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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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Peng Ha-ryeong focused her internal energy on the acupoints around her eyes, her gaze fixed on the man before her.
Namgung-Woo had granted her request.
He stood in a natural stance, a sword in hand.
‘His aura is completely different.’
Before and after drawing his sword, he was like a different person.
The pressure emanating from him was suffocating.
She could feel the weight of a master’s aura, restricting her movements.
Like the infrasound of a tiger’s roar, a master’s aura could crush an opponent’s spirit.
‘He’s serious… He’s really taking this seriously.’
There was no hint of condescension in his demeanor, no trace of him holding back because she was a woman or of lesser skill.
And that made her feel ashamed.
‘Compared to him… I’m… I’m a disgrace to martial artists.’
She’d asked for this spar because she didn’t know how else to approach him.
It was a flimsy excuse, a desperate attempt to connect with him.
Truthfully, she found him intimidating.
Calling him “Benefactor” was her way of bridging the distance, a small act of courage.
With others, she wouldn’t have needed to make the first move.
Her status and beauty usually ensured that others would flock to her.
But it wasn’t that she lacked social skills. She simply preferred her own company.
Being born into a martial arts family gave girls a certain freedom. If they had talent, they were trained alongside the boys.
With enough skill, even a woman could become the family head.
So, most girls from martial arts families were outgoing, socializing with people from all walks of life.
But she was different.
She had something more important than socializing and building connections.
Peng Ye-ryeong.
Her younger sister, the family’s precious youngest daughter, born late in their parents’ lives.
Her sister was burdened with a frail constitution.
She stayed by her sister’s side, keeping her company and telling her stories.
She’d even practiced her martial arts in front of Ye-ryeong, wanting to spend as much time with her as possible.
As soon as she’d reached the Peak Realm, she’d volunteered for the family’s defense force, the one tasked with sealing Ghost Gates, so she could protect her sister.
She hadn’t had time for friends.
That’s why, despite her beauty and skill, she hadn’t earned a place among the Seven Phoenixes of the Martial World.
But she hadn’t regretted it.
Until now.
‘I should have listened to Mother…!’
Her mother had encouraged her to go out and make friends.
She hadn’t realized how wise that advice was.
Still, she didn’t regret her choices.
Even if she could go back, she’d probably do the same.
But seeing Namgung-Woo’s seriousness, his unwavering focus on this spar, she felt ashamed of her own frivolous motives.
“I apologize, Fellow Martial Artist. I didn’t take this seriously. I’ll give it my all.”
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What was this sudden change?
Namgung-Woo watched Peng Ha-ryeong’s sudden burst of intensity with puzzled curiosity.
He’d assumed a natural stance to allow her to attack freely, acknowledging the difference in their skill levels.
It was meant to be more of a guided practice than a true spar.
But her fierce gaze suggested she’d interpreted his relaxed posture as a challenge.
Should he clarify his intentions?
Explain that he wasn’t looking down on her, that he was simply trying to give her a chance to showcase her skills?
It seemed pointless.
He didn’t bother explaining.
Instead, he simply said,
“Don’t hold back. Give me everything you’ve got.”
“…Alright!”
She kicked off the ground.
The Infinite Void Steps, a refined version of the Peng Family’s footwork, blurred her form.
‘Illusory steps?’
While his Infinite Steps maximized explosive power through focused bursts of energy, her footwork was all about deception and misdirection.
The faint afterimages, shrouded in a subtle flow of Qi, made it difficult to distinguish reality from illusion.
Even he, with his Ever-Clear Vision, struggled to track her movements.
‘I’m still lacking experience, but this is definitely a high-level technique.’
But it was incomplete.
He could see the flaws in her execution, the subtle hesitations and imperfections.
*Thwack!*
He flicked away her incoming saber with the back of his hand, his mind still analyzing her footwork.
“Again!”
Her saber didn’t stop.
The Soul-Stealing Saber Art, her specialty, wasn’t about one single decisive strike.
Its power lay in its relentless, suffocating chain attacks.
*Clang! Thwack!*
Two exchanges in the blink of an eye.
The Soul-Stealing Saber Art wasn’t so easily disrupted.
And her Infinite Void Steps further obscured her movements, making it difficult to predict her next attack.
‘This footwork… it’s designed to compensate for the saber’s slower speed compared to a sword, adding unpredictable changes in direction. It would be effective even against single-strike techniques.’
The depth of a prestigious family’s martial arts was truly impressive.
