WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 32: In April, All the Flowers of the World Have Faded (3)

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The waves, burning beneath the lantern light, slapped against the boat.

Standing straight atop it, Yeon Sowol slowly adjusted his disheveled clothes.

He tugged at his robes, smoothed their folds, and checked his red silk sword cord.

He stood as poised as a crane in shallow water.

Roving General Seol Cheong finally let out a sigh.

"Why... How... How can you be so exceptional?"

Yeon Sowol slowly turned toward him.

'...What am I supposed to say to that?'

Anything he said would sound like bragging or mockery, so Yeon Sowol quietly kept his mouth shut.

Seol Cheong continued, his lips trembling.

"That wasn't force that someone at the Breathing Smoke into Clouds stage could possibly withstand..."

Force referred to power.

Not just any power, though.

It was not the strength produced by muscles, but the power generated through internal and external cultivation. More importantly, that power had to be properly aligned before it could be called force.

Even if two strikes held the same power, a club could not pierce an iron plate while an awl could. No matter how powerful one's internal and external cultivation might be, if that power was scattered and unaligned, it could not dare be called force.

"...You're too kind."

Yeon Sowol put on a humble front to hide his guilty conscience.

Seol Cheong was right. It was not force he could have withstood at the Breathing Smoke into Clouds stage, so he had used the power of Heaven-Killing Star to stop it.

'...Does he suspect something?'

Just as cold sweat trickled down his back, Seol Cheong continued with unsteady eyes.

"I've heard many times that I should not underestimate the methods of Jianghu people, but I never believed it. Now I've changed my mind... To lightly stop the spear I threw after reaching Fierce Flame Pierces the Heavens, despite only being at the Breathing Smoke into Clouds stage. That must be the study of higher martial arts. The Windflow School's martial arts are truly incredible!"

"...Thank you."

"But no matter how great one's martial arts are, it is the martial artist who makes them real. I cannot even imagine how deep your stage of maturity must be to display such profound principles at your age and at the Breathing Smoke into Clouds stage. My eyes have been opened today. Thank you. No, I thank you, Young Hero Yeon."

Seol Cheong cupped his fist and bowed deeply.

Yeon Sowol hurriedly bowed as well.

'Thank goodness that went over smoothly.'

"Come this way. I pray that both you and your adoptive father achieve what you seek."

Guided by Seol Cheong, Yeon Sowol headed toward the center of the boat.

After Yeon Sowol left, Seol Cheong stood silently for a moment before turning to his subordinates.

Their eyes wavered.

Seol Cheong lowered his head.

"Um... Sorry. I'm sorry. I couldn't stop him..."

His subordinates all covered their faces.

"We're fucked..."

Military officers selected from across the country, all of whom had passed the military examination, had been defeated by wild Jianghu figures.

Twice, at that.

What would the generals, who had passed the military examination long ago and risen to lofty positions, think of that?

"Aaaah..."

It was the Eighth Day of the Fourth Month, spring in full bloom.

The boat celebrating the night was filled with splendid lanterns, the scent of alcohol, and music, but the military officers' worries only deepened.

* * *

'At least that general wasn't watching. The Governor-General is a civil official, so it doesn't matter whether he saw or not.'

The Governor-General of Liangguang was a civil official of the junior first rank.

The Liangguang Commander-in-Chief was a military official of the senior second rank.

Both were drinking in a two-story pavilion set up at the center of the boat.

Since they were seated high above, they could probably watch the overall situation, but they had not seen Yeon Sowol leap up from directly beneath the boat.

When Yeon Sowol used the power of Heaven-Killing Star, he had been in their blind spot.

Relieved by that fact, Yeon Sowol walked toward the two-story pavilion.

"..."

As he walked,

"...?"

he suddenly,

"...!!?"

realized something.

'What is this?'

Across this entire area, the natural qi was moving in a very strange way.

Only Yeon Sowol, whose qi sense was sharper than anyone else's, could have noticed it.

There was nothing strange when he examined individual portions of natural qi. Like flowing air, it simply drifted here and there, trembling faintly only when someone's thoughts turned toward it.

But it was different when he drew the entire area into his qi sense and watched.

Each was a subtle, faint movement that could occur by chance. Yet when viewed together, they revealed a highly structured regularity that could never have occurred naturally.

It was like watching grains of sand dropped at random pile up and scatter, freely drawing, erasing, and redrawing a landscape painting.

Yeon Sowol shuddered.

The shock was perhaps even greater than when he had first seen General Chu Seongho, the Liangguang Commander-in-Chief.

The disturbance covered far too vast an area.

It was not precise, yet it overlooked nothing.

A person could not do this.

No human mind could feel its way through such a wide area all at once without leaving out a single place.

And for one's mind to reach places one could neither see nor hear?

Considering the age-old truth that the heart naturally grows distant from what is out of sight, it made even less sense.

