Did You Come from Zhongnan? (5)
'First, let me check the surroundings.'
He couldn’t afford to make one careless mistake and turn this into a disaster.
Chung Myung whipped his head around, scanning the area from side to side to make sure no other mechanism would trigger the moment he opened the cave entrance.
If it had been the Sect Leader Senior Brother, he might have set it up so that if anyone other than himself opened the cave, a signal would be sent. The old man was cautious to a fault, after all.
'Doesn't look like there’s anything obvious.'
Once he was satisfied there were no other traps, Chung Myung’s gaze locked onto the upper part of the corridor.
There were holes bored into the wall, each large enough to fit a child’s fist. Not just one or two, either, but one every ten-odd paces.
"Tsk."
Originally, there must have been luminous pearls set there. This corridor would have been bright then, not dark and cheerless the way it was now, with not a single trace of light.
Every time Mount Hua ran short of money, they must have pulled one out and sold it. And each time they did, the corridor would have grown a little darker.
What had the Sect Leader been thinking as the passage grew dimmer with every visit? Had he not thought that as the corridor darkened, so too did Mount Hua’s future?
"Ughhh."
Chung Myung scratched his head hard.
"Would’ve been better if I hadn’t looked."
It was heavy. Too heavy.
He’d known that already, of course. He wasn’t an idiot.
Just because the Sect Leader and the first-generation disciples didn’t show it didn’t mean he couldn’t guess at what they were feeling. By now, all of them must be losing sleep under the weight of what Mount Hua’s name meant, and under the fear that the sect might collapse in their generation.
They’d been carrying that pressure their whole lives, no doubt.
'This is such bullshit.'
He wasn’t the only one who had caused this mess. In truth, it was him who had raised Mount Hua’s name to the heavens as the Plum Blossom Sword Saint, but the great and small affairs of the sect had always been decided by the Sect Leader and the elders, not by him.
Everyone had made the mess together, and yet he was the one who had to clean up after it? What kind of rotten injustice was that?
Clicking his tongue, Chung Myung strode up to the door.
Enough complaining. Shall we open it and see what’s inside?
"But… how do you even open this thing?"
Chung Myung tilted his head.
The door had no handle. Only a long seam down the center hinted that it was a door at all; without that line, it might as well have been a wall.
"And what are these lines supposed to be?"
The long split down the middle was clearly the seam where the door met. Then what were all these messy lines crisscrossing it horizontally and vertically? It looked as if someone had taken a sword to the wall and practiced their forms there.
'...Is this really a door?'
He placed a hand on the surface, unable to tell whether it was wall or door, and slowly sent his qi inside. But he could only pull his hand back a moment later.
"What the hell."
His qi wouldn’t pass through.
That couldn’t happen with ordinary rock. There was something terrifying behind this stone.
'Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron.'
And at least a palm’s width of it, too.
"...Does money just rot away around here?"
There was no doubt they had built a storehouse out of that absurdly expensive Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron and then sealed the outside with rock.
"No wonder the Sect Leader never even dared try opening it."
What was Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron, anyway?
It was the finest metal in all the world, one that could be forged into a peerless sword that would rank among the best in heaven and earth, or into armor that nothing could ever pierce. A treasure of treasures, more valuable than gold by weight.
And they had used it to make a hidden chamber.
"Hahaha."
Depending on how you looked at it, the Sect Leader might even seem stupid. To just leave such an expensive metal sitting here like this?
But Chung Myung understood why the Sect Leader hadn’t touched it. Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron was, quite literally, the hardest metal under heaven. Even for Chung Myung now, cutting through it would be impossible.
If it was a palm’s width thick, even the former Plum Blossom Sword Saint Chung Myung would only just be able to cut through it with effort. So if anyone was to carve open this hidden chamber, they’d need to bring in a martial master of the highest order.
But would someone like that really just look at this treasure and walk away?
'No chance in hell.'
If Mount Hua, already missing its teeth, was seen possessing a treasure like this, that alone could become a death sentence. The strong would never let the weak properly sell off such a treasure. They would try to seize it by any means necessary.
If they rashly brought in an outsider, Mount Hua might be wiped from the face of the earth.
'The Sect Leader made the right call. Bringing in a master to solve an immediate crisis is like calling in a tiger to avoid a wolf.'
What was inside mattered, yes, but Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron itself was a treasure. And this much of it was worth a fortune.
"The problem is, I can’t cut it either…."
Chung Myung’s face twisted slightly.
If this had been his old self, he could have sliced through this sort of Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron with his bare hands. He was, after all, the Plum Blossom Sword Saint no matter what anyone said—someone who had reached the pinnacle of swordsmanship, a man who….
"Forget it!"
No point wasting time on old stories.
Chung Myung sharpened his vision and studied the chaotic patterns carved into the wall. If this was the door and his Sect Leader Senior Brother had been coming and going from inside, then there had to be a way to open it.
The Sect Leader Senior Brother’s cultivation level wasn’t higher than his. So if he could just figure out the method….
"Huh? This is…?"
The Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art?
The patterns etched into the wall—no, the sword paths!
Some of those sword paths were similar to the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art. And once he caught that thread, he could identify the other patterns as well.
"This is the Bamboo Leaf Hand. This one’s the Plum Blossom Sword Manual. And this is the Six Harmonies Fist."
From the faintest lines to the deepest grooves.
All the martial forms carved here were techniques that only a Mount Hua disciple could learn.
'No wonder the Sect Leader couldn’t open it.'
