Submeng

Submeng, the Crazy Blade, is the Demonic Cult's eccentric Right Guardian and the first senior warrior to teach Chun Yeowun inside the academy. Behind his drunken appearance, he is a top-ten blade master whose Butterfly Blade Dance and internal-energy instruction give Yeowun the foundation needed to compete with trained heirs.

Biography

Crazy Blade and Secret Instructor

Submeng first appears at the academy in ragged clothing, swaying as if he is too drunk to stand. The performance conceals the Right Guardian and one of the cult's ten strongest fighters. He notices Yeowun's endurance during the opening ordeal and, acting under the Lord's instruction that the untrained heir receive a fair chance, begins visiting him in secret. Lee Hameng allows the arrangement but monitors it because private instruction violates the academy's public rules. (Chapters 8, 11, 15–19)

Yeowun has almost no conventional training time, so Submeng does not begin with elegant forms. He forces his own qi through Yeowun's meridians and makes him experience internal-energy circulation directly. The process is painful because a novice's pathways are unaccustomed to another master's energy, but it establishes sensation and route much faster than verbal explanation alone. Submeng then supplies breathing notes and expects Yeowun to build a usable internal-energy foundation within seven days. His energy can guide and stimulate the process; it cannot permanently substitute for Yeowun cultivating his own qi. (Chapter 15)

Butterfly Blade Dance

Submeng next teaches the Butterfly Blade Dance through demonstration. He uses a Light-Dance Blade, a treasured weapon roughly half the weight of a normal blade, because the art depends on rapid redirection. Its twenty-four major forms each contain three smaller variations, allowing the user to change angle inside a movement rather than ending one attack before beginning another. The resulting sequence seems to surround a target with fluttering blade paths, and observers can become absorbed in its apparent beauty before recognizing the killing lines. (Chapters 18, 29)

He records how internal energy should move through the forms as well as the visible positions. That distinction is essential: copying only the blade path produces an imitation without the acceleration, stability, or cutting force of the real art. Nano can record Submeng's movement and let Yeowun rehearse a simulation, but the stored image is not Submeng himself and does not grant his cultivated qi. Yeowun must still train the transitions until his body can reproduce them. (Chapters 18, 29, 43)

Guardian behind the Academy

Submeng's teaching does not make him an openly attached faction member. He uses stealth and running skills to pass ordinary academy staff, while Hameng and Marakim remain capable of tracking him. During later academy danger, Yeowun suspects Submeng and the Guardian Army intentionally delayed intervention so that he would be forced to act within a wider plan. Whether instructing or withholding help, Submeng pushes Yeowun toward independent judgment rather than solving every crisis for him. (Chapters 19, 96)

After the academy, Submeng rides with the guarded carriage returning important figures to the cult, and his place as Yeowun's teacher is no longer merely a hidden rumor. He continues supporting Yeowun through the succession struggle. The old regime eventually arrests him together with Hameng, demonstrating that guardian rank offers no protection once his loyalty is judged politically dangerous. He returns to senior service after Yeowun secures the cult. (Chapters 186, 229, 249–250, 258)

Loyalty after the Succession

Submeng's loyalty to Yeowun does not erase his personal concern for former Lord Chun Yujong. When the weakened former Lord wakes, Submeng waits for permission, visits him, and personally explains what happened. The act is neither an attempt to reverse the succession nor a repudiation of Yeowun; it reflects his belief that a guardian still owes truth and care to the person he once protected. (Chapter 400)

He remains active in the cult's senior circle through the later campaigns, carrying reports and approaching Yeowun with important good news. His role evolves from emergency tutor to experienced guardian: he no longer needs to manufacture a seven-day foundation, but he continues supplying information, judgment, and the institutional memory of the previous reign. (Chapter 438)

Appearance and personality

Submeng is a middle-aged man who wears shabby clothes and later an eye patch. He drinks, sways, and plays the fool so convincingly that his appearance clashes with his rank. The disorder is partly camouflage. Around martial talent, danger, or loyalty, he becomes perceptive and exacting. He is willing to inflict painful training when time demands it, yet he does so to give Yeowun a real chance rather than to display authority.

Martial arts and abilities

Guardian-level cultivation

Submeng ranks among the Demonic Cult's ten strongest fighters. His large internal-energy reserve lets him demonstrate advanced forms, move covertly, and guide qi through another person's meridians. The transfer is instructional rather than a permanent donation of mastery; Yeowun still has to cultivate and control his own energy. (Chapters 8, 15)

Butterfly Blade Dance

The art contains twenty-four major forms with three minor variations apiece. It is quick and swift, appears to approach from multiple directions like a butterfly, and specifically requires a lightweight blade. Submeng's written notes connect internal-energy use to the forms, but the corpus does not detail the route for every movement. Nano's recorded motion helps Yeowun practice; it does not supply Submeng's cultivated qi. (Chapters 18, 29, 43)

Submeng can only teach the minor sub-forms during the time available, then leaves Yeowun the written foundation and expects independent practