Believing Without Knowing
Cheon-su-jinin, who had been pressing Dancheon Hak as though conducting an interrogation, set every matter aside the moment Mugeuk Jinin — his Great-Uncle — made his appearance. It was the dignity befitting the supreme elder of a sect, one might say, or the stately hierarchy of Wudang, a renowned orthodox school.
"Did you come all this way because of the incident?"
"Yes. It must be handled thoroughly."
"As expected of the Disciplinary Pavilion Head."
"Thank you."
Mugeuk Jinin smiled benevolently, as if Cheon-su-jinin's stubbornness pleased him.
"But you have made a wasted journey this time. Those three have been with me since last night, so you would do well to strike them from your list of suspects."
"But……"
"What? Do you not trust even me, your Great-Uncle?"
"A thousand times no — ten thousand times no!"
"Then all is well. Back to your labors."
It was an unmistakable command to see his guests off.
"……I shall go and see."
Cheon-su-jinin never entirely withdrew his look of suspicion, yet he could not refuse Mugeuk Jinin's word.
"Let us return."
"Yes."
With reluctance still lingering in their steps, Cheon-su-jinin and the Disciplinary Pavilion's inspectors withdrew from Nogun-dang.
Leaving the departing Cheon-su-jinin behind me, I turned my gaze upon Mugeuk Jinin. A master of the Sword Emperor's caliber could hardly have failed to know that my brothers and I had returned to the hermitage only in the morning. For I knew for certain that he had already been here when I led my brothers back to the Sword Emperor's hermitage.
Why in the world……
Why he had acted as he did was beyond my understanding.
In the murim of the jianghu — in the renowned orthodox sects above all — generational seniority was an omnipotent force, an authority one might call the sect's heirloom blade. Which is to say, the power by which even Taecheong Jinin, sect leader of the Hyeonja generation, could be taken to task lay, one would do well to see, not in the Sword Emperor's martial arts but in his standing as an elder of the Muja generation.
To liken it to a great house: the family head, a warrior in his prime, holds absolute power — yet should the Patriarch Emeritus, his martial skill long faded, come calling, the family head still bows his head. It is the same principle. For a son to rebuke his own father on the strength of superior martial arts would be nothing short of familial impiety; expressed in the terms of a sect, it would be the cardinal sin of betraying one's master and forsaking one's ancestors.
Such is the order of seniority — elder before younger — a law that has governed the mortal world through the long ages. And so, plaque of Disciplinary Pavilion Head or no, Cheon-su-jinin could not stand against Mugeuk Jinin. Not merely one generation his senior, but a full two above him. The Disciplinary Pavilion Head could hardly commit with his own hands the very sin of betraying master and ancestors that the Daoist sects punish most severely.
In any case, with Mugeuk Jinin having shielded us, I judged us safe for the time being. Until solid evidence or a clear eyewitness account was secured, pursuing or arresting us had become impossible — for the dignity of the sect's supreme elder could not be defiled.
And that was precisely why the question gnawed at me all the more. The exalted ones of the elder generations knew the power their station carried, and as a rule they never meddled in worldly affairs. Yet the Sword Emperor had not shielded us on the basis of fact — he had gone so far as to speak falsehoods to pull us out of hardship — and I could not begin to fathom why.
"Elder Sword Emperor."
"Why do you call?"
"Why did you do it?"
"What do you mean?"
Mugeuk Jinin wore a wry smile and played the sly old fox.
As I always say, when dealing with one's superiors, the frontal assault is the finest breakthrough there is.
"I mean the lie you told Cheon-su-jinin."
"Goodness me."
At my blunt words, Mugeuk Jinin feigned astonishment.
"What is the meaning of this? I thought you had all been here through the night — did you not?"
"……But you do not know that, do you."
"Oh dear. Then I must inform that Cheon-su fellow of the truth at once."
Mugeuk Jinin made a show of setting off in pursuit of Cheon-su-jinin, but I did not stir so much as a finger.
"Boo. You truly are no fun at all."
Mugeuk Jinin, huffing to himself, met my gaze.
"Myeong."
"Yes."
