The Wind Clears the Clouds
"Damn it all."
...It didn't make me feel any better, and Yi Yeon-baek, the sect leader, was giving me a strange look.
—Haa...
Yeon A-rang tilted his head back and let out a deep sigh before shouting loud enough for Unbong to hear.
"....Aaaargh!!"
Heart Method. It was essential for growing stronger, yet it was truly difficult!
【Breathing—Circulation—Heart Method】
Yeon A-rang was stuck right at the beginning with Qi Circulation and Breathing. That was only natural. A Heart Method worthy of being called a divine art was something only the most exceptional masters could create after years of grueling effort. There was no way he could produce one so easily.
When I lay down on the dirt, Yi Yeon-baek approached with a pitying gaze.
"Oh dear... Failed again, have you? Heh, A-rang."
"Please leave out the laughter, Sect Leader."
The barely concealed satisfaction in his voice made me wonder if I had finally reached the ranks of a true expert.
As I remained silent, troubled, a snowflake landed on the bridge of my nose. Yi Yeon-baek looked up at the sky.
"The snow already covers the peak."
I had climbed the mountain when the flowers were blooming, yet now snow blanketed the summit. Though I had not stayed a full year, the time spent on Cloud Phoenix Peak had been long enough.
"Will you try again today?"
"I suppose I must..."
Yeon A-rang rose and brushed the dirt from his clothes. Then he drew the Wild Goose Sword.
Twice a day—once in the morning and once in the afternoon, measured from noon—had become routine. The sparring matches were meant to address what Yeon A-rang lacked most: real combat experience and Qi. While the latter could not be helped, Yi Yeon-baek could certainly provide the former.
This was their 197th match.
—Clang!
The Wild Goose Sword flew from his hand and stuck in the ground. Yi Yeon-baek pressed his blade to Yeon A-rang's throat.
"That makes 197 victories for me."
"...You must be pleased, beating a child."
For some reason, he never held back. If anything, his sword grew sharper with each bout. At first he had used only swordsmanship; now he occasionally unleashed Sword Gang. There was no winning against that.
Yi Yeon-baek sheathed his sword and watched the grumbling youth with a thought.
'It's not as if I enjoy this...'
Though the outcome was decided, neither of them felt satisfied. Of course, a Peak expert facing a Transcendent in a life-or-death fight would not even be able to exchange proper blows. But this was merely a spar. In a spar, killing techniques could not be used, and as the senior facing a vastly junior opponent, he had to yield a few moves to preserve dignity. Even so, the gap should have remained unbridgeable.
'That Sword Control Art of his is truly troublesome!'
The problem was that Yeon A-rang was no ordinary Peak expert.
'Not only his sword, but the Celestial Silkworm Thread and even his own body—he throws everything at me with full force. There's no breathing room.'
The sword did not fly in a straight line like a hidden weapon. It moved freely through the air. And no matter how thin, the Celestial Silkworm Thread was still a tangible "thread." It left afterimages along the sword's path, binding and entangling until it sealed Yi Yeon-baek's movements. Yet that was not the end.
'What kind of swordsman throws punches like a common thug?!'
He truly pulled out every trick at once just to win. Thus, whenever Yi Yeon-baek sparred with him, he could never relax his guard.
'Perhaps I really should enter seclusion...'
Yi Yeon-baek was seriously considering it when he remembered that the one who had driven him to such thoughts was a youth who had not even reached thirty. He chuckled softly.
Yi Yeon-baek looked at Yeon A-rang with fond eyes, then took a letter from his robe.
'He has already grown too large for me to keep. I would like to continue teaching him, but that would be selfish.'
They were not master and disciple. If he kept the boy any longer, he would have to hand over even the Hyeongsan Sect's ultimate techniques.
"Take this."
It was time to let him go.
"This is...?"
"There are elders in the Wudang Sect known as the Yin-Yang Twin Heroes. Show them this letter and mention my name, and they will help you. Few in the world surpass them in matters of the heart and Qi. They can fulfill your wish."
Yeon A-rang accepted the letter with both hands. Yi Yeon-baek had essentially ordered him down the mountain, saying there was nothing left to teach. Yet...
