Baek Seogun, the Sky-Swimming Sword Demon, came from Xinye County in Henan Province.

She had worked as a maid at the Jeong Clan Estate, a martial household. They had not treated her poorly. Having lost her parents early, she had earned the sympathy of the Master of the Jeong Clan and his principal wife.

Baek Seogun had been assigned to serve the clan's eldest legitimate son, a boy born a full ten years after her.

Her little master was more often called by his sobriquet, Pan An, than by his given name, Jung Daemyung. Even as a child, he was a young nobleman handsome enough to deserve the comparison. He was generous, too, never reluctant to spend silver.

Flower Young Master Jung Daemyung. Or Jeong Banak.

Her young master formed relationships with many women, and Baek Seogun played no small part. She delivered Jung Daemyung's love letters to young ladies in neighboring villages and brought back their replies.

The rewards were always generous. Baek Seogun received very substantial spending money, all in silver.

Though Baek Seogun herself possessed rare beauty, Jung Daemyung did not see her as a woman. He regarded her as a young nursemaid, and she was content with that.

Occasionally, a rejection arrived that displeased the young master. Even on those days, she received her spending money.

From childhood, the noble young Jung Daemyung had held peculiar superstitions—something bordering on stubborn obsession. One belief he held as the heir to a great landowner was that making people work without compensation invited bad luck.

Few servants disliked the young master.

Nor did his love letters often leave them worrying about his temper. His looks deserved to be called unrivaled: the shape of his face and every feature were almost unreal in their perfection.

Once, he joked that he would someday seduce a woman from the Desolate Fortress. Not one of his friends or servants laughed it off as an empty boast, even though he had only just turned thirteen. He possessed both family standing and beauty.

Baek Seogun did not particularly envy him.

By then, she was secretly learning martial arts. She was in her tenth year of training. The Jeong Clan Estate was a third-rate martial household; no one there detected any trace of her divine technique.

She had spent those years training from an unparalleled secret manual, obtained through a fortuitous encounter unlikely to come twice in a lifetime.

It had been in a cave she discovered after losing her footing and falling into a gorge formed by a battle between strange beings toward the end of the Yuan dynasty. A book lay before the body of a member of the noble race, seated cross-legged.

Neither corpse nor manual had decayed. It was a strange place.

The instant her eyes met those of the noble race, a spiritual nature was imprinted upon Baek Seogun's energy core. It felt as though a handful of sunlight had been placed inside her. A mysterious sensation filled her lower abdomen.

'I am meant to race across the world.'

Faced with the inexplicable, she could only regard it as heaven's mandate. Hers was not a life destined to end in Xinye County. It stretched out before her toward the martial world.

'I'll hone my strength here, then join a great faction.'

That was her resolve. Once she embraced that grand ambition, she grew more outgoing. She got along splendidly with young master Jung Daemyung. So well, in fact, that the ten-year-old taught his twenty-year-old maid how to play Go.

That was when she learned the Ten Precepts of Go.

["Don't 'sacrifice stones to seize the initiative' and 'do not covet victory' contradict each other? They tell you to abandon stones and take the initiative, yet also warn against rash greed?"]

["How foolish. Why would they contradict each other? It means to relax and take the initiative. Don't grow impatient just because you have to give up a few stones."]

It was a valuable lesson. She thought the young master would raise his children very well if he ever had any.

Even as she secretly cultivated her internal qi art, Baek Seogun never neglected him. That remained true until the night she slipped away from the Jeong Clan Estate beneath a cloud-shrouded moon.

["Thank you for raising me."]

She clasped her hands in a martial salute toward the vast estate. By then, she had reached the fourth level of the Eight Illusions Divine Art.

She had cultivated it with talent more extraordinary than anyone else's. She believed no martial talent in Xinye County could match hers.

She was right.

Her martial arts held their own throughout the world. No wandering warrior could withstand even one blow, and that had been true even when she was still inexperienced in real combat.

By the time she encountered masters of the Martial Alliance, she had reached the sixth level of the Eight Illusions Divine Art.

Every sect wanted to welcome her as a retainer or Dharma protector. She turned down every invitation and crossed the threshold of the Martial Alliance, a sect of the evil and unorthodox paths backed by a vassal prince.

As befitted a faction blessed with such an exceptionally rare combination of advantages, its wealth and power were tremendous.

She enjoyed them for a long time.

Like the other elders of the Thirteen skies, Baek Seogun gradually became a monster of the martial world. Wealth, luxury, and the pursuit of domination made her so. Before she knew it, she was a supreme master tempered by decades of training, a figure well informed even about affairs at the very summit of the martial world.

Then, one day, she heard rumors of a new master emerging from the Desolate Fortress, along with news of Sword Flower's death.

