If anger and murderous intent were no longer my path, then where exactly was I supposed to go?
I still didn't know the answer.
…Well. That was that, and a sparring bout was a sparring bout.
"I'm coming."
"Huh?!"
The moment I raised my sword and charged straight at her, Seomun Hwa-rin's eyes went wide.
She was clearly flustered, and she swept her diagonally raised sword upward from below with an open palm strike, deflecting it completely over her own head.
Unlike my days as the Iron Blood Faction Leader before the regression, now that I had recently undergone Rejuvenation, I thought my reduced stature was worth targeting.
It seemed that was too complacent a thought.
Seomun Hwa-rin, who had deflected my sword strike as if it were nothing, blinked her eyes rapidly and asked.
"Ah, no, is that all you have?! I am not the one involved, so I cannot say for certain, but surely the heart you hold, Cheon Hwi, is of a similar kind to mine."
"It's roughly similar."
Seomun Hwa-rin, who lost all her blood kin before her eyes, and me, who lost the people I considered family without even a moment to do anything about it.
It took a long time, and there were all sorts of twists and turns, but the revenge was ultimately achieved.
In that sense, I and Seomun Hwa-rin had many similarities. Even more so than when she, before the regression, had told me that we were alike.
That was surely why Seomun Hwa-rin was being so cautious around me.
Because she knew what a person who had lived their entire life for revenge alone would go through after achieving it.
She was flustered by her own changed self, hollowed out by the disappearance of the goal she had chased her whole life, and lost as to what she should do next.
And through it all, regret and lingering attachment surfaced more vividly than anything else.
It was surely also why, after Seomun Hwa-rin had defeated the previous Lord of the Black Heaven Sword Gate, she had gone into seclusion right after recovering her martial arts. But.
"Life continues even after revenge is over."
I bring the sword that was knocked upward straight back down. The Sword Qi blazing along the blade looked threatening even to my eyes, but Seomun Hwa-rin struck the flat of the blade with a Fist Energy of exactly the same level.
BOOM!
The sword that should have struck straight down bends at a right angle with a single gesture from Seomun Hwa-rin.
It wasn't a simple deflection—she redirected the very force of my downward strike, twisting its trajectory entirely.
A technique that doesn't resist the opponent's power but joins it, adding a slight variation so that the result warps without them even realizing it.
The principle of Borrowing Force that I use so often—I learned it right here.
The only difference is that I wouldn't have the confidence to completely twist an opponent's sword that's blazing with Sword Qi this intensely.
To counter Sword Qi, you have to unleash Sword Qi of your own, and when Sword Qi collides with Sword Qi, a considerable rebound force is generated.
Seomun Hwa-rin bent even that to her will in an instant and twisted it apart.
As I marveled inwardly at how things that had been invisible when I was still at the Peak Realm were now beginning to show themselves, Seomun Hwa-rin tilted her head and asked.
"That's true enough, but… when one is blinded by revenge, is it truly possible to think of what comes after?"
"Alone, it would be difficult, no matter how I look at it. Yes. If one is alone."
After I erected the tombstones for Seol Ri-hyang and Seomun Hwa-rin, even when I was feared as the Sword Demon and the Central Plains were reduced to ruin by the Demonic Cult's invasion, I was still blinded by an unfulfillable revenge.
Yes. Until I met Tang So-wol.
"…Cheon Hwi, are you saying you were different?"
"If it is people who push others into hell, then is it not also people who pull them back out of that hell?"
Perhaps it was inevitable that I, who could have nothing, and Tang So-wol, who had lost everything, would be drawn to each other.
I saw something in Tang So-wol that was not revenge, and she saw the same in me. And so we promised each other a future we would share.
Even if I were to be broken by the Heavenly Demon and my life ended as nothing more than a simple dream, even if the regression tore us apart into different times forever…
Even so, I remember what I received from Tang So-wol. I know that my life lies beyond revenge, not in it.
After all, from the very beginning, my goal was never something like revenge.
