If one were to describe Dohyeong’s life in words, the word would be colorless.

A blank shade with no color in it at all.

That was Dohyeong’s life.

Grandson.

From time to time, he recalled the words of the grandfather who had raised him.

Even if life is barren, that does not mean every part of it is guilty.

Even in a life that, by any measure, had been miserable and cruel, his grandfather had always said such things to Dohyeong.

Do not resent anything.

Those things will only tighten around your throat in the end. So do not become that way.

In a voice like gentle ripples over water, his grandfather would say those words to him.

He had always been that kind of person.

No matter what happened, he was easygoing, like a still lake untouched by disturbance.

That was Dohyeong’s grandfather.

A man who seemed as though he would never change.

Even—

even in the moment he died.

Grandson.

Bleeding, he stroked Dohyeong’s head and spoke.

Remember your grandfather’s words.

Do not resent anyone.

Why?

Question filled the eyes of the young Dohyeong.

Even after this, he was not supposed to resent anyone?

Clenching his fist, Dohyeong finally asked his grandfather.

Then who am I supposed to resent? 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He could protect no one, and everything slowly rotted away.

If a tree withered and twisted dry, was he not even allowed to resent the sky for failing to send rain?

Tears mixed with the rainwater on his face.

The sky that day had been especially dark and heavy.

That worn old hand stroked Dohyeong’s cheek.

Do not dwell on it.

This too will pass.

What was going to pass?

Grandson.

Smiling faintly, his grandfather spoke to him at the end of his life.

Pursue happiness rather than anger.

After hearing those final words, Dohyeong thought this:

That he could obey every other word.

But not that one.

Ah...

He lost his bearings in the falling rain.

What remained in a life whose direction had vanished?

He did not know.

He merely stood there.

And after standing there for a long time—

—the falling rain stopped.

It felt like a lie.

All the blood that had spilled around him had been washed away.

Time fell quiet.

And in that stillness, Dohyeong lifted his vacant eyes and looked up at the sky.

The sky cleared, night rose, and at its center the moon hung overhead.

Ah.

It’s blue.

As he gazed at the blue moon, Dohyeong suddenly remembered his grandfather’s words.

The Azure Moon Sect.

The place his grandfather had spoken of every day.

It was what his grandfather had told him whenever Dohyeong said he envied his blue eyes.

He had left it because it did not suit him.

And yet, whenever he said that place was his homeland, there had always been a smile on his lips.

Remembering that, Dohyeong rose to his feet.

He had chosen where to go.

Was it because, remembering his grandfather, he wanted to listen to his words?

No.

...Forgive me.

Dohyeong had never possessed such pure thoughts.

He could not honor those words about pursuing happiness.

I’m going.

After burying his grandfather neatly in the wet earth,

he took the single sword his grandfather had left behind and departed for the place where the blue moon hung.

With his grandfather’s sword, he would accomplish what he had set out to do.

Dohyeong’s purpose was revenge.

It had been so from then until now.

*****

CLANG! SKRIIIIING—!!

Sword edges danced.

Those distinctive blue lines kept gathering and scattering, over and over again.

In one sense, it looked like stars scattering apart.

In another, it looked as if the moon were pouring out light and then dying.

Stars and moon in broad daylight—what kind of nonsense was that?

And yet that was what it looked like to the naked eye.

Impressive.

That was the thought that came to mind as I watched the bout between Cheon Hyein and Dohyeong.

He’s strong.

Cheon Hyein being strong hardly needed saying.

At the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, the fact that she had been put down by that Young Cult Leader bastard only made it stand out less.

But in truth, she was a genius among geniuses.

Even Yucheon Gil had acknowledged that.

...And in the middle of that, this man—

the man receiving Cheon Hyein’s sword without the slightest trouble—

When did he get that strong?

I was honestly startled by how sharply Dohyeong had risen.

There was a characteristic delicacy and beauty to Cheon Hyein’s sword.

It looked soft, but the weight and sharpness hidden within it could not be ignored.

It was obvious at a glance that her sword was packed with feints and layered with precise calculation to the point it made your eyes ache.

And he’s blocking it easily.

Dohyeong was stopping that sword with ease.

No, should I say ease? That was how it looked, at least.

He’s no joke either.

Dohyeong, too, was using a razor-edged sword.

The difference between him and Cheon Hyein was—

He’s like a wild stallion.

If Cheon Hyein used a delicate sword built of calculation,

then Dohyeong used a headlong sword, like a beast driven by instinct.

Their swordsmanship was completely opposite in nature.

Interesting.

How could two people use the same sword and yet be so different?

I had seen martial arts from other sects and families too, but that kind of feeling had not been there.

Is that a trait of the Azure Moon Sect?

The same sword paths.

The same energy.

And yet they could still differ this much.

I thought that might be the Azure Moon Sect’s distinctive trait.

CLANG!

Sparks flew.

As the fierce bout continued,

“...Ha.”

“This can’t be.”

the other disciples of the Azure Moon Sect watching it reacted ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) strongly.

“To be evenly matched with Moon Dancer—”

“They said he earned an epithet this time too, but to think he’d become that strong...”

“They call him the Moon-Blue Banner Sword, but compared to a few years ago, that growth is absurdly huge.”

Moon-Blue Banner Sword.

That was the epithet Dohyeong had gained after standing out at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering.

And since that Dohyeong was fighting evenly with Cheon Hyein, one of the Seven Rising Stars, everyone looked stunned.

...Hmmm.

As I watched the bout, my gaze remained fixed on Dohyeong.

It was not only because the sword dance between the two of them was impressive.

...What is that?

Because there was one strange thing.

Why is that reacting?

Dohyeong’s body.

