Let Me Show You My Sky

“……”

Namgung Cheon stared at Namgung Dan without a word.

The fighting spirit and raw power pouring from every inch of the man's body. And that face — strange, yet somehow familiar.

……I remember you now.

Memories of his past life surfaced vividly in Namgung Cheon's mind. The days of the Great War of Justice and Demons, when he had led the charge as Young Cult Master. As he carved his way forward, cutting down the masters of countless orthodox sects, there had been one young swordsman who tore alone through the Demonic Cult's ranks, painting a crimson trail across the battlefield.

He was the very picture of what one would call a mad sword — a swordsman possessed. Slashing down every cultist in his path, skewering them, and finally throwing himself at Cheon Myeong-hyeon himself with that blind, unreasoning killing intent.

Back then, Namgung Cheon had merely brushed him aside and moved on, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but those eyes had never been forgotten.

I always thought: if we ever met again, that man would come for my throat.

And yet that mad swordsman—

……He's changed.

The years had carved away the frenzied bloodlust, and in its place filled him with seasoned depth and precision. More than anything, the energy steeped into his body was anything but ordinary. The very air around him rippled without pause.

A phenomenon impossible through internal energy alone.

He's reaching toward what lies beyond the Transcendent Realm.

The realm beyond transcendence.

The Boundless Realm — the state that surpasses the limits of humanity and interferes with the very laws of the world. With the experience of his past life, Namgung Cheon recognized it at a glance: Namgung Dan had not yet crossed that threshold, but if the right catalyst came, he could touch it.

……A true strong one.

Namgung Cheon tightened his grip on Changcheon. He could feel sweat seeping into his palms — and with it, a strange heat winding through his entire body.

No. Not heat. Euphoria.

A smile played at the corner of Namgung Cheon's mouth.

Yes. This is the feeling.

He could die. He could be cut down. And still, he would not retreat. That hunger for a worthy foe was nothing less than the essence of what it meant to be a martial artist.

“Cheon.”

Namgung Dan spoke, leveling his blade at an angle.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

“Our Namgung Clan has always gazed upon the azure sky. That vast and towering heaven.”

Tap. Namgung Dan took a single step forward, his stance sinking low.

“But I stopped looking at the sky. All I ever thought about was the blade that would cut down the enemy before my eyes.”

His eyes flashed fierce and sharp.

“Can you bear it? If you're careless, that passion of yours — that flame — may burn out right here, before it ever truly blazes.”

Namgung Cheon lifted one corner of his mouth. And then—

Vmmmm—.

Blue sword force bloomed from Changcheon like fire.

“No flame burns forever. And yet……”

Namgung Cheon's eyes glittered.

“A flame, while it burns, never once thinks of stopping.”

At those words, a deep smile spread across Namgung Dan's lips. Then he threw back his head and laughed heartily.

“Haha! Good! Yes — that is what a Namgung should be!”

The moment his laughter died, his gaze turned razor-sharp.

“Then let's see just how hot that flame of yours truly burns!”

BOOM!

Namgung Dan's foot slammed into the ground. The bluestone cratered, dust surging upward — and riding the recoil, his thrust arrived before Namgung Cheon's eyes in the space of a heartbeat.

A simple thrust. But its speed and power defied imagination.

CRASH!

Namgung Cheon raised Changcheon and caught the blade. But with the heavy impact, his body was driven backward, skidding across the stone.

“Kgh.”

His ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wrist throbbed and went numb.

“I know this isn't the extent of your sword! Show me everything!”

Namgung Dan roared and pressed the assault. His blade's path was impossible to read. Like rain poured down from the heavens, his sword hammered at Namgung Cheon from every direction at once.

Each time the tip grazed past, the air itself split with a shriek, and the bluestone beneath their feet was carved away like slabs of tofu. Brutality lived in every single stroke of that sword force. Namgung Cheon was learning, for the first time, that an orthodox sect's blade could be this merciless.

A sword with no thought whatsoever for defense, aimed only at cutting down its opponent.

The Sky-Shattering Boundless Sword. The endless blade that breaks the very heavens — the offensive-only sword art Namgung Dan had forged by reinterpreting the Changgung Muae Sword Art through his own wild vision.

Shaak! Shaaeeak!

Namgung Dan's sword force split into a dozen streams and came surging in. When it seemed aimed at his throat, it was already boring toward his heart; when he guarded low, sword force crackled to life above his head.

An unbroken chain of unpredictable shifts. Every instant was a fork between life and death.

In moments, the hem of Namgung Cheon's robes hung in tatters. The sword wind skimming his skin left gashes here and there.

CLANG! CLANG-CLANG! CRASH!

Stepping through the Heavenly Walking Steps, Namgung Cheon desperately parried the relentless onslaught. Again and again his feet slid backward with each block — his shoes growing hot from nothing but friction against the ground.

Tak! CRASH! When Namgung Dan's blade carved in from the right, Namgung Cheon shifted his weight left to receive it; when it crashed down from above, he sank low and let the force slide off him.

A knife's-edge exchange where life and death were separated by the breadth of a single sheet of paper. And yet within that perilous dance, Namgung Cheon's sword was being honed sharper and sharper — as if Namgung Dan's savage assault were a whetstone, dragging his senses to their absolute limit.

KWA-KWANG!

Stones thrown up by the titanic collision rained down like hail. On the platform above, the elders found themselves unconsciously raising their internal energy just to shield their bodies.

And in the eyes of Namgung Jin, watching from a corner of the arena, despair took root.

Is that truly my little brother……?

Movement the eye could not hope to follow, and the very pinnacle of destruction wrought by a human body.

