WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
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◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈
Chapter 46: Chapter Five - Dragon-Phoenix Assembly (19)
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The scent of blood grew thicker.
The pulse became clearer.
The pressure that had weighed down his body until then had now transformed into a pleasant tremor.
He had only peeled back a single layer, yet this was enough.
Mok Ri-won felt his heart stir at the utterly intoxicating sensation.
Just one more layer.
No, perhaps just a little more.
He wanted to sink deeper into this feeling.
Mok Ri-won bit his lip until it bled.
‘...Get a hold of yourself.’
This was not a layer he had cast aside for killing.
It was merely a shell he had temporarily shed to decide who was superior.
What he wanted from this bout was proof that he was right.
To show Namgung Jin-cheon that his sword existed for Chivalry, not domination.
‘For that.’
He had to become the trial himself.
Mok Ri-won could not allow himself to wield his sword with killing intent in a sparring match.
‘Sword Dragon...’
He would apologize later.
He had provoked Namgung Jin-cheon to draw out his Killing Intent, so he would have to offer a proper apology.
Mok Ri-won looked at Namgung Jin-cheon.
Namgung Jin-cheon no longer swung his sword with the same indifferent ease as before.
Annoyingly, the instant he noticed the change, he began to fight more cautiously.
‘I don’t have much time.’
The longer he remained exposed to this sensation, the worse the aftereffects would become.
It would linger for longer, tormenting him all the while.
He had to settle this quickly.
“If you won’t come, I’ll go first.”
Mok Ri-won stepped forward.
Clang!
Their swords collided.
* * *
It was a change Namgung Jin-cheon could not understand.
Not a physical change, but one he sensed through instinct alone.
That made it all the more troubling.
‘His sword path has changed.’
It had become sharper and more precise.
No, it would be more accurate to say it had become fiercer.
Mok Ri-won’s sword shot out and withdrew in an instant.
As he had against Hyeon-gong, he pressed forward with power swords, then suddenly shifted into quick swords before using illusory swords to confuse the eye.
Every attack that followed was vicious.
That alone was not the problem.
There was another reason Namgung Jin-cheon had not gone on the offensive.
‘There’s no force behind his attacks.’
As though he were aiming for something, Mok Ri-won’s successive attacks only muddled his senses.
Even as he swung his sword, he exposed openings from time to time.
Caution was the right choice.
Yet Namgung Jin-cheon could not do that.
‘...Me?’
His pride told him otherwise.
The star that had always placed him above all others rejected the very idea of fearing an opponent’s bait.
His instincts told him only one thing.
Strike that opening and crush his enemy head-on.
Prove the overwhelming gap between them.
Namgung Jin-cheon did not bother resisting that voice.
‘Whatever trick he has, I only need to break it.’
With that thought, he thrust out his sword.
...It was a mistake.
* * *
In the audience seats surrounding the arena, Dang Hwa-seo stared blankly at the stage.
She was not the only one.
The arena, which had been roaring with cheers until moments earlier, fell silent.
Like people confronted with something they could not understand, everyone trembled in shock.
“What... is that?”
Hye-un muttered beside Dang Hwa-seo.
No one could answer.
No one present could understand what Mok Ri-won was doing.
Clang!
Namgung Jin-cheon’s descending sword was blocked.
By Mok Ri-won’s power sword that had been a quick sword.
He had not simply completed one move before connecting it to another.
If that were all, they would not have been so horrified.
“His sword... changed.”
Mok Ri-won had imbued his sword with a different nature before his swift strike had even finished.
He slowed the sword that had been cutting downward at tremendous speed until it nearly stopped, then swung it back upward.
In doing so, he gave it even greater power.
“...What kind of absurd move is that?”
Hye-un’s pupils trembled wildly.
That was a move that should not have been possible.
To reverse a sword’s direction mid-motion and give it even greater force was theoretically impossible.
Yet it was happening before her eyes. How could she possibly remain calm?
That was no mere unconventional trick.
Hye-un understood because she herself was a genius called the White Phoenix, a swordswoman destined to lead her generation.
The moment someone realized that a sword could change even while in motion, they would face the most terrible problem imaginable.
It was torture more cruel than anything a swordsman could endure.
Clang.
Namgung Jin-cheon’s sword was knocked aside limply.
This time, the sword that had been descending in a weighty sword strike suddenly shifted into an illusory sword.
“That...”
“Sword Dragon can’t block that.”
“...Why not?”
“Because he doesn’t know.”
Dang Hwa-seo frowned.
Hye-un did not spare her a glance as she continued.
“Because Sword Dragon doesn’t know when, how, or at what moment the sword will change. He can’t use his full strength.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it. If the swordsman facing you used a move like that, one that could change direction at any moment, could you throw a punch at that sword? Could you duck when it seemed to be cutting horizontally? Could you dodge sideways when it seemed to be cutting vertically? What if it changed direction at that very moment?”
Dang Hwa-seo stopped breathing.
Hye-un continued without pause.
“If that were all, it would almost be merciful. That sword changes more than its direction. Its speed, its weight, even its nature, all of it changes. And it gains even more power as it does. How are you supposed to thrust a sword into that? If an opening appears, you die immediately. How could you possibly do it?”
Hye-un’s voice grew heated.
There was even a trace of outrage in it, outrage at something so unfair.
No, she truly was outraged.
‘Something like that...’
Could not be surpassed.
No matter how hard one worked, no matter how desperately one yearned and struggled, one could never reach it.
