Miles in a Single Breath (1)

The morning at the Jegal Clan was busier and more chaotic than usual.

There was only one reason for it:

the clan’s one and only niece, their precious jewel, Jegal Yeona, had vanished without a trace.

If ordinary people who knew nothing of the matter heard the news, they might well worry that some fiend or demonic heretic had abducted the young lady.

But none of the Jegal Clan’s people were worrying about Jegal Yeona.

No, that wasn’t quite right. They were worrying about her—

to be precise, they were worrying about whatever disaster that unruly girl was certain to drag back with her.

Whenever Jegal Yeona disappeared like this, it was nine times out of ten a runaway escapade, and every time she ran off, the people of the Jegal Clan ended up suffering through the aftermath of her mischief.

The story of how she had once filled the drinks served to honored guests with liquor stolen from monkeys—or, failing that, with nothing but their urine—and then run a gambling trick that made every guest drink piss had already become infamous throughout Hubei Province.

And it was precisely because of this tomboyish little runaway that Yu Seojin, the Wudang Sect’s direct disciple and a close friend of Yeona, had been summoned to the clan leader’s reception chamber.

Knock, knock.

It was a route she had already walked many times, so Yu Seojin reached the chamber on her own, without a servant’s help, and knocked gently on the door.

"Come in."

At the quiet voice from inside, Yu Seojin opened the door and came face-to-face with the Jegal Clan’s head, Jegal Seon.

"This disciple of Wudang, Yu Seojin, greets the clan leader."

As Yu Seojin bowed respectfully, Jegal Seon paused in the middle of his work and slowly rose to his feet.

When her cloudy white eyes settled on his face, he smiled gently and said,

"There’s no need for such formality. You are the direct disciple of Wudang’s sect leader, are you not? Our Jegal Clan has enjoyed friendship with Wudang Sect for many long years, and I myself once received instruction from Sect Leader Baekhyeon. We’re practically one family already, so why speak so stiffly? Please, feel free to treat me as family."

"Hm? Oh."

Yu Seojin seemed to think over those words for a moment, fidgeting with her fingers and lips. Jegal Seon waited with an easy smile, and soon she brightened as if she had finally understood.

"I understand, Brother!"

"...Hm?"

Jegal Seon, who had been about to nod, froze in place. His head jerked as though he had just heard something that violated the natural order of heaven and earth.

Brother.

A term used for an elder male sibling, and also a term a woman might use for the man she loved.

He slammed a hand on the desk with a loud crack, sprang to his feet in shock, and gaped at her before pinching the bridge of his nose and forcing himself to calm down.

"Miss Yu."

"Yes?"

"Why, exactly, do you call me Brother...?"

"Didn’t Brother say that because you received instruction from my master, we are already one family?"

Yu Seojin’s face shone with a clear, innocent light, free of the slightest hint of hidden intentions or mockery.

Jegal Seon couldn’t even muster the energy to argue. He simply nodded in silence.

"I did."

"And I am the direct disciple of the sect leader, while Brother received teaching from my master, so by generation we are the same age, are we not?"

"...Oh?"

"Are we not?"

"Please, continue."

Rubbing at his throbbing temple, Jegal Seon waved her on.

Yu Seojin, blind though she was, could not see the gesture clearly, but she had been told to keep going, and so her lips began to move like a torrent.

"Yeona calls my master Grandfather and calls Brother Uncle, so that would make you something like my own elder brother, wouldn’t it?"

"And that is why you called me Brother?"

"Yes!"

"...Hah."

It was logic bordering on absurdity, but this was not some cunning attempt at manipulation. It was simply the tragic result of her lacking knowledge and having had too little education.

Jegal Seon struggled to choose his words, at a loss for how to explain things to this pure-hearted young lady whose understanding of the world ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was so pathetically limited, and let out a tired sigh.

"Miss Yu, do you remember that Yeona also received instruction from Sect Leader Baekhyeon?"

"Yes."

"Then by your own logic, Yeona is practically also Sect Leader Baekhyeon’s disciple, which would make her the same generation as you, wouldn’t it?"

"Ah?"

At that, Yu Seojin let out a soft sound as though some realization had dawned on her.

After a long moment of thought, she struck a fist into her palm and asked,

"Then that would make the clan leader Brother Yeona’s Brother!"

"......"

"No, wait. The clan leader is Yeona’s uncle, so if I call him Brother, wouldn’t that be a scandal of forbidden relations...?"

Yu Seojin’s eyes spun with utter confusion at the thought.

Jegal Seon let out a low sigh and began to explain with patience.

"Miss Yu, how do you address the other disciples of Sect Leader Baekhyeon?"

"I call them martial brothers."

"By your own reasoning, shouldn’t you be calling them Brother as well, rather than martial brother?"

