Wudang Sacred Scriptures

Chapter 200

However lowly Samryeong Palace might be ranked among Wudang’s Eight Palaces, it was still one enclosure.

‘Could it be that Grand Elder Unhak Zhenren ignored the report outright?’

If not, there was no explaining why no one had come yet from Wudang.

‘So Hyeonhae Taoist knew nothing, far out of reach.’

With resentment toward the Grand Elder, a faint ache for Samryeong Palace welled up and filled his chest.

Kwak Yeon soon erased his idle thoughts.

This was no time to sink into sentiment.

If anything had happened to the Sage, he could not even reckon the share of sorrow Hyeonhae Taoist would have to bear.

‘I already made him lose his Master because of me; I cannot let anything befall his only disciple as well.’

To Kwak Yeon, Hyeonhae Taoist was one who stood in his Master’s stead; he had never presumed to think of him as merely a senior brother.

‘And yet so much time has passed.’

As ominous thoughts refused to leave, regret surged.

Had he stopped at Agyang Pavilion first, instead of coming straight to Mount Wuyi, he might have begun the search sooner.

Though Agyang Pavilion lay on the route, putting it off had delayed him greatly; he felt truly sorry toward the Sage.

In any case, now that he knew, he meant to find him somehow.

Kwak Yeon set aside his unease and care for the time being and fixed his whole mind on this affair.

At once, a single point of doubt arose.

“Guardian Elder, how were there as many as ten fellow Taoists from outside staying at the Immortal Lodge?”

Wudang’s Immortal Lodge, barring special cases, was mostly kept empty.

Partly because Samryeong Palace—the line charged to run the Lodge—had little standing and no spare strength, but more because Wudang was deeply wary of leakage of martial studies.

If Wudang, seated at the center of the Central Plains, was thus, how much more would it strike the mind as odd that so many Taoists had come to cultivate at the Immortal Lodge of Wuyi, which could be called a remote border fastness.

Guardian Elder Woljeong answered as if he had waited for that question.

“In one of our sect’s rock caverns, we chanced to obtain a Taoist classic. But it was so ancient that it was written in archaic script, you see. So we invited learned Taoist savants to decipher it and meant to share it with various Taoist sects.”

To Taoist adepts, a Taoist classic is a treasure; naturally Taoists would gather.

“The Wudang Sage also somehow heard of it and came.”

Kwak Yeon knew that after opening his heart, the Sage had conceived an intent to greatly revive the Samryeong Palace line.

‘So he crossed ten thousand li to Mount Wuyi.’

Thinking of the hardship the Sage must now be suffering, Kwak Yeon’s heart grew urgent. He did not, of course, think it had ended badly.

Whatever the kidnappers’ aim, it was clear they had not meant to take the Taoists’ lives.

“Guardian Elder, may I see the Immortal Lodge where Senior Brother Sage stayed?”

However much time had passed, it would help to see the scene.

“There is no reason you may not. Indeed, the Sect Master has ordered us to cooperate in all things.”

Guardian Elder Woljeong rose.

“I will guide you myself.”

As the Guardian Elder had said, the Immortal Lodge lay in a secluded valley.

Seeing rugged mountains on all sides hemming it in, Kwak Yeon stepped into the Lodge.

“This is the meditation cell where the Sage stayed.”

Opening the bar on one door, Guardian Elder Woljeong went on.

“We preserved it as it was at the time. In case he should return.”

Regret filled Woljeong’s voice.

It was as if he lamented that, in the end, its master had not returned.

If not for the dust settled, one might have thought its master had only stepped out for a moment, so tidy was the meditation cell.

The travel pack set at the bed’s head, and the Taoist classics copied on the writing table, remained as they were.

Only the bedding on the bed was in disarray.

“Guardian Elder, is it truly as it was?”

At Kwak Yeon’s question, Woljeong nodded.

“We touched nothing and even kept the bar set.”

From Wuyi’s standpoint, there would have been no other way to prove that they had suffered a grievous matter.

Thanks to that, it was some small mercy to Kwak Yeon to see a scene left so vivid.

“In any case, toward Wudang Mountain we are truly abashed. Who could have foreseen such a thing within a temple?”

“You have not only left the meditation cells but the entire Lodge empty.”

Naturally he had thought they would be tending the Lodge, but the yard lay deep in fallen leaves and overgrown with weeds.

“Because of that incident, we could no longer receive fellow Taoists at the Lodge. What is more, there have been many baleful happenings since, so this sect has closed all isolated hermitages, not only this Lodge.”

“Baleful happenings?”

“After what happened here, and some two months later—though far to the south—one branch temple of Daheung Temple in Yong’an County burned down to the ground. And two months ago, at the northern tip of Fujian, at South Sea Temple in Bojeong County, meditating monks lodging in a hermitage vanished as well. Ha! What is the world coming to... truly.”

Since leaving the guest hall, Chwi Dugae had listened in silence; now his eyes flashed.

“Zhenren, is that true?”

“It is, Sub-Branch Master. Over it, South Sea Temple even circulated a public notice within Fujian, warning the temples and Taoist houses.”

Chwi Dugae knit his brow.

“This is not good at all... hm.”

Realizing his slip, Chwi Dugae hastened to speak.

