Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand
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A little before Hyeonryeo arrived.
Rustle— rustle—
Cheonhwi was following the formulas written in the martial arts manual with his right hand while flipping through the pages briskly with his left.
In the midst of doing so, he shook his head upon seeing a blank page appear.
‘Now there are even missing formulas.’
He looked at it with incredulous eyes, then decided to read the remaining formulas anyway, figuring he might as well.
The core of the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand consisted of two things.
Orchid Flower and Dao Acupoint.
‘Is this what it means?’
Swoosh—
He raised his right hand and swung it.
From top to bottom, from bottom to top.
His right hand, with fingers rippling like waves, cut through the air like fluttering wind, bouncing off empty space several times.
The two words, which seemed utterly unrelated, merged into one martial art and bore fruit.
‘So that’s how it is.’
Like handling an orchid flower, the soft and graceful hand movements rode the flow.
Slither—
It traced along the path to the acupoint.
Flow has its way, and it leads the path.
This Flow Has Its Way and Leads the Path, heavily emphasized in the final formula of the manual, was the key that pierced the heart of the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand.
Thud.
After a moment like that, he set aside the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand manual.
‘The important formulas are all missing.’
He realized what the missing formulas were.
And rightly so, since he had seen the old woman demonstrate it many times in the past and knew its flow.
In his mind, he recalled unfolding the Jade Ring Wondrous Step while unleashing the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand like a madwoman.
A thoroughly vicious and ruthless technique.
‘Then...’
He drew a human figure in the empty air and regulated his breathing.
Then he withdrew his right hand, which had moved so softly and languidly, and straightened his fingers rigidly.
In that instant, the air changed.
In a brief moment, his right hand, now imbued with sharp momentum, took the form of a sword and soon slashed diagonally.
Whoosh—
It pulled in the human figure and bound it.
The soft hand gesture didn’t deflect the opponent’s attack like a golden na technique; instead, it rotated the surrounding air to draw the opponent toward him.
And the now-defenseless opponent...
Stab.
Was pierced through.
Crash!
The figure with a hole pierced through it shattered.
‘Yes, that’s it.’
This was precisely the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand that the old woman had unleashed—a ruthless technique that struck the death acupoint without the slightest hesitation.
‘This is the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand.’
He recalled the nickname the cultists had given it after witnessing the old woman’s technique.
Hand movements as soft as an orchid flower, yet sharp and fierce like a blade that draws blood the moment one approaches.
‘Of course, it’s probably forgotten by now.’
He shrugged his shoulders.
Three hundred years had passed.
It was natural for martial arts to change.
Sometimes the formulas evolved, and sometimes they were lost like this.
Especially in the case of the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand, it was severe.
Of course, he could guess the reason.
This was the Mount Hua Sect.
A Daoist sect.
‘Would the Mount Hua Sect, with its long history rooted in the Dao, leave such a murderous technique intact? No one learned it, and they didn’t even notice the formulas had been lost.’
He glanced at the archive.
The Demon Extermination Sword Art was an excellent sword technique, but it was so distant from Daoist sword arts that it had been left to gather dust.
‘Well, that’s that.’
He cut off his train of thought abruptly.
Adapting to the current situation three hundred years in the future, this was nothing major.
‘The Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand is done now.’
Thud.
Having committed the properly restored formulas of the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand to memory, he closed the manual with a satisfied expression.
At that moment.
“Hwi-ya!”
A booming voice that shook the quiet Ten Thousand Scriptures Pavilion made him turn his head.
‘Hyeonryeo?’
At her completely unexpected appearance, he stopped practicing the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand.
As he looked at her with a puzzled expression...
Grip!
Hyeonryeo, who had approached right in front of him, grabbed Cheonhwi’s shoulder firmly with her hand. Then, widening her eyes, she shouted loudly.
“Wh-when did you learn martial arts?!”
“What?”
He uttered in disbelief.
Cheonhwi could confidently say that no one in the world had learned more martial arts than he had.
Yet she was asking if he had learned martial arts.
He was so flabbergasted he lost his words.
“I’ve known martial arts since before...”
Mid-sentence, he flinched.
His gaze met Hyeonryeo’s incredulous expression.
In her deep, clear black eyes, the face of a young Daoist wearing an exasperated look rippled.
Oh no!
Too immersed in martial arts, he had been late to realize.
That he was not Dokgo Goyeun right now, but Cheonhwi of the Mount Hua Sect.
Panicking, he glanced around, spotted the martial arts manual in his left hand, quickly held it up, and smiled awkwardly.
“Haha, I was just following what’s written in this manual.”
“...!”
Grip!
In an instant, his shoulder throbbed.
Damn, she’s strong.
As his face twisted in pain, trying to endure it, Hyeonryeo’s hand trembled.
“You’re saying you learned the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand just by following the manual?”
She muttered softly, then looked stunned as her hand went limp.
Then she thrust her face close.
“Then what was that Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand you just performed? Some of the formulas in the manual are missing, making it impossible to learn fully. How...!”
At her barrage of words, Cheonhwi looked troubled.
What should he say?
That he had seen it before? She’d never believe that.
That he restored it by recalling the martial arts he used to perform? That sounded even crazier.
