The Great Heavenly Sword Emperor - Chapter 27

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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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#Episode 27. The Path Pointed Out by the Red Moonless (3)

A single word of praise from Cheon Mugyeol and one pointed observation had kindled an enormous drive in Beigong Danya.
Most of all, he was overjoyed to have proven that the path he’d discovered through his own inquiry was sound.
Even as Beigong Danya devoted himself to physical recovery, he never ceased his exploration of the Hyunjung Sword Technique and the Cheon Ak Sword Formation.
He’d grown absorbed in reinterpreting his clan’s martial arts based on the swordplay Cheon Mugyeol had shown him.
Save for the hours he slept—and even then, his mind churned with nothing but blade techniques—every waking moment belonged to his pursuit.
Several days passed.
With his body much recovered, Beigong Danya stood in the open ground before the Lodging, sword in hand, beading with sweat.
Whisht! Whisht! Whisht!
Beigong Danya’s blade cut through the air with crisp precision.
The Hyunjung Sword Technique he wielded had transformed noticeably—even to Gwang An’s eyes, whose understanding of martial principles remained shallow by comparison.
Yet he was not simply aping Cheon Mugyeol’s swordplay.
If Cheon Mugyeol had his own path, Beigong Danya had his.
He was painting his own hues onto the world that Cheon Mugyeol had opened to him.
In that trial using the Shadow Lotus, what Cheon Mugyeol had perceived in Beigong Danya was this:
the capacity to think for oneself, to expand and pioneer as one walked the Way.
That was the quality he’d recognized.
So Cheon Mugyeol had parted the waters, and Beigong Danya was answering that hope by charting his own course.
“Exhale…….”
Beigong Danya steadied his breath and lowered his sword.
He felt the marked recovery in his body and sensed the transformation in his technique’s quality.
Yet satisfaction eluded him.
He remained hungry, parched in spirit.
It was not a hunger born of his own accomplishment.
There was something more ahead, he sensed, but the path was blocked.
And only one person could breach that obstruction.
“I’ll need the guidance of Cheon Mugyeol.”
Cheon Mugyeol did not dispense instruction unilaterally.
Beigong Danya had to thirst for learning out of genuine necessity.
It was proof that their bond was unfolding in the most constructive way.
Beigong Danya set his course toward Cheon Mugyeol’s quarters.

* * *

Cheon Mugyeol was in his own quarters, not the Dharma Hall.
Though his attention had been diverted by various matters, Cheon Mugyeol still had to continuously inspect and refine his own martial cultivation.
It always began with the heart method.
The Cheon Heo Muggeuk Heart Method.
It was the foundation and center that had announced the Cheon Sword Saint to the world.
In time, some would say this:
that the Cheon Heo Muggeuk Heart Method of the Cheon Sword Saint was the only perfect heart method in existence.
To that degree, the Cheon Heo Muggeuk Heart Method was flawless and extraordinary in every respect.
Cheon Mugyeol had shut himself away in his chamber, devoting himself entirely to circulating his Jin Gi.
The Jin Gi of the Cheon Heo Muggeuk Heart Method found its way into every one of Cheon Mugyeol’s Se Maek, awakening even those cells that might have grown rigid and dormant.
“Exhale…….”
After a long span of time, Cheon Mugyeol opened his eyes.
The cells awakened by his Jin Gi flooded his body with vitality.
He felt the urge to move, and the desire to wield the Cheon Shin Sword seized him, but he could not.
A visitor had arrived.
Cheon Mugyeol rose from his seat and stepped outside.

