The Great Heavenly Sword Emperor - Chapter 56

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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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#056. The First Sword of Dongbang (3)

‘This cannot be.’
Bukgung Danya’s eyes wavered as he watched the first clash between the two fighters.
It was the first time he had seen Cheon Mujgyeol retreat.
In truth, there had never been an opponent skilled enough to force Cheon Mujgyeol backward.
And yet.
He could not imagine Cheon Mujgyeol giving ground to anyone.
But he had.
Moments ago, Cheon Mujgyeol had retreated.
Though Dongbang Cheongryu had been pushed back further, the very fact that Cheon Mujgyeol had yielded ground struck Bukgung Danya like a thunderbolt.
‘The Dongbang Clan. They were this formidable?’
Bukgung Danya’s fists clenched until his knuckles whitened.
Both families had begun on equal footing.
Yet the Bukgung Family had faded into obscurity, while the Dongbang Clan had risen to the pinnacle of the world.
It was not merely their houses’ standing that differed—the gulf in Martial Prowess was staggering.
‘Had Jeogeumssan not happened, would I have reached such heights?’
He wanted to believe otherwise, but deep down, he knew the answer.
Just as the Dongbang Clan and Bukgung Family had not traveled parallel paths, even without what had befallen him at Jeogeumssan, he would never have matched Dongbang Cheongryu’s level of martial mastery.
Bukgung Danya watched the two exchange blows, his heart burning with frustration.

