TL/ED – Miso
“......My body feels heavy.”
He had pushed himself hard the day before with lightfoot technique training. On top of that, he had drunk a few cups of liquor for the first time in his life; maybe that was why.
Yeon So-wol got up at once, opened the window, and lit the incense burner.
His own blend of myrrh and spikenard burned upward in a single thread of smoke.
The stale air that had gathered overnight drifted away, and a sweet, refreshing fragrance warmed the room.
He enjoyed the scent while loosening his body with the Willow Haze Art.
More thoroughly than usual, taking his time.
By the time he finished, well over a half-hour (30 minutes) had gone by.
“Is it that late already? I still have to pay my morning respects.”He washed quickly, straightened his clothes, and picked up his scent pouch as well.
“Right. He told me to bring this too.”
The elixir he had received as a gift from Yi Yu-baek, the Dragon Scale Fungus.
Today was the day he would eat an elixir for the first time in his life.
“Today's going to be dangerous and hard too, but.......”
He wasn't afraid the way he usually was anymore.
“If it has to be done, I'll do it.”
The experience of having come through it again and again held up Yeon So-wol's heart like solid bedrock.
Taking in the cool morning air, Yeon So-wol deepened his Fire stage.
“Hooooo.......”
Fwoosh-
A flame came alive inside his body.
The turbid qi mixed into the Eight Extraordinary Meridians burned away, and white smoke came billowing out.
When bone and flesh were tempered in that searing heat, the body grew light.
Soaring Wind Drift.
Tap.
He put on his shoes and gave the stepping stone a light kick, and his body floated up. Skimming lightly over the top of the wall, tapping off it as he went, he reached the front of Yi Yu-baek's quarters in no time.
“You....... your Soaring Wind Drift is already that far?”
Kang Mu-hyeok, the Refined Arts Young master, eldest of the Three Young masters of Refined Arts, went round-eyed.
At the First Stage, one is merely light.
At the Second Stage, one learns to be heavy as well.
At the Third Stage, one can await the wind and fly.
A passage written in the preface to the Soaring Wind Drift.
In the Soaring Wind Drift, where the Tenth Stage was Great Completion, reaching the Third Stage meant one had firmly cleared the beginner's ground and started handling it in earnest.
Even the very quickest needed seven days and nights, and the very slowest could take a year; it called on the head, the senses, and the body all at once, which made it study that was never easy.
And yet Yeon So-wol's Soaring Wind Drift had plainly reached the Third Stage, as anyone could see.
Seon Je-hun, the Gale Young master, second of them, made a fuss.
“Whoa. What's this? How are you at Third Stage? Didn't you only start on the Soaring Wind Drift yesterday?”
At that, the youngest, Mo Cheong, suddenly started swaggering.
“Oh dear, senior brothers. So you hadn't heard. So-wol was training with me yesterday, and he dropped into selfless immersion, bam! And then he just rode the wind, whoosh!”
The two senior brothers' eyes went wide.
“Selfless immersion? No. That's not even....... Wow. I knew he was a genius, but.......”
“No wonder Master looked so pleased yesterday.”
Both of them stared, wide-eyed and astonished.
But they didn't drag it out for long.
The eldest, Kang Mu-hyeok, took his right shoulder, and the second, Seon Je-hun, his left; the two of them gave Yeon So-wol a firm squeeze each and walked on past.
“Congratulations. With our little brother making progress like this, Master will be delighted.”
“Hey now, our young lord. Not bad at all. The Refined Arts Sect has one more thing to brag about.”
Watching the two of them stride lightly ahead, Yeon So-wol felt oddly good.
Congratulations that were warm and close without being cloying.
‘......I'll work even harder.’
Enthusiasm welled up in him.
Martial arts were barbaric and crude enough to make him wonder if the whole business was insane.
Still, his skill climbed in step with everything he endured and everything he put in, and nothing could be more fun than that.
The people around him were warming to him more and more, too.
