Episode 4: The Second Young Master's Talent
“A spar, you say?”
Dancheol was surprised by the mention of a spar. Never had he imagined that the day would come when he would cross swords with the Second Young Master, whom he served as a guard.
Namgung Rim nodded.
“Yes. We only need to go at it lightly. I wanted to confirm something before meeting with the collateral branch.”
Dancheol’s eyes widened.
“You are meeting with the collateral branch?”
Though Dancheol was flustered, Namgung Rim remained composed.
“Did you not say so yourself, Dancheol? The collateral branch, including the Sword Hall Master, looks upon me unfavorably. In any case, since my brother has yet to ascend to the position of Patriarch, the one who can exert the greatest influence is the Sword Hall Master. He will summon me to find some fault.”
Dancheol’s mouth fell open. He had thought that Namgung Rim’s talent for martial arts had only recently blossomed. He had never imagined that his observation and analysis of the current situation would be so exceptional as well.
“Then does that mean you will spar when you meet the Sword Hall Master?”
Namgung Rim answered with an expression that seemed to ask why he was stating the obvious.
“Is that not only natural in a martial clan? And they will likely come at me in the same way.”
Dancheol could not disagree.
Sword Hall Master Namgung Hancheon.
The greatest expert of the current Namgung Clan.
It was already common knowledge that Namgung Hancheon was displeased with the clan’s direct line. He judged that the direct line’s lacking talent was ruining the clan.
And to shake the direct line from the bottom up, it was obvious he would approach the Second Young Master before the Young Lord.
‘It is just as the Second Young Master said. If the Sword Hall Master truly summons him, they will certainly spar. Given the Sword Hall Master’s temperament, it will not end with merely that.’
Then allowing Namgung Rim to experience a spar in advance was a wise choice.
“Understood. The timing is good. I was also curious about the Second Young Master’s accomplishments.”
Soon, Dancheol walked to the center of the training chamber with Namgung Rim. As he moved, he cast a sidelong glance at the countless sword marks surrounding them.
‘Why are there so many sword marks on the walls… Hm?’
Dancheol’s eyes widened. At first, he had assumed they were marks cut directly by a blade. But looking closer, they were not.
‘How can this be? I thought they were traces of direct cuts, but they are not. They are marks left by sword wind.’
Soon, Dancheol stood facing Namgung Rim, showed his courtesy, then drew his sword and assumed a stance.
‘If that is the case, then the Second Young Master is already at a realm where I must exert my full strength.’
Facing Namgung Rim, Dancheol involuntarily gulped.
A strange feeling.
Namgung Rim stood holding his sword at mid-level. An ordinary posture with nothing particularly special about it. But the spirit radiating from him was anything but ordinary.
An imposing spirit akin to a giant tree rooted deep into the earth.
Dancheol’s foot stamped into the ground. A movement born of pure instinct.
The instinct of a martial artist that if he did not suppress his opponent first, he would be the one to fall.
Dancheol’s sword moved fluidly.
Flying Swallow Sword Art.
It was a sword art taught to the clan’s guards, with many variations befitting the current trends of the martial world.
It was an attack using his full strength. He held not the slightest thought of going easy on the Second Young Master. It was a movement yielded entirely to the instinct of giving his best.
Swish-swish-swish!
Sharp sounds of tearing air filled the training chamber.
And Namgung Rim waited calmly for Dancheol’s sword momentum to reach him.
A fluid and brilliant sword tip dazzled the eyes.
Despite the dazzling movements, Namgung Rim’s pupils did not waver.
After all, there is but one person, and but one sword.
Namgung Rim leaped into the sword sequence and took a true step. The raging true energy of the Azure Sky Great Lotus Divine Art erupted from his dantian like an explosion. He channeled that true energy into the meridians of his right arm and brought his sword down in a diagonal slash.
BOOM-!
The destructive sword strike ignored Dancheol’s variations and tore through the sword art entirely.
“Kuh!”
