e-booksonline Chapter 279 : Sword Immortal
Chapter 279 : Sword Immortal
Chapter 279: Sword Immortal
Standing before Beginning Cave and examining it for quite some time, Gwa Bo finally spoke.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it?”
“Are you sure there’s really no issue?”
“From what I can see, everything’s perfectly fine.”
“Mister, there’s no way to enter inside, right?”
When Gun Yu-hye asked, Gwa Bo shook his head.
“Impossible. My skills only go as far as maintaining and repairing it. I’m not at the level where I can freely control a place like this. Tae-gyeong, what about you?”
Seon Tae-gyeong, who had also been examining the entrance to Beginning Cave from beside him, shook his head as well.
“It’s impossible for me too. The formations installed inside are not ordinary. Even our Sect Leader would have difficulty with this.”
The Sect Leader he referred to was the former Sect Leader of the Radiant Light Sect.
Though defeated by Hyeonwol, the previous Sect Leader of the Radiant Light Sect had been a spellcaster whose name ranked among the Seventeen Lords.
If even someone of that level found it difficult, it meant there was no immediate solution.
“Then what if we just destroy it and go inside to bring Big Brother out?”
“That’s dangerous. If you lift up a sleeping person and force him to stand, can he walk? He’ll just collapse. And naturally, he’ll get hurt.”
“But shouldn’t we at least pull him out first…….”
“We have no choice but to wait. If we interfere carelessly, he might never awaken and remain trapped in his inner world forever.”
At Gwa Bo’s grave response, Jin Ha-un fell silent.
“Mister, but this is taking way too long. It’s already delayed enough. We can’t just wait forever.”
“I know. I don’t understand why it’s taking this long either. Does that Jang Woo-hyun fellow perhaps have some martial art he never mastered? Something he learned but never properly trained because he had regrets? Or maybe some incomplete martial art passed down through his family?”
“He doesn’t.”
Jin Ha-un answered firmly.
That was absolutely impossible.
Jang Woo-hyun failing to properly learn a martial art?
Ridiculous.
Jang Woo-hyun was the type of person who mastered every martial art easily and copied it immediately.
“Then what is it? Is it because he learned too many martial arts, so it’s taking a long time to revisit them all?”
“Since this place is meant for revisiting previously learned martial arts, that possibility seems more likely.”
“It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this, so I really don’t know. And of all times, Old Man Sama had to be away.”
As Gwa Bo fell into thought, Yong Seo-hee, who had been standing furthest back, cautiously spoke up.
“Um…….”
“Hm? What is it, young lady of the Divine Dragon Clan?”
“It’s not a martial art, but he does possess a mysterious secret manual.”
“A secret manual? Something like that wouldn’t cause any abnormalities, so don’t worry. Beginning Cave lets one revisit martial arts they’ve learned. It’s not a place for interpreting secret manuals.”
“But while it is a secret manual, its nature is extremely unusual.”
“How unusual are we talking?”
“It was left behind by the person known as the very first Sword Immortal—”
“The first Sword Immortal? You mean the secret manual of the Heavenly Sword Clan?”
Since Gwa Bo already knew of it, he interrupted her.
“Y-yes. That’s right.”
“So it was that! The will left behind by the Sword Immortal! Why didn’t you say so earlier? I believe its name was…… Heavenly Escape Sword Art?”
Yong Seo-hee nodded vigorously.
“That’s right.”
“Is the fellow inside the owner of the Heavenly Escape Sword Art?”
When Gwa Bo asked, Yong Seo-hee explained the Heavenly Escape Sword Art.
Originally, she had possessed it.
But the moment she came into contact with Jang Woo-hyun, the secret manual burned away.
At the time, they guessed it had not simply disappeared but had recognized Jang Woo-hyun as its owner.
“And whose assumption was that? Yours?”
“No. Lord Cho-su said so.”
“Cho-su?”
“He’s a craftsman from the Nation of Mechanical Marvels who travels with us.”
“If someone from the Nation of Mechanical Marvels said that, then there’s a high chance the fellow inside truly possesses the Heavenly Escape Sword Art.”
People of the Nation of Mechanical Marvels were considered the greatest in the Central Heavens when it came to judging unusual objects, so their opinions were highly trustworthy.
After hearing the full story, Gwa Bo sank into thought.
“If there really is a problem, it’s probably because of the Heavenly Escape Sword Art. That isn’t an ordinary secret manual.”
“Mister, then what do we do? Since he’s learning that manual, should we just leave him alone?”
