The Moon That Brings the Night Cannot Meet the Sun

"So how does one go about earning a spirit stone?"

"...Yes?"

"I'm asking for the fastest way to get my hands on a single low-grade spirit stone. Right now."

Only after I added that did the cultivator jolt back to himself and offer a solution.

"Ah—yes! A realm like yours, Senior... I should think you'd do best to take a commission."

"Mm. As I thought. Lead the way."

In truth I hadn't the faintest idea. But conduct like this has to accumulate, or no one will ever be too daunted to suspect me.

"If you head that way, you'll find the commission board. You accept a request at the office beside it, see the job done, and then submit it for inspection."

"Right. You have my thanks."

I gave a few light pats to the shoulder of the young man—older than I was, in all likelihood—who had explained it all as kindly as if he were speaking to an elder.

Sincerely, thank you. You've made this easy.

Having taken his help, I could hardly leave it unpaid. If nothing else, I meant to keep a friendly footing with a cultivator.

"A modest gift."

Tak—!

I flicked my fingers, and the turbid qi banked up inside him burned away to nothing.

"H-how did you—!"

"Seems you took a spirit elixir. There was a qi in you that wouldn't harmonize with the body, so I drew the turbid qi out."

Odd, really, that anyone who called himself a cultivator couldn't even strain the dregs of a spirit elixir. Anyway.

"Thank you!"

I watched him fold into a perfect right angle and thought, Not bad.

Better, from here on, to approach the other cultivators through this one.

And yet... something feels wrong.

An anxious, uncanny feeling scraped unpleasantly across my mind.

Ask me why, and I couldn't have pointed to a thing.

"Then I'll be going, Senior!"

"Right. Ah—come to think of it, I never asked your name."

"I'm Jin Gi-hwan, haha."

"Strangely familiar, that name. Very well. I'll be off."

"Yes! Go safely!"

I let my gaze rest a moment on Jin Gi-hwan as he withdrew, bowing with scrupulous courtesy.

Elder Jin Gi-hwan...

The name was the same. And yet.

A namesake, most likely. From what I could see, standing in the market with countless cultivators before my own eyes, Foundation Establishment was hardly an extraordinary realm, and among cultivators rank seemed to follow realm rather than age. At mere Foundation Establishment, he wouldn't be an elder. His manner and his way of speaking had a youthful air about them, too.

I went to the commission board and took down one decent request. Two low-grade spirit stones were posted on it.

I lifted the slip—nothing but those few short lines—from the board and submitted it at the office.

"Hm. A face I haven't seen. I don't sense a Dharma-Transformation Dantian. Don't sense a divine sense, either. And yet the presence on you is no small thing. You've stored up a fair measure of dharma power, too. Curious."

The middle-aged man seated in the office stroked his chin and stared straight into my face.

"Is that so?"

"It is. Picked up some unusual art, have you?"

"I don't see any need to tell you."

"Heh. Impudent. Fine—off you go."

He let out a hollow laugh and stamped his seal on the request.

I took it, rose straight into the sky, cut the barrier, and went out.

When I reached the place named on the slip, a vast grassland flooded my sight.

Green grass shivered in the wind, and a stream ran on with a thin, bright murmur. Where human hands had touched that landscape, blades that looked to be spirit herbs grew in place of the grass—and just as the notice had said, those blades were torn and trampled by something.

I found the qi lingering in the trace of the snake's passage and followed it to a cave.

A bleak cave, where yin qi seemed, for no reason I could name, to crawl along my skin.

From the dark within—an opening a good twice my height—a snake sheathed in deep-green scales came slithering out.

In its bright yellow eyes the pupils split vertical and fixed on me.

Hiss— The snake demon beast flicked its tongue.

"...A human? ...No. Not a human."

It addressed me by transmission. Spirit speech, in other words.

But what it said was strange.

"...What do you mean?"

"Do you not keep a demon core in your lower dantian, Senior? You don't even seem inclined to hide it, so why would you..."

"I am not of the demon race."

"Ha... What is a senior who has reached the Transformation Stage saying? Ah! How tactless of me! You wretched human—do you even know where you've wandered in?! ...Shall I put it like that?"

Setting aside the fact that the snake was speaking by vibrating spiritual qi—what, exactly, was it talking about?

A dantian that had fully taken form was, in truth, a demon core? And I was of the demon race?

Make sense when you speak.

Shhk. I didn't hear the rest of it. I took the snake demon beast's head at once and drew the demon core out of the body with a pull of attractive force.

