The Big Book of Classic Fantasy

by The Big Book of Classic Fantasy (retail) (epub)

  The king was preparing to interrogate him personally when officials of the Royal Secretariat reported to him, “Jeon Unchi has been arrested in every province and many towns, so there are three hundred sixty of them. This is surely the work of his magic.”

  The king became enraged but did not know how to handle the matter until Chief Royal Secretary Wang Yeonhui spoke. “It’s hard to fathom Jeon Unchi’s magic. Since this is liable to create much chaos, I think it would be best to behead them all rather than try to figure out which one is the real Jeon Unchi.”

  The king agreed and proceeded to a watchtower from where he ordered the beheading of all the Jeon Unchis. But then one of them spoke out. “I am not Jeon Unchi but the Chief Royal Secretary Wang Yeonhui.”

  The king looked at him closely and saw that it was indeed Wang.

  When he asked his officials what was going on, they answered, “But he is Jeon Unchi.”

  The king lamented at that. “The fortunes of this country have fallen so low that it is rife with such demonic tricks. How am I to preserve this country? I can’t allow so many innocent officials and commoners to die just so I can have one criminal executed.”

  And so he ended the interrogation.

  At this time, Unchi changed his appearance to that of Wang Yeonhui inside a cloud, and then walked out of the palace gates. Servants hurried over with horses and escorted him to Wang’s house. As Unchi went into the main chamber and conversed with Wang’s wife, none in the household suspected anything.

  The real Wang Yeonhui came out of the palace but could not find any of his servants. He thought it strange and borrowed a horse from a colleague and rode to his house. There he became very angry at his servants at the front door and demanded to know why they were home.

  They answered him, “But we escorted Your Lordship here a while ago. How come Your Lordship is here again?”

  And they looked at him strangely. As he proceeded to the main chamber, servant girls clapped their hands in astonishment.

  “What is going on? How is His Lordship outside now? How is this happening?”

  And so they talked in confusion.

  Wang Yeonhui, unaware of anything, went into his sleeping chamber and found another Wang Yeonhui speaking with his wife.

  He yelled in rage, “What kind of a wretch are you that you dare come into the house of a noble official and converse with his wife?”

  He then commanded his servants, “Get that bastard now!”

  Unchi spoke, “What kind of a wretch are you that you dare to wear my face, come into my chamber, and try to violate my wife? What calamity is this!”

  He commanded the servants, “Get that bastard now!”

  The servants looked back and forth but could not fathom the trick that was being performed before them.

  As they did not know what to do, Unchi spoke out, “I’ve heard that demons cannot hold the appearance of a human for long.”

  Unchi threw water and red paint at Wang Yeonhui, which turned into a nine-tailed fox.

  The servants came with swords and clubs to kill the animal, but Unchi stopped them. “This is such a strange event that it should be reported to the government and be handled officially. Until then, bind that creature tightly, put it in a chamber, and guard the place well.”

  The servants obeyed and restrained Wang Yeonhui before shutting him in.

  When Wang Yeonhui tried to speak, fox noises came out of his mouth. He could only weep at the condition of having his human mind trapped inside an animal’s body.

  Unchi thought to himself, “He won’t be able to live many days in such a state.”

  That night, at the fourth watch, he went to Wang Yeonhui.

  “We had no cause to be enemies, but when I saw that you tried to earn merit by having me killed, I had no choice but to kill you first. But I would like to go through my life without taking any life, so I’m going to forgive you. So don’t you dare try anything like that ever again.”

  Unchi then cast a spell that returned Wang Yeonhui to his true form.

  When Wang realized only then that everything was the work of Unchi’s magic, he spoke out in fear, “I did not know the extent of Master Jeon’s power, so I committed a great wrong.”

  Wang Yeonhui then expressed his gratitude many times over, after which Unchi spoke to him again. “After I release you and leave this place, your household is going to fall into chaos, so do what you need to do.”

