Commencement (2)
On the road back from Danbong County to Mount Zhongnan.
When they had first set out on the relief mission, they had traveled light. For the return, however, they had no choice but to haul a cart behind them.
The hide and scales of the Twin-Headed Serpent were simply too numerous to move all at once any other way. On top of that, the people of Danbong County had pressed gift after gift upon them as tokens of gratitude. Had Danwon limited herself to only a modest selection of medicinal herbs and refused everything else, even a single cart would never have been enough.
While they paused for a brief rest, Cheonhwa asked her, “What will the hide and scales be used for?”
“Plenty of uses. They hold value as ornaments, can be properly processed into armor, or employed as medicinal ingredients. This unexpected windfall will have the Finance Hall Master grinning so wide his mouth splits.”
Though the creature had never become a true spirit beast, it had come close enough. The hide and scales alone carried considerable worth—enough to ease the Zhongnan Sect’s finances in a meaningful way. That was precisely why Danwon had carefully packed the byproducts of the dismantled Twin-Headed Serpent and brought them home.
She may dislike martial artists, but that doesn’t mean she hates the sect.
Ordinarily Danwon made no effort to hide her hostility toward those who lived by the sword. Yet as a physician belonging to the Zhongnan Sect, she never refused work that benefited the main mountain. The relief mission itself had begun from her own stubborn insistence, but it had only been possible because the sect had supported it. For all her grumbling, Danwon was still a disciple of Zhongnan.
Once the relief mission was finished and the party had returned to the main mountain, Danwon immediately set off to report the results and to deliver news of the letter Cheonhwa had obtained. Those who had accompanied her on the mission scattered to their own quarters to rest off the weariness of the road.
“Cheonhwa, you’re back!”
“Hey, you were dragging a cart earlier—what on earth happened this time?!”
Their sect brothers swarmed in like a pack of dogs, eager for every detail. Then a single cold word cut through the noise.
“Move.”
Yeonhwa’s frigid voice parted the crowd at once. She trudged straight through the opened path and back to her own room. While the others still stood stunned by her presence, Cheonhwa quietly slipped away.
Even after escaping the throng, he did not head for his quarters. If I go back now I’ll only get buried under questions. Better wait until things quiet down.
He turned his steps toward Jangseogak and nearly collided with Jeokhwa. She greeted the returning disciple with a warm smile.
“Welcome back, Cheonhwa. Have you seen Yeonhwa?”
“I’ve returned safely, Senior Sister Jeokhwa. Yeonhwa went straight to her private room ahead of me.”
“Oh my. It seems our paths crossed without meeting.”
Jeokhwa gave a light sigh, then looked at him again. “Did Yeonhwa cause any trouble during the relief work?”
“She performed her duties as a physician properly. When it came time to haul supplies, though, she simply dumped the work on others and left.”
“Haa… That does sound exactly like her. In anything that doesn’t interest her she turns lazy and simply abandons thought.”
Jeokhwa sighed again, the sound of someone who had long since stopped being surprised. Given Yeonhwa’s level of martial skill, ordinary physical labor should have been trivial. That she still chose indolence made Jeokhwa worry the habit would one day cost her dearly.
“But why are you wandering about instead of resting in your room, Cheonhwa?”
“Hahaha… well, you see…”
He explained how their fellow disciples had completely occupied the path. Jeokhwa regarded him with an incredulous look.
“I knew you were soft with your sect brothers, but I never imagined it went this far.”
“Hahaha…”
“Don’t try to laugh it off. At times like that you simply say firmly that you’re tired and will talk later. They’ll understand well enough.”
“Like Yeonhwa, you mean?”
“Yes. Yeonhwa is very clear about where she draws the line.”
Cheonhwa recalled the aura she had just displayed—how a single word had cowed an entire group of disciples. There was definitely something worth learning there.
“You are the head of our third-generation disciples, Cheonhwa. We recognized both your character and your skill. So you must carry yourself with the dignity that position demands. We don’t follow someone who lets himself be pushed around by everyone around him.”
A person who stood above others had to maintain a bearing worthy of that authority. It was a lesson Jeokhwa had often given him, and this advice was simply another extension of it.
She’s right.
Such scenes would only repeat in the future. He could not keep floundering every time. If only to spare himself from being harassed by his juniors, he needed to learn firmness.
“Thank you for the advice, Senior Sister Jeokhwa.”
“I only said what was obvious. I should go find Yeonhwa now.”
“What for?”
“She borrowed a hairpin I’m rather fond of and then simply left with it on the relief mission.”
Jeokhwa’s lips still smiled, but her eyes held no laughter at all.
So that was why their paths never crossed. Yeonhwa was deliberately avoiding her.
Cheonhwa silently offered a prayer for the misfortune that was about to descend upon Yeonhwa.
After the relief mission, the season had fully turned to autumn. The muggy winds of summer had vanished completely, replaced by a cool, clear breeze. In that crisp air Cheonhwa was teaching the third-generation disciples the refined versions of Clear Wind Superior Hand and Flowing Cloud Mountain.
Qi waves rose from the wooden swords in their hands, and above those waves the force of jin formed into blades. Part of the ease came from Okwon Jinin having revised the formulas so that others could learn them more readily.
While I was away on the relief mission, he refined the formulas even further.
The formulas Cheonhwa now taught differed from the earlier revisions Okwon Jinin had made. The foundation remained the same, yet numerous annotations had been added to make comprehension easier.
Just studying how the formulas changed is a lesson in itself.
