Chapter 6

The provincial capital of Liaoning. We arrived in Shenyang.

Passing through the bustling streets, I stepped down from the carriage and walked into the Moyong Family, a place I’d only ever heard spoken of.

So this is what one of the Five Great Families looks like. Buildings stood everywhere, so broad and so tall my eyes went round.

“Oh.”

Would you look at that. The country mouse, out gawking at the sights of the big city. But the city mice found the country mouse an even bigger marvel.

“Ohh.”
“So it’s true — the Heavenly Martial Body!”
“The Cold Moon Wanderer didn’t overstate it in the least!”

The high-born-looking adults took one look at me and were astonished, and then delighted. The welcome was warm enough to make all my nerves look foolish.

After I’d been passed along through the family’s elders, I soon found myself face to face with their head, Moyong Jin-seong.

“Come closer.”

The family head was a man so gravely dignified you couldn’t picture him smiling. The authority of his office came off him in waves.

Strict. Stern. Solemn. Mix those three words together and shape a man out of them, and you’d probably get him.

…Honestly, he scared me a little.

Don’t get nervous, Lightsaber.¹

I swallowed hard and stepped closer to him.

“Your hand.”

Moyong Jin-seong took hold of my wrist and closed his eyes, the way the elders had. A clear, bright energy came in through my wrist and swept once around my body.

— Flash!

He opened his eyes and seized my hand in both of his.

“My son!”
“…Father?”

It came out of me so naturally I half wondered whether I really had been his long-lost son all along.

Moyong Jin-seong looked around at the family’s elders and said:

“I, Moyong Jin-seong, head of the Moyong Family, have resolved to take this gifted boy as my adopted son. Does any man here object?”
“There is none!”

The elders and the family head settled it right there, unanimously. I was to be taken into the Moyong Family as an adopted son.

Moyong Jin-seong let his face relax as though he had never been frightening in the first place, smiled gently, and asked me:

“We have made our decision. What are your thoughts?”

Cheeky as it was, I attached a condition.

“I’d like Pops, who came here with me, to be able to live alongside me without any hardship. He took in a worthless nobody like me and looked after me. He’s a benefactor who has been like a parent to me.”

The family head smiled, well pleased.

“Is that all?”
“Ah, and Pops has hurt his leg. I’d be grateful if you’d have it treated as well.”

Moyong Jin-seong threw his head back and roared with laughter.

“Every last thing you ask for is for somebody else! Is there nothing for yourself?”

I scratched at my neck, thought a moment, and answered.

“Nothing.”

The family head was impressed.

“Would you look at this boy. Before he has ever held a blade, he takes up benevolence and righteousness. How could I refuse so admirable a request?”

The elders laughed out loud as well, and the eyes they turned on me were full of goodwill.

“He became a man of character first!”
“And that is a most powerful weapon. Sharper than any sword!”
“Welcome, welcome! Whatever anyone says, you are of the Moyong Family now.”
“So this is how we get a lost kinsman back!”

None of it was familiar. To be welcomed this warmly by murim warriors, of all people. Weren’t they supposed to be selfish, ill-mannered types who swung a blade at the slightest provocation? I could feel my fixed idea of them cracking. Before today I could never have imagined it.

Something caught in my throat.

One by one I met the eyes of the elders welcoming me, and then I looked at Moyong Jin-seong.

“In that case — I would gladly become a member of the Moyong Family, Father.”

Moyong Jin-seong rose from his seat and declared:

“I speak as head of the Moyong Family: from this day forth your name is Moyong Gwang-seon!”

The adoption into the Moyong Family went through so smoothly it made all my nerves look ridiculous. It was all so easy and so quick that I found myself wondering whether it was even allowed.

Dazed, I looked around for Big Bro Un-cheon. He was standing a little way off, watching me, and he grinned.

“Told you. You’d have been a fool to turn it down.”

I was given a house inside the Moyong estate where the boss and I could live together. It even came with a wide courtyard.

