I Learned Very Well Thanks to You (2)
Fwaaaaat!
Using the force generated by sword meeting sword, Chung Myung flipped backward through the air and landed lightly on the ground.
He lowered his stance for a moment, then straightened his back and looked up at the sky.
Blood dripped steadily from the tip of his sword.
Heo Gong had taken a brutal price for receiving Maehwageomgi through his entire body. His whole frame looked as if it had been completely covered in cuts, large and small.
“Guh…….”
He staggered hard once, then barely managed to steady himself by planting his feet on the ground.
“Yeah. That’s more like it.”
Chung Myung muttered under his breath and nodded.
Wudang’s elder?
He had never been in Chung Myung’s eyes to begin with.
How much time do you think has passed?
How many years had it been since he’d been reborn? How many things had he lived through in this world?
It was unfortunate, but he no longer had time to be held back in a place like this. What he had to catch up to now was no longer his former self.
Heavenly Demon.
To face that monster, he had to leap over even the man he used to be.
He was forcing the disciples of Mount Hua into grueling, unreasonable training. But the person he was demanding the most absurd things from was none other than himself.
Again and again, he drove his body and mind to their limits. Ever since he had become aware of the Heavenly Demon’s existence, he had been pushing himself through training so severe it could not even be compared to the past.
To recover the self he had once been.
And, in the end, to surpass that self entirely.
Because Chung Myung was the only one in the world who truly understood the existence of the Heavenly Demon.
How could any of them possibly understand what that meant?
Could they even begin to grasp the fear that came from knowing he alone would have to stand against the Heavenly Demon when that monster stretched out his claws again?
No—he didn’t even ask for them to understand.
That burden belonged to Chung Myung alone.
He wasn’t the kind of person who expected much from others, not enough to ask them to carry that with him.
Still, at the very least……
“Get out of the greenhouse.”
“…….”
“If you can’t do that, then the reality you’re going to face will be twice as hellish as this.”
Heo Gong panted hard.
He had no idea why that brat kept spouting nonsense he couldn’t understand. The only thing he could comprehend right then was one simple truth.
He’s strong.
Heo Gong’s sword would not reach Chung Myung.
It was too obvious to deny. Despair spread before him so clearly it felt like something he could reach out and touch.
I’m losing?
To a Mount Hua third-generation disciple, no less?
“No way.”
His heart pounded wildly, and blood began pouring more fiercely from the open wound. Yet he didn’t bother tending to it or trying to stop the bleeding. Instead, he took one more step toward Chung Myung.
“I…… I am Heo Gong of Wudang!”
“I know, so you don’t need to keep yammering about it.”
“I won’t lose! I will never lose!”
Kwaaaaang!
Heo Gong’s sword drew a huge circle through the air.
Chung Myung knew perfectly well what that circle meant.
Taiji Wisdom Sword!
Wudang’s supreme sword doctrine. An invincible sword qi said to embody the principles of heaven and the universe. It was one of the martial arts Wudang proudly boasted of to the world.
Even if it was the same sword art, its level changed depending on who used it.
The Taiji Wisdom Sword Mu Gak had displayed earlier and the Taiji Wisdom Sword Heo Gong was drawing now were so different in scale they could barely be called the same technique. Merely drawing that light circle was enough to change the air over the stage and send a tremendous pressure crashing down in every direction.
Wooooooong!
Broken stones from the shattered floor, unable to withstand the surging force and energy, all rose into the air at once.
The sight of a sword embodying the laws of nature rejecting nature’s own order was, in truth, deeply paradoxical.
It was order and disorder at the same time. The taiji that contained both yin and yang.
Black sword qi, burning like fire, and white sword qi, flowing like water, surged forward together.
To contain two different qualities within a single sword.
It was not something one could even attempt without reaching the level of liangyi. That was why it was Wudang’s greatest sword and one of the supreme arts contending for the title of the world’s finest sword technique.
Black and white sword qi intertwined and spun. It was almost as if they were chasing each other’s tails. As they whirled, the qi naturally began to take the shape of a taiji.
Wooooooong!
The pressure produced by it devoured all the surrounding energy even as it released its own.
“R-Run back!”
“Fall back! Now!”
Baek Cheon shouted in alarm. Even he, who hadn’t wanted to take his eyes off the battle for a single moment, had to warn the others and step back because this sword was dangerous enough to make that necessary.
He drew his own sword and began spreading his energy to lessen the crushing pressure rolling toward them.
Damn it.
So this was what people meant when they talked about the hidden strength of a famous sect. It was enough to twist his stomach just hearing the words now.
Every time it seemed finished, another layer appeared; every time it seemed they’d gone past the limit, it began again.
We’ve come this far, and he still has that kind of strength left?
It was astonishing.
But Baek Cheon understood. What was truly astonishing wasn’t Heo Gong, who was pulling out more strength at the very end, but Chung Myung—the one who had forced Heo Gong, a Wudang elder, to reveal the depths of that strength in the first place.
Chung Myung’s hair shot up into the air. His robes whipped wildly, and the space around him seemed to surge upward as if the world itself had been turned upside down. Yet Chung Myung, firmly planted on the ground, did not move an inch, as though he were a boulder. He only stared at the sword qi pressing down on him.
Baek Cheon’s grip tightened on his sword.
If it felt this oppressive here, he couldn’t even imagine how much pressure Chung Myung must be feeling right at the front.
And yet.
There’s no way he’s losing!
That monster wouldn’t go down to something like this.
