The Sword Phoenix of Mount Hua
The Plum Blossom Sword Phoenix, Yu Yeon.
I frowned as I stared at her, having run into her so out of the blue.
'Why is she here?'
I never expected to cross paths with her here. Stunned by this sudden encounter, I immediately looked over at Yoo Chun-gil.
I glared at him, silently asking if he had planned this.
[Oh?]
A flicker of fluster crossed Yoo Chun-gil's face, suggesting he hadn't known either.
'Even this old man didn't know?'
Then why did we even come here?
The situation made no sense. As I stared at the Sword Phoenix with bewildered eyes...
Step.
The Sword Phoenix took a single step, and in an instant, she was right in front of my nose.
"Holy crap!"
Startled out of my wits, I took a hasty step back.
What was that all of a sudden?
Was she going to draw her sword again?
In my panic, my hand flew to my waist, ready to draw my own blade at a moment's notice.
"..."
Fortunately, the Sword Phoenix didn't draw her weapon. She just stood there, quietly staring at me.
What was her deal?
"Do you have something to say to me... No, is there something you want to convey?"
I recalled that she was mute and couldn't speak.
Recalling that, I quickly rephrased my question, but...
The Sword Phoenix simply stared intently at me, making no move whatsoever.
Seriously, what was she doing?
What were her intentions?
First she drew her sword on me the moment we met, and now this.
And why on earth was she wearing the old man's robe?
No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't understand this girl at all.
"Sword Phoenix. What in the world are you—"
I tried to ask, but...
"..."
"Wait. Where are you going now—"
Without a word, the Sword Phoenix walked right past me. I spun around to grab her, but...
"Where did she go?"
She was already long gone.
How could anyone be that fast?
I looked around in bewilderment, but there wasn't even a trace of her left.
"Seriously, what is wrong with her?"
Why is everyone around here so weird?
Is there not a single normal person among the Seven Great Talents?
"Sigh."
Letting out a deep sigh, I turned to Yoo Chun-gil.
"So, what did we come here for?"
Setting her aside, if we didn't come to see the Sword Phoenix, then what was the point of this trip?
In response to my question, Yoo Chun-gil stared up at a tree.
[Ah. It is fine. I had something to confirm, and I have just done so.]
"...Confirm what?"
[There was something I needed to see. Let us head back now.]
"..."
What? Was I allowed to get angry now?
Why drag me all the way out here if he wasn't going to tell me a single thing? I wanted to snap at him, but I held it in.
'...Let's just go back and rest.'
I was too exhausted to even ask anymore.
I turned around and headed back toward my quarters. I had only stepped out for a walk, but my energy was completely drained, and I just wanted to call it a day.
As I turned my back and walked away,
Yoo Chun-gil quietly gazed up at the tree with calm eyes.
Surprisingly, someone was sitting up there.
"..."
A giant old man wearing an eyepatch.
Sinchang was looking down, his presence completely erased.
The next day arrived.
I had to head out at the crack of dawn, right after the banquet had ended.
The atmosphere in Henan was now the polar opposite of yesterday's festive mood.
By the time I stepped out, the other young talents were already filing out as well, all heading toward the same destination.
A massive plaza prepared within the main headquarters of the Martial Alliance.
As soon as we arrived, we all walked toward the area marked for the tournament preliminaries.
The day after the banquet.
Today was the start of the actual Yongbong Association—the very reason we had come here.
It was the day of the Young Talents' Tournament.
"...I'm nervous," Cheon Ui-jin said.
I nodded in response.
Upon arrival, we went through a brief identity check, showed our recommendation letters, and followed the guides to our designated spot.
There were four lines in total, and we just had to choose one to stand in.
We had been briefed on the way, but I hadn't expected things to start so abruptly.
'I thought there'd at least be an opening speech or something.'
To just drag us out to an empty lot and throw us straight into the preliminaries...
'Is that why Sinchang showed his face during the day at the banquet?'
The Alliance Leader, whom we expected to see on the opening day of the tournament, had gone out of his way to appear at the banquet instead.
Perhaps it was because he had no intention of showing up for the preliminary rounds.
In any case,
I was currently participating in the tournament preliminaries at the main headquarters, forcing my heavy eyelids open.
'And I didn't even get to eat.'
I had wanted to grab breakfast at the very least, but I hadn't even had the time for that.
The tournament preliminaries.
It wasn't as grand of an exam as one might think.
Despite being called a martial arts tournament, we weren't fighting other young talents, nor did the test take very long.
In fact, it sounded so simple that one might wonder if it was even appropriate for a test.
"Fail!"
"Failed!"
Yet, despite the simple nature of the test, the number of people passing was surprisingly low.
Even though there were well over a hundred young talents gathered for the Yongbong Association,
the only sounds echoing through the testing grounds were declarations of failure.
