Chapter 537
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 537
Chapter Title: A Hundred Years?
"Hah."
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal stared at the bookshelf with a flustered look on his face.
The compendium clearly recorded a sword technique, yet there was no manual for it.
Wi Su-yeon felt equally at a loss.
She had thought finding the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal meant she'd finally uncovered a lead, only for it to hit another dead end like this.
"Greetings, Sword Immortal Martial Uncle."
A low voice came from behind them then.
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal turned around.
"It's been a while."
Mo Yeong-un.
He was the library master managing this Plum Blossom Library.
"I came to pay my respects since I heard you'd visited the library."
Mo Yeong-un spoke in his usual subdued tone.
It was basic etiquette to greet someone like this in the library.
"I see. You've made progress yourself in the meantime."
No matter how distracted the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal might have been or how carefully Mo Yeong-un approached, the fact that he'd sensed his presence meant there had clearly been improvement.
"What brings you here?"
With a faint hope in mind, the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal handed the compendium to Mo Yeong-un.
"Ah, I found this in another section two years ago and placed it here."
"This compendium records only Mount Hua sword techniques, correct?"
"Yes. I've confirmed it myself."
"Then, are the manuals for all the sword techniques recorded here present?"
At the follow-up question, Mo Yeong-un's face fell with regret.
"No. Some have been lost to history."
"Hah."
A sigh escaped the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal's lips.
"Might I ask if there's a particular sword technique you're seeking?"
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal pointed to one entry.
"Flowing Cloud Sword Method."
"Ah... So it's one of the techniques whose manual was lost."
Deep disappointment settled on the faces of both the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal and Wi Su-yeon at Mo Yeong-un's words.
"That said, for the Flowing Cloud Sword Method... Hmm."
Mo Yeong-un fell into thought.
His mind held countless books.
All of them from this Plum Blossom Library.
Mo Yeong-un had read not just the martial arts manuals, but also innumerable historical records and annals of Mount Hua.
"Did you know the Flowing Cloud Sword Method exists in Wudang as well?"
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal's expression showed he hadn't known.
"That makes sense. Just as Mount Hua has the Plum Blossom Sword Method, Wudang has the Supreme Clarity Sword Method and the Supreme Ultimate Beneficent Sword."
Mo Yeong-un smiled faintly.
"You can think of it as the foundational sword art for the Supreme Ultimate Beneficent Sword. It's different in nature from the Supreme Clarity Sword Method. It's essential to the Supreme Ultimate Beneficent Sword, but due to its soft nature, it's not well-known in the jianghu. Wudang's swordsmanship path goes from Flowing Cloud to Supreme Clarity, then to Supreme Ultimate Beneficent."
As he spoke in his low voice, Mo Yeong-un subtly shifted and took a step.
He judged this wasn't a conversation to have right there in the library, as it would drag on.
And so the three left the library and headed to the library master's office beside it.
"You know a great deal about Wudang's swordsmanship."
"It's much like how you exchange with Immortal Wu Yeon. But neither of you are the type to chat idly about basic sword techniques."
It was true.
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal and Immortal Wu Yeon.
They were the sort who bantered by drawing sword paths in the air and debating their insights.
To them, whether one technique was better than another held no importance.
"A hundred years? Something like that. During a sparring exchange between third-generation disciples, Mount Hua's Flowing Cloud Sword Method lost to Wudang's."
"Hah."
Even the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal hadn't known of this.
"It happened on Wudang Mountain, so everyone kept it hushed. They did leave a record, apparently, but it was buried in a corner of the Plum Blossom Library where no one would easily find it."
Mo Yeong-un had sought it out and read it.
"Unacceptable."
Even the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal clenched his fist at the mere mention of Mount Hua's sword losing to Wudang's.
If someone of his attainment reacted this way, how must others have felt?
"So they overhauled the Flowing Cloud Sword Method, focusing on surpassing Wudang's version."
"Ah..."
A deep sigh escaped the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal's lips.
It stemmed from realizing the same misguided choice applied to Mount Hua's Plum Blossom Sword Method had been made with Flowing Cloud as well.
"And the technique born from that is right here."
Mo Yeong-un unfolded a page from the compendium he'd brought from the library and pointed.
His finger rested on the Azure Clouds Descending Sword.
"It would be more accurate to say they merged Flowing Cloud into the existing Descending Sword Method. Flowing Cloud vanished, leaving only Azure Clouds Descending Sword. They slipped Flowing Cloud into the Descending Sword tradition."
They had already examined Azure Clouds Descending Sword and concluded it wasn't it.
Even if Flowing Cloud had been merged in, it was likely mostly Descending Sword essence.
It showed none of the freedom of clouds, after all.
"Th-then, what happened to the original Flowing Cloud Sword Method?"
Wi Su-yeon asked cautiously.
Mo Yeong-un glanced at her briefly and rummaged through his memory.
"This compendium was written right when Azure Clouds Descending Sword was created. Both techniques are recorded, but Flowing Cloud was soon archived away."
Judging her question aligned with what the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal was wondering, he directed his answer there.
"Archived? How?"
"An expelled disciple took it."
"Expelled disciple?"
It was the kind of story that made the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal furrow his brow.
No matter that it was a defeated technique, handing it to an expelled disciple?
Absurd.
"Yu Ji-woong. That's the disciple's name."
"Hold on."
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal paused at the name from Mo Yeong-un's lips.
It wasn't unfamiliar.
He'd heard it before.
Right here in Mount Hua, no less.
'Haha, such talent after Junior Brother Ji-woong!'
'You're a prodigy, a true prodigy. We're sending this child in Junior Brother Ji-woong's stead.'
Back in the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal's youth.
His martial uncles praising him.
The martial uncle they always cautiously compared him to.