Learning martial arts still left him tense and frightened.
But now it thrilled him as well.
“Let's go, So-wol.”
“Yeah.”
Yeon So-wol followed Mo Cheong and stepped into Yi Yu-baek's quarters along with his senior brothers.
Yi Yu-baek was drinking today as well. Holding a small cup, gazing blankly at the sky, taking it slow.
Kang Mu-hyeok's eyes lit up.
“Is that the Jade Crown Red today?”
“Mm. That's how it worked out.”
Yi Yu-baek grinned, then turned to look at Yeon So-wol.
“Ho.”
Admiration spread across his face.
‘He stands alone.’
His disciples all kept themselves clean and their clothes neat, following his teaching.
But Yeon So-wol was on another level entirely.
From the height at which the leg wraps cinched the trouser cuffs, to the length of the knight-errant robe underneath and the overlap of its front panels. And then the subtle fall and folding of the overrobe worn over it, all of it drew the eye. There was an exquisiteness to it that couldn't be explained.
The truth was that back in the Republic of Korea in the 21st century, Yeon So-wol had been a student people said knew how to dress.
And so his handling of hemlines, his fit, and the way he wore a garment carried a sensibility a thousand years ahead of its time.
Those who didn't know passed it off with a ‘Something about him stands out. Is it just that he's handsome?’, but those with some eye for it, like Yi Yu-baek, could feel it. Now that is exquisite!
‘No amount of nagging ever got it into those disciples of mine.’
Style was something no one could acquire without working at it themselves.
To see his own adopted son display it as naturally as if he had been born with it left Yi Yu-baek nothing but pleased.
“You. Really. Yesterday's training must have worn you out, and still you're the same every single day. That bearing of yours may do you a great deal of good today.”
Yi Yu-baek gave one deep nod and turned to his disciples.
“So-wol takes the Dragon Scale Fungus today. I want the three of you standing guard watch.”
In that instant, the air in the room drew taut.
Yeon So-wol felt the tension and glanced around, puzzled.
“Master. Will you be performing the qi guidance yourself?”
“Of course I will. It was the same for all of you. He's my son; how could I treat him any differently?”
“But isn't this too soon? If you're handling the qi guidance yourself as well, then a little more preparation.......”
“Enough of that nonsense.”
Yi Yu-baek waved a hurried hand to cut Kang Mu-hyeok off.
“In any case, the rest of you keep guard watch outside. So-wol, you follow me in.”
Yi Yu-baek went inside.
Yeon So-wol quietly read the faces of the three disciples.
‘Why is the mood so tense?’
“Get in here.”
But with Yi Yu-baek urging him on, he had no choice but to gather himself up and shuffle in after him.
Inside the room, Yi Yu-baek wore a very gentle smile.
“If you don't mind, would you sit here for me? That's it. This close.”
Yeon So-wol felt an unaccountable wrongness.
‘Is he in an especially good mood today?’
For the moment he did as Yi Yu-baek told him and sat on the floor, close to him.
Yi Yu-baek smiled placidly and spoke.
“Yesterday you learned tempering. Isn't that right?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Today you'll be learning Body Refinement.”
Body Refinement.
To polish the body. It meant disciplining the body.
“Is that the same Body Refinement as in ‘refine the body, order the household, govern the state, bring peace to all under heaven’?” [TL: A famous Confucian maxim from the Great Learning; its opening phrase uses the same two characters as the martial term for Body Refinement.]
“Heavens! You know that? Truly, you are bright.”
“.......”
Now Yeon So-wol was certain.
‘What's gotten into him?’
Something was off about Yi Yu-baek today.
“Only, the characters are the same but the meaning differs. Confucius taught that one first sets the mind right and then refines the body. We martial artists, on the other hand, refine the body first and polish the mind only afterward.”
‘And what's that supposed to mean?’
When Yeon So-wol's face went blank with confusion, Yi Yu-baek laughed and waved it away.
