Book 13: Chapter 25: Renowned Unique Skill

Volume 13 Chapter 25 - Renowned Unique Skill

The Seamless Heavenly Robe was wiping a sword.

“…Are you listening?”

The Seamless Heavenly Robe, Yeon Seo-rin.

Yeon So-hyeon's second older sister nodded half-heartedly.

“Yes, yes.”

At that insincere reply, the Guard Pavilion Lord, who had been her master, bit her lip.

“…….”

If it had been in the past, she would have issued a thunderous scold here but now, that was an absurd thing.

Since the one who was desperate was her side, after all.

“So…” just now, she had received the news that Yeon So-hyeon was shaking the Elders' Hall with a series of revotes.

“This aunt of yours wants to seriously look toward the highest place in this Sword Family with you once again, that is what I am saying.”

For Yeon Seo-rin, who was not listening, she tried to lay out her words seriously once again.

“With you and me, we can do it.”

“This aunt will apologize for all past matters. Both for deceiving you about your father, and for binding you with that matter to handle you as I pleased.”

The Grand Patriarch of the Sword Family and her own younger brother.

And the wall she had never crossed even once.

To cross that wall, bending her pride was something she could do as much as needed.

“Seo-rin, so…” however, humming a song she had picked up on the streets, she was wiping her father's sword.

“-----♪” taking a big heart to meet her former disciple after a long time, the former disciple was barely listening, if at all.

Just what had happened during her martial travels over the past few months?

With disheveled hair and a worn-out, dirty martial uniform it would not be strange to call Yeon Seo-rin's appearance that of a wild person.

“…….”

But why was it?

In her own eyes that appearance of Yeon Seo-rin was that why?

“-----♪” looked infinitely free.

From her own mouth, having come prepared to thoroughly persuade the Seamless Heavenly Robe Yeon Seo-rin who returned to the Main Family after a long time other words slipped out without her knowledge.

“…How were you able to become free so easily?”

“…….”

Yeon Seo-rin's humming stopped.

“For my whole life,” holding up and inspecting her father's sword, which she had finished maintenance on, she spoke.

“There was a sword I wanted to pursue.”

Looking at the ancient sword, the Guard Pavilion Lord nodded as if she understood.

“Do you mean your father's sword? That is the same for me as well. That sword is, to all warriors—” Yeon Seo-rin lightly denied it.

“No.”

“The sword I was pursuing was not my father's sword.”

“…What?”

At Yeon Seo-rin's unexpected words, the Guard Pavilion Lord was flustered.

“The first time I saw that sword was when I was a child.”

Yeon Seo-rin calmly brought up a story she had never told anyone else before.

“The day So-hyeon first held a sword. I was there.”

“Yeon So-hyeon…?”

At the secret history she was hearing for the first time in her life, the Guard Pavilion Lord's eyes trembled.

“That kid held a sword?”

A few months ago.

After ending his seclusion, the martial arts skill Yeon So-hyeon first revealed publicly in the Valley of Sin had a major influence in dispelling the humiliating name of 'the Swordless One' that had plagued him for so long.

However even after that, there was not a single time Yeon So-hyeon held a sword.

“How could that appearance be the sword stance of a child holding a sword for the first time?”

In a calm voice, Yeon Seo-rin brought out the appearance that was most clearly engraved in her memory.

“How could that appearance be the murderous intent of a child who had never once hurt a person?”

“…….”

“It was the appearance of one who had established a family with the sword. That is, the appearance of a sword master.”

Yeon Seo-rin asserted.

“That child, So-hyeon, was from the beginning a completed warrior and a perfect martial artist.”

If this story had come from someone else's mouth, the Guard Pavilion Lord would have snorted.

“Immediately after, father, who discovered that scene, turned pale and took away the sword, and So-hyeon never held a sword again, but…” but the one who was telling that story now was her former disciple, the Seamless Heavenly Robe, who was praised as the greatest martial genius in the history of the Sword Family.

“I have never once forgotten that sword.”

“…….”

“…Was it not something from your childhood?”

Since it was a story hard to believe entirely as it was, the Guard Pavilion Lord carefully showed her doubt.

“Memory is incomplete and has mysterious aspects, so sometimes it is remembered in an exaggerated way, different from the facts. Therefore—” Yeon Seo-rin smiled at the Guard Pavilion Lord, who was trying hard to deny it.

“No.”

“I saw that sword again a few months ago.”

“…What did you say?”

“A few months ago. Do you remember the day I visited Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment?”

The day she heard that the Tea Fan Maidens had arrived at the Luoyang Sword Family and Yeon Seo-rin had driven away the Emei Sect.

“Of course, I remember, but—” Yeon Seo-rin smiled.

“To me, who had to shoulder all the future of this giant family instead of my absent father and older sister,” as the party responsible for making her shoulder that heavy responsibility, the Guard Pavilion Lord had to shut her mouth.

“…….”

“So-hyeon, who came to find me as I walked in the garden of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment because I could not sleep, did not say any words, nor did he try to persuade me.”

“Instead, that fellow So-hyeon merely showed me a single strike he unfolded with his Sword Secret Finger.”

“…What was that single strike?”

“That sword was—” at that moment, as a cold sensation that felt like the air was aching ran along her skin, the Guard Pavilion Lord reflexively turned her head.

*Shiver.* the Guard Pavilion Lord was also a master who had crossed the wall.

“-----!”

'This is—?!'

The source of that sensation was far in the distance.

In the direction where the Elders' Hall was located.

'This sensation is—?!'

As if slicing through space it was a sensation she could not forget even in her dreams.

The younger brother who had dominated her life as her wall for her entire life.

