The Great Heavenly Sword Emperor - Chapter 92

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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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#092. Another Seed (3)

The world had become a battlefield of chaos.
Men killing, men fleeing, men already dead.
But unlike the carnage surrounding them, the black silhouette and Cheon Mujgyeol seemed to exist in a space all their own.
Cheon Mujgyeol swung the Cheonsingeom toward the black figure.
Yet the silhouette not only deflected his attack but launched a counterattack of its own.
‘Why? Why?’
Why couldn’t he kill the black silhouette?
Was his strength still insufficient?
Even having grown this powerful, he couldn’t save his own people?
Frustration surged within him.
People were dying right beside him, behind him, even now.
He needed to kill the enemy before him and rescue the others.
But nothing went as he willed.
Whoosh!
The black silhouette lunged at Cheon Mujgyeol, his blade cutting fiercely through the air.
Shwip!
Cheon Mujgyeol unleashed the Cheonun Muaebow and met the assault head-on rather than retreat.
Boom!
A violent collision erupted with a thunderous crack.
Cheon Mujgyeol held his ground and drove forward again, blade crashing against blade.
Crack!
The Cheonryu Yeokseom form unfolded.
He redirected the black figure’s strike and reversed its momentum, sending it back.
And in that instant, the silhouette’s torso lay completely exposed.
A perfect opening.
Cheon Mujgyeol saw it and stepped forward with all his force.
‘Don’t kill him!’
In that moment, a voice echoed through his mind.
He couldn’t tell whose it was.
But the instant he heard that voice forbidding him to kill, Cheon Mujgyeol hesitated, and the black silhouette’s exposed torso closed up again.
Having lost the perfect opportunity, Cheon Mujgyeol swung the Cheonsingeom again.
The black silhouette did not retreat, meeting his assault head-on with a sharp counterattack.
Bang!
The Cheonun Muaebow flared open.
Crack!
Simultaneously, the Myeolhyeong Muryeong form unfolded as well.
The Myeolhyeong Muryeong technique, perfectly harmonized with the Bobeop that burrowed into the silhouette’s guard, was mere moments from crushing its throat—
‘Don’t kill him!’
The same voice sounded again.
Bang!
In that instant, Cheon Mujgyeol deployed his Bobeop to create distance, flinging his blade at empty air instead.
‘What is this?’
The helplessness gnawed at him.
He couldn’t understand why that voice echoed in his mind each time a perfect opportunity arose.
What made it worse was that he found himself obeying it, lowering his blade of his own accord.
What was the reason.
Who kept whispering to him like this.
Cheon Mujgyeol gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on his sword.
He resolved not to yield to the voice this time and unleashed the Cheonun Muaebow once more.
The black silhouette’s blade lashed out sharply.
But as Cheon Mujgyeol pressed forward with the Cheonun Muaebow, he evaded every strike and succeeded in burrowing into the silhouette’s guard.
And just as he was about to deploy the Nakseong Biguang form to strike the killing blow—
‘Don’t kill him! Come to your senses!’
The voice rang out once more, and Cheon Mujgyeol’s eyes trembled violently.
Crack!
Cheon Mujgyeol yanked himself backward with practiced speed.
This time he did not rush forward again.
His eyes still trembled, and confusion clouded his features.
‘My voice……?’
The voice that rang in Cheon Mujgyeol’s mind was unmistakably his own.
Himself crying out to himself.
Do not kill.
Come to your senses.
What in heaven’s name was happening?
As fury had half-drowned his reason, Cheon Mujgyeol now began to reclaim his clarity.
And he remembered.
What situation he was in.
‘I came to find the old Saryeong Gyyo Main Headquarters…….’
Only then did Cheon Mujgyeol realize that all of this was an illusion.
Yet the pain carved into his body felt altogether real.
It made no sense.
An illusion? Or truly real?
‘What of Bukgung Danya?’
His thoughts turned to him.
In that instant, as if to sever his thread of consciousness, a shadow figure surged forward with violent force.
Crack-crack-crack, boom!
Cheon Mujgyeol parried the shadow’s relentless assault while his mind raced on.
The Saryeong Gyyo Main Headquarters.
Bukgung Danya, his companion.
And every landscape now spread before his eyes.
‘Cheongeomjang has already fallen.’
The day he escaped the depths beneath Cheongeomjang.
Had he not seen the ruined fortress with his own eyes, clear as day?
Vivid enough to seem real, yet everything visible was merely the unreturnable past, already gone and gone forever.
‘Yes. This is all an illusion.’
The moment Cheon Mujgyeol recognized with absolute certainty that his present circumstance was an illusion.
Shrill screech!
The shadow’s blade, which had stretched toward him sharply, dissolved into wisps.
Crash!
The landscape around him shattered like broken porcelain, fragments cascading down.
Then his vision cleared, and the valley before him came into focus once more.
And there, standing with blade drawn and body drenched in blood, was a single figure.
It was Bukgung Danya.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s eyes widened in shock.
The shadow he thought he had been fighting all this time was Bukgung Danya himself.
Now he understood why he had cried out to himself not to kill.
“Bukgung Danya!”
Cheon Mujgyeol called out to him.
But Bukgung Danya did not hear.
His eyes were vacant and dull—still trapped within the illusion.
Shrill screech!
Bukgung Danya swung his blade toward Cheon Mujgyeol.
Cheon Mujgyeol gritted his teeth and blocked the strike.
Boom!
Considerable force lay behind Bukgung Danya’s blade.
“Come to your senses!”
Cheon Mujgyeol cried out as their blades met.
Yet despite his desperate plea, Bukgung Danya did not awaken.
Cheon Mujgyeol clenched his jaw.
Somehow he had to hold back Bukgung Danya and break him free from the illusion.

