Dawn was still far off.

The sun had no intention of rising yet.

Judging by the angle and motion of the stars and moon, it would be at least two more hours.

“...Not bad, White Plum Scholar.”

“You talk too much for an assassin. What are you going to do if I remember your voice?”

“I know your disciple is an expert who’s reached the Apex Realm.”

The bastard leveled his sword again.

Both their collars were already a mess.

Their skin was covered in shallow cuts.

Mount Hua’s Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword was also a martial art that prided itself on swift shifts and illusory changes.

It wasn’t something that fell short of the Assassin Organization’s Killing-Soul Sword.

“So. What changes?”

“If an Apex expert consumes an elixir like the Purple Firmament Pellet, they have to stay up the whole night.”

Eunsong narrowed his eyes.

Dragging this out favored him.

Not the other side.

So why was he...?

“Try blocking this too.”

In an instant, the bastard threw something.

Cutting it was a poor choice.

Striking it aside was also a poor choice.

In moments like this, what you had to do was—

Send it back.

HUUUP—

Eunsong inhaled and exhaled rapidly.

He concentrated his inner power into his eyes and hauled tension through his body.

To stretch a sliver of time into an eternity.

What the bastard threw was a fragile bead.

Something was filled inside it.

Poison from the Sichuan Tang Family?

Either way, he couldn’t leave it alone.

He loosened his grip on the sword by half a notch.

What he needed was Plum-Branch Grafting.

If he lightly set the flat of the tip against it...

He would twist it half a turn and return it as-is.

CHRRRING!

The sound of a bead meeting metal.

A clear sound rang out, like a jade bead rolling over a silver tray.

With every shred of focus fixed on his blade’s tip, Eunsong turned half a circle.

In the eternity stretched out from a sliver, Soyak’s small back appeared before his eyes.

His little, fragile disciple, breathing out charred-black breath.

A tender black qilin that would fulfill his dream, the soft black qilin of the Heaven-Toppling Great Work.

He had to protect her.

He had to protect her, no matter what.

In the end, Eunsong succeeded in Plum-Branch Grafting at a realm so high it felt distant.

With a half-turn, the delicate bead filled with poison flew back at the bastard.

The problem was—

The bastard was already right in front of him.

“I told you. Try blocking this too.”

It wasn’t even the Killing-Soul Sword.

A thrust that abandoned changes and poured every shred of inner power into pure speed.

A simple strike no different from the final move of the Three-Talents Sword.

Normally, he would have knocked it away.

It was a move he could knock away and still have room to spare.

But right now, his center and stance were disrupted.

The blade tip aimed for his solar plexus.

He twisted, but it was too late to evade.

A fight to the death against an expert on his level.

Of course it was a disadvantage to fight while having to protect someone.

But in that moment—

Someone knocked the Deputy Hall Lord’s sword aside.

CLANG—!!

Black hair scattering in front of his eyes.

A slender shoulder and a tender nape.

Black smoke leaking out through parted lips.

“...You were right, Master.”

It was Cheon Soyak.

She exhaled and scattered the last mouthful of black breath, then Soyak raised her inner power.

Brilliant Sword Light settled onto her blade.

Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge was a treasured sword.

And the Sword Light of someone who had reached the wall of Apex was no different from Sword Qi in density and sharp killing edge.

The Deputy Hall Lord grasped that at once and retreated ten paces.

“Hah. Incredible. I thought it would take the whole night, at least.”

“I’ve got a bit of fortune.”

Extreme-Night Full-Shadow Steps.

As his figure blurred faintly in an instant, Soyak frowned.

But if she had already perceived his presence, he could no longer hide himself.

“He’s using the Assassin Organization’s martial arts, Soyak.”

“Is he an assassin?”

“No. He seems to have deep attainment in the sword.”

Assassins don’t cultivate swordsmanship deeply.

The Killing-Soul Sword isn’t some profound, high and mighty martial art either.

It’s just an extreme-speed assassination sword that chases illusion and swiftness.

A killing sword meant to slaughter you with the other even if you avoid one.

There was no way some mysterious principle could be embedded in a sword like that.

It was a sword where it was enough to learn only its shape.

There were two reasons the Killing-Soul Sword could still contend against the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword.

Because he was originally a powerful swordsman, powerful enough to pack even a Killing-Soul Sword with his own subtleties.

It was only natural, considering he was the Deputy Hall Lord standing on the verge of bringing the Sky-Vault Unfettered Sword to completion.

And the other reason was simply that Eunsong was in the disadvantaged position of protecting a young disciple.

“If you’re awake, that’s enough. Soyak, steady yourself first and tend to your body.”

“But Master...”

“It’s fine now. I don’t have to protect you anymore, so I won’t lose to a bastard who learned half a coin’s worth of martial arts and starts screaming about evil.”

Eunsong’s momentum changed.

He wasn’t someone being driven on the defensive anymore.

