There Are Still Worlds You Don't Know
Hwan Mong. Hwan Rang. Hwan Do.
Yi Yeok thought back to three years ago, on the road home from a finished mission, when the three of them had ambushed him. One glance had told him their skill was anything but ordinary, and he had chosen to run rather than fight.
The chase lasted three days and three nights.
In the end they took him in as one of their own. His skill and his potential, they said, were too good to waste on a corpse. Something in their manner suggested they were keeping reasons of their own, but Yi Yeok had been hunted day and night until he was spent, and he had little choice but to accept.
They did not belong to the Dark Shadow League. They never spoke of where they came from—only of their aliases. Because his hands were quick, Yi Yeok went by the name Phantom.
The four of them worked together for a long time after that, falling into one another's rhythm. Then, a year ago, the three of them vanished without warning, and not a word of them came after.
Yi Yeok had grown a great deal in the meantime, but their strength was still a thing he could not measure.
"Where in the world have you been all this time? Honestly, I thought you were dead."
Hwan Rang answered with a laugh.
"Phantom, aren't you selling us a little short? There was a reason we didn't take you with us. It was more than you could have handled. We nearly died ourselves."
"Hwan Rang's right. What we were up against was a Heavenly Daoist."
At Hwan Mong's words, Yi Yeok's gaze sharpened.
A Heavenly Daoist stood past Dao Grandmaster—beyond Great Daoist Master, beyond even Earthly Daoist. Anything above Dao Grandmaster was said to be a wall no one could cross. A hundred Great Daoist Masters, the saying went, still could not handle a single Earthly Daoist.
Yi Yeok was quiet for a moment, then let out a short, dry laugh.
"If you can stand against a Heavenly Daoist, then the three of you can handle this job just fine on your own."
Hwan Rang narrowed his eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means I don't intend to run with you anymore."
"Why?"
"I've got something I have to do."
In that instant Hwan Do's hand flicked. A thin dagger, scarcely a foot long, shot toward Yi Yeok like lightning.
Yi Yeok shifted his right hand and turned it aside on Yojiyu. The two of them stepped back as one.
Hwan Do spoke low.
"You've improved a lot. Faster, too. And your heart looks different."
Hwan Rang smiled.
"Phantom. You throw a friend away that easily?"
"Friends? People like us don't have friends."
"What are you talking about? We're people too. Of course we can have friends."
"Looking for a friend in a den of flying daggers—how's that any different from looking for a meal in an outhouse?"
"Why go that far? Now you're hurting my feelings."
Then Hwan Mong, silent until now, spoke.
"Did you find her? That woman?"
Yi Yeok frowned and said nothing.
Guryeong Immortal Sect.
That was his goal. He wanted to uncover the truth himself, with no one's help—why that woman had taken his Silver Blood and the Yi family's heirloom, and what kind of bargain his older brother, Yi Pyeong, had struck with her.
A high immortal sect was a presence even a capable cultivator dared not approach. If something went wrong along the way, it would fall on everyone around him. He had no wish to bring harm to anyone. Not even the family he so thoroughly despised.
Hwan Mong asked again.
"Is the opponent that great? So far beyond us that we couldn't even help?"
"This has nothing to do with you."
"However you choose to see it, we think of you as a friend. The reason we chose you back then was because we were waiting for a day like this. We hoped you'd grow stronger—strong enough to do something great alongside us."
"Yeah. You turn cold on us out of nowhere, and the rest of us don't know what to do with it."
Hwan Do chimed in.
Hwan Mong said quietly,
"The reason this target is a sarira is you. A sarira can stir your blood spirit. It might even help you take back the Silver Blood you lost."
Yi Yeok was silent. It wasn't that he failed to understand them. Setting the old man aside, they were the people who had shown him the most kindness.
Hwan Mong stepped closer and lowered her voice.
"Whatever you do—even if you fail—we'll be at your side. It doesn't matter who took the Silver Blood."
A small ripple moved through Yi Yeok's chest.
"Ha..."
Seeing him laugh, Hwan Mong smiled as well.
Hwan Rang laughed, loud and open.
"So that's settled, then? Shall we get moving? It's been a long time since the four of us ran together."
Hwan Do shot Yi Yeok a glance.
"I want a look at what you can do. You seem like a different man."
Yi Yeok grinned.
"If you can keep your eyes on me. I still can't match you for strength, but when it comes to speed, I'm faster."
"That one's going to live his whole life without ever learning what humility is."
