Chapter 11

Thud!
“Ouch, it hurts.”
“Don’t be mean to the person who healed you. You should have been careful not to hurt yourself!”
I sounded angry, but I could see Yeon-hwa’s worried expression, so I just smiled and replied.
“Yeah, I’ll be careful.”
“Wow. You really…… surprised me.”
Yeon-hwa breathes out a sigh of relief as she pats her chest.
She smiled sheepishly.
“Okay, okay, okay.”
“Have you eaten?”
“No, not yet. Do you think I had time to eat when I was so injured?”
“Okay, you stay here and have a quick breakfast, I’ll get you something to eat.”
“Yeah, okay.”
As soon as she was done, she closed her eyes and ate her breakfast.
How much time had passed?
When my empty bottom was filled with energy, and I didn’t need to do it anymore, I released the energy I was receiving and took a deep breath.
As I closed my eyes, I suddenly remembered the fight from earlier.
Sixteen seconds, ten thousand plum blossoms, with Yoo Hyuk’s optimism and my plum blade.
Liu Hyuk’s Optimism Flower was incredible, even to me.
Honestly, I thought it would be difficult to stop it even with my last Plum Blade.
But the reality was different.
When he summoned all his energy and unleashed the final slash, the sword broke free of its path and moved like a living creature on its own.
It moved of its own accord, just as it had when the harmony within my body was broken.
I thought about what had changed.
The eclipse, the bottom slash, drew a rounded half-circle.
The transplant, interruption stab, drew seven plum blossoms in an instant, slightly twisting Yoo Hyuk’s sword path.
He moved through the three, four, five, and six slashes with such speed and lightness that even I didn’t know how he moved.
At the last eighteen, Yoo Hyuk’s Death Penalty Sword lost all of its power and bang!
He hadn’t changed even when I told him to change during training, but suddenly he changed.
It was a different sword than the one he had known until now.
Moreover, unlike the one that had changed when the harmony was broken, the new plum blade had pushed the old plum blade out of his mind and into a corner of his brain.
Changing one’s herbivore at will can be a messy business if done incorrectly.
However, as evidenced by the fact that he stopped Yoo Hyuk’s Optimization Choice, the Choice had changed for the better.
‘It’s a good thing…… but somehow I feel uneasy?’
I feel uneasy because I suddenly changed when I didn’t want to.
I shook my head and opened my eyes, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling.
Yeon-hwa walked in the door just in time to see me putting food on the table.
“What? Are you done crying?”
“Uh.”
“Then come eat, but be careful.”
It was hard because of the bitter grip, but somehow I managed to eat, and then we went outside and stood on the grass.
Sarrrr.
The wind blew, ruffling Yan’s hair.
“It’s Qingwu.”
“Why?”
“Because…… over there…….”
Yanhua hesitated, wondering if there was something she shouldn’t say.
After a few moments passed, she spoke up.
“Whoa…… no, that’s okay.”
“Why? I’m curious, why did you stop talking?”
“Shut up, I suddenly don’t want to talk, I’ll come back tomorrow, take care of yourself.”
“I’m curious…….”
“Bye, bye.”
With a wave of her hand, Yeonhwa walked down the road and out of the drunken rock.
“You really shouldn’t be so rash…….”
He laughed happily and drew his sword.
“Ouch.”
Now that she thought about it, she realized that she had held the bottle of blood while it was flowing, and the blood had half-curdled.
“I’ll have to wash it.”
I sheathed my sword and walked toward the ravine.
I heard the sound of a babbling brook and saw a clear stream in front of me.
Thrrrr!
I grabbed the sword bottle with a stinging grip and pulled the sword out of its scabbard. I dipped the bottle in the water and wiped off the blood.
The clear water turned red.
After a moment, it turned clear again, and the jar was cleaned of the sticky blood.
With a few light swings, I shook the water off the sword.
He slid the sword back into its sheath and headed for the Drunken Rock.
‘Here, like this…… and here, like this…….’
I spread out the Plum Blossom Sword Sword virtually and organized the sword swords that had changed.
It didn’t seem like a long time, but before I knew it, I had arrived at Quyunam.
I opened the door and entered.
“Whoa, I’m tired.”
I flopped down on the stone bed and pulled the futon over me.
I stayed like that for half an hour, one hour, two hours, half an hour, one hour…….
“I can’t sleep!”
My body was screaming that it was tired, that it hurt, but my head was pounding.
An unnatural state of being.
“Is this the effect of the disharmony of the mind, body, and soul……?”
I hadn’t thought of it because of the secret battle with Yoo Hyuk, but the harmony within my body was broken.
“Hot!”
I strained to lift my hand.
As usual, my body felt tired and limp, and my head was very clear.
“Will it get better if I cry?”
I closed my eyes and did some wagong.
I didn’t need to sit up to do it.
I had trained myself to do standing gong, wagong, or sitting gong.
