The Garment Finally Fits
Woooooong—!
With a massive tremor, the entire Silk Dragon Hall shook.
Then, the medicines boiling inside the cauldron for days and nights subsided as if by magic. The murky, dark-crimson liquid had turned as clear and transparent as crystal. The essence it had contained had seeped entirely into the body of a single man.
"Hooo…."
Sitting cross-legged at the center of the cauldron, Namgung Cheon exhaled a long breath. Azure energy billowed from between his lips and scattered into the air.
And when he opened his eyes—
Flash.
A gaze like a blue lightning bolt blazed forth. It was deeper and far calmer than before.
Namgung Cheon raised his hand. Skin smooth as white jade. He clenched and unclenched a palm cleaned of every last scar.
Crack-crack.
The sound of his joints aligning rang out crisply.
'It's changed.'
The sensation of every single muscle, every single blood vessel, perfectly obeying his will. If his former body had been a rather fine steed, then—
'This body is now a Red Hare.'
But the true change lay elsewhere. Namgung Cheon closed his eyes and looked inward.
His dantian.
His sea of qi, the wellspring of a martial artist's life. There, an energy far vaster and heavier than before had taken residence. It was thanks to the Pain-Exchanging Origin Return Art.
The hellish agony he had endured while the Great Method ran its course—the bone-melting, flesh-tearing pain beyond what a human mind could bear—had all been piled up inside his dantian.
The result:
'I've gained roughly sixty years' worth.'
A reconstructed body and an explosive surge of internal energy. He had caught two birds with one stone.
Namgung Cheon slowly rose to his feet.
Splash.
The purified water rippled.
"…A monster, through and through."
A voice tinged with hollow laughter came from beside him. It was Namgung Dan. He looked haggard, as though he hadn't slept a wink for days, but his eyes were burning.
"I asked you to fix your body, and you come out an entirely different man."
Namgung Dan approached and gripped Namgung Cheon's shoulder. It was hard. And yet, at the same time, supple. A strange body where strength and flexibility coexisted.
But that wasn't all. Namgung Dan's eyes narrowed.
'Bearing that pain alone would be trial enough—yet he was circulating his technique too….'
He had watched the inside of the cauldron throughout the entire procedure. And he soon realized that Namgung Cheon, who had writhed in agony at first, had at some point begun operating the mental cultivation method and absorbing energy. He had even been smiling while he did it.
Namgung Dan burst into a short laugh.
"I didn't know you were one of those odd sorts who enjoy pain."
"…I am not."
Namgung Dan clicked his tongue. "I've watched countless martial artists in my life, but you're the first of your breed."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Namgung Cheon draped his clothes on and cinched his belt. His build, revealed over the garment, was not so different from before. His muscles hadn't ballooned grotesquely, nor had he shot up in height. But to Namgung Dan's eyes, it was unmistakable—the strength that could kick off the ground and soar ten jang at any moment, and the vast internal power that would push it along like a favorable wind.
"How is it? Does your body feel lighter?"
"Rather than lighter…."
Namgung Cheon repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist. The flow of energy reaching even the tips of his fingers was vivid.
"It feels as though I've finally put on clothes made just for me."
"Insolent as ever."
Namgung Dan chuckled. But beneath that laughter lay an satisfaction he could not hide—for the task Jeongcheon Hall had devoted itself to for the past fifty years had been brought to flawless completion.
Namgung Dan stroked the cauldron with a look of bittersweet pride. Just then, Namgung Cheon spoke in a low voice.
"May I ask one thing?"
"Go ahead."
"Why did you bestow this Great Method upon me, and not the Daegongja—my eldest brother?"
Namgung Hwi, the most likely heir, already renowned throughout the Jianghu. By any sensible measure, this precious Great Method should have gone to him as the firstborn son.
Namgung Dan answered bluntly.
"Hwi had nothing left to need."
He smiled faintly and continued. "Physique, internal power—everything a martial artist requires, he already possesses. Much like your father."
Namgung Dan's gaze settled on Namgung Cheon. "You, on the other hand, fell short. Of course, most in this Jianghu have less martial talent than you, but to become the sky of the Namgung Clan, that alone was not enough. And above all…."
Namgung Dan grinned mischievously. "That boy Hwi is too upright for my taste. To turn the world upside down, you need a half-mad one like you."
"…."
Half jest, half truth. But Namgung Cheon read the expectation threaded through those words. Hopes placed not on one who walked the path already laid, but on one who carved his own. It was, perhaps, a projection of his own unfulfilled longing—the regret of a man who had once wished to surpass the Clan Head, his own cousin, and never quite managed it.
"Let's go. They're waiting outside with their necks craned."
Namgung Dan strode ahead.
Grrrrk—.
The massive stone door ground open. The moment it did, the dozens of scholars and physicians waiting in reserve let out a collective cheer and prostrated themselves on the floor.
"It's a success!"
"The Great Method has succeeded!"
The joy of a lifelong devotion finally bearing fruit. Their tearful jubilation surely matched the elation of a martial artist ascending the realm he had dreamed of his whole life.
But Namgung Cheon's gaze was directed elsewhere. Outside—not this cramped, sealed building, but the open air. Out there….
"Getting antsy, aren't you?"
Namgung Dan said with a wide grin. "If you've put on new clothes, you ought to check whether they fit."
He tilted his chin toward the outside of the pavilion. "Let's go. To the training grounds."
A deep smile spread across Namgung Cheon's lips.
"With pleasure."
It was exactly what he had wished for.
The training grounds of Jeongcheon Hall.
A place that would ordinarily bustle with hundreds of martial artists lay strangely silent.
"I've cleared everyone out for you. Save for them."
