Those Who Meet Must Part
The martial forces of Shanxi, knowing full well that the Murim Alliance's foremost dignitary—Alliance Leader Yeom Gi-ha—was present among them, conducted themselves with discipline and remarkable alacrity.
"Just a little more, everyone. Push harder."
"Yes, sir!"
Add Paeng Ga-heon's superb leadership to that, and the Shanxi warriors displayed a fleetness of movement that put one in mind of shifting forms and trading places at will.
One look at that, and there was no mistaking it. The Reckless Blade Paeng Ga-heon was not wielding his subordinates through the power of his office. He was, plainly and simply, seizing and commanding the martial forces of Shanxi on the strength of his own ability alone. It would be hard to call the Alliance's branch chief of a single city a "mere" post, but I could tell that Paeng Ga-heon was a vessel too large to remain a branch chief of Shanxi.
"Those would be the fully-formed ginseng kings. This way, if you please."
"Yes, sir!"
"Ginseng varieties to the right. Herb varieties to the left, and fruit varieties over here. Should you come across any liquid essences, do not touch them—the Medical Hall members will collect those. Anything you cannot classify, bring it straight to me without delay."
"Yes, sir!"
"And this one?"
"Ah, that's a common weed. Put it back where you found it."
"Yes, sir!"
With Uisaeng-gae—a physician possessed of encyclopedic knowledge of elixirs and medicinal herbs—joining the effort, the sorting too was done in a flash. It was knowledge that allowed no comparison with Myeong-gae's, who had studied herbs and elixirs merely as an extension of intelligence work; calling the Medical Hall Head to Hwanragwon had, indeed, been an excellent choice.
"You beggar bastards! If you'd rather not go hungry for three days straight, move those feet faster!"
"Eek!"
"You there, dragging your feet? Did you learn the Eight Drunken Immortals Steps for nothing?"
"Eek!"
With Musan-gae thrown into the mix—his mouth never still as he hounded the beggars on—the beggars of the gang kept pace with the Shanxi warriors without falling behind. I had lived ten years as Myeong-gae, but never before had I seen beggars move with such nimbleness. Fitting for the chief of all beggar-kind—one would be right to call Sect Leader Musan-gae's art of commanding beggars exceptional.
The perfect union, each individual's effort heaped upon it, drove the work forward at an exponential clip; the securing of Hwanragwon, for which I had allotted seven days and nights, took a mere two. Which is to say, the figures gathered here were giants who stepped lightly over anything my expectations could predict.
"Safe travels."
The completion of the work meant, as ever, that parting drew near.
"I've yet to repay my debt to you in full, so we'll be meeting again before long."
"The Chwigu-hwan settled that debt long ago."
Truth be told, even having obtained the Chwigu-hwan through Chwipung-gae, I stood with no face to show. For I have yet to repay, in full, the grace Myeong-gae received from him.
Caring nothing for what lay in my heart, Chwipung-gae pushed out his lips in a pout.
"Who was it that gathered the materials, hmm?"
"The Chwigu-hwan is not something obtained by materials alone."
"You rascal—whether the debt remains or not is for me to decide."
Chwipung-gae dug in his heels...
"Suit yourself."
And I embraced that stubbornness gladly. Truth be told, I had no wish for my bond with Chwipung-gae to end here, either. And that "you rascal" he tacked onto the end of his words—why, it warmed me somehow.
"It's for a brother, so I'll make it with all the care I have."
Uisaeng-gae, calling me—now an honorary fifth-knot member of the gang—brother, burned bright with zeal.
Brother.
That the true beggars could call me so again gladdened me as well. Unlike when Jao-gae of Shanxi had called me brother, this time I had truly become one again.
"The Chwigu-hwan is no simple thing to make, so it will take some time."
Uisaeng-gae added that it would take better than a year. I had guessed that the art of refinement demanded more than ingredients alone, but the process was plainly harder still than I had imagined.
"When it is done I will send word myself, so come by Kaifeng then."
"Understood."
Musan-gae cut in.