The golden core resting in my palm loosened the qi bound inside it, thread by thread, into the air. The metallic sheen of it—sunlight broken apart—was handsome enough.

Hm. My internal energy will grow more than I thought.

The notice said I could dispose of the carcass as I pleased, so I would see to Seol-ah's severed meridians and then give it to her as a nourishing treat. The spirit elixirs taken from the Lee Clan Manor could go to her after the treatment as well.

Eating them myself wouldn't amount to anything dramatic either way. Better they be a gift for Seol-ah.

A breath of a laugh. I let a smile rest at my mouth, looked at the demon core a little while, and tucked it into my robes.

Come to think of it, there was that thing they call a storage pouch.

From what I'd seen for sale in the market, it was a curious bag that held far more than its own size. No harm in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠buying one. The True Sun Fruit only cost a single low-grade spirit stone, anyway.

I lifted the snake demon beast's head—as large as my own—with a grasp upon the void, and tread the empty air.

Some ten minutes later, I stood before the barrier.

Shuk— The barrier split along the line I drew, opening a narrow crack.

I slipped through it and went straight back to the office.

"What—! Already?"

"I wouldn't say enough time passed to warrant an 'already.'"

If it had taken all of thirty minutes, that was closer to having spent too long.

Seol-ah would still be waiting, even now...

"I'd like the reward. Promptly."

"Ha. Truly, I've no idea why someone of that skill took a commission like this. Here. Two spirit stones."

"Right. My thanks."

"I was only the man in the middle."

"Does that matter?"

"Well. No."

He snorted and waved me off.

I turned my back on him at once and bought the True Sun Fruit, and one small storage pouch.

The pouch performed better than I'd expected. Even a little bag that fit in a single palm could take my whole arm, just barely. Hard to believe the thing was low-grade.

At any rate, I tore back out through the barrier and looked down at the True Sun Fruit in my hand.

A scarlet the color of the sun itself, and natural flame-patterns etched across the round fruit's skin. An appearance well worthy of the name.

Yes. With this alone.

I could cure Seol-ah's severed meridians, and the two of us could live a long time, and live it healthy.

A way to cut short my past life... call it that if I liked, but I doubted I would fail to reach it within the years we had. When the time came that I ought to die a natural death, I rather thought I could force the body to go on living anyway.

At the very least, I hoped we might be buried in the same earth. In the same world.

Thinking so, I let a smile fill my face, kicked off the sky, and rose.

I had been flying for about fifteen minutes when I reached the Lee Clan Manor.

...What?

More precisely, the empty lot where the clan's main house had stood.

A bad feeling climbed my chest and wrung at my brain.

No. No, it isn't.

It would be nothing.

I turned toward the nearby village Seol-ah had gone down to.

What I saw, flying in, was this.

Ah.

Nothing but a village being swallowed by flame.

...Please. Please.

Let it be nothing.

No. There was no way Seol-ah wouldn't be all right. She wasn't without martial strength of her own. Getting away, at least, she could...

"...Please."

Cold sweat ran the length of my spine.

My heart slammed, fit to burst, trying to haul my whitened mind back around.

Breath would not come, as if my lungs were crushed, and the world before my eyes dyed black.

Qi sense unfurled to its limit and burned through my head. Dyed with my spirit, it flooded nearly a hundred meters in every direction.

I moved my body with internal energy in place of my shaking limbs, and flew at full speed for the inn where I could feel Seol-ah.

Even sound failed to keep up with me. That fact could not claim so much as a corner of my mind. I wasn't hearing any of it anyway.

"Hah... hah..."

Shhk. I sheared the building's outer wall in a circle, and the inside lay bare.

Seol-ah, collapsed in the midst of sixteen corpses and eight men.

...She's still breathing.

I flew to her and dropped to my knees.

The eight men standing there froze where they were, unable to move. They hadn't even noticed. There was no room in my sight for the likes of them.

"...Huh? Hehe... Oppa. You came, khak—! didn't you?"

Blood came up mixed through the cracked voice.

"Ah... aah..."

I tore the mask off with hands that wouldn't stop shaking.

"Heh... hehe. Of the... kek—! of the twenty-four... I beat sixteen, khak—! I did well... didn't I?"

"Y-yeah... nnh... nnnh..."

A trembling hand carefully traced Seol-ah's cheek.

Tears met my fingertips and passed their warmth into them.

Whether the same thing was running down my own cheek, I didn't know. I had no room left to care about that.

"...Heh... It really is... khak—! too cruel. The world..."

"Ah, aah... D-don't. Don't talk. I'll heal you..."

