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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Severing the Heavens (1)
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Early morning.
Someone was already running laps around the training ground.
Regular footsteps and steady breaths repeated rhythmically.
"Huu...."
How long had he been at it?
Sweat beaded across his skin.
Only when his breath rose to his throat did he finally stop running and stand still.
There stood Cheon Muryang, his once flabby flesh seeming a touch leaner.
"Two hours!"
"Is that right? A little more than yesterday."
"Yes!"
Upon hearing the duration from Wol Yeong, Cheon Muryang sat cross-legged in the corner of the training ground.
He examined the inside of his body.
'With just the 5th level of the Heavenly Sun Divine Art, this seems to be the limit.'
The Heavenly Sun Divine Art was a yang-type technique.
As such, it was reasonably effective at melting away the yin energy within him, but far less so against yang energy of the same nature.
'Balance can't be broken. Even if it's slow, this is the only path.'
Dissolving the elixir energy inside him had to be done while maintaining yin-yang equilibrium.
Cheon Muryang smacked his lips in regret, but there was nothing for it.
"If only I could enter the Heavenly Dragon Library and learn a higher heart method. Tsk."
What could be done?
It was the karma he had piled up himself.
'Have to settle for this much.'
Flash!
Cheon Muryang opened his eyes.
Thanks to the sliver of inner energy he had accumulated, his muscles loosened pleasantly upon completing the breathing exercise.
"Shall we begin again?"
Cheon Muryang rose to his feet.
With reverence, he drew Heavenly Light.
The blade soared high toward the sky.
It was so impeccably maintained that sunlight gleamed off it.
Whoosh!
A sharp sword cry rang out.
The wound from clashing swords with Neung Ryeo-un had hardened into calluses; there was no pain now.
'Tomorrow already?'
The bet with Cheon Seon-hak.
It was a wager to defeat the top trainee he had put forward.
For the past month, he had thrown himself into training with desperate fervor.
'Did I give it my all?'
He had practically lived in the training ground.
He had ramped up the intensity day by day, vomiting who-knew-how-many times in the process.
Yet Cheon Muryang still felt it wasn't enough.
'I tried to stay patient, but perhaps I got hasty.'
Fifteen years from now, the Cheon Clan would collapse pathetically to the Demonic Cult's schemes.
Knowing this, he had unconsciously grown impatient.
'As the saying goes, overdoing it is as bad as underdoing. A nobleman's vengeance is never too late, even after ten years.'
He steadied himself thus.
Rushing wouldn't accomplish anything good.
'Focus only on what I can right now.'
First and foremost, the bet with Cheon Seon-hak.
"Ah, no matter who gets picked, it'll be great. It's a legal chance to punish the Eldest Young Master, right?"
The rumors had already spread thickly throughout the Cheon Clan.
This was surely Cheon Seon-hak's intention.
A message to forfeit early if he was scared.
'Must have nothing better to do. Should be honing his sword instead. Tsk.'
For those shut away training, this little uproar was the best entertainment imaginable.
As such, opinions were already flying thick and fast about the duel.
'Of course, mostly about how pathetically I'll lose.'
Though a minuscule few.
There were even opinions that the Eldest Young Master seemed changed—a truly tiny minority, but they existed.
No small progress.
'No matter who it is...'
It didn't matter.
Because winning or losing held no meaning whatsoever.
All he sought from this bet was Cheon Seon-hak's small acknowledgment.
"Kekeke! Still the same old. Haven't learned any swordsmanship? Just flailing away with slashes."
A mocking voice rang out.
Wol Yeong bristled indignantly, but Cheon Muryang quelled her with a glance.
'Well, at least there's one person cheering for you, Young Master. Isn't that fortunate?'
Cheon Muryang suddenly burst into laughter along with him.
Then he strode toward the trainee mocking him.
"Could you be the top trainee?"
Cheon Seon-hak had said clearly.
The top trainee.
"Ah. Yes, Young Master. I am the top trainee."
"I see."
"Don't worry, Young Master. I'll go easy and wrap it up."
His sly, grinning face rubbed him the wrong way.
Suddenly, a face from memory surfaced—subtly different from this one.
'Come to think of it...'
So he asked.
"Well then, top trainee. What's your name?"
"Yi Seok-gi, sir."
"Ah!"
Yi Seok-gi.
He remembered now.
The face had changed, so he hadn't recognized him, but how could he forget that name?
'Traitorous bastard.'
In his past life, he had been one of Cheon Muryang's closest aides.
After joining the Heavenly Dragon Sword Squad, he had connected with Cheon Muryang through scheming rather than swordsmanship, rising to the innermost circle of power.
Compared to the honest Nameless who spoke truth, the past Cheon Muryang had favored the silver-tongued Yi Seok-gi.
'At this time, he still had a sharp face.'
The reason he hadn't recognized him: by then, greed would swell his features, turning him into a fat pig like the old Cheon Muryang.
Eventually, Yi Seok-gi fell for the Demonic Cult's temptations and began leaking all sorts of information.
'By the time I realized, it was too late.'
Grind.
Cheon Muryang ground his teeth.
Anger welled up.
'I thought it didn't matter who... but I've changed my mind.'
No matter who the top trainee was.
Cheon Muryang had simply wanted to show his sword to Cheon Seon-hak.
But now, things were different.
'A chance to end this traitor early has come.'
Looking at Yi Seok-gi's sly smile, Cheon Muryang smiled back.
"I see. Yi Seok-gi. I'll remember that."
"Then I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yes. Let's have a fair fight."
"Of course, Young Master."
