Call Of The Spear [EN]: Chapter 479

Tales of a Wandering Swordsman – Part 2, Episode 188

Whoosh. Whoosh.

A foggy, dark night on Geonwon Sea.

A tiny rowboat cutting through the dark sea where you couldn’t see an inch ahead.

An old man rowing at the back, a girl beside him, and a boy staring blankly at the moon were aboard the rowboat.

In a perilous place where war could break out at any moment, only the small rowboat led by the old man seemed to be sailing with all the leisure in the world.

“What are you looking at so intently?”

“I’m looking at the moon.”

The old man and the boy were none other than Cheonbeom and Hwadam.

Three days of running around to avoid the pursuit of the cultivators [those who cultivate spiritual energy] chasing Cheonbeom.

For a while, they chased with all their might, but now the pursuit has subsided, perhaps because they’ve gotten far enough away.

“Every night, you look at the moon floating in the sky like that.”

“I don’t know either. I didn’t used to just stare at the moon like this… but now, just looking at the moon makes me feel at ease.”

“The moon…”

Cheonbeom looked at the moon along with Hwadam.

“It has a different taste than the sun.”

“Does it?”

“The sun is brilliant, but if you look at it, you’ll go blind, and if you get close, your body will burn to ashes. But the moon is not like that.”

The moonlight, gently illuminating the night, shines on the world with a different light than the sun.

“Perhaps it’s because of the Wolyasu you consumed.”

“Wolyasu…”

Hwadam had consumed Wolyasu [Moonlit Water] and the flesh of Wolyaseoksu [Moonlit Water Stone Beast] when he was living in Cheonbeom’s Gongjeonggang [a personal space or dimension].

Wasn’t that why the color of his fur all over his body turned gray?

It might be the effect of that time.

Wolyasu, as the name suggests, is the water of the moonlit night.

It had the properties of the moon.

“Maybe so. Strangely, when I look at the moon, I feel at peace.”

“Hmm…”

Cheonbeom looked at Modal and Jadal along with Hwadam.

It didn’t suit the current situation, but the moon seen in the middle of the sea was quite charming.

“I’ve read in old texts that some immortals flew to the moon to live. Is that true?”

“Well, I don’t know if it’s true or not since I haven’t lived it myself.”

However.

“It’s not impossible.”

“Really?”

Hwadam asked, making an innocent expression from a hundred years ago.

He looked like he would fly to the moon right away if he could.

“It would take quite a while. The distance between the sky and the moon must be quite far.”

In the first place, heading to each realm in the Upper World takes an enormous amount of time.

Not to mention heading to the moon, it wouldn’t end in just a few hundred years.

“If it were a place we visited often, we would have created a teleportation array…”

There’s no way there would be such a thing.

“I’d like to go there sometime. Can we go?”

“…When the time comes, let’s go once.”

“Really?”

He rejoices more than ever.

“I also have something on my mind. It wouldn’t hurt to go once.”

He doesn’t know what the master was talking about when he mentioned the halo year… but since it’s probably related to the moon, it wouldn’t be bad to go once.

In this world, you can only truly understand something when you see it with your own eyes.

Cheonbeom took out his smoking pipe from his chest.

It was the Black Jade Bamboo that Oh Gyeong-gyeju [a high-ranking official or master] had gifted him, a symbol of being his disciple.

He put the Black Jade Bamboo in his mouth and snapped his fingers, and it lit up.

Soon, a strange fragrance tickled the tip of his nose, and Beom inhaled it.

Immediately, his fatigue disappeared, his eyes cleared, and his complexion improved.

The sight of Beom, wearing a bamboo hat in the form of an old man and holding a smoking pipe, was the perfect image of a boatman to anyone who saw him.

He became a boatman due to the unintended pursuit of the immortals from the Upper World, but Beom thought this wasn’t bad either.

Originally, Geonwon Sea was famous as a place where various sea creatures roamed.