I ran my hands over her, searching out the wounds. The injuries to her upper body were slight.

My hands went lower, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to see to the rest of her—

and touched the floor.

"...What?"

"Hehe... khak—! My body's been, kkhek, cut in half... so... what exactly are you going to do about it?"

"Th-that's..."

I formed an attractive force. I tried to hasten regeneration—

"..."

Both my arms went slack, strengthlessly, and hung.

...It wouldn't work. Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown was a realm I myself had achieved. Perhaps that was why. The power would not act with Seol-ah at its center.

"No. No... no. No...! It isn't... it isn't..."

No. Why. Why. This isn't. This isn't. This isn't right.

"Even if I'm... khak—! gone... you'll be all right. Kek. Won't... khak—! you?"

Seol-ah's warm hand, lifted with no strength left in it, trembled hard as it stroked my cheek.

"...Ah. Aah... D-don't say that. Don't. I can't live without you. So please. Please... please..."

"Heh... hehe. It makes me glad. Khak—! And it worries me, too... heh."

Why. Why. This isn't. Why. Why so suddenly?

"Ah... aah... nnh... aaah..."

Nothing but dry death-rattles, breaking here and there into a scream.

"Please... no. You can't. You can't... I'll do better, I'll do everything right... please. Please. Anyone but Seol-ah..."

I even tried begging, though I couldn't have said to whom.

No answer came.

Why. Why are you trying to take everything from me.

I never had parents to begin with. The ones I had taken for parents, and my friends, died the way insects die under a foot, and the comrades I had tried on purpose not to grow fond of, I lost without number.

So why. Why are you trying to take even the sun from me?

This should have been enough. Please. Please.

"Oppa..."

A voice sunk under water.

I couldn't answer it.

"I love you."

For an instant the eyes that had rolled back widened—and then the light went out of them.

The hand that had been stroking my cheek was drawn, strengthless, down to the ground.

"Aah..."

I caught that hand in both of mine and brought it back against my cheek.

"Ah."

The warmth was fading. As if it meant to wipe even her trace out of the world for good. Even the last lingering heat guttered out.

"Ah, aaaah...!"

The touch that had shared its heat with me was taking mine away now.

"Ah."

Tuk. In that moment, something inside me snapped.

"I do. I do too. I love you."

Murmuring it, I pressed my mouth to her lips, already gone cold.

And I closed the eyes that had stayed open, even with the light gone from them.

"..."

Cold.

My sun had already set.

"...Ah."

In the stillness, that short, quiet scream rang out.

So even the brightest light, in the end...

had existed for the sake of a shadow.

To leave me a shadow greater than before—greater in exact proportion to how bright that light had been.

Not tears. Something black trickled down and struck the floor.

Black qi spread like ripples over a sea, and all at once the sixteen corpses, and the eight assassins who had sunk to one knee, crumpled in on themselves and packed down small into the shape of seeds.

Crrrk—! With a hideous sound, black roses bloomed from the seeds. Black through and through, without the slightest room left for red.

A man in a black dragon robe, seated upon a throne, beckoned.

"...Silence, Mara Papiyas."

The primordial Mara howled.

The phantom melted and was gone.

"..."

I looked at Seol-ah with her eyes closed, and I let the black tears run. I didn't wipe them.

What am I supposed to do now.

I already couldn't go on living without her.

No. From the very beginning I had only ever ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been a moon—unable to shine alone, unable to live alone.

……

"...Ah. Yes. Of course."

Thank you, Mara.

Thanks to you, I remembered the answer.

Emotion. Desire. Without such things, no one would harm another.

Emotion. Desire. Without such things, no one would hurt like this.

Then—

A flawless world, where nothing existed but reason, and no one possessed either feeling or want.

I would make this world into that.

This world that had given birth to the one I loved—this world ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I could not help but love.

This world that had stolen everything from me—this world I could not help but hate.

With my own hands, I would bring it to completion.

Black tears running, I lowered my eyelids.

Krrrrk—!!

The building. The earth. The trees. Even the flames crumpled in on themselves and bloomed again as black roses.

At the center of them I sat upon a black lotus and looked at Seol-ah.

I dug the earth with my own hands, buried her, and swore before the grave.

"Seol-ah. I promise you."

And I mixed the clear tears I had shed with the True Sun Fruit, and shaped them into a single rose.

"I will complete this world."

With the vow, I planted the rose I had made.

A red rose that resembled the sun more than it resembled blood. And its tips had withered white.

"And to do that..."

First, I would have to take the throne back.

I set the mask upon my face.