The World's Greatest is Dead

How many days had it been?

It probably had not been that many since I started having the dream-vision, but even that was hard to say for sure.

There was no easy way to tell how much time had passed inside it.

Counting had been pointless anyway.

It had been the same the first time, and it was no different now.

Time in the dream was different from reality. No matter how many days it felt like I spent in here, outside, not even a full day would likely have passed.

It really was a damned hell.

Dying, and dying again, over and over.

There was a revolting sensation here I had never felt in any other dream-vision.

And that still had not changed.

Slash—!

With the sound of something being cut apart, my vision twisted.

I staggered, forced strength back into my lower body, and the scenery snapped into place again.

“...Huaa.”

Dead again.

I think my face just got split in half.

Couldn’t hold on.

I had thought I could manage that one, but once again it changed nothing.

I looked ahead.

Yoo Cheongil was looking at me.

Yoo Cheongil, just over thirty.

How many times had it been by now?

Like I said, counting was meaningless. If I tried to give it a number, I would be the first one to lose my mind.

“Hoo.”

I let out a breath and adjusted my grip on the sword.

Shiiing.

The Divine Sword flashed.

For all the hard aura I could bring out, I did not pour full force into it for long. Instead of letting it blaze at maximum output, I kept it at an appropriate level and maintained it there.

Normally, I would have gone in faster than this, or harder.

But I can’t do that now.

This was not the time to thrash around trying to beat Yoo Cheongil.

No.

More accurately, even if I did thrash around, I still would not be able to win.

I already knew that from crashing into him again and again so many times I could no longer count them.

He was not someone you measured in terms of winning or losing.

That was why I was not even bothering to push my hard aura to the limit.

That was not the point.

Use the dream-vision more efficiently.

Not for victory.

For training.

That was how I had decided to use the dream-vision.

Honestly, it was useful.

Because I can use as much time as I want here.

Training in here would not make my muscles grow in reality, and it would not increase my inner qi.

But you do get used to it.

After doing it long enough, I understood.

What I realized in the dream-vision could be used with my real body.

Maybe not all of it, but still.

Even if it’s only twenty percent. Ten percent. Even if it’s drastically less.

If I could use it at all, then that changed everything.

Shiiing.

I raised the sword.

And this was not ordinary training, either.

I had the perfect opponent.

He just happened to be a man I could never beat.

Shhhhhhk—!!!

The sky vanished.

An enormous sword was crashing down on me.

I had already set my breathing in advance.

I lowered my stance halfway.

The moment I tried to receive that head-on, my body would be destroyed.

But that did not matter.

I had no intention of taking it directly.

Kiiiiiiing—!!!!

I used the blade to divert it.

The best defense was always deflection.

If I blocked it directly, I died.

If I failed to evade, I died.

If it was not evasion, then it had to be deflection.

Those were the only two choices.

Kugugung—!!

The massive sword slammed into the ground.

Now, at least, I could divert it without my shoulder going numb.

Now.

That was the point.

That look from Yoo Cheongil, the one that seemed to say he found this interesting.

That was the turning point.

First.

I put strength into my wrist and unleashed the form.

The sword path.

The Sect Leader’s sword that I had obtained from the Azure Moon Sect repository.

This was the process of engraving it into my body.

Shhhh—!

A thin line shot toward Yoo Cheongil.

My sword drew a half circle as it scattered Sword Aura, and the shape resembled a crescent moon.

If Moon Wave was a gigantic crescent carving sideways through space, then this—

this was simply one light form among a greater whole.

If I had to describe it—

It’s like a smaller Moon Wave.

That felt like the easiest way to understand it.

Shhhk—! Clang—!!

For all how fast I cut in, Yoo Cheongil knocked the sword away as if it were nothing.

What was truly absurd was—

What do you mean, he’s not even blocking with the sword—he’s swatting it aside with his hand?

He smacked aside the flat of the blade with his palm.

The fact that such a thing was even possible was ridiculous.

Thunk—!

I did not bother catching my body as it flew back.

Instead, I used the recoil of the movement itself.

Crunch—!

My foot crushed into the ground.

My body spun, and I used that momentum to unfold another sword path.

The form continued.

Shrrrik—!!!

“Hmm.”

A strange light entered Yoo Cheongil’s eyes.

How much time had I spent before I could draw even that much of a reaction from him?

Clang—! Clang—!!

I swung again and again as I closed the distance.

Yoo Cheongil finally started using his sword to brush away my attacks.

I increased my speed.

This was it.

Pajijijik—!!!

I activated Moonbolt in an instant.

“Huh?”

Yoo Cheongil froze when he saw the change in me.

I had to seize that moment.

The speed heightened by Moonbolt.

Yoo Cheongil’s slowed response.

I caught that opening and slashed down—

Schaaak—!!!

My sword raked across Yoo Cheongil’s upper body.

Blood sprayed.

That was when—

Now.

Instead of chaining into another attack, I pulled the sword back.

At the same time, I twisted my upper body just slightly.

Kwaaang—!!!

“Urk...!!”

A tremendous impact exploded into the flat of my blade.

Yoo Cheongil’s counterattack had already crashed into me.

Too late.

I had known it already.

And even knowing it, I was still too late.

“Cough.”

Blood spilled from my mouth.

My body was being shoved backward.

Kwajajajak.

I barely held my ground with my feet and forced the momentum under control.

Still, it was better than before.

At first, even if I managed to block it, my body just shattered and I died.

And when I failed to block at all, there was no need to even mention it.

When I had only just started managing to block, I often died with my organs ruptured because I did it wrong.

