“Taoist Cheongmu had been waiting because he knew I was going out on the campaign. He told me that if I happened to run into you during the expedition, I was to ask when you’d be coming back.”
Only after hearing Seokjangsan’s answer did Kwak Yeon finally relax.
His heart ached at the thought that Taoist Cheongmu might be staring at Blue Cloud Bridge every day, waiting for him to return.
He wanted to run to Samryeong Peak that very instant, but he could not. He still had not accomplished anything.
To go back to Samryeong Peak now would be to carry nothing but sorrow with him.
Seeing the desolate look on Kwak Yeon’s face, Seokjangsan changed the subject.
“But I still don’t know how Taoist Cheongmu found out I was heading out on the campaign.”
Pulled out of the swirl of his emotions, Kwak Yeon asked,
“Jangsan, did you tell Taoist Hyeonhae you were leaving with the expedition?”
“Of course I did. I was going to miss the scripture lectures for a while because of it.”
“That’s how Taoist Cheongmu found out.”
“Hm?”
“Taoist Cheongmu has incredibly sharp hearing. If he happened to be sweeping the courtyard outside the lecture hall then, he definitely heard what you were saying.”
Seokjangsan stared at him in shock.
“That’s really true?”
It truly was astonishing—to hear conversations being held inside a room while sweeping the yard outside.
“It is. Taoist Cheongmu once told me that if he put his mind to it, he could hear any sound made anywhere in Samryeong Palace.”
“Good lord. That’s practically the Heavenly Ear!”
Clicking his tongue, Seokjangsan nodded to himself.
“Well, of course. No one would’ve called him the Wudang Sect’s once-in-a-thousand-years prodigy, the New Dragon of Wudang, for nothing.”
“Taoist Cheongmu was called the New Dragon of Wudang?”
At Kwak Yeon’s question, Seokjangsan stared back in surprise.
“Kwak Yeon—no, Martial Uncle Kwak—you lived with Taoist Cheongmu for years, and you didn’t know that?”
Kwak Yeon’s face flushed on its own.
“Taoist Cheongmu doesn’t remember anything from the past. And Samryeong Palace is so secluded there was never anyone there for me to hear it from.”
After even Sage Taoist had come down the mountain, the Taoist shrine had been left with only three people in it, himself included.
Later, a few young boys had been taken in as probationary disciples, which had livened the place up, but there was no way those children would know anything of Taoist Cheongmu’s past.
“That would do it.”
Seokjangsan had heard enough about the standing of Samryeong Palace to understand, so he nodded readily.
“Jangsan, do you know anything about Taoist Cheongmu?”
Kwak Yeon did not ask only because he felt sorry for realizing how little he knew about Taoist Cheongmu, who was one of his own household.
The moment he heard that enormous epithet—New Dragon of Wudang—something like an intuition had struck him.
“I’ve only heard bits and pieces myself.”
“Tell me everything you heard.”
“As you can tell from the epithet New Dragon of Wudang, Taoist Cheongmu was the most promising disciple not just in Jaso Palace, but in all of Mount Wudang. Even my own Palace Lord and martial grandmaster would lament it from time to time.”
“......”
“They’d say Wudang had lost the surest candidate to become the next Wudang Sword Sovereign after the Supreme Patriarch.”
Kwak Yeon had already guessed Taoist Cheongmu must once have been a prodigy from seeing the martial arts he unconsciously displayed.
But to think he had been the surest candidate for the next Wudang Sword Sovereign.
Wudang Sword Sovereign.
Only absolute masters who had reached the Entrance-to-Divinity Realm were given the honorific Sovereign in their epithets.
For all of Wudang’s elders to have been certain Taoist Cheongmu would one day reach the Entrance-to-Divinity Realm—
Just how terrifying a prodigy had Taoist Cheongmu been?
“Jangsan, have you ever heard what exactly went wrong with Taoist Cheongmu?”
“I heard Taoist Cheongmu fell into deviation.”
“......”
So, just as he had suspected, deviation really had been named as the cause.
