The Great Heavenly Sword Emperor - Chapter 63

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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 63. The Dongbang Clan’s Trial (1)

The moment they passed through the Main Gate, four Law Protectors came into view, standing rigid and shoulder to shoulder.
Except for Dongbang Cheongryuu, who had fallen to Cheon Mujgyeol before, the remaining three Law Protectors fixed their gaze upon him with eyes that looked ready to devour him whole.
“Damn it all.”
Immediately after, Bukgung Danya let out a curse.
Was it because of the four Law Protectors standing in a line?
No.
Behind those four Law Protectors—or rather, crammed into the space all around them.
Countless spectators filled the Training Ground and its surrounding area where the battle would take place.
Bukgung Danya clenched his fists so hard they trembled.
Rage welled up inside him, unstoppable.
Spectators. What could this possibly mean?
It meant they intended to show the entire world as Cheon Mujgyeol was torn to pieces.
Or more precisely, it meant the Dongbang Clan would reaffirm their strength before all these people once more.
An execution.
This place had been arranged as an execution—Cheon Mujgyeol’s execution, carried out before a vast throng of witnesses.
It was vicious and cruel.
Knowing how many atrocities the Dongbang Clan had committed for their own growth, Bukgung Danya’s fury rose at their shameless display.
While Bukgung Danya trembled with rage, Cheon Mujgyeol regarded the four Law Protectors with perfect composure.
Standing there for a moment, he swept his gaze across each of the four in turn, then began to move forward.
Step. Step.
His pace was neither hurried nor slow, as it always was.
Yet to all who watched, those few steps seemed to stretch out endlessly, drawn slow as time itself.
“So you’ve finally come this far.”
Someone’s voice rose from within the crowd of spectators.
A figure whose gaze wavered, tracking Cheon Mujgyeol’s movements—Gwang-an.
He had arrived early upon hearing that the Dongbang Clan was recruiting spectators.
Not to watch for sport.
Had it been merely for that, he would never have come, unsettled as his heart was.
But there was something he had to do, and so he had suppressed his discomfort and come to this place.
And beside Gwang-an sat an unexpected figure.
It was Yu Baekkhyeon, heir to the Euirim.
“Indeed. Still, it’s a relief to see him looking unharmed.”
Yu Baekkhyeon’s attention, too, remained fixed on Cheon Mujgyeol as he faced down the four Law Protectors.
Until the Dongbang Clan’s Main Gate had swung open.
He’d heard several explosions detonate clearly from beyond it.
Though he hadn’t witnessed it directly, one thing was certain—it had been a fierce battle.
Yet seeing Cheon Mujgyeol emerge seemingly unmarked set his mind at ease, if only slightly.
But he could not allow himself to relax.
The opponent Cheon Mujgyeol now faced was nothing less than a Law Protector of the Dongbang Clan.
The fact that four of them had appeared suggested they would all attack him at once.
However formidable Cheon Mujgyeol might be, whether he could overcome four Law Protectors of the Dongbang Clan was a question Yu Baekkhyeon could not answer with certainty.
“Even so, to face all four at once…….”
Worry saturated every word from Gwang-an’s lips.
Yet Yu Baekkhyeon found himself unable to speak.
He wanted to assure Gwang-an that Cheon Mujgyeol would certainly prevail, to calm his worries—but the words would not come.
“Hhh…….”
All Yu Baekkhyeon could do was exhale slowly.

