The state of egolessness. A realm where one forgets the self. A state often encountered by masters. Especially those on the cusp of great ascension. Stories of losing oneself in swordplay only to find a river split in two with a single slash—those tales abound.

But Ak Su-rim was different.

Since leaving the Ak Clan of Shandong and ordaining as a martial artist, her once peerless spear talent had fallen to mediocrity. Not once had she deeply entered the state of egolessness.

She couldn’t forget herself. How could she?

All her regrets and missed chances clung to her like a sleeping bag, pulling up to her crown. A swamp many fall into.

For some, it's the lingering end to a relationship left unresolved. For others, it’s the self-directed blame for letting a crucial opportunity slip by. Such emotions stir in the still air of night, keeping sleep at bay.

Ak Su-rim had lived through them all.

“Always.”

If she hadn’t been so repulsed by her family’s worldly obsessions—

If she hadn’t been seduced by the ideals of martial chivalry and neglected her kin—

If she’d just stayed long enough to master the final form of the Ak Clan’s Spear Technique...

If only she had been able to protect the comrades who perished over a lifetime of serving under four consecutive leaders of the Divine Sword Corps...

A chain of what-ifs. She was no different from any other commoner.

Even though she had always given her all.

At times, she felt as though the rhythm of her life had been severed. Regrets and longing came and went like shapeless stones crushing her spirit.

They say people’s hearts often remain childish even as they age. The same was true for Ak Su-rim. Her rejuvenation had been extreme because her regrets were, too.

She questioned herself constantly. Did I leave something big behind at home? Is that why I can’t find peace?

And so, even now, though she was submerged in a state of egolessness, it felt more like a lucid dream. She wasn’t sure whether she was dreaming or had been drawn into the mental realm described in the Grandmaster’s secret manual.

“It’s both. I figured something might happen.”

While poring over Jeong Yeon-shin’s journal, her consciousness had fluttered like Zhuangzi’s butterfly, arriving in a large manor nestled in quiet countryside.

It was vivid beyond belief.

Even though it was clearly a space formed of the mind.

Why?

Because the newly written Dreamflight Chapter of the Jeong Clan’s Inner Technique had been saturated with Jeong Yeon-shin’s sincerity. And a Grandmaster’s sincerity often turned into spirituality.

Ak Su-rim had resonated with Jeong Yeon-shin’s life on a deeply emotional level. A child had immersed herself in another child’s life, and the Grandmaster’s essence had seeped into her Upper Dantian. And thus, she fell into this startlingly vivid dream.

She stood there, holding a single spear, blank-faced.

“......”

The wide front yard of the Jeong Household. Just as it had been described in the scroll. Delving into the secret manual had felt like reversing time itself.

She could even hear the sounds.

Creak.

A swing, the kind seen during the Dano Festival, swayed on two long ropes. Under the moonlight that spilled softly down the lines, a child with sunken cheeks stood with bloodshot eyes.

Take seven years off the white-robed Jeong Yeon-shin at fifteen, and you’d get this boy.

“The swing, the moonlight, insomnia.”

It was one of the key tenets of the Jeong Clan's martial art.

“Hello.”

The child waved. Ak Su-rim returned the greeting, then asked:

“Why are you out here like this?”

“Mm. I’m waiting for Mother.”

The child answered.

His tone was strange, his expression indifferent. This, truly, was how young Jeong Yeon-shin had been. This was a past unfurled by his own brushstroke.

Ak Su-rim’s face grew ambiguous.

“Your mother...?”

“She went boating in Suzhou. That’s what Father said.”

“That bastard?”

“I know it was just drunken talk. I’m not stupid.”

The boy said.

“Mother just went boating today. And she’s not coming back.”

“You know it’s a lie, and you’re still waiting?”

“This is my game. It also helps with my training.”

Moonlight poured down on the boy.

In an instant, the eight-year-old Jeong Yeon-shin morphed into Seomye in white—his form during his initiation years. He was now eye-level with Ak Su-rim. As if a page of the secret manual had turned.

A stark contrast to Ak Su-rim’s own life, which had never moved on. She muttered:

“...What does this even mean?”

“Greetings. I am Seomye.”

The boy bowed respectfully. He was exactly as described in the Dreamflight Chapter of the Jeong Clan’s Inner Technique. Full of energy in all things, and even slightly ambitious in a charming way.

“What are you doing here?”

“I’m pondering.”

“About what?”

“Since I’m new, shouldn’t I greet the officials of the General Office? They say those with appointment power are like kings of the world, but... I feel awkward.”

It meant that this was truly how he had lived.

This version of Jeong Yeon-shin could only reveal his true thoughts—

Because the Jeong Clan Inner Technique was a complete archive of his past life.

Ak Su-rim found it amusing. Jeong Yeon-shin was someone who poured his heart out first.

