WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 198: Spring Silkworms Spin Silk Until Death (22)
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A letter arrived from Yeon Sowol.
Yi Yubaek unfolded it with a bitter smile.
“At last, a letter that came normally.”
Whenever Yeon Sowol had been in Yuezhou, the people delivering his letters had all been anything but ordinary.
Why was someone that skilled delivering a letter?
Every time, it had caught him off guard.
Fortunately, ever since Yeon Sowol entered Wudang Mountain, his letters had become ordinary again.
Unremarkable merchants would hand them over with friendly smiles.
Thanks to that, Yi Yubaek opened this letter without any tension.
- - - -
<A Memorial to My Adoptive Father>
Father.
Sowol here.
I am still at Wudang Mountain.
A great many things have happened in the meantime.
So many that I find it difficult to decide where to begin.
- - - -
Yi Yubaek chuckled.
“Heh. What has that brat gotten himself into now?”
He leaned back comfortably in his chair.
There was no reason to be surprised anymore.
He had probably done something incredible again.
Had Yeon Sowol not fought a Flood Dragon in Yuezhou, founded the Hunan White-Robed Alliance, entered Wudang, and become the Sword Immortal's disciple?
What could possibly surprise him now?
[If I had to name the most important matter, it would be that Master has acknowledged my generational standing.]
Yi Yubaek frowned.
As though he had read a sentence he could not understand.
“Hmm? Generational standing?”
What did that mean? Generational standing?
The system that determined disciples' ranks according to their generation? It could not mean that. What else could it mean...?
[Master is Wudang's Sixty-Eighth Patriarch, after all. Since he acknowledged my standing, Huashan Sect's Sect Leader and several elders are now my senior martial brothers.]
...
“Hmm?”
Yi Yubaek blinked.
What?
Generational standing?
Wudang's Sect Leader was his senior martial brother?
Who was whose senior martial brother?
No.
“Are my eyes failing? What in the world does this mean...?”
Yi Yubaek rubbed his brow and read the letter again.
Something was strange.
The letters were plainly visible, yet somehow he could not properly read them.
His generational standing had been acknowledged?
Sect Leader Hwagokja was his senior martial brother?
That was what it said, but...
He rubbed his brow again.
“That cannot be right. Sowol is a lay disciple. Forget generational standing, he should not even be permitted to learn their supreme secret arts...”
Right. There had to be some context he was missing.
Yi Yubaek clutched the letter in both hands and continued reading.
[And I am learning a great many things. Starting with Yin-Yang Divine Art, there is Cotton Palm Art, Supreme Ultimate Fist, Cloud Ladder, Supreme Clarity Sword Art...]
...
Yi Yubaek froze.
Flap!
He turned the letter over.
Flap!
He turned it back.
Flap!
No matter how he looked, it was not a cipher. There was no hidden writing either.
It certainly seemed to be Yeon Sowol's handwriting.
“What is this?”
Could the brat be ill?
No. That could not be it.
Sowol was the Sword Immortal's disciple now.
Someone who had become the Sword Immortal's disciple could not possibly be ill in this way.
No, wait.
Could it be a heart demon...?
No. He had definitely overcome that...
Gasp!
Could it be?
Since then?
What was he even thinking?
Yi Yubaek put the letter down, picked it up, rose halfway from his chair, then sat down again, unable to settle.
Then his gaze turned toward the window.
“Excuse me...!”
He was about to call back the merchant who had delivered the letter, but stopped himself.
‘It is not as if the merchant would know.’
The merchant had been ordinary. They merely gathered letters for payment and delivered them.
There was no way they would know anything about Wudang's internal affairs.
Yi Yubaek bit his lip.
“To think I would miss those days when first-rate martial artists delivered letters for me...”
First-rate martial artists running errands.
They had been difficult and unsettling to deal with, but they were much better in a situation like this.
At least those masters knew the full circumstances.
After sharing a few drinks with them, Yeon Sowol's situation and exploits would become perfectly clear.
But now, there was no way to verify whether the letter was true or how things had ended up like this.
“No. Heh. Really. This...”
Yi Yubaek helplessly kept turning the letter over and smoothing it out, then furrowed his brow deeply.
Could it be?
“Could it really mean exactly what it says? Sowol has become martial brothers with Wudang's Sect Leader? He is learning all of Wudang's supreme secret arts?”
Yi Yubaek wore a grave expression for some time before bursting into hearty laughter.
“Come on. No way.”
Then his face hardened again.
His expression became a muddle somewhere between laughter and tears.
“No way...?”
* * *
Chungdam True Man had been right.
Yeon Sowol truly mastered Wudang's martial arts at a remarkable pace.
Snow fell over Wudang.
Though winter was nearly over, a heavy snowfall covered the entire mountain in white, and Yeon Sowol's training did not pause.
Cloud Ladder.
Yeon Sowol's movements shifted freely.
He accelerated without warning, stopped just as suddenly, and changed direction sharply even in midair.
Sometimes, he stepped on snowflakes.
He used those weightless things as footholds and sprang upward.
Sometimes, he let the snowflakes flow around him.
He passed through the raging snowfall without a single flake sticking to him.
His movements were utterly free.
As though he were stepping on a ladder made of clouds.
That was how Yeon Sowol learned Cloud Ladder.
Next came Cotton Palm Art.
Baaang!
Yeon Sowol's palm struck empty air.
From its center, the qi of nature shuddered violently.
A distinct wave of force spread out, as though the energy had taken physical form.
Falling snowflakes passed through it and shattered.
Yeon Sowol's hand had already moved on.
Yet even seconds later, snowflakes burst apart along the path of his palm.
The empty air itself shook and broke.
