―'Let's begin!'
Moving as one, the warriors of the Death Shadow Corps lifted collapsed roof beams with their bare hands and hauled mud-stuck carts free in a single pull, restoring the village in an instant with practiced skill.
Their movements were free of any waste, flowing as organically as a single giant creature.
Consequently, they cleanly finished in a mere half-day what government troops would have struggled to complete in three days and nights.
"We have finished everything, Command Lord."
Once the work was done, Wi Cheongyeong went to report to Bu Eunseol.
The village, which had been a wretched ruin only half a day prior, had already regained its proper form.
This was possible not only due to their high martial arts, but because they had repeated such labor for a long time.
"Well done."
Bu Eunseol nodded, pulling a coin pouch from his robes to hold it out.
"Have a drink with the men before you return."
"I will gratefully accept your kind thoughts alone."
Wi Cheongyeong shook his head, declining politely.
"If we have money for wine, it would be better to buy even a handful more grain for the villagers."
Although Bu Eunseol's wealth rivaled that of any magnate under heaven, his financial power was not infinite.
Moreover, maintaining the Death Spirit Corps's information network across the land required vast sums, which he spent readily for the sake of the grand design.
Knowing this, the warriors of the Death Shadow Corps guarded against luxury and embraced frugality as a virtue.
It was not out of simple loyalty, but the pride of comrades sharing a great cause with Bu Eunseol.
"Mmm."
Bu Eunseol felt reassured, yet at the same time, a little apologetic.
"Even so, go with the men this time."
Bu Eunseol pressed the coin pouch into Wi Cheongyeong's hand.
"If I do not buy you a drink even on a day of such hard work, the men will all call me a skinflint."
"Then come with us."
At Wi Cheongyeong's words, Bu Eunseol shook his head.
"I will watch over things a little longer before I go."
Even if the men restored everything perfectly and lent their aid, Bu Eunseol always checked and inspected it once more.
Knowing this well, Wi Cheongyeong had no choice but to offer a polite salute.
"Understood."
Bu Eunseol walked the flood-stricken village through the night, thoroughly checking the situation.
Before he knew it, the night had grown deep.
Looking up at the far sky, the moon hung bright and full, and a cool wind blew.
From the city in the distance, the songs of drunkards and the laughter of courtesans seemed to drift on the air.
Looking upon the endlessly quiet, beautiful night scenery, his throat itched for a taste of wine.
"Did I give away all my money for nothing?"
He searched through his robes, but all he found was the elixir pill he always carried.
All at once, he looked at the Silent Tiger Soul Sword and chuckled.
"Shall I pawn even you to fetch some wine?"
Wooom.
At that, the Silent Tiger Soul Sword let out a low hum, as if displeased.
"It's a joke."
Flashing a rare, white-toothed smile, Bu Eunseol gazed at the distant mountain and spoke.
"'Drunk not on fine wine, but on the moonlight' (不醉醇酒醉月色). Since I cannot get drunk on wine, I have no choice but to drink deep of the night scenery."
His spirits stirred for once, and Bu Eunseol clasped his hands behind his back to unfold a movement technique like an immortal's.
Fwirl.
His robe-hems seemed to flutter once in the night wind, and before he knew it, his body settled soundlessly onto the dew-laden grass of a clearing at the cliff's edge, where the moonlight fell clear.
All around looked as if time had stopped, and the mist spreading in every direction seemed to erase the boundary between earth and sky.
Standing as if upon the clouds, Bu Eunseol drew a deep breath.
The moonlight visible beyond the twisted old trees in the distance turned the landscape dreamlike, a scene where reality and dream could not be distinguished.
"Mmm."
In the cool air mingled with the scent of wet earth, Bu Eunseol stood quietly, a part of a scene that seemed not of this world.
Sssss.
Yet, through that perfect silence, the thread-like sound of cutting air came drifting in.
At the same time, a voice clear and limpid as a bead rolling over silk settled briefly at his ear, like a butterfly lost in the fog.
'Who is out here in this lonely place?'
Bu Eunseol closed his eyes for a moment.
With his hypersense sharply honed and amplified, he soon pinpointed the source of the faint sound.
'It sounds almost like someone holding back pain.'
Pushing through the mist toward the source of the sound, he saw a woman sitting alone with her back against a large rock.
Her silken hair caught the pouring moonlight, looking as if it had been dusted with silver, and her pink lips stood in stark contrast to her snow-white skin.
With a faraway look, as if she had forgotten all the cares of the world, she was a beauty of such dreamlike loveliness that it was hard to believe she was human.
Without realizing it, Bu Eunseol stared at her, dazed.
Leaning against the old tree, the woman turned her head and met Bu Eunseol's gaze.
Stop.
At that, the faint, low hum that had been heard so distantly vanished like mist.
