Stars in the Darkness
Having secured a horse from the stables, Jegal Mun-Hyeon set out at once along the Muyang Pass Road, the diagonal route that cut across western Hubei Province.
The man he sought was ninety years old.
When every day could be different for someone that aged, how could he afford to hesitate?
Urgency gnawed at him.
Of course, even if he met the old man and spoke with him, he might simply hear answers he already knew—or fail to find any clue to the Ascension Method at all. But little by little made a meal. No one filled their belly with the first spoonful. Keep adding spoonful after spoonful, and sooner or later you felt full. So even in a moment that might prove utterly useless, Jegal Mun-Hyeon gave it everything he had.
Still—to think the old man was in Hubei, of all places.
Then again, after the words of the Mysterious Heavenly Master, hadn't the Orthodox and Demonic factions combed the entire Central Plains like hunters after lice? Sixty years had passed, but if you looked hard enough, you could still find what you sought. Ask, examine, and ask again, and somewhere the records of the Ascension Method would start pouring out. Traces would have been left everywhere.
Hmm. Which means the Beggars' Sect holding the north of Hubei has been a huge help to their information gathering…
In other words, the wider the Beggars' Sect's influence stretched, the more intelligence they could rake in.
Maybe I should just go ahead and unify the realm while I'm at it?
He snorted at the grand ambition—and that was when a voice reached him, as if carried on the wind.
"Young Master Mun-Hyeon! Young Master Mun-Hyeon!"
"…?"
He turned his head. Some lunatic on horseback was tearing after him as if his life depended on it.
"Mujin?"
It was him. After meeting Jegal Mun-ho, Mun-Hyeon had told Mujin—who had been with Gwan Hwi-pyeong—to stay put and train while he ran an errand. And yet—
"What are you doing out here, Taoist?"
"I heard you'd left the manor and came after you as fast as I could."
"What?"
"You know how it is. I need you, Young Master. Being at your side is training for me."
"Mm…"
Mujin had a point. What he needed right now wasn't more Wudang martial arts practice—it was overcoming the demonic nature sealed inside him and absorbing it.
But Mun-Hyeon hesitated. He still felt guilty about smuggling out the Mysterious Heavenly Secret Record. And he still had to hunt down the Ascension Method…
Ah, no. That's not right. Anyone can look for the Ascension Method. If he gets curious later, I can just say I took an interest when we went into the secret cave. Or that I stumbled across related records in the Ten Thousand Books Pavilion and got academically curious.
As long as the Mysterious Heavenly Secret Record didn't come up, he was fine. And even if it did—hadn't the Palace Master of Ujin once said that objects, too, had fate, and belonged to whoever obtained them?
"I wasn't thinking clearly."
"Not at all."
"Fine. Come with me."
"Thank you."
"We'll talk once we reach a rest stop a little farther on."
"Yes! I'll keep up as hard as I can!"
Given permission to join him, Mujin beamed and cracked his whip. But—
"Um, excuse me… how far are we going…?"
"Another hundred li."
"A-a hundred li?"
"That's right."
Night had already fallen deep, but with a road this well-maintained, what was the point of resting? One shichen of sleep a day was enough. Once you were dead you'd be lying down forever anyway…
"Um… I think we've done about a hundred li…"
"Just a hundred more!"
"…"
Jegal Mun-Hyeon cracked his whip even harder. A hundred li, then another hundred… four hundred li in all. Perfectly doable on horseback.
But Mujin, a former Wudang Taoist, had not ridden much. No matter how brilliant his martial arts or how deep his internal energy, an untrained backside and groin had no protection at all.
"Just a hundred more! The goal's right in front of us!"
"…"
From that point on, Mujin went quiet. And in a manner most un-Taoist, curses began piling up in his heart.
You son of a bitch—since when is "a hundred li" the name of the neighborhood dog?
By forcing himself to endure and endure again, the two of them finally found a shabby inn and could rest at last. The dining hall had already closed; there was no way to soothe their hunger.
"All right. Talk."
"Pardon?"
"What's the problem? You came after me for a reason, didn't you?"
"…"
The problem. Yes—his reason for seeking out Jegal Mun-Hyeon was perfectly clear. Mun-Hyeon had told him to release the sealed demonic nature one seal at a time and convert it into internal energy, and had even taught him the method. But it was anything but easy. He had only overcome two seals. The barely restrained demonic nature could no longer be governed by any of Wudang's mental techniques.
