Chapter 78

CHAPTER 78

Chapter 78

“You seem to know?”

“What are you talking about?”

“That once the three-combination forms of the Plum Blossom Sword Art unfold, even the Heavenly Demon Divine Art can’t break through them. Is that why you rushed in?”

Cheonsalseong frowned.

“Is that so?”

“I’ll try to be more careful from now on.”

So he was pretending not to know.

Fine.

From now on, things would be different.

Earlier, he’d been caught off guard and couldn’t gain any insight, and the linked attacks had been clumsy, but now that he understood the flow, he was certain he could obtain something worthwhile.

His goal was not the completion of the forms themselves, but the principles behind them.

To properly build up the forms again from the beginning, he lightly widened the distance.

Then he raised his sword and unfolded the second form in succession—

But before he knew it, Seo Jun’s sword was once again standing in front of him, blocking his sword path.

His blade could not advance beyond waist height.

“Your reactions are fast.”

As though he had been waiting for that very moment, Cheonsalseong twisted his arm, broke the balance between their clashing swords, and freed his blade.

If he was going to press with forms, he had to pay the price.

A sword unconstrained by forms should naturally be able to unleash a different technique.

The speed of his arm movement was clearly faster than before, and the sword path was instinctively shorter.

This time, it couldn’t be blocked.

The instant a smile naturally formed on his lips—

It was blocked again.

Seo Jun was smiling.

Lightly spreading his arm as he stopped it.

“……”

This is ridiculous.

Even after widening the distance, the man closed in instantly, so this time Cheonsalseong swung his sword with the intention of forcing him away.

He swung without relying on forms.

Since it wasn’t a formal technique and the angle wasn’t fixed either, he thought it would be difficult to block.

Clang!

“Huh?”

Cheonsalseong’s eyes trembled as he saw Seo Jun’s sword placed against his blade with exquisite precision.

Why was this blocked too?

Again, the attack couldn’t even leave waist level.

Clearly, his speed was much faster now, and there wasn’t the slightest hesitation.

Then why?

‘Was it because I’d been obsessed with forms from the start?’

It was absurd, but more than anything, it hurt his pride.

Because the fact that his attacks were being blocked at a clearly slower speed meant that his thoughts had been read.

He decided that from now on, he would no longer cling to forms and would instead pour all his strength into every single moment.

His pride could no longer tolerate being blocked.

The moment he made that decision, Cheonsalseong saw it.

Seo Jun leisurely swinging his sword.

“Try blocking this one well.”

So now the man intended to attack instead of merely defending.

And from the look of the sword movement, it was a surprise attack.

‘I’ll casually block your attack too!’

At least this attack came in with a timing he could read.

No matter how slow it was, the truth was that he didn’t actually have that much room to spare.

If he lost focus for even a second, he would die.

But avoiding and deflecting that sword for just one second?

Child’s play.

He would definitely block this and launch a counterattack.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t perform a parry.

Even though he had clearly read the trajectory, he lacked just 0.1 seconds, and trying to force the parry might have backfired.

Better to block first and prepare for the next attack.

Fwoooosh!

“Hm?”

Seo Jun retrieved the sword he’d swung aside and stepped in deeply.

Slash!

At the same time, another strike aimed at his neck from the opposite direction of before.

‘Was his attack linkage always this fast? This is practically a barrage!’

Had he judged the speed far too lightly?

He made a quick decision.

Rather than deflecting, he would block.

Certainly, blocking this attack itself was easy.

But once again, the fact remained that he lacked a little time and couldn’t perform a parry—

Fwoosh!

Seo Jun stepped closer again and brought his sword down.

Before there was even time to question it, the next attack arrived.

The attack itself wasn’t anything special.

There was no rule to the sword trajectory, and the rhythm was completely reckless, but solely because of the speed, it became impossible to break through.

Seo Jun simply advanced while freely swinging his sword lightly at times and wildly at others, while he himself kept retreating one step at a time, barely managing to block.

That was all.

Yet an unknown unease began consuming his body.

His instincts seemed to be warning him.

