Chapter 139: The Eve (7)

About a quarter hour before Eun Jeong and Soyak met.

Eunsong and Eun Jeong were gliding leisurely toward Flower-Haze Hall with lightness arts.

Eunsong stayed close beside Eun Jeong and asked,

“So, what are you planning to do, Eun Jeong?”

“I should go speak to her first, shouldn’t I? To see whether she is solid at the core.”

“...Solid at the core?”

Eun Jeong nodded.

Eunsong let out a deep sigh.

That was this man’s way of speaking.

A person had to be solid at the core, or whatever it was he always said.

It was not as though Eunsong had no idea what he meant.

In the end, that was Eun Jeong’s standard for evaluating “talent.”

And Eun Jeong’s personal measure of “how solid someone was” was reasonably accurate.

It could not be called especially refined.

But at the very least, no one Eun Jeong had called an empty shell had ever turned out to be a decent person.

The opposite, by induction, had also held true so far.

...Though that was about as far as his eye could see.

“So, are you planning to draw your sword first again this time too?”

“Brother, I realized something while sealing myself inside that dark, gloomy cave for three years.”

“Oh?”

Eun Jeong smiled brightly.

Then he raised his thumb.

Seeing that, Eunsong sighed.

“Somehow, you look as though you have no plan at all.”

“As expected, Brother knows me too well.”

“Well....”

Even if Eun Jeong abruptly drew his sword and forced a spar, there would be no major problem.

According to °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° Elder Jeonggang’s own judgment, Soyak’s realm had reached the very edge of Transcendent Apex.

That meant she was at least half a step ahead of Eun Jeong.

However, there was one thing they had to take into account.

Soyak had never properly tested her new strength even once.

And there was also the issue of her dantian, expanded almost by force after she received Jeonggang’s Innate True Qi and internal energy.

She may be somewhat unpolished, but...

She would likely not be lacking as Eun Jeong’s opponent.

Eun Jeong was a man of seasoned skill and, compared to Soyak, experience that could be called overwhelming.

Eunsong found himself quite interested in the result.

“...You will not be disappointed.”

“Oh? You raised your disciple that well?”

“She grew well on her own. I merely picked her up.”

Eun Jeong raised an eyebrow.

The Brother Eunsong he remembered was not the sort of man to feign humility.

Especially not in front of a fellow disciple.

Then those words truly meant he had not taught her much.

And despite that, she had reached a level where Eun Jeong, who had passed the middle of Transcendent Apex, “would not be disappointed.”

The corners of Eun Jeong’s mouth slowly curled upward.

“Is she more impressive than I was when I was young?”

“I told you. She is fourteen, and she has already surpassed Transcendent Apex.”

“Impressive.”

Flower-Haze Hall came into view in the distance.

And so did the great old tree standing in front of the training ground.

Eunsong narrowed his eyes and looked beneath it.

There were two familiar shadows there.

“...Out here instead of sleeping, are they?”

“It seems your disciples do not listen to you, Brother.”

“No. The ones who truly do not listen are elsewhere.”

Cheonjeong and Cheon Soyak were on the obedient side.

Cheongak and Cheongu were usually the ones who went around causing trouble.

Though that, too, was a story from the past.

From the Roaming Pillar Journey to the Shandong Ak Family, to the Demonic Cult incident they discovered after returning, everything had been so chaotic and so many reports had come pouring in that he had not even been able to determine what trouble Cheongu and Cheongak had caused.

For that matter, he did not even know whether they had been causing trouble in the first place or quietly behaving themselves.

“That girl over there?”

“That is right.”

“Good. Brother, stay here.”

Eunsong looked at Eun Jeong through narrowed eyes.

His gaze seemed to ask what Eun Jeong was setting up this time.

Eun Jeong shrugged and waved a hand.

“When a master is watching, one of two things happens. The disciple grows more nervous, or less nervous. I dislike both. Is that fine, Brother?”

“...Yes, well. You will not kill her, I suppose. Do as you like.”

“Thank you.”

Eun Jeong leapt straight down in front of the old tree.

That was Soyak and Eun Jeong’s first meeting.

*****

“...Who are you?”

Soyak narrowed her eyes and asked.

Cheonjeong was about to hide Soyak behind him for a moment... then thought better of it.

This was not the time for meaningless bravado.

Rather than do that, it would be better to use what had been given to him.

“...I am Cheonjeong, Eldest Brother of the Great Mount Hua Sect’s third-generation disciples. I would be grateful if you gave us your name.”

“My name? Let me see....”

Eun Jeong drew his sword with no preamble at all.

