Chapter 162: There Is a Butterfly
Namgung Sang-rin’s body flinched and his eyes went wide.
‘What?’
He doubted his ears.
Telling her to strip out of the blue.
He looked even more surprised than Hae Su-yeon who had been singled out.
‘S-surely… It doesn’t mean what just came to my mind!’
The moment Namgung Sang-rin wore a flustered look and sputtered, a shy smile spread across Hae Su-yeon’s lips.
“My, how embarrassing. This is my first time like this.”
Then.
SWISH-
Her hands moved quickly.
Just like that, Hae Su-yeon showed no particular resistance and loosened her front collar, revealing her white shoulders.
“If you tell me to strip, I’ll strip.”
Namgung Sang-rin was startled again.
GASP! What are you doing! No, why are you agreeing to that!
“Stop, stop! P-please stop!”
Simultaneously with his cry, his face having turned bright red, a nonchalant voice reached his ears.
“Not clothes. Shoes.”
When Hae Su-yeon heard Cheol Ryu-heun’s words, her eyes sparkled.
“Oh my, is that Sect Leader Cheol’s preference?”
Having smiled brightly, Hae Su-yeon promptly sat in a chair and slipped off her shoes.
Wiggle wiggle.
She moved her toes cutely and reddened her cheeks.
“Showing my bare feet to a man outside my family – how shameful.”
Namgung Sang-rin was dumbfounded.
What are you saying!
Hey, what you just said and that expression don’t match at all!
In an instant, Hae Su-yeon crossed her sleek legs and struck a seductive pose.
“Hoho. How’s this, sitting like this work? Coming in looking so stylish in that jet-black signature martial attire and giving orders – my heart is fluttering with excitement.”
“Tsk, something troublesome has entered.”
At Cheol Ryu-heun’s curt words, Namgung Sang-rin carefully asked.
“Sect Leader Cheol, what exactly are you trying to do…?”
“What do you mean – I need to examine her body first.”
“What do you mean… No, you mustn’t! Why are you doing this? There are things that should be observed between men and women, and this kind of harassment is…”
“What are you thinking?”
“Pardon?”
“Pulse diagnosis.”
“Ah… P-pulse diagnosis…”
“What, did you think I’d suddenly turned into a lecher?”
“Well, not exactly, but…”
“I intend to precisely grasp the overall state of her body through the thirty-six acupoints on the soles of her feet. The cultivation method she learned is incomplete, so impure yin energy tends to concentrate and flow in her lower body. I’m going to investigate that first.”
Hearing those words, Hae Su-yeon exclaimed in admiration.
“Wow… That’s accurate. My hands are warm but my feet are cold.”
Only then did Namgung Sang-rin dispel his misunderstanding and scratch his forehead with an embarrassed look.
“Yes… So that’s what you meant. I’m sorry, Sect Leader Cheol. It was just so sudden…”
Cheol Ryu-heun soon moved to position himself in front of Hae Su-yeon and extended both hands.
“Oh, how lovely.”
When he paused his hand movement, Cheol Ryu-heun spoke expressionlessly.
“Don’t go falling for me. It’s troublesome.”
“Ah! I was about to say that first, but you beat me to it. Hmph. You’re no ordinary person, Sect Leader Cheol. It’s fine if you’re indifferent to me. I’ll just have an unrequited love.”
When Hae Su-yeon stuck out her tongue and acted cutely, Namgung Sang-rin shook his head.
‘Ha… Who’s calling whom no ordinary person, really.’
Meanwhile, Cheol Ryu-heun completely ignored her and pressed both his palms tightly against the soles of her feet.
Before long.
TZTZTZTZ…
Haze rippled out from the touching palms and soles and danced in the air.
Simultaneously.
‘Ah!’
Hae Su-yeon shivered as the strange warmth seeping through the soles of her feet instantly raced along the major acupoints of her lower body.
It was amazing.
Because all the impure yin energy that had been accumulated in her lower body due to the incomplete internal energy cultivation method had somehow gone to her sea of energy point and melted in.
Internal energy level increase.
It was quite a shocking occurrence.
