The Trial of Heaven
Her golden lightning sword and my colorless glass sword faced each other, tips aimed in perfect opposition.
My head burned with the heat of it all.
We had exchanged dozens of exchanges, each one a perfect mirror of the other, fighting in the space of our minds.
And in the end, every single exchange ended in my victory.
She had reached the absolute peak of Deungbongjogeuk in a frenzy of speed, yet I no longer held back even an inch in the virtual duel.
I unleashed everything, from Danak Sword Art’s first, second, and third forms at once, slicing through her lightning blade with Upper Cut, Lower Cut, and Overhead Strike.
Then, without giving her the slightest opening to react, I advanced.
No reliance on Bi-dun-soo or You-su-gong-beop’s physical might—only pure acceleration of my consciousness.
The air around me screamed as it was pushed aside by the force of my passing body.
In an instant I overtook sound itself and lunged at Hong Su-ryeong, aiming a gentle stab at her chest.
But the moment I drew close, Hong Su-ryeong’s eyes met mine.
She activated Bi-dun-soo, Thunder God Art, and nine Gang-hwans all at once, repelling my stab with blinding speed.
She stepped back, hurled the lightning sword at me, then transformed both hands into lightning and formed the sealing gesture.
Crash!
Sixteen lightning swords shot toward me in rapid succession.
The duel had left the realm of pure martial arts and entered the domain of sword techniques.
What she truly wanted to challenge was not the martial way itself, but the art of the sword.
As a sword cultivator herself, she would have fought with whatever weapon was at hand—whether sword or bare fists—if it meant facing me one last time.
Boom!
I accelerated my consciousness to the limit, Colorless Glass Sword in hand, and met the sixteen incoming blades.
They spun around me like living things, forming a vortex of sixty-four changes that pressed in relentlessly.
In the past this would have been a harmonious blend of sword technique and Thunder God Art, but right now—
Having received my understanding of the sword and finally learned to wield it from the martial perspective as well—
what Hong Su-ryeong was wielding was no longer a mere technique.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Her blade vortex came alive, pressing me harder and harder, as if sixteen separate Hong Su-ryeongs were wielding swords from every direction.
For the first time in a long while I felt like I was truly sparring in the real world, trading thousands of blows in the space of a single heartbeat.
Boom!
Buried inside the vortex, I drove my Colorless Glass Sword straight into the weakest point of her formation.
Thud!
It looked as though part of her formation would collapse, yet the sixteen blades refused to relent, still surrounding me.
I stabbed the tip of one peak and shattered it, then instantly corrected my stance and unleashed a lightning-fast horizontal slash at the incoming blade qi.
—!
In that fleeting moment, the surrounding high peaks were sliced clean away, and Hong Su-ryeong’s vortex faltered for the first time.
But the moment her vortex stabilized, I saw her charging at me from outside it, accelerating at full speed.
Clap!
Snatching one blade from the disrupted vortex, she began to dance.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
Bi-dun-soo, Thunder God Art, and Deungbongjogeuk acceleration—three powers used simultaneously.
She could barely keep up with my pure martial acceleration, yet still managed to exchange blows with me.
Meanwhile her blades began to stabilize the vortex once more.
Blocking countless future paths, cutting off every possible outcome.
After experiencing that process inside my mind, I brought it into reality and began fighting for real.
I pressed her with overwhelming force, ready to suppress her before her vortex could fully activate again.
But the next instant, eight of her blades suddenly unfolded in angles I had never predicted.
I was startled, yet I quickly struck her away with my sword and shattered the eight new blades with the remaining eight.
When I finally regained my senses, those eight small vortices had been destroyed and the remaining blades had gathered again, perfectly positioned for a complete vortex.
Whoosh!
Sixteen blades unfolded once more, trapping me in her vortex.
It was the first time I had been pushed back in a real fight.
I moved.
At the same time I read her intent, cutting off her options and flowing with my own.
Gradually we began to speak inside our minds.
“You have grown far beyond anything I imagined.”
I swung my sword, disrupting her vortex and searching for its weak point.
“And your sword tip is trembling.”
Hong Su-ryeong stepped out of the vortex, formed the sealing gesture with both hands, and lightning swords materialized in her palms.
“It is not a pure difference in skill that prevents me from reaching you.
The only reason we can still exchange blows… is because you are still holding too much hesitation at the very tip of your sword.”
Without a moment’s hesitation she dove back into the vortex and unleashed a storm of blades on me.
“That is what makes a proper duel.
If I ever truly use the sword, the fight will no longer be a duel.”
Boom!
We collided.
We locked eyes, swords pressed against each other.
