Complete the Chaos Origin Art
“Young Master Biryu. Is there anything you’d like to eat?”
“Young Master Biryu. Was your bed comfortable?”
“Shall I bring you more food?”
“Young Master Biryu.”
“Biryu…”
Until the day we set out again with So Yeomgyo, Baekho waited on me with the utmost devotion. He was so excessive about it that So Yeomgyo, who shared a room with me, finally exploded.
“Hey! Baekho! You’re from our sect—why the hell are you looking after Moyong… no, Biryu more than me?!”
Baekho was blunt by nature, but once he opened his heart he became endlessly earnest. Or rather, he simply didn’t know what to do with himself.
“I’m sorry. The martial world’s etiquette is clear, yet I took it upon myself to answer the duel challenge in your place…”
“It’s fine.”
He had already apologized more than ten times. Whenever the thought crossed his mind, Baekho would apologize again for intercepting Gwak Ido’s challenge and answering it himself.
So Yeomgyo tightened the sash of her red robes and looked at the two of us with pure exasperation.
“I really don’t understand men. So you’re never going to tell me what that bastard said that made you both flare up and accept a duel on the spot? Either of you?”
Baekho and I exchanged glances.
“That pretty-boy gigolo insulted me.”
“Yes, that’s exactly it, Sect Leader.”
Beside me, Baekho nodded vigorously.
“…Do I really have to fall for the act of these simple-minded men?”
So Yeomgyo narrowed her eyes into slits and chewed her jerky with deliberate irritation. In the end she gave up on getting a real answer. She finished packing and slung her bag over her shoulder.
“Still, it was pretty satisfying.”
She tossed the words out casually.
“Hm?”
Her red eyes sparkled as she smiled.
“Did you see Gwak Ido’s handsome face crumple at the end? Wow, when our Young Master Biryu’s eyes roll back, his mouth alone could slap the Oho-samhwa across the entire martial world. It felt so damn good.”
…
A beat later, Baekho and I spoke at the same time.
“So the conclusion is that the guy is handsome?”
“That man is not handsome. True masculine charm is—”
So Yeomgyo’s face went completely blank.
“Haa. Both of you, shut up.”
We stepped out through the main gate of the Emei Sect. So Yeomgyo turned to me with a worried expression.
“I’ll ask one more time. Are you sure about this?”
She glanced around once more to make certain no one was nearby.
“Moyong Bi, I’m not looking down on your skill. But you know as well as I do that Gwak Ido of the Jongnam Sect is on another level. In your current condition, the odds of you getting utterly crushed are high.”
After the Jongnam party left, she had forced Baekho and me to our knees and raged at us for a long time. I had accepted the challenge in a fit of anger, but only after hearing her explanation did real worry begin to set in.
Gwak Ido of the Jongnam Sect was a born genius who had surpassed his own senior brothers before even turning nine. His notorious flaws were an extreme lecherous streak and a debauched lifestyle enabled by his outstanding looks. Lately, however, after the Jongnam Guardian was murdered for unknown reasons and the sect began its rapid decline, he had thrown himself into training in order to become the next Guardian.
“Of course he’s not the Guardian yet. I heard the Jongnam treasure was lost. Even if he’s formally installed as Guardian and receives the sect leader’s protection, he probably won’t be able to display even half the previous Guardian’s power. But still—candidates for Guardian aren’t chosen lightly. If there’s no suitable person, a sect would rather let the line die out than appoint just anyone. That’s a matter of pride.”
So Yeomgyo spoke with genuine concern.
In short, even if Gwak Ido wasn’t the absolute strongest in the Jongnam Sect, he was without question the hidden dragon with the greatest potential of his generation. And somehow, before I knew it, I had accepted a formal duel against a Jongnam disciple. One month from now.
She simply couldn’t understand me. This was an official duel. Not the usual unofficial brawls or life-and-death free-for-alls fought in chaos, but a clean match on a proper arena with witnesses watching. For someone like me, whose martial arts were mostly copied, that was the single most fatal weakness imaginable.
But I had something to rely on.
Cheonhyeolma definitely said that for one who bears the destiny of the Heavenly Blood, this much wouldn’t be a problem…
“What was that?”
So Yeomgyo hadn’t caught my mutter and asked again.
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“Hmph. Fine, whatever.”
She poked and prodded my body here and there, then sighed.
“Since you keep insisting you’ll handle it yourself, and I’ve got my own problems up to my neck, I’ll go. But…”
Her crimson eyes locked onto mine.
“Moyong Bi.”
Her voice was calm.
“I won’t pretend we started off with a good relationship. And even if you don’t have any warm feelings for me—even if part of you still hates me—I understand completely.”
