Chapter 292: Wudang Sect (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 292: Wudang Sect (1)
Seo-jun traveled alongside Chun-bong, Namgung Su-ah, and Bi-yeon, chatting as they moved.
The discussion mostly revolved around swordsmanship and the sensation of facing a Peak Realm master with a mortal body, but the heavy topics didn't last long. Once their immediate questions were answered, the conversation naturally drifted into idle chatter.
"Wow, your sword skills have really improved," Chun-bong remarked in admiration.
Seo-jun flashed a smug grin. "I told you, I'm in the Transcendent Realm. Sure, I might be on the clumsier side for someone at that level, but I'm still leagues above some mere Peak Realm weakling."
In truth, he could now take pride in his swordsmanship even among other Transcendent Realm masters. His skill with the blade had grown by leaps and bounds alongside his recent enlightenments.
"It... it was amazing. How could you pull that off under those conditions...?"
Seo-jun casually patted Bi-yeon on the head, though she still clearly looked intimidated by him. Then, using Void Object Grasping to lift the three women, he stepped through space.
Cra-crack!
High up in the distant sky, the magnificent silhouette of the Imperial Palace sprawled beneath their feet. Bi-yeon’s jaw dropped. Looking down upon the palace from above was an unimaginable luxury—an experience most people wouldn't have in a lifetime.
"Whoa..."
"Hmph."
Seeing her reaction, Chun-bong puffed out her chest with unearned pride. After all, according to the profound principle of Seo-jun is Chun-bong, which shared its roots with Wuji is Taiji, Lee Seo-jun and Geum Chun-bong were essentially one and the same.
Seo-jun chuckled at the sight, then stomped his foot against the empty air as if knocking on a door.
BOOOOOM!!
The entire space within the Imperial Palace, enveloped by a massive formation, vibrated intensely. Though it seemed violent at first glance, the carefully controlled tremor only shook the area right where Ju Won-jang was located.
"Hey, Ju Won-jang! I'm here!"
Seo-jun’s voice, infused with internal energy, announced his arrival. Because he hadn't used Voice Transmission to target a specific person, everyone in the Imperial Court blankly raised their heads to the sky.
"What in the world is..."
"Shh. Don't do anything stupid. That's the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord."
"Ah, so that's him..."
His behavior—calling out the master of the Imperial Court like a neighborhood friend—was incredibly brazen, yet no one even thought of stopping him. After all, they really were neighborhood friends.
"Ah, right. You're here?"
Ju Won-jang walked out from deep within the palace with a casual stride. Bi-yeon trembled, her face turning pale at the absurd sight, but Chun-bong and Namgung Su-ah greeted him familiarly.
Ju Won-jang returned their greetings and stood before Seo-jun with a grin.
"Well? Don't I look a bit different?"
Surprisingly, the Emperor had crossed a small wall following their previous battle. The experience of brushing the fingertips of a 'God'—a being that had once seemed utterly unreachable—had allowed him to shake off the minor inner demons acting as his shackles.
Put simply, he had surpassed his own limits once again.
"You look a little better than before," Seo-jun noted.
"Hmm... If it were anyone else, I'd think they were just speaking out of jealousy. But coming from you, it actually sounds sincere."
"That's because I am being sincere."
"Good grief, how cold."
As the Emperor grumbled, Seo-jun let out a smirk. The Emperor chuckled as well; he knew Seo-jun wasn't sarcastically asking, Is that all you've grown? but was simply teasing him for the fun of it.
"Well, whatever. This is just the beginning. The path that was blocked has finally opened. Since I'm just starting to internalize this enlightenment, you won't be able to say such things later on."
"Is that so? Then I guess you can't come with us."
"Come with you? Where?"
Seo-jun briefly explained his plan to shake down the various sects for their martial arts. Of course, he didn't explicitly say he was going to extort them; he simply stated he planned to tour the Sixteen Major Sects and Clans for "sparring matches."
However, Ju Won-jang, being quite sharp, realized the true intent behind the plan immediately.
