Chapter 14: The Eastern Depot Frets, the Hao Clan Woos, and the Beggars' Sect Is Appalled (2)
Chapter 14: The Eastern Depot Frets, the Hao Clan Woos, and the Beggars' Sect Is Appalled (2)
It was an autumn day when I was ten years old.
"That marks the end of the elementary curriculum."
I closed my book while watching the falling leaves scatter.
I had finished memorizing the basic curriculum, including Elementary Learning, the Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance, and the Precious Mirror of the Clear Mind. I had even moved through the advanced courses—though they still only equated to a middle school level—covering the Four Books and Five Classics.
Three years had already passed since I sent Hwa-yeong away.
Time flies when you're a student preparing for exams.
"Damn that Confucius."
"Oh, young master. You shouldn't say such scandalous things."
"Why did he have to talk so much?"
Confucius was a total chatterbox.
The books compiling his words alone exceeded ten volumes. The Buddha’s sayings (Agama Sutra) ended in four volumes, Jesus’s in one, and even Mao Zedong’s little red book was just one volume. But this man was on an entirely different level.
To make matters worse, every single one of those 'words' was part of the exam range for the Dongshengshi!
The Dongshengshi is the first gateway of the civil service examinations. It is a test for students who have not yet reached adulthood. One must pass this exam to earn the title of Shengyuan (licentiate), which grants the opportunity to take the provincial and metropolitan exams later.
In other words, based on the Ming Dynasty's caste system of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants, it was practically the only exit strategy for upward social mobility.
Even just becoming a Shengyuan provided benefits ranging from tax exemptions and labor duty waivers to the minimum qualification required to teach students in local villages.
Consequently, the requirements were strict, the exam range was disgustingly broad, and the competition was sky-high. Honestly, it wasn't the kind of test just anyone could waltz into and pass.
"Still, you have always been exceptionally brilliant, young master, so I'm sure there will be good results."
"Being a mere Shengyuan isn't enough. Since I've already started this, I might as well aim for Xiu-cai (first place)."
"There must be countless students aiming to pass the Dongshengshi in Shuntian Prefecture, though?"
"There's no way they've studied longer than I have."
This wasn't an exaggeration.
I was a prodigy who mastered the Thousand Character Classic at age three and immediately moved on to Elementary Learning. If you asked if a 26-year-old (plus 7 years) was truly a prodigy, I wouldn't have much to say, but objectively speaking, I had grown up hitting every milestone of an elite genius within the Confucian cultural sphere.
Generally, students my age who aspired to government office first opened the Thousand Character Classic at five or six. It was common for them to take even longer to fully master it. After all, wasn't the Chinese writing system notorious for its high illiteracy rate?
Among those snot-nosed kids, it would be embarrassing to merely aim for a passing grade. A transmigrator shouldn't be taking a Poom-belt test at a neighborhood Taekwondo gym with life-or-death seriousness.
"I can manage to memorize Elementary Learning, the Four Books and Five Classics, and the Collected Commentaries of Zhu Xi by heart, but..."
I didn't realize it when I lived in the modern era, but the Four Books and Three Classics—or the Four Books and Five Classics if you included the Spring and Autumn Annals and the Classic of Changes—were essentially just elementary school textbooks. One should never underestimate the sheer volume of study required by the scholars of this era.
Fortunately, this part was pure memorization, which could be considered my specialty as a liberal arts major. However, there was another problem.
'To qualify for the Dongshengshi, one must be affiliated with the Jegakhakgwan (Imperial Academy)!'
That was the issue. In medieval China—a place with vast land, a massive population, and plenty of scammers—cheating on exams was rampant. (Not that the modern era is any different.)
Thus, the condition to verify minimum eligibility was to be a student of a local national academy, the Jegakhakgwan.
One didn't necessarily have to study at the academy itself. Whether you learned at a private school or had a private tutor didn't matter; only students whose identities were guaranteed by the Jegakhakgwan could sit for the exam.
Identity verification wasn't something issued just by paying money; it required at least some level of interaction.
