The Visit – Jin Mugwang's Discourse (辯) 3
The Profound Realm (玄境)
"Haha, I know your heart."
Jin Mugwang paused and looked at Soun.
"But will the world leave you be?
All the masters gathered below are watching you.
There must be more than a hundred of them."
His smiling gaze brushed past the window.
"I could read their expectations, their hopes, their dreams.
A place they could not reach—because of innate limitations, because their circumstances did not allow them to devote themselves fully, or because they bore other heavy duties."
His voice continued quietly.
"I trust you will not treat those aspirations lightly."
The air in the room grew heavy once more.
The sunlight remained warm, but the weight of the words was not light.
Soun understood.
It meant he should respond to their expectations.
It meant that such a path might itself be a way of living in this world.
The evening sun was tilting westward.
Though the heat had eased somewhat, the market streets (市廛) still felt suffocating.
Mixed odors and restless noise thickened the air.
Should I open a small school and teach children?
Should I compromise with the world and accept hidden payments?
Should I join hands with politics and remain as an unseen force?
The thoughts passed through him.
Soun slowly shook his head.
Before crossing into his present realm, he might have weighed such possibilities.
But now, such choices felt like shells—
far from the core of what mattered.
No.
No.
Perhaps returning to the countryside would be more whole.
A place with few people and fewer words.
A place with the scent of wind and soil.
A life of setting down the sword and catching one's breath.
The sun dipped further.
The glow of dusk reddened the window frame.
Soun watched the fading light for a moment.
The word freedom rose again in his chest.
He asked to confirm.
"Are you saying I should remain in the martial world? In the jianghu?"
Jin Mugwang smiled brightly.
There was no urgency, no pressure in that smile.
He was not questioning the manner in which Soun might live.
He meant only that one must choose a place to stand.
He did not divide strictly between the worldly and the withdrawn, the martial world and officialdom.
Wherever one stood, what mattered was not losing one's center.
Through many trials, he had changed.
Injury and defeat, recovery and return—these had given him breadth.
His once narrow vision had widened.
He who once measured the world only by force now stood where he first considered the breath of people.
He did not bind Soun.
He neither held him back nor pushed him away.
He simply nodded.
The choice is yours.
His eyes spoke thus.
"It is yours to decide."
His voice was low but clear.
"The White Dragon Unit is already encamped twenty li outside the capital.
When summer passes, we will march.
They have grown strong because of you.
Each soldier is worthy of command by strength alone.
You grew within the White Dragon Unit, and you strengthened it."
He paused.
His gaze softened as he looked at Soun.
"Will you not fly toward a new world?
I do not know where that world lies."
His words slowed.
It seemed he was weighing the final pieces of meaning at the edge of thought.
"You, the son of Lord Yu, came to me in the snow of winter.
Since that day, I have thought of you as a son.
And I wish for my son to seek his dream—
to go far, to the very end."
His words were calm but deep.
They were counsel, permission, and perhaps even a blessing prepared for parting.
Silence settled over the space the three occupied.
The fragrance of tea had grown faint.
Sunlight withdrew slowly from the window.
As though by prior understanding, Lee Sogun spoke softly.
"There is something called the Profound Realm (玄境), I have heard."
Her voice was low and gentle, resting quietly atop the lingering tea scent.
"They say almost no one in this mortal world (人世) has reached that state.
Beyond Hwagyeong (化境)… to Hyeongyeong."
She paused.
In her eyes were both concern and hope as she looked at Soun.
"Try once to challenge it, Soun."
It was encouragement without urgency.
Not a push from behind, but a word that told of a road that exists.
The air in the room grew still again.
To speak of going beyond Hwagyeong was no light matter.
The two characters 玄境 felt distant and deep, like a sky not yet reached.
Jin Mugwang looked at Soun without speaking.
There was trust in his gaze.
Soun lifted his head.
The last of the fading light brushed the room.
The words freedom and path overlapped within his heart.
Hwagyeong had been thought the utmost height a human could attain.
To be told to go beyond it was akin to being told to step beyond the world itself.
Soun's eyes deepened.
He said nothing, but his breath lengthened.
Then suddenly Lee Sogun's voice, heard again, was soft, warm, beautiful—
and full of quiet happiness.