Investigation (2)
By the signs I had seen so far, there were really only two problems at work here: an excess of emotional resonance, and confusion in memory.
Asking the Mount Hua disciples who had just arrived in Yangyang yesterday about memory abnormalities would do me no good; I had no way to verify their answers.
That left emotional resonance.
Across all of history, what kind of situation shakes people the most emotionally?
Needless to say, it was conflict.
And as someone who had lived in modern society, I knew very well the deadliest weapon for stirring up emotions.
With a faint smile, I opened the conversation. “By the way, since I’ve met people training at Mount Hua’s main sect, I’ve been curious about something.”
“What is it?”
“To be honest, isn’t Mount Hua the finest of all the orthodox Taoist sects?”
Gal Cup.
The act of comparing one side to another and putting the other down.
Sure enough, the female disciples of Mount Hua brightened at this sudden topic and focused their attention on me.
“Of course Mount Hua is the best, though I suppose it depends on the situation.”
Still, it seemed that those of higher seniority were different.
Unlike the other restless disciples, Hwayeon did not waver at such a simple tactic. She remained calm and gave the orthodox answer.
But if I was going to stop there, I might as well not have begun at all.
“Well, before coming here I stopped by Wudang, and they claimed to be the greatest Taoist sect. As for Mount Hua, I heard them say, ‘Go beat Mount Zhongnan first and then come back.’”
“What!”
As soon as I invented a story that had never happened, reactions exploded all at once.
Using Mount Zhongnan, Mount Hua’s rival, had indeed been an excellent choice.
The disciples were so worked up by the provocation that they raised their voices and began tearing into Wudang with growing indignation.
In the end, even Hwayeon could not hold back and joined the conversation.
“Mount Hua is the number one Taoist sect in Shaanxi—no, in all the Central Plains.”
“Wudang is just riding on the spiritual energy of Wudang Mountain and making a fuss.”
“As for the Gentle Sword, it’s nothing more than a clumsy counterstrike. The Round and the Swift are the true subtleties of the sword. What do those people even know?”
I watched their overheated reactions erupt in an instant.
But at this point, I still couldn’t tell whether this was due to some underlying resentment Mount Hua already held toward Wudang, or whether it was the result of emotional overcorrection.
In that case, what if I threw in the opposite opinion, like the people I’d seen on the street last time?
“Please, calm down. It seems Wudang really does lack tradition compared to Mount Hua, and has its share of shortcomings.”
“Exactly! Mount Hua is the true peak of the orthodox Taoist sects. People just don’t understand that.”
“Then what about Mount Zhongnan?”
I smoothly shifted the subject to Mount Zhongnan.
This time, the Mount Hua disciples eagerly began pointing out Mount Zhongnan’s weaknesses, as if they had been waiting for the chance.
“Mount Zhongnan’s sword is far too dull. Weight matters, but if it never reaches your opponent, it’s meaningless.”
“And it’s so old-fashioned. The Plum Blossom Sword Art has kept evolving and changing even in the last few years, while Mount Zhongnan’s sword has been stuck in the same place for decades.”
Mm-hm. After all, putting others down was the best way to strengthen internal unity.
But this still wasn’t a proper experiment.
I decided to toss in a pebble that would crack their solid cohesion.
“But in terms of tradition, isn’t Mount Zhongnan superior?”
“That’s….”
The disciples who had been shouting excitedly all fell silent at once.
Mount Zhongnan, where the Dragon-Phoenix Cult was founded, was the holy ground of Taoism.
In fact, the prevailing belief was even that Mount Hua itself had split off from there.
To point out their lack of tradition was, in effect, to deny Mount Hua’s legitimacy.
The disciples, unlike before, could only exchange glances and look to one another for cues.
The confidence they had shown while insulting Wudang was nowhere to be seen.
In the now-silent group, someone muttered in a low voice, “Mount Zhongnan’s tradition is unquestionable.”
That was the beginning.
The atmosphere that had united them in cursing Wudang and Mount Zhongnan only a moment ago instantly turned cold, and complaints began to spill out toward one another.
“Senior Sister, then why don’t you go to Mount Zhongnan?”
“What? Do you realize what you just said?”
The resentment that had burst forth became an unstoppable current, washing over them all.
Their snapping voices and sharp exchanges quickly made the teahouse feel as if a fistfight could break out at any moment.
To end the experiment here and now, I needed to be able to overturn even this ugly situation in one stroke.
“Actually, I stayed at Mount Hua for a while. It really is one of the great mountains of the Central Plains, and just staying there for a bit made me feel strangely at ease.”
As soon as I spoke, the women locked in their standoff suddenly smiled and began praising Mount Hua.
Their sudden shift, as though they had never been fighting at all, was downright eerie.
Yep. These people were definitely being affected too.
