The World’s Greatest is Dead - Chapter 221
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
The Heavenly Supreme Has Died – Episode 221
I suppress the rising anxiety within me.
Though I see nothing from my opponent, watching him, Cheon Euijin heightened my tension.
Even if I cannot see it, Bangseong-yeon saw it.
I decided to trust his eyes over my own inadequate vision.
I point my blade’s tip forward.
What is this unease?
Moreover.
‘What was he warning me about?’
What had Bangseong-yeon cautioned me to be careful of? I wanted to ask before the match began, but I couldn’t.
Bangseong-yeon had gone to the medical pavilion after his match with Naelyong.
‘…Will he be alright?’
Suddenly, worry overtakes me. Though I won the match, it was Bangseong-yeon who collapsed.
Will the Bang Disciple be fine? Such thoughts brush past me.
‘He’ll be fine.’
I shake my head repeatedly. This was not the time for me to worry about anyone, and with Bangseong-yeon, there was no need to worry at all.
‘If it’s him.’
If it’s the man I know, he will rise without difficulty.
I held such conviction in my heart.
‘Focus.’
Now I concentrate not on Bangseong-yeon, but on the match before me.
It was then.
‘Baekcheon-in, was it.’
Baekcheon-in of the Western Region Baek Clan.
The name of the kind-faced young man standing before me.
‘I have no idea who he is.’
A name I’ve never heard before. Who is this Baekcheon-in? A disciple I’ve never once heard mentioned.
Yet Bangseong-yeon warned me to be careful of such a figure.
What could be the reason? I don’t know that either.
‘…Focus.’
I decided to trust Bangseong-yeon’s words above all else.
“Prepare for the match.”
Crack.
I took my stance in response to the referee’s words.
All my tension flowed into my blade.
Baekcheon-in slowly drew his sword.
Slow.
The drawing of his blade flowed unusually slowly.
Then.
“Match. Begin.”
The Referee announced the start of the match.
Boom—!
Cheon Euijin tensed his body and surged forward with acceleration.
In an instant, he rushed before Baekcheon-in and poured strength into his blade.
Whoosh—!
The sword cleaved through the empty air.
Cheon Euijin had not yet opened the Wol-an.
Therefore, he could not employ the Cheongwol Sword Dance, which required opening the Wol-an to be used properly.
Thus, he had to rely on the foundational form of the Cheongwol Sword Dance.
The Cheongwol Sword Form.
A shallow sword aura wrapped around the blade’s edge.
The azure-tinged sword cleaved through the void.
The blade he had relentlessly honed and refined manifested directly from Cheon Euijin’s body.
However.
Screech—!
“…!”
Cheon Euijin’s eyes widened. Baekcheon-in was pushing back Cheon Euijin’s sword with his own blade.
“Ugh! Hah!”
A groan and shout that seemed somehow lacking in strength.
The feeble force connected to it was palpable, yet—
Screech—!
Astonishingly, the blade was forced back and slid away.
‘What?’
How could such meager strength so effortlessly deflect his sword?
It was incomprehensible.
Clang—!
The sliding blade’s tip touched the ground. Cheon Euijin’s stance crumbled as well.
Tensing—! He drove force through his feet touching the earth to prevent complete collapse, straightening his upper body.
Though strained, he twisted his waist with effort.
The twisted stance flowed through with flexibility and power.
The blade flowed again. It rose as if to slash through the air, but—
“Agh!”
Baekcheon-in flinched in alarm, jerking his head back.
The blade grazed him by the narrowest margin.
‘Again.’
He had dodged once more. Was this mere coincidence?
Or perhaps.
‘A miracle.’
If not that.
‘Skill?’
Was this Baekcheon-in’s true strength?
Yet his movements were sloppy beyond measure.
No matter how I looked at it, this was not skill.
“….”
Cheon Euijin’s expression twisted. No matter how I thought about it, I couldn’t comprehend this.
Coincidence and miracle. I didn’t believe in such things.
I knew it myself. I claimed to believe Bangseong-yeon’s words, but that was merely an excuse.
Setting everything else aside.
‘Defeated by someone so insignificant.’
My sister lost to him? How could that be possible?
‘My sister is not weak.’
I didn’t want to admit it, but it was the very thing I most needed to acknowledge.
