The Heavenly Martial Body
The Baekri Heavy Sword, the greatest technique under heaven. The sword art that every martial artist of the Baekri Clan had to master to earn recognition. It had been years since he last performed it, so he wasn’t certain his body would respond properly. Still, Baekri Hyeong trusted his own flesh and began to swing his sword.
Whoosh. The instant he stepped forward and unleashed the first form of the Baekri Heavy Sword, every person in the training ground widened their eyes and fixed their gazes upon him. His posture was flawless. A child who had received no training whatsoever had perfectly replicated the opening stance of the most fundamental sword art after seeing it only once.
But if that had been the end of it, the reaction would not have grown so intense. When the first form flowed seamlessly into the second, and the forms continued to link without pause until the final stance was displayed—
Crack.
“Patriarch Baekri, please calm yourself.”
“Hmm. I’ve shown an unsightly side.”
Baekri Hyeok, unable to contain his excitement, had seized the armrest of his chair and shattered it. Had Han Seol-eun not restrained him, he might have unconsciously released his killing intent. The utterly unexpected sight left Baekri Hyeong momentarily speechless as he struggled to maintain his composure.
The most astonished person present, however, was not anyone else—it was Baekri Hyang.
“Wh-what… Where did you see that? There’s no way you could perform it this well.”
“I saw it. Didn’t you demonstrate it for me, sister?”
“You copied it after seeing it only once?”
“Yes. It looked simple, so I tried moving through it. How was it? Was it all right?”
“All right? What do you mean, all right…”
It was so perfect it sent chills down her spine. This was not the refined swordsmanship a six-year-old should be capable of displaying. Of course, his strength was still lacking, so the distinctive weight of the True Heavy Sword had not yet manifested. Even so, the sword path Baekri Hyeong traced was nearly flawless—the very path his sister had forged through an entire year of dedicated training. And her younger brother, holding a sword for the first time, had reproduced it.
In such moments, many would have felt jealousy toward a sibling’s extraordinary talent. Baekri Hyang felt none.
“As expected of my little brother! I knew you could do it!”
“Uuuuum!!”
Baekri Hyang swept Baekri Hyeong into a crushing embrace. He was smothered against her ample bosom until he could scarcely breathe. She found her younger brother unbearably adorable. There were families that envied their own blood relatives for their gifts, but Baekri Hyang could never understand such people. How could any sister not feel pride when this lovable child executed perfect forms with bright, sparkling eyes?
Of course, that sentiment did nothing to change the fact that Baekri Hyeong was on the verge of suffocating. Fortunately, his father intervened.
“Hyang-ah. Let your brother go. He’ll choke to death at this rate.”
“Ah! Sorry.”
“Kuuuung… As expected, I can’t beat you, sister. Just from being hugged, every joint in my body aches.”
“That’s because you’re so frail. Once you gain some strength, you might surpass me, don’t you think?”
“I wouldn’t know.”
If the clan had never been destroyed, Baekri Hyang might well have grown stronger than him. Even after utilizing the advantages of the Heavenly Martial Body following the clan’s fall, an eight-year gap still existed between them. If they developed along the same path as in his previous life, he might never overtake his sister. Yet that possibility no longer existed. If he began mastering the Four Guardian Deities Sword from a young age, he would soon surpass her. There was no reason to be pessimistic.
Having displayed his talent before the clan’s master, the decision that would follow was already clear.
“We will not begin basic physical conditioning today. It would be best for you to visit the Medical Hall and receive a thorough examination.”
“Forgive me, Father, but my body is in peak condition. Would it not be acceptable to begin training from today…?”
“Your words are correct, Hyang. But I suspect something unusual about your brother’s physique. It is as though heaven itself has granted him a body meant for martial arts.”
“…The Heavenly Martial Body!”
Though spoken metaphorically, Baekri Hyang was far from dull enough to miss the implication. In the current martial world of the Central Plains, children were occasionally born with extraordinary physiques. The Cold-Heat Immunity Body, which felt neither cold nor heat. The Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity Body, immune to all toxins from birth. The Sword and Blade Immunity Body, which suffered no wounds unless struck with qi. And finally, the Heavenly Martial Body, which possessed both the insight and the physical vessel to master all martial arts.
