Chapter 356
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## Chapter 356: Divine Immortality and the Seeker of the Tao
Cheongbulno dashed Yeon Jeokha’s excitement with a sobering revelation.
“But there’s something you must verify before learning the eye technique.”
“What is it?”
“No matter how excellent the eye technique you learn is, if you don’t have mystical power, it’s useless.”
Hearing the word “mystical power,” Yeon Jeokha felt discouraged.
If it were internal energy, he would understand. But he had no confidence in mystical power. He had even been told that he had to work ten times harder because he had started late!
Cheongbulno pulled an amulet from his pocket.
“This is called a ‘Flame Amulet’.”
“Flame Amulet?”
“Surely you’ve heard about the difference between internal energy and mystical power. What’s most important in mystical power?”
“Faith?”
“Yes, faith. You must have faith in the celestial realm to use Mystical Techniques. The magnitude of faith is a problem you must contemplate your entire life…”
As he spoke, Cheongbulno handed the ‘Flame Amulet’ to Yeon Jeokha.
“Say ‘fire.’ If you have faith, the amulet will change.”
Cheongbulno looked at Yeon Jeokha with a meaningful gaze.
The ‘Flame Amulet’ was used among mages as a test to verify the presence of mystical power.
The weakest but safest test.
Fake mages used the ‘Flame Amulet’ to deceive naive people.
Yeon Jeokha, hesitant, muttered “fire.”
Suddenly, the amulet Yeon Jeokha was holding burst into flames.
The amulet, which should have been consumed in a flash at his fingertips, transformed into a pillar of fire as if it were an ‘Ascension Flame Amulet’.
Yeon Jeokha, surprised, threw away the amulet he was holding.
*Whoosh-*
The flames fell in the center of Five Dragons Palace, spreading heat everywhere.
“Ah! Fire!”
Cheongbulno, agitated, pulled out a ‘Water Control Amulet’ and scattered it everywhere.
Water gushed from the air and covered the flames.
*Sssss-*
The flames trapped in the ‘Water Control Amulet’ disappeared without a trace, leaving only hot steam.
“Whew! Whew! You idiot! You have to do it with moderation.”
At Cheongbulno’s words, Yeon Jeokha scratched his head.
“Did you know this would happen? So, do I have mystical power?”
Cheongbulno, who was calming down, replied with a pale face.
“Whew! I feel like my life was shortened because of you. If Five Dragons Palace had caught fire, you and I would have been punished with ten years of confinement.”
“But it went out, didn’t it? What kind of amulet was that?”
“The ‘Water Control Amulet.’ I carried it just in case, and it came in handy.”
“But, Master, do I have mystical power?”
“Do you? You have a lot. It seems that the internal energy technique you learned isn’t that of a Murim practitioner. If we check a little more, we’ll know.”
“Check?”
“Yes. Originally, the ‘Flame Amulet’ was only used to check for the presence of mystical power. Your internal energy has reached an extraordinary level. Normally, mystical power doesn’t keep up with that pace. If internal energy and mystical power were equal, the best martial artists would be the best mystics and shamans.”
“The leader of the Yoomyung Cult has terrifying internal energy and mystical power.”
“That’s because her technique is special. Don’t they get unlimited energy through meditation?”
“Yes.”
“She was probably a mystic originally. She then obtained extraordinary internal energy through meditation.”
“Ah, is that so?”
“We could say that you’re the opposite. You first cultivated an internal energy technique. It seems that your special technique allows you to use magic as well.”
Cheongbulno didn’t continue testing Yeon Jeokha’s mystical power.
The presence or absence of mystical power was what mattered, not its level.
“As you saw with the ‘Flame Amulet,’ you already have mystical power. You must polish and perfect it your whole life. Mystics don’t perform a hundred days or a thousand days of meditation without reason.”
“Yes.”
After that, Cheongbulno began to teach Yeon Jeokha the magical techniques he had learned, including the ‘Eye That Penetrates The Heaven’.
If he didn’t have mystical power, it would be different. But since he already had it, there was no reason not to teach him.
***
Yeon Jeokha learned mystical techniques from Cheongbulno at the Five Dragons Palace every night.
If he tried to rest a little, Cheongbulno would pressure him, saying that he had little time left to live.
He knew that his master wasn’t the type to speak idly, so Yeon Jeokha followed him without complaining.
Yeon Jeokha’s routine was always the same.
In the morning, he recited texts, in the afternoon he listened to lectures, in the evening he searched in Namamgung, and at night he learned from Cheongbulno at the Five Dragons Palace.
That year, at the end of summer, a surprise visitor arrived at Wudang Mountain.
————
Early in the morning.
Wudang Mountain Gate.
“Miss Namgung? Welcome. I will inform Master Cheongmyeong of Taihe Palace immediately. Please wait a moment.”
Monk Hyunwoo, who guarded the gate, ran quickly towards Taihe Palace.
Namgung Yeon waited silently in the resting area.
Monk Hyuncheong, who stayed in his place looking at her sideways, spoke to her in a low voice.
“You came to see your grandfather, right?”
Namgung Yeon’s grandfather, known as the ‘Incomparable Among Ten’, was Master Cheongmyeong, now an old man in Taihe Palace. Therefore, her visit to the Wudang Sect had to be to see him.
Monk Hyunwoo ran to Taihe Palace for that reason. Namgung Yeon smiled and then turned her gaze to the landscape of Wudang Mountain.
A few minutes later, Monk Hyunwoo returned with a celestial-looking old Taoist.
It was Master Cheongmyeong, the old man of Taihe Palace.
When Cheongmyeong approached smiling, Namgung Yeon bowed respectfully.
“Grandfather, how have you been?”
