Chapter 34 — An Invisible Danger
I cautiously took the first step down the stone staircase connected to the underground darkness.
Enduring the chilling cold that crept up my ankles, I continued downward.
‘It’s quite deep.’
The stairs were longer than I expected.
I thought it would end after five or six steps, but there was still no end in sight.
Relying on the lantern in my left hand, I kept descending.
How far had I gone?
Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet became flat.
“Is this the end?”
Just as I was about to raise the lantern to brighten my vision—
A faint point of light flickered in the darkness.
“…What is that?”
I narrowed my eyes toward the direction the light was coming from.
At first, I thought it was an illusion.
But with one more step forward, a second and then a third point of light appeared one after another.
The intensity of the lights grew slightly stronger the deeper I went.
At the same time, my eyes gradually began to make out the surrounding shapes.
Only then did I realize that small orbs were embedded throughout the walls.
“Night-luminous pearls…?”
Finger-sized spheres emitting a pale blue-white glow.
It felt as if the underground space itself was sensing an intruder and lighting up on its own.
I extinguished the lantern and let my eyes adjust to the glow of the night-luminous pearls.
The underground space was wider than I had imagined.
Its structure was too neat and orderly to be a simple warehouse or secret room.
It felt as though it had been designed with large-scale movements in mind.
I walked slowly, carefully observing my surroundings.
That was when something caught my eye.
“…This is?”
Scratch marks, as if carved by something sharp, covered various spots on the walls and floor.
Countless scratches connected like lines across the surfaces.
I approached the wall and lightly ran my fingers over one of the marks.
The wall was rough, but the scratches themselves were unnaturally smooth.
‘Don’t tell me…!?’
Running my fingers over them again made the sensation clearer.
If these were marks left by brute force, there should have been stone powder or jagged edges.
But these showed no cracking or chipping. The edges were impossibly smooth, as if something razor-sharp had gently sliced through the stone grain.
I was now certain what these marks were.
‘Traces of martial arts.’
Minute traces left behind when sword aura infused with internal energy had grazed the stone walls.
These were marks that could never be made by the clumsy sword swings of an average martial artist.
I pulled my hand away from the wall and examined the area again.
One wall was covered in flowing, curved lines.
They flowed like waves, then subtly changed direction at certain points and dug deeper.
It looked exactly like the trajectory of a sword in motion.
The opposite wall had a completely different character.
Straight lines stretched out, then bent, rebounded, and intersected—capturing the transitions and changes of forms.
The floor was the same.
Certain spots showed clear signs of being pressed or shifted.
Traces of feet grazing, heels bracing, and pivoting to change direction.
‘Footwork.’
I took a moment to view the entire space.
The walls were filled with countless sword paths.
The floor bore the marks of footwork.
There was only one meaning behind all of this.
‘Someone practiced the sword here. For a very long time.’
Thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of times.
These were undoubtedly the traces of intense, dedicated training to refine sword paths, not mere casual practice.
I muttered to myself.
‘An underground training hall.’
The marks on the walls and floor all pointed to that conclusion.
There was no longer any doubt about the purpose for which this space had been created.
I scanned the area once more.
The sword lines covering the walls and the footprints on the floor all converged in one direction.
At the far end of the underground space where that flow led—
A single stone pedestal at waist height stood silently in place.
A simple structure consisting of a wide stone slab placed atop a square stone pillar.
It was the perfect height to rest a sword on.
I slowly approached the stone pedestal.
Nothing was placed on top of it.
However, as I drew closer, I noticed something engraved on the wall behind the pedestal.
I brought the lantern closer, and the hidden lines revealed their shape.
“…Writing?”
It was definitely writing. But it wasn’t written with a brush.
The marks looked as if they had been carved directly into the stone wall with the tip of a sword.
Yet every stroke was smooth and full of flowing life.
I unconsciously held my breath.
‘…With a sword?’
The strokes were frighteningly straight, the rise and fall of power connected naturally, and the brush-like momentum was etched onto hard rock.
This was not something achievable simply by wielding a sword.
Only a supreme expert who could freely control sword paths could leave behind such traces.
I steadied my breathing and began reading the words engraved on the wall.
— To the one who shares this fate in later generations. I originally did not wish to leave behind my name.
However, to reveal the origin of these traces, I leave behind this final mark.
The people of ancient Kunlun called me ‘Azure Cloud True Person.’
“…Azure Cloud True Person!?”
The completely unexpected name made me freeze, my breath catching in my throat.
The creator of the Flowing Flower Sword that I had learned, the unrivaled expert under heaven from two hundred years ago.
The Kunlun legend who stood at the peak of the Murim with a single sword and eventually ascended to immortality, vanishing without a trace.
It meant that this mysterious figure had personally carved these words into this underground space.
I swallowed hard and leaned closer to the stone wall.
— I once believed I could split the world with my sword.
The Heavenly Demon Cult, the heretic fiends—everything was nothing but fleeting dust beneath my blade.
But… one day, I encountered a ‘darkness that could not be cut by the sword.’
A darkness that could not be cut by the sword?
I unconsciously held my breath.
If it simply meant ‘there was a stronger opponent,’ it wouldn’t be strange.
In the Murim, someone of a higher realm could always appear.
Even for Azure Cloud True Person, who had been called the greatest under heaven.
But the phrase “could not be cut” was entirely different.
It evoked something that went beyond mere strength and weakness—something that defied logic itself.
The strangeness and unease from that single line sent a chill down my spine.
‘What does that even mean?’
I focused intently on the next sentence carved into the stone wall.
— That darkness was a colossal evil that twisted the very principles of the world, a scale so vast it could not be measured.
