The first to break the silence was Gongheon, whose beard was stained dark red.
Without so much as tending to his own body, he came staggering over.
"Monk! Stay seated!"
"N-no! How could you use the lightning! That power......!"
"Oh, come on! What do you mean I can't?"
Jeong I-shin propped Gongheon up quickly, pulled a cloth from his robes, and wiped the man's mouth.
Gongheon, of course, paid that no mind at all and seized Jeong I-shin's wrist, wholly absorbed in examining the boy's body.
Just then, the three old men, having gathered up their energy, came over.
"The sham monk will be fine. His body has been refined by the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture for decades, so do not worry overmuch."
"Still."
At Tang Mu-jeong's words, Jeong I-shin sat Gongheon down and shook his head.
He did not know how to examine the inside, so he checked the outside all the more carefully.
Sure enough, there were no notable external wounds. He was letting out a breath of relief when Yeo Hwi came over this time and bowed his head.
"We are in your debt. Had it not been for you, we would have suffered a great calamity."
"In my debt? It was only a week ago that all of you saved my life. And from the look of things, this time was because of me too......"
Tang Mu-jeong cut Jeong I-shin off.
"That is a separate matter. Yeo Hwi is right. ......All the more so if we weigh the value of what you gave up."
What did I give up?
Something dropped onto the shoulder of Jeong I-shin as he blinked.
A faded blue martial arts uniform fluttered. Namgung Baek had slung an arm around him.
"Sparkles, even without your sparkles you're still sparkling. I'll teach you my house's martial arts, so don't be too sad."
"Sorry?"
"The Namgung sword ought to be worth about half your sparkles."
Yeo Hwi added his words again.
"To give up that power, with a constitution able to take lightning as true qi. As a martial artist, it is a resolve I can scarcely fathom. Even granting that you are ignorant of the martial, this is not a thing to be passed over lightly."
"No, I mean, what exactly did I give u......"
Just then, his arm grew lighter.
Gongheon, having released Jeong I-shin's wrist, opened his mouth in utter bewilderment.
"I-it remains."
"What did you say?"
"Sir, what do you mean?"
To Tang Mu-jeong and Yeo Hwi, who asked again, Gongheon repeated himself.
"The lightning...... remains. Half, a little short of half...... but it is unmistakably still there."
"That is absurd! Are you saying that palm strike which tore the Demonic Wind apart was at half its power......?"
While Tang Mu-jeong strode over, Namgung Baek, who had already taken the boy's wrist, let out a laugh and stepped back.
"Hehe. Sparkles, you really are fun! The Demonic Wind has passed, so let's go cut wood together tomorrow! I can't wait!"
Namgung Baek went hopping off toward his own hut, and behind him the clearing was left with three old men who could not accept the present situation at all.
To Jeong I-shin, it was they who made no sense.
"I used half the lightning to blow away the Demonic Wind or whatever it was, and the remaining half is just circling near my heart. That's all there is to it, isn't it?"
Even he understood the state of his own body precisely.
It was certainly strange that the lightning did not return to his qi center, but since it no longer caused him pain no matter where in his body it roamed, he did not much mind.
But this seemed to be Jeong I-shin's view alone; the three old men traded words as gravely as they had when the Demonic Wind struck.
"Amitabha...... Could he already be forming a middle qi center? Perhaps the energies heaven wields cannot be judged by human measures."
"Nonsense. A middle qi center in a form where the qi does not gather inside the heart but circles outside it? I have never heard nor seen such a thing."
"But the lightning is settling as it revolves around the heart. There is room for it to run the same course as the function of a middle qi center in time."
Words he could hardly understand went back and forth.
Jeong I-shin quietly examined his own chest.
It could not be seen, but it was vividly felt.
His heart beating in steady rhythm, and the fragments of lightning revolving with that heart at their center.
HUMMM—
Right after he loosed that first strike, the lightning had scattered through his whole body like the Milky Way across a night sky.
The problem was the true qi of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture, which rose to fill the emptied qi center.
