A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step
“Seo-hwa has become strange.”
“Pardon?”
Hyeon So-eun was startled by her master’s abrupt remark. As both Ha Seo-hwa’s teacher and Jin Young-mae’s disciple, she had never expected such a thing to come out of her master’s mouth so suddenly.
“Strange how? Did something happen while I was away?”
“Quite a lot happened.”
Hyeon So-eun tilted her head.
Even if she had been away on an assignment, it had only been ten days. What could possibly have happened in that short span for her master to say her disciple had turned strange?
“Recently, she started going back to Hwa-yeon Hall, and once she returned, she cut down her training time.”
“Seo-hwa cut down her training time?”
“She only trains for two shichen now.”
Good heavens.
Hyeon So-eun stared out the window with an expression of utter disbelief.
“But she’s been training so diligently in the Falling Blossom Sword Art.”
“Only two shichen now. It’ll be over soon.”
Hyeon So-eun watched Ha Seo-hwa’s Falling Blossom Sword Art with careful eyes.
It had never been perfect, but considering her age, she had always shown excellent skill. Yet the Falling Blossom Sword Art she displayed now felt one step beyond what she had managed before.
Rather than reducing her training time and then gaining insight, maybe she gained insight first and then reduced her training time.
At a glance, she seemed no different from usual, but to the two of them, the meaning behind it was anything but ordinary.
Two shichen was the normal amount of training for ordinary third-generation disciples. Yet Ha Seo-hwa had been enduring several times that much until now.
What had changed in her mind for her to cut back on her own?
“Even while training, she’ll sometimes collapse on her own or sit there thinking for ages.”
As Hyeon So-eun listened, those indeed sounded like strange behaviors—nothing like what Ha Seo-hwa would normally do.
“When I ask her what she’s worried about, she won’t tell me.”
“On the way here, I heard something. I heard Yeon-woo’s disciple defeated Seo-hwa in a spar.”
“Yes. As for how that happened...”
Jin Young-mae told Hyeon So-eun everything that had happened so far.
Yoo Sung-woon had sparred with Ha Seo-hwa while Hyeon So-eun was away. Seo-hwa’s change had begun only after she became entangled with Yoo Sung-woon, so there was no way to leave him out of the story.
After hearing the entire account from Jin Young-mae, Hyeon So-eun was left speechless.
“He perfectly executed the Falling Blossom Sword Art after seeing it just once?”
“That wasn’t all. According to Yeon-woo’s report, he even grasped how to circulate inner energy by the time he reached the third form.”
Of course, the matter had already been settled by the explanation that he had seen the manual for the Falling Blossom Sword Art in the Library beforehand.
Still, the fact that he had apparently guessed at the missing parts and filled them in on his own raised all sorts of questions.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that he was lying, Master.”
“But there has never been a precedent for understanding the method of inner-energy circulation from the motions of a form alone. Even if we doubt him, how would we prove the truth?”
“...That’s true enough.”
“It is hard to believe.”
Normally, they would have dismissed it as a child trying to win his master’s attention by pretending to forget the circulation method and then blurting out the answer as if by coincidence.
But he had already shown astonishing talent from the moment he entered the sect.
He had executed the Falling Blossom Sword Art beautifully and even defeated Ha Seo-hwa with it.
The instructors who had witnessed the spar had all praised his swordplay as flawless and without excess.
“Even if it was a lie, that still makes him an extremely promising child! Isn’t that a good thing for the Mount Hua Sect?”
The problem was Ha Seo-hwa.
After all, she had changed after sparring with such a genius.
But on the day she lost the spar, she had apparently been the same as always. Strictly speaking, the change began on the day she trained at Yoo Yeon-woo’s quarters.
Jin Young-mae had asked Yoo Yeon-woo what exactly they had trained, just in case, but there had been nothing particularly unusual about it.
—I taught her basic inner energy work mixed with the Cloud Flame Sword and Seven Stars Steps. There was nothing extraneous about it.
—Did you also teach her the Falling Blossom Sword Art?
—Yes. I judged that if the child merely copied the Falling Blossom Sword Art she had learned by eye without knowing the oral formula, she might go astray, so I taught it to her. Is there some problem?
—No, nothing of the sort.
When they considered Yoo Sung-woon’s entry into the sect, his progress did seem absurdly fast.
And yet if he had grasped the essence of the Falling Blossom Sword Art, it was at least possible.
More importantly, it had been a training method that held no special significance for Ha Seo-hwa at all.
