Chapter 10
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: Beholding a New Sky
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The Heavenly Dragon Archives was the Cheon Family's equivalent of the Shaolin Temple's Sutra Pavilion.
It was a treasure trove, housing everything from the foundational martial arts that formed the Cheon Family's bedrock to their most advanced techniques.
“The Great Young Lord has unrestricted access.”
Inside, access to certain texts was determined by one's rank.
The section Cheon Muryang intended to enter was a restricted area, accessible only to those of the direct bloodline.
“Hmm.”
The martial arts manuals, from basic to advanced, were well-organized.
Among them were techniques Nameless had mastered in his past life, but he didn't spare them a single glance.
*Of course, they wouldn't catch my eye.*
Cheon Muryang strode confidently toward the area exclusively permitted to him.
With so many books, the interior of the Heavenly Dragon Archives had a distinct, musty smell.
Yet, inhaling that scent made him feel as if he had already mastered a peerless martial art.
“Hoo…”
There was just one problem.
Perhaps because only direct descendants were allowed entry, this space permitted to Cheon Muryang was, unlike the others, completely disorganized.
“Would it kill them to tidy up a bit?”
Staring at the haphazardly arranged books, he felt overwhelmed, not knowing where to even begin.
“What should I look at first?”
He pulled out a book at random.
It bore the marks of time, making it impossible to guess its age, and had no title.
*Flip.*
Cheon Muryang opened the book and began to read slowly.
The more he read, the more he tilted his head in confusion.
“This isn't it?”
It couldn't be considered a martial arts manual.
Closing the book, Cheon Muryang nodded as if it were only natural.
“Well, I suppose they can't all be martial arts manuals.”
Of course, there would be other types of books mixed in.
So, he picked out another book.
It, too, could not be considered a martial arts manual.
“What is this…?”
It was more like a biography of his ancestors.
In other words, it was closer to an autobiography.
All the untitled books were written in this format.
“...”
The ones with titles were simply the Cheon Family's martial arts, which he could have accessed elsewhere.
He had hoped for more advanced techniques, but there were none to be found here.
“What in the world is going on?”
The techniques here were certainly advanced.
But he hadn't come here just to learn those, had he?
“Don't tell me… this is all there is? No. That can't be right. There must be something else.”
Hadn't Cheon Seonhak told him?
*[You should be different when you leave the Heavenly Dragon Archives than when you entered.]*
He remembered those words clearly.
It had to mean a secret was hidden here.
“I have to find out what it is.”
The secret must be somewhere within these autobiography-like books.
“That's right. Uncle said he decided on his own path the very first day he entered the Heavenly Dragon Archives.”
*[If I were to describe that experience in one word, it would be 'awakening.' Yes, that's what I'd call it.]*
That was Cheon Seonhak's answer when Nameless had asked about the Heavenly Dragon Archives.
So, Cheon Muryang sat down and decided to carefully examine the books, starting with the first one he had picked up.
He had no intention of leaving for two days, anyway.
“Good thing I have plenty to eat.”
Woryeong had gone out of her way to pack him food that wouldn't smell strongly, like beef jerky and grain pills.
*[I was told you would need this.]*
It was obvious who had given her the tip.
“It was probably my uncle.”
And so, Cheon Muryang began his intensive reading.
How much time had passed?
“Mm…”
Just as he had lost all track of time.
Cheon Muryang discovered a common thread in the contents of these autobiographies.
“They are all discussing their own sky.”
The sky was never just one thing.
These books contained the countless skies they had witnessed.
“Ah…”
The sky, *Cheon* (天).
It was the path the Cheon Family's sword was meant to follow.
But how could one presume the sky to be a single entity?
The sky was, in a word, unrestrained.
“So that's what it was?”
By what could the sky be confined?
Just as the Way cannot be called the Way, the sky could not be confined to being just the sky.
A sky systemized into a martial arts manual was merely a fraction of the whole.
“All of this… was no different from a martial arts manual.”
