“...”

I opened my eyes and lurched upright with a ragged gasp.

My back was soaked again. Swaying, I grabbed my forehead.

“Haa...”

I turned my head. Sunlight was still pouring in through the window. The chirping birds were helpfully informing me that another damned day had passed.

I stared at that for a moment, then looked elsewhere.

“Where the hell is that old man?”

I glared around with all the irritation I could muster, but strangely enough, Yoo Cheongil was nowhere to be seen.

“...He’s not here?”

I scowled hard. The end of the dream-vision came back to me. What that bastard—Yoo Cheongil at thirty—had said.

That crazy old man.

The Yoo Cheongil I’d been facing in his thirties had actually been the Yoo Cheongil I knew all along. That old man. He’d been pretending not to know me while fighting me the whole time.

And I never noticed?

Was that even possible? The fact that he’d used a spirit art subtle enough that even I hadn’t caught it was horrifying enough, but it had to be real.

How was that even possible? He might have been able to fool my eyes, but there was no way he ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) should’ve been able to fool my soul too.

Even if I’d bound part of myself and sealed it off without realizing it. Even if Yoo Cheongil himself was a general-class spirit, this was still bordering on the impossible.

And yet he’d done it.

“Ha.”

No wonder he’d been disgustingly strong. Even if it had been Yoo Cheongil at thirty, he’d felt so impossible that I’d started wondering what the hell I was even supposed to do against him.

If it was really him in person...

That explained it, at least a little.

Annoyingly enough.

The problem was—

“Where did he go?”

Yoo Cheongil was nowhere to be found. That was what pissed me off the most.

After making a mess like that, where the hell had he disappeared to? If he was going to confess anyway, he could’ve at least shown up. What was he trying to pull this time? And what had he said?

—You’re going to like this one more than anything.

“Like it?”

Like what, exactly?

Clutching my pounding head, I got to my feet.

“Ha.”

I let out a long breath. Yoo Cheongil really wasn’t there. I couldn’t see him, and I couldn’t feel him either. Which meant—

Is he inside me?

Was he back inside the dream-vision? Or was he doing something else again? Had he really gone insane?

Even for a prank, this is too much.

I honestly had no idea what to do with that lunatic old man.

And what made it even more irritating was—

“...I need to go before I forget.”

Even now, I was already on my way to the training ground because I wanted to try what I’d learned there before it slipped away.

*****

WHOOOOSH—!!!

I slashed through the air with my sword. I felt it part with a cold, clean edge.

And—

...My condition.

Still awful.

The aftermath of the tournament match hadn’t gone away yet. If I had to put it into words, it felt like the worst muscle pain imaginable. That was about the level of it.

“Hiss...”

I let out a breath through my teeth. My body felt like it was screaming, but absurdly enough, there was no real problem moving the sword.

Which was exactly why—

...Here I go.

I moved the sword clenched in my hand.

I hadn’t come to the training grounds, for the record. Too many eyes were on me right now, and considering I’d destroyed the place more than once, I needed somewhere as deserted as possible.

So here I am.

Halfway up Azure Moon Sect’s mountain, near where the spirit herb Yoo Cheongil had planted once grew.

Almost no one came here, and there was a clearing wide enough to train in comfortably.

FWOOOOSH—!!!

I swung the sword there.

Sword Aura manifested. Radiant Moon Flash Aura spilled moonlight in broad daylight.

Not yet.

CRACKLE—!!!!

I invoked Moonbolt immediately afterward. It was a prerequisite for using Great Moon.

Radiant Moon Flash Aura. Moonbolt. And the opening of Moon Eye.

I brought all of that to mind, and just as I was about to reproduce exactly what I’d learned—

At this point...

Instead of moving into Great Moon, I shifted onto a different path.

Normally, this was where Moon Wave should come out. And that was still true now, technically, but—

Rather than Moon Wave...

I lowered it.

I drew on what I’d learned from the Azure Moon Sect’s sword.

Larger than that.

Smaller than that.

That was Moonbolt’s biggest problem.

Its range and movement are too broad.

Moon Wave was a finishing strike. It took time to unfold, and it wasn’t something you could throw around lightly.

But this sword was different.

Sssht!

A fast crescent carved itself across the air.

It resembled Moon Wave, but it was much lighter, and far faster to execute. Its power might have been lower, but it looked far more fitting to call it a proper sword form.

Then the second sword.

Then the third.

Even Night Moon changed, reduced to something closer to a downward cut. I kept moving the blade. And every time I did, I felt it—everything Yoo Cheongil had taught me was absurdly similar to the sword forms I was using now.

It’s easy.

Once I saw it, it was easy.

Maybe that was because I’d already learned the heavier, stronger altered forms through Yoo Cheongil.

That was all I could think about as I kept moving the sword.

How strangely well it fit my body.

How natural it felt.

And when I swung the fifth sword—

Ssssss!!

“...”

I stopped.

The fifth sword.

I halted just before Great Moon would have unfolded. I didn’t let it rise. Instead, I lowered my gaze to my hand.

It was trembling.

If I’d kept going, would Great Moon have detonated?

Probably.

That was what the flow of energy felt like. That was what my inner qi felt like too.

I could use it.

But I didn’t.

This—

I could tell by instinct.

This isn’t for using Great Moon.

The fifth sword wasn’t meant to finish things.

There was more beyond it.

To begin with, the sword I’d learned from the repository had been seven.

More importantly—

That place.

The place I was thinking of also required seven.

