Back to Mount Heng (5)

To become a true master, one needed a superior martial art. Even the most peerless sword arts, for all their miraculous forms, were fundamentally derived from cutting and thrusting — yet someone who had only ever learned the Three Calamities sword art would likely remain Third-Rate for the rest of their days.

After all, even a person gifted enough to refine a martial art single-handedly could not, on ordinary talent alone, hope to overtake in one leap an art that had been honed across generations over hundreds of years.

Talent capable of such a feat was known as Grand Master class.

And Grand Master-class talent was never common.

The long and short of it: Zhuge Yang needed a superior martial art of her own.

Because she was going to sever her ties with the Zhuge Family.

Even now she was at the training grounds, practicing her sword art in earnest.

It had been when I first glimpsed her mid-training and moved to slip away and give her privacy.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Ah, right — I'm not supposed to watch while you train."

"That's true, but you're fine, Won! Hmm... you are the Family Head, after all?"

"Oh! Then could I watch Yeon Hwa's training too? I've been curious about it."

"Sister Hwa would hate that, though?"

Somehow it felt like Zhuge Yang was the only one willing to put on a show for me.

My heart thumped at the thought of seeing martial arts with my own eyes. With her blessing, I settled into a spot on the wooden veranda.

She drew her sword and took her opening stance. Her big round eyes narrowed slightly, her gaze sharpening into something serious, her lips pressing into a firm line. No matter how goofily she grinned through everyday life, it seemed a martial artist was a martial artist all the same.

Before long, Zhuge Yang began to dance with her blade. I had no background in swordsmanship whatsoever, yet even I could feel it — a prickling, razor-edged aura rolling off her every movement. With the sun sinking low, the light flashing off her sword glittered like a scattering of stars.

If the fighter I'd been in my modern life had been forced to charge at her while she unfurled swordwork that beautiful, honestly, I wouldn't have liked my chances. The moment I stepped inside her range, I'd be carved to ribbons.

Once again, I wanted to learn martial arts for myself.

...Maybe I should look into external conditioning arts, at least?

Before long she finished her practice and began gathering up her sword, and I asked her.

"That's a Zhuge Family art too, isn't it?"

"Yep! The Great Heavenly Star Sword Art. It's a sword art that embodies the energy of the stars and the heavens!"

"Is it a yin-attribute art? With your Pure Yin Extreme Body, yin arts are what work best for you, right?"

"Hmm... if you had to classify it, it counts as yin-attribute, but it doesn't lean to any extreme. The effects would be blunted, yeah."

Blunted wouldn't do. And was it even all right for her to keep using the family's art?

"If you leave the family, is it okay to go on using its martial arts?"

"If they ever decide to make an issue of it later, they could use it against me — but I don't actually know any other art."

Fair enough. If she'd had a better alternative, she'd be practicing it already. I wanted to find her a good martial art, whatever it took.

The only pity was that searching yin-attribute martial art in my Treasure Locator turned up nothing at all. Knowing next to nothing about murim history or martial arts myself, I had no choice but to pry every scrap of information out of other people.

"Are there any famous yin-attribute arts, by chance?"

"Loads! For starters, everything out of the North Sea Ice Palace is ice-attribute, and then..."

Zhuge Yang reeled off one art after another, but every single one had a living owner. Not what I was looking for.

"What about lost arts, then? Any of those?"

"Hmm... Sister Hwa would know this stuff better than me... but I do know a few."

She recited a handful of arts lost to time. None of the names leapt out at me, but I committed every one to memory.

The Heavenly Cold Ice-Binding Spear. The Cold Water Moon-Splitting Sword. The Ice Spirit Wind-Moon Saber. And more besides.

"Oh! One more! The Moon Spirit Freezing Sword!"

"The Moon Spirit Freezing Sword?"

Now that was a name that sounded seriously impressive. And moon and ice together — anyone could tell it was a yin-attribute art.

I'd have to run a search on it later.

"Yep. It's the sole-heir sword art of Baek Jina, the Sword Queen of the previous era. About two hundred years ago, she was one of the three greatest masters in the whole world. Pretty incredible for a woman, right?"

"Incredible... one of the three greatest masters..."

For a woman, it was truly remarkable. Could Zhuge Yang become a master like that someday? If anything, with her Pure Yin Extreme Body, she might accomplish something even greater.

Like, say... the Greatest Under Heaven.

The moment that thought crossed my mind, my heart ached all over again. To grant me the magnificent Heavenly Martial Physique, only to saddle me with Qi Core Damage on top of it...

A gloomy weight settled over me. That I could use my legs again was a blessing, truly — but to be the one person in a world where everyone could learn martial arts who couldn't...

It was a little different from my modern life, where I'd been an ordinary man who'd acquired a disability. But in a place where martial arts belonged to everyone, being doomed to live as an ordinary person for the rest of my days — barring a miracle — was disability enough.

Whenever gloom crept over me, one look at Zhuge Yang melted it away. Her sunny face never failed to disarm me. It was my own secret remedy.

Hoping to steady my heavy heart, I raised my head.

And the instant my head came up, something soft and rounded came rushing at me—

Wham—!

"Hrk...!"

Zhuge Yang had seized my whole head and crushed it against her.

"Won! I'm going to fix it for you, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I promise — so cheer up, got it?"

