Chapter 44: Azure Sky and Ninefold Heaven (8)

Why is the Sovereign Sword Form considered a higher martial art than the Sky-Vault Unfettered Sword?

Because the image of the “sovereign” that Namgung dreams of is a being higher than the sky itself.

But a human cannot climb above the sky.

So Namgung regards a “sovereign” as a human above humans, a superhuman who has leapt beyond the very track of mankind.

The Sovereign Sword Form is a martial art meant for such superhumans.

A martial art for the chosen few—those qualified to rule humans and stand above them.

It is a birthright, and a bloodline that continues.

It is nobility, and an inborn aptitude.

Namgung Seon had believed that all his life, too.

That he was born with the bloodline and the qualities of a sovereign.

The one who rules the secular world may be an emperor.

But the ones who rule the martial world—another world within these Nine Provinces—are them.

“...Let’s see it, then.”

Namgung Seon bit down on his lower lip, bitterly.

Outside the tent was loud.

It was because the emcee was introducing him and Cheon Soyak as if he were shouting at the whole world.

And when all those pleasantries ended—

A thunderous roar of applause could be heard.

It was time to go out.

*****

“You can win, right?”

Cheongak chuckled as he patted Soyak’s back, thump-thump.

When her slender body swayed, Cheonjeong flicked Cheongak on the forehead.

“You have to control your strength, Cheongak.”

“You just hit me without controlling yours!”

“You’re sturdy.”

Soyak straightened her posture and smoothed her clothes.

Then she took the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge she had been leaning nearby into her left hand.

“Yes, Head Senior.”

“Hm?”

“I can win.”

Unless something huge happened.

The Purple Firmament Pellet hadn’t helped her that much.

Even if you were an Apex expert, you didn’t just break through a wall because of a single pellet.

But if her inner power had increased, even a little...

That meant she had gained one more coin to spend in the final moment when she forced everything upward.

An opportunity, and a profit.

“Then, I’ll go.”

Soyak bowed her head with a fist-and-palm salute to Eunsong and the Head Seniors.

Then she turned and walked outside.

People’s applause and cheers.

The emcee’s loud, chanting voice.

And yet all of it felt distant.

Because Namgung Seon was already up on the Sparring Stage first.

“...The sovereign’s sky.”

A person’s presence did not necessarily scale in proportion to their martial attainment.

In that sense, Namgung Seon was a martial artist with a towering presence.

She still didn’t think she would lose, but...

‘I have to break him. No matter what.’

He couldn’t even defeat the Retired Clan Lord, yet he said he would drive a sword into the Sword Sovereign’s throat.

Ridiculous.

He couldn’t even become the strongest among his peers living in the same era—

So how could he face the Sword Sovereign, who was said to have cut down the Heavenly Demon and reached the Transformation Realm?

Soyak calmed her mind and stepped onto the Sparring Stage.

“So, Cheon Soyak. You’re here?”

“Yes. It’s good to see you again.”

“Yeah... I’ll show you, like I promised.”

Namgung Seon drew his sword.

A black-iron sword forged with a small amount of meteoric iron mixed in.

A treasured blade bestowed by the imperial family—one that was not easy to find even if you scoured the world.

“The sovereign’s sky.”

“I’m looking forward to it.”

Cheon Soyak drew her sword as well.

A pitch-black blade gleaming with brilliant five-colored radiance.

And across its center, like the Milky Way, the constellations of the Three Enclosures and Twenty-Eight Mansions.

The Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge.

Keeping it leveled at him, she opened her mouth.

In those empty, black eyes...

Stars shone.

“Be different.”

It was a clear provocation.

A provocation carrying unmistakable emotion.

Every spectator watching sprang to their feet and went wild.

Only one person—

Only Cheonjeong looked at Soyak with a bitter expression.

Because he knew that anger was for his sake.

She looked like an empty, cold, lonely child, but...

That was because she had lost something she truly loved.

Which meant she was, more than anyone, searching for a place to belong.

She was raging because her Head Senior—him—had been insulted.

He was grateful, and he was sorry.

But that was Cheonjeong’s business.

It wasn’t Namgung Seon’s.

Namgung Seon’s mouth twisted upward, as if being pried apart.

As his inner power swelled full, his eyes began to spit out a blue, frigid glare.

“Then of course. We begin.”

“Come.”

Who gives who a few moves.

They didn’t do that kind of empty etiquette.

From the start, the stronger one was Cheon Soyak.

And it was laughable to talk about seniority among martial artists when they were both teenagers.

BAM—!!

He stomped the ground, and Namgung Seon’s body shot forward.

So fast it looked like a long line drawn in midair.

A single strike with everything on the line.

Cheon Soyak was half a beat slower than that.

She hadn’t missed the timing.

