TL Notes:Â Just a reminder. Jin Im-seok is a fictitious name for Seong Yul under which he is registered in the tournament.
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Dripâ
Blood spilled across the cracked floor.
The amount was far too much to be just from his mouth. His trembling body showed clear signs that it had reached its limit.
Seong Yul turned his gaze.
His sword lay beside the pool of blood.
A swordsman who had dropped his weapon and was tremblingâthat scene spoke volumes.
âHmm.â
Peng Woojin observed the kneeling youth against the gray backdrop of a dulled, suffocating world.
âHow disappointing.â
It was nothing like what he had expected.
Jin Im-seok. That was his name.
Peng Woojin had harbored some interest in him.
He had expected him to endure a little longerâ
hoped that he would make this fight a bit more entertaining.
âWas I expecting too much?â
The anticlimactic result left Peng Woojin feeling cold.
His eyes shifted.
He turned his attention away from the defeated opponent and scanned the crowd below the arena.
It didnât take long to find who he was looking for.
It was easy.
In a world painted gray, there was only one person glowing with light.
âHa.â
A faint smile crept onto Peng Woojinâs lips as he spotted the young man.
The light was still dazzling.
In this murky, colorless world, that young man shone with a vivid blue hue.
âAs brilliant as ever.â
When he first saw him, the light had been faintâ
A dying ember.
A flickering spark.
Thatâs all he had seen in the boy who was much younger than him.
How fascinating.
Peng Woojin had been drawn to that flame.
And as time passed, the ember turned into a roaring fire.
Color.
Peng Woojin had lost his ability to see color when he turned ten.
Yet now, it danced before him, shimmering and alive.
âBeautiful.â
The red hue had somehow shifted to blue, butâ
it was still breathtaking.
And it wasnât just the young man who radiated light.
Around the blue glow, other colors had begun to bloom.
The girl from the Tang Clan, whose name wasnât worth rememberingâ
she now emanated a faint green light.