Two Souls, Two Blades
Deep in the stillness of the Inner Library, Yun Cheon sat alone, like an island in a dark sea.
His eyes were closed, yet his mind was turning faster and more furiously than it ever had.
Split the mind...
Dividing Soul.
It was not merely a matter of thinking along two tracks. It was the realm of cleaving the self in two and operating two independent consciousnesses at once.
Slowly, Yun Cheon extended both hands into the empty air.
Swish.
The index finger of his left hand traced a circle, fluid and unbroken.
The index finger of his right hand carved a square, angular and sharp.
Circle in the left hand, square in the right.
Two opposing shapes that no single mind could draw at the same time. It was an art at which any ordinary martial artist would have tangled his fingers and racked his skull before giving up.
But there was no hesitation in Yun Cheon's fingertips.
The left is Yun Cheon, the Daoist of Kunlun. The right is Yun Cheon, the warrior of the Demonic Cult.
The memories of his past life and the body of his present one. Two sundered selves already coexisted within him, and the formulas of Dividing Soul Twin Ultimates pried into that gap, severing the two consciousnesses clean apart.
Hoh...
Cheon Gyeon, watching from where he stood guard, narrowed his eyes.
He's already imitating the Dividing Soul?
This was no idle parlor trick. The shapes drawn by Yun Cheon's fingertips were flawless, without the slightest wobble. It was only the entry stage, but it was unmistakable proof that his consciousness had truly been split.
What truly astonished Cheon Gyeon, however, came next.
Vmmm.
A faint blue light shimmered at the tip of the finger drawing the circle — a chill, pristine current of Yin energy.
...Less than half a day in, and he's already channeling internal energy with it?
It meant Yun Cheon had leapt far past the stage of mere initiation. But the astonishment did not end there.
Fwoosh—
In the next instant, heat like a heat-haze rose from the tip of his right finger, the one drawing straight lines. Too faint to call internal energy, yet undeniably Yang.
Cheon Gyeon's pupils quivered as though an earthquake had seized them.
Impossible... he's wielding Yin and Yang at the same time?!
This was not simply a question of talent. Yin and Yang were natural enemies — the common sense of all martial learning held that they could not coexist in one body.
He's only just entered Dividing Soul Twin Ultimates, and already he commands both Yin and Yang in a single frame? What in the world is this creature?!
One possibility flashed through Cheon Gyeon's mind. A constitution one was born with — the kind that appeared only in legends.
...Don't tell me he was born with a Yin-Yang constitution?
A shiver ran down the old man's spine. No — impossible. The boy's dantian had been empty as a dry well the first time he'd seen him. Which left only one answer.
That old devil, the Life and Death Venerable — he must have done something to this boy's body!
While Cheon Gyeon reeled in disbelief—
Psshh.
—the heat guttered out at Yun Cheon's right hand. He could command the cold Yin current through the Limitless Ice Heart Canon, but he had not yet mastered a mental method capable of drawing up the blazing Yang energy that lay dormant in the depths of his body.
Gathering his energy, Yun Cheon slowly opened his eyes.
"Not bad at all. Entering the Dividing Soul in barely half a day."
"It wasn't easy, sir. I've only caught the tail of it."
"Kek-kek-kek. Spare me the modesty. There are plenty who never even catch that tail and drive themselves mad instead."
Even under Cheon Gyeon's praise, Yun Cheon remained composed. He simply offered a courteous cupped-fist salute in thanks.
"...That's thanks to your consideration. You stood guard over me, after all."
The training had been dangerous enough to plunge him into Qi Deviation at the slightest misstep. Without Cheon Gyeon's aura pressing down the surroundings, focusing would have been nearly impossible.
Cheon Gyeon accepted the gratitude with a dismissive grunt, then slipped a hand into his robe.
"If you truly mean to reach the Twin Ultimates... you must come to know Yin and Yang, the Orthodox and the Demonic — or, if you will, the Following Current and the Reversing Current. In short, you must know opposition in all its forms."
With that, Cheon Gyeon drew two battered manuals from his robes — so old they seemed about to crumble to dust. On their covers, as dust puffed off the cracked spines, was script that stopped Yun Cheon's heart.
Orthodox Dual Principles Sword Art
Reverse Dual Principles Saber Art
Yun Cheon's pupils contracted.
"...!"
One was the saber art of Mount Hua. And the other was... the sword art of Kunlun, said to have been proven on real battlefields in ages past.
That such manuals had emerged from the very heart of the Demonic Cult — from the breast of this grotesque old hermit — was enough to shake anyone.
"Hoh..."
He strove to mask his expression, but he could not stop his eyes from burning.
Cheon Gyeon waved the manuals before his face.
"Recognize them, do you? You have better learning than I expected."
Fortunately, Cheon Gyeon read that burning gaze as nothing more than a martial artist's greed.
"In the old days, Kunlun and Mount Hua were the twin chariots of the Daoist sects. This sword art and this saber art were born as a single pair. It is said that when the two are joined, they discourse upon all things under heaven."
