Could This Be a Fortuitous Encounter? (2)
“Won't you answer me?”
“Answer what?”
“Why you're trying to capture us.”
“The treasure map of the Invincible Fist King Land is worth more than any martial manual.”
“And you're confident you can decipher it if you get it?”
“Decipher it?”
“You think all the previous owners of that map were too stupid to interpret it?”
Nam Se-ok let out a short laugh. “Pah!”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“It seems you think that I, along with many other masters, covet the treasure map because of the martial arts that might lie within the Invincible Fist King Land.”
“Aren't they?”
“Absolutely not. As you said, it's absurd to imagine that we could solve what countless owners have failed to solve over the past thousand years. The reason we seek the treasure map anyway is to prevent new masters and new powers from arising.”
“So you're saying you want to hog it all for yourselves.”
“That's right.”
“Good idea. Nice talking to you.”
Jin Yigang nodded once, then spun on his heel and bolted for the valley.
“You won't escape!”
Nam Se-ok hurled a fist at Jin Yigang's retreating back. The art he unleashed was the signature technique of the Great Heavenly Demon Lord Nam Taecheon — the Demon Demon Great Heaven Fist.
A fist of sheer demonic might, carrying the terrible qi of the Great Heavenly Demon Lord himself, tore through the air toward Jin Yigang's back.
In that instant, Je Chuyeong, who had been clinging to Jin Yigang's back, threw herself forward to shield him, deflecting Nam Se-ok's attack head-on.
WHAM!
“Agh!”
Je Chuyeong flew backward with a scream of pain.
THUD!
She crashed straight into Jin Yigang.
Jin Yigang seized her hand and leaped into the valley. The raging current swallowed them both.
“Go down and find them. Kill them.”
Nam Se-ok roared the order, and the Blood Evil Army immediately descended along the valley.
WHOOSH!
Nam Se-ok climbed a rocky rise and looked down. Behind the rocks stood a waterfall more than ten jang tall, pouring out a colossal torrent of water.
Just then, something pale flashed across his vision. A scrap of clothing — no, unmistakably the back of the man who had fallen moments before. The shape was riding the current, sweeping downstream fast.
“There!”
Nam Se-ok shouted and launched himself after them. Soon, he and the Blood Evil Army had vanished far from the waterfall.
“They're gone.”
Jin Yigang said it while peering out through the curtain of falling water. He and Je Chuyeong were inside a cave hidden behind the waterfall itself.
Finding the cave had been pure accident. To slow his plummet, Jin Yigang had thrust his right hand blindly toward the waterfall's wall. After falling some five jang, he had barely managed to catch a shelf of rock jutting out from the cliff face.
Gripping it, he'd braced his legs inward, hoping to find purchase against the inner wall of the falls — and his leg had slid clean through into empty space. His hand slipped, and the spot where he landed was this very cave.
“Ugh!”
A groan escaped Je Chuyeong's lips.
Jin Yigang hurried to her side. She had deflected Nam Se-ok's fist-qi head-on, and her internal injuries had worsened to a critical degree.
He gathered her in his arms and carried her deeper in. The cave was quite deep — a good five jang to the innermost wall. Night-luminous pearls were studded into the ceiling, though Jin Yigang hardly noticed; Je Chuyeong's condition was that grave. He laid her on a bed-sized slab of rock and stripped off her clothes. Her body was cold as ice. The most urgent thing now was to bring her temperature back to normal.
Starting a fire would have been ideal, but he had no flint — and no time.
He laid her on the rock and took off his own clothes as well. He had to climb on top of her and rub her down, and soaking-wet clothes were not an option.
He wrung the water from their garments, wiped down her body, and began rubbing her arms. As he rubbed briskly, heat slowly rose from her skin. He worked her arms until they were warm, then moved to her legs. After rubbing the inner thighs, he concentrated on her dantian and abdomen, hoping that stirring her internal energy would aid the treatment. His hands were utterly without hesitation. He rubbed her chest without a trace of self-consciousness.
When her front was done, he rubbed her back.
Once he had worked over her whole body and laid her flat, he dropped straight into push-ups. After a hundred furious reps, heat blazed through his entire body. He pressed that burning body against hers. It was about half a shijin before Je Chuyeong finally woke.