Fleeing the true qi that approached ringing the sound of a temple bell, the lightning had crowded in around his heart.
By now it had become a single cluster of stars, circling the heart as a satellite circles in its orbit.
"......Let us take more time and observe."
In the end the three old men could not produce an answer either.
***
The dwelling returned to daily life quickly.
"Three should do."
"Th-three logs?"
"Of course. We must make your chair as well."
"Ah."
At Gongheon's loving smile, Jeong I-shin flinched without meaning to.
That smile was always followed by pain, and his body had learned it.
Whether he knew that or not, Gongheon patted Jeong I-shin's shoulder gently.
"You will be with Benefactor Namgung, so do not worry too much. Whatever happens, if you stay right at his side you will keep your life."
"......And if I can't stay at his side?"
"Then the Central Plains would once again have but a single inheritor of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture."
"......"
He blinked for a moment before that loving smile.
Soon Namgung Baek came out of his hut.
"Let's go, Sparkles!"
Jeong I-shin folded himself at the waist toward Gongheon.
"You'd be lonely on your own, so I'll be sure to come back."
"Go safely and return well."
And so Jeong I-shin left the dwelling for the first time.
After walking a while through the fog, Namgung Baek asked,
"How is it?"
"There's less to it than I expected?"
Outside the dwelling, after the Demonic Wind had passed.
The murky fog settled over the ground was not as thick as he had thought.
If he looked with real concentration, he could make out what lay beyond it.
"Right? But this is the baseline here, so if you let your guard down for a second you'll lose your way in no time."
"Oh......"
"Also, you're walking backward right now."
"Sorry?"
Startled, he looked at himself and at Namgung Baek, and sure enough, he was walking backward.
"......Elder Namgung, did you turn me around?"
"Ahaha! What nonsense! You started walking like that partway through. Don't be too shocked. This is just what this place is like."
"Just what this place is like...... how does that even make se...... what the hell."
Jeong I-shin found that he had at some point begun walking sideways like a crab.
He was more shocked than he had been waking up in another world.
It was because of the memory of the past several days, in which the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture had given him perfect control of his body.
But Namgung Baek's answer was even more astounding.
"That's only because you've learned the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture. Mu-jeong stood on his hands his first time. And Yeo Hwi crawled along the ground."
"......So it's a terrifying place."
"Pffft! You're only realizing that now? However remote a place you lived, you'd think you would have heard of the Bottomless Abyss."
"Ah...... it, it was a very isolated place."
Talking with Namgung Baek was more enjoyable than he expected.
He was a man with the heart of a small child.
He told Jeong I-shin whatever he was curious about without reservation, and told him things he had not asked about too.
"A really nasty bastard got me, and my qi center was wrecked completely. It's still leaking qi in little dribbles even now. Can you feel it?"
"N-no."
"Out of all of us, Gongheon's situation is the best, relatively. The Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture really is an amazing study. That's right, you're very lucky."
"Yes, he taught me such a divine art, so how could I ever thank—"
"No, that's not what I meant."
Walking in step with him, Namgung Baek smiled brightly and patted his shoulder.
"I meant you're lucky to have survived. There are good reasons Shaolin forbade anyone from entering that divine art they barely restored. Ugh! Watching this time made it clear. Ordinary sinews and meridians wouldn't hold up at all."
"......Sorry?"
"You'd honestly be better off just getting crushed. Ah, were you crushed? Ahaha!"
"Th-that...... and you gave it to me?"
At Jeong I-shin's urgent reaction, Namgung Baek wore a briefly inscrutable smile.
"Aren't you bitter about it? You almost died."
As though trying to fan something into flame.
Still with a smiling face, in the same light tone as ever, he asked it.
TAP—
Jeong I-shin came to an abrupt stop.
"Hm?"
At the sight of Namgung Baek still smiling brightly, Jeong I-shin tilted his head.
And then, in a tone that took it for utterly obvious.
"It's not as if I'm some animal, so how could I be bitter? I know perfectly well the Monk and all of you old sirs saved my life."
