"For the time being I shall take full charge. As for the period...... it should not exceed a fortnight."
So said Yeo Hwi upon returning from the Thunder Tree Forest.
Namgung Baek asked back with a bewildered face.
"You're not going to pass on your footwork arts?"
That was the only way it could be taken.
In tempering the martial arts, narrow training is to be guarded against.
Even so, there was one form of training universally given priority: the step method, the body method, and movement arts.
The three together were called the footwork arts, so their importance went without saying, and the time required to learn them was considerable. And a fortnight?
Sure enough, Yeo Hwi shrugged.
"If anything, I would like to ask. Is that not something the two of you must finish yourselves? You would know better than I which footwork arts suit those sword arts and hand arts."
"That is why we asked Benefactor Yeo—"
"Ah, is that so? Hm. Well, let's talk about that later."
Namgung Baek cut off Gongheon, who was about to say something, and closed the matter there. Then he promptly hauled Gongheon away, and what remained in the clearing were only Tang Mu-jeong and Yeo Hwi.
"Tsk."
With that familiar click of the tongue, Tang Mu-jeong too returned to his hut.
Somehow the way he looked at him......
'Why is he looking at me the way he looks at Baek?'
From that day on, Yeo Hwi spent his daily life together with Jeong I-shin.
They had spent it together before as well, but now a little longer.
And so the fortnight Yeo Hwi had spoken of passed.
"......Ahem!"
In the clearing with everyone gathered, Yeo Hwi produced words wholly different from those of a fortnight ago.
"Considering the importance of the footwork arts, it seems we ought to allow two years."
At those exceedingly sheepish words, Gongheon and Namgung Baek let out light laughs.
"It seems a fortnight was not enough for Benefactor Yeo."
"I can well imagine. This is exactly why I said nothing at the time. You never know until you go through it yourself — not with our Sparkles."
"Ahem!"
Yeo Hwi only stared into the distance and cleared his throat over and over.
Sure enough, they were right.
The span he had offered a fortnight ago, shaken by Jeong I-shin's words, had instead awakened a thirst in him.
Jeong I-shin's martial talent, the lightning wound around his heart, the body polished by the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture — none of those were the cause.
Yeo Hwi had understood why Jeong I-shin had said what he said a fortnight ago, and how he had been able to say it.
Whether it should be called astonishing or laughable.
The gaze with which Jeong I-shin looked at Yeo Hwi was no different from the gaze with which Yeo Hwi looked at all of them.
It was a kind of feeling he had never experienced.
To call it recognition was too much; to call it understanding was too grand.
To Yeo Hwi, Jeong I-shin simply came across as a boy who possessed the same gaze as his own.
'He is worth handing over what is mine.'
That was his conclusion.
'Ooh......!'
Jeong I-shin, hearing Yeo Hwi's words, likewise thought inwardly that this had worked out well.
The footwork arts were a category of martial art he was experiencing for the first time.
In fact, in some respects they interested him more than the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture, which exercised transcendent physical force.
And no wonder, for Yeo Hwi's body method looked as though he moved by folding space itself!
From the mood he had thought he would not be allowed to learn it, but unlike at first, Yeo Hwi's reaction was quite positive.
He had no idea what change of heart had occurred, but a good thing was a good thing.
'This'll be fun. So will I be able to run across blades of grass and fly through the sky too?'
With martial arts fiction knowledge so shallow it was barely damp, Jeong I-shin held forth on grass-treading flight and air-treading steps.
Naturally he had no idea what level of footwork arts was required for such things.
He simply wanted them.
......Because they were cool!
But most regrettably, the footwork arts lessons were not permitted.
It was neither Gongheon's opposition nor Namgung Baek's.
It came from someone no one had anticipated.
"Regrettable, but I go first."
From Tang Mu-jeong.
"......Hm? Mu-jeong, what did you say? I believe I misheard."
Yeo Hwi spoke with a thoroughly dumbfounded expression.
At that raw reaction of a man who had not considered it in the slightest, Tang Mu-jeong added firmly,
"We shall discuss the footwork arts again in a year."
"N-no! Was this turn not clearly mine? I-shin chose me himself."
"And you spoke of a fortnight."
"Th-that was......"
At the time...... he had not known!
The words his friend swallowed were plain even unspoken, and Tang Mu-jeong wore a wry smile.
He spoke to the friend who wore the very same face he himself had worn a year ago, as if talking him around.
"I am not trying to obstruct you. It is only that the time allotted to me seems shorter than I had thought."
"Elder Tang!"
Jeong I-shin leapt up in shock.
How could a man speak of dying so casually?
Of course, Jeong I-shin knew that the four old men's health was not good.
It had been quite some time since he had taken responsibility for half of the qi membrane that blocked the Demonic Wind.
