At last, the day of the quarterfinals dawned.

“Heaven-Flower Sword Phoenix! Heaven-Flower Sword Phoenix! Heaven-Flower Sword Phoenix!”

“Silver-Flash Spear! Silver-Flash Spear! Silver-Flash Spear!”

The chants for the competitors struck the arena hotter and louder than before, setting the whole grounds thrumming.

Seolhwa stepped up onto the stage and swept her gaze over the arena.

The blue cloth binding her high-tied hair streamed in the wind.

“Heaven-Flower Sword Phoenix! Heaven-Flower Sword Phoenix!”

From the pavilion, those watching her no longer doubted her martial skill.

Namgoong Seolhwa.

She was the tournament’s greatest variable—and the martial prodigy everyone now acknowledged.

“They say she still didn’t show her true hand against the Mount Hua disciple.”

“Namgoong Seolhwa already looks a cut above the rest. It may as well be decided she’s the champion.”

“Perhaps. But that spear man was extraordinary, too. I’ll reserve my judgment.”

Right on cue, Silver-Flash Spear mounted the stage.

“Silver-Flash Spear! Silver-Flash Spear!”

Now the crowd roared his epithet.

A roving spearman who’d wandered the world and carved a name with one spear—Silver-Flash Spear.

He set foot on the platform with the spear that had shared his life.

Namgoong Seolhwa.

Silver-Flash Spear tightened his grip and looked at her.

Through the preliminaries he’d watched the likely favorites closely; he’d marked their strengths and tells.

But she was the one hole in his expectations.

When she crushed the Mount Hae disciple, he’d tried to catch up by studying her, but her next bouts ended so quickly he hadn’t had the chance.

“Fortunate I analyzed the Namgoong Clan’s swordwork.”

Because his first main-event opponent had been Namgoong Woong, he’d gathered as much as he could about the Namgoong Clan’s sword.

For now, he had no choice but to trust that knowledge.

Hooo—

Seolhwa walked to the center of the stage.

He moved as well, eyes never leaving her.

“You know the rules. No need to drag this out—let’s begin.”

They returned to their marks.

Seop Mugwang raised his hand; the starting banner snapped.

Yet neither moved, even after the bout began.

“What’s this? Why aren’t they moving?”

“Did they miss the start? Why are they still?”

Just as the murmurs swelled, timing with the last of the chants—

PANG—!

Seolhwa burst toward Silver-Flash Spear.

Heavenly Wind Sword Technique—Four Dragons in Chaos.

Shra-shra-shra-shra-shrak—!

A blade wreathed in red qi sprang wild, slashing on all four sides.

“Hup!”

His foot hammered down—THUMP—setting his stance.

And then—

KAKAKAKAKAKANG—!

His spear shaft whipped left and right, catching every stroke of Seolhwa’s sword.

“...!”

Speed and force far beyond the previous rounds.

The wind spun up by their sword and spear rattled hair and hems across the stands.

“Wooooaaah!”

The heat in the arena flared anew in an instant.

With the crowd shaking the heavens with their chanting, Seolhwa and Silver-Flash Spear traded blade and point.

Fifth Form—Dragon at Ease!

Crow-Awl Spear Technique!

Seolhwa leapt, cutting down at him.

Silver-Flash Spear, as with his bout against Namgoong Woong, refused to close; he gave ground and circled, sweeping his spear to blunt the edge.

KAKAKAKANG—!

The instant Seolhwa landed, his spear skittered in low, stabbing for her instep.

TAT! TATATAT! TAT!

Seolhwa slid through on Thunder Shadow Steps learned from Seop Mugwang, planting on slivers of space, her footwork carrying her past the thrusts.

In that instant—

WHOOM—!

He chopped from above, pressing the spearhead down as if to pin her skull.

CLANG—!

Seolhwa took the blade on her sword and twisted her body.

But because he’d pressed with the far tip of the shaft, the force in the spearhead multiplied with the bow of the shaft and grew severalfold.

TCHAK—!

She corkscrewed her edge, slipping out from below—

TA-AANG—!

The spear slammed the floor with an ear-splitting shriek.

The blast rattled the arena so hard spectators clapped hands to ears.

HUM— WHOOM— HUM!

Silver-Flash Spear’s offense grew more aggressive.

TANG—! KAKAKANG! TA-AANG!

The long spear swept without respite, while his supple shaft-work left no seam to slip through.

He used the shaft’s rebound to parry her cuts and slot his spearhead into the right places—clean, practiced motions.

“He’s fought a lot,” Seolhwa thought.

And seasoned enough to yield nothing.

“But—”

If it was experience, she was second to no one on this stage.

In her previous life she’d matched blades with many spearmen, and she knew how to dismantle a fighter like Silver-Flash Spear.

“The method’s simple.”

Move faster than he can block.

FWIP—

Catching the instant his shaft flexed, Seolhwa slipped into the spear’s reach.

“!”

To the eye, it looked just like when Namgoong Woong had rushed him.

“Hup!”

He wrenched the spear with all his strength, same as then.

The bent shaft snapped back toward Seolhwa.

