[???'s POV]
Aigoh. What a blunder. The heavens really have something against me.
Being on the verge of a breakthrough, who knew secluding myself to the top of the mountain would also be my downfall, *Sigh*.
To be struck by lightning at the top of the mountain of all things.
The heavens are really cruel indeed.
Alas It has been a long time since this old man has had an actual break to myself. Maybe in my next life, I could be a young lad, free of all worries. For now, let's wait and see what happens when one dies.
As I check out my surroundings. There was only one word that could describe this place. Nothing. There was nothing here. The floor was white, and the path ahead seemed endless. Looks like the myth about the dead passing through the Sanzu river is false...
Taking a seat at the empty space, I closed my eyes, and my life slowly flashed before me as I await the eternal darkness that would soon envelop me.
*5 minutes later.*
Maybe it takes time to die?
*10 minutes later.*
Maybe heaven is busy?
*60 minutes later.*
I have waited for many things in life. A little time doesn't affect me...
*5 hours later.*
Might as well cultivate while waiting...
*12 hours later.*
I'm getting impatient.
*24 hours later.*
Did the heavens abandon me?
*5 days later.*
@!#£%& I'll kill whoever is in charge on top.
*1 year later.*
This is nothing. I have been secluded to achieve enlightenment for far longer.
*5 years later.*
Just a little while more....
*10 years later.*
This is noth____
*30 years later.*
Am I being punished for my sins?
*50 years later.*
God. What did I do to deserve this punishment?
*80 years later.*
...
*100 years later.*
A century has passed.
I have concluded that the gods truly have abandoned me, trapping me in purgatory.
It was torturous. Everything was white. There were no colours in sight. It was as if I was forced to be trapped here to be tortured eternally. I have raged, cried, and even begged for anyone to let me leave this place, but no one pleaded my calls.
I even tried killing myself, yet to no avail.
I was no longer bounded by my emotions. Anger, hate, sadness, regret, or even despair, none of them affected me at this point. I feel nothing.
The only way I could keep my sanity was by number swordsmanship. As there was no actual sword around, i could only conjure an image in my head and start swinging. I was even able to reach a greater height of enlightenment compared to when I was alive.
Alas, what use is a sword technique when one has already left the mortal realm.
Trapped in this eternal damnation, the only thing I can do now is to swing my sword.
??? years later.
...
Something was different today.
Being trapped within the white prison for eons, one is bound to notice changes within this place, even if it was subtle.
There was something different located a few li* away from me
li* (a traditional Chinese measurement of distance)*
With nothing better to do, I stopped swinging my sword and got closer for a better look.
There it stood. A small black hole in midair. I tried peeking through it, but due to the hole being too small, I couldn't see what was beyond it.
Thinking it was nothing much, I continued swinging my sword to pass time. It was nice having a little colour in this dull area.
A few days passed, and it was obvious that things were different.
The small black hole was gradually getting bigger and is growing at an extornishing speed.
In a few days, it managed to grow up to the size of a watermelon.
As for what was beyond the hole. I couldn't see anything. It was just a black void within the hole.
From the looks of it. It seems that whatever this hole is, it may be my ticket out of this hellhole. Seeing how the hole needed more time to grow bigger, I continued waiting. After all, time is what this old man has anyway.
Alas, I kept a low expectations. Who knows how long it would take for the hole to grow, even worse, how long would it take for it to remain in this area.
In no time at all, the size of the hole increased until it was around the same height as me. Its interior remained the same, black as the void while and there were no other distinctive features that were out of place.
Looks like my time was up. Looking at the endless white path ahead and turning my head back into the black void, it was as if it was telling me to choose two paths ahead.
It's funny. Even in death, I was given a choice to choose my next path ahead.
"HAHAHAHAHA!"
it's weird. Being trapped in this plain field for eons, I should be desperate to leave this place immediately at once. Yet, it appears I indeed have some attachments linger to this place.
Just by stepping on the ground, I knew exactly where I stood when I was practicing the sword.
Every step, every breakthrough, every success, and every failure.
It seems this place has been my companion after all this time.
However. I'm a person who doesn't take back my words. I swore to leave this place and I will do it.
Immediately taking a step closer to the black void, I stick my hand out, slowly approaching it. The moment my fingers came in contact with the void, it started sucking me in with great force.
"Shit! Did I make a mistake?!"
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
With no other choice, I infused Qi to my legs and slammed against the ground, reinforcing my position and making sure I'm sticking to the ground so that I wouldn't fly off.
It didn't work as the black void increased its effect, knocking me off the ground.
My entire body ended up landing into the black void slowly submerging into darkness. I took one last look in purgatory, ushering the words:
"Thank you for your guidance."
