79. Temporary Residence (4)
Temporary Residence (4)
79. Temporary Residence (4)
At last, Yeongsan Sect's morning routine began to resemble that of a true martial sect. The women needed me to keep the spirit vessels within my sight while they trained, so during morning practice I merely had to surrender my body to the Flame Emperor and watch over them. He sat in full lotus and circulated qi at an absurd speed. He explained that even when cultivating internal energy normally, the early gains came quickly but progress slowed the further one advanced. Still, he was accumulating an outrageous amount at a ridiculous pace, so I wasn't worried.
Master and Jeong-hyang slowly traced the Taiji with the Taiji Wisdom Sword. I had learned only the Force-Transforming Taiji portion, but their complete art combined defense with the fierce attacks expected of Wudang's finest swordsmanship, driving a powerful strike into any opening created by the opponent's collapse. The problem was that there was only one Heosan and two students. While Master trained, Hwangseong taught Jeong-hyang Daoist learning; while Jeong-hyang trained, Master studied instead. Unlike Master, however, Jeong-hyang showed little interest in Daoist learning.
Geo Am finally began transmitting the Vajra Art. This too, like the Shennong Art, was a unique essence of martial study. A martial art that suited Geo Am: after making the body like diamond, you simply pummeled your opponent. Actually, Geo Am also possessed the Mount Tai Strike, the heaviest and most destructive of the Four Heroes' techniques, but perhaps because he intended to teach Cho-ryeong only the Vajra Art, there was no sign of her picking up a sword. Even his reason was ridiculous. Geo Am said it was because calluses would form on those tiny, fern-like hands. Absurd, but I agreed as well. For Lee Eun-ha or Cho-ryeong, so long as they could protect themselves, that was good enough. When it came to drawing blood, Son Yeong and I would handle it for them.
Lee Eun-ha's martial instruction ended in less than five minutes. She brought out brush, ink, paper, and inkstone and diligently transcribed the pharmacology Medicine Immortal dictated. Soon I would need to send our convenient deliverymen from the White Tiger Sect to have a medicine cauldron made. The undisputed centerpiece was naturally Yeongsan Sect's future, Son Yeong. At night she refined internal energy, and by day she trained her bewildering sword art. A genius had met a peerless supreme technique. Her Moonlit Divine Sword, containing four variations in the space of a single second, already embroidered the training ground brilliantly.
And perhaps the truly impressive ones were not our Yeongsan Sect but those White Tiger Sect bastards. To prevent the unfortunate incident of other sects spying on our training, and to come and go freely from Yeongsan Sect, they had gone and set up an indoor training hall as large as a gymnasium. Thanks to them, we could now train our martial arts in a comfortable environment whether it rained or snowed.
The morning training ended. In place of lunch, it was teatime with light snacks and fine black tea. Royal tteokbokki, they called it. Given that "royal" was attached to the name, it seemed like a dish from the past, but had tteokbokki truly existed in this era as well?
"It's a dish Medicine Immortal taught me," Lee Eun-ha said proudly.
"It's delicious, Senior Sister Lee," Cho-ryeong said, living up to her childish palate, the one who liked it most of all.
"I find it tasty too, but next time, could you make it spicy with gochujang?"
"Spicy? Rice cakes pair well with sweet flavors like honey or grain syrup. Would that really be all right?"
Neither Medicine Immortal nor Lee Eun-ha knew twenty-first-century tteokbokki. At the next opportunity, I would show them that I could at least manage basic cooking.
"Oh my! Yet another new dish!"
Ban Ho-jeong had now practically become a half-member of Yeongsan Sect.
"Please, have a seat, Vice Sect Leader."
"Oh, Sect Leader. Please just call me your younger sister."
"Vice Sect Leader. You're older than me, you know..."
"What does age matter in the martial world? Even our Sect Leader Byeok calls Reverend Yeongmok hyung."
She spoke amicably as she took a seat and casually picked up her chopsticks.
"Oh my! This is so delicious! Shall we serve this at Yeongsan Lodge as well? Ah, yes. Steward. Here are yesterday's earnings."
Ban Ho-jeong handed a small silk pouch to Lee Eun-ha. Lee Eun-ha accepted the pouch, checked its contents, and smiled brightly.
"I am not a steward. Lee Eun-ha is sufficient."
"How could I dare address the one who feeds us so casually? Ah, and Reverend Yeongmok. Hall Master Cheonghwa has come calling again. It seems he's brought fine liquor with him, so please meet with him once."
"I needed to meet him anyway. I also have a favor to ask. Build the Great Clarity Palace and a medicine hall according to these plans. Two taels of gold should be enough, yes?"
"I can keep what's left over, right? I'll make it clean and tidy. But a medicine hall—did you find a physician?"
As expected, the White Tiger Sect's swift acceptance of commissions pleased me.