Since it was currently late autumn (late September), just past the Double Ninth Festival, I needed to be registered at the academy for at least three months to take the Dongshengshi held in mid-spring next February.
So, couldn't I just attend for three months?
Exactly. That would be the fastest and easiest path—if we ignored the minor detail that the Hebei Peng Family was currently at war in Beijing.
But would they really give me permission to go to Beijing when I was the very catalyst for that war?
'Absolutely not.'
If I were to suddenly appear in the middle of a conflict that erupted because of me, even if I were a member of the White Lotus Cult, I’d want to take a stab at me just on principle.
Like the provincial exams held every three years, the Dongshengshi was also held triennially. Naturally, if I couldn't do it this year, I could do it next time. If I said I wanted to take the civil service exam, no one in the family would oppose it, but they would all inevitably say, "Please go next time."
But I couldn't. I didn't even need to cite the precious timeline of a transmigrator where every year counts.
Knowing them, they wouldn't let me take a single step outside the main gates until I had mastered the Hunyuan Blade and passed the Hegemonic Blade Style trials.
From what I heard, Peng Hyeon-cheon—my brother, three years my senior—was being strictly 'protected,' forbidden from taking even a single step outside the Inner Hall.
The Peng Family was definitely on a war footing.
In such a situation, if I said I was going to an academy in Beijing just to study? I'd be lucky if they didn't break my shins.
'It usually takes until age fifteen to master the Hunyuan Blade.'
That was the typical age when one achieved a martial level classified as second-rate and mastered the four arts—Hunyuan Art, Mountain King Steps, Heart-Protecting Fist, and Hunyuan Blade—to be recognized for the "Departure Ceremony."
And the age limit for the Dongshengshi was thirteen. Since I was ten now, the next one would be my last chance.
Even if I completed the Hunyuan Blade at the fastest speed in history, the timing for the Dongshengshi would be tight.
Furthermore, that time itself was a waste.
'I should be finishing the Dongshengshi now and preparing for the provincial and metropolitan exams...!!'
As long as I had three older brothers above me, I wasn't running a marathon. I was, in every sense, running a sprint at every moment.
My brothers, who had built up their reputations and martial arts earlier, longer, and more diligently than I had, were already running a step ahead toward the position of Family Head.
I couldn't afford to delay any further when I was already ten years behind my siblings.
"Then what do you intend to do?"
Nang-rang, having heard my thoughts, asked with a serious face.
I quietly picked up the Go board from across the table and answered.
"I'll have to turn on the charm."
The 'Grandfather Heart-Striker' was moving out.
*
The Family Head’s hall boasted an interior design that seemed potentially detrimental to a child's mental health.
Looking at the walls lined with weapons so rusted from neglect they were practically crumbling, I couldn't help but swallow hard.
Those weapons were left unmaintained on purpose. It was a tradition to display the signature weapons of sects and masters defeated by the Hebei Peng Family, mocking them to bolster the Peng Family's prestige.
It was a form of tea-bagging.
In the middle of that grim graveyard of weapons, I quietly placed a black stone on a star point and spoke.
"I intend to enroll in the Jegakhakgwan in Beijing, Grandfather."
"An academy, you say."
Clack!
Grandfather was looking at the board with his usual inscrutable expression.
"Do you know how many White Lotus cultists and spies we have hunted down and killed since that spring?"
"I... wonder?"
"One hundred and eighty-seven. And that's just the martial artists."
"Oh."
As I gulped, Grandfather’s gaze fell upon me.
"They must be getting desperate. There were those who dared to attack, but we haven't caught any who could be called 'Elders.' As time passes, it will likely become even harder to find them in this land of Huabei."
"Yes. I suppose so...?"
"If we assume they are slipping out of Huabei, can you predict what they would do if you, the root cause of this situation, appeared in Beijing?"
"Yes, Grandfather. They would want to tear me limb from limb."
"And yet you still wish to go?"
"That is exactly why I am going."
I placed a black stone on the board and straightened my back, looking directly at Grandfather.
This was the important part.
