Another Enlightenment

At an outlying estate of Nanchang, where the torches burned as bright as a wildfire in the fields, men in black had gathered.

“How shall we manage tonight’s assault?”

“We move as planned.”

“Fresh word came in a little while ago. They say new faces were seen going into the Hohyeon Estate.”

“New faces?”

“It was dark and they could not make it out properly, but they said the one leading the party looked to be a scholar.”

“Kuh heh heh. A scholar? What is some scrap of a scholar going to do? Those Hohyeon Estate fellows — the best they could manage for reinforcements was a scholar.”

“They said there were a good number of martial artists as well. Some ten of them, was it?”

“Martial artists a scholar brought along — what would they amount to? And even supposing they are masters, ten men cannot hold back our Cult’s elite. And as it happens, elites of our own are on the way from the Cult today, are they not?”

“A hundred and more of our Cult’s Sacred Heaven Iron-Blood Corps have been sent out. A force of that size could bring every faction in Nanchang to heel.”

“And the Sacred Heaven Iron-Blood Corps’ Corps Chief, the Iron-Bear Ring Saber, has come in person. There will be no one to match him. Is he not one of our Cult’s foremost strongmen?”

“Whether a force of this size need be thrown at such a business is a question in itself. We could well have finished it ourselves.”

One man said it as though it did not sit well with him, and another picked it up.

“The Twelfth Pavilion Master sent the Sacred Heaven Iron-Blood Corps out of concern that the Hyeoncheon Sect will step in. We have blocked the word as far as we could, so the Hyeoncheon Sect has not caught on yet — but once it is settled that the Hohyeon Estate is to be wiped out root and branch, the Hyeoncheon Sect will certainly try to step into a thing happening in its own front yard.”

“So he sent the Sacred Heaven Iron-Blood Corps to finish the business, and sent them so that we could hold the line even if the Hyeoncheon Sect does catch on.”

“That is how much thought he gives Mak Yeo-heun, is it not. And he sent the Sacred Heaven Iron-Blood Corps because this business keeps dragging on. It is a thing we, who are called the Twelfth Pavilion Master’s trusted right hands, ought to reflect on.”

“Have we been idling? Is coaxing round the Nanchang government service and the officials of Poyang County a thing to be done in a day or two? The more we hurry it, the more the government service catches us by the ankle.”

“True enough. They kept sending Investigating Censors down, and it gave us trouble enough.”

“Let us give it more care. If only this business is brought off properly, the Twelfth Pavilion Master can rise to the rank of the Seven Great Pavilion Masters — so let us put out our whole strength.”

“Have you not heard about the Fourteenth Pavilion Master? She came back from botching the operation at Hefei, took every kind of abuse from the other Pavilion Masters, and has shut herself away. By what is being said, there is even talk of her being demoted from Fourteenth to Sixteenth or Seventeenth.”

“Having lost her trusted right hand as well, the Fourteenth Pavilion Master will not be able to exert herself for a while.”

“That is why our own Twelfth Pavilion Master’s side must strike upward now. This is no matter of a copper or two. It is a thing that could sway our Cult’s whole finances, no less.”

“Just so.”

“Very well. With the Sacred Heaven Iron-Blood Corps here, let us make an end of it outright tonight. The moment the Iron-Bear Ring Saber arrives, let us begin. They say the arrival is four hours off, so the timing is just right as well.”

“The tiger hour, three to five in the morning, is just the right time for killing men. And today we must have the title to the mountain made over to us for certain.”

“It seems to me we have dealt with them far too humanely all this while. Let us take the estate master and his household hostage and get the land deeds out of them.”

“Very well. Let us make ready.”

The men in black set busily to work, and torches sprang up here and there about the estate like a wildfire in the fields.

The more of Hohyeon Byeok’s story I heard, the better I could guess at what the Demonic Cult was about in Poyang County.

“Originally there was said to be a numinous energy about our estate’s ancestral burial ground, so the herb-gatherers dug a great deal of medicinal herb there. Then one day, all at once, somebody started controlling the ground.”