The Heavenly Demon.
That monster of a man was the only opponent I had to surpass.
"So nothing changes. It does sting a little that the meaning of everything I have carried my whole life would fade, but… a person cannot remain bound to the past forever, can they?"
"Cannot remain bound to the past… That is true."
Seomun Hwa-rin stretched her Sword Qi out long in an instant, spun it to double its power, and displayed every technique she had—yet I dodged or deflected them all.
A faint smile tugged at her lips—not a speck of dust on her robes—as she gave a small nod.
"The heart you planted in the past is like a rope wrapped around a stake. Tie it around your waist, and you won't fall when you stumble. It becomes the driving force that makes the impossible possible."
"But if you want to move far ahead, it can become a hindrance."
"True. If you've already untied the knot yourself, then this old woman was worrying for nothing."
"Well, I don't know where I'm headed yet, but still."
I curled the corner of my mouth into a smirk and kept moving, kept swinging my sword.
The balanced chain of techniques I'd learned at Zhongnan helped me keep going no matter how many times my sword was knocked away, and the mysteries of the Gwiyeongbo I'd learned from Gwiyeong Sin-tu turned the same sword path into something entirely different.
Right now, I must look like a storm wrapped in Sword Qi.
That was precisely why Seomun Hwa-rin, catching it all with her bare hands, seemed all the more remarkable.
Having firmly established her own domain so as not to be swept away by my sword strikes, Seomun Hwa-rin shook her head.
"It matters not if you lack a direction. In the end, all paths converge into one. The only thing you, Cheon Hwi, must remember is this—for what purpose do you walk the path?"
"For what purpose…"
"If you keep that one thing straight, you may wander a little, but one day you will arrive at an answer that is your own. And in doing so, you must complete yourself."
"…"
This was something I had heard from Tang So-wol even before the regression. She had said that to transcend Transcendent Peak and reach the Harmony Realm, one had to complete oneself.
I still did not understand what that meant. I did not… but fortunately, unlike before, I had a fair amount of time.
Once I filled my lacking internal energy and reached complete Transcendent Peak, it wouldn't be long before I fully regained the martial level of my previous life.
In the end, I would finally be standing at the starting line.
Perhaps she thought she had said everything she needed to. Seomun Hwa-rin, who had been quietly receiving my attacks, began to shift her Aura.
Her usual harmlessness vanished without a trace, and what remained in its place was something far more ferocious.
"Since you seem to have poured out everything you wanted, it's about time I take my turn."
"…Please go easy on me."
Her frame still looked small and frail, but the deeply sunken eyes were those of a rakshasa.
Seomun Hwa-rin's hand clenched into a fist. And then.
KWAANG!
Sword and fist collided head-on. Even though she was clearly holding back, wrapping her fist in Fist Energy at a level comparable to mine, it was I who was pushed back.
"Hngh!"
The sword was sent flying backward, but rather than resisting the momentum, I spun with it and slashed at her lower body.
However, Seomun Hwa-rin had already lifted her foot in anticipation, and she stomped the blade down into the ground.
Since she was regulating her internal energy, this wasn't a simple difference in strength. The mystery of the Iron Body Technique had merely made her foot heavy enough to weigh down my sword as well.
But this was only a temporary phenomenon. Seomun Hwa-rin's internal energy, honed to a needle's point, had pierced through my Sword Qi, yet it was still a stretch for her to fully seize control of a sword that had achieved Sword-Mind Unity.
A single moment. In the span of a blink, my sword regained its true weight.
Seomun Hwa-rin herself remained heavy with the Thousand-Pound Drop technique, but this much was manageable.
The internal energy that had been evenly spread throughout her body began to concentrate in her waist and limbs. With this, I would strike the sword upward and break her stance.
I put my strength into that very thought. But.
"Did I not tell you before? That my hands and feet are no different to me."
With Sword Qi rippling, Seomun Hwa-rin clung flat against the blade as it was swung upward with force.
