Beholding a New Heaven
The Cheonryong Archive was a place equivalent to Shaolin's Sutra Pavilion.
It was a treasure vault containing everything from the foundational martial arts that formed the backbone of the Cheon Clan to advanced arts of higher attainment.
"You may enter freely without restriction, Young Master."
Inside, access to books differed by rank.
The area Mu-myeong intended to enter was a restricted zone that only those of the direct bloodline were permitted to access.
"Hm."
From basic martial arts to advanced techniques, the texts were neatly arranged.
Among them were martial arts Mu-myeong had practiced in the past, but he did not even spare them a glance.
Of course they wouldn't catch my eye.
Cheon Mu-ryang strode straight toward the area reserved solely for him.
Because the Cheonryong Archive housed countless books, it was filled with a musty, distinctive scent.
Yet simply breathing in that smell made him feel as though he had already mastered peerless martial arts.
"Hoo…."
There was only one problem.
Perhaps because this space was accessible only to the direct lineage, it was utterly disorganized compared to the other areas.
"Would it kill them to clean this up?"
Looking at the books stacked in complete disarray made his head spin, unsure where to begin.
"What should I start with?"
Without much thought, he pulled out a single book.
It bore such deep traces of age that it was impossible to guess when it had been written, and there was no title.
Rustle.
As Cheon Mu-ryang opened the book and slowly read through it, he began to tilt his head in confusion.
"This isn't it?"
It could hardly be called a martial arts manual.
Closing the book, Cheon Mu-ryang nodded as if it were only natural.
"Well, it wouldn't all be martial arts manuals."
As expected, there were bound to be other kinds of books mixed in.
So he pulled out another one.
That, too, could not be considered a martial arts text.
"What… is this?"
Rather, it was the life story of an ancestor—something closer to an autobiography.
All of the untitled books were written in that same style.
"..."
The books with titles were merely standard martial arts of the Cheon Clan, things that could be read even outside this place.
What he wanted were more advanced arts, yet none were to be found here.
"What in the world is going on?"
They were certainly advanced in their own way, but that alone was not why he had come here.
"Don't tell me… this is everything? No, that can't be. There has to be something more."
Hadn't Cheon Seon-hak said as much?
[When you enter the Cheonryong Archive and when you leave it, you must be different.]
He remembered those words clearly.
They clearly implied that some secret was hidden here.
"I need to find out what that secret is."
That secret must lie somewhere within these autobiography-like books.
"Right. Uncle said that even back in the past, from the very first day he entered the Cheonryong Archive, he chose his own path."
[If I had to describe that experience in words, I would call it 'opening the eyes.']
That was how Cheon Seon-hak had answered when Mu-myeong asked about the Cheonryong Archive.
Thus, Cheon Mu-ryang decided to sit down and carefully read from the very first book.
After all, he had no intention of leaving for two whole days.
"Fortunately, there's plenty of food."
Wolyeong had deliberately packed dried meat and fasting pills that wouldn't give off much odor.
[You'll need these, they said.]
It was obvious who had tipped her off.
"It must have been Uncle."
And so Cheon Mu-ryang began his thorough reading.
How much time had passed?
"Hm…."
By the time he had lost all sense of time, Cheon Mu-ryang noticed a common thread among the autobiographies.
"They're all discussing their own heavens."
Heaven was never singular.
These books contained the countless heavens each of them had seen.
"Ah…."
Heaven—cheon.
The path the Cheon Clan's sword was meant to follow.
Yet how could heaven ever be confined to one form?
Heaven was, by nature, free and unrestrained.
"So that's how it is."
By what standard could heaven be limited?
Just as the Dao cannot truly be named, heaven could not be confined by definition.
The heaven systematized into martial arts manuals was nothing more than a fragment.
"All of this… they're no different from martial arts manuals."
The books that recorded each person's heaven were, to Cheon Mu-ryang, no different from martial arts texts.
"Even Uncle's heaven…"
It, too, was only a part.
There were sunlit skies, rain-soaked heavens under pouring storms, heavens filled with thunder and lightning, skies holding stars, skies holding the moon, skies veiled by clouds.
Cheon Mu-ryang saw countless heavens.
And he wished to contain them all.
"My heaven is not just one."
They had all embraced only a single heaven, as if that alone were the limit.
But Cheon Mu-ryang wanted to surpass that.
"I must become stronger than anyone."
To do so, he would have to embrace every heaven.
Cheon Mu-ryang closed his eyes.
The space was too cramped to swing his sword.
My heaven…
Within his mind, Cheon Mu-ryang stood alone upon a barren land.
Whooong!
Heavenly radiance burst forth.
In that moment, a blue sky filled with freely flying birds spread out before his eyes.
The vast sky stretched so endlessly that its limits could not be fathomed.
[What heaven have you seen?]
The heaven asked.
Now it was Cheon Mu-ryang's turn to answer.
There was only one way—through the sword.
I will contain all heavens. A Heaven Beyond Heaven, a heaven that looks down upon even the sky itself.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-gang!
In an instant, the blue sky darkened.
With a deafening roar of thunder.
Dozens of bolts of lightning scattered in all directions, crashing down upon Cheon Mu-ryang.
[You are not qualified for that.]
Cheon Mu-ryang shook his head.
You are not the one who decides qualification. That belongs solely to me.
Who dares speak of qualification?
Who dares speak of limits?
That was a right granted to one person alone—himself.
Kwaak!
Cheon Mu-ryang swung Cheon-gwang.
Lightning split the sky.
