Chapter 17: Chapter 17

It was the hour of the Tiger, when the sun had not yet risen.

A young man was walking up the steep and narrow mountain path leading to Falling Goose Peak in the dense darkness that still hung heavy.

He was a young Taoist with a neat and tidy appearance.

It was none other than Jeok-geom.

“Pant, pant.”

Jeok-geom shook his head while exhaling the breath that filled his lungs.

He had felt it while climbing up yesterday as well, but the mountain path heading to Falling Goose Peak was quite rough and rugged.

After a while, Jeok-geom, who arrived at his destination, a small thatched cottage, spread his arms wide open.

“Huuu…….”

Taking a deep breath, he raised his head.

Inside the old thatched cottage that looked like it would collapse at any moment, the person he was looking for was present.

Cheon-hwi.

Although he was fourteen years of age, he was his martial uncle.

In the past, he would have been a figure he wouldn’t have cared about, but now it was different.

Jeok-geom, who had fallen in love with Cheon-hwi’s divine might seen at the Five Mountains Gathering, came to request teachings from Cheon-hwi, who was younger than him.

‘Today, for sure.’

Jeok-geom, having caught his breath, carefully and reverently knelt down slowly.

‘Martial Uncle Cheon-hwi’s skills that day were overwhelming. No matter how much younger he is than me, his skills are impossible to gauge…….’

“Senior Brother Jeok-geom?”

At the call that broke his thoughts, Jeok-geom flinched and hurriedly turned his head back.

A familiar woman was there.

“Junior Sister Seol Ran? Why are you here?”

It was when the two were looking at each other in embarrassment at the completely unexpected meeting.

Suddenly, the door opened with a ‘bang’.

Following that, Cheon-hwi revealed himself. Seeing him roughly wearing a Taoist robe and with disheveled hair, Jeok-geom and Seol Ran hurriedly bowed their heads and shouted.

“Martial Uncle!”

“Martial Uncle!”

Cheon-hwi glared at the two calling him, frowned, and opened his mouth.

“It’s noisy, so shut up a little.”

* * *

Late afternoon, Hyeon-do, who visited the thatched cottage as usual, glanced at the two kneeling on the ground and asked Cheon-hwi in front of him.

“I came to find out about the Plum Blossom Sword Art you showed then today……. Why are those children here?”

“I don’t know. They’ve been like that since morning, right?”

At Cheon-hwi’s answer full of annoyance, Jeok-geom and Seol Ran, who were kneeling, were terrified and hurriedly added.

“Th-that is, we came because we want to request teachings from Martial Uncle Cheon-hwi. Martial Granduncle.”

“Th-this young girl also visited to receive Martial Uncle’s teachings. Martial Granduncle.”

“You want to receive teachings?”

At their answers, Hyeon-do crossed his arms and fell into deep thought.

As time passed and the furrow between his brows deepened, Jeok-geom and Seol Ran shrank their bodies.

In particular, Seol Ran’s complexion turned pale.

She was an in-name disciple who hadn’t even received a Taoist name.

Of course, the Mount Hua Sect deliberately didn’t give her a Taoist name because of her background, and although there was no difference from a true mountain disciple, it did not change the fact that she was an in-name disciple in the end.

At that moment, Hyeon-do met eyes with the two.

He gently gazed at the two who were trembling out of fear that a thunderous reprimand might fall, and then turned his gaze towards Cheon-hwi.

‘Receiving Cheon-hwi’s teachings, huh…….’

At first, he also intended to get angry at Jeok-geom and Seol Ran for requesting teachings.

However, when he actually thought about it deeply, a thought suddenly occurred to him that it might be a good thing instead.

The two he saw in the martial arts competition at the Five Mountains Gathering were overflowing with talent. But if Cheon-hwi, the greatest genius of all time and present, taught them on top of that…….

Gulp, he swallowed his saliva.

‘However, how should I coax Cheon-hwi to the two…….’

