Chapter 145
Maybe it was because I had used so many herbs to ease tension, but Yeon Ryang did not wake until dawn.
Seeing as he never skipped his early-morning training no matter what happened, the fact that he was still asleep at this hour meant his fatigue must have piled up badly.
I wonder if the inn has any fish. I should get some crucian carp and simmer it for him today.
My thoughts were too unsettled for me to focus properly. I had decided to call it a day and was gathering the hidden weapons scattered around when someone clapped and spoke.
“Ooh. This is my first time seeing a martial artist use hidden weapons.”
I nearly flicked a Butterfly Dart on instinct, then jerked my hand back in surprise.
Yang Gyojin was hanging upside down from a tree, staring at me.
“What? Why are you spying on someone else’s training?”
“Hm? You didn’t say anything, so I thought it was fine to watch.”
“Why would it be?”
I answered coldly and glared at Yang Gyojin.
When did she get here? I missed her presence? She’s no ordinary person either.
Somehow irritated, I pursed my lips. Yang Gyojin spoke as though she found me fascinating.
“Sohae, you’re stronger than you look. I’ve never seen anyone split a rock with a hidden weapon without putting internal energy into it.”
“I know.”
“But do you have to use them that way?”
“What?”
“Trying to crush everything with strength wears you out fast. Unless you can end things in one blow, you won’t be able to keep that up for more than ten seconds. It doesn’t look very good to me.”
Is she picking a fight?
My expression shifted, and Yang Gyojin hurriedly waved both hands.
“No, no. I’m not mocking you.”
“Fine, then explain it properly. Exactly what is wrong with it?”
“When your strength begins to fade, your center will waver. That means more openings. If it were me, I’d drag things out until you were exhausted. Once you showed an opening, I could slip in and take you down much more easily.”
I blinked at Yang Gyojin’s criticism. I had never considered what I looked like through a swordsman’s eyes.
“I understand what you mean. But if you dragged things out, wouldn’t the poison get you before I went down?”
“Oh. I forgot about poison. Then I’d be the one in trouble.”
As if it had simply slipped her mind, she stuck out her tongue and laughed sheepishly. Then she turned herself over and slid down from the tree.
Yang Gyojin landed lightly and stretched.
“Anyway, that’s what I think. You’re putting too much force into it. Wouldn’t it be better to let it flow more flexibly? Maybe hidden weapons work differently from swords?”
“Hidden weapons aren’t meant for frontal contests in the first place. You have to target an opponent’s vital points precisely from a distance. If I relax the force, the trajectory shifts.”
“That’s true too. You need to control the hidden weapons. Though you seem to control them somewhat crudely.”
Yang Gyojin conceded the point and looked at me with a vacant grin.
Hearing her call me crude felt a little unfair.
...Wait. Control?
The word sounded familiar. Narrowing my eyes, I realized that what she had said resembled something Grandfather once told me.
“Hidden-weapon techniques are not merely about throwing poison-coated weapons around like some brute. Our ultimate goal is to control countless variables.”
Huh. Was I missing something?
“Yang Gyojin. Explain more.”
“What?”
“You said I’m putting too much force into it. What do you mean by letting it flow?”
“That? Hmm. I can’t hit things as precisely as you can, so keep that in mind. I don’t know much about hidden weapons, but...”
Yang Gyojin picked up a frozen pinecone from the ground.
Her previously vague eyes sharpened, and her foolish-looking expression turned serious.
She stretched out her arm, and the pinecone flew through the air.
Roll. Tap. Tap-tap.
The pinecone rolled over the ground and only stopped when it reached my feet.
“Wouldn’t it be better to conceal its presence like this, even if you use less force?”
Yang Gyojin turned to me and shrugged.
The pinecone had not flown even ten feet. The motion of throwing it had not been particularly impressive, and it had not accurately struck anything, either.
But something was different.
For that brief instant when it drifted through the air as though riding the wind, it resembled the copper coins Grandfather had thrown.
“Hey, Yang Gyojin!”
“Hm?”
“How did you do that? Do it again!”
My eyes widened as I grabbed her shoulders and shook her back and forth.
*****
Confucius had been right when he said that whenever three people walked together, one of them was bound to be my teacher.
Yang Gyojin was a genius.
No matter what she said, she usually seemed vague-minded. But when it came to martial arts, she answered with startling clarity, as though she had swallowed a mind-clearing tonic.
I grabbed Yang Gyojin and pelted her with questions without pause.
“Gyojin, listen. I once crossed swords with a swordsman, and he deflected my throwing knife like this. Then he loaded my own force into his sword and sent it straight back at me. Do you know what that was?”
“I do! There’s a name for it. Shifting Flowers... Braising Meat?”
“...That doesn’t sound right even when you say it. It sounds like the name of a meat dish.”
Yang Gyojin scratched her cheek with a vacant expression, then groaned for a while as though forcing her mind to work.
“I really do know it. Wait. Hmm... Ah, I remember! Shifting Flowers and Grafting Trees! Like grafting a branch, you add your own technique to the opponent’s move and send it back.”
“More like grafting, not just attaching.”
“Ah. That must be it.”
Yang Gyojin nodded, picked up two branches lying around, crossed them like swords, and twisted them apart.
“Like this, you redirect it... then like this. Hmm. It’s not working very well. I can redirect an attack, but sending it back is still difficult for me. Who was it? Was he around our age? You met someone strong. I want to meet him too.”
“He’s probably only just past twenty. He was a Taoist from the Wudang Sect. Then how would you counter it if an expert sent your own technique back at you?”
“Hmm. I’d have to face him to know, but if it were me...”