Beigong Danya, who had come seeking Cheon Mugyeol’s quarters, had waited outside for some time.
Even from beyond the threshold, he could feel Cheon Mugyeol’s formidable presence.
To step across that boundary felt burdensome, and he feared interrupting something he shouldn’t.
So he waited quietly for Cheon Mugyeol’s cultivation to conclude.
Creak!
Cheon Mugyeol opened the door and stepped out.
The moment their eyes met, Beigong Danya swallowed hard and forced out the words he’d been holding back.
“Would you spar with me?”
Beigong Danya lowered his head as he made the request.
Cheon Mugyeol regarded him in silence.
Beigong Danya tensed.
Was it too presumptuous a request? Would Cheon Mugyeol take offense? What if he refused?
A cascade of anxious thoughts flooded his mind.
But Cheon Mugyeol did not answer immediately.
The longer the silence stretched, the more Beigong Danya’s insides burned.
Then, at last, Cheon Mugyeol’s voice came.
“I don’t know how to spar.”
At those words, Beigong Danya lifted his head slightly to look at him.
He didn’t know how to spar?
He couldn’t fathom what to make of that.
“All I know is combat—real combat. Kill or be killed.”
Beigong Danya swallowed again at Cheon Mugyeol’s words.
It sounded like a warning: cross swords with me and you die.
Even if death wasn’t the outcome, he might suffer wounds grave enough to be indistinguishable from it.
Beigong Danya deliberated for a brief moment.
But he would not relent.
“That’s fine! Please, I’m asking you!”
Beigong Danya met Cheon Mugyeol’s gaze directly, his voice steady and resolved.
Cheon Mugyeol studied him for a long moment, then turned and went back inside.
Beigong Danya, watching anxiously, felt his expression harden.
Moments later, Cheon Mugyeol emerged again—carrying the Cheon Shin Sword.
And the leather wrapping that had sheathed it was already undone.
Gulp.
Beigong Danya swallowed once more.
Merely seeing Cheon Mugyeol with the Cheon Shin Sword in hand created a palpable pressure.
Even breathing became difficult, as if something had gone wrong with his lungs.
Without a word, Cheon Mugyeol approached with blade in hand.
“Do your absolute best. No—you’ll need to do better than your best.”
His words fell like a warning.
Beigong Danya swallowed dryly and nodded, then steadied his breathing and took his stance facing Cheon Mugyeol.
‘The pressure is overwhelming.’
This was not his first time standing beside Cheon Mugyeol, yet the weight pressing down on him was entirely new.
Now he understood what it would truly feel like to face Cheon Mugyeol as an enemy.
‘This isn’t about victory or defeat. I have to pour everything I have into this.’
Cheon Mugyeol had nothing to worry about—it was Beigong Danya who should be concerned for himself.
But to give in to that concern and become passive would gain him nothing.
What he needed now was courage and boldness.
“Then, I’ll begin.”
Beigong Danya spoke as he assumed the centered stance of the Hyunjung Sword Technique.
A weight that settled deep and heavy.
Indeed, Beigong Danya had transformed from before.
Thud!
He drove his foot hard against the ground.
His opening was not the Jin Step but the Cheon Ju Step.
Where the Jin Step was a footwork of steady advance even within defense, the Cheon Ju Step was a more aggressive, enterprising progression.
Beigong Danya’s transformed momentum surged forward, pushing the air between them toward Cheon Mugyeol.
The characteristic momentum of the Beigong Clan—refusing to yield in direct confrontation—was perfectly poised.
In rhythm with that, Beigong Danya’s blade came into motion.
Moving with the Cheon Ju Step’s advance, he executed the Jin Step Pressure Thrust—a technique that used sword pressure to drive his opponent back.
Even now, with his sword still hanging loose, Cheon Mugyeol moved.
To counter Beigong Danya’s attack, Cheon Mugyeol’s footwork was not the Cheon Wun Muwae Step of the Cheon Ak Sword Formation, but rather the Jin Step of the Beigong Clan.
Thud!
Cheon Mugyeol planted the Jin Gak.
A single, weighty step forward.
Beigong Danya’s momentum and the force pushing back against Cheon Mugyeol’s pressure was palpable.
Crack!
Beigong Danya did not retreat.
He drew deeper from the Jin Wu Jung Shim Gyeol’s internal force to counter Cheon Mugyeol’s assault.
Whoosh!
The Cheon Shin Sword rose in a perfect line.
It was the Jung Ak Soo Sword form of the Hyunjung Sword Technique, meeting Beigong Danya’s Jin Step Pressure Thrust head-on.
Boom!
The internal force carried in both blades collided directly.
The air, compressed in that instant, burst apart and spawned a violent gust.
Cheon Mugyeol’s blade held steady, while Beigong Danya’s shook violently.
Beigong Danya twisted his sword.
The Half Moon Return Seal form.
His blade curved like a half-circle, turning back Cheon Mugyeol’s weapon while simultaneously wedging into the gap between them.
