KWA-A-AANG—!!

“...!”

Shock rippled across the Brocade-Guard Commander’s face.

Seop Mugwang did not evade the charging Commander’s blade but met it head-on.

He had taken, from the front, the colossal qi of a grandmaster.

“Hoo.... Truly a monstrous strength.”

“You....”

Only then did the Commander gauge Seop Mugwang’s realm.

BZZT.... BZZZZT...!

A torrent of qi incomparable to moments before coursed from him.

‘Don’t tell me...!’

Had this man also stepped into the grandmaster’s realm?

Then he had been concealing his level from the start?

“...”

Masters beyond the grandmaster’s gate are not easily fathomed.

Upon reaching grandmastery one comes to grasp the harmony of the Three Flowers gathered at the crown; naturally one also attains the principle of yin and yang.

The flow and balance of force.

Those who understand it can hide or reveal their internal strength at will; thus others cannot easily gauge their realm.

“Cunning snake...!”

“Cunning? Hiding one’s true skill is basic to a warrior, Gon Emperor.”

Seop Mugwang’s lips curled into a thin grin.

BZZT— THUD-BOOM—!

Seeing Seop Mugwang’s qi surge, the Commander hastily widened the distance.

Without measuring the opponent’s realm, this fight was dangerous.

First—he had to reassess the other’s full power.

“Looks like you’ve trained quite diligently.”

“‘Diligently’....”

A bitter smile touched Seop Mugwang’s mouth.

How much had happened to reach this level.

If he said that barely a year ago he couldn’t even use qi, would the Commander believe it?

“I’ve had my reasons to live in earnest.”

He clenched his fist tight.

The calluses hardened by long training pressed against his palm.

“If I loafed and slacked off, I’d fall behind. Then I couldn’t bear to face my disciple.”

“Your disciple...?”

So the Wind-and-Thunder Deity had taken a disciple?

‘Well.’

Men of the martial world are desperate not to let their arts die with them.

RUMMMBLE....

“Seems it hasn’t been long since you entered this realm....”

Earthen-hued qi roared ever more violently around the Commander.

“Nothing will change.”

“You only know by crossing blades, man.”

BZZZZZT....

Seop Mugwang raised his sword.

THOOM—!

The Commander stamped hard.

Again the ground began to tremble.

DUDUDUDUDU—

He charged Seop Mugwang.

He looked like a massive, furious bull.

‘The Wind-and-Thunder Sword would be dangerous.’

If his footwork slipped in the slightest, he would be flung by Gon Emperor’s force.

Better to choose a more stable sword art than that—

‘....’

BZZZZZT....

Thunder force rose around Seop Mugwang.

And then—

FWAAA—

A blue aura coiled around the thunder like a winding ribbon and circled him.

A kennel dog hears the wind and the moon; one near vermilion grows red.

The years Seop Mugwang had spent with the Namgoong had, before he knew it, far exceeded twenty.

For twenty years, what he saw and learned were Namgoong Mucheon’s sword—and the Namgoong spirit.

‘Do you still not see?’

‘My brother and Chor Yeon are already our family.’

A faint smile.

‘Namgoong... eh.’

They took in two wanderers who had lost their home, fed them, clothed them, accepted them as family.

More than that, even his aura now bore a blue hue.

‘I suppose I truly can’t deny it any longer.’

HUMMM—

Thunder-Illusion Sword Art.

BZZT!

Seop Mugwang’s blade moved slowly.

The charging Commander knit his brows.

It was clearly slow—slower than ever.

Then why—

‘I can’t read the sword path.’

In his eyes, one blade became two, three—at last, dozens.

‘An illusionary sword?’

In that case, it wasn’t slow.

It was moving faster than ever.

‘Your realm may have risen, but has your judgment dulled!’

Still trying to meet me with speed!

“That won’t suffice!”

HFF—

The Commander leapt straight into the midst of those dozens of split blades.

KWA-GANG!!

Blade met blade; force met force; a detonation-like roar burst forth.

KAKAKAGANG! KAGANG!

Their swords entwined faster than the eye could follow.

Running Thunder Twelve Swords...!

Receiving the Commander’s weighty blade, Seop Mugwang calmly unfolded his swordplay.

Thunder-Strike Fifteen Swords...!

A style composed of twelve thrusts followed by fifteen forms.

It was Seop Mugwang’s own signature art—yet it was not a blade leaning only on thunder force.

WHOOOOSH—!

As he turned his body and hewed down like a stamping stroke, the blue aura still pooled around him.

The force of heaven.

The Namgoong’s sky.

‘Thunder-Strike. Thunder-Fire. Galloping Thunder. Thunder-Wind. Thunder-Quake. Lightning!’

BANG— KWA-GANG! KWAGAGAGANG—!

The more Seop Mugwang worked his art, the more thunder’s force and heaven’s force mingled and mingled.

As if thunderbolts were falling from the sky—that very image.