“Was that the Demonic Cult men?”

Myeong U-jong asked.

“We did not know then. They were martial artists in black, so there was no pinning them down. Well — even so, our estate paid it no great mind.”

Hohyeon Byeok went on.

“Ancestral burial ground or not, it is not at a distance our estate can control. There were men of ours among the officials of Poyang County, so we put the investigation into their hands. And then one day every one of them came back a corpse. From that time our estate knew something had gone wrong. So we sent men out to Poyang County — and every man who went, went missing.”

Myeong U-jong stroked his rough stubble.

“So that is why you sent word to Jun at the Censorate.”

“Yes. We could not control the magistrate of Poyang County and his officials, so we let my elder brother know. And my elder brother went to Poyang County as an Investigating Censor himself.”

I asked.

“When did the Demonic Cult men start attacking?”

“Masked men in black started attacking the estate a month ago. After my elder brother went missing.”

“Was there something the fellows wanted?”

“The title to the ancestral burial ground.”

“If they’ve got hold of the magistrate of Poyang County himself, couldn’t they fake up a thing like the title to a mountain?”

“Not that. Our estate’s ancestral burial ground is no ordinary mountain but a gift bestowed directly by the Prince’s Residence. Long ago, when the Jiangxi Prince’s Residence stood in danger, our estate turned out its whole martial strength and came to its aid. That’s why not even the government service could tamper with it lightly. Touch the Jiangxi Prince’s Residence wrong and the whole thing may come to nothing.”

Myeong U-jong asked quietly.

“What in the world is the reason these Demonic Cult fellows are after the Hohyeon Estate’s ancestral burial ground?”

“We too thought at first it might be the medicinal herb, but we could not believe the Demonic Cult would show such greed over a bit of herb. So I had a separate inquiry made in my own way.”

“And?”

“And lately we confirmed that all sorts of implements are going up into our estate’s ancestral burial ground.”

“What sort of implements?”

“Mining implements. Pickaxes, hammers for breaking rock, the tools used to drive a shaft.”

“A mine?”

The word came out of nowhere, and Myeong U-jong and I looked at each other.

“Don’t tell me!”

Then a single word struck my head and shot out of my mouth like a sneeze.

“A gold mine!”

Hohyeon Byeok nodded.

“I’ve never seen it for certain myself, but that’s what I’ve been thinking. And the villagers of Poyang County disappearing without a whisper — that seems to be so they can be worked as miners.”

Myeong U-jong bobbed his chin.

“There is a strong likelihood it is a gold mine. And it makes sense too that these Demonic Cult fellows want the title to the ground. Even if the Hyeoncheon Sect or anyone else tells them to get out, once they claim the title nobody can do as they please with them.”

“It is a title given by the Prince’s Residence, so not even the Unorthodox Supreme can touch it lightly. That is why they attacked the Hohyeon Estate and put the pressure on. Ask for the title about now, and the Hohyeon Estate will have no choice but to give it, to escape being wiped out root and branch.”

I spoke up.

“Then it looks as though there will be a large-scale assault before long.”

Myeong U-jong took up the thread.

“Might it not come tonight? Seeing that we have come in, they may well mean to settle the business before it gets any later.”

Hohyeon Byeok shook his head.

“I doubt that. The fellows attacked two days ago. Whether they mean to dry us out and kill us I cannot say, but they have generally come at us once in seven days. It will be some days more before they come.”

“Half the Hohyeon Estate’s household is dead, you said? Then they’ll be thinking of making an end of it now. We can’t let our guard down.”

When I said it, Hohyeon Byeok nodded too.

“Of course. That’s why we’re keeping a strict watch outside the estate.”

Once Myeong U-jong and I were left alone, he spoke with misgiving in his voice.

“Corps Chief Gwanryong has to see Miss Mak safely to the Ilji Sect before he comes, so he will not arrive until sometime tomorrow — and I am afraid the Demonic Cult fellows may burst in this very night.”

“Corps Chief Gwanryong is not here, but there are ten elite of the Hyeoncheon Asura Corps, and I am here as well, so do not trouble yourself greatly.”

