Chapter 3
Chapter 3
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: Return (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* * *
Half a year later, on a mountain adjacent to Mount Hua.
“...Hmph.”
Exhaling once, Ouyang Jue focused half his internal energy into his fist.
Before him stood a colossal tree, so immense it was difficult to even look up at.
The dents in its trunk were from Ouyang Jue’s previous tests.
Yet, the tree stood firm, unshaken.
And for good reason—it was so massive that an adult’s embrace wouldn’t even cover a third of its circumference.
“Hup.”
In an instant, as if the entire world was being sucked into a single point, his fist shot forward.
*CRACK—!*
The punch tore through the air, pierced the heart of the wood, and penetrated its core.
“Hoo.”
Finally, Ouyang Jue’s sigh brought his heightened senses back to normal.
“I guess it wasn’t enough.”
It had been a truly perfect strike, yet just as a smile of disappointment touched Ouyang Jue’s lips…
*Creeak, craaack…!*
The giant tree began to lean.
*BOOM!*
A dust cloud over eighty feet high billowed up, naturally leveling the nearby trees.
The ensuing tremor was enough to make one’s entire body tremble.
Anyone circulating their internal energy would have surely suffered internal injuries from the reverse flow.
But Ouyang Jue was different.
‘I like it.’
Ouyang Jue watched the dust cloud filling the forest with a satisfied look.
The technique he had just performed was at a level he shouldn’t have been able to reach for at least another six years.
Gossip-loving storytellers called this level of mastery by a certain name.
*To injure with will alone.*
Or, *a first-rate martial artist*.
Neither term sat well with him.
‘Those bastards who’ve only ever practiced the Three Talents Sword Arts sure run their mouths.’
Ouyang Jue had undergone bone-grinding training for the past six months. Sometimes, he even copied the training methods of other sects.
Methods like drawing water from a well with a pointed gourd, as Shaolin did, or swinging a blade ten thousand times a day, like the Hebei Peng Clan.
Though they stimulated different parts of the body, they had one thing in common.
‘They build a foundation, especially the framework for learning martial arts.’
The same was true for one’s mental state.
Anyone could draw water with a pointed gourd. But to do so without spilling a single drop, one’s posture could not falter, nor could one rest.
And the Hebei Peng Clan’s ten thousand swings?
One could finish it in under four hours with lazy swings.
But the Hebei Peng Clan had a different reason for this training.
The purpose was to experience one’s limits in a trance-like state where nothing but the blade exists, and to develop a sense of earnestness and intensity toward martial arts.
It was said that Peng Yuzong, the Heavenly Blade Tyrant, the strongest in the history of the Hebei Peng Clan, took a week to achieve this.
It meant that while the method might seem crude at a glance, the true meaning behind it was incredibly profound.
With that in mind, Ouyang Jue had repeated his training countless times.
He had broken through two walls from his previous third-rate level.
He had condensed six years into six months.
“You could have done it, if you’d just tried. Ouyang Jue.”
Chiding his past self, Ouyang Jue felt a thrill at his current state.
The path ahead seemed to have turned bright.
He was proud, and happy.
He also knew the locations of his Severing Manifestation and various spiritual medicines that he would reclaim.
What a rewarding life this would be!
Ouyang Jue calmed his trembling heart.
‘Alright, time to head to the hermitage.’
The half-year period of confinement was ending today, so a practitioner sent from the sect should be arriving soon.
If that person saw this scene, he’d better hope they weren’t a blabbermouth.
Ouyang Jue’s gaze fell on the billowing dust cloud.
The satisfied smile had yet to leave his face, but the need to worry about such trivial matters felt pathetic.
“...That’s not like me.”
Perhaps startled by the recent roar.
Mountain birds were taking flight from the trees where they had been perched.
Ouyang Jue watched the sky, which was now half-darkened, and suddenly noticed a particular spot.
A place where a larger flock of birds than anywhere else had flown from the branches.
“There.”
As if he had been watching from the mountaintop, Ouyang Jue moved toward his target without delay.
There was not a hint of anxiety in his forward gaze, and his hearing was sharp enough to catch the slightest sound.
These were the minimum requirements to learn the unique martial art Ouyang Jue possessed.
Not long after leaving the hermitage, a sound pierced his ears.
