Chapter 357: Proof
“Is it truly alright to proceed like this?”
The Murim Alliance Leader spoke those words toward Seo Mun-Hwarin, who had returned after nearly stepping forward herself.
When he had first seen the Sword Demon, he had felt relieved. Perhaps because the heart demon had taken form, its killing intent was absurdly dense, but he had heard that its martial prowess was at a level similar to Cheon Hwi-da’s original self.
However, with just a single exchange, he realized it.
That the Sword Demon was terrifyingly strong.
This was a lifetime of honed martial arts. Even after becoming the Murim Alliance Leader and focusing on administrative duties, he had never once let go of his staff.
In his prime, he had been considered among the top three warriors of the Orthodox Sect. That alone said enough.
No matter how remarkable Cheon Hwi-da’s recent achievements had been, he hadn’t thought he would be overwhelmingly outmatched.
It had all been a misconception.
Just once.
With a single strike, he understood the gap between himself and the Sword Demon.
It hadn’t been an all-out attack, but it was a coordinated strike focused on subtlety, ensuring it could not be avoided.
To catch a dog running wildly in all directions, one needed a trajectory just as unpredictable.
The Staff Art of Striking Dogs was a martial art that prided itself on the mysteries of change, so the Murim Alliance Leader had been confident.
But the staff, swung with hundreds, thousands of possible trajectories, was forcibly converged into the worst possible path by the Sword Demon.
Before he even realized it, his staff twisted against his will and swung toward Jeong Hyeon.
No matter how profound the Sword Demon’s enlightenment was, the sword he wielded itself was nothing remarkable. His posture was clean, but it was merely a simple slash—not something that could even be called a proper technique.
In pure martial terms, it was at best a first-rate martial art. At most, it could barely reach the threshold of a superior martial art.
And yet, his staff had bent before such a technique.
It wasn’t that he had been pushed back in a single exchange. His entire lifetime had been dismantled by the Sword Demon.
He had no choice but to admit it.
That a young man who had lived barely over twenty years had already surpassed him long ago.
That thought did not change even in the second exchange.
With Cheon Hwi-da joining in, they were able to land definite blows on the Sword Demon… yet even in situations where he himself would have died several times over, the Sword Demon stubbornly survived.
Even more so, with a terrifying killing intent that made even him—who had reached the Flowering Stage decades ago and mastered the use of willpower—shudder.
Though his limbs had been shattered one by one, the Sword Demon’s blade only grew sharper.
And Seo Mun-Hwarin surely knew this as well.
The Murim Alliance Leader, who knew how close Cheon Hwi-da and Seo Mun-Hwarin were, could not understand how she could remain so calm after sending him alone against the Sword Demon.
The others, though they did not speak, seemed to feel the same, their gazes filled with confusion and concern as they turned toward Seo Mun-Hwarin.
Receiving all those gazes, Seo Mun-Hwarin simply smirked faintly as she watched Cheon Hwi-da’s retreating figure.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried, just as I tried to stop Hwi earlier. However, this lady believes in him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hwi was clearly born and raised in Zhejiang Province and lived like one of the Unorthodox Sect…
They said he became the number one of the Unorthodox Sect, did they not?
No matter how strong he was, if he didn’t have the nature of the Unorthodox, they would never have acknowledged him.
That means he possesses the qualities of the Unorthodox that even the true members of the Black Lotus Sect recognize.”
The Murim Alliance Leader, who had been shocked when he first heard that, could only tilt his head at her next words.
“Even so, Hwi’s foundation is more Orthodox than anyone else’s. That is why, though he may be injured, he will never lose to his heart demon.”
“What did you say?”
“I said Hwi will never lose to his own heart demon.”
“Because he is an Orthodox martial artist?”
“Because he is an Orthodox martial artist.”
Seo Mun-Hwarin nodded seriously. Yet the Murim Alliance Leader still could not understand.
Being of the Orthodox Sect did not mean one would not be consumed by a heart demon, nor did it mean one would always prioritize righteousness over personal safety.
As the Murim Alliance Leader, he knew all too well the filth that existed within the Alliance. That was precisely why he could not understand.
Before those who could not comprehend, Seo Mun-Hwarin smiled faintly.
“Just watch. I have never once seen Hwi lose when he is like this.”
At that moment, as everyone’s gaze returned to Cheon Hwi-da—
The swords of the Sword Demon and Cheon Hwi-da began to move simultaneously.
There were no flashy clashes typical among Flowering Stage warriors.
No slashes that tore through the air, no incomprehensible trajectories, no overwhelming force that covered the sky or crushed mountains.
There was no phenomenon of willpower distorting the world itself.
The energy compressed to its absolute limit was no different from an ordinary sword, and both the Sword Demon and Cheon Hwi-da wielded such blades, competing purely in swordsmanship.
And that alone had already reached the realm of the miraculous.
Dozens of exchanges unfolded, strikes that even the Murim Alliance Leader could not fully comprehend.
Though the sword paths were plain, devoid of any exquisite technique, the lines they drew were more perfect than anything else.
At this very moment, the world itself seemed to be sliced into dozens of fragments following the movements of the two swordsmen.
But it did not last long. At some point, the Sword Demon’s killing intent grew even more vicious.
The moment one saw it, they knew. That blood-red killing intent had entered the realm of willpower techniques.
Focused willpower could make the impossible possible—even if it was a sword that brought death upon contact.
Just as they recoiled from the ferocious willpower, the Sword Demon’s faint voice began to ring clearly.
