The wooden sword, still unnamed, was so light that my movements naturally followed suit.

I was light, the wooden sword was light.

Thanks to that, I leapt like a frog and swung the sword as I moved. Since the wooden sword was on the thin side, I intentionally avoided clashing it against other weapons.

Instead, I cut through the enemies’ bodies as I moved.

I slashed legs, jumped, and slashed hands.

Dodging blades while moving, I precisely severed a bandit's ankle.

The enemies sitting atop their stationary horses couldn’t move nimbly, making them easier to cut down with the sword.

The more experienced ones hastily leapt off their horses and swung their blades, but I moved again before the blood from the first burst even hit the ground—already drawing more blood from the next.

I didn’t go for killing blows. With the light wooden sword, I stabbed and slashed through the bandits, moving quickly and methodically.

Finally, one of them pulled out a signal flare and raised it into the air. I instantly fired a blade aura and cleanly severed the wrist holding the flare.

Splat!

“Gyaaaaah!”

As the bandit screamed and clutched his severed arm, flailing like a madman, Hwang Pavilion Lord swung his sword and took the man’s head off.

I didn’t care about Hwang Pavilion Lord’s fight. Instead, I kept an eye on the ones trying to run and spoke with internal energy laced in my voice.

“You think you can run away that slowly?”

With no response, I charged the nearest bandit, smashed his head into the ground using my knee like a commanding officer’s gavel, and, landing, threw my sword toward a bandit fleeing north.

As it flew through the air, the blade ignited with flame.

Shwiiiiing!

Trying to slaughter them all in such a short time had me scrambling.

After watching the wooden sword pierce through the fleeing bandit’s back, I turned and threw the scabbard infused with frost energy at another retreating figure.

The scabbard froze midair, glowing white, and pierced clean through his back.

Thud!

When I turned to look…

Hwang Pavilion Lord was fighting three bandits at once. I watched briefly—he was using horizontal slashes, thrusts, and vertical cuts. Fighting just as I’d taught him. Not a complete fool, apparently.

I sprinted forward with light footwork, then lowered my stance like a wolf pup charging prey. I grabbed the feet of the bandit blocking Hwang Pavilion Lord’s sword.

The bandit let out a shriek of terror.

“Uhhh, uhhh!”

Infusing cold energy into his legs, I lifted him and slammed him onto the ground, then crushed his face with a stomp of my left foot.

Thud!

I hurled the frozen lower half of the corpse at another bandit, who panicked and reflexively stabbed into the corpse. He couldn’t pull his blade out in time. While he struggled, Hwang Pavilion Lord charged in and took off his head, then immediately pursued another fleeing bandit.

I looked around, picked up a big rock, and hurled it at the back of another bandit's head.

The rock flew past Hwang Pavilion Lord and slammed into the target’s skull.

Thunk!

Right after, Hwang Pavilion Lord swung and lopped off the man’s head.

A sudden silence fell over the chaotic plain.

Only then did I come back to my senses and muttered,

“Are they all dead?”

Hwang Pavilion Lord answered.

“Yes.”

Looking around, it was clear the scouting party was completely wiped out.

As he wiped the blood from his sword, Hwang Pavilion Lord looked at me. Meanwhile, the startled horses had clustered together and were already galloping away.

I raised a hand to my brow, shading my eyes, and watched them run.

Were they headed to the bandits’ base? Or just scattering into the wilderness? Hard to tell for now.

“Hwang Pavilion Lord, come here.”

He ran over and stopped. I gave him instructions.

“Go through their belongings. If you find any jerky—”

“Yes.”

“—cut off a small piece with your sword, place it near an ant nest, and check before eating it. Same with water.”

“Understood.”

“If there’s anything else worth taking, grab it, then toss some dirt over the bodies. The sandstorm will cover them up anyway.”

“Yes.”