*Rustle, rustle.*
It was the sound of something heavy crushing dry leaves.
That was all the confirmation Ouyang Jue needed.
‘What kind of mountain beast moves with such a steady gait?’
And using the Plum Mountain Steps, a basic skill taught at the Mount Hua Sect, no less.
Whoever it was, they were clearly a disciple who had not yet learned any advanced martial arts.
Ouyang Jue’s pace quickened, his form stretching into a blur.
* * *
Where Ouyang Jue had hurried to, there was a child dressed in a shabby Daoist robe.
The face was familiar, if he recalled correctly.
But… something was a little odd.
“What are you doing?”
“Senior Brother Ouyang? Is that really you, Senior Brother Ouyang?”
“Hm? Yes, it is, but I asked what you were doing.”
Why was he cradling a sparrow in his hands?
A bit of blood had pooled in his palms, dripping to the ground below. It seemed the sparrow had been pecking him with its beak.
Despite this, the boy looked at the sparrow with worried eyes.
“This is…”
Ouyang Jue glanced at the sparrow and swallowed hard. He had eaten nothing but fasting pills for so long that he now craved meat.
‘A sparrow… would be delicious fried.’
The blood-stained sparrow reminded him of butchered meat.
“Are you going to eat it?”
At his words, the boy was aghast and hid the sparrow behind his back.
“W-What?!”
“You’ll get sick if you eat it raw. You should use some fire energy to…”
“I’m not going to eat it!”
The boy answered spiritedly.
“I was taking care of this little one who fell from a tree, startled by the loud noise.”
“That’s not a little one, it’s a sparrow.”
“...It’s a little one.”
Ouyang Jue chuckled at the boy’s pout.
Before him was that peculiar boy who, despite being the Sect Leader’s disciple, had little interest in martial arts.
“You’re the little one, Hun.”
“...Hmph.”
As if he couldn’t argue with that, Jo Hun turned his head and looked at the sparrow with concern.
“Um, if you don’t mind, could you help me put him back in his nest?”
“Are you that worried about it?”
Jo Hun hesitated before answering.
“...Yes.”
“Let me see it for a second.”
Taking the sparrow from Jo Hun’s grasp, Ouyang Jue instantly scaled the tree.
His lightness skill was so fluid it was as if he moved leaving a shadow behind, causing Jo Hun’s voice to ring out in a high-pitched cry.
“Whoa!”
He had seen many lightness skills before, but this was the first time he had been so amazed.
‘None of the other senior brothers could do that!’
The way he climbed the tree as if it were flat ground was truly fascinating.
“Senior Brother Ouyang, you’re amazing!”
From atop the tree, Ouyang Jue shrugged and asked.
“Hun, I’ve put the sparrow back, but how about I grab some eggs while I’m up here?”
“No!”
“...Just kidding. Alright.”
*Thump.*
Landing lightly from the tree, Ouyang Jue patted the head of a wide-eyed Jo Hun.
It was natural for a junior to respect a senior, but this was a bit much.
“Kid, you’re going to wear a hole right through me.”
“Why?”
Seeing Jo Hun looking up at him with those sparkling eyes, Ouyang Jue winced.
“Ah…”
He had momentarily forgotten that he couldn’t even joke carelessly with the very innocent Jo Hun.
How could he possibly explain the words he had just uttered?
In the end, Ouyang Jue changed the subject, saying it was nothing.
Then, he found himself looking down at Jo Hun.
His thin body and dirty robes stood out.
A sense of pity flickered in Ouyang Jue’s eyes.
‘Was the young Jo Hun this small?’
It still didn’t feel real, so Ouyang Jue gazed at Jo Hun once more.
‘The Distant View Sword, Jo Hun.’
Although he had joined Mount Hua much later than Ouyang Jue, he was a junior brother he had encountered on many occasions.
‘Once a week, the Sect Leader would drag me off to meditate with this kid… dammit!’
Recalling those times, Ouyang Jue’s brow furrowed at the end of the thought.
Unlike Ouyang Jue, who preferred to train external forms, Jo Hun tempered the sword of his heart through meditation.
Though his age and internal energy were low, the martial art he possessed was truly troublesome.
The Path of Zen Scripture.
Every martial art has a path it follows.
Even for the most advanced techniques, it was inevitable that they would disturb the air in their path to harm an enemy.
