Sword God Reborn

Chapter 65 : It Was Already There.

"You mean the pictures?"

"Yes. They asked me to draw some pictures."

"Young Master Cheon made such a request?"

"Yes."

"So why would he..."

"That person was originally famous for liking to draw, so his old habit must have come out."

Although Neung-heo said it nonchalantly, Cheonghyeonjin could not think of it simply.

'Did Young Master Cheon find something?'

It was Neung-heo who had come to find Cheonghyeonjin, who had been moving to go to Mount Hua as soon as dawn broke.

And he had suddenly asked for a picture.

To be precise, it was a request to draw the patterns and pictures that had been drawn in the maze as he remembered them.

"I understand."

"Ah, not only Jin-in, but if possible, the other disciples of Mount Hua as well..."

"If it is Young Master Cheon's request, we should of course grant it. I will also draw it for you."

Gukbo also readily stepped forward.

Cheonghyeonjin, who had glanced at Gukbo, was inwardly satisfied.

After coming out of the Ghost Tomb, Gukbo had often asked about what had happened at Shaolin, and he had especially asked a lot about Cheon Mubaeck.

It was not envy or jealousy, but questions that contained a certain amount of respect and awe.

'It's a good thing.'

Simple jealousy or envy could be a driving force for a person to grow, but if it became severe, it would come as a heart demon in martial arts.

But if one made that a goal, it could become an even greater driving force for growth.

Cheon Mubaeck, seeing the change in Gukbo, who had been somewhat arrogant, not knowing how wide the world was, having only been in Mount Hua, nodded his head.

'Since he has changed the future of Mount Hua for the better, even if it's just a little, what's a mere picture? I should help.'

Cheonghyeonjin drew the picture that was engraved in the maze that he remembered.

* * *

Cheon Mubaeck entered the underground plaza again.

A few people who had heard the rumors and had come to see if there was anything had been loitering around, but now they had all left and it was quiet.

'Why did he make a maze?'

Cheon Mubaeck looked at the place where the altar was.

The name that was faintly erased at the entrance before entering the maze was clearly the Complete Truth Sacred Altar.

A sacred altar was a place where believers should be able to easily find.

Any believer should be able to find it and honor their god.

But this place could only be found after wandering through a maze.

'Why?'

Why had he made a place that could be easily found, only to be found after wandering through a maze?

"My lord, I've brought the pictures."

At that moment, Neung-heo approached.

Cheon Mubaeck's head snapped around. At his intense gaze, Neung-heo, who had been full of an annoyed look, flinched and stopped.

"Neung-heo."

"Y-Yes?"

"What do you think a sacred object is?"

"A sacred object? What kind of bullshit... eum. Well?"

Neung-heo crossed his arms and racked his brain as much as possible. Looking at Cheon Mubaeck's gaze, he could not answer carelessly.

"Eum, well, it's the most important thing, right? Something that is sanctified and most cherished in that religion?"

"The most important thing. The most cherished thing."

Cheon Mubaeck slowly mumbled.

If there was a sacred object here, if it was the most cherished and important thing.

"All those who came here were martial artists."

It had to be.

A hidden place, a maze, what kind of ordinary person could enter such a place?

They all had to be people who had learned martial arts and could take care of their own bodies.

"What is precious to a martial artist?"

"Well, it would be a secret manual of an ultimate martial art."

"The reason why a secret manual of an ultimate martial art is precious is because of the belief that one can be completed as a martial artist."

All martial artists crave a secret manual of an ultimate martial art.

Because a stronger martial arts secret manual would lead one's martial arts to a higher place.

"To reach a higher realm of martial arts, to achieve the completion of martial arts, one must go through a terrible hardship beyond simple training."

"A terrible hardship?"

"Sometimes getting lost, sometimes getting angry, and sometimes getting frustrated."

Neung-heo's pupils shook slightly.

"...It's like a maze."

A higher realm.

Sometimes you get lost, you get angry and break down walls, and sometimes you stop because you can't find a way.