* * *

In the center of the broad Training Ground that lay just beyond the Main Gate.
Four Law Protectors, all but Dongbang Cheongryuu, stood in a line, their eyes trained upon Cheon Mujgyeol.
They did not glance at one another.
As if bound by an unspoken pact, they gazed only at Cheon Mujgyeol.
They had seen the fight clearly from outside the Main Gate. And they had witnessed with their own eyes the strength that Cheon Mujgyeol possessed.
Even so.
For four of them to face a single opponent all at once was a matter of pride.
That was why their anger burned hotter still.
It was a feeling all four of them shared.
Even Dongbang Jinhyeok, who usually maintained his composure so well, had his indignation written plainly across his face.
Cheon Mujgyeol said nothing as they faced him.
What was there to say?
The four Law Protectors were already meeting him with killing intent radiating from their entire bodies.
Thud!
Cheon Mujgyeol charged forward.
“Hah!”
At that, a gasp of surprise erupted from among the spectators.
To the eye, it might have looked like Cheon Mujgyeol’s ambush.
But in a situation where both sides had already confirmed their intentions with each other, a charge could hardly be called an ambush.
Boom!
As Cheon Mujgyeol charged, the four Law Protectors pushed off the ground simultaneously and rushed toward him.
Though the Law Protectors moved at the same time, it was Dongbang Cheolyun who struck first among them.
Dongbang Cheolyun was the most emotional of the four.
Having watched his subordinates crumble before his eyes, the feelings he harbored toward Cheon Mujgyeol were intensely bitter.
“Hyah!”
Dongbang Cheolyun roared and drove his great sword down with terrible force.
The blade, imbued with the weight of a mountain, seemed as though it would cleave Cheon Mujgyeol in two.
Cheon Mujgyeol did not retreat. Instead, he met the terrible downward strike head-on with the Cheonsingeom.
Crash!
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-boom!
The impact was so tremendous that the ground itself trembled.
Crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!
The floor around Cheon Mujgyeol and Dongbang Cheolyun shattered and caved in.
The force of Dongbang Cheolyun’s attack and the force with which Cheon Mujgyeol repelled it were almost beyond belief.
Shards of broken stone sprayed outward in all directions.
In the moment when Cheon Mujgyeol was bracing with all his strength to block Dongbang Cheolyun’s attack, another blade suddenly thrust toward him.
Screech!
It was Dongbang Jinhyeok’s sword.
Unlike Dongbang Cheolyun’s coarse and aggressive strikes, Dongbang Jinhyeok’s blade work was crisp and precise.
It was a textbook application of the Dongbang Cheongmyeong Geom-gyeol from the Dongbang Clan.
Whoosh!
As Cheon Mujgyeol pushed away Dongbang Cheolyun’s blade, he spun his body to evade Dongbang Jinhyeok’s thrust.
But that was not the end.
While evading the attack, he used the rotational momentum to strike away Dongbang Jinhyeok’s blade with the Sword Scabbard he held in his left hand.
Bang!
Both Dongbang Cheolyun and Dongbang Jinhyeok were driven back.
Just as it seemed he had barely escaped the danger, this time Dongbang Yeonho appeared.
Reading the flow of Cheon Mujgyeol’s movements, Dongbang Yeonho’s blade pierced through and penetrated where he would move next.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s body was already spinning and shifting in position.
The blade Dongbang Yeonho thrust into his path seemed difficult to evade.
Thud! Thwack!
Yet Cheon Mujgyeol displayed a movement that transcended everyone’s expectations.
Despite the severe recoil it would cause, he forcibly halted his spin, rolled hard across the floor, and violently twisted his direction.
Rip!
Dongbang Yeonho’s blade could only manage to tear at Cheon Mujgyeol’s sleeve.
Shwish-shwish-shwish-shwish!
In that instant, another blade came whistling down.
As if knowing everything beforehand, Dongbang Mujin’s swift blade stood perfectly in Cheon Mujgyeol’s escape route, mercilessly targeting his vital points.
Tap-tap-tap-tap!
In that moment, Cheon Mujgyeol’s Cheon Un Mu-ae Bo shone brilliantly.
Cheon Mujgyeol evaded the relentless onslaught of Dongbang Mujin’s swift strikes through his footwork.
Crash-crash-crash-bang!
Using both the Cheonsingeom and the Sword Scabbard, Cheon Mujgyeol parried every single one of Dongbang Mujin’s incoming strikes.
Thud!
He seized the opening and retreated, widening the distance between them.
Having crossed blades with each of the four in turn, Cheon Mujgyeol regarded them with an expression utterly unmoved.
The four Law Protectors too seemed to treat that brief exchange as nothing more than a greeting, holding back from rushing him immediately.
Cheon Mujgyeol glanced down at the hand gripping his sword.
The torn sleeve hung awkwardly about him, fluttering with each movement.
Rip!
He seized the dangling fabric and tore it clean away.
He stripped it all the way up to his shoulder, laying bare the dense, corded muscle of his forearm.
After that breathtaking exchange, the crowd fell silent.
The single engagement had proven beyond doubt that Cheon Mujgyeol was no easy opponent, and some felt genuine alarm.
For four Law Protectors of the Dongbang Clan to descend upon him simultaneously and tear only his sleeve was evidence enough.
“Phew…….”
Gwang-an, watching from the stands, clutched his chest and exhaled in relief.
Then he spoke, his voice trembling.
“He must have prepared extensively.”
At Gwang-an’s words, Yu Baekkhyeon beside him shook his head.
“It’s not preparation. Each of them is fighting a one-on-one duel with him.”
Gwang-an looked at Yu Baekkhyeon as though he hadn’t understood.
“But their coordination is flawless……?”
Everyone would be thinking the same thing.
By any measure, the combined attack of those four Law Protectors moments ago was the sort only forged between warriors who had trained in perfect synchronization for years, who knew each other intimately.
Yet Yu Baekkhyeon was saying something altogether different.
“Because each Law Protector possesses such exceptional skill individually, it simply happens naturally.”
Gwang-an tilted his head again at Yu Baekkhyeon’s words.
Simply happens naturally?
It was difficult to grasp.
But Yu Baekkhyeon’s words were precise.
The four Law Protectors paid no mind to those beside them.
They didn’t even glance at one another, nor did they expect assistance.
Each Law Protector was a being of fierce pride.
Though they’d been compelled to move together, not one of them entertained the notion of a coordinated attack.
As Yu Baekkhyeon had said, their focus and attention were fixed solely on Cheon Mujgyeol.
They had attacked believing themselves locked in individual duels with him alone.
Yet because each possessed a distinct temperament, their separate natures had woven together into what appeared a perfectly choreographed harmony.
Gwang-an turned his gaze back to the field and swallowed hard.
If Yu Baekkhyeon’s words were true—if those four Law Protectors were to deliberately attempt a genuine combined assault—
Cheon Mujgyeol could well face a far graver peril.
‘Cheon Mujgyeol.’
Gwang-an pressed his palms together.
Prayer was all he could offer now.