"...It seems to be quite difficult," Cheon Ui-jin muttered, his brow furrowing at the sounds.
His nervousness was plain to see.
"Indeed. More people are failing than I expected."
It was far more than I had anticipated.
Was it really that hard? From the explanation, it hadn't sounded all that difficult.
'It's actually incredibly simple.'
The contents of the test were straightforward.
"Next!"
The martial artist ahead of me stepped forward. Embedded in the ground before him was a hard, square object about eight feet tall.
At first glance, it looked like a boulder.
"Begin!"
At the examiner's call, the martial artist immediately drew his sword, coating the blade in sword-qi.
"Haaah!"
He swung with all his might, slamming the blade against the boulder.
Clang!
Despite the loud impact, not even a scratch was left on the stone.
"Fail."
The examiner immediately made the call. The failed martial artist let out a low groan and trudged away.
'...Not even a scratch.'
I was surprised. The energy infused into that sword just now had seemed quite formidable, yet it couldn't even leave a mark.
It meant the boulder was ridiculously hard. Normally, that level of sword-qi would have easily sliced a regular rock in half.
Or at the very least, it would have left a deep gouge.
Yet, the reason the sword couldn't penetrate the stone was simple.
'Because it's not just a regular rock.'
Indeed, that was no ordinary boulder.
It was a Half-Inkstone, created by mixing ink-iron with stone.
It was an object engineered through repeated refinements for the sole purpose of durability.
Leaving a mark on it was nigh impossible for the average martial artist.
'And they made this the test.'
The passing criterion for the preliminaries was simply to leave a scratch on the Half-Inkstone.
They weren't asking us to break it, just to scratch it, yet countless people were failing because they couldn't manage even that.
'It must be incredibly tough.'
Just how hard was that thing?
As I began to worry that I might fail right along with them,
Boom!
A massive crash, unlike anything heard so far, erupted from the left.
It came from a different line than mine.
"Do-hyeong of Cheongwol Gate. Pass!"
Surprisingly, it was Do-hyeong.
Do-hyeong stood before the Half-Inkstone, his sword-qi fading. A shallow sword mark was clearly etched into the stone.
Upon hearing his pass, Do-hyeong turned and walked away.
His expressionless gaze briefly drifted toward us.
He gave a brief nod. Was he telling us to hang in there?
'To think the first one to pass would be senior brother.'
I hadn't expected Do-hyeong to be the first to pass the preliminaries.
As I watched in fascination, more passes began to trickle in.
"Pass!"
"Gyeok Ui-myeong of the Shanxi Gyeok Clan! Pass!"
"Pass!"
"Pa—"
Amidst the sea of failures, successful candidates emerged one by one.
"Dang Cheon-il of the Sichuan Dang Clan. Pass."
Among them, the first of the Seven Great Talents passed. Dang Cheon-il stared at his throwing dagger embedded in the Half-Inkstone with a dissatisfied scowl.
The tip was lodged slightly into the stone. He seemed to have pierced it by throwing his dagger.
However, he didn't seem pleased with how shallow the penetration was.
And then...
CRASH!
A terrifying explosion of sound rang out. Everyone turned to look in shock. This time, it was the wielder of the Black Greatsword, Paeng Do-jin.
"A bit disappointing."
He was resting a massive broadsword on his shoulder. It wasn't his usual weapon.
Since we weren't allowed to use our personal weapons for the test, it must have been a standard broadsword provided by the Alliance.
"...Haha."
I let out a dry laugh as I looked at the state of his Half-Inkstone.
'He broke it?'
I didn't know how he had swung, but the Half-Inkstone was deeply gouged. It looked less like it had been cut and more like it had been smashed to pieces.
He had damaged the stone more than any other young talent who had passed so far.
'And that guy drank like a fish yesterday.'
I had personally witnessed him chugging alcohol like there was no tomorrow, yet he didn't seem to have even a hint of a hangover.
Was that the power of the Heavenly Martial Body? Unbelievable.
"Hmm."
Despite leaving the stone in ruins, Paeng Do-jin walked away looking unsatisfied.
"As expected of the Black Greatsword..."
"To shatter a Half-Inkstone to that extent? He's bound to take first place in this test."
"No, you never know. The rest of the Seven Great Talents haven't taken their turns yet."
Boom.
"Namgung Cheon of the Namgung Clan. Pass."
"Haha!"
The Thunder Dragon passed with a bright laugh. The mark he left was by no means small.
And right after him...
"Namgung Seong of the Namgung Clan. Pass."
Socheonggeom passed as well. Although his mark was barely half the size of the Thunder Dragon's, a pass was a pass.
"..."
He compared his mark to Namgung Cheon's, his face twisting in a scowl before he stomped away.
Crack!
"Cheon Hye-in of Cheongwol Gate. Pass."