“No, this makes things complicated.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I’ve heard of the Heavenly Escape Sword Art before. It’s no ordinary secret manual and is known to be extremely difficult to master. Even the Heavenly Sword Clan supposedly only safeguarded it—there was no one within the clan who ever learned it. This is more dangerous than I thought. We need to contact Old Man Sama. We need to pull him out first.”
The situation had changed.
They could no longer simply wait like before.
“Didn’t you say forcing him out would be dangerous?”
“Right now, we have to accept that level of risk.”
“Why?”
“If he fails to master the Heavenly Escape Sword Art, he may never come out of there for the rest of his life. We should pull him out first and find another method afterward.”
“So if he masters what he has, then it’s fine?”
“That’s right. But learning the Heavenly Escape Sword Art will likely take far too long, so we should forcefully extract him firs— Why are all of you making those faces?”
Unlike the serious Gwa Bo, Jin Ha-un, Seon Tae-gyeong, and Yong Seo-hee were smiling.
“So if he learns the martial art, he can come out, right?”
Jin Ha-un, whose face had been tense moments ago, asked while grinning.
“That’s right.”
“Then we just need to wait.”
The three of them all believed the same thing.
If it was Jang Woo-hyun, he would definitely be able to come out on his own.
No matter what martial art it was, he would master it quickly.
---
After suddenly entering Beginning Cave, Jang Woo-hyun found himself standing within an entirely white space.
He expanded his senses and moved his body around.
His condition felt very different from usual.
‘This isn’t reality.’
It was a space called a mental world or inner world.
If this place was meant to revisit past martial arts, then this made sense.
There was no way to rapidly review everything he had learned within reality itself.
A white passage extending endlessly forward caught his eye, so Jang Woo-hyun slowly walked onward.
He had not gone far when silver mist suddenly blocked his path.
Within the silver mist, he briefly saw a small wooden sword.
A dark silhouette resembling a child swung the wooden sword for a brief moment before vanishing.
‘Did I do kendo or something when I was little?’
It was an unfamiliar scene, but it passed too quickly for him to dwell on it.
So he continued walking.
The next figure to appear was someone Jang Woo-hyun knew very well.
“Take half a step forward, prepare to leap out at any moment, pull the sword back like this, and form your stance. This is Tiger Hero Stance. The most basic form.”
‘Master Yang.’
Yang Hyo-myeong, the master of White Tiger Martial Hall, appeared and taught Jang Woo-hyun the Tiger Form Sword.
Seeing someone from long ago again, Jang Woo-hyun drew his sword and followed the martial art he first learned.
Since this was Jang Woo-hyun’s mental world, the Tiger Form Sword that appeared here was no longer awkward.
It had already been refined and improved.
As he pleasantly followed the Tiger Form Sword, the surroundings changed into a mountain forest.
This time, the person before him was the younger brother who had always remained by his side.
‘Ha-un.’
Jin Ha-un used the Flowing Willow Throwing Blade and Qingcheng sword arts, while Jang Woo-hyun faced him.
As they crossed blades, he recalled the time they refined movement arts together long ago.
Jin Ha-un vanished, and the memories continued endlessly.
The martial arts learned in the Demon-Slaying Fang.
Black Wilds Three Swords, Three Wheel Sword Art, Seven Star Sword Step, Single Heart Sword, Mist Mountain Art, Six-Horned Demon King Step.
Martial arts he could now naturally perform flowed forth like a dance.
Using the Flying Flow Divine Technique obtained from the Soul-Chasing Assassination Gate together with Mist Mountain Art, he created Flying Flow Mist Mountain Art and erased his presence.
As he silently walked onward, a man wielding a broad saber appeared.
“People are all born differently. How could everything be standardized? I have my own way, and you have yours.”
He gained enlightenment through Pyo Deuk-won’s guidance.
Using the Tyrant Divine Armor received from Cheol Geuk-jin, he created the Sacred Heaven Flowing Armor.
From Demon-Slaying Divine Fist, he developed Demon-Slaying Single Flash.
Then memories surfaced of the unique martial arts he witnessed at the Silver Flower Merchant Group.
The secret arts of the Tang Clan Dark Heaven, Myriad Flowers Raining from Heaven, the Six Flying Asura Sword of the Asura Sword Sect, Three Heads Three Origins Art, and countless other martial arts rapidly passed by.
Then suddenly—
The surroundings changed once more.
A world with a massive landmass floating in the sky.
The Central Heavens.
“After Transcendence comes Infinite Realm, then Realm of Wish, then Immortality. I don’t know what comes after Immortality. You’d have to ascend above there.”
