Sparring Under the Moonlight
When they opened the door and stepped outside, the sun had fully set and the world had grown dark. Yet with more than half a moon hanging in a cloudless sky, it did not feel all that dim.
Both of them had trained in martial arts, so even this much light was more than enough for them to see each other clearly.
“Ready?”
“For what?”
Yoo Eunhyeon tilted his head, completely lost. Ju Yu-ryeon simply drew up a light stream of internal energy, drying the last of the moisture from her body, then settled into a stance facing him.
“What else? A spar. It’s been a while—let’s loosen up a bit.”
She gave him a provocative look, as if granting him the first move. This was not their first spar. While Eunhyeon had been training at Uiseon Suga, he and Ju Yu-ryeon had crossed hands now and then.
With a match already on the horizon, he saw no reason to refuse. He nodded and lowered his stance.
“Don’t hold back too much, but don’t get hurt either. Keep it light.”
“Obviously.”
Eunhyeon gave a small smile and met her eyes. The moment he dipped his head, both of them exploded forward at the same instant.
“Haa… let’s rest a bit.”
A short break. Sitting on the ground, Eunhyeon looked over at Yu-ryeon, who was catching her breath as well.
“So, did you confirm everything you wanted?”
“Pretty much. But first, one question.”
“What?”
“Are you actually going all out?”
Yu-ryeon fixed him with a meaningful look. Eunhyeon snorted as if that were the most ridiculous thing she could have asked.
“What, you thought I was just playing around?”
“Stop joking. I need to know your real strength if I’m going to make a plan.”
Yu-ryeon usually loved to tease, but this time she was dead serious. The set of her face said she would keep pressing until she got a proper answer.
“Of course I am.”
Eunhyeon answered with a limp, deflated tone and a half-hearted nod. Yu-ryeon immediately started counting on her fingers, replaying their last exchanges.
“Eight wins, five losses, three draws…”
Behind her muttering, Eunhyeon clapped his hands once.
“You won. Congratulations.”
“This isn’t about congratulations…”
“Why? What’s the problem?”
“Even after fighting like this, I still can’t get a read on your actual skill. Sometimes I take you down so easily it feels ridiculous, and other times you’re so hard to pin that I can barely manage it…”
Yu-ryeon frowned as she spoke, but Eunhyeon just shook his head as if it were nothing.
“Isn’t that obvious? I’ve only been properly learning martial arts for a year. Of course my form is uneven.”
“No. Even with ups and downs, this is too much. It doesn’t make sense.”
No matter how gifted someone was, if their strength fluctuated this wildly, it only made sense if they were holding back. That was when the strange feeling finally settled in Yu-ryeon’s mind.
“You… don’t tell me?”
Her eyes went wide. Eunhyeon did not look at her. Instead he gazed up at the moon and smiled quietly.
“What does it matter if I win or lose against you? As long as I beat those people, that’s enough, right?”
“……Fine. Forget it. I never knew a farmer could be this sly about hiding things.”
“Didn’t I tell you yesterday? When everyone else has a bad harvest, that’s when you make money by having a good one all by yourself. Hide it and thrive alone.”
“……Show-off. Fine. Since it’s come to this, let’s see who finishes first.”
“Anytime.”
Yu-ryeon refused to back down either, shouting up at the moon. Beneath the moonlight, their laughter and shouts rode the wind far into the night.
The next day at lunch. After finishing their meal as usual, Ju Yu-ryeon went outside, picked up a small stone lying nearby, and began drawing several lines on the ground. Eunhyeon found it odd and came to stand beside her.
“What are you doing?”
“Perfect timing. Sit down. I’m going to explain the factions of Wulin.”
She placed stones one by one on the lines she had drawn, marking something out.
“First, the ones at the very front. You already know these two. The Thousand-Year Dark Demon and the Twin Sword Immortals. The two people recognized as the greatest under heaven.”
She pointed to the foremost line. Eunhyeon nodded; he knew both of them well enough.
There was truly no point discussing the level of martial arts in Wulin without those two. They were the goal and the object of envy for every martial artist under the sky.
“And right below them are the martial artists known as the Ten Fingers—ten people.”
“The Ten Fingers…”
Yu-ryeon drew another line behind the first as she spoke. Eunhyeon repeated the unfamiliar term under his breath.
“And below the Ten Fingers—though ‘below’ is relative—these people have all surpassed ordinary masters and reached the Yeonhwagyeong. Reaching the Yeonhwagyeong alone is enough to be recognized in Wulin, since it means you’ve gone beyond the realm where you can fully express your own martial arts… but just as there are ranks among masters, it seems there are ranks within the Yeonhwagyeong as well.”
“So even the Ten Fingers haven’t gone beyond the Yeonhwagyeong?”
“The accepted view is that no one in the current Wulin has surpassed the Yeonhwagyeong. There are rumors that the Twin Sword Immortals and the Thousand-Year Dark Demon reached the Hyeonwongyeong through this closed-door training, but who really knows?”
Eunhyeon nodded quietly. Even the Yeonhwagyeong alone felt impossibly distant. Sa Unsik had once said that if you compared Wulin to a desert, the so-called masters were nothing more than a handful of sand.
Those who had gone beyond that to reach the Yeonhwagyeong would be even rarer, so calling the absolute best among them the Ten Fingers made sense.
After listening for a while, Eunhyeon asked with feigned casualness,
“Then where does Auntie stand?”
