A Shattered Silence
The testing ground, which had been packed with the heat and fervor of the martial artists, fell into a profound silence. In a space where everyone should have been pouring their heart and soul into passing, a quiet stillness flowed.
No one could react. Some even sputtered, as if they had forgotten how to breathe.
It was just that shocking.
"Huh...?"
Starting with that low sigh escaped from someone's lips, the pent-up reactions erupted all at once.
"What in the world..."
"The Banmuk Stone... The... the Banmuk Stone was split?"
Everyone's eyes widened as they stared at the half of the Banmuk Stone rolling on the ground.
The cut was perfectly straight. It had been sliced clean through without a single jagged edge.
Seeing this, not only the Alliance official standing nearby...
"...Ha...?"
But even Seo Pyeong, who had just been mocking me, let out a hollow gasp.
"Hahahahaha—!!!"
From somewhere, a booming laugh that clearly belonged to the Black Dao swept over the crowd.
"Crazy! Absolutely insane!! Hahaha—!!!"
The Banmuk Stone had been cut. That meant only one thing.
Even the other members of the Seven Great Talents could only shatter fragments or crush it at best.
Even the Black Dao, who was considered the strongest of the Seven Great Talents in terms of raw power, had only managed to break off a handful.
The Sword Phoenix had crushed half of it, but that was merely crushing; it didn't leave a clean, smooth surface like this.
"..."
Perhaps because of that, the Sword Phoenix stared at the severed Banmuk Stone with quiet eyes. What was she thinking?
It was impossible to tell.
Her expression remained unreadable.
I wondered if she was surprised, or perhaps flustered.
Not at all. She was completely expressionless. She simply stared at the Banmuk Stone, her face devoid of any emotion.
Just then.
"...Damn it."
Someone muttered quietly beside me.
It was the Wudang Cloud Dragon, Seo Pyeong.
His face was heavily contorted as he stared at the Banmuk Stone I had sliced.
His expression was strangely comical.
And...
Wow, that actually worked...?
The one who was most surprised was actually me.
I hadn't expected it to turn out like this. I never imagined it would be cut so cleanly.
I only hoped it would work.
But now that it actually had, even I was astonished.
I narrowed my eyes and looked at the Banmuk Stone. Not the fallen half, but the half still standing.
I observed the energy slowly rising from the cut surface.
After watching it for a moment, I closed and opened my eyes.
The energy was no longer visible. I had deactivated the power in my eyes.
"Phew."
I let out a sigh to steady my breathing. Ignoring the buzzing whispers around me, I looked at the Alliance official, whose eyes looked ready to pop out of his skull.
"Did I pass?"
"...Ah? Ah...!"
My question seemed to snap him out of his daze.
"B-Bang Seong-yeon of Cheongwol Gate... P-pass."
The declaration of my passing came in a trembling voice. Only then did I turn around.
Phew.
I quietly calmed my breathing. The moment I turned back, gazes poured in from all directions.
They had been watching me before, but the feeling was entirely different now.
Astonishment and wariness.
Curiosity and doubt had vanished, leaving only those two emotions.
The intensity of their emotions was so overwhelming it made me feel almost bloated.
I've drawn everyone's attention.
The attention was heavier than expected, but it was fine.
At this level...
It was still within my calculations. And even if it wasn't...
It's exactly what I wanted.
At this point, it was the outcome I had been aiming for.
The first day of the preliminaries came to an end. Calling it a grand success would be a bit silly.
It would be more accurate to say it wrapped up decently enough.
Nearly seventy percent of the total participants were eliminated in the preliminaries.
Despite the massive crowd, the test took less than half a day. Yet, the results left a massive wave in their wake.
"The Young Sword Saint broke a record that even the Seven Great Talents couldn't touch."
"A strike that even the Sword Phoenix couldn't pull off. Is the Young Sword Saint truly the greatest of the rising generation?"
