They Stretch Like Magic
"...Ah, you're awake."
I stared at Yeon Sohee, the Taegeuk Sword Empress, every muscle in my body wound tight.
Because there was every chance she might decide, right then and there, to kill me with a flick of her wrist.
But Yeon Sohee only looked at me with a benevolent smile.
"I... I shall grant you a chance."
"Excuse me, what?"
"The entrance examination for the Wudang Sect opens soon. Pass it, and become a disciple of Wudang. Do so, and you will live — and moreover, you will enjoy the honor of becoming my disciple."
"Uh..."
Having said her piece, Yeon Sohee walked right past me.
Her footsteps were light and unburdened, as if she had nothing left to say and no lingering attachments whatsoever.
I caught her with my words as she passed.
I had no idea what she was thinking... but somehow, I just had to say it.
"Then... couldn't Seolhyeon here come along with me?"
"Hmm..?"
"Hey—hey..!"
Yeon Sohee's deep blue eyes fixed on Cheon Seolhyeon, boring into her.
There was something faintly disapproving in the look she gave her.
"...The right to sit the examination belongs to anyone. If she passes, I will accept her as a disciple as well."
"Thank you."
I bowed my head to Yeon Sohee with all my heart.
Then Cheon Seolhyeon, standing beside me, suddenly jabbed me in the ribs.
"Hey...! What exactly are you playing at..!"
"Hm? Well, you see..."
Because I haven't finished messing with you yet.
Because the sins you committed against me in a past life are far too great for me to just let you go.
"I'm not quite ready to say goodbye yet."
"Wh... what?"
She stuttered and fumbled over her tongue for a moment, then abruptly hung her head.
What is this? What kind of reaction is that?
"The duel we held the other day — I was the witness. You lost, therefore you owe Baek Sihyeon the information you promised."
"Yes."
"There are three days left until the Wudang entrance examination, so you must depart today if you're to make it in time. When you find yourself in need of that young man's strength, send word to Wudang."
"Yes, understood."
Tap, tap—
Yeon Sohee's snow-white hand patted my shoulder.
"For someone at the Peak realm, your internal energy is rather thin. If you enter Wudang, I'll see that you get your hands on an elixir or two."
"Yes... thank you..."
I answered in a voice drained of all its strength.
Yeon Sohee, for whatever reason, simply could not stop smiling.
"I will be waiting on Mount Wudang. Cheon Seolhyeon. Baek Sihyeon."
Rising from her seat, Yeon Sohee smiled as her gaze passed between me and Cheon Seolhyeon.
And in the very next moment—
A single gust of wind swept in from far away.
The Taegeuk Sword Empress, Yeon Sohee, was simply gone.
We stared blankly at the place where she had vanished.
That was the Hua realm.
Beings who lived in an entirely different dimension from anything beneath it.
My mind was reeling.
And yet, I felt anticipation too.
Because this time, I was certain I would reach that realm.
"Take this, Baek Sihyeon."
"Hm?"
Chwi Geolgae held out an envelope and a single money pouch to me.
When I opened the pouch, a few gold and silver coins glittered inside.
"This must be the information I asked for... but what's this for?"
"You're not seriously planning to climb Mount Wudang looking like that, are you? That should be enough."
"...? Oh. Right. Sure."
His grin as he looked at me was irritating for some reason, so I grabbed Cheon Seolhyeon's arm and made a swift exit from the inn.
The bribe had been Chwi Geolgae's clumsy attempt to win his senior's favor — but unfortunately, Baek Sihyeon had no eye for reading such things.
Besides, he wasn't a senior in the first place. To Chwi Geolgae, who knew none of this, it was simply a pity.
We stepped onto the main road, and I set off at a stroll, watching Cheon Seolhyeon, who had just come bursting out after me.
"By the way, how do you look this decent already?"
Freshly scrubbed, Cheon Seolhyeon was actually quite the beauty.
Long, flowing jet-black hair, and deep, dark eyes.
She wasn't the image of a mature beauty like Yeon Sohee — more the type with a cute face that hadn't quite lost its baby fat.
At the very least, there was no way anyone could mistake her for a man now.
Without thinking, I reached out and seized her cheek, tugging it hard.
"Oh wow, these stretch like magic."
"...You grabbed my cheeks the first time you heard my name, and now you've lost all sense of manners entirely? You don't just go pawing at a girl's face!"
"What manners do I owe the girl who tried to pin me as a thief?"
"..."
With nothing to say in her defense, Cheon Seolhyeon hung her head.
The sight of her — like a wet puppy — wrung a laugh out of me before I could stop it.
"Keep those cheeks on display from now on. That's the most I'll forgive you."
"...Shut up."
And so, chatting idly, we walked down the street together. It didn't take long to reach our destination.
"Round that corner and the smithy's right there."
"Right."
I couldn't very well set out into this Murim without so much as a single real sword.
After the bath, the next item on the list had been securing a blade to carry into the future.
"There's a master craftsman there who forges swords like a dream. You'll be amazed, I promise."
