It was the Yin hour, before the sun had even risen.
A young man was walking up the steep and narrow mountain path leading to Luoyan Peak, which was still enveloped in deep darkness.
A young Daoist with a neat and handsome appearance.
It was Chijian.
"Hah, hah."
Chijian exhaled the breath filling his lungs and shook his head.
He had felt it yesterday as well while climbing, but the mountain path leading to Luoyan Peak was quite rough and arduous.
A short while later, having arrived at his destination, a small thatched cottage, Chijian spread his arms wide.
"Phew..."
Taking a deep breath, he raised his head.
Inside the dilapidated thatched cottage that looked as if it would collapse at any moment was the person he sought.
Tianhui.
Though only fourteen years of age, he was his Martial Uncle.
In the past, he would not have cared who this person was, but now it was different.
Having been captivated by Tianhui's divine might at the Summit of the Five Peaks, Chijian had come to seek instruction from Tianhui, who was younger than himself.
'Today is the day.'
Steadying his breath, Chijian carefully yet reverently knelt down.
'Martial Uncle Tianhui's skill that day was overwhelming. No matter how much younger he is than me, his skill was immeasurable...'
"Senior Brother Chijian?"
Startled by the call that shattered his thoughts, Chijian hastily turned his head around.
There stood a familiar woman.
"Junior Sister Xuelan? Why are you here?"
Just as the two were flustered by the entirely unexpected encounter and looking at each other—
Suddenly, the door slammed open with a bang.
Following that, Tianhui revealed himself. Seeing him with his Daoist robes haphazardly thrown on and his hair disheveled, Chijian and Xuelan hurriedly bowed their heads and shouted.
"Martial Uncle!"
"Martial Uncle!"
Tianhui glared at the two calling out to him, then scowled and opened his mouth.
"It's noisy, so shut up."
* * *
Late in the afternoon, Xuandao, who had visited the thatched cottage as usual, glanced at the two kneeling figures, then asked Tianhui before him.
"I came to find out about the Plum Blossom Sword Technique you showed today... but why are these children here?"
"I don't know. They've been like that since morning."
At Tianhui's answer, which was brimming with annoyance, Chijian and Xuelan, who had been kneeling, were startled and hastily added.
"T-that is, we came to request instruction from Martial Uncle Tianhui. Martial Grandfather."
"I-I too visited to receive Martial Uncle's teachings. Martial Grandfather."
"You wish to receive instruction?"
At their answers, Xuandao crossed his arms and fell into deep thought.
As time passed and the crease between his brows deepened, Chijian and Xuelan shrank back.
Xuelan's complexion, in particular, turned pale.
She was a registered disciple who hadn't even received a Daoist title.
Of course, the Huashan Sect had deliberately withheld giving her a Daoist title because of her background; though she was no different from a core disciple, the fact remained that she was a registered disciple.
At that moment, Xuandao met the eyes of the two.
He stared silently at the two, who were trembling in fear of a disciplinary order being handed down, then shifted his gaze toward Tianhui.
'To receive Tianhui's instruction...'
At first, he had also intended to scold Chijian and Xuelan for seeking instruction.
However, upon thinking deeply about it, it suddenly occurred to him that it might actually be a good thing.
The two of them, whom he had seen at the martial competition of the Summit of the Five Peaks, were overflowing with talent. And if Tianhui, the greatest genius of all time, were to teach them on top of that...
Gulp. He swallowed his saliva.
'But how should I persuade Tianhui to teach the two...'
"Hmm."
Just as Xuandao, who had fallen into deep thought, was about to lower his head, Tianhui opened his mouth.
"If you have nothing else, can I go back inside?"
Seeing Tianhui about to turn around, Xuandao was startled and quickly uncrossed his arms.
"Ah, no."
Xuandao hastily grabbed Tianhui.
If this training session ended now, the one who would be disappointed wasn't Tianhui, but him.
"M-Martial Grandfather?"
"Martial Grandfather...?"
Seeing Xuandao's urgent demeanor, Chijian and Xuelan found it difficult to swallow their bewilderment.
Tianhui is outstanding, but he is a first-generation disciple.
Yet Xuandao was the number one expert of the Huashan Sect.
But the sight just now looked as though Xuandao was clinging to Tianhui, didn't it?
The two looked at Xuandao and Tianhui with wavering eyes, but Xuandao had no time to care about their reactions.
"I want to know about the Plum Blossom Sword Technique you showed earlier."
"Plum Blossom Sword Technique? Ah, the Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword?"
"Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword...?"
Wrinkles formed on Xuandao's forehead.
In his mind, no such sword technique existed in the Huashan Sect.
"...Is it a sword technique of our sect?"