“Yes, what brings you here, Yeon?”
“I came to see someone.”
“Didn’t you come to see me?”
Namgung Yeon smiled and handed a letter to Cheongmyeong.
“This is a letter from my father.”
Cheongmyeong looked at the letter with curiosity.
‘Wow! What urgent matter made him send his only daughter all the way to Wudang Mountain?’
He quickly opened the letter, but it only contained common greetings.
“Is that all?”
“Yes.”
“Tsk tsk! What a foolish man. Did he send his only daughter all the way to Wudang Mountain just for this?”
Cheongmyeong gestured to Monk Hyunwoo to withdraw and went up the mountain with Namgung Yeon.
When there was no one around, Cheongmyeong asked in a low voice.
“Didn’t your father give you any other message?”
“No.”
Cheongmyeong shook his head.
“Wow! You’ve been busy rebuilding the Namgung Family. Did he send you just to deliver a letter of greetings? From Namjik Province all the way to Huguang Province?”
Namgung Yeon, hesitant, confessed.
“Actually, I came to see someone I need to meet.”
“Someone you need to meet? Ah, did you come to see the leader of the Wudang Sect?”
Cheongmyeong looked at Namgung Yeon with a satisfied expression.
In the martial world, Namgung Yeon was known as the ‘Incomparable Among Ten’. Given her position, it wouldn’t be surprising if she came to discuss matters between the Namgung Family and the Wudang Sect.
“No.”
“No?”
“No.”
“If it’s not the leader, who is the person you came from so far away to see?”
Namgung Yeon replied in a low voice.
“A practitioner of the Five Dragons Palace.”
“A practitioner of the Five Dragons Palace?”
“Yes.”
At his granddaughter’s words, Cheongmyeong stopped dead in his tracks.
He couldn’t understand what Namgung Yeon was saying.
“So you came all the way here to see a practitioner of the Five Dragons Palace?”
“Yes.”
Cheongmyeong savored the name Yeon Dubi.
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember any martial artist with that name.
“Hmm! If it’s someone you came from so far away for, he must not be an ordinary person. What does he do?”
“I’ll only tell you. He is Yeon Jeokha.”
“You mean that Yeon Jeokha from Nokrim?”
“Yes. He wanted to learn mystical techniques, so my father sent him to the Five Dragons Palace.”
“The Sword Emperor sent him?”
Cheongmyeong blinked.
He couldn’t understand why Namgung Byeok’s name appeared in this situation.
“My father and his father were sworn brothers. So we’ve been in contact since we were young.”
“Even if that’s the case, your father is a person who clearly distinguishes between public and private. It’s surprising that he sent a master from Nokrim to the Five Dragons Palace. Did he change his name for the reputation of the Wudang Sect?”
“He’s not the type of person who would change his name for that. There were some unexpected stories in the leader’s letter, so I came to verify it myself.”
“Is he someone so important that you have to take care of him personally?”
Cheongmyeong stared intently at Namgung Yeon.
He had only lived on Wudang Mountain, so he didn’t know the relationship between Yeon Jeokha and Namgung Yeon.
But seeing that Namgung Yeon had come in a hurry, he thought something was going on.
Namgung Yeon didn’t deny it.
After all, she would have to tell her grandfather sooner or later.
“Yes. He will be my husband.”
“……”
At the word “husband,” Cheongmyeong couldn’t say anything for a while.
Yeon Jeokha was a master from Nokrim.
How could his precious granddaughter be engaged to someone like him?
***
Namgung Yeon said goodbye to Cheongmyeong and headed to Five Dragons Palace.
It was lecture time, so all the monks and practitioners were gathered in Five Dragons Palace.
She stood in the courtyard and looked inside Five Dragons Palace through the open door. Her eyes gleamed as she carefully observed the backs of the practitioners.
There was a familiar figure.
Yeon Jeokha.
She could now recognize him just by the back of his head.
Although he looked a little more unkempt than usual, it was definitely him.
Finally, she let out a sigh of relief.
A month ago, when she read the phrase “A shadow fell on the heart of the dawn, what happened?”, her heart trembled.
According to the leader’s letter, it seemed that Yeon Jeokha had fallen ill before arriving at the Wudang Sect.
If he had fallen ill at the Wudang Sect, he wouldn’t have asked “what happened?”.
To think that his condition was so serious that the leader was surprised left her mind blank.
Would he be bedridden?
Could he walk?
She worried with all sorts of gloomy thoughts, but seeing him today, it seemed that he wasn’t that serious.
Namgung Yeon calmed down and waited for the lecture to end.
But the lecture didn’t seem to be ending soon.
In a corner of the courtyard, where she had left her luggage, she listened to Master Gwangseong’s lecture.
Master Gwangseong, one of the Seven Sages of the Five Dragons, said:
“Someone asked Baopuzi: ‘It is said that immortals do not die, is it true?’ Baopuzi replied: ‘Humans cannot see all things, nor hear all sounds, nor reach all places, nor know everything, no matter how wise they are. The universe is infinite, how can you claim that something does not exist just because you have not seen it?'”
The monks and practitioners nodded.
If they didn’t believe in “divine immortality,” magic and mystical power would be just empty shouts.
“Baopuzi said that the ‘Way of Immortality’ exists. The ‘Way of Immortality’ is the ultimate goal of magic. It is said that the leader of the Yoomyung Cult sacrificed people to obtain this ‘Way of Immortality’.”
Suddenly, mentioning the leader of the Yooming Sect, a heavy silence filled the room.
Someone tactless asked:
“If the leader of the Yoomyung Cult seeks ‘divine immortality’, can we consider him a ‘seeker of the Tao’?”