The Incomplete Transmission
“How does it feel? Does something seem different?”
At Sa Unsik’s question, Yoo Eunhyeon—who had been savoring the new sensation—nodded over and over.
His entire body felt light and cool, as if he had cast off a burden of a thousand geun. Simply having the fatigue melt away was a tremendous gain for Yoo Eunhyeon, who endured grueling labor day after day.
“If I just keep doing this, can I become like you, Lord?”
“Hardly. What I taught you just now is merely a method for accumulating internal energy—an internal energy cultivation method. You learned it rather quickly, but without knowing the forms and formulas that let you actually use that energy, you cannot claim to have fully mastered a martial art. To learn those, you would need to study the nature of the internal energy itself and the fundamentals of how to apply it.”
“……”
“What? Do you want me to teach you that as well?”
Sa Unsik’s sly words left Yoo Eunhyeon unable to answer. Honestly, since the man was already teaching him, he would have preferred to learn everything. But as if mocking that very hesitation, Sa Unsik spoke again.
“Unfortunately, I have nothing more to give. If I handed everything over at once, how could you ever feel any longing for more?”
“So this is only half of it?”
“Not exactly. Internal energy and martial arts are separate things. And did I not say earlier? Simply possessing internal energy brings all sorts of benefits. As I mentioned a moment ago, it will help you in many ways with farming.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“If you ever wish to learn the remaining forms and formulas, come find me anytime. You will be welcome.”
From the way he spoke, Sa Unsik clearly wanted to drag Yoo Eunhyeon away from this place somehow.
Yet the more insistently he said it, the more thoroughly Yoo Eunhyeon’s desire to learn anything further evaporated.
“I’m fine. This alone should be more than enough for farming.”
Yoo Eunhyeon had no wish to get further entangled with Sa Unsik. This time he cut him off firmly and decisively.
He waited for the inevitable outburst that was sure to follow. Instead, an unexpected answer slipped from Sa Unsik’s lips.
“Do as you please. I cannot force you.”
“Really?”
Yoo Eunhyeon had thought the man persistent, but that was only by his own standards. He could scarcely believe it would end like this.
“You agree so readily that you seem suspicious.”
“Not at all.”
“It’s written all over your face. And you are right to be wary. There are two ways I see my will through.”
As he spoke, Sa Unsik raised one finger.
“The first is to force it. The easiest, fastest, and most convenient method.”
“Not a method just anyone can use, though.”
Yoo Eunhyeon spoke with a look of disbelief, but Sa Unsik paid him no mind and raised a second finger.
“When the first does not work, there is the second: make it so that force becomes possible.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
Yoo Eunhyeon protested even more incredulously, but Sa Unsik merely grinned and shook his head.
“It is different. A little more troublesome and time-consuming than the first.”
Yoo Eunhyeon still wore a look of incomprehension, yet Sa Unsik apparently felt no need to explain further. He simply curved his lips into a faint, meaningful smile.
“Kuhuhu. That is enough. I have presented everything I meant to present. The choice is now yours, little brother.”
Sa Unsik spoke as if the matter were settled, but Yoo Eunhyeon could not shake the uneasy feeling. Hearing those words only deepened his anxiety that this would not truly be the end.
“In any case, thank you for the teaching.”
Even so, what he had learned was still a gift, so Yoo Eunhyeon bowed his head.
“I am the one who should give thanks. I received something I never expected. But it is time for me to leave.”
“You’re leaving?”
“I have finished my business here, so of course I must go. Do not worry. I will keep the earlier promise as well. In all my life I have never failed to return what I have received.”
“Ah…… the marriage……”
Yoo Eunhyeon muttered. After receiving the method for accumulating internal energy, he had completely forgotten about the marriage for a while.
“And I have a warning for you. You must not tell anyone else the method of accumulating internal energy that you learned from me just now.”
“Why is that? But if I have internal energy, won’t other martial artists be able to tell?”
“It does not matter if they discover that you possess internal energy. Just do not say that you learned the method of accumulating it from me.”
“What happens if I’m found out?”
“In truth it does not matter. But a day will come when you understand that keeping silent is better for your well-being.”
As he spoke those words, a sudden, bone-chilling and dizzying aura poured from Sa Unsik’s body. Crushed beneath that presence, Yoo Eunhyeon briefly closed his eyes and nodded.
Yet the aura vanished as if it had never been. When Yoo Eunhyeon opened his eyes again, he let out a short gasp of surprise.
“Huh?”
The moment the aura disappeared, Sa Unsik’s figure had vanished without a trace as well.
He had seen the man appear and disappear like a ghost many times while they were together, but Yoo Eunhyeon instinctively knew that this time Sa Unsik had truly left for good.
Around the time Yoo Eunhyeon was accepting Sa Unsik’s disappearance, Sa Unsik himself had already arrived at the foot of Mount Taesan.
In a small clearing deep within a thickly wooded forest, far from any human presence, Sa Unsik came to a stop and swept his gaze around. Something appeared before him.
It was a person.
A figure that seemed to have risen straight out of the earth suddenly knelt and bowed so deeply that his head nearly struck the ground before Sa Unsik.
Then more than a dozen others emerged in formation behind him and cried out in perfect unison, as if with a single voice.
“We pay our respects to the Cult Leader!”
“The Commander of the Heavenly Guard, is it?”
“This is Go Pae-ryang, Commander of the Heavenly Guard. I have come to fulfill my duty as commander of the Cult Leader’s personal guard unit.”
“Did Gang send you? I have not even been gone that long. The boy still misses his father’s embrace, it seems.”
“It has already been more than half a month since the Cult Leader left without a word. Is it not natural for the Young Cult Leader to worry? And……”
Go Pae-ryang, about to finish speaking, carefully lifted his bowed head and trailed off, clearly concerned that his subordinates behind him might overhear.
