Tempering

Qi had always been everywhere. It lived in the smallest medicinal root and lingered in the still-smoldering ember of a tinderbox dropped by the forager who had snapped that root from the earth. Living or lifeless made no difference.

That energy was, by nature, too faint to spill outward — except under particular conditions, in particular circumstances. A human whose body brimmed with Qi could, for a brief moment, release it.

Fail to control what you released, and it scattered into empty air, a fraction of it sinking into whatever creature or object happened to stand nearby. But—

"Succeed in controlling even a sliver of it, and it takes on a special quality. I named that Tugi. With it, you can unleash transcendent power — or twist the laws that govern the world around you. Or the ones that govern you."

"Hnnngh..."

"Khh..."

"Are you listening?"

"Hss— yes, sir."

"Don't fall asleep when the Commander's talking."

I had gathered the men who showed a spark of promise on a training ground carved into the hillside and tried preaching everything I had pieced together about Qi. As expected, not a single one of them understood a damned word.

And why would they? These were men who had never learned to write the three characters of their own names. The only reading they had ever done was checking the scraps after they wiped themselves in the latrine, just to make sure they had finished the job.

The soldier who had once declared, with great dignity, that he was no illiterate was currently hiding his one remaining eye behind a patch and doing his damnedest to look awake.

Fine by me. I had possessed the body of a mountain-valley boy named Yuhyeon, and I had not known much about letters either.

So I decided to teach them my way.

"In short: stuff your body full of that Qi, then blow it open. That's how you get the hang of it."

"How do you mean, sir?"

"Like this."

Crack. Blood welled from Park Gyu's scalp where my thrown rock had found him. I walked through the startled ranks, quietly rolled up my sleeves, and told them to pick up the weapons I had brought.

"Qi is everywhere. Especially here in Pamagok — the concentration is absurdly high. That's probably why the Demonic Beasts have gotten stronger."

"Then..."

"You could beat the lesson out of a Demonic Beast, sure. But wouldn't that take too long? I'll be your sparring partner."

Having awakened Tugi myself, I could release Qi at will. For them to take it in, though, they would have to fling open every Qi aperture in their bodies the same way.

I could teach them to release it again and bend it to their will, too. The moment their bodies decided they were about to die, they would convert that Qi into Tugi on their own.

In other words, I intended to beat them to the brink of death.

"Don't be shy. Come at me."

"Sir? But..."

There were a dozen of them, armed. I was barehanded, and I had never shown the new arrivals what I could do in a fight.

They hesitated, no doubt picturing themselves scraping a corpse off the dirt. I decided to offer a little motivation.

"Anyone who puts me on my knees even once gets their sentence cut in half."

"......!!!"

"But if none of you can drop me, every last one of you gets ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a month tacked on."

The most powerful authority a commander of a penal unit held over his convict soldiers: the power to reduce a sentence — or grant a full pardon.

I was the sort who overlooked most things so long as no one wrecked discipline, but I had never once let a prisoner leave this place early. The men who had been hesitating a moment ago now had a hungry gleam in their eyes.

"Hrah! Dieee!"

Chunsik was the first to charge, sword swinging. One by one, the rest of my men piled on.

"Ghhk. Hahh..."

"Damn it!"

"I really thought I had him..."

"That fond of this place, are you? You've got a long way to go. Keep at it."

Back at the garrison, I dumped the lot of them in the barracks — not one of them could so much as twitch a finger — then stopped by the bathhouse, washed off the dirt ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and blood, and came out whistling.

Nothing in this world is free. Training my men mattered for more than settling scores with the commanders of the other garrisons; it was a matter of strengthening our forces.

But I was handing over know-how I had learned with my life on the line. Was it so wrong to take something in return?

Judging by how fast they pick things up, I can tack on two years even for the quickest of them.

Two years on a sentence. Cheap, considering I was teaching them how to wield Qi.

I was heading for my office with a light step when a familiar face approached from the far end of the corridor.

Her hair, black as ink, was bound with a sash that called to mind an obi. Her expression was as composed as her dress, almost empty of feeling — but the moment our eyes met, a light kindled in those golden irises.

"You have returned, Commander Yuhyeon."

"Yeah."

"I heard the instruction of the convict soldiers began today. The laundry is likely to increase. Shall I inform the servants?"

"Do that."

If a devil appeared and offered to make my men's sentences lifelong, I would have sold my soul without blinking. There was only one person I wanted out of this place as soon as possible.

Yeonri.

She was the girl Jang Mu, then commander of the Border Defense Unit, had kept in his grip at the banquet hall. Whether she believed I had saved her by killing him, she had since taken it upon herself to attend me, hovering always nearby.

She was sharp and good with her hands, and the busywork had genuinely lightened. She kept her distance well enough that I never found her a nuisance. The problem was what happened the moment she showed her face in the garrison.

"Gulp."

"Ahem... Sir! Nothing to report on the perimeter."

Namely: her looks were so striking that the soldiers could not keep their eyes on their work. There were plenty of young women among the laborers at the garrison, but none of them seized a man's gaze the way Yeonri did.

