The Swordmaster Wants To Live Peacefully [EN]: Chapter 15

Nightless City (2)

Neither Yoosungwoo understood the vampire’s language, nor did the vampire understand his.

Yoosungwoo was keenly aware of how important communication was.

When he’d first arrived in this world, the language barrier had caused him considerable trouble.

Of course, even if they *could* communicate in this situation, the outcome—one of them dying—wouldn’t change.

But at least he could torture them for information, if possible.

The vampire rose from his throne.

His eyes glowed blood red, and a mist of blood sprayed outwards.

The spectacle didn’t end there.

Dozens of swords materialized from blood, floating around the vampire.

“Rampage and a shaping ability, huh?”

It would be an overwhelming sight for most, but Yoosungwoo was well-equipped to handle it.

The vampire’s blood authority, a shaping ability, allowed him to give mass and form to blood, creating weapons.

A curse mediated by blood: the ‘Blood Curse’.

Being an ancestral figure, the vampire wielded his authority, holding a blood sword in one hand.

The blood swords rained down on Yoosungwoo like a storm of arrows.

Flying from all directions at high speed, the blood swords were powerful enough to tear a person limb from limb.

The vampire who’d seized the throne was a more challenging opponent than the Snow White Snake and the Mountain King.

The two beasts had acted primarily on instinct, but the vampire was an intelligent being.

At the very least, he knew how to fight efficiently.

The blood swords danced in the air like a swirling tempest.

They attacked from every angle, determined to find a weak spot, even if every other attack was blocked.

“…Falling Petals.”

But then, in an instant, Yoosungwoo vanished from his spot, the words barely a whisper.

He reappeared before the vampire, having sliced through all the blood swords in his path.

Forward-style swordsmanship: Falling Petals.

A technique he’d developed by observing petals fluttering from a flowering tree.

To be precise, it was simply him replicating something he’d seen in cartoons and animations, amplified by his absurd physical abilities.

But the effect was remarkable.

By superheating his body with magic power and moving at explosive speed, he created the illusion of teleportation.

“Kuaaaaak!”

As Yoosungwoo closed within striking distance, the vampire instinctively swung his blood sword.

A reflexive attack relying solely on brute strength, devoid of skill.

Yoosungwoo extended his own sword to meet the vampire’s.

The tip of his blade found the center of the blood sword, halting its movement as if they were glued together.

And the blood-colored sword, now lifeless, drooped and struck the floor.

A moment of silence followed.

Was it because the crimson flash had even cut through the sound?

Yoosungwoo’s sword, which had been pointing downwards, now slashed upwards in a diagonal arc.

Thud.

The blood swords that had been floating in the air, awaiting the vampire’s command, dissolved back into puddles of blood on the floor.

The power of the authority had dissipated.

At the same moment the ancestral vampire lost his life.

“You go down too.”

He kicked the vampire’s corpse—head separated from body—down the stairs, then swept his blood-soaked hair back, surveying the hall.

The ancestral vampire he’d just hunted hadn’t possessed an Abyss Heart, a core.

He was looking for someone with a core, like the Mountain King inside the Abyss, not some trivial being who wasn’t even a True Ancestor.

‘I didn’t see any paths to the upper floors or down to the basement while coming here.’

He’d also examined the few rooms along the way.

They’d turned out to be either safe zones or traps, but no hidden passages.

There was a chance they were so well-hidden that he’d missed them.

‘There was no air flow.’

If there were a secret passage, there would have been a slight draft.

But none of the rooms he’d passed through had triggered his sensitive senses.

“Hmm.”

Yoosungwoo slumped onto the throne and closed his eyes.

He focused his senses, trying to detect any subtle air currents.

How long had he been sitting there?

Yoosungwoo shot up from the throne, whirled around, and stared at it.

There was a subtle, almost imperceptible flow of air, detectable only by someone with extremely refined senses.

He placed his foot on the throne and pushed with all his strength. The throne slid smoothly aside, as if it had been waiting for this moment.

Beneath it, an old door was revealed.

The air current Yoosungwoo had sensed was leading down there.

“And this is…”

The door had a small keyhole.

Yoosungwoo retrieved the key from his pocket.

It floated into the air on its own and flew towards the keyhole.

Click, clack.

It turned to the right, unlocking the door.

The tightly sealed door swung open, revealing a staircase leading down to the basement.

“So, this is where the real thing starts.”

It was time to confront the ‘real’ Nightless City, which had remained hidden for years.

Still gripping Life in his hand, he began to descend the stairs.

Torches were spaced along the stairwell, providing dim illumination.

How long had he been descending?

Yoosungwoo felt an intense surge of magic power.

A thick, suffocating magic power that saturated the atmosphere.

The concentration was so potent that he frowned and quickened his pace.

The stairs ended, leading into a musty-smelling hallway.

Yoosungwoo followed the source of the magical energy.

Whatever awaited him at the end of this hallway, he knew it was what he was looking for.

The hallway terminated at a large iron door.

Yoosungwoo swung his sword, instantly creating a hole large enough for him to pass through, and stepped inside.

