A Woman's Weapons
There had been hesitation. The moment they heard the story, their attitude could change. Yet the urgent need to leave this place overpowered that doubt. Un-hyeon explained his circumstances exactly as they were. It was not because he trusted them. It was the same as when he had first practiced the Reverse-Blood Divine Art. A gamble with his life. For her, there had been no other choice. He revealed every truth and asked for help.
“A knight, you say… In my younger days I traveled every trade route under heaven, yet I have never heard of a case like yours.”
“How astonishing. To think you were once a man when you are this lovely now.”
“Were this anywhere else, I would have to say your memory is confused. But this valley is so strange that such a thing might well be possible.”
Hong Mae was already running her hands over Un-hyeon’s body, examining it closely. Earlier she had simply stood frozen, unsure how to react, but now the touch grew too uncomfortable and he pulled away.
“So that is how you managed to reach this place in such a body. May I check your pulse for a moment?”
“…Yes.”
If she asked so directly, he could hardly refuse. Still, he had not expected the Plum Fragrance Witch to know the art of pulse diagnosis. Among martial artists there were always those who possessed many skills, and Hong Mae was evidently one of them.
“Let me see… What a remarkably clean body. Like that of a newborn child. Yet it is by no means a constitution in which yin and yang are harmonized. It feels almost like the Nine Yin Severed Meridians… Just as you said. Perhaps only a body this extreme could adapt to this place.”
“Then the child can leave this valley after all.”
“Yes.”
“But the outside is swarming with strange beasts, and no matter how far one walks, there is no way out. You said you wandered for several days?”
“About four days.”
“A single valley should not be so vast. It must be a formation. Whether natural or artificial, I cannot tell.”
“Ok-yeon.”
“I am grateful that you gave me a name. But I have already told you my true name. I am Un-hyeon, the young master of the Baek clan in Wungye County.”
“Do you truly believe you can return to being a man?”
“That is…”
“And even if you did return, do you believe you could walk the Central Plains in that same form?”
“I can grow a beard.”
“A beard might alter your appearance slightly. But what if someone begins to suspect you? Your voice, the shape of your face, and your martial arts.”
“I will change all of them. I will swallow ashes to alter my voice, scar my face until its shape is unrecognizable, and learn an entirely new art. For revenge, I will do anything.”
“Stubborn child. There is no need for that.”
“…?”
“Being in a woman’s body does not mean you cannot take revenge.”
“With this body I cannot properly wield martial arts. These past four days I did not merely wander. I tried to train, yet the flow of qi scatters too easily and my body refuses to move as I wish.”
“But there are far more advantages than you think. Consider it carefully. As I said earlier, you can hide your identity, and at times approach your enemies more easily. And if you must learn new martial arts anyway, there is no need to cling to the ones you already know. Setting everything else aside, you cannot even move through this valley in your original body, can you? Once you leave in this form, will you wander aimlessly searching for a way to return to your old body with no guarantee of success? A woman’s body carries no small number of advantages.”
“I do not understand why you are so determined to keep me in this body.”
“It is not that you must keep it. I simply find it regrettable that you would abandon this new body without even exploring its possibilities. And above all… if you remain in a woman’s body, there is much I can teach you.”
Un-hyeon thought Hong Mae was right. Perhaps he was clinging too fiercely to what he had lost. With that familiar body he had been unable to protect anything. In that case, placing his hopes in a new body might not be so bad. Just before he had transformed his body with the Reverse-Blood Divine Art, Un-hyeon had been dying. His dantian was empty, his life force nearly extinguished, and one arm had been torn open, the wound refusing to close. If he returned to that state, death would be instantaneous. It would not be strange at all.
“A wise decision.”
“But when you say you will teach me…”
“There are many weapons only a woman can wield. I intend to teach you all of them.”
“There is no need for you to go that far… I must leave this place as soon as possible.”
“Well, whether you can leave immediately is another matter. But suppose you do leave. Will there be no enemies waiting outside? Even with a new body, how will they look upon someone who has just emerged from the Yeon-yeon Blood Valley? They will at least suspect you are connected to the original you.”
Once again, Un-hyeon could not refute her words. He wondered how he could have been so foolish.
“I would not go so far as to call them weapons only a woman can use, but the more things you can do, the better. The more skills you acquire, the more attractive you will appear, and the more situations you will be able to handle.”
“Having many countermeasures is good, but I do not understand why attractiveness matters.”
“It is good to ask questions while learning. Yet your questions are always born of refusal. Try accepting first.”
“…I will cultivate attractiveness.”
“Then shall we begin by correcting your manner of speech?”
“Pardon…?”
What was wrong with his speech? He knew he tended to speak rather stiffly, but there were women who spoke this way as well. Still, this was the time to build strength for revenge, just as Hong Mae said. There was no reason to voice refusal again.
“I am not asking you to act coquettish. But you need a way of speaking that suits your appearance and makes it stand out even more. After all, you said you would do anything for revenge.”
“I will correct it.”
“Correct it… Well, all right. We will take it slowly.”
Hong Mae had once been the mistress of a pleasure house. Un-hyeon had half-expected to receive courtesan training. In a way, he was right, and in a way, he was wrong. Courtesans did indeed present themselves as women attractive in men’s eyes, so Hong Mae’s teachings would naturally align with that. Yet neither Hong Mae nor Un-hyeon desired such a thing. Hong Mae intended to pass on everything she had learned over a lifetime to Un-hyeon—or rather, to Ok-yeon.
“Um… Mistress. What is this? Is it one of your techniques?”
