Chapter 22: Chapter 22
Cheon-hwi raised his head and stared at the antique yet lofty pavilion.
The Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion, which gathered and organized the history and martial arts manuals of the Mount Hua Sect, consisted of a total of three floors and had a considerable height.
And corresponding to its height, the space on each floor was spacious and strictly separated.
It was a unique system where higher-level martial arts manuals existed as one went up the floors.
This was exactly the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion.
And Cheon-hwi had already read most of the books in that Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion.
‘But to think there’s a new martial arts manual inside this Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion?’
Cheon-hwi’s eyes narrowed.
He looked at the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion with an expression full of curiosity, then threw the doors open.
Screeeech…
The moment he stepped through the open doors.
“Have you arrived?”
Hyeon-cheong, who had been organizing the books placed on the desk, welcomed Cheon-hwi.
“Where is the martial arts manual?”
Hyeon-cheong looked at Cheon-hwi, who got straight to the point, and smiled broadly.
“Wait a moment.”
Hyeon-cheong set down the books, stood up from his chair, and gestured for him to follow.
“It’s this way.”
Hyeon-cheong walked with his hands behind his back.
Looking at his back, Cheon-hwi wore a questioning gaze and thought.
‘We’re not going up?’
Hyeon-cheong began to walk not towards the stairs going up, but towards another place on the first floor.
Step… Step…
Watching Hyeon-cheong’s receding back, Cheon-hwi took a step forward.
Creak… Creak…
He went deep inside, following the wooden floorboards that squeaked with every step.
How much time had passed like that.
Cheon-hwi’s two pupils sank deeply as he followed Hyeon-cheong, who was striding towards the dead-end western wall.
‘That place is…’
Around that time, Hyeon-cheong, having reached the blocked wall, surveyed the surroundings with a sharp gaze and carefully came to a stop.
“It’s here.”
Cheon-hwi’s pupils, which had been looking around while shaking his head, took on a sharp light.
The space blocked by bookshelves on all sides was a place he had visited a long time ago. And it was also a place he had harbored doubts about at the time.
Swish…
He stealthily looked down.
In the past, whenever he roamed the first floor of the library, he had felt that the space underneath was empty.
‘As expected, there was something there.’
Around the time Cheon-hwi, who was looking at the floor with eyes full of interest, pulled his chin down.
Swish…
Hyeon-cheong bent his waist deeply.
Following that, he fumbled with the wooden floorboards a few times, then moved as if digging into the floor.
At that moment.
Click…
a unique sound rang out.
Following that, Hyeon-cheong straightened his bent waist and dusted off the dirt on his hands.
“If you pull this chain, the formation arts will activate, so remember it well.”
The moment Hyeon-cheong spoke while pointing at the iron chain hidden in the gaps between the wooden floorboards.
Rumble…
An unusual sound was heard as the bookshelf on the opposite side moved sideways.
And a pitch-black hole appeared.
Cheon-hwi stared at the hole that was empty like a bottomless abyss, then looked at Hyeon-cheong.
Then, raising the corners of his mouth, he spoke.
“This is fun.”
Hyeon-cheong gently smiled as he looked at Cheon-hwi, who wore an extremely interested expression.
“Watch your step when going down.”
Hyeon-cheong, who spoke with earnest requests towards Cheon-hwi, entered the hole.
Soon, he was swallowed by the darkness.
‘Formation arts in a place like this…’
The corners of Cheon-hwi’s mouth curled up.
Normally, in Taoism, formation arts were dismissed as heretical arts and kept at a distance.
But for the Mount Hua Sect, one of the Taoist sects, to even deploy formation arts meant…
‘It means there is something important inside. At this rate, there might be martial arts manuals even better than I thought.’
Cheon-hwi’s eye light flashed.
A moment later, he took a step forward.
Upon entering the hole, he felt something touch his feet.
Soon, he infused internal energy into his eyes and cleared away the thick darkness.
The passage contained in his brightened vision became visible, and his interest only deepened.
The stairs and passage leading downwards were clean, as if they had been recently made.
‘This is quite serious?’
“We will arrive soon.”
Cheon-hwi hurried his steps, his mind becoming urgent at Hyeon-cheong’s words heard from the front.
Around the time he harbored expectations while going down the pitch-black stairs that were like a bottomless abyss.
