Reincarnated Sword Ghost

Chapter 135 : Epithet

Epithet

It was a remark whose intention was hard to discern.

Why suddenly ask about seniority and rank?

And at the very moment they were just about to finish the conversation and leave.

Before the bewilderment had even faded from his face, Zhang Mun-gi looked at Yeom Baek and spoke.

"How many stripes did you have when you graduated?"

"Four stripes."

Yeom Baek answered with a rather sullen look.

He, too, had no guess as to the true meaning behind the Heavenly Martial Hall hall lord's question, even though he was someone whom he admired greatly.

Zhang Mun-gi continued, as if finding it a bit unexpected.

"You completed all four stripes and served for five years, didn't you?"

"... I picked up one more stripe of gold thread on my last mission. It was thanks to that chance that I am here now."

"Ah, I remember now. My apologies. As the years go by, even memories become faint."

"I am stronger now than back then."

"I would expect so."

Zhang Mun-gi answered with a laugh. Jeong-un watched their exchange from the side, his expression somewhat dumbfounded.

For a conversation between an absolute master known as the Sword Sovereign in the martial world and someone counted among the Hundred Grandmasters, it felt rather childish.

Only then did Zhang Mun-gi turn to look at Jeong-un and speak again.

"So, have you been in your second year as a two-stripe?"

"Yes."

"That is quite an early promotion, isn't it?"

"It's the fastest in the history of the Heavenly Martial Hall."

Yeom Baek added from the side.

"Hmm."

Zhang Mun-gi stroked his chin, as if pondering something.

"...?"

Jeong-un quietly watched him.

'He can't be thinking of promoting me, could he?'

The promotion system of the Heavenly Martial Hall was renowned for its strictness.

It was common knowledge that the General Affairs Department meticulously tracked merit from missions.

There were even rumors that they secretly kept a point system to line up candidates for promotion.

"Hall lord."

Yeom Baek called out to Zhang Mun-gi, his tone tinted with concern.

He seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Jeong-un.

"The promotion of warriors is a matter for the General Affairs Department. If such things could be decided with a few words, others who return from harsh missions abroad might object."

"That's true, but I say this only because the amount of cultivated power this child has built up is truly astonishing."

"...!"

Yeom Baek's eyes widened. He quickly turned and looked at Jeong-un.

'Damn.'

Jeong-un, too, was surprised.

He himself was acutely aware that the amount of true ki circulating vigorously through his own body was enormous.

He could distinctly feel that he was growing every day.

As the internal energy that he cultivated deepened, his own sense in wielding true ki was also becoming more finely honed.

'I thought I'd been managing it very well, and yet...'

Apparently, he'd still been seen through.

Was this always how the eyes of absolute masters of the martial world worked?

What's more, he spoke in a tone as casual as talking about the weather, despite having peered into someone else's cultivated power.

'I have to sharpen my sense in handling internal energy even further.'

Just when he'd started to loosen up a bit, something like this would happen.

It was a clear warning to Jeong-un not to let himself grow even a little complacent.

He braced up his spirit, which had never grown slack.

The path ahead was still daunting. It wasn't even a straight one.

"......"

Meanwhile, Yeom Baek looked shocked for a different reason.

'For the Sword Sovereign to say it's astonishing?'

Zhang Mun-gi was not just a man evaluated by the title of Heavenly Martial Hall lord.

He might even regard that lofty position as something of a facade.

After all, it was a position essentially thrust upon him by the leader of the Murim Alliance.

Everyone knew the story: the leader repeatedly pleaded with him, saying it was fine if he did nothing—just sit there.

He was better described not as the hall lord, but by his epithet—the Sword Sovereign.

Such a man had called the cultivated power of an ordinary warrior astonishing.

If Yeom Baek hadn't seen it for himself, he would have scoffed at such words.

'Just how much has he achieved...?'

Judging the level of another's cultivated power was generally impossible.

It wasn't a matter of ki sense or technique.

