The Great Heavenly Sword Emperor - Chapter 1

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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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#000. Prologue

Three hundred years past.
Kangho fell into tremendous peril.
A sinister religion called the Saryeong Cult emerged, and it swelled its ranks exponentially, drawing an ever-growing tide of believers.
Among the faithful were countless masters of the martial world, both skilled and unskilled alike.
And then, at last.
The Saryeong Cult became a true threat to Kangho, and that threat became reality.
Faced with the Saryeong Cult’s inconceivable power, Kangho was helpless.
In the moment when Kangho was drowning in blood and despair.
A certain man appeared suddenly, leading countless others with him.
He stepped forward and waged a fierce battle against the Saryeong Cult.
He and his followers crushed the cult with overwhelming force.
An absolute master who drove back the Saryeong Cult with tremendous martial might.
The world called him Cheon Geom Dae-je.
And the two clans that stood firmly at Cheon Geom Dae-je’s back and played a pivotal role in driving out the Saryeong Cult.
The Buk Gung Clan and the Dong Bang Clan earned the title of Guardian Families and swiftly attained great wealth and prestige.
With the Saryeong Cult vanquished, the place where Cheon Geom Dae-je dwelt came to be called Cheon Geom Jang.
The prosperity of Cheon Geom Jang and the two Guardian Families seemed destined to endure forever.

