Chapter 121: The Age of the Young (6)

How much time had passed?

Everything before her eyes was dark.

The sun seemed to have set.

Soyak slowly pushed herself upright.

Someone was holding her hand and helping her sit up.

“Mm, thank y—”

Before she could finish, a cough burst out of her.

COUGH, COUGH.

Only after she coughed again and again, hard enough that it felt as if her body would break apart, did her condition finally begin to settle.

“Stay still.”

It was a voice she had never heard before.

When she turned her head, something wavered in her blurred vision.

It seemed a candle had been lit.

She could tell for certain that she was somewhere dark, but...

She had already lost consciousness back at the Zhuge Household, so she had no idea where she was.

“Who... are you?”

“Do not worry, Soyak.”

“Ah, Grand Master...”

Only then did she hear Grand Master Jeonggang’s voice.

She also realized who had taken her hand.

This bony hand, covered in wrinkles, was his.

“Yes. Are you awake?”

“How did I...”

Soyak found the answer in that hand.

She could no longer feel any powerful presence from it.

It was clearly the same size, the same warmth, the same touch, and yet...

There was no longer any unfathomable strength in his grip.

“Don’t tell me...”

“It is all right, Soyak. It is all right. How is your body?”

Soyak closed her mouth and lowered her head.

This was a debt she could not repay.

She had thought there were only enemies in life she could never fully repay.

And even those enemies beyond repayment, she had lived in order to repay.

But now...

She had received a grace she could never return.

One so great she could not even begin to guess how she was supposed to repay it.

“...Please explain. I’m certain that I...”

Soyak’s pupils trembled.

Grand Master Jeonggang merely held her hand.

The explanation was the Medicine Sage’s responsibility.

“...I can explain, but you must never tell anyone that this happened. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

A method existed to sacrifice another person and restore one’s own Innate True Qi?

People would do anything to seize that secret art.

Especially martial artists of the unorthodox factions and the Demonic Cult.

There was a reason the Medicine Sage had never performed this secret art for anyone, though he had created it when he was young.

The consequences would be too difficult to bear.

What would happen if warriors of the Demonic Cult or the unorthodox factions bought slaves in droves and absorbed them into their own power?

The martial artists of the righteous factions would not, for the most part, commit such atrocities, but...

The gap in strength would widen, and without using such forbidden secret arts themselves, they would no longer be able to defeat the masters of the unorthodox factions and the Demonic Cult.

The entire martial world would surely race toward an ending where humanity itself was lost.

Even this time, he had revealed and used the secret art only because the other party was Grand Master Jeonggang, his closest friend and old acquaintance.

Even Namgung Byeok, who could claim to have known him for many years, had not known of it.

“Good. I will trust that you will tell no one.”

“...Thank you.”

Soyak squeezed Grand Master Jeonggang’s hand tightly.

It was no longer the hand of a martial artist, but of an old man.

A man who, perhaps in a month, would not even be able to wear the sword at his waist because his back would ache.

“I transferred Grand Master Jeonggang’s Innate True Qi and all of his internal energy into you.”

“...Ah.”

She had expected it.

She had feared it might be so.

And yet...

She had thought surely it could not truly be.

She could perhaps understand his internal energy, but she had never imagined he would give her even his Innate True Qi.

Only then did everything make sense.

Why the black snake had said nothing much to her after seeing the stars in the night sky of her mindscape.

Why the black qilin had swollen until it was as massive as the black snake’s head.

It was because the full power of Jeonggang, the Mount Hua Sword Emperor and an absolute powerhouse of the Central Plains martial world, now resided in her body.

What was more, both Grand Master Jeonggang and Soyak had learned Mount Hua’s martial arts, so the efficiency of the cross-body power transfer had been high.

“At the very least, you should have reached the far edge of Transcendent Apex. Your immediate task now will be to ascend to the Transformation Realm.”

Grand Master Jeonggang spoke calmly.

Then he quietly stroked Soyak’s head.

“...I’m sorry.”

That was all Soyak could say.

Not thank you, but I’m sorry.

She had not simply received the grace of having her life saved.

She had inherited his life and every accomplishment he had achieved across his entire lifetime.

“There is nothing for you to be sorry about.”

“But...”

“I made the decision, Soyak. And if I had not seen possibility in you, I likely would not have done it. What I am saying is that I am not someone of such great character or virtue.”

Grand Master Jeonggang began speaking his true thoughts in an even tone.

After letting out one deep sigh, he looked steadily at Soyak.

“You said you made a promise with Eunsong, did you not? To kill the Alliance Leader, the Sword Sovereign Namgung Ak.”

