Chapter 73
Chapter 73
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 73
Chapter Title: Entering the Martial World (3)
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On his way to Plum Blossom Cave, Ouyang Jue was lost in thought.
Plum Blossom Cave.
The Plum Blossom Cave Dweller who resided there was a being whose existence he hadn't even known of in his past life.
He'd heard the man's surname was Jin, and that only elders like Master Manseon of Zhongnan or Master Hyeongeom of Wudang knew of him.
*‘What kind of person is he?’*
Ouyang Jue knew nothing about him.
Their only point of contact had been a brief, conversation-like exchange where he had merely piqued the man's interest and received a Small Purple Spirit Elixir.
But there were more than a few suspicious points.
“Is that man trying to protect the Mount Hua Sect, or… something else?”
He clearly remembered how the man had failed to answer his question in the past.
He also recalled how Bai Duanxian had been unable to hide his stiff expression at the time. The man had merely obscured it with a smile and the Small Purple Spirit Elixir.
Of course, Ouyang Jue had gone along with it.
Thanks to that, he had been able to reach the peak. It was also how he had come to possess such immense internal energy.
*‘Better to take what’s certain than to harbor useless suspicions.’*
That was how he had dismissed his questions about Plum Blossom Cave back then. He hadn't even wondered why he had been summoned.
He didn't regret that choice. Because of it, he had been able to deal with the Black Dragon Gang with ease.
But things were different now.
This new summons was the moment to resolve those old questions, to add color to the colorless lines.
He was venerable enough for an elder of the Wudang Sect, Master Hyeongeom, to call him an old senior, and secretive enough for the Sect Leader of the Zhongnan Sect, Master Manseon, to trail off when speaking of him.
“Still… is he?”
Ouyang Jue also remembered Master Manseon's muttered words distinctly.
All those secrets.
The identity of the Plum Blossom Cave Dweller, which seemed to be known only to Bai Duanxian, the Sect Leader, within the Mount Hua Sect.
Ouyang Jue straightened the slightly creased folds of his Daoist robes. He squared his shoulders proudly.
*‘There’s no need to be intimidated.’*
He owed the man nothing. The Small Purple Spirit Elixir had been a stopgap measure to silence him in the first place.
The only things the man had over him were his damn age and a lineage he couldn't even reveal.
His name wasn't even on the current roster of the Mount Hua Sect, making him a complete outsider.
As the fog of suspicion lifted, Ouyang Jue's eyes cleared.
“Sect Leader.”
“…”
“No, Master.”
“I don't recall giving you permission to speak.”
A coldness, different from usual, settled between the two Daoists.
It wasn't that he couldn't understand.
Plum Blossom Cave was a sacred place for the Mount Hua Sect, and a sanctuary where a heavenly being resided. Delaying their steps with idle chatter would be disrespectful.
But Ouyang Jue opened his mouth again. His dry lips parted.
“What kind of person is he?”
“…”
Bai Duanxian mumbled to himself for a long moment. Even so, his walking pace didn't slow.
Bai Duanxian's dilemma was simple.
Where to begin the story.
That was the problem. It was difficult to find the right moment.
Moreover, the mountain path leading to Plum Blossom Cave was within range of the man's clairaudience.
*‘To think I have to talk about him where he can obviously hear.’*
When it was about others, he would have laughed, but now that it was happening to him, he couldn't even muster a yawn, let alone a smile.
Instead, his face hardened into a frighteningly rigid expression.
Bai Duanxian shot Ouyang Jue a look, as if pleading with him not to ask.
Just then, a voice came from somewhere.
-I have never tried to hide myself. Duanxian, is it not fine to speak freely?
*Whooosh, woooosh.*
A wind stirred among the countless branches and the thousands of leaves hanging beneath them. No, it would be more accurate to say it wept.
An artificial wind, created by someone, licked Ouyang Jue's cheek. It was warm. A wind carrying the heat of spring, when plum blossoms bloom in abundance.
And this, at a time when winter was just beginning.
Ouyang Jue did his best to calm the pounding in his chest as he thought.
If he could stir up a wind like this, a direct confrontation would be impossible.
A top-tier master, even including those from his past life. Even the previous Divine Demon Fist would likely be inferior to this man.
At that thought, the heartbeat he had struggled to calm began to race again.
