Chapter 648
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 648
Chapter Title: One Wrong Move and You're Dead
The small rear garden of his residence.
This place also served as his private training ground.
Trees that had grown thick over long years blocked the view from all sides, and anything approaching within a certain distance would be detected by his senses.
Compared to the main training grounds where the eyes of the clan members were everywhere, this spot let him practice his swordplay far more comfortably.
Yeon Gong-hu straightened his sword.
The five-form sword art, Heavenly Flower Sword.
Originally, it consisted of eight forms.
The first five forms and the last three.
Only the clan head and young master could learn the last three.
All Yeon Gong-hu could practice were those initial five forms.
But that was enough.
His father, Yeon Baek-un, had mastered only those five forms as well, yet had come closer than anyone to becoming the clan's greatest swordsman.
Yeon Gong-hu, too, had reached the peak of transcendent realm with just those five forms.
The more he trained with the sword...
The less he could see its end.
If the first five forms brought him this far, he felt no greed for the last three.
All he desired was to perfect them even further, to ascend to even higher realms.
And so Yeon Gong-hu unfolded his sword forms again and again.
Lately, he had felt something.
A sense that just a little more, and he would surpass the wall before him. That's why he threw himself into training with even greater fervor.
Even as he heightened his senses and focused intently, he failed to notice one person's approach.
Ha Mu-baek.
He had slipped silently between the dense trees and now stood watching Yeon Gong-hu's practice.
As Yeon Gong-hu's sword repeated and layered upon itself, Ha Mu-baek saw not him, but someone else there.
'Yeon Baek-un.'
A man now dead and gone.
The sword Yeon Gong-hu wielded was like a perfect copy of his.
The realm was at the very edge of transcendent peak.
That was exactly where Yeon Baek-un had arrived before his death.
He had the transformative realm within sight, yet lost his life in a massive bloodbath of a battle.
Ha Mu-baek had been deployed elsewhere at the time, learning of his comrade's death only after the fighting ended.
He was someone he could trust with his back whenever they fought in the same area.
One thing was clear: the current Yeon Gong-hu fell just short of Yeon Baek-un back then.
The reason was obvious.
'His real combat experience is sorely lacking. Way too lacking.'
That was it.
The limitations of training alone with his sword in the clan.
Of course, he must have sparred with the other warriors, but even from this, Ha Mu-baek could tell.
In those spars, he had hidden more than half his true skill.
The rumors in the martial world said the highest realm among the Yeon Clan's younger generation was transcendent.
Impressive enough on its own, and Yeon Gong-hu was likely the one they meant.
But spars where you hide your strength like that did nothing to advance your realm.
You had to hit limits, break against them, overcome them.
Only by repeating that endlessly did your skill grow.
Now he seemed to have reached the wall at transcendent peak, but honestly, that was poison in itself.
His exceptional talent had masked his lack of experience—a rare and peculiar case.
Up to transcendent, it might be fine somehow, but if he reached transformative and had to clash with another at that realm...
His inexperience would become a fatal weakness.
Ha Mu-baek toyed with his sword hilt.
His hand itched.
It was talent he wanted to teach, after all.
And he was creating his own weakness.
Moreover, he was the son of his comrade Yeon Baek-un.
Finally making up his mind, Ha Mu-baek stepped forward.
In that instant, his form slid smoothly right in front of Yeon Gong-hu.
And the sword he had drawn in a flash clashed against Yeon Gong-hu's.
Startled by the sudden assailant, Yeon Gong-hu...
Didn't even have time to identify him before instinctively swinging his sword.
It was a strike to subdue—no, kill—the enemy.
His body reacted on pure reflex.
Chaeng!
But all he managed was to block the opponent's sword.
Then another blade came flying.
Yeon Gong-hu swiftly unleashed a sword form.
A complex trajectory, brimming with fierce momentum, aimed to kill the foe.
Chaeng! Chae-chaeng! Chaeng!
But it was blocked every time.
Yeon Gong-hu circulated his inner energy and poured it into his sword.
A blue sword aura formed in an instant, surging toward the enemy.
Yet the foe's sword bloomed with white sword aura, deflecting every one.
As he gritted his teeth and pressed his sword forms, Yeon Gong-hu realized something.
The intruder's sword path felt not just familiar, but ingrained in his very body.
It was the first five forms of the Heavenly Flower Sword.
Shocked, Yeon Gong-hu checked the assailant's identity.
As far as he knew, only a handful in the clan could wield the Heavenly Flower Sword at this level.
But the face before him belonged to none of them.
It was someone even more astonishing.
"Ha... Ha Mu-baek..."
The man he had met once in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest while searching for Ha-min with his uncle.
The instructor from the Dragon Training Pavilion who had remained utterly composed and leisurely in that death trap of a forest.
Before that, a comrade who had fought back-to-back with his late father on the battlefield of the great martial war—a supreme master his father had acknowledged.
And now, this man had suddenly appeared and was crossing swords with him.
A brief lapse as shock at his identity scattered his focus.
Ha Mu-baek's sword slipped through that gap, hurtling toward his throat with frost-like killing intent.
"Ugh."
He hastily pulled back and swung his sword.
But the momentum was lost.
He barely blocked and dodged the onslaught from Ha Mu-baek.
He even unleashed Lazy Donkey Roll, tumbling across the ground.
Ha Mu-baek relentlessly pursued Yeon Gong-hu even through the Lazy Donkey Roll.
Lazy Donkey Roll—literally rolling on the ground like a lazy donkey.