Cheonhwa compared the formulas he himself had once created against the newly polished versions. Revising the secrets of a technique always required countless trials and errors, and the traces of that labor were inevitably left within the formulas. Through his spiritual sense he could read every intention behind each alteration—knowledge that was itself a guide to refining techniques.
Teaching Clear Wind Superior Hand proved relatively straightforward. Anyone already proficient in Qi-Charged Sword and the waves of Jin Release could grasp it quickly. Only one person struggled badly with it: Yeobhwa, who insisted on trying to perform Clear Wind Superior Hand with bare hands.
“Kh…!”
Yeobhwa flinched as he failed once more to form a blade of force. Because he had already attained a body impervious to blades, no wound appeared. The pain of reversed true qi and jin force, however, was unavoidable.
“Senior Brother Yeobhwa, are you all right?”
“This humble one is fine, Cheonhwa. It simply isn’t going as well as I expected.”
Yeobhwa gave a bitter smile. Clear Wind Superior Hand was, at its core, a simple technique that shaped a blade from force waves. Using it bare-handed required only slight variations in the circulation of internal energy compared to a sword. Continual failure under those conditions was strange.
“You have no trouble wrapping yourself in the force waves, correct?”
“None. Yet every time I try to form the blade itself, I fail.”
“Hmm. There’s something I’d like to check. Would you perform the technique once more?”
Yeobhwa nodded and executed Clear Wind Superior Hand again. Cheonhwa examined the other man’s intent through his spiritual sense and immediately understood the problem.
Senior Brother Yeobhwa’s intent refuses to mesh with the intent embedded in the formula.
When the will residing in a martial formula and the mental image of the martial artist harmonized, the technique’s power increased. When the two stood in extreme opposition, even a simple form became impossible to complete. That was why Yeobhwa kept failing.
Is he resisting the very idea of wielding a blade?
Yeobhwa was a rare figure in the sword-famous Zhongnan Sect—a man who devoted himself wholly to fist arts. Until now Cheonhwa had assumed it was simply because of Yeobhwa’s dream of becoming the greatest fist master of Zhongnan. Apparently there was another reason as well.
He hasn’t spoken of it for years, so he clearly doesn’t want to. But now that I know, I can’t simply leave it alone.
If a fellow disciple was struggling, seeking a solution together was the duty of both the head of their generation and a brother of the same sect.
Senior Brother Yeobhwa… are you afraid of swords?
Cheonhwa sent the question by sound transmission so that only Yeobhwa could hear. Yeobhwa’s eyes widened briefly; then he nodded and answered the same way.
You noticed well.
Why are you afraid?
…
I’m only asking because that fear seems to be blocking you from learning the technique. If it’s too hard to speak of, you needn’t answer.
…No. It’s all right. I never intended to hide it for the rest of my life anyway.
Yeobhwa let out a long breath and lifted his head.
This humble one’s family was slaughtered by the unorthodox. By the sword.
As though reliving that day, he closed his eyes tightly. Through the spiritual sense, Yeobhwa’s emotions flooded across—grief, despair, terror, dark and clinging.
That is also why I became a fist master. I wanted revenge, yet whenever I took up a sword the memories returned. I thought I had improved compared to before, but…
A bitter smile touched Yeobhwa’s lips. This was the true root of his inability to perform Clear Wind Superior Hand.
It’s worse than I thought. Without removing the source of the fear, forming a blade of force will remain impossible.
Yet he could not simply abandon the matter.
“Let’s change the approach.”
“Change it how?”
“Instead of a blade of force waves, we form hand-gauntlets of force.”
Clear Wind Superior Hand offered two major advantages: the ability to create a true blade’s edge from a wooden sword, and the natural linkage between Qi-Charged Sword and the waves of Jin Release. Cheonhwa proposed reshaping the first advantage to suit fist arts.
“Ever since you attained a body impervious to blades you stopped wearing gauntlets, but there must still have been times when bare hands felt inconvenient.”
“Of course. No matter how impervious the body, if the opponent’s realm is high enough, it can still be broken.”
“So we use Clear Wind Superior Hand to compensate. The internal energy control doesn’t need to be as precise as when forming a blade, so it should be easier as well.”
“This humble one is grateful for the suggestion… but why go so far for me?”
Cheonhwa answered as though it were the most ordinary thing in the world.
“Because we’re fellow disciples. And because I want to see Senior Brother Yeobhwa become the greatest fist master of the Zhongnan Sect. Do I need any other reason?”
“… ”
Perhaps the answer had been unexpected. Yeobhwa’s eyes went wide and emotion surged up inside him. He could not allow tears to show, so he lightly slapped his own cheeks and steadied his heart.
“Very well. Let’s try it.”
That day a new fist form of Clear Wind Superior Hand was born. Creating it required many trials and errors from both Cheonhwa and Yeobhwa, yet the two simply pressed forward in silence.
In the private study of Okwon Jinin, Sect Leader of the Zhongnan Sect, an unexpected guest arrived.
The visitor was a powerfully built man wearing a mask. Okwon Jinin poured tea and opened the conversation.
“I never expected the Leader of Hao Mun to come in person. Live long enough and one truly sees everything.”
“The honor is mine, to stand before the one known as the Zhongnan Sword Star.”
The masked man—the Hao Mun Leader—smiled with easy familiarity.
“I would dearly love to continue this pleasant chat, but I fear we have no such leisure.”
“If the Leader of Hao Mun himself has moved, the matter must be grave. What has happened?”
“The northern reaches of Shaanxi are not quiet.”
The Hao Mun Leader lowered his voice and began to speak of the shifting currents within the martial world of Shaanxi.