The Sword Sovereign's Verdict
Of all things, please not that... Baek Cheong couldn't even breathe carelessly. An eternity seemed to stretch from that bizarre gap. Did he really notice I've completed the sword diagram? All sorts of pessimistic scenarios spun wildly in her head. A suffocating silence lingered around the stairs.
The first to break the quiet was the uncle standing beside the Pa-cheon Sword Sovereign.
"Oh, it's Cheong. How did you make it all the way up to the fourth floor?"
Baek Mu-yeong spotted his niece late and came down the stairs with a pleased expression. His face showed bewilderment mixed with clear worry about offending the Sword Sovereign.
"Ah, Uncle. I'd finished looking around the third floor, and I heard there were rare treasures on the fourth, so I thought I'd take a peek."
Baek Cheong hurriedly bowed her head and stepped back. The enforcement disciple behind her was overwhelmed by the Sword Sovereign's presence, sweating coldly as he bowed deeply.
"Heh heh, the fourth floor is where Gold Core experts and above conduct their trades. The energy there would be too overwhelming for a Qi Refining kid like you to handle."
Baek Mu-yeong gently scolded his niece while naturally trying to position himself between her and the Sword Sovereign. But the Pa-cheon Sword Sovereign brushed past him lightly and approached right up to Baek Cheong's nose.
"Baek Division Leader, is this child the famed prodigy of the Yeonha Baek family?"
The Sword Sovereign's voice, heard directly, was heavy and dry, like chunks of metal clashing.
Baek Mu-yeong nodded stiffly, his face tense.
"Yes, Sword Sovereign. She's our family's youngest, Baek Cheong."
"Hoo."
The Pa-cheon Sword Sovereign let out another short exclamation and scrutinized Baek Cheong closely. A chilling sensation swept over her, as if his deep eyes were dissecting her meridians, dantian, and even the depths of her soul.
I-It's like he's seeing right through everything.
Baek Cheong forced her gaze to the floor and tensed her trembling legs.
"Not single spiritual roots—it's a freakishly cultivated dantian from forcing talent out of trash five-element roots. Yet the purity of the spiritual energy she emits surpasses your average dual-root cultivator. And that grotesquely swollen divine sense... For a Qi Refining body to contain it without going mad is no small feat."
Baek Cheong inwardly reeled in shock as the Sword Sovereign pinpointed her condition in an instant. Even the pill refiner or her father had only grasped fragments after days of close observation and pulse-taking, but this Origin Infant sword master saw through it all with a single glance.
"Sword Sovereign, Cheong's talents are so peculiar that we're still refining her meridians every which way. I beg your broad magnanimity and understanding."
Baek Mu-yeong, flustered, hastily covered for his niece in place of her doting father.
But the Sword Sovereign ignored him, his gaze fixed solely on Baek Cheong's eyes.
"Child."
"Y-Yes, sir!"
Baek Cheong responded with the crisp bark of a green recruit.
"The energy flowing through your body reeks of pill furnace exhaust and talisman incense. Yet... why does a sharp sword intent roil deep in your soul?"
It had finally come. That single thread of sword enlightenment she'd awakened in her mind with help from the Moomyeongbang sword experts. The faint trace etched into her soul had been caught by the Sword Sovereign's freakish senses.
I'm done for. Totally getting dragged off as a disciple now.
Baek Cheong racked her brain desperately for an excuse.
"Th-That is! Yesterday, I was just peeking at the jade stone Uncle got from the auction. It had all these scratches on it, so I stared at them because they were cool! Sword intent? No way, I've never even held a sword hilt!"
She waved her hands frantically, plastering on the most innocent, wronged expression she could muster.
Baek Mu-yeong backed her up, bowing toward the Sword Sovereign.
"Sword Sovereign, Cheong once glanced at the sword diagram illustration you bestowed the day before out of curiosity. The kid's aptitudes scatter every which way, so she must've picked up a bit of the jade stone's energy temporarily. She didn't mean to profane the sword diagram lightly, so please show mercy."
The Pa-cheon Sword Sovereign listened silently to the excuses and explanations. A faint, inscrutable smile flickered across his tightly pressed lips.
"Engraving sword intent into her soul from just glancing at a jade stone out of curiosity..."
The Sword Sovereign murmured slowly, staring into space. But his voice wove disappointment with a strange fascination.
"What a perversely heaven-defying aptitude. Even geniuses who've obsessed over the sword for a century can't properly read the sword path from a jade stone. For a little girl who's never held a sword to grasp even a fragment of the diagram in a single night..."
Baek Mu-yeong's jaw dropped at the Sword Sovereign's lament. He turned to Baek Cheong with eyes wide in astonishment. He belatedly realized that his niece, who had claimed ignorance and set the jade stone aside, had ultimately passed the test thrown by the Heavenly Sword Sect's supreme elder.
