Parting
"Today is the last day."
"Pardon? What is?"
"Me showing you martial arts. This is everything I can reveal."
One by one, day after day, a little over a month had already passed.
After watching more than forty forms, I found myself seized by an urge to create a martial art of my own.
My understanding of swordsmanship was ahead of the others, so I chose the sword as the broad framework.
I broke each of the existing moves apart, took only the essence, and discarded the rest without hesitation. In the end, all that remained were the individual traits of each form, and it became impossible to bind them together into a single sword.
This problem tormented me while I ate, while I slept, even while I circulated my qi.
It grew so bad that I could barely manage ordinary life, and Yiryeong finally took my sword away from me.
"Why?" I protested. "I can still do more! I thought if I kept swinging it, the answer would come to me..."
As I thrashed helplessly, my gaze locked only on the sword, Yiryeong pulled me into her arms.
"It’s qi deviation. It’s something every martial artist goes through once in a while. Rest for now."
I was dissatisfied, but because it was Yiryeong speaking, I didn’t want to defy her.
With my daily sword swings stolen away and my efforts to build up internal power forgotten, I had nothing to do but wander the mountains.
Once, I even chased a wild boar all over the hillside.
With my obsession over the sword and martial arts gone, things I had forgotten began to catch my eye.
The blue sky, the clouds drifting across it, the mountain peaks thrusting high above them. The breathtaking landscape filled my vision, and it reminded me of the day I first came here.
Back then, I had looked at the mountains hidden behind the clouds and marveled at them.
Then, all at once, understanding came to me.
Yes. It was something that concealed.
Cloud and mountain were different, and yet they existed as one because they covered one another.
Yiryeong flashed through my mind. She, too, always kept herself hidden behind a cold, expressionless face, but there was softness inside her.
Even swords that stood in opposition to one another could exist as one!
Swords containing many principles could extend in different directions at once, yet the sword that actually reached its mark would be one single strike.
Illusion. That was the answer I had found.
I wanted to tell Yiryeong at once. I ran toward the house where she would be waiting and shouted as loud as I could, "Yiryeong! I found it! I found the answer!"
The door opened, and Yiryeong stepped out through the gap.
Perhaps because my mind had grown clear from enlightenment, even that sight came to me differently.
Her gaze had always been fixed on me. From the very first time we met, even when I had been consumed by qi deviation and ignored everything around me.
Realizing that, I rushed into Yiryeong’s arms before I could stop myself.
"Yiryeong, I’m sorry. I’m sorry..."
What did a sword amount to, when I couldn’t even take account of the person standing beside me?
Tears spilled from my eyes.
She smiled as though she understood everything.
"Hyun, why are you crying? I’m so happy. Don’t cry. Smile for me."
At her words, I gave the happiest smile I had ever worn in my life.
Time in the mountains passed unusually quickly.
Each time I noticed the season changing, months had somehow already gone by, and in the endless repetition of each day, the time I spent with Yiryeong was blissful.
When the sun rose, we sat facing each other in meditation, our legs folded in the posture that had become second nature to me, and circulated our qi until sunset.
Though I still had a long way to go, I also showed Yiryeong my sword.
I swung a sword steeped in the subtlety of speed, a sword carrying the mystery of yielding.
But all of it was nothing more than sleight of hand.
The sword I wanted to unleash was not something so trivial.
Among the feints, I drove out a tyrannical, overwhelming blade.
For now, the number of feints was still small, and they were not especially irregular. But if I continued to build my internal power and experience many swords, then melted them all together into one,
I would surely be able to move forward.
"If this swordsmanship is ever perfected, the Ten Great Masters of the Murim may be changed."
"It’s not that grand..."
As expected, Yiryeong was far too soft with me.
Then the seasons changed four times, and before I knew it, a year had passed.
"Yiryeong, the rain will start coming down heavily soon. Shouldn’t we repair the house?"
For some reason, at my words, Yiryeong’s face darkened.
"...Let’s leave it for now. It should still be fine."
"If we put it off too long, the house’ll get washed away."
I tried to sound cheerful, but I could tell her expression was uneasy.
"Right, don’t worry. And tomorrow I’ll be going into the village, so keep that in mind."
"Should I come with you?"
"No. I’m going alone this time. It’s personal."
"Ah...then take care, Yiryeong."
Yiryeong came down the mountain and knocked on the door of a shabby tavern.
"Welcome! What brings you here?"
Like any tavern, she was greeted by a bright, lively serving boy.
"Haomun. Is this the right place?"
"Ah, so it’s you!"
The boy grinned and led her inside.
Haomun was a sect that handled information. Though it belonged to the unorthodox factions, it was a relatively moderate organization.
The shabby tavern interior was a deception; once she went down into the underground level, a massive cavern spread out before her. Expensive night pearls were embedded here and there, and people hurried about busily.
"Please wait a moment."
Before long, he brought out a woman whose face was hidden behind a veil.
"It’s an honor to meet the future dragon of the Emei Sect."
"Skip the greetings. I want to deliver a letter."
