The Great Mage Returns After 4000 Years (Web Novel KR)

Twenty Four Hand Plum Blossom Sword Technique(二十四手梅花劍法), Bones Soaked in Plum Fragrance(梅香浸骨).

Crack, Sama Ryeong’s blade pierced Lukas’ chest.

She could clearly feel the beating of his heart from her blade.

“…”

Lukas’ body shook heavily, but he didn’t scream. In fact, he didn’t even groan. He simply stared at Sama Ryeong for a while with his expressionless face and blue eyes.

Gurgle.

Then, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. There were pieces of his internal organs mixed in with the blood that flowed down his chin.

Sama Ryeong withdrew her sword.

Plop.

And Lukas’ body collapsed like a puppet that had its strings cut. (TL: The end again?)

Huu, it was only then that she let out the breath she’d been holding.

It had not been an easy battle. The fight had taken the form of a hectic dogfight. That was due to the chaotic nature of the fighting method known as magic. Nevertheless, neither had suffered any significant injuries until the match had been decided.

In truth, the hundreds of spells that Lukas had used hadn’t been that threatening.

The only thing she had to take note of was the dark red light that occasionally pierced through the space.

Sama Ryeong knew exactly what that power was called.

‘Absolute’

It was the absolute power of Wizards which had the ability to interfere with space.

That power was dangerous.

Sama Ryeong was not confident in her ability to block it or cut it, so she had no choice but to avoid it.

Focusing on dodging, she gradually narrowed the distance bit by bit.

This made the fight last longer, but it was the safest and most certain way to win. After finding a brief opening, she used one sword.

The fragrance of plum blossoms pierced Lukas’ vital point.

Sama Ryeong looked down at her body.

She was covered in dirt, but she didn’t have any noticeable wounds. At most, there were a few scratches here and there.

…Seven Severing Swords七絶劍.

She used the trump card she’d obtained in the dump site.

It hadn’t been necessary. She’d fought with about 3 percent of her strength hidden in case of any unexpected events, or interference by a third party, but she was able to win the fight without difficulty.

That was why she felt so discomforted at that moment.

Was this man really such an easy opponent?

She didn’t think so. Lukas had an unknown background, strange aura, and he’d spent 4,000 years in the dump site.

But above all, his intense eyes-

…Eyes?

Sama Ryeong trembled as if an electric current had suddenly flowed through her body. Her gaze quickly returned to Lukas’ corpse.

He’d died with his eyes open, so it was easy for her to look at his eyes.

“…blue.”

Blue eyes.

But the color of Lukas’ eyes when she’d seen him in the room was black. They were so black that they subconsciously reminded her of hell.

…Sama Ryeong stopped thinking about that for now.

Instead, she drew her sword and pointed it toward the nearby bushes.

“Who’s there?’

“…”

“If you don’t show yourself, I will take you as an enemy.”

There was a mixture of killing intent in her low voice. This was natural since she’d just ended a battle.

Despite her blatant threat, there was no response from the bushes.

She’d already warned them. So she had no obligation to wait any longer.

Just as Sama Ryeong was about to launch an attack.

“Quite sharp.”

Someone appeared from the grass.

A person with a handsome physique covered by a robe, a pleasant aura, and cynical expression which seemed out of place.

Jacob Big Crash. (TL: I’ll point out now that ‘Big Crash’ is probably supposed to be closer to ‘Viklaesh’ or something similar, but I like ‘Big Crash’.)

‘This man…’

His ability to hide from her senses was quite considerable.

She’d heard that this man was a Wizard from the Magic Planet, so he shouldn’t be too skilled at handling his body. But now that she was looking at him closely, she noticed that Jacob’s body was well trained. Even though he was wearing a robe, the parts of his body that were exposed proved this.

“You fought very well.”

Jacob spoke with a smirk.

So he’d seen everything.

“If there weren’t rats watching, I would have displayed an even more dazzling sword dance.”

“Hmph…”

“Are you here for revenge?”

“Revenge?”

“This man, isn’t he from Magic Planet?”

With the intent to provoke him, she pushed Lukas’ corpse with her foot.

Magic Planet.

It referred to a micro planet that floated in the distant sky of the World of Void’s Southern Area.

It was said that very few Wizards were qualified to enter that place, and all the members maintained strict secrecy. For this reason, it was one of the least known places among the territories.

The only thing that Sama Ryeong knew was that a being known as the Beginning Wizard, the First Seat of the Twelve Void Lords, ruled over the Magic Planet.

“You’re a Wizard. This man too.”

Lukas was a Wizard, Jacob was a Wizard.

So they could both know each other because they were Wizards.

In such a far fetched conjecture, there was still the slim chance that it was true.

In fact, according to Sama Ryeong’s judgement, Lukas and Jacob didn’t seem to know each other. Nevertheless, she couldn’t jump to any conclusions. They might have just pretended to not know each other with some other goal in mind.

“Ha, hahaha…”

But Jacob suddenly burst into laughter.

