The Great Heavenly Sword Emperor - Chapter 59

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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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#059. Gateway of the East (3)

Before continuing forward, Cheon Mujgyeol and Bukgung Danya paused to steady their breathing, their eyes sweeping the surroundings once more.
The village was no ruin, yet it had lost much of what made it a place where people lived, and the sight of it sat uneasily in their chests.
Though they had evacuated the residents beforehand, Cheon Mujgyeol knew it might take a long time for these people to reclaim their ordinary lives.
The fact that Dongbang Sega had deliberately chosen this place as a battlefield, after coming this far, made Bukgung Danya’s teeth clench with rage.
“Let’s move on, now.”
This time it was Bukgung Danya who urged them forward first.
The fire burning in his heart at the sight of the ruined village made him more resolute, more fierce.
But Cheon Mujgyeol did not move immediately.
He stood motionless in that spot, his eyes taking in everything around him, lost in thought.
“Is something wrong?”
Bukgung Danya called to him, his tone uncertain.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s eyes gleamed with sharp intelligence.
‘The numbers don’t add up.’
During the battle, their forces had seemed vast.
Yet the number of those actually left unable to fight was surprisingly small.
Some fallen soldiers had been gathered and carried away, and he’d seen others slip swiftly from the battlefield at the moment of the final strike.
Most tellingly, even now he could sense the presence of Biyeong-dae moving rapidly toward another location.
Cheon Mujgyeol turned slowly to look behind him.
‘We’ve gone deeper than I realized.’
It had felt as though they’d only just entered the village’s outskirts, yet when he turned to look back, the entrance had grown distant.
Whether we advance is inevitable, but advancing by our own design or by another’s hand—that is a world of difference.
“I think we’ve been moving according to their plan.”
“What do you mean?”
Bukgung Danya turned to him, confused by his words.
“From this point on, we must be especially careful. They’ve deliberately driven us this deep into their territory.”
At Cheon Mujgyeol’s words, Bukgung Danya’s face hardened.
“Whether we like it or not, this is where we had to come. This is the path we must follow.”
At Bukgung Danya’s words, now more resolute than before, Cheon Mujgyeol nodded and resumed walking.
Bukgung Danya followed close behind, his expression grim and steadfast.

