A pitch-black darkness had settled in the offices of the Death Shadow Corps.
It was as if all the stillness under heaven lay prostrate at his feet.
Inside the hall, only the rustle of turning dispatches and the brush of a pen grazing paper cut through the quiet.
For days now, Bu Eunseol had all but given up food and drink to read the dispatches piled on his desk.
He surveyed the lay of all under heaven, including the state of the martial world and the movements of the imperial court.
His grand designs, advancing in secret, proceeded without a hair's breadth of error.
And yet, something was strange.
Although he had the focus to remain sharp after nights without sleep, a stray thought rose in him now and then, and his gaze went dim.
"Mmm."
Bu Eunseol swallowed a low groan.
He had considered the feelings welling up in his heart as nothing more than cumbersome things that got in the way of cool judgment.
Yet from a corner of his fortress-like spirit, strange feelings he had never wanted came surging up unbidden.
'Who in the world is she?'
When he recalled his memories of her, the letters on the page blurred and ran.
At the same time, the figure of the woman who had gazed up at the gray sky shimmered before him like mist.
Her face was white as jade beneath her wet hair, and her long, large eyes stared blankly into empty air...
'These are useless thoughts.'
But the harder he tried to concentrate, the more the woman's afterimage scattered like smoke, only to gather again even more vividly.
Wooom.
In the end, he even worked the secret art for governing the heart.
Yet his mind only grew more troubled, and the image of the woman he tried to forget became clearer still.
He recalled the straight line of her collarbone showing dimly past her wet robes, and her long fingers touching the raindrops with a gaze that had forgotten every care in the world...
Snap.
In the end, the brush he was holding snapped in his grip.
At so grave a time as this, why was he spending his heart on something so useless?
What was this feeling, and where had this confusion come from?
Bu Eunseol drew a deep breath.
'I do not have the leisure to pour time into feelings like these.'
From here on, his every step was bound up not only with himself and the Death Shadow Corps but with the safety of all under heaven.
In a time so busy and harried, how could he call up the face of an unknown woman and fail to suppress the strange ripples in his chest?
Ssk.
To shake free of his thoughts, Bu Eunseol rose from his seat and opened the box where he had kept the burned treasure-robe.
Although the flames of that supernatural power had badly damaged it, he could not throw away a treasure-robe his men had gone to such trouble to recover, keeping it stored with care.
"...!"
As Bu Eunseol looked into the box, his eyes went wide.
To his astonishment, every trace of the melting had vanished, and the robe was restored to its flawless form.
'What a remarkable treasure.'
To heal its own damaged parts like a living creature?
He had never even heard a rumor of such a precious thing existing in the martial world.
Shaaaa.
Just then, the sound of rain suddenly came from beyond the window.
Looking out, he saw a heavy downpour soaking the whole world beneath a bright, full moon.
In that instant, a strange sentiment rose in his heart.
'If I go back there, might I see her again?'
It was an absurd thought.
To reach Mount Unrim from Majeon took more than one shichen, even with his qinggong at full strength. (1 shichen = 2 hours)
In a time when every minute and second counted, throwing away that time for no purpose made no sense whatsoever.
"Useless thoughts."
Bu Eunseol shook his head.
Never once until now had he wasted time or done anything without a plan.
"And yet..."
Looking back, hadn't he been doing absurd things all this while?
The unforeseen.
Bu Eunseol was a man who had always acted just so.
Ssk.
In the end, Bu Eunseol drew the long robe from the box and threw it over his shoulders once more.
Krrng!
A single black meteor streaked across the night sky.
He unfolded Swift Beyond Shadow with all his strength and set out for Mount Unrim.
'Which sect's disciple is she?'
From that calm and steady gaze alone, she was clearly a master who had reached a high level.
But what martial art she practiced, or whether she belonged to the orthodox or unorthodox path, remained completely hidden.
'Strange.'
All at once, he realized something new.
'That I can unfold my qinggong even while such idle thoughts run through my head.'
Qinggong required the coordination of contact with the ground, recoil, hanging in the air, landing, leaping off again, the shifting of one's center, the flow of inner energy, breathing, and even the direction of one's gaze.
Every sense, physical organ, and the will itself had to be brought into extreme harmony to unfold it.
For this reason, it was also called a body-movement art (身行武學).
To unfold qinggong at full strength was, like circulating qi, a sustained state of selfless absorption.
So why did such unfamiliar feelings and idle thoughts keep rising in him without end?
And how could he hold to a boundless stillness, as though he had entered meditative absorption (禪定)?
