Sword Demon (1)

The day for class with the dedicated instructor arrived.

At Yoo Seol-ah’s villa.

Baek Hwayeon hummed a tune while touching the clothes in the spacious wardrobe.

“What should I wear-“

Baek Hwayeon struggled to find clothes that matched her pink hair among the array of outfits.

Because she heard from Yoo Seol-ah that they would be going outside for the first time in a while today.

“Something that’s not too flashy but not too modest either…”

Baek Hwayeon’s hands moved busily.

At first, she was greatly concerned about Lee Dojin sparring with Ryu Jia every morning.

And recently, the existence of Yeon Si-mun began to bother her a lot.

She wasn’t aware that all her nerves and thoughts had started revolving around Lee Dojin.

Baek Hwayeon, who had tried on a low-cut dress, eventually came back to jeans and a plain cardigan after going round and round.

She realized that all the places they were going today required a proper appearance.

“Are you ready? It seems Lee Dojin has arrived.”

Baek Hwayeon hurriedly tied her light pink hair neatly into a ponytail and opened the door.

“You were here.”

Baek Hwayeon smiled brightly at Lee Dojin’s words.

“Yes! Let’s go.”

Yoo Seol-ah smiled faintly for some reason as she looked at the two students facing each other.

Baek Hwayeon held Lee Dojin’s hand tightly and opened the door of the villa.

---

The vehicle headed to Incheon.

Lee Dojin, sitting in the passenger seat, stared at the passing scenery outside.

“I heard. That the vice principal told Student Lee Dojin and Student Yeon Si-mun about the tower.”

Lee Dojin had no doubts about Sword Empress Yoo Seol-ah knowing about the tower.

There was no way one of the Four Superhumans wouldn’t know about the tower.

Yoo Seol-ah, sitting in the back seat, smiled freshly.

“That saves me the trouble of explaining who we’re going to meet now.”

“Is it someone related to the tower?”

“Yes, I’ll explain the details when we meet them in person.”

The SUV driven by Baek Hwayeon stopped in a remote residential area of Incheon.

There was a mansion with a similar appearance and grandeur to Baek Hwayeon’s villa.

When they opened the door, a man with a huge build was standing there.

With a sword at his waist.

Only after confirming that the visitor was Sword Empress Yoo Seol-ah did he bow his head.

“I heard you were coming.”

“Yes, it’s been a while, Hunter Kang Seok-hoon.”

And a small light pink object popped up between the two of them.

“It’s been a while! Uncle Seok-hoon.”

“Oh, Hwayeon.”

Kang Seok-hoon smiled brightly, unlike his rugged face.

To a stranger who didn’t know anything about him, it might have looked like the face of a beast spotting its prey, but Baek Hwayeon knew well that smile came from familiarity.

“So this is the friend you wanted to introduce to the elder.”

Yoo Seol-ah nodded.

“Yes, that’s right.”

Elder?

Lee Dojin couldn’t even guess who might be someone Yoo Seol-ah would call an elder.

“Let’s go in.”

The three entered the mansion.

Yoo Seol-ah took a breath and opened the door.

A transparent capsule.

And dozens of hoses were connected to that capsule.

Lee Dojin stared at the being inside the capsule.

The being inside the capsule could only be called an ‘old man’ in appearance.

At first glance, he was an ordinary white-haired old man with no special features.

Kang Seok-hoon carefully pressed a button located at the bottom center of the capsule.

Whoosh-

White smoke began to spray from the capsule. And the lid of the capsule slowly started to open.

The old man opened his eyes.

Very slowly.

The old man’s gaze was hazy.

The old man’s mouth slowly opened.

“…Has the tower opened again?”

Crack-

The old man’s body moved. And as his body looked frail on the outside, bone-cracking sounds came out as if his body condition wasn’t good.

“Seol-ah.”

Sword Empress Yoo Seol-ah smiled brightly at the old man’s call recognizing her.

“Yes, elder. There’s still 7 months left.”

The old man didn’t smile.

“Didn’t I tell you to wake me only when we have to climb again?”

Yoo Seol-ah smiled bitterly.

“You said to bring a successor to climb the tower when I found one, didn’t you?”

A very small change appeared in the old man’s empty pupils.

“…Climb.”

The old man’s gaze passed over vaguely familiar faces and stopped on Lee Dojin, a face he was seeing for the first time.

“Is it you?”

As those words ended, Lee Dojin felt something rising from his fingertips.

It was killing intent emanating from the old man’s body.

It was such clear killing intent that hundreds of black stems could be seen surging behind the old man’s back.

And Lee Dojin felt that killing intent was directed solely at him.

He hadn’t felt the old man’s martial arts yet.

However, the killing intent alone was on par with his teacher, Sword Emperor Dan Cheonwoo.

People with low magic power and mental strength would not be able to move at all just from facing this killing intent.

The terrible killing intent disappeared in an instant.

Lee Dojin faced the old man with a hardened expression.

“You don’t cower.”

The old man gave a dry smile full of wrinkles.

“Sword Demon elder!”

Baek Hwayeon, seeming to have relaxed upon seeing the old man smile, happily approached him.

“Hwayeon came too.”

Sword Demon (劍鬼).

