The Buddha and Those Who Just Get By
Once we had given the assembly the slip, we stepped into an inn that went by the name of the White Horse.
Luoyang, people say, has nothing left but the glory of her past — though that claim only holds true when the Luoyang in question is the one of old. One look inside the inn made it plain at a glance that, within Henan Province at least, the city remained a hub where people gathered. The ground floor buzzed with patrons who had come for nothing more than a simple meal, clamoring away about the doings of the world while the servers bustled busily back and forth among them.
We wove our way through the crowd, climbed to the second floor, and ordered our meal. While we waited, Yeong Yeong — mid-sip of her tea — puffed out her cheeks and spoke.
"Brother dearest~ Brother deceased."
…Somehow, those two felt like very different words indeed. Retract that last one, if you please.
Eun Ae-hyang gave a solemn nod of agreement.
…Good grief. Some secret society of girls had formed without my knowing a thing, and I could feel my soul coming down with a chill. This was what it felt like to be a defeated man left behind by a bygone age.
Just then, a shadow fell across our table. Tracing it up to its source, I found a man standing before us.
"Pardon me — might you be from Cheongun Dojang?"
"You've got the wrong man."
At that, the man broke into a warm, friendly smile. "There is no need to hide it. This humble monk is Bunhyang of Shaolin, come to receive aid for the purge of the Demonic Cult's remnants. Fortunately, the temple found itself able to spare a man or two, and so I was sent."
Bunhyang, hm — sharing incense, was it? Incense stands for the Tathagata's teachings, so I suppose that means dividing them for the benefit of those around him. From his shaved crown down to his features, he was a rather clean-cut, presentable man.
I rose from my seat and offered a cupped-fist salute. "My apologies for earlier. It is an honor to take part in this righteous cause."
"Haha, not at all. The honor is ours, to receive the aid of Cheongun Dojang, hero of the Great Demon War. Still..." Bunhyang let the words trail off, his gaze sliding from me toward Eun Ae-hyang and Yeong Yeong. "And these would be...?"
At that, the two of them rose and returned the salute. It was Eun Ae-hyang who introduced herself first.
"I am Eun Ae-hyang of Kongtong — the Chunpung Seomchim."
Her greeting drew a flicker of surprise across Bunhyang's face. "I had no idea Kongtong had sent anyone — much less a master of this caliber."
See? I knew it. You only came because I told you to. I narrowed my eyes into a glare, but she tilted her face away as if to slip past it, chin lifted, and spoke toward some point in the air above my head.
"It just so happened that I was passing through the area and learned of Cheongun Dojang's circumstances. As a childhood friend who has been at his side since we were small, I saw no reason not to join."
"Amitabha. What a fine friendship. To think such devotion would become the occasion for aiding the Buddhist path... This, too, must be the Buddha's grace."
Then Yeong Yeong cut in without warning. "That's right — a truly beautiful friendship. My fiancé has formed such a wonderful bond with this fine gentleman, so I, his fiancée, could not be happier."
"...And this one would be?"
At Bunhyang's sidelong glance and quiet question, I answered. "This is Yeong Yeong, my samae. She is the daughter of my master, Gakyeop Dojang, and she has come along to learn a little of how the world turns, in preparation for the escort work she will soon take up."
"I see. But this engagement you mention...?"
"Ah, that..."
While I was still weighing where to begin, a tongue clicked from Bunhyang's direction.
Er... Master monk? From how well-practiced that sound was, I doubted it was his first time.
Bunhyang turned sharply on his heel. "This humble monk has no cause to meddle in lovers' play — but I trust it will not stand in the way of the mission."
To react like that without hearing so much as the story.
As if sensing my disbelief, Yeong Yeong clicked her own tongue. "And here we have a sham of a monk who looks set to spend his whole life sneaking little peeks at women's hands — a virgin to the grave, with enlightenment forever beyond reach — and he dares dismiss someone's love as mere 'play'?"
"S-Samae!" I stammered, flustered by her outburst.
