Chapter 484
Anyone, no matter who they were, would feel more than admiration—they would sense danger.
The light slowly faded.
But the change remained.
Unhwi was different.
Deeper.
Stronger.
And above all—
He had obtained an entirely new martial art.
The Heavenly Origin Boundless Sword, composed of five forms.
A new sword art that surpassed the Heaven-Defying Vast Azure Sword.
Unhwi lowered his sword.
He let out a deep breath.
“......Not bad.”
The courtyard had been reduced to ruins.
***
In the guest quarters more than a hundred yards from Unhwi’s residence, Chief Seong sat with his eyes closed, circulating his energy.
Perhaps it would be more accurate to say he had slept poorly.
Recently, Chief Seong had noticed that something weighed heavily on Unhwi’s mind.
To be precise, it had begun after the battle with Seok Junseo.
From that point onward, Unhwi had often sunk into deep thought, and after returning from his Go match with the Heavenly Wayfarer today, he had carried such a heavy air that no one could bring themselves to speak to him.
Chief Seong was worried.
That was why, at this hour before dawn, he was steadying himself through energy circulation. Ju Soa slept in the room beside his, while Namgung Wonyang was also circulating her energy, just as he was.
It was a quiet night.
Moonlight soaked the buildings of the Blood Heaven Sect. There was no wind. Not even the sound of insects could be heard.
Then it came.
Thoom.
Chief Seong’s eyes opened.
The instincts of a martial artist who had spent decades fighting awakened his body.
What was that?
It had been only the faintest vibration, but there was no mistaking it.
He listened closely.
Silence.
Was I hearing things?
No.
THOOOOOM—!!
A second time.
This time there was no doubt.
The earth rumbled. The floor of the guest quarters shook. Dust fell from the ceiling.
Chief Seong sprang to his feet, opened the door, and stepped outside.
Namgung Wonyang was running toward him. She had clearly felt it as well. Chief Seong glanced at the sword in her hand, then saw Ju Soa racing up behind her.
Namgung Wonyang asked in a tense voice,
“Did you hear that?”
“I did. It came from the training ground.”
Nothing more needed to be said.
Chief Seong launched himself forward.
Ju Soa and Namgung Wonyang followed.
All three used their movement arts.
Fast.
The training ground was a little over a hundred yards away. With movement arts, they could reach it within ten breaths.
But within those ten breaths—
KRA-RUMBLE—!
A third sound rang out.
This one was different.
An explosion.
The sound of something being born.
His senses as a martial artist screamed a warning. That was no ordinary energy. Its nature was unlike anything he had ever felt before.
The training ground came into view.
Chief Seong stopped.
It was not his feet that stopped.
It was his entire body.
“.......”
No words came.
The sky above the training ground had split open.
It had split.
Cracks ran through the sky as if through glass. Through the fractures, something could be seen.
A higher sky.
A deeper sky.
A sky beyond the sky of this world.
And beneath that fractured sky stood Unhwi.
Sword in hand.
The light around the blade was not silver-white. It was transparent.
Like water, yet also like the sky.
A light beyond description.
Chief Seong’s mouth fell open.
“......Young Master.......”
He murmured the words.
No one heard him.
Not even he heard himself.
Ju Soa arrived behind him.
Her steps stopped.
“......What is that?”
Namgung Wonyang came to stand beside her.
She had lost the ability to speak.
At that moment—
Unhwi swept his sword sideways.
THOOOOOM—!!
Space unfolded.
The training ground widened.
No.
It was not the training ground that widened.
Space itself expanded.
The boundaries in every direction were pushed back. The stone slabs beneath their feet rippled like water.
Chief Seong unconsciously took a step back.
He had forgotten Ju Soa was behind him.
She bumped into his back, but no one cared.
No one could.
Space continued to expand.
There was no end in sight.
The boundaries of the training ground disappeared. The walls were pushed away, the ground stretched outward, and the sky widened.
It was as though the training ground had become a world unto itself.
“......Is this......”
Namgung Wonyang murmured.
“......a martial art?”
“......It is.”
Chief Seong swallowed hard before slowly continuing.
“A martial art containing a level of martial understanding that exists on an entirely different plane from ours.”
The expanded space slowly returned to normal.
The displaced boundaries slid back into place.
But the aftereffect remained.
The air against their skin felt different.
It trembled faintly.
Unhwi thrust his sword forward.
Fwoooom—
That sound.
The sound they had heard before.
Light erupted from the tip of Unhwi’s sword.
To call it light was insufficient.
It had form.
It had will.
It was alive.
The light rose into the air.
Like a small sun.
Yet purer than the sun.
The entire training ground was steeped in it. Shadows vanished. Darkness vanished. Though it was night, it was brighter than day.
No.
It was not brightness.
The light was embracing everything.
The air.
The stone.
The earth.
The people.
The light slowly faded.
Standing alone at the center of it all, Unhwi raised his sword from below to above.
The fourth form.
There was no sound.
Perfect silence.
Chief Seong stopped breathing.
So did Ju Soa.
So did Namgung Wonyang.
Everyone stopped breathing.
No.
They had not stopped.
They could not breathe.
It felt as though time itself had halted.
Chief Seong felt it.
His body becoming lighter.
