FIT—

Cheongun twisted his head and narrowly avoided the returning trajectory of the hidden weapon.

In that gap, Cheongun’s sword reached Guiyue.

Guiyue hurriedly crossed her String-Blades to block Cheongun’s sword, but—

SHRAAAAK—

“Kh-...!”

One of the String-Blades she handled snapped, and Cheongun’s sword slashed Guiyue’s shoulder socket.

From the recoil, Guiyue was driven back, whirling through the air.

TAT.

Clutching her wound with a mask of pain, Guiyue glared at Cheongun.

Cheongun raised his sword toward her again.

“For someone who sacrificed so many subordinates, your skill is pitiful.”

“You... you foppish parasite...!”

TAT—

Yu Pyo stepped to Cheongun’s side.

Yu Pyo also leveled his sword at Guiyue.

“We need to close the distance.”

“I know.”

Yet the hidden weapons tethered to the String-Blades were an eyesore.

Even if they entered the range of those threadlike blades, the returning hidden weapons would be a constant menace.

Moreover, Guiyue had absorbed the Blood-qi of dozens. Each hidden weapon swung with dense Force Aura.

“I’ll handle the hidden weapons.”

Cheongun nodded.

“To join forces against a mere woman! So much for the righteous path—how disgraceful!”

“My daughter once said this.”

Cheongun took his starting posture.

“‘Whether it’s disgraceful or not is something only those who survive get to argue about.’”

“What...?”

“Division Lord. Watch my back.”

TAT—

Cheongun moved.

The Namgoong Clan’s transcendent sword art.

Eight movements of the Heart-Sword Divine Canon traced a blue sword-path in succession.

Heart Lofty, Sword Soars; Heart Ruthless, Sword Swift.

PING— PIPING—

KAKAKANG—! KAGAGAGAGAK!

Yu Pyo met Cheongun’s movement, knocking down the hidden weapons Guiyue hurled.

Huashan’s quick and florid swordsmanship was ideal for dealing with hidden weapons that slipped in to exploit openings.

Thanks to that, Cheongun closed the distance on Guiyue, contending only /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ with the String-Blades stretching from every angle.

Heart Cold, Sword Keen; Heart Clear, Sword Numinous.

PING— PIPIPIPING—! PINGPING!

Flustered by how close he was getting, Guiyue threw more and more hidden weapons.

Heart Wrathful, Sword Raging; Heart Heroic, Sword Fierce.

Her ten fingers scattered dozens of hidden weapons in a blur.

KAKAKANG— KAGAGAGAK! KAANG!

Ten of those hidden weapons were tethered to String-Blades, which tangled in a fierce struggle with Cheongun’s sword.

As Cheongun rapidly closed in, Guiyue’s face drained bloodless.

Heart Benevolent, Sword Emperor; Heart Forgotten, Sword God...!

Cheongun executed the final two movements of the Heart-Sword Divine Canon.

At the tip of that sword—stood Guiyue.

Guiyue crossed eight strings and poured power into them.

Dark-crimson threads wove around her as if to protect her, but—

SHEKK—

The blue Force Aura of Namgoong’s profundity cleaved the strings—Guiyue’s imitations of aura borrowed from Blood Arts.

SHRAAK—

“!”

Blood spattered, and shock flooded Guiyue’s eyes.

TAT—

Guiyue staggered back, clutching at her face with trembling hands.

Both of her hands were quickly stained red with blood.

“KYAAAAAAH!!”

Guiyue let out a razor scream.

Cheongun and Yu Pyo didn’t miss the opening and charged her.

It’s over!

WHOOOM—

Just as Cheongun lifted his sword toward the crouching Guiyue, her right hand drew something from her left sleeve.

Seeing it, Cheongun shouted:

“Back!!”

“!”

Yu Pyo reflexively withdrew, and Cheongun ripped off his outer robe to cover himself. At the same time—

SHRAAK—

Guiyue scattered something at the two of them.

The same poisoned sand that had felled the two Eastern Depot men earlier—Severed-Soul Sand.

CHIIIIK....

“!”

Cheongun tore off the smoldering outer robe at once.

But the toxic miasma of the Severed-Soul Sand punched through the robe and burrowed in an instant into parts of Cheongun’s arm and nape.

“Kh....”

“Clan Lord Namgoong!”

Yu Pyo rushed to him.

“I’m fine. More importantly—Guiyue....”

In that moment—

PING— PIIING—

“!”

At the sound of hidden weapons firing, Cheongun and Yu Pyo snapped their eyes to her.

But the target of her hidden weapons was not Cheongun or Yu Pyo.

“KRAAAGH—!!”

The scream burst from the direction where the others were fighting the remaining two Moon holders.

Had the Black Dragon Unit Lord been struck?

They turned, alarmed—and saw—

“Kh...—k-heuk, heuk....”

Liang-Moon, the one who used the Wolf-Fang Mace, clutching his neck with both hands, his own weapon dropped.

Liang-Moon’s neck had been pierced through by Guiyue’s hidden weapon.

For a heartbeat, the Black Dragon Unit Lord stared at Liang-Moon in shock; his eyes met Cheongun’s—

“Ghhk—!”

Liang-Moon’s body lifted and flew toward Guiyue.

He was being dragged along the shaft of the weapon that impaled him.

