Lee Geon

Qingcheng Sect’s greatest master and one of the Five Eccentrics of the World, the Qingcheng Eccentric Immortal Taoist Cheong Gwang’s fifth disciple, Lee Geon, had been unable to see since the very first moment he could remember.

He did not know why.

All he knew was that, because he could not see, his parents had abandoned him, and that the old mountain keeper grandfather had picked him up and raised him.

Back then, when he still had no name, the old mountain keeper grandfather had called him “child”.

He often had to go hungry, and he had to live all alone with Grandfather in the empty forest, a lacking and lonely life.

But he did not especially feel that his life was sad.

Because he had never possessed anything, he could not really feel the sense of lacking anything.

As a child, he had wished for only one thing.

“I want to see with my own eyes—Grandfather, myself, and this world.”

That was it.

To see the world with his own eyes was Lee Geon’s only wish.

The old mountain keeper grandfather always used to tell him stories about the world around them.

He spoke about the sun, whose form warmed the world and whose brilliant light shone down; about the moon and starlight that made the dark night beautiful; about the birds and insects whose sounds were always fresh and lively; and about the trees, grass, and flowers—masters of all the fragrances filling the world.

Lee Geon wanted so desperately to see all of it.

Just hearing the sounds and smelling the scents already felt so wonderful to him, so he wondered how happy he would be if he could actually see as well.

That had been Lee Geon’s one and only wish in childhood.

Perhaps because of that?

At some point, Lee Geon had started to “see” the world with senses other than his eyes.

He did so through things like the resonance of sound, the feel of air flowing, the “density” of scents.

With just those alone, Lee Geon had been able to “see” the shape of things and even discern their exact size and position.

In the sense of looking at space itself and grasping the essence of things, he could actually “see” better than Grandfather.

Although he could not see the thing Grandfather called “color,” even that had been enough to make Lee Geon feel perfectly happy.

“This is good enough. I don’t need to wish for anything more now.”

It was around the time when young Lee Geon was thus content with his life.

Someone came looking for him.

Judging by Lee Geon’s senses, the person was an old man with a beard as thick as the old mountain keeper grandfather’s.

But the man was very strange.

If he had a lot of beard, that naturally meant he was elderly, and in that case it would only be normal for some part of his body to feel worn and weak—yet Lee Geon did not feel any frailty or inconvenience from him at all.

Far from feeling weak, he felt as powerful as a raging typhoon or the sun itself.

It was a very strange sensation.

His senses gave him one perception, but his instincts warned him of something else entirely—a strange feeling where the two did not match.

While Lee Geon was curious about that bizarre mismatch and was observing the man, the newcomer spoke first.

“Can you feel this?”

Saying that, the old man slowly drew a sword.

But that was something Lee Geon would only learn later.

What he had sensed at the time had simply been a wondrous feeling, as if a typhoon right before his nose were stretching itself toward the world.

It felt as if some enormous existence, absolutely not human, were being released from a seal.

And when the man at last finished drawing the sword and lightly swept it through the air, Lee Geon could feel it.

Just from the simple motion of him bringing the sword down, the world had been split in two for a brief instant.

In the moment when he felt the air, the scents, the sounds—every bit of space—split in two, Lee Geon, for the first time in his life, understood what “shuddering awe” was.

He could not say a single word.

He only stood there, slack-jawed in a daze.

At that moment, the man spoke.

“A child who, because he cannot see like others, has come to see what others cannot see…. You, perhaps, really might be able to glimpse the Mythic Realm. Would you, child, like to come with me?”

Unable to contain himself, Lee Geon hurriedly asked,

“If I go with you, will I be able to do that just now too?! Will I be able to cut air, scent, sound—and space itself?”

The man looked at him for a moment, then answered.

“You… might be able to cut the world.”

That had been his first meeting with his master, Taoist Cheong Gwang.

The master had given the then-nameless child the name “Geon,” saying it was the name of the person he should aim for. Since the family name followed Grandfather’s, the child once called “child” finally came to have the name “Lee Geon.”

After that, following his teacher, Lee Geon had not gone down from the mountain until well past twenty.

And when, at twenty-one, he first descended to see the world below, he found it a place he liked very much.

The people, the objects, the events that occurred—

There was not a single thing that did not excite him.

Of course, that was probably because he had been given exactly one year of rest before going back into closed-door seclusion.

Lee Geon already knew full well that the quiet of the mountains suited him better than the clamor of the mundane world.

He had also had no thought of coming down from the mountain until he, as his master wished, managed to glimpse the Mythic Realm.

By then, it was not only his master’s wish but also Lee Geon’s own.

But in any case, now was his vacation.

A single year of vacation his master had granted him before he went back into seclusion.

Lee Geon wanted to enjoy that vacation without regrets.

So, after coming down the mountain, he stood before the two people who had made him the happiest.

And he asked one of them,

“Young Master Seonu, would you honor me with a match?”

Lee Geon’s respected senior brother, Hwa Yeong-bin, had said this to him.

