The broken sword.
In its place, he grasped the heavens and forged them into a blade.
Namgung Jincheon's sword was aimed at Je Cheon-hyeok.
Je Cheon-hyeok regarded him. He was teetering on the edge of collapse.
Behind him lay the unconscious Namgung Yeon. The surroundings were in utter disarray, save for the untouched space around her, a stark contrast that felt unsettling.
"Is protecting just one blood relative so important to you?"
"They are my family. Of course, it is important."
"I don’t understand. You don’t seem like the type to be bound by something as trivial as blood relations."
"I am not that kind of man. I am merely a fool who still cannot let go of his sword… a cowardly mortal."
Namgung Jincheon swung his blade. Despite standing on the brink of death, his swordsmanship was sharp enough to send chills down the spine.
Whoosh!
Je Cheon-hyeok leaned back to dodge and thrust his front foot forward, his fist igniting in white flames.
Pa Cheon (Heaven’s Rupture).
Je Cheon-hyeok's domain was not one of overwhelming power or extraordinary ability. It merely allowed him to observe his opponent in greater detail.
The so-called annihilation of existence attributed to him was merely the manifestation of the strength imbued in his fists.
But his domain allowed him to see through his opponent—every movement, every condition, even the actions that would follow.
"He’s clearly at death’s door."
Within his domain, Je Cheon-hyeok observed Namgung Jincheon. His life force was fading fast, and his movements lacked their former vigor.
"And yet… what is this feeling?"
A strange sense of danger washed over him, and Je Cheon-hyeok instinctively retreated.
Slash—!
The space before him tore open, revealing a gaping black void. Sensing the peril, Je Cheon-hyeok leaped back, striking the air with his fist.
Thud, thud, bang!
The shockwaves rattled Namgung Jincheon's body. From the gaping hole in his chest, blood poured endlessly.
Je Cheon-hyeok’s fist wasn’t just striking; it was eroding Namgung Jincheon's very existence.
Yet Namgung Jincheon continued to smile faintly.
"I no longer wish to live with regrets… The pain of loss is unbearable."
***
Namgung Jincheon had first been captivated by the taste of a rural girl’s cooking.
No matter what he ate, he could never forget that flavor.
Even after leaving her village, his steps invariably brought him back after just a few days.
One year, two years, three years passed like that.
There were no dramatic moments. She simply seeped into his heart over time.
And then, one day, Namgung Jincheon realized he could no longer live without her.
When he proposed, she was overjoyed. She and her family joined him in the Namgung Clan, and they began their life together as newlyweds.
The trouble began after the birth of their first child, Sua.
As a mother, she spoke with a more mature tone.
"It’s fine. I’ve always been a bit frail."
"Nothing is more important than your health. Forget everything else and focus on getting better."
But as soon as her health improved slightly, she busied herself with household duties.
Even in the Namgung Clan, whispers inevitably followed a rural woman with no noble lineage taking the position of matriarch.
Though no one dared voice their complaints to her directly, she was perceptive enough to notice the undercurrents.
Determined to support her husband and their newborn child, she pushed herself despite her frail body.
Namgung Jincheon did not stop her. He was foolishly happy just to see her lively.
He had been naïve. Utterly foolish. Even now, he loathed the man he had been.
If he loved her cheerful demeanor, he should have done everything in his power to preserve it.
He should have silenced anyone in the clan who dared make her uneasy.
But he was a man who had spent his life wielding a sword, and he had been terribly immature and thoughtless.
No matter how many times he strangled his past self in his dreams, he couldn’t turn back time.
Blinded by the intense emotion of love, he had never considered the possibility of an unhappy future.
When she reassured him with a smile that she was fine, he had foolishly believed her.
The birth of their second child, Myeong, brought catastrophe.
"You’re far too kindhearted. What will you do without me?"
Though she seemed to have recovered, childbirth had ravaged her body.
Her longstanding illness worsened, and her failing strength could no longer fight it off.
Even bedridden, she worried more about her clumsy husband than herself.
"If I’m not here one day, think of my sword as me. I’ll always be by your side, even if only through the blade."
"Don’t say such things. Nothing will happen to you."
He denied it.
But the logic ingrained in his mastery of martial arts screamed otherwise.
It was already too late.
The sword he had honed to protect her had failed. It could only take lives, not save them.
He had poured himself into swordsmanship too late, his inadequate talent failing to reverse the inevitable.
"Don’t be too sad, my dear. I’ll get better soon. We promised to take Sua and Myeong on a picnic, remember?"
Until her dying breath, she comforted him.
"My love… I… I can’t breathe…."
In her final moments, she wept, clinging to him with trembling hands.
She begged to live. To stay with him just a little longer.
And Namgung Jincheon could do nothing for her.
He understood with cruel clarity:
His mistakes had killed her.
He had killed her.
The wretched murderer wept shamelessly before the woman he had slain.
"I regret it. Over and over…."