The signature martial art and renowned unique skill of the Grand Patriarch.

“Yes.”

Approaching the side of the Guard Pavilion Lord who had a blank expression, Yeon Seo-rin opened her lips while looking in the same direction.

“That single strike…” that single strike, which started from the direction of the Elders' Hall bore through the outer wall and came out, and a thin but infinitely vivid trail of sword light as if engraving it in the summer sky, was leaving its scar far, far away.

“…Father's renowned unique skill, Life Ending.”

As if reflecting on that miraculous sensation once again “That sword is precisely the single strike that fellow So-hyeon showed me at Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment that night, and…” Yeon Seo-rin spoke with an expression as if looking at something dazzling.

“The sword that severed all my chains.”

* * *

Running out into the inner garden, Namgung Hyeok-cheon was looking up at the sky.

“Elder Namgung…!”

“Did you, did you see that…?!”

“That is the Grand Patriarch's…!”

The shouting voices of the Third Young Master's elders only felt distant.

*Go-o-o-o—* a sword light so long that it could be compared to a giant summer cumulonimbus cloud.

A miraculous strike leaving a scar in the blue sky.

That was to a member of the Namgung Clan of the current generation, a scene like a nightmare that could never be forgotten.

“…….”

Since before the founding of the Zhongyuan nation originally, the greatest sword in this land was the Sovereign Sword Form of the Namgung Clan and the Boundless Blue Sky Sword Technique of the Namgung Clan was the sword technique representing the Zhongyuan nation so the Namgung Clan was the true sword family, and the supreme master of the Namgung Clan was called the Sword King.

No.

Used to be called.

That day.

The day the Namgung Clan blocked the main force of the Luoyang Sword Family that was trying to head to Jiangnan.

“Is that man the Patriarch of the Sword Family?”

“He is still young.”

A scar that would never be erased was left on the Namgung's sword technique, which was as wide and distant as the blue sky without end and the sword form that was praised as sovereign was cast down into the dirt, so— since then, the name 'Sword Family' became a name referring only to the Luoyang Sword Family, and what people called the Patriarch of the Sword Family at that time was

“This makes no sense?!”

“Is that man even human?!”

The Number One Sword Under Heaven.

That was Yeon So-hyeon's father and the Grand Patriarch of the Luoyang Sword Family, yeon Geom-un.

“Did the Grand Patriarch rise from his sickbed…?!”

“What did you say…?!”

“The Grand Patriarch…?!”

To the elders of the Third Young Master's side who had blank expressions, Namgung Hyeok-cheon's voice drifted.

“…No.”

That voice was trembling with anger, frustration, and pain.

“That is…” he tried his best to control himself, but he could not prevent his voice from trembling.

“…The Eldest Young Master's sword.”

“……!”

“……!”

Everyone was dumbfounded, their mouths gaping open and Namgung Hyeok-cheon clenched his fists tightly.

“While you are saying that, you have already fallen one step further behind.”

The conversation he had shared with the Chief Manager of the Inner Courtyard flashed through his mind.

“You, you all still fail to grasp the situation well.”

The Chief Manager of the Inner Courtyard raised his thin, wrinkled hand and pointed at Namgung Hyeok-cheon.

“To you all, who carry Namgung blood, the worst enemy is not Evil Tyrant Heaven, nor the Sichuan Tang Family, nor the Patriarch who is currently lying sick.”

The Chief Manager raised his hand and pointed outside, in the direction of the Elders' Hall.

“It is the Eldest Young Master over there.”

* * *

Elders' Hall, the Grand Hall.

“…….”

“…….”

*Pitter-patter.* the dust falling from the ceiling was falling on the corpse of the Yeon clan blood relative elder that had been crashed and divided in half.

“…….”

“…….”

Just how miraculous was the sharp qi of that single strike?

Along the clean cut that was divided in a single line, if one were to join the corpse back together it felt as though the corpse would come back to life, breathe, and stand up.

“…….”

“…….”

Without even going outside, the elders knew.

That single strike, which split the wall of the Grand Hall, must have left a long scar in the sky.

“…….”

“…….”

Therefore, until Yeon So-hyeon opened his mouth, they even forgot to breathe.

“Fellows who do not know their place.”

Would it have been like this when the previous Patriarch's thunderous scold descended?

“……!”

The elders who met his gaze were startled and avoided the Eldest Young Master's eyes and the Yeon clan blood relative elders who met those eyes gleaming with ghostly energy felt a sensation as though their entire bodies were freezing cold.

“Not a single copper coin of this Sword Family is the property of the likes of you,” would it have been like this to be dropped bare-bodied onto the frozen earth of the northern lands beyond the borders?

“Not a single blade of this Sword Family is the sword of the likes of you,” would it have been like this to have one's lungs fill up with water after being plunged into the yellow waters of the Yellow River?

“Not a single grain of grain of this Sword Family is the food of the likes of you,” would it have been like this to be kneeling before the judge of hell after dying?

“Not a single thing of this Sword Family, not even the last one, belongs to the likes of you.”

Only then did the elders realize.

The true nature of the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon was not his foresight to see a thousand miles while sitting in a room and striking everyone's weakness, nor was it his shaking of heaven and earth by holding it in his hands through the strategy called divine calculation.

“You all must remember from now on.”

It was the Way of the Hegemon.

More than the smell of the corpse's blood drifting in all directions the vivid fishy smell of the murderous intent originating from the Eldest Young Master's body pierced their nasal cavities and was engraved in their minds.

“This Sword Family,” along with an arrogant gaze that overwhelmed everyone, the Eldest Young Master declared.

“Belongs to this Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon.”