Chapter 271
Chapter 271
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 271
Chapter Title: The Elders' Impasse
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The elders gathered in the Elder Hall lifted their haggard faces to one another as dawn began to break.
A strange silence settled over the hall.
"Heh heh."
Nangong Weijing's low chuckle broke the silence and flowed out.
His gaze turned to the table.
Traces of their work over three days and nights, skimping on sleep and food, remained intact.
Papers scribbled with the flaws of the Heavenly Palace Invincible Sword, annotated, and illustrated with sword stance diagrams were piled up like a mountain.
"Heh heh heh, heh heh heh heh heh."
Nangong Weijing's weary yet proud laughter filled the Elder Hall.
The other elders also smiled faintly.
They all wore similar smiles on their lips.
Nangong Weijing opened his mouth.
"We finally figured it out."
"Yes, haha."
"Heh heh, it took a full three days to realize this."
"Indeed."
"For all us elders to pool our heads and still take three days."
Haggard eyes and warm smiles passed between them.
Nangong Weijing picked up the documents disassembling the Heavenly Palace Invincible Sword.
"Heh heh heh heh! It took three days just to realize we couldn't solve it!"
Crumple!
The paper in Nangong Weijing's hand crumpled miserably.
The faces of the laughing elders crumpled in an instant as well.
"This won't do."
"Uwaaaah! Does this make any sense? This?"
"I'm going insane! What the hell is wrong with it!"
The elders began tearing at their hair.
Nangong Weijing let out a hollow laugh as he watched the elders going mad.
It had been a full three days since they had forsaken food and sleep to find the flaws in the Heavenly Palace Invincible Sword.
But they had discovered nothing.
It was too perfect.
No, it seemed perfect.
That was the problem.
They couldn't find a single flaw.
The more they tinkered with it, the more the Heavenly Palace Invincible Sword broke down, and strange issues popped up.
"Is it even logical to say the problem is that there are no problems...?"
Nangong Weijing sighed.
They were all geniuses and prodigies in their youth.
One didn't become an elder of the Nangong family just anyone.
They prided themselves on having the highest level of understanding and insight into the Nangong family's sword techniques and internal arts.
Yet now, they couldn't find even one flaw in the Heavenly Palace Invincible Sword.
It felt like sinking into a vast quagmire.
"How could this be possible...?"
It was so absurd they couldn't even speak.
The seven elders muttered with dazed expressions.
"This can't be... This can't be..."
The Fifth Elder tore at his hair.
"Ughhhh! Damn it, what kind of nonsense is this in my old age! This shitty mess..."
The elders, losing their reason, began their individual laments.
Nangong Weijing groaned.
'If this keeps up, we'll fall into heart demons just from trying to analyze a martial art!'
They weren't even cultivating it—just interpreting it—and ending up with heart demons? What kind of ridiculous nonsense was that!
Nangong Weijing reined in the chaotic elders.
"Is there truly no way to overcome this issue?"
"...This won't do."
"Saying it won't do doesn't make it so. We must devise some method somehow, no?"
"Methods be damned—this can't be solved."
The elders nodded.
"It's unsolvable, unsolvable. This can't be unraveled."
Now they were even resorting to calling it unsolvable.
"If we can't unravel this sword technique, who can? We have to do it. We can't give up after just three days."
"Grand Elder."
"Ah, yes. Speak, Tenth Elder."
"It seems like one of two things."
"One of two?"
The Tenth Elder, Nangong Gyeong, smiled faintly as he spoke to Nangong Weijing, whose face brimmed with anticipation.
"At this point, either the sword technique was flawed from the start, or it's at a realm we can't unravel."
"......"
"Either way, it means we can't solve it."
These guys?
The Fifth Elder cautiously spoke up.
"...At this point, shouldn't we report to the Family Head?"
Nangong Weijing shook his head firmly.
"That won't do. Giving up after just three days and telling the Family Head? We must find an answer somehow."
"How do we find an answer when there isn't one?"
"Think of something—anything! With a sense of mission that the family's future rests in our hands!"
Ugh, damn it!
The faces of the Fifth Elder, Seventh Elder, and Tenth Elder rotted away.
