How to Build Inner Energy Like Eating Candy Sweets - 5

The world had always been like a cold blade — one careless step was enough to get a weak, frail body cut clean through. It was a dangerous place.

There was nothing strange about that.

She didn't know who her father was. She didn't know who her mother was, either. The only ones beside her were other beggars, all of them coveting the handful of rotten scraps she'd begged for. If the days she'd lived among such people had been safe, that would have been the real joke.

Still, she had always been nimble, so the adult beggars had never managed to take anything from her — but the world had never once stopped being dangerous. Even the nights when everyone should have slept in peace were never a time of rest for her.

There was not even a small wall to shield her, and so, in order to protect herself from those who showed her malice — or those who wanted to seize her and sell her into slavery — she had never once slept soundly in her life.

If not for the sharp instincts she'd carried since childhood, if not for a body too starved and gaunt to appeal to anyone's tastes, she might ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠already have lost her life, or been sold away.

Fear.

Terror.

And malice.

Living in a harsh world with no wall to shield her and no pillar to lean on, Sa Yun had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been so terribly weak.

And that was why she had envied it.

The girl her own age she had seen every time she sat in the gutter looking up at the world. Unlike someone who was nothing at all, that girl wore a face full of happiness as she casually held a large, sturdy hand that protected her — as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

And that hand, stroking the girl's hair with such deep affection.

To Sa Yun, there was nothing in the world more enviable.

"Back then... the way he looked at me after I finished eating... it was a lot like the way that girl's father used to look at her."

She must have caught her breath without realizing it, carrying the letter and box from Courier Gate as she walked toward Hong Ryeon's room.

Before the door, Sa Yun quietly pressed her ear to listen. She knew the gazes of others better than the senior disciples did — better than she herself did, who had lived in the gutter and grown far more accustomed to people's malice than to kindness.

She had come to Hongseong Sect one day, led by the Sword Saint, and become her disciple, gaining the strength to protect herself — but there was still so much she didn't understand.

These were the judgments of senior disciples who understood far better than she did how people looked at one another.

So Sa Yun closed her eyes slightly and thought. The conversation drifting from inside was probably about today's events.

Yes. Today's events.

For a girl who had survived the gutter and then taken the Sword Saint's hand to Mount Hongseong, life at the sect was nothing short of heaven.

The other disciples grumbled that the food was bland, but to Sa Yun, who had known nothing but spoiled, filthy scraps, Hongseong's meals were a veritable feast. She was eating food many times more delicious — dozens of times, really — than anything before.

The soft porridge that soothed her stomach, and then the crisp fried eggplant that followed. The Hongwol pork, fragrant with every bite, sweet and savory on the tongue, went without saying, and the chicken dish — crispy outside, moist within — was so good it astonished the other disciples as much as it did her.

Remembering it now still made her mouth water. And that gaze she'd glimpsed from the man who had served that food — it drifted back to her.

I... really can't tell.

Right. She couldn't tell. But she had no choice but to think about it.

The innkeeper, Yu Wol. The gaze of a man of an age unfamiliar to her had been so awkward that Sa Yun could hardly accept it.

One thing was certain, though: it had not been malicious. Sa Yun was even more sensitive to malice than Hong Ryeon, who had grown thoroughly hardened to the world.

Then was that gaze simply lust?

When she'd lain in bed, the senior disciples had teased her — and warned her about the world's dangers. There were insane madmen called pedophiles out there, filth who lusted only after small, young children like her.

She had known something about that already, so her whole body had broken out in goosebumps.

It wasn't that no one in the gutter had ever looked at her that way.

It wasn't that no one had ever lured girls her age into their rooms with the promise of a single steamed bun.

Thanks to her unremarkable body and her thorough, near-paranoid vigilance, none of them had ever laid a hand on her — but even now, living safely in Hongseong, the memory of those gazes made her skin crawl.

But... it wasn't like that.

No. It wasn't.

His gaze was far too warm to be lust, and far too gentle to be contempt.

Replaying in her mind that gaze she had never once felt in her life, Sa Yun recalled the voice she'd heard earlier.