The first person to appear in the Central Heavens was Gwak Yu-chan.
Through him, Jang Woo-hyun learned the basic knowledge of the Central Heavens, the sensations of the Transcendent Realm, and Void Step.
Then came the martial arts of the Beast King Sect through Maeng Ye-ju and Kang Yung.
His sparring matches with Cheol Geuk-jin and Dang Myeong after reuniting with them.
The Giant’s martial arts that inspired the creation of Spiral Suction Art.
The Energy of the Five Elements he learned after falling to the Lower Realm.
Even the Nayuta Sword Mandala he unleashed while facing the power of the True Immortal.
Scene after scene continued.
The people he formed connections with appeared.
The countless martial arts he stole with his eyes and mastered with his body flowed past him.
He met Supreme Divine Lord Jang Sam-bong and properly learned how to handle the Energy of the Five Elements at the Five Elements Cult.
Finally, the world dyed itself crimson.
‘The Corpse-Blood Realm.’
Within that place, Jang Woo-hyun stepped into the Realm of Wish through the will of a world that sought to kill him.
The crimson world marked the end of his memories.
And Jang Woo-hyun returned once more to the completely white space.
He had reviewed the path he walked until now.
There was nothing particularly special, but revisiting everything he learned until now would likely help him greatly if he stayed here and organized it all.
Just as he roughly settled down and tried to think about the Realm of Wish—
The surroundings changed once more.
‘It’s not over?’
As far as he remembered, there was nothing else he had learned.
It was strange.
The white space disappeared, replaced by scenery he had never seen before.
A distant waterfall poured downward into a massive lake.
Transparent streams filled with fish he had never seen in his life.
Colorful birds flew beneath a rainbow hanging in the sky.
No matter where he looked, the place was beautiful.
It truly resembled a paradise from legend.
But it was not somewhere within his memories.
While observing the surroundings, Jang Woo-hyun spotted a man seated upon a flat rock some distance away.
A middle-aged man with an unkempt beard.
He did not emit any powerful aura.
But his face was so distinctive it immediately drew attention.
Though it felt rude to say this about another person—
‘A potato?’
His face reminded Jang Woo-hyun of a potato.
Jang Woo-hyun walked toward the middle-aged man to speak with him.
Then—
Something invisible struck Jang Woo-hyun on the head.
Smack!
“Ugh!”
“What were you just thinking?”
The potato-faced middle-aged man’s voice was full of amusement.
“Pardon? No, I wasn’t thinking anythi—”
Smack!
“Ugh!”
Jang Woo-hyun crouched while clutching his head.
Even though this clearly was not reality, he still felt pain.
And it hurt terribly.
‘What the hell is this?’
Rubbing his head, Jang Woo-hyun stared at the man before him.
It was someone he had never seen in his life.
So how had he appeared within Jang Woo-hyun’s mental world?
“That look in your eyes is disrespectful. I don’t like your thoughts either. You just thought I looked like a potato, didn’t you?”
“…….”
Jang Woo-hyun unconsciously flinched.
‘Did he read my thoughts?’
Smack!
“Agh!”
“Read your thoughts? Don’t be ridiculous. This is your space. How would that even make sense?”
“Then how exactly……?”
“It’s written all over your face. I can see everything you’re thinking.”
Rubbing his head again, Jang Woo-hyun stood up.
He had endured countless kinds of pain before, but these invisible flicks somehow hurt absurdly badly.
“Who are you? You don’t seem to be a martial artist from the Heavenly Sword Clan.”
“Huh? Then who exactly are yo—”
Smack!
“Ugh!”
‘You’? Why are you so rude?”
“Then what am I supposed to call you……?”
For some reason, Jang Woo-hyun felt he could not act carelessly before this man.
For a moment, he considered trying to swing his sword—
But quickly erased the thought.
It felt like something he absolutely should not do.
And even these forehead flicks alone proved the man was no ordinary person.
Regardless of strength itself, Jang Woo-hyun instinctively felt his sword would never reach him.
“My name? Lü Dongbin. Ever heard of it?”
“Ah…….”
The moment he heard the name, Jang Woo-hyun let out a small gasp.
It was a name he knew very well.
Sword Immortal Lü Dongbin.
The potato-faced man standing before him—
Smack!
“Ugh!”
“There you go again. Thinking disrespectful thoughts.”
“Huh? I wasn’t!”
Jang Woo-hyun hurriedly leaned backward while locking eyes with Lü Dongbin.
The person before him—
Was the owner of the Heavenly Escape Sword Art.