"I have broken the mood, it seems."
Looking at the startled woman, Bu Eunseol courteously clasped his hands.
"Forgive my intrusion."
Since people of the martial world are free and unbound, there was no reason for a young man and woman to avoid each other simply because their paths had crossed.
However, given the late hour and the deep, deserted forest, he decided to take his leave.
Zzing.
Just then, a faint light gathered at the fingers of the woman's hands, which were clasped behind her back.
But Bu Eunseol did not notice it.
And no wonder, for the light gathering at her fingers was not a wave of killing intent or of qi, which not even a master of the keenest hypersense could detect, but pure will.
Fwirl.
Just then, the rush of cutting air brought the sound of many masters moving and brushing past branches.
'Don't tell me.'
Bu Eunseol checked his step.
He realized that for this young woman to be huddled alone in a mist-laden forest deep in the night was in itself an abnormal situation.
'Was she hiding from enemies?'
As Bu Eunseol grasped the situation and turned, the woman, who had been gathering light at her fingers, quietly hid her hand behind her.
"Have you, perhaps, made enemies of someone?"
The woman only blinked her large eyes and said nothing.
Bu Eunseol felt puzzled when he could not read any emotion in her eyes.
'She cannot have reached a perfect realm of no-mind. Is she someone pure as a child?'
Judging that she had an exceptionally pure heart, Bu Eunseol spoke carefully.
"It seems some people with ill intent are coming this way."
Trickle.
When the woman shifted her shoulder slightly, blood began to show through her robes.
She seemed to have taken a rather deep sword-wound.
"Don't worry. I will lend a hand."
Fwirl.
Just then, men clad in black appeared.
Rrrumble.
Strange shapes churned about their bodies, and they held fearsome glares in their eyes.
'The Three Realms?'
They wore the strangely lustrous masks that the envoys of the Three Realms used, and an indescribably mighty wave of true energy surged from their bodies, along with a supernatural power like that of the One Hundred and Eight Stars raging like a storm.
'If that many come at me all at once, it will be trouble.'
They gave off a force beyond any comparison with the envoys of the Three Realms who had appeared before.
If he fought them here, the woman might be caught up in the fight and badly hurt.
'There's no choice.'
Saving a life came first.
"Forgive me."
Grasp.
Without hesitation, Bu Eunseol grabbed the woman's hand.
Krrng!
And he swept out of the place, unfolding a movement technique in one breath.
Fwaaaa!
The instant he began to flee, the ground split open, and strange arrows of flame shot up into the sky to rush at the running Bu Eunseol.
Tss-tss-tsk.
Unfolding Swift Beyond Shadow, Bu Eunseol dodged the attacks this way and that as he slipped out of the forest.
Pa-pa-pak!
As he unfolded his movement technique at blinding speed, splintered branches and shards of stone flew in every direction.
Bu Eunseol did not forget to raise a shield of protective astral energy to keep the woman from harm.
"Don't worry."
When the woman, who had been expressionless all this time, looked at him with wide eyes, Bu Eunseol smiled gently to reassure her.
"I'll only take you somewhere safe."
But as if she did not understand his words, the woman only stared at him with wide, fixed eyes.
She seemed angry, or perhaps flustered.
But Bu Eunseol was too busy unfolding his movement technique and dodging the arrows of flame to notice.
Kwaoooong!
In that span, the flames pouring out shot up in every direction and wound about the whole forest.
Fwoooosh.
Before long, they took solid form like a hard wall giving off searing heat.
Because Bu Eunseol's movement technique was so swift, they had used their supernatural power to raise a wall of flame and seal off the whole area.
'The Returning to One Realm?'
Among the envoys of the Three Realms, only the Returning to One Realm used supernatural power like the One Hundred and Eight Stars.
Perhaps they were not mere envoys, but secret agents carrying out some special mission.
'I cannot use the Harmony here.'
To wipe out so mighty a supernatural power, he would have to unleash the Harmony with all his strength, but if he did so in this state, the woman could be badly hurt.
'There is no choice.'
Zzing.
Drawing up all his strength to raise his protective astral energy, Bu Eunseol charged at the wall of flame.
Fwa!
He broke through the wall in one go, but in that instant, his protective astral energy melted away to nothing.
It was no mere barrier of flame; it was a wall imbued with a strange supernatural power.
Kwaoong!
Then, a huge ball of fire shot out from straight ahead.
As it turned out, the wall of flame served to forcibly snuff out the power of whoever broke through it, and using this, they had laid a deadly trap that could not be avoided.
Kwaooo!
Just as the huge blaze rushed in toward Bu Eunseol's face,
Kwoong!
he twisted his body and doubled the speed of his movement technique.
Pang!
And he immediately offered his back, meeting the ball of fire to take it on himself.
Hssss.
