I thought it was more like "If the Heaven Sword does not appear, who can compete with it for the top?" It does imply that they are equal, but the "control wulin" part was more directly attributed to Dragon Sabre. Heaven Sword is strong enough to challenge the Dragon Sabre, but isn't really meant to be the ruling symbol the Dragon Sabre was supposed to be (although nobody really paused to try and figure out how holding a sabre in your hands would actually help you control wulin).