Plague
“Damn, damn!”
Daoist master Hyunta Sa Jeonghu burst through the underbrush and sprinted down the slope of Mount Wudang. The sect’s disciples trailing him cast uncertain glances over their shoulders.
“Elder! Shouldn’t we protect the secret manual?!”
“Fool! Is the manual more important than human lives?!”
Hyunta barked at his disciples and drew his sword. At that moment, by a stream, a man’s face was plunged in the water.
“You scoundrel!”
“Eek?!”
The man shrieked and collapsed forward. Hyunta seized the torn collar of his robe, threw him backward, and the warriors leveled their swords to subdue him.
“P-please spare me!”
Yellow pustules marred the man’s face. The warriors recoiled at the sight, and Hyunta took a rope from a disciple and bound the man.
“L-let me go! How dare warriors of a righteous sect intimidate an innocent man! I’ll report you to the magistrate’s office!!”
“The Demonic Sect is plotting to spread Celestial Blossom by releasing the infected far and wide. What will you be: an innocent victim or a tool of the Demonic Sect?”
Faced with Hyunta’s not-quite-threat, the man lowered his head. His guilt lay only in catching Celestial Blossom and trying to flee.
“I-I just wanted to contact my home….”
“Take him.”
Hyunta pressed a vital point on the man’s neck. Two disciples dragged him up the mountain while others adjusted their masked face coverings and scanned the forest.
“Daoist master Hyunta.”
A deep voice spoke, and a large-framed elder stood before Hyunta. Hyunta bowed respectfully.
“Supreme Elder.”
“Send all disciples to hunt demons. I will speak with Daoist master Hyunta before joining you.”
The Supreme Elder dismissed the disciples. Alone with Hyunta, he inclined his head.
“There is no need for apologies, Hyunta.”
“...Senior brother Hyunwon.”
Hyunta hesitated. He did not know how to begin reporting to the very Daoist master who had once been his teacher.
“I examined the battle marks near where you fainted. The opponent’s sword style was also Taiji Sword.”
“...It was not merely Taiji Sword.”
“I see. That is why I wished to speak with you myself.”
Daoist master Hyunwon produced a letter listing the disciples’ reports and handed it to Hyunta.
After regaining consciousness and pursuing demons and carriers of Celestial Blossom with the other elders, Hyunta had never seen writing like this before.
“They say most demons struck by the ambush fell to Taiji Sword. But I investigated several sites myself. ...That was not Taiji Sword.”
“Taiji Enlightenment Sword.”
If Taiji Sword lays the sect’s foundation, the legendary Taiji Enlightenment Sword elevates one to a transcendent realm.
Hyunwon and Hyunta knew enough of its techniques to recognize at once that the sword marks were not from simple Taiji Sword.
“Who wielded it?”
“A youth. One I had never seen. He seemed to have performed Reversal of Old Into New.”
“Reversal of Old Into New?”
“Yes. Otherwise, how could a boy not yet of age possess qi several times denser than ours?”
Though it was the power of an elixir, Hyunta recalled the arrogant master of the Taiji Enlightenment Sword. He had dispatched demons infected with Celestial Blossom, then stabbed them and vanished—stealing Hyunta’s own sword in the process.
“Had he not arrived, we would have suffered grievous harm. Ah, I am relieved my intuition was correct. That great predecessor saved us.”
“I….”
Should he speak? He feared reporting this delicate matter.
“What is it? Speak freely. One who has mastered Taiji Enlightenment Sword must not be slighted—”
“…That person used demonic qi.”
“What?”
“Demonic qi. He employed the Shadow Method of the Moonlit Spirit Sect.”
Assassinating enemies from shadow is the hallmark of the Moonlit Spirit Sect, an assassination group within the Demonic Sect. Hyunta’s hands trembled at having seen the qi that had slain his master decades ago.
“Explain.”
“…Since you cannot have misread martial skill, the Enlightened one must have somehow learned demonic arts.”
“No. I believe the opposite.”
As one who faced the sword, Hyunta stated what he felt.
“A demon mastered Taiji Enlightenment Sword, senior brother.”
“Nonsense. Then why would that demon use Enlightenment Sword to subdue other demons?”
“That is….”
Hyunta could not answer. It was easier to think that a transcendent returning from Reversal had mastered Enlightenment Sword and driven off demons. But if, conversely, a demon had mastered Enlightenment Sword, how should he—and the sect—respond?
“For now, ascend the mountain. Seek counsel from the sect leader who controls his qi.”
“Understood. Senior brother, and now…?”
“We must recover the bodies of the dead.”
Hyunwon turned and joined the disciples. Clenching his fist, Hyunta raised his head and murmured, “Could that truly be the truth...?”
While the returning elders and warriors sealed Mount Wudang so that not even an ant might escape, none dared tell Hyunta the full truth.
A guesthouse near Mount Wudang.
Having slipped past the blockade and reached the river port town, we masqueraded as mother and children and took a room.
