"Can you get up?"
"Yes."
"Then follow me out."
Jeong I-shin's eyes narrowed at the sight of Tang Mu-jeong's back as the old man left the hut.
'They say a person changing greatly overnight is not a good sign.'
He could not adjust at all to a Tang Mu-jeong this gentle.
It seemed the man must have been through something truly harsh after he fainted.
'I had better talk to Monk Gongheon.'
When he followed Tang Mu-jeong out into the clearing, a familiar scene greeted him.
Namgung Baek swinging a sword and Gongheon swinging his fists.
And Yeo Hwi watching them from a step behind.
This too was rather funny: when he had first begun living here, his eyes had naturally gone to Namgung Baek and Gongheon, but at some point Yeo Hwi, who did nothing at all, had become the one who stood out more.
That was so even though his clothes — a black martial arts uniform under a black outer robe — made him hard to see.
Perhaps it was because he always stood in the same place, behind everyone.
Even now Yeo Hwi was the first to notice Tang Mu-jeong and Jeong I-shin, and he waved.
"Oh, you are already up and moving? That is a great relief."
"Do not get me started. He was slapping his own cheek."
"......?"
Jeong I-shin failed to correct Tang Mu-jeong and only smiled awkwardly.
Soon Namgung Baek and Gongheon came over.
"Sparkles! Is your body all right?"
"Yes, thank you for worrying about me."
"So, that sword Mu-jeong says he saw — could I see it too?"
"Amitabha! Benefactor Namgung, do not say such things! How can you make so outrageous a request of a patient who has only just risen?"
At the sharp rebuke Namgung Baek stuck out his lip, and Gongheon patted Jeong I-shin's shoulder and said,
"In any case, I-shin must weave the Thunder-Severing Myriad Transformation Hand together with this humble monk, so he cannot grant Benefactor Namgung's request."
"......I must?"
Why were there so many affairs of his own that he did not know about, in a Bottomless Abyss where a grand total of five people lived?
'I'd do it if you just asked, so why does everything about me seem to get decided behind my back?'
And the two venerable old men proceeded to demonstrate the reason in person.
"Nonsense! Sparkles is going to make the Sword as Martial Ultimate Form with me!"
"Haha. To this humble monk's eyes it is Benefactor Namgung's words that sound like nonsense. This is a child who suffered true qi exhaustion because of swordsmanship. A wholly different accident from when he used the Space-Crossing Palm. Now at last I understand why I-shin has been reluctant to circulate true qi!"
"That is......!"
"What laid the foundation of his body was likewise a divine art of Shaolin, so in the end one must begin with what is most familiar. I believe I told you that I-shin's dream is to learn the Tathagata Divine Palm?"
'My dream?'
Jeong I-shin swallowed his words again and looked to the other two old men.
Yeo Hwi was adding remarks here and there as usual, keeping the conversation balanced, and Tang Mu-jeong was......
'Hm?'
Tang Mu-jeong, who had been quietly listening to Gongheon and Namgung Baek, suddenly came over.
He took Jeong I-shin's wrist and said,
"The Sword Ghost taught him for a year, did he not?"
"......?"
"Then I shall teach this boy for the coming year."
The clearing sank into silence.
Not one of them could open his mouth; they only blinked.
Even Yeo Hwi wore the expression of a man asking what he had just heard.
The first to come to his senses was Namgung Baek.
"You, Mu-jeong...... you're saying you'll teach Sparkles?"
"Yes. I have no intention of talking absurdly of five years the way you did. A year is enough to teach the basics."
"N-no. Even so, all of a sudden......"
At Tang Mu-jeong's utterly composed answer, Namgung Baek's spirit broke.
The place he turned for help was, absurdly, Gongheon.
'Gongheon! Are you going to let Sparkles be taken like this? We were first, remember!'
There had never been any right of first claim to begin with, of course, but his lips moved to that effect.
Gongheon agreed wholeheartedly and tried to persuade Tang Mu-jeong.
"Benefactor Tang, this is not a matter to decide so simply. As you know, the martial art we are creating now is far from ordinary. It is not that a mental image sprouts and true qi follows it. It is the reverse."
"Yes. It is the work of wringing out a martial art in reverse, starting from a true qi called lightning."
"......Yes, so—"
"Which means this boy's help will be needed. Especially in creating the mind art."
Gongheon and Namgung Baek nodded at the same time.
Tang Mu-jeong lifted the arm of Jeong I-shin, which he was still holding, and flapped it about.
"That part, this one will handle."
"Benefactor Tang!"
"Mu-jeong! What we need is not a simple mind art! We have to make a divine art that will bring together my magnificent Sword as Martial Ultimate Form and Gongheon's so-so hand arts!"