Discussing ways to counter other martial artists’ techniques together was a new kind of pleasure. We talked for a long time, sharing the techniques each of us had encountered.
Ah. This is fun. This is really fun.
Unlike me, who was getting more excited by the minute, Yang Gyojin seemed to be losing steam. Her lips moved soundlessly for a while before she slowly slumped down.
“Sohae. Can we keep going after we eat? I’m hungry.”
When I followed the finger she had pointed at the sky, I found that the sun had already climbed high overhead.
“Wait, when did it get this late? Brother must be awake. Let’s go eat—Brother, when did you get here?”
Startled, I jumped to my feet and saw Yeon Ryang leaning against a tree with a smile.
“I got here a while ago. Did you have fun? You both looked like you were working your heads hard, so I thought you might eat a lot and ordered roast duck. Let’s go inside.”
“Duck! I’m starving!”
Yang Gyojin cried out cheerfully and looked at me with eager eyes. When I waved her on, she ran toward the inn in excitement.
Yeon Ryang approached with a small smile and ruffled my hair.
“Getting so absorbed in talking swordplay that you lost track of time. My little sister really looks like a martial artist now.”
“Brother, I think she’s a genius. Her family’s secret art is spear arts, right? But she applies those principles to the sword? She says she has never studied swordplay separately. How is that possible?”
“Is that so? You must have had a lot to learn.”
“She keeps pointing out things I’ve never even considered. It was really fun. How does she think of things like that? It’s incredible.”
Amused by how excited I was, Yeon Ryang agreed with a smile, then nudged me along by the back.
“Come on. You can talk swordplay again later. Let’s eat first. Your friend got there ahead of us.”
“Okay. But you know, if it were you, a martial artist who uses a saber—”
“Ha ha, Sohae. That’s enough. We’ll talk after we eat. After we eat.”
Yeon Ryang cut me off firmly. I swallowed my disappointment, nodded, and followed him.
Unlike Yang Gyojin, who kept putting food into her mouth without pause, Yeon Ryang ate less than half of what he normally did.
Even Cane, sitting on Yeon Ryang’s lap and being fed pieces of meat, tilted its head and watched him closely.
Seeing him look so unwell made me lose my appetite too.
He can’t circulate energy, so his stamina probably isn’t recovering...
This won’t do. I need to simmer some crucian carp first.
I set down my chopsticks and called the inn runner.
“Excuse me, could I get some crucian carp? A large one suitable for simmering for a long time.”
“Ah, I’m sorry, miss. It’s winter, so anglers do not come by often. We don’t have any fish at the inn.”
“Then is there a river nearby where I could fish?”
“There is a small river west of the inn, miss. But the river is frozen, so I do not know whether you’ll be able to catch anything.”
“Thank you.”
Yeon Ryang watched my conversation with the inn runner, looking puzzled.
“Why crucian carp?”
“What do you mean, why? It’s for you. Let’s clear the stagnant blood before we reach Yueyang.”
Yeon Ryang looked as though he wondered whether that was really necessary, but he did not try to stop me.
“If you can’t catch anything, don’t push yourself. It’s cold outside.”
“I’ll bring back the biggest one. Cane, let’s go fishing.”
“KIK.”
As I rose, Cane scampered over and climbed onto my shoulder.
Yang Gyojin, who was tearing at a duck leg, looked at me regretfully.
“We aren’t going to play anymore? That was fun.”
“Later. I still haven’t figured out how to counter your three techniques. I’ll think about it, and we can try again later.”
“I’ll wait. Bring back a big one.”
With a bright smile, Yang Gyojin waved both hands and wished me well.
Carrying a basket borrowed from the inn runner and a little bait, I left the inn.
An angler sat by the river, where a thin layer of ice had formed.
He was an old man with a bamboo hat pulled low over his face.
The sight of him holding a fishing rod in weather this cold without even a padded cloak made me uneasy.
Is he an ordinary civilian? He looks like a normal old man, but something feels off.
After giving him a sidelong glance, I chose a spot far away from him and studied the river.
Fortunately, there was a patch where the water had not frozen over. I planned to scatter a little bait there, lure in the fish, and hook the largest one I could find.
I set down the basket and reached for the bait. Then Cane leaped urgently from my arms, its fur standing on end as it growled.
“Ho. A beast that knows how to greet a guest.”
A voice sounded behind me, and a chill ran down my spine.
I turned slowly.
The old man had approached without a sound and was staring directly at me.
“That green robe suits you well, miss.”
“Uh... thank you?”
I answered hesitantly, but it did not feel like a compliment.
The old man chuckled to himself and fiddled with the fishing rod slung over his shoulder. There was something chilling about him.
Every hair on my body rose.
He was no ordinary old man.
Swallowing hard, I slid a hand into my sleeve and slowly backed away.
The old man spent a long moment stroking the handle of his fishing rod. Then, as though he had reached a decision, he lowered it like a sword.
“I bear you no grievance, miss... but this old man has an old grudge against the Tang Clan.”
“What? What in the world do you—”
Before I could finish, the fishing line sliced through the wind toward me.
“Why—why are you doing this?!”
I sprang away in alarm. A deep crater opened in the spot where I had been standing.
“So even if you find it unfair, endure it. This old man must vent the resentment bound up in that green robe, or I will die with regrets.”
The old man murmured in a cold voice as his presence surged.
“What? S-Sir? Wait a moment. There must be some misunderstanding—aaagh!”
Rolling across the snow-covered riverbank to evade the fishing line, I suddenly wanted to shout all the way to Sichuan.
Uncle Geunmyeong! You said the green robe would protect me!