Cheonhye-in was not weak. She had always been the wall I wanted to break through in my life.
That remained unchanged.
Such a wall lost to someone so trivial?
I didn’t want to accept it. The wall I wanted to tear down couldn’t be like this.
‘I still haven’t reached her.’
Far from reaching her, I still feared her. I couldn’t even properly meet my sister’s gaze, and whenever I did, memories from that time surfaced.
That moment when I could do nothing and watched helplessly, utterly incompetent.
‘Damn it.’
The memory brushed past my mind. Because of it, Cheon Euijin’s expression contorted.
My concentration wavered somewhat.
And then.
Twang—!!
“…!”
Suddenly my sword flew from my grip.
As Cheon Euijin looked around in bewilderment, Baekcheon-in standing before me stared directly at me.
“Oh my. How about that.”
An expression suggesting he didn’t know how he’d deflected it. What had just happened? I couldn’t properly comprehend what had occurred to me.
“Aha. Well, well… I’m quite fortunate, aren’t I?”
“….”
Baekcheon-in responded as though deflecting the sword had been mere luck.
However.
“Luck is luck, but…”
In Baekcheon-in’s eyes as he spoke lay something distinctly unpleasant.
“You should focus, shouldn’t you? How presumptuous… Ah, no. No matter how insignificant I may be, I am still your opponent standing before you.”
He spoke with a smile, yet his displeasure was unmistakably apparent.
Cheon Euijin bit his lip at those words.
“My apologies.”
I acknowledged it. It was not conduct befitting one facing an opponent.
“Shhhhh.”
I refocus my concentration.
The sword energy swirling along the blade’s edge gleams, and suffused with that radiance, Cheon Euijin charges forward once more.
Cheongwol-mu Flowing Sword.
A sword path that opens like flowing water.
Cheon Euijin’s blade shoots directly toward Baekcheon-in.
“Mm.”
Baekcheon-in narrows his eyes upon witnessing it.
Baekcheon-in’s sword moves to meet the incoming blade.
Screech—! Whoosh—!
Once he blocks, once he evades.
And then.
‘What?’
Cheon Euijin’s eyes widen as he unleashes his blade. Baekcheon-in is watching his own sword.
It was unmistakable. His eyes are moving.
His gaze is fixed upon the sword’s tip, as if discerning the sword path itself.
And then.
Clang—! He flicks it once, severing the continuation of the sword path.
Thud—!
The distance widens as I’m pushed back. The gap between myself and Baekcheon-in opens in an instant.
“….”
In that moment, Cheon Euijin stands with his face contorted.
From what just transpired, I became certain.
“You.”
Baekcheon-in was—
“Why are you concealing your strength?”
He was hiding his power.
“….”
Upon hearing my words, Baekcheon-in scratches the back of his head without erasing his smile.
“Ah. How troublesome.”
It’s a reaction suggesting something has become difficult.
What kind of reaction is that? Unable to comprehend, I simply stand still.
“This wasn’t part of my expectations.”
Baekcheon-in’s expression changes along with a sigh. The smile he had been wearing vanishes.
The kind face that had seemed apparent before doesn’t change much.
‘What is that look in his eyes.’
The light in his eyes—that was the problem. It’s chilling.
It’s entirely different from the atmosphere I felt just moments ago.
“What is….”
“Cheon, Young Master.”
“…Huh?”
“I didn’t anticipate this. For someone to have climbed this far….”
Thud—!
“…!”
Baekcheon-in lunged forward lightly, burrowing into Cheon Euijin’s embrace.
It wasn’t particularly fast, but Cheon Euijin’s reaction came too late.
His eyes widened. In that instant when his pupils dilated, Baekcheon-in whispered within Cheon Euijin’s arms.
“I never expected you to be this weak.”
“What…?”
Upon hearing those words, Cheon Euijin immediately drew his blade.
Shing—!
He moved to aim at Baekcheon-in’s throat, but.
“Ugh!”
Baekcheon-in hastily evaded the strike.
Again. He dodged once more.
This was no coincidence. Cheon Euijin was certain of it.
‘…This man.’
He’s hiding something.
Recalling Bangseong-yeon’s warning to be cautious, Cheon Euijin poured more force into his blade.
Reforming his sword path, he pressed forward, but.
Slash—! Shing—!
He only carved through empty air. Cheon Euijin’s blade never reached Baekcheon-in.
