Book 19 Chapter 20

Qing Tian Wall Calendar (靑天霹靂)

-The death of one person, and…….

"Big brother, businessman, let's go to our market!"

"No!"

The boy refused in a firm voice, but his refusal was not lost on his six-year-old sister.

"Ai∼ gajaaa∼"

His sister dozed off again. The boy shook his head again.

"The young man is ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"No! You're safe here for now!"

The boy, Liu Yun, looked troubled, but that didn't stop him from granting the request. The girl shook her head vigorously. Her cheeks were puffed up like overripe apples.

"But… but… but… you haven't been out since that day!"

It was true.

"Sorry, sorry, but no!"

"Why? Even my uncle……."

"Stop!"

At being called uncle, Yoo Yong-young couldn't help but squeal. It was a topic he didn't want to think about, let alone bring up. He hadn't been able to go outside since his encounter with Yun Yizheng in the marketplace that day, and on the day of his second encounter with Yun Yizheng, he had become the head of the family, the one who had to carry the family business. He was scared. Scared to death. The horror he felt when the one person he thought he could trust the most, the only person he had left to trust, was destroyed was indescribable. But his younger sister, unaware of his speed, kept urging him to go out. But Yoo-young never wanted to go out that door, where the eyes of surveillance might be glaring.

"But who do I talk to now?

Who do you talk to when everything you trust has been destroyed? And if you don't trust them, what's the point of talking to them? It's a waste of time if you're not prepared to listen and take their advice. So…….

"Aaaahhhhhh!"

Then a loud cry came from beside him. He was startled by the sudden outburst.

The boy panicked. He needed to be appeased somehow. He started by apologizing.

"Sorry, sorry. Stop it. It's your fault. Hang in there. I'll take you to the market in a few days. I'll buy you something delicious."

In her desperation, Yoo Yun lied to appease her sister.

"Really?"

"Really."

Yoo vowed against false promises.

"Promise!"

The girl held out her little finger. After a moment's hesitation, Yu sighed and held out his own finger. The girl waved her hand excitedly. Yoo's arm bounced up and down.

"So do we have a contract(契約) now?"

The girl asked, her eyes shining brightly.

"What, a contract? Where did you learn that word?"

The boy, taken aback by the unexpected words from his sister's mouth, asked back.

"Daddy!"

"Your father?"

"Yeah, my dad says that contracts are kept in good faith, and a tradesman without credit goes out of business. But what's good faith, brother?"

Yu felt his heart sink. What had he just done? He was about to make a promise he wouldn't keep, just for a momentary escape. He was about to make a false contract. To the person he owed the most loyalty to: his customer, his sister. He was disqualified as a merchant, and he would never see his father again. The boy was determined to get the girl to the market.

Just as the boy was about to take another step into the merchant's path, as if to bless him, thunder rumbled.

Boom!

Startled, Liu Yong almost ran out from behind the burlap bundle with his brother. The sound of the door opening was loud and boisterous. They could have sworn someone was attacking them. It was a miracle that the door didn't shatter.

"Gin Sojae! Gin Sojae!"

It was Yoo Eun-sung, the first swordsman to kick in the door. He was in a hurry, and his face showed it. Luckily, the door didn't shatter under his urgent but powerful kicks. It seemed to be made of a very strong material.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, wide-eyed children entered his field of vision.

"Ah, management. Have you not seen where Mr. Gene Sojae is?"

"You're in the back of the line."

"Thank you."

Unable to finish her sentence, Yoo Eun-sung hurriedly walked toward the backyard. It was a step that seemed like it was going to burst into flames. As she watched Yoo Eun-sung's back, which quickly disappeared from view, a question appeared on her face.

"What's going on? Are you in such a hurry, is there a fire in the Heavenly Martial Academy?"

True to Liu Ying's word, Qin Shaolin was in the training hall. He was about to call out her name when she stopped dead in her tracks. She was in the middle of teaching her student, Yulan, and he wasn't sure if he should interrupt the moment. The moment of transmission of profound knowledge was a very meaningful moment for both the learner and the teacher. It would be imprudent and overbearing to interrupt such a momentous occasion with personal judgment. He decided to wait and see.

"Do you know why you lost?"

Qin Shaolin asked. He spoke of his defeat at the hands of Namgung Sang.

"Because the disciple is weak."

"Wrong."

"What? Wrong?"

Besides being weak, what other reason is there for defeat? Does defeat need any other reason than that? Qin Shaolin recognized the disciple's state of mind.

"Defeat is only an effect. And weakness is not an intrinsic cause. It is a process that lies between cause and effect. Not everything that precedes an effect is a cause."

He went on to say

"It's not bad to fail. It's when you don't learn anything from it. Everyone fails. It's just a matter of degree. There is no such thing as a life filled with only successes. The worst thing is not failing, but failing to overcome it and becoming frustrated. The common characteristic of frustrated people is that they don't try to learn from their failures. Only those who learn from their failures are able to overcome them without getting discouraged. Remember, failure is the same as giving up on your own future."

