Invincible with Twin Swords

Chapter 50 : When I Tried to See, It Was Not Seen

"The one who finds the path in the painting! His sword will reach the heavens!"

These are the words left by the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor himself, who drew the painting.

These words were interpreted in various ways, but among them, the most believed was that it was a treasure map pointing to the place where the secret manual containing the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor's heaven-and-earth-shaking martial arts was hidden.

That was understandable, because this painting was a landscape painting that depicted a certain place in detail.

On a long piece of paper that seemed to be as tall as Deoksam, a dense mountain and a large river were drawn.

Perhaps because of a special treatment, there were no damaged parts even in the traces of a long time.

"Where on earth is this? Why does it look so familiar?"

Deoksam, who had been staring at the painting for a long time, asked Parip hyungnim.

"Hmm. It's surrounded by sharp mountain peaks on all sides, and a river is flowing in the middle, and along that river, several people are drawn here and there. The red sky and the black earth are touching. Why does it look like a place I've seen somewhere too?"

Parip hyungnim was tilting his head.

Since Parip hyungnim has been to many places in the Central Plains, it could be familiar.

But Deoksam is a guy who has never left Dubang Mountain until he met me.

And this place is probably not Dubang Mountain.

I looked at the painting carefully once again.

It is definitely a place I know.

If all three of us find it familiar, there is a possibility that it is a place we have been to together.

Where is it?

At that moment, Na Yeryeong and Dam Sook opened the door and came in.

"Ah! This painting is the Heavenly Lord's Painting."

"Come and take a look. It's definitely a place I've seen somewhere, but I don't know where it is."

The two of them came closer and looked at the painting.

And Na Yeryeong and Dam Sook shouted at the same time.

"The Forest of Swords!"

* * *

A faint night where even the moonlight is hidden by the clouds.

Only several candles are brightly illuminating the painting.

I looked at the painting all day.

As they said, the place drawn on the map was indeed the Forest of Swords.

It's a place I know, but why didn't I see it at first?

"People usually find what they want wherever they are. If it's not what they want to see, they can't see it well."

Na Yeryeong's words are right.

What was my eye looking for when I first saw this painting?

I thought I had no greed, but was I also captivated by the desire to obtain something amazing?

"This is why no one could find it. Because the existence of the Forest of Swords is not even known."

The Forest of Swords is probably the place where the legacy of the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor is contained.

Perhaps the One-Wood Divine Sword was also his sword.

"Is it just telling us the location?"

"Probably not."

The Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor wanted the one who inherited his will to inherit his legacy.

Although I don't know what his will and legacy are.

I know that the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor has put two restrictions on the one who will inherit his legacy.

One is a person who knows that this place is the Forest of Swords, like us.

Even the great Jong Ilmyeong of the world could not find out where it was.

Only a person related to the Forest of Swords can know.

The other is a person who can find out the meaning of the painting.

He said that the way to become the number one in the world is contained in this painting.

If the purpose of this painting was simply to point to the Forest of Swords, he would not have said such a thing.

There must be a hidden meaning.

- Clang!

I drew my sword with my left hand.

In the painting, not only the landscape but also the figures of several people were drawn.

A person casting a fishing rod, a person pointing at the setting sun with his hand outstretched, a person lying down and looking at the sky, and so on, several people were taking different poses.

I took the same pose as them with my sword in hand.

"Is there any meaning?"

"Hmm. It seems like there is something, but now that I've taken the same pose, it seems like there's nothing special."

Well, in that long time, there must have been someone who had studied the gestures of the people in the painting.

"I was hoping that it might represent the swordsmanship of the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor, but I guess not."

"Even so, isn't it just the form? Then it's only half."

Swordsmanship is not completed with just the posture.

You have to know the flow of internal energy that matches the form to be able to unfold a proper swordsmanship.

"The gestures of the many people in the painting definitely seem to have some meaning. The problem is that no matter how I look at them and change the order, I don't know the hidden meaning."

I was taught the swordsmanship of the Sword Emperor in the Valley of Abandoned Bugs.

It means I have learned the best swordsmanship in the Central Plains.

No matter how jumbled the postures of the swordsmanship are, a few connected movements should be visible.

But this painting is not giving me any information.

It's just giving me a feeling that there is something.

"The Heavenly Lord's Painting has passed through the hands of many people for hundreds of years. There must have been numerous interpretations during that time, but no one has been able to solve it."

"So shouldn't we approach it in a different way from them?"

The place that the Heavenly Lord's Painting points to is the Forest of Swords.

And the Soul-Taking Divine Woman said that I would face the end of the sword in the Forest of Swords.

It means that I will solve what others have not been able to solve.

Perhaps the important thing is not the painting.

It is my mindset towards the painting.

What is the difference between me and the previous owners of the Heavenly Lord's Painting?

What can I see that they couldn't?

We cannot see everything.

People always look for what they want.

What would those who saw the Heavenly Lord's Painting have wanted?

They would have tried to find where the place drawn in this painting is.

Or they would have thoroughly searched for a trace of a tremendous martial art that could let them have the world.

I have to empty my greed!

I have to treat the painting as a painting.

I stood far away and looked at it with the heart of a child.

The red sky, the long river, the various people, the dense forest, the sharp peaks...

Sharp peaks?

The numerous peaks in the painting were soaring towards the red sky, sharp like swords.

I woke up Na Yeryeong, who was sleeping on the table.

"Please call Miss Dam!"

The person who knows the Forest of Swords best is Dam Sook.

I need her now.

Dam Sook, who had just woken up, came running in a hurry.

I asked in a hurry, without even having the mind to apologize.

