Volcanic Age - Chapter 11

Editor: Summerstood, Imagine

One month passed really quickly.

In this past month, Ju Seo Cheon received the teachings of the Plum Blossom Sword Art from Yu Jong Mok and pondered about how he should transmit his insight to his master while swinging his sword.

He was able to think of other things freely because he perfectly understood the basics already.

But Ju Seo Cheon was overlooking one thing because he was too deep in his thoughts.

It was that Yu Jong Mok was observing him.

‘How can this be!’

Yu Jong Mok saw how Ju Seo Cheon swung the sword and couldn’t hide his shock.

‘Something seemed strange this past year but I didn’t know he would be this much!

The Plum Blossom Sword Art is easy because it’s only the basics. If one has already completed the Plum Blossom Fist Techniques, then the difficulty would drop considerably.

But even so, it was impossible to execute the Plum Blossom Sword Art that freely and calmly after only a week passed.

Even if Yu Jong Mok explained the theory behind it, it was weird to be able to achieve that level.

If that is the case, there is only one conclusion that can be made.

‘My disciple was a genius!’

Ju Seo Cheon wasn’t a genius at all.

It wasn’t that he had outstanding reflexes or a great innate physique and his blood vessels and constitution weren’t good either.

Yu Jong Mok knew that better than anyone else as Ju Seo Cheon’s master.

But talent wasn’t limited to physical abilities or mental capacities. It could also be a talent towards the sword.

Yu Jong Mok thought that Ju Seo Cheon fell in that category. No, precisely speaking it was more correct that it was a misunderstanding.

Ju Seo Cheon was only repeating the footsteps he had achieved in the past. It was also because the Plum Blossom Sword Art was merely the basics. That’s why Yu Jong Mok could only ascertain that Ju Seo Cheon’s talent towards the sword was geniuslike as he didn’t know the situation.

If Ju Seo Cheon hadn’t gone through the hellish training called the enhancement gymnastics, he wouldn’t have been able to do as much.

He hid his skills to the utmost degree as to not get suspected while thinking of the advice he should give to his master. But he ended up executing everything in the Plum Blossom Sword Art unconsciously because his physique got so good thanks to the hellish training.

‘If he’s at this level, he would be able to enter the Lotus Pavillion…’

The Lotus Pavillion. It was one of the internal structures of Mount Hua Sect and at the same time, an institution that only selected disciples could be affiliated to.

In other words, it was a scaled-down version.

It was a place for disciples that showed outstanding talent to get separate training before they became adults.

Special beings like Jang Moon In and the disciples of the Five Elders entered the Lotus Pavillion and received training.

It was because those disciples were able to take a step ahead of others because they had special masters.

In addition, a ninth of the Plum Blossom Examiners were graduates of the Lotus Pavilion.

Unfortunately, Yu Jong Mok wasn’t able to enter the Lotus Pavilion because of his weak constitution.

Whatever the case, with Ju Seo Cheon’s skills he would easily be able to enter the Lotus Pavilion and receive a higher level of training.

If he was lucky he could receive a miraculous medicine and could also receive exclusive teaching from the instructors.

If he could only prove his strength and talent, he would be able to receive the best treatment. It may seem unfair but these things were common in small sects if they weren’t a big sect like Mount Hua.

A few days later.

Ju Seo Cheon made a request to Yu Jong Mok.

“Master, pardon my rudeness but will you be able to show me a sword art besides the Plum Blossom Sword Art?”

“A sword art besides the Plum Blossom Sword Art?”

“Yes.”

Ju Seo Cheon nodded.

Yu Jong Mok fell in his thoughts at the request of his disciple.

The disciple that had started learning the Plum Blossom Sword Art for only a week. No, the disciple that had only grabbed the sword for one week.

Even if he had talent, teaching him a higher-ranked sword technique when he didn’t even complete the Plum Blossom Sword Art was utter madness.

That was what Yu Jong Mok was worried about.

Ju Seo Cheon noticed and spoke quickly.

“But of course, I’m not asking you to teach me. It’s just that I have never seen another sword technique besides the one of Mount Hua. I want to see the proper sword technique of our sect as one of its disciples.”

“Um, fine. I understand.”

If it wasn’t teaching and just showing, it would pose no particular problem.

If one approached the training center they were able to see early inner disciples practicing sword techniques besides the Plum Blossom Sword Arts.

If only observing was already a problem, he would have already stopped him early on from getting close to the training center.

Before Yu Jong Mok took a stance, he sensed the gaze of his disciple filled with expectations and fell in thought.

‘Let’s see…’

There were five sword techniques appearing in his head.

They were the Universe Sword Art, Withered Flower Sword Art, Plum Blossom Brilliant Sword Art, Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword Art, and the Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword Art.

The Universe Sword and the Withered Flower Sword were sword techniques that were a level above basic sword techniques.

Most of the inner disciples learn up to this point and descend.

The Plum Blossom Brilliant Sword was one of the few delightful Pleasant Swords in Mount Hua and the Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword was a sword technique that contained the five elements, just like its name implied.

The two of them were at the boundary of being a top-ranked technique and only recognized inner disciples could learn it.

At the same time, it was also a limit for the inner disciples. Excluding these two, top-ranked martial arts couldn’t be learned if you weren’t disciples of the head temple.

Lastly, the Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword was a reduced size edition of the Twenty Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword. It was at the peak of the top-ranked martial arts and the difficulty it had was that high. Even Yu Jong Mok wasn’t able to complete it.

“I am now going to show you the Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword.”

Yu Jong Mok made a decision at the end of his thoughts. He hadn’t been able to complete it yet but if he was going to show something to his disciple, he wanted to show the best he could.