*‘Why did a master this powerful remain silent in my past life?’*
If a master of his caliber had stepped forward, the Mount Hua Sect could have surely solidified its position.
But he had never once come to the forefront.
As far as Ouyang Jue knew, he had only ever received reports that there was nothing in Plum Blossom Cave.
*‘Why? For what reason?’*
His heart seethed uncontrollably. Ouyang Jue himself didn't know if it was anger or a desire to blame someone.
But all these emotions were ultimately tied to his past life.
They had no real meaning in his current one.
Realizing that lingering attachments and stubbornness were trying to blind him, Ouyang Jue clenched and unclenched his fist.
*Thud.*
After composing all his emotions in the space of a single step, Ouyang Jue asked.
“Then please tell me now. Who is that man, and what kind of person is he?”
“…Haaa.”
Bai Duanxian let out a deep sigh.
* * *
Half a century ago.
At least five generations. That long ago, Mount Hua was called the greatest Daoist sect.
The reason was that it had produced a single swordsman.
Jin Mu-wol.
Unusually, despite entering the Mount Hua Sect, he never received a Daoist name.
Because of this, he could not act as a formal disciple. Though called Mount Hua's greatest master, he was always a lay disciple.
Some speculated that the reason lay in Jin Mu-wol's birth.
But that speculation was buried by his next action.
“I, Jin Mu-wol, will not allow any title to precede the name given to me by my master.”
To be in the martial world and reject the honor earned through martial arts.
The martial renown that countless martial artists yearned for was worthless to Jin Mu-wol. He didn't even accept any offerings.
In the vast martial world, standing on the edge of a precipice, he vanquished all evil with nothing but his solitary body and a single sword.
There were even open rumors that he had vanquished an evil dragon.
“What pointless bravado.”
“In the end, he's just a man of flesh and blood, isn't he? I'll break him myself!”
Various unorthodox martial artists, including those from the old Demonic Cult, mocked his fame as empty and ambushed him, but…
All met their end at the tip of Jin Mu-wol's blade.
Truly, the greatest under heaven.
When all martial artists knelt before Jin Mu-wol, he was in his forties.
However, after his forties, all traces of Jin Mu-wol vanished without a trace.
No one knew the truth.
Only a few of his close friends claimed that Jin Mu-wol was still alive.
And now.
“And I’m supposed to believe that?”
Ouyang Jue couldn't hide his bewilderment. If that story were true, it meant Jin Mu-wol's age was close to a hundred.
Didn't they say that even Dongfang Shuo of old couldn't endure ninety years and died?
Yet here was a martial artist said to have lived longer than that.
And as a heavenly being protecting Plum Blossom Cave, possessing martial prowess that wouldn't lose to the greatest masters of the current generation.
Ouyang Jue subconsciously thought of the Sword Demon said to be in the Hundred Thousand Mountains.
Even he wasn't yet fifty, yet this Jin Mu-wol was a hundred?
Ouyang Jue asked bluntly.
“Have you been reading too many heroic tales from the marketplace? Or perhaps stories about turtles.”
“You rascal!”
Bai Duanxian, his face uncharacteristically pale, tried to stop Ouyang Jue.
“How dare you speak so insolently before the Grand Master! No matter if you are my disciple, this is utterly and completely unacceptable!”
“Well, isn't it fine?”
At the unfamiliar voice coming from somewhere, Ouyang Jue's head turned.
The senses and awareness he had honed, even his All-Seeing Eyes, had failed to react.
At the end of his line of sight, a martial artist with profound eyes stood there.
“This is the first time we've met in person. You are Duanxian's disciple, I presume.”
“…?!”
Ouyang Jue gasped involuntarily. The man's appearance was so vastly different from the Jin Mu-wol described by Bai Duanxian.
An age nearing a hundred?
No. At most, he looked to be in his forties. The old voice he'd heard before seemed to have been deliberately faked.
Even his bones and muscles, which should have withered with age, still looked sturdy.
This meant one thing.
*‘Rebirth of bone and marrow?’*
An extremely small number, even among martial artists who had reached the peak. No, "extremely small" was an understatement.
It felt like one in a nayuta.
Even Ouyang Jue, who had experienced all manner of hardships, had only ever met one master who had undergone such a metamorphosis.
To think such a master was right here.
