The Buddha's Dance and Eternal Promises
One month later, Ban Gak's smile deepened with every passing day.
Namaste Amitabha! To think I'd witness such a sight...
He couldn't help but feel that way, watching Yeo Hwi personally transcribe the Buddhist scriptures onto fine silk parchment meant for long-term preservation. Who could have imagined it? When Yeo Hwi had insisted on doing the copying himself after Ban Gak offered to make a copy, the shock had been immense. And not on cheap bamboo slips, but the priciest silk—top-grade stuff fit for the imperial court—no less, along with the rarest pine soot ink made by burning pine wood and mixing it with glue. For an entire month, he'd poured his heart into every single character. How could Ban Gak not feel gratified?
On top of that, the occasional koans Yeo Hwi tossed out mid-transcription delighted him.
"Hey! This Buddha guy? He's not half bad."
"Hoho! What say you?"
"He gets the ways of the world. Would've been nice if we'd lived in the same era."
"But he left words behind, didn't he? Grasp their meaning, and you could become Buddha yourself."
"Quit spouting nonsense. I just need to hand this to Mu Lun."
...!
Wondering what he'd say today, Ban Gak approached just as Yeo Hwi finished the final transcription and handed over the original.
"All done. Take it."
Ban Gak posed the question he always asked at the end of each session.
"Was this one worth reading?"
A sly smile tugged at Yeo Hwi's lips. He toyed with whether to reveal it before broaching the subject indirectly.
"Ever tried this Barata Natiam Buddha dance?"
Ban Gak blinked. This one was a Buddha dance he didn't know well, full of vivid, provocative movements.
"I skimmed it."
"Try it if you're bored. Won't be easy."
Ban Gak's eyes sparkled. He sensed this wasn't a casual koan. And "not easy" likely tied to martial arts. He fired off a loaded question.
"Could you manage it?"
For one hailed as the heaven of martial prowess, even this short time might suffice. Knowing the intent behind the question, Yeo Hwi's mouth twisted slightly.
"Just better than your stuff."
Now there was no beating around the bush.
"A martial art, then?"
"Depends on who practices it."
Ban Gak bowed his head deeply. If even he said that, it was as good as peerless.
"This monk knows his limits. But surely fate will bring someone suited to it. I beseech your guidance."
"Where in the Buddhist sects would you find another warrior like you? That's not what I meant."
"Then?"
"Would you practice it?"
"Well..."
"You said it yourself—fate will bring someone. Forcing it on you would be pointless. Just keep it safe. Someone worthy will come along someday."
A face suddenly sprang to Ban Gak's mind.
Hyejeong!
The nun about to depart for Jusan Army Island to establish Botam Temple. In Ban Gak's knowledge, the finest woman in Buddha dances.
A few days later, Ban Gak delivered the separately transcribed Barata Natiam to her.
Barata Natiam
Transcribing the Barata Natiam, derived from ancient Tianzhu royal dances, hadn't even crossed Yeo Hwi's mind at first. But the idea struck him the moment he saw it, so he did it.
He and his friend Mu Lun had lived lives stained with blood.
This time, let's live differently.
That's why he chose dance. But Mu Lun wouldn't dance just because he passed along the word. Yeo Hwi had to lead by example. Leave proof that it worked, and the guy would at least pretend to try.
Thus, Yeo Hwi ended up creating an unexpected martial dance.
But midway, one more thing was added. Barata Natiam included parts for men and women dancing together. Mu Lun, who'd never associated with women his whole life, needed something forced on him to even consider it.
The day Yeo Hwi departed, Ban Gak asked,
"Where to now?"
"Thinking of heading to Sa-ra-san."
A place dotted with countless Daoist hermitages across seventy-two peaks. Later called Wudang Mountain.
Ban Gak recalled the previous sect leader of Do-baek Sect there.
"Haeng U-ja? Off to see him?"
"Heard he has a lot of Daoist classics."