No way a mood could swing this wildly unless some abnormal influence was at work.
Hwayeon, at least, occasionally tilted her head with a puzzled expression, but even she was swept up by the atmosphere and chatted along cheerfully.
I wondered if higher martial attainment gave one some resistance.
It was possible.
Chung-ah was an amateur martial artist who hadn’t learned any proper heart method, so she must have been fully affected.
“This is definitely strange. Mount Hua has a lot of secular disciples, so its sense of belonging isn’t as strong as other sects, but I heard its inner disciples are extremely close to one another….”
Chung-ah, who had been watching the situation quietly beside me, whispered in my ear.
They were close, all right.
Were they not now laughing and reminiscing with such warmth?
They simply got stirred up absurdly easily, flared up too quickly, and then died down just as fast.
“Looks like they’re under the influence too.”
“Suspicious.”
Chung-ah didn’t have the memory from yesterday, but after seeing the flow of events, she seemed to grasp the seriousness quickly and grew serious herself.
We indulged the women a little longer, enjoyed some tea and sweets, and then stepped out of the teahouse.
“Then I’ll see you at the Yongbongjihoe, unnie.”
Before I knew it, Hwayeon had linked arms with me as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Normally, I would have been thrilled at the thought that I’d charmed yet another pretty girl, but after witnessing that bizarre scene just now, I felt nothing in particular.
Besides, it was a meeting that might be erased again tomorrow anyway.
“Sounds good.”
I gave them a casual wave, parted ways, and fell into thought with my hand to my chin.
Putting all the information together, I came to one conclusion: something was spreading through this entire city, manipulating emotion and memory.
Even in the martial world, an abnormal phenomenon on this scale would have to be the work of a bigeup.
The problem was that I had no idea what method was being used to influence so many people across such a wide area.
“Chung-ah. Do you know any technique that could affect such a broad area?”
“Let me think….”
I asked on the off chance, but Chung-ah fell into thought as well.
This wasn’t martial arts; it was fantasy.
Poisoning the water or using a barrier to manipulate an entire city—those were the kinds of tricks you’d only hear about in fantasy stories….
“Ah.”
A flash of insight struck me.
A barrier.
And then I remembered how Dokgo Ryeon had once criticized the Jegal Clan’s formation.
A technique that affected a wide area.
It existed in martial arts too, didn’t it?
“Chung-ah. What kind of formation is the Jegal Clan setting up right now?”
“Pardon? Ah, this is a protective formation that detects outsiders’ qi and wraps the entire city in a shield to protect the walls….”
As Chung-ah explained quietly, her eyes suddenly flew wide open as though she had realized something.
“Don’t tell me… no, surely not. Could my brother…?”
It seemed Chung-ah had reached the same conclusion I had.
We immediately set off toward the city walls.
As soon as we arrived, Chung-ah began checking the formation carved into the stone.
“It’s ordinary. The strange part is….”
She traced the formation line by line with her fingers, but before long she clutched her head.
“What’s wrong?”
“There’s something, something off here. But it’s not just that—it’s like my head refuses to work the moment I try to think about it.”
This wasn’t her usual cute little airhead routine.
She looked genuinely pained, as if she were facing a wall she could not get past.
By then, Chung-ah’s face had gone pale, and she looked at me with anxious eyes.
“Unnie.”
“Yeah. So the formation is real, then.”
I had already noticed the formation’s abnormality on the very first day I met Jegal Hyeon and Jegal Yun.
Back then, Chung-ah had not complained of any such pain.
But today, merely thinking about the formation’s strangeness caused her to struggle like this.
In other words, someone had interfered.
The villain had spread the power of a bigeup across the whole city through a formation, muddling people’s memories and stirring up emotional unrest.
The mastermind was now clear.
The Jegal Clan.
The very people who were hosting this Yongbongjihoe and inviting the heads of the major martial sects.
And at the center of it all would be Jegal Hyeon, the chief overseer of the formation inspection.
“They said they were busy, and sure enough, they had every reason to be.”
There were less than two days left until the Yongbongjihoe, and I’d thought it suspicious that they were inspecting the formation every single day.
It must have been because whenever someone got too close to the truth, they had to work behind the scenes to erase the traces.
Unfortunately for them, the flaw in that perfect plan was that I was a ridiculously strong beauty.
Bigeup didn’t have much effect on me.
Especially not through such an indirect method.
“Too bad for them.”
I grinned.
Only two days remained until the plan was complete.
If I’d been just one day later in noticing it, their scheme might have worked.
And yet they had gone and touched my lovely little sister, giving me reason to catch on even sooner.
Your arrogance was your downfall.
“Let’s go, Chung-ah.”
I strode forward boldly, heading straight for the Jegal Clan.
Time to put an end to this case.
---