It Wasn’t a Martial Arts World, but the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 70: Phantom Soul (2)

I could barely muster any strength in my grip.

No matter how hard I tried, my movements were inevitably different from when I was in peak condition, having hit the limits of my physical body.

I was caught up in the battlefield.

Amidst the splattering blood, the clash of steel, and people killing each other, I was tangled up in the chaos.

In that place, I couldn’t tell where I stood.

I simply extended my life by cutting, stabbing, and knocking down the enemies that came before me.

Gradually, the obstacles blocking my path multiplied.

– Slash!

My shoulder was cut.

A wound remained.

Blood dyed the area bright red.

– Swish!

This time, it was my side.

It was only a graze, but it was a definite hit.

The more blood I lost, the darker my vision became, as if covered in black noise.

I gripped my sword.

Sword qi no longer surged.

I even doubted if I could wield the simplest Linked Illusion Sword.

But if I didn’t move forward, I would undoubtedly die.

Therefore, I had to deepen my understanding of the martial art I created.

“Kill him!”

Finally, swords flooded my vision.

Eyes, movements, weapon range—I couldn’t afford to miss any of them.

I didn’t evade.

To an observer, it might have looked like I had hit my limit and was giving up on life.

But that wasn’t the case.

I pushed my body to its utmost limits.

This was not mere stubbornness.

The closer death loomed, the clearer the “boundary” appeared in my vision.

Paradoxically, the more I bled, the more I awakened from the haze.

The darkness lifted.

I took a step closer to death.

I had stepped into that strange realm between life and death.

The unknown territory.

Here, I could not forget the essence of the martial art I wielded.

Each form was interconnected.

The first form of the Heavenly Extreme Linked Illusion Sword Technique, the Linked Illusion Sword, was a swordsmanship that traversed between reality and illusion, connecting the false and the real.

The second form, the Six Linked Illusion Slashes, materialized illusions into reality.

Six flashes consecutively appeared like illusions, deceiving people into believing the impossible sword strikes existed.

The third form, Phantom Soul, applied this concept to the body.

It transcended the line between illusion and reality, turning oneself into a soul.

The essence of the Heavenly Extreme Linked Illusion Sword Technique was a sword that could cut the sky.

Thus, the seven forms were a path toward understanding the principles of all things.

‘Remember.’

The sky is just the sky.

There is no master of the world.

So, what I had to cut was the empty void.

The swords gradually approached. At some point, the blade grazed my hair.

The only thing that could touch the void was the clouds.

In the sky, only clouds drift freely.

The clouds, though without substance, exist undeniably.

So, flow.

Like the clouds, freely.

This is Phantom Soul.

In other words, the Soul.

***

It was right after Unryong disappeared.

The soldier still couldn’t comprehend what he had seen.

Which was only natural.

How could one understand a phantom that had no substance?

A soul is not something that can be understood.

It simply exists everywhere.

For someone who didn’t know the boundary, it was simply impossible to see.

Even at that moment, the man drifted away calmly.

Like a cloud, freely.

“D-dammit!”

The soldier swung his sword at the man again.

The man, observing the sword, took a light step forward.

– Swish!

Again, it was the same.

There was nothing.

His body was nowhere to be found.

“W-what the…”

Humans naturally fear the unknown.

Fearing the unknown was part of nature’s order.

An unfathomable realm could drive a person to madness.

The soldier, trembling, slowly turned around.

“Ah…!”

The man was behind him.

There was no conceivable way to win.

If you cut something that couldn’t be cut, how could you ever defeat such an existence?

The clear scent of death brushed against the soldier’s nose.

“Die… die! Dieee!”

The soldier’s swordsmanship, driven by terror, was pitiful.

Even without using Phantom Soul, it was easy enough to avoid his exaggerated movements.

So, Unryong lightly kicked the soldier’s ankle, using his forward-leaning weight.

Thud.

The soldier fell to his knees.

Unryong raised his sword but shifted his focus to another incoming sword.