"Hoho! Planning to transcribe those for the strategist too?"
"He loves that stuff as much as Buddhist scriptures."
...!
A few years later, after wandering the world far and wide, Yeo Hwi's preparations were mostly complete. Now he just needed to wait for the one last person who had to know.
He could go tell him, but that would force the connection. If he didn't come, so be it. That was fate too.
One year later, Wol So-ryeo's wide eyes trembled violently.
"Wh-what happened?"
Yeo Hwi, not even turning around, gave his indifferent reply.
"You came."
The one last person who needed to know had finally arrived. The woman Mu Lun had raised as his daughter.
Wol So-ryeo couldn't remember how she'd raced to where Yeo Hwi was. Her hair, tangled by the wind, covered half her face, but she didn't notice. With a whirlwind of thoughts assailing her mind, it was inevitable.
This place, Cheok-go-ryeon, found after fifteen years. As an orphaned child, Mu Lun had raised her not just like a daughter, but as one. Yeo Hwi always smiling by his side. To her, it had been a paradise of happiness.
But one day, as she was becoming a woman, the uncle before her turned from man to woman. She still couldn't forget Mu Lun's hollow gaze when he learned of it.
Though raised as his daughter from the heart, Mu Lun couldn't bless even that. From that day he turned away with slumped shoulders, he'd shut his heart. Fifteen years since he'd left, and now his traces were gone.
Not just furniture or personal items from his room—his entire bedroom and study, always glowing with that ethereal blue light, had vanished completely.
The uncontrollable tremor in her chest forced her lips open.
"Uncle Mu Lun's quarters—why?"
"Figured the guy might need money, so I moved it."
Wol So-ryeo was puzzled but had something more urgent to confirm.
"Uncle...?"
"Went far away. Not dead."
A single tear of relief fell quietly.
Thank goodness.
As long as he was alive. From her home in Ak-yang, Hunan, to here was over seven thousand li—what was "far" compared to that? She could just go find him.
"Where did he go?"
"A distant place."
...
"Where?"
"Somewhere neither you nor I can go."
?
After Yeo Hwi's long explanation ended, her body collapsed to the floor. Tears slowly welling in her eyes streamed down in an instant. A tidal wave of inexpressible regret made it so.
"Kuh-huk! Hic! Kuh-huk!"
Not long ago, the moment her Bing-ok Seom-su broke through Hwa-gyeong, the overwhelming joy as a martial artist was fleeting. The light from her hands made her lips twist, unleashing sobs.
Mu Lun hadn't created Bing-ok Seom-su for her to become a strong warrior.
As a child, she loved being in Mu Lun's bedroom and study.
"So-ryeo. No place to play, so you stay here? Want me to make something?"
"No. I like it here."
"Why?"
"This room's blue light makes me so happy just looking at it. Cheon-seol Cheong-ok! The blue jade Aunt Yeo found splitting a glacier in the eternal snow mountains west of Sin-gang while testing her sword aura. The glow Uncle Mu Lun laid across the whole room for your health. A color more precious than any gem in the world."
"You like this light?"
"Yes. I want to be with this light forever."
...
"I'll make it so."
"Huh? How?"
"It'll take time."
...?
Then, on the day she left, Mu Lun silently handed her Bing-ok Seom-su.
But reaching Hwa-gyeong and seeing her shining hands, she realized. The bluish glow like wall jade—what it meant. That Mu Lun hadn't forgotten the promise from her childhood. That the parting gift brimmed with his heart.
The moment she understood, she raced here to Sin-gang in a frenzy.
Yet this heart-wrenching pain signaled belated regret and futility. Too late.
The lumps festering deep in her chest, gnawed and torn, had no release now. Until the faint darkness turned pitch black, her tear-soaked remorse, like the past fifteen years, poured out in unending sobs.
"Kuh-huk! Kuh-huk!"
