It Could Get Even Better! (2)
“Here you go.”
“……What’s this?”
“Freshly rewritten manuals. They should be easier to read.”
Looking at the manuals Chung Myung held out, Hyun Jong narrowed his eyes.
One was labeled Zixia Divine Art, the other Plum Blossom Sword Manual. Staring at those pristine new copies, there was no way he could avoid a question that naturally came to mind.
“……What happened to the old manuals?”
“Ah, those?”
Chung Myung grinned.
“They were so rotten that once I started learning from them, they just crumbled to pieces. Don’t worry. I’d already copied everything out ahead of time, so I knew this could happen.”
“……Crumpled to pieces?”
“Yep.”
Hyun Jong’s pupils shook.
“The manuals left behind by the Patriarch are gone?”
“Come on. What’s so important about the manual itself? What matters is the content inside.”
“…….”
“I’m sure the Patriarch wasn’t trying to preserve the physical book itself or anything. So it’s fine.”
Of course it was fine. If he didn’t want to die.
He had felt a certain tenderness while collecting Cheong Jin’s remains, but how could a person possibly change that easily?
“……You copied it out in advance?”
“Yep.”
Chung Myung nodded cheerfully.
But the brighter his expression was, the more Hyun Jong’s insides curdled.
“W-wait!”
At a loss for what to do about this enormous disaster, Hyun Jong was spinning in place when he suddenly realized something and cried out in alarm.
“The Zixia! What happened to Zixia Strength?”
“Huh?”
“Why are there only two manuals? Where the hell did you shove Zixia Strength?”
“Ah, that?”
Again, Chung Myung gave a light, casual laugh.
“Couldn’t save that one.”
“What?”
Hyun Jong’s eyes nearly popped out.
“C-couldn’t save it? What do you mean, couldn’t—”
“Uh… well…”
Rolling his eyes upward as if thinking of how to answer, Chung Myung soon smiled again and said, “After I looked at it, it seemed like a useless side technique, so I didn’t bother copying it. But I guess it got blown away along with the others?”
“Bl-bwown away?”
“Still, it’s fine. Zixia Divine Art is better anyway!”
“S-so you’re saying you just… threw away the ancestors’ legacy?”
“Uh….”
Hyun Jong’s face went so pale it looked like it had aged several years in an instant. Betraying that desperate look in his eyes, Chung Myung scratched the back of his head.
“I’m sure they’d understand. With an open mind and all that.”
“Ugh!”
“S-Sect Leader!”
“Please, calm down, Sect Leader!”
In the end, Hyun Jong clutched the back of his neck and toppled over backward. But Chung Myung, even after seeing that, only looked bored.
“It’s not even a useful technique, so why’s he getting so worked up…?”
“What did you just say, you punk?”
Hyun Jong, who had fallen over, suddenly sprang up like a coiled spring and lunged at Chung Myung. Chung Myung yelped and dodged quickly to the side.
“Hey, you little bastard! That’s—do you even know what that is!”
“Come on. It was never really there in the first place.”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung put on a solemn face.
“If something that never existed in the first place has disappeared again, what’s the problem? It’s just attachment to emptiness….”
“…….”
“Mountains are mountains. Water is water….”
“Enough!”
Hyun Jong kicked at him, but Chung Myung slipped away from the blow with aggravating ease.
“I’m telling you, it was seriously useless.”
“Get over here! Get over here, you brat!”
Hyun Young and Hyun Sang grabbed the flailing Hyun Jong before he could pounce on Chung Myung and forced him down. He was like a wriggling live fish in their hands.
“Please calm yourself, Sect Leader.”
“Let go! Let go of me!”
“Why are you acting like this? You wouldn’t be able to beat him anyway.”
“Grrrrr….”
Stung in exactly the right place, Hyun Jong ground his teeth with a face gone black with despair.
“How am I supposed to face the ancestors if I die now? Amitabha, Amitabha! Great Primordial Celestial Venerable!”
So that was why the martial art reserved for the Sect Leader had to be the Sect Leader’s exclusive technique—to save face in moments like this.