Baekri Hyeok could not help but think of the Heavenly Martial Body when he looked at his son. Something had been strange from the very beginning. He had believed only half of the claim that a nightmare had inspired the desire to train with the sword; the other half he had doubted. After all, the nightmare might have contained more than a terrible future. That was why Baekri Hyeok had secretly observed his son’s movements and noticed that he had already acquired internal energy. When the boy fainted, he had been debating whether to carry him to the medical room, only for his wife to take him first. He still remembered how dumbfounded he had felt upon seeing his son calmly performing energy circulation in lotus position after sending everyone’s hearts into their throats.
“It remains only a suspicion. However, the fact that you can replicate a sword art perfectly after seeing it once makes the Heavenly Martial Body highly likely.”
“…”
“Why do you look like that, Hyeong-ah? You show no reaction at all, as though you already knew.”
Baekri Hyeong felt a jolt of alarm at his father’s words. It was only natural for suspicion to arise when a once-in-a-generation genius was discovered yet stood there with an expression of complete nonchalance.
“I… I don’t really know what the Heavenly Martial Body is.”
“It is a body born with the most suitable constitution for learning martial arts. You, Hyeong, are the greatest talent under heaven.”
“Is that so?”
“Hmm… For now, Hyang, take your brother to the Medical Hall.”
“Yes, Father.”
At the patriarch’s command, Baekri Hyang gestured for him to follow and left the training ground. Baekri Hyeong bowed to his parents before trailing after her. Once the two children had disappeared, Han Seol-eun turned to her husband with a worried expression.
“Patriarch. Is it truly possible that Hyeong possesses the Heavenly Martial Body?”
“In all my life, I have never once seen someone perfectly execute a martial art they had never seen before. After investigating your son’s past just in case, I reached the conclusion that such a feat would be impossible unless he possessed the Heavenly Martial Body.”
Even if one assumed the nightmare Baekri Hyeong described was the future yet to come, manifesting martial arts witnessed in a dream into reality was impossible. The probability of a six-year-old child who had never held a sword before achieving it was even more absurd.
“But Patriarch, if Hyeong truly is the Heavenly Martial Body…”
“A bloody storm will descend. A storm we may not be able to withstand.”
Baekri Hyeok understood exactly what Han Seol-eun feared. Countless calamities had shaken the martial world before it reached its current state, and those at the center of those storms shared one common trait: the Heavenly Martial Body. Whenever such a physique appeared in a generation, countless lives were lost.
“It seems we will not be able to focus solely on clan affairs in peace.”
“Patriarch. Surely you don’t mean…”
“For now, we must remain in the clan. But once Hyeong grows a little older… I intend to visit the Alliance after a long absence.”
“..!”
Han Seol-eun’s eyes widened at Baekri Hyeok’s declaration. His epithet was the Sword Sovereign. Yet the forces currently dominating the Murim Alliance were the Five Great Clans and the Nine Great Sects. While some viewed the Baekri Clan favorably, most were hostile. The reason was simple: a swordsman from a minor martial family in Hubei had claimed the title of Divine Dragon—regarded as the finest—at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering. That Divine Dragon had gone on to surpass every disciple of the Namgung Clan, the Moyong Clan, Mount Hua Sect, Wudang Sect, and Jongnam Sect, ascending as the Sword Sovereign of his era.
In short, Baekri Hyeok had withdrawn from the Alliance’s power struggles. Now that same man was declaring his intent to return. The world called him a toothless tiger, but Han Seol-eun knew better. She had witnessed it firsthand—he had not weakened since his prime. If anything, he was reaching for even greater heights. Should he rejoin the Alliance, no one would be able to stop him.
“If Hyeong truly possesses the Heavenly Martial Body, I have no intention of teaching him various sword arts. I will only pass on the sword I myself created.”
The sword art Baekri Hyeok had devised. It was the very martial art that had elevated him to the position of Sword Sovereign, and its difficulty was so extreme that no one but him could wield it.
“Change will come. It would be wise for you to prepare as well, wife.”
“But I…”
“It is merely preparation for the one-in-ten-thousand chance. Besides, the bond between parent and child is not so easily severed. No matter how unpleasant your feelings may be, it would be better to make contact.”
“I… will think about it.”
“Understood. Then I shall take my leave.”
Baekri Hyeok departed first. Han Seol-eun remained deep in thought for an hour before finally rising. Baekri Hyeong, who had displayed the perfect form of the Baekri Heavy Sword at the age of six. This small change had begun to steer the fate of the Baekri Clan away from the path of his previous life.
And two years passed.