About a month had passed since Divine Spear woke up.

Far enough along that it felt like a lot of time had passed, and yet not that much at all.

Henan, which had been devastated by the attack, had gradually been restored and now looked much as it had before, and the razor-edged atmosphere born of tension had finally begun to settle down.

Only now had it truly become winter.

Right around the time the snow had started to fall and pile up.

CLANG—!!

A sharp burst of noise rang out, and the sword edge sprang upward.

“Ghk—!”

A groan slipped out, and my knees buckled. I staggered backward like I was about to collapse.

I tried to open up some distance, but by then a sword was already pressed against my throat.

“...”

At the chilling touch, I raised my hand.

Only then did my opponent lightly withdraw his sword.

A skinny old man. Small-bodied, with one arm missing, enough to make him look frail at a glance, but—

‘...You really can’t tell just by looking.’

Appearances meant nothing. This old man was someone who had reached the heavens through martial skill.

The current greatest sword in the Central Plains.

The man known throughout the martial world of the Central Plains as the finest swordsman alive: the Sword Emperor.

As he carefully sheathed his sword, he said to me,

“That was not bad.”

“...Thank you.”

I got praised and could only stand there gasping. The breath I had been holding finally burst out.

“Hoo...”

I steadied my breathing. Facing me, the Sword Emperor said,

“We will stop here for today.”

“...Thank you for the instruction.”

He didn’t bother with anything more. The Sword Emperor turned at once and disappeared. Only after watching him go was I finally able to ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) drop to the ground in exhaustion.

“Ugh...”

Sweat poured down me. I was completely spent.

“This is rough.”

It was never easy. Training with the Sword Emperor was always brutal.

My whole body shook, and the muscle pain never fully dried out before the next day came and started beating on me from every direction, but—

‘Still, it does seem to be working.’

For all the pain, the results were obvious. I could feel my body, now at Transcendent Peak, gradually getting used to its own level.

Shrrrk. Click.

I spun my sword once and shoved it into its sheath.

“Hoo.”

That time I let out a sigh different from the one before, and as I adjusted my body—

[Your control over your energy is not bad.]

Yoo Cheongil said it while looking at me.

[It was scattered and filthy before. Now it is finally clean enough to look at.]

“...Was it really that bad?”

[Do you ask because you truly do not know?]

“I can’t see it, can I?”

[It was a complete mess. Your realm rose too quickly for your body to have time to settle into it, so everything was lurching up and down in utter chaos.]

“...”

A body at Transcendent Peak.

By a martial artist’s standards, that made me an exceptional master, the kind who could make a name anywhere he went.

But I had never really had the chance to feel that.

‘I still can’t make it feel real.’

Me, Transcendent Peak? Just last year I was wondering if I could maybe become first-rate.

And then, in the time that flew past like an arrow, I had somehow stepped into Transcendent Peak.

‘Of course, it wasn’t by my own strength alone.’

It wasn’t talent, either. It was a realm I never could have reached alone.

A fortunate encounter.

That went for what I had gained by meeting Yoo Cheongil, obviously, but—

‘And I grew by absorbing foulness.’

It was the result of the energies I had gained while dealing with evil ghosts and foulness according to circumstance.

Clench.

I curled my fist for a moment. Feeling the flow of energy inside it, I loosened it again.

“Hup.”

Then I pushed myself to my feet. My lesson with the Sword Emperor was over, which meant it was time to move on to the next one.

*****

THUD—!!

WHIRL—!!!

RATATATAT—!!!

Throwing knives slammed into the wall in droves, one after another. Their angles weren’t bad. Their force wasn’t bad either.

But my expression was.

“Stop.”

At my word, the one throwing the knives, Tang Cheonil, stiffened.

“Your energy’s wavering again. What are you doing?”

“...I’m sorry.”

After the criticism, Tang Cheonil worked his lips.

“I told you, didn’t I? Focus on the flow of energy.”

