The Emperor's Sword Style
The Emperor's Sword Style, Cheonra Jiwang.
A sword technique that first appeared in the work *Cheonggung Muae Geom*, the pinnacle martial art of the Namgung Clan and the supreme art of the entire Gangho.
It has appeared in numerous novels and each one carries a slightly different setting, making it difficult to define with absolute precision. Yet at its core there is a clear thread of similarity.
“It’s my turn.”
“Please go ahead.”
After catching her breath, Namgung Yeon slammed her foot against the floor with a rough thud and hurled herself forward. Ignoring defense entirely, she poured every ounce of her focus into speed, her sword blade slicing through the air like a streak of lightning.
“Hup!”
At the same instant, Director Jang thrust his sword from the right flank. Although the range was narrower than a slash, it was the kind of attack that made perfect defense almost impossible.
Both of them really are skilled.
If I had been facing ordinary kendo competitors I would have spat and given up long ago, muttering that the match was rigged.
Normally the side with more people holds the advantage, and with weapons the edge grows even sharper. Yet that logic only applied to ordinary swordsmen.
“Eh?”
“Yikes!”
The moment I flicked my wrist, Namgung Yeon’s sword blade slid along mine and locked onto Director Jang’s attack. A straight thrust I intended to deliver was suddenly blocked by her downward strike.
Director Jang’s blade, which had been drawing a straight line, wavered and sank. The three of us tumbled together, losing our balance in a clumsy heap.
“Are you really blind?”
“I’m afraid I am. A ghost would probably run away from that.”
Even with her eyes bandaged she had read every move perfectly, down to the tiniest shift of our bodies and feet.
They both let out a pained groan at the impossible situation, but I chuckled and straightened my posture.
“I told you. It’s the difference in mental image. A person who has firmly defined themselves with a solid mental image can control both intent and thought.”
I have heard this explanation countless times whenever Cheonra Jiwang is introduced in wuxia novels.
The sword that is the most static in the world. Calm and solemn, yet the fastest, a sword that cannot be weighed down by its own speed. The sword that denies the advantage of the first move and reaches the absolute pinnacle of the second-move master.
Sometimes it is said that it presses the opponent down with sheer momentum or forces their movements to obey your will.
How could such a sword even exist?
Ever since I was a high-schooler struggling to break into Peak Stage, I had been researching Cheonra Jiwang. I had pored over the mysteries of the straight blade and swallowed the paradoxical realization that slowness could be faster than speed.
The first mover usually holds the advantage, yet how could someone who moved later suppress the earlier mover? How could momentum alone crush an opponent or force the first mover’s actions to obey your will?
I had invented and practiced countless martial arts since childhood, yet the emptiness I felt back then was as vast as a castle wall. The solutions I had painstakingly pieced together from contradictions and paradoxes never quite clicked.
But one day I finally understood. While turning my head away from Cheonra Jiwang and analyzing the Peak Stage realm for a cultivation breakthrough, the pieces fell into place.
Intent. Only when the control and circulation of intent reach their limit can one truly enter the Cheonra Jiwang technique.
The memory of that moment still tugged at the corner of my mouth. At the same time, the sound of a foot scraping the floor slipped into my ears. The moment I sensed her proud and innocent aura, I turned my head.
The basic principle is to perceive the world with the divine rather than the light.
Even without the blindfold, the world I saw was dark. Yet from that black void, flickering and burning movements emerged.
Someone’s intent burned fiercely like a flame, and the thought that refused to let the flame go out danced along the edge of the fire.
Intent, they called it. The root of a person and the very essence of humanity. Born from the divine, flowing with qi, it only becomes true identity when it resonates with spirit and energy and manifests in action.
Intent takes the shape of a line. It stretches out from a person and draws a long trajectory, ending the moment it reaches the target point.
A duel is nothing more than a clash of intents. When lines meet and points collide, the one who advances first decides victory.
Therefore, whoever can perceive and control intent holds an enormous advantage.
“—Goo-woong!”