"Even if all the White Lotus cultists in Huabei vanish, and even if several years pass, hasn't the Peng Family and those people already crossed a point of no return? Unless I intend to live under the gates of the Peng Family forever, they will target me eventually."
"And?"
"If I want to ensure my safety, wouldn't the best course be to step forward and reveal myself instead?"
Clack!
The situation on the board was dire. All the star points were already surrounded by white stones, being slowly devoured.
My stone was thrown right into the center of it. It was a move that risked everything.
"You'll be the bait?"
"Could there be a more appetizing bait than me in the eyes of the White Lotus Cult?"
"If we can clean up the remnants that gather like that... then yes, we wouldn't have to worry about the White Lotus Cult in Beijing anymore."
"Yes, Grandfather."
It was difficult to find those who had gone completely into hiding. To force them out, the blood of many innocent people might have to flow. And if such a thing were done, there would be no way to avoid scrutiny, no matter how much one bribed the government.
Therefore, to extract them with surgical precision, one had to dangle bait that would make them leap into the light.
In a way the Hebei Peng Family usually wouldn't.
Like sending a direct descendant of the Peng Family to Beijing alone.
"Why are you in such a hurry?"
"Pardon...?"
"I receive reports on your training constantly. Your achievements are by no means slow, and if you wished, it wouldn't take even five years until your Departure Ceremony. By then, the White Lotus in Beijing would have withered away to the point where there'd be no need to dangle bait. So why move with such haste?"
Grandfather was no longer looking at the board.
He looked straight down at me.
What was the emotion reflected in his eyes? Reading the feelings of this absolute master was always difficult, but somehow, today, it looked like pity for a grandson.
To risk unnecessary danger just to achieve the position of a mere student at an academy, a mere Shengyuan through the Dongshengshi... the weights on the scale didn't balance.
I knew that. But I had no other choice.
I had to achieve as much as possible in the shortest time while, paradoxically, living as quietly as possible.
"How long do you think it will take for Father to challenge you for the succession of the Family Headship, Grandfather?"
"...I wonder. Looking at Wi-cheon's martial prowess... ten years at the earliest, perhaps longer."
"That is the amount of time I have left."
"Hmm?"
I, too, stopped looking at the board. The situation on the Go board was already a total mess. I had been too busy lately to even look at game records, so it couldn't be helped.
But it didn't matter. Go was merely an excuse. I looked at Grandfather and said:
"The next Young Lord will be one of my brothers. I don't know if it will be the eldest or the second, but I realized I could never reach the succession faster than them."
"Does that mean you are giving up?"
"No. It means I set my goal wrong from the beginning."
The disappointment that had briefly flickered in Grandfather's eyes vanished instantly.
Focusing as much as I could on that gaze, I puffed out my chest proudly.
"I will become the Family Head."
"Then shouldn't you challenge for the position of Young Lord?"
"Hardly. Since when was being the Young Lord a prerequisite for becoming the Family Head? Grandfather, isn't the sole principle of the Hebei Peng Family 'strength'?"
"...You... surely?"
"Yes. I intend to lie low until the succession ceremony for the Family Head. So that I catch no one's eye and no one views me as a threat."
Why did my eldest brother suddenly target me, who was more than ten years younger? Even risking the danger of siding with the White Lotus Cult?
It was because of the marriage proposal with Hwa-yeong. He tried to eliminate the youngest brother before I could gain a powerful maternal influence.
In this house, if you 'stand out,' you get crushed.
Unless you live submissively like the third brother so there's no need to crush you, or quickly build your own foundation like the second brother.
So, I had to act like someone who had already given up on the succession. Clinging to scholarship, which all the martial members of the Peng Family looked down upon, and obsessing over civil service exams like a kid who wanted to escape the family.
The Dongshengshi would be the first step.
Even my sinister older brothers wouldn't bother to keep me in check if I were the youngest brother clinging to exams even at the risk of my life.
With the foundation laid like that, I would finish my preparations quietly and in secret. I would buy time. Time to safely train myself.