My cheeks and the sockets of my eyes were squashed flat. She wore nothing but that baggy training uniform, so I'd never had a clue — but this was, without exaggeration...!

Before I knew it, my own arms had closed around her back. And until my breath all but gave out, I drank in the cozy warmth of her embrace.

Zhuge Yang stroked my hair. It felt heavenly. My air was running out, though. If I died like this, would it count as a blessed passing...?

My mind was drifting...

"Feeling a bit better?"

Zhuge Yang quietly loosened her hold and peeled my head away from her.

"More... more..."

"More?"

"More... than perfect. I feel absolutely great."

"That's a relief!"

I very nearly asked for another round.

"If you ever start feeling down, you ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠tell me right away! Got it?"

And then you'd do it again?

I really should have taken acting lessons. So this was what a gloomy face looked like, huh?

I tried to put on a suitably melancholy expression, and only then realized the corners of my mouth were still curled upward and showed no sign of coming down.

That night, I powered on the Treasure Locator.

The Treasure Locator was the genuine article. The Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng that had saved Zhuge Yang's life — I'd found it on Mount Wudang precisely where the Locator said it would be, without an inch of error, and when we climbed this mountain, every snow ginseng had been exactly where it claimed. I hadn't been able to search for anything else, simply because I didn't know what treasures existed or what they were precisely called — but today, Zhuge Yang had given me the names of several martial arts.

If any of them still survived in manual form, a search would turn them up for certain.

"Search. Heavenly Cold Ice-Binding Spear."

...It worked!

A result came back.

Going by what I'd learned on the road to Mount Heng, Gansu was where the Kongtong Sect made its home. Far, far too distant.

Zhuge Yang seemed to favor the sword, though. And the Cold Water Moon-Splitting Sword...?

Also much too far. Wasn't that the seat of the Hebei Peng Family? I couldn't claim to know Chinese geography in detail, but even just from my Three Kingdoms games, I had a rough grasp of where Hebei lay.

As for the other arts...

...The meaning was plain. If they returned nothing even with no owner to speak of, they must have been well and truly lost — broken down by the passage of time, no longer intact enough to serve as manuals.

Which left only the Moon Spirit Freezing Sword.

"Search. Moon Spirit Freezing Sword."

...Huh? Hunan?

Hunan was where I stood. I pulled up the detailed coordinates and pinned down Mount Jigong's exact position — roughly a day's travel west of Mount Heng. Near enough for a round trip.

And its treasure value was a whopping 85!

It felt a touch modest for the art of one of the world's three greatest masters, but Zhuge Yang possessed the Pure Yin Extreme Body. She would wring the very best out of it.

It was some comfort, too, that the Heavenly Cold Ice-Binding Spear and the Cold Water Moon-Splitting Sword had posted comparatively modest values of 60 and 71.

Once Yeon Hwa arrived, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠we would set out together.

"Let's go to Mount Heng one more time. I had the most wonderful dream last night."

"Really? What did you dream about?"

"Last night, I dreamed a colossal phoenix soared up into the sky. That's an auspicious omen, they say?"

"Wow...! It is! A phoenix — that's incredible!"

...It was a lie. I'm sorry.

Either way, I'd coaxed Zhuge Yang along without a hitch.

I'd laid the groundwork in advance, so this time I had to come away with the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng. We passed over every minor hundred-year ginseng along the way, heading straight for the destination together.

The Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng lay in the deepest reaches of Mount Heng. We left the last human footprints behind us and pressed on for a long while.

"Won? Do you... actually know the way?"

Uh-oh. Zhuge Yang was starting to grow suspicious.

I'd been pushing forward a little too unhesitatingly...

"No, I just have a good feeling about this direction. Something's waiting around here, I can tell."

"Hmm... you think? Only... something feels like it's been following us for a while now. A wild beast, maybe..."

"Huh...?"

She said she'd been sensing one bothersome beast on our trail this whole time, but a single animal — a tiger, even — was no match for Zhuge Yang.

We worked our way deeper into the forest, and at the cliff we finally arrived before, we discovered yet another mystical clearing. I carefully dug up the snow ginseng standing at its very center.

"Won, don't tell me that's... another thousand-year snow ginseng...?"

Zhuge Yang's eyes went perfectly round with disbelief. She seemed to think I'd unearthed yet another thousand-year ginseng — but a moment later, when I lifted the root into the light, she finally lost her battle with restraint and shrieked.

"A t-ten-thousand-year snow ginseng!"

It was a snow-white root, as though blanketed in fresh powder.

It wasn't as if this body of mine could master martial arts anyway. With Yeon Hwa in mind, I tucked it carefully into my woven basket.

Looking back ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on it, my luck had been extraordinary so far.

And I don't mean the spiritual elixirs I'd gathered.

Driven by a single-minded resolve to save Zhuge Yang, I had made two round trips between Longzhong and Mount Heng, then spent another year and a half roaming the mountains as a wandering herb gatherer — and apart from snakes, I had never once crossed paths with anything dangerous.

Bandits, for instance. Or wild beasts.

Truthfully, perhaps I was still lucky even now — that we were meeting these things on a climb I'd made with Zhuge Yang at my side.

Awoooooo—!

With a chorus of howls that raised the hair on my neck, wolves came pouring in from somewhere out of sight. Even at a glance, there were easily more than twenty.

"Won! Get behind me!"

Zhuge Yang drew her sword and barred my path.