Hainan Sect, The Banquet of Yingtian (7)
The vanished Jin Myeong appeared at Seong Munjeong's back.
Fast. Truly, it was divine speed — an inexplicable swiftness that left every jaw hanging open. It was as if he had simply stepped through space. A speed no eye could follow, and it struck the martial artists of the Jianghu dumb with shock.
They had every reason to be stunned. The speed Jin Myeong had just displayed rivaled that of Senior Superintendent Overseer Yi Gwak himself. And so the waves of the Twenty-Four Wave Swords that Seong Munjeong had summoned crashed against the afterimage Jin Myeong left behind and crumbled away.
But Seong Munjeong's senses were no less formidable. She had already witnessed the speed of the Sunflower Manual in the first two matches, and she had prepared for it. Front and back, left and right, and the sky above — no matter how fast a person moved, they could not escape those five directions.
Whiiir!
The wave, once risen, immediately changed its course. Sensing by instinct that Jin Myeong had taken her rear, Seong Munjeong recovered her sword and folded her knees.
Iron Plate Bridge. She straightened her waist and laid herself back until her spine nearly kissed the floor of the arena.
At that instant—
Kii-ii!
A ghost's scream tore through the air, and a blood-red flash ripped across Seong Munjeong's vision.
Ninth star: a death-cry of whistling silk. Tenth star: perfect silence. Eighth star: a ghost's scream — Ghost Cry.
It was the Sun Moon Blood Light Claw Technique, risen to the eighth star. Having witnessed the blade energy coalesced upon Seong Munjeong's sword, Jin Myeong had raised the output of his Sun Moon Claws.
If anyone asked how he had already reached the eighth star, inventing an excuse would be exhausting — but he certainly wasn't about to lose. The only thing that could contend with blade energy was blade energy. He could use the Heaven-Cleaving Palm in secret, but the Bright Sky Hand was out of the question. Better this than revealing the authentic manual.
Kii-iii!
Qi talons, grown like daggers from the tips of all ten fingers, savaged the air. Several strands of Seong Munjeong's hair, caught in that violent current, were sheared away.
I expected this, but this is too...!
Seong Munjeong swallowed a groan. Throughout this entire journey she had refined Hainan's sword and martial way, and she had broken through the gates of the Peak Realm — at an earlier age than even Sect Leader Geum Jong-mu or First Disciple Nam Yeonghak. The joy of that moment, when Boundless Ocean True Qi had layered upon itself, dense and ceaseless, until it became blade energy, had been beyond words. And with it had come the confidence that she would yield to no one of her generation.
And yet.
The Jeonbu is Peak Realm too!
A youth who looked several years her junior, standing at the same Peak Realm. She had seen it clearly. The blood claws sprouting from the fingers of this eunuch, younger than herself, were unmistakably blade energy.
She had never been careless to begin with, but now her mind snapped fully awake. Seong Munjeong rolled her inverted body sideways. Having turned from her back, she was now face-down — and once more she faced Jin Myeong head-on.
At once she drove Boundless Ocean True Qi into both legs, and the wind of the great ocean shoved her body off the arena floor with tremendous force.
Hainan's prized movement art. True speed required continuity to back it — and the elusive motion of Sea-Soaring Heaven Wind made that continuity possible.
Seong Munjeong poured Boundless Ocean True Qi wholly into her sword and raised the waves once more. In the blink of an eye, the essence of a swift sword — dozens of thrusting strikes — sought every inch of her opponent's body.
Ting! Ti-ting! Ting!
The waves of the surf and the blood-light of the sun and moon collided dozens of times in empty air.
I nearly came to grief.
Seong Munjeong's swordsmanship was finer than he had anticipated. It was not merely speed. She had married the principle of linked chains to a nimble, elusive movement art. When speed met chain-linkage, it forced an opponent onto the desperate defensive — and that opponent would lose the initiative without ever landing a proper attack.
There were two principal ways to break such a chain of extreme-swift swords. Move faster. Or overpower it — blast it apart, or shatter it.
Reaching Peak Realm at her age is praiseworthy. But I should teach her she still has a long road ahead.
Jin Myeong decided to take both methods. He released the Isin True Qi he had been holding in check, and it surged unrestrained from his dantian through every limb and bone. The blood claws, which had been no longer than a finger joint, sprouted as a tiger bares its hidden talons.
And in the instant that followed — the blood claws, steeped in Isin True Qi, seized his opponent's throat-line with ruthless daring.
Kaa-ang!
The Twenty-Four Wave Swords stopped. Hainan's waves shattered against the blood claws of the sun and moon.
The arena plunged into shock.
