The Gravity of Bonds
Akasha's voice was graver than he had ever heard it.
“My analysis has uncovered multiple clear signs of artificial manipulation. First, this bacterium simultaneously maximizes its ability to survive in cold, aquatic environments and to spread in hot, arid ones. These are contradictory traits—acquiring both at once through natural evolution would be all but impossible.”
Hmm…
“Beyond that, specific gene sequences within the bacterium carry resistance factors against nearly every detoxifying and antibacterial herb recorded in the Life and Death Medical Canon. It looks for all the world as though someone studied the medicine of this land in advance and designed the bacterium specifically to neutralize it.”
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes turned glacial.
The Black Plague that had swept the land was no natural disaster. It was a horrific act of biochemical terrorism—one that could only have been carried out under the cover of someone's meticulous planning.
What kind of bastard would do something this cruel…
“I cannot pinpoint the culprit, but I can infer several conditions.”
Tell me.
“First, genetic manipulation on this level far exceeds the reach of any physician who merely knows his herbs. It demands a deep understanding of modern molecular biology and genetic engineering.”
A deep furrow carved itself between Ouyang Qiangang's brows.
“Second, to culture this bacterium reliably and scatter it across a chosen region without being detected would require a highly controlled research facility and a river of funding. In short, the perpetrator is most likely a great power equipped with both advanced knowledge and immense wealth.”
Ouyang Qiangang tilted his head.
The wealth might just barely be managed even in this era, but the advanced knowledge is impossible, no? Engineering genes to this degree isn't easy even with twenty-first-century technology. Yet there's someone besides me in this era who could do this…?
After a brief silence, Akasha answered in a solemn tone.
“Your point is well taken, Doctor. Measured strictly against the yardstick of twenty-first-century Earth science, producing this bacterium in this era is absolutely impossible.”
Then?
“But Doctor, we must not forget that this is not Earth. When the martial arts of this world reach their extreme, do we not observe phenomena that distort the very laws of physics?”
What exactly are you getting at?
“For instance, several of the secret manuals we have secured record that a master who attains the Mythic Realm or beyond can, through qi alone, transform matter into shapes that border on re-creation.”
What Akasha said next came like a thunderbolt.
“Therefore, this bacterium may not be a product of genetic engineering at all. It may well be the result of a kind of 'qi-based biological mutation'—the work of some peerless master who wielded their own pure, refined true qi together with a grand art unique to this world, warping the very essence of the bacterium itself.”
“This may belong to the domain of martial arts, not of science, Doctor.”
Her final words struck Ouyang Qiangang's mind like a massive hammer.
…!
He was struck dumb. Perhaps, all this time, he had quietly flattered himself that his scientific knowledge stood above the martial arts of this primitive world. But he understood now that the martial path could climb beyond even the laws of science he knew, into a realm where living things could be remade nearly from nothing.
The one who had unleashed this calamity might be a presence far vaster, and far harder to comprehend, than anything he had imagined.
That analysis sent a chill down my spine. I'll bear it in mind. But why did they unleash the Black Plague in the first place?
“Two hypotheses can be advanced on that point.”
Akasha's analysis continued.
“The first possibility is a test of a biological weapon's efficacy. The spread pattern of this epidemic closely resembles a field trial—one designed to measure controlled lethality against a chosen region and to observe how that region responds. It would mean that someone made the north-central reaches of Jiangxi Province into one vast proving ground.”
Whoa… And the second?
“The second possibility is a grand sacrificial rite.”
Akasha's voice sank even lower.
“Doctor, do you remember the cruel grand art we witnessed on Blood Island—the one that converted fear and agony into energy?”
Of course.
“The despair and terror of death endured by tens of thousands under a plague can give rise to yin qi and death qi on a scale far greater, and of far purer quality, than any ordinary offering could produce. We cannot rule out the possibility that someone consecrated this entire stretch of Jiangxi Province as one immense sacrifice for a sinister ritual.”
Ouyang Qiangang's eyes smoldered with fury.
Whatever the reason, there is not a shred of doubt that whoever orchestrated this is a madman.
A long, deep breath barely smothered the rage boiling in his chest. From inside his robe, he drew out the black shard of bone recovered from the wreckage of the Thousand-Bone Ark.
A sacrifice…
A being who would lay tens of thousands of lives on the altar, nothing more than offerings for its own design. He swallowed a sigh.
All I ever wanted was to escape this damned Nine Yin Severed Meridians and, with the people who believe in me, raise this crumbling family back onto solid ground. So why does it feel as though I keep wading into a whirlpool that grows vaster and more tangled with every step?
To his wry, self-mocking monologue, Akasha's calm voice rang through his mind.
“Doctor, that is the gravity known as human bonds.”
I was never any good at the humanities, Akasha.
“It is not a difficult concept, Doctor. Unless one withdraws from the world to live alone, a person forms bonds with others; those bonds build a larger society, and within it all things exert influence upon one another.”
And what does any of that have to do with me?