"I told you not to wander in and out of my office as you please."

"The fault is mine. I have committed an act of disloyalty. I will gladly accept another ten years on my sentence."

Warning her was useless. Anyone else would have trembled at a single extra day. She bowed at the waist as if she had been waiting for exactly this.

The only method that worked was to give her no attention at all. I was about to brush her off as usual and get back to work when Yeonri caught hold of me. Her long lashes beat together and apart, quick as a butterfly's wings.

"Lord Yuhyeon. May I make a request?"

"What is it?"

"I wish to learn this Tugi as well."

"No."

"For what reason?"

No need to spell it out. Half the soldiers currently sprawled across the barracks would not be moving their arms or legs properly.

I had used the stupidest method possible — literally beating Qi into their bodies. Was I supposed to do the same to her? Yeonri listened to my explanation, nodding along as if she understood perfectly...

"That is quite all right."

"What?"

"If I can be of use, I can endure that much pain without difficulty. If you wish it, Lord Yuhyeon, you may even seize me by the hair."

"......"

"What do you think?"

I decided I had not heard that.

"But I understand the principle. If the goal is to take Qi in and accumulate it within the body, there need not be only one method."

"Later, sure. Right now I don't have time, so this is the fastest way."

"There is one more thing I am curious about."

"What now?"

"What is your Tugi, Lord Yuhyeon?"

A brief silence settled over the office.

"The form Tugi takes appears to differ from person to person. What manner of Tugi do you possess, Commander Yuhyeon? Could it be that..."

— Clang, clang, clang!

The moment she started to say something, the alarm bell rang from the watchtower.

That was what the pitch and count of the bells meant.

The gorge had been sealed tight with walls of piled stone and timber, but Demonic Beasts that manifested in a haze of violet light could appear anywhere — even in the midst of civilian homes. Anything ranked Grade 4 or higher was difficult for even a pack of trained soldiers to put down without casualties.

"We'll finish this later."

The elite troops were in no shape to fight after the training, so Yuhyeon went himself. Yeonri followed at his heels, lengthening her stride toward the north, not far from the garrison.

"Aagh!"

"My body— I can't move!"

Screams carried from far off. A serpent the size of a house had settled its bulk across a dwelling and was menacing the people inside the walls.

No fang or tail had touched them, yet the bodies of everyone standing in the direction of its turning head were going stiff as stone. Soldiers coughed grit from their mouths. Through their ranks, Yuhyeon appeared.

"Get everyone far back. Raise sacks around it so its gaze can't land on anyone."

"Commander!"

"Don't any of you meet its eyes either. I'll handle this myself."

He had already identified the Demonic Beast's weakness and given his men their orders. He himself, utterly unconcerned, picked up a spear and walked toward the giant serpent.

"Lord Yuhyeon, it's danger—!"

Before she could stop him, Yuhyeon drove the spear into the beast's eye. At the same instant, his body began to harden.

The serpent's fangs punched into his shoulder. Its tail coiled around his leg. Crunch. The sound of bone giving way was hideously clear.

"You little shit."

Even so, he left his grayed left arm where it was and seized the spear again with his right. He twisted at the waist and wrenched the shaft buried in the serpent's eye. The beast went wild.

Debris and dust exploded in every direction. Yuhyeon's body was flung with it.

That was when Yeonri noticed something strange.

The arm Yuhyeon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠used to grab the fangs sunk into his nape and wrench them free had already returned to its original color. The torn skin and muscle had not yet closed, but when the Demonic Beast glared at him with its remaining eye, he no longer turned to stone. Yuhyeon's Tugi had manifested.

"Regeneration? No... that is..."

"Adaptation."

"Pardon?"

"That's what he calls it, anyway."

Park Gyu had appeared at her side at some point. So had the rest of the men.

Every one of them had dragged a body that could barely hold a spear all the way here. For their commander.

"It's not the immortality the First Heavenly Emperor was hunting for. Adaptation takes time — snap his neck before it kicks in, and he dies like anyone else."

"Those mountain shamans had it right. Tch. I can't stand those bastards."

Those had been Yul-ta's words as he departed.

As more time passed, neither the Demonic Beast's venom, nor its tail, nor its gaze had any effect on Yuhyeon. He reset the broken bones in his leg, took a sword from one of his men, and drove it through the creature's crown. Only then did it stop moving.

"Well fought, sir."

"Carve out what we need and bury the rest far off. It's poisonous."

"Yes, sir!"

Yeonri hurried after Yuhyeon as he headed back to the office, tearing away the rags of his ruined clothes. There was a small hesitation in her steps that had not been there before. Guilt.

"See? That's roughly how it works."

That had not, in truth, been the question she had meant to ask in the office.

She had wondered whether Yuhyeon used his Tugi to control people's hearts.

She could not understand how a convict soldier had seized the commander's seat of the Border Defense Unit and remained unharmed — or why the other prisoners followed him with genuine loyalty. Some of them had even been dragged here by slander, after all.

"Anything else you want to know?"

"Does it... not hurt?"

"Hurts like hell."

But now she thought she understood.