* * *

The two fighters stood apart again, studying each other.
As before, they regarded one another in silence.
‘I’ve been completely countered. More than that, even.’
It was not merely his technique that had been neutralized.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s blade had deflected Dongbang Cheongryu’s from a far deeper place, through sheer Martial Prowess.
‘Is it strength pushed to its absolute limit, or is there something else at work?’
Dongbang Cheongryu could not know the answer.
And that uncertainty only kindled his desire to understand.
The depth of Cheon Mujgyeol’s strength.
Dongbang Cheongryu drew upon deeper reserves of inner force.
The atmosphere shifted.
Whoosh!
Dongbang Cheongryu deployed the Cheongunbo, closing the distance between them in a single bound.
His blade moved.
The Myeongshim Il-geom technique from the Dongbang Cheonmyeong Sword Art.
The strikes themselves were simple.
A thrust and a slash, each delivered once.
But the Intention and Spirit woven into those blades was anything but simple.
Dongbang Cheongryu’s sword did not merely target Cheon Mujgyeol’s flesh.
It was aimed at something far deeper—his mind, his very essence.
His blade found its target in that inner sanctum.
Cheon Mujgyeol moved to meet him.
He calmly intercepted Dongbang Cheongryu’s blade as it sought to pierce his mind.
There was no sense of strain in his response.
No evasion, no concealment.
As though nothing mattered, Cheon Mujgyeol met Dongbang Cheongryu’s blade head-on.
Crash!
The collision of inner forces rippled outward in all directions.
The stream nearby churned violently, spray erupting like sudden rainfall.
Crash! Bang! Bang!
Their blades clashed again and again in rapid succession.
Even as Dongbang Cheongryu’s sword danced continuously against Cheon Mujgyeol’s, his gaze never wavered from the other man’s eyes.
“There is anger in your sword,” he said quietly.
Dongbang Cheongryu thrust his sword forward as he spoke.
Cheon Mujgyeol did not answer, simply continuing to parry his strikes.
Within the relentless exchange of blows, neither yielding a single step, Dongbang Cheongryu’s words flowed unbroken.
“There is sorrow held down for far too long.”
Dongbang Cheongryu’s blade pressed deeper, driving inward.
As if seeking to glimpse something more.
Cheon Mujgyeol, silent as before, met each strike with steady defense.
“But what clings most thickly to your sword is vengeance.”
Reading Cheon Mujgyeol like an open book, Dongbang Cheongryu judged his opponent’s blade.
To this, Cheon Mujgyeol neither affirmed nor denied.
Boom!
Dongbang Cheongryu’s sword collided violently with the Cheonsingeom.
Crash-crash-crash-crack!
In that instant, the stream surged backward, its bed laid bare.
The force of their collision was that tremendous.
After the powerful exchange, Dongbang Cheongryu pressed no further and withdrew, creating distance.
Cheon Mujgyeol let him go without resistance.
Dongbang Cheongryu regarded Cheon Mujgyeol.
His gaze had grown deeper and colder than before.
“My expectations were high. Truthfully, I am disappointed.”
Dongbang Cheongryu spoke to Cheon Mujgyeol.
“I thought you possessed some worthier conviction, some grander principle. I was curious what it might be.”
Zing!
Dongbang Cheongryu flicked his blade lightly.
“Yet you are nothing but a vengeance-haunted fiend, consumed by the very thing you chase.”
Despite Dongbang Cheongryu’s sharp words, tinged with disappointment, Cheon Mujgyeol remained unmoved, his face impassive, his lips sealed.
Dongbang Cheongryu believed this silence meant Cheon Mujgyeol had nothing to say.
He thought the truth had struck home, leaving his opponent wordless.
“I cannot tolerate a sword as shallow as yours ever touching the Dongbang Clan.”
Dongbang Cheongryu assumed a new sword stance.
His energy flow was far sharper now, honed to a keener edge than before.
“I will bring you down here and now.”
Convinced he had seen all there was to see in Cheon Mujgyeol, Dongbang Cheongryu spoke as if pronouncing judgment.
And he moved at once to make it real.
The sixth technique of the Dongbang Cheonmyeong Sword Art: Cheonmyeong Saehon.
Dongbang Cheongryu’s blade shot forth to shatter Cheon Mujgyeol’s very spirit.
A tremendous sword pressure bore down upon him.
But that was not all.
The pressure went beyond crushing his body—it seized his mind itself.
Cheon Mujgyeol responded.
Though Cheon Mujgyeol always maintained composure, now was different.
The sword strikes he unleashed were fiercer.
The inner force he summoned was fiercer.
The footwork he deployed was fiercer.
Always cold and measured before, he now burned with relative ferocity.
Crash-crash-bang!
The sword strikes erupted and collided with violent force.
Neither gave ground, and the clash grew fiercer still.
‘Cheon Mujgyeol…….’
Bukgung Danya watched him with wavering eyes.
Because even to his perception, Cheon Mujgyeol’s state had changed from before.
Was it because of Dongbang Cheongryu’s power?
Or was there something else at work?
Whatever the reason, it was clear that Dongbang Cheongryu’s blade was shaking him.
Dongbang Cheongryu’s sword had truly rattled Cheon Mujgyeol’s heart and spirit.
The doubt flowing through the blade found Cheon Mujgyeol’s wounds.
Unwanted memories surfaced in Cheon Mujgyeol’s mind.
The scene from that day when tragedy fell upon Cheongeomjang, when all died.
The hellish days in the depths beneath Cheongeomjang.
His father’s scream—the man who pushed him into that abyss, only to lose his own life.
The ruins of Cheongeomjang that had collapsed into desolation — all of it, laid bare before him once more.
