Hebei Paeng Family (2)
There were still several days remaining before the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering began in earnest.
Cheonhwa spent the free time training as he always did. He simply set aside any practice that hammered at the wall of the Peak realm; the rebound had grown far too severe.
Even before, the rebound had intensified as my martial achievements rose, but after I mastered the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven and fully internalized the three mysteries, it became another level entirely.
What once healed in a single day now required a full five days of recovery after a single backlash. His restorative capacity had grown and his recovery speed had quickened, yet it was still this bad. With the Gathering right around the corner, he could not afford to sit around leisurely nursing internal injuries.
Moments like this are when I must cultivate my strength rather than grow impatient.
The foundational arts of the Zhongnan Sect shifted according to a martial artist’s own capacity, and that truth would not change no matter what realm one reached. Mastering the mid-section forms and polishing the various sword arts was certainly cause for joy, yet at the same time they were only a waystation on the road past the Peak wall.
To reach completion, countless real battles are necessary.
Just as he had once fought duel after duel to complete the early section of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, he now needed a wealth of experience to hone the mid-section forms. In that sense the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering was a perfect opportunity. He would face the martial arts of countless sects and test himself against opponents of equal standing.
Two more steps until completion.
In the landscape of his mind, Cheonhwa measured the remaining distance to the wall. The new vantage gained from mid-section mastery and full command of the sword mysteries served as a milestone marking how far he still had to go before Peak.
Once I complete it, Peak will be right before my eyes.
His heart pounded. He wanted nothing more than to take a step that very instant and close the distance to the wall in one surge, yet he exercised iron self-control and suppressed the urge.
If I advance rashly, every effort I have made until now will come to nothing.
A hasty stride would throw him off balance and send him tumbling backward. That would mean regression in his martial arts, and reclaiming the lost ground would demand vast time and labor.
I have set the direction, but a clear design has yet to form.
To finish it he would need some spark of inspiration. Until that moment arrived he would have to endure in silence and wait for the proper time.
Someday the moment to step forward will come.
Cheonhwa’s consciousness surfaced from the inner landscape. When he opened his eyes he saw the bare stone walls of the training chamber. Apart from the night-luminous pearls set into the ceiling that cast a soft glow through the room, the place was stark and empty. Yet that very barrenness blocked outside sound and impact so thoroughly that it was ideal for cultivation.
When Cheonhwa finished and stepped out of the chamber, one of the training-ground overseers approached as though he had been waiting.
“Daoist Cheonhwa, a guest has come for you.”
“For me?”
“Yes. They have been waiting for two full shichen.”
“Did you tell them I had entered the training chamber?”
“I did. I informed them I could not say when you would emerge, yet they insisted on remaining and waiting.”
Who on earth would wait so endlessly for him to finish training? Cheonhwa asked the overseer to lead him to the waiting guest.
The visitor crouched in a corner of the training ground was a young girl. Her neat martial robe of fine silk immediately declared that her station was no ordinary one. When she lifted her head, her face carried a catlike impression and, at the same time, looked strangely familiar.
She resembles both Paeng Gun-ak and Great Hero Paeng Mu-jin.
He needed to confirm whether that was mere coincidence.
“I was told you were looking for me. May I ask who you are, young lady?”
“I am Paeng Yeon-hui of the Hebei Paeng Family.”
Paeng Yeon-hui—Cheonhwa knew the name. Yang Palsan had mentioned the youngest child of the Hebei Paeng Family. Why, then, had a scion of the Paengs been waiting for him?
“What business brings Young Lady Paeng to me?”
“Well… my older brother behaved rudely, so I came to apologize in his place.”
Paeng Yeon-hui bowed her head. She lacked the rough, fierce exterior of Paeng Gun-ak, yet a faint family resemblance still showed. Cheonhwa had never expected the young master himself to come and apologize, but he had certainly never imagined the younger sister would appear in his stead. He carefully masked his surprise and answered.
“It is quite all right. It was not your fault, Young Lady.”
“No. I believe some of the blame is mine as well. I was there and failed to stop my brother.”
Paeng Yeon-hui revealed that she had been present during the clash between Paeng Gun-ak and Yeobhwa. Had she restrained him properly at the time, the whole affair might never have happened.
“That was Young Master Paeng Gun-ak’s fault, not yours.”
Even from their brief encounter Cheonhwa had taken the measure of Paeng Gun-ak’s temperament. Even if she had tried to stop him, the young master would not have listened. The memory of Paeng Gun-ak scowling darkly behind Paeng Mu-jin while the latter discussed apologies was still vivid.
“Above all, did you not bring Great Hero Paeng Mu-jin yourself?”
“H-how did you—?!”
“A simple deduction. Judging by your reaction, I was correct.”
While Paeng Gun-ak and Yeobhwa fought their duel, Paeng Yeon-hui had been absent from the sparring ground. That meant she had left for some purpose. And Paeng Mu-jin had appeared at the training ground with impeccable timing. If she had gone to fetch him in order to settle the matter, everything fit.
“That alone means Young Lady Paeng fulfilled her duty. So please do not take it so much to heart.”
At Cheonhwa’s words of comfort, the guilt staining Paeng Yeon-hui’s expression eased. She was altogether different from the overconfident, almost arrogant Paeng Gun-ak; clearly the troublemaking older brother caused her no small amount of grief.
She seems quite considerate of others, yet even allowing for that, I doubt she waited all this time merely to apologize.
Just as Cheonhwa expected, Paeng Yeon-hui raised another matter.
