But Do We Really Have to Share Just One Room?
I turned my gaze to the threads of qi strung between the pillars around the room.
They had cocooned my body, sealing off every movement I might make.
Had I twitched even slightly the wrong way and caught one of those threads, my limbs would have been sliced off like soft tofu.
A technique that kills anyone who fails to perceive it. A method specialized in slaughtering those of the lower realms.
"What kind of martial art is this? Pretty impressive stuff."
Refining qi into threads as fine as these wasn't all that difficult for me.
Thin filaments of qi spread out from my fingertips, unraveling the man's extended threads one by one.
Shock bloomed across his face.
"No way — you're copying even the Heavenly Net Barrier? Without mastering the Heavenly Net Heart Art, it should be impossible to draw qi out in that form..!"
Not that it mattered.
With eyes gone cold and focused, I began analyzing the man's full strength.
"Late Peak stage, I'd guess? Not easy to deal with him through qi arts alone."
Being outmatched in raw internal energy, I was losing threads faster than he was every time ours collided and shattered.
The man stretched out his hand, and dozens of threads shot through the air, silently converging on my vital points.
Then my sword, wreathed in blue-white lightning, swept across in a horizontal arc, scattering sword energy along its path.
The blade energy sprayed in all directions and shredded his threads into confetti — and in that single instant, a gap opened in his defense.
I drove the Flowing Wind Supreme Step into the floorboards and burst forward, straight up to him.
Then I raised my sword high above my head.
A voice without a trace of mercy flowed from my lips.
"All three of you. Die together."
Three martial artists entered my vision.
One with a sword, one with a saber.
And the third — the Peak realm warrior who'd been fighting me just now.
Falling Thunder Destroys the Mountain — one of the forms of the Heavenly Thunder Sword Art.
A technique that engraved the principle and image of a thunderbolt from the heavens into every descending strike.
In the end, every sword art is just a combination of cutting, thrusting, and parrying.
What turns those movements into martial arts is the will you breathe into them.
And when it comes to the foundation of it all — the cut and the thrust — I could state with certainty that not one Peak realm warrior alive could hope to follow me.
The principles of Falling Thunder Destroys the Mountain and the Heavenly Flower Seal Method intertwined.
The thunder crashing down was no longer a single bolt.
Split into dozens of strands, the lightning blazed hundreds of times brighter than its original master's ever could, and began burning through the inn's roof.
It was an attack into which I had poured every last drop of my internal energy.
Falling Thunder Destroys the Mountain × Heavenly Flower Seal Method
Despair spread across the faces of the two first-rate warriors.
"...Ah."
"Can this... be blocked?"
"...I'd believe you if you told me he was a Supreme Peak."
And in the very next instant.
The dark thunderstorm swallowed the interior of the inn whole.
Only the enemies burned.
From behind me, Cheon Seolhyeon's voice rang out, thick with disbelief.
"You absolute lunatic..."
I thrust my thumb proudly at my own chest.
"That's me."
"Even if you are headed into the Murim Alliance soon... are you really allowed to just sweep away members of the Dark Three Association like that? They're an evil alliance that stands shoulder to shoulder with the orthodox Murim Alliance, you know."
"Eh. You think the Dark Three Association is going to march on the Murim Alliance over a couple of dead first-rates and one Peak?"
"Well, that's true, but—"
"If someone picks a fight without even knowing who they're facing, they deserve to die. That's basic Murim common sense."
"...Can't argue with that either."
Cheon Seolhyeon nodded and stepped out of the inn.
Beyond a slightly scorched floor, the building itself hadn't taken much damage.
I had concentrated the full force of that final strike onto the enemies alone.
Thanks to that, they couldn't even leave corpses behind — just ash.
And then Cheon Seolhyeon asked, puzzled.
"Wait. One Peak? Weren't there two?"
"One ran off. Can't chase him — I'm out of internal energy."
"...Isn't that dangerous, then?"
"Right? There's a witness left behind. Now they know my face."
If word reached the Black Tiger Gang's main branch, things could get ugly.
Peak realm warriors could head up any mid-sized sect they pleased.
Kill one of those, and four first-rates besides — of course they'd send pursuers.
"Evil sects care about their face above all else. They'll come at you with everything they've got."
I knew exactly how much those bastards valued face — I'd learned it the hard way in my past life.
They were men who stoked fear among common folk to squeeze wealth out of them.
The moment the common people stopped fearing them, their rice bowl shattered on the floor. That's why.
I sat down and caught my breath, then turned to Cheon Seolhyeon.
The gentle internal energy of the Three Calamities Heart Method was already rushing to refill my gutted dantian.
I closed my eyes for a moment and organized my thoughts.
Right now, I was at war with a sect called the Black Tiger Gang.
