The Ink-Dyed Blade
It was the height of autumn, when maple leaves fell in abundance.
The wind sweeping in off the sea had grown quite chilly, yet people's faces still carried an easy contentment.
The season of harvest had arrived.
Gyounam bustled with life as it prepared for the Mid-Autumn Festival, the greatest holiday alongside the Spring Festival.
A little ways from that lively town, even at the manor built like a painting upon a hill overlooking the sea, they took time to reap the fruits of their labor.
What they had gained, however, was not grain.
In the rear garden of Deungmyeong Manor, Ja Gangcheon, Cheongu, and Panseok sat facing one another in a triangular formation.
"Huuup!"
Panseok clamped both hands over his ragged breathing.
"Brother."
"I'm sorry, Brother."
"Still hard to endure the smell of the incense?"
Seated in lotus position, Ja Gangcheon held a jade incense burner in his hands. Reacting to his internal energy, a thick stench poured from it—so foul it could drive away even the rats nearby.
"Yes, Brother. It's a smell that turns your guts inside out. It's really tough."
For Panseok, who had grown up by the sea, to say such a thing meant the reek was truly appalling.
"It's called Biyeonhyang. It helps with mind method training, so bear with it."
It had belonged to Gi Doyu, the greatest eccentric of the martial world fifty years ago, known as the Bizarre Demon.
Bearing a moniker that meant a grotesque and strange monster, he had been unmatched in mind methods. Originally, Biyeonhyang had been created simply to drive away wild beasts while he secluded himself deep in the mountains.
Beasts kept charging in during his training, so he made it out of sheer annoyance.
The problem was that, to overcome that annoyance, he had gone so far as to hunt Human-Faced Spiders. Whether he ever found one remained unknown, but in the end he succeeded in creating Biyeonhyang.
His three bizarre creations were called the Three Strange Artifacts, and Biyeonhyang was the first of them.
"But Brother Cheongu amazes me every time. How does he concentrate so well?"
"He says he'd hate to waste it."
"Waste it?"
"The chance to learn martial arts and the time to train. He says if he doesn't give his all in moments like this, he can't sleep for how much it would waste."
"Ah..."
Panseok nodded firmly.
"That makes sense. How precious is this time? My thinking was short. We can talk while we eat."
"You also need some—"
"Brother. Please don't speak to me. We'll talk later."
"Brother?"
When even Panseok closed his eyes and focused, Ja Gangcheon suddenly felt alone.
Yet when he thought of their growth, pride came first.
Cheongu in particular showed terrifying concentration during martial training.
After leaving the merchant group and joining the manor, Cheongu poured every spare moment into martial arts.
Don't overdo it.
Even Ja Gangcheon had urged him to take it easier, but Cheongu had answered:
I'm doing it because it's fun. This is the first time I've ever used the time given to me for myself.
It was an answer that left Ja Gangcheon with much to think about.
Learn as much as you want. I'll teach you everything.
The three men's mind method training continued for a full shichen.
When the dawn training ended, Ja Gangcheon spoke to the two who were still regulating their breath.
"I have something to give you. Come with me."
They arrived at Ja Gangcheon's bedroom.
Though the manor was large, they all lived together in the central pavilion that shared the main gate and courtyard.
Even excluding the office and the document archive, there were four rooms, so each taking one posed no problem.
Ja Gangcheon used the former merchant lord's chamber, and there he had discovered an interesting place.
Clunk!
Pulling a ring beneath the bed revealed a staircase leading underground.
"It's amazing every time I see it. How did you ever find this place?"
"Air gets in. Concentrate hard enough and you can feel even the flow of air."
"So that really is possible."
While Panseok scratched his head, Ja Gangcheon drew a small box from his robes.
"Heuup!"
"Why are you always so surprised, Brother?"
"Isn't that a luminous pearl? When I make a lot of money, I'm definitely hanging luminous pearls from my ceiling."
"Thieves with knives will visit every day."
"That's why I'm learning martial arts—to stop them."
It was a strange reason, but Ja Gangcheon didn't bother arguing.
"Come on. Let's go down."
Ja Gangcheon led the way into the underground.
The vast secret warehouse, large enough to join four bedrooms, had never even been mentioned by the previous owner.
Whether it had been revenge for the thirty percent discount, no one knew, but when Ja Gangcheon first entered, only a few crumpled papers had been rolling about.
"Alright. Pick whatever catches your eye."
The secret warehouse Ja Gangcheon had newly furnished was splendid.
More than a hundred martial manuals of the jianghu stood neatly displayed, their wrappings removed.
There were over thirty boxes gathered to one side, and weapons ranging from swords and sabers, axes and staffs as the basics, to clubs, iron fans, whips, and fist guards.
It could truly be called a comprehensive catalog of jianghu weapons without shame.
"But what are we supposed to pick? You're not seriously giving us these, are you?"
"I am, actually."
"With our current skills, even if we took them we wouldn't have the strength to keep them."
As Cheongu said, if anyone recognized these weapons, they would kill to seize them.
Hearing that, Ja Gangcheon spoke as if hurt.
"I'm not an idiot."
"That's right. Brother isn't an idiot. You're smarter than me."
It was no comfort at all, but Ja Gangcheon forced a smile and approached the displayed weapons.
Then he picked up a sword that looked ordinary at a glance.
If it had any feature, it was that it bore no pattern whatsoever.
That very lack of ornamentation made it distinctive.
It possessed a coolly sharp blade of subtle blue, while the hilt was rough and plain, without a single design.
"I don't know its name. It's the sword of Pung Cheongseol, the Moonlit Swordsman who appeared in the fight against the Demonic Cult after living as a recluse. It's unknown in the martial world, and as you can see, its appearance isn't flashy either."
