The Great Heavenly Sword Emperor - Chapter 19

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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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#019. The Path of Beigong Danya (2)

With his resolve kindled anew, Beigong Danya could scarcely bear to stay confined to his chamber.
Even if he couldn’t accomplish anything yet, merely holding his blade gave him peace of mind.
So save for his hours of sleep, Beigong Danya spent every waking moment outside with sword in hand.
Today marked the third day since hearing Guang’an’s words and rekindling his determination—and still Beigong Danya stood beneath the open sky, blade raised.
Though he could still accomplish nothing concrete, his heart no longer churned with impatience or frustration.
Beigong Danya stood with his eyes closed, sword gripped firmly.
In his mind, he replayed again and again the Hyeonjung Swordsmanship that Tianwujie had demonstrated.
‘What differs? Where does the distinction lie?’
Beigong Danya worked to identify the differences with cold precision.
Yet even knowing a difference existed, capturing the specifics—what, how, and where—proved frustratingly elusive.
“Exhale…”
Beigong Danya opened his eyes and drew a deep breath.
Each time impatience threatened to surge, he tightened his grip on the hilt and steadied himself with deliberate breathing.
“Am I trying to see the whole picture at once?”
It happened sometimes.
When a task—or some knotted riddle—suddenly loomed before him like a mountain of rubble, he’d lose all sense of where or how to begin.
That was where Beigong Danya found himself now.
From the Hyeonjung Swordsmanship to the Tian’e Sword Method.
The gap between the sword arts he had mastered and those Tianwujie had revealed was vast enough that trying to comprehend everything at once left him paralyzed, grasping at nothing.
In such moments, it was often better to start not with the great mass but with the tiniest detail right before his eyes.
Then, unexpectedly, a thread would become visible.
Beigong Danya drew breath several more times before closing his eyes again.
‘I’ll disassemble it piece by piece, from the smallest fragment, slowly and without haste.’
Perhaps this work would be impossible if he didn’t already know the Hyeonjung Swordsmanship.
But Beigong Danya had spent considerable time refining it.
Now he would use that experience and knowledge to methodically deconstruct Tianwujie’s mastery of the form.
In his mind’s eye, Tianwujie appeared—effortlessly raising his blade, pointing it forward with detachment.
A blade extended without force, as though merely set down.
‘The Zhengxin Stance.’
Even within the Zhengxin Stance, differences revealed themselves.
Tianwujie’s posture, his breathing, the quality of his Qi/Aura that emanated from him.
Having methodically examined each element, Beigong Danya opened his eyes.
“Breathe…”
He exhaled slowly, then shifted into the Zhengxin Stance with grave intention.
The posture itself was identical.
He stilled his breath, relaxed his strength, and gathered his Qi/Aura with focus.
“That’s not it.”
Yet Beigong Danya found himself tilting his head in confusion.
Only the surface appearance matched; nothing beneath was the same.
‘Is it a difference in Inner Force?’
He didn’t know the true height of Tianwujie’s Martial Realm, but the man carried the blood of the Tianjian Great Emperor and had inherited his teachings.
He had certainly ascended to a far greater height than Beigong Danya, sustained by insights that only came at such depths.
That was where Beigong Danya suspected the first difference lay.
He furrowed his brow.
If that were the most crucial and decisive difference, Tianwujie would never have simply shown him the sword form first.
He would have instructed him to begin anew with the Mental Cultivation Method.
“There’s definitely something different. What am I missing?”
Beigong Danya closed his eyes again.
Looking only at the Zhengxin Stance in isolation, he perceived nothing new.
In truth, it was scarcely a Technique Form—it was more akin to a Preparatory Stance.
Yet there had to be a reason why the Zhengxin Stance was included among the forms at all.
For now, Beigong Danya moved past the Zhengxin Stance and shifted his focus to the first true form—the Hengyun Danluo.
Crack!
Tianwujie’s blade tore through space like lightning, sweeping horizontally across.
The sensation and sound of that moment rose vividly in his mind.
‘That was no ordinary strike.’
Beigong Danya had always regarded the Hengyun Danluo as a containment technique.
To block the opponent’s approach, secure space, and seize the initiative.
That was what he’d been taught, and that’s what he believed.
But Tianwujie’s Hengyun Danluo was different.
It carried the impression of unfolding with a broader, more expansive intent.
‘What is it? What exactly is your intention?’
Beigong Danya began to strain, reaching beyond mere technique forms to grasp the hidden intention beneath.
It was expansion beyond a shift in perspective.
That he’d thought this far in such a brief span was remarkably swift—clear proof that Beigong Danya’s talent was by no means lacking.
“From the name it bears to the form it takes—the essence of swordsmanship dwells within the sword method itself, not in words.”
The words Tianwujie had spoken echoed in his memory. And in that moment—
‘Ah!’
Something flickered through Beigong Danya’s mind.
He turned his gaze back to Tianwujie’s Zhengxin Stance and traced the flow that led into the Hengyun Danluo.
‘The Zhengxin Stance wasn’t merely a preparatory stance after all!’
The difference between Tianwujie’s Zhengxin Stance and his own became sharper, more distinct.
What he’d learned and understood wasn’t wrong.
But the difference between Tianwujie and himself lay at something far more fundamental.
Tianwujie wasn’t simply taking a preparatory stance.
He wasn’t using Inner Force or Qi to pressure his opponent either.
What Tianwujie sought through the Zhengxin Stance was to set his own center right.
Zhengxin Stance.
Literally, “the posture of setting the mind straight.”
There must have been good reason for the name, yet Beigong Danya had never once considered it until now.
Tianwujie’s Zhengxin Stance was a posture that fit its name perfectly.
By assuming the preparatory stance, he aligned his own mind, establishing his center—his balance.
This was no mere matter of will.
My body, my mind, my Inner Force, my breath itself.
Before facing an opponent, he set everything within himself right and established his center.
That was what Beigong Danya had been missing.
‘Such a difference existed all along!’
A smile bloomed across Beigong Danya’s lips as his eyes remained closed.
Beigong Danya had learned everything of the Hyeonjung Swordsmanship.
Yet he realized he’d truly mastered nothing at all.
The precise truth was that he hadn’t properly received the teachings.
Fresh with newfound understanding, Beigong Danya felt joy.
Though it came late, the thought that he could now learn properly brought a smile to his face unbidden.
He felt a surge of exhilaration at overcoming days of frustration and uncertainty, able now to take another step forward.
Beigong Danya opened his eyes.
Now was not the time to advance to the Hengyun Danluo.
He would begin anew with the Zhengxin Stance.
“Foundation. I must start from the foundation again. Only by building the base properly can the next layer stand firm.”
Beigong Danya’s eyes sparkled with the brightness of one who had found his path.