“Hmm.”

Soon, around the time Hyeon-do, who had fallen into deep agony, lowered his head, Cheon-hwi opened his mouth.

“If you have nothing to do, can I go inside?”

Hyeon-do, looking at Cheon-hwi trying to turn his body, was startled and uncrossed his arms.

“Ah, no.”

Hyeon-do hurriedly grabbed Cheon-hwi.

Because the one who would be regretful if this training ended now was none other than him, not Cheon-hwi.

“Ma-Martial Granduncle?”

“Martial Granduncle……?”

Jeok-geom and Seol Ran, seeing Hyeon-do’s urgent appearance, found it hard to swallow their bewilderment.

Cheon-hwi was outstanding, but he was a first-generation disciple.

However, Hyeon-do was the greatest expert of the Mount Hua Sect.

But wasn’t the appearance shown just now a situation where Hyeon-do was holding onto Cheon-hwi?

The two looked back and forth between Hyeon-do and Cheon-hwi with trembling eyes, but Hyeon-do had no time to care about their reactions.

“I want to know about the Plum Blossom Sword Art you showed back then.”

“Plum Blossom Sword Art? Ah, the Seven Sections Plum Blossom Sword?”

“Seven Sections Plum Blossom Sword……?”

Wrinkles formed on Hyeon-do’s forehead.

In his mind, such a sword art did not exist in the Mount Hua Sect.

“……Is it our sect’s sword art?”

Perhaps because he had pondered a lot, Hyeon-do’s fully lowered voice echoed in the air.

And Cheon-hwi lightly retorted.

“I recreated it.”

“……!”

Hyeon-do’s two eyes grew incomparably large. That was also the same for Jeok-geom and Seol Ran, who were secretly listening from the side.

‘He recreated it?’

‘H-he recreated the Plum Blossom Sword Art?’

Whether the three were astonished or not, Cheon-hwi ignored them and continued to speak.

“It is a newly established sword art that fills in the lacking parts of the Twenty-Four Movements Plum Blossom Sword Art.”

Hyeon-do, who had been dazed, was shocked.

“I-is that true?”

“Why would I lie?”

Cheon-hwi, who answered in a tone taking it for granted, immediately looked at Hyeon-do and opened his mouth.

“So you mean you want to know about the Seven Sections Plum Blossom Sword?”

In an instant, Hyeon-do’s gaze changed.

Emitting blazing pupils, he tightly clenched both fists.

“That’s right.”

Cheon-hwi chuckled while looking at Hyeon-do.

He changed.

If it were in the past, he would have made a fuss about it being the crime of deceiving one’s master and destroying the ancestors, but now he naturally didn’t care whether he did it or not.

‘Well, rather than teaching martial arts from before, we shared martial theories with each other.’

He was definitely someone crazy about martial arts.

Conversing about martial theories with him, who was merely fourteen years old, was something that would hurt the pride of a person with age, but he showed no such sign at all.

Rather, he was welcoming it.

‘That’s why I’m teaching him like this.’

If it had been someone other than him, he wouldn’t have taught them.

“How do you unfold it?”

Was it because he knew he could learn it? Hyeon-do’s pupils were filled with excitement and bloodshot red.

“You know how to unfold the Plum Blossom Sword Art, right?”

“Of course I know how to unfold it.”

“Then that’s enough.”

Cheon-hwi immediately recited the oral chants.

Hyeon-do, who listened to the oral chants for about the time it takes to eat a meal, nodded and scribbled on the ground.

“It’s amazing. To think you can interpret the oral chants this easily.”

“It’s just that there were many useless oral chants in the Plum Blossom Sword Art.”

“Heup!”

“Heup!”

Jeok-geom and Seol Ran were shocked at Cheon-hwi’s words that would infuriate both heaven and men. However, the thing they worried about did not happen.

“Hahaha, it was a little complicated.”

Hyeon-do quietly agreed.

