Winter always had a way of swallowing the sun early.

By the time the sun was dipping in the far west, Mookbi came storming into Warbreaker Pavilion, fuming.

“Where is that man? Today I’m going to finish this once and for all—... Huh?”

Her face had been full of rage, but it brightened at once into a sunny smile.

“Jipyeong.”

“Huh? Sister, you’re here?”

Yeon Jipyeong welcomed Mookbi with open delight.

He had only just regained his senses not long ago, so this was their first proper meeting. They had fought together, but in the chaos of it all, there had been no chance for a warm, unhurried conversation.

“You’re up? How’s your body?”

Jipyeong flushed, looking embarrassed.

“I’m fine. It’s a little shameful, honestly. It wasn’t as if I should’ve been bedridden that long.”

“What are you talking about? That was your first real battle. Of course it would hit you that hard.”

Mookbi raised a hand and hovered it above his head.

“Still, same as back then, you’ve really gotten huge, haven’t you?”

“Have I really grown that much...?”

“Of course you have. You’re taller than me now.”

He was still smaller than Yeon Wi or Yeon Hojeong, but he had grown enough to stand above Mookbi. And considering that Mookbi was tall for a woman, his growth was all the more striking.

Mookbi put on a sly smile that did not suit her at all.

“You’re tall, handsome, and capable too. You’re going to shake up quite a few swordswomen out there.”

She bumped him in the side with her elbow, her whole face full of mischief.

Flustered, Jipyeong waved both hands.

“Swordswomen? No, nothing like that. It’s not the time for me to be thinking about things like—”

“Things like what?”

“S-Sister!”

“Hahahaha!”

For once, Mookbi burst into loud laughter.

Perhaps she was simply delighted to have finally found the first person her teasing actually worked on.

Jipyeong cleared his throat.

“You’ve changed a lot too, Sister.”

“Me?”

“Yes. You seem much brighter than before.”

“Do I? Well, all kinds of things have happened. And besides, the world’s been too bleak lately for me to go on living as some silent archer.”

To Jipyeong, it was not only her personality that had changed.

She’s incredible.

There was a relaxed ease about Mookbi now, something that had not been there before.

It came from the dignity of a true master. No matter the situation, no matter the battle, she looked like the kind of expert who would never lose her composure.

The older sister who once knew nothing of the world ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) had endured the storms of the martial world and changed this much. To Jipyeong, that too was a tremendous kind of growth.

Of course.

His smile deepened.

Before I knew it, she’s started to resemble my brother too. They really do suit each other.

Mookbi narrowed her eyes.

“What’s with that meaningful smile?”

“Huh? O-Oh, it’s nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing? Don’t tell me you’re hiding something from the sister you haven’t seen in forever.”

“It’s not that...”

With an innocent face, Jipyeong said,

“I was just wondering when you and my brother would grow old together.”

Mookbi’s face froze.

It was not a simple look of surprise. For an instant, Jipyeong panicked, wondering if he had said something terribly wrong.

“D-Did I say something I shouldn’t have...?”

“That bastard!”

“...What?”

“Now that I think about it, where is that bastard? Do you know where Young Master Yeon is? He must’ve come back to his room.”

Still dazed, Jipyeong pointed to the second floor.

“He said he had something to think about and went into his quarters...”

“I’m going to beat him to death!”

Mookbi spun around and stormed into the building without another glance. She was so worked up that when she yanked the door open, it sounded like a cannon going off.

Jipyeong blanched.

Did Brother make some kind of mistake?

Judging by the force of her temper, if he stayed put, something serious might happen. Jipyeong hurried after her.

Mookbi rushed upstairs in an instant and threw open Yeon Hojeong’s door in one motion.

BANG!

“You damned man, I’m dead tired, and you leave the children’s training to me while you slack off in he—!!”

Mookbi stopped cold.

Jipyeong, alarmed, grabbed her sleeve and shook it.

“S-Sister. Calm down. At least let Brother explain what happened—”

“Shh.”

“Huh?”

Only then did Jipyeong see Yeon Hojeong.

WOOOONG. WOOOOONG.

A faint green True Qi was flowing out of Yeon Hojeong’s body as he sat cross-legged on the bed.