* * *

After that brief, violent exchange, a moment of standoff followed.
What the eye perceived and what the body felt were vastly different things.
The Law Protectors were each recalibrating their assessment of Cheon Mujgyeol’s true level.
Defeat was not a word in their vocabulary.
Only victory filled their minds—and what that victory entailed: Cheon Mujgyeol’s death, nothing less.
Slide.
Dongbang Cheolyun was the first to lower his stance.
Almost immediately, the tip of Dongbang Jinhyeok’s blade rose slightly, and Dongbang Yeonho shifted half a step to the side.
But Dongbang Mujin remained motionless in place.
Yet it was Dongbang Mujin who vanished first among them all.
And this was the signal that combat had resumed.
Burst!
Dongbang Mujin vanished, and in the same instant the other three moved.
This time there was no distinguishing who led.
Four blades poured down from four directions, perfectly synchronized.
At the sight of this, the light in Cheon Mujgyeol’s eyes deepened, and he angled his Cheonsingeom diagonally before him.
Dongbang Cheolyun’s brute strength, Dongbang Jinhyeok’s seamless technique, Dongbang Yeonho’s vein-severing strikes—and now Dongbang Mujin’s speed.
Against the four attackers coming at him from different angles, Cheon Mujgyeol wielded the Cheonsingeom without hesitation.
Crash!
The force of all four converged at a single point and detonated.
A violent wind tore through the arena, dust exploded upward, and a tremendous shock wave rippled outward once more.
Cheon Mujgyeol did not cease his assault, swinging both blade and scabbard in relentless succession.
The four Law Protectors, too, refused to break their rhythm, continuing to bear down upon him with unforgiving pressure.
Though the dust obscured the view, the spectators could gauge the ferocity of the exchange by the sheer density of killing intent that flooded the stands.
If the first engagement had been a greeting, this was slaughter.
Whether Cheon Mujgyeol fell or the four Law Protectors fell.
Either way, only death could end this battle.

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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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