Chapter 425: Legend and Reality (4)

“So that happened?”

“It did.”

“You’ve got nerve. Saying something like that to you, of all people?”

Tamgyeong gave a bitter smile.

“Thinking back on it now, I suppose I deserved to hear that much. It had been far too long since I’d seen such an exceptional junior, and before I knew it, I found myself wanting to tease him.”

Lee Beon clicked his tongue.

“Even so, hurling abuse at a senior who’s lived at least seventy years longer than him? I can’t decide whether to call that guts or sheer lack of manners.”

“Ha ha ha. At first, I thought the same.”

“Hmm?”

Tamgyeong smacked his lips.

“We cut our ties with Buddhism, and we cut our ties with the secular world. We intend to spend what remains of our lives pursuing a single purpose, and the only family we have left are the people here.”

“Mm.”

“And yet we say we won’t involve ourselves in the world and tell people not to judge us by worldly standards. In that case, what business do we have talking about juniors or demanding respect? If we want to insist on such things, shouldn’t we first live like ordinary people ourselves?”

“......”

“In the end, I think everything comes back around. If we want to talk about rules and proper conduct, then we ought to belong to the society governed by them. If we shove standards onto others only when they suit us, while boasting that we’ll live however we please, how are we any different from the ruffians of the Dark Path?”

Lee Beon cleared his throat.

“Really now. If you put it that way, what does that make me?”

“I’m only saying how I see it. Once I thought of it that way, I could understand that boy’s reaction too.”

“Either way, you accepted his trade, then?”

“What else could I do? He looked ready to come at me with that axe if I refused. At my age, I can hardly start wrestling around with some young junior.”

“Tch. You should’ve just run away.”

“I thought the same thing. But then he offered up the Four Spirits, so I couldn’t bring myself to flee. What can I do when I’m curious?”

Though they had severed their ties with the world, both men had once been renowned masters of the Orthodox Path, famous as chivalrous heroes.

Yet the word run away came from their mouths with remarkable ease.

They were clearly far removed from ordinary conventions. Even their choice of words made it obvious how completely they had stepped away from worldly life.

Lee Beon’s eyes gleamed.

“What did you say the boy’s name was?”

“Yeon Hojeong. Apparently he’s the eldest son of the Yeon Clan of Green Mountain over in Jiangdong.”

“The Yeon Clan of Green Mountain...... Ha. It feels like only yesterday that family first began making a name for itself.”

Back when Lee Beon was still active, the Yeon Clan of Green Mountain had been a newly rising martial family.

Of course, the Yeon Clan itself had existed in that region for a long time. It simply had not been very long since they had begun displaying the formidable martial strength they possessed.

“As I recall, the Yeon Clan practices orthodox swordsmanship of the Central Plains. And yet he cultivated the Four Spirits? Was that family connected to them somehow?”

“I couldn’t say. But from what we know, the Four Spirits could never become the martial art of an entire organization. Most likely, it was passed down to that boy through a single-successor lineage.”

“Mm. That would make sense.”

Lee Beon’s eyes shone.

“It’s fortunate you were the one who saw him. None of the rest of us would have been able to recognize traces of the Four Spirits.”

“......Truthfully, I was deeply shocked. Shocked enough that I could barely believe it. I never imagined that a young man who inherited the teachings of the person who made me decide to spend the rest of my life in Foshan would one day appear before me.”

“Hmm.”

Tamgyeong looked up at the ceiling of the cave.

His gaze rested on the stone above, but his eyes were following the past.

“I had never met anyone like him. I had never even imagined seeing all manner of Shaolin techniques dismantled with a few simple movements of the hand.”

“......”

“And it wasn’t as though he seriously revealed his True Qi or crushed me beneath a qi wave. He simply countered them. Nothing more. Yet he did not even seem especially knowledgeable about Shaolin martial arts.”

Tamgyeong closed his eyes.

“The moment I began executing a technique, that man could see every weakness in it.”

Lee Beon shook his head.

“I’ve heard this story countless times, yet I still find it hard to believe. Is it truly possible to counter Shaolin martial arts the moment one sees them? And not merely ordinary techniques, but peak-level martial arts performed personally by someone of your caliber?”

“I don’t know. The only thing I know for certain is that he possessed such an ability.”

“Hah.”

“An eye for weaknesses...... It sounds plausible at first, but if you truly think about it, it’s absurd. From time to time, geniuses are born who can imitate even the most complicated martial art after seeing it once. But someone capable of immediately devising a way to counter that art could rightly be called a once-in-a-century talent. And to put that counter into practice on the spot would be impossible without insight on the level of a grandmaster.”

“There’s one thing I want to ask.”

“Go ahead.”

“What exactly about that boy made you think of the Four Spirits? You said you never once felt so much as a thread of True Qi from that mysterious man.”

“His eyes and his disposition.”

“Hmm?”

Tamgyeong smacked his lips.

“It’s difficult to explain precisely. But that junior’s piercing gaze was almost identical to that mysterious man’s from the past. His unique disposition was extremely similar as well. The only real difference was how deeply each of them had concealed it.”

“......Mm.”

“More than anything, the moment I saw him, I simply knew. I knew he was that man’s successor. That isn’t something you can determine by looking at Inner Qi or techniques.”

Lee Beon nodded.

“Then this too must be fate of a sort.”

“So it seems. Looking at things like this, I sometimes wonder whether what we’re doing—burying ourselves here in Foshan and trying to find some lost fragment of an old legend—is truly the right path.”

“Come now. Do you really have to put it that way? If you speak like that, what does it make of all the masters of former generations who shut themselves away here and ended their lives doing the same?”

