-Suhye. I'm going to be a great hero!

A long time ago.

A scene from a very long time ago unfolded before Cheon Suhye's eyes.

-Stop talking nonsense and just pick the plums, older brother.

A memory from the distant past.

In that memory, a young Cheon Suhye was looking pathetically at her older brother who was doing something foolish instead of picking plums.

Cheon Suhye's family was a poor farming family, far from being martial artists.

In a family with only two children, her older brother was always doing something foolish.

-Look. How can I stay still when the plum blossoms are in full bloom like this?

Today too, her older brother was talking nonsense and began to swing a black tree branch that he had picked up from somewhere.

-My sword flutters with the plum blossoms on Mount Hua, so this is the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.

-The plum blossoms have long since fallen this year, so stop your foolishness and just pick the fruit.

Although the words that came out of her brother's mouth were grand, in reality, he was just flailing a stick around.

His movements were so messy that a butterfly flying nearby landed lightly on her older brother's stick.

-Sujin! Suhye! Time to eat!

While her brother was doing something foolish and Cheon Suhye was picking plums, the siblings' mother climbed the mountain and called for them.

That day's meal was a watery barley porridge.

It would be barley porridge yesterday, the next day, and the day after that.

Still, Cheon Suhye was not particularly dissatisfied.

Because her parents were alive and she was not starving.

She thought that days like this would continue.

Then one day.

Her daily life began to change.

As usual, the plum blossoms on the plum trees of Mount Hua fell and bore fruit, and she and her brother climbed the mountain to pick the fruit.

For some reason, on that day, it seemed that a resident had climbed the mountain before the siblings, and the plums were all gone.

-There are no plums?

At the thought of having to return without any gains, she made a choice she would not normally make.

-Should we go up further?

-Sister. Greed brings misfortune.

-Where did you hear that from?

-From a martial artist at the village tavern.

Cheon Suhye looked at her brother with a noticeably disgusted face.

The unattached martial artists who frequented the tavern were half-ruffians.

At least in Cheon Suhye's perception, it was so.

'Where did he get that from?'

On her brother's back was something wrapped in a long cloth that she had not seen before, and it seemed to be an item he had received from the group he hung out with at the tavern.

So it seemed a small rebellion had arisen.

Leaving her restraining brother behind, Cheon Suhye headed for a deeper part of Mount Hua.

Perhaps because Mount Hua was mostly made of stone, wild animals were not often seen, and since Cheon Suhye also knew that fact, there was no hesitation in her steps.

But the words 'not often seen' were just 'not often seen', not 'never'.

-Grrrrr.

In front of Cheon Suhye, who had gone deep and was picking plums, a group of skinny wild dogs were growling.

Unfortunately, she was separated from her brother.

-H-hic!!

Crying, Cheon Suhye stepped back.

Then she tripped on a stone and fell.

-Keoheong!!

The wild dogs did not miss the incapacitated prey and rushed at her.

-Suhye!!

At that time, her brother rushed over in a hurry and shielded her.

Thanks to her brother's shielding, Cheon Suhye was not injured at all, but.

-Keuk! You damn wild dog bastards!

Cheon Suhye's brother was bitten all over by the wild dogs, and a handful of blood was flowing out.

-But it's a good thing.

Her brother untied the cloth on his back.

What was revealed was a single sword of a crude form, with even the scabbard painted black.

-I'll cut you all down! You damn beasts!

Her brother, who had drawn his sword, swung it at the wild dogs.

Although it couldn't even be called a sword technique, and his skill was clumsy, and the blade was not properly sharpened. Fortunately, it was somewhat effective against the skinny wild dogs.

In fact, it was closer to a club than a sword, but the wild dogs that were hit whimpered and crawled on the ground.

In that process, her brother was bitten and scratched countless times.

Just by the atmosphere, it was a life-and-death battle and a fierce fight.

-Whimper! Whine!

And so, her brother succeeded in driving away the wild dogs.

With a clumsy movement that was embarrassing to call a martial art, with a black club that was embarrassing to call a sword.

-Did you see? This is the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.

Her brother, with a shabby appearance, grinned and patted Cheon Suhye's head, messing it up.

Although Cheon Suhye was inwardly grateful, her heart ached at the sight of her brother's injured body.

-This human! If you're a great hero, you should win without any injuries, what's with this shabby appearance!

