The Silent Warrior
Kim Young-hoon had always found Seo Eun-hyun irritating.
“I have no talent.”
When had it been?
Right after Kim Young-hoon reached the Deungbongjogeuk realm and sparred with Seo Eun-hyun again, he had said those words during a martial arts practice.
Indeed, to Kim Young-hoon’s ears, Seo Eun-hyun was weaker when it came to sensing the flow of martial energy or creatively breaking it. Yet it was absurd that Seo Eun-hyun had reached the same realm first.
After falling into this world, Seo Eun-hyun had conversed with those monstrous heavenly-personhood bodhisattvas.
Even after he had opened the spatial rift from the space-crack old man’s legacy in Yeon Kingdom, his mind brimmed with martial manuals and knowledge. Seo Eun-hyun had assumed he was simply copying them.
Yet Seo Eun-hyun had surpassed him in speed using only that knowledge, climbing straight to the Ogijowon realm.
He had taught Kim Young-hoon martial arts and pulled him upward, all while his companions possessed immense talent and he himself carried an innate feel for martial energy. Kim Young-hoon had accepted it as natural.
But after proudly standing at the very pinnacle of Deungbongjogeuk, he discovered Seo Eun-hyun occupied the identical limit.
Kim Young-hoon had always believed Seo Eun-hyun possessed an innate talent, even if different in nature from his own.
Yet the words Seo Eun-hyun had spoken afterward were something else entirely.
“I have no talent.”
‘If the man with no talent is me, then what am I if I am not equally rotten?’
He had nearly shouted it aloud in a surge of frustration.
Even more astonishing, Seo Eun-hyun had simultaneously mastered multiple Daoist cultivation arts along with martial arts.
Not just one spiritual root, but all five elements at once!
And the speed at which he cultivated those arts mirrored the late-stage geniuses of the Jin clan who had once lived in his household.
Those geniuses had never pursued so many arts at the same time.
They would have stolen the academy’s Foundation Establishment pill from the Makri clan, taken it, and advanced straight to Foundation Establishment.
Seo Eun-hyun had instead absorbed the five elements of the Basic Foundation Establishment manual and forced his way through the next realm with raw power.
Yet he had continued training both Daoist arts and martial arts without pause.
Kim Young-hoon rose before dawn and only slept once the moon hung high in the sky.
Seo Eun-hyun, however, used Daoist spells to forcibly wake his mind, practicing without sleep for ten days at a stretch.
Kim Young-hoon had even begged him to cast the spell so he could try it himself. A few days without sleep left him completely broken afterward.
Ordinary willpower could never achieve such a state.
Seo Eun-hyun certainly lacked the same martial sense as Kim Young-hoon.
But there was something else in him, something entirely different from Kim Young-hoon, something Kim Young-hoon had never possessed.
“Everything I have done has always been part of my own life. Just as heaven and earth mutually influence one another, my actions have shaped my life as well.
Once I truly comprehend my own life, he will soon merge into Kim-hyung’s Mu.”
That was the day Kim Young-hoon had sparred with Seo Eun-hyun and achieved his breakthrough.
He suddenly felt that the boy he had once thought odd and younger than himself now carried the weight of someone who had lived far longer than his years.
At the same time, Kim Young-hoon gained the clue he needed to tackle the next realm.
And years passed.
***
‘This cannot continue.’
Kim Young-hoon gripped his saber tightly.
At first, he had believed he could reach the ultimate limit with ease, that every realm was accessible.
He had talent, after all!
Somehow, instinct had always made him hold back, and he had never told anyone.
That talent had stemmed from the strange ‘sensation’ he had felt the moment he opened his eyes in this world.
Follow it long enough and he would inevitably reach the pinnacle.
Yet it had not been so.
Decades had passed since he reached Deungbongjogeuk.
He had trained relentlessly along the path of Wol-doipcheon, the martial realm beyond.
The wall remained thick and unyielding.
‘What am I supposed to do…’
Even with this talent, the next wall was still too high and rough.
It seemed unreachable.
One late night, while swinging his saber wildly, Kim Young-hoon suddenly heard a strange sound from Seo Eun-hyun’s cave on Shattered Heaven Peak.
His hearing at the Deungbongjogeuk level could detect anything happening dozens of leagues away.
It was not the usual noise of Seo Eun-hyun practicing martial arts or Daoist arts in the dead of night.
Krrrk… clack…
A sound like his breath was being choked off.
