Round and Round, It Was Taiji

Before Jaheo and Yeong-hwa clashed with the Vermilion Bird deity, Wol-yeon and Hagun were locked in a desperate, bloody struggle.

"Please… step aside."

Wol-yeon's robes, embroidered with pink plum blossoms, fluttered lightly as she spoke.

"I cannot do that."

Before her, Hagun knelt on one knee, his entire body soaked in blood. His black robes had been reduced to rags by countless sword scars.

"I want you," Wol-yeon said, smiling with a fresh, almost innocent sweetness. "I want to have you."

She lifted her Plum Blossom Sword above her eyes and continued, "But to do that…"

She pressed a finger of her left hand to her lips and laughed under her breath.

"…I have to kill every last filthy dog of the Wudang Sect."

"Please… come to your senses!"

"Mmm… but I like this." Wol-yeon smiled brightly at him. "It won't be long now."

She glanced toward the collision of Jaheo and the Vermilion Bird deity.

"When Sect Leader Jaheo dies, the Vermilion Bird will kill that insolent Wudang brat as well." A look of pure rapture crossed her face at the mere thought. "And next… it will be Sect Leader Hyeonsong's turn, won't it?"

Hagun leaned on his Songmun Ancient Sword and forced himself to his feet.

"No. That will never happen."

"Forget those stuffy Taoist rules." She beckoned to him with a seductive curl of her fingers. "Let us leave this tiresome Huashan behind, marry, and live quietly together…"

Wol-yeon's words never finished.

Hagun's roar shattered the ritual grounds.

"That is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠not what you want!"

He bit down on his lip until his eyes filled with tears. "Was that truly the dream Daoist Wol-yeon wished for?"

At those words, Wol-yeon's expression—lost deep in her fevered fantasy—twisted. Memories she had tried to forget seemed to force their way into her mind. She clutched her head against a sudden stab of pain, then fixed Hagun with a look of pure fury and whispered,

"You too… I'll cut off your arms and legs…"

Her voice softened into something almost gentle.

"…and take you with me. So don't worry."

Shaa—

In an instant, Wol-yeon's form vanished. Plum blossoms burst into full bloom around her as she stepped through the Jade Ring Wondrous Footwork, concealing her completely.

The plum blossoms Wol-yeon unleashed spread and spread again, flooding outward without end. Amid the swirling plum-blossom sword energy, Hagun steadied his breathing and assumed a middle-guard stance.

Just once. I stake my life on this single strike.

The plum-blossom energy closed in from every direction, yet Hagun's posture never shifted.

Seogeok—

His right arm was slashed open, blood spraying free.

Seogeok—

A fountain of blood erupted from his left thigh.

Wol-yeon continued to hide herself within the plum-blossom sword energy she had created.

Kuuuuuuung—

In a single breath, Hagun—eyes closed, his spiritual sense stretched wide—snapped them open. At the same moment, his Songmun ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Ancient Sword swept in a single fluid stroke and carved a vast Taiji across the ground. White sword aura blazed into being along his blade and danced in time with the Taiji.

From within the fully bloomed plum blossoms, Wol-yeon's voice drifted out.

"You've already seen this, haven't you?"

Even under her taunt, Hagun completed the Taiji and stood his sword upright against his chest. At the same time he drew the Nine Palaces Taiji Heart Method to its absolute limit. The Taiji on the ground flared in answer, pouring out a colossal light.

The black-and-white Taiji spread outward, swallowing the plum blossoms that had been closing around Hagun. Yet at its farthest edge, there was nothing. Beyond the reach of Taiji Returns to Origin stood Wol-yeon, scarlet sword aura blooming along her blade.

She smiled thinly.

"Daoist Hagun doesn't seem to need his right arm."

The next instant she stamped the Jade Ring Wondrous Footwork with everything she had and shot forward like a bolt of light. Only a faint plum fragrance lingered where she had been.

Wol-yeon intended to sever Hagun's right arm. Certain of victory, she thrust her sword.

In that instant, Hagun's body moved with liquid softness. He extended the Songmun Ancient Sword and stepped half a pace back.