He organized what he needed to say and was just about to open his mouth.
"It's…"
But his eyelids were so heavy…
He would not give in! Mujin fought the sleep and poured out every word he had been holding inside. And Jegal Mun-Hyeon stared in exasperation at Mujin, who had planted his face on the table and was mumbling gibberish no one could understand.
"Hey. Get up."
"…"
"Hey!"
At the hands shaking him, Mujin snapped his eyes open, blinking in confusion.
"How long are you planning to sleep?"
"Sleep…?"
"Yeah. Because of you I ended up resting on the table too."
"T-the table…"
Only then did Mujin realize he was still in the darkened dining hall of the inn where they had first sat down.
"Argh! Don't tell me—I fell asleep?"
"You did. Who falls asleep mid-sentence?"
"What? I didn't say anything!"
"You mumbled a bunch of stuff nobody could understand."
"…"
In that instant Mujin's face crumpled into pure disaster. He had been so sure he had poured out every word in his heart.
Ah, fuck. It was a dream…
"We're leaving."
"Already?"
"I was going to rest one shichen. Because of you we rested two."
"…"
"Move it. We're busy."
Without waiting for an answer, Jegal Mun-Hyeon paid for the rest and mounted up. Mujin followed, trembling with dread. His backside and groin felt as if they had been branded with a hot iron—and now he had to ride again…
"What are you doing?"
"Um… couldn't I just run on foot?"
"And the horse?"
"…I thought maybe I could sell it to the innkeeper."
"For a Taoist, you don't have a scrap of thrift in you. You think you'd get a fair price selling it here? If you're going to sell, wait until we reach a proper town. And who said you could sell someone else's horse as you please?"
Jegal Mun-Hyeon scowled and raised his voice, but Mujin would rather die than climb back into a saddle.
"Then I'll cover the cost myself."
"…Fine, whatever. Sell it quick and get out here. Make sure any shortfall gets to the family stables later."
"Yes!"
In truth the horse's price hardly mattered. Mujin was no ordinary guest retainer—from the Jegal Clan's perspective he was a guest to be treated with the highest respect. To Jegal Mun-Hyeon, though, he was simply a disciple with weak stamina.
The race began again. Watching Mujin carefully chase after the horse so that nothing would brush his groin, Jegal Mun-Hyeon sighed and slowed his pace. The sight of Mujin gasping to keep up got on his nerves.
Noticing that their speed had dropped sharply, Mujin felt a rush of gratitude.
To curse someone this considerate…
He almost felt a misplaced grudge against Gwan Hwi-pyeong, who had badmouthed Mun-Hyeon to him. With a little breathing room at last, Mujin ventured a cautious question.
"So… where exactly is this Danfeng County?"
"Next to Wuhan."
"What? We're going that far?"
"That's why I told you not to ditch the horse."
"Th-that was…"
"Ugh, seriously. Coming after me for nothing…"
He grumbled, but Mujin knew Mun-Hyeon had deliberately slowed for his sake, so he could only smile awkwardly. And this was his chance. At this pace it would take another two or three days to reach Danfeng County. With nothing to do but ride the whole way, they would have room for a proper conversation.
"Young Master Mun-Hyeon."
"What?"
"What I meant to tell you yesterday… was about the sealing method you taught me before."
"Looking at the state of you, I more or less figured."
"I thought as much."
"Absorbing the demonic qi isn't easy, is it?"
"No. I somehow managed to undo the second seal, but from the third on, the demonic qi wouldn't obey."
"Of course it wouldn't."
"Pardon?"
Mujin nearly jumped. Of course? Had Mun-Hyeon already guessed his problem? His heart suddenly pounded hard enough that the sting in his groin and the bruised ache in his backside vanished.
"Do you… know a way?"
"Let me ask first."
"…"
"If I'm right, you used Wudang mental techniques to absorb the demonic qi and turn it into pure qi."
"Yes! I used our sect's Six Yang Heart Method to try to burn away the foulness!"
At Mun-Hyeon's words—as if he had already known exactly what method Mujin had used—Mujin's eyes went wide.
"And that's the problem."
"Pardon?"
"I told you. Pure qi and demonic qi are just two streams that split from the same Honwon origin. You think you can just burn it away?"