"Steward Lee here has agreed to take charge."
"Steward Lee is knowledgeable in medicine as well?" Ban Ho-jeong asked in surprise.
"That's right. I'm telling you because it's you, but in truth, Steward Lee is the successor of Medicine Immortal."
"I knew it. I thought as much. No one could become that strong just by stumbling upon a single martial-arts manual. They say Qi-Guided Sword and Martial Aura require two gapja of internal energy. Reverend, when you found your fortuitous encounter, you also obtained an elixir and a pill-refining manual, did you not?"
"Similar, but different. I went to Jilin this time and obtained the secret manual of Medicine Immortal."
"Even so, you must have found a clue to the location of that manual at the site of your fortuitous encounter, correct? Ah... I'm so envious."
True to her keen intellect, she swiftly approached the truth even amid my lies. She was roughly right. After all, going to Jilin in search of Medicine Immortal had begun from the Moon Immortal's story.
"Good fortune is piling up, so show your little brother some generosity too. Even if you have a secret manual for spirit pills, ingredients and such are hard to come by, aren't they? We're not the underworld anymore, but we still trade through the Hao Sect's black market, so we'll procure ingredients for you."
Envy was still envy. No matter how long one envied another, all it brought was a stomachache. Yet she quickly found her own profit in someone else's good fortune and inserted herself into the matter.
"Honestly, what would I have done without you in the White Tiger Sect?"
"I'll take that as consent."
Ban Ho-jeong smiled radiantly and popped tteokbokki into her mouth. After finishing the remaining black tea, I headed for Yeongsan Lodge.
"You've come, hyung!"
Byeok-geum greeted me with his enormous frame.
"I heard you were with Hall Master Cheonghwa?"
"Yes. He generously rented five mountain cottages and is holding a drinking party now. The Martial Alliance truly has money."
"Indeed they do."
Guided by Byeok-geum, I headed for the mountain cottage they had rented. Inside, Hall Master Cheonghwa, an old man already well into his cups, was there along with some twenty martial artists standing at attention with tense faces.
"Ohhh! You've come, Hero Baek!"
"What kind of hero am I?"
"If the hero who struck down the Black Heaven Association Leader is not called a hero, then who under heaven may call themselves a hero?"
"That hero business, you know—not a single member of my family's Baek Clan Estate, nor even the direct lines of the Five Great Clans, knew anything about it."
The old man quietly set his cup down, poured me a drink, and offered it.
"Hero Baek has every right to be angry. It was entirely my doing. As you guessed, I controlled the information. I ensured that the battle between the Black Heaven Association and Yeongsan Sect was not yet known to the world. The deaths of the Black Heaven Association Leader and Heuk Cheon-gyeon remain unknown as well."
"Why? When a powerful master of the unorthodox faction dies and a young master emerges from the orthodox faction, isn't spreading that across the world to the Martial Alliance's advantage as well?"
"Well, that is. The matter has become a bit tangled. The orthodox factions that went down to Henan are now stuck there. Originally, we expected them all to return to their own sects in four months, but now it appears it will take a year."
"Pardon?"
"Severe flooding has struck Henan, making it impossible to hold the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering. They say it is a flood not seen in several hundred years. Countless commoners have lost their homes and become refugees overnight. In such circumstances, how could our Martial Alliance hold a festival like the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering before their eyes? So it has been postponed by half a year."
"That is truly unfortunate. But what does that have to do with controlling information?"
"The orthodox factions from all corners of the world now face a gap of nearly a year. They cannot possibly have set out so splendidly only to return with nothing to show for it, and for the sects that journeyed from distant places, merely traveling back and forth would consume all their time, so they have all simply decided to stay in Henan for another half year. While aiding the flood victims, that is."
Even in the 21st century, natural disasters were calamities that could not be prevented. I understood that even the Martial Alliance of the world could do little, but...
"But consider this. While the orthodox faction is tied down, the Black Heaven Association Leader and Heuk Cheon-gyeon have fallen to a nameless youth. If the other unorthodox factions learn of this, how do you think they will react?"
"Well, they'll stay quiet. If they don't want to end up dead like the Black Heaven Association Leader."
The old man sighed at my words.
"I wish that were the case, but I believe the opposite. They have lived their entire lives in the martial world. If it were I, I would verify the truth of the rumor, and even if it were true that you truly defeated those two masters, I would investigate your past and age and conclude you are merely a lucky whelp. Right now, before you have fully assimilated the power gained from your fortuitous encounter, this would be an excellent opportunity to seize that secret manual.
"If that happens, Liaoning will turn into hell. A half-strength Murong Clan and the Liaoning Branch alone cannot stop them as they swarm in from all corners of the world. So I ask this favor of you. Please wait just one year. In one year's time, I will exhaust every connection I have and make your illustrious name clearly known."
