Chapter 1. I Love You, So Kneel
Mist was rising from the clear waters of the Yangtze River.
The mist seemed to convey, in a calm voice, that all the joys, anger, sorrows, and pleasures reflected upon the surface were nothing more than a single spring dream.
But of course, that could not be true.
In an instant, the wind blew, and the still atmosphere began to stir. I focused on the direction from which the wind came and placed my hand on my sword.
A moment later, from the windward side, I heard the soft splash, splash of water being lightly kicked up.
I turned my upper body toward the sound and brought my blade to bear.
—Clang!
In the empty air, a sword that had blocked mine gleamed coldly in the light of dawn.
My opponent withdrew her sword and vanished back into the mist. The splash, splash of water gradually grew fainter. I had no intention of letting her go.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
I, too, used the qinggong art of Treading Water as Level Ground and ran across the surface in pursuit.
Soon, we were close enough that I could see her more clearly than when our swords had just met.
But as if she had predicted my actions, even after discovering me, my opponent did not particularly increase her speed.
Instead, she turned around and maintained her qinggong while moving backward, raising the tip of the sword she had been dragging downward as if to aim at me.
I accelerated further, closing the distance until my sword could reach her, then thrust at her with Blue Dragon Emerging from the Water (蒼龍出水) and shouted.
“Eun Aehyang!”
The opponent I had called Eun Aehyang swung her sword and knocked aside my thrust without difficulty.
That movement swept away the mist between us, and I could see her clearly.
As expected, it was her.
The black garments unique to the Kongtong Sect, long hair dampened slightly by the mist and made subdued, and skin like white porcelain in contrast.
Now revealed, Eun Aehyang spoke with a smile on her lips.
“I suppose even the Wudang Sect’s reputation has become nothing but an empty shell. To think someone of your level is a candidate for the next Martial Alliance Leader.”
“Someone of my level?”
Me, who had already memorized every secret manual of the Wudang Sect at the age of twenty—Daoist Master Cheongun (靑雲道長), Seonghyeon—and she said someone of my level?
Eun Aehyang continued.
“Yes, and Daoist Master Cheongun at that. A Dao like blue clouds… It’s a dull epithet, just like your sect.”
Ugh. That stung a little.
“Oh? You’re saying our Wudang Sect, which carries on the teachings of Patriarch Zhang Sanfeng, who actually existed unlike the legendary immortals, is dull?”
“If it isn’t a dull sect…”
Eun Aehyang trailed off, raised her sword again and aimed it at me.
“Then prove it with your sword!”
As soon as she finished speaking, she approached me while unfolding her specialty, the Lesser Yang Sword Art (小陽劍法).
The Lesser Yang Sword Art. True to its name, it was a sword art that boasted movements as dazzling as sunlight breaking through darkness.
When the sword art was unleashed, dazzling feints symbolizing pitch-black darkness came first. Then, the instant the opponent faltered, a thrust like a flash of light came rushing in.
To break through it, I kept my gaze from being stolen by the feints and kicked hard off the water, flipping forward over Eun Aehyang’s head.
Eun Aehyang clicked her tongue and withdrew her sword art just before the thrust.
Good. With distance created and room to breathe, I spoke.
“No matter how deep the darkness, before Wudang’s Taiji, it is merely one of two poles.”
It was a remark praising myself, but perhaps it sounded as though I had insulted the swordsmanship of the Kongtong Sect, for Eun Aehyang’s brow twitched slightly.
“Are you saying Kongtong’s swordsmanship is simpler than Wudang’s?”
‘Damn it, I misspoke.’
While I was thinking of an excuse, Eun Aehyang did not miss the opening. She charged at me with the fifth form of the Lesser Yang Sword Art, Sunlight Paving the Way (日光作道), her sword aimed like light opening a path.
Her speed was faster than the last time I had seen it, making it difficult to respond. By the time I tried to raise my sword, my heart would already be pierced.
Ah, so this is how I go, so pointlessly—I watched, but the instant her sword was about to touch me, Eun Aehyang clicked her tongue, abruptly withdrew it, and flipped over my head.
What was that? Thinking it strange, I turned around, and Eun Aehyang was standing with her back to me.
I was about to say something, but suddenly Eun Aehyang raised her sword and began performing the Lesser Yang Sword Art from the first form to the thirteenth form toward empty air.
Right in the middle of the Yangtze River, no less.
The fact that she could execute the entire Lesser Yang Sword Art while maintaining Treading Water as Level Ground and paying attention to her footwork was enough to show the level of her martial achievement.
‘Truly impressive. There were rumors that she was a genius who might appear in the Kongtong Sect once in a hundred years… Has there ever been a figure from Kongtong who made their name with the Lesser Yang Sword Art rather than the Demon-Subduing Sword Art?’
Eun Aehyang’s forms unfolded at times with the leisure of a night sky untouched by the storms of the world, and at times with abrupt, ever-changing motion like fallen leaves blown away by a gust.
Each time her speed slowed, Eun Aehyang exhaled at length.
Meanwhile, day began to break.
As the morning glow gradually dispersed the mist, the scenery of the Yangtze came into view.
As befitting a landscape that Su Shi—Su Dongpo, the Northern Song poet and statesman—had made into poetry that would be recorded for ten thousand years, the scenery of the Yangtze was truly beautiful.
However.
My eyes had no intention of leaving a beauty that did not lose out even to the wondrous splendor of the Yangtze.
Eun Aehyang, receiving the sunlight that split the mist as she performed her sword art, was truly…
…worthy of being called a peerless beauty. At least, in my eyes.
That’s right.
I like Eun Aehyang.
