Chapter 65
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 65
Chapter Title: Sword Emperor (2)
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That had been a mistake.
The eldest son, consumed by his inferiority complex toward his second son, ended up committing an unforgivable act. Overwhelmed by guilt toward the son he had irrevocably changed, he fell into a daze and stumbled into the jaws of the law.
Should he have stayed utterly cold-hearted to the very end?
Perhaps no words of comfort would have made a difference anyway. Once it had come to that, their fates were sealed beyond repair.
Then he shouldn't have wavered. Hadn't his own hesitation nearly brought the entire family to ruin?
What might have happened if not for the man standing before him? It was a horrific outcome too dreadful to even imagine.
"I owe you a debt."
"Just pay it back. It's nothing difficult."
"Fair enough. Simple as that."
"Overthinking it won't yield any answers. As the saying goes, 'truth lies neither in difficulty nor ease, but in reality itself.'"
Mujin could spout all the nonsense he wanted. People had a way of interpreting vague, lofty words to suit themselves. And it wasn't entirely wrong. Better to speak in riddles than plain truths—they rarely argued with enigmas.
"Maybe it's my age and ignorance, but I just can't wrap my head around it. Why don't you, the sharp one, break it down nice and simple for me?"
"......?"
This old fox—he was playing at a high level.
He'd built Mujin up just to drop him into the abyss in an instant. It was like soaring through the air only to crash with a bout of vertigo. Speaking carelessly always came back to bite hard.
In moments like this.
'Hey.'
-That bastard!
Caught bluffing and exposed as ignorant, Mujin's face flushed red. A fierce urge surged within him to wipe everyone out right then and there, shame and humiliation burning hot.
He was the War King, after all. He couldn't afford to look embarrassed.
Kings were infallible, or so they said. He doubled down with brazen resolve. His perfected War King Battle Body had reached indestructible diamond form, but apparently, it wasn't flawless yet.
"Hahaha, I was only jesting—why so serious?"
"I'm not in the mood for jokes."
Beat him first.
Then they could trade banter amicably.
As Mujin steeled himself and gathered his aura, the Sword Emperor brushed it off casually and continued the conversation. Damn this old man—his instincts had sharpened immensely. It was a far cry from when he'd been sealed and dulled.
"What of your sect affiliation?"
"Starting with a background check? Worried I've cultivated demonic arts?"
"No chance of that."
"Could be."
"Craving a bounty on your head?"
"If someone wants to die, what won't they do?"
Mujin's wild audacity left everyone speechless, like they'd swallowed honey.
A bounty wasn't something to toss around lightly. Once marked, even absolute masters struggled to survive. One hand might fend off ten, but against the entire continent? It was a hellish net of inescapable pursuit.
Yet Mujin remained utterly at ease, exuding confidence that he could shatter any force even if branded a criminal.
"Hahaha, living long enough to meet someone like you."
"You've lived long, but maybe haven't met many people."
"At my age, a man's character shows itself plainly. Yours? Utterly inscrutable."
"Warriors prove themselves with martial arts, not words."
It was a blatant provocation: want to know? Come at me. To taunt the Sword Emperor, one of the Twenty-One Strong of the Divine Continent, so boldly? Unthinkable.
But Mujin possessed the power to back it up.
"Well said. All that was pointless chatter."
"Exactly."
The martial world was the realm of the strong. The weak's words, righteous or not, held no sway. To prove oneself, one had to become a powerhouse. That was the law of the jianghu.
"Even hearing the full story from the family head, I could scarcely believe it. Sealed or not, you retained your full strength. I focused solely on recovery."
"Think it's different now?"
The Sword Emperor's breezy, transcendent aura shifted. The dormant Thunder Emperor Divine Art circulated, unleashing an intangible pressure befitting the emperor of swords. His formless sword intent crushed the space itself.
Shaaa!
An absolute master's intangible aura was a weapon of murder. It sliced like a blade and weighed like a mountain.
Boom boom boom!
The intangible auras clashed head-on before Mujin, exploding in a prelude to test boundaries. The area transformed into their private domain.
"Fall back."
The Sword Guard unleashed his protective aura to shield the space, safeguarding his daughter. None unfit could trespass. Immature arts couldn't withstand it.
Weeeeng!
The space between Mujin and the Sword Emperor shimmered like a heat haze. Their energies warped reality itself. It was the domain of transcendents beyond mere experts.
Their auras locked in stalemate.
"Impressive indeed."
"Here I come."
Words gave way to martial exchange.
Mujin's right foot stamped the ground, and he shot forward like a bolt of lightning. The Mujin left behind was mere afterimage.
