Chapter 282
Chapter 282
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 282
Chapter Title: Demonic Sword Sovereign
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Demonic Sword Sovereign.
This was the moniker bestowed upon him by the demonic folk, who revered him as the supreme master of the sword.
As such, most demonic practitioners called him the Sword Sovereign.
However, when that title crossed into the Central Plains, one character was emphasized above the rest.
Demon.
In the demonic realm, he was known as the Sword Sovereign, but in the Central Plains, he was called the Demonic Sword Sovereign.
He was a name no swordsman who had set foot in the martial world could possibly be unaware of.
The Supreme Patriarch of the Cheon Clan.
Ancient Martial Sovereign, Cheon Sumyeong.
Realizing that this very man stood before him now, Hwe Kang froze like a statue, utterly unable to react.
The shock was so profound that it took time for his mind and body to even process the fact.
As Cheon Sumyeong and Baek Hyeon-gyeong gradually drew up their internal energy, unleashing a sharper metallic ring than before, Hwe Kang finally regained his senses and spoke.
"So, you're saying the one sparring with the sect leader right now is..."
"That's right. The Sword Sovereign."
Hwe Kang asked again, half in disbelief.
But Hyeok Mulin's curt reply remained unchanged.
Turning his trembling gaze toward Cheon Sumyeong's sword, Hwe Kang watched.
The aura emanating from it was growing ever stronger.
His demonic energy was on an entirely different level from any Hwe Kang had ever sensed from other demonic practitioners—it was hard to even believe it came from the same source.
Goosebumps prickled across his skin, and just watching made his legs quake with its sheer power.
But even more astonishing than that...
"I learned the sword from the Sword Sovereign...?"
He was the most overwhelmingly skilled among the second-generation disciples of the Mount Hua Sect, a late-stage prodigy hailed as the sect's future.
Bearing the expectations of the entire Mount Hua Sect, he had begun making his mark in the martial world as the sect's new face.
Yet the revelation that he had learned from a demonic practitioner—no, from the Demonic Sword Sovereign himself—struck him like a thunderbolt.
And what left him most flustered was...
'I didn't notice a thing.'
It had been only a single day, but in that short time, Hwe Kang had received profound guidance from his temporary master, Cheon Sumyeong.
Guidance so vast that it upended his understanding of the sword from its very foundations.
Even after spending such meaningful time under his tutelage, Hwe Kang hadn't suspected a thing—not even the slightest hint that he was a demonic practitioner.
A whirlwind of indescribable emotions surged within him. Staring at the ground, his hands trembled uncontrollably.
Weren't the righteous and demonic paths irreconcilable?
For the pinnacle master of the Demonic Cult to impart such teachings...
Doubt crept in: Had he perhaps misled him with false guidance to undermine Mount Hua?
At that moment, Hyeok Mulin, who had been watching him, spoke up.
"No need to overthink it."
Hwe Kang slowly lifted his head to look at Hyeok Mulin.
Hyeok Mulin spoke as if he could read his every thought.
"When he taught you, did anything strike you as suspicious?"
"...No. Nothing like that..."
"Then trust what you experienced firsthand. The Sword Sovereign doesn't deal in falsehoods with his sword."
"...!"
Hwe Kang's pupils dilated at Hyeok Mulin's words, brimming with conviction.
He mulled them over in silence, lost in thought.
Hyeok Mulin stood beside him, gazing steadily at the young man.
'Plum Blossom Sword Dragon.'
A name and appearance Hyeok Mulin from his previous life had never heard of.
That meant he had made some fame as a late-stage prodigy but left no further mark on the martial world before fading away.
Though called Mount Hua's future, his story had ended unremarkably in that previous life.
But...
'That's just the previous life's tale.'
In this life, things had changed for him.
The greatest turning point Hwe Kang had faced.
It was his encounter with Cheon Sumyeong.
By sheer chance, he had received guidance from him and now bore witness to this spar.
'What the outcome will be... no one can say.'
Even if one attained enlightenment and ascended to a higher realm, it didn't guarantee becoming a great master.
Without the experience to assimilate it, one could crumble just as quickly; without a solid foundation, the ground could give way.
But one thing was certain.
His encounter with Cheon Sumyeong had opened possibilities.
Possibilities to reach heights he never had in his previous life.
Others might say that since he was a Mount Hua disciple, any strength he gained would just bolster the Martial Alliance's forces.
Well...
'Not entirely wrong, but I doubt it'll play out that way.'
This was now the third time he had met Hwe Kang face-to-face.
Having fully assessed the man, Hyeok Mulin let a faint smile curl his lips.
At that moment, a thunderous roar from ahead drew Hyeok Mulin's eyes back to the spar.
Kwa-gwang!
The battle between Cheon Sumyeong and Baek Hyeon-gyeong was surging toward its peak.
Cheon Sumyeong's diagonal slash from the shoulder carried an overwhelming momentum, as if an entire small mountain were hurtling forward.
The air itself seemed crushed and torn apart.
