Chapter 450: Shaken (5)
HMMMMM.
The sword hummed.
Hm?
Yeon Wi, sitting against a tree as he wiped away his sweat, looked at the sword he had planted in the ground.
What was that?
I'm certain the sword just hummed on its own.
A master of Yeon Wi's caliber could not have imagined it.
And he was no longer the Yeon Wi of the past. Ever since the Righteous Justice Corps had been established and Yeon Hojeong had departed on campaign as Supreme Commander of the field forces, Yeon Wi had devoted himself to training more intensely than ever before.
He trained alongside Tang Gwan, occasionally supplemented by Je Gal Munho's advice. In terms of quality, there could hardly have been a better environment.
Perhaps that was why. Yeon Wi's Sword-Extremity Four Arts had progressed beyond complete mastery and entered yet another domain, while one of the Three Absolute Sword Strikes had been brought to definitive completion.
And where had that brought him?
RUSTLE.
The breeze stirred the sword.
Shhhh.
Yeon Wi rested both arms across his raised knees.
He did not reach out. There was not even any perceptible flow of Inner Qi being released.
And yet the sword began moving on its own, slowly pulling itself free of the earth.
Yeon Wi's eyes gleamed.
SHING!
The sword slipped smoothly from the ground, floated into the air, and came to a stop before him.
The remote manipulation was so effortless it was almost frightening. Not even the flow of Inner Qi could be sensed. The sheer level of martial mastery involved made it seem as though he were commanding the sword through will alone.
Yeon Wi reached out and took hold of it.
HMMMMM.
The sword hummed again.
Was it because it had returned to its master's hand?
Or was some unknown force at work?
Yeon Wi stared at the sword for a long moment before lifting his gaze to the sky.
A faint smile touched his lips.
“Hojeong?”
He had no idea why his eldest son's name had slipped from his mouth just then.
But for some reason, he felt good. Almost as if, to the same extent that he himself had grown, his son had grown tremendously as well.
And not only Hojeong.
The next face to arise naturally in his mind was that of his second son, whose boyish traces had long since vanished.
Before leaving the Martial Alliance, his second son had swung his sword with an intensity bordering on madness.
Yeon Wi had been terribly worried about him.
Yet now, for reasons he could not explain, he felt certain the boy had overcome every hardship and matured splendidly.
That was simply how he felt.
As Yeon Wi continued gazing up at the sky, someone spoke to him.
“You look as though something good happened.”
That faintly mocking tone had become so familiar by now that it almost felt companionable.
Yeon Wi answered calmly.
“The sunlight is pleasant.”
Tang Gwan looked up at the sky and frowned.
“This place really is different from Sichuan.”
“Is it?”
“Come visit sometime and see for yourself what Sichuan is like.”
“I have heard that it sees fewer sunny days than most other regions of the Central Plains.”
“There is a reason people say the dogs bark when the sun comes out. Then again, perhaps living in a place like that naturally makes people gloomy.”
Yeon Wi burst out laughing despite himself. He genuinely found Tang Gwan's words amusing.
“Are all Sichuan people gloomy, then?”
“It's just an expression. More importantly...”
Tang Gwan's eyes sharpened.
“You've improved again already?”
“In what way?”
“I saw what you did just now. You manipulated the sword through the air as naturally as breathing.”
Yeon Wi shook his head.
“Surely a trick of that level is easy for Clan Lord Tang as well. Compared with you, I am barely taking my first steps. I still have a very long way to go.”
If one judged purely by the movement of objects controlled from a distance, Yeon Wi was not wrong. Tang Gwan's remote manipulation of hidden weapons possessed a degree of finesse pushed to its absolute extreme.
And yet Tang Gwan had sensed something in Yeon Wi's display that was almost impossible to put into words.
It had felt as though the sword had moved not through Inner Qi, but through sheer will.
...Sword Control?
Tang Gwan unconsciously shook his head.
No. Not yet.
He had seen the true realm of Sword Control before.
From none other than his own father.
The Sword Control wielded by his father had been an entirely different world. Tang Gwan had never even imagined that anything like it could be achieved through human ability.