“Never mind. The truth is I don't know either. I've only heard it's a matter belonging to some far-off realm. Anyway.”
Yi Yu-baek wiped the smile away and spoke gravely.
“Body Refinement means the permanent tempering of the body.”
“Isn't that something we're not supposed to do?”
Yeon So-wol shot the question back reflexively.
Temper the body permanently? Wasn't that the same as unmaking the body? And hadn't Yi Yu-baek said with his own mouth that it must never be done?
Seeing Yeon So-wol thrown into confusion, Yi Yu-baek nodded.
“There it is! Splendid comprehension! Truly excellent, So-wol! You're right. But the Body Refinement of our Refined Arts Sect is limited to the meridians alone. So there's no need to worry. The meridians are passages made of qi, not of matter. Temper them as many times as you like and there's only benefit, never harm.”
“So that's......how it is.”
Even as he answered, Yeon So-wol was thinking to himself.
‘But why is he being so nice?’
“Good. So-wol. Have you been observing the meridians inside your body regularly, hmm?”
......hmm?
An inexplicable chill ran over Yeon So-wol.
“......Yes. I observed them this morning as well, while practicing the Willow Haze Art.”
“And how were they? Compared to before you took up martial arts.”
“They've grown much wider and much warmer than before.”
“I see. So that's how it seems to you.”
Rustle.
Yi Yu-baek turned around and presented his back.
“Here. Put your palm right on this spot. That's the Mingmen acupoint.”
When Yeon So-wol fumbled his hand into place, Yi Yu-baek said,
“Send your Qi gathering into it.”
“Father?”
His Qi gathering?
“I'm telling you to have a look at the meridians inside me. Move around carefully and nothing will go wrong, so go ahead.”
‘So that's what it was!’
Yeon So-wol realized what Yi Yu-baek's gentle tone had been about.
The Mingmen acupoint was the largest of the pulse gates through which qi passed.
To hand it over was, in effect, to put one's life in another's hands. That went some way toward explaining why Yi Yu-baek was being so strangely kind.
‘Fair enough. It really does put me on edge.’
Just recently, when Yi Yu-baek had taken hold of Yeon So-wol's Zhangmen acupoint and poured Qi gathering into it, Yeon So-wol had fretted inwardly that he might melt down into about a bucketful of meat broth.
“Go on.”
Even so, Yi Yu-baek spoke softly and evenly.
Yeon So-wol swallowed hard and slowly sent his Qi gathering across.
Through his own Qi gathering, starting from the Twelve Primary Meridians, he examined Yi Yu-baek's meridians one stretch at a time.
A quarter-hour (15 minutes) passed.
“Hooooo.......”
“Whewww.......”
The two of them let out a breath at the same moment, and Yeon So-wol lifted his hand from Yi Yu-baek's Mingmen acupoint.
“They're completely....... different.”
“Yes. You see it now, don't you?”
Yeon So-wol slowly turned his attention inward on his own meridians.
Then he went back over the meridians of Yi Yu-baek's that he had felt through his fingertips a moment ago.
“Yes. If my meridians are a footpath where sand and rubble and dirt, grass, trees, and broad flagstones have all toppled over and heaped up any which way....... then Father's meridians were like a cool walking path thick with green bamboo”
Yeon So-wol said it just as he had felt it.
That surprised Yi Yu-baek.
“That Qi sense of yours astonishes me every time. You had it exactly right. That bamboo you felt is what we call Choice Bamboo. It means a qi like well-selected bamboo. It's the qi that can be attained through the secret art of our Refined Arts Sect.”
“Choice Bamboo.......”
“That's right. The kinds of essence qi. Do you remember what there are?”
“There were twenty-two Stems and Branches and one hundred eight Astral Malefics.”
“Right, and among them there are better essence qi and worse ones. As things stand, your meridians are made up of the lowest and low grades of essence qi all jumbled together without order. As one ages, turbid qi builds up and it turns out that way on its own.”
“Ah.”
