A few days had passed since I left the Anhui Branch in the carriage the Alliance provided.
“...Ugh, my back...”
After sitting with my spine pressed to the backrest for who knows how long, I hopped down the mont the carriage stopped and let one line slip.
We were at a spot with a view of a valley. Looked like tonight’s campsite.
I walked out to a stretch of quiet gravel and glanced back at the carriage. Still the sa ostentatious, oversized beast.
At first I’d gone wow, a carriage can be this soft? Amazing. But a few days of it and—yeah, not so amazing.
[See? I told you to just run there for the exercise.]
“You say insane things like it’s nothing.”
From the mont we set out, the old man had been spouting nonsense about not riding and just running all the way.
“How am I supposed to run that distance?”
Even by carriage it takes days. What lunatic runs that?
I gave him a look, and Yoo Cheongil answered:
[If you try, a day is plenty. Anything you can’t do is because you didn’t try hard enough.]
More bullshit, so I shot back as soon as I heard it.
“Then try coming back to life on effort. Funny how you can’t do that but keep pestering .”
[What was that? You think that’s the sa thing!?]
“How’s it different? Telling to fix the impossible with effort is the part that makes no sense.”
[Oh? And now you’re just dropping honorifics?]
“Yo!”
Shaful to admit, but it’s been like this for days. Give us a spare minute and we’re at each other’s throats.
Truth is, we’re both just bored and using argunts as an excuse to loaf around.
We were bickering like that for a while when—
“No, I’m saying...”
Mid-sentence, I closed my mouth. Yoo Cheongil had flicked his chin at sothing.
That ant one thing.
“Young Master Bang.”
“Yes.”
Cheon Eujin appeared from behind. He studied with a strange expression.
“What are you doing out here?”
“...Ah, so ditation.”
“ditation, huh?”
“Yes. Call it ti to observe the soul.”
Not wrong. I’d been checking for a particularly an-tempered vile spirit.
At that, Cheon Eujin’s eyes widened a touch.
“Ah... ti to observe the soul... As expected, Young Master Bang is well-versed in that realm too.”
“...Pardon?”
“An elder of the Dao once told the martial and the soul are closely linked. Are you studying that aspect as well?”
“Ah... yes. Sothing like... that.”
“As expected...!”
“...”
He’d picked up so weird misunderstanding and his eyes were sparkling. It was exhausting.
‘Why’s he been like that since last ti?’
Cold sweat prickled. It started the mont we left the Branch.
Whatever I did, he assigned it so heavy aning, or he watched with this evaluative look I couldn’t place.
Made it awkward to train.
Because I didn’t want to show my lousy swordwork.
With those expectant eyes on , there wasn’t much I could do.
‘What is it, seriously.’
I truly didn’t know why he looked at that way. And the problem was, I didn’t even want to ask.
“Anyway... how long until we arrive?”
I forced the topic to shift.
For now, I had to.
“Ah, we’re nearly there... We should arrive by tomorrow at the latest.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes. Ordinarily, we would have arrived today, but... it seems...”
“Ah.”
Got it. We were behind schedule. The terrain and the rain.
It had rained on the way, and the ground wasn’t great—understandable.
“I’m sorry...”
But Cheon Eujin felt guilty enough to apologize.
Honestly, that threw .
“Why are you apologizing, Young Master Cheon? It isn’t your fault.”
It wasn’t the carriage’s fault, nor the driver’s. And °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° certainly not Cheon Eujin’s.
He wasn’t the one holding the reins—what fault could he have?
“...Even so, I’m in the position of escorting Young Master Bang...”
“Escorting what. We’re going because we have to go.”
I held in a sigh. A few days on the road had taught sothing.
‘He’s overly sensitive to other people’s faces.’
He watched others more than I’d expected. Too much so.
Whether it was just with or his default setting, I didn’t know.
Either way, the guy was a bit...
‘Spineless for how he looks.’
First impression said sharp and cold; in person, not so much.
“Anyway, it’s fine. Nothing changes because we’re late, does it?”
