Plum Blossom Swordplay
The Plum Blossom Swordplay. It was a sword art that had never existed in the martial world I once knew. Yet here in the modern era, it seemed almost everyone recognized it. Thinking back to how the kids watching my stream had gone wild begging me to show them the technique, its popularity was clearly enormous. Using it as bait to draw people in would surely yield excellent results.
The only regrettable part was that I couldn’t properly wield the Plum Blossom Swordplay myself. As Baek-il had explained, truly understanding it required not only comprehension of the various martial arts preserved on Mount Hua, but also complete mastery of the principles behind the Purple Mist Divine Art. Without that foundation, the phrases written in the manual would sound like nothing more than empty clouds drifting in the sky.
I prided myself on knowing more martial arts than I didn’t, so I could understand the manual’s contents. But understanding a martial art and actually using it were two entirely different matters. To properly perform the Plum Blossom Sword, one had to reach the pinnacle of the Purple Mist Divine Art. The internal energy I used was the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. No matter how you looked at it, there was no overlap with the orthodox Purple Mist Divine Art.
Even if I forced the Plum Blossom Swordplay using the Heavenly Demon Divine Art’s energy, the result would be far from proper. How could anyone call a sword that scattered dark crimson blood petals a Plum Blossom Sword? Therefore, to truly learn this art and pass it on to others, I needed a martial artist who had already mastered the Purple Mist Divine Art. Someone talented in martial arts, gifted at teaching, and obedient enough to follow my instructions without complaint.
With Mount Hua completely destroyed, finding a practitioner of the Purple Mist Divine Art would be difficult. But I knew exactly the right person for this task. A man who possessed profound knowledge of not only the Purple Mist Divine Art but many other martial techniques, and who had a genuine talent for instructing others. His foul personality was a problem, but that was something I could correct myself.
Even if I went to see him, a mere wanderer like me would probably be turned away at the door. That didn’t matter. If I caused enough chaos at his residence, he would have no choice but to come out whether he wanted to or not.
The next morning when I arrived at the language institute, I found Enry slumped over her desk with her forehead planted firmly on its surface. Despite the noise around her, she showed no reaction whatsoever. She looked exactly like a corpse, but the steady rise and fall of her back proved she was still alive.
I sat down beside her, took out all my books, and still Enry didn’t wake up. I’d heard she streamed yesterday—what on earth had she done to end up in this state? I would have let her sleep longer, but class was about to start.
I shook her shoulder to wake her. Enry staggered upright in slow motion. Her willpower when it came to sleep was truly impressive. She lifted her head for a moment, mumbled something unintelligible, then slammed her face back down onto the desk.
It seemed normal methods wouldn’t work. I pressed one of her pressure points firmly. The reaction was immediate.
“Kugh?!”
Letting out a rather undignified scream for a woman, Enry shot upright. Her face flushed bright red at the stares pouring in from every direction as she hastily wiped the drool from the corner of her mouth. Only then did she notice me sitting beside her. In a tone laced with faint anger, she demanded,
“What did you just do?!”
“I woke you up.”
“You could have done it in a normal way!”
“I tried. You wouldn’t wake up.”
If you had woken up, would I have bothered pressing your pressure point? At my answer, Enry shut her mouth and reached for the tumbler in front of her, gulping down the coffee inside. The color was incredibly dark. That wasn’t something meant to be enjoyed for its flavor or aroma anymore—it was basically medicine to chase away sleep.
“Enry. You didn’t sleep last night, did you?”
The dark circles under her eyes were so obvious that anyone could tell. She must have stayed up all night.
“Yeah.”
“What were you doing?”
“I played Apis.”
What had she gotten obsessed with this time? After reaching the Diamond rank, she barely touched Apis anymore. Don’t tell me—
“Did you get demoted?”
She had only just climbed up there. Had she stacked up losses and fallen back down? Was she frantically playing to recover her rank and ended up falling even further? It was possible. As I had told her before, her skill still wasn’t quite enough to stay at that level.
I nodded to myself in understanding, but Enry quickly added,
“I’m still in Diamond, okay?! Zero points, but still!”
“Then why did you suddenly get so addicted to Apis again?”
“I got invited to a tournament.”
The tournament Enry mentioned wasn’t the 1v1 format I had participated in. It was a 5v5 team battle from another mode of Apis. She had been selected as one of the team members and had been grinding 5v5 nonstop to sharpen her senses before the event began.
“It’s been forever since I last played Apis 5v5. Since I’m participating in a proper tournament, I can’t drag the team down, so I’ve been working hard.”
“Is it a serious competition?”
“The skill level of the participants is all pretty similar, but because the streamers have huge fandoms, the whole thing feels overheated.”
Enry gave a bitter smile, saying that if she performed worse than expectations, it would be hard to turn on her stream during the tournament.
