"They say children become adults in the blink of an eye...... and it's true!"
"Benefactor Namgung. Enough of your senile talk. It seems the time has come for you to admit it."
"I won't! I'm not going to!"
Namgung Baek sprawled across his chair and threw a tantrum.
"I said he was mine for at least five years!"
"No one ever agreed to that. You alone declared it."
"That this humble monk has followed Benefactor Namgung's word this past year was...... out of respect for the Hegemon Blade. Yet it seems even a peerless swordsman could not make possible what is impossible."
Contrary to his words, a faint smile sat on Gongheon's face as he made a single-palm salute.
He was beaming at the thought of resuming sparring with Jeong I-shin and teaching him the Tathagata Divine Palm.
That feeling soon bled into his voice.
"Never mind five years, in a single year you have been stripped entirely of...... no, and I hear that for half of it you were dragging in things other than Benefactor Namgung's sword?"
At that gentle question Namgung Baek let out a shriek.
"Nggh! No! How is he supposed to unfold any proper sword intent when he can't refine true qi suited to sword arts in the first place?!"
"Heh heh. That is precisely why I argued early on that we must create an inner arts mind method."
"......"
Gongheon was right.
Namgung Baek's tutelage, declared to last five years, had met its limit at the one-year mark.
Lately he had been reduced to teaching material he himself considered miscellaneous skills.
'I had intended to teach only the Sword as Martial Ultimate Form......'
The sword forms Namgung Baek had spent his whole life writing down.
The Sword as Martial Ultimate Form was the compendium of all ten thousand swords, so he had thought it would be sufficient and then some.
But he had failed.
'......The Sword as Martial Ultimate Form must ultimately be built on Namgung's mind art too. Without refining the Azure Heaven Qi, it means nothing.'
So he had drawn out every sword drifting through his head.
He carved hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of forms into Jeong I-shin's body.
Yes, forms and nothing more.
A sect's martial arts are designed on the premise that they will be operated with that sect's mind method.
Therefore, if they are not operated with the proper true qi, the true meaning of the martial art cannot be unfolded.
And when the true meaning is stripped from a higher martial art, what remains in the end is only a shell.
The forms Jeong I-shin had learned were exactly that shell.
In the end the problem lay in Jeong I-shin's inability to refine any of the true qi.
"......To think he can withstand no true qi at all."
They had tried teaching him inner arts mind methods, and tried injecting the true qi suited to each sword art directly.
But not one kind of true qi could take root in Jeong I-shin's qi center.
No — it could not even approach the qi center to begin with. All of it was devoured by the lightning circling his heart.
And the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture, the only thing lying in the qi center, showed little interest in new energies.
"If the lightning is to serve the role of a middle qi center, then it ought to bolster the true qi."
That was where the lightning circling Jeong I-shin's heart differed from an ordinary middle qi center.
The lightning rejected martial arts with utter coldness.
As though asking why it should follow rules that others had set.
As though those martial arts were far too paltry.
It only circled the heart with a low whirring and scoffed.
'......That's what it says, apparently. Heh heh.'
That was all Jeong I-shin's account of it, of course.
Namgung Baek wore a bitter smile.
"......It would be nice if Sparkles were just a little more assertive. His sparkles listen to Sparkles, after all."
"Ho ho! That is exactly the part Benefactor Namgung has missed. I-shin is a child whose dream is to learn the Tathagata Divine Palm. The true qi already settled in his qi center proves it."
"Ha! Now that is what I call ignorance!"
Namgung Baek shot to his feet and thrust his waist forward.
A pitch-black wooden sword dangled there.
Unlike Jeong I-shin's, it was a rough, knobbly thing, not perfectly straight.
But Namgung Baek stroked it carefully, as though it were unbearably precious, and said,
"Look! This is a wooden sword Sparkles carved himself and gave to me as thanks. And what have you got, Gongheon? Did he carve you a wooden fish? Ahahaha!"
"A—mitabha!"
Yeo Hwi, who had been watching two old men wage a war of nerves that made a mockery of their years, let out a sigh.
He had mediated between these two for many long years, and there was no progress whatsoever.
Had the discussion not once again wandered clean off the point?
Yeo Hwi shook his head and drew the matter together.
"So in the end, Baek, you mean that you agree with Sir Gongheon."
"Huh? I do?"
"Was that not your point — that to teach sword arts properly, an inner arts mind method is required?"