Yeon So-wol realized that all he had done was clear out the larger waste heaped up in his meridians; he had never touched the passages themselves, the meridian channels.
All at once his body felt itchy.
Filthy on the inside, unbearably so.
“And as it happens, you have the Dragon Scale Fungus, which is exactly the right elixir for performing Body Refinement on the meridians. To put it this way. We clear away the rubble and sand tangled up inside your meridians and plant green bamboo there instead. After that, the flow and the nature of the Qi gathering that travels those paths will be completely different.”
Yi Yu-baek took the Dragon Scale Fungus from Yeon So-wol, put it in a bowl, and poured hot liquor over it.
The liquor hadn't been hot to begin with; Yi Yu-baek had run inner energy through it to heat it.
Hissssss-!
White steam rose off the bowl, and the smell of liquor and mushroom hit the nose in a rush.
“Through Body Refinement you can build a constitution. Once a constitution is made, the speed at which you advance in martial arts changes completely.”
Yi Yu-baek smiled faintly and went on.
“A constitution like the one you have now is called a disordered constitution.”
Yeon So-wol nodded quietly.
Ever since he had looked inside Yi Yu-baek's meridians, he could hardly bear his own.
“Today let's make it a good deal tidier. With my own hands, I'll plant green bamboo along your meridians. Now! Turn around.”
Yeon So-wol slowly turned and sat with his back to him.
‘Here it comes.’
After the Internal cultivation method called the Willow Haze Art and the lightfoot technique called the Soaring Wind Drift, this was his third lesson: consuming an elixir and refining his body.
‘It'll be hard. But that's all right. I can do it.’
Yeon So-wol steeled himself and asked, full of resolve.
“What sort of things should I watch out for?”
“Hm. There's nothing like that.”
“What?”
Yeon So-wol asked again, startled.
He tried his best never to question Yi Yu-baek twice, but he couldn't help it.
‘There's nothing....... to watch out for?’
In learning martial arts? How could that be?
‘That makes no sense.’
“Hm. There isn't. Just keep your Qi gathering neatly gathered in your dantian so it doesn't interfere with my Fire stage. That's enough. Until I withdraw the Fire stage. Do nothing at all.”
“Uh....... but surely there's something to be careful about? It's dangerous, isn't it? Body Refinement is martial arts too.”
At that, Yi Yu-baek answered.
Wearing a warm, unhurried smile.
“Hm. That's true. It is dangerous. But it's fine, martial arts are always dangerous to some degree, hmm?”
‘Hmm......?’
His voice was strangely affectionate.
Yeon So-wol felt his back go damp.
Thoughts came rushing through Yeon So-wol's head.
‘Now that I think about it. Why did he post the direct disciples outside on guard watch......? Why would that even be neces.......’
“There now. Would you swallow the Dragon Scale Fungus for me? Together with the liquor in the bowl, all in one go, no chewing. Good, good. It's all right. Just don't do anything. All you need to do is follow where I lead.”
Yi Yu-baek reached an arm around from behind and placed the bowl holding the Dragon Scale Fungus into Yeon So-wol's hands himself.
Before Yeon So-wol could get out more than a startled sound, he had gulped it down.
As the bitter, scalding liquor went down his throat and the fragrant mushroom scent lingered in his nose, Yi Yu-baek's voice came.
“Then we'll begin. I'll rest my hand on your Mingmen acupoint for a moment. That's all right, isn't it? Haha. It's nothing. Just trust me.”
???
‘Since when did he start asking things like......?’
The instant the horrified Yeon So-wol tried to say something,
Thump.
Yi Yu-baek's palm covered Yeon So-wol's Mingmen acupoint.
“From here on you mustn't open your mouth. Understood? I'm asking you nicely.”
Yi Yu-baek's voice came through, kind to the point of awkwardness.
At the same moment, scalding Qi gathering flowed in through the Mingmen acupoint.
The Mingmen.
Into the gate of life.