The God-Possessed Swordsmanship Genius - Chapter 48

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Divine Spirit Swordsman, Chapter 48

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Allen and Lucas followed Hairen toward the Patriarch’s Hall.
Allen trailed after Hairen’s back.

“Why would he have summoned me?”

It made sense that Lucas had been called. As the commander of the mission, he was the one who had to report on what happened and hand the Demon Sword over to their father.
As Bigeom Corps captain, he was responsible for presenting the situation to the Patriarch and delivering the blade personally.
Allen, on the other hand, was nothing more than a squad leader.

“This mission was reported to the Patriarch as well. I suppose he’s curious about what you did.”
“If that’s the case, I’m sure Brother could have told him.”
“Then what other reason could there be? Surely he didn’t just want to see his beloved sons all together after so long, did he?”

At Hairen’s words, Allen gave a small nod.
It was true. Their father was not that sort of man. Unless there was some pressing matter, he rarely made an effort to look in on his sons.
Was it the weight of being Bishuken’s Patriarch? Or was it simply a coldness, a lack of interest in his own son?
Whichever it was, Allen couldn’t help feeling that closing the distance between himself and his father would not be an easy task.

“You needn’t overthink it.”

Lucas answered Allen’s curiosity in a plain, straightforward way.

“You’ll understand once you meet him. Don’t overthink Father. Just accept him as he is.”
“Yeah, I suppose.”

Allen nodded at Lucas’s words.

“You probably understand Father far better than I do, Brother. You’ve known him longer, and you’ve felt more of him.”

If you counted only the years lived, Allen in his previous life had more of them than Lucas did.
But Allen had left the family the moment he came of age, and he knew very little about his father.
Worse, until then he had been trapped by preconceptions about the man. He had believed his father was ashamed of him and would despise him as a swordsman.

His brother was right.
There was no need to dwell on their father. He didn’t have to guess at the reasons behind anything, or fret over what his father thought of him.
All he had to do was accept his father as he was.

“Is this the Demon Sword I’ve heard so much about?”

As they approached the Patriarch’s Hall, guarded by the Changryong Corps, Hairen turned his attention to the Demon Sword.
The sword hung at Lucas’s waist, its scabbard sealed tight.

“It looks ordinary enough from the outside, but there’s a strange aura seeping from it.”
“If the report from Bigeom 2nd Squad is accurate, there’s no doubt. The shape of the blade, the dense Demonic Qi, its origin—everything points to it being a true Demon Sword.”
“Is that so?”

As he said this, Hairen cast a quick glance at Allen.
Under that look, which seemed to ask whether it was true, Allen nodded.

“Yes. It must be.”
“What makes you so certain?”
“Because my hand remembers it.”

I’ve used it myself.
It was the most certain answer there could be. Nothing beat a swordsman checking a blade by swinging it himself.

“Well, I suppose. According to the report, you even subdued the spirit of the fake Demon Sword.”
“I did contribute a fair bit.”
“Is it because of that Bima’s Curse trait? Or is your soul special somehow? Hmm. Strange, truly. A mere squad leader subduing a spirit that even Steel Castle Lord couldn’t tame.”

Hairen’s doubt was only natural.
And of everyone, Allen was the one most curious about this very point.

‘Neither Kagloss nor Belvemos could lay a finger on my soul.’

The screams of those two demons still rang vivid in his ears.
Screams like they had seen a ghost.
And unlike Kagloss, Belvemos’s soul had been utterly annihilated.

‘It’s because of the Question Mark, they said.’

Allen recalled the first time he had come face to face with the Question Mark.
A being bound by thick, tightly woven chains inside an enormous iron cage.
That thing, which seemed to be the very source of the System, had held Allen’s soul firmly in its keeping.

With such a brief exchange, they arrived before the Patriarch’s Hall.
Hairen stopped in his tracks, sending Allen and Lucas ahead of him.

“From here on, you two go on your own.”

Lucas turned his head.

“Aren’t you coming in, Chief Commander?”
“What would I do going in when I wasn’t even part of the mission? You two go ahead. It’s been ages since we had a family gathering, after all.”
“Then why did you come this far?”
“Nothing better to do, and I felt like seeing this brat off.”

Hairen’s gaze drifted to Allen. When their eyes met, Allen made a face that said *Me?*, and Hairen grinned broadly.

“You’re the Bigeom Corps commander now. Keep being this careless and you’ll get yourself into trouble. Hahaha!”

Hairen laughed loud enough to shake the Patriarch’s Hall and turned on his heel.
At his parting words, Lucas let out a heavy sigh and shook his head.

“That old man is at it again, saying strange things…”

Just then, drawn by the commotion, Changryong Corps swordsmen gathered around them, wondering what on earth was going on.
As he left the Patriarch’s Hall, Hairen waved a hand at them in farewell.
It was then that Iorga arrived, the Patriarch’s bodyguard and commander of the Changryong Corps.

“Has the Chief Commander already gone?”
“He has.”
“Thank goodness. Whenever he shows up, some troublesome business tends to follow, so we’re not exactly glad to see him.”

Sighing with relief and shaking his head, Iorga led Allen and Lucas into the Patriarch’s Hall.

“This way, please. The Patriarch is waiting for you two.”

* * *

Only Allen and Lucas entered the Patriarch’s Hall.
The two knelt on one knee before Axion and spoke.

“Lucas Bishuken, Commander of the Bigeom Corps, has completed the mission and returned.”
“Bigeom 2nd Squad Leader Allen Bishuken, reporting back from the mission.”

At their greeting, Axion gave a slight nod.

“Rise.”

Allen and Lucas got to their feet.
Standing before their father side by side with Lucas again, Allen felt strangely unsettled.
This was the second time he and his brother had stood before their father like this.
The first time, they had returned empty-handed from a failed mission and stood there in shame. This time was different.

