It’s completely different from when I sparred with the Poison Dragon.

The gap in level.

I felt it in my bones.

‘With the Poison Dragon, it felt like I could win if I really tried.’

And I did win. But with Cheon Hyein, I don’t feel that at all.

STOMP—!

I put strength into my foot.

I packed energy into the sword that had been knocked up.

If the sword tip was up like this, there was something I could use right now.

Even if my stance was a bit tangled, the angle was good enough.

Night seeped into the sword I’d lifted.

And I slashed that night straight down.

Blue Moon Sword Dance, Second Form: Night Moon.

Night Moon.

A pouring, fallen night flew at Cheon Hyein.

“Hmm.”

At that, Cheon Hyein let out a little snort.

WHIIRRRK—!

“......!”

She twisted her body with supple ease.

She looked like a snake. And along with that, I got the illusion that even the wooden sword she was holding was bending.

The tangled blades turned the angle of Night Moon.

At the slanted, warped angle, the sword that had been headed for Cheon Hyein stabbed into the floor.

CRUNCH—!!

The blade struck the sparring stage dead-on.

Since it was planted straight into the ground, the shock should’ve made the sword bounce up, but it couldn’t.

‘Damn it.’

Because Cheon Hyein was stepping on the back of my blade with her foot.

Her snow-white calf pinned the sword down.

And as I confirmed that, the top of her foot dug into my view.

I snapped my head aside. Her toes brushed the tip of my nose.

I barely avoided it.

I pulled my body back, and the sword that had been caught regained its freedom, but—

‘This is insane.’

Moon Eyes caught an impossible scene.

Cheon Hyein was approaching me, and countless paths were visible from her.

It wasn’t one or two blue lines.

All of them were possibilities she could fire at me.

‘......Fuck.’

I ground my teeth.

And then the vicious exchange began.

No.

The bleak exchange began.

*****

TAP—! CLACK-CLACK—! KRAAAK—!!

Dull sounds that rang without pause.

SWIIISH—! KWAHHH—!!!

Shock burst at the sword tip slicing through the wind, and energy exploded in midair, creating impacts.

It was the repetition of attack and defense.

The two wooden swords clashed fiercely as the exchange continued.

At a glance, the spar looked evenly matched—

But that was only at a glance.

Most of the people here couldn’t possibly miss how lopsided that exchange actually was.

“......Overwhelming.”

“I didn’t think the difference would be that big.”

People watching from the Small Moon Unit muttered as if talking to themselves.

“Little Sword Saint, Little Sword Saint. With how much talk there was, I thought maybe... but it looks like he can’t handle Miss Cheon.”

“I heard he far surpassed the Seven Prodigies. Seems that wasn’t true, either.”

There was a rumor that the Little Sword Saint was so great he could casually beat the Seven Prodigies—the current seven geniuses—

But only now did they realize it was nonsense.

“It’s probably true that he beat the Poison Dragon, but Miss Cheon is too much for him.”

“Well, sure. Even if he’s the Sword Saint’s successor, Miss Cheon is a genius on par with the Sword Saint.”

“Rumors aren’t something you can trust in the first place.”

Those watching said it with one voice.

They couldn’t help it.

The fight wasn’t over yet, but the result was as obvious as fire.

“He can’t close the distance even a little.”

TAAAP—! CLACK—!!

The Little Sword Saint.

The newest youngest member of the Small Moon Unit, Bang Sungyeon—the one called the Sword Saint’s successor—swung his wooden sword with desperate persistence.

The wooden sword sliced through the air at speed, carving out sword paths dozens of times over.

And the force packed into it was impressive.

It could be called crude in some ways, but the strength inside it was so strong it felt like you could overlook a lot.

Even by level, you could say it was decent enough, but—

“It’s the opponent.”

The problem was the opponent facing Bang Sungyeon.

WHOOSH—! CLACK—!

With light footwork, she avoided or deflected every one of Bang Sungyeon’s attacks.

If he tried to unfold even a little sword path, she cut it off.

And in the gaps, she even interfered to tangle his steps.

She was using every trick under the sun to keep him from catching his breath.

Delicate and sly, and brutally beautiful.

It looked like an exchange, but this was closer to one side simply toying with the other.

