No Room for Regrets

I had been deliberating. Should I hand a single drop of the Empty Blue Stone Milk over to Uncle Yeo-baek? If I did, wouldn't that put him on my side?

He was already a martial artist who had reached the Harmony Realm, so I couldn't begin to guess how much use the milk would even be to him — but where elixirs were concerned, more was always better, wasn't it?

And who was to say? Perhaps the Empty Blue Stone Milk would lift his realm, stalled as it was in the Harmony Realm, one step higher still.

That deliberation had continued, unbroken, from the moment I regressed and obtained the Empty Blue Stone Milk right up until now —

— until Uncle Yeo-baek fixed me with a grave expression and asked, "Why is it that you want to become Clan Head?"

"Hmm."

I deliberated. What answer would serve?

To become the Murim Alliance's Leader? Or to prevent the Great War of Righteousness and Evil? I'd count myself lucky to escape with nothing worse than a scolding for spouting nonsense.

For the first time since my regression, I looked squarely into the deepest part of myself.

The urge to cast off, loudly and for all to see, the scorn I'd endured here as a bastard? If I claimed I felt none of it, I'd be lying.

There was the wish, too, to wall off that hollow desolation I'd felt the day I heard the Dancheon Clan had been destroyed. In my past life I had walked away from the clan without a backward glance — and maybe because of it, a blank space had always sat in the middle of my heart.

Born a son, there was the desire to reach the success as I myself defined it. Had I not prepared for my regression with precisely that ferocity?

And. And yet more.

A tangle of countless thoughts drifted through me. And then, strangely enough, every one of those reasons settled into a single sentence.

Perhaps that, in the end, was the very reason I had regressed at all.

Uncle Yeo-baek, who had heard me out in silence, nodded. "That'll do."

As if I had just cleared some great trial, the tension drained out of me. Apparently my reaction amused him, for he added one more remark. "You're better than Young Master Hak, at least."

Now I understood. I understood that all my agonizing over whether or not to give him the Empty Blue Stone Milk had meant nothing at all.

Because I had learned, through butting heads with him firsthand, that Bang Yeo-baek was not the sort of man to be dazzled by a trifle like the Empty Blue Stone Milk into pushing me toward the seat of Clan Head. And precisely because his heart could never be bought with something as cheap as an elixir, winning that heart would be worth all the more.

"Thank you."

Before I knew it, I was bowing to him.

"I'll be counting on you from here on, Young Master Myeong."

Of course, once my footing stood firm and our bond had deepened further, I would gift him a drop of the Empty Blue Stone Milk — all to make the clan I was building that much sturdier.

I knew that a clan did not become the Number One Clan Under Heaven simply by housing the Number One Under Heaven. A clan, after all, was something its people built together.

'Uncle. Just how close have we grown?'

I asked it with my eyes alone. Naturally, no answer came.

"I've come to see the Clan Head."

A woman's voice — Baek Yeo-hae's, sharp as an awl — rang out at the entrance of the Clan Head's Hall.

Half-afraid she might start sounding the alarm gong herself, a servant scrambled to answer. "He is within."

Before he had even finished, she swept past him and flung open the hall's doors.

"Husband!"

Baek Yeo-hae called out to Dancheon Gang without so much as a preamble.

At his quiet flick of the eyes, the servants melted soundlessly away.

"What unseemly display is this?"

Dancheon Gang rebuked her in a low voice. Husband and wife they might be in private, but carrying on like this before every servant in the hall was plainly her fault.

But the Baek Yeo-hae of this moment was in no condition to hear reason.

"Myeong is to enter the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly alongside Hak?"

She simply thrust her grievance at him, straight and unvarnished.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Is it true, or is it not?!"

Just as Dancheon Gang opened his mouth, the answer arrived from somewhere else entirely.

"Yes. I recommended him."

Bang Yeo-baek, who had taken his place there at some point, answered in his stead.

"Captain Bang......."

