I was taking a short break to walk through the rear garden.
Of course, I practiced martial arts every morning, but if I spent the whole day staring at documents, my vision started swimming and my whole body felt like it was turning to stone.
So from time to time, I wandered through the rear garden like this to loosen up my body.
“Now the weather’s clearly warmed up.”
At Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am’s words, I nodded.
As if to prove that spring had really come, the plum blossoms were beginning to bloom.
Last winter had been bitterly cold, but thanks to the Nourishing Root Geumryeong found for us, everyone in the merchant group made it through the season safely.
I slipped my hand into my sleeve and gently stroked Geumryeong.
— Kui?
What a reliable little thing.
It was about time to head up to Beijing.
We had to hurry and finish the Beijing branch building if we wanted to start operating the branch within this year.
And the start of spring also meant the lean spring months—the hungry gap before the barley ripened—weren’t far off.
After I broke up the biggest rebel group in the area by giving them tenant rights to farmland, no other threatening groups had appeared.
Which made sense; winter wasn’t exactly the easiest season to travel in.
Even Escort Guards and merchants who were used to life on the road struggled with it; for ordinary commoners, it was even harsher.
If you didn’t freeze to death on the road, you were already lucky.
But now that the weather was easing, wandering refugees could move more freely, and the coming lean season would likely create even more of them.
The government was stepping in to provide relief, but there was no way it could cover everything.
So if we slipped off to Beijing quickly before that, we’d suffer less on the road.
.
.
.
That evening, after finishing my work, I went to see Father and told him I planned to go to Beijing.
“Are you sure about this? Reports keep coming in that the people are restless…”
“That’s exactly why I’m saying I should go now. The longer we wait, the harder it might become to travel back and forth.”
“That’s true.”
After thinking for a moment, Father asked,
“All right, then when are you planning to leave?”
“I plan to depart within ten days.”
After getting Father’s permission, I was in the middle of handling some tasks when an unexpected visitor came looking for me.
It was Gyeong In-juk, the man I’d brought into the merchant group after breaking up that rebel group a while ago.
“What brings you here? I heard you’ve been busy lately…”
“No matter how busy I am, I can’t be as busy as you, Third Deputy Merchant Lord.”
“Hahaha.”
Now that I thought about it, he wasn’t wrong.
Gyeong In-juk, and the young men who’d come with him, were all faithfully carrying out their duties.
The supervisors were full of praise for how diligently they worked.
If they kept working this hard for a few more years, they’d probably be promoted to apprentice clerks without anyone objecting.
“I heard you’re heading to Beijing this time.”
“Yes. That’s how it turned out.”
News that I was going to Beijing had spread through the entire Eunhae Merchant Group in no time.
Which made sense, since everyone who was going with me had been rushing around making thorough preparations, knowing that once we went to Beijing this time, we might not be able to come back for quite a while.
That was probably how Gyeong In-juk heard about it too.
“Once you leave, when do you think you’ll be back?”
“I can’t say for sure. Maybe I’ll be there for about half a year.”
“I see.”
Gyeong In-juk nodded, then held out what he had in his hands.
“Please take this.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s something the boys and I prepared by saving a bit from our first wages.”
A little surprised, I opened the pouch.
Inside were a fire striker case and a water flask.
“Aren’t these a fire striker case and a water flask?”
“When you’re traveling long distances, isn’t having fire and water one of the most important things?”
“That’s true.”
A case to keep your embers safe, and a flask to carry water.
Feeling the thought behind it—that they didn’t want me to be cold or thirsty wherever I went—made my chest tighten a little.
“I’ll put them to very good use. Thank you.”
Time passed like that.
After finishing my breathing and Qi circulation, I stood up, and right on cue, Master stepped into my private quarters.
“Good morning.”
“Yes, Master. Good morning.”
When Master glanced at my guards, Escort Guard Seo Wu gave a light bow and led Escort Guard Myeong Jong out.
At first, Escort Guards Myeong Jong and Chang Un had questioned why they had to leave their posts whenever I was learning martial arts.
But after seeing the look in Master’s eyes, they never said another word and quietly stepped out every time.
It seemed Master had simply crushed them with sheer presence. I guess overwhelming internal Qi really was the best argument.
“Well then, let’s begin.”
“Yes.”
At his words, I drew my sword. The next instant, his figure shot straight toward me.
