Side Story 30. Yi-gang, Tianzhu (3)

Yi-gang’s laughter was clear.
He read the letter carrying news from Azure Forest twice in a row.
Then he smiled warmly and said,

“So, I really did have disciples. That’s right, all three are my disciples.”

The letter did not mention Baek Sang-ye’s true identity.
But it did say that So-ryu had come with her, and that a girl named Baek Sang-ye was from a collateral branch of the Baek Clan, so he saw through it immediately.
The fact that she was the once-spoiled Honorable County Princess Sang-ye whom he had taught martial arts to in the imperial palace.

Jun Myung laughed and asked Yi-gang,

-They all seemed like good kids. I didn’t spend long with them, but I could tell. And Cheongho…

“That’s right. It’s him.”

-Fascinating. The children seem to squabble every day, though. They ended up arguing over who the senior disciple was. In the end, Martial Ancestor Do-gyeon stepped in.

The Golden Needle Phantom stepped in and set their temporary senior-junior order.
He told the three newcomers that the real answer should be confirmed directly with Yi-gang.
So Jun Myung asked in their place.

-So who is the first?

Jun Myung had been just as curious himself.
Instead of answering, Yi-gang merely grinned.
Just as Jun Myung, unable to wait any longer, was about to ask again,

“Please read our letter too.”

Seo Yeong-ji cut in.
At first she had seemed intimidated by meeting Yi-gang in person, but she appeared to have regained her confidence quickly.

“Of course. Is your honored father in good health?”
“My father recently emerged from secluded training. I heard he gained a new insight.”
“That is something to congratulate him on.”

Seo Mun-jae was an Absolute Master.
He had even fought alongside Yi-gang to subdue the Disaster Grade yokai Guihon.
If he had truly stepped into a new realm, then he would certainly become the greatest master of the unorthodox faction.
That was, excluding a few special cases.

“He wishes to meet you once more. He said he wants to test superiority with you.”
“Would I even be a worthy opponent?”
“They do say excessive humility is its own form of insult.”
“Huhu…”

As if adding it in passing, Yi-gang said,

“Once things are wrapped up, I plan to return to the Central Plains next year.”
“So it seems you still have much left to do beyond the frontier.”
“I have to deal with the trouble Guihon left behind when it died.”

Yi-gang looked up at the sky.
By now, the sunset was painting the western sky red.

“I’ll go over all the letters. Let’s speak again tomorrow.”

Even just the letters and invitation packets Seo Yeong-ji had delivered to Yi-gang made up quite a bundle.
Yi-gang left with Jun Myung.
Only Seo Yeong-ji and Ten Thousand Sword Lord remained there.
Fortunately, Yi-gang had shown consideration for them as well, and Prince Akbar’s side assigned them a tent to stay in.

On the way back, Seo Yeong-ji and Ten Thousand Sword Lord whispered quietly to each other.

“Indeed…”

Ten Thousand Sword Lord wore a grave expression.
He was one of the most trusted subordinates of the Heretical Alliance Lord.
His loyalty to the Heretical Alliance Lord was extraordinary, so he had hoped his lord would openly ascend as the strongest under heaven.

“Even with my own eyes, it is hard to gauge his realm.”

When the Heretical Alliance Lord emerged from seclusion, Ten Thousand Sword Lord had shed tears of joy.
It was because he had become convinced that his lord could surpass Heavenly Pillar Baek Yi-gang and become the strongest under heaven.
But when he came here and saw Yi-gang in person,
Ten Thousand Sword Lord was shocked.
The sight of him hurling great spears from that far away and mowing down cavalry in an instant had been overwhelming.
By his own discernment, he could not even begin to measure Yi-gang’s skill.

“……”

Seo Yeong-ji seemed just as shaken.
In Ten Thousand Sword Lord’s eyes, Seo Yeong-ji was still immature.
Her arrogance was understandable given her status, but she still needed to learn how vast the world was.
Perhaps this was a good opportunity.
To meet Heavenly Pillar Baek Yi-gang in person, as a fellow martial artist, might well be a kind of fortune.
Seo Yeong-ji muttered in a serious tone,

“Seeing him in person…”

Ten Thousand Sword Lord smiled faintly at her.

