KYDS 16

Chapter 16

Tang Sowol had stubbornly dragged me over and laid me out in the Medical Hall, despite my repeated claims that I was fine.

Looking up at her with a slightly disgruntled expression, I asked:

“So, when can I actually get that sword?”

“Probably after Oppa pays his respects to Father and visits the blacksmiths, I suppose? He can be a bit weird sometimes, but he’s the kind of person who keeps his word. Though, your arm needs to heal first. Even if you get the sword right now, it’ll be hard to swing it properly.”

“It’s just a bruise at worst. It’s not like my bones are damaged, so I’ll be fine by tomorrow.”

“Oppa clearly said he’d make you one regardless of the match’s outcome, so why did you push yourself so hard? Even knowing it was just a spar, you had me on edge watching.”

“Well. How about I wanted to look cool in front of my betrothed?”

“Asking me that yourself means it’s already a no.”

“Oh my. You caught me. ……Actually, I already mentioned the reason during the spar. I’m just not very good at holding back.”

“Do you honestly expect me to believe that with your kind of skill?”

“Since you brought it up, let me ask you: from Tang Sowol’s perspective, how does my skill look to you?”

“Abnormally strong for your realm. To the point where it makes me think, ‘Ah, so this is what it looks like when your accomplishments completely outpace your talent.’”

“Talent, huh? Honestly, I’m not lacking in that department.”

“Saying you’re ‘not lacking’ feels way too modest. Do you realize who I am? I’m the daughter of the Sichuan Tang family, renowned among the Five Great Families. Even though I’ve eaten only the finest things and learned top-tier martial arts since I was a child, I still couldn’t reach your level.”

“Didn’t you lose to Hyungnim, though?”

“Are you really saying that right now? Oppa is at least ten years older than you, and he holds the Dragon moniker, given only to the most outstanding figures among the current rising generation. On the other hand, look at you? How long has it even been since you properly learned martial arts?”

Tang Sowol scoffed as if she found the whole thing absurd. It was slightly different in reality, but she had hit the nail on the head. Right now, having gone through regression, my physical body and internal energy were still lagging far behind my actual comprehension.

To Tang Sowol, who knew nothing of the bizarre phenomenon called regression, I must have looked like a monster of absurd talent.

Of course, considering I had somehow clawed my way to the consummate Peak realm using bottom-tier, unrooted martial arts in the past, I was confident that I did possess decent talent.

Even so, it wasn’t nearly as monstrous as Tang Sowol was imagining.

“Probably half of the things you saw from me just now came from resolve, not talent.”

“If you can just get strong purely by making up your mind, what’s even the point of sweating over martial arts?”

“That’s not what I meant by it. How should I put this… Right. Let’s play a quick game of Nonggeom (discussing the sword/tactics).”

“Nonggeom?”

“Let’s pretend we’re fighting the Hundred-Killing Swordsman and the rabble he dragged along all over again. However, with the condition that you didn’t swallow the Poison-Evading Wine on the spot and instead kept it on you, meaning you can actually use your poison arts.”

“Ah, wait a second…”

Tang Sowol closed her eyes and fell into deep thought before finally nodding. Is she seriously simulating this in her head right now?

Watching her serene, closed-eyed expression, I let out a dry laugh and continued.

“I am not by your side. Even if you wanted to run, the encirclement is too dense to make that easy. Now, what would you do in a situation like this?”

“Umm. Dying a glorious death in battle? I suppose that’s out of the question.”

“Is that even a question? Unless you want to turn me into a widower, I’d prefer you stay alive as much as possible.”

“Even when you put it like that… honestly, I don’t see a winning answer here. While hidden weapons alone wouldn’t cut it, if I combined them with my poison arts, I could somehow take down four first-rate fighters and maybe around thirty of the lesser ones…”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“The Hundred-Killing Swordsman is the problem. I’m confident in my own abilities. Compared to Young Master Cheon, I might fall short, but even among the first-rate realm, I’d be considered exceptional. But our opponent is a consummate Peak master.”

“So what?”

“Pardon?”

“Peak masters are human, too. They die if a sword is driven into their heart, they die if their throat is slit… and they die if they are poisoned. Given your skills, you should at least be able to give it a decent shot against someone a realm above you.”