In that instant, pale smoke shot up from his back as his clothes and flesh melted, and a dizzying pain shook his sight.
To keep the woman from harm, he had taken the supernaturally forged flame on his bare body.
'Ghh.'
It was a pain that blackened his vision, yet Bu Eunseol paid it no mind and ran on faster still.
When he finally cleared the forest,
Kwaooo!
He unfolded the sky-treading flight art and lifted himself into the sky in one bound.
But the envoys of the Returning to One Realm were no ordinary masters either.
Pat.
They too became a single mass of flame and began to chase the soaring Bu Eunseol.
'Not a chance.'
Thickening his protective astral energy, Bu Eunseol at last unfolded the Endless Heavenly Light Art.
Kwaang!
With a blast, Bu Eunseol's form became a single shaft of light and cut across the night sky.
Kwaooo!
After he had run a long while, a bright sun rose before he knew it.
When the sign of any pursuer could no longer be felt, Bu Eunseol paused for a moment in the air.
'A place like this.'
Looking around, Bu Eunseol caught sight of a mysterious secluded valley far below Mount Unrim.
'Was there a hidden valley here?'
If a god had ever shaped a secret garden, would it look just like this?
Cliffs sheer as if cut by a blade ringed it like firm ramparts to sever every tie with the mortal world, and at the heart of that majestic isolation, a lake holding the sky's whole blue lay set there, lustrous and clear as jade.
Tak.
As if enchanted, Bu Eunseol at once descended there.
"Forgive me."
Setting the woman down carefully, he fought back the pain of his burning back and stripped off the scorched gown, casting it aside.
Hsss.
The treasure-robe that no treasure-sword could cut was half melted away.
'Vicious.'
To melt an ageless treasure-robe in a single stroke?
Had he refused Yoo Unryong's urging and not been wearing the robe, he would have taken a mortal wound.
For even with the robe shielding him, there were places where his flesh had melted away.
Whip.
But lest the woman should worry over it, Bu Eunseol quickly turned away.
"Oh."
As he turned, the scenery around him began to come clearly into view.
The water was clear enough to show the pebbles beneath the surface, and fish like unrolled bolts of five-colored silk glided over them.
Along the lakeshore, old trees that had weathered centuries of wind spread their ample boughs to cast their shade.
Nameless wildflowers bloomed each in its own color, like the constellations of the night sky, forming a little garden.
"How beautiful."
Without meaning to, Bu Eunseol let out a cry of wonder and looked at the woman.
"Is it not?"
It was like a primeval paradise where all life existed, each in its own form.
Merely to stand in such a place was to feel all the cares and torments of the mortal world wash away on the wind.
Ssk.
Suddenly, a gourd flask appeared before his eyes.
The woman had taken the gourd flask hanging at her waist and held it out.
Unlike before, her expression was not fierce, and her eyes seemed somewhat softened.
Ssk.
As if telling him to drink and ease the pain, she raised the gourd once more toward his eyes.
"My thanks."
Pop.
When he took the gourd and opened the stopper, a fragrance of wine spread out, too intense for words.
It was a scent that even Bu Eunseol, who had tasted every rare wine there was, smelled for the first time.
Gulp.
At a single mouthful, the pain spreading across his back seemed to ease.
For all his learning, he had no word to describe it; at the astonishing fragrance, his eyes simply widened.
"Magnificent."
Bu Eunseol held up his thumb and let out one exclamation after another.
"I once tasted a two-hundred-year-old Bunju, but even that, I think, falls short of this."
The woman's gaze was fixed on Bu Eunseol's back.
Where the flame had touched, the cloth had stuck fast, but mercifully the skin was not too badly damaged.
"I am all right. I was wearing a treasure-robe I happened to come by."
Shaaaa.
Just then, rain fell from the sky.
As if by agreement, the two of them ran beneath a great tree with broad, drooping leaves.
The leaves hung down like a pavilion to shelter them from the rain well enough.
Pattering.
The pouring rain washed the whole world clean, and at the same time, it erased the traces of his flight.
However wondrous the Returning to One Realm's tracking arts, they would not reach this far.
Ssk.
Suddenly, the woman rose from her place.
And she held out her palm to where the rain poured down.
Tap-tap-tap.
The falling raindrops began to touch her long fingers.
Tap-tap-tap.
As if she liked the feel of the rain, she closed her eyes.
'Is there something to it?'
The woman had shown little surprise even at his qinggong and, above all, carried a mysterious air. Judging there was some meaning in such an act, Bu Eunseol stood beside her and reached out his hand.
'Nothing to it, really.'
The raindrops that touched his fingertips were only raindrops.
Bu Eunseol glanced at the woman, then closed his eyes the same way.
As he did, the feel of the water changed.
He had merely closed his eyes, yet he began to feel the very shape of the drops.
