“The Tang Clan's secret technique?! They said he'd been to Sichuan...!”

“Is that Blossoms Raining Across the Sky?!”

Low exclamations rose throughout the vast promotion venue. Anyone would have reacted that way. An unrivaled secret technique of Sichuan's Murim had appeared without warning.

And it had come from the hands of Lightning Genius, whose growth they had followed, if only through rumors, since his white-robed days. It would have been stranger not to be astonished.

“That looks like the real thing.”

“So the rumors from Kuizhou were true...!”

The Diancang disciples were even more astonished. The Sun-Piercing Sword and the Dancing Sword of Diancang stared wide-eyed.

Mount Diancang in Yunnan was not far from Sichuan's martial world. They had heard more tales of Sichuan's most storied secret technique than anyone in Xiangyang. Inevitably, the accounts passed down to them were clearer, too.

“Wow...”

A soft exclamation escaped Chwi So-ok, the Young Sword Empress.

It was an exceedingly brief moment. Masters watching a high-level duel could utter several remarks in the blink of an eye. Core energy naturally stimulated their nerves, allowing them to experience time at different speeds.

Sa Doryeong, the Sun-Piercing Sword, was no exception.

He glanced at his senior sister beside him, paying no heed to the flower rain striking the Law Enforcement Squad Captain's body and scattering blood. He knew why his senior sister, normally uninterested in martial arts other than the sword, was staring in dazed admiration.

Lightning Genius Jung Yeonshin. A supreme master said to have cultivated extraordinary fist and palm arts despite being a swordsman.

Yet now he was fully wielding the formula of a divine hidden-weapon technique. It meant his innate dexterity and control over core energy were tremendous.

Working out how he had become connected to the Sichuan Tang Clan, and how deep those ties ran, fell to Sa Doryeong and the Dancing Sword of Diancang. Their senior sister, the Young Sword Empress, merely seemed desperate to discuss martial theory and exchange sword strikes with him.

'Should I be thankful it isn't romantic affection, at least?'

Even at a glance, however, her interest ran deep. It looked like admiration for a talent unmatched through the ages. There was no telling how it might affect the Martial Alliance gathering. Sa Doryeong only hoped there would be no trouble at a meeting of the world's orthodox factions.

His head seemed to throb. Enduring that imagined ache, he turned his gaze back.

On the sparring platform, the two remained locked in confrontation. Before the boy's outstretched hand, the Law Enforcement Squad Captain moved with blinding speed.

She seemed intent on shaking off the steel petals surrounding her. Amid the swirling silver fragments, she employed Mobility Arts and lashed out with her sword, preventing any fatal wounds.

The afterimages of her brilliant white sword paths created a dreamlike spectacle. Her swordsmanship was as sublime as her reputation. Even against Blossoms Raining Across the Sky, she offered no opening.

Jung Yeonshin stood motionless with one arm raised. Only the hem of his blue robe stirred faintly around his planted feet.

He could not move rashly. Blossoms Raining Across the Sky was a supreme divine art. Operating its peerless formula left him no capacity to approach the Law Enforcement Squad Captain.

His opponent was a supreme master firmly established at Black rank. Merely keeping her bound with Blossoms Raining Across the Sky was no small feat. He had to discard any impatient urge to close in carelessly.

'It might be different if I'd cultivated Wudang's Dual Mind Art.'

Without completely dividing his mind in two, restricting her movements was his limit. In the meantime, he had to devise a way to win.

That consumed less energy than operating two formulas simultaneously. Tracking her with his palm, he sank into thought.

She seemed to have discerned that Blossoms Raining Across the Sky grew stronger the closer she came to him. As an accomplished Black-ranked master, she might find some way through, but he had bought a little time.

'The Law Enforcement Squad Captain probably isn't a peerless master of Five Qi Return to the Origin. That's a realm I know nothing about, either... But she's certainly reached Three Flowers Gather at the Crown. At the very least, she's united essence, qi, and spirit.'

She was unlike the boy, whose spirit in the upper dantian was disproportionately vast. The captains of the Desolate Fortress were supreme masters who had cultivated body, core energy, and spiritual nature evenly, binding them into a single whole.

They could gather and release internal energy faster than Jung Yeonshin. For him, whose upper dantian held greater power than even most peerless masters, that realm remained distant. For now.

'I can't fight a battle of speed over long distances.'

Every instant mattered. He swiftly acknowledged the difference.

He had already learned it in their first exchange. The strike that shattered his Desolate Sword had cut precisely into the Radiant Sword Art's blind spot. It broke the wave of force along his straight sword path from the side and shattered the blade before he could pour in more core energy.

