The Return of the Namgoong Clan's Granddaughter-Chapter 59
Rumble...
The duel was over.
It was Seolhwa’s complete victory.
Nomoen watched the Namgoong child approach with heavy, rigid eyes.
“It’s over, isn’t it?”
“...”
“Coward!”
Shiiing—!
The sharp sound of a sword being drawn echoed through the air.
Another sword was drawn in response.
“Mount Hua’s Elder, watch your tongue. The duel between the children was fair.”
The one who had drawn his sword at the child was Yu Pyo.
The one who now stood in front of her to protect her was Cheongun.
“Fair? She was hiding her true strength from the start! Knowing Mount Hua needed the elixir, she deliberately deceived us! It’s cowardice!”
“Seolhwa requested the duel from your side first. Was it not Mount Hua who changed the opponent?”
“Still, to hide her strength...!”
“Enough! Hiding one’s true strength is also a form of skill! How can you call that cowardly? Is Mount Hua truly a sect with no sense of propriety?”
“Are you... insulting Mount Hua right now...?”
A deep crimson aura surged out from Yu Pyo.
In response, a blue aura flowed out from Cheongun.
As the two men’s energy clashed, with not a sliver of retreat between them, Seolhwa spoke toward Nomoen.
“Did you enjoy a snack or something while we were dueling?”
The corner of Nomoen’s lips twitched ever so slightly as he watched the raging Yu Pyo.
It was a moment so brief, it could hardly be called a smile.
He quickly returned to a stern expression and shouted,
“Yu Pyo, stand down!”
“...Yes, Master.”
Nomoen strode up to Seolhwa.
“So. You won. I see now how bright Namgoong’s future truly is. I heard you only recently returned to Namgoong—when did you learn their martial arts?”
“A few days ago. My grandfather taught me.”
“You mean to say you learned that sword art just a few days ago and wielded it with such mastery?”
“My grandfather said it too—‘as expected of the granddaughter of the Sword Emperor.’”
“...!”
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The granddaughter of the Sword Emperor.
Those words were no light matter.
It implied much—who stood behind her, the source of her strength, and what kind of enemy one would make by denying it.
“I may have lost the duel, but we still need that elixir. So name your terms.”
With that, Seolhwa held absolute control.
She had known that even if Mount Hua lost the duel, they couldn’t simply give up the elixir.
So she brought out the answer she had prepared.
“I’ll offer two proposals.”
“Two?”
“The first is the same as before. Show me proof that Mount Hua and Shaolin made a deal for the Great Return Pill.”
Nomoen’s face turned grim.
‘They won’t say it.’
It wouldn’t matter if it was only Mount Hua involved—but now Shaolin had to be dragged in as well.
It wasn’t just Mount Hua that wanted to keep things secret, and because of that, Mount Hua couldn’t publicly acknowledge the transaction.
That’s why she offered it as an option.
‘One impossible demand, and one that’s barely possible.’
By giving both options, the one with even a shred of possibility would look better by comparison.
“...What’s the second?”
“Let me meet Mount Hua’s Sect Leader.”
“...!”
“If you let me meet the Sect Leader, I’ll hand it over to him myself.”
And that was when it happened.
Rrrumble...
Suddenly, the ground of the martial arena began to shake as if struck by an earthquake.
“Seolhwa!”
Namgoong Cheongun rushed to her in alarm and shielded her with his body.
The one who had caused this tremor—like a force of nature—
“You...”
—was Plum Blossom Divine Sword Nomoen.
Inside the pavilion, the building might have collapsed from the surge of energy, but outside, his suppressed power now rampaged like an untamed beast.
“What is it that you know?”
“M-Master!”
Yu Gang tried desperately to stop him, but Nomoen’s sheer presence was overwhelming. He couldn’t get close.
Shhh—
Unable to withstand his aura, a fine crack opened along Seolhwa’s cheek.
Such was the Flowing Realm.
A realm where aura becomes a sword. Where one could cut down opponents using energy alone.
Those unqualified to face such power couldn’t even get close—an unfathomable height of martial attainment.
“Seolhwa! It’s dangerous!”
“I’m fine, Father.”
Seolhwa pushed Cheongun aside and stepped forward to face that overwhelming pressure.
Nomoen’s presence poured down on her, threatening to devour her whole—yet Seolhwa did not step back.
Step by step, she walked toward him.
“You truly are a fearless child.”
“And you truly have no shame. An elder of Mount Hua, behaving like this toward a child?”
“So you really wish to die.”
“Why would you want to kill me? All I asked for was to meet your Sect Leader.”
“No.”
KRRRAAA-KRASH!
His aura swept across her cheek and forearm, leaving thin cuts behind.
Her clothes tore, and hairline wounds appeared across her skin.
But as she stood unfazed, Nomoen spoke in a voice powered by his full cultivation.
