The Library Elder
“Master, are you there? Master!”
At the sound of the voice calling from outside, Yoo Yeon-woo set down the book he had been reading and turned toward the door.
In a place where the wind spoke more often than people did, such a commotion was a rare thing indeed.
Yoo Yeon-woo did not have many fellow sect brothers he could claim to be close with. Hardly anyone would come rushing over with news like this unless it were truly urgent.
When he stepped outside, he found a familiar face waiting.
“Senior brother. What brings you here in such a hurry?”
Goh Jin-wook belonged to the same generation of disciples as him, though they had never interacted very much.
At the question, Goh Jin-wook could barely contain his excitement.
“Your disciple has done it—done it! I hear he defeated Elder Jin Young-mae’s grand-disciple in Hwa-yeon Hall today!”
The unexpected name made Yoo Yeon-woo’s eyes go wide.
“You mean Sung-woon sparred with Seo-hwa? He only entered the sect half a year ago!”
“Exactly why I’m making such a fuss. How could I not?”
“Good heavens...”
It was true that Yoo Sung-woon had never been ordinary.
That wasn’t just because he had pointed out the flaws in Falling Blossom Sword Art on his very first day.
Even when he was awkward at first with basic techniques, once he caught the rhythm after a few tries, he became as skilled as a disciple who had trained for a full year.
“But what do you mean Sung-woon used Falling Blossom Sword Art?”
“Ah, as for that...”
Yoo Yeon-woo briefly recounted Sung-woon’s entry into the sect.
How he had slowly demonstrated the Falling Blossom Sword Art before admission, so the boy could see the Mount Hua sword style for himself.
How Yoo Sung-woon had pointed out its problems with uncanny precision.
And how, upon first learning Plum Blossom Qi Gong, he had even managed to circulate a trace of energy.
“Hah-ha-ha!”
After hearing the story, Goh Jin-wook burst into loud laughter.
“Mount Hua has found a true prodigy. If a boy like that trained diligently for half a year, then this result is almost obvious. Still, what a pity. I came hoping to uncover the secret faster than anyone else.”
“The secret? What are you talking about...?”
“I mean—what kind of training did you give your disciple for him to become like that in only half a year?”
Goh Jin-wook patted Yoo Yeon-woo on the shoulder.
“More disciples will come looking for you besides me. If you tell them the same thing, their reaction will be worth seeing. Ah, and now that you’ve taken in a disciple, we should meet more often from now on. My own disciple is talented as well, so it will do both sides good to exchange pointers.”
He was Jung Nam-jung’s master.
Among the third-generation disciples, he and Seo Jin-ah, whose talent was especially remarkable, were drawing the sect’s hopes.
Yoo Yeon-woo did not fully grasp the meaning behind Goh Jin-wook’s goodwill, given that he knew none of the surrounding circumstances, but he simply nodded.
He knew Jung Nam-jung as well.
Since it would be helpful to a disciple, there was no reason to refuse.
“Still...”
Goh Jin-wook, looking at Yoo Yeon-woo, wore a sympathetic expression.
“You said you made a mistake when you performed Falling Blossom Sword Art? You haven’t fully shaken off your inner demon yet, have you?”
“It’s less that I have an inner demon than that my mind and body still haven’t returned to balance, so please don’t worry too much about it. It will resolve itself in time.”
“I understand. You’ll handle it in your own way. You took in a disciple and started going out again, didn’t you?”
“Thanks to that, I was able to find Sung-woon on my way back from a mission.”
He intended to retreat into seclusion again after taking a disciple, but the fact that things were improving little by little was a comfort.
“Oh, dear, they’re already coming. I’d better make myself scarce.”
At Goh Jin-wook’s words, Yoo Yeon-woo glanced down the path leading toward his quarters.
Second-generation disciples wearing Mount Hua uniforms were already racing toward them, even using movement techniques to get there faster.
Yoo Yeon-woo looked up at the sky.
The high blue heavens were spotless, not a single cloud in sight.
He murmured the name of the disciple who was not there.
“Sung-woon. What exactly did you do in that spar to drag so much commotion into a quiet place like this?”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I had spent an hour walking all over Mount Hua Sect.
It wasn’t much different from my memory.
Still vast, still grand, still crowded with people.
Mount Hua Sect was one of the Nine Great Orthodox Sects.
As one of the major sects representing the Righteous Faction, it was only natural that it would be full of people.
Though the Violet Mist Divine Art had been lost and Mount Hua could no longer produce supreme experts who dominated the jianghu, the rest of its martial inheritance remained intact.
It would be rude to compare it to some minor or middling sect.
Seo Jin-ah looked back at me and asked, “So, what do you think of Mount Hua Sect, since you hadn’t seen it before?”
“The halls are enormous and grand. It’s so wide I feel like I’d get lost if I wandered around alone.”
“Right? They say just walking around the sect makes you feel more confident.”
Jung Nam-jung and Seo Jin-ah said they had shown me everything worth seeing, and then brought me to a large hall at the end of the tour.
Seo Jin-ah pointed at the building and said, “This is the Library.”
“What do they do here?”