There were many reasons.
The wound to their qi centers from the betrayal, which he had once heard about vaguely from Namgung Baek; the pressure of an environment like the Bottomless Abyss; and simple aging as well.
But until now none of them had spoken of it this directly.
Namgung Baek patted the shoulder of Jeong I-shin, who was biting down hard on his lip.
"Sparkles, don't worry. I'll still outlive these fellows, you know?"
"Elder Namgung!!!"
"Ahaha! Sorry, sorry."
Behind Namgung Baek as he waved one arm and stepped back, the other three old men traded glances.
All of them knew.
That in the end the one to leave the Bottomless Abyss would be Jeong I-shin alone, and that even that day would not come until more than a decade had passed from now.
Whereas they could not guarantee even a few more years of life, and so, to pass on as much as possible, a mind art had to come before all else.
"I am sorry to you as well. I had intended to weave the mind art after you had experienced the footwork arts too, but I am living day to day now."
"Aaargh! Don't say things like that! Fine, we just have to make it quickly, right? Please!"
***
The Bottomless Abyss' greatest intellect, Tang Mu-jeong, presented a choice.
"There are two methods for creating a mind art."
"Two?"
"The first is fast but dangerous, and the second is......"
"The first one!"
"......Listen before you speak."
"The first one!"
By Jeong I-shin's forceful insistence, the direction of the mind art's creation was decided.
Tang Mu-jeong patted Jeong I-shin's shoulder.
"I trust your talent. Factoring in insight, I hold that you may be comparable to the Heavenly Demon."
"Is that a compliment?"
"Yes. You will soon learn what degree of praise this is."
"......?"
Tang Mu-jeong looked at Jeong I-shin, still dazed, and smiled.
"Over the past year, alongside your education in jianghu, I attempted to create an inner arts mind method, but there were no particular results."
"That's right."
"Taking lightning as true qi may well be a delusion. Fire qi and fire are not wholly the same, and water qi and water are not wholly the same."
"Mm......"
"But you already hold lightning within you. Whatever its location, whatever the order in which it happened, you achieved it. And you have an innate gift for gaining things by throwing your body at them."
"Heh heh. Do I?"
Seating Jeong I-shin on the floor, Tang Mu-jeong said,
"So wait. I shall carve it into your body."
"Sorry? Carve what......?"
Tang Mu-jeong moved about busily.
He set curious implements he had never seen in his life here and there on the floor, and drove exceedingly finely carved wooden tablets into the ground.
A strange design was drawn with Jeong I-shin at its center.
At the heart of a pattern that seemed both cluttered and orderly, he accepted a cup Tang Mu-jeong handed him.
"Drink."
Jeong I-shin immediately downed what was in the cup.
He did not even ask what it was.
At that, it was Tang Mu-jeong who frowned.
"Never again! Do not gulp down what another gives you like that."
"Come on, are we strangers?"
"......Hah. Press down the surging lightning and the true qi of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture. It is bedlam in there."
Sure enough, just as Tang Mu-jeong said, it was uproarious inside his body.
It was plainly not the shape of a welcome for what had entered him.
Jeong I-shin quieted his interior and tilted his head.
"By the way, what is all of this for?"
"You ask quickly, I see."
Tang Mu-jeong sat down right in front of Jeong I-shin, who was smiling sheepishly, and put out a hand.
The moment his index finger touched the space between his brows.
WHIIINE—
A sound like something spinning roughly rang out.
Despite the bewilderment that surfaced on Jeong I-shin's face, Tang Mu-jeong's voice was calm.
"This is martial learning of the upper qi center. Perhaps thanks to being struck by lightning, your upper qi center was wide open. It has made this easy."
"The upper qi center is...... the head, you said?"
"Yes. More precisely, it is martial arts in the domain of handling the spirit held within it, but...... you need not know. Simply follow my guidance."
CRUNCH!
At the same instant he felt his whole body being crushed without mercy.
It was as though an enormous fist had seized his entire body and was pressing down.
But there was no pain.
'Uh, uh, uh......!'
It was a truly strange sensation.
His body, crumpled by the pressure crowding in from every side, was gathering toward a single point.
Bone and flesh and organs, and his whole spirit.
All of it rushed toward Tang Mu-jeong's index finger, pressed to the space between his brows.
Like being sucked straight into the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner!
Into the ear of the flustered Jeong I-shin flowed Tang Mu-jeong's voice.
—Relax. Here we go.
Here we go — where?
Before he could even ask, his field of vision turned over.
***
A vast blue forest greeted Jeong I-shin.
But that greenery did not register in his eyes.
What seized Jeong I-shin's gaze was a martial artist in a blue martial arts uniform, standing there grinning.
