Chapter 201: A Story No One Knows - The Two of Them (2)
The black energy writhed violently.
The killing intent that had covered the entire mountain shook wildly, while the resentment lingering across the battlefield scattered in every direction.
“It worked.”
“It isn't over yet.”
“I know.”
Their swords moved again.
Let it flow.
Drive it together.
Then cut it.
At last, one of the major Flows that made up the great evil was completely severed.
“KRAAAAAAAH!”
A will filled with rage and pain exploded outward.
And at that moment—
the great evil's movements abruptly changed.
The black energy split into hundreds of streams.
“It's fleeing.”
Before Cheongun could even finish speaking, the energy raced away in every direction.
Down the mountain slopes.
Into the darkness of deep valleys.
Into the blood and lingering killing intent left by the dead.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
Cheongun tried to pursue it, but Yeonha grabbed his arm.
“Taoist Cheongun. Stop.”
“I can still feel its presence.”
“Only its presence. We're already too late.”
Cheongun knew that as well.
The creature's presence was already fading.
Even the black remnants left on the ground crumbled away like burned ash.
Yeonha looked down at them.
“That was the first time we've managed to wound it.”
Cheongun remained silent for a while.
Then he sheathed his sword.
“We only wounded it.”
His gaze moved toward the direction the great evil had disappeared.
“We didn't finish it.”
Yeonha wasn't smiling either.
“It'll be even more cautious of us now.”
“It will.”
“Next time, it won't reveal itself this easily.”
Cheongun fell into thought.
Then—
“In that case, next time we must cut off its escape as well.”
Yeonha lowered her gaze to her sword.
“Then we'll need to refine the sword paths further.”
“We will.”
She thought for a moment.
“Before that, how about giving it a name?”
Cheongun looked at her.
“A name?”
“We can't keep calling it ‘the sword art where I make the path and Taoist Cheongun cuts it’ forever.”
Cheongun's brow furrowed slightly.
“Does it truly need a name?”
“Of course. A proper sword art needs one.”
Yeonha thought for a moment before slowly raising the tip of her sword.
“Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword.”
“Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword....”
Cheongun repeated the name quietly.
“What does it mean?”
“Flow, because of the Flow.”
Yeonha lightly moved her sword tip.
“Flower, for Mount Hua.”
Then she pointed toward Cheongun.
“And Kunlun, for Kunlun.”
Cheongun stared at her in silence.
Yeonha raised an eyebrow.
“Well?”
“Isn't that name a little obvious?”
“Hmph. Then you come up with one yourself.”
Cheongun said nothing.
Yeonha waited for a moment before clicking her tongue.
“You don't have a better name, do you? You're just criticizing mine for no reason.”
"..."
“I knew it.”
Cheongun slid his sword into its sheath.
“We'll call it the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword.”
Yeonha's eyes widened slightly.
“You actually like it?”
“No.”
“Then why agree?”
Cheongun turned and began walking ahead.
“You named it. That seems sufficient.”
Yeonha stared blankly at his back for a moment.
Then she smiled.
“What a strange man.”
And so the name Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword remained in the world.
But the great evil they pursued never truly disappeared.
Cheongun and Yeonha had wounded it for the first time.
That was all.
The great evil hid deep within the darkness and rarely showed itself again.
Several more years passed.
Then, at some point, all traces of it vanished completely.
Yeonha examined heavenly fate again and again.
But she could no longer see it.
It wasn't dead.
One day, it would return.
They simply had no way of knowing whether that would happen in a few years...
several decades...
or in a future far more distant than either of them could imagine.
Yeonha sat at the edge of a cliff, watching the setting sun.
“In the end, we couldn't finish it.”
Cheongun stood beside her.
“No.”
“Aren't you frustrated?”
“I would be lying if I said I wasn't.”
“You look surprisingly calm for someone who's frustrated.”
Cheongun remained silent for a moment.
He stared at the distant mountain range before slowly speaking.
“Failing to finish something and leaving nothing behind are two different things.”
Yeonha turned toward him.
“Did we leave something behind?”
“We did.”
Cheongun's gaze lowered toward the sword at his waist.
“At the very least, we found one path capable of opposing it.”
“You mean the Flow?”
Cheongun nodded.
Even the great evil's power possessed a Flow.
There were places where that Flow could be gathered.