“They keep all the manuals and secret texts for martial arts here. There are amazing manuals like the Seven Plum Sword or the Twenty-Four Style Plum Blossom Sword Art, but sometimes Mount Hua disciples create new martial arts too. The Library’s job is to review and manage all of that.”
Even while explaining, Seo Jin-ah radiated unrestrained pride in Mount Hua Sect.
Jung Nam-jung chided her.
“You’re making it too hard for the kid to understand.”
“Am I?”
“Just think of it as the greatest treasure vault in Mount Hua Sect.”
“Understood, senior brother.”
It was an extremely simple explanation, but Jung Nam-jung wasn’t wrong.
The Library wasn’t merely a place that organized manuals.
When Mount Hua disciples subjugated evil sects and acquired martial texts, the Library’s disciples examined the nature of the techniques.
They also identified the weaknesses and devised ways to break them.
Where Mount Hua’s main hall recorded the sect’s history, the Library recorded the footsteps of martial artists.
Besides...
Half of the diagram copy of the Violet Mist Sword Art was sealed beneath the Library.
The remaining half was kept by the sect leader in a chest forged personally from cold iron and stored in his own quarters.
I needed to become familiar with the Library eventually, but how was I supposed to get inside?
I tugged on Jung Nam-jung’s sleeve.
“Senior brother. Is there any way I can go in and take a look?”
Jung Nam-jung shook his head with a regretful expression.
“Sorry. Third-generation disciples aren’t allowed to enter the Library. Not long ago, I was given the manual for the Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword, and even that was handed to me right here. I couldn’t go in.”
“I had to wait out here while Master went inside personally to bring it out.”
“Did you get the Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword as well, senior sister?”
“No. I received the Moon Maiden Harmony Sword.”
“Just hearing the names makes them sound like incredible martial arts.”
“That’s why both Nam-jung and I have had a pretty hard time training with them.”
The two techniques were generally learned only from the second-generation disciple rank onward.
They had been granted specially to gifted disciples, and even those two still weren’t allowed into the Library.
Seo Jin-ah clapped her hands as if she had just remembered something.
“Ah, but Seo-hwa can go in. She’s Elder Jin Young-mae’s grand-disciple, so she runs errands there a lot.”
“I see.”
“Well, Elder Jin takes good care of her, so she probably doesn’t even need to go in herself. I hear she’s already been training the Moon Maiden Harmony Sword for a while.”
Seo Jin-ah turned away from the Library and went on, “Hmm. Now that you’ve seen the Library too, you’ve pretty much toured most of Mount Hua’s main grounds. We haven’t gone to places like the secluded caves used for closed-door training, but...”
Jung Nam-jung quickly added, “Those are places you’ll naturally end up visiting later anyway, so take your time and look around slowly. Mount Hua is big.”
“Thank you. You’ve already wasted so much of your training time because of me. I feel bad.”
Jung Nam-jung waved it off as if I were worrying over nothing.
“It’s fine. Honestly, training’s been feeling a bit tedious lately, so taking a breather like this is good for us too.”
“Is that so?”
“The Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword is just so difficult to master...”
He let the end of the sentence trail off.
Even though he had brought up the Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword, he knew perfectly well that it was only an excuse.
When martial artists sensed a wall they couldn’t cross, they could grow despondent like that.
“If we don’t do anything at all, though, we’ll get scolded by Master.”
Seo Jin-ah wasn’t much different.
“Still, it’s time to go back now. Yoo-sahuk is probably worried sick by now.”
“Yes. Let’s head back.”
I pushed down my disappointment and turned away.
I’ll have to give up on entering for now.
I was growing impatient.
Thinking about the future made me want to hand over the manual for the Violet Mist Divine Art to the sect leader right this instant.
But I couldn’t mistake my own situation.
I was no longer the chief disciple who treated Mount Hua Sect like my own inner quarters.
I was only a third-generation disciple who had formally entered the sect yesterday, so I couldn’t forget the limits imposed by my status and position.
For now, the best course was to wait for the senior members of Mount Hua Sect to respond, while helping Jung Nam-jung and Seo Jin-ah with their training.
“By the way, senior brother, senior sister. If you’re not busy, could you help with my training too—”
I was just about to ask them to join me in training so I could lay the foundation for the future when the tightly shut doors of the Library suddenly opened.
A man in his late forties stepped out from within.
Senior Elder Oh Joo-yup.
Oh Joo-yup, the Library Elder, stood on the steps and looked down at us in silence.
“Hmm? You three are...”
Oh Joo-yup lightly lifted himself into the air.
Landing a short distance away from us, he heard Jung Nam-jung say, “I’m sorry for the disturbance. I was showing my junior brother around Mount Hua Sect.”
“Junior brother, is it?”
When Oh Joo-yup’s gaze came to rest on me, I immediately clasped my fists and bowed.
“A pleasure to meet you. My name is Yoo Sung-woon.”
“I’m Oh Joo-yup. You may call me either the Library Elder or simply Elder—whichever is more comfortable.”
“Greetings, Elder Oh.”
Keeping my fists clasped, I bowed my head politely. Oh Joo-yup slowly reached out and patted my head.
