A Promise Kept
Normally, when one heard such a story, there were standard polite remarks to offer. How incredible. If your master were here, she would be so proud of you. Things of that nature. However, given the sheer gravity of the subject matter, Yeongso could not bring herself to utter words of praise. He was a man who deserved punishment, but to think Banya had personally castrated his own biological father...
"...I see. That is quite a story." This was the best she could manage.
"Anyway, after we parted ways, I never heard from my master again. But I doubt she's dead. She's a woman with a harsh fate and a stubborn grip on life..." Banya showered his absent master with remarks that hovered precariously between a compliment and an insult.
"Even now, she might be out there somewhere, draining the internal energy of a thousand men to keep her skin taut and completely free of wrinkles."
"Right..."
"In any case, she only ever took me as her sole disciple. She said just the thought of having a male disciple irritated her, so she warned me never to tell anyone I learned from her."
"Ah." Yeongso let out a soft exclamation. "But just now, you..."
"Yes, I told you, didn't I?" Banya lowered his voice, feigning a sense of imminent danger. "So, if my master ever comes to take my head, you must protect me, Wife."
She was somewhat dumbfounded. He had claimed with his own mouth that he surpassed his master's level before he even reached adulthood, so why was he talking about hiding behind her? When Yeongso merely pursed her lips without replying, Banya clicked his tongue.
"Wife, are you planning to observe another three-year mourning period for your husband? Have you developed a taste for it?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Yeongso retorted tartly. "You can easily stop your master yourself, Alliance Leader. Why would you need my help?"
"Why the sudden distance? 'Alliance Leader'? We've crossed the boundaries of life and death together, killing and being killed. You should at least call me 'dear'."
Yeongso quietly lowered her eyes. She had learned a great deal about Banya's past. Her heart had even ached at the part where he had to flee without even recovering his mother's body. Yet, she still could not let go of her final thread of doubt.
"I have listened well to your story. But how do you intend to prove that you are indeed the disciple of Dokgo Mimi?"
If that was a lie, then the rest of his words would be difficult to trust. At this, Banya slowly curled one corner of his mouth upward.
"If you have heard of my master's notorious reputation, then surely you must also know of the Hwanra Divine Art she created?"
"...Yes. If one absorbs another's internal energy indiscriminately without regard for sect boundaries, as your master did, the various energies are bound to clash within the body. While one's martial arts might grow rapidly, it inevitably causes severe internal damage. However, Dokgo Mimi created the Hwanra Divine Art to harmonize those energies, achieving a synergistic effect instead."
"Precisely." Banya extended his wrist, suggesting that in that case, his wife must also know what the energy of someone who practiced the Hwanra Divine Art felt like. "Go ahead and check."
Feeling strangely uneasy, Yeongso placed her fingers on his pulse.
"Be careful not to have your own vital essence drained instead," Banya added teasingly.
The moment one attempted to read the technique of the Hwanra Divine Art through physical contact, their energy would be absorbed by the practitioner. Yeongso closed her eyes and focused on Banya's energy. Sure enough, the moment she detected the deep purple energy flowing through his veins, it lunged at her like a starved vampire spotting its prey.
It felt as though purple suckers were breaking out beneath Banya's skin, latching onto her fingertips. Then came a powerful suction that felt as if it would drain her to the very marrow of her bones. Yeongso reclaimed the tiny sliver of her internal energy that had slipped away and pulled her hand back from Banya's wrist.
'It is exactly as Master taught me. This is undoubtedly the Hwanra Divine Art.'
Yeongso let out a soft sigh. With this, any excuse to dismiss Banya's story as a lie had vanished. Further questioning was meaningless. However, Banya's expression was peculiar.
"Wife, did you just... repel my Hwanra Divine Art?"
She did not see what the issue was. Yeongso blinked in silence.
"No, I mean, you didn't just cut off the connection midway. You actually took back the internal energy that had already crossed over into my body...?"
"And?"
"'And?' she asks." Banya let out a dry laugh. "There are barely any people in this world capable of doing that."
'And yet you don't even realize what the problem is? Just how strong are you, my lady?' Banya muttered to himself, utterly flabbergasted.
Meanwhile, having understood the reason for her husband's shock, Yeongso returned to her serene, water-like composure. She had listened to the story of Banya's master. While listening, her heart had undoubtedly been moved. Now, it was her turn to confess her own secret.