Junior Brother Ji-woong.
Yes.
That's what he'd heard.
A martial uncle of immense talent, now gone from Mount Hua.
"And the disciple who lost to Wudang with the Flowing Cloud Sword Method."
The voice reached the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal's ears as he drifted into memory.
"To be precise, less an expulsion and more him abandoning Mount Hua himself. He said he'd tarnished the sect's name by losing to Wudang."
It was a hidden anecdote even the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal didn't know.
"How do you know all this so well, nephew?"
He grew curious.
"Someone who thought the handling of the matter unjust recorded it and stashed it in a library corner."
One of his martial uncles or grand-uncles must have done so.
"Mount Hua's top prodigy at the time... Everyone tried to stop him, but he even crippled his own dantian..."
Mo Yeong-un trailed off.
"Hah..."
"Ah..."
Sighs thick with regret escaped both the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal and Wi Su-yeon simultaneously.
"Was the Wudang disciple who crushed Mount Hua's top prodigy with Flowing Cloud recorded?"
"Yes. It was the master of Immortal Wu Yeon."
A convincing answer.
Mount Hua and Wudang's top prodigies had clashed with same-named techniques, and Mount Hua lost.
"They apparently couldn't just let a disciple who crippled his dantian and begged to leave Mount Hua go. With the sect leader's permission, his master sent him off with the Flowing Cloud Sword Method. Even without someplace to stay, he could make a living with it as a last resort. Without an inner cultivation method, that's the limit of Flowing Cloud Sword Method."
Of course, even with a crippled dantian, he was a disciple who remembered Mount Hua's martial arts.
But a disciple consumed by guilt over tarnishing the sect's honor enough to cripple himself wouldn't recklessly leak Mount Hua's inner arts.
Besides, as a third-generation disciple, he hadn't learned Mount Hua's true ultimate inner cultivation methods.
It was the tangled result of various circumstances.
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal and Wi Su-yeon exchanged glances.
If Mo Yeong-un was right, the Flowing Cloud Sword Method might still exist outside Mount Hua.
"So he opened a martial arts school?"
"'It was I who was weak, not the Flowing Cloud Sword Method that was flawed... If I open a school, I'll call it Flowing Cloud Martial Hall. Because it wasn't wrong.' That's what he left behind as he departed Mount Hua."
Flowing Cloud Martial Hall.
It was the slimmest of clues.
In this vast jianghu, how many places would bear that name?
"Where was his hometown?"
"It says Hwaeum County here... but there's no Flowing Cloud Martial Hall in Hwaeum County."
At Mo Yeong-un's words, the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal rose from his seat.
"Thank you, nephew."
"Not at all. I'm glad I could help with what you're seeking, Martial Uncle."
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal and Wi Su-yeon left the Plum Blossom Library.
"Will you come search with me?"
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal asked Wi Su-yeon.
"Yes. I want to, more than anything."
"Then, who is your master again? No, let's go to the sect leader first."
And so things proceeded swiftly.
They obtained permission from Mount Hua's sect leader and Wi Su-yeon's master, Yu Chu-eun, for her to descend the mountain, and the two promptly left Mount Hua.
"What do we do now?"
Finding a martial hall named Flowing Cloud in this vast world was like searching for a needle in a desert.
"We can't search ourselves, so we turn to those who specialize in such long-term tasks. I'm thinking of heading to Kaifeng."
The Plum Blossom Sword Immortal answered Wi Su-yeon's question calmly.
At the mention of Kaifeng, Wi Su-yeon could guess his plan.
The Beggars' Sect.
That's where they were headed.
Darkness was pushing out the sunset, encroaching on the sky.
After receiving information commissioned from the Hao Clan and leaving Anbok, Ha Mu-baek—who had been about to pass through Seobok—paused as he glanced at the sky.
"Cutting it close."
The timing was tricky.
The garrison mess hall would be finishing dinner soon.
He'd hurried, but the distance to Anbok was what it was, leading to this.
Not that getting another meal would be hard, but it was a hassle.
Ha Mu-baek's gaze naturally turned to the manor.
Dinner would be wrapping up there too, but he could make it before cleanup.
Ha Mu-baek headed to the manor housing the Fierce Dragon Corps.
The main gate was used by the Sanhwa Martial Hall, so they'd greatly expanded the north rear gate and hung a plaque.
Fierce Dragon Manor.
A straightforward name for the manor where the Fierce Dragon Corps stayed.
Han Seol-bing's direct naming style.
The two Fierce Dragon Corps warriors on gate duty spotted Ha Mu-baek and hurriedly bowed.
"Dinner hasn't ended yet?"
At Ha Mu-baek's question, the warrior who had finished eating first replied.
"About an hour left."
With that, Ha Mu-baek's figure vanished.
In an instant, he entered the dining hall, got his meal, and sat down. Han Seol-bing, who had been about to leave the hall, approached.
"Didn't you say you'd stay at the garrison?"
Han Seol-bing sat across from him.
"Just here for rice."
"Why are you rushing around so much?"
He wouldn't have come all the way from the garrison to Seobok just for dinner.
But the timing was too tight for that.
He'd likely finished business elsewhere, was heading back to the garrison, found the timing awkward, and detoured here.
Ever since his Hocheon Corps days, he'd treated meals as sacred.
'He stakes his life on rice.'
She could understand.
She hadn't known about his younger sister Ha Seol-ran, but he'd once casually mentioned wandering hungry in his youth.
Those experiences had made meals profoundly important to Ha Mu-baek.
"Here."
Ha Mu-baek pulled documents from his bosom.
One each from the Beggars' Sect and Hao Clan.
While Ha Mu-baek focused on his meal, Han Seol-bing carefully examined the handed-over documents.