****
Climbing the rock wall was not as difficult as I had thought.
At first, there were many times I slipped and almost fell, but agile movement prevented all of it.
My hands and feet moved ahead of my will, lodging themselves into the uneven surfaces of the rock.
When one hand fumbled for a hold above, the other three limbs formed a triangle to maintain balance, and once it found a place to grab, it formed yet another triangle and began to climb upward little by little.
It wasn't without setbacks.
My uncut nails, not knowing something like this would happen, were bent back and broken, my clothes were scraped against the rock and torn, and I got abrasions all over my body.
Sometimes when I unknowingly looked down, I would feel my mind go blank.
It was only then that I truly felt that I was hanging on a cliff dozens of zhang high.
Each time, I gritted my teeth, raised my head, and looked up.
By the time I had climbed the entire cliff, the sun was already setting far in the distance.
Looking at the orange-dyed Samcheonggwan, I was overcome with emotion.
The beauty of the building aside, I was truly proud that I had climbed that cliff.
Of course, that feeling of pride did not last long.
The elder who received the message grumbled about why I was so late, and descending the cliff was even more difficult than climbing it.
By the time I had completely descended to Gokjeongak, Mount Wudang had already been swallowed by darkness.
There were no people around, perhaps because everyone had already gone back to their respective residences.
Just as I was thinking about what I should do, someone appeared in a flash from the darkness.
"Ugh!"
I ended up falling backward and landing on my butt.
Normally, it should have ended with just a step back, but all the strength had drained from my legs.
"You damn bastard! Just what were you doing to be this late!"
The one who appeared in front of me was the Pavilion Master of Gokjeongak, Cheong-su.
I was deeply displeased about why this man hadn't gone home when everyone else had.
I placed my hands on the ground to get up and dusted off my pants.
"I was out delivering a message, was I not."
"Not even half of the messages that needed to go to Samcheonggwan today have been delivered! Do you know how much trouble I went through listening to the people of Samcheonggwan complain about the messenger arriving late!"
"That's why I told you I would be late."
"Do you think that will serve as an excuse!"
Cheong-su shouted at me relentlessly.
Honestly, I couldn't have climbed any faster than this.
"You can only go home after you have finished all the messages meant for Samcheonggwan."
"Pardon?"
Just what kind of bolt out of the blue was this all of a sudden?
Looking outside, it was already so dark that I couldn't even see an inch ahead.
"Are you telling me to climb the cliff in this darkness?"
"That is what you have to do."
"Are you trying to kill me?"
"You should die if you can't even do that. Does it even make sense for a main mountain disciple of the Wudang Sect to die by losing his footing on a cliff?"
"What if I say no?"
"I will personally cripple your dantian and then kick you out."
"Jinin Cheong-hwa would surely be delighted."
"You are still a temporary main mountain disciple, and not Cheong-hwa's disciple either. Do you think he would say anything to his Sahyung for kicking out one such guy?"
I was at a loss for words.
Honestly, if it were me, a guy who became a main mountain disciple at the crowning age wouldn't seem that precious either.
"……I understand."
"If you understand, then get to work. I should be heading home."
That son of a bitch.
I hurled a bucketful of curses inwardly and watched the back of Cheong-su as he left for home.
I returned to the messenger room again.
In the messenger room, a faintly flickering lantern was illuminating the room.
There was still a pile of messages that needed to go to Samcheonggwan.
It seemed like more had piled up even while I was going to and from Samcheonggwan.
"Damn it."
Looking at the piled-up messages, it wasn't an amount that could be handled by just going during the day.
Because there would surely be this much piled up again tomorrow.
Now that it had come to this, it seemed better to just move at night as well.
Fortunately, my eyes were somewhat adjusted to the night.
Because I had literally stayed up all night when I tried to run away.
I filled my knapsack to the brim with bamboo tubes and then hoisted it onto my back.
Still, climbing up to the cliff in front of Samcheonggwan was easy.
I had gotten used to the paths of the Wudang Sect.
A merchant had to have a good memory and a good sense of direction.
I had never forgotten a path once I had traveled it for business.
"The problem is the cliff."
The cliff was truly a pitch-black wall.
The moonlight was behind the cliff.
However, I trusted in agile movement.
If I hadn't trusted it, I wouldn't have climbed up this far.
"Hoo."
I took a deep breath and grabbed the same spot I had grabbed during the day.
At that moment, I was engulfed in a strange feeling.
Surprisingly, it felt like I remembered the entire path of climbing this rock wall.
It wasn't my head, but my body that was remembering.
No matter how good my memory was, I couldn't have memorized the path up the rock wall.
This was clearly the effect of agile movement.
I slowly climbed, fumbling along the rock wall.
In reality, I didn't even fumble that much.
Even in this darkness, my hands knew where to go, and my feet naturally stepped on the uneven surfaces.
In fact, when I had climbed halfway up, I was able to discover that there was a rule to climbing this rock wall.
I just hadn't noticed because I was too busy looking only ahead and climbing.
Once I had some leeway, I was able to notice that I had been continuously using the same posture and applying force to the same parts while climbing.
Once I knew the rule, climbing the cliff became drastically easier.
I went straight up and delivered the bamboo tube containing the message to the person on duty at Samcheonggwan.
The person on duty at Samcheonggwan's eyes went wide, asking why a messenger was coming at this hour.
Like that, I was able to climb the cliff three times during the night.
Considering that I had used the entire daytime to climb it once, it was truly tremendous growth.
"Haa."
I confirmed that there were no bamboo tubes with Samcheonggwan written on them in the messenger room and sat down leaning against the wall.