-Hmph, sister. This is a glorious wound obtained at the end of a bloody battle.

Cheon Suhye hit her brother's back repeatedly.

Although her brother laughed heartily, it seemed to hurt, as his lips twitched slightly.

At that pathetic appearance, Cheon Suhye also couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

Cheon Suhye did not know.

That this was the last day the siblings could face each other and laugh.

After that day, her brother could not get up from his seat.

His body became stiff, he suffered from a high fever, and he became unable to even have a proper conversation.

-I have no way of treating this.

The village doctor gave up on her brother's illness.

But still, her family did not give up.

-I heard there is a skilled doctor in Sichuan, so I will go and come back.

Her father left on a journey to find a doctor.

Although a young Cheon Suhye cried and clung to her father, since it was for the sake of saving her brother, she had no choice but to let her father go.

And after that day, her father did not return.

With the son bedridden and the head of the household gone, the family's fortunes declined rapidly.

Although they had not been wealthy from the beginning, now days continued where they could not even eat watery porridge.

Her brother's condition worsened day by day.

Her mother also became thinner day by day and fell ill.

Then one day, the father they had been waiting for did not return, and instead, a doctor accompanied by a daughter younger than Cheon Suhye arrived in the village.

-Doctor, please save my child!

Her mother cried and clung to the doctor, begging for treatment, and the doctor readily examined her brother.

-It is rabies.

-Isn't rabies a disease that causes madness? My child's body has just become stiff.

-The symptoms of rabies are largely of two types. One is that madness, and the other is the body becoming stiff like this.

The doctor was a doctor with the surname Tang from Sichuan, a doctor with some reputation, and the doctor that her father had set out to find.

Naturally, Cheon Suhye and her mother asked about her father's whereabouts.

-He left before me, so it seems our paths have crossed.

The answer that came back was that the doctor also did not know her father's whereabouts.

Still, it was okay.

Because a skilled doctor who could treat her brother had arrived.

So her father would also return someday.

Cheon Suhye's family embraced such a hopeful thought in their hearts.

-Unfortunately, the medicinal herbs I have now will not be enough.

Doctor Tang said that since the medicinal herbs needed to treat rabies were insufficient, he would go to Sichuan and come back.

But the doctor did not come back.

And her mother, who had been getting thinner day by day than her brother, passed away first.

Following that, her brother also passed away.

The whereabouts of the father they had been waiting for were still unknown.

It seemed that the hope that he was alive had to be abandoned now.

And so, she was left alone.

Baek Yoonjun glared at Cheon Suhye, who had become a jiangshi, in front of him.

As he had checked with his senses, it was just a corpse with no life.

'Sister Suhye is no longer human. But.'

Baek Yoonjun could not draw his sword.

He just dodged the attacking Cheon Suhye by stepping on his movement technique.

Since he had also faced dozens of jiangshi, dodging was not a particularly difficult task.

The option of retreating without drawing his sword also came to his mind.

'But is it the right choice to leave Sister Suhye like this and leave?'

Baek Yoonjun was unable to do either, with complicated thoughts in his mind.

'What kind of martial artist am I! I'm only good at cutting, but I can't even save one person!!'

At that time, the useless words of his friend came to Baek Yoonjun's mind.

-A sword that cuts a person is a killing sword, and a sword that saves a person is a life-saving sword.

-Isn't a sword a tool for cutting people in the first place?

-That depends on the heart of the person who wields the sword.

-Anyway, it cuts.

Although he wondered if there was a way in his friend's words, it was just a useless statement.

Baek Yoonjun blamed himself like crazy inwardly.

It was a useless act.

And so, useless time continued to pass.

Baek Yoonjun could not do anything.

'Damn it! Why! Why! Can't I do anything?!'

At that time, a thought flashed through Baek Yoonjun's mind.

'The bolt of the heart!'

Something that the unidentified man had given him when he was caught up in a strange phenomenon.

Although he had said he could use it only three times, he had a hunch that if he didn't use it now, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

'How should I use this?'

He didn't know how to use it.

Since he didn't know, he thought of putting a bolt on his heart while dodging the attacking Cheon Suhye.

At that moment.

Something changed in Baek Yoonjun.

Baek Yoonjun himself had not changed.

It was just that all the things related to his heart, such as the stray thoughts that were always overflowing and his crazy low self-esteem, had disappeared at that moment.