He briefly wondered if he should change it back to a Sect Leader-only art, but it was already too late; Chung Myung had learned Zixia Divine Art and come striding back out into the world with it. Everything was ruined.
“Uuugh… If you’re going to suffer, you may as well die.”
“It’s easier if you just give up.”
“…….”
One day…
One day, Hyun Jong vowed, he would absolutely get to beat the crap out of that bastard.
“All right, all right. Enough already. Just look at the manuals first.”
Hyun Jong was about to explode again, but Hyun Young, growing impatient, cut him off before he could get started.
“You just need to memorize these?”
“Yes. Start with the incantations. Take it slow and easy. If you rush and make a mistake, that could be a disaster.”
“Understood.”
Hyun Young picked up the manual and urged Hyun Jong on.
“Stop clinging to what’s already happened and let’s get moving. We’re busy enough as it is.”
In the end, even Hyun Jong gave up, grinding his teeth as he closed his eyes. Hyun Young was right. What could he do now? The ancestors’ legacy had already turned to dust and flown away.
With a half-crazed expression, he weakly opened the Zixia Divine Art.
Yes. Let go of the regret.
He knew very well that Zixia Divine Art was superior to Zixia Strength. It was far, far better than the alternative—having Zixia Divine Art vanish and only Zixia Strength remain.
Huh?
As Hyun Jong read the incantation, he suddenly tilted his head. A moment later, his eyes lifted from the open manual and fixed on Chung Myung.
“……Chung Myung.”
“Yes?”
“……I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but the incantation here seems a little different from the one I saw before.”
“It’s your imagination.”
“……Are you sure it’s my imagination?”
“Hahahahaha. Sect Leader, you’re saying such funny things. What, do you think I changed the incantation or something?”
“…….”
“Come on. If I had that kind of ability, I’d be a great master, wouldn’t I? How would I possibly alter the incantation of a technique like Zixia Divine Art? Hah. That’s hilarious. Then I wouldn’t be the Mount Hua Divine Dragon—I’d be a martial god. Mount Hua Martial God!”
Hyun Jong glanced between the manual and Chung Myung with a slanted, doubtful look.
He’s definitely saying the right things… and yet…
Zixia Divine Art was the supreme art of Mount Hua, the crystallization of Mount Hua’s essence.
However gifted Chung Myung might be, his martial skill still could not possibly match the famed ancestors of Mount Hua’s past. Had Mount Hua not produced many individuals who could contend for the title of the world’s greatest swordsman?
There was no way Chung Myung could tamper with Zixia Divine Art.
He shouldn’t be able to. There was no reason he could. No way at all….
Why am I so uneasy?
Hyun Jong’s eyes darted nervously back and forth.
What bothered him was the fact that Chung Myung was exactly the sort of bastard who made impossible things happen. Honestly, how many things Chung Myung had done so far could even remotely be called reasonable?
“It’s not, right?”
“Of course not.”
“Really not?”
“Come on, do I look like someone you can keep fooling?”
Hyun Jong’s instincts were sending him an odd little tremor.
This brat is definitely hiding something right now….
But just as his unease was starting to get on everyone’s nerves, Hyun Young openly lost his patience.
“Ah, if that’s the case, then just step aside!”
“…….”
“We’re busy enough as it is! We don’t have time, time!”
Hyun Jong shot him a downcast look, but Hyun Young ignored it completely and said to Chung Myung, “Then let’s start by memorizing the incantation. That’ll work, right?”
“Yep!”
“Understood.”
Seeing the three of them work together so smoothly, Hyun Jong shot them a sideways look.
Those—those… if it was Chung Myung doing it, he’d believe the bastard even if he said he could brew tea by heating rocks.
“By the way, Chung Myung.”
“Yes?”
Hyun Sang, who had listened quietly until now, finally spoke up.
“Have you learned Zixia Divine Art?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And what do you think of it?”
Chung Myung seemed to think for a moment before answering.
“I’m not sure yet.”
He paused again, then added, “As you know, the power of a divine art varies wildly depending on how far you’ve cultivated it.”
“That’s true.”
Hyun Sang nodded in agreement.