His unexpected appearance sharpened her expression another degree fiercer. That he of all people was backing Dancheon Myeong must have twisted something deep in her chest.

Why, at that very moment, that brazen woman Yang Su-rin should surface in my mind — I couldn't begin to say.

"So this is your will, is it?"

In any case, Baek Yeo-hae now found herself, for the first time in a long while, forced into this prickly exchange with the person she despised most in the entire clan. Such was the resolve of a mother of sons.

"Enough. Desist."

Dancheon Gang tried to soothe her with a mild voice, but she would not be soothed.

"Captain Bang. I asked whether this was your will. Are you unable to give me a straight answer?"

Just as Bang Yeo-baek parted his lips—

Kukung.

A savage power woke inside the Clan Head's Hall. It was sharp and overwhelming, the kind of energy that seemed it would flay the skin at a mere brush — potent enough that even Baek Yeo-hae, who had never trained a single day in the martial arts, felt it against her own flesh.

"I told you to desist."

Dancheon Gang, standing at the very heart of that power, commanded in a voice cold as frost, every inch the Clan Head.

"You......."

Baek Yeo-hae's eyes went wide. It was the first time since their marriage that he had raised his voice to her — and ever since Dancheon Myeong had been entered into the family register under her name, he had been the sort to concede a move even over the pettiest quarrel.

"I will permit ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no further mention of this matter. It is decided."

Having rendered his verdict, Dancheon Gang ordered the hall cleared.

The day's business, in the end, would have to be judged Baek Yeo-hae's blunder. For within the clan, word that the Escort Guard stood behind the second son, Dancheon Myeong, had just begun to seep quietly outward.

The same day. The same clan. The same point of departure — and yet the two brothers could not have set out looking more different.

"Young Master, may you travel well and return in good health."

"Haha. Just leave it all to me. I shall return with the family's honor raised high."

Baek Yeo-hae, the elders, and the household servants crowded around the eldest son, Dancheon Hak, for his send-off. Several warriors seconded to the Council of Elders were making ready to escort him all the way to Dengfeng County in Henan Province, where the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly was to be held. It was, in every particular, a retinue worthy of a great clan's name.

And beside all that pageantry, I stood rooted in place. Alone, that is.

The very picture of dramatic contrast.

Perhaps my situation tugged at their pity, for a few of the servants kept stealing glances my way — yet none, it seemed, could quite bring themselves to approach me, cowed as they were by Baek Yeo-hae's frost-like orders.

I pretended otherwise, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠but my mood was not good. Were it not for the Clan Head's command, I would have flitted off long ago and spared myself the wretched sight.

As for what my father was thinking — I understood it, and I didn't.

Just then, I sensed someone drawing near. I turned my head to find a familiar figure.

"You're late."

One of the very few souls in this clan who could afford to ignore Baek Yeo-hae's moods — Bang Yeo-baek, Captain of the Dancheon Clan's Escort Guard, and my own dear uncle.

At the sight of him, a laugh escaped me unbidden.

"You've come to see me off as well?"

"Well now. Surely a master can be permitted to watch his disciple set out on the road."

It was the first time he had ever called me that. As one learning the martial arts at his side, that perfectly unremarkable phrase landed somewhere deep in my chest.

Bang Yeo-baek's gaze drifted toward my brother's crowd. Far ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠more people were gathered over there, yet every last one of them was sneaking glances at me and Uncle Yeo-baek. Most satisfying of all was Dancheon Hak's face — which had been all blooming color only moments before — stiffening in the strangest way.

"Wouldn't Young Master Myeong like a few attendants of his own? I could attach some of my men to you."

I knew that with Bang Yeo-baek's influence, assigning me a few escorts would cost him nothing at all. But I shook my head.

"I'll go alone. Wouldn't that be its own education?"

"Truly, you're better than Young Master Hak."

My words weren't offered merely to win Uncle Yeo-baek's favor. There were things on the road to Henan that I needed to gather unseen — and traveling alone was simply more convenient.