My consciousness then fades into the darkness.
**
Before I knew it, something shined brightly against my eyes, blinding me as I raised my hand, trying to shield whatever was flashing against my eyes.
Raising my hand, I realise what was wrong. I could feel the sun's heat creeping one me.
Hm?
Sun's heat?
I stopped my movement and opened my eyes, finding my physical body was manifested here.
Am I not in the afterlife?
Surrounding me were tall and large trees that I had never seen before.
They were rather particular, bearing fruits i have never seen before, with leaves that are spreading outward instead of upright. I have never seen such a bizarre sight. It definitely is more unique than those from the Shaanxi Province.
Though that wasn't what surprised me the most.
The atmosphere here was completely different compared to back in Mount Hua.
At the top of Mount Hua is said to be one of the most ideal places for culitvation due to its potency in the environment. The area was full of life and rich in energy, which boosted one's cultivation when medidating there.
On the other hand, the rich energy and life in these forests are comparable or even higher than that of Mount Hua. Although the energy flow in the environment is different compared to Qi back in the murim world.
It would be really good to bring my disciple here to cultivate.
As I wandered the forest trying to find more information, located ahead of me in the northeast direction, were 2 unknown presence.
Creeping around the trees, I hid myself trying to see what I'm up against.
2 humanoid figures appeared out, carrying a sword and a shield that were in pretty bad conditions. The shield was already on the verge of breaking while the sword was not well-maintained and was rusting at this point.
Hmm, furthermore, these weren't human. They were a sort of animal in a humanoid figure. They have a head of a dog with a human's body.
It appears they are patrolling the surrounding areas rather diligently, checking every crooks and corner of the forest before heading to the next area.
I continued observing them and followed them while masking my presence with Qi. The forest was big and vast, stretching out over at least a few li* which was comparable to one of the bigger cities in the Guangdong Province.
Slowly following them, it led me to something rather surprising.
A village was built within the forest. The houses were built with a solid foundation, with materials like stone and metal to reinforce the building, making it durable.
The houses do have a rather unique design where it looked similar to how the shophouses were back in town. Normally, in the major town, there will be peasants and noble living among the people. The lower cast tends to have a house in bad conditions while the rich tend to have a well-maintained house all to themselves.
These are, sadly, the greedy nature of us humans who would monopolize everything when given an opportunity to.
Yet the creatures here all have a home of high quality all to themselves, none have an advantage over each other, yet they are living happily with no complaints.
It's rather peaceful.
Looking further on, it appears there does seem to be hierarchy among the creatures, with one of the houses being significantly larger than the rest of them.
"It's really just a normal village."
Upon further inspection, 2 things caught my eyes. The 2 human girl on the right side of the village. One of them in her early teens around the age of 12 to 14 and a younger one around the age of 8 to 10.
Oh. Can I communicate with a fellow human, after all?
As I wandered in thoughts, suddenly a bell was rung in the village, prompting everyone to return to their houses. Several creatures armed themselves with weapons and were ready to engage.
Sitting down in peace, suddenly an arrow landed on the trees to my left.
"Looks like the intruder was me after all. They managed to spot me even with my Qi presence repressed. Interesting. Let's get some questions answered then in this case."
Leaving my hiding spot, I descended down the hill ,landing right in front of the entrance of the village.
"Show me what you got."
I said, prompting the two guards who were guarding the village entrance by ushering to come towards me.
The two guards stationed on the entrance immediately when into stance and without hesitation thrusted the spear that they were holding directly with high velocity.
Why is it so slow then?
With no effort and the help of footwork techniques, I dodged the spears safely, jumping upwards and, in return, flicked their foreheads.
The blow on their forged ended up sending them flying a few feet away from me.
...
Aigoh.
Were they really that weak?
More of the creatures appear as they surround me, arming themselves from head to toe with some of the creatures growling at me.
"Truely, you bunch behaves like a mutts."
As I lower my stance and prepare to strike, a cry is blasted across the village.
One of the human girls took a step forward amongst the creature and placed herself right in front of me.
She said something in a different language, making all the creatures around her stand down. She, on the other hand, wore a pair of gauntlets and greaves, keeping her hands high up and her knee protruding out
"Oh?"
It's a martial art stance. One I have never seen before.
The creatures then surrounded us in a circle and started chanting and singing out loud in excitement while the girl started moving around, throwing punches and kicks in the air.
"If it's a duel you seek, don't blame this old man for going too far."
I said, as I poised myself holding one hand up and the other one behind, urging the girl to come forward.
Within seconds, the girl closed the distance between us and started throwing a barrage of punches and kicks back to back without stopping.