If I choose to claim it, then I will.
It was desire.Greed.
Yet it had to be so.
Because Cheon Muryang wanted to become stronger than anyone else.
[Then I shall watch.]
The sun rose into the sky.
At the same time—impossibly—the moon rose as well.
'Ah…'
Yin and yang intertwined in harmony.
After all, both the moon and the sun must rise into the heavens.
Even if the times of their ascension differ.
Yin and yang coexist.
Fwoosh!
What was it?
The area around his dantian began to burn hot.
The nature of the internal energy Cheon Muryang cultivated began to change.
'The Cheon-Yang Divine Art…'
The Cheon-Yang Divine Art was an introductory martial art known to every warrior of the Cheon Clan.
As its name implied, it symbolized the sun.
'It's changing.'
Yet now, it embraced a sky where both moon and sun shone together.
Yin seeped into the Cheon-Yang Divine Art, which had been excessively biased toward yang, restoring balance.
Sssshhh…
The immense medicinal energy settled within Cheon Muryang's body began to melt away.
'The balance is being corrected.'
The Cheon-Yang Divine Art was a yang-based cultivation method.
As such, it had refined large amounts of yang energy, while an excess of yin energy had remained—slowly disrupting balance.
But the newly evolving Cheon-Yang Divine Art restored equilibrium between yin and yang.
Thump!Thump, thump!
The circulation of energy accelerated.
Likely because the melting yin energy expanded the meridians and blood vessels.
Then came pain—his organs felt as though they were being burned away.
'I must stay conscious…'
If he failed, he would fall into qi deviation.
So Cheon Muryang desperately clung to his awareness.
A fleeting moment felt like eternity.
"Hoo…"
Opening his eyes with a rough breath, Cheon Muryang felt not exhaustion, but a fullness of internal energy throughout his entire body.
It was a sense of clarity he had never experienced since being reborn as Cheon Muryang.
"Did I succeed?"
The Cheon-Yang Divine Art had advanced.
Once skewed toward yang, it now achieved perfect balance through the infusion of yin energy.
"Now I finally understand why the Cheon-Yang Divine Art is called a Divine Art."
It had been incomplete.
And precisely because of that, it could be completed.
Still, this completion was tailored solely to Cheon Muryang.
"The Cheon-Yang Divine Art must remain incomplete."
Only then could it be completed according to the one who cultivated it.
No one remembered that truth anymore.
"So there was never such a thing as a supreme martial art from the beginning."
The Cheon-Yang Divine Art had never been complete.
That was why Cheon Muryang believed that somewhere in the Cheonryong Archive existed an advanced martial art meant to fill its gaps.
He thought it would contain the missing incantations the Cheon-Yang Divine Art lacked.
"It wasn't an incantation."
From the start, this was not something that could be conveyed through words.
If it could be, then every autobiography here would have become a single martial manual.
"Only a very small portion was ever standardized."
Freedom was not purely beneficial.
Martial arts had meaning only when they could be passed down through generations.
Otherwise, the lineage could break at any time.
"So that's why they left behind their own skies, in this form."
The ancestors must have been aware of this flaw.
That was why these countless autobiographies—each depicting a different sky—were gathered here.
"And over time, they were systematized into the martial arts of the Cheon Clan as we know them."
A standardized sky.
Freedom was lost, but a clear, definable sky remained.
"That is the sky that formed the Cheon Clan of today."
Only one sky.
Ironically, the Cheon Clan—once yearning for boundless freedom—was left with only a single sky.
"Perhaps that's why there is a limit…"
It was enough.
Yet because the Cheon Clan's sky had lost its freedom, its limits were all too clear.
The Ten Great Clans Under Heaven.
A glorious title.
To be counted among the top ten clans of the Central Plains was no small feat.
But calling them one of the Five Great Clans is debatable.
Opinions diverged at that point.
And if one were to choose the Three Great Clans, the Cheon Clan would not be among them.
That was the reality of the Cheon Clan.
And Cheon Muryang now understood the cause.
"How absurd. A clan of heaven that lost its sky. Tch."
A bitter smile crept onto his lips.
"Hm…"
Suddenly, Cheon Muryang frowned.
A foul stench reached his nose.
"Don't tell me…?"
The source was himself.
Impurities expelled unconsciously as he circulated the Cheon-Yang Divine Art.
But the amount—and intensity—were incomparable to before.
"At this rate… I'll need to leave before even a full day passes."
It was polluted enough to cause concern.
After organizing the books, Cheon Muryang stepped out of the Cheonryong Archive.
"Y-Young Master!"
Outside, as expected, Wolyeong was waiting.
Her expression, however, was strange.
"What's wrong? Why that face?"
"Why are you only coming out now?!"
"Now?"
"Yes! You said you'd come out in two days! It's been ten days already!"
"Ten days…?"
Cheon Muryang doubted his ears.
Ten days?
How could that much time have passed?
"Ten days? Are you sure?"
"Yes! Just look at your clothes—you've been wearing them for ten days…"
Wolyeong covered her nose.
Even she, who was accustomed to cleaning Cheon Muryang's room, found the stench overwhelming.
"Let's go before anyone sees you!"
Just when favorable rumors about Cheon Muryang were starting to spread—
A rumor about his smell would be disastrous.
Wolyeong hurriedly dragged him away, glancing around nervously.
"Ten days…"
Being pulled along, Cheon Muryang still couldn't believe it.
"Come to think of it… am I hungry?"
Grrr.
He was starving.
Perhaps ten days really had passed.