I hurriedly raised my sword to block his attack.
Clang-!
Clang-clang-!
Like that, our swords clashed dozens of times.
Not long ago, Master had told me he would teach me a new sword art, but that there was a necessary preparation process first.
So for now, all he asked of me was to use everything I’d learned—the True Snow Twelve Form Sword and the Snow Soul Sword—to block and counter his attacks.
“Huff, huff…”
While I was moving like mad, Palgap struck the bell.
Ding!
A quarter of an hour had passed.
“Your movements are more natural than last time. But the transitions between each move are still awkward. That’s probably because you’re still calculating every motion as you go.”
“So you’re saying I shouldn’t calculate at all?”
I tilted my head and asked.
“Didn’t you say before that when you face an enemy, you have to analyze and calculate their movements to fight efficiently?”
“That’s right.”
Master nodded.
“That way you avoid wasting Qi unnecessarily. But even if you fight with calculations like that, in the end, you can only rise another step when you reach the state where all thought disappears—no-thought, no-self.”
At those words, I thought back to that day.
When I fought that mad martial artist in a life-and-death duel to obtain the Silver Mist Sword, I had unconsciously entered that state of no-thought, no-self.
And in that moment, I stepped into the Peak realm.
“Honestly, the higher your realm, the fewer chances you get to fall into that trance-like state. You become able to calculate too many things.”
“That’s true.”
Just as Master said, I hadn’t fallen into that state even once since then.
It was probably because, thanks to all the guards around me, I was never pushed into that kind of desperate situation.
So should I spend about a year wandering the martial world without any guards?
The thought was enough to make my guards faint if they ever heard it, and I couldn’t help but chuckle to myself.
But it was impossible.
There were too many people and responsibilities entrusted to me; how could I just toss all that aside and go roaming the martial world?
To me, martial arts were nothing more than a way to protect myself.
What mattered most to me was the Eunhae Merchant Group.
“All right, then this time, you come at me first, Deputy Merchant Lord.”
“Yes!”
I raised my sword and charged at Master.
“Haaah!”
Craaang-!
Master easily blocked my strike, and another quarter-hour of back-and-forth began.
A little later.
“Haa, haa…”
I sprawled out in the courtyard, gasping for breath. This really was exhausting.
These days, we would fight for about a quarter of an hour, Master would give me advice, then we’d start trading blows again, over and over.
By the time we filled a full two hours like that, I barely had the strength to stand.
Honestly, this training was harder than anything I’d done before.
“You worked hard.”
I forced myself to my feet, clasped my fists, and bowed to Master.
“Thank you for your guidance.”
“You’re leaving for Beijing early tomorrow morning, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“Travel safely.”
“Yes. You take care of yourself too, Master. By the way, am I learning the new sword art after I get back from Beijing?”
At my question, Master hesitated for a moment before answering.
“I also… would prefer it that way.”
What was that supposed to mean?
Gwak Myeong-hyeon stepped out of Eun Seo-ho’s residence, Mungok Hall, and glanced back over his shoulder.
He saw him sitting right down on the ground, drinking the water Palgap had handed him.
The sword art he had learned, using the Patriarch’s insights he’d obtained thanks to Eun Seo-ho, was a sword art created for the Palace Lord of Snow Wind Palace.
To pass that sword art on to Eun Seo-ho, there was something that absolutely had to come first.
He had to first step into the Profound realm.
For anyone who hadn’t reached the Profound realm yet, learning it was extremely dangerous.
So right now, he was focused entirely on raising Eun Seo-ho’s realm.
Just then, a middle-aged man appeared in front of him.
“Gwak Myeong-hyeon greets the External Chief Administrator of the Eunhae Merchant Group.”
It was none other than External Chief Administrator Go Il-pyeong.
“It seems you’ve been watching Third Deputy Merchant Lord’s training before heading off.”
“Yes.”
Go Il-pyeong spoke with a faint smile.
“Personally, I wanted to express my thanks to Escort Chief Gwak. The martial arts I’ve learned are extremely yang-aspected…”
“So they’re not suited for Third Deputy Merchant Lord.”
He nodded.
“Exactly. So while we’ve run into each other like this, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Is it true that Third Young Master has reached the Peak realm?”
He hesitated briefly at the question, then nodded.