"Oh? If you’re entrusting it to us, then it must be urgent. You know the contents will be leaked, don’t you?"
True to its nature as a sect that lived and died by information, Haomun even used commissioned letters as a way to make money.
Yiryeong took a scroll from her bosom and handed it to the woman.
"I don’t mind if you read it. Just deliver it to the main content as quickly as possible. That’s enough."
"Hmm... No, I won’t read it. Consider it a favor from Haomun."
As though she had no intention of accepting refusal, the woman said that and left.
After she finished her business and stepped back outside, Yiryeong thought about the contents of the letter. It began with news of her own recent circumstances, but most of it was about Lee Hyun.
She was to find the boy, who had overflowing talent, and protect him until he grew up, even if it meant taking him in as an adopted disciple.
Yiryeong truly did not want to leave behind the life she had now with the boy. She had saved him on the slender thread of a shared sense of kinship, but Lee Hyun had changed her life.
When the boy cried, she cried too; when he smiled, she found herself smiling along with him.
Yiryeong treasured the boy so deeply that she would have happily ignored the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering the Murim Alliance would soon hold.
She thought she would be happy simply watching the boy grow.
But she could not betray the expectations of her sect and her master.
The Emei Sect had gone out of its way to obtain the finest elixirs for her despite its meager circumstances. Thanks to that, she had reached the Peak realm before she was even twenty, yet in the year she had spent with Lee Hyun, her cultivation had not changed at all.
If things continued this way, she would soon be left behind. The sect that had trusted her and invested in her would take a serious blow.
Shin Yiryeong—no, the Emei Sect’s next leader, Unryeong—had to prove her existence to the Murim.
It would be a good opportunity for Lee Hyun as well. Yiryeong had nothing more to show him, and it would be unforgivable to keep clinging to the path he had found for himself out of selfish desire.
She had already made up her mind, and yet even now she lacked the courage to tell Lee Hyun, who would be waiting for her.
Even after returning to the mountain, Yiryeong still could not bring herself to speak of parting to the boy.
Unlike her hesitation, time went on, and the date she had promised the sect drew closer.
On that day, rain poured down as though the sky itself had been split open, and instead of swinging my sword, I stayed home and circulated my qi.
After completing one full cycle, I heard a knock at the door.
Yiryeong was clearly right beside me, so what was that sound?
Yiryeong, whose expression had grown dark lately, rose and opened the door.
A woman I had never seen before stood there.
"Senior Sister Unryeong, is this the child?"
"Yes..."
"Yiryeong, do you know her?"
"She’s my junior sister... She’ll take you to Sichuan."
"Sichuan? That’s where the Emei Sect is, so why would I go there? No, more than that, what is this situation?"
She forced the words out with difficulty.
"I... have to go to Henan, where the Murim Alliance is. I couldn’t leave you alone, so I contacted the sect. I asked them to take you in as an adopted disciple."
"..."
In truth, I had more or less guessed already. I knew the day I would part from Yiryeong was not far off.
I understood that someone like Yiryeong, a Peak-level martial artist at such a young age, could not remain by my side forever. It was only that... the news came so suddenly.
"I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner."
"...It’s all right."
If I remained beside her, she could not go on.
She was my whole world, and because of that, she was too precious. That was why I couldn’t bring myself to hold back Yiryeong, who was trying to take flight.
I bit down hard on my lip to keep back the tears rising in my throat.
"Still, if you’d told me in advance, I could at least have prepared..."
At my words, Yiryeong’s face crumbled. She rushed over and held me.
"I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Hyun... I thought you might come to hate me, and I just couldn’t bring myself to say it..."
One drop at a time, Yiryeong’s tears fell onto my shoulder.
"How could I ever hate you... Smile for me. It hurts me when you cry, Yiryeong."
At that, she lifted her tear-streaked face and met my eyes.
With effort, I pulled up the trembling corners of my mouth, and Yiryeong, still crying, tried her best to smile in return.
"Junior Sister Un-gyeol will escort you."
Yiryeong said that while pointing to the woman beside her.
"Hyun, like I said before, see and experience as much as you can, and complete your sword."
"When we meet again, I’ll show it to you, so don’t be shocked."
I spoke brightly, doing my best not to let her see me cry again.
"Promise me, Hyun."
"Promise you what?"
"Ten years from now. Ten years from now, we’ll meet here again today."
Ten years.
It was a long time. But I could wait. If I could only see her again.
"So this really is goodbye. By the next time we meet, I suppose I’ll be a different person."
"You will be too, Yiryeong. Take care of yourself. If I come back in ten years and you’re not here, I’ll resent you."
"Yes... You too."
We looked at each other for a long while, as if trying to memorize every line of the other’s face.
"Senior Sister, I’ll see you again in Henan. I’m only taking this child there, then I’ll leave."
With those words from Yiryeong’s junior sister, I left the home I had come to cherish.
I already missed Yiryeong, but I steadied my heart by recalling every memory I had made with her one by one.
We would definitely meet again.
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