Yi Seok-gi departed, leaving behind a faint sneer.
A sly smile the past Cheon Muryang wouldn't have noticed.
"Tsk. Now I've got one more reason to swing for my life."
Punishment he couldn't deliver in his past life.
Though the current Yi Seok-gi was innocent of crime, it felt time to settle the score anyway.
With that, Cheon Muryang swung his sword once more.
Whoosh!
Still, nothing but repeated slashes.
How long did he swing?
Suddenly, Cheon Seon-hak's old teaching came to mind.
『What do you seek to cut?』
『Pardon?』
『Just as I thought. Blindly swinging a sword isn't the way.』
『Please instruct me.』
『No grand instruction needed. The essence of swordsmanship lies in the cut. What you cut defines the sword's worth.』
『What to cut...?』
『Indeed. Behold the sky. What you must cut is not these mere straw dummies.』
Whoooosh!
Cheon Seon-hak's sword moved.
It soared toward the heavens like an ascending dragon, and the furious dragon rent the sky asunder.
It was the Heaven-Severing sword.
『...!』
『The sky. Cut the sky.』
From that day on.
Cheon Seon-hak's sword became both the distant goal to reach and the signpost showing the path ahead.
'What I must cut... is the sky.'
Cheon Muryang closed his eyes.
The key was the mental image.
Fortunately, he remembered Cheon Seon-hak's sword that had severed the heavens.
He entered a boundless no-mind state.
Wuuuung!
A fragment of that sword faintly manifested in Cheon Muryang's blade.
He could no longer feel the sword.
When its weight vanished entirely.
Heavenly Light became one with him.
A portion of that sky-severing image overlapped with Heavenly Light.
Flaaash!
Blinding rays of intense light scattered in all directions from his closed eyes.
And in Cheon Muryang's imagination, the sky split open.
'Ah...'
In that instant, the no-mind state shattered.
Feeling exhaustion throughout his body, Cheon Muryang collapsed in place.
"Huuk, huuk!"
He panted roughly.
Opening his eyes, he realized his surroundings had grown pitch dark.
"Ah..."
It was deep into the night.
A night when no one should be around.
Yet Wol Yeong was there.
She was the shadow of the moon, after all.
"Y-Young Master?"
She had always cheered him on, but today was different.
"W-What... was that just now?"
Her eyes were round with shock—a expression Cheon Muryang had never seen on her before.
In response, he smiled brightly and asked.
He was curious about her impression.
"Why? How did it look?"
"Ah, no, I mean... I don't know much about swords, but..."
"Just tell me what you felt."
"For an instant... it felt like the sky split open."
At her words.
Cheon Muryang was the one surprised.
The sky he had cut existed only in his imagination.
'She saw that?'
How could she have seen it?
Cheon Muryang laughed.
'No one recognized this kind of talent? Not even me?'
Wol Yeong was an unexpected prodigy.
Far too valuable to waste as a mere handmaiden.
"Wol Yeong, about tomorrow's duel."
"Yes?"
"Don't look away no matter what. Watch closely. And afterward, tell me your thoughts."
It was a sudden request to her.
Especially while they were discussing sword impressions.
"Yes. I will."
"As expected, the lamp casts no light below it."
"Y-Young Master?"
Cheon Muryang was visibly exhausted, yet he laughed as if the heavens might split.
The lamp casts no light below—talent overlooked in plain sight.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Trainee training ground.
From early morning, a large crowd had gathered.
Yet they merely milled around the edges.
No one stepped onto the platform itself.
"He's coming!"
Someone approached from the distance.
Cheon Muryang had stayed in the training ground until dawn, but he was on his way back after changing into fresh clothes at Wol Yeong's insistence.
All eyes focused on him.
"Has he... lost weight?"
"Looks like it?"
He had slimmed down noticeably.
His jawline was defined for the first time in years, it seemed.
Those seeing Cheon Muryang after a long while were duly surprised.
"Doesn't change his nature, though."
"Exactly. What's the point of losing weight if the delinquent streak stays? And it doesn't erase his past screw-ups."
Still, the views were negative.
Cheon Muryang was well aware.
He simply endured the stares in silence.
"You've come."
Cheon Seon-hak also ascended to the platform.
"Yes, Uncle."
"Enough with the yes. You're prepared, I take it."
"Anytime."
"Good. Come up, top trainee."
"Yes! Total Commander!"
Yi Seok-gi hopped up as if he'd been waiting.
His face brimmed with certainty that defeat was impossible.
'Right. Probably still mulling over how to make it look good when he drops me.'
This was a stage of opportunity.
Cheon Seon-hak was here.
Which meant the Heavenly Dragon Sword Squad Leader and Heavenly Peak Sword Squad Leader were present too.
A chance to impress them, so Yi Seok-gi would naturally be agonizing over it.
'Too bad. Not even a speck of that on my mind.'
Cheon Muryang intended to smash that entire opportunity to pieces.
"Until I say stop. Understood?"
Nod.
The two nodded.
"Take up wooden swords."
"..."
Cheon Muryang and Yi Seok-gi received wooden swords.
Live steel was forbidden.
Eldest Young Master or not, he was the next Patriarch in line.
Couldn't have him injured, after all.
Cheon Seon-hak stepped down from the platform.
Then he shouted as if declaring to everyone.
"Begin!"
The signal to start.
Yi Seok-gi was utterly off-guard.
Probably still pondering how dramatically to fell the Eldest Young Master.
"Bastard."
"Huh?"
As such, Yi Seok-gi failed to react in time.
Cheon Muryang's wooden sword shot skyward like lightning before crashing down.