Hong Su-ryeong spoke with her true voice.
“…It does not matter.
I already know you are holding back your true power.
Show me your real sword.”
“My real sword?”
I answered with a faint, sorrowful smile inside my mind.
“There is no meaning in it.
Nothing will change.
You want to spend your final moments in the perfect duel….”
“Seo Eun-hyun!”
And then, in genuine fury, she shouted.
“Show me your real sword!”
“….”
“You do not want to spend your final moments in the perfect duel.
Do you still not understand?
I know you already possess the vision beyond your consciousness.
Yet you still do not understand?”
“…All of that….”
I lowered my sword, my expression dark.
“What meaning is there in it?”
Yang Su-jin’s theory of the inhuman.
The bitter conclusion of a life spent trying to save Geumsincheonroemun that ultimately failed.
The realization that fate itself could not be resisted.
I answered with a hollow voice.
“In the end… we are all going to die.
If I use Myeolsin Geopcheon to stop it, perhaps it will work.
But Myeolsin Geopcheon will also destroy Geumsincheonroemun.”
I shouted as though cursing.
“No matter what, the thing I was trying to protect will fall into ruin!
What is the point of continuing here…!”
“…Seo Eun-hyun.”
Hong Su-ryeong pointed her lightning sword at me.
“I have.”
A body that had repeatedly self-harmed until it was covered in blood, all to endure the Heavenly Lord’s gaze.
Even with her clothes soaked in blood and her skin cracked, Hong Su-ryeong looked me straight in the eye with clear resolve.
“I came to duel with you.”
“….”
“Not the heavens.
I came to duel with you.”
“….”
“Do you understand what that means?”
I clenched my teeth.
Her intent was clear.
Her resolve was clear.
I knew exactly what Hong Su-ryeong wanted.
“You… to end me with your own hands.
With a sword.”
“….”
“I want to die by your sword, not the heavens’.
That is why I came to find you and fight you now.”
“…How cruel of you.”
My jaw trembled violently.
My teeth ached from how hard I clenched them.
Otherwise I would have broken down and wept.
“What difference does it make?
We are both already half-mad, and we are both destined to die and turn to dust.
In this one fleeting moment of being alive, should we not do what we wish, even if destruction is already written in stone?”
“….”
“If we cannot overcome fate, then how can we even choose inside fate itself?”
“….”
I lifted my head and met her gaze.
‘What….’
The melancholy feeling from moments ago vanished.
Her words had reached my heart.
“…What did you just say?”
“If death and destruction are already written into my fate, then even inside that fate, should I not find the path my heart desires?”
“…?”
In that instant, her words spoken with death already upon her made my pupils tremble.
Crack!
Thunder rumbled from somewhere.
The heavens themselves were roaring.
The Heavenly Thunder Lord was attempting to unleash his power.
But my focus was entirely on the Hong Su-ryeong before me.
“Our lives are but a fleeting moment.
The very essence of lightning is also a fleeting moment.
If life itself is only the rise and fall of a single instant, then even this brief moment before destruction is my entire life.
As one who has honed Thunder God Art for hundreds of years, as a sword cultivator—I am now!”
Boom, boom, boom!
Sixteen lightning swords began to spin around her.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Their rotation speed increased gradually, drawing heavenly energy toward her.
“Rather than facing death, I wish to entrust it to you!”
Flash!
Golden lightning shot toward me, carrying thousands of changes, already one with the blade qi.
A clear strike from Heavenly Person Integration Grand Completion.
And I, unable to look away, struck my sword as though guided by her heart.
Shing!
My Colorless Glass Sword swung true, and Hong Su-ryeong could not even react as her upper body was sliced away diagonally.
Puk!
“Hah… yes.
That is it!”
Hong Su-ryeong quickly regenerated her upper body and continued moving.
Watching her, I felt the first crack in my own sorrowful heart.
“…I understand.”
I chose to fight her not as the young genius Seo Eun-hyun, but as the man who had already lived over two thousand five hundred years.
“I will grant your wish, Hong Su-ryeong.”
Shling—
I became the sword.
Every footstep on the ground, every leg that supported my body, every waist that controlled my limbs, every arm that swung the blade.
Every head that judged.
Every lung that breathed, every vein that carried energy, every blood vessel that carried blood, every nerve that carried signals.
The Colorless Glass Sword at my fingertips, every last wisp of qi that left my body.
Even my own consciousness.
All of it became one sword inside me.
In the duel with her, I first unleashed Muhyeong Sword.
Srrling—
At the same time I took the remaining two thousand nine hundred Colorless Glass Swords from my Dan.
The swords floated in the air, shimmering with an ethereal transparency that seemed to disappear yet not.
