Chapter 25 - Gyul Hwa Wi Ji

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The party left Fengyang and walked without a single rest. Only toward evening did they finally reach Huainan.

Huainan was famous as the place where Yuan Shu had established his capital toward the end of the Eastern Han. As its name—“south of the Huai”—suggested, it was a walled city just south of the Huai River.

The Namgung Clan lay several dozen li to the south. Another full day of hard walking would probably bring them there.

In other words, they would have to spend a night in Huainan...

After arriving, the party had considerable trouble finding an inn. Most had no rooms available.

Like Tang Wu and the Danri Family’s party, countless martial artists were converging on Hefei to visit the Namgung Clan. Naturally, the inns in Huainan, which lay along the way, were crowded.

They barely managed to find an inn that could accommodate them all. It was hardly outstanding, but it was good enough to ease their travel fatigue, so they immediately dispersed to their rooms. With an entire day of walking ahead of them tomorrow, they needed to rest well while they could.

However, one person alone remained outside the inn.

Dong Bongsu, of course.

Gi Daehyo no longer considered him one of the Danri Family’s people and therefore made no particular arrangements for him. Inwardly, though, he hoped Dong Bongsu would continue looking after Yeoro until they reached the Namgung Clan. There was no telling what might happen if a mount as precious as a Sweat-Blood Horse were left alone in the paddock outside the inn.

Quite independently of those wishes, Dong Bongsu stayed in the paddock with Yeoro of his own accord.

Anyone else might have preferred resting inside, but Dong Bongsu was more comfortable in the paddock. Being outside alone was far better than being crammed in among the servants.

He could quietly reflect on his own, or practice his Inventory Divine Art and Skills. He was not a man to waste even a moment. Had he been able to go without sleep, he would never have slept at all.

Even now, sitting in a corner of the paddock, he was not idle.

After tying Yeoro to a hitching post, Dong Bongsu was practicing his Inventory Divine Art. His steady training seemed to be paying off: he had become quite proficient at Two-Object Insertion and Withdrawal. Next came practicing taking three grains of sand out and putting them back in simultaneously.

Just as he was about to begin...

NEIGH, PFFFRR.

Yeoro whinnied softly as an uninvited visitor’s long, dark shadow, cast by the moonlight, stretched into the paddock. Someone had come looking for him at this late hour. Unlike the Danri Family’s stable, the inn’s paddock had no door, so anyone appearing at its entrance was immediately noticeable.

The moment Dong Bongsu noticed the shadow, the clarity in his eyes sank away, turning dull.

Who had called the eyes the mirror of the soul? Had that person met Dong Bongsu, they would have wanted to take those words back—or chew their own tongue to pieces.

Dong Bongsu could color his gaze however he pleased. He could be a dunce or a genius, passionate or bored, a demon or an angel. With his eyes alone, he could become anyone.

For him, the eyes were not a mirror of the soul, but reflective glass with an image playing across it. Others might believe they were seeing his heart reflected in a mirror, but in truth, they were seeing what they wanted to see. Looking closer did no good. The closer they came, the narrower their field of vision became, leaving them all the more confused.

Meanwhile, Dong Bongsu could hide behind that glass and observe them to his heart’s content. Thus he could toy with them as he pleased, turning them into clowns inside a glass case.

By the time his eyes had fully reverted to Sosam’s, the shadow had fallen across them completely.

He waited until he sensed the visitor close by, then slowly raised his head to see their face.

It was the veiled woman, her slender figure so willowy she seemed ready to float away. The person who had appeared before him at this late hour was Tang Wu’s granddaughter, Tang Hwa.

“Honestly, Grandfather. What’s so special about someone like this that he wants me to fetch him at this hour?”

“...”

Tang Hwa grumbled, ignorant of the reason, but Dong Bongsu knew the moment he had been expecting had arrived.

“Please follow me.”

Despite her unpleasant tone, her actual words were polite. Clearly, Tang Wu must have told her not to treat him carelessly.

Dong Bongsu slowly rose as instructed. As the two left the paddock, a Black Crow Unit member who had accompanied her stepped inside to take his place. Yeoro could not be left alone.

Dong Bongsu then followed Tang Hwa into the inn. She took him to its largest and finest room. Presumably, this was where Tang Wu was staying.

Just as he expected, when they opened the door and entered, Tang Wu was seated in the middle of the room, his expression cold and impassive.

