Sichuan Journey - Deepening (14)
Sichuan Journey - Deepening (14)
Elder Baek grabbed Elder Sang by the collar and swung the oil lamp. The lamp struck Elder Sang's temple, and in a surge of inner energy, Elder Sang seized Elder Baek's arm and hurled him. Elder Baek flew outside, shattering the door lattice; Elder Sang, eyes rolled back, lunged after him like a beast.
"You son of a biiiitch!"
"Waaaaagh!"
Elder Baek shrieked and flung sand into Elder Sang's face as he charged. While Elder Sang writhed, sand blinding his eyes, Elder Baek pinned him down and swung his fists wildly.
"Rrrraaagh!"
"Waaaaagh!"
Chaos was also erupting nearby. Two elders, tangled together, tumbled down the stairs from the high platform. Another elder, chased by one swinging a table as a weapon, fled, then grabbed a wooden shard from the floor and began stabbing wildly.
Kwajijik!
Ujikkeun!
Kwang!
When the tables shattered in an instant and even the wooden shards turned to powder, without any prompting, the two grabbed each other's hair, kicked, and shrieked. Splinters flew, and objects were hurled against the walls.
One snatched a piece of ceramic and smashed it against the back of a staggering elder's head. Another kicked the staggering elder in the ribs, then grappled with him, rolling on the floor. Whenever anyone seemed to be losing, they spat and flung sand, rolled like dogs; when forced back, they bit their own hands until they bled, gasping raggedly.
*****
Kwang!
Kwajijik!
Ujikkeun!
The brutal sounds carried beyond the meeting hall and reached even Hong Ye's quarters. So-bin, who had finished her training early and come to assist Hong Ye, could not hide her anxiety at the sounds from outside. Every time wood broke and people screamed, it felt as though the future of the Taiji Sect was being chipped away. So-bin asked Docheol,
"Is this the end? Is this the end you spoke of, Great Hero?"
Hong Ye was also looking up at Docheol, her face full of worry. She did not want the Taiji Sect to be destroyed in this way. She could not know exactly what was happening outside, but the Taiji Sect was her birthplace and her home. Docheol relaxed his hands, nodded, then looked at Hong Ye and said,
"Madam, one day, Confucius was traveling with his disciples. At a bend in the road, there was a man squatting and relieving himself. Confucius, greatly angered, called the man over and scolded him."
Hong Ye asked cautiously,
"Wh-what did he scold him for?"
*******
"Waaaaaagh!"
"Euaaaaaaa! Rrrraaaaaa!"
Mu-ung rose from his seat at the hair-raising screams. His body, refusing food and drink and having done nothing but weep, was so gaunt that even standing was a struggle. Yet he could not stay inside any longer, hearing the sounds of beasts tangled together and howling. When Mu-ung opened the door, he flinched and froze in place.
"Die, you bastard!"
"I'll rip your throat out myself, you cur!"
All the Taiji Sect disciples wore identical expressions, frozen as if under some sorcery, staring at one spot. The brutal noise was not coming from them; separated by only a low, thin wall, it came from the meeting hall.
"You call yourself an elder of the Taiji Sect and swung your power around recklessly, and that is why the Taiji Sect has come to this wretched state!"
"You're the one! Shame on you! Why do you think your disciple ran away! It was because he could no longer endure seeing the head of his faction behave in this wretched manner!"
Mu-ung rubbed his gaunt, skeletal face. He could not believe what he was seeing with his own eyes. The elders, their faces contorted like evil spirits, had tumbled to the ground and were brawling.
******
"How can you, born a human, commit acts fit only for beasts?"
Docheol comically mimicked Confucius's tone. It was a tone utterly at odds with the shouts and screams coming from outside. Hong Ye, too, could not hide her anxiety at Docheol's actions and continued,
"Husband, so what must we do now...?"
Docheol cut off Hong Ye's words. He shook his head and firmly prevented her from speaking further, then continued his story.
"And then Confucius continued along the road. But this time, wasn't there a man relieving himself right in the middle of the main road? Yet Confucius, far from growing angry, soothed his disciples, saying, 'Let us go around him.'"
So-bin sat in silence. Hong Ye asked Docheol again,
"Why would he do such a thing?"
"Confucius said, 'Only the supremely wise and the utterly foolish cannot be changed.' So it goes."
Hong Ye could not understand his words. She released the Grand Ghost Breath Method and carefully rose to her feet. She judged that, now that things had come to this, there was no more point in pretending to be crippled. So-bin raised a hand as if to dissuade her, but Docheol stopped her. Hong Ye carefully stretched her body and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with her movement.
And then she knelt before Docheol and said,
"Husband, what on earth does that story have to do with this situation right now? My learning is shallow, so I still cannot understand it."
Docheol closed his eyes. Hong Ye waited patiently for an answer. The brawling outside and the sounds of objects breaking were gradually dying down. Even elders of the Taiji Sect cannot fight forever, like the evil spirits of hell. Emotions and inner energy are both like fire; once they are spent, in the end everything burns away and only black traces remain.
Docheol looked at Hong Ye and asked,
"Have you loosened up your body?"
"Pardon?"
When Hong Ye's eyes went wide and she asked back, Docheol gestured.