“From now on, I will kill you.”
In my true sword form I met Hong Su-ryeong’s eyes once more.
“Burn your life.”
“I was planning to do exactly that.”
Flash!
An immense surge of energy exploded from Hong Su-ryeong’s body.
The Heavenly Person Integration Grand Completion Hong Su-ryeong fully awakened her original lifespan, sacrificing everything in this single moment!
To burn brightly in the fleeting instant before destruction, like lightning itself!
Kugugugu!
I felt the surge of her energy reach Four Pillars level.
We stared at each other in silence.
No more words were needed.
Time itself stopped.
I fought Hong Su-ryeong with everything I had for the first time.
Every single strike she unleashed, burning her own life, was lethal even if it merely grazed me.
I had to use Wansuigungmurok to its absolute limit and wield the three thousand Glass Swords at full power.
Following the infinite changes of Muhyeong Sword, the Colorless Glass Swords constantly shifted positions, maximizing every advantage.
She had burned her life and become lightning itself.
Moving at the speed of thunder, using Bi-dun-soo, Deungbongjogeuk—every acceleration possible.
I accelerated my consciousness to its limit through Muhyeong Sword.
Because time was frozen, sound itself had vanished.
In this silent world I flattened one peak and unleashed sword dances, and the sword dances of Muhyeong Sword caused several nearby peaks to shatter into dust and scatter.
After I dodged her sword, Hong Su-ryeong moved her blades around herself again.
She had become one single vortex.
With herself as the axis, she manipulated the vortex and wielded the blades.
Flash!
The swords moved and poured out light.
‘I cannot block this.’
Then what?
I, too, began to form the sealing gesture.
The ultimate law techniques I had learned from Cheongmun Ryeong began to mix among the Colorless Glass Swords.
Cheongmun Ryeong’s foundation techniques.
Kim Young-hoon’s martial arts.
Thanks to both, I could now aim for the absolute peak in each field.
And through every day I had spent with Hong Su-ryeong, I had learned to perfectly fuse the two fields.
Just as her vortex spun around her, my three thousand Colorless Glass Swords rotated in perfect harmony around me—
yet still free and chaotic, influenced by Muhyeong Sword.
Complete integration of martial arts and law techniques.
Piing!
Danak Sword Art’s twenty-eighth form.
I felt the new sense of unity and created a new frontier within Danak Sword Art.
Three thousand Colorless Glass Swords, each bearing a Muhyeong Sword, drew perfect circles around me.
The circle was also the core principle of Heavenly Person Integration.
Perhaps even the heavenly principle itself.
I combined my vague understanding of Heavenly Person Integration, my own martial knowledge, and the knowledge of vortices I had received from Hong Su-ryeong to create.
My own vortex.
The name of the vortex was Geumgang.
The name of the new frontier of Danak Sword Art, and of the changes within Geumgang, was Myeongcheon Peak.
Shririik!
Three thousand Colorless Glass Swords spun, each creating three sword shadows.
The Colorless Glass Sword was divided into four: the original blade and three shadows.
Each blade and shadow symbolized the four seasons—spring, summer, autumn, winter.
The four seasons spun and formed a circle.
Four changes per three thousand swords created twelve thousand attacks.
My Myeongcheon Peak collided with Hong Su-ryeong’s vortex.
Mountains split under my blade qi, valleys formed, and peaks were carved away.
Forests burned and turned to ash under her lightning.
In this frozen time we unfolded the ultimate intent we had each obtained from the other.
And the world was wrapped in light.
***
Hwarurru—
I burned like the slope of a mountain.
I looked down at Hong Su-ryeong lying there.
She was smiling.
Aside from the cracked skin, there was no visible wound.
“It… was wonderful….”
But Hong Su-ryeong, having burned her entire lifespan, was dying.
Her once-firm skin had wrinkled, and her hair had turned snow-white.
“Seo… Eun-hyun….”
She looked at me and asked.
“My… sword… was it… merciful…?”
Even as life and light faded from her, she still looked at me and asked.
I knelt on one knee.
And took her hand.
“You were wonderful.”
“Hah… hahaha….”
She closed her eyes and smiled as she looked at the heavens.
“I can die by your hand… not the heavens’….”
Even though life had completely drained from her, even though she looked old and faintly cold,
“You were… too wonderful….”
“…Yes.”
In my eyes right now, Hong Su-ryeong was as beautiful as Hyang-hwa or Yeon.
Whether it was the emotion of a woman, or the respect for a sword cultivator who surpassed her own skill—
she had spoken with polite language until the very end and then fell asleep.
“I… loved you… forever.”
