Chapter 156: The End of Childhood (15)

Four hours had passed.

Eunsong watched Soyak with anxious eyes.

Jeonggang, on the other hand, looked entirely at ease.

“Why do you keep looking over there?”

“...Soyak seems to be taking longer with circulation practice than I expected.”

“Of course she is.”

Jeonggang answered as though it were nothing at all, and Eunsong fell silent for a moment.

Ordinarily, that would have been the end of it.

But Eunsong possessed a mind sharp enough to earn even Jeonggang’s recognition.

“Could it be... because of the internal energy you gave her, Great Grand Master?”

“She is concentrating that deeply. Of course it will take time. It should not hurt her, but she needs time to adapt.”

Eunsong slowly nodded.

Jeonggang was right.

Soyak had not received every last bit of his internal energy.

Even so, she was the sole heir to Jeonggang’s entire legacy.

It would take time to make that staggering reserve of internal energy truly her own.

Fortunately, Eun Jeong was not breaking out in cold sweat. That meant the situation had not yet become critical.

The Primordial Origin Clear-Heart Method and the Harmonization Scripture both had their roots in Mount Hua martial arts.

No.

More accurately...

The Harmonization Scripture was a higher heart method, a broader art that encompassed the profundities and functions of the Primordial Origin Clear-Heart Method.

Even if it wanted to cause a backlash, it could not.

The problem was that Eun Jeong’s condition looked worse by the moment.

Eunsong was doing everything he could to contain it...

But he could not stop it completely.

He could only slow the rate at which it spread.

If this continues...

In the end, everything depended on when Soyak opened her eyes.

If she woke too late, the situation might become impossible to control.

The problem was that Soyak was in the middle of circulation practice. They could not touch her or wake her.

There was even the risk of sending her into deviation.

Then, at that very moment—

The door to the council chamber, which no one had expected to open again, was kicked wide open.

It was Jeongyang, the Sect Leader of Mount Hua.

“What are you all doing here?!”

Eun Jeong lay on the council chamber table.

Eunsong had one hand pressed against him.

Cheon Soyak was seated in a corner, engaged in circulation practice.

To Jeongyang, it must have looked absurd.

Normally, he would at least have maintained his dignity.

But he had just endured other disciples of the Jeong generation questioning whether he was fit to remain Sect Leader. There was very little patience left in him.

Jeonggang answered instead.

He sipped at his tea with the same unruffled air as before.

“Can’t you see, Junior Brother? We are treating an injured man.”

“...What?”

“Eun Jeong has suffered an internal injury from Demonic Energy. Now, unless you have more to say, would you please leave? We are not in a position to move him.”

Eun Jeong had enough sense to keep his eyes shut and pretend to be unconscious.

After pouring internal energy into him for four straight hours, Eunsong was naturally drenched in cold sweat.

Soyak’s circulation practice in the corner struck Jeongyang as strange, but his pride would not allow him to pick a fight with a mere third-generation disciple.

“...Let me ask you one thing, Brother.”

“Ask.”

“Do you also think I am unfit to be Sect Leader?”

Jeonggang’s eyes sharpened considerably at that question.

He could no longer draw internal energy up from his dantian...

Yet in an instant, the room grew cold and heavy.

“Jeongyang.”

It was not the way he usually addressed him.

It was what Jeonggang had called him before Jeongyang became Sect Leader.

Back when Jeonggang, Jeongyang, and Jeongbeop had all been third-generation disciples...

It was the name Eldest Brother Jeonggang had used for his junior brother.

One word was enough to restore the old hierarchy.

Jeongyang wanted to shout that he was the Sect Leader.

That even if he had once been a junior brother, he was no longer beneath Jeonggang.

But he could not bring himself to speak.

Why? He is only an old man with no internal energy left...

Jeongyang asked himself that question, yet found no answer.

Still, one fact remained.

He could not open his mouth.

Jeonggang looked at him and spoke quietly.

“Go back.”

“...Ha.”

His pride was wounded. That much was true.

He was the Sect Leader, yet he had been subdued by an elder brother who was now nothing more than an elder.

Still, there was nothing he could do except turn away.

What else could he do?

Use his position as Sect Leader to oppress a senior brother with no strength left and earn himself even greater infamy?

He could not.

His disciple and disciple-grandson had already fallen for the Demonic Cult’s temptations. His reputation had been smeared more than enough.

Fortunately, it was still a matter known only within Mount Hua...

But it was only a matter of time before word spread.

The only question was whether it would spread sooner or later.

Jeongyang finally turned away.

Then he left.

Eunsong thought his retreating back looked strangely forlorn.

“Is this really all right, Great Grand Master?”