Flash!
A blinding light swirled.
Cheon-hwi narrowed his eyes at the intense light that completely filled his vision, and looked forward.
‘A cave…?’
There was a massive underground cave.
And on the walls and ceiling of that cave, an uncountable number of luminous pearls were emitting bright light.
‘To think it would be a space this large.’
Around the time he observed the cave that was even larger than he had expected before entering.
“This place is the Dark Fragrance Secret Cave, which is known to only a handful of people in our sect, excluding the Sect Leader and a few elders.”
Hyeon-cheong, who had arrived first and was waiting, explained about this space.
“It’s quite a wonderful secret cave.”
Cheon-hwi scanned his surroundings and admired.
It was an extraordinary place even at a glance.
The numerous luminous pearls illuminating the secret cave.
And the thick traces dug deeply into the walls surrounding the secret cave each contained an astonishing energy.
‘This wasn’t carved by a single person.’
Cheon-hwi’s eyes sank deeply as he meticulously scanned the traces carved on the wall.
‘Passages…?’
Upon closer inspection, he could tell that the chaotic traces carved on the wall were passages.
“Those are exactly the martial arts manuals I spoke of last night.”
“Where?”
Cheon-hwi, who had been examining the traces, quickly turned his head like the wind.
Then, he could discover a desk made of stone on one side of the cave.
And the old books on top of it as well.
Step… Step…
Before he knew it, Cheon-hwi stood in front of the books.
The old books were so fragile that it seemed they would tear immediately if touched incorrectly, perhaps because they were written a quite long time ago.
Cheon-hwi’s eyes scrunched up as he watched.
‘Most of them are torn, making it hard to recognize.’
When he glared at the books in an incomplete state, Hyeon-cheong approached and explained.
“They are martial arts manuals recording the martial arts from the early days of our sect, or martial arts manuals whose incantations have been so heavily lost that they cannot be learned at all.”
‘So that’s why all the books are a mess, and they were kept separately in this place called the Dark Fragrance Secret Cave instead of the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion.’
After hearing his explanation, he could understand why there was an underground cave like this and why the books were kept separately inside it.
Learning a martial art with many lost incantations was a life-threatening act.
Not only could it not be properly learned, but one mistake could lead to falling into qi deviation and becoming no different from a madman.
‘Even so, it’s too much of a mess.’
Cheon-hwi’s face frowned as he stared at the books with absolutely nothing intact.
And while he naturally moved a few books placed on top to the side.
‘This is…’
His hand, which had been clearing them, stopped.
The martial arts manual with the half-torn cover he just grabbed caught his eye.
The martial arts manual was torn and most of the characters were blurry, but the characters firmly written on the cover were clearer than anything else.
“…Jade Ring… Wondrous…”
When Cheon-hwi read the characters intermittently.
“It is the true copy of the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps.”
Hyeon-cheong interrupted from the side.
Seeing Cheon-hwi surprised while looking at the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps, he recalled his past self.
Because the very first thing he had laid his hands on the moment he arrived at this place following the former Pavilion Master of the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion was also this Jade Ring Wondrous Steps.
Moreover, hadn’t he directly taught it to Seol Ran?
“As you know, there is also the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps on the third floor of the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion, but that is a new interpretation based on this true copy…”
Whether Hyeon-cheong was chattering next to him or not, Cheon-hwi opened the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps he held in his hand.
‘This is the same as the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps that I know.’
Cheon-hwi’s eyes gradually became sharper as he read the incantations that were similar to yet slightly different from the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps in the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion.
‘Was the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps stored in the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion separately interpreted after seeing this?’
Cheon-hwi’s head spun quickly.
The incantations, attainments, and whether it was the true copy or not.
He, who knew more thoroughly about the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps than anyone else in the current Mount Hua Sect, quickly read through the martial arts manual.
“…The current Jade Ring Wondrous Steps is what was restored by taking incantations from other footwork techniques…”
Hyeon-cheong, who had been continuously explaining, belatedly discovered Cheon-hwi deeply engrossed in the martial arts manual and closed his mouth.
‘Hoho, amazing. To think he has the concentration to already get so engrossed in the martial arts manual…’
He marveled and held a smile.
After that, he turned his body.
“I will have to come later.”
