Dokgo Sword Gate (獨孤劍門), Or Dokgo Gate (獨孤門) For Short

One Flash wasn’t actually some grand ultimate technique.

It was simply an Iron Sword technique: wrap internal energy around the blade, then release it as sword qi the instant the sword was drawn.

Yet in my previous life, I had slaughtered more than a hundred martial artists with this simple, monotonous technique and cut down more than fifteen experts at once.

How had that been possible?

The answer was even simpler than the principles behind One Flash.

Because conquering the Iron Sword realm simply meant taking these brutally simple techniques, honing them to their absolute limit, and seeing them through to the end.

After all, the Iron Sword realm itself represented the ultimate refinement of precise technique.

Just as its name suggested, like a single razor-sharp iron sword honed to perfection.

Lost in such thoughts as I swung my sword, I suddenly looked around.

Around eight men had fallen to One Flash, while Young Sect Master Seok Gwang, who was currently crossing swords with me, was about a step below the Righteous Sword Gate Master.

As expected, his martial prowess was nowhere near enough to be my match.

Still, just to torment Seok Gwang, I deliberately chose to evade instead of attacking first and kept doing nothing but parrying instead of counterattacking, toying with him in the truest sense of the word.

Sure enough, after about four exchanges, Seok Gwang sensed that something was wrong, and his face went pale.

I spoke to Seok Gwang, who abruptly broke away after unleashing a furious barrage of attacks.

“Young Sect Master, you came at me with so much spirit. Why do you look so pale now? Did you eat something bad?”
“…….”
“If you ate something bad, hurry up and go take a shit. Why are you hanging around here? This isn’t a latrine. It’s the Sword Name Gate, not the Shit Name Gate.”

Just as I felt the conversation getting progressively filthier, Gongson Han’s grumbling voice came from behind me.

“Why the hell are you talking about shit in the middle of a fight……?”
“Shut up.”

The whole point of talking nonsense was to mock your opponent and piss him off.

So what the nonsense was actually about didn’t matter much.

Perhaps Young Sect Master Seok Gwang understood exactly what I was going for, because his deathly pale face rapidly turned bright red as he thrust out his longsword and charged at me.

Chaaaaang!

I struck the side of his vertically descending sword with the flat of my own blade, knocking the longsword from Seok Gwang’s hand and sending it into the ground.

I’d suddenly put power behind my swing, so Seok Gwang couldn’t help but be caught off guard.

The instant Seok Gwang’s gaze shifted toward his fallen sword……I seized that fleeting opening, slashed horizontally across his neck, and followed it with a burst of grayish-white palm force.

Kwaaaaaang!

Young Sect Master Seok Gwang went flying without so much as a scream, slammed into Sword Name Gate’s crumbling wall, and collapsed.

I casually waved away the dust with one hand as I approached the fallen Seok Gwang.

He lay sprawled there with his head drooping like a piece of dried fish soaked in water, and judging by the depth of the wound across his neck, he’d apparently died from that single slash.

Having finally claimed a victory that wasn’t particularly glorious, I turned my head and looked around.

I hadn’t noticed while fighting, but at some point a sizable crowd had gathered to watch.

I addressed the spectators who had swarmed in like rats.

“……It’s over now, so everyone go on home.”
“…….”

Yet not a single person left. Were these bastards taking advantage of the safety of the crowd to ignore me?

I put some force behind my voice and shouted again.

“I said piss off, you bastards!”

My voice, infused with internal energy, rolled out like a roar. Only then did the crowd surrounding me begin to scatter one by one before vanishing in an instant.

“……Is it all over?”

I turned at the very familiar voice and, sure enough, found So Geum-ho approaching. I spoke calmly to the visibly exhausted man.

“Yeah. It’s over.”
“Phew…….”

The moment he heard my answer, So Geum-ho dropped onto the ground like a man utterly spent and let out a deep breath.

I couldn’t tell whether the sigh came from exhaustion after the fight or relief that everything was finally over.

Come to think of it……Gongson Han should still be somewhere nearby.

