332 — The Most Miserable End
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Kwak kwak kwak—!!!
Sword Ghost So Hang-woo.
Overlord Sword Peng Jin-ah.
Plum Sword Empress Wi Ga-ryeong.
The battle among the three, bound by malice and fate, continued without pause, and—surprisingly—it progressed with an uneasy parity.
That surprise had many angles: admiration for the two martial sisters who had once been routed and could do nothing; awe at the Sword Ghost’s menace, who despite having expended most of his strength did not falter. What was certain was that victory could plausibly fall to either side.
“Kruaaaaa!!!”
The Sword Ghost unleashed a battle cry—not the sound of someone ready to fight honorably, but pure irritation at being blocked by those damned women.
‘Damn it.’
He admitted his calculation had been wrong. One year and six months—enough time for a phoenix like Yu Seha, but far too short for ordinary martial artists, especially against opponents who had already completed their training and had no room left to grow.
‘Even if I couldn’t use the <Ghost-Shadow Sword>…’
He had expected Heart Sword opponents to be finished quickly; he had been mistaken.
Peng Jin-ah and Wi Ga-ryeong responded to the Sword Ghost’s movements and swordplay with absolute certainty. They had cried all night, blaming themselves—those two who had once been in agony. In this relentless, evenly matched onslaught, the depth of their self-scourging and training was on display.
“Master!”
“Yes!”
Peng Jin-ah and Wi Ga-ryeong now stood undeniably among the top tier of S-rank—overwhelming elites counted among the world’s best. Peng Jin-ah, in particular, whose potential ran higher, hammered at the S-rank wall, reaching toward the realm commonly called the ‘Above.’ Light from that realm had begun to touch her.
However…
She had to accept the truth.
Bang—!!!
“Pathetic broodmare females!”
Sword Ghost So Hang-woo had climbed far beyond the S-rank wall—higher and higher until he became a Cheongoecheong, a being beyond the sky, almost star-worthy. Even so, that exaltation had once lost a head-on contest with Yu Seha.
Peng Jin-ah understood how distant her master’s exaltation was; she likely would never reach it even if she strove her whole life.
Creak, creak-creak—!
“Ugh!!!”
“Eek…!”
Both cried out as the Sword Ghost’s vicious strike descended like lightning. Peng Jin-ah dropped to one knee, breaking into a cold sweat at the elder’s imposing vigor—as if Yama, king of the netherworld, flared before her with a blazing, fiery gaze.
Peng Jin-ah swallowed.
‘Yu Seha only treated the wound on the neck.’
The Sword Ghost’s expended stamina and energy had not returned, and the <Ghost-Shadow Sword> remained sealed. Right now he was clearly weaker than when he had crushed them on the Academy grounds.
Even so…
Nevertheless…
‘Am I being pushed back this much?!’
Peng Jin-ah ground her teeth and rolled her eyes. Right beside her, the bright letters <Sharing> glowed red. It was what Yu Seha had begged her while holding her hand: “If you need it, don’t hesitate.” There was no need to press a button; she only had to hold the will to use it.
An absurd boon increasing stats by over [300], the strongest buff with no side effects. On top of that, she could bring two perfectly compatible Epic skills. With it she could not only break the wall but leap far beyond—spec amplification enough to cover any lack of realization.
Snap—!
Her knee sank deeper into the ground. Peng Jin-ah bowed her head, inner scales teetering; she muttered softly. The Sword Ghost responded to that voice.
“…Chae-rin.”
“…What?”
“Do you remember my mother… Peng Chae-rin, So Hang-woo!”
“Eek, eek, eeeek!!!”
The Sword Ghost’s face drained of color, then flushed. For the first time he looked directly into Peng Jin-ah’s eyes and snapped. He recognized who she was.
“I would have answered that I don’t remember such a filthy bitch!”
“…”
Peng Jin-ah closed her eyes. Beyond memory, fragments of time with her mother surfaced, and the last will—once misunderstood—unfolded.
‘I will contain all of that.’
She closed the
The <Great Hope> in her hand emitted a cyan light. Among all its manifestations, the most intense gray flame—the Sword of Pasa—blazed fiercely. Astonishingly, at the tip of the <Great Hope> a single strand of light manifested.