If someone like him was asking that, it meant he was already fairly sure, so denying it would be pointless.
Besides, the Go Il-pyeong he knew was a very upright man—in other words, someone he could trust.
“As I thought! So it’s true!”
Seeing his expression, Gwak Myeong-hyeon knew he’d guessed right.
A sudden uneasy thought struck him, and he asked,
“By any chance, are you thinking of making Third Deputy Merchant Lord your successor as External Chief Administrator?”
At that, Go Il-pyeong shook his head.
“Ah, no. I’ve already settled on Second Deputy Merchant Lord as my successor.”
Then that was one thing he could relax about.
He continued.
“This position needs to be held by someone straightforward and steady. Third Deputy Merchant Lord’s abilities don’t quite fit the role of External Chief Administrator.”
The External Chief Administrator hurriedly added,
“Ah, I don’t mean Third Deputy Merchant Lord isn’t straightforward. What I mean is…”
“I understand what you’re trying to say, External Chief Administrator. You’re saying he’s versatile and quick to adapt, aren’t you?”
“Ahem, yes, that’s exactly what I meant.”
“I think so as well.”
Go Il-pyeong went on,
“Hmm, in Escort Chief Gwak’s opinion, how much higher do you think Third Young Master can go from here?”
At that question, Gwak Myeong-hyeon gave a small laugh and looked down at his hand.
It still felt slightly numb.
The shock from crossing swords with Eun Seo-ho earlier was still lingering there.
In other words, it wouldn’t be long now.
But he didn’t feel like answering honestly. Feeling a bit mischievous, he said to Go Il-pyeong,
“That’s a secret.”
“…”
“Then, I’ll be on my way.”
Gwak Myeong-hyeon clasped his fists to the slightly flustered Go Il-pyeong in a polite salute, then went on his way.
In truth, only when internal Qi and insight were well balanced could one become a truly outstanding expert.
But from his experience so far, the higher the realm, the more important insight became.
The higher your realm, the faster your Qi accumulated. But there was a limit to how much more you could store.
Because there was a limit to the size of the Dantian itself.
To expand the Dantian, you had to go through a process of remaking the body from the bones up.
That didn’t mean you could undergo that transformation just by having lots of Qi or training for a long time.
If that were true, anyone could do it as long as they practiced a good martial art for many years, but reality wasn’t like that.
In this world, there were people who trained their whole lives yet stayed stuck between second-rate and first-rate, while others reached the Peak realm at a young age.
In short, only by experiencing that rebirth through enlightenment and expanding the Dantian could you truly be said to have stepped into a higher realm.
Of course, you could also become a master in one leap by taking a miraculous Elixir.
But such Elixirs were incredibly rare, and even if you were lucky enough to take one, accepting all that Qi required a process of endurance that went beyond human limits.
It was the process of forcibly turning an unprepared body into a master’s body.
Enduring it while fully conscious was agonizing, and about eight out of ten couldn’t withstand it and died midway through.
So those who became masters through Elixirs were the toughest of the tough—or absurdly lucky.
Even then, it wasn’t something achieved without any enlightenment at all.
After all, there was no better chance for enlightenment than standing right on the edge of life and death.
Anyway, because it was so dangerous, even prestigious clans handled Elixirs with extreme caution.
In truth, Eun Seo-ho had changed his constitution by enduring the pain of the Elixir and surviving a brush with death, but Gwak Myeong-hyeon only knew that it had allowed more Qi to accumulate.
Regardless, he hoped Eun Seo-ho would undergo that rebirth through enlightenment instead.
His body was already well prepared for the next realm, so there wouldn’t be much pain.
Gwak Myeong-hyeon simply wanted his cherished disciple to become a master without having to suffer like that.
In any case, Eun Seo-ho was ready now; as soon as the moment of enlightenment came, he could become a Profound-realm expert.
And in his experience, the only way to reach that enlightenment was to keep swinging the sword again and again.
Yet, on the other hand, he also wished that moment of enlightenment would never come for Eun Seo-ho.
They said becoming a master through enlightenment wasn’t physically painful… but it demanded a level of spiritual torment that was no less severe.
He wanted his precious, beloved disciple Eun Seo-ho to see only good things and walk only smooth, gentle paths.
‘Phew, so this is how a master’s heart feels?’
–TL Notes–
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