Cheon Gyeon's explanation was accurate. Yun Cheon had heard of it in his past life as well.
A supreme master of Kunlun and a supreme master of Mount Hua, breathing as one to unfold a combined formation — the Dual Principles Grand Formation.
"But... is that not a formation in which two people wield their arts together?"
"It is. A technique that can only be unleashed when two minds become one. And yet..."
A mad smile curled across Cheon Gyeon's lips.
"You, boy, can split your own mind in two while standing alone, can't you?"
"...!"
"What if your left hand unfurled Kunlun's Orthodox Dual Principles sword, and your right hand Mount Hua's Reverse Dual Principles saber? You would be enacting the Dual Principles Grand Formation — by yourself."
It was an insane notion. And yet, in theory, it seemed it might just be possible.
An unprecedented realm, reachable only by one who had mastered Dividing Soul Twin Ultimates.
You sly young whelp. No wonder your eyes burn with want.
Cheon Gyeon savored the flicker in Yun Cheon's gaze. Peerless arts of the Nine Great Sects — and atop them, the temptation of embodying a legendary formation alone. An offer no martial artist alive could refuse.
If he fails, he dies in Qi Deviation. If he succeeds, my theory is proven.
Cheon Gyeon tossed the manuals against Yun Cheon's chest.
"Well? Didn't you tell me you had already fallen into your 'obsession' — that you were past the point of no return? Then surely you won't lose your nerve and back out now."
It was an open provocation. Yun Cheon accepted the manuals with trembling hands.
From the Kunlun manual rose a presence he knew like his own heartbeat — achingly dear. From the Mount Hua manual, a presence alien yet keen as new-forged steel.
Whatever scheme he's working, it's plain enough. But for me, this is an opportunity.
A Kunlun blade had come to rest in Yun Cheon's hands. Stolen and carried off by the Demonic Cult it may have been, but this was, unmistakably, the legacy of his sect.
Cheon Gyeon. You meant it as some test of me, I imagine... but you've handed me a gift I needed desperately.
With this, he had gained his justification: to draw Kunlun's sword once more from the very heart of the Demonic Cult. And Mount Hua's saber art, too, was rooted in Daoist principles — familiar ground for him.
"I'll attempt it. Either I go mad — or I embody the Dual Principles Grand Formation alone, and become a legend."
Yun Cheon answered as he tucked the manuals into his robe.
Cheon Gyeon threw back his head and laughed, well pleased.
"Kwahahahaha! Yes — good! I'll be watching."
Cheon Gyeon, his business apparently done, was melting away into the darkness when Yun Cheon spoke, his tone perfectly casual.
"One moment. Where are the Kunlun and Mount Hua shelves?"
"Hmm... fair enough. Study of other foundational arts should help you master those two as well."
Cheon Gyeon suspected nothing. On the contrary, he pointed with a finger, looking almost fondly exasperated.
"Kunlun's shelf is in that far corner. Mount Hua's is opposite it. You'll see for yourself, but... hardly worth the look. Tch."
With that cryptic remark, Cheon Gyeon vanished.
Yun Cheon's eyes sank cold and still.
"Hardly worth the look," is it...
He had to see for himself. Without hesitation, he set his steps toward the Kunlun shelf.
Meanwhile, in another corner of the Inner Library, Yayul Hui was tearing through the dust-caked shelves like a woman possessed.
"Not here either... not here either!"
A footwork art to complete the Wild Wind Yayul Family's saber method — a martial art to replace the Wind Soul Steps her clan had never deigned to teach her. She had hunted for one, but the Demonic Cult's library was vast beyond measure.
There were plenty of movement arts bearing similar names, yet nearly all of them were woefully inadequate for carrying the wild fury of the Wild Wind Saber, or else of an entirely different grain.
"Was I wrong from the very start...?"
Yun Cheon had told her to forge her own path — and here she was again, wandering in search of someone else's.
"...But I'm not a genius like him. I can't invent a martial art out of nothing..."
Yayul Hui raked a hand through her hair as she shoved a book brutally back into place. The gap between her and Yun Cheon was widening, and she felt as though she hadn't moved an inch.
Then something bumped against her foot.
A thin booklet lying half-abandoned on the floor, its cover half torn away.
Wind God Dance
Dance?
She had been searching for footwork; the word "dance" should never have caught her eye. But something about that grandiose name — Wind God — snagged her attention, and telling herself it didn't matter anyway, she flipped the booklet open.
On the very first page, her eyes went wide.
"The wind does not choose its path. Where it is blocked, it coils; where it opens, it runs."
"Forget the body and surrender to the flow. As if dancing. As if singing."
The moment she read those lines, lightning flashed through Yayul Hui's mind.
My feet can't keep up with my blade.
Yun Cheon's advice surfaced in her memory. All this time, she had tried to chase her saber with her feet. And so her hands and feet had always been at odds with each other — and so she had gone hunting for an ever-faster footwork art.
