CLS-Chapter 498

Chapter 498:

It was a shock that seemed to twist the very axis of the earth.

Those who had been surrounding them and watching the battle between the two scattered backward in all directions.

‘That ignorant bastard!’

Tang Cheon-gun cursed continuously as he flew backward.

The sight of the pavilion collapsing, unable to withstand the impact, came clearly into his view.

Fighting in someone else’s house and even destroying the building.

From the homeowner’s perspective, it was enough to make one weep tears of blood. Even so, Tang Cheon-gun could only spew curses and didn’t dare rush in to stop the two.

If he got caught up in that, even Tang Cheon-gun wouldn’t be able to pick up his own bones.

The level of their offense and defense was on a different dimension.

Wei Yan-ho was indeed Wei Yan-ho. But Heavenly Flow Sword, who was receiving Wei Yan-ho’s attacks, was also remarkable.

‘That bastard, he wasn’t using his full power.’

The speed and destructive force were different from the sparring match with Cheok Su-gwang that had taken place just a short while ago. It felt like he was adjusting his strength according to his opponent. Cheok Su-gwang seemed to have realized this fact too, as his expression wasn’t very good.

‘It’s natural, if you think about it.’

Cheok Su-gwang is strong. Everyone acknowledges that fact. Isn’t Cheok Su-gwang the very person who climbed to the supremely exalted position of Alliance Leader of the Heavenly Alliance through that strength alone?

But he couldn’t be compared to Heavenly Flow Sword.

If Cheok Su-gwang was one who crawled up from the bottom, Heavenly Flow Sword was one who had been in a place higher than where Cheok Su-gwang had crawled up to from the very beginning. While there were plenty of those in the martial world who ignored and didn’t acknowledge Cheok Su-gwang, there were none who dared ignore Heavenly Flow Sword.

It was simply not known.

He didn’t boast of his own fame. If there was a strong person, he would go anywhere to spar with them. And the results of those spars mostly ended in defeat.

The Sword of a Thousand Defeats.

One who loses even to third-rate martial artists.

The greatest failure born of Hundred Swords Castle.

There was a time when he was called such things.

It was a small number of strong individuals who noticed the strangeness. They had won. But their victory didn’t feel like victory. They revealed everything to their opponent and won by the slimmest margin. Who would call such a victory a victory?

People began to emerge who felt defeat even in victory. Cheok Su-gwang was like that, and Sword Immortal was like that. The outcome of the match didn’t matter. They had seen it.

The true face of Heavenly Flow Sword that he never revealed.

‘Can he draw it out?’

Wei Yan-ho seemed like he might be able to.

No matter how much of a Heavenly Flow Sword he was, there could be no such thing as going easy against Wei Yan-ho.

Kwaaaaaaaang!

Explosive sounds continued to burst forth.

Wei Yan-ho was pouring out attacks with a momentum that seemed like it would blow away the entire Tang Family.

“Damn, really!”

Curses burst out involuntarily.

But his profanity was drowned out by the explosive sounds and couldn’t spread to the surroundings.

Just as Tang Cheon-gun, who had descended to the ground, was about to shout…

“That damn bastard.”

There was someone else who cursed in his stead.

It was Cheok Su-gwang.

Tang Cheon-gun chimed in with a delighted heart.

“He doesn’t know the meaning of moderation.”

“That’s not it. The person I’m cursing is Heavenly Flow Sword.”

“Pardon?”

Tang Cheon-gun expressed his confusion, but Cheok Su-gwang didn’t bother to answer.

‘Can’t he even see this?’

Explaining to someone who can’t see despite having eyes is meaningless.

Wei Yan-ho’s attacks are incredibly fierce. So fierce that one would doubt whether a human could maintain their form in front of such attacks.

But Heavenly Flow Sword was blocking all those attacks.

Can’t you see it?

The sight of Heavenly Flow Sword’s gracefully moving blade deflecting all of Wei Yan-ho’s light orbs.

