Namgung Heavenly Demon - Chapter 56
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 56
Moonlight bathed the White Lotus Sword Sect’s training ground in white.
A space filled with silence, unlike during the day.
In the midst of that silence, Namgung Cheon and Lee Ja-seong faced each other.
Namgung Cheon placed his hand on his waist and gazed indifferently at Lee Ja-seong.
‘He’s nervous.’
Blue veins stood out clearly on the back of Lee Ja-seong’s hand gripping his sword hilt.
“…I’ll begin.”
Lee Ja-seong spoke quietly.
Tak!
With a light step, Lee Ja-seong lunged forward.
White Lotus Sword Technique’s second form, Lotus Blossoms in Full Bloom.
Multiple streams of sword energy struck toward Namgung Cheon’s upper body.
The flashy yet disciplined movements characteristic of the Orthodox Faction.
However.
‘A feint.’
It was clear as day to Namgung Cheon’s eyes.
The true intention hidden within the flashily scattered sword energy.
As expected, at the decisive moment, Lee Ja-seong’s sword path changed abruptly.
Swish—!
The sword that had been thrusting straight curved like a snake and pierced toward Namgung Cheon’s armpit.
A vicious irregularity aimed at a blind spot.
It was closer to a Heterodox Faction assassin’s technique than Orthodox swordsmanship.
But to Namgung Cheon, it was all too obvious a move.
Clang!
Namgung Cheon pressed down on Lee Ja-seong’s blade with Cheoncheon’s flat.
The flow of the attack was severed in an instant.
But Lee Ja-seong didn’t retreat.
He immediately lowered his body and continued with irregular sword paths targeting the lower body.
At those movements, Namgung Cheon’s eyes grew cold.
‘The stance is too low for Orthodox swordsmanship, yet has too many unnecessary preparatory movements for Heterodox techniques.’
In short.
‘Clumsy.’
Gwak San of the Thunder Blade, whom he’d met in Anhui before.
To him, he had only offered courtesy as a fellow martial artist and thrown a small clue as a token of gratitude.
Whether he realized it or not was entirely up to him.
But Lee Ja-seong before him was different.
The White Lotus Sword Sect.
Those who had maintained the Orthodox Faction’s banner without breaking, even amid the Heterodox Faction’s rise to power.
Their tenacity and will were at least worthy of recognition.
Which meant.
‘In Honam, these are the only swords worth trusting and using.’
A cold light flashed in Namgung Cheon’s eyes.
This clumsy sword would need to be properly forged to be useful in the future.
‘So I must teach this one how to walk.’
Simply throwing clues wouldn’t be enough.
He would have to break and rebuild, even if it meant teaching through that.
Kagang!
“You’re hesitating.”
Namgung Cheon struck away Lee Ja-seong’s sword with Cheoncheon as he spoke.
“Do you want to cut, or do you want to put on a pretty show?”
Lee Ja-seong’s eyes wavered.
“That’s… not it!”
Lee Ja-seong gritted his teeth and swung his sword again.
He drew up his internal energy and continuously unleashed sword energy, but to Namgung Cheon’s eyes, it was merely flashy struggling with no substance.
“No, Young Sect Leader’s sword is telling lies.”
Swoosh—.
A gentle energy wrapped around and deflected Lee Ja-seong’s sword.
“You’ve decided to wield a killing sword to survive, yet you want to maintain Orthodox ideals. That’s why your sword grows dull.”
Tang!
Lee Ja-seong’s sword was knocked away into midair.
As Lee Ja-seong staggered, having lost his center, Namgung Cheon’s sword tip stopped precisely before his throat.
It was a perfect defeat.
Lee Ja-seong breathed heavily and hung his head.
“…I’m ashamed.”
His words were true.
He had mixed in irregularities and learned assassination techniques to survive, but in a corner of his heart, pride as an Orthodox practitioner always remained like dregs.
That had made his swordsmanship muddled, ultimately becoming a half-baked sword that was neither one thing nor the other.
He should have simply wielded a killing sword from the beginning.
Namgung Cheon withdrew Cheoncheon and sheathed it.
Click.
“The moment you draw your sword, there are only two choices. Cut, or fail to cut.”
Namgung Cheon’s voice dropped low.
“And this is…”
Namgung Cheon’s hand moved toward another scabbard.
The pitch-black scabbard, Mukhon.
The moment he grasped Mukhon’s hilt, Namgung Cheon’s aura changed.
Srrring.
As the blade revealed itself, the massive killing intent that had been suppressed exploded forth.
Kwaaa—!