Nevertheless, I usually do it out of habit.
However, sometimes I don’t do this when I’m bothered.
I opened my eyes after breathing at this angle.
I woke up feeling more refreshed than before.
He re-sheathed his sword, which he had left unstrapped beside his bed, and stepped outside.
Whirling∼
A cool breeze swept through my body.
In the sky, the stars were shining like bright dye on a black veil, and the moon was rising in the center of it all, illuminating the world in place of the sun.
“Kemura in the moonlight…… might be pretty good…….”
I drew my sword.
The slanted hilt was illuminated by the moonlight, and the blade emitted a clear, bright light.
Looking at it, I felt no pain in my grip, no fatigue.
“Huh…….”
With a moderate amount of tension in his body, he took up the new plum blade.
He placed the sword in the scabbard, stepped forward with his right foot about a pace and a half, tilted his body slightly, and turned the scabbard ninety degrees to the left with his left hand.
His right hand was slightly raised from the scabbard, and he looked intently ahead.
Tadat! Squeak!
He stepped forward with his left foot, and in an instant, he pulled the sword out of the scabbard and slashed.
A silent sword.
He cut down the tree about a zhang in front of him without breaking through, then pivoted his left foot on its axis and thrust forward once more.
Qiuwuong!
This time, a dull thud resounded.
With a final thrust, he deployed his only unchanged herbivore, the super plum pumice stone.
Pot, pot, papapapap!
The blade shook, and the plum blossomed in an instant.
The number of plum blossoms was eight, and even though it hadn’t changed, its achievement was outstanding.
He slashed vertically downward, piercing through the blood all over his body.
Boom!
The sword slammed into the ground.
I twisted it slightly and focused my bet on the tip of the sword.
“Haaat!”
Quadruple!
Earthquake.
The ground shook from the waves of qi emanating from the rising sword.
The ground rose up as if a great earth dragon was writhing, and it rushed forward.
Bam!
The earth dragon’s charge came to a halt as it slammed into a tree, and I felt a wave of nausea rise in my stomach.
“Woof! Woof!”
My stomach fluids rose, tasting bitter.
“Tsk!”
I spit out the gastric juices.
“Haha, haha, you’re kidding me, what’s this…… three quadrants of the inner air in one fell swoop…….”
It’s not easy to turn the earth upside down.
I know this well.
But to use up three quarters of my enlightenment and deepened inner qigong on a single herb was unbelievable.
“As strong as it is…….”
The traces of an earth dragon.
The ground was rising and jagged, trees exploding.
“But this is already the Plum Blossom Sword, not the Volcano Sect’s Martial Art.”
He unfolded his plum blade, but it wasn’t a plum blade.
A plum blade of the Volcano Sect must be soft, supple, and exquisite.
It should emit the fragrance of plum blossoms and be as beautiful as a real plum blossom.
However, the current plum blossom sword was like a lively, explosive Sect Martial Art.
It could not be called a mere martial art, but an overwhelming destructive force.
The other swords were no different.
Of course, they were not as powerful as the three herbivores.
This one was from the Volcanic Sect, and it could not be called a martial art.
At its core, it was a plum blossom sword, and even if it was a martial art, I couldn’t recognize it as a living martial art like the martial arts of the Demons I had only read about in books.
It was incomparably more lively than when the harmony was broken.
“Wow, I should be careful…….”
I decided not to use it when I was with other people, so I resumed my qi formation and developed the first formations one by one.
The other herbs were just as vibrant.
They didn’t have the same destructive power as the three, only the stabbing motion, and they were so overwhelming that it was impossible to think of them as swords.
“Huh…….”
My body was drenched in sweat.
The sticky feeling made me feel sick.
“I need to wash…….”
I put my sword back in its scabbard and went to the ravine.
Tsk. Chin!
I stripped off my clothes and set the sword next to them.
Chawak!
Cold water, like ice cold water.
A cold sensation that awakened both mind and body.
I bathed, enjoying the sensation.
But in my mind, I was only thinking about the changed Plum Blossom Sword.
‘If I used the altered plum blade, I would definitely be persecuted as an unworthy martial artist (especially by Yu Hyuk and Zhang Il). Furthermore, now that I think about it, it’s a felony to tamper with a martial art, so I’ll have to keep it under wraps until I’m able to control it fully and adopt it as an official martial art.
The thought of having to seal away one of my favorite sword techniques, one that I had mastered, and one that had become second nature to me, was disturbing, but what could I do?
Shaking off my regret, I stepped outside and drew up my inner qigong.
I blew the water off my body into the inner air and changed my clothes.
He sheathed his sword at his waist and started walking.
As he approached the Drunken Rock, the sun was rising in the distance.
It shone brightly.
The clouds were dyed scarlet by the light.
For a moment, I stared at the scene without thinking.
I felt as if all the evil in my heart had been cleansed away.
I laughed happily and shouted.
“Let’s start fresh!”