“Urk.”
Crash!!!
The Azure Heaven created by the old man with a transcendent bearing shattered. He wore a martial robe made of blue satin, a lustrous fabric woven from silk produced only in Yunnan.
At the same time, bright red blood burst from the old man’s mouth like a waterfall. Unable to withstand his severe internal injuries, he ultimately fell to his knees in humiliation before the young man standing perfectly straight in front of him.
“You’re strong.”
Fewer than several hundred people across the vast Central Plains could wear a blue satin martial robe. To hear such an admiring remark from an old man who wore one was something every martial artist yearned for.
Yet not the slightest trace of delight appeared on the face of the young man standing silently before him.
No—the corners of the young man’s eyes were red, as if he were barely holding back his tears.
His shoulders heaved faintly.
Unlike the old man, who knelt and vomited blood, the young man merely steadied his breathing. Compared to the old man, his complexion was perfectly fine, making it obvious who had held the advantage.
“Why? Why did you do that to her? And to them!!!!”
At last, the emotions the young man had been suppressing exploded from him. The old man with the transcendent bearing slowly closed his eyes as he listened to the young man’s roar, laced with anguish.
“It couldn’t be helped. In the martial world, justice without strength inevitably brings about tragedies like this.”
“Even now, do I look weaker than you!!!”
The young man shouted as if the notion were absurd. The lion’s roar that burst forth overturned the old man’s already battered insides once more.
“Urk!”
Even more blood spilled from the old man’s mouth. Looking at the vivid red blood, he gave a bitter smile.
“No. You are more than strong enough. You are the supreme master who defeated all Three Heavens without even knowing there was a Heaven Beyond Heaven above them. You are One Freak.”
A startling statement flowed from the old man’s mouth.
It was said that the martial world had three heavens, five emperors, seven kings, and ten lords.
The Three Heavens, Five Emperors, Seven Kings, and Ten Lords.
That was the name given to the strongest masters beneath heaven—the greatest powers of the martial world. At some point, however, people began adding one more name to the end.
One Freak.
Because he knew nothing but the sword, One Freak was also called Sword Addict. The reason his name was appended to the Three Heavens, Five Emperors, Seven Kings, and Ten Lords was that One Freak had never once lost, no matter whom he fought—the undefeated one.
He had never won, but he had never lost even once.
No matter whom he fought, he always ended in a draw. Thus, because he had never won or lost a single time, he was given the sobriquet One Freak.
And that One Freak had defeated all Three Heavens.
The old man in blue, Namgung Muyeong—the grand elder patriarch of the Great Namgung Clan and one of the Three Heavens, Azure Heaven—smiled bitterly.
“Look at me. Just as your partner and retainers were weak and weeded out, I too lacked the strength and have been defeated by you.”
Even after hearing that the Heavenly Demon and Soaring Heaven, two of the Three Heavens, had been defeated, Namgung Muyeong had not fled. He had accepted One Freak’s martial bout.
He had been eager to test himself against One Freak, who had defeated the Heavenly Demon and Soaring Heaven, but more than that, he was a warrior of the Namgung Clan who had to protect his family.
The same had been true of the Heavenly Demon and Soaring Heaven.
The Heavenly Demon, leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and Soaring Heaven, lord of the Four Sovereigns Fortress, the strongest power of the unorthodox faction, had also fought One Freak to protect their followers and people.
If they avoided One Freak, it was obvious that the ones who would have to bear the brunt of his anger were the families left behind.
“Since you held back during your fights, everyone who fought you survived. Those narrow-minded fools claimed they couldn’t determine a winner against you. Heh heh heh. I’ve uncovered a hidden chapter of history, and that too is a delightful thing.”
Namgung Muyeong chuckled even as he vomited blood.
Namgung Muyeong’s words revealed the hidden truth behind One Freak’s undefeated record. One Freak—Jo Won—had never killed anyone.
Not the Heavenly Demon. Not Soaring Heaven. Not even Azure Heaven.
Even as he shed such sorrowful tears, he had never taken a person’s life with his sword.
‘Because he was overwhelmingly strong, I suppose.’
Namgung Muyeong had felt the reason clearly. In the current martial world, there was no martial artist who posed enough of a threat to One Freak, Jo Won, to make him resort to excessive or lethal force out of fear of future consequences.
The Three Heavens, Five Emperors, Seven Kings, and Ten Lords.
None of them posed much of a threat to One Freak, Jo Won. That must have been why he had spared them.
Yet Jo Won’s decision had eventually returned to him as a grievous mistake. The more people he defeated, the more those proud martial artists slandered and framed him. Then, while Jo Won was away, they branded him a public enemy of the martial world, stormed the manor where he lived, and brutally slaughtered his partner and retainers.
It was the vile decision of martial artists whose envy and jealousy had rotted them to the bone, leaving no room for respect toward one who had reached a realm they could not.
“I respect you.”
Namgung Muyeong spoke to the tearful Jo Won.
“You did not vent that volcanic rage of yours on the weak. By defeating the Three Heavens, you seized the authority to do anything in this law-of-the-jungle martial world.”
Without needing to shed oceans of blood, Jo Won had consecutively defeated all Three Heavens and revealed the existence of a Heaven Beyond Heaven.
“What more is there for the loser to say? Do as you wish.”
Azure Heaven Namgung Muyeong had poured out everything he possessed and still failed to defeat One Freak Jo Won. Impressed by Jo Won’s martial arts, he decided to accept death with dignity.
He could see his worthless descendants poisoning the martial world, and regretted only that he had failed to step forward in time.