“Were you treating me?”
“This was the best I could do.”
“What kind of treatment, exactly?”
“First I took off your clothes and rubbed your whole body down. Then I heated my own body up and pressed it against yours.”
“Well done. By the way, what am I lying on right now?”
“A slab of rock.”
“The rock is warm.”
“That's a relief.”
“But this alone won't cure me.”
“What are your injuries?”
“Nam Se-ok's Demon Demon Great Heaven Fist carries a vicious demonic qi, and that qi is inside my body right now.”
“There's no way to expel it?”
“I'd need to circulate my energy through the channels, and in my current state, I can't.”
“You're a physician, though. Surely there's a way?”
“There is.”
Je Chuyeong nodded.
“What do I have to do?”
“Remember the incantation I'm about to recite.”
She recited it at once.
“That's the Yin-Yang Harmony Method.”
“You're not surprised?”
“If another method existed, you wouldn't be using the Yin-Yang Harmony Method.”
“Exactly. We have no elixirs, no Small Heavenly Divine Pills. Energy circulation is impossible. What's left is only our bodies.”
He had been carrying a few Small Heavenly Divine Pills, but the raging current had swept them away, and every last one had dissolved.
“Treat me, then.”
“Did you memorize all of it?”
“Yes.”
“Your head really is…….”
“Good enough to top the civil service examinations.”
“……So it seems.”
“What do we do now?”
“We have to draw the yin qi and yang qi to their peak.”
“How do we…….”
“Like this.”
Je Chuyeong pulled his face down and kissed him. Before Jin Yigang could even think of resisting, her tongue slid deep into his mouth. A hot wind suddenly gusted through the inner cave — and its source was Je Chuyeong herself.
“The best way to bring the yin qi to its absolute peak is to act like lovers. We've been courting for years, and you've wanted me desperately. And today, at last, I gave you permission. You…….”
Je Chuyeong guided his face against her body with her whole being. Wherever Jin Yigang's lips touched, warmth smoldered up in slow curls. As strength began returning to her toes, her legs, her hips and waist, she readied herself to unfurl the Yin-Yang Harmony Method. The moment she recited the incantation, a hazy white mist bloomed from every one of her qi channels.
Jin Yigang recited the incantation as well.
A reddish mist seeped from his body in turn. The red and white vapors entwined around each other.
“I think we can begin.”
Je Chuyeong said, and the two of them commenced the Yin-Yang Harmony Method.
Red mist and white mist wound together, thickening moment by moment — yin and yang entwining, drawing each other toward their utmost peak.
As time passed, the red and white mists grew deeper and denser. When the method reached its climax, Je Chuyeong wrapped her legs around Jin Yigang's waist and rose up in one motion. Sitting face to face, the two of them unfurled the Yin-Yang Harmony Method together.
Half a shijin later, it was over.
Panting, they collapsed and lay catching their breath.
“How does your body feel?”
Jin Yigang asked.
“Much better, I think.”
“Wait — isn't the Yin-Yang Harmony Method supposed to be practiced while suppressing desire?”
“That's when it's used to cultivate internal energy. When its only purpose is treatment, there's no need for that. On the contrary, the treatment works better the harder you push the yin and yang qi to their limits. That's why some people take aphrodisiacs before performing it. So…… you held back?”
“I'm not the one who needs treating.”
“How did you manage it?”
“I've learned the Immovable Wisdom King Heart Art.”
“A martial art?”
“Not exactly. More like a method that keeps you from being beguiled. It steadies the mind, too.”
It was a heart cultivation method he had gleaned from a very ancient text. The Immovable Wisdom King Heart Art guarded against the intrusion of dark qi and stray thoughts. There had been an accompanying incantation called Heavenly Heart, but its meaning eluded him entirely, so he had merely memorized it without learning it.
“So it's essential for studying, you're saying?”
“That's right.”
“I…… don't think I'm completely cured.”
“Then we go again.”
“Aren't you saying that a little too easily?”
“It's treatment.”
“Right. Treatment.”
Je Chuyeong smiled brightly.
“The proper posture seemed to be seated, last time. Should we start seated from the beginning?”
“First we have to draw the yin and yang qi to their peak again.”
“Understood.”