“Younger Brother Kwak, that was me muttering—pay it no mind.”

And at once he thought, drat.

Tell a man not to mind it, and he minds it more. He should have said nothing.

Seeing Kwak Yeon’s face grow darker still, Chwi Dugae resolved to keep his mouth shut.

But soon he could not but open it at Guardian Elder Woljeong’s question.

“Sub-Branch Master, when you call him Younger Brother Kwak, are you two perhaps...?”

Chwi Dugae glanced at Kwak Yeon, then nodded.

“Yes. The two of us are sworn brothers.”

“Ah! ...So it is.”

Between exclamation and exclamation, Guardian Elder Woljeong’s astonishment showed.

He had thought they had met by chance and were traveling together, but they had even sworn brotherhood.

Then Kwak Yeon spoke toward the Guardian Elder.

“Guardian Elder, may we look around the Lodge by ourselves?”

“But of course. This poor Taoist will go down to the main halls; take your time and look.”

Woljeong nodded readily and turned toward the Lodge gate.

As he stepped out, he tilted his head.

It was astonishing enough that those two were sworn brothers, but it felt as if the Wudang Taoist was quietly taking the lead.

‘Is that young Taoist so formidable a person?’

At any rate, for the Wuyi Sect, just as they were vexing themselves over whether to send another letter and pigeon-post to Wudang about “no news in affairs,” that disciple’s fellow had come; it was a stroke of fortune.

At last they could hand over to Wudang the burden that had left them helpless and groaning.

Of course, as it had been more than half a year, that Taoist would soon resign himself and go down the mountain.

After they had examined even the meditation cells where the other Taoists had lodged, Kwak Yeon spoke to Chwi Dugae.

“The other Taoists’ cells are all in similar condition.”

Like the Sage’s cell, the others were neatly ordered, with only the bedding on the beds in disarray.

“So it is.”

Chwi Dugae nodded and went on.

“At this point the Wuyi Taoists could well be perplexed. It looks as if they all rose in the morning and went for a stroll in a group. They would have thought whatever happened, happened outside the Lodge.”

“The place where it happened is here.”

“Hm?”

“When fellow Taoists rise, the first thing they do is put their bedding in order.”

“So then, since the bedding was not in order in any cell, you mean they were struck while sleeping?”

Kwak Yeon nodded.

“Yes.”

Chwi Dugae cocked his head.

“Strange. However heavy sleepers they may be, not a single one of so many woke... unless?”

At his suspicious look, Kwak Yeon quietly nodded.

“It is something to suspect.”

“Ah! So that is why you sent the Guardian Elder down first?”

“It would in any case be a disrespect to Wuyi.”

“That it would.”

Nodding, Chwi Dugae asked,

“Then whom do you have in mind?”

“I mean to ask the Guardian Elder’s leave to meet the Lodge’s novice first.”

Thanks to being down at the main halls, he alone had escaped the misfortune.

“That is indeed the order.”

When Chwi Dugae nodded readily, Kwak Yeon asked, unbidden,

“What do you think, Elder Brother?”

A question that specifies nothing is seldom simple in meaning.

How could Chwi Dugae not know the intent?

He knit his brow briefly, then smoothed it, and spoke.

“Younger Brother Kwak, I’m sorry to say it, but frankly, finding the Sage will be hard. No— even if we find him, the chance he’s alive is near to none.”

“......”

“Damn it, didn’t you ask knowing nothing good would come out of my mouth?”

“I did. I know you cannot patter out honeyed words.”

“Then why ask?”

“I want your candid view. You have much experience in the rivers and lakes, and as Sub-Branch Master of the Beggar Clan there is much you weigh.”

“Damn!”

Frowning, Chwi Dugae went on.

“This affair isn’t merely strange; it’s dire. Younger Brother, you can see from the lay of these surrounding mountains—this is a place ordinary folk can’t even approach. There’s only the one path that runs to Wuyi’s main halls. Yet in a single night, they took as many as eleven people away, and quietly. That means they are men of very high martial skill.”

So far, this matched what Kwak Yeon had thought.

“If they are such, it goes without saying they were not simply after ransom. And seeing that they did it here in Fujian, their intent looks all the more impure.”

“......?”

“They don’t want their operation known in the martial world. Why else run it quietly in the borderlands?”

Fujian was the martial world’s border, and the abducted were ordinary Taoists; who in the martial world would pay them much heed?

It was now clear why, though months had passed, the news had not spread in the rivers and lakes.

“Worse, that they are abducting in succession is all the more ominous—choosing only Taoists and meditating monks who cultivate the Way.”

Seeing Kwak Yeon’s face darken further, Chwi Dugae paused.

Then Kwak Yeon asked, suddenly,

“Elder Brother, you already have a guess at their aim, don’t you?”

Chwi Dugae could not help but be troubled.

Though he was a man with nothing hidden, this one thought, come to mind, was hard to put into words.

Because it was a word that would snuff even /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ the sliver of hope Kwak Yeon held.

A heavy silence settled over the Lodge yard.

“Damn it!”

The one who could not bear the weight of that silence, in the end, was Chwi Dugae.

“This is only my conjecture. So I’m saying—do not despair altogether.”

“......”

With his eyes screwed tight, Chwi Dugae said,

“They are likely after a Human Offering.”