'Though I cannot call him master, the debt I owe him is as vast as the sea.'
If he accepted this favor and simply left, it would be no different from repaying kindness with enmity. Of course, Yi Yeon-baek would never see it that way.
Yeon A-rang tucked the letter away and made his decision.
"Sect Leader, is there a problem with the sword technique you use?"
—Frown.
"What are you suddenly saying...?"
Yi Yeon-baek's brow furrowed at the abrupt question. Despite the rising pressure of his aura, Yeon A-rang did not back down. Pointing out a sect's sword art as an outsider violated propriety, so he had intended to avoid the topic. It would surely displease him. But if there was any way to help, he was willing to earn that displeasure.
Whether this was for his own peace of mind or Yi Yeon-baek's, he did not know.
Seeing the seriousness in Yeon A-rang's expression, Yi Yeon-baek's storm-like aura eased.
"...How did you know?"
"Sect Leader, we have been sparring for over three months now. At first I thought it was because my skill was lacking. But now you even use Sword Gang at times, so my ability has clearly improved. Yet you always hesitate at the very end."
Yi Yeon-baek's sword was like wind driving clouds—relentless and fierce. However...
"It feels as though the freely flowing clouds suddenly strike a mountain."
Though merely an outsider, Yeon A-rang was certain. That sword technique did not end there. There was something beyond.
Yi Yeon-baek opened his mouth, then closed it again.
"Sect Leader, did the Hyeongsan Sect lose it as well?"
The Great Orthodox-Demonic War had ended in victory for the orthodox side. Yet no one was satisfied. The secret manuals of sects and clans had burned along with their libraries, and most martial scholars had perished. The Hyeongsan Sect, however, faced a different problem.
"Huu..."
Yi Yeon-baek let out a long sigh.
"We did not lose it. We simply... lack the ability..."
Thirteen sword forms that create a thousand variations from a hundred changes.
Using this ultimate technique, Yi Yeon-baek had severed the head of one of the Twelve Demon Heads and earned the title Countless Swords. Though the Hyeongsan Sect had suffered relatively little damage compared to other factions during the war, their prestige had not risen. This was because Yi Yeon-baek's personal strength as one of the Top 100 Experts was exceptional, while the sect's own martial arts were considered a step below other ultimate techniques.
Yet neither Yi Yeon-baek nor anyone in the Hyeongsan Sect believed this. The Cloud Mist Thirteen Sword Technique, created by the founding sect leader Ju Sang-hu—direct descendant of the Hyeongsan Ancestor Ju Hui—had been left with only twelve forms complete. The final, thirteenth form was so profound that no one had been able to interpret it. In the end, the Hyeongsan Sect had split the technique into the first twelve forms and the final form, and mastering that last form had become the collective wish of the entire sect, including Yi Yeon-baek.
Though they had never seen it, they were certain: if the thirteenth form of the Cloud Mist Thirteen Sword Technique were unleashed, White Transformation Thousand Illusions would surely reach Ten Thousand Transformations.
"I have no face to show our ancestors."
"I see."
Yeon A-rang drew the Wild Goose Sword.
"Can you demonstrate the Cloud Mist Thirteen Sword Technique?"
"Now...?"
Yeon A-rang nodded silently. Yi Yeon-baek did not understand his intent, but there was no harm in letting him observe.
"Very well."
—Swish.
Yi Yeon-baek spread his legs and drew his sword back to execute the first form. And then...
—Swish.
Right beside him, Yeon A-rang mirrored his posture exactly. Yi Yeon-baek was momentarily dumbfounded. Without sight, how could the boy know what stance he was taking?
'Has he memorized all our previous spars and recreated the posture...?'
Why? Yi Yeon-baek's head began to ache from trying to understand the youth's purpose when Yeon A-rang spoke.
"Please begin."
"...You are quite impatient."
Well... the boy was extraordinary. There had to be a reason for his actions. For now, he would do as asked and demonstrate the first form of the Cloud Mist Thirteen Sword Technique.
—Shuuuk! Shashak! ...Paaang!
Seven fundamental forms combined into one created the first form of the Cloud Mist Thirteen Sword Technique. Yeon A-rang replicated it exactly.
—Shuuuk! Shashak! ...Paaang!
