A Secret From Seol (2)

A dusky shadow lay thick over the late night.

Yu Jinsan was heading alone to the back mountain of the Defeating Blade Clan. Worry filled his face.

“Where on earth did that child go?”

She left without a word and didn’t return until it was nearly dark.

She had often wandered off for training in the past, but this was the first time she had gone this far.

No matter how supremely skilled his granddaughter’s martial skills are, a grandfather’s heart was still full of worry.

He glanced about and sighed. No matter how he searched, there was no sign of her.

After all, what trace would a child who uses the wind to race through the air leave behind?

Just as he was about to call his granddaughter’s name at the top of his lungs.

Suddenly a breeze swept past from somewhere.

Whooosh!

It was clearly an unnatural wind, not fitting the calm evening.

Yu Jinsan sensed it instantly: it was a signal his granddaughter had sent.

Could something have happened to the child? Yu Jinsan sprinted toward the direction the wind came from.

Pat-pat-pat!

She was closer than he had thought.

A small basin near the summit.

The girl sitting cross-legged there was undoubtedly Yu Seol.

‘So she was meditating and training in nature? That explains it.’

No wonder she had lost track of time.

Yu Jinsan had heard it somewhere too: a peerless warrior who reached a semi-divine state values meditative training over physical drills.

Through such a process they gain insight and take steps toward transcendence.

Seeing his granddaughter with her eyes closed, he realized she was lost in a state of no-self.

He could not disturb her meditation; the training might be ruined otherwise.

Yu Jinsan silenced his presence as much as possible, turned slowly, and walked on tiptoe to avoid any sound.

It was when he had taken a few steps.

‘There isn’t even a breeze, so where did that leaf come from?’

A rather large fallen leaf floated straight toward him.

Even a small sound would disturb her meditation.

He twisted his upper body and flicked the leaf aside.

Just as he thought he had avoided it, a look of bewilderment crossed his eyes.

‘Huh?’

The leaf had changed direction and was coming back.

It made no sense, but there was no need to overthink: just avoid it. Yu Jinsan hunched his upper body down quickly.

But the fluttering leaf, as if finding its target, stuck to his face.

‘What on earth is this?’

It was truly a bizarre situation.

Yu Jinsan reached out to grab the leaf on his face.

Slap!

All he felt was smooth skin; the leaf had flown up on its own in the meantime.

‘What a nuisance, just a stupid leaf…’

For a supposed martial warrior, losing to a leaf was embarrassing; if anyone had seen, he would be a laughingstock.

One relief was that no one had seen it.

Yu Jinsan tried to move again, but before he could take a step something else came and blocked his view.

Had a spirit possessed the leaf? It was incomprehensible.

He narrowed his brow and, determined to catch it, reached out with lightning speed.

Whoosh!

Incredibly, he missed again; it slipped through his fingers and stuck to his face.

It was unbearable.

He glanced at his granddaughter just in case.

And he noticed something odd.

‘Could she—’

On closer look, it was certain: his granddaughter was clenching her teeth, stifling laughter.

There was no way Yu Jinsan could not have noticed.

“Seol, you!!”

At that moment a burst of loud laughter escaped from Yu Seol.

“Puhihit!”

She had been holding back so much that tears had formed in her eyes.

This made everything clear: the haunted leaf was Yu Seol’s prank.

“You little thing, teasing your grandfather now?”

“Heeheehee. Grandpa’s even smaller.”

Now he couldn’t win at strength or words.

But he couldn’t be angry with his only blood relative over something like this.

Yu Jinsan sighed and shook his head.

“But how did you do that just now? How did the leaf move like that?”

“Should I do it again?”

This time a chestnut burr rose up from the ground.

It began to dance in the air like a will-o’-the-wisp.

It circled in an irregular radius, gradually accelerating until it became too fast to follow with the eye.

It was by no means some simple trick of manipulating empty air.

‘Could she possibly be controlling objects with her qi?’

Yu Jinsan shivered beyond mere surprise.

It was the legendary martial art known as Air Sword Technique, used sometimes by profound warriors in Murim history, and the basis for the Air Spear technique.

His granddaughter, not yet ten, was displaying such peerless martial art. He could hardly believe his eyes.

Whether it was the influence of the Buddha Lion Roar Divine Arts or her innate refined-voice constitution he could not say, but Yu Jinsan’s joy was immense.

His gaze fell on the Dragon Flower Spear neatly placed beside his granddaughter.

“C-can you move that too?”

As soon as the weakened chestnut began to fall, the Dragon Flower Spear reacted.

The spear shaft trembled as if in convulsions.

But that was all; it could not rise into the air.

“Heavy things don’t work yet. Hmph.”

Unlike a light leaf or chestnut, a weapon was still too much for her.

But was that anything to be disappointed about?

If she continued training she would someday master the legendary Air Spear technique. Then she would truly be the supreme grandmaster of Murim; no contemporary master was known to accomplish that.

“Well done, my granddaughter. I’m truly proud of you!”