Huh?

Jipyeong’s eyes widened.

Yeon Hojeong sat there with his eyes closed, his face utterly peaceful. Yet the vivid green True Qi pouring from him radiated a terrifying, overwhelming force utterly at odds with that serene light.

What was peculiar was the flow of that True Qi.

It’s drawing inward?!

Normally, once power was being circulated so fiercely that True Qi was spilling outside the body, even a sensitive expert would immediately feel the violent qi wave.

But Yeon Hojeong was different. Jipyeong only realized how intense his brother’s circulation of power had been after seeing it with his own eyes. While he had still been out in the courtyard, he had not even noticed that his brother had entered a meditative breathing cycle.

That was because the external qi pouring from his body was being drawn straight back inward, increasing the density of his power.

What kind of martial art is he cultivating?

At that moment, Mookbi spoke in a low voice.

“So he started.”

“Huh?”

She knew his concentration would not be broken easily. Mookbi muttered quietly,

“He told me before. He said the time for a leap was coming soon. He’d been measuring when exactly he should begin. Looks like today was the day.”

“What do you mean?”

“One of the Five Great Divine Arts.”

“...!”

“He’s fixing Jade Wave Art in place and cultivating one of the Yeon Clan’s Five Great Divine Arts.”

Jipyeong’s eyes shook.

If that endlessly powerful deep-green True Qi is...

It was True Qi that carried the scent of deep greenery. Somewhere within a vast forest so dense even sunlight could not pierce it, an undying legendary divine beast was stirring.

There was a savagery there that did not reveal itself openly. On the surface, it looked peaceful, even stable. But hidden within that forest crouched a mythical being that could tear even the heavens apart.

Dragon-Embrace Divine Art!

Jipyeong’s mouth fell open.

He’s learning Dragon-Embrace Divine Art right after Jade Wave Art?

Each of the Yeon Clan’s Five Great Divine Arts was a stable orthodox art.

But they were also famous for each having an unmistakably distinct character. Of them, Jade Wave Art was among the least idiosyncratic, but precisely for that reason it brought mind and body into harmony with exceptional stability, making it ideal for raising one’s overall mastery.

Dragon-Embrace Divine Art stood at the complete opposite pole from Jade Wave Art.

It was still an orthodox art, but unlike Jade Wave Art, which focused on protecting the heart and qi, this one sought increased output and the absolute maximization of release of force.

It was an aggressive art that raised the overall power of every martial technique its user employed. Among the Yeon Clan’s arts, it was the most destructive and overwhelming of all. But because that increase in output also accelerated the consumption of Inner Qi, it was far better suited to short battles than prolonged ones.

The reason Brother cultivated Jade Wave Art was obvious. It was the perfect thing to compensate for his temperament, his methods, and his technique.

Yeon Hojeong’s martial arts needed no elaborate description.

They could be summed up in just two words.

Fast and strong.

Yeon Hojeong was fast, and at the same time, strong. His movements and forms were like lightning, and the power of the martial arts he wielded was like a mountain avalanche crashing down.

Which also meant there was always the danger of his hand becoming too heavy. Even perfectly cultivated martial arts could ruin their master’s body and mind if they were used to spill more blood than necessary.

In that respect, Yeon Hojeong’s decision to choose Jade Wave Art had been brilliantly farsighted. Even after reaching his current level, he had not once been dragged around by inner demons.

And that was exactly what worried Jipyeong now.

Is it really all right for him to learn Dragon-Embrace Divine Art now?

He thought of his brother’s martial arts.

Of the decisive hands that had split apart the assassins targeting Gi Uhui like firewood.

Of the martial power of a god of war who had dominated the entire situation with a chillingly cold eye wholly at odds with the explosive might of his attacks.

He wielded martial arts that were bold and full of blood-heated force, and yet he never once lost his composure. It was a level of restraint even veteran experts of the martial world often failed to show.

If, by some chance, his brother were to lose that coldness while learning Dragon-Embrace Divine Art—

...

Jipyeong felt his fists clench hard.

It’s needless worry. Brother is a genius beyond anything someone like me can measure. If he judged the time had come to learn it, then it had.

He believed in his brother. He believed in his brother’s skill, his talent, and that strange destiny surrounding him.