If there were anyone among Lee Geon’s peers who could stand as his rival, that person would be that Seonu Jin.

So Lee Geon did not want to just let him leave.

Seonu Jin quietly stared at Lee Geon—who had suddenly appeared and out of the blue requested a duel—for a moment.

But then he grinned and nodded.

“Very well. However, may I place one condition on it?”

A few days after Qingcheng Sect and the Tang Clan occupied the Righteous Chivalry Guild, Bi Sayoung and I finally decided to leave the Guild.

We could have left immediately, but there were a few things I had wanted to confirm, so we had stayed a little longer.

Only three people came out to see us off.

Since Qingcheng Sect and the Tang Clan, who had taken the Righteous Chivalry Guild, were still bristling at each other over territory, they still had absolutely no interest in either Bi Sayoung or me.

It was a very frustrating and pathetic sight, but after listening to the explanation of Hwa Yeong-bin—whom I now called “brother”—I could not say it was incomprehensible.

He had explained it to us like this.

“The spheres of influence of Qingcheng, Emei, and the Tang Clan have been fixed for the last few hundred years. Can you guess why?”

For centuries, the borders had not changed.

I could roughly guess what was going on.

Even why they were so desperate now.

“Because they’re orthodox sects, right. Then I suppose a chance they absolutely can’t miss has come along now.”

Brother Hwa had smiled softly and nodded.

“Exactly. Though, personally, I’m not sure it’s all that important.”

At that, Bi Sayoung let out a deep sigh and said,

“If you’re going to have that kind of conversation, could you do it when I’m not here?”

At his sulky tone, Brother Hwa burst out laughing and apologized.

“Ah, my apologies. When I talk with Little Brother Seonu, I keep skipping the middle steps. So, what I mean is…”

That was the story.

Qingcheng and the Tang Clan possessed power stronger than anyone’s, but as orthodox sects that formed one pillar of the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Houses, they could not simply invade other, smaller sects’ territory and expand their domains at will.

With Qingcheng, Emei, and the Tang Clan all firmly entrenched in Sichuan Province, there was no way the unorthodox factions could get a foothold there, and all the sects that already existed were following those three, so there had been no pretext at all to expand their territory.

Brother Hwa added one more point.

“Also, it’s true that these three great sects have been keeping each other in check, so there was no room to move rashly.”

And then, one day, a force appeared called the Righteous Chivalry Guild, which only had an orthodox-looking facade. It unified all the powers the three great sects had never been able to touch—and then, helpfully, vacated the seat for them.

It was like some traveler who appeared out of nowhere, cleared a wasteland, made a field, and then suddenly walked off.

So now, all they had to do was step into that empty place, and they would be able to expand territories that had been fixed for hundreds of years.

Furthermore, Emei Sect, which had been helping maintain the balance among the three, was currently unable to even look after itself, so there was no way Qingcheng and the Tang Clan were going to let this opportunity pass.

After hearing that much, Bi Sayoung said,

“Then Sichuan Province is going to be noisy for quite a while with clashes between the two factions.”

His rare, accurate prediction made me click my tongue in admiration.

“Oooh! Not bad!”

“…Are you looking down on me right now?”

“Oooh! You even figured that out—amazing!”

“You little bastard!”

Bi Sayoung proceeded to beat on me, but for someone whose body had been tempered with external arts like mine, a beating without any internal energy behind it was just ticklish.

In any case, just as Bi Sayoung had predicted, Qingcheng and the Tang Clan seemed likely to devote themselves to their turf war for some time.

So I entrusted the aftermath to Hwa Yeong-bin, who had come to see us off.

“I leave it in your hands, hyungnim.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t leave a single remnant alive.”

The Sichuan branches of the Hao Clan had finally decided to actively cooperate in uprooting the Blood Cult forces lurking within the province.

The Hao Clan was not a centrally controlled sect but a loose confederation of local branches, so there was no way to extract the same promise from other provinces, but at the very least they promised that from now on, they would no longer provide information to the Blood Cult.

It could not have been closer to the exact result I had wanted.

An outcome that would let us block the Blood Cult’s advance infiltration—something I had experienced in my previous life—with very high probability.

My second life really was changing history.

“So it was possible after all—to change the future….”

I felt so proud I could burst.

However, we could not entrust the work of rooting out the Blood Cult together with the Hao Clan to the Martial Alliance or to Qingcheng and the Tang Clan, who were currently engrossed in fighting over territory.

So I asked Brother Hwa to take charge of that part.

Of course, he readily agreed.

And not by moving alone as he had before, but by leading the forces that followed Taoist Cheong Gwang of Qingcheng.

I suspected the reason Brother Hwa had never wanted to mingle with others until now was that he simply had no will to live.

Now that his eyes had regained their light, he spoke in a voice full of confidence.

“Come to think of it, I haven’t even been using what I have as much as you, whom I just met for a short while, have. From now on, I’m going to start using myself properly too—leveraging my position and the forces I command to the fullest.”

His lively expression could not have been more satisfying.

“Yes, I’ll trust you, hyungnim.”

