Jeong Myeonggang, The Radiant Chivalrous Sword Eccentric

After passing through the gap in the stone door, Seonu Jin felt a wave of dizziness, as though the entire world had suddenly been overturned.

It felt as though he had entered an entirely different world.

When Seonu Jin immediately looked around, he realized that it had not been an illusion.

He muttered blankly.

“What in the world is this…?”

Tang Yeo-eun, who had entered while holding his hand, reacted the same way.

She looked around with a dazed expression and asked absentmindedly.

“How did this happen?”

A forest stretched out around them.

An enormous forest that extended endlessly in every direction.

Even that might somehow have been understandable.

There could have been a vast open area inside the cave.

However, there was no possible way to understand the sky stretching above their heads.

They had clearly passed through the inner side of a stone wall, yet the two of them were now standing in the middle of a forest beneath a gray sky.

Seonu Jin muttered.

“This is impossible.”

If the stone gate they had entered had faced the outside of the circular passage, they might have assumed that this was a forest on the opposite side of the cave.

However, the stone gate had faced the inside of the circular passage—in other words, farther toward the center of the mountain.

Therefore, it should have been absolutely impossible for a forest beneath an open sky to appear after entering through it.

It happened then.

Someone else leaped in from behind them.

In fact, there were two people.

“You bastards!”

The first was Mak Ujeon.

The moment Seonu Jin heard his voice, he hurriedly pulled Tang Yeo-eun toward him and retreated.

Mak Ujeon spotted them as soon as he entered and shouted with a vicious expression.

“Azure and Crimson Twin Swords! I’ve finally caught you!”

Ga Yuak immediately followed him inside.

He shouted toward Mak Ujeon.

“Association Leader!”

Mak Ujeon looked at him and called out happily.

“Oh, Vice Association Leader! You arrived at just the right time! We must kill those bastards!”

Confusion filled Seonu Jin’s eyes as he watched them.

‘What in the world is going on?’

He could not understand the situation at all.

Those two men had been consumed by madness and behaving like beasts only moments earlier….

Yet they had suddenly regained their senses.

‘Does entering this place cure the madness?’

That thought crossed his mind, but it still seemed strange.

Even now, Seonu Jin could feel the energy inside him being blocked by the barrier of the Great Lotus Mind-Purifying Art and failing to penetrate his mind.

It felt about as strong as before—no, to be precise, it seemed even stronger than before.

Therefore, there was no reason their madness should have been cured simply because they had entered this place.

Moreover, although Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak’s eyes were not as red as before, they still carried a crimson hue.

That meant they had not yet escaped their madness.

However, he had no time to think deeply about it.

Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak were radiating killing intent and looked ready to attack at any moment.

‘Tch!’

After circulating his energy once to assess his condition, Seonu Jin sent Tang Yeo-eun a voice transmission.

—My lady, we’ll have to fight for now. We need to look for an opportunity to flee during the battle.

—Yes, understood!

After checking, it seemed his internal injuries had recovered to some extent.

Moreover, if their madness had subsided, their martial prowess should also have returned to normal.

In that case, their chances might not be completely hopeless.

At that moment, Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak attacked first.

“Let’s see you try to run away again! Haaaaap!”

“Die!”

Whoosh!

Seonu Jin sharply examined the approaching Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak and immediately decided how to respond.

‘First, I’ll confuse them with Heavenly Wind Flower Leaves, then follow with the Realm of Phantom Swords and Emptiness Becomes Form…!’

It happened then.

KABOOM!

With a tremendous impact, the two men charging toward Seonu Jin were hurled backward.

Something that had suddenly appeared had struck them.

“Ugh!”

“W-What is that?!”

As the two men flew backward and staggered, Seonu Jin and Tang Yeo-eun stared at the being that had just appeared and knocked them away.

Their bodies had stiffened, and their eyes were filled with fear.

Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak reacted the same way.

They barely managed to regain their balance and land on the ground.

The moment they glared angrily at the figure, they too froze in place.

The man opened his mouth.

“Who dares cause a disturbance in this sovereign’s domain?”

His low voice burrowed into their ears.

It carried a force that seemed to reverberate through their very souls.

Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak involuntarily trembled.

He was a sharp-eyed, middle-aged man.

He had an ordinary build and wore common gray martial robes.

However, none of those looking at him could possibly regard him as ordinary.

Gulp!

Seonu Jin unconsciously swallowed.

It felt as though a mountain towering above the clouds stood before him—an overwhelming mountain whose peak seemed to touch the heavens and whose height could not be measured.

His presence did not seem inferior in the slightest even when compared to Soul-Ensnaring Libertine Son Eunsang or Sa Hye Blood Demon Jeon Mugwang, whom Seonu Jin had once felt stood above the clouds.

No, the chilling killing intent extending from him like a blade felt far more dangerous than either of theirs.

He was like a Demon King who had descended into the mortal world.