To think she would not merely eliminate the impure yin energy dwelling in her feet and legs, but transform it into part of her original internal energy.
‘This is crazy! In this world, such a thing is possible? I’m not even in a state of Energy Circulation…’
Cheol Ryu-heun spoke as if reading her thoughts.
“I made it possible with my power. It’ll be done soon, so stay still.”
Meanwhile, Namgung Sang-rin silently watched the two and thought.
‘Miss Hae’s story was quite unexpected too.’
Earlier, he and the rest of the sect members had moved to a hall and engaged in a long conversation, and during that time he learned various facts.
Starting from Cheol Ryu-heun’s exploits, to Gal Jung-heon’s and Hae Su-yeon’s stories…
He hadn’t known.
That the sword Hae Su-yeon possessed could actually be one of the Ten Heavenly Weapons.
The Enchanting Flower Sword.
The person most widely known as its last owner was the supreme female master of an era two hundred years ago, called the Era of Blood God’s Reign – Flower Spirit Empress Heon Sae-ah.
At that time, she was famous as a transcendent powerhouse counted among the top three fingers across both orthodox and unorthodox factions.
Also.
She was the lover of Blood God Mu Wol, the absolute being of the martial world.
The two met when young and loved each other very deeply.
However, after Mu Wol earned the alias of Blood God, he became obsessed with pursuing extreme strength, and eventually grew distant from Flower Spirit Empress Heon Sae-ah, ending their relationship.
Afterward, when the Great Bloodshed symbolized by the rise of Heavenly Demon Cult concluded.
Flower Spirit Empress Heon Sae-ah, in order to forget the pain of love, suddenly retired from martial world activities and secluded herself somewhere.
That place was Putuo Temple, located on Mount Putuo in the islands of the Zhejiang region – a sacred ground of Buddhist martial arts and one of the Nine Great Sects.
Thus Heon Sae-ah turned her back on the secular world.
The reason for choosing Putuo Temple was simple and clear.
Because it was a martial sect composed entirely of Buddhist nuns.
The other Buddhist sect, Shaolin Temple, had only male monks, and Emei Sect had both male and female monastics coexisting while also embracing some secular customs, making them unsuitable as a place of seclusion.
Putuo Temple’s Sect Leader, Wisdom Nun Ji-won, gladly permitted Heon Sae-ah’s secret taking of refuge and even provided a separate hermitage.
About three or four years after that.
Blood God Mu Wol visited Putuo Temple on some matter and happened to encounter Heon Sae-ah, and through various conversations, they sorted out their old feelings.
The two parted with smiling faces.
Later, before Heon Sae-ah drew her last breath as her lifespan ended, she left a final wish to have the Enchanting Flower Sword secretly stored in a restricted area within Putuo Temple.
Though it was called a legendary enchanting sword that bewitched men’s hearts, in truth its power could not be properly wielded unless one possessed the same Heavenly Demon Incarnation as herself.
That’s why she worried that if the sword went out into the world, it would only spark pointless bloody struggles for possession.
Also.
She sent a final letter to Blood God Mu Wol, the only true love of her life.
-I leave half of what I learned through love here and take the other half with me. I came here to empty my heart, but instead found myself unable to fill it. I loved you more deeply than anyone.
That meant she would only leave behind half of the essence of the internal energy cultivation method she had completed with his help during their time as lovers.
In other words.
A series of essences as precious as memories that couldn’t be easily erased… even if another woman of later generations took up the true transmission, she would be unable to completely comprehend them.
That was when he cried for the first time.
Blood God Mu Wol.
He wept very bitterly.
Because reading those words she had written, implicitly expressing the lingering attachment to their love that she couldn’t abandon until the very end of her life, he felt quite regretful about the past times when he hadn’t treated her better.
Thus, half of the exquisite internal energy cultivation method essence of the woman called Flower Spirit Empress, along with the Enchanting Flower Sword, one of the Ten Heavenly Weapons, remained sealed in Putuo Temple as time passed.
But then.
Forty years ago from now, an incident occurred where a young nun of Putuo Temple touched the Enchanting Flower Sword.
