TL/ED – Miso
Yeon So-wol rose before the sun, while everything around him was still washed in blue.
The moment he was up, he practiced the Willow Haze Art for about a quarter of an hour. It was the process of burning away the turbid qi that had gathered overnight and warming a body gone cold and stiff, so it was not a step to be skipped.
Then, when he stepped outside, the daybreak thickened, the blue in the air on the verge of lifting and not quite lifting.
Yeon So-wol headed for the front of Yi Yu-baek's quarters.
Once the direct disciples, Kang Mu-hyeok, Seon Je-hun, and Mo Cheong, had all gathered, the four of them went in side by side to offer their morning greetings.
"Did you sleep well through the night?"
Kang Mu-hyeok, the first disciple, spoke on behalf of them all, and the other three lined up behind him and bowed at the waist with cupped fists.
"Mm, yes, yes."
Yi Yu-baek was generally in a good mood in the morning.Generally because he was drinking.
Kang Mu-hyeok frowned, today as on every other day.
"Drinking on an empty stomach again?"
"It's a delicacy, this."
"Weren't you the one who taught us that drink is bad for the body and bad for cultivation, Master?"
"That's for you lot, who can't even light a True Fire yet. I just burn it off with inner energy, and that's the end of it."
Hisssssss!
White steam rose from Yi Yu-baek's shoulders. A heavy smell of liquor spread through the air.
Kang Mu-hyeok let out a small sigh and looked at Yi Yu-baek's cup.
No. That was no cup; bowl was the proper word for it.
"Then why drink cloudy Niang wine? No matter how much you burn off, a murky brew like that leaves a little turbid qi behind every time. If you're going to drink something weak anyway, drink the Jade Crown Red that came in as a gift."
Yi Yu-baek clicked his tongue.
"Mu-hyeok. Mu-hyeok. Jade Crown Red is a red fruit wine, isn't it. You drink that at a moment you want to remember. Niang wine is a cloudy glutinous rice wine, so it's what you drink at any old hour."
"It's all just liquor either way, so what......."
"How sad. My first disciple, a boy who can't even tell what drink tastes like."
Yi Yu-baek tipped the whole bowl of Niang wine back and cackled.
Kang Mu-hyeok watched him with a troubled look, then spoke.
"You've been drinking more lately."
"Have I?"
"Yes. Twice as many bottles coming back out."
"You count those too?"
"Is it because of Cheonro Mountain? You've been meeting a lot of people lately, and sending and receiving a lot of letters."
Cheonro Mountain?
Yeon So-wol's head snapped up.
Yi Yu-baek smiled bitterly.
"Well. When a man sets out to do something big, he needs a bit of a buzz here and there."
"Master. Everyone else in the Jianghu lives looking after nothing but their own interests. I don't understand why you keep putting yourself at the head of dangerous business."
"That's because."
Yi Yu-baek set the big cup in his hand down with a clack!
"When I think about those bastards, the drink stops tasting good."
"......Except that's made you drink more, not less."
"Argh. What do you know about how drink tastes? I ought to just, gah!"
"......."
Yi Yu-baek raised a fist, and Kang Mu-hyeok pulled his head down into his shoulders.
"Off with you. Morning greetings are over. So-wol, I'll see you at the drill yard later. Mo Cheong, come along with him."
Yi Yu-baek lifted the bowl again and gulped down the cloudy Niang wine.
"Mo Cheong."
"Hm?"
"What was all that about? Cheonro Mountain."
"Ah."
With the morning greetings finished, Yeon So-wol and Mo Cheong talked as they headed for the drill yard.
By now Yeon So-wol spoke casually with Mo Cheong.
Had he become Yi Yu-baek's disciple, he would have had to call Mo Cheong senior brother, but since he had become an adopted son instead, the two of them had simply become friends. As it happened, they were the same age, too.
"Master....... wants to wipe out the bandits of Cheonro Mountain Stronghold."
"......!"
Yeon So-wol had guessed as much on his own, but having it confirmed outright still startled him.
"The bandits at Cheonro Mountain Stronghold. Are they weak? Weaker than Master and our Hall of Refined Arts?"
Mo Cheong gave him an incredulous look.
"How could they be? If they were, the government troops would've cleaned them out ages ago."
"Are the government troops...... strong?"
"What?"
Mo Cheong let his head droop, dumbfounded.
Yeon So-wol waved his hands and explained.
"Ah. Well. There's that principle about mutual non-interference between officials and the murim, and......."
"Oh, come on."
Mo Cheong clicked his tongue.
"The government troops are strong. Ridiculously strong."
"That strong?"
"Yeah. If Jianghu folk and military officers went at each other on open ground, for every three officers who died, thirteen Jianghu folk would drop."
"......Then why do the authorities go easy on the murim?"
"Because the world's enormous and murim folk are as many as grains of sand. They can crush the few who cross the line badly enough, but if they started crushing everybody, it'd never end."
