Azure Sky and Under Heaven (2)
The qi wave released from Namgung Myeong’s sword blade spread outward like clouds.
Even for a martial artist whose qi sense had opened, it was so thin as to be nearly undetectable. Like a faint mist that seemed ready to scatter at any moment, it nevertheless refused to dissipate and blanketed the entire sparring stage.
What on earth is he thinking, spreading his qi wave this widely?
Scattering a qi wave in advance was a rudimentary method used only when one had just begun learning light-body arts. Once proficient, a martial artist generated qi wave and force release at the same time; no such preparation was needed. Yet the qi wave Namgung Myeong had dispersed was excessively broad and thin. At this rate, even if he launched a sword wind, it would carry little force and would never fly far.
So why spread it so widely?
Cheonhwa grasped the reason through the Six Harmony Sensory Path. The perfected art possessed the ability to reveal an opponent’s trajectories.
This is…?!
Cheonhwa’s brow furrowed. For reasons he could not yet name, the number of trajectories in the sword art Namgung Myeong was unfolding had suddenly multiplied.
It isn’t simply that the number has increased. They keep vanishing and reappearing.
Such a thing was not unheard of. Depending on talent and the nature of a sword art, trajectories could expand or contract. But in Namgung Myeong’s case the shifts were far too rapid compared with any previous example.
If it were a changing sword or an illusion sword, perhaps—but the sword art Senior Namgung Myeong uses is clearly a heavy sword. A sword art that advances on the foundation of firm, established trajectories.
Then what did these constantly shifting paths mean?
Hard to block.
The ever-changing trajectories stretched toward angles Cheonhwa found difficult to receive. The unrestrained arcs of the blade felt as though they were binding his own movements.
Similar to the dull sword, yet clearly different.
Through the exchange of blows Cheonhwa gradually understood. If the dull sword’s purpose was the suppression of an opponent’s movement itself, Namgung Myeong’s sword naturally constrained the opponent while drawing the ideal sword path—one that was nearly impossible to block.
How was such a thing possible?
Because of the widely spread qi wave.
Using the qi wave that covered the entire stage as a medium, Namgung Myeong read every minute motion of Cheonhwa’s and, each time, traced the perfect sword path. This was the true essence of the Azure Sky Unfettered Sword Art. The broad light-body arts he had displayed until now were little more than a byproduct of that essence.
An ever-changing yet unrestrained sword path. It is like gazing upon the vast sky itself.
Cheonhwa felt with certainty that this was the true face of the Azure Sky Unfettered Sword Art. Namgung Myeong’s technique pressed forward with the majestic force of a great river in full flood. Under that relentless offensive Cheonhwa had no choice but to take a defensive stance. To any observer their sparring appeared to be a one-sided advance by Namgung Myeong.
Yet the man actually facing him felt a strange dissonance. He was certainly pushing, yet Cheonhwa seemed forever on the verge of collapse and never quite fell. Moreover, the trajectories of Cheonhwa’s sword art, sensed through the qi wave, were truly free.
To think Heaven’s Vast Net would be blocked in this fashion.
The absolute technique that treated the net of widely cast qi as a single sense had as its core the reading of an opponent’s movements in order to reduce variables to the absolute minimum. Yet Cheonhwa’s sword art created new variables in exact proportion to those that had been eliminated. It was as though he were shouting to the world that even if the sky itself fell, a hole would open through which one might rise.
As if boldly seeking to stand alone against the entire world.
In the sword art Cheonhwa unfolded, Namgung Myeong sensed the image of All Under Heaven. It was a sword that sought to contain the whole world beneath the sky—and at the same time a sword of self-defense that sought to protect its wielder from that same world.
Similar images, yet the results they produce are completely opposite.
The Namgung Family’s Azure Sky Unfettered Sword Art and the Zhongnan Sect’s Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven. The firmament that looked down upon all things, and the self-defense that firmly guarded the center of the world. A sword that sealed off variables, and a sword that freely created them. Both were heavy-sword arts sharing the same underlying principles, yet they could not have been more different.
Even the same martial art changes according to the one who wields it. That is why the study of martial arts is profound—and endlessly fascinating.
Though the absolute technique of the Azure Sky Unfettered Sword Art had been blocked, Namgung Myeong felt no panic. On the contrary, the present situation delighted him; a smile touched his lips. Among all the famous rising talents, not one had ever stopped his Heaven’s Vast Net. Even Paeng Mu-jin had been unable to do so. How could he not be pleased?
I can put more of my true strength into this!
Namgung Myeong began to unfold the Azure Sky Unfettered Sword Art to its extreme. In answer, Cheonhwa likewise pushed the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven to its limit. As the trajectories of the two arts tangled wildly, countless sword paths canceled one another and vanished. The unrestrained blade of the Azure Sky was repeatedly stopped by the unyielding blade of the Thirty-Six Swords. At that point both swordsmen felt that further maneuvering for position had become meaningless.
To think that at the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering I would use this martial art not against Brother Paeng, but against someone else entirely.
Namgung Myeong raised his sword into an upper stance. At the same moment the range of the widely dispersed qi wave contracted, and the aura transmitted through it changed. It was not merely the aura that altered; the entire space the qi wave occupied grew heavy.
This is the Thousand Catty Fall technique?
To apply the method of increasing weight with internal energy across every region the qi wave touched—such an absurd feat was possible, as far as Cheonhwa knew, only through one thing.
A Divine Absolute Art.
Creatures imbued with spiritual nature were called spirit beasts. Weapons so imbued were called divine weapons. And martial arts that carried spiritual nature were called divine arts. The technique Namgung Myeong now displayed was the Namgung Family’s Divine Absolute Art—the Emperor’s Sword Form. The majesty of a sovereign looking down upon the world had been realized as dominion over space itself.
