9. Yeongsan Sect (1)
Yeongsan Sect (1)
9. Yeongsan Sect (1)
"I never imagined a journey like this."
At lunchtime, Son Yeong climbed down from the cart and toyed with one of the dumplings the escorts had served as she spoke.
"Normally it's hard to arrange, you see."
"I'm truly grateful in more ways than one."
"I only did it because I wanted to travel comfortably. If you still feel indebted, just put in a good word for me with your master and fellow disciples later."
Son Yeong's expression grew complicated at my flippant remark.
"If it were only that much, I'd gladly say it from the bottom of my heart, but I truly don't know whether helping the Young Master enter the sect is the right thing to do."
"There's no need to worry. I know myself well enough, too. Even the Baek Clan Estate's martial arts are unimpressive by Central Plains standards. And yet my vessel can't even hold the Baek Clan Estate's martial arts. Still, Yeongsan Sect must possess the wisdom of past masters that Baek Clan Estate lacks. Rather than scrambling desperately to become a half-baked martial artist, becoming a proper Daoist priest will serve my future far better."
"Forgive me for saying this, but honestly, the Daoist teachings remaining in our sect aren't much to boast about, either. For Wudang or Mount Hua it'd be difficult, but I've been agonizing over whether writing you a letter of introduction to a Daoist sect that still has ties to our original lineage might at least partly repay your kindness."
Son Yeong was a destitute martial artist, but at least she possessed a sense of shame. Her suggestion was horrifying all the same.
"No. I want to enter Yeongsan Sect. If Yeongsan Sect doesn't work out, I'll spend about three years killing time at an academy in Liaoning Province."
"Why?"
Son Yeong, who had barely scraped by in Yeongsan Sect's harsh conditions, must have found it utterly incomprehensible that I would turn my back on the blessed Baek Clan Estate to head for Yeongsan Sect. We were going to be sitting in a cart for days on end anyway. With time to spare and boredom setting in, I told her my story. The conflict with my half-brother, my lack of talent. And my lazy disposition.
"You lack talent, Young Master? That's absurd! With your robust build and strong muscles, you have the perfect physique for martial arts training!"
Son Yeong had been listening quietly in the cart, but she suddenly denied my words with force. Though she had always treated me cautiously, she grabbed my forearm without thinking and spoke urgently. I did have a good physique. From outward appearance alone, my body looked ideal for martial arts. I possessed no grand scientific knowledge, but memories of my past life had at least taught me to avoid excessive training as a child and eat meat consistently. The Baek Clan Estate's wealth helped, and Jilin's barren land made crops surprisingly scarce while hunted meat was relatively cheap. Meat still cost far more than rice, of course, but the price gap was much narrower than in the Central Plains.
My father's bandit-like genes and a steady diet of meat had allowed me to grow almost as tall as I'd been in my past life, which made me a notably tall man here. A strong physique gave a martial artist a considerable advantage. Why, then, had I judged myself so lacking in talent that I gave up? In this world's martial arts, internal energy mattered more than muscular strength. Internal energy allowed tremendous force from little muscle, but strong muscles didn't convert into internal energy.
In other words, I had a miserable constitution that accumulated internal energy at a damnably slow rate.
I'd taken elixirs and practiced quality internal arts since childhood, yet possessed only ten years' worth of internal energy. A practitioner of third-class arts who trained for ten years had accumulated as much as I had despite my superior environment, elixirs, and decade of second-class training. That was when I knew my talent was garbage. Even those ten years of power probably owed much to the elixirs; over the last two or three years, training had added only a pitiful amount.
I hadn't given up from the beginning. I might have accepted it cleanly now, but abandoning the martial path in a martial world meant serving my obnoxious half-brother as Clan Head. I'd made my share of effort.
If internal energy failed, I would try external arts. The Baek Clan Estate possessed almost no high-level external methods, so I'd searched my past-life memories and bulked myself into a rippling muscleman through weight training. Those muscles were almost useless in actual combat, but they looked powerful. Son Yeong's misunderstanding was entirely reasonable.
Well, from her standpoint, my words must have truly sounded like the complaints of someone with a full belly. After all, even her forearms were nothing but skin and bones, not even half the thickness of Gyeong Su-yeon's slender arms.
"Because I couldn't accumulate internal energy, I trained external arts as a desperate measure. Despite appearances, however, the muscles did little to help me wield a sword."
Swordsmanship required talent of its own, even apart from internal energy. Muscular strength alone was not enough; sword techniques had to be swift and flexible. A swordsman also needed a distinctive sense of rhythm and fast reflexes, and mine were merely ordinary.