'Can I trust this man?'
The warning written on the final page of the first volume flashed through her mind. It stated that if one disclosed the other's secrets during cultivation, they would bleed from every orifice of their body and become a cripple. To make that binding restriction possible, they had to exchange their qi according to the mnemonic on the first page of the second volume. They had to tie a single knot using the energy extending from her and Banya's own energy.
'While this restriction gives me some peace of mind, what truly moved my heart was something else...'
It was the very words Banya had spoken.
Yeongso knew she could not expect Banya to lay himself bare while she withheld her own precious secrets. After all, once this secret manual was completed, Banya would have his murderous intent, violence, and negative desires controlled by his wife for the rest of his life.
'How agonizing must that be for someone who has lived so wildly and freely?' It would probably feel as though his hands and feet were tightly bound. Yeongso's brow furrowed. A child cast out even by the Unorthodox Path had taken a woman despised by her own kind as his master. In some ways, Banya's past mirrored Yeongso's own story.
"Is there anything else you wish to ask?" Banya asked, his posture indicating he was ready to answer anything.
Looking at her husband, she was reminded of the bold proposal she had made to Seowangmo. She had dared to assert that even a villain like Hwa Banya could reform if given the chance. She had boldly declared that she would guide her husband along the path of good deeds by his side, and that if she failed, she would gladly accept punishment alongside him.
'After saying all that... how can I not even trust him myself?' Yeongso made up her mind.
"Wife?"
Instead of answering Banya, Yeongso shifted her position to sit closer to him. The three-step hand gestures described on the first page of the second volume of the Co-Chamber Cultivation Manual were not particularly difficult. Calmly forming the first, second, and third hand seals, Yeongso drew up her internal energy as she inhaled. Then, she placed her hand over Banya's left breast and closed her eyes.
Yeongso's energy, shaped like a thin thread, flowed into Banya. Realizing what she was doing, Banya smiled faintly and immediately mirrored his wife's hand gestures. With their left hands placed before their dantian and their right hands near each other's hearts, the two exchanged their energies.
The two threads of energy tied themselves into a small concentric knot. Sensing that they were now connected, Yeongso quietly opened eyes. It was time to tell the story she had never shared with anyone. Would the tale of Baekri Yeongso be able to touch the heart of Hwa Banya?
"While my mother was pregnant with me, she went to visit her family home and encountered bandits on the way. Under normal circumstances, with her skills, she wouldn't have suffered a single scratch, but that day was different. She said her stomach had been pulling strangely since that morning."
As it was later revealed, the stomach pain was actually the work of the Unorthodox Path targeting Gang-ssi Buin from the very beginning. They had bribed a maid to swap the restorative medicine she drank every morning.
"Fortunately, my mother survived, but I was born prematurely. They said I was so weak as a baby that I barely even cried."
Baby Yeongso was so quiet that she frequently caused Gang-ssi Buin's heart to sink even afterward. A year later, the physician who examined Yeongso's pulse delivered news that felt like the heavens collapsing to her family.
"They said I was born with the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians, where the yin energy in my body was far too strong, and that I wouldn't live past the age of ten."
The martial arts of the Baekri Clan did not suit Yeongso's constitution. The spiritual elixir known to cure the Nine Yin Blocked Meridians had already vanished from the world a generation ago.
"There was no choice but to invite a master from outside the clan. Though, that was only if I managed to survive until the age of two or three." Yeongso offered a faint smile.
"My mother was prepared to go to the underworld and back if it meant saving her youngest daughter. After mobilizing the entire intelligence network of her maiden family, the Cheonsan Sect, she finally found a lead."
She discovered that the only master capable of saving Yeongso was living in seclusion in the rugged foothills of the northwest.
"At the mere age of twenty-one, he earned the title of Sword Emperor and rose to the position of Martial Arts Alliance Leader. However, he fell into the heretical path, which led to the deaths of his wife and young daughter. Afterward, he became a symbol of the Unorthodox Path before suddenly leaving everything behind to retreat into the mountains."
As he listened to her explanation, Banya's expression gradually shifted. He, too, knew what name was about to escape his wife's lips. He knew, yet he could hardly believe it. Yeongso calmly continued.
"The Sword Ghost, Seol Nakjo. In all the world, he was the only one who could save me."