The way back to the dwelling was simpler than he expected.
"If you look up carefully there's a spot where the fog is thinner, and our house is under it."
Even in the vast Bottomless Abyss, it was said to be the one place where light and natural qi still passed through.
He had worried, having thrown himself into the fog with no preparation at all, but fortunately the destination was clearly marked.
The problem lay elsewhere.
"Um...... Elder Namgung."
"Yes?"
"You're saying I have to drag these, that is, these enormous logs, back all by myself?"
"Well, I can't do it, can I?"
The logs were bound tight with rope that had come from he knew not where.
They were trees Namgung Baek had felled in the Thunder Tree Forest.
Each was thick enough that Jeong I-shin would struggle to get both arms around it, and there were three of them, no less.
"Now, Sparkles. Tie them to your body."
"......My body?"
"Yes. You have to drag them, don't you? Ah, should I tie them for you? Right!"
In an instant Namgung Baek wound the thick rope around and around Jeong I-shin's body.
It looked like he was wrapping it at random, but the binding was remarkably well balanced.
He was so grateful that the weight of the logs spread evenly across his whole body that he nearly wept.
"Let's go!"
"......Yes."
Walking through fog that left his sight less than whole, Jeong I-shin came to realize something new.
'The Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture...... really was an incredible martial art!'
It had been a mere week, but he had watched his feeble body change by the day.
On top of that, the old men around him sang the praises of the Scripture so constantly that he had assumed it must be a great martial art.
But he had not known it was this much.
Only now did he grasp it: the body this great study had shaped was truly astonishing.
'Whoa, I can actually do this.'
SCRAAAPE—
To think it was possible to haul these enormous logs along with a body that was now only slightly sturdier than average.
'This is insane, insane. I'll never get beaten up anywhere I go.'
He had no plans to go anywhere, but such was the mindset of a boy who had always put his own safety first.
As they walked on, Namgung Baek pointed at a spot a fair distance from the Thunder Tree Forest.
"That's the territory of the Blood-Armored Centipede we saw earlier. There are tons of small ones too, you know?"
"Ugh......"
Unlike the Thunder Tree Forest, it was ground covered entirely in boulders and gravel, land that at a glance looked like nothing but a heap of stones.
Of course, hearing that it was the home of the nausea-inducing centipede he had just seen made it look different.
That was hell right there. What other hell did a man need?
"I'm absolutely never going."
"Haha! You really might faint, Sparkles. Put a foot wrong and dozens of them come skittering right up your leg!"
"Blergh. If I collapse, you have to save me. You really do."
"Hehe."
"......Elder Namgung?"
Namgung Baek cruelly gave no firm answer.
He only said that there was rarely any reason to go into their territory, which was the sort of thing that made a person uneasy just to hear.
He learned a fair number of things on the reasonably uneventful walk home.
That giant centipede called the Blood-Armored Centipede.
And the flying squirrel that had used him as a cat tower out of nowhere, the Heavenly Thunder Flying Squirrel.
They were all spirit beasts, each holding its own territory.
There were said to be such spirit beasts to the east and to the north of the old men's house as well.
Seen across the whole of the Bottomless Abyss, their dwelling sat dead in the middle of four spirit beasts' territories.
'I can't tell whether that's prime real estate or garbage.'
Location mattered so much for property value!
So thought Jeong I-shin, who was living off Gongheon's hut.
By the time they had come close enough to make out the clearing and the huts dimly.
Namgung Baek came up beside him, matched his pace, and asked in an insinuating tone.
"Sparkles, what did you think of the Blood-Armored Centipede back there?"
"Exactly what you saw, wasn't it? I nearly fainted, that's all."
"So if you fought it, you'd have to hit that shell with your fists, wouldn't you?"
"......Sorry? Why would I fight it?"
"The situation just worked out that way. No, I made you fight it. So imagine it."
"......"
The words were so out of nowhere that he could not even think to argue, and simply did as Namgung Baek said.
'Why am I fighting that thing? No, well......'
Punching that dark red exoskeleton?
That hideous thing he could not even be sure was made of chitin?
"Urk......"
"Ahaha! Is it that bad?"
"......I can't fight it, ah! The Space-Crossing Palm! Couldn't I hit it with the Space-Crossing Palm?"
"No good! If you hit it with the Space-Crossing Palm, it would burst and all its innards and juices would come raining down."
"Urgh......"
Why on earth do I have to imagine this?
Surely he doesn't actually mean to make me fight it?
No, is this how martial artists amuse themselves?
He was looking at Namgung Baek with eyes that were on the verge of forming a prejudice about martial artists when it happened.
Namgung Baek stepped quickly ahead, put his back to the clearing visible in the distance, and tapped his own waist.
"A sword."
"......Sorry?"