Yet at the moment of impact, Baek Hyeon-gyeong was no longer there.
His strike had hit not a man, but a solid boulder, which shattered like sand, sending fragments flying everywhere.
Srulk—
Baek Hyeon-gyeong glided effortlessly over the pine needles, evading like plum blossoms scattering in the wind.
As his robes fluttered in a smooth slide, Cheon Sumyeong spoke.
"How long do you intend to keep dodging?"
"No reason to meet someone charging in wreathed in flames head-on."
"In that case."
Suddenly, Baek Hyeon-gyeong halted.
Cheon Sumyeong's form and presence had vanished.
Tracking his energy, Baek Hyeon-gyeong slowly raised his gaze.
To the sky.
Cheon Sumyeong hovered above, sword raised as he descended.
And with a single strike.
He smashed down with crushing weight.
Mount Tai Pressing Sword.
An immense pressure bore down like a colossal mountain crushing from above.
Baek Hyeon-gyeong's feet sank into the ground.
A technique of devastating power that would pulverize any ordinary warrior beyond recognition.
Yet Baek Hyeon-gyeong instantly unleashed White Plum Purification Sword, enveloping the strike and deftly redirecting its force outward.
And within that defensive stance, his sword flashed and flickered.
Snowy Plum Sword unfolded in a blaze of light, silently piercing toward Cheon Sumyeong's vital points with razor sharpness.
Seeing the thrusting blade, Cheon Sumyeong shattered it with raw power.
Pressing his body against the blade to block the tip, he shoved it back, whipping up a massive gale.
The two elders returned to their positions and resumed their relentless exchange.
Chae-chae-chae-chae-chae-chang!
Baek Hyeon-gyeong's sword wove unpredictable paths, ceaselessly disrupting his foe.
Even he himself might not know which were feints, as countless strikes linked seamlessly.
His blade probed relentlessly for openings—fluid and soft, swift and keen, its next trajectory impossible to predict.
In stark contrast, Cheon Sumyeong's attacks seemed simplistic at first glance.
When Baek Hyeon-gyeong's sword moved ten times, he swung but once or twice.
Yet it wasn't from slowness or shallowness; it was simply enough.
Each swing quaked heaven and earth, smashing through Baek Hyeon-gyeong's layered flows.
The overwhelming weight of his sword seemed to warp the very space they occupied.
"A magnificent sight."
Hyeok Mulin murmured in quiet admiration as he watched.
The clash of brilliant sword auras—one azure, one sword-crimson—forming vast shapes was a spectacle unmatched anywhere in the world.
By now, the Pure Heart Pool had become a battlefield scarred like ancient ruins.
'So this is the true face of the Sword Sage and Sword Sovereign.'
Pitting these two against each other had been no mistake.
Just witnessing the spar granted profound inspiration and myriad insights into the sword.
However...
"...They have no intention of stopping."
Their fight had grown fiercer from the start, right up to now.
Expending more internal energy, unleashing even mightier sword arts—they had long crossed the line from spar to something far more intense.
And in the escalating clash...
Finally, around Baek Hyeon-gyeong, an image of hundreds, thousands of flower buds bloomed.
One by one, they began to open.
The pace quickened until every plum blossom burst into full bloom at once.
Plum Blossom Full Bloom Sword.
No matter where one looked, plum blossoms filled the world, petals trailing in the wake of his blade.
His sword stance bloomed grandly and gorgeously, boasting overwhelming beauty.
Seeing it, Cheon Sumyeong grinned as if he had been waiting.
He held his sword horizontal and spun his body wide.
Mountain Range Wind Severing Sword.
A technique that cleaved mountain ranges asunder, birthing gales whose pressure split everything in its path in two.
The target: Baek Hyeon-gyeong.
The goal: Every plum blossom born of his hand.
The two elders, each unleashing their ultimate arts, showed no sign of retreat.
Employing different footworks, they charged straight at one another, swords advancing on their foe.
Witnessing it, Hwe Kang cried out in a voice like a scream.
"No!"
Though he was leagues beneath them, he could sense it instinctively.
The moment their swords clashed, Mount Hua would suffer irreparable damage.
For a fleeting instant, even the sect leader seemed to have forgotten this was a spar.
Faced with such a scene, Hwe Kang dreaded seeing the end.
Not just the sect's ruin, but the clash would yield a decisive result.
One of them might suffer life-threatening injury.
The horrific image flashed in his mind, twisting his face in horror.
Just before their swords met at a single point, Hwe Kang thrust out his hand in a futile gesture.
He knew even in his mind that he couldn't reach.
But then...
"...Huh?"
Hwe Kang froze.
And he wasn't the only one who stopped.
Baek Hyeon-gyeong and his sword.
Cheon Sumyeong and his sword.
All came to a halt in place.
As if time itself had frozen.
The two elders' swords stopped just short of colliding.
And between them...
"That's enough."
Stood Hyeok Mulin, sword drawn, simultaneously blocking both sword auras.