Chapter 161
Chapter 161
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 161
Chapter Title: The Final Plum Blossom Stance
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Maehwa Singun, a member of the Four Sovereigns known as the Divine Sovereign.
He visited the current Mount Hua Sect Leader once more. But this time, it was with formal permission rather than sneaking in.
"...As the inspector, you'll stay outside Mount Hua during your time here?"
"Yes. I think it's best for my daughter too, so I'll be staying until the Mount Hua Assembly is over. Given what happened before."
The Mount Hua elders cleared their throats awkwardly.
"It was a mistake of youthful folly. We hope the inspector can be lenient."
"If that's what he wants, there's nothing we can do. Besides, the inspector's main duty is just to mediate on the day of the Mount Hua Assembly anyway..."
"Where do you plan to stay? We'll cover the expenses separately."
"I plan to stay in Hwaseum County. If you're offering to cover the costs, I'll gratefully accept."
The elders glanced at me appraisingly.
"Out of concern, we're asking... but only three elders can attend the Mount Hua Assembly."
"Someone who voluntarily gave up their qualification can't participate late. A sect leader must watch their words."
"Words once spoken can't be recklessly taken back."
They were openly warning Gu Hwa-rin, the disciple of the Plum Blossom Divine Army. I nodded.
"Even if I meet the Plum Blossom Divine Army's disciple, I have no intention of letting her attend the Mount Hua Assembly. I swear on the Murim Alliance."
The three words "Murim Alliance."
Added to my position as inspector, the atmosphere in the room relaxed.
"If you put it that way..."
"Come up from Hwaseum County from time to time. Mount Hua's spiritual energy is excellent for training."
"It'd be good if you gain much from it."
"Baek-hyeon will help you find a suitable place. Give him whatever you need."
"Thank you."
I headed back down to Hwaseum County. A full half-day's walk if going slowly.
Baek-hyeon, who had come with me, asked awkwardly at the inn he had arranged.
"Do you really plan to stay here? We could find somewhere nicer..."
The place I chose was one of the many inns scattered around.
Not too big, with decent food.
But I shook my head. After all, weren't they Mount Hua disciples who had treated me decently as humans?
"We need to cut expenses as much as possible, right? Frugality is the basis of a martial artist, so this is sufficient."
"...Great hero..."
Baek-hyeon bowed once more, as if grateful that I understood the plight of a mid-level position.
"I'm truly sorry for what happened at Mount Hua. And separately from that... you were truly amazing. How on earth did you reach that level with just external arts?"
"Hard training makes it possible."
"...Ah. I see."
Baek-hyeon said he'd cover all expenses in Mount Hua's name, spoke with the innkeeper, and left. I scooped up the bouncing Su-a.
Fortunately, the place had at least the bare minimum facilities for washing.
"What should we do as the last thing of the day?"
"We have to wash clean."
"Good girl. Go ahead."
"Yes! Number 1 sister, come with me."
"M-Me? I'm fine..."
"Let's wash together. Take care of Su-a."
Il-ho nodded awkwardly. Alone in the room, I sorted my thoughts.
What was the state of the Plum Blossom Divine Army when I saw him?
I answered my own question. He was definitely afflicted with madness. And madness is usually a mental issue that comes through qi deviation, from what I'd heard...
It's different from physical pain. Completely unlike the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, which could be healed with Heavenly Tribulation.
So, what is needed to treat the mind?
Living with the First Demon, I'd studied basic medicine. And among that... I'd learned about mental illnesses too.
Madness is ultimately going insane. But since it's a type of illness, there were records of cures, not none at all.
The key is finding the reason for the insanity.
「Ugh... haha...! They'll all die! All of them will die!」
I remembered his shout. The sword he swung was vividly etched in my mind.
He was afraid of something.
Then, if we remove that cause...
Could we heal him?
...
I went up to Mount Hua early in the morning. This time, I didn't carry Su-a.
Lightness skill practice. I dashed up the mountain using Ghost Spirit Step. As expected, Su-a followed me without much difficulty.
I'd matched her speed, but her progress was visibly astonishing. Later, she even suppressed her naturally bursting energy.
Impressive. As expected of a prodigy.
