Chapter 223
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 223
Chapter Title: The Path of the Sovereign (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Nangong Heun stood rooted to the spot for a moment, lost in a sense of emptiness.
Rather.
"Pardon the intrusion."
The man who had just severed the arm with his sword, Geum Sihyeon, hurriedly approached, tapped the acupoints around the wound to staunch the bleeding.
Then sprinkled golden sore medicine on it.
What the hell was this madman doing?
He'd cut off the arm himself, so why was he treating it?
Rather, that flawless action.
Severed the single thread of stubbornness lodged in Nangong Heun's heart with ease.
Nangong Heun let out a sigh.
"Will you strike me down?"
"As if."
Despite having committed an act tantamount to ripping away a warrior's entire life from its roots, Geum Sihyeon casually bantered on.
"If I did that, not only the Azure Heaven Society but the entire Nangong Family would come charging out like enraged tigers. If that's what you wanted to see, you wouldn't have come here in the first place."
"Haha."
Nangong Heun's dry laughter echoed through the quiet night.
Geum Sihyeon, who had looked somewhat awkward, soon gripped the corners of his mouth and grew serious.
"Even now, if you release your inner energy, you could crush me like a fly, Elder."
"The match is already over."
As Geum Sihyeon said.
Their life-or-death duel was already finished.
To a warrior, an arm was akin to their very life.
Especially the right arm of a right-handed swordsman who wielded an exquisite blade.
"With your skill, you'd master the left-hand sword just by swinging it a few times."
"Not wrong there."
Geum Sihyeon had won the match, but he could never win the fight.
Though the gap in years embedded in the sword—through observation, understanding, and dismantling—could be overturned in an instant.
How could one possibly bridge the gap forged over long years, piled up like a mountain of salt?
Thus, from the very beginning until now.
Geum Sihyeon had been prepared for death.
Nangong Heun had sensed that resolve as well.
Though he hadn't anticipated this outcome.
Fortunately for Geum Sihyeon.
Nangong Heun's curiosity blossomed within him.
"Why not remove the mask at least? Calling me 'Elder' while hiding your face isn't very courteous before an adult."
"Can't argue with that."
Throwing Nangong Heun's words back at him with a cheeky retort.
Geum Sihyeon obediently removed his mask.
Nangong Heun's eyes widened slightly upon seeing the face revealed beneath.
And then.
"Ha, haha, hahahaha...! I see, so that's how it is!"
He simply laughed.
Originally, the Azure Heaven Society was a kind of camaraderie group.
Survivors of the previous righteous-demonic great war—no, even earlier than that one.
And among them, the elites from each sect who had fought together on the front lines, a gathering of future pillars who would lead the martial world.
Of course, many hadn't participated.
Representatively, the Raksha Fairy Dan Yuwol.
With her bitchy, prickly personality and laziness to boot, she'd declared, "This lady has no interest in such a dull place!" and bolted.
Others like the Sword Venerable, Flowing Cloud Sword, Divine Arrow Palace, Reckless Iron Fist...
Those seeking the pinnacle of martial arts, those dreaming of ascension, those carrying on the bow's legacy, those aiming to strike the heavens with Shaolin fists.
In short, those with firm personal aspirations naturally didn't join.
The rest were mostly people for whom their affiliated group's glory mattered more than their own.
Sima Family.
Nangong Family.
Sichuan Tang Family.
Mount Hua Sect.
Congdong Sect.
And even the Beggars' Sect's Justice Gate.
Before long, they had passed middle age into their senior years, pondering and implementing ways to solidify the existing order.
Thus, the Nine Great Sects and Ten Great Families.
And the subtle hierarchies and conflicts arising within them.
Even in situations where they could scatter like grains of sand.
The vested interest of martial arts always bound them tightly, and the external threat of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult provided a sturdy justification.
However.
21 years ago.
The world flipped once.
So violently that even "earth-shattering" couldn't capture it.
The smartphone, a wondrous device born from the Zhuge Family's hands.
The Sima Family belatedly stuck their spoon in for joint credit, but that was it.
The smartphone changed the martial world from its roots.
Even without legs, words travel a thousand li—but silent letters traverse ten thousand li in the blink of an eye.
Secret manuals, once treated as priceless treasures beyond third-rate ronin's dreams, were released for MuTube views and fame.
Instead of pouring distant affections into letters, one peels tangerines under warm blankets and taps out messages.
Street brawls once dismissed as jokes roam like ghosts in videos.
Rhythms, books, and paintings popular only locally spread from the vast lands, detonating cultural bombs.
Finally, the most fatal blow.
The galleries and Martial Wiki.
Anyone, anonymously, freely.
A place that could capture one truth amid nine parts lies, where a single frail voice could resound across the entire martial world.
The moment it spread like a plague.
No longer.
Did the martial world hold any secrets.
The now-bloated Azure Heaven Society faced an existential crisis.
Poison King Tang Seoak and Sword Sage Ouyang Hui joined wills.
If they sat idly through this chaos, there would be no future for them, the Society, or the martial world.
Thus, the loners nurtured by the Poison King spread like a plague.
At that time, Sword King Nangong Heun believed it was right.
And.