It was a skill only peerless experts like the Sword Sovereign or the abbot of Shaolin possessed.

In other words, because the words came from the Sword Sovereign, they couldn't be taken lightly.

While Yeom Baek stared at Jeong-un in amazement, Zhang Mun-gi spoke.

"I have no intention of disrupting the hall's system. It's just that, seeing you about to leave, I suddenly became curious. As you said, the General Affairs Department will judge well."

"... Yes."

Yeom Baek bowed his head accordingly.

And so, they walked out again.

Somehow, both of their strides were not light, but their thoughts were each headed in different directions.

Thud.

The large doors to the office closed.

Inside the spacious room, the Sword Sovereign muttered quietly, as if to himself, wearing a peculiar smile.

"No matter what I say, he'll soon amass enough gold thread anyway."

* * *

As soon as he went out, he headed straight for the training hall.

There was much to be gained from this martial world journey. He had seen many advanced martial arts with his own eyes—nothing else needed to be said.

The first thing to come to mind was the profound spear technique of Sorrowful Edge Divine Spear.

The way the feet moved quickly, always adjusting the distance, the powerful internal power gathered at the tip of the spear, and the shifting of the center of gravity—there was much to learn, regardless of the outcome of the duel.

'And besides.'

Above all else, there was Grandmaster Mu Jung's Buddha's Divine Palm.

The true ki that shot out from Mu Jung's fingertips manifested a giant hand in the air in vivid form.

It was a supreme martial art on a level he'd never seen before.

That giant hand pressed down on the void with terrifying force, warping the very air for a moment.

To block such an attack with only a single sword? Honestly, he couldn't even imagine it.

'But that bastard...'

He didn't block it; instead, he dodged the attack entirely with an unbelievable move.

Mu Jung's Buddha's Divine Palm was so fast that it made even the thought of avoiding it seem ludicrous.

But he must become stronger. Jeong-un muttered so to himself.

His resolve was growing stronger.

A martial artist who enters the martial world never escapes the yoke of karma that he's created for himself until the day he dies.

The so-called "washing one's hands of the world"—golden basin hand-washing—was just nonsense.

To try to claim that, after committing all kinds of acts, one could wipe the slate clean just by washing their hands in a golden bowl, was itself absurd.

Especially when it came to matters of grudges.

In the martial world, there were cases where people claimed to retire, but no one truly withdrew just because they said so.

'That bastard... He'll chase me all his life.'

The chilling look that man gave him was vivid in Jeong-un's mind.

The voice that called him a spiritual creature, just the same.

It was probably that story about the Immortal Spirit Pill. Jeong-un guessed as much.

Was he after the internal energy that Jeong-un had already absorbed?

He already knew that there were heretical martial artists who consumed human flesh and blood to use as nourishment for their true ki.

But after several journeys through the martial world, he realized how futile such actions were.

Taking the blood of a martial artist didn't mean you could truly absorb all their internal power.

From Jeong-un's perspective, such people were just murderers who enjoyed killing.

The little bit of true ki they might gain was just an extra.

There were martial arts that really could absorb another's internal energy, but he'd never actually encountered them—and surely, such skills were far from common.

'But that bastard is different. He has some purpose.'

Grandmaster Mu Jung, too, had said something similar. There must be some particular aim.

Jeong-un thought no differently.

Stealing the brazen bell had nothing to do with anything else, and not killing Jeong-un after he had absorbed the Immortal Spirit Pill's internal energy from the tomb—these were surely for some purpose.

He just had to get stronger.

There were many things he didn't understand, but the answer was simple.

Whatever the reason, whatever plot that man was scheming—

If he became stronger—stronger than now, and stronger than that man—he could overcome it.

Jeong-un spent more time in the training hall, then returned to Blue Scale Hall.

There, in front of the entrance, he met a rather welcome face.

"Young Hero Yu!"

It was Jo Gwang.

Apparently, he had heard that Jeong-un had returned and was waiting at the door.

"You look unharmed."