…
She was still dwelling on the promise she had broken.
“But separate from that, you have to win this duel. Or else just run. I’ll understand.”
I looked at her. Gazing toward the distant horizon, So Yeomgyo let her words trail off.
“I don’t care about anything else, but I don’t want to see one of my subordinates trampled under another man’s feet.”
The moment she finished speaking she turned and left without a single farewell. Baekho hesitated a few times, glancing back, then hurried after her.
I didn’t know where she was going. I didn’t know what she was going for. Probably some business as the leader of the Blood Death Sect. She was simply living her best in the position she occupied.
And so was I.
—Crunch.
I clenched my fist until it felt ready to shatter.
I, too, would simply do my utmost in the place I stood.
“One month.”
There was no guarantee I would win. But one thing was certain.
If I was a man, I had to win this time.
—Kiiiiik…
Beneath the ancient tree, the ground was littered with cicadas that had fallen, withered, and were slowly dying. Their final death-screams filled my ears.
“Remarkable. I didn’t expect it, yet you have remembered the remnants of this place beyond mere oblivion, and even maintained your sense of self here in Maseonrim.”
The world was steeped in crimson twilight. Beneath that red dusk, the old man before me—his face half-shadowed—stroked his beard again and again.
“Is this also an unintended effect of continuous contact with ‘that’?”
In the world filled with scarlet twilight, the only living things were the two of us sitting face to face. I had no idea how long he had been watching me. The first time I became aware of him was a full week after I had defeated the Blood Cult and Demon Cult forces and devoted myself to recovery.
At first I couldn’t even remember properly. When I woke there was only that peculiar, eerie sensation left behind. But the feeling was similar to conversing with Mumyeong, and gradually I adapted. Then, two days after accepting Gwak Ido’s challenge and one day before So Yeomgyo left, I finally managed to stand fully conscious and independent inside the dream.
“I’ve been waiting.”
I looked at the old man before me—clad in a faded black martial robe, long white beard hanging down, eyes deep-set and profound—and spoke calmly.
“Cheonhyeolma.”
Just as when I first faced him, the endless sky burned with twilight. We sat opposite each other atop a vast cliff. Between us lay a single weathered go board made of paulownia wood.
Cheonhyeolma stroked his beard and regarded me with those sunken eyes.
“Just now, in Maseonrim, you yourself ‘spoke’ my name?”
Mara Jin had been the same. When I asked his name he had shown an astonishingly fierce obsession, interrogating me relentlessly until Cheonhyeolma stopped him.
“Is there… some meaning in a name?”
“You are far too fearless.”
Cheonhyeolma spoke softly, in words whose full meaning I could not grasp.
“Names hold power.”
A wind blew.
“By power, do you mean martial arts or something of that sort? This humble one is completely unlearned and cannot keep up with such lofty meaning.”
“Even when I lived in the mortal world I mostly farmed peaches. Monkeys often came and stole them. It was frustrating.”
Cheonhyeolma toyed with a black stone and a white stone as he spoke.
“But do you think you could catch a monkey and teach it not to steal—discuss rules, etiquette, and morality with it? Do you believe a monkey could comprehend such vast knowledge?”
…
“Pointless, of course. Simply…”
He picked up a stone and placed it on the board.
“A monkey caught stealing crops only needs its head cut off. No reason to teach it, no reason to waste brainpower.”
—Crack.
The stone in Cheonhyeolma’s grip shattered into powder.
“I killed every monkey in the area, skinned them, and hung the hides up. The peach-stealing stopped. A happy ending.”
—Kiiiiik…
The dying cicadas’ cries echoed faintly across the cliff. Cheonhyeolma and I stared at each other without the slightest retreat. The pulverized stone fragments spun slowly on the board, gradually slowing until they stopped.
“Whether you intended it or not, I don’t care. I’m a monkey, after all.”
My words grew rough. In a hoarse voice I spoke to the Heavenly Blood Demon before me.
“What’s certain is that I am one of the successors who currently carries one of the greatest traces you left for later generations. If you want to kill me, kill me. If you want to stand by and watch, stand by and watch. But…”
I took a stone from the container at my feet and slammed it down onto the board.
“If the peach-farm master has had a change of heart and come here intending to show a little charity to a monkey, then help me this once.”
“Help you?”
“I know you’ve been watching everything from Maseonrim.”
I spoke while still on my knees.
“There’s a duel in one month. As you well know, Cheonhyeolma, my original skill is pitiful and my foundations endlessly lacking. Of course, if I threw every superior martial art I’ve copied with the ‘Heavenly Demon’s Authority’ into a life-and-death fight, I could probably hold out for a while the way I once blocked the Flame Wolf King. But!”