  He then left for the southwest.

  Wang Yeonhui called out to his servants, “Come and look at the demon again.”

  The servants went into the room and found the creature gone.

  When they exclaimed in astonishment, Wang Yeonhui spoke out in anger, “All this happened because you failed to guard the house properly.”

  He reprimanded them for a long time before dismissing them.

  When Unchi went back to the mountain temple, he found that the monk had returned as well, but still with Unchi’s appearance. He threw water on the monk and cast a spell that returned him to his true form.

  Unchi reprimanded him severely, “As a monk, you should have abided by the ways of Buddhism. Instead, you lured away a virtuous woman and violated her. You deserve to be killed ten thousand times over, so I planned on having you executed as Jeon Unchi, but I just couldn’t bring myself to take a life, so I saved you and turned you back into your true form. From now on, do not act like that again.”

  * * *

  —

  Unchi was returning home when he came across a group of young men who were fighting over a scroll and marveling at it. “The picture in this scroll is the greatest masterpiece.”

  Unchi looked at it and saw that it depicted a beautiful woman. It showed her holding a child while teasing it, her mouth and eyes drawn so well that she seemed to be alive and moving.

  Unchi thought of a trick and spoke with a smile, “Why are you praising this picture like it’s such a great work?”

  A young man named O replied. “You may think that you have high taste, but you shouldn’t speak of things you are ignorant of. See how the woman in the picture seems to be speaking and watching, so how could it not be a masterpiece?”

  Unchi laughed at that and asked for the price of the painting.

  O answered. “It is worth fifty nyang. That’s actually cheap for such a quality work.”

  “I have scroll picture of my own, so come look at it.”

  He took a scroll out of his sleeve and unfurled it, revealing another picture of a beautiful woman. She was of great fairness, dressed in a blue jacket and red skirt. She also wore a golden coronet on her head. Her beauty was truly incomparable in the whole world.

  All the youths looked and praised it. “She also looks alive, so this picture rivals ours.”

  Unchi laughed. “Your picture is fine, but mine has more liveliness. Witness its true quality.”

  Unchi hung up the scroll and quietly called to it. “Heavenly maiden Ju, where are you?”

  The woman in the picture replied as she stepped out of the picture with a little boy.

  Unchi spoke to her, “Pour all these gentlemen some liquor.”

  The heavenly maiden replied and poured drinks for everyone. Unchi drank his first and watched as all the young men received their liquor, all of them delighting in its taste. After everyone had their fill, the heavenly maiden cleared everything away before stepping back into the picture.

  The men exclaimed in wonder, “I don’t know if this picture is from the Heavenly Realm or something from a dream, but it is truly the most precious object of all time.”

  O spoke out, “Let me try it out. Allow me to ask Ju the heavenly maiden to bring us more liquor.”

  With Unchi’s assent, O quietly called out to Ju, “We want more liquor, so please give us some.”

  Ju the heaven
ly maiden replied and stepped out of the picture bearing a liquor bottle, while the little boy brought a table. She bent down and poured liquor as before.

  O drank his first and waited until everyone else had taken theirs before he got up and expressed his gratitude to Unchi. “I feel fortunate to have met you, to drink such fine liquor, and to witness such a marvel on this day.”

  “This picture may possess liveliness but it is a useless thing. So there is no need for you to be so grateful.”

  “If you think the picture is so useless, why don’t you sell it to me?”

  “If you really want it, I will.”

  When O asked for its price, Unchi replied, “Ju the heavenly maiden’s bottle is a true marvel that never runs out of liquor. So I will take a thousand nyang for it.”

  “Let us not haggle over the price now. How about we go to my house and discuss it there?”

  Unchi agreed and went to his house, where he gave O the scroll.

  “I will return tomorrow, so have the money ready by then.”

