The Heavenly Demon of the Blue Sky - Chapter 6

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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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Azure Heaven Celestial Demon 006
Having mastered a new Mind Method, it was time to explore the swordplay that would suit it.
Her eyes curved with interest—a thrill she hadn’t felt in ages.
Rising from her seat, she retrieved the Wooden Sword that remained in the dilapidated Armory.
The weight and solidity of it traveled through her palm, settling into her hand.
She drew the Cheongtcheon Magi up slowly, threading it through her wrist and down into the weapon.
Whoom—!
The moment Internal Force flooded through it, the Wooden Sword trembled with an almost jubilant resonance.
The Namgung’s foundational sword technique, Cheolgeom Sipshik, was as sturdy as iron itself.
‘Dignified, expansive, and unwavering.’
Even as a foundation, she could sense the Sword Path of Sovereignty that Namgung pursued.
A force meant to crush every move the opponent made, straight on, through sheer power and momentum.
It was worlds apart from the cunning, efficiency-focused swordplay of the demonic sects.
‘But what if I married the straightforwardness of Cheongtcheon with the hidden venom of the abyss?’
The thought struck like inspiration.
Taking her stance, she wove in the Mayoung Choso Geom from the Cheonma Sinjyo.
Whirrr—! First came the grand, towering motions of Cheolgeom Sipshik unfurling.
At the moment when the Sword Momentum grew heaviest, bearing down on empty space itself.
She drew up the essence of Mayoung Choso Geom and twisted her sword hand with fluid grace.
Thack—! The Wooden Sword seized the space with ponderous authority, and from within that vast shadow, a swift thrust burst forth.
‘See? They harmonize rather well.’
Neither was consuming the other.
The orthodox’s righteousness and the demonic sect’s cunning interlocked like the Taegeuk itself, amplifying their power.
This was a swordplay only she could unleash—born of both Cheongtcheon and the abyss.
“Paeyoung Cheolgeom. Yes, this one lives up to its name.”
The name of her new technique scattered softly into the night air.
She then divided her practice into hundreds of repetitions, weaving new forms together.
“The blade has been tempered well enough.”
She wiped beads of sweat from her sleeve, muttering to herself.
“A pity there’s no one to test its edge against.”
She’d loosened her limbs and opened a new path, yet without an opponent to cross swords with, her mouth felt dry and restless.
As she was about to settle onto the bed with that yearning unsatisfied.
Whoosh—. Tap.
In the silent corridor of the Inner Courtyard, she felt a presence beyond the door.
Footsteps deliberately muffled, moving with cautious stealth. Had an assassin come calling?
She gripped her sword and took a combat stance.
“Hyuk…….”
A clear, crystalline voice came from outside the door.
Creak—
As she eased the door open, a woman stood there in an Azure Martial Robe, a White Headband drawn snug across her brow, her eyes as soft and startled as a deer’s.
“What brings you here?”
It was none other than her eldest sister, Yu Hwa. Biting her lower lip hard, she spoke carefully.
“I have a favor to ask. Will you teach me the sword?”
“……What?”
“So that I might at least chase the heels of the Martial Prowess you displayed at the Training Grounds, I wish for you to take this inadequate sister as your student…….”
Her brow furrowed at the unexpected request.
‘Teach her the sword?’
The Way of Martial Arts was an unending succession of bone-scraping agony. Since it was no easy path, she ended with gentle dissuasion.
“You’ve no need to take up the sword now. As you can see, I, the clan head, am recovering my health, so you need not burden yourself.”
“But…….”
“I’ll build a fortress so high that no one dares look down on Namgung. Rest easy within that shelter.”
It was dissuasion, but sincere.
“…….”
Yu Hwa fell silent at her words. She’d thought resignation would follow, a quiet withdrawal.
“Hm?”
The eyes meeting hers glistened with moisture, yet held not a tremor of wavering.
A will as straight and unyielding as steel—it lived there in her gaze, determined not to bend even if it shattered.
“Surely not.”
She narrowed her eyes, asking quietly.
“You…… actually love the sword? That you find joy in treading the Sword Path, where steel drinks blood and cuts flesh?”
Yu Hwa looked down at her own hands, wrapped in bandages.
“At first…… I gripped the sword only because I had to—to protect my brothers and inherit the Namgung succession. Every time my palms split open and blisters burst, bleeding, I felt so wretched I’d cry myself to sleep under the covers every night, where no one could hear me…….”
“…….”
“But even in that pain, whenever I cut through the wind and perfected a form, my heart would pound as though it might burst. Though I held the sword by force at first, before I knew it, I had come to yearn for it.”
A pure confession from her—how she had come to crave the sword not as duty, but as a martial artist.
“Huh.”
A damp breath escaped at the unexpected words.
So what then? I could have answered curtly, but this blasted heart of mine was thudding again.
With those doe-like eyes asking for help, I found my body unwilling to resist.
‘In my entire past life, I have never taken a disciple.’