The memories of wounds accumulated over decades, the memories of exhaustion, the memories of pain—each peeled away, layer by layer.
It felt as though he were returning to a time before birth.
It lasted only an instant.
Yet it felt like eternity.
Why did martial artists long to witness battles between those who had reached heights beyond their own?
Most gave the same answer.
They wished to experience higher martial arts, to witness supreme martial artists exchange enlightenment, and through that sight achieve growth of their own.
What was happening now resembled that in principle.
But its nature was different.
Gain enlightenment from seeing this?
This was not a martial art ordinary martial artists could perform.
Obtaining enlightenment through it was nearly impossible.
That was how far beyond them this martial understanding stood.
Time began flowing again.
Chief Seong exhaled.
Hard.
His chest felt ready to burst.
Beside him, Ju Soa dropped to her knees.
The strength had left her legs.
“......Wow.......”
Namgung Wonyang leaned back against a wall. Her face had gone pale.
And then—
Unhwi prepared the final form.
He gripped the sword with both hands.
Raised it above his head.
Chief Seong felt it.
It is coming.
The last one is coming.
Light flowed from Unhwi’s sword.
Slowly.
Yet irresistibly.
Like a flower blooming.
Like the sun rising.
It was utterly unlike the light before.
Vast enough to cover the sky.
Deep enough to soak the earth.
The light embraced heaven and earth.
Everything became one.
There was no distinction between sky and land.
Time and space lost all meaning.
Chief Seong saw it.
No.
He did not know whether seeing was the right word.
He had not witnessed it with his eyes.
He had felt it with his entire body.
The instant Unhwi brought down his sword, the world disappeared.
The training ground.
The sky.
The earth.
Chief Seong himself.
Everything vanished, and only one thing remained.
That which had no end.
That which had no limit.
Boundlessness.
Chief Seong was a martial artist.
He had lived for decades.
He had seen countless masters.
He had reached Unity of Heaven and Man.
With those eyes, he had read the martial arts of the world.
But he could not read this.
He could not understand it.
He could only know one thing.
Even if he devoted his entire life to it, he would never reach that place.
The light slowly faded.
The world returned.
The training ground came back into view.
The sky.
The moon.
Every stone slab in the training ground had shattered. Cracks spread outward from the center. Fragments lay scattered, and bare earth showed beneath them. Part of the wall had collapsed. The weapon rack had vanished.
Devastation.
At the center of it all stood Unhwi.
He lowered his sword and let out a deep breath.
“Not bad.”
His voice was calm.
It was not the voice of a man who had just split the sky, expanded space, and made heaven and earth one.
It was simply the voice of someone who had finished training.
Chief Seong stepped forward.
His legs trembled.
A second step.
A third.
He entered the training ground.
Broken stone crunched beneath his feet.
Unhwi turned.
He looked at Chief Seong.
“Did I wake you?”
His voice was composed.
Chief Seong opened his mouth, then closed it.
He shook his head hard, then opened it again.
“Young Master.”
“Mm.”
“What was that just now?”
Unhwi studied Chief Seong for a moment.
“A new sword art.”
Chief Seong swallowed.
“You said it was a new sword art?”
Unhwi nodded.
Chief Seong was left speechless.
Unhwi had said it many times.
That he had once reached the end of the pinnacle.
But that he had never surpassed the Heavenly Wayfarer.
Judging only from the circumstances, Yu Cheong had never revealed his true nature before Unhwi.
Not even once.
He had hidden it completely.
Truly hidden everything.
Then when had the arrangements he prepared to rebuild the Thousand-Year Demonic Cult actually been completed?
Ten years?
Twenty?
For a man like Yu Cheong, even at the longest, it could not have taken more than twenty years.
Even if heaven and earth were overturned, it could never have taken longer than that.
Yet despite that, he had remained silent for nearly thirty years.
Then, the moment Unhwi disturbed the Peach Blossom Garden and drew the attention of Heaven Beyond Heaven, he moved.
Viewed another way, that meant the person Yu Cheong had feared most in his previous life was the Heavenly Wayfarer.
And after him, Unhwi.
He must have regarded Unhwi as the greatest variable.
And in this life, that remained true.
Chief Seong had believed that the realm Unhwi reached in his previous life had not differed greatly from that of Seol Jungcheon, who had also reached the pinnacle.
That had been a blatant misjudgment.
A frog at the bottom of a well.
Reaching the end of the pinnacle did not carry the same meaning as reaching the end of any other realm.
The end of the pinnacle.
It meant one had completed every preparation needed to leave the pinnacle behind entirely.
Though the form was different, had it not in truth been a state with one foot already in the Innate Three Realms?
Chief Seong was certain now.
Otherwise, the martial art he had just witnessed could not be explained.
Ju Soa approached from behind.
Her legs were still weak. Her steps were unsteady.
But her eyes were clear.
“......You created that just now?”
“I did.”
“......I honestly don’t know what to say. Congratulations, at least.”
Unhwi gave a faint grin.
“Are you all right?”
“Am I all right......? I suppose. For now.”
The shock of witnessing martial understanding beyond one’s comprehension was far greater than most imagined.
Just like this.
Ju Soa looked around the training ground.
The shattered stone slabs.
The collapsed wall.
The weapon rack, reduced to little more than dust.
“But I think this place is in worse shape than I am.”