The soldier slowly, very slowly, turned his head.

From his perspective, the man was clearly surrounded.

There were at least a hundred soldiers.

Left, right, front, back—there was no escape route in sight.

Yet.

The man took a light step forward, disappearing from sight.

No one could cut the man.

Instead, the soldiers were being cut down in vain.

Footwork?

No. It wasn’t such a simple technique.

“A-a ghost…”

He was a transcendent existence, indescribable by such simplistic words.

The soldier laughed.

He laughed while crying.

He had already put down his sword and was simply waiting for his death.

***

“What… is this?”

Li Ru muttered weakly as he watched his soldiers retreat.

“What in the world is this?”

Eventually, his voice rose, his neck veins bulging with anger.

“How can you be fleeing because you can’t handle that half-dead corpse? Are you truly soldiers who protect the imperial family?”

He, too, couldn’t understand.

How could they be trembling and fleeing from that dying wretch?

These weren’t ordinary soldiers.

Imperial Guards.

They were once the elite guards who protected the imperial family alongside Grand General He Jin.

Yet, what were they so afraid of?

Strategists observe the battlefield.

And thus, they could not understand.

They were merely brains calculating numbers, terrain, military tactics, and the strategies necessary for victory.

And human brains cannot comprehend souls.

At least, Li Ru couldn’t.

Li Ru tried to make sense of it within his known limits.

It was rare, but not impossible, for a single person to render a strategy useless.

The Peerless Warrior, the Tiger of Jiangdong, and the White Horse General were all examples.

But even they could not face hundreds with such a worn-out body.

That was the common sense Li Ru and other strategists adhered to.

“Advance, advance! Do not retreat!”

Li Ru shouted once more.

No one obeyed Li Ru’s command.

They were fleeing from something.

Yes, this was far beyond common sense.

It was something that defied belief, even as he witnessed it.

In the end, Li Ru moved himself, drawing his sword.

He grabbed a fleeing soldier, pressing the blade to his neck.

“Haah… haah…”

Normally, the soldier would be terrified.

However, the soldier was already panicking.

But not because of Li Ru.

“What did you see?”

“A-a ghost…”

“A ghost?”

Li Ru ground his teeth at the nonsensical reply.

“So, you’re saying that man has become a ghost?”

“Y-yes…”

“What made you think that?”

“…Even though he was cut, he didn’t have a physical body, so he couldn’t be cut. And yet, he would suddenly appear behind me, swinging his sword, revealing his presence whenever he wanted. He’s everywhere and nowhere—what else could he be but a ghost?”

“Nonsense!”

– Slash!

Blood splattered on Li Ru’s face as he decapitated the soldier.

Wiping the blood off his face, his body trembled.

The blood running down his eyes made it look as if he were weeping tears of blood.

Li Ru’s rage stemmed from the realization that he had already calculated the outcome.

He had already understood that victory was out of reach.

Li Ru knew that a demoralized army, even numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands, was nothing more than trash.

As Li Ru was about to turn his back, just like his retreating soldiers—

“L-Lord Lü Bu!”

“T-this can’t be…”

The Lü Bu forces, which had barely maintained formation, became rowdy.

Adding insult to injury, the coalition’s advance accelerated.

Then, from the hill, the sound of drums echoed.

Li Ru looked toward the source, unable to believe his eyes.

There stood a woman with red eyes.

She was the one who had attempted to assassinate her own lord, repaid his kindness with a sword, and ultimately turned on him.

It was Cao Cao.

Cao Cao stood with her arms crossed, wearing her usual expressionless face.

She then patted the shoulder of the woman before her.

A woman bound tightly with ropes, her head lowered.

It was Lü Bu.

The monster who had always rampaged across the battlefield, whom no one could hope to defeat—the Peerless Warrior of the World.

And if such a peerless warrior had fallen, what would happen?

Li Ru’s forces were in full retreat.

The Lü Bu army had lost its center.

The outcome was clear.

The war was announcing its end.