-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Seeing a New Sky
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Heavenly Dragon Library was the equivalent of the Shaolin Temple's Scripture Pavilion.
It was a treasure trove stocked with everything from the foundational martial arts that formed the Cheon Clan's bedrock to advanced techniques.
"The Eldest Young Master may enter without restrictions."
The books one could access inside varied by rank.
The section Nameless had wanted to enter was a restricted area accessible only to direct bloodline members.
"Hm."
The basic martial arts to advanced ones were neatly arranged.
Among them were techniques Nameless had once practiced, but he didn't spare them a single glance.
'No way they'd catch my eye.'
Cheon Muryang strode straight to the area permitted only to him.
The Heavenly Dragon Library's interior was filled with countless books, giving off a musty, distinctive odor.
Yet inhaling that scent already made him feel as though he'd mastered some transcendent martial art.
"Hoo..."
There was just one problem.
This space allowed only to direct descendants was, unlike the other areas, completely disorganized.
"Would it kill them to tidy up a bit?"
Looking at the books scattered every which way made it daunting to even know where to start.
"What should I look at first?"
He pulled out a book at random.
It was so weathered that its age was impossible to guess, and it bore no title.
Charrrk.
As Cheon Muryang opened the book and read slowly, he began tilting his head in puzzlement.
"This isn't it?"
It didn't qualify as a martial arts manual.
Closing the book, Cheon Muryang nodded as if it were only natural.
"Well, not everything here's a martial arts manual, right?"
Of course, there would be other kinds of books mixed in.
So he pulled out another.
That one didn't seem like a martial arts manual either.
"What is this...?"
If anything, it was more like the life story of past ancestors.
In other words, close to an autobiography.
All the untitled books were written in that same format.
"..."
The ones with titles were just the Cheon Clan's martial arts, which could be found anywhere else anyway.
He'd hoped for even more advanced techniques, but there were none here.
"What's going on here?"
There were supposed to be advanced manuals.
But he hadn't come here just to learn something like that.
"No way... is this really everything? Nah, it can't be. There has to be something."
Hadn't Cheon Seon-hak said it?
[The way you enter the Heavenly Dragon Library and the way you leave will be markedly different.]
He remembered those words clearly.
That meant there was definitely a secret hidden here.
"I need to figure out what it is."
That secret had to be somewhere in these autobiography-like books.
"Right, Uncle said that from the first day he entered the Heavenly Dragon Library in the past, he forged his own path."
[If I had to put that experience into words, it would be 'opening one's eyes'—that's how I'd describe it.]
That was how Cheon Seon-hak had answered when Nameless had inquired about the Heavenly Dragon Library.
And so, Cheon Muryang decided to sit down and meticulously examine the first book he'd seen.
He had no intention of leaving for the next two days anyway.
"Good thing there's plenty of food."
Wol Yeong had packed non-perishables like jerky that didn't smell much and rice cakes.
[She said you'd need these.]
It was obvious who'd tipped her off.
"Probably Uncle."
With that, Cheon Muryang's intensive reading of the books began.
How much time had passed?
"Mm..."
By the time he'd lost track of time entirely.
Cheon Muryang discovered a common thread in the contents of these autobiographies.
"They're all talking about their own individual skies."
The sky was never just one.
These books contained the countless skies they'd each witnessed.
"Ah..."
Sky—heaven, cheon (天).
The path the Cheon Clan's swords were meant to pursue.
But how could one presume the sky was singular?
The sky was utterly free and unfettered.
"So that's what it was?"
What could possibly confine the sky?
Just as the Dao couldn't be named "Dao," the sky couldn't be limited to "sky."
The systematized martial arts manuals captured only a fraction of it.
"All of this... was essentially martial arts manuals."
To Cheon Muryang, these records of individual skies were no different from martial arts manuals.
"Uncle's sky was just one part of it too..."
Sunlit azure skies, rain-drenched heavens, thunder-rumbling storm clouds, star-embracing nights, moonlit expanses, cloud-shrouded vaults.
Cheon Muryang beheld countless skies.
And he yearned to embrace them all.
"My sky is not just one."
Each of these accounts held only a single sky.
As if declaring that was their limit.
But Cheon Muryang wanted to surpass it.
"I have to become stronger than anyone."
To do that, he needed to embrace every sky.
Cheon Muryang closed his eyes.
The space was too cramped to swing his sword.
'My sky...'
In his mind's eye, Cheon Muryang stood alone on a barren plain.
Whoooong!
The Heavenly Light Sword emitted a glow.
In that instant, a vast blue sky where birds soared freely unfolded before him.
The expansive heavens stretched endlessly, impossible to fathom.
[What sky have you seen?]
The sky asked.
Now it was Cheon Muryang's turn to answer.
He had no choice but to reply with his sword.
'I will embrace all skies. Even heavens beyond heaven—cheonoe cheon (天外天), a sky that gazes down upon skies themselves.'
Kwarung! Kwarururung!
The blue darkened in an instant.
Amid thunderous roars.
Dozens of lightning bolts scattered in all directions, crashing down on Cheon Muryang.
[You lack the qualifications for that.]
Cheon Muryang shook his head.
'You're not the one who decides qualifications. That's solely mine.'
Who was to judge qualifications?
Who was to set limits?
That was the one unique right granted only to himself.
Grip!
Cheon Muryang swung the Heavenly Light Sword.
The lightning split apart.
