Awakening
The moment Seo Joo-cheon stepped out of the stone chamber, Hwang Seok came running as though he had been waiting for that exact instant.
He took a reading of Seo Joo-cheon's face, then opened his mouth.
"Seong-i is unwell."
"Seong-i?"
"Yes."
"Has he taken a wound somewhere?"
"No. It isn't that. It's…"
Sensing that Hwang Seok was holding his tongue on his account, Seo Joo-cheon spoke first.
"I'll step aside."
"I'm grateful."
Hak Yu and Hwang Seok exchanged a few hurried words, then raced toward the pavilion.
Hwang Manor was a scene of utter chaos. The surviving warriors set to work with practiced, seamless efficiency. True to their assassin training, they gathered the corpses and cleaned up the aftermath with remarkable speed, and they even posted men beyond the estate walls to make certain no rumor of the battle leaked outside. The thoroughness of their preparations left the Shaanxi Four Chivalrous Heroes quietly impressed.
"Are any of you hurt?"
"A few scrapes here and there. Nothing serious."
"There could still be poison in them. Check yourselves carefully and apply medicine."
"Understood, Big Brother."
Ham Cheon-yeong answered, then posed a question of his own.
"Big Brother — it seems the effects of the elixir and the martial art are showing themselves now."
He meant the Human-Shaped Snow Ginseng Liquid Essence and the Phoenix Heaven-Returning Art.
"I could see it too. Your skills aren't what they used to be — you've improved by leaps and bounds. That's something worth celebrating. It's the fruit of all that relentless training you've put in, isn't it?"
Dokgo Ho-in picked up the thread.
"I think we've finally reached a point where we won't disgrace the name of the Shaanxi Four Chivalrous Heroes wherever we go."
Kang Chu-mi spoke with a flush of excitement in her voice.
"I was honestly shocked. I actually wondered if my martial arts had always been this strong. When we fought Bulsama's men last time, it was a real struggle — we were fighting as if our lives hung by a thread. Don't you think the Slaughter King's subordinates are a lower caliber than Bulsama's?"
No matter how she turned it over, Kang Chu-mi could not shake the feeling that Bulsama's men had been the stronger, and the Slaughter King's the weaker. They had gone down far too easily under her attacks, and that was what made her suspicious.
"Hahaha. Fourth, the Slaughter King's men may have trained more as assassins than in orthodox martial arts, but they aren't weaker than Bulsama's. Think about the warriors of Hwang Manor and you'll see it clearly enough. Were we stronger than they were?"
Kang Chu-mi considered the question, then answered.
"If we'd been our old selves, fighting the Hwang Manor warriors, we'd have lost nine times out of ten. They aren't weak. Every last one of them is at least above Second-Rate."
"Exactly. The Hwang Manor warriors didn't fall so easily because they were weak. They couldn't hold because the Slaughter King's men were that strong."
Ham Cheon-yeong muttered under his breath.
"When you put it that way, it makes sense. We've definitely gotten stronger. The Thousand-Jin Weight Art in particular is incredible. You can put a thousand jin of weight behind even a single strike."
Dokgo Ho-in chimed in with agreement.
"The Thousand-Jin Weight Art is perfectly suited to me. I can load a thousand jin of weight into a fast sword — it's become a Thousand-Jin Fast Sword. Now that I say it out loud, Thousand-Jin Fast Sword has a nice ring to it. Big Brother, I think I should call my fast sword the Thousand-Jin Fast Sword from now on."
Seo Joo-cheon nodded.
"I think it's a fine name myself. From this day forward, Third Brother's fast sword is the Thousand-Jin Fast Sword."
Kang Chu-mi, who had been listening quietly, spoke up.
"Then I should call my whip art the Thousand-Jin Whip Art. My whip carries a thousand jin of force too, after all."
Whether she meant it as a tease or out of genuine envy, Kang Chu-mi's remark drew a shake of the head from Seo Joo-cheon.
"That's a little childish."
"Tch."
Judging by her reaction, she had taken a liking to the name Thousand-Jin Fast Sword and was feeling a touch of jealousy.
