The Second Son of the Dancheon Sword Clan Prepared for Regression-Chapter 71 : Chapter 71

Chapter 71. Heavenly Mandate, A Narrow Escape from Death (3)
The Heavenly Demon was after only one thing: my life. This was both good news and bad news.
What was important was the fact that I had not lived my life so carelessly as to easily give up my life.
It was the same even if the opponent was the Heavenly Demon. After all, I was the successor to the Healing Sage and the Emperor Breaker.
“I’m coming.”
I did not act with reckless bravado.
Since I was not strong enough to counter the Heavenly Demon’s attack, it was right to attack first.
Had it not been said that the best defense is a good offense?
It was not always a true statement, but in the current situation, there could be no more appropriate words.
Swish-
Using the Stepping on Clouds Gait that traversed space, I took a position behind the Heavenly Demon.
But the Heavenly Demon did not look back.
I wished he had lost track of my form, but that was unlikely.
Swoosh!
Without hesitation, I thrust my Formless Sword at the Heavenly Demon.
My attack collided with the Heavenly Demon’s Protective Qi.
Boom!
I could not pierce it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Originally, if it doesn’t work the first time, one does it a second and a third time.
Like a blacksmith tempering steel, I repeatedly struck the Heavenly Demon’s Protective Qi.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
And…….
“Keuk.”
I could not pierce it.
It would be more correct to call what the Heavenly Demon was deploying Reflective Qi rather than Protective Qi.
The reason was that I, who was continuously striking the Heavenly Demon’s barrier, was the one who suffered great damage in return.
Gulp.
I forcefully swallowed the blood that surged up from my shaken insides, but crimson blood was already trickling from the corner of my mouth.
But I could not stop. Because I had no other way but to attack the Heavenly Demon.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
I did not know the reason, but I knew that now, while the Heavenly Demon was not counterattacking, was my only chance.
However…….
“Is this all?”
As the Heavenly Demon said so and extended his hand.
Thud.
“Keuk.”
My Formless Sword, which had been rushing towards the Heavenly Demon, was bound in mid-air, its shape intact.
For the first time, indifference settled on the face of the Heavenly Demon, who had shown interest in me from start to finish.
His gaze, which had returned to the abyss, commanded.
“Now, stop, and die.”
Like he did to the Iron Mountain Demon Lord, the divine message arrived on this land.
But I was not the Iron Mountain Demon Lord, so I did not point my own sword at my neck.
However, for the first time, the Heavenly Demon moved his form.
Slowly.
As if the revolving lantern had returned, the Heavenly Demon’s sword was moving slowly towards the spot between my eyebrows.
It was clearly slow, yet I could not avoid it. It must be the epitome of a slow sword.
I did not close my eyes.
It was partly because of the sublime mystery contained in the Heavenly Demon’s sword path, and partly because of my pride, not wanting to bow to the Heavenly Demon until the very end.
Grrrrk.
My Formless Sword, which had been suppressed by the Heavenly Demon, trembled and moved little by little.
The sword path laid out in my mind’s eye was not to block the Heavenly Demon’s sword, but to cut off the Heavenly Demon’s head.
The nape of the Heavenly Demon’s neck, where the Dancheon Sword had cut past, my Formless Sword slowly approached that spot.
Even if I were to lose my life, I would take the Heavenly Demon as my companion on the road to the afterlife.
Although that possibility seemed remote, I would not give up until the very, very end.
At that moment.
Fwoosh-
A strange event occurred.
A ray of auspicious light descended from the sky.
It was not the auspicious light of my mind's image created with the Dancheon Sword in the revolving lantern, but literally a ray of light that pierced the dawn and illuminated the Dancheon Clan.
It was around the Hour of the Rabbit when the sun was about to rise, but it was no coincidence that the beam of light shone upon the Dancheon Clan, more precisely, on the Heavenly Demon and me.
Chwarararak-
I witnessed the invisible chains, which had been concealed by the spirits of the Extreme Demon masters, manifesting on the ground with the auspicious light.
And…….
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwak.
They bound the Heavenly Demon’s body.
Thud-
The Heavenly Demon’s sword stopped exactly one inch above my head.
“Let go.”
Gooooooh.
To shake off the restraint of the chains and cut my throat, the Heavenly Demon’s sword path exerted a mighty force, unyielding to the chains.
