Mistaken for a Fairy

[Hang in there for me instead]

After a brief scuffle, Seo-yeon was able to move deeper into the Longmen Grottoes, thanks to the forty-odd soldiers who accompanied her in preparation for any eventuality.

The energy inside the Longmen Grottoes was suffocatingly heavy. However, this was less about fear and more about the taut tension of knowing a beast could leap out of the darkness at any moment.

"It revealed itself even in the smallest shadows."

"Its speed was so great, it was hard to follow with the naked eye."

Each time such testimonies were given, Seo-yeon became more certain it was Baek-ho. How could there be two such mystical tigers in the world?

Besides, she had spent too long with him to be afraid.

Lost in such thoughts, she had walked for some time when she heard the soldiers murmuring not far away. They were all holding up sharp spears, aiming at one place, which, surprisingly, was the direction of the broken Vairocana Buddha. More precisely, they were aiming at the massive Baek-ho sitting like a mountain in front of it.

"What a size!"

"Isn't that a Mountain Spirit?"

As the ignorant soldiers chattered, the military officers gave them stern looks of warning. No soldier rashly attacked. It was because Baek-ho was yawning with his mouth wide open, as if showing off.

There was no one foolish enough to attack a non-hostile beast and provoke its anger, at least not here. They were merely wary because it was a beast.

Baek-ho sniffed for a moment, then suddenly raised his head somewhere.

"Uh, it's moving!"

"Aaaagh!"

"Block it!"

Baek-ho leaped over the forest of sharp spears flying towards him in a single bound and landed gracefully before Seo-yeon.

Seo-yeon looked up at the massive Baek-ho staring down at her and thought to herself.

'It seems to have grown twice as big in the meantime.'

She could barely reach Baek-ho's face even when she raised her hand to the sky, so one could imagine its size.

'It wasn't fully grown yet.'

Surprisingly, despite its overwhelming size, it seemed it was not yet an adult.

"S-step back!"

The military officer beside Seo-yeon urgently drew his sword. Seo-yeon held out her hand towards the officer, nodding as if to say it was alright.

Soon, Baek-ho began rubbing his massive face against Seo-yeon. Seo-yeon affectionately stroked Baek-ho's back and neck.

"What on earth is this..."

The military officer couldn't hide his bewildered expression as he watched Baek-ho roll around, exposing his belly. He wanted to ask the magistrate who this woman was right away, but he couldn't dare to be rude, so he just pursed his lips.

Its size alone was enough to call it a Spiritual Creature, and it even understood human speech. How could a person who casually commanded such a Mountain Lord be an ordinary person?

Regardless, Seo-yeon stroked Baek-ho for a long time.

"You came to help."

The Vairocana Buddha was easily over five zhang in height. Even a wooden ladder could not easily withstand that height. In the end, they had to work while hanging from the cliff, which was no easy task.

But if Baek-ho helped, it would be easier.

Soon, Baek-ho slowly nodded. Seo-yeon immediately climbed onto Baek-ho's back and headed towards the Vairocana Buddha.

This time, no soldier dared to block the way.

Seo-yeon did not start the work hastily. Since it was restoration, not creation, she could not approach it with a light heart. Just like restoring swordsmanship, she had to understand the creator's Intent first.

With that in mind, Seo-yeon's fingertips, which were feeling the surface of the Vairocana Buddha, felt something strange.

'It's different.'

The strength when carving the folds of the clothes and the depth of the carving when sculpting the arms were clearly different. It was a subtle difference that ordinary people could never have noticed, but Seo-yeon had the extraordinary eye to distinguish it.

Soon, Seo-yeon realized that the stonemason who made the shoulders, the stonemason who trimmed the fingers, and the stonemason who carved the floor decorations were all different.

It was a work completed by at least dozens of stonemasons working together.

'This won't be easy.'

Since she had to completely understand the Intent of others, the difficulty was not much different from learning a lost secret art. Then, Cheong-heo's words flashed through Seo-yeon's mind.

―It would be good to write a book. Without the help of others, by you personally, Benefactor.

