Geom Mugeuk was glaring sharply at something.
After staring for a long while, he soon rubbed his eyes.
“Good grief, my eyes hurt.”
He had been using the Divine Eye Art to peer intently through the cliff across from him.
He had been checking to see if there might be a hole or some mechanism in the cliff, but no matter how he looked, there was nothing special there.
Geom Mugeuk started walking again.
“Youngest, just where are you?”
The first place Geom Mugeuk had searched was the pond on the peak opposite the pond where the sword tomb had been. After all, those two ponds were like a pair of eyes, representing Cheonmoksan.
Since there had been a fake sword tomb on this side, perhaps there might be an entrance leading to the real tomb at the pond on the opposite peak?
Unfortunately, there was not. He searched every inch beneath the pond, but found no passage.
After that, he began searching the nearby peaks one by one.
It was no easy task.
As if they would hang a signboard saying, “Tomb of the former Sado Alliance Leaders.” It would surely have been made so that even if it were right before his eyes, he would pass by without seeing it.
Could he really find that secretly hidden tomb in this vast Cheonmoksan?
Even so, he could not let impatience drive him to race here and there with lightness skill as he searched. He had to sense any changes in his body or vibrations from the secret coffer.
The problem was this. If that final bead was hidden deep inside the tomb, would the energy in his body or the secret coffer even be able to react?
Until now, the secret coffer had only reacted when he approached a bead.
The one and only hope was that this bead was the final energy.
Geom Mugeuk focused all his mind and climbed the mountain while examining his surroundings.
As he walked, he emitted his qi. The energy stretched out in all directions like a spiderweb, probing the area around him. He could even sense insects rustling beneath rotten leaves, but there was no other special energy.
Yes, that was only natural. It would be stranger if he found it easily.
After walking for a long while, he heard the sound of water. Geom Mugeuk went down to a valley and washed his face.
His own face was reflected in the stream.
Over that face, the face he had worn in old age before his regression overlapped.
Compared to the hardships of that time, this was nothing.
“Now then, let’s go find the youngest!”
But although he searched every inch of the place until late, he could not find the entrance to the tomb.
Someone unused to searching might grow anxious, wondering if they had missed a spot. What if they had overlooked it here and ended up wasting effort elsewhere?
Even so, one had to move on without lingering attachment.
Geom Mugeuk knew from experience. A place missed once would not easily catch the eye no matter how many times one looked at it again.
So one must not look back, but move on to the next place. Only by pushing forward like that could one search without growing exhausted.
“Don’t worry. Finding things is what I’m better at than killing people.”
* * *
That night, Geom Mugeuk camped alone.
Until now, most of his camps had been with others.
But today was a camp meant only for himself. He lit a bonfire and made a place just for himself. Sitting on soft leather, he roasted meat for himself and drank wine.
Crackle, crackle.
He did not dislike this time spent drinking a cup while watching the burning bonfire. No, he enjoyed it. He had originally been someone who liked being alone.
Even the solitary times that had been hard in his life before regression, thinking back on them now, had not been painful because of loneliness.
‘What if I can’t find the materials for the Great Art? What if my life ends while I’m still only searching for the materials?’
It had been difficult because of anxieties like those.
But in the end, he had overcome them well. He had endured and come all the way here.
So he deserved to hear these words. Especially at the end of this journey, during which he had dealt with all of the Twelve Zodiac Kings.
“You’re doing well, Mugeuk.”
Geom Mugeuk praised himself.
After his regression, he had praised others until his mouth went dry, but he had lived forgetting to praise himself.
He could not remember when he had last so openly praised himself. Had there ever been such a time?
“Mugeuk, you really are doing well.”
Only the stars filling the sky were sending sparkling applause for this precious praise.
* * *
The One-Flower Sword Venerable stood alone, looking up at the night sky.
“Can’t sleep?”
When she turned around, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was walking toward her.
After parting from Geom Mugeuk and descending the mountain, they had stayed at an inn in the village. The place she was in now was the entrance to the village, a little distance from the inn. She had stepped out briefly for a walk.
“I can’t seem to sleep tonight.”
It was not simply because her sleeping place had changed.
“I keep thinking of the way the Young Cult Leader fought.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon looked as though he understood her. He was the same. It would probably stimulate and torment them for some time.
“How about you, Brother?”
“What do you mean?”
He thought she was asking about the Young Cult Leader’s martial arts, but her question was about something else.
“This trip outside the cult. I don’t think I’ve ever had a journey this enjoyable in my life.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon nodded. He felt the same. It had been a journey with Geom Mugeuk and the One-Flower Sword Venerable; how could it not have been enjoyable?
“That’s because Mugeuk was so considerate.”
