Recruiting a Disciple
"I greet the Sect Leader!"
Ha Seo-hwa and I bowed at the same time, cupping our fists. Since I had never expected to come face-to-face with the Sect Leader — let alone with Oh Joo-yup beside him — a cold sweat broke out along my back.
How much did he hear?
The Sect Leader had come with Oh Joo-yup in tow.
That meant he probably hadn’t heard the important part of our conversation.
Hadn’t I returned the writing brush, paper, ink, and inkstone I borrowed from Oh Joo-yup in the study hall? And after I gave the secret manual back to the library elder, the Sect Leader had still shown no sign of having appeared, even when I returned to my seat.
Then he must have arrived when I was returning the manual.
I quickly retraced my conversation with Ha Seo-hwa.
It wasn’t the sort of thing a third-generation disciple should be talking about, but fortunately there was nothing there that would become a problem if overheard.
After finishing my mental calculations, I lifted my head just enough to study the Sect Leader’s expression.
It was the look one gave a talented prospect one wanted badly.
A chill ran down my spine for no good reason.
If it comes to it, he’s planning to bring me in as a disciple.
From the moment I entered Mount Hua, I’d been told I stood out. I had thought of it as the price of talent.
Oh Joo-yup added from the side, “Sect Leader, according to the Hwa-yeon Hall instructors, Sung-woon’s Falling Blossom Sword Art was without the least excess or waste. Since Sect Leader can perceive sword intent, I believe you’ll find his level worth your expectations.”
“Is that truly so?”
The Sect Leader’s face brightened all at once.
Mine, on the other hand, went black.
To think I’d have to demonstrate my martial arts before the Sect Leader himself — it was no small burden.
Of all times, why now, Sect Leader?
The sword intent Oh Joo-yup mentioned was a skill unique to the Sect Leader.
When the Sect Leader swung a sword, he could discern the nature of the swordsman before him. He could tell exactly what the swordsman was feeling or thinking, whether they were tense or merely coasting through the motions, as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
Because of that ability, when he was still a young sect disciple, he’d reportedly been struck with wooden swords more than a few times for slacking off during training.
“There is a practice ground in the Library where martial arts may be displayed. Come, both of you, follow me.”
“...Yes, understood.”
Like a wild boar being led to the butcher’s block, I trudged after the Sect Leader and Oh Joo-yup.
When we reached the practice ground inside the Library, Oh Joo-yup walked to one corner.
From there, he brought back a wooden sword suitable for a child and handed it to me.
“It should not be much different from the one you used.”
“...Thank you.”
At my reluctant reply, the Sect Leader smiled.
“Pay us no mind. You said you would show Falling Blossom Sword Art to Seo-hwa, did you not? Consider this no more than a few extra eyes. Just do as you always do.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I only gave a thin smile in return.
“If you perform the Falling Blossom Sword Art splendidly, I will grant you a Nine Yang Pill. Just know that it is a pill beyond comparison with the Nine Dragons Pill.”
At the Sect Leader’s follow-up, I couldn’t put my gratitude into words, so I smiled broadly instead.
“I will never disappoint you.”
The Nine Yang Pill was among the best of the advanced-grade elixirs.
If taken, it would grant ten years’ worth of internal energy, and it was also of great help in cultivating Fire Yang Arts.
The Violet Mist Divine Art was a martial art of extreme yang.
For me, nothing could be better.
“Still, do not forget that the greatest reason for your display of Falling Blossom Sword Art is Seo-hwa.”
“Yes!”
I exchanged a glance with Ha Seo-hwa.
From the moment she entered the practice ground, she hadn’t taken her eyes off me for even a second.
As though she wanted to remember every aspect of me.
“You said you’d show me, so show me,” she said.
“Yeah.”
“You wanted to see it so badly. I hope there’s something for you to take away from it.”
I walked to the center of the training platform and faced the people watching from outside.
After gripping the hilt of the wooden sword with both hands, I fixed my gaze straight ahead.
I matched my line of sight to the height of the blade’s tip.
I only had a sliver of internal energy, but right now I wanted to use it to unfold the Falling Blossom Sword Art.
The Falling Blossom Sword Art was created from insight gained by observing plum blossoms falling.
The tip of the sword had to resemble a falling plum blossom.
“I’ll begin now.”
With those words, I inhaled.
Then I slowly raised the wooden sword high into the air.
First, the sword had to blossom like a flower.
But the movement had to remain still.
The instruction to make the sword bloom like a flower was so vague that even understanding it wasn’t easy.
But there was no need to overthink it.
It simply meant to think of the sword itself as a flower.
Reciting the oral formula for the Falling Blossom Sword Art in my head, I slowly began to swing the wooden sword downward.
