Chapter – 63
“I’ll go on ahead.”
At Kang Yu’s words, Mu Seong-daesa and Byeok Yeong-ja nodded.
They had already confirmed the child’s level of qinggong back at Hwacheongji.
“Proceed.”
After obtaining permission even from Hyeonjae, Kang Yu vanished forward in an instant.
Facing the wind, his expression was tense.
He was confident in running—but the Central Plains beyond the village were far too vast.
Whether it was a moment like now, rushing to aid his companions, or matters of his true profession as a courier—
He desperately needed a way to move far faster than he could now.
“For now.”
Kang Yu increased his speed.
The clouds in the sky split apart as if torn.
“Has something gone wrong with his body?”
Hwangbo Sung, bearer of the title Ilwangmujeon (One Advance, No Retreat), let out a dry breath.
The gap between himself and the fiend racing ahead continued to widen.
Jinhwa also checked behind them.
The Ten Lords, once no larger than fingernails, had shrunk into distant dots.
Beyond them, the Imperial City blazed bright as day beneath countless torches.
Jinhwa turned his gaze forward again.
—How did you prepare for this?
—That is…
—It was thanks to Vice Leader Wi’s subordinates. A scheme devised by a child named Changcheon Shinryong, whose fame is currently rising.
“……”
The assassination of the Emperor had already failed.
And the internal injuries Jinhwa had suffered from Kang Yu’s Ihwajeopoksingong at Namgung Clan had resurfaced.
Still, they had dealt with one obstacle along the way—so this was not the worst outcome.
Withdraw here, and plan for the next move…
“…!”
A massive sword-shaped manifestation of intent surged toward Jinhwa’s eyes.
It came from roughly a hundred zhang away.
Jinhwa halted his movement in alarm.
Ice shards erupted from the spot he had occupied.
His brow furrowed.
“The Emperor’s Sword Form?”
Beyond the fissure cleaved into the ground stood a man blocking the path.
The Sword Emperor, Namgung Cheon.
“We meet again.”
“……”
At the same time, Wi Yeon, Paeng Jingwan, and Hwangbo Sung closed in from all sides, surrounding Jinhwa.
East and west.
North and south.
Once more—four of the Ten Lords.
“……”
Jinhwa’s breathing sank low.
The thirty thousand pyeong of land holding five hundred years of Namgung Clan history had become ruins.
Monstrous halls reduced to skeletal frames, shattered debris scattered everywhere.
Fallen rocks lay strewn about.
Mount Cheonju, all the way to the entrance of Naksan, was burned pitch-black.
Everything had burned. Everything had collapsed.
Countless laborers moved through the ruins, but restoring the clan’s former appearance would take no small amount of time.
Standing atop the mountain with Wi Yeon, Namgung Cheon let out a bitter smile.
“I’m sorry. That’s why I didn’t respond by letter. I truly couldn’t leave my post.”
Wi Yeon remained silent.
He had intended to force Namgung Cheon to come if necessary.
But the sight before his eyes would not allow it.
“I was stubborn for no reason. I didn’t expect it to be this severe…”
Wi Yeon turned away regretfully.
“Please don’t trouble yourself further. Whether the Emperor’s assassination would even occur was uncertain. Even Officer Kang couldn’t predict every variable.”
“Who?”
Namgung Cheon, who had been walking downhill first since receiving the letter, stopped short.
It was the moment Kang Yu’s name was spoken.
“Prepare the palanquin.”
He hadn’t asked anything.
“I’m going.”
“……”
With the fissure created by the Emperor’s Sword Form between them, Namgung Cheon and Jinhwa faced one another.
Namgung Cheon had appeared to block the escape route, just in case.
“We meet again.”
“……”
Four months had passed since Namgung Cheon had been kidnapped through Jinhwa’s feigned incompetence—the Stratagem of Pretending to be Foolish Without Being Mad.
Only now did he face the fiend again.
“I won’t be careless this time.”