* * *

As they pressed forward, the landscape began to shift.
“Our field of vision has narrowed.”
Cheon Mujgyeol nodded at Bukgung Danya’s observation.
Unlike the residential and commercial areas they’d passed through moments before, now there was something different everywhere.
Stacks of timber and crates rose high on either side, cloth-covered carts lay scattered and neglected, and various other goods were piled haphazardly about.
That was why the sense of space had compressed.
Cheon Mujgyeol surveyed everything visible with quiet deliberation.
“Doesn’t something feel unnatural about this?”
Bukgung Danya voiced his question as he too examined their surroundings, and Cheon Mujgyeol nodded.
“It appears to be deliberate placement. They mean to restrict our movement by creating obstacles.”
At his words, Bukgung Danya pressed his lips together and nodded grimly.
The presence of Biyeong-dae, which had felt distant, was growing closer.
And beyond that, he could sense the faint aura of other units as well.
“If they’ve designed the battlefield this way, it means their preparations are thorough. Since we sense the presence of forces beyond just Biyeong-dae, this will be far more dangerous than before.”
“I understand…”
Bukgung Danya exhaled a deep breath in response to Cheon Mujgyeol’s warning.
Then it happened.
Bukgung Danya’s body went rigid, his expression freezing.
A group had appeared ahead of them, maintaining a deliberate distance.
A dozen armed warriors stood with their blades lowered at their sides.
Embroidered upon their upper garments was a cloud-like insignia that flowed diagonally from shoulder to chest.
“Yuyun Dan.”
“Yuyun Dan.”
Cheon Mujgyeol kept his awareness fixed on the Biyeong-dae’s presence even as he watched them.
Biyeong-dae had taken their assigned positions and hidden themselves, each warrior scattered as if according to a predetermined arrangement.
Bukgung Danya also studied the Jinhyeong formation of Yuyun Dan.
‘They don’t look all that strong.’
Unlike Biyeong-dae, Yuyun Dan felt comparatively manageable.
Even granting that their numbers could grow at any moment, there was something about the aura they radiated and the formation in which they stood.
It felt less tightly woven than somehow haphazard.
‘Is that why they positioned the obstacles?’
It occurred to him that they had arranged the obstacles as a device to fill the gaps in their own weaknesses.
But Cheon Mujgyeol’s thinking was different.
‘A path.’
A path—a space made for people or animals, or for wind and water, to pass through.
What Yuyun Dan had created was a path.
Yet it was not an open passage meant for the two of them to cross easily.
It was a path to lure them into a swamp.
That was how it appeared to Cheon Mujgyeol’s eyes.
“Do not let your guard down.”
Perhaps he sensed the shift in Bukgung Danya’s mood beside him.
Cheon Mujgyeol offered the warning and then advanced slowly forward.
At that, three of the roughly ten Yuyun Dan warriors stepped ahead.
Their gaze was fixed entirely on Cheon Mujgyeol; Bukgung Danya seemed not to exist in their eyes at all.
Bukgung Danya observed the situation for now, keeping his surroundings alert in case of contingency.
One of the Yuyun Dan warriors, closing the distance as he watched Cheon Mujgyeol, suddenly swung his blade.
Swish!
It was a sword strike driven more by intent to probe than by intent to achieve any particular outcome.
Yet for all that, the force behind that strike was considerable.
That single move alone seemed to prove that Yuyun Dan’s skill—and by extension, the caliber of Dongbang Sega—was of the highest order.
Seeing the blade extend toward him, Cheon Mujgyeol swung the Cheonsingeom, scabbard and all.
Cheon Mujgyeol too had swung his blade to feel the opponent’s strength, to meet it head-on.
That was when it happened.
Crack!
The opponent twisted his wrist, altering the blade’s trajectory and slipping past Cheon Mujgyeol’s attack entirely.
Then two other blades flowed in along the path the Cheonsingeom had traced.
Cheon Mujgyeol shifted his blade path in response, maintaining his offense.
But then—
Whish-whish-whish!
Three blades moved in organic coordination, pressing and driving back the Cheonsingeom’s path.
Crash-crash-crash-bang!
The Cheonsingeom’s trajectory veered from its original course and twisted left, shattering the lumber and crates stacked to one side into splinters.
Debris and dust engulfed the surroundings, and the three warriors who had been pressing Cheon Mujgyeol quickly withdrew to their original positions.
“Did… did they just block that…?”
Cheon Mujgyeol had not poured his full strength into it.
Even so, the fact that merely three warriors had completely neutralized his attack was something he could not overlook.
“They deflected it. It seems to be their method of combat.”
Cheon Mujgyeol spoke matter-of-factly.
At his words, Bukgung Danya turned his gaze back to Yuyun Dan with renewed attention.
Having heard Cheon Mujgyeol’s assessment, the Jinhyeong formation in which Yuyun Dan stood now seemed anything but ordinary.
What Cheon Mujgyeol had grasped, Bukgung Danya was only now beginning to sense.
A moment passed, and the dust settled.
As the forms of Yuyun Dan began to emerge, Cheon Mujgyeol activated the Cheonlamhaejingyeol.
