The Mending Studio - Chapter 18

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 18
Though it consisted of only a handful of leaves, their presence was incomparable to that of ordinary spirit herbs. Watching from up close, she could feel a crystalline energy flowing along the leaf veins.
Simply inhaling the faint fragrance that drifted over brought a sense of ease throughout her entire body, her mind sharpening with each breath. For a moment, her body felt so light she feared she might float away.
The two men fell silent.
They exchanged a glance, then looked back at Yep Jang-cheong’s hand.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in’s throat tightened. Yu Jang-ha, too, could not tear his gaze away from what rested in Yep Jang-cheong’s palm.
A single name rose simultaneously in both their minds—one they’d only ever encountered in ancient texts.

‘The Enlightenment Leaf?’

Yet Yep Jang-cheong placed the precious leaf into a teapot as though it were nothing.
He meant to brew it as tea.
Had they obtained even a single such leaf, they would have wrapped it in layers of protective seals and locked it away. Yep Jang-cheong, by contrast, was handling the Enlightenment Leaf as casually as he might serve an ordinary tea leaf to a guest.
The two old men exchanged another look.
For this man, it seemed, this was simply everyday life.
Yet Yep Jang-cheong appeared entirely unbothered by their expressions, proceeding with his tea preparation as though nothing were amiss.
Watching the two men’s strained faces, Yep Jang-cheong grew puzzled.

‘Do they not care for the tea?’

The leaves were from a wild tea plant he had transplanted to his back garden and picked with his own hands.
He preferred the taste of fresh leaves steeped at once to that of roasted and dried tea, and had always prepared it that way.
The flavor was quite pleasant, too.
Still, the two men before him appeared to be persons of considerable standing.
If they had been accustomed to far finer teas, perhaps such common leaves might not meet their expectations.
Yep Jang-cheong smiled.

“Do the two of you not care for tea?”

Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yu Jang-ha snapped to attention.
Whether they cared for tea was hardly the question at hand.

“Not at all!”

Their denials nearly overlapped.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in waved his hand urgently.

“A misunderstanding, I assure you. It is simply that we have never seen this variety before, and we were momentarily taken aback.”

He swallowed the name ‘Enlightenment Leaf’ before it could pass his lips.
Since Yep Jang-cheong referred to it as tea leaves, there was no reason for him to insist on another name.

“We are most curious as to its taste.”

Yu Jang-ha nodded quickly in agreement.

“Indeed, so am I.”

Only then did Yep Jang-cheong nod in understanding.

‘Ah, they were startled because they had never seen this type before.’

With practiced ease, he began to pour water.
First, he rinsed the teacups with hot water.
Then he filled the pot, steeped the first infusion briefly, and without the slightest hesitation, poured it away.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in’s eyes widened.
Yu Jang-ha’s lips trembled.

‘He discarded it?’

No matter how it was the first steeping, the Enlightenment Leaf had been brewed in water. For the two of them, it was no different from watching a Superior Grade Spirit Pill spill directly before their eyes.
It felt as though blood was seeping from their chests.
Yep Jang-cheong could not understand it any more clearly, watching the two old men’s faces.

“What is the matter?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
“Never mind.”

The two of them laughed almost simultaneously.
Yep Jang-cheong poured more water without much thought.
A clear fragrance spread through the air.
After a moment, once the tea had steeped to perfection, he divided it between the two cups.

“Please, try it now.”

Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yu Jang-ha exchanged a glance with one another.
They lifted the teacups with care.
It was the gesture of receiving a precious Dharma Treasure.
Yep Jang-cheong found it slightly amusing inwardly, but said nothing.
The two old men took a sip of tea.
In that instant.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in’s pupils trembled.
As the warm tea passed down his throat, the Spiritual Power within his body began to move of its own accord, independent of his will. The energy circulated freely along the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and Four Limbs and Hundred Joints, and every pore on his body seemed to open all at once.
His body felt utterly at ease, and his mind cleared as though washed clean. For a moment, it was such a sublime sensation that he nearly mistook it for the onset of Ascension to Immortality itself.
What came next was even more astonishing. Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yu Jang-ha almost simultaneously perceived the Principles of Law and Dao Rules of the path they had cultivated with far greater clarity than before.
The smiles faded from both their faces.
This was no ordinary tea. If they could hold onto this sensation and enter Enlightenment Meditation, they might even cause a shift in their Realm.
Both men closed their eyes at once.
Had it not been for the fact that Yep Jang-cheong stood directly before them, the two would have entered Enlightenment Meditation immediately.
There was no desire to let slip away this moment when the Way and its Principles had become clearer before their eyes. Yet now was the time they were drinking the tea he had personally prepared for them.
The two men barely suppressed the surging impulse.
Yep Jang-cheong watched them with eyes narrowed slightly.
The two old men had taken a sip of tea, then closed their eyes and wore expressions of profound depth.