“……”
Jinhwa’s eyes flicked between Namgung Cheon ahead, and left, right, and behind.
Four Ten Lords.
In terms of numbers, nothing had changed—but one factor had.
And his concern manifested immediately.
“We must strike first, before he uses that strange ability.”
Namgung Cheon’s body blurred.
“Passing is the minimum requirement.”
“…!”
The combined assault of the Ten Lords began.
Jinhwa was immediately driven on the defensive.
Boom—!
Blocking Paeng Jingwan’s Honwondo, Jinhwa was pushed back several steps.
There was no time to catch his breath.
Hwangbo Sung’s fist-kick bored straight toward his chest.
“…!”
He barely deflected it—but Wi Yeon’s swift sword chased his chin.
As he retreated and knocked away the blade, Namgung Cheon’s sword severed the trajectory itself.
“!”
Facing four Ten Lords alone, tears began appearing in Jinhwa’s robes.
A storm of supreme martial techniques poured down upon him.
Among them, Namgung Cheon and Wi Yeon were the greatest threats.
Unlike Paeng Jingwan and Hwangbo Sung, whose coordination faltered at times, those two moved as one.
This was not the result of a day or two.
They had clearly fought together for many years.
“Brother Namgung!”
Houyi Shoots the Sun struck in from the west.
At the same time, a massive sword-intent cleaved down from the east with the force to split heaven and earth.
On the left: the ultimate swift sword of the Diancang Sect—Houyi Shoots the Sun.
On the right: the pinnacle of the Emperor’s Sword Form, passed only to the Namgung Clan Head.
“Damn it.”
Tatatang—!
Yielding defense to the weaker Houyi Shoots the Sun, Jinhwa rebounded far away.
From beneath his torn black robe, his right arm—utterly mangled—was revealed.
“……”
Despite the results, none of the Ten Lords rejoiced.
The enemy was alone.
They were four.
And he even appeared to be suffering internal injuries.
Yet he had endured over a hundred exchanges of their combined assault.
Gulp.
Hwangbo Sung swallowed.
Was such martial prowess even possible for a human?
Had he not witnessed it today, he would never have believed it.
A being beyond the heavens.
Hwangbo Sung’s gaze hardened.
『We must kill him. No matter the cost.』
Fortunately, the fiend had injured the hand holding his sword.
If there was a chance—it was now.
As Hwangbo Sung transmitted the order and the combined assault was about to resume—
“I apologize.”
“What?”
The enemy suddenly spoke words no one expected.
The following action was simple—yet it sent chills down the Ten Lords’ spines.
“So the Ten Lords are truly ten.”
The broken sword moved—from the comparatively soft right palm to the calloused left.
From right hand to left.
The four froze in shock.
“L-Left-handed sword…!”
They cried out in disbelief.
He had been fighting all this time with his non-dominant hand.
Then a despairing voice fell upon them.
“My internal injuries have settled.”
“…!”
From the blade Musang now held in his left hand, a river of sword energy rose five ja tall.
“I am vengeance.”
Jinhwa’s body blurred.
“The grand design shall now begin.”
“Master!”
Wi Yeon’s scream rang across the snow-covered wilderness.
“!”
A thirty-zhang cloud of snow erupted across the empty white plain.
At the edge of the frozen lake—
Paeng Jingwan, forcing himself upright with his Honwondo, spewed blood.
“Puh.”
“Master…”
Namgung Cheon glanced back briefly, gritting his teeth.
When he turned forward again, disbelief filled his eyes.
A monster.
With his true hand restored, the fiend’s sword was invincible.
Infinitely precise.
Infinitely fast.
Infinitely powerful.
The moment when they had briefly pressured him now felt like a dream.
In truth, during his kidnapping in Anhui, Jinhwa had faced the combined assault of the Huang Clan Master of Sandong.
That man had barely reached the threshold of Transcendence.
But this time, there were four masters who had reached the extreme pinnacle.
