Chapter 258
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 258
Chapter Title: The Latter Half as Well...
The people of the Namgung Clan who watched that scene knew exactly what it meant.
A one-on-one duel to the death between the two.
The bond between parent and child.
Heaven's decree.
That was the pretext for the confrontation.
To settle it with a deathmatch.
Truly an act of defying heaven's decree.
But since both claimed to be the father, with no way to prove it.
As martial artists of the jianghu, they would let their swords do the talking in the end.
The clan leader himself drew his sword and stepped forward.
The Emperor's Sword Formation was already broken, but the remaining warriors dragged their fallen comrades aside and widened the space even further.
Ha Mu-baek chuckled softly and stepped to the side.
Chu Dong, Namgung Hwa-u, and the Namgung siblings moved along with him.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon, striding toward the center, glanced at the siblings.
Irritation clouded his eyes.
Irritation that this disaster had unfolded because of those kids.
In the look he directed at his younger brother Namgung Hwa-u, there was fury and disdain toward a rebel gunning for his position as clan leader.
And when he came face-to-face with Namgung Hwi waiting in the center.
The emotion that rose on Namgung Hwa-hyeon's face was.
Contempt.
'If you'd been lucky enough to survive, you should've hidden away and lived out your remaining days in peace. No need to come crawling back begging for death.'
Namgung Hwa-hyeon had no doubt he would win.
How could he doubt it?
Hadn't it been the same twenty years ago?
No matter how exceptional the talent.
There was a limit to the martial arts he'd mastered.
Back then, Namgung Hwi had resisted him with the Great Harmony Sword Method, but he couldn't withstand the Soaring Bow Limitless Sword or the first half of the Emperor's Sword Forms.
The sword forms that had severed one arm and ravaged his face.
Emperor's Sword Forms.
On top of that, he'd clearly dealt severe damage to his dantian as well.
For such a man to reappear after twenty years and point his sword at him again.
Twenty years.
A long time.
His talent surely meant there had been changes.
But those twenty years had passed for Namgung Hwa-hyeon just the same.
He was no longer the warrior he'd been twenty years ago.
What could change by practicing something as basic as the Great Harmony Sword Method for twenty years?
That was how Namgung Hwa-hyeon saw it.
He had completely forgotten how Namgung Ji-hu had shattered Namgung Ji-rin with it in the banquet hall.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon was confident in his Emperor's Sword Forms.
He had already mastered the latter half to perfection.
His talent might fall short of that arrogant Namgung Hwa-u over there or the Namgung Hwi before his eyes.
But he was still the clan leader of the Namgung Clan.
He had that much ability.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon assumed the starting stance toward Namgung Hwi.
The starting stance of the Emperor's Sword Forms.
Namgung Hwi gazed at it.
A stance both familiar and unfamiliar.
'Finally, we've reached this point.'
After over twenty years.
At last.
He would cross swords with Namgung Hwa-hyeon once more.
That day.
Namgung Hwi had faced a wall of despair.
No matter how hard he poured everything into the Great Harmony Sword Method he'd mastered.
He couldn't even graze a single hair.
An ironclad defense.
Emperor's Sword Forms.
How long had he trained while recalling that sword of Namgung Hwa-hyeon's from that day?
With the Great Harmony Sword Method as the only technique he knew, he'd delved into it relentlessly.
The deeper he went, the more he realized it had no end, stepping into new realms one after another.
And then.
While teaching the Great Harmony Sword Method to Namgung Ji-hu.
Hadn't he himself overcome a new wall?
With this.
There would be no repeat of that despair from twenty years ago.
Namgung Hwi also assumed his starting stance.
A motion any Namgung Clan warrior would recognize at a glance.
The starting stance of the Great Harmony Sword Method.
A sneer curled at Namgung Hwa-hyeon's lips upon confirming it.
And the moment Namgung Hwi took his stance, he kicked off the ground and swung his sword.
Without giving even a moment's gap, intent on ending it with a single strike.
Unleashing the latter half of the Emperor's Sword Forms, his sword blazed with sword aura as he thrust to bisect Namgung Hwi.
Namgung Hwi's sword moved toward Namgung Hwa-hyeon's as well.
His sword, too, bloomed with sword aura.
In that instant, Namgung Hwa-hyeon's eyebrow twitched.
How could it not?
Namgung Hwi's energy hadn't reached the pinnacle realm of a true master.
That's why he'd viewed him with such amusement.
The thought that he dared challenge him without even achieving sword aura.
That thought shattered.
'How...'