The arena — the Hainan Sect especially — was stunned. When blade energy of Boundless Ocean had coalesced upon Seong Munjeong's sword, they had been certain of victory. For a brief moment they had rejoiced at the appearance of a rising star who would yield to no one among the Nine Factions and One Sect or the Five Great Clans.
And now Hainan's sword had been caught. Caught in the grip of a beardless brat who styled himself the sworn brother of an expelled disciple.
Kii-gigik! Ki-gik!
Seong Munjeong's sword, locked in Jin Myeong's blood claws, trembled and keened. Then it slid free, coming level with the arena floor, and slipped away.
Seong Munjeong clutched her startled heart — but it was far too soon. At once, the illusion of Jin Myeong with both hands raised materialized before her face.
"Eut!"
Seong Munjeong reflexively raised her sword to block, but Jin Myeong's blood claws hammered against that sword-wall. The divine speed of the Sunflower Water Form added propulsion, and added it again. The blood claws struck the sword-wall, beat it, pounded it.
Kaa-ang! Ka-ga-gang! Kaa-ang!
Seong Munjeong was driven back helplessly, sliding and sliding, until her heels found the edge of the arena, where there was nowhere left to retreat.
Jin Myeong's final move detonated.
Eut! Th-this is... what?
Pinned in an instant at the precipice, Seong Munjeong felt an ominous force before she could even counter. Her sword-hand and her entire arm were numb, but there was no time to register the pain.
Urrreung!
Faint enough that only she could hear it, the sound crashed against her eardrums. With that ominous rumble, cold and heat — opposing forces — bloomed directly in front of her, and all at once the air itself began to vibrate in fine tremors.
Seong Munjeong's eyes darted, searching for the source of the phenomenon. This was, without a doubt, certainly... coming from the Jeonbu's palm...
The instant she identified the source—
With Jin Myeong's telepathic voice, the blood claws that had coalesced at his fingertips vanished without a trace. And immediately, a single palm whose heart shone white came forward and shoved against Seong Munjeong's sword-wall.
The very same form that had, on a previous day, disintegrated an assassin sent to murder Zhu Gaochi. A form of the foremost palm art under heaven — the Heaven-Cleaving Palm. Unleashed now at a lowered intensity.
KWA-A-ANG!
For a single instant, silence filled the arena.
......
That silence had another name: astonishment and awe.
The orthodox martial artists had believed that Hainan, driven to the brink, had unveiled a treasure — a second-generation disciple who had reached Initial Peak Realm — and that this would drag the contest back to even ground. Seong Munjeong's appearance had been the kind of entrance that could rewrite the map of the realm's rising stars, the so-called dragons and phoenixes of the age.
And yet, when the lid was lifted, it had ended in Seong Munjeong's complete defeat.
The Sunflower Manual was already famous for its speed, but seeing it in the flesh, its power surpassed all imagination. From Yi Gwak, of an elder's caliber in any great sect, to Yun Bong, of a first-generation disciple's, to Jin Myeong, of a second-generation's — these were masters who, if they stepped into the Jianghu this very day, would shake their names across the realm.
The orthodox factions of the world competed with one another for fame, for profit, for power within the Orthodox Martial Alliance — and yet, under the name of the Righteous Path, they were one. Whatever the truth of the incident, watching the court seize Hainan the way one seizes a rat sat poorly with them. It was uncomfortable.
The leaders of each sect and clan grew tense. Was this entire situation, in the end, some imperial scheme to apply a certain kind of pressure to the orthodox martial world? Had something gone amiss with the Yongle Emperor's person, or with the structure of power between the Imperial Household and Yingtianfu? Or was this a show of force ahead of yet another campaign of conquest, meant to secure the smooth cooperation of the sects and clans?
They turned over possibility after possibility, straining to grasp the Imperial Household's intent.
Of course, there was no such intent whatsoever. The truth was simply that Nam Geonhu and Geum Hwayeong had caused an incident. A second-generation disciple had made a mess, and the sect's very foundation was on the verge of being ripped out.
"Hainan has suffered a grave humiliation."
"The eunuchs' power is truly formidable, Senior Brother Zhangjiao."
"You saw it clearly, Junior Brother. The Imperial Household's strength is greater now than at any time in the past. Caution, and caution again. Tell the disciples — for the remainder of our stay, they are to conduct themselves with the utmost care."
"Yes, Senior Brother Zhangjiao."
"Convey our condolences to Hainan as well."
"I shall."
From one corner of the arena, a sigh could be felt from Zhangjiao Zhenren of the Wudang Sect and his elder. Relief that it was not they who stood in that position, and a sharpened wariness that they must be careful.