Seizing Initiative from Behind, The Flexible Overcoming the Strong—those subtleties traced a lofty arc at her sword tip.

And then Namgung Seon’s sword, charging in like lightning, met Soyak’s Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge.

Met?

No, it wasn’t a collision.

Instead of a massive crash, what sounded out was the noise of sword tips slipping past each other, brushing by.

SHRRRRK—!

Sword tips drawing an elegant, curving trajectory like surging riverwater.

Namgung Seon’s first move was being pulled and bent by it.

‘...Ha!’

It was absurd.

With a heavy sword like that, you normally could never suppress it.

Even a Wudang prodigy who had mastered the Supreme Ultimate Sword couldn’t do such a thing.

His sword was dragged away with no answer.

And after the briefest instant, Namgung Seon’s sword tip struck the floor.

KRAAANG—!!!

Even though he hadn’t properly loaded it with inner power,

It was a blow strong enough to gouge the Sparring Stage floor.

The impact made both Soyak and Namgung Seon float lightly for a moment.

Through the debris of shattered flooring, they stared at each other’s hair whipping in the air.

They poured every drop of high-level focus into stretching the instant, capturing and analyzing each other.

This time, Cheon Soyak moved first.

Like a swirling vortex, the sword that had deflected Namgung Seon’s thrust continued its arc.

Her slender wrist twisted like an acrobat’s.

A flashing trajectory spread like butterfly wings...

And then, before she even landed, Soyak set her stance as if it were painted.

Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword, First Form.

Spring-Blooming Blossoms.

It surged up like flowers in full bloom greeting spring.

Spring-Blooming Blossoms fundamentally takes the shape of an upward slash.

Using The Flexible Overcoming the Strong to press Namgung Seon’s thrust down and pin it into the ground...

Then lightly letting the downward-pointed sword tip stretch back to complete the posture of the move.

Compared to that, Namgung Seon—

His sword tip was pointed down, yes, but power still remained in it.

He couldn’t redirect it instantly.

Black Plum Blossom carrying a distant plum fragrance covered all directions in a blink.

And the Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge, shining with brilliant Sword Light, rose in an indistinct arc like a thin crescent moon.

“...GHHH!!!”

Namgung Seon instinctively seized the hilt with both hands.

He pressed the end of the hilt down with his left hand, using his right as the main pivot.

The sword tip overcame inertia and force and sprang up—

He dragged it in close to his body and barely blocked Soyak’s attack.

But the price was brutal.

Namgung Seon’s body was flung backward at least as fast as he had charged in.

He snapped his mind back and drove his sword into the floor to avoid a ring-out.

“Ha...”

When their swords met, he had raised his own Sword Light, too.

But her purity and quality were beyond comparison.

If Cheon Soyak’s feet had been planted on the ground—

Even if he had driven his sword into the floor, he might not have avoided a ring-out.

Because their clash had happened in midair, Cheon Soyak was pushed back as well.

But she simply descended unhurriedly, just behind the gouged-out pit.

The crowd fell silent.

Then, all at once, a massive roar and shouting exploded.

With just that single exchange, it was obvious who stood on the higher rung.

Namgung Seon didn’t bother reading Namgung Hyeong’s face.

His father was talentless.

But he—he was the real thing, acknowledged by his grandfather the Sword Sovereign.

He couldn’t be crushed here.

At the very least...

Yeah. At the very least, he had to make it even.

“Yeah, good. So that’s the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword.”

Namgung Seon raised his sword high.

A Single Stroke pointing at the sky.

Arrogance, as if with only the sword tip he could hold and wield the entire heavens.

The Sky-Vault Unfettered Sword’s Banner-Form.

“This is the weight of the azure sky.”

Sky-Vault Unfettered Sword, First Form.

Jade Sky Presses the Crown.

He gripped the hilt hard with both hands and raised his momentum.

But the distance was far, and Namgung Seon was not a Transcendent Apex expert who had reached the realm of Sword Qi.

Soyak saw through his calculation.

‘...If he isn’t afraid, he’s telling me to come.’

This was a place where a sect measured its pride against another sect’s pride.

If she didn’t go, it would look like she was declaring she couldn’t break that.

She didn’t care about a sect’s pride, but...

She had already said it.

Between the Ninefold Heaven and the azure sky, which one was higher.

“I’ll take that weight.”

Cheon Soyak’s foot lightly pushed off the floor.

There was no huge stomp.

But each step carried the subtlety of Hidden Fragrance Drift—

And the way she crossed the Sparring Stage looked like a qilin soaring while cleaving clouds.

At that distant acceleration, Sword Light became a single beam.

At its end, Soyak willingly drove her sword forward.

The exact opposite of before, the same composition.

But Soyak had a calculation.