He did not answer.
"…"
It would be more accurate to say he could not answer.
The tip of the sword was stopped before the man's throat.
To be precise, it had not stopped, but had been forced to stop.
The palm gripping the blade had completely erased the sword's path, so all Yeop Bihwa could do was stand there, holding the hilt.
She already knew that neither the Swift Forward Thrust, the Preemptive Forward Thrust, nor a twist would work.
She needed to pull her sword back, but it wouldn't budge.
She tried to raise her Internal Energy, but the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle remained motionless, as if embedded in a ten-thousand-year-old rock.
A smile still hung on the man's face.
"…Why are you smiling?"
"To kill or not to kill. Let's just say it's a dilemma I have as Kim Rae-won."
At his words, Yeop Bihwa's fingertips twitched.
That was her answer.
If she could not pull it out, she would change its path.
She reversed the flow of her Sword Aura.
The power that had been flowing forward was completely overturned.
The thin aura of the One-Line Sword coating the blade began to seethe from within, swelling outwards.
Vroooom—.
The Sword Aura expanded to the very limit that the slender blade of the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle could endure.
A tremor just before the air was torn apart.
The vibration traveled up to the very bones of Yeop Bihwa's wrist, which gripped the hilt.
And then.
As if a snake shedding its skin, the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle cast off its Sword Aura and shot backward.
Shwiiiiing—!
A Retreating Strike.
The man's palm, holding the blade, collided head-on with the Sword Aura.
Clang—!
The sound of the air splitting from the impact resounded around the main gate.
From the sword's tip, dust on the ground and all the surrounding air were pushed back in a circle, and cracks appeared on the pillars on both sides of the gate.
Rumble—!
The aftershock shook the entire area.
The members of the Hero's Sect and the warriors of Vast Heaven who had gathered near the main gate swallowed their screams and were pushed back in a wave.
Jin Hagyeong spread his arms to block the people behind him, but even he was pushed back, his martial robes flapping wildly.
Along with them, trees dozens of zhang away were shaken to their roots, and the wall next to the main gate caved in, spilling dirt.
Kim Rae-won also retreated several zhang.
"That's an interesting technique you use."
Dusting himself off lightly, Kim Rae-won spoke.
'To take a Sword Explosion Qi head-on and be completely unharmed…'
With his bare body, no less.
Inwardly, Yeop Bihwa was greatly surprised, but her expression remained impassive.
The Iron-Faced Lady, Yeop Bihwa, had always been that way.
"Draw your weapon. I do not fight those who have not drawn theirs."
Whoosh—.
A faint gust of wind blew through the area.
At the same time, dozens of leaves that had been scattered by the earlier impact fluttered into the Hero's Sect grounds.
Kim Rae-won nonchalantly opened his palm and raised one corner of his mouth.
"I already have."
The tips of Yeop Bihwa's sharp eyebrows quivered silently.
Kim Rae-won's hands were still empty.
Moreover, no energy could be felt from them.
"Are you mocking me, the Iron-Faced Lady, Yeop Bihwa?"
Just then, a fluttering leaf landed on Kim Rae-won's open palm.
He held it up and crinkled his nose.
"See? I've drawn it."
"…The original Kim Rae-won uses a sword. Your words and actions now are an admission that you are an impostor."
"Ah, is that so?"
"…"
"If we go by that, it makes more sense. What should I do?"
This time, too, instead of answering, Yeop Bihwa kicked off the ground.
A straight line.
It was just after she had poured out all her Sword Aura with the retreating move.
To coat the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle with Sword Aura again, she would have to draw Internal Energy and Spiritual Energy from her inner core root.
It didn't matter.
Even without Sword Aura, there was no one under the heavens who could take Yeop Bihwa's vertical strike with their bare hands.
Just as the tip of Yeop Bihwa's sword, which had closed several zhang in what seemed like a single leap, was about to pierce through the man's solar plexus.
Clang—!
The Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle stopped once again.
Something hard.
