Divine Dragon Gu Cheol-un.
The master of the Gu Clan, now known as the Chivalrous Hero.
Namgung Jin, who had once been the Azure Dragon Division Commander of the Murim Alliance, and Gu Cheol-un, who had been the Azure Dragon Division Commander, had never gotten along.
They were among the few who had come from the same generation of rising talents.
They had also been the subject of endless debate over who was stronger among the dragons and phoenixes of their generation.
Proud to a fault, Namgung Jin had no intention of sitting quietly after hearing such talk.
The arrogant young master had sought out Gu Cheol-un at the time and picked a fight with him.
He had been utterly defeated.
Namgung Jin remembered it.
The scorching heat and flames that had filled the sky.
The crimson eyes that had looked down at him through the flames.
How could he ever forget? The memory of that day still strangled him even now.
The reason he had come to hate Gu Cheol-un later was not limited to that, but it remained an unforgettable memory all the same.
Namgung Jin hated Gu Cheol-un.
It was partly his own petty inferiority complex, and partly resentment toward the friend who had been ruined.
Above all else—
It was true that losing her had been his own sin.
But it was also true that Gu Cheol-un’s sin had been neglecting the flower even after obtaining it.
He had been bewitched by an unknown woman and wanted to abandon everything. If that was not a sin, then what was?
Even knowing about the secrets of the Gu Clan did not change Namgung Jin’s thoughts.
The moonlight glinted sharply off the blade. Back when Namgung Jin had surpassed the Peak and reached the Transcendent Realm—
Heavenly Venerable had said to him,
‘You are hollow inside. Fill that first.’
He could not have meant that Namgung Jin should fill his inner energy. Namgung Jin was not so incapable of understanding.
A great deal of time passed after that. He had trained, of course, and experienced no small amount of actual combat, yet Namgung Jin remained stuck in place.
There had been no progress in his realm, and even establishing his position as the clan head had been difficult enough.
A realm achieved through the investment of the clan was ultimately only half-complete. Though he had reached the Transcendent Realm, its enlightenment had not properly permeated his body.
Was this one form of qi deviation?
Then, one day, his grandfather happened to order that the Divine Physician be summoned.
Namgung Jin sought out the Divine Physician. He was examined at the appointed time, but after inspecting Namgung Jin’s body, the Divine Physician spoke decisively.
—I do not know what sort of diagnosis you expect, but there is nothing wrong with the clan head’s body.
The Divine Physician said that there was no problem with either his energy or his body. In the end, it meant that he had encountered a wall as a martial artist.
He needed strength to firmly establish his position as the head of the Namgung Clan.
The Namgung Clan was a martial household, after all. A clan head who was weak as a martial artist would find it difficult to properly maintain his position.
Even with a half-complete realm, Namgung Jin had reached the Transcendent Realm and easily joined the ranks of the Central Plains’ Hundred Greatest Masters.
But he was still lacking when it came to sitting upon the throne of the great Namgung Clan. That was why he had tried so desperately to draw strength from elsewhere.
Whether that source was the Gu Clan he hated, or somewhere else entirely.
Kwaaang-!
The tip of a sword grazed Namgung Jin’s cheek along with the wind. His resolve to give up ten exchanges had vanished without a trace.
Now, he was too busy scanning the countless sword paths pouring toward him and searching for an opening.
Namgung Jin had the advantage in speed.
The same was true of strength.
Not using inner energy should have had no effect at all. There was a difference in the number of years they had spent wielding swords, so it had to be that way.
Then what was the problem? What in the world was wrong that he could not block that sword? Even if Namgung Jin had hit another wall, his realm had not changed.
And yet he was being driven back this badly by a mere young rising talent.
Gu Yangcheon showed none of the forms that a swordsman ought to possess.
In one sense, it looked as if he were swinging his sword haphazardly. In another, it seemed as though he was making only the movements he needed.
‘Am I dreaming?’
The Azure Heavens Sword King Namgung Jin was unable to even grasp the movements of a rising talent.
It was not because the movements were slow and difficult to see. He simply could not understand them.
‘Even if this is a dream, this should be impossible…!’
The sword cleaved through the air.
Namgung Jin’s movements were filled with discipline. This was a sparring match decided through swordsmanship alone. Namgung Jin was the Sword King. He absolutely could not afford to be outmatched in swordsmanship.
Ssshh—shik! The sound of blades cutting through the wind grew increasingly distinct. His body, having long since surpassed the Peak and absorbed inner energy, had naturally become one with it, even without deliberately drawing upon the energy in his dantian.
