Chapter 213: Moving in the Shadows (1)

Every great event in the world has its signs and portents.

After all, nothing happens without a cause.

And great consequences usually have equally great causes.

In that sense, the birth of a new Transformation Realm master was undoubtedly a momentous event.

Momentous enough to set another great event in motion.

But Soyak was not someone who could read the workings of heavenly fate.

That was a gift last glimpsed in the distant past, in the legendary Sleeping Dragon.

And so, at present, Soyak could do nothing but stare blankly up at the sky.

Tang Uwon sat beside her, muttering to himself as he waited for Cheongak to wake up.

“So this year's Dragon-Phoenix Gathering is practically meaningless...”

“I suppose it is.”

Ordinarily, the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering produced one champion and several other young talents who earned reputations nearly as impressive.

This time, however, the duel between two people might overshadow everyone else's achievements.

Tang Uwon pressed his lips together, lost in thought.

He, too, had come to participate in the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering as a representative of the Sichuan Tang Family.

His elder brother, Tang Gukwon, the family's eldest son and designated heir, had been unable to attend because the Gathering happened to coincide with his closed-door training.

But the difference between their abilities was only about one form.

In the end, even my brother couldn't advance beyond the early stage of Transcendent Apex, so he chose to enter closed-door training.

A gifted young man of twenty-one, struggling to advance beyond the early stage of Transcendent Apex.

That was Tang Gukwon, the heir to his family.

And Tang Uwon himself had reached the early stage of Transcendent Apex at eighteen...

If anything, he was demonstrating to the Tang Family that he might be growing even faster than his elder brother.

Of course, the difference between them was marginal.

Everyone knew that such a small gap could be overturned at any moment.

But the important thing was that the gap was small enough to be overturned in the first place.

His elder brother was the eldest son, destined to inherit the Tang Family, while Tang Uwon was supposed to remain quietly in his shadow.

Yet having already reached a similar level of cultivation, Tang Uwon was hardly behaving like someone content to fade into the background.

He had no intention of remaining merely the second son.

The position Tang Uwon had chosen for himself was that of a replacement for the heir.

If something happened to his elder brother, if some unforeseen misfortune prevented him from succeeding as Family Head...

The family would choose Tang Uwon without hesitation.

And he had intended to use the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering as an opportunity to establish that position beyond doubt.

Well, that's out of the question now...

Still, he wasn't particularly disappointed.

What he wanted, after all, was to be a replacement for the heir.

He had no ambition to go beyond that, to harm his elder brother and seize the position of Family Head by whatever means necessary.

That did not mean he had no desire to become Family Head.

He did, which was precisely why he wanted to prove that he was perfectly capable of replacing his brother.

But his ambition had its limits.

He loved the Tang Family more than he coveted the position of Family Head. He believed that having both brothers alive and well would benefit the family, even if he himself never became its head.

Tang Uwon gazed at Cheon Soyak, who was enjoying the warmth of the rising sun.

Within that small, slender body lay dormant a power capable of looking down upon the entire world.

And he... could not even properly gauge the presence of Cheon Soyak, who had reached the middle stage of the Transformation Realm.

A clash between two Transformation Realm masters.

Nothing at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering would attract more attention.

He already knew that he wasn't strong enough to take second place in the Gathering.

Even so, he had hoped to establish himself among its leading contenders.

But with things turning out this way, even that would be difficult.

Not only the public but also the elders of the Tang Family would be focusing their attention on the relationship between Namgung and Mount Hua.

Namgung Ak, the Sword Sovereign, who was currently regarded as the number one martial artist under heaven.

And Cheon Soyak of Mount Hua, who was being spoken of as the person destined to hold that position in the next generation.

For someone whose achievements seemed more than sufficient to warrant a title, Cheon Soyak was surprisingly little known.

Her public display of such overwhelming power and standing at this Gathering would surely cause an upheaval of almost catastrophic proportions.

And when that happened, someone like Tang Uwon would hardly be noticed at all.

He smiled bitterly.

“...Well, I suppose you'll at least receive the title of Sword Phoenix.”

“Most likely.”

“And the Namgung heir will probably be called the Sword Dragon. Not that the title will be worth much to him.”

What good was being a dragon if you were still inferior to a phoenix?

Perhaps it would be better for Namgung Seon not to receive the title of Sword Dragon at all.

He might only end up becoming an object of ridicule.

A Sword Dragon inferior to the Sword Phoenix.