'It can't be a person's mind. That's impossible for a person.'

He instinctively recalled what Yi Yubaek had told him.

That strange beings and ghosts definitely existed in this world.

Would he finally encounter one?

'What on earth could be up there...?'

On high alert, Yeon Sowol placed a foot on the stairs leading to the two-story pavilion.

Then he heard a voice.

"General Chu, shall we make a prediction? Who do you think will win this evening's entertainment?"

"Hmm... I have no idea. I do not know the names of Guangdong's young Jianghu martial artists."

"I think it will be that boy. Yeon Sowol, the adopted son of the Windflow Sword seated here."

"...Isn't he rather young?"

"Young, yes. But if he pushes through every obstacle and stands here, would that not greatly enhance the Windflow Sword's standing?"

"It would."

"So his disciples will do whatever it takes to put Yeon Sowol before me."

Goosebumps rose across Yeon Sowol's skin.

'What? Who is that man?'

It was as though he had heard every word Yeon Sowol and the Windflow Three Young Lords had exchanged.

"Besides, I thought that young man named Yeon Sowol surely had some talent hidden from others. Otherwise, no matter how resolute he was, how could he stand so confidently before the Commander-in-Chief? That was the spirit of someone who had survived even after facing an enemy beyond his ability to handle."

Yeon Sowol's back was now damp.

It was as if the man had even seen through the moment Yeon Sowol had first arrived in this world.

The time he had suffered at the hands of the Killing Demon and barely survived by using the power of Heaven-Killing Star.

"There must be something. Exceptional stealth? Or a lifesaving ultimate move he can use in a desperate moment? Whatever it is, he has it. And he seemed wise enough to use it well. That is why I believe he will soon appear at the top of those stairs."

"Hmm. I do not know whether the winner will truly be Yeon Sowol, but it is clear that the victor possesses something. From what my qi sense tells me, Roving General Seol Cheong threw his spear with all his strength, yet that young man easily erased its force-wave. I do not know what principle he used, but..."

Creak.

Creak.

Why did the sound of his feet on the wooden stairs seem so loud today?

Yeon Sowol swallowed hard.

'Monsters. How do they know everything that happened without even seeing it?'

Could they truly be strange beings or ghosts rather than people?

Trying not to tremble, Yeon Sowol finally stepped onto the upper floor.

"Well? Was I right? I think that fellow is the young man Yeon Sowol."

"...You were right. I am always astonished by Your Excellency the Governor-General's discerning eye. I have devoted my life to martial learning, yet before the heights of Nature Learning, I can only bow my head."

"General, if you praise me that lavishly, I will be too embarrassed to show my face."

Fwoooosh.

The first thing Yeon Sowol noticed was the thin smoke winding through the pavilion.

Smoke drifted from the Governor-General's long pipe like a trailing length of silk, spreading throughout the pavilion.

Yet instead of being acrid, it smelled like charcoal burning in winter.

Incense also burned everywhere.

A rich woody scent that cleared his head mixed with a sweet, light fragrance, followed by something like the scent of a crisp autumn breeze that brushed past him.

It was a strange fragrance Yeon Sowol had never smelled before. Even in the twenty-first century, with all its scents, he had never encountered anything so sacred.

But more dizzying than the fragrance was the presence of the old man seated in the place of highest honor.

Yeon Sowol could feel no power from the smiling old man.

His muscles were thin, his bones looked frail. His breathing was not deep like a martial artist's, and the hand holding the long pipe seemed aged and weak.

Yet Yeon Sowol still felt an oppressive force from him that was difficult to defy.

He realized it instinctively.

'All of this... is that old man's mind?'

The enormous mind that had completely dominated the area on his way here belonged to that old man.

The old man's five senses were ordinary and could not even cover this small pavilion in full. Yet his mind extended beyond the five senses, allowing him to see and predict a thousand li away while seated in one place.

'He wasn't a strange being or a ghost...?'

Yeon Sowol drew an inference from General Chu Seongho's words.

'He called it Nature Learning?'

It was likely a new method of cultivation, different from martial arts.

'Martial learning and Nature Learning...'

The thought that civil officials were simply ordinary people vanished completely.

He suddenly remembered something Yi Yubaek had told him.

'Confucius said that one must first set the mind straight before bodily cultivation. We martial artists, on the other hand, only cultivate the mind after first undergoing bodily cultivation.'

Nature Learning.

A study that cultivated the mind before the body.

'They say the mind is spirit...'

People consisted of essence, qi, and spirit.

If martial artists cultivated essence and qi first,

did scholars of Nature Learning cultivate spirit directly from the start?

Yeon Sowol shuddered at the profound principles governing this world.

"You have worked hard getting here. We have not finished our conversation, so we can speak later. A seat has been prepared over there. Go sit."

Governor-General Seo Myeongeum lifted his long pipe and pointed to an empty seat.