I Sword Like Flower.
The sword bloomed like a flower.
When It Rises, There Is No Sound.
When it moved, it made no sound.
The wooden sword, charged with internal power, drifted through the air.
Like plum blossoms falling from the tip of a branch, like plum blossoms scattered on the wind and rippling in its wake.
Though what I held was only a wooden sword, I swept across the practice ground as though I were a child out for a flower-viewing excursion.
As soon as that form ended, I naturally flowed into the next three.
Flowers Fall Without Thought, the Sword Emerges Without Mercy.
Because flowers fall without thought, the sword too advances without mercy.
It Dances with the Wind, Its Shadow Scatters in a Thousand Layers.
It dances with the wind, and its shadow scatters in a thousand layers.
Falling Blossoms Fill the Sky.
Flowers fell and drifted through the heavens.
Empty Clouds Leave Their Own Tracks.
It left its own trace upon the void.
I swung the sword in accordance with the formula. I brought it down as though dropping it to the ground, lifted it diagonally as if it were being tossed by the wind, and drew a half-moon as if scattering shadows.
And as I unfolded the sword, I understood.
Falling Blossom Sword Art.
I liked this sword technique, this sword art that resembled plum blossoms falling from the ends of branches.
Ever since my dantian was shattered, I had been unable to walk with my head held high.
Whenever I saw plum blossoms in full bloom, they dragged up memories of the time when I was still a martial artist and tormented me.
The memory of the day my dantian broke would even follow me into my dreams, forcing the death throes of my comrades back into my ears.
At times I had been so afraid of sleep that I would shut myself away in the Library, copying martial manuals until exhaustion became too much to bear.
Because I always looked only at the ground, the plum blossoms I was able to see were those that had fallen from the branches and beautifully stained the earth.
I couldn’t look at the sky. I couldn’t look at the branches. I was afraid to raise my head. The nightmare I could never forget would suddenly come back to haunt me.
But if I lifted my head even slightly...
Even if I couldn’t see the branch, I could see the brief instant of plum blossom falling between branch and earth.
Only after my dantian shattered had I gained insight into falling blossoms. My body hurt too much to continue halfway through, but I had always wanted to infuse the meaning of falling blossoms into my sword and let it bloom there, forgetting even that I had become a cripple.
And now.
I was unfolding the Falling Blossom Sword Art I had dreamed of.
Even though my body still wasn’t used to martial arts and my wrists ached, I was displaying, right here and now, a version of the Falling Blossom Sword Art different from the one I’d once performed in my past life.
“...Haa.”
Only after I finished the final form did I exhale a deep breath.
Even though it was winter, my hair, face, and robes were soaked through with sweat.
Still gripping the wooden sword, I brought both hands together and bowed in a formal salute.
“Thank you.”
While giving thanks, I also studied everyone’s faces.
Their expressions all made it painfully clear that they could hardly believe what they had just seen.
Needless to say, that included Ha Seo-hwa and Oh Joo-yup.
Even the Sect Leader had widened his eyes slightly in disbelief, stroking the side of his mouth and beard with his right hand.
Since he was usually so composed, he didn’t look all that shocked.
But I, who had once been his sect disciple, knew better.
That reaction, in another person, would have been the equivalent of fainting from surprise.
Oh Joo-yup let out a dry laugh before speaking. “Sect Leader. I believe I now understand what you always meant by sword intent. I think I can see what Sung-woon has placed within the Falling Blossom Sword Art. And the sword is so vivid that the illusion of plum blossoms is drifting before my eyes.”
It was the highest praise possible.
The plum blossom “illusion” people so often spoke of was, in truth, the result of qi being released to a degree visible to the eye.
In other words, it was a phenomenon only possible from the Peak realm onward.
My level was merely third-class, so even if I infused the wooden sword with internal energy, there was no way I could actually create plum blossoms.
And yet they had become so immersed in the sword forms that they thought they themselves were seeing the illusion of plum blossoms. That was an enormous compliment.
Ha Seo-hwa was still staring at me, mouth slightly open and eyes wide.
It was quite the reaction, but she had frozen in shock, so it was hard to read her thoughts immediately.
“Hah...”
The Sect Leader’s low sigh echoed through the practice ground.
“It grieves me that I never got to see the Falling Blossom Sword Art as it was first displayed in Hwa-yeon Hall. You’ve been practicing it with Yeon-woo all this time, have you not?”
I nodded.
“Yes. My master said that if I learned only by watching and imitating martial arts, I might develop bad habits, so he taught me personally.”
“There must be parts refined through your master’s guidance. Even so, to have entered the sect less than half a month ago and already unfolded the forms of Falling Blossom Sword Art so perfectly... You are a talent sent from heaven.”
