It was cool air.

I’d never particularly thought it was hot, but it hadn’t been the kind of atmosphere that felt cold, either.

And yet now, it had turned strangely cold.

If my hands had been bare, I probably would’ve rubbed my arms without realizing it.

That was how sharp the change in temperature felt.

Damn...

Looking at the cause of it, I had to swallow a groan.

Was this a mistake?

The killing intent pouring out of Yuyeon.

That was what was making the air around us cold.

Or maybe not. Maybe it wasn’t the air around us at all. Maybe it was just my body that felt cold.

The goosebumps rising on my forearms. The chill crawling down my back.

That fishy, constricting sensation, like something was tightening around my throat, pierced through the inside of my skin.

I was trembling.

This was the first time I’d ever felt killing intent this stinging.

Heavenly Killing Star.

Those born with a burden that craved death by killing others.

This was the first time I had properly witnessed the Heavenly Killing Star I’d only ever heard about.

SAAAAAAH......

Killing intent spilled out from Yuyeon’s body.

Watching it, I crooked the corner of my mouth.

Savage.

Regret came flooding in. Did I really need to provoke her this far? It felt like I’d done something I absolutely shouldn’t have.

“Hoo.”

I let out a breath.

The boat had already sailed.

Fear or no fear, I had to keep doing what I came here to do.

“Yeah. Even if it has to be like th—”

The moment I started to speak—

SWISH—!!

“...!”

I twisted my head. Yuyeon’s sword grazed my cheek.

Jerk—!

Blood ran from my skin. I hadn’t dodged it completely.

Fast.

It was fast. Even after catching it with Moon Eyes, I’d still dodged a beat too slowly.

I drove more strength into my body. Yuyeon kept charging in.

Plum Blossom swordsmanship, was it? It wasn’t all that different from the sword she’d been using just before.

KRAAAACK—!!!

What the hell?

Something was different. Much faster, and overwhelmingly rougher.

There was no hesitation in it, and instead of beauty, it was packed with raw force.

A sharp sting ran through my eyes.

I focused hard into Moon Eyes. The paths of the Moon Immortal Sword’s Path became a little clearer.

SWISH—! SHHHRIIIK—!!

Her sword bored in sharply. I slipped around the path and found the point to counterattack.

I stomped down with my heel and crushed the ground. The dirt floor shattered, and force rose all the way to my waist.

I released the strength from my waist and distributed what came up into my upper body.

My freed waist twisted halfway, and I loaded that rebound with hardened qi.

Moon Wolf.

A crescent moon hanging in broad daylight plunged straight toward Yuyeon, but—

Jerk—!

“Huh.”

Yuyeon dodged it. Casually.

At most, two steps.

She avoided Moon Wolf with nothing more than that much movement, then—

SWISH.

She shot her sword through the opening I’d left behind.

“Kh.”

Pain flared in my chest, and I pulled back to widen the distance too.

TRICKLE—!

A shallow wound spread across my chest.

My waist throbbed.

My body still hadn’t fully recovered, and the chest wound was one I’d just taken.

The one saving grace was—

...Is it only this much because the blade’s dull?

Just a scratch.

Even though I’d been hit by a sword, it was only a blunt pain, not a clean slash.

The problem was—

It was a vital point.

She’d gone straight for a vital point that could’ve killed me if things went wrong.

I tapped my chest a couple times and swallowed the chill.

The moment I raised my sword again and looked at Yuyeon—

Her sword was already falling toward my face.

I hurriedly twisted my head to evade. Flashes rained down. Countless reddish-purple lines of sword qi poured toward me.

As I avoided them one by one, rolling my eyes to follow them—

[What are you trying to do...?!]

Seongheon spoke to me as if scolding me in anger. It was the first time I’d ever seen him raise his voice.

[The Heavenly Killing Star is not something that should be awakened! Why would you provoke the child like this?!]

Yuyeon, with killing intent rising from her.

Watching her, Seongheon showed open fear.

I’d awakened the instinct he had barely managed to keep suppressed.

He was asking what would happen if she got swallowed by the Heavenly Killing Star at this rate.

So what?

That was exactly what I was trying to make happen.

Yuyeon’s sword kept getting faster. I could keep up now that my realm had risen, but—

...This is insane.

That aside—

Why the hell is this so hard?

Why was the sword flying at me this messy?

Messy? No, that wasn’t the right word.

It’s bizarre.