He regretted only that he had spent too long refusing to act because the Three Heavens stepping in would destroy the balance, and that he had not met the Jo Won before him sooner.
“You are the Greatest Martial Artist Under Heaven. In the name of the Three Heavens, I certify it.”
Namgung Muyeong looked at Jo Won and spoke with reverence for the strongest martial artist throughout all history, past and present. But the sorrow in Jo Won’s eyes did not change.
“The reason I didn’t kill you wasn’t because I’m merciful.”
Jo Won sheathed the old iron sword. It was the iron sword his partner had held until the moment she died—the old, worn sword Jo Won had bought for her.
It looked as though it would snap if struck lightly, yet in Jo Won’s hand, it was the equal of any legendary sword beneath heaven. Jo Won spoke to Namgung Muyeong.
“You would have destroyed yourselves on your own. I simply had no need to lift a finger.”
“Don’t look for me anymore. I’m sick to death of this martial world, this entire life.”
And with that, One Freak Jo Won vanished like smoke before Namgung Muyeong’s eyes. Even with his exceptional vision, Namgung Muyeong could not follow the movement and swallowed a groan.
One Freak Jo Won.
Even after facing the Three Heavens, he had not used his full strength.
“There are so many.”
Jo Won murmured as he gazed at the bookshelves of the manor, now desolate and empty of everyone but him.
They were packed so tightly that there was no room left to fit another book. Jo Won’s partner used to call the bookshelves her treasures and say they held at least ten thousand books.
Jo Won and his retainers had scoured every corner of the land to obtain those books, so each one contained a piece of his memories.
“She never even got to read them all.”
His partner had said her goal was to finish all those books before she died. Yet whenever she opened one, she would start snoring and fall asleep within fifteen minutes, so Jo Won used to tease her about it.
But he would never see that sight again.
Jo Won himself had buried her.
“You went on ahead without me. What a bunch of cheaters.”
Jo Won grumbled as he forced back his tears. He hated that they had all left together on the same day and at the same hour, without him.
Still, thinking that they had not been lonely or afraid on the road because they had gone together, Jo Won rubbed at the corners of his eyes. Moisture came away on his fingers.
“Books…”
Rustle.
Jo Won pulled a book from the shelf and flipped it open with a sweep of his finger. He did not know why his partner had loved books so much. But the only legacy she had left behind was these books, and he wanted to fulfill in her place the dream she had once had—to read every book she had never managed to finish.
Jo Won no longer had any reason to live as the person called Jo Won after losing his partner and retainers.
Instead, he wanted to do what his partner had wished to do, on her behalf.
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
In the empty library, the only sound that echoed quietly was the turning of pages.
Three years passed as Jo Won read the ten thousand books lining the shelves. During that time, he did nothing but eat and read.
As a result, his once muscular body grew so gaunt that it could barely move, and his beard grew thick and unkempt. His eyes became hollow, but his gaze grew deeper and more profound.
“Books.”
Jo Won opened a book that had become as familiar as his own body.
“So this is what makes them so interesting.”
Jo Won had spent his entire life wielding a sword to protect himself. But after reading ten thousand books, he discovered the profound joy of reading. He also felt his heart stir at the thought that millions of books existed beyond these ten thousand.
But it was not yet time to go outside.
“I’ve realized what books mean.”
If this could be called seclusion training, then it was seclusion training. The difference was that he had read books instead of practicing martial arts, but he had gained an insight from it.
“Books remain forever. Martial arts don’t.”
Books remain forever. No matter how profound the mastery of the martial arts Jo Won had learned, they would eventually come to an end. To leave behind proof that someone like Jo Won had once existed, he would have to record those martial arts in a book.
Thus, the thing that could be remembered beyond even the span of time humans could imagine was a book.
Even so, Jo Won picked up a brush and ground ink on an inkstone.
“If I turn it into a book, it will remain forever. If I write it all down there, you and those guys will remain forever too.”
Human memory was not eternal. The same was true of Jo Won. Though he did not want to believe it, the power of time would eventually blur even his memories of his partner and retainers.
Jo Won did not want that.
So Jo Won decided to turn her and those guys into a book.
Scratch, scratch-scratch, scratch.
At first, Jo Won’s handwriting was atrocious now that he held a brush instead of a sword. But as befitted a man who had wielded a sword, his penmanship began to improve in an instant.
It did not take long for him to reach the level of a master calligrapher. Yet regardless of his handwriting, Jo Won began pouring everything in his mind onto paper.
So that she and those guys could be eternal. So that they could remain by his side forever.
Another three years passed like that. When those three years were over, Jo Won realized he had written down everything he remembered about them. But that was not the end. It was a new beginning.
Their lives had existed even before they met him. Though they were already gone, Jo Won wanted to leave behind a complete record of them.
“I suppose it’s time to go.”
Crumble!
When Jo Won rose from his seat, the chair he had been sitting on turned to dust and collapsed. But Jo Won was not surprised.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
The muscles that had drained from Jo Won’s emaciated body began filling it once more. His parched skin grew smooth, and the husk that had dried over his body began falling away in clumps.
“To Joseon.”
In an instant, Jo Won was left with only long hair and a long beard. He hugged the precious books tightly against his chest. Then he looked up at the bookshelves, and the ten thousand volumes packed inside them slipped free on their own, as if someone had removed them, and piled up in front of him.
“How many trips will it take to bring all of them?”
For ten days after that day, strange rumors spread each night. People said that a massive mountain of books was vanishing somewhere at incredible speed.
But once ten days had passed and the mountain of books stopped appearing, the rumor faded just as quickly as it had spread.