Baek Yoonjun's mind, which had been in a state of utter confusion, became calm.

A calmness he had never felt in his life.

'I myself have not changed into another being.'

It was just that his mind had become calm.

-Kuaaaaaaah!!

Baek Yoonjun lightly dodged the attacking Cheon Suhye.

His physical condition or martial arts itself had not improved.

But on a different level from just before, Baek Yoonjun's progress was unhindered.

He had a premonition that if he continued like this, he could draw his sword and cut down the being whose life had ended in front of him.

Baek Yoonjun calmly analyzed Cheon Suhye's condition with his hand on the hilt of his sword.

'Her heart is not beating, and there is no blood flow. If this continues, even her blood will dry up.'

No matter how he looked at it, it was a state that was difficult to call alive.

'Even her muscles and blood vessels are becoming stiff, so it's incomprehensible how she is moving.'

No matter how he looked at it, it seemed there was no answer other than to cut her down.

But.

'I wanted to save her.'

Since he had made a decision, Baek Yoonjun reviewed everything.

His own condition.

'My internal energy is still not filling up.'

The things he had.

'It's more than enough to cut her down.'

His current situation.

'I can easily dodge for as long as I want.'

Many thoughts passed, and he reached one thought.

'I have to cut.'

The best choice Baek Yoonjun could make now.

'I have to cut what cannot be cut.'

And yet, a choice that was somewhat absurd, not the usual cutting.

'It's not that there's no possibility. The realm after what I've seen so far. The answer is there.'

He calmly observed the realm after, which he had not been able to see calmly until now due to his self-esteem being buried in the ground.

'Life and death, among them, what I know is only death.'

It was still not enough to move on to the next realm.

But.

'Still, I can imitate it. No, although it's unstable, I can step into it.'

Baek Yoonjun decided to move on to the next realm with only the death he knew.

Although it was a realm that would normally require a long time and effort to step into, there was no such luxury now.

Baek Yoonjun moved his feet in the pitch-black space that was spread out in front of him, where nothing could be seen.

He set foot on a path that no one had stepped on, and at the same time, his internal energy began to evaporate from Baek Yoonjun's body.

As if it were escaping from a hole in a dam, his internal energy was disappearing like crazy.

But Baek Yoonjun, who had put a bolt on his heart and was looking at everything calmly, was able to find out the cause quickly.

'Internal energy is not disappearing. It is just becoming a foundation to move on to the next realm.'

Baek Yoonjun continued to observe his inside.

Baek Yoonjun's internal energy disappeared, and all the upper, middle, and lower dantians disappeared.

The current Baek Yoonjun looked like an ordinary person, not a martial artist, to anyone.

But he himself knew that that was not the case.

'It has not disappeared.'

Baek Yoonjun's observation explored a deeper place and dug in.

The place he reached was a deep world of mental images.

In other words, the heart.

There, something very unstable was wriggling.

Although its shape was unstable, Baek Yoonjun unconsciously knew what it was.

'This is a sword.'

It was a sword.

A sword that had taken root in his heart.

'A heart sword.'

Baek Yoonjun reached out and grabbed the unstable sword.

At the same time, Baek Yoonjun, who had returned to reality, also drew his sword.

Baek Yoonjun swung his sword at Cheon Suhye.

The blade of the Black Iron Night dug into Cheon Suhye's flesh.

'It cuts the flesh, but it does not cut the flesh.'

The Black Iron Night did not cut Cheon Suhye's flesh.

Soon, the blade reached the bone.

'It cuts the bone, but it does not cut the bone.'

Baek Yoonjun's sword continued to move forward, not cutting what should not be cut.

'What I will cut is only one thing.'

The heart sword was united with Baek Yoonjun's will, and it moved forward, cutting what should be cut.

'I cut evil.'

While Baek Yoonjun was cutting without cutting, Cheon Suhye was not just standing still.

-Kuaaaaaaah!

Ignoring the sword that Baek Yoonjun was swinging, she stretched out her arm.

To concentrate on the act he was performing for the first time, Baek Yoonjun did not avoid Cheon Suhye's hand.

Puk.

As a result, Cheon Suhye's hand dug into Baek Yoonjun's chest.

'Now!'

Baek Yoonjun cut what he wanted to cut.

(End of Chapter)