In life, frustration was a no-no.

"Learn from your mistakes, but don't repeat them to learn from them, so know this. It's far more beneficial to learn from other people's failures than from your own. It's not hard to be a stone from another mountain."

That's not all I wanted to say.

"You just said that you lost because you were weak, so what do I have to do to not be weak? Do I just have to be stronger? That may be a simple answer, but the question remains: how do I become stronger? Do you have a ready answer to that question? Is simply being stronger the right way to be strong? Is having a clear picture of your weaknesses so that you can fix them and change the outcome? That's what you need to find in yourself. Something that can change who you are now in the shortest amount of time, and something that you can change yourself in the shortest amount of time."

"The disciple is stupid and has not yet grasped its deeper meaning. Please dismiss him."

When Yulan asked for instruction, she instinctively realized that her master had identified her weaknesses.

"That's because you're not discerning enough."

"Discernment?"

"That's right. Your lack of discernment is the cause of your defeat."

Qin Xiaoling replied in a firm voice.

"So what is discernment?"

Yulan asked.

"Everyone's mindset is different, and everyone's skills are different, and that's just the way it is. There's no way you're all going to be the same. We can't all be the same. They can only produce similar results, and that's what we call reality. A world where everyone is the same is an illusion. There are heights and valleys, water flows, wind blows, and stars spin. If everything is the same, there is no change. Without change, there would be no development, no progress, and a very boring world. And like stagnant water, it will eventually rot. Discernment is the ability to recognize the difference."

"……."

"You don't have to be a chef to appreciate flavor. Similarly, you don't have to be a cilantro to evaluate its virtuosity. However, the evaluation of cilantro is not the same as the evaluation of sewage. Different analyses lead to different results."

Yulan listened to Qin Shaolin with bated breath.

"There are things about the masters that only the masters can know. What they have learned through enlightenment should be called wisdom, not knowledge. For it is a living knowledge that can never be acquired without experience. Why, do you not understand?"

Qin Shaolin asked, looking at the traces of distress on his disciple's face.

"Sorry, Master!"

"Nothing to apologize for. I suppose it's better to show than tell, so take those two apples on the tray over there."

There were tons of fruits on the silver tray from the Zhongyang Stamp Office without my asking. There was no point in refusing, so I put them in a corner, and the apple that Yulan brought was just sitting there.

"Watch!"

Qin Xiaolong lightly tossed the apple upward. The next moment there was a flash, and the apple was on the tip of her lightning-fast sword. Yulan didn't even see when his master's sword was drawn.

"Now, what happened to this apple?"

"I… broke into four pieces."

"Then I must have swung the sword twice?"

"That's right, Master."

"Is it true? Would the masters answer like you?"

"That's……."

Yuran wasn't sure of his answer, because he didn't really know how the sword was wielded.

"The fact that you are not confident in your answer is a sign that you are not yet discerning enough. You need to train your eyes to see through the fog and recognize the real thing. Then you will have natural conviction. See."

With a flick of his finger, the apple on the tip of the sword split into exactly eight pieces, as if it were measured with a ruler. What's even more amazing is that the peel was sliced in a single line, as if it had been carved with a rotary knife, meaning that Qin had first cut the peel into rounds and then cut the kernel into eight pieces. But how?

"Oh, no……."

That was all Yulan could say.

"Was that too fast? Well, let's try it differently this time. Place the remaining apple in the palm of your hand and stand there."

As Yulan did as he was told, Qin Xiaolong slowly extended his sword. It was so slow that it was almost like a yawn. When Yulan, who was standing less than half a zhang away, was wondering how long it would take for the sword to reach this place, the tip of the sword gently touched the tip of the apple. It was as if he was playing a joke. Even a mosquito bite was more painful than that. Qin Xiaolong withdrew his sword as slowly as he had thrust it out.

"Okay, how about this one, I took it a little slower so you can see it better, what do you see?"

"Nothing happened to that… apple."

"Nothing happened?"

Qin Xiaoling asked, "Is that true?

"Yes… nothing happened."

"Are you sure of your words?"

Qin Xiaoling asked in a strong voice, as if he had made up his mind once again.

"Yes, I can assure you."

Yulan replied in a strong voice.

"You're wrong again."

From where he stood, Qin Shaolin flicked his fingers, sending out a gust of wind that punctured a small hole in the apple. Yulan's eyes widened. Of course, it wasn't the wind, as a thin stream of yellow water flowed out of the tiny hole in the red apple. It was apple juice.

"How about this, can you say that nothing happened?"

"……."

Yulan, already speechless, was unable to reply. The finely ground apple juice stopped coming out after a while, but the shape of the apple remained the same.

"Wilt thou look inside?"

