The Yin-Yang Mill
To master the family's martial art, one had to sever one's manhood.
The mere thought of it was so terrifying that cold sweat broke across Cheongwol's skin, draining the color from his face.
He had believed himself prepared to endure anything for the sake of revenge — yet he had never imagined he would face so brutal an obstacle at the very start.
"That look on your face tells me you're a boy after all."
"Pardon?"
"Between your appearance and the sheer volume of Yin energy pouring off you, I was half-worried some girl had dressed herself up as a man. As I said before, only a male can undergo the Great Method."
Soga-yul propped her chin in her hand and pointed a finger at the secret manual.
"The Sunflower Manual is a formidable inner-energy art founded upon Extreme Yin. An ordinary human body cannot withstand the Yin energy that would surge through it — so any successor who wishes to learn the Sunflower Manual must first undergo the Great Method and become a vessel of Extreme Yin. That is what is written."
Listening in silence, Cheongwol found a question rising unbidden.
"…If the art requires Yin energy, shouldn't a woman be the one to learn it — not a man?"
Soga-yul gave a slight nod, as though she had expected exactly that question.
"I thought the same at first. But whether because its creator was a man or for some other reason, the text states that a woman who practices the Sunflower Manual cannot bear the Yin energy and will die. Extreme Yin it may be, yet it seems a measure of Yang energy is still required."
"Then… why cut off the manhood? You just said Yang energy is necessary."
"One of two possibilities, wouldn't you say? Either that much Yang isn't needed — or the one who created it had none to begin with."
When Soga-yul finished, Cheongwol swallowed dryly.
Truly.
Was this truly the only path left for the family's revenge?
A silence settled so absolute that even the sound of breathing felt like noise. At last Cheongwol lifted trembling eyes to Soga-yul.
"If you seal my pressure points… could it be done without pain?"
Terrified out of his wits — and still he was saying he would go through with it.
Soga-yul found the boy both admirable and heartbreaking.
What sin has a child like that ever committed…
All the more so because she knew he would shoulder every crime of his house and, in the end, complete the Im family's revenge.
She forced down the sigh that rose on a wave of ugly guilt and closed her eyes tightly.
"…That won't be necessary."
"I don't need the pressure points sealed?"
Cheongwol's reaction — grave for an entirely different reason — finally restored a faint smile to Soga-yul's face.
"I mean you don't need to cut anything off. If that had been the only way, I never would have offered to teach you martial arts in the first place."
"…Is that true?"
"It is. As I see it, the condition of severing the manhood exists because the Great Method requires that only the barest minimum of Yang energy remain."
Soga-yul drew a steadying breath, then continued.
"In other words — if you can reduce your Yang energy to its absolute limit, you should be able to undergo the Great Method without cutting anything away."
"…!"
Life returned to eyes that moments before had gone dead — yet Soga-yul's own expression only grew more solemn.
"Even so, the problems remain. No — they've only multiplied. Look."
So saying, she held both hands out before Cheongwol.
Paat!
As Soga-yul drew up her inner energy, an indescribable clash of opposing forces began to pour from both her hands — warm enough to lull one into sleep, and at the same time so coldly sinister it raised the hair on the skin.
"This is the martial art you must learn — the Yin-Yang Mill. My own exclusive technique, stripped of the Five Elements' energies from the Seven Injuries Fist, dealing solely in the forces of Yin and Yang."
"The Yin-Yang Mill…"
Caught by the opposing energies that somehow made it impossible to look away, Cheongwol stared at her hands as if entranced.
"From this day forward you will learn this art and regulate the ratio of Yin and Yang within your body. The problem, as I said earlier, is this…"
Soga-yul closed her fists, and the Yin and Yang energies vanished as abruptly as a snuffed flame.
"We cannot know precisely how much Yang energy the body needs to survive the Great Method. So we will have to discover it slowly — how little Yang a person can retain and still keep hold of life."
"…You mean I must keep only as much Yang energy in my body as someone who has already been castrated."
"Easy to say. But every step of that process will hurt so badly you'll wish you were dead. The one mercy is that he has already laid some groundwork for you."
"Grandfather?"
"The Yin energy overflowing from your body is the proof. No ordinary boy carries Yin like that. He must have… no. Never mind."
Soga-yul caught the words that had nearly slipped free and shook her head.
"In any case, I've said all I mean to say. The choice is yours now. Well? What will you do?"
Unlike the moment he first heard he would have to be castrated, Cheongwol rose from his seat this time without a flicker of hesitation.
"From this day forth I wish to bind the bond of master and disciple. I beg that Master will guide her student. I shall never commit the sin of betraying my teacher or dishonoring my ancestors, and…"
As Cheongwol dropped to his knees to offer the full nine bows, Soga-yul nodded — then added a word.