Apart from the Falling Blossom Sword Art, it was all martial arts she had long since mastered.
“The children went into the forest beside the quarters while dinner was being prepared.”
“The two of them?”
“Yes. Something must have happened there. Perhaps Yoo Sung-woon told her why he came to Mount Hua.”
As if she had forgotten to mention it, Jin Young-mae pointed out the window.
“I didn’t mention it before, but after that day, she suddenly started running off like that too.”
At those words, Hyeon So-eun turned back to the window.
Ha Seo-hwa, who had been diligently practicing the Falling Blossom Sword Art, had at some point put down the wooden sword she treated like an extension of her own body and was now running off somewhere.
“She’s even using lightness skill. Where is she going?”
“I have too much work to monitor everything.”
As the Hall Lord of the Law Enforcement Hall, her duties piled up like a mountain. Even now, she had only made a brief appearance after hearing that Hyeon So-eun had returned.
“Yoo Sung-woon—that child stirred up some inner change in her. Aside from you and me, Seo-hwa has never shown interest in anyone else.”
“Yoo Sung-woon...”
“You, as her master, should keep a close eye on her. I have too much work, so I ought to take my leave now.”
“Understood.”
“You must be tired from your assignment, so rest well today.”
After escorting Jin Young-mae out with a sigh, Hyeon So-eun sank into thought.
She had already been worried about Ha Seo-hwa’s excessive training for some time. Once she returned from her assignment, she had intended to find an appropriate day and speak with her.
Even while carrying out the assignment, she had worried over how to persuade her, but had never arrived at an answer. Unexpectedly, though, things had turned out well.
Still, where on earth did she go?
Jin Young-mae had told her to rest, but she couldn’t possibly sit still while leaving her wandering disciple alone.
Hyeon So-eun changed out of her assignment-stained clothes and stepped out of her quarters.
* * *
After the spar with Ha Seo-hwa, everything that followed passed in a remarkably ordinary fashion.
In the mornings I trained at Hwa-yeon Hall, and in the afternoons I trained with Master.
After eating dinner with Master, I would go to the Library and spend two shichen reading manuals.
I had not seen Ha Seo-hwa since the spar.
It seemed she wasn’t even coming to Hwa-yeon Hall anymore, training only in her quarters, but I had not looked into it closely.
I made no effort to seek her out.
After all, I had boldly challenged my senior sister, lost, and cried like a child. If I went looking for her after that...
If the situation had been reversed, I would have hidden in a mouse hole and stayed there for a while.
And so, once again today, I was the only third-generation disciple visiting the Library.
“Sung-woon, is it? Come in.”
“Hello, Uncle Yun. Hello to you too, Uncle Baek.”
I was growing more familiar with the faces of the elders who welcomed me there.
At the farthest corner of the first floor of the Library, Oh Joo-yup was seated across from me, waiting.
“You’ve come again today.”
“I greet Elder Oh.”
“Honestly, it must be a hassle, and yet you keep coming so faithfully.”
“When I read manuals, I gain new understanding. And when there are books all around me, I feel at ease.”
Oh Joo-yup smiled as if pleased with the answer.
“You’re right. Even among the disciples of the Nine Great Sects, there are many who find training bothersome. More of them would rather swing a sword than read a single line of text. Whatever the case, keeping books close is a good thing.”
In my previous life, Oh Joo-yup had taught me that training was not merely the act of moving one’s body.
Reading manuals, understanding them, and gradually grasping their principles—that too was part of training.
As someone who had won the position of Library Elder with such convictions, it was only natural that he would be pleased by my answer.
Until now, I had visited the Library every day to earn his trust.
The reason I had gone so carefully through manuals I could have memorized with my eyes closed was for this day.
“Elder. If it isn’t too much trouble, may I borrow brush, paper, ink, and grindstone?”
“Brush, paper, ink, and grindstone? What do you need those for?”
“I think it would be better if I wrote things down as I studied them. If something confuses me, I can jot it down and show it to Master.”
Oh Joo-yup stroked his short goatee and said, “Hmm... If that’s the reason, then yes, I can provide them. Just don’t go making mischief with the ink.”
“Of course. And I have one more request, if you’ll hear it.”
“I’ll decide after I hear it.”
“I’d like to see one of the inner cultivation methods created personally by the Ancestor.”
As with any other sect, martial arts multiplied as generations passed.
There were those who did not merely imitate the arts of their predecessors, but instead gained insight and created their own techniques.