In truth, we met in the past at Toema Gwangmyeong, an educational institution the Martial Alliance established to cultivate young talents who would eradicate the Demon Cult.
There, we bickered and grew up together until we became adults.
Afterward, once we reached adulthood, we parted ways and returned to our respective sects to learn their secret martial arts, but later, while preparing for the Great Demon War (對魔大戰), we met again.
And yet, how could this be? My ideal appearance was standing right before my eyes.
Light pink lips full of life even without makeup, eyes that seemed to hold the essence of sunlight, a sharp nose, and even neat ears left uninjured thanks to her innate talent despite her training in martial arts.
A beauty to make fish sink and geese fall (沈魚落雁).
Long ago, they said a fish that saw Xi Shi forgot to swim and drowned.
Having been educated by perfected Daoist masters, I used to snort when I read such tales in books, but the moment I met Eun Aehyang again, I became certain that fish really must have drowned.
Having fallen in love at first sight like that, I wanted to confess immediately. But with the great mission of subjugating the Demon Cult before us, I had to set those feelings aside for a while.
After that, I resolved that once the war ended, I would confess while bearing merit.
However, after the Demon Cult collapsed, the martial world, which I had thought would enter eternal peace, was soon thrown into chaos again by two variables.
One was that the Martial Alliance Leader had died in battle during the Great Demon War from poison arts.
The other was that the Imperial Court wished to commend us for our merit in destroying the heretical cult.
First, about the Martial Alliance Leader.
Since the Martial Alliance Leader had died, the next Martial Alliance Leader had to be chosen, but the problem was the will he had left behind.
‘Entrust the position of the next Martial Alliance Leader to one of the graduates of Toema Gwangmyeong who achieved the greatest merit in this war.’
It was probably a measure to preserve Toema Gwangmyeong, one of his own accomplishments, so that his fame would continue after his death and the benefits would be granted to his clan.
Whatever his intention, the important thing was that it was clearly a will, and the Martial Alliance decided to follow those words.
That was when the second variable intruded.
Since we had destroyed the heretical cult, the Imperial Court naturally wished to commend that merit.
But because the Martial Alliance Leader, who would ordinarily judge the magnitude of those merits, had died, the standard for who had contributed more disappeared.
Grand General Cheollam, who had been close with the Martial Alliance Leader, attempted to commend each deed one by one, but from that point onward, intervention was impossible due to the long-standing principle of noninterference between the government and the martial world.
The chaos continued for about a year.
During that time, relations between the righteous factions and the unorthodox factions, which had grown close during the Great Demon War, worsened again as their goals diverged, and relations among the righteous factions also grew rough.
In particular, the relationship between our Wudang Sect and the Kongtong Sect became the roughest of all.
Since the beginning of the martial world’s history, our two sects had been, excluding Shaolin—the orthodox mainline of martial arts—the sects with the greatest legitimacy, and had produced the greatest number of Martial Alliance Leaders.
Because of that, our two sects were the most proactive in trying to claim the position of the next Martial Alliance Leader.
The problem was that both of us had become experts representing the Wudang Sect and the Kongtong Sect respectively.
Moreover, as we had become experts, we both took great pride in our sects and our martial arts, and neither of us would deliberately declare defeat.
Thinking over the situation again, I naturally let out a sigh.
I looked up at the sky and muttered.
“We did bicker a little, but our relationship was never meant to be this bad.”
I looked again at Eun Aehyang, who had just finished the twelfth form. Huh?
Damn it, she was still beautiful.
At last, having finished even the thirteenth form, Eun Aehyang lowered her sword and looked at me. Perhaps because she had gotten carried away with swordplay, her cheeks were subtly flushed. Ah, our eyes met.
Eun Aehyang soon steadied her breathing, turning her complexion pale again, then looked at me and tilted her head.
“What are you thinking about so hard?”
I let out one more long sigh and raised my sword.
“About making you kneel.”
Eun Aehyang also smiled brightly and raised her sword.
“My, our thoughts matched.”
And so we once again aimed our swords at each other and faced off.
This was our one hundredth duel. A hundred battles, a hundred null results (百戰百無)—that was our record.
After clashing so many times, we had become capable of imitating each other’s martial arts, and in fact, there had even been times when we had displayed each other’s techniques as variables.
As we fought like that, several rules formed between us.
1. The match takes place between dawn and morning.
2. The side that kneels loses.
3. The moment defeat is decided, there will be no further dueling.
There were a few other minor rules as well, but they were unimportant enough that their contents changed every time we reviewed the match afterward.
But inwardly, I added one more major rule to them.
When I become the Martial Alliance Leader, I will confess to you.
The sun had risen to the middle of the sky, and the mist was no longer visible. Ah, time was up.
I relaxed my stance and put my sword back in its sheath. Seeing me, Eun Aehyang also withdrew her sword.
“Another draw today.”
“The merciful me went easy on you.”
Look at this. She went easy on me?
“Wasn’t it me going easy on you when I deliberately didn’t attack while you performed the Lesser Yang Sword Art by yourself?”
“If we’re putting it that way, you would have lost if I hadn’t withdrawn my thrust.”
That… I had nothing in particular to say to that.
When I closed my mouth, Eun Aehyang put on a triumphant expression. No, why are you so proud when it was a draw?
If you can be so confident even without winning, then just kneel to me instead.
Then I could confess.
Whether she knew my feelings or not, Eun Aehyang spun around and crossed the Yangtze, disappearing into the forest on the opposite bank.
She must be heading to Mount Kongtong in Gansu Province.
A short while later, after confirming that Eun Aehyang’s presence had completely vanished, I inhaled deeply.
After filling my lungs with as much air as possible.
I shouted.
“I love you, so please, just kneel already!”