When they had departed for the capital at Wi Yeon’s proposal, Namgung Cheon had believed their force more than sufficient to capture the fiend.
Yet they had already lost their field commander, Maeng Wi.
And once the fiend’s sword returned to its rightful hand, they could not touch even a hair on his body.
They had misjudged.
It would take ten Ten Lords.
Five were not enough.
『Lord Hwangbo.』
The only saving grace was that the fiend still wasn’t using that mysterious ability.
Though in another sense, that fact was even more terrifying—
It seemed he had not fully recovered from his internal injuries, despite his words.
『I will buy time.』
Namgung Cheon sent a transmission to Hwangbo Sung.
The only remaining path was sacrificing flesh to sever bone.
The martial art contained within Hwangbo Sung’s epithet—Ilwangmujeon—possessed the greatest single-strike destructive power among the Ten Lords.
If they could merely buy time for its preparation—
Even the monster before them would not escape unscathed.
『I will prepare.』
Understanding Namgung Cheon’s intent, Hwangbo Sung twisted his stance.
His thighs bulged.
The foot he planted shattered the frozen lake beneath.
The opening diversion was Wi Yeon.
He charged Jinhwa, scattering extreme swift sword strikes across his vision.
Facing Houyi Shoots the Sun once more, Jinhwa’s expression remained calm.
“That which failed before—do you think it will succeed now?”
Even at full strength, Jinhwa had countered it with ease.
With the shoulder injured, the attack was no longer swift.
Jinhwa’s blade pierced toward Wi Yeon faster than before.
This time—it was his nape.
His eyes were cold.
“The Emperor’s Sword Form’s turn?”
Until now, the Emperor’s Sword Form had filled the gaps of Houyi Shoots the Sun.
A familiar sequence.
But Houyi Shoots the Sun had lost its speed.
And it had exposed enough time for its master’s neck to be severed.
As Jinhwa moved to finish Wi Yeon and retreat—
A massive sword afterimage cleaved through Wi Yeon’s body itself.
“…!”
Jinhwa’s brow twitched.
Sacrificing flesh to sever bone—
A tactic fit for demonic riffraff scraping the bottom.
If he cut down the Four-Finger Heaven Sword here, he himself would be split in half.
Jinhwa withdrew his blade.
As he retreated, a flash of light surged in.
“!”
Hwangbo Sung’s secret art.
Ilwangmujeon.
A fist condensed with extreme qi struck toward Jinhwa’s flank.
Victory seized.
Hwangbo Sung’s eyes blazed.
“This ends—”
Then—
Crunch.
The imperial aura crushed down upon Hwangbo Sung just as his energy reached Jinhwa.
“No…”
His severed head flew skyward.
Blood droplets scattered across the white snow.
Drip. Drip.
“Q-Quan Emperor…”
Amid the falling rain of blood, Jinhwa’s gaze sank coldly.
“Do those called Ten Lords not even understand basic feints?”
“……”
Feigning deafness and muteness.
Just as the phrase implied, he had deliberately pretended to be unable to use his ability.
A trick even street thugs employed.
They had lost unity of mind and qi in the face of overwhelming strength.
Thus, as white mist rose once more between Namgung Cheon and Wi Yeon—
Jinhwa walked without hesitation toward Wi Yeon, who had been flung in the opposite direction.
“What are you waiting for?”
They must have realized the gap.
Had they fled immediately, there would have been no further losses.
Jinhwa arrived before Wi Yeon.
“Were you waiting for a child?”
He seized Wi Yeon’s disheveled hair.
The ruined face was dragged upward.
“Ghk…”
Jinhwa met his eyes.
“Even if he comes, nothing will change. Even with our sect’s qinggong, the distance between the capital and Seomseo takes two days.”
The broken blade touched Wi Yeon’s chin.
“Foolish—”
Heat warmed Jinhwa’s back.
“!”
The hundred-zhang-wide lake was engulfed in black flames.