Yu Seojin covered her mouth with a hand and widened her eyes, as though she had just awakened to some profound truth.

"Is that so?"

"What I mean is that the way one addresses family and the way one addresses fellow members of a sect are different."

"Ah, then how should I address the clan leader? Brother? Uncle? Martial brother?"

"Uncle will do. If that’s awkward for you, clan leader is also fine."

At last having reached understanding, Yu Seojin smiled and declared with the enthusiasm of someone making a solemn vow.

"Then I shall call you Uncle!"

"Yes, yes."

Jegal Seon let out a hearty laugh at her cheerful answer.

What he had learned from Sect Leader Baekhyeon was not Wudang’s martial arts, but the Dao and virtue of Daoism itself. For someone who was not even a formal disciple of Wudang to be called Uncle by Yu Seojin was absurd beyond words.

And yet this young lady, whose heart was as clear and pure as white jade, only spoke such bizarre and tangled sophistry because she had awakened to the Dao through hearing and practicing, but, being blind, could not read books and thus had never had the chance to build enough knowledge or culture.

He had told her to call him Uncle, and she still insisted on calling him Uncle-turned-martial-brother, not because of some hidden motive, but simply because it sat better on her tongue.

How could anyone be angry at a child who had grown up blind, without family, in Wudang all her life and had never seen much of the wider world, never ventured beyond Hubei?

Immaturity could sometimes be a fault, but even that depended on where one stood.

Another man might have scolded Yu Seojin for lacking refinement, but Jegal Seon was not that sort of person.

So he steadied his briefly rattled mind and decided to tell her why he had called her here.

"The reason I summoned you is simple. I’d like to ask a personal favor."

"I shall listen to Uncle’s words."

"I’d like you to go to Hunan and bring Yeona back for me."

"Huh?"

Yu Seojin blinked at him.

"Yeona went to Hunan?"

"That’s right."

"But Yeona was with me last night, looking at the stars and having fun."

"I know."

"And Uncle issued her a curfew."

"I did."

"Then how in the world did Yeona go to Hunan?"

At her question, Jegal Seon let out a sigh so heavy it seemed to sink the floor beneath them and waved a single letter lying neatly on the desk.

"A servant found this in Yeona’s room this morning."

Yu Seojin could sense the flow of qi as Jegal Seon flicked something in his hand, and she heard the rustle of paper.

He unfolded the letter and read out Jegal Yeona’s threat in a crisp, deliberate voice so Yu Seojin could hear every word clearly.

After finishing the letter, Jegal Seon’s face looked as though ten more years had been added to it—though Yu Seojin could not see that.

"Finding Yeona isn’t hard, to be honest. What worries me is that she might be rude to Sect Leader Baekhyeon."

Yu Seojin winced at the clan leader’s words and shook her head.

"Rude? I’m more worried those ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠two will conspire together and go cause trouble."

"That—"

Jegal Seon had no rebuttal.

Sect Leader Baekhyeon truly possessed every trait that made him seem entirely unsuited to being the head of a sect.

He was a sect leader who never stayed in one place;

he would dash off for a thousand li in person under the pretense of practicing righteous deeds and seeking the Dao through action, only to raid a bandit lair in Hebei;

and when he claimed he was trying to obtain the teachings of the Long Life Elder, he once released dozens of donkeys inside Zishou Palace and sat there singing drunkenly to himself.

To put it kindly, he was free-spirited and detached.

To put it less kindly, he was a layabout through and through.

Even some of Wudang’s own Taoists occasionally whispered about how a man like that had ever become sect leader.

And wasn’t it Baekhyeon who had turned Jegal Yeona’s originally stiff, wooden personality into the troublemaking menace she was now?

Jegal Seon had been relieved and delighted to see his niece recover her lively spark, but every now and then, he did resent Baekhyeon for it.

When Jegal Seon smiled bitterly, Yu Seojin immediately bowed her head and answered.

"Please don’t worry, Uncle. I’ll go to Hunan at once and bring Yeona back."

"If you do that for me, this uncle will be deeply grateful."

"And I’ll have words with my master, too! Wudang Sticky-Cling-Harass? Why is it that he teaches Yeona martial arts but won’t teach them to his disciple?"

At that, Jegal Seon burst out laughing.

Yu Seojin didn’t know this, because she had never seen the letter herself, but the so-called “ultimate technique” that Yeona had written about, Wudang Sticky-Cling-Harass, was not a martial art at all.

It was merely Jegal Yeona’s grandiose packaging of plain old clingy, nagging stubbornness: sticking to the Wudang Sect leader, tangling herself around him, and refusing to let go.

The innocent girl, not knowing any of this, puffed out her cheeks and kept gossiping and complaining, earnestly speculating about what sort of martial art Wudang Sticky-Cling-Harass might be. Watching her made Jegal Seon feel as though he were seeing a spoiled child’s antics, and he curved his lips into a gentle smile.

