Book 23 Chapter 2
A Rendezvous with the Master, an Inevitable Encounter
“Take it off! And… take the hit!”
A week ago.
Inside Room 301 of the annex at Shilla Gak, boasting the finest facilities and service in the entire Jianghu.
Screeeeech!
Fizzzz!
A steel rod, hastily engraved with the name ‘Impact Awakening Spirit Rod,’ scraped against the rough stone floor, sparking yellow flames. The one gripping the rod was an old man with snow-white hair and eyebrows. His gaze was fixed, unblinking, on the woman sitting demurely in front of him.
Her naturally flowing black hair, her simple yet elegant accessories, her subtle makeup that enhanced her complexion without being ostentatious, her impeccable sense of dress, and her graceful, dignified posture—everything was perfect. However, while she might fool others, she couldn’t fool this old man. After all, he was the one who had taught her everything. Therefore, he could see through her true nature, no matter how she presented herself. To him, it was no effort at all.
“……”
Yeonbi could no longer meet his gaze and lowered her head. The many words she had intended to use when she next met her master had vanished into the depths of her memory, not even a trace remaining. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be… This was dangerous.
Thump thump thump!
Screeeeech! Fizzzz crackle!
With each heavy step the old man took, Yeonbi’s body tensed involuntarily.
Swish!
Within Yeonbi’s lowered gaze, the tips of her master’s feet appeared. Then they stopped abruptly. As if in sync, the menacing steel rod also ceased its movement.
Yeonbi calmed her trembling heart, then lifted her head with a small smile. There, of course, was no kindly smiling master.
“Take it off.”
The master spoke with a blank expression. Startled, Yeonbi hastily clutched her collar with both hands and screamed.
“Kyaaaaaaaak! Pervert! Harasser! Lecher!”
This mental attack seemed to have an effect, as even the master, a paragon of composure and indifference, flinched slightly. He hadn’t taught her such acting. Where had she learned something like that?
“Who are you calling a perverted old man?!”
As he demanded she retract her words, Yeonbi twisted her body to the right rear and, wiping her eyes with her sleeve, slumped to the floor. Then, she pretended to weep sadly. Her posture was that of a victim of assault, as if she had encountered a pervert.
“Sob sob, but you demanded a lady to undress without any preamble, so that alone makes you a perfect pervert!”
Yeonbi shouted, her posture fostering misunderstanding and speculation. The master roared.
“Who said to strip naked? I said to change your clothes!”
Yeonbi’s eyes widened as she retorted.
“Why should I change? I believe there is no valid reason to change at this very moment?”
Yeonbi pointed out.
“No, there is!”
The master answered with a firm voice.
“But why?”
Yeonbi’s voice rose slightly as she countered. But the master also had an irrefutable reason. He spoke with a serious tone.
“If you have a brain, think about it. Even if it’s just for appearances, it doesn’t look good for an old man to beat a young girl, does it? While I may not be bound by the ways of the world, that doesn’t mean I have no qualms about it. Isn’t there just something you want to cover up out of personal preference?”
In truth, he wasn’t wrong. Even if it was just for appearances, an old man beating a young girl never looked good. It would be fortunate if it only looked bad; in reality, it was a cardinal sin among crimes. That’s why he had been waiting without administering the beating.
“Aha! Hmm… so, what you’re saying is that you want to beat me, so you want me to change my clothes? In other words, you want me to bathe and prepare myself to be thrashed, right?”
Yeonbi said with a beaming smile.
“Well, something like that. I’m glad you understand now!”
His eyes seemed to say, ‘No need to say it twice.’
“Hmm, I see.”
“Now, now, even if you do. And you don’t need to go through the trouble of bathing. I’ll let it slide with just changing clothes.”
Perhaps sensing she was stalling for time instead of changing, the master’s voice rose slightly.
“So, now that you’ve heard a valid reason, won’t you go change? We can continue the sequel then.”
The master said with a friendly smile.
“Then, as you command……”
Yeonbi bowed her head and saluted. And then…
“…did you think I would say that? If so, I, Yeonbi, absolutely refuse to change!”
Yeonbi replied with a serious expression. Perhaps due to her appearance, her tone was also different from usual.
After all, why would she willingly invite a beating! Now that she had heard the reason, she felt an even greater need to maintain her current appearance.
“Yeonbi, my foot. Do you want to change, or do you want to get beaten and then change?”
Although he blurted it out in anger, his words were logically contradictory.
“Absolutely not.”
One shouldn’t just give in to threats. Sometimes, one must stand firm. And in Yeonbi’s opinion, now was such a time.