Will he never appear, then?
Zhangjiao Zhenren gazed quietly at the Hainan Sect, which had become a house of mourning, and thought of one man. A martial uncle he had neither seen nor heard from in several years.
Meanwhile—
"Th-th-that! The monster was one of our own! That kid's no ordinary thing. You heard it just now, right? Ghost Cry? What the hell is he?"
"Eunuch, I'm shocked too, but that's a problem for later. Anyway, that dodge isn't going to work — quit changing the subject and hand it over."
"Huh? Hand what over?"
"You piss-stinking eunuch bastard! You lost the bet, so take it like an honest eunuch and pay up! Hand it over already!"
"Shit, fine! You coin-grubbing eunuch with silver in your marrow."
The eunuchs were in a festival mood. Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi was present, and given the gravity of the matter, a certain solemnity was called for. But eunuchs with loose mouths and looser backsides were hardly the sort to oblige.
"Anyway, where the hell did a eunuch like that come from? Did Superintendent Yi feed him some immortal elixir behind our backs? Whatever — we won, and the winner's a eunuch, that's what matters. Hong-hong!"
"And this from the one stomping his feet asking if we were going to lose. Honestly, that mouth of yours is a fresh surprise morning and night, you eunuch. Here!"
Who else but eunuchs? Even in a moment this tense, with the pride of the Imperial Household and the eunuch brotherhood on the line, they had placed bets — and the instant the match ended, they were busy squawking and collecting their winnings. And this, with Crown Prince Zhu Gaochi sitting right there.
"Ah...? Grand Director."
From one side, Yi Gwak called to Zheng He with careful delicacy.
"Hm? What is it, Superintendent Yi."
"You ought to pay what you owe..."
"Ah, right. Ahem! Well, that Jeonbu's skill is astonishing. ...You didn't make the bet knowing that, did you? In any case, a remarkable eunuch joined us while this official was at sea. Let's see, this month's stipend..."
"Putting it on tab again would be a problem."
"Ahem! W-would I ever."
Zheng He had lost his wager with Yi Gwak. Zhu Gaochi, who had been watching the scene with an expression of amusement, rose from the dais. At once, the murmuring that had filled every corner of the arena died away. The eyes of five thousand people fixed upon Zhu Gaochi.
The martial contest stands at two points for the palace attendants, none for the Hainan Sect. The palace attendants are victorious. Therefore! As pledged, Nam Geonhu of the Hainan Sect shall be sentenced to palace castration for the crime of wounding a palace attendant, and together with Geum Hwayeong shall be consigned as slaves of the Imperial Household.
Ahhh...!
The moment Zhu Gaochi's declaration fell, long sighs rose from every corner of the arena.
A stagger!
"Sect Leader!"
"Eldest Senior Brother!"
On the Hainan Sect's side, disciples rushed to support Geum Jong-mu and Nam Yeonghak, who had reeled at the announcement. Every Hainan disciple's heart was packed with rage and bitter grief — but of the two, the rage could not be shown. To show it would be to invite Zhu Gaochi's wrath.
Zhu Gaochi's words continued.
"Furthermore, the Guangxi salt license granted to Hainan shall be revoked. Thereafter, the martial contest that was halted shall resume. Has Sect Leader Geum of the Hainan Sect anything further to say on this matter?"
Those words were as good as a proclamation that Hainan would fall from a great sect representing the Orthodox Path to a mid-sized one. They also meant the first case in history of a disciple from one of the Orthodox Path's twenty great sects being consigned as a slave of the Imperial Household.
"Then the Zhuge Clan shall resume the contest...!"
Zhu Gaochi, who had asked as a matter of form, was about to order the contest resumed when—
At that moment, Geum Jong-mu flew from the Hainan Sect's ranks and landed at the center of the arena. Prostrate upon the arena floor, Geum Jong-mu's face looked ten years older.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince. This subject, Geum Jong-mu, General of Manifested Might, has a petition for Your Highness."
General of Manifested Might was a fourth-rank military honorary title — an office the Yongle Emperor had bestowed upon the masters of the great orthodox sects and clans. That such a title was being produced now meant the words about to leave his mouth would be no ordinary request. The crowd fixed their ears upon Geum Jong-mu's lips.
"What is it. Speak."
"Grant us, we beg you, the Death-Exemption Iron Token bestowed by His Majesty the Founding Emperor."
"What? Mmm...!"
Zhu Gaochi, who had never imagined that name would surface, let out a short, involuntary groan.
The Death-Exemption Iron Token?
Hainan has a Death-Exemption Iron Token?