"Well, you know."

At Jeong-un's words, Jo Gwang answered with a smile. For some reason, he looked brimming with confidence.

"While you were away on your mission, I accomplished quite a bit myself. I cut down several unorthodox scoundrels who were oppressing innocent commoners. When I reported my achievements, even the corps leader seemed pleased with my record. To be honest, I think I'll soon become a two-striped warrior. If I knock out just one more mission, I think I'll make it."

"I see. Congratulations in advance."

After boasting for a while, Jo Gwang looked at Jeong-un and said,

"I heard you experienced something extraordinary on the slopes of Mount Song. It was all very quiet until yesterday, but today the whole department is in an uproar because of you."

"What kind of rumors are going around?"

This was something Jeong-un had been wondering about.

'Too much has been revealed.'

It would be more accurate to say that nothing had been concealed.

Even the disguise he wore, crafted by Zhuge Cheon-woo's norigae, had been seen through.

From participating in the duel tournament under a false identity, to the moment on the cliff when he charged at the enemy, there had been a great many witnesses.

Martial artists loved to gossip, so he was curious to hear exactly what kinds of rumors had surfaced.

Jo Gwang said,

"It's amazing. How did you manage to keep it hidden from us and carry out such a mission?"

"... Wasn't it a classified mission?"

"Still, to think that Shaolin cooperated with the Heavenly Martial Hall! No one could have expected that. I heard that a Heavenly Martial Hall warrior infiltrated the Shaolin Assembly in disguise. And that warrior was you... I should have suspected it when you set out alone on a two-stripe mission."

"What did you say?"

When Jeong-un asked, Jo Gwang widened his eyes.

"Which part?"

"You said Shaolin and the Heavenly Martial Hall cooperated?"

Jo Gwang nodded and continued,

"Wasn't that the real story behind your mission? It's unfortunate that you didn't manage to catch the Divine Thief, but to possess such formidable martial skills... Honestly, up until now, everyone just knew him as an agile and quick-footed thief. Who could have thought he was such a monster?"

"..."

Now Jeong-un understood what had happened.

'The abbot went out of his way for me.'

A Heavenly Martial Hall warrior had infiltrated the Shaolin Assembly under an assumed identity. T

hat fact alone was already a big issue.

From Shaolin's perspective, they would have been more than justified to be outraged and demand an explanation from the Heavenly Martial Hall.

Any other sect would surely have had reason to make a fuss. It was the kind of issue that could turn into a major conflict.

But it was clear that the abbot of Shaolin had intervened.

From the beginning, the events had been explained as a joint effort with the Heavenly Martial Hall, turning Jeong-un's actions into something justified.

Jo Gwang said,

"In any case, don't be disheartened. What could you do against such an opponent? Actually, there's nothing for you to worry about. If anything, your fame has only grown."

"What do you mean by that?"

Jeong-un asked, puzzled, and Jo Gwang answered as if surprised he didn't know.

"You haven't heard? The story of how you charged at the enemy alone has spread far and wide. They're saying you soared to the heavens with incredible lightness skill and unleashed sword strikes like streaks of light. People are already calling you by a new name. What a pity—my own nickname for you has been pushed aside..."

"Excuse me?"

Jeong-un furrowed his brow. A nickname? Jo Gwang complained, sounding half-sulky.

"You didn't know? 'Heaven-defying Lone Sword(逆天一劍)' they call you. It's a truly magnificent title. A sword single-handedly defying the heavens."

"..."

'Heaven-defying'...

At first glance, it didn't sound like an orthodox warrior's epithet.

It almost seemed as if it meant to go against the order of heaven itself.

'Though I'm sure it's not meant with such complex meaning.'

They were probably just referring to the way he soared skyward with the Moonlight Swift Steps.

Given how many had witnessed it, perhaps that was inevitable.

At that moment, Jo Gwang said,

"Honestly, tell me—wasn't the previous one better? Something about the impression a name gives..."

"I think the new one is better."

"Hm?"