Before the afterimage faded.
Boom boom boom!
His thrusting fist carried cataclysmic force, detonating at the target. The responding sword shadow brimmed with spirit, pulverizing the fist blast.
Whooosh!
Not even the scattering fragments could be ignored. They shattered space on contact.
Slash!
The sword swept horizontally, slicing left and right. Vertical and diagonal strikes followed in a dense web. In an instant, the entire space was ensnared in sword trajectories—a wondrous sight.
Emperor Sword Form: Heavenly Net Sword Formation.
The sword-woven net enveloped Mujin like a cast seine. Escape seemed impossible in this isolated void. Especially since it was a net of sword energy that pulverized sword auras.
Crack crack crack!
Fissures spiderwebbed out.
Sensing crisis, the Sword Emperor evaded with Infinite Steps. Infinite space existed everywhere.
Booom!
The world-encompassing sword formation shattered like glass and dispersed.
There stood Mujin, fist extended.
Smirk.
Mujin grinned.
'Impressive.'
-He's no slouch.
It had been ages since his regression that he'd faced such a worthy adversary. The thrill of the battlefield, long forgotten, surged back to life.
Whoa.
A chill ran down the Sword Emperor's spine.
The Heavenly Net Sword Formation was the pinnacle of swordsmanship, culminating the Namgung clan's arts upon perfecting the Emperor Sword Form. To dismantle it so effortlessly? Utterly exasperating.
Click!
Undeterred by the failure of his ultimate technique, the Sword Emperor stood firm. He trusted the efforts poured into his sword over those years. He believed it encompassed the world. Naturally, he would prove it with his blade.
Mujin and the Sword Emperor clashed once more.
Boom boom boom boom!
A basic exchange of sword and fist. Yet their speed and destructive power transcended ordinary clashes. Perfectly intertwined, they embodied the true essences of fist and sword.
Advance Guard Step: Domination.
Press forward and seize the momentum. In battle, victory often hinged on momentum, not strategy or tactics—especially in one-on-one duels where breaking the opponent's spirit trumped mere technique.
Mujin's Advance Guard Step dominated space. Beyond mere advance, retreat, or evasion, it gradually eroded the Sword Emperor's sword path, claiming the area.
Mujin's strikes diversified next. Mixing kicks into his fist path, he disrupted the sword path. Unexpected blind spots targeted gaps with feet and knees.
Thwack!
The Sword Emperor's body shuddered from a side strike. Not diamond indestructible, yet his qi-refined flesh surpassed steel. To crumble in one blow? Lamentable.
Still, his sword path held, thrusting vertically from low stance at Mujin's head.
Slash!
The heaven-splitting sword formation bisected Mujin.
Without hesitation, the Sword Emperor swung. Confirming the afterimage severed, he extended his senses to lock onto the real Mujin.
Clang!
Mujin, conjuring an illusion at close range, deflected the pursuing sword with his fist and reflexively shot out his knee.
Simultaneously, a blaze of blue palm force struck Mujin's knee.
It was the pinnacle of the Namgung clan's Heavenly Wind Palm Force.
Once martial arts reached a certain realm, all phenomena converged to their origins, myriad streams returning to one. The Sword Emperor's Heavenly Wind Palm Force had ascended to mastery of palm arts.
Booom!
The Sword Emperor's Heavenly Wind Palm Force lacked the Wudang Face Palm's raw destruction but was far swifter. Moreover, it required almost no qi gathering.
The technique of Inch Shadow Heavenly Palm.
"Strong."
"That's my line."
"Now the real fight begins."
"Come at me."
Mujin had used the power that subdued the sealed Sword Emperor moments ago. But now, that level of force and speed no longer sufficed. A puppet on strings was worlds apart from a thinking man.
Woooong!
No energy ripples formed. Instead, the air grew heavy, constricting breaths.
Mujin's resolve shifted from duel to mortal combat. The entire space became a battlefield.
A blood-soaked inferno where life and death hung by a thread.
Bang!
The unfolding scene far exceeded the Sword Emperor's expectations. Mujin was like a different person. The same moves now evaded his sword path entirely. Astonishingly, decades of honed skill couldn't even graze Mujin.
Overwhelm.
The transcendent dominance seized the battlefield, leaving the emperor's sword path lost and wandering. The Invincible Emperor Sword Auras of the Emperor Sword Form teetered like walking on thin ice.
Gulp.
Nangong Yeonhwa swallowed dryly without realizing. Mujin's strength had been proven when he subdued her grandfather. Yet that came with the caveat that her grandfather wasn't at full power.