His eyes were immediately drawn to something resembling a large ‘egg’.

A streamlined, translucent object, like an egg, radiating an immense magical power.

When he touched the egg, countless magic circles swam into view.

Dozens of magic circles, densely packed across the entire egg, rotated in different directions, emitting strange noises.

“A seal?”

Yoosungwoo surmised that the egg was some kind of seal.

An elaborately crafted magical prison.

This type of artifact was typically used for containment.

The swirling magic circles gradually subsided, and a faint light emanated from within the egg.

He narrowed his eyes, trying to discern what was inside, and he could vaguely make out the shape of a person.

‘Judging by the build, it looks like a child.’

This was the City of the Undead.

It wouldn’t be surprising if children were captured and used as sacrifices.

But what was strange was the intense, almost unbearable magic power emanating from the egg.

Yoosungwoo guessed that the child inside was the ‘heart’ that sustained the Abyss.

“I guess I have to break it.”

There’s a saying:

If you don’t know what it is, smash it first.

It was a risky approach in dungeons filled with unknown variables, but at least breaking it would resolve *something*.

Other problems would undoubtedly arise.

He could deal with those when the time came.

He was about to smash the egg, focusing his strength into the hand gripping his sword.

—How dare you try to lay your hands on my things!

A voice like thunder echoed through the chamber.

He froze, startled by the sudden voice, as a torrent of abuse followed.

—You don’t know how precious your life is! For the sacrilege of stepping into paradise, I will use your life as my material!

“What the…”

Yoosungwoo frowned.

He hadn’t understood the vampire he’d fought earlier.

But now, he understood perfectly.

‘I don’t know *how* I understand, but I understand the meaning.’

It seemed like a form of telepathy, directly implanting the meaning into his brain.

While he was marveling at this new phenomenon, the floor began to tremble.

A large figure lumbered into the room where the egg was located.

It was a massive zombie, constructed from stitched-together pieces of flesh.

Zombies were typically low-level undead, but the energy radiating from this one was anything but.

“What kind of scraps did they sew together to make this thing…”

It was a grotesque, hideous zombie.

It had multiple arms, and one eyeball dangled precariously from its socket.

Its skin was a patchwork of different colors, and its obese muscles looked as if they were about to burst.

—My faithful servant, crush that guy and bring him to me.

At the same time as the telepathic command echoed in his mind, the zombie charged forward.

It was surprisingly fast for its size.

A zombie with both strength and speed.

Moreover, despite its irregular form, it wore gauntlets resembling the blood-forged hands of beasts.

Seeing the figure, Yoosungwoo guessed which corpses had been used in its creation.

“Did you use an ancestral vampire as a material? This guy is completely crazy.”

Even among the undead, there was a hierarchy.

Yoosungwoo mentally commended the creator for degrading a higher species into a lower one, and swung his sword.

A flashing blade accompanied by a crimson streak.

He’d just cut down an ancestral vampire on the way here, so there was no reason he couldn’t cut down a zombie made from one.

In fact, it would be even easier.

An unintelligent vampire zombie.

In the blink of an eye, Yoosungwoo reduced it to dozens of pieces.

—My vampire chimera…!

Knowing that this kind of zombie wouldn’t be enough to stop him, he immediately turned and swung his sword to break the egg.

But instead of the satisfying sound of shattering, he heard a clear, metallic clang.

With a clang, Yoosungwoo’s sword bounced off the egg.

Yoosungwoo, who hadn’t put much force into the blow but hadn’t expected his sword to bounce off, clicked his tongue and put more strength into his hand.

“Okay, you son of a bitch, let’s see if you break or my hand breaks.”

—No, wait! Stop! Stop! You vulgar thing!

It was a matter of pride for a Sword Master that there was something he couldn’t cut.

He gripped the sword with both hands, assuming the 상단세 [Sangdanse; a high stance in swordsmanship], holding the sword high above his head.

Then, he channeled his energy into Life.

The crimson energy surged.

A torrent of power, enough to destroy a mountain in a single blow, 담기자 [Damgija; to contain or hold] in the sword.

“Die.”

—Wait aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!!

He muttered softly and thrust his sword downwards.

His intent was to not only break the seal but also to cut down whatever was inside, if necessary.

The telepathic screams echoing in his head couldn’t stop Yoosungwoo’s sword.

Soon, Life fell like a waterfall from top to bottom.

The magic circles overlaid on the egg began to shatter, one by one.

The sound of breaking glass filled the chamber.

Then, the egg cracked in half from the top, and a yellowish liquid poured out from the inside, cascading down the sides.

“Ugh, what. Pee?”

—You goddamn bastarddddd-!!!

At the same moment the seal and the egg were broken, the telepathic voice shook the chamber.

Following that, a powerful surge of magic power erupted like a tidal wave.

Yoosungwoo swung his sword to cleave through the magical torrent and stared at what had been trapped inside the egg.

With a thud, what had been lying inside the split egg was revealed: a girl, completely naked.

A pure white body and ebony hair created a striking contrast.

Delicate features that seemed almost inhuman….

“Horns?”

This.

Was definitely not human.