Chapter 58

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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**

The two of the Eight Eminences of Qingcheng who visited suddenly were on pins and needles, as if sitting on a bed of thorns.

“Um, so.”

“···.”

One taciturn man and one talkative man.

Although they were two contrasting people, both of them hesitated to speak in front of my master and me.

One through beating around the bush, the other simply by keeping his mouth shut.

Only Taoist Su-gyo, who sat behind them, was wearing a comfortable smile like a stone Buddha placed in a sacred area.

Then, finally, the swordsman, Immortal Cheong-in, opened his mouth resolutely.

“Young Hero Yeon of your noble sect gave great help to the unification of the Qingcheng Sect’s Blue Cloud Sunset Sword. That is what I mean.”

Although he spoke of great help, in reality, the anxiety bloomed on his face was none other than the worry that the formula of the sect’s secret transmission, the Blue Cloud Sunset Sword, might have leaked to another sect.

At Immortal Cheong-in’s words, my master nudged my side with his elbow. Then came the sound transmission.

[Is it true?]

[It is true that I gave help, but…]

[Exactly what did you say to them?]

[I said what came to mind. It was thanks to Taoist Su-gyo’s excellence that it was realized.]

[Explain in detail.]

Thus, I told him about the imagery of the atomic structure depicted by Qingyun and Chixia during the fierce battle with the Young Spirit Slayer, and about Taoist Su-gyo who realized it. Of course, as for the atomic structure, I explained it in easy words that could be understood.

“···The Chixia Sword, which has excessive Yang qi of a dispersing nature, was considered to be inherently unstable by birth. Therefore, I thought that a separate force for buffering and adhesion to weave such Yang-hard sword qi was needed. Seeing that once the Chixia Sword began to stabilize, the unification with the Qingyun Sword also proceeded smoothly…”

In other words, since what I said was a detailed explanation of the basic properties of Taoism, and furthermore, of the energies between heaven and earth,

in reality, it was something anyone could say.

It was just that I saw what others had not yet seen, based on the knowledge I knew.

‘Just as all physical discoveries are.’

There was no invention in martial arts.

There was only discovery.

The principles of martial arts that I discovered were things that the elders of the Nine Sects, who were well-versed in high-level martial arts, could not fail to understand, so…

When my words ended, Immortal Cheong-in looked at me with a somewhat moved face, and…

“We have received a favor. A favor that cannot be measured how to repay.”

Immortal Cheong-in, who had come out of anxiety that the sect’s secret transmission might have leaked, bowed his head instead.

“However… as you know, the imagery, intent, and management of internal energy that the Young Hero discovered concern the secret transmission of the Qingcheng Sect. I pray that you keep silent about it.”

At that sight, an auditory hallucination of someone flicking an abacus was heard next to me for a moment, and simultaneously,

“For free? When he provided decisive inspiration to restore a lost secret sword study?”

At my master’s words, Immortal Cheong-in’s face, which had seemed moved, crumpled all at once, and…

“Ugh. At a time like this, if you just let it pass quietly… No, that wouldn’t happen. There is no way Hye-song, who is sharp at calculations, would miss such an opportunity.”

Immortal Cheong-in, who smacked his lips bitterly, opened his mouth with a small sigh while looking at me.

“If a Taoist who has taken refuge in the Way of the Celestial Master receives a favor and pretends not to know it, he would suffer in the Ten Courts of Hell. If you truly need the power of Qingcheng in the future, if you state the three characters of your name, Yeon Baek-jung, we promise that the two of the Eight Eminences of Qingcheng will step forward for any matter.”

At Immortal Cheong-in’s words, a satisfied smile spread on my master’s face, and I quivered my lips to send a sound transmission to Immortal Cheong-in.

[I do not know what to do with myself for having a foolish master. Please understand.]

[…Even if your master is more vicious than a market merchant, this is the right thing. Because it is natural to repay a favor.]

At that moment, Immortal Cheong-song, the Silent Night, who had kept his mouth shut throughout, opened his mouth for the first time.

“I have something I am curious about.”

What the question of him, who opened his mouth for the first time, would be.

I put my gaze on his mouth while being slightly tense for a moment.

And.

“Have you practiced the sword?”

When I shook my head, the face of the taciturn Immortal Cheong-song, the Silent Night, distorted. To the extent that it made me wonder if he had seen something he shouldn’t have seen.

I was bewildered for a moment, but soon his expression relaxed, and…

“Even so, you imagined the scene of the moment they would be unified just by looking at the incomplete Blue Cloud Sunset Sword? How is that possible?”

The question of a taciturn person possessed weight in itself.

However, since it was merely a moment where I babbled whatever came to mind, I had no choice but to speak like this.