As he pondered deeply, Hyeonryeo seemed to misunderstand that he was scared and began to compose herself.
‘What am I doing...’
She released her grip on his shoulder.
Then, with a cleared mind, she thought.
‘I’ve gone mad. To hound a child who can’t even perform qi like this.’
Hyeonryeo shook her head in self-reproach.
‘He must have clumsily imitated it without internal energy, and it vaguely resembled the orally transmitted version.’
With that thought, her mind eased.
Soon, she met Cheonhwi’s eyes and spoke.
“I’m sorry. You can’t properly perform the Orchid Flower Dao Blood Hand without internal energy, yet I let my eyes deceive me into this ridiculous misunderstanding and hounded you like this...”
Cheonhwi fell silent at Hyeonryeo’s words, which came as he was still pondering.
Good thing I didn’t answer.
He felt relieved at averting what could have been a hassle, but then Hyeonryeo suddenly pulled him into a hug.
Sigh, again?
He shook his head inwardly.
It was a hug every time they met. At first, he tried to refuse, but now he was too tired to push her away and just accepted it.
How many seconds passed like that?
Hyeonryeo released the hug and met his eyes.
“Hwi-ya.”
Calling his name, she wore a complex gaze, then asked cautiously.
“Do you perhaps want to learn martial arts?”
“Pardon? Yes.”
Stunned by the sudden out-of-the-blue question, he absentmindedly replied.
Hyeonryeo nodded.
Her expression resolute, she clenched her fists tightly and opened her mouth.
“I understand.”
As if vowing something, she turned and descended the stairs again.
Step— step—
After Hyeonryeo disappeared beyond the stairs, the dazed Cheonhwi muttered with an incredulous expression.
“She came all this way just to say that?”
* * *
Two days later, at the hour of the monkey.
The weather had warmed considerably in the meantime.
The plum blossoms bloomed even more profusely than before, gently enveloping Mount Hua.
Now it was full spring weather.
Under the blue sky, Cheonhwi left the Ten Thousand Scriptures Pavilion at the usual time and was walking along the mountain path toward his thatched hut.
‘The orthodox supreme arts are quite different from demonic supreme arts, more than I thought.’
He had already skimmed a hundred martial arts manuals.
He had learned much in that time.
Demonic supreme arts pursued strength by any means necessary, without regard for method.
But orthodox supreme arts were different.
An extension of cultivation.
Most orthodox supreme arts were like that.
Accumulating the Dao, attaining enlightenment to ascend to immortality.
Most pursued not killing.
If that’s the case, why not just forgo martial arts and cultivate only mind techniques?
What is martial arts?
Weapons to kill opponents.
Yet only neutralizing them?
If the demonic cultists of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, who followed the law of the strong, saw this, they’d scoff and mock it.
However, Cheonhwi felt interest.
‘It’s different from what I know, so it’s fun.’
Lost in such thoughts, after walking for a while, he arrived at his thatched hut.
In that moment, his eyes sank coldly.
A pair of unfamiliar shoes was neatly placed at the threshold of the thatched hut.
It had been ten days since he started staying here.
The only visitor to the thatched hut had been Hyeonryeo, and even she hadn’t entered inside.
He slowly opened the door and entered.
Then, as he flung open the door to the pitch-black room...
Flash!
Two eyes gleamed in the darkness.
“You’re here?”
His head turned toward the deep voice.
In the center sat a massive middle-aged man, arms crossed in a seated position.
‘Who is this?’
He scanned the man shrouded in darkness.
His disheveled hair, let go wild as it pleased, and the faint scar crossing his cheek.
He flinched for a moment.
Whoa, almost thought it was Ghost Face Demon Blade for a second.
The man, with his sharply upturned eyes and thick black eyebrows, had an intimidating presence that rivaled even the top in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
If not for the Mount Hua Sect Daoist robes he wore, one might mistake him for brothers with that guy—such a burly appearance.
Cheonhwi scanned him, then his eyes sharpened.
It wasn’t just his looks that were intense.
Among the people he’d met in the Mount Hua Sect, this man possessed the strongest aura.
‘Stronger than the Sect Leader?’
In that instant, a certain person flashed through his mind.
“Hyeondo... Fourth Uncle?”
Thud.
Hyeondo pushed off the floor and stood up.
His hair, which had reached his chest while seated, rose higher and higher, nearly touching the ceiling.
Over six feet tall, by rough estimate.
The giant strode toward Cheonhwi.
“Hmmm...”
Stroking his thick, unkempt beard as he looked down, he nodded.
Soon, his firmly shut mouth, as if gathering all his stubbornness, slowly opened.
“I heard you want to learn martial arts.”
Want to learn martial arts... Ah!
Suddenly recalling his offhand agreement in the conversation with Hyeonryeo two days ago, he unwillingly nodded.
“Yes.”
“So I came.”
Chin raised, Hyeondo looked down with a proud expression and straightened his back fully.
“To teach you.”
“Pardon?”
Cheonhwi’s eyes widened round.
‘He must be thrilled that I’ll teach him.’
Satisfied with the surprised reaction, Hyeondo smiled and nodded vigorously.
But did he know?
That Cheonhwi felt no thrill at all.
That he actually found it ridiculous.
‘Do I have to learn martial arts from this weakling?’