"When Father takes your seat, Grandfather... if I can just take that position faster than my brothers at that time, would the title of Young Lord even be necessary?"
"Ha...! Hahahaha!!"
Grandfather stared blankly at my face for a moment before bursting into a hearty laugh.
He laughed so loudly that his internal energy made the main hall of the Family Head’s residence ring.
Amidst the laughter, Grandfather even had tears in his eyes as he slapped his knee.
"You truly relieve my boredom. Hahahaha! How could such a fellow be born from my bloodline?"
"Is it not all thanks to your teachings, Grandfather?"
"Hahahaha! Haha! You've learned well, you rascal! Indeed, a tiger must know how to hide its claws and lie in wait."
A sense of pride swirled in Grandfather's eyes.
He chuckled for a long while, savoring the lingering laughter, before finally nodding and speaking.
"Then, what should this grandfather do for his filial grandson?"
"The Jegakhakgwan in Beijing..."
"Since you've volunteered to be bait, that cannot be considered a reward. Rather, it is something I should grant you a bounty for. Let me see..."
Grandfather soon stood up with a smirk.
He slowly reached out and made a sweeping motion.
A pitch-black blade rose on its own and settled into Grandfather's hand. It was the Single-Door Blade, the signature weapon of the Peng Family Head.
"I promised to review one move of your martial arts every time you answered my questions."
"Um... suddenly?"
"If you aim for this seat one day, I shall first show you the realm you must reach."
The blade slowly began to cry in Grandfather's hand.
Zing— a short sword-cry. The melody flowing from the vibrating blade began to slowly fill the main hall.
In sync with it, the weapons hanging in the hall began to resonate. Zing, ziing...
The sound of rusted metal wailing in unison grew louder, becoming massive enough to shake the entire pavilion—
"Do you remember that low-life who dared to say he would take you as a disciple?"
"Yes, you mean that old swordsman."
"Indeed. There was something he started to tell you but didn't finish. About a realm that was too high for you to fathom yet—the realm that begins when the Upper Dantian is awakened."
If one succeeds in accumulating Qi in the Lower Dantian for the first time, they are called third-rate.
One who can extend the internal energy of the Dantian through the body's meridians and load it into a weapon is called second-rate.
If one can temper that energy so that the internal energy itself, rather than the physical blade, can harm a person, they are called first-rate.
This is the limit for ordinary people. Most martial artists who train their whole lives face a wall at this point.
And those who break that wall reach the Peak Realm.
The realm reached by finally awakening the Middle Dantian. Those who can manifest internal energy simply by thinking it. It is called 'Peak' because it is the height of martial arts a human can reach. Since the techniques of this realm unfold as fast as the martial artist's thoughts, martial artists of this realm struggle within a timeframe unreachable by normal humans.
A clash that occurs within a split second.
There are those who wish to go even further, even after facing this 'limit.' Those who do not accept human limits, who do not define the boundaries of martial arts, and who reach further, higher—
Madmen reaching for the heavens.
The realm such madmen desire is not human martial arts. They imagine the most ideal form of martial arts they each possess and devote their lives to bringing that imagination into reality.
If a tiny fraction of the geniuses counted on one hand across the Central Plains receives the reward for a lifetime of training and finally takes one more step...
The Harmony Realm.
The realm where the Upper Dantian awakens. The realm where one's will alone shakes the four seas and the heavens.
Rumble, rumble...!!
Even as Grandfather's explanation continued calmly, the chorus of blades echoing in the hall persisted.
At this moment, as the ground began to shake and the building began to warp, Grandfather's eyes looked down at me with a smirk.
"To reach this seat you aim for, this is the minimum requirement."
Rumble—!!
I closed my eyes at the sudden gust of wind. It wasn't a natural wind, but an unnatural storm laden with internal energy that swept past my body.
When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer standing in the main hall of the Family Head’s residence.
"What... is this...?!"
"The martial arts a warrior has built over a lifetime, the accumulated merit painstakingly forged through a whole life, the ideal held at the end of that training—the powerful will that can finally release that ideal into the world."