Hwan Rang turned, became a wolf, and vanished in a flash. Hwan Do was gone just as quickly, like the wind.
Hwan Mong's voice was low.
"Don't forget what I said. Even after this is over, remember us. Whatever help you need, we'll give it."
Yi Yeok only smiled.
Yi Yeok and his companions were bound for the western reaches of the Heaven-Center Immortal Realm—the domain of the Buddhist orders.
A sarira was the crystal of power left behind when a master of those orders died: the essence of a lifetime's cultivation.
Hwan Mong and the other two brought Yi Yeok to a secluded corner of the Heaven-Center Immortal Realm. There stood a teleportation formation raised from ancient stone.
Hwan Rang set the immortal stones he had prepared into the formation as he spoke.
"A spatial teleportation array we happened to find."
The world was vast. The Heaven-Center Immortal Realm alone stretched more than three thousand miles east to west, and as far again from north to south—and that was to say nothing of the whole Hidden Dragon Continent. But with a spatial teleportation array, a chosen place was only a moment away.
Yi Yeok looked the formation over and laughed.
"Not bad at all."
"People in our line of work ought to keep a secret or two."
While Hwan Rang brought the array to life, Yi Yeok asked quietly.
"What are you people actually after?"
At the question Hwan Rang's hands paused, then he set the formation working again. Hwan Mong and Hwan Do traded a look. Hwan Do shrugged, as if it were nothing to him.
Hwan Mong's brows shifted slightly, and she spoke in a low voice.
"Have you ever heard of places called otherworlds—or alternate dimensions?"
Yi Yeok cocked his head.
"What?"
"The world we live in holds countless otherworlds. The way the Buddhist orders were never part of this world to begin with."
"The Buddhist orders weren't here?"
Hwan Mong nodded.
"No. Originally our world had only the Daoist orders. But ten thousand years ago, monks crossed over from an otherworld. After that a horrific war broke out between the Daoist and Buddhist orders, and in the end they reached a truce. That's how things stand now. The Daoist orders hold the east, and the Buddhist orders the west."
"Sounds like a story someone made up."
Yi Yeok said it with his eyes narrowed. Hwan Mong answered quietly.
"I know it's hard to believe. It's still historical fact."
She paused, then went on.
"You've heard of dragons, haven't you? You've never actually seen one."
Yi Yeok shook his head. A dragon was only a divine beast out of legend.
"Dragons are powerful beings, and they appeared out of another space as well. We call that place the Dragon Otherworld. There are a great many spaces like it."
Yi Yeok murmured, as if turning it over.
"Even if what you're saying is true, why did the Buddhist people come to our world? Because ours was better?"
"Because of the Dread Nether."
"The Dread Nether?"
"A race born in the void, one that swallows everything. Where they pass, nothing remains but pitch-black dark. The Buddhist orders crossed over here to survive them, and sealed their original world behind them. But someday those things will chase them all the way to this place."
"The Dread Nether hate the light. When they come, the world will be night forever."
Hwan Rang added that. Hwan Mong nodded and continued.
"Right now we're chasing the truth of that history, looking for a way through it. The reason we left last time was to find two words."
"What words?"
"Polar Day."
Hwan Mong's eyes glinted.
"The opposite of Polar Night. Both of them are dangerous all the same."
Yi Yeok burst out laughing.
"You talk as if you're doing something magnificent. Don't forget what we are. We're thieves with flying daggers. Since when do we play at heroes?"
"You only say that because you don't understand yet. A day will come when you do."
"Otherworlds are a ridiculous story."
Hwan Mong and the other two said nothing, their eyes bright. Far too earnest for a joke.
"You're telling me there are many spaces like that?"
Hwan Rang and Hwan Do answered, laughing.
"Of course. Some otherworlds are nothing but plants—thousand-year spirit herbs so thick you trip over them. Others are beast-spaces, where every legendary demon-beast you've ever heard of still lives."
"There's a Metallic Alternate Dimension, too. A place where metal itself becomes a demon-beast."
Yi Yeok stared, thrown.
"That's impossible. How does metal turn into a demon-beast?"
Hwan Do laughed, rough and easy.
"Sister, want to show him?"
At that, Yi Yeok looked to Hwan Mong. She smiled and flicked her fingers, and the hair ornament—silver, by the look of it—rose of its own accord, became a girl no larger than a thumbnail, and settled atop her head.
Yi Yeok muttered, stunned.
"This is..."
"A metallic spirit. I named her Gi Mong."