Heart Sword. The first entry into the world beyond S-rank—Cheongoecheong. Peng Jin-ah had finally succeeded in stepping into it.
“Ha!”
The Sword Ghost sneered. Pathetic. Just because you pulled out one strand and merely tasted it, do you think you’re something now?
“You are not Yu Seha.”
He was different from the one without limits.
“Just die already!!!”
The Sword Ghost’s strike erupted. The tremendous culmination that made Peng Jin-ah’s resolve look pale began to swallow the two at once. Peng Jin-ah and Wi Ga-ryeong held on perilously, coughing up blood; their hands tore from gripping their swords, their bodies staggering. Just as the Sword Ghost poured power into finishing them—
Clang—!
“…?!”
The <Excrescent Qi Long Blade> in the Sword Ghost’s hand snapped in half without warning. The broken blade leapt from the rebound and flew high, as if to reach the sky and the infinitely stretching ceiling.
Misfortune and heavenly luck combined in one instant—a karma and miracle. In that brief gap—the last and only chance—Peng Jin-ah and Wi Ga-ryeong did not miss it.
“Jina!!!”
“Master!!!”
Wi Ga-ryeong put her hand on the Sword Ghost’s shoulder and, in one motion, swept behind him. She seized the beloved sword with both hands and swung fiercely at the left nape of his neck. Peng Jin-ah poured all her strength into the <Great Hope> and struck the right nape. Like scissors, the two blades occupied each flank and struck simultaneously.
However…
“…Wha, what?!”
“…!”
Astonishingly, the Sword Ghost’s neck did not sever. He braced and withstood both strikes—as if the blades had lodged yet been snagged on something. They had cut in, but the blades stopped advancing.
“Kruaaaaak!!!”
The Sword Ghost howled. Using the broken <Excrescent Qi Long Blade>, he slowly pushed the <Great Hope> away with force.
Unlike Wi Ga-ryeong’s strike, which had barely lodged and was effectively negligible, Peng Jin-ah’s sword—being a Heart Sword—had enough power to inflict a mortal wound. An absurd tug-of-war followed: the finishing force of Peng Jin-ah and Wi Ga-ryeong versus the Sword Ghost’s desperate refusal to be cut.
Whoosh—!
As time passed, the two swords embedded in the Sword Ghost’s neck steadily advanced.
‘Damn it!!!’
The Sword Ghost shouted inwardly, and for a moment he had one thought he normally would never entertain.
‘My arm…’
The left arm he had severed himself—if only it were intact—‘I could take out the spare sword at my waist and take both of them out!’
At that thought he flinched. Words from a day earlier surfaced.
—Then at least repair your arm, right?
—Don’t you regret it?
‘Am I now…’
Regretting it? Some foolish remorseful sentiment common people feel—something he’d never done in his life? Me? No one but…
‘The Sword Ghost…?’
To mere insects like these? How dare I?
“No!!!”
“I do not regret it. Never, never!!!”
Crack—!
Along his neck the blood vessels and muscles thickened. As if a hand had grown there, he began to push the blades out. Monstrous willpower. Peng Jin-ah and Wi Ga-ryeong’s pupils trembled as if struck by an earthquake. The Sword Ghost proclaimed triumphantly.
“Don’t be ridiculous… you filthy bitches. My end at the hands of trash like you—did you think I would die at the hands of pond frogs crowing about being one of the Five Swordsmen just because they reached a bit toward the heavens?”
“Nonsense!!!”
“The one who cuts my throat will reach the edge of the cosmos, open the gate even I could not pass, and stride through with pride—Yu Seha. Only he can do it.”
Rumble—rumble—rumble—!!!
A swirling aura—the power gradually, unmistakably strengthening. Straight-lined around his neck, a ‘Defense’ began to form as fragments of the <Ghost-Shadow Sword> he couldn’t use started returning.
The Sword Ghost strained his neck, bloodshot eyes looking up to the second floor. At this rate, he thought, he could launch a counterattack and cut both their throats—in the name of Yu Seha.
It was then.
Buzzz.
The broken edge of the spinning <Excrescent Qi Long Blade> grazed past the Sword Ghost’s eyes with exquisite timing. Sunlight streamed through the temple window and made the long sword’s blade shine like glass upon him.
