WHOOOOSH—!!

The light was blinding—so bright I could barely see an inch in front of me. It was enough to turn the entire world white.

I couldn’t even tell if the light was pouring out of my body, or if I was just receiving a flood of light from somewhere else.

Radiant. Every time I saw the energy of the Blue Moon Sect, I felt it. Martial arts that pursued the moon copied the radiance inside it—

and it was unbelievably beautiful.

‘Ah—’

A single breath of awe slipped out inside my head.

It was a really strange sensation.

‘This.’

Nice.

A short impression.

It felt good. Warm enough that I couldn’t feel the cold even in the dead of winter.

Just being wrapped in light, and I could feel something like this.

And even—

‘Am I even standing on the ground?’

It felt like I was flying.

WHOOOOSH—!!

Soon, the light began to die down.

And when it finally faded away completely—

“......”

I lowered my head at the faint sensation I could still feel.

‘This is...’

My palm hadn’t changed from the start, but it felt like there was a thin film wrapped around it.

A film made of light.

And—

‘Light.’

My body was ridiculously light. Light enough that I could mistake it for floating.

And it wasn’t just my body.

‘My mind, too.’

Everything was hazy. Like I hadn’t fully woken up yet.

‘What is this.’

What is this sensation?

I slowly lifted my head.

That was when—

SWISH—!!

Something was coming.

Black-Grand Saber.

That bastard, wrapped in shadow, was swinging his saber at me.

It was right in front of my face.

“......”

Rough. Headlong. And that hardened qi—how the hell was it that strong? Normally I would’ve been scared shitless.

But—

‘Something.’

Nothing came to mind.

What was I feeling right now?

It was simple.

‘Dodge.’

SWISH—!

Before I could even think, my body reacted. My head and upper body shifted by the tiniest amount.

And Black-Grand Saber’s attack slipped past me by a hair.

WHOOOOSH—!!

The wind pressure left behind by the strike howled through me.

My eyes rolled.

I could feel the wind—

and Black-Grand Saber’s movements looked slow.

“......”

What the hell is this.

I questioned it, but my hand was already moving.

A sword full of light poured down on Black-Grand Saber.

BANG!

“Ghk!”

He raised his saber and barely blocked it. He’d had to stop it mid-charge, so his posture was wrecked.

He got shoved back, his body lifting into the air—

then—

KRAK—!

Like his heavy frame wanted to show off its weight, he forced his legs under him and held the ground.

“HUAAAP!”

With a roar, Black-Grand Saber spun his body.

Sword force dripped down like ink.

He used his saber like a brush, painting black across the air.

As if he were drawing out a long road with ink—

Black-Grand Saber kept up the massive offensive.

A ruined posture. Thin strength.

A battered body.

As if none of it mattered. He used the overwhelming advantage of the Heaven-Martial Body he carried.

Vicious durability and insane flexibility.

His broken stance recovered as power soaked back into it.

Muginyeongju.

The Peng Clan’s secret martial art burst out from Black-Grand Saber’s hands.

It was murderous.

An absurd number of possibilities flooded my sight.

My Moon Eyes saw every single one of them. Where was the right answer? There were so many it felt like there shouldn’t be one.

But—

SSSS.

“......”

Shockingly, my body moved on its own again.

How would I know which answer was right out of all that?

I didn’t.

But absurdly, I didn’t even try to block it.

For some reason, it felt like I wasn’t supposed to.

Moon-Spirit Sword Path.

The blooming and evolution of Moon Eyes. The moon tells you where you have to cut.

Moon-Spirit Sword Path showed me the road even in Black-Grand Saber’s form, but—

‘...Fast.’

The sword was faster than the road forming.

This was more like—

‘I’m the one making the road.’

Not the sword following the road—

but the sword carving the road of Moon-Spirit Sword Path.

I was perfectly synchronized with it.

BANG!

“......!!”

My swung sword made his saber shudder. The ink lost its path.

“HAHAHA—!!!”

Even as he staggered, he laughed.

He tightened his grip on the saber again.

BANG! BANG BANG BANG—! BANG!

The barrage started.

Black-Grand Saber rushed me with brutal speed.

And somehow, I was batting away every single one of his attacks.

This was weird.

‘It’s not heavy.’

His saber wasn’t heavy. I shouldn’t have had the strength to knock it aside.

‘Why is this working?’

What does my body know that it’s moving like this?

My body moved before my thoughts.

It felt like Yoo Cheongil had possessed me.

No—more than that—

‘Why is my mind still intact?’

Last time, when I sparred Thunder Dragon, my mind had gotten blown away.

Right now it was strangely clear.

Not exactly clear—

more like a dream. Hazy. But clear enough to recognize this wasn’t a dream.

So many possible outcomes were still spread out in my vision.

Every one of Black-Grand Saber’s moves was lethal.

But they weren’t hard to see.