"Did you steal the Taecheong-dan?"
"No."
"Then did those pups steal it?"
"That is not so either."
It was the truth, without an inch of falsehood, and so required no practiced art of lying.
"Then all is well."
So saying, the Sword Emperor turned away with a hearty laugh — and I had no choice but to ask again. If a reason must be given, it was because some fragment of an inexplicable feeling kept prodding at my mind.
"That is the end of it?"
"What more could be needed?"
"Could you not have pressed the matter further?"
The laughing Sword Emperor turned back around. The wry smile and the slyness fell away, and the dignity of a grandmaster settled over Mugeuk Jinin's youthful face.
"I did it because I trust you. If it is certain that you did not steal it, what need is there to wrangle right and wrong with the pups of the Disciplinary Pavilion?"
My expression must still have been puzzled, for he imparted another teaching to me.
"Have I not told you? To believe only after seeing, only after knowing — that is not right. That is merely knowing."
Whether it was the vertigo stirred by the Sword Emperor's koan of an answer, even the rigid Dancheon Hak and Brother Chun-baek had at some point begun listening to his words with care.
"I do not know you fully. One may fathom ten fathoms of water, yet not a single fathom of the human heart — such is truth. I do not commit the arrogance of claiming to see through men's inmost hearts merely because I have lived long."
His words held true. To know a person completely is impossible. And so to trust completely is difficult — calling it impossible would not be far wrong. Was it not for that very reason that, even as I strove to trust Brother Chun-baek fully, I still found myself reading his moods from time to time?
Regardless of my own impressions, the Sword Emperor continued.
"But I believe that you are children who would not do such a thing. If that belief proves wrong, then it is not you who deceived me — it is my own eye that failed."
"That is all?"
"I wished to trust you, and so I trust — that is right. For that is my conviction itself."
In that instant, the Sword Emperor's words reached me like a mantra of truth, bearing fragments of enlightenment. At the same time, the clues I had overlooked meshed together like the teeth of gears.
— Astonishing enough to make ghosts weep.
A murmur from my brother Dancheon Hak.
— To believe in what cannot be seen, in what is not known — that is conviction itself.
Mugeuk Jinin's teaching, when he explained the Yeongseong Gamgakdo in words.
— Heh heh heh. Beginner's luck, that is.
His infuriating snicker.
— Fortunately, you possess the experience of the Yeongseong Gamgakdo, so from here on you must advance on your own.
The final teaching the Sword Emperor had bestowed upon me.
And……
The uncanny sense of wrongness I had felt while keeping watch over Yeongeun-gung.
……So that was it.
The scattered fragments of information slotted together, and a completed picture took shape. One might call it the moment of purest euphoria for a seasoned information broker. Perhaps, at this very moment, I had seized the fragment of the Yeongseong Gamgakdo that had utterly eluded my understanding.
In truth, the situation before me was, by any measure, a crisis of the gravest kind. Not because I might be taken for the thief of the Taecheong-dan — but because I had been placed where obtaining it had become nearly impossible. For unless I unraveled this uncanny phenomenon called the Shadowless Divine Theft and recovered the Taecheong-dan, the odds of it ever reaching my hands converged upon zero.
The Five Great Murim Pills — a name that commands awe. It meant the hidden treasures and prized possessions of the murim. Pills of heaven-granted efficacy, so scarce even in number that scarcity itself had earned them that station. And with even the existing stock stolen, no way through appeared at all.
Had it merely been a matter of failing to obtain a treasure called the Taecheong-dan, I could have lamented and left it at that. The gravest problem was that no substitute existed. For my goal was the sixth step of the Yakseon Heart Decision — Pyeongcheonha.
— Only by taking all Five Great Murim Pills can one reach Pyeongcheonha.
The elixirs I had taken through the Yakseon Heart Decision on the road thus far were the Empty Blue Stone Milk, the Vermilion Fruit, the Ten-Thousand-Year Fleeceflower Root, the Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, and the Ten-Thousand-Year Supreme Blood Treasure. Each was a spiritual elixir worthy of the names peerless and supreme — and only with all Five Great Murim Pills could the harmony of nature and artifice be achieved. Only, and all.