Now.
"It was you, Geum Sihyeon."
All things in the world shone vividly before his eyes.
How had he not recognized it?
How could that small jade mask conceal such immense brilliance? Jade mask, jade mask...
"Tang Seoak must have been confined by you too."
Geum Sihyeon nodded.
As if a divine presence that warped the world's very perception dwelled in that wondrous device—could a second Zamiga receive heaven's favor like this?
Nangong Heun felt deflated.
But still, he was the family head.
"Even so, as family head, I have no choice but to cut you down. How could a father who lost his son not soothe that grudge?"
"The son—you mean the young lord?"
"Yes."
"Why would I kill those people? Look over there right now."
At Geum Sihyeon's words, Nangong Heun finally turned to look behind him for the first time.
"...Heavens."
There.
A scion of the Nangong bloodline sat in lotus position, eyes closed with utmost solemnity.
Stars began to scatter from his body.
The unmistakable sign of breaking through a wall.
To shatter the future and cling to the past?
Or abandon the present even now and embrace the future?
Nangong Heun, glancing at the sky once, chose.
The latter.
Though the Nangong name would inevitably decline to second place amid the waves.
Just as the Sword Venerable's era ended and his own began.
When Geum Sihyeon's era ends, the Nangong era would return.
For he had just witnessed the future of eras with his own eyes.
Nangong Heun descended Heavenly Lord Mountain alongside Geum Sihyeon with a light heart.
He was a foolish, idiotic son, but still his son.
Perhaps handing over the family head position and spending days honing the left-hand sword wouldn't be so bad. With that thought, he slightly relaxed his mind.
Next, Nangong Hwi—that one wouldn't be bad either.
Thinking such thoughts.
.
.
.
"Why are you two coming together?"
Until he saw his son—shitting himself and sprawled out, yet still breathing steadily—Nangong Heun had been at peace.
"Can I cut this one down?"
Nangong Heun's left-hand sword proficiency skyrocketed, filling the experience bar to reach EX rank in an instant.
"Not yet. We still have a promise."
"That bastard poisoned me, leading to this mess—why blame me?"
"......"
Geum Sihyeon broke out in cold sweat.
Cheon Siu stared at Geum Sihyeon and Nangong Heun like exotic animals.
A short distance away, Baek Liyeon thought the same.
'Not even mutual destruction—just lost an arm, and somehow...?'
'Elder... even with his arm severed... how...?'
The next day.
Nangong Heun gathered the entire family.
And, as always, nonchalantly, as if stating the obvious fact that the sun rises in the east.
"From this moment, we sever ties with the Azure Heaven Society."
He issued the command.
At those words.
Like rain pouring from the heavens, one pill dropped near each person's hand.
"Take it. Or leave the family now and head to Mount Hua."
No fool dared defy the heavens of Nangong, the sovereign's decree, under the family's roof.
Of course, some bore such heavy burdens from strutting with the Society's prestige that stepping out terrified them.
Or those deeply immersed in or empathetic to the Society's ideals.
But.
They were Nangong too.
Thus, they.
Shwaaak—!
Puk—!
"I told you to go to Mount Hua, but you're heading to the afterlife. Fools."
Chose suicide.
That day.
The Azure Heaven Society lost its greatest faction.
.
.
.
"Keurk, keurk, feels refreshing inside. This is normal."
The Nangong Family's young lord.
Nangong Seon was freed from chronic indigestion.
Because the three things twisting his gut were resolved at once.
One was the Azure Heaven Society.
Truth be told, Father's influence carried it; he was barely fit to show his face there.
So inwardly, he was glad to escape its shadow.
The great martial world? As long as Nangong is great, that's enough.
Another was the loners.
Apparently the main cause of his indigestion; he savored an unprecedented clear gut sensation.
Of course, producing Marine=jjajang on Heavenly Lord Mountain contributed too, but Nangong Seon had no desire to recall that disgrace.
Finally, the most important.
- Prepare to inherit the family head position.
Finally!
While others at heaven-knows-fate age lorded over as heads and birthed young lords to flaunt power, he alone remained the sole young lord!
His 52 years of pent-up kingly genes roared in triumph.
But.
One lingering unease remained.
Geum Sihyeon.
The Azure Heaven Society's undeniable public enemy.
Father hadn't said it outright, but circumstances pointed to him severing Father's right arm.
Yet instead of revenge.
"......"
What the hell was that sight?
Entering the family head hall, Nangong Seon beheld a bizarre scene.
Not glasses—what was that square, elongated bamboo tube-like thing strapped around his father's eye? Nangong Heun, and.
Geum Sihyeon in similar getup, sitting face-to-face in lotus position amiably.
Moments later, without a word on who started, the two men removed their tubes.
And.
"Naryetagon, you say? Have you no pride?"
"Does pride feed you? Winning's all that matters."
"If I'd used Fierce Tiger Stance to strike down, you'd be done."
"But you didn't, right? Even with both arms in mind-image, you lost using inner energy?"
"Insolent brat."
Nangong Seon quietly turned and left the family head hall.
Father must have finally reached the next realm.
Beyond Profound Realm, into uncharted territory.
The Dementia Realm.