Defying the Heavens Scholar - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Defiant Scholar, Episode 10

Episode 10. The Decision.

The air grew heavy all at once.
The wind that had been flowing down the mountain slope seemed to halt, then trembled in the next breath like a thin blade.
The auras colliding far above on the Cliff had become invisible ripples, spreading their way down to this place.
Kang No ran his palm across the ground to steady himself, then tilted his head slightly, breathing in the emptiness.

“The air is in turmoil.”

His voice was low, yet grave.

“Cough, cough. The situation appears dire.”

I bit my lip once. Even from this distance, the outline of the battlefield formed itself vividly in my mind. Sharp sword auras, the texture of force shifting with each breath, and the peculiar irregularity of Ziran Huajing—the way flow begets flow.

“From what I can dimly gather, it seems a swordsman from the Imperial Family is locked in fierce combat with a Taoist.”

Thanks to the Anonymous Heart Method, their voices reached me faintly, though not perfectly clear.
Kang No’s head tilted the slightest degree—as though tracing the direction of sound, his ears alert, reading the tremors in the air.

“Tell me, who holds the advantageous position?”

I answered his question with equal gravity.

“At first, the one from the Imperial Family was pushed back. Ziran Huajing is so erratic, after all.”

Yet for some reason, the master from the Imperial Family had begun to gradually overwhelm the Taoist’s sword.
I watched carefully, nursing that very question, and one by one the answers became clear to my eyes.

‘He’s slowly reading the flow of Ziran Huajing. I labored so hard to devise a counter method to it, and yet he grasps the complex patterns of the swordplay so easily….’

Even as wonder seized me, Kang No’s heavy voice pulled me back.

“Ah… so it leads to this, does it….”

His despair seemed to seep into me as well.
At the same moment, a strange unease arose.

“Why are you so troubled? If the one from the Imperial Family wins, might they not release us from here?”

Kang No’s voice dropped even lower.

“Because it is the Imperial Family who have imprisoned you and me. They are the ones who made my eyes this way.”

My chest went cold at his admission.

“…Then, that one from the Imperial Family also knowing the counter method to Ziran Huajing…”

Kang No nodded briefly.

“That’s right. Because they are the ones who imprisoned you and forced you to devise a counter to Ziran Huajing.”

At those words, I turned my head sharply.
The aura of combat had grown fiercer. The ripples thickened, and the grain of the sword aura rippled roughly.
It was a sign that the battle’s end was drawing near.

‘Why didn’t I think of this sooner?’

Of course he’d assumed that a Daoist master who’d learned the Ziran Huajing had come seeking retribution for countering his sword method.
He’d thought the Imperial Family had intervened to help him for their own reasons, but…… it was the opposite.

‘I was a fool. I thought too carelessly.’

From the moment I passed the Provincial Exam, the Imperial Family had already been trying to capture and imprison me.
The fact that martial arts questions appeared in the Provincial Exam at all must have been calculated with this in mind.
Whatever they found compelling in my answers, they simply wanted to exploit my abilities to the fullest.

‘From the beginning, the Imperial Family was my enemy, and the Counter Method I’d written—the author already knows of it…….’

I’d tried to enter officialdom to fully realize my talents, yet all I received in return was this treatment.
But there was no time to sink into rage.
I closed my eyes calmly and began ordering my thoughts again.
There was only one stratagem that could shift this situation.
And the moment that thought flickered through my mind, my eyes snapped open.

“I have a way to break through this crisis, Elder.”

* * *

Behind where Eul Hae stood lay a cliff edge. One more step back and there was only void.
Before him, Gyeong Aseong’s blade.
Sword lines extending and folding dozens of times over, like a net drawing tight around Eul Hae’s every breath.
At first, Gyeong Aseong’s momentum had been pushed backward. The ‘transformation’ of the Ziran Huajing would shift into another form the moment it was read, and that transformation kept the blade’s edge alive. But now it was different. Gyeong Aseong’s sword was catching up with the transformation.

The gap in the Counter Method he’d devised. That half-breath of emptiness that appeared when the flow transitioned.
Gyeong Aseong had seized that instant and held it.
He wasn’t breaking the outer appearance of the Ziran Huajing—he was cutting at the moment ‘before’ the transformation happened.
If you steal the space where the change should occur, even the grandest sword method falters for a beat.

A strip of Eul Hae’s Long Robe tore away.
The cliff face cracked, and dust fountained up from the crevices in the stone.

‘At this rate…….’