"Ah."
"And if it came to a real fight, murim folk wouldn't be obliging enough to meet them on open ground anyway."
"Ah."
"Anyway, that's how it is with Cheonro Mountain Stronghold too. The government troops are strong, but the bandits are enough that even those troops have to worry about their losses, which is why they're still holding out up there."
"......And why are the bandits so strong?"
"Strong, of course they are. Xinxing County's a small city, but follow the Jicheng River down and you come to Duanzhou, a real metropolis. And Cheonro Mountain sits square in the way of the route that lets the coastal cities down south, Yangjiang and Yangchun and Enping, trade with Duanzhou. So do you think the men who hold that spot are ordinary? I hear they're even on friendly terms with the Eighteen Strongholds."
As he said it, Mo Cheong sighed heavily, over and over.
"And even so, he says he's going to wipe them out. He's been going around rallying not only the murim folk of our Xinxing County but the ones in Duanzhou, Xiqiao, and Foshan too. I'm worried sick."
"Ah......."
Only then did Yeon So-wol understand.
What Yi Yu-baek had said the day before.
'I've got something big in the works. I can't afford to humor the tantrums of the Black Path.'
What that 'something big' had been.
"What's wrong?"
"......Nothing."
Yeon So-wol was suddenly ashamed.
'So Father really did take up the blade.'
He realized anew, and deeply, that Yi Yu-baek's words had not been mere words.
'I too.......'
When he first set out to learn martial arts, his reason had only been to secure his own safety and to seek freedom and peace in the barbaric world called the Jianghu.
But that heart of his was changing, little by little.
"I too......."
A little more. Martial arts had become something he wanted desperately.
Today was at last
the day he would learn the movement art.
As one of the murim, he would learn how to use his body.
In the drill yard, with the birds chirping,
Yi Yu-baek asked.
"Footwork and the lightfoot technique. Put the two together and you call it the movement art. So then, So-wol."
"Yes."
"What is footwork?"
"Footwork is the method of moving the body's center. Taken by the word alone it means the way of walking, but in truth it covers every means of movement and evasion that can be used in combat. Dodging, closing in, falling back, all of these together are called footwork."
Yi Yu-baek smiled.
"Good. Then what is the lightfoot technique?"
"It is the study of making the body light and running quickly."
"Well. Roughly right."
"If you teach me, I'll learn it exactly."
Yeon So-wol bowed his head at once, and Yi Yu-baek smiled faintly.
Yi Yu-baek, who loved Confucius and Mencius, was quite fond of this side of his adopted son.
"Then let me ask you one thing first. Footwork is a method. So why is the lightfoot technique a work?" [TL: The word for footwork ends in the character meaning "method", while the word for the lightfoot technique ends in the character meaning "work" or "effort", the same one found in inner energy and external energy.]
Yeon So-wol sank into thought for a moment.
'Work. Work....... Come to think of it, the Willow Haze Art carries that same character too.'
It felt as though he had caught hold of a clue.
"Might it have something to do with the Internal cultivation method?"
Yi Yu-baek made a sound of admiration.
"Good. Your comprehension is excellent, too. You're right. If footwork is the method of using the body, the lightfoot technique is the work of making the body light with inner energy and external energy. Then, one more."
Yi Yu-baek grinned playfully.
"What is inner energy? And external energy?"
This time Yeon So-wol answered almost at once.
"The 'cultivation' in the term means study, or the effort one puts into it. 'Internal cultivation' therefore means study or effort directed inward, so I think it refers collectively to the qi gathering kindled through the Internal cultivation method, the fire stage that regulates it, and the Innate true qi of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians refined through that process."
"Really good. Then external energy?"
"External energy is study and labor piled up on the outside, so I think it means the blood, flesh, and bone made strong through qi gathering and the fire stage, and the acquired energy that settles in them."
"Good."
Fwoosh-
Unable to hide his delight, Yi Yu-baek spread open his fan. A tart, sharp scent.
He spoke as though singing.
"Making the body light is possible through inner energy and external energy. In the end the lightfoot technique is an application of inner energy and external energy, so it becomes the same work."
Yi Yu-baek looked at Yeon So-wol with satisfaction,
and Yeon So-wol, a little bashful, laughed.
Then, clack! Yi Yu-baek snapped the fan shut.
"Therefore. If you learn the lightfoot technique wrong, qi deviation comes."
"......?"
The smile froze at the corner of Yeon So-wol's mouth.
Qi deviation?
He barely held back from asking it out loud.
"What do you think a man has to do to make his body light?"
"......I don't know."
"Of all the essence in your body, which part is the most turbid, the most thoroughly cooled?"
Essence was the root of matter and force.
Yeon So-wol answered on the basis of what he had learned so far.
"Flesh and bone. After that, blood."
"Those have weight, don't they?"
"Yes."
"So the body will only grow light once those grow light. Right?"
"Yes......."