As if he had pondered it deeply, Xuandao's lowered voice echoed in the air.
And Tianhui replied lightly.
"I recreated it."
"...!"
Xuandao's eyes widened immeasurably. It was the same for Chijian and Xuelan, who were secretly listening from the side.
'He recreated it?'
'H-he recreated the Plum Blossom Sword Technique?'
Whether the three were appalled or not, Tianhui ignored them and continued speaking.
"I filled in the lacking parts of the Twenty-Four Stances Plum Blossom Sword Technique and newly established a sword technique."
Xuandao, who had been dumbfounded, was shocked.
"I-is that true?"
"Why would I lie?"
Answering with a matter-of-fact tone, Tianhui immediately looked at Xuandao and opened his mouth.
"So, you want to know about the Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword, right?"
In an instant, Xuandao's gaze changed.
Emitting burning eyes, he clenched his fists tightly.
"That is correct."
Tianhui looked at Xuandao and smirked.
He's changed.
In the past, he would have thrown a fit, going on about the sin of deceiving one's master and exterminating the ancestors, but now he naturally didn't care either way.
'Well, rather than teaching him martial arts, we've been exchanging martial discussions since before.'
He was definitely a man mad about martial arts.
Discussing martial theory with someone who was barely fourteen would be a blow to the pride of an older man, but he showed no such signs whatsoever.
Rather, he was welcoming it.
'That's why I'm telling him like this.'
If it were anyone else, he wouldn't have told them.
"How do you execute it?"
Perhaps because he knew he could learn it, Xuandao's eyes were full of excitement and bloodshot red.
"You know how to execute the Plum Blossom Sword Technique, right?"
"Of course I know how to execute it."
"Then that's enough."
Tianhui immediately recited the mnemonic chant.
Having listened to the mnemonic chant for about the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Xuandao nodded and scribbled on the ground.
"Astounding. To be able to decipher the mnemonic chant so easily."
"It's just that there were too many useless mnemonic chants in the Plum Blossom Sword Technique."
"Gasp!"
"Gasp!"
At Tianhui's outrageous remark, Chijian and Xuelan were horrified. However, the situation they worried about did not occur.
"Hahaha, it was a bit complicated."
Xuandao agreed in a low voice.
The Plum Blossom Sword Technique was intertwined with various Daoist mnemonic chants, making it tricky to learn at first.
In contrast, what about the Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword?
Daoist mnemonic chants? There were none.
Complicated mnemonic chants? There were none.
All there was were simple mnemonic chants.
However, there was something difficult to understand.
Xuandao immediately picked up a small fallen branch from the ground, moved it randomly, and then swung it like a sword.
"According to the mnemonic chant, the sword blossoms should spread out from here. But how do you gather the sword blossoms in one place and make them move?"
The mnemonic chant was easy, but it was far too vast.
As if dozens, if not hundreds, of martial arts were mixed into it.
"Rather than dispersing your inner energy here, focus it, and then execute it with an explosive feeling, and you can perform the first three stances."
Matching the explanation, Xuandao gestured with the branch in his hand through the air and asked.
Swoosh— Swoosh—
"Are you saying to execute it this way?"
"That's not it. Spreading the sword blossoms is important, but more than that, you have to combine your inner strength into one. So, like watering the ground, pour your inner energy..."
While the two were conversing—
Swish—
Chijian and Xuelan brightened their eyes and simultaneously met each other's gaze.
'Senior Brother...?'
'Junior Sister too?'
In a fleeting moment, they realized the other was thinking the exact same thing and nodded simultaneously.
'I have no idea what they're talking about.'
'I don't understand a single thing they're saying.'
Contrary to their bright eyes, the two didn't understand at all.
And Tianhui also couldn't understand.
But the difference from the two was because of Xuandao, who couldn't execute the Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword.
'No, I unraveled the mnemonic chant so easily for him. To think the number one expert of the Huashan Sect can't understand this simple mnemonic chant at all.'
Tianhui felt frustrated.
However, Tianhui didn't know.
That while the mnemonic chant had become much easier, the martial principles contained within the Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword had become incredibly profound.
By his standards it was easy, but it was a sword technique of such a level that even an expert of the Heavenly Martial Realm would find it difficult to execute properly in just a single day.
"Do you not know 'You Gou Wu Gou' (Having form, yet formless)?"
"You Gou Wu Gou?"
"There are no fixed rules in the Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword. It may look like a sword dance, but I'm telling you that alone is a completed sword form."
Xuandao also felt frustrated.
How can a sword dance be a sword form?
A sword dance is a sword dance, a sword form is a sword form.
Are the two not separate?
Yet he said they were the same, which was completely incomprehensible with the martial arts he knew.
