Teaching the Taegeuk Wisdom Sword to an Outsider?
Snow-white skin and sharply chiseled features.
His narrow, slit-like eyes swept up and down my body.
"..."
A snake.
The moment I laid eyes on him, the image that surfaced in my mind was that of a white venomous serpent.
Thud. Thud.
The man began walking slowly toward me.
Saying nothing, I raised my sword to bar his path, and the tip of my blade came to rest pointed at his heart.
"Don't come any closer."
"Oh..."
Surprise rippled across the man's face, and then he smiled at me with a sinuous, unsettling curve of the lips.
"You've got some nerve, don't you? I am the Lord of the Black Tiger Gang. Choe Taeho. The world calls me the Blood Claw Killing Demon. Does that ring a bell?"
"..."
When I gave no answer, he clicked his tongue and pulled a disappointed expression.
"...Well, eh. I suppose you might not have heard of me... So, what's your name?"
"...My name?"
Gulp.
My throat went dry on its own.
The being before me was unmistakably a Transcendent.
From the Transcendent realm onward, a practitioner could wield gangi — hardened qi. I couldn't handle it as freely as someone in the Harmony realm, but if my blade clashed head-on with his hardened qi, the sword would snap like a stalk of straw.
I saw no weapon in his hand, which meant he was likely a practitioner of fist arts, claw arts, or footwork — one of the three.
I widened the distance slightly to keep him from shattering my blade, and began recalling the martial art he had used moments ago.
He had driven his hand straight into a man's skull, so the odds were high that he fought with his hands.
And that technique — the one that had turned the Black Tiger Gang's branch chief into a pile of bleached bones in a single stroke...
"What you just used... that's not wicked arts, is it. That's demonic arts."
From the imprint of his technique, an unending savagery and coarse malice seeped out without pause.
A horrifying imprint that refused to see people as people, that called forth hostility toward everything around it.
Through that technique, I now understood a method of stealing the life force of others to deepen one's internal power.
Not that... I ever intended to use it.
If the imprint of such an art were to corrupt my mind and twist who I was...
Even I couldn't predict what I might do to the people around me.
Straining not to dwell on the formulas blooming in my head, I met the gaze of the Blood Claw Killing Demon, who was watching me as if I were something fascinating.
"Hoh. I didn't expect a wet-behind-the-ears Transcendent brat to catch on... Well then. Now I really can't let you live."
"Then why all the long tongue-wagging? Just attack."
"Shall I?"
A blood-red energy layered itself over Choe Taeho's elongated nails.
And within that vivid energy, faint starlight glimmered.
Hardened qi, beyond any doubt.
Then his claws came sweeping down.
I answered in kind, raising my sword in defense and pouring every ounce of my internal power into the blade.
The next instant—
KKWAGWAGWAGWANG—!
Something grazed past my left cheek.
A thunderous roar detonated beside my left ear.
When I turned my head slightly, I saw furrows carved across the ground and the buildings — as if a beast had raked them with its claws.
"..."
A claw swung lazily, without so much as a preparatory motion, and the earth itself had been literally torn open.
Cold sweat slid down my spine.
"Now..."
"I have a very generous offer for you."
Thud. Thud.
He approached me slowly once more.
Past the tip of my raised sword, to within arm's reach of my body.
Every time the sound of his footsteps pressing into the dirt rang in my ears, I felt my body lock up, like prey frozen before a great predator.
The Blood Claw Killing Demon's long nails grazed my cheek.
"I offer you the position of Vice-Lord of the Black Tiger Gang."
"...You want me to serve under you?"
"That's right. Come with me. Overwhelming talent that seized the Harmony realm in a single exchange. It truly is... something I covet beyond all measure."
"And if I refuse?"
"Well then... I'm afraid you won't get to close your eyes peacefully. If you'd rather suffer a fate worse than death, be my guest."
"Is that so?"
I turned the problem over in my head for a moment.
What would I have to say, or do, to walk away from this alive?
I had no intention of throwing away the chance I'd clawed back a second time.
And yet, bowing my head to this creature was something I despised even more than dying.
As I wracked my brain, a single thought flashed through my mind.
"..."
It was a rather pathetic thought, hardly befitting a martial artist, but...
I turned my head and looked toward the mountain rising in the distance.
Mount Wudang.
"Honestly, I figured that up to the Transcendent realm, I could find a way to win..."
"The higher you climb, the more brutal the gap between realms becomes. That's just common sense, no?"
"Right. Looks that way. But here's the thing."
Kiiiing—
The Taegeuk emblem rising beneath my feet began to spin with ferocious speed.
"I'll grant you the power. But whether your speed scales the same way... that, I'll need to see for myself."
"...!"
Blood-red hardened qi rippled across the Blood Claw Killing Demon's claws.
And in the very next instant, I kicked off the spinning Taegeuk and shot upward.
Weaving the intent of the Heavenly Thunder Sword Art into the Wind-Cloud Taegeuk Steps, my body became a single bolt of lightning, splitting the night air as I came down on the far side of Mount Wudang.
The blood-red hardened qi brushed past my back.
Feeling a tingling rush of exhilaration flood through my entire body, I lifted my head and gazed up at the peak of Mount Wudang.
My target was the summit.
The place where the Wudang Sect's temple stood.