This time, the One-Flower Sword Venerable nodded in agreement.
“The Young Cult Leader likes you very much, Brother.”
“That brat? No way.”
Though he said that, how could the Blood Heaven Blade Demon not know Geom Mugeuk’s feelings? How could he not know the brat’s heart, trying to bolster his pride before the One-Flower Sword Venerable with every word he spoke? How could he not know after seeing him pile up all those elixirs that restored youth?
Yes, the fact that he could understand such feelings was probably a gift of travel that could only be known by going outside the cult together.
“You’ve changed a lot too, Brother. In the past, you wouldn’t have asked that man to come with us.”
When he had suggested to the Sword King that they go together to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, she had been inwardly surprised. The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was not that kind of person. Naturally, she had thought he had made the suggestion for the Young Cult Leader’s sake.
“It wasn’t because of the Young Cult Leader. It was because of you.”
“Because of me?”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon said something unexpected.
“I thought you might want to fight him one more time.”
The One-Flower Sword Venerable looked at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon with an unreadable smile.
“It was the first time I’d felt that way. Three people who use swords gathered together, and my skill was last?”
She could accept that the Young Cult Leader was stronger than her. He had learned the Nine Flames Demonic Art, and Geom Mugeuk was someone more special than anyone else.
But the Sword King was a different case. She had met him as an enemy, and he was someone who used the sword just as she did.
And yet she had not been able to defeat him. In the end, it had looked like a draw, but she knew. He had yielded one move to her.
“Shall I confess something?”
At her words, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon flinched in surprise. She had never said such things in her life.
“There was a time when I came to hate the sword.”
Perhaps the greatest gain the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had obtained from this journey was his relationship with her. She had come to reveal her inner thoughts like this. They had grown quite comfortable even before, but not to this extent.
“Come now, a Sword Venerable hating the sword?”
At the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s joking rebuke, the One-Flower Sword Venerable smiled faintly and drew her sword.
“No matter how much I trained, there was no progress in my swordsmanship. It felt as though I had become tightly wedged somewhere, blocked off. Just thinking about it made me feel suffocated.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon knew. Since her youth, she had been fiercely competitive, and her desire to become stronger had been great.
“At that time, I was irritated often, and I didn’t want to see people either. I didn’t show it outwardly, but my inner self was a complete mess.”
She looked at her face reflected in the sword. Her face from that time rose up, overlapping with it. That time when her makeup had grown thicker and thicker.
“Back then, the Young Cult Leader pierced through what had been so tightly blocked in one breath and raised the ceiling of my martial arts. Once the ceiling rose, every problem was solved in that instant. That was when I realized. All my problems had been because of my swordsmanship.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon regretted that he had not been able to help her then.
Thinking of it now, speaking with her comfortably like this and sharing their inner thoughts had not been such a difficult thing.
He only had to go to her first, apologize, and accept her heart.
Why had that been so difficult back then? Looking back now, it was truly nothing at all.
“But on this journey, the Young Cult Leader blew away that raised ceiling altogether. So I don’t need to face that man again.”
She looked up at the night sky.
“Because now, above my head, there is only the sky.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon understood what she meant. She intended to go all the way to the end with the sword.
“Is it a blessing? Or a curse?”
He had said it out of concern for her, but apparently it had been a blessing.
The One-Flower Sword Venerable smiled as she spoke.
“The Young Cult Leader blew away our ceilings, but in return he breathed youthful vitality into us as well, didn’t he? Let’s begin again.”
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon knew that her words about beginning again had to do with martial arts. But at least in that moment, he wondered what it would have been like if they had carried a different meaning.
He did not reveal those feelings, however. Though the ceiling had been pierced, she still kept an invisible barrier between herself and him. She was someone who stepped back one pace if he stepped closer by one.
“Don’t lose to that sword-wielding riffraff!”
And so the two Demon Venerables talked on, unaware that the night was deepening.
* * *
The next day as well, Geom Mugeuk wandered through the mountains.
He emitted spiderweb-like energy from his body to search for any other presence, and when he stood somewhere with a clear view, he examined the cliffs across from him with the Divine Eye Art.
It was bleak and exhausting work, but Geom Mugeuk silently searched for the entrance.
“How do you like it? Is the view good there?”
On the sunny hillside halfway up the mountain across from where Geom Mugeuk was looking, he could see the grave of the One-Flower Sword Venerable’s maternal uncle.
“You know, don’t you? That’s quite an auspicious site too. Since ancient times, an auspicious site should have a mountain behind it and water flowing before it…”
Among the books he had read at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s house, there had been one on feng shui. Just as he recalled that passage from the book—
A thought struck Geom Mugeuk, and his eyes widened.