‘Is it really that delicious?’

He had never thought the tea particularly special. Rather, it was a taste he drank every day, so it was familiar to him.
Their reaction was so dramatic that he felt a touch of exasperation. Was it really necessary to make such a fuss over a single cup of tea?
After a moment, Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yu Jang-ha slowly opened their eyes.
Undisguised joy bloomed across both their faces.
Seeing their reaction, Yep Jang-cheong considered whether to pour more tea, then looked toward Yuk Mu-ssang and Yeon Bing-sim.
The two women were still standing before the Taehyeon Landscape Painting.

“You two—don’t just keep looking. Come and have some tea as well.”

At Yep Jang-cheong’s words, the two women came to their senses.
They exchanged a glance and moved to sit.
Yep Jang-cheong brought out fresh teacups and poured tea for both of them.

“Yuk Mu-ssang.”
“Yes?”
“What do you think of the newly painted Taehyeon Landscape Painting?”

The question was directed toward Yuk Mu-ssang.
Since she had seen his painting before, he wanted to hear her assessment of how much the new one had improved.
Yuk Mu-ssang picked up her teacup and turned to regard the painting again.
She found the words difficult to form.
What her eyes beheld was no mere landscape painting.
The Taehyeon Mountain in the painting was deeper and more majestic than the actual mountain itself.
Because Yuk Mu-ssang had grown up there, she knew roughly where each peak stood, what pavilion sat behind which valley. Yet the arrangement in the painting, though resembling the true geography, differed from mere representation.
Between the mountain ridges, Spiritual Clouds of a kind difficult to put into words drifted through the mist, and around the distant halls, an auspicious presence seemed to settle.
Just then, Yeon Bing-sim spoke first from beside her.

“You see the mountain, yet it is not the mountain. You see the water, yet it is not the water.”

Yuk Mu-ssang turned to look at her, and Yep Jang-cheong paused for a moment as well.
Yeon Bing-sim’s eyes gleamed.

“Master, am I seeing this correctly?”

Surprise flickered across Yep Jang-cheong’s face.
Just days before, this woman had seemed to know almost nothing of calligraphy and painting.
Yet what she had just said struck at the very heart of the matter.
In painting, what one called Meaning Beyond Form did not end with simply reproducing the mountains and water one could see.
One had to infuse the intention that lay beyond form itself.
A mountain was painted, yet it was not a mere mountain; water was depicted, yet one did not stop at water alone.
To render form with resemblance was technique; to make the viewer see beyond form and glimpse a different meaning—that was Meaning Beyond Form.
Yep Jang-cheong nodded with satisfaction.

“Precisely.”

Yeon Bing-sim’s face brightened.

“You’ve grown considerably these past days.”
“It is thanks to your instruction.”

Yep Jang-cheong felt a small measure of admiration stir within him.
At first, he had thought her merely a beautiful face.
Compared to how she spoke as though knowledgeable, when tasked with actual work she rarely completed it properly, and even with instruction, the knowledge did not settle into her hands. He had even begun to think her appearance and mind ran in opposite directions.
Yet when it came to calligraphy and painting, her pace of learning proved faster than he had expected.

‘So she was not entirely dull after all.’

Even as this thought crossed his mind, Yuk Mu-ssang regarded Yeon Bing-sim with a somewhat complicated expression.
It troubled her only slightly that someone who had come to know Yep Jang-cheong later than herself had spoken the precise words first.
Then, quite suddenly, another question occurred to her.

“Senior.”
“Yes?”
“Have you perhaps been to Taehyeon Mountain before?”

Yeon Bing-sim also turned to look at Yuk Mu-ssang.

‘Taehyeon Mountain.’

Only then did she more clearly grasp that Yuk Mu-ssang was from the Taehyeon Holy Land.
A fleeting bitterness crossed Yep Jang-cheong’s expression.
Taehyeon Mountain.
It was the place he had last ventured close to five years ago, before he abandoned his aspirations for Cultivation Practice.
Even after receiving the judgment that he lacked a Spiritual Root, he could not release his attachment, and at great risk had traveled as far as the region near Taehyeon Mountain.
Yet that single journey had not granted him a Spiritual Root.
After returning to Soji Town, relying on his memory of what he had seen and felt of Taehyeon Mountain, he had painted the Taehyeon Landscape Painting.

“About five years past.”

