Chapter 104
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 104
Chapter Title: What is a Taoist?
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“What does it mean to mature?”
Tossing and catching the box containing the Azure Heaven Elixirs lightly, I muttered to myself. Biryeong, who was beside me, replied.
“It means becoming more adult-like, right? Why, did Second Martial Uncle Uihyeon tell you to grow up?”
“No, our master said to mature only up until Uncle Uiseong’s age. It wasn’t master—it was Baekyun who said it.”
“Good grief, he should mature first himself. And stop fiddling with that thing. What if you damage those precious Azure Heaven Elixirs?”
“He seemed pretty mature to me? He gave me a perfectly normal farewell. And elixirs like these won’t get damaged from a little tossing.”
Still, just in case, I cracked open the box to check the condition of the Azure Heaven Elixirs. Fortunately, they were perfectly fine.
First the Mount Hua Sect’s Jasper Core Elixirs, and now the Wudang Sect’s Azure Heaven Elixirs. If I end up taking Shaolin’s Great Return Pills too, I’ll be the guy who’s tasted all three great elixirs.
Biryeong snorted at my words.
“When we sparred in the training grounds and exchanged a few words, he was the same as always. Well, maybe after living twenty-one years, he finally realized how embarrassing it is to pick a fight with a kid four years younger than him.”
Even someone who seemed like they’d live that way forever grows a little bit. I wonder if I’ll change once I hit twenty.
“By the way, did you hear from Senior Brother Baek Geon how it got found out?”
“Yeah, apparently they were blabbing among themselves and it reached the higher-ups’ ears.”
“Idiots exist everywhere, huh. I thought it was just our sect. And that guy spills his own sect’s dirty laundry without hesitation. Surprising.”
No, maybe not that surprising? Biryeong muttered, and feeling needled by it, Biyeong flailed his arms beside her and shouted.
“I’m not an idiot, Martial Aunt! Have you seen anyone with observation skills as good as mine in Mount Hua?”
“From what I saw in this sparring match, you kinda are.”
“I managed to knock out three of them on my own, you know? In what way was I an idiot, Grand Martial Aunt?”
“In a situation where Mount Hua absolutely needs a winner, charging at me alongside the Wudang Sect guys just to try to eliminate me? Or blabbing about what you found out, which ends up helping the opponent cover their weaknesses?”
Biyeong, pierced right to the core, clamped his mouth shut.
Bidam, who had tried to take on the legendary 10-against-2 by challenging the Wudang senior disciple and Baekyun combo only to get crushed as one of the ten, desperately averted his eyes.
Seeing these immature elders and juniors still growing made me feel like it was okay for me not to mature yet. As long as I didn’t end up like Uiseong, it’d be fine.
* * *
“You vicious bastard. You finally broke through to first-class, huh.”
“Thanks to you. Losing hurt my pride more than I thought.”
The latest gathering of late disciples after two years was in full swing, in a secluded corner of the Murim Alliance’s main headquarters backyard—somewhere untouched by human feet.
Namgung Seheon and I lay sprawled on the ground, utterly spent. We’d just finished an intense bout, so our exchange was laced with slightly ragged breaths.
At the end of that fierce match, our two swords had flown off and now lay scattered on the ground just like our limp bodies.
Including today’s bout, our record so far was 1 win, 1 loss, and 3 draws.
Rolling over, Namgung Seheon grinned with the corner of his mouth quirked up.
“Next year, it won’t be a draw—it’ll be my one win.”
“Next year, this gathering might not even happen, and even if it does, I won’t be around.”
“Why?”
I gave a nonchalant reply to Namgung Seheon, who asked with wide, startled rabbit eyes.
“I heard the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly is in two years, so I’m going into intense seclusion training for a year. I’ll probably enter at the start of next year and come out the year of the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly...”
Having to eat nothing but Wall-Cutting Pills for a year was horrifying, but for the sake of getting stronger, I could endure that much hardship.
I planned to consume the Azure Heaven Elixirs I’d received during my seclusion training.
Unlike back then when I was too young and couldn’t properly absorb the Jasper Core Elixir’s spiritual energy without mastering ascendant techniques, now that I’d learned an ascendant inner art method, I could manage fine on my own without a True Qi Elder to assist with circulation beside me.
“Then maybe I should go into seclusion training too...”
Propped up on his elbow, Namgung Seheon gazed up at the cloudless blue sky and muttered.
“Oh, now that I think about it, that’s not bad? It’s the perfect excuse to delay my marriage.”
Watching Namgung Seheon talk to himself, Paeng Haran’s advice not to take the guy too seriously came to mind.
In the letter we exchanged just a few days ago, Paeng Haran mentioned catching a light cold, but her condition worsened rapidly, so she couldn’t attend this gathering.
She wasn’t this bad when we were kids, but lately, Paeng Haran’s blocked meridians symptoms had gotten quite severe, and she fell ill often. I used to think her two brothers were overreacting, but now I understood.
