novelraw Chapter 181
Chapter 181
At the cave’s mouth, Danmok Seong was waiting restlessly.
“Sister Hong , you have at last come out!”
He greeted the White-Haired Demon Queen and Kwak Yeon warmly.
The cave entrance was bright as midday.
What had felt like an instant of mental-image sparring had in truth consumed more than the passing of a single night.
Seeing only Danmok Seong, the White-Haired Demon Queen asked:
“Why are you alone?”
“I sent the youngsters into the village to fetch provisions.”
“......”
“We came in such haste that we had nothing at hand. Of course, that is not to say it was your fault, Sister Hong.”
Though he hastily corrected his slip, her eyes had already grown cold.
“Why did you send along my disciple?”
“Well, Young Lady Ju wished to prepare a meal for you, so I allowed her to go. If she stayed here, she would have been left sitting by herself... In any case, that too was my mistake.”
“Hmph!”
With a cold snort, she strode toward the cave’s exit.
“Sister Hong, will you depart so soon?”
His voice was thick with regret.
“Having finished, is it not natural that I leave?”
“The children will soon return. At least share a meal—”
“And why should I sit and eat at one table with you?”
Her words, sharp with chill, left no room for reply. She departed the cave at once.
The brightness on Danmok Seong’s face darkened.
“Taoist Kwak, I have no face before you.”
“......”
To Kwak Yeon, this was an exceedingly private matter between the two, unfit for comment.
“In any case, I thank you for your efforts.”
“Ah—you overheard?”
“In the stillness of the night, voices suddenly carried. Though I knew it wrong to eavesdrop, I could not help but hear.”
Kwak Yeon fully understood his position.
To a master of Danmok Seong’s caliber, with sharpened senses, words spoken in the same cavern might as well have been whispered in his ear.
“In any case, I never thought I would come to owe Taoist Kwak so great a debt. Thus I too wish to repay you.”
“Elder, that is not necessary.”
Danmok Seong shook his head.
“Do not decline. Just as Sister Hong did, I too wish to lend a hand. When the Celestial Dragon ascends to an untraveled realm, I would take pride in having laid even one stone in the path beneath.”
Kwak Yeon was moved by his elder’s nobility of spirit, yet could not easily reply.
Then Danmok Seong continued:
“What I intend to transmit is an art I forged myself. It does not belong to the Danmok Clan, so you need not feel burdened. That art is...”
He drew his sword and traced a line across the cave floor.
“Seongra Heaven Sword Wall (Seongrachaengeombyeok).”
Along the line, a shimmering wall of true qi rose, faintly blue.
“Ah!”
Kwak Yeon’s eyes widened in astonishment.
“When in Deokseong you lifted that go stone, I saw your interest in this art.”
He recalled how, at Danmok Seong’s request, he had picked up a go stone that bristled with infused qi, and how it had startled him.
“From that moment, I intended to teach it to you. So do not refuse.”
Seeing the sincerity in his gaze, Kwak Yeon could not decline further.
“To have met you two Elders is truly a great fortune for this one.”
Danmok Seong laughed heartily.
“Compared to what I have received from you, this is but a drop in the ocean.”
“......”
“Strike while the iron is hot. Let us begin at once.”
Seongra Heaven Sword Wall was the culmination of Danmok Seong’s lifetime of insight, a sword art of ascent.
To reach its true formula, one had to learn step by step from the foundation upward, requiring much time.
Even with Kwak Yeon’s enlightened Insight (Oseong), awakened by Honwonmusang Technique, he had to focus with utmost concentration.
Day turned to night, and still the transmission continued.
By then Danmok Cheong and Ju Yeoryeong had returned from the village, and Ju Yeoryeong soon departed again.
“Let us end here for today,” Danmok Seong said deep into the night.
Seeing his weariness, Kwak Yeon was struck with guilt.
He had only just recovered from grave internal injuries, and serving as protector had cost him much energy besides.
“Elder, I let my greed lead me. Forgive me.”
Danmok Seong laughed.
“There is nothing to forgive. I too was intoxicated in the samadhi of martial study. And I rejoice, for this sword art seems at last to have found its rightful master.”
“Such words are too heavy for one of low attainment as I.”
“Not so.”
He shook his head.
“Even a prodigy of the world would take a month at minimum to absorb what you have grasped today. Considering your attainment, this is truly astonishing.”
“......”
“It is because your inner cultivation is solid and your understanding of the body’s meridians profound. With one word, you advanced ten steps ahead. My life’s study of the inner channels feels ashamed before you.”
“I cannot bear such praise.”
Once more Kwak Yeon felt the fruit of his ten years of steady practice, circulating the full meridian map since his time at the training hall.
Still burdened, he asked:
“Though Elder has created it, should you not leave it to the Danmok Clan?”
As he learned the sword art, he had recognized its roots in the clan’s martial forms. That he, an outsider, should be deemed its rightful inheritor troubled him.
“Taoist Kwak, putting a pearl necklace on a pig only dooms the pig, puffed up and slain for its vanity. I will leave the manual to the clan, but under a seal, so none may practice it recklessly.”