Hearing that, Tang Sowol knitted her fine brows.

“It’s ultimately a matter of time. Even if a martial artist of a high realm gets poisoned, they can use their internal energy to slow down the rate at which the toxic Qi seeps in. In some cases, they can even purge it entirely from their body.”

“Are you saying you think you’ll get killed before the poison can finish them off?”

“Yes. They’re people who came prepared specifically to deal with me from the start. Whether it was the Poison-Evading Wine or stocking up on various antidotes, they would have diligently prepared counters against poison arts, too.”

“Fair enough.”

“Of course, the moment they get poisoned, their combat power plummets because they have to waste internal energy and mental focus suppressing the toxins. If I could keep them in check with hidden weapons, maintain distance with my lightness skill, and drag it out until they can no longer hold on, there might be a chance… but the enemy isn’t alone, are they?”

“To add one more thing: it won’t be easy to keep a Peak master in check with hidden weapons alone. Unless you can draw tricky trajectories like Hyungnim, simply throwing a bunch of them fast isn’t going to be enough.”

“What about my lightness skill?”

“The Tang family’s lightness skill is magnificent. In terms of sheer speed, you’d either match them or fall just slightly behind. But like I said, you’re surrounded. While you might be able to maintain distance for a while, running away indefinitely would be practically impossible.”

“Ugh, what should I do then…”

Tang Sowol muttered to herself, brainstorming various tactics. But when no clear answer came to mind, the creases between her eyebrows only deepened.

Suppressing the impulse to reach out and smooth them away with my thumb, I waited a moment before Tang Sowol finally let out a long sigh and opened her eyes.

I don’t know. No matter how I try to spin it, a good solution isn’t coming to me.”

“Is that so? From where I’m standing, there are a few methods worth trying.”

At that, Tang Sowol puffed out her lips and glared at me.

“Really? Of course, you actually pulled off something similar, but didn’t that only work because I bought you the time to go toe-to-toe with the Hundred-Killing Swordsman one-on-one?”

“I wasn’t talking about me, I was talking about you, Tang Sowol.”

“Ah.”

“Though, I’m confident I could win even if I fought alone.”

“……”

Tang Sowol silently poked my bandage-wrapped arm.

“Ouch.”

“Does it hurt much?”

“It’s at a tolerable level.”

“Then bear with it.”

Even as she said that, she stopped poking. Instead, she crossed her arms as if telling me to spit it out, and spoke with a huff.

“So? How would you fight if you were in my shoes?”

“It’s simple. First, I’d throw myself right into the middle of the rabble. Even unorthodox martial artists aren’t so devoid of blood and tears that they’ll immediately slash their own comrades’ backs—unless their own lives are in immediate danger, anyway.”

“…Isn’t being surrounded outside of sword-reach just trading it for being surrounded within sword-reach? Isn’t that even more dangerous?”

“Not necessarily. There’s a limit to how many people can physically surround a person at once. Plus, it’s not like they practiced a formal coordination formation together, so their hands and feet won’t match up.”

Unless it was some specialized scenario, a weapon was ultimately something a person held in their hand and swung. That meant their routines and forms were limited.

With a limited number of people attacking with limited forms, there was no need to shrink back in cowardly fright.

“On top of that, burying myself among the other fighters acts as a deterrent against the Hundred-Killing Swordsman himself. As I said before, even unorthodox folks don’t betray their own for no reason at all. Even if they flip their palms fast, there has to be a reasonable justification.”

If he swung his blade in blind frustration, trying to cut down his own men just to get to me, the martial artists he had painstakingly gathered would instantly turn into his enemies.

From their perspective, they’d be the ones betrayed first. They wouldn’t just take it lying down; they’d either try to run or lash out with everything they had to survive.

As long as I held my ground right in the middle of those unorthodox scum, even the Hundred-Killing Swordsman would be forced to fight cautiously.

“A blade-art that loses its boldness loses half its power, no matter how great the martial art is. And the rabble’s attacks won’t easily reach my body anyway. Paradoxically, the place that looks most dangerous becomes the safest place, at least temporarily.”

“…And after that? In the end, you’d still have to face a master a realm above you while completely exhausted.”

