The World's Greatest is Dead

It lets you see what had been invisible.

And it lets you see what cannot be seen.

Not only does it allow you to predict your opponent’s sword path, it lets the blue moonlight itself show you the way.

A divine pill said to be consumable only by the Azure Moon Sect Leader.

That was the very thing I had eaten the first time I entered Yoo Cheongil’s vault.

Yoo Cheongil had said to me once,

“It’ll feel like you’re having it ahead of time.”

That was what he said.

That since I was going to become Sect Leader someday anyway, I could just think of it as eating it a little early.

...Originally—

it was a divine pill Moon Immortal Sword should have taken, and he had said he never could.

Which meant—

Did he send me there on purpose?

The thought flashed through my head.

The shelves in the repository. It was only after staring at them with Moon Eye activated that I understood. This was a place you could only properly see by using Moon Eye.

“...Ha.”

A dry breath slipped out of me.

The shelves were not large. Books sat in them by the dozens, with empty gaps here and there. At a glance they looked old, dusty, and unimpressive.

But—

It’s on them.

I could see blue energy seeping into a handful of the books, making them glow faintly.

I reached out and pulled out only the books giving off blue light, one by one, in order.

I set them on the floor and opened every last one.

As I examined them, it did not take long before I found it.

They have something in common.

There was a common pattern in the lines explaining the sword paths.

And more than that—

So this is why they’re glowing blue.

The lines themselves were blue. The energy was not wrapped around the books. It was wrapped around the letters.

What doesn’t seem to connect...

meant I was supposed to do something with this blue text.

So I laid them out in order and checked them.

They still did not connect.

Right. It was not going to be that simple.

In that case—

There aren’t any titles on the books, either.

So there was no way to find it by title.

That meant I had to try something more complicated.

I tried several more methods, but none of them stood out.

So I kept at it.

Last one.

By the time I had burned through almost every possibility I could think of, what I finally chose was simple.

The density of the energy.

I measured the density clinging to the blue lines, from the faintest to the deepest.

And when I arranged the writing ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) that way—

Found it.

That was the answer.

Ha.

Even this was hidden in the energy?

Unbelievable.

A laugh slipped out of me.

There were not that many letters, but neither were there so few books that anyone could stumble into the answer by luck.

Without Moon Eye, there was no way to know.

And on top of that—

It’s not even something I can copy down.

I could not write out what was inside, either.

Maybe I could have if I had truly become Sect Leader and could enter freely. But in my current state, that was impossible.

Of course—

Then I’ll just memorize it.

That was not a problem for me.

I memorized the connected lines one by one.

The shape of the form began to settle into my head.

My fingers twitched on their own, as if telling me to swing it right now.

This was a new feeling.

Even though I haven’t seen the sword path itself.

Yet it was taking shape in my head on its own, and I had the overwhelming urge to wield it immediately.

Heat began to creep through my body. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

It felt like my whole brain was going numb.

Clack.

“...!”

I flinched.

I heard the sound of a sword being drawn.

Startled, I checked my waist—but I had not brought the Divine Sword with me.

Which meant I had mistaken it for drawing one.

Only after realizing that did the heat rising through me begin to subside.

“Hoo...”

I steadied my breathing.

“How strange.”

Once I had memorized everything, I returned the books to their original places.

It was certain now.

You can only see its true nature if you look at it with Moon Eye.

This sword path was bestowed only upon the Sect Leader.

Which made me think of Moon Immortal Sword even more.

This old man.

No matter how I looked at it—

Did he think I’d be able to see it?

When he told me to see what I wanted to see.

When he told me to do whatever I wanted to do.

It all started to feel like he had already assumed I had awakened Moon Eye and would be able to obtain the sword path from that shelf.

...If that’s true, that’s creepy.

How much would he have to know to make a choice like that?

To begin with...

Did he think I was going to win the Azure Wolf Festival?

Only the winner of the Azure Wolf Festival was granted this.

Which meant Moon Immortal Sword had been certain from the start that I would defeat Silver Moon Sword.

“Ha...”

I let out a laugh, but my eyes did not smile.

“What a difficult old man.”

I had felt it before, but setting aside the fact that Moon Immortal Sword was impossible to read, he really was a difficult man.

Yes. Difficult.

That was the perfect word for him.

Complicated. Difficult. Suffocating, in some strange way.

“...”

I finished putting the books in order and turned around.

There was nothing more for me to gain here.

My fingers were still twitching.

Feeling that, I opened the repository door and stepped outside.

*****

There was no one outside the repository.

Only the dark cave waiting for me, and when I looked up, I had to widen my eyes.

“It’s already night?”

An entire day had slipped by.

Damn, how long had I been in there?

I had not thought I could possibly have stayed that long.

This is insane.

I must have focused harder and longer than I realized.

So much time had passed, and I had not even noticed.

I awkwardly scratched the back of my head and headed for the Sect Leader’s office.

“So you’re back.”

The moment I arrived, Moon Immortal Sword looked at me.

Just as when I had first come, he was still staring at a mountain of piled documents.

“Yes. I’m back.”

“Good.”

“...”

The conversation went no further.

What was this?

I sat there in the strange silence for a moment, then asked him,

“Aren’t you going to ask me anything...?”

At my question, the hand holding the document stilled.

Then he looked back at me.

“What should I ask?”

“What I saw in there. What I gained. Something like that.”

“What did you see, and what did you gain.”

“...”

This was ridiculous. Like I was practically begging him to interrogate me.

“...I looked through the books in the repository and came back after finding a form.”

“Did you gain something worthwhile?”