  After Unchi left, O hung up the scroll at the outer chamber of his house and stared drunkenly at Ju the heavenly maiden holding a liquor bottle. He was so taken with her beauty that he took her fair hand and put it on his lap. Overcome with love, he then tried to drag her over to his mattress. Suddenly the chamber door burst open and O’s wife, Lady Min, ran into the room. She was a woman given to jealousy and envy, and often got herself involved in other people’s business. She became so enraged by the sight of her husband showing affection to Ju that she tried to beat her rival. But Ju went back into the painting, which made Min take the scroll down and rip it to pieces, leaving O in shock.

  “I promised to pay a thousand nyang for that scroll. What have you done?”

  “When the owner comes, I’m going to tell him off and curse him.”

  So the two of them argued.

  When Unchi returned, O welcomed him and explained the situation. Unchi decided to play a trick on Lady Min and threw a net made of metal strings over her, which turned her into a giant snake. She found that when she tried to speak, no sound came out of her mouth, and when she tried to get up, she could not do so no matter how much she moved around.

  Unchi spoke to O, “I left the scroll here as a favor to you, yet the marvel has been destroyed. So meeting you was a misfortune for me. A great calamity will fall upon your house, so take care of yourself.”

  “What calamity?”

  “A demonic beast that has been waiting in this house for a thousand years will use your wife to create much chaos.”

  “How will the demon do that?”

  “Because your wife ripped up my scroll, she turned into that demon. Go open the door and see.”

  O was skeptical of Unchi’s words, but he opened the door and saw a snake the length of six arms on the ground with his wife nowhere in sight. O’s face turned pale with terror.

  “I see a giant snake. I must kill it.”

  Unchi stopped him. “This demon is a thousand-year-old spirit. If you kill it, a great harm will come to you. I will attach a talismanic paper to its back, which will make it disappear overnight.”

  He took out a talismanic paper and put it on the snake’s back.

  He warned O, “Close the door and do not open it until I return.”

  He then went home and waited until the new day dawned before he returned to O’s house. There, he went up to Lady Min and reprimanded her.

  “You thought so low of your husband that you have acted in a violent and unrighteous manner. Out of jealousy, you ripped up my scroll and insulted me. So I was going to wrap you up in this metal net and put you in a hole in a rock to make you suffer. But if you promise to mend your ways, I will set you free.”

  Lady Min nodded her head, so Unchi cast a spell that released Lady Min from the net. She hurriedly got up and bowed down to him in gratitude.

  * * *

  —

  On his way back home, Unchi stopped by the house of Yang Bongan, with whom he used to study. He found him lying down with an illness.

  When Unchi queried him in concern, Yang answered him, “I have pains in my stomach and chest. And I can’t partake in anything to eat or drink, so I don’t think I’ll be able to get up again.”

  Unchi checked his pulse and spoke, “Yours is not an illness that originated in the body but one that was caused by thoughts of another person. Who has made you so ill?”

  “That’s true. There is a woman named Lady Jeong who lives in Hoehyeon District, inside the south gate of the capital city. A person of incomparable beauty, she lost her husband early. She lives next to my uncle’s house, so during a visit I happened to see her over the wall and fell so deeply in love that it has made me ill. And now I fear that I do not have long to live in this world.”

  “You should send a matchmaker who talks well to propose marriage.”

  “She has such a strict sense of virtue that she will not only reject the proposal but curse me for it.”

  “In that case, I will try to bring her to you.”

  “No matter how clever you are, she won’t agree to come, so don’t bother putting your effort into it.”

  “Don’t worry.”

  Unchi then left and flew away on a cloud.

  After Lady Jeong had lost her husband, she lived alone and spent day and night weeping over her loss, wishing she could die. She had an elderly mother but no siblings. The mother and daughter spent their days taking care of each other.

  One day, Lady Jeong felt troubled for some reason and walked around in her chamber. Suddenly a cloud descended, and an official of the Heavenly Realm stepped forth, dressed in a red robe with a jade belt, wearing a gold crown, and bearing a jade tablet of officialdom.