Only then did she learn of the Jeong Clan Estate's destruction. She felt a faint regret, but also found something strange about it.

'The Tyrant Sword Tribe Lord spared the Lightning Genius? Because his spirit and talent moved him? He's not that sort of man. He must have something in mind. The destruction of the Desolate Fortress is his lifelong wish.'

She also felt some desire to see Jung Daemyung's son, though it was no great longing.

In parts of Henan, she was called not the Sword Demon, but the Sword Exalted. The life of Baek Seogun, who had earned the epithet Sky-Swimming Sword Demon, had long since drifted far from the third-rate Jeong Clan Estate.

"Or so I thought. The captain of the Radiant Demon Squad, is he?"

The notices posted throughout the Central Plains whetted her interest. The name of Jung Yeonshin, the Lightning Genius, appeared among the masters invited to the Martial Alliance's founding ceremony.

Partly to relieve her boredom, she asked the Alliance leader for permission to travel to Shaanxi. The request was readily granted. A bad harvest was no small matter even for a great faction backed by a vassal prince.

To maintain an army of martial artists with ease, it made sense to take supplies from outside.

In other words, the pillaging in Hanzhong had begun because of the Lightning Genius.

'I wonder how much our little young master knows about the Tyrant Sword Tribe Lord.'

Baek Seogun smiled as she gazed into the gorge. The smile etched into her face was as deep as her internal energy. Her graying hair resembled a lion's mane, its thick growth falling to her shoulders suiting her exceedingly well.

The Eight Illusions Divine Art bore deep traces of the noble race. After she turned thirty, time had stopped upon her face as though she had cultivated an art of preserving youth. The same was true of the muscles throughout her body that wielded her illusion swordsmanship.

Every day was her prime.

THUD.

She planted her foot on the rugged rock of Seven Multitudes Gorge. Wind howled through the gaps between her fingers. Stone peaks jutting in every direction filled her vision as though to pierce it.

After posting her senior disciple at West Peak Road, she had been playing Go when she suddenly wished to see the gorge, and had come here.

She did not know why. Was it because the fortuitous encounter in Xinye County had suddenly come to mind?

They said that at her age, the upper dantian began to commune with heaven. There was also the saying that one came to know heaven's mandate. Perhaps some destiny had guided her here; Baek Seogun had set out without giving it much thought.

A supreme master like her was free wherever she went beneath the heavens. Those fools who reached Black rank only to remain bound to the Desolate Fortress were mad. Chivalry? What a laughable virtue in a year of famine.

"I'm rather curious about his prowess, too. Surely he didn't learn the Jeong Clan Estate's third-rate martial arts."

She was an eccentric of the martial world; muttering to herself came naturally. She had lived a life in which no one dared criticize her for voicing every passing thought without restraint. She walked on, murmuring to herself in a singsong voice.

Then a group caught Baek Seogun's eye. They were surrounded by her subordinates at the far end of Seven Multitudes Gorge.

She sensed powerful blazing yang qi and refined killing intent. The Sword Demon—the Sword Exalted—could hardly remain unmoved.

The strangers' voices soon reached her.

"These bastards think Hanzhong is their own sitting room, don't they? Didn't expect us to get caught like this."

The one with the mighty yang qi spoke while taking on seven martial artists alone. Invisible, shimmering heat enveloped both hands as he struck, and not one of his opponents could properly withstand even a single exchange.

He seemed to be the Hwangbo clan's Supreme Flame Dragon, well known for his formidable talent and short allotted lifespan. Just as the intelligence reports said, he was traveling with Jung Yeonshin, the Lightning Genius.

Another man delivered peculiar sword strikes, like an assassin trained in orthodox swordsmanship. In contrast to his lively Mobility Arts, the eyes beneath the hero's headband on his brow were somber. He looked rather taciturn.

He seemed to have a story that might bring some interest to Baek Seogun's tedious martial world.

'Now that I look, these treasures have come walking to me of their own accord.'

A girl darting through the gorge with thrusts like rays of light also caught her attention. Her sword qi, honed to the utmost limits of her ability, was so outstanding that her flowing ebony hair did not look like a warrior's liability.

She was as beautiful as Baek Seogun herself.

"How interesting. Even Diancang's sword, said to shoot down the sun."

Baek Seogun murmured with a smile. The other two were not bad either. Their martial lineages appeared to be those of the Gongsun and Murong clans.

FLAP!

Her gray robe snapped loudly. She took one step, and her next footfall landed three jang ahead.

Ordinary folk who knew no better might have mistaken those Mobility Arts for a magical art of shrinking distances. With her hands behind her back, she advanced as though skipping through space.

At the same time, she drew her sword and hurled it.