-Tap.
I stepped onto that high plateau once more. The martial artist watering the flowers turned to look at us.
Gu Hwa-rin flinched.
"Wh-Why have you come again...?"
"I want to see the Plum Blossom Divine Army."
"...You've seen him. Master... isn't in a state to meet anyone."
"I just need to check if I can help. Miss Gu. If I think it's impossible to heal, I'll head right back down."
"Heal...? My master...?"
Gu Hwa-rin let out a sigh.
"Even renowned physicians shook their heads and left. It was the same no matter who came. But... how can you, a martial artist, heal my master...?"
"It'll only take a moment. Can't you allow it?"
"...Is this a request from Mount Hua?"
"No. It's just my own judgment..."
I bowed at the waist.
"I beg you, Miss Gu."
Gu Hwa-rin stared at me intently. She glanced at the house in the middle of the plateau and nodded slightly.
"...I'll allow it."
Gu Hwa-rin opened the door. In the spacious room lay a man.
His body was different from before. Lying as if dead, I checked his vital signs first.
"......"
He's breathing. Fortunately.
His body isn't as bad as I thought either. Just slightly damaged energy, but what a tremendous physique.
But that doesn't mean he's normal. His energy pathways are twisted, and the scattered internal energy isn't helping its owner-instead, it's corroding his body.
Internal energy rampaging, causing the body to collapse.
It's gone beyond simple madness; anomalies are occurring in the body itself. This is literally...
"...Qi deviation?"
"Can you heal him...?"
If it were just madness, maybe, but with qi deviation on top...
I turned to her.
"Did this happen during training?"
"...No. There was a time Master was away. He was gone for over a month. When he returned... he was drenched in cold sweat. Bleeding too."
"What...?"
"He'd laugh like a madman one moment, cry the next. He didn't say a word. And eventually... he ended up like this."
Bleeding...
"Wasn't it a spar with someone?"
"A spar...? My master is the Plum Blossom Divine Army. One of the Four Sovereigns, a Divine Sovereign. In the current murim, is there really anyone who could damage him...? Even the Murim Alliance Leader-he said he had no confidence against him."
She's right.
A master who could damage the Profound Realm? Who in the world? The only one who comes to mind is the Heavenly Demon...
But she couldn't have arrived here.
"...Always..."
The lying Divine Sovereign whispered. I pressed my ear close.
I clearly heard it amid his faint breaths.
"The... inverted... sky... is coming down... All... will die..."
Inverted sky.
"...Reverse Heaven?"
No way...
Did the Plum Blossom Divine Army encounter a member of Reverse Heaven on the day he left?
I recalled Oibi's strength. He was definitely strong. So strong I had to sacrifice countless lives to catch up.
It was a series of agonies. I barely reached it by wringing out my whole body.
...But if the one he called master...
Was a martial artist far stronger than him?
"The Profound Realm is the end for any martial artist. No one can overwhelm my master. Enough for qi deviation. So... he must have experienced some other shocking event. Something that made him scream everyone must die."
Gu Hwa-rin's crisp words would have made my past self nod in agreement.
Profound Realm. A realm only a handful of geniuses-truly the rarest few-could reach.
The divine entry realm.
But I remembered my master's words. Didn't the First Demon always tell me?
The Heavenly Demon is somewhere beyond that.
If... just if...
The Reverse Heaven master is also there...
"It's not impossible."
"Pardon?"
"Let's assume for now. There was a martial artist stronger than the Plum Blossom Divine Army, and in their spar, he was overwhelmingly defeated."
"What nonsense...!"
"It's just a hypothesis. It might not have happened. But if that's why... and everything he'd built was denied head-on... then falling into qi deviation isn't entirely implausible. There are many hidden masters in murim, and some might be in a higher realm than the Plum Blossom Divine Army."
I omitted Reverse Heaven. It was too complicated to explain.
"Stories of martial artists falling into qi deviation from a major spar loss aren't that rare, are they?"
"I don't think someone as strong and noble as my master would."
"I'm saying we should keep the possibility open."
"Fine... Let's assume that's the case. But if that's the cause, isn't it even more unsolvable...? If he doubts the martial arts he built himself, then in his current mad state... there's no way to resolve that doubt... He needs to rethink it himself, but he can't..."