A father's gaze. The gaze of the family she had never had. The gaze that, back in the gutter, only that girl she'd envied so desperately had possessed.

Was it really that? Had Innkeeper Yu Wol really looked at her that way?

Sa Yun felt a corner of her chest grow slightly warm.

The huge man she'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠met in the alley. After saving him from danger, when she'd fought the unorthodox master called Hoerang Gakjun — in that moment of crisis, his shout had echoed in her head. If not for that voice, his dagger-point would have buried itself properly in her side.

She'd been too tense to notice at the time, but thinking about it now...

"It wasn't that."

The emotion in that voice — it hadn't been simple fear of her defeat, of danger to himself. It had been worry for her being hurt. Sorrow at the thought of unforeseen danger befalling her.

Remembering that warmth, directed at her and her alone, Sa Yun's breathing began to quicken.

"Huuuu..."

Without her willing it, the Hongseong Divine Art stirred. Her tension-stiffened body loosened, and a flush crept across her frost-cold face.

Right. Her face was burning like this because of the Hongseong Divine Art, which reacted to emotion. That was all.

She gave a small nod, cracked the door open, and slipped inside.

"Mmm..."

The moment she stepped in and faced the senior disciples, that warm, fluttering excitement that had tickled somewhere deep in her chest died away. She was simply far too capable at postponing her own feelings in favor of what had to be done.

So even seeing the newly arrived box, Sa Yun showed nothing but a faint smile.

"What have his letters said so far?"

"Uh... the first one just asked if I'd been eating... and the second was a single line telling me to call him 'ajussi.'"

They were letters from someone whose identity she didn't know. But whether it was the silver coins enclosed, or the fact that the contents were so trivial they defused her over-vigilance, her wariness had faded considerably after only two letters.

This letter, however, was enough to raise Hong Ryeon's guard considerably. And no wonder — on it was a map. A map of Mount Hongseong.

"Where is this?"

"Hmm... the southern mid-slope of Socheon Peak on Mount Hongseong. Looks like it's near Dragon Head Rock."

"But why would he put a map of this place in a letter...?"

"Maybe he wants to meet?"

Ryu Hyeon, who had been briefed on the situation, muttered coldly. She wasn't Hong Ryeon, but she was still a capable and righteous martial artist of the murim, having hunted evildoers, bandits, and monsters alike. It was only natural that she felt hostility toward pedophiles and anyone who toyed with people through letters.

"We'd best go and see."

"Senior sister. Didn't you say we have to leave early tomorrow?"

Ryu Hyeon asked with concern, but Hong Ryeon shook her head. Someone who had hidden his identity all this time might, for the first time, be trying to reveal it.

Especially these days, with so many strange letters arriving — provocations disguised as courtship from utterly irritating quarters, for instance. Or claims that the murim's situation had grown chaotic and that Hongseong Sect ought to come. Or requests from certain sects in the Murim Alliance that, since monsters and bandits had increased of late, they should fight together.

Letters, quite frankly infuriating, that wanted to use them had been arriving often.

And if that were all, she'd have let it pass. However weak Hongseong Sect's numbers might be, it was a strong sect, with the Sword Saint herself and the Sun-Falling Sword. Yet a letter had come, laced with insults, warning them to be careful lest they fall to a formidable enemy called the Iron Blood Dan — a provocation that didn't even bother to hide its contempt.

Things unimaginable in the old days were happening in the murim now.

So. If vigilance was possible, it was better to be as vigilant as possible.

But that was only her own thought, and Sa Yun seemed to think otherwise. So, as if to soothe Sa Yun, who stared anxiously at the letter, Hong Ryeon said, short and blunt:

"Maybe there's something dangerous there, and this is a warning. We should check it out. After all, it's from that 'ajussi' of yours."

Perhaps it was Hong Ryeon's outwardly accepting attitude toward the ajussi — a small smile crept onto Sa Yun's lips, and Hong Ryeon quietly took hold of her beloved sword, Red Sun.

Seeing it, Ryu Hyeon swallowed without meaning to. When that woman drew that sword, it meant she was committing her full strength to the matter. Ryu Hyeon tensed her body and spoke gravely.

