This Is Amazing, But What About This?
Seated on a rock overlooking the training grounds, I watched the crowd of candidates waiting for their turn and spoke up.
"Hmm... a hundred or so?"
"Exactly ninety-three. That is what remains after sending back anyone with traces of demonic arts on their bodies, and anyone whose disposition was less than clean."
"Ah..."
Well, that made sense. Train orthodox arts and demonic arts at the same time, and qi deviation was all but guaranteed. Besides, spies from the Evil Black Alliance might try to slip into the Nine Sects and One Gang. It was a perfectly reasonable measure.
"But then... what about Seolhyeon?"
By that standard, Cheon Seolhyeon should have been right there among the rejects. When I asked Yeon Sohee, she frowned for some reason.
"...What is she to you?"
"I need her."
More precisely, I needed the martial art she carried. Today was the day I'd get to see its true face.
"..."
"Is... something the matter?"
"...No. Cheon Seolhyeon is over there."
"Oh, thank you."
Yeon Sohee's fingertip pointed straight to where Cheon Seolhyeon stood. She was glancing wildly around as if searching for something, until her eyes met mine. When I waved at her, she waved right back.
That was when it happened.
"...Tch. How annoying."
"...?"
Yeon Sohee turned away from me and started walking off toward somewhere.
"Where are you going?"
"Watch the proceedings at your leisure. There is somewhere I must attend to briefly."
"Yes, safe travels."
"Cause no trouble."
"..."
And so I settled onto the rock with a full view of the training grounds below and began to watch. Perhaps because there were so many people, the test gathered five candidates at a time and set them fighting one another. Each of them, grasping for the chance they'd been given, threw everything they had into unleashing everything they had ever built — and all of it piled up neatly, layer by layer, inside my head.
I was, quite literally, feasting on martial arts. Fist arts, palm techniques, swordsmanship, sabre techniques. Whip arts, concealment methods, footwork. Most of it was Third-Rate or Second-Rate stuff at best, but there was no downside to knowing it. I could feel my proficiency with every type of weapon climbing in real time — enough to make the urge surge up inside me to try it all out right this second.
"...God, this feels incredible."
Elation swelled up in my chest. I'd watched and absorbed a few more people's martial arts when, at last, Cheon Seolhyeon's turn arrived.
Cheon Seolhyeon turned her head, taking in the four people standing on the training grounds. A man with a short spear in each hand, two men with swords — and one woman about her own age who carried no weapon at all. Whether the sect had arranged it deliberately or it was sheer chance, all four of them stood at the First-Rate realm.
Cheon Seolhyeon gripped her sword tightly in both hands and steeled her resolve.
According to the information she'd received from the Beggars' Sect, the point of the combat trial wasn't to be the last one standing. What mattered was catching the eyes of the sect's elders. And so — unlike the rest, who were all busy reading each other's moods the way everyone always had — Cheon Seolhyeon was the first to move.
Blue-violet lightning began to swirl across her entire body.
"...!"
"Already—"
It was the Heavenly Thunder Taiji Step, personally refined for her by Baek Sihyeon. From the looks of it, he had already passed the test. She'd been stunned beyond words when she watched him take the Taiji Sword Art's strike head-on and tumble down the steps — but he was clearly unharmed, and that was enough. What mattered now was repaying him. She would pass this exam without fail, and stand at his side.
That would be the greatest comfort she could offer the one who shared the same pain she carried.
Cheon Seolhyeon clutched her surging heart and drew the lingering edge of a sword left behind by the Sword Immortal into the tip of her own blade. The incomplete Heavenly Escape Sword Technique. First Form —
Heavenly Escape Sword Technique — First Form. Blue lightning wreathed in the power of demon-slaying unfolded like a vast net over the four opponents.
She hadn't captured its true essence, but it was a sword left behind by an immortal all the same. The blue lightning, bearing the power to annihilate evil, spread like a net and began to swallow the remaining four.
"This is—!"
"A sword art I've never seen in my life... this is the power a First-Rate can produce?"
Everyone recoiled in shock and raised their weapons to block the lightning bearing down on them. And it took them a full three seconds — a very long time, that — to notice something was wrong.
The woman in snow-white robes, batting away bolts one by one with qi-wreathed hands, hurriedly scanned her surroundings and shouted.
"Wait—! Where did that girl go—!"
"Here."
"...!"
A concealment that qi sense couldn't catch. Cheon Seolhyeon, her body hidden within the lightning storming in from all sides, appeared at the woman's flank and drove a fist toward her stomach.
BOOOOM—!
"Ugh...!"
Blood trickled from the corner of the woman's mouth. She didn't fall, only glared at Cheon Seolhyeon with burning eyes — and the very next instant, Cheon Seolhyeon vanished back into the lightning.
"Damn it...! Where are you?!"
"No need to rush. I'll end this for you soon enough."
The voice rang out from empty air. The Heavenly Escape Sword Technique wasn't something just anyone could unfold. It belonged only to those acknowledged by the Sword Immortal — but wielded properly, it granted absolute concealment, a way to hide even from the heavens themselves. Incomplete or not, it wasn't something mere First-Rate fighters had any hope of unraveling.
And so, three bolts of lightning split the empty air. The remaining three fighters each toppled over sideways. No screams — not even those.
