Yang Seonu’s body wrapped around Kim Muhyuk dozens of times and constricted with crushing force.

“Do not even dream of escaping. It is a curse spell created by grinding an anomaly into its components. It required both your blood and mine. We had to be close, and I needed to make you hear a specific sequence of words. I slipped them into my explanation, and you never noticed! Hahahahaha!”

The spell was immensely powerful precisely because its activation conditions were so difficult to satisfy.

Overcome with delight, Yang Seonu kindly explained the spell that had ensnared Kim Muhyuk.

“If you disobey even the slightest command from me, your entire body will twist apart and kill you! The same will happen if I die. You can never escape these chains!”

“...”

“Hahahahahahaha! I win! In the end, I won!”

Tears of joy streamed from Yang Seonu’s eyes.

He had lost both arms and all his martial arts, but he was the one who had survived.

“Now carry me on your back and take me to the Sword Demon. I want to see that old man weeping and begging as soon as possible.”

A sly smile spread across Yang Seonu’s lips as he imagined taking his time exacting revenge on the Sword Demon.

But then Kim Muhyuk reached up with both hands and grabbed the chains constricting his body.

“So that’s what you were hiding in your mouth? Just this? What a disappointment.”

With that indifferent murmur, Kim Muhyuk tore the chains apart through sheer force.

CRACK.

“...Huh?”

Yang Seonu made a stupid sound as he watched the chains crumble helplessly.

Those were not real chains.

They were a spell.

A spell infused with the power of a mighty anomaly—something that could not simply be touched at will.

CRACK! CRACK-CRACK!

Right before his eyes, Kim Muhyuk tore apart every chain clinging to his body.

Then he looked down at the stunned Yang Seonu.

“Oh, did I never tell you? Anomaly powers don’t work very well on me. You should’ve hidden a concealed weapon instead.”

“Y-You... You...”

Yang Seonu wanted to scream.

What are you?

How can a monster like you possibly exist?

But he could say nothing.

Kim Muhyuk had already cut out his tongue.

“Anyway, I’m truly grateful, Senior Brother.”

“Ghh...!”

As blood loss blurred his vision, Yang Seonu tried to understand what Kim Muhyuk meant.

Because I helped him become a supreme master...?

Would that be how he remained in the monster’s memory for the rest of his life?

In his final moments, Yang Seonu tried to grant his death some meaning.

But Kim Muhyuk’s next words reduced him to utter misery.

“Thanks to you, I got closer to Master.”

Even at the very end, Kim Muhyuk treated him as though he had never mattered at all.

Yang Seonu’s eyes bulged as he thrashed helplessly.

“Ghk... Ghh... Krrgh!”

His labored gasps gradually faded.

On an island no one knew.

He met a miserable end he had never once imagined.