Jin Yigang began at once.
Perhaps because it was the second time, he was deft about it.
“You learn fast.”
“I told you my head was good.”
Soon the red and white mists were streaming from both their bodies again.
“This time, don't use the Immovable Wisdom King Heart Art.”
“That's…… not something I can control. The art rises on its own, like it's part of me.”
“……Fine. I'll handle it myself, then.”
A storm of time passed. The two of them held each other close, gulping down air. The sweat that had poured from them left their bodies glistening.
“When we're finished, you have to hold me like this. Rolling right over and going to sleep the moment it's done is terribly rude. No consideration at all.”
“Understood. I shall serve you accordingly. Anything else you'd like?”
“Now we wash up.”
“Yes, ma'am.”
The two of them went to the waterfall and washed. Just before the falls, a fair pile of branches had gathered — evidently knocked into the cave while tumbling down from above.
“We could start a fire with these.”
They gathered the branches and returned to their original spot.
“By the way, you…… quite a lot of internal energy seemed to have accumulated in your qi channels.”
Je Chuyeong asked as though the thought had just occurred to her.
“It'll be the dagger's internal energy.”
“You've stored the dagger's energy in every one of your qi channels?”
“My dantian never developed enough to absorb the dagger's energy entirely.”
“Lie down.”
“What?”
“There's something I need to check.”
“All right.”
Jin Yigang went to the rock and lay down.
Je Chuyeong immediately examined his body. The place she lingered over longest was his dantian.
“Remarkable.”
“What is?”
“This.”
“Mmph!”
Jin Yigang let out a groan.
“Done.”
“Why were you checking my dantian?”
“Because I wanted to look one more time.”
Je Chuyeong smiled brightly. That was what she said, but in truth she had been checking the poison node inside his dantian. Something had felt off during their union, and she had confirmed it: the poison node was unmistakably smaller than before. A thought flickered through her — perhaps it wasn't a poison node at all — but she couldn't bring herself to say it. If she declared it benign and symptoms of poisoning began to appear, the despair would be beyond overcoming.
One despair is enough for you. No — for you, this would already be the second.
She murmured silently to herself.
“This rock is nice and warm. Shall we sleep?”
Jin Yigang gestured at the slab.
“Sounds good.”
She climbed up promptly.
“Our clothes…….”
“Too damp to wear.”
They could have dried them with the True Samadhi Fire, but somehow he didn't feel like it. At the head of the stone slab, a pillow-shaped rock jutted up. Jin Yigang laid his head on it and offered his left arm to Je Chuyeong instead.
“By tomorrow morning, this arm is going to ache terribly. But you're a man, so you'll endure it. Understood?”
“……”
“I'm two whole years older than you, you know. And I've had far more lovers. You'd make my top five, by the way.”
“I'm your second.”
“And who was the first?”
“A woman who used some strange beguiling art to ensnare people.”
“Something like the Soul-Snatching Art, perhaps?”
“Yes.”
“That woman must have fancied you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“The Soul-Snatching Art is usually performed to extort the victim's essence blood.”
“So I died and came back to life, then?”
“She may never have intended to harm you in the first place. Tell me — was she pretty?”
“You're a hundred times prettier.”
“You really do learn fast. Now sleep.”
“Yes.”
The two of them closed their eyes.
Before long, even breathing drifted from their noses. The first to wake was Jin Yigang.
It's really true.
He chuckled to himself. His left arm, the one Je Chuyeong was pillowing, was utterly numb — no feeling in it at all. Just then Je Chuyeong stirred awake, folded his left arm, and laid it over her chest.
Jin Yigang looked at her.
“Your reward for guarding my head all night. If you move it around gently, the feeling will come back.”
“Hmm! Not a bad arrangement. By the way — aren't those night-luminous pearls over there?”
Jin Yigang asked, flexing his fist open and shut.
“They are.”
“Then this place we've stumbled into — it's someone's hidden retreat?”
“Not a retreat. It must be the stronghold of some faction.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Not many people bother to set night-luminous pearls into the ceiling of a hidden retreat or a tomb.”
“Then could we have stumbled onto a fortuitous encounter?”
“Very likely.”
“Shall we look around?”
“In a little while.”
“……That's probably better.”