Only then did Cheon Seolhyeon stand before the woman once more. The woman clenched both fists tight, ratcheting her guard to its limit, and asked.
"You... what's your name?"
"Me? Seolhyeon. And you?"
She gave no family name. If they ever learned that a survivor of the Cheon Clan still lived — that could never be a good thing. She'd already drawn out the Heavenly Escape Sword Technique; the last thing she needed was one more person who knew her surname.
"I am Hwangbo Yun, of the Hwangbo Clan."
"...Why would a clan daughter come to a place like this?"
"It is hardly the right moment for that conversation, I think."
"Sounds like there's a story there..."
"In the moment when we share our martial arts with one another, only this remains."
Hwangbo Yun lowered her stance and locked eyes with Cheon Seolhyeon. And the very next moment, she kicked off the ground and hurled herself toward where Cheon Seolhyeon stood — and the tip of Cheon Seolhyeon's sword began to move.
Hwangbo Yun's iron-hard fist collided with a sword wrapped in the qi of the Heavenly Thunder Divine Art. Was it the exhaustion of spending her energy felling three opponents, or was Hwangbo Yun's fist simply, absurdly solid? Incredibly, Cheon Seolhyeon's sword was knocked backward by the impact.
"...External body art?"
"That is the martial art of the Hwangbo Clan."
The fist, laden with brutish force, sliced through the air toward Cheon Seolhyeon's solar plexus. Too fast to evade, carrying power enough to shatter solid rock, it tore through the air straight for her.
"Ha, damn it... my inner energy's just about tapped out."
This was the price of unfolding a super-transcendent art with insight that fell short of it. Cheon Seolhyeon squeezed out the very last dregs of her inner energy and unleashed one final form. The incomplete Heavenly Escape Sword Technique, Second Form —
Heavenly Escape Sword Technique — Second Form. A dozen streams of miniature lightning poured down from above like falling rain.
Cheon Seolhyeon hid her body within the pouring rain of lightning. A dozen small bolts crashed down on Hwangbo Yun, who began smashing each one aside with her fists. And then, having pulverized every last bolt with her bare hands, Hwangbo Yun—
"This is the last."
—saw a single bolt of lightning descend in a furious streak: the very tip of Cheon Seolhyeon's sword. The next instant, Hwangbo Yun's fist landed on Cheon Seolhyeon's right arm.
And the tip of Cheon Seolhyeon's sword rested against Hwangbo Yun's throat.
Cheon Seolhyeon looked at her, the corner of her mouth curling up.
"...I... won."
"...I have lost."
Cheon Seolhyeon slowly lifted her head and sent her gaze toward someone who was watching her. Baek Sihyeon met her eyes with a faint smile. His lips moved silently, mouthing something to her — and if she'd understood him correctly, it was surely one simple phrase:
Good work out there.
And with Baek Sihyeon's face as the last thing engraved in her eyes, Cheon Seolhyeon lost consciousness and crumpled onto the floor of the training grounds.
Thanks to Cheon Seolhyeon's hard work, I'd managed to copy two worthwhile martial arts. And one of them was enough to draw genuine admiration out of me.
"...This is amazing. But what about this?"
I struggled to digest the massive, sprawling formula churning through my head — and before long, drew my sword.
The incomplete Heavenly Escape Sword Technique. First Form — Heavenly Thunder Shakes the Heavens. A sword art stripped of its true essence, nothing but a shell of it, unfolded from my hand. And just like that, I hid myself away from the world, melting into the surging heavenly thunder as I gazed out at everything around me.
"Whoa..."
The true power of this art wasn't in wielding thunder to sweep away enemies. It was the concealment — something that could only be called absolute. In real combat, it would prove useful beyond all measure.
"To obtain its true essence... how would I even do that? Do I need to raise my realm?"
It wasn't a question thinking alone could answer. That was something I'd have to discuss with Seolhyeon later.
"And then there's..."
I recalled the scene from moments ago — the one that bent common sense just a little. Sword against fist, and the sword being the one driven back. An inexplicable situation. That was clearly a realm unreachable through ordinary body conditioning alone.
"They said it was external body art, didn't they..."
What would happen if the current me learned external arts as well? I recited the formula I'd taken from Hwangbo Yun and clenched my fist. The inner energy of the Two Extremes Boundless Divine Art flowed along my blood channels and began burrowing into the spaces between every muscle fiber. Nothing like proper training — just a simple initiation pass — and when it finished...
"...Better than I expected, actually?"
A bodily power incomparable to anything before was boiling through my entire body. Now, was there anywhere to test it? I glanced around and quickly spotted a rock sitting right beside me. When I slammed my fist into it with everything I had, the rock split apart with a thunderous crack into hundreds, thousands of fragments.
BOOOOM—!
My fist didn't hurt at all.
"...Why didn't I think of this sooner?"
Should've copied a good external body art ages ago. To think the efficiency would be this good. Well, better late than never — either way, it was a good thing.
My gaze shifted toward the raised platform where the Wudang Sect's elders sat in a row. There, the middle-aged man seated at the very center and the Taegeuk Sword Empress, Yeon Sohee, were deep in conversation. I reinforced my hearing with inner energy, and their words began to drift in, little by little.