“I was focusing...”

“If you were focusing, you wouldn’t be doing it like this. Watch.”

I picked up one of the throwing knives in front of me and flung it. The knife shot forward, instantly cloaked in blue energy—

KRAAAASH—!!!

—and produced an impact on a completely different level from anything Tang Cheonil had shown.

“I told you to do it like this. Why can’t you? Same with putting energy into it—once you put it in, it means nothing if you just let it go.”

“...”

Tang Cheonil’s expression twisted as he stared at the knife. He looked like he didn’t understand it at all.

“...You don’t get it?”

“It’s difficult.”

“You did it fine last time, so what the hell happened?”

He had done it well enough against Black Blade, but now it felt like he kept slipping backward.

“So what are you trying to do here?”

“...”

Tang Cheonil shut his mouth. Judging by his face, he himself was the one most frustrated by it.

“...Tch...”

Flick. I tossed the knife I was holding without much care. This time it just lodged itself roughly in the target.

“Let’s stop here for today. It doesn’t look like it’ll get any better if we keep going.”

“...Yes. Understood.”

Tang Cheonil nodded. After that he went outside, and watching him leave, I clicked my tongue to myself.

It wasn’t that I was angry at him. If anything, Tang Cheonil had to be the most frustrated person here.

If there was something frustrating to me, it was—

‘Am I just bad at explaining?’

—that frustration with myself.

To anyone watching, it would probably look like I was deliberately refusing to teach him Myriad Blossoms Scattering Rain.

The truth was, I was trying my best to teach him.

If Tang Cheonil still wasn’t improving even like this, then maybe the problem was with me.

[That would be correct.]

Yoo Cheongil immediately agreed with my thoughts.

[You have absolutely no talent for teaching.]

“...”

That hit the center of the target.

[Your biggest problem is that you are trying to teach it the way you understood it.]

“...What’s wrong with that?”

[Everything. Teaching is not about explaining it the way I understood it. It is about explaining it in a way the other person can understand.]

In simpler terms. In a way the other person could grasp the enlightenment I had felt.

That was how I was supposed to teach.

“How am I supposed to do that?”

Was there even a way to do something like that? I asked out of genuine curiosity, but—

[I do not know either.]

“What?”

Yoo Cheongil gave me an absurd answer.

[If I knew that, would I not have raised a hundred disciples by now? Since I could not do it, kid, I am making use of you instead.]

“...”

Yoo Cheongil himself said he didn’t have much talent for it either.

That tracked. Was that why, aside from the disciples of Blue Moon Sect, he had never taken a personal disciple?

‘Well, for me...’

What I was doing only worked because possession let him teach through me. Without that, there was no answer.

‘At this rate, I might not be able to teach him all of Myriad Blossoms Scattering Rain.’

That would be a problem. There was a reason Tang Cheonil was attached to me, and I couldn’t keep dragging him around forever.

“What do I do...”

As for teaching the Small Moon Unit Leader, I was doing that the way Yoo Cheongil had taught me to, but Myriad Blossoms Scattering Rain was something I had to teach myself.

‘...How the hell am I supposed to teach this?’

I knew I had to change methods, but I couldn’t think of anything specific.

And besides—

‘This isn’t even the time to be worrying about this.’

The situation was what it was.

Just then—

[Kid... Chzzzt.]

Yoo Cheongil, who had been speaking, flickered. At the same time—

“Young Master.”

Someone appeared and called for me.

“...!”

I widened my eyes when I saw who it was. On the surface it looked like a neat, elegant woman, but—

‘...Strange Demon.’

Inside that shell was a terrifying figure so old I couldn’t even guess the number.

Strange Demon, dressed as a woman, had come to find me.

“...What is it?”

“Ah, it’s nothing much.”

Even the manner of speech had become more feminine. I felt like I’d been seeing this for months now, and I still couldn’t get used to it.

