Book 18 Chapter 3

Selection (拔擢)

-drop out

The conventional wisdom is that people are constantly questioning the morality or character of others. However, the disease of endless doubt is not innate. In the olden days, Mr. Meng also taught that humans were born with the good nature of the four cardinal directions. To recapitulate the old wives' tale, they are: compassion (惻隱之心), which pities others; shuo (羞惡之心), which loves good and hates evil; speculative (辭讓之心), which seems to be almost extinct nowadays but gives way to others anyway; and sibi (是非之心), which judges right and wrong. These are often asked on the written examination for admission to the Tianmu Academy, but there is little value in memorizing them. Like all theories, they cannot make a difference in the world until they are practiced.

Recently, however, it has been argued that even this theory overestimates human beings, and since most humans live in a state of forgetfulness about progress, there is not much to say. One of the reasons why humans are stuck is the "doubt disease," which causes doubt, and doubt creates limitations. Bi Ryuyeon was one of those who agreed.

"Long Yong, do you know who humans are most suspicious of?"

At Bi Ryuyeon's offhanded question, Hyorong closed the book he was reading, one of the One Hundred and Eighty Recommended Books of the Heavenly Martial Arts Academy-sometimes called the One Hundred and Eighty Books No One Looks At, and looked at Bi Ryuyeon. Then his friend-suspiciously-asked again in a cheerful voice.

"Parent, brother, wife, friend, lover, child, or affair. Pick one."

He was kind enough to listen and narrow down the options, but Hyo-ryong was not convinced. He was convinced that the man who usually exclaimed that the answer to life could not be in the sajisunda would not do the kind thing of putting the answer in the view. Doubt is no longer a doubt, but a certainty.

"Well, I don't know, is he his own enemy?"

"Pu(不)∼!"

Ryuyeon Bi said.

"No, I'd rather trust the enemy, because he'll definitely do something bad to himself. How neat and trustworthy. Don't you think?"

"Is that… so?"

Hyo-Ryong could see himself being momentarily swayed by the strangely persuasive words.

"Of course!"

He stared at his friend's face for a moment, as if there was no room for second thoughts. He couldn't see the pupils of his eyes, but people have moods. Only after a long moment of staring did Hyorong speak heavily.

"You're serious."

Perhaps, no, surely, the neatness he was referring to was the most effective, powerful, and thorough punishment without hesitation. It was a thought structure that was difficult for an ordinary person like him to understand.

"If it's not an enemy… then what is it, a lover?"

Love has always been the source of many troubles since the beginning of time," she said.

"Huh? Long Yong, what's going on with her these days?"

I wish I hadn't asked. Hyo-ryong regretted it, but as always, it was too late.

"Nope, nothing happened. Nothing's wrong."

Hyo-ryong quickly threw up his hands and denied it.

"I'm glad to see you're more flustered than I expected. What's the problem?"

It was spot on.

"Well, it's just that… he's been in a funk ever since Dingo Sojae went missing. I don't know what to do, and I haven't done anything to comfort him."

Men are usually helpless in the face of a woman's tears.

"Um… I understand that feeling."

Hyo-ryong was dumbfounded by Bi Ryuyeon's willingness to comply for some reason. But then again, he wasn't the only one who was heartbroken over the matter. The bond between Na Yerin and Dokgoryeong was much deeper, stronger, and older than the bond between Lee Jin-sul and Dokgoryeong.

"We're not lovers anyway."

"Then who? Without further ado, tell me. You're going to burn me."

Hyorong raised the white flag. Bi Ryuyeon pointed her finger at the heart on her chest.

"That's me!"

"Eh? You? Oh, yes, indeed! It makes sense, since it's you and no one else. You're not even worthy of the title of Martial Hero, you're more like an enemy of mankind. Hmmm, to doubt you more than anyone else in the world, that's wise advice."

Hyorong nodded in agreement, vowing to do the same. He vowed that he would do the same. Then Bi Ryuyeon shook her head with a pathetic expression.

