Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 55

Weapon-Eating Bastard – Chapter 55

How much time had passed? I couldn’t guess.

When I regained consciousness, the scene before my eyes was the brightly lit sky of the Bloodless Dream, even without the sun.

“Hoo.”

I took a deep breath and raised my upper body.

The Founder was still standing in the center, staring blankly into the air with unfocused eyes.

‘This time… did I break a rib?’

An overwhelming difference.

It was the first time in my life I had felt such a thing, other than with my father.

‘But it’s not meaningless. Now I know.’

At first, I couldn’t even sense the sword strikes.

And after colliding with the Founder several more times, I was finally able to figure out the reason for the Founder’s strength.

The Founder didn’t wield swordsmanship containing some noble principle, nor did they possess some unidentified power.

The source of the Founder’s strength… to put it simply, was a talent for finding the right answer.

‘The Founder makes the optimal move in every moment.’

How to move the body, how to utilize mana, how to wield the sword.

Each time, they instinctively know the ‘optimal of the moment.’

That’s why they can win without using special swordsmanship or techniques.

The most optimal movement is, in that situation, a better move than any secret art or ultimate technique.

In other words,

‘The essence of martial arts. That itself.’

That was the Founder’s talent.

The essence of martial arts is contained in all of the Founder’s movements.

Basics, and fundamentals.

The Founder was simply upholding the essence of martial arts most faithfully.

‘The problem is that the essence isn’t just at a solid level.’

Each essence had a depth comparable to secret arts and ultimate techniques.

Even a simple downward strike, when wielded by the Founder, became an unavoidable fatal blow.

Finally, the Founder’s legacy became understandable.

The expression Martial God was not at all wasted on the Founder.

“I know now, so that’s enough.”

I picked up my sword again and stood up.

I focused all my mind on this moment as never before.

‘It’s not like I ever had anything to begin with.’

I gripped Mujin so tightly that my hands felt numb.

I had never easily obtained anything in my life.

To see the scene that the Founder sees, I would simply fight once more.

Thud.

The Founder moved.

‘It’s coming! Where is it coming from…!’

Swoosh.

I sensed it just up to that point, and then my head flew off.

There was no need to review, so I immediately got up and rushed at the Founder again.

Thwack!

I was stabbed in the heart.

Crack!

My head was torn apart.

I was struck by sword blows in all sorts of ways, from all sorts of directions.

I deliberately didn’t think about getting hit.

If martial arts were to be compared to architecture.

Predicting the opponent or the way to wield the sword would be like the steel frame that forms the skeleton of a building.

Even if they are not visible on the outside, one can easily guess how they were built.

And the completed appearance, with the walls plastered and the exterior finished, could be called techniques, secret arts, or ultimate techniques.

‘Those aren’t important.’

What I want to see now are not the things that can be seen on the outside, such as how the sword was wielded or what path it took.

Something invisible. Something that cannot be easily guessed.

I wanted to see the foundation of the building. The solid ground underlying it.

Bang!

Again, a long time passed.

There were no breaks.

I rushed at the Founder without rest.

In one moment.

My eyes caught sight of the Founder’s sword strike, which I had never been able to see before.

It was too simple a strike.

A horizontal slash swung from left to right, from the blind spot in my vision.

Slash!

But having seen it was all, and again I fell.

However, I clenched my fist.

“Got it.”

Once becomes twice, and twice becomes three times.

I started moving as soon as I got up.

Bang!

How much time had passed again?

I finally blocked the Founder’s strike.

Before I knew it, my movements were becoming as simple as the Founder’s.

Clang, clang, clang!

I dodged the Founder’s sword for the first time.

Bang!

I blocked the second strike for the first time.

And then I blocked the third and fourth strikes, and finally succeeded in countering.

Gradually, at some point, I was fighting the Founder on equal terms.

Before I knew it, aura began to linger at the tip of the Founder’s sword, and the same was true for me.

Hwooong!

And the moment it touched, my movements changed once again.

‘My own fighting style is about change and freedom.’

The Founder’s sword follows the orthodox.

It follows a sword path that has reached the extreme of orthodoxy.

That is not the essence I need to create.

I had to handle all sorts of weapons and create a foundation on which all those techniques could stand without wavering.

Whoosh! Bang! Swoosh!

The simple movements I had made for a moment became complex and diverse again.

However, when each movement was taken apart and looked at, they were very faithful to the basics.

Unbound and changing with the times, yet not deviating from the orthodox.

Bang! Crash!

The explosive sound that seemed to shatter was different from the power that had continued until now.

The founder of Soongmoo Lee Ga [Soongmoo Lee Clan].

The huge wall named Lee Hyul-hyun.

I was making a sound from that wall.

‘No, no.’

Only then could I understand the true purpose of the Bloodless Dream.

Those who had given up were only thinking about defeating the Founder.

That’s why they despaired in front of the overwhelming wall of Lee Hyul-hyun.

‘The purpose of the Bloodless Dream is not that. That’s not how it should be done.’

The wall had to be broken with a chisel and hammer.

But that wall is not the Founder.

It’s myself.

Constantly breaking and splitting, building a solid foundation that will never waver.

Kwaaaang!

That’s how I began to look at the Founder at the same eye level.

Before I knew it, I wasn’t being pushed back, and neither was the Founder.

Now that the struggle is over.

All that remains is victory.

If we have reached the same height, we had to look one step above for victory.

‘What I have.’