'If I say I'll embrace it, I will.'
It was greed.
Avidity.
But it had to be done.
Because Cheon Muryang wanted to grow stronger than anyone.
[We'll see about that.]
The sun rose in the sky.
Though it shouldn't have, the moon rose alongside it.
'Ah...'
Harmony of yin and yang.
The moon and sun, after all.
Had to float above the sky.
No matter if their times differed.
Yin and yang coexisted.
Fwoosh!
What was it?
His dantian grew feverishly hot.
The nature of the internal energy he'd cultivated began to slowly shift.
'The Heavenly Sun Divine Art...'
The Heavenly Sun Divine Art was the introductory technique every Cheon Clan warrior knew.
As its name implied, it symbolized the sun.
'It's changing.'
Yet now, under a sky bearing both moon and sun, the Heavenly Sun Divine Art encompassed it all.
The yang-heavy energy absorbed yin, achieving perfect balance.
Shrrr.
The massive elixir energy lodged within him began to melt away.
'It's balancing out.'
The Heavenly Sun Divine Art was a yang-focused technique.
Thus, he'd refined much yang essence, but relatively more yin remained, slowly disrupting the equilibrium.
The newly evolving Heavenly Sun Divine Art restored yin-yang balance.
Thud!
Thud thud!
His qi circulation accelerated.
Thanks to the yin essence melting, expanding his qi and blood.
Then, searing pain as if his five viscera and six bowels were burning assailed him.
'Must maintain consciousness...'
Fail, and he'd fall into qi deviation.
So Cheon Muryang desperately clung to the thread of his awareness.
A mere instant felt like an eternity.
"Hoo..."
Opening his eyes with ragged breaths, Cheon Muryang felt not exhaustion, but his entire body brimming with internal energy.
A refreshing sensation he'd never felt since reincarnating as Cheon Muryang.
"Did it work?"
The Heavenly Sun Divine Art had advanced.
The yang-skewed art had integrated yin energy, reaching perfect harmony.
"Now I finally understand why it's called a divine art."
The Heavenly Sun Divine Art had been incomplete.
That's why it could be perfected.
And this perfection was tailored solely to Cheon Muryang.
"The Heavenly Sun Divine Art must remain unfinished."
Only then could it be completed to fit the cultivator.
Though no one remembered that fact anymore.
"So advanced techniques never existed from the start."
The Heavenly Sun Divine Art was unfinished.
Thus, he'd assumed somewhere in the Heavenly Dragon Library lay advanced arts to fill its gaps.
Techniques with formulas the Heavenly Sun Divine Art lacked.
"It wasn't formulas."
But they weren't formulas.
This was an enlightenment that couldn't be transmitted as mere formulas.
Had it been possible, all those autobiographies would have coalesced into one martial arts manual.
"Systematized formulas captured only a tiny fraction."
Unfettered freedom wasn't always ideal.
Techniques had to be passed down generations to hold meaning.
Lest the lineage break at any moment.
"That's why they left behind their individual skies like this."
The ancestors must have recognized this issue.
Thus, the countless sky-autobiographies gathered here reflected their deliberations.
"And so the systematized Cheon Clan martial arts we know took shape and order."
A formalized sky.
It sacrificed freedom for rigidity, but allowed clear containment of one sky.
"That's the sky that forms the current Cheon Clan."
Only one sky.
That became the Cheon Clan's heaven.
Paradoxically, the clan that sought the freest sky ended up with just one.
"Which is why its limits were drawn..."
It was enough.
But having lost its freedom, the Cheon Clan's sky had relatively clear boundaries.
『One of the Ten Great Families of the World.』
A title of clear glory.
Among countless clans in the Central Plains martial world, it ranked in the top ten.
『But it's ambiguous for the Five Great Families.』
Opinions diverged from there.
『If picking the Three Great Families, the Cheon Clan has no spot.』
That was the Cheon Clan's reality.
Cheon Muryang realized its cause.
"Pathetic. A sky clan that's lost its sky. Tsk."
A wry smile escaped him at the irony.
"Mm..."
Cheon Muryang soon grimaced.
A foul stench wafted from somewhere.
"No way...?"
The source was himself.
Impurities expelled unconsciously while circulating the Heavenly Sun Divine Art.
But the volume and potency dwarfed anything before.
"Looks like... I have to leave before the day's out."
The contamination was concerning.
So Cheon Muryang tidied the books and stepped out of the Heavenly Dragon Library.
"Y-Young Master!"
Outside, as expected, Wol Yeong was waiting.
Her expression was peculiar.
"What? What's wrong?"
"Why are you coming out only now!"
"Only now?"
"Yes! You said you'd come out after two days! It's been ten days now."
"Ten days...?"
Cheon Muryang doubted his ears.
Ten days?
How had time flown by like that?
"Ten days? You sure?"
"Yes. Look at your clothes. You've been wearing them for ten days..."
Wol Yeong pinched her nose.
Even she, used to cleaning his room, was overwhelmed by the stench.
"Hurry before anyone sees!"
Good rumors about Cheon Muryang were finally circulating.
But a stink scandal now would douse them in cold water.
Wol Yeong warily scanned the surroundings as she led him away.
"Ten days..."
Cheon Muryang, being pulled along, still couldn't believe it.
"Come to think of it... am I hungry?"
Grrrowl.
His stomach rumbled.
He was starving.
Probably from the ten days.