Just how far does this child's talent extend?
Baek Mu-yeong swallowed dryly, feeling a touch of fear.
The Sword Sovereign turned his gaze back to Baek Cheong. His eyes were far softer and deeper than before.
"Child, your name is Baek Cheong, was it?"
"Yes, that's right."
"I've devoted my life to the sword, reaching the cusp of Origin Infant. Yet I've wandered the continent for ages, unable to find a successor to carry on my sword vein. Your aptitude is stranger and more overwhelming than any prodigy I've seen in my lifetime."
Baek Cheong squeezed her eyes shut. She could already picture what came next from the Sword Sovereign.
'Become my disciple and come to the Heavenly Sword Sect.'
It was the classic disciple-snatching cliché from wuxia or xianxia tales.
No! My gallery life! I can't access Moomyeongbang from Heavenly Sword Sect!
Baek Cheong wailed inwardly as she awaited his words. But what emerged from the Pa-cheon Sword Sovereign's mouth completely missed her expectations.
"However, you harbor too many stray thoughts to walk the path of a true sword cultivator."
"Pardon?"
Baek Cheong blinked in stunned confusion, and the Sword Sovereign stroked his goatee, continuing.
"The sword is singular. Only by honing your soul toward one path, one goal, can you touch the heavenly dao through it. But your soul is fractured and cluttered with pill refining, talismans, and countless incomprehensible distractions. One who tears such a vast divine sense into shreds chasing superficial tricks can never reach the sword's end."
The Sword Sovereign had pierced her state and deemed it "stray thoughts." To sword cultivators who dug one well obsessively, Baek Cheong's scattered talents were poison.
"A pitying waste of talent. Your vessel doesn't fit to inherit my sword—truly lamentable."
Expressing deep regret, the Sword Sovereign turned away. A bittersweet solitude emanated from his back.
I-I'm alive!
Baek Cheong felt like she'd clawed back from hell's doorstep. Being judged unfit as a sword cultivator had never brought such joy.
Superficial tricks forever! Stray thoughts forever!
As the Pa-cheon Sword Sovereign moved to descend the stairs, he suddenly paused, turned, and looked back at Baek Cheong.
"Child... Though you're no vessel for my discipleship, I acknowledge the aptitude that unraveled the sword diagram. The diagram in that jade stone is called Flowing Star Break. It will one day aid you in shattering the great wall you'll face."
Leaving those cryptic words, the Sword Sovereign exited Baekgeum Pavilion. Only after his overwhelming presence vanished did the stifling air on the fourth floor finally release with a whoosh.
"Haa..."
Baek Mu-yeong and the enforcement disciple exhaled roughly, barely keeping their buckling legs from collapsing.
Baek Cheong, tension draining, leaned against the wall and patted her chest.
"Cheong, you little rascal... You said yesterday there was nothing to it with that jade stone!"
Baek Mu-yeong belatedly scolded his niece with a mix of resentment.
"No, really, there was nothing! I just pretended to swipe at it a bit, and that grandpa totally misunderstood!"
Baek Cheong brazenly denied it to the end, feigning nonchalance.
Baek Mu-yeong let out an incredulous chuckle and shook his head.
"Who can fathom your thoughts? At any rate, you caught the Sword Sovereign's eye and escaped unscathed—truly a blessing."
"Tell me about it. I aged ten years."
Baek Cheong sighed in relief, kneading her knotted muscles from the strain. The Sword Sovereign's parting words suddenly resurfaced.
Flowing Star Break... Cool name. Aid in breaking a wall?
She recalled her dantian, expanded to Qi Refining 4-star. The wall to 5-star seemed sturdy enough, but with the near-unity breakthrough method she'd grasped, it should be manageable. She was just steadily filling her dantian as her father advised, since that made breaching walls easier. If there was a hurdle, it'd be the minor realm jump from 6-star to 7-star.
Breaking a wall with a sword diagram...
What if she applied the Flowing Star Break's destructive power inside her dantian to punch through the wall?
Oh, this is a total jackpot!
Baek Cheong's eyes sparkled at the unexpected windfall. She'd failed to snag a serendipity from the street stalls, only to receive one in an unforeseen form from the Pa-cheon Sword Sovereign.
"Miss, you must be shaken. How about heading back to the estate for today?"
The enforcement disciple asked worriedly, but Baek Cheong shook her head vigorously.
"No way! I've got a serendipity now—can't just go home. Enforcement Brother, let's raid the stalls! My instincts are screaming today!"
With light steps, Baek Cheong left Baekgeum Pavilion, eyes blazing for a full sweep of the market. After all, true serendipities were best when tangible.