Alarmed, Kim Young-hoon entered the cave on Shattered Heaven Peak where Seo Eun-hyun trained.
‘Again with that spell to force his mind awake and train until he collapses?’
It was common for Seo Eun-hyun to cast the spell, practice for days, then faint.
Yet when he regained consciousness, he would immediately awaken, realize he had fainted, and then sleep properly to recover.
‘This time it seems longer than usual…’
Seo Eun-hyun must have been overexerting himself lately.
He had once said a cultivator knows his own lifespan and that it was almost gone.
Kim Young-hoon entered the cave and found Seo Eun-hyun collapsed.
He drew his saber and stood there in shock.
‘Another one of these?’
Foam dripped from Seo Eun-hyun’s mouth as his eyes rolled back. He had fainted mid-practice.
“Tsk, tone it down a bit.”
Kim Young-hoon reached out to shake him awake.
Shiver.
“Ah… I’m awake…”
Boom!
Even unconscious, Seo Eun-hyun swung his saber.
Boom, boom, boom!
While still in a faint, he moved his body through the entire sequence of Danak Sword Art from start to finish.
Then he returned to his seated posture and resumed Daoist cultivation.
How many times had he repeated the same routine while unconscious?
His body, his life, his qi—all of it remembered.
Kim Young-hoon stared blankly as Seo Eun-hyun practiced while unconscious.
Only at dawn did he finally snap out of it and wake Seo Eun-hyun.
“Eun-hyun, you fainted again. Wake up.”
“…Ah, ahah! Hah!”
Seo Eun-hyun shook his head, clutched his heart, and looked around.
“…Ah, yes. I’m sorry, Kim-hyung. I really must recover.”
“…Eun-hyun.”
Kim Young-hoon stared at him.
“Why push yourself so hard? Aren’t you overdoing it?”
At those words, Seo Eun-hyun forced a bitter smile.
“Because I have no talent. If a man with no talent wants to reach the high places, he needs the resolve to die by tonight’s evening.”
“….”
The resolve to die by tonight’s evening.
The moment he spoke, Seo Eun-hyun collapsed and fell into the inner chamber.
Kim Young-hoon felt as if he had been struck across the head.
‘What have I been doing until now?’
It was the first time he had felt lazy.
To reach the next realm, he had trained without end.
‘Maybe… what I’ve done so far was nothing but self-satisfaction?’
He had never prepared for death, never thought of the realm beyond.
Kim Young-hoon gripped his saber with crushing force.
‘Even the founder of Wol-doipcheon only reached the realm after preparing for death. What have I been doing?’
He felt wronged.
All the time wasted felt like pure regret.
‘As a martial artist, did I ever truly prepare for death and reach the next realm?’
He could not lift his face in shame.
He returned to his training grounds, gripped his saber, and assumed his stance.
“…All right. I’ll die.”
With the resolve to die, he leaped.
Until now he had only spoken of enlightenment with his mouth.
From this day forward, it would be different. He would step onto the border of life and death, and truly train!
From that day, Kim Young-hoon slept no more.
He ate nothing.
He focused every ounce of his talent on the single art of the saber.
Time itself vanished from his awareness. Pain vanished. Only the joy of training the martial way remained.
And he reached Wol-doipcheon.
Wol-doipcheon’s Radiant Saber.
The name Radiant Saber carried his wish to return home faster than light.
But it also meant surpassing the one person who had always loomed over him like Mount Tai.
That person was Seo Eun-hyun.
***
Kim Young-hoon finally pulled out what he had built over the years and stood before the man with pride.
‘No talent?’
Did he not realize how much that lie had deceived everyone below him?
‘You’ve always worked hard, Seo Eun-hyun.’
Far more than Kim Young-hoon could have imagined.
He had observed how much that inner resolve had shaken Seo Eun-hyun that evening.
The resolve to die by tonight.
Kim Young-hoon had trained for fifty days under that inspiration. Yet in Seo Eun-hyun’s case, it had been the baseline all along.
‘Even if talent truly does not exist, if you have worked that hard, you can have confidence in yourself.’
No, you should have confidence.
That was the proper attitude for anyone who had reached this point.
That was why Kim Young-hoon had felt relief when Seo Eun-hyun had spoken of the Invisible Sword and looked down on him.
‘He only claims to be faster.’
True.
Seo Eun-hyun was allowed to say that.
He had earned the right.
The man who had suffered so much that even observers felt pain.
‘But, Seo Eun-hyun.’
Kim Young-hoon assumed his stance and gripped his saber.