It was a place where the wind never stopped blowing and was full of undiscovered mysteries, but since Beom launched the rowboat, he had never been attacked or even threatened by sea creatures.

It was endlessly calm.

‘It must be because of the Seonsaljeon [a powerful protective aura or technique].’

Even sea creatures living in the sea have brains.

They also know.

That if they carelessly rise to the surface, they are likely to die.

Therefore, only Beom, who unintentionally launched the boat, benefited.

“Hoo…”

He exhaled cigarette smoke into the sea fog, and it rose into the sky, harmonizing with the moonlight.

The gentle waves of Geonwon Sea caressed and washed over his ears like a lullaby.

“This isn’t so bad either.”

Is it because he’s getting old?

He doesn’t dislike this tranquility.

Young people would feel it as loneliness and try to do or say something, but he, who had lived to a ripe old age, was not like that.

He liked the stillness.

The faint moonlight illuminated the rowboat.

Tamhwa was dozing off, and Hwadam was staring blankly at the moon.

It was nothing special, but that’s why he felt comfortable.

Tuk, tuk.

He knocked off the ashes and lit a new Hwandan [a type of tobacco or smoking blend].

This time, his whole body relaxed, and the tension eased. He leaned back as if lying down on the boat and put the Black Jade Bamboo in his mouth, and sleepiness washed over him in the stillness.

As he gently closed his eyes, he felt as if his whole body was floating, and he suddenly opened his eyes again due to a faint sensation.

“Who are you?”

Suddenly, Cheonbeom asked, and Hwadam, who had been spacing out while looking at the moon, was startled and looked forward.

A man was standing silently on the surface of the water in front of them.

He had the appearance of a noble scholar with a pale face and dignified demeanor.

The man wearing a gat [traditional Korean hat] had a pale and neat face, looking like a bookworm, but when you looked at him gripping the sword at his waist and standing upright on the sea, he looked like the world’s strongest swordsman.

“My name is Heonwon. My alias is Geom. People call me this when they see me.”

Heonwongeom [Sword of Heonwon].

He took out his sword from its scabbard.

Swish.

The moonlight reflected off his sword blade, illuminating the surface of the water.

At the same time, the tranquility that had been so comfortable turned into desolation.

Hwadam felt the energy emanating from the man named Heonwongeom, and he jumped up from his seat and released his energy.

“The reason it doesn’t reach is not because it’s short, so even if it’s long, it won’t reach.”

“What are you…”

Just as Hwadam was muttering in bewilderment.

Swoosh.

Heonwongeom’s sword, which was aimed at him, suddenly stretched out in an instant!

Swoooosh!

His sword, stretched out like a snake’s tongue, aimed for Hwadam’s neck in an instant.

“Gasp!”

Tat, tat, tat!

Hwadam hurriedly stepped back, kicked off the surface of the water, leaving Cheonbeom’s boat behind.

Splash, splash!

Cheonbeom’s rowboat was instantly split in half, and the calm surface of the water was also split in two by the stranger’s divine power, causing high waves to surge.

Kwaaaaaaa!

The waves, split in two, rushed in as if to swallow Cheonbeom and Tamhwa.

Tamhwa immediately struck the waves to break them and stood by Beom’s side.

“What reaches is my spirit contained in the sword, so the boy should know its meaning.”

As the stranger, who called himself Heonwongeom, chanted as if reciting a poem, the energy contained in the sword exploded outward.

Kuuuuuu!

Hwadam barely tilted his head at the strong energy.

Then, Heonwongeom’s sword, which had passed by a hair’s breadth, twisted like a braid and aimed for the back of his head.

“Gasp!”

Hwadam twisted his body, spun in the air to avoid it, absorbed the energy of Geonwon Sea, and kicked off the surface of the water.

Boom!

Then, waves over dozens of yards high were created, and the sword, which had been twisted like a braid, avoided the waves and instantly turned back into a four-foot-long sword.