"What kind of bullshit are you talking about, wanting a taste of what the enemy of humanity tastes like?"

"No, I'll pass on that. I think I'll get food poisoning."

Hyo-ryong, who has always kept in mind that healthy eating is the key to longevity, threw up his hands and declined.

"It's not me, it's you."

Truly, conveying meaning with words was a thing of the past.

"Yourself?"

"Yes, yourself!"

Statistically speaking, it's the self that sits at the top of the tower of doubt. Humans are the most likely to distrust themselves more than anyone else. It's amazing how easily we can deny our own existence. But some people are so used to it that it doesn't surprise them. If you don't believe in yourself, you're more likely to doubt that others are like you. Maybe the education was wrong in the first place. Some have even suggested a conspiracy theory. The idea is that education is being done both covertly and overtly to teach people to doubt themselves and to demean themselves. The reasoning is that it is much more beneficial to those who want to mass-produce umin to consolidate their dominance. They can't be bothered to think for themselves.

Rumor has it that, well, in the far reaches of the west, the whole premise of education is that humans are inherently sinful animals, and no challenge is tolerated. Even if you don't sin, your father's grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's grandfather's… eh… heh, give me a break, and your grandfather and grandmother committed one terrible sin, and it's imprinted in your blood. The ugly part is that it can't be washed away no matter what. And what that sin was, it was a kind of fruit frost.

In any case, it may be that humans have been taught since then that self-loathing and self-deprecation are admirable attitudes, and so we doubt ourselves the most. It may be that we think that we can be mean and cruel to others because of our original sin-it doesn't matter if we suffer or not. It is not uncommon for humans to fail to recognize that they cannot escape their existence.

Once self-deprecation becomes a habit, people don't believe in good things when they happen to them. They doubt that good things can happen to them. So instead of praising yourself, you doubt yourself first.

"But was it really necessary to say that at this moment? Why are you saying it out of the blue now?"

"Just!"

Her answer was refreshing.

"I don't believe it."

Hyo-ryong replied.

"Didn't you just hear me? Doubt is not good. It eats away at your soul."

"I believe in my own envy, having spent three years with you."

"Ho-ho, are you arguing with me?"

"That's not fair. I merely said that I trust my own discernment."

Being there is already a certainty.

"Bam, it's a dull world out there. You learn so fast."

"Not that……."

Hyo-ryong started to protest, but was cut off. A sound caught his ear.

"Is it fifteen, no, twenty pages out?"

The distance continued to decrease. The footsteps were approaching at a rapid pace, and it was easy to tell that the owner of the bridge was getting very impatient because the rhythm was unsteady and unstable.

"Look, a good specimen is about to arrive."

Bi Ryuyeon smirked.

With these two, I was able to identify people by the sound of their footsteps from dozens of feet away.

"Hmm, should I leave the visit open?"

"You'd better, because judging by the way he's jumping up and down like that, he still hasn't gotten the hang of it."

Bi Ryuyeon clicked her tongue.

"That habit?"

"We'll see."

"You mean you can tell a person's state of mind just by listening to their footsteps?"

"Of course. A person's steps reflect the life they've led. And the human mind and body are not as separate as many people imagine. The body is drawn to where the mind is, and the mind is drawn to where the body is. The mind and body resonate with each other and influence each other, always, everywhere, constantly. The more inexperienced you are, the more your mind is visible through your body. Naked. The fact that your emotional state can be read so easily by your footsteps is evidence of your immaturity."

Only then did Hyo-ryong realize what the habit was that Bi Ryuyeon was talking about.

"That's… a habit that humans haven't fixed in thousands of years. Isn't it a bit harsh to write them off for not being able to fix it when it's only been a few years?"

"That's it! That's it!"

Bi Ryuyeon suddenly pointed her finger at Hyorong's forehead and shouted. The momentum of the poke was enough to pierce his eyes, and Hyorong's body spontaneously shrank back.