Which meant it couldn’t end with Great Moon.

Ah.

The moment I reached that thought, my head cooled instantly.

I felt like I understood something.

So that’s it.

I wiped the sweat from my face. At some point, I’d been drenched.

After wiping it away, I slid the Divine Sword back to my waist.

Then I headed straight down the mountain.

My steps were hurried. I made for a deserted building.

I stepped inside and opened Moon Eye. The moment I did, the mechanism revealed itself.

I ran my hand along the wall, then sent energy into it.

Creeeak.

The floor opened.

I didn’t bother with the ladder. I dropped straight down, landed lightly, and went to the deepest point I could currently reach.

A dark underground space.

The wall in front of me.

And before it, seven sword marks.

Others might not have seen anything, but to my eyes, blue lines gleamed clearly there.

I looked at them and drew the Divine Sword.

As expected.

I didn’t know yet whether it would work. The sixth had stopped me before—would it open this time?

That thought stayed in my mind as I moved slowly.

Speed didn’t matter.

Accuracy did.

First.

The first strike had originally been Moon Wave, but this time I followed the sword path I’d developed in training.

Shhk!

The blade cut forward.

A razor-thin crescent, made as small and swift as possible, skimmed across the wall. A single blue line was etched into place.

It worked.

No problem so far.

Then the second.

Then the third.

Without increasing my speed, I sent each sword form flying in turn, stacking them across the wall.

Then the fourth.

Then the fifth.

Focus.

This was the important part.

Great Moon was force married to explosive impact. It consumed an enormous amount of inner qi, and the burst of momentum focused into a single point was stronger than it needed to be.

But—

What I mixed with the Azure Moon Sect’s sword is different.

What I had blended with the Azure Moon Sect’s sword, rather than Yoo Cheongil’s own altered sword, was something else.

Was this still Great Moon?

I’d never doubted the name.

It didn’t matter.

Sssss—

The fifth form.

Radiant Moon Flash Aura trembled, and a sound rose with it.

WUUUUUNG—!!

The sword cry rang out.

White Sword Aura mingled with the sound and gave off a small vibration.

Now.

Without letting the energy I had gathered and compressed scatter, I drew the strike exactly as it was.

FWOOOOOOSH!!

I ignored the pressure screaming at me to let it explode and cut through with it.

Terrible pressure crushed my muscles. That was the burden surging through my body as I forced it to endure.

A white flash—not Great Moon.

The moment I saw the stroke I’d drawn, I prepared the next form at once.

...Not yet.

Don’t waver.

This path wasn’t over.

The fifth wasn’t the end. It was a road.

The sword I’d once mistaken for ending with Great Moon still had two more forms after it.

That confirmed it.

That old man Yoo Cheongil...

He must have intended from the start to merge the sword he’d created with the Azure Moon Sect’s sword.

Otherwise, this result shouldn’t have been possible.

Which meant—

Don’t tell me...

When Moon Immortal Sword announced the Azure Wolf Festival, when he said the winner would gain a chance at the position of Young Sect Leader and entry into the repository...

Had Yoo Cheongil already foreseen all of this?

Was that why he’d prepared the dream-vision in advance?

So that once I obtained the sword forms, I would use the dream-vision to train and eventually reach this sword?

If he really laid all of that out ahead of time...

That was insane.

The idea that he’d anticipated all the way to this point made no sense.

And yet—

If it’s that old man...

For some reason, I could actually believe he had.

It was ridiculous.

Grinding my teeth, I drew the sixth strike.

A diagonal blow.

And then—

Seven.

The seventh and final slash.

Kkiiik!!!

I planted my feet and launched the seventh strike.

Shhk.

It was fast.

No matter how much I tried to keep it slow, it flew out and cut through the empty air.

FWAAAAAASH!!

Light burst forth in a blinding flash.

And in the silence that followed—

Thunk—creeeak!

The mechanism began to open.

“Ha.”

So I was right.

Rrrrrumble.

The door opened.

Watching it swing wide, I forced my breathing back under control. Maybe it was because I had used the forms slowly, or maybe it was something else, but I was short of breath. Clutching my heaving chest, I stepped forward.

A newly opened vault.

I didn’t hesitate even for a moment over whether to go in.

Moon Eye lit the darkness ahead. With that, I advanced as if I had nothing to fear.

The strange part was that this vault had a long passage.

“Usually, once I got past the wall, that was it.”

Why was this one so long?

Puzzled, I kept walking.

After about a quarter of a gak, I finally reached the end.

Only to find a dead end.

“What now?”

Why was the path blocked again?

I tilted my head.

Was I supposed to do something else here too?

I narrowed my eyes.

With Moon Eye, I saw a blue glow.

Huh.

That hole looked familiar.

“...”

The shape.

The rectangular size.

I’d seen something like it before.

Staring at it, I pulled something from my robe just in case.

It was the seal Moon Immortal Sword had given me.

I took it out and fitted it into the opening.

Click.

A perfect fit.

The size was exact, but the door didn’t open right away. So naturally, I sent energy into it.

The moment I did—

Creeeak!

That same familiar sound rang out, and the door began to open.

Rrrrumble.

Another door.

But unlike the spaces before, which had all been steeped in darkness, light spilled out from this one.

“Ugh?”

It was so bright that I had to squeeze my eyes shut for a moment.

A little later, when my vision adjusted enough for me to open them again—

“Huh...?”

The sight before me left me staring blankly.

Because it was nothing like what I’d expected.