So suddenly that Cheonjeong and Cheon Soyak both started.

His clothes were clearly a martial uniform embroidered with plum blossoms.

Judging by his apparent age... he should have been a second-generation disciple.

But I have never seen this man before.

She should have at least become familiar with his face at the Ilji Gathering.

Soyak had never once seen him.

Then there were two possibilities.

“...You are either Master’s fellow disciple, the one who finished closed-door training and whom Master went to meet....”

Cheon Soyak slowly drew her sword.

The pitch-black blade, flashing with five-colored radiance, shone along the engraved constellations of the Three Origins Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions.

The tip of Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge pointed squarely at his chin.

“Or you are a host wearing the Young Cult Leader’s arm and leg. It must be one or the other.”

Eun Jeong’s eyes widened at the second inference.

He had never imagined she would draw that conclusion.

Of course, Eunsong had told him about the sealed Young Cult Leader’s left arm and the underground lightning prison beneath South Peak, but...

To think she would immediately connect that to him.

“If you show me swordsmanship worth seeing, I will tell you.”

“Becoming a traitor who killed one of Master’s fellow disciples and failing to stop the Young Cult Leader, thereby watching Mount Hua’s destruction—both are dreadful choices. But I would rather choose the latter.”

Cheonjeong understood clearly what Soyak meant.

So did Eunsong, who was listening to the distant sound with internal energy gathered in his ears.

It meant Soyak would fight “in earnest.”

“Soyak, will you be all right?”

“Please step back for a moment, Eldest Brother. I do not want you to be hurt.”

Soyak was already spreading out her senses for energy.

Internal energy boiling up from her dantian flowed through the eight extraordinary meridians of her entire body.

Her distant, overwhelming presence soon became wind pressure, stirring her sleeves and hair.

Like the mane of a qilin rippling.

Like the tail of a dragon curving as it folded the sky beneath its stride.

“...Not bad, at your age.”

“I realized quite some time ago that age is meaningless in the martial world.”

When Soyak took one step forward, an even fiercer force poured out.

As she breathed internal energy into Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge in her hand, blazing Sword Qi surged up at once.

Sword Qi unfolded by a martial artist who had reached the very edge of Transcendent Apex.

It was far too brilliant and bright to be called merely Sword Qi.

“It seems something happened to you.”

“Yes. I went through many harsh things at a young age.”

This time, it was Eun Jeong’s turn.

He, too, breathed internal energy into his sword, which released a cold blue radiance.

Brilliant Sword Qi surged up in perfect form.

“...If you are the ‘genius junior disciple’ Master often spoke of... you will not die to me.”

“Are you saying you will fight prepared to die?”

“Because you may be the Young Cult Leader.”

With those words, Soyak kicked off the ground.

Her black hair, dark as bundled silk, billowed in an instant.

And in the next moment.

The swords of the two people, both wrapped in Sword Qi, clashed at a speed that seemed unreal.

KWAAAAANG—!!!

In that instant, the lights in every room of Flower-Haze Hall began turning on.

Because of the tremendous roar made by Sword Qi that had reached a high realm colliding against Sword Qi.

And because of that overwhelming presence.

But neither Soyak nor Eun Jeong paid any attention.

Because Soyak had, in truth, realized he was Eun Jeong.

And because Eun Jeong had realized Soyak would not kill him.

By common sense, if asked whether he was the Young Cult Leader, he would answer no if he was not, and yes if he was.

There was no need for him to maintain such an ambiguous attitude.

And if she truly suspected he was the Young Cult Leader, she would not have asked several times, drawn her sword slowly, and attacked like this.

She was not a child who would fail to know that a single killing strike was the finest method.

Above all, there was this heavy, pure energy he emanated.

It was clearly internal energy from the Primordial Origin Clear-Heart Method.

And among the second-generation disciples Soyak knew, there was no one who had accumulated internal cultivation of this level.

In other words, there was a high chance that he was the “genius junior disciple” Eunsong had mentioned.

If he had been in closed-door training until today, then when the South Peak seal was broken, he would still have been holed up inside the cave.

That naturally cleared him of suspicion.

“...You truly are Master’s fellow disciple.”

“So, are you going to lower your sword?”

“I will not.”

Then only one thing remained.

This inexplicable “test” he had set for her.

The very fact that he had drawn his sword meant he wanted to see her sword, did it not?

And now that all of Flower-Haze Hall was awake, with lights on and people hanging from the windows, yet Eunsong still had not come...

That effectively meant he had approved of Eun Jeong’s actions.

Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge, which had been locked in collision, suddenly bent along a strange trajectory.