It was a bizarre sword. It felt like it had broken free from all rules and was moving on nothing but instinct, and that was what made it so hard to read.

Moon Immortal Sword’s Path isn’t reacting properly.

It was supposed to show me the path I should take and the opponent’s sword path.

But for some reason, grasping Yuyeon’s sword was absurdly difficult.

...No wonder the old man was amazed.

I remembered Yoo Cheongil showering Yuyeon with admiration.

Back then, I hadn’t really understood just how incredible that was.

Maybe it’s because my realm rose, but I can feel it now.

Now I understood.

She’s overwhelming.

My realm was higher than hers.

My strength was probably higher too. My speed as well.

And yet she was overwhelming.

That was what Yuyeon’s sword felt like to me.

SKRITCH—!

I twisted my sword and drove it upward.

Yuyeon’s sword clashed with it, then bounced away.

Her blade wavered wildly in the air from the distorted angle—

SKRIIITCH—!

“Jesus Christ.”

Yuyeon recovered even that. She forcibly corrected the sword I’d twisted upward and slammed it back into its original position.

That took an instant. A true instant.

How is she doing that with that frail body?

That just now was pure strength.

No trick. She had forced it back under control with brute force.

Doing that should’ve wrecked her bones and muscles, but she still did it.

And on top of that—

SWIIISH—!

“Christ.”

Her sword was getting more terrifying by the second. It was getting faster, and more than anything—

The killing intent is getting thicker.

The killing intent pouring out of her and the viciousness of her sword were both intensifying as time passed.

And on top of that—

Look at her eyes.

The eyes staring at me were changing.

Her emotions were fading away.

And her pupils were slowly—

Are they turning red?

It looked like the color was changing.

[...This cannot happen.]

Seongheon’s voice came through the gap.

[If it goes on like this, there will be no turning back.]

The Heavenly Killing Star growing thicker and thicker. And if it fully awakened—

That was what he saw as the problem.

Sorry, but...

That was exactly what I had to aim for.

There was something I needed to confirm.

And I needed it to solidify my own certainty.

Even beyond that—

If I do this...

I knew your lingering attachment would fade a little too.

Jerk—!

Blood splashed across my cheek again. Even with a blunted sword, the sword qi had seeped into it enough that I could feel an edge now.

This won’t work.

Is it about time?

...Like this, there’s no way.

I didn’t know about anything else, but one thing was clear.

If this were before, I never would’ve beaten her.

At my previous realm—back when I’d just been at Peak—I never would’ve beaten Yuyeon, even if I died trying.

If I’d fixed what those old men kept saying was my problem...

Would it have been different then? If I didn’t think so much while fighting?

Who knows.

I didn’t know. I couldn’t tell. Look at me even now. My head was still a complete mess.

Ah, hell.

Fixing that was going to take time.

There was no way in hell it would happen in a day or two.

“Fssss.”

I let all the strength drain out of my body.

WHOOOOOSH—!!

Killing intent exploded out of Yuyeon’s body.

Her eyes had gone beyond red. They were the color of fresh blood.

That was it.

That’s...

The proof of the Heavenly Killing Star.

Those red eyes known throughout history.

The symbol said to have belonged to the Heavenly Demon who bore the Heavenly Killing Star.

Wasn’t the story that only someone with those eyes could become the Heavenly Demon? That was the commonly known version, anyway.

...But that’s not what the Heavenly Demon said.

The words he’d spat out still bothered me.

That the Heavenly Killing Star wasn’t the condition to become the Heavenly Demon.

That a pathetic burden like that meant absolutely nothing.

What mattered was—

...Ghost Eyes.

Eyes that saw what should not be seen.

He had said that was the real condition to become the Heavenly Demon.

How annoying.

A foul, bloated feeling rose in me. The Heavenly Demon had been someone who saw the same kind of thing I did.

Of all things, him too.

It’s not that strange.

Ghost Eyes or Divine Eyes—

There wasn’t just one or two people who had eyes like that. Considering how many genuine Wu Tang freaks there were—not the fake kind—that much was obvious.

They were special, sure, but not that extraordinary.

That was how I had to think about it.

For now.

Right now, I had to look at the burden standing in front of me.

Crack.

Yuyeon took a step forward, killing intent pouring from her.

The ground caved under her foot, and her body shot forward like an arrow.

A speed completely opposite from how she’d started.

Was the backlash of the Heavenly Killing Star connected to power like that too?