"Before that, too—if there's business, I'll call for you. Will you come?"
"Now that I'm a member of the Beggars' Gang, it would only be right to follow the Sect Leader's orders."
"A proper beggar at last."
"I'm no beggar, though."
"The verdict is already in that you're beggar-like, so a beggar you are."
With that, Musan-gae flashed a sly grin. He did not look disposed to hear arguments.
"Until next time."
Whoosh—
Leaving those words behind him, Musan-gae shot away into the distance on his lightness skill. To understand completely, and live by, the natural order—that those who meet must part, and those who part will meet again—that was the life of a Beggars' Gang member; perhaps they resembled the eminent monks of Buddhism more than anyone. Chwipung-gae and Uisaeng-gae, meeting my eyes with a nod, followed straight after him. We would meet again, so there was nothing to mourn.
"Thank you."
Yeom Gi-ha, who had kept to my side, said it bluntly. Somehow it felt as though the words 'for keeping me from being killed by Singija' had been left unsaid before it, but I played ignorant.
"I'm hardly your heir, Alliance Leader."
"Kwahahaha!"
At that, Alliance Leader Yeom Gi-ha could only laugh, loud and hearty.
"My thanks for your help."
I did not forget to offer my thanks to Shanxi Branch Chief Paeng Ga-heon, either. For I knew full well that it was the Alliance's Shanxi warriors who had seen to most of the hard labor.
"It seems I've no more need to nag you."
Softness seeped into Paeng Ga-heon's gaze, once so upright and unyielding.
"I'm still young enough to need a senior's guidance."
"And I'm only glad to be called senior."
Unlike at our first meeting over the Black Water Gate affair, Paeng Ga-heon seemed now to look upon me as a martial artist, full and whole.
"Drop by the Alliance sometime."
"I shall."
Yeom Gi-ha left those same words as ever, and was gone.
"Aw c'mon, don't go off by yourself!"
Paeng Ga-heon hurried after the Alliance Leader. Just as at the first, Chun-baek and I were left alone.
"Quite the whirlwind, that was."
"You've worked hard."
"Being around you, there never seems to be a dull moment."
"I'm sorry for that."
"Don't be. Thanks to you, I've had a rare experience."
Brother Chun-baek seemed to mean it from the heart. An unwavering man—and so, unwaveringly, I was grateful. The herb-seeker's journey at his side had been a joy; I knew it was a feeling I could never have known alone.
"Will this one do?"
Brother Chun-baek asked, nodding at the elixir in his hand.
It was an elixir called the Five-Leaf Immortal Orchid, one I had picked out for him. It was unquestionably a treasure worthy of the name elixir, and yet it fell a little short of being the finest thing in this Hwanragwon.
"What would be good for an old man?"
"In what sense?"
"Anything will do. Immortality off a single elixir is asking too much—if it slows the aging a little, or replenishes an old man's vigor, that's plenty. Hmm... I'd rather it not go so far as making me young again."
"The Vermilion Fruit doesn't grow here, so an Immortal Orchid would serve best."
It had come to this only because Brother Chun-baek had asked. The small mercy was that an Immortal Orchid one would struggle to find even with three leaves existed here bearing five. That, too, was the grandeur of Hwanragwon.
"There could be no finer gift for my master."
"I'm glad it pleases you."
Brother Chun-baek was right. Truth be told, most elixirs show little effect on a martial artist whose spirit has blossomed. For a master of the Harmony Realm or beyond with a blossomed spirit, an elixir is no different from the herbs one could buy at any herbalist's shop. Having reached the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, one lacks for nothing in internal energy, and one's spirit has long since bloomed. Elixirs like the Empty Blue Stone Milk or the Vermilion Fruit, which draw in all the surrounding earth-qi and heaven's bounty, would be another matter—but no such peerless elixir grows in Hwanragwon. It is, after all, a land of clustered growth.
"My master will like it, won't he?"
"What gift from a disciple wouldn't please him?"
"I should hope so."
