Chapter 54

From that moment on, he became engrossed in the problematic Seven Plums Sword. He was so obsessed that he forgot to eat or sleep, day and night, and immersed himself in the incantations. He was filled with the dream of recreating the countless sword lines left on the hemispherical ceiling with his own body. Since the senior swordsman had continuously started and ended in the same place, the sword lines on the hemispherical wall were not entangled randomly but were layered in multiple layers along the same single trajectory, which made it very easy for him to train.

His ability to understand martial arts did not seem to be that bad. Perhaps there was a very high probability that he had a talent that surpassed the imagination of an ordinary person. Otherwise, it would be absolutely impossible to enter the realm of Sword Scent at that age. Anyway, he had spent that entire winter living in that Seven Plums Cave.

The incantations of the Seven Plums Sword were composed based on the theories and principles that the deceased had attained through enlightenment in his later years, so there were many abstruse and bewildering parts to understand with his senses at that time. It was not that it was impossible to interpret, but the effect when executed according to the theory was questionable.

Since the Seven Plums Sword was a sword method that had not even been verified yet, he decided to inform his sect if it was later revealed to be a proper sword method, and first focused on training. According to the warning written separately below the incantations, it was a fast-track method with an unparalleled speed of training progress, so there was a high possibility of falling into Qi Deviation if one made a mistake, and it was kindly written. Moreover, it was even written that he would rather not recommend it to others, and if by any chance one fell into Qi Deviation, he had already warned them, so please do not resent him. So how could he have dared to report it to his sect?

Fortunately, there were no problems with his training at first. The content of the incantations was mostly centered on a new understanding and application of the Plum Blossom Sword Method, but it was not so abstruse as to make him resent his own brain.

Thus, his training progressed day by day, and he could feel his skills improving daily. He was able to enjoy his joy, thrilled with a secret pleasure. But unfortunately, that pleasure did not last long.

As if the goddess of fate had sent a fervent jealousy to his joy and overflowing happiness, despair came suddenly from a very unexpected direction. After that cursed, nightmarish day, he had fallen into a miserable state where he could not even properly perform the Plum Blossom Sword Method, let alone the Seven Plums Sword Method.

He had rolled from the flower garden of joy and happiness at the end of the heavens to the thorn bush of despair at the end of the abyss in an instant, with no protective gear or shock-absorbing device. After that, it goes without saying that he was branded as a foolish idiot in his sect who could not even perform the Plum Blossom Sword Method.

Thus, the strange and bizarre incident of a direct disciple of the Mount Hua Sect being unable to properly perform the Plum Blossom Sword Method had occurred. And he had to endure the contempt, disdain, and ridicule of his fellow disciples.

"It's hard to believe even if I hear it ten times."

Jang Hong stared intently at Yun Jun-ho's face with a half-believing, half-doubting expression. Yun Jun-ho's face was flushed red with shame. But it didn't seem like he was lying.

"B-but it's true."

"Who would believe such an absurd story is true? Even I can't believe it at all. I'm sorry to say this, but I'm feeling a serious doubt about your truthfulness right now."

Jang Hong said, looking at Yun Jun-ho, the protagonist of the absurd tragicomedy.

"No one in my sect believed my story either."

Just like Hyo-ryong and Jang Hong, his fellow disciples had not believed his physical troubles. They had all dismissed it as a nonsensical excuse and had only ridiculed him more.

"I wish all those facts were a fiction. If that were the case, I would have nothing more to wish for. It's shameful to others to have such a foolish story."

Yun Jun-ho was in a very dejected state right now. The meeting with his senior brother and senior sister seemed to have taken away most of his motivation. But since he had been shunned by his fellow disciples, whom he should have been able to rely on, it was not impossible to understand his feelings.

"At first, I had no problem learning the Plum Blossom Sword Method. But after a few years of that, one day when I was performing the sword, plum blossoms bloomed like an illusion, and the scent of plum blossoms was chaotically rampant. In that instant, my mind went blank, and I almost collapsed. The rest was obvious. In an instant, my whole body was eroded by hives, and my nerves were paralyzed. I ended up dropping the sword and fainting. I couldn't hold on because it was so itchy. After that, I don't even dare to perform the Plum Blossom Sword Method, let alone the Seven Plums Sword."

He finished his story and waited for the laughter of the other party to begin, but no one laughed. The ridicule that always came after his story ended was not heard today. Rather, a serious atmosphere dominated the entire room.

Hyo-ryong looked at Jang Hong with a meaningful gaze. Jang Hong also nodded his head as if in response to his gaze.

"Are you thinking the same thing as me?"