Of the arts that formed the bones and pillars of the sect—Violet Mist Divine Art, Twenty-Four Style Plum Blossom Sword Art, Seven Severing Plum Blossom Sword, and so on—the Ancestor had created them all.
Yet compared with the total number of martial arts Mount Hua now possessed, those were only a handful.
Most were arts created by later generations.
“It’s not difficult, but why do you ask?”
“Since I’ve become a disciple of Mount Hua, I want to follow the Ancestor’s will.”
“Heh...”
Oh Joo-yup let out a soft sound of admiration.
“Very well. Most of the martial arts created by the Ancestor can be seen starting from the second-generation disciples, but there are a few manuals that even third-generation disciples may study.”
Oh Joo-yup stepped away briefly and returned a moment later with the brush, paper, ink, and grindstone, along with four manuals.
They were Small Clear Qi Art, Unity Mind Method, Creation Mind Method, and Jade Maiden Art.
These were the very arts I needed most at present.
“Thank you, Elder.”
“I hope you take away something worthwhile.”
After handing them over, Oh Joo-yup left his seat.
Before opening the manuals, I ground the ink first.
Now it’s time to hand over Violet Mist Divine Art.
Originally, I could memorize even the oral formulas of these arts with my eyes closed.
But a disciple like me, who had only recently entered the sect, could not obtain anything beyond Plum Blossom Qi Gong through ordinary means.
Of course, the other inner cultivation methods also belonged to Mount Hua. Learning them would not cause any major problems. The reason Plum Blossom Qi Gong was taught first was to accustom the body of an ordinary person to qi, and secondly to eliminate impure energy as much as possible.
If one learned other inner cultivation methods, naturally the expulsion of impure energy would be delayed, and that could in turn delay the understanding of other martial arts.
In the end, it’s a matter of efficiency.
There was nothing especially problematic about learning them.
If there was a proper reason, I could receive these inner cultivation methods.
Oh Joo-yup, as an elder, had already realized how absurdly fast my training had been progressing, so I believed he would hand them over without complaint.
There was a reason I had deliberately requested the manuals created by the Ancestor from Oh Joo-yup.
Martial arts are the result of the creator’s insight being soaked into them.
This was where my talent would come into play.
When I had become a cripple in my previous life, I spent a long time buried in the manuals left behind by the Ancestor.
As I studied them, I could infer what sort of insight had led the Ancestor to create each martial art, and under what circumstances.
More importantly, Mount Hua was a great sect with a long history.
Because of that, there were many records that had not been lost.
Normally even elders were forbidden from viewing them, but as the Chief Disciple, I had been required to memorize the full history of Mount Hua.
Thanks to that, I also learned that before plum blossoms bloomed across Mount Hua, there had once been Qingyun and Chiha.
It was said that before creating his martial arts, the Ancestor of old Mount Hua wandered the jianghu performing righteous deeds with the Green Cloud and Crimson Glow Sword.
People today would hear that sword art’s name and think of the Qingcheng Sect’s Green Cloud and Crimson Glow Sword.
I had thought the same at first.
When I read the records, I even wondered whether the Ancestor had once been a disciple of the Qingcheng Sect.
But the records clearly stated that although the name was the same, it was an entirely different sword art.
The problem was that the Ancestor had not passed down the forms or oral formulas of the Green Cloud and Crimson Glow Sword to later generations.
Because Violet Mist Divine Art began with the Green Cloud and Crimson Glow Sword.
As the name implied, the Ancestor’s Green Cloud and Crimson Glow Sword was a martial art that contained two kinds of energy within one sword and released them together.
Yet those two energies were merely carried within the sword; they never truly mingled with one another.
It was said the Ancestor planted a plum tree, received as a gift from someone, on Lakan Peak and meditated beneath it without pause in order to make the two energies one.
Then, one day, at sunset...
At the very moment blue clouds and red sunset glow intertwined and purple flooded the heavens and earth, he gained enlightenment.
Perhaps because that enlightenment had sunk so deeply into his very bones, the Ancestor was never again able to perform the Green Cloud and Crimson Glow Sword.
No matter how hard he racked his brain, he could not recall the oral formulas or forms, and so, using that enlightenment as a foundation, he created a new martial art.
Thus Violet Mist Divine Art was born.
One might ask what this had to do with manuals that even third-generation disciples could study.
But in the manual for Jade Maiden Art, there was a passage that mentioned the oral formula Green Cloud Rising.