"The Yongbong Association, where all of the Seven Great Talents gathered... and the Young Sword Saint."
And so on.
The rumors spread like wildfire.
It was the work of the Gaebang members scattered throughout the testing grounds.
As people who legally gathered information within the Martial Alliance, the stories they circulated spread so quickly that even those who hadn't witnessed the preliminaries soon knew every detail.
And the source of most of those rumors was me.
In other words, the day was completely dominated by the name of the Young Sword Saint.
"Ah, I'm exhausted..."
Lying on my bed, I tried to soothe my fatigue. This was all I had done since returning to my quarters after the test.
With the preliminaries over, the only things left on the schedule were eating or training.
But my stomach felt too bloated to eat, and training wasn't an option either.
Although there was a training ground for the rising generation behind the inn provided by the Alliance...
It's absolutely packed.
The training ground wasn't that large to begin with, and with far too many young martial artists crammed into the inn, using it was practically impossible.
Even if that weren't the case...
Who knows what would happen if I went out there now.
If I showed up at the training ground while everyone's eyes were glued to me...
Just thinking about it is exhausting.
It was obvious what would happen, so staying in bed like this was the right choice for today.
How long had it been since I last indulged in such laziness? As I lay there, fully enjoying the peace...
[So, you're just going to stay holed up here and lie around?]
Yoo Chun-gil spoke up, his voice dripping with disapproval.
"Of course. Can't I at least do this much today?"
I had worked so hard to survive up to this point. Honestly, wasn't I allowed to live like this for just one day?
Thinking that, I glanced at the table beside me.
At the thick stack of letters.
They were documents brought from Cheongwol Gate, containing information I needed to memorize and utilize.
I had cleared about half of them, meaning I had already memorized that much.
"...It's tough doing this again after so long."
I used to do this kind of thing often in my past life, but perhaps because it had been so long since I last memorized such a large volume quickly, it felt quite taxing.
In the past, I would have finished memorizing them all by now.
Yet, half of the stack still remained.
Of course, even so...
"I'm not doing it today..."
I had absolutely no desire to do it right now. I had reached my mental limit.
"Sigh."
I was a bit hungry, but since my mind was exhausted, I didn't even want to think about food.
On days like this, the best thing to do was just rest.
[Tsk, tsk. Spending such precious time in sheer laziness... You truly are an incomprehensible fellow.]
Yoo Chun-gil nagged me relentlessly, but as always, I let his nagging go in one ear and out the other.
Bark all you want.
Today, I was just going to rest.
The Sword Phoenix, the Trustworthy Spear, the Seven Great Talents, the Yongbong Association...
I would ignore all of it today and just spend my time in quiet peace.
With that thought, I grabbed the earplugs I had tossed aside and stuffed them into my ears.
Let's sleep.
Let's just sleep without thinking about anything. I closed my eyes.
A brief moment passed.
Hmm...?
I slowly opened my eyes.
Something felt off.
What is it?
Why did I feel so uneasy? I had intended to rest without a single thought, so why this sudden discomfort?
I slowly sat up.
"What is this?"
What on earth was it? Why did I feel so uneasy?
Had I forgotten something?
I felt this uneasiness right after thinking about those things, so the problem must lie there.
The Sword Phoenix, the Trustworthy Spear, the Seven Great Talents, the Yongbong Association.
I felt uneasy thinking about them? That meant the issue was among those topics.
I pondered deeply. What was the problem that made me feel so unsettled?
I had passed the preliminaries without a hitch. The Sword Phoenix and the Seven Great Talents were a mess overall, but they weren't a pressing concern just yet.
The Trustworthy Spear was indeed a major issue, but...
Even that...
I was already fully aware of it, so it couldn't be the source of this sudden uneasiness.
Then what was it?
What am I forgetting?
Normally, I wouldn't forget. The fact that I felt this uneasy yet couldn't recall it meant...
I actively tried to forget it.