"I suppose I should rename this one Heavenly Thunder Taegeuk Steps."
The name of this art would likely keep changing for a while yet.
But... I could say with certainty that the current Heavenly Thunder Taegeuk Steps could rival, no, surpass, the Transcendent realm.
The Blood Claw Killing Demon seemed to glare in my direction, then promptly became a single crimson streak and gave chase.
"Wow, damn. That's fast."
Binding the surrounding trees thick with threads of force drawn out through the Heavenly Net Absolute Force, I sprinted toward the summit at full speed.
And so, the chase began.
Mount Wudang was made up of countless peaks.
Highest among them was Heaven Pillar Peak, and there stood the residence of the Taegeuk Sword Empress — the Heaven Pillar Temple.
From that place, looking down over the mountain below, the whole of Mount Wudang's scenery spread out at a glance.
The Taegeuk Sword Empress, Yeon Sohee, sat cross-legged atop the roof of the Heaven Pillar Temple, gazing down the mountain.
"...What an interesting fellow."
A bolt of lightning clawing its way madly up toward the summit, and a crimson streak chasing at its heels.
Within that blood-red streak, faint starlight shimmered.
Which meant its user wielded hardened qi.
"What on earth did you do to provoke a demon, hm?"
A hollow laugh escaped Yeon Sohee's lips.
Before long, a veil of qi extended from her in secrecy, draping the entirety of the Wudang Sect's temple grounds like a shroud.
So that no one — not a single soul, save one — could know what was unfolding within Mount Wudang tonight.
Yeon Sohee picked up a strip of dried meat resting beside her, chewed on it, and watched the chase between the two beings with keen interest.
The demon sweeping his blood-red qi about caught his ankle on something and had it sheared clean off.
Rustle—
"GAAAAAAGH!"
His scream echoed through the night air.
He seemed to have stumbled into one of the traps Baek Sihyeok had strung up along the slope.
But then — he picked up his severed foot, pressed it to the wound, and the flesh knit back together in the blink of an eye.
Regeneration beyond all reason.
That, too, was a hallmark of demonic arts.
The distance that had briefly opened when his ankle was severed was rapidly closing once more.
Baek Sihyeok glanced back over his shoulder, went pale with horror, and threw every ounce of strength into running again.
Yeon Sohee snorted with laughter at the sight.
"Let's see just how far my disciple can push himself against a demon, shall we..."
"Your disciple? Since when did you have a disciple?"
At the dignified voice drifting in from beside her, Yeon Sohee turned her head slightly.
"...Senior brother."
A long, flowing beard and deeply wrinkled skin.
An old man whose hair had gone snow-white was looking down at the Taegeuk Sword Empress with grave composure.
"I'm planning to take one in soon, actually. Sit down. Would you like some dried meat?"
"...And you believe it befits a Taoist woman to be eating meat, do you?"
"That's exactly why I make it myself. No one else will do it for me. Thanks to that, my cooking has improved by leaps and bounds."
"Tsk, shameless as ever. Enough. Any more of this and only my ears will suffer."
Yeon Sohee's senior martial brother — and the Supreme Sect Leader of Wudang.
The Taegeuk Sword Emperor, Un Hyeon, settled himself heavily down beside her.
"When I told you to take a disciple, you refused absolutely. Why the sudden change of heart?"
"Because he'd be a bother, obviously."
Yeon Sohee shrugged her shoulders and turned her gaze toward the scene of furious combat below.
At that moment, the crimson streak finally seized Baek Sihyeok by the nape of the neck and hurled him toward a stand of trees.
From beside her, Un Hyeon asked in a doubtful voice.
"Er... just to be sure I'm not mistaken — is that demon fellow your disciple?"
"How could he possibly be."
"Then why in heaven's name are you just sitting here watching? One look is enough to tell he's climbing all the way up here to beg for your help, no?"
"I'm simply curious."
Yeon Sohee reached out, took the bottle of liquor beside her, and tipped it into her mouth.
"You know as well as I do. The moment at which a human being is most likely to attain enlightenment... is the moment right before death."
"Heh heh..."
"I can't wait to see what that boy shows me in the face of death. That's all."
A bright smile bloomed at the corners of Yeon Sohee's mouth.
As if this moment were, to her, sheer delight.
Watching her, Un Hyeon's brow creased deeply.
"Hah, tch. You're a pervert of a woman, you know that?"
"Such harsh words, senior brother. You wound me deeply."
"Enough. Do as you like. I'm going inside."
Un Hyeon waved his hand in dismissal and rose to leave the Heaven Pillar Temple, as if everything about this were beneath his notice.
And then, turning his head slightly toward the mountainside, he saw it.
The Taegeuk Wisdom Sword unfurling from Baek Sihyeok's hand.
The ambient qi around Baek Sihyeok began to be sucked in, drawn toward the Taegeuk spiraling above his sword.
KUGUGUGU—
"...Huh?"
Un Hyeon's eyes bulged so wide they seemed ready to leap from their sockets.
"That... that cannot be. The Taegeuk Wisdom Sword? The Taegeuk Wisdom Sword? Teaching the Taegeuk Wisdom Sword to an outsider? Have you truly lost your mind..!"
"Haha..."
Yeon Sohee smiled sweetly and turned her head slightly away from her furiously raging senior brother.
It was a sight she had grown well accustomed to.