  He spoke to her in a clear and calm voice. “Lady Jeong, come out and hear the command of the Great Jade Emperor of the Heavenly Realm.”

  When Jeong told her mother of what she had heard, the elderly woman became astonished and quickly lit incense on a table. Lady Jeong came out to the garden and prostrated herself on the ground.

  Unchi spoke, “Heavenly maiden Mun, how did you like living in the world of humans? It is time for you to return to the Heavenly Realm and attend the once-in-three-thousand-years party at the holy lake of Yoji.”

  Lady Jeong was astounded by the command of the Great Jade Emperor. “But I am only a human being with a base body who is guilty of many failings. So how could I possibly ascend to the Heavenly Realm?”

  “Heavenly maiden Mun has partaken of so much impure water of the human world that she has lost all memory of the Heavenly Realm.”

  He then poured fragrant holy water into a gourd bottle and offered it to Jeong. When she drank it, she became so disoriented that she did not know what was happening. Unchi wrapped her inside his cloud and bore her into the air, leaving her mother to bow numerous times toward the sky.

  At this time, a supernatural spirit called Heaven Sent Young Master was causing mischief by gathering beggars of all kinds to bother people in the marketplace for food and money. He suddenly became aware of a powerful fragrance and looked up to see a cloud traveling southeast. Heaven Sent Young Master lifted his hand and made a gesture, which created an open doorway on the cloud. A heavenly official and a beautiful woman fell out and dropped to the ground. It was Unchi and Lady Jeong.

  Unchi looked around in astonishment but could find nothing amiss.

  He was about to cast a spell when a beggar child suddenly appeared and reprimanded him loudly. “Mortal man Jeon Unchi, listen to me. You learned magic only to make use of the Heavenly Realm for your tricks and to deprive women of their virtue. Did you think that heaven would overlook that? I’ve been ordered to end the likes of you, so don’t blame me for your demise.”

  Unchi unsheathed his sword in anger and tried to threaten the spirit with it, but the we
apon turned into a white tiger and attacked Unchi. He tried to escape, but his feet became attached to the ground, making it impossible for him to move. He then attempted to transform himself, but his magic spells no longer worked. He looked up in shock and realized that while the beggar child had a shabby appearance, his magical power was superior.

  Unchi got down on his knees and begged, “I may have eyes, but my vision is not clear, so I did not recognize you. I have committed crimes for which I deserve to be killed ten thousand times over. But I have an elderly mother whom I could not take care of properly because of my family’s poverty, so I felt that I had no choice but to trick the king. Also, what I am doing now is not for the purpose of depriving this woman of her virtue but to save the life of a man who has fallen ill. I bid you, master, to pardon my crimes and to teach me the Ways of Heaven.”

  Heaven Sent Young Master replied, “I knew all that before you told me. Due to the unfortunate state of this country, the likes of you felt free to create disturbances with magic, so I was going to execute you. But given the situation with your elderly mother, I will let you live for now. Now, return Lady Jeong to her home, and think of some other clever way of saving the life of Yang Bongan. In fact, there is someone who can take the place of Lady Jeong, a woman who lost both her parents early and had to live in dire poverty with no one to depend on. Her name is also Jeong and she is twenty-four years old. If you dare to disobey me, you will come to great harm.”

  Unchi bowed down to him. “May I know your lofty name?”

  “I am called Heaven Sent Young Master. I’ve been wandering around to have some fun in the world of humans.”

  And he returned Unchi’s magical powers.

  Unchi immediately took Lady Jeong and returned to her house, where he called out to her mother, “When I went up to the palace of the Great Jade Emperor, he proclaimed, ‘The offenses committed by the heavenly maiden Mun have not been fully atoned for, so return her to the world of humans so that she may suffer some more.’ I am bringing her back to you, so bid her to live virtuously.”