Even so, the anxiety would not go away.

It was the vague unease that blood relatives could not help but feel.

How much time passed like that?

HOOOOOOONG.

A deep exhalation left Yeon Hojeong’s lips, tinged with green smoke.

Its color called poison qi to mind, like something from poison art. Yet the True Qi carried in that breath held only the smell of a forest deepened by rain.

ZIIIIING.

It was a strange sound.

Somewhere inside Yeon Hojeong’s body, it sounded as though gears were turning.

Even Jipyeong, who knew the Yeon Clan’s martial arts fairly well, could not tell what was happening inside Yeon Hojeong’s body.

If, by chance, Yeon Wi had been here now—

If the sword master of Green Mountain had been present, a man who not only knew the Yeon Clan’s martial arts thoroughly, but could perform even an untrained art with the ease of a master merely by reciting its formula—

Then he would have seen through exactly what was happening in Yeon Hojeong’s body.

A smile touched Yeon Hojeong’s lips.

Cold sweat beaded across his brow, then ran down past his temples and along his cheeks.

It worked!

At last, he had succeeded.

So this is the Yeon Clan Divine Core, the beginning of the unification of the Five Great Divine Arts.

The Yeon Clan Divine Core.

It was a spherical core of True Qi formed by condensing power and compressing its density.

A total concentration of True Qi, made by wrapping hundreds, thousands of invisible threads around one another in layers. In other words, he had formed a body of energy akin to the internal core of a spiritual creature.

The Yeon Clan Divine Core was the source that made it possible for one who had awakened all five of the Yeon Clan’s Five Great Divine Arts to reconstruct them and wield the clan’s greatest secret art.

Its position was at the center of the human body, the middle dantian. The fact that the Yeon Clan Divine Core had settled in the middle center, the place that regulated emotion and controlled the movement of the five viscera and six bowels, meant that Yeon Hojeong’s temperament itself was that fierce.

The location of the Divine Core changes depending on the one cultivating it. For some, it could settle in the lower dantian. For others, the upper dantian.

It was something he had not known in his days as the Dark Emperor.

To begin with, back then he had only cultivated Hongcheon Qi, so he could never have understood the endless possibilities of the Yeon Clan Divine Core from knowing the formula alone. The Divine Core itself could only be formed after mastering multiple divine arts.

Yes. This is better.

His father would certainly know of the existence of the Yeon Clan Divine Core. Even so, the reason he had not cultivated multiple divine arts was because he had his own martial path.

If Yeon Hojeong too had not gained the realizations he had reached in his days as the Dark Emperor, he would have gone all the way with Jade Wave Art alone.

What I need right now isn’t a sincere pursuit of the martial path. I need practical power itself.

Even so, he had not expected to form the Yeon Clan Divine Core.

What he had intended was simply to fill the place occupied by Jade Wave Art with Dragon-Embrace Divine Art. The formation of an internal core had never even crossed his mind.

Four Spirit Martial Art!

If the Four Spirit Qi within Four Spirit Martial Art had not been balanced, he never would have been able to form an internal core at all.

And that, too, was surely one of the many reasons the Yeon Clan Divine Core had settled in the middle center.

Because the Four Spirit Qi was the force that governed the organs of the human body.

“Hup!”

Yeon Hojeong drew in a sharp breath and snapped his eyes open.

WOOOOOOONG.

In those clear, deep eyes, there pulsed an overwhelming power that looked ready to burst free at any moment.

It was the new power that would replace Jade Wave Art.

The power of Dragon-Embrace Divine Art.

“...Done.”

Then, all at once, exhaustion came flooding over him.

Yeon Hojeong looked at the two of them with a face drained by fatigue.

“What are you two doing coming in without even sending word— huh?”

Thump!

Yeon Hojeong collapsed flat onto the bed.

Startled, both of them rushed toward him.

“Young Master Yeon!”

“Brother!”

Then Yeon Hojeong let out a soft snore.

He had fallen asleep by force, overcome by extreme exhaustion.

Mookbi glared down at him in disbelief.

“...He’s not faking this on purpose, is he?”

Right then, Yeon Hojeong was just about the most irritating man in the world to her.