Yeong-hwa's voice echoed in his mind.

"Yeong-hwa. So you're saying the Taegeukhyekeom is possible even without the Mugeoksimgong?"

"Senior Brother! The Taegeukhyekeom isn't about internal energy—it's a superior art that arises from Taiji Returns to Origin!"

"No, Yeong-hwa. Taiji Returns to Origin is the form that cancels an opponent's assault with sword aura, is it not?"

In Hagun's memory, Yeong-hwa had worn a look of pure exasperation.

"Senior Brother, what is Taiji?"

"Taiji is Taiji. What else would it be?"

At that, Yeong-hwa had answered with the utmost seriousness.

"Yin and yang. Death and life. Softness and hardness. All of it is Taiji."

"So… you mean the cycle?"

Only then had Yeong-hwa's face brightened.

"Exactly, Senior Brother!" He had drawn a Taiji on the ground with a twig as he spoke. "Then—can hardness be overcome by softness? Or can it not?"

"If that is the cycle of Taiji and the natural order of the world, then of course it can."

Hagun had scratched his head, still puzzled.

"But I still don't understand how that natural order is expressed through swordsmanship."

Yeong-hwa had lifted the twig and drawn a soft, perfect circle.

"You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠receive the hard assault of an opponent with the yin of Taiji."

"So I meet it gently with the flat of the blade!"

Yeong-hwa had stepped half a pace back and turned his body.

Paaang—

A soft rush of air had bloomed before the twig.

"Then you simply continue the flow with the yang of Taiji and return it, don't you?"

Waking from the memory, Hagun smiled and spoke aloud.

"Yes, Yeong-hwa…"

His Songmun Ancient Sword traced a vast circle.

"Round and round—it was Taiji."

"It's useless!"

Wol-yeon's Plum Blossom Sword was already a hair's breadth from Hagun's right shoulder.

In that instant, everything around her seemed to slow. In that brief span of time, only Hagun moved. The flat of his blade wrapped around the sword aura blooming from her Plum Blossom Sword. He turned his body with perfect softness.

Wol-yeon's sword aura was drawn straight into him.

She tried to escape the cycle of Taiji with the Jade Ring Wondrous Footwork, but it was already too late. Disarmed, her body lay completely open.

Wol-yeon stared in disbelief at her own sword aura gathered upon Hagun's Songmun Ancient Sword.

"That's impossible…"

In the next breath the Songmun Ancient Sword drove straight for her face. Sensing death, she squeezed her eyes shut.

Paaaaaang—

Hagun's Songmun Ancient Sword scraped past her cheek by a hair's breadth, whipping the sword aura away behind her.

Peooooook—

At the same moment he yanked the sword back and struck her neck with the pommel. Like a falling plum blossom, Wol-yeon collapsed, and Hagun caught her lightly in his arms.

"Yeong-hwa!"

Having subdued Wol-yeon, Hagun shouted urgently. Just then Yeong-hwa, who had blocked Myeongjeong after the Vermilion Bird deity's manifestation, staggered toward him. The flames that had engulfed the ritual grounds were already gone.

The straw rope strung with talismans around Wol-yeon remained unharmed even within the fire the Vermilion Bird had raised. Yeong-hwa wound the rope tightly around her body.

"Senior Brother, you can let go now."

He pressed a silver bell to Wol-yeon's brow. Hagun laid her carefully on the ground, his face full of worry. Yeong-hwa began the final verse of the Spirit-Possession Ritual's true words.

Ting—

As he finished the mantra, Yeong-hwa tapped the silver bell lightly against Wol-yeon's abdomen.

"Kyaaaaaaaah—!"

Wol-yeon twisted in agony. Yeong-hwa turned to Hagun.

"She has to vomit up the divine chain she swallowed earlier."

"Understood, Yeong-hwa!"

Together they gripped Wol-yeon's shoulders and hauled her upright.

"Uweeeeeeeh—!"

She heaved again and again. Hagun pounded her back.

"Daoist Wol-yeon! You must spit it out!"

"Euh— euuuuh— euuuh—!"

A scarlet chain burst from her mouth.

