NOVEL WEB Chapter 4
Chapter 4: The Sword Saint Geomseong Yujinhwi
“Is anyone here?”
As I passed through the entrance of the Gongdong Sect, I was met by a middle-aged warrior dressed in black martial attire, wielding a sword.
The current leader of the Gongdong Sect, the Demon Subduing Swordsman Jeonyeong.
He would later become famous as the master of the Sword Saint.
“…A child?”
He muttered in a small voice.
Cough, cough.
Clearing his throat, Jeonyeong, in his worn black attire adorned with the symbol of the Great Taiji, spoke to me.
“I am Jeonyeong, the leader of the Gongdong Sect. What brings you here in this winter?”
In response to his question, I took my stance in preparation and said,
“I, Lee Cheol-soo, have always admired the Great Gongdong Sect. So, I have come here to formally join the Gongdong Sect!”
Sparkle, sparkle.
I acted like a naïve young boy, full of admiration for the Orthodox Faction.
Jeonyeong eyed me thoughtfully.
“…You wish to join?”
“Yes! Please let me join!”
I grabbed the hem of Jeonyeong’s robe and lowered my head.
“Hmm…”
Jeonyeong touched my forearm, checking my pulse.
A man touching my body?
It was extremely unpleasant, but I had to endure it as it was a necessary step for a leader to assess a potential disciple.
“…”
Silence fell between Jeonyeong and me.
No matter how decrepit a sect might be, accepting a new disciple requires careful consideration.
So, he was probably thinking it through.
But that thought wouldn’t last long.
The Gongdong Sect was in no position to be picky.
“Are your parents around?”
Upon hearing his question, I feigned a dark expression and shook my head.
“No, they were attacked by bandits and…”
I spun my already prepared sad story with fake tears.
Once a poor farmer, my parents died in a bandit raid, and my village was burned.
In that process, I resolved to learn martial arts to avenge my parents.
Thus, I sought to join the Gongdong Sect that I had admired since childhood.
“…I see you have such circumstances. Very well. Normally, several processes are required before joining, but given the current situation of our sect and your considerable talent, I will excuse all that and allow you to join. You said your name was Lee Cheol-soo?”
As expected, Jeonyeong granted my request to join.
After all, a child with no background making their way to the treacherous Gongdong Mountain could be assumed to possess basic talent.
If I lacked talent, I would have been kicked out already.
“Yes!”
“Follow me.”
Jeonyeong turned and I followed him inside the Gongdong Sect.
I saw tattered structures that used to be grand but were now crumbling. The gloomy remnants of buildings that had been burned during the Demon Sect’s invasion spread out before my eyes, making the place look like a haunted house.
After walking for a while within the Gongdong Sect, we finally reached a somewhat intact edifice.
“This is the Jucheon Sword Sect, a shrine where the tablets of our ancestors, including the Surveyor of the Sect, Gwangseongja, and the founding ancestor, Bihongja, are enshrined.”
The Jucheon Sword Sect.
I entered through the door that bore that name.
Inside, there was an altar where the tablets of past leaders of the Gongdong Sect and significant figures were housed.
Jeonyeong lit an incense stick at the altar with his fire starter and spoke to me.
“From now on, I will officially conduct the ceremony to establish our master-disciple bond. You must perform the Ceremony for Gaining a Master. You will bow three times to the tablet of Gwangseongja, three times to my master, and three times to me. In total, you will bow nine times.”
The Ceremony for Gaining a Master, also known as the Nine Prostrations Ceremony, was a rite depicted in martial arts novels to bind master and disciple and grant entry into the sect.
I did as instructed by Jeonyeong: three bows to the ancestor’s tablet, three to the master’s tablet, and then three to Jeonyeong.
After completing the bows, Jeonyeong took out a scroll and began to write my name.
“Good. You are now officially a disciple of our sect.”
Jeonyeong said with a light smile.
With my name in the scroll, it was official; I was now a recognized disciple of the Gongdong Sect.
At that moment, my first goal toward Cloud and Rain Pleasure and the Three-Storey Tea House had finally been achieved.
“Before I tell you about the rules of our sect, let me inform you: aside from you, I have another disciple. This disciple will be your senior brother and becomes the heir of the Gongdong Sect.”
Jeonyeong said to me.
Senior brother.
I knew very well who that heir was.
The Sword Saint Geomseong Yujinhwi.
Otherwise known as the World’s Number One Sword.
The prodigy who would resurrect the fallen Gongdong Sect and position it among the eight great factions.
The reason I came to the struggling Gongdong Sect instead of any other was to invest deeply in the Geomseong Yujinhwi coin before it peaks.
“Senior brother?”
I feigned ignorance in a naive tone.
“Yes. Her name is Yujinhwi…”
“Master!”
Before Jeonyeong could finish his sentence, the door to the chamber burst open, and someone came in.
“I’m here… Huh?”
Even from a guy’s perspective, he had an extraordinarily handsome appearance.
Yujinhwi was currently one year older than me. I was thirteen, so Yujinhwi was fourteen.
Yet, the light on his face was such that he outshined every handsome person I had met in this life and my previous one combined.
Indeed, he was the future Sword Saint Yujinhwi.
The one who was to be my senior brother.
Not to mention, his eyelashes were exaggeratedly long and lush, like a character out of a fantasy tale.
‘No, can’t a person be just reasonably attractive? Damn, he’s ridiculously good-looking.’
My looks were, at best, unremarkable and certainly not charming.