It was a memory I had deliberately pushed aside.
Now that I was at the Yongbong Association, what was the problem? What did I want to forget?
"Ah, this is frustrating."
I should have just stayed in bed and slept. Once the thought took root, I was doomed. I felt like I couldn't rest until I remembered.
And besides...
I feel like I absolutely must remember this.
It was a memory I had to recall, no matter what. I knew it instinctively.
So, I pressed my fingers to my temples and closed my eyes.
Remember.
Remember what you forgot.
As I held my throbbing head and focused...
Flash.
"Ah?"
It came back to me.
An important fact I had completely overlooked.
My face contorted as the realization hit me.
"Ah, damn it. I should have just kept forgetting."
Now I understood why I had tried to forget it. It was a memory that would only bring annoyance if I kept it in mind.
"...Should I just go back to sleep?"
Now that I remembered, I might as well sleep. I tried to dismiss it as an unimportant memory and close my eyes.
With that, I lay back down on the bed.
What I had remembered was none other than this.
"...It's not like we're going to meet right this second anyway."
The letter I had received back in Sichuan.
There was someone who had told me to meet them at the Yongbong Association.
And that was...
My sister.
The eldest daughter of the Bang family, once called their hope and miracle.
The one who had run away from that wretched household one day to find her own life.
I had forgotten that she told me to meet her at the Yongbong Association.
I only recalled it now that I had arrived at the tournament.
...But I haven't seen hide nor hair of her.
I hadn't seen a single trace of her.
It didn't seem like she was participating in the tournament. If she were, I would have seen her at the banquet.
But she wasn't there.
So...
"...It's not like my sister is suddenly going to pop out of nowhere."
I should just put it out of my mind and sleep.
With that thought, I closed my eyes again, preparing to drift off, when...
"Pop out of where, exactly?"
"Like my room, or the inn, or something...?"
My eyes snapped open at the voice.
I bolted upright and whipped my head to the side.
There, bathed in the moonlight with her long hair fluttering, stood a woman.
"Hey there."
She smiled at me.
It was a mature face wearing an unfamiliar smile. In a way, she looked like a stranger, but the moment I saw her, I knew.
Though time had changed her...
The unmistakable genes of our father written across her handsome face were proof enough.
"...Sister?"
At my words, the woman chuckled.
"It's been a while."
She was my older sister.
Bang Seo-jin.
Around the time Bang Seong-yeon was locking eyes with his sister...
Someone was sitting atop a nearby inn. Directly beneath the moonlight, a woman wearing a face veil sat perched on the roof, gazing off into the distance.
Through the window of a building, she watched her disciple intently.
The moment they arrived, the disciple had ignored her master's words and dashed off, claiming she was going to see her brother.
The master had tried to stop her, warning her not to act rashly, but she ultimately couldn't bring herself to hold her back.
She felt pity for her disciple, who had run off with such excitement.
And even if that weren't the case...
"...It has been a long time."
There was a guest waiting for her as well.
Sssring.
She felt the cold press of a sword against the side of her neck.
Sensing it, the woman shifted her gaze beneath her veil. A blade was poised right at her throat.
However, the sword was floating in the air toward her neck, as if guided by a will of its own.
And it was not just one sword.
At least five swords were hovering in the air around her.
One pointed directly at her throat.
The remaining blades circled slowly, as if monitoring her every move.
Even in the face of this, the woman did not flinch.
The energy contained within the swords was extraordinary. Not to mention the raw killing intent; if even one of those blades went wild, the entire area would undoubtedly be reduced to ruins.
"Isn't this greeting a bit excessive?"
Knowing this, the woman simply smiled and spoke to the owner of the swords.
"Sword Emperor."
"..."
In response to her greeting, the one-armed old man standing behind her...
The Sword Emperor, Ui Yang-yeon, glared at the Sword Queen, Yeon Hui-seon, with eyes filled with murderous intent.