The Great Heavenly Sword Emperor - Chapter 65

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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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#065. The Clash of Dongbang (3)

The transformed Dongbang Mujin was an entirely different man.
His momentum had grown far more savage, and the air around him carried an eerie, unsettling presence.
His blood-stained form and the Qi that radiated from him merged into something almost primal—enough to inspire dread in any onlooker.
Could a man change so utterly just from seeing blood?
A stranger watching might easily wonder whether Dongbang Mujin had trained himself in Magong rather than orthodox Mugong.
Whump!
Dongbang Mujin vanished.
He reappeared from Cheon Mujgyeol’s diagonal flank, his blade already sweeping toward the young master’s throat.
Cheon Mujgyeol responded with a smooth parry.
Slice!
But the Cheonsingeom cut through empty air.
In the same instant, Dongbang Mujin dropped low, redirecting his blade toward the wound on Cheon Mujgyeol’s flank.
Rather than recover his sword, Cheon Mujgyeol thrust his scabbard downward, attempting to deflect Dongbang Mujin’s incoming strike.
Crack!
At that very moment, Dongbang Jinhyeok’s blade intervened.
A masterful strike—it blocked the scabbard’s path and severed the momentum.
Thanks to Dongbang Jinhyeok’s interference, Dongbang Mujin’s blade drove even deeper toward the wound.
Cheon Mujgyeol twisted his body and unleashed his Bobeop, attempting to slip free from Dongbang Mujin’s grasp.
Whisper!
Another blade flashed in.
It was Dongbang Yeonho’s strike, aimed at severing Cheon Mujgyeol’s vital channels.
By constraining Cheon Mujgyeol’s movements, it created an opening that allowed Dongbang Mujin’s attack to flow freely—a devastating coordination.
Crack!
Cheon Mujgyeol swung the Cheonsingeom with force, prying open the constrained path.
Dongbang Yeonho’s blade was driven back, space opened up, and he deployed the Cheonun Muaebo at full intensity, slipping clear.
Boom!
But it was far from over.
He had escaped Dongbang Mujin’s assault, only to find another threat lying in wait.
Dongbang Cheolyun cut off his retreat, bringing his blade down in a tremendous overhand strike.
The timing was so perfect that Cheon Mujgyeol had no chance to counter with his own blade.
Caught off guard, he surged his Naeryeok in an instant, raising the Cheongang Geommak.
Bang!
Dongbang Cheolyun’s overwhelming blow collided with the defensive barrier of pure Qi.
Dongbang Cheolyun bounced back violently.
But Cheon Mujgyeol had also absorbed a tremendous impact.
The Qi had prevented direct wounds to his body, but the shock of the collision transmitted through him intact.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s frame shuddered with the force.
In that same breath, Dongbang Mujin closed in, unleashing a barrage of rapid, razor-sharp cuts.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash-bang!
Cheon Mujgyeol desperately worked his Bobeop, managing to parry Dongbang Mujin’s assault.
But already shaken and with his center of balance disrupted, he was barely holding on.
Whoosh!
Dongbang Mujin disappeared again.
With no time to track where Dongbang Mujin had gone, Dongbang Jinhyeok’s blade suddenly bored in from behind.
Dongbang Jinhyeok’s smooth, economical swordsmanship was orthodox in form yet formidably difficult to counter.
Flawless and methodical—almost mechanical in its precision—his assault locked Cheon Mujgyeol in place with devastating efficiency.
Crack!
While Cheon Mujgyeol was bound by Dongbang Jinhyeok, Dongbang Mujin—who had vanished—came roaring in from an unexpected angle.
Dongbang Jinhyeok broke his engagement.
It would have been far more effective to continue constraining Cheon Mujgyeol, yet he withdrew—a move that defied logical explanation.