But the Path of Zen Scripture could see that path.
The Mind’s Eye, obtained after years of meditation, possessed an extraordinary power to see through an opponent.
All eighteen directions in which a blade could be swung were within the domain of the Path of Zen Scripture.
‘If only he hadn’t collapsed first.’
He might not have lost, but he wouldn’t have been able to conserve his strength to fight Liu Zhangming.
When they were at Mount Hua, he had been pointlessly disliked, but as an opponent, he was more troublesome than anyone.
But seeing him now… it was just sad.
‘Was he always this skinny?’
Ouyang Jue lifted Jo Hun into the air.
Jo Hun, startled, cried out.
“S-Senior Brother?!”
‘He’s light.’
Ignoring Jo Hun’s shout, Ouyang Jue simply wore an indifferent expression.
It was normal for a child to be light, but it wasn’t easy to be *this* light.
This would affect his martial arts.
Ouyang Jue had seen many martial artists whose underdeveloped physiques ultimately led them to their doom.
The difference of half a finger’s length.
The martial world was a place where that alone could divide the boundary between life and death.
‘Even Jo Hun, who mastered the Path of Zen Scripture to its limits, ultimately died from a lack of stamina.’
The memory of him vomiting bile, his face pale blue, was still vivid.
All of this was because the Mount Hua Sect was poor.
Ouyang Jue’s gaze roamed over Jo Hun’s body.
‘If I can help him build up his body and grow taller starting now, the story will be different.’
Instead of suffering a miserable defeat in front of others, he could become a master who looked down upon the world.
In Ouyang Jue’s eyes, the Path of Zen Scripture was a martial art with that much power.
To exaggerate slightly, it wasn’t far behind his senior-most brother or himself.
As such a child, he wanted to help him reach his full potential this time.
“Hun, have you ever wanted to try other foods?”
“Like what?”
When Jo Hun looked confused, Ouyang Jue listed foods good for building body mass and muscle.
“Pressed pork, five-spice beef, sweets, roasted duck, vegetables, and so on.”
Jo Hun swallowed hard but still hesitated.
“But… those aren’t good for you. I heard from the senior brothers and my master that they’re bad.”
At the utterly innocent words, Ouyang Jue’s eyebrow twitched.
It made him feel like a bad influence in a dark alley, and Jo Hun’s shoulders slumped.
“Weren’t you ever curious when you saw the lay disciples or outsiders eating them?”
“Well, yes, but.”
Seeing him admit it to some degree, Ouyang Jue grinned.
“Hun, you must have heard of the Journeying.”
“You mean when we turn twenty, we go out into the martial world for two or three years?”
Ouyang Jue gave a slight nod.
His next words were rather shocking.
“But have any of them ever returned without having killed someone?”
It wasn’t a pleasant thing for Jo Hun to hear.
But it was reality, and a process that a practitioner had to go through.
‘You have to at least touch the edges of how the martial world works to avoid being left behind.’
Ouyang Jue interpreted the meaning of the Journeying differently.
“Eating habits are the same. Following the teachings of Daoism is important, but isn’t it also a good thing to experience the outside world?”
“I-Is that so?”
“You’ll grow by leaps and bounds, and most importantly… it’s delicious.”
As Jo Hun looked up with expectant eyes, Ouyang Jue once again resolved to help this child grow strong.
“From now on, I’ll make sure you eat delicious things.”
While smiling at Jo Hun, a question suddenly arose.
Was Mount Hua some rural martial arts school?
Although Wudang was currently dominant, Mount Hua was one of the top three Daoist sects.
The disciples it had produced over the years, the children sent from influential families.
This was another source of the Mount Hua Sect’s power.
And the offerings they sent were surely not insignificant.
‘Where on earth is it all disappearing to?’
In his past life, he had never thought about it seriously, but now, he needed to approach it differently.
The reason Jo Hun couldn’t eat his fill in the past.
The assumption that the offerings and money meant for Mount Hua were being diverted elsewhere.
To confirm this, he needed the Sect Leader’s permission.
He was also curious about the Sect Leader’s true intentions.
“Hun, I’m going on ahead.”
“Yes… Huh?!”
By the time Jo Hun cried out, Ouyang Jue’s figure had vanished without a trace.