“Young Lady Yeo-un was raising such a storm that I thought I would go mad. As the Cult Leader well knows, Young Lady Yeo-un cannot be controlled by anyone but the Cult Leader himself.”
“Tsk tsk. If Gang cannot even control his own little sister, how does he expect to rule the Cult in the future?”
“It is not so much that he cannot control her as……”
Go Pae-ryang swallowed the words “he simply finds it too filthy and avoids her.” But of course Sa Unsik already knew.
“There is no need to worry about Yeo-un. Soon she will have no attention left for anything else.”
If Sa Unsik said so, then it was so. Go Pae-ryang bowed his head deeply in silent obedience. After a brief silence, as if considering something, Sa Unsik spoke again.
“Report what has happened in my absence.”
“As you command. Because the Cult Leader left without revealing his destination, there was some minor unrest, but the Young Cult Leader has stepped forward and is handling it well.”
“This will be good experience for Gang as well. What of the Heavenly Martial Alliance’s movements?”
Go Pae-ryang hesitated for a moment at the question, then answered promptly.
“After the Cult Leader moved, the Alliance Leader of the Heavenly Martial Alliance—the Twin Immortals of Sword and Blade—also vanished from sight.”
“His whereabouts?”
“He is moving alone, making tracking difficult.”
“Hmph. Still desperate for my attention, that one.”
The Heavenly Martial Alliance was the coalition of sects formed to oppose the threat of the Demonic Cult. Its leader, the Twin Immortals of Sword and Blade So Biwon, was one of the supreme masters of the martial world, spoken of as equal to the Thousand-Year Dark Demon Sa Unsik.
When a master of that caliber moved alone without escorts, tracking his trail was nearly impossible. Go Pae-ryang had only managed to locate Sa Unsik at all because the man had stayed in one place with Yoo Eunhyeon for about half a month.
“……I am sorry.”
“It does not matter. I cannot punish a man for failing at something that could not be done. Still, with that one’s whereabouts unknown, I cannot leave the Cult empty for too long. And I have already reaped a harvest…… I will return to the Cult now.”
“As you command.”
Go Pae-ryang prostrated himself before Sa Unsik. When he raised his head to carry out the order, he saw that Sa Unsik was still looking at him and carefully asked again.
“Is there anything further you would command?”
“Besides the five Heavenly Guard members nearby, are there others in the vicinity?”
Sa Unsik spoke as if he had instantly grasped the exact number of Heavenly Guard members hidden around them.
As if there was nothing surprising about it, Go Pae-ryang answered at once.
“Not far from here, one squad of the Cheonhwang Paeundae is standing by.”
The Cheonhwang Paeundae consisted of five hundred members divided into ten squads. Even a single squad numbered fifty men. They had been stationed in case of a clash with the Heavenly Martial Alliance, and Sa Unsik had seen through even that.
“Aside from the Twin Immortals of Sword and Blade, has there been any other movement from the Heavenly Martial Alliance?”
“Movements of the Jeongeumdae have been detected.”
“Numbers?”
“I apologize. An accurate report on their numbers has not yet come in…… but the very fact that their numbers are hard to grasp suggests they are likely few.”
The Jeongeumdae was the Heavenly Martial Alliance’s specialized combat unit for dealing with the Demonic Cult; they were no easy opponents.
At the same time, that made information on them difficult to obtain.
“That is probably the case. Very well. Summon the entire squad. That should be more than enough to respond.”
“Where shall we set the destination?”
“The destination is right here. Send a secret letter at once.”
“As you command.”
Go Pae-ryang nodded and called a subordinate skilled in light-foot techniques. After dispatching the man toward a nearby branch, he bowed his head to Sa Unsik once more.
“Preparations are complete.”
“Good. We return to the Cult.”
Sa Unsik gave a single nod of approval at Go Pae-ryang’s efficiency and rose to his feet.
Then he glanced back over his shoulder, the corner of his mouth lifting. A chilling smile lingered there.
“I wandered the martial world seeking a clue to surpass the peak of the Lotus Realm…… Who would have thought I would gain enlightenment in a place like this.”
Sa Unsik had been traveling through mountains and rivers rich in natural energy, recalling the beginner’s heart of training martial arts amid nature, all in pursuit of a new realm.
In truth, even he had simply been blocked by a wall and decided to try everything possible.
“Yoo Eunhyeon…… Kuhuhu. A farmer who can teach the greatest under heaven. Is he not a most desirable existence?”
Muttering to himself, Sa Unsik thought of Yoo Eunhyeon.
Outwardly he looked like an ordinary man, yet his inner nature was anything but ordinary.
What drew the eye most of all was his unshakable conviction in the way of nurturing all things as a farmer.
And that gaze of Yoo Eunhyeon’s, though the means and path differed, ran parallel to what Sa Unsik himself pursued.
“Certainly the fields, with their beautiful scenery and the majestic flow of energy, were a magnificent sight. What a pity that they must be destroyed.”
As long as that place remained intact, Yoo Eunhyeon would never willingly step into the martial world.
He had cast the baits of marriage and martial arts, but a decisive trigger was still needed.
“When force does not work, one simply makes it so that force becomes possible. Once I get him out into the martial world, given time, he will never escape my influence.”
Dig a pit, cast the bait, and wait for the prey to emerge. In this case the order seemed reversed—bait first, then the pit—but it did not matter.
“My unique internal energy method, Mahon Cheongong, is nothingness itself, capable of merging with and transforming into any martial art under heaven…… I am curious what fruit will ripen when that farmer little brother masters Mahon Cheongong according to its principles.”
Muttering, Sa Unsik gazed once more toward the ridges of Mount Taesan where Yoo Eunhyeon remained, then turned and left the place behind.