"Wait, you were going to leave me behind for something that fun?"
"You just said you had to internalize your enlightenment."
"Is that what's important right now?"
"Is it not?"
"Enlightenment is something that comes and goes. One must not become obsessed with it."
"What a load of crap."
Regardless, Ju Won-jang, who loved such antics more than anything, joined the group. He claimed he preferred fun over enlightenment, but he had also calculated that watching Seo-jun spar with other Transcendent Realm masters would likely yield its own rewards.
"What about the others?"
"We should just get going. That old man Pae Jin-gwang said he had things to do, so he's out."
Since this was technically a tour of the Sixteen Major Sects and Clans, they first needed to visit the families the Emperor Without Disease belonged to and check on everyone's recovery after the battle. The group stopped by the Hebei Peng Clan and the Hwangbo Clan to meet Peng Geuk-jin and Hwangbo Ryung.
They asked if the two wanted to join the tour, but surprisingly, Peng Geuk-jin declined because he was too bogged down with clan affairs. Meanwhile, Hwangbo Ryung declared he was entering secluded training, seemingly frustrated by his recent defeat at the hands of the Evil-Eyed Wolf.
"So, is it just the five of us then?"
Lee Seo-jun, Geum Chun-bong, Namgung Su-ah, Bi-yeon, and Ju Won-jang.
It was a solid lineup.
Seo-jun looked at Ju Won-jang and gestured toward Bi-yeon with his chin.
"You take her around with you from time to time."
"This child? Why me?"
"Because I need to go on dates."
Ju Won-jang, who was fluent in Western languages, understood the term immediately and let out a hollow laugh.
"Using the Emperor as a babysitter. What an incredible luxury."
"Don't do it if you don't want to."
"No, it's fine. It's better to have a conversation partner than to wander around alone."
Bi-yeon’s eyes darted back and forth as her future was decided so casually. She was supposed to travel with the Emperor?
The master of the Imperial Court, a Transcendent Realm martial artist, and the descendant of the Martial God who once unified the Murim...
"..."
Bi-yeon’s face turned completely white. The Emperor grinned as he looked at her.
"By the way, who is this child? I don't believe we've met."
"My junior disciple."
"Junior disciple?" The Emperor’s eyes widened. "A disciple of the Vast Heaven Sword Lord?"
"Why are you bringing up my father-in-law?"
"Well, if she's your junior, then your master must be the Vast Heaven Sword Lord."
"No? It's Returning Dragon Peak."
"Returning Dragon Peak? That's... ah."
The Emperor looked over at Chun-bong. Chun-bong crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow, wearing an incredibly obnoxious expression of pride.
But the Emperor knew. That little girl was the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord's reverse scale—one of the people he cherished most. If Bi-yeon was a disciple of Returning Dragon Peak, no one in the Murim would dare lay a finger on her.
If they did, the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord would come knocking.
"Good heavens..."
A visit from an enraged Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord? Even for Ju Won-jang, who lived for excitement, that was a visit he'd rather avoid.
"Your luck has certainly taken a turn for the better."
The Emperor patted Bi-yeon on the shoulder. Bi-yeon just stood there, shivering like a leaf.
Then, the Emperor tilted his head in confusion.
"Wait a minute. Returning Dragon Peak is your master?"
"Yeah."
"But you said she's your fiancée?"
"That's right."
"What about the principle that the King, the Teacher, and the Father are one?"
In the Murim, where a teacher was truly regarded as a parent, a romantic relationship between master and disciple was strictly taboo.
Seo-jun simply shrugged.
"Not many people know, and even if they did, why would I care?"
"I suppose so."
If the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord said he was doing it, then he was doing it. Besides, who would actually believe that Returning Dragon Peak—who was merely a Rising Star, though her reaching the Super Peak Realm made that label debatable—was the master of the Evil-Annihilating Heavenly Lord? Almost no one, except perhaps Ju Won-jang, who had an exceptionally open mind when it came to Lee Seo-jun.