Nangong Weijing's eyes already burned with obsessive determination.
"Sigh, where the hell did this crappy sword technique even come from...?"
In just three days, the Heavenly Palace Invincible Sword had become "this crappy sword technique."
The elders sighed.
"It's perfect, yet not perfect..."
"We might have to try another approach—maybe just learn the first half?"
"If we only learn half, it might not even be better than the Heavenly Palace Unfettered Sword Technique. It feels lacking instead..."
"We thought it'd be easy to learn, but this happens. Truly, what comes easy goes easy."
The elders burst into sighs.
No matter how they racked their brains together, no solution came to mind.
Despair even began to creep into their hearts.
The Fifth Elder, Nangong Sik, muttered.
"Sigh... damn, if there were even annotations, we could try something. There's no answer here."
Nangong Weijing's head snapped up.
His gaze turned to Nangong Sik.
"What did you just say?"
"Pardon? No answer..."
"Before that!"
"Damn?"
"Not that!"
"If there were annotations, we could somehow..."
"Annotations!"
A spark ignited in Nangong Weijing's eyes.
The elders, slumped in exhaustion, turned their heads.
"Annotations?"
"That's right!"
"Will annotations just appear out of thin air? Even if the manual appeared, there's no guarantee annotations came with it, and even if they did, we wouldn't know if they're authentic."
"It's grasping at straws."
"Where would we even find annotations?"
Nangong Weijing paused. But he soon provided an answer.
"We ask the one who found the manual!"
"The one who found the manual..."
"Hyeok! Let's go to the Second Young Master! If there's no annotations, we'll give up cleanly and report to the Family Head!"
At Nangong Weijing's words, the elders groaned and rose to their feet.
The elders headed to where Nangong Hyeok was, truly feeling like they were grasping at straws.
* * *
Nangong Hyeok crossed his legs, shaking them lightly as he chewed on jerky with a smack smack.
"Kuh, so boring. Taking longer than I thought."
He figured a day or two would suffice, but apparently not.
'Yeah, the later it gets, the more their heads will split. Heh heh!'
Imagining the elders wrestling with the manual, Nangong Hyeok snickered.
It wasn't a problem they could solve that easily.
Nangong Hyeok called out to Geon Cheon-hwi.
"No one's come looking for me?"
"Yes! No one."
"Hmm, anyway, let me know the moment someone shows up."
"Yes."
Geon Cheon-hwi eyed Nangong Hyeok suspiciously.
For some reason, over the past three days, he kept asking about someone who never came.
Would anyone really show up...?
It was then, as Nangong Hyeok clicked his tongue.
Jang Woong, who had been gazing boredly outside the training ground entrance, lit up.
"Young Master! The Grand Elder's coming? Huh? More are coming! All the elders—all of them!"
"All the elders?"
"Yes!"
At Jang Woong's alert, Geon Cheon-hwi's eyes widened.
No way—the people he was waiting for were the elders?
He turned his head, and Nangong Hyeok's eyes were gleaming.
Whoosh!
Nangong Hyeok shot up from his seat like lightning and waved his hand.
"Everyone stop! Halt! Freeze!"
At Nangong Hyeok's sudden shout, the ordinary martial artists sprinting madly around the training ground came to a screeching halt.
"Kuaaaack!"
"Uwaaaack!"
"Uwaaack!"
Thud thud thud!
The iron balls on their shackles slammed into the ground with a racket.
The ordinary martial artists circling the vast several-hundred-pyeong training ground collapsed in a line, foaming at the mouth.
"Out of the way, out of the way!"
Nangong Hyeok hurriedly grabbed a wooden sword and dashed to the center of the training ground.
The Thunder Dragon Squad flinched and looked at Nangong Hyeok.
What was he doing?
Why grab a wooden sword all of a sudden?
Geon Cheon-hwi stared at Nangong Hyeok with a dumbfounded face.
What the hell...?
Geon Cheon-hwi glanced at Nangong Ryong.
"What the heck is he doing?"
Shake shake.
Nangong Ryong lightly shook his head.
But his eyes on Nangong Hyeok were more serious than ever.
Amid everyone's attention, Nangong Hyeok raised his wooden sword.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The sword moved.
