The Gathering (1)
As he left Soran's room, a maidservant guided Jinmyung onward. Inside the small chamber, a breakfast clearly meant for sobering up had been laid out.
Across the table sat Shintu, already eating. He gestured for Jinmyung to sit.
Once Jinmyung took the seat opposite him, the maidservant brought his bowl of noodles. A sharp, numbing mala fragrance brushed the tip of his nose.
"Yesterday was a truly pleasant drinking party. From the look of you, it seems you felt the same."
Shintu set down his noodle bowl as he spoke. Jinmyung sipped the broth to settle his stomach while listening.
"I thought we might finish last night's transaction… What do you say?"
"You mean the profound essence of Face-Changing…"
Jinmyung soothed his insides with the hot broth, then met Shintu's gaze. Shintu regarded him with a serious expression.
"The reason I came to the Hao Men and performed Face-Changing was… because I saw the mask stall. Well, I also wanted to find out what commanded the highest price among Sichuan's specialties."
And because it was convenient to earn money bare-handed—but he left that part unsaid and continued.
"When I performed Face-Changing alone, I thought, why can't everyone do this? If you have a little internal energy… and practice a little, anyone should be able to…"
At Jinmyung's words, Shintu let out a short laugh. The so-called miscellaneous arts offered little help in combat. That was why martial artists poured their internal energy and training time into martial arts instead.
"But… when I had a friend practice Face-Changing, I understood. There are internal energy methods that allow Face-Changing in the first place, and those that do not."
"Face-Changing itself can be performed with a little effort, just as you said. But one can never reach the true essence of the Disguise Arts."
Shintu scratched his chin and went on.
"The reason Face-Changing stands at the pinnacle of the Disguise Arts is its sheer speed. Yet the most important thing in the Disguise Arts themselves is not speed."
Jinmyung finished his meal and poured tea from the pot. Shintu continued without pause.
"The Disguise Arts are about changing one's face to appear as another person. For that, what matters is possessing another person's heart."
"Possessing another person's heart?"
"Do you not also try to guess at other people's hearts?"
"Doesn't everyone?"
"If one's own heart is too firm… or too narrow, one cannot. That is why Face-Changing masters possess the Dual-Intent Heart Art."
Dual-Intent Heart Art. Meaning to hold another intent within the heart? Jinmyung murmured inwardly.
"When one accumulates internal energy through the Dual-Intent Heart Art, one can alter the temperament of one's own internal energy. My master could change his temperament longer than any other Face-Changing master… and so he could infiltrate any organization."
So that was why the old country tried to eradicate Face-Changing… Jinmyung thought as he waited for Shintu to continue.
"The difference in internal energy methods you spoke of is precisely that—whether the method can transform temperament or not…"
"Does a problem of internal energy methods reach even another person's heart?"
"Internal energy methods are ways of handling breath. All living things cannot maintain their nature without breath, so then—where is a person's heart contained?"
"……"
"Thus only one who treasures another's heart can paint that person's life with breath alone. This is called Qi-Circulation Face Change."
"Ugh… You keep pushing it off as if there's no need to give it to me."
Jinmyung realized Shintu had already explained the principle of Qi-Circulation Face Change, the profound essence of Face-Changing. What had already been heard could not be taken back.
"As I said before, I do not think you will be able to use the profound essence with the principle alone. Still, before I go, unfinished realms will linger more than unfinished tea."
It was the exchange they had shared when Shintu first sought Jinmyung out. Would one think of the tea left undrunk before death? Or of the realm left unattained?
There would be no more of Hwan Sa's teachings. Shintu had already abandoned the realm of Qi-Circulation Face Change. Yet before such a man, Jinmyung had appeared.
There were realms one climbed by following a master's teachings, and realms one climbed by polishing oneself against a similar level.
Shintu had revealed to Jinmyung the principle of the profound essence learned from his master. The answer to the question Shintu had posed was the unfinished realm.
"Then I suppose it can't be helped."
Jinmyung scratched his head as if embarrassed.
"Still, isn't that a bit too careless? Do you even know what kind of person I am, handing over a profound essence like this?"
"At the very least, an outsider who has never lived in Sichuan."
Shintu pointed at Jinmyung's mala soup as he spoke.
"Sichuan food is three times spicier than other regions. No matter how much it's for sobering up, if you keep gulping the broth like that you'll ruin your stomach."
No wonder my insides felt like they were bubbling…
"What of the Sichuan people who eat such food? On the surface they may not look different from other regions… but they are passionate. In everything."