Kwaooo.
Before he knew it, Bu Eunseol had reached the deep secluded valley on Mount Unrim.
Shaaaa.
Then, as if it had been waiting, the same heavy rain came pouring down.
Bu Eunseol walked to the lakeshore and stood before the great tree of that day.
And as he had then, he reached out his hand and touched the raindrops.
It was a gesture born of his longing for her, though he did not realize it.
Tap, tap.
Each time a falling drop touched his fingertips, strange feelings spread through him.
A piercing ache, a tender yearning, a quiet sorrow.
The lakeshore at dawn, where cold raindrops fell and no one else stood, was filled to the brim with longing for a single person.
Shaaaa.
The leaves stirred on the wind, and the sound of falling rain seemed to melt softly at his ear.
Without realizing it, Bu Eunseol closed his eyes.
'Was it only a single night's dream?'
The mysterious woman he had met by the lake had been a sweet daydream, that was all.
Just as he drew a deep breath of the rain-and-wind-mingled air and made to unfold his movement technique again, an indescribable fragrance, both sweet and fresh, came drifting into his nose.
Ssk.
Bu Eunseol slowly turned his head.
In that instant, a slender shadow appeared across from him.
Her long hair fell in soft curves like a crescent moon, reaching to her waist, and her translucent skin held the light.
She was a beauty with a rare and indescribable air.
It was the very woman he had met before.
Tak.
She strode up to Bu Eunseol and threw something to him.
It was the gourd flask she had worn at her waist before.
"Wine you brewed yourself?"
In his gladness, he tossed out a clumsy greeting.
"Even the Bunyang wine house of Shanxi, called the finest under heaven, could not make wine like this."
"..."
"Rack my brains as I might, I cannot even begin to guess what wine house brewed something so wondrous."
When she still said nothing, Bu Eunseol took a mouthful of the wine.
A scent both fierce and fragrant, enough to make one forget every care in the world, lingered in his mouth.
She held out her hand without a word.
She seemed to ask for the flask.
Tak.
When Bu Eunseol tossed the flask back, she caught it and drank in silence.
Gulp, gulp.
Unlike Bu Eunseol, who kept the wine in his mouth as long as possible to savor its scent and flavor, she was different; like an upstart suddenly rich and heedless of the world, she poured the priceless wine straight down her throat without restraint.
Bu Eunseol watched her with a spellbound look.
Never once had he paid close attention to anyone putting food to their lips, yet now, he found himself watching her drink.
Pattering.
Tap, tap.
As they sat leaning against the great tree and passed the flask back and forth, the rain gradually came to a stop.
Tak.
The wine in the flask was emptied to the last drop.
During all that time, the two did not exchange a single word.
As if simply being together in one place was enough.
Pattering.
When the rain stopped entirely, the woman slowly rose to her feet.
Knowing she meant to leave, Bu Eunseol spoke.
"I know it is not proper, but I think a meeting like this is a deep bond all the same.
So why not at least exchange names?"
"..."
"In this world, there are countless roads, and we are like numberless dots that brush past one another.
That my road has crossed yours more than once, even for a fleeting instant, leaves too deep a ripple to dismiss as a passing bond."
Still, there was no response.
Clearing his throat, Bu Eunseol spoke quietly.
"A thing does not vanish for having no name.
Does not that nameless wildflower yonder, and the cloud drifting across the sky, keep its own form all the same?"
He was naturally a fluent speaker, and had always used a manner of speech that struck only the point, with nothing wasted.
But now, it was as if he were a green youth stepping into the schoolroom for the first time, laying out nothing but needlessly long-winded words.
Pad, pad.
She turned away without so much as a glance behind her, like a debtor who has paid off all their debts and walks away light and unburdened.
'So in the end, she only repaid the favor.'
It seemed she had brought wine here again to repay the kindness of Bu Eunseol, who had saved her from danger, and not knowing when he would come, she must have waited at about the same hour each day.
'It cannot be helped.'
Bu Eunseol swallowed a lonely smile.
A bond cannot be forced into being; since she did not wish it, the bond ended here.
But just then, he found twigs laid out neatly at the spot she had left.
Dali (達理).
She had left her name in answer to Bu Eunseol's question before she went.
'If not a nun of some Taoist order, then an outlander from beyond the frontier.'
It looked like it could be a dharma name (法名) or the name of a woman from Cheonchuk.
What was certain was that Dali was her name.
"Dali, Dali..."
She had told him her name, so the bond was not broken; no, it was surely a promise to meet again.