“Hehehe, you’re gathering a whole bouquet of beatings today! Alright! If dying today is your wish, how can I, as your master, not grant my disciple’s wish? Don’t worry, if that’s your desire, I must fulfill it!”
A chilling voice emanated from the usually calm master.
WHOOSH!
At that moment, the sword energy emanating from the Spirit Rod flared with a dazzling white light, then gradually subsided.
‘What is that?’
As the bright white light extinguished, black and white orbs began to dance and swirl around the dimly glowing Spirit Rod in interlacing spirals. One orb was like a white pearl formed from condensed light, and the other was like a black pearl that swallowed the surrounding light. Sword Orbs (劍丸)? As she stared intently at the pair of small, yet instinctively dangerous-feeling orbs, Yeonbi’s chest grew cold.
‘That’s dangerous! Even if I block it, I’ll die! I can’t block that…….’
Seeing the unspoken warning, she felt an instinctive sense of despair. This was the first time she had felt this way.
“How about it? Have your thoughts changed?”
The master spoke, without retracting his power.
“Aha, suddenly my clothes feel a bit tight. I’ll go change quickly.”
It took less than half a moment for her resolve to change her mind to crumble. However, blindly stepping into danger was foolish. Especially when the opponent was her master.
“Do you have clothes to change into?”
The master asked in a gruff voice. She would be in trouble if she said she didn’t have any and had to go get them. Of course, he had no intention of letting her go even if she had said so.
“I brought some just in case. I only need to modify the inner layers, not the outer ones, so it’s not too much trouble. It doesn’t take up much space, and besides, you wouldn’t let me go get them anyway, would you?”
Yeonbi pouted as she said this.
“Good, or rather, fortunate. Though it’s a bit of a shame that I won’t get to use this.”
“What is that, Master?”
By now, the master held a long, white ribbon in his hand, which fluttered provocatorially in the windless room. She couldn’t fathom its purpose.
“Ah, this? It’s simple to use. Just place it over your eyes and swirl it around.”
He then made a gesture of bringing it to his own eyes, as if to demonstrate.
“And then?”
Her curiosity uncontainable, the disciple asked.
“If you had continued to refuse to change, it would have been unavoidable. I would have had to blind your physical eyes and see your true form with your mind’s eye to beat you. Well, since you’ve changed your mind, there’s no need to use it anymore.”
The master spoke in a calm tone. His tone, sounding slightly disappointed, grated on her ears.
“Don’t tell me it’s the Mind’s Eye (心眼) or Mind Sword (心劍)?”
Why would Mind’s Eye and Mind Sword be used for a mere beating? To which the master replied dismissively.
“What are you talking about with such grand terms as Mind Sword? It’s just a Mind Beating (心打作).”
His humility was misplaced, and it carried a peculiar sense of menace.
“I’ll go change quickly.”
Yeonbi said hastily. It seemed like the better option.
“Ah, and don’t forget to relax the muscles you’ve tensed. Come out after you’ve done that.”
“You worry about the strangest things. I’ll do it without you telling me.”
Yeonbi grumbled and reluctantly entered the room attached to the guest room. Then, she emerged after a long time, restored to her original form.
“Once again, it’s been a long time, disciple.”
He unnecessarily reiterated the greeting.
“It has been a long time. But not a pleasant one.”
Bilyeon replied grumpily. The current situation, where she couldn’t seem to gain the upper hand, felt suffocating. She watched for opportunities, but the cunning master seemed to have become even more cunning in her absence, making it difficult to find any opening.
“By the way, Mas… Master? What was that just now? I’ve never seen that technique before!”
“Hmph. Naturally, you’ve never seen it before, as I’ve never shown it to you.”
The master replied with a nonchalant voice.
“How can you say that! You said you taught me all the martial arts of the Birae Sect. Even if I couldn’t perform them immediately, you said you taught me the theory. Were you lying to your disciple back then?”
*Clack!*
“You brat! Who’s lying?! This isn’t a Birae Sect martial art. That’s why you couldn’t have learned it! Whether I teach you something outside the sect’s secret techniques or not is up to me, your master!”
The master spoke teasingly. ‘My will’ should probably be read as ‘my whim.’
“How can you be so unreasonable! Then who did you learn that bizarre technique from?”
“Learned? I merely mastered it. Who dares to teach me?”
“It’s the same thing.”
Bilyeon grumbled, her lips pursed.
“It’s distinctly different, you brat!”
*Clack!*
Another unavoidable head-slap landed.
“Yes, it was someone else’s. His name was something like Tai Chi, and that was the martial art he used back then.”
“What happened to him?”
Bilyeon asked, her curiosity piqued.
“He died.”
The master said with a single word.
“To whom?”