"I've heard a few cases where qi deviation victims regained their senses. Qi deviation is ultimately a matter of the heart. You escape the heart demon to resolve it, but... there are records of external motivation helping."
"...Like what...?"
"There are tales of those in qi deviation seeing themselves reflected in another person's similar swordsmanship and regaining peace."
A kind of mirror therapy.
For those who think what they've built is futile, show them their own sword directly-explain how beautifully it shines.
Gu Hwa-rin blinked. Her cold tone softened.
"Another person's sword... you mean...?"
"A sword endlessly similar to the one he wielded. For example, right now..."
I stood up.
"Miss Gu. Your sword, learned directly from the Plum Blossom Divine Army, might be the key to his healing."
"......!"
...
With Gu Hwa-rin, we seated the Plum Blossom Divine Army on the platform. She stood amid the profusely blooming flower field and glanced at me nervously.
"...This is my sect's martial art. Don't tell anyone you saw it."
"Of course."
Gu Hwa-rin began to move. Plum blossom scent trailing from her sword tip.
The sword dance flowed flawlessly, like a dance. The level was incredibly high-on another plane from the other Mount Hua disciples I'd seen.
Baek-hyang? Not even comparable. You'd need elder status for such movements.
The sword pierced the sky. It sliced falling petals, dancing lightly atop them.
Her feet stepped between flowers. Power withdrawal and release nearly simultaneous; lost in the sight, suddenly long traces of plum blossoms lingered in the air.
"...Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Swordsmanship."
Definite. This must be...
Mount Hua's pinnacle. Their ultimate martial art.
But the movements stopped before the end. Gu Hwa-rin, standing awkwardly, glanced at me.
"...That's as far as it goes."
"Pardon?"
Isn't something crucial missing?
The trance from the sword dance shattered in an instant. Even if the movements are beautiful, without a proper finish, it's like missing the vital conclusion.
And moreover...
I didn't feel the true plum blossom scent.
A flashy shell of a martial art. For advanced martial arts, proper connection from start to end is key...
It's like putting a watermelon in front and just licking the rind.
"What about your master?"
As expected, no reaction. His dazed eyes remained the same after seeing the sloppy sword.
"We're all gonna die..."
"Wasn't something missing?"
"...The final stance of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Swordsmanship is absent. The final enlightenment that encompasses beginning and end, piercing all."
She's talking about that last stance no one in Mount Hua has mastered.
"Without it, the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Swordsmanship can't be considered complete. Just fruit without the core-hard for even a Profound Realm expert to gain insight from that."
"I know that...! B-But what can I do if it's missing...!"
"No manual or anything?"
"Master always said the end of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Swordsmanship must be written by oneself. Of course, there were notes compiling the ancestors' teachings..."
"Were?"
"...They disappeared. While I was briefly away."
So that's why rumors of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Swordsmanship manual circulating...
The culprit is probably one of the three elders.
Gu Hwa-rin sat beside the Plum Blossom Divine Army.
"Even if we had it, it's not a martial art one can complete anyway. I've tried following it... but it felt off. Like an artificial flower made of paper, not one blooming from nature. Of course, it represented something overarching. But because of Master's teachings, I never learned it separately."
"Teachings like...?"
"Half-assedly finishing is worse than not finishing---he often said. He always told me to find the plum blossom within myself."
"......."
I examined the Plum Blossom Divine Army's state again. His solitary mutterings made him seem no different from a frightened child fleeing.
A body unlikely to respond to other treatments. Clearly, this had the highest chance of success.
Even far more properly trained physicians had left without solutions.
In the end, Gu Hwa-rin discovering the final stance of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Swordsmanship herself seemed the only way.
About three months left.
We need to heal the current sect leader before the Mount Hua Assembly. Otherwise, the hierarchy gets messed up, and Mount Hua won't function properly.
Long if long, short if short. But with steady progress, something might change.
"I'll help."
"...Pardon?"
"Let's find the final stance of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Swordsmanship together."
I extended my hand to Gu Hwa-rin.
"To heal the Plum Blossom Divine Army."
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