Places where it could be severed.
If someone could fully read that Flow...
then one day, they might be able to reach all the way to the great evil's root.
Yeonha fell into thought before looking down at her sword.
“Then we shouldn't keep this sword art only to ourselves.”
Cheongun glanced at her.
“What do you mean?”
“We should leave the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword to future generations.”
She slowly sheathed her blade.
“Someday, someone might appear who understands this sword path more deeply than we do.”
Cheongun considered her words for a long time before nodding.
And so, the two decided to leave the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword within their respective sects.
But they did not pass down the complete sword art as a single whole.
Kunlun received the sword path containing Cheongun's sword principles.
Mount Hua received the sword path containing Yeonha's sword principles.
Each was a complete martial art in its own right.
But neither reached the full Flow the two had created together.
If someday someone appeared who understood both swords...
if that person could reconnect the Flow they had left behind...
only then would the complete Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword return to the world.
Inside her Seclusion Cave, Yeonha left behind one final message on the wall.
[To the one who inherits the Flow. Or to the witness of our promise.]
Her hand stopped midway through the final stroke.
Cheongun watched from behind her.
“A promise....”
Yeonha glanced back.
“You don't like it?”
“People may interpret it differently.”
“Wouldn't that be even better?”
Cheongun frowned.
“How so?”
Yeonha looked back at the wall.
“Stopping the great evil is one promise.”
Then, in a slightly embarrassed voice, she added,
“And the two of us also promised to walk the same path.”
Cheongun didn't answer.
Yeonha glanced sideways at him.
“You haven't forgotten, have you?”
“I remember.”
“Hard to tell from that face.”
“A promise isn't kept with one's face.”
Yeonha smiled softly.
“I like that answer.”
At that moment, Cheongun pulled something from inside his robe.
A small folded letter.
Yeonha tilted her head.
“What's that?”
“It's from Dokgo Cheonyul.”
Her expression changed slightly at the name.
“That eccentric man?”
“Yes.”
Cheongun silently handed her the letter.
Yeonha unfolded it and began reading.
At first, her expression remained casual.
Then it gradually became serious.
The message contained only a short request.
Do not leave the Heavenly Law Sword within the Divine Cult.
Place the sword inside the Righteous Alliance treasury.
And until the day the sword itself cries out and chooses its owner...
allow no one to wield it.
Yeonha kept staring at the letter.
“The Heavenly Demon of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult wants us to hide a sacred sword of the Cult inside the Righteous Alliance treasury.”
Cheongun gave a faint nod.
“Not exactly the sort of request a sane person would think of.”
“From Dokgo Cheonyul, it almost sounds believable.”
Yeonha folded the letter.
“Did he say why?”
“Not properly.”
“That sounds like him.”
Her expression showed clear irritation, but she didn't question it further.
Dokgo Cheonyul.
His personality was eccentric.
Nearly every word out of his mouth had a talent for getting under people's skin.
He was rough and self-willed to a degree that made it difficult to believe he was the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
But there was one thing even Yeonha had no choice but to acknowledge.
He could read heavenly fate.
And he was astonishingly good at it.
“Did he say whether he saw something?”
Cheongun nodded.
“He said he had a dream.”
Yeonha raised an eyebrow.
“A dream?”
“He met a man whose name he didn't know. A face he'd never seen before, yet somehow he instinctively knew who the man was.”
Yeonha's gaze sharpened.
“Who?”
Cheongun answered quietly.
“The Primordial Heavenly Demon.”
Yeonha's fingers froze.
It wasn't a name she could dismiss lightly.
She looked down at the letter again.
“And he left this request after that dream?”
“Yes.”
“Yet he didn't explain why it specifically had to be hidden in the Righteous Alliance treasury.”
“Not a word.”
Yeonha's eyes deepened.
“Then whatever Dokgo Cheonyul saw in that dream, he must have decided that the Heavenly Law Sword could no longer remain inside the Divine Cult.”
“That is my conclusion as well.”
“Do you think it has something to do with the thing we've been pursuing?”
Cheongun stared at the letter for a moment before answering.
“I cannot be certain.”
“Still, Dokgo Cheonyul isn't someone who would make a request like this for no reason.”
“Probably not.”
Yeonha folded the letter again.
“So you're planning to honor the request.”