"What, what is that?"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, that's self-doubt," he says, "and when you're chiseling away at your human limitations, you can't see the bottom, there's nothing left, and you're looking down, not up, at the limits you need to cross."

As if on cue to the point that it was none of his business, a man burst through the open door with terrifying speed. If the door had been closed, he would have smashed through it. It was Yoon Jun-ho.

Luckily, the door didn't break because I had opened it beforehand.

* * *

"Yes, yes, yes, yes!!! Is that really true?"

"Right."

Compared to Yun Jun-ho's soulful, impending fainting spell, Musabu Lone's answer was short enough to be accused of being inarticulate indeed.

"Ko Nosa, is that a real, real, real, real thing, or is it a homonym or……."

At a time when the small but visible role of the Volcano Society is changing the way people look at things and rethinking their assessments, it seems that the person who is having the hardest time breaking free of their preconceived notions is themselves.

"You must be Yun Junho from the Hua Shan Sect, a third-year student of the Heavenly Martial Academy. Congratulations. You have been selected as an examiner for this year's Ascension Martial Arts Academy entrance exam. I wish you the best."

"Such an undeserved honor for me! Go, thank you, Mr. Nosa!"

Yoon Jun-ho let out a shout of joy and sprinted toward his friends.

This was right before Yoon Joon-ho stormed into the Association's building with a terrifying momentum.

* * *

"So?"

Bi Ryuyeon's reaction to Yoon Jun-ho's barely-catching-his-breath announcement that he had been selected to be an entrance examiner, which he had never dreamed of doing, was stunned. It was a far cry from the expectations the young man had had when he came to this point.

"What? I, I've been chosen to be an examiner for the entrance ceremony of the Heavenly Martial Academy, isn't that amazing?"

"Not much."

Once again, Bi Ryuyeon drove a stake into the young man's chest. The innocent young man was trembling with excitement, and his trembling still hadn't stopped, but Bi Ryuyeon's reaction was still cold.

"Is it such a big deal that you're going to make such a fuss about it, that you're going to check its authenticity dozens of times?"

"Well, how do you do that?"

As if seeing right through his own behavior, Yun Jun-ho replied with a flush of recognition. He had certainly reaffirmed it dozens of times to the lone person who had told him, the late Nosa.

"A person's words are a mirror of their actions, and that much is obvious. Was it really that unbelievable? That thing?"

"That's right, that's right, I've been chosen to be the examiner for the Ascension Martial Arts Academy's entrance examination, the grand festival of the entire Martial Realm! I, not anyone else, I've been chosen! What an honor!"

I was so overwhelmed with emotion that salty water automatically began to cascade from my eyes. At that moment, Bi Ryuyeon frowned and said bluntly.

"What's the big deal? It's just menial labor. The employers sit back and relax, and we, the students, get the shaft. It's just menial labor. It's a 'human measure'. To measure the value of sunshine babies."

"Ma, what do you mean, sweatshop, that's a rant!"

Afraid of who might hear him, Yoon looked around a couple of times before pleading.

"Da, please don't say that again, everyone is honored!"

"What, you want me to say that again?"

If Yun Junho thought the man would heed such advice, he hadn't quite gotten to know this man yet. This time, as if to seal the words in his ears so that he could hear them in his dreams, he tugged on his right ear with one hand and brought his mouth to it. Yoon Jun-ho panicked at the sound of her breath on his ear, but Bi Ryuyeon didn't care, and then she shouted, "I'm sorry.

"Menial labor, menial labor, no doubt, but the worst, most vicious, unpaid menial labor of all. No glory. They just use it because it's cheap. Besides, even if you're an examiner, you're an assistant examiner, aka a bum. You're just an assistant to the martial arts masters. The old guys can't be bothered to move around, so they pick the younger ones with all their glory, because martial arts is more about the physical ability to demonstrate than the theory."

As if that weren't enough, here's one more.