Without realizing it, Bu Eunseol repeated her name without end.
* * *
Everything was beautiful, and the world was at peace.
At some point, Bu Eunseol had begun to count the days, waiting for rain.
Because when it rained, she would be there.
Because she would be standing quietly by that moonlit lakeshore, the sparkle of her two eyes turned away.
A smile leaked out of him before he knew it.
"Command Lord."
Wi Cheongyeong, seated across from Bu Eunseol, spoke carefully.
"Are you perhaps unwell somewhere?"
Only then did Bu Eunseol come to himself and look around.
The moonlit lakeshore had vanished; in its place, he saw a great table and the Death Shadow Corps captains watching him with worried eyes.
"Ah."
Unable to admit he had been daydreaming in the middle of a council, Bu Eunseol shook his head.
"No.
It is nothing."
He shook his head and rose from his seat.
In such a tangled state of mind, he could not focus on the council in any case.
"Let's do this later."
"Sir?"
"It would be best to rest a few days and take it up again."
The eyes of the captains, Wi Cheongyeong among them, went round; he, who guarded against wasting even a minute or a second, was suddenly calling a halt to the council?
"A good idea."
Then, Yoo Unryong spoke.
"It is about time you had some rest."
Until now, Bu Eunseol had not rested a single day as he wrung out his wisdom, handling every tangled problem and going out into the martial world to settle dangerous matters alone.
He had borne every heavy duty by himself all this while, so it was indeed about time he took a spell of rest.
"As the Command Lord says, let the rest of us take some rest for a while too."
Yoo Unryong said, looking at the captains.
"While we're at it, why not let the men rest in shifts?
We can take some home-leave requests too."
"A good idea."
Bu Eunseol nodded as he rose from his seat.
"See to it as you think best."
And then, he swept out.
The captains wore blank looks for a moment.
For it was a sight they had never once seen until now.
"It seems some change has come over the Command Lord's heart."
At Wi Cheongyeong's words, Yoo Unryong shook his head.
"Let's leave it there for today."
In the end, the only one who could steady Bu Eunseol's heart was the man himself, and for now, there was nothing to do but trust him and wait.
* * *
A chill that bored into the bones rose up, and the pitch-black interior flickered with burning corpse-fires.
Beneath eerie shafts of light that seemed to seize the very souls of men, black shadows stood ranged in heavy silence, and a great curtain hung above a high altar that looked down on the prostrate figures.
Beyond the curtain, the shape of a towering shadow was cast.
"Now is the very time to carry out the grand design we have prepared and tear up the Baekri Branch Family by the roots."
"Clues to the Venerable Lord's (尊主) whereabouts keep surfacing without end from Cheonchuk."
The Venerable Lord (尊主).
It was the word the True Demon's kin used to name the True Demon.
The senior figures had a firm grasp of the lay of all under heaven, and they were discussing the grand design they had long been advancing.
But what had brought them together this time was nothing other than a piece of shocking intelligence.
"Martial Soul Command Lord Bu Eunseol.
That man must be dealt with."
One point on which the senior figures agreed was removing the figure who thwarted their grand design at every turn, Majeon's heir, the Martial Soul Command Lord.
Tilt.
The shadow, which had not stirred at all until now, tilted its head to one side.
He had not only struck down the True Demon's kin but brought many of their plans to ruin.
Yet that was not a bad thing.
The True Demon had always wished for his kin to fight and devour one another, saying that through it, the end of his long wait was coming into sight.
So why did his underlings suddenly beg him to strike down the Martial Soul Command Lord?
"The Martial Soul Command Lord is a game-stone of the Returning to One Realm Lord."
His underlings told him an astonishing thing.
"That man is wiping away the Martial Soul Command Lord's tracks and covering his back.
There is surely some connection between them."
"..."
But the shadow within the curtain gave no response at all.
As the prostrate figures made to plead once more,
Whoosh.
The corpse-fires burning on every side guttered out all at once.
And the shadow cast upon the curtain rose from its seat.
Killing intent and waves of true energy burst out from every direction, sweeping through the interior like a tide.
The prostrate shadows bowed their heads.
It was as good as a declaration that he would strike down the Martial Soul Command Lord himself.
This was the Underworld (冥府), the place that governed death.
No one could go against the will of its ruler.
* * *
Today, no rain fell.
Even so, Bu Eunseol made for the secluded valley on Mount Unrim.
He could deny it no longer.
That he was being drawn powerfully to Dali.
