A Contest of Acting
In the awkward silence, two men and a dog stood facing one another. Then, without warning, Geumban's icy voice rang out once more inside Yeop Pung's mind.
"He's found out your secret."
"What?"
Yeop Pung's eyes went wide. He couldn't make sense of Geumban's sudden words. Conversation with Geumban didn't require speech — thought alone was enough — so he asked at once, silently.
"What secret are you talking about?"
"A hundred years ago, the Qi Guiding Chant inscribed on this stone wall bore the name Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture."
"Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit... the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture?!"
Yeop Pung nearly jumped out of his skin.
"You're telling me what I just learned is the Cheonun Sect's true ancestral divine art — the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture?"
This time Geumban didn't answer. Instead, it vividly replayed Yeop Pung's training session inside his mind — even the image of Maeng Chang-haeng sprinting toward him, only to freeze in shock, reproduced in perfect detail.
"Oh, no..."
Cold sweat slid down Yeop Pung's back. I let my guard down.
He really had. It had never occurred to him that the constellation Qi Guiding Chant was the legendary Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture. Still less had he imagined that such a bizarre spectacle would unfold when he trained. And he certainly hadn't known that Maeng Chang-haeng, who slept like the dead through the daylight hours, had been secretly watching him late at night.
All those coincidences had stacked one on top of another, and now he stood on the verge of being accused of secretly stealing the Cheonun Sect's true divine art. He still had no idea why Martial Grand-Uncle Maeng hadn't pressed him for answers. But one thing Yeop Pung knew with certainty: if Geumban hadn't warned him in time, he would have been in enormous trouble.
"Why do you keep proving you haven't got a thought in that head of yours, Yeop Pung. Stop making me clean up after you."
Geumban tossed out the cold remark and fell silent again.
Yeop Pung had no time to bicker with it. Granted, some of this mess was Geumban's own fault for never properly explaining the past. But right now, Yeop Pung needed to clearly account for where the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture had come from.
The question was how. Was he supposed to say he'd traveled back in time and learned the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture a hundred years ago? He wouldn't believe that himself if someone told him. Claiming that the Cheonun Sect Founder had appeared in a dream and transmitted the divine art would actually sound more plausible.
Wait... a dream visitation from the Founder?
A flash of inspiration streaked through Yeop Pung's mind. His pupils flicked twice. All at once he turned to Maeng Chang-haeng with a look of flustered bewilderment.
"Martial Grand-Uncle, I just noticed something strange on the stone wall behind me."
"Oh?"
Maeng Chang-haeng's eyelids twitched as he looked that way. Is this kid talking about the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Wall?
Of course he knew the old secrets of Nagun Peak. But all of that had been buried under a hundred years of time. Even second-generation disciples like Han Un barely knew of it. So what exactly did Yeop Pung know? He had no idea.
Maeng Chang-haeng needed to raise this boy. Because of that, he couldn't simply drag him off and interrogate him. At the same time, Yeop Pung's words had thoroughly piqued his curiosity. He hid his true thoughts as best he could, slipped into a performance of his own, and opened a conversation with Yeop Pung.
"What's strange about it?"
"There was a massive constellation diagram up there!"
Maeng Chang-haeng sucked in a sharp breath. Inside, he was as stunned as if a bomb had gone off, but on the surface he forced every ounce of curiosity he could muster onto his face.
"What kind of constellation diagram?"
"Well, it was this enormous sea of stars, with stars large and small... wait, why can't I see it now? And where did that old senior go?"
"What... what old senior?"
"An old gentleman with a white beard. He said that long ago, in this very place, he comprehended a constellation diagram that held a great Dao, and inscribed it upon this stone wall. That's right — the wall I saw earlier stretched over a hundred feet high... could it be that all of this was a dream?"
"A dream... you, you, what kind of dream did you have this time?"
"The old senior said he had a connection with me, and told me to use that constellation diagram as a reference. Strangely enough, those stars seemed to correspond to the acupoints of the human body. When I opened and closed the points in the order the stars twinkled, I felt this wondrous sensation of energy being drawn in."
"I thought all of it was real, but it turns out it was a dream... and yet, Martial Grand-Uncle, I feel as though I could actually draw in qi and cultivate using the method that old senior taught me... Martial Grand-Uncle? What's wrong?"
"Yeop Pung, do you remember what that old senior was called..."
"He didn't tell me his name. He only said that in his heart he thought of Cheonun, and asked me to train diligently so that I might one day take on the mission of restoring Cheonun... this is all so strange, Martial Grand-Uncle. How could this have happened? Who on earth was that old senior?"
Who was he? How the hell should I know!
Hearing Yeop Pung's words, Maeng Chang-haeng was completely at a loss for speech.
Comprehending a map of the heavens' constellations, mastering the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture, and being charged with the sacred duty of restoring Cheonun. Then who else could it possibly be?
