TSBIRBV Ch 16

Chapter 16 Baembaem-i(4)

“Senior Brother.”

At Yegyeol’s call, Je Haryang removed the mask that had been covering his face.

The man who was never again supposed to set foot on Kunlun’s land had broken that taboo and was now standing before Yegyeol.

As guiding energy flowed down his cheek, Yegyeol drew in a deep breath. He was thoroughly satisfied with this situation.

‘So, you really didn’t abandon me.’

The sorrow that had been swaying within him while waiting for Haryang’s answer—sorrow which had turned into a blaze of rage upon finding the letter Baekyang Jin-in had hidden—now melted away softly into joy.

“How did you end up like this…?”

The hand that caressed his cheek trembled ever so slightly. For a martial artist who wielded weapons, developing a tremor in the hands was an extremely rare occurrence; it meant that Senior Brother’s emotions were so agitated he hadn’t had time to compose himself.

“It was just… a bit of bad luck.”

Yegyeol gave a clumsy smile. He regretted having kept dodging the Yin-Soul Demon’s attacks because he didn’t want knife wounds on his body.

‘If I’d gotten a scar on my face, Senior Brother might have been shaken up even more.’

“It wasn’t your fault, Senior Brother, so don’t make that face.”

Seeing his expression twist into something all the more pained, Yegyeol felt it had been worth carefully choosing the words he knew Haryang would both want to hear the most, and hate the most.

“It was just a bit of bad luck.”

“Bad luck? How could you say that…”

At Yegyeol’s repeated statement, Haryang looked as though even breathing had become difficult.

“For something as trifling as bad luck, you should never have ended up hurt like this. I sent you to Kunlun so that not a single hair on your head would be harmed—how could this have…”

A tear slid down Haryang’s cheek. At first, when Yegyeol saw the glint of it in the moonlight, he thought it was an illusion.

He had never imagined that Senior Brother could be the sort of man to shed tears.

Realizing it wasn’t an illusion made his heart sink. The eyes of the man who had always been strong and unshakable now looked unbearably sorrowful. He even felt a swelling sense of mission to pull Haryang into his arms and confess that it had all been a deliberate act to survive.

Yegyeol quickly pulled himself together.

‘They say espers, upon finding their guides, recover their consciences at the same time…’

But it was far too soon to have his conscience back just from touching Senior Brother’s hand.

“I was running an errand for Master and ended up facing a demonic cultivator who had hidden in Kunlun. It’s just a little wound, so please don’t worry too much.”

Yegyeol lied without blinking. The only witness was the Yin-Soul Demon, and he was buried in the ground. The red horse that had come to help him and Baembeam, whom he’d sent away with Haryang, wouldn’t be able to speak to humans anyway.

“I sent you a letter… did you see it?”

He asked this knowing full well that the letter still lay hidden in Baekyang Jin-in’s study.

After a pause, Haryang replied, “…I did.”

Yegyeol had already known the answer—he had wished for Haryang to appear before him like this, after all.

“Why didn’t you reply? I waited so long.”

He tugged lightly at Haryang’s sleeve with a touch of petulance. Someone else might have thought Yegyeol was being threatened, but he could read from the man’s face that it was awkwardness.

Never had he imagined that the hero he once viewed as distant would turn out to be such a readable man when close by.

“…There was trouble with trade in Xinjiang, and I received your letter very late while traveling back and forth. But when I heard you had summoned Jeokroe** with Hongyeo’s flute, I rushed here without even taking time to write back.”

“So that red horse’s name was Jeokroe?”

While watching the red horse dash like a shot, he had thought of scarlet lightning—but he hadn’t realized it was actually its name.

“It’s a quasi-spiritual steed descended from a Han-blooded warhorse and a thousand-li horse***. Thanks to Jeokroe, I was able to arrive, even if belatedly.”

“I’m glad you came. I really missed you.”

Yegyeol reached out as if to comfort him. As he did, his sleeve slipped down, revealing his wrist—bearing the vivid bruise left by Baekyang Jin-in’s harsh grip.

Feigning belated realization, he flinched and tucked his hand back under his sleeve. But Haryang’s expression had already hardened completely.

“…Who… who did this to you?”

Haryang’s voice shook with anguish. He pulled Yegyeol’s hand toward him.

“It’s… it’s nothing.”

Yegyeol shook his head, hiding the wrist behind his back. But how could an ordinary Yegyeol escape the grasp of martial artist Je Haryang? It was impossible.

When he finally saw the bruised wrist, Haryang rubbed his face again and again with both hands as though to restrain himself. Yegyeol avoided his gaze and moved his lips.

“I’m sorry to you, Senior Brother, for working to let me return to Kunlun… but I want to go back.”

His lowered voice trembled like someone holding back tears.

“I don’t think the Kunlun Sect is where I belong.”

Just as a dragon without its pearl is but a python, without Je Haryang, Kunlun held little meaning for Yegyeol.

Even if Haryang hadn’t been his guide, it would have been the same—after all, the only reason a street orphan from Hangzhou had come all the way to Qinghai’s Kunlun Sect in the first place was because of Je Haryang.