"We're just a tool, not a discriminator."

Then came the final blow.

"So it's all well and good for you to have your own cauldron of emotion, but don't drag your sweetheart batter into it. I'm tired, do you understand?"

"Aaah, okay, so stop touching this ear, it hurts, Ryuyeon!"

"Great!"

He let go of Yoon Junho's ear, which he had stretched like a rubber band. He said with tears in his eyes that it hurt to test how elastic his ears were.

"Do you hate this job so much that you're the only one who doesn't consider it an honor?"

"Why do I always have to agree with someone else's values? I don't understand that logic. I don't like being someone else's tool."

"I don't quite get it."

"I didn't ask you to understand, and I don't need to, because these are my values, not yours, but don't try to force me to wear something that doesn't fit my body."

Looking at Yoon Joon-ho, who was lying on the ground, Bi Ryuyeon spoke again. Her tone was still unforgiving.

"Besides, the tests here are too formal, and I'm not sure you can really hire a real human being in such a cookie-cutter way."

"Are you saying there's something wrong with the way the Ascension is being conducted?"

"Of course there is. Aren't exams supposed to be about the future, not the present?"

"That's right, of course, but……."

"So you think it's possible to figure out the future with the way we do today?"

"Isn't that possible?"

'What's the point of giving vague answers like, "If it's possible, it's possible. If it's not possible, it's not possible. If it's not possible, it's not possible." You need to be able to articulate your opinion. Save your opinion for something else. Are you going to decorate your house later?"'

"Sin, I'm sorry."

Seeing Yoon Joon-ho apologize quickly, Bi Ryuyeon became even more angry and yelled at him.

"So why apologize? Don't apologize for nothing! It's just a reflex, and it can't be sincere if you don't realize what you've done wrong, so it's just a lame apology that makes you feel bad. It's offensive!"

He felt bad enough as it was.

"The worst part of it all is that I was picked for this, and my doctor was completely ignored!"

"But I've already been selected……."

I couldn't help but say that this was ridiculous.

"You're telling me to give up because I've already been picked?"

Bi Ryuyeon asked in a sharp voice.

"That, that……."

His fearsome momentum made Yoon Jun-ho cringe.

"Why should I?"

The emotion in her voice began to peel away, piece by piece.

"Why should I go along with something I didn't agree to, without being given any explanation? Because they're higher up? Because I'm just a student? Because they tell you what to do, and you have to do it? Is this place, the Tianmu Academy, really that non-autonomous, involuntary, and uncreative?"

"……."

Yoon Joon-ho was stunned by Bi Ryuyeon's cold response. Her reaction was so far from his imagination that he didn't know how to react. It seemed that this timid boy still needed to work on himself.

"You'll never make progress if you keep doing what everyone else tells you to do, you have to walk the walk if you don't want to stay stuck in the same place forever!"

Well, you can't blame him alone. I know, but I can't help but raise my voice.

It is said that a house of good fortune has a necessary surplus, and a house of bad fortune has a necessary surplus! This means that a house of good deeds will always have a slope, and a house of bad deeds will always have a disaster. As with any phenomenon, nothing happens overnight. It is the result of the accumulation and accumulation of various environmental, educational, and psychological factors, but at the end of the day, you are the only one who is responsible. It may be a bit unfair, but the world is cold.

Bi Ryuyeon let out a single sigh, jumped to her feet, and began to walk briskly toward the door. There was no hesitation in her steps.

"Uh, where are you going?"

Yoon Junho asked, stammering.

"Say no!"

Bi Ryuyeon replied briefly.

"Vern, already?"

Even though the behavior is good, I wondered if it was too fast.

"My theory is that the shorter the distance between thought and action, the better. You're supposed to follow your beliefs, not break them, right?"

With that, she slammed the door shut.

"Hyo-ryong, are you sure you're going, to turn me down?"

At Yoon's question, Hyo-ryong nodded.

"Of course not, what kind of human being is he to pick up on something he's said once?"