“I want to ask you something before showing it to you. Do you know about the Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword?”

“Yes, master. The Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword is a sword technique of Mount Hua that is composed of the first stance Plum Blossom Alongside The Road up to the fourteenth stance called the Faded Plum Blossom.”

The Twenty Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword was composed of twenty stances, just like its name implied. If you are able to execute up to the Thousand Miles Plum Blossom Essence, your sword will start to emanate the scent of the plum flower.

In the past, he had laughed at it saying how good it was to smell the scent of the plum flower but that was a really foolish thought.

Releasing the scent of the plum flower while executing a sword stance meant that it could influence the laws of nature itself.

It was a boundary all swordsmen could only dream of.

Disciples of Mount Hua Sect didn’t hold the Plum Blossom Sword Examiner as their idols for nothing.

“Right, you know it well. I will add a bit more of explanation in case you make a misunderstanding. Even though the stances of the Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword

and the Twenty Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword may look similar, they are a bit different. If they were the same, wouldn’t the Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword just be called the Twenty Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword?”

“You are talking about the reduced version of it, the lower compatibility with it.”

Ju Seo Cheon knew everything already but he still responded to Yu Jong Mok’s long explanation.

The Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword was a scaled-down version of the Twenty Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword.

Its difficulty decreased as fourteen stances were organized into one sword technique but its power also decreased that much.

“You know it well. Good. That much is enough.”

Yu Jong Mok smiled in satisfaction at his disciple’s answer.

He then took a stance and executed the Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword.

Ju Seo Cheon saw his master execute the Plum Blossom Alongside The Road and felt a pain in his chest.

‘I’m seeing something I couldn’t in my past life.’

In his past life, learning the Plum Blossom Sword Arts was already too much for him. Maybe it was because of that that Yu Jong Mok didn’t show Ju Seo Cheon any top-ranked martial arts. It was because it would be an obstacle for him.

Originally, he was planning to teach Ju Seo Cheon when he reached a certain level but unfortunately, he passed away before he could do so.

The number of times Ju Seo Cheon could see his master’s swordsmanship could be counted on one hand, even though they had the closest relationship as a master and disciple.

‘Ah, this is not the time to be like this.’

Ju Seo Cheon scolded himself inwardly and focused on Yu Jong Mok.

In their current state, Yu Jong Mok was much higher in terms of boundaries but Ju Seo Cheon was above as someone that had once become an Unrestrained Realm expert.

In reality, Ju Seo Cheon was able to grasp Yu Jong Mok’s sword and martial arts after a short time passed.

‘It seems perfect up to the ninth stance but he’s starting to get stuck from the tenth stance, the Fading Plum in Full Bloom. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like he’s lacking insight but training…

Ju Seo Cheon had also experienced the Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword in his past life. He was confident that he would be able to execute it more perfectly than Yu Jong Mok if he was given a little bit of time and internal energy.

‘Huh?’

Ju Seo Cheon’s eyes started to shine.

“….Hap!”

Yu Jong Mok executed up to the fourteenth stance, the Faded Plum Blossom. He was sweating as if proving that he had spent quite a lot of stamina and internal energy.

“Now, those were all of the fourteen stances. But this bad master of yours is lacking in skills and wasn’t able to perfectly execute them. I’m sorry.”

He was Yu Jong Mok indeed. Normally, they would put on some airs to try to act cooler in front of their disciples.

No, even if they weren’t in front of their disciples, most martial artists and the ones belonging to the Righteous Faction especially had a high pride.

They would be embarrassed about their lacking abilities and would try to hide it but Yu Jong Mok revealed it like nothing and apologized saying that he couldn’t show his martial arts properly.

“No, it’s okay master!”

Ju Seo Cheon clapped his hands with eyes filled with unlimited trust.

“It was an outstanding sword art that martial artists and even the leaders of Murim would gasp with exclamation!”

“You brat, didn’t you hear the words ‘Too much water drowns the miller’? Excessive compliments are heard as flatteries.”

Yu Jong Mok laughed.

But it didn’t seem like he was in a bad mood.

“I will take that into account master.”

That wasn’t flattery at all.

To Ju Seo Cheon, Yu Jong Mok was something akin to a God.

“Now, do you want to see another sword technique? Now that it turned like this, I will show you something else.”

Ju Seo Cheon cheered inwardly at those words.

And differently to his feelings, he acted like a simple ten-year-old kid that had a strong curiosity.

“I want to see the Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword Art master.”

“You are giving this master of yours the opportunity to restore my incompetence. I have already completed the Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword Art early on so I will show you all of it.”

Disciples of the head temple would learn a few top-ranked martial arts after they complete the Plum Blossom Sword Arts and one of them was the Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword Art.

“Master, this lacking disciple of yours is lacking knowledge so I couldn’t see what passed in front of my eyes when you executed the Fourteen Stances of the Plum Blossom Sword. Pardon my rudeness but will you be able to do it slowly this time?”

“Of course.”

Yu Jong Mok got really satisfied when his ten-year-old disciple showed great passion for studying martial arts.

He had talent and his posture was also excellent. He was really proud as a master to have a disciple like this.

Yu Jong Mok started to execute the first stance of the Five Elements Plum Blossom Sword Art slowly, just like Ju Seo Cheon requested.

For reference, in martial arts, whether it be sword arts or fist arts, executing any of them slowly was much harder to do.

Swinging a sword slowly needed a considerable amount of strength, stamina, and endurance.

It was the same for concentration. That was because executing an art slowly meant that they were that much aware of it.

Even if it was a martial art that they completed before, they would be needing a considerable amount of concentration if it wasn’t at the level of the Plum Blossom Sword Arts.

And Ju Seo Cheon was precisely aiming for that.