Unbelievable.
His energy had clearly been unremarkable.
Suddenly sword aura?
This couldn't be possible...
It was!
Though absurd, there were definitely realms where one could conceal their energy.
'Reverse Energy Concealment...'
Absurd.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon had barely reached the cusp of the pinnacle, the entry to transcendent.
He hadn't yet fully entered the transcendent realm.
Reverse Energy Concealment required a considerable depth even within transcendent.
Had Namgung Hwi reached that level?
With just the Great Harmony Sword Method?
Impossible, even if it was a Namgung Clan sword art.
This wasn't belittling the clan's sword methods.
Martial arts inherently had limits.
The Great Harmony Sword Method could never reach transcendent.
That was Namgung Hwa-hyeon's common sense.
So he dismissed the idea that Namgung Hwi might have reached Reverse Energy Concealment.
'Must've picked up some petty trick to hide his energy somewhere.'
That was far more realistic.
Sorting his thoughts, Namgung Hwa-hyeon surged forward with the Emperor's Sword Forms, targeting Namgung Hwi's vital points across his entire body.
He looked as if he'd become a single massive sword.
"So that's the latter half..."
Namgung Ji-hu muttered as he watched.
It was his first time seeing it.
Ha Mu-baek simply watched calmly.
'The latter half as well... Tsk.'
A sight that made him click his tongue involuntarily.
He'd wondered when Namgung Hyeon-cheol unleashed it.
Now, seeing Namgung Hwa-hyeon perform it, he was certain.
The sword art Namgung Hyeon-cheol had used was indeed the latter half of the Emperor's Sword Forms.
However.
'What a shame to limit such a fine martial art to that level.'
A disappointing display.
The art itself felt wasted.
Ha Mu-baek could almost hear the Emperor's Sword Forms lamenting in his ears.
Regardless of Ha Mu-baek's thoughts.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's sword continued its ferocious advance.
Namgung Hwi calmly blocked the attacks.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon relentlessly targeted his right side.
The side missing an arm.
With only his left hand on the sword, it was harder to defend.
He zeroed in on what could truly be called Namgung Hwi's weakness.
Yet Namgung Hwi blocked every one.
With the Great Harmony Sword Method.
"Hey, was the Great Harmony Sword Method always like that?"
Someone asked a comrade beside him.
He himself practiced it.
The clan leader's sword was something he'd never seen before, so it had to be the Emperor's Sword Forms.
Blocking the Emperor's Sword Forms with the Great Harmony Sword Method?
Did that even make sense?
Such thoughts began to surface one by one in the minds of the Namgung Clan warriors.
The power of Namgung Hwa-hyeon's sword grew fiercer.
The sword forms he displayed grew ever larger, the energy denser.
The momentum radiating in all directions grew more vicious.
Yet Namgung Hwi's expression remained unchanged.
Instead, the sword aura on his blade thickened further.
And the movements of his sword grew heavier.
At some point.
Namgung Hwi's sword began to deviate from the trajectories of the Great Harmony Sword Method.
The Great Harmony Sword Method, yet not the Great Harmony Sword Method.
His sword moved that way.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon faltered for a moment.
His Emperor's Sword Forms felt like a vast ocean, the boundless sea where he'd lost his way.
"Tch!"
If there was an ocean before his eyes, he just had to shatter it all.
That was the path of the blood-soaked emperor, the path of the Emperor's Sword Forms.
That was Namgung Hwa-hyeon's interpretation.
So he slashed at the sea with his sword.
But more seawater rushed in through the parted waves.
He slashed again and again.
But the sea kept refilling.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's face flushed crimson.
His sword lashed out even more wildly.
Boom!
Kaboom!
Krboom!
The ground exploded here and there.
All from Namgung Hwi's deflected strikes.
"Y-You rat..."
Words slipped out unbidden.
As if those words were a signal.
Namgung Hwi's sword underwent another change.
If it had been an endless ocean until now.
Now it was a savage sea whipped by storm winds.
The strikes assaulting Namgung Hwa-hyeon.
Clang!
Ka-clang!
Kclang!
Their positions had completely reversed.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon could only scramble to block Namgung Hwi's sword.
Kaboom!
The strikes he failed to block devastated the surroundings as they shot outward.
"D-Dodge!"
Several nearby warriors hurriedly leaped away.
Namgung Hwi's sword, embodying that wild, raging sea.
Was gradually forming a single shape.
A massive single sword.
"I-Impossible..."
Someone muttered dazedly.
How could it not be?