Jang Hong opened his mouth carefully. Hyo-ryong nodded his head.

"That's right, if my thoughts are not wrong, it's..."

"The realm of Sword Scent."

The two said in unison, confirming each other's thoughts once again. It was a short phrase, but it contained deep and countless meanings.

"The realm of Sword Scent? What's that?"

Unable to hold back his curiosity, Bi Ryu-yeon asked. The sight of the two whispering and agreeing with each other about a story he didn't know was not a beautiful scene that Bi Ryu-yeon liked very much. Because he felt like he was being left out.

"I don't know the details either, but..."

Jang Hong began to speak, starting with these words.

"It's a unique characteristic and a unique realm of the Mount Hua Sect's Plum Blossom Sword Method, and its cause and reason have not yet been accurately revealed. It is only said in legends—including a few personal accounts—that when the Plum Blossom Sword Method reaches a certain realm, that is, strictly speaking, a very high realm, a subtle scent of plum blossoms is emitted from the sword ki. In other words, the sword emits a fragrance as if it had become a plum blossom tree. It's a rare and strange event. That amazing and strange realm is called the realm of Sword Scent in the Mount Hua Sect. There are countless speculations about this, but the most plausible theory is that it is not unrelated to the Purple Mist Divine Art, the unique internal energy heart method of Mount Hua learned within the Mount Hua Sect, which is full of the essence of plum blossoms."

The Purple Mist Divine Art was the best unique internal energy heart method of the Mount Hua Sect, a peerless divine art that was said to be passed down only to direct disciples. The reason this divine art was called the Purple Mist Divine Art was that the higher the level of achievement of this divine art's internal energy, the more the emitted ki took on a purple color. It was one of the two divine arts that supported the Mount Hua Sect along with the Plum Blossom Sword Method. There was a premise that in order for the Plum Blossom Sword Method to exert its maximum power, one had to learn this Purple Mist Divine Art to a certain level or higher.

Before Bi Ryu-yeon's question could even be asked, Jang Hong did not spare a detailed explanation of the Purple Mist Divine Art. It was from the thought that a punk who didn't even know the Plum Blossom Sword Method would have no way of knowing about the Purple Mist Divine Art. Naturally, his guess was accurate without a single error. Thanks to Jang Hong explaining everything in advance, Bi Ryu-yeon was able to save the trouble of asking.

Jang Hong explained everything he knew, even though he said he didn't know much. He knew the realm of Sword Scent, which few people in the Jianghu knew, in great detail. In that context, Hyo-ryong, who had guessed the realm of Sword Scent just by hearing Yun Jun-ho's story, was also undoubtedly an extraordinary person.

"Really? That's strange. For a human to emit a fragrance, not a flower. You could use him as a human air freshener."

Bi Ryu-yeon scanned Yun Jun-ho's entire body with a meaningful gaze. In that instant, Yun Jun-ho felt goosebumps all over his body and a chilly shiver, but he did not know where the cause originated from.

"Besides, no one other than a swordsman from the Mount Hua Sect has ever experienced that realm of Sword Scent. It means that that realm is still limited to the Mount Hua Sect. Few people in the Mount Hua Sect know about this."

"Why?"

"Because the number of people who have reached the realm of Sword Scent is so rare. In the last hundred years, the number of people who are said to have reached the realm of Sword Scent can be counted on one's five fingers."

"The creator of the Plum Blossom Sword Method must have been a plum blossom maniac who loved plum blossoms very much."

Bi Ryu-yeon looked at Jang Hong and sought his agreement.

"I suppose so."

Jang Hong agreed reluctantly.

"Perhaps that person wanted to become a plum blossom tree because he loved plum blossoms so much. So didn't he deliberately create a martial art that could reach such a realm? It must be so."

A person who loved plum blossoms so much that he wished to become a plum blossom tree itself. Bi Ryu-yeon concluded that such a person must be the creator of the Plum Blossom Sword Method. But then, why could that strange hypersensitivity patient, who loathed and avoided plum blossoms as if they were ghosts, reach such a realm? This is why the world might be an interesting place.

"The realm of Sword Scent..."

Jang Hong and Hyo-ryong knew well what this realm was. A dream-like realm that ordinary people could never easily enter. How could it be an ordinary realm when a sword smells like a flower? It was clear that it was a realm that could not be reached with a shallow achievement of the Purple Mist Divine Art and a poor enlightenment of the Plum Blossom Sword Method. But that weak-looking punk was the master of that realm... It was still an unbelievable thing.