Yeon Wi's realization had certainly not reached true Sword Control.
And yet...
He's touching it. Clan Lord Yeon's realization has latched onto the very edge of Sword Control with almost unnatural ease.
Tang Gwan felt a hollow laugh escape him.
At his age, with his current martial prowess, and he's still growing this fast... What a damned monster.
Since coming to the Martial Alliance, Yeon Wi's rate of improvement could only be described as dazzling.
And remarkably, the same thing had happened to Tang Gwan himself. Growth that had long been stagnant had begun again.
The process of understanding martial principles completely different from one's own can become the fuel for explosive growth...
Of course, not just anyone could achieve something like this.
Both Tang Gwan and Yeon Wi were struggling to create new martial arts. They had agonized endlessly and poured almost blood-spitting effort into bringing those arts to completion.
That was precisely why such growth had been possible.
And their children probably played a part as well.
Tang Gwan remembered a conversation he had once had with Yeon Wi.
“Doesn't it frighten you?”
“What does?”
“Your second son is undeniably a genius. But Yeon Hojeong... that bastard has gone beyond even that. At his age, with the level he's already reached, it won't be long before he surpasses you.”
“Ha ha. Merely hearing you say that fills me with joy.”
“Only joy? You're not afraid?”
“What is there to fear? My child has grown up and, before I even realized it, reached the point where he can surpass his own father. What could bring greater joy or move me more deeply than that?”
“Hmph.”
“However, I cannot simply stand still either.”
“You can't stand still?”
“As a father, nothing would make me happier than seeing my son surpass me. But as a martial artist, I want to become an even higher wall before him—something that drives him toward still greater heights.”
“...”
“If the sword were all I cared about, there would be no need to sweat like this. I could simply contemplate it, then contemplate it again. But as both a martial artist and a father, I have no choice but to grow stronger.”
“And if he surpasses you anyway?”
“Then I will gladly admit defeat. It would probably be the happiest and most beautiful defeat in the world.”
Tang Gwan smirked.
The happiest and most beautiful defeat in the world, huh? Sounds nice enough.
He had never once approached things that way.
Within the Tang Clan, even brothers who shared the same blood were competitors.
And that was hardly the extent of it.
Tang Gwan had spent countless years wanting not to understand his father, Tang Hyeong, but to step over him and rise higher.
Yet this father and son were different.
They cherished and loved one another, and still never stopped pushing each other forward.
Could this also be called friendly competition?
Whatever one chose to call it, the important thing was that there could hardly be another father and son quite like them.
Tang Gwan remembered another part of that conversation.
“What about you, Clan Lord Tang?”
“If you're going to start bragging about your children, spare me. I don't have a child that monstrous.”
“Ha ha ha. That isn't what I meant.”
“Then what?”
“Are you not constantly striving to reach greater heights so that Sang-a can see greater heights herself? To show her a broader world?”
“You're mistaken. I think only of myself. Even helping you is for the sake of my own growth.”
“Ha ha.”
“Don't laugh.”
“Ha ha ha.”
“I said stop laughing.”
And somehow the conversation had simply dissolved there, without ever reaching a real conclusion.
But inwardly, Tang Gwan had been shaken.
Something about Yeon Wi's words had struck uncomfortably close to the truth.
Cultivating oneself for another person's sake?
Tang Gwan had never lived such a life. Whether that person was a parent or a child, the idea simply did not apply to him.
At least, that was what he had always believed.
...
Tang Gwan watched Yeon Wi with complicated eyes, then cleared his throat.
“When are you finishing today's training?”
“It can end at any moment, and it can begin again at any moment. Is that not the nature of training?”
“You make it sound good.”
“Why? Were you thinking of sharing a drink for once?”
“You think I could get liquor down my throat with things the way they are now?”
Tang Gwan's eyes gleamed.
“What do you make of Deung Cheongyo's bombshell?”
He spoke Deung Cheongyo's full name without the slightest hesitation.
Yeon Wi shook his head.
“What is there to make of it? Everyone knows now, and Venerable Gonggong has shouldered the remaining political burden himself. I only regret that we were unable to lighten that burden for him.”