The sword art capable of forming that shape.
Existed in the Namgung Clan, but not just anyone could learn it.
Wasn't it the very sword the clan leader Namgung Hwa-hyeon had shown moments ago?
The form of the Emperor's Sword Forms.
That was the true manifestation of the Emperor Sword.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's lips trembled.
How could he not know?
Namgung Hwi was displaying the Emperor's Sword Forms right before his eyes.
Impossible.
He was clearly using the Great Harmony Sword Method, but the stances subtly shifted, and suddenly it became the Emperor's Sword Forms.
Something like this...
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's gaze snapped toward Namgung Ji-hu.
Come to think of it.
Wasn't it the same with the Emperor's Sword Forms Namgung Ji-hu had unleashed in the banquet hall?
"Y-You bastard..."
A glare like icicles stabbed toward Namgung Ji-hu.
Suspicion that he'd passed the Emperor's Sword Forms manual to Namgung Hwi.
Hadn't those bastards come to the Namgung Clan together from the start?
Even colluding all the way to Seon Yu Valley.
"Isn't the Emperor Sword form only possible in the latter half of the Emperor's Sword Forms?"
At that moment, Ha Mu-baek asked calmly.
His voice was low.
But infused with inner power.
It rang clearly in everyone's ears.
That was right.
A form that could only appear upon mastering the latter half.
The form of the Emperor Sword.
That was the Emperor's Sword Forms.
The manual Namgung Ji-hu had taken was only the first half.
It was impossible for Namgung Hwi to create that form with it.
So what was this?
He was the only one who knew the latter half of the Emperor's Sword Forms.
No, his uncles who had made secret deals with his father might know as well, but they wouldn't have leaked it to Namgung Hwi.
They'd only learned today that the damn bastard was even alive.
It was impossible for him to produce that massive sword form.
Yet there it stood proudly before his eyes: the Emperor Sword.
What in the world was happening?
For a man who'd only learned the Great Harmony Sword Method to wield the Emperor's Sword Forms.
"Impossible! Damn it!"
Talent.
No matter how exceptional that bastard's talent.
How could he perform a martial art he'd never learned?
A sword filled with such frustrated rage flew toward Namgung Hwi.
The massive Emperor Sword turned blood-red.
Meeting Namgung Hwa-hyeon's Emperor Sword was Namgung Hwi's ocean-like blue Emperor Sword.
The two sword forms clashed head-on in midair.
Kuuaaaaaang!
A massive, deafening roar tore through the sky.
It didn't end with one clash.
"Urk."
Namgung Hwa-hyeon let out a small groan.
Twice.
Terrifying pressure squeezed him from all sides.
Thrice.
Namgung Hwi's Emperor Sword radiated deep blue light.
Four times.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's red Emperor Sword shook precariously.
The Emperor Swords relentlessly assaulted each other.
And as the clashes continued.
The red Emperor Sword gradually faded.
And then.
At the fifth clash.
Finally.
The red Emperor Sword vanished.
Slice.
Namgung Hwi's sword severed Namgung Hwa-hyeon's right arm.
Pfshaaak!
Red blood sprayed into the air.
"Urk."
A groan escaped Namgung Hwa-hyeon's lips.
And Namgung Hwi's sword didn't stop.
All Namgung Hwa-hyeon could see now was the pitch-black sky and the bastard's sword forms crashing like furious waves.
The surging sword waves headed straight for Namgung Hwa-hyeon's face.
In an instant, his face was drenched in blood.
His facial skin seemed ready to peel off, slashed to ribbons.
Blood covered his face, preventing him from opening his eyes properly.
Blood filled with greed.
It blinded him, blotting out even the sky.
Next.
The final target of Namgung Hwi's sword.
Namgung Hwa-hyeon's heart.
This was a deathmatch.
The loser had no life left.
Not even as the Namgung Clan leader.
Killing him like this might enrage the Namgung Clan.
But that didn't matter.
He'd seen it clearly with his own eyes.
Ha Mu-baek's prowess.
That man could at least protect the two children.
He would sever the past enmities with his own hands.
May only happiness lie ahead for the two children.
With that thought, as he launched the final strike toward Namgung Hwa-hyeon's heart.
[Don't kill him!!]
Gong Son Mu-oe's telepathic message struck Namgung Hwi's ears.
The trajectory shifted.
Stab!
Namgung Hwi's sword plunged into Namgung Hwa-hyeon's dantian.
The deathmatch was over.
Namgung Hwi's victory.
A heavy silence descended upon the Namgung Clan.