The Weight of Sovereignty
"President Cheon Doyeon. Hmm. Yes, it did have a nice ring to it. But..."
"No thanks. If I become a merchant, I'll have to spend every single day giving myself a headache with all that thinking."
"It's true that it's a headache. Fiercely crunching numbers and all. But it's just as thrilling. Do you have any idea what a rush it is when something you bought cheap suddenly skyrockets in value the next moment?"
"I'm sure it's a massive dopamine hit. But I wouldn't want to make a lifelong career out of it."
Need dopamine? I can just browse the forums for that. And more than anything else...
"I'm a martial artist, after all."
If I had spare time, I'd rather spend it learning martial arts. Besides, my path forward was only going to get more exciting from here on out.
"I'm down to collaborate in the future. But I'll have to decline the offer to become a full-time merchant."
"Sigh... What a pity."
At least Chairman Gyeon didn't drag things out or act pathetic. Unlike a certain assemblyman I knew.
"Very well. What do you plan to do now, then? Do you have a destination in mind?"
"I'm heading toward Mount Geumgang."
I stealthily checked to see if I had any new direct messages. Sure enough, there was a reply from Hyeonsongcheonnyeo.
Hehehe. I could easily picture her reaction, and a chuckle threatened to escape my lips. I barely managed to suppress it. Controlling my facial expressions was a skill I had mastered way back during the first year of the Gate Outbreak.
"Mount Geumgang? Are you with the Bongrae Sect?"
"Something like that. Well, I should probably get going now."
As I packed my things, I picked up the martial arts manual that was temporarily mine—
Mind Reader of Martial Arts
Sovereign Sword Form
Ah. Right.
Ever since the man first looked up at the sky as a newborn, he had thought: Ah, I want to cleave that.
O sword. O sword. My sword, which has allowed me to cut through all things until now. Grant me the power to cleave the heavens. Let me split that infinite blue sky in half with my own two hands.
But no matter how high a human stretched their hand, how could they ever cut the sky? How could a mere mortal reach the heavens?
The sky pressed down upon the man. Its pure, boundless infinity declared to him:
Know your place. Know your insignificance. No matter how high you soar with your sword, are you not ultimately just a mortal bound by the shackles of life and death? How dare a mere human attempt to cleave the heavens? Do not be arrogant. Know your hubris. Know your insignificance.
But the man...
Do not be arrogant? Ha! Who do you think I am?! I am the most arrogant man under the heavens! How dare a mere sky attempt to limit my sword! One day, I will surely cleave you. One day, I will cut down even the celestial realm itself!
I am the Patriarch of the Namgung Clan, the Sword Emperor, Namgung ■■!!
And the name of this sword style, created to cleave the heavens, is—
"—The Sovereign Sword Form!!!"
"Nuna?!" I heard Gyeon Geumsu's startled cry, but I was too busy trying to catch my breath.
"Pant, pant...!"
My body trembled. The corners of my mouth slowly curled upward.
He said it was an S-grade manual retrieved from a Gate, right?
S-grade????
"Heh, hehehehe!!"
They completely miscalculated its value! Calling this a mere S-grade is a joke!
"Hey, Geumsu! Have you ever heard of a place called the Namgung Clan?!"
"The Namgung Clan...? No, I've never heard of them in my life."
"Me neither, but this is their martial art! And it's of the absolute highest tier...! Heh, hehehehe!!"
My body shivered with excitement. This was an absolute top-of-the-line martial art, easily on par with the White Dragon Divine Art that the Sword Empress had sent me!
The stances I had just witnessed in my mind-image! To check the specific details, I flipped open the manual—
"Ugh, seriously, these Chinese characters!!!"
Even if it's just out of sheer spite, I am going to master this damn script and language as fast as possible!
But!
"Hey, Geumsu! Get outside for a second!"
"Huh? Me?"
"Yeah! Let's spar!"
