Sichuan Tang Clan (9)
Sichuan Tang Clan (9)
"Did you hear the news? They say Docheol of the Crimson Ring Sect fell ill while training in Taijiquan and is now bedridden."
"Heuheuheu! A young man like him bedridden from practicing Taijiquan? How can he call himself a martial artist with a body that stiff?"
Rumors about me were stirring up the city of Chengdu. Whatever the gossip-mongers with their loose lips said about me didn't matter. Compared to the cost of nearly dying, a little damage to my reputation was nothing at all.
"Husband. Ah, say 'ah.'"
"Ah."
"Husband. Please lie face down."
"Heave ho."
Lying on a pallet spread out in the Taiji Sect, I was experiencing exactly the same feeling Hong Ye must have felt when she practiced the Grand Ghost Breath Method. A life of lying comfortably while someone else fed and washed you. A life so comfortable it stirred a restless unease that made you wonder if it was really all right to be this at ease.
I could understand why Hong Ye had squirmed and fidgeted so much. A life of doing nothing was paradise for those who hated moving, but for martial artists like Hong Ye and me, it was like a life of endless torture, as if someone kept poking you with their finger. Pok. Pok.
"Your body is severely damaged. You've sustained internal injuries, and your hands and feet show signs of poisoning. If the treatment had been even slightly delayed, they would have had to be amputated. You were fortunate."
When I arrived at the Taiji Sect in a near-death state, Hong Ye's reaction was truly something to behold. She jumped up, letting out a sound close to a scream, hoisted me onto her back, tossed me into a room, and then immediately ran off to fetch a physician. Shoved between the blankets, I had to look around with a dumbfounded face to grasp the situation, and from an awkwardly sprawled position, I barely managed to compose myself and lie down properly.
"Husband. Where on earth did you go to injure yourself like this?"
I hadn't had a chance to tell her not to call the physician.
Hong Ye pressed me in front of the physician in a tone that was both baffled and troubled. If we were alone, I would have told her honestly, but with the physician right beside me, I couldn't exactly say I got poisoned while digging beneath the Tang Clan. Yet the fact that I had been poisoned was undeniable.
To get by at all, I had no choice but to spout some utterly nonsensical story.
"...I was taking a walk on a mountain path, and I picked and ate a mushroom, but it turned out to be poisonous, you see? In a guidebook I happened to see once, it clearly said it was something that enhances inner energy, so I really thought it was that, but after eating it, I practiced energy circulation and my body began to boil. It nearly ended in disaster."
"...."
"...."
Of course, since it was a foolish thing to do no matter who heard it, the response was cold. The physician was casting a gaze that went past contempt into sheer pity, and Hong Ye was barely maintaining the expressionless face she'd worn when she first began training, but her eyelids were trembling. I averted my eyes from the physician and Hong Ye's chilly stares and spoke.
"...Please keep it a secret."
"...If you get sufficient rest and nourishment for about ten days, you will recover. I shall take my leave now."
With those words, the physician rose from his seat. The more learned a person is, the more they detest dealing with fools. As soon as the physician disappeared, Hong Ye spoke in a rather cold tone.
"Husband."
"...Yes."
"You are not a child, so why do you pick up and eat just anything?"
It was the kind of tone I'd occasionally heard when the junior martial sister sternly scolded someone. I felt my shoulders hunch involuntarily and carefully opened my mouth.
"...Listen, the truth is, I didn't pick and eat a poisonous mushroom. I dug a tunnel under the Tang Clan..."
"..."
I tried to tell her the truth, but from Hong Ye's perspective, this seemed even harder to believe. Watching her expression grow increasingly grim the more I spoke, there was only one thing I could say.
"...I'm sorry."
The moment I apologized, her frozen expression instantly melted. It was as if someone had been holding Hong Ye's face in place with strings and then let them all go at once. Her face immediately crumpled into a tearful look, and she hugged me tightly, muttering in a voice mixed with weeping.
"...Do you know how worried I was?"
She was very cute, grumbling with her lips pouting as she clung firmly to my chest with a sulky expression. I ruffled her hair and said,
"I am sorry. I was impatient and made a mistake."
"...Please do not do this ever again. If you come back injured one more time, I will truly be angry."
With those words, Hong Ye buried her face in my chest. I held her head tightly and thought about the next step.
