Withstand the Sword Star's blade.

It was a daunting task. Merely surviving would be an extraordinary feat. He would have to approach it as though weathering a natural disaster. Jung Yeonshin had thought so ever since setting out on this mission.

'It's a realm I have to reach.'

There were swordsmen said to cleave the laws of nature with a single stroke: the Divine Sword Squad Leader, the Wudang Sect Leader, the master of the Heaven-Subduing Sect among the Unorthodox Thirteen Skies, and the Tyrant Sword Tribe Lord, who had recently slain the Qingcheng Sect Leader.

There were at least as many Purple-rank supernatural abominations in the world as there were great factions.

They had conquered their generation. That was what made them peerless masters.

Their names transcended the ages. Those fond of such discussions never hesitated to compare them to the absolute masters of earlier generations whose epithets had entered the annals of the martial world.

The Sword Star Hyeon Sobaek's renown was no different. Among ordinary people, he was accepted as the reincarnation of the Sword Immortal Lü Dongbin. Even a stroke delivered out of courtesy to Jung Yeonshin would be difficult to endure.

There was no telling how many defensive forms he would need in a single exchange. It was the boy's sole remaining obstacle at the Alliance.

The moment Sage Cheon Joo offered to help him with that, two of the three honored guests started. The successor-disciples of Diancang and Mount Hua adjusted their postures.

Had Sage Cheon Joo not told them about this beforehand?

Clear ripples spread across the pond beside the table where the four sat. Vibrations from their movements formed concentric circles.

On the wavering water, which bore a few maple leaves, the white and red sunlight quietly trembled, as though revealing the feelings of those gathered there.

“Oh dear.”

The woman with the remarkable qi fluctuations murmured to herself.

She wore vermilion silk fighting clothes and carried a dark treasured sword. Her jet-black hair almost brushed its scabbard.

Though her presence was honed to a sharp edge, the downturned corners of her large eyes gave her a kind appearance. She bore the clear, delicate spirit of a Nine Great Sects martial artist.

Chwi So-ok, the Young Sword Empress.

She could hardly help sitting up straight alongside Mount Hua's Hidden Dragon, Yoo Hyun. Mount Hua's Sword Saint, whose renown had resounded across the land for well over a decade, was discussing swordsmanship.

Sage Cheon Joo had previously expressed regret over not having been able to name Blue Flame, First Form. He had joked that countless people would offer him any number of sacks of rice for a name of his choosing.

Debating the sword was another matter altogether.

Together with Wudang, Mount Hua was one of the foremost sword sects among orthodox martial lineages. Advice from Mount Hua's Sword Saint was as valuable as relief grain in these troubled times.

Even supreme masters of his own standing were said to seek his views on the sword. The many swordsmen of the martial world longed to hear so much as a word from him.

The Young Sword Empress gently parted her lips, her eyes rounding.

“Shall I leave you? I came without knowing what you intended, Sage.”

“No need. Whenever we cultivators travel through Yunnan to practice the Way, we invariably receive the Diancang Sect's help. You are its successor-disciple and the rightful inheritor of the Sun-Shooting Sword Art. If listening proves of use to you, it would give this humble Taoist great satisfaction. It is also worth encouraging the future pillars of the Nine Great Sects to befriend the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad.”

Sage Cheon Joo spoke in a flat tone, at odds with the substance of his words. Mount Hua's swordsmen were generally like this. Training amid the rugged terrain of the Western Sacred Mountain had given them temperaments like rocky peaks.

Their perpetually impassive expressions seemed the very image of swordsmen. Yoo Hyun was an exception.

The Young Sword Empress smiled faintly.

“Thank you for your generous words. But Captain Jung and I are already close. We traveled all the way from Sichuan to Xiangyang together, and I accompanied him to subjugate the Martial Alliance's forces as well. Though rather than helping, all I did was receive his kindness...”

Her slightly vacant smile was somehow playful. At some point, her gaze had turned toward the boy.

Jung Yeonshin could think of nothing appropriate to say. It was an awkward context in which to thank her, and he could hardly bring himself to offer an embarrassingly warm response.

As he simply stared at her, the bridge of Yoo Hyun's handsome nose wrinkled. Sitting cross-legged beside him, he seemed to be holding back laughter in his martial uncle's presence.

Ignoring his friend of the same age, the Taoist brat, the boy spoke.

“I would like to know your intentions, Sage. My swordsmanship may still be incomplete, but that alone is hardly sufficient reason for you to bestow your kindness on a Desolate Fortress martial artist. Unlike the Nine Great Sects, our fortress does not share your path of cultivation.”

“May the Primordial One bring peace and stability.”

Sage Cheon Joo murmured a Taoist invocation.