Too late, I already knew.
I pressed my lips to hers.
I had thought I would not grant her the love she asked for.
But love was not something that could be decided by a single plan.
It had slowly, silently accumulated until it became mountains.
Wasn’t that what human affection truly was?
The world asks, “What is love that it can decide between life and death?”
In the end, love is time.
The time that has piled up, grown, and become impossible to ignore.
I had given Hong Su-ryeong that love, and Geumsincheonroemun, Yuhwa, Gyubaek, Gyuryeon, Changhoza, Oh Hyun-seok, Changcheon Gaebyeokmun, Kim Yeon, Buk Hyang-hwa—
everyone who had walked through time with me until now.
I had given and received love.
And I gently laid Hong Su-ryeong’s body to rest.
Around us the flames of war still raged.
In the sky the Heavenly Thunder Lord had descended.
Geumsincheonroemun was going mad from facing a god.
In this mad world I took one step.
Sararak….
White orchids began to bloom.
Snow-white flowers covered Hong Su-ryeong.
And the white flowers spreading in all directions calmed the flames and lit up every corner of the earth.
‘If we cannot overcome fate, then how can we even choose inside fate itself?’
Hong Su-ryeong’s words echoed in my mind.
I turned the words over in my mind and began to operate Myeolsin Geopcheon.
‘Yang Su-jin called the entire world inhuman.’
I had been struck by the sound of a rock hitting wood, yet the realization still came.
My dao companion had burned her life and collided with my will.
Thanks to that, I could finally understand.
There was a fundamental contradiction in Yang Su-jin’s theory of the inhuman.
‘Because we are all slaves to fate, every living being is a slave.
Even we Terminating Ones were born only by the Terminating Ones, so if the Terminating Ones can change fate, then the entire world is still only slaves and inhuman. But….’
Thud, thud, thud….
I headed toward Noeun-bong.
Far away on Noeun-bong, I saw Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Surrounded by countless elders and seniors, he was flying through the sky, doing something to the Heavenly Thunder Banner.
Normally the Heavenly Tribulation would have struck at any moment and everything would have been turned to ash.
Yet Jeon Myeong-hoon, who had already reached Heavenly Person Integration, was doing something.
‘If fate is absolute, then what kind of weakling cannot fulfill their fate?’
If fate were perfect and omnipotent, then the fate granted to every existence would have been an inevitability that must occur.
But some weaklings die before they can fulfill their fate.
I, too, had died on the same day every single time before I began my real efforts.
I had also died many times before I could fulfill my lifespan.
It was not only me.
From the explanation of fate I had heard from Goe-gun, countless others had also died without fulfilling their fate.
Of course they were so weak they could not even endure fate.
But precisely because they were weak, they could still choose.
Even if fate could not be overcome, like Hong Su-ryeong, they could choose to die while waiting for fate to come, doing exactly what they had always wanted.
They could still choose what they desired inside fate.
Fate may be unovercomable.
We may be eternal slaves to fate.
But even then, the choice made inside it, the ‘desired’ thing, was clearly the existence’s freedom.
‘The fact that there exists a “weakling who cannot fulfill their fate” is proof of that.’
Therefore, there is no such thing as “inhuman” in this world!
Hong Su-ryeong had never reached Woldoipcheon.
But perhaps if she had collected a little more enlightenment before coming to meet me, things would have been different.
She had chosen not to polish her realm, but to meet me and fight.
She had chosen to move right where she was, not to keep advancing.
Thud—
‘So I will also choose.’
I looked at the sky.
Behind me, the entire region where Hong Su-ryeong and I had fought was wrapped in Baekran Chukseongmun.
“Myeolsin.”
I looked up at the sky, arms spread wide.
‘I will save my family!’
“Geopcheon.”
Over the Baekran Chukseongmun-filled region behind me, dark Eumhon Gwijumun began to spread.
The Eumhon Gwijumun formed an ocean of curses and began to cover the entire Geumsincheonroemun realm.
In an instant the area I had covered with Baekran Chukseongmun looked like a single dot on a map.
It was as though the shape of So-yang had appeared inside Tai-eum.
Chwarararar!
The black curse flags, dyed like the Black Ghost Curse Banner, were set up everywhere, covering the Geumsincheonroemun realm.
I had taken the entire area under my curse.
[Huaaaaa!]
Far away, Jeon Myeong-hoon finally could not endure it and fell from the Heavenly Thunder Banner.
At the same time, the Heavenly Thunder Lord, who had not completely descended, revealed his full existence in this world.
Kugugugu!
Now this place was my altar and my sacred ground of curses.
From now on.
“I will begin the ritual.”