“If it’s that stressful, couldn’t you just refuse to participate?”
“I know, but…”
“But?”
“Team games have their own special flavor, you know!”
I didn’t quite understand, but if the reward was as great as the burden, then I suppose it made sense. If that was the choice she had made, I wouldn’t stop her. She probably understood this kind of thing better than I did.
“By the way, Ara. I heard you caused quite the spectacle yesterday too?”
“You heard about it?”
“The viewers told me while I was streaming yesterday.”
Apparently there had been so much buzz that even while preparing for her own stream, she had checked the community posts in between. Enry said she was truly disappointed she hadn’t been able to watch my broadcast with her own eyes.
“That Plum Blossom Swordplay, right? The community completely exploded because of it.”
It had become such a hot topic that even Enry, who wasn’t very familiar with wuxia games, knew about it. That was good news. It meant that if I threw out the bait called Plum Blossom Swordplay, more than a few people would come running after it.
I was about to ask what exactly was being said in the community when the classroom door opened and the teacher walked in.
Tch. I would have to save my questions for later.
According to what I heard from Enry, people interested in the Plum Blossom Swordplay were gathering at the ruins of the destroyed Mount Hua sect. After learning that the sword art couldn’t be used without the Purple Mist Divine Art, they were apparently scouring the area in hopes of finding any remaining manuals.
If they were that desperate, then as long as I offered to teach them the Plum Blossom Swordplay, they would probably follow most of my instructions. I would use them as a foundation to gradually spread the importance of understanding principles among the players.
With that thought in mind, I logged into Hwaryong Muin. The scenery of Hwaeum unfolded before my eyes. Right before I had ended yesterday’s stream, I had tested the companion summoning function by taking Baru to the rocky mountain and calling her here.
Thanks to the scolding I received from the viewers and the trial and error I went through, I was now able to activate companion summoning without much difficulty. Thinking back on what happened last night brought a slight surge of irritation.
Every time I made even the smallest mistake, they would either laugh at me or throw a fit about how frustrating I was. I took out my pipe and began filling it with leaves when a fox-shaped Baru suddenly popped out of thin air and landed neatly on my shoulder.
She must have been sleeping until just now. She opened her mouth wide in a huge yawn, then draped herself around my neck like a scarf and closed her eyes.
“Hey. Wake up.”
“Don’t want to… I’m tired from all the intense activity yesterday…”
This creature who could go without sleep for an entire lifetime if she wanted was complaining about being tired? Even after I scolded her again, Baru remained stubborn. She mumbled that she would sleep just a little more, then began making soft snoring sounds.
Sigh. Fine. Since you won’t have much to do for a while anyway, I’ll let you rest for now.
With the pipe in my mouth, I exhaled a few puffs of smoke and seriously considered one thing.
Should I turn on the stream?
The viewers would definitely want me to. If I did something big without streaming, they would throw a massive fit the next time I went live. The reason I was even hesitating despite knowing that was because I had no good way to explain what I was about to do in a way they would accept.
How did you find a user of the Purple Mist Divine Art that no one else knows about? What answer could I possibly give? If I told the truth, they would just call me crazy.
After thinking it over, I remembered I had something that could solve this exact problem.
That’s right. The scroll that finds whatever you desire.
Baru had told me that all I needed to do was unroll the scroll and think about what I wanted. If I said I wanted to find a user of the Purple Mist Divine Art and asked where that person was, wouldn’t it work? Even I had to admit it was a brilliant idea.
As soon as my dilemma was resolved, I adjusted the settings and turned on the stream. As usual, people flooded in immediately.
The moment that guy—who always showed up the second I started streaming and spouted nonsense—donated, I almost let a harsh word slip. But I held it in. Enry had told me that getting angry at things like this only made him happier.
“I had breakfast, but I haven’t had lunch yet.”
After taking a deep breath and smoothly answering the question, disappointed reactions flooded the chat.
“Do you people really enjoy seeing me in a bad mood?”
What a bunch of people with terrible tastes. They actually want me to get angry and insult them.
“I’ve heard there are people in this world who enjoy being criticized by others. Are you that type?”
Watching the chat messages scroll by made my head spin. How strange. Why was it that everyone who came to watch my stream had clearly left their sanity somewhere else? Did I do something wrong in the past?
If I kept following this topic, it would only get more insane, so I quickly changed the subject.
“After I revealed the Plum Blossom Swordplay manual yesterday, it seems many of you were disappointed.”
“In the end, the problem is that there’s no one who can teach the Purple Mist Divine Art. But I have one trick up my sleeve.”
When I took out the scroll from my robe, the chat messages began flying by at incredible speed.
Watching them argue back and forth after seeing the scroll I held made me chuckle. Was knowing the ending all by myself always this entertaining? I was looking forward to it. I wondered what kind of reaction they would show once they learned I could learn the Purple Mist Divine Art.