Yeon So-wol was baffled.
'How is bone and flesh supposed to get lighter?'
Was it some kind of metaphor?
Yi Yu-baek watched Yeon So-wol's eyes dart this way and that, then grinned.
"Good. Then listen well. What I am about to tell you is a secret of our Refined Arts Sect. My master, which is to say your grandmaster, was a Peak-rate swordsman whose name was known throughout the land. That being so, the martial arts of our Refined Arts Sect carry on a profound orthodox teaching. It is a precious thing in this world, so carve it into yourself."
"Yes."
At a solemnity Yi Yu-baek had not shown even when passing down the Willow Haze Art, Yeon So-wol swallowed hard.
"The void becomes one. One becomes two. Two becomes five, then twenty-two, then one hundred and eight, and at last all things are born."
"......."
Yeon So-wol fought desperately not to furrow his brow.
'What on earth is he talking about?'
Yi Yu-baek laughed.
"Let me unpack it further. In the beginning there was nothing. From that, one was born, and this is called the Limitless."
"As the Limitless cooled and grew turbid, two split off from it, yin and yang, and this is the Supreme Ultimate."
"Yin and yang split again into five and form the Five Elements."
"From the Five Elements come the Ten Heavenly Stems and the Twelve Earthly Branches,"
"and those twenty-two stems and branches in turn form the one hundred and eight Astral Malefics."
"And so it is from the one hundred and eight Astral Malefics that all things are finally shaped. Your blood and flesh and bone were made that way as well."
Yeon So-wol thought.
'What does any of this have to do with the lightfoot technique?'
But he was an excellent student, so he did not let the thought out of his mouth.
Yi Yu-baek put a question to him.
"Let me ask you here. Among essence, qi, and spirit, the Limitless forms spirit. The Supreme Ultimate and the Five Elements become qi. Then into how many stages is essence divided altogether?"
"Broadly speaking, three stages. The twenty-two stems and branches together lead on to the one hundred and eight Astral Malefics, and last of all they form all things."
"That's right. Now. Here is the heart of it. What about all things? Do they have weight?"
"They do. Even air, which has no form, has weight."
"That's right. But once the essence of all things grows hot and turns into Astral Malefics, from that point it has no weight."
Yeon So-wol was startled.
'No weight?'
"The essence of the ten stems and twelve branches cools into the one hundred and eight Astral Malefics, and the one hundred and eight Astral Malefics cool into all things, but until it is shaped into all things, essence has neither weight nor touch. It merely serves as the foundation of force and matter. That is why it is also called essence qi."
Yeon So-wol worked his mind desperately to understand the laws of this world, so unlike the common sense of Earth.
Because of that, he realized it a little late.
"So now you see it, don't you? What the essential point of the lightfoot technique is."
!!!
Yeon So-wol's back went damp with cold sweat.
"From the look on your face, it seems you do."
No.
Yeon So-wol wanted to deny it.
He forced the words out with difficulty.
"Surely that essential point isn't....... to heat the essence already hardened into bone and flesh until it's scorching, and turn it into weightless essence qi?"
Yi Yu-baek laughed brightly.
"Why wouldn't it be! Your comprehension is excellent, and that makes this so easy and pleasant!"
Yeon So-wol's chest felt tight.
"But. That is. Isn't there a problem if you heat bone and flesh wrong? I've heard an awful lot of terrifying stories......."
That a man had melted and stuck to the floor in a smear.
That someone's organs had all burned away.
That a Huiyin acupoint had melted and everything that should have stayed inside came pouring out.
Yi Yu-baek answered.
"That's what happens if you heat it wrong. So let's heat it right."
"......Yes."
Yeon So-wol let his head drop, pretending to bow.
'This. Insane murim.......'
There was no way to avoid learning martial arts,
he had to learn them,
it was something to be grateful he could learn at all,
"We're going to go at this a bit hard. You need results fast so you stop getting beaten up. I can't stand the sight of my son getting beaten. So keep your wits sharp. One slip and you melt, understand?"
At Yi Yu-baek's words, there was no helping the way his mind went blank and distant.
Melt?
Melt?
"Come stand here."
Yeon So-wol pried his unwilling feet from the ground and stood before Yi Yu-baek.
"All right, let's start by getting you used to the feel of it."
Clamp!
Yi Yu-baek seized both sides of Yeon So-wol's waist.
Scorching qi gathering came pouring in.
'H-hot!'
His flesh and bone heated fast, to a temperature he had never once imagined.
Was he going to melt away entirely, just like this?
"Now, now. Don't move. One slip and you could die. Just settle your mind utterly."
"......!!!"
"There, breathe. Breathe."
Yeon So-wol breathed, pale as death.
A Man in the Jianghu Has No Control Over His Own Fate.
They said that once a man was in the Jianghu, his fate was no longer his to own.
'So this is what it meant!'
Yeon So-wol's mind, gone slack from the recent rest, was pulled very taut.