"What the—"
She had wrapped Fist Energy around her feet to block the Sword Qi, used the technique of the Flying Swallow to lighten her body, and then mounted the blade itself through the Mystery of the Iron Body Technique.
Climbing a vertical cliff was something any martial artist who had reached a certain level could manage, but I hadn't known the same could be done on a sword wreathed in Sword Qi.
Seomun Hwa-rin extended her foot toward me with a triumphant look on her face.
Her foot pointed at my chin as if aiming a sword at it.
There was no Fist Energy in it, so I could only feel the softness of her instep exposed above her shoe… but this made it clear that the sparring bout was over.
I let out a long sigh and withdrew my Sword Qi.
"I've learned a lesson."
"Hmm, hmm. You did well too. You handled that new enlightenment quite skillfully."
"Yes, well."
It was an enlightenment I'd gained before the regression, so I wasn't particularly pleased. If I weren't familiar with it, that would be the strange thing.
For some reason feeling sulky, I sniffed loudly and pointedly at Seomun Hwa-rin, who was hopping down from the sword.
"That was a fine sparring bout, but wouldn't you consider doing it barefoot next time? Perhaps it's because of the hot summer, but it's a bit…"
"Wh-what?! Are you saying my feet smell?!"
"No, no. I didn't go that far, but… well, you know?"
"I do not! I don't know, but it's not true! Since my Rejuvenation, only a fine fragrance comes from my body!"
"A fine fragrance? I suppose some people might see it that way."
"Gyaaah!"
Unable to hold it in any longer, Seomun Hwa-rin burst out. She went ahead and took off her shoes, revealing her bare feet.
"Smell it! I told you to smell it properly this time!"
"I refuse."
"Aish! You talk too much! Since it's come to this, I'll prove my words by force…!"
Perhaps it was because of her small stature. Seomun Hwa-rin lifted one leg straight up until it formed a perfect line with the other.
Even wearing martial robes, it was an utterly shameless posture.
But Seomun Hwa-rin, whose eyes had already gone wild over the foot-odor suspicion, paid it no mind and hopped over with little thuds.
"Here! Hurry up and confirm it!"
"I said I don't want to, so why do you keep pushing? If you really want confirmation, go ask Seol Ri-hyang, who's watching over there."
"Me… me?!"
Seol Ri-hyang, who had been focused on her own training at first, then wore an admiring expression while watching our sparring bout, and was now covering her mouth to stifle her laughter, jumped to her feet.
Then she glanced at Seomun Hwa-rin's bare feet before turning her head away. The subtle expression on her face was a bonus.
"Y-you brats! This won't do. I'll wash away this false accusation no matter what I have to do today!"
In the end, a genuinely sulking Seomun Hwa-rin began charging toward me and Seol Ri-hyang, even using her internal energy.
…In a ridiculous posture, with one leg raised high!
"Senior Seomun Hwa-rin… must you really go this far?"
"Eeek! Sister Seomun has gone crazy!"
"Where do you think you're going?! You're the ones who made me like this!"
And so we went round and round the training ground, squealing and shrieking for quite some time.
Then Tang So-wol and Tang Jincheon returned, having stepped out to attend to some business at the Murim Alliance.
"I'm back, young hero Cheon! You have to hear this! I just heard it while I was out, and it turns out we have an alias… ah?"
Tang So-wol froze mid-step at the sight of Seomun Hwa-rin hopping after us with one leg proudly raised toward the sky, and me and Seol Ri-hyang fleeing from her.
In truth, we had frozen as well. We hadn't expected them to return at such a moment.
The training ground fell into silence. Perhaps it was because of that stillness that Tang Jincheon's sigh rang out so clearly.
"Hoo… …"
Though he said nothing, the emotion in his eyes was clear enough that words were unnecessary.
Seomun Hwa-rin shrieked at the gaze, as if she were being looked at like some senile old fool.
"Don't look at me… don't look at this lady with such eyes!"
It was summer.