Could use this as a training ground.

Under an unusually bright moon, I fiddled with the ring. Still not so much as one bar filled. After trying this and that, I thought I had a rough idea of how it charged.

This thing drinks light.

As far as I could tell, it soaked up sunlight and moonlight and used them for fuel. How that worked was entirely beyond me.

Being out in the open is natural enough in the daytime, but at night….

I scratched my head and muttered.

“Guess I’ll have to camp out?”
“Camp out? You’ve got a perfectly good bed — why sleep outside?”

I turned toward the voice. A girl about my own age stood there, staring blankly at me.

When did she get here?

Skin white as snow, eyebrows thin but dark, lips a bright crimson like a flower in bloom. Every line of her finely drawn, as though someone had painted her in with a brush. The whole effect came off decidedly chilly. A cold beauty I’d never have dared look in the eye out on a market street was standing right there in front of me. Under the moonlight she looked like some chill fairy of the night.

I stared at her, this girl who had appeared without the faintest sound. She looked back at me. For a while the two of us just sized each other up.

Then she tilted her head, walked a wide circle around me, and muttered:

“Hmm. Doesn’t look like much.”
“…What?”
“You. Have you ever learned any martial arts?”
“Just a bit of footwork.”
“Show me, then.”

I unleashed the killer footwork Big Bro Un-cheon had taught me.

— Shff-shff-shff-shff—

A great cloud of dust went up.

Darting left and right at tremendous speed, I said:

“How’s that?”

She watched, tilted her head, and asked:

“Didn’t you say you hadn’t learned the mind arts?”
“I haven’t.”
“Hmph… not bad.”
“Can you do it?”
“I’d be faster.”

She darted left and right, just as I had.

— Shff-shff-shff-shff-shff!

“…!”

Mine wasn’t in the same league as hers. Her feet weren’t even visible, and barely any dust rose at all.

I stared at her wide-eyed and marveled.

“You… you’re incredible.”

She went still. Her eyes widened a little, as if startled, and she whipped her head away.

“H-hmph! This much is basic. Nothing to be surprised about. Once you’ve learned the mind arts, this much isn’t hard.”
“Yeah?”

A person can’t live alone. Loneliness is the deadliest poison there is. And inside these enormous Moyong Family walls, the more people on my side, the better.

“It’s a bit late today. Want to come round sometime and eat with me?”
“Eat with you?”
“Yeah. I don’t know much about martial arts yet, but I can cook a little.”

She said it coldly.

“Hmph. Cooking, of all things. Who has time for that when there’s martial arts to master?”
“You’ve got to eat well to have any strength.”

She turned only her head and looked me straight in the eye.

“You. Keep taking it that easy and you’ll be thrown right back out.”

Had I said the wrong thing? I could feel the sharp hostility coming off her.

“You wouldn’t know it, but we’re desperate.”

I shrugged.

“Sorry if that came out rude. I still don’t know much about how things are done in the Moyong Family. But think it over. Cooking’s the one thing I’m confident about.”

Her eyes went wide.

…Did I say the wrong thing again?

She looked at me a moment with those round eyes, then said:

“You. You said you hadn’t learned the mind arts yet, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I mastered them in three months flat.”

A brag, out of nowhere?

I tilted my head.

“Is that a lot?”
“Idiot. A year at the very fastest. Normally you spend the first three years doing nothing but mind arts and breathing.”
“Really? That’s impressive.”

She glared at me as though something about that didn’t sit right, then whirled away into the dark.

“See you around! …Friend!”

I waved as I said it, and an answer came back out of the darkness.

“Call me Big Sis!”

…Big Sis?

Was she older than me?

No — more to the point, I never even got her name.

“I’ll ask next time, I suppose.”

And so my first day at the Moyong Family came to a close.

The next day, a visitor came.

