Extreme Yin Body Transformation Grand Ritual
The day of the grand ritual had been set for the fifteenth day from now, the winter solstice, because the solstice was the day when yin energy reached its greatest strength in the course of the year.
“The ritual will be performed in the Kongdong Sect’s underground grotto. I’ll take care of the preparations, so until then, focus on regulating the balance of yin and yang within your body.”
Recalling what So Gayul had told her, Cheongwol let out a deep sigh.
At first, when she had heard that the date for the ritual had been decided, she had been so overjoyed she could have leapt into the air. But as the day drew closer, she could no longer hide the unease on her face.
—crunch
Just as she was about to sigh again from the tightness in her chest, she heard someone stepping through the snow piled thick on the ground.
“At this rate, I’m afraid you’ll sigh a hole right through the earth.”
“...Taoist Unhak.”
The owner of the voice was none other than Unhak.
“It’s freezing out here. Why are you outside?”
“The room felt stifling.”
“Is that so? Even so, you ought to keep a window open if you’re going to...”
Unhak smiled faintly as he looked at Cheongwol, who didn’t even spare him a glance.
He had already been told by the sect leader about Cheongwol’s condition, so he wasn’t hurt by her indifference. Still, he was worried.
How could a body born male endure carrying such intense yin energy?
Unhak didn’t know why the sect leader had accepted Cheongwol as a disciple, nor why Cheongwol persisted in training despite enduring such terrible pain.
But what did not knowing matter?
After spending two years together, Cheongwol was no longer a stranger to him.
“I heard from the sect leader. The date for the ritual has been set, hasn’t it?”
“...Yes.”
“Then why do you look like that?”
“What’s wrong with my face?”
“You look like someone being forced to do something they absolutely don’t want to do.”
Unlike usual, Unhak’s words were rather blunt, and Cheongwol’s temper flared before she could stop it.
“What do you know that makes you say something like—!”
But before she could finish lashing out, Unhak looked at her with eyes calmer than usual.
“You’re right. I don’t know.”
“...”
“I don’t know what connection you had with the sect leader that led her to take you in, or what martial art you’re training in while storing up yin energy in your body, or why you must undergo this ritual. I know nothing at all. But...”
As always, Unhak broke into a warm, easy smile.
“What else can I do but worry? At this point, you’re one of our Kongdong Sect’s own, and to me, you’re practically a close friend. Ah, though perhaps it’s more accurate to call you my youngest junior brother.”
At his words, Cheongwol lowered her head.
“...I’m sorry I was so mean. Lately I’ve just... something feels off...”
She let the sentence trail away, but Unhak only shook his head with an expression that said he understood everything without needing her to finish.
“Anyone would be on edge before something important. Even the kind-hearted monks of Shaolin, famous as they are for their benevolence, would be no different.”
“Still...”
“It’s all right. But if your heart is truly troubled, then tell me. What is making you so anxious, Cheongwol?”
At Unhak’s gentle invitation to speak her worries aloud, Cheongwol hesitated for a moment before finally opening her mouth with caution.
“...I’m scared.”
What would become of her if the ritual failed?
Had she truly been ready for it?
Had she been too hasty, driven by impatience?
Those small doubts about herself spread like sparks, gnawing at her heart.
And even if the ritual succeeded, where was she supposed to begin the revenge of the Im family?
...Was she truly meant to wander alone for the rest of her life, living for nothing but revenge?
...No, even if she devoted her entire life to it, could she really ever bring it to an end?
The more she thought about it, the more disgusted she felt with herself.
No one had forced her. She herself had sworn to live for the revenge of the Im family.
And she had even used that vow as an excuse to learn So Gayul’s secret martial art. Yet here she was, hesitating now.
The family members who had died, her grandfather, and even So Gayul.
What faces would they make if they knew what thoughts were filling her heart right now?
Cheongwol was terrified of that.
“I’m afraid I’ll disappoint everyone... That’s what scares me most...”
Just as tears began to gather at the corners of Cheongwol’s eyes, Unhak stepped closer and quietly patted her shoulder.
“No one will be disappointed.”
“...”
“Whatever you’re struggling with, whatever you have to do, you are not someone who disappoints others, Cheongwol. And even if you did disappoint a few people, so what?”
Unhak lifted his gaze to the sky, where snow had already begun to fall once more.
“They’re not the ones who will live your life for you. Worry all you want, get angry, cry—do whatever you need to do. If it helps you keep moving forward, then you’re allowed to do all of it.”
Comforting her with words that were almost Daoist in their wisdom, Unhak reached into his robes and took out a single letter, handing it to Cheongwol.
“...What’s this?”
“A letter from Seomun Hwi Sogaju.”
At his words, Cheongwol stared down at the letter in her hand with wide eyes.
“Actually, under the sect leader’s orders, I wasn’t allowed to give you the letters that had come for you these past few days. Though to be fair, they were all from Seomun Hwi Sogaju.”
“...From Master?”
“Yes. I don’t know the full circumstances, but she said it was for your training. Still, you’ve looked terribly pale lately, so I sneaked one out for you.”
Unhak scratched the back of his head with an awkward smile.