Un-hyeon asked in an awkward tone, back straight and chin slightly raised.
“Hehe, escaping into pretense will not help you. You are a martial artist, so you should know how important it is to maintain proper posture at all times. Ok-yeon, you must discard every habit from when you were a man. Grace, mystery—you must radiate a charm so deep that even your enemies will feel their minds go blank in your presence.”
She must never relax, not for a moment. That was the first lesson. Speech, posture, expression—everything was corrected. Even the smallest gestures had to be refined.
“Keep your legs together at all times, my child.”
“Yes…”
She had to distinguish what suited her body and what did not. What suited her, she would learn eagerly. What did not, she would strive to make suit her if it was necessary.
“Does it suit your taste, sir?”
“Hoho, thank you. It is not bad.”
“I am glad.”
She smiled, a bright expression that still did not quite fit her. Ok-yeon offered the medicinal decoction to Eun Baek-ho. Though it was only an imitation without proper herbs, this too was practice for the future. Whether useful or not, she tried everything she could. She was also studying medical knowledge.
“It does not taste like Hong Mae’s work. Are you learning to prepare decoctions now?”
“Yes, that is right. Though I am not only learning this.”
Eun Baek-ho’s health worsened with each passing day. He had been trapped here eight years longer than Hong Mae and had lost his only child. His son had died just as he reached the age of learning. It was only natural that he had fallen into despair. Having suffered a similar pain, Ok-yeon sympathized and cared for him with all her strength—not merely for the sake of learning.
“You are also studying dance, music, rhetoric, and medicine…”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“You have gone through so much.”
Hong Mae truly tried to teach everything she knew, whether profound or shallow. Yet there were almost no opportunities to put what she learned into practice. There were simply too few tools available. The environment was so harsh that she could only imitate what Hong Mae remembered.
“There is something I have been thinking about for a while. Among those who tried to leave and find the exit, there were musicians and physicians… They probably died without ever escaping the valley. What do you think of searching for their tools? You can travel farther than anyone else.”
“Ah…”
She wondered whether it would be meaningful, but the desire to do it properly now that she had begun was far stronger. Ok-yeon nodded and went to Hong Mae.
“So there were people like that. Are you going to look right away?”
“I feel there are things I will only understand by trying it myself.”
“You are probably right. But not yet. We have not taught you any martial arts. Would it not be better to learn them first?”
“Martial arts…”
“You said your family’s art does not suit this body, did you not? And a truly charming woman must make even her martial arts graceful. Let me see… You have some sense of footwork by now, so first you will need a new weapon.”
“A weapon… A sword is enough for me… is enough.”
“There are certainly many elegant sword styles, but once you hold a sword, your old habits will inevitably surface. Am I wrong?”
“That is… Yes. I suppose so.”
“Fan, sleeve, brush, hairpin.”
Fan, clothing, brush, ornamental hairpin. All items that the courtesans of Plum Fragrance Pavilion carried with them at all times. Even when carried openly, they were rarely suspected as weapons.
“If you can obtain instruments or medical tools, you may find ways to use them as weapons as well. And if you absolutely cannot give up swordsmanship even as a last resort, what about including an umbrella later?”
“Yes, that sounds good.”
“Then shall we begin with fan techniques? It is what the children of Plum Fragrance Pavilion learned first.”
“Then I will be going. Mistress, sir.”
She had stayed in the Blood Valley for roughly a year. Ok-yeon decided to venture outside the ravine. Her main purpose was to collect the belongings of those who had died outside, and finding a way out was secondary.
“Cough, cough!”
Once Ok-yeon was out of sight, Eun Baek-ho released the coughs he had been holding back. No matter how consumed by revenge she was, she had only just turned twenty. To Eun Baek-ho, she was the same age as his late-born son, younger even than his friends’ grandchildren. It was only natural that he worried when he saw her always training with a clouded expression.
“Sir…”
“It seems I do not have much time left.”
“Please do not say that.”
“No. I know my own body best. It is already a miracle I have lasted this long. It must be because I consumed so many spirit medicines when I was young.”
Eun Baek-ho coughed violently again. This time blood came with it. Hong Mae supported him, feeling a deep ache in her chest. In her life of over fifty years, they had lived together for only three, yet those years had been more vivid than any other. They had shared the same pain, and with no burdens left to carry in a place where they could only wait to die, their days had been strangely light. She had come to see Eun Baek-ho as a father she had never known.
“When that child returns, I must finish the story I could not tell…”
“Rest now… You look very tired.”
“Yes… I will do that…”
As Eun Baek-ho closed his eyes, a name slipped from his lips—the name of the son he had lost the previous year. The mistress of Plum Fragrance leaned against a pillar and gazed blankly at the hazy sky.
“Haa…”
She pressed a hand to her dantian and let out a long sigh. The Reverse-Blood Divine Art was the only way to leave this freezing valley. She had known of it for some time through Ok-yeon. But she had failed to circulate it. The cause was likely that her body was far too turbid. In her youth she had recklessly absorbed countless martial arts. She had practiced more than one or two heart cultivation methods. There was no space left in her dantian for a bizarre art like the Reverse-Blood Divine Art.
“I wonder when she will return…”
She was not greatly disappointed. She had long since given up on leaving. Now she was simply passing everything she had to Ok-yeon. A child darkened by too great a sorrow. A child who sobbed through the night and could not sleep. A child who seemed unable to trust others yet gave affection so freely once she did. A child who treated her, a mere errand-runner of the unorthodox path, like a mother. “I already miss her.”
It seemed she had grown far too attached. Already, the thought of parting filled her with dread.