***

Far below, the panorama of Mureung County spread out under the mountain.

Clusters of thatched roofs huddled together.

White smoke rising from every chimney, as if dinner was being cooked everywhere at once.

Faintly glimmering lanterns.

That was where the same dull but peaceful everyday life I had belonged to only a few days ago still existed.

The market where I had once gone running errands after getting a flick on the forehead from my master, the villagers who warmly pressed one little gift after another into my hands, the fields where grain had ripened into grains of gold.

But the sight before my eyes now felt distant, like a memory from a previous life.

As though a sheet of glass had been raised between us.

I turned my feet away, each step harder to tear loose than the last, and slowly put more distance between myself and the village.

I had no time to wallow in sentiment.

I overturned the library of knowledge in my head.

I had to drag out the dusty fragments of memory and search them for a sliver of light that might break this hopeless situation open.

First and foremost, the most serious problems were my master’s severed dantian and his exhausted internal energy.

The easiest solution would be to obtain a medicinal pill or some divine treasure, but those things were usually locked behind major ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠quests or earned by improving favor with a faction.

For example, Shaolin’s Great Rejuvenation Pill was the sort of item you had to pass an extremely difficult persuasion check to get, even if you raised your favor with the abbot, and Namgung Clan’s Heavenly Blue Great Elixir could only be received after maxing out their affinity.

At that rate, I’d be better off climbing Mount Tianzhu or Mount Changbai and digging ginseng like some mountain herb peddler.

With the Mind's Eye I had gained at the cost of becoming mute, that path of endless grinding and socializing looked far simpler.

But—

The problem is my master’s level.

My master was once a famed master of the Transformation Realm.

The realm and internal force he had accumulated were so deep that ordinary people couldn’t even imagine them.

That meant a single pill, herb, or divine treasure would not be enough to awaken him.

And the corpse worms in the Three Corpses Brain-Devouring Pill are another problem.

Even if the masked man said it was a refined pill, the principle was still the same: the corpse worms took root in the brain, melted into the blood, and devoured qi and blood while spreading poison.

There was no telling when those worms might suddenly turn and spew poison into my master’s body.

And even if that never happened, the worms would still have to be completely removed before his body could truly be restored.

The Three Corpses Brain-Devouring Pill the masked man had given me was only a temporary measure.

In the end, I would have to find a fundamental solution.

That man said the Tang Clan and Qingnang Sect were the ones who refined that pill.

Then perhaps they could provide the answer.

The Sichuan Tang Clan was rather rough and defiant, so it might be difficult to ask for their cooperation, but the other side was in better shape.

The Qingnang Sect.

A sect that worshiped the Jianyuan Three Divine Doctors as its founders, spread across the Central Plains, and devoted itself to teaching and practicing medicine.

Among the martial artists of the jianghu, who usually lived up to the grand name of the martial world by acting no better than organized thugs, the Qingnang Sect was unusually close to a purely medical order.

The only difference between them and ordinary physicians was that they had studied martial arts, perhaps.

Besides, Qingnang Sect has the Immortal Doctor.

In Anhui Province, where Qingnang Sect’s main branch stood, the Immortal Doctor—the sect leader of Qingnang Sect and one of the greatest physicians in the martial world—was staying.

A doctor of that caliber might know a way to remove the corpse worms from the Brain-Devouring Pill, or at least be able to advise me on my master’s condition.

And perhaps, moved by pity, that person might even be willing to grant me a single elixir.

I wasn’t hoping for heaven’s favor, but if heaven was willing to drop it into my hands, I had no reason to refuse.

Good.

I set Anhui Province as my target.

I spread a map in my mind and planned my route.

First Hunan, then Hubei, and from there to Anhui.

It was a very long distance to cover with light-footed movement alone. Even the distance from Hunan to Hubei was nearly a thousand li.

I would need to head to Yichang first, the nearest major city.

Mureung County was too small to find a proper warhorse; at best, there were only old horses and donkeys.

And I didn’t want to throw the villagers into disarray by telling them my master had fallen gravely ill.

It would be better for them to hear that their immortal figure had vanished into thin air than to learn he had fallen unconscious.

In Yichang, where merchant caravans passed through, I should be able to find a serviceable horse.

Then north from there. Take the Yangtze from Daming Prefecture in Hubei, and then on to Anhui.

Once I had a goal, the haze in my eyes rekindled into fire.

Rustle.

I pushed through the grass and stepped onto the main road. The sky had fully darkened, and there were few people on the road.

In the cloudless night sky, the moon shone bright enough that I could clearly make out the path even without a torch.

I immediately unleashed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠light-footed movement and set off for Yichang.

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