Ouyang Jue could only gape, unable to speak. It was the first time he had ever been this shocked.
“Grand… Master Jin Mu-wol?”
“Yes.”
Jin Mu-wol wore a strange smile.
“But, disciple. You seem to dislike me a great deal.”
“Pardon?”
“The malice in your heart, I mean.”
*Poke.*
Jin Mu-wol's finger poked Ouyang Jue's chest.
From that simple action alone, Ouyang Jue momentarily lost his composure. The threat of death had come right up to him and then vanished.
If he had harbored even a sliver of killing intent, wouldn't he have died right then and there?
If there was a pinnacle of injuring someone with sheer will, this would be it.
But Ouyang Jue, on the contrary, grew calm.
*‘If I regain my original martial arts, it’s not like I couldn’t fight him.’*
As Ouyang Jue regained his impassive expression, Jin Mu-wol's lips twisted.
“Well, it seems that’s not the case right now.”
“…”
“Disciple, do you know why I've left you alone since we met?”
At those words, Ouyang Jue thought for a moment.
"Left you alone" was his choice of words, but from the context, it seemed the man had been watching him ever since their first meeting.
What had he done after receiving the Small Purple Spirit Elixir? Ouyang Jue closed his eyes for a moment and recalled.
He had caught the spy trying to assassinate Ha Jin-ak and subdued the Shaanxi branch of the Black Dragon Gang.
He had gone to Mount Zhongnan to obtain the Heavenly Escape Sword Arts and ousted the local leader of the Beggars' Sect.
Immediately after, he had annihilated the Black Dragon Gang. In the process, Mount Hua had risen to become the number one Daoist sect in Shaanxi.
Recalling up to that point, Ouyang Jue answered honestly.
“I do not know. And I certainly can't know why you are testing me for no reason, Grand Master.”
Jin Mu-wol let out a hearty laugh.
“Thanks to you, good things have happened, and bad things have happened. But whether they are good or bad depends on my position, so I couldn't easily judge.”
“…”
It felt like he was only offering Zen riddles whose true meaning was impossible to grasp.
No, that seemed to be Jin Mu-wol's intention. The attitude Jin Mu-wol showed was not one of trust, but one of semi-observation.
*‘Why would a master of his level be interested in me?’*
To put it bluntly, couldn't he just kill me if things went wrong?
This must mean it wasn't something that could be resolved with such a simple solution.
In that case, he could predict one thing.
*‘Is it because Jin Mu-wol doesn't know for sure either?’*
While Ouyang Jue was lost in thought, a secret mental message flowed into his mind.
For a moment, goosebumps covered his entire body.
-Have you properly engraved the Heavenly Escape Sword Arts in your mind?
“……!”
He wanted to ask how the man knew that, but Ouyang Jue endured with superhuman patience.
Jin Mu-wol might have been trying to test him, but that statement brought Ouyang Jue closer to certainty about something.
*‘Something in Plum Blossom Cave is related to me. Otherwise, there's no reason for him to watch me this carefully.’*
If he were simply a guardian protecting Mount Hua, there would be no reason to observe Ouyang Jue.
He had actually revived the Mount Hua Sect and elevated its honor.
Even personally, Ouyang Jue's reputation as a rising star was high.
Ouyang Jue resolved to ask about this properly.
“Grand Master, there is something I would like to ask.”
“It seems it would be better to postpone the answer.”
As if he knew what Ouyang Jue was going to ask, Jin Mu-wol deferred his answer.
Instead, he gave an order.
“Duanxian, how about sending that disciple to the Martial Alliance assembly this time?”
“…Pardon?!”
At the words that came like a bolt from the blue, Bai Duanxian showed an extremely flustered expression.
But for Ouyang Jue, those words were like the opening salvo of a battle.
Entering the martial world.
He could be free from the restriction of having to return to the sect within ten days and have time to roam the martial world.
During that time, Ouyang Jue would essentially be a free man.
And yet, for some reason, Ouyang Jue couldn't shake a sullen feeling.
*‘Isn't this just another way of avoiding my question, like last time?’*
Jin Mu-wol merely maintained his strange smile.
However, there was something Ouyang Jue didn't realize: Jin Mu-wol's own mind was not at ease.
*‘Ouyang Jue, just what in the world are you...?’*