Succession (1)

Bihyung stepped into the training room at once. He stripped, changed into something comfortable, pasted up the talismans the room kept on hand, and settled cross-legged amid the thickened density of energy.

Yodan. The moment he called the yokai core to mind, yokai energy surged.

Crackle. In that instant his dokkaebi power tried to uncoil and rise, and he forced it back down. This was not the moment he needed it.

Rise.

The yokai energy obeyed, driving toward the yang qi packed tight inside his heart, and before long the flow split into eight streams. Then—

A violent hiss, and steam billowed up from every inch of Bihyung's body. Flame flared. Air rushed past.

Hot. And cold.

Contradictory as it was, heat and chill took turns tormenting him. Even so, it was not so painful that he could not endure it.

How long passed like that? At some point Bihyung realized that not a single blocked acupoint remained in his heart.

"I opened every last one!"

Then why wasn't a story-clear notice coming up?

"...Did something go wrong again?"

He was awkwardly scratching the back of his head when a chime rang—the alarm he had been waiting for.

Oh!

"...?"

A question mark shot up over Bihyung's head. And what nonsense was that supposed to be?

"...It won't form? Then why does the story even exist, and why did I clear it?"

His quiet doubt was still ringing through the training room when he caught it.

Huh?

He registered a foreign change moving through his own body.

This is... yang qi and yin qi?

The two energies had begun to circulate inside him. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠They did not crash together and fight, the way they did in the lower dantian. As if they had chosen coexistence instead, they refused to trespass on each other's domain, each holding to its own speed.

Another message rose before his eyes.

With those words, a grinding crack began to sound through Bihyung's flesh.

Don't tell me... a rebirth of bone and flesh?

To reset the skeleton and cast off the old body. What he had only ever seen in martial arts novels and games, he was now living through himself.

Crack!

Yeesh. Listen to that. Brutal.

Crunch. Grind. Every time the yin qi passed, bone snapped and muscle tore. Yang qi swept through after it, and the shattered sinew and bone were set again, sturdier and tougher than before.

What?

The Unique Story was stirring again?

I haven't even had the Baekgwi Yahaeng for that long...

Bihyung swallowed.

If that thing germinates, what kind of ability is it going to hand me this time?

He was terribly curious. It was not something he could obtain right away, though, so he put it out of mind. Better to focus on the body that was still changing.

The rebirth is on its last stretch.

The cracking gradually died away. When he looked at the floor, his shed skin lay collapsed there, as if he had molted.

A chime.

He could not even spare a glance for the messages rising in front of him. Eyes closed, Bihyung savored the change his body was bringing about.

The yang qi blocking the heart's acupoints enters the dantian, led by the yin.

Merging into the Great Yang of the lower dantian, it blew away every impure current and left only pure yang.

The larger the dantian grows, the faster the circulation becomes.

The Conception and Governing Vessels, once packed shut, melted before the heat of yang and shattered before the cold of yin. Past the Minor Heavenly Cycle, and into the Major. As those energies swept his flesh, his blood vessels gradually widened and grew tough.

At last the yin bit the tail of the yang, and the yang bit the tail of the yin, until the two ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠energies filled his meridians without a single gap. In a wash of brilliant light, Bihyung opened his eyes.

"...Yin-Yang Incarnation? And what is this supposed to be?"

A constitution he was seeing for the first time. Even Bihyung, a dyed-in-the-wool veteran of Reader's Chronicle, did not know it, and interest welled up at once.

It wasn't even in the developer comments.

The key had to be that line about an independent route being pioneered.

My story threw out the old framework the moment I took Mina into the Baekgwi Yahaeng.

If so, this was the proof of it. Bihyung looked up Yin-Yang Incarnation at once.

Bihyung lost his words at the description.

Because it was absurd? No.

This... is the most broken constitution I have ever seen.

He was simply stunned.

Boundless possibility. Has any constitution ever been described in words like that?

Even the ones called tier one—the Heavenly Martial Constitution and the Five-Qi Harmonized Origin—ended at "displays its true worth in close combat" and "manifests talent broadly across every attribute of the five elements." Nowhere in them was there "possibility," a word that marked a limit, nor "boundless," whose end could not be guessed.

In other words, the more I govern yin and yang, the more this body keeps growing.

Bihyung was sure of it. If the thing had carried a grade, it would have been judged EX at the very least.

It also holds the hallmark of the Nine Yang Body—yang qi that swells with nothing but a breath.

As that yang swelled, it naturally stirred the yin. Unwilling to lose, his yokai energy began drawing in the qi of the empty air and refining it, little by little, into more yokai energy. The two had named each other rivals they longed to defeat, and still they had chosen to coexist.

A body that can hold yin and yang...

Bihyung's eyes flashed for an instant. Then couldn't this body hold that thing from before, as well? He was just about to test it.

Hm?

The lower dantian. In that place where the Yodan and the Great Yang coexisted, a small change had begun.

What is that?

An abyss of yin qi, pooled like shadow, and above it nothing but the sun that poured out bright light. That was how the domain had always been. And in a place like that—

...A membrane formed?

Something utterly uncalled-for had taken up residence. Whatever wrapped the lower dantian looked, to any eye, like a translucent film—or like a shell, in the moment just before a living thing is conceived.

What is happening inside my dantian?

Was it only a feeling?

A throb, as if a heartbeat were sounding from the lower dantian itself.