My martial prowess—the greatest under heaven—belonged to me alone, and I had stood at that solitary pinnacle, sharing it with no one.
Yet now, faced with the desperate trembling of this bloodline clinging to my sleeve, an strange emotion stirred within me.
‘Tsk.’
I clicked my tongue softly against my teeth, as if to shake off that uncomfortable feeling.
‘Well, it’s not the worst thing.’
To refine the sword technique I had newly devised, I did need someone to cross blades with.
‘Yes. Since she was born as the eldest daughter of Namgung, it wouldn’t be bad to sharpen her fangs a bit—as a toy, no, as a sparring partner.’
I made that brazenly transparent excuse to myself, then furrowed my brows to intimidate her.
“Are you truly certain you won’t regret this? I’m not the sort to teach with tender care, so you could be seriously hurt.”
“That is precisely what I wish for! I shall stake everything so as not to be a burden to my brother!”
An answer without the slightest hesitation. Very well then.
I drew a crooked smile at the corner of my mouth.
“Fine. Let’s give it a try.”

* * *
From that night onward, time in the Inner Courtyard flew like an arrow.
My day began before dawn broke, cleaving through the crisp morning air.
“Haa, inhale.”
The morning was devoted to physical training.
My body was still as fragile as cracked pottery to contain the full martial prowess of the Cheonma Sinjyo.
I ran the courtyard until the Severed Meridian nearly constricted my heart, and repeated hundreds, thousands of simple downward strikes until the Wooden Sword wore away to nothing.
A process of building the foundation of a swordmaster, stripped of any fancy flourishes.
By the time every muscle in my body screamed, I would hear Sidong’s voice from outside without fail.
“Young Master, the Medicine Hall has sent the herbal tonic.”
I had procured quality medicinal herbs and had them brewed by White Physician.
What is good for the body tastes bitter on the tongue. I drained it in one gulp.
‘Mm, excellent.’
Every time the medicine’s efficacy coursed through my veins, my body felt fortified.
“Cough!”
Yet it remained woefully insufficient to heal the Severed Meridian.
My body’s growth was sluggish and clearly behind my peers.
‘But being able to train at all is something.’
Compared to my former state—a living corpse—it was tremendous progress.
In the afternoons, I would sit cross-legged and accumulate energy, carefully refining and expanding the Cheongtcheon Magi.
With each breath in and out, the night sky within me grew a little more vast.
After that, when the sun set and darkness blanketed the Inner Courtyard, I would teach Yu Hwa the sword.
“Just now you were half a measure late—in real combat, your head would’ve been taken.”
“Ugh…… Hah……! Ah, yes!”
I pointed sharply through the air with a branch, striking and tapping rapidly.
Yu Hwa dripped sweat like rain yet refused to give up, following my every correction.
Her tenacity and resolve were commendable. However.
‘This won’t do.’
After observing Yu Hwa’s sword path for several days, my assessment was cold and clear.
Namgung’s Cheongtcheon Geomgyeol was fundamentally built on a masculine frame that prized strength.
Yet Yu Hwa’s body was too delicate to bear the weight of Cheongtcheon.
‘A sword may choose its master, but if a master tries to force themselves to match the sword, they’ll only destroy their own body.’
No matter how much blood she coughed up through effort, it was clear she would soon hit a wall and shatter her muscle meridians.
“Haaah!”
It was the moment Yu Hwa cried out again in kihap and brought the Wooden Sword down with force.
Crack—! Splinter and clang!
From relentless practice, blisters had already formed on Yu Hwa’s hands; now the skin split open.
Unable to bear the pain, the Wooden Sword flew from Yu Hwa’s grip.
“Ugh…!”
“Tsk.”
I clicked my tongue sharply and tossed the Branch to the ground.
“That’s enough for today. Any more and you’ll only exhaust yourself.”
“No, wait! Hyuk, I can do this…!”
“And what will you accomplish with broken hands?”
The cold edge in my voice made Yu Hwa reach toward the Wooden Sword lying on the ground.
“My left hand is fine. Let me—I can keep going!”
“Stubborn girl.”
The spirit is admirable, but the obstacle real.
“People are born with a dominant hand. You can’t simply switch and expect to move the same way you did before—”
I hadn’t finished speaking.
Slash—Yu Hwa gripped the Wooden Sword in her left hand and cut through the air.
‘…What?’
My eyes narrowed without my meaning to. The swordwork she’d deployed with her right hand was now flowing from her left with perfect fidelity.
This wasn’t crude imitation. The muscle engagement and the flow of Internal Force synchronized flawlessly. And more than that—
‘Hmm?’
Fatigue had robbed her of Namgung’s characteristic weighted Advance and Retreat, but instead her footwork had grown light, gliding across the floor with the grace of a crane.
“Where did you learn that footwork?”
“Mother taught me before she passed. She loved dance.”
It seemed those lessons had settled naturally into her body.
“It didn’t suit Namgung swordplay, so I tried to hide it…”
In that instant, a flash of lightning ignited in my mind.