It was the starting point of the story Hae Su-yeon had confided.
The nun who had entered that restricted area was Il-jeong, the head disciple of Jeong-sim, the Sect Master of Putuo Temple at the time.
Her secular name before taking refuge in Buddhism was Kang Hee-san.
The restricted area of Putuo Temple was accessible only to Sect Master Jeong-sim and a small number of first-generation disciples.
Not only the Enchanting Flower Sword, one of the Ten Heavenly Weapons, but also a large quantity of the sect’s precious items were stored inside, so entry was necessarily strict.
Kang Hee-san was regularly in charge of cleaning the interior of the restricted area, and one day, curious about what the Enchanting Flower Sword looked like, she opened its wooden case.
The sword that met her eyes was too beautiful.
She was entranced.
Its entire form from scabbard to hilt was covered in a red hue – its appearance was truly beyond description.
Moreover.
The flower-shaped patterns carved along the surface of the long extended scabbard were so elaborate they made her eyes dizzy.
The small flower bud decoration at the end of the Enchanting Flower Sword’s hilt was truly the finishing touch – delicate to the extreme, like an actual flower, it felt like viewing the work of a master craftsman.
Kang Hee-san held it in her hands and swung it around, and as her curiosity grew, she even channeled internal energy into it – and at that moment, some of the latent enchanting energy infiltrated her body and was absorbed into her dantian.
It was unexpected.
Startled, Kang Hee-san put the Enchanting Flower Sword back and hurried out of the restricted area.
However.
Because of the enchanting energy that had settled in her dantian of its own accord, before long Kang Hee-san ended up having an affair with a young man from a nearby village.
One intensely passionate night.
It came back to her as guilt.
In the end, Kang Hee-san honestly confessed the matter, and her master Jeong-sim decided on expulsion.
It was unavoidable.
Having broken a Buddhist taboo, expulsion was the natural punishment.
At that time, Jeong-sim told her the secret history related to Flower Spirit Empress Heon Sae-ah and then gave her the Enchanting Flower Sword as a parting gift.
-Here, take this with you. Since it is the object that changed the fate of your life, use it to change the fate of your life once more. And this booklet is the internal energy cultivation method that the former Flower Spirit Empress left behind. I believe you can use this to forge a different path.
It was her final consideration as a master.
Kang Hee-san held back her tears and left Mount Putuo where her sect was located, lived as a wanderer, and in her later years took in a young female disciple and transmitted the internal energy cultivation method.
It was Hae Su-yeon.
As time passed, before her lifespan ended, Kang Hee-san spoke as if leaving a final testament.
—Long, long ago, before Flower Spirit Empress drew her last breath, she reportedly said this: The flower blooms but there is no butterfly… It means that no matter how hard you practice this internal energy cultivation method, complete mastery is impossible. But Su-yeon… Don’t despair too much. You have not only already awakened the latent enchanting energy of the Enchanting Flower Sword, but are wielding it quite skillfully. Perhaps you… Could find a way to achieve complete mastery of this internal energy cultivation method.
After Kang Hee-san closed her eyes, Hae Su-yeon wandered many places to find that method.
Then recently, she learned that Sword Seal Sect was keeping a booklet containing the true transmission of a famous female master who had possessed the Enchanting Flower Sword in an era before Flower Spirit Empress Heon Sae-ah, and that’s why she had volunteered to be a Guest Retainer and entered that place.
Namgung Sang-rin recalled a conversation he had exchanged with Hae Su-yeon not long ago.
-But… How did you come to stay there? It’s a martial sect that doesn’t suit you at all.
-Ah, I didn’t join as a formal member. I’m just a Guest Retainer. Actually, in the Sword Seal Sect Master’s possession is something I absolutely must obtain, and that’s why I volunteered to be a Guest Retainer.
-Something you absolutely must obtain… I won’t pry. It seems there are circumstances.
-It’s something related to my master. No, it would be more correct to say it’s related to the martial arts I learned.
Namgung Sang-rin, wearing a faint smile, murmured inwardly.
‘Ha, fate is truly mysterious. In the end, she met Sect Master Cheol and found that method…’