“...Yes.”

“Will you make that promise with me as well?”

He surely knew there was little meaning in making the same promise twice.

Even so, Grand Master Jeonggang asked Soyak for that vow.

Soyak quietly nodded.

“How could I not?”

“Thank you.”

But by this point, she could not help but wonder.

She had watched her parents burn alive, then buried their headless bodies and sworn vengeance.

Eunsong had lost the woman he loved and sworn vengeance.

Then what grudge did Grand Master Jeonggang carry?

What hatred could make him hand over everything he had built across sixty years of life, and even that life itself, to a single young blade meant to stab the Sword Sovereign?

“Grand Master... why do you bear a grudge against the Sword Sovereign?”

“...That will be a long story. May I tell you after we return to Mount Hua?”

“Yes.”

Soyak quietly lowered her head.

Grand Master Jeonggang patted her gently, then pulled the blanket back up to her chin.

“Sleep a little longer. Your body should not be well yet.”

“But...”

“I said sleep.”

“...Yes.”

Namgung Byeok and the Medicine Sage were both moving busily.

On top of that, Grand Master Jeonggang had become aged after giving everything to her.

She wondered how she could possibly close her eyes and sleep peacefully, but...

Rather, Jeonggang seemed to want exactly that.

Soyak answered that she understood and closed her eyes.

Then, as usual, she drew the blanket into her arms, lay on her side, and curled up.

Was it because she was exhausted?

Or because the hand with which Grand Master Jeonggang patted her was so gentle?

Sleep came deeper and faster than she expected.

*****

Three days had already passed since Eunsong returned to Mount Hua.

Yet there was still no sign of Grand Master Jeonggang or Soyak returning.

But he could not simply send someone to Wudang Mountain, either.

That place was the territory of the Wudang Sect.

Eunsong sat quietly in the yard of his old house, looking up at the sky.

Cheonjeong quietly studied Eunsong’s mood, then began overseeing the other children himself.

“Cheongak. Just because Master is looking somewhere else, does that mean you may look somewhere else too?”

“Well, the example comes from the top, so—ow!”

Cheonjeong struck Cheongak on the crown of the head with his scabbard.

Only then did Cheongak tear up and start practicing properly.

The fact that he muttered, “I could win if we fought...” was something Cheonjeong let slide.

Cheonhwa seemed to have nearly returned to her former self.

Much of that was thanks to Cheonju.

They had been fellow disciples since they were under their previous master.

No, in the first place, they had been together since before they entered Mount Hua, a bond as close as blood.

Thanks to that, Cheonhwa had returned to the bright, cheerful girl she used to be.

Though because of it, Cheonju had a little more trouble on his hands.

Since she acted as she had in the past, it was difficult for him to find time for his own training.

And as for Cheongu...

He had somehow ended up between Cheonhwa and Cheongak.

For some reason, he had grown rapidly close to those two.

Well now, they’re mixing better than I expected.

While Cheonjeong looked on at his fellow disciples with a pleased smile, Eunsong was still staring at the clouds drifting by.

Cheonjeong glanced at his master and smiled bitterly.

That was a good thing.

Because he was a good master, he worried about his disciple.

But if he stayed lost in worry like that...

It seemed he had not realized that he was making his other disciples worry about him.

Soyak fought the Dark Emperor...

But Cheonjeong was the only one among the third-generation disciples who had heard the story from Eunsong.

The other children merely knew that Soyak was staying at the Zhuge Household for a while before coming back.

That was why Cheonjeong could not help but understand Eunsong.

No, in truth, he himself was barely managing to calm the anxiety drying out his lips.

What in the world happened there...?

The Dark Emperor was an absolute master of the previous generation, one who had nearly reached the middle stage of the Transformation Realm.

A legendary assassin once called the Dark Sovereign.

When Cheonjeong heard that Soyak had exhausted even all of her Innate True Qi in order to bring him down...

To be honest, he had been more agitated than Eunsong.

It had gotten to the point that Eunsong had to hold him back when Cheonjeong tried to run straight to Hubei.

Only after hearing that Grand Master Jeonggang had taken Soyak to the Medicine Sage, who was staying at Wudang Mountain, in order to save her life...

Only then had Cheonjeong barely calmed himself.

But how could exhausted Innate True Qi be restored?

That was an unsolvable problem neither Eunsong nor Cheonjeong could reason out, so they could only burn with worry.

And then—

From far away, one of the third-generation disciples came running toward them.

It was news that Soyak and Jeonggang had arrived.