“Ha ha ha.”

Tamgyeong shook his head.

“In any case, I should get moving. If I leave now, I should make it by the appointed time.”

“When you go this time, straighten that boy out a little. My great-grandson tells me his name is shaking the martial world these days. With martial arts like that at his age, it would be easy enough for him to grow arrogant.”

“He’s rough, but not arrogant. At least, that’s how I see him.”

“Is that so? Well, if you say so, then I suppose that’s how it is.”

“In any case, I’ll be off. You and the others should rest for three or four days. You must be tired after using your bodies again for the first time in so long.”

“We’ll take care of ourselves. You just make sure you come back in one piece.”

Tamgyeong smiled and turned away.

Lee Beon watched his back in silence, then called out.

“Are you still captivated by that mysterious man?”

Tamgyeong stopped.

He stood there for a long while, gazing out of the cave before letting out a hearty laugh.

“Captivated is perhaps too strong a word, but I doubt I’ll ever forget him. You would be the same, Brother.”

Lee Beon nodded.

Indeed, it was not an experience one could easily forget.

Where else could a man experience the shock of seeing Shaolin martial arts he had once believed invincible dismantled piece by piece?

And that mysterious man had not stopped there.

After defeating Tamgyeong, he had sat him down and spent more than two full days teaching him entirely new martial principles of another level, along with the weaknesses in his existing martial arts and how they might be corrected.

Without that experience and those teachings, Tamgyeong would never have come to be called the strongest master of Arhat Hall in Shaolin’s history.

In Tamgyeong’s active years, his fame had spread across the four seas.

He had been more famous than Shaolin’s abbot at the time. That alone said enough.

And behind that fame stood the mysterious inheritor of the Four Spirits.

“I never imagined fate would connect us like this. He told me that if I ever raised a disciple and sent that disciple into the world, I would know naturally when the time came. He said I would recognize the inheritor of the Four Spirits simply by seeing him.......”

*****

“Young Master Yeon.”

“I know.”

Yeon Hojeong turned his head.

An old man dressed like a beggar was approaching from the distance.

It was Tamgyeong.

Tamgyeong smiled broadly.

“Were you waiting?”

“You arrived on time.”

“Of course. If only to avoid being beaten to death by a terrifying junior who threatens people with an axe, I ought to keep my appointments.”

“We leave in half a quarter hour.”

“Ha ha. Your way of speaking is much easier on the ears than it was before.”

“It is the minimum courtesy due to a trading partner. And I hardly think this is the time to concern ourselves with such trivialities.”

“Trivial...... Yes. I suppose it is.”

To meet that man’s disciple in this fashion—

As Yeon Hojeong said, something like manner of speech truly was trivial.

“More importantly.”

Tamgyeong turned his head.

Mookbi was standing there, staring at him in surprise.

“Well now. And who might this young lady be?”

Mookbi had been staring blankly at Tamgyeong, but quickly recovered and bowed her head.

“This junior is Mookbi. It is an honor to meet such a venerable senior of the martial world.”

Her voice trembled faintly.

It could hardly be helped.

She had not realized it from afar, but now that he was close, the dense aura radiating from Tamgyeong overwhelmed her.

An incredible master!

He was stronger than Yeon Hojeong.

No—stronger than anyone she had seen in the current Martial Alliance.

Far stronger even than Soh Bang, whom she had faced as an enemy.

This was not merely a difference in Inner Qi or techniques.

The old man before her was a master who had spent a very long time refining himself at a realm one step above the level Yeon Hojeong had currently reached.

Could he be......?

A master of the Supreme Heavens?

Then—

“That is not the case.”

Tamgyeong had read her thought at once from her expression and aura.

“They may be my juniors, but the realm of those known by the name Supreme Heavens is different from mine. It could hardly be otherwise. They spent long years pursuing the martial path, while after entering this realm, I spent comparatively little time immersing myself in martial arts.”

Tamgyeong smiled and continued.

“That is not humility, but simple fact. I may look impressive in your eyes, or in this young man’s, but I have not reached the Supreme Heavens. And as time passes, that gap will only grow deeper.”

“......!”

“In any case, you are remarkable as well. You look about the same age as this young man, yet possess martial arts of such caliber...... Ha ha. Even the prospective next master of Arhat Hall at the main temple would have difficulty handling you.”

Mookbi bowed again.

“N-no, not at all.”

“But do you practice archery? Curious. Was there a sect of archery in the Central Plains capable of producing someone of your caliber in this age?”

It seemed he knew the name of the Four Spirits, but not that of Piercing-Sun Valley.

At that moment, Yeon Hojeong raised a hand.

“Enough pointless chatter. The last person is coming.”

“Mm.”

Tamgyeong turned toward the road.

His eyes sharpened at once.

An evil art?!

RUMBLE.

A fairly large carriage was approaching.

It was not the driver Tamgyeong sensed, but someone inside the carriage.

There was evil qi coming from within.

The amount was so faint that he would never have noticed it without paying close attention. Yet once he focused on it, the density of that qi was no less than Yeon Hojeong’s.

Tamgyeong asked,

“Who are we traveling with?”

“A damned woman who may prove useful in persuading an official who refuses to listen.”

“......Hmm?”

THUD.

The carriage stopped.

Yunho of the Evil-Smiting Corps, serving as the driver, rose from the driver’s seat and bowed.

“We’re here, Supreme Commander.”

“Good work. You memorized the route?”

“Of course.”

Yeon Hojeong looked at Tamgyeong and Mookbi.

“Get in. We’re heading straight to the left Provincial Administration Commissioner’s official residence.”