A Picture Painted with Profound Qi
For the next three days, Yeop Pung divided his time between recovering from his wounds and drilling the Falling Star Sword Technique he had spent so long researching. The speed at which he absorbed the sword art was so startling that even Maeng Chang-haeng — a man who had always considered himself a born genius of the blade — could not suppress his admiration.
At the same time, Yeop Pung prepared for his next journey through time, which was set to last a full month. Now that the Myriad Realms Wrist Ring was in his hands, he vowed to wring every last drop of advantage from it.
Time slipped by, and before anyone quite noticed, the Mid-Autumn Festival was upon them. A brilliant full moon hung high in the heavens as the Gangun Moon Viewing Banquet — held only once a year — quietly raised its curtain.
It was a modest gathering, far from ostentatious. Fewer than twenty guests were in attendance.
Yet anyone who had ever sat through it even once sang its praises with a single voice.
There was, of course, the temple cuisine of Yeom Jin-ri, Peak Master of Gangun Peak — food so exquisite it could make a person swallow their own tongue. More than that, it was the ingeniously crafted contests, steeped in a true artisan's spirit, that captured every guest's heart.
Yeop Pung arrived at Gangun Peak early, taking the Cloud-Ascending Stairs. The moment he set foot on the peak, two female disciples greeted him with sparkling eyes and escorted him to the banquet grounds.
The venue had been prepared on the highest elevation of Gangun Peak, and every arrangement was perfect. From a distance he could see twenty seats laid out in a square, with an open space left at the center.
Several familiar faces who had already arrived spotted him and came over, smiling.
"Oh, well look who it is!"
A young man with a round, broad face waved as he called out. About twenty-four or twenty-five, he stood out among the people around him.
"Senior Brother Hwa!"
Yeop Pung nodded and walked toward him.
The young man was none other than Hwa Cheonpung. In the generation before Yeop Pung and Yi Hwawu, he had been hailed as the greatest genius in Cheonun Sect. On the surface he seemed, like the others, to have remained at the 6th Meridian Mysterious Realm.
But everyone knew he had reached the Six Meridians years ago, and that his true strength was all but impossible to gauge.
Yeop Pung had never had any particular feud with the previous generation's prodigies. Before his fall from grace they had already entered the inner sect and gone about their own affairs, and afterward there had been little contact between them. Meeting them again now was a fine chance to start fresh. He set aside his usual biting tongue, smiled, and stepped into their circle.
His former seniors — Ma Ok, So So-un, and the others — came over and gathered around him. Reunited after years apart, they looked far more mature and composed than he remembered. There was a bearing about them now, the kind that suggested they would one day become the pillars of Cheonun Sect.
Led by Hwa Cheonpung, they all congratulated Yeop Pung on taking first place in the hunting tournament, lavish with their praise. He kept a humble demeanor, and the conversation bloomed in a warm, easy atmosphere.
They were deep in talk when footsteps from below drew every gaze. Yeom Jin-ri, tonight's host, had arrived.
As Yeop Pung took his seat, he saw a group approaching in the distance with a quiet, imposing grace. At their head walked a woman in plain Daoist robes.
Her neat brows and kindly expression called to mind a bodhisattva enshrined in a temple. Just looking at her seemed to put one's heart at ease.
Peak Master Yeom must have been a stunning beauty in her youth...
Yeop Pung marveled inwardly at her elegant figure as she approached at a measured pace. Then he turned his gaze to the peerless beauty standing beside her — Un Cheoncheon.
Strange. Peak Master Yeom is so gentle... how did she end up with a disciple that cold?
Un Cheoncheon still wore that icy expression, lips pressed firmly shut, following behind Yeom Jin-ri. At her master's gesture she went to her seat without a word. Hwa Cheonpung, Ma Ok, and the others smiled and offered greetings, but she answered with nothing more than a brief nod. Then she walked in Yeop Pung's direction.
Huh? Is she coming over to me?
Yeop Pung was bewildered. Before he knew it, Un Cheoncheon had come right up to him.
"Uh... hey."
After a moment's hesitation, he raised a hand in greeting.
Un Cheoncheon did not even offer a basic nod of acknowledgment. She simply walked past him and sat down in the seat beside his.
What the hell? I saved her life, and this is how she treats me?
Yeop Pung instinctively felt that, ever since their reunion, Un Cheoncheon had been deliberately giving him the cold shoulder. If one were to grade her iciness, she was a block of ice to everyone else — and a colossal iceberg to him.
What was the problem? What had he done to make her this angry?
Before long, all nineteen attendees had taken their seats. Yeop Pung looked around. Besides familiar faces like Hwa Cheonpung, there were a few he did not recognize — though every one of them regarded him with friendly eyes.
But one person was missing.
Where's Yi Hwawu?
Yeop Pung could not hide his puzzlement as he stared at an empty seat up front.
He's usually so meticulous. How is he late to a banquet this important?
As that thought crossed his mind, he caught a faintly flustered look on Yeom Jin-ri's face. But the appointed hour was already upon them, and she rose from her seat without waiting any longer, lifted her cup, and spoke.
