WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: Abstract

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Episode 1: Mumu (1)

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Mumu (1)

The cliffs of Tianzi Mountain.

Whoosh! Thwack!

Something flashed down like lightning toward the swaddling bundle plummeting at terrifying speed.

The thing that snatched the bundle out of the air was none other than the White-Browed Taoist, white of brow and white of beard, clad in a pure white robe.

Having barely caught the bundle, the Taoist clung to the cliff face and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear."

In the end, he simply could not stand by and watch.

This was a being he was not supposed to save, but it was only an infant, and he could not keep his eyes open and let it fall.

The White-Browed Taoist murmured the name of the Primordial Lord of Heaven again and again.

"Kyaha."

Then, seeing the baby suddenly burst into a beaming laugh, he found himself smiling too.

"What a spirited little thing you are."

Falling down a chasm a thousand fathoms deep, and still laughing.

Could it possibly know it had been spared a fate of certain death?

The Taoist shook his head.

'I have defied Heaven's will.'

In all his years, this was the first time he had done such a thing.

Curiosity had brought a great calamity down upon him.

Perhaps, for the sin of defying Heaven's will, he would not live out his natural span, or his ascension to immortality had slipped away from him.

Yet looking at the child's laughter, he felt no regret.

'A child who, had it lived, would have possessed a talent the whole world would fear. But because even Heaven coveted it, Heaven sought to take it the moment it was born.'

"Haah."

The Taoist let out a heavy sigh.

Then a sudden pain made him cry out in shock.

Crack!

"Ugh?"

Startled, he looked down to find his index finger bent backward.

The Taoist's eyes went round as he stared.

The culprit was none other than the baby, gripping that very finger in its tiny hand.

'This cannot be...'

It was a truly astonishing thing.

A baby barely born had bent his finger clean back.

To call its strength that of a mighty warrior would be no exaggeration.

'Well now...'

Faint veins stood out on the back of the newborn's hand.

A tree that will grow tall is known from its first leaves, or so they say.

This was, beyond any doubt, the very child Heaven's will had spoken of.

'How troubling.'

If this child grew up just as it was, then, exactly as Heaven's will had foretold, it would come of age bearing a terrifying talent.

And should that come to pass, there was no telling what might happen later.

'What am I to do?'

This, surely, was why his master had warned him so earnestly never to meddle in the affairs of men or to do anything that defied Heaven's will.

If he threw the baby back down the chasm here and now, he could still uphold that command.

But how could he kill such an innocent, lovely child?

After staring at the baby's face and agonizing over it for a long while, the Taoist finally made up his mind.

'Very well. I shall raise the child to grow up as ordinary as can be.'

That was the only way to spare the baby while defying Heaven's will as little as possible.

* * *

A deep, forested valley in Guilin, Guangxi Province.

There, in a place no human foot ever reached, stood a shabby thatched cottage.

A sign was planted before its front yard.

[Do not stray more than ten li from this place of exile.]

A man in his early thirties, dressed in coarse yellow hemp and seated on the porch, stared at the baby in its bundle with a blank look on his face.

'Eight months into my exile...'

He had only just begun to think he was getting used to this life.

At the very moment he was finding some peace of mind, a dreamlike thing had happened.

No, the dream had become reality.

Yu Yeop-kyung, who had been lying idly on the porch, drifting off to sleep at his leisure, had dreamed a dream.

[Hoho ho ho.]

Riding clouds of five colors, some White-Browed Taoist had appeared before him.

It was such a fantastical sight that he flung himself flat to the ground.

He took this White-Browed Taoist to be the land spirit or mountain god who guarded this forest.

[I say there. Scholar Yeo.]

Oho, the man was without doubt a mountain god.

Scholar was the eighth-grade rank he had held back when he was at the National Academy in the imperial capital.

But he had been caught up in an absurd affair and sent into exile.

'Honored mountain god, I beg you, grant me your teaching.'

So he said, but in truth what he wanted deep down was to be released from exile and return to the National Academy.

The words the White-Browed Taoist spoke, however, were nothing he had expected.

[Raise this child for me.]

The White-Browed Taoist abruptly thrust the bundle toward him.

'......Pardon?'

Absurd.

Telling him, a man in exile, to raise a child.

'You jest, surely?'

[I am in earnest.]

'......I will not see you off on your long road.'

He pushed the baby back.

Yes, of course.

What mountain god could this possibly be?

To the disappointed man, the White-Browed Taoist held the baby out once more and said,

[If you raise this child with all your heart, someday good fortune will come to your family back in Kaifeng.]

'Is that truly so?'

[I have read Heaven's will, and there is no mistaking it.]

He had his doubts, but no one ever minds hearing pleasant words.

And so Yu Yeop-kyung took the bundle in his arms.

Looking at the baby, he thought he had never seen one so lovely.

It brought to mind the second child he had left behind in Kaifeng.

Footnotes:

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