Grrrrrk-
But in the end, the Heavenly Demon could not move his sword.
After a moment of silence.
“……So that’s how it is.”
The Heavenly Demon, having muttered so, turned his gaze to the sky.
“Is this a heavenly mandate?”
Those were his last words.
I had not even blinked, but the Heavenly Demon’s form had disappeared without any warning.
As if he had never existed in the first place, there was nothing in the spot where the Heavenly Demon had been.
“…….”
Only the corpses of the Extreme Demon masters and the Iron Mountain Demon Lord proved that what had just happened was real.
Thud.
Completely exhausted, I could no longer support my knees.
It was alright.
After all, I had not knelt before the Heavenly Demon.
***
The crisis had passed.
The Grand Training Ground of the Dancheon Clan was half-destroyed, but not many martial artists had lost their lives.
Of course, there were some.
The swords of the Extreme Demon masters were by no means dull.
In a great battle, a story where everyone survives safely is something that only appears in the performances of a theater troupe.
I offered a silent prayer for the martial artists of the escort squad who had given their lives to protect the Dancheon Clan, but no one was excessively grieving.
This was because it was the fate of a martial artist who lived by the sword.
It could be considered a good death, as they were not poisoned or stabbed to death in the middle of the night.
At the very least, hadn’t they died as martial artists, fighting a life-and-death battle with a sword in hand?
In fact, if you did the math.
The Dancheon Clan lost several escort members who had reached the Peak Realm.
Some of the Rogues’ Guild members who came to help also lost their lives.
A few of the elders from the Council of Elders were injured, but none lost their lives. It would be described as a display of their old age prowess.
Senior Brother Chun-baek, Ma Sok, Uncle Yeo Baek, and my father—none of them had suffered irreversible injuries.
The ones who were most severely injured were myself, the Emperor Breaker, and the Martial Emperor, but due to our high realms, we were able to recover through Circulating Qi and Regulating Breath.
However, the Demonic Cult lost ten Extreme Demon masters.
All of them must have been high-ranking spies who were operating secretly in the Central Plains Murim, so the loss must have been painful.
Not only that, the Iron Mountain Demon Lord, who could be considered a leader of the Demonic Cult, had died.
Considering his realm, he must have been a figure who looked beyond being a Demon Lord to the position of the next Divine Demon.
He did not die by our hands, but the fact that he lost his life here was important.
In other words, we had won.
It would be called a great victory.
But no one could cheer.
It was not because of mourning for the dead.
It was because everyone had seen the might of the Heavenly Demon.
The reason was that the might that trampled the Murim Alliance Leader and neutralized the Evil Faction Alliance Leader in a single move could not be forgotten from their minds.
Since it was before the Great War of Righteousness and Evil during my Myeong-gae days, the people here were the first to fully realize the danger of the Demonic Cult with their own bodies.
But there was no one in the Dancheon Clan who would collapse just because dark clouds had been cast over the future peace.
“First… let’s clean up.”
“Yes!”
At the command of the Clan Head, Dancheon Gang, everyone moved diligently.
They collected the bodies of the dead martial artists and tidied up the Grand Training Ground.
Amidst the bustling commotion…….
“I will be on my way.”
Ma Sok came to say his farewells.
It was because the Rogues’ Guild could not lend a hand in the cleanup of the Dancheon Clan.
After all, this was the prestigious Dancheon Sword Clan of the righteous faction.
A few martial artists lined up behind Ma Sok were carrying the bodies of the Rogues’ Guild members.
They had lost their lives to help the Dancheon Sword Clan.
“I will visit you soon.”
Having received a great favor, it was right to repay it.
Of course, even if I were to repay that favor, the goodwill of Yeo-wol and Ma Sok would still remain in my heart.
“Thank you.”
“I will see you next time.”
Ma Sok, who smiled at my words, disappeared with his subordinates.
The next person to approach me was the Overwhelming Force Martial Emperor.
“The debt has been paid.”
He said to me with a straightforward gaze.
“There was no debt to repay in the first place.”
I gave him the Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Snow Spirit Grass, and he granted me the beginning of the Fifth Stage. It meant that our transaction had ended with the matter of the Blazing Flower Sect.
Therefore, his help was something I truly could not have anticipated.
At least in my calculations, that was the case. I owed him a great debt.