* * *

Though he appeared indifferent, Tianwujie had watched Beigong Danya’s training steadily and quietly ever since demonstrating the sword method.
And today was no exception.
At first it seemed no different from usual, but seeing the shift in his manner, Tianwujie gave a small nod.
“So he’s finally taken his first true step onto the right path.”
[His mind isn’t entirely dull, it seems.]
At Tianshen Jian’s remark, Tianwujie nodded.
“He’s someone with genuine talent. Had he lacked it entirely, he wouldn’t have survived Mulian’s assault.”
Tianshen Jian responded to Tianwujie’s words.
[Still, he doesn’t know yet. Talent like that is common enough.]
“True enough. We’ll have to wait and see. But he carries the blood of the Beigong Clan, which once knew glory. Who knows what might yet bloom.”
Tianwujie murmured to himself.
In that sense, Beigong Danya and Tianwujie had much in common.
The Tianjian School and the Beigong Clan had both walked similar paths.
Since the Tianjian Great Emperor, talent no longer flowed through the bloodline, and the Tianjian School had gradually fallen into decline.
The Beigong Clan had endured much the same trajectory.
Tianwujie himself had broken free from that curse and reached his current heights, so there was no reason Beigong Danya couldn’t do the same.
He saw not expectations, but possibility.
That was the full extent of what Tianwujie perceived in Beigong Danya at this moment.
“He’s set foot on the proper path, but there’s nothing to stop him from straying midway. We’ll see.”
With those words, Tianwujie turned his gaze from Beigong Danya and turned away.