Even if he could not use martial arts infused with inner energy, he would not lose in terms of speed.
The Namgung Clan’s ultimate technique was indeed the Emperor’s Sword Form, but it was a supreme art that could not be performed without inner energy.
That did not mean the Namgung Clan had only that one sword technique.
Swordsmanship could still be used without inner energy.
From Namgung Jin’s resolute hands, the Firmament Without End Sword Art unfolded—
Clang!
“…!”
The tip of the sword in Namgung Jin’s hand was knocked toward the sky.
Gu Yangcheon had struck it, taking advantage of the opening in his sword path created by his inability to use inner energy.
As the tip of his sword was thrown off-line, a huge opening appeared in Namgung Jin’s defenses. His chest was left wide open.
‘Damn it…!’
If Gu Yangcheon swung his sword now, the match would be over. For an instant, an ugly thought flashed through Namgung Jin’s mind: Should he use his inner energy?
He had been taught that one must use every means and method to achieve one’s goal, but the small shred of pride remaining in him as a martial artist found the idea distasteful.
In the end, Namgung Jin chose neither. He sensed his defeat, but contrary to his expectations, Gu Yangcheon’s blade did not come flying toward him.
“What are you doing?”
Instead, he withdrew his sword and stood there, asking Namgung Jin a question.
“I said you had to do it properly. What kind of foolishness is this?”
Namgung Jin did not understand what Gu Yangcheon was talking about.
He wondered if the boy was trying to humiliate him, but Gu Yangcheon’s expression was serious.
“Even when you should be giving it your all, are you still unable to see what lies ahead because you’re blinded by appearances?”
“Wha…t… are you talking about?”
Angered by the incomprehensible words, Namgung Jin snapped. He desperately wanted to cloak himself in thunder qi at that very moment.
He wanted to sear that damned mouth shut.
“I commend you for not using inner energy until the end, but a sparring match this narrow-minded—”
Gu Yangcheon, who had been about to continue in a solemn tone, suddenly stopped.
Then his expression began to crumble little by little. Namgung Jin looked at his face and asked,
“What is that expression supposed to mean…? Why are you looking at me like that?”
Why was he making such an expression? Namgung Jin could not understand.
Despite Namgung Jin’s question, Old Man Sin—Gu Yangcheon—could only laugh hollowly.
“No way…”
[What is it?]
Old Man Sin did not answer Gu Yangcheon’s question.
As if telling him to watch closely, Old Man Sin began swinging the sword before Namgung Jin. It was different from the swordsmanship he had used moments ago. In the first place, Old Man Sin had not fought with anything that could properly be called swordsmanship.
He had not intended to use the Plum Blossom Sword Art, nor had there been any need to. Looking at Namgung Jin, Old Man Sin finally seemed to have found the answer to the question that had been circling in his mind.
A sword path extended with every movement of Old Man Sin’s hand. To Gu Yangcheon, watching from within, the sword path looked strangely familiar.
“I acknowledge your talent, but how dare you presume to teach me—!”
Namgung Jin, who had been about to shout with indignation, lost his voice as though his gaze had been stolen by the sword Old Man Sin was displaying.
Then his mouth fell open as if his jaw had come loose. That was how shocked he was.
Old Man Sin’s movements were clearly not those of Mount Hua’s swordsmanship. But they were something he had seen before. He had seen them many times—countless times.
[…How? How can you use that, Old Man?]
Gu Yangcheon asked Old Man Sin in a trembling voice.
Though it contained no inner energy, that was unmistakably the Namgung Clan’s sword. More precisely, it resembled the swordsmanship the Demonic Sword Empress had used in his previous life.
The swordsmanship she had performed had been rougher and more saturated with killing intent, infused with murderous intent. The sword path Old Man Sin was showing now, by contrast, was honest and unwavering.
It was the sword that had shed the chronic flaw the Namgung Clan’s sword had originally possessed. It was precisely the swordsmanship the Demonic Sword Empress had used when she exterminated the Namgung Clan.
It was not a perfect recreation. His lower body barely moved, and he was closer to imitating it by moving his hands little by little. Even so, the completeness contained in the forms was on an entirely different level.
After swinging the sword a few more times, he stopped and looked at Namgung Jin.
After confirming Namgung Jin’s expression, Old Man Sin opened his mouth. His emotions were steeped in bitterness.
“So it wasn’t that you weren’t doing it… You simply couldn’t.”
“What—what in the world did you just do…?”