And they would soon be mobilizing everything they had to hunt me down and kill me.
So what should I do about it?
"...Hey, any Supreme Peaks in that gang?"
"No. None."
"Then let's just ignore them and keep moving."
Honestly, the so-called Peak realm warriors of the Murim were even flimsier than I'd imagined.
Against men like these, I figured I could handle ten of them by myself, easily.
So I felt absolutely no reason to be wary of the Black Tiger Gang.
Cheon Seolhyeon stared at me blankly for a while, then nodded.
Her eyes carried a faint trace of exasperation.
"...Honestly, you're not wrong. I've never met anyone like you in my life."
"Thank you for the compliment."
I patted her head lightly with my palm.
She shot me a frosty sideways glance, but didn't swat the hand away.
Head ducked low, Cheon Seolhyeon muttered quietly.
"...I'm hungry."
"Huh?"
"I said I'm hungry. We came out to eat, and I never even got to eat."
The way she said it, avoiding my eyes — honestly, it was a little cute.
If I'd had a little sister with a big age gap between us, I imagined this was exactly what it would have felt like.
Unfortunately, I was an only child, so there was no way to check.
We stopped at an inn in the next village, ate a simple meal, and turned in for the night.
However, I found myself unable to avoid asking Cheon Seolhyeon a very important question.
"...So, do we really have to share one room?"
"Did you forget we're being hunted by the Black Tiger Gang? Fine for you, maybe, but what about me? If I get kidnapped, are you going to come rescue me?"
Cheon Seolhyeon began scolding me, brows knitting together.
"Then I'll just sleep on the floor—"
"Stop talking nonsense and get up here. I can only protect you if you're right next to me. Future senior martial brother. You're not seriously thinking of abandoning your poor junior sister, are you?"
"..."
Future senior martial brother.
The words fit perfectly.
The moment we climbed Mount Wuji, we would be disciples of the same master.
And by order of admission, I would be the first disciple of the Taeguk Sword Marquis.
...Well, then. We'd practically be family, wouldn't we?
It'd be fine, right?
Besides, Cheon Seolhyeon had a point...
"Try pulling that excuse later, just try it."
I'd knead your rear end for three days and nights straight.
In the end, I caved to her insistence and lay down, pulling the blanket over myself.
Squeeze—
"..."
The warmth pressing against my chest was warmer than I'd expected.
****
Cheon Seolhyeon closed her eyes, feeling the arms wrapped tight around her.
Apparently more exhausted than he'd let on, Baek Sihyeok had fallen asleep in an instant.
"..."
Careful not to wake him, she lifted her head and studied his face.
She hadn't noticed before, since he usually wore that lazy grin, but with those deep-set eyes and sharp features, his expressionless face was actually rather intimidating.
Perhaps because his senses were still honed for battle, an aura of menace rolled off him even now, like a single naked blade.
A small murmur slipped from Cheon Seolhyeon's lips.
"How... how did you get so strong..."
Her mind drifted back to that day, years ago.
The moment her father, the head of the household, died for reasons no one could explain.
The instant an endless host of soldiers came flooding toward her family like a burst dam, as if they'd been waiting for exactly that moment.
That was the day she learned what a warrior of the Transformation realm truly was.
Beings who extinguished countless lives with a flick of the wrist and turned the very earth upside down.
Transformation realm masters had carved open the path, and down that path came soldiers bearing the banner of the Dark Three Association.
Screams rose from every direction; grand buildings burned and collapsed. A scene out of hell itself.
And so, on the day she lost her father,
Cheon Seolhyeon lost her entire family and every friend she had, and became utterly alone.
Clutching the last martial art the Sword Immortal had left behind for his family before ascending to the Celestial Realm.
She reached out and gently, carefully, stroked Baek Sihyeok's cheek.
"You've probably... been through something similar, haven't you."
There was no other explanation. How else could someone so young have honed third-rate back-alley martial arts to their absolute limit?
That was a feat achievable only by someone willing to throw away everything else in life for the sword.
And then there was the way he couldn't walk past the weak — the way he poured out uncontained fury on anyone who preyed on them.
It had to be because Baek Sihyeok had suffered pain much like her own.
"You... unlike me, collapsed where I stood — you chose to keep moving forward."
Someone capable of seizing a hope no one else could even see, and refusing to let go.
Cheon Seolhyeon's arms tightened around him.
And she made a vow.
"When I can finally wield the Heavenly Escape Sword Art at its full power... I'll pass it on to you. I swear it."
She would transmit the Sword Immortal's martial art, the legacy her family had entrusted to her, to Baek Sihyeon —
and raise the fallen House of Cheon from its ruins once more.
With that thought, Cheon Seolhyeon pulled his waist in tighter still.