The Sect Leader went on without pausing to breathe.
“In your Falling Blossom Sword Art, I could plainly see yearning, grief, and regret. Within it, I also felt longing. I can guess what it is you yearn for and what it is you miss, so I will not ask. What matters is your nature, is it not? Even without my trying to read it deliberately, you are the first disciple I’ve ever seen who can reveal his sword intent entirely on his own!”
Though his expression remained calm, there was a trace of excitement in his voice.
The Sect Leader turned his head and looked at Oh Joo-yup.
“I swore before coming to the Library that I would not get greedy... and yet...”
“Who wouldn’t be greedy after seeing that child? He is genius among geniuses.”
“Even at this level, I still feel my training is lacking. To think I would want another man’s disciple for myself. Who could call a greedy man like me the Sect Leader of Mount Hua?”
The Sect Leader strode over and stopped in front of me. He looked down at me from far above, then opened his mouth at last.
“Third-generation disciple Yoo Sung-woon.”
“Please speak, Sect Leader.”
“Become my disciple.”
“I’m sorry.”
I answered at once, without even needing to think.
Apparently not expecting that response, the Sect Leader’s eyes twitched.
“I’d like to hear your reason.”
“I already serve a master. Please understand my circumstances, Sect Leader.”
“You’ve only just entered the sect, so you don’t fully understand how the sect works. The Sect Leader’s way of taking in disciples is different from everyone else’s. We select especially outstanding talents from among the third-generation disciples gathered by the second-generation disciples.”
The Sect Leader’s disciple.
The title could only mean one thing: Mount Hua’s next Sect Leader.
“Do you know of the Ten Supreme Masters of the Martial World?”
“I’ve heard of them. It’s the name used to refer collectively to the ten greatest experts in the martial world, isn’t it?”
Even those counted among the top ranks of the hundred greatest masters under heaven would find it difficult to exchange more than ten moves with the Ten Supreme Masters of the Martial World.
The Sect Leader slowly nodded.
“I am known by the sobriquet Sword Venerable, and my name is among the Ten Supreme Masters. To become my disciple means receiving not only the limitless support of Mount Hua, but also my personal instruction as one of the Ten Supreme Masters.”
I knew that already.
I had spent a whole lifetime receiving that instruction.
“If I answer you, will I fail to receive the pill?”
The Sect Leader shook his head.
“I’m not so petty as that. Even if you refuse, I will give you the Nine Yang Pill. But if you answer that you will become my disciple, I may be able to replace it with a pill superior to the Nine Yang Pill.”
The elixirs the Sect Leader spoke of were undoubtedly the Purple Cloud Pill and the Plum Blossom Divine Pill, known as Mount Hua’s Two Great Immortal Pills.
“Falling Blossom Sword Art is certainly an excellent martial art, but Mount Hua has many other profound techniques as well.”
He wasn’t wrong. Only the Violet Mist Divine Art had been lost; the rest of Mount Hua’s martial arts were still being passed down.
“From the fact that you keep visiting the Library, I can see you must have a great hunger for learning more martial arts. A Sect Leader’s disciple may learn every martial art of Mount Hua. Do you know why?”
“Because they’re entrusted with the duty of correctly passing Mount Hua’s martial arts down to future generations. And to do that, they must master every martial art of Mount Hua.”
“Exactly. That is also why, rather than taking a second-generation disciple, the Sect Leader takes a third-generation disciple as a direct disciple.”
To inherit all of it, time was the problem in the end. The sect leader had to teach from a young age if the next generation was to carry it on.
“There will be no martial art you cannot learn, including the Twenty-Four Style Plum Blossom Sword Art, which only the Plum Blossom Sword Soldiers can practice. I will help you achieve that. I will help you reach a realm even ordinary talent could never imagine.”
I had some idea of how badly the Sect Leader wanted a disciple.
Talented children came to Mount Hua full of ambition and determination.
But the threshold to enter Mount Hua was not so low that ambition alone would do it.
And yet, no disciple with enough aptitude to carry on Mount Hua’s true inheritance had appeared until now.
What the Mount Hua elders wanted was not simply someone with talent.
They needed someone born with the talent to master all of Mount Hua’s martial arts at once, along with a selfless nature and the heart of righteous chivalry.
Someone capable of that at a young age might appear once in ten years, if that.
The current Mount Hua Sect was considered to be falling behind the other orthodox sects of the Nine Great Sects.
With fewer and fewer so-called geniuses entering the sect, they were being driven to headaches over the question of succession.
And in the midst of all that, there was me — the talent from my past life.
Then me again, standing before them in this life.