“Good to meet you. I am called Moyong Bi. From today I’ll be your martial arts teacher.”
“Lee Gwang-seon— no. Moyong Gwang-seon, sir. I’m in your hands.”

A martial arts teacher, sent right to my door. That said a great deal about how much consideration the Moyong Family was showing me.

Which means their expectations run just as high.

Put like that, it made my shoulders feel heavy.

Moyong Bi made no move toward a training ground, just stood there, so I asked, carefully:

“Where should we be going for the training ground?”
“What are you talking about? You’ll be learning from me one on one, right here.”
“Sorry?”

He really did mean to use the courtyard in front of the house as a training ground.

Isn’t learning martial arts normally a matter of a master gathering a crowd of disciples and demonstrating for them?

Even the small sects gather a dozen-odd children and teach them as a group. For a sect as large as the Moyong Family to send out a martial arts teacher for me alone was thoroughly bewildering.

One-on-one private tutoring!

Ignorant as I am about this world, even I could easily guess this was extraordinary treatment.

So this is what special treatment looks like.

“The Moyong Family has put some thought into this. Sending you as his martial arts teacher.”

Big Bro Un-cheon, who had been loafing about nearby like a man of leisure, spoke up without ceremony.

“I put myself forward. I wanted him.”
“Well, this is an honor for the family. Great Hero Moyong Bi, the Glancing River Sword, teaching him in person.”
“Ahh — hardly a match for Great Hero Baek Un-cheon, the Cold Moon Wanderer, master of the barbed remark.”

The two of them clearly knew each other well.

Moyong Bi looked at me with a flame blazing up in his eyes and said:

“The day the Moyong Family takes the Dragon and Phoenix Conference² may not be so far off.”

Big Bro Un-cheon sneered openly.

“Draining the victory cup by the bowlful before you’ve taught him a thing.”
“It’s a figure of speech.”

Moyong Bi shrugged, without a trace of offense. Even to me, who knew nothing, the two of them looked to be on very easy terms.

“You seem to know Big Bro Un-cheon well, sir.”
“Well… we have known each other a long while.”

Moyong Bi narrowed his eyes at Big Bro Un-cheon, as if displeased. Big Bro Un-cheon paid it no mind and scolded me in a put-on voice of stern authority.

“Now then, Gwang-seon. Mind your manners. Have you any idea who it is standing before you?”
“Who is he?”
“This fellow, I’ll have you know, is the star-crossed genius the Moyong Family produced, runner-up at the Dragon and Phoenix Conference itself — the Glancing River Sword, Lord Moyong Bi!”
“W-wow!”

— Clap, clap, clap—

I clapped and played along. I didn’t really know who he was, but if Big Bro Un-cheon was talking him up like that, he must be somebody.

“Did you really take second at the Dragon and Phoenix Conference?”
“Well… yes. Not that it’s something to say in front of him.”

He clicked his tongue and shot Big Bro Un-cheon a sidelong look.

“Why bring him here instead of teaching him yourself? Honestly, I don’t follow. You’re not the sort to do favors for other people.”
“Mine’s mongrel stuff. It won’t do.”

Moyong Bi laughed shortly.

“Still as hard on yourself as ever, I see.”

Big Bro Un-cheon didn’t answer. He just drifted back a step, as if to say: cut the nonsense and start the lesson.

Moyong Bi sighed a little and looked at me.

“Right. Shall we begin the lesson properly, then.”

He went over what I’d learned from Big Bro Un-cheon, then asked me about this and that besides. I answered honestly, as far as I knew. After that he had me run through various movements and watched me closely while I did.

What he was checking for, I’ve no idea. Whatever it was, he checked it thoroughly, then looked at me and said:

“Mmm… I see. Your level.”
“How is it?”
“Rock bottom.”
“…”
“That’s a compliment. Paint sinks in best when the sheet you draw on is clean. From the look of it, your master had this in mind from the very start.”

Big Bro Un-cheon, who had been listening quietly, frowned.

