A Firefly's Vow
In the great hall of the annex at the Du Clan Manor, Ouyang Qiangang, Ju Pyo, and the three generations of the Du family sat facing one another once more.
With the Cheonhae Trading House annihilated by the Waterway Alliance, their expressions were bright indeed. Du Wi-pyeong rose from his seat and bowed long and deep before Ouyang Qiangang.
This time, Ouyang Qiangang did not refuse. He returned the bow in kind. "Thank you. If my father hears of your decision, Manor Master, it will gladden him from the bottom of his heart."
Taking his seat again, Ouyang Qiangang addressed the three generations of the Du family. "For the time being, our connection must remain a strict secret. It would be far too dangerous to provoke my maternal grandfather of the Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor."
"Of course," Du Wi-pyeong replied. "But do you have a plan in mind for how we are to deal with the threat from Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor?"
Ouyang Qiangang smiled faintly and nodded. "I do. Until the main family recovers its strength, my grandfather will find himself unable to spare the clan the slightest attention."
Ju Pyo's eyes gleamed. "And what manner of method would that be?"
"This is not the time to speak of it. But when the moment comes, you will know of your own accord."
They closed their mouths, faces full of disappointment.
Ouyang Qiangang went on. "As for the funds to rebuild the clan, I have my own means of raising them — the Du family need not trouble itself over financial support."
"...!"
His words drew astonished looks from all three generations of the Du family. Knowing the Gu-yang Clan's circumstances all too well, they had been planning to provide the restoration funds themselves. But they had already been utterly won over by Ouyang Qiangang, and not one of them voiced an objection.
Instead, Du Wi-pyeong asked, "Even with funds secured, rebuilding your martial force will require a great many warriors. The main family is in no condition to raise them, so that is where we believe we can be of help."
Ouyang Qiangang nodded. "That was precisely what I intended to ask of you. Raise as many warriors as you can here at the Du Clan Manor. The main family will provide the necessary resources and martial arts — and I will personally advance the Du family's own exclusive arts one step further."
At those words, Du Wi-pyeong's face stiffened for an instant. However remarkable a young master Ouyang Qiangang might be, speaking so freely of another family's secret ultimate techniques was simply unheard of. This was a matter apart from any question of trusting him.
"Eldest Young Master," he said carefully, "you say you will improve upon our Du family's martial arts — what exactly do you mean by that?"
Sensing the wariness behind the question, Ouyang Qiangang only smiled. He asked Du Jeong-gwang for brush and paper, then, without a single pause in his hand, wrote out the complete formulae for two of the Gu-yang Clan's four great orthodox martial arts as he himself had restored and refined them — the Transcendent Heart Sutra and the Wind-Splitting Seventy-Two Sword Breaks.
"Please, look these over first."
In less than half an hour, the finished manuals were handed to Du Jeong-gwang and Du Wi-pyeong. Half in doubt, the two men began to read — and before long, astonishment had flooded their faces.
'This can't be...!'
Du Wi-pyeong could hardly contain his shock. What was written there was unmistakably the Gu-yang Clan's martial arts, yet so much of it differed from what he knew that it could scarcely be called the same art at all. Every unnecessary element had been cut away, leaving only the most efficient and most devastating flow. This was not refinement — it was re-creation.
Only then did Du Wi-pyeong realize that Ouyang Qiangang was a man with no reason whatsoever to covet the Du Clan Manor's secret arts.
What followed moved at a gallop. Without the slightest hesitation, Du Wi-pyeong recited and demonstrated all three of the Du family's secret ultimate techniques for Ouyang Qiangang — the White Cloud Heart Art, the Falling Stone Fist, and the Stone-Shattering Palm. With a single look and a single hearing, Ouyang Qiangang memorized and perfectly understood all three. The three generations of the Du family were all but dumbstruck by his genius.
"While I remain with the Du family, I will remake these three arts entirely anew," Ouyang Qiangang said. "And I will pass on the main family's four great arts as well, beginning with the Transcendent Heart Sutra."
With matters settled for the moment, he turned to Du Jeong-gwang. "Elder, are there any surviving descendants of the other three branch clans — Fengshen, Anyi, and Lujiang — that were annihilated in the Great Zheng-Mo War?"
"There are," the old man answered. "But from what I hear, they lost their secret arts, and with not a coin to rise again, they're barely keeping their family lines alive."
"Manor Master." Ouyang Qiangang turned his gaze on Du Wi-pyeong. "They, too, are people of the Gu-yang Clan. And raising them back to their feet is the very road by which our whole clan grows strong."
"Hmm..."
"Please take charge of helping the descendants of the other three clans rebuild their houses. Every coin it requires will be provided by our main family."
"We shall carry out your will, Eldest Young Master," Du Wi-pyeong answered, his face full of resolve.
Ouyang Qiangang turned next to Ju Pyo. "Old Master, I ask that you remain here in Poyang and lend the Du family your aid — gather the scattered retainers and the descendants of the other branches, and raise them to become the pillars of the new Gu-yang Clan."
Ju Pyo grasped the meaning beneath the words at once. 'The Eldest Young Master is right. The murim believes me dead. If a dead man were suddenly to show his face at the Gu-yang Clan's main estate, how could that cunning old fox Dong Hyeon-do not grow suspicious?' His gaze deepened. 'But here with the Du family of Poyang, it is another matter entirely. This place lies comparatively beyond the old man's web of watchers — it could be forged into a crucible for raising the clan's talent.'