He had lost his other half. The void in his heart remained unfilled.
Driven by lingering regrets, he had taken up his sword again, but time could not be undone.
"Now that the children have found their own paths, there’s no need for me to cling to this wretched life…."
The grasped heavens scattered. He no longer had the strength to maintain his domain.
His wife’s broken sword sank into the desert sands.
Namgung Jincheon gazed at Je Cheon-hyeok with dimming eyes.
Boom!
A faint explosion echoed in the distance. Namgung Jincheon’s lips curled into a faint smile.
"My son-in-law, perhaps…"
The man who had found his other half after much wandering, so similar to his wife.
He didn’t want his daughter to endure the same pain he had.
"Well then."
Je Cheon-hyeok grew anxious. He had to kill Namgung Jincheon before reinforcements from the orthodox factions arrived.
"How have they arrived so soon…?"
No matter how intense the aftermath of the battle, they should have been far from orthodox territory.
There was no time to ponder.
Je Cheon-hyeok clenched his fist tightly.
Namgung Jincheon raised his trembling hand. It was empty, yet he grasped the air as if holding a sword.
"My final blade… my son-in-law…"
Even if his sword had never found its purpose, as long as it could help his son-in-law, that was enough.
With his heart finally lightened, he let go of regret. In the distance, whether an illusion or something that had waited for him all along, his wife’s form extended a hand toward him.
Namgung Jincheon smiled as he reached out.
Step by step, the closer he came to death, the clearer her image became.
"In a martial world without you, no flowers bloom…"
Je Cheon-hyeok’s eyes widened. A suffocating pressure gripped his chest. He immediately launched his fist.
Thwack!
Namgung Jincheon’s remaining arm shattered. Yet the chilling sensation remained undiminished.
His domain continued to forewarn of death.
"What… what is this!?"
Je Cheon-hyeok struck again, this time aiming to obliterate Namgung Jincheon entirely.
But his strength failed him. He had already been cut. He hadn’t even noticed.
Hwaaaaa!
The Living Sword.
The final sword of the greatest martial artist under the heavens.
It was meant to be a blade that saved, yet even in its final moments, it only knew how to kill.
"Ha…"
Je Cheon-hyeok looked to the sky. The battlefield, ruined by the clash of transcendents, began to restore itself.
Not through the natural order, but through a miracle achieved by one man.
"The Heavenly Sword Sovereign… the Sword Saint…"
With those words, Je Cheon-hyeok’s body collapsed into the desert sands.
Around his lifeless form, flowers bloomed.
The once rain-soaked sky cleared into brilliant blue, and the desolate desert was adorned with vibrant blossoms.
"Father-in-law…!"
Namgung Jincheon could no longer see. Yet he smiled faintly at the familiar voice.
"My son-in-law…"
"This… no… how could this…!"
"It’s a pity I won’t see the engagement ceremony…"
Namgung Jincheon shook his head as the overwhelming natural energy poured forth from his son-in-law.
"Don’t… don’t do that. It’s my time to move forward now."
"Moving forward starts with living!"
"No… my path does not lie here."
His darkening vision gave way to a deeper, more shadowed path that stretched endlessly.
"My son-in-law…"
"…Yes?"
"Be careful… it’s not over yet…"
Namgung Jincheon straightened his back with a faint smile. The wind carried his final breath, and his sword sang one last time.
"Still, I trust you will succeed…"
With those words, Namgung Jincheon’s consciousness faded into the abyss.
At the end of the endless passage, his wife waved gently.
"I’m sorry I took so long."
Namgung Jincheon smiled as he took a step forward.
A god freed from its mortal vessel began its journey to the underworld.
The brightest star of the orthodox factions had fallen.
*
[Namgung Jincheon, hear the decree…!]
*
"Father-in-law…"
Seo-jun gazed at the flowers blooming in the desert. He saw the unconscious Namgung Yeon and Namgung Jincheon, standing firm in death.
Loss.
Something he had always known yet deliberately ignored.
The image of his dying father pierced by a sword overlapped with Namgung Jincheon, standing motionless.
A ripple spread through his chest, the emotions he had long suppressed crashing down mercilessly.
The moment Seo-jun faced his buried emotions, his divine nature transcended its limits.
"Urgh…"
From the Gilyeon Sect Master’s corpse, a straw doll crawled out.
"To think I survived…"
When Namgung Jincheon had sensed the transference of the soul, he had assumed death was certain, yet the sect master had endured.
"Fortune favors me."
The straw doll twisted and shifted into a human form.
Hyeok Mun-yak, the Gilyeon Sect Master, gazed at Namgung Jincheon’s lifeless body with gleaming eyes.
"We meet again."
He spoke to Seo-jun.
"Take the unconscious Namgung scion and leave. If you go quietly, I will not stop you."
Seo-jun looked at him with crimson eyes.
Without a word, his domain unfurled, covering the entire area.