"I'll have the other disciples stand by, just in case."

"Good. And — Sayun."

"Yes?"

"You're coming too. Just in case."

Of course, the odds that the sender would actually be there were low. After all, no time or date had been written.

But there was always the if. If that person truly was there, Sa Yun had every right to meet him — whether he was a good man or a villain.

"Understood."

Hong Ryeon ruffled the hair of Sa Yun, who nodded with a face drawn taut with nerves, easing the tension out of her. Then, once Sa Yun had toddled off, she rose from her seat.

"If this correspondent turns out to be someone mocking Hongseong, I'll make him into a shard of a star."

The carefree junior disciple's face — the one who always flushed people's cheeks with her terrible jokes — had transformed into that of the murim's high mistress, the Sun-Falling Sword, Hong Ryeon. Facing it, Ryu Hyeon clenched her fist slightly, thinking that perhaps they might need to set up a battle formation today.

She had the disciples stand by for contingencies, but not everyone needed to go. This letter itself might be a ploy to divide Hongseong's forces.

So only three moved: Hong Ryeon, Ryu Hyeon — and Sa Yun.

The destination was Mount Hongseong anyway — for them, quite literally their own front yard. Though the marked spot was somewhere they rarely went, there were any number of ways to respond should something happen.

The three moved swiftly to the location on the map.

And there, they stood speechless, staring at it in silence.

"This is... a secret realm, isn't it?"

"Yeah. It seems so."

Descending along a path hidden by wild undergrowth and tangled vines, what appeared before them was far more absurd than they had imagined.

The entrance to a vast structure, calmly radiating a crimson glow.

A secret realm. A hidden face of the world that only a chosen few — those whose cultivation had reached the heavens, whose intent had ascended to the realm of the Immortal — could ever create.

No one knew why such things were made, but the murim regarded secret realms as something quite significant.

A secret realm is a place of challenge. When a challenger overcame the trials within, they could claim rewards befitting their feat — whether an elixir that raised inner energy, or a martial art worthy of the trials, or perhaps a rare treasure charged with power no human hand could reach.

The problem was why such a secret realm was here.

"Unbelievable. The darkest place is right under the lamp — but there are limits, surely..."

Granted, this was an area even Hongseong's disciples rarely visited, and the entrance had been concealed. But how could anyone miss this?

Back in her days in the Murim Alliance, she had laughed out loud when she heard the story that a secret realm had been discovered — apparently created by Cheonil Jinin, one of the Three Great Elders of Wudang and a man who had ascended to immortality on a crane's back. I mean, how long had Wudang Sect been sitting on Mount Wudang before they found it now?

And now that very thing had happened to them.

She could only imagine how the Murim Alliance, how Wudang, would laugh if they heard of this.

She clutched her throbbing head.

"W-well, shall we go in first? We need to find out what kind of place it is..."

"Mm."

Hong Ryeon nodded slightly and reached her hand toward the entrance. At once, a dim crimson light wrapped around her hand.

"Huh?"

A faint voice. Stern, dignified, solemn. Recalling that among secret realms there were those that admitted only the qualified, Hong Ryeon answered in a low voice.

"I am one of the inspectors of the Murim Alliance's Inspection Department. The murim's fellow warriors call me the Sun-Falling Sword. I am Hong Ryeon, eldest disciple of Hongseong Sect, who wishes for the boundless advancement and glory of Hongseong."

Her answer and the crimson light moved on to Ryu Hyeon.

Flustered, Ryu Hyeon answered in much the same fashion, and the crimson light shifted once more, settling on Sa Yun.

Sa Yun pressed her lips tight. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Unlike the two before her, she had only one thing to offer as her credential.

With that, the crimson light was drawn into the secret realm.

- Gugung...

At the same moment, the stone gate that had stood firmly shut began to open. The three, startled, stumbled back — and then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, the gate uttered one final voice.

That solemn declaration was enough to plant the very same thought in all three of them at once.

The 'ajussi' who knew of a secret realm even Hongseong Sect itself had never known — he could not be simply a dangerous man after all.

And no wonder. The enemy of Hongseong would never return what Hongseong had lost.