"That's right?"
"......"
While Yeo Hwi slapped a hand to his forehead, Gongheon spoke.
"In truth, with I-shin's present inner arts he could hardly unfold even a third-rate martial art properly. The quantity is woefully small."
Gongheon still held the view that the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture alone was not enough.
Qi accumulation was the foundation of any mind art, and his was not running smoothly.
At this rate, neither the hand arts encompassing all of Gongheon's studies nor the Sword as Martial Ultimate Form that Namgung Baek was reworking would mean anything.
What use is a signature technique that shakes the heavens when there are no inner arts to unfold it with?
In the end, the lightning circling Jeong I-shin's heart had to be dealt with.
They had to find a way for it to be accumulated in the qi center as still greater true qi by borrowing the lightning's power, the way a true middle qi center functioned.
"If only that could be done, there would be nothing more to ask for. Azure Heaven Qi holding lightning in it!"
"It must be woven into a divine art. One that becomes a vessel able to unfold both this humble monk's hand arts and Benefactor Namgung's sword arts."
"......The two of you can settle that between yourselves. Either way, I-shin handling the lightning comes first."
At Yeo Hwi's practiced conclusion, Namgung Baek waved his hand. It was a one-armed man's applause.
"That's exactly it! Though I have no idea how he's supposed to handle lightning wrapped around his heart!"
"I do not know whether it is a lack of ability or a lack of will. At a glance he appears to have no interest in inner arts whatsoever. It is a problem that will resolve as he advances as a martial artist, but...... it seems it will take a fair amount of time."
"Well, we have a divine art to create ourselves, so that is fine. Neither is a thing to be done overnight."
***
"Waaaah!"
CLAAANG!
A wooden sword swung along with a scream. But the sound that rang out was one that should never have rung out.
Jeong I-shin could not tell whether what he had struck was a spider's leg or a lump of iron.
At that, as if to give him the answer, the Human-Faced Spider swung a blackened leg.
SHRRRK!
"It's a leg!! Blergh......!"
Seen up close it was thick with fine hairs, and his stomach turned over.
He dry-heaved and lowered his head, and along the streak of light that flashed over his head the surrounding trees toppled in a rustling cascade.
"Whoa! Sharper than a scyth...... urk!"
"You witless thing! Stop retching and fall back!"
Tang Mu-jeong, having confirmed the Human-Faced Spider, drew a dagger and shouted.
Whether the bug with his own face studded across its body did not disgust him at all, Tang Mu-jeong kicked off the ground at once and closed the distance.
SLASH!
KRRRIK!
Every time light flashed, deep green fluid sprayed.
Tang Mu-jeong moved so uncannily that one had to wonder whether he was truly the same old man who grumbled every day.
Not one of the legs the Human-Faced Spider swung reached Tang Mu-jeong.
The fight was plainly one-sided.
Yet Jeong I-shin did not take his eyes off Tang Mu-jeong, even at the cost of enduring the ordeal of holding that monstrosity in his sight.
There was something Gongheon had once told him.
'......Benefactor Tang is a man whose heart is wounded. Every person lives carrying some pain of their own, but a wound inflicted by another person cuts colder than anything, does it not?'
Yeo Hwi had said something similar.
'Do not be hurt that Mu-jeong is heartless. ......Was that not funny? My apologies. In truth he has the softest insides of any of us. I-shin, I hope you will not come to hate Mu-jeong too much. Though with a temperament as easygoing as yours, that seems unlikely.'
Come to think of it, there had been Namgung Baek's words too.
'Mu-jeong is the weakest of us, so you have to look after him properly, Sparkles!'
Naturally, in Jeong I-shin's head, the old man called Tang Mu-jeong had come to be sketched as something like a prickly sunfish.
'One should respect one's elders.'
Of course, sunfish or not, it was obvious that Tang Mu-jeong was a tremendous master, so he had no intention of butting in and getting in the way.
Tang Mu-jeong was already slicing the Human-Faced Spider apart the way a fishmonger fillets a catch.
It was a moment when, barring some new variable, a comfortable victory was expected.
SKKKSH!
Suddenly the unexpected occurred.
It began deep inside the White Silk Web Forest.
As though a pitch-black wave were rolling in, he saw a wall approaching, shoving the dim light aside.
"O-old sir!"
Tang Mu-jeong found an opening even while dodging the spider's legs, and answered Jeong I-shin at once.