A technique for evading attacks by rolling, one so shameful for any martial artist that using it was disgrace enough.
So when someone did, the opponent would usually mock them and pause the assault.
A touch of mercy for being driven to such humiliation?
A small courtesy in sparring?
Ha Mu-baek offered none of that.
He pursued even more doggedly.
With the momentum of someone who had seized his chance and wouldn't let go until he killed.
Faced with strikes that could pierce his back any moment, Yeon Gong-hu moved with true desperation.
Not just to evade, but to survive.
He finally escaped Ha Mu-baek's barrage, rose, and swung his sword.
This time, his mind didn't scatter.
It focused on a single point.
One sole intent: to kill Ha Mu-baek.
A natural response to an enemy trying to kill him.
He had no idea why this man had suddenly appeared in the clan targeting him of all people.
But that didn't matter.
To avoid death, he had to resist desperately.
No—he had to kill the enemy.
And so Yeon Gong-hu unleashed the Heavenly Flower Sword with thick killing intent, at full power.
Explosions rang out everywhere, scarring the small garden.
Trees snapped.
Yet Yeon Gong-hu remained on the defensive.
He unleashed even fiercer, more powerful strikes.
The roars from the clashes grew louder.
Sounds like this should have been audible throughout the clan.
But it was eerily quiet.
With this much commotion, clan members should have rushed in, yet the clan remained silent.
"I've sealed the area with inner energy. No matter the racket, no sound will leak out."
A cold voice.
Even as he grasped the intent and his plan failed, Yeon Gong-hu clenched his teeth and swung harder instead of despairing.
Hadn't he just experienced it?
When his mind scattered, crisis followed.
So no matter the situation, he wouldn't lose focus.
Even on the brink of death.
A lesson learned in this brief clash.
Yeon Gong-hu's concentration sharpened like a honed blade.
'One wrong move and you're dead.'
He repeated it to himself.
And blocked every one of Ha Mu-baek's killing strikes.
A faint smile played on Ha Mu-baek's lips.
To Yeon Gong-hu, it looked like a sneer.
'As expected, he's got talent. Indeed the son of Yeon Baek-un.'
His focus on the enemy in such a short time.
Responding seamlessly to an abrupt, wordless assault.
Judging instantly that the foe meant to kill and countering with lethal intent without hesitation—judgment and boldness both.
Clearly, all Yeon Gong-hu lacked was real combat experience.
Ha Mu-baek raised the intensity a notch.
His sword grew faster.
Stronger.
Yeon Gong-hu gritted his teeth and met it.
At least he knew the forms and paths of the Heavenly Flower Sword Ha Mu-baek used, letting him barely keep up.
'Why? Could he be aiming to incite internal strife in the Yeon Clan...?'
If he died to the Heavenly Flower Sword...
Naturally, they'd suspect someone within the clan.
Was that why he used it?
No—how could this man even wield the Heavenly Flower Sword in the first place?
It was the Hubei Yeon Clan's hereditary art.
His mind raced through possibilities, but his eyes never left Ha Mu-baek's sword.
Chaeng! Chae-chaeng! Chaeng! Chaeng! Chaeng-chaeng-chaeng!
Swords clashed, auras collided.
In this deadly duel, Yeon Gong-hu felt the path he had walked tremble slightly.
This wasn't the sword path he had forged in training.
He had reached transcendent peak, with the wall to transformative ahead.
Yet facing Ha Mu-baek's sword, he doubted if his path was right.
A sword thick with killing intent.
The same forms, but paths and strikes focused solely on the enemy's death.
And he was being pushed back.
This situation shook his faith in his own sword.
Ha Mu-baek wouldn't miss that.
His sword sped up, changes grew more intricate.
"Urk."
Yeon Gong-hu defended with all he had, thrusting toward where the next strike should land.
A move to block and counter.
But no sword came.
The variation in this form...
Swish.
A chill grazed his throat.
The sword tip rested against his neck.
How could this be?
Such a variation from that form?
Impossible—
As that thought hit, the sword twitched slightly.
A prick, and a drop of blood welled up.
Yeon Gong-hu glared at Ha Mu-baek, eyes fierce and unblinking.
His gaze demanded answers.
Why are you doing this?
What's your grudge against the Yeon Clan?
Ha Mu-baek met his eyes squarely, unflinching.
How long did they stare like that?
Ha Mu-baek smiled faintly and sheathed his sword.
"Sorry for startling you. I apologize."
The terrifying killing intent pouring from Ha Mu-baek vanished like it had been washed away.
The murderous pressure focused on him evaporated as if it had never been.
As if everything before had been an illusion.
His tension snapped, strength draining from his body.
"What... is this...?"
A dazed mutter of confusion.
"I came looking for you on other business and caught you training. You were showing your full hidden strength, and all."
Yeon Gong-hu flinched at Ha Mu-baek's words.
Especially at "hidden strength."
"Your realm seems much higher than when we last met."
It had been a single encounter.
Did that mean he had already seen through his concealed power back then?
"Above all, I saw my old friend Yeon Baek-un overlapping with you."
"......"
Yeon Gong-hu said nothing.
Of course.
This man before him, Ha Mu-baek, was one who had seen his father's sword up close.
"But I spotted some deficiencies compared to your father, and my hands itched, so I had to butt in."
"Real... combat...?"
At the mention of deficiencies, Yeon Gong-hu asked cautiously.
And the smile on Ha Mu-baek's lips deepened.