It was more of a confirmation than a question.
“Me.”
The master said in a tone as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
‘As expected…….’
Bilyeon confirmed her suspicion.
“But why?”
“He provoked me.”
His tone implied, ‘Why are you asking such an obvious question?’
“Ah, I see……”
She couldn’t think of anything else to say. The outcome played out in her mind like a brushstroke painting.
‘It must have hurt a lot…….’
For some reason, it didn’t feel like someone else’s story, and she even felt a sense of camaraderie.
“Then how did you learn it? You said that person died, right?”
“Of course, I learned it from a secret manual. Haven’t you heard the saying, ‘Books are the treasure trove of wisdom’?”
There was a hint of a sneer in his reprimand, but Bilyeon had a more pressing question.
“Then, where did you get that secret manual from?”
The origin of it seemed suspicious.
“Where do you think I got it from?”
The master grinned, a sly, meaningful smile spreading across his face. Of course, he wouldn’t have just ‘dropped’ such a precious manual. She hadn’t expected that in the first place. That left only one conclusion. She couldn’t help but let out a sigh.
“Haa, well… I can more or less guess.”
She silently paid her respects to the person whose name she had forgotten. Why else would someone challenge such an ancient monster… But one thing bothered her.
“Just a moment. You said before that advanced martial arts can’t be learned from a manual alone? That words written on paper and mere scribbles can’t express the principles behind each movement? That learning is 20% from the manual and 80% from the master’s teachings?”
“That’s right. I still believe that.”
“But you just said you learned it from a manual!”
“I did. But who said I learned an advanced martial art?”
“Th-then……”
“While advanced martial arts are impossible, lower-level martial arts can be learned from a manual alone. There’s also the saying, ‘When one reaches the peak, the path below naturally becomes visible.’”
In other words, he could understand things below his own level just by looking at a book. With that logic, Bilyeon had nothing more to say. She needed to stall for more time… Her plan to exploit the inconsistency in his teachings as a logical weakness, corner the master, and maintain her offensive to distract him had failed.
“Now, disciple! We seem to be running out of conversation topics. Shall we start again, then?”
The master spoke kindly, interrupting Bilyeon’s thoughts as she scrambled for something else to talk about. When Yeonbi looked up, the Spirit Rod was already raised high, pointing towards the sky!
“Oh, come on, can’t we just gloss over this?”
Bilyeon protested playfully, her attempt to slip away foiled. Of course, her cuteness was completely ineffective.
“Didn’t I teach you that doing things you don’t usually do shortens your lifespan? My answer is, of course…”
Yeonbi urgently drew in her internal energy.
“‘No’!”
*WHOOOOOOOSH!*
With a terrifying roar of breaking air, the Impact Awakening Spirit Rod descended like lightning.
But!
The steel alloy rod, rapidly synthesized (?) through the master’s alchemical manipulation, failed to fulfill its intended purpose of destroying its target. The reason for the target’s failure to be destroyed was not due to its unauthorized evasion. The reason was Yeonbi’s sudden thrust of a silk cloth at the speed of light. The moment the silk cloth entered the trajectory of the steel club, the master’s hand momentarily froze. Despite the incredible speed, there was no obstacle to stopping it, a testament to divine striking skill. This was the realm of ‘Intent Manifestation’ (意發), where the body moves on its own when intent arises.
“Could that be…!”
The master’s Mind’s Eye accurately detected what was concealed within the cloth. His nostrils twitched instinctively.
“As expected… you recognize it.”
Yeonbi, having narrowly escaped death, wiped her forehead. However, it was too early to sigh in relief. The steel club was still poised just above her skull, with space for only a finger. After observing the contents of the cloth with his mind’s eye, the master finally asked.
“That… is liquor!”
The master declared with certainty, not with doubt. If there had been any doubt, the club would not have stopped. Yeonbi confidently nodded.
“Yes, and not just any liquor.”
The master’s nose twitched for a moment. Then, he fell silent, as if savoring it.
“This gentle, subtle aroma diffused in the air is indeed extraordinary. It seems to be a very expensive, high-quality liquor.”
Apparently, the master could detect even the trace amounts of aroma that had leaked through the double and triple seals into the air. Now, it was Yeonbi’s turn to make her move. Swallowing nervously, Yeonbi unwrapped the meticulously piled silk cloth.
As the silk cloth slid away like a woman’s garment, ‘Moonlight Dew’ revealed its dazzling form. The fragrance that had been lingering in the air became even richer. A look of ecstasy briefly appeared on the master’s face as he smelled it.
“You guessed correctly. As expected, you’re someone who keeps a liquor-loving bug in your stomach all year round. This is a legendary liquor called ‘Moonlight Dew’ [眞月露]. There is no better liquor in this Jianghu.”