I gritted my teeth and unleashed Sound Transmission.

– Listen carefully.

The aura cut through empty air as if piercing it. Yet I threaded my voice as thin and swift as possible.

– The opponent hasn’t countered the ‘flow’ itself—he’s countered that instant just before you shift the flow. So use that instant before the shift as bait.

Eul Hae’s eyes flickered, barely perceptibly.

‘How dare you…… give an order to me?’

His sword tip still pointed forward.
But in that brief moment, as breath intertwined with breath, his thoughts reeled.
Who was he? A martial master called the First Sword of Huashan.
He’d spent his whole life standing upon the blade, needing no one’s instruction.

‘Following Sound Transmission from a nameless stranger?’

It was something he’d never even imagined. And yet those words, seeping through his ears, carried weight.

‘That instant just before the flow shifts…….’

Eul Hae’s gaze caught the very tip of his sword for the briefest instant.
The sequence that had flowed naturally until now—just before the current broke, there was a microscopic gap opening up.
The essence of Ziran Huajing that he knew and the words carried through Sound Transmission aligned perfectly.

‘This one understands the true nature of Ziran Huajing……’

It was not the observation of someone who had merely seen its surface. This was the eye of one who had glimpsed the very heart of Ziran Huajing’s flow.
Which meant the Imperial Family had finally broken through Ziran Huajing’s Counter Method, and whoever had done so was transmitting to him from inside the cave.
Eul Hae’s brow furrowed deeply.
Another Sound Transmission reached him in the interval.

—Deliberately create a gap. Slow the rhythm as though the current is slipping through—by half a breath. At that moment, he will surely press in. Hide your true blade deep within that opening.

Eul Hae’s toes scraped the rock. In that brief moment, he questioned himself.

‘Huashan’s First Sword. Eul Hae.’

Pride and self-respect collided in his chest.

‘Will I hold to private stubbornness and collapse shamefully here?’

What stood before him now was the blade of the Imperial Family and one of the ten greatest masters of the Martial World. Behind that figure hung the fate of both the Martial World and the throne.

‘If I fall here, Huashan will not know of this. Should that come to pass……’

Who had told him was not the point. Whether the Sound Transmission was true or false. Whether these eyes had truly pierced the essence of Ziran Huajing or merely spouted nonsense. That too was irrelevant. Only Huashan’s future mattered.

‘Slow the rhythm deliberately…… use the gap itself as bait.’

His mind grew quiet and still.

‘Very well. I don’t know why you help our sect, but I’ll follow your word.’

The tip of his sword slowed ever so slightly.

By a margin that would reveal nothing in a single exchange, less than half a breath of hesitation.
But to a master, that half-breath was the difference between life and death.

* * *

The moment the Sound Transmission ended, the aura above the Cliff surged once more.
As though someone had hardened their resolve, the wind cried out sharply.
Eul Hae’s sword broke, ever so subtly. The current seemed to shift, yet remained unchanged.
Gyeong Aseong’s blade seized that ‘instant before’ and drove through.
At that moment, Eul Hae’s waist twisted as though snapped. His sword no longer rode the current. It cut through it.

Heaven’s Sword’s pattern shattered in an instant.
The shower of blade-light lost its sequence and tangled.
The air transformed.
The wind no longer scattered in all directions, but converged into one.
Eul Hae’s Ziran Huajing became not ‘transformation’ but ‘dominion’.

‘How……has the tide turned so completely?’

Sensing defeat, Gyeong Aseong gritted his teeth again.
He deployed Heaven’s Sword once more.
Yet the edges of Heaven’s Sword repeatedly lost their way within the current of Ziran Huajing.
Before the blade-tip could find its path, the current swallowed it whole.
Gyeong Aseong’s eyes flickered. That flicker solidified into resolve.

‘If Eul Hae faces that man in Muxin Cave, the game becomes uncontrollable. I have to silence him, no matter what.’

He did not raise his blade any higher. Instead, he wrung out every last shred of inner power he possessed.
The tip of Heaven’s Sword scattered in all directions.
One thread among them.
A single thread so fine and sharp it veered off from the axis of combat and flew toward the cave.

Eul Hae’s brow furrowed.

‘Is he trying to silence me?’

But the moment he moved to chase that sword aura, he would hand Gyeong Aseong an opening for counterattack.
Eul Hae clenched his teeth and held his center. Ending this fight came first.
In that space, a deafening roar erupted from the cave. At the same instant, a strange aura flickered briefly before vanishing.

Bang!