"Anyway, let's get moving."
As Seo-jun smirked and started walking, Namgung Su-ah asked, "Where are we going first?"
"I wonder."
There were many places to visit, but if he had to pick the most likely first stop...
"Shall we head to the Wudang Sect first?"
*
The atmosphere of the Six Great Clans and the Nine Great Sects was quite different. This was natural, as their very compositions were fundamentally distinct.
The Six Great Clans were, literally, families. They usually shared martial arts and power only among those bearing the same surname. For outsiders, it was nearly impossible to learn a family's core martial arts regardless of their achievements, making the clans relatively closed-off in terms of martial heritage.
In contrast, the Nine Great Sects were groups of people gathered around a specific set of teachings. They accepted disciples from the outside, and an individual's standing was determined by when they entered the sect or the generation of the master they served. For this reason, the sects valued seniority over surname or social status. Furthermore, since there was no central bloodline, anyone recognized within the sect could learn its core martial arts regardless of their birth. In terms of martial arts, they were relatively open compared to the Six Great Clans.
However, things were a bit different regarding external matters.
The Six Great Clans lived among the common people. They established themselves in cities, exerted powerful influence, and frequently interacted with the outside world. But the Nine Great Sects were mostly located in remote mountain ranges where few people traveled. They had very little interaction with the secular world and exerted minimal influence even over the cities technically under their jurisdiction.
Digging deeper, there was much to be said about the ideological differences between the Clans, which focused on martial arts itself, and the Sects, which sought the Tao. But the core point was that members of the Nine Great Sects rarely had reason to leave their mountain gates.
The Wudang Sect was no different.
"Have you heard that the Black Lotus Union has been destroyed?"
"Ah, did such a thing happen? This is the first I've heard of it."
"It seems the world outside is quite noisy because of it."
"It is not our concern. We have yet to achieve our own Tao; how can we afford to worry about the Tao of the world?"
Within the Wudang Sect, there were many who had never even left Mount Wudang since they were ordained. They were busy seeking their own Tao within the sect and paid no mind to external affairs. Even if a war broke out due to human greed, it was merely a passing storm that would eventually fade away.
Except for a few individuals interested in outside matters, the Wudang Sect always followed the flow of time in tranquil silence.
However, that peace was shattered in an instant.
"Jin-pyo, look at the sky."
"The sky? What's wrong with the sky?"
The Wudang Sect was situated on the high peaks of Mount Wudang. An anomaly had occurred in the sky above it.
Numerous Wudang Taoists looked up. Several figures were leisurely walking through the empty air, descending toward Wudang.
"There should be a formation in place..."
Some of the Taoists worried for their safety, but when the person leading the descending group waved a hand, the Wudang formation vanished in an instant.
"Oh...!"
"Heavens! How can this be!"
The Wudang Taoists marveled at the mysterious feat. To descend from the sky and disrupt the Wudang formation all at once? What was even more shocking was that the formation they passed through returned to its original state as if nothing had happened. They hadn't destroyed the formation; they had simply opened a path and slipped right through.
"Could those people be immortals descended from heaven?"
"That is a very plausible assumption."
"The direction they are heading leads to the Profound Cloud Hall. Perhaps they have come to greet the Sect Leader."
The Taoists, who had lived their entire lives within the Wudang Sect, assumed that their Sect Leader had finally achieved the Tao and hurried their steps. Thus, numerous Taoists began to gather at the Profound Cloud Hall where the Sect Leader resided. Soon, they settled around the hall, preparing to reverently welcome the immortals descending from the sky.
Before long, the "immortals" reached the Profound Cloud Hall, and the Sect Leader stepped outside to greet them.
Facing him, the immortal Lee Seo-jun spoke directly to the Wudang Sect Leader, Hyeon-wi.
"Hey, since you guys didn't do anything during the war, you must have plenty of energy left over. How about a spar?"
With those words, he vigorously drew his sword.
"Wow, he's actually doing it," Ju Won-jang marveled quietly.