Some time later, as her dried tears glued her eyelids shut, hot breath hissed through clenched teeth. Recalling Yeo Hwi's words had kindled her resolve. Like her sworn aunt Yeo Hwi, she as his daughter could do the same.
Her eyes burned with heat, her voice grave.
"I'll go."
Yeo Hwi had one last thing to ask.
"Anything to pass on?"
Words unsaid in this life—no, that heart—should come from her own mouth.
"No. I'll deliver it myself."
"Got it. If it's too hard, come find me."
"It's my duty. Even if I can't."
Yeo Hwi's smile softened. She could do it.
Now, only one request for her as leader of Eun-ya Mun. The intelligence network she'd secretly built to aid them. It would spread the message to Mu Lun better than anyone.
"One favor. Spread a rumor in my name across the world."
"What is it?"
"The one seeking the First Dawn—Yeo Dan—will see me."
Hearing Yeo Hwi's plan, she smiled brightly.
"That'll do it. Understood."
Yeo Dan, meaning dawn, was the name of their two uncles' friend. To meet him, one had to climb Mang-san peak where his ashes were scattered—and only Mu Lun knew that. Combined with what Yeo Hwi had set in motion at the mountain's base, he'd find what was left.
Yeo Hwi suddenly grew curious about what she planned to leave.
"What will you leave him?"
Wol So-ryeo hoped her newly found path in life differed from now. And she liked Yeo Hwi's choice. Plus, she had just the thing to help.
"Dance needs one essential thing, right?"
...!
As Wol So-ryeo turned to leave, her gaze lingered on Yeo Hwi. One last question.
"Why Uncle Mu Lun?"
The reason frail, aged Mu Lun could cross a boundary even the world's greatest couldn't.
A faint smile graced Yeo Hwi's lips.
"Who knows heaven's will? I can only guess."
"How?"
"Even if I crossed, it'd be in this body. He couldn't endure in his old flesh, so he went to a new life."
Wol So-ryeo pondered briefly before speaking gravely.
"To become a man of that era and resolve its issues?"
"Easy if I went. But would solutions handed by an outsider truly take root and endure? I think that's heaven's intent."
...!
In that instant, Wol So-ryeo sensed something in Yeo Hwi's eyes. She knew his abilities and temperament second only to Mu Lun.
"Still planning to go?"
Yeo Hwi's eyes grew distant.
"Not something human power can fix."
Words that lingered.
"Then?"
Yeo Hwi met her gaze with those same eyes—still walking that silent path alone.
"If the light of fate approaches again like last time, who knows."
"Could that happen?"
"Who can say? Heaven decides. We just strive."
...!
The next day, the warrior once called Heaven Above Heaven, I Alone Am Supreme, Peerless Through the Ages, left the martial world.
But Yeo Hwi had to emerge into the world a few more times. Because of the web of connections he and Mu Lun had left behind. Unwanted steps, but unavoidable.
Wol So-ryeo was the same. She stepped out several times to correct those distorting her two uncles' deeds. Hiding her role as Eun-ya Mun leader, the world called her thus.
Sosu Ma-hu.
A moniker from her hands, white to the point of translucent blue.
A thousand years later, in a secret chamber north of the Central Plains.
"Ha! So Cheok-go-ryeon had its own 'Cheonma' separate from the one they call that! Is this bamboo slip's content true?"
"How should I know? It's from a thousand years ago."
"Then why this?"
"To us, only matters that this slip is a thousand years old."
...
"What do you mean?"
"Use this record right, and we can shake Cheonma-gyo claiming demonic legitimacy and the Blood Cult too. Throw in a sudden 'Peerless Through the Ages,' and both righteous and evil sects will be in chaos. Think of the opportunities amid that."
"Ho! Not bad. So when?"
"To make it believable, we prepare perfectly. It'll take years."
...!
At the same moment.
Mu Lun opened his eyes.
In the body of Mu Yun.