"What a peculiar sword."
"......Well, so it is."
It certainly was.
A sword clearly broken, with only the root of its blade remaining.
What remained was less than half a span in length, yet its width was remarkably broad and thick.
Originally, it had likely been a weapon of the horse-slaying sword variety.
But with its blade broken off, it was now little more than a lump of iron that would struggle to cut a single piece of meat.
"That much is plain to see, and yet......"
The blood-soaked man past his prime let out a hollow laugh.
"To think I was defeated by such a broken sword. I, the Blood Sky Demon."
"......"
"But you, could you not show at least some joy or satisfaction? Hm? You have accomplished what no one in the Martial Alliance could."
"I was busy thinking."
At the other man's answer, the blood-soaked man past his prime--the Blood Sky Demon--shifted his body slightly.
Not to launch a surprise attack.
He had learned through the desperate struggle just moments ago that such a thing would never work against this opponent.
The Blood Sky Demon suppressed the breath threatening to surge upward and asked.
"So, what were you thinking about?"
"The reward."
"The reward? The reward, I see. Yes. The Alliance Leader must have placed a bounty on my head. So what did he offer?"
"Anything."
"Hm?"
"He said he would give anything--one thing--to whoever brought him your head."
"An irresponsible promise."
"There is a condition that it must be something the Martial Alliance owns."
"Then it is highway robbery. A mere single thing from what the Martial Alliance possesses."
The Blood Sky Demon's lips twisted.
"Even Shaolin's Great Restoration Pill or a thousand-year ginseng would fall endlessly short of my head's worth, yet you intend to settle for something of that sort?"
"Not particularly."
"Were it I, I could give you far more."
A dignified bargain, devoid of any groveling.
Yet the other man shook his head with quiet composure.
"I have already decided what I want for the reward."
"Whatever it is, I could provide it as well."
"That would be impossible."
"Is that so?"
The Blood Sky Demon, all fight drained from him, leaned his head against the rock behind him and gazed up at the open sky.
"Then again, in this state, even if you spared me, I would not last much longer."
The surroundings were a veritable sea of blood.
The Blood Sky Demon's body, his lower half lost to a waist cleaved in two, was pouring out its vivid red life.
"At any rate, you must be quite pleased. You will now become the Martial Alliance's hero and live the rest of your days in comfort and luxury."
"Only a fool would think that."
At the man's reply, the Blood Sky Demon smirked.
"A sharper mind than I expected. You are right. Their hailing you as a hero will last but a moment. In the end, they will find your very existence an inconvenience and move to dispose of you. Just as they did to me, long ago."
"......"
"Did you know? I was originally from the Martial Alliance as well."
"I did not. Nor do I particularly care to know."
"Is that so?"
He was a young man.
One who had appeared a mere half year ago, suddenly seized a broken sword, and mercilessly slaughtered the Blood Sky Sect's most elite guards.
A man who had single-handedly upended the course of a war that had dragged on for over a decade.
An existence feared not only by the enemy Blood Sky Sect followers, but even by his own allies in the Martial Alliance.
The Blood Sky Demon knew well what they called him.
"The Sword Ghost. That is all they call you, is it not?"
"......"
"What is your true name?"
"Dan Sahyeok."
"Dan Sahyeok. The Sword Ghost, Dan Sahyeok--a name more than fitting for the man who puts the final period on the Blood Sky Demon's life."
"Then may I finish this?"
"No."
The Blood Sky Demon slowly shook his head.
"I am well aware that your question is a mercy. With limbs crushed, waist severed, and not a single organ left intact, death is clearly a kindness--even I can see that."
"Yet it sounds as though you wish to cling to life a while longer."
"Indeed. Even at this juncture, curiosity rears its stubborn head."
"Curiosity?"
"Indeed."
A faint smile settled on the Blood Sky Demon's lips.
"I have grown curious about what you truly intend to wrest from the Martial Alliance Leader."
