Chapter 17
Chapter 17
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Yin hour, before the sun had yet risen.
Within the thick darkness that still blanketed everything, a young man was climbing the steep and narrow mountain path leading up to Falling Goose Peak.
A youthful Taoist with a neat and tidy appearance.
It was Jeokgeom.
"Huff... huff."
Jeokgeom shook his head as he exhaled the air that filled his lungs to the brim.
He had felt it yesterday when climbing up as well, but the path to Falling Goose Peak was quite rough and treacherous.
A short while later, upon arriving at his destination—a modest thatched hut—Jeokgeom spread his arms wide.
"Hoo..."
He took a deep breath and raised his head.
Inside the dilapidated hut that looked as if it might collapse at any moment was the person he sought.
Cheonhwi.
Fourteen years old, yet his martial uncle.
In the past, he wouldn't have paid such a person any mind, but now it was different.
Jeokgeom, who had been utterly captivated by Cheonhwi's divine might at the Five Mountains Conference, had come to humbly request instruction from the younger Cheonhwi.
'Today is the day.'
Having caught his breath, Jeokgeom carefully and reverently knelt down slowly.
'That day, Martial Uncle Cheonhwi's skill was overwhelming. Even if he's younger than me, that prowess is beyond measure...'
"Senior Brother Jeokgeom?"
His thoughts shattered by the call, Jeokgeom flinched and hurriedly turned his head.
There stood a familiar woman.
"Junior Sister Seollan? Why are you here?"
As the two stared at each other in mutual surprise at this completely unexpected encounter,
Suddenly, the door burst open with a bang.
Cheonhwi then appeared. Seeing him haphazardly dressed in his Daoist robes with disheveled hair, Jeokgeom and Seollan hastily bowed their heads and cried out.
"Martial Uncle!"
"Martial Uncle!"
Cheonhwi glared at the two calling out to him, then grimaced and spoke.
"You're noisy. Shut up."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Late afternoon. Hyeondo, who had come to the hut as usual, glanced at the two kneeling on the ground before asking Cheonhwi in front of him.
"I've come to learn about that Plum Blossom Sword Art you showed that day... Why are these children here?"
"I don't know. They've been like that since morning."
At Cheonhwi's reply, dripping with annoyance, the kneeling Jeokgeom and Seollan paled in fright and hastily added.
"Th-that's because we came to request instruction from Martial Uncle Cheonhwi, Grandmaster."
"Th-this girl has also come seeking your guidance, Martial Uncle. Grandmaster."
"Seeking guidance?"
Hyeondo crossed his arms and fell deep into thought at their response.
As time passed and the furrow between his brows deepened, Jeokgeom and Seollan shrank back.
Especially Seollan's face turned ashen.
She was a nameless disciple who hadn't even received a Daoist title.
Of course, due to her background, Mount Hua Sect had deliberately not given her one, and she was no different from a true mountain disciple, but in the end, she remained a nameless disciple.
At that moment, Hyeondo met their eyes.
Gazing steadily at the two trembling in fear of an impending scolding, he turned his gaze to Cheonhwi.
'Receiving instruction from Cheonhwi...'
At first, he had intended to reprimand Jeokgeom and Seollan for daring to request instruction.
But upon deeper reflection, it suddenly seemed like a good thing.
The two he had seen at the Five Mountains Conference's sparring matches overflowed with talent. And if the supreme genius of past and present, Cheonhwi, taught them...
He swallowed hard.
'But how to persuade Cheonhwi for their sake...'
"Hmm."
As Hyeondo bowed his head in deep contemplation, Cheonhwi spoke up.
"If there's nothing else, can I go inside?"
Hyeondo startled at the sight of Cheonhwi turning to leave and uncrossed his arms.
"Ah, no."
Hyeondo hurriedly grabbed Cheonhwi.
If this training session ended now, the one who would regret it was Hyeondo himself, not Cheonhwi.
"Gr-grandmaster?"
"Grandmaster...?"
Jeokgeom and Seollan found it hard to swallow their bewilderment at Hyeondo's urgent demeanor.
Cheonhwi was an exceptional first-generation disciple.
Yet Hyeondo was Mount Hua's greatest expert.
But the scene before them made it seem as if Hyeondo was the one clinging to Cheonhwi.
As the two alternately looked at Hyeondo and Cheonhwi with shaken eyes, Hyeondo had no time to mind their reactions.
