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Chapter 04
The child’s fingernails were short, yet sharp enough to tear the paper. Through the torn gap, a bleak moonlight leaked in.
Jiiik, jik—
Under the yellow moonlight, a pair of eyes absorbed that light as if drinking it in. What showed through the torn slit was a yellow glow so feral one could hardly believe it belonged to a child—like some creature of the dark.
“Y-you… what on earth are you!”
The clan head, Namgung Huicheon, sprang to his feet and immediately drew the sword at his waist.
A martial artist never keeps his blade far. He believed the one standing at the door had used some sinister trick to approach.
Whether it was Namgung Sayul or someone else, whoever it was, he meant to cut them down without hesitation.
After all, it was merely a stain upon the clan caused by his stupid son’s mistake.
“Reveal your wicked form!”
At his thunderous shout, the scratching at the door abruptly stopped.
“Ah.”
A child’s voice burst out as though it had just realized something. A small shadowy hand gripped the edge of the door.
Drrrk—
At last, the figure behind the door was revealed.
“I no longer need permission to enter, do I.”
Sayul’s red hair and the crescent-shaped tear of her lips appeared.
Red hair?
Huicheon and Hyunwon’s faces instantly hardened. The child—Sayul—took one step inside on red-stained feet.
Step… step.
Her shoes squished wetly as she walked in, one slow step at a time. Red footprints trailed behind her. The moonlight was at her back, yet her beast-like yellow eyes continued to glow eerily.
Her yellow pupils rolled, drdrdr, shifting left and right as she looked at Huicheon and Hyunwon in turn. She tilted her head with a smile—one she had never shown before. Her blood-matted white hair slid down slowly.
“Father.”
She murmured the word.
“Father…”
And then—
“Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father. Father…”
The word spilled from her lips in a whispering chant. It sounded as if it were spoken right beside the ear—or perhaps inside the skull itself. The murmur did not match the movement of her mouth. The chilling voice filled the room, and Huicheon, trembling violently, screamed as he swung his sword.
“What are you doing! Cut that accursed thing down at once!”
The Azure Sky Sword he took such pride in scattered light as it sliced through the air, leaving countless trails. The pale blade, heirloom of the Namgung clan head, wavered like cold flame under his sword-qi. Yet the red-stained Sayul only watched it calmly with unfocused eyes.
She was there, yet not there—like a ghost.
Huicheon closed the distance in an instant, ready to cleave her in two. His footwork was like a raging current; before one could blink, he was already in front of her—
“Clan head…!”
Hyunwon, watching from afar, sensed something wrong and called out urgently.
KAANG!
But before the warning reached him, a massive icicle shot upward from the empty floor. The Azure Sky Sword struck the pale frost and rang with a piercing clash.
“You wretched thing…!”
He roared as a faint layer of frost crept over the blade. Crack, crackle. The sound of freezing rang clearly. Cold air crawled along the sword toward his hand.
“Did you think inheriting the blood of the Ice Palace made you anything special? Those wicked bloodlines have long vanished—there is no path left for you to ascend!”
Huicheon shouted as though lecturing her. Yet Sayul simply stared at him with her reddened face, unshaken. Her moon-yellow eyes held no hint of surprise, despite the fact that he had never once spoken to her of her mother.
“So the Northern Sea Ice Palace has fallen, has it?”
The child’s voice came out slowly. It was different—like the voice of an old man. The tone was that of someone addressing an inferior, and Huicheon’s face flushed red in anger.
“You dare speak as though you were the greatest under heaven!”
He swung the freezing blade hard to shake off the frost. At once, his figure vanished from sight.
Fwoosh!
He reappeared behind her, the white blade slicing in from an unpredictable angle, like a bird soaring through the sky.
Azure Sky Endless Sword Art (蒼穹無涯劍法)
Anyone of Namgung blood could learn it, but the power wielded by the clan head was at another level entirely. The air trembled around them, and his garments fluttered as though drawn toward his sword.
Like flowing water, like a soaring bird—such was the Namgung sword. It was the strength of those who roamed heaven and earth like immortals.
Yet—
“I asked you a question.”
Her ghost-cold voice flowed out slowly. Huicheon’s sword was fast—yet somehow, that one sentence seemed to catch his ankle and weigh it down.
“When did the Northern Sea Ice Palace fall?”
CHAAANG!
The strike meant to cleave her in two was abruptly stopped by solid ice. Instead, Sayul’s giant icicle shot for his vital points like a wasp’s sting.
Shrrrak! Clang!
Sharp, towering icicles rose in pursuit of him, following his footwork as he slid like water over ice. Huicheon struck them down mid-air, yet even he was greatly shaken and had to retreat several steps.