Barely enduring the killing intent crushing his body, Seonu Jin asked with difficulty.

“Senior… who are you?”

The Demon King turned his eyes toward Seonu Jin and answered.

“This sovereign is Jeong Myeonggang, the one who created this place.”

“!”

Jeong Myeonggang?

What?!

The moment the four realized whose name that was, they felt as though they had been struck violently across the head.

It was truly an absurd claim.

Jeong Myeonggang was the name of the Radiant Chivalrous Sword Eccentric, who was known to have died at least thirty or forty years ago.

Yet he stood before them alive and perfectly well….

Of course, the man might have been lying.

However, the overwhelming presence he radiated told them otherwise.

It declared that his words were unquestionably true.

Mak Ujeon stammered with a terrified expression.

“S-Senior, so you were still alive and well. W-We juniors did not realize and carelessly….”

Jeong Myeonggang shook his head once with an expressionless face.

“No. This sovereign is already dead.”

“…What?”

It was an exceedingly strange answer.

The man standing before them, apparently alive and well, had calmly declared that he was dead.

None of them knew how to interpret his words.

Seonu Jin cautiously asked again.

“Senior, what did you just say…?”

Jeong Myeonggang answered again as though it were perfectly obvious.

“This sovereign is already dead. This is a space somewhere between dream and reality that I created before my death. That is why I can exist here.”

“Ah!”

Only then did Seonu Jin understand the current situation.

It explained how they had entered deeper into a cave only to find a forest beneath an open sky, and how the Radiant Sword, who was said to have died decades ago, had appeared before them.

Mak Ujeon also seemed somewhat relieved as he cautiously asked Jeong Myeonggang.

“Then… you are an existence within a dream, Senior. Not something real.”

He appeared greatly relieved that Jeong Myeonggang, who radiated the presence and killing intent of a Demon King, was not real.

Seonu Jin felt the same.

Standing before Jeong Myeonggang felt as though he were teetering on the edge of a thousand-zhang cliff, moments away from being pushed.

It felt as though a mere twitch of the man’s finger could erase his life as easily as crushing an ant.

However, their relief that he was not real lasted only a moment.

Jeong Myeonggang shook his head again in response to Mak Ujeon’s question about whether he was a being within a dream.

“No. This is not a dream. More precisely, it lies somewhere between dream and reality. Therefore, if I kill you here, you will also die in reality.”

“…What?”

The four of them froze at his words.

His statement that they would die in reality if they died here sounded almost like a declaration that he intended to kill them.

The next moment, the Radiant Sword’s already tremendous killing intent erupted violently like a storm.

Whoosh!

The sudden wave of energy forced all four to groan in agony.

“Ugh!”

“Agh!”

“Gaaaah!”

“Urgh!”

They realized that the killing intent they had felt until now had merely been the force naturally leaking from him.

The instant the Radiant Sword truly released his killing intent, the intangible pressure became tangible, lifting all four into the air and strangling their throats.

“Uuuugh!”

Jeong Myeonggang merely watched them, yet the four writhed like insects in midair as they slowly died.

Although nothing physically held them, the pressure prevented them from moving even a single finger.

It was a devastating sense of helplessness unlike anything they had ever experienced.

A short while later, just as their vision began turning yellow from suffocation, Jeong Myeonggang’s killing intent became intangible once more.

The four dropped straight to the ground.

Thud!

“Cough! Cough!”

“Hack! Cough!”

“Huff, huff!”

They felt as though they had gone all the way to the gates of the afterlife and returned.

The four spent a long while coughing and struggling to regain their breath.

Jeong Myeonggang then asked again with an expressionless face.

“Does this place still seem like a dream?”

Mak Ujeon flinched in terror and hurriedly shook his head.

“No! Absolutely not!”

Jeong Myeonggang, the Radiant Sword, slowly nodded.

Then he spoke again.

“Good. Then let us begin the proper discussion. You have passed the first stage, the Mad-Soul Gate, in order to inherit my Moonlit Phantom Sword Dance. You have now entered the second stage, the Two-Person Gate. Is there anyone among you who has no interest in my martial arts and entered here by mistake?”

At his question, the four glanced cautiously at one another before shaking their heads.

Mak Ujeon naturally wished to obtain the Radiant Sword’s legacy, while Seonu Jin could not allow him to claim it.

Therefore, none of them could give up here.

Of course, Mak Ujeon wanted to emphasize that Seonu Jin’s group were intruders who had forced their way in midway, while Seonu Jin wanted to point out that Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak had not properly passed through the Mad-Soul Gate.

After all, both men had lost their senses and gone mad.

However, neither side dared speak recklessly.

They could not predict how the Radiant Sword would react or when he might suddenly change his mind and kill them.

When both sides quietly nodded, Jeong Myeonggang spoke again with the same expressionless face.

