If you want manhwa like The Stellar Swordmaster, read The Knight Only Lives Today next. It's the closest thing to Vlad's story on WEBTOON right now: a nobody who wants to be a knight, a sword, and no shortcuts. That's also the first pick a reader gave when someone asked r/manhwa this exact question, and we agree with their top three.
What Manhwa Like The Stellar Swordmaster Need to Have
The Stellar Swordmaster (별을 품은 소드마스터) follows Vlad, a streetwise orphan in Schoarra, a trading town whose slums are run by five crime bosses. When a disgraced knight wrecks the brothel he works for, Vlad turns to the sword, and he can ask his sentient blade for advice as he rises in service to House Vayezid. So a real match needs three things: a hero who starts at the bottom, a Western-fantasy knight world rather than murim, and growth that's earned.
The English run on WEBTOON is in Season 2, past Episode 130 with a few more in the app, and it updates every Wednesday. WEBTOON also named it first on the development slate it announced with Warner Bros. Animation in November 2025, though no release date has been set.
In an August 2026 r/manhwa thread, a reader who loves "underdog stories" and "overcoming hardship" asked for more like it. The most specific answer ranked "1.Eternally Regressing Knight 2. The Regressed Mercenary's Machinations 3. The Ember Knight." Those are our top three too.
1. The Knight Only Lives Today
The Knight Only Lives Today (cover via AniList).
Enkrid has wanted to be a knight his whole life and doesn't have the talent. Then he dies and wakes up at the start of the same day, which gives him unlimited chances to train and fight. Fans also call it Eternally Regressing Knight. It's the best match for Vlad's grind: nothing is handed over, he just repeats the hard thing until he's good at it.
It's on WEBTOON and on a season break; the latest posts are the author's afterwords from August 27, 2026, with a "will return" note. Our full review covers where the first season lands.
2. The Regressed Mercenary Has a Plan
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The Regressed Mercenary Has a Plan (cover via AniList).
Cecil Perdium, the Mercenary King, dies before he can avenge his family, and learns too late that Duke Delphine didn't act alone. He wakes up as his teenage self with a bad reputation and a family whose soldiers and knights are deserting. Same knight-and-house politics as Vlad's service to House Vayezid, with a hero who already knows how the war goes. Some lists still use its old name, The Regressed Mercenary's Machinations.
It updates every Wednesday on WEBTOON; Episode 99 went up on October 6, 2026.
3. The Ember Knight
The Ember Knight (cover via AniList).
Na-Gyunn watches his twin brother Na-Jin get murdered and takes his brother's identity to get revenge. The problem is that Na-Jin was the prodigy, so Na-Gyunn has to train himself into a knight-in-training good enough to pass as him. It has the strongest underdog setup on this list.
The English run on WEBTOON reached Episode 245 in August 2026 and is on a break with a "will return" note. It's also on Tappytoon.
4. Legend of the Northern Blade
Legend of the Northern Blade (cover via AniList).
This is murim, not knights, but it's the best finished pick if you want a lone swordsman building himself up from nothing. The leader of the Northern Heavenly Sect is accused of siding with the enemy and forced to disband the sect, and his son Moo-Won grows up under watch until he escapes to the mountains to train. It finished at 202 chapters and reads in English on Tappytoon. Start here if you want an ending now. Our review explains why the second half is the best part.
For the wider murim field these swordsmen come from:
Best Murim Manhwa 2026 →
5. Swordmaster's Youngest Son
Swordmaster's Youngest Son (cover via AniList).
Jin Runcandel is thrown out of his sword clan for poor swordsmanship, makes a contract with the god Solderet, dies anyway, and wakes up as a baby with a second chance. It's flashier than The Stellar Swordmaster, and the god-contract does some of the heavy lifting, so it's a looser match. The English edition is on Tapas as The Swordmaster's Son: 201 episodes, with Season 2 finished and a hiatus announced in September 2026. Tapas itself closes on March 31, 2027, so check our Tapas shutdown explainer before you spend Ink there.
6. The Undefeatable Swordsman
The Undefeatable Swordsman (cover via AniList).
U-Mun Song is an innkeeper's son too frail for martial arts, until a guest pays with a painting that somehow gives him skills he never trained. It's the second finished pick: the Korean run ended in June 2026 at 309 chapters. The English edition on Tapas is still catching up (past 260 episodes, updating Sundays). Pick it for an underdog with more comedy than Vlad gets.
7. The Academy's Genius Swordsman
The Academy's Genius Swordsman (cover via AniList).
Ronan is the last soldier standing after a war against giants, and his dying commander uses her last time slip to send him back so he can enroll at the Phileon Academy. Knights, an empire and a swordsman who's better than he looks: good if Vlad's training scenes are your favorite part. It's on WEBTOON in Season 2, past Episode 140, updating Sundays.
8. Gosu
Gosu (cover via AniList).
A student sets out to avenge his master, who was betrayed by his own men, only to learn the traitors are already dead. It's the third finished pick (233 chapters in Korea) and has the dry humor The Stellar Swordmaster mostly skips. The catch: WEBTOON's English run is marked completed but stops after 21 episodes from 2017, so you won't get far in English. We list it last for that reason.
Our Take on Manhwa Like The Stellar Swordmaster
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Read The Knight Only Lives Today if you love watching Vlad grind, The Ember Knight if you love the underdog revenge, and Legend of the Northern Blade if you'd rather have a finished story right now. The Regressed Mercenary Has a Plan is the pick for the house politics. Everything below that is a good sword story with one or two of the ingredients, not all three.
How We Checked This
We re-checked every status, count and platform on AniList, WEBTOON, Tapas and Tappytoon and logged each in our sources table. This pass rebuilt the list around readers' own suggestions (three new picks replace The Breaker, Nano Machine and Return of the Blossoming Blade), corrected Gosu (its English edition is only a short 2017 run) and dropped picture captions and premises we couldn't source.
Last reviewed: October 14, 2026
Related Reading
- The Stellar Swordmaster Review: our verdict on Vlad's climb, if you haven't decided whether to keep up weekly.
- The Stellar Swordmaster Reading Guide: where Season 2 starts and how far ahead the app is.
- The Knight Only Lives Today Review: the full case for our top pick.
- The Regressed Mercenary's Machinations Review: how Cecil's second run plays out.
- Legend of the Northern Blade Review: the finished murim run we'd binge first.
- Academy's Genius Swordsman Review: Ronan's return to the academy, season by season.