* * *

Hundreds of years have passed. Now.
The once-revered place had become ruins beyond recognition.
It would be no exaggeration to say that little but its foundation remained.
With no one coming or going, the lands stretching a dozen or more leagues from Cheon Geom Jang had transformed into something like primordial wilderness.
Though shrouded in thick darkness, its desolate chill was palpable.
Bang!
Then, a loud, booming sound erupted from the deserted Cheon Geom Jang.
Had anyone been nearby, they would have bolted in terror.
Bang!
The sound, source unknown, rang out again.
This time, it was louder and far more violent.
Whether because of the noise or some impact, the very ground seemed to tremble faintly.
Crash! Boom-boom-boom-boom!
And the third time.
An enormous, tremendous sound accompanied something collapsing.
In the same instant, something shot skyward from Cheon Geom Jang.
Dense darkness.
And heavy clouds blanketing the sky made it impossible to see what had erupted heavenward.
It hung in the air for a long time before beginning to descend slowly.
Or rather, it seemed less like falling than settling down with ease.
Soft thud.
What alighted gently on the earth was a bare man holding a sword wrapped in leather.
His beard was thick and unkempt, his long hair matted and wild. His bare torso and lower body were etched with taut, rippling muscle.
A tall, powerfully built man.
Who he was and why he had broken through Cheon Geom Jang remained utterly mysterious.
Whiiiing!
A sharp, cold wind blew in as the season turned toward winter.
Hair that had covered his eyes swept back in the breeze, revealing his gaze.
Those eyes, laid bare by the wind, were deep and clear as an abyss, yet cold as ice.
Whissssh!
Was it the wind?
A desolate sound swept across all directions.
The man with the sword stood motionless in that place.
And in that moment.
Whoosh!
Appearing from nowhere, dozens—no, at least a hundred masked figures in black surrounded him.
“Recover the Cheon Shin Geom.”
One of the masked figures issued the command quietly, and they rushed at the man in unison.
Even in that moment, the man showed no change in expression, no flicker of emotion as he stood rooted to the spot.
And then, at last, the man was engulfed in profound darkness.
His form vanished from sight.
But then.
A sound like shattering steel.
No actual sound emerged, yet it seemed as though such a sound could be heard.
The countless black shadows enveloping the man fractured along multiple fissures, and pure white light erupted outward.
Boom!
A deafening explosion.
In that instant, those who had rushed at the man were split like paper and sent flying in all directions.
The man remained standing in his original spot.
The only change was that the blade wrapped tightly in leather had now revealed itself.
A sword gleaming brilliantly, as if luminous from within.
The Cheon Shin Geom—the very blade wielded three hundred years ago by Cheon Geom Dae-je, which the black shadows had sought to reclaim.
Hum. Hum.
The Cheon Shin Geom sang softly.
It seemed to cry out, begging to be drawn and used.
The man gazed at the remaining black shadows with an expression and eyes that betrayed not the slightest emotion.
Perhaps because they had glimpsed his formidable power in that single exchange.
The black shadows did not rush recklessly toward him.
The man turned his gaze to the bodies scattered about the ground.
Dead on the spot.
Those who had lost their lives in a single blow—the man approached the nearest corpse.
Rustle.
As the man moved, the black shadows surrounding him shifted in unison, maintaining their distance.
Whether they did or not mattered little to him.
The man approached the body and began to undress the corpse with indifference.
The body stripped bare in an instant.
The man draped the stolen clothes over his own frame with deliberate care.
They were a bit small for his frame, but far preferable to wandering naked.
Leaving the front of the garment unfastened and gaping open, the man grasped the Cheon Shin Geom once more and fixed his enemies with a steady gaze.
It did not concern him who these people were.
What mattered was only that they pursued the Cheon Shin Geom and sought his death.
Twenty years ago, in this very place, he had lost so many.
His parents. His kinsmen. Those he had called family.
Now there remained nothing for him.
And so he had no need for mercy, for clemency in sparing lives, or for any show of compassion.
The man drew forth his Internal Force.
Since he would kill them anyway, there was no point in waiting.
“!”
Without a sound.
Without a single preparatory movement.
The man, sword in hand, simply vanished.
A wet, cutting sound.
Someone’s head fell.
Yet the man remained invisible.
The Cheon Shin Geom that had blazed with light seemed now one with the darkness—unseen.
At such speed, clothed in black, the man had become a silent assassin.
Slice. Slice. Slice.
Only the sound of severed necks could be heard in succession; still, the man did not appear.
The black shadows fell without ever raising a hand to defend themselves.
They had no chance, no recourse, nothing they could do.
The black shadows began to retreat hastily.
Swish, swish, swish!
But the man did not merely watch them flee.
Slice. Slice. Slice!
The sound of necks severing grew faster.
Though they scattered quickly, not one of them made it ten paces before collapsing.
A sound from this direction, then the next.
They thought him distant enough to escape, but as they fled, a sharp pain bloomed in their throats and consciousness fled with it.
The man’s strikes were swift and precise.
So precise, in fact, that barely a drop of blood splattered.
Only the blood pooling from the fallen corpses stained the ground crimson.
A wet, tearing sound.
The last assassin fell.
Countless severed heads and bodies lay scattered across the floor.
Blood from all those corpses painted the ground a vivid red.
Not a trace of blood marked the man’s clothes.
Even the Cheon Shin Geom bore not a single drop—its blade still gleamed with pristine polish.
The man glided back to his original position, as though skating across ice.
Though blood drenched every other inch of the ground, the space where he had stood remained untouched.
It was remarkable.
[They smell like those from back then. But different.]
The Cheon Shin Geom’s voice rang in the man’s ear.
“I know.”
He replied curtly, then picked up a leather cord from the floor and began wrapping the blade once more.
A low hum.
The Cheon Shin Geom let out a soft cry.
It sounded almost like a petulant whine at being bound again.
Without a word, the man bound the Cheon Shin Geom back in leather and finally turned his gaze toward Cheon Geom Jang.
For the first time, something flickered in the man’s eyes.
As he looked at Cheon Geom Jang, his consciousness drifted backward to a day long past.

#001. The Geom Emerges from Underground (1)

Twenty years earlier, at Cheon Geom Jang.
Even then, Cheon Geom Jang bore little resemblance to the glory it had once known.
The legacy of Cheon Geom Dae-je had not endured through the generations.
Not his son, nor his son’s son.
With each passing generation, the descendants showed so little martial talent that it was hard to believe they were Cheon Geom Dae-je’s blood at all.
As the shadow of Cheon Geom Dae-je grew deeper, his descendants were devalued all the more, and eyes turned away from Cheon Geom Jang.
Naturally, the wealth and prestige it once commanded had faded as well.
And twenty years ago—more than a decade after the sixth-generation descendant of Cheon Geom Dae-je was born—Cheon Geom Jang came under attack from mysterious assailants.