As if to confirm Zhu Gaochi's dismay, a stir rose through every corner of the arena. It was a matter of that magnitude.
The Death-Exemption Iron Token. An iron tally bestowed by the Founding Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang upon the meritorious officials of the dynasty's founding. Who had granted it, when, and to whom; what merit the recipient or their company had earned — all of it was recorded in exhaustive detail upon the iron. And beyond honor, the tally possessed one other function.
"You would petition the Death-Exemption Iron Token to pardon Nam Geonhu and Geum Hwayeong?"
"That is so, Your Highness. This subject Geum Jong-mu and Hainan beg His Imperial Majesty's gracious leave."
Death-exemption: to be spared death. In other words, it possessed the utility of granting forgiveness, once, no matter what crime had been committed. But to petition the Death-Exemption Iron Token was tantamount to abandoning the honor of a founding meritorious official, and actual petitions had been exceedingly rare. Pass it down to later generations, and unless the nation itself fell, descendants could enjoy the status and privileges of meritorious officials for all time. Who would surrender that over a trivial matter?
"There is no idle speech in the palace. I ask again: do you truly petition the Death-Exemption Iron Token?"
"As a parent, this subject cannot stand idle and watch the crime his own blood has committed. We beg Your Highness's merciful consideration."
"We beg Your Highness's merciful consideration!"
Swept up in a tangle of rage, humiliation, and shame, Geum Jong-mu and the ninety-eight Hainan disciples answered in a single voice. A stubborn pride could be felt beneath it.
This was something even Jin Myeong had not anticipated.
That's right. That damned scrap of iron existed.
Revoking the salt license alone was not enough to satisfy him. Nam Geonhu needed to be made to suffer the same agony of castration, and then live as a slave alongside Geum Hwayeong until the day they died. The wound had been a light one, true — but had Jeong Go not stabbed his own belly for the sake of this revenge?
Fine. You want to go all the way? You've lost the Death-Exemption Iron Token too — let's see what you block us with next.
He had no intention of giving up here. Zheng He and the eunuchs would, if anything, come at them even more viciously. By the nature of eunuchs, had Hainan simply paid the price for their crime, they would have written it off as a moment's entertainment and forgotten it. But they had used the Death-Exemption Iron Token to shove this side's face in the mud. There was no question they would now mobilize means more vicious and more venomous than before, and sweep away even the foundation stones of Hainan.
At length—
"The Death-Exemption Iron Token was bestowed by His Majesty the Founding Emperor. As his descendant, to honor it is the proper duty of filial piety."
After a moment's deliberation, Zhu Gaochi opened his mouth.
"Therefore, in the place of His Most August Imperial Majesty, We pardon Hainan's crime and reclaim the Death-Exemption Iron Token. However, this pardon is confined to the persons of Geum Hwayeong and Nam Geonhu, and the Guangxi salt license granted to the Hainan Sect shall be revoked as pledged. Does Hainan acknowledge this?"
"...We acknowledge it. His Majesty's grace is boundl—"
"It is not finished."
Zhu Gaochi cut off the praise of Geum Jong-mu, who, with a look of despair, had believed the matter concluded. Anger could be felt in Zhu Gaochi's complexion and in his tone.
That Hainan did not petition the Death-Exemption Iron Token from the first, but answered the martial contest and used His Imperial Majesty's banquet as an opportunity to wriggle free, is deeply odious.
Therefore! Hainan's name shall be struck from the register of meritorious founding officials. From this day, all civil and military honorary ranks bestowed upon Hainan are abolished. Their military vessels shall be reclaimed and granted to the Chen Clan of Guangdong, together with the administration thereof and naval supremacy over the South Sea.
Furthermore! Henceforth, Hainan shall not bring persons or livestock within one thousand li of the imperial capital. This shall hold after the relocation of the capital as well.
That Hainan had attempted the martial contest without using the Death-Exemption Iron Token from the start had drawn out the wrath of Zhu Gaochi, a man famed for his benevolence. The son of the Son of Heaven was himself the Son of Heaven; the son of a dragon was himself a dragon. That thunderous majesty was not something common men could presume upon.
"Y-Your Highness!"
The Hainan disciples cried out as one.
The Hainan disciples, stunned by a declaration like a bolt from a clear sky, cried out as one — but Zhu Gaochi paid them no mind. Rage dripping from both eyes, Zhu Gaochi turned to Zheng He.
"Grand Director Zheng He! Are you present!"
"Aye!"
Feeling the dragon's wrath, Zheng He folded at the waist at once.
"We shall have an audience with His Majesty. The Directorate of Ceremonial shall attend Us!"