"Hm."
"So would you not keep this old man company for a brief while on his final journey?"
Dan Sahyeok furrowed his brow slightly.
Not because he disliked the idea, but because he was unsure how to begin.
"Well, the thing is."
***
The long and brutal Blood Sky War.
The war started by the Supreme Under Heaven, Blood Sky Demon Cheon Muyeol--who had raised the banner of the Orthodox's destruction--drove the entire Central Plains into a pit of suffering.
In response, the Orthodox Martial Alliance rallied and stood against him, and fierce battles erupted across the Central Plains.
The result was victory for the Orthodox martial world.
The Blood Sky Sect had been formidable, but numerical superiority lay with the Orthodox, and the decisive defeat at Mount Hua in Shaanxi completely turned the tide of war.
In that battle where the Ten Great Masters of the martial world had assembled in full, the Blood Sky Demon sustained grievous injuries, and the Blood Sky Sect's leadership suffered devastating losses.
In the end, the cornered Blood Sky Sect was driven to the far northwestern edge of the Central Plains--all the way to Gansu.
There, they colluded with the Wild Wind Temple and other frontier forces beyond the border, and began their final stand.
The Martial Alliance pursued them and plunged into a fierce war of annihilation.
The taut tug-of-war that followed continued for over ten years without end.
There were many reasons the war dragged on, but two were decisive.
First, the desperate resistance of the Blood Sky Sect and the Wild Wind Temple.
Second, the Martial Alliance had no strength left to spare.
Gansu--a land of plateaus, wastelands, and barren terrain--was a natural fortress at every turn.
The Martial Alliance simply lacked the resources to exterminate the Blood Sky Sect and Wild Wind Temple as they hid in those harsh lands, waging guerrilla warfare.
The best they could manage was to lock the front lines in stalemate, trapping the enemy forever in the wasteland.
And so began a war of attrition spanning a decade.
During that time, the forces dispatched to Gansu gradually dwindled.
First went those who had earnestly pledged to fight for the great cause of peace in the Central Plains.
Next went those who had lost out in the Martial Alliance's internal political struggles.
Last went those who had committed grave offenses or been unjustly saddled with crimes--all shipped off to Gansu.
And while the war ground on, the rest of the martial world savored their restored peace and forgot about the Blood Sky Sect.
A war forgotten by all.
In the crucible of that decade of bloodshed, a legend was born at last--the tale of the Sword Ghost who wielded a broken sword.
Without a single embellishment to his name--simply the Sword Ghost. The man called by that name had appeared from nowhere and, in a mere half year, completely reversed the flow of a stagnant war.
That very man.
The Sword Ghost, Dan Sahyeok, had just defeated the Blood Sky Demon.
Though he had suffered severe injuries, the man still closest to being the greatest under heaven.
An existence who, over the span of nearly a decade, had gradually recovered from his wounds and was on the verge of reclaiming the full power of his prime.
Considering that during the Bloody Battle of Mount Hua, the Ten Great Masters and hundreds of elite warriors had been mobilized just to kill the Blood Sky Demon Cheon Muyeol, this was a truly staggering feat.
And the man who accomplished it had not so much as raised an eyebrow.
Dan Sahyeok now stood with a more serious expression than at any other time.
A demeanor far more solemn than when he had clashed with the Blood Sky Demon just moments ago.
"What do you think?"
"May I be honest?"
"That is why I told you everything."
"I think it is brilliant."
Dan Sahyeok's expression brightened visibly.
"Do you truly think so?"
"I do."
The Blood Sky Demon, answering in a low voice, let out a smirk.
"And yet--you look happier hearing this than when you struck me down, and happier than when I praised your martial prowess."
"Well, I have heard praise for my strength until my ears bled."
"I imagine so. And I suspect you have received just as much in jealous stares."
"Such things do not concern me."
"A fine attitude. But tell me--how in the world are you so strong?"
