The Heaven-Slaying Sword - Chapter 59

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Order

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◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈

Chapter 59: Chapter Seven - Murim Alliance, Founding (2)

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Mount Wudang, in northern Hubei Province.

One of the Nine Great Sects of the White Path, the Wudang Sect, stood there.

Somewhere on that mountain, where Daoists continued their training amid tranquil silence, Taeheo Jin-in, the current sect leader, asked the young man before them.

“Are you truly not going?”

“Yes. I wish to remain at Wudang.”

The one bowing before them was none other than Immortal Dragon Hyeon-gong.

Taeheo Jin-in let out a deep sigh of regret.

“I hear all the other Dragons and Phoenixes have headed for the Martial Alliance... No, I should not force you.”

With a bitter smile, Taeheo Jin-in shook their head.

It would not be right to pressure a child who wished to remain at Wudang.

There was another reason as well.

“Ha ha. With so little worldly ambition, you truly are a Daoist through and through.”

While the other Dragons and Phoenixes pursued honor, Hyeon-gong remained focused on cultivating the Dao. To Taeheo Jin-in, it was an immensely pleasing sight.

Hyeon-gong simply smiled.

Then a thought crossed his mind.

‘Is there any need to restrict my movements?’

Having lived his whole life as a spy, he was confident in his ability to deceive others.

Even so, the Martial Alliance had too many eyes.

Hyeon-gong saw no need to enter the Martial Alliance while abandoning the foundation he had already built.

‘In any case...’

He was not the only one who had infiltrated the White Path Martial World. He could leave matters there to someone else.

* * *

The founding of the Dragon Phoenix Unit.

It was news that would undoubtedly cause great ripples throughout the Martial World and bring hope to its current troubled state.

But that was another matter.

“Establishing a new unit will not be easy.”

The Martial Alliance was hardly some small local sect.

As such a vast organization, creating a new unit naturally required extensive preparations.

Barracks for them to stay in, buildings where they could live, and training grounds for their practice.

Simply giving them an available space would not be enough.

Everyone joining the Dragon Phoenix Unit, aside from Mok Ri-won, belonged to a prestigious faction.

From the Martial Alliance’s perspective, assigning such people some ordinary hall would damage its dignity.

“That sounds difficult...”

Mok Ri-won tilted his head and furrowed his fine brows.

He could train perfectly well on bare dirt and sleep anywhere with a roof over his head, so he could not understand why they cared so much about appearances.

Dang Hwa-seo did not bother explaining further.

Unless he experienced such things for himself, it would be difficult for him to understand the importance of status and prestige.

“In any case, we will be staying in this hall for the time being.”

“What are we to do in the meantime?”

“Nothing in particular. Ah, that’s right.”

Dang Hwa-seo raised her brows as though she had just remembered something.

“Would you like to visit the Alliance’s library?”

“The library?”

“The library that holds the secret martial manuals granted to Martial Alliance martial artists. Young Hero Mok, you said you were curious about it.”

Mok Ri-won’s eyes lit up.

“I can go?!”

“Of course. You are officially a Martial Alliance martial artist now.”

“I want to go!”

Mok Ri-won sprang to his feet.

His liveliness had fully returned, and Dang Hwa-seo could only smile happily.

* * *

Dang Hwa-seo stopped Mok Ri-won before the library.

“I have other matters to attend to, so you must wait quietly, all right?”

“I understand!”

Mok Ri-won could barely keep still with excitement as he turned toward the library.

Dang Hwa-seo suddenly felt a needless worry rise in her chest.

“Young Hero Mok, if someone you do not know tells you to follow them...”

“I should say that someone is waiting for me!”

“...Yes.”

She wanted to stay with him, but there was much for Dang Hwa-seo to do before the unit was founded.

Hoping nothing would happen, she turned away and left Mok Ri-won behind.

Only then did Mok Ri-won enter the library alone.

He smiled.

‘It smells like books.’

The musty scent of old volumes seeped into his lungs the moment he entered.

For some reason, the scent and atmosphere calmed him. Mok Ri-won smiled softly as he looked around the library.

‘The Alliance’s secret martial manuals...’

There were so many kinds.

From Three Powers Swordsmanship and breathing methods available even in the marketplace, to secret manuals from small sects, and even manuals on the Alliance’s combined-strike formations that could not be found elsewhere.

Ordinarily, some manuals could not be read immediately upon joining the Alliance, but Mok Ri-won’s Dragon byname gave him the right to peruse even those.

After browsing the library for a long while, Mok Ri-won pulled out and opened a single manual.

It was a sword manual called Jade Thunder Quaking Sword.

‘I need to learn about as many sword arts as possible.’

Mok Ri-won was not arrogant.

He also had a strong desire to improve.

And he now had a reason to become stronger.

Fist Demon Pae Ung-chu, whose name he had finally learned.

To face him properly, Mok Ri-won felt that the same training methods as before would not be enough.

‘I must master everything I can master. I must absorb everything I can into my sword.’

Mok Ri-won never wanted to suffer such a miserable defeat again.

Rustle.

A page turned.

For a very long time afterward, Mok Ri-won pored over the secret martial manuals in the library, forming sword formulas in his mind.

* * *

Late at night, at the training ground temporarily assigned to the Dragon Phoenix Unit, Mok Ri-won drew his sword.

‘There was a harvest.’

No, more precisely, he was about to reap its fruits.

Mok Ri-won moved as he recalled the secret martial manuals he had read throughout the day.

He was dismantling their forms.

‘I will take only what I need. Then I will weave those parts into a new sword.’

It was an arrogant thought.