“I… what should I do with you…”

Haryang’s words came haltingly. Like handling shards of cracked glass, he gently enclosed Yegyeol’s hand in his own.

“What should I possibly do…?”

His voice brimmed with pain and distress. Without saying a word, Yegyeol pulled him into an embrace, wearing a blissful smile that Haryang would never see.

‘Got you.’

“First, thank you for granting us permission to search.”

The well-bred young man bowed politely to the Kunlun Sect Leader. From his bearing, he was clearly the son of a noble house—Namgung Un, a direct descendant of the Namgung Clan.

Having won first place at the last Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, he had earned the title of Azure Sky Divine Dragon (창천신룡). As one of the most exceptional young talents in the martial world—spoken of as the likely next holder of the title First Under Heaven—his poise was impeccable.

Baekyang Jin-in, seated at the same table, could acutely feel that the tide of this era had shifted from the Nine Great Sects (Gupa-ilbang) to the Five Great Clans (Odae-sega).

“Kunlun does not covet what belongs to others. Since the rightful owner has come, opening the gates so you may reclaim it is no difficult thing.”

Trying not to glare at the Sect Leader’s affable smile, Baekyang Jin-in looked into his teacup.

Even if the corpse of a demonic figure had been found here, he couldn’t understand why his Sect Leader senior brother would permit the Namgung Clan to rummage about Kunlun’s front yard.

It felt as if the true Kunlun had been erased from the world twenty years ago.

“To have pursued the Yin-Soul Demon all the way from Anhui to Qinghai… the strength of the Namgung Clan is indeed remarkable.”

Baekyang Jin-in’s words sounded like praise, but contained a barb—it was a jab at the fact that, though the Yin-Soul Demon covered all that distance, the Namgung Clan had failed to capture him.

“He was cunning. He used the giant python from the Southern Barbarians that the Giyedan carried, painted it gold, and handed it out to his subordinates, who scattered to the four winds… We received reports from all over.”

Namgung Un, whether he recognized the older man’s scheming or not, responded frankly, his eyes shining with upright sincerity.

“To have diverted the Namgung Clan’s trackers so thoroughly without spending vast sums of wealth or force—he is truly a wily foe. If he had not died on Kunlun’s ground, one shudders to think what bloodstorm the Millennium Thunder-Horned Python would have caused if it had fallen into the Demon Sect’s hands…”

Baekyang Jin-in lifted his cup to hide the tremor tugging at the corner of his lips. The youngster had just returned his provocation in kind—pointing out that not a single Kunlun disciple had spotted the Yin-Soul Demon until he hid in Kunlun’s territory.

“To meet such a miserable end at the hands of the very treasure one sought to swallow whole—this too must be Heaven’s will.”

The Sect Leader stepped in, smoothly cutting off the subtle confrontation.

“The peaks of Kunlun are lofty and ever covered in perpetual snow—an ill-suited home for a serpent. I pray the young heir of the Namgung Clan will achieve what he wishes and return.”

“Thank you.”

After offering a martial bow (pokwon), Namgung Un turned his gaze toward Baekyang Jin-in.

“How is your disciple?”

Baekyang Jin-in closed his eyes. The fact that the Namgung Clan knew the master of the disciple attacked by the Yin-Soul Demon spoke volumes about their intelligence network’s reach.

“Buddha preserve us (Muryangsubul). He is resting now in the medical hall.”

Baekyang Jin-in had expected his ‘disciple’ to come up in conversation—though he had wished to keep Wen Yegyeol hidden as much as possible.

“Since he has suffered due to a demonic figure that escaped our Namgung Clan’s pursuit, I would like to visit him if you permit it.”

“That would be no diff—”

A commotion rose outside. Baekyang Jin-in’s brow furrowed by instinct; in the Kunlun Sect, a Taoist order, such discourteous noise from disciples was unseemly.

“There are guests—leave now.”

“But it is truly a matter of seconds, Elder.”

“What is going on?”

The one allowed inside was the very first disciple who had found Yegyeol collapsed on the mountain peak.

“Brother Wen is gone.”

Baekyang Jin-in shot to his feet in an instant.

“What did you say?”

Ignoring the tea spilling as the table was jostled, he flew across the room to interrogate the senior disciple.

“Who is gone?”

“First Disciple Wen Yegyeol has vanished without a trace from the medical hall!”

notes:

• Jeokroe (적뢰) — meaning “Scarlet Thunder,” the name of the red steed.

• Han-blooded warhorse & Thousand-li horse — the former refers to a legendary hardy warhorse breed from the Han region, the latter to the mythical cheolli-ma capable of traveling a thousand li (approx. 400 km) a day.

• Gupa-ilbang (구파일방) — “Nine Great Schools,” a traditional grouping of the largest and most respected sects in orthodox martial arts.

• Odae-sega (오대세가) — “Five Great Clans,” powerful martial aristocratic families.

• Pokwon (포권) — a martial artist’s respectful greeting: enclosing one fist in the opposite palm and bowing slightly.

• Muryangsubul (무량수불) — “Amitabha,” a Buddhist invocation used here as an expression of reverence or solemnity.