Still, what could he do?
Tianhui had accomplished it.
"Ugh, You Gou Wu Gou..."
Squeezing out the martial arts contained within his mind, he carefully asked.
"But is it truly a stance without rules?"
Looking at Xuandao, who hadn't understood the explanation at all, Tianhui sighed.
Then, a phrase suddenly came to mind, and he voiced it.
"Ah! Then do you know 'Bu Bian Ying Wan Bian' (Responding to ten thousand changes with constancy)?"
When something he knew finally appeared after a long time, Xuandao smiled brightly and nodded.
"Hahaha! Of course I know. It means constancy responds to the ever-changing, does it not?"
"Exactly that."
"...?"
Seeing Xuandao's face full of question marks, Tianhui felt his chest block up.
'How can he not know something this easy?'
Feeling a frustration so severe his chest felt like it would burst, Tianhui eventually picked up a wooden sword.
"Now, look."
Along with his words, he drew up his inner strength.
"Ohhh!"
"Such inner energy manipulation!"
Chijian and Xuelan's eyes sparkled.
Having had absolutely no idea what they were talking about all this time, they looked at Tianhui with admiring gazes at the sight before their eyes.
"I'll show you once."
As he spoke, Tianhui's sword moved grandly, and red plum blossoms bloomed fully across Mount Hua.
"Ah..."
"Such a sword form..."
"Beautiful."
The three exclaimed in admiration and blankly stared at Tianhui, who was performing a beautiful sword dance embracing the plum blossoms and the world.
Like that, one shichen passed.
"...It's too much for me to execute it today."
Xuandao, who had been watching with intense concentration at the Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword Tianhui had just performed, muttered in a low voice with a daunted expression.
It was still too much for his level.
'I have reached the Heavenly Martial Realm, yet it's a sword technique that's overwhelming just to mimic.'
A hollow laugh lingered on his lips.
At the same time, his admiration for Tianhui's talent went beyond mere admiration, reaching the point where exclamations of sheer awe burst forth naturally.
"If you just know the mnemonic chant, you'll manage somehow."
Around the time Tianhui whispered that—
Swish—
Xuandao looked at the two, who still hadn't escaped the lingering effects of Tianhui's Seven Absolutes Plum Blossom Sword and wore dreamy expressions, and asked.
"Then what will you two do?"
"If we just leave them be, they'll leave on their own."
Hearing Tianhui's indifferent answer, Xuandao immediately thought it was reasonable and opened his mouth.
"Instead of that, how about having them serve you and run errands?"
"Run errands?"
Tianhui's ears perked up at those words.
Run errands? That would be convenient.
As he fell into thought, he naturally recalled his past subordinates.
'Hmm, Guimo and Feimo were certainly quick and efficient.'
Tianhui was having thoughts that would make the people of the Central Plains at the time fall over backward in shock if they heard.
Who were Guimo and Feimo?
They were the great demonic leaders who, with barely two years of entering the Central Plains, turned it into a chaotic mess and forced the Diancang Sect to close its doors.
Yet they were merely his subordinates.
Tianhui looked at Chijian and Xuelan.
At his gaze, the two stood as stiffly as statues.
'Compared to those guys, they're totally...'
Comparing the second-generation disciples of the Huashan Sect.
It was a thought that would have wounded Guimo and Feimo's pride if they heard it, but Tianhui considered it a matter of course.
After all, to him, Guimo, Feimo, or the second-generation disciples of the Huashan Sect were all the same.
'Still, it would be convenient to have them, right?'
While Tianhui was briefly lost in thought, a gleam flashed in Xuandao's eyes.
'If the two receive instruction from Tianhui this time, they will make rapid progress.'
It was closer to certainty than expectation.
That was how outstanding Tianhui's instruction was.
As if not wanting to miss this opportunity, he asked Chijian and Xuelan, who were gulping nervously.
"What about you two?"
"Yes, we will!"
"Yes, we will!"
Having grasped the intention behind Xuandao's question, the two simultaneously brightened their eyes and answered in unison.
"If it's running errands, we'll do anything, right?"
Tianhui asked in a low voice.
Xuandao momentarily felt something was slightly off, but shook his head to brush it off and moved his lips.
"Of course. Isn't that right?"
"That's right!"
"We will do anything."
Tianhui looked at the two who answered resoundingly as if they had been waiting a long time.
Soon, looking at their eyes, which were as bright as starlight, he nodded.
"Alright. Let's do that then."
"Thank you!"
"Thank you!"
At the answer they finally heard, the two rejoiced and simultaneously bowed deeply.
Because of that, the two failed to see.
The corners of Tianhui's mouth curling up.
And the bleak future that would soon befall them.