What Kwak Yeon saw when he opened his eyes was a high ceiling.
“......!”
At the cold chill, Kwak Yeon realized he was lying on the floor of the sealed room.
The harsh memories from before he had lost consciousness naturally returned to him, and the first thing Kwak Yeon wondered was what state his body was in now.
WOOOOONG!
When he performed qi circulation, the inner power and true qi surging up from his dantian raced unhindered through the major points of his entire body. Astonishingly, outer spheres also rose from each meridian point and strengthened his inner power and true qi.
I’m certain the outer spheres in my meridian points were shattered to pieces and vanished......
On top of that, the black energy that had been clinging to his meridian points was gone as cleanly as if it had been washed away.
“......!”
Kwak Yeon could tell that while he had been unconscious, the Martial Supreme Venerable had burned away the black energies with Kwak Yeon’s own true qi.
That was not the only grace the Martial Supreme Venerable had bestowed upon him.
He had suffered more than a few wounds to his chest, back, and elsewhere from the Martial Supreme Venerable’s sword-shapes, yet he felt no pain at all.
Even the martial robes he was wearing were new.
Ah!
When Kwak Yeon realized that Martial Alliance Leader, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak, had already prepared both a change of martial robes and medicine for blade wounds, his chest swelled.
“Have you come to?”
At the Martial Supreme Venerable’s voice, Kwak Yeon quickly sat up.
About three zhang away, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak sat cross-legged with his back turned to him.
Kwak Yeon rose from where he was, straightened his appearance, and said, “I, this humble one, will offer a deep bow to thank you for your grace as vast as the sea, Alliance Leader.”
“There is nothing to thank me for.”
“......?”
Still with his back to Kwak Yeon, the Martial Supreme Venerable continued.
“I did it at the Sword’s request.”
The Sword.
How could Kwak Yeon not know that meant Sword of Wudang Uncheon Zhenren?
A corner of Kwak Yeon’s heart ached, and he lowered his head.
“Even so, I do not think that lessens your grace, Alliance Leader.”
“That fellow really does have a way of leaving me with regrets to the very end.”
The words were incomprehensible from Kwak Yeon’s perspective.
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak turned around while still seated cross-legged.
Sssss.
It was a wondrous floating-cloud lightness method that lightly lifted his body with true qi alone, but Kwak Yeon was not especially surprised, since he already knew the Martial Supreme Venerable’s supreme realm.
Thud.
When the Martial Supreme Venerable settled into a proper seated posture facing him, Kwak Yeon immediately offered a deep bow with all five points of his body touching the floor.
“For the profound grace you have shown me, Alliance Leader, I, Kwak, thank you from the depths of my heart.”
To Kwak Yeon, prostrated with his whole body to the floor, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak said, “Chief Secretary Kwak, stop that and sit up.”
When Kwak Yeon raised himself and sat kneeling, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak frowned.
“Sit comfortably. You are not a criminal...... Tsk.”
“I was unaware of myself, but I behaved disrespectfully toward you, Alliance Leader.”
“This seat induced that in order to draw out every bit of the inner demon within you. Pay it no mind.”
“......!”
Only then did Kwak Yeon realize that the black energy clinging to his meridian points had been the inner demon.
Because he had never learned systematically from a martial-arts master, he had only vaguely thought of an inner demon as a kind of mental state that disturbed the mind.
“Stop being stubborn and sit properly at once. I will get scolded by the Sword for laying hands carelessly on another house’s main beam.”
Kwak Yeon sensed the thorn hidden inside the phrase “another house’s main beam.”
He was certain the Martial Supreme Venerable was saying it because he knew Kwak Yeon was successor-apparent to the Sword of Wudang.
When Kwak Yeon had no choice but to adjust his posture and sit, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak said, “In truth, this matter was also my personal way of repaying a small debt to Wudang. So do not feel too great a burden toward this seat.”
Kwak Yeon did not dare ask what debt the Martial Supreme Venerable owed Wudang, so he quietly listened.