In that gap, Cheon Mujgyeol reclaimed his balance and met Dongbang Mujin’s assault head-on.
Crash-crash-crash-bang!
Dongbang Mujin’s attack—now enhanced in both power and speed—was becoming increasingly difficult to simply parry.
In the next instant, Dongbang Yeonho struck from the flank, his blade thrusting in to lock Cheon Mujgyeol’s movements once more.
With one avenue of retreat sealed off, Cheon Mujgyeol found his defenses beginning to falter against Dongbang Mujin’s onslaught.
He wove his footwork and swordplay together, parrying and slipping past each attack, yet he could not easily seize an opening for counterattack.
Splash!
Blood sprayed from Cheon Mujgyeol’s shoulder once more.
Dongbang Mujin tightened his grip on the assault, pressing harder still.
At this rate, he would have no choice but to endure a hopeless battering.
Cheon Mujgyeol drew his inner force up sharply and extended his footwork to its absolute limit.
It was the critical moment—the instant he meant to break free from the pressure of Dongbang Mujin and Dongbang Yeonho.
Whoosh!
A blade slash that tore through the very air came screaming down.
It was Dongbang Cheolyun’s greatsword.
A perfect, cruel stroke—timed to fall at the precise instant when the Cheonun Muaebo could not be abandoned, when the body could not cease its motion.
Crash!
Yet Dongbang Cheolyun’s greatsword struck not flesh, but stone.
Cheon Mujgyeol had forced himself to halt mid-stride, then wrenched his direction sharply to slip away.
Yu Baekhuyn, watching from the sidelines, furrowed his brow.
“This is not good.”
“No, it isn’t. These guardians are stronger than I expected.”
Gwang-an nodded, his face creased with worry, and replied to Yu Baekhuyn’s words.
“No. That is not what I meant.”
“Pardon? Then what—”
“At this rate, Cheon’s body will be destroyed.”
“What?!”
Gwang-an’s eyes widened in alarm at Yu Baekhuyn’s words.
“What are you saying?”
“Just now, when Cheon dodged Dongbang Cheolyun’s attack—did you see that movement?”
“Yes, I saw it.”
“Stopping his motion abruptly and twisting his direction sharply—such a maneuver inflicts tremendous trauma on the body’s joints. Repeated like this, the joints will not hold.”
At Yu Baekhuyn’s words, Gwang-an’s face darkened, and he swallowed hard.
“But… surely Cheon possesses such formidable Mugong that it wouldn’t matter, would it?”
But Yu Baekhuyn shook his head with a grave expression.
“That is a common misconception. Inner force helps the body move more efficiently, but it does not erase the body’s limits entirely. With inner force as deep as Cheon’s, the impact may be reduced—but it is not avoided altogether.”
“That… that cannot be!”
“The guardians are in no hurry. If they cannot defeat Cheon through raw power, they can simply wear him down. Damage the instrument, and its performance falters—then finish him when the moment comes.”
A deeper shadow of worry settled across Gwang-an’s face.
‘And besides…’
Yu Baekhuyn kept his next thought unspoken.
The recklessness of Cheon Mujgyeol’s movements was one concern, but the greater threat lay in the guardians’ combined power.
Until now it had been merely adequate, but now it was different.
With Dongbang Mujin’s shift as the catalyst, the guardians had begun to coordinate properly, maximizing his offensive potential.
To untrained eyes it might seem unchanged, but Yu Baekhuyn could see it clearly.
The three guardians moved in thorough support of Dongbang Mujin’s every motion.
This was why Cheon Mujgyeol struggled.
Not merely because Dongbang Mujin’s power had increased, but because the three guardians now moved with such cohesion, tormenting him with their combined precision.
‘It will only grow worse, Cheon.’
Yu Baekhuyn silently wished him well.