As I turned my head this way and that, surveying the complete mess that Sword Name Gate had become, I suddenly spotted Gongson Han slipping away from the scene with rat-like steps, faster and more discreetly than anyone else.

The bastard really was remarkably good at using that crafty little brain of his.

But I’d already dealt with the Demonic Gentleman, who had practically reached the Profound Realm when it came to scheming, in my previous life. Gongson Han wasn’t getting away with that shit, so I immediately called him back.

“Han.”

Gongson Han froze mid-step, visibly startled, then cautiously poked his head around to look at me.

“Yes?”
“Going for a walk?”
“No.”
“Then are you running away?”
“No.”

Quick on the uptake as always, Gongson Han immediately hurried over and crouched down in front of me.

Our dear Young Sect Master Gongson Han put on a remarkably shameless expression, as though he’d never once considered running away, and opened his mouth.

“I was analyzing the situation. It would be troublesome if someone survived and tried to launch a surprise attack.”
“Cut the bullshit and come sit closer.”
“Yes.”

This time, I called over So Geum-ho, who was sitting quite a distance away.

“Chief Steward Salt. You come over too. I have something to tell both of you.”
“Yes.”

And so the three of us gathered together in one spot like the heroes of Romance of the Three Kingdoms swearing the Peach Garden Oath.

Looking at the two Young Sect Masters……I couldn’t shake the thought that their personalities and impressions were complete opposites.

So Geum-ho was diligent and loyal, but sometimes he could be so stubbornly straightforward that it became frustrating and landed him in difficult situations.

Gongson Han, on the other hand, had a good head on his shoulders, but he was every bit as sly and slippery, which came with the serious drawback of making him damn hard to trust.

In other words, they were a combination of one man so nice he was practically stupid and another so smart you wanted to smack him.

Sitting in a corner of the half-collapsed training yard and analyzing the two of them was making my head spin.

‘Ah, what a mess. What a fucking mess. What am I even doing?’

Still, both So Geum-ho and Gongson Han were people I needed right now.

I wasn’t competent or clever enough to manage three sword sects all by myself.

In short, it was time for a lunatic hooligan, a smart but slippery bastard, and a kind but frustrating blockhead to put their strength together.

I began blurting out the thoughts tumbling through my head without any particular order.

“……From now on, I’m going to tell you two my plan exactly as I see it.”
“…….”

I hadn’t particularly expected an answer, so I continued.

“I intend to merge the three existing sword sects into one. Naturally, I’ll be the Sect Master of that sect. But I’m absolute shit at using my head, so I need the two of you to help me.”
“…….”
“I’ll leave the administrative and practical running of the sect entirely to you two. So Geum-ho, you’ll serve as Young Sect Master. Gongson Han, you’ll serve as Chief Steward. Understand?”

Gongson Han, who had been listening closely to the plan, slowly raised his hand.

“I have a question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Why do we need to merge the sects in the first place?”

I explained in an even tone.

“When forces of similar size cluster together, sooner or later a conflict breaks out. Even if a conflict doesn’t break out, problems happen. And when problems happen, they’re hard to manage. Anyway, for this reason and that, merging the sects is necessary. That’s all.”
“Similar in size? Us?”
“Aren’t we?”

Gongson Han looked around at the crumbling Sword Name Gate before giving an honest answer.

“I don’t think so.”
“Do you want to die right here?”
“My apologies.”

So Geum-ho raised his hand with an utterly serious expression.

I shot So Geum-ho a vicious look.

“If your question is on the same level as his, I’m hitting you first.”
“Ah. It isn’t.”
“Then ask.”

So Geum-ho asked something that actually sounded like a proper question.

“Then what is the sect’s purpose for existing, and what principles will guide its actions?”
“Guiding principles?”
“Yes. To put it simply, even just telling us the purpose of the sect would be enough.”

I fell into thought for a moment. What exactly were the purpose and guiding principles of the Dokgo Gate supposed to be?

Until now, I’d only ever thought about the goals of my own life. I’d never considered why the sect I was going to lead should exist.