"But up through the second seal…"
"Sure, that worked. But listen—qi is a force that comes from life itself. It's what we take in from nature through breath. Demonic qi is that same force, only corrupted."
"…"
"What do you do when someone tries to pin you down? You push back, right?"
"I suppose so."
"What's sealed inside you is uncontrolled demonic qi. That means it has a life force of its own. So when the Six Yang True Qi tries to force-burn it, what happens? It fights back. Naturally the sealed energy gets stronger and stronger. You were supposed to overcome it using the two energies you'd already absorbed—but you burned those, so they never fully settled, and you had no strength left to resist. From the third seal on, of course you couldn't hold."
"Ah…"
Mun-Hyeon's words struck Mujin like a revelation. Qi possessed its own vitality. That was why, even when the vessel—the person—lost consciousness, the qi sometimes activated its own healing. He had forgotten something so basic…
"Then what should I do? Must I give up from the third seal on? Please—tell me the method."
"Give up? Don't be ridiculous. Even if it has life force, it's energy locked inside your body. You're not about to let it play master, are you?"
"But…"
"Mujin."
"Yes."
"To see the stars, you have to walk into the darkness yourself."
"…!"
"Leave the demonic qi alone. Let it grow familiar with your body. Then slowly find a way to mix with it. Sometimes things shine even in places where nothing can be seen."
In that moment Mujin stopped walking as if a massive blow had struck his skull.
"In the darkness… ahh…"
Sudden enlightenment. How could he have tried to suppress it? Yin and yang, divided from the Great Ultimate, had both begun in Honwon—they had been the same thing all along… At last he understood the meaning of the words Jegal Mun-Hyeon had first given him.
Standing dazed with his eyes closed, he contemplated and contemplated again, as if searching for the thread of a single star faintly shining in the dark.
And then—
"You fucking bastard! Who the hell has an epiphany in the middle of the road while running?!"
In a situation where every moment counted, what was he supposed to do with Mujin frozen like that? Looking at him, it was obvious he had knocked on the door of selflessness while still on his feet. Mun-Hyeon wanted to lose his mind.
Selflessness—the state every martial artist dreamed of—but even the slightest shock to the body could turn it deadly. Leave him like this and a collision with a passing snail could cripple him for life.
"Ah, I'm going to explode!"
Fury rose, but what could he do? Even when he was infuriating, Mujin was still his disciple. The one who had inherited his final insight…
"You damn brat. Just wait till you wake up."
Grinding his teeth, Jegal Mun-Hyeon gathered stones and began building a formation around the motionless Mujin.
A full day later—
"I'm sorry."
"Shut up, you bastard!"
"I'm sor—"
"I said shut it! I'll crack your skull!"
Even through the endless apologies Jegal Mun-Hyeon kept boiling over, while Mujin could only hang his head and watch for cues. He had suddenly fallen into selflessness and gained more than he expected—but because of it, their arrival at Xiaogan County, where a Beggars' Sect branch was said to stand, had been delayed by a full day.
"A ninety-year-old man lives a different life every single day…"
Mun-Hyeon kept grumbling, and Mujin could only trail behind with his head bowed like a man who had committed an unforgivable crime.
"You coming or not?"
"I-I'm coming!"
For all the twists and turns, they arrived at the Xiaogan branch of the Beggars' Sect with hope still bright in their hearts.
And then—
"W-what happened to Danfeng County?"
"Well… it was attacked by river pirates…"
"River pirates?"
"Yes."
"Why would river pirates hit Danfeng County?"
"We don't know either. The rainy season is over and the lean months have passed—why attack a civilian village…"
"…"
"The disciples we sent from the branch were injured in the attack as well. Some were taken."
At the words of Ham Yeong, the Xiaogan branch chief of the Beggars' Sect, Jegal Mun-Hyeon's body went numb as if lightning had struck him out of a clear sky.
"Th-then the villagers?"
"No bodies have been found, so we believe they were abducted."
"Abducted?"
"Yes. We've already reported it to Headquarters and the Jegal Clan. We're investigating the river pirates ourselves, so we should find them soon."
The rest of the words did not reach him.
These—these—these bastards…
His face twisted violently. He had ridden like a madman for two solid days, skipping sleep and eating on the run, to find a ninety-year-old man who supposedly knew about the Ascension Method. He had pushed so hard for fear the old man's health might fail—and river pirates had cut in front of him?