Lee Dojin was surprised at that title.

‘The previous generation’s Four Superhumans.’

The position of the Four Superhumans inevitably drew public attention.

And the Sword Demon suddenly disappeared from the world.

Many journalists and self-proclaimed journalist YouTubers searched for the Sword Demon’s whereabouts, but no one could find his trace.

So they only speculated. That he was in seclusion or dead.

And that Sword Demon was now in front of him.

The Sword Demon, after stroking Baek Hwayeon’s light pink hair once, looked at Lee Dojin again.

“What’s your name?”

“I’m Lee Dojin.”

Lee Dojin answered while bowing his head.

“I’m Jung Yong-ha. An old man who doesn’t have many days left to live due to being eroded by demonic energy.”

Demonic energy.

Sword Empress Yoo Seol-ah explained to Lee Dojin with a hardened face.

“The elder was attacked in the heart while fighting an apostle of demon race origin in the tower. Since then, his body has been in a state of demonic energy erosion.”

The previous generation’s Four Superhuman, Sword Demon Jung Yong-ha, looked at the capsule he had been sleeping in.

“The time I can properly maintain my consciousness and body without this purification device is only 3 hours a day.”

Lee Dojin thought there must be a reason Yoo Seol-ah brought him to the Sword Demon.

He thought there must be a reason for bringing him in front of someone in such an unstable state who could only control his mind and body for 3 hours.

“Elder, please give guidance. To a junior who has to climb the tower.”

“Guidance, you say?”

Jung Yong-ha demanded a proper explanation from Yoo Seol-ah.

“The terror of the tower. You know it, and you can express it, can’t you?”

“…”

Jung Yong-ha opened his mouth again after a moment of silence.

“Don’t you know the terror of the tower too, Seol-ah?”

Yoo Seol-ah slowly shook her head.

Her red hair fluttered beautifully.

“A deserter has no right to tell about such things. You’re someone who fought head-on, aren’t you?”

“I’m the one who ordered that desertion. It wasn’t your will.”

The Sword Empress looked at Jung Yong-ha with a subtle expression.

That gaze was mixed with respect, sadness, and sympathy.

“Yes, it was the commander’s order. But was there really none of my own will in it?”

Lee Dojin could understand several things from their conversation.

That Sword Empress Yoo Seol-ah also climbed the tower with the Sword Demon 10 years ago.

And that she was his subordinate at that time.

“I took charge of the front. You were only responsible for the rear. And it was my duty as the commander to judge the situation to prevent unnecessary deaths.”

The Sword Demon clicked his tongue after finishing his words.

“Recalling the past only makes me miserable. Tell me the detailed reason why I should deal with this guy.”

The Sword Empress and the Sword Demon’s gazes were both on Lee Dojin.

“Their swordsmanship is similar. Student Lee Dojin’s sword path also overflows with killing intent. One strike, one kill. I also glimpsed the commonality of short battles.”

Yoo Seol-ah’s own swordsmanship, the Plum Blossom Sword, was too far removed from Lee Dojin’s sword path for her to teach something.

And to introduce someone else, Lee Dojin’s skill was too high. Ordinary S-rank swordsman class hunters couldn’t be his teacher.

However, if it was Sword Demon Jung Yong-ha. No, she thought only he could do it. To give Lee Dojin a fear he had never experienced before.

To make him gain enlightenment.

“Go to the forest behind. There’s an open space. Hwayeon stays here.”

At Jung Yong-ha’s firm words, Baek Hwayeon answered without argument that she would do so.

The Sword Demon, Sword Empress, and Lee Dojin set foot on the only open space in the forest dense with trees.

“Draw your sword.”

At Jung Yong-ha’s words, Lee Dojin drew his wooden sword.

“Is a wooden sword your weapon?”

“Yes, it’s no different from a sword as it’s made of high-grade wood.”

“…I see. A sword is a sword after all.”

Jung Yong-ha had slight doubts but didn’t pay much attention.

From his perspective, there wasn’t much difference between a sword in hand and a wooden sword made of high-grade wood.

He makes everything he holds in his hand a sword.

That was the power possessed by a swordsman who had achieved the realm of unity (盒一).

Jung Yong-ha drew out a longsword.

The sword’s handle fit snugly in his hand. It was a beloved weapon he had been with for decades.

“Since being eroded by demonic energy, faint demonic energy flows in my sword energy. It’s a very dirty feeling.”

The Sword Demon stepped forward.

Lee Dojin felt his breath catch for a moment.

The killing intent felt in the room just now was nothing.

The Sword Demon’s tyrannical killing intent covered the forest. Endless black stems spewed out from Jung Yong-ha’s entire body.

Hundreds of diagonal lines covered the forest like a tsunami.

───I might die.

For the first time, an alarm went off in Lee Dojin’s mind.

The chirping of birds stopped abruptly.

The aura coming from the withered body stopped the cries of all life in the forest.

“Look.”

The Sword Demon swung his longsword.

“This is the sword path of one who was defeated in the tower.”

[Error]

[Unable to calculate attack trajectory.]

Mistilteinn in Advice Ego state declared defeat.

A black flash enveloped Lee Dojin’s upper body diagonally.