And if I glanced over at Unity Mind Method, I would find the oral formula Crimson Glow Descending.
Green Cloud Rising and Crimson Glow Descending.
Those two formulas were the first and second formulas of Violet Mist Divine Art.
And if one circulated inner energy according to those two formulas, the flow naturally continued through the acupoints as though it were one complete martial art.
In my previous life, just in case, I had combed through every manual of martial arts created by the Ancestor.
Gathering every formula that seemed related to Violet Mist Divine Art, I had laid the foundation for restoring it.
In other words, it was fair to say that the formulas of Violet Mist Divine Art were scattered throughout the manuals the Ancestor had created.
Of course, other manuals also contained fragments of Violet Mist Divine Art’s formulas.
The problem was that the inner-energy circulation route indicated by Green Cloud Rising in Jade Maiden Art and Green Cloud Rising in Violet Mist Divine Art had similar structures but differed in the details.
Violet Mist Divine Art was more profound.
If one circulated inner energy by following the scattered formulas, the operation was far simpler than in Violet Mist Divine Art proper.
“It’s a simplified path through the acupoints.”
The sword art performed while circulating Violet Mist Divine Art.
To truly uncover it, I would have to observe the movements and infer how the inner-energy route was formed.
Needless to say, even I—the one once called Mount Hua’s greatest prodigy—could not grasp the circulation route of inner energy from a martial form at a single glance.
The restoration of Violet Mist Divine Art and Violet Mist Sword Art had been the result of two years spent shut away in the Library, neither eating properly nor resting.
What mattered was that now I knew the result while having skipped the process.
It was time to fill in the missing steps.
A few days ago, I had dangled the bait that I had inferred the circulation route of the Falling Blossom Sword Art.
I didn’t know when the hook would bite.
I didn’t even know whether my words had reached the elders.
But if the elders of the sect were paying close attention to my movements, then they would have no choice but to realize I was restoring Violet Mist Divine Art.
If I wrote the oral formula of Violet Mist Divine Art down on this paper...
If the formula contained the word Violet Mist...
And if one of the elders happened to see that paper...
Then it would be reported to the Sect Leader and the other elders at once, and there would be no problem at all with my examining the diagram for Violet Mist Sword Art.
There really is a formula that looks meaningful enough.
One of Violet Mist Divine Art’s formulas, Violet Qi, Heart of Heaven, was exactly that.
If it were up to me, I’d just make up the manual, wrap it in cloth, and leave it outside the Sect Leader’s quarters at night.
If that happened, though, the Sect Leader, having reached the Profound Realm, would never miss the movements of a third-generation disciple.
Even if he somehow failed to notice, he would quickly figure out that I had left the bundle there.
More importantly, if I did that, I could no longer use Violet Mist Divine Art legally.
If Violet Mist Divine Art’s manual suddenly appeared, the tradition that only the Sect Leader may inherit it would be revived as well.
What I was aiming for was the ordinary disciple who was forced to learn it while restoring Violet Mist Divine Art.
Take it slow.
No one would believe that an eight-year-old boy had restored Violet Mist Divine Art overnight.
To restore it perfectly and hand it over, I would need to devote a full year at the very least.
As the old saying went, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Since I had started early, I didn’t feel rushed.
As for the next Sect Leader, let someone else do it for once.
This life, after stopping the Blood Sky Demon Emperor, my dream was to marry a foxlike wife, have a pair of rabbitlike children—a son and a daughter—and live a long, healthy life while doting on my grandchildren.
Disciples of Mount Hua could marry unless they held a high position.
Of course, once one became a Plum Blossom Sword Soldier, an elder, or the Sect Leader, marriage was forbidden.
It was a happy worry for after the Blood Sky Demon Emperor was stopped, but there was nothing wrong with planning ahead for the future little by little.
So for now, I had to make a show of diligently studying the four inner cultivation methods.
I murmured their oral formulas nonstop while copying a few of the passages onto blank paper.
Then, after an hour had passed, I began to hear the faint sound of someone talking behind me.
I set down my brush and stepped out of the Library for a moment.
As I moved back toward the corner of the Library—the side with the window, where I could be observed from behind—I heard a commotion.
Using lightness skill to approach, I found two disciples sprawled on the floor as though they had collided.
One of them was a female disciple who appeared to be from the second-generation cadre.
And the other...
“...Ha Seo-hwa?”
It was Ha Seo-hwa, who had not been seen since losing the spar and disappearing for a while.