That single move had made him keenly feel what a counter could accomplish in a supreme master's hands.

'Even so.'

He did not believe an enormous gulf separated them. The boy took it to mean that his strengths and weaknesses were sharply defined.

His short life granted him a particular advantage. In that one thing, he would surpass even the Law Enforcement Squad Captain.

'I have to control the flow. I'll lay out the framework, so I can use the right form immediately.'

The radiant wheel's Dharma power would be ineffective against her. But there was an opening elsewhere.

Her study of counters. That was where Jung Yeonshin saw his chance of victory.

WHOOOOSH!

A powerful wind burst from the Law Enforcement Squad Captain before him. It was a truly savage wave of force.

The martial principle peculiar to the noble race that Chung Myung had shown him long ago erupted as a gale. Had all her movements been a preparatory stance for Burst Discharge, accumulating that force?

Every steel fragment of Blossoms Raining Across the Sky broke free of Jung Yeonshin's control and shot upward.

The boy immediately withdrew his arm. Her advancing footwork was astonishingly fast. As she took one step and abruptly swelled in his vision, he laid his hand on the hilt of the divine sword Northern Radiance.

'Blossoms Raining Across the Sky isn't something I can use for long against a noble-race master.'

With that small realization, the captain's straight blade reached him. Its stormlike sword movements had pierced the distance in an instant. It appeared to be her famed ultimate technique.

Jung Yeonshin spun past her with the motion of a leaf. At the same time, his vision flashed white for a moment as a chilling sword light swept across his rapidly turning field of view.

STEP.

Undeterred, he exchanged positions with her and took another step forward.

A colorless ripple spread beneath his feet. It was the radiant wheel's qi wave. Evading Swift Step, Second Step.

The invisible wave pushed back the wind force surrounding her, a step that created room for Burst Discharge.

But the captain had already almost completed her turn.

WHOOSH!

The blade turned with her body, tracing a crescent sword path. White light rippled along the steel bearing down on Jung Yeonshin. Rather than manifested core energy, it seemed to be wrapped in compressed gale-force wind.

Its approaching path was exquisitely precise. With one stroke, she was cutting through the air currents created by Evading Swift Step, Second Step.

'Deep Valley Wind Swordsmanship...!'

They said its sword paths flowed long and unbroken. They were right. Facing it himself, he found it exactly as the rumors described.

She was neutralizing his martial arts without sacrificing the force carried in her strike. Evading Swift Step had failed to serve its purpose. Before he could accumulate discharge force, her sword was before his eyes.

He was in danger again. The humming resonance of steel was chilling.

He drew a sharp breath. That single inhalation fixed the core energy firmly within his body.

His Radiant Sword Art had been countered from the outset. Blossoms Raining Across the Sky had met the same fate.

There was no other way.

'Infinite Blossom Hand.'

He infused both hands with core energy. The sword was an instant away from cutting straight through his shoulder.

CLANG!

He struck the flat of the blade with the back of his right hand. The shock wave of the second form, Formidable Wall, shot straight along its combat path.

As wind swept across his eyes, Jung Yeonshin briefly furrowed his brow. The back of his hand ached. The internal-energy currents around her sword had torn through the radiant wheel's Protective Aura.

And that was from striking the flat, not the edge. Her sword art was truly formidable.

'I need to create protective force qi suited to my body, too.'

He pushed the thought aside the instant it arose. Her jet-black hair was brushing across his vision.

His form had failed to stop her. She simply spun with her sword as Formidable Wall sent it rising diagonally.

Her movements were extremely fast, but even her unhesitating exposure of her back offered no opening. Wind integrated with her Mobility Arts kept her black robe in constant motion.

Deep Valley Wind Swordsmanship. It was a gale art wielded with the entire body. He had to regard her as surrounded by sword qi that could turn into razor-sharp waves of force at any moment.

This was the true world of a supreme master. Her martial learning had crossed into the realm of extraordinary powers.

Without even time to stamp his foot, Jung Yeonshin thrust out a fist carrying Vortex's Burst Discharge.

A brief wave of force swirled from his entire body. Once again, his senses located the flat of her sword precisely. The steel's fleeting contact with his knuckles was bitterly cold. Meeting the whirling force, her strike was pushed back.

But that was all.

The captain's swordsmanship was truly seasoned. She seemed a consummate master of controlling distance.

She kept striking, yet Jung Yeonshin was given no time to draw Northern Radiance. She could swing freely at the boy, while he had to fight her sword at close quarters.

That was how the battle flowed. Her movements and sword paths forced it into that shape. It was the exact opposite of the Lightning Genius lineage, whose targets lay solely on the opponent's body.