The second form followed.
—...Shaaak!
—...Shaaak!
The third form.
—Shuuuk! Pang!
—Shuuuk! Pang!
Whenever Yi Yeon-baek executed a form, Yeon A-rang followed. Only then did Yi Yeon-baek realize—this was no mere recollection.
The fourth form.
'This brat...'
Beyond the fifth.
'Truly...?'
When half the technique was complete—
—Shuuuuk!
—Shuuuuk!
He became certain. Even as he inwardly denied it, a spark of hope began to rise.
The seventh form. The eighth. The ninth. Finally, as they passed the tenth form, the hope he had kept hidden burst forth uncontrollably. Yi Yeon-baek's gaze was no longer on his own sword, but on Yeon A-rang's Wild Goose Sword.
Executing the eleventh form, he bit his lip. Executing the twelfth, his eyes stung. Then Yi Yeon-baek's sword stopped.
Now, I have done everything. I have drawn out the full mystery of White Transformation Thousand Illusions. So show me. Please, show me what lies beyond.
Yet, contrary to Yi Yeon-baek's expectations, Yeon A-rang stood still, staring straight ahead.
...
Why could he not unleash the thirteenth form? Was it truly so difficult? No... it was the opposite. It was so brilliant that they had been trapped by preconceptions. Like his past self, they had only counted and failed to subtract. Believing the final ultimate form must be complex, they had missed its essence.
After White Transformation Thousand Illusions came Ten Thousand Transformations.
『The clouds obscured the eyes.』
Was it not absurd?
—Pfft.
A laugh escaped him. A man shaped like clouds stood before him. Ju Sang-hu, you must have been frustrated too. To clear the clouds, a single breath of wind would have sufficed, yet they had only added more clouds, making everything murkier. How truly frustrating.
More freely. More wildly. After drawing a hundred lines and feeling there was nowhere left to draw, what remained was a single point. I saw it. After driving everything into a corner with no gaps, what remained was—
『Cloud』
What moved the clouds had always been the wind.
Yeon A-rang's figure vanished in an instant. A gale swept through, clearing the snow that had piled around them. At the center of the claw-like scars carved into the ground stood Yeon A-rang alone.
"In the end, the final move was a thrust."
It was nothing more than a simple thrust of the three fundamental forms—hardly worthy of being called a technique.
...
The core of the thirteenth form of the Cloud Mist Thirteen Sword Technique lay not in the thrust, but in the footwork, which accounted for over ninety percent of its power.
'And it felt more like a single decisive strike than Ten Thousand Transformations.'
Well... even without him saying it, as the sect leader, Yi Yeon-baek would surely realize far more.
Yeon A-rang regulated his breathing and sheathed the Wild Goose Sword. Would the man be disappointed that it was not Ten Thousand Transformations? Or would he be awed at having glimpsed what lay beyond?
"Sect Leader Yi Yeon-baek..."
Yeon A-rang started to call out, then stopped and smiled silently. He quietly donned his bamboo hat, turned his back, and began descending the stairs of Cloud Phoenix Peak.
【Yi Yeon-baek】
He had achieved the feat of beheading one of the Twelve Demon Heads during the Great Orthodox-Demonic War. Even after rising to the highest position as sect leader of the Hyeongsan Sect, he lived a frugal life. As one of the Top 100 Experts, he was respected by all.
And Yi Yeon-baek—he...
—Sob... sob...
Was a man who did not know how to cry.
...
"Sect Leader! Congratulations on successfully completing your seclusion!"
Yi Yeon-baek descended from Cloud Phoenix Peak. Not only the outer disciples, but even the inner disciples and elders came out to congratulate him. Among them was Yi So-so.
One of the elders approached and asked,
"Senior Brother, from your expression, did you gain some enlightenment?"
Listening to his junior brother, Yi Yeon-baek recalled everything that had happened. A strange youth who was clumsy like someone new to the martial world, yet spoke like an old monster. A boy with talent that inspired envy, yet possessed a kind nature. Occasionally an irritating brat.
"Well..."
A truly grateful fellow.
"It was nothing special."
Therefore, this encounter—
"I had a fortunate meeting."
One could call it fate.