KAKAKAKAKANG—!

“Stand aside, Wind-and-Thunder Deity! All you need do is give me a path!”

The Commander’s sword was hard as rock and firm as [N O V E L I G H T] earth.

A heavy blade.

Seop Mugwang shed part, received part, barely meeting that sword.

“Do not make a foolish choice! Non-interference between court and martial! You have nothing to do with palace affairs!!”

Sweat beaded on Seop Mugwang’s brow and ran down his temple.

KAKAKAGAGANG—!

As the blades clashed in rapid succession, the heaven force and the thunder force tangled ever faster.

KAGAGAGAGANG!!

“Wind-and-Thunder Deity!!”

“I... told you...!!”

At last, when the two natures of force blended into one—becoming only his realization—

Flowing Thunder Heavenly Wind Sword Art.

Its esoteric.

“For Chor Yeon!!!”

Dividing Light Heavenly Wind Sword!

“!!”

In that instant, a sky choked with black cloud unfolded before the Commander’s eyes.

The heavens flashed without cease, and rumbled as if to shake the earth.

As if an enraged sky were loosing a colossal bellow at the world.

KWA-GWANG—!!

Light split his vision to pure white; a massive shaft of lightning crashed down.

Light forked; wind howled.

“...!”

By instinct, the Commander swung to block that tremendous thunderbolt.

The sword he swung bore a force so vast it seemed it could split the earth.

KWAGWAGWAGWAGWAGWAGWANG—!!

Earth and sky collided.

At that tremendous shock, both the soldiers locked in combat and the onlookers all hunched and clapped hands over their ears.

FWOOOOOOSH—!

A fierce gale swept the courtyard of the Grand Peace Hall.

A wind that seemed ready to blow everything away slowly subsided, and at length a still hush fell.

“...”

“...?”

One by one, people raised their heads with bewildered faces.

Before anyone could speak, every gaze fixed together on the center of the Grand Peace Hall—the Brocade-Guard Commander and the Wind-and-Thunder Deity.

SSSSSSS....

Around the two, it was calm as the eye of a typhoon.

They still stood with blades leveled at each other, locked in a standoff.

A wash of tension passed in which no one dared make a sound.

“...Damn....”

THUNK—

Seop Mugwang stamped his sword to the ground and dropped to one knee where he stood.

He clutched his chest—COUGH—blood welled up and spilled scarlet.

The Wind-and-Thunder Deity has lost.

Everyone at the Grand Peace Hall thought so.

But as their eyes turned to the Brocade-Guard Commander—

THUD—

The Commander’s tilting body suddenly pitched forward and collapsed.

The sound of his sword rolling helplessly on the ground rang sharp across the courtyard.

“...”

“...”

The Imperial Army—and the Eastern Depot.

And the Brocade Guard soldiers who followed the Commander.

All stared, aghast, at the fallen Brocade-Guard Commander.

The pride of the Imperial Army.

The one who had stood at the Emperor’s side for so long; an idol to all the soldiers.

The Commander who had seemed as if he could be shattered but never broken—

Fell. Broke.

To the Wind-and-Thunder Deity.

One of the Ten Masters—felled by a warrior whose name did not even enter the Ten Masters.

“What is the Eastern Depot doing! Seize the traitors at once!!”

It was the Eastern Depot Chief Attendant, Eunuch Ju, who shattered the stunned silence.

Guarding the Emperor’s side, he read the situation faster than anyone and gave orders.

“The Brocade-Guard Commander has fallen—the victory is already decided! Among you, there must be those who do not share his intent! Those who cast down their weapons and surrender will have their crimes remitted!”

Those who surrendered would live.

They had joined rebellion; all were as good as dead.

At Eunuch Ju’s promise of remission, the Brocade Guard soldiers hesitated, stealing looks at one another rather than moving.

“I—I was against this from the start....”

“M-me too...! In truth...!”

From all over the Grand Peace Hall came the sounds of weapons being thrown down.

From the start, more than half the Brocade Guard’s strength was the Commander alone.

Even up to the moment they stormed the Grand Peace Hall, most did not fully know the Commander’s intent.

With his defeat, it was natural that their will to fight collapsed at once.

“Imperial Army—bind those who surrender!”

At Eunuch Ju’s command, the troops moved with crisp precision.

Thus the Brocade Guard’s rebellion that had begun in the outer court seemed to be drawing to a close—

KWA-A-AANG—!!

“!!”

“...!”

In an instant, a massive boom that shook the earth resounded through the entire palace.

Just as everyone in the Grand Peace Hall reflexively hunched—

“An e-explosion!!”

A eunuch pointed behind the Grand Peace Hall and shouted.

“!”

Struggling to right himself and rise, Seop Mugwang whipped around.

From behind the Grand Peace Hall—in the inner court of the palace where the Emperor’s, the Empress’s, and the consorts’ quarters stood—thick black smoke was billowing up.