“Mom? She’s one of the top masters even within the family. She hasn’t reached the Yeonhwagyeong yet, but if you look only at pure strength and experience, she can hold her own against someone who has.”
“What about Grandfather?”
“The family head is one of the Ten Fingers. You heard how people reacted when they heard his name yesterday, right? Donghyeol Uiju—Su Gyeong-tak.”
Now that she mentioned it, he remembered how Ji Heun-dong had been shocked the moment he heard Su Gyeong-tak’s name.
To Eunhyeon he had just seemed like a slightly eccentric old man, but of course the head of a great family would be a terrifying master.
Well… if he’s mastered Eoheolsangong to the extreme, that would make sense. Eoheolsangong itself is an insanely powerful art.
He nodded in understanding. Yu-ryeon added more as if continuing the explanation.
“Oh, right. I heard you met Yacha Jinryong?”
“Ah, that little bastard with the rotten temper? If your body’s small, your heart should at least be big.”
“He gave you a hard time, huh?”
“I got kidnapped, so what do you think?”
“Hmm… I was thinking of trying to recruit him since he’s a famous young hero, but maybe not.”
“Who knows. His face might be your type.”
Eunhyeon muttered, picturing Son Jin-won’s short stature and pretty-boy looks.
“Why bring up Yacha Jinryong?”
“Because that Yacha Jinryong is a master who has reached the Yeonhwagyeong. Word on the street puts him right below the Ten Fingers.”
Eunhyeon’s eyes widened in genuine surprise.
“His personality’s garbage, but his skill’s the real deal?”
“That’s why he holds the commander’s seat of the Cheonyadae even in Cheonmumaeng, right? No matter how righteous they claim to be, skill decides everything.”
Even among the righteous, strength still ruled. And for all his foul temper, Son Jin-won had never crossed certain lines.
They fell silent for a moment, each lost in thought, until Eunhyeon asked,
“Does Chukhobang have anyone in the Ten Fingers?”
“No. Their sect leader is said to have reached the Yeonhwagyeong, but the Mateonyukju, including Chukhobang, are direct subordinates of the Demonic Cult, so it doesn’t mean much. If things get dangerous, the Cult itself will move.”
“What about those two we saw last time?”
“Hard to say… I don’t think either has reached the Yeonhwagyeong, but I can’t be sure. You can only imagine the view from a bird flying high; you never actually see it.”
“Where do you stand?”
Eunhyeon let out a light sigh and asked. Yu-ryeon tilted her head for a second, then understood and grinned as she drew another line with a stick.
“Around here, maybe?”
The line she drew sat right behind the one marking the Yeonhwagyeong. Eunhyeon looked a little surprised.
“Same level as Auntie?”
“If Mom and I fought, I’d lose nine times out of ten. But against someone using martial arts we’ve never seen before, our odds are about even—or mine are better. Mom relies heavily on experience.”
Standing with her hands on her hips and declaring it so boldly, she looked like a madwoman laughing in broad daylight.
Eunhyeon regretted asking and quickly changed the subject.
“What about Mother?”
“I don’t really know about Auntie. She’s been away from the family for so long. But judging by her old reputation, she should be pretty strong. She was even called a prodigy.”
Eunhyeon already acknowledged Su Hwa-seon’s talent. He now understood that the severe side effects she suffered from Eoheolsangong came precisely because she had mastered it so thoroughly.
“In short, one-sided fights, Eoheolsangong ranks among the top three arts in all of Wulin. At the very least she won’t get completely overwhelmed.”
Yu-ryeon drew a firm line under any worry about Su Hwa-seon. Eunhyeon nodded; if Yu-ryeon said so, it was probably true.
Besides, Su Hwa-seon had been the one who trained him during his time at Uiseon Suga, so he already had a sense of her strength.
“Stop worrying about Auntie and worry about yourself. If you lose, I’m going to tease you about it forever.”
Yu-ryeon scuffed out the lines with her foot and stood. Only scattered stones remained where she had been sitting.
At last, noon the next day arrived.
After a simple meal, Eunhyeon headed early to the place they had designated the day before, together with Su Hwa-seon and Ju Yu-ryeon.
“Going early to scout the terrain?”
Yu-ryeon’s question made perfect sense, but Eunhyeon shook his head as if that had never crossed his mind.
“This is my home. I know the terrain better than the back of my hand—I made these fields myself. Nothing’s planted right now, though.”
“You used to grow bok choy here, right? Looks like you missed the season this year.”
“When it gets a bit colder I might try garlic. I should at least keep the place maintained.”
Yu-ryeon stared at them both in disbelief.
“That’s why you wanted to come early?”
“Keeping up with daily life is how I stay calm. Farming is how I relax. And I just can’t leave it looking like this.”
“Since when were you such a perfectionist, Eunhyeon?”
“When it comes to farming, this is the bare minimum. You’ve never been here before, so go ahead and scout the terrain like you said.”
“Ugh. Fine.”
So Su Hwa-seon and Eunhyeon began clearing the weed-choked field while Yu-ryeon walked the surroundings, preparing for any possible situation.
There was something strangely comforting about the pastoral scene; even Yu-ryeon felt her tension ease a little.
“They’re coming.”
About half a shichen later, Yu-ryeon—who had climbed a nearby tree to watch the road—dropped back to the ground and spoke quietly.
Eunhyeon and Su Hwa-seon stopped working and stood, following her gaze. Sure enough, four figures were approaching up the path.