"The young! Damn it, quiet for a while and now it has committed itself entirely. Fall back this instant!"
"The young?!"
SKKKKSH!
Perhaps because the distance had closed a little more in the meantime, or perhaps because Tang Mu-jeong had told him what it was.
Jeong I-shin could now see the pitch-black wall properly.
The wall, easily dozens of meters across, was a swarm of spiderlings each the size of a human head.
"......Hsss."
Jeong I-shin fell into thought.
Tang Mu-jeong had told him to fall back, so falling back was all there was to it.
Those were the words of a master he could not even be compared to. It was only right to obey.
Jeong I-shin most despised the sort of development where a nobody stubbornly held his ground and became a shackle on the people around him. And right now, the nobody was him.
'......So why does it feel like I shouldn't just fall back?'
He could not make sense of it himself.
It did not seem that Tang Mu-jeong would sacrifice himself in his place, nor that the old man would fail to get out if he withdrew first.
That strange sensation he could not put into words scraped gently at his brain.
'Hmmmm!'
He was so deep in thought that he did not even notice Tang Mu-jeong reaching him and seizing him by the scruff of the neck!
"Blergh!"
"You daaaead weight! I told you to fall back at once!"
"Kek! Sorry!"
The old man was strong.
So getting out first really would have been the helpful thing after all?
Held fast by Tang Mu-jeong, he retraced their path back through the forest.
But no matter how far they ran, the forest did not end.
Tang Mu-jeong looked around and clicked his tongue.
"Tsk. A mere vermin, and it pulls the most ridiculous tricks. Boy, dodge on your own."
"Sorry?"
Tang Mu-jeong stopped walking and tossed Jeong I-shin roughly to the ground.
He rolled twice and raised himself, and all four sides were black. They were surrounded by black walls on every face.
There was no need to belabor it. They were trapped.
SSSSSH!
The tens of thousands of spiders surrounding the two of them made a skin-crawling noise.
At the same time black smoke began to rise. It looked suspicious at a glance.
Jeong I-shin immediately covered his mouth with his sleeve, but in the end he had no choice but to breathe the smoke.
"Cough! Cough! Cou...... oh, I'm fine?"
Jeong I-shin lowered his hand sheepishly.
HUMMM!
The black smoke was annihilated the instant it entered his body, by lightning qi loosed from the lightning circling his heart.
His throat stung a little, but there was nothing else wrong with his body.
Only then did he remember the old man he had resolved to respect.
"Ah, Elder Tang!"
A blurred shape was visible beyond the black mist.
What greeted Jeong I-shin as he ran over was.
"Tsk."
An exceedingly familiar click of the tongue.
Whether he had forgotten the situation he was in, Tang Mu-jeong was wiping his dagger at complete leisure.
"I cannot understand why those half-wits are so fixated on you. Perhaps it is because you are half-witted too."
"......Sorry? No, why the sudden abuse......"
At the pure abuse that came in out of nowhere, Jeong I-shin blinked.
"To save you, all four of us burned half of the true qi we had left. Men whose qi centers are cracked and who can hardly accumulate anything. That true qi was the only thing barely holding our wrecked bodies together."
"......"
"I am not blaming you, of course. That would be truly laughable. It is not as though you asked for it."
Jeong I-shin hurriedly grabbed his own jaw before it could nod on its own.
Tang Mu-jeong let out a hollow laugh and shook his head.
Then he looked at Jeong I-shin, and his eye was deeply gloomy.
The air about him was as though he had become a different person in a single moment.
"I said you would be the key to leaving this place...... but that too is nothing more than a thing with no appointed day."
SKKKSH!
"Martial talent this, lightning that...... they are all overlooking the most important thing. Or are they pretending not to know on purpose?"
KRRRIK!
The Human-Faced Spider pushed its head in through the black smoke. The thing was wearing Tang Mu-jeong's face, grotesquely warped.
But Tang Mu-jeong, as though even that did not interest him, went on saying only what he meant to say.
"In that future, we shall not be there. Then what in the world is it that those fellows are looking at? Are they truly hanging their hopes on you for the sake of murim's impossible peace? ......Kuh!"
"Old sir!"
Tang Mu-jeong, who had been muttering to himself like a madman, abruptly vomited a mouthful of blood.
He knocked away Jeong I-shin's hand as the boy tried to support him and wiped his own mouth.
