Morlaren Canyon
Everyone is a Martial-theist.
That is to say: everyone believes in the Martial God.
But if you ask whether Martial-theism is a religion, the answer is no.
People who revere the Martial God freely practice Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, or whatever else they please. Plenty of them follow no religion at all and simply revere the Martial God alone.
In truth, the Martial God is not someone you "believe in."
He existed, plain as day. Records of his birth survive. His deeds are stamped all over the historical archives of Terra. As the ages rolled on, photographs of him were taken by the armful, and videos too. Search him up on any personal device and you can watch the old footage yourself.
You don't believe the Martial God existed? How? The records are right there. Go type "Martial God moves a planet with telekinesis meme" into the internet and see for yourself.
Even if you refuse to call him a god — even if you mark him as low as humanly possible — he still ranks as "the single most absurdly legendary ancestor of humankind." Human civilization advanced on the back of martial arts, and the master of that art is Namgung Hwe.
He not only elevated martial arts nearly to the level of pure art, he distributed that art to the entire human race.
To trash-talk a man like that is the next thing to treason. The Martial God isn't great? What, do you not even have a dantian? Wait… are you a disguised cosmic yellow locust?
And though he is called a god, his identity remains human.
He was a man, and with a man's body he became a god.
That is why the Martial God is not, strictly speaking, a religion.
He did not create heaven and earth.
He is not some unreachable being.
He is a historical figure.
And he went around telling everyone that one day they could become what he was.
He was, if anything, the founding patriarch of human civilization. Humanity's root, and the road it ought to walk. The greatest human. The strongest martial artist. The teacher of every person alive.
Not once did he call himself a god. He only said that he was one who had gone a little ahead — which meant anyone could become what he had become. I am merely the faster one. You can do it too.
So in life, the Martial God hated it when people called him a god.
But after Namgung Hwe ascended, his descendants seized the chance and slapped the title on him anyway. No more tiptoeing around his feelings! Call him a god and mean it! Woo! Martial God Namgung Hwe!
The Namgung Clan thundered their rebuke. How dare you disregard his last wishes!
But… Namgung Hwe was just that ridiculous. Pinching a red giant with telekinesis and kneading it into a neutron star — how is that a human being?
The Namgung Clan tried for a while to suppress the title of Martial God. In the end, they failed.
And so the name stuck for good.
People today call on the Martial God when they are sick or near death. They practice the martial arts he left behind. They believe that when they die, the Martial God will watch over them — that he greets them in heaven, or guides them through reincarnation, or waits for them in some eternal Valhalla of battle.
Thus the Martial God is a god who is also a man: a thoroughly contradictory existence.
And so, in this galaxy, there are no atheists.
Everyone who lives here is a martial artist, and every martial artist follows the Martial God. Those who practice no other faith are simply Martial-theists — they revere the Martial God and nothing else.
In the end, the Martial God is the default setting.
Perhaps for that reason, the other religions do not deny him either. They are Martial-God-friendly. Buddhism treats him as a kind of Buddha and venerates him. Hinduism holds that he is an avatar of the supreme god Vishnu.
And the cults are no different.
"The great Martial God blesses our meeting."
One of the people in purple robes spoke in a near-whisper. From the voice, this one was a young woman.
Starting with her, the other robe-wearers tossed out lines one after another.
"You have a truly auspicious countenance."
"Ah. Yes."
"Do you belong to any particular faith?"
"No faith."
"Aha! The Martial Faith!"
"No, what I meant was—"
"Wonderful! Just now, by the Heart-Seeing Method, I observed you quietly, Prospective Believer, and I can see you carry a burden. Could it be — a shortage in your total inner power?"
"…"
"As it happens, we have the solution. What do you say? Trust our order and seek the light?"
"…"
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"I'm good."
"Ahh. In this vast and perilous galaxy, one needs at least somewhere to lean."
"Mm. Couldn't I just lean on the Martial God?"
Gong Ryun said it without meaning it, just to say something.