The Plum Blossom Sword Art was entangled with various kinds of Taoist oral chants, making it tricky to learn at first.

Compared to that, how was the Seven Sections Plum Blossom Sword?

Taoist oral chants? There were none.

Complicated oral chants? There were none.

The only things that existed were simple oral chants.

However, there was something hard to understand.

Hyeon-do immediately picked up a small branch that fell on the ground, moved it at random, and then swung it like a sword.

“According to the oral chants, the sword blossoms spread here. But how do you mean to gather the sword blossoms in one place and move them?”

The oral chants were easy, but they were too vast.

As if tens, hundreds of martial arts were mixed.

“If you concentrate your internal energy here rather than dispersing it, and then unfold it with an exploding feeling, you can unfold the first three forms.”

Hyeon-do swished the branch in his hand in the air in accordance with the explanation and asked.

Swish… Swish…

“Are you saying to unfold it in this way?”

“I’m telling you it’s not that. Unfolding the sword blossoms is important too, but more than that, you have to unite your internal energy into one. So, like watering the ground, you have to…….”

While the two were having a conversation like that.

Srrk…

Jeok-geom and Seol Ran shone their eyes brightly and met eyes with each other at the same time.

‘Senior Brother……?’

‘Junior Sister too?’

In a fleeting moment, the two realized that the other person was having the exact same thought as themselves and nodded simultaneously.

‘I have absolutely no idea what they are saying.’

‘I don’t know what they are talking about at all.’

Unlike their brightly shining eyes, the two could not understand at all.

And Cheon-hwi also did not understand.

However, the difference from the two was due to Hyeon-do, who could not unfold the Seven Sections Plum Blossom Sword.

‘No, I explained the oral chants this easily. The one called the greatest expert of the Mount Hua Sect can’t understand these easy oral chants at all.’

Cheon-hwi’s chest felt stuffy.

However, Cheon-hwi did not know.

The fact that although the oral chants had become much easier, the martial logic contained within the Seven Sections Plum Blossom Sword had become incredibly high.

Although it was easy by his standards, it was a sword art of a realm that was difficult for even an expert of the Heavenly Martial Realm to unfold properly in just a single day.

“Do you not know Having Form but No Form?”

“Having Form but No Form?”

“There are no set rules in the Seven Sections Plum Blossom Sword. It looks like a sword dance, but I’m telling you it is a completed sword form just with that.”

Hyeon-do’s chest also felt stuffy.

How could it be a sword form when it was a sword dance?

A sword dance was a sword dance, and a sword form was a sword form.

Weren’t the two separate?

But since he said they were the same, it could not be understood at all with the martial arts he knew.

Still, what could he do?

Cheon-hwi had accomplished it.

“Ngh, Having Form but No Form, huh……”

Squeezing out the martial arts contained in his head, he asked carefully.

“But are you saying there are really no rules when it is a technique?”

Cheon-hwi, who was looking at Hyeon-do who didn’t understand the explanation at all, let out a sigh.

Then, suddenly, a phrase came to mind, and he put it in his mouth and spat it out.

“Ah! Then you know that the Unchanging Responds to Ten Thousand Changes, right?”

When something he knew appeared after a long time, Hyeon-do smiled brightly and nodded his head.

“Hahaha! Of course I know. Doesn’t it mean that the unchanging responds to the ten thousand changes?”

“That’s exactly it.”

“……?”

Seeing Hyeon-do wearing an expression that floated question marks on his face, Cheon-hwi felt his chest tightly blocked.

‘How can he not know something this easy?’

Cheon-hwi, who felt a frustration like his chest was going to burst, eventually picked up a wooden sword.

“Here, watch.”

Along with his words, he drew up his internal energy.

“Ohh!”

“Such internal energy circulation!”

Jeok-geom and Seol Ran shone their eyes.

In the midst of not knowing what the conversation was about at all until now, they looked at Cheon-hwi with gazes of admiration at the sight visible to their eyes.

