Chapter 108
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: Azure Flame
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Where So-hyang and the Chancellor had clashed in their spar was now a complete wasteland, as if the heavens and earth themselves had been rent asunder.
Severed mountaintops, hills split in half to form valleys, forests engulfed in blue flames burning like kilns...
"Restore it."
With a light wave of her hand, blue flames rose from every trace of destruction.
But unlike before, these were not flames of destruction—they were gentle fires carrying the power of embrace and recovery.
The sword scars on the mountaintop's severed face, sharp enough to reflect one's visage like a blade's edge, were smoothed into natural contours.
The terrain split in two to become a valley truly began to flow with water, transforming into a natural gorge.
In the forests reduced to ash piles, new greenery sprouted from the fertile remains.
"I keep thinking it, but what an incredible power."
The Chancellor's Azure Flame might take the form of fire, but calling it mere fire was ambiguous.
It was a medium that wielded not only destruction and incineration, but also recovery, spell composition, and various other abilities.
"...It's impressive. Convenient, too."
Yet the Chancellor herself seemed dissatisfied with this power, which was rather peculiar.
"Why? Does it bother you that you can grasp the essence of spells without study or understanding?"
"What!? How, how did you...?"
"Come on, we were just fighting tooth and nail. Of course I'd see that much."
The Chancellor stared seriously at So-hyang, who smiled gracefully.
"...How much did you see?"
"That your Azure Flame has the ability to devour? Oh, and that it recreates spells in their original form."
"Wait, then you've seen everything... Are you really not in the Transcendent Realm?"
The Chancellor's enlightenment culmination, the exalted status she attained, took the form of blue flames—but it was closer to a digestive organ than fire.
Phenomena engulfed by the Azure Flame merged with it, becoming part of its power.
Source arts, endowments, formations, elements, alchemy, banquets, healing... All knowledge piled up by every school of magic had been devoured by the Azure Flame, becoming one with the blaze.
Thanks to this, she could master every lineage of spells, befitting her position as Chancellor of the Academy.
"Still, this wasn't the enlightenment I wanted."
With her innermost workings already laid bare, the Chancellor saw no need to hide and spoke her true feelings candidly.
An exalted realm was the totality of one's life and studies, a paradoxical state transcending laws through enlightenment.
Yet some enlightenments arrive unbidden, regardless of one's desires—and the Chancellor's Azure Flame was such a case.
Two hundred years ago, through some trigger, she had grasped the law of the Azure Flame, upending her entire life.
The Chancellor was originally a sorceress, researcher, and scholar of the Academy. She was one who truly delighted in solving problems, acquiring knowledge, and expanding the horizons of wisdom.
"But this power makes pondering and struggling over things meaningless."
A power that negated her entire previous life.
The ability to comprehend problems pondered for months or years with a mere snap of the fingers.
No need to grasp principles. No need to understand. Devour with the flames, and the essence is yours.
One might say she could simply avoid using the Azure Flame and learn knowledge the old way, but that was impossible too.
"An exalted realm is a perspective. A lofty viewpoint from on high—and a horribly warped one."
How could one forget what was once enlightened? How could one close the eye of the mind that had opened?
From the moment she reached the exalted realm, the Chancellor could no longer comprehend the world except through the Azure Flame.
In the star-like eyes brimming with blue flames, the world appeared only in binaries.
Kindling and ash.
To the Chancellor, whose essence had become the Azure Flame, only the landscape it perceived reflected in her vision.
"...I can't research. I can't study. I can't gain enlightenment through my own efforts."
One might argue the Azure Flame is her own power, but she couldn't accept that.
A doctoral degree in scholarship is only for those who truly enjoy the pursuit.
For the Chancellor, study was a hobby, entertainment, and the meaning of life itself. Not just the results, but the process mattered.
"Hmm, yeah, that does sound unpleasant."
So-hyang empathized.
If scholarship was what the Chancellor desired, then for So-hyang, it was the sword.
But if, at some point, an absolute being implanted the enlightenment of the "sword's pinnacle" into her mind?