“You have also forged a blessed bond with Yoo Hyun. Have you not saved his life twice? The life of Mount Hua's successor-disciple, who has inherited the Violet Dawn Sacred Art, is no trivial thing. It is a debt he must spend his lifetime repaying. But as Yoo Hyun's abilities are lacking, this humble Taoist is repaying you in his stead.”

Then this would not put him in debt.

The boy decided to put his mind at ease.

Since creating the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art with the Seventh Apostle's help, he had become sensitive to debts and grudges. The martial world was a world of favors and enmities.

All renown and influence began with them and found their resolution through them.

Even masters of the unorthodox factions found it difficult to hold their heads high in the martial world if they repaid kindness with enmity. It was a moral principle woven into the spirit of the age.

Now that he headed a combat unit of the Desolate Fortress, he could not accept help indiscriminately. That held true even if the other party belonged to the fairest and most upright martial lineage among the orthodox factions.

Only by minimizing anything that might influence his future actions could he wield his blade solely for the people's welfare.

The young Taoist his own age waggled his eyebrows. There was understanding in his playfulness, as though to say he knew Yeonshin's circumstances.

Jung Yeonshin gave a slight nod and spoke.

“You have my full attention.”

“I will show you a training method so modest I would be embarrassed to call it instruction. It is quite literally a small starting point.”

Smiling faintly, Sage Cheon Joo gestured into the air.

SWISH!

An invisible wave of force shot forth. The extraordinarily sharp pulse of martial power flew past a branch.

A limb fell from the pine tree that cast a tranquil shade beside the pond. It was long and blunt.

Sage Cheon Joo caught it gently.

“Our sect leader is a very gentle man. He seldom takes a switch to his disciples. So I did it instead.”

Yoo Hyun flinched at his words, but no one paid him any attention.

Jung Yeonshin and the Young Sword Empress were watching Sage Cheon Joo's hand. There was something curious about the way he ran it along the knobbly pine branch.

His hand glided lightly over it once, releasing qi fluctuations of all shapes. Pulses struck the air, crisscrossing in every direction.

It was like sunlight scattering without color. More than one or two patterns of energy were taking shape in Sage Cheon Joo's grasp.

Yet the thick branch was being trimmed into an even, straight line.

His callused fingertips fashioned the shape of a narrow-bladed sword. It was a master's eccentric feat.

Without rising from his seat, Sage Cheon Joo made a slender wooden sword. It took fewer than three breaths. Bark fell between his fingers, gathering in a little mound.

“I began each form without completing it, from Plum Blossoms by the Roadside, the first form of our sect's Plum Blossom Sword Art, through the seventh, Plum Blossoms in a Flurry. It is a method of rapidly switching the internal energy circulating in the palm to the next form. I linked the opening energy patterns together.”

In other words, he had shaped the wood with the residual waves of force produced by stopping his sword forms midway.

Jung Yeonshin's eyes shone. He had never imagined such an interesting way to train in martial arts.

Mount Hua had long been renowned as a sword sect. A sect with such a long history was extraordinary indeed. Even its methods of discipline had something distinctive about them.

At last, a boyish look appeared on the Radiant Demon Squad captain's face. Curiosity seemed to spill from his upturned eyes.

Sage Cheon Joo smiled.

“Try to contain all the subtleties of your swordsmanship in your hand. No matter how many forms you pass through, you must strip the bark evenly. Each sword form will aim for something entirely different, so you must make countless changes to the circulation of your core energy to create a proper wooden sword. You must have heard tales of masters who faced opponents with a branch snapped off while walking along a road. You can consider this an extension of such stories. A blade needs an edge to carry a wave of force properly.”

It was a training method for mastering the profound principles of linking sword forms. Despite his modest words, it was clearly a secret teaching of his sect.

It would be of even greater help to Jung Yeonshin, whose swordsmanship was still unrefined, than to those studying a finished martial art such as Mount Hua's Plum Blossom Sword Art.

If there were gaps between his linked forms, what had happened when the Law Enforcement Squad Captain countered his Radiant Sword Art would inevitably happen again, however powerful the individual forms might be.

“Make a wooden sword...”

The boy repeated the words.

Sage Cheon Joo gazed at the younger swordsman and asked, “Would you like to try?”

“Yes.”

Jung Yeonshin nodded readily. Quite apart from his upper dantian's energy detection, he had reached a conclusion.

His swordsmanship lacked a refined means of linking its forms, and thus had no single character running through them all. For that reason, it had remained nameless. Here at the Alliance, he would surely complete it.

“It is fortunate we have an evergreen right here. Pines are sturdy, but up close, they are extremely finicky. Nothing is better for practice.”

Sage Cheon Joo cut off another club-like branch. As sharp as ever, his wave of force skimmed through the sky.