“Allen.”
“Yes!”
“I hear you found the Demon Sword.”
“That’s right!”

At Allen’s spirited answer, the corner of Axion’s mouth lifted just slightly.

“Well done.”

At the plain praise, Allen’s shoulders rose.
Since returning to the past, this was exactly where he had realized he’d misjudged his father.
The man who had seemed so terrifying and utterly without warmth had, in truth, never been stingy with praise.

“That’s thanks to the capable Commander.”
“So, the credit goes to the Bigeom Corps Leader, does it?”
“Of course, it was I who found the Demon Sword.”

Lest his father take the wrong meaning, Allen hurried to add the words.
Of course, his father would never genuinely misunderstand over something this small.
It was merely a light joke from a father in good spirits.
Sure enough, Axion smiled faintly and turned to Lucas.

“The Bigeom Corps Leader must have had his hands full leading the squad, too.”
“It was nothing, Lord Patriarch.”
“Is that the Demon Sword?”
“Yes, it is.”

Lucas lifted the Demon Sword he had been wearing at his waist, sheath and all.
Axion did not wait.
He rose from his seat and came down the steps himself. He had the look of a man who wanted to inspect the Demon Sword as quickly as possible.
Reaching Lucas, he took the sword from him, sheath and all.
The next instant.

Sssk-clack.

Axion drew the Demon Sword in one swift motion.

Hwaaaah!!

As though it had been waiting for this moment, a chilling tide of Demonic Qi poured out of the blade.
The reaction was different from the one when Allen had drawn the sword earlier.
The Demonic Qi and the resentment within it were far denser than before.
But then.

Tsss-tsss-tsss.

Allen could see the Demonic Qi being suppressed within Axion’s grip.
The Demonic Qi that had been thrashing wildly for a while settled down. Just as when it had been sheathed, the Demon Sword’s Demonic Qi was completely suppressed.
Seeing this, Allen was startled.
If anyone could keep the Demon Sword in check, it would be Father, I’d believed… but this…

‘This easily?’

Axion Bishuken.
The Transcendent of this era.
It was a moment that made him realize all over again just what kind of man his father was.
Yet, unlike the surprise I felt, Axion’s expression was far from pleased.

“Is… that all?”

It seemed the scene he had witnessed was not appearing before his father’s eyes.
Neither the demon Kagloss, nor the First Patriarch, nor the swordsmanship that First Patriarch wielded.
And the oral formula, too.

“So it was just a legend.”

His voice was heavy with disappointment.
It was an unexpected turn.

‘I thought it would be better for him to see it himself.’

He hadn’t mentioned the First Patriarch or the new formula, because he’d thought seeing it with his own eyes would serve Axion better than hearing it secondhand, as he had.
But it seemed the illusion woven into the Demon Sword only worked once.

“I have something to tell you both.”

Axion’s and Lucas’s gazes turned toward Allen at the same time.
Allen looked at Axion and spoke.

“The Seongsin Style formula was engraved on the Demon Sword.”
“…What?”

Lucas, startled, echoed the words back on pure reflex.
But realizing Axion was standing right there, he snapped his mouth shut again.
For now, it was time to listen to what Allen had to say.

“As the report states, it happened when I drew the Demon Sword against the demonic cultivator. Right before my eyes…”

Allen recounted what had happened when he drew the Demon Sword.
A burning earth, and a bare-skinned demon whose footfalls shook the ground. And a wounded man stepping forward to face that demon.
As he described the scene, Allen went on to name the man’s identity.

“He was unmistakably the First Patriarch.”
“…!”

Lucas’s eyes went wide.
The First Patriarch of Bishuken, tied to the Demon Sword, of all things.
It was a combination he had never once imagined.

‘Judging by his reaction, Brother didn’t know either.’

It meant this had been held in the strictest secrecy.
The First Patriarch, a demon, and the Demon Sword.
A combination that did not fit together, and must never be allowed to.
Information on this had been passed down in secret, only to the Patriarch of Bishuken.

“After that, the battle between the First Patriarch and the demon unfolded before my eyes. But there was something a little strange about it.”
“Something strange, you say?”

Axion caught the end of his words and pressed on.
It was unlike him to hide his excitement so poorly. Perhaps it was because the moment he had been waiting for was finally within reach.

“Yes. The First Patriarch’s swordsmanship was different from the Seongsin Style we practice.”
“Perhaps…”

Allen could feel his father’s voice tremble, which was rare.

“These oral formulas, were they different from the ones we knew?”

His eyes and voice burned with a fervor that was not like him.
Allen nodded and slowly began to speak.

“The root of the sword is one, but its branches are endless…”

The words that came from Allen’s mouth were the oral formulas of the Seongsin Style.

“The wind pushes, the water embraces. If you have learned to cut by pushing, know that there is also a way to sever by embracing. Drive the force from the heart all the way to the sword’s tip, and…”

The formulas went on for some time.
Axion and Lucas both listened closely to the recitation. The two of them closed their eyes altogether and concentrated.
The formulas continued for a long while.

At some point, Allen began to recite formulas that he himself did not understand.
Formulas that, as he was now, he likely could not comprehend.

‘They will probably be different for my elder brother and Father.’

My elder brother, who had reached a realm far beyond mine.
And Father, who was called the foremost in the continent.
For those two, even formulas I had only memorized without understanding would surely be received in a different way.

“…And so, at last, the twelve stars shall flow.”

Allen’s recitation came to an end.
Silence settled over the Patriarch’s Hall for a while. Even though the formulas had ended, Axion and Lucas remained with their eyes closed, lost in thought.
It was the moment when three people who had practiced the Seongsin Style in this era all received the true oral formulas of the Seongsin Style.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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