In the martial world, the skill level of a technique was generally classified from one thành to twelve thành.
For swordsmanship, if you had fully memorized the sword forms and could at least awkwardly reproduce their movements, that was called one thành.
And when you had completely embodied the sword and made it your own, that was twelve thành—mastery.
Unlike sword techniques, which could produce some measure of power even at one thành, divine arts did not accomplish much at that initial stage. But as the level increased, their power could grow astonishingly vast.
“But this one’s a little more extreme.”
“Extreme?”
Chung Myung scratched his cheek.
“At one thành, it’s just… uh… a stream? No, that’s still too much. A puddle? No… a cup of water? No, no. Like a single spoonful of water….”
……How much smaller are you going to make it, Chung Myung? Can you even call that a divine art?
“Anyway, it’s really nothing special. But once the level rises, it’s supposed to become exponentially stronger.”
“Hmm.”
“If someone ever reached full mastery, they might even be able to create actual violet sunset clouds in the sky with the body of a human being.”
At that absurd claim, Hyun Sang let out a dry laugh.
“That makes no sen—”
“No. I believe it does.”
But then Hyun Jong unexpectedly agreed with Chung Myung.
“As far as I know, no one in Mount Hua’s history has ever fully mastered Zixia Divine Art to the twelve-thành level.”
“What?”
Hyun Sang turned to him with a bewildered look.
It was a martial art only the Sect Leader could learn, so naturally very few people had trained in it—but there had never been a single person who mastered it?
Hyun Jong nodded quietly, as though he understood why he was so astonished.
“That alone tells you how difficult the art is. I’ve even heard that the Patriarch who created Zixia Divine Art himself never fully mastered the technique he invented. The Sect Leaders of old only managed to reach around seven thành, but even that was enough to make them renowned as the peerless of the world.”
“Ah….”
As Hyun Jong listened in silence, Chung Myung casually looked up at the sky.
“Peerless of the world, huh….”
- What? What, you little bastard? What?
No, I didn’t say anything. Did I move my mouth or something?
Hyun Sang nodded after hearing Hyun Jong’s explanation, then swallowed dryly.
“Then if one could just train Zixia Divine Art properly….”
Though he trailed off, Hyun Jong could guess what he had meant to say next.
“That would be so.”
“……I understand.”
Hyun Sang’s eyes turned deeply serious. Hyun Jong also straightened his posture and looked at the manual with solemn eyes.
Even if the one before him was a disciple generations below him, learning was learning. He had emphasized countless times to his disciples that one had to approach learning with reverence.
Hyun Jong spoke to Chung Myung with a grave expression.
“We all know that great waves are coming, and that Mount Hua may yet be forced to endure even more difficult trials.”
“…….”
“We also know that no matter how much you respect us, it would not be easy to lead a sect in such times with respect alone. So…!”
Hyun Jong stared at Chung Myung with eyes full of conviction.
“Never forget that teaching us more harshly, more ruthlessly, is the very thing that helps us! Don’t hesitate!”
“Huh?”
When Chung Myung asked back, sounding slightly confused, Hyun Jong emphasized once more, firmly.
“Just because I’m the Sect Leader, or these two are Elders, don’t go easy on us.”
“…….”
“Cast aside any hesitation in your heart! And treat us the same as the other disciples….”
“Uh… Sect Leader. I’m not really sure what you’re talking about….”
“……Huh?”
But Chung Myung only tilted his head repeatedly, as if he truly had no idea.
“Go easy on you?”
“…….”
“Why?”
For a moment, Hyun Jong was at a loss for words, then let out a laugh that sounded almost resigned.
I’d forgotten for a moment.
This face in front of him did not belong to someone who would grit his teeth and force himself to teach kindly for their sake. It was the face of someone who genuinely couldn’t even understand the concept of making allowances for people while teaching them.
Hyun Jong gathered himself, then nodded with a hardened expression.
“Then, Chung Myung.”
“Yes?”
“……Take it a little easier.”
“…….”
“I’m getting old, and my joints ache.”
It was a single line filled with the sorrow of a man whose spirit had already sprinted far ahead, while his body could no longer keep up.