“Yes. I gained something worthwhile.”

When I answered honestly, Moon Immortal Sword gave a faint nod.

“Could you see it?”

“...”

The question slid in cold as a blade.

There was no way I could fail to understand what he meant.

So—

“Yes. I could.”

I gave him a truthful answer.

“...”

“...”

Moon Immortal Sword’s eyes widened, just a fraction.

Apparently he had not expected me to answer so honestly.

After seeing that reaction, I glanced around.

“Sect Leader.”

“...What is it?”

“I’m going to borrow that.”

“...?”

I pointed to one of the blank books lying nearby.

Was there ink nearby too?

There was. Right beside it.

I opened the empty book and began writing down the lines with ink.

It did not take long.

I wrote without hesitation, and when the flowing strokes had filled roughly two-thirds of the book—

“I’ll leave this with you.”

“What have you done?”

“The sword form I obtained from there.”

“...Hm?”

“It felt a little cheap to just keep it for myself.”

I held it out to Moon Immortal Sword.

“To call it mine would be wrong. Not yet. I still don’t have the right to it. You know that too, don’t you?”

“...”

“I’m curious why you let me in even knowing that, but I won’t ask. You don’t ask either, after all.”

“Ha.”

At my words, Moon Immortal Sword laughed.

Oh.

This old man had been laughing a lot lately.

It was clumsy, but it was definitely a smile.

“...I see.”

Moon Immortal Sword took the book.

“It is late. Go and get some rest.”

“Yes. Understood.”

I bowed and turned away.

Then I left the Sect Leader’s office.

*****

“...”

Left alone, Cheon Seonghwa looked down at the book he had been handed.

The ink was not yet fully dry, and the handwriting was clean.

He looked silently at the first page.

A sword path.

The sword path Bang Seongyeon had brought out of that place.

A sword currently lost to the sect.

Perhaps the Sword Saint had used it, but Cheon Seonghwa himself did not know it.

And it was also the very sword the elders of the Azure Moon Sect had been desperate to recover.

“...”

The true sword of the Azure Moon Sect, passed down only to the Sect Leader.

As he looked at it, Moon Immortal Sword remembered what Bang Seongyeon had said.

To call it mine would be wrong. Not yet. I still don’t have the right to it.

Moon Immortal Sword leaned back in his chair.

Did the boy know what value this held?

No.

He did not think those words had been spoken by someone who understood that.

Or perhaps...

Even if he did know,

his answer might not have changed.

There had been not even the slightest trace of desire in that gaze.

Only emptiness. Detachment.

A look that expected nothing.

As if—

Those eyes, so much like the Sword Saint’s, remained lodged crookedly inside Moon Immortal Sword’s thoughts.

He resembles him.

He had felt it from the moment he first saw him.

Their appearance and temperaments were completely different, yet those eyes were the same, and that was what had drawn his attention.

It isn’t his?

As Moon Immortal Sword recalled those words, his grip tightened on the book.

Fwoosh—!!!!

Inner qi ignited through friction and set the book ablaze.

The sword form Bang Seongyeon had handed him burned away in the empty air.

“What a ridiculous thing to say.”

His eyes slowly began to glow in the darkness.

“That is something meant for me.”

Unworthy. Not mine.

Those were not words Bang Seongyeon should have spoken.

They were words he should have spoken himself.

“So you got me.”

He had not said it knowing what it meant, but that detached remark had been enough to strike Moon Immortal Sword squarely in the head.

Creeeak.

He rose to his feet.

Even after burning the form the boy had only just obtained, Moon Immortal Sword’s heart remained calm.

He took up his sword.

The moon was out tonight.

For the first time in a long while, he wanted to swing it.

“How amusing.”

An interesting child.

Moon Immortal Sword thought of Bang Seongyeon.

And with that thought, he hoped—

“Come quickly.”

May the sword that child would one day draw reach him as soon as possible.

With madness flickering in his otherwise flat eyes,

Moon Immortal Sword thought exactly that.

*****

I lay down on the bed.

A soft ceiling spread above me.

My hands were still trembling, but I did not bother going to the training ground.

No matter how badly I wanted to.

...I’m so damn tired.

Maybe it was because I had kept Moon Eye active for so long, but my eyes hurt like hell.

It felt like they were about to pop right out.

The exhaustion was so extreme there was no way I could go to the training ground in that state.

That was a little disappointing.

But it could not be helped.

Still, it’s fine.

That was fine.

The training ground was not the only place to swing a sword.

“...Hoo.”

I let out a breath.

My eyes still hurt, and the backlash that had not fully healed was still lodged in my body.

If I swung a sword in the real world right now, it would probably only make things worse.

...Then I’ll use another method.

There was one method I could use at times like this.

I closed my eyes.

The strength slowly drained from my body.

My consciousness gradually unraveled.

“...”

And when I opened my eyes again—

“Ah, damn it.”

I was inside the dream-vision.

At this point, the feeling alone was enough to make curses come out.

I clicked my tongue and looked ahead.

A place I had seen so many times it was now familiar.

The rows of corpses.

The moon hanging overhead.

The rock.

And atop it, Yoo Cheongil.

I looked at the young Yoo Cheongil as he tilted his head at me.

Then I drew my sword.

...Right.

If I wanted to swing a sword, there was a place where I could do it to my heart’s content.

Today too, let’s see which one of us dies first.

A hundred battles, a hundred defeats.

A thousand battles, a thousand defeats.

A miserable win rate, but that did not matter.

Right now—

I’m learning the form.

During this endless night,

I would master the form I had obtained in the repository.

That was the only purpose of this fight.