The Moon Dancer of the Seven Prodigies.

Cheon Hyein, with an expressionless face, kept brushing Bang Sungyeon’s wooden sword aside.

The smile she’d been wearing had vanished long ago.

Without a single breath out of place, she only kept moving her sword.

“HUFF!”

The only thing you could hear was Bang Sungyeon’s roughened breathing.

It meant the gap in stamina was severe, too.

His sword couldn’t touch her, and he couldn’t even get close.

Watching that, everyone arrived at the same thought.

The Moon Dancer is stronger than the Little Sword Saint.

And overwhelmingly so.

It was a spar perfectly suited to making that recognition swell.

And—

‘Just as expected.’

The Small Moon Unit Leader watching couldn’t hide his smile.

‘His arrogance ends right there.’

Bang Sungyeon couldn’t touch Cheon Hyein at all.

Looking at him made laughter rise on its own.

‘He tried to test me.’

He remembered Bang Sungyeon talking to him with that cocky air.

Those lazy eyes of his, mixing wordplay as he spoke.

‘What did he say again?’

That he had to become Young Lord, so he wanted him to be his strength?

‘It’s not even funny.’

The Small Moon Unit Leader hated Bang Sungyeon for saying that so brazenly.

‘How dare you.......’

Does he even know what that seat is, trying to climb into it?

And on top of that, asking him to lend him strength?

‘Not a chance.’

It was impossible.

And besides—

‘There’s ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ even less chance I’d choose him over Miss Cheon.’

With such radiant potential right in front of him, there was no way he would ever choose some ignorant whelp. Not even if he died.

‘Even if I don’t know how he found out about that.’

When he heard the Sword Saint’s successor had appeared,

the Small Moon Unit Leader contacted the Beggar Clan and made a request.

Until he could grasp the situation, he asked them to keep the rumor from spreading.

Fortunately, the Beggar Clan accepted.

Just as the Small Moon Unit Leader had business with the Beggar Clan—

the Beggar Clan had something they wanted from him, so it became possible.

It did create one new problem, but he could endure that much.

‘I can’t let the Sword Saint’s name be sullied.’

Compared to staining the great Sword Saint’s name, this was nothing.

‘The Sword Saint’s successor? Don’t be ridiculous.’

Even if it were true—

he couldn’t accept that whelp.

To bear the name of that great being called the Sword Saint, the Small Moon Unit Leader could never acknowledge Bang Sungyeon.

‘He’s good at handling people, and he’s sly.’

Compared to that man, who was praised as a hero and a gentleman—

this whelp was a dissolute bastard who bewitched people with a cheap tongue.

And what about the strength he held?

‘No matter how much the Sect Master acknowledges him, and no matter that he beat Flash-Star Overturn.’

He can’t be called the Sword Saint’s successor.

Even if he uses that man’s martial arts and carries that man’s legacy.

Even if every possible case says Bang Sungyeon is that man’s successor.

The Small Moon Unit Leader couldn’t accept it.

‘I can’t acknowledge it.’

He wouldn’t acknowledge him. He didn’t know what method he’d used to obtain that man’s traces, but still.

‘They said he did something big in Sichuan.’

They said he killed a demonic-path master and saved the Tang Clan, then came back with the epithet Little Sword Saint, but—

‘Did he stir something up inside the Tang Clan?’

The Small Moon Unit Leader didn’t believe even that.

‘It does look like he got stronger, some stroke of fortune compared to before he left.’

But that was all.

‘With that level of strength, he saved the Poison King? What a joke.’

With the strength the Small Moon Unit Leader saw in Bang Sungyeon, there was no way he could save the Tang Clan and the Poison King.

‘He must’ve used some other trick again.’

He wouldn’t have done it with pure force. With that sly head, he must’ve done something.

‘......With the Sword Saint’s name on his back.’

It was truly displeasing.

If the Sword Saint were still alive, he would’ve stepped forward with dignity and proven it with strength instead of playing such petty tricks.

‘You don’t fit that name.’

Bang Sungyeon, who couldn’t prove the value of that name and had no strength—he was someone the Small Moon Unit Leader hated deeply.

‘The Sect Master seems to like him.’