Namgung Jin’s tone had changed.
“What exactly did you just…!”
“Even after I displayed the sword your clan uses right before your eyes, you show more curiosity than murderous intent. You must be rather desperate.”
“…!”
Even if he had merely followed its form and framework, what he had used just now had indeed been the Namgung Clan’s sword. Its character had been so unmistakable that there was no possibility of confusion.
[Old Man.]
‘It had always puzzled me. The fragments of the Namgung Clan’s sword that I saw in your memories were crude beyond belief. The Namgung Clan, of all people.’
This should have been a place crawling with monsters wearing the mask of emperors, who ought to have been pouring thunder qi into their swords. That was how it had been in Old Man Sin’s memories.
Namgung Myeong, the Thunder Heaven One Sword, had been a master of swift swordsmanship who wielded thunderous inner energy and could swing dozens of swords within the span of a second.
Old Man Sin remembered that Namgung Myeong had accomplished countless things, but if one had to name his greatest achievement—
It was completing the Namgung Clan’s sword.
Completion.
Those were the words Namgung Myeong, an extreme perfectionist, had dared to use.
That insufferable bastard had laughed as he drank, saying that he had created something he could leave to his descendants in the future. Even the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal had to admit that the sword he displayed that day was the culmination of all Namgung Myeong’s enlightenment.
A single man had drawn up in an instant the evolution of swordsmanship that had advanced slowly over the course of centuries.
“Which is why this should be impossible…”
Time had passed. When the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal, Sin Cheol, opened his eyes, many things had changed.
But plum blossoms still drifted through the Mount Hua Sect.
Though he had died and vanished, Mount Hua still shone as brightly as ever with the passage of time.
Other places should have been the same.
At the very least, the seeds left behind by the five of that day should not have come to nothing.
“…That should have been the case. Then what is this half-baked thing?”
[Are you saying that the Namgung Clan’s sword has gone wrong?]
‘If you insist on dividing it into right and wrong, then I suppose it should be called right. It is an excellent sword, after all.’
[Then what is the problem—]
‘It has merely degenerated. I do not know whether they failed to preserve it or simply forgot it.’
Where had it gone?
Where had the achievement Namgung Myeong left behind disappeared to?
Was this half-baked fool the abnormal one?
‘…Even if he is a half-baked fool wandering about without properly overcoming the wall.’
Gu Yangcheon’s body was at the Peak Realm. Though his body was in a superior state compared to others at the same realm, thanks to the experience of his previous life—
It was strange that Old Man Sin could see through Namgung Jin’s body, which had clearly reached the Transcendent Realm, so easily.
He had stopped halfway up. Namgung Jin was currently suspended at the threshold of the Transcendent Realm.
It was only a hair’s breadth. To be wandering because he had failed to grasp that final hair’s breadth—his arrogance, impatience, pressure, and shattered pride were all concentrated into a single mass of flaws.
Namgung Jin asked in a trembling voice,
“…Tell me… What was that just now? You—what in the world are you?”
If another person had used the martial arts of his clan, it would have been more than enough cause to seize them and vent his fury. Yet Namgung Jin was wrapped entirely in desperation.
Was it hope? Why had that insignificant imitation filled him with such hope?
Desperate enough, Namgung Jin had even begun to doubt the identity of Gu Yangcheon, whom he had ignored until moments ago.
“Do not misunderstand. I am Gu Yangcheon of the Gu Clan.”
[…If you’re going to say that, could you at least speak properly first?]
‘Do not interrupt so thoughtlessly. Just stay quiet.’
[That is completely different from what I asked you to do… What are you planning?]
‘Have you never wondered why the Namgung child failed to receive the name Sword Dragon?’
[Are you saying that it is because something is wrong with the Namgung Clan’s sword?]
Gu Yangcheon found it difficult to agree with Old Man Sin’s words. Namgung Cheonjun was talented—for someone his age, that was.
He possessed enough talent to be called a genius, but Yeongpung was simply more outstanding.
Even if Old Man Sin was right, Gu Yangcheon could not easily understand why he was going this far in the current situation.
“Is a sword that cannot be completed without infusing it with inner energy truly worthy of being called a proper sword?”
“What does that—”
“I had hoped to enlighten you in some way, but now that it has come to this, there would be no meaning in it….”
The Namgung family’s martial arts, used by Namgung Jin—and naturally by Namgung Cheonjun as well—could not display their proper power without infusing them with inner force.
The same was true of most other martial arts, but from Elder Shin’s words, Gu Yangcheon was able to learn something more specific.