The sensation transmitted through the sword's tip was undoubtedly like striking a lump of iron.
However…
That iron was 'green'.
Yeop Bihwa's eyes looked beyond her sword.
In the man's hand were the leaves that had just blown in on the wind.
Dozens of them.
The dozens of leaves had somehow joined together to form the shape of a sword.
The veins formed a pattern, and the stems interlocked, as if they had been one from the beginning.
A sword made of leaves had blocked the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle, which was imbued with Sword Qi.
"See. I'm holding it, right?"
Yeop Bihwa's wrist turned.
She twisted the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle to cut through the grain of the leaf sword.
A mere leaf, if twisted, would tear…
"?!"
…It did not tear.
Instead, the surface of the leaves slid over her blade in an instant, as if enveloping it.
Screeeech—.
A sound like steel scraping against steel.
'Is Qi embedded in every single leaf vein?'
Thinly and evenly.
Without a single gap.
Swish—.
Yeop Bihwa hastily retreated a dozen zhang, pulling her sword back to her waist.
In that same posture, she began to coat the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle with Sword Aura once again.
Qi adhered to the slender blade.
Thinly and quickly.
Like boiling bubbles, the aura of the One-Line Sword quickly coated the entire blade of the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle.
Kim Rae-won simply stood there, the leaf sword hanging loosely at his side.
He did not pursue or launch another attack.
Whether it was out of leisure or for some other reason, Yeop Bihwa had no way of knowing.
But one thing was clear.
'He really… made a sword out of leaves.'
And with it, he blocked Sword Aura.
There were many classic tales in the Jianghu.
And one of the most famous among them.
— When one becomes the greatest Sword Master of all time, one can defeat all swords under heaven with a single blade of grass.
Yeop Bihwa had also believed that saying to some extent, and had pursued it.
A realm where wielding a brush turned it into a sword, and holding a branch turned it into a sword.
Yeop Bihwa had also personally encountered masters who had reached such a realm to a certain degree.
However, all those masters had one thing in common.
They always chose one thing.
A single brush, a single branch, a single weapon.
In any case, it was a method of choosing a single object and imbuing it with one's own Qi.
But this man was different.
He had simultaneously grasped scattered things, dozens of mere leaves, and joined them, each with a different grain, into a single sword.
What connected them was purely the man's Qi.
It was not that the medium had become a weapon, but that the Qi itself had taken the form of a weapon.
It did not belong to any sword art Yeop Bihwa knew.
It was not a Qi Art.
It was not a technique.
It was the act of infusing surrounding objects with Qi to transform them into weapons.
Perhaps, without any leaves, that man… could still create a sword?
The Formless Sword.
Such a thing was only possible when one's control of Qi surpassed the realm of Immortals.
'A domain I thought only possible in legends…'
The aura of the One-Line Sword once again settled completely upon the blade.
Despite keenly feeling her opponent's strength, Yeop Bihwa raised her sword.
No, precisely because of it, she had to raise it even more.
It no longer mattered whether her opponent was Kim Rae-won or not.
As a Sword Master, she wanted to confirm it for herself.
Swish—!
A straight line again.
The Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle pierced the air.
Towards Kim Rae-won's shoulder.
Swift Forward Thrust.
The fastest advancing form of the One Line Sword Art.
The tip of the sword always reaches the opponent before their eyes can track it.
But the straight wave of Qi curved as it advanced.
It was subtle, but it was definitely curved.
Yeop Bihwa had not bent it.
The wave of sword energy had found its own path.
It was because the thickness of the air and the density of the medium were different around the spot where the man stood.
Every point in space had thick and thin spots, and the tip of the sword found and passed through the thinnest path between them.
'A Qi Field?'
The man's entire surroundings were filled with his Qi.
The entire main gate of the Hero's Sect.
No, the entire Hero's Sect… Perhaps even the whole of the River Capital was like this.
The man before her was that powerful.
However, the distribution of his Qi was not uniform.
Because it was not uniform, there was a path where the medium was thin, and the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle shot through that thin path.