This repetition continued.
Yet there was one difference from before.
“This too has its own method, you see.”
Between sword strikes, Baekcheon-in was speaking to Cheon Euijin.
“I need my opponent to hold their ground to a certain degree before I can do what I do…. Ah, this really is something I didn’t anticipate.”
Words spoken at a distance the referee couldn’t hear. A voice that only emerged when he drew very close.
“Wol Muhui was on a different level, so I could hide it somewhat, but this isn’t working at all.”
Clang—! The blade was pushed back. Before Cheon Euijin could even swing, Baekcheon-in had flicked it away.
“You’re weak. So much so that I can’t even call us the same bloodline. You’re too weak for me to move freely. If I’m not careful, it’ll become obvious on my end.”
“…!”
Because he was weak. At those words, Cheon Euijin’s brow furrowed.
Despite such a reaction, Baekcheon-in’s words continued unabated.
“So I’m curious. How did you know? From your reaction, it seemed like you were already on guard from the start. There’s no way you could have noticed on your own. Besides.”
His eyes showed he didn’t believe at all that Cheon Euijin had figured it out alone. It was complete contempt, yet Cheon Euijin offered no response.
He simply focused on continuing to swing his blade. While lost in such thoughts.
“Really, are you truly Wol Seon-geom’s son? If you were Wol Muhui’s brother, that would make sense…. But for that to be the case.”
Baekcheon-in spoke with a laugh.
“You’re far too incompetent.”
At those words, a fierce light ignited in Cheon Euijin’s eyes.
“Silence…!”
Whiiiiing-!!!
With emotion infused into the blade, power surged forth. A far stronger sword strike unfolded than before.
Yet with it came an uncontrolled force mixed within.
“Oh. My. Perhaps that was something I shouldn’t have said?”
Baekcheon-in, rather pleased, evaded Cheon Euijin’s sword far more effortlessly.
What was ridiculous was that he dodged by the narrowest of margins, displaying those same absurd evasion movements as before.
Rolling across the ground, naturally, and a succession of clumsy motions.
-Ahahahahaha–!!!
The audience couldn’t stop mocking Baekcheon-in as they watched.
From their perspective, it appeared he was exerting his utmost effort to evade Cheon Euijin’s sword.
“Reacting to something so trivial? Is there something bothering you?”
Baekcheon-in continued to provoke Cheon Euijin’s composure.
“I sense inferiority. An inferiority toward whom? Your sister? Or perhaps the illustrious Wol Seon-geom?”
Crunch.
Cheon Euijin clenched his teeth. He wanted to silence that damned mouth.
To do so, he continued moving his blade.
Yet it never connected.
“Or perhaps not.”
Baekcheon-in spoke.
“The remarkable, so very remarkable Protagonist. Could it be Bang Disciple? I must confess, I don’t quite understand that either.”
Whoosh. Baekcheon-in evaded the sword and drew close to Cheon Euijin. It felt as though he had embraced him while dodging the blade.
-Ahahaha…!!!
The audience’s laughter erupted. Buried within that overwhelming laughter, Baekcheon-in whispered to Cheon Euijin’s ear.
“Bang Disciple. Not such a remarkable existence, is he.”
“…!”
Hearing those words, Cheon Euijin’s fury ignited. What did this bastard just say?
“Do not dare speak of Bang Disciple so carelessly.”
“Hmm?”
Cheon Euijin’s eyes blazed.
“Bang Disciple is not one whom someone like you should casually mention, nor one you could ever call a friend. How dare you…!”
A man of unknown intentions had spoken Bangseong-yeon’s name.
He could not bear that his idol had been disrespected.
But then.
“…Dare?”
At those words, Baekcheon-in reacted peculiarly.
In that instant.
Thud-!
“…!”
Baekcheon-in’s blade pierced deep into Cheon Euijin’s body.
The sword edge carved through his abdomen.
“Gasp…!”
Cheon Euijin dropped to one knee, struck by sudden agony.
“Huh… hah…!”
He stared up at Baekcheon-in with wide, shocked eyes. The man stood before him, looking down at his fallen form.
“Ah, how careless.”
Baekcheon-in spoke with hollow, emotionless eyes devoid of any trace of humor.
“A mistake.”
His voice carried an unsettling indifference.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————