Guiyue seized the nape of the nearly-dead Liang-Moon.

Then, something shocking happened.

“Ggueeugh—”

Liang-Moon’s body withered in a rush.

Guiyue was absorbing the Blood-qi of her fellow Moon holder.

“What is this....”

Everyone—including Cheongun—was struck speechless by the horrifying sight.

After already killing scores of subordinates, she now tried to absorb the power of a peer Moon-Plaque Holder she called comrade.

So long as she could save her own life, did those she called comrades mean nothing?

CHWAZAJANG—! THUD—

At the loud clatter, Cheongun’s gaze flicked over.

Yao-Moon dropped his Thin Saber and collapsed on the spot.

He, too, had been targeted by Guiyue’s hidden weapon, but by reflex he thrust his Thin Saber, and the vibrating blade deflected the weapon—barely saving his life.

“S-spare me...!”

Yao-Moon crawled to the Eastern Depot attendants he had been fiercely fighting moments ago and clutched their hems.

“If you spare me, I’ll tell you anything I know. Please—just my life...!”

Terror had utterly drained his face.

Apparently, this was not the first time Guiyue had devoured one of her own.

Eunuch Dang glanced at Cheongun.

When Cheongun nodded, Eunuch Dang immediately struck Yao-Moon’s nape with his sheath, knocking him out.

“Watch him well.”

Eunuch Dang and the other attendant dragged the unconscious Yao-Moon aside.

Cheongun, Yu Pyo, and the Black Dragon Unit Lord faced Guiyue.

“Heh-heh-heh-heh....”

By then, having drained all of Liang-Moon’s Blood-qi, Guiyue radiated a presence utterly different from before.

New strings were already stretching from her in every direction.

“Please, you two—fall back as well.”

“Clan Lord.”

“It’s fine.”

At Cheongun’s words, Yu Pyo and the Black Dragon Unit Lord retreated a step, worry written on their faces.

Cheongun lifted his sword and faced Guiyue.

Guiyue chuckled—heh-heh—at Cheongun standing alone.

Blood still streamed from the gash across her face.

“Fearless, aren’t you.... Do you still think the likes of you can defeat me...?”

Cheongun watched the dark-crimson energy flowing around her and spoke evenly.

“That strength is not yours. Do you think I’ll fear you because you took a power that does not belong to you?”

“You know nothing...! This power is mine now. Power I gained through a martial art personally bestowed on me by the Blood Demon...!”

“To kill a comrade and rejoice—then you cannot be called human. Beasts that prey on people must not be left alive.”

A flash lit Guiyue’s eyes.

She drew something again from her sleeve.

A small, round pellet—no larger than a ring fingernail.

“I hear your ‘Young Cult Lord’ said so—whether it’s disgraceful or not is something only those who survive can say.”

Guiyue popped the pellet into her mouth and swallowed.

Cheongun’s brow furrowed.

“Let’s see who survives here.”

In that instant, Guiyue’s energy burst forth—KWAAAA—and began to surge.

A force so great Cheongun could not gauge it at his realm.

“...”

But rather than flee, Cheongun set his sword upright.

The gale of Blood-qi whipped his hair and sleeves; the miasma was so dense he could barely keep his eyes open—but he did not retreat.

Around Cheongun, a deeper, boundlessly clear blue radiance whirled—stronger than moments ago.

“Seolhwa is my daughter.”

KUUUUUUU....

Cheongun’s expression cooled to steel.

“Do not defile my daughter’s name with that foul den’s title ‘Young Cult Lord.’”

Blue radiance circled at Cheongun’s feet. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

As he slowly took his starting posture, the blue energy coiled around him like a dragon on the verge of ascending.

“Foolish man.”

Guiyue sneered.

Absorbing the Blood-qi of Liang-Moon—a master of the transcendent peak—had not been enough; she had swallowed a Blood-Burst Pill as well, maximizing what she had taken in.

Now she was as strong as one comparable to a master of the peak realm.

“Go on then—try to stop me!”

Guiyue’s lips curled with a cruel smile as she gripped a dozen hidden weapons.

Cheongun, seeing it, moved his sword.

The heavens are, by nature, a space infinitely broader than what human eyes can see.

Namgoong swordsmanship is the art of chasing and sketching that boundless profundity with the tip of a blade.

When one contemplates the blue vault and imbues the sword with the will of the heavens, the swordsman can only grow humble before that endless expanse.

Arrogance blinds the eyes, nothing more.

The Namgoong Clan Lord’s exclusive art—

Blue Firmament Boundless-Sky Sword Art.

WHOOOOOOOSH—

Cheongun’s sword cleaved Guiyue, the hidden weapons she scattered, and the String-Blades trailing behind them.

At the overwhelming might of that sword, the confidence on Guiyue’s face hardened bit by bit.

She could not comprehend the fragments of “strings” before her eyes, sliced apart and scattering like thin filaments.

Was Namgoong Cheongun not at a realm far beneath one who could rival the peak?

Then why?

Why was he so effortlessly cutting apart the power she had gained by devouring an ally and swallowing a Blood-Burst Pill?

How?

Guiyue never found the answer.

An endless, boundless sky unfolded before her eyes.

Beautiful.

SHEKK—

That was her last thought.