The minute gaps that appeared whenever one wielded the sword, breaking the flow here and there. The sword path that only became consistent after inner force was infused into it.
They were merely being concealed. The gaps, so slight that they were difficult to notice, disappeared once inner force was poured into them. As one’s cultivation constantly rose, an ordinary person would not bother paying attention to them.
But I had seen Namgung Myeong’s sword.
And I had seen the Demon Sword Empress’s sword.
Elder Shin and I could tell how vast the difference was.
The swordsmanship Elder Shin had only briefly demonstrated was clearly the same as the Namgung family’s sword, yet we could also tell how profoundly different its quality was because of that tiny distinction.
Even Gu Yangcheon, who knew little about the Namgung sword, could see it. How much more clearly must Namgung Jin have perceived it?
[It seems his inner force no longer matters to him.]
His face was desperate. He looked utterly captivated by that brief sword form, unable to tear himself away from it.
He looked as though he had swallowed a handful of poppies.
How Gu Yangcheon could wield the sword, why he possessed such skill—none of it seemed to matter to him anymore.
The insulting things he had hurled at Gu Yangcheon, even his subordinates sprawled around him, groaning in pain—all of it slipped beyond Namgung Jin’s field of vision.
It seemed his inner force truly no longer mattered at all.
It was unsettling, in a way, to see a prestigious family’s patriarch reduced to such a state, as though he had inadvertently exposed a shame the Namgung family had kept covered. But there was nothing to be done.
“…I lost. I lost….”
Namgung Jin acknowledged his defeat. Though the difference in skill had been plain to see, he had clung stubbornly to the bout, only to crumble before the short form Elder Shin had just displayed.
“If you want me to kneel, I will kneel. If you want an apology, I will gladly give you one. If there is anything you desire, I will give you all of it….”
Was he asking to be told what it was?
[He’s lost his mind.]
The sensible thing would have been to first find out how this sword technique could be used.
Had Elder Shin’s sword been that shocking? Namgung Jin seemed incapable of thinking clearly or rationally.
A martial artist of the Transformation Realm, no less. This was unquestionably strange.
[Could there be something wrong with his mind?]
“…Hmm.”
Elder Shin let out a breath through his nose as he looked at Namgung Jin. He seemed to sense that something was off as well.
Or was it? He almost looked as though he were smiling faintly.
“Do you want to know?”
[Elder Shin?]
I hurriedly called out to him at his words. Was he really planning to tell Namgung Jin all of a sudden?
‘Why are you so concerned? It may not have happened in the way you wanted, but did you not win in the end?’
[No, that’s true, but are you really going to tell him?]
‘Tell him what?’
[The sword technique they said Noecheon Ilgeom used.]
If Elder Shin had been Noecheon Ilgeom’s friend, he might have felt pity over the decline of their sword, but telling Namgung Jin something in the current situation was absurd.
Elder Shin spoke to me as though I were being ridiculous.
‘How could I tell him that? I don’t even know the forms properly.’
[What?]
What was he talking about now?
Namgung Jin already looked as though he might fall to his knees at Elder Shin’s words. Who would have thought that a man so thoroughly wrapped in arrogance could crumble this easily?
Now that he had revealed himself in such a manner, it would be difficult to use talent as an easy excuse. He had used the Namgung family’s swordsmanship—more than that, he had displayed a sword that had evolved beyond it. We would have to come up with another explanation.
Was that something Elder Shin had already considered as well?
[Then what are you planning to do, saying something like this…?]
‘Naturally, you will have to handle the rest yourself.’
[What did you say?]
What had this old man just said?
Handle it myself? What kind of absurd thing was he saying all of a sudden? How was Gu Yangcheon supposed to explain the Namgung swordsmanship to Namgung Jin?
As ominous thoughts raced through my mind, I cried out in alarm.
[Elder Shin… Just a moment. What are you planning to do?]
Perhaps he had not heard my shouts, or simply ignored them. Elder Shin spoke to Namgung Jin.
“From now on, you will have to regard me as your master.”
[You… insane…]
It was an outrageous bombshell. I hurriedly tried to say something, but control of the body still belonged to Elder Shin.
More importantly, lights were converging on the detached residence. The Gu family members and Namgung Bia had heard what happened.
When Namgung Bia arrived, her eyes widened at the sight of Namgung Jin, disheveled from head to toe, and Gu Yangcheon, who looked perfectly fine.
“We’re screwed….”
Those were the first words I uttered the moment I regained control of my body.