Heonwongeom wielded his sword as if reciting a poem.

Cheonbeom narrowed his eyes as he watched the scene.

A pale scholar reciting poetry with a sword on the beach on this dark night.

“Great One…!”

Hwadam, startled, called Cheonbeom with nervous eyes.

“Don’t make a fuss. If that person had sincerely intended to stab you, he would have done so.”

“Yes? What… do you mean he deliberately missed me?”

“Yes.”

Cheonbeom answered with certainty.

Hwadam found it difficult to understand, but he stood in front of Cheonbeom as if to protect him. Tamhwa was also by his side, protecting him.

“Is a grown old man being protected by young children? If so, that’s quite disappointing…”

Heonwongeom glanced at Cheonbeom’s empty sleeve and twitched his eyebrows.

“You speak as if you know me well.”

“To us, you are both a hope and an enemy to be killed.”

“Killing hope… you’re saying something quite romantic.”

“The sea and the moon are both good tonight. Since it’s a charming place, isn’t it perfect to recite a poem about a man’s romance?”

“There couldn’t be a better day to point swords at each other’s necks.”

Heonwongeom gave a strange smile and agreed with his words.

Beom seemed to know roughly what his identity was.

At first, he thought it was the pursuit team from the Upper World, but it wasn’t.

A strange swordsmanship, but he couldn’t fathom its depth. This feeling he had felt before.

Beom closed his eyes and reminisced about the old days, then asked as if longing for something.

“So… which of the old man’s swords are you?”

When Beom asked, he answered.

“The twenty-fourth sword, Heonwongeom.”

Heonwongeom answered.

In an instant, his energy changed, and the waves of Geonwon Sea momentarily stopped.

Soon, small ripples began to form from the surface of the water where Heonwongeom was standing.

“I, the twenty-fourth sword, Heonwongeom, am the Sword God’s last sword. I aim my sword at the Heavenly Sword, so you must face me with your sword.”

Then, Cheonbeom, who had been in the form of a hunched old man, straightened his back slightly.

The wrinkles disappeared, his skin turned firm, and his white hair turned into flowing black hair.

His black eyes turned golden, and he transformed from a powerless old man into a sharp-edged man, descending onto the surface of the water.

“Great One…”

“It seems there’s no room for you to interfere. This fight is solely my responsibility.”

So, when Beom spread his palm, flower petals gathered and turned into a sword.

It was Hwaran.

“How do you know me?”

“All swords are connected.”

“So you were connected to Dangchun as well.”

“That’s right.”

The thirty-second sword of the Sword Slave, Dangchun, who first tried to take Cheonbeom away in the Lower World.

He was also connected.

That means.

“It’s natural that you know me.”

He thought he would appear at any time.

He didn’t appear even when he went to the Upper World, so he often wondered when he would appear.

To him, the name Sword Slave was a fear, and the old man’s swords were opponents he had to fight without fail.

‘The twenty-fourth sword.’

He must know.

That Cheonbeom was not a person who would obediently follow him.

And knowing how Dangchun died, he could skip all the trivial stories.

A man speaks with his sword.

Opening one’s mouth is not too late after the sword has been released from someone’s hand.

Whoosh.

The fog clears in the rough wind.

But the surface of the water where they stepped remained calm without a single wave.

The slightly closed eyes did not see the darkness but saw his swordsmanship.

Beom instinctively sensed that his skills were equal to his.

So he knew that he could only survive if he fastened the first button well [made a strong first move].

The first move.

The victory or defeat will be decided in one exchange.

“Hoo…”

He exhaled as if exhaling cigarette smoke, and the moonlight illuminated his white breath.

He relaxed all the strength in his body and even let go of the hand holding the sword, so the blade of Hwaran gently touched the surface of the water.

And in an instant.

Their figures disappeared.

Kwaaaaaaaaaa!