“And though this seat has subdued most of the inner demon inside you, I could not pull it out by the roots. It was an inner demon you had accumulated for far too long, so its source ran deep.”
“.......”
“From now on, you must govern and suppress it yourself. The inner demon remaining within you is only residue, so if you cultivate your heart and repel it, that will be enough. Still, keep in mind that the most proper way to remove an inner demon is to eliminate its source.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak looked at Kwak Yeon for a moment and said, “Your achievement is high, and you have even learned the Taoist-immortal path, so it should not be difficult for you to understand what this seat’s words mean.”
Kwak Yeon had a vague sense of it, so he lowered his head and replied, “I will keep it in mind and endure the awakening suffering.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak spoke with a satisfied expression.
“This is a digression, but you were wearing something around your neck.”
When Kwak Yeon flinched, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak continued.
“It was wrapped up tightly, so I only asked because I thought there must be some story behind it. However lacking in discretion this seat may be, do you think I would have opened it without its owner’s permission?”
Deeply ashamed, Kwak Yeon lowered his head.
“I apologize.”
“If you apologize, then tell me what the story is. Of course, if it is difficult to speak of, you need not.”
It was certainly strange for a man to go around wearing a necklace—especially one with an object wrapped tightly in cloth hanging from it.
“Alliance Leader, it is not especially difficult to explain. I carry it because an elder I met at the training ground on Mount Wudang asked me to deliver it to someone.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak narrowed his eyes.
“Is that someone the Sword Sovereign?”
“......!”
“So it is the Sword Sovereign after all.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak nodded and continued.
“I felt Manifested Aura from it, so I suspected it was no ordinary object.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak did not bother mentioning the strange thing he had experienced when he had poured true qi into Kwak Yeon to remove his inner demon.
“In any case, thank you for telling me. If the Sword Sovereign is its owner, then it will not be some wicked object.”
Kwak Yeon was awed by the fact that the Martial Supreme Venerable had recognized the energy of the flame-patterned jade tablet. He was also grateful that despite that, he had not opened it.
Amid that, curiosity abruptly welled up in him.
Since the Supreme Patriarch had just come up, he gathered his courage.
“Alliance Leader, I know it is presumptuous, but may I ask one thing?”
“Ask.”
“I, this humble one, once saw the eight words, ‘When the heart and body are bright, even in darkness, one sees the blue sky,’ on the foundation stone of Yueyang Tower.”
“.......”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak looked at Kwak Yeon for a moment before speaking.
“You went all the way to Yueyang Tower and deliberately searched among its countless foundation stones beneath it. Does that mean you knew in advance that it was the Sword Sovereign’s handwriting?”
“Yes.”
“Huh. So that was why you found your whole mind again at the final moment.”
“......!”
At the words “final moment,” Kwak Yeon’s heart sank.
Seeing Kwak Yeon’s stiff expression, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak asked, “Why? Are you surprised I called it your final moment?”
“I was surprised because I cannot believe it.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak spoke calmly.
“It truly was your final moment. If you had not recalled that eight-word maxim then, those martial robes would have become your burial clothes.”
When Kwak Yeon’s face hardened even more, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak said, “If you had surrendered your dantian to the inner demon, you would have lived the rest of your life as a demon crazed with slaughter. Of course, judging by your nature, someday you would have overcome the inner demon. And then you would have seen the blood flowing thickly along the path you had walked, and the corpses piled high upon it.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak glared at Kwak Yeon and asked, “Would you truly have been able to bear that?”
“......No.”
“Do you resent this seat and the Sword for being heartless?”
Kwak Yeon lowered his head.
“I would have done the same.”
“The Sword judged you correctly.”
Seeing that Kwak Yeon had not the slightest hesitation, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak nodded, then continued.
“In any case, the Sword Sovereign’s mind-purification doctrinal words saved your life. The saying that one bond gives rise to the next without end is not wrong.”