‘Monster against monster.’

Cheok Su-gwang gritted his teeth.

He had already been defeated by Wei Yan-ho once.

Wei Yan-ho is a monster. He wasn’t someone he could dare handle. But Heavenly Flow Sword was exchanging moves with Wei Yan-ho. Though he was momentarily pushed back and suffered a setback, that fact didn’t prove that he was at a disadvantage.

Look.

After the dust cloud cleared, Heavenly Flow Sword revealed his form.

A slightly pale complexion.

Fresh blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.

The pure white clothing was cut in various places, and red blood flowed through the gaps.

Just looking at his revealed appearance, he looked like he had suffered a proper defeat.

But what was revealed wasn’t everything.

‘You can’t say he’s been pushed into a disadvantageous position just because his skin has been wounded.’

The wounds visible on the surface looked serious, but his internal energy wasn’t shaken in the slightest. If that was the case, it should still be considered an even match.

Heavenly Flow Sword lowered his head to look at the wounds covering his body. Then he let out a hollow laugh.

“Heh heh.”

A laugh mixed with bewilderment and admiration.

Having sufficiently shown what his feelings were with that laugh, Heavenly Flow Sword looked straight at Wei Yan-ho and opened his mouth.

“It’s been ten years since I’ve been wounded, but this isn’t a situation where I can whine about getting scratched. Frightening, truly frightening.”

Heavenly Flow Sword shook his head from side to side.

These weren’t just casual words. If he had been pushed back just a little more, his neck could have been severed without even being able to counterattack.

‘It’s a sword I’ve never seen in my life.’

There are those in the world who are stronger than him. Just his elder brother, the head of the Myriad Swords Hundred Family, is so strong that he can’t even fathom his level. And there must be plenty of those stronger than him in the Demonic Cult as well.

But no one in the world knows more swordsmanship than him. That was something Heavenly Flow Sword could be proud of. His life was devoted solely to seeing and analyzing the countless swords of the world.

That was why he wandered the world.

His sword was everyone’s sword.

He had to contain all the swords of the world within his sword. But he couldn’t survey the world from where he sat. To know sword techniques he didn’t know and swords with different interpretations than his, he wandered the world.

Not just the Central Plains.

Yunnan and the Northern Sea, as far as Tibet.

He visited anywhere there were strong people, and when he heard rumors of someone using unusual swordsmanship, he sought their teachings regardless of their skill level.

He is the person who has seen and experienced the most swords in the world.

But now, Wei Yan-ho’s sword was one he had never seen even once.

“Who is your master?”

“Good grief.”

Wei Yan-ho swayed his sword.

“Every single person who fights with me seems to get thorns in their mouth if they don’t ask that.”

“It’s because it’s mysterious.”

“Mysterious?”

Heavenly Flow Sword nodded.

“When a sword you’ve never seen even once in your life comes at you with such power, who wouldn’t find it mysterious? If someone created a completely new school that no one has ever seen and brought it to this level, they wouldn’t be lacking even if called a great master of a generation. So I’m curious.”

But all Wei Yan-ho would give back was sarcasm.

“If you can’t recognize it even after seeing it, there’s no point in telling you.”

“How can one know a person they’ve never seen?”

“You should know.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Others might not know, but you should know. Hundred Swords Castle, that brat might not know because he’s young, but still, you should know. That’s the only way you can understand why I’m so heated up right now.”

Wei Yan-ho’s voice had no inflection.

But Heavenly Flow Sword could sense the anger embedded in that voice.

‘So it’s not simply because of bad relations with the Demonic Cult?’

He thought the reason Wei Yan-ho showed anger toward him was because Hundred Swords Castle had allied with the Demonic Cult. But listening to what Wei Yan-ho was saying now, there seemed to be another reason.

“Is it because of your grudge with Sword Shadow?”

“Do you think something like that would matter?”

Wei Yan-ho snorted.