But to get there, you have to overcome hardships and adversities like a maze.

Just like learning martial arts.

"But when you go through hardships, there is always a key."

"A key?"

"It could be the guidance of a master, the advice of seniors who have gone ahead, and sometimes it could be an elixir."

"Then in the maze..."

Neung-heo, without even realizing it, took out a cloth from his bosom.

It was the pictures of the maze that he remembered, which Cheonghyeonjin and the martial artists of Mount Hua had drawn.

Cheon Mubaeck drew his sword. And he drew lines on the hard floor with his sword.

Lines and shapes were instantly created on the floor, which was made of hard stone.

Neung-heo's eyes widened.

"These are the pictures of Mount Hua that you brought."

"That's right."

Kkigigik.

Cheon Mubaeck continued to draw more.

"And this is the one of the Mute Red Demon."

"Did you go to the Mute Red Demon and ask him to draw a picture?"

"He drew it for me."

"Obediently?"

"I hit him a little."

"Wow. You're the best in the martial world at respecting the elderly."

Cheon Mubaeck ignored him and this time, he engraved the picture that Neung-heo remembered on the floor.

"Huh?"

Neung-heo's eyes widened.

The maze they were trapped in was definitely the same. Then the pictures in the maze they had seen should all be the same.

But...

"It's strangely different."

He could see some different corners.

Of course, a person's memory is not accurate, so he would not be able to draw it exactly as he remembered.

But when he compared all the pictures together, a clear difference caught his eye.

"The pictures were the key to solving the maze."

"That means... it's a path."

Neung-heo summed up the situation.

"To see the higher realm that the martial artists want, the completion of martial arts, you have to go through the hardship of a maze, and the path to get out of that hardship is these pictures?"

"Right."

A sacred object is an important thing.

This sacred altar is not a sacred altar for believers.

It is a sacred altar for martial artists.

To a martial artist who has come to the sacred altar, a sacred object is a secret manual, or the completion of martial arts.

To Cheon Mubaeck, it was the end of the sword.

The Sword Kiuk.

'The hardship to reach the Sword Kiuk was embodied as a maze, and to get out of that maze, the pictures were the key.'

Neung-heo said.

"Uh, then what is it that the maze's structure changes with a 'hwik hwik'? It became like that when you pulled out that strange cone."

"What was the reason for pulling that out?"

"I touched it because it stood out."

"Because it stood out..."

"It's just a complicated maze, there's nothing, but only that is sticking out. I touched it because I was curious what it was."

Right, that's right.

"A maze that continues endlessly, a maze where the same pictures are repeated, something that catches your eye while you're wandering, unable to find an exit. In the midst of boredom, can you not touch that special thing?"

"Right? So. I'm saying I didn't pull it out for no reason. Why did you hit me?"

Cheon Mubaeck recalled the cone-shaped structure.

It was hard to just ignore it, sticking out from the flat wall of the maze.

Even if he ignored it, an afterimage would inevitably remain in his mind.

As he wandered through the maze, that feeling would become even more severe.

"The completion of martial arts and raising one's realm is an extremely difficult and tedious task. What was it like when you pulled out the cone?"

"The maze all changed. And, the pictures also changed."

"The pictures changed. In other words, the path changed."

Cheon Mubaeck's mind gradually brightened.

"It's a change of heart."

It is an extremely difficult task to just dig one well.

"In the midst of a tedious hardship, unable to reach the completion of martial arts, you eventually change your mind and look for another path."

The path to the completion of martial arts.

You have no confidence in yourself. In the midst of that, you look for a new method, and the path keeps changing.

The more you do so, the more difficult it becomes to get out of the maze.

A once shaken heart will keep getting lost, just as the maze keeps changing every half a quarter of an hour.

You can't get a grip.

So what action did Cheon Mubaeck take?

"I pulled out all the cones and completely destroyed the maze."

"Right."

"So I almost died, though."

"..."

"There are probably a few guys with a broken leg or two."