"I guess so, huh?"

"This is going to be awkward."

"Yeah… right?"

Junho Yoon agreed. In that state, no one can stop her. All you can do is stand by silently until she finishes her streak (read "runaway"), and then you can't stop her. This is where the whistle you've been practicing comes in handy.

The only saving grace was that they weren't the ones in trouble, and in that fact, Yoon Joon-ho and Hyo-ryong were able to find some comfort and respite under the heavy pressure of being Bi Ryuyeon's friends. You could almost call them cowards.

Bi Ryuyeon had not the slightest inclination to wastefully bridge the gap between thought and action; it was too uneconomical, so he immediately sought out Master Mazhijin. He was gracious enough to allow him to meet with him despite his busy schedule. For now, he was officially the winner of this year's Volcano Conference, albeit in disgrace. He was too busy to meet with her one-on-one, but she didn't mind. He didn't mind being in the public eye at all.

"Why do you say no, Mr. Biyouyan?"

Upon hearing Bi Ryuyeon's request, Mazinga clutched her head in her hands for a moment, barely able to compose herself.

"This is a very honorable job as an instructor at the Academy of Heavenly Martial Arts. No one but you has ever turned it down. Not this year, not in the last hundred years of history."

The tone was one of "why question when everyone else is sleeping on it". It was as if they were suggesting that it would be a grave disrespect for her to refuse the job (and that would probably be true in the majority), but the crux of the matter was that she didn't agree with this idea at all, and had no intention of doing it in the future.

"It just didn't acquire value in my world, that's all."

It means that if you claim to be honorable, it means nothing if I don't find it honorable or glorious. Just because I think it's good, doesn't mean others have to like it too? Just because it's good for me, doesn't mean it's good for others? Why can't people get away from the same logic? Ryuyeon found it frustrating, and sometimes very frustrating.

"Is there another reason besides that?"

Majinga asked.

"I don't enjoy being someone else's tool, and I don't enjoy being tested."

"A tool? What do you mean, that's a stretch."

"Do you think so?"

"No, of course not."

Coughing into the air, Maginga replied. There was something stirring inside him.

"Is there another reason besides that?"

To change the subject, Majinga asked again.

"I just don't want to get a meaningless answer. No, I should say I'm just collecting."

"How can you call that a meaningless answer? We're looking for people who will benefit the warband in the future. How can you call that a meaningless answer?"

"Because that's not the question I asked."

"That's too short, I don't understand. Why don't you make it a little longer? Just because you have a conclusion in your mind, doesn't mean the other person can see it all?"

"I thought it would be boring and annoying."

"It can be boring sometimes. The world can't be fun all the time, can it? But don't worry. If I get bored, I'll close my eyes when it's appropriate and open them when it's over. But if I'm interested in what you have to say, I'll never be bored, will I?"

"But it's entirely up to you to decide what you're interested in. You can't force someone to do something and say, 'You have to be excited about it! ' It's not likely to succeed. It's not nutritious. I don't want to do it. It's not worth the money."

"I see, you have a point."

"It's just tempting, and I don't want to spend time on it. It's annoying, and it's pointless."

"Well, I think I just got a little interested. I'm ready to listen to you now, so go ahead. I'll stay here and fight boredom, so what's the question for you?"

"It's not going to be fun," she said, rhyming.

"Questioning is the process by which you engage with the world, because you don't get answers before you ask questions. If you want to see something, you have to ask the right questions. The way the Ascension Test, the entrance exam, is conducted is also a kind of questioning, to select humans who can answer those questions."

"Of course!"

You can't hire every dog or cow. They need people who can give them the answers they want. That's where they see the potential.

"That's the thing, I don't really agree with that question."

"Does that mean we can't hire the right people with the way we're doing it now?"

"Well, you never know, you might get picked, there are so many variables, and someone like me, a hidden gem, just happened to get picked, so in that sense, I guess you could say we were lucky."