“Hwi... Hwi didn’t forget me.”
Cheongwol clutched the letter so tightly it looked as though she might burst into tears at any moment.
“He didn’t forget me...”
Though their connection had been brief, meeting Seomun Hwi had become one of the most precious memories of Cheongwol’s life.
So she had waited, and waited again, but Seomun Hwi had never sent so much as a single letter, despite what he had said when he left.
How bitterly she had suffered alone, and how much resentment she had harbored toward him.
But once she realized that Seomun Hwi had not forgotten her, Cheongwol found that she could smile again.
“You’re that happy?”
At Unhak’s question, Cheongwol nodded slowly.
Then she held the letter between her fingers for a moment before handing it back to Unhak.
“Why didn’t you open it?”
“You said Master told you not to pass it along. Then there must have been a reason for that.”
For a moment, Cheongwol had been angry that So Gayul had hidden the letters on purpose, but soon she understood her meaning.
Just one letter was enough to make her heart sway this wildly. If she had been exchanging letters with Seomun Hwi all this time, she never would have been able to devote herself fully to training.
“Will you be all right?”
“Yes. I’ll read it all at once after the ritual is over. And... thank you, Taoist Unhak.”
As Cheongwol smiled faintly and thanked him, Unhak also lifted the corners of his mouth in a playful grin.
“Are you done being melancholy now? Then let’s go inside. I’m freezing stiff.”
“Melancholy? And I am the sect leader’s disciple, you know. Isn’t it a bit much to keep treating me like the youngest junior brother? Strictly speaking, I’m not your junior brother, I’m—”
“...You’re going to take it that way?”
Watching Unhak flounder as soon as she brought up seniority in the sect, Cheongwol finally laughed out loud for the first time in a long while.
And that day, as snow fell from the heavens and painted all of Mt. Kongdong white like a world of endless drifts, So Gayul and Cheongwol entered the underground grotto.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“The ritual doesn’t have a proper name, but... if I had to call it something, Extreme Yin Body Transformation Grand Ritual would be the most fitting title.”
While planting candles one by one around Cheongwol’s body as she sat in lotus position, So Gayul gave the ritual an improvised name.
“Are you nervous?”
“...Yes.”
“I understand how you feel, but there’s no need to worry so much. We’ve already reduced the amount of yang energy in your body as much as possible. As the saying goes, man proposes, Heaven disposes. From here on, the success or failure of the ritual rests with Heaven.”
To reassure Cheongwol, So Gayul spoke in a softer tone than usual.
“And Mt. Kongdong has long been called the foremost mountain of Daoism under Heaven. Do you know why?”
“Because immortals once lived there? Or because it lies beneath the Big Dipper?”
“How did you know?”
“You’ve already told me more than ten times.”
“...I suppose I really am getting old. In any case, for that reason, there is no place more fitting than Mt. Kongdong to perform this ritual. If you fail here, then you will fail nowhere else in the Central Plains.”
At her words, Cheongwol gave a slight nod.
“I believe it. Not in Mt. Kongdong, but in everything I’ve done so far. And in you, Master.”
So Gayul’s hand paused for an instant, but then she smiled and nodded.
“Good. Trust your master. If a disciple cannot trust her teacher, what else can she rely on?”
After a moment, So Gayul lit the candles and spoke quietly.
“From this moment on, the Extreme Yin Body Transformation Grand Ritual will begin.”
As So Gayul began reciting the incantation written in the manual in a low voice, the candles within the grotto, despite the absence of any breeze, began to flicker.
At the same time, a chill that seemed ready to freeze everything slowly gathered around Cheongwol’s body.
-whoosh!
Was it determined not to allow even the slightest trace of yang energy?
A fierce wind came from nowhere, circling the grotto and snuffing out every flame on the candles at once.
Then, instead of red fire, blue flame began to bloom atop the wicks.
So far, so good. The real trial begins now...
Staring at the wavering blue flames, So Gayul started to recite the incantation with a voice that steadily rose toward a shout.
As the chant continued to echo on and on, the chill gathering around Cheongwol grew stronger and stronger until she could barely breathe.
...Breath...
At last, with her breathing slowed far too much, Cheongwol’s consciousness began to blur.
As proof, the Cheongwol who had been seated in the grotto undergoing the ritual was suddenly standing on a snow-covered plain swallowed by a blizzard.
The sky hung black above her.
The storm lashed at her like knife-blades, cold enough to carve flesh from bone.
She knew it was all an illusion, yet she still could not bring herself to deny it.
For before her stood a woman wrapped in a mysterious aura, with silver hair bright as snow catching sunlight and eyes that burned a brilliant red.
“I thought this would happen someday.”
In the freezing air, where even her awareness was struggling to hold on, the woman slowly bent at the waist, her face as expressionless as carved jade, until her eyes met Cheongwol’s.
“Child, I will only help you this once.”
-tap
When the woman lightly touched Cheongwol’s forehead with her index finger, Cheongwol was instantly swept away, as though the very snowfield had swallowed and expelled her.
And then, at last...
“Huu...”
Her breath scattering like ice in the air, Cheongwol returned to reality and slowly opened her eyes.