Naturally, Cheon Hye-in passed as well. She left a mark that was just barely enough to be considered a scratch.
It seemed she had no intention of wasting any unnecessary effort.
Next up...
Screeech!
"Cheon Ui-jin of Cheongwol Gate. Pass."
"Phew!"
Cheon Ui-jin, who was right in front of me in line, managed to leave a very faint scratch and passed. I was glad he succeeded.
As he walked toward the exit, he pumped his fist at me repeatedly. He looked absolutely thrilled.
"Hmm."
I scratched my head. Even Cheon Ui-jin had passed. What if I ended up failing?
A chilling thought crossed my mind.
That would be an absolute disaster.
'I don't even want to think about what the Moonmaster would say.'
He had told me to go and bring back proper results. If I was the only one to fail the preliminaries after that, it wouldn't even be funny.
As I stepped forward with a trace of anxiety,
"Seo Pyeong of Wudang. Pass!"
a declaration of success rang out from the line right next to me. I glanced over and saw a long sword gouge etched into the Half-Inkstone.
It was easily comparable in size to the one left by the Black Greatsword.
The owner of that mark was Seo Pyeong. The Cloud Dragon bastard looked at me after passing,
his face practically dripping with mockery.
'Look at this little punk.'
What was I going to do about that smug face of his? I felt a sudden urge to grind it into the dirt.
As I glared at him with disgust...
CRACK!
A loud, splitting sound echoed from somewhere.
"Ah!"
"What in the world...?!?"
"That's impossible...!"
Gasps of shock erupted all around.
Wondering what was going to cause such a commotion, I turned my head toward the source.
"H-Heh... Uh..."
Even the Martial Alliance staff member managing the preliminary was trembling, completely lost for words.
"...What is that?"
I narrowed my eyes as I took in the sight.
The Half-Inkstone was split in half.
I mean it was literally cleaved in two, the pieces rolling on the ground.
The examiner stammered for a long moment before finally speaking.
"M-Mount Hua's Sword Phoenix... P-Pass."
"..."
The one who had left the Half-Inkstone in that state was none other than the Sword Phoenix.
Just what did she do?
'What did she do to split a Half-Inkstone like that?'
Up until now, the others had only managed to chip it or leave deep cuts. But the Sword Phoenix had clean cleaved it.
It was absurd.
'They kept calling her the greatest of the young generation for a reason.'
Was she really on a completely different level?
"Tsk."
Beside me, Seo Pyeong let out a low groan as he stared at the split stone.
It seemed even he realized that was something he couldn't replicate.
'Hmm.'
"Draw your sword."
The examiner's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.
Right. It was my turn.
'A scratch... Just a scratch, huh.'
Shring.
I drew my sword. In that instant, all eyes fell on me.
"The Young Sword Saint drew his sword."
"I wonder what he'll show us?"
'...'
The sudden flood of attention was suffocating.
The pressure was killing me.
'I just want to leave a decent scratch and get this over with.'
Who cared about their expectations? I didn't give a damn whether they were disappointed in me or not, but...
'That bastard is really getting on my nerves.'
Seo Pyeong, who was still smirking at me. His eyes were highly irritating.
'Hmm.'
I tilted my head as I looked at the Half-Inkstone in front of me.
Then, I subtly shifted my gaze to Yoo Chun-gil standing beside me.
I trusted that the old man would know exactly why I was looking at him.
[Tsk, tsk. Look at you, acting all prideful despite how you look. Fine, I allow it.]
Sure enough, Yoo Chun-gil clicked his tongue but gave a small nod.
It was his permission.
Permission to use what I had learned during my secluded cultivation.
The moment I saw his nod, I gathered my energy.
Would it work?
Would it be enough?
Doubt flickered, but it didn't last long.
Whoosh!
Energy surged into my sword.
The Gwangwolseomgyeong completely enveloped the blade,
igniting a brilliant sword-qi that blazed even brighter.
"Oh..."
"My word."
The onlookers gasped in admiration at the sheer beauty of the sword-qi.
I silenced my breathing. The sword-qi wasn't the important part.
Hummm.
I focused strength into my eyes.
My Moon Eyes shifted.
'Now.'
In that split second, a flash of light erupted from my hand.
The blade sliced through the air.
Blue Moon Sword Dance, First Form.
Moon Wave.
A crescent moon, rising in broad daylight, carved directly into the Half-Inkstone.
The moment the blade made contact with the stone's surface...
Slice!
A sound entirely different from before echoed.
Sssss.
The residual sword-qi on the blade drifted upward like heat haze.
And not long after...
Thud!
The Half-Inkstone fell to the ground.
Cleanly sliced in two.
"...Huh...?"
"What?"
"...Wait, what...?"
The young talents stared, their minds seemingly short-circuiting at the sight.