“You’re curious about the Library, are you?”
“Yes. Senior brother Nam-jung said the Library is Mount Hua Sect’s treasure vault. Are there really a lot of secret manuals inside?”
“There are countless numbers of them. This is where the traces of our ancestors are recorded.”
“I want to see them!”
I pestered him like a child.
Shame flooded me so intensely that it was hard to put into words, but I kept it from showing.
This was the time to act like an excited child newly entered into martial arts.
I’d learned, after becoming a wreck, that pride didn’t put food on the table.
Oh Joo-yup looked down at me, staring as if measuring me.
He seemed to be thinking about something, and after a moment he finally spoke with visible reluctance.
“Would you like to come inside?”
“Yes!”
“Very well. Follow me. The wind is cold, so I’ll have some warm tea brought out.”
Jung Nam-jung and Seo Jin-ah, who had been worrying whether they had offended Oh Joo-yup, stared in shock.
“You’re letting him in?”
Oh Joo-yup shook his head at Jung Nam-jung.
“Not you. The same goes for Jin-ah.”
“What? Why?”
“If you stay any longer, won’t your master scold you? It’s already just past shen hour.”
“...Ah!”
Jung Nam-jung and Seo Jin-ah cried out at the same time.
“Go back quickly before it gets any later. If you say I kept you here, you won’t be punished.”
“Thank you, Elder.”
“Junior brother, see you tomorrow in Hwa-yeon Hall!”
With brief farewells, Jung Nam-jung and Seo Jin-ah hurried off, even using movement techniques as they disappeared.
Oh Joo-yup watched them off with his eyes, and only after they were out of sight did he turn around.
“Follow me.”
“Yes, Elder.”
“The children must have told you about the Library. You also heard that third-generation disciples are forbidden from entering, I take it?”
“I did.”
“And you don’t wonder why?”
“I assumed there must be a reason for it.”
Oh Joo-yup nodded.
“The Library is a treasury of records. Here are condensed the life marks left by our founding ancestors, and by the generations after them. But third-generation disciples are young. What if one of them secretly tears paper, falls asleep while reading a manual, and drools all over it?”
“I don’t think senior brother Nam-jung or senior sister Seo Jin-ah would do that.”
“I know. But once you make an exception to a rule, it leaves a flaw behind.”
“I heard that senior sister Seo-hwa is allowed in.”
“That girl is Elder Jin Young-mae’s grand-disciple. Because Elder Jin will take responsibility for Seo-hwa’s mistakes, it is possible.”
I, too, had entered the Library for the same reason in my past life.
But now I was Yoo Yeon-woo’s disciple, not sect leader Baek Gun-won’s chief disciple.
“Then what about me? Shouldn’t I not be allowed in either?”
“You were the one begging to come in, and now you ask such a thing? Normally, yes. But to be honest, I needed someone to share tea with. In fact, I had already taken an interest in you after hearing about you. To point out the flaws in your master’s martial art after seeing it only once... You’re no ordinary child.”
Tell me about it.
Defeating Ha Seo-hwa and drawing the sect’s attention had all been for the sake of entering the Library.
Still, rules were rules.
Though Oh Joo-yup had let me into the Library, he was in fact leading me to his office and making it seem as if I wouldn’t be allowed to roam freely.
“I heard the story. That you performed Falling Blossom Sword Art in Hwa-yeon Hall and defeated Ha Seo-hwa. The disciples who returned from lunch were making a great fuss over it.”
“I just got lucky.”
“Seo-hwa is one of the most outstanding children among the third-generation disciples. Neither defeating her nor performing Falling Blossom Sword Art can simply be dismissed as luck.”
Oh Joo-yup led me into the Library Elder’s office.
A bookshelf lined with books, a plain table, and a chair.
At the end of the table sat an oil lamp and a teapot.
After motioning for me to take a seat, Oh Joo-yup went to the bookshelf, pulled out a single volume, and returned to where I was sitting.
“Read this while the tea steeps.”
I took the book he handed me and looked at the cover.
In neat handwriting, it read: Falling Blossom Sword.
“If you learn from a manual-free approach, just watching a technique and trying to imitate it, bad habits naturally take root. Things like that are hard to correct. Once I heard the news, I decided I ought to show you the manual.”
“Thank you, Elder.”
“Read it now. It is my responsibility to ensure that Mount Hua disciples are training their martial arts properly.”
Unable to resist his urging, I opened the manual.
I could perform Falling Blossom Sword Art correctly even with my eyes closed, but his words weren’t wrong.
I slowly read through the manual for Falling Blossom Sword Art.
“The moves that usually trouble disciples who are just learning Falling Blossom Sword Art are the third and fourth forms. Do you know which ones I mean?”
“You mean Flower Falls Without Intent and Sword Emerges Without Mercy.”
“Then explain them to me. Tell me what’s difficult, one step at a time, and I’ll show you.”
“Um... it means that because flowers fall without intent, the sword advances without mercy, doesn’t it?”
“So it was that.”
Oh Joo-yup narrowed his eyes.
“You’re young, yet you can read difficult writing.”
...Ah.