Because neither the Plum Blossom Sword Manual nor the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art had been passed down in present-day Mount Hua. A martial artist might recognize the forms and follow the route, but there was no way to recreate the skill itself from the patterns alone.
"This depth…."
Chung Myung let out a long breath.
"It's the Zixia Divine Art."
Using the Zixia Divine Art as the foundation, then linking it with the Six Harmonies Fist, the Bamboo Leaf Hand, and the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art, before finally releasing the Plum Blossom Sword Manual.
That was how this door was opened.
If you precisely followed the sword paths and released your sword accordingly, the door was designed to open on its own. How the hell they had created such a mechanism, he had no idea.
But he’d solved the riddle.
Only one problem remained.
"...And how the hell am I supposed to perform it?"
If this had been the Chung Myung of old, there’d be no issue. No— even the elders, if they weren’t Chung Myung, would probably have been able to open it without much trouble. But the current Chung Myung was nothing more than an upstart who hadn’t even properly mastered the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art yet.
He could imitate the shape of the sword forms. But pouring internal energy into them and unleashing the sequence in one breath was impossible for him right now.
"Huuuh."
Chung Myung drew a deep breath.
'What do you mean, impossible?'
If it couldn’t be done, then it had to be made to happen. There was nothing in this world without a solution. It was only difficult.
Clenching his teeth, Chung Myung brought both hands together at his dantian.
"...I really don't want to do this."
If this were a life-and-death battle, maybe. But he didn’t want to push himself over something like this. Still, no matter how he thought about it, this was the only way.
"Let’s just think of it as a month-long recovery."
Grinding his teeth, Chung Myung carefully stirred the inborn qi resting at the deepest part of his dantian.
Inborn qi.
The power every human was born with.
It was different from internal energy.
Even if one lost all their internal energy, they would not die. They’d only be overcome by a terrible sense of weakness, but it would not affect their ability to live. After all, internal energy was something humans artificially cultivated.
But inborn qi was different.
Lose that, and a human could no longer sustain life. In other words, inborn qi was the vitality that maintained a person’s existence.
Those who reached the highest martial realms could draw on inborn qi as if it were internal energy. But because it was the force that sustained life, anyone who used it had to pay the price.
If overused, it would lead to death.
Even if used in moderation, one’s vitality would be badly damaged, making normal life impossible for months.
'Just a little. I’ll only use a little. Just a little.'
What was the point of saving Mount Hua if Chung Myung died doing it? Right now, Chung Myung might even be more important than Mount Hua itself.
Tap. Tap.
He cautiously provoked the inborn qi. Too much was bad. Just enough to use! Really, just enough to use!
Stirred by the provocation, the inborn qi began to surge. The awakened force pushed its way toward his dantian.
'That's a bit more than I expected.'
Chung Myung swept aside his stray thoughts and gripped his sword.
Could he do it?
He had to do it!
He mixed inborn qi and internal energy together to forge a grand force, then followed the method of the Zixia Divine Art to circulate it through his entire body. The internal energy, flowing along unfamiliar routes, shook his whole frame.
"Keugh!"
A cry squeezed out through his lips.
Agonizing pain followed, but Chung Myung’s eyes only grew brighter.
'Just once! I have to nail it in one go.'
Purple sword qi gathered at his fingertips.
This wasn’t proper martial cultivation. It was only a crude imitation, forcing the body he was in to reproduce the swordsmanship and forms his mind remembered.
So there would be no second chance.
Chung Myung’s hand moved through the air like a streak of light.
A violet trajectory carved into the wall.
Grgrgrrk! Grgrgrrk!
The sound of something scraping against stone echoed through the silent cavern. It was supposed to be a flawless sequence unleashed in a single breath, but because of the limits of his body and internal energy, it was agonizingly slow.
"Haa… ugh!"
His dantian felt like it was being ripped apart.
But Chung Myung did not stop. He kept swinging his hand. As the strained motions continued, his muscles screamed as if they were about to tear, and his face burned as if it might burst.
'I am the Plum Blossom Sword Saint!'
If skill wouldn’t get him there, then stubbornness would.
After clamping down on his wavering consciousness with nothing but his teeth, Chung Myung finally completed every single movement.
Then he froze.
His hand stopped in midair.
'Did it work?'
His legs were trembling, his chest heaved, and he could barely draw breath, but now was not the time to worry about his body. If it didn’t open even after this, then it was truly the end.
And then—
Kiiiiiik!
A strange metallic creak sounded, followed by a sharp clack, and something inside finally gave way.
At last, the massive door shifted forward by half a foot.
"Ah!"
It opened!
He had thought the mechanism would move and swing the door open by itself, but it seemed only the lock had been released.
Still, that was enough. Now, inside….
"Uwaaaack!"
Suddenly, Chung Myung clutched his stomach and doubled over.
Blood like dark red sludge poured from his mouth. It gushed from his throat with such force that it couldn’t possibly be swallowed back down.
"Tch."
Chung Myung wiped the blood from his lips with his sleeve.
It seemed he had taxed his body far more than he’d expected by drawing out so much inborn qi.
At this rate, he’d need at least two months of complete rest to recover from the internal injuries.
"Ha… Saving Mount Hua is damn hard."
Spitting out the rest of the blood in his mouth, Chung Myung clicked his tongue and shoved the cave door wide open.
Kiiiiiiik!
The hidden chamber, sealed for countless years, slowly yawned open to the left and right.
"Now then, shall we see what exactly the Sect Leader Senior Brother hid away in here?"
With a meaningful smile, Chung Myung stepped into the cave.