When I finished saying my farewell to him, his junior brother, Lee Geon—who had been smiling brightly beside him—also spoke to me.

“Let’s have another fun fight next time. Take care. Jin, Sayoung.”

I had decided to become friends with Lee Geon, Taoist Cheong Gwang’s fifth disciple and a genius swordsman.

That had been the condition for sparring with him.

“Yeah, see you soon. Sayoung said he’d come to Sichuan again on his next vacation, so we’ll see you then. Ah, though maybe next time he won’t have time because he’ll be too busy looking at someone else?”

“Kh-cough!”

To be honest, the reason I had suggested we be friends had been rather impure.

If I forged a friendship with a genius who might one day reach the Mythic Realm, then even if everything I tried against the Blood Cult failed, maybe I would still gain one more chance… that kind of calculating reason.

But after spending a few days together, he was such a charming guy that I was truly glad to have him as a friend even without such motives.

Looking at him, I had been able to break a long-held preconception.

“I thought purity and wisdom were traits that couldn’t coexist in the same person….”

Whether because he had devoted himself only to training in the mountains, or because he saw the world through senses other than sight, he was the first type of person I had ever seen who possessed the purity of a child and the wisdom of an old man at the same time.

When I was with him, my heart became endlessly clear, and moment by moment I found myself marveling at the wise perspective in his gaze.

His swordsmanship went without saying.

Our first duel had not produced a decisive winner.

But that was only because, due to lack of experience, he had barely managed to fight me to an even draw; in terms of pure skill, his level was nowhere near mine.

Every time I crossed swords with him, I gained new inspiration.

“And that’s not all. His inner qualities are top-tier, and his outer ones are incredible too.”

Lee Geon’s face was as beautiful as a woman’s.

No—that was the wrong way to put it.

There were hardly any women I could think of who were as beautiful as Lee Geon.

When I watched him smile so innocently, my heart sometimes fluttered before I knew it.

It really was a pity that he himself could not see that beautiful face.

Just yesterday, Bi Sayoung and I had even argued about his looks.

Because we had disagreed over whether Lee Geon or Lady Jeong-an was better looking.

“Honestly, objectively speaking, isn’t Geoni prettier?”

“What nonsense is that?! How is that even a thing you can say?!”

“Then why are you getting worked up?”

“W-Worked up? As if—anyway! No matter how pretty that guy is, you can’t compare him to Lady Jeong-an!”

No matter how I looked at it, I still thought Lee Geon was more beautiful.

In any case, getting to know Brother Hwa and Lee Geon through this matter was an immense stroke of fortune for me.

After saying farewell to those two, we said goodbye to the third and final person.

She was none other than Lady Jeong-in, the Emei Sword Phoenix, whom we had rescued from the Righteous Chivalry Guild.

She was also the main reason I had had to stay here for several more days.

“Hero Seonu, Hero Bi, I will someday certainly repay the favor of saving my life. Well, if I really can’t pay it back, I suppose I’ll just have to marry into your households. Hahaha! Until next time! Take care on your way!”

She was a bold woman whose voice and character were heartier than most men’s.

At her forthright words, we smiled awkwardly and clasped fists in farewell.

“Yes, Lady Jeong-in. I wish Emei Sect good fortune in the days ahead.”

“Please give my regards to Ladies Jeong-yeon and Jeong-an as well.”

The reason I had stayed in the Righteous Chivalry Guild to watch over her was just in case.

If the woman called the Emei Sword Phoenix had ever been Soul-Seized by the Blood Cult, it would have been disastrous.

But even after watching her for days, I could not find the slightest sign that she had been Soul-Seized, or that she was under any Suggestion Arts.

My conclusion was that if something had been done to her, there was no way she could be that cheerful.

According to her, a man called the White-Jade Earth Dragon, Gu Yusang, had said he would do “something” to her, but after stepping out for a moment, he had never come back.

“At first, I was so nervous, but thanks to that, I ended up not suffering anything at all and got out safely. Truly, the affairs of the world are like Saiweng losing his horse. Hahahahaha!”

Laughing like that, she let out another hearty, manlike laugh.

Hmm, the White-Jade Earth Dragon, Gu Yusang….

We had not yet found any trace of his movements, though he was clearly a Blood Cult member. I suspected he would show himself when we wiped out the remaining remnants together with the Hao Clan.

In any case, it really was finally time to go meet my teammates, who were like family to me.

Just thinking about seeing them again after so long already put me in a good mood.

Suddenly, Bi Sayoung asked,

“But how are we going to meet up with the squad? Are they still at Mountain Sword Sect?”

“Well, I’d assume so, right? But even if not, we’ll find them quickly. They’ve all become famous people in Guizhou Province, haven’t they?”

“True enough.”

Hmm, famous, huh.

It bothered me a bit.

Because they were drawing far too much attention….

When I met Lady Cheong-yeon, I felt I would have to discuss this part with her as well.

Because this could become some kind of variable in itself.

If Zhuge Jigang of the Martial Alliance came to take notice of us, things might get a bit complicated.