Not a single sight failed to carve a fresh wound into Cheon Mujgyeol’s heart.
And Dongbang Cheongryu could feel every wound rupturing from deep within Cheon Mujgyeol’s spirit.
The larger the wound grew, the deeper it cut — eventually, Cheon Mujgyeol would shatter.
Dongbang Cheongryu’s blade began to gouge those wounds even wider, driving deeper still.
Yet Cheon Mujgyeol did not evade his strikes.
Precarious, tottering on the edge of collapse — and yet he endured.
‘Is his thirst for vengeance truly so profound?’
Dongbang Cheongryu believed that vengeance alone was the final pillar holding Cheon Mujgyeol upright.
His desire for revenge ran so deep, so vast, that he could not break — he was unable to break.
‘But then —’
Dongbang Cheongryu drove Cheon Mujgyeol deeper and deeper toward his limit.
And now it seemed certain: Cheon Mujgyeol was about to crumble.
Bukgung Danya’s face had turned ashen with disbelief, anxiety and dread etched across his features as he watched Cheon Mujgyeol pushed into a corner — it was in that moment.
Whoosh.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s movements shifted.
And with them, Dongbang Cheongryu’s expression changed.
‘I see nothing.’
At some point as Dongbang Cheongryu had been gouging deeper and deeper into Cheon Mujgyeol’s wounds —
he could no longer read anything from him.
A perfect void where nothing existed at all.
Dongbang Cheongryu felt as though he had encountered it.
Dongbang Cheongryu continued to swing his blade, driving Cheon Mujgyeol back.
But it was no more than thrashing in empty air — a desperate flailing in space that held nothing.
Crash!
‘Ugh!’
Dongbang Cheongryu swallowed a groan in his throat.
And then, in the next heartbeat —
he felt his own movements subtly misaligned with Cheon Mujgyeol’s responses.
‘The misalignment isn’t in him — it’s in me. Why?’
Before his thrust could land, Cheon Mujgyeol’s scabbard was already angled to deflect it, already preparing for the next exchange.
When he drove deeper into his mind, Cheon Mujgyeol slipped off the Sword Path one step ahead.
Cheon Mujgyeol was reading everything from Dongbang Cheongryu — turning it all into pure void.
Dongbang Cheongryu’s blade was forced back.
With each retreat, he drifted further from Cheon Mujgyeol’s heart and spirit.
He could no longer glimpse the depths within him; pushed back and back until they were completely severed, regarding Cheon Mujgyeol from a distance.
Roooaaar!
Cheon Mujgyeol’s blade fell, heavy with the momentum of a collapsing mountain.
Dongbang Cheongryu’s eyes trembled violently.
There was no defense.
He could not even attempt one.
In that moment, Dongbang Cheongryu shut his eyes tight.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-crash!
The landscape behind Dongbang Cheongryu transformed completely.
The beautiful vista of grass and trees, gravel and sand woven together in harmony — all of it became utter ruin.
And yet, remarkably, Cheon Mujgyeol’s blade halted above Dongbang Cheongryu’s head without touching him.
Slip.
The hair cord that had been tightly bound came loose, and Dongbang Cheongryu’s long hair spilled down.
Drip-drip.
Beneath the veil of fallen hair, blood seeping from his split scalp traced crimson rivulets down his face.
“That will suffice.”
Cheon Mujgyeol spoke, his gaze fixed on Dongbang Cheongryu.
Dongbang Cheongryu, his face painted with blood, returned his stare with turbulent emotion clouding his eyes.
“Your blade was never truly a question — it carried an answer that had already been decided.”
At Cheon Mujgyeol’s words, Dongbang Cheongryu’s pupils dilated sharply.
The words he himself had spoken moments before came rushing back.
“There is anger in your sword.”
“Sorrow long suppressed as well.”
“But what clings most deeply to your blade is vengeance.”
Yes, that was true.
He’d thought he had read Cheon Mujgyeol, but that wasn’t reading at all.
It was merely a hasty conclusion drawn from the illusion of understanding.
‘Did I not read him—was he instead allowing himself to be read?’
In the end, Dongbang Cheongryu had failed to read Cheon Mujgyeol. Rather, he had been read.
Cheon Mujgyeol turned his back on Dongbang Cheongryu, who stood frozen in confusion.
After a few steps, Cheon Mujgyeol stopped and glanced back over his shoulder.
“I look forward to meeting the Dongbang Clan’s other swords soon.”
With that, he approached Bukgung Danya.
Bukgung Danya regarded him with evident relief.
Dongbang Cheongryu’s subordinate, who had been blocking Bukgung Danya’s path, had long since withdrawn and now moved toward his own master.
“You’ve done well.”
At Bukgung Danya’s words, Cheon Mujgyeol gave a slight nod.
“Are you injured?”
“No.”
From a distance, Dongbang Cheongryu heard every word of their exchange.
“Are you all right?”
His subordinate’s question reached Dongbang Cheongryu’s ears not at all.
Soon, Cheon Mujgyeol and Bukgung Danya vanished from his sight.
Dongbang Cheongryu stood staring blankly in the direction they had gone—toward the Dongbang Clan’s ancestral home—when suddenly he let out a soft laugh.
“Hehehehe!”
His laughter grew louder.
And then.
“Hahahahahaha!”
Dongbang Cheongryu, covered in blood, threw back his head and roared with laughter.
The meaning of that near-manic laughter was unmistakable.
It was mockery—directed at himself, for having dared to measure Cheon Mujgyeol with so shallow a blade.
The Dongbang Clan’s first sword had been utterly defeated.

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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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