"Well, when you put it that way, I'm excited. Though it better not cost a fortune."
"Don't worry about that... Huh?"
Cheon Seolhyeon, walking ahead of me, came to an abrupt halt.
"What is it? Huh? What's going on over there?"
And the moment we reached the smithy, my own feet stopped of their own accord.
Then a roar — like the bellowing of some enormous beast — rang in my ears.
"So what you're saying, old man, is that you won't give us a refund?"
Three rough-looking men, shirts half peeled off, had broadswords resting on their shoulders and were backing someone into a corner.
The man they had surrounded — who appeared to be the owner of the smithy — was shouting his innocence.
"You broke it yourselves by swinging it around like fools! Why should the blame fall on me?!"
"Maybe if you hadn't forged it so badly, huh? Then you'd have to take responsibility!"
"Hah! You wretches! Stop making a scene at another man's shop and get out!"
And then, in the very next instant—
One of them kicked the pile of charcoal stacked in the corner of the smithy and smashed it to pieces.
Crunch—!
The shattered charcoal scattered into the air, ground to dust under that single kick.
Watching hours upon hours of labor dissolve into nothing, the old blacksmith collapsed where he stood and began to weep.
"My charcoal! I spent days firing that charcoal!!"
"Hey, old man. You want to keep doing business here?"
"You... you monsters... Do you think the Wudang Sect will forgive you for this?!"
The moment the old blacksmith invoked the name of Wudang, the men burst into loud laughter.
"PUAHAHAHA!"
"Sure, this is Wudang territory. But you think a great sect like that gives a damn about some backwater corner like this?"
"Make it make sense. Big brother — should we just wipe the place out?"
"Talking clearly isn't getting us anywhere, so I suppose we must."
The man at the front — a hulk who looked to stand a good six chi tall — raised his broadsword in both hands.
A faint blade-qi began to shimmer along the sword's edge.
As if he truly meant to cleave the smithy apart, building and all.
And then... that was the moment.
"Grandfather...? What's going on?"
"Wolah! No—!"
From the back of the smithy crawled a girl of about ten, as if she had only just woken from sleep.
The instant the leader laid eyes on her, a cruel smile spread across his face.
"Oh-ho. There's a granddaughter, is there? If we take that one with us, I'd say the books roughly balance out. Wouldn't you say, boys?"
"Keh-heh, seems about right."
"Then that settles that."
The hulk snickered and reached out his hand. His eyes gleamed with greed and naked lust.
In his other hand, the dark blade still shimmered with blade-qi.
"N-no! You brutes — not Wolah! Not Wolah!!!"
The old man's desperate scream echoed through the air.
And then, in the very next instant—
Shaaaaa—!
A sound like a bolt of silk being torn in two exploded inside the man's skull.
Baek Sihyeon leaned in close to his ear and whispered.
"Mount Tai Crushes the Summit."
"Huh...?"
KRAKOOM— splash—
Through the splitting corpse, I saw the eyes of the remaining two — devoured whole by terror.
"A... a madman... with a wooden sword..?"
"That's even possible..?"
Cheon Seolhyeon, meanwhile, had slipped inside the smithy and was covering the little girl's eyes with her hand.
"Princesses shouldn't have to see things like this."
I looked at the scene and laughed, hollow and faint.
"Hah..."
I closed my eyes, and for some reason it felt as if lightning were crackling up from somewhere deep in my chest.
No doubt it was rage — the kind one feels at the sight of filth that has abandoned its humanity.
Cheon Seolhyeon watched me with worry in her eyes.
"...Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Perfectly fine."
Murder was nothing new to me.
Surviving ten years in the back alleys meant I'd seen far worse than this.
"Ugh, my clothes got dirty. And these weren't cheap..."
The two remaining scum stared at me with trembling eyes.
"B-Brother Dongpal's man!"
"You... you're laying hands on the Black Tiger Gang — are you out of your mind?!"
"Shut up. You make me sick."
Recalling what they'd said earlier, I raised my sword.
It wasn't that I had any particular love for the Wudang Sect — but something in me wanted to refute their words all the same.
"You claim the Wudang Sect doesn't help the common folk?"
Sword-qi, black and white, bloomed from the tip of my blade and began to trace the shape of the Taegeuk.
The Taegeuk is circulation.
Circulation is flow.
And to maintain that flow, I could feel it — the tempering of the mind is essential.
Without it, even one who draws the Taegeuk loses its balance in an instant.
Just like me, right now.
Crack—!
The shape of the Taegeuk lasted only a moment before shattering, black and white collapsing into one another.
What remained was nothing but a single, monstrous mass of power.
A torrent of black and white surged around the wooden sword and began to rage with ferocious momentum.
An impossible weight settled into the wooden blade in my hand.
The men stared up at me, slack-jawed with disbelief.
"The... the Taegeuk Wisdom Sword..."
"How is Wudang here of all places..."
That was the last thing they ever said.
The pouring torrent of black and white swept them away, leaving not so much as a corpse behind.