“Ah, that’s right!”
Geom Mugeuk immediately soared into the air.
“…the mountain ridges to the left and right should seem to embrace the auspicious site, the wind should be hidden, and the water should curve. The soil should be firm and not damp, and should be red or golden in hue.”
That was the content about auspicious sites he had read at the time.
“I have to find an auspicious site!”
No matter how important secrecy was, it was still the tomb of the former Sado Alliance Leaders. When they first searched for a place, they must surely have chosen one according to feng shui.
It was obvious, yet he had failed to think of it until seeing the grave of the One-Flower Sword Venerable’s maternal uncle reminded him.
Geom Mugeuk flew among the many peaks of Cheonmoksan, searching for the place that might be the most auspicious.
And he found a place that fit.
“This is it!”
It was none other than Seoninbong, the Immortal Peak. It was located in what could be called the most auspicious site in Cheonmoksan.
Geom Mugeuk went straight below Immortal Peak. He could not know whether the tomb was here, but it would still be the wise choice to examine the most likely place first.
Geom Mugeuk climbed the mountain while examining his surroundings even more carefully.
As he climbed, he met an old man coming down. He was an herb gatherer carrying an herb bag.
“Good day.”
Geom Mugeuk lightly bowed his head in greeting as he passed.
The old man asked Geom Mugeuk,
“Are you perhaps a martial artist?”
“I am.”
“I was surprised because this is the first time a martial artist has greeted me first.”
Geom Mugeuk smiled and cupped his fist to him.
“On behalf of all the rude martial artists until now, I apologize.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s unexpected response, the old man became flustered and waved his hands.
“There is no need for that. Your words alone make me embarrassed and grateful.”
Since they had exchanged greetings, the two stopped for a moment.
“The scenery here is truly beautiful.”
Beside them, a field spread out on a slant. It was wide open in every direction, and grasses grown up to an adult’s waist swayed in the wind.
“This is a place called Pungwon, the Wind Garden, because it is a place where one can play with the wind.”
“Play with the wind?”
Just then, a long blade of grass carried by the blowing wind fluttered along with it. It went this way, went that way, rose and fell; strangely, the wind blew from many directions.
“Isn’t it quite amusing?”
Had he not greeted the old man, he would not have learned the name or the place.
“Then go carefully.”
After saying farewell, the old man continued on his way. Watching his retreating figure, Geom Mugeuk looked toward the Wind Garden.
The blade of grass from a moment ago was still playing there like a child.
Just as Geom Mugeuk was about to start climbing the mountain again, he suddenly recalled what Dan Sojin had said before they parted.
—Seeing you, Young Cult Leader, makes me think you are like the wind. I hope that from now on, you will continue living a wonderful life, entrusting yourself to the wind.
‘Could it be?’
Could it be that he had left him some clue?
Geom Mugeuk’s gaze turned once more toward the windswept field. A sloping field. There was no way the entrance to a tomb would be in a place like this.
If he had not met the old man, he would have passed this place without giving it much thought. It was far too open and exposed to contain anything secretive.
Was it because of Dan Sojin’s final words? For some reason, he felt drawn to it.
Watching the blade of grass entrust itself to the wind and fly this way and that, Geom Mugeuk too walked toward the place. He pushed his way into the grasses that rose up to his waist.
And just as Dan Sojin had said, he completely entrusted his body to the wind.
Whoooosh.
At the wind blowing from behind, he walked forward. When the wind changed and blew from the left, he walked to the right. Both his body and his steps were lighter than ever.
Then, when the wind stopped, Geom Mugeuk also stopped where he stood.
Entrusting one’s body to the wind! It was easy to say, but by no means easy to do. One had to feel the wind perfectly in order to move accurately. One had to stop precisely when it was time to stop, and immediately respond to wind blowing from another direction.
Geom Mugeuk moved exactly as the wind blew.
At this moment, Geom Mugeuk became one with the wind. It was as if he were dancing with it.
Geom Mugeuk continued to move. A thought arose that this madness had gone far enough, but he continued entrusting his body to the wind.
How long had he moved like that, following the wind?
When he stopped after following the final gust—
With a brief sound of wind, swish, Geom Mugeuk’s figure vanished. If someone had seen it, they might have thought he had collapsed into the grass.
But Geom Mugeuk was not there.
Geom Mugeuk did not know. If the place where he had moved this way and that were viewed from above, the flattened grasses had formed a single pattern.
It was a star with five points—the symbol of the Five-Point Wind Star Formation.
Whoooooosh.
At a single gust of wind, the grasses that had been lying flat instantly returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
With the mystery gone, only the blade of grass from before fluttered in the wind.