The Founder didn’t have it, only I had it.

-Your talent for magic is amazing. To the point where everything else pales in comparison.

I remembered what my aunt had said someday.

My own thing that no one else has.

My talent for mana, which is on a different level.

“Haaaap!”

Kugugugu!

Mujin had already transformed into a sharp sword, and an aura like a whirlwind was forming at its tip.

Kanggi Art, Sapsung [a powerful technique].

The Founder’s unfocused eyes look at me.

The sharp blade of aura cutting across the front stretched out without hesitation.

Swoosh-.

And.

The wall collapsed.

* * *

Thud-.

The Mountain Keeper, who was drinking in his room, felt a strange vibration.

Thud, thud-.

It sounded like a wall was collapsing.

‘Something’s happening in the mountain… Could it be.’

The Mountain Keeper was startled and jumped up.

The Mountain Keeper, who immediately used magic, ran to the stone gate.

Ggggeeuuuk-.

The stone gate was scraping against the ground, making an ear-splitting sound.

And a figure walking out from there.

“Huh…….”

The Mountain Keeper’s eyes widened.

It was Lee Cheol.

In the end, that Lee Cheol passed the test.

* * *

I passed through the stone gate and headed to the healing waters.

In fact, there was no place on my body that was hurt.

Since I had fought fiercely in the illusion, there was no way my body could have been hurt, but I was in desperate need of mental rest right now.

“How was it?”

The Mountain Keeper followed me all the way, but didn’t come into the tub and sat on the rock next to my head.

The Mountain Keeper grinned as he drank canned beer.

‘How was it.’

I couldn’t find the words to express it.

“Honestly, I don’t want to do it again.”

Apart from victory and defeat, it was an experience I never wanted to feel again.

The founder of Soongmoo Lee Ga, Lee Hyul-hyun.

He was despairingly strong.

“Hmm… you don’t seem to have changed at all from when you went in. Did you really take the test properly?”

“Then would I have been spacing out all this time?”

“No. Hmm, that’s strange. Most of the kids who kick down that stone gate come out with fish eyes. You could say it’s a trait. Something changes about them when they come out. Mostly, their high noses get broken.”

Their high noses get broken?

Unless they gave up, would there be any reason for that?

‘Did everyone come up with a different answer?’

Well, the Founder was just a recreated being, and didn’t say anything in particular or demand anything.

The realization I gained was also my own.

“……Then do you happen to know what my father was like?”

“Father? Are you talking about Tae-shin?”

“Yes.”

“Keuheuhe! So you’re curious about your father after all? Hmm, is it like father, like son? It seems a little similar…….”

The Mountain Keeper suddenly tilted his head, then started laughing, as if something funny had come to mind.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you know what that guy said as soon as he came out?”

The Mountain Keeper opened another can of beer, then lowered his voice as if pretending.

“The training is over, so I’ll be going back now. Thank you for everything.”

“……Are you acting like my father right now?”

“Huh? Wasn’t it the same?”

“Not at all.”

“You cheeky bastard. Anyway, that guy is weird too. He didn’t change at all when he came out. He didn’t even change his facial expression, like he’d just gone for a stroll!”

I put my body deep into the water and thought of my father at my age.

‘That’s like Father.’

Rather, it would have been more awkward if my father had come out with a changed disposition.

“Anyway, you’ve committed an amazing act. Kid.”

Kyaa-.

The Mountain Keeper took a one-shot of beer and said that with admiration.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re the youngest person to ever pass the Bloodless Dream out of all the test takers in history.”

I only felt a lukewarm impression at those words.

‘Doing it a little earlier wasn’t a meaningful test.’

That’s not an achievement or anything.

In fact, the Bloodless Dream was not a test where being a year or two older or younger was very meaningful.

“But Mountain Keeper. It’s been a month since I went in, but why is my body okay?”

I didn’t realize it when I came out, but it seemed I had spent almost a month in the Bloodless Dream.

I definitely hadn’t eaten or moved, but there was nothing wrong with my body.

“That’s because time inside is almost stopped.”

The Mountain Keeper wiggled the squid legs he had brought as a snack.

“Well, in fact, you can think of the space itself as being separate. Do you know the story of the Peach Blossom Spring [a utopian place isolated from the outside world]?”

“……Yes, I know it.”

“Anyway, a guy who lives by eating sword rice, why are you trying to know something complicated? Just think of it as something similar.”

That drunkard, anyway.

I sighed and nodded.

“Yes, I understand.”

“Then there’s a little over a month left? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to reorganize what I’ve learned.”

“Ugh, you training maniac. Are you going to train again?”

“No. I’m going to rest a little while organizing.”

The Mountain Keeper blinked at my words.

“I thought this bastard hadn’t changed, but he has changed. Are you sick? Were you affected by magic? After all, everyone gets weird after going in there.”

“……Never mind. Anyway, Mountain Keeper.”

My work at Cheonwisan [Heavenly Dragon Mountain] is now over.

But when I thought about it, there was still a calculation I had to finish.

“Either way, it’s time to get the reward.”

“Reward? What reward?”

The Mountain Keeper flinched.

The rewards I had agreed to receive when the elixir was taken away by the spirit beast were two things.

The first was to receive help with training.

The second was to receive it if I passed the Bloodless Dream test and kicked down the stone gate.

“No, you, that’s…….”

“A promise is a promise, Mountain Keeper.”

The Mountain Keeper trembled and clicked his tongue.