Only now had he discovered the strange, burning feelings he should first have known in his boyhood.
Whooo.
A cool wind brushed through the forest.
For a moment, he felt the illusion that a beautiful woman was walking slowly toward this place, lighting up the dark lakeshore.
But she did not come.
Crestfallen, Bu Eunseol let out a deep sigh and made for the great tree where he had always sheltered from the rain.
"...!"
He checked his step.
For on the great tree, a small verse had been carved in an extremely fine and lovely hand.
―'In the red dust of the world, troubles are many (紅塵多煩事),'
―'in quiet, secluded places there is no quarrel of right and wrong (幽境無是非).'
―'The affairs of the world rise in confusion and trouble my heart (世事紛紛亂我心);'
―'better to turn back and lie on an empty mountain where no one comes (不如歸去臥空山).'
Tracing the carved words with his finger as he read them, Bu Eunseol wore a dazed look.
"The affairs of the world rise in confusion and trouble the heart..."
Drawing a deep breath, he murmured low.
"To an empty mountain where no one comes..."
In that instant, his heart heaved greatly.
This verse was surely the one Dali had carved, and within it lay two meanings.
The first was a proposal that even if the end of the world should come, it would be better to turn one's back on this dust-blown world and meet the end in some quiet place, enjoying a simple happiness.
"So in the end..."
Bu Eunseol murmured with a pained look.
"We cannot stand in the same world together."
And the second meaning was this.
Leave the martial world.
Otherwise, you will be buried on an empty mountain where there is nothing.
If so, Dali surely belonged to a force set against his own.
Bu Eunseol kept a long silence and brooded.
After he had been sunk in deep thought a good while, he made his decision.
"Lady Dali."
He murmured her name in a low voice.
And he grew honest with his own heart.
Shing.
Drawing his sword, he carved words into the other side of the great tree.
Shk, shk, shk.
When he had carved the words, Bu Eunseol gazed at them blankly for a long while before leaving the place.
How much time had passed?
Ssssk.
Beneath the bright moonlight, a small shadow appeared in the secluded valley.
She was a woman with a faraway gaze, as if looking on some endlessly distant place, and a quiet, mysterious air.
It was Dali.
Step, step.
Going up to the great tree without hesitation, she read the words Bu Eunseol had carved.
"..."
For a while, she stood before the tree, still as stone.
―'Whether the world rises or falls is no concern of mine (塵世興亡非我問),'
―'though heaven and earth overturn and perish, how should it be my fault? (乾坤覆滅豈吾愆)'
―'If only I might take your fair hand and, leaving the world, hide away with you (願攜佳人歸隱去)...'
―'a single day of joy would be worth more than a thousand years of life (一日歡愉勝千年).'
"To take your hand and leave the world, a single day worth more than a thousand years..."
It was a confession of love, as sincere and as ardent as could be.
Dali knew it too.
She knew that Bu Eunseol had come to feel fondness for her.
No, she knew that at first sight, he felt a love like fate itself.
In response to her verse urging him to leave, he had instead left a burning confession.
"How absurd."
Letting out a deep sigh, she gazed at the distant sky.
"How is it that my heart has become entangled?"
And as if she hoped not even she herself would hear it, she murmured low.
"To have my heart stolen by a green, half-grown youth..."
A mysterious light had gathered at her fingertips all the while.
If it became clear that Bu Eunseol had no intention of leaving the martial world, she meant to kill him without hesitation.
But the moment she read those words steeped in pure love, the heart she had hardened so cruelly wavered.
"With his strength, he will not survive in the martial world to come..."
In Dali's eyes, Bu Eunseol's skill made it impossible for him to stand against the powerful foes who would emerge.
She had hoped he would quietly leave the martial world, but that had become a dream.
"Haa."
Murmuring low, Dali gazed at the distant sky.
All at once, the face of Bu Eunseol rose in her mind, the man who had held her and broken through that wall of burning flame.
In her eyes, it was as if a mere foolish boy had stepped forward to save the foremost swordsman under heaven.
Only, those pure, ardently burning eyes made her feel something like fate.
Dali slowly stretched out her hand.
And as she poured forth a mysterious light,
Swish, swish.
Before long, shimmering shadows landed all around her.
They were women clad in silver-dyed robes and wearing mysterious masks.
"This is not a command I give as the mistress of the Underworld."
In a low voice, she gave them her order.
"You are my own divided selves..."
Dali.
She was none other than the mistress of the Underworld, and the True Demon's servant who held the power to destroy all natural order.
She was Pasun.
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