Wanna Try It?
"...What exactly do you think you're doing?"
Through the open door, Yeon Sohee's icy gaze glittered in the darkness.
Under that frost-blue killing intent, I could barely bring myself to part my lips.
Even so, I met her stare head-on and answered.
"Seolhyeon said she was too cold."
"If she's cold, she can pull up a blanket. What business do a man and a woman have clinging to each other in the sacred Taoist halls of Wudang?"
"..."
She stalked toward me and Cheon Seolhyeon, her irritation on full display.
"...Is it really such a terrible offense?"
"..."
I locked eyes with Yeon Sohee, her brow furrowed as she glared at me. Incomprehension was written plainly across her face.
"If holding a sick junior martial sister for a moment is such a grave sin, then by all means, punish me."
"Hah..."
A sigh escaped Yeon Sohee's lips.
"Never mind. Forget it. Take this."
"...?"
Yeon Sohee slipped a hand into her robe and, a moment later, drew out a small wooden case and tossed it to me. The instant I caught it, a delicate fragrance brushed the tip of my nose.
"This is...?"
"Taecheong Pills. Disciples who enter through the entrance examination are each gifted a single elixir. This one is for Cheon Seolhyeon."
"Then what about me?"
"You've already had yours. The Taegeuk Pill—it balances the yin and yang of the body... anyway. I'll recite the verses of the Supreme Purity Heart Method, so tell me once you've memorized them all."
"But I have no memory of that?"
"Well, I fed it to you while you were unconscious. Otherwise you'd still be lying there."
"...I see. Though I don't seem to have gained any inner power from it."
"That's because it was never an elixir meant to increase inner power in the first place. Now listen."
The verses of the Taecheong Mind Method, Wudang's core cultivation technique, flowed from Yeon Sohee's lips. The moment I heard them, they etched themselves into my mind, and after she'd repeated them a few times, Cheon Seolhyeon nodded, saying she had it all memorized too.
"I've memorized them all."
"Me too... all of it."
Then Yeon Sohee muttered weakly.
"Right... and if you're still wrapped around each other when you circulate your qi, you'll get to watch your beloved junior martial sister cough up blood on her way to the afterlife... So separate, and keep watch like a proper guard."
"..."
At that, Cheon Seolhyeon's arms began squeezing my waist even tighter. Yeon Sohee watched the two of us for a long moment, then rose from her seat, opened the door, and trudged out.
Once she was gone, Cheon Seolhyeon murmured into my chest without lifting her head.
"That pill... do you want it? You were always complaining about lacking inner power. This stuff has me cured in a day, so..."
"Seolhyeon, hey—wanna try it?"
"Huh..?"
Her lips parted slightly, and I popped the Taecheong Pill straight into her mouth.
"...!"
"I'll be watching. Circulate your qi."
"..."
Speechless, she pulled away from me and began drawing her energy. About a quarter-hour later, Cheon Seolhyeon opened her eyes.
"How is it?"
"How do I put it... like I've been reborn? My body's overflowing with strength."
"I'm jealous. Maybe I should ask for another elixir."
"Do you have any idea how precious those are? They won't hand one over that easily."
"Anyway, you're fully recovered now, right?"
"Huh? Oh... yeah."
I braced my palm against the floor and leaned in close to her. She seemed a bit flustered and tried to shuffle backward—unfortunately, her back was already pressed against the wall.
I was just about to ask her about the Heavenly Escape Sword Technique.
"Cheon-du...
"These two. Again, in the span of a heartbeat..."
Yeon Sohee's voice drifted in from behind us. Judging by the chill threaded through it, tonight was not going to pass easily.
And so, until dawn, I received private martial instruction from Yeon Sohee (written as "instruction," read as "beating").
She didn't even bother with a sword—she simply pummeled every inch of my body with her bare fists. And those fists were brimming with some emotion I couldn't name. It was enough to make me wonder if I'd done something terribly wrong to her at some point.
Gazing at the sun rising between the peaks of Mount Wudang, I swallowed back the tears that threatened to spill. Someday, without fail, I would repay this humiliation.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The Taegeuk Hall.
The most important place in all of Wudang, standing at the very heart of the sect's grounds. That the Sect Leader resided there, and that the Council of Elders convened there, told you everything you needed to know.
As I stood before the Sect Leader, the gazes of the elders bore down on me. The sound of their hushed whispers reached my ears with perfect clarity.
"Merely at the Peak realm, and he's mastered every martial art of Wudang—along with the Yin-Yang Limitless Divine Art and the Taegeuk Wisdom Sword?"
"Is that even possible?"
"Hmm..."
"Even calling him a once-in-an-era genius, can such a thing truly be done?"
One and all, they doubted what they had been told. Honestly, I understood. Copying a martial art just by watching it was something beyond their imagining.
I wondered how the council would conclude. Clenching the sweat slicking my palms, I stared straight ahead, tense.
And then it happened.
"Silence."