It looked rather barbaric for fighting, but underneath upon seeing how her martial arts works, it was a pretty versatile martial art compared to the Shaolin monk's martial art which were systematic.
The martial arts the girl used didn't only involve her hands and legs but also her elbows and knees, all landing accurately and precisely on all my vital spots. It is truly a deadly martial that utilises 8 limbs to devastate its opponent.
Her attacks have also gotten heavier with each blow. Just by using Qi sense, I could already determine that it was not Qi that strengthened her attack but something else.
However, her attacks were a little too straightforward. It was easy to predict where the next attack was coming from. The girl threw a ferocious roundhouse kick, landing it right on my left hand, and closed the gap between once again, punching with her fist facing upwards.
With a small step back, I took another step forward and flicked her forehead.
The blow sent her flying as well, but she was able to land on her 2 feet with both of her hands holding her forehead.
Her eyes turned watery as she attempted to rub the pain off her head and eyes before returning back to her fighting stance.
Hoh. She is tenacious.
The girl once again raised one of her knees up and, yet again, dashed straight for me, this time leading with a jump and a knee to my face. I grabbed her knee with one of my hands, pushing it to a side, redirecting her entire body, and flicked her forehead again.
This time, she cried in pain while her nose started to have her snot leaking out. She cried out loud, attracting any and everyone in the village.
The villagers all saw the scene of the girl crying and turned their head at me.
The judgemental looks in their eyes, all screaming the same thing:
Really? You took it so seriously to bully a kid.
At that point, what I felt wasn't victory but shame.
I held my head down as some of the creatures walked up to me and pat he on my shoulders while the rest of the creatures went ahead to comfort the older little girl who was crying.
I realised those who patted their hand on my shoulders were typically the soldiers and guards.
Looks like they suffered the same fate of being judged by their village for going too hard at the child.
Then, appearing from the tent was the younger girl.
Upon having their sight of the little girl, the rest of the creatures quickly ran at full speed and hid behind one of the houses, with one of them carrying the girl as she continued crying while rubbing her forehead.
Why are they afr___
That's when I felt it.
Bloodlust.
I quickly expand the distance between us while picking up one of the swords that the guards dropped.
The girl kept a curious look at me while tilting her head in confusion.
"This is rather troubling... For a young girl like you to emit such bloodlust. Are you perhaps some monster hiding using the skin of a human."
As I finished speaking, I recalled that she probably wasn't able to understand what I was saying, though the possibility that she is a monster in disguised was also there.
"Hey! How rude. This is part of Master's skill. How dare you call him a monster."
!!!
"You speak my language...?"
The girl frowns and folds her arms, looking annoyed at the question I asked her
"I speak every language?"
"..."
"..."
The both of us kept quiet until I broke the silence by asking another question.
"What...are you?" I asked the being in front of me who had the appearance of the little girl. Whatever was in front of me couldn't possibly be a girl with the amount of bloodlust she emitted along with the weird energy I sense in her body.
It was flowing wildly all over her body compared to the rest of the villagers, which had the energy flowing through their blood and hearts.
"Hmmm, if you beat me, then maybe I'll tell you."
Immediately moving straight, I took the sword and leapt right to the girl, slashing vertically down with a great amount of strength.
"Geez, old fart, gimme a sec to prepare myself."
As she finished speaking, something appeared from my back with an equalling fierce amount of bloodlust, this time aiming for my neck.
Grabbing the sword, I swung it horizontally, hoping to slice whatever was aiming their fangs at me, only for it to be blocked off.
"What?"
It was a small white snake that used its tail to block my blow. How is that possible?
Before I could comprehend what happened, the girl managed to draw her sword from nowhere and aimed at my neck, only for me to parry It before leaving a huge distance.
"That was dangerous."
"You haven't seen anything yet, Old man."
The white snake suddenly grew in size and slithered straight for me, baring its fang.
"An Imoogi??!"
I jumped to the side, slashing its scale to no avail due to the condition of the weapon, while the girl grabbed a sword that was her size and held the sword closed to her face, closes her eyes before making a move.
[Moon-Styled Swordsmanship Act I: Lunar Divide]
A simple forward swing, slashing vertically.
This was all it takes to cut through everything in its path. With the additional usage of aura, only a defensive move from Moon-Styled Swordsmanship can stop this attack.
Combo: 1
Condition: Practitioner of Moon-Styled Swordsmanship
"Sword Aura??!!!"
A large slash was directed straight in my path with an Imoogi trying to crush me with its jaw. Just where on earth did I land myself.
[8-Stepped Plum Blossom Sword Technique]
I unleashed my sword technique, targeting both the girl and the Imoogi with just enough force to force them to retreat away from me.