"You want to know about that Plum Blossom Sword Art from before."
"Plum Blossom Sword Art? Ah, the Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword?"
"Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword...?"
Wrinkle formed on Hyeondo's forehead.
No such sword art existed in Mount Hua Sect's repertoire, as far as he knew.
"...Is it our sect's sword art?"
After much deliberation, Hyeondo's voice, lowered gravely, echoed in the air.
And Cheonhwi responded lightly.
"I newly created it."
"...!"
Hyeondo's eyes widened to the utmost. The same went for Jeokgeom and Seollan, who had been eavesdropping from the side.
'Newly created?'
'R-recreated the Plum Blossom Sword Art?'
Ignoring the three in shock, Cheonhwi continued.
"I filled in the deficiencies of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art and established a new sword art."
Hyeondo, who had been dazed, cried out in alarm.
"I-is that true?"
"Why would I lie?"
Replying in a matter-of-fact tone, Cheonhwi then looked at Hyeondo and opened his mouth.
"So you want to know about the Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword?"
For an instant, Hyeondo's gaze changed.
His eyes blazed fiercely as he clenched his fists tight.
"Yes."
Cheonhwi smirked at Hyeondo.
He had changed.
In the past, he would have thrown a fit about violating sect rules or some such, but now he accepted it naturally.
'Well, he's always preferred exchanging martial theories over just teaching techniques.'
He was truly obsessed with martial arts.
For a man of his age, debating martial principles with a mere fourteen-year-old would bruise his pride, yet he showed no such sign.
On the contrary, he welcomed it.
'That's why I'm teaching him like this.'
Had it been anyone else, he wouldn't have shared.
"How does one execute it?"
Perhaps sensing he could learn it, Hyeondo's eyes were bloodshot with excitement.
"You know the Plum Blossom Sword Art, right?"
"Of course I do."
"Then that's enough."
Cheonhwi immediately recited the incantation formula.
After listening to the formula for about the time it takes to burn one incense stick, Hyeondo nodded and scribbled on the ground.
"Amazing. To interpret the formula so easily."
"The Plum Blossom Sword Art just had too many unnecessary formulas."
"Gasp!"
"Gasp!"
Jeokgeom and Seollan gasped at Cheonhwi's blasphemous words. But nothing happened as they feared.
"Hahaha, it was a bit complicated, yes."
Hyeondo quietly agreed.
The Plum Blossom Sword Art was interwoven with all sorts of Daoist formulas, making it tricky to learn at first.
Compared to that, what of the Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword?
Daoist formulas? None.
Complicated formulas? None.
All that existed were simple formulas.
But there was something hard to grasp.
Hyeondo immediately picked up a small twig from the ground and swung it wildly like a sword.
"According to the formula, the sword flowers should spread here. But how do you gather the sword flowers in one place and move them?"
The formula was simple, yet impossibly vast.
As if dozens or hundreds of martial arts were fused together.
"Rather than dispersing your internal energy here, concentrate it and unleash it with an explosive feel, and you can execute the first three forms."
Hyeondo swung the twig in the air according to the explanation and asked.
Whoosh— whoosh—
"Is this the way to execute it?"
"No, that's not it. Deploying the sword flowers is important too, but more crucially, you must unify your inner power. Like watering the ground with it..."
As the two conversed,
Swipe—
Jeokgeom and Seollan exchanged glances, their eyes sparkling brightly.
'Senior Brother...?'
'Junior Sister too?'
In that fleeting moment, they realized the other was thinking the exact same thing and nodded simultaneously.
'I have no idea what they're talking about.'
'I can't understand a word.'
Contrary to their sparkling eyes, the two understood nothing at all.
And Cheonhwi didn't understand either.
But the difference was that it was Hyeondo who couldn't execute the Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword.
'No, I explained the formula so simply. Mount Hua's top expert can't grasp this easy formula.'
Cheonhwi felt stifled.
But Cheonhwi didn't know.
Though the formula had been simplified, the martial principles contained in the Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword had reached unimaginable heights.
Easy by his standards, but even a Heavenly Martial Realm expert would struggle to properly execute it in a single day.
"Don't you know Yu-gu-mu-gu?"
"Yu-gu-mu-gu?"
"The Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword has no fixed rules. It looks like sword dance, but that's the completed sword form."
Hyeondo felt stifled too.
How could a sword dance be a sword form?
Sword dance was sword dance, sword form was sword form.