Brother Chun-baek's master, true to his standing as an inheritor of the Mystic Sect's line, has never made his existence known to the world—but I know him to be a martial artist whose achievements rival the Ten Great Masters Under Heaven. The Five-Leaf Immortal Orchid was simply the warmth of Brother Chun-baek's heart, turned toward his master. Better to see it as what it was: a disciple's admirable devotion, wishing for his master's health. A man who does not chase needless greed for possessions—one ought to call a man like Brother Chun-baek the very vessel of a true gentleman.
"Take this as well."
I handed a second gift to Brother Chun-baek, who was content with a single Five-Leaf Immortal Orchid.
"What's this?"
"Cheonyeong-ji."
"A gift?"
"A bribe."
"Much obliged."
Truth be told, I knew the cheonyeong-ji was something neither Brother Chun-baek nor his master needed. But Brother Chun-baek tucked it away into his robe without protest. He had accepted my sincerity, then.
After our return to the Dancheon Clan, time had flown like an arrow, and before I knew it the season had turned to the summer solstice. A little over three months had passed.
"Brother Chun-baek, how would you feel about staying on at the Dancheon Clan?"
"A wanderer's life has its own poetry, but if you're offering, that doesn't sound bad either."
At my urging, Brother Chun-baek came to reside in the Dancheon Sword Clan as a retainer-guest. Now an official retainer-guest, he was given not my quarters as before, but a pavilion reserved for retainer-guests, complete with its own private training yard. For reference, a private training yard included meant it ranked among the very finest of the guest halls the Dancheon Sword Clan kept.
"Are you certain such a fine place should go to me? Something small would suit me fine."
"You are a benefactor of this family, Brother Chun-baek, and the Clan Head asked that you please not refuse."
The Clan Head remembered that Brother Chun-baek had drawn his sword for the family in the recent upheaval. Truth be told, even setting aside the debt owed him, a man of his standing would have been given a high-grade guest hall regardless. The prestige of a great clan rests on its ties with retainer-guests as much as on its strength within. A master of the Harmony Realm is a personage even the Five Great Clans of the world would vie to retain with the utmost courtesy—where in the Dancheon Clan would there be any reason to slight a man of that caliber?
They say still water rots. And so, for the sake of steady growth, keeping up constant exchange with martial artists from outside is one of the standing duties of every great clan. Which is why the clans invite outside martial artists in as retainer-guests. And often it does not stop at simple exchange: a retainer-guest becoming a sworn retainer, and a sworn retainer putting down roots over the years and entering the Council of Elders—such things are far from rare in the Jianghu.
Of course, we could not fold Brother Chun-baek—an inheritor of the Mystic Sect's line—into the Dancheon Clan's bosom, but even so, the fact that a Harmony Realm master had consented to become our retainer-guest was encouragement enough. It meant he had, of his own accord, chosen to become a friendly power of our family. All the more so if he was a man destined to one day bear a king's epithet. In any case, for me too, to have a fitting sparring partner and conversational companion residing in the family—nothing could be better.
"Young Master, it is time."
While I was passing the hours with Brother Chun-baek as on any other day, one of the household retainers came looking for me. A man named Jang San—a familiar face who had once followed my brother Dancheon Hak's orders, and once drawn his blade against me. With him addressing me in such extreme deference, my changed standing struck me anew.
"I'll be along shortly."
"Yes, Young Master."
"Thank you for looking after me."
"It's nothing."
Jang San bowed crisply and withdrew. My gaze turned back to Brother Chun-baek.
"Will you come along?"
"On a day like today, a guest would only be in the way."
"Mm."
Brother Chun-baek was right, so I did not press. Still, that did not stop me from offering a word of caution as I rose.
"Don't go hungry."
"I've gathered enough years to feed myself."
"Don't just gather years—gather meals too."
"Easier said than done."
A fact I had never known: it seems that as affection deepens, nagging multiplies. Perhaps that was why Chwipung-gae had nagged me so relentlessly.
"I'll see to my own meals, so off you go."
As if to say hurry along, Brother Chun-baek waved me off with a flutter of his hand.