Qin Shaolin flicked his index finger once more. Then the apple split into two pieces, as if it had been sliced by a sharp knife.

'指風劍(指風劍)…….'

It was a more advanced technique for water supply than the normal wind that simply pierces holes like an awl. Unlike ordinary jipung, it was also called 'jisunpung' because it could rotate the jipung like a fan to ring objects. It was more difficult to master than expected, and even among those who were known as masters, the number of people who had mastered it was surprisingly small.

"Oh, no……."

Yuran's eyes widened once more. The inside of the apple was pristine and empty. Only the paper-thin skin of the apple barely retained its shape.

"You saw the slowness of my sword and assumed it would be of little use. Was I wrong?"

"…No."

Yulan replied in a full, dead voice.

"Of course, speed is power. Fast is strong, that's common sense. But slow is not necessarily weak. Adepts can not only make fast things faster, but also make slow things stronger. They are the ones who turn common sense on its head, so it's no surprise that the eyes of a mastermind can't be the same as the eyes of a criminal. They don't just see what's on the surface, they also see what's behind it. That's the difference between a criminal and a master, and that's why they're not afraid to be different. It is because they have such eyes that they can be confident in their decisions, even if they are not in the position of the majority, but in the position of the minority."

Yulan is now completely dumbfounded by the honey.

"To cultivate discernment is to cultivate wisdom. Masters can pass that wisdom on to their students. The hope is that through this transmission, the discernment of the disciple will reach a higher level. Masters instinctively know that the most important thing they can teach their students is not mere herbivorous, watermelon-skinned knowledge, but the cultivation of such discernment. Therefore, I bear a large part of the blame for this defeat. For it is my responsibility as your teacher to have failed to cultivate your discernment to that extent."

Shake!

Yulan sank to his knees in a heap on the ground. He didn't dare raise his head. He didn't dare to look at his master's face.

"I'm sorry, Master, but an unruly student has caused Master to… Master has… Master has……."

Yulan bit her lip, feeling like she was about to burst into tears. She didn't want to make a scene. She didn't want to escape the bitter present with tears. She didn't want to be pitied, and she wouldn't be pitied. What she needed now was not the cleansing of her emotions through tears, but the poisonous determination of the Wasin Counselor.

"Get up."

Yulan didn't get up. Her knees were frozen, as if a heavy rebuke was pressing down on her.

"How can it be your own fault? I know that I am responsible for this. I will not avert my eyes from that responsibility."

"Master……."

"Of course, it is not possible to transmit the complete Simplicity through oral transmission alone. Verbal wisdom loses a great deal of information in the process of transmission. However, even that lost information can bring tremendous benefit, depending on how it is received. This is why being under a great teacher does not necessarily produce a great student. That's why most students can't surpass their teachers. Moreover, discernment is very subjective, and it is easy to be swayed by popular psychology. It is not easy to overcome this and see the world through one's own eyes. It's even harder to see it right."

"……."

"So be more discerning. To be yourself if you don't want to be a loser in life. The most important of these is to see yourself. When you can look yourself in the eye, you will be able to see beyond."

"Master's teachings, like golden sutras, I will engrave in the heart of my disciple."

Yulan answered, raising her voice. Her voice was cracking, but she managed to keep the tears from falling.

"You kept me waiting, Yu Dae-hyeop!"

"No. Good teaching, good listen."

"I'm ashamed to hear such a thing from Yu Dae-hyeop, and what are you doing here, though you look very urgent?"

Only then did Yue Eun-sung remember what she had brought with her. It was the aftereffect of being mesmerized by Qin Xiaolong's appearance.

"Oh, I forgot, Qin Sojae, I must have been out of it for a while to forget such an important matter. Qin Sojae, isn't the person you're supposed to meet in a few days' time a young man named Third Southern Palace Master of the Southern Palace Family?"

"Yeah, yeah, I decided to fight him."

There is only one reason. To test her worthiness to marry Qinling. Yoo Eun-sung had heard about it and knew it well, so she didn't know if she should tell him, but she wasn't good at hiding things.

"Don't be surprised to hear that… ……."

I didn't understand why they were taking so long.

"I'm curious to know what's going on, Mr. Yu, and why you're taking such a long time to tell me. Tell me. I won't be surprised."

Encouraged by her words, Yoo Eun-sung cautiously shared the startling news she had brought with her. Despite Yoo Eun-sung's warnings, Qin Xiaoling was stunned.

"What? What are you saying……?"

It was Yulan who spoke up on her master's behalf, for she, too, had nothing to do with the news that Eunseong had brought. And it was a bad one, too, for it was she who had brought shame upon her revered master.

"So… what did you just say, Yu Dae-hyeop?"

Still in a state of confusion, Qin Xiaoling asked, barely able to compose himself. For the umpteenth time, Yoo Eun-sung repeated what she had said once.

"That… young man named Namgungsang… was… murdered!"

<Continued from Volume 20 of "Reliability"