'Just how strong is he?'
She who refused to yield to anyone in martial arts found his power on another plane. An unbridgeable chasm. She couldn't even guess its depths.
The final stance of the Emperor Sword Form, Emperor's Descent, collapsed.
The heavenly pillar upholding the Namgung Clan—her grandfather's sword—had been bent.
'I'm still far off.'
The Sword Guard had to admit it. He couldn't even surpass his father's sword. Yet this man had shattered it again. The jianghu was vast, masters as numerous as grains of sand. But one like Mujin? A first.
The saying "the waves behind push the waves ahead" held, but to reach grandmaster rank at merely thirty? Beyond awe—incredible.
Hah!
Having poured out all his power, the Sword Emperor heaved deep breaths and lowered his sword. He'd grasped the subtleties of mind sword upon awakening from endless delusion, yet his opponent wielded heart fist at perfect mastery.
The final move glimpsed was a more flawless Fist Shadow Bloom than the Heavenly Net Sword Formation. A fist that blanketed the world.
"You were on another level altogether."
"Elder, you can hold your head high. Few could match me like you did."
Far from comfort, the Sword Emperor felt hollow. His sword dao had nearly crumbled.
Though dejected, Mujin spoke sincerely. Even in the future, sword masters rivaling the Sword Emperor were rare. They could be counted on one hand and topped the Demonic Cult of the Demon God's hit list.
One might expect fury, but the Sword Emperor accepted defeat. Those who knew his fiery temperament from his active days would be shocked.
"Can't fool age."
"Talk like that, and no young survivor left."
Trouble brewing.
The Sword Emperor understood Mujin's arrogance. So strong at that age—humility would be the oddity. He even seemed modest now. Ominous times.
"Let's get along from here."
"I'll take the sentiment."
No thanks to half-baked vows. He didn't know how they'd fare, and the Namgung Clan's safety was their own burden. A clan unable to stand alone deserved to fall.
"Don't trust us, eh?"
"Time will tell."
The Sword Emperor read Mujin's intent.
It meant the enemies ahead were no pushovers. A warning that even at their peak, the current Namgung Clan fell short.
"Tormenting an old man brings heaven's wrath."
"The older you get, the more you must move."
"Isn't suffering in youth self-inflicted?"
"These days, it brings illness."
Trying to play me like a fool? Still in his prime.
Determined to forge some connection, the Sword Emperor handed over a token permitted by the family head.
"Useful in a pinch."
"Not a leash, right?"
Mujin's suspicions lingered.
Anyway, not a leash, so he pocketed it.
"Say that again."
"It failed."
The middle-aged man, Mokam, paused in wiping the orchid leaves.
Shhh!
The vibrant leaves crumbled like sand and fell away. His uncontrolled lethal aura had snuffed the orchid's life.
Known as Mokam for rarely showing emotion, such lapses were rare enough to count on fingers.
The prior Mythic Demon Seal was merely a step. Negligible impact on the grand scheme.
But the effort invested in the Namgung Clan was substantial. Securing the Sword Emperor, one of the Twenty-One Strong of the Divine Continent, and shattering the Five Great Clans' unity—it was the opening gambit for continental invasion.
"The Black Killer Squad?"
"No return."
"No traces found?"
"Correct."
He'd deployed the Black Killer Squad accounting for variables. With the Sword Emperor sealed, the Namgung Clan's devastation was assured.
Two consecutive failures for him. Hard to swallow for one who prided himself on heavenly intellect.
"The Sword Emperor?"
"The Namgung Clan's defenses have tightened unlike before. Confirming internal events will take time."
"Not one solid fact!"
"Apologies, but currently..."
The reporter collapsed mid-sentence like a cut thread. New subordinates appeared, dragging the body away like trash.
"Vermin."
Mokam's mind was unsettled—not from guilt over killing a subordinate, but from losing emotional control. For one who must remain ice-cold, it was an indelible humiliation.
"Where did it go wrong?"
Did they say heaven's net was wide but slack? The plan was flawless. A net tailored to the Namgung Clan's forces, Sword Emperor's power notwithstanding.
"The Sword Guard?"
Excluding the Sword Emperor, only the Sword Guard came to mind among Namgung swordsmen. Even hidden forces ranked below.
"Unless detected."
His long-conceived plan had crumbled overnight. Immediate action felt risky. If the Sword Emperor was intact and reversed the tide, pursuit might follow.
The cult's awakening was premature.
"Black Water."
"Yes, my lord."
He needed to review the failures. Mere beginning, but small errors could topple great plans. Inspect oversights and mistakes.