Whoosh!
Wind, sharpened like blades, was howling in all directions.
Stepping on red earth, I stared blankly at my surroundings.
"When the Upper Dantian awakens and all things under heaven finally obey that martial artist, this is the realm they reach. If a master of the Peak Realm can move just by holding a thought, the Harmony Realm is where one can twist the world just by holding a thought."
A realm where one can twist the established harmony of all things in the world and force their own harmony upon it.
Could a martial artist at this point even be called human?
I stared blankly at Grandfather.
Countless flags were fluttering beside him. The military banners of every family, power, and warlord that had ever opposed the Peng Family in its history.
The absolute master, standing tall among them, reached out a hand toward me.
"Can you do it?"
It was a sight that would have made an ordinary child burst into tears. It was a landscape that would have frozen even an ordinary adult's legs in fear at such impossible harmony.
However, a transmigrator, in this moment...
"I will make it happen."
...is supposed to smile.
Grandfather lifted me up and said with a laugh, "Truly, there is no grandson as filial as you."
*
There is a short epilogue.
It happened right after that strange space vanished with a gesture from Grandfather.
"But Grandfather. This grandson's training is still lacking, so I don't know exactly what kind of harmony this is... I can see that it twists heaven and earth and changes the scenery, but..."
"So you're asking, what is the use of this?"
"Yes."
At my words, Grandfather smirked and shook his head.
"The ideals held by martial artists are as numerous as the martial artists themselves. It is not difficult for me to explain it in words, but I fear it might hinder your growth."
"Mmm..."
"However, realizing the meaning of what you have seen once should not be so difficult."
Grandfather finished speaking with a smile.
After that conversation, I remained lost in thought until I left the Family Head’s hall.
The ideal of a martial artist, the process and realm where that lofty ideal built through a lifetime of training is overlaid onto reality.
The Harmony Realm.
Before that surreal landscape, I walked slowly through the inner garden of the Family Head’s hall. Thinking about that vague story, wondering if I could truly reach that place.
Crunch.
I heard the sound of a fallen leaf being crushed under my foot. It was a sound I had been hearing with every step for a while, but suddenly it began to bother me.
'Wait, hold on.'
Fallen leaves? It was early autumn. The weather was still sweltering even in the middle of the night, closer to summer. Furthermore, Huabei had been a fertile land with high rainfall since ancient times, and this was the inner garden of the Family Head’s hall, the most meticulously maintained area in the Hebei Peng Family.
Fallen leaves already in this season...?
'These aren't fallen leaves... this is...!!'
The grass was withered yellow and dead. I could feel it crumbling every time I stepped on it.
Looking up a bit more, I could see that all the grass in the inner garden was in the same state.
All the grass was dead.
This wasn't a matter of neglect. Setting aside the fact that the Family Head’s hall couldn't be neglected, hadn't it rained heavily just yesterday?
Turning my gaze, only then did the full appearance of the inner garden under the moonlight become clear. Things I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't paid attention became visible.
The shrubs, the wildflowers, even the zelkova tree leaning over the outer garden.
Every plant and tree in sight was withered and dried up.
"What in the..."
When I reached out to a single leaf-stem of the zelkova tree, it shattered and crumbled like glass at the tiny impact of my fingertip.
Devoid of moisture, stripped of even the faintest trace of life.
Only then did I look back, staring at the closed doors of the Family Head’s pavilion.
"Ha..."
So this is what it meant. This is the true meaning of "Heaven Beyond Heaven."
This was the weight behind the question: “Can you reach this height?”
With those thoughts swirling, I let out a hollow laugh and walked away from the pavilion.
The Fifteen Armies of the World. Superhumans, a mere fifteen individuals chosen from across the vast Central Plains.
Warriors so powerful they could have claimed the title of "Number One Under Heaven" regardless of which era they were born into.
I finally understood why being merely "outstanding" wasn't enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them, to see the world through their eyes.
"It’s a long way off."
I chuckled, crushing a brittle zelkova branch in my grip.