"You can't accumulate internal strength? Could it be some kind of illness...?"
If only I had possessed some protagonist-worthy condition such as the Nine Yin Severed Meridian, it would at least have consoled me. Conditions like that were usually destined to turn into a winning lottery ticket through some later fortuitous encounter.
"I simply lack talent, that's all. Well, talent is something heaven bestows, so I should accept it and find my own path in life."
"Ah... I see."
You could not change what you were born with. Son Yeong seemed to agree and fell silent, though sympathy remained in her eyes. She had lived the opposite life from mine: exceptional talent and a burning passion for martial arts, frustrated by cruel circumstances. Perhaps my words resonated deeply with her.
Spending all day together in the cramped luggage cart and chatting from time to time had brought us considerably closer. Son Yeong was also from Liaoning. As a child, she saw a female expert of the Murong Clan and began dreaming of the martial world, but no sect would accept a farmer's daughter. She left home blindly and searched across Liaoning until she finally found Yeongsan Sect, the one school willing to admit her. She knew its martial arts were pathetic, beneath even those of an ordinary martial academy. Still, she could wield a sword. That alone moved her and gave her reason to live. For the sake of that precious sect, she'd embarked on a journey through the martial world to beg for aid.
"What sort of person is your master?"
Roughly three days remained before we reached Yeongsan Village in Liaoning, where Yeongsan Sect stood. Contrary to her prediction of a three-month journey, the escort agency's logistics professionals had brought us this far in twenty days. Now that she had begun to open up and I needed to prepare for admission, I started gathering information about the sect.
"She's truly kind. You'll see it the moment you meet her, Young Master."
Son Yeong spoke with a bright smile. Just as I adored my father, her pure affection for her master was plainly visible.
"You said there were four of you disciples, right? Are you the head disciple, Miss Son?"
"No. There's a senior sister above me. Senior Sister Jeong-hyang is the head disciple. You'll be quite surprised when you see her, Young Master."
"Why?"
"Because Senior Sister Jeong-hyang is truly beautiful. I'm sure you've seen many beautiful women, Young Master, but none of them can compare to her."
Her face grew as happy when she spoke of her senior sister as it did when she spoke of her master. The sect's atmosphere seemed warm, and the mention of a beauty she praised so highly made me genuinely look forward to arriving.
"Then there must be two junior sisters."
"Yes. Both are good kids. Junior Sister Lee is extremely capable—cooking, sewing, there's almost nothing she can't do. Well... she is from Joseon, but she is clever, learned our language quickly, and is as kind as Master. If you meet her, Young Master, please treat her without prejudice."
"Liaoning borders Joseon, and so does Jilin. I've seen countless Joseon people. Besides, the one who needs to make a good impression isn't her—it's me. She's going to be my senior sister from now on, and she's in charge of the Yeongsan Sect's household affairs, isn't she? If I get on her bad side, my life will get miserable."
When I answered with exaggerated determination to make a good impression right from the start, her expression grew complicated.
"You needn't worry about that. Yeongsan Sect is a little different from other sects. Ah, and lastly, our youngest, Cho-ryeong! She's really adorable. She always followed me around, and when I left for the martial world, she cried terribly while seeing me off. I worry whether she's sleeping properly at night."
"Pardon? Is she... very young?"
"Yes. Cho-ryeong is twelve. She was abandoned in front of Yeongsan Sect as a baby, and Master and the rest of us raised her like family. She's still an exceptionally bright and kind child."
Ah... it sounded like a real family. Some of my anxiety about the future began turning into anticipation. Perhaps because I'd made a deal with a demon for my family in my past life, I loved a familial atmosphere. Honestly, if I'd pushed myself and made Manager Jeong firm promises, I could probably have become Young Clan Head. But a position seized only after a bloody succession struggle with my brother held no meaning for me. That was why I was here.
Exactly three days later, our tedious life in the cart ended at a village near Yeongsan Sect.
"Young Master, I wish you good fortune. If you wish to return to the Baek Clan Estate, leave word at this inn in advance. I will arrange for the nearest escort caravan returning to Jilin to stop here."
Escort Captain Jeon had taken care of our meals and sleeping arrangements throughout the journey, sparing us every inconvenience. His attentive service, worthy of a hotel employee from my past life, naturally earned my goodwill.
"You've done well. Escort Captain Jeon."
"Thank you once again, Great Hero Jeon."
