My Friend Called Cheonma - Chapter 13
A long time passed. The ceaseless sobbing finally stopped. Mu Yun's eyes gleamed as he scanned his surroundings. Now he needed to compose himself and seek out the traces Yeo Hwi had left behind.
Without a moment's hesitation, he headed for the study where the documents and files were kept. New writings were always placed there.
Opening the cabinet of blue jade, countless silk scrolls—used for records—came into view. He carefully picked up the one on top.
No matter how well preserved, a thousand years had passed. The color had faded, but fortunately, the handwriting remained intact.
The moment he saw the opening words, Mu Yun's eyes trembled.
First came bewilderment. Sanskrit? When Yeo Hwi had left, he didn't know Sanskrit. No, the guy who hated the smell of Buddhist scriptures and wouldn't even glance at them?
Nor could he mistake it for someone else's writing. It began with these exact words.
"Long time no see, you stubborn fool."
Stubborn fool. It was the habitual phrase his friend always used when chiding Mu Yun.
Mu Yun took a deep breath to steady his trembling heart, then turned back to the silk scroll.
"It's been a hundred and fifty years since you left. Short in one sense, long in another. I don't know how much longer I'll live, but it feels like the time has come to leave these words."
A wry smile tugged at Mu Yun's lips. He'd expected at least fifty more years, but even to him, a hundred and fifty seemed excessive.
"I regretted letting you go and blamed myself, but now it seems I did the right thing. Your old body couldn't withstand the border's power and scattered, so you've likely found another life."
A sigh of relief escaped him immediately. Seeing it written eased his heart.
'I'm glad he thought that way.'
"You kept babbling that your name would save you from death once, and it seems it became fate."
No flowery words here. Just like the old man's stubborn ways from before.
'See? I was right not to change my name, you rascal.'
Calming his surging emotions, Mu Yun slowly read down the long passage densely packed with Sanskrit.
A while later, inside the cave.
Mu Yun set down the writing he had been reading, unable to hide his dazed gaze for a long time. A deep sigh naturally slipped from his lips.
'Heavens! What in the world!'
Quite a few events had unfolded in the hundred and fifty years since he left.
First, Cheok-go-ryeon had vanished.
"Twenty years after you left, I left the alliance too. I wandered the world once and cut ties. That's enough for me. Don't even think of nagging."
Mu Yun muttered inwardly. 'You knew when to quit, yet you stayed so short a time?'
"I checked a few times, and around eighty years ago, the alliance was gone. Something about a great bloodbath in the martial world—they got smashed by the Central Plains folk. The second brother Yagul-gyeom killed Sa-hong-i and stepped into the world, but how could that fool handle the Central Plains?"
As the unofficial histories recorded, it seemed the second son, Yagul-gyeom, had caused the trouble. Another deep sigh was inevitable. In a way, it was a foreseen sequence.
Conquering and ruling the world had been possible only because of Yeo Hwi and himself. Still, he'd thought it would last a bit longer.
And now he knew why Yeo Hwi and Cheok-go-ryeon had vanished from history.
"Recently, I went out and saw our names erased from the world."
'Hah! Who the hell did that?'
"I looked into it strangely, and the world had done it."
'The world?'
"Lately, paper has spread through the world. You know all about it."
'Hoho! Know it? I'm still shocked even now.'
One of the changes that had shocked Mu Yun most was paper.
There was a saying about Zhuangzi's friend Hui Shi's collection: "A man must read the five carts of books." Mentioned in Du Fu's poetry, it meant reading extensively, but five carts of bamboo slips held only about a hundred thousand characters—equivalent to a few thick books today.
The world's transformation due to paper was natural, but what did that have to do with their erasure?
"Because of paper, all the world's records were rewritten. Martial clans' histories too, naturally. But those using expensive paper are mostly great sects and families—who'd want to record their humiliating defeats? The old bamboo records faded away, and with paper, they didn't bother recording it, so after a hundred and fifty years, Cheok-go-ryeon and our existence slowly faded from memory."
A hollow sigh escaped Mu Yun's lips. 'Heavens! So that's how it happened!'
"No one deliberately hid it. It's human nature to forget painful memories. It meshed with paper and time, and it happened naturally."
Mu Yun nodded instinctively. Amid the world's upheaval from paper, why would only they suffer this? Add a thousand years on top.
In a way, their erasure proved the greatness of what they'd achieved. It was born of fear.
Mu Yun lifted a weight from his heart. The greatest past wrong must be forgotten.
'What can you do about injustices wrought by time?'
The story continued. His questions about demonic arts were answered immediately.
"About fifty years ago, demonic arts started spreading in the world. Even I saw they were tyrannical arts, so I hunted down those guys, and the root was Seon Woo-jin. Now the world calls him the Demon Physician."
Mu Yun couldn't help but startle.
Current martial world unofficial histories mentioned the Demon Physician in several places—just without the name.
'Seon Woo-jin, that child was the Demon Physician!'
Mu Lun had coincidentally taken in Seon Woo-jin, orphaned after his parents died of illness. Talented in medicine, Mu Lun had guided him down that path. Just before leaving, he'd been the alliance's medical leader.
Suddenly, a memory struck Mu Yun's mind. 'Could it be because of that incident?'
Seon Woo-jin's son had once been injured, rendering him unable to learn martial arts. Seon Woo-jin had tried to heal him using opium poppy imported from the West for medicine. Mu Lun had stopped him due to side effects, but he'd been caught doing it secretly.