“I… I heard about it. You made a wager with my brother. If the Zhongnan Sect outperforms the Paeng Family at the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering, he will apologize. Are you… truly all right with that?”
She asked anxiously. The Paeng Family was strong. Even setting Paeng Yeon-hui and Paeng Gun-ak aside, there was still Paeng Mu-jin. His runner-up finish at the previous Gathering had been no empty show.
“If it were only Brother Gun-ak it might be different, but staking the entire Paeng Family on a wager is far too reckless.”
“Yet would Young Master Paeng Gun-ak have accepted any lesser proposal?”
“That is…”
She could not deny it. Paeng Gun-ak’s pride in his family ran deep—so deep that even his own kin found it excessive. The eldest son, Paeng Mu-jin, had cautioned him more than once, yet Gun-ak’s attitude had only worsened. Nothing short of placing the family name itself on the line would have made him accept such a bet.
“More importantly, I intend to win even if Great Hero Paeng Mu-jin himself steps forward, not merely Young Master Paeng Gun-ak.”
“Is that even possible?”
“It is not a question of possible or impossible. It is something that must be done.”
“Something that must be done…”
“So stay sharp yourself, Young Lady Paeng. If we meet at the Gathering I mean to give everything I have.”
“Yes. I understand.”
Faced with the pure competitive fire Cheonhwa displayed, Paeng Yeon-hui simply nodded. The stage for persuasion with words had already passed; all that remained was to clash in earnest on the field.
Time passed, and the day of the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering arrived.
The training ground that had served communal use was completely transformed into a venue for the Gathering. While the grounds thronged with participants, a middle-aged man ascended the raised platform. He was Dang Tae-un, family head of the Sichuan Dang Family.
When he silently swept his gaze across the assembly, those who felt the weight of that stare closed their mouths. The noisy training ground fell quiet. Only when absolute silence reigned did Dang Tae-un slowly begin to speak.
“I am Dang Tae-un, head of the Sichuan Dang Family. I sincerely welcome the rising talents of the Central Plains who have gathered from every region to take part in the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering hosted by our family today.”
He surveyed the crowd once more and continued.
“Before the Gathering begins in earnest, I wish to speak of its origins.”
The tale might have seemed tedious at first glance, yet no one looked away from Dang Tae-un. The heavy atmosphere he radiated and the voice that filled the entire training ground held every ear captive.
“In the distant past, before the very concept of the Orthodox Path existed, the great masters of the martial world of that age gathered upon Mount Hua in Shaanxi Province to test one another’s arts.”
Through those exchanges the masters each gained enlightenment. They pledged to hold such beneficial gatherings regularly. Thus was born the Mount Hua Sparring Tournament—the oldest recorded martial contest in the land.
From that beginning, sparring tournaments arose throughout the Central Plains. The Dragon and Phoenix Gathering was a traditional contest that continued the lineage of the Mount Hua Sparring Tournament.
“As its name implies, the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering is a sparring tournament in which the rising talents of the Orthodox Path compete and the wheat is separated from the chaff. The champion receives both the honor of standing foremost among the Orthodox rising generation of the age and a special gift prepared by the Sichuan Dang Family.”
At Dang Tae-un’s gesture a Dang martial artist mounted the platform. When the wooden box he carried was opened, a radiant spiritual pill revealed itself.
“A pill refined from a hundred-year-old fleeceflower root. This is the prize that shall be awarded to the champion of this Gathering.”
At those words a fierce light flashed in the eyes of every participant. Fleeceflower root was originally a medicinal herb used by physicians, yet once it aged beyond a century the condensed natural qi within transformed it into a true spiritual treasure. When the Sichuan Dang Family—masters of both medicine and poison—turned such a hundred-year root into a pill, its efficacy was as good as guaranteed.
“I hope you will all shine with the martial arts you have polished until this day, here upon the soil of Sichuan. I hereby declare the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering open!”
The instant Dang Tae-un made the declaration, thunderous cheers filled the training ground.
At last the Dragon and Phoenix Gathering had begun.
The Dragon and Phoenix Gathering was fundamentally conducted as a single-elimination tournament. Yet its scale was vast and the number of participants large, so holding a pure elimination bracket with every entrant at once was impractical. Therefore the field would first be divided into sixteen groups for preliminary rounds; only the winners of those preliminaries would earn the right to advance to the main tournament.
Cheonhwa checked the posting boards set up near the training ground together with his fellow disciples.
“Myself, Junior Brother Yeobhwa, Junior Sister Yeonhwa, Junior Sister Jeokhwa… we’re all scattered to different groups.”
“They seem to have deliberately arranged it so that members of the same sect do not share a group. Probably to prevent any possibility of match-fixing.”
“That means disciples of the same sect can only meet after reaching the main tournament.”
Just then Yeonhwa tugged at Cheonhwa’s sleeve.
“What is it, Junior Sister Yeonhwa?”
“There.”
The direction she indicated showed the bracket for the group to which Cheonhwa had been assigned. At the tip of her finger lay a familiar name. Cheonhwa’s eyes widened as he spoke it aloud.
“Paeng Gun-ak?”
And it was not merely the same group. The opponent Cheonhwa would face in the very first match was none other than Paeng Gun-ak.
Enemies were said to meet on a narrow bridge, yet he had never expected to collide in quite this fashion.
No—perhaps this is actually for the better.
Paeng Gun-ak, who believed the martial arts of the Paeng Family supreme, would never so much as entertain the thought of being eliminated in the preliminaries. Cheonhwa’s eyes glittered as he eagerly awaited his turn.