But the answer was simpler than expected.

The direction of my life would simply become the direction of the sect.

After thinking for a moment, I said whatever came to mind.

“……There are many people in this world, each living with their own story.”

So Geum-ho tilted his head before answering.

“I suppose there are.”
“But there should never be so many people with stories of undeserved suffering. That’s absurd. And yet these days, that absurdity happens as though it were perfectly normal.”
“…….”

As I spoke, images of the Heavenly Demon Cult’s Cult Leader, the Demonic Gentleman, demonic martial artists, and all sorts of other heretics flashed through my mind.
Standing before the two of them, I launched into my own speech with the air of some renowned scholar.

“For example……people who are tormented and have precious things taken from them simply because they’re weak. As long as shameless villains continue to exist in this world, more and more people will be forced to live carrying pain they never deserved.”

I raised a finger and continued.

“We will become the enemies of villains like that. Villains like the Sword Hero Gate Master and the Righteous Sword Gate Master. That is the direction I want my life to take, and by extension, the reason our united sect will exist.”
“…….”

Even as I spoke, subtle changes passed over So Geum-ho’s and Gongson Han’s expressions.

Their eyes mostly carried the sense that they couldn’t quite believe what they were hearing. To be fair, it wasn’t hard to understand why they couldn’t completely trust me.

After all, declaring ourselves the enemies of villains could, in the broadest sense, amount to making an enemy of the entire Kangho.

Even so, this was the conviction and cause I sincerely wanted to uphold.

So Geum-ho, who had been quietly listening, said something unexpected.

“So you mean……like the Martial Alliance or the White Path?”

I shook my head.

“No. The Martial Alliance exists to protect the weak, not to punish villains. Chivalry lies at the foundation of how they act, and that naturally creates limits.”
“…….”
“But we belong to no one, so we have no such limits. That’s what will set our sect apart. Do you understand?”

So Geum-ho nodded with a complicated expression before replying.

“I think I understand. It’ll certainly be an unusual and rather bold sect.”
“Probably.”
“If that’s your will, Sect Master, then I’m in favor. I have no objections.”

I nodded once, then stared at Gongson Han.

“What?”
“What are you going to do?”

Gongson Han stared into the air and let out a faint sigh.

“……Well, what choice do I have? I’ll just have to follow your orders.”
“Good.”

And with that, an alliance of three men, a lunatic, a slippery bastard, and a blockhead, was born. An alliance of misfits, I guess.

Normally, when forming an alliance like this, you were supposed to share a drink beneath peach blossoms or something. But in this wreckage, there were no peaches, no wine, no fucking anything. Just dust.

With no other choice, I held out an empty hand and spoke seriously.

“……Whatever lives the three of us may have lived until now.”
“…….”
“From this moment onward, we are of one heart and one mind. If anyone has an objection, say it now. And I swear before Heaven and Earth that if any one of us betrays the others, I’ll tear him apart with my own hands.”
“Hmm.”

My vicious declaration froze the atmosphere in an instant.

Neither of them said anything, but I chose to take that as approval. After all, silence was a strong affirmation.

Just as that not-quite-silence was about to continue, So Geum-ho asked me another question.

“Um, Sect Master.”
“What?”
“Then what’s the sect going to be called?”

I gave them the name I’d come up with in a completely straightforward tone.

“Dokgo Sword Gate (獨孤劍門). Dokgo Gate (獨孤門) for short.”
“…….”

Silence descended in an instant. How was I even supposed to describe this atmosphere?

The feeling of everyone desperately holding back what they wanted to say stretched into a long, peculiar silence.

As the awkward atmosphere dragged on, Gongson Han suddenly clapped both hands over his mouth.

“Pfft!”

But there was no way he could contain every sound trying to escape.

In the end, So Geum-ho, who had been suppressing his laughter with everything he had, burst out first. Gongson Han followed right after, finally letting loose and openly mocking my atrocious naming sense.

“Hahahaha.”
“Hahahaha! The sect’s name is Dokgo……Gate. Hahahaha!”