It kept drawing circles.
Softly tracing circles in the air, then stabbing sharply, slashing swiftly, striking down powerfully.
The sword, flowing like a gentle breeze, soon became a gale and raged.
It was swordplay without a trace of internal energy, yet its power and momentum filled the vast training ground.
Lightning falling from the skies of the Soaring Heavens splits the mountains.
With each step, the sword momentum rises like waves into a tsunami engulfing heaven and earth—behold the wondrous sight that left onlookers entranced.
A light flickered in Nangong Ryong's eyes.
'Heavenly Palace Unfettered... Imperial Sword Form...'
Was it the essence of the Imperial Sword Form?
Or the principle of the Heavenly Palace Unfettered Sword Technique?
Nangong Ryong followed Nangong Hyeok's sword momentum without missing a beat.
Nangong Hyeok's unleashed sword momentum reached its peak and hurtled toward the end.
Shiiiaaaang!
With a powerful sword wind, Nangong Hyeok's sword descended to the ground beneath his feet.
"Huuuuh!"
Exhaling long, Nangong Hyeok opened his half-closed eyes.
His gaze turned toward the entrance, as if searching for someone.
Nangong Weijing and the elders of the Elder Hall gaped at Nangong Hyeok with eyes like bulging beads.
"Uh, ugh!"
"Ch- Ch- Changgung Mujigeom...!"
"H- Hyeok, how did you...?"
"Th- this can't be..."
"So there was an answer?"
The elders were swept from shock into astonishment.
Nangong Hyeok was demonstrating the initial stance of the Heavenly Palace Invincible Sword that they couldn't unravel despite three days and nights of combined effort—they couldn't help but be stunned.
When the hell had he learned it and even fixed its flaws!
Lightly ignoring the people's greetings, the elders approached Nangong Hyeok in a daze.
Nangong Weijing's eyes twitched.
"H- Hyeok-ah."
"What's the occasion? All of you coming together like this?"
"You... did you see annotations?"
"Annotations?"
Nangong Hyeok tilted his head and calmly asked back.
Nangong Weijing's eyes rolled wildly.
The Thunder Dragon Squad and ordinary martial artists in the training ground wore baffled expressions.
"There are many eyes here, so let's go inside..."
"I'm in the middle of training right now."
"Could you spare just a little time?"
"I normally wouldn't, but if the Grand Elder asks, what choice do I have?"
Nangong Hyeok smacked his lips regretfully and turned his head.
He beckoned to Geon Cheon-hwi.
"While I'm stepping out for a bit, you handle the kids' training."
"Pardon? Ah, yes."
"Good, you're doing well. What a shame."
He didn't look regretful at all?
Shouldn't a clown ascending to heaven tone it down a bit?
Nangong Hyeok trudged along.
"Let's head inside!"
"Mm!"
Led by Nangong Weijing, the elders followed Nangong Hyeok into the hall at the back of the training ground.
Geon Cheon-hwi, Tak Hyeok-dong, and Jang Woong huddled together and muttered.
"...Why's he acting like that?"
"Keh heh heh! Didn't the elders' faces look just like puppies desperate to poop?"
"Think he has some dirt on them?"
Hm?
That seemed plausible?
Everyone stared blankly toward the hall.
Nangong Hyeok entered the hall and naturally took the seat of honor.
It was so seamless that even Nangong Weijing and the elders didn't notice anything amiss.
Nangong Hyeok smiled faintly at Nangong Weijing.
"Yes, what's the matter?"
Nangong Weijing swallowed dryly and looked at Nangong Hyeok.
"I heard you were the one who found the secret chamber."
"Yes, that's right. I found it. Haha!"
"Then... by any chance, did you see a copy of the Heavenly Palace Invincible Sword or a book with annotations?"
"Ah, annotations?"
Nangong Weijing and the elders gazed at Nangong Hyeok with eyes full of expectation.
No, it was nearly conviction.
If he could execute the Heavenly Palace Invincible Sword so perfectly, there must have been annotations or something!
Their gazes concentrated on Nangong Hyeok's mouth.
Soon, Nangong Hyeok's mouth opened, and the elders' ears perked up.