That question rose in me, and at the same time—

PAAAAAAH—!!

Light wrapped around my eyes and my sword.

Brilliant light burst out, and Yuyeon, who had been charging at me, faltered for an instant.

My body rose weightlessly inside that vision that felt ready to burst.

Exhilaration dug into my head. Opposite from a body that felt like it might scatter into the wind, my mind turned cold and clear.

It felt like the sword would advance even if I swung it carelessly.

Moon Heaven.

The divine art Yoo Cheongil had created.

I drew it into my body.

Ah.

This is good. Better than last time. My body twisted on its own like I was drunk on medicine.

Cut.

All ten thousand thoughts vanished, and only that remained.

Cut it down.

Whatever stood before me—

Cut it down.

The many thoughts were erased, stripped away.

And after all of that, only that remained.

So my arm moved according to intent and thought.

The sword carrying that will was about to drive forward—

Tsk, tsk.

I heard the familiar click of a tongue.

[Every time I look away for even a moment, you’re always up to something.]

That rough, dull voice.

[What kind of nonsense is this now? This isn’t what I taught you to do.]

My sword was moving forward, but time had slowed. Yoo Cheongil’s words still came through regardless.

[Get a grip.]

[Isn’t it a little pathetic to get swallowed by something that trivial?]

The feeling of contempt in those words was thick.

[If you’re going to throw my name around out there, you shouldn’t be getting caught up in nonsense like this. Isn’t that right?]

What a truly awful name. Just because I’d inherited that name, I’d gotten dragged into every miserable situation imaginable, and even now, in a moment like this, he still cared about the Sword Saint’s name?

What a goddamn rotten old man.

It was like he’d optimized himself purely for ruining other people’s moods.

Absurd. But—

...Ah.

Despite all that, my slightly twisted mind snapped back into focus.

The exhilaration inside my body stayed, but the drowned-out senses returned.

What was this?

I tightened my grip on the hand that had been going slack.

[Control your strength. Unless you’re trying to kill the child.]

Hearing that, I focused on what was in front of me. Yuyeon was there.

The moment I saw her, I twisted the angle of my blade.

SMACK! 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

“...!”

From the edge of the blade to the flat.

The turned sword struck Yuyeon in the chest.

That was right before Yuyeon’s sword reached me.

The impact sent her body flying, and she rolled across the ground.

“Kuh—”

A mouthful of blood burst from Yuyeon.

That had been dangerous. If I’d gone through with it like that, I might really have cut her with the edge.

“Huaaah...”

I let out a breath. What had I just been trying to do? It felt like I wasn’t myself.

By the time I barely managed to come back to my senses and release Moon Heaven—

SAAAAAAH—!!

Yuyeon unleashed another surge of overwhelming killing intent.

[...No... too late...]

Seongheon looked at Yuyeon in despair. Killing intent on an utterly different level was steadily bursting out of her now.

[Hm.]

Seeing that, Yoo Cheongil spoke.

[If you leave it like that, the ones in Mount Hua will notice soon enough. Is that alright?]

“Of course it’s not.”

I wiped the sweat from my face as I answered. Obviously it wasn’t alright.

[Then what do you plan to do?]

If the disciples sensed that killing intent and came running, then with Seongheon collapsed like this, the picture was going to look very strange.

So what else was I supposed to do?

“What do you mean, what do I do?”

There was only one way.

“I stop it.”

All I had to do was sever that killing intent.

[And how exactly are you going to—]

Seongheon started speaking in obvious frustration. Before he could even finish, I stepped toward Yuyeon.

“Hoo.”

I let out a breath and took one step forward.

SKRITCH.

I heard gears turning inside my heart.

Hot.

Not the sensation of heat rising, but the feeling of my soul being heated.

I frowned at the sensation, one I hadn’t felt in a long time.

And then, just as Yuyeon, already completely swallowed by killing intent, was about to charge straight at me—

“Get lost.”

I spat out the short command.

WHOOOOSH—!!

“...”

The killing intent vanished from Yuyeon’s body.

Thud.

Yuyeon, who had been charging at me, collapsed straight to the ground.

[Huh?]

Seongheon let out a stupid sound as he watched it happen.

Leaving him behind, I ran a hand back through my hair.

“Ah.”

That settled it. I’d felt it last time too, but—

Apparently—

“Yeah. This works.”

It looked like I really could suppress the killing intent of the Heavenly Killing Star.