Chapter 85: The Proxy (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 85: The Proxy (1)
A spirit fragment from the distant future?
I was momentarily thrown into confusion by the Sword Immortal’s words.
If I took his words literally, it meant the Sword Immortal standing before me was not the spirit fragment I had encountered before; that encounter belonged to the distant future.
Which meant the Sword Immortal I was meeting now was…
At the Lesser Conversation Sword’s words, the Sword Immortal nodded, his brow still furrowed.
Was the man before me truly a person from the past?
“Ha…”
If I hadn't experienced regression myself, I would never have believed this. To think that simply passing through a misty forest would lead me to the Sword Immortal of the past.
I had thought it strange that he looked younger than when I met him in my mindscape.
I found that just as puzzling as the Lesser Conversation Sword did.
The Sword Immortal and others were hidden within a mysterious formation inside the misty forest. I couldn't fathom how such a thing was possible.
Just as I was about to ask why, the Maoshan Sect flashed through my mind.
The Sword Immortal’s eldest disciple said he was from the Maoshan Sect.
Wait, if that was the case…
“…Elder. In the place I come from, the Maoshan Sect has long since been destroyed. Yet, you speak as if it still flourishes. Is this place the past? Or rather, is it the past relative to me?”
My voice trembled as I spoke.
If this truly was the past I was thinking of, it wasn't just a matter of wonder. It meant I had traveled back in time.
In response to my question, a strange light flickered in the Sword Immortal’s eyes. “The Maoshan Sect was destroyed?”
“Yes.”
“Hoo… So that is how it ended, then.”
“…Elder. Did you not see my memories yourself?”
He had read my memories through Heavenly Secret, so why did he speak as if he didn't know?
The Sword Immortal shook his head. “I merely made contact with the other ‘me’ inside you.”
“What? You mean you made contact with your spirit fragment?”
Come to think of it, I had absorbed the Sword Immortal’s spirit fragment, which I obtained from the second spirit treasure, using the Heavenly Authority. I thought it had completely merged with me, but did it still exist as a conscious entity?
The Sword Immortal, still holding my hand, let out a sigh.
“Now I see how you were able to enter this place. It was possible because you possess my spirit fragment.”
“Because I have your spirit fragment?”
“Only those who are invited may enter this place, Dohwaseon. Otherwise, one is not even permitted to set foot inside.”
That explained why I seemed to emerge on the opposite side of the forest whenever I tried to enter. However, I had also been sent to the opposite side a couple of times myself.
I had only managed to enter after ascending upward.
Ah! Alioth.
It seemed I had gained entry upon opening Alioth, one of the stars of the Big Dipper. It was quite a coincidence.
However, my questions remained unresolved.
“To be honest, I still don't understand. Even if I accept that I entered this place because of your spirit fragment, I don't understand why I have come to the past…”
At those words, the Sword Immortal stroked his beard and spoke to me.
“To you, I may certainly be a man from a long time ago. However, Dohwaseon does not operate on such concepts.”
“Pardon?”
What did that mean?
As I looked at him in confusion, the Sword Immortal answered.
“Dohwaseon is not a place that can be defined by the past, present, or future.”
“What on earth does that mean?”
“Dohwaseon is a place completely severed from everything in order to break ties with the secular world. Dohwaseon is nowhere, yet it is everywhere. It exists in every time, yet it is as if it exists in no time at all.”
“……”
It was a highly contradictory statement. What did it mean to be everywhere yet nowhere, and in every time yet no time? I questioned whether such a thing was even logically possible.
“My knowledge is still lacking, so it is difficult for me to understand what you are saying, Elder. Could you perhaps explain it a bit more simply?”
“Haha, it is only natural that you cannot understand, as you have not cultivated the Way.”
Does one have to study the Tao to understand this?
“Dohwaseon is a place completely independent of the passage of time and the changes that occur in the outside world. That is why you were able to come here from the future.”
It was difficult, truly difficult.