I couldn’t straight-up ask if she knew her brothers were trying to kill her over the next family head position, so I beat around the bush as much as possible.
“You on bad terms with your sister or something?”
“Ever since she tried to push that horrific marriage on me, like making me a son-in-law to the Sacheon Tang Clan... things have been a bit awkward, but not bad.”
As expected, beating around the bush doesn’t get through to him. So I asked a bit more directly.
“Does your sister maybe see you as, uh, a rival in the succession struggle or something?”
“We’re pretty far apart in age—does she really see me that way? It’s not three or five years; it’s a whole ten.”
His reply dripped with pity, but rather than feeling bad, I felt a pang of worry.
The more he acted like this, the higher the chance that thick-headed fool would really get purged by his own sister.
God must’ve given him that pretty face but taken away his street smarts. Then what does that make Biryeong, who has both?
“And I’m not interested in the family head position. It’s just a few knife-to-the-head elders who are desperate to put me there—the rest of the Elder Council all support my sister. Plus, my brother-in-law is direct lineage from the Jegal Clan, one of the Five Great Clans.”
Those ‘knife-to-the-head elders’ are the problem. With the shrewd Jegal Clan by your sister’s side, you’re on a seriously doomed path.
But at this peaceful moment when nothing had happened yet, the only advice I could give was this.
“Hey, if you ever get falsely accused in your clan, don’t stick around trying to explain—just bolt out of there immediately.”
Even if something did happen, I was too far away in Ansan or even farther in Shaanxi to pull Namgung Seheon out, so all I could hope was that this idiot would at least remember that and escape safely.
Now there were plenty of people I could spar evenly with besides Namgung Seheon, but no one I looked forward to fighting as much as this guy.
Realizing my vibe was unusually serious, Namgung Seheon blinked, then immediately turned grave.
“Gasp, right. You always look and act so rough that I keep forgetting—you’re a Taoist, aren’t you? Was that a slip of heavenly secrets...?”
No, novel reader experience.
Reading fortunes? Can’t do it. Exorcising ghosts? Can’t do it. Mount Hua Taoists are guys who just swing swords around—only Taoists in name.
Even if you ask what a Taoist is, I can’t control the wind or make rain fall from a clear sky.
“Yeah, let’s say it was a slip of heavenly secrets.”
If I said it was my gut feeling and this idiot didn’t believe me, what then?
With this, I’d cleared the widest path to survival I could for Namgung Seheon. The rest was up to him entirely.
And Paeng Haran... what the hell am I supposed to do about her? She’s got no answers.
Divine physicians that pop up fine in other murim novels don’t appear in [Sword God Returns]. Other blocked meridians patients besides Paeng Haran? None.
‘Scour all of Mount Hua for some spirit creature?’
But Mount Hua’s been barren of spirit beasts for ages.
Think about it—I’m the 28th generation disciple. Do you think the martial artists living on Mount Hua over all those generations left any spirit beast inner cores alone? They’ve been picked clean.
Jinyul did say she’d tell me the location of a spirit serpent, but that serpent’s inner core might boost my inner power, but it wouldn’t help Paeng Haran much.
Paeng Haran’s illness is Nine Yin Blocked Meridians. A congenital condition from excessively strong yin energy.
It can only be treated with an inner core brimming with powerful yang energy, but snakes are yin-strong animals.
In other words, the spirit serpent’s inner core would only worsen Paeng Haran’s blocked meridians.
‘Sorry, for talking about miracles when there’s nothing I can do.’
Beside me, Namgung Seheon chattered excitedly about how his sister was pregnant and he’d soon have a nephew, vowing to show the kid his uncle winning at the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly. I let it go in one ear and out the other as I gazed at the sky.
What the hell has this idiot been hearing? Could he really snap to it and survive his crisis?
* * *
Unlike the last late disciple gathering, which was a mess of fights, this one ended peacefully without incident. The next one, being around the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly, would probably devolve into a brawl again.
Returning to Mount Hua, I headed to the sect’s seclusion training ground with Uihyeon in the year I turned eighteen.
Seclusion training: holing up alone in a space to swing your sword in pursuit of enlightenment.
You couldn’t come out whenever you wanted during seclusion training—you absolutely couldn’t exit until the period you’d set for yourself was over.
It was that strict and grueling, so no one entered without serious resolve.
“Now that I think about it, when you were nine, Yeon, you threw a fit about going into seclusion training.”
“Uncle Uiseong made me give up by feeding me one Wall-Cutting Pill back then.”
Remembering how I’d first tasted defeat, demanded to enter seclusion training, tasted one Wall-Cutting Pill, and quickly gave up brought a smirk to my face.
But that smirk vanished the moment I recalled I’d have to eat those for a full year.
“You remember, huh. That little kid has grown so much, now entering seclusion training...”
Uihyeon muttered in a voice thick with emotion as he patted the top of my head.
Standing before the massive doors of the seclusion training ground, Uihyeon met my eyes steadily.