More precisely, the light circling around him.

I could see his guardian spirit reacting.

And with a violence I had never seen from it before.

Had it ever trembled like that?

Not that I remembered.

Even back in Sichuan, when he had gone through danger, I did not think his guardian spirit had reacted that way.

What’s different?

It had been like that from the moment the bout began.

From the instant his match with Cheon Hyein started, Dohyeong’s guardian spirit had reacted like that.

And that was what had pulled my eyes toward him.

Right then—

SKRIIIIING—!!!

Dohyeong drove in as though grinding away Cheon Hyein’s sword.

In the midst of the flying sparks, his eyes flashed.

Thud.

The sole of the foot supporting him turned slightly.

His waist rotated along with the force of the turn.

Moon Wave? No.

The stance was Moon Wave, but it was a little different from that.

What is it?

A thin crescent slipped out and burst with light.

BOOM!

“...!!”

Once Cheon Hyein grasped what was happening, she blocked it with the flat of her blade, but—

KABOOOM—!!!

The impact exploded, and her body was thrown across the platform.

Cheon Hyein lost her balance and was startled for an instant, but—

“Kh.”

She scraped the floor with the tip of her sword to bleed off the momentum.

But before the stance she barely recovered could matter, Dohyeong had already reached her.

“Hup.”

With that sharp exhale, he began a relentless series of follow-up strikes.

CLANG! CLANG-CLANG—!!

Heavy sounds burst in all directions.

A heat that felt as though it might explode piled up thick in the air.

“...Senior has become that strong.”

Cheon Uijin muttered quietly as he watched the bout.

“He really has.”

I agreed.

Dohyeong had become far stronger than I had known.

How had that happened?

...No, that isn’t something to be surprised by.

I corrected myself.

What was there to be surprised about?

I saw what he’d been doing.

That man had to become strong.

I knew that because I had watched him work from the side.

There wasn’t a single time he got up later than I did.

Lately I thought I had been getting up earlier than him, but until then he had always risen before dawn.

He woke at dawn and slept late at night.

It was a routine that made you wonder when he even slept.

And most of it was training.

Food. Training. Sleep.

Those three things were the entirety of Dohyeong.

And it’s not as if he lacks talent, either.

The fact that he had already awakened his Moon Eye at that age and entered the Lesser Moon Unit meant his talent was already exceptional.

Even Yucheon Gil acknowledged it.

Talent comparable to the Seven Rising Stars.

Perhaps even equal to them.

Dohyeong’s talent was worth that much.

So—

it isn’t strange that he turned out like this.

CLANG—!!!

With another sharp blast of sound, Cheon Hyein’s sword was flung upward again.

Her upper body opened.

Dohyeong saw it and instantly brought his sword down.

SLAAASH—!!

“Huh—!”

“Ghk—!”

Blood flew.

Everyone gasped at the sight.

A fatal wound?

No.

It was not that.

Even in that moment, Cheon Hyein twisted her upper body and avoided the blade.

At the same time—

—slice!

—as she spun, she lashed out and left a similar wound across Dohyeong’s body.

Distance opened between the two.

Drip. Drip.

Blood ran from both of their martial uniforms.

In the brief lull where the heat of the match ebbed for a moment, Cheon Hyein smoothed back her sweat-soaked hair and asked,

“You’re strong.”

“...”

“Really strong.”

Her tone made it clear she meant it.

“I didn’t know you had changed this much. It’s impressive.”

“Thank you.”

Dohyeong simply nodded at the praise.

Flick.

He lightly snapped his sword once.

There was no blood left on it.

“But.”

Clenching her sword hard, Cheon Hyein asked,

“What is that sword?”

“...”

“It looks like a sword of the Azure Moon Sect, but it’s different somehow.”

So she had noticed it too.

The same incongruity I was feeling.

“It can’t be something you modified yourself. Then perhaps that man—no, like Unit Member Bang, was it given to you by the Sword Saint?”

That man?

I found the way she referred to me a little irritating, but I let it go for now.

“No.”

Meaning it was not a sword from the Sword Saint.

That made sense.

It doesn’t feel like that old man’s sword.

That was a rough way to put it, but to me the sensation was different.

“...Then that sword—”

Just as Cheon Hyein was about to ask in puzzlement—

[Continue.]

“...!”

“...”

A heavy voice crushed down across the martial platform.

It was Moon Immortal Sword.

He had cut in and warned them.

[This is not a place for conversation, is it?]

At the sight of him resting his chin on his hand and speaking in that calm tone, everyone in the arena stiffened.

...Damn.

A chill ran up my back.

Just hearing his voice was enough.

“...”

It even felt as though he had interrupted on purpose.

What is it?

Is there something in Dohyeong’s sword?

The thought flashed across my mind, but—

Click.

As if to show he would obey Moon Immortal Sword’s words, Dohyeong gripped his sword again.

Cheon Hyein raised hers as well.

The bout was about to continue—

BWOOOOOONG—!!!

Hm?

Dohyeong’s guardian spirit started convulsing even more violently than before.

What was that?

Why was it acting like that?

It was suddenly vibrating like mad, and I felt that something was wrong.

Then—

“...”

“...Hm?”

Cheon Hyein frowned at Dohyeong’s behavior.

Because he had suddenly lowered his sword.

“What are you—”

“I lost.”

“What?”

At Dohyeong’s words, Cheon Hyein’s eyes widened.

“What did you just say?”

She asked as though she thought she had heard him wrong, but—

“I lost this bout.”

Dohyeong gave the same answer.

And because of that, the surroundings froze in an instant.

Then—

“What kind of insane nonsense is that?”

Cheon Hyein spat out the words harshly.

It was the moment her mask shattered completely.