It was a sword that first appeared during the struggle with the Demonic Cult. His swordsmanship had been so overwhelming that he was invited aboard the ship bound for Guigokdo, but unfortunately he fell to the Heavenly Demon's hand.
"It doesn't fall short of any other sword here."
He handed Pung Cheongseol's sword to Cheongu.
"It's a sword that has already lost its master. There's no need to return it to anyone."
While doing so, Ja Gangcheon revealed one secret of the blade.
"Put your finger into the scabbard and touch the inner surface."
Cheongu followed Ja Gangcheon's words. He only tilted his head, with no further reaction.
"Concentrate harder."
Trying once more at Ja Gangcheon's urging, he felt something catch slightly.
"Something seems to be engraved?"
"It's the Moonlit Heart Method. It's inside the scabbard, so you can't see it with your eyes—you have to read it solely by the sense of your fingers. It was made so that only masters with extremely sensitive senses could read it."
The formulas had been carved on the inner surface first, then joined together later.
"So that's why it's a martial treasure."
"It's a martial art that will vanish if no one masters it. He left no successors."
Cheongu gazed at the sword in his hand.
"So this is my weapon?"
"It'll suit you well."
At Ja Gangcheon's repeated recommendation, Cheongu nodded.
"Can I really take this?"
"I decided to give you a sword today because it's time for you to train the next stage. You've grown faster than I expected."
With the qi-sensing stone, Biyeonhyang, and at night training sword methods while holding the Samadhi Sword once used by the greatest swordsman of Kunlun. Of course the greatest factor had been Ja Gangcheon's guidance.
"Alright. Then I'll gratefully accept it."
Only then did Ja Gangcheon feel at ease.
"Brother Panseok."
"Yes, Brother."
"You need to work harder too. I've already got something in mind for you."
"Really?"
Panseok asked again, unlike his usual self. Dull as he was, he knew the items in this warehouse were martial treasures.
To say he would give one of them to him.
"Brother!"
Panseok suddenly pulled Ja Gangcheon into a crushing hug.
Enduring the smothering like prey caught by a bear, Ja Gangcheon clearly drew a line.
"I'll only give it when you reach the level I want."
"Yes! Brother! I'll work myself to death!"
"Don't die."
"Ah! I'll work hard without dying!"
Finishing the conversation, Ja Gangcheon looked around the interior once more. Then Panseok, belatedly struck by a question, asked,
"But Brother, what weapon do you use?"
Come to think of it, even Cheongu had never seen Ja Gangcheon wield a weapon.
"I've tried everything here. Each has its own charm."
"So you can use them all in real combat?"
"Yeah. For fifteen years, this was all there was to play with. It was an uninhabited island with no friends."
They dared not claim to understand. They had never experienced it.
"Still, there's one really fun kid."
Ja Gangcheon stood before a weapon tightly wrapped in silk among the splendid manuals.
"My parents told me not to use this. Said it was too dangerous."
He began slowly unwrapping the silk.
"But I find this guy way too fun."
Ja Gangcheon said "fun," not that he liked it. To him, weapons meant that.
Thud.
When the silk fell to the floor, in Ja Gangcheon's hand was gripped a saber with a blade of ink-black that rejected light.
"The Ink-Dyed Blade. The kid who played with me the most on Guigokdo."
It was a name that had already vanished three hundred years ago—a weapon that could never truly be called a kid.
Though ranked among the historic martial treasures, few had ever seen it in person.
The Ink-Dyed Blade, known only through oral tradition, held a history of earning both the worst and the best of titles.
Dan Rimyeong, the Evil Craftsman, one of history's foremost villains.
Conversely, Dan Rijin, the Great Luo Immortal, a chivalrous hero who had dominated an era.
Father and son had ended with the son killing the father.
The life story of the hero who had to become a chivalrous warrior his whole life to erase his father's sins remained the favorite topic of enthusiasts.
The weapon that ran through their relationship was precisely the Ink-Dyed Blade.
It had been one of the treasures the Demonic Cult hid to the end. Had he not seen the list of treasures left by the Demonic Cult, he would never have believed it was the Ink-Dyed Blade.
The fact that it was in the warehouse means no one could handle it.
Weapons with many stories are ominous. It doesn't suit our son.
A weapon that had passed from villain to righteous man had now moved again from the Demonic Cult to Ja Gangcheon.
"B-Brother."
Panseok called Ja Gangcheon in an uneasy voice. Sharp waves of energy were surging around him.
Just by gripping it, Ja Gangcheon's eyes had grown cold and sharp.
But noticing this, Ja Gangcheon grinned and adjusted his grip on the blade, and the restless energy waves settled.
"He's a sensitive kid. Even a little internal energy and he runs wild on his own."
That was why the Ink-Dyed Blade was called a legendary martial treasure. His parents, who had experienced it firsthand, had said this:
It not only amplifies energy but also has a nature of absorbing it. It runs wild as if it were the master itself.
If you can't control it, it'll become poison. Now I understand how the Evil Craftsman was born.
Indeed, just holding it still, energy was sucked in until one's mind grew hazy.
"I found that fun."
To Ja Gangcheon, the Ink-Dyed Blade was a fun toy. Naturally he could not give it up and played with it in secret from his parents.
As those years piled up, at some point control became natural.
"If I pour too much energy, it's dangerous for me too."
It was like a waterway.
Just as a river cannot hold all the rain when too much falls.
"See you often from now on. I'll show you the world too."
Ja Gangcheon wrapped the Ink-Dyed Blade in cloth once more.