“Compared to what I’ve heard, he’s more…”
“That’s understandable. Heavenly Pillar Baek Yi-gang is still young, after all.”
“Handsome.”
“Indeed, he’s tremendously stro—… pardon?”
“Tch. Last time, some of those rising talents from the orthodox side were bragging, so I said my older brother was more handsome. But then they all burst out laughing and made a scene, and it made me furious…”

Seo Yeong-ji ground her teeth in frustration.

“This is so embarrassing, seriously!”
“……”

Ten Thousand Sword Lord once again felt keenly that Seo Yeong-ji was still immature.
Fortunately, while Seo Yeong-ji was young, she was not foolish.

“There are things we need to do before meeting Heavenly Pillar again tomorrow.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s find out what he’s been doing here, and what he intends to do.”
“Yes.”

What exactly was Yi-gang, said to be the strongest under heaven, doing here?
Naturally, that was something they had to learn.

Ten Thousand Sword Lord could speak the language of Tianzhu.
That was why he was here with Seo Yeong-ji.
Prince Akbar’s soldiers and officers did not seem to hold any dislike for people from the Central Plains.
It was probably thanks to Yi-gang having helped them.
And since Seo Yeong-ji looked cute and was young to boot, everyone treated her kindly.

“Master Baek is someone we’re grateful to.”

That was the answer they got when they asked about Yi-gang.

“If not for him, a lot of people would have died. And he’s good-natured too, kind even to the common folk. Do all people from the Central Plains know medicine?”
“Medicine? Healing arts? Well, not exactly.”
“When he has time, he treats sick commoners without taking any payment.”

So he had learned under the Golden Needle Phantom, yet she had not expected him to be going around doing things like that.
“What a hypocrite,” Seo Yeong-ji muttered quietly.

“More importantly, why does everyone call him Teacher?”
“Ah, because Master Baek is His Highness the Prince’s teacher.”
“Oh?”

It turned out that was indeed the case.
While introducing himself, Yi-gang had mentioned that he had once served as a tutor to a crown prince.
And then Prince Akbar, who had already been greatly interested in Yi-gang, had asked for his instruction.
That was why Yi-gang was called Teacher here.

“The protection of the great God was upon us. Truly, in a world this terrible.”

The officer emphasized the words ‘terrible world.’

“I don’t know what your land is like. Do giant beasts roam there too?”
“Giant beasts? You mean yokai?”
“Yokai? I don’t know what that is.”

Ten Thousand Sword Lord’s Tianzhu speech was not perfect either.
It seemed communication was not going smoothly.
Seo Yeong-ji kept urging Ten Thousand Sword Lord on, telling him to stop asking useless things and ask what mattered.

“You want to know what Master Baek is doing? Hmm…”

Fortunately, the officer did not seem to imagine that the two of them were gathering intelligence.

“He’s been taking down giant beasts, and there was something he was collecting. Ah, would you like to see it for yourselves?”
“Oh? Is there something we can actually see?”
“There are trophies. His Highness was so proud of them that he had them preserved for all to see.”
“…Ah, yes, I’d like to see them.”
“Good, then follow me.”

He was offering to show them Yi-gang’s trophies.
Seo Yeong-ji and Ten Thousand Sword Lord followed the officer, who seemed quite enthusiastic.
But the place the officer brought them to was not a warehouse or any place suited for storing trophies.
It was a massive pit.
One reeking of rot.

“They’re down there.”
“……”

The cawing of crows tearing at corpses echoed in the air.
Seo Yeong-ji’s face turned deathly pale.

Jun Myung stayed at Yi-gang’s quarters with him.
The fatigue of travel had piled up heavily, and Wisdom-Light Heart Speech consumed a great deal of internal energy.
The two did not talk much before going to sleep.
It did not matter. There would still be time to talk in the morning.

“Do you like drinking tea?”

Yi-gang asked casually. When Jun Myung nodded, he went out and brought back something like a kettle.

“It’s called chai. I don’t know whether it’ll suit your taste.”

It seemed to be a tea of Tianzhu.
It was brewed by boiling pepper, star anise, ginger, tea leaves, and buffalo milk together.

“Sugar’s cheaper here than in the Central Plains.”
-Something this precious…

Yi-gang served the chai with plenty of sugar added.
Jun Myung blew on it as he drank.
It was sweet, rich, bitter, and spicy all at once.

-……

“Haha, your expression is amusing.”

Yi-gang smiled faintly and drank his own chai as well.