It would have been a lie to say Eunsong was not worried about the fallout.

Jeongyang was cunning, ambitious for power, and his hands were far from clean.

The fact that he had abruptly sent the young Soyak far away on a Roaming Pillar Journey...

And had taken no meaningful action even after she was targeted by assassins...

Those things alone proved it.

“What can that man do?”

“What if he tries to harm you, Great Grand Master...”

“I will be dead in three months anyway, Eunsong.”

Jeonggang chuckled and waved a hand dismissively.

Eunsong looked from Jeonggang to Soyak, then back again.

“...Do you realize you have become more of a Daoist than before?”

“You truly have no restraint when speaking to your Great Grand Master.”

“They say the Dao’s final destination is emptiness. I never wanted to see you ascend in this way.”

Eunsong answered bitterly.

Jeonggang pushed himself up with his walking stick, then lightly patted Eunsong on the back.

Together, they looked toward Soyak, who was still engaged in circulation practice.

“Yes. Had I reached this enlightenment while retaining my internal energy, I might have set my sights on the Sword Sovereign’s realm.”

“That is rather paradoxical. Had you retained your internal energy, you would never have gained that enlightenment.”

“Exactly. This is my limit. I fell just a hair’s breadth short of the Sword Sovereign.”

Jeonggang sighed, but there was neither regret nor lament in it.

He was a man who had done everything he could.

That was simply the limit he had been given. There was nothing left for him to resent.

But Eunsong...

Eunsong found it difficult to accept.

“...To be honest, I do not believe the Sword Sovereign attained a greater enlightenment than you, Great Grand Master.”

“Do you?”

Jeonggang smiled faintly and looked up at Eunsong.

Eunsong was the disciple of his disciple.

Yet it had been Jeonggang who brought Eunsong and Eun Jeong to Mount Hua.

He had even threatened that if they were not accepted as third-generation disciples, he would take them as his own disciples and make them second-generation disciples instead.

Naturally, he had grown fonder of Eunsong and Eun Jeong than the other disciples of the Eun generation.

And naturally, the two boys had grown more attached to him than the others.

That was why Eunsong was so upset over something that was not even his own grievance.

“Yes. Honestly, I do. You should have been the one to lead the world.”

“I am... not a man who can lead others.”

Jeonggang shrugged.

“Jeongyang is petty, riddled with inferiority, and has plenty of other flaws. But he is calculating, ambitious, and understands the human instinct to obey authority. Those are mostly vices, but in a leader, they become virtues.”

“...Is that so? But the Sword Sovereign is not merely a leader...”

“He is the number one martial artist under heaven. That, even I do not understand. How he acquired that strength...”

The Namgung Household’s swordsmanship might not belong to a Daoist lineage.

Even so, it was still a philosophy forged from contemplation of nature, wielding a sword as its brush.

Just like the martial arts of other illustrious righteous factions.

And in such arts, the process of enlightenment was generally the very path to greater strength.

If the Sword Sovereign had comprehended for so long, so deeply, and so highly a martial way that embodied the heaven ruling over all...

Then he should have become a sage ruler like the heavens themselves.

“Perhaps the Sword Sovereign simply hates a disorderly world. Under a clear blue sky, everyone runs and plays. But beneath a stormy night sky, everyone hides indoors and holds their breath.”

“...Why did he have to be that kind of heaven?”

“It is only my inference. There may be another reason. But one thing is certain.”

Jeonggang squeezed Eunsong’s shoulder, then pointed at Soyak with his chin.

“That child will receive all my experience and enlightenment over the coming three months. And she will. Without question, she will surpass the Sword Sovereign.”

“...Yes. She will.”

Jeonggang and Eunsong differed greatly in their martial talent.

But not in their eye for people.

Put Eun Jeong and Eunsong together, and they would become the Jeonggang of his youth.

That was why Jeonggang had forced those two beggar boys into Mount Hua, no matter what it took.

Had Soyak been born in Jeonggang’s youth...

The world might have been overturned twenty or thirty years earlier.

But in all his travels across the martial world, he had never found a black qilin capable of biting into the sky.

So he had tried to pass that role on to two children who resembled him.

He had never taught them all of this outright.

Yet as Eun Jeong and Eunsong grew older, they gradually came to understand.

The duty entrusted to them.

The role they had been given.

“Then isn’t that enough?”

Around that time, Soyak slowly opened her eyes.

Then she bowed to the two men.

“...This disciple has finally recovered her strength. Forgive me for the discourtesy of making my Master and Grand Master stand guard over me...”

“I told you, it is fine. Go tend to Master Eun Jeong. He has lost consciousness.”