"Let us go out. You will understand once we go out."
******
"Haa...! Haa...! Haa...!"
"Euaaaaa...!"
Ragged breathing dominated the Taiji Sect. Elder Baek, his clothes ruined, staggered about looking like a member of the Beggars' Sect. His face was bruised, scratch marks raked his neck, and his neatly trimmed hair was disheveled.
"Damn it all...! You bastard...!"
"A bastard like you...! Being an elder is why...!"
Elder Sang crawled on the ground, his face caked with dirt. There was not a spot on him, from his legs to his face, that wasn't bruised; his cheek was so swollen from being struck that his face had changed shape, becoming like a potato. The other elders were the same.
"Honestly, just...! A Beggars' Sect bum would put you to shame...!"
One elder, pelted with so much dirt and stones, was stained ochre from head to toe. Another had been struck in the face so many times he looked like someone stung by bees. There was an elder whose clothes had turned to rags, completely exposing his undergarments, and all of them staggered about like people who had lost their minds.
Amidst the ragged breathing, someone inhaled dust and spoke in a hoarse voice.
"Is... is that the appearance befitting an elder?"
Perhaps it was a remark meant to rekindle the slowly dying fighting spirit.
The words, thrown out with a gloomy laugh, instead seemed to pierce their own hearts, making the elders' faces stiffen.
Was this the image the elders of the Taiji Sect were supposed to show?
Elder Baek faced Elder Sang.
Elder Sang's disgusting appearance was utterly unbecoming of an elder.
Elder Sang, too, faced Elder Baek's hideous form — a filthy sight unbecoming an elder of the Taiji Sect.
Turning their heads, they saw the ruined meeting hall. Everything that had been displayed as cherished objects was shattered to pieces and scattered everywhere. The heat gradually cooled, and the ambient noise seeped in. The chaotic mess spread before their eyes began to take concrete shape. The elders began to look around with blank expressions, like people who had lost their memories.
Shattered ceramics lay scattered, a half-torn signboard hanging askew. The door panels were torn to shreds, unrecognizable, and the tables were completely demolished, good only for firewood.
Each of them looked at their clothes. The martial robes meant to be worn as elders of the Taiji Sect had turned into rags. They were so torn and battered that their original form was unrecognizable, and they had taken on a hideous hue, stained with blood here and there. They were so smeared with dirt and crushed that repairing them seemed difficult.
They were people who had gathered for the future of the Taiji Sect. Everything had been done for the future of the Taiji Sect. But had it, truly? Had those gathered here right now gathered purely with such thoughts?
The elders finally realized how utterly wretched they themselves were. Not content with being swayed by desire and trying to wield the sect as they pleased, they had rolled like beasts and degraded their own dignity.
An unbearable shame washed over them like a wave.
"Ah..."
One of the elders turned his head and let out a lament. Then he bowed his head, turned his body, and writhed about, not knowing what to do. The disciples were watching them. The disciples of the Taiji Sect, murmuring, were taking in the disgusting sight of the elders.
"Aah...! Augh...!"
"Ugh...! Eua...!"
The elders each covered their faces and tried to cover their bodies, completely at a loss. Faces that had been flushed red with anger were now so full of shame that they no longer knew what to do.
"Augh...! Ah...!"
They should shout for them to disperse immediately.
They should assert the authority of an elder and thunder at them to go train during training time.
But none of the elders dared to.
It was because they themselves knew they had no right to. They knew they could not do that after having shown themselves rolling around in a wretched state, worse than beasts. And so they tried to flee and hide from the gazes. They staggered like beasts and tried to escape the disciples' eyes.
They did not know what to do. To flee from this situation, from this emotion—what was there to do? No one knew the answer. Just as the elder at the forefront awkwardly turned his back and tried to flee, they, too, were simply fleeing.
In the slow turn of their backs, the elders' frayed undergarments and torn backs were visible. Someone let out a lament, and someone wept, shocked by the elders' appearance. Mu-ung, who had stood at the very front, trembled violently, his face bright red, then finally rolled his eyes back and fainted.
"Aah...!"
That single, brief cry made the elders feel even more wretched.
"Where are you going?"
And then Docheol's voice was heard. The elders, bodies hunched, turned their heads toward the source of the sound.
"Ah, aah...!"
"Wh-what in the...!"
Hong Ye was gazing at the elders with an expression beyond description. The elders did not dare meet Hong Ye's eyes. When Hong Ye appeared, it felt as if whatever had been holding them together until the very end was crashing down completely.
Elder Baek, who had led the grand undertaking for the Taiji Sect most boldly, could no longer raise his head. What had he intended to do by pushing Hong Ye aside? Did we even have the right?
In the first place, what had we been doing all this time?
Elder Baek could not hide the surging sense of futility and shame.
"Heu...! Euuh...!"
But with emotions he had no way to express simply overflowing, all he could do was clutch his chest, stagger, and let out groans. Without anyone needing to be first, they could walk no further and collapsed. As if kneeling before Hong Ye, they only huddled and trembled violently.
Hong Ye asked,
"...What is the meaning of this?"
No one could answer.
Everyone simply huddled like dead insects, shivering, their authority lost.
The shame they had forgotten, the collapsed authority, was crushing them and punishing them.