Seo-yeon then realized that she had only decided to write a book and had been doing other things ever since. At the same time, she also realized that this restoration of the Vairocana Buddha would be a very good opportunity to write that book.

Restoring a masterpiece by others, especially a sculpture of this size, would be a precious experience that would never happen again.

Seo-yeon looked at the desk with writing tools and said.

"Can I have a blank book?"

"What do you intend to use it for?"

The magistrate was much more cautious than before. How could he treat someone who had just been riding on the back of a Mountain Lord the same as before? Rather, considering that, the magistrate was very bold. Even now, countless soldiers flinched every time Baek-ho moved.

"I want to record the method of restoration. Such a thing may happen again in the future."

The magistrate already knew that Seo-yeon had a young disciple. He read Seo-yeon's inner thoughts and pondered for a moment.

"Have one volume copied here. As you said, you never know when something like this will happen again. But you can do whatever you want with the original."

"Is that alright?"

"Were you going to hand over the book to us as it is?"

"If you order me to, I will."

The magistrate no longer had the strength to even exclaim. The woman who had forgotten her meals and sleep for eight days and was only focused on carving, not only commanded a house-sized tiger like her own limbs, but also had no greed.

'Is she really not a deity?'

This was because there were more than one or two folktales in Buddhism or Taoism about celestial beings appearing on earth in the form of children, the elderly, or women to trick high-ranking officials of the secular world.

'Ah.'

The magistrate suddenly felt dizzy and hurriedly left his seat. He felt that if he stayed any longer, he would have impious thoughts towards the Emperor.

Seo-yeon spent half a day reading and checking the records prepared by the magistrate. She carefully examined everything, from the table of contents to the illustrations to the writing style.

Among them, there was also a book that was strangely similar to a martial arts manual.

'It's strange that they drew all the Acupoints.'

There were many records of which Acupoint to put strength into when striking with a carving knife, and how to carve most efficiently. It seemed that in the distant past, there were quite a few eccentric Martial artist who worked as stonemasons as a hobby.

'It's not an ordinary book.'

Seo-yeon recited a Mantra that suddenly came to mind while reading the book.

"Seeing the truth in tranquility, universally bestowing compassion."'

See the true self away from the noise, and have a compassionate heart. It remained in her memory because it was so clearly engraved in her mind.

Come to think of it, she could count on one hand the number of times she had paid attention to her mindset when carving. She had simply thought that it was enough to concentrate.

She thought it would be good to teach this, so she copied it into a blank book.

Suddenly, Seo-yeon's heart pounded uncontrollably.

Originally, Seo-yeon regarded carving itself as a Mind Skill. It was something she had unconsciously learned thanks to her innate talent and the environment away from the secular world. Therefore, there was no set Mantra, and of course, it was impossible to teach or learn it.

But now, the first Mantra of Mind Skill was clearly engraved.

It was no exaggeration to say that it was the origin of Martial Vein.

'I need to name it.'

Since it would contain methods of controlling the mind, plausible names such as Cloud Moon Pure Art or Azure Sea True Art flashed through her mind.

But she soon stopped. It was just a book containing methods of controlling the mind by immersing oneself in carving, so why give it such a grand name?

It was enough to recall the mindset when she decided to make the book.

Seo-yeon recalled the memory of when she first met Hwa-ryeon. What was she thinking then?

She wanted her disciple to be free from the world.

She wanted her to be able to do everything she wanted to do.

'I should call it Soaring Kite Heaven Art.'

It meant to roam the world freely like a kite flying in the sky.

Afterwards, Seo-yeon resumed the restoration of the Vairocana Buddha. Whenever enlightenment came in the process, she began to fill in the blank parts of the Soaring Kite Heaven Art little by little in the blank book.

The five senses that reached the sky fueled the creation of an unparalleled divine art.

Seo-yeon felt that time was passing slower than usual. That was how immersed she was.

'They did it this way here.'

She traced the traces of the old masters and read their postures and movements. She also tried to include those movements in the Soaring Kite Heaven Art, but soon changed her mind. She thought it would be better to collect only the movements and write them in a new book.