"Poison? Ridiculous! Since when does a mere vermin use poison on me? Kuh!"
BOOOM—
For an instant a formless wave of qi burst outward with Tang Mu-jeong at its origin.
The black smoke drew back as if it had never been there. But Tang Mu-jeong's state was unchanged.
"Uh, uh, the bleeding isn't stopping!"
"Silence, boy!"
Tang Mu-jeong wiped his mouth again and glared.
"Boooy!!!"
"Y-yes!"
"Are you truly a boy worth all this?"
"Sorry?"
"Are those fellows who mean to forge you into a blade truly in the right? Can such words still be spoken after seeing that ragged martial art of yours, which knows no sword intent and chases nothing but form?"
At that shout Jeong I-shin nodded deeply.
'He's lost his mind.'
Namgung Baek of the crystal-clear eyes was merely an ordinary man.
So this was what the eyes of a truly deranged person looked like!
Jeong I-shin could not understand a single thing Tang Mu-jeong was saying.
"Ha...... if you are worth it, then fine, I shall give you everything I have! I shall give you everything the Hell King has and beg you! To bury that son of a bitch in hell!"
"Uh...... isn't the Hell King the king of hell?"
"Silence! Kuh!"
Having roared at Jeong I-shin, Tang Mu-jeong turned and walked toward the Human-Faced Spider.
But as Tang Mu-jeong advanced, the wall retreated by exactly as much.
If he went sideways it withdrew sideways; if he went backward it withdrew backward.
He understood the Human-Faced Spider's intent. The thing meant to wait until Tang Mu-jeong collapsed.
There was no chance Tang Mu-jeong had failed to notice what Jeong I-shin had noticed.
"Ha! ......Jeong I-shin."
Tang Mu-jeong scoffed and called him quietly.
The man who had always said this boy, that boy, called Jeong I-shin by his proper name for the first time.
And his voice was distinctly different from a moment ago.
Somehow the look in his eye seemed to have returned to normal as well.
"Oh! Are you all right now?"
"......We shall talk once we are back. I cannot become a cripple who folds his hands and waits for death when there is a possibility."
As Tang Mu-jeong said it, a dark green energy began to ripple above his shoulders.
An energy utterly unlike Namgung Baek's.
Yet an energy mighty enough to stand comparison with it.
For an instant, Tang Mu-jeong felt enormous.
At the word "back," the question of "how" did not even occur to him.
'Qi.'
A strange stirring rose deep in Jeong I-shin's heart.
So there was a power that could make even an old man drifting in and out with age stand so wholly upright.
Jeong I-shin was not ignorant of qi either.
Even now the presence of the lightning circling his heart and of the less-than-a-handful of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture was exceedingly distinct.
He also knew, as Tang Mu-jeong had said, that he was only imitating the forms of the sword.
He had copied the outward shape and nothing more. Because that had been very easy.
Qi, on the other hand, was...... how to put it, not a self-evident thing for Jeong I-shin.
However familiar he acted, it was unknown to him, and so there was a vague fear in it.
Even now he was on distant terms with the things inside him.
Like a guest who had never been invited had planted himself in the house?
At that moment.
'Huh? The house?'
Jeong I-shin, who had been a good-natured landlord, abruptly realized it.
'This is my house, isn't it? Then...... can't I do whatever I want with it?'
A realization — an awareness too embarrassing to be called an insight.
But even that was enough.
Indeed, come to think of it, the things coiled in his chest and his qi center had never once defied Jeong I-shin's word. They had responded at once even to an unconscious summons.
It was simply that Jeong I-shin himself had found them awkward and looked away.
'Move.'
So Jeong I-shin quietly conveyed his intent.
'......No complaints?'
And then, as though that had been the only thing lacking.
No — as though it had been waiting for exactly this.
HUMMM!
From the fiercely rotating lightning, a single thread-like strand of energy flowed out and touched the qi center.
And the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture answered it.
RUMBLE—!
As the two energies mixed, they became grand true qi holding lightning within it and rose up.
Jeong I-shin instinctively gripped his wooden sword. Coming out of his own inner world, he saw the back of Tang Mu-jeong's head as the old man stepped toward the Human-Faced Spider.
There was no time to hesitate.
"Look out!"
"......Hm?"
Above the head of Tang Mu-jeong, who had been about to kick off the ground, a pure white light flared.
KABOOOOM—!