I was merely a somewhat ordinary individual who aimed to compensate for my average appearance with the reputation of a hero by joining the Gongdong Sect.
And now, I was expected to be connected to this excessively good-looking guy as brothers?
To girls, I would surely resemble nothing more than a squid.
My mind began forming the ridiculous future scenarios involving me and Yujinhwi.
‘Hey, little brother. Hohoho, could you possibly send my regards to your senior brother?’
‘Hey, little brother. How’s Senior Yujinhwi doing lately?’
The flood of stunning beauties flocking to me.
But the target wasn’t me; it was that damn handsome Yujinhwi.
They cared about him and only him, seeking me out purely to inquire about Yujinhwi’s wellbeing.
I would receive no attention and only be reduced to a side character due to my overly handsome senior brother.
‘What a horrifying, forbidden future that shouldn’t come to pass.’
I had encountered Yujinhwi’s good looks through information collection and description drawings, but I had trivialized it.
In my previous life, I had met him a few times while on official business. However, Yujinhwi always wore a veil that covered his face when we met or in daily life.
Hence, I had never seen his real face.
Given the level I reached in my previous life, I could have penetrated that veil using my keen vision, but I didn’t feel the need to see a man’s face that desperately.
I chose not to inspect it. After all, I had already seen enough through the portraits, and I thought that was sufficient.
‘I should have checked back then!’
I lamented my past foolish self.
Regardless, I knew two things about Yujinhwi’s appearance from my previous life.
The first being that his exceptionally good looks had caused countless troubles with women during his time in the martial world. To avoid those troubles, he wore that veiled hat.
The second was the described portraits of his appearance.
Honestly, even those portraits depicted him as a strikingly handsome fellow. So I anticipated that he would be good-looking, but I didn’t expect it to be to this extent.
This was shocking.
I was convinced that the portrait I saw didn’t do justice to Yujinhwi’s actual looks. If I had to quantify it, it was only about 1% accurate?
No matter how much I tried to invest at rock-bottom prices, this was a bit too much.
I couldn’t go back on the Ceremony for Gaining a Master I had already performed either.
I was losing my mind.
“Master, who is this child?”
“Oh, let me introduce you. This is Lee Cheol-soo, who just joined, and he will be your disciple. Greet him.”
“So you’re a disciple! Nice to meet you! I’m Yujinhwi, and I’ll be your senior brother from now on. Don’t think too hard about it; let’s treat each other like brothers!”
Yujinhwi greeted me with a cheerful expression.
Yujinhwi.
Just as the records indicated, he was kind and pleasant.
With excellent character, stunning looks, and a talent that seemed gifted by the heavens.
He was practically the epitome of perfection, like a protagonist from a martial arts novel.
I bit my teeth as I looked at Yujinhwi.
‘Please, just modest down there to 3cm. Please.’
I had no information on Yujinhwi’s endowment in my head. So I hoped he would be anything but endowed, begging that he would at least fall short in that regard.
With such unmatched specs, if that were also the case, it would be totally unbalanced.
*
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Senior! I hope we’ll get along!”
The boy, dressed in shabby clothes and having a somewhat sharp impression, bowed respectfully to Yujinhwi.
As they exchanged greetings and established friendship, Jeonyeong smiled in bliss.
‘Indeed, it looks like I chose well accepting Cheol-soo as a disciple. It was a burden having to raise only Yujinhwi alone.’
Yujinhwi.
Ten years ago, Jeonyeong found this orphaned child in a back alley while wandering the martial world, taking pity on him and bringing him into the Gongdong Sect.
Upon discovering that Yujinhwi was a genius capable of learning a hundred things from a single lesson, he devotedly taught her, hoping she would be the one to rebuild the decaying sect after the Great War of Justice fifty years ago.
The Gongdong Sect had lost its former glory, but Yujinhwi was the only hope remaining for Jeonyeong, the last descendant of the sect.
Thus, Jeonyeong cared for Yujinhwi, both materially and spiritually, teaching her with all his heart.
This way, he would not have to feel embarrassed toward Gwangseongja, the Surveyor who founded their sect, or the warriors who fell during the Great War of Justice.
‘In the future, Yujinhwi will need to face her peers as she ventures into the martial world. So, before heading out, it’s essential for Yujinhwi to learn how to interact naturally with her peers through sharing bonds with her disciple, ensuring her disguise as a boy remains undetected.’
That was right.
Yujinhwi was a girl masquerading as a boy.
Giving her a boy’s name and raising her as a boy was because she was the only hope for the Gongdong Sect.
In the martial world, being seen as a man was far more advantageous than being recognized as a woman.
Thus, for the sake of the sect’s revival, Yujinhwi had to appear as a boy.
Now that another boy disciple had arrived, Yujinhwi would have to be even more careful to maintain her disguise.
Also, having one more disciple was better than having just one.
Based on his examination, Jeonyeong believed that while Cheol-soo was not exceptionally talented, he wasn’t a total dullard either.
Plus, the fact that he was able to scale Mount Chwibyung—a site where our main base is located—without internal energy as a child demonstrated considerable determination.
Thus, he should be sufficient to support the genius Yujinhwi.
As Jeonyeong gazed at the two disciple-brothers, he thought,
‘The future of our sect looks bright. Now I can stand here in front of my master with confidence.’
Ha ha ha.
Jeonyeong burst into hearty laughter.
This was the event that unfolded on the very first day of Lee Cheol-soo’s initiation into the Gongdong Sect.