At that, Bunhyang turned only his head, glancing back at us. The warm affability of moments ago was gone; the expression he wore now looked upon us as one might look upon beasts. Contempt seeped from his eyes.
"...A chit of a girl, presuming to lecture anyone on the Buddha's path."
"Wh-what? A chit? Why, you—"
Whoa, whoa — that's enough of that. I clapped a hand over Yeong Yeong's mouth before she could finish. She went mmph-mmph, arms flailing, and Eun Ae-hyang heaved a sigh at the sight before bowing her head slightly, fist cupped in salute.
Bunhyang's eyes glinted faintly at the gesture, and he returned the salute in kind. "With Wudang in such a sorry state, I suppose the next chief of the Martial Alliance will pass to Kongtong with ease."
"Thank you for your kind words."
By the time her reply was done, Bunhyang was already wearing that same friendly smile from when we had first met. "...If you happen to have the time, I would like to speak further on the purge of the Demonic Cult's remnants. Might you care to move elsewhere?"
What am I listening to right now?
Belittling Wudang and singing Kongtong's praises with me standing right here — and now he wants to arrange time alone with Eun Ae-hyang? The man has lost his mind.
Then Eun Ae-hyang bowed her head once more. "I joined this mission on account of my ties to Cheongun Dojang. It has nothing to do with Kongtong's will. A gathering without Cheongun Dojang is, therefore, a gathering without meaning."
At her refusal, Bunhyang stole a glance at me. What. Why? What is it now.
Did he truly expect I would stand aside while Eun Ae-hyang took a seat with some other man? The lecherous fraud of a monk.
I averted my eyes, pretending to be occupied with keeping Yeong Yeong in check. His eyebrows twitched at my reaction — but he soon smoothed his face back into calm. "Hm. Amitabha... Very well. Then allow me to outline the plan I have prepared."
The plan Bunhyang laid out was as follows: for several days we would blend into the assembly and become part of the flock, until one of us had earned the White Rat Golden King's trust and drawn him away from his seat for a private word — and in that interval, Bunhyang would scatter the assembly to the winds.
Still holding a hand over Yeong Yeong's mouth, I asked my question. "If the White Rat Golden King possesses martial arts of his own, he will hardly stand by idly while his assembly is being scattered. How do you intend to answer that?"
Attagirl — even muffled, her voice was now saying outright, plain as day, how pathetic she found him.
"Cheongun Dojang — a great hero of the Great Demon War, and yet you trouble yourself to keep such a possibility in mind? Among the masters of the Demonic Cult in those days, no such man as the White Rat Golden King ever existed."
I thought back on the days of the Great Demon War for a moment, then opened my mouth. "I keep it in mind precisely because I fought on the front lines. Shaolin, which lent its support from the rear, might not know this — but much of the intelligence the temple supplied was outdated by the time it reached the front. The White Rat Golden King may well not have existed back then, but the Demonic Cult's kind have always been masters of change. It pays to be prepared."
Bunhyang's face crumpled at my words. If you insist on disrespecting me so brazenly, then I am well within my rights to prick you right back.
Setting that aside, it was true enough — during the actual fighting against the Demonic Cult, the intelligence Shaolin provided had been of precious little help in rooting the cult out.
The sects that had traditionally handled such work were the Beggar's Sect among the orthodox and the Hao Clan among the unorthodox. But with the bulk of their members committed to the front, Shaolin — ever attentive to matters beyond the murim proper — had taken up the role in their stead. And the vast majority of what they supplied amounted to little more than textbook common sense.
"...In the end, this mission exists so that Shaolin may proclaim to all of Luoyang that the Buddhist path still lives. Kindly take care that no one goes about needlessly flaunting their sect's martial arts and stealing away Shaolin's good name."
Leaving those parting words behind him, Bunhyang descended the stairs to the ground floor.
So this is what they call a hollow shell. So much for Shaolin's virtue — there went a man bent on guarding nothing but the husk of it, a Buddha who was simply getting by.