“Good. I shall grant both parties who passed the first gate an equal opportunity. However, remember that only two people may pass the second gate. Only two among you will survive.”

Seonu Jin and Tang Yeo-eun, and Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak, glared at one another with tense expressions.

Only two of the four would survive.

That meant only one pair could remain alive.

Therefore, regardless of what the second gate entailed, they had to clear it before the opposing pair.

The Radiant Sword spoke again.

“Then I shall now send each pair to its own second gate.”

When he snapped his fingers, Seonu Jin and Tang Yeo-eun instantly realized that the space around them had changed again.

They were no longer in the forest, but standing atop a hill overlooking a rural village.

A cozy mountain village lay beneath a crimson sunset.

Seonu Jin, Tang Yeo-eun, and Jeong Myeonggang, the Radiant Sword, stood on a peaceful hill overlooking it.

Tang Yeo-eun whispered quietly.

“Mak Ujeon and Ga Yuak are gone.”

Seonu Jin gave a slight nod and answered.

“It appears each pair will face the second gate separately.”

At that moment, Jeong Myeonggang looked down at the village and began speaking.

“This is the village where I once lived. It is also the place where my greatest regret remains.”

As he spoke, storm-like killing intent began pouring from his body with increasing intensity.

Although he did not seem to be deliberately trying to harm them, it became difficult even to remain standing.

“Ugh!”

“Hng!”

Seonu Jin and Tang Yeo-eun gritted their teeth to keep from collapsing.

However, the Radiant Sword continued speaking without paying the slightest attention to their condition.

“When I lived there, I had two friends with whom I had trained in martial arts since childhood. They were like brothers to me, and so I shared everything I had with them.”

Seonu Jin suddenly felt a strange sense of emotion.

It seemed oddly surprising that even this man, who resembled a Demon King from hell, had once possessed such a childhood and such friends.

Strangely, however, his killing intent continued growing thicker as he spoke.

He continued.

“So it was the same when I obtained the Moonlit Phantom Sword Dance by chance. I intended to share it with them.”

He had intended to share a secret manual with his close friends.

Seonu Jin felt as though he could already predict what came next.

He could also understand why Jeong Myeonggang was radiating such intense killing intent while telling the story.

Jeong Myeonggang continued.

“However, one of them wanted to possess it alone. So he ambushed me and attempted to kill me.”

It was just as Seonu Jin had expected.

Seonu Jin and Tang Yeo-eun felt deep sorrow.

“But he failed. He underestimated my strength after I had already mastered the first form of the Moonlit Phantom Sword Dance. I should have killed him then. But foolishly, my heart weakened and I hesitated. He did not miss that opportunity. He dealt a killing blow to our other friend and fled. I could not pursue him because I had to save my injured friend.”

His killing intent had now become completely tangible and began constricting their bodies.

They felt as though their entire bodies were being crushed.

“Ugh!”

“Aaaaagh!”

Ignoring their groans, Jeong Myeonggang continued speaking.

“That was not all. When I finally treated my friend and returned to the village, he had already reduced it to that state.”

At that exact moment—

The instant he finished speaking, the previously peaceful village was engulfed in flames.

Roar!

The beautiful village, which only moments earlier had looked like something from a painting, was now collapsing beneath a sea of fire.

The villagers were trapped in the flames, screaming from all directions for someone to save them.

As the two watched the scene with sorrow, the Radiant Sword’s voice continued.

“He did it to prevent me from pursuing him. Merely because he feared my pursuit, he destroyed the very village where he had lived his entire life. And… he truly succeeded in stopping me. Foolishly, I lost him because I stayed behind to save the villagers.”

Until now, although he had radiated the killing intent of a Demon King, his tone and expression had remained as emotionless as a statue.

However, that was no longer the case.

His face twisted like that of an evil spirit, and rage boiling like molten lava filled his agitated voice.

That rage and killing intent became tangible and constricted Seonu Jin and Tang Yeo-eun.

They screamed from the pain, feeling as though their entire bodies would crumble apart.

“Uuuugh!”

“Aaaaaagh!”

However, Jeong Myeonggang continued spitting out his words in an agitated tone.

“Do you know what happened in the end?! The rumors he spread drew countless martial artists there! In the end, even the villagers I had saved were all murdered! My parents, my wife, and even my child! I had to endure ten full years of hatred and patience before I repaid every drop of their blood!”

A short while later, as though a storm had passed, his killing intent subsided again.

Only then could Seonu Jin and Tang Yeo-eun finally breathe.

“Haaaaah.”

“Huff, huff.”

The Radiant Sword’s face returned to its former expressionless state as he looked at them and spoke.

“This is the second gate. What will you do? Will you save the village, or will you capture him? Resolve the greatest regret of my life.”

After finishing his words, the Radiant Sword vanished from the spot.

Only Seonu Jin, Tang Yeo-eun, and the village beneath the hill—now transformed into a scene of utter chaos—remained.