“Master, my foot. Teaching a bit of footwork makes a man a master?”
“You taught him his first martial arts, so a master is what you are.”
“Drop it.”

There was a reason he’d introduced himself as a martial arts teacher and not as a master. Moyong Bi was showing Big Bro Un-cheon consideration in his own way, and acknowledging him with it.

“Why not? Master to a genius. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t want my debts and grudges handed down to that boy as well.”
“Fair enough. Few men have a past as colorful as yours.”
“Shut it.”

Moyong Bi seemed to know roughly what Big Bro Un-cheon’s circumstances were, and let it drop.

I thought back to a scene I’d once glimpsed in passing at some sect whose name I never learned, and asked:

“So what do I learn first? Kicks? Straight punches?”
“No. You’ll start with the mind arts.”
“The mind arts?”

What the nameless girl from the night before had said came back to me.

Three months, wasn’t it?

And even that, she’d said, was extremely fast.

Three years to master them completely, normally — was that it?

I couldn’t say for certain, but they sounded like a fearsomely difficult martial art.

“What are the mind arts? Broadly speaking, they are exactly what the words say — the study of governing the mind. In the gangho the term is commonly used for the method of storing qi within the body.”
“Qi?”
“Yes, qi. It is the foundation and the core of every martial art. What we call a martial art is nothing more than a written account of how to move qi.”

— Shhing.

Moyong Bi drew his sword and said:

“Watch closely.”

And the blade began to shine like a star.

“Ohh!”

At my gasp of admiration, Moyong Bi smiled.

“All show, that.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Big Bro Un-cheon snort.

“That is qi, moved and breathed into the blade. Rather pretty, isn’t it?”
“Yes!”
“It’s harder than it looks. You only reach that level once the sword feels as familiar to you as your own hands and feet.”

With that, Moyong Bi slid the sword back into its scabbard.

“Train hard and you’ll manage it too. Feeling motivated?”
“Yes!”
“Right. Sit down, then. Straighten your back. That’s it. I’m going to send qi into your body now. Concentrate. Close your eyes and try to feel it.”

I did as I was told. I closed my eyes and focused. Before long Moyong Bi laid a hand on my back, and a cool, clear energy flowed in.

It wasn’t unfamiliar to me. Big Bro Un-cheon had done the same, and so had the elders and the family head; every one of them had poured qi into me through my wrist.

So that was qi.

It differed from person to person, though. Where Big Bro Un-cheon’s qi was cool and still, Moyong Bi’s came in like a soft wind, ticklish against the skin.

I watched his qi twinkling quietly like a star inside my body. It plainly had substance, and no shape at all.

Energy you can’t see, huh.

It was interesting.

After a while Moyong Bi lifted his hand from my back and asked:

“Well? Can you feel it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“…You can feel it?”
“Ah, yes. It felt different from Big Bro Un-cheon’s.”

Moyong Bi exchanged a look with Big Bro Un-cheon, then asked:

“Different how?”
“How to put it… Big Bro Un-cheon’s qi was cold, and yours was soft, Teacher Yong-bi. I suppose the energy each person carries is different?”

Astonishment washed over Moyong Bi’s face.

“Hah… so the talent is real. Not content with feeling qi at the first attempt, he picks up its nature and the fine differences besides?”
“Even I’m surprised at this. I only checked him briefly back then — he’d already awakened to qi by that point?”

Big Bro Un-cheon couldn’t hide his own astonishment either.

“Unbelievable. That stage can take years… we may as well skip the introduction entirely. Good grief. What kind of talent is this?”
“Was Rin like this too?”
“Rin took a good seven days and nights, at the least — I think?”

…Is it really that impressive?

I scratched my head, feeling awkward for no good reason, and Moyong Bi burst into a hearty laugh.

“You know, he might well master the mind arts sooner than Rin did.”

And so my lessons in the mind arts began.

“The mind art I am going to teach you is called the Divine Art of Untroubled Heaven and Earth.”