That was how Yeon Sowol learned Cotton Palm.
Then came Supreme Clarity Sword Art.
Supreme Ultimate Fist.
Pure Yang Limitless Art.
Supreme Ultimate Wisdom Sword.
Chungdam True Man passed down Wudang's martial arts without allowing even a moment of rest.
No, calling it instruction would be inaccurate.
It would be more correct to say he crammed them into him.
Even so, Yeon Sowol absorbed everything.
All of Wudang began to whisper.
“Did you see Great-Grand Martial Uncle?”
“That was Supreme Clarity Sword Art, right?”
Wherever people gathered, Yeon Sowol became the subject of conversation.
“Grand Martial Uncle's attainments are absurd.”
“Heh heh. To think he would learn Cotton Palm Art so quickly.”
“He moves on to another martial art every seven days, arts that even an exceptional martial artist would have to devote an entire lifetime to.”
Elsewhere,
“Martial Uncle has been practicing Supreme Ultimate Wisdom Sword lately.”
“I truly thought there was no way. I did not know about the others, but Supreme Ultimate Wisdom Sword is different. I thought that even Martial Uncle could not possibly learn that one so quickly...”
“It is not merely that he is fast. He has grasped its essence exactly. He has always been like that, but to think even Supreme Ultimate Wisdom Sword...”
“Exactly.”
Praise for Yeon Sowol rang out without end.
Yet while everyone else was awestruck, Chungdam True Man, his master, did not seem surprised in the slightest.
“Is this not only natural? His mental cultivation rivals Loss of Self, and in bodily cultivation, none at the same peak realm can compare to him. He has already achieved initial mastery of Yin-Yang Divine Art and Grafting Flowers onto a Tree, which contain the essence of Wudang's martial arts. When he reached the peak realm, he even forged qi unlike anyone else's. It would be far more surprising if his progress were any slower.”
It was only natural that Yeon Sowol learned quickly.
It was only natural that even Wudang's divine arts and secret teachings felt easy to him.
That was the logic.
He had built up such a solid foundation.
It was like searching for a mineral vein.
Until one found it, progress seemed slow, and every step was arduous.
But once the vein was discovered, every step brought treasure.
Each swing of the pickaxe sent gold, silver, and jewels pouring forth.
That was Yeon Sowol now.
“So, Sowol. You must not take pride in learning quickly.”
Chungdam True Man spoke severely.
“What you must devote yourself to now is not simply learning another martial art. You must instead give your whole heart to the difficult and urgent task of thoroughly melting down what you have learned and weaving it into one.”
Wudang's supreme secret arts.
Things far more precious than gold, silver, and jewels were being poured over Yeon Sowol.
But even three measures of beads were meaningless if they were not strung together.
“Sowol, you must connect every last one of them. Not only what you learned from me, but everything you knew before. You must join them without a single seam, as though they had all been one martial art from the very beginning.”
What would be the point of knowing all the divine arts and secret teachings in the world if one used them separately?
Even if one possessed a thousand swords, one could only use one sword when cutting something.
That was why Chungdam True Man spoke of melting them all down and forging a single sword.
Willow Serenity Art, Windborne Drift, and Windflow Sword, which he had learned from Yi Yubaek in Guangdong.
The assassin's gait he had learned from Eun-yeong.
The method of gathering qi he had learned from Noh Huideok.
The qi of the universe he had completed himself.
Yin-Yang Divine Art and Grafting Flowers onto a Tree, learned from Chungdam True Man.
And the countless divine arts and secret teachings currently being forced into him.
“Connect every one of them, in your own way. Can you do it?”
To be honest,
it was impossible.
Each of these divine arts and secret teachings could require an entire lifetime to learn.
And he was being crammed full of all of them, while simultaneously being told to weave them into one?
Had Chungdam True Man not been the teacher,
had Yeon Sowol not been the student,
such a demand would have drawn an outpouring of scornful cries to stop speaking nonsense.
But Yeon Sowol nodded, and Chungdam True Man smiled.
“Sowol, when you weave everything you have learned into one, when Cotton Palm Art and Supreme Ultimate Fist become indistinguishable within you, Grafting Flowers onto a Tree will reach its second stage.”
“Master, then what is the third stage of Grafting Flowers onto a Tree?”
“That is its completion. I can only vaguely guess at it myself. I have not yet reached it.”
As Yeon Sowol looked into Chungdam True Man's clear eyes, he understood.
‘Ah. Master thinks I can help him complete Grafting Flowers onto a Tree.’
He did not yet know why.
But he could read a strange certainty in Chungdam's eyes.
Since when had it been there?
Since Yeon Sowol overcame his heart demon?
Or since he gained enlightenment at the peak realm and completed the qi of the universe?
He did not know when it had begun, but one thing was clear.
It was a conviction Chungdam True Man had held for a long time.
The completion of Grafting Flowers onto a Tree.
Chungdam True Man was seeking its key in Yeon Sowol.
Chungdam True Man's wish.
The power humans needed to stand proudly before demons despite their fragility.
Yeon Sowol straightened his posture and answered.
“I will quickly complete the second stage of Grafting Flowers onto a Tree and certainly join Master's research.”
“Good.”
Yeon Sowol continued his cultivation.
At times, he traveled throughout Wudang Mountain and debated with other disciples.
At times, he shut himself away in the forest and trained alone.
At times, he descended into Beneath the Dark Heavens and fought demons.
He filled himself with Wudang's divine arts and secret teachings.
He mastered them, then mastered them again...
Before long, winter ended.
Spring came into full bloom.
Yeon Sowol was now, beyond anyone's denial, the Sword Immortal's disciple.
Wudang's direct heir.
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