Seolhwa furrowed her brows.

How was she supposed to climb a cliff and find what she wanted without seeing or hearing?

Even when her eyes and ears had been open, it had taken risking her life.

The only difference now was that while she still couldn’t use the internal energy in her danjeon, the Imugi’s power was flowing through her meridians.

Gwangcheon had personally tapped her upper danjeon, allowing her to use a portion of the Imugi’s strength.

Seolhwa clasped her fist toward where Gwangcheon had been and started walking.

“Seolhwa, be careful!”

Yugang shouted after her as she left the hermitage, but she couldn’t hear his voice.

Step, step...

She shuffled forward slowly, feeling her way along.

Without sight or hearing, even her qi sense was useless.

[Namgoong Seolhwa. Spread your energy around you.]

The Imugi’s voice suddenly resonated inside her head, and she stopped.

— What do you mean? Spread my energy?

[The way you sheath your sword in qi—wrap it around yourself instead. Use it to grasp the lay of the land.]

“....”

She did as the Imugi said, letting her energy unfurl.

Like a black mist shrouding a blade—or herself—it spread outward like a curtain.

Then what had been invisible began to appear—no, began to register.

The trees surrounding her, the underbrush brushing her legs,

The squirrel darting up a trunk, the insects crawling across the ground.

The more she focused, the more her energy moved, and everything around her came alive as if displayed before her eyes.

[As expected, you’re good at this. That’s as far as I can help. Remember—I will be at your side when you need me.]

That was the Imugi’s final transmission.

Seolhwa resumed walking, her pace now much quicker than before.

When she needed to check her direction, she concentrated her energy into the form of sword threads and let it flow forward.

Once she confirmed she was headed the right way, she moved on again.

Using the Imugi’s power like my own internal energy feels... different.

Before, it had felt like being moved through another’s hand—now it felt far more like her own.

A dark power slumbering within her.

Through her meridians and skin, she could vividly sense the Imugi’s nature—something she had never felt before.

No wonder people are afraid when I use it.

It wasn’t ordinary darkness.

The Imugi’s energy carried a ferocity that threatened to swallow everything around it—

like holding a savage beast in the palm of her hand.

With a single command to attack, it could tear an enemy apart in an instant.

The Imugi...

Yes—it was the Imugi.

It had never become a dragon, but it was still a supreme being that had lived for thousands of years.

Because it lounged at her side eating candied fruit and demanding affection whenever it had the chance, she had almost forgotten—

The Imugi was never a harmless creature.

****

Gwangcheon, suspended in the air, watched Namgoong Seolhwa push through the undergrowth without hesitation.

Namu Amitabul...

He had thought he would never teach anyone again—not after personally expelling his disciple and retreating into the mountains.

So when Guyangdo asked him to help Seolhwa awaken the Imugi’s power, he rejected the request outright.

How could a master who had failed to guide his own disciple presume to teach another?

But then Guyangdo’s next words left him no choice.

“Gwangcheon, we are running out of time. The age of our martial world is ending. Before we go, we must leave a path for the next generation to survive.” 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

He could not fully understand the meaning in those words—

But the sun always sets, and he had felt the same foreboding.

“Have you ended your vow of silence?”

Guyangdo approached him.

When Gwangcheon had spoken for Seolhwa’s sake, Guyangdo had been truly surprised.

It had been nearly ten years since Gwangcheon had locked himself away in his mountain hermitage without uttering a word.

Guyangdo had not expected to hear that voice again.

“What moved your heart?”

“That girl’s eyes.”

“Her eyes?”

“When I look at her, I remember my days as a novice monk.”

Eyes brimming with the resolve to engrave any lesson deep into her bones.

Filled with the determination to overcome, even without knowing exactly what must be learned or realized.

As one who had already walked that path, they were eyes he could not ignore.

“Are you sure about this?”

“I am only doing my duty.”

From the moment he accepted Guyangdo’s request, he had known his vow of silence would be broken.

To halfheartedly match a student’s effort would be an affront to the very act of teaching.