"A—mitabha! Benefactor Namgung!"
Like a brushfire spreading on a spring wind, the old men's voices rose in an instant.
Tang Mu-jeong immediately put Jeong I-shin forward and dammed that current.
"Listen properly. I said this one will handle it, not I."
"......Do you mean I-shin will create it?"
"I intend to help him."
"Even so......"
At Gongheon's deflated response, Tang Mu-jeong spoke with an exceedingly grave expression.
"You have spent over a year together, so by now the two of you must know it as well. That in this boy's genius, insight accounts for an extremely, extremely small portion."
At those words, delivered while meeting each of their eyes in turn, not one of them could speak.
'......Hm? What does that mean?'
Jeong I-shin was the same.
"Mmm......"
A trio of very deep groans settled over the clearing.
Tang Mu-jeong pointed at Namgung Baek as though driving in a wedge and asked,
"How long did it take this boy to unfold the Great Brahma Heaven Demon-Sweeping Three Swords?"
"Gah! How do you know I taught him that......?"
"Setting aside Namgung's sword, it is the sword you have used most often, so of course you taught it. Now, answer me, Sword Ghost. Just how long did it take?"
The Great Brahma Heaven Demon-Sweeping Three Swords.
It was a name that existed in Jeong I-shin's memory too.
'That was a sword with a very clean flavor to it.'
Even unfolding nothing but the form, he had been able to taste something remarkably clear.
The time it took to learn it was...... well, it did not feel like it had taken very long?
Namgung Baek looked into Jeong I-shin's eyes for a long while, then finally lowered his head.
"......Take good care of Sparkles."
"Elder Namgung?"
Namgung Baek avoided Jeong I-shin's eyes.
In the end, what remained was Gongheon.
Perhaps pitying the sight of him still muttering Tathagata Divine Palm, Tathagata Divine Palm, Tang Mu-jeong talked him around.
"Sham monk, do not be too disappointed. If anything, this one year will make your own teaching easier later."
"Mmm......"
"This boy is not stupid. He simply knows nothing."
Jeong I-shin, who had been listening quietly, turned his head.
"Insight too needs a foundation before even a fragment of it can be glimpsed, and it seems that in this boy's case all of it burned away when he was struck by lightning."
"Elder Tang......?"
"Do you know what this boy said when I told him to tell me what he knew about jianghu?"
Everyone's eyes came to rest on Tang Mu-jeong.
Just as Jeong I-shin had not asked about the four old men, they too had never asked about Jeong I-shin's past.
What Tang Mu-jeong was saying now was a conversation they had shared just before stepping out of the hut.
"The Nine Sects One Gang, the Five Great Clans, and the Heavenly Demon, apparently."
Amid a silence that was familiar by now, Jeong I-shin alone tilted his head.
And what about it?
***
The Eight Great Orthodox Clans.
The Eight Clans, they were called.
"Huh? Not the Five Great Clans?"
"......No. Had you said that in an inn, it would have been quite the spectacle."
"Why is that?"
The hut was full of a bitter, grassy scent.
Jeong I-shin was receiving private tutoring from Tang Mu-jeong.
Tang Mu-jeong let out a deep sigh and said,
"There would have been an uproar over which five clans you meant. And the three clans that did not come out of your mouth would become that inn's drinking snack for the evening."
"Isn't that a good thing? Free snacks and all."
"And if your luck is foul, you pay for those snacks with your neck."
"Ah, that's a bit much."
At Jeong I-shin's cheerful answer, Tang Mu-jeong tilted his head.
'Was my judgment wrong? I took the problem to be memories lost to the lightning.'
Was he really just stupid after all?
The thought crossed his mind, but Tang Mu-jeong shook his head.
'Impossible. Martial learning is learning all the same.'
That there was no inheritor of the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture apart from Gongheon was partly because the physical conditions required for entry were absurd, but also because an ordinary man could not comprehend its teachings.
Great Master Bodhidharma.
The Scripture was the teaching of the man who could be called the progenitor of orthodox-lineage martial arts in the Central Plains.
That Jeong I-shin, who was not even a monk, had taken it in so easily meant the boy's insight ran a course apart from ordinary people's.
'He is simply ignorant of jianghu. I need only fill it in.'
Studying the boy's face, he showed no particular fear at the mention of losing his neck.
Tang Mu-jeong went on speaking while considering the direction of his teaching.
"Of course, a power on the level of the Eight Clans values face above gold, so they might settle it with the loss of one arm."
"Ooh......"
"Though if you were of the unorthodox and heretical, your neck would come off at once."
"I see."
Jeong I-shin nodded deeply.
He did not know what had prompted it, but Tang Mu-jeong's stories were exceedingly interesting.