“Is Master doing well?”
-The Forest Lord has been extremely busy lately.
“That makes sense. I’m very busy too. I’d like to return before next summer.”
-Did you see the wedding invitation?
“Yes. I definitely want to go to the wedding. I can also do a bit of sightseeing in Hangzhou while I’m at it.”
-So you do intend to return.

Yi-gang intended to attend Namgung Sin’s wedding as well.

“They say So-ryu is getting married.”

So-ryu, the younger sister of So-hwa, who had once served as his attendant, and who had now become part of the Baek Clan.
The bride-to-be was none other than Baek So-ryu.

-Have you accomplished all that you intended?
“I’ll show you.”

Yi-gang pulled out a large wooden box.
When he opened it, its contents were revealed in a burst of light.
It seemed as though violet light filled the inside of the tent.

-If it’s this large…!

Unlike Yu Su-rin, Jun Myung was one of the few who knew the true nature of these crystal fragments.
Guihon Jade. The internal core of the worst yokai in history, the one that had crossed over from the Yokai Realm into the mortal world.
The Guihon Jade that Gujiram had carried was barely the size of one pinky segment.
But the crystal fragment inside Yi-gang’s wooden box was as large as a fist.

“If you find a smaller one and bring it close…”

Yi-gang took out a grain-sized shard of Guihon Jade from his robes and brought it near.
At once, it slapped together and fused into one.

“They merge. As if they’re alive. This is probably around one tenth of the whole.”
-Only one tenth? When it’s already this big?

Jun Myung was aghast.
To think that a Guihon Jade holding this much power was only one tenth of the whole.

“I need to gather more and return to the Central Plains. Once things here are done, I’ll head beyond the Persian lands.”
-Beyond Persia?
“Yes, to the land of Egypt, where there are deserts and giant triangular structures.”
-You’re going far.
“I’ll follow the trade routes, so it’ll be manageable.”

Saying that, Yi-gang closed the box containing the Guihon Jade.
Then he held out something like a compass to Jun Myung.

-What is this?
“Take it back and show it to the Forest Lord. If Senior Brother Dam Hyun is there, show it to him too. I suppose you can call it a Guihon Compass.”

A violet quartz shard was attached to the needle of the compass.
The needle was pointing toward the wooden box holding the Guihon Jade.

“It’ll show the location of nearby Guihon Jade.”
-The reason you’re giving me this is…
“That’s right. We no longer have the luxury of hiding the existence of Guihon Jade. We need to gather it all and destroy it as soon as possible.”

The Disaster Grade yokai Guihon had been exterminated.
But the Guihon Jade scattered when it died caused all kinds of problems in the world.
Yi-gang insisted that all of it had to be gathered and destroyed.

“Not just Azure Forest. All of Murim will have to move.”
-I’ll convey that.
“There, I’ve written the reply, so take it back with you.”

Yi-gang handed over the bundle of letters.
It seemed he had stayed up without sleeping to write replies to all the letters he had received.

It was then.

Seo Yeong-ji and Ten Thousand Sword Lord burst into Yi-gang’s tent.

“What exactly have you been doing here?!”

Seo Yeong-ji asked with a startled face.
It was understandable. What she had seen in that pit was…

“Are those yokai?”
“Yokai?”
“The corpses in the pit.”

She had seen the corpse of a horrifyingly huge beast.

“You mean the elephants.”
“Elephants? I’d never heard they were that huge.”

Then several of Akbar’s officers entered Yi-gang’s tent after Seo Yeong-ji.

“Teacher Baek! Kamran Mirza has sent elephants again!”
“Then I’ll have to deal with them.”

Yi-gang hurried to his feet as well.

“If you don’t believe it, come outside and see for yourself.”
“…What?”

When they followed Yi-gang outside the tent, soldiers and officers were busily preparing for battle.

“If an elephant eats Guihon Jade… wouldn’t it become an incredible yokai?”

When a tiger became a yokai, it became an extremely dangerous thing.
The same was true for elephants.
Where the soldiers were rushing, a gigantic beast stood waiting.
It looked easily nine meters tall.
An elephant that looked less like an animal than a massive monster.

-So this is how you’ve been gathering the Guihon Jade?

Jun Myung asked.
Yi-gang grinned and nodded.
As Yi-gang moved to join the battle, Jun Myung hastily caught him.

-Ah, and will you not tell even me which of those children is the first?

Jun Myung was planning to leave immediately.
Yi-gang laughed and replied,

“Tell them I’ll tell them myself when I see them.”

With that, Yi-gang ran off like the wind.