There was, of course, a saying in the martial world that one should beware of women, children, and the elderly.

But at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, where young talents gathered to determine who was superior, such a distinction might prove rather humiliating.

Even if they gave him a title such as Heavenly Dragon, the result would be the same.

People would still say that he had failed to earn the title of Sword Dragon because Cheon Soyak had surpassed him in swordsmanship.

Whichever way one looked at it, Namgung Seon was trapped in a situation with no good way out.

“Do you think so?”

“Wouldn't you agree?”

“I doubt he'll care very much.”

Tang Uwon tilted his head at Soyak's almost unshakable certainty.

Cheon Soyak and Namgung Seon had met only once, three years ago.

So why did she answer as though she knew the Namgung heir extremely well?

“Can you tell me why you're so certain?”

“He has reached the Transformation Realm, hasn't he?”

“Reaching the Transformation Realm doesn't mean you've transcended every worldly attachment and freed yourself from suffering like Shakyamuni Buddha. You should know that better than anyone.”

He was referring to Ak Jupae, the Flame-Saber Lord.

Despite reaching the Transformation Realm, Ak Jupae had been so tormented by his attachments that he had ultimately made the worst possible choice.

He had been anything but detached from worldly suffering.

Soyak was no different.

She had reached the Transformation Realm, yet she still occasionally dreamed of her parents.

And tears would follow.

Emotions and worldly attachments could not be completely suppressed through a lofty level of cultivation.

Even the Sword Sovereign was no exception.

He, too, was merely human, unable to forget his emotions.

“No. Even so, I don't believe the heir will be particularly concerned about something as trivial as a title.”

“Why not?”

“Because the title he truly seeks is Sword Sovereign. Every title he earns along the way will be nothing more than a stopping point on his journey toward that goal.”

He had already seen the sky beyond the sky.

And he had resolved not to yield before it.

Soyak did not know how he had come to that decision.

But whatever the process, Namgung Seon had ultimately come to believe that even the Sword Sovereign was not someone who could never be broken.

Before a sky and an emperor so arrogant and bold, there should be nothing that could not be broken.

That, after all, was the fundamental ideal embodied by the Namgung sword.

Just as the ideal embodied by her own sword was the end of all things.

But there was something Soyak did not know.

That this was not necessarily a good thing.

******

“Grandfather?”

“...It's nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing? You were just telling me about the Heavenly Demon.”

The Sword Sovereign's expression stiffened.

Something about his pale, bloodless face struck Namgung Seon as strange.

But that strangeness lasted only a moment.

The Sword Sovereign's complexion returned to normal.

As though nothing had happened.

“...Ah, yes. I was.”

“Did something happen that day?”

“No. Nothing happened.”

Namgung Seon narrowed his eyes.

Namgung Ak calmly rose to his feet and walked to the center of the training ground.

Then he turned toward Namgung Seon and drew his sword.

“We shouldn't be resting like this, should we?”

Sword Force gathered along the blade.

But this time, Namgung Seon could see it clearly.

That Sword Force was no longer the enormous wall he had been facing until moments ago.

Of course, it was still a wall... but now, for the first time, he could see cracks in it.

The tip of the sword trembled ever so slightly.

The Sword Force that had once seemed as distant as the heavens and as immovable as an emperor upon his throne...

Was trembling now.

Something had definitely happened that day.

Whatever had happened between his grandfather and the Heavenly Demon had yet to reach its proper conclusion.

Namgung Seon could read all of that in the Sword Sovereign's sword.

Compared to the time when he had been unable to read anything at all... something had unmistakably cracked in the Sword Sovereign's sword.

...I don't know what happened.

But one thing was certain.

His grandfather, Namgung Ak, the Sword Sovereign hailed as the number one martial artist under heaven, had weaknesses of his own.

There were things even he feared.

He concealed those fears from everyone, hiding them from every corner of the world so that no one would ever discover them.

But just now, for one fleeting moment, Namgung Seon had glimpsed the darkness and weakness within the Sword Sovereign.

Namgung Seon rose to his feet.

He stepped onto the training platform and drew his sword.

If something was not perfect, it could be pierced.

It could be broken.

For his sword was an emperor, and his sword was the sky.

And the moment he believed that—

Namgung Seon's sword pierced the wall.

“Ah...”

It was the Sword Sovereign who let out that murmur of admiration.

As he watched the brilliant azure Sword Force blaze to life along the sword in his eldest grandson's hand...

He genuinely thought that the goal he had set his sights on might finally be within reach.