Had it been anyone other than Mok Ri-won, people surely would have called it that.

Naturally.

What Mok Ri-won was doing was creating a martial art.

He was attempting to become a grandmaster of a martial art.

Yet he was the Heavenly Slaughter Star.

One of the greatest martial talents ever born upon this land.

His aptitude as a grandmaster was more than sufficient.

‘As Seven Meteor Swords reaches its later forms, it clearly takes on the shape of a qi-force technique.’

He could not rely on Seven Meteor Swords in every fight.

Even in his battle against the Fist Demon, reckless use of qi-force techniques had drained his Inner power.

‘I need martial arts that can produce power through forms alone.’

Mok Ri-won’s sword descended.

Then its path changed, sweeping sideways.

Moving at an extremely slow pace, his sword was a rough patchwork of the sword arts he had learned that day.

There was an unavoidable awkwardness to it, but as the night deepened, the sword forms gradually became more natural and took on subtle, profound principles.

‘Remove and refine. Fit together the awkwardness between forms as my senses guide me.’

This was not a sword meant to be passed on.

It was a sword Mok Ri-won was creating solely for himself.

As such, he had no need to worry about how difficult it would be to learn or whether it could be taught to others.

‘A sword in the form most suited to me.’

The sword he could wield best.

‘More variables.’

A sword whose opponent could never grow accustomed to its forms.

‘Therefore, I will never use the same sword form twice.’

Mok Ri-won gave a name to the sword he was building.

‘Ten-Thousand Linking Principle Sword.’

A sword that linked ten thousand sword forms to create one principle.

Only a little over ten sword forms were currently woven into it, but Mok Ri-won intended to one day meld ten thousand forms within it.

Night deepened over the Martial Alliance.

* * *

About three more weeks passed at the Alliance.

Mok Ri-won had been training relentlessly day after day to complete his new sword, but he finally went outside for the first time in a while.

“They are arriving today!”

Today was the day they would welcome the others they had met at the Dragon Phoenix Gathering.

Dang Hwa-seo nodded.

“Yes. I heard Fist Dragon and Sword Dragon are coming together, while White Phoenix is arriving separately.”

“White Phoenix is coming alone?”

“Their locations are in completely opposite directions.”

Mok Ri-won finally understood.

Sichuan, where the Emei Sect was located, lay west of Hubei, while the Shaolin Sect and Anhui lay to the east. There was no reason for White Phoenix to travel all the way there before turning back.

“Then...”

Who would arrive first?

The moment Mok Ri-won had that thought, a figure in the distance waved with a broad smile.

Dang Hwa-seo clicked her tongue.

“...White Phoenix arrived first.”

The woman in pure white approaching them was White Phoenix Hye-un.

She looked remarkably refreshed, as though something good had happened on the road, as she walked toward them.

“It has been a while.”

“Good to see you!”

“Have you been well too, Benefactor Mok? Goodness, you have become even prettier.”

As Hye-un covered her mouth and spoke, Mok Ri-won flinched.

He wondered why she was suddenly acting so familiar.

Naturally, Mok Ri-won ended up hiding behind Dang Hwa-seo’s back, and Hye-un burst out laughing.

“I will not eat you. I will not. On the way here, I already...”

Hye-un, who had been speaking excitedly, suddenly closed her mouth.

She looked around, then smiled meaningfully.

“...Anyway, that’s that.”

Mok Ri-won swallowed hard.

Dang Hwa-seo stepped on his foot with her heel.

Jegal San pressed his lips tightly together.

White Phoenix was unmarried and promiscuous, and he did not particularly like her.

“...Brother Namgung is late.”

He said it because he thought Namgung Jin-cheon’s furious expression upon seeing Mok Ri-won would be more entertaining.

Perhaps the heavens granted his wish.

Not long afterward, a monk and a refined young man with striking jade-blue eyes approached from afar.

Jegal San’s face brightened at their arrival.

“Monk! Brother Namgung! Over here!”

Their reactions could not have been more different.

The instant Il-un saw Jegal San, he flinched and offered an awkward smile. Namgung Jin-cheon did not spare Jegal San a glance, only glaring at Mok Ri-won.

Mok Ri-won tilted his head at Namgung Jin-cheon’s attitude, then smiled and greeted him.

“It has been a while! Have you been well?”

Mok Ri-won bore no ill will toward Namgung Jin-cheon.

Whatever else he might be, Namgung Jin-cheon was a fellow martial artist sincere about swordsmanship. The last time they met, he had also seemed to be trying to consider more than martial strength alone, so Mok Ri-won wished to build a friendship with him.

“Have I been well...”

Namgung Jin-cheon muttered, then continued with a blank expression.

“Yes. I have been well.”

He did not shrink back in the slightest.

Instead, his competitive spirit burned fiercely.

This was not the right setting, though.

Namgung Jin-cheon wanted to challenge Mok Ri-won to a martial arts match immediately, but he was not foolish enough to become so consumed by that feeling that he forgot what needed to be done.

He pushed through the other Dragons and Phoenixes and headed toward the Alliance.

“Follow me. We must report in first.”

“He speaks as though he is the Division Leader already,” Hye-un whispered to Dang Hwa-seo.

Dang Hwa-seo nodded before she could stop herself.

Having heard them, Namgung Jin-cheon asked as though they had said something obvious.

“Is it not only natural that I would be the Division Leader?”

Everyone there froze at his sheer arrogance.

Only Mok Ri-won clenched his fists in indignation and shouted.

“W-What are you saying! I will be the Division Leader!”

Mok Ri-won had only one reason for wanting the post.

It would be cool.

Taut tension rose between the two.