Thud!
Cheon Mugyeol shifted his feet again.
With only a slight change in direction, Beigong Danya’s opening became glaringly obvious.
“Hah!”
Beigong Danya’s blade whistled through empty air.
He had thought he was exploiting an opening, but his sword lost its target and instead exposed his own weakness.
The Cheon Shin Sword moved again.
A rapid sequence from the Yeonhwan Swae Technique, perfectly exploiting his exposed vulnerability.
Beigong Danya gritted his teeth.
Rather than retreat, Beigong Danya chose to advance, pouring power into the Cheon Ju Step as he pressed closer toward Cheon Mugyeol.
Slash!
It was a good choice.
He took a wound from Cheon Mugyeol’s blade strike, but avoided a fatal one.
Wounded though he was, by pressing further he managed to catch an opening in Cheon Mugyeol’s form.
Crack!
Beigong Danya thrust his sword again.
The blade extended precisely toward that opening.
Beigong Danya held no doubt of success.
Swish! Thud!
Then Cheon Mugyeol moved his feet again.
His foot position shifted, and his body turned.
Beigong Danya’s field of vision suddenly opened wide.
The form of Cheon Mugyeol that had blocked his view vanished, and his sword tip found only empty space.
‘This is bad!’
What he had believed was his finest move had become his worst.
His center of balance remained committed forward, and he could not withdraw his blade.
Whoosh!
And Cheon Mugyeol’s sword fell cleanly from above to below.
Beigong Danya shut his eyes tight and clenched his teeth.
Beigong Danya rolled his body to the side.
The Na Ryeo Ta Gon.
In the martial world, it had become a laughingstock of a technique, but this was no time to worry about pride against an opponent like Cheon Mugyeol.
Rolling to evade Cheon Mugyeol’s blade, Beigong Danya quickly rose and steadied himself.
But Cheon Mugyeol simply stood where he was, motionless.
Beigong Danya didn’t understand why the attack wasn’t continuing, but he had no intention of wasting this opening.
Just as he was about to surge forward again toward Cheon Mugyeol, Beigong Danya caught sight of his feet.
‘Ah…!’
Cheon Mugyeol’s left foot was planted in the earth.
That single Jin Gak he had struck when first deploying the Jin Step.
Cheon Mugyeol had used it to root his left foot into the ground, fixing it in place.
After that, Cheon Mugyeol had moved only his right foot.
Widening and narrowing his stride, changing direction—nothing more.
And with just that, he had rendered all of Beigong Danya’s attacks null and even launched formidable counterattacks.
Then Cheon Mugyeol spoke.
“Hyunjung is the Gang In of Jung Jung.”
At those words, Beigong Danya’s ears perked up.
“The Cheon Ak Sword Formation is the foundation of balance, and the Beigong Heaven True King Sword is the overwhelming strength built upon those two.”
Cheon Mugyeol had ventured beyond even mentioning the Hyunjung Sword Technique and the Cheon Ak Sword Formation, invoking the Beigong Clan’s supreme swordplay—the Beigong Heaven True King Sword—a technique Beigong Danya had not yet dared attempt.
Beigong Danya absorbed his words with utmost seriousness, turning them over in his mind.
What he had spoken of—balance, foundation, and overwhelming strength—were the three elements that threaded through all the Beigong Clan’s martial arts.
In those brief remarks, Cheon Mugyeol had pinpointed precisely where Beigong Danya had been falling short.
“Thank you.”
Beigong Danya straightened, clasped his fist respectfully, and bowed his head to Cheon Mugyeol.
The application of the Hyunjung Sword Technique and the Jin Step that Cheon Mugyeol had just demonstrated, combined with the vital insights he had offered—
it was a brief exchange, yet Beigong Danya had learned an immense amount.
Compared to Cheon Mugyeol’s teachings, the wound along his ribs seemed a trivial price to pay.
“Well then, have you two finished your business?”
Gwang An approached with a smile, posing the question.
“Yes. We have.”
Beigong Danya answered curtly, and Gwang An’s eyes flicked briefly to the wound in his ribs.
“Then have the wound tended first, and join us in the Dharma Hall. There is something I wish to discuss with you.”
At Gwang An’s words, Beigong Danya’s eyes brightened.
It was clear he had uncovered something based on the clues they had found in the Murk Forest Room.
Meanwhile, Cheon Mugyeol retreated into his chamber and began wrapping the Cheon Shin Sword in leather.
“Might you consider having a proper scabbard made? It must be tedious to do this every time.”
To Gwang An’s suggestion, Cheon Mugyeol offered no reply.
[A scabbard does sound rather convenient.]
The Cheon Shin Sword interjected softly, yet Cheon Mugyeol remained utterly unmoved.

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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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