I wandered the wasteland, retrieving my sword and scabbard. In the meantime, Hwang Pavilion Lord rifled through corpses, collected a few things, and started kicking dirt over the bodies.

Wiping out just a scouting unit wasn’t something to celebrate or mourn.

As I returned, I spotted the flare lying on the ground. I picked it up to examine it. It was a cylindrical signal flare with a red feather at the tip, meant to be launched by pulling the attached string. Bandits wouldn’t have made something like this—it must’ve belonged to the escort company they ambushed.

I handed it to Hwang Pavilion Lord.

“Here. Take it.”

“Yes.”

“The original owner must’ve been killed by the bandits.”

He stared at the flare for a moment.

“……”

“They probably figured no one would come even if it was fired out here, so they kept it and fought until it was taken.”

He tucked the flare into his robe and nodded.

“I’ll hold onto it.”

We sat near the corpses to rest. Hwang Pavilion Lord offered me a leather canteen.

“Have some water.”

I took the canteen, poured a little onto the ground to check it, then wet my lips.

“No jerky,” he said.

I simply nodded and looked out at the wasteland.

“There could be another scouting party. If these guys don’t return, someone will come looking. What did you think of the fight?”

“It wasn’t too difficult, but not knowing their numbers means I need to conserve energy.”

“They’re all on horseback. If we pierce through, we’ll often find open space. But if they all dismount and surround us, it’ll be much harder.”

“Yes.”

I watched his expression and asked,

“So… feel like you're dying today?”

“Do you want me to die?”

I chuckled and replied,

“If I wanted to kill you, I’d have done it myself. But it’s better for me if you stay alive and help kill more of these bastards.”

He nodded, then asked me,

“Sir, you’re young. Why do you have so much experience?”

“Hwang Pavilion Lord, I may be younger, but I’ve done all kinds of things just to stay alive. You wouldn’t know—too busy getting rich off tribute.”

He tilted his head back and laughed, then took another sip of water.

I checked his condition.

“How much internal energy do you have left?”

“Still got a ways to go. More than 90%.”

I nodded.

“So around 70%, then.”

He was the boastful type—I couldn’t take him at his word. He looked at me and asked,

“And you, sir?”

“I haven’t even used mine.”

Of course, I was more full of shit than he was. Hwang Pavilion Lord nodded and said,

“I saw your sword glowing red and the scabbard turning white.”

“In the wilderness, you see illusions sometimes.”

Suddenly, he pressed his ear to the ground.

“...They’re coming.”

“They better be.”

On the horizon, a few bandits appeared. They pointed swords, and their numbers grew to around a dozen.

Hwang Pavilion Lord sighed as more and more joined the group.

“Sir, I’m losing confidence all of a sudden. Can you cuss me out a little?”

“How do you want it? Mild? Or full-blown profanity?”

The number of bandits swelled to forty or fifty. They were shouting and rallying the scattered ones. Each new group that joined raised their blades toward us—me and Hwang Pavilion Lord.

After counting for a while, he turned to me and said,

“Let’s go with full-blown profanity.”

I stood with my wooden sword, scanning the horizon, trying to spot a leader.

“...No sign of Zamong Hong-Gwi. If we die to these fuckers, that’s pathetic. Hwang Pavilion Lord.”

“Yes.”

He also rose and drew his sword.

The bandits had no formation, no rules. They just raised their blades and charged, shouting. A dust cloud exploded as they galloped like an incoming army, stretched thin but overwhelming in force.

“If I die here, does that make me pathetic?”

“Nope. Makes you fucking pathetic.”

“Any plan? Strategy?”

“Nope. Even Zhuge Liang wouldn’t have one.”

Hwang Pavilion Lord exhaled in a mix of frustration and disbelief.

Holding my wooden sword, I muttered like I was chanting a prayer.

“Poor horses. Don’t be born as beasts in your next life.”

Wishing for their salvation, I walked past him toward the front [N O V E L I G H T] lines.