Through the method of manipulating qi, the advanced principles of Taijiquan, I had been able to control the poison energy and expel it. It required a very long time, and after using it once, I had to recuperate from the aftereffects, but in any case, I had survived being poisoned by the Poison Human.
But, if this method could be used to defend against poison, what would happen if I taught it to the Poison Human? If a person whose very body is poison, unable to control that poison, could control the poison energy within? Wouldn't that give birth to a complete being capable of manipulating their own poison at will?
"Husband. What are you thinking about?"
Hong Ye asked, holding me tightly. I breathed in her scent and replied,
"I am thinking about the future."
*****
"Grandmaster. I ask this of you."
There is a saying that forgiveness is easier than permission. But in the martial world, permission is easier than forgiveness. Even a trivial matter often becomes a problem if done without permission, while something you might wonder if you can even do can surprisingly be smoothed over if you receive permission first.
After nearly dying from poison underground, I had this thought.
What if I taught the advanced principles of Taijiquan to the Poison Human trapped underground? What if, unbeknownst to the Tang Clan, they became able to control their own poison energy, and I could help the Poison Human achieve greatness in my own way?
"...You say you will teach the secret teachings of the Taiji Sect to another? That is an outrageous suggestion."
The Grandmaster spoke firmly, but I pressed my head to the floor and repeated myself earnestly.
"It could save a person's life."
The Grandmaster was shaken by those words. His eyelids twitched, and he asked,
"What do you mean, that learning the secret teachings of the Taiji Sect can save a person?"
Hong Ye hadn't believed me, but I confessed everything I had experienced to the Grandmaster.
I told him that beneath the Tang Clan, a human being was being subjected to poison experiments in the name of researching Poison Humans. Recently, I had joined forces with a conscientious elder of the Tang Clan to devise a plan to save this Poison Human, but we couldn't even approach them because of the poison they emitted.
"So that is why you came last time. I heard you ate a poisonous mushroom and became like that while practicing energy circulation."
It was a lie I'd made up, but it was a reason that sounded a bit stupid even hearing it again. I felt my face contort as I nodded and said,
"I couldn't help but fabricate a reason because the physician was beside me. But the reality was that I was poisoned by the Poison Human's toxin and lingering on the brink of death. It was truly a situation where I could have died, but using the secret teachings of Taijiquan, I was able to expel the poison from my body."
The Grandmaster's face was filled with keen interest. Even for the Grandmaster, a peak master at a level far higher than my own, the story of expelling poison with Taijiquan seemed to strike him as fascinating. Even though he seemed detached from worldly affairs, the Grandmaster was still a martial artist, and he was bound to be intrigued when hearing something new. It appeared there had been no previous attempts to neutralize poison with Taijiquan.
"You expelled poison... with Taijiquan? That is a truly remarkable thing. Could you possibly show me?"
He went so far as to ask for a demonstration, as if he'd never stated that the secret teachings should not be taught. I blinked in surprise and asked,
"...Right here?"
"...No. My apologies."
When I asked, he cleared his throat awkwardly and stepped back. A faint blush crept onto his face, which had always seemed so transcendent; it seemed he was excited at the prospect of discovering something new after a long time. But it was clear the Grandmaster's demeanor had changed.
I spoke.
"So. I will teach that Poison Human Taijiquan. By helping them understand the flow of qi and the flow of poison, I will enable them to control their own poison."
The Grandmaster did not grow more excited at my words. Instead, he asked me in a calm and subdued tone,
"...But would that not simply make a dangerous individual even more dangerous, and then release them into the world? Also, if you are the one teaching them, they will naturally come to rely on you even more. I am concerned that you may be bringing this up with the intention of controlling that Poison Human as you please."
I lowered my head once more before the Grandmaster and said,
"If I were that kind of man, would I be asking for the Grandmaster's permission? Part of the reason I have come to receive your permission this time is to prove that I am not that kind of man."
The Grandmaster was silent. He stood looking down at me. After a brief silence, he opened his mouth.
"...Very well. You have loved my daughter and allowed her to blend into the Taiji Sect. I have also stated that the Taiji Sect will always help you, and personally, I have a great desire to see this new application of Taijiquan. I will turn a blind eye, just this once."
"Thank you for your permission."
I intended to keep my promise if at all possible.
After all, I'm a great hero.