‘Even if he is only faster, I will surpass him this time.’
Seo Eun-hyun’s martial arts.
Seo Eun-hyun’s will.
The effort he had carried!
‘I will leap over him!’
That was what a martial artist did!
“Here I come!”
The instant shattered.
A golden radiance surged as Kim Young-hoon’s saber aimed for Seo Eun-hyun’s neck.
‘I cannot allow the Invisible Sword to react!’
Preemptive strike!
And the next moment, Seo Eun-hyun’s intent echoed within his consciousness.
The technique he used extended outward with the Invisible Sword.
Danak Sword Art—Layered Mountains.
The formless sword qi spread like needles in all directions.
A free sword shape unbound by form!
Seo Eun-hyun had become surrounded by a colorless barbed-wire fence of qi.
‘I’m being torn!’
Kim Young-hoon hurriedly retreated.
Slash!
From the mere act of approaching and retreating, wounds had already appeared across his body.
Again, Seo Eun-hyun’s intent rang out.
Danak Sword Art—Mountain and Water Painting.
The formless qi spread in all directions and cut the surroundings to ribbons.
The Invisible Sword, spanning about three zhang radius, sometimes expanded and contracted unpredictably, spraying destruction in unknown trajectories.
And the next instant, Seo Eun-hyun continued without pause.
Danak Sword Art—Valley Change, Mountain and Water Tiger Roar.
The formless sword qi surged upward from beneath the ground, collapsing the terrain, and the qi that had spread outward focused into a single point aimed at Kim Young-hoon.
Kim Young-huon merged with Radiant Saber, became a streak of light, and evaded every formless sword gang.
He stepped onto solid ground and glared at Seo Eun-hyun.
Seo Eun-hyun had said he must prioritize fundamentals. Yet none of the wildly scattered Danak Sword Arts violated the Way.
Every single one was faithful to the art’s essence.
Danak Sword Art—Condemned Mountain and Condemned Rock.
Kwa kwa kwa!
Seo Eun-hyun charged forward using the formless sword.
The formless sword qi rushed at Kim Young-hoon.
‘I cannot dodge.’
I must pierce through.
Danmakdo—Mountain Bird!
Again, Kim Young-hoon’s body became a streak of light.
Speed was overwhelmingly advantageous in battle.
Seo Eun-hyun had provoked him, but if Radiant Saber’s power fully manifested, it might be even more terrifying than the formless sword.
The essence of Radiant Saber was the instant, while the essence of the formless sword was the trajectory.
A colorless trajectory that freely changed and struck from anywhere was almost impossible to defend against.
‘But change inevitably creates strength and weakness.’
If there is strength, there must be a corresponding weakness.
Kim Young-hoon focused.
He would analyze the formless trajectory in an instant, slip past the weak point, and close in on Seo Eun-hyun.
Even at a distance, the larger consciousness gave Seo Eun-hyun the advantage.
He had to get close no matter what.
Paaat!
Danmakdo Mountain Bird’s first form unfolded. Kim Young-hoon danced with golden saber qi.
Light and graceful.
With nimble footwork, he struck the weakest flow among the formless sword’s trajectories.
Kwa a aang!
When the weakest flow of the formless sword met Radiant Saber’s power, Kim Young-hoon almost suffered internal injury.
‘Crazy, is this the weakest part?’
He had not even struck head-on; he had simply deflected the trajectory.
The mass, the output, were different.
‘Did reaching Foundation Establishment from Qi Condensation mean this?’
The sword qi bursting from Seo Eun-hyun’s entire body spewed into the void, endlessly supplying strength to the formless sword.
‘What a monster!’
Yet Kim Young-hoon did not stop Mountain Bird. He continued slipping Seo Eun-hyun’s sword qi and closed in.
Like a golden phoenix dancing.
The phoenix pierced the formless storm and finally faced the storm’s core.
Danmakdo—Mountain Wind!
Peeung!
The streak of light shot forth at the fastest speed.
And the formless sword that had been spreading outward suddenly changed.
Danak Sword Art—Empty Valley Complete.
The formless sword spun like a real storm and seized the streak of light.
Radiant Saber’s trajectory was caught and rotated once before being fired back at Kim Young-hoon.
Kim Young-hoon barely evaded the light that Seo Eun-hyun had struck back and moved behind him.
The moment the light that had struck him passed Kim Young-hoon’s position and struck the cliff behind.
Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa!
Golden cracks like spiderwebs spread across the entire cliff, accompanied by a thunderous boom.