“I merely spoke to Taoist Su-gyo as it was visible and as it came to mind. Realizing it was Taoist Su-gyo’s talent.”

At my answer, a smile suddenly seemed to flicker on his taciturn face.

“To see the lost martial art of another sect and recall its complete form?”

Beside the sighing Immortal Cheong-song, Immortal Cheong-in muttered softly.

“It is the talent of a grandmaster.”

Then, Cheong-song opened his mouth.

“Are you interested in the sword?”

I was about to shake my head at Cheong-song’s question but paused for a moment.

‘Come to think of it.’

What I felt while reviewing the water art cultivation of the Great Sage Who Overturns Seas.

I thought that it wouldn’t be bad to master at least one weapon technique like sword art. And what arose in my mind again was an incomplete sword study that I had seen when I visited the Wudang Sect’s Mysterious Heaven Pavilion to create the Primal Chaos Tai Chi Art.

‘Was it called the Tai Chi Sword Manual?’

I thought that if I could execute unarmed close combat like a sword art, facing water qi harboring sharp qi would be far easier, so…

“I am interested.”

When I replied, Cheong-song uncrossed his arms and replied.

“Wudang Sect. Although the Five Sword Arts of Daoism are unmatched under heaven, the more the better. In the future, when the Five Sword Arts become the Six Sword Arts, the day will come for our Qingcheng to repay the favor received today. Come find us when you need it. The essence of a thousand years of Qingcheng martial arts will be of help.”

It was a saying meaning ‘Since you gave help to our sect’s secret transmission, we will also give you help,’ and at the same time, it amounted to saying let us share each other’s visions.

At Cheong-song’s words, I nodded.

Sharing secret absolute arts among prestigious righteous sects was a rare thing, but it was not entirely nonexistent either.

To the extent that there was a saying that in the far past, when a sect called the Jongnam Sect of the Quanzhen School lineage existed, they exchanged martial arts even with the Mount Heng Sect or Mount Hua Sect.

“Yes. I will come to visit in the future when needed.”

As a small piece of advice remained as a great promise,

a satisfied smile spread on my master’s face and on mine as well.

In addition, the thought that arose in my mind like a wildfire was:

‘Sword art.’

It was an interest in a new martial study.

**

“You’re asking me to teach you sword art?”

“Yes.”

At his disciple’s request, Immortal Gangwon was not a little flustered.

“Hadn’t you been concentrating on unarmed close combat?”

“I realized it while facing the Great Sage Who Overturns Seas this time. I thought that if I had mastered a weapon technique like sword art, it would have been easier to face him.”

The reason Immortal Hye-won struggled was also because the compatibility of their martial arts was not good. The water art cultivation utilizing river water seemed to have bad compatibility with the internal heavy strikes method.

It was because he had obtained the True Formula of Thunder of the Four Symbols Wind and Thunder Palm that they could be safe; a slight slip and they might have almost lost Immortal Hye-won. It would have been a great loss to Yeon Baek-jung personally and to the Wudang Sect. Yeon Baek-jung wanted to prevent such a crisis.

In addition, the reason why he said such a thing to his master,

It was because the signature technique of his master, Immortal Gangwon, was sword art.

“Initiation into the Two Polarities Patterned Sword is not something possible overnight. If you ask me to teach you such a thing here in Shaolin, which is not even the Wudang Sect, it is difficult to give proper guidance.”

At Immortal Gangwon’s words, Yeon Baek-jung nodded and replied.

“I know. I am not asking you to teach me the Two Polarities Patterned Sword.”

“Then?”

“Please tell me about the Tai Chi Sword Manual that I saw at the Mysterious Heaven Pavilion’s Wonseong Repository some time ago.”

“The Tai Chi Sword Manual?!”

Immortal Gangwon was one who had frequented the Wonseong Repository like his own home.

It was a sword art he knew well. Above all, it was because it was the martial art that his master, the Sword Immortal, Immortal Jin-cheon, was creating.

Not being ignorant of his master’s efforts to create the sword art of the Primal Chaos of One Qi and the Limitless of One Origin, he had also looked into that sword art diligently, but…

“The Tai Chi Sword Manual is too abstruse. Above all, even the routines and force-release formulas are not properly established. There was no internal cultivation to serve as a foundation either. It is a sword art where only intent and imagery exist. There is nothing to teach or not.”

At Gangwon’s answer, Yeon Baek-jung wore a smile, as if it was rather a good thing.

“If there is a lot of blank space, it will be easier to draw a picture.”

His disciple was always like this.

He found and supplemented the insufficient or lacking parts of the sect’s martial studies like a ghost.