“You’re here? Bring him closer.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

Dong Bongsu followed Tang Hwa until he stood directly before Tang Wu.

Tang Wu silently looked up at him with keen eyes, then raised a hand to point at the bed in a corner of the room.

“Climb onto that bed and sit in meditation.”

Without any particular hesitation, Dong Bongsu did as instructed, climbing onto the bed and sitting upright.

He did not know what Tang Wu intended to do, but judged it best to comply. Though Tang Wu’s eyes were cold, a certain desire burned within them. And whatever that desire concerned, it was unquestionably something beneficial to Dong Bongsu.

Once Dong Bongsu had assumed the desired posture, Tang Wu rose and approached the bed.

After sweeping his body once with a piercing gaze, he began kneading and probing various parts of it.

Would even an archaeologist handling an ancient relic be this careful? The caution in Tang Wu’s touch was almost beyond description.

A long while passed.

Apparently satisfied with his examination, Tang Wu stopped touching Dong Bongsu’s body. Then he drew a small wooden case from inside his robe. Meticulously inlaid gold leaf depicted a dragon and phoenix soaring upward, entwined. Even at a glance, Dong Bongsu could tell it was extremely valuable.

“The Dragon-Phoenix Golden Needles!”

What were those? Judging by Tang Hwa’s shocked cry, they were more than merely valuable.

“Grandfather, what on earth are you going to do? Surely you don’t mean...?”

Ignoring her astonishment, Tang Wu addressed Dong Bongsu.

“I intend to perform a certain Great Ritual on you now.”

A Great Ritual.

Dong Bongsu thought this must be that beneficial something.

Tang Wu continued.

“It will be extremely painful. Perhaps so painful that you will think death preferable. But once you endure it, you will regain your speech. And more! You will be able to return to your original self, the way you were born. Well? Will you do it?”

Dong Bongsu could not tell what Tang Wu meant by “your original self, the way you were born.” All he could tell was that it was the reason Tang Wu had chosen him.

What was interesting here was that Tang Wu had given him a choice. The gulf between a horse handler like himself and Tang Wu was as vast as that between a firefly and the sun.

Yet Tang Wu was offering him a choice rather than giving him an order. That meant the pain accompanying the Great Ritual would be beyond imagining.

It was time to choose. Dong Bongsu considered it.

Did this really require deliberation?

No. An opportunity had come. Opportunities had to be seized when they arrived.

The penalty? Pain enough to kill him?

What did that matter? Pain enough to kill him ultimately meant he would not die. As long as he did not die, that was enough. If he did not die, he would grow stronger.

Was there any other choice?

No. Backing away now would only waste that much time. The more time he wasted in this jungle called Murim, the closer he would draw to death. There was no reason to turn back over a little pain.

‘Forward. I’m moving forward.’

Dong Bongsu nodded slowly but firmly.

Tang Wu grinned at the sight, a smile of satisfaction. One small nod from Dong Bongsu had made Tang Wu the Soul-Chasing Poison Hand smile, and given him confidence.

“Do you know the saying ‘Gyul Hwa Wi Ji’?”

Gyul Hwa Wi Ji.

It was a four-character idiom meaning that oranges from Huainan turned into trifoliate oranges when taken north across the Huai River. These were the famous words spoken to the king of Chu by Yan Ying, prime minister of Qi during the Spring and Autumn period, when he passed through this very Huainan to visit Chu in Huaibei as an envoy.

Of course, Dong Bongsu knew the saying well. Once again, he could see that this was a parallel world little different from Earth’s past, apart from the coexistence of that bizarre world called Murim.

As if to confirm that the saying’s meaning and origins were the same as on Earth, Tang Wu went on to explain.

“It means that oranges from Huainan turn into trifoliate oranges when taken north across the Huai River.”

“G-Grandfather!”

Apparently realizing what Tang Wu meant to say by bringing up Gyul Hwa Wi Ji, Tang Hwa cried out in surprise.

Dong Bongsu, too, thought he understood why Tang Wu had mentioned it. Contrary to his earlier expectations, Tang Wu seemed intent on giving him an even greater pair of wings.

‘So it wasn’t about becoming his disciple. In that case...’

A trifoliate orange from Huainan would become an orange in Huaibei.

If Huainan was the Danri Family, Huaibei was the Tang Family.

If the orange was Sosam the horse handler, then the trifoliate orange was...

“Would you be willing to take the Tang Family’s surname?”

It was the surname Tang.