"What if it were a sword? If you just cut through those segments, wouldn't you be able to kill the thing very, very cleanly?"
"Oooh?"
"Which means? It means you wouldn't even have to lay a hand on that disgusting thing, Sparkles!"
"Oooh!"
"And what is it that makes that possible?"
"A sword!"
"Hehe. Let's go."
***
Right after Namgung Baek and Jeong I-shin left for the Thunder Tree Forest.
Three old men gathered in the center of the clearing.
Because Jeong I-shin had smashed two chairs, one of them had to stand.
Gongheon, who had taught Jeong I-shin the Space-Crossing Palm, said,
"Ahem. Please, be seated."
"Indeed, you are the sturdiest of us, sham monk, so that is only right."
"......"
Tang Mu-jeong sat down in Gongheon's chair at once.
Yeo Hwi, who took a seat after him while watching the mood, cleared his throat.
"Ahem! In any case, that child I-shin surpasses our expectations in every respect."
Gongheon and Tang Mu-jeong, who had been staring at the shattered chairs, nodded.
"In every respect...... quite literally. There is not one thing about him we can predict."
"The boy is nothing but questions. In truth, it was so from the moment he appeared. I still find it hard to believe your account, sham monk."
"......Amitabha."
Jeong I-shin was a boy Gongheon had picked up while patrolling outside the dwelling.
Collapsed somewhere in the Bottomless Abyss, he said.
Not that Tang Mu-jeong doubted Gongheon's word.
It was simply that hard to believe.
"Is it not so? This is the Bottomless Abyss, thousands of jang in sheer height. Currents of qi even we cannot predict, and every manner of spirit beast crawling about besides."
"......"
"That his body was intact at all makes no sense to begin with. Not unless he was born here."
"That makes even less sense, Benefactor Tang."
Tang Mu-jeong drew a cloth from his robes and began wiping the very fine needles that had at some point appeared in his hand.
It was his habit when making a weighty decision, or when deep in thought.
When he had wiped some three needles, Tang Mu-jeong spoke to Yeo Hwi.
"The Bottomless Abyss. Even the Demonic Cult's Soul-Shrouding Pursuit Corps calls off pursuit of anyone who falls into the Bottomless Abyss, and Deathshroud likewise rules any target that falls into the Bottomless Abyss as killed. Is that not so?"
"......Hm? Y-yes, that is so."
"Even granting that we fell here through that damned bastard's scheming...... does it make any sense that a fifteen-year-old boy fell into the Bottomless Abyss with his body whole?"
Tang Mu-jeong put the needles away again and rose from his seat.
Standing before the wooden chair Jeong I-shin had broken, he said,
"I acknowledge the talent. Yes, he was overwhelming compared to every one of those who begged to be taken as my disciple. And on top of that, he takes lightning as true qi and wields it? I have never even heard of such a thing."
"It must be without precedent. Even the Violet Lightning Demonic Qi of the Demonic Thunder Geum Clan is an energy closer to demonic qi than to lightning qi."
"Just so. Even accounting for the merits of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture, it is hard to accept."
Yeo Hwi, who had risen quietly along with Tang Mu-jeong, took up the thread.
"It would be fair to call it a Heavenly Thunder Physique."
"......That would make sense."
Tang Mu-jeong nodded slowly, then bent down.
Picking up one wooden fragment of the chair Jeong I-shin had broken, he looked at Gongheon.
"Sham monk, I know your intent. Bewitched by that brilliant talent, you hoped I would offer up what is mine."
"That is not—"
"There is nothing preventing it. It was not some grand cause that kept me from taking a disciple. There simply was never anyone who satisfied my eye."
"......!"
"Yes, I could teach him. But it would never be with a true heart."
TAP—
Tang Mu-jeong rolled the fragment in his hand a couple of times, tossed it to the ground, and sat down in the chair again.
He looked back and forth between Gongheon and the broken chair, then closed his eyes and said,
"I am not a man capable of trusting another wholly, as you are."
"......Benefactor Tang."
When Gongheon had stared at the fragment Tang Mu-jeong had thrown down for a long while, Yeo Hwi carefully patted his shoulder.
"Sir."
"......Yes, Benefactor Yeo."
"In truth I am the same, and so, I expect, is Baek. We certainly saw the power of the lightning and the heart of a child who gave it up. But...... this is a different matter."
"The child has taken in the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture. He would never hold a wrongful heart......"
"I know that. It is simply...... that the problem lies in our own hearts."
We have been shut in the Bottomless Abyss in this state for well over a decade; would it be strange if our hearts had sickened?
Yeo Hwi swallowed the words he could not bring himself to say and let out a long sigh.
Who could fail to understand Gongheon's heart?
It was the first life to appear in more than a decade.
And a life burning very fiercely, at that.