Unfortunately, someone had been eavesdropping on our little exchange.

"Captain Bang. And what, exactly, did you just say?"

Baek Yeo-hae's voice cut through the air, sharp as a blade.

Just as the atmosphere threatened to turn murderous, Clan Head Dancheon Gang appeared with flawless timing. His presence alone brought silence down over the clamorous training ground of the Dancheon Clan. Even Baek Yeo-hae, resentment written across her face, held her tongue — duty before the Clan Head brooked no exceptions.

Dancheon Gang's indifferent gaze swept slowly over the whole of us. It settled on Dancheon Hak, then came to me. Passed across the elders, then came to rest on Uncle Yeo-baek.

And then, one line.

"Travel well. Return in good health."

That was all.

The Clan Head turned away as though pressed by urgent business and was gone.

I thought I understood a little of my father's intent now. I was not, in truth, alone.

"Then I'll be on my way."

Unfurling my lightness skill, I shot away down the road. Dancheon Hak and his crowd could only watch dumbly from behind. And the image of Uncle Yeo-baek quietly raising a hand to wave stayed with me a long while.

In my days as Myeong-gae, there had been a stretch of better than five full years devoted to nothing but information on elixirs. Whether now or back then — nay, I daresay across all of history — I was confident that no one had memorized more of the elixirs' natural habitats than I. After all, no one else bothers committing to memory where an elixir already harvested once grew.

"It should be around here......."

I studied a slope dense with shrubs but none too tall — for all the world like the wooded hill at the edge of any village.

"Oh — there it is!"

My memory had been right on the mark. A little digging, and the fellow revealed its lustrous form.

Well — nothing so very extraordinary, truth be told. To the me of today, this thing was barely worth calling more than a nourishing snack.

But I knew full well that not everyone could say the same. Sold, a single root like this would fetch enough silver to keep a family fed in plenty for a year, with coin to spare.

Common sense held that elixirs grew only in wilds far from human footsteps, yet this one had turned up practically on the town's doorstep — which, as I recalled, had set tongues wagging for a good long while. Supposedly every soul in that village spent those days tramping about with hoes and shovels in hand.

The feuds this Hundred-Year He Shou Wu provoked had cost more than a few residents of that quiet village their lives. So no — I felt not one shred of guilt about intercepting it. If anything, you might call it a good deed; one that would save a life or two down the road.

Pat, pat. I knocked the worst of the soil from the root.

Crunch. I bit straight into the Hundred-Year He Shou Wu. Its taste — dense and bittersweet, yet startlingly cool — was that of a fine medicinal herb, and quite memorable.

It was near-common knowledge that consuming an elixir demanded caution; even a humble hundred-year He Shou Wu was no exception. But to one who had entered the Yakseon Heart Decision, such warnings meant nothing. Having stepped into this stage, the only things I still needed to take with care were elixirs surpassing the Empty Blue Stone Milk itself — and those of potency equal to or beyond it could be counted on one hand.

Incidentally, I had also laid plans to get my hands on one such treasure before reaching Dengfeng County in Henan Province, where the Dragon and Phoenix Assembly awaited. I would need to enter the third stage soon enough, after all.

"Let's see...... this time, it's that one's turn, I believe."

I dredged up the intelligence I had crammed into my skull back in my Myeong-gae days. With senses and memory as sharp as mine, the process was hardly a struggle.

Somewhere near here lay one of the sites marked by Jang Bo-do.

My gaze dropped to my hip. The iron sword hung there — a standard-issue weapon doled out by the clan. Not a bad blade, admittedly, but calling it good would have been a stretch. That sort of fellow.

"Might as well trade up for a better one while I'm at it, no?"

Was there not a saying that a master calligrapher is never choosy about his brush — because anyone worthy of being called a master already owns a superb one? By the same token, one of the cardinal virtues of a great swordsman was to carry a great sword at his side.

Today, then, I would take one more step toward becoming a great swordsman.