Were they screaming because they’d steeled themselves for death?

No idea.

As I approached the wave of bandits charging in rows, I drew my wooden sword.

I combined draw-cutting, wooden energy, and external martial techniques to unleash a blade aura across the horizon.

Shweaaaaaang!

A clean, crescent-shaped blade aura swept low and wide, slicing through the horses’ legs.

In an instant, the horses collapsed, hurling the bandits off. The ones behind trampled the fallen and crashed into each other. The second and third lines tangled and fell apart.

Only then did I take off using light footwork.

Something inside me surged—an echo of my past life—like when they called me the Crazy Demon, and I shouted with ease.

“...No surrender. Kneeling won’t save you. I’ll chase and beat the ones who run. The brave ones—I’ll kill you quick and clean.”

Ah, the rising madness.

Did I regress? Or did life simply continue after that fall off Manjang Gorge?

I couldn’t tell. With each breath, my killing intent grew.

Why do bastards like these keep getting born?

No matter how many I cut or crush, they never stop.

I felt like I was walking into the gates of hell again.

If, someday, I could knock out a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand enemies with just a single lion’s roar, I’d have no regrets. But until then, I had to rise far beyond my current level to keep from going insane.

I wrapped flame energy around my wooden sword.

As the horde closed in, I leapt toward the sky from the wasteland.

Of course I couldn’t reach the heavens—but I soared as far as my strength allowed. When I reached the peak of my leap, I curled up and let the wild winds I created carry me.

Now I was a sphere.

Even the shape of my madness was spherical.

From that ball of frenzy, I struck out like a jagged bone shard piercing through the soul, spinning and swinging my blade. The fiery scent scattered in all directions, and the long, ghostly screams of the dead surrounded me.

Good.

Let the ones meant to die, die.

Farewell, bandits.

Die, bandits.

Attain peace, horses.

I spun fiercely, crashing to the ground, and laughed.

“Well, now that it’s come to this—just die.”

Without regard for my own state, I kept swinging. If I wanted to split someone directly, I did. If I wanted to unleash blade energy, I did.

I chased and killed the runners. When they resisted, I sometimes tore off their upper halves with bursts of energy. Realizing I was burning too much power, I returned to honest swordplay—cutting as I moved.

Slash. Stab. Rend.

Sever. Pierce. Dismantle.

After that wild frenzy, there were too many bandits running with twisted expressions. I wrapped frost energy around the wooden sword and spread it in all directions.

There were too many runners now, each going in different directions. Even I was getting dizzy. At that moment, I mounted a passing horse and began chasing them down.

“...Don’t run.”

I shouted urgently at them, but there were too many for my words to hold weight.

As if imitating a bandit troop from my past life, I charged on horseback, squeezed the horse’s flanks with my legs, tilted to the right, and slashed the neck of a bandit riding alongside.

A surge of heat overtook me, and I shouted,

“Hey! You sons of bitches! I said don’t run!”

I spurred the horse forward and trampled another bandit’s back with its front hooves. Suddenly, a familiar voice called out.

“Sir! Sir!”

I furrowed my brow and shouted back,

“What? Why aren’t you fighting?”

The subordinate ignored me and looked around. I followed his gaze.

Corpses were strewn everywhere—uncountable. Beyond them, the bandits were scattering.

He snapped,

“I’d fight if there was anyone left to fight!”

I took a deep breath and nodded, then stared closely at his face.

Only then did I realize—he wasn’t one of my subordinates from Haomun in my past life.

“You... you’re Hwang Pavilion Lord.”

He roared,

“What the fuck are you talking about? I AM Hwang Pavilion Lord!”

“Why are you so worked up? Calm down.”

“...Ha.”

I patted the back of the unusually calm horse I was riding.

“Wow. Saved one horse. Good boy. Strong one.”

Hwang Pavilion Lord stared at me, exasperated.

“This is nuts. For real.”