At the fierce shock transmitted through his sword, Dancheol involuntarily furrowed his brow. He had wondered how the Second Young Master would block his brilliant variations. But Namgung Rim’s choice had been a simple single slash.
‘A single slash, as if wielding a saber…!’
An impact that threatened to tear his sword from his grip. If he held on like this, his hand would be ripped apart, so he made the inevitable choice.
Clang!
The sword flew from his hand and fell in a corner of the training chamber.
Dancheol looked at the sword that had flown away and regulated his breathing. He had intended to help the Second Young Master accumulate practical experience, but it ended in an instant. Still, it was also a match that had allowed him to confirm the level of his martial accomplishment.
“I have lost.”
To Dancheol, who was showing his courtesy, Namgung Rim sheathed his sword and spoke.
“Thanks to you, I was able to verify my sword.”
A bitter smile rose to Dancheol’s face.
“But with the Second Young Master growing so strong, there will be no need for me to stand guard at your side.”
“No. You can become stronger.”
“Huh? Me?”
“Of course. Because I will change the Namgung Clan. No, better to say I will restore it.”
Dancheol stared blankly at Namgung Rim. It was not empty talk. There was power in the Second Young Master’s words. Sufficient power to make what he spoke into reality.
Soon, Dancheol asked as if muttering.
“But what sword art was that just now, Second Young Master?”
“It is not a sword art. It is simply the Namgung Clan’s powerful sword.”
Soon, Namgung Rim personally retrieved Dancheol’s sword and handed it to him, continuing.
“Regarding the sword art, I intend to inherit my father’s will.”
“The Patriarch’s will…”
Dancheol recalled the late Patriarch’s journal.
—We simply have to create them again. The clan’s martial arts that surpass those techniques. The heavy sword and powerful sword unique to the Namgung Clan, which once split Mount Tai and cleaved the heavens.
‘The Second Young Master will fulfill the regret left behind by the Patriarch.’
* * *
The Palace of the Azure Sky was serene in the late afternoon. Through a window on one side of the corridor, the glow of the sunset seeped in golden hues.
This place, where only the sound of my footsteps treading the corridor could be heard, was the residence of the Patriarch.
‘Because my brother still holds the status of Young Lord.’
That was why it was empty. The current Patriarch of the clan was vacant.
I headed to the late father’s bedchamber.
Everything was as it had been. Aside from the journals that had become his final words being organized, it was a space untouched by anyone.
I slowly looked around that space. Then I picked up one of the books placed on the bookshelf.
Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art.
It was a book recording the powerful sword that represented the clan, one which anyone of the Namgung Clan could once learn.
‘Now, it has become a sword that no one in the clan has mastered.’
Compared to the lost Thirteen Lightning Sword Thunderbolts or the Sovereign Sword Forms, it could not be said to contain principles of ascension.
‘But it is a sword akin to the root of Namgung. It would be no exaggeration to say that all swords begin from this Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art. That is why Father, too…’
I opened the book.
The book was densely packed with countless annotations. He had added his own interpretations and insights regarding the sword art.
‘So this was how he strove to reclaim the clan’s roots.’
The Namgung Clan’s heavy sword and powerful sword had gradually fallen into decline. A blow caused by the deaths of many experts 150 years ago.
And because of the changes in swordsmanship brought by the teachings of the Mount Hua Sword Immortal.
‘Father realized too late. That the clan’s revival is not about imitating the swords of others.’
I read through the book of the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art. And through Father’s opinions as well.
I could feel his heart in pursuing the essence of the clan.
But.
‘It is insufficient.’
Restoring lost martial arts, and likewise creating new martial arts, were not things easily done.
They were tasks possible only with heaven-bestowed aptitude and talent.
And in the current me, the senses of my previous life as the Dao Emperor remained intact.
‘Perhaps I have been chosen. Not for the role of leading the clan like Father or my brother, but for the fate of reclaiming the clan’s sword.’