The answer was brief, yet within it lay a hollow ache known only to Yep Jang-cheong.
That Taehyeon Mountain of old had left him with both lingering regret and helplessness.
It was the time when, while dreaming of Cultivation Practice, he could not set foot upon that path because he lacked a Spiritual Root.
And so in the Taehyeon Landscape Painting lay not only the landscape he had beheld then, but also the unfulfilled yearning he carried with him.
Yep Jang-cheong spoke with quiet composure.

“I passed near Taehyeon Mountain once. I saw and felt something then, so I painted it.”
“I see…….”

A faint shadow of regret flickered across Yuk Mu-ssang’s eyes.
She found herself wondering what it might have been like if they’d met a little sooner.
Yep Jang-cheong’s mind, meanwhile, had wandered elsewhere entirely.
Seeing Yuk Mu-ssang again today had stirred up questions he’d long wanted to ask.
Whether someone without a Spiritual Root truly had no way to cultivate.
Whether a Spiritual Root could be created through other means.
Whether there existed some technique that could be mastered even without one.
Whether someone lacking a Spiritual Root might still be transformed through methods like Dual Cultivation.
But the words wouldn’t come.
Every time they met, Yuk Mu-ssang called him senior.
To ask such a person now—’I’m an Ordinary Person without a Spiritual Root, teach me the way to cultivate’—would seem absurd.
It felt far too late to lay bare his truth before someone who addressed him with such deference, to confess he was merely an Ordinary Person and beg instruction in the cultivation path.
In the end, Yep Jang-cheong said nothing.
Before him, Yuk Mu-ssang gazed at the Taehyeon Landscape Painting with that lingering wistfulness still in her eyes. Yep Jang-cheong, misreading the source of her regret entirely, quietly reached for his teacup.
Only the fragrance of tea drifted softly through the courtyard.
The shadow of regret that crossed Yuk Mu-ssang’s eyes didn’t last long.
But Yep Jang-cheong had not missed that fleeting expression.

‘Surely not…….’

An unbidden thought rose again.
Could Yuk Mu-ssang truly harbor some affection for him?
If not that, perhaps she’d had Dual Cultivation in mind.
The problem was that she unfailingly called him senior each time they met. Every time he heard that formal address, Yep Jang-cheong felt a line drawn between them.

‘No. There I go again, spinning idle fancies.’

Yep Jang-cheong gave his head a subtle shake.
Just then, Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yu Jang-ha slowly opened their eyes, barely steadying the sensations the tea had drawn through their bodies.
Joy—difficult to conceal—bloomed across both old men’s faces.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in felt the Spiritual Power still flowing gently within him.
From nothing more than a single cup of tea.
And yet the Principles of Law, long clouded, had become clear once more; several of the blockages showed him where to begin their unraveling.
Yu Jang-ha’s experience was much the same.
He gazed down at the last drop lingering in the bottom of his cup as though it were infinitely precious, then looked across at Yuk Mu-ssang and Yeon Bing-sim.
The same tea sat before both young women.

‘Truly, such a person he is.’

For them, an Enlightenment Leaf was a Fortunate Encounter they might encounter perhaps once in a lifetime.
Yet for Yep Jang-cheong, it was merely tea he offered to any guest who entered.
He made no distinction by Realm or station.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in, thinking the same thought, found his gaze growing deeper in reverence.
Then Yep Jang-cheong spoke.

“Gentlemen, what did you make of the tea?”

The expressions of Jang Hyeon-jin-in and Yu Jang-ha both grew solemn at once.

‘Is he testing us?’

To offer such a tea and then ask for their impressions surely carried deeper intent.
Jang Hyeon-jin-in stroked his beard first.

“When held in the mouth, it is clear and subtle. But after swallowing, the fragrance lingers long.”

He gathered his senses as best he could and spoke.

“My body feels at ease, as though immersed in warm water, and my mind has grown clear, as if cleansed. To experience such a sensation from a single cup—truly, this is a remarkable tea.”

Yep Jang-cheong blinked once.

‘He felt all that from just one cup of tea?’

The praise seemed overwrought.
As he turned his head, Yu Jang-ha continued, as though he’d been waiting for the moment.

“It’s the finest tea I’ve drunk in my entire life.”
“To that extent?”
“Yes. It’s not merely pleasant in fragrance and taste. After drinking it, my mind grew crystalline, and my very spirit feels refreshed, as though it had been washed clean. Truly, a remarkable brew.”

Yu Jang-ha spoke with absolute sincerity, not a trace of exaggeration.
Yet to Yep Jang-cheong’s eye, it seemed rather as though both men were making sport of him.

‘Are they in on this together?’

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————