“In other words…?”
Startled, the master understood what Yeonbi was hinting at.
“As expected, Master, you are sharp. That’s right. This is the last remaining ‘Moonlight Dew’.”
“What do you intend to do?”
The master asked, his brow furrowed slightly. He was already practically salivating at the prospect of drinking this liquor.
“This is what I’ll do!”
*Flick!*
Yeonbi quickly drew a dagger from her waist and brought its sharp tip to the jade-white liquor bottle.
“Wh-what are you doing!”
The master cried out, reaching out as his precious liquor’s life was threatened.
“Don’t come any closer!”
Yeonbi shouted, quickly stepping back.
The master’s movements froze.
“If you come any closer, this bottle’s life is forfeit.”
Yeonbi said in a dead serious voice.
“Are you serious?”
“I am serious.”
Yeonbi replied with a grave tone. She couldn’t easily let go of her last lifeline.
“Now, lower your hands. It’s useless to try and fix the liquor’s form through empty manipulation.”
The master was capable of using empty manipulation to hold the liquor in its shape within the broken bottle. Therefore, complacency was not an option. Sensing his actions were being read, the master lowered his hand, licking his lips.
“……”
A heavy silence pressed down between them. They just glared at each other, neither speaking. However, the standoff did not last long. It seemed that sincerity, in some form, was conveyed. Surprisingly, it was the master who backed down first.
“Fine, I’ll concede this time. What do you want me to do?”
“First, how about putting down that menacing stick?”
Yeonbi suggested. However, she did not let go of the dagger in her hand. She knew better than anyone that the situation could reverse in the blink of an eye if she let her guard down.
“Tsk, it’s a shame, isn’t it, since I haven’t used it even once after making it?”
The master said, licking his lips with great regret.
“Not at all.”
Yeonbi replied. It was better to dispose of something like that for the sake of peace in the Jianghu.
“There, I’ve discarded it. Now, what do we do?”
The master, still eyeing an opportunity to reclaim the kidnapped liquor bottle from the kidnapper, found no opening. He could beat the perpetrator, but he couldn’t guarantee the safety of the bottle. In the past, he would have been helpless no matter the situation… He had to admit that his disciple had become stronger in the three years she had been away.
“Go back and sit where you were sitting originally.”
“I’m sitting.”
To avoid the situation of drinking liquor through his nose, the master did as he was told and returned to his original seat, flopping down.
“Now, what do I do?”
“You do this.”
She flicked a wine glass she had picked up. The wine glass flew through the air at a slow, leisurely pace and stopped precisely on the table in front of the master.
*Pop!*
Yeonbi, who had approached silently, opened the stopper and poured the liquor into the wine glass.
“……”
Even though she was right beside him, the master said nothing, silently gazing at the golden liquor filling the wine glass.
Once the wine glass was full, the master raised it and drank it down in one gulp. It was the most delicious liquor he had tasted in a long time.
An indescribable feeling. The liquid, like a drop from heaven, left a potent trace as it enveloped his mouth and slid down his throat. Closing his eyes, the master savored the taste and aroma to his heart’s content.
*Clack!*
He placed the empty wine glass on the table and opened his mouth in a low voice.
“How did you dare to show yourself before me?”
The old master asked, sitting at an angle, without even looking at her. Of course, it wasn’t a compliment.
“You were the one who taught me to confront what cannot be avoided, Master.”
“Was I?”
The old master countered, as if his memory was hazy. He looked as if he couldn’t be bothered to remember such details. Seeing such a carefree expression, Yeonbi felt inexplicably annoyed. She was unaware that others also perceived her in the same way.
“Yes, I thiiiiink so.”
Only then did the old master straighten his posture and look directly at his disciple’s face. Yeonbi flinched. She had to suppress the urge to ask, ‘Why are you smiling like that?’ The proverb ‘Spitting on a smiling face’ made her reconsider its reliability.
“Speaking of which, it really has been a long time, hasn’t it, you damn disciple?”
The master said, grinning, as if he had every reason to be happy, even though there was nothing to be happy about. It had been nearly three years since Bilyeon had left Ami Mountain. It seemed like the proverb ‘Spitting on a smiling face’ should now be changed to ‘A satisfying punch to a smiling face!’ However, shortening her life by throwing a punch that wouldn’t land would be foolish. Reluctantly, she had to suppress her surging desires, like a bubbling spring. But her will could not stop her moving lips, even if it could stop her fists.
“I’m not happy to see you at all!”
Yeonbi retorted grumpily, feeling a slight irritation at the smile in the old man’s eyes.