“I am.”
She stared directly at him.
“Then why doesn't he do it himself?”
Cheongun's expression stiffened slightly.
“If you wish to see the Heavenly Demon of the Demonic Cult stroll into the Righteous Alliance treasury, put down a sword, and walk back out, ask him yourself.”
Silence.
Then Yeonha burst out laughing.
“Now you've made me imagine it.”
“It isn't funny.”
“I think it would be quite a sight. I can already imagine the Righteous Alliance warriors panicking.”
“That is likely why he dumped the task on me.”
Cheongun returned the letter to his robe.
“We'll need to stop by the Righteous Alliance before leaving.”
Yeonha looked at him.
“The two of us.”
“There is no need for you to come.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“There you go again.”
Cheongun looked back at her.
“Since when did we decide your matters and mine were separate?”
Cheongun stared at her for a moment.
As usual, he didn't resist for long.
“Very well. We'll go together.”
Yeonha smiled in satisfaction.
And so, yet another arrangement was left behind in the world.
The Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword.
The Flow the two had discovered.
And the Heavenly Law Sword entrusted to them by Dokgo Cheonyul.
The three of them had no idea what consequences those things would bring centuries later.
They simply trusted the fragments of heavenly fate they had glimpsed...
and left behind a path for someone who might one day follow after them.
Some time later...
Cheongun and Yeonha each left their final records within their sects.
They believed their work was done.
They had left the roots of the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword in Kunlun and Mount Hua.
They had left behind a Flow capable of opposing the great evil.
And, according to Dokgo Cheonyul's request, they had hidden the Heavenly Law Sword in the most unexpected place in the world.
They had done everything they could.
The setting sun dyed the mountain range crimson.
Yeonha looked down the mountain.
“So where are we going now?”
“As promised, you may decide.”
Her eyes widened slightly.
“You're really letting me choose? You'll definitely regret it....”
“I'll regret it later.”
Yeonha stared at him.
“What? So you're saying you might regret it?”
“Who can say what may happen in this world?”
“How cruel.”
Despite her words, there was a smile on her face.
She rose to her feet.
“Then let's go.”
Cheongun looked at her.
“Where?”
“Do we need to know before we start walking?”
Yeonha began descending the mountain path before him.
“We'll decide along the way. Sometimes the road only becomes clear after you start walking.”
Cheongun watched her back for a moment.
Then slowly followed.
After they had gone some distance...
Yeonha suddenly looked over her shoulder.
“Taoist Cheongun.”
“What now?”
“About our Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword.”
“What about it?”
“What if Kunlun and Mount Hua fight someday, each claiming it's their sect's martial art?”
Cheongun stopped for a moment.
“That may happen.”
“Right?”
“Then let them fight.”
“What?”
Yeonha stared at him in disbelief.
Cheongun resumed walking.
“When someone who truly understands it appears, they'll know.”
“Know what?”
Cheongun answered calmly.
“That it was never the sword of only one sect.”
Then—
“It was a sword left behind together by two people who shared the same heart.”
Yeonha stared at his face for a long moment.
Then she burst into laughter.
“Hahaha!”
Cheongun frowned.
“Why are you laughing?”
“No reason.”
“That doesn't look like no reason.”
Yeonha moved up beside him.
This time, she didn't walk ahead.
“I have a feeling there will be quite a lot of interesting things if we keep walking together.”
The two descended the mountain side by side.
After that day...
no one in the martial world ever saw True Immortal Cheongun or Immortal Yeonha again.
Some claimed the two had ascended beyond mortality.
Others said they had fought the Heavenly Demon and died together.
Still others believed the two absolute masters had severed all ties with the secular world and spent their final years cultivating deep within the mountains.
But none of those stories were true.
They simply left.
Not as a True Immortal of Kunlun.
Not as an Immortal of Mount Hua.
But as one man...
and one woman.
And centuries later...
everything they left behind finally converged upon a single person.
The Kunlun of Kunlun.
The Flower of Mount Hua.
And the Flow that joined those two different swords into one.
The Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword.
And one sword that had waited for its owner inside the Righteous Alliance treasury for centuries.
The Heavenly Law Sword.
The connections left behind by those three people centuries ago...
became a single Flow.
And that Flow finally reached the one person who would bring their long entanglement with the great evil to an end.
