Chapter 182: Adversary (1)

Cheon Soyak was not the only one to emerge from closed-door training.

Around the same time, another person also ended three years of seclusion and returned to the world.

Namgung Seon.

At last, he had broken through the wall of Apex and reached Transcendent Apex.

And that was not all.

He stood just short of the Transformation Realm.

In only three years, he had advanced all the way to the very end of Transcendent Apex.

A genius in every sense of the word.

A martial artist who, at the age of twenty, already had the Transformation Realm before his eyes.

Of course, the wall of the Transformation Realm was no trivial obstacle. Plenty of martial artists trained until old age and death without ever crossing it...

But no one would say such a thing to a prodigious young man who, at only twenty, could already feel that wall for himself.

Not even his own father.

“...You’ve changed quite a bit.”

“Yes, Family Head.”

Namgung Seon had gone from seventeen to twenty, and even his build had changed considerably.

The boyish youthfulness was gone.

Only the young man Namgung Seon remained.

“Did you make progress?”

“I am one step away from the Transformation Realm.”

“...You understand just how long that single step can be, don’t you?”

“I can feel it.”

At those words, Namgung Hyeong gave a bitter smile.

It was a difficulty he himself had never even come close enough to feel.

In the end, his son had left him far behind at the age of twenty.

Namgung Hyeong had been gifted as well.

His talent had stood far above that of ordinary men.

But in the eyes of Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak—the number one martial artist under heaven, Alliance Leader, and the man who reigned over the One Sovereign, Three Emperors, and Seven Lords—it had not been enough.

Not even close.

Namgung Hyeong did not resent his father, the Sword Sovereign.

He was the one who had lacked talent.

And Namgung Ak had never taken away anything that rightfully belonged to Namgung Hyeong merely because his talent fell short.

That was why Namgung Hyeong had been allowed to retain the position of Family Head all these years.

Even so, the human heart naturally longed for what it did not possess.

That longing was called jealousy.

Neither parents nor children were exempt from becoming its target.

But Namgung Hyeong was not so lacking in character that he would show it openly.

“Good. So long as you understand. The Grand Family Head will be pleased. Go see him.”

“Yes.”

“Ah, one more thing. Do you think you can win now?”

Namgung Seon stopped dead the instant he heard the final question.

Then he turned back toward his father.

“...You mean Cheon Soyak?”

“Yes.”

“...I think I can at least cross swords with her now. Surely she hasn’t reached the Transformation Realm at seventeen.”

Namgung Hyeong nodded.

Facing the wall of the Transformation Realm at twenty was already a degree of genius that defied common sense.

No matter how extraordinary that girl’s comprehension might be...

Surely she could not have reached the Transformation Realm before even turning twenty.

“Then I’ll go see Grandfather.”

“Go on.”

*****

The pavilion where the Grand Family Head stayed was not particularly large.

That was only natural, since Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak spent most of his time at the Martial Alliance.

But now, the Sword Sovereign had returned to the household.

For no other reason than to witness the end of Namgung Seon’s closed-door training.

Knock, knock, knock.

Namgung Seon took hold of the door and knocked.

A deep voice, carrying the faint weight of internal energy, came from within.

“Enter.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

When he opened the door, the Sword Sovereign was seated on a chair.

Namgung Seon gave a cupped-fist salute and only crossed the threshold after the Sword Sovereign acknowledged it.

Namgung Ak gave his grandson a single glance.

Then he smiled.

“You’ve reached the wall of the Transformation Realm.”

“Yes.”

“Transcendent Apex—and already fully matured within the realm.”

He was pleased.

His grandson was confronting the wall of the Transformation Realm at the age of twenty.

Even he had not achieved that much at the same age.

When had he himself reached the end of Transcendent Apex?

A little past thirty.

Around then.

Even at the time, people had called him a genius...

And anyone who reached the mature heights of Transcendent Apex in their early thirties deserved to be called one.

“While you were in seclusion, they say Mount Hua produced another Transformation Realm master.”

“...Surely not.”

“If you’re worried about that little girl, no. Her Master reached the Transformation Realm. At thirty-three.”

“Thirty-three...”

The Sword Sovereign nodded.

That was around the same age at which Namgung Ak himself, in his younger days, had reached the mature heights of Transcendent Apex.

Yet someone else had already stepped onto the path of the Transformation Realm at that age.

“You can do it sooner.”

The Sword Sovereign looked straight at Namgung Seon as he stated it with certainty.