'For one who walks the path of the martial, how could his eyes not be drawn?'
In fact, even if the boy had been said to possess no martial talent, all their attention would have gone to him.
The problem, as said before, lay in their hearts.
The four old men had been betrayed by one they trusted and cast down into this Bottomless Abyss.
For them, it was simply impossible to think of Jeong I-shin, who had appeared without warning, as separate from that man.
In the end, it was a question of trust.
"......I never meant that the benefactors should hand over their studies."
Gongheon spoke quietly and made a single-palm salute.
He raised his right hand before his chest and recited a prayer.
"Amitabha. I believed him to be the hope that would sweep away the demonic path hanging over the Central Plains. I thought that light had to be protected, and so I sought the benefactors' help in creating a mind art."
"......"
"It was the greed of a foolish man. My thinking was shallow. Before we are martial artists, we are all human beings. I am sorry, Benefactor Yeo. I am sorry, Benefactor Tang."
Gongheon bent that great body until it nearly touched the ground.
Yeo Hwi shook his head with a bitter smile, and Tang Mu-jeong clicked his tongue and turned his head away.
And into Tang Mu-jeong's gaze, turned aside that way, came a most unfamiliar sight.
SCRAAAPE—
Jeong I-shin dragging along logs that were less large than colossal, and Namgung Baek looking pleased for some reason.
In particular, the state of Jeong I-shin as he approached the clearing panting was different from when he had set out.
Tang Mu-jeong found himself checking Gongheon's expression.
Sure enough, Gongheon no longer wore the face that had been sunk in deep sorrow a moment ago.
An expression one might well call sour, somehow.
He did not know the reason. What was clear was that Gongheon's gaze was fixed on Jeong I-shin's waist.
SCRAAAPE—!
Jeong I-shin, having finally dragged those enormous logs all the way to the center of the clearing, said,
"I'm back!"
"Y-yes. You have worked hard. But that...... what is that?"
At Gongheon's question, Jeong I-shin smiled brightly.
And then, with perfect naturalness, he pulled a pitch-black wooden stick from his waist and shouted,
"I've decided to learn the sword!"
"Th-the sword?"
"Yes! Elder Namgung said that with the Azure Sky...... Azure Sky something Sword Technique, a centipede would be done for in a single strike."
Ah, and if you're wondering why a centipede came up all of a sudden, we ran into a filthy, disgusting centipede in front of the Thunder Tree Forest!
Jeong I-shin's explanation, delivered with his arms swinging wildly this way and that, did not reach the three old men's ears.
The three of them glared at Namgung Baek all at once, as if by prior arrangement.
The answer that came back was plain.
"Hehe."
This bastard?
***
Night comes even to the Bottomless Abyss, buried far below the great canyon.
Because of the thick fog the light was always fainter than a firefly's, but once the sun went down there was not even that.
FWOOSH—
Watching the flames rise in the center of the clearing, Tang Mu-jeong growled.
"Sword Ghost......! What in the world are you thinking?"
"Hm? Right now all I'm thinking about is going to sleep. Haaaah......"
"You mad bastard!"
Yeo Hwi threw one of the logs Jeong I-shin had split that day into the flames.
The shadows of Tang Mu-jeong and Namgung Baek swayed hugely in the firelight.
"Mad for the sword as you are, I thought you could still tell sense from nonsense. You of all people cannot fail to know what it means for someone to appear in the Bottomless Abyss with his body intact!"
"Heh heh. And what does it mean?"
"Sword Ghost! I am not playing games!"
"Don't tell me you still think the Heaven-Forsaker sent him? After we've already spent more than seven days and nights with him?"
"Namgung Baek! I believe I told you never to bring up that name in front of me......!"
Heh heh.
With a face Jeong I-shin would have made a fuss about calling cold, Namgung Baek said,
"I won't give you the obvious line about how you're not the only one who was betrayed. But Mu-jeong, you......"
Namgung Baek, who had been rocking his body this way and that in his newly made chair, stopped moving all at once.
The look in his eyes as he gazed at Tang Mu-jeong had settled low.
"You still haven't gotten out of it. Pull yourself together, would you? I thought you'd gotten a bit better while we were saving Sparkles, but, hm."
"......"
"Ah, Yeo Hwi, the same goes for you. I hope you realize it as soon as you can. How much longer are we going to live, after all?"
"......"
No answer came back to Namgung Baek's words.
He sighed deeply as though he had expected as much, and shook his head.
"Haah, neither of you has really looked at Sparkles yet. That kid isn't a vessel that bastard could dare lay a hand on."
Namgung Baek rose from his seat and brushed off his martial arts uniform.
Then, wearing his usual light smile, he said,
"It'll be too late to regret it later. Five years. Five years at the least, he's mine. Don't even think about touching him."