But—

CLANG—!

She set her blade and shouldered the shaft aside. Then—

KAGAGAGAGAK—

With her edge canted, she stroked the shaft smoothly, shaving it down and gliding inside.

SHHHIK—!

As her sword skimmed down the shaft toward his nape—

CLANG—!

His left hand flashed up and blocked, catching her edge.

A long, blade-like sliver—like a spare spearhead—sat in his left hand.

“Now you’re finally in earnest?”

Seolhwa’s lips curved.

She’d known since his first main-event bout that he hid a second spearhead on his left thigh.

He shortened his spear grip and crossed it with the blade in his left, batting her sword away.

KAKANG—!

TAT— TADAT.

Seolhwa stepped back.

CLACK— CLACK.

He split the long shaft into two, socketing the spare blades into the empty halves.

The single long spear became two short spears.

HUM— WHOOM—

He gave the short spears a few testing sweeps to settle his feel, then raised both points toward Seolhwa and set his guard anew.

“I recognize your skill, young lady. I’ll use my full strength.”

VMMMM—

A gray sheen of qi swirled around his short spears.

Force aura.

“Oh? I didn’t expect to see force aura in the tournament.”

“Truly, the martial world hides many masters.”

Force aura—something only the near-Transcendent can manifest.

Among the top hundred «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» under heaven, only those brushing the Transcendent are said to wield it. It is rare.

“As I suspected, you were concealing your strength.”

“And you as well, were you not?”

Seolhwa smiled, light and sure.

Her sword, too, kindled with a red aura.

A ripple ran through the arena; those seeing force aura for the first time tensed beneath its pressure.

Sssss—

The air of the grounds turned over.

With the tension drawn taut, Seolhwa and Silver-Flash Spear faced each other.

“Interesting,” she said.

That you can read it, too.

“Then I’ll engage in earnest as well.”

“It’s an honor.”

FWIP— TAP—

This time they moved together.

At the revelation of dual auras, the faction heads on the pavilion and the Martial Alliance elders could not hide their surprise.

Several rose to their feet, leaning toward the stage for even a handspan closer view.

“I—is that even possible?”

“How old is Lady Namgoong this year?”

That Silver-Flash Spear was near-Transcendent shocked them—but he was, by the eye, well past thirty.

Namgoong Seolhwa, by contrast, was scarcely out of girlhood.

And she had returned to the Namgoong Clan only four years ago!

“How can one so young manifest force aura? Even those famed among the Ten Under Heaven did not reach the near-Transcendent at that age.”

“Heavens—!”

All eyes drifted, as if by nature, to Namgoong Cheongun and Namgoong Mucheon.

Father and grandfather watched with nothing but pride as Seolhwa fought.

KWA-KWA-KWA-KWABOOM—!

The clash of aura-wielding masters showed a dominance unlike anything before.

With twin short spears hugged to his arms, Silver-Flash Spear all but flew over the platform.

KWA-KWA-KWA-KWAGAK!

Where his short spears swept, deep gouges scored the stage.

He poured on attack after attack, as if determined never to let Seolhwa seize the initiative.

BOOM! KRAK! KRA-GAK!

Seolhwa shed the pressure of his aura and read his pattern.

Short spears were shorter than a spear, longer than a sword.

He shifted grips long-short, long-short without pause, exploiting that middle length to keep his offense flowing.

But—

“Once aura’s out, distance doesn’t matter.”

Namgoong Clan’s rising-blade canon:

Ten Iron Sword Forms.

SWISH— SHWEEEK—!

Her red sword aura rode the Namgoong rising forms and flew at him.

“!”

He whipped both short spears to parry in a hurry.

First Form—Heaven and Earth Severed.

Second Form—Four Directions Forbidden.

Third Form—Heavenly Stems Pierced.

Cataract in Flight, Stacked Gale, Five Peaks’ Pressure—

A swordwork that held the grandeur of heaven, the mystery of the swift blade, and the Namgoong spirit of rectitude—fully wrought in Seolhwa’s hands.

[Flower among Flowers is Blossom on Snow.]

Layer upon layer, her red sword aura multiplied, filling the arena.

BOOM—! KRAGANG! BOOM!

“Ghh...!”

Red flooded Silver-Flash Spear’s vision.

He swung to beat back the cutting qi, but there was no way to stop the deluge entire.

[When Red Heaven hangs low.]

He recognized the gulf.

Same realm did not mean same tier.

From the beginning, this had not been an opponent he could carry.

This woman— 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Namgoong Seolhwa—

Genius.

A martial talent truly granted by heaven.

[All under Heaven turns white.]

Sssss—

THUD— CLATTER—

Both short spears fell from limp hands.

Silver-Flash Spear sagged to his knees.

His eyes lifted to the sky beyond the ebbing red.

Clouds spread like a snowfall; the overcast was a pure white.

And there, solitary and aloof upon that sky, stood a single woman.

Blossom on Snow.

Truly a woman worthy of the name Heaven-Flower Sword Phoenix.

The first quarterfinal bout of the tournament.

Namgoong Seolhwa—victory.