"Any more moves, little girl?"
The girl smiled and jumped on top of the head of the Imoogi.
"Here's another one."
Slithering straight towards me at lightning speed, the duo immediately attacked me as if the 2 of them shared one mind where their attacks were all linked together, forming an endless loop of attacks.
I'm afraid that even a 1st Class Warriors and possible Peak Realm Martial Artist might not be able to handle this.
The Imoogi uses its tail as a wide blunt attack while the girl closes the gap by swinging her sword whenever there is an opportunity to do so.
It was rather impressive, but I managed to react to all of it and simply swat the attacks away.
Until the girl walked straight below me and smiled.
From there, I sensed an immediate danger and retreated away.
"Too late."
[Moon-Styled Swordsmanship Act V: Windy Night]
With the usage of Aura, the user creates multiple large crescent slashes in a small radius surrounding him/her. The target and the crescent slashes seemed to be stuck in time as multiple slashes were joining together and stacking on top of one another, causing what looked like a tornado.
As the user finishes generating all the slashes around his/her domain by snapping his/her fingers, resuming time for whatever lies in his/her domain. All of the slashes formed like a tornado, decimating everything other than the user.
Combo: 11 to 23
Status Effect: Bleeding
Requirements: Practitioner of Moon-Styled Swordsmanship
The little brat seemed to be able to use an advanced sword technique, which temporarily stopped the flow of time. With a number of slashes all aimed at me.
Heh.
But I'm not one of the Elder in Mount Hua for no reasons.
Enveloping Qi all over my body, i concentrated my breath and aimed forward, cutting down all the attacks aimed at me.
As the little girl realised what I was doing in her range attack, she snapped her finger and swung her sword again, only to be stopped by my finger.
I smiled and asked:
"Do you give up, little girl?"
"How about you, old man?"
Confused by what she said, I take a look around, only to be met with the sight of the Immogi's fang baring at me.
"This is troubling."
An Imoogi's fangs are filled with deadly poison with no possible cure. One would only survive when he or she is resistant to poison. Though I do have resistance against all sorts of poison, I do not want to test the theory if the poison gives you immense pain. Furthermore, I'm at a disadvantage in terms of numbers.
"Fine. I concede." I said as I released the sword from my hand and placed it on the ground.
"Good."
The girl's sword disappeared in thin air while the snake returned back to its small size, wiggling on the ground before wrapping herself around the girl's neck like a scarf.
The girl then led me towards the house that was laid in the middle of the forest and brought me to what I assume is the living room. From there, she showed me to my seat while asking me:
"Tea?"
"Yes, please."
Upon snapping her finger, something flapped its wing and flew over.
The creature has a head of an owl but a body of a tiger without its stripe.
Using its talons, the creature brought a cup of tea for me and proceeded to fly away, hidden beneath one of the chairs.
The girl then came forward and sat across the table before opening her mouth, asking me:
"What do you want to know?"
Looks like luck is on my side since there is someone who can answer my question now.
From that moment on, I started asking various different questions and was able to receive an answer for most of them.
Here's what I could conclude so far:
1. The hole in purgatory was not made by the girl.
2. It appears I have arrived to another upon exiting that hole.
3. It seems the hole I came from was called a "Portal." Typically, they should not be black.
4. This girl is not human, while the other girl is a human.
5. There is someone who rules this village, but as of now, he is not aware that a village was built in this area.
6. The girl is trying to secretly build a kingdom for her *Master* who is said to rule this land.
7. The girl was only able to use all those sword techniques because she was *linked* to her master.
8. The creature in the village are residents of the kingdom, and they have all accepted that they have a ruler despite not seeing him before.
It was really a rather weird and unique situation. Is this how the other worlds are like?
The girl then proceeds to ask a question:
"Hey, old man. Seeing how you don't really have a place to go. Do you wanna stay and help us out? It's going to be really funny when Master sees all this and it would really help us a lot."
Stay? I looked out the window of the house and looked across the village.
The villagers all looked pretty happy. Some of them were tending to the fields and harvesting their crops while the guards guarded the village from intruders.
Children of the creatures can be seen playing in the village, with some of them petting the head of the older human girl in the head, calming her down.
It really is peaceful, compared to back in the Murim world.
I can technically start afresh here, couldn't I?
Looking back, isn't this what I wanted. A peaceful life afresh, free of all worries.
Looking back at the girl, I sighed and smiled at the girl.
"I will accept your offer and trouble you then."
"Glad to have you here, senior__?"
"Su. Su Chung-Ae."
"Nice to meet you, Senior Su. My name is Blue, and it's a pleasure to have you with us here."
"Hahaha. Likewise."