It would be a terrible waste to let me slip away like this.
It would not be strange for him to think he had just found a talent destined to lead Mount Hua into the future.
But my answer would not change.
“Disciple of lesser worth, I know your offer is beyond my station. For that, I thank you. But I believe one cannot serve two masters in this world. Please understand, Sect Leader.”
“What did you say?”
“My father passed away, and my master took me in. Unless my master casts me out, I wish to remain his disciple forever.”
And so—
“Please, Sect Leader, understand my circumstances.”
I bowed my head and asked him to accept it.
The Sect Leader said nothing for a long while.
Neither did Oh Joo-yup, and Ha Seo-hwa looked as though she couldn’t quite believe what was unfolding before her.
Of course she couldn’t.
I had refused, face-to-face, an offer every martial artist would envy — not once, but twice.
The Sect Leader had been fiercely greedy for talent.
He had trained me in every way imaginable so that no moss would grow on me.
Was he going to show displeasure? Or sigh?
Just as I was worrying, an unexpected reaction burst out instead.
“Wahahahahaha!”
The Sect Leader threw back his head and laughed at full volume.
“Joo-yup, I told you, didn’t I? This child won’t become my disciple. My junior brother and I are a pair of troublemakers!”
Oh Joo-yup pressed a hand to his forehead. “...I really did not think it would be this way.”
The Sect Leader turned his gaze back to me.
“Sung-woon, let me ask you one thing. You knew exactly how remarkable the Ten Supreme Masters are, and still you refused, yes?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Then that’s enough. A man should have that kind of backbone.”
The Sect Leader quietly took the wooden sword from my hands.
“I’m sorry for testing you. If your thoughts were shallow, I might have understood, but your thoughts are deep, and yet if you were the sort to chase opportunity by flipping masters as easily as turning your palm over, then you would surely have a small vessel. Even had you accepted, I would not have taken you as my disciple.”
“I-I see.”
So was that saying my past self had been shallow?
Back then, I’d lived intoxicated by my own brilliance, so yes, I suppose I had been shallow.
“But now that you have refused for a proper reason, I’m even more interested in you.”
For some reason, his tone sounded ominous, and I flinched reflexively.
Seeing my reaction, the Sect Leader waved a hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry. Mount Hua is an orthodox sect. We don’t force disciples on people who don’t want them. But everything I said was true, so if you ever change your mind, come find me whenever you like.”
“Then what about the pill...?”
“I liked your Falling Blossom Sword Art. Finish your training at Hwa-yeon Hall tomorrow, then come by the Medicine Hall. I’ll speak to the Hall Master there and have him give you the Nine Yang Pill.”
I cupped my fists and bowed deeply.
“I’m grateful to you, Sect Leader.”
“And I am grateful to you as well. I thought I would never again feel my emotions stirred by the sight of Falling Blossom Sword Art.”
The Sect Leader approached Ha Seo-hwa and held out the wooden sword.
Ha Seo-hwa, who had still not quite recovered from the shock of what had just happened, accepted it in a daze.
“As for your answer and all that, I don’t know what the two of you discussed. But you must have seen Sung-woon’s Falling Blossom Sword Art and wanted to understand something from it. Can you understand it now?”
Ha Seo-hwa looked down at the wooden sword and murmured, “...This disciple doesn’t really know.”
“Then think while you swing it. If you lose yourself and keep swinging the sword until thought itself dissolves, the path will reveal itself one day.”
After lightly patting Ha Seo-hwa’s shoulder, the Sect Leader vanished just as abruptly on the way out as he had on the way in.
Once he descended from the practice ground, Ha Seo-hwa filled the space I had vacated as if possessed by a ghost.
Then she wordlessly began swinging the wooden sword. It was the form of the Falling Blossom Sword Art.
Not knowing what else to do, I stood there quietly, and then Oh Joo-yup said, “Sung-woon. It’s late. You should head back. I’ll look after Seo-hwa.”
“Yes. Thank you for your hard work today, Elder.”
“Mm. See you tomorrow.”
Geniuses sometimes do things ordinary people can’t understand.
Intuiting that this was one of those times, I didn’t hesitate to return to my quarters.
By the time I got back, midnight had already passed.
After a brief conversation with Master, who had waited up for me without sleeping, I returned to my room.
Normally I would review the day through breath training before sleeping, but tonight I simply lay down on my bedding.
Too many things had happened.
All I wanted now was to rest peacefully.
And then, the next day.
“Sung-woon.”
“Yes, Senior Sister.”
“Did you do something wrong to Seo-hwa?”
“Nothing comes to mind.”
Ha Seo-hwa had started following me around.
At a distance, of course.
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