Chapter 58
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Sudden Enlightenment
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The Sect Leader's face twisted in puzzlement at the sudden question.
"Suddenly...?"
Though she couldn't fathom the intent, it was a query from the victor, so she shared what knowledge she had.
Spells and rituals were required. Instead of inner energy, it drew on mana. Instead of the lower dantian, it channeled the power of the soul and mind through the upper dantian.
She revealed her encyclopedic knowledge, built through her innate genius, explaining concisely.
"No, that's not it."
But So-hyang shook her head firmly.
She approached the kneeling Sect Leader, who had her head bowed in defeat, gently grasped her chin, and lifted it.
"Eek!?"
Their faces drew so close that a single sheet of paper could barely fit between them. Glossy black hair, drooping under gravity, obstructed the Sect Leader's vision.
Their breaths tickled each other's skin, and the sweet, milky fragrance teased the Sect Leader's senses from such proximity.
"Wh-what are you—"
Before she could voice her confusion and embarrassment at the intimate situation, as if on the verge of a kiss, the Sect Leader's words caught in her throat.
"What is the difference between martial arts and sorcery?"
Her eyes.
Quite literally, right before her nose.
Lustrous, milky-white pupils gleamed.
"I'm not asking about superficial details like spells versus techniques, or upper dantian versus lower."
The eyes are said to be windows to the soul, but people instinctively veil them to some degree.
To hide their weaknesses, flaws, and secret desires.
"Form, ability, power—even if a sorcery firing a fireball yields the exact same effect as a qigong blasting scorching yang energy, or if two completely identical outcomes exist, one classified as martial arts and the other as sorcery..."
And now, So-hyang had flung that window wide open.
With their faces so close they shared breaths, locking eyes transmitted the madness within her soul directly to the Sect Leader.
"What makes the distinction?"
Originally, some intentions can only be conveyed non-verbally, beyond words.
Infusing intent into a subdued voice, projecting the heart through the gaze, imprinting madness with a smile.
Unlike the prolonged debate with Gangpyo that slowly reshaped the mind's structure, this was a jolt that shook thought to its core.
"That's the question."
"Uh, ugh."
For all her sheltered upbringing, the Sect Leader was no fragile flower. She had overcome countless trials during her journeys through the jianghu, reaching the transcendent realm at the pinnacle.
She had seen starving elders drooling hungrily at her thighs.
Witnessed opium addicts flipping their eyes back, howling like beasts as they charged.
Even those who slew others for pleasure without reason.
She prided herself on her insight into humanity's innate malice and madness.
But.
The eyes before her now.
Those brilliantly innocent, pure white orbs were utterly alien.
Madness, selflessness, ego dissolution, samadhi.
"The answer is one: the wholeness of existence!"
A thick, immense longing that felt paradoxically void, defying description.
A forceful emphasis hammered into the mind, a voice not loud but intensely resonant.
Forgetting to breathe, she couldn't tear her gaze from So-hyang's eyes, focusing on the words from those faintly rose-tinted lips.
She had no choice but to concentrate.
"If sorcery is a method of intervening in reality, martial arts is the cultivation of expanding one's own existence."
Then what is existence?
What composes a human being?
"As you might guess, essence, energy, and spirit."
If only soul and mind existed, one would be mere will or thought, not a person.
If only energy and strength, merely the flow of nature, not a person.
If only flesh, a lump of meat, no more valuable than weeds.
From that perspective, the Sect Leader—having discarded one leg, hopping on three or running handstands—was like that.
She moved faster than most despite it, blind to the flaw.
Her view of martial arts (wu), taken as her standard, was profoundly distorted.
Achieving transcendence in that state was a miracle, proof of her extraordinary talent.
For example, her vision of the Transformation Realm was one where energy brimmed and spirit bloated, shedding essence.
But So-hyang, who had witnessed true Transformation and peered deeply, knew otherwise.
It might seem similar at a glance, but it wasn't achieved by discarding any one of essence, energy, or spirit.
Rather, the unity of essence, energy, and spirit.
The realm where the three coalesce into one complete existence.
Flesh vaporizes into energy, energy sublimates and merges with soul, soul condenses into flesh—an incomprehensible state.
Doesn't flesh scattering into energy mean death?
Doesn't elevating energy into soul shatter it?
How can soul form substance and weave flesh? Utter nonsense.
Impossible, a horizon tied to death.
If anything, it discards all three, not shedding one.
Even So-hyang, thinking this way, knew only the goal, not the path—a paradoxical realm.
"Focusing on what it achieves or results is sorcery's domain."
Sorcerers awaken methods, drawing wisdom from nature and phenomena.
Theoretically, So-hyang's swordsmanship via spirit sword might lean toward sorcery.
Yet she defined herself as a martial artist due to her reincarnated identity and its developmental direction.
"We can't do that. Rather than reaching results by any means, we must become beings that create results ourselves."
The key isn't reaching the end, but how one arrives.
"That's why what we cultivate isn't called spells, arts, or laws—"
It's called cultivation (gong).
