The One-Branch Gathering flowed without incident.Cheonju and Cheonhwa surged upward like a breaking wave.Cheonjeong and Cheon Soyak likewise met no particular heavy opposition.At this rate, it would end with two Third Generation from the Sect Leader’s line fighting two Third Generation from Elder Jeonggang’s line.The matchup everyone found most interesting.Somewhere atop some peak, Elder Jeonggang was likely watching this scene as well.Because it would amuse him.But not Sect Leader Jeongyang.Damn that senior brother.He had always lived one step behind Elder Jeonggang.For sixty years now.“...Are the preparations in place?”Jeongyang’s low voice seethed.Only Myungjeok, standing right beside him, could hear it.Plum Blossom Sword Lord Myungjeok quietly stepped closer and answered.“Do not worry.”“Good... I hear Hair-Cutting and Marrow-Washing was done again at dawn.”“Perhaps for that reason, both of them are drawing up and settling their inner power without the slightest hitch.”“I saw.”And yet he was uneasy.Was something so paltry enough?Hair-Cutting and Marrow-Washing does not bestow enlightenment.It merely makes a body that can stockpile greater inner power with greater ease.Even that alone was a benefit others could not even dream of…All the same, Jeongyang clenched his fist.Because he had seen it.That one move, so infinitely rarefied.“...She made a plum blossom bloom with the first move of the Sprouting Flower Sword.”“I saw.”“And those Black Plum Blossoms… even I have never seen such a thing.”Plum blossoms so red they seemed black.Mount Hua’s pride was the red plum blossom, and red plums bloomed upon the blade tip as well.Even Eunsong, called the White Plum Scholar, did not truly make a pure white plum blossom bloom.Yet now, plum blossoms black-red.“I did not even know such a thing existed…”“Dig it up.”The Sprouting Flower Sword is the Sprouting Flower Sword.But that child has been in Mount Hua barely a month.Even before entering, she was a master standing at the threshold of Apex.Which means…She cultivated something other than Mount Hua’s core inner art.Something other than the Primordial Clear-Heart Method.“It must be a different inner art.”“Would there be any use in finding out?”“Yes. There is.”For reasons unknown…Those black-red plum blossoms pressed Cheongyu’s Sprouting Flower Sword down with overwhelming force.Some might say it was merely a difference in realm.But to Jeongyang, who had reached the Transformation Realm, it was clear.A counter.It was not simple domination by a gap in inner power or skill.Those black-red plum blossoms possessed an “advantage” over Mount Hua’s martial arts.The principle and mechanism were unknown, but the fact was certain.“...As you command.”Myungjeok bowed his head.But Jeongyang did not smile in satisfaction as he had before.He merely bit his lip in unease. ****The sun set.The One-Branch Gathering is not held at night.The representatives of the gathered merchant houses retired to the guest rooms that had been prepared.The Third-Generation Hall was… quiet.Soyak leaned by the window and looked up at the moon in the night sky.Not a single cloud hung over the heavens spread above the empty Training Ground.Only a full moon shone pallidly.Just then, two shadows appeared on the Training Ground.Cheonju and Cheonhwa.Judging by the way their drawn swords were leveled at each other, they meant to have a practice spar.Soyak rested her chin on the windowsill and watched in silence.Gauging an opponent’s full strength is useful.She herself would be fine no matter what, but for Cheonjeong, such knowledge was precious.But…From the tips of their blades, killing intent could be felt.“...Killing intent?”A prickling sting like needles dinking at the skin.It was unmistakably killing intent.If she could feel it even from here, it meant they were not reining it in.Or else that their murderous will was so intense they could not control it.Soyak quietly knit her brows.At once, Cheonhwa rushed first at Cheonju.It was neither a form from the Sprouting Flower Sword nor a form from the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword.Just crude, heedless slashing.A primitive play of the blade no one would believe from a disciple of Mount Hua.Cheonju blocked it unhurriedly, but Cheonhwa did not stop.She only thrust and hacked harder, rougher.She seemed to be saying something, but the words did not carry.Yet the killing intent only swelled and swelled.To the point she could not leave it be.Soyak slipped through the window and dropped out.Her small, slender body settled onto the dirt of midnight without a sound.Sparring within the Third-Generation Hall is for fellowship.Killing intent of that level is, of course, not permitted.If this keeps up and someone gets hurt…Head Senior will be the one scolded.Soyak did not want that.She roused the black qilin curled in her lower dantian.Inner power suffused her slender frame.Naturally, it radiated an overwhelming presence.