If there was any mercy in it, the Blue Phosphor Liquid had been absorbed through my skin and so stood exempt from the requirements of harmony. Had it not been, the path to the sixth step of the Yakseon Heart Decision might have remained out of reach until a sixth Great Murim Pill came into being.
In any case…… I had to push through the crisis of every step I had taken collapsing for want of the Taecheong-dan. Fortunately, the enlightenment of moments ago seemed to have shown me the way.
"Elder Sword Emperor."
"What now? Again?"
At first, perhaps because of the honorific Elder, Mugeuk Jinin had been delighted each time I called upon him — but repeated often enough, even that had apparently grown tiresome.
"I must go and see Cheon-su-jinin."
"Do the pangs of conscience bite? So long as you did not steal it, all is well. Whether you were here through the night or not is hardly a matter of importance."
Even Mugeuk Jinin, who seemed to know everything, had things he did not know — and so it was right to tell him.
"No."
"Oh?"
Only then did Mugeuk Jinin seem to notice the confidence settled upon my face.
"The Taecheong-dan — I may be able to find it."
They say there is no such thing as a perfect crime in this world — and the Shadowless Divine Theft would be unraveled by me.
"May I watch as well?"
The ancient youth, as though a long-frozen curiosity had finally thawed, made no effort to hide the interest suffusing his face.
"Yes — though I will need a little help from you, Elder."
"It is the sect's affair, so it is right that I step forward."
With the Sword Emperor's authority at my back, I could count on everything going smoothly.
I do not care for authority and hierarchy — yet I know that at times they are necessary.
"Cheon-su."
"Yes, Great-Uncle."
When Mugeuk Jinin graced the man with his presence and called for the Disciplinary Pavilion Head, Cheon-su-jinin came hastening at once. Summoning in a single call one of the busiest men in the current situation — Cheon-su-jinin of the Disciplinary Pavilion — required authority, and so accompanying Mugeuk Jinin had been a truly efficient choice.
"So this fellow has something to say."
"The Dancheon Divine Dragon?"
"So I am told."
Cheon-su-jinin's gaze turned to me. Inevitably, displeasure seeped across his face. Seeing that even a Daoist who had cultivated his spirit to the utmost clarity could not easily mask his own expression, one understood how difficult the discipline of the heart truly was.
"Sorry to call you out amid your labors."
In truth, through Cheon-su-jinin's eyes my conduct just now must have looked like a fox borrowing the might of a tiger — and so it was right not to bear him any grudge for it.
Cheon-su-jinin was a busy man, and went straight to the point.
"I believe I know the whereabouts of the Taecheong-dan."
The moment my words ended, Cheon-su-jinin's eyes flashed. I surmised it was because he had heard such a claim while his suspicions of me and my brothers remained unresolved.
"Where is it?"
"Ah — I should correct myself. If we go to Yeongeun-gung, I believe I can trace it."
Breaching that procedure would require the approval of the one in charge.
"Even Wudang's tracking arts found no trace whatsoever. There is nothing in Yeongeun-gung."
"I have a method."
In truth, I knew it was an argument little better than whining. I also knew it risked being taken for a slight upon Wudang's capabilities. But this was a realm that could not be explained in words — there was no other way.
Just as I had guessed, Cheon-su-jinin's expression hardened fearsomely. Stern of countenance even at the best of times, he took on such fury that he brought a fierce tiger to mind. Had I in truth been spouting nonsense, my gall would have turned to ice and I would have confessed everything — but I was speaking the truth now, and so I could not be shaken. I simply met Cheon-su-jinin's gaze, bold and unflinching.
"Cheon-su."
Mugeuk Jinin called to him once more.
"Yes, Great-Uncle."
"If you cannot bring yourself to trust Myeong, then trust me."
"……"
"Let us go and have a look at Yeongeun-gung."
"……Yes."
Cheon-su-jinin could not refuse Mugeuk Jinin's word.
I say it again: I despise authority and hierarchy. But I could not deny that the thought this is rather convenient kept creeping in all the same.