—If life is nothing but loss, if the world is nothing but suffering, if that is only natural.
—Then both I, and you—
—Should never have been born.
“…This…”
The heavy despair and resignation contained in those few words shook the surroundings.
What kind of life must one have lived to see existence itself as hell?
The Murim Alliance Leader had experienced much in his youth and had even encountered Demonic Cultists several times, yet he had never seen someone like the Sword Demon.
As his mind went blank, a sense of foreboding arose.
That was dangerous.
Even Seo Mun-Hwarin, who had trusted Cheon Hwi-da, began to waver.
Just as everyone prepared to intervene at the right moment—
Cheon Hwi-da briefly cut off the Sword Demon’s… his own heart demon’s words.
“Disgusting to look at, and disgusting to hear.”
A firm answer. Yet perhaps he had been shaken inside. The sword that had barely been holding its ground began to tremble and collapse helplessly.
The swordsmanship that had even impressed the Murim Alliance Leader disappeared, replaced by crude, stubborn swings like those of a child throwing a tantrum.
A slight disadvantage quickly escalated until his neck was on the verge of being severed.
Yet just barely, the Sword Demon’s blade never touched his skin. The exchange continued, and so did Cheon Hwi-da’s voice.
“As you say, perhaps life is nothing but suffering, and this world may indeed be hell. But I do not regret being born.”
Within the curses and killing intent of the Sword Demon, a faint positivity bloomed.
Though his sword looked like it would collapse at any moment, it endured stubbornly.
“Even if the world desires my despair, not everyone living in it is evil.”
Even in the darkest place, sunlight reaches. Even in the filthiest water, flowers bloom.
Even a beggar with nothing can still do something for the world.
For a fleeting moment, the Murim Alliance Leader saw his own childhood resolve overlapping with Cheon Hwi-da.
“The pain of losing something feels like flesh being torn away because they gave me a part of themselves.”
Cheon Hwi-da pointed out the origin of the Sword Demon’s killing intent and deep anger.
Before anyone knew it, his sword had gone beyond enduring and was once again evenly matched.
However, unlike before, it was an entirely different swordsmanship.
“And as long as you don’t die, there is always a next time.”
It was different from his previous martial art. The Raging Wave Death-Stealing Art, created solely for himself, could make him stronger but could hardly be called a good martial art.
But now—
Facing his own heart demon and trying to be reborn from the very bottom, Cheon Hwi-da’s sword had clearly become an excellent martial art.
If it contained profound principles, it would be first-rate. If it contained life, it would be superior. Then what would one call a martial art that transcended all of that and embodied ideals?
The Murim Alliance Leader knew well that such a martial art was called a divine art.
“No matter how painful life is, no matter how I fail to protect anything and everything slips through my fingers, leaving only deep wounds in the end.”
Once a flower begins to bloom, it cannot be stopped unless it is completely cut down.
And here, there was no one who could twist and break Cheon Hwi-da’s sword.
“Whether I realized it or not, I have never existed alone.”
After stealing and learning countless swords, clashing and mastering them, and repeatedly tearing them apart and reshaping them to his liking—
Using all of that as nourishment, a sword that had never existed before blossomed.
Not someone else’s sword, but his own.
Cheon Hwi-da’s sword blossomed.
“In the end, people come to love other people.”
A sword imbued with soft moonlight traced a beautiful trajectory.
That was right. This was not a brutal sword meant to kill an enemy. It was a sword of beauty.
A sword that declared that even in the darkest night, there is light that illuminates the world—
A sword that engraved that beyond countless losses and despair, there is ultimately love.
Who could resist being captivated by such a sword?
The Murim Alliance Leader stared blankly at Cheon Hwi-da’s sword piercing through the Sword Demon’s heart, and suddenly, a question once asked to him when he had just become the leader surfaced in his mind.
“What is righteousness?”
Back then, he had answered:
It was great cause and chivalrous heart.
If great cause was the will to make the world better on a larger scale.
Then chivalrous heart meant acting for what one personally believed to be right.
To encompass both was righteousness. If one could properly achieve even one of them, it was enough to be called a hero.
Then what of Cheon Hwi-da before him now?
He declared that the world was not such a terrible place, and he wielded his sword for an answer that was deeply personal, yet profoundly human.
“Ah…”
Even if the world called him the number one of the Unorthodox Sect, even if his path was domineering and his past was dreadful—
At his core, there had always been goodwill toward the world and the people within it.
There was only one way to call such a person.
“An Orthodox martial artist.”
The Murim Alliance Leader narrowed his eyes as if he had seen something dazzling and spoke in an excited voice.
“Now I finally understand, Seo Mun Family Head. The reason you said the White Moon Sword Lord’s roots lie in the Orthodox Sect—was because you had already recognized this.”
Seo Mun-Hwarin did not respond, but the Murim Alliance Leader did not mind.
He simply wanted to recall that sword strike from earlier, even just a little more.
And while everyone was lost in their own impressions of Cheon Hwi-da’s sword—
A foolish sound slipped from Seo Mun-Hwarin’s stiff lips.
“Eh…”
It was the voice of someone who had just witnessed something completely unimaginable.
“Ueh??”
As if she truly hadn’t expected it to this extent.
“Neuee…”
In the end, a strand of drool slipped from the corner of Seo Mun-Hwarin’s mouth.
It was fortunate that no one saw her, as she had been completely entranced by Cheon Hwi-da’s sword, leaving her in such an undignified state.