A deep questioning crept into the Blood Sky Demon's voice.
"Are you some master of a previous generation who has reversed his aging? Perhaps an ancient supreme master reborn by fate's whim? Or did you turn back the flow of time itself and regress?"
"I have not reversed my aging, nor been reborn, nor regressed. Why would you harbor such doubts?"
"Because you are too strong. Because you defeated this Cheon Muyeol single-handedly."
A strange fervor smoldered in the Blood Sky Demon's eyes.
"That is why I wish to know. How you could have grown so powerful."
"Answering is not difficult. The question is whether you can accept the answer, senior."
"Just say it."
"Very well."
Dan Sahyeok shrugged.
And the words that followed were enough to leave the Blood Sky Demon dumbfounded.
"My master--the old man--told me I was a genius."
"......Surely that is not all?"
"It is."
"Who in the world is this master of yours?"
"You would not know even if I told you. He was the sort who spent his whole life holed up in a mountain hut, eating nothing but weeds."
"Hmm......"
"Did you not just call me brilliant yourself, senior?"
"I did. But that was praise for your scheme--for what you intend to wrest from the Alliance Leader."
"As they say, all streams return to the sea. A genius with the sword is bound to be a genius in that regard as well."
"Well, I suppose...... that is a bit of a stretch......"
The Blood Sky Demon, replying with evident skepticism, changed the subject.
"So then. After you receive it from the Alliance Leader, what do you plan to do?"
"Live my life."
"The cunning foxes of the Martial Alliance will not sit idle. They may even refuse to hand it over in the first place."
"It was a vow the Alliance Leader himself declared before the entire martial world. If they try to go back on their word now, I will settle it by force."
"How entertaining!"
The Blood Sky Demon raised his voice, then hacked out a cough laced with blood.
"Damn it all! Why did you not tell me this sooner?"
"Because your death had to come first."
"If you had only explained things properly, I might have played dead and supported you!"
"I am sorry, but that would not have worked. Your death was also part of a promise to my master."
"This master of yours--did he bear some grudge against me?"
"That, I do not know."
"If I had the chance, I would love to speak with that man."
"He has been buried away from the world for a long time now. I am afraid that would be difficult."
"Is that so."
The Blood Sky Demon's gaze grew distant.
He stared at the sky, lost in thought, then fixed his eyes on Dan Sahyeok's face.
"It must have been about half a year ago. That is when you appeared so suddenly. Is that not so?"
"It is."
"I see. So that is how it was. At any rate...... small mercy amid misfortune, I suppose."
The Blood Sky Demon quirked his eyebrows and flashed a grin.
Even on the verge of death, his face was more alive than it had ever been.
"Because of you, it seems a great storm is about to sweep through the Martial Alliance and the Orthodox martial world."
Having said this, the Blood Sky Demon studied Dan Sahyeok's expression, but the man showed not the slightest wavering.
"Heh heh heh. The look of a man who has already steeled himself for that much. No--not so much steeled as simply never cared in the first place?"
"......"
"Truly, I wish...... we had not met under circumstances like these."
The Blood Sky Demon exhaled a deep, weary sigh.
"Thank you for granting this dying man's wish on his final journey."
"It was nothing."
"I would like to repay your kindness, but I see no way to do so. My weapon fetches a fair price, so take that at least. It should serve you better than a broken sword."
"I appreciate the offer, but I am afraid that will be difficult. It is one of the few pieces of evidence that can verify your death."
"Heh heh, true enough--showing the Blood Dragon Blade to those lot would be the surest way to prove my death. They know it is the lifelong companion I treasured more than my own life."
"......"
"Most likely, the bastards at the Martial Alliance will never return it to you."
"I do not care."
"I see...... not that it is any of my concern any......"
The Blood Sky Demon's voice trailed away.
Dan Sahyeok watched in silence as the man's head drooped, then turned away.