“Yes. Had I not even Scholar Cheon here, I should have been uneasy. This official must go to the Nanchang Prefect when day breaks tomorrow. I need to find out what these fellows can possibly be thinking.”

I came out of Myeong U-jong’s room and went through to my own quarters. Hohyeon Byeok had put me in the best room of the annex, saying that a friend had come after all.

I thought of my friend’s face, apologetic that a friend should come from so far off¹ and be offered not so much as a cup of wine, and anger rose in me unbidden. My friend too, it seemed, was being made a victim of the murim’s law that the strong devour the weak. Watching the house of the friend I had sworn brotherhood with come to the edge of being wiped out root and branch, I could not take it for another man’s business.

In case a fight was still coming, I put the Flying Dantian through a Small Circulation and a Great Circulation. To work its internal force I set going the internal art I liked best of all, the one that passes qi through every one of the three hundred and sixty-one meridian points.

The Heaven’s Net Internal Art.

True to its name, a net of heaven, it sent qi to three hundred and sixty-one meridian points. And yet to this day I had never seen a martial artist who worked it, for a single Great Circulation with it took ten hours.

For my own amusement I had once gone into the Murim Alliance’s martial repository and worked up a comparative analysis of the internal arts of the orthodox, the unorthodox and the demonic, to see how far they differed in the number of meridian points they passed qi through in working the power.

And I turned up something interesting.

The internal arts of the orthodox faction sent qi to somewhere from a hundred and fifty meridian points down to ninety-nine. Those of the unorthodox sects and the underworld ranged from a hundred and twenty down to eighty. The demonic path, though, was extreme. Hardly any of its arts sent qi to more than a hundred meridian points, and there were plenty at fifty or under. Reckoning efficiency to an extreme, they cut down the number of meridian points and worked the qi that way.

This is the reason it is said that the martial arts of the unorthodox sects and the demonic path are quick to enter but slow to grow and develop, and have a ceiling. It was then that I learned it was not merely something people say.

So I had made up my mind that if ever I worked the power, I would do it with the Heaven’s Net Internal Art, which sends qi to all three hundred and sixty-one meridian points. All this while I had worked the power on spirit energy alone, so I had never so much as done a Small or a Great Circulation with it.

It is a strange thing. Ordinary martial artists say working the power is harder than one would think. Why is it so easy for me?

I knew it was possible because my constitution was the Heavenly Martial Sacred Body, but now and then I astonished myself, bringing it off as easily as that.

I am curious what it must feel like for Yeo-seol, born with the Heavenly Immortal Divine Meridian.

I felt the responsibility of guiding Yeo-seol well. A martial talent not to be seen again in a thousand ages, fallen into the demonic and heterodox ways, would be a calamity for the murim.

My thoughts ranged out to Yeo-seol and then came back to my Flying Dantian.

It has very nearly become a dantian of a little over twenty years’ worth of internal power now.

I did one Small Circulation and, while I was at it, went on to attempt the Great. A martial artist generally takes an hour over the Small Circulation and two hours over the Great. My meridians were broad and strong, though, so even working the power with the Heaven’s Net Internal Art, a quarter of an hour was enough for my Small Circulation and the Great took me about half an hour. I was sending qi to twice as many meridian points as anyone else and had three or four times the efficiency besides.

Circulating the qi with spirit energy was plainly a different thing. Working it through internal force loosened the body into a pleasant languor.

I must not be idle about circulating the qi with internal force either. The stiffness in the body goes off at once, too. There was a reason martial artists circulated the qi at every hour, and then some.

As I circulated my internal force, a sudden thought struck me.

Would it be possible to work internal qi and spirit energy at the same time? There is nothing to say it is impossible, is there? If I did it with the Nine Nether Dark Prison Internal Art instead of the Heaven’s Net Internal Art, it seems I could work internal qi and spirit energy together.

I turned the several variables over for a while and could see no great problem. At once I tried working internal qi and setting spirit energy going at the same time.