If she reached the absolute peak in an instant, without further cultivation? Could So-hyang accept such an end?
Never. She'd sooner shatter her own skull and choose death.
A path only holds true meaning when forged by one's own hands.
"...Still, turns out you get used to living with it."
Sitting in the Chancellor's seat and nurturing juniors had its own fun, and she marveled at groundbreaking theories.
Unappealing as it was, it was undeniably impressive and convenient—trading the joy of research and study for the power to protect what mattered.
Without this power, she couldn't have defended the Academy during the bloody war decades ago.
"Besides, lately I've found a way to circumvent this limitation. Thanks to that, I'm finally studying again after so long."
As she spoke, the Chancellor's face flushed faintly, as if recalling someone.
So-hyang read that expression and recognized the emotion she harbored.
Affection—a warm sentiment clearly budding, though the Chancellor seemed unaware.
"Hee-hee, looks like you've found someone special?"
So-hyang smiled warmly and patted the Chancellor's shoulder as if to say well done.
"Uh, yeah, but how did you know?"
"We women know these things. Congratulations."
"Congratulations? What's that supposed to mean...?"
The Chancellor eyed So-hyang's sly smile with unease but turned away without further comment.
"...Anyway, it's all done."
Restoration and healing, creation and growth—countless spells interwoven to cover the area.
She couldn't erase the traces of destruction entirely, but she restored the landscape to look like a peculiar natural formation.
"Wow, it's perfectly fixed."
"I set up barriers beforehand, so no one will know we fought."
"Mm, thank you."
This was something So-hyang had asked of her.
If word spread that her prowess rivaled a transcendent being, it would cause issues for future spars.
A possessor of near-saintly might challenging peak-realm novices would look quite odd.
With so many martial arts she wanted to experience, she needed to avoid her true power spreading.
Yet the Chancellor looked at So-hyang a bit strangely.
"So, you want to slaughter commoners...?"
"Oh, come on, don't put it like that."
She'd ended up with a body beyond norms by circumstance, but technically, So-hyang was peak realm.
Of course, walking the new path of the Sword Ancestor's lineage made estimating her realm tricky, and her transcendent swordsmanship made her actual prowess far greater...
"So I seal my body and match their level... I just want to spar..."
Challenging transcendent experts was impossible—the gap was too vast for a fight to even form.
This close match was an exceptional friendly bout where the Chancellor held back to her level.
Separate from killing potential, fighting transcendent foes offered no help in pursuing enlightenment or elevating realms.
Her ambiguous prowess made finding suitable real opponents difficult.
"...Alright, let's head back and talk."
So-hyang returned to the Academy with the Chancellor, enveloped in Azure Flame and crossing space.
"Indeed... impressive."
"Anyone at the Saint or Transcendent Realm can do it. Nothing special."
"Come on, too humble."
They leaped over ten thousand li in an instant.
Even among transcendents, Sword Sovereigns crossed space similarly to So-hyang—by slicing it and slipping through the gap.
The Chancellor's method, however, decomposed targets with Azure Flame then reassembled them elsewhere—like the difference between a portal and teleportation in her past life's terms.
The results were the same, but the principles entirely different, with gaps in efficiency and maximum distance.
This explained how she shuttled instantly between the western front, the capital, and the Central Plains' extremes.
"...By the way, is your body alright? Want me to heal you?"
Twisted, broken, and mangled limbs, joints, and fingers; the left side of her body burned severely, blistered skin.
She'd forcibly twisted joints back and moved, but So-hyang's injuries were severe enough to kill her outright.
Her calm expression hid the pain, though.
"Don't worry. It'll heal soon."
She drew a deep breath, focusing her mind to project will onto her body's minutest parts. Metabolism activated at once, maximizing cellular regeneration.
White steam rose from wounds as fresh flesh grew rapidly; heat-denatured tissues were sliced away by sword qi and regrown.
Soon, the bruised limbs and burned skin were replaced by smooth, pale flesh.
"...What kind of nonsense is this?"
Disbelief crossed the Chancellor's face.
To heal such wounds purely through the body's functions, without energy flow... Even she struggled to guess the principle.