* * *

Beigong Danya’s training had returned to basics.
Before ever drawing his blade and drilling technique forms, he devoted time to steadying his mind through Yunqi cultivation and building his body’s strength.
Naturally, the hours spent with sword in hand had diminished.
But the old Beigong Danya—the one who could only find peace with blade in grip—was gone.
He kept the sword nearby, but rarely picked it up.
“Huff! Huff!”
Beigong Danya was deep in physical conditioning, his breathing harsh and labored.
Thick sweat poured from him in sheets, and his face flushed crimson from the heat rising within.
Tianwujie watched every moment of it.
And today, Guang’an stood at his side.
“Quite the dedicated effort.”
“Without this level of commitment, there’s little hope for what comes next.”
“True enough. Though it seems you’re beginning to hold expectations now?”
To Guang’an’s question, Tianwujie offered no reply either way.
Guang’an seemed not to expect one, turning his gaze back to Beigong Danya with a knowing smile.
Just then, Beigong Danya paused his exertion and took a brief rest before drawing his blade.
He steadied his breathing and moved into the Zhengxin Stance.
In that instant.
‘Something’s amiss.’
The light in Tianwujie’s eyes shifted.
What showed on the surface had changed considerably.
Though still lacking, what troubled Tianwujie came not from that insufficiency itself.
The one who felt it most acutely was Beigong Danya himself.
Beigong Danya lowered his stance, his head tilting in confusion.
“You sense your own shortcomings, it seems.”
“That’s not it.”
“No? What do you mean, then?”
Tianwujie did not answer Guang’an’s question.
‘The flow of Qi is subtly distorted.’
He hadn’t sensed it during the fight with Mulian, but it revealed itself now.
Back then, his deficiencies had been so glaring, and Tianwujie’s attention had focused elsewhere—on Beigong Danya’s will and adaptability rather than such nuances.
‘There’s a fundamental flaw. Is it the Mental Cultivation Method, or the body itself?’
Even observation alone couldn’t yield an answer for Tianwujie.
Moreover, it was premature to judge based on the Zhengxin Stance alone.
“Beigong Danya’s limited cultivation may not have stemmed solely from the clan’s decline.”
“You mean there’s another issue? A flaw in his Martial Foundation, perhaps?”
“I can’t draw firm conclusions yet. I’ll need to observe longer before I can speak with certainty.”
Guang’an’s expression grew grave as he regarded Beigong Danya.
[I think I know what you’re suspecting.]
‘If my guess is correct, this could prove quite troublesome.’
[Why? You’re more than capable of resolving it.]
‘It doesn’t seem like something to dismiss so easily.’
[You still don’t grasp the full measure of your own strength.]
‘No. My ability isn’t the issue here. The problem lies entirely with Beigong Danya.’
Tianwujie regarded Beigong Danya quietly.
Beigong Danya repeated his cycle: assuming the Zhengxin Stance again and again, tilting his head in perplexity each time.
Beigong Danya remained entirely unaware.
His confusion was merely the natural response to sensing his own inadequacy.
He needed to come to know himself more intimately—his spirit, his mind, even his body.
And Tianwujie understood that point just as well as anyone else—he needed to know what had happened to the Beigong Clan, to Beigong Danya.
‘What in the world had befallen the Beigong Clan? What had happened to Beigong Danya?’
Tianwujie’s gaze deepened as he studied Beigong Danya’s face.

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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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