The Terminally-Ill Side-Character Inside of a Martial Arts Novel

There was no need to think about it too complexly.

This was just a martial arts match. It didn’t matter that the person in front of me was the successor of Black Demon, nor did those provocative words matter.

After the match ends, we’ll never see each other again.

I’ll return to the Demon Cult and continue living with Hyuk Dojin, and Black Demon will live his own life, as will Moyong Do.

As long as I’m alive, this balance between the three won’t be broken. So there’s no need to think about it too complexly.

I slowly waved my sword extended horizontally while measuring the distance, then met his gaze and unfolded my lightness skill.

The distance that seemed to be about ten feet long was closed instantly.

Just as I was about to swing my sword after rushing in to sword range, Lee Jehak retreated backwards, widening the distance as much as I had closed it.

I tried to stick close a few more times, but he only ran away, either having no intention to fight or using evasion as a tactic.

The chaser’s stamina depletes faster than the one being chased. So I didn’t forcibly chase after the fleeing man.

When I slashed diagonally, I glared at Lee Jehak widening the distance again and drew up my inner energy.

“Plum Blossom Blood Rain.”

The sword energy lingering at the tip of my sword poured out in fragments following the trajectory of my swinging sword.

If I reversed the incantation that originally went from top to bottom, I could adjust the direction as much as I wanted.

Although it consumed more inner energy, it didn’t matter. Since I had more inner energy than stamina, saving stamina was the priority.

“Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique!!”

Sighs poured out from around again. Many had already seen me use the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.

So I had proclaimed my innocence by informing them that Mount Hua had never officially passed down the Plum Blossom Sword Technique to me, and mentioning that the incantations, moves, and variations were different.

Lee Jehak frowned as he retreated backwards, glaring at the fragments of sword energy pouring towards him.

He stopped his retreating body and lowered his stance, planting his legs firmly on the ground. His sword swung towards the incoming fragments of sword energy.

Although the sword energy was thin and small like petals, as soon as it touched his sword, a loud clang! sound rang out as if steel had collided.

Just as he was about to deflect all the fragments of sword energy, my sword rushed towards his neck.

I thought I had caught him. At that moment.

An evil energy that momentarily stiffened my body rushed in.

As the sounds around became distant, I stopped in place and raised my protective energy to the extreme.

Immediately, very thin needle-like fragments of sword energy began to pierce above my body.

Fortunately, each one’s destructive power was weak, so they bounced off and flowed down like raindrops blocked by an umbrella, but if I had been hit directly, it wouldn’t have been strange for thousands of small holes to be pierced all over my body.

I stared intently at Lee Jehak amidst the sword energy falling like raindrops. He too looked at me and quietly opened his mouth.

“You have good senses. Most people don’t even feel it and get soaked.”

“I felt it before too, but you talk too much. This isn’t a war of words, it’s a martial arts match. Don’t think about babbling with your mouth and show your full strength.”

“How could I do that? To swing killing moves at my woman who I must escort carefully… That’s unthinkable.”

I frowned at his words. To show such composure and speak such words in this situation.

It was admirable in one way, but arrogant in another.

I brushed up my fallen hair and let out a long sigh. How could I make that man show his true self?

After pondering for a moment, I realized there was no particular method and gripped my sword.

“Then keep doing that.”

I tilted my body’s balance forward.

“Let’s see how long you can keep it up.”

As soon as the words ended, I rushed in.

He retreated backwards this time too. To catch up to the fleeing Lee Jehak, I needed to have a higher level of footwork or skill.

But unfortunately, I had neither of those two, so I couldn’t keep up with him.

That didn’t mean I couldn’t attack. Most of the basic moves and incantations of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique could be used in a state of contact with swords.

So using basic moves would only waste inner energy and stamina without much help.

The nature of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique changes from the 14th move, Plum Blossom Chaos. Using higher level moves from the start consumes a lot of inner energy and is a crude thing to do, but I had no choice.

This was the only way to chase that fleeing man.

When I rushed quickly towards him and the distance narrowed to some extent, I forcibly stopped my body by stepping down with my right foot, then grabbed the sword with both hands and quickly rotated my true energy.

Plum Blossom Chaos, Falling Plum Blossoms, Falling Plum Blossom Starry Rain.

A different form of sword energy from Plum Blossom Blood Rain rose up. The sword energy that bloomed from the sword soared to the sky along the sword and split into multiple branches from one mass. And those branches split again and once more.

The rain of sword energy torn into hundreds and thousands of branches scattered light as it reflected.

The fragments of pink sword energy that decorated the sky like beautiful flowers blooming covered the entire martial arts arena according to the incantation of Falling Plum Blossom Starry Rain.

Since Lee Jehak couldn’t avoid Falling Plum Blossom Starry Rain by fleeing on the martial arts arena, he stopped and tried to defend by swinging his sword along with his protective energy.

Watching his response, I unfolded another move.

Plum Endures Snow’s Cold.

The plum blossom has the perseverance to endure even the cold of snow, and finally, the stream created by the plum blossom escapes that cold and becomes fragrance.

“Plum Fragrance Becomes Stream.”

As I was skipping all the intermediate moves and using it directly, the constraints and completeness of the move were lacking.