They were separate, weren't they?
Yet to say they were the same defied everything he knew of martial arts.
But what could he do?
Cheonhwi had accomplished it.
"Ugh, Yu-gu-mu-gu..."
Racking his brain for every martial art he knew, he cautiously asked.
"But is it really a form with no rules?"
Cheonhwi sighed at Hyeondo, who hadn't grasped a thing from the explanation.
Then, a certain phrase suddenly came to mind, and he voiced it.
"Ah! Then you know Bu-byeon-eung-man-byeon, right?"
At the familiar term after so long, Hyeondo beamed and nodded vigorously.
"Hahaha! Of course. The unchanging responds to the myriad changes, yes."
"Exactly."
"...?"
Seeing Hyeondo's puzzled expression, Cheonhwi felt his chest tighten.
'How does he not get something this simple?'
Feeling like his chest might burst from frustration, Cheonhwi finally picked up a wooden sword.
"Here, watch."
With those words, he drew up his inner power.
"Ooh!"
"Such inner energy control!"
Jeokgeom and Seollan’s eyes gleamed.
Having understood nothing of the prior discussion, they now gazed at Cheonhwi with eyes of admiration at the visible spectacle.
"I'll show you once."
As Cheonhwi spoke, his sword moved grandly, and red plum blossoms bloomed across Mount Hua.
"Heavens..."
"Such a sword form..."
"Beautiful."
The three, lost in wonder, stared entranced at Cheonhwi dancing a beautiful sword dance cradling plum blossoms and the world.
An hour passed like that.
"...It'll be impossible to execute today."
Hyeondo, who had intently watched Cheonhwi's Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword, muttered softly with a crestfallen expression.
It was still beyond his level.
'I've reached the Heavenly Martial Realm, yet even imitating it is daunting.'
A hollow smile lingered on his lips.
His admiration for Cheonhwi's talent had surpassed awe into reverence.
"If you know the formula, you'll manage somehow."
As Cheonhwi whispered,
Swipe—
Hyeondo, still not shaken from the afterglow of Cheonhwi's Seven Ultimate Plum Blossom Sword, looked at the two with dazed expressions and asked.
"Then what about these two?"
"Just leave them; they'll figure it out."
At Cheonhwi's indifferent reply, Hyeondo immediately spoke as if it were the right call.
"Why not have them attend to you instead?"
"Attend to me?"
Cheonhwi perked up at the words.
Attendants? That would certainly be convenient.
As he pondered, memories of his past minions naturally surfaced.
'Hmm, Ghost Demon and Flying Demon were quite quick and capable.'
Cheonhwi was entertaining thoughts that would shock the Central Plains if heard.
Who were Ghost Demon and Flying Demon?
The great demonic heads who had turned the Central Plains upside down in just two years of activity and forced the Geomchang Sect to seal its gates.
Yet mere minions to him.
Cheonhwi looked at Jeokgeom and Seollan.
At his gaze, the two stood rigid like statues.
'Compared to those guys, they're a bit...'
Compared to Mount Hua's second-generation disciples.
Thoughts that would wound Ghost Demon and Flying Demon's pride, but Cheonhwi took it for granted.
For to him, Ghost Demon, Flying Demon, or Mount Hua's second-generation disciples were all much the same.
'Still, it'd be handy to have them around.'
As Cheonhwi pondered briefly, Hyeondo's eyes flashed.
'If these two learn from Cheonhwi, they'll make massive strides.'
It was closer to certainty than expectation.
Cheonhwi's instruction was that exceptional.
Not missing the chance, he asked Jeokgeom and Seollan, who were swallowing nervously.
"What do you two think?"
"Perfect!"
"Perfect!"
Grasping the intent behind Hyeondo's question, the two's eyes lit up simultaneously, and they chorused in unison.
"Anything for attendants, right?"
Cheonhwi asked softly.
Hyeondo felt a twinge of unease for a moment but shook his head and spoke.
"Naturally. Isn't that so?"
"Yes!"
"We'll do anything."
Cheonhwi gazed at the two responding thunderously, as if they had waited ages.
Soon, looking into their starry, sparkling eyes, he nodded.
"Good. Then it's settled."
"Thank you!"
"Thank you!"
At the long-awaited response, the two bowed deeply in joy.
Thus, they failed to see it.
The upturned corners of Cheonhwi's mouth.
Or the grim future about to befall them.