But if my general understanding was correct, it seemed that only this place had a completely different concept of time. As the Sword Immortal said, I wasn't a Taoist practitioner, so there was no need to overcomplicate it.
The Sword Immortal clicked his tongue.
“What a remarkable coincidence. For a successor who obtained the spirit fragment I am to leave behind to pierce through countless probabilities and match the exact time and place when Dohwaseon opens.”
Hearing him say it, it felt as though there was something beyond mere coincidence at play. Perhaps it was destiny that I entered this place and met the Sword Immortal of the past.
It was truly fascinating.
But now that my curiosity was satisfied, there was something more important.
“Elder. If I leave Dohwaseon, will I be able to return to the time I came from?”
At my question, the Sword Immortal let go of my hand. Then, his voice grew urgent.
“That almost turned into a disaster.”
“Pardon?”
“Let us go.”
“Right now?”
“We must hurry. The entrance to Dohwaseon is constantly shifting. If we are careless, you might miss the time and place you originally belonged to.”
“Is that true?”
If that was the case, there was no time to waste.
The Sword Immortal waved his hand, and my body, which had been bound by his energy, was freed.
“I shall return your swords.”
Incredibly, as the Sword Immortal raised his hand, the disassembled wooden case reassembled itself into its original form. Then, the Blood Demon Sword and the Evil Connection Sword, which had been lying on the floor, floated up and entered the case.
“Follow me.”
Swish!
With a glance from the Sword Immortal, a sword hanging on the wall flew toward him. He placed his hands behind his back and stepped onto the sword.
The Sword Immortal said to me, “Since you have realized Alioth, you should be able to do this as well.”
Yes, of course I knew how. It was just that I couldn't take my eyes off the original form of Sword Flight Art.
Namcheon.
— Understood!
The Namcheon Iron Sword lay flat so that I could mount it. I stepped onto the sword as well.
Then, as if he had been waiting, the Sword Immortal flew out the window first. I followed close behind him.
Shooooooo!
The Sword Immortal immediately streaked toward the southern sky, the direction from which I had come. As I followed him upward, the sun that had been hanging in the middle of the sky suddenly vanished, and darkness blanketed the heavens.
It was a truly bizarre phenomenon. The warm air of Dohwaseon also turned freezing cold.
Cold?
My breath misted in the air.
!?
It wasn't winter, so what was happening?
The moment I looked down, I froze in shock.
— Woon-hwi… the forest is covered in snow.
Just as the Lesser Conversation Sword said, the entire forest below was blanketed in pure white snow. Furthermore, the terrain itself was completely different from the forest I had originally been in.
The Sword Immortal flew over on his sword and asked me, “Is this the place you came from?”
I replied in a panicked voice, “No. It wasn't winter when I was here.”
“Oh dear…”
The Sword Immortal couldn't hide his distress either. No one had expected such a situation to occur.
Sama Yeong… A-Song… Jwa-baek…
They were the first ones to flash through my mind. I didn't know where this was or what time it was, but from my companions' perspective, I would have simply vanished after flying above the misty forest.
“Elder! Is there no other way to get back to where I was?”
The Sword Immortal spoke to me in a grave voice. “There is no way a change could have occurred in such a short amount of time.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Follow me.”
The Sword Immortal turned his sword around and flew back toward Dohwaseon. My heart was heavy with anxiety, but since there was nothing I could do on my own, I followed him.
As we entered Dohwaseon, the bright sunlight returned, revealing the hidden paradise once more.
The Sword Immortal flew past the temple-like buildings and the lake, heading toward the highest hill in the area. There, a cave-like entrance was visible.
He dismounted from his sword and gestured for me to follow.
“Where are we?”
“The heart of Dohwaseon.”
“The heart?”
“Don't say a word and just follow me.”
“Understood.”
I followed the Sword Immortal into the cave. Usually, entering a cave brings a sense of dampness, but this cave felt artificial, lacking any such moisture. Instead, it felt warm.