Either this brat Yeop Pung was openly insulting his intelligence, or he really had experienced something bizarre, just as he claimed. There was no other explanation for how he would dare cook up a story as outrageous as a dream visitation from the Founder and try to sell it to him.
On top of that, Yeop Pung had come forward with it himself. That mix of panic and delight on his face — no matter how you looked at it, there wasn't a single crack. Could the Founder truly have appeared to him in a dream?
Damn it, why did Senior Brother send this monster here to test me!
"Bone."
"Grr?"
The golden-furred dog, who had been sitting nearby without a word, as if utterly uninterested in their conversation, turned its head.
"Take Yeop Pung back. And don't let him wander around outside. I've got somewhere I need to go for a bit."
"Bring back some meat when you return."
The dog licked its lips, signaling that it was hungry.
Maeng Chang-haeng ignored the request and shot off into the distance. He kicked off empty air several times and vanished into the dark. Apparently he couldn't stand to wait another moment before rushing to his senior brother to discuss this.
Left alone, Yeop Pung watched Maeng Chang-haeng disappear at speed and smiled bitterly.
There had been no choice. It had all happened so suddenly that he hadn't been able to prepare at all. For now, all he could do was grit his teeth and play dumb.
The Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture was originally a Cheonun Sect martial art, so that much was fine — but Yeop Pung could never reveal the secret that he traveled through time. That was a major trump card he would need going forward.
Maeng Chang-haeng had probably gone to report his situation to the Sect Master. How he would report it, Yeop Pung would find out when the man returned.
Yeop Pung was gazing at the night sky with a grave expression when a rough panting sound suddenly rose from below.
Hm?
He looked down. That large dog called Bone was giving him a sidelong glance, contempt written all over its face. When their eyes met, it pointed its nose toward the distant cabin and rolled its eyes.
"You can drop the act now, can't you? The old man's already that far away, and you're still performing. Let's go..."
Bone shot him a mocking look.
What?!
Yeop Pung's heart took a devastating blow.
I just got insulted by Geumban, and now a dog is looking down on me?
Stay right there! Don't you walk away! What do you take me for? You dare laugh at me?
Do you have any idea how much mental fortitude I just displayed? Do you?!
"What? That kid Yeop Pung had already learned the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture?"
A short while later, in a secret chamber of the Cheonun Sect, Sect Master Lee Sujol was stunned by the words that came from Maeng Chang-haeng's mouth.
"Senior Brother!"
Maeng Chang-haeng was embarrassed even to relay Yeop Pung's words.
"He just casually spouts this absurd nonsense about the Founder appearing in a dream..."
"That's the strangest part of all."
Lee Sujol furrowed his brow in deep thought.
"Chang-haeng, now that things have come to this, you must do whatever it takes to keep the fact that Yeop Pung is training at Nagun Peak from leaking out. Especially — this must not reach Han Buri of Nowoon Peak."
"Don't you worry, Senior Brother. As long as I'm around, that brat Yeop Pung won't get so much as a single hair outside Nagun Peak!"
"Cough... Chang-haeng, you're over a hundred years old now. You really ought to watch your language..."
While Maeng Chang-haeng and Lee Sujol talked late into the night, Yeop Pung had already returned to the cabin.
Bone had followed him. Radiating an air of lofty superiority from its entire body, it entered the courtyard and, without a single word to Yeop Pung, immediately flopped down in front of the door. The look on its face seemed to say, Inferior creatures, don't speak to me. Yeop Pung was at a loss.
Why was every being he'd met today so peculiar?
Geumban, so cold and unapproachable that a single wrong word would get you electrocuted; a dissolute old man with a bizarre appearance, a mind that wandered all over the place, and a mouth that couldn't even form proper words; and now this dog that looked down on people as if they were beneath its paws... Was he the only decent one on this entire Nagun Peak?
Yeop Pung looked up at the sky in exasperation. In that moment, Maeng Chang-haeng's hearty laughter rang out from the other side.
"Hahaha, Yeop Pung, you lucky brat! A dream visitation from the Founder himself! Come here. What more is there to say? Bone, fetch that Seven-Day Drunk I've been saving! Let's have a cup first and talk, hahaha!"
I'm in the clear!
Yeop Pung let Maeng Chang-haeng's words go in one ear and out the other. What mattered was that the man wasn't taking any immediate action against him — he was even showing a friendly attitude. That meant Yeop Pung was safe, for now.
But there was one thing he hadn't expected. This Martial Grand-Uncle, who didn't seem to have a single proper bone in his body, plopped himself down in front of him and suddenly said this:
"Yeop Pung... do you know that the divine art you've awakened is none other than our sect's Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture?"
This direct?!
Yeop Pung was inwardly startled. But he quickly threw himself back into his role.