"Ohhh… exactly so, Prospective Believer… Enter our order and you draw nearer to the Martial God himself! Beneath the Martial God's name, we shall forge a world of peace! A better world! A finer galaxy! A magnificent new age!"
Ah.
His head was starting to hurt.
Should he just turn around and bolt while he still could?
He fixed the client with a scowl, and only then did the man cough awkwardly and come back to himself.
"Ahem! Hahaha! Forgive me. Force of habit. Heh heh heh! Don't worry. We may be a bit of an odd bunch, but the kids all have good hearts."
"Ah… right…"
"Shall we be off, then? To Morlaren Canyon!!"
Gong Ryun rubbed his chin. Turning back now would be more trouble than it was worth. He'd already signed the contract.
For today, at least, he would watch how things went — and if they turned out to be too far gone, he would cut them loose.
And so their survey mission began.
—VROOOOOOM!!
A six-seater monster truck rolled out of the gray zone and toward Morlaren Canyon: a powerhouse of a model built to handle any wild terrain.
Morlaren Canyon was the vast landform west of AE City — a terrain feature nearly the size of a major nation from the Terra era, its origins still a mystery.
If a mountain range is a line of dozens of peaks, this place was a clustering of countless canyons large and small — a canyon range, if such a word existed.
A canyon, properly speaking, is land carved by a river's current into sheer cliffs. This planet, however, did not have much water. The terrain was probably born of earthquakes and magmatic upheaval.
In a galaxy overflowing with bizarre landscapes of every kind, Morlaren Canyon barely rated a name card in the "mysterious terrain" contest. No one had ever bothered with a proper study of the place.
Next to floating islands, glowing deserts, and mint-chocolate-flavored seas scattered across the galaxy, a merely colossal canyon was downright tame.
—VROOOOOOOM!!!
When they had nearly reached Morlaren Canyon, they first drove up a nearby high hill to take in the full panorama.
A canyon is usually flat ground that suddenly drops into a sheer cliff — like a bas-relief cut into the surface of the world. That vast engraving stretched without beginning or end.
It was like looking at a sea whose waves were canyons. Canyons ran all the way to the horizon and beyond: narrow and deep over there, shallow and wide over here, and in one place so profound you half-suspected a bottomless abyss.
Three cities sat near Morlaren Canyon. AE City to the east, BD City to the north, EC City to the southwest.
And all three were currently dispatching exploration teams.
…If they were going to do this anyway, why had they fought over the Southern and Northern Dragon Gates? Even if they held hands and walked together, they still wouldn't cover it all.
Gong Ryun marveled afresh at the pettiness of the unorthodox types.
"Right over there. We start from that one."
The client tapped a spot on the navigation map.
Among the nearby canyons, it was a comfortably deep, comfortably wide one.
From here, the survey would begin.
Fortunately, not every approach was a sheer drop. Gentle slopes led down in many places, and they drove the truck along those. Previous explorers had been through often enough that the paths were well worn.
At last the vehicle touched the floor of the canyon.
Looking up from below, cliffs stretched away on either side and the sky hung overhead.
It felt exactly like having fallen off a precipice.
According to the ancient clichés of orthodox martial-arts fiction, this was precisely the kind of place where one found a fateful opportunity.
The hero falls from the cliff and survives. Hidden in the cliff face is a secret cave…
And that cave turns out to be the tomb of a master who once shook the world.
The master has left arrangements for whoever would one day find his grave!
Thus the hero masters the tomb's "forgotten peerless art whose true nature no one knows but whose power is absurdly strong," and, while he's at it, gobbles down the spiritual elixirs left at the gravesite as well.
Any martial artist living in the galactic age knew that cliché by heart.
"We'll unpack the equipment and begin the survey now. We'd be grateful if you watched the vehicle."
After driving some distance along the canyon floor, they found a suitable spot, hauled out backpacks stuffed with gear, and climbed down from the truck.
Then, one after another, they air-walked halfway up the canyon walls.
—Ssssssssshhhhh……
A thin canyon wind brushed past their ears — a sound that could have been waves, or a soft weeping.