Chapter 189 - Hwasan (9)
Stepping into the Plum Blossom Pavilion, the first thing I saw were middle-aged men with strikingly handsome features. There were exactly twenty-four of them, and given Hwasan Sect's obsession with that number, it made sense that their executives totaled precisely that many.
There was a reason Hwasan Sect had earned the nickname of elves.
If you dropped those guys straight into the modern world, they'd all be dubbed flower boys in their prime.
Ah, but it wasn't just men, of course.
There were six female elders too. In this world—and from a Taoist sect, no less—having that many women in elder positions was a sign of how progressive Hwasan Sect really was, in a way.
Just looking at them gave off this vibe like they had some built-in sparkle effect.
And among them, the one seated at the head position was, without a doubt, the most handsome man there.
As the sect leader, he should have been around the same age as the other executives by generation, but with only a touch of gray in his hair, he looked no older than mid-thirties at most.
Return to one's prime.
Cultivating martial arts naturally kept the body healthy and even slowed aging to some extent.
Exercise alone improves the body, but add in accumulating the natural energies of heaven and earth, and it's even more pronounced.
Still, no one can stop the flow of time. Aging is a cause of death with a 100% probability.
But the moment one's martial arts surpass a certain threshold, an event triggers that pushes back that inevitability.
That's the return to one's prime.
A mystical phenomenon where the body transforms into its most optimized state for unleashing martial arts.
It typically appears in martial artists at Super Peak or higher.
Not everyone experiences it, though—it's mostly seen in the orthodox sects practicing pure techniques, especially those of the Taoist lineage.
For older warriors, it's like time reverses, restoring their youth. For the young, that vitality persists right up to death's door.
By that logic, Sado Hwan's body seems to be in a state of return to one's prime too.
Ten-thousand-flow-return-to-one, or something like that. Though infused with demonic energy, the Heavenly Demon Divine Art crushes all other demons with its overwhelming power, so achieving this wasn't strange.
A body that stayed muscular without exercise and maintained peak condition—it was safe to say it had undergone this transformation.
If you're gonna do it, might as well unseal the meridians too.
No point engineering blocked meridians and putting me through all this hell.
Anyway.
Having achieved return to one's prime meant Hwasan Sect's leader was a Super Peak master.
Azure Mist Divine Art and the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Forms. If those petals are all formed from gang qi...
Gwang-yeon's technique had been an ultimate art too, with devastating power.
But it was still just sword qi.
There was a world of difference between that and manifesting it as sword-gang.
[It must be an illusory sword pushed to the extreme.]
Anyone facing that would lose their mind.
[The best way to break through the extreme illusion is extreme speed.]
The best way is not to fight at all.
While the Hwasan Sect executives sat rigidly, Paeng Yu-gun stood leaning against a pillar. Before him sat Jin So-cheong, wearing an inscrutable smile that hid whatever she was thinking.
Damn. So annoying.
Jin So-cheong was competent yet incompetent, obedient yet too obedient—it left me at a loss for how to handle her.
Anyway.
It's proper etiquette to greet elders first, so I bowed my head and cupped my fists in salute.
"Greetings. I am Kim Dong Yun, humbly known by the moniker Eastern Sword Dragon."
"Pleased to meet you, Eastern Sword Dragon. This poor Daoist is Hong Gaak-ja of Hwasan Sect."
Hong Gaak-ja immediately returned the salute.
"First, allow me to express our gratitude on behalf of everyone for resolving the issue in our stead."
That was unexpected.
The elf label for Hwasan Sect wasn't just about their looks.
It came from their haughty, nitpicky demeanor. I hadn't expected such straightforward thanks. I'd figured they'd try to pick a fight.
'W-We could've handled it ourselves without your help!' or some tsundere line like that.
Regardless of my inner thoughts, I replied politely.
"I merely did what I could."
"Might you explain what happened?"
"Well..."
I recounted the story I'd pieced together earlier, after racking my brain.
"In the end, wasn't the blood tree just a tree corrupted by pollution?"
"Indeed."
"According to the principles of yin-yang and five elements, water begets wood—so water sprouts the tree. Metal begets water, so metal's energy flows the water, and earth begets metal, so earth forges the metal."
"..."
"Thus, tracing that flow of energies—"
I couldn't very well say, I got intel as the Blood Cult Leader, and with my detector Pa Cheon, I found and smashed the barrier.
So I'd prepared an explanation in advance.
I spouted whatever came to mind about yin-yang five elements, heaven-earth unity, the eight trigrams, and so on.
It was esoteric stuff, but the Hwasan Sect Taoists listened intently. Paeng Yu-gun, naturally, had stopped listening from the "principles of yin-yang five elements" part onward, picking his ear instead.
"In the end, I purified the problematic soil with thunder qi originating from wood's energy, resolving it completely."
I barely knew what I was saying myself. It was just twenty-plus years of wuxia reading experience strung together.
But I was confident it'd work.
[...Utter nonsense. If the tree's the issue, of course the soil and water are too.]
Yet the result?
Every Hwasan Sect Taoist was nodding along.
"Indeed, that makes sense. A true heir of Yak Seon. He spotted what we missed."
"The heir of Yak Seon lives up to the name."