Unlike the Yang brothers, whose skills were limited to their Lightning Qi cultivation technique, this spar was proving to be an educational experience.
While he effortlessly parried her attacks, expanding his knowledge, Peng Ha-ryeong poured every ounce of her strength into her saber.
Each step was filled with unwavering conviction, each swing like a blazing flame.
She unleashed the Peng Family’s techniques without hesitation.
But she couldn’t reach him.
‘He’s like the sky.’
It felt like she was swinging at the sky, her hand outstretched but never reaching.
She knew the frustration of sparring with a superior opponent.
The Peng Family, being a prominent martial arts clan, had plenty of masters.
But Namgung-Woo was different.
The Peng Family masters had felt like insurmountable cliffs.
Daunting, but not impossible.
The sky, however, was beyond reach.
You could climb a cliff.
Find a handhold, dig in your toes, and with enough perseverance, reach the top.
But the sky?
Impossible.
Even those who could tread the air hadn’t reached the end of the sky.
If they had, they would have become immortals.
Like the sky looking down upon the earth, Namgung-Woo stood there, effortlessly neutralizing her every move.
She should have felt discouraged, but instead, she felt something entirely different.
‘I’m free.’
He was vastly superior, yet he was giving her the space to express herself, to unleash her full potential.
She could fight without holding back.
She could forget her worries and anxieties, and pour everything into this moment.
In this boundless freedom, she unlocked the potential of her newly healed body.
She forgot they were sparring. She was simply immersed in the flow of martial arts.
The Heaven and Earth Infinite Void Divine Art’s True Qi circulated through her cleansed meridians.
The Qi in her saber condensed, becoming denser, more refined, weaving itself into a thin, almost invisible thread.
Saber Qi.
She’d finally achieved true materialization of Qi.
From the peak of the mountain, she could now glimpse the realm beyond.
In this moment, she ascended to a new level.
She tightened her grip on her saber.
She hadn’t even seen a fraction of his true power.
He hadn’t even used the lightning-fast swordsmanship that had cleaved the Form Snatching Wraith in two.
She couldn’t stop now.
“I’m not done yet!”
She felt a sudden surge of power, a sense of her martial arts blossoming.
She could now unleash the secret technique of the Soul-Stealing Saber Art.
Following her instinct, the Soul-Chasing Spirit-Extinguishing strike, the ultimate technique, flew towards Namgung-Woo’s vital points.
True to its name, it shifted and changed, making it impossible to predict which point it would target.
But Namgung-Woo saw through the feints and his eyes locked onto the true trajectory.
*Crack!*
A flash of lightning.
His sword became a bolt of lightning and cleaved through the illusion.
The first strike of the Thirteen Lightning Sword Techniques, the Single Branch Lightning, was a flash of speed that even her Infinite Void Steps couldn’t evade.
“Impressive.”
He wasn’t lying.
That strike had been sharp enough to force him to instinctively use the Thirteen Lightning Sword Techniques.
Was this the end?
She’d shown him everything she had.
And she’d even achieved a breakthrough mid-spar, her movements becoming more fluid and powerful.
But this was her limit, as far as he could see.
This wasn’t a game.
There were no convenient level-ups that instantly replenished her energy.
Perhaps if she’d reached the Transcendent or Spirit Harmony Realm, she could keep going.
But a small breakthrough within the Peak Realm wasn’t enough.
She’d exhausted most of her True Qi.
While the Soul-Stealing Saber Art emphasized continuous attacks, it still retained the Peng Family’s aggressive nature.
Unleashing a barrage of powerful strikes in quick succession took a toll on her meridians.
She was only able to withstand it because her smaller meridians had been cleansed.
Otherwise, she would have suffered internal injuries.
“I’m… not… finished… yet…!”
But she refused to give up.
Stubbornness?
No.
She had one last card to play.
‘It’s his power, but… it’s on my side now.’
The lightning Qi residing in her Middle Extremity acupoint.
She awakened the tiny golden dragon within, visualizing her final strike.
The Heaven-Sundering Saber Art.
One of the Peng Family’s two ultimate techniques, alongside the Heaven and Earth Infinite Void Divine Art.
It was the signature saber art of those who cultivated the Primordial Lightning Divine Art.
She could use it now.
It was a purely offensive technique, far more powerful than the Soul-Stealing Saber Art.
As she gritted her teeth, drawing upon the lightning Qi, a strange sensation shot through her Middle Extremity acupoint.
“Gah!?”
A sharp cry escaped her lips.
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