“It’s not even worth calling a grudge. That person might have a grudge against me, but I have no reason to hold a grudge against that person.”

That was true.

It was Wei Yan-ho who interfered with everything Hundred Sword Shadow did. On the other hand, Wei Yan-ho had never suffered any damage because of Hundred Sword Shadow. Then why was Wei Yan-ho angry?

“I can’t understand what you’re saying. If anyone should have a grudge, it would be us against you, not you against us.”

“You don’t need to know if you don’t know.”

Wei Yan-ho pointed his sword downward.

“If you can’t understand even after seeing with your eyes, I’ll have to make your body understand. Watch carefully, where the path you should have originally taken was.”

That was the end of it.

Wei Yan-ho rushed at Heavenly Flow Sword without any more words. Heavenly Flow Sword had no choice but to raise his sword straight and meet Wei Yan-ho.

‘The path we should have originally taken?’

The more he heard, the less he could understand.

Heavenly Flow Sword shook his head to dismiss the stray thoughts.

What was he going to do if he got caught up in it himself? Wei Yan-ho wasn’t an easy enough opponent to handle while having other thoughts.

‘But he’s not someone I can’t handle either.’

At least an even match.

If he used his full power, he wouldn’t lose the advantage…

Paang!

Tearing through the wind, Wei Yan-ho’s sword flew in.

‘Stray thoughts crept in again.’

There was something unsettling.

Heavenly Flow Sword had fought countless fierce battles. Accepting other people’s swords into his own sword wasn’t as easy as it sounded. Just watching and facing a sword only scratches the surface. He had to grasp the true meaning of that sword.

He was confident that his concentration in facing swords wouldn’t lose to anyone in the world, but why couldn’t he concentrate properly today of all days?

‘What’s the problem?’

Heavenly Flow Sword raised his sword.

Kang! Kang! Kang!

Wei Yan-ho’s sword flying in brilliantly.

From fast to illusive, from illusive to transformed, from transformed back to heavy, from heavy back to blunt.

Countless sword techniques changed and changed again in an instant. Probably any ordinary swordsman would lose their mind in front of these dazzling changes and have their neck severed.

But Heavenly Flow Sword didn’t waver.

What he needed to watch wasn’t the changes in the sword but his own body.

No matter what sword it was, it ultimately had to touch his body. Unless it was a mind-sword, one couldn’t inflict wounds without swinging a sword. If that was the case, all he had to do was deflect every approaching sword without being deceived by sword techniques.

Of course, that wasn’t easy either, but Heavenly Flow Sword could do it.

Immobility.

His sword was immobility.

He centered himself with his heart and firmly rooted himself to the earth. Like an ancient tree that wouldn’t shake even with a thousand years of wind, he stood firmly on the ground and silently received all the flying swords.

That alone was sufficient.

Though Wei Yan-ho’s sword was extremely dazzling, Heavenly Flow Sword received his sword like flowing wind, sometimes like an ancient tree.

“The flow seems to have changed…”

Anxiety colored Tang Cheon-gun’s voice. Even from watching on the sidelines, he could see that the situation had become difficult. If the match continued like this, the experienced Heavenly Flow Sword would likely gain the upper hand.

“Nothing has changed.”

But Cheok Su-gwang seemed to have a different opinion.

“Isn’t the situation completely different?”

“Because he’s not using his full power.”

Who?

Heavenly Flow Sword, or Wei Yan-ho?

Cheok Su-gwang said decisively.

“Heavenly Flow Sword’s level is beyond what I thought. Achieving immobility as a swordsman is the realm of completion. I never thought Heavenly Flow Sword would reach that far.”

“Then…”

“But.”

Cheok Su-gwang shook his head as he spoke.

“No matter how much he’s completed his sword, their vessels are different. Someone like Heavenly Flow Sword can no longer handle Wei Yan-ho. That’s simply a monster.”

At that moment, the situation changed completely.