Lee Ja-seong’s eyes widened.
Above the clear blue internal energy surrounding Namgung Cheon’s body, a red aura like fresh blood was rising like heat haze.
‘Materializing killing intent… he’s materializing killing intent!’
The blue pure internal energy and red ominous killing intent formed a strange harmony without mixing, wrapping around Namgung Cheon’s entire body.
“The true mindset of intending to kill your opponent.”
The sword in Lee Ja-seong’s hand trembled faintly, as if it might fall.
An absolute pressure that seemed to erase one’s very existence, on a completely different dimension from what he had been imitating.
Namgung Cheon aimed Mukhon and took a step forward.
Tak.
At that small footstep sound, Lee Ja-seong swallowed dryly.
“Come at me again.”
Namgung Cheon’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“With the resolve to kill me.”
* * *
Time flowed relentlessly.
As the moonlight waned and the Hour of the Ox passed, when darkness lay thickest.
In the training ground, only the sound of metal clashing against metal rang out ceaselessly.
Clang! Clank!
Namgung Cheon was merciless.
He deflected Lee Ja-seong’s sword and exploited the opening to leave shallow wounds all over his body.
Not enough to kill, but the pain was vivid.
“There’s no killing intent, only resentment.”
Namgung Cheon’s observation was sharp.
Lee Ja-seong gritted his teeth and swung his sword.
But as time passed, his body grew heavy as if crushed by rocks.
It was because of the killing intent Namgung Cheon was emanating.
Swish—.
A single black trajectory grazed past his shoulder.
“Urgh.”
Blood spurted with a sharp pain.
And at that moment, the killing intent that bound him grew even stronger.
Like a viper’s poison seeping through the wound, the killing intent burrowed into his mind.
Swoosh—!
A sword thrusting straight forward.
‘I must dodge.’
His instincts screamed.
But his body wouldn’t obey.
Fear was paralyzing his senses.
Mukhon’s sword trajectory seemed to multiply into dozens, hundreds, covering the entire world.
‘I can’t block it.’
Despair engulfed his entire body.
In that moment of hesitation, Mukhon slithered in like a snake and cut the same shoulder that had been wounded before.
“Argh!”
Despair flashed across Lee Ja-seong’s face as he staggered backward.
“Is that the extent of your resolve when holding a sword?”
Namgung Cheon’s voice struck his ears.
“You have no intention of cutting your enemy, merely hoping not to be cut by my sword. Even the children who came today could show such fear of the blade.”
Struck at his core, Lee Ja-seong could say nothing.
Namgung Cheon continued to press Lee Ja-seong.
As the night deepened and Lee Ja-seong’s mind grew hazy.
Namgung Cheon lowered his sword and asked.
“Why do you seek to cut?”
It was an unexpected question.
“…To survive.”
“Is that all?”
Namgung Cheon asked again.
Then Lee Ja-seong spoke with a desperate expression.
“Then… what should I do?”
Namgung Cheon remained silent for a moment, then raised Mukhon.
“In this world, there are those who take up the sword solely to cut.”
Namgung Cheon’s voice dropped low.
“Those who believe might makes right, and that the weak perishing is the natural order.”
A sword for a world where only the strong survive.
It was the sword principle of the Demonic Dao.
Shing—.
Namgung Cheon drew Cheoncheon.
“Others take up the sword to protect. They willingly throw away their lives to avoid losing what’s precious to them.”
A sword for chivalry and protection.
It was the sword principle of the Orthodox Faction and Namgung.
Namgung Cheon held both swords before Lee Ja-seong.
“Which are you, Sect Leader? No.”
Namgung Cheon’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“The question is wrong. To protect… are you prepared to willingly become tainted?”
“…!”
Lightning struck Lee Ja-seong’s mind.
Becoming tainted.
This was a word he had feared and avoided his entire life.
The hypocrisy of learning killing techniques while preaching orthodox principles, seeking justification even while cutting down enemies.
‘Was I… afraid of becoming tainted?’
No.
What he truly feared was having no justification to rationalize his tainted self.
Then, another of Namgung Cheon’s words surfaced in his mind.
To protect.
‘That’s right.’
Lee Ja-seong’s eyes changed.
One cannot bloom a lotus while fearing to touch the mud.
Willingly staining oneself with blood to protect what’s precious.
‘How could that be a tainted act?’
Rather, wasn’t this the most noble form of chivalry?
‘Protecting the shell of orthodoxy is not chivalry.’
Protecting my people, my sect—that is true chivalry.
The fear and hesitation gradually disappeared from Lee Ja-seong’s eyes.