Falling rain is not, in fact, round.
Examined with the hypersense, the top is rounded and the underside somewhat flat.
The very largest drops had a shape like an opened umbrella.
'This too could become a profound principle of martial art.'
A raindrop has no fixed form; it spreads round if it touches a palm, and draws out long if it touches a leaf.
'Could I not touch a raindrop in the very act of changing?'
A strange realization brushed through his mind.
Without breaking the fast-falling drops, Bu Eunseol began to observe the shapes they took in each fleeting instant.
This was a feat only he could manage, taking a hypersense that could feel even a grain of sand land on the hand, and a focus that could put out a candle by will alone.
'Remarkable.'
He had only touched the rain in imitation of the woman, yet for a fleeting instant, he slipped into a state of extreme focus, as though all motion in the world had stopped.
Through it, his perception of time and space shifted and he came to grasp in part the secret of seeing through to the starting point of the most minute movement.
'If I could work this phenomenon into the principles of martial art.'
Just as Bu Eunseol opened his eyes and was weighing the martial principle, he felt a curious gaze.
When he turned his head, the woman beside him was watching him with an interested look.
'Something is ticklish about this.'
Each time their eyes met, a strange sensation he had never felt in his life brushed across his chest.
Soft, ticklish, hot, and yet far away.
Unfamiliar feelings he had never known before were spreading from his head to the tips of his toes.
"What is your school?"
Awkward and abashed, Bu Eunseol spoke.
But the woman still said nothing; she only stared at him.
Without realizing it, Bu Eunseol studied her features closely.
It felt like gazing at a single mysterious flower blooming perilously at a cliff's edge.
She carried a cool, bewitching air that no peerless beauty in the world could dare to imitate.
"I am a disciple of Nangyang Pavilion, Bu Eunseol by name."
"..."
"How did you come to be hunted by such vicious enemies?"
But the woman shook her head.
She seemed to mean that she did not wish to reveal her circumstances.
"My apologies. Forget I asked."
Unlike his usual self, Bu Eunseol rubbed his nose.
Come to think of it, he had never once pried into another's background or circumstances.
He had never had any interest in others' affairs to begin with.
"Just a passing bond, that is all."
Folk of the martial world meet by chance and part again by chance, just so.
And if a bond is there, they meet again.
Tap-tap-tap.
The heavy rain that had drenched the whole world ceased before he knew it, turning to a foam-like mist of drizzle.
"Young lady."
Bu Eunseol smiled and clasped his hands.
"If a bond is there, we will meet again."
And then, leaving a trace of regret behind, he turned away.
"..."
The woman gazed blankly at the terrible burn left on the back of the departing Bu Eunseol.
The wound, where treasure-robe and flesh had melted together, was enough to make one wince just to see it.
Kwoong.
When Bu Eunseol vanished in an instant, the woman looked at the spot with unfocused eyes.
―'How beautiful.'
Those words had been for the scenery around them, not for her.
Yet the sight of him murmuring it like a child, his eyes like golden jewels in the sunlight, kept rising in her mind.
Perhaps, in his childhood, there had been a time when he gazed wide-eyed at such splendid scenery.
For the mere sight of a beautiful view would not turn such cold, distant eyes into a boy's.
Glint.
The woman reached out her hand.
At that, a brilliant star glittered in the far sky.
Krrng!
With a blast that shook heaven and earth, dozens of black dragons swept in from the far sky toward where she was.
The dragons' scales were stained jet-black, as if torn straight from the darkness of the abyss.
Each time their huge wings spread, a storm-like wind rose and clawed at the lakeshore.
The once-still surface of the lake heaved roughly, as if seized with terror.
The dragons' eyes, burning like the brimstone fires of hell, stared fixedly at the woman seated by the great tree.
The once-calm sky over the lakeshore was now covered with giant dragons bearing dozens of red eyes.
Though a sight of terror fit to freeze the soul had unfolded, the woman did not care in the least.
Kwaaaa!
When the black dragons finally came pouring down upon the ground,
Pat.
In an instant, they had become dozens of warriors clad in black uniforms, prostrating themselves before her.
"Hall Lord."
The warriors bowed their heads to the ground.
"We have come to escort you."
The one who seemed their leader spoke in a voice of the utmost respect, his head pressed to the ground.
"We have dealt with all the Returning to One Realm rabble that clung to you, Hall Lord."
Ssk.
She rose from her place.
Swish.
And as she turned once around, a lavish red robe wrapped itself about her body.
The warriors tilted their heads.
As mistress of the Underworld, she had always worn colorless clothes.
So why was she suddenly donning such a gorgeous robe?
While prostrated, the warriors exchanged bewildered glances.
She walked forward as if it were nothing,
Fwoooosh.
And, becoming a single mass of brilliant flame, slowly vanished into the far sky.
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