"......"
"Now that I've spent some time here, this place doesn't seem so bad. It's mild in a nice way, like Pyongyang cold noodles. Ah, though the Demonic Wind is a bit spicy."
"......Huh?"
"It does get a little dizzying outside the dwelling...... argh, I'm walking backward again."
Namgung Baek gazed at Jeong I-shin for a while, and his smile deepened further.
He hurried over and hooked an arm around Jeong I-shin's shoulders.
"All right, Sparkles! Let's go!"
"Oh! So linking arms works! Why didn't I do this sooner!"
"Haha! Everything has to be experienced firsthand!"
And so the place Namgung Baek and Jeong I-shin walked to in high spirits was a pitch-black forest.
It was a forest full of blackened trees that rose high enough to touch the fog overhead.
"......Those are trees?"
"Yes. This place is called the Thunder Tree Forest. If we go deeper, the master of this place will get angry, so let's take trees near the entrance."
Namgung Baek answered calmly and walked up to a tree.
For Jeong I-shin it was an astounding sight.
Putting together everything he had heard so far, this place called the Bottomless Abyss was supposedly the unfathomable bottom of some great canyon.
'And there's a forest?'
Its scale looked enormous, at that.
A forest at the bottom of a canyon?
A thought came to him naturally.
'......Is this the scale of the continent?'
Somehow it seemed the continent could manage it.
He put his amazement aside and followed Namgung Baek.
The man was moving here and there, touching the pitch-black trees.
"Is there a way to tell a good tree?"
"No."
"......?"
Then what are you doing?
It was the moment he held back the words he could not say.
ZZZT— HISS!
Far off, from inside the Thunder Tree Forest, a strange sensation arose.
HUMMM!
At the same time, the lightning circling his heart gave a small cry.
And then a response came back from the forest again.
HISS! ZZZT—
Jeong I-shin knew it instinctively.
Something was calling him. So he scoffed.
'Not a chance.'
The Bottomless Abyss was a space where you never knew when, where, by what, or how you would be beguiled.
Jeong I-shin had not forgotten what Gongheon had emphasized.
Never leave Namgung Baek's side.
ZZZT—
'Yeah, still not going.'
HUMMM!
The lightning cried out, gradually quickening, but Jeong I-shin ignored it firmly.
Even this might be an error of his own senses.
Considering he had gone crab-walking without noticing, that was the more likely possibility.
Just then, Namgung Baek called him.
"Let's go with this tree. I'll cut it for you today, but next time you have to do it, understand?"
"What? We don't even have an axe. How?"
Namgung Baek grinned and took hold of the wooden stick at his waist.
The left hand.
Whether it was a substitute for the empty right arm or the road he had always walked, Jeong I-shin did not know.
But with the wooden stick in his grip, Namgung Baek became something entirely different from the man who had been empty-handed.
'......Is this really the same person?'
The bright smile was the same, but the air wrapped around him had changed completely.
Since that change came from nothing more than taking hold of a sword, Jeong I-shin could hardly believe it even while watching with his own eyes.
'Huh......? A sword?'
Yes, a sword.
What Namgung Baek held was not a wooden stick.
That was unmistakably a sword.
SLICE—
Then, along with a bone-chilling sound, three trees toppled at a slant.
He had not even seen the swing.
RUMBLE—
Only after the trees had fallen completely did Namgung Baek turn around.
That unchanged smile felt slightly cold.
No, it was distinctly cold.
'Ugh, why is it so cold all of a sud......?'
The moment he tilted his head in puzzlement.
Namgung Baek suddenly kicked off the ground.
Planting himself in front of Jeong I-shin in a single motion, he said,
"Sparkles, stay close behind me."
"......Sorry?"
RUMBLE— CRAAASH!
What he had taken for the sound of trees falling grew steadily louder.
The source was deep inside the forest.
CRAAASH!
Light flashed along with the roar.
And a single golden line shot through the thick fog.
WHIZZ—!
"Ack!"
That shaft of light landed on Jeong I-shin's chest.