I sucked in a breath.
“This isn’t a life-and-death match. Killing techniques are forbidden, and above all it’s a public duel in an open place—so I can’t use any other sect’s martial arts.”
“That is no problem for a demon who bears the destiny of the Heavenly Blood.”
Cheonhyeolma’s expression did not change in the slightest.
“And if I refuse to help?”
I answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“I’ll bite my tongue and die right in front of you.”
“Monkeys these days talk a lot of nonsense.”
Cheonhyeolma clicked his tongue and placed another stone.
“I’ve been watching you. To be precise, longer than Mara Jin has. And one thing is certain: even if every person in this world despaired and took their own lives, you alone would never commit suicide. That is the kind of man you are. Yet you casually accepted a child’s game of a duel that isn’t even life-and-death a month from now, and now you’re throwing a tantrum that you’ll bite your tongue if I don’t help?”
“There’s a Taoist I know.”
“A Taoist?”
I nodded.
“A ruffian of a Taoist.”
“And?”
“He has a nickname for me. At first it annoyed me, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized nothing describes me better.”
“What is it?”
In a hoarse voice I answered Cheonhyeolma.
“Mad Dog.”
…
With the crimson twilight at my back, I replied in a voice boiling with passion.
“Once a dog loses its reason, it simply hangs its tongue out and charges at the meat. Cause and effect, circumstances—those only matter while reason remains. You’re right. Biting my tongue and dying is a lie. But I swear this instead: if you don’t help me this time, then from now on, no matter what it is, whatever you people want, I will do the exact opposite. So…”
—Kiiiiik…
Amid the cicadas’ ear-splitting cries I spat the words out as if vomiting blood.
“If you came to help, then hurry up and help. If not, get the hell out. Don’t tell me you really had nothing better to do and just spent over a week appearing in my dreams, sitting in front of me, and playing go by yourself day and night? Waiting indefinitely until I found my sense of self in the dream, remembered, and recognized you?”
“…You bastard.”
For the first time Cheonhyeolma’s pupils widened slightly.
“You remembered from the beginning.”
“Cheonhyeolma—everything you said in passing, claiming I wouldn’t remember anyway. All of it.”
He stared at me in silence. The hand that had been stroking his beard had long since stopped. Only after a long while did he open his mouth again.
“Truly an insolent monkey I want to kill. Even the last cult leader of the White Lotus Demon Sect wasn’t this kind of creature.”
Cheonhyeolma began stroking his beard once more. His eyes had turned ice-cold.
“Fine. I’ll play along with your word games. But remember this well. This is not for your sake, nor because I have been persuaded by your words. Mara Jin already knew you would be unable to keep the contract.”
…!?
“If left alone, everything will proceed exactly as he planned, and I have no intention of allowing that. That is the only reason. Understood? You foolish, arrogant monkey who believes himself clever—one day your neck will be broken, your hide peeled, and you will hang in the peach orchard.”
The sky began to shake. The crimson heavens started to collapse.
“So what will you do?”
We had long since passed the stage of exchanging pleasant words. In a cold sweat like bean paste, I clenched my teeth and growled.
“Make it clear—will you help me or not?!”
I had experienced this several times; I was used to it. It meant I was waking from the dream. The cliff crumbled with a thunderous roar. The go board plummeted into the bottomless void. Yet even amid that chaos, Cheonhyeolma and I never moved an inch, still staring at each other.
“Yuk-bi-dong.”
Cheonhyeolma delivered the cold declaration.
“Do you remember Yuk-bi-dong, Moyong Bi?”
“Yuk-bi-dong…?!”
I recalled the sixth secret cave of the White Lotus Demon Sect that I had stumbled upon while trying to harvest Sacred Lotus under Eun Seollyeong’s guidance—the place guarded by a giant white snake. The place where I had endured two and a half years of hellish training alongside countless wooden men.
“Yes. The hidden sixth cave of the White Lotus Demon Sect where the Heaven-Rending Blood Martial Art once rested, the place where you first discovered the jade stele.”
“Why there, after all this time?”
“Go there again. The solution to this situation will be there. And in that place!”
The world collapsed. Amid the shattering Maseonrim, Cheonhyeolma roared.
Complete the Chaos Origin Art! That is the procedure that any demon who has grown through rootless martial arts and who bears the destiny of the Heavenly Blood must inevitably pass through! And if you are a monkey whose vessel cannot even complete that much…
Cheonhyeolma murmured calmly.
“Then hang yourself and die. This is the final advice I can give to a descendant who would become Mara Jin’s plaything.”