A warning that he must not continue being dragged around like this.

Cheonsalseong could no longer ignore the feeling that he was gradually becoming desperate.

So, to break out of this situation, he tried to retreat in one swift movement.

At that moment—

His foot suddenly wouldn’t move.

It felt as though someone had tied down his ankle, and he nearly lost his balance entirely.

Was it because Seo Jun had once again approached right before him with a restrained single step and was bringing his sword down?

Slash!

He must have grown impatient. He’d made a mistake.

Fwoooom!

He couldn’t take his eyes off the enemy’s sword.

For an instant, his awareness sharpened dramatically, and time seemed to slow down.

The sword descended more slowly than before.

He knew he had to block. It was too late to dodge. So he made the fastest choice possible.

Because he knew exactly what he needed to do.

But the sensation that something was restraining his body remained.

Only when the sword reached right before him did he finally manage to block.

“Huff…”

His rough breathing grew ragged.

He’d missed the timing, made mistakes.

But from when?

He didn’t know.

Crunch.

The sound of a foot digging into the dirt pierced his ears vividly.

And then—

Fwoosh!

Without even a moment to breathe, the next sword path aiming for his neck was drawn into the world.

‘Why is it so fast?!’

The opponent’s attacks were both fast and slow.

They truly were.

Within that contradictory sensation, all he could do was block.

Clang! Clang!

Seo Jun advanced leisurely, swinging his sword once with every step—

And he desperately blocked while being pushed back one step at a time.

But the important thing was that even now, Seo Jun still hadn’t succeeded in landing a decisive strike.

‘You think I’ll just lose like this?’

Forcing his mind to the limit, he came up with a sword path that would both defend against Seo Jun’s blade and counterattack at the same time.

He found an opening.

A gap of 0.1 seconds.

A flaw that only existed because Seo Jun’s sword was not actually fast.

Grinding his teeth, Cheonsalseong aimed for that opening and thrust his sword.

“Now!”

Swoooosh!

And yet—

Even though he had extended his arm straight out, the sword he thrust stopped right in front of Seo Jun’s nose.

“……”

It wasn’t that Seo Jun had spared him.

The distance was simply too short.

If only his foot had advanced just one more step.

If only he had held the sword even a little farther forward.

It definitely would have reached the enemy.

For a fleeting instant, resentment surged within him as he met Seo Jun’s eyes.

Just like at the beginning, the man smiled, brushed aside the sword that had nearly reached his face, and stepped forward once more.

Then, as though it were nothing at all, he continued the natural motion of his arm and brought the sword down.

From where it started, at what speed, what trajectory it would trace before reaching him—

He could see all of it clearly.

And yet he instinctively realized:

‘I can’t avoid this. Damn it.’

Craaack!

The point where the strike began carving into his body.

His stamina was running dry.

Though he couldn’t understand why things had turned out this way—

“Why aren’t you attacking? Go on, attack.”

As if granting him a brief rest, Seo Jun stepped back once and spoke.

An attitude that said he was giving him a chance.

Unable to grasp exactly what force was pushing him back, Cheonsalseong swallowed hard.

He steadied himself. The fight still wasn’t over.

What had just happened was obviously because he had been overwhelmed by pace and pressure.

‘I put the first button in wrong.’

If he started over from the beginning—

Surely he could bring the flow back again.

But his sword was blocked.

That restrained movement—no, “restrained” wasn’t even enough to describe it.

As if annoyed, Seo Jun moved lightly, yet every one of his attacks was blocked from the very start.

He cut off the sword path from the initiation of the form, blocked the attack, then counterattacked.

It felt as though he had become a rat trapped inside a maze.

Like a test subject wandering through passages under the guidance of an observer above.

Whenever he thought he had finally found an escape route and only needed to reach out—

A wall would suddenly descend from the sky and crush him back down.

And after wandering through that maze, he would once again find himself able to do nothing except stare blankly at the enemy’s sword.

A slight opening.

A slight twist.

A slight delay.

Every single factor involved in battle acted against him, as though the entire day itself had decided to oppose him.