Was it because I knew what he really was? If anything, it only made him more disgusting.

“The Strategist is looking for you.”

“...Ah, understood. I should go now.”

Cheonrijinan was calling for me.

At that, I started walking at once.

******

“You called for me?”

“You came.”

The moment I entered the quarters, Cheonrijinan greeted me.

“Sit.”

“Yes.”

I sat down naturally in front of him. The room was a wreck, covered in letters. Same as always, but by now I was used to it.

I casually cleared enough space and sat, and Cheonrijinan spoke immediately.

“Do you see the letters placed in front of you?”

“Yes.”

“Read them.”

“...”

No need for extra words. Quietly, I pulled the letters toward me and started reading.

“...”

“...”

Rustle.

Rustle.

Only the quiet sound of paper turning repeated itself, and after about one shichen had passed—

“I’ve read them all.”

I finished reading the letters before me, sorted them, and set them down. Only then did Cheonrijinan lift his eyes from the letters he had been reading and turn them to me.

“What did you think?”

What did I think...?

Vague question, but my answer came out fast.

“I don’t think the trouble that broke out in a place called Chuyeong Gate is all that important. Also, there are a lot of strange parts to the protest they’re raising. It’s true that their conflict with the evil sects was the main point, but... there are some odd things about it.”

“What things are odd?”

“The evil-sect group they clashed with, Ghost Blade Gate, has no particular reason to pick a fight with Chuyeong Gate in the first place... and the location where the clash supposedly occurred was also where the Alliance branch is stationed. The strange part is that no one noticed anything when it happened...”

The conversation went on for a while. It was a familiar situation.

We had already been repeating this for several days.

Right after Divine Spear woke up, after he had resumed operating as alliance leader—

Cheonrijinan had begun calling me to his quarters from time to time.

I wondered what exactly he meant to do by calling me there, but then—

‘Read.’

He made me read the letters in his room.

At first I wondered why he was making me read these in the first place, but—

‘If you do as I say, I’ll give you Mount Hua’s divine pill.’

‘Which one should I start with?’

That reward was too large to waste time raising objections.

That was when it started.

Me reading letters like a madman like this, and then talking over them with Cheonrijinan.

“That still sounds like circumstantial suspicion at best.”

“Suspicion is enough. If it’s a conflict between the righteous sects and the evil sects... the Martial Alliance has sufficient justification to step in.”

“If you handle it poorly, that could end up strengthening the evil sects instead.”

“It wouldn’t.”

“Then?”

“If Chuyeong Gate was in the wrong, then you mention Chuyeong Gate’s crimes and punish them. And if, as they say, the other side was at fault, then you use that as justification to crush them. It’s not as if the Martial Alliance lacks military strength.”

Calling it a debate would be a stretch too.

Cheonrijinan asked questions, and then nodded at what I said. That was all.

“I see.”

This time was the same. Once I finished speaking, Cheonrijinan gave that same calm reaction.

Shrrk.

Then he swept aside the letters in front of him.

I still had no idea why we were doing this.

“...Because that was the right answer?”

So I asked, but Cheonrijinan merely gave me a strange look.

“What do you mean by the right answer?”

“My answer about the letters I just read. Judging by the contents, they look like incidents that have already passed.”

I had never thought he was showing me things that were happening right now.

There would be no reason to.

As if to say my guess was right, Cheonrijinan stroked his beard and said,

“There is no such thing as a right answer. I am simply curious what you think.”

“Why are you curious what I think?”

“How could I not be?”

Cheonrijinan let out a faint snort of laughter as he looked at me.

I should probably have been more surprised that he smiled at all, but—

“The thoughts of someone who may become alliance leader in the future—how could that not interest me? Wouldn’t you agree?”

“...”

At the words that followed, my expression crumpled.

“Alliance leader candidate.”

“...For fuck’s sake.”

There was no way a curse wasn’t coming out at that point.