“When you take one step forward and change the world, the world does not simply let you be, Doctor. It demands ever greater roles and responsibilities of you in return. That is the inescapable limit of being human—its fate, one might say.”
Akasha's voice was level and matter-of-fact, yet threaded through it was a comfort that understood his anguish perfectly.
Ouyang Qiangang smiled crookedly. This was not the life he had chosen, but he was no longer alone. At his side stood people who believed in him, and within him worked the most rational partner this world had ever known.
Thank you, Akasha.
“You are most welcome, Doctor.”
Warmth brimmed in her voice as she went on.
“But do not forget: this affair has cost you a very great deal, Doctor. Before you can advance to the next stage, you must fill yourself back up.”
She had scarcely finished when a knock sounded at the door of the refining chamber, accompanied by a voice.
It was Du Jin-seong.
“Young Master, surely it is time you came out. Everyone is waiting for you.”
Ouyang Qiangang nodded and rose to his feet.
With demand for the Evil-Repelling Divine Pills all but dried up, the Heavenly Secret Refining Furnace now devoted only some ten percent of its output to stockpiling them. The rest had been switched back to producing Yang Dragon Pills and Yin Dragon Pills, and there was no longer any need for him to keep vigil over the furnace day and night. A single brief visit each day, to inject nanobots into the finished pills, was quite enough.
Stepping into the open air for the first time in an age, Ouyang Qiangang made for the main residence. There, Gu-yang Baek and Dong Yeon-hwa—who had left the clan manor—and the siblings Cheon-gi and Cheong-cheong, who seemed to have shot up overnight, were waiting for him.
“Gang!”
“Brother!”
“Big brother!”
Relief and joy blossomed across the family's faces at the sight of him. Without a word, Gu-yang Baek came forward and clapped a firm hand on his haggard son's shoulder.
“You've been through a lot.”
Short as it was, the words carried both his pride in his son and the ache he felt for him.
In truth, he had mountains of things he wished to ask Ouyang Qiangang: the rampage of the Black Plague, the secret behind the making of the Evil-Repelling Divine Pills, the path the now-celebrated Ouyang Clan ought to chart from here. He wanted to weigh it all, carefully, with the son who had become the clan's true pillar.
“Gang, about this affair—”
But he could not go on. The moment his eyes fell on his son's pale face and the dark shadows beneath his eyes, the father in him surged ahead of the patriarch.
“…No, never mind. We will speak of that later. Right now, restoring your own body comes first. Go and rest. Once every trace of weariness has left you, it will be no loss to sit and talk at leisure.”
Without a word, Dong Yeon-hwa placed a cup of warm tea in Ouyang Qiangang's hands.
“Yes. I truly do want to rest.”
With a faint smile, Ouyang Qiangang rose from his seat.
After a brief reunion with his family, he returned to his own quarters, sank onto the bed as though collapsing, and was asleep at once.
Exhaustion had piled up in his body and mind beyond what even the perpetual qi-circulation system of the Transcendent Peerless Divine Art could offset. While he slept, Akasha distilled the past month's experiences into one vast body of data—and so his sleep could hardly be called mere rest. Whether he willed it or not, she was rebuilding his body and mind alike, readying him to leap to still greater heights.
At his bedside waited Geum Wang; before his door stood Hwang Nodae. Each guarded him as though to permit no disturbance of any kind.
For three full days, Ouyang Qiangang slept without stirring, like a corpse.
On the fourth day, he woke from his long slumber and sat across from Gu-yang Baek in the study. Several heavy creases had settled on his father's brow that had not been there before—etched deep with pride in his son, and with the days of a man who had worn himself to the bone holding back the great calamity called the Black Plague.
“Gang, I believe it is time you knew exactly where things stand.”
“I was just about to ask, Father.”
Gu-yang Baek spoke in a heavy voice.
“The number of lives lost to this plague… is said to exceed twenty thousand in Jiangxi Province alone.”
He closed his eyes, unable to continue for a moment.
“And yet the Evil-Repelling Divine Pills you made saved the lives of more than a hundred thousand people. Now—look at this.”
Gu-yang Baek spread the ledger open across the table.
“The net profit from the divine pills sold this past month—costs deducted, converted into silver—comes to a little over three thousand nyang. That cannot compare to the earnings from the Yang Dragon and Yin Dragon Pills, but those are funds that cannot be brought into the light. To have secured three thousand nyang that can is no small achievement.”
Ouyang Qiangang merely paged through the ledger with an even expression. His interest lay not in the money, but in what came next.
Gu-yang Baek spoke up.
“Gang, I believe the time has come.”
“What do you mean, Father?”
“The servants and warriors lent to us by Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor—it is time, I believe, to return every last one of them. Our clan no longer has any reason to sit beneath their watchful eyes, does it? So as the people can be spared, I intend to send them home. What say you?”
Contrary to Gu-yang Baek's expectations, Ouyang Qiangang's answer was cold.
“I understand your heart, Father. But it is too soon.”