Why did I feel an even more intense heat coming from deeper inside?
Suddenly, the Sword Immortal’s expression darkened, and he dashed deeper into the cave with a serious look on his face. I increased my speed to keep up, and before long, a large cavern was revealed.
Whoosh!
“What on earth…”
The entire cavern was engulfed in flames. The walls were covered in talismans—scripture papers written in red ink—and the fire was rapidly spreading across them.
“Hah!”
With a deep sigh, the Sword Immortal swept his sleeve toward the flames. The fire that had been spreading through the cave like a demonic beast was instantly extinguished by a powerful blast of wind pressure.
Whirrrr!
He had suppressed the flames in an instant with his profound internal power. To think his power was so deep that he could extinguish a fire in this massive cavern with a mere gesture. It seemed he wasn't called an immortal for nothing.
“I wondered why the change happened so quickly, and it turns out…”
“Elder. What exactly happened here?”
“……It seems someone set fire to the 36 Celestial Scripture at the heart of Dohwaseon.”
“You mean someone committed arson on purpose?”
The Sword Immortal nodded, looking certain.
I asked in a trembling voice, “Does this have anything to do with me returning to my original time?”
The Sword Immortal pointed upward. I hadn't noticed before, but there was a small hole in the ceiling of the cavern. It was only about the size of a fist, but light streamed through it, casting a long beam in one direction of the cave.
“By observing the 36 Celestial Scripture with this light, I could have calculated the exact point in time you arrived from. But they have been burned.”
“Then what happens to me?”
A sense of dread washed over me. Was I really unable to return to my original time?
The Sword Immortal let out a heavy sigh and spoke.
“I will be honest with you. You have already missed your window.”
“What do you mean?”
“It is impossible to match the exact time and place you came from.”
“!!!”
I was left speechless by his words. Did this mean I could never return to my original time?
My chest tightened. I felt lost, unsure of what to do. Was I to be trapped in an unknown era? This was the worst possible outcome.
Then, the Sword Immortal said to me, “However, since I know the direction the shadow was casting, I believe I can send you back to a similar time if I restore the scriptures based on that.”
I was stunned. For a moment, the despair I felt seemed foolish.
“Why didn't you say so sooner? I was worried I wouldn't be able to go back… Elder?”
However, the Sword Immortal’s expression was not bright. He spoke with a look of regret.
“Young man. How many pages of scripture do you think were in this cavern?”
I looked around. Just looking at the papers, I couldn't even guess the number. Judging by the size of the unburned papers and the writing, there seemed to be at least several thousand.
But then, the Sword Immortal spoke a shocking number.
“There are a total of 386,763 pages.”
“……”
“The preparation period alone to isolate Dohwaseon from the secular world took over ten years.”
I gulped involuntarily. Looking at the walls, more than a third of them had been damaged by the fire. If it took ten years to make them all, as the Sword Immortal said, then it would take at least three to four years to restore them.
“Then I…”
“You have no choice but to stay here until the scriptures are restored.”
“!!!”
Ah… This was driving me crazy. I had come here to find the Lesser Conversation Sword, and now I was facing this disaster.
Was I supposed to take comfort in the fact that even if I spent that much time here, it would be the same moment when I left?
But then, the Sword Immortal delivered even more shocking news.
“……And even after the restoration is complete, considering the margin of error for the scriptures where the light pointed, there will likely be some discrepancy in time.”
“How much of a discrepancy?”
A day or two, or even up to ten days, would be fine. It would be hard on my companions, but manageable. However, that hope was ruthlessly crushed.
“There will be a discrepancy of at least a few months, and at most, a full year.”
“……Ah.”
A curse almost escaped my lips.
— What are we going to do? Everyone will think you're dead.
That was exactly what I wanted to say. If that bastard, the Sword Immortal’s eldest disciple, hadn't forcibly taken me, none of this would have happened.
Of course, it was an honor to meet the man himself, the greatest swordsman in the history of the martial world, but I had no idea what would happen if I was absent for nearly a year without any word.