If I had been standing there……

Namgung Jin could not finish the thought. He only swallowed dryly.

Then it happened.

BANG! Tatatat.

Having deflected one of Namgung Dan's strikes, Namgung Cheon rapidly fell back. His brow knitted itself of its own accord.

No openings at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all.

For all its wild appearance, Namgung Dan's sword was anchored by decades of фундамental training that stood like a skeleton beneath the fury. Like an ancient tree a thousand years old — roots deep, trunk unshakable — it did not waver in the slightest. Precision hidden within savagery.

Shaak! CRASH! CRASH!

A chain of strikes that granted not even a breath to spare. This was the true reason Namgung Dan was called the Sword Freak.

If he stayed on the defensive like this, swept along by that tidal wave of momentum, he would be devoured in the end.

That moment—

“Take this one as well!”

Namgung Dan bellowed and brought his sword crashing down.

The first form — Heavy Mountain Cleaves the Sky.

But it was utterly different from how anyone else performed the technique. It was, quite literally, a mountain — a devastating sword force plummeting from the sky like a colossal peak falling to earth, as if to erase every possible avenue of escape.

Namgung Cheon's eyes turned ice-cold as he watched it descend. Then his senses sharpened to an extreme pitch. His heartbeat rang out like thunder, and every mote of scattering dust stood out in perfect clarity.

I can see it.

Every movement Namgung Dan made. And yet, just as expected — there was no gap. Which meant—

Then I'll make one!

SHAAK—!

Namgung Cheon's sword shot out in a straight line.

BOOM!

The instant the two blades met, Namgung Cheon retracted the sword force coating his blade in a flash — and condensed every last wisp of that energy into a single point: the exact spot where his sword met Namgung Dan's.

If I cannot win on sheer volume of internal energy, then I'll pierce through with concentration.

A divine technique that gathered scattered power into one place and detonated it — an exquisite manipulation of internal energy executed in less time than it takes to blink.

Crack!

A sharp, minute sound of rupture. The overwhelming, mountain-crushing sword force that had borne down on Namgung Cheon wavered for an instant as it struck the concentrated point of his own.

“……!”

For the first time, shock crossed Namgung Dan's face. An exquisitely refined feat of swordsmanship beyond anything he had ever imagined. And that flicker of a moment — that single wavering instant — was the one and only opening Namgung Cheon had been hunting for.

SHAAK—!

A thrust that abandoned all thought of defense, closer to mutual destruction than to any proper technique.

“Hup!”

Namgung Dan's eyes went wide as he detonated his internal energy. Then, with a masterful maneuver, he minutely twisted his blade's path — deflecting Namgung Cheon's sword upward while simultaneously cleaving straight for his front.

The cunning of a veteran, turning the very sword that had slipped through his guard into the opening for an instant counterattack. It was a moment that showcased all of Namgung Dan's dignity.

But Namgung Cheon was already seeing beyond it.

Tak—!

Riding the recoil of his own deflected blade, he twisted his body — a spinning, top-like motion boring into the blind angle. At the same time, the wrist holding Changcheon turned with liquid grace.

SHAAK—!

Moonlight Azure Sky. A terrifyingly swift lethal strike, flashing for the throat — a perfect ambush that almost no one alive could have answered.

But Namgung Dan did not so much as turn his head.

“Not a chance!”

The outstretched sword force exploded back inward, swirling around his entire body. Offense and impenetrable defense in a single breath — the secret technique of the Sky-Shattering Boundless Sword, the Sky-Revolving Wall.

KWAAAAAANG!

The two streams of force collided in midair. A staggering shockwave erupted, hurling both men apart.

Drip. Drip.

A bead of blood fell from Namgung Cheon's shoulder. Namgung Dan, by contrast, looked entirely unharmed. A perfect defense, and a perfect counterattack besides.

But then—

Sfft—.

On a thin breath of breeze, a fingernail-sized sliver of Namgung Dan's severed sleeve drifted through the air.

A strange light entered Namgung Dan's eyes.

I didn't see it.

And to have loosed that sword qi from within the vortex of the Sky-Revolving Wall, no less.

“……Hah.”

A deep smile spread across Namgung Dan's lips.

“Remarkable.”

He meant it. That razor edge had pierced through his flawless maneuver and left its mark — proof that Namgung Cheon's sword was no mere imitation of what he had been taught. It was unmistakable evidence that he walked his own sword, his own path.

Namgung Dan's eyes blazed anew.

“You've earned the right, boy. The right to see everything I have.”

VMMMMMM!

Namgung Dan's sword began to resonate. A vortex of blue energy started spiraling around him. The watching warriors staggered backward, their skin stinging as if being flayed.

Namgung Cheon stood alone at the very eye of that storm. Even with his protective hard qi raised to its peak, his skin pricked and his internal energy churned.

An overwhelming gap in power. And yet Namgung Cheon, if anything, smiled.

This is the fight I wanted.

A clash against a true strong one — one who would test his limits and force him to see what lay beyond. His heart pounded like a war drum, a surging exaltation he had never once felt in this life.

Namgung Cheon closed his eyes. And deep within himself, he opened the empty space of the Taehyeo — the Great Void. There, a bottomless abyss lay waiting. An immense vessel capable of swallowing all things, and of embracing all things.

SHAAAAA—.

Light burst forth from Namgung Cheon's body. At the same time, blue energy began to rise magnificently around his sword.

Namgung Cheon opened his eyes. His pupils shone blue as the sky itself.

“Then I, too, will show you.”

Namgung Cheon raised his sword.

“My sky.”