“You must know something. From what I’ve seen of you so far, there’s no way you’d request a meeting with the Sect Leader without reason.”
“...”
What a perceptive old man.
“So I suppose I’ll have to kill you to shut you up. If I kill you and take the Golden Dragon Jade Blood Treasure, that’ll be the end of it.”
“There are far too many eyes watching for that.”
The moment Seolhwa’s words left her mouth, a group rushed into the martial arena of the Celestial Guest Courtyard.
Heads of households, elders, and direct descendants of the Namgoong Clan had arrived.
“Hah...!”
“What in the world is going on?!”
Among them, Namgoong Cheonghae stepped forward and shouted,
“Plum Blossom Divine Sword, withdraw your energy at once!”
Nomoen cast only a fleeting glance at him, not even sparing the courtesy of real attention.
He scoffed and spoke coldly.
“You think a swarm of nobodies makes any difference to me?”
He was one of the Ten Great Masters in the world.
Even if he was considered on the weaker end among the ten, he still stood at the Flowing Realm—an elite level of cultivation attained by only ten people across the land.
No one present here had reached that level. Not even one.
“Are you planning to kill everyone in Namgoong?”
“That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“So Mount Hua’s sense of justice is far more violent than it appears.”
“True strength, they say, is like water. And when water overflows, how can the world avoid being swept away?”
“Is twisting the words of sages to suit yourself a part of Mount Hua’s teachings?”
“It is when I say so.”
“You really are shameless.”
Rrrmmm...
Nomoen’s aura surged, becoming even more ferocious and vast.
“This arrogance ends now.”
Just as he placed a hand on his sword hilt—
“Did you know something?”
Seolhwa’s lips curved ever so slightly into a faint smirk.
“Compared to a tidal wave, a river’s flood is nothing.”
“...Are you calling me a river right now?”
Seolhwa shrugged.
Right as Nomoen began to wonder about her unnervingly calm demeanor—
BOOM.
The world halted.
As if the entire world had been filled with nothingness for a single instant, a sensation of utter void enveloped Nomoen.
“...!”
The overwhelming energy he had been projecting was nullified—no, devoured.
A dense, invisible force had surrounded him, thick and heavy. A void so complete, it felt as though he had been cut off from the world itself.
“A filthy insect crawled into my front yard.”
Nomoen looked down at his trembling hand.
It wasn’t fear that made it shake.
This was instinct.
His primal instincts were reacting.
Slowly, Nomoen turned to face the one who now completely dominated both him and the surrounding space.
“...The Sword Emperor?”
Namgoong Mucheon, the Celestial Dragon Sword Emperor.
One of the Ten Great Masters. Among them, ranked in the top three.
And he was now standing right behind him.
“Nomoen.”
Namgoong Mucheon’s gaze shifted, piercing through the barrier, landing on Seolhwa.
“I’ll give you two options.”
His eyes swept over the cuts on the body and cheek of his granddaughter—wounds on the very girl into whose body he had poured seventy percent of his internal energy to perform the torturous Bone Cleansing and Marrow Washing ritual.
In his eyes, blue divine light blazed.
“Do you want to die? Or do you want to get beaten until you wish you had?”
Even within the same realm, there were levels.
Those who had just entered the realm. Those who had begun adapting to it.
And those who had completely mastered it—standing on the cusp of the next realm altogether.
As the level of cultivation rose, the gap in experience and skill widened dramatically.
Among those in the Flowing Realm, the disparity could reach up to an entire Gapja of internal energy.
Namgoong Mucheon walked slowly toward Nomoen.
“I heard you’d entered the Flowing Realm.”
“N-Namgoong Mucheon...!”
Nomoen instinctively took a step back.
They # Nоvеlight # said he wouldn’t return for five more days—how...?!
“Entering the realm is one thing...”
At that moment, the warm smile that had momentarily flickered across Namgoong Mucheon’s face vanished without a trace.
“...But how dare you flaunt your strength in the Sword Emperor’s manor?”
The blue divine light in his eyes glared at Nomoen like it could kill him.
“To lay a hand on this granddaughter of the Celestial Dragon—do you truly have a death wish?”
“W-Wait, Sword Emperor! This isn’t what it looks like—”
“Silence!”
The sound was like a thunderclap out of a clear sky.
At the ripple of his aura, not only Nomoen, but everyone inside the Celestial Guest Courtyard flinched and shrank back.
If Nomoen’s energy had shaken the martial arena, Namgoong Mucheon’s energy shook the entire guest pavilion.
“Who said you could offer excuses? Are you trying to insist there was some valid reason to lay a hand on my granddaughter? That too—in my own front yard? You’ve completely lost your damn mind!”
Nomoen couldn’t say a single word in return.
Because among everyone here, the one who knew just how terrifying Namgoong Mucheon’s temperament could be—
—was him.