Unlike my casual farewell, Son Yeong expressed her thanks politely with a cupped-fist salute. Escort Captain Jeon smiled brightly, told Son Yeong he was entrusting me to her care, and departed on his scheduled escort route. As expected of Escort Captain Jeon—through his conversations with Son Yeong over the journey, he had left a fine impression on the woman who might become my senior sister before taking his leave.
At last, only Son Yeong and I remained. Just returning to this village made her visibly relax. It wasn't as grand as Shenyang, Liaoning's provincial capital and the home of the Murong Clan, but it was reasonably prosperous. Perhaps because we had entered the Central Plains, the clothing, people, and architecture all felt distinctly different from Jilin.
"For now, the sun is setting, so let's stay here tonight and depart tomorrow morning."
She might carry a sword, but her ability was only that of a martial-academy trainee. Yeongsan Sect lay in the mountains, where the beasts that emerged at night were dangerous. A tiger would be beyond me, and although I could defeat wolves, I wasn't confident I could protect her while fighting a pack. More importantly, nights in this era were pitch black. Traveling through the mountains after dark was genuinely dangerous. Son Yeong wanted to return to her sect as soon as possible, but she understood the danger and nodded in agreement.
"There's an elder I'm close with on the outskirts of the village. If I explain things well, she'll let us stay the night."
"An elder you're close with?"
"Her name is Elder Jang, and she lives alone. Her daughter married into another region a few years ago, leaving a spare room, so she sometimes lets us stay when we come down from the mountain. She is very kind and says that seeing us reminds her of her daughter."
"She sounds like a kind woman. I'm sure she'd welcome you, Miss Son, because you remind her of a daughter. I am another matter. Would an old woman who lives alone not feel uneasy if a sturdy man like me appeared at her home? Let's stay at the inn tonight."
"The inn?!"
Her eyes widened at my words.
"We haven't been able to wash properly for some time and barely made it here—let's rest properly for at least one day. If you go back looking exhausted, your master and fellow disciples will be very worried."
"B-but... the inn is too expensive. I'll go to the elder's house—you, Young Master, can sleep at the inn."
"I can afford that much. And we haven't eaten yet, either. Even if Elder Jang is a good person, Miss Son, asking for a meal on top of lodging must be burdensome for you, too."
"Even... even so..."
"You wouldn't leave someone who might become your junior brother alone in an unfamiliar land with no acquaintances, would you? Let's just stay here tonight."
Son Yeong hesitated. Before she could protest again, I headed toward the large inn in front of us and ordered two rooms and several dishes. Only then did she reluctantly follow me inside. The meals supplied by the escort agency during our twenty-three-day journey might have seemed fine to her, but they'd been sorely lacking by my standards. Chinese cuisine depended on intense heat. Campfires burned too weakly, and the escorts weren't professional cooks, so I could hardly complain. Still, I was about to enter the impoverished Yeongsan Sect and wanted at least one hearty meal first.
Although I had been born into a wealthy household, I had little experience dining out and knew few dish names. I ordered by guesswork and received something resembling boiled duck, stir-fried bok choy, and pork fried with bean sprouts. Ah, I recognized one dish: sweet-and-sour pork. Chinese immigrants in twentieth-century Korea were supposed to have created it by adapting tangchulijuk, so why was the sweet-and-sour pork I knew being sold here rather than tangchulijuk? Had pineapples originally existed in China, or was this another impossible fruit supplied by the world's shoddy setting? At least the food tasted magnificent. My sole disappointment was that the sauce arrived already poured over the pork, making dipping impossible.
Four dishes and Bamboo Leaf Green Wine. The wine tasted fucking awful, but I'd left home for the martial world and was sitting with a beautiful woman in a scene straight from a wuxia novel, so I ordered it for the atmosphere. Then the sight of all the meat dishes I had chosen made me suddenly uneasy.
"Um, Miss Son. Yeongsan Sect is a Daoist sect—do they have any rules against eating meat, by chance?"
"No way. It's just hard to eat it because we're poor—if they forbade meat too, we'd starve to death. The occasional rabbit or pheasant we catch in the mountains is a truly precious lifeline for us."
"That's a relief. I once heard that Wudang Sect forbids eating meat during the training period."
"They must do that because they have plenty to eat. Even if it were Shaolin Temple, not Wudang Sect, if they faced starvation for a month or two, don't you think they'd hurl out an Arhat Divine Fist just to catch a single mouse?"
By now quite familiar with me, she cracked a joke in her own way while concentrating on her meal. I didn't know much for certain, but what was clear was that alcohol was permitted in Daoism, since it had to be offered on ancestral altars. Alcohol allowed, meat allowed, and a place full of women—Yeongsan Sect might truly turn out to be an enjoyable place.