The qi that had spread out in a perfect sphere suddenly flattened and pressed down. A change no ordinary person could sense. But to someone who had already altered the shape of qi, it was unmistakable.
Read the trajectory of intent. Slash the sword that follows the opponent’s move with perfect timing.
The instant I chose my target, Namgung Yeon’s sword came rushing forward. The single strand of intent she had released ahead of the blade cut straight through the darkness and struck my left shoulder.
And then a sudden thought crossed my mind.
Slashing the sword…?
Looking at the world with the divine rather than the eyes, I could already see Namgung Yeon’s intent with crystal clarity. The red trajectory her newly moving sword would follow was now completely transparent.
Intent already revealed and touching me. A sword that moves too late to catch the intent.
A feeling of unease. The exact same sensation I had felt whenever I was practicing Cheonra Jiwang, the moment when the technique would flicker into existence and then vanish like a mirage.
Was it just my luck? Or had Namgung Yeon’s existence become the catalyst?
This time the unease did not disperse. Instead, I seized it and understood it at once.
If a duel is nothing more than a contest of intents and the opening move merely reveals intent in the physical world…
I could move the intent instead of the sword and attack the intent itself that the opponent had revealed.
I don’t even have to take the first move. No, I can suppress the opponent without moving at all, bypassing the concept of first and second.
Period. Countless strands of intent shot out from me like a net and spread across the arena.
No matter how hard a person struggles, they remain an insignificant creature beneath the sky. Unable to escape the endless gaze of the blue sky, they have always feared and worshipped this phenomenon.
They called it the net cast by heaven over the earth.
“Ah…!”
My eyes opened. My mouth gaped. The world behind the blindfold was still dark, but the world seen by my divine sense was completely different.
A revelation. The feeling of a martial art that had remained incomplete suddenly becoming whole. The essence of Cheonra Jiwang that I had only half-understood through sparring with her, far below my own level.
“—Hoo-woong!”
True qi surged from my dantian, filling my entire body with surplus strength. It pushed the air aside and whipped around like a storm. My clothes fluttered, the blindfold was torn off, and it flew away.
At the same moment, my intent descended in a dense lattice pattern, covering the entire kendo hall and suppressing Namgung Yeon and Director Jang without mercy.
The Emperor is the Son of Heaven. The being sent down by heaven itself. When heaven’s power fills the blade, the entire world trembles in fear and reverence.
Since one cannot escape that gaze, the net spread by heaven cannot be cut away by human hands. The eyes keep looking at you and refuse to stop. They pray that only they alone will escape.
Emperor’s Sword Style – First Form.
Heaven and Earth Net.
“Ugh?”
“Eek!”
Heaven’s net wrapped around the two of them and crushed their intent. Namgung Yeon and Director Jang froze solid in an instant. They let out a sharp cry and furrowed their brows.
“Haha…”
I laughed as I unfurled the technique I still could not believe had worked. When I turned my head to look at them, their expressions clearly asked, “What on earth did you do?”
This was not a sword technique that read an opponent’s extended intent and countered it with a strike. It was a sword that bound the opponent’s mind and body as if an emperor stood on the heavens and gave an order.
I didn’t even need to read or respond. The emperor simply issued commands. Reading and responding was the job of inferiors.
“Namgung Yeon-nim, Director Jang-nim.”
I sheathed the Emperor’s Sword Style and lowered my sword.
Then I bowed politely and offered a formal handshake.
“Thank you both. Thanks to you, I was able to complete the Emperor’s Sword Style.”
Whether I won or lost the spar did not matter. As a martial artist, I could only feel genuine gratitude in that moment.
#
The completion of the Emperor’s Sword Style was the reason I had intended to yield victory… but Namgung Yeon and Director Jang had already admitted defeat first. So the spar ended there.
For the broadcast that followed, we decided to rest a little and have a chat-heavy stream called “Chat Stream.”
“That’s why people call humans social creatures. I never imagined I would finish researching the Emperor’s Sword Style today while working alone.”