From the innermost seat of the Taegeuk Hall, the place prepared for the Sect Leader, a middle-aged Taoist rapped the desk lightly with his palm and spoke. The moment his weighty voice reverberated through the hall, the murmuring elders all fell silent.
And so the council began.
"This Sect Leader wishes to establish the facts regarding the matter of Supreme Elder Yeon Sohee leaking Wudang's martial arts to an outsider. Supreme Elder—have you anything to say in your defense?"
"No."
"What did you say..?"
At those words, the faces of both elders and Sect Leader darkened.
"I don't know about the rest, but... leaking the Taegeuk Wisdom Sword and the Yin-Yang Limitless Divine Art is an unforgivable crime of the gravest order."
"I am aware."
"Then..."
If things proceeded like this, the moment might come when Yeon Sohee would have to be expelled from the sect. But banishing a martial artist of the Harmony realm meant tearing out one of the sect's two pillars. The council's true purpose was to use this affair to chip away at her authority, so she could no longer act as she pleased, so recklessly.
Yet because of her single answer, the council's outcome threatened to slide in a direction none of them wanted. And Yeon Sohee merely smiled slyly, as if savoring every reaction.
"Are you saying that even if this Sect Leader expels you, you will accept it?"
"Hardly."
A deep smile bloomed at the corners of Yeon Sohee's mouth.
"When I stole the Yin-Yang Limitless Divine Art, the council raised hardly any objection... did it not?"
"..."
"And why was that? Would it not be because having it benefited Wudang?"
"That is..."
The elders began to stir.
Back then, the Orthodox-Demonic War had just ended, and most of the Harmony-realm masters had been slaughtered. When Yeon Sohee broke sect law and forcibly took the Yin-Yang Limitless Divine Art to produce even a single new Profound-realm master, everyone had let it slide. In the chaos following a war, immediate survival mattered more than tradition or law.
Because of that, expelling Yeon Sohee over the matter had been impossible. And that precedent had remained. Which meant she held justification on her side—and when both sides held justification, the advantage naturally went to the stronger one.
One of the elders put a question to Yeon Sohee.
"Then... do you have grounds to be certain that this boy will benefit Wudang to such a degree?"
"I do."
"And what would that be?"
As the elder pressed, the corners of Yeon Sohee's lips curled upward.
"On this matter, will you permit me to call a witness?"
"...Permission granted."
Cheon Myeong, Sect Leader of Wudang, gave a slow nod. At once, the great doors of the Taegeuk Hall began to swing open. And standing beyond those doors was someone quite familiar.
"...The Drunken Beggar?"
Overwhelmed by the countless eyes of the elders, he shuffled down the corridor trembling like a leaf and stopped before the Sect Leader.
"I pay my respects to the Sect Leader. I am Bak Daehyeok, Branch Leader of the Beggars' Sect, Wuhan Branch."
"Your reputation as the Drunken Beggar is well known to me."
...Why on earth had they called this guy?
I was still wondering when, all of a sudden, he pointed his palm straight at me. And then he began recounting the story of how I had wiped out the Black Tiger Gang.
How I'd saved commoners at the smithy and spread the name of Wudang. How I'd rescued the sect's lay disciples and swept away the Gang Master and Hall Masters of the Black Tiger Gang stationed there. And how I'd fought the Black Tiger Gang's leader—a Transcendent who wielded demonic arts—and defeated him in single combat.
"...That concludes the information obtained by the Beggars' Sect."
"If all of this is true, then indeed..."
"If he can defeat a Transcendent, wouldn't that mean adding the strength of an elder to our ranks right now?"
Several of the elders nodded. Somewhere along the way, the entire mood of the council had flipped. That was how much weight the Beggars' Sect's notarized information carried. Any one of them might have risen in outrage at such an absurd tale—yet everyone sat in silence.
Cheon Myeong, Sect Leader of Wudang, looked at me and spoke.
"A practitioner of the demonic path has appeared... is this certain?"
"Yes. What he used was unmistakably a demonic art. Come to think of it, he mentioned something about the blessing of the Cult."
The memory surfaced in my mind—that horrific power that had reduced people to a handful of crimson mist. Seizing what belonged to others to rapidly elevate oneself. That is the way of the Demonic Path.
"The Cult... the Demonic Cult... the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult... heh, heh..."
He murmured while gazing up at the ceiling for a moment, then spat out words no one could read.
"The Demonic Cult... so it has begun to move. Heh, well, well."
"..."
"Elders, hear me."
At those words, silence settled over the hall.
"For the crime of recklessly leaking Wudang's martial arts, Yeon Sohee is stripped of her position as Supreme Elder and demoted to Elder. Furthermore, she is forbidden to step beyond the Cheonju Hall grounds for three months."
"...!"
Every elder began to murmur at once. And no wonder—the position of Supreme Elder was an honorary title with no real authority whatsoever. Cheon Myeong, seizing this affair as his pretext, had handed Yeon Sohee actual executive power.
"Only Elder Yeon Sohee and her disciple Baek Sihyeon will remain; everyone else is dismissed. There is a matter I would discuss in confidence."