* * *

Rapid footsteps thundered across the ground.
“Mujgyeol! Faster! Run!”
A boy ran ahead, and a man pursued behind him.
The boy was Cheon Mujgyeol, sixth-generation heir of Cheon Geom Dae-je, and the man chasing him was his father, Cheon Seung-ryong.
Spurred by his father’s desperate shout, Cheon Mujgyeol ran with every ounce of strength he possessed.
“Ahhh!”
A scream pierced the air nearby.
Cheon Seung-ryong’s pace quickened, overtaking his son, and he drew his blade.
A sharp, tearing sound.
Before the assailant’s sword could reach Cheon Mujgyeol, Cheon Seung-ryong’s blade cut him down.
Blood sprayed from the wound, coating Cheon Mujgyeol entirely.
Drenched in blood, the boy went pale and trembled violently.
“Get yourself together!”
Cheon Seung-ryong grabbed his son’s arm and pulled him forward, shouting urgently.
He had to save him at any cost.
With a single thought burning in his mind—that Cheon Mujgyeol must survive—Cheon Seung-ryong wrung every last measure of strength from his body.
Deep within Cheon Geom Jang, Cheon Seung-ryong pushed his son into a dilapidated building ahead of him.
Then he glanced anxiously about the surroundings before following him inside.
Once in the rundown structure, Cheon Seung-ryong tore up the floorboards and found a shallow depression, then forced his hand into it.
“Hnnnngh!”
Straining with all his strength, he heaved the floor open, and a secret passage revealed itself beneath.
“Go down! Quickly!”
Cheon Mujgyeol forced his trembling legs to obey, descending the stairs with careful steps.
As he reached the bottom, his father descended close behind and sealed the passage door shut.
But how much time it would buy them was impossible to know.
In absolute darkness.
Cheon Mujgyeol felt his father’s hands gripping both his arms.
And soon after, he felt something pressed into his hand.
“Hold it tight. You must never lose it.”
“What is this?”
“At the end of the passage, there will be a door. This is the key that opens it. You must enter that room to survive. Do you understand?”
Cheon Mujgyeol nodded toward his father, though he could not see him.
“Go ahead.”
“Father… it’s so dark…”
“Move! It’s your only chance!”
Urged on by Cheon Seung-ryong, Cheon Mujgyeol suppressed his fear and ventured into the pitch-black passage.
The sound of his father’s footsteps behind him made the fear bearable.
It gave him something to hold onto.
But how far had they come?
“Run!”
At his father’s shout, Cheon Mujgyeol clenched his eyes shut and bolted forward.
His father’s footsteps still echoed behind him.
And his voice too.
“Don’t look back! Keep running! Remember—the door! You must reach the door to live!”
Cheon Mujgyeol burned his father’s urgent words into his mind and ran, and ran still.
So consumed by the act of running, he lost all sense of distance and time.
Thud!
Eyes squeezed shut, Cheon Mujgyeol collided with something and finally forced them open.
Torches burned on either side, and in the center stood a massive door.
This must be the place his father had spoken of—where all of Cheon Geom Dae-je’s legacy lay.
Between the two hinged doors was a small keyhole.
Seeing it, Cheon Mujgyeol inserted the key from his hand into the opening.
Whirrrrr! Clank-clank-clank!
Though he only inserted the key, it turned of its own accord, and a loud mechanical sound erupted.
Thump!
After some time.
With a final thump, the massive door began to creak slowly open.
Cheon Mujgyeol grasped the round handle and turned to look back.
His father was nowhere to be seen, and absolute darkness filled the passage entirely.
Fear seized him.
He wanted desperately to run back and see what had become of his father, but courage failed him.
All he had now was his father’s word.
“Hnnnngh!”
Cheon Mujgyeol pulled at the door with all his might, but it would not yield.
Thud-thud.
Then footsteps sounded from behind.
By the sound alone, Cheon Mujgyeol knew they were not his father’s.
Panic surged through him.
“Hnnnngh!”
Cheon Mujgyeol wrenched at the door with every ounce of strength.
Clank-clank-clank!
The massive door groaned and began to open gradually.
Through the widening crack, the space beyond revealed itself as a simple cavern.
Within the spacious cave sat a single worn desk, and beside it a small bookshelf held several volumes.
Once the door began to open, it proceeded smoothly thereafter.
Thud-thud-thud!
The footsteps behind him quickened, and Cheon Mujgyeol shoved his body through the doorway before it had fully opened.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
The person who had been walking broke into a run.
The moment he threw himself inside and glanced back—
“Ahhh!”
A face he’d never seen before suddenly loomed inches from his own, and Cheon Mujgyeol screamed, stumbling backward until he landed hard on his backside.
