Chapter 27: Evaluation
The moment the words "Abandoned Martial Hall" left my mouth, the atmosphere in the training ground erupted.
“Th-The Abandoned Martial Hall?”
“How is that possible?”
“Aren't all the martial arts manuals there incomplete?”
“Those dangerous arts that send practitioners into qi deviation?”
Murmurs spread through the crowd like waves.
Disbelief and confusion filled their faces.
Of course they'd react like this.
The martial arts manuals left inside the Abandoned Martial Hall had long ago been judged useless.
Fragments of unfinished forms.
Traces of cultivation methods with broken paths.
Incomplete martial arts that damaged the body and mind of anyone foolish enough to practice them.
Under normal circumstances, they should have been destroyed long ago.
They had survived only because they were considered "records of martial research left by the masters of previous generations."
Calling them research records sounds nice.
In reality, they're just records of failure.
The original purpose behind establishing the Abandoned Martial Hall had been noble.
To continue the footsteps of the previous masters and raise Kunlun's martial arts to an even greater level.
But no matter how hard those great masters had devoted their lives to their research...
not a single martial art had ever been properly completed.
Those in later generations who inherited their ambitions also tried.
The result had been the same.
If anything, the stories of practitioners dying from qi deviation only made the Abandoned Martial Hall's name sound even more ominous.
So of course they can't believe it.
Someone who used to work in the Event Hall just demonstrated a martial art from the Abandoned Martial Hall right in front of them.
At that moment, Sect Leader Cheon Gwangcheon slowly straightened in his seat.
His low but firm voice rang throughout the training ground.
“Han Mujin.”
I raised my head and looked directly at him.
“The martial arts of the Abandoned Martial Hall are fundamentally incomplete.”
“Even practicing them for a short time normally leads to qi deviation.”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
“But I see none of those signs in you.”
"..."
“Moreover, the forms you just demonstrated possessed perfect balance.”
“They were completely different from the incomplete techniques known to remain inside the Abandoned Martial Hall.”
His gaze sharpened.
“Was the martial art you demonstrated truly the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword?”
“And if so...”
“how did you manage to learn it?”
Every eye in the training ground turned toward me.
I took a short breath.
Then answered slowly.
“To be honest...”
“I don't know the exact reason either.”
“The reason is unknown?”
“Yes.”
I continued.
“While cleaning the Abandoned Martial Hall, I happened to find the manual for the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword.”
“Strangely, the moment I read it, I understood the contents.”
Several people frowned.
I kept speaking.
“It felt natural.”
“Almost as though I were looking again at a martial art I had already learned long ago.”
The training ground immediately erupted in murmurs again.
“That's ridiculous!”
“He understood a martial art from the Abandoned Martial Hall that easily?”
“How could an incomplete manual produce the level of skill we just saw?”
Different expressions appeared throughout the crowd.
Some openly scoffed.
Others looked at me with suspicion.
But the noise didn't last long.
“Enough!”
One sharp command from the Sect Leader immediately silenced the entire training ground.
Cheon Gwangcheon looked around.
“Not everything inside the Abandoned Martial Hall is entirely worthless.”
His clear voice carried throughout the grounds.
“According to Kunlun's secret records, which may only be accessed by the Sect Leader and the First Elders...”
“there have occasionally been people in the past who gained enlightenment from the Abandoned Martial Hall.”
The First Elders calmly nodded.
Everyone else widened their eyes.
I didn't show it openly...
but I was just as surprised.
There really were people who gained enlightenment from the Abandoned Martial Hall?
If I wanted to win the Elders' Lecture Gathering, I had no choice but to demonstrate a proper Kunlun martial art.
And the only Kunlun martial arts I knew...
were the ones I had acquired from the Abandoned Martial Hall.
Since I couldn't hide the truth anyway...
I had decided to face it directly.
But there had really been others who gained something from that place?
I quietly listened.
“The path was never open to everyone.”
Cheon Gwangcheon continued.
“But it is undoubtedly true that there were those who achieved something there.”
People's expressions shifted.
The weight behind the Sect Leader's words was slowly suppressing their doubts.
Then his gaze returned to me.
“Han Mujin.”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Do you know who created the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword?”
I shook my head.
Then...
the name that left his mouth caused the entire training ground to erupt again.
“The creator of the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword was True Immortal Cheongun.”
“True Immortal Cheongun?!”
My mouth opened before I could stop myself.
True Immortal Cheongun.
Anyone who had spent even a little time in Kunlun knew that legendary name.
A supreme master born from Kunlun roughly two hundred years ago.
A martial artist once regarded as the strongest under heaven.
Stories about him were still told constantly.
On his first journey into the martial world...
he was said to have cut down hundreds of Demonic Cult warriors with a single sword.
Later...
after a bloody battle against the Demonic Cult Leader that lasted seven days and seven nights...
he secured his reputation as the strongest under heaven.
And finally...
it was said that after surpassing the ultimate limits of martial arts, he ascended beyond mortality and vanished from the mortal world entirely.
The name True Immortal Cheongun itself was part of Kunlun's mythology.
A source of pride.
And yet...
a martial art left behind by that legendary figure had been sitting inside the Abandoned Martial Hall?
And that martial art was the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword I learned.
If the Sect Leader himself hadn't said it...
I never would have believed it.
The others seemed to feel the same.
“If it was a sword art left by True Immortal Cheongun, wouldn't it be one of the greatest martial arts under heaven?”
“But if it remained inside the Abandoned Martial Hall... doesn't that mean it was incomplete?”
“Even the masters of previous generations couldn't complete the Flowing Flower Kunlun Sword.”
“How could someone from the Event Hall understand it so easily?”
Suspicious gazes poured toward me.
It was a natural reaction.
If our positions were reversed...
I would probably think exactly the same thing.
But the Sect Leader's next words quickly quieted the whispers.
“It is not widely known...”
“but True Immortal Cheongun was not originally an official disciple of Kunlun.”
Everyone froze.