To Cheon Muryang, these books, each recording a different sky, were effectively martial arts manuals themselves.
“My uncle's sky, too…”
...was just one part of it.
There was a sky full of sunshine, a rain-soaked sky pouring down a deluge, a sky of thunder and lightning, a sky that held the stars, a sky that held the moon, a sky veiled by clouds.
Cheon Muryang saw countless skies.
And he sought to embrace them.
“My sky is not just one.”
All these ancestors had embraced only a single sky.
As if to say that was their limit.
But Cheon Muryang wanted to surpass this.
“I must become stronger than anyone else.”
To do that, I will have to embrace all the skies.
Cheon Muryang closed his eyes.
The space was too cramped to even think of swinging a sword.
*My sky…*
In his mind's eye, Cheon Muryang stood alone on a desolate plain.
*Fwoosh!*
The Heavenly Light Sword radiated light.
In that instant, a vast blue sky, where birds flew freely, unfolded before his eyes.
The sky stretched out so wide that its end was impossible to fathom.
*[What is the sky you have seen?]*
The sky asked.
It was Cheon Muryang's turn to answer.
He could only speak with his sword.
*I will embrace all skies. A sky beyond the sky, a sky that looks down upon even the heavens themselves.*
*Kra-ka-ka-ka-BOOM!*
The blue expanse darkened in an instant.
Along with the roar of thunder and lightning.
Dozens of lightning bolts scattered in all directions, striking down toward Cheon Muryang.
*[You are not worthy of such a thing.]*
Cheon Muryang shook his head.
*It is not you who decides my worth. That is my right alone.*
Who was it to question his worth?
Who was it to speak of limits?
That was a unique authority granted only to himself.
*Grip!*
Cheon Muryang swung the Heavenly Light Sword.
The lightning bolt split apart.
*If I decide to embrace it, then I will embrace it.*
It was greed.
It was avarice.
But it had to be this way.
Because Cheon Muryang wanted to be stronger than anyone else.
*[I shall watch, then.]*
The sun rose in the sky.
Impossibly, the moon rose at the same time.
*Ah…*
The harmony of yin and yang blended together.
The moon and the sun, in the end.
Mustn't they both exist within the sky?
Even if they rose at different times.
Yin and yang coexisted.
*Fwoosh!*
What was it?
The area around his dantian grew hot.
The nature of Cheon Muryang's internal energy slowly began to change.
*The Heavenly Yang Divine Art…*
The Heavenly Yang Divine Art was an introductory technique known to every martial artist of the Cheon Family.
As its name suggested, the Heavenly Yang Divine Art symbolized the sun.
*It's changing.*
But now, the Heavenly Yang Divine Art was embracing a sky where both the moon and sun resided.
Yin energy seeped into Cheon Muryang's Heavenly Yang Divine Art, which had been heavily focused on yang, creating a balance.
*Sssss...*
The immense energy of the elixir residing within Cheon Muryang's body began to melt away.
*The balance is being restored.*
The Heavenly Yang Divine Art was a yang-based cultivation method.
As such, it had melted much of the yang essence, but a relatively large amount of yin essence remained, and the balance was on the verge of shattering.
The newly transforming Heavenly Yang Divine Art was now balancing the yin and yang.
*Thump!*
*Thump! Thump!*
The speed of his qi quickened.
This was likely because the melting yin essence was widening his qi passages.
Following that, a searing pain, as if his organs were burning, washed over Cheon Muryang.
*I have to stay conscious…*
If I don't, I'll fall into qi deviation.
So, Cheon Muryang desperately clung to the thread of his consciousness.
A moment that was but a fleeting instant felt like an eternity.
“Hoo…”
Opening his eyes with a ragged breath, Cheon Muryang felt not exhaustion, but a sense of his entire body being filled with internal energy.
It was the first time he had felt so refreshed since being reborn as Cheon Muryang.
“Did I succeed?”
The Heavenly Yang Divine Art had evolved.