“...You were watching?”Cheonhwa looked this way.So did Cheonju.Soyak quietly gathered her qi, then offered the fist-salute first.“I greet senior brother and senior sister.”“No, that’s not the point. I asked if you were watching.”“...Yes. I was.”“Ha. Senior brother Cheonju. Look at her. She admits she was peeking, bold as you please, doesn’t she?”Soyak lowered her fists and tilted her head.Then she narrowed her eyes and slowly shook her head.“You were in the middle of the Training Ground.”“And?”“Who ‘peeks’ at the center of the Training Ground?”Cheonhwa pressed her lips tight.Because she had nothing to say.Cheonju stepped forward in her stead.“What you say is reasonable. But even so, junior sister, do you have any reason to stick your nose between us?”“I do.”Cheon Soyak lowered her lashes prettily.But her tone was firm.“Because the two of you were letting killing intent spill in the very middle of the Third-Generation Hall’s Training Ground.”“Killing intent…”Cheonju glanced at Cheonhwa.It was true.Cheonhwa’s eyes were boiling like fire.“Senior sister Cheonhwa, why are you so angry?”“Because you were peeking—”“I mean a reason worthy of spilling killing intent.”Cheonhwa clamped her mouth shut.Cheonju as well.“You need not concern yourself. I’ll look after Cheonhwa.”“...No? I want to speak.”“Cheonhwa.”“I’m not saying I’ll say everything. I want to ask her something too.”The conversation slid sideways.Soyak cocked her head.She meant to ask Soyak something…“What would you ask?”“You.”“...Yes, senior sister.”“If you were given a powerful strength in exchange for suffering hideous pain day after day, what would you do?”A brief silence passed.Cheon Soyak thought quietly, then spoke.“How much strength, and how much pain?”“Pain like your bones and flesh being torn apart from each other. In return, a strength that can defeat anything.”“Anything…”She sank into thought.Anything.Those three syllables were sweet beyond measure.A strength that could win her vengeance right now.A strength that could place what she wanted into her hands.A strength that could unbind the injustice that made her parents appear in dreams.A strength that could unwind her own fate, tangled into something horrific.“...Could I become stronger than the Alliance Leader?”“What?”Cheonhwa’s eyes went round.The Alliance Leader.She must mean the Sword Sovereign, Namgung Ak.Head of the Namgung Clan, the man who perfected the Sovereign Sword Form and bears the Heaven-Forged Body.The very one who severed the Heavenly Demon’s neck.“Isn’t that a bit too greedy? That’s not what I meant. Mind your conscience, you.”“Ah…”A flicker of disappointment crossed Soyak’s eyes.Cheonhwa might have missed it, but Cheonju did not.And deep within, he was aghast....Is that truly what she’s aiming for?The Alliance Leader, the Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak.He is not someone one sets as a goal.He was the captain of the death squad that halted the demonic upheaval fifty years ago, and he is the lord of the martial world.An overwhelmingly supreme being none can compare to.There are even rumors that he reached a realm no one else has ever set foot in…That is the Sword Sovereign.“In that case, I have no interest.”“...Ha.”“Does that answer suffice?”Cheonhwa let out a mirthless laugh.She had asked what that child would do in the same circumstance as herself.The answer was, “If it cannot topple the Alliance Leader, it is meaningless.”Paradoxically, that answer was “meaningless” to Cheonhwa.Because her aim was not something as absurd and far-off as toppling the Alliance Leader.In the end, she had not received an answer to her question.Was it worth enduring this pain to receive Hair-Cutting and Marrow-Washing every day and be fitted with the makings of a prodigy…Cheonhwa shot Cheonju a glare.The reason the two of them were fighting was that their views on this very question differed.“Cheonhwa. Let’s go back.”“No, senior brother. Do you truly want to go back?”“What other road is there for us?”“...We can just leave the sect and return to lay life. I’m saying we drop it all.”Listening, Soyak lifted an eyebrow.Within Mount Hua, to scheme for a way to throw Mount Hua away.“Shut your mouth, Cheonhwa. Watch your tongue.”“Watch my—what. This damned One-Branch whatever, I ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) never even wanted to be a martial artist in the first—”Cheonju clapped a hand over Cheonhwa’s mouth.She thrashed, but it was useless.Partly because Cheonju’s realm stood a step higher…But more than that, a martial artist who ceded the initiative is seldom given a chance to counter.“MMF! MMF-MMF!”“Soyak. Have a good night. Forget all this.”Soyak blinked and nodded, and Cheonju dragged Cheonhwa off into the dark.

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