"Passionate… you say?"
"Yes. You've heard how the Dang Clan drank poison themselves to win a war, haven't you? The Dark Cloud Poison Venerable still takes decoctions more than ten times a day to neutralize the poison he drank back then."
I thought that was just talk… was it real? Sichuan people really don't look before they leap…
"Ask the Dark Cloud Poison Venerable once. Whether he regrets drinking extreme poison for Hwan Sa's revenge… He'll say no. Because he's a Sichuan man."
"And because Shintu is also a Sichuan man, he doesn't regret handing over the profound essence of Face-Changing…"
Jinmyung found it honestly hard to understand. Yet he had already received the essence… and there was no taking it back.
Jinmyung shook his head firmly, exchanged farewells with Shintu, and left the pleasure house. He staggered toward the inn.
Dang Sohye shoved aside the bowl in which she had been crushing aconite. She had been mixing aconite with several other ingredients, but the combination seemed to have failed.
It was because she could not concentrate somewhere. Irritation rose in her. She did not even know at what.
The maidservants assisting her research carried the bowl away with gloved hands. It was a vessel that had combined several deadly poisons, so they handled it with care.
"Every experiment today has been a failed combination."
A maidservant whose nose and mouth were covered by a cloth spoke.
"I know. I can't focus. Let's stop for today."
"Understood."
Dang Sohye handed her gloves to the maidservant and left the room. The sun stood high in the sky.
Thinking she might as well move her body a little, she headed for the training grounds. Only direct family members could enter, and the family had gathered there.
It was because Dang Woo had come out after a long while to instruct in martial arts. Ordinarily he spent his days with the elders of his own generation.
As one of the Five Venerables of the martial world and the Grand Clan Head, the younger generation had unconsciously kept a distance from Dang Woo. Yet after learning through the play that he too had once been a hot-blooded youth like themselves, that distance had vanished without a trace.
Dang Sohye watched Dang Woo from a short distance away. He pretended to find it bothersome, yet somehow looked unburdened.
Probably because the Hwan Sa Dang's trial had ended, she thought. From her place a little apart, she drew out her whip.
The Numbing Whip, now known as her personal weapon, undulated and cracked through the air. A small weight hung at its tip.
Like the whip itself, the weight was made of leather and soaked with the bee venom she had crafted. According to the clan's secret methods, the weight made from bee venom seeped into the Numbing Whip according to her internal energy.
She slowly worked through the forms. A buzzing sound like bees swarming after their hive had been disturbed circled around her.
How long had she whirled the whip in a trance of martial absorption? Her breathing broke, and she halted the forms.
Panting, she looked around. The day had already grown dark. The other family members had all gone. Only Dang Woo remained, watching her.
"What is it that so displeases you?"
"Hah, hah… I don't… know."
"When the heart is swayed, the energy is swayed… and so the whip is swayed as well."
"A whip is a weapon meant to be swung, isn't it?"
"Yes, and that is why it is the Dang Clan's personal weapon. The hearts of Sichuan people are not like the clear mirror and still water of Taoists or monks."
Dang Woo stroked his beard as he spoke. The night wind blew, and a towel flew toward Dang Sohye.
She realized Dang Woo had sent it. Watching her wipe her sweat with the towel, he continued.
"That Hwan Sa fellow used to say the Dang Clan people were like cats. Just as curiosity kills the cat, he said the Dang Clan would meet heart demons because of curiosity."
Curiosity…? Dang Sohye tilted her head.
"The reason I first took an interest in that Hwan Sa fellow was exactly that. How on earth he changed masks so quickly… When curiosity takes hold of a Dang Clan member, they have blood that will not rest until they chew it, tear it, taste it, and thoroughly investigate it."
Only then did Dang Sohye realize what had been catching in her heart. The face she had seen at the inn was the face of Mumu Baekmyeon, Go Jinmyung.
Yet after the Hwan Sa Dang's trial ended, what they had shown was not Go Jinmyung. It was the mask of Mumu Baekmyeon.
Why…? Even though the trial was over, was there still a reason to unsettle my heart?
"In half a month we will hold a gathering of the Sichuan Alliance at Fuhu Temple. The Hao Men fellows will come as well, of course."
It felt as if Dang Woo were seeing straight through her heart.
"When you reach my age, you will see it all."
"I will… attend the gathering."
"Good. Do so."
Dang Sohye clasped her fists in salute, turned, and left the training grounds. Seeing the change in her expression, Dang Woo found himself looking forward to the gathering.