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The theory itself was familiar. No different from what her master had always proclaimed, thumping her tiny chest.
She had believed she could surpass it.
Confident that expanding energy and bloating spirit could substitute for essence's development.
But now, something felt different.
Perhaps because it came after the trial where limbs and life hung by a sword's edge.
Or due to absorbing that intense, profound will through gaze, voice, and gesture.
Or having another's perspective shoved straight into her brain.
"Alright, enough on martial arts. Now for some other advice—want to hear it?"
"Wh-what kind...?"
The spar and talk so far had been the whip driving and prodding the Sect Leader. Now, time for a carrot.
"Love advice—want to hear it?"
"—What?"
"Wait, miss, what are you—"
Qinghe True Person, nodding contentedly at the profound counsel, recoiled in shock at the abrupt irrelevance and tried to interject—
[Ahem, this is all necessary too, so stay quiet.]
"...Grr."
So-hyang's confident declaration seemed purposeful, leaving him no choice.
What on earth is she planning...? Cold sweat beaded on Qinghe True Person's forehead.
"True Person, what's most important in courting someone you like?"
The Sect Leader's skewed path stemmed partly from her qi talent, but also from forbidden affection for her master.
The world's gaze made such love invisible, a taboo.
The solution was clear.
Grow stronger. Most jianghu issues yielded to overwhelming power.
That's where problems began.
The Sect Leader chose specialization: delving into her strongest, most talented martial arts for rapid growth.
To surpass her master, Qinghe True Person, gain weighty words, and dismiss dissent—hence her impatience.
"Getting stronger is good, but understanding the other person comes first, right? Like hobbies or food preferences."
"Uh, uh...?"
The Sect Leader felt warmth bloom in her chest.
She had never revealed her affection to anyone—except this intruder, So-hyang.
She had common sense; the world wouldn't look kindly, and rumors would trouble her master.
Thus, no such advice before. Her unrecognized loneliness felt embraced.
"I can tell—the True Person doesn't reject your feelings because she dislikes you. Of course not; you're her cherished disciple. Emotionally, she definitely holds affection for you."
Not romantic yet, but a seed that time and effort could nurture.
Just inconvenient due to propriety and public eyes.
In other words.
"The key is public perception and face."
In the jianghu, master-disciple bonds weren't rare.
Like parent-child, but not blood-bound by heavenly principles.
If eyes meet and hearts align, why treat it as taboo?
"The issue is this being the ultra-strict Wudang Sect among Daoist sects."
Public eyes aside, their rules forbade marriage and heirs strictly.
Thus, to So-hyang, brute force via power wasn't key.
"Take time—work the outside."
For instance, leverage the Sect Leader's authority to revise sect rules, then wait for disciples below to date and marry, setting precedents.
Foster an atmosphere where intra-sect romances aren't frowned upon.
"Ten to twenty years should suffice. By then, you'll have aged some, easing age-gap qualms."
Effective against public friction and the True Person's personal reservations.
"Your youth is a factor too. You haven't even hit forty yet."
Consider lovers or couples with twenty-year gaps.
A child under ten marrying a twenty-something? Worthy of murder.
A mid-teen girl and thirty-ish youth? Thief treatment, but tolerable.
A thirty-ish woman and fifty-ish man? If hearts align, no issue.
Even a two-hundred-year gap: with the Sect Leader aging fully, the felt chasm narrows greatly.
"You're transcendent. Lifespan aplenty—play the long game, victory's assured."
"R-really? You think so?"
Her ears rang at the invaluable, unimagined advice. Even amid dismemberment and death's door, her poise held; now, speech turned deferential automatically.
"Haha, as they say, diligence wins love? I'm just pointing the direction."
The Sect Leader's eyes reddened. Unfelt solitude healed by warm empathy.
Her foggy, dark future brightened.
"S-sister...!"
A childhood term unspoken since joining the sect slipped out.
"Pardon? I'm hardly old enough for 'sister' from the Sect Leader...?"
"Sister! Thank you...!"
Not a moment for propriety. Natural from one grateful, respectful, reliable.
"...Hee-hee, alright. Sister it is."
So-hyang, briefly flustered, smiled and gently stroked the Sect Leader's head as she tearfully clung like a child.
Mentally, So-hyang was grandmother-age, so refusing felt odd.
"There, that's it. That was the goal. Now, ponder and enlighten yourself."
So-hyang clapped, signaling true end.
"Ah, aah!"
Simultaneously, the Sect Leader slumped to the floor, assuming lotus position.
Glow emanated from half-closed eyes; natural energies swirled around her.
Harbringer of enlightenment.
"...Wow, hit the mark instantly."
Even So-hyang hadn't expected results so swift.
Truly the era's top talent: merely awakening her to limits and brushing aside heart demons triggered self-driven progress.
"Anyway, good outcome."
Turning to Qinghe True Person, she saw joy at his disciple's breakthrough mixed with complex unease.
"No, I mean, haa...!"