It was a move that could only be performed through innate instinct and talent.
Emptiness and helplessness weighed down Hye-un’s body.
Before she knew it, her gaze had shifted to Namgung Jin-cheon.
‘It feels this overwhelming just watching...’
What must it feel like for the one facing it?
Hye-un could not even imagine.
* * *
Namgung Jin-cheon had ruled over every moment of his life.
The Sovereign Star that had accompanied him from the moment of his birth had made him that way.
His jade-blue eyes resembled the vast sky the Namgung Clan aspired to, and from the moment he was born, he had been the master of the Namgung Clan.
The martial talent that had descended with that star was so extraordinary that he had been victorious throughout his life.
That was why Namgung Jin-cheon had never been grateful for the rare spiritual medicines given to him.
They were rewards that naturally followed such astonishing talent.
He had never envied the masters who stood above him.
Within a few years, he would surpass them anyway.
The star of a ruler had shown him his path with meticulous certainty.
Namgung Jin-cheon had only needed to walk along that perfect blueprint.
Perhaps that was why he was so cold.
Perhaps that was why he had fallen into boredom.
Perhaps that was why he could not understand this phenomenon.
Clang!
His sword was knocked aside once more.
Namgung Jin-cheon encountered an emotion he had never felt in his entire life.
‘It didn’t work?’
It felt as though he could no longer see the path ahead.
As though he were looking at scenery he could never reach.
The Sovereign Star, which had always shown him his path so perfectly, had become a curse at this moment.
Even if he wanted to look away, he could not help but realize it.
What Mok Ri-won was doing was a form he could never imitate.
Clang!
The sounds of their swords clashed in discord.
As his mental image wavered, so did the tip of his sword.
‘Defeat?’
Defeat loomed before him.
At that moment, Namgung Jin-cheon felt indescribable despair and vertigo.
Only then did his past, when he had wandered in search of stimulation, begin to seem ridiculous.
His boredom had been the boredom of someone blessed beyond measure.
For the first time, Namgung Jin-cheon realized how fiercely he rejected defeat and failure.
Clang!
Even amid that realization, his arm moved.
It was desperation.
A frantic struggle not to lose.
Yet it was ultimately meaningless.
Clang!
Mok Ri-won’s sword had been forged through hardships Namgung Jin-cheon could never imagine.
Mok Ri-won had never been taught anything.
He had only repeated and explored the basics, again and again and again.
That was why Mok Ri-won thirsted for application.
This sword had been born at the end of that thirst.
Mok Ri-won dissected the only sword dance he knew.
He did not simply separate one form from another, nor did he merely divide the motions within a form.
He broke the movements themselves into fragments, splitting them into tens of thousands of possibilities.
Then he reassembled those scattered fragments into endless forms.
For more than ten years after first learning the sword, he continued that grueling practice without rest.
That was how he created this sword.
Clang!
The result was horrifying.
At the instant Mok Ri-won’s sword descended, it held tens of thousands of changes within it and asked his opponent a question.
Where would this sword go next?
It forced them to search endlessly for the answer, driving them into despair.
Mok Ri-won’s sword demanded an endless number of choices, none of which could be wrong even once.
Clang!
Namgung Jin-cheon looked into Mok Ri-won’s eyes.
Then he looked at his sword.
His thoughts had sharpened as far as they possibly could.
That instant had stretched close to infinity.
He was concentrating so intensely that Mok Ri-won’s sword seemed almost motionless.
Even so, Namgung Jin-cheon could not find an answer.
‘An illusory sword? A power sword? Or will it remain a quick sword?’
Even while Mok Ri-won’s sword seemed still, its possibilities spread out infinitely.
If he raised his sword to cut upward, that sword would bend and stab his waist.
If he drew his sword close to his body to block, that sword would target his lower body.
If he burst out with Qi Waves to seize the initiative, that sword would use the force to dart forward even faster.
Within that frozen time, Namgung Jin-cheon continued to think.
He continued choosing, knowing there would never be an end.
As the questions stretched on without limit, he gradually lost his bearings.
The conclusion that followed became clearer and clearer.
Incomprehensible.
Mok Ri-won’s sword had gone beyond the bounds of understanding.
Namgung Jin-cheon’s eyes darted toward Mok Ri-won.
For an instant, Mok Ri-won’s eyes seemed to carry a blood-red gleam.
A chill ran through him.
Goosebumps rose all over Namgung Jin-cheon’s body.
‘Ah...’
The strength left his hand without him realizing it.
Even then, Mok Ri-won’s sword shot toward him once again and demanded an answer.
This time, Namgung Jin-cheon chose the wrong one.
Clang!
His sword split in half.
The broken blade slowly rose into the air.
Sound became distant.
His vision narrowed.
‘...I lost.’
Only that fact remained clear.
There was a frog.
A frog that had shut itself inside a well, believing that well was the whole world.
One day, the frog named Namgung Jin-cheon saw a shadow cast over the mouth of the well.
He did not know what it was. He simply assumed it was part of the well where he reigned supreme and approached the shadow.
This was the result.
In his arrogance, he finally realized something.
Beyond the well he had believed was the whole world, an utterly savage snake lay in wait.
Swish.
Mok Ri-won’s sword stopped before Namgung Jin-cheon’s Adam’s apple.
[I, Iiiink Swooord!!! Wiiiins!!!]
Mok Ri-won smiled.
“I won.”
At the age of twenty-two, Namgung Jin-cheon learned defeat for the first time, far too late.
Footnotes:
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