“But there was one strange rumor too.”
Kwak Yeon’s eyes widened slightly.
“What strange rumor?”
“I once heard there was talk that Senior Uncle Hyeonjin, Taoist Cheongmu’s master, destroyed his own inner power. People wondered if it had something to do with Taoist Cheongmu falling into deviation...”
Seokjangsan did not finish and shook his head hard.
“It’s such an absurd story that no one really believes it. But you wanted to hear anything about Taoist Cheongmu, so I’m telling you.”
“Why did that rumor start—that Senior Uncle Hyeonjin destroyed his own inner power?”
“I heard it was because Senior Uncle Hyeonjin entered Wind-and-Cloud Cave in Demon-Restraining Valley long ago and never moved from there.”
“Couldn’t that just mean he went into long seclusion to train?”
“It could.”
Seokjangsan nodded and went on.
“But because it was Demon-Restraining Valley, rumors like that started.”
“Why Demon-Restraining Valley?”
“I heard Demon-Restraining Valley used to be called Immortal-Wandering Valley. Back during the great turmoil, captured demonic masters were once imprisoned there, and that’s how the name got changed.”
In other words, Demon-Restraining Valley was the sort of place criminals were locked away in, like a dungeon, so the rumor had grown more lurid than it should have.
People had begun to suspect that Senior Uncle Hyeonjin had entered it to face the wall as a way of asking judgment upon himself.
Rumors really do twist themselves into monstrous shapes. Senior Uncle Hyeonjin must simply have gone into seclusion, heartbroken over what happened to his cherished disciple, and yet even that became the seed of such a vicious tale.
As he lamented that, Kwak Yeon suddenly jolted.
Something about what Uncheon Zhenren had told him—the absence of a successor-apparent to the Sword of Wudang—and the story of Senior Uncle Hyeonjin destroying his inner power had connected in a strange way.
Kwak Yeon carefully asked Seokjangsan,
“Jangsan... Senior Uncle Hyeonjin wasn’t the Sword of Wudang’s successor-apparent, was he?”
“What? Martial Uncle Kwak, how did you know that?”
THUMP!
The shock hit Kwak Yeon like a blow to the heart.
It was not because his guess had been right.
It was because Senior Uncle Hyeonjin, Taoist Cheongmu’s master, destroying his own inner power had now become linked to Taoist Cheongmu’s deviation.
Which meant what had happened to Taoist Cheongmu had not been an ordinary incident.
What in the world happened to Taoist Cheongmu?
Then, into his whirling thoughts, came the story Taoist Hyeonhae had told him—that before the Supreme Patriarch left Mount Wudang, he had brought Taoist Cheongmu to Samryeong Palace.
Then was the reason the Supreme Patriarch left Mount Wudang to investigate the evil aura hanging over the world because of what happened to Taoist Cheongmu?
The question had barely formed before instinct told him the answer was yes.
THUMP!
The fact that an incident tied to the evil aura disturbing the world had happened on Mount Wudang itself—and around Taoist Cheongmu, no less—struck his heart like a second blow.
Without knowing the full beginning and end of that incident, no amount of thought could carry his deductions any further than that.
It was obvious the Supreme Patriarch had sealed the matter completely because it was far too grave.
That was why all of Mount Wudang believed Taoist Cheongmu had simply fallen into deviation.
Wait. That means Taoist Cheongmu didn’t end up like this because of deviation at all. Then there must be a way to heal him.
Kwak Yeon’s heart began to pound.
There was now one more reason he had to meet the Supreme Patriarch.
HOOO...
After taking a deep breath, Kwak Yeon finally heard Seokjangsan ask, having watched in silence until then,
“Martial Uncle Kwak, if you stayed only at Samryeong Palace, how do you know about the Sword of Wudang’s successor-apparent?”
“Jangsan, I used to go in and out of the True Martial Hall too.”
“Ah! So that’s where you heard it.”
“Yeah. I happened to remember hearing it in passing back then, so I asked.”