‘This is it.’
The rigid Principle of the Sword of Namgung didn’t fit Yu Hwa’s body. So what if—
‘I wove the old swordwork into new movement instead?’
Reweaving what has already hardened is impossibly difficult.
But who am I? Cheol-geom and the Heavenly Demon—Cheol-geom Chun Ha-jin of Pacheонma Joun.
A genius’s touch: wielding with both hands everything learned once.
Combined with the inheritance from her mother—steps as light and supple as dance.
If I could weave these two gifts together, she could be reborn as a new type of Swordmaster, one the history of Namgung had never seen before.
“Go on, let’s keep trying. I’m curious now too.”
I picked up a clean Bandage and an extra light Wooden Sword.
“Hyuk?”
Bewildered, Yu Hwa’s eyes widened like a startled rabbit’s as I approached and wrapped the Bandage around her blood-stained right hand without ceremony.
Then I placed the new Wooden Sword in her hand.
“Hyuk, what is this…?”
Yu Hwa held a Wooden Sword in each hand and looked up at me in confusion.
“If Namgung’s blade feels heavy and burdensome, divide it. From now on, I’ll teach you a new Cheolgeom Sipshik.”
I demonstrated by sweeping a Branch through the air.
“With your right blade, flow the enemy’s strike past you like water. Then use that rebound to strike their blind spot with your left.”
Slash—the Sword Path that had only extended in a straight line I twisted into a curve.
The ponderous footwork settling heavily I corrected to rise lightly.
“Don’t force strength into your limbs. Dance with the wind, let the blade flow as an extension of your body.”
At my instruction, Yu Hwa drew a deep breath and settled her stance.
Soft—she tapped the ground lightly with only her toes.
Slash—
In that instant, her slender frame floated through the air like a butterfly.
Her right Wooden Sword traced a graceful arc to recenter her balance.
Simultaneously, she spun her body like a top and struck with her left blade.
Whine—a sharp, cutting Wave-Breaking Sound tore through the air.
“Wow…!”
Shocked at what she’d done, Yu Hwa’s eyes went wide.
“Hyuk, that strike just now… Did I really do that…?”
“You’ve tasted it. Now channel your Internal Force into it.”
Whether the new swordwork will harmonize well with Namgung’s Internal Force remains to be seen.
“Yes! I’ll try!”
Yu Hwa closed her eyes and drew up the vital energy from her Dantian.
With a deep breath, the clear, azure essence unique to Namgung rose up around her.
It seeped gently into the two wooden swords held in her hands.
Then came the strike.
Whoooosh—!
The azure essence gathered at the blade’s tip surged magnificently, summoning a tempest in its wake.
“Ahhh……!”
Yu Hwa lowered her swords, her breath trembling with overwhelming emotion.
“The energy… it’s not scattering anymore!”
Until now, her body had buckled under the strain of forcibly containing such heavy internal force.
But now it pooled at the blade’s tip with perfect ease.
Watching Yu Hwa’s face suffused with joy, I quietly stroked my chin.
‘So it was as I thought.’
It was the result I had anticipated, yet seeing it confirmed before my eyes stirred something within me.
The Cheongtcheon Geomgyeol of Namgung originally embodies the vastness and majesty of the heavens themselves.
Yu Hwa believed this was the only answer, so she had forced herself to bear a burden that never suited her frame.
But the heavens I knew were not merely rigid and heavy.
‘Just as the boundless sky shifts moment by moment, cradling every cloud and ray of light, so too must the true Cheongtcheon possess not only uprightness but an embracing power to hold all things.’
In the instant I shattered that stubborn mold and grasped the essence, I too arrived at a deep understanding.
‘Even the legendary Pacheонma Joun of all heaven lacks something.’
My talent had been so overwhelming that compromise was never necessary.
When the path was blocked, I simply broke through by force and charged ahead.
‘And so I reached a great height, yet……’
One corner of my heart remained perpetually constrained.
I had walked farther than anyone, but in my narrowness of vision, my horizons had grown cramped.
And yet, in worrying over and striving to fill the shortcomings of another far less gifted than myself,
I felt the tangled path of the sword within my mind suddenly unravel in new directions.
A flexibility my martial arts had never possessed was born within me.
The landscapes I’d failed to see while charging ahead finally came into my field of vision.
‘I can still grow stronger.’
A surge of emotion welled up, and I clenched my fist tight.
“If you had not recognized my shortcomings and opened this new path before me, I would have spent my whole life frustrated against a wall. Truly…… I’m truly grateful. All of this is thanks to having such an excellent younger sister!”
Yu Hwa’s face dripped with sweat, yet she beamed as though she possessed the entire world.
Meeting that pure expression, I curved one corner of my mouth into a smile.
“This is only the beginning. I’m just starting to enjoy myself now.”
Rolling up my sleeves, I pressed forward again with force, and soon the Inner Courtyard filled with the sharp ring of wooden swords clashing.

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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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