He had pulled out all the cones.

He had struggled to find a new path.

So what was the situation that followed?

The maze had completely collapsed.

"I got so lost that I completely collapsed."

And there was nothing in the underground plaza where he had fallen.

Although he had wandered through the maze, in the end, he had gotten nothing.

"This is strange."

Cheon Mubaeck shook his head.

The maze had collapsed, and he had gotten nothing.

No matter how much he had gotten lost and had wandered, even if he had tried to find another path and had lost his own path.

It didn't make sense that nothing would be left and that it would disappear, just because he couldn't raise his martial arts realm.

'Lü Dongbin, what were you thinking?'

Cheon Mubaeck's face was crumpled.

Because it was so different from the martial arts that Cheon Mubaeck had thought of.

Even if you get lost and wander, even if you try to find another path and lose your own path.

Once you hold a sword.

Once you step into the path of martial arts, you can't be left with nothing.

It can't be that you get nothing, just like there is nothing in the empty underground plaza.

'Enlightenment is bound to remain.'

Even if it is regret, enlightenment is bound to remain.

Martial arts.

"It doesn't disappear."

Neung-heo shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, what can we do? There's nothing. Did those Blood Demon Sect guys take it? They're all dead, so we can't ask."

Neung-heo stretched as if he were tired.

Then he looked at the pictures that Cheon Mubaeck had engraved on the floor and suddenly said.

"But what exactly are these pictures of?"

At Neung-heo's question, Cheon Mubaeck's body suddenly stopped.

Lines and shapes.

Geometric pictures and patterns.

At first, Cheon Mubaeck had just thought of them as a key to solving the maze.

For example, the guidance of a master, or the advice of seniors who had gone ahead.

Or the help of an elixir.

The numerous assistances that one gets while advancing in martial arts.

Hadn't Cheon Mubaeck also come to this path with countless experiences, advice, and elixirs?

But they were too diverse and many to be left with just such a simple meaning.

Cheon Mubaeck was silent for a moment, looking at the pictures.

'The end of martial arts that Lü Dongbin thought of. He expressed the hardship to reach it as a maze, so what is the path?'

Cheon Mubaeck recalled Lü Dongbin.

And for a moment, he became him.

'What is different from him. Here, I have to think like that guy, not my own thoughts. The difference between me and that guy...'

He was a guy who liked symbolic things. Because he was a Taoist.

But at least in martial arts, he had a clear opinion of his own, to the point where he would sometimes be at odds with Cheon Mubaeck.

And there was one difference from Cheon Mubaeck.

'Forms...'

Cheon Mubaeck's eyes flashed.

Cheon Mubaeck's eyes quickly scanned the pictures engraved on the floor.

The lines and shapes danced.

Seureung.

Cheon Mubaeck drew his sword.

'I had thought that I had to break away from the forms, and Lü Dongbin had always said that I had to keep the forms.'

Lü Dongbin had emphasized the importance of the forms more than anyone else.

Thanks to the experience of numerous past lives, Cheon Mubaeck, who could learn and use martial arts with just his senses, without being bound by the forms, was not bound by the forms.

He had thought that he had to move on his own, breaking away from the forms in all martial arts.

He had thought that each person's forms were different, and each person's sword was different.

On the other hand, Lü Dongbin was different.

He had believed that in order to advance, one had to follow the set rules and paths.

He had thought that ordinary martial artists would not be shaken if they knew the forms.

That was the biggest and most decisive difference between Lü Dongbin and Cheon Mubaeck.

Cheon Mubaeck, as if he were possessed, raised his sword.

His sword drew the lines engraved on the floor.

The lines soon became shapes.

The shapes soon became a sword.

A smile appeared on Cheon Mubaeck's lips.

"It was... already there."

The biggest reason why Lü Dongbin had come to be called the Sword Immortal.

The Heaven-Concealing Sword Technique was drawn from the tip of Cheon Mubaeck's sword.

(End of Chapter)