The leader of the Evil Faction Alliance, the Overwhelming Force Martial Emperor Wiji Han.
The sole supreme being of the evil faction and a master who commanded the world had come to save the Dancheon Clan. And he fought with his life on the line.
Perhaps, for me.
It was a debt so large I couldn’t even fathom how to repay it.
In reality, if he had not arrived in time.
If he had not saved the clan members from the Heavenly Demon’s Energy Orbs.
I knew that the damage to the Dancheon Clan would have been immeasurable.
“……I couldn’t do anything.”
Although it seemed the Overwhelming Force Martial Emperor’s thoughts were a little different from mine.
“See you next time.”
Wiji Han left those words and disappeared in a flash.
-The debt I couldn’t repay, I will repay next time.
He left only this Six Harmonies Telepathy, making it so I couldn’t even reply.
Before he left, the expression on the Overwhelming Force Martial Emperor Wiji Han’s face remained in my mind.
Since I am not a god, I cannot see the future, but it seems the Evil Faction Alliance Leader will probably become even stronger, surpassing his current realm.
I know that a master who has already reached the pinnacle cannot surpass his realm through will alone, but I would say that the will that filled the Martial Emperor’s expression seemed like it would make even that possible.
“Keuhaha.”
The Emperor Breaker, who had tied his dangling left arm with a cloth and fixed it around his neck, laughed heartily.
Right now, the person with the brightest expression in the Dancheon Clan was undoubtedly the Emperor Breaker.
Except for the few who had passed away, the one who was most injured was the Emperor Breaker, and the one with the brightest expression was the Emperor Breaker.
That old man must be out of his mind.
“This is fun.”
I approached the Emperor Breaker, whose face was filled with a bright color.
“Are you happy?”
“Of course.”
In Yeom Gi-ha's eyes as he spoke, there was a fiery fighting spirit that resembled him.
“I can go further.”
The Emperor Breaker, Yeom Gi-ha, he was truly a man like fire.
It seemed that upon witnessing the disaster that was the Heavenly Demon, he did not despair but saw a path forward.
“I am so happy about that.”
He was truly pleased with the fact that he was not the strongest under the heavens.
Apart from his fighting spirit, I knew that the Emperor Breaker’s body was not in a normal state.
Since the Emperor Breaker did not have a body that had achieved a Golden Body, his broken bones would not heal immediately like mine.
Of course, they would heal at a speed incomparable to that of an ordinary person. Isn’t that the world where those who have reached the realm of peerlessness walk?
“Would you like to rest for a day before you leave?”
Perhaps a day would be enough.
Since Yeom Gi-ha’s status was that of the Murim Alliance Leader, it was right for him to receive the utmost courtesy, even setting aside the fact that he was the clan’s benefactor.
His situation was different from that of Ma Sok or the Martial Emperor.
“Hmm.”
The Emperor Breaker, who had been contemplating for a moment, replied.
“I cannot.”
When I looked at the Emperor Breaker with a questioning expression.
“Wouldn’t I survive only if I return quickly before that Gija fellow gets angrier?”
The Emperor Breaker replied so.
“……Did you run away from home again?”
Somehow.
I had been curious about the reason why the Emperor Breaker was here.
“Ahem.”
The Emperor Breaker, who let out a dry cough, added.
“The Alliance Leader cannot be away from the alliance for a long time.”
He tried to cover it up with words that sounded important, but it seemed a bit late.
“…….”
Since I was indebted to the Emperor Breaker, I wanted to say something to help him, but no good words came to mind.
“Ahem.”
The Emperor Breaker, who coughed dryly again, looked shabby.
Perhaps the Emperor Breaker had not been the strongest under the heavens for a long time.
Strongest under the heavens, Singija. I should remember that name.
“Disciple, once things are settled, come visit the alliance.”
After saying that, the Emperor Breaker’s figure disappeared like a phantom. It was a natural result, as his martial prowess did not diminish just because his arm was broken.
“I understand.”
I answered readily since I was planning to go anyway.
The reason was that a reason for me to visit the Murim Alliance had arisen.
The me before meeting the Heavenly Demon and the me now would be different people.
I would not despair just because I met a formidable enemy. Because there is a path I must walk.
Rather, since all my meaningless worries have been resolved, I would be able to move forward even faster.