"Another year has come and gone, and the Mid-Autumn Festival is with us once more. How glad I am to see all of you here at Gangun Peak again this year."
Yeom Jin-ri's gentle voice wrapped around every heart like warm spring water. With her calm, gracious greeting they clinked their cups, and the banquet began.
As they exchanged toasts and savored the delicious food, time slipped quietly past. One after another, people found themselves glancing at the empty seat, all thinking the same thing.
Is Yi Hwawu really not coming tonight?
At the same moment the banquet began on Gangun Peak, a high-level gathering of Cheonun Sect, hosted by Lee Sujol himself, was just getting underway at Wangcheon Hall on Cheonun Peak. Inside the magnificent hall, four seats of honor had been prepared — for Lee Sujol, Ha Chung, Gu Jeoryang, and Han Buri.
Below those four titans sat the important second-generation elders, Han Un among them. The banquet was both a grace Lee Sujol bestowed upon the entire sect and an occasion to bind them more tightly together.
But the atmosphere here was equally uneasy. Considerable time had passed since the banquet began, yet one of the four seats of honor remained empty. Han Buri, Peak Master of Nowoon Peak, a man famous for his severity, had yet to appear.
"Senior Brother, I ought to go to Nowoon Peak myself and look into this."
Gu Jeoryang, seated beside him, spoke with a troubled expression. For Han Buri — a man who normally prized discipline above all — to miss a gathering of this importance was unthinkable. What on earth was happening today?
"No. Today is a joyous occasion. Junior Brother Gu, put your mind at ease and enjoy the wine."
Lee Sujol shook his head, but his expression had already darkened.
As the two banquets — one grand, one intimate — were reaching their height, a tiny black speck appeared high in the enormous disc of moonlight. It swelled at a startling rate, resolving into the shape of a colossal airship sheathed in red crystal, racing toward Cheonun Sect.
Amazingly, the airship seemed to have mapped Cheonun Sect's border formations down to the last detail. It slipped slowly into Mount Tianyun without so much as grazing the mountain-guarding barrier.
Then figures of formidable aura leapt from the vessel. They split into two groups and streaked toward Cheonun Peak and Gangun Peak.
Back on Gangun Peak, the drinking had reached a lively pitch, and everyone was in high spirits.
Senior Sister So So-un, her long hair tied in a single bundle, had drunk several cups of spirit wine, and a rosy flush colored her cheeks. Even more beautiful in the lamplight, she smiled toward Yeom Jin-ri.
"Peak Master, what fun have you prepared for us this year? I can hardly wait."
At her words, the other prodigies looked at Yeom Jin-ri with equally expectant eyes.
This was the highlight of the banquet every year. Yeom Jin-ri always devised some ingenious contest that everyone could enjoy together — a competition that let them gauge one another's training without ever tipping into an overly cutthroat atmosphere. Yeop Pung, too, could not hide his curiosity about what would unfold this time.
What delight would the elegant Peak Master Yeom bestow upon them tonight?
Receiving their eager gazes, Yeom Jin-ri smiled faintly. She swept her wide sleeve, and an antique scroll rose from within it. Glowing with a faint golden light, the scroll floated into the air and settled in the open space among the guests.
"What in the world is that...?"
They stared at the scroll, curiosity bright in their eyes.
"This is a little toy I made not long ago. I thought it might add a bit of fun to tonight's banquet."
Yeom Jin-ri pointed at the scroll with a finger. It began to unfurl slowly, growing larger and larger, until its form grew faint and turned transparent.
At last it transformed into a colossal painting hanging in midair before them — as if a vast wall had suddenly risen from nothing.
"What is this, exactly?"
So So-un asked, her eyes full of wonder.
"This is something I call the Ten-Thousand-Li Rivers and Mountains Scroll."
Yeom Jin-ri explained with a smile. She gave a light wave of her hand, and pure water-element energy surged from her palm, seeping into the painting-scroll that hung in the air.
A stream of untainted water-element Profound Qi poured from her palm and sank into the empty scroll, stirring the blank expanse like ink dropped upon still water.
Then something astonishing happened.
A fierce wave of energy rippled through the vacant scroll. Faint motes of light gathered and, in an instant, painted a vast landscape of rivers and mountains. Within the painting, mountain ranges coiled like a colossal dragon, and a mighty river thundered as if tens of thousands of horses were charging. The grandeur shook every heart present; all held their breath.
"It's incredible...!"
They could not help but marvel. Yeom Jin-ri smiled at them and continued.
"To think something like this is even possible...!"
Yeop Pung murmured in admiration. He found himself genuinely intrigued by this elegant contest that tested both energy and martial skill at once.
While he was still marveling, So So-un beside him could wait no longer. She rose from her seat and stepped into the center.
"I'll go first!"
A flash of light burst from her hands, and a beautiful pair of short swords appeared.
Twin short swords flared with moonlight as Cheonun Sect's renowned high-grade sword art unfolded in a dazzling display before the assembled guests.