Kwak Yeon understood his anguish. He spoke of none other than the Young Lord Danmok Cheong, who had once flaunted his pearl necklace and come to grief.
‘Elder, even so, to call your grandson a pig wearing pearls is far too harsh.’
“In any case, I shall rest. At dawn we continue.”
“Yes, Elder.”
As he entered breath regulation, Kwak Yeon slipped quietly out.
Where Ju Yeoryeong had once sat by the entrance, Danmok Cheong now sat.
“......!”
Sensing him, Danmok Cheong rose and bowed deeply.
“I had no leisure to give thanks before. I thank you, Uncle!”
For he had heard how Kwak Yeon, as Great Uncle, had invoked that kinship to intervene with the White-Haired Demon Queen. Thus he resolved to honor him with that address.
“......!”
Kwak Yeon saw the change in him. No longer the haughty heir of a great clan, but one who now bore a warrior’s posture.
He had half-suspected it, having heard that he was wounded saving Ju Yeoryeong. Now, meeting him face to face, he saw it clearly.
In less than two months, he had endured trials enough.
And at the last, he had nearly lost his head to the White-Haired Demon Queen. Had he not changed, it would be stranger still.
‘So Elder Danmok’s purpose in dragging this unseasoned Young Lord along has been fulfilled. And yet...’
Without a word, Kwak Yeon stepped to his side. Together they gazed at the lone lamp burning like a star in the darkness.
The shrine-lamp at Honggajimyo flickered precariously.
He knew that, save for the ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) time needed to prepare meals, Danmok Cheong’s daily habit was to sit watching the valley of Lotus Valley.
‘Cowherd and Weaver Girl?’
No. Their plight was harsher than that of Cowherd and Weaver Girl, bound by elders’ enmity.
For those two at least met once each year on the seventh night of the seventh month.
A pang of pity stirred in Kwak Yeon.
‘If only some Magpie Bridge might span between them.’
He set aside the thought at once.
Hope was not yet lost.
If the two Biik Birds —Danmok Seong and the White-Haired Demon Queen—should take wing together, then the matter of these young ones would naturally find resolution.
For Danmok Cheong, as a warrior, there was a more pressing matter.
“Young Lord.”
Kwak Yeon turned his eyes from the lamp to him.
“Though awkward, since you have given me the respect of an uncle, I shall act the part once.”
“I feel no awkwardness any longer.”
“Then I shall speak plainly.”
“......?”
“Your inner cultivation is formidable. Yet the reason I subdued you so easily is that your force was laid bare.”
“Ah!”
“It was not error in method or circulation. You were at the stage of projecting true qi outward.”
Indeed, he had been humiliated in Anyang, unable to recognize a Flame Realm master.
“Only one thing: lacking insight, you could not gather your force inward.”
Danmok Cheong bowed his head.
“My granduncle ever admonished me on this. To hear it again from Uncle, I feel my deficiency all the more.”
“So, I will try to provide the seed of that insight.”
“Ah!”
“Do not expect much. True enlightenment cannot be handed down.”
“Even so, I am grateful.”
Kwak Yeon led him back into the cave and bade him sit.
“Simply set your mind at ease and accept whatever comes.”
As he settled into meditation, Kwak Yeon entered circulation of Honwonmusang Technique.
For Danmok Cheong, who had never cultivated inner vision, mental-image sparring was impossible.
Instead, as with So Cheong, he expanded his true qi field to enfold him, hoping he might at least sense the edge of Honwonmusang Technique.
Even failing that, if he only glimpsed the world of insight and thereafter strove toward inner vision, it would be worth it.
Through the night Kwak Yeon circulated.
In the process, he felt the great cavities once emptied by his clash with the White-Haired Demon Queen begin filling anew with qi.
The astounding thing was that the measure of qi they held had greatly increased.
〈To fill, one must first empty. Yet it cannot be by my own will that it fills.〉
The words of Patriarch Jang Sambong rose in his mind.
‘Qi that fills the External Boundary comes not from within the dantian, but from without. That is why, though I strove so hard, it never filled!’
Because he had entered circulation with the heart of aiding Danmok Cheong, he had received this boon.
“Thank you.”
At the sound of So Cheong’s voice, the qi of the External Boundary grew yet denser.
‘How could I not have understood this before?’
With a rueful smile at his own dullness, Kwak Yeon saw the cave mouth pale with dawn.
When he opened his eyes to the warmth of the sun’s qi, Danmok Cheong was still deep in meditation.
“......!”
On his cheek were two trails of tears. Kwak Yeon knew then he had grasped an insight.
Another seed of Patriarch Jang Sambong’s great enlightenment had been sown.
Whether he could bring that seed to flower would depend on him.
What was certain was this: such seeds would help sweep away the demonic qi of the world.
For light ever drives away darkness.
And another truth gladdened Kwak Yeon—
To Danmok Cheong, Seongra Heaven Sword Wall was no longer a pearl necklace on a pig.
From the depths of the cave, he looked back at Danmok Seong, who had long been watching over them.
‘Elder Danmok, you must now apologize for calling the Young Lord a pig.’