“I’ll show you once.”

The sword of Cheon-hwi, who was speaking, moved grandly, and red plum blossoms bloomed in full on Mount Hua.

“Hoh…….”

“Such a sword form…….”

“It’s beautiful.”

The three, bursting with admiration, blankly stared at Cheon-hwi, who was dancing a beautiful sword dance embracing the plum blossoms and the world.

Like that, two hours passed.

“……It will be too much to unfold it today.”

Hyeon-do, who had focused and observed the Seven Sections Plum Blossom Sword that Cheon-hwi unfolded just before, muttered quietly with a daunted expression.

It was still too much at his level.

‘Even though I reached the Heavenly Martial Realm, to think it is a sword art that is overwhelming just to imitate.’

A dejected laugh lingered around his mouth.

At the same time, it was at the point where marvel, beyond admiration, naturally came out at Cheon-hwi’s talent.

“If you just know the oral chants, it will work out somehow.”

Around the time Cheon-hwi whispered.

Srrk…

Hyeon-do looked at the two wearing hazy expressions, still unable to escape from the lingering imagery of Cheon-hwi’s Seven Sections Plum Blossom Sword, and asked.

“Then what will you do with the two?”

“If I just leave them be, they will go on their own.”

Hyeon-do, hearing Cheon-hwi’s indifferent answer, immediately thought this was right and opened his mouth.

“Rather than doing that, how about making them wait on you?”

“Wait on me?”

Cheon-hwi was tempted by those words.

Wait on me? It would be comfortable if they did.

As he fell into thought like that, he naturally recalled his limbs from the past.

‘Hmm, the Ghost Demon and the Flying Demon were quite quick-witted, weren’t they.’

Cheon-hwi was having thoughts that would make the people of the Central Plains at the time fall over in surprise if they heard it.

Who were the Ghost Demon and the Flying Demon?

They were great demonic heads who had turned the Central Plains into a mess with a journey to the Central Plains of merely two years, and made the Diancang Sect seal their gates.

But to think they were merely limbs.

Cheon-hwi stared at Jeok-geom and Seol Ran.

The two stood stiffly like stone statues, as if frozen by his gaze.

‘Compared to those guys, they are totally…….’

A comparison with the second-generation disciples of the Mount Hua Sect.

It was a thought that would hurt the Ghost Demon and the Flying Demon’s pride if they heard it, but Cheon-hwi was taking it for granted.

It was natural, as to him, whether it was the Ghost Demon or the Flying Demon, or the second-generation disciples of the Mount Hua Sect, they were all the same.

‘Still, it would be comfortable to have them, right?’

While Cheon-hwi fell into agony for a moment like that, Hyeon-do’s two lights in his eyes flashed.

‘If the two receive teachings from Cheon-hwi this time, they will make rapid progress.’

It was closer to conviction than an expectation.

Cheon-hwi’s teachings were that outstanding.

Not wanting to miss this moment, he asked Jeok-geom and Seol Ran who were gulping down their saliva.

“What about you guys?”

“It sounds good!”

“It sounds good!”

The two, who grasped the intention contained in Hyeon-do’s question, shone their eyes simultaneously and chorused with one voice.

“If it’s waiting on me, you’ll do anything, right?”

Cheon-hwi asked quietly.

Hyeon-do felt a somewhat unpalatable feeling for a moment, but shook his head left and right to brush it off before parting his lips.

“Of course. Isn’t that right?”

“That is right!”

“We will do anything.”

Cheon-hwi looked at the two answering robustly, as if they had waited for a long time.

Soon, he, who was looking at their pupils that were bright like starlight, nodded his head.

“Alright. Then let’s do that.”

“Thank you!”

“Thank you!”

Rejoicing at the answer they finally heard, the two bowed their heads deeply at the same time.

Because of that, the two could not see.

The corners of Cheon-hwi’s mouth turning up.

And even the gloomy future that would soon strike them.

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