Suited . I had a lot to think through before we arrived.
‘Still not enough.’
I had to prepare for whatever might happen.
Who knew what would blow up at the Blue Moon Sect, so I had to grind my brain more. And besides—
‘...I had to keep up that damned training.’
The nightly idiocy.
I had to get it solid before reaching the Blue Moon Sect.
****
Night rose with the moon. Pri ti for a campfire and a roadside bivouac.
Back at the Branch, this would’ve been about when I stood first watch.
I stood with a sword in hand, eyes closed.
I’d been repeating this every night for days.
[Do you feel it?]
I didn’t react to the old man. No need to answer, no need to care.
He knew that too.
[Focus your breathing. Your shoulders are uncertain.]
Even without answering, he would clearly understand my intent.
[Ignore everything else. Focus only on the flow.]
The flow. The movent of energy felt in the body.
I fixed my breath so my shoulders didn’t rise and observed within.
Sothing moved.
So faint I could barely feel it—but it was there, a hair-thin thread.
If I got even a little uneasy or my focus wavered, it scattered to nothing.
I sent it slowly through my whole body so it wouldn’t break.
I held that thought when—
[Correct your thinking.]
The old man spoke as if he’d been waiting.
[You’re not maintaining energy—you’re maintaining light. Rember the moon contained inside your body.]
I wanted to swear the instant I heard it. Abstract nonsense.
‘Damn it. How am I supposed to maintain that.’
Energy is energy—where’s the light? My eyes were closed; I couldn’t see a thing.
Even so, I clenched my teeth and tried. I didn’t know what kind of cosmic drivel that was, but I could at least try.
Because I’d experienced what he ant in my body.
Forget the light and the moon and the airy taphors.
I just followed what my body had felt.
‘The speed the energy moved. The reactions in my body then. Muscle sense and the asure of breath.’
I rembered everything and copied it.
This was the assignnt he gave the first day of travel.
‘I’ll show you once. Learn it.’
Barely ten seconds. That’s how long he stayed inside .
In that blink, he didn’t do anything fancy.
He just kept the body’s energy moving, over and over, then slipped out and told :
‘Did you morize it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then keep doing it from now on.’
That’s when it started.
‘...Until when?’
‘Heh. Obviously until you can do it the sa.’
So for days,
I repeated it endlessly on the road to Henan, shaving off sleep to keep trying—and it wasn’t as easy as I’d hoped.
‘morizing doesn’t an you can reproduce perfectly.’
Even if I recalled every step and mimicked it, my body wouldn’t just comply.
If I settled my breath, the energy shook. If I focused on the energy, my breath floated.
When I tried to hold both, the body went slack.
‘It’s going to take ti.’
To shape it exactly like the old man had, it would take a good while.
‘Hmmm...’
Which made worry more.
‘They say we’ll reach the Blue Moon Sect by tomorrow—what do I do with this.’
The old man said I had to have it firmly under control before we arrived.
Ti was tight.
‘...Tch.’
I’d said this might be too hard, but he insisted it had to be done for the plan.
And also—
‘I even showed you everything and you still can’t do it? Tsk tsk. Talentless, aren’t you.’
—he just had to needle .
‘I know, you vile-spirited old man.’
I’d long known I lacked talent. If I had any, I wouldn’t have spent a year bumbling around the Branch like an idiot.
“Hoo... damn.”
Cursing in my head, I sent the energy circling again.
Blue Moon Heart Art, was it? Different enough from the Bang family’s martial art I’d trained all my life to make it harder.
I’d only just managed to keep the energy from breaking.
I had no sense for how long it would take to refine it until it flowed as naturally as the old man made it.
The one thing I knew for sure—
‘A few days won’t cut it.’
—was that there was no way I’d reach his pace in days.
“This isn’t going to work.”
I said it straight.
[Hmm?]
He cocked his head and pinched his brow.
[So—you’re thinking of giving up?]
“No. Not giving up.”
I couldn’t get a feel for it at all. So I had to reset that first.
“Show again.”
[Heh.]
