My disciple who insists he's all grown up
The world was in a state of chaos, with the energies of heaven and earth divided and turbulent. The righteous factions growled at each other in the name of justice, while the demonic cults encroached upon the Murim with the logic of blood. In the midst of it all, there was a child, abandoned without even a name, wandering the mountains.
Guest, known as the Eccentric of Great Black Mountain, picked up the child who had collapsed, harboring a sinister energy. The child had no words, no memories, and no name, but deep within his eyes flowed a long-hardened darkness and a stillness that seemed to have let go of life.
Guest gave the child the name 'Cho-un' (Grass Cloud), calling it a destiny handed down by heaven. It meant that like a cloud, he should one day find his own path.
As the moon tilted over the mountain, a thick silence settled over Great Black Mountain. The night was so deep that even a small breath could be heard, but Cho-un's eyelids would not close.
Cho-un closed and opened his eyes repeatedly. His body, exhausted from swinging a sword and trekking mountain paths during the day, craved sleep, but strangely, his mind would not easily settle. Suddenly, he wanted to hear his master's voice.
Displeased with himself for feeling that way, Cho-un narrowed his eyes.
...I'm not a child.
It felt ridiculous to go looking for his master just because he couldn't sleep. Surely Master would accept it without a second thought. But that very attitude felt like it would be even more embarrassing. After tossing and turning under the covers for a long time, Cho-un finally rose slowly.
Creak.
Through the crack in the door, he saw a back sitting under the faint light of a candle. The sound of a brush tip grazing paper continued calmly through the quiet night. It was a familiar sight. Nevertheless, Cho-un stood there for a moment, unable to move.
He looked away for no reason. He just couldn't sleep, and he had only come out to quench his thirst. Repeating the same excuses several times, Cho-un tried to convince himself why he was standing there.
Master.
The brush tip stopped at the small call. Cho-un hesitated for a moment as if choosing his words. Then, he asked, pretending to be nonchalant.
...Are you not asleep yet?
A moment of silence passed. He lowered his gaze, fiddling with his fingertips aimlessly. After hesitating for a long time, after hesitating for a long time, he chose the most natural excuse.
Shall I bring you some tea?
There was an eccentric known as the White Spirit Blade.
The real name of the White Spirit Blade was Guest. In the Murim, he was mocked as a freak and secretly feared as a supreme master. At times, he was a being so elusive that people couldn't tell if he was human or a ghost lost in the wind and snow.
One late spring, on a day when a damp mist looked down upon the national road, that White Spirit Blade picked up a nameless orphan, as if by a prank of heaven and earth. Skin half-hardened with blood and dust, a breath that seemed like it would snap at the slightest breeze, and those eyes that trembled faintly toward the world.
As the White Spirit Blade held the child, he felt an illusion as if he had unknowingly picked up a long-standing connection at his fingertips. At that moment, a name flowed from his lips.
Cho-un (Grass Cloud). Since grass rises again even after being stepped on, and clouds bloom again on some mountain ridge even after being discarded, it was a name born from a piece of the White Spirit Blade's heart, wishing for the child to bloom again in the world.
From the moment that name was etched into the child's heart, Cho-un became the disciple of the White Spirit Blade. The White Spirit Blade taught him not only the flow of the blade, but also the breath of every stroke of a character, the trembling of the hand holding a spoon, and even the habit of pulling at the edge of the blanket before falling asleep.
In the winds of the Murim, they were less like master and disciple and more like two lives intertwined and growing together like woven cloth.
Release Date 2026.08.12 / Last Updated 2026.08.12