'Human rights seem to be absolutely in the gutter here, but well...... it's murim!'
After that Tang Mu-jeong asked question after question, as if testing Jeong I-shin.
"You said you know the Nine Sects One Gang. Recite them for me."
"Shaolin! Mount Hua! Wudang!"
"......?"
"And there are six other sects."
"......Yes, at least you know Shaolin."
Tang Mu-jeong, about to move on, tilted his head.
"And the Beggar's Gang?"
"The Beggar's Gang is an intelligence organization! Isn't it a gathering of beggars?"
"......The one gang of the Nine Sects One Gang refers to that Beggar's Gang."
"Oh."
The conversation continued after that.
Jeong I-shin had said Five Great Clans with such confidence, yet even of those the only ones he knew were the Namgung Clan, the Sichuan Tang Clan, and the Jaegal Clan.
So Tang Mu-jeong could not understand why on earth Jeong I-shin had claimed to know the Nine Sects One Gang and the Five Great Clans.
And Jeong I-shin realized that he knew even less about murim than he had thought.
Even so, the most important content came last.
"The orthodox murim was defeated."
"......You said it was a demonic dominion."
"Yes. Though that does not mean the roots of the orthodox have all been torn out."
Apart from the Kunlun Sect, the remaining nine sects were intact, and the Eight Clans, though somewhat reduced in power, had not fallen. It was simply a world where demonic practitioners walked about openly leaking demonic qi.
It was a situation Jeong I-shin could not begin to picture.
"And all of this was decades ago, so there is no telling how it has changed by now. Nine sects or whatever else, they may all have been wrecked by that man's hand."
With that hollow murmur, which he could hardly bring himself to question, Tang Mu-jeong's first lesson ended.
From that day on, Jeong I-shin began a life fit for someone aiming to enter government service.
After waking he finished his morning exercise with the Sinew-Transforming Marrow-Cleansing Scripture, then went straight to Tang Mu-jeong for his jianghu lessons.
Occasionally he learned about this land's history, but most of it centered on things very closely tied to practical life.
"Let us go over the previous material briefly."
Tang Mu-jeong was an excellent teacher. He understood the importance of review.
"Now. You have entered an inn. You place your order naturally and are waiting for your food when suddenly you hear whispering from a corner of the inn. What do you do?"
"First, eavesdrop!"
"The reason?"
"Because bastards who lower their voices and whisper in an inn are all madmen desperate to have their story heard, so it is right to meet their expectations."
"Excellent. And then?"
"Nine times out of ten the story is nonsense, so I should listen lightly and let it pass. However interesting the story, I should not take a deep interest."
"Mm!"
Tang Mu-jeong nodded with satisfaction and added an explanation.
"If it concerns something like a treasure map, or anything related to martial arts, leave at once. Merely having been in the same room raises your chances of catching trouble. This holds even if the talkers are weaker than you. You are all too likely to be dragged into needless bother."
"Yes!"
Tang Mu-jeong drew the emblems of the major powers on a wooden board he had carved himself and taught him the points to watch for.
Tang Mu-jeong disliked the orthodox murim, loathed the unorthodox murim, and hated the demonic path.
That temperament of grumbling at everyone did not seem to be something he had acquired in the Bottomless Abyss.
"The breed known as men of jianghu prize face, honor, and standing above all else. This is a trait that does not distinguish between orthodox and unorthodox; there is only a difference of degree."
"Are people of the unorthodox sects like that too?"
"Yes, unless they are the lowest dregs of the unorthodox murim, the ones called the black path."
"Mmm......"
"But the demonic path is different. I do not know why you regard the Heavenly Demon as so plausible a human being......"
Tang Mu-jeong's face crumpled for an instant before he hurriedly restored his expression.
"The demonic are those who have given up being human. For power, to become stronger, they are bastards who cast aside one by one the things a human being ought to hold. And the Heavenly Demon is the one who has cast aside the most of all."
"So the best policy is not to run into a demonic practitioner."
"Yes. And if you do meet one...... if he is weaker than you and no one is around, simply beat him to death; if he is stronger, run."
After that Jeong I-shin went on faithfully learning how to secretly loose a concealed needle at a bastard who spoke offensively, how to naturally extricate himself from a situation where he was under suspicion, thirteen ways to spot a half-witted demonic practitioner, how to enrage a martial artist of the Jaegal Clan, how to insult the Hwangbo Clan and the Peng Clan together in one breath, and more.
'......Hm? Is this right?'
His medicine was compared to that of a Divine Physician, and his temperament was said to be that of the king of hell: the Hell King Medicine Immortal.
An heir to that man's spirit was being born in the very depths of the Bottomless Abyss.