The wall of Muxin Cave scraped and split open.
Stone dust cascaded like a waterfall, and thick clouds of debris filled the cave in moments.
Eul Hae’s eyes wavered for an instant.
Gyeong Aseong did not miss that moment. Heaven’s Sword swept toward his throat once more.
But Eul Hae’s blade came low.

“……!”

Gyeong Aseong’s vision tilted. The cliff edge rushed toward his back.
He wrenched his center back with brutal force to keep from falling.
That instant saved his life. Eul Hae’s blade did not seek his throat. It found his left arm instead.

Thwick.

Everything below the elbow spun into empty air. Blood scattered on the wind and fell away beyond the cliff.
Gyeong Aseong dropped to his knees, gripping the severed stump as he ground his teeth.

“Eul Hae……!”

Eul Hae lowered his blade slowly until its point kissed the ground.
The wind itself stilled at that posture alone.

“Killing a man already broken would be far too simple a thing.”

Gyeong Aseong’s pupils trembled.

“But now is not the time to take your life.”
“……What are you saying?”
“While the Demonic Cult’s momentum remains unbroken…… you may serve the Imperial Family, yet you are unmistakably a pillar erected by the Orthodox Faction’s Martial World.”

Few words, yet the air settled colder still.

“In this Chaotic Era, if one of the Martial World’s Ten Masters vanishes, who fills that void? Should the Orthodox Faction lose the strength to endure, whether Imperial Family or Orthodox Faction, only the Demonic Cult will smile.”

Gyeong Aseong’s lips twisted.

“That’s what you call reason?”
“Is it not?”

Eul Hae’s voice dropped lower still.

“Then I ask you again. Do you consider what you and the Imperial Family have done — that senseless, ridiculous business — to be reason?”
“……”

Eul Hae exhaled a long, heavy sigh.
Then he turned his gaze toward the cave.

“Tsk, tsk.”

A sharp click of the tongue.

“How pathetic…… You who are called a pillar of the Orthodox Faction, and yet you choose to kill and annihilate without mercy.”

Gyeong Aseong’s eyes flashed like those of a beast in that instant.

But that killing intent was not directed at Eul Hae—it was aimed at the cave.

‘It’s already too late.’

That was what Gyeong Aseong believed. In a brief moment, he had examined the aura within the cave, but nowhere could he find a trace of breath or presence. Which meant only one thing: the target had died instantly.
He placed his hand on the severed stump of his lost arm.
Where the blood was welling up, two fingers moved like lightning.

Tap.
Tap, tap.

Pressure Point Strike.
The blood stopped flowing as if the vein had hardened and frozen.
His face, however, had turned ashen. It was a temporary measure—he would not be able to endure it for long.
Gyeong Aseong clenched his teeth.

“This humiliation. One day, I shall repay it.”

He left his words unfinished and turned away.
Following the grain of the rock face and cutting through the wind, his figure blurred away in an instant.
A single streak of blood remained on the stone, but even that the wind licked away and erased.

Eul Hae watched him until he vanished from sight.

‘With the Orthodox Faction, the Demonic Cult, and the Imperial Family each maintaining balance…… if Heaven’s Sword were to die, the Imperial Family and the Orthodox Faction would have no choice but to plunge into all-out war.’

The result would be the collapse of equilibrium, and with it, chaos.
Having made that calculation and sent Gyeong Aseong away, Eul Hae now fixed a heavy gaze upon the half-collapsed entrance of Muxin Cave.

“……But there, the timing was right.”

A low murmur. He examined the breath within the cave with utmost care, but again—nowhere could he detect the faintest trace of life. It was a frustration beyond measure.
Though the Imperial Family had indeed stolen the martial arts and created a Counter Method, the talent of the one who had achieved it shone brilliantly.
If that person had broken through even the ultimate technique of the Huashan School, they would surely have become the trump card needed to stand against both the Demonic Cult and the Imperial Family.

‘It is a loss, true enough, but I must examine the interior more thoroughly. There may yet be a Counter Method to the Demonic Arts.’

With that thought, he moved toward the entrance of Muxin Cave.

Bang!

In that same moment, a tremendous explosion erupted, and Muxin Cave came crashing down.
So many Fire Bombs had been detonated that the cave built upon the cliff face crumbled to ruin in an instant.

“Persistent to the very end……!”

Sensing that he too would be caught in this explosion if he hesitated, Eul Hae urgently threw himself down the face of the cliff.

And so Muxin Cave vanished completely.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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