If this was the final mark he would leave on the history of the martial world, it was enough.

****

She returned to the hermitage with red berries in hand.

Even without her sight or hearing, Gwangcheon watched her walk straight toward him.

“Have you realized it?”

Standing before him, she answered without hesitation.

“I have not.”

He tapped her forehead again, infusing her with more of the Imugi’s power.

“Go again.”

“Yes.”

She left once more.

After that—

“Have you realized it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Go again.”

“Do you understand now?”

“I don’t know.”

“Go.”

“How was it?”

“Difficult.”

Seolhwa climbed the mountain five more times.

By now, the berries didn’t matter.

The five ascents took three days.

Yugang pressed rice balls into her hands and wiped her sweat and dirt away with a damp cloth.

From the third climb on, she realized he was following her at a distance.

Knowing that made her feel strangely reassured.

When the fifth climb ended—

As soon as she returned, Gwangcheon withdrew the energy sealing her eyes and ears.

She placed a branch heavy with berries into his outstretched hand.

Her face was scratched in several places, her robes torn in spots.

Yugang watched her with an expression close to tears.

Gwangcheon offered her a bowl brimming with water.

She drank it down in one breath.

As he waited for her to finish, his hand slipped into his robe.

A rustle—perhaps he meant to give her the reply letter.

But Seolhwa lowered the empty bowl and spoke.

“It’s not enough.”

“....”

“Tell me more.”

His hand fell back to his side, a faint smile still on his face.

“You have already realized it.”

Her fist tightened.

“I have not yet received the teaching I sought.”

“What is it you seek?”

“I want to know how to open my upper danjeon.”

“That is excessive desire.”

“You had me awaken the Imugi’s power. Now that I know its potential, I cannot return to before.”

“Knowing is the beginning of realization.”

Knowing that such power exists was entirely different from not knowing.

Before, she could not even dream of it—but now that she knew, her gaze could not help but rise higher.

However—

“You must have had a reason for making me awaken the Imugi’s power.”

She turned her eyes to Guyangdo, who stood at the edge of the courtyard, arms folded, watching.

Though he kept his distance, he was the one who had ordered this training.

“I thought about it during the climbs.”

Why would masters at the Hyeongyeong realm spend their precious time teaching her to use the Imugi’s power?

What made them consider it so important?

It seemed excessive for a mere senior to guide a junior.

As if they were trying to force an enlightenment within a short time.

And then, after long thought, she remembered something she had forgotten—

It was Gwangcheon who uncovered the Blood Demon Cult infiltrators hiding in Shaolin.

Which meant—he knew of the Cult’s existence.

And if Guyangdo also knew?

If they foresaw that such a dangerous force existed, one that would threaten the martial world?

“Is it not because it’s needed?”

In their eyes, the child of the Namgoong Clan holding the Imugi’s power would be a great asset to defend the Orthodox martial world.

“This power... is it not because the martial world cannot do without it?”

Even if it isn’t that—

She needed this power.

A strength the Blood Demon knew nothing of, to stand against him.

In that sense, this sudden training from two great masters was a stroke of fortune.

When else would she receive such teaching?

“I ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) will not leave until you teach me to control the Imugi’s power as my own.”

She clasped her fist toward both Gwangcheon and Guyangdo.

After some time—

“Raise your head.”

A light touch came to the crown of her head.

Guyangdo had approached unnoticed, pressing his finger to her baihui point.

“Opening your upper danjeon is impossible. All things have their order.”

She hadn’t even opened her middle danjeon—opening the upper was out of the question.

“However, the Imugi’s power already dwells within your upper danjeon. I will teach you how to draw it out as if it were your own.”

Not channeling it through the Imugi, but pulling it directly herself.

Then Gwangcheon spoke.

“The important thing is not to forget that the Imugi is a living being. It is not your prisoner, but your partner in coexistence.”

A partner in coexistence...

Seolhwa lifted her gaze to the two masters before her.

Her eyes now burned with even greater resolve than before.