Though it felt a little early, Seo Joo-cheon seized the opportunity to share a plan he had been turning over on the way here.
"I think we should cultivate our strength further before we enter the Yongcheon Sect. For that, we'll need a space only we know about. We have the Stalactite Milk. With it, we'll all raise our internal energy to First-Rate or higher. However long it takes, we go to the Yongcheon Sect only after we've built more than one Gapja of inner power."
Ham Cheon-yeong agreed at once.
"Big Brother's words are sound."
"If we reach that level, we'll be treated better at the Yongcheon Sect as well."
Kang Chu-mi picked up the thought, and Seo Joo-cheon went on.
"If we're going to survive in the martial world, we have to use everything we have to grow stronger. Once we enter Xi'an, we'll use the money we have to buy a small house — as close to the Yongcheon Sect as possible. When we buy it, Second Brother will disguise himself as a merchant and make the purchase. Fourth, you'll change clothes and go with him, posing as a married couple. That way we won't draw suspicion."
"Understood."
Dokgo Ho-in asked,
"You have a reason for doing this, don't you, Big Brother?"
Sharp as ever, Dokgo Ho-in had already guessed that Big Brother had a purpose in establishing a safe house.
"If you think about it even a little, the state of the martial world doesn't look good. As you saw, both the Yeosan Sect and the Jangan Sect came forward to recruit us. Those are fairly powerful factions, and they even offered us hall-leader positions."
"That's because we became heroes of the Unorthodox path after fighting Bulsama, isn't it?"
Ham Cheon-yeong countered, and Seo Joo-cheon smiled faintly.
"Do you really think those two sects would have come forward on rumor alone? That tells me they're in a position where even a single warrior approaching First-Rate is precious, and they're desperate to secure one. Hero Jeong is being invited to the Yongcheon Sect as a guest elder as well — a man who was operating in Tibet, no less. On top of that, they're recruiting martial artists of our caliber as instructors. It's not hard to guess that a storm of blood is about to blow."
The logic was sound enough that the three younger siblings looked at one another and frowned.
"Big Brother, then we don't even need to join the Yongcheon Sect. We could get dragged into a war."
Seo Joo-cheon shook his head.
"Because it's an opportunity."
Dokgo Ho-in asked, a question in his voice.
"Then wouldn't it be better to go to the Jangan Sect, the one offering us hall-leader seats? If a storm of blood is coming like you say, being in a high position would be safer, wouldn't it?"
Seo Joo-cheon's reason for choosing the Yongcheon Sect was simple. It was easier for him to manipulate. He had written so many disastrous plot points into the Yongcheon Sect that there were plenty of gaps to slip through.
He could not tell his three younger siblings, but the moment Seo Joo-cheon heard that Jeong Geum-sik was going to the Yongcheon Sect, he had begun planning to take the sect over. The Yeosan Sect and the Jangan Sect had far less room to infiltrate. The Yongcheon Sect, by contrast, was riddled with settings he himself had planted, making it easy to exploit. That was why he insisted on it.
"I have my reasons. Don't worry — just follow me."
Kang Chu-mi grinned.
"Well, we'd follow you even if you said we were going to hell, so don't worry about that."
Ham Cheon-yeong and Dokgo Ho-in nodded in agreement. These three had entrusted their lives to Po Un a long time ago.
"Hero Po!"
Hwang Seok called out to Seo Joo-cheon. His face looked urgent.
"What is it?"
"The master is asking for you. Can you come at once?"
"Is it because of Yu Seong?"
At Seo Joo-cheon's question, Hwang Seok gave a short nod.
"Stay here and circulate your energy until I return. Don't move around until I come back."
"Yes, Big Brother."
Seo Joo-cheon ran toward the pavilion with Hwang Seok.
Several times as they ran, Hwang Seok staggered and nearly fell, and Seo Joo-cheon caught him.
"Are you all right?"
A master of Hwang Seok's caliber stumbling while running was unthinkable.
"My true energy is depleted. I've only lost my strength for a moment."
It could not have been from the fighting. But Seo Joo-cheon asked nothing more.
When they reached the pavilion where Yu Seong lay, Hwang Seok called inside.
"Master, I have brought Hero Po."