Fuck it. I started laughing too.

“Hahahaha! You goddamned bastards. Hahahaha!”

The three of us went on laughing for a long while as though we’d all been struck by madness.

It was a revel of lunatics beneath the moonlight. Apparently, I’d chosen the wrong people.

If I started cackling by myself, someone was supposed to stop me. But there wasn’t a single person here capable of doing that, so we ended up laughing for quite a while longer.

News spread far faster than expected that the Sword Hero Gate Master and Righteous Sword Gate Master had fallen to the Sword Name Gate Master, and that same Sword Name Gate Master had merged the three sword sects into a new sect called the Dokgo Sword Gate.

And the Sect Master of that Dokgo Gate was none other than yours truly, Sect Master Dokgo himself.

Rumors about the Dokgo Gate and Sect Master Dokgo spread and spread until they dominated Yongmyeong County, and now no one in town could treat me lightly anymore.

It was closer to frightening notoriety than honorable fame, but that suited me just fine. It kept random nobodies from showing up after hearing some useless reputation.

Thanks to that, I spent a while enjoying remarkably quiet and peaceful days.

Of course, having more free time didn’t particularly change my daily life.

After all, I poured every moment of the day into training except the time I spent stuffing my face, sleeping, and taking a shit.

‘What a life…….’

Ten days passed……and once the muscle on my body had become reasonably solid, I began focusing more on accumulating internal energy than on external cultivation.

Perhaps because of that, I sometimes lost entire days to circulating my qi, and more than once I closed my eyes during the day only to open them again at dawn.

Only after I reached somewhere near the latter part of the third stage of the Iron Sword……was I finally able to enjoy a comfortable night’s sleep.

At this point, I had established a decent foundation in both external cultivation and internal energy.

After that, whenever I woke naturally at dawn after actually getting some proper fucking sleep, I climbed the mountain behind the sect and practiced handling the Demon Wail Sword as well. As expected, it was no easy task at my current level.

Still, there was progress.

By continuing to practice using the principles for countering the Soul-Seizing Art, after about two weeks I became capable of fully drawing the Demon Wail Sword while remaining sane.

My mind still became hazy all the same, so I didn’t dare try swinging it.

One wrong move and I might end up joining the Righteous Sword Gate Master and Sword Hero Gate Master I’d sent ahead of me, so for now I decided to be satisfied with simply being able to draw it.

After another two weeks of alternating between external cultivation, internal cultivation, and training with the Demon Wail Sword……I was resting in the Sword Hero Gate’s main hall when someone’s voice reached me.

“Sect Master.”

I opened my eyes and found that the voice belonged to Gongson Han. As I rubbed my half-closed eyes, Gongson Han frowned slightly.

“Were you sleeping?”
“As if. What happened with the Righteous Sword Gate bastards?”

In truth, after establishing the Dokgo Gate, I’d ordered Gongson Han to deal with the remaining Righteous Sword Gate remnants, while So Geum-ho was put in charge of repairing Sword Name Gate’s already shabby buildings after they’d been wrecked even further.

Gongson Han began reporting in a businesslike tone.

“Yes. They all surrendered, so I took them in as rank-and-file members. More importantly, we had a visitor earlier.”
“A visitor? Who?”
“I don’t know either. Some man dressed in black appeared, left behind this letter, and disappeared.”

I calmly took the letter Gongson Han pulled from his clothes and unfolded it. Who the hell had sent this?

There was no way to know, so I simply started reading. I went through it character by character, and once my brain finally caught up with what my eyes had read, a hollow laugh escaped me.

<Our Sect Master is greatly displeased. We will not accept a refusal. Consider this a final courtesy, as we are inviting you with the utmost respect. We trust we will see you tomorrow night. The location is Maengung Manor. Until then.>

I stared at the letter and its utterly dry wording for a long while.

So, to sum things up……apparently the pathetic Black Path bastard who’d been taking money from the Righteous Sword Gate Master and Sword Hero Gate Master was very upset.

I continued staring at the letter written by that black serpent bastard for a long while.