“Colleagues, are you saying we are colleagues? That man and I?”

“…”

“Even if it’s just a mistake, it is very unpleasant. Flower Mountain’s Seven Flowers… Your reputation is great, but it seems your eyes are not very good. How disappointing.”

“Was my guess wrong?”

“Right. Completely wrong.”

Jacob chuckled and continued.

“It seems you have fought beings who claim to be Wizards many times before.”

She nodded in affirmation.

Sama Ryeong certainly had fought beings who claimed to be Wizards before.

There were the members of the ‘Underground City’ near Flower Mountain. But they weren’t the only ones. During her wanderings around the World of Void, she’d encountered quite a few WIzards.

That was why she knew about the magic they used and the destructive power of that dark red light. Thanks to that, she was able to calmly fight Lukas without panicking.

She looked at Jacob.

One of the words that this man said bothered her.

“Claim to be?”

“They are all stupid. At the very least, in this world, they do not deserve to be called Wizards. Of course, the same goes for that trash on the ground next to you.”

[Can you call it a replica instead of trash?]

The voice that was suddenly heard didn’t belong to Sama Ryeong.

Naturally, it didn’t come from Jacob either.

At that moment, the empty space in the clearing distorted slightly… Was space and time warping once again? No. It wasn’t. It didn’t give her that unique feeling.

When she looked closely, she realised that it wasn’t space and time warping, but light being distorted.

Soon, a being that seemed to be entirely covered in steel appeared.

Jacob frowned.

“One of Futurix’s robots. An interesting toy.”

Then, the face part of the steel armour opened up, revealing Daihad’s grinning face.

“If possible I’d like it if you called it advanced science. Optical camouflage, which has a cool name, is a pretty useful technique. Since it was capable of deceiving the senses of master classes like you two, I’d say it is worth it… Ah, of course, if I had revealed the slightest intent to attack, you probably would have noticed immediately.”

“What do you mean by replica?”

“Exactly that. That body is just a copy.”

“A copy?”

“Right. It’s like a very precise doll that was given the will to fight.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Simple. I saw something similar on the way here.”

Daihad revealed his white teeth after saying this. It was only then that they noticed he was carrying something in his right hand.

It was a corpse. But if it was just that, it wouldn’t have been so surprising.

But when he threw the corpse over, Sama Ryeong’s expression couldn’t help but harden.

“Hoh.”

Meanwhile, Jacob made a soft exclamation of interest.

It was the corpse of ‘Sama Ryeong’. Then, he turned to look at the ‘living Sama Ryeong’.

“Do you have a twin?”

Sama Ryeong didn’t have such a fun personality as to accept jokes.

Of course, this wasn’t the time for them either.

Jacob shrugged graciously when she ignored him.

“This isn’t the only one.”

Daihad continued on without dragging it along.

“I saw a few more similar to this one.”

“…you mean more ‘Sama Ryeong’s?”

“Not just her, I also saw you, Magician Jacob.”

“…”

“You must have felt quite a few presences in the forest. Now that you’ve seen this, can you guess what kind of beings those presences are?”

“They’re copies of us.”

Daihad smiled, once again displaying his white teeth.

“But there is something interesting about them.”

Jacob didn’t seem able to relate to the interest Daihad was showing, but he still asked.

“What is that?”

“Those replicas aren’t copies of ‘the current us’.”

“What?”

“They are our past forms. Probably our forms right before we entered the dump site…”

“…”

“Of course, that is just my speculation, so can you check it out, pretty Miss? I took a look earlier, but unfortunately, I couldn’t be certain since that’s not me.”

Even if it was just a copy, it didn’t feel nice to hear that a corpse that looked exactly like her had been touched like that.

Resisting the urge to stick her sword in Daihad’s smiling face, Sama Ryeong inspected the corpse of Sama Ryeong.

She’d only been in the dump site for 5 years, but her gains in that time were by no means small.

Self Rising Sword(養吾劍), Jady Lady Sword(玉女劍), Profound Heaven Sword(玄天劍), Boundless Taiyi Sword(無極太乙劍), Heavenly Flow Sword(天流劍), Clarity Sword(少淸劍)…

But swordsmanship was not so visible. It might be possible to tell something by taking a closer look at the muscles, but there would still be a lot of uncertainty, and most importantly, it will take a long time.

It was a corpse, but it would be possible to make an accurate judgement using the danjeon*. (*:dantian)

“…”

After a while, Sama Ryeong straightened up and spoke.

“I think your guess is correct. This should be me before I entered the dump site.”

In the dump site, Sama Ryeong had also learned some mental techniques from different factions, and by successfully combining them with the Flower Mountain Faction’s Purple Cloud Divine Technique, she was able to develop a divine technique that suited her body.

The main contributors were the mental techniques, Heaven and Earth Divine Technique(乾坤神功), and Jade Lady Divine Technique(玉女神功), but the ‘Sama Ryeong corpse’ did not show any traces of learning or using those two mental techniques.

“Huhu. As expected.”