He chuckled.
“It’s only been a few days. Even if I go in, it won’t be much different in duration from last ti.”
“That alone is fine.”
What mattered was checking again.
Right now, a clearer sense of direction was more important.
[Hmmm...]
He rolled his eyes, thinking for a mont.
[Hm?]
Then lifted his head and looked sowhere.
“What is it?”
[Nothing. Thought I saw a fox.]
“A fox?”
What fox, out of nowhere? I followed his gaze, but there was nothing.
Just the dense forest beyond the gravel.
Then—
[Fine.]
He spoke to .
[It’ll be the sa as last ti, but I’ll be generous and show you again.]
“What’s with the ‘generous’? You’re making do this for your own—”
[Or not.]
“...I ant, I’ll do my absolute best to learn.”
Soday I’ll find a way to exorcise him. Not crossing over—exorcism.
I forced a smile with that iron vow.
[Heh.]
He smiled back and slowly seeped into my body.
No matter how many tis, it was a strange sensation.
Still didn’t like how my body stopped feeling like mine.
The good news—
‘I don’t black out anymore.’
—was that I could keep my mind, and though I hadn’t tried it—
‘I could probably take it back if I wanted.’
—I had this baseless certainty I could reclaim control anyti.
Clench.
My hand curled into a fist. My eyes slid shut.
Vmm— The energy stirred deep in my gut.
I focused on that. First: speed.
‘Three tis faster than .’
The energy moved several tis faster, and instead of wobbling like mine, it ran like a clean current.
‘Almost no wasted strength.’
Toes just held the body. The breath propped the flow.
Muscles opened pathways so movent had no hitch.
‘How is that possible?’
To hold the energy, I had to tense my muscles. Supporting it with breath alone left flimsy.
What was the difference? I couldn’t tell.
As always, I just morized.
‘The breath is a touch faster and deeper than I recalled. Right—if I drink deeper, my shoulders don’t lift.’
I logged each difference.
‘What does that ford current an?’
That delicately crafted path of energy—
It was shaping sothing inside the body.
Unlike the ssy strands I made. It looked almost like—
‘A circle... No. That’s—’
A moon?
Huff—!
The instant I grasped the shape, my eyes snapped open. Not —Yoo Cheongil’s.
And he stared at sothing.
‘Old man?’
I called out, annoyed he’d stopped the show.
He was faster.
“If you have sothing to say, co out.”
‘Huh?’
Out of nowhere. What...?
‘...Oh?’
A cold thought slid in.
‘Since when does he just grant my requests... Don’t tell —’
Sssk! My body lifted the wooden sword and aid it at where the gaze pointed.
“I don’t like being watched from the shadows. Best co out before I kill you.”
‘You—!’
“Or do you want to co to you?”
The corner of his mouth curled.
“If you want, I can do that.”
With that, the foot moved. One step forward—
Huff—!
“Crazy...!”
I seized my body back. I clamped my mouth shut on the words that slipped out.
I rolled my eyes sideways. Yoo Cheongil was looking at with his signature scary smile.
[Focus.]
I couldn’t even spit the curse climbing my throat. Sothing was already moving ahead of us.
[The foxes are coming.]
I steadied my breathing and hid the cold sweat.
Then I looked forward.
And saw them.
A sizable group approaching .
White martial robes with blue embroidery.
Swords at every waist, and the air changed with their arrival.
A little under ten by eye.
Their firm, settled qi made hunch without thinking.
Different from the fighters I’d seen at the Branch—the feel of them, from the start.
The middle-aged man at their head addressed .
“Are you Young Master Bang of the Bang Family of Liaoning?”
“...If... I am...?”
Yes. That’s . Please don’t kill .
I swallowed those words before they slipped out.
Because of the ss the old man had just picked.
The man studied after hearing my non-answer. More precisely, he examined my eyes.
Thump—
All at once, that many people dropped to their knees.
“The Blue Moon Sect’s little moon greets the Sword Saint’s successor.”
On a night not yet late,
the Blue Moon Sect ca to find .
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