And they weren’t scary.

Light became a flash in the air.

BANG!

I met his saber head-on.

My feet still felt like they were in the sky.

My body was light.

So light it felt ridiculous.

How could it be like this?

‘Hold the moon in your body.’

Becoming the moon itself.

That’s how Yoo Cheongil talked about Moon Heaven.

What did the moon have to do with this?

I didn’t know.

The one thing I did know was—

‘It feels like I can do anything.’

A ridiculous surge of exhilaration filled me.

What do you even call this? This alien feeling— I’d definitely heard of it before. What was it?

‘Ah.’

I remembered.

Yoo Cheongil definitely called it this.

‘Egoless state.’

Mu-a-jigyeong.

A place where you step past one frame and move into another. Where you forget even yourself, and your body becomes one with martial arts and moves on its own.

That was what he meant by an egoless state.

‘...Is this it?’

It felt exactly like this.

Except—

‘My mind is still here.’

I still had my mind. Like I was barely hanging onto it—balanced on the edge right before it slipped away.

And I didn’t hate that feeling.

If this is what Moon Heaven is—

‘Does it artificially create an egoless state?’

Forcing you to touch that position on purpose.

Maybe that was Moon Heaven’s effect.

It felt impossible, but—

‘It’s not that weird.’

Hadn’t he said it before?

Beyond a body like the Heaven-Martial Body—

those eyes Baek Cheonin and Sword Phoenix supposedly had.

Martial Eyes, or Battle Eyes. A monstrous talent for a martial artist.

Yoo Cheongil said Moon Eyes were something he created to make that artificially.

So—

‘This could be the same.’

If Yoo Cheongil was the one who created Moon Heaven, then maybe this was possible too.

BANG!

Black-Grand Saber’s saber rose again. A huge opening—

WHACK—!!

Before I could even think, my sword split across his upper body.

“Ghk!”

Blood sprayed as Black-Grand Saber let out a groan.

BOOM—!!

He blocked my kick meant to shove him away with his saber.

BOOM—!!

Hardened qi slammed into hardened ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) qi, a thunderous impact spreading out—

and the distance between us was forced open.

Drip.

Blood ran down his upper body.

The blood that spilled out fell straight to the ground—

“HAHAHAHAHAHA—!!!”

Black-Grand Saber laughed like the world was ending.

“...What is that. What the hell is that supposed to be.”

He laughed so wide it looked like his mouth would tear.

Watching him laugh while bleeding from his upper body was terrifying on its own.

“How the hell are you making this fun for me to this extent?”

“......”

“HAHAHAHAHAHA—!!!”

Whirl.

Unlike his laughter, my sword spun once—

TAP—!

—and I launched my body after him again.

I couldn’t let him go.

This was a chance.

A chance to crush him completely.

‘It was shallow.’

Not a fatal wound. Even in that opening, he’d gathered his hardened qi in one place and defended.

That was why it ended at that.

My sword poured out light again.

WHOOOOSH—!!

Hardened qi formed on Black-Grand Saber’s saber again.

BZZZZZ.—!!

The edges collided and sparks burst.

The hardened qi ground against itself.

SWORD FORCE—!

Energy exploded. The sound of blades colliding was so violent it didn’t even feel like metal anymore.

SWISH—!!

Heat rose through my body. Something swelled inside this light body.

Ecstasy.

‘Ah.’

This is fun.

Yeah.

I should probably admit it.

It was fun.

GRIP—! I planted my foot and leaned my upper body back.

The saber skimmed right above me.

Just like that, I jumped off one foot and rotated halfway.

Spinning fast, I whipped my toes into his side.

BOOM—!!

CRACK—!

“Ghk!”

His protective hardened qi—already thinned—shattered, and I heard something in his bones.

But—

WHOOOOSH—!!

“—!”

That bastard endured the pain and threw a punch at me.

I tried to block with the flat of my blade—

BOOM—!!

GRIT.

“Kuuhk!”

Because I’d blocked in midair, my back slammed straight into the ground.

A mouthful of blood burst out.

Black-Grand Saber staggered back two or three steps after landing his hit.

I tried to get up immediately, too—

CRACK—!

“...Ghk.”

Pain twisted my body.

Ah, fuck. This hurts like hell.

“Kuuhk. Ptoo.”

Black-Grand Saber wiped the blood from his mouth.

“You landed one.”

He grinned.

“......”

Scary bastard. I frowned and stared at him.

‘...This bastard.’

He adapted.

The guy who hadn’t even understood the flow until just now—

countered.

Did he get slower? No.

Did I slip out of Moon-Spirit Sword Path? No.

It was just—

‘He adapted.’

Black-Grand Saber adapted to me.

In this short exchange.

‘That’s dirty as hell.’

It was too much. I’d been busting my ass trying to memorize his movements and predict them.

“Huuh......”