Until Uncheon Zhenren announced it publicly, Kwak Yeon could not tell even Seokjangsan that he himself had been named the Sword of Wudang’s successor-apparent.
“Ah, a lot of time’s passed.”
Perhaps because he felt sorry, Kwak Yeon’s voice came out louder than it needed to.
“It has.”
“Jangsan, how about we all work up a sweat together for the first time in a while?”
“Hm?”
“You all can’t go back dead drunk just because Senior Brother Hyeonam gave permission. Your masters and senior brothers definitely won’t look kindly on that sight.”
“That’s true.”
“So let’s train together while we sober up.”
“......!”
Seokjangsan flinched at that word—together.
Martial artists whose realms were far apart did not train side by side. There was no way to do it, and it would look ridiculous even if they tried.
Which meant the real meaning of those words was—
“Martial Uncle Kwak... you’re going to instruct us in martial arts!”
“How would someone like me, who’s never taught anyone a day in his life, be giving instruction in martial arts?”
“Then don’t tell me...”
“I happened to come across one martial art, and it turned out to be fairly useful.”
“......So you’re saying you’re going to teach that martial art to us?”
“Jangsan, maybe that would be overstepping on my part. If your masters find out, all of you might get chewed out. So maybe I should just forget—”
“No! Absolutely not—”
Seokjangsan hurriedly waved both hands and cut him off.
“It’s completely normal for a martial uncle to teach martial techniques to martial nephews he favors. There’s absolutely no need to get a master’s permission for something like that.”
Watching Seokjangsan fluster in a way that hardly suited him, Kwak Yeon grinned.
“Jangsan, you really are a martial artist to the bone.”
“Martial Uncle Kwak, you...”
“If everyone isn’t back here within half a quarter-hour, I really will pretend this never happened.”
At those words, Seokjangsan realized Kwak Yeon had made the joke only to ease his burden, and he smiled.
“Martial Uncle Kwak, don’t worry. I’ll drag them here by the ears if I have to.”
CLATTER!
Watching Seokjangsan dash back into the hall of the detached annex, Kwak Yeon smiled bitterly.
Faced with a danger this great, one he could not stop his classmates from walking into, there was only one thing he could do for them right now, no matter how hard he thought on it.
Kwak Yeon planned to simplify Falling Star Myriad Transformations, the first sword form of the Falling Star Nine Swords, and teach that to them.
There was no taboo in the secret manual itself forbidding it from being passed on to outsiders, and he was not intending to hand over the entire first sword form anyway.
Besides, he meant to teach it according to his own interpretation.
At that point, it would count as a completely different martial art.
In any case, even a simplified Falling Star Myriad Transformations would, he thought, be more than effective enough as a lifesaving move.
And thanks to the simplification, it ought to be easier to learn as well.
The red dispatch in his grasp trembled with it.
His gaze was nailed to the red dispatch.
Only when the trembling finally ceased did his eyes break free from it and turn toward one corner of the great hall.
“Hidden Shadow, if I were to ask your opinion, you would answer again that a mere errand-runner like you does not think, would you not?”
“That is so, my lord. I truly do not think.”
Baek Ri-gi looked with cold eyes toward the wavering darkness in one corner of the great hall and said,
“It would be more accurate to say not that you do not think, but that you conceal your thoughts.”
“...Either way, the result is the same.”
“No. What exists and what does not can never be the same.”
“My lord, no matter how you circle around it, you will not hear my opinion.”
“Hidden Shadow, you truly are cruel.”
A shadow fell across Baek Ri-gi’s face.
“For over a decade now, you have done nothing but watch as I make every decision alone.”
“You are the one who chose the path of making those decisions alone, my lord.”
“That’s true. I could not drag anyone else into a pit of sin like this.”
Baek Ri-gi nodded, a bitter smile touching the corner of his mouth.
“I have been curious for a long time, yet never dared ask. But today, I cannot let it pass.”
“...?”
“Does your lord also make decisions alone, as I do?”
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