A sinister, formless existence like a malevolent ghost that distorted the laws of heaven and earth.
Facing that evil which existed outside the natural order of martial arts, I saw for the first time a realm my sword could not reach.
It was unbelievable.
Azure Cloud True Person—the absolute powerhouse who had commanded the world with a single sword.
For him to leave behind words acknowledging his own limits.
I steadied my breathing once more and continued reading.
— I was not the only one who realized its existence.
A few others who viewed the world through different eyes each sensed the aura of that colossal evil and left behind their own enlightenments in the search for a way to destroy it.
We called those enlightenments ‘Flows.’
— Therefore, in this place, the deepest part of Kunlun, I leave behind the ‘Flow’ that I have realized.
This Flow alone cannot sever the root of that colossal evil.
However, since the Flows of others remain,
If a successor appears who can connect all those traces… they will surely be able to cut through the boundary of that evil.
I swallowed hard and read the final part.
— To the one who shares this fate.
If you are reading these words, then you too possess eyes capable of seeing the ‘Flow.’
Seek the remaining Flows, find the evil that distorts the principles of heaven and earth, and sever its final knot.
And the next Flow you must seek is Hua (華)…
Unfortunately, the sentence after that was missing.
As if someone had intentionally erased it, or as if time had swallowed it, the rest had vanished.
“……”
I stood there silently for a long time.
An existence that even Azure Cloud True Person—the greatest under heaven—feared and warned against.
A darkness that could not be cut even with absolute martial prowess.
A colossal evil that twisted the laws of heaven and earth.
Had it not been for the words left by Azure Cloud True Person, I would have dismissed it as a vague legend.
But it didn’t feel like a mere old tale…
A strange, unsettling aftertaste lingered in my mind.
***
‘…Still, there’s no need to take it too seriously.’
I calmed myself inwardly.
It was simply something Azure Cloud True Person had personally experienced — a story from over two hundred years ago.
In all that time, no such bizarre existence had ever appeared in the Murim.
That ‘colossal evil’ he spoke of might have already disappeared with the passage of time.
Or it could have been some phenomenon only absolute experts could sense in the first place.
‘Whatever it is, what matters to me right now… isn’t that.’
I turned my gaze back to the stone wall.
The fact that in this underground space, deep beneath Kunlun, Azure Cloud True Person had personally left behind a ‘Flow.’
From the content of the writing, that ‘Flow’ was clearly an enlightenment related to martial arts.
That fact alone was already a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I slowly raised my head and looked around the space once more.
The sword marks and traces of footwork I had seen earlier came into view again.
They were the same marks I had already examined.
But now they looked completely different.
The moment the word ‘Flow’ took root in my mind, everything changed.
‘…They’re the same marks, so why do they feel so different?’
A curving line on the wall caught my eye.
At first glance, it had been nothing more than a simple sword scar.
But now, between those lines, I could faintly see the subtle flow of energy.
The floor was the same.
The spots where toes had pressed down, where heels had pushed off.
Earlier they had been mere traces of footwork.
But now, invisible lines connecting those marks clearly existed, even if faint.
It was as if the space itself had reacted the moment I understood the concept of ‘Flow.’
I quietly closed my eyes and slowly circulated the Kunlun Azure Soul Scripture.
Once my internal energy stabilized, the lingering traces of flow in the space reacted faintly, as if recognizing my energy.
At that moment, a short resonance echoed, and a familiar sensation brushed across my vision.
[Residue of True Intent detected.]
[Hidden residue is revealing itself.]
It was the same familiar sensation I felt every time I learned a manual in the Abandoned Martial Hall.
‘As expected… it only appears once the conditions are met.’
Only after my internal energy stabilized and I grasped the concept of ‘Flow’ did the True Intent left behind by Azure Cloud True Person finally reveal itself.
I opened my eyes wide and stared at the walls.
The sword marks flowing along the walls began to emit a faint blue light.
It was a living, pulsating light completely different from the glow of the night-luminous pearls.
Shing—
A single line detached from the wall and drew through the air.
Another line followed, then a third and fourth flowed out like waves.
In an instant, countless lines bloomed from the walls and floor, filling the air and forming a massive current.
It was as if someone was demonstrating the ‘Flow’ right in front of me.
“…!”
I held my breath.
There was clearly no one in front of me.
Yet the flow moved with life in the empty air.
Strange trajectories continued endlessly — curving, bending, connecting, and returning.
It was not severance but connection,
Not stopping but breathing,
Not scattering but a single ‘will’ gathering together.
‘…This is the True Intent left behind by Azure Cloud True Person…’
It was then.
The lines dancing in the air suddenly began converging in a certain direction.
One curving line drew in another, straight lines intertwined, creating new trajectories.
It was as if an invisible hand was shaping a form in the empty space.
Shing—
Slash—
Swish—
The lines of flow connected one by one.
The connected lines gradually took on the shape of a person.
Shoulders, spine, and the position of the arms slowly revealed their outline.
And the moment the final line drew a gentle curve and settled above the head—
The back view of a man was completed in the air.
His white hair loosely tied up.
The flow along his back, shoulders, and waist rippled quietly like living martial intent.
The instant I saw that figure, an inexplicable certainty filled me.
Even without anyone telling me, even without ever hearing the name.
I knew exactly who that existence was.
‘…Azure Cloud True Person.’
The legend of Kunlun was standing right before my eyes.
════════════════════
📚 Want More?
Join the Premium Tier to read 12 advanced chapters of this novel and get access to all my other ongoing and completed novels.
⚡ 12 new chapters every week
📖 5 completed novels
📚 An Ongoing series
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/cw/Vritratls
This novel is available in the (Martial Artist) collection on Patreon.
════════════════════