"It shall be as you command, Eldest Young Master." Ju Pyo continued, his expression grave, "Here in this place, this old man will raise those who are to become the clan's pillars into tigers."
"Thank you, Old Master."
A faint smile touched Ouyang Qiangang's lips.
With the crucial matters tied off, his expression eased considerably as he turned to Du Wi-pyeong. "Manor Master, the power of the Yangtze River Waterway Alliance is truly staggering. They finished off the Cheonhae Trading House in a single night."
"Indeed they did. People do not call them the Sovereigns of the Waterways for nothing."
Ouyang Qiangang asked, as if in passing, "By any chance... have you heard any rumors of some strange incident among the Alliance Leader's disciples of late?"
Du Wi-pyeong shook his head. "Nothing of the sort has reached my ears. But may I ask why that interests you...?"
"I believe I heard something of the kind in passing. It is nothing of great importance, so please don't let it trouble you." Thus Ouyang Qiangang turned the subject, but a sharp suspicion kept circling in his mind.
'Akasha, doesn't this strike you as odd? Beneath Sand Rock Peak, Yeon Cheolrim said it plainly — that he had "staged a performance to kill his senior brother." Yet there isn't so much as a whisper of it in the murim. What is going on?'
Yes, Doctor. I was already analyzing that very point.
Akasha's voice echoed through his mind.
Correlating Yeon Cheolrim's statement, the peculiar assassination traces we discovered at the summit of Sand Rock Peak — the 'power-scattering poison' and the 'acupoint-piercing stab wounds' — and the current total absence of any related information circulating through the murim, all the evidence converges on a single conclusion.
'Tell me.'
The probability that Yeon Cheolrim's senior brother died on Sand Rock Peak that day is 98 percent or higher. And he is most likely the young man we discovered, dead alongside his three bodyguards.
'Then why hasn't the Waterway Alliance made any announcement? If Yeon Cheolrim is the second disciple, the man he called "senior brother" must be the Alliance Leader's chief disciple.'
The most probable hypothesis is concealment. However, the underlying data is far too sparse to speculate as to the reason.
A cool smile curved Ouyang Qiangang's lips. 'Bad for me? Hardly. I now hold Yeon Cheolrim's greatest secret in my hand — proof that he murdered his own senior brother.'
He knew precisely how much weight that information carried. 'Not today. But I have a feeling the day will come when this proves very useful indeed.'
As promised, Ouyang Qiangang stayed two more days with the Du family. Through all that time, the lights in the manor's annex never went out before deep into the night. He re-created all three of the Du family's secret arts as martial arts entirely new. Refining arts like the White Cloud Heart Art, whose depth fell far short of the five ultimate techniques of the Nine Dragons Myriad Mountains Diagram or the main family's four great secret arts, was an easy task for him. And in the spaces between, he gathered the three generations of the Du family in one place and walked them through the core principles of the White Cloud Heart Art and its kin.
"...Therefore, for this stretch of the qi circulation path, the key is not to drive your internal energy in a straight line, but to whirl it in a spiral and condense all of its destructive force into a single point."
There was not a grain of excess in his teaching, and it always pierced straight to the essence. Du Jin-seong hardly needed mentioning — even Du Jeong-gwang and Du Wi-pyeong drew no small enlightenment from his every word. They found themselves witnessing an astonishing sight: the fortress of martial attainment they had spent their lifetimes raising crumbling like a sandcastle before this young genius, only to be built up again, stronger than before.
Then came the night before his promised departure. Du Jin-seong appeared before Ouyang Qiangang and bowed his head deeply.
"Eldest Young Master, I venture to make a request."
In his eyes burned two fires at once — the awe of a genius who had recognized another genius, and a blazing hunger for learning.
"These past days of receiving your instruction, I have learned that I was a frog in a well. All the martial learning and wisdom I possess is no more than a firefly's glow set against yours. I beg you — keep me at your side, and grant me the chance to learn of a wider world. Even as your humble attendant, I would be content."
The request caught Ouyang Qiangang off guard. "Young Estate Master... have your father and the Elder given their consent to this?"
"Yes."
"Hmm..." Ouyang Qiangang studied Du Jin-seong, brow creasing — and then the frown melted into a smile. A genius like this had come to him of his own two feet. There was no reason on earth to refuse.
"Very well. If a man of talent like the Young Estate Master wishes to help me, then you are welcome at my side any time."
The next morning, Ouyang Qiangang — with Geum Wang perched on his shoulder — and Du Jin-seong rode out through the main gate of the Du Clan Manor. Du Jeong-gwang and Du Wi-pyeong had gladly approved of Du Jin-seong's accompanying him.
Clip-clop— clip-clop—
Both travelers wore human-skin masks and the nondescript garb of ordinary wayfarers, and there was not a soul on the road who could have guessed who they were.
The distance from Poyang to Nanchang fell just short of three hundred li. Pushing their mounts, they could cover it in three days; even unhurried, five was ample. With no great mountains rising between the two cities, the pair rode south along the broad official highway, amid the ebb and flow of passing merchant traffic.
The journey was astonishingly quiet. Du Jin-seong asked scarcely any questions. Like most who are called geniuses, he detested having his contemplation disturbed — and reasoning that if even he was so, then the Eldest Young Master before him, whose depths he could not even begin to fathom, would be more so and never less, he chose silence. Instead of speaking, he poured all his effort into taking in Ouyang Qiangang's every movement, every gesture, with his own eyes and heart.
For Du Jin-seong knew in his bones that these days at Ouyang Qiangang's side would become the greatest education of his life.