Kaaaaaaang—

Yeong-hwa drove the Songmun Ancient Sword straight into the writhing scarlet chain. The Vermilion Bird's divine thread, once so unbreakable, seemed to have lost all its power. With a look of pure relief, Yeong-hwa wiped the sweat from his brow with his sleeve.

He peeled the four talismans from the straw rope binding Wol-yeon and affixed them to the scarlet chain.

"Ugh—it's over, Senior Brother!"

"Is Daoist Wol-yeon all right now?"

At Hagun's single-minded worry for Wol-yeon alone, Yeong-hwa shot him a sideways glare.

"Senior Brother!"

"Well…"

"I don't know either anymore."

Hagun laid a worried hand on the forehead of the unconscious Wol-yeon.

"Is it finished?"

Ragged black robes fluttering, Hyeonsong stepped onto the ritual grounds. His face was heavy with sorrow as he watched Jaheo clutch Myeongjeong's corpse and weep.

"Yeong-hwa… was there no way to save him?"

"He manifested a god at the cost of his own life." Yeong-hwa shook his head with an expression of absolute impossibility. "Not even the Buddha or the Primordial Celestial Worthy could reverse that."

Wiping a nosebleed on his sleeve, Yeong-hwa asked, "Sect Leader, are you unharmed?"

Hyeonsong gave a dry laugh.

"Well… the Huashan Sect was no easy opponent."

Only then did he sheathe his broken Songmun Ancient Sword. Yeong-hwa glanced curiously down the ritual grounds. Countless Plum Blossom Swords lay shattered in two pieces. The elders and disciples of Huashan all lay unconscious, clutching their necks as if they had taken heavy blows there.

Hyeonsong looked at Jaheo with quiet concern.

"Living is truly not easy."

At those words Yeong-hwa dropped heavily onto the ground and spoke his mind.

"It was nothing but twisted desire." He fixed Myeongjeong's corpse with a cold stare. "If only he had simply been honest."

"Was Myeongjeong not a Daoist as well?"

"Does being a Daoist mean one is not human?"

"Then what you mean is…"

"If a man cannot even master his own desires, what Daoist is he talking about!" Yeong-hwa grumbled freely. "It would have been a hundred times better if he had simply given up and lived in the secular world."

Hyeonsong's expression turned bitter.

"You are right."

"Being a Daoist only suits those who fit the path." There was not a shred of mercy on Yeong-hwa's face as he looked at Myeongjeong. "When someone stuffed full of greed pretends to be a Daoist, this is the kind of disaster you get!"

At Yeong-hwa's words, Hyeonsong turned a complicated gaze toward Hagun, who was still carefully watching over Wol-yeon.

"Yeong-hwa… perhaps I, too, may one day find myself in the same ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠position as Senior Jaheo."

"What will you do, then?"

Hyeonsong let out a deep sigh.

"If you force a dam across the Yangtze, does the river stop flowing?"

"Of course not—there would be a flood."

"If that is the natural order, then you must let it go."

Looking at Hagun, Hyeonsong's face held only quiet regret.

Yeong-hwa spoke with open exhaustion.

"Sect Leader… can we rest for a while first?"

Hyeonsong looked slightly awkward as he carefully opened his mouth.

"Ah… Yeong-hwa. About the remaining blood jade fragments."

"That's right! What happened to them?"

"The elders and disciples of Huashan had all swallowed them." Hyeonsong drew a blood-jade fragment no larger than a grain of millet from his robes and held it out to Yeong-hwa. "It seems Myeongjeong spent a long time at the Medical Hall pretending to treat their wounds, feeding the fragments to his fellow disciples of Huashan."

Rage ignited in Yeong-hwa's eyes.

"That means…"

"We still have to gather the rest of the blood jade fragments, do we not?" Hyeonsong looked up at the rising sun, carefully avoiding Yeong-hwa's glare of pure resentment. "We will stay at Huashan for a while and take care of it slowly…"

"Aaaaaaaaargh!"

Yeong-hwa's scream rolled across Huashan.

Whether he knew of Yeong-hwa's coming hardships or not, Hagun continued to tend to Wol-yeon with the utmost care.