Those words carried a different weight from anything Namgung Hyeong could have said.

Unlike Namgung Hyeong, who was only at the middle stage of Transcendent Apex...

The Sword Sovereign had reached the very end of the Transformation Realm, and there were even rumors that he had already stepped into the early stage of the Mysterious Realm.

To him, every stage of the Transformation Realm was merely faded ground he had crossed long ago.

Few people in the world possessed as much experience in martial theory as he did.

And this was what such a man was telling him.

You can shatter that towering wall of the Transformation Realm and reach the distant heights beyond it.

“...Thank you.”

“There is nothing to thank me for. That is simply the talent and ability you were born with.”

“Isn’t being born with this bloodline something worth thanking you for as well?”

Namgung Ak raised an eyebrow at Namgung Seon’s reply.

Then he gave a quiet snort of amusement.

“So now you’re even joking with this old grandfather of yours.”

He did not look angry.

If anything, he seemed entertained.

But then the Sword Sovereign slowly rose from his seat...

and took down the treasured sword hanging behind him.

“Come outside.”

“...Grandfather?”

“Do you think I’m going to kill you? From today onward, simply understand that I am your master.”

Namgung Seon’s face went blue, then drained completely white.

It was something he should have been grateful for.

An opportunity others could not obtain even by offering ten thousand gold pieces...

But if he were being truthful, he was afraid.

“...Do you mean that?”

“Do you dislike the idea?”

“No, it’s not that I dislike it, but...”

Namgung Ak stared at him.

Namgung Seon let out a deep sigh and admitted the truth.

“...I’m afraid.”

“What is there to fear? I have no intention of killing you, nor of injuring you.”

“I know, but even so... ordinarily, the mere sight of you holding a sword is frightening enough, Grandfather...”

At his mournful complaint, the Sword Sovereign chuckled.

Then he pointed the scabbard at Namgung Seon.

It was unmistakably a scabbard.

And yet Namgung Seon felt as though a cold, naked blade had just pierced straight through the space between his brows.

“...Hup.”

“That tension is precisely what I intend to instill in you. Because you must surpass even me.”

He was saying that he intended to make Namgung Seon the next number one martial artist under heaven.

And that...

he intended to do so before his own death.

Namgung Seon slowly nodded in acceptance of the Sword Sovereign’s resolve.

“Now that you’ve emerged from seclusion, it is time to show the world what you have accomplished. We will hold the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.”

“...Then I’ll see that girl again.”

“You mean the child from Mount Hua?”

“Yes.”

Cheon Soyak.

Neither of them needed to say the three syllables of her name to know who he meant.

Namgung Seon half-closed his eyes and recalled his defeat three years ago.

His Boundless Azure Sky Sword had been crushed beneath Soyak’s Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword.

It had been...

an utterly clean defeat, impossible to dispute.

And one he could never forget.

“That is why I am holding it.”

“...Is that so?”

“Even that girl could not have crossed the wall of the Transformation Realm in only three years. At most, her dazzling talent might have carried her to the mature heights of Transcendent Apex. If so, the two of you are equals. And I have never once believed the Namgung sword inferior to Mount Hua’s.”

It was an arrogant thing to say.

But it was also something only he could say, because he himself had proved it.

Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak was the man who had defeated the Mount Hua Sword Emperor and risen to become the number one martial artist under heaven.

If two martial artists possessed equal insight and stood at the same realm...

then the quantity of their internal energy and the caliber of the martial arts they had learned would decide the outcome.

As far as internal energy was concerned, Namgung Seon had never once thought himself inferior to Soyak.

He had lived longer than she had.

And given the difference in their standing, he had naturally been supplied with far more spirit medicine, almost as casually as breathing.

She was, at best, a promising talent of Mount Hua—and before that, merely a servant girl.

Namgung Seon was not.

The caliber of their martial arts was no different.

The superiority of the Namgung sword had been proven when the Sword Sovereign defeated the Mount Hua Sword Emperor.

The fact that his own Boundless Azure Sky Sword had lost to Soyak’s Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword...

had simply been an unfortunate result of his inferior realm and skill at the time.

But that was no longer the case.

No matter how much of a genius that girl might be.

Even if she were something beyond the bounds of ordinary humanity...

there was no way she could have reached the Transformation Realm in her late teens.

It was a reasonable judgment.

An obvious conclusion.

And yet, at the very moment they reached that conclusion...

Cheon Soyak was cleaving Flame-Saber Lord Ak Jupae’s upper body in two.