I closed the book and left the bedchamber.
And headed toward the rear garden of the Palace of the Azure Sky.
* * *
The rear garden of the Palace of the Azure Sky seemed unrelated to the tragedy of that time, beautifully bathed in the golden sunset.
On the night we were expelled from the Five Great Clans, Father passed away here while forcefully wielding his sword to reclaim the sword of Namgung.
And now I had come to that place again.
‘To inherit that will.’
I brought my right hand behind my back and grasped the scabbard of the Genesis Sword.
Hummm.
When I drew the sword, a low, heavy resonance filled the rear garden.
I raised the sword to mid-level and assumed a stance.
‘At some point, the mainstay of the clan became the Heavenly Wind Sword Art.’
After the teachings of the Mount Hua Sword Immortal, the clan had promoted the Heavenly Wind Sword Art—rich in variations—as the mainstream, inheriting and developing it.
I had been the same.
But now, there was no reason to recall such a Heavenly Wind Sword Art.
I erased all thoughts from my mind and focused solely on the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art.
Following the formulae seen in the book, following the annotations Father had left behind, and following the senses of my previous life as the Dao Emperor, I swung my sword.
‘Just as the mental art suited to the Clear Wind Sword Art was the Cheongyo Heart Formula, the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art is paired with the Azure Sky Great Lotus Divine Art.’
I let the raging true energy of the Azure Sky Great Lotus Divine Art flow through the meridians of my entire body.
And I unfolded the first form of the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art, Raging Wave Sunder.
The true energy moved according to my will, harmonizing with the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art.
Swish—Boom!
A condensed sonic boom echoed through the rear garden.
No one would come here anyway. It was an environment ideal for concentrating.
Gradually, I forgot my surroundings. The chirping of birds, the cries of grass insects, the brush of the wind.
And eventually, even myself.
Aligning my senses solely with the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art, I was endlessly intoxicated toward its essence.
‘The senses of my previous life as the Dao Emperor.’
Upon those senses, I loaded the sword strikes of the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art.
A single strike that resonated and fused as if they were of a single nature.
The Dao Emperor’s martial art, which once severed all things clean in two with a single stroke, was indeed connected to the sword of the Namgung Clan.
Clang-clang-clang!
Heavy sonic booms continued to burst from the sword.
It was neither dazzling nor splendid. It had neither many superfluous movements nor extreme variations.
But.
‘This is truly the Namgung sword. The sword of the Firmament Namgung that once split Mount Tai and cleaved the heavens.’
In the current sword art, Father’s efforts to reclaim the Namgung sword were embedded everywhere.
‘My brother inherited from Father the role of leading the clan. Leading the clan is not my role. I focus on what I can do.’
The Namgung Clan’s sword was once called the sword of the Sovereign.
It had grown distant from such hegemony now, but if one were to someday reach its profound meaning, it was a sword capable of shaking the world.
‘I will make it so. The Namgung sword.’
As a golden radiance flashed in my mind, a smile of enlightenment formed at my lips.
Recalling the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art that I would reshape from now on, ecstasy welled up within me.
In that mind brimming with exaltation, I dismantled the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art and repeatedly reassembled it for some time.
Soon, my sword was advancing toward the final form of the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art.
And the concept of enlightenment striking my mind soon rushed toward the pinnacle.
‘Boundless.’
The name of a sword art bears the true intent of the one who created that martial art.
‘That is, a sword whose end cannot be known.’
I brought the sword, which I had raised high, down in a vertical slash.
The final form of the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art.
Sword Encompassing the Vast Heavens.
The true energy that had been rampaging through all the meridians of my body exploded through the sword via the meridians of my right arm.
The true intent of the one who had created the Limitless Azure Sky Sword Art.
The Dao Emperor’s senses followed that true intent, manifesting the origin of the Sword Encompassing the Vast Heavens directly into reality.
Rumble!
Soon, an overwhelming sword momentum descended and covered the entire rear garden.