But that would only be for now.

No—he believed that once this spar ended, even that would disappear.

After seeing this, how could the Sect Master not withdraw his heart?

KWAHHH—!!!

“Ghk!”

Bang Sungyeon’s wooden sword was jolted.

Cheon Hyein knocked it up again, making it surge.

And then—

BAM—!!

“Guh!”

The wooden sword struck his opened torso dead-on.

Hit by Cheon Hyein’s attack, Bang Sungyeon went flying and rolled across the ground.

“Cough—!”

He barely recovered his posture, but blood flowed from his mouth.

Looks like it landed cleanly.

The fortunate part was that energy hadn’t been wrapped around it properly, so the impact was smaller, but—

‘In the end.’

Even taking that into account, the end of the spar was clear.

‘He couldn’t even graze her.’

Bang Sungyeon’s sword never touched Cheon Hyein.

All that talk—saving the Tang Clan by killing a demonic-path master, beating the Poison Dragon—

all of it was proven and finished by this one thing.

‘Young Lord belongs to Miss Cheon.’

A distant, faraway possibility.

The alien talent Cheon Hyein possessed.

Radiant potential that enchanted everyone, and sometimes even made them suffer fear.

The Sect Master looked like he was weighing something as he watched Cheon Hyein, but the Small Moon Unit Leader believed the conclusion he would reach would be the same in the end.

Even Bang Sungyeon, who appeared claiming to be the Sword Saint’s successor, was powerless before Cheon Hyein.

Now that so many people had seen it, what would happen next was obvious.

“Hm.”

Moon-Thread Sword let out a low breath.

A disappointed look could be seen on his face.

Seeing that, the Small Moon Unit Leader swallowed his laughter.

‘It’s over.’

Certain of it, the Small Moon Unit Leader nodded.

Then Cheon Hyein walked toward Bang Sungyeon to finish it.

He didn’t know what expression Moon-Thread Sword had, but he figured it was probably the same as Cheon Hyein’s.

Because Cheon Hyein’s face as she approached Bang Sungyeon was full of disappointment.

“......Was that all?”

Her voice was hollow.

“You were so confident, and yet. This was all you had?”

Emotion drained away.

“......What was I even expecting.”

Disappointment gathered between her brows.

With a scowling face, Cheon Hyein raised her wooden sword.

Bang Sungyeon, bleeding, pushed himself up.

“Hoo.......”

He looked plainly exhausted.

Bloodstains were vivid at the corner of his mouth, and blood that had run down had soaked into his clothes.

Then—

“......Ah, yeah. This won’t do.”

He spoke in a voice full of regret.

“Guess it’s still too much for me.”

A tone of acceptance and resignation.

Was he admitting defeat?

Bang Sungyeon lowered the wooden sword he’d been holding.

Swish.

He gradually let the strength drain from his body.

What?

The Small Moon Unit Leader narrowed his eyes.

‘Looks like he gave up.’

He seemed to have decided there was no hope and quit.

‘Even to the end, I can’t stand you.’

It was something that man would never have done.

Giving up.

There was no need to watch anymore.

That’s what the Small Moon Unit Leader thought—

And at the same time, Cheon Hyein’s wooden sword moved to finish Bang Sungyeon.

The spar would end.

That’s what everyone thought, in that moment.

“Huh.”

Moon-Thread Sword let out an empty breath.

THUD—!!

“Guh—!!”

Someone collapsed onto the floor.

“What?”

“What the—!?”

Many people watching blanched in shock.

They’d expected Bang Sungyeon to fall—

But the one who fell was, unbelievably, Cheon Hyein.

Cheon Hyein, who’d charged in to finish it, suddenly let out a stifled groan and dropped.

“Urk—!!”

She even gagged in pain.

What is this?

Everyone was left dumbfounded.

The Small Moon Unit Leader’s eyes went wide like lanterns.

“What...!”

What is this? What just happened?

For a moment, he’d missed it.

While the Small Moon Unit Leader stared at the sparring stage with eyes that didn’t understand—

“Hahahahahaha!”

Moon-Thread Sword burst out laughing.

“.......”

At that sight, the Small Moon Unit Leader couldn’t hide his shock all over again.