Every single martial art that Yeon Baek-jung touched showed a more advanced appearance than before, so…

It was Yeon Baek-jung who transformed Tai Chi Chuan, one of the introductory martial arts, into a high-level martial study. That was not all.

‘Such as adjusting the formula of the Flowing Cloud Movement Skill to increase speed.’

He reborn the incomplete Primal Chaos One Qi Art as the Primal Chaos Tai Chi Art. Thanks to that, the qi accumulation speed of the disciples currently belonging to the Greedy Wolf Unit was uniquely fast among the other Seven Stars Units. It was also thanks to the Primal Chaos Tai Chi Art created by his disciple that Yi Chae-yang, who had left on a mission some time ago, and Myeong-hun, who had returned from a mission, reached the Elixir Condensation Stage from the Resonance Stage.

Above all, he had even stored Grandmaster Sanfeng’s true signature absolute art in his body. No limit was visible in his disciple’s vessel. If one subtracted water from the sea, what remained would be his disciple’s vessel.

Without hesitation, Gangwon recited the formula entangled with the imagery and intent of the Tai Chi Sword Manual.

Of course, he did not think that his disciple would be able to create something immediately upon hearing that…

“Um. So when facing a heavy sword, avoid the point of action and shake the fulcrum to deflect the attack and change direction? When facing a rapid sword, the routine is mostly straight lines. Predict the point of impact and shake the fulcrum. Although the answer for a phantom sword has not come out, if I do it this way…”

…With a premonition that his own thought might go wrong, Gangwon silently guarded his disciple’s side.

‘Perhaps.’

A hope that the one to complete the incomplete Tai Chi Sword Manual might be his disciple could not help but arise. Furthermore, since the young disciple had already achieved a similar feat once before.

Although Immortal Gangwon tried to discard his expectant heart due to what happened in his childhood, it was not easy to calm his heart.

**

There were five sword studies representing the Wudang Sect.

Two Polarities Patterned.

Three Absolutes Desolate.

Four Symbols Flowing.

Seven Stars Flying.

Nine Palaces Shadow.

The Nine Palaces Shadow Sword was secretive yet flashy, and the Seven Stars Flying Sword was light and rapid. The Four Symbols Flowing Sword was soft yet continuous, and the Three Absolutes Desolate Sword harbored a practical and fierce momentum. The last one, the Two Polarities Patterned Sword, was known as the most mysterious sword art in the Jianghu, so the sword studies representing the Wudang Sect all possessed different characteristics, allowing disciples to select and learn the sword art that suited them individually.

It was one of the reasons why the Wudang Sect expanded its influence rapidly.

The existence of diverse sword studies where a disciple did not adapt to the martial art, but could select and master the martial art that suited them.

These sword arts, called the Five Sword Arts of Daoism, were sword arts completed through the efforts of Grandmaster Sanfeng, the Sword Sage, Immortal Jin-cheon, and various elders afterward.

As such, the original sword manuals that served as prototypes also existed.

The sword manuals seen on the shelves of the Mysterious Heaven Pavilion’s Wonseong Repository, where I went some time ago to create the Primal Chaos Tai Chi Art, were precisely such things.

And there was an incomplete sword manual plugged in along with the manuals of the Five Sword Arts, and the name written on the cover of that book was none other than:

‘Tai Chi Sword Manual.’

Receiving the transmission of the Tai Chi Sword Manual from my master was a very appropriate choice.

Why?

Because, as could be inferred from the name, the Tai Chi Sword Manual was a sword art created based on Tai Chi Chuan.

Since I was proud that there was no one better versed in Tai Chi Chuan than me within the Wudang Sect, the initial process of learning was smooth.

Like Tai Chi Chuan, the profound meanings (Oui) of the Tai Chi Sword Manual were three.

Striking Second to Control First.

Softness Overcomes Hardness.

Deflecting a Thousand Catties with Four Ounces.

All of them were principles of martial studies attached to my body through Tai Chi Chuan.

However, the problem was that the Tai Chi Sword Manual itself was still an incomplete manual, so clear routines, stances, and force-release formulas were not completed.

‘Because the force-release and routine of a fist art could not be applied to a sword art.’

Above all, the internal energy to serve as the foundation for the Tai Chi Sword Manual was the Primal Chaos of One Qi.

In other words, it was undivided, non-action internal energy.

Until now, there was no internal cultivation based on the Primal Chaos of One Qi within the Wudang Sect. Until the existence of the Primal Chaos Tai Chi Art, created through the realizations left by one of the Eight Disciples of Sanfeng, Immortal Jinheo.

‘Then, first.’

T

It was time to organize the force-release formulas that had not been clearly organized until now.