I let out a breath. The light pouring off my body felt a little thinner.

I checked my dantian. As expected—

‘...There’s barely anything left.’

My inner power was thin. Not just Moon Heaven—maybe from forcing everything out from the inside to beat Black Cloud.

I was almost at my limit.

‘......’

What do I do?

The question formed—

but—

CLINK.

My body was already moving again.

I aimed my sword tip at Black-Grand Saber.

GRIP—!

I lowered my stance and put strength into my legs.

What is this?

‘It’s a stance I’ve never used before.’

It was my will, but it wasn’t.

Then—

BZZZZZ.—!!!

‘Huh.’

The Moon-Spirit Sword Path spread out in my vision changed.

The road that had been drawing lines here and there and wavering—

smoothed out, straightened into one clean line.

With my sword tip at the center, there was only a straight line.

A straight line that looked like it would allow no deviation.

‘This is...’

It didn’t show me the road.

It made it.

WHOOOOSH—!!

The light grew stronger. The intensity of Third Form: Radiant Moon Annihilation-Overturn increased.

“Ha ha...?”

Black-Grand Saber’s expression hardened.

“...Are you trying something?”

Did he sense something in my posture that even I couldn’t?

He wiped cold sweat and tightened his grip.

“Fine. I welcome it.”

The shadow wrapped around his body moved. That moving shadow, like it had a will of its own, surged into Black-Grand Saber’s saber.

Making black even blacker.

Perfect ink-black formed around him.

It was a martial art I’d heard of through Beggars’ Union information.

The Peng Clan’s divine art—famous for the Blade God dealing a fatal wound to the Heavenly Demon.

‘One Saber, Black Heaven.’

Energy seeped out of the ink-black like a heat haze.

As if to show its intensity, only the surface of his saber was warping.

‘......’

That’s fucking terrifying.

Can I beat that?

Even with the doubt—

my body didn’t waver, like it already knew the answer.

“I’m coming, Little Sword Saint.”

Black-Grand Saber moved first.

CRACK—!!!

The ground he’d been standing on shattered under the force of his leap.

That heavy body charged straight at me.

Overwhelming power.

Watching it, my legs swayed lightly.

Whether he charged or not, the line I saw was only one.

I gently placed my sword on it.

And my body moved.

Whoosh—

The sound was light.

So light it was more accurate to say there was no sound at all.

It was just calm.

Where the sound ended, my sword collided with Black-Grand Saber’s black heaven.

Pop.

A short, spreading sound and a single cut.

Just like that, Black-Grand Saber and I passed each other.

“......”

“......”

Silence passed between us. After a moment, I turned my head.

Black-Grand Saber was still standing. Slowly, he turned toward me.

‘Ha...’

Seeing that, I swallowed a dry breath.

He was still smiling.

Did it not work?

‘Again...’

I have to do it again.

As I made the call and tried to move—

SNAP—!

“...Ghk.”

The light wrapped around me cracked, and one knee hit the ground.

“Kuuhk!”

Blood spilled thick from my mouth.

‘...God damn it.’

All my energy vanished. As my mind snapped fully back, every sensation returned to its original state.

The hazy, light body became heavy as hell.

“Ghh......”

Pain I could barely feel before drove itself in.

My head buzzed as I staggered.

‘Shit.’

Through my blurring vision, Black-Grand Saber walked toward me.

Step.

He gripped his saber and approached slowly.

Without wiping the smile off his face.

I have to get up.

But my legs wouldn’t listen.

‘Fuck.’

So that’s it?

I tried pretty hard.

Looks like this is the limit.

I clenched my teeth with trembling hands—

TAP.

Black-Grand Saber finally stopped in front of me.

And instead of swinging his saber like I expected—

SWISH.

“......?”

He suddenly held out his big hand toward me.

What?

He kept it there, staring at me.

Is he telling me to grab it?

Confused, I took his hand.

And he pulled me up.

Even after I stood, I stared at him with bewildered eyes.

What is this? What’s the point?

I didn’t know, so I stayed silent.

Then—

“Ah.”

Black-Grand Saber opened his mouth.

“I lost.”

“What?”

I frowned at the absurd line—

FSSSSSH—!!

Blood burst out of Black-Grand Saber’s upper body, and he collapsed to the ground.

BOOM—!!

It hit hard.

I looked down at him. He’d passed out with a smile still on his face.

“What the....”

I couldn’t process it.

Then the referee below the tournament stage rushed up and checked Black-Grand Saber.

And then—

“Peng Dojun of the Hebei Peng Clan versus Bang Sungyeon of the Blue Moon Sect....”

A moment later, the referee raised his hand and shouted.

“Bang Sungyeon. Victory.”

“.......”

At that small word he spoke like he was reciting it—

WAAAAAAAH—!!!

The crowd that had been silent exploded.

I...

beat Black-Grand Saber.