Now he could fight at full strength without thinking about Soyak being dragged into it.

“Alright, then. Want to go again?”

“Seriously. You only make your speech refined when you’re in front of your disciple.”

“I told you. I only wear the hat of ‘master’ in front of my disciples.”

He lightly swung the Plum Blossom Short Sword in his hand.

Even though he didn’t take a single formal stance, crimson red-plum blossoms bloomed in a scatter all around.

This entire area was already his space.

He painted a Mount Hua where plum blossoms were in full bloom, right where he stood.

That was the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword’s true form.

The Deputy Hall Lord furrowed his brow.

This was bad.

An absolute move of divine art and peerless learning poured out at full strength by an expert on his level.

To answer it, he would have to draw out a secret art of his own.

But that was the Sky-Vault Unfettered Sword.

The life-blood secret art of the Namgung Clan, the family of the Sword Sovereign.

So famous that no one could fail to recognize it.

“...The moment I use it, I’m exposed. Then.”

The objective wasn’t to win.

He only had to be of help to his lord, clan lord Namgung Hyeong.

And if he couldn’t even do that...

At the very least, he couldn’t become dead weight.

“Tch. A failure.”

The instant Eunsong heard that, he burst forward.

When he planted a true step, the ground rumbled, and the blade tip shot out.

Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword, Second Form.

Snow Cannot Break the Plum.

The bastard retreated while swinging the Killing-Soul Sword to shove Eunsong’s blade tip aside.

But it wasn’t enough.

CRUNCH—!

The bastard’s shoulder met the blade tip and tore open.

He’d been shredded by the plum blossoms spinning violently along the sword’s edge.

Blood sprayed and dotted the ground as it fell.

But Eunsong didn’t achieve what he aimed for either.

He hadn’t killed him, and he hadn’t subdued him.

Clutching his wound, the Deputy Hall Lord threw himself off the cliff below a distant peak.

“...He got away.”

The opponent was an expert who had reached Transcendent Apex.

At that level, even their Lightness Arts would be first-rate.

He wouldn’t die or suffer grave injury just from falling off a cliff.

Eunsong swung his sword once and flicked the blood off the blade.

Then, after sheathing it, he walked to Soyak.

He crouched down to match her eye level and checked her over, as if to see whether she’d been hurt anywhere.

“Are you alright? You weren’t too startled, were you?”

“Because you warned me ahead of time, Master, I wasn’t startled.”

Eunsong’s eyes widened.

It wasn’t something you could not be startled by, just from that.

People got startled even when someone warned them and leveled a sword in front of their face.

“You can be honest.”

“...I wasn’t startled because someone came to harm me.”

“Then what startled you?”

“I was startled that you were hurt while protecting me.”

Soyak glanced at his many shallow wounds with an uneasy, apologetic look.

Eunsong snickered and shrugged.

“That’s what guarding is. If someone comes, you protect them.”

“Then later, when you need someone to guard you, Master, I’ll be the one who stands watch.”

She didn’t hesitate to repay enemies, and she didn’t forget what was due.

So repaying a debt of gratitude was the same.

Realizing Cheon Soyak’s crisp temperament, Eunsong burst into laughter.

“Good. Work hard until you become a guard who looks like they could protect me no matter who comes.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll do it, no matter what.”

Soyak clenched her small fist tight.

Eunsong gently enclosed that hand, then opened it for her.

“For now, focus on becoming strong.”

“...Yes, Master.”

“So. How strong is the Purple Firmament Pellet’s effect?”

Without a word, Soyak raised her inner power.

A vigorous black qilin’s energy ran through her entire body.

Eunsong lightly placed his hand near her forehead and examined her channels.

“...It did increase.

“A little, but definitely.”

Inner power that had been half a cycle didn’t suddenly become a full cycle.

But even shortening four or five years of hard cultivation down to one week was enough to pull ahead.

In the end, what mattered was how far you got ahead of others.

“You’ll be sparring with the Namgung young clan lord soon. Can you consolidate it all?”

“I’ve already consolidated it.”

“Good. Then there’s nothing to worry about.”

Soyak nodded and put her sword away.

She hadn’t wielded Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge for long.

But last time and now, it fit her hand as if it had been made for her.

Even that slightly slender, long blade.

“...Master.”

“Do you have something to say, Soyak?”

“In your eyes, Master, what do you think the odds are that I win against the young clan lord?”

It was a question unlike Soyak.

How should he put it...

It wasn’t killing intent.

But it was a mind that absolutely meant to win.

‘Soyak has competitiveness.’

A monster had competitiveness toward a human.

Not as simple prey, but as an opponent who might, perhaps, become an equal.

Eunsong considered quietly, then gave his answer.

“As far as I know, the Namgung young clan lord hasn’t reached the end of Apex.”

“I see.”

“So if you fight ten times, you’ll win eight.”

Eunsong’s eye was precise.

Chapter 42

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