This was the Cheonlamhaejingyeol that had performed admirably when he had broken through the formation of two schools in Danae Valley.
Spark!
Cheon Mujgyeol’s eyes gleamed, and subtle threads of light invisible to others appeared.
The threads, drifting in empty air, flowed smoothly along the path Yuyun Dan had constructed.
Boom!
Cheon Mujgyeol burst forward.
If he could clearly see where the path they had laid led, there was no reason he could not break through it.
In response to Cheon Mujgyeol’s swift charge, Yuyun Dan moved as one, with perfect coordination.
The formation changed, and the path changed.
Cheon Mujgyeol watched the threads shift continuously, adjusting to match each movement of Yuyun Dan’s formations.
Screech!
Yuyun Dan deliberately left their left flank open, then unleashed a volley of blades at Cheon Mujgyeol from all directions.
Clang-clang-clang!
Rather than retreat into the exposed left, Cheon Mujgyeol surged toward the right where the blades came streaming down, batting away the assault.
Crack!
In that instant, the Jinhyeong shifted once more, and the warehouse door that had been left unguarded on the left exploded inward—three martial artists burst through.
In a heartbeat, they had closed in behind Cheon Mujgyeol.
But Cheon Mujgyeol had already sensed their presence.
Instead of defending his rear, he pressed his advantage forward, using the momentum to slip free of their attack range.
“Damn!”
Seeing the sudden appearance of these reinforcements, Bukgung Danya moved with sharp reflexes.
But he could not break free to aid Cheon Mujgyeol.
Crack! Screech!
Two more Yuyun Dan fighters erupted from the stacked cargo nearby, cutting off Bukgung Danya’s advance.
Screech!
Bukgung Danya gritted his teeth and scattered his blade across their forms.
Using the Hyeonjeong Geombeop to parry their strikes, his attention remained fixed on Cheon Mujgyeol’s direction.
Yet the Yuyun Dan fighters blocking his path were formidable.
They could not be dislodged, and sensing his divided focus, they pressed him hard.
Bukgung Danya’s jaw tightened.
There was no time to worry about Cheon Mujgyeol now.
Cheon Mujgyeol was Cheon Mujgyeol.
The first priority was to trust him and focus on his own survival.
Regaining his composure, Bukgung Danya met the onslaught with measured calm.
The steady, deliberate blade form unique to Hyeonjeong Geombeop held firm even under assault from two opponents.
Yet his expression darkened.
He could hold against their attacks, but found it nearly impossible to transition into a counterattack.
Yuyun Dan’s assault was neither overwhelming in power nor blinding in speed.
It was measured, almost meditative—and therein lay the trap: openings were nearly impossible to find.
And on those rare occasions when a gap did appear and he drove into it, he found himself facing an even graver danger.
Each such moment sent a chill through his chest, forcing him to grow ever more cautious, ever more passive.
‘Think. Think! Use your head, damn it!’
Bukgung Danya shouted silently to himself in desperation.
Even as he did, he caught sight of Cheon Mujgyeol, now surrounded by far greater numbers than before.
Though Cheon Mujgyeol held firm against the multiple attackers, he was not overwhelming them as he had during his clash with Biyeong-dae.
Whether Yuyun Dan’s assault was simply that cunning, or whether some other factor was at work, he could not tell.
Moreover, the distance between them had grown considerably since the start.
‘Damn it!’
Anger flooded through Bukgung Danya.
Anger at himself.
He faced only two opponents.
He should have shaken them off and lifted some of the burden from Cheon Mujgyeol, but instead he was pinned, achieving nothing.
‘What can I do?’
Should he try to strike them down?
Or force his way past them to reach Cheon Mujgyeol?
Neither seemed like the answer.
Every time Bukgung Danya attempted to shift his position, the two fighters matched his movement.
Whenever he found a gap and drove into it, it transformed into an even deeper snare.
Then what if—
‘I don’t move?’
Bukgung Danya’s feet stopped.
One of the Yuyun Dan fighters opened an apparent gap once more.
Until moments before, he would have thrust his blade straight through.
But Bukgung Danya remained still.
Instead, he fixed his eyes open wide, reading the flow of his opponents’ movements as they continued their relentless advance.
Then Bukgung Danya swung his blade.
Clang!
The unexpected collision sent one of the Yuyun Dan fighters’ bodies reeling backward.
The other, who had been following in coordination, could not adjust his path and froze momentarily.
Bukgung Danya’s eyes widened.
It wasn’t that he’d knocked the two of them down, or that he’d carved a perfect path through.
But for the first time.
The momentum they’d created came to a halt before him.
It wasn’t something he’d done consciously.
Rather, it was merely an improvisation that had surfaced in that instant.
Yet Bukgung Danya felt something unfamiliar for the first time.
He couldn’t find the words to express it.
But there was certainly something different about it.
“Huh…….”
Bukgung Danya drew a deep breath.

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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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