* * *

“So you’ve awakened. A moment longer and Bukgung Danya’s head would’ve been rolling across the ground. Such a pity.”
The Illusory Spirit, who had been watching the entire situation unfold, let out a genuine sigh of regret and clicked his tongue.
“Well, I’ll give you credit for breaking through my Hwansul, but the illusion I’ve placed on Bukgung Danya will be much harder to shatter. He’s carrying the Orb, after all.”
With that, the Illusory Spirit grinned wickedly and turned away.
“I’ve prepared quite a bit, so enjoy it. Cheon Mujgyeol.”
Then, like smoke, he vanished from that place.

* * *

Unlike Cheon Mujgyeol, whose Hwansul had been broken, Bukgung Danya was still locked in a fierce struggle within the illusion.
This time, it was Danae Valley.
But unlike before, Cheon Mujgyeol and Bukgung Danya’s positions had been reversed.
Cheon Mujgyeol was facing Hyeonmu Gwan head-on.
Bukgung Danya himself was in the rear, bearing the brunt of Song Pungmun’s fierce assault alone.
“Ugh!”
Withstanding Song Pungmun’s attacks was no simple task.
Unlike Hyeonmu Gwan, who focused on defense, this was pure, relentless offense driving forward.
Bukgung Danya’s mind was overwhelmed.
It was already difficult enough parrying blades raining down from every direction—and on top of that, he couldn’t kill his opponent.
He gritted his teeth and swung his sword, but he was reaching his limit.
Then.
“Snap out of it!”
Cheon Mujgyeol’s voice cut through.
At his words, Bukgung Danya’s mind suddenly cleared.
‘That’s right. I can’t break through here!’
Bukgung Danya regained his focus and blocked Song Pungmun’s attacks.
As he began to respond with composure and precision, something remarkable happened.
Song Pungmun’s blades began to miss Bukgung Danya.
He didn’t know what was occurring, but it was a stroke of fortune for him.
‘I can’t let this chance slip away. I absolutely cannot become a burden to Cheon Mujgyeol!’
Bukgung Danya swung his sword with grim resolve.
Just as he was beginning to feel more accustomed to Song Pungmun’s attacks and defending well—
“Bukgung Danya!”
Cheon Mujgyeol’s voice rang out once more.
At the sound of his name, Bukgung Danya flinched slightly and glanced back over his shoulder.
Cheon Mujgyeol was still parrying Hyeonmu Gwan’s attacks.
‘Why is he calling me?’
Just as confusion began to dawn—
“Snap out of it!”
Again, Cheon Mujgyeol’s cry echoed: snap out of it.
‘Snap out of it? I’m already alert and focused!’
Bukgung Danya was bewildered by an admonition that seemed misplaced.
And something felt wrong.
Cheon Mujgyeol should be too preoccupied with Hyeonmu Gwan to notice anything—so how could he keep calling out warnings?
The unease deepened.
‘What is this? Something’s off.’
Bukgung Danya sensed it now—something wrong.
A sensation different from anything he’d known before.
But his abilities weren’t acute enough to identify exactly what it was.
As the strange sensation he’d begun to notice spread into confusion—
“Bukgung Danya!”
Cheon Mujgyeol’s cry came again.
‘What?’
Bukgung Danya was startled.
Until now, Cheon Mujgyeol had never once addressed him by his full name.