This time, Jung Yeonshin reached overhead to catch it. Its rough texture pressed into his grip. It was very thick.

“Fashion a clean-edged wooden sword. That is all. Your sword moves will become wholly bound within a single system. That is true swordsmanship. I trust it will not take you long.”

Listening to Sage Cheon Joo, Jung Yeonshin summoned his martial power.

The radiant wheel spun in his heart, and the energy of the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art rose from that wheel of light, flowing straight into his palm.

At the same time, a wave of force lodged within the Palace of Toil point in his palm swirled like the wind.

It was the first form of his nameless sword art.

CRACK!

He clearly felt the bark being ground away, but the moment he gathered the residual force to execute the second form, the branch crumbled to pieces.

A small cloud of dust rose and brushed over Jung Yeonshin's hand.

Beside him, Yoo Hyun exclaimed in wonder, adding a quiet cry. “So there are things even you can't do!”

“Don't laugh.”

The boy muttered the words, tasting an unfamiliar failure. Though he had never had friends his own age before, the response came naturally.

Yoo Hyun's smile vanished without a trace. Watching from across the table, the Young Sword Empress let out an amused breath.

“Not easy, is it? Even for you. The more profound the forms, the harder this training becomes.”

“Even making a single edge will be difficult.”

“Merely making a wooden saber, never mind a double-edged sword, is a considerable attainment. All the more so with your sword forms. Yes, aim for a single-edged sword first.”

“Thank you for your instruction.”

When the boy offered a martial salute, Sage Cheon Joo clasped and raised his hands in return. Though their old connection allowed him to speak familiarly, the boy was still the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad.

Age aside, he was treating him as an equal of the leader of the Plum Blossom Swordsmen.

“It is a training method I would be embarrassed to call instruction. Still, the harder you find it, the greater its benefits will be once you succeed. Take this small repayment of a kindness and continue striving. The Desolate Fortress's role is more important than ever. With martial strength such as yours, you might save thousands of common people.”

Sage Cheon Joo spoke gravely.

He was not merely referring to the evil and unorthodox paths. The Martial Alliance's position was clear.

While the immortals of the Nine Great Sects showed little inclination to intervene in worldly affairs, the Alliance, whose principal leaders came from noble clans, dreamed of overthrowing the Desolate Fortress.

The martial world, in their view, ought to belong to masters who lived freely.

Martial clans were kinship groups that gathered and scattered in such a land. They won names for themselves by clashing with the evil and unorthodox paths. They built reputations for chivalry by helping commoners whenever they could spare the effort.

Where the world's eyes could not reach, they used force to profit.

Even while repeatedly destroying inns and temples to Lord Guan, they strode above the clouds, proclaiming that the government and martial world must not interfere with one another.

Such an unadulterated order was the ideal world for noble clans to gain renown, power, and wealth.

But after the Yuan dynasty was driven out, the Ming imperial house took its place. The unchecked proliferation of regional noble clans that amassed power through martial arts became more forbidden than ever.

The martial world held its breath before the Desolate Fortress's glinting blade. Order in the lives of the common people became the foremost ideal.

The martial sects were restrained. Naturally, resentment accumulated. The destruction of the Hwangbo clan and the extermination of the Namgoong direct line had also caused enormous repercussions—enough to make the martial world's regional noble clans stop at nothing to secure their own interests.

Jung Yeonshin came to feel the reality of those circumstances after seeing off his honored guests from the Nine Great Sects. It was just after he had made a single-edged wooden sword on his second attempt.

[“What's with that wooden saber...!”]

Before the young Taoist's pale face had even faded from his mind, the young Radiant Demon Squad captain admitted Zhuge Cheonga through the main gate.

He had told her to humble herself and return after the founding ceremony. It was an expected visit.

Now, while everyone was still in an uproar over the Eon Clan's Foremost Fist falling to the Radiant Demon Squad captain's fingertips, the handsome young captain faced a girl rigid with tension beside the pond.

Pine needles rusted brown scattered in the dry wind.

Under a sky of unusually vivid indigo blue, Jung Yeonshin asked her business, holding a wooden sword lowered at his side.

“Speak.”

Zhuge Cheonga trembled under the Radiant Demon Squad captain's calm gaze.

Was it because she had seen his match with Eon Hwaryeon? Her small lips, usually closed in indifference, looked a little dry.

Slowly, the girl parted them.

“If you listen to what I have to say, you will have to break through a large number of people in a short time. Renowned elite martial artists...”

“I said, speak.”

A sudden ache in his knee made the boy knit his brows.

It had mostly hurt at night before, but now it was happening during the day too. The pain, familiar before he knew it, irritated him. Again. He would have to adjust his combat distance and train all over again.