The once yang-focused art had achieved perfect balance as yin energy permeated it.
“Now I finally understand why it's called a 'Divine Art'.”
The Heavenly Yang Divine Art was only half of a whole.
That was why it could be completed.
However, this completion was tailored specifically to Cheon Muryang.
“The Heavenly Yang Divine Art must remain incomplete.”
Only then could it be completed in a way that suited its practitioner.
Though, it seemed no one remembered that fact anymore.
“So there was never an 'advanced technique' to begin with.”
The Heavenly Yang Divine Art was incomplete.
So, he had thought there must be an advanced technique somewhere in the Heavenly Dragon Archives to fill its empty parts.
He thought that technique would contain the verses that the Heavenly Yang Divine Art lacked.
“It wasn't about verses.”
But that wasn't it.
This was an enlightenment that couldn't be passed down through verses in the first place.
If it could have been transmitted through verses, all those autobiographies would have become a single martial arts manual.
“The standardized verses were just a small part of the whole.”
Unrestrained freedom wasn't always a good thing.
There was meaning in passing things down through generations.
The succession of the martial art could have been severed at any time.
“So, this was their way of leaving behind their own skies.”
The ancestors must have been aware of this problem.
Thus, these autobiographies about their countless skies, gathered here, were a testament to their predicament.
“And over time, it must have been systemized and organized into the Cheon Family martial arts we know today.”
A standardized sky.
It eliminated the free-spirited nature and became rigid, but it allowed them to contain a single, distinct sky.
“That is the sky that defines the Cheon Family of today.”
Only a single sky.
Became the sky of the Cheon Family.
Paradoxically, the Cheon Family, which had sought to embrace the freest of skies, was left with only one.
“Perhaps that's why a limit was drawn…”
It was enough.
But because the Cheon Family's sky had lost its freedom, its limits were also relatively clear.
*The Ten Great Families of the World.*
This was undoubtedly a glorious title.
It meant they were counted among the top ten of the countless families in the Central Plains martial world.
*However, they are borderline when it comes to the Five Great Families.*
From that point on, opinions became divided.
*If one were to choose the Three Great Families, there would be no place for the Cheon Family.*
That was the reality of the Cheon Family.
Cheon Muryang could now understand the reason for it.
“How ironic. A family of the sky that has lost its sky. Tsk.”
A bitter smile formed on Cheon Muryang's lips at the paradox.
“Hmm…”
Cheon Muryang soon frowned.
It was because of a foul stench coming from somewhere.
“Don't tell me…?”
The source was himself.
It was the waste product unknowingly discharged when circulating the Heavenly Yang Divine Art.
But the amount was incomparably greater and more pungent than ever before.
“It seems… I'll have to leave before even a day has passed.”
It was so bad he was worried about contamination.
So, Cheon Muryang organized the books and stepped outside the Heavenly Dragon Archives.
“Y-Young Lord!”
Outside, Woryeong was, of course, waiting for him.
But her expression was strange.
“What is it? What's wrong?”
“Why are you only coming out now!”
“Only now?”
“Yes. You said you'd be out in two days! It's been ten days already.”
“Ten days…?”
Cheon Muryang couldn't believe his ears.
Ten days.
How could so much time have passed in a flash?
“Ten days? Are you sure?”
“Yes. Just look at your clothes. You've been wearing them for ten days…”
Woryeong pinched her nose.
Even for her, who was used to cleaning Cheon Muryang's room, the stench was beyond imagination.
“Let's go, quickly, before anyone sees you!”
Favorable rumors about Cheon Muryang were just starting to circulate.
But a rumor about a foul stench would be like throwing cold water on all of it.
Woryeong warily scanned their surroundings, afraid someone might see, and pulled Cheon Muryang along.
“Ten days…”
Being dragged away, Cheon Muryang still found it hard to believe.
“Come to think of it… am I hungry?”
*Growl.*
He was hungry.
It seemed ten days had indeed passed.