"After the great bloodbath defeat, Yagul-gyeom and Seon Woo-jin started researching demonic arts with opium from then on. Results emerged one by one, they challenged the martial world again, and lost again. From that point, it slowly leaked into the world."
Mu Yun hurriedly read on.
"Yagul-gyeom continued research in Sin-gang, and Seon Woo-jin formed something called Geuk-cheon-ryeon and split off. I couldn't just sit by, so I went to both places and destroyed the so-called demonic arts on sight. But they weren't the kind that could be eradicated that way."
'Why not?'
"I happened to find Seon Woo-jin and asked why he made such a thing. And this was his answer."
Yeo Hwi had separately recorded the conversation between them.
Yeo Hwi: "Why did you make such a thing?"
Seon Woo-jin: "I couldn't bear watching my son who desired martial arts, so I started."
Yeo Hwi: "Then you should have stopped there."
Seon Woo-jin: "But I learned that opium could open the upper dantian if used well, and it could be fused with martial arts."
Yeo Hwi: "Heavens, fool! Don't you know why Mu Lun stopped you? Success is one in ten thousand. For that one, others ruin their bodies or fall to madness. You know that well—how could you?!"
Seon Woo-jin: "Alliance Leader! I only gathered those who wanted it. I never forced a single one."
Yeo Hwi: "…Even after I explained the facts in detail, they all agreed?"
Seon Woo-jin: "Yes, that's the truth."
Yeo Hwi: "Heavens! How could that be?"
Seon Woo-jin: "Because they all wanted to follow in your footsteps, Alliance Leader."
Yeo Hwi: "What?"
Seon Woo-jin: "You stood tall in the world with the art you created yourself. They want to resolve their inner grudges the same way. I couldn't turn my back on them."
Yeo Hwi: "Fool! Was that the only way? You know other paths exist—why ignore them?"
Seon Woo-jin: "Among us who have nothing and learned nothing, only you walked that path. But we lack your talent—how can you tell us to take only that road? Just as you pioneered a new path, I'm walking mine."
Yeo Hwi: "Look at the world, fool. Even if your intent is good, what you've spread has plunged countless into suffering. Pretend you don't know?"
Seon Woo-jin: "My flawed creations twisted in the world—that's my failing. But through research, I realized someone would attempt this even without me. Better I do it, since no one knows more than I."
Yeo Hwi knew persuasion was impossible.
Yeo Hwi: "No intention of stopping?"
Seon Woo-jin: "Do as you will. The world is vast, our hearts full of grudges—that's why we need true demonic arts. It's the path I chose to give the deprived a way to live proudly. No thought of stopping."
Yeo Hwi changed his mind in that instant. Better than killing a near-disciple whose life was nearly spent anyway.
Yeo Hwi: "I won't kill you. But! If that path is wrong, abandon it yourself. Leave that will to your descendants if not you. Will you?"
Seon Woo-jin: "Of course. But it won't come to that."
This final words Yeo Hwi left to Seon Woo-jin, he hadn't passed to Mu Lun.
Yeo Hwi: "You said I succeeded because of talent?"
Seon Woo-jin: "Forgive me. In haste, my words fell short. How could I not know your efforts, Alliance Leader?"
Yeo Hwi: "There's one more."
Seon Woo-jin: "What?"
Yeo Hwi: "I had Mu Lun."
Seon Woo-jin: "Well, Master Mu Lun systematized martial arts..."
Yeo Hwi: "No, not that. You know I carried Mu Lun thousands of li to Sin-gang when I was young?"
Seon Woo-jin: "Yes, breaking countless meridians—I know well."
Yeo Hwi: "By then, my martial system was complete. But I was one step from madness. I'd cut down hundreds—no, thousands. Nights when the souls tormented me, I wanted to slit my throat thousands of times. Was it drugs or manuals that held my sanity?"
Seon Woo-jin: "…What do you mean?"
Yeo Hwi: "Like Mu Lun did for me, it was my desire to save my friend—nothing else."
Seon Woo-jin: "…!"
For a long while, Mu Yun's dazed gaze lingered on the cave ceiling tinged with blue light. Moments later, a hollow laugh escaped him naturally.
"In the end, demonic arts originated from us!"
Even if Mu Yun and Yeo Hwi hadn't done it directly, it was the seed they'd sown.
Yeo Hwi had left no small reflection on it.
"Right or wrong aside, someone in the martial world would have done it. We in Sin-gang encountered opium first as it came via Tianzhu and the West. In another light, Seon Woo-jin secretly researching blocked opium from flooding Central Plains. How to take that? No need for excessive self-blame. Who can know all and act?"
Even now, opium wasn't widely known. Some physicians used it as herb medicine, but not mass-cultivated as a mind-altering drug yet.
"After that, demonic arts spreading led to calling that fool Cheonma and lord of evil. Not one place deliberately spread it. All defining evil to make themselves righteous, over long time—it happened."
Mu Yun's head throbbed. Cheok-go-ryeon could be forgotten, but not demonic arts.
It was why this body's original owner, Mu Yun, had to flee his home.
'Because of demonic arts.'
Unable to refute the false accusation of practicing them, he'd become a fugitive.
Mu Yun sorted his tangled thoughts. 'That can wait.'
Still more to ponder from what Yeo Hwi left. For the first time since reading, a light chuckle escaped.
"Learn to dance? Hah!"
An utterly unexpected suggestion.