Crunch, crunch. Step, step.
We stepped outside and stood facing each other.
"Hey, by the way, how are we supposed to do this sparring thing? Can I just use a real sword?"
"Even if we use real blades, I am confident I can stop my strike before it makes contact."
"I think I can too, probably..."
"...It's fine, let's just do it."
"Really? You're agreeing to this, right? If things go south, you have to dodge, okay? You're not going to hold me liable for damages and turn me into your debt slave, are you?"
"Where on earth do you even hear such wicked ideas..."
"I saw it with my own eyes before! Some wicked local merchants came by and—"
"I'm sorry, my bad, Nuna. But seriously, it's fine, so let's just start the spar."
Cheon Doyeon gripped her sword. Opposite her, Gyeon Geumsu held his family's signature weapons, the Twin String Fangs, in both hands, sizing up his opponent.
Nuna Doyeon... as expected, she has a massive amount of internal energy, but her realm is on the lower side.
Martial arts were the act of using the internal energy accumulated within the body to achieve feats impossible for ordinary mortals. By transforming the microcosm within the body, one caused anomalies in the macrocosm outside. That was the essence of martial arts.
That was why practicing martial arts in the Daoist sect was a path to becoming an immortal, and practicing them in the Buddhist sect was a path to achieving Buddhahood. Polishing one's martial arts meant ascending to a higher dimension. And the intermediate steps along that path were what people called realms—First-Class, Peak, and Super-Peak.
And if someone has a low realm but a massive reserve of internal energy, the counter is simple.
It was to let them wear themselves out first.
"Here I come!" Cheon Doyeon raised her sword.
As expected, a straightforward approach.
Wait.
Could it be... that Nuna Doyeon doesn't know a single sword style other than the Three Talents Sword Form I tossed her? Even though her primary weapon is a sword?
Come to think of it, had he ever seen her use a Daoist sword style? No. Whether she was fighting One-Ear of the Mountain Boar Mantis Sect or killing Ahyeondognyeo, she had only ever used the Three Talents Sword Form.
Ah...
Once again, Gyeon Geumsu was overcome by a wave of self-reproach as he realized just how desperately she must have needed a proper sword style.
So it'll be the Three Talents Sword Form again.
A vertical slash, a horizontal slash, and a thrust. A simple style with only three possible moves.
Gyeon Geumsu couldn't possibly have imagined that Cheon Doyeon had learned something just by lightly touching the cover of the manual. Frankly, it was only natural for him to think that way.
"I'm coming! Don't die on me!"
"Yeah, yeah."
He didn't let his guard down. But if there were only three possible trajectories, the attack would inevitably come from one of them.
Sovereign Sword Form...!!
Cheon Doyeon crouched deep and low.
Cleave!!!
From bottom to top. A sword strike aimed at cleaving the heavens swept toward Gyeon Geumsu.
"Ugh?!"
Gyeon Geumsu's daggers hurriedly moved to deflect the sword, but the moment they clashed—
I can't deflect this! I'm completely outmatched in internal energy!
—Quickly changing his plan, he leaped backward, minimizing contact.
"Nuna, what on earth was that—ack?!"
"Hehe!!! Uhahahaha!!"
It was liberating. It felt as free as soaring high in the sky!
Her martial arts, which had been trapped in just three rigid forms—horizontal lines, vertical lines, and points—now stretched out boundlessly in every direction!
Yes, this is what real martial arts feel like!
No wonder every martial artist was obsessed with learning high-level techniques. You could practice the Three Talents Sword Form for a hundred days, and you wouldn't even touch the shadow of a realm like this!
I've gotten stronger!!
Pleasure and ecstasy washed over her entire body. Yes, this was why people practiced martial arts! This was why people chose the path of the Murim!
"Ehehe, quietly become prey for my sword!"
"Nuna! Your eyes have gone completely wild!!"