Having a conversation with Cheon-hwi was also important, but more than that, the existence of the Dark Fragrance Secret Cave must not be known to others.
‘Because this place is the essence of the Mount Hua Sect…’
Even if other martial arts manuals of the Mount Hua Sect were taken away, what was inside here could not be.
Because they were the martial arts that were the roots of the Mount Hua Sect.
‘Still, fortunately, since Cheon-hwi is showing interest in this place, he will be a help in restoring the martial arts manuals.’
Hyeon-cheong watched Cheon-hwi madly turning the pages of the book, holding a soft smile, and swept down his chest in relief.
It was more successful than he had thought.
For a moment, he turned his body and went back up the stairs he had come down.
Step… Step…
When about fifteen minutes had passed since Hyeon-cheong left like that, Cheon-hwi scrunched his eyes.
“What? It ends here?”
Flustered by the incantations being cut off in the middle, he furrowed his brow, flipped the martial arts manual over, and thoroughly examined the back.
But there were no more incantations.
“No wonder the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps that was in the Ten Thousand Scenery Pavilion was restored like that.”
Cheon-hwi severely criticized.
Of course, that criticism was not directed towards the Taoist who restored it, but towards the martial arts manual.
The true copy of the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps matched the incantations with what he knew, but it only had the first half, and the second half was mostly torn off.
Since the explanation and incantations of the most important Eight Trigrams of the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps had been lost.
It had no choice but to become a different martial art.
“Still, the Mount Hua Sect has good luck. If I hadn’t been reincarnated as a disciple of the Mount Hua Sect, restoring the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps would have been eternally impossible.”
Cheon-hwi puffed out his chest and spoke as if it was natural.
And his confidence like that was perhaps no different from a natural occurrence.
The current him possessed peerless martial arts the likes of which would not be found again even throughout all ages.
Furthermore, since he had even seen the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps deployed by the old woman, restoring its true form was easier than flipping the palm of his hand.
It was no different from heavenly luck for the Mount Hua Sect.
‘There’s no need to read this any further.’
Having confirmed that the martial arts manual in his hand was the Jade Ring Wondrous Steps, he lightly tossed it to the side.
After that, he glared at the martial arts manuals in front of him.
The Jade Ring Wondrous Steps was an outstanding footwork technique counted on one hand even among the footwork techniques he knew.
‘If even such a Jade Ring Wondrous Steps is in this place, the others would be similar.’
Cheon-hwi’s eyes curved like half-moons.
Looking at the worn and old books with an interested gaze, he felt his curiosity powerfully trigger for the first time in a long while.
Just what kind of martial arts manuals were they to have been kept separately in this underground space.
“Then shall I read them right away.”
Speaking, he immediately reached out, picked up a martial arts manual, and opened it.
After about two hours of devouring the martial arts manuals.
“…It’s a pretty decent finger technique?”
Cheon-hwi formed a satisfied smile.
The martial arts manual he held in his hand was in such a wretched state that the incantations were unrecognizable, but despite that, he could sufficiently tell that it was a high-level martial arts manual.
“It’s similar to the Soul Extinguishing Finger yet slightly different; is this an Orthodox Faction’s finger technique?”
Cheon-hwi, who was whispering, stroked his chin and then opened the martial arts manual again, looking at it.
Although there were quite a few incantations that were completely unrecognizable due to being torn in the middle, they were not a huge obstacle for him.
Like this.
Cheon-hwi stretched out his right index finger and loaded internal energy exactly as stated in the incantation in the martial arts manual.
Puk!
A flash of light pierced through the wall of the Dark Fragrance Secret Cave.
“…Only this much?”
Cheon-hwi wore a dissatisfied expression.
Only a very small hole was pierced in the wall of the Dark Fragrance Secret Cave, and compared to what was written in the martial arts manual, it was unbelievably trivial.
“It would be different if I restore the torn incantations.”
A competitive spirit lingered in Cheon-hwi’s eyes.
Following closely, he counted the number of martial arts manuals placed in front of him and nodded his head.
“…Fourteen.”
His eyebrows arched greatly as he whispered the number of martial arts manuals that needed to be restored.
“Hmm, two years should do it.”
The smiling Cheon-hwi spoke confidently.
However, he did not know.
That it would take exactly five years of time just to restore these fourteen martial arts manuals.
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