She thought it was right to write only what corresponded to the mindset in the Soaring Kite Heaven Art. It meant Mind Method.

Mind Method sounded grand, but how could only Martial artist calm their minds? Whether it was a farmer, a stonemason, or a merchant, the center of the mind had to stand firm in order not to be shaken by the secular troubles.

The sunset faded and the twilight became clear, and the morning sun rose again.

In that time, the letters engraved in the Soaring Kite Heaven Art also increased.

Seo-yeon occasionally returned to Geum Jin-song's residence to have meals with Hwa-ryeon and impart teachings. This was because she knew that it was a task that could not be completed in a short period of time like when she made the Three Lifetimes Buddha.

When she had almost completed the Soaring Kite Heaven Art in that way, Seo-yeon intuitively realized that she could not go any further here.

It was not because she lacked talent. It was just that she lacked experience.

She was able to create Mind Skill because she had lived alone in nature for a long time, but paradoxically, that was why there were many parts that she could not fully explain in writing.

It was enough to realize it alone, but it was not enough to teach and make others understand.

At the same time, Seo-yeon realized why great masters such as Zhang Sanfeng and Bodhidharma, as well as the monks of the Shaolin Temple and the Taoists of the Nine Sects, roamed the Martial World.

This is because there are things that can only be felt by walking and seeing directly.

It was the same right now. The difference between seeing the Vairocana Buddha with her eyes and touching and restoring it directly was like heaven and earth.

Reading the anguish and contemplation that other stonemasons had experienced and organizing them alone was so rewarding. Even in nearby Luoyang, it was like this, so she wondered what it would be like in other places in the Martial World.

She heard that the stonemasons in Beijing were so excellent, what would they be like? She heard that the stonemasons in the old South were also not inferior in skill. The Buddha statues in the Yungang Grottoes were also so magnificent, and in the distant North Sea, they even carved pictures on frozen waterfalls.

Seo-yeon devoted herself to restoration again.

The woman who feared the Martial World was gone now.

• -Have you decided where you want to go?

"I'm thinking of Sichuan or Yunnan for now."

• -Yunnan? I hear you have no intention of returning to the Mount Mao Sect at all.

"I think I'll have to wait at least a few more years. It will only make my mother suffer if I suddenly show up."

It was the wooden floor located in Geum Jin-song's villa. Hwa-ryeon and Yuheon were facing each other and talking.

It was only a day ago that Seo-yeon had almost finished restoring the Vairocana Buddha and suggested going on a trip.

Seo-yeon had Hwa-ryeon decide on the destination. She thought it would be good to go to a place that a child would want to go to if possible.

Of course, Hwa-ryeon was not a child, so she tried to understand her master's heart as much as possible.

Sichuan was full of excellent works by old sculptors, and Yunnan had Dali Kingdom, the origin of marble. If these two places were chosen as destinations, it seemed that Seo-yeon's teachings could be understood more smoothly.

• -In the end, you have to go through Sichuan to get to Yunnan, so you'll end up going to both.

"That's right."

Hwa-ryeon did not realize that her tone had changed to that of a child. She had been acting like a child for too long, so her old tone had become more unnatural. That was also why she had been eating Candied Fruit about once a day these days.

Suddenly, Hwa-ryeon remembered that her height had not grown at all during that time. Since Yuheon was next to her, Hwa-ryeon wanted to resolve her curiosity.

"By any chance, am I not growing taller?"

• -As a rule, the younger you are, the easier it is for the Eight Extraordinary Meridians to circulate. It's better to be young like now to learn the master's martial arts.

It was a natural story, but Hwa-ryeon somehow felt that Yuheon was trying to avoid answering.

"I wish I was a little taller."

Yuheon shouted. He seemed genuinely angry.

• -As a rule, what is important is inner growth, so why are you obsessed with external things that are nothing more than a shell! I didn't teach you that way!

"But, wouldn't it be more natural for the people around me if I grew steadily?"

There was a moment of silence.

• -Should I make you even younger?

Hwa-ryeon then shut her mouth.

This was because Yuheon was a beast who was truly capable of doing that.