CLANG! BOOM!

Jung Yeonshin's flesh-colored combat paths and the captain's silver sword paths crossed again and again. Short and long trajectories tangled amid the surrounding silence.

The captain controlled the flow through her counters. Her sword paths were strange, reminiscent of a skein of thread endlessly unraveling. Rather than isolated blows, they were like wind ceaselessly wearing down a cliff.

Deep Valley Wind Swordsmanship. Its force never broke.

'It's a martial art that supports her study of counters.'

So the boy thought. She received every form of Infinite Blossom Hand without difficulty.

Meanwhile, his blue robe was steadily turning to rags. The force of a sword strike skimming the ground tore his trouser cuff, and two slashes that cut through the third form, Fist Blossoms, reached his chest.

SLASH!

A cool sensation brushed the bottom of his solar plexus. After sword light flashed within the captain's jet-black eyes, fiery pain spread across Jung Yeonshin's chest.

He was being completely overwhelmed. Only by anticipating her movements with his superior senses could he keep pace with her dazzling speed of gathering and releasing internal energy.

'It makes sense.'

Many arts of the Lightning Genius lineage had been made available in the Desolate Fortress. Within its walls, they were openly called martial arts of the senses.

Gaps in movement, the starting points of discharge force, blind spots in the flow.

Her sword strikes saw through all of them and exploited them precisely, accompanied by the swift core-energy control of Three Flowers Gather at the Crown.

Anyone present could have sensed the state of the duel. It had already tilted heavily to one side.

Yet the boy's face remained impassive. With each exchange, his expression grew blanker.

'... This isn't what I expected. Did they not have enough time? The Law Enforcement Squad, I mean.'

Just as Jung Yeonshin thought this—

SWISH!

The captain abruptly stopped and flicked her sword once. With a sharp sound, blood marked the platform floor. Jung Yeonshin's blood formed a straight line.

“Fortress Master.”

Her lips parted slowly.

“Lightning Genius's martial arts are certainly powerful, but I judge it too early to entrust him with a combat unit containing numerous blue-robed warriors. I believe he should devote himself to training until his internal cultivation reaches Three Flowers Gather at the Crown. Might you instead entrust him with a detached unit deployed selectively against those of the evil and unorthodox paths?”

“...”

Silence settled over the promotion venue. The captain who had been matching martial arts with her opponent had stopped the duel. At the same time, she had advised the fortress master against granting this promotion.

An odd stillness spread. The prevailing mood was agreement. Most of the hundreds seated in the venue seemed to share her view.

Understandably so. Jung Yeonshin's only effective attack had been Blossoms Raining Across the Sky. His Desolate Sword had shattered as soon as he drew it, and afterward he had not even managed to draw his other sword.

“No. Something's strange.”

Few seemed to pay attention to the Supreme Flame Dragon's murmur.

Atop the tiered marble dais, the Desolate fortress master sat with her legs elegantly crossed and offered no reply. She merely gazed down at Jung Yeonshin.

But the boy did not meet her eyes. He stared blankly at the captain standing before him.

'What's she talking about?'

Jung Yeonshin muttered inwardly. Even in the turbulent years of adolescence, he knew how to exercise judgment.

Meaning he cared about his reputation. Since his goal was the Divine Sword Squad Leader's rank, he did not say it aloud.

The Law Enforcement Squad.

A combat unit that enforced the Desolate Fortress's laws and arrested its warriors when they violated its rules.

It was reputedly famous for dissecting every detail of the fortress's martial arts. Naturally, Jung Yeonshin had expected them to dismantle the arts themselves. Every counter he had devised so far had done precisely that.

That was not the case.

Their focus was on responding, with the captain's own martial arts at the center. As he exchanged blows with her, his interest had waned.

If the Lightning Genius martial lineage had been thoroughly demolished, he had intended to use that as the foundation for new martial arts. He had thought the Radiant Sword Art and Infinite Blossom Hand might take on different forms, just as the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art had elevated his core energy into a new realm.

Having experienced and observed it himself, he knew that hope was lost. This was not it. His thoughts slipped unbidden between his lips.

“If only I'd faced a rank-and-file member instead.”

Wouldn't a lower-ranked Law Enforcement Squad warrior focus solely on the blind spots in his arts? The boy forced himself to swallow the rest.

The captain did not even turn. Had she finished judging him? She simply looked up at the fortress master.

“His martial arts and senses are extraordinary, but he gathers and releases internal energy more slowly than the captains. His ability to improvise against studied counters is also lacking.”