Yeon Sowol respectfully clasped his hands, bowed, and carefully went to sit down.

"Ho ho. Your father acts according to propriety unlike most Jianghu people, but his son goes even further. His clothing, his bearing, there is not a single flaw to find. Good. Very good. This is propriety!"

Yeon Sowol lowered his head at Seo Myeongeum's praise.

Only after the old man's attention shifted elsewhere did Yeon Sowol slowly look around.

Even then, he did not forget that the old man's mind was feeling its way through every corner of the space without a gap.

The pavilion was full of bonsai trees.

All kinds of small trees, cultivated to fit their pots, stood lush and green as decorations throughout the room.

There were also dozens of people.

Governor-General Seo Myeongeum sat in the highest seat, with General Chu Seongho, the Commander-in-Chief, beside him.

Yi Yubaek sat nearby, while young scholars sat in a long line to either side beyond him.

Yeon Sowol was seated at the very end of the scholars' row.

'...It seems this was originally meant to encourage young scholars.'

The atmosphere was pleasant, with drinks and good wishes exchanged freely.

Just as Yeon Sowol's tightly wound nerves were beginning to loosen,

⌜Be careful.⌟

Yeon Sowol tried not to flinch.

No one had approached him, yet the voice he had just heard was as clear as a whisper with lips pressed close to his ear.

'A ghost...?'

Yeon Sowol recalled his first day in this world.

⌜It is only a minor technique called Secret Voice Transmission, so there is no need to be so startled. I am beside you.⌟

Secret... Voice Transmission...?

Confused by the unfamiliar term, he turned his gaze and saw a young man offering him a slight greeting with his eyes.

He looked roughly Yeon Sowol's age.

The youth appeared to be a scholar, but his clothes were patched in several places, as though he were desperately poor, and even the hat on his head was slightly dented.

Without moving his lips, without even looking in Yeon Sowol's direction, he sent only his voice.

⌜In any case, stay alert. The atmosphere seems pleasant now, but there is no knowing where it may turn. You and your adoptive father are standing on a blade's edge. Everyone here is a scholar-official who studies Nature Learning, and before them, Jianghu people are nothing more than petty people.⌟

Yeon Sowol bristled without realizing it.

'Petty people? We're petty people?'

⌜Ah, I do not mean that you are truly petty people. I mean that is how they see you.⌟

The youth explained himself, but Yeon Sowol still found it difficult to accept.

'That cannot be. Our Windflow School is an orthodox sect that inherited the teachings of the orthodox tradition...'

⌜You cannot accept it? Hmm. I suppose Jianghu people might not know. But in the eyes of those Nature Learning scholars, nearly everyone is a petty person. Do you know what they call even the teachings of the Buddhist tradition and the Daoist tradition when they are among themselves?⌟

'Don't tell me they even disparage the Buddhist tradition and the Daoist tradition? This isn't Joseon.'

Yeon Sowol could not readily believe it.

He knew that Confucian scholars in the Joseon era had sometimes burned temples, beheaded Buddhist statues, and caused serious harm.

But this was not Joseon. It was not even Earth.

Historically speaking, he could not tell whether this world resembled the Tang, Song, or Ming Dynasty.

Even offices like Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief seemed like a mixture of Ming officials such as governors-general and commanders-in-chief, and Tang offices like military commissioners and military prefects.

Nature Learning was the same.

It might resemble Neo-Confucianism, but there was no way to know how far that resemblance went. It certainly could not be identical to Joseon Neo-Confucianism in a world that was not even China.

Even on Earth, China had not suppressed Buddhism as severely as Joseon. It had even revered Daoism more deeply.

And this was another world's China, where living Buddhas and immortals existed, and even emperors showed them courtesy first...

In this world, if he grabbed ten random people passing by, three would follow the Buddhist tradition, three would follow the Daoist tradition, and the other four would follow both.

High-ranking people made devout offerings at Gukeun Temple, and Daoist temples overflowed everywhere.

Yet the rulers themselves looked down on all that? Did that make any sense?

⌜They do not show it outwardly for the sake of public sentiment, but that is what they think inside. Among themselves, scholars of Nature Learning call the teachings of the Daoist tradition and the Buddhist tradition Seeming Right but Wrong. It means that it looks like the Dao at a glance, but it is not truly the Dao, and is therefore wrong. They shorten it to saibii as well.⌟

Saibii!

Despite its English-like sound, saibii was a word that appeared in Mencius.

To Yeon Sowol, who had come from the twenty-first century, that combination of sounds felt completely unfamiliar.

'Buddhism is... saibii?'

'Daoism too?'

⌜Then how could they see you as anything but petty people? At this gathering, there are only two saibii. You and your adoptive father.⌟

The young man slightly turned his head, met Yeon Sowol's eyes, and grinned.

⌜Ah. Three, including me.⌟

Footnotes:

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