“It’s just that I…”
“The Emperor’s Sword Style is that? You froze up at the end?”
“You really pulled a jackpot from the collab.”
Honestly, I had worried that viewers would get bored watching a full spar and then jump straight into chat stream. But my prediction was completely wrong. The three of us swinging swords, tumbling around, and making a mess had lasted only about ten minutes.
Especially since Namgung Yeon and Director Jang were former top-ranked athletes and I had used the Emperor’s Sword Style on Peak Stage. Even someone who knew nothing about kendo would find it entertaining. After the match, there was still plenty to talk about.
Heaven and Earth Net
“Today I feel great, so I’ll tell you something special.”
“Kya lolol”
“Why is this guy’s tension so high?”
“It’s not that the tension is high today. Today is the second stream!”
“Anyway, it’s fun, I love it!”
“It’s intent. I roughly read people’s emotions, thoughts, and intentions.”
“?”
“???”
“It works?”
“X-ray vision declared lol”
“It doesn’t read every secret thought, just feels it. For example, with Namgung Yeon-nim just now, the moment she swung the sword she was burning with intent to land at least one hit.”
A line of red intent burning like a flame. It targeted every part of my body and I could still block because I had the blindfold.
Since the words cost me nothing, I spoke openly. The chat exploded almost instantly.
“Lololol”
“Namgung Yeon’s passionate heart lol”
“Now you just need to hold your horns and press her down?”
“Sending a heart that burns like a flame to some random guy… hek!”
“Just saying, lolol”
While watching internet streams, a familiar awkward silence usually fell when the viewers and I tried to have a normal conversation after a spar.
“Namgung Yeon-nim, Director Jang-nim.”
“Yes?”
“Why are you calling?”
Both of them had been wearing hanbok, armor, and protective gear for nearly ten minutes of intense exercise. Even though the air conditioner was on, the temperature in early May was still high enough that it never felt refreshing.
“Excuse me for a moment.”
Instead of lowering the air conditioner to 26 degrees, I would be far cooler if I simply used my own cooling technique.
While swallowing that thought, I reached out and slipped my sleeve inside theirs to inject qi.
“Ooh?”
“Hyaak…”
Cold air gushed from both my hands and filled their clothes from the inside. The sleeves fluttered, and the cold wind that slipped out brushed my face.
“What is this?”
“Their expressions changed lol”
“Agh”
“Aghhh lol”
“Upperclassmen are Director Jang-nim’s type”
“You bastard”
“I don’t know, but Namgung Yeon’s face is so agh”
This was the qi art I had accidentally created while researching cold energy. Officially known as the Yin Cold Art.
“No way, how can cold air come from a person’s body…”
“Is this really a martial art?”
Director Jang looked bewildered while Namgung Yeon’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
I answered the questions with a grin.
“Yes. The Yin Cold Art. When I control it, I can generate cold air.”
“How low can the temperature go?”
“Since it’s derived from cold energy, I can lower it to below freezing if I concentrate.”
I created this technique in middle school. In summer I don’t even need the air conditioner if I use it.
If I had to pick the best point, it would be that it works even when there is no air conditioner or when I cannot turn one on.
In a way, it is far more practical in daily life than other martial arts focused purely on combat.
Even I had once survived a broken computer cooler by using the Yin Cold Art for bio-cooling.
“Air conditioner qi art lol”
“Whoa, Yin Cold Art!”
“Wait, that’s so unfair”
“If you have that, it’s basically free air conditioning”
“Computer cooling too lol”
“Cooling beer with ice floating on top”
Even the chat viewers seemed to feel the same, so they all looked at me with envy.
While we were cooling their sweat and lowering the temperature of the entire gym, a good idea suddenly occurred to me.
“Namgung Yeon-nim.”
“Yes?”
Even as she enjoyed the cool air, she turned when I called.
“I can teach you the Yin Cold Art if you want.”
After all, she was the greatest contributor to completing the Emperor’s Sword Style. Teaching her something like this would be no problem.
“What do you think?”