Just like how light bends and creates a heat haze in the summer heat.
The One Line Sword Art was not a straight line.
It simply followed the fastest path.
Normally, that path just happened to be a straight line.
Rip—.
The very tip of the sword grazed the cloth on the man's forearm.
It did not cut the flesh.
The man had tilted his upper body by half a chi to deflect the sword.
And then.
Maintaining his tilted posture, Kim Rae-won positioned the leaf sword at his waist.
A sword-drawing stance, as if he had a scabbard.
Swoosh— Phat—.
The leaves cut through the air.
Exactly like Yeop Bihwa's.
It seemed to thrust in a straight line, but curved ever so slightly.
Following the thin path in the air.
Towards Yeop Bihwa's chest.
Riiip—!
Yeop Bihwa hastily leaned back to dodge, but the front of her martial robes was completely sliced off.
Her cleavage was exposed, but she paid it no mind.
She couldn't.
"Is this how you do it?"
Kim Rae-won's voice was laced with laughter.
"…"
Because that… was the Swift Forward Thrust.
"Just now… what did you do? How could you?!"
"I was imitating you."
"…"
"I'm naturally good at copying things. Anyone, anything, anytime."
"…"
Yeop Bihwa stomped her foot hard once more.
Flash Step.
A rapid footwork technique Yeop Bihwa had created herself to properly execute the One Line Sword Art.
One step equaled the distance of one thrust.
It was a step that closed the distance in a single flash to match the sword that extended in a single line.
An advancing strike.
A straight line again.
But this time, it was two, three times towards a single point.
She aimed for the same spot consecutively.
A chain of moves.
A form like digging into the same hole with a needle.
If once was not enough, then twice; if twice was not enough, then three times.
It was Yeop Bihwa's unyielding nature itself.
Swish—!
Swish—!
Swish—!
The leaf sword rose.
All three strikes were easily blocked.
Sword Aura?
Sword Qi?
They were brushed aside as easily as a radish being cut by a sword.
But.
'Every time… the grain is different?'
The first block was deflected as if flowing.
The second parried head-on and repelled.
The third turned the blade's surface and struck it aside.
All three times, it was the same leaf sword.
But all three times, it was a different sword art.
'This is not the sword of a single person.'
"Hah, hah."
Yeop Bihwa retreated a dozen zhang and caught her breath.
There were multiple Sword Masters within that one body.
The flowing move was the sword of a soft practitioner, the parrying move was the sword of a hard practitioner, and the striking move was the sword of a deft practitioner.
Three completely different sword arts were contained within a single breath, yet they were not chaotic.
They did not fall apart.
They were melted together.
Fragments of different sword arts had melted into one, becoming that single man's sword.
And among those fragments.
'The last one.'
Yeop Bihwa's eyebrow twitched minutely.
The grain overlapped.
With a sword from a distant memory.
The same, yet not the same.
Overlapping, yet different.
It was definitely Kim Rae-won's sword.
The very sword of Kim Rae-won that she knew.
'A sword cannot tell a lie.'
That had been Yeop Bihwa's lifelong belief.
However.
This man's sword was telling neither lies nor truths.
It was Kim Rae-won's sword, but not his alone.
It overlapped but was not the same; it was the same but not one.
A martial artist who could not be answered even with a sword.
It was a first in Yeop Bihwa's life.
Yeop Bihwa let the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle hang down.
Then, she slowly raised it again.
Into a stance she had never taken before.
The tip of the sword, no, the needle, was aimed precisely at the man's glabella.
All the Internal Energy in her body began to gather in the two hands gripping the hilt.
If the sword could not provide an answer, then she had no choice but to push the sword to its very end and draw the answer out.
The aura of the One-Line Sword that had coated the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle slowly receded from the blade.
It did not disappear but gathered into a single point.
A single chi at the sword's tip.
There, the Sword Principle of her entire life converged.
"I will see this to the end."
Yeop Bihwa let out a long breath.
Whether it is my end.
Or yours.