Only after he had vanished from sight did I finally release Yeong Yeong. No sooner free than she — quite past containing herself — came stomping the floorboards and turned on me.
"Aaargh, this is infuriating!" she cried. "Sahyung, do we really have to run a mission alongside a man like that? I don't want to."
"You could sit this one out and rest, you know. So long as I take part, that's enough."
"But still..."
Yeong Yeong trailed off, stealing a glance at Eun Ae-hyang. She would join, of course. Having revealed her identity, withdrawing midway would stain the honor of the Kongtong Sect.
"Oh, I don't care — I'm coming anyway. Orabeoni! If you go off on this mission, you are not leaving me behind!"
Samae, why must you go and make my work twice as hard? In protest I narrowed my eyes into a glare, but Yeong Yeong didn't spare my stare so much as a thought.
Then Eun Ae-hyang spoke. "So even Shaolin, the wellspring of all martial arts, has been reduced to an empty shell that does nothing but talk."
So she was thinking the same thing.
"You never know... For all his posturing, maybe he's been hiding his strength all along."
Eun Ae-hyang gazed after him in the direction he had gone, a doubtful look on her face.
...Truth be told, I was the one who had said it, yet I couldn't help wondering all the same — could he, really? If he held power of that order, there would have been no reason to summon us at all, no reason to make their own business this cumbersome.
A few days later.
For several evenings now, the gathering had convened at the same hour. Crowds of much the same size as the day before, faces dressed much the same, were streaming in from the alleys and the great thoroughfares, all funneling into a single building.
Blending into that human tide, we entered to find the very scene of the day before. Over the past days we had come to know a few of the regulars — enough, at least, to trade greetings.
"Gongseo! Here again today with your wife and your sister?"
A one-armed believer had hailed me, and I lifted a hand and nodded. "A husband and wife placing their faith in the White Lotus Cult side by side, all to cure a sister gone blind — when Maitreya comes, I'd wager he'll seek out your household first."
"Hahaha..."
When I laughed the awkward laugh I was meant to, the man flashed a kindly smile, waved the one arm he had left, and pushed deeper into the crowd, as if hoping to see the White Rat Golden King all the closer.
I stole a glance at Yeong Yeong. Eyes closed, smile fixed in place, she was muttering in a voice that seemed to be strangling its own fury. "That shameless jerk — just who is he letting people mistake for his wife, right in front of his fiancée?"
Samae, hold it in. It's the mission.
As if we had arrived at the very same thought, Eun Ae-hyang patted Yeong Yeong's shoulder. "Endure it, Yeong Yeong — it's the mission. Winning the trust of Luoyang's people comes first, and they are folk who prize the love between kin, after the example of Musin."
Yeong Yeong turned her face toward her, eyes still shut. "...Even if it is an act, after days of playing the blind woman I've begun to get a fair read on what emotions people carry in their voices. However."
"However?"
"...For a heroine on a mission, you seem awfully delighted?"
At that pointed observation, Eun Ae-hyang flinched and snatched her hand back from Yeong Yeong's shoulder.
That aside, there were simply too many people. An ordinary soul pressed into one of the corners of this crush could well suffocate. I spoke to the two of them. "Right, that's enough squabbling — let's work our way further forward ourselves. Samae, your eyes are closed, so mind you don't lose us."
"Yes, Sahyung."
All right, then — let's see the front.
...Hm? The crowd was packed far tighter than I had expected. Had some order been handed down from the very front? On any normal day they might have yielded passage, but today, squeezing through the crush was a battle of its own.
Suppressing the urge to simply cross the distance in a single Void-Treading Step, I inched forward bit by bit — and at long last reached a spot where a little air was left to breathe.
So this is what they mean by the trials of mortal life, I was thinking, when—
"Why, Master Gongseo. So you've come alone today."
The White Rat Golden King had spied me and greeted me with unmistakable delight. But hold on just a moment...
Alone?
At his words I looked back — but behind me there was only a wall of humanity sealing off my retreat, and nowhere in sight were Eun Ae-hyang or Yeong Yeong.