* * *

Whistle-whistle-whisk!
Boom!
Cheon Mujgyeol himself was aware of the current he had read.
He knew that to escape this predicament, he must break the rhythm not of Dongbang Mujin, but of the three guardians.
Yet seizing that opportunity proved difficult.
Their coordination was flawless to that degree—in power, speed, and formation alike, they were not easily disrupted.
But Cheon Mujgyeol did not grow impatient.
In moments like these, he steadied his breathing and focused his defense on clean, precise movements rather than desperation.
To endure. To hold fast.
It was a trial that demanded vast reserves of patience—but that was precisely the arena in which he was most confident.
Boom-boom-crash!
Cheon Mujgyeol conserved his internal strength and stamina with methodical precision, deflecting each vicious assault.
True, he’d accumulated a few more small wounds than in the beginning, but against four Dongbang fighters of that caliber, it remained remarkably minor.
After enduring with such patience, at last the moment for counterattack arrived.
Slice!
It began with the smallest of wounds.
The crucial detail was that the wounded man was Dongbang Mujin.
As Cheon Mujgyeol evaded and blocked, the Cheonsingeom grazed Dongbang Mujin’s forearm.
Blood sprayed—droplets of it spattered across his face.
That was the beginning.
Having tasted blood once more, Dongbang Mujin’s movements grew wilder.
Yet from the perspective of the four fighters, this escalation in Dongbang Mujin’s offensive power was no blessing—it was a curse.
The sudden shift in Dongbang Mujin’s assault caught them off balance, their formation fragmenting for an instant.
Crack!
Cheon Mujgyeol did not squander this opening, earned through patience.
Swoosh!
Deploying the Cheonun Muaebo with full force, Cheon Mujgyeol shook off the charging Dongbang Mujin.
His target was not the collision itself, but the gap that had opened.
Driving through that breach was the immediate objective.
Among the remaining three fighters, Dongbang Cheolyun was slowest to react.
In a flash, Cheon Mujgyeol had carved through the opening, and Dongbang Cheolyun’s massive frame materialized before him.
And then.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh! Screeeee!
The Cheonsingeom danced.
Cheonmyeol Sibichek Gwanghasewhacheon.
Cheon Mujgyeol descended upon Dongbang Cheolyun like a tempest.
When Cheon Mujgyeol had first appeared before him, Dongbang Cheolyun had actually thought his luck had turned—perhaps he could pass this off to Dongbang Mujin.
But fortune had come rolling in of its own accord.
Yet the moment the Cheonsingeom began to move, Dongbang Cheolyun realized he had been gravely mistaken.
The Mugong that now roared toward him was utterly transformed from anything he had seen before.
Boom-boom-boom-crash!
Afforded no moment to breathe, Dongbang Cheolyun could only scramble to defend.
The Daegeom’s nature demanded distance, yet he could not create any separation whatsoever.
No matter how desperately he tried to pull away, Cheon Mujgyeol clung to him with relentless tenacity.
As Dongbang Cheolyun fell into defense, Dongbang Yeonho rushed to his aid, attempting to shift the momentum—to no avail.
Dongbang Yeonho’s own strikes were swept up in that hurricane of attack, rendered useless by their own force.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
Dongbang Mujin charged forward like a moth to flame once more.
But Cheon Mujgyeol, having found his rhythm, could not be stopped.
He had become an immense whirlwind that none could withstand, and attempting to contain it from without was simply impossible.
“Ugh!”
Dongbang Cheolyun groaned involuntarily as the tremendous impact transmitted through his Daegeom.
His arms went numb; strength bled from the hand gripping the sword.
Though he drew deeply on his Naeryeok to mount his defense, he could not keep pace with Cheon Mujgyeol’s ever-accelerating strikes.
In the end.
Boom!
Under the crushing weight of Cheon Mujgyeol’s assault, Dongbang Cheolyun was driven backward.
For a moment he seemed to resist with all his strength, but his center collapsed, his body tilting.
Crunch!
Dongbang Cheolyun fell.
Immediately!
The moment his back touched earth, he tried to rise—but his body swayed unsteadily.
“Kagh!”
Dongbang Cheolyun coughed up a mouthful of dark blood.
With the exchange over, Dongbang Mujin, Dongbang Jinhyeok, and Dongbang Yeonho rushed at him as one.
Yet Cheon Mujgyeol simply stood there, eyes closed, drawing a deep breath.
Having been suffocated by relentless pressure with no room to move, Cheon Mujgyeol inhaled the open air fully, then snapped his eyes wide.
Swoosh.
Boom-boom-crash!
An explosion erupted.
But this had nothing whatsoever to do with Cheon Mujgyeol.
Cheon Mujgyeol vanished, and the sound of the explosion came from the collision of three attacks meeting in empty air.
Creak!
Dongbang Cheonbaek, who had been watching the scene unfold, shot to his feet.
His face blazed with fury, and his fists, clenched until the knuckles whitened, trembled visibly.
Dongbang Yeonhwi, seated beside him, glanced sideways at him with a subtle sidelong look.
Shhhhh.
A smile bloomed at the corner of Dongbang Yeonhwi’s mouth, then vanished in an instant.
Dongbang Cheonbaek did not see that smile.

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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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