Under a weight as though the sky were crushing him, Cheonhwa could scarcely keep his body under control. Seizing that instant, Namgung Myeong’s sword strike crashed down like a bolt of lightning. The speed was so sharp it seemed he had switched to a swift-sword style. Cheonhwa’s movements had been slowed by the qi wave’s pressure, yet separately Namgung Myeong’s blade had clearly grown faster.
Cheonhwa defended with the minimal motions of the dull sword’s principles. Even so, the impact that the forms of Under Heaven’s Great Dam could not fully absorb sent a stinging pain up through the hand that gripped the wooden sword.
Only afterward, through the Six Harmony Sensory Path, did Cheonhwa understand what had occurred.
The qi wave blanketing the space is assisting his movements?
Just as the weight of the qi wave pressed down upon Cheonhwa and hindered him, that same weight made Namgung Myeong’s motions freer while amplifying his sword power. It was a technique possible only for one who could freely manipulate qi wave that extended beyond the body’s interior into the exterior world.
It is fortunate that the restrictions prevent him from using Intent Qi Manifestation.
Had he been able to employ Intent Qi Manifestation, this cascading pressure alone might have inflicted external or internal injuries.
In a situation that had grown still more unfavorable after a single exchange, Cheonhwa looked at Namgung Myeong. Namgung Myeong was looking back; their eyes met. Namgung Myeong’s gaze asked the question.
Will you end it like this?
Cheonhwa answered by readjusting his grip on Okgyeong.
Of course not.
To bow his head simply because an emperor’s majesty crushed his entire body? Cheonhwa was not the sort to submit so quietly. When an arrogant opponent looked down upon him, he was the rebellious type who had to bite to be satisfied. If he could not bare his teeth, he would bite with his gums if necessary.
Movement is sluggish because of the qi wave’s weight, making response difficult?
Then he need only raise his own sword speed to match. Adding the minimal motions of the dull sword, he detonated the sword wind coiled about the blade.
Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, Eighteenth Form: Under Heaven Wind Demon.
The blade, driven by the wind, became a single line of cutting gale.
Bang!
When wooden sword and iron sword collided, the air itself burst with a sharp report. Having matched the sword speed by piercing the pressure of the Emperor’s Sword Form, Namgung Myeong unfolded his next move with a look of pure joy. The strikes that until now had been single decisive blows began to pour forth in unbroken succession—a continuous sword that retained the power of each individual strike through the assistance of the qi wave.
Cheonhwa answered with an application of Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, Seventeenth Form: Under Heaven Wind Flow. Like the endless current of the wind he detonated successive sword winds, intercepting the cascading continuous sword. The aftershocks of the colliding force releases spread outward in concentric rings. The heavy qi wave surrounding them undulated violently, yet it did not scatter.
His gambit having failed, Cheonhwa clicked his tongue.
I thought the aftereffects of the collisions might scatter the qi wave to some degree, but it was impossible.
To Cheonhwa’s eyes the qi wave covering the space appeared incomplete. As a Peak Expert forced to observe restrictions, Namgung Myeong could not properly load intent as he would with Intent Qi Manifestation. If the qi wave were disturbed, both pressure and assistance would surely weaken. He had tried to push it away with the force of the collisions, yet as expected it was not so easily done.
Then the next move.
Cheonhwa focused upon the sword wind coiled around Okgyeong’s blade. The wind began to whirl and suck in Namgung Myeong’s qi wave—an application of the counter form that wrapped and returned an opponent’s energy: Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, Twenty-Second Form: Under Heaven Lightning Flash.
As the surrounding qi wave was drawn into the blade, the crushing pressure upon his body eased. At the same time the blade, now wrapped in that qi, grew steadily heavier.
If I remain like this I will be crushed by the weight; even swinging the weapon will become difficult.
A martial artist of innate genius could adjust instantly to a changed weight. Cheonhwa was far from such a genius; he needed time to adapt. Fortunately he had grown accustomed to Okgyeong and was used to handling a heavy sword. Without that familiarity he would not have been able to swing the blade at all.
Cheonhwa expelled the absorbed qi as sword wind, sweeping a wide arc. Namgung Myeong answered in kind with his own sword wind.
Doo-woong!
When the two sword winds collided, a heavy resonance rolled out—far too deep and sonorous to be the meeting of mere light-body arts. It was the sound of a giant temple bell being struck. And this time, unlike before, the qi wave clearly shuddered.
Cheonhwa’s eyes lit up; he had found the method.
I’ll drive him like this.
He continued to absorb the qi wave with Under Heaven Lightning Flash and fire it outward as light-body force again and again. Namgung Myeong blocked the assault while an involuntary laugh escaped him at the sheer absurdity of it. To reverse the very qi wave meant to pressure an opponent and use it to apply pressure in return—the forms of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven that Cheonhwa employed were themselves extremely simple. Yet how could one dismiss the applications as simple?
To apply them in such a way is possible only because the foundation is that solid.
Even the function of the Emperor’s Sword Form—pressuring the enemy with qi wave imbued with the principles of the Thousand Catty Fall—had lost its meaning. Wide-range heavy pressure through qi wave no longer held great utility. If left unchecked the opponent would simply take and use every last scrap of it; better to reclaim it before that happened.
Namgung Myeong drew the widely spread qi wave back and coiled it tightly around his blade.
“This is the full power I can bring forth at present. If you receive this, victory will be yours in both name and reality.”
With those words he swung the sword wind compressed to its absolute limit. The extreme compression raced through space with a crackling of lightning sparks and a flash of light. Cheonhwa swung Okgyeong to meet it head-on.
The instant the lightning-like force met the jade-colored trajectory—
Kwa-reu-reung!
A thunderous roar like a lightning strike exploded across the stage.