ROOOAR!

It sounded as though the air were being torn apart. Above the heads of the orthodox young talents, a brilliant sword trajectory etched itself into the air.

It flickered white. Sky-swimming—the words were apt. This was the skill of a Martial Alliance elder who had earned the name Sword Demon.

Baek Seogun brought the index and middle fingers of her empty hand together in the widely known sword-finger gesture.

The instant those two fingers extended like a dagger, a pulse of martial power rose from the hilt overhead. Its terrifying presence seemed capable of crushing even the wind.

"Sword Exalted!"

"Sword Exalted? The Sky-Swimming Sword Demon...!"

Delight and horror crossed the faces below.

A single move from Baek Seogun, the Sky-Swimming Sword Demon, descended with casual indifference.

The wave of force extending from her airborne sword shattered and dispersed every current of martial force on the field. A gale fiercer than the gorge's own winds rose, though the sword's tip had touched nothing. It was an attack that defied ordinary understanding.

A supreme master.

A being who looked down upon the multitude of masters from an exalted realm. Her martial attainment qualified her to contend with the world itself. She could impose her will even against a Black rank of the Desolate Fortress.

A martial artist free of the imperial sect's oppression. As one of the Thirteen skies' hidden swords, she regarded the young talents before her.

Gongsun Min and Murong Mingjun flinched beneath her steady gaze. The corners of Baek Seogun's mouth rose in a somewhat bored smile.

"Follow me. I will not kill you so long as you entertain me. Show me your martial learning while I eat and drink. Once you cease to amuse me, I shall cut off your heads."

"You think the whole martial world rests in your palm? Refuse, and you'll attack us with these little soldiers of yours?"

The Supreme Flame Dragon answered, studying Baek Seogun with a peculiar gaze. She knew that look well: the insightful gaze possessed only by geniuses born once in an age.

They skipped the process of comprehending martial learning through intuition, effortlessly claiming strength that surpassed the limits of their years.

Baek Seogun herself had been the same, as had the Ming Cult's young cult leader who visited the Martial Alliance headquarters some three years ago.

'I don't understand. A scion of the Jeong Clan Estate leads a child of that caliber? That should hardly be possible with even a drop of Jung Daemyung's blood in him.'

She turned away without hesitation as she thought.

CLICK.

The sword roaming the air returned of its own accord and slid into Baek Seogun's scabbard. The Gongsun boy caught his breath.

The others looked no better. They were trapped, taken hostage. Had the Sky-Swimming Sword Demon not possessed such a peculiar temperament, there would have been nothing strange about their heads falling then and there.

"Should've thinned them out faster. Without your men here, we could've tried escaping."

Only the Supreme Flame Dragon remained unruffled. Was it because he had lived accepting an early death? Even his deliberately rueful expression looked leisurely.

"I'll get another lecture from that young captain. About being incompetent."

"By that young captain, do you mean the Lightning Genius?"

Baek Seogun asked without looking back. The encirclement moved with her steps. The Supreme Flame Dragon and the others had no choice but to follow her.

"That's right. And don't try anything foolish."

"Foolish?"

"If you mean to use us as hostages against the captain, I'll kill all of them and then myself. Believe it or not, I used to be the eldest young master of Shandong's foremost powerful clan. I have my pride."

The Supreme Flame Dragon spoke gently. Beside him, Heon Wonchang muttered that this was insubordination.

Baek Seogun laughed in derision, but she laid hands on none of them for two days. As a supreme master of a great faction of the evil and unorthodox paths, she had enjoyed so much that everything bored her. Now she concentrated on filling that emptiness.

Just as when she had left the Jeong Clan Estate in search of a new world.

She confined them in the largest barracks among the encampments established in Seven Multitudes Gorge. Whenever the fancy took her, she brought them out one at a time, amusing herself with the great sects' martial learning as it unfolded in the young warriors' hands.

She pressured them like animals in a cage. When the Supreme Flame Dragon's fiery qi gave her a small burn, she only laughed.

"No matter how I look at it, I cannot believe it. How did someone of such paltry Jeong blood take you into his service?"

"You'll know as soon as you see him."

The Supreme Flame Dragon had just given that languid reply when it happened.

BOOOOM!

With a deafening crash, an overwhelming wave of qi rose beyond the peak. It was auspicious to a strange degree. An unusual gleam flashed in Baek Seogun's eyes.

A qi art that outwardly manifested a sacred quality. An old memory surfaced.

The spiritual nature bestowed upon her by the noble-race master in the cave who left the Eight Illusions Divine Art had been just like that.

"Ah, I'm really going to hear about this."

"Is that the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad?"

She put the question to the Supreme Flame Dragon, who was muttering with a loose grin.

