Chapter 8
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Propriety Opens the Gates of Fate
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“Even if you say you don’t know, is that how it is? If not me, then who?”
“Well then, now that our accounts are settled, this Laeheon vows never to cross paths with you again.”
“Very well. Let us never meet again. It was no good fortune that brought us together. That said, I have one final task for you and a few lessons to impart, so wash your ears and listen well.”
“A task, you say… Does that mean our accounts aren’t truly settled?”
“Heavens, look at this fool. Our business may be done, but what of the young Azure Purity lay disciple you wounded? You don’t plan to just let it slide, do you?”
Only then did Laeheon recall the Azure Purity inner sect disciple he had wounded.
Seonwoyong prattled on a bit more about the task and the lessons before rising from his seat.
“The teachings I’ve bestowed upon you are worth thousands of gold taels—nay, priceless. You’ve gained immensely today. Practice them diligently, and one day, as you lie dying, you’ll think of me and wish to kowtow in gratitude.”
Would that really be the case?
Laeheon couldn’t quite compute it.
“I’ll stop by some tavern for a drink on my way back, so see to it that you carry out my instructions at once.”
Once Seonwoyong departed the Gold Soul Money House, Laeheon slumped in place, lost in thought.
The words Seonwoyong had called teachings swirled endlessly in his mind.
A short while later, Laeheon headed to the Lotus Flower Pavilion. Even then, he was scarcely in his right mind.
He had never dreamed that such a supreme master capable of cornering him like this existed in the present martial world.
The current martial world spoke of the Three Hidden Ones, Four Wonders, Five Divinities, Six Immortals, Seven Kings, and Eight Eccentrics—thirty-three figures hailed as the strongest.
The three absolute masters, so long concealed that they were more legend than reality: the Three Hidden Ones.
The four experts who wandered unbound by the affairs of the jianghu: the Four Wonders.
These seven could be considered absent from the jianghu altogether.
Thus, the remaining twenty-six were the true pinnacle of the current martial world.
Laeheon, the Gold Soul Demon Blade, was far beneath them, but even he had believed few in Sichuan could match him.
Yet the man he met today was a master beyond imagination.
It was a day to etch and re-etch into his soul that there were heavens beyond heavens.
The blade hovering azure above his head had been a Heart Sword, without a shred of doubt.
The supreme realm called the pinnacle of sword arts and martial prowess alike.
No one had even witnessed it, let alone attained it—an absolute realm of legend.
But Laeheon was certain.
Today, he had faced that very Heart Sword.
At first, he wondered if it might be Seong Manjo, one of the Six Immortals known as the Thunder Sound Zither Immortal, emerging in pursuit of reversal of age.
But he dismissed the notion at once.
The Thunder Sound Zither Immortal, master of sound arts with the Seven String Zither, could never wield a Heart Sword.
As Laeheon strode through the great gates of the Lotus Flower Pavilion without announcement, the gatekeepers stared in tense astonishment.
“I’ve come to apologize for my offense the other day. Please guide me to the warrior I injured that night.”
The gatekeeper masked his surprise and led him to the room where I Sochang lay.
Laeheon presented a prepared gift to the bedridden I Sochang and offered words of apology.
“This Laeheon is truly sorry for the other day. I overindulged in drink and acted like some street thug. Please rest well and recover swiftly. I’ve brought modest medicinal herbs to aid your body and a hundred taels of silver—pray accept them.”
Of course, he was merely following Seonwoyong’s instructions, but he couldn’t help feeling it was the right thing to do.
The Azure Purity Sect was a righteous sect of renown he could not afford to trifle with.
I Sochang lay there, mouth agape in bewilderment, staring at Laeheon.
Just then, the Azure Flower Sword Sacheonggi entered, escorting an old Taoist priest.
The elder following Sacheonggi was so short he scarcely reached four-and-a-half feet, let alone five.
He wore tattered Daoist robes verging on rags and carried a threadbare Daoist whisk.
A plain sword hung at his waist, his beard was snow-white like a goat’s, and his roughly tied-back white hair was topped with a dust-caked Daoist cap.
Yet for all his shabby garb and rat-like face, his complexion glowed red with a solemn aura.
Seeing Sacheonggi treat the elder with utmost reverence, Laeheon easily deduced his high standing in the Azure Purity Sect.
Glancing at the elder’s bearing, he swiftly pieced together the man’s identity.
He immediately clasped his hands in a fist salute and bowed deeply.
“This unworthy Laeheon of the martial world is profoundly blessed today to pay respects to Senior Ilseonja, the Dew-Cutting Sword Guest, one of the famed Eight Eccentrics.”
Hearing this, the old Daoist threw his head back in roaring laughter.
“Ha ha… I’ve heard your ill name many times and thought I’d have to teach you a lesson someday. But seeing you today, those rumors don’t hold entirely true. You’ve keen eyes to recognize me and observe such propriety—perhaps no harsh lesson is needed after all. A fine turn of events. Boundless mercy of the Buddha. Heh heh…”
The Dew-Cutting Sword Guest Ilseonja was one of the Eight Eccentrics and a former supreme master of the Azure Purity Sect, senior even to the current sect leader and elders.