As soon as I thought I had finished all the work, all the strength drained out of me.
Feeling the morning sun brighten through the window, I dozed off.
<><><>
Cheong-su ran into Cheong-hwa in front of Gokjeongak.
Cheong-su pretended not to see Cheong-hwa, who was politely performing a cupped-fist salute, and passed by him.
Cheong-hwa smiled and slyly stuck right behind Cheong-su.
"I said I would take care of it, so were you that untrusting?"
"How could I not trust Sahyung? I am simply curious."
"You asked me to work him hard, didn't you? So I am working him extremely hard."
"You can work him even harder. He is a talented guy, so he will do well."
Cheong-hwa had made a request when he visited last time.
He had said that a friend who had talent but lacked fundamentals would be coming.
To be fair, no matter how much of a natural-born martial genius one was, it was difficult to learn martial arts if they didn't have the basic physical stamina and even had a potbelly.
In that respect, it seemed Cheong-hwa was genuinely trying to raise that guy named Muk Hwi-young.
'It must be Wudang's great fortune.'
Cheong-hwa was famous for taking in few disciples compared to the martial might he possessed.
He didn't teach martial arts to those who didn't catch his eye.
Since he had captivated such a Cheong-hwa at a single glance, he thought he must be no ordinary fellow.
"He actually is a talented guy. I mean, he climbed the Samcheonggwan cliff on the first day. He must have clawed his way up with brute force. He's a guy who knows how to use his body."
"Hoh. Is that so? That is amazing."
Although it took him a whole day, that wasn't the important part.
The important thing was that a guy who hadn't learned a single martial art had climbed the cliff of Samcheonggwan.
"He's probably climbing the Samcheonggwan cliff right now. Since I told him to try climbing it at night. It probably hasn't been long since he started."
Cheong-su said while looking at the morning sun.
At the very least, one had to understand the martial principles embedded in the cliff to climb the Samcheonggwan cliff at night.
Because the Samcheonggwan cliff wasn't a simple cliff, but a martial arts secret manual created by nature.
"It seems Sahyung is also placing his hopes on him. To tell him to climb at night from the very first day."
"Hmph. Hopes, my foot. There aren't many kids who climb it on the first day, so I just threw it out there. No matter how much of a genius he is, there is a need to break his arrogance."
Cheong-hwa affirmed Cheong-su's words.
There were countless geniuses in the Central Plains, and Wudang was one of the places where numerous geniuses gathered.
Some geniuses thought they were the best, only to be frustrated after seeing a sky beyond the sky.
The way to teach such people was to give them an early taste of frustration.
So that they could get used to frustration.
The Samcheonggwan cliff was impossible to climb in the dark as the moonlight didn't shine on it at night.
That guy named Muk Hwi-young probably wouldn't even dare to climb it and would have loitered in front of the cliff, only starting to move after seeing the sunlight.
"The messages for Samcheonggwan must have piled up a lot."
"I'm getting a lot of flak because of that."
"I apologize, Sahyung."
Cheong-su sighed as he looked at Cheong-hwa who was beaming while saying he was sorry.
No matter how much they say you can't spit on a smiling face, he wanted to throw a punch when he beamed like that.
"I have some business at Samcheonggwan, so if you give me the messages, I will take care of them. It is the duty of a master to bear his disciple's karma."
"My goodness. A master already? You said it was temporary."
"Hehe. I'm telling you in advance just in case Sahyung covets him as well. That guy is mine."
"How absurd."
Cheong-su shook his head and opened the door to the messenger room.
And as soon as he entered, he flinched.
Leaning against the side wall, someone was hanging their head deeply.
What caught his eye even more than that was that the place where the messages for Samcheongggwan were gathered was neatly empty.
"Huh."
Cheong-hwa, who followed him in, also saw it.
"He's not dead, is he?"
At the same time, shallow breaths leaked from Muk Hwi-young's mouth.
The one sleeping with his head down was none other than Muk Hwi-young, who had been the topic of their conversation until just a moment ago.
"……There are no messages."
Cheong-hwa pointed that out.
The two disciples of the 'Cheong' generation fell silent for a moment at the unbelievable sight.
Wudang was a place where only the geniuses among geniuses gathered.
There was a reason why it was counted among the Nine Great Sects and One Union from the numerous sects scattered across the Central Plains.
But even they had never seen someone learn the Azure Cloud Steps engraved on the Samcheonggwan cliff on the first day.
Moreover, Cheong-su knew how many messages for Samcheonggwan had piled up.
"It wasn't an amount that could be done by going back and forth once. He must have climbed at least three times."
Cheong-su saw through exactly how many times Muk Hwi-young had climbed.
Hearing that, Cheong-hwa clicked his tongue once more.
He had gone up and down not just once, but three times?
Cheong-hwa felt the need to redefine the word 'genius' as he knew it.
In Wudang, everyone was called a genius, so the meaning of the word 'genius' had faded.
Genius. A talent bestowed by the heavens was a word that only suited someone like Muk Hwi-young.
"What a shame. If only he had come to Wudang ten years earlier, he would have become a pillar of the martial world……."
Cheong-su clicked his tongue.
Cheong-hwa also vehemently agreed with those words.
He had shown this level of talent with his muscles, bones, and qi meridians already stiffened.
If he had entered Wudang just ten years earlier, he would have truly absorbed all the teachings at once like a sponge meeting water.
"……Sahyung."
"Hmm?"
Cheong-su looked at Cheong-hwa.
In Cheong-hwa's eyes, a mix of regret, greed, excitement, and amusement were contained.
"Let's work harder."