Her expression was as blank as when the duel began. Only her lips moved. Despite their fairly intense exchange, she seemed to have lost all interest.

STEP.

Jung Yeonshin took a step forward. Only then did the captain look at him.

“You did not strike me as someone prone to reckless bravado.”

“...”

He did not answer. All he revealed was disappointment he had failed to conceal. The corners of his mouth lowered slightly, and his handsome brows drew faintly together.

A trace of puzzlement was entering the captain's expression when—

BOOM!

With a stamping step, Jung Yeonshin's figure blurred. It was as though he were embodying a swift sword strike with his body. His long blue robe, covered in bloodstains and sword cuts, streamed behind him.

WHOOSH!

He had stamped openly, giving the captain ample time to respond. Her black eyes took in the young blue-robed expert's entire body. White wind from Deep Valley Wind Swordsmanship gathered along the long blade in her grip.

In that instant, the boy was already within her guard, radiating the force waves of Infinite Blossom Hand from both hands in every direction.

WHUMMM!

A storm rose beneath the foot he had driven into the earth. He felt the muscles along both thighs split into sharp definition. Colorless martial force rippled from his right fist.

Formidable Wall came first.

From beneath the captain's thrust, he again located the flat of her sword and struck it with his fist. With a cold, ringing recoil, her sword shot upward like a column of water surging into the sky.

Her sword art held a flow that a single blow could not sever. Once again, she followed a sword path constructed from the formulas she had analyzed.

'If it comes back like that, it'll start all over again. It's so fast I can't interrupt it with movement, either.'

So the boy thought.

His mouth was reflected in her jet-black eyes. It formed a slight curve.

He extended his left hand. The force wave of the first form, Vortex, immediately produced a whirl. He had condensed it with his stamping step.

The air currents unleashed by the fist's discharge force churned violently, yet with exquisite delicacy. Strand by strand, they began pulverizing the flow of force created by the captain's sword path.

“...!”

For the first time, her eyes wavered.

Had the captain used her own martial arts in their original form from the outset, the outcome would have been different. Because she had sought to pit martial principles against Jung Yeonshin's, she now found herself faltering within her collapsing sword path.

Unraveling an art's subtleties was dismantling; crushing it through force was breaking.

What the captain possessed was neither. The strength that had allowed her to get away with that had brought misfortune upon her. It had given Jung Yeonshin enough opportunity to tailor the force wave of Infinite Blossom Hand's Vortex specifically to her sword path.

“This is...!”

The captain's pale hand trembled as she held her sword in a high guard. Her swordsmanship's long, unbroken flow tangled in an instant.

It was as though obstacles had been driven into a predetermined road. A brief opening appeared as she transitioned between forms.

That was enough for Jung Yeonshin.

His breaking counters had always included dismantling. The boy spoke calmly.

“A counter.”

Behind the waves of internal energy from his left hand waited his right, returning after unleashing Formidable Wall. At last, he drew his sword.

In a realm of ultimate speed, where even the flutter of the captain's eyelids looked slow, Jung Yeonshin gripped the hilt at his waist and drew the divine sword Northern Radiance upward.

FLASH!

Brilliant blue sword light shot straight into the sky. The stroke rose like lightning and shattered the captain's sword to pieces.

Even as a powerful shock wave bored into the hilt, the boy's grip remained firm around his divine sword.

CLAAANG! WHOOOOOSH!

A storm erupted from the sword tip that had risen as though to take the place of the captain's blade. It was the powerful remnant of the force wave.

Jung Yeonshin stood in a high guard. As blue light flickered along Northern Radiance above his head, the two supreme masters' blue and black robes snapped fiercely in the wind.

It was a wind announcing the end of the promotion duel.

“...”

Silence descended over the venue. The masters who had been discussing martial arts without pause closed their mouths.

The captain stood motionless with her broken sword in hand, staring fixedly at Jung Yeonshin.

The boy paid no heed to anyone's gaze. He merely felt what lay within his own heart. Disappointment and relief intertwined.

His body was heavy, yet the sword held in his high guard felt weightless. Was it the joy of having taken another step forward?

He was Black-ranked now. Whatever else, he had won.

Silently, Jung Yeonshin lowered his arm. The vivid blue blade brushed down past the captain's ebony hair at the side of her head.

As she flinched, the pale divine sword returned in a graceful arc. He brought Northern Radiance's tip to its scabbard. The deep-blue blade slowly regained its pure white light as it vanished within.

There was a peculiar dignity to the bearing of the boy in his slashed robe. Some in the crowd watched blankly, as though entranced.

CLICK.

The young supreme master's sword rang clearly as it slid home.