If it was hypersensitivity, it was a word that indicated a kind of physical side effect that occurs when exposed to a specific substance or fragrance. In other words, according to the law of causality, there must be a cause for there to be an effect. There was no way a side effect would appear without a fragrance. Then where did the fragrance that caused his hives come from? Did it fall from the sky, or did it suddenly spring up from the ground without warning?

Of course, it meant that it came from his sword or his body. In other words, the story that he had reached the realm of Sword Scent, where he could emit the scent of plum blossoms from his sword, was established. Other than the realm of Sword Scent, there was no way to make the scent of plum blossoms come from a human's bare body. Because no other method or case had been reported yet. It was clear that no other method other than the realm of Sword Scent could ever be found even if you searched the world until you died.

'Is it really that fantasy realm? Am I dreaming or am I in a serious delusion?'

Jang Hong looked at Hyo-ryong with a gaze that sought his agreement again. As expected, Hyo-ryong also nodded his head in agreement with Jang Hong's opinion. It was not that he was treating Jang Hong as a crazy punk, but that he agreed with the speculation that what Yun Jun-ho had experienced was reaching the fantasy realm of Sword Scent.

It was questionable why a direct disciple of the Mount Hua Sect did not know such a fact, but the realm of Sword Scent, where the scent of plum blossoms was said to bloom fantastically, was a high realm that could only be experienced when the Plum Blossom Sword Method and the Purple Mist Divine Art that supported it were cultivated to the 10th star or higher. Besides, he himself was claiming that he had even seen an illusion of plum blossoms in full bloom as he swung his sword with the fragrance.

An illusion of plum blossoms in full bloom!

The illusion of plum blossoms drawn with sword ki was a high realm that ordinary people could never easily reach, where you could barely see a few flowers only when the realm of the Plum Blossom Sword reached the realm of Sword Ki Sword Flower. It was undoubtedly a higher realm than the realm of Sword Ki Sword Flower.

Therefore, this punk had done something incredibly amazing, but he himself did not know it. If the elders of the Mount Hua Sect had known this, they might have jumped for joy that a prodigy had been born. Of course, if he couldn't perform it, it would be a useless thing to have in his body.

In any case, it was clearly proven that Yun Jun-ho, regardless of his current skills, was an excellent talent with no lack of talent. Then the problem was the fact that he couldn't use it even though he had learned it...

"What should we do in a situation like this?"

Jang Hong asked for the opinions of those around him without much thought. It was not a serious congenital disease or an incurable disease like the Five Yin Severed Meridians or the Ninefold Blocked Meridians, but a strange and difficult problem where he had fallen from a peak master to a pathetic low-level master in an instant because of a trivial disease like hypersensitivity. Naturally, in a case like this, he couldn't handle everything by himself. Unless he was a god or a superman, he definitely needed the help of those around him.

A silence for the promotion of thought and countermeasures continued for a while. Wouldn't it be stranger in common sense to hope that such a thing would be resolved at once without any worries?

"In a situation like this, it's..."

Bi Ryu-yeon, who had been maintaining the position of an observer because he knew nothing in the series of conversations, opened his mouth first, as if he had come up with a good idea. Immediately, the gazes of the three were directed at Bi Ryu-yeon's mouth. They had not expected at all that a solution would come out of his mouth first. That's how much Bi Ryu-yeon was being treated as a useless person, a bystander, in this conversation.

"It's..."

An unspoken pressure was put on Bi Ryu-yeon to continue without dragging it out.

"Human Remodeling!"

They had hoped, but as expected, it seemed to be an answer that was very far from a constructive opinion.

"What, Human Remodeling?"

Bi Ryu-yeon smiled, nodding his head again. Seeing that smile, Jang Hong and Hyo-ryong thought, 'Is that punk in his right mind right now?', but they could also see that it was not a completely absurd story.

"Yes, Human Remodeling. If the body reacts maliciously to the scent of plum blossoms, the only way is to remodel the body. Isn't fixing what's wrong the shortcut to solving the problem?"

Although it sounded a bit fishy, as if something was stuck in his throat, it was also a plausible statement in its own way. But it couldn't be helped that it still sounded absurd and ridiculous. So, it was a solution that had many problems in convincing others at once.

"It would be a relief if you don't get lost and become a lost child."

"Or fall off a cliff or walk on a path of thorns."

"Instead of such a silly suggestion, let's look for a more constructive and progressive method."

It was clear that both of them had not yet understood Bi Ryu-yeon's intention.

"Hey, this is the most certain method. Is there any other good way?"

Of course, there was no such thing.

Everyone was silent, like a mute who had eaten honey. So, they decided to give it a positive review, as if they were being deceived once. Fortunately, they had a tendency to move forward recklessly and boldly once they had set a direction.