As if answering Baek Cheon’s faith, Chung Myung slowly raised his sword.
Black and white qi surged together, and the terrible force contained within it pressed at Chung Myung as if trying to tear him apart. Chung Myung’s eyes narrowed slightly.
You idiot…….
This wasn’t Taiji Wisdom Sword.
A sword unleashed in fury and rage, without reason or order, would never surpass a properly executed Three Talent Sword Art, no matter how much power it contained.
A swordsman must never abandon his cool head, even at the very last instant. The moment he forgot that, victory would be forever out of reach.
Chung Myung’s sword moved with unwavering resolve. Sharp, red sword qi burst forth.
It was not so different from the sword he had shown until now. Compared to Heo Gong’s will, which had already expanded into Taiji Wisdom Sword, Chung Myung’s repeated motion almost looked careless.
But it was more than enough.
You think there’s another mountain after you cross this one?
What nonsense.
If you really wanted to stop someone, you didn’t build another wall behind the first—you piled up a wall no one could ever cross.
This sword was a flower, a mountain, a forest, and a wall.
Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art, Plum Shadow Creating River.
Hundreds, thousands of plum blossoms became a river.
It was as if blossoms blooming in wild abundance atop a cliff had drifted down petal by petal until they filled the river below.
And then those flowers began to flow—not all that quickly.
It was different from Heo Gong’s sword, which had grown impatient and violent and had finally lost even its dignity. Chung Myung’s sword retained the same serene, lofty composure Wudang’s disciples had first displayed.
Kwaaaaaaang!
The two dragons of black and white went mad within the river full of petals. It was a storm of qi so violent it seemed it might burst the flower river apart.
But—
No matter how strong the force, it could not drive back a flowing river. Push it aside, smash at it, and the water would simply flow again and fill the empty space in the end.
Kwaaaaaaa!
Amid the raging force, plum blossom petals seeped through. Endlessly soft, never resisting the pushing force, simply turning and flowing around it.
T-This is…….
Heo Gong’s eyes went wide enough to split.
How could…….
It was a beautiful sight.
Petals riding the current of the flowing river brushed lightly past the two frenzied dragons and pressed toward him. As Heo Gong stared at that scene, he suddenly remembered words he had once heard long ago.
— I don’t know what it is you’re trying to see. But if you pursue only strength without will, one day you will lose even your own sword.
M-Master…….
It wasn’t Heo Do. It was what his own teacher, now dead, had left behind.
Why did those words, forgotten for so long, return to him in this very moment?
The immense qi within his sword flowed along the path led by the plum blossoms.
Master…… I……
And then the river of plum blossoms that had brushed past Heo Gong’s sword qi finally embraced his entire body in a gentle hold.
Whoooooosh!
It began as a river, but its end would be wind.
The petals that had spun once around his body rose into the sky, and then higher still.
Heo Gong stared blankly upward.
The surging plum leaves scattered in all directions, then gradually faded into nothing.
As though nothing had ever been there in the first place.
“…….”
Slowly, Heo Gong lowered his head.
Everything was already gone, utterly clean.
There was no taiji sword qi left, no red plum blossom sword qi from Chung Myung.
What remained was only Chung Myung, standing there with his sword lowered, staring at him.
“…….”
Heo Gong looked at Chung Myung with his lips pressed tightly shut.
He remained like that for a long while, saying nothing. Then, in a clear voice, he asked,
“May I ask you one thing?”
“Ask away.”
His voice was calm as he posed the question.
“Why did I lose?”
Chung Myung met his gaze quietly before answering.
“Because you forgot.”
“…….”
“Whether it’s a sword or a person…….”
Chung Myung paused for a moment, then slowly continued.
“There are things you can never forget. The instant you forgot the feelings you had when you first took up the sword, you’d already lost.”
“…….”
His gaze drifted toward Mount Hua. More precisely, toward Un Geom, who still had not regained consciousness.
“Your sword couldn’t even pass anything on to the disciples of the Purple Jade faction. But my master’s sword taught them something beyond sect boundaries.”
“…….”
“I’m not the one who won.”
Chung Myung made the declaration flatly.
“You, who felt nothing even after seeing that sword, were already dead as a swordsman.”
Heo Gong’s eyes moved to Un Geom.
“So…… the sharpness of the sword isn’t everything.”
“Now you’re getting it.”
Heo Gong nodded slightly as if he understood.
Snikt.
Then he slowly slid his sword back into its scabbard.
His hands, held out before him with the fists clasped together in salute, were trembling.
“I…… have learned a great deal.”
Tap!
Chung Myung, who had likewise slid Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword back into its scabbard, lightly returned the salute.
“I’ve learned a great deal.”
The two of them stood with clasped fists and bowed their heads for a moment. Then, when Chung Myung raised his head again, Heo Gong’s body collapsed like a rotten tree.
Thud.
The sound of his utterly drained body hitting the ground spread clearly in all directions.
“…….”
The world was painted over with silence.
The Mount Hua third-generation disciple had defeated a Wudang elder.
Faced with that absurd result, not only Wudang and the spectators, but even the disciples of Mount Hua were left speechless.
Amid the silence, so strange it almost felt unreal, Chung Myung spoke to Heo Sanja.
“This duel……”
“…….”
“Mount Hua’s victory.”
And then he smiled, bright and white.
“Thanks to you, I learned a great deal.”
Heo Sanja’s teeth, clenched so tightly they had been grinding together, finally cracked and broke.