"As expected. And as Tang Clan's seal master to boot—must be expert in such matters. What say you, alchemy experts?"
"The heir of Yak Seon grasps concepts a level beyond us."
Pa Cheon clicked his tongue at their reactions.
[These Taoists only know how to say "as expected"? And their faces scream they don't get it.]
Who said it matters more than understanding.
They knew my background as Yak Seon's heir. My position as Tang Clan's seal master lent even more weight.
Even if they didn't understand, they'd pretend to. Face must be preserved.
Meaning, even if I claimed dog shit made miracle pills, packaged right, they'd all nod.
[You're truly the world's greatest silver-tongued devil.]
Thanks.
As long as it worked, that's all that mattered.
"So that's how it was. The Blood Cult, the Blood Cult."
Incidents like the blood tree and blood sheep couldn't be explained without mentioning the Blood Cult, so Paeng Yu-gun and I had no choice but to reveal it to Hwasan Sect.
Paeng Yu-gun seemed to hope it'd expose any Blood Cult collaborators among them, but sadly, Gwang-yeon made that impossible.
"Per the Dao King's request, we'll keep the Blood Cult under wraps. Disciples outside the executives will think the blood tree was just some evil sorcery."
Revealing the Blood Cult didn't align with the Murim Alliance's policy yet, so Hwasan Sect agreed to hear the results but not publicize the truth.
"Now, to rewards. You protected our Hwasan Sect's spirit and foundation—the plum blossoms. For that, we offer you the Tae-cheong Pill."
Tae-cheong Pill!
The elixir said to grant twenty years of inner energy upon consumption.
"Aigoo, lame. So lame."
Paeng Yu-gun, leaning on the pillar and silent till now, muttered while gazing at distant mountains.
"Offering a basic elixir any Daoist sect can make as reward. Not even a Purple Mist Divine Pill, but plain stuff to Yak Seon's heir? Lame, lame."
"Ahem. Ahem."
"Ah, sorry. Was muttering to myself—voice carried too much, like an old fool."
He was spot on.
The Tae-cheong Pill was a standard elixir for Taoist sects. Any alchemist from Hwasan, Wudang, or wherever could mass-produce it.
The twenty years of inner energy wasn't pure essence either—filter it through a heart method, and you'd be lucky to get fifteen.
For a typical young warrior, it was still impressive. Inner energy takes time, and elixirs shortcut that.
The problem? The Heavenly Demon Divine Art made elixirs useless for me, and publicly, I was Yak Seon's heir.
Fobbing me off with basic stuff was greedy on their part.
There we go. That's the elf vibe.
No wonder they got called stuck-up pricks. I'd wondered at the easy thanks.
But revealing greed here was for silver-tongued amateurs.
A world's greatest like me...
[Why stop mid-explanation?]
Slipped out calling myself the greatest—pisses me off.
[Pisses?]
Yeah, that exists.
I replied to Hong Gaak-ja.
"The elixir's fine—I'm Yak Seon's heir, so I've built resistance to most."
"Hohoho. Didn't think of that."
"But I have one request."
"A request?"
"Allow me into the ancestral hall."
"...The ancestral hall?"
Hong Gaak-ja's demeanor shifted instantly.
From mildly awkward to outright sensitive.
"The ancestral hall isn't a place outsiders can enter freely."
"That's why I'm asking."
"May I ask why?"
"I cannot say."
"Cannot say, yet you must enter?"
The Hwasan Sect Taoists' faces twisted. Some even began gathering their auras.
Paeng Yu-gun had sidled up beside me, sending a transmission.
- Looks like you slipped up, Sword Dragon. But if you want, I'll back you.
- Trying to call this even for forging your sword?
- Sharp kid.
- I'm good.
I had a plan. I signaled Gwang-yeon.
"Master."
Hong Gaak-ja turned to him.
"I believe we should grant the Eastern Sword Dragon's request."
"What do you mean?"
"He resolved what we couldn't alone. Without him, I might've fallen to the Blood Cult and not be here."
Blood Cultists were natural actors. Gwang-yeon continued in a voice brimming with sincerity.
"Outsider or not, he saved Hwasan's plum blossoms and me. We owe him—we should do as he asks."
"Urgh."
"If you're concerned, I'll accompany him."
"You?"
"Yes, Master."
As Gwang-yeon finished, the other Taoists chimed in.
"If Gwang-yeon goes, it's trustworthy."
"Agreed. Especially since it's Gwang-yeon."
"What issue could there be?"
"Right. Yak Seon's heir, after all."
Gwang-yeon had image-managed even better than me in the cult. One word from him flipped the mood.
In the end.
"Very well. You have half a shichen. Visit the ancestral hall. Gwang-yeon, attend him well."
"Attend" meant surveil for mischief.
Sorry, sect leader.
Gwang-yeon's mine now.
And so, I gained entry to Hwasan Sect's ancestral hall.
Passing through the dim corridor to the chamber housing the ancestors' spirit tablets, on the wall...
As expected.
"This is the Blood God's relic."
There was the Muhonjibyeok.
But.
[...It's huge.]
This Muhonjibyeok was more than twice the size of any I'd seen before.
Pretending to Be the Heavenly Demon