Yu Seol approached her moved grandfather and patted his shoulder with her hand.

Then, with a serious expression, she spoke softly.

“I’ll get strong and protect you, granddad. Don’t worry.”

“……”

A strange feeling came over him.

How had his granddaughter grown so much so quickly?

Yu Jinsan had carried and raised a one-year-old granddaughter through every hardship, and in this moment all that suffering seemed to melt away.

Something welled up deep in his chest.

“Granddad, are you crying?”

“No. Who would cry?”

His granddaughter’s big eyes came right up to his face, as if to examine him closely.

“Liar~ I saw it all just now.”

Embarrassed, Yu Jinsan turned his back.

“You say you’re not? I’m busy, so I should head down now.”

“Already leaving?”

“I have an appointment with Uncle Baek Gyu.”

“Okay, go down carefully. I’ll come down a bit later.”

“Alright. Training is a good thing, but take it easy.”

Without looking back, Yu Jinsan dashed off.

‘Ridiculous, why did tears suddenly come like that…’

His granddaughter’s words unexpectedly blurred his vision with tears.

Of course, the claim of an appointment with Baek Gyu was a lie. How could he show the child him crying?

He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and calmed himself.

A moment later, an inexplicable strong resolve flared on Yu Jinsan’s face.

‘I must cultivate quickly. If I don’t want to hold my granddaughter back, I should at least toughen my endurance.’

He grew anxious as he fell further behind with each passing day.

Except for his prime some fifty years ago, he had never felt his heart burn like this.

His steps led straight to one of the Paedo Sect’s training grounds.

A month had passed in the blink of an eye.

No additional information about the Blue Dragon troops had come in during that time, nor had any notable events occurred.

His granddaughter remained holed up on the back mountain, only coming down every few days to eat with him.

Taking advantage of the lull, Yu Jinsan devoted himself solely to martial training.

The renegade monk had passed on only two martial arts to him.

Though not designed for killing, they were the finest enhancement techniques to dramatically boost survivability.

By day he practiced the Great Body-Shift Technique and from evening until morning he trained in the Vajra Indestructible Body Arts.

‘Watch, Seol. Granddad will make it happen.’

Sitting cross-legged, Yu Jinsan practiced his internal qi using the breathing method of the Vajra Indestructible Body Skill.

A deep internal qi circulated smoothly through the blood pathways according to the martial formulas.

The bodily changes that came with continued training were astonishing.

His skin and muscles seemed to don iron armor, and his internal organs began to be guarded by layers of qi.

It was a remarkable achievement, but there was still a long way to go.

‘At least seventy percent is needed to see real effect in combat. You can do it, Jinsan!’

But in life, not everything is achieved by willpower alone.

Contrary to his intent, for ten days he had seen no progress beyond sixty percent.

Martial cultivation naturally slows as one rises through the stages.

Yet Yu Jinsan was impatient with his growth.

If he likened the martial gap between him and his granddaughter to body parts, it was like the crown of the head versus the top of the foot.

At the very least he needed to reach the ankle to save face.

While he steeled himself through the tedious hours.

“Elder, are you there?”

By the voice it was Hong Gyun, one of the Defeating Blade Clan members.

He had come at a moment when progress seemed possible; there was no reason to welcome him.

Yu Jinsan stopped training and called out from the door.

“Why? Did some monk bother someone again?”

“Not that…”

“I told you not to come during my training unless it’s urgent.”

“A guest has come to see you.”

Yu Jinsan tilted his head.

Who would come to visit him? He had strictly ordered secrecy about his presence here; no one should know. No one came to mind.

The faint aura beside Hong Gyun must belong to that person.

Since they had come this far, he had no choice but to meet them himself.

Yu Jinsan sprang up and opened the door to his dwelling.

“What brings you to me…”

Yu Jinsan trailed off as he recognized the visitor’s face.

A woman with an antique beauty and overflowing grace.

She was Eun Hwa-rin, who headed the southern branch of the Black Night.

They had met twice before; he remembered her as a highly resourceful person.

But why had she, from Henan, come to see him? He could not guess the reason.

“Long time no see, Yang Monster, the great hero.”

Yu Jinsan snorted and walked toward her, then lifted his head to meet her gaze and replied.

“Great Hero? What great hero? You say that to someone branded a demon by the Murim Alliance. Is the gang leader well?”

He had been wondering about Pung-ho’s well-being.

The Black Night was the foremost information organization among the Evil Sect, and Pung-ho, its leader, had helped him many times.

He was grateful for the bond that had begun at Yangju Mountain and that Pung-ho valued it.

“The leader has been busy lately. A baby was born a few months ago.”

When he last saw Pung-ho’s wife, Hyun-hee, she had been pregnant. It seemed she had given birth in the meantime.

“Ha! That’s joyful news. But why would someone as busy as you come all the way to Shanxi?”

“I came in place of our clan leader to keep a promise he made to you long ago.”

“A promise?”