Standing at the center of the grounds, Namgung Dan pointed with his scabbard at a group of men. When Namgung Cheon turned his head, he recognized the faces from a few days prior.
The Azure Sky Sword Unit.
"I thought a little stimulation might do you good. Ah, and for the record—the truly remarkable materials you absorbed were all brought back at the risk of those men's lives."
Namgung Dan added, glancing at them. "One of them shattered the ice wall of the North Sea to retrieve an ice crystal and nearly lost his arm to frostbite; another took half a year teetering on death's edge, poisoned while fetching a black sand jar from the Poisoned Ravines of the Southern Wilds."
At those words, faint smiles spread across the lips of the Azure Sky Sword Unit members.
Shrrng—.
Namgung Dan drew his sword with a smile. "Then surely you'll grant me the courtesy of a proper duel, won't you? Prove to those men that you're worth what they gave."
Namgung Cheon silently nodded. A miracle made from their blood and sweat. Naturally, he needed to confirm whether the result was worthy of it.
Namgung Cheon slowly drew his sword. The blade of Changcheon gleamed in the sunlight.
"Understood."
An unhesitating answer. And then came an explosive leap.
BANG!
Namgung Cheon shot off the earth like an arrow. Namgung Dan took a single step forward and thrust his blade in. Shaaak!
A flash that split the air. Two swords clashed in the void.
BANG!
Namgung Dan's blade bored in deep, but Namgung Cheon's sword gracefully deflected the force. The diverted power transformed into rotation, seeking out the gaps in Namgung Dan's guard.
"Oh-ho!"
Namgung Dan's eyes gleamed. Unlike last time, his movements carried a certain ease. Now that his body could fully bear the strain, his vision widened and his sword path flowed freely.
Clang-clang-clang-CLANG!
Dozens of exchanges flashed by in an instant. The expressions of the watching Azure Sky Sword Unit members were gradually shifting. Eyes that had begun in skepticism turned to astonishment, then slowly deepened into profound awe.
They had seen it—seen that the materials they had bled to obtain had not been squandered. Seen them melt perfectly into the body of that young young master, sublimated into the monstrous strength that could withstand the Hall Master's blade.
"Good! Very good!"
Namgung Dan laughed heartily and pressed his momentum.
Woooooong!
A gray sword astral surged from his blade.
"Take it once more!"
It was Sky Collapse—the technique that had broken Namgung Cheon last time. An overwhelming sense of pressure, like a colossal mountain falling upon his head.
A smile flickered across Namgung Cheon's lips as he faced it. Last time, he had not been certain he could block Sky Collapse. But this time—
'I block it!'
Fwoooosh—!
Blue sword astral rippled along Namgung Cheon's blade.
Gray astral falls like a shattered heaven.
Azure astral rises to meet it—the young sky answering the old.
KWAAAAAH!
The two colossal forces collided head-on. A tremendous shockwave swept across the training grounds. The bluestone flooring cracked and split; dust erupted like a storm. The aftershock was fierce enough that the Azure Sky Sword Unit members had to raise their internal energy just to shield their bodies.
KUGUGUGUNG!
The thunder continued within the clouds of dust. Namgung Dan poured his internal energy into his sword—the full strength of a man standing at the very edge of the Transcendent Realm.
But Namgung Cheon was not pushed back. An crushing pressure threatened to flatten his entire body, yet his frame bore it steadfast. Rather, the rebound he felt while holding against that pressure sent a tingling thrill through him from head to toe.
"HUP!"
With a sharp cry, Namgung Cheon drove power into his sword.
UUUUDUK!
His suppressed sword astral began to push back Namgung Dan's blade. And there, at the exact center, the two swords stopped.
"Hahaha! Magnificent!"
Namgung Dan laughed heartily and lightly withdrew. "You pass."
He sheathed his sword. "Your body now lacks nothing to receive my blade."
He turned to the Azure Sky Sword Unit. "What do you say? Through your efforts, the man who will become the sky of the Namgung Clan has been tempered into this."
At his words, the unit's captain stepped forward and knelt on one knee.
"It was our honor."
Short and blunt. One by one, the remaining members followed suit, kneeling and bowing their heads.
Namgung Cheon silently accepted their salute.
"Thank you."
Then Namgung Dan came over and clapped him on the shoulder. "No. Here, you owe no thanks, no recompense for what you've gained. There is only one thing I need—from you, from those warriors, and indeed from all of Jeongcheon Hall."
"And what is that?"
Namgung Dan pointed a finger at the Changcheon gripped in Namgung Cheon's hand.
"Show the world that the Namgung sword is the finest under heaven—and that you stand tall above that finest. That is all."
His gaze deepened. "So go now. Into a wider, harsher Jianghu. That alone is enough."
Namgung Dan smiled and tapped his shoulder once more. "You are a Namgung too, aren't you?"
Namgung Cheon gripped Changcheon tightly. The same Namgung. That one short phrase echoed somewhere deep in his chest.
A blind bond, knotted not for any interest or purpose, but by a single thread of blood. Sometimes heavy as shackles, sometimes hurling sharp words back and forth—and yet, in the moment of crisis, a fate-bound community fierce enough to throw down their very lives and stand back to back.
That was what a clan was. That was the weight given to him, who bore the name Namgung.
Yes. If that was so—
"…Without fail."
The feel of Changcheon against his palm burned hot in his chest.
"I will show you."
A Changcheon that would cover all the heavens.
The Heavenly Demon of Namgung
Author | Baek Ri-haeng
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor | Editorial Department
Published by | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. — Dreambooks
Address | 7th Floor, Kwangsung Building, 28 Bongeunsa-ro 114-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea
ISBN | 979-11-7306-734-1
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