He stood among Sichuan’s three absolute masters alongside the Five Divinities’ Golden Summit Divine Nun Cheongmyeong of the Emei Sect and the Seven Kings’ Myriad Heaven Poison King Dangpo of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Laeheon had never imagined encountering the Dew-Cutting Sword Guest Ilseonja here today.
Renowned for wandering the jianghu unbound, meddling in all manner of奇事 after withdrawing from Azure Purity affairs, who would think him in Chengdu?
“My apologies. I should have paid respects long ago, yet here I am, a tardy junior. Please forgive this dull-witted fool. The other day, in a drunken stupor, I wounded a junior of Azure Purity, so I’ve come now to atone.”
“Well said, well said… One cannot fault a true man for drink or dalliance with women. But to own one’s mistake and make amends with such propriety—that is the mark of a true man.”
Ilseonja smiled faintly and continued.
“I came to Chengdu hearing of your misdeeds, intent on teaching you a lesson, but now there’s no need. I’m truly glad. I only hope you never sour relations with Azure Purity in this narrow land of Sichuan.”
For the rough, crude, and rude Laeheon to show such profound courtesy—even to the Dew-Cutting Sword Guest Ilseonja—was no small feat.
Yet strangely, Seonwoyong’s earlier teachings lingered in his heart, shaping his words and deeds.
Seonwoyong’s lesson had been surprisingly Confucian and simple.
The world is vast, the heavens high; the Way measures the human realm, and propriety opens the gates of fate. Henceforth, shun brutish ways and treat all with utmost courtesy.
Do so, and you shall avert coming calamities and live out your days in peace.
At the time, it had struck him as incoherent nagging.
Yet already, those words proved their worth, profoundly altering Laeheon’s fate.
Had he ignored Seonwoyong and acted on his own savage nature, he would now be receiving Ilseonja at the Gold Soul Money House—with dire consequences.
He would have clashed blades with Ilseonja head-on, but Laeheon stood no chance against him.
“Huuu… If we had fought…”
Likely, by now he’d be drenched in his own blood, sprawled on cold earth, drawing his final breath.
A short while later, Laeheon examined I Sochang’s wounds more closely, apologized to Sacheonggi as well, bid farewell to Ilseonja, and departed the Lotus Flower Pavilion.
As he stepped out, the gentle strains of a seven-string zither reached his ears.
It was the tune “Like the Three Delights.”
Somehow, Seonwoyong had returned to the Lotus Flower Pavilion, playing to bid Laeheon a fond farewell and good life.
For Laeheon, it had been a long, long day—strange beyond measure.
Yet his steps homeward were unexpectedly light, his face bright.
* * *
“Does dew cease to be dew once severed by frost?”
These were the words of the one who, in his youth, had perfected the Azure Purity Sect’s supreme sword art, the Azure Clouds Autumn Rain Sword Method, to the Twelfth Star realm—cleaving hundreds of dawn dewdrops from Azure Purity Mountain’s trees and grasses in a single, ceaseless stroke.
Ilseonja’s secular name before ordination was Yang Song, a native of Changsha in Hunan Province.
As the direct disciple of the Azure Purity Sect’s greatest master of the era, Jungyangja, he mastered all the sect’s signature arts, including the Azure Clouds Autumn Rain Sword Method. By his forties, he was already renowned as the sect’s top expert.
Yet Ilseonja’s fame as one of the Eight Eccentrics stemmed not solely from Azure Purity martial arts.
From his early years, alongside the sect’s techniques, he studied reading the heavens above and the principles of earth and water below, delving into the divination of human fates.
In his later years, he grew even more famed not for martial prowess, but for reading the portents of heaven, feng shui, exorcism, demon-banishing, and divination.
Rarely staying at Azure Purity Mountain, he roamed the jianghu, aiding those in peril to the best of his abilities.
At times driving off demons and ghosts, he left countless奇事 in his wake, earning the awe of common folk as a living deity.
His movements so elusive that even Azure Purity could not track his comings and goings, Ilseonja had appeared suddenly just yesterday.
It was precisely when they agonized over whom to dispatch from the mountain to handle the Lotus Flower Pavilion incident, unable to find a suitable candidate.
An elder of his stature could not guarantee solo victory over the Gold Soul Demon Blade Laeheon.
Sending two or more would tarnish Azure Purity’s prestige.
Nor could the sect leader himself descend for such a trifling matter.
Handling the Lotus Flower Pavilion affair proved unexpectedly thorny.
Then Ilseonja appeared unannounced, heard the full story, and came straight to the pavilion today without hesitation.
As Ilseonja and Sacheonggi watched Laeheon exit the gates, the serene notes of Seonwoyong’s “Like the Three Delights” filled their ears.
Ilseonja closed his eyes, immersed in the melody.
Then, abruptly, he instructed Sacheonggi.
“Cheonggi, go prepare a simple spread of wine and dishes. I must go pay my respects first.”
“What do you mean, Martial Uncle?”
Sacheonggi asked, puzzled.