A chill ran down his spine.
Kim Young-hoon felt goosebumps on his arms and prepared for the next attack.
‘Normally I could never produce such power…’
When Seo Eun-hyun struck back, the combined force had transformed into something terrifying.
Kim Young-hoon felt as though he were fighting a lone body against a storm.
‘I cannot win with Danmakdo alone.’
He must mobilize his entire talent.
If he could not grow in an instant, he would be defeated!
Kim Young-hoon’s mind spun at lightning speed.
The next instant, he created a new martial art.
Step Method—Seven Colorful Steps!
Paaat!
Kim Young-hoon’s movement changed.
And golden Radiant Saber qi transformed into seven-colored radiance.
The next instant, Kim Young-hoon’s body split into seven, one above, one below, and four surrounding.
And they dove into the four directions of the formless sword.
Danak Sword Art—Condemned Cliff.
The formless sword gathered into a single mass around Seo Eun-hyun and spun.
The offense and defense had merged, and the formless sword size made it seem as if a storm raged in all directions.
Six of Kim Young-hoon’s bodies exploded forward in a single strike, while the seventh pierced the four directions and swung his saber at Seo Eun-hyun.
‘Impossible with one strike.’
The next instant, the formless sword would protect him.
It would cut the weakest point of the formless sword, but even Radiant Saber’s power might not suffice to cut the weakest point of the formless sword.
‘Next martial art!’
Kim Young-hoon’s face flushed as if it were about to split.
Blood surged to his brain.
A new martial art was born.
A martial art that would surpass Radiant Saber’s own power in an instant to match its speed.
Forty-four Garros!
In the space of an instant, forty-four slashing strikes were unleashed with the efficiency of Layered Mountains or better.
The slashes overlapped, and the power surge was monstrous.
And instead of defending, Seo Eun-hyun chose to counterattack.
Danak Sword Art—Soft Peak.
The formless sword changed again and gently stabbed Kim Young-hoon’s new martial art.
Normally Soft Peak was a technique that used gentle qi to pierce and make defense difficult. It was not meant for strong offense.
But the Forty-four Garros, dozens of times stronger than Radiant Saber’s power, clashed with Soft Peak.
Kim Young-hoon spat blood and was blasted backward.
Paaang!
Mid-air, he planted his feet and laughed bitterly.
‘I created a martial art that deflected thirty percent of the power, yet this is the result.’
If he had even brushed it, his entire body might have shattered.
‘The change range of the formless sword is almost infinite.’
Kim Young-hoon’s mind turned.
‘But Seo Eun-hyun’s imagination is not finite.’
Moreover, his formless sword changed only within the logic of Danak Sword Art.
‘I must create a martial art to counter Danak Sword Art!’
Paa aat!
‘Come on, let’s play.’
Golden light moved and struck Seo Eun-hyun in an instant. Both exchanged hundreds or thousands of strikes per second.
Slashing strikes, sword shadows, and saber shadows danced in all directions.
Every time Seo Eun-hyun used one Danak Sword Art, Kim Young-hoon instantly created several martial arts on the spot to block his power. They fought evenly for a long time.
Kim Young-hoon’s wounds piled up.
Meanwhile, Seo Eun-hyun remained untouched.
Kim Young-hoon breathed heavily and still laughed.
“As expected…”
Overwhelming defeat.
Mount Tai that could never be surpassed.
That was the man standing before him.
“It’s the best!”
He had looked down on Seo Eun-hyun.
How could someone who had reached this realm use the excuse of no talent and not believe in himself!
Paa aat!
Kim Young-hoon’s mind spun until it seemed about to overload. Blood gushed from his nose.
Creating three martial arts at once, he approached Seo Eun-hyun again.
Their eyes met.
Seo Eun-hyun was also smiling.
Five hundred years.
In five hundred years, Kim Young-hoon had never truly surpassed him.
Especially not when it came to fifty years. Kim Young-hoon had always been the monster then.
They now shared the exact same feeling.
“I!”
“I!”
The two martial artists shouted at the same time.
Danak Sword Art—Ki Mountain and Shin Heaven.
Danmakdo Variation—Mountain Earthquake.
Applied martial art—Saber Goblin.
Created martial art—Void Tear.
Created martial art—Twelve Radiant Slash.
Light and void shone.
“I win!”
“I surpassed him!”
The next instant, the formless sword had grown sevenfold larger. Radiant Saber completely controlled Seo Eun-hyun’s four directions.
And light exploded.