It was impossible to perfectly follow the higher level moves and incantations of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique in just a year, but this was enough for now.

The fragments of sword energy flying towards Lee Jehak poured down sharply as if piercing through his protective energy and sword.

Fragments that couldn’t pierce through his protective energy exploded in place and became faint smoke, and soon that smoke emitted a fragrance more dense than fog, enveloping Lee Jehak in smoke.

I felt the inner energy draining from my body, and when it reached a certain point, I withdrew the move and organized my inner energy. Then I firmly gripped my sword and looked towards Lee Jehak.

A human figure could be seen in the slowly disappearing fog.

I didn’t think I could take down Lee Jehak with this.

Plum Fragrance Becomes Stream itself wasn’t focused on attack, but on making the opponent fall into confusion and hallucination with a fragrance that takes away their mind and visuals that confuse their eyes.

However, since all the sword techniques used before required strong energy and were powerful moves, they were too burdensome to use strong energy, so I had to deliberately lower their power.

As the fog cleared, Lee Jehak was quite intact as I had thought.

Of course, unlike before, there were wounds all over his body, but it was hard to believe he had been in a rain of sword energy.

Lee Jehak stared at me intently, then dusted off his body and spoke slowly.

“It’s not extreme, but it’s a truly surprising power. It seems stronger than the existing Twenty-Four Moves Plum Blossom Sword Technique, whose work is this?”

“…”

“You have no reason to answer… Is that it?”

He smiled slowly, then raised the corners of his mouth with a snicker.

Soon, as if understanding, he nodded his head and stepped forward, stopping while maintaining some distance from me.

He faced me and spoke briefly.

“Honestly, I’m surprised. I thought you would have some skill, but I didn’t expect it to be to this extent. I thought I could just drain your stamina by running away moderately, but I didn’t know you could use the higher level moves of the Plum Blossom Sword Technique right away.”

Very well. Lee Jehak, who had quietly uttered those words, gripped his sword tightly.

His eyes changed coldly and the thin smile disappeared from his lips.

Has he finally decided to show his true skills now? At last, I can cross swords with Lee Jehak…

With a swish sound, it disappeared into the scabbard. At his action, I opened my eyes wide in surprise, and Lee Jehak relaxed his coldly hardened face and spread both hands with a bright expression.

The surroundings froze at his sudden action.

Lee Jehak looked at me, then turned his gaze to the referee and spoke lightly.

“I forfeit.”

While everyone was frozen at Lee Jehak’s words, the referee hurriedly came to his senses, looked around quickly, and rushed up shouting.

“Victory! The Moyong clan!”

If it were a normal final match, thunderous cheers would have burst out at the result announced by the referee, but now there was no reaction.

Everyone stirred as if wondering if this was the end, or as if unsure of what they had heard.

The referee approached me awkwardly.

“Y-Young Madam has won. So please withdraw your energy now.”

“…”

I followed with my eyes the back of Lee Jehak who was turning his body with his mouth still open.

Soon, I passed by the referee chasing after Lee Jehak moving away from me, grabbed his shoulder and turned him around.

Lee Jehak obediently turned his body at my grasp, then smiled nonchalantly as if asking what was wrong.

I glared at him tilting his head and spoke quickly.

“What are you doing?”

“I lost. So I forfeited.”

“What do you mean…!”

“I used up a large amount of stamina and inner energy in the three matches unfolded earlier, and I poured all my inner energy into protective energy and sword barrier to block your last attack in our match, emptying my dantian. So I gave up because I had no confidence to continue facing you.”

He smiled languidly and tilted his head.

“Is there a problem?”

“That…!”

I opened my mouth to say that made no sense, but frowned at the empty and weak energy I felt up close.

It was as he said. There was no more inner energy left in Lee Jehak that could fight.

As I gritted my teeth, Lee Jehak smiled and lowered my hand resting on his shoulder while speaking quietly.

“You were strong.”

“…”

“You were excellent enough to be called the Young Cult Leader’s wife. But… That makes me covet you even more.”

He extended his finger and pointed near my heart.

Lee Jehak’s voice spread slowly.

“When you accept all that energy that hasn’t been gathered yet and fuse it with yang energy, it’s hard to even imagine how much stronger you’ll become.”

“Until the end…”

“I still regret it. When I think that you’ll just remain as the Young Cult Leader’s wife and die without blooming that talent, it makes me sick.”

He stepped back and smiled thinly.

“The Black Dao Sect doesn’t let go of prey it has targeted once.”

We’ll meet again. Certainly.

I narrowed my eyes while following with my gaze his back disappearing as if stained in darkness.

I glared at Lee Jehak leaving after saying only what he wanted to say until the end.

Lee Jehak’s last words dug into my mind. I turned my body at the referee’s call while looking at the darkness full of ominousness.

As I turned my body, people from the Moyong clan approached with expressions of relief, smiling intimately as if very fortunate.

I stared at them intently, then moved my legs. As I approached, the elders and other members of the Moyong clan spoke to me.

“You’ve worked hard…”

“I’ve done my duty.”

I quickly passed by, covering their words with my voice. I moved my feet, ignoring the eyes following me.