Ah... now that I heard it, he was right. Martial artists who had lived their whole lives in the martial world would never believe a rumor that the Black Heaven Association Leader had fallen to a young man barely past twenty from a second- or third-rate clan like the Baek Clan Estate. Even if the Ten Great Evil Factions stayed out of it, every riffraff under heaven would flock to Yeongsan. They would come like a pack of dogs to seize a supposedly lucky brat, build their fame by defeating him, crush a promising sprout, or claim the astonishing secret manual said to have killed the Black Heaven Association Leader.
One year. Fine. Yeongsan Sect needed time anyway. I wasn't planning to roam the martial world for a while.
"I understand. But even if no one else knows, the Green Forest Chief must. Yeongsan Sect has already taken the White Tiger Sect under its command. Those White Tiger Sect bastards are proudly boasting about it everywhere."
"He will think it is a deception. We announced that the Martial Alliance, not Yeongsan Sect, accepted the expelled White Tiger Fortress. We claimed that placing them under a small sect called Yeongsan Sect was merely a condition for supervising them. Once we publicly placed the Martial Alliance behind them, the Green Forest Chief sent us a letter. He said he would not question our acceptance of the expelled White Tiger Sect if we refrained from touching the newly dispatched White Tiger Fortress for the next three years."
"Not interfere? That will be difficult. I'm from Baek Clan Estate, you see, and my blood boils the moment I lay eyes on a bandit."
"It is not you who made that promise, but our Martial Alliance. You are not a member of the Martial Alliance, so you are entirely uninvolved in the promise. Just endure for one year. After the Murong Clan returns, I will inform you of the Eighteen Green Forest Strongholds' locations, even if I must use the Martial Alliance's intelligence network. Because I too find bandits abhorrent."
The old man spoke desperately. Moving rashly and becoming the target of the Green Forest Chief was dangerous. The numbers of the Green Forest path were horrifying. The Chief himself did not frighten me, but if they swarmed in under that leader, the women could be put in danger.
"You commissioned Daeseon Construction Company to rebuild Yeongsan Sect and have only paid the deposit, correct? We will pay the rest. If people learn that the enormous funds came from the Martial Alliance, it will help misdirect public attention."
The old man glanced at me as he spoke. The remaining balance was six hundred taels of gold.
"But is that possible? Two of the Top Hundred Masters vanished overnight, and the Black Heaven Association still remains. Bloodslaying Sword and many others witnessed that battle. Can you silence even the unorthodox faction?"
"As for the Black Heaven Association, worry not. They are currently in sealed-gate isolation. When they must either build their strength desperately for three years or seek help from the other Ten Great Evil Factions, choosing sealed-gate isolation may appear foolish, but Bloodslaying Sword likely had no choice. Did he not turn his back on the enemies of his master, his senior brother, and his junior sister and flee? If the deaths of the Black Heaven Association Leader and Heuk Cheon-gyeon become known to the world, Bloodslaying Sword's cowardice will also be known, so he sealed the gate to ensure silence.
"And to masters, one year is nothing. Even a small figure like myself has once shut himself away for three years in closed-door training. We shall roughly fabricate information. Heuk Cheon-gyeon has entered closed-door training, and all the Black Swordsmen who followed him have returned to the Black Heaven Association. The Black Heaven Association Leader departed to aid his disciple Heuk Cheon-gyeon."
"Many people witnessed the Black Swordsmen appearing around Yeongsan. Those sons of bitches did not operate quietly and covertly in Liaodong. Countless commoners saw it with their own eyes."
"That was for the purpose of attacking the Seven Fingers Sect. The fearsome Heuk Cheon-gyeon burned down the Seven Fingers Sect. Presumably, he gained the seed of enlightenment there and entered closed-door training."
The story was clumsy, but it made a kind of sense. Even if it didn't, that hardly mattered. With the power of the Martial Alliance's Liaoning Branch, controlling and fabricating information was easy. Powerful people manipulated information even in the media-rich twenty-first century; this age had neither internet nor telephones. What people heard became unheard, and what they saw became unseen. Commoners in a status-based society understood that naturally. Unorthodox factions would find it difficult even to approach the area for a while, and orthodox factions with doubts wouldn't dare investigate if the Martial Alliance forbade access in its name.
This man possessed power—the kind that could turn white into black merely because he said so. I found myself a little envious.
"However, the Murong Clan will know."
Of course they would. They had kept watch over the Black Heaven Association and the Heavenly Wolf Sect, had taken an interest in a tiny sect called Yeongsan Sect because of me, and it was none other than Murong Rin who had delivered information to me.
Reputation was a formidable power. Merely possessing it made most people abandon the thought of attacking, sparing one from countless dangers. The military power of the United States in the twenty-first century was a perfect example. I lacked that reputation. I would no longer have to live as the subordinate, but I would have to wait a little longer before I could live as the one in power.