Only now had I finally reached the point where I could block it and come away with nothing worse than a few cracked ribs.

...Why the hell is he this fast?

It was still just as absurd.

It was absurd that I knew it was coming and still could not stop it.

Still can’t reach the end.

Even the sword I swung at the gaps he left had never once cut his throat.

I had clearly aimed for the vital point, and still it had never landed.

It was not as if I was trying to win.

But I do need to last longer.

I had to endure, and while enduring, find a way not to collapse so easily.

Throb.

Suppressing the ache in my ribs, I unfolded the form again.

I could not stop.

...Ankle. Calf.

I studied how the form had to be operated.

What mattered here was how efficiently I distributed force through the body.

Of course, to apply it properly, I also needed the Azure Moon Heart Art.

The Heart Art is the uncertain part.

My Heart Art had been altered by Yoo Cheongil, so whether it truly matched was another matter.

That was why part of me still had doubts.

I’m using the form, but is this really fine if the Heart Art is different?

The essence might be the same, but it was still altered in the end.

Could this form truly be unfolded through Yoo Cheongil’s version of the Heart Art?

I had my doubts.

Still, it works.

And because I could use the form at all, I had come to the conclusion that it did not really matter.

Maybe it was possible precisely because the root of it all was the same.

Right as that thought crossed my mind—

Crunch.

“Ghk.”

Something flew in and smashed directly into my skull.

Ah, damn it.

My mistake.

I got distracted and failed to dodge.

“Ugh...”

I grabbed my head.

My body had already returned to the original point again.

This is driving me insane.

Should I stop here for today?

I was reaching my mental limit.

I need to start controlling this better.

I had a fairly strong mind, sure.

But now I really was at the end of the line.

If I pushed any further, I was obviously going to break.

...Hoo.

I steadied my breathing.

Then I thought of something.

Practicing is good and all, but...

If there was one thing that kept feeling stranger the longer I did this—

Why didn’t he tell me?

—it was how my doubts about Yoo Cheongil kept growing.

If it’s a form only the Sect Leader can know...

Moon Immortal Sword was one thing. He did not have Moon Eye, so that much made sense.

But that old man would have read it.

Yoo Cheongil had once been Sect Leader, and he was someone who had consumed the divine pill and awakened Moon Eye.

So of course he would have known.

And yet he had never told me.

That was strange.

Creak.

I raised the sword again.

Maybe I should try one last time.

That thought came to me.

I’ve more or less learned it.

Six kinds of sword.

There seemed to be six forms in all, a sword that used them by varying and linking them together.

Right.

Like—

Great Moon’s dis—

I stopped short in the middle of the thought.

“Huh.”

Come to think of it—

This does feel kind of similar to Great Moon.

The first form started with something like Moon Wave.

That part at least bore a resemblance.

The forms that followed were somewhat different from Great Moon, but still...

Seriously.

Why had I never thought about this before?

I had treated Great Moon as a series of individual attacks more than a formalized art, but what I was using now felt similar to it in some way.

“...”

Clack.

I raised the sword again.

Yoo Cheongil looked like he was about to react, but—

Whiik—!

“Hm?”

I ignored him and started swinging into empty air.

It would be fine.

I had tried it before long ago, and even if he thought I was acting like a lunatic, he would let it slide at least once.

Catch the recoil.

I adjusted the force in my wrist and ankle.

I anticipated the wasteful dispersion of power.

Here.

First form.

The sword cut through empty space.

Something that resembled Moon Wave.

There was no name written for it.

It only said to embody the crescent moon.

Shiiik—!!

Second ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) form.

I swung again without pause.

Third. Fourth.

And as I continued through them—

“...”

I became certain.

This.

It really is similar.

It’s like Great Moon.

Why?

I don’t think it felt like this at first.

When I first manifested the form, it had not felt this way.

There had been nothing like this sensation.

What changed?

Holding that question, I cut once more and reached the fifth sword.

Wooooong—!

“...”

The sword let out a ringing cry.

Woooooooooong—!!!

The sound born from inner qi and steel meeting in resonance.

The cry of the sword said to be attainable only by absolute masters.

It was not the first time I had felt it.

Ever since reaching transcendent peak, the sword had occasionally cried out like that.

And every time, Yoo Cheongil had said it was only the thickening inner qi activating a false resonance—not the real thing.

But this...

Was this real?

An entirely different sensation touched my fingertips.

If there’s any difference from before...

I had only used it while thinking of Great Moon.

If that comparison was what had triggered this resonance, then that was the only real difference.

Then...

Pajijijik.

With my head gone half numb, I activated Moonbolt.

If I apply this...

to the current form—

and resolve the discomfort I had always felt in Yoo Cheongil’s Great Moon—

I never thought of it as a form because it didn’t connect.

If I used this form to connect it—

wouldn’t something change?

Just as I thought that and was about to put pressure into my hand—

“You’re slow to realize things.”

“...!”

At the voice, I whipped around.

The thirty-year-old Yoo Cheongil was looking at me.

“What did you just—”

“I grew tired of spoon-feeding you and chose a more amusing method instead. Boy, who would have thought you’d be duller than you look.”

“What?”

That was the way the Yoo Cheongil I knew spoke.

Don’t tell me—

“Old man... right now, you—”

“Now that you understand, get up and try it at once. Keulkeulkeul... Probably.”

Shik—!

Thud—!

“Ghk...!?”

A sword flew in and buried itself in my chest.

This crazy old bastard—!

As my mind blurred—

“This one will be more to your liking than any other.”

I twisted my face as I stared at Yoo Cheongil.

And then—

“Hah!”

I woke from the dream-vision.