"This is the Forest of Swords. In that case, where would the place where the One-Wood Divine Sword is stuck be?"

Dam Sook rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked at the painting, then pointed to a place with her finger.

I took in the entire large painting, centering on that place.

I can see it!

What I couldn't see no matter how I tried was slowly coming into view.

My heart was beating like crazy, and my two hands were trembling.

Now I get it.

Only a person who knows the Forest of Swords can know the place where the One-Wood Divine Sword is stuck.

If you don't know that location, this painting can only be a landscape painting.

"I thought that this painting was pointing to a certain place in the Forest of Swords, and that the legacy of the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor was hidden there."

"Wasn't it?"

"No matter how I looked at the painting, I couldn't figure it out. Especially, I wondered why the people in the painting were taking those poses, but those movements had no meaning."

"Still, isn't there some meaning? It's probably not just a drawing of the Forest of Swords. Then what are the people in the painting?"

I looked at the painting again.

Several people are drawn here and there in the Forest of Swords in the painting.

There is a person sleeping in the shade of a tree, a person fishing leisurely, and a person pointing somewhere.

"All the people in the painting are the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor!"

Na Yeryeong's and Dam Sook's eyes widened.

The people in the painting all had different clothes and different appearances.

Who would have thought that they were all drawings of one person?

And that it was a self-portrait of the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor.

I drew my sword without saying anything.

I took a step back from the painting and looked at it from a distance.

And I moved as the Heavenly Lord's Painting led me.

A narrow room where only the light of a small candle was illuminating the darkness.

My sword moved gracefully, as if drawing a beautiful picture.

I quietly closed my eyes.

A gentle wind blew between the trees with green leaves.

The sound of the river flowing.

The sound of flowers falling.

And the overwhelming mountain peaks were leading me.

I moved my sword along the peaks that were soaring towards the sky like swords.

I forgot everything.

Where this place is now.

What I am doing.

And even who I am.

I am not moving the sword.

The sword, the sword of the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor, was leading me.

When I opened my eyes, my whole body was drenched in sweat.

The two people in front of me were looking at me with eyes of wonder.

"N-no, how... such a beautiful swordsmanship."

"It is the swordsmanship of the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor! Though it is the first move."

I couldn't know when I tried to find it.

When I tried to see, it was not seen.

"The legacy he left is..."

Both of them were looking at my mouth.

It is the legacy of none other than the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor.

It is his swordsmanship, which was called the number one in all ages and times for hundreds of years.

"The Forest of Swords! The entire Forest of Swords is the legacy of the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor!"

The Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor stood at the top of the world with only his own enlightenment, without learning from anyone.

And he left his swordsmanship for future generations?

He left it kindly in a secret manual so that anyone could learn it?

There's no way.

The path!

He left the path he had walked.

He hoped that someone in a later generation would also realize it by following the method he had realized in the Forest of Swords.

"The Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor created his own swordsmanship by looking at the mountains and rivers of the Forest of Swords, and feeling the wind flowing between the mountain peaks. And this painting is an expression of his first enlightenment in a painting."

The two of them looked at the painting once again.

Perhaps they will not be able to see it.

I'm sorry to say, but their vessel is probably not big enough to contain his meaning yet.

"I thought that the flowing river represented the movement of internal energy, and the peaks soaring to the sky represented the movement of the sword, and a certain movement came to my mind."

"You can't just imitate it by knowing the flow, can you? Depending on where you consider the dantian to be, numerous changes can occur."

Dam Sook asked.

That's right.

This painting just shows the flow.

Depending on where you set the standard, that movement can become a swordsmanship, or it can become a ridiculous dance of a clown in the market.

"The location of the dantian was told by you, young lady."

I pointed to a place in the painting with my finger.

The location where the One-Wood Divine Sword is stuck is the location of the dantian.

The Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor has decided on the person who will receive his legacy.

A person who knows the Forest of Swords.

A person who knows the location where the One-Wood Divine Sword is stuck.

And a person who is prepared enough to be able to understand his enlightenment just by looking at the painting.

"If this painting is the first move of the swordsmanship, where are the rest? Are there more paintings?"

"The rest, you have to go to the Forest of Swords yourself and realize it. The locations of the people in the painting are the places where the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor himself gained enlightenment."

He gained enlightenment in the nature of the Forest of Swords while fishing, taking a nap in the shade of a tree, and looking at the red sky at sunset.

"He didn't leave his enlightenment in a secret manual. He left a way to gain enlightenment."

I have solved the secret of the Heavenly Lord's Painting.

I met Na Yeryeong and headed to the Forest of Swords to meet the Soul-Taking Divine Woman.

If I hadn't found her, I would have lived without knowing a place called the Forest of Swords.

If that had been the case, I would not have been able to solve the secret of this painting.

Fate always takes us to unexpected places.

The result may not always be good, but this time it was good.

Unspeakably good.

Can I gain the same enlightenment as the Heavenly Lord Sword Emperor there?

Can I also see what he saw there hundreds of years ago?

I have to get it.

If I gain enlightenment, I will be able to pull out the One-Wood Divine Sword.

I sent them back and was left alone.

Before I knew it, the day had broken.

I sat down in a cross-legged position and was about to organize the insights I had gained from the painting when someone knocked on the door.

When I opened the door, a member of the Changtian Sword Unit was standing in front of the door.

"What brings you here so early in the morning?"

"The commander has asked to see you for a moment."

The commander of the Changtian Sword Unit and the spy of the Demonic Cult, Naeng Muyeom, is looking for me first.

I was waiting

(End of Chapter)