A tempest raged. Even though she hadn't properly mastered the Sovereign Sword Form yet, it already possessed this much power! She needed to study Chinese characters as soon as possible! She would read the manual properly, master it properly, and wield it properly!
At my current state, how much of its original power am I unleashing? 20%? 40%? Or...
Suddenly, an intuition struck her.
...No.
It was far lower. This current power was nothing compared to the true Sovereign Sword Form. What she was doing right now was merely scratching the surface of this martial art. There was a deeper depth. There was a higher peak.
Which way is it?
This way? Or that way? She subtly adjusted the trajectory of her sword.
It's gotten a bit better.
Before she knew it, she was no longer sparring with Gyeon Geumsu. Instead, she was looking at something else. The depths of this sword. The path of the blade pursued by that arrogant man in her mind-image who had sought to cleave the heavens.
Is this another stance?
Like reverse-engineering a machine, she reconstructed the martial art based on the scenes she had witnessed in her mind-image.
This... must be a stance too.
Without having properly trained in the martial art or studied the manual, she was blindly tracing the sword's path.
Something's off. Ah, the breathing is different.
She adjusted what she could.
But this sense of dissonance... is it because my internal cultivation art is fundamentally different? To substitute it with mine...
For the parts she couldn't match, she mimicked them as closely as possible.
Is this another stance as well?
She discovered them. Stitch by stitch. Step by step. She was rediscovering the martial art known as the Sovereign Sword Form.
And then, she felt as if she could see it. Faintly, dimly, the deeper depths of this martial art. A higher realm. Reaching toward the heavens, stepping just a bit closer to that arrogance that sought to cleave the sky—
Hm? What do you think you are doing? Put down the sword at once. This is not a blade for a mere child like you to wield yet. You will only end up gravely injuring yourself.
"!?"
What on earth was that just now? A sudden chill ran down her spine. Intuition. The very instinct that had saved her life countless times inside the Gates was screaming at her. Stop. Right now.
"Hey, wait! Stop!!"
She hurriedly swung her sword downward to the side.
"Nuna?!"
But Gyeon Geumsu had already thrust both hands forward to parry her blade. Since he suddenly had to pull his daggers away to the side, his arms ended up flung wide open.
And in that state, she lunged right into him.
"!!"
"!!!!"
It wasn't exactly a tight embrace. For that to happen, there was something far too large and soft between them.
Two massive mounds pressed firmly against Gyeon Geumsu's chest.
And then...
"Ow!!"
Fuck, that hurts! A throbbing pain radiated from the sensitive tips of her breasts. The rumors that it hurt when a woman's chest got squished were absolutely true!
"Hey! How could you just stand there and let me crash into you like a total idiot?! You should have deflected it calmly or dodged entirely!"
"..."
"...Gyeon Geumsu?"
"..."
The guy was completely out of it.
"Hey?! Geumsu!"
His face was beet red, and his limbs were twitching faintly as if he had just chugged caffeine by the bucketful.
"Hey! Why are you—do you still have poison left in your system?!"
The paralysis poison used by that wicked Ahyeondognyeo! Had it flared up again after she thought it was completely gone?!
"N-No, it ain't that... Uh... oh man..."
"Hey! Hey, snap out of it! Why are your eyes rolling back, you idiot! Hey!!"
"What on earth are you doing...?"
It was Hyeonsongcheonnyeo. She had arrived right on cue to meet up!
"Master, help! There's something wrong with him!!"
"Hmm?"
Hyeonsongcheonnyeo glided over.
"I know not what transpired, but it is nothing of concern. By the way, Doyeon, are you ready to depart—"
Hyeonsongcheonnyeo's eyes suddenly widened as she looked at me.
"Doyeon!! What in the world has happened to you?!"
"Huh? What about me..."
A strange sensation welled up inside my body.
Did I not warn you because of this...
Suddenly, the qi pathways throughout my entire body burned as if they were on fire.
"Doyeon!!!"