He trembled at his reflected self. In the mirror-like reflection were the faces he’d so belittled—struggling to live, crawling on the ground to survive despite seeing no inch ahead—simple human faces caught in their final struggles and ugliness.
‘…’
Now… I… am making that expression?
‘I, So Hang-woo…?’
The one who advanced fearless and vowed never to regret anything—was he now feeling revulsion at himself? For the first time since his birth the Sword Ghost felt disgust with himself, and that moment broke the balance of his psyche.
The strongest power he possessed—his conviction, his madness—crumbled.
Ssshh.
The ‘sword’ circling his neck vanished. The thickened blood vessels and intensifying muscle strength noticeably diminished.
“…!!!”
The blade drove in and advanced as if waiting for that crack. It moved up his neck toward the cervical spine: a threshold of death greater than any pain he’d known.
“Kuu… Aaaaah!!!”
The Sword Ghost screamed. I am different. I am not like those who have died!
“No, not to these lousy bitches!”
Hanseong hyung, Hanseong hyung!!!
“You know I’m watching. Answer me. I said answer. Are you really going to just stay still?”
Just this…
“Only able to whimper beneath Yu Seha and please him, knowing nothing else!”
Fortunate enough to be chosen and bear offspring—do you intend to let me be killed by those broodmares who can do nothing but bear children? Come down at once and take my neck now!
“I will never go out so meaninglessly…!”
Snap.
A breaking sound. The crack of bone splitting. The sense of endless madness dissipated.
Peng Jin-ah and Wi Ga-ryeong pushed with the last of their strength.
Shuuk—!
The Sword Ghost’s severed neck flew through the air. His face, carved in a scream of disbelief, horror, regret, resentment, then fear at dying in the form he despised.
Thud—roll, roll.
The Sword Ghost’s head rolled and stopped before the <Excrescent Qi Long Blade> embedded in the ground. The sword’s surface reflected him like a mirror—watch your death to the end.
Drip.
Tears ran from the Sword Ghost’s eyes as he took in a face identical to those he had denied. After a few seconds the light in his pupils faded completely.
—You will meet the tragic end you least desire.
Sword Ghost So Hang-woo—the end of a man whose madness never seemed to collapse—finished in the form he despised most in himself.
Thud crash—!
Peng Jin-ah and Wi Ga-ryeong, having succeeded, rolled on the floor and lay too weak to rise, panting with tongues lolling like dogs.
“Huff, huff…”
Wi Ga-ryeong swallowed and crawled along the floor.
“Ji, Jin-ah!”
She crawled and crawled until she grabbed her beloved younger martial sister’s body.
“Jin-ah…?”
“…”
Peng Jin-ah lifted her upper body and sobbed without end. She looked back and forth between the severed head of the Sword Ghost and the <Great Hope> in her hand, tears and snot streaming.
Undoubtedly a shameful, filthy sight—but Peng Jin-ah was proud. She could now straighten her shoulders and be dignified.
“Ma, Master…”
“Yes, yes…!”
“Th-though it’s ugly and shameful… we did it in the end.”
Peng Jin-ah knew this could never be called a fair contest, so she did not say they had ‘won.’ Yu Seha had done it all. If not for his help, Peng Jin-ah would have been the one shredded.
Had the Sword Ghost’s psyche not been disturbed, she would have shamefully needed Yu Seha’s aid. He who had trusted her and even boasted on the second floor would have had to come down and endure humiliation. If that had happened, Peng Jin-ah could never call Yu Seha to mind with a clear heart again. This was worth more than anything.
Her mother’s revenge, her purpose, and finally restoring the honor of the man she loved—Peng Jin-ah cried and then smiled like a fool.
“From now on… I can hold my head high, right?”
Wi Ga-ryeong cried like a fool and then laughed, stroking Peng Jin-ah’s hair as if to praise her.
“Yes, yes! Our Jina is great!”
My sister… Sister Chae-rin…
“She will surely be proud.”
The dazzling noon sun slowly waned, casting shadows that promised tomorrow. They held each other and sobbed loudly for a long time.
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Chapter 332 / 334