‘What is this bullshit?!’

His stamina was nearly exhausted.

‘At this rate, I’ll lose without accomplishing anything.’

Just like everyone else.

‘That can’t happen.’

In the end, Cheonsalseong accepted defeat in the first round.

But even if his stamina ran out and it ended like this, he would at least land one hit!

The resolve of a desperate man.

No forms. No need to infuse sword energy.

Just one hit!

But that desperate wish—

“What a shame.”

Cheonsalseong’s gaze lowered.

Once again, his sword had been lightly intercepted by Seo Jun’s extended blade.

‘Then be on your way.’

“Haha…”

Shi— damn it.

-7-round clean sweep so casually!

-Seo Jun is the Cult Leader! Seo Jun is the Cult Leader! Seo Jun is the Cult Leader!

-Take responsibility for the Demonic Cult! Take responsibility for the Demonic Cult!

-Stop saying weird crap, you lunatic Demonic Cult fanboys.

-I don’t think anyone has ever openly challenged him without sniping or camping and still gotten swept 7 rounds straight. This is insane.

-There’s still one round left.

-But everyone already knows who’s winning, right?

Bapju rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

Spectator mode.

A game mode that displayed the match with a thirty-second delay compared to the actual gameplay.

Since spectating was possible even on a computer, Bapju had comfortably streamed the seventh match from the opponent’s perspective instead of Seo Jun’s screen.

It was also possible to float the camera freely in the air, but because of a request from a user named “ThisIsMartialArtsMania,” the screen was fixed to Cheonsalseong’s point of view.

“...Was Seo Jun-nim’s sword always that fast?”

-Why are you asking us that lol

-LMAO seriously, it was ridiculously fast.

-For a second I thought he had learned the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

-No seriously, it made no sense.

-He blocked EVERYTHING lol.

-Please stop approaching him.

-More importantly, doesn’t this prove the runner-up was insanely strong too? Was I the only one who thought that during the last Heavenly Martial Tournament?

-And you can still say that after watching this? LOL.

“No, but…”

Now he understood why “ThisIsMartialArtsMania” had insisted on watching from the opponent’s point of view.

After seeing things from Cheonsalseong’s perspective, he realized just how mistaken he had been.

Of course he already knew the rankers were monstrously skilled, but he had still held doubts.

Yet after experiencing the battle once through the opponent’s perspective, every trace of doubt vanished.

“One thing’s certain though—Seo Jun-nim is disgustingly good.”

Thoughts like, If it were me, could I have dodged that? naturally came to mind.

It felt like anyone standing in that situation would have been helplessly overwhelmed.

-I think that’s right.

-At this level, isn’t he seriously the strongest in the world?

-He’s actually insane.

-Seeing it from the opponent’s perspective makes it obvious lol.

-LMAO you’re supposed to be commentating, dude.

Commentating…

“Hold on a second, everyone.”

Bapju dug through old experiences and memories, trying to figure out how to properly explain this situation.

Hmm.

It reminded him of when he was younger.

When he used to play baseball with friends.

When pitching, the ball never felt especially fast.

The distance from the mound to the catcher even looked rather far.

But when standing at the plate, the same ball felt unbelievably fast.

And the distance looked absurdly close.

In other words, depending on the situation you stood in, perceived speed could differ.

But that alone wasn’t enough to explain it.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just because Seo Jun-nim is ridiculously good? It’s like he knows every movement the opponent is going to make, so he blocks everything. And maybe the attacks only look fast because we’re seeing it from the defender’s perspective?”

-It was seriously terrifying.

-He moved so casually, but it felt insanely fast.

-The way he kept stepping closer one step at a time was scary as hell lol.

So everyone felt the same way.

Watching from the defender’s perspective, he too had gradually begun to feel fear creeping in.

“Yeah… I felt the same.”

Just as Bapju nodded in agreement, another donation alert rang out.

[‘ThisIsMartialArtsMania’ donated 200,000 won!]

[The sword that respects choice. That is the blunt sword. If you read the explanation I left for you, you will understand.]