"Show Hero Po in."
Hwang Seok led Seo Joo-cheon inside. Hak Yu sat gazing at Yu Seong, who lay with a deathly pale face.
"I had you brought here without any warning. Forgive the discourtesy."
"It's nothing. I came because I assumed it was urgent — for Yu Seong's sake."
Hak Yu looked at Hwang Seok.
"Leave us. And see that no one approaches this pavilion."
"Understood, Master."
Once Hwang Seok had gone, Hak Yu spoke.
"I have imposed on Hero Po in more ways than one. I am truly sorry."
"It's all right. I've been worried about Yu Seong myself."
"Then allow this old man to explain, if only briefly."
"Yu Seong was born with blocked meridians."
Seo Joo-cheon laughed inwardly.
He's trying to pass off the Heavenly Killing Star's energy as blocked meridians.
Not that it was hard to understand.
If he said the child was born under the Heavenly Killing Star, the martial world would try to kill him — and he couldn't predict how I would react either.
Few people knew much about blocked meridians, so Hak Yu had likely assumed Seo Joo-cheon would swallow the story well enough. There were dozens of varieties of meridian-blockage syndromes; even trained physicians rarely understood them fully.
"Yu Seong's nature is so bright I never sensed anything of the kind."
"The child is bright by nature, yes. But this time, when the Slaughter King's men entered the stone chamber and tried to kill the manor lord's family, Yu Seong took up a blade to stop them and killed one of them. That became the trigger, and the blocked meridians this old man had barely managed to suppress seem to have flared up again."
"Good heavens."
Seo Joo-cheon offered a suitably concerned response.
"The manor lord and I poured all our internal energy into Yu Seong to calm the blocked meridians, but they still haven't settled."
Hearing that, Seo Joo-cheon finally understood: Yu Seong had suffered a psychological shock, and the energy of the Heavenly Killing Star had erupted. That energy required some catalyst to awaken. It had exploded before the child was ready, which was why Hak Yu was in such a panic.
"So you want me to use my inner power to suppress the blocked meridians?"
"It shames me to ask, but yes."
"The manor lord and I managed to stop most of the rampaging energy, but we lacked the internal power to seal a few remaining strands. If Hero Po would seal those last few, I would be grateful."
"My own cultivation isn't particularly high. I'm not sure I'll be of much help."
"There aren't many strands left, so it won't require a great deal of internal power. In this entire manor, once you set aside the manor lord and myself, Hero Po's command of inner energy seemed the most mature. That's why I asked for you."
"I understand. Then let's begin at once."
"I'll sit Yu Seong up. Inject your true energy into the Mingmen point and calm the energies that are running wild."
Yu Seong's upper garments had been removed. To pinpoint the meridians and suppress the energy, it was better to have the clothes off.
A sticky fluid coated Yu Seong's body. It was too much to call sweat.
The energy of the Heavenly Killing Star must be leaking out of the body.
Seo Joo-cheon injected his inner power and observed Yu Seong's interior. The energy connected to him found the Heavenly Killing Star's power rampaging through the child's body like a wild stallion.
This is it.
Several strands of energy, utterly alien and savagely violent, were hammering Yu Seong's meridians the way a craftsman pounds with a mallet. If it went wrong, the meridians could be damaged and the child left half-paralyzed.
When Seo Joo-cheon tried to guide the Heavenly Killing Star's energy, it shoved his power back with tremendous resistance. And he had the sense that the meridians themselves were slightly, systematically out of place — as if they had slipped from where they belonged.
This isn't a problem with the Heavenly Killing Star's energy. The manor lord and Hak Yu's power alone is more than enough to suppress it. It isn't a question of quantity. Yu Seong's meridians have twisted, just slightly. Why?
Seo Joo-cheon had never written such a setting for Yu Seong. He had established that when a bearer of the Heavenly Killing Star awakened, they gained a genius-level talent for martial arts — a change described as a transformation of the body, akin to shedding the mortal form.
There's a hidden variable here. The story has changed. Hak Yu would know better than I do.
Seo Joo-cheon took his hand from Yu Seong's Mingmen point and looked at Hak Yu.