Namgung Cheon didn’t miss that change.
A faint smile crossed his lips.
‘Finally breaking out of the shell.’
The eastern sky was already growing faintly bright.
The disciples of the White Lotus Sword Sect gathering at the training ground for dawn practice held their breath.
The sight of their sect leader crossing swords with Namgung Cheon, renowned as a supreme master.
Moreover, the aura emanating from their sect leader was unlike anything they had ever seen.
“I’ll come at you again.”
Lee Ja-seong readjusted his grip on his sword.
His stance itself was different from before.
Instead of the orthodox faction’s characteristic stance with a firmly fixed lower body, he lowered his center of gravity to spring forward at any moment.
And then.
Whoosh!
His form shot forward.
There were no flashy techniques.
Swoosh—!
Unnecessary preparatory movements vanished, and the sword shot forward in the shortest distance.
Even the sound of cutting through air was different.
Namgung Cheon’s eyes narrowed.
He raised Mukhon to block the charging sword.
Clang!
A weight incomparable to before.
“Good.”
Namgung Cheon muttered briefly.
But Lee Ja-seong’s attack didn’t end there.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Every movement of blocking, dodging, and thrusting flowed together organically like a single stream.
When a sword was deflected, he immediately rotated his body to target the opposite side, and when retreating, he kicked off the ground to close the distance.
It was too merciless to be called an Orthodox Faction sword, yet the momentum contained within was too heavy to be called a Heterodox Faction sword.
Because it was based on the solid internal energy cultivation of the Orthodox Faction, even when unleashing killing techniques, his energy remained undisturbed and he handled his sword even more stably as time passed.
‘This must be what the White Lotus Sword Sect truly dreams of becoming.’
A smile played at the corners of Namgung Cheon’s lips.
Dozens more exchanges followed after that.
The disciples continued to hold their breath as they watched the sparring match between the two.
The sect leader reflected in their eyes was not the sect leader they knew.
The sect leader’s sword had maintained nobility like a white lotus .
And there were many who admired this.
Because he steadily mixed in killing techniques without losing the essence of the Orthodox Faction.
But now it was completely different.
Beast-like persistence and ferocity had taken the place of nobility.
“That sword…”
One disciple muttered unconsciously.
Everyone nodded at his words.
Even without speaking, they all knew.
That the sect leader’s sword they were seeing now was the path they needed to take going forward.
And that it was the sword that would protect their lives.
“You’re still far from it.”
Namgung Cheon’s voice struck Lee Ja-seong’s ears.
He deflected Lee Ja-seong’s sword to create an opening and penetrated into it.
“You’ve embraced killing intent, but you still haven’t abandoned it. The unnecessary things.”
Namgung Cheon’s Mukhon crossed perilously with Lee Ja-seong’s sword.
“Don’t try to put thoughts into your sword. Only think about whether you can cut or cannot cut.”
Namgung Cheon didn’t just speak with words.
Mukhon’s sword moved with even more bizarre and unpredictable trajectories as it pressed Lee Ja-seong.
The moment he blocked, it pierced through gaps; the moment he dodged, it targeted his back.
Lee Ja-seong desperately followed those attacks.
‘Abandon it. Abandon it. Abandon it.’
The names of techniques. The forms of swords. The honor of the Orthodox Faction.
He erased the distracting thoughts that filled his mind one by one.
Only the black trajectory before his eyes remained, and the single thought that he must cut down the one who wielded it.
At that moment.
Lee Ja-seong’s sword changed once again.
It became more concise.
It became faster.
And more lethal.
‘Never let them look down on us again!’
Bang!
Lee Ja-seong’s sword clashed head-on with Namgung Cheon’s Mukhon.
Namgung Cheon put in a bit of strength to receive his sword.
A tingling shock traveled along Mukhon’s blade.
“That’s sufficient.”
Tap.
Namgung Cheon lightly stepped back and sheathed Mukhon.
Then he looked at Lee Ja-seong and the White Lotus Sword Sect disciples standing around the training ground.
“One last thing.”
Snap!
“I will listen respectfully.”
Lee Ja-seong performed a sword salute and spoke.
Namgung Cheon’s words continued.
“How can a white lotus maintain its pure whiteness without a single drop of blood staining it? So…”
The old signboard he had seen when first arriving here flashed through Namgung Cheon’s mind.
The scarred signboard that had been cut by swords and scorched by fire.
Yet their will that had never been broken.
To carry this on.
“Rather.”
His voice settled low across the entire training ground.
“Become not white lotuses, but blood lotuses .”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