“Thank you for saving my daughter and me, great hero. I am called Sawol.”
The woman, her hair hidden under a nun’s cloth, knelt before me. Having healed her wounds, Sagong Hui knelt beside her mother.
“I cannot repay your kindness.”
“I will exact my due in kind. Your daughter, Sagong Hui, has already pledged her service.”
I made clear to Sawol that Sagong Hui had agreed to become my slave, and in return I saved Sawol’s life.
“Thank you. You even cured my daughter’s Celestial Blossom.”
Though she declared her daughter for my use, Sawol’s voice did not waver. Her clarity betrayed eagerness at the opportunity.
“Might I speak with my daughter alone, great hero?”
“Do you ask me to step aside?”
“My apologies. But revealing her face to others may bring great misfortune on you.”
“...Very well. I will wait outside.”
I complied. I felt remorse for burning away her hair and eyebrows, but I could not stand idly by as a mother summoned the courage to give her daughter a final message while I snored beside them.
“Thank you. This will cause you no trouble, great hero.”
“I trust you.”
I slipped out through the window. Night had fallen; I sat atop the roof of the guesthouse and opened a wine flask.
“It’s been a while since I’ve done something so virtuous.”
My yang qi flowed beyond purifying a single demon.
As men like to flaunt their strength before women, I raced across the hills, burning demons in display of my power to mother and daughter.
‘If it was the Great Young Master’s doing, I cannot simply stand by.’
Though I knew little of the details, I discerned a plot to infect both commoners and martial artists with Celestial Blossom and turn the region around Mount Wudang to ruin. The debt owed to the Great Young Master was far too great to ignore.
‘Why did she send me away? What did she wish to say?’
Curious, I listened to mother and daughter speak. Rather than merely eavesdropping, I embraced a courtesan in the alley and heard more clearly.
“Oh my, you… ahh?!”
“Mm, such good grain.”
“…So that was your situation.”
Tears glistened in Sagong Hui’s eyes as she wiped them with her sleeve. A famed woman of the Demonic Sect blinded by love and fleeing with a man—her story was an epic tragedy.
“But mother, why tell me this…?”
“Because, as you guessed, my days are numbered. cough”
Sawol covered a burst of coughing with her hand. Crimson blood oozed between her fingers, and Sagong Hui frantically wiped it away.
“Mother!”
“hehe, infected with raging blood and Celestial Blossom, yet you do not turn away. Hui-ah. You are such a good daughter. I always hid my face, but you obeyed without complaint.”
“Please do not speak as if you will die soon!”
“Let go.”
Sawol shook off Sagong Hui’s hand. Though the demonic qi and Celestial Blossom were gone, she did not wish to stain her daughter with her blood.
“huff, when countless men lost their reason over your beauty, I protected you. When your father almost committed atrocities in prison, I fled with you.”
“sob….”
“But that is over now. I can no longer protect you. Yet if you wish, I can grant you the power to protect yourself.”
Sawol tucked Sagong Hui’s hair behind her ear and smiled at her daughter’s face, so like her own.
“If fate would violate you anyway, become the woman of the world’s greatest warrior. Learn martial arts at his side so none may dare approach you!”
“W-what do you mean?!”
“Why hesitate! I thought you not so foolish as to fail to understand, cough!”
Black blood gushed from Sawol’s mouth. Sagong Hui tended to her mother without flinching at the spray.
“Call a physician!”
“No… I know my body best. I have already committed sins that cannot be washed away. At least I can leave you these words.”
Sawol smiled and stroked Sagong Hui’s hair.
“This is your mother’s final request. …My dear Hui-ah, you are such a good daughter. Will you grant it?”
“Ah….”
Tears fell from Sagong Hui’s eyes onto her mother’s hand.
“Ugh.”
One silver later.
Buried under the coins and bodies of the courtesans I had drugged, I cleansed the lingering scent of blood-flesh and returned to the room. A putrid stench of blood hung in the air; in the center, Sawol knelt and bowed to me.
“Please look after my daughter, great hero. Will you grant this failing woman’s last request?”
“What is it?”
“That no other lecher may lay a hand on my daughter. Please make her strong.”
“…That is difficult.”
Sawol’s eyes widened in surprise. I approached the bed, sat beside Sagong Hui, and soothed her to sleep.
“Must I ask that my son, born of this woman, not even touch his mother? That is monstrous.”
“...Ha, ha.”
Sawol gave a hollow laugh.
“Great hero, you are too much. Do you jest with the dying?”
“Of course.”
I pressed my hand gently to Sawol’s crown as I crouched before her and met her gaze.
“It is a pity. Had I arrived days earlier, I would have taken both mother and daughter.”
“...You truly are… sigh. Yet this too is fate.”
“Indeed. Before I die, I will make one promise.”
I pressed my palm to Sawol’s crown and held her gaze as I knelt.
“Your daughter will be spoken of as the Sword Sovereign.”
Sawol smiled and slowly closed her eyes.