Daihad seemed satisfied to learn that his conjecture was correct.

“Then this guy is the same.”

Jacob’s eyes turned to Lukas.

“You said there were several. If that’s the case then things might get annoying. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m pretty annoyed to learn that multiple me’s exist. Even if it’s me from the past.”

Jacob’s conceit was abnormal.

Sama Ryeong looked at the two of them coldly before sighing.

It wasn’t a role that suited her, but it seemed that she was the only one who would bring it up here.

“Growth. The outline of the test the Corpse Ghost mentioned is slowly being established.”

“Fighting our past selves and overcoming them… Kuku. That certainly is an objective comparison. I’m quite interested in the Corpse Ghost’s way of thinking.”

“Would you like to work together?”

She didn’t say it in a roundabout way.

She felt their eyes turn to her.

But she continued without hesitation.

“By themselves, none of them is much of a threat, but it would be a different story if they attacked together.”

“That’s true. There haven’t been any signs of that yet, but there is no way to guarantee it won’t happen at some point during the test.”

Surprisingly, Daihad responded in a voice that said it wasn’t a bad idea.

“Besides, if the other person shares information about the ‘past me’, then don’t you think we’d be able to take care of them more easily?”

Sama Ryeong’s suggestion was well founded. That was to say, it was correct.

Nevertheless, she wouldn’t expect these two oddballs to easily accept it.

“Fine. I accept.”

That thought was pleasantly misguided.

Sama Ryeong looked at Daihad with slightly shaking eyes. Noticing her gaze, he tilted his head slightly.

“Why are you looking at me like that? You are the one that made the suggestion.”

“I didn’t expect you to accept it so easily.”

“It is an advantageous proposition for me. As you can see, my fighting skills are not particularly great. I have to wear this power armour to play my part.”

“…”

“Then, what will you do, Magician Jacob?”

“I’ll have to refuse. Grouping up with others is not my cup of tea.”

“…”

“Nevertheless, I will not attack you while we are in this test. Of course, it can’t be helped if you somehow get caught in my spells.”

Then, let’s do our best.

With that mutter, Jacob turned around and soon disappeared into the forest.

Looking at his back, Daihad muttered.

“I don’t usually say things like this, but that guy is a bastard.”

Sama Ryeong fully agreed with that.

* * *

Haspin was running through a dark forest.

His legs, which looked similar to a goat’s, moved without a sound. That wasn’t all. Haspin’s body seemed to drift through the forest like a black fog. His presence was so stealthy that the replicas walking through the forest did not even notice his presence as he passed them.

‘…this way.’

A rocky hill.

It was probably the highest place in the forest.

Haspin climbed to the top in a few leaps.

In this place, where the entire forest could be seen at a glance, there was already a visitor.

“Lukas Trowman, was it?”

“…”

At those words, Lukas, who was sitting quietly, slowly opened his eyes.

“Well.”

“I have something to tell you.”

“I don’t. So leave.”

After a brief response, Lukas closed his eyes again.

Despite his cold attitude, Haspin continued without hesitation.

“Listen. It is something you need to hear.”

“…”

“I am from the [Pit].”

“I don’t know where that is.”

He was still cold, but Haspin focused on the fact that he’d answered in the first place.

“You don’t know it despite it being a relatively famous place in the World of Void… It seems you only recently entered the World of Void.”

“…”

“You weren’t originally born in the World of Void. Nevertheless, you don’t seem like an ‘abandoned possibility’. Your essence was ‘forgotten’. You came here because you were forgotten. Am I wrong?”

“Is that what you needed to tell me?”

“I follow one of the Twelve Void Lords, the [0th Demon].”

“…”

“After you leave this place, follow me to the [Pit]. They want to meet you.”

He was probably referring to the 0th Demon.

Lukas retorted coldly.

“I don’t have the time for that. I have things to do.”

“Even if it’s a being you know?”

“…”

“The position of the [0th Demon], the ruler of the Pit, has recently been passed on to someone else. In other words, there has been a change in the Twelve Void Lords. The name of the new [0th Demon] is…”

Lukas’ eyes were still closed.

But Haspin was certain that he’d react to what he said next.

“Sedi Trowman.”

As he expected, Lukas’ eyes opened again.

Those deep, black eyes looked at Haspin’s face for the first time.

“Are you interested now? I’m sure you-”

“So?”

A voice like a chunk of ice was heard.

Haspin trembled slightly.

“…what?”

“So, is that what you wanted to tell me?”

“…what do you mean, I’ve heard about your relationship. Sedi Trowman is your-”

“That doesn’t matter.”

Lukas interrupted.

“I don’t care who the 0th Demon is. The same goes for anyone else I know. You seem to have forgotten what I said the first time, so I’ll repeat it for you.”

Lukas continued to speak in a deep, cold voice.

“I have nothing to say to you, so get out of my sight.”

(TL: Dang, Lukas is so cold now. Also… how the heck did Sedi get so strong? Proud of our little girl.)