The Martial Supreme Venerable stopped speaking for a moment and closed his eyes.
A heavy silence settled inside the sealed room.
Kwak Yeon knew that at the end of this silence, there would be an explanation of the unbroken chain of bonds the Martial Supreme Venerable had just mentioned, so he waited quietly.
“Perhaps it was inevitable that this seat would be tied to you by such a bond.”
At last, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak opened his mouth.
“There was once a man who walked a path similar to yours.”
“......!”
Kwak Yeon knew that the man was the Martial Supreme Venerable himself.
“Unlike you, however, that man had no sect. Therefore, he had no proper master as you did. Even so, that man somehow managed to stand before the wall.”
Kwak Yeon thought of an indomitable man who had reached the supreme realm by clashing against all under heaven with nothing but a single sword, and his heart pounded.
“That man was a venomous one under heaven. Which is to say, he was a man with sharp corners. And the world does not welcome people with sharp corners.”
Kwak Yeon readily accepted that, for he himself had personally experienced such worldly sentiment.
“Naturally, countless grudges had piled up behind that man, and in the end, they seized his ankle as he tried to climb the wall and would not let go.”
Kwak Yeon could tell that the Martial Supreme Venerable’s teaching—that one should clean up one’s surroundings before climbing the wall—had come from his own experience.
“At that time, that man met two friends. Those two friends had climbed the wall long before him, and because they reached out their hands, that man was finally able to climb it.”
“......!”
Kwak Yeon’s eyes widened with a start, and Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak nodded.
“That is right. One of those friends was the Sword Sovereign.”
Kwak Yeon realized that Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak, too, had narrowly survived in circumstances much like his own.
That was why he had spoken of one bond giving rise to the next without end.
“Climbing the wall does not mean that man’s past wrongs disappeared. So the two friends advised him to take charge of the affairs of the martial world and wash away his past wrongs that way.”
How could Kwak Yeon not know that those affairs of the martial world meant the position of Martial Alliance Leader?
Kwak Yeon could understand why the Martial Supreme Venerable, despite being a Venerable, had remained bound to the post of Martial Alliance Leader.
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak asked Kwak Yeon, “Does that answer your question?”
Kwak Yeon quietly lowered his head and replied, “It does.”
Kwak Yeon could also understand, to some extent, the Martial Supreme Venerable’s heart in referring to himself as “that man.”
After all, was this not a past that could not easily be revealed to others?
“And thank you.”
“Well now. Having said it aloud, it sounds terribly sly. It was obviously my own story, yet I spoke as if it were someone else’s.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak gave a bitter smile and continued.
“It seems I still have not fixed an old habit, and my competitive spirit toward those two friends has stirred.”
Kwak Yeon felt something human in the Martial Supreme Venerable’s honest grumbling.
He had seemed like an iron wall. Even so, Kwak Yeon’s awe toward him did not lessen.
“You must also understand what I meant when I said I had repaid a small debt to Wudang.”
“Yes.”
After looking at Kwak Yeon for a moment, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak suddenly grimaced.
“Since I myself spat out the words that one bond gives rise to the next without end, I cannot take them back. Chief Secretary Kwak, open your ears and listen.”
Kwak Yeon knew the Martial Supreme Venerable was about to bestow a teaching, so he hastily lowered his head.
“Alliance Leader, I cannot receive it. The grace you have shown me thus far is already more than I can bear.”
“This seat is already sick at heart to think I am about to gild another house’s main beam. And if I am to say a word to the Sword Sovereign someday when I meet him, Chief Secretary Kwak, you must not refuse.”
When the Martial Supreme Venerable repeatedly mentioned another house’s main beam, Kwak Yeon realized that he regarded him with particular care.
Thinking that the Martial Supreme Venerable felt a sense of shared suffering because Kwak Yeon himself stood alone without support, Kwak Yeon bowed deeply.
“In that case, I will dare to receive your teaching.”
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