Even when Bukgung Danya had asked him to drop the formality, Cheon Mujgyeol had refused to relax his speech.
Yet now, that very Cheon Mujgyeol was calling him by name—Bukgung Danya.
It was wrong. Deeply, profoundly wrong.
‘What is this? What’s happening?’
As the confusion mounted, his sense of reality began to warp.
He couldn’t tell if the world he inhabited now was real or a dream.
As the confusion mounted, Bukgung Danya’s sword strikes grew sluggish, and the Songpungmun disciples seized the opening, driving him back with relentless force.
Crack!
And finally, he left an opening for one of the Songpungmun disciples.
The Songpungmun disciple who burrowed into Bukgung Danya’s guard thrust out a fist instead of swinging his blade.
Thud!
The fist drove squarely into his temple.
Bukgung Danya’s vision tilted ninety degrees, the world spinning sideways.
A vicious pain thundered through his skull as he toppled sideways to the ground.
Boom!
Bukgung Danya crashed across the floor.
‘What?’
But something was wrong.
It was a golden opportunity for the Songpungmun disciples—yet none of them pressed the attack.
None except the one who had just driven his fist into his face.
The Songpungmun disciple who rushed over thrust his face close to Bukgung Danya’s and shouted.
“Snap out of it, you bastard!”
At that cry, Bukgung Danya’s eyes flew open.

* * *

“Ugh!”
Bukgung Danya gasped, his eyes snapping wide.
Cheon Mujgyeol’s face loomed directly before him.
For a moment, the Songpungmun disciple’s face he’d just seen seemed to blur and overlap with Cheon Mujgyeol’s.
“Y-you, Cheon?”
“Thank goodness. You’ve come back to yourself.”
Seeing Cheon Mujgyeol’s relieved expression, Bukgung Danya tried to rise in confusion.
“Come back to myself? What do you—” He winced. “Agh!”
His entire body ached.
He’d barely managed to sit up when he looked down and saw himself drenched in blood.
“W-what in the name of—!”
Bukgung Danya cried out in shock, and Cheon Mujgyeol exhaled softly before speaking.
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault.”
“Your fault? What do you mean?”
Bukgung Danya couldn’t fathom what Cheon Mujgyeol was saying.
“We were caught in an illusion cast by an Illusory Spirit.”
Then Cheon Mujgyeol recounted everything he had witnessed and experienced to Bukgung Danya.
As Cheon Mujgyeol spoke, Bukgung Danya’s face drained of all color.
‘So the servant girl I cut down was Cheon Mujgyeol?’
That seemed to be the truth.
Bukgung Danya and Cheon Mujgyeol had each fought against different illusions, yet in the end they had turned their blades on each other.
Learning the full truth, Bukgung Danya found himself unable to shake off the shock.
“First, we should see to your wounds. They’re quite severe.”
Cheon Mujgyeol’s voice carried a thick note of regret.
After all, it was he who had inflicted each of the wounds that now scarred Bukgung Danya’s body.
Cheon Mujgyeol retrieved the Geum Chang Yak that Gwang An had given him before coming here.
He worried it wouldn’t be enough.

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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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