"Can't you tell just by sensing him?"

"Let us go and see."

A mass movement began. The Martial Alliance's army of martial artists, stationed throughout the encampments, set into motion.

Baek Seogun, known here as the Sword Exalted, vanished first. The Supreme Flame Dragon, Heon Wonchang, and the Alliance warriors followed. Thanks to Baek Seogun's eccentricity, they had enjoyed freedom of movement from the outset. No one barred their way.

It was only a short distance. Following Baek Seogun, the Supreme Flame Dragon climbed to the source of the thunderous noise.

He saw the young captain facing her, now clad in a splendid scarlet martial uniform. How long had the boy been running? His hair had been swept entirely back, exposing his smooth brow.

The new captain's shoulder-length black hair suited his pitch-black robes exceedingly well.

Jung Yeonshin's gaze shifted from its steady scrutiny of Baek Seogun. His eyes met the Supreme Flame Dragon's over her shoulder.

"Incompetent fool."

The boy spoke without preamble. The Supreme Flame Dragon sighed.

"I have no excuse."

"You shouldn't."

The Young Sword Empress arrived next. Her almost flying steps, propelled by her Mobility Arts, halted at the sight of Jung Yeonshin.

As the Martial Alliance's martial soldiers surrounded them, her lips moved.

"If I become a hindrance, I'll kill myself."

The Young Sword Empress, Chwi So-ok, was no ordinary person either. As a promising swordswoman of the Diancang Sect, she valued honor above life.

She embodied the orthodox martial artist so praised by those fond of such tales—a warrior suited to the spirit of the age.

"I know shame, too. Though I'm happy to see you fight that old monster to the death, Captain."

She discussed dignity with a blank expression. Jung Yeonshin slowly nodded.

"I'll avenge you."

"You've never said anything so warm to me before. I'm rather pleased."

The Young Sword Empress flashed a bright smile.

That was when it happened.

"You haven't cultivated the Jeong Ancestral Divine Sword, have you? You seem to have reached a realm such crude swordsmanship could never attain."

Baek Seogun abruptly asked after staring at Jung Yeonshin for a long while with a peculiar expression.

"The Jeong Ancestral Divine Sword?"

The boy's brow furrowed slightly. It had been a very long time since he last heard that name. The Jeong Clan Estate's swordsmanship.

His paternal grandfather had reportedly reworked the swordsmanship he learned as a lay disciple of the Zhongnan Sect. It was a third-rate sword art with nothing grand about it but its name.

"You know the Jeong Clan Estate?"

"Your insolent manner grates on me. Arrogant brat. Let me see whether you have earned it."

Baek Seogun raised her sword fingers and moved her hand. Her joined index and middle fingers brushed the sword hilt at her waist.

At once, the blade rose on its own, scattering pure white sword light. It was the skill many martial artists supposed to be controlling a sword with qi.

By then, Jung Yeonshin was already lifting Northern Radiance above his head.

His black sleeve slid down below his shoulder, baring his right arm and the firmly honed muscles from the back of his hand to his biceps.

The sword vibrated, sounding as though it were singing on its own. He had achieved Body-Sword Unification with the blade held high and straight.

High guard.

His bearing was calm, and all the more chilling for it.

'What's that?'

The Supreme Flame Dragon's eyes had just widened slightly at the unfamiliar opening stance.

WHUMP!

The sword held by the young captain of the Radiant Demon Squad released an invisible wave of force.

Its density was tremendous. Though unseen, it felt as though a translucent wind had enveloped the field.

Baek Seogun's sword faltered on its ascent. The supreme master's skill had stopped for an instant.

Anyone could see it was not of her own will. The pressure bearing down upon the surroundings was immense—enough to make someone with shallow internal cultivation drop to their knees before receiving a single move.

In that instant, without warning—

WHOOSH!

The boy and Baek Seogun crossed paths. Their positions reversed in a single moment.

STEP.

Having attained extreme speed through whole-body Burst Discharge, the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad lowered his sword. A pure white sword path flashed belatedly into view.

A long trajectory wavered behind him. Off to one side, Baek Seogun also held her sword, though no one had seen her take it.

The supreme masters had exchanged moves without warning. The Martial Alliance warriors, who had not dared intervene, groaned under their breath.

Neither seemed to have suffered a mortal wound. Only Baek Seogun's appearance had changed.

Her signature graying hair drifted down. The ends of the long mane that had fallen like a lion's scattered like feathers.

They rode the gorge's ceaseless gale and mingled with the glow of sunset.

The young captain of the Radiant Demon Squad turned, his sword held low. He glanced at the drifting hair, tilted his head slightly, and slowly parted his lips.

"Short hair suits you," the boy said.