“You’re shy about greetings? Why?”

“Never done it before.”

But in reality, young Jeong Yeon-shin had done quite well. Before his true nature became known, the officials had adored him.

Ak Su-rim knew this from hearsay.

Suddenly, the white-robed Seomye tilted his head and aged slightly. A blue robe fluttered naturally around him. This was their first meeting—when the Blue-robed Jeong Yeon-shin had encountered Ak Su-rim of the Divine Sword Corps.

The blue-robed boy stared at Ak Su-rim and whispered:

“...Kind of cool.”

“This is training, right?”

There could hardly be a stranger method than this.

Suddenly, a black cloak swept wide into view. Now Jeong Yeon-shin in black stood silently. Taller than Ak Su-rim, he didn’t even look her way as he murmured with a bloodied face:

“I wish they’d just stop dying. I’m sick of it.”

At this point, even Ak Su-rim sensed something strange.

The Jeong Clan’s martial art wasn’t just an internal technique, it was a heart technique. For all the imagery of the manual to manifest so clearly in such a dreamlike space?

It meant something unusual was happening to her real body.

An inner master is someone who manifests their mind within their body. So now, Ak Su-rim, having immersed so deeply in the technique as to become one with it, might be transforming alongside these figments of Jeong Yeon-shin. Burning up the martial essence she’d cultivated all her life, like a wick.

“I made a fuss at the General Office because I sensed something big was coming... But why does it actually feel like I’m advancing in power? I don’t even understand what’s happening yet.”

Stagnation.

That was her life. Her attitude, too. The only “change” was that she had read the young man’s journal dozens of times.

Why?

She met the eyes of the black-clad Jeong Yeon-shin slowly. The adolescent boy, now well-grown, replied shortly.

“What.”

Was it her imagination?

He spoke like this progression was natural.

Rustle.

Suddenly, a youth in purple appeared. Unlike before, his gaze was sharply focused. His eyes, staring down at her, burned with a colorless intensity.

It was as though the real Jeong Yeon-shin had manifested.

Ak Su-rim asked:

“...What is all this?”

“A passing lantern, don’t you think?”

“I’m dying?”

“The old senior is dying, and the new senior is breaking out of closed-door cultivation. You’re only seeing my past because of the Jeong Clan Technique. No one truly stagnates. Time ripens every human fruit.”

Her face contorted in disbelief.

“I haven’t changed at all, though. I skipped meals for fasting pills, spun my great circulation instead of sleeping, read the book you gave me, played around with a spear... Repeating the same things for decades. Nothing different. Each day was as simple as a wanderer’s. Sure, I got this strange feeling every now and then, but—”

“We’ve decided to call that training.”

“Still... Nothing’s changed. I keep clinging to the past, wondering how things might’ve gone if I’d done this or that differently. I never move forward. Maybe that’s why I’m so slow with the spear.”

She rambled like a drunk in a dream. But Jeong Yeon-shin simply gazed at her. Only after several breaths of silence did he finally speak—slowly.

“Life is made of countless choices. But in Jianghu, they don’t mean much.”

“...?”

“Death accepts none of them. The good, the regrettable, whether rushed or creeping— Eventually, all choices lead to the River of Three Crossings.”

He pointed to the ground near his feet, then to the far-off sky. A long trajectory drawn in one straight line—as if his own fate would one day reach the Book of the Dead.

Or maybe, a single infinite path of battle.

Ak Su-rim fell silent, without knowing why.

Only then did she realize—

Her eye level had risen to nearly match his.

“That spear,”

the youth gestured toward the one in her grasp.

“...How far will it fly?”

It was a question with only one answer.

***

Pitch-black darkness rippled.

It was the underground prison of the Ma Pavilion. Inyeong, waking from the dream, staggered where she stood and leaned on her spear for support.

Boom.

From Ipwang Fortress's General Office, Gi Dae-seung’s voice transmission shot down into the prison like a lightning strike. His tone was filled with shock.

[The Eye of Order has confirmed changes in the former Vice Commander of the Divine Sword Corps. We believe her immense inner power has been depleted. Replenishing it through breath control will take time.]

“...That’s right.”

[As previously discussed, we’ll activate the Nine-Palace Starfall Formation. How much true energy should we channel in? For reference, due to damage from the Great Battle of Ipwang and the Rebellion of the Seven Warlords, only about one part out of ten of the formation’s energy reserves remain. As you know, one part equates to the strength of two Celestial Captains.] Should we open the formation up to that one part...?

“All of it.”

[...Acknowledged. Activation will last one hour. That’s the limit, based on the output a transcendent master can endure after barely learning the incantation. Afterwards, the energy will dissipate naturally.]

Inyeong shook her head in the darkness. Her long hair rippled slowly with the motion.

“I can hold for ten hours. Factor it in.”