“That isn't what I mean. We had a reason for keeping the existence of the Three Creeds secret all this time, didn't we?”
“We did.”
“And now all of that has gone up in smoke. Strategist Je Gal has been investigating the councillors, but that work has not even reached the halfway point.”
Tang Gwan's gaze turned razor-sharp.
“It isn't Mo Yonggun.”
The remark came without warning, but Yeon Wi nodded in agreement.
“I don't believe it is either.”
“At first, I wondered whether Deung Cheongyo himself might be the infiltrator. But after thinking it through, that seems unlikely as well.”
“Likelihood is only likelihood. Still, I agree with you.”
Yeon Wi gave a bitter smile.
“People meticulous enough to infiltrate the imperial court and the government offices—and even support the establishment of Ink Dragon Manor—would never make such a careless mistake.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
Yeon Wi stared quietly at his sword for a moment, then rose and sheathed it.
“Things have come to this, but there is nothing we can do immediately. If we move recklessly, we may only alert the enemy before we're ready.”
“Damn frustrating.”
“Strategist Je Gal will ask for our help soon enough. Until then, let us refrain from indulging in baseless speculation.”
Yeon Wi looked far more relaxed than expected.
Considering his usual temperament, that composure was strange. In a crisis, Yeon Wi was normally the kind of man who tightened the reins on himself more severely than anyone.
Tang Gwan studied him for a moment, then smirked.
“When?”
“Hm? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Yeon Hojeong. When did that bastard say he was coming back?”
Surprise crossed Yeon Wi's face.
“How did you know?”
“I only had to look at your face. Unless he's coming back—or unless some revolutionary countermeasure has suddenly appeared—would you be standing there looking this relaxed?”
“Ha ha ha. Your powers of observation truly are extraordinary, Clan Lord Tang.”
“I'm not extraordinary. You're simply easy to read.”
The cold, rigid Yeon Wi of the past would have been impossible to read even for Tang Gwan.
But the Yeon Wi of today possessed enough inner ease to let his feelings show openly.
“He sent word that he plans to depart in five days.”
“Five days.”
“Though it seems he won't be coming straight back to the Alliance. Apparently, there are several places he intends to stop along the way.”
Tang Gwan frowned.
“If he's coming, he should hurry up and come. Where the hell does he need to go wandering off to now?”
“Ha ha. I don't know either. But surely nothing serious will happen.”
Yeon Wi looked toward the distant south.
Toward Guangdong Province.
Toward the place where both of his sons now were.
“They have probably grown tremendously.”
A quiet smile touched his face.
“Perhaps even more than I have.”
******
Despite the large window and the broad daylight outside, the room somehow felt dark.
Within that dim space, a deeply unsettling conversation was taking place.
“Didn't you go too far this time?”
“...”
“Deung Cheongyo is certainly suspicious enough. But that suspicion won't hold for long. Je Gal Munho is no ordinary man. Before long, he'll realize that the infiltrator among the councillors is someone other than Deung Cheongyo.”
“...”
“I truly don't understand you.”
“You...”
The shadow's wavering voice stretched out like a snake crawling across a swamp.
“Have no need to worry about pointless things. Simply do as you're told.”
“As you wish. So what would you like me to do next?”
“Orders will come soon. Until then, you need only behave in a manner befitting your position.”
“Fine. And let me ask one favor.”
“...”
“Don't come to see me at this hour. The thought of getting caught makes my skin crawl.”
SHHH.
The instant those words ended, the shadow vanished.
It was an art difficult to believe even after seeing it firsthand. There was no telling whether it had been a movement art or something altogether more uncanny.
A sneer spread across the man's face.
“Still as fucking obnoxious as ever.”
Just then, a young voice came from outside.
“Sect Leader. It's me. Are you inside?”
“You've come?”
“Yes. I brought the item you asked for.”
“Ha ha. Good work. Come in.”
The swaggering tone he had used only moments earlier, like some street hooligan lounging in a marketplace, vanished without a trace.
In an instant, his voice took on the composed dignity befitting the leader of a great sect.