Jeong I-shin, certain his chest had been run through, leapt straight up.
"Wh-what is it?!"
EEP!
A single ball of fur clinging tight to his chest and squirming.
The thing, no bigger than the palm of a hand at most, was...... a flying squirrel.
Its back was grayish white and its underside a clean white.
Unusually, there was a lightning-shaped marking on its back...... an exceedingly cute creature.
"Flying Squirrel!"
SQUEAK!
At Namgung Baek's shout, the squirrel slipped in through the front of Jeong I-shin's collar.
Its fur was tremendously soft, and the feel of it brushing his skin was not bad at all.
Jeong I-shin asked in a posture that let him neither do this nor that.
"Flying Squirrel? Is this the one Elder Namgung has been looking for all this time?"
Namgung Baek was forever going on about how he missed his flying squirrel, and Jeong I-shin had wondered what on earth it was...... but it was certainly cute.
"Come down here, you brat."
SQUEAK......!
The thing let out a strange cry, clung fast to the nape of Jeong I-shin's neck, and showed no intention of coming off.
"Why! Why won't you come to me!"
SQUEAK!
"Ha! Fine, the heavy lifting is my job again, is it? All right, for you, anything!"
Whether they were truly conversing or not, Namgung Baek turned around with a gloomy face.
Even while this went on, the cold force was growing steadily stronger.
SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER—
"......!"
Gooseflesh swept over his whole body.
"Wh-what is that?"
"Sparkles, look after our Flying Squirrel."
"Sorry?"
There was no answer to the question he asked again.
Namgung Baek was already wrapped in that dreadfully heavy air from before, leveling his sword toward the forest.
SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER!
The moment he bit down hard on his lip at that skin-crawling sound drawing closer.
As though it had been there from the very beginning, something rose smoothly out of the forest.
"......What the hell."
A centipede. A goddamn huge centipede, at that.
No, could that even be called a centipede?
It had raised only half its body, and that half looked to be three meters?
No, why was a centipede standing upright in the first place?
The shell looked far too hard to belong to an insect.
It was as though layer upon layer of dark red iron plating had been fitted to every segment.
SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER SKITTER—
The most nausea-inducing part of it was the hundreds of legs that never stayed still for a moment!
Legs like blued scythes enlarged hundreds of times over and stuck on produced a horrific noise every instant.
"Aaaaaagh......!"
Even the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture could not fully hold Jeong I-shin's mind in this one moment.
He was a boy who hated cockroaches more than anything in the world.
Which is why the hand Jeong I-shin swung without meaning to could truly be called a convulsive response.
HUMMM!
Along with a low resonance, the hand shaped by the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture struck empty air.
THWACK—!
Two of the centipede's legs went flying.
Along with dark red bodily fluid.
SCREEEECH!
"Aaaaagh!"
The centipede howled and heaved wildly.
Had Jeong I-shin been alone, it was a sight he would have fled from and then some!
But most fortunately, Namgung Baek stood before him.
"Heh heh. The true qi of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture, is it...... ha! Your future really is something to look forward to, Sparkles."
Having let out a low sound of admiration, Namgung Baek spoke firmly.
"If you're not going to do this properly, then leave."
"N-no, Elder Namgung! That thing isn't a person, it can't underst...... it's leaving?"
The centipede vanished so quickly that Jeong I-shin, who had been leaping about, was left embarrassed.
"......"
While he blinked blankly, the flying squirrel settled onto Jeong I-shin's shoulder.
The thing tapped Jeong I-shin's cheek once with its small foot and immediately jumped down.
Then, before he could react, it spread its gliding membrane and went whooshing away.
"Aaah......"
Namgung Baek gazed mournfully at the place the flying squirrel had left.
Jeong I-shin, coming to his senses belatedly, cleared his throat with effort.
"Ahem! Well, that was awfully rude of it. Elder Namgung saved it and it didn't even say thank you......"
"Come now! The Flying Squirrel isn't a person, so how could it speak? Are you an idiot?"
"......"