In the end, he never uncovered the dantian's secret. No matter how he contemplated it, he found no change beyond the membrane. With the attitude that he would know when the time came, Bihyung closed out the day. Whether his yokai nature was scheming something more or not, he now had the confidence that he could control it.

He went to bed, rested deeply, and rose.

"Let's head for the restricted zone today."

Regular classes began next week, which meant he had to get back from the restricted zone before this weekend was out.

"First, the demon blade. The spear... should I bring it?"

Better to have it than not, so he brought it, and passed his things to Eodugi inside the shadow.

"There is still ample room, my lord!"

At the boast in Eodugi's voice, Bihyung let out a short laugh and went on packing this way and that.

"Then a change of clothes, washing things—ah. I should pack the cure-all, just in case."

"Eh? My lord?"

The luggage only kept growing, and Eodugi's voice was turning panicked, when Bihyung snickered and waved a hand.

"It's fine. This is enough."

"...Whew."

"Then shall we go see Mina?"

"...Pardon? Why would you be meeting Miss Mina, my lord?"

Why call her young miss, when Mina had joined the Baekgwi Yahaeng even later than he had?

"Well, anyway. I'm meeting Mina because there's something I want to test."

"Something you wish to test, my lord?"

"Whether she can go into a shadow, like you. That."

The corner of Bihyung's mouth lifted into a smile that looked rather wicked.

"If that works... we could pull a dirty trick, couldn't we?"

With that he left the dorm and contacted Mina, and before long he met her as she came running up.

"Mina. Want to try going into my shadow, like Eodugi?"

"Huh? Your shadow?"

Mina could not hide her confusion at first, either, but she went along without a word of complaint. And the result—

"This is the inside of your shadow, Bihyung? Oh—Senior Eodugi's here too."

"My lord! The young miss has entered the shadow!"

A complete success.

"If I may, my lord. Surely you can tell us now? What do you intend to do, having placed the young miss inside the shadow?"

Ah, that? Just a simple experiment.

Bihyung's mouth twitched.

If I can put you in the shadow and walk into the restricted zone, the rewards would copy, wouldn't they?

Mina would enter the shadow and claim his reward alongside him; for her reward, he would tag along.

"But we don't even know if you can come into my shadow, Bihyung."

We can test that later. And if it really doesn't work... I just push a little harder with the Dokkaebi Gamtu on.

He had no idea how long the road to the restricted zone would take, but if he asked Mina to stand guard and rested a while... couldn't he make it?

If not, no big loss.

He was going into the treasure vault this time, so there was no real need yet to bother with the other restricted zones. It would be another story if there were dokkaebi there, or yokai like them.

I already know everything that's in the tombs. I'll tell you later, so dig through those first.

He was only telling her because, as a veteran, he had no need of them himself. Mina seemed to have misunderstood, though, and her voice went thick with tears.

"B-Bihyung...!"

The instinct struck him that she might burst out of the shadow and throw her arms around him at any second. Bihyung hastily soothed and coaxed her, then picked up his phone.

F-first, let's go. We need to get there and back fast.

With that, he sent the academy a message that he meant to enter the restricted zone, and a reply came before long.

"A map?"

The message, a single photo attached, read as follows.

"They certainly treasure the place."

And starting now, he meant ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to trespass on it. The fact stirred a little thrill in him.

"Whoa. Bihyung, you look a little evil."

"Young miss, our lord is a yokai, so of course he does!"

"Yeah? Then that means it's cool."

He lightly ignored the comic routine drifting out of the shadow and moved along the map the academy had sent. The steps he lightly spurred were far faster than before, and he had not learned a single lightness art or movement technique.

...After gaining Yin-Yang Incarnation, my body feels ridiculously better.

How to put it. His stats had not gone up on their own, but it was as if he could use the yokai part of himself, and the human part, far more cleanly.

"Whatever do you mean, my lord?"

The efficiency of dokkaebi power and yokai energy settling into my body has changed.

By feel, nearly double. Maybe, being half-yokai, he had been eating a penalty all this time.

Incredible.

He was only 2nd Rank, and yet at a speed nearly the match of 3rd Rank, Bihyung crossed the academy grounds and arrived where the restricted zone lay.

A long, soft rush. He looked back, and the path he had run was vanishing like mist. Now he understood what a one-time path meant.

"Bihyung! I got in too!"

Mina had hidden herself well in the shadow and entered the restricted zone with him. A smile spread across Bihyung's lips.

Jackpot.

If anyone else had seen this, they might have asked why no one had tried such a method until now. But the shadow in which the members of the Baekgwi Yahaeng hid was tied to Bihyung's dantian, and to his very existence. Added to the peculiarity of a vessel that leaked not a single drop, the Dokkaebi Gamtu was erasing even his presence. He could say with pride that it was a method no one else would dare imitate.

Restricted-zone rewards, doubled. Can't pass this up.

Humming as if delighted, Bihyung walked the interior of the restricted zone. On the whole it looked like a deep mountain slope lined with old hanok, the traditional wooden houses of an older Korea. Night had not even fallen, and yet inside the restricted zone there was not a single point of light.

Then, in that brief moment, a voice laid itself low across the dim expanse.

With the voices, little by little, blue flame began to spread.

...As expected.

A color of flame rather familiar to Bihyung. Guihwa—ghost fire. Dokkaebi flame.

There were dokkaebi here.

A bumper year for the Hundred Ghosts.