As usual, he doesn't seem to be fazed by this self-congratulatory remark, perhaps because he has a steel plate in his face. Moreover, in this human's case, it would be more accurate to say that he was forcibly removed rather than plucked.

"Uh-huh, I'm not going to argue with that."

Mazinger said gently.

"Well, the bottom line is that it's inefficient. Very, very, very, very inefficient!"

She didn't hesitate to speak her mind. It shows that you don't have to be intentionally shy to express your thoughts.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say……."

"Answers to questions that don't have meaning to me are also meaningless, because what's the point in giving myself a meaningless answer if I've already made it meaningless, and that's with balls!"

"Um……."

There was a lot of back and forth, but what it came down to was that I didn't want to do something for nothing, and I didn't want to do it for free, either.

"So how do I get involved?"

Majinga asked.

A thin smile tugged at the corners of Bi Ryuyeon's mouth. It was very difficult to ask the questions she wanted to ask. However, once the other person asks the question she wants, it becomes very easy to give the answer she wants. The words that came out of Bi Ryuyeon's mouth were so casual that they could be compared to the sound of a ghost forgetting.

"In Chuang Tzu's The Art of War, there's a saying that goes something like this: Tian Yuan Fat! The heavens are round and the earth is square."

In fact, a circle is a symbol of infinity and a square is a symbol of finitude, so the literal meaning is that the sky is infinite and the earth is finite. However, this metaphysical discussion was only a distraction from the answer he was seeking. What he was looking for was something very earthly, metaphysical, and material.

"I follow in the footsteps of the saints of old and love the heavens and the earth."

"……?"

At this point, proving once again that incomprehensible words are no substitute for conversation when the other workers are looking on in bewilderment, only one marginalizer nodded.

"Great. How much do you want?"

"It's called the Heavenly Earth."

Heaven and Earth (天長地久). It's a phrase from Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching that literally means "the heavens are long and the earth is old," or in other words, both the heavens and the earth are nasty, eternal bastards. The expression "long-lived" that people often use is a subtraction of heaven and earth.

"I see. I'll make sure that happens, so we have a deal?"

"Sure. Thank you for your time, then."

With her business concluded and no further business to attend to, Bi Ryuyeon bowed slightly and turned to leave the room.

And a while later,

The workers, faced with a situation they still don't understand, asked despite their dignity.

"But… I… Lord?"

"Yes, please."

"What did you mean by that… question and answer?"

"What? You didn't know?"

Rather, it was the marginalizer who asked the question.

"Yeah, I'm not sure?"

From the margin guy's perspective, it was weird that I didn't know something as simple as that, but they seemed to think it was even weirder that I did.

"The heavens are round and the earth is square. In short, he wants a 'something' that has the shape of the heavens and the earth, something like this."

With that, the Iron Fist martial artist joined the tips of his index finger and thumb in a circle, forming an ancient and highly symbolic handshake. The nakedness of the image made the workers nod in agreement.

"Aha, I see, so the celestial sphere is……."

Mazinger sighed for a moment. He felt sorry for himself for trusting these people.

"You'll have to figure that out for yourself.

'Ugh,' said Majinga with a deep sigh.

"It's called the multiplicity of good."

"Argh!"

It seemed to make sense to everyone.

"But why didn't you tell me that the rules are new this time, that it's not played the way it used to be?"

"Would you have wanted me to tell you the new rules? Even if I had, I would have put more conditions on it."

"That's certainly true."

"That's why we've only told the hopefuls, and not the other kids who have to take the entrance exams. Besides……."

"And?"

"It's fun to be surprised, it's not fun if you give it all away ahead of time. I can't wait to see how everyone reacts."

"Hehe, such a deep meaning……."

The laborers nodded in appreciation. When you're old, you're always bored, and any way to combat that boredom is very valuable.

"Do they realize that the test has already begun?"

Mazing at the door through which Bi Ryuyeon had exited, Mazinga silently pondered.