[Formation activated. Target coordinates: Ma Pavilion’s underground prison. Energy infusion commencing... Priority energy sources: Magwang and Suncheon.]

The headquarters of the Nine Sects was protected by absolute formations capable of withstanding mountain collapses. The activation had already been detected by Mount Hua Sect.

And what of the greatest sect in the realm?

Few had heard firsthand what the Fallen Shin Cheonhwa once said:

"Isn’t it a shame? All those lunatics obsessed with training, yet when those bastards spill power in the training grounds, it just vanishes. Spell-casters can’t tolerate that. If your rival’s that kind of guy, who can’t even count seventeen different kinds of force emissions, it’s useless. But you never know. What if some jackals push all the way into the Inner City? Su-rim, once you hit the realm of transcendence—handle it."

In that moment—

RRRUUUMBLE!

Thunder raged from beneath the ground.

The residual force left behind by seventeen generations of martial elites surged upward. It had been absorbed into the fortress-wide formation, slumbering beneath each martial division’s hall.

It was coming.

The training grounds of Magwang Wing and Suncheon Wing, located on the fortress's twin flanks, responded first. Inyeong, still cloaked in shadow, slammed her spear into ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ the ground again.

Boom!

A heavy tremor echoed as the force, drawn like lightning to a grounding rod, surged through the earth.

[Intruders have detected the anomaly. Activations are continuing: Celestial Dragon, Ruyi, Radiant Blade, Wuji, Azure Sky.]

Training halls across the Inner City shook as if struck by quakes. The vibrations even reached the underground prison beneath the Ma Pavilion.

Like a standard-bearer, Inyeong raised her spear and struck the earth once more, pulling the energy that tunneled through the Yongcheon Point in her soles all the way up to her Dantian.

Boom.

[Annihilation, Underworld Flow, Lawbringer, Resonance. All conduits remain intact. Unless further orders are given, the process will continue.]

Boom.

[Burning Abyss, Immortal Tree, Celestial Forest.]

By the time Gi Dae-seung’s report reached that point, all of Ipwang Fortress seemed to fall into a brief stillness.

The tremors were nearing their peak.

The entire vast wall of the fortress was trembling.

Even the stairway leading up from the prison was filled with dust.

And yet, only two sounds rang out clearly—

Boom.

[Bloodguard, Iron Demon.]

Boom.

[...Divine Sword.]

Silence fell.

At the top of the staircase, long legs rose, cutting through the gloom.

Rustle.

The hem of black pants clung to pale calves—they didn’t fit her frame. The black sleeves, which should’ve hung long, instead fluttered awkwardly near her waist sash.

As the woman strode out of the darkness, spear in hand—

Step.

Her long, silk-like hair trailed upward into the shaded gloom behind her, spilling down again past her lower back as she stepped onto the next stair.

She had just thrown the spear straight upward from where she stood. In the lingering afterimage, it looked as though she’d ridden the shaft skyward.

The Ak Clan Spear Technique: General Howls at Thunder.

The long spear turned into an arc of deep black, climbing all the way to the sky. Its speed surpassed even the sonic booms of traditional propulsion.

Utterly overwhelming.

In the blink of an eye, the world around her blurred. A single shaft of sunlight cleared her vision. She was now at the absolute center of Ipwang Fortress. The faces of the gathered intruders loomed larger by the instant.

Then, with a flick of her foot, the woman struck the underside of the spear’s shaft with the top of her scarlet-tinged foot.

Time seemed to slow—

And the spear, which had looked ready to shoot forward endlessly, suddenly dipped downward.

CRACK!

It pierced straight through the skull of Madam Go, impaling her into the ground at the center of the fortress’s main training arena.

WHOOOOOOOSH!

The impact exploded the marble plaza into a cloud of white dust, blanketing the area.

And then—

The woman stood atop the tip of the embedded spear, looking down at the intruders.

Even the leaders of Muryong Association and Simmuryun rose to their feet.

They stared up at the woman with the black spear, their expressions rare and tense.

“......”

Her skin glowed red-hot. Not just flushed—flesh-colored like fire.

It was proof of an intense Great Circulation, marking her as something no longer simply human—but rather the embodiment of martial power.

Even the clinging black robes, carved over her refined body like a sculpture, seemed burdened by her presence.

In the silence, the one who first tried to speak was the Radiant Blade Sovereign, Geum Min.

She opened her mouth—That was all.

Because before she could finish, the woman closed the two-step distance and kicked Geum Min in the gut.

THWAAAAAAAACK—!

The sound of flesh bursting—even through body-reinforcing inner energy.

Her bare foot punched through Geum Min’s back, jutting out between her shoulder blades. Her toes pointed like a spearhead.

She’d flown all the way to the River of Three Crossings.

A Death Writ of Expulsion.