"You are becoming my disciple, not entering the Kongdong Sect. Three bows will suffice."
Master:Soga-yul — the Seven Qi Fairy
Disciple:Im Cheong-wol
"From this day forth, the bond of master and disciple is sealed."
"Send Yin energy through the left meridians and Yang through the right. Of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, leave aside the Conception and Governing Vessels — and for each of the remaining six, complete a Small Heavenly Circuit so that Yin and Yang may meet."
Soga-yul demonstrated the circulation herself, yet Cheongwol's face showed no comprehension.
More precisely — comprehension was impossible.
"You don't understand a word of it?"
"…No. I'm sorry."
Cheongwol bowed his head deeply at her question.
Contrary to what he expected, Soga-yul only grinned.
"It's fine. How could you control the energies of Yin and Yang when you can't even feel them properly yet? I asked knowing full well."
At her bright smile Cheongwol almost managed a faint one of his own — and in that instant Soga-yul stepped behind him.
"Don't worry. No matter what it takes, I will make you handle the forces of Yin and Yang. Isn't that why I came here?"
The hand that had been clapping his shoulder in encouragement began to tighten.
"To feel and command Yin energy, you have to go where Yin energy flows."
"Master — wait…!"
Cheongwol grasped her intent a moment too late. By then it was already far past the point of no return.
Just as his grandfather once had, Soga-yul seized him and hurled him mercilessly down beneath the waterfall.
"If you can feel even one of the two energies, the other will come naturally! Take in as much Yin as you can!"
She shouted down at Cheongwol as he plummeted toward the falls, but her voice was swallowed by the roaring water and vanished.
"So this is the training I've only ever heard about. If it works, I ought to try it on our children sometime."
Tak.
At the foot of the violently cascading falls, a pale, slender hand caught hold of a jutting rock with desperate effort.
"Nngh…"
The figure that fought free of the thrashing current was none other than Cheongwol.
"Hah…"
He swept his soaked hair back from his face, trudged forward a few steps, and collapsed onto the ground as if his body had simply given out.
Climbing the waterfall with almost no inner energy still taxed him hard — yet compared to when the training first began, he looked far more at ease.
"You're starting to look rather comfortable at it."
As always, Soga-yul — nowhere to be seen the moment he was thrown — had appeared at his side before he knew it.
"…I've been doing this for two years already."
Cheongwol sat up with a face full of something close to resentment, muttering under his breath.
"Are you trying to tell me you're ready?"
At her question, the past two years of training flickered through Cheongwol's mind.
The time she had driven him out into a howling midwinter blizzard in nothing but a thin layer of clothes, claiming it would teach him to feel Yin properly.
The time she had lured him into what she called a secret cave of the Kongdong Sect, locked him inside, and only let him out on the brink of starvation.
The time, circulating energy through his meridians on Yin alone, when his qi and blood had reversed course and he had collapsed vomiting blood.
There had been countless other sessions that amounted to little more than torture — and yet, because of them, Cheongwol had truly learned to command Yin energy.
And in the same moment he mastered Yin, he had begun to feel a small heat blooming near his lower dantian. Soga-yul had named it Yang.
"What would I know? If Master finds me lacking, then I'm lacking."
He spat the words out curtly and jerked his head aside, avoiding her gaze.
Nearly two years had passed since he began training to handle the energies of Yin and Yang.
Far too short a span to claim mastery of any single art — yet Cheongwol could now manage both forces with a fair degree of skill.
And from that point, perhaps, a restlessness had begun to take root in his chest.
Soga-yul's training, which showed no sign of ending, and the crushing weight of revenge.
Fed by those two things, the restlessness had grown into anxiety, and the anxiety into a formless discontent with nowhere to land.
All of it was the product of the extreme imbalance of Yin and Yang within his body — but Soga-yul chose not to tell him so.
The greater Cheongwol's discontent grew, the more his Yin would suppress and overtake his Yang.
A single misstep could plunge him into qi deviation, yet Soga-yul had no other choice.
She had to reduce the Yang energy in his body by whatever means necessary.
But Cheongwol was still human, and even humans have limits.
Looking at the figure before her — a figure no longer distinguishable by the naked eye as boy or girl — Soga-yul spoke in a heavy voice.
"It's true. You do seem ready, to a degree."
"…Then—!"
She had murmured it almost under her breath, yet somehow Cheongwol heard and sprang to his feet.
Facing the face bright with expectation, Soga-yul shook her head with a quiet snort of laughter.
"Very well. It's time we set a day for the Great Method."