I took his advice far too literally...! Why did it never occur to me to do anything but outrun the blade with my legs?
The manual was telling her something else entirely.
Not the feet — the whole body must become the wind. Not raise a wind — become the wind.
Was I... wrong all along?
As though spellbound, she rose from her crouch. She closed the manual and shut her eyes.
The faint currents of air drifting through the library. Her feet began to move on their own.
Instead of darting in straight lines, they traced curves, turning in soft, unhurried spirals.
Sllk.
Like a dance. But into that motion, a cold saber-force began to weave itself. The savage ferocity of the Wild Wind Thirteen Sabers, the art she had clung to her whole life, melted into the softness of the Wind God Dance.
Vmmm—
A small whirlwind rose around her.
Yayul Hui's eyes snapped open, and joy came flooding up into them.
This is it. It doesn't have to be the Wind Soul Steps. No — this is better!
It was no art she had ever heard named. Perhaps some nameless recluse's oddity, discarded in a corner. But for the Yayul Hui of this moment, it was a more perfect piece than any peerless divine art in existence.
She sank down onto the floor and read on, entranced. A new wind had begun to blow through her eyes.
Standing before the Kunlun shelf, Yun Cheon stopped breathing.
Cheon Gyeon had been right. "Hardly worth the look" did not begin to cover it.
It was... devastation.
"......."
Every other sect's shelf stood packed tight with plundered manuals. The Kunlun shelf alone had been wrecked beyond all others. What few martial manuals remained were almost all foundational texts — and even those, scorched black by fire.
Slrrk.
With a trembling hand, Yun Cheon picked up one charred volume. In his heart echoed the voices of the disciples who had died at Kunlun — and of his eldest sworn brother.
"Burn it instead... never let them... take it..."
"Ah......"
Something collapsed inside Yun Cheon's chest.
That day, before the Cult's assault, his sworn brothers had resisted to the very last — and at the moment of death, they had burned the manuals. Rather than hand the legacy of their sect to the Demonic Cult's filth, they had chosen to turn it to ash.
Eldest Brother... my brothers...
Yun Cheon clutched the book to his chest and ground his teeth. Alongside the grief, a white-hot fury surged up — but at the far end of that fury, he found a single thread of hope.
Every burned manual was a foundational text.
Then where were the true manuals — the ones carrying the very marrow of Kunlun?
A secret place deep within Mount Kunlun, known only to the successive sect leaders and their chosen heirs, rose in Yun Cheon's memory.
The Hidden Grotto.
If his sworn brothers had done more than burn what they could — if they had planned for a day after — then the true legacy of Kunlun would lie sleeping there.
If the Hidden Grotto still stands... then Kunlun's roots have not been torn out.
Yun Cheon's eyes hardened. This emptied shelf was not the trace of a defeat. It was proof that Kunlun had never bowed to the Demonic Cult — and a promise, waiting for the master who would one day return.
Wait for me. I swear I will come back, and wake the swords that sleep there.
Yun Cheon placed the burned manual carefully back in its place, and turned away. There was no time left for grieving. Now was the season for forging strength.
I will come back for it. Without fail.
He was just stepping out from the Kunlun shelf when—
Crack.
The stone flags beneath his feet shivered faintly. The books on the shelves rattled and coughed up dust.
"...?"
Up on the ceiling beams, Cheon Gyeon — hanging upside-down like a bat, dozing — snapped his eyes open. A flicker of distaste crossed his mouth.
Tch. The blood-stinking one has come.
With an air of profound annoyance, the old man folded himself away into the shadows. Even he, master of the Inner Library, wanted no entanglement with this guest.
Thud. Thud.
From the darkness near the entrance, a man emerged.
Opulent dress, a meticulously groomed beard, and a smile that seemed the very picture of benevolence.
But Yun Cheon knew it instinctively. That smile was a mask — and beneath it hid the nature of a cold-blooded man who could cut down a thousand souls with a single stroke and never blink.
"There you are."
A soft voice — and yet it clung like a serpent tasting the back of your neck.
Behind him stood Sa Do-myeong, head bowed low, cold sweat running down his face — a herbivore standing before a beast of prey.
"At last we meet. I've heard all about you. Inspector Sa Do-myeong fell into your debt, I'm told."
The man's gaze crawled over Yun Cheon, deliberate and thorough.
"...It was hardly a debt worth speaking of."
Yun Cheon answered with perfect composure, offering a cupped-fist salute.
"Heh heh... Is that so? Then I'm glad to hear it."
The man's mouth curved into a fish-cold smile.
"Vice Director of the Inspection Bureau — Sa Gong-jin, at your service."
The moment Gal Mu-heun had foretold had arrived — the moment of borrowed blades.
"I've come to collect what's owed me."
Return of the Cloud Dragon
Author | Chu Sang (Autumn Frost)
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dream Books
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