'......Elder Namgung? But his right arm?'
It was Namgung Baek, both arms intact, a little younger than now.
At the same time his mouth opened.
"Sword Ghost, instead of grinning, learn where you are meant to stand."
'......!'
The words had unmistakably come out of his own mouth, but the voice was not Jeong I-shin's.
'Elder Tang?'
The moment he grasped whose gaze he was seeing through, Tang Mu-jeong's voice sounded in his head.
—Yes. This is a memory of mine from long ago. The goal is to gain inspiration for the creation of the mind art here. Remember: an ordinary mind art will not do. It must be a lofty study that the lightning in your heart will acknowledge.
In truth, even Tang Mu-jeong, who conveyed the words, knew how outrageous a demand he was making.
The only true qi the lightning circling Jeong I-shin's heart currently permitted was the energy of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture.
While the thing had been in his qi center it had not permitted even that, so perhaps he ought to consider it fortunate.
In the end it meant that for Jeong I-shin to accumulate qi, he had to pass the inspection of that fastidious lightning.
And absurdly, the standard had become the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture.
Jeong I-shin himself, of course, was in a state of stupefaction at a scene that was as good as virtual reality.
'I-is something like this possible?'
—There is nothing I cannot do. I am a genius.
Tang Mu-jeong's confident voice made sense to him.
The green vegetation of the Central Plains, which Jeong I-shin was seeing for the first time; the sound of Namgung Baek's clear, unceasing laughter; even the warmth of sunlight leaking between the leaves.
All of it was as vivid as reality.
Jeong I-shin was drinking in that liveliness, lost in it, when it happened.
"Baek! Mu-jeong! So this is where you were!"
'Ugh......!'
Like the tearing sound from a broken speaker, a truly unpleasant voice reached him.
Jeong I-shin nearly covered his ears without meaning to, but the reaction of Tang Mu-jeong, the body's actual owner, was different.
"You could have sent someone to call for us; why come yourself? What time does the man overseeing the formation have for this?"
On the surface it sounded like grumbling, but inside it was full of concern for the other party.
It was exactly what Jeong I-shin received from him.
—......Damn it. I chose a poor moment.
Tang Mu-jeong's low voice made him understand the present situation at once.
'This is the bastard who betrayed the old men!'
I've got you now.
He followed Tang Mu-jeong's gaze with a heart full of indignation, but Jeong I-shin could not see the man.
"What need is there to send someone when visiting my own friends?"
"Repulsive."
"Hehe. Gi-cheon is good at saying embarrassing things. Nobody beats Gi-cheon at leaving Mu-jeong with nothing to say."
The figure of the one conversing so warmly with the two old men was...... strangely blurred.
As though water had been spilled over an ink painting, the outline wavered and could not be seen properly.
'Elder Tang?'
Had something gone wrong?
To that question mixed with concern, Tang Mu-jeong answered lightly, as though it were nothing.
—It was so long ago that it has grown hazy. Pay it no mind.
There was no chance of that. He knew it made no sense.
This was martial learning that let another person experience a past moment perfectly.
The foundation of all this was unmistakably Tang Mu-jeong's memory, and yet he could not remember his enemy's face?
But Jeong I-shin had no choice but to accept it.
Not accepting it would not have gotten him anywhere either.
"So, why have you come looking for us?"
"Preparations for the Three Paths Transference Formation are complete."
"......A grandiose name, however often I hear it."
"If you fall into the Bottomless Abyss, is it any different from crossing the River of Three Paths? Hahaha!"
In time with the bastard's laughter, he felt the chest pounding.
It was not Jeong I-shin's emotion.
This rage, which had surged from the moment he faced the blurred man...... was not his. He could be certain of it.
Just then, Tang Mu-jeong said,
—What I mean to show you is not this rubbish. I shall skip ahead.
'Sorry? I'm fine with......'
Before Jeong I-shin could answer, his vision flickered.
As though someone had hit fast-forward, the world stretched out long.
And at last, the day Tang Mu-jeong had meant to show him arrived.
It began with a single man who dropped out of the sky from nowhere.
The moment he, draped in a dark red outer robe, drew his sword, the world split apart.
'Huh?'
It was a sight overwhelming enough to draw an involuntary squeak out of Jeong I-shin.
A forest whose end could not be seen, trees so dense it was hard even to count how many — all of them were sheared away.
The upper and lower halves of the martial artists deployed throughout the forest were separated along with them.
—That is it.
The voice Tang Mu-jeong conveyed was flat, but the trembling contained in it came through intact.
That was so even though this was nothing more than retracing a memory.
And it was caused by a single man alone.
After a brief silence, Tang Mu-jeong said,
—......That bastard is the Heavenly Demon.