“If they’re stronger than me anyway, it doesn’t make a huge difference whether they’re fresh or exhausted. Actually, if they’re exhausted, you can use that to induce carelessness.”

Saying that, I pressed my index finger against my chest and drew a diagonal line across it, mimicking the recent scar sitting there.

“Trading flesh for bone is a dangerous method, but it’s a trick that works remarkably well when you need it to.”

“……”

Seeing Tang Sowol staring at me with her mouth slightly open, completely speechless now, I shrugged my shoulders.

“Isn’t it better to try and carve out a path of survival rather than just struggling awkwardly until you die? You’ll probably get your head chopped off the moment you make a single mistake, though.”

“……”

“We ended up talking for a while. The main point is this: stop looking at me like I’m some kind of unfathomable being.”

“Why? Does Young Master Cheon hate being recognized?”

“Of course not. I’m human too, it feels good when someone holds you in high regard. But right now, you’re clearly cementing me as someone operating on a completely higher tier than you.”

And I hated that.

Wasn’t I just a low-level unorthodox punk who happened to luck into shattering the wall of the consummate Peak realm because various conditions miraculously aligned?

Tang Sowol, on the other hand, was one of the absolute masters who had reached the Hwakyung (Realm of Transformation) and fought against the Heavenly Demon until the very final moments.

If I was currently ahead, it was only thanks to the insights gained from my regression. Tang Sowol could—and should—become far greater than me.

Twenty years. It sounded like a long time at first glance, but when you consider that she needed to grow strong enough to face a monster like the Heavenly Demon within that span, it was far too short.

At the very worst, prepared to face a lifetime of her resentment, I had even considered just kidnapping Tang Sowol and running away alone…

But living in the Tang family for even this short time made me realize something: Tang Sowol would inevitably seek her revenge no matter what.

She wouldn’t stop unless I crippled her limbs or completely sealed her Danjeon—things I would never dream of doing. And honestly, she might not even give up even if she became a cripple.

Ultimately, it all boiled down to the fact that we needed to grow as strong as possible before the Heavenly Demon led the Demonic Cult to invade… and it was a problem if she unconsciously kept treating herself as being beneath me.

Since I couldn’t explain the full details of my future knowledge, I spoke with only that heavy intent loaded into my words.

“So, don’t use me as your ceiling.”

“Pardon?”

“I want to walk forward with you, not become a boundary that blocks your path.”

“A boundary…”

“Tang Sowol can become a martial artist far stronger than Cheon Hui. And the reverse is true as well. I want you to stop overestimating me, and stop underestimating yourself.”

“……”

At those words, Tang Sowol clamped her mouth shut and began to ponder deeply. It was a long while later when her small lips finally parted.

“I think there is a way, Young Master Cheon.”

“Hmm?”

“You said you didn’t swallow the Poison-Evading Wine and are keeping it separately, right? In that case, instead of absorbing it normally, I can consume the whole thing at once. That would temporarily multiply the power of my poison arts.”

“That’s dangerous.”

“Yes. It will be. Even with my Poison Spirit Constitution, my body might collapse under the sheer toxicity.”

“Nine times out of ten, it will.”

“But I’d be able to take down everyone in that area.”

It was the exact same train of thought she had arrived at before her regression. I nodded slowly toward her.

“That’s right. The strength you saw in me earlier is nothing more than that. You shouldn’t be overly conscious of me; you need to focus on your own training—”

“And then you’d come running to save me after I collapse, wouldn’t you?”

“What?”

Cutting me off mid-sentence, Tang Sowol added with a playful smile.

“Am I wrong? Knowing the Cheon Hui who fell in love at first sight and kidnapped me, I feel like you’d somehow find a way to come running.”

“……”

“I’m the same, you know. If the Young Master is in danger, of course I’ll come running to save you. In that case, wouldn’t that strength come not from some desperate, life-or-death gamble, but from the confidence of trusting each other?”

“What exactly are you trying to say?”

“I mean that Young Master Cheon shouldn’t belittle his own strength, either.”

“……”

Her smug, triumphant attitude after landing that verbal counterpunch was genuinely exasperating, which was precisely why a soft chuckle kept slipping out.

It wasn’t a bad feeling at all.