The Sword Immortal spoke as if to comfort me. “It might end with only a two or three-month discrepancy.”
“……”
Yes, thank you. Not that it's much of a comfort.
“Was that pale-faced man truly your eldest disciple, Elder?”
“Sigh. I have failed in raising my disciple. If it weren't for that boy, you wouldn't be going through this.”
“……”
It was far too serious a matter for me to say it was alright.
The Sword Immortal spoke as if to soothe me. “He is a pure-hearted fellow. Because of that, it became a poison, causing him to clash with others and get into much trouble. But at the very least, none of it was born of malice. It was due to his innocence and ambition. This all happened because my teachings were lacking, so please do not resent the boy too much—”
Patter, patter, patter!
“Senior Brother!”
Before the Sword Immortal could finish his sentence, someone came running into the cavern. It was a man in a middle-aged man's Taoist robe, and everything about him, from his aura to his bearing, was extraordinary.
However, the middle-aged Taoist’s expression was extremely grim.
The Sword Immortal looked at him in confusion and asked, “What is the matter, Junior Brother?”
“Senior Brother Yeo. Something terrible… Ah!”
“Junior Brother?”
“To think he would do this to the scriptures! Ja Gyeong-jeong, you scoundre-e-el!”
The middle-aged Taoist couldn't contain his rage as he looked at the damaged talismans in the cavern. At the mention of Ja Gyeong-jeong, the Sword Immortal couldn't hide his bewilderment.
“What are you talking about? Gyeong-jeong?”
Come to think of it, I remembered the Sword Immortal calling his eldest disciple Gyeong-jeong. It seemed to be his name.
But why was he shouting his name in anger upon seeing the damaged scriptures? Could it be that he was the one who set the fire?
I looked at the Sword Immortal.
“……”
The Sword Immortal’s expression had turned unutterably dark. I didn't know how to describe the emotion, but it looked like extreme disappointment.
The Sword Immortal slowly opened his lips. “What happened, Junior Brother?”
“That bastard Ja Gyeong-jeong ran away with half of Dohwaseon’s eight Dharma Tools.”
“What?”
“Two of the Taoists guarding the Dharma Tools have lost their lives. And according to the injured Taoists, your second disciple, Yang-seon, who tried to stop him, was also forcibly taken away.”
“How could this be!”
The Sword Immortal stumbled, appearing deeply shocked. For a man of his high cultivation to show such a reaction, I could guess how much of a psychological blow he had received.
There is no betrayal greater than one from someone you trusted. Especially if it was a cherished disciple…
Fwooooosh!
A powerful blast of wind pressure erupted around the Sword Immortal. How profound must his internal power be for his mere anger to generate such force? It was enough to give me goosebumps.
I could say with certainty that no one, among the Eight Great Masters or the Four Great Villains, could stand against him.
The Sword Immortal looked at the burned scriptures in the cavern and spoke. “Then, did he do this to prevent pursuit?”
“……It seems so, Senior Brother. Sigh…”
The Taoist let out a sigh. I felt like I was going to explode with anger. This meant that my being trapped here in Dohwaseon was also because of what that bastard had done.
The Sword Immortal raised his voice and shouted, “I shall go out and capture him myself!”
“Senior Brother, I want to do the same this instant, but… have you forgotten the oath you made to Great Immortal Jeongyang? Did the seven of us not agree to leave the secular world and no longer interfere, over two hundred years ago?”
At those words, the Sword Immortal, who looked ready to charge out at any moment, froze. His face turned from red to pale as he forced himself to suppress his rage. Even with his deep cultivation, how could it be easy to endure this?
I was also furious at the man, but I remained silent and watched.
Then, the Sword Immortal’s eyes narrowed as he spoke to the middle-aged Taoist.
“Junior Brother… It just needs to be someone other than us, does it not?”
“What do you mean by that?”
The Sword Immortal slowly turned his head and looked at me.
!?