Bang!
The intruder’s hand thrust deep through the gap in the door, and he slammed against it with a violent noise.
Gripped by terror, Cheon Mujgyeol scrambled backward on his haunches, desperate to put distance between himself and the door.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!
The door began opening again.
What would have been impossible for a child’s strength meant nothing to the brute force of a fully grown man.
Bang!
The door swung wide, and the intruder stepped slowly inside.
When their eyes met, Cheon Mujgyeol could do nothing but tremble violently, frozen in place.
The intruder’s gaze swept past him.
There, where Cheon Mujgyeol hadn’t yet looked, stood a blade radiating a luminous, crystalline light.
“Found it. The Cheon Shin Geom.”
The Cheon Shin Geom.
The sword that Cheon Geom Dae-je had wielded, the blade passed down through generations of his line.
This was what the raiders had come for—the Cheon Shin Geom.
The intruder paid Cheon Mujgyeol no mind and advanced toward the blade.
As the figure disappeared from his sight, the gaping doorway loomed large in Cheon Mujgyeol’s vision, but his legs refused to move.
He should run.
He knew that escape through that door meant survival, yet his body would not obey him.
The intruder reached the Cheon Shin Geom and extended his hand toward it.
“Ugh!”
But the moment his fingers closed around the hilt, he cried out and jerked his hand away.
His palm had turned crimson as if burned, and wisps of smoke were already curling from his skin.
“A clever trap,” he muttered.
The intruder’s gaze shifted to Cheon Mujgyeol.
When their eyes met, Cheon Mujgyeol flinched, trembling even more violently than before.
As the man approached him, terror engulfed Cheon Mujgyeol completely.
Grab!
“Aaaah!”
The intruder seized Cheon Mujgyeol by the nape of the neck and lifted him into the air.
Despite his youth, Cheon Mujgyeol could not help but scream and thrash against the overwhelming strength of a man holding him aloft with a single hand.
As Cheon Mujgyeol writhed violently, the intruder’s grip loosened and he fell.
Landing hard, Cheon Mujgyeol tried to scramble away, but he couldn’t.
Thwack!
“Gah! Aaaghhhhhh!”
A brutal kick sent Cheon Mujgyeol flying across the floor, and he skidded to a halt directly before the Cheon Shin Geom.
“Aaaaahhh!”
Wracked by indescribable agony, Cheon Mujgyeol could not even push himself up—only whimpers escaped him.
“Draw the Cheon Shin Geom. Do that, and I’ll grant you a painless death.”
Despite the pain wracking his body, Cheon Mujgyeol shook his head.
Even in his suffering, a single thought remained clear: he must not draw that blade.
“Draw it! Refuse, and I’ll make you suffer so much you’ll beg me for death!”
Crushing fear surged through him at the threat, yet Cheon Mujgyeol shook his head again.
Only he could draw that sword.
In that fractional moment of clarity, the calculation flashed through his mind: if the intruder’s goal was the blade itself, he dared not kill the only one capable of drawing it.
“So you have backbone. But you’ve chosen the wrong opponent. I’ll make you beg to draw it!”
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
The intruder closed in quickly and began raining down merciless blows.
Cheon Mujgyeol curled himself into as tight a ball as possible to minimize the damage, but it made little difference.
Pain that pierced flesh and reverberated through bone, agony that shook his skull—consciousness itself began to slip away.
He hadn’t taken many blows.
After just two or three hits, he realized how foolish his refusal had been.
“Aaaaaahhh!”
Unable to contain his fury, the intruder grabbed Cheon Mujgyeol and hurled him against the wall.
Boom!
“Ahhhhh!”
Cheon Mujgyeol’s breath caught in his throat from the violent impact and searing pain, and all he could manage was a strangled gasp.
It was then.
[Don’t hesitate. Draw the sword.]
A voice reached Cheon Mujgyeol’s ears, telling him to unsheathe the blade.
It was not words spoken by the stranger.
Not a voice, but something that flowed directly into his mind.
Cheon Mujgyeol forced himself upright.
Even through the haze of confusion, he fixed his eyes as hard as he could and stared directly at the figure before him.
Fury and defiance surged together within him.
He realized for the first time how utterly humiliating and agonizing it was to be powerless.
Cheon Mujgyeol positioned himself before the sword.
Then he seized the hilt, which had risen to about chin height.
“Haahhhhh!”
Cheon Mujgyeol let out a shout and drew the blade upward.
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble!
The sword withdrew with deliberate slowness, and the ground itself trembled.
The cavern shook as though struck by an earthquake, and for a moment it seemed the entire structure might collapse.
Yet even in this chaos, the stranger stood motionless, watching calmly as Cheon Mujgyeol drew the weapon.
Crack-crack-crack!
“Haahhhhh!”
Cheon Mujgyeol cried out again, pouring every ounce of strength into the effort.
Slowly, inch by inch.
The blade, buried deep in the earth, began to reveal itself.
Whoooosh!
With each fraction the sword emerged, Cheon Mujgyeol felt something extraordinary happening.
An incomprehensible force flowed into his body, and by virtue of that power, he was able to draw the Cheon Shin Geom.
Rumble-rumble-rumble! Shniiing!
At last the Cheon Shin Geom came free entirely.
Along with it, the mysterious force that had trickled into him surged like a tidal wave through Cheon Mujgyeol’s frame.
Whoooosh!
Perhaps because Cheon Mujgyeol’s body was so small.
The force that flooded through him like a tsunami burst outward from his flesh, radiating tremendous power in all directions.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s mind became crystal clear, and all pain vanished completely.
Most strangely of all, incomprehensible characters and shapes drifted through his consciousness.
The power radiating from Cheon Mujgyeol’s body.
It was a force that could not be ignored, yet a smile spread across the stranger’s lips.
No matter how tremendous the aura he gave off, he remained nothing but a child.
According to the reason he had come to Cheon Geom Jang, he need only kill Cheon Mujgyeol and seize the Cheon Shin Geom.
The smile deepening on the stranger’s face was inevitable.
“As promised, I’ll grant you a painless death!”
The stranger lunged toward Cheon Mujgyeol.
Slash!
The sword swing toward Cheon Mujgyeol carried not a shred of carelessness.
[I must see if you are worthy.]
The voice sounded once more, and Cheon Mujgyeol’s body moved of its own accord.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s movements were impossible to believe.
Above all, they were fast—impossibly fast.
The stranger’s blade cut through empty air, and Cheon Mujgyeol, having evaded the assault with blinding speed, was already beside his attacker, sword raised to strike.
Shniiing!
There was no time to dodge.
The Cheon Shin Geom flashed, and the stranger’s neck began to separate slowly, cleanly, at an angle.
Thud! Thump-thump-thump!
His head rolled across the cavern floor.
The headless body collapsed where it stood, limp and powerless.
“Haahhhhh!”
Unable to contain the force surging through him, Cheon Mujgyeol screamed, having slain the stranger with such bewildering ease.
The cavern trembled violently once more.
Still roaring, Cheon Mujgyeol gazed at the Cheon Shin Geom in his hand.
The Cheon Shin Geom—the legacy of Cheon Geom Dae-je.
And a mysterious force flowing through his entire body.
Cheon Mujgyeol stared at the entrance, its doors flung wide.
He felt he could sweep away all the enemies still slaughtering one another outside.
[Foolish. I’ve lent you only a fraction of my power, and already your body cannot bear it.]
The voice sounded again.
It was then that Cheon Mujgyeol realized the voice belonged to the Cheon Shin Geom.
The Cheon Shin Geom had warned him, but he didn’t believe it.
He felt certain he could do this.
So he gripped the Cheon Shin Geom and took a step toward the door.
“Gaaaahhh!”
A single step unleashed a wave of agony—as though his entire body were tearing, shattering.
It was many times worse than the pain he’d felt from the intruder’s blows.
[Come to your senses! Clench your teeth and endure! You must close the door!]
At the Cheon Shin Geom’s cry, Cheon Mujgyeol barely held onto consciousness.
With each movement, unbearable pain lanced through him, yet he persisted.
“Hnnnngh!”
Groaning, Cheon Mujgyeol seized the open door and hauled it shut.
He had to close it while the power the Cheon Shin Geom had given him still lingered.
Slam!
The door closed more easily than it had opened.
As it sealed, the torch burning outside extinguished with a sudden whoosh.
Whirrrr! Click! Whirrrrrr!
The mechanisms that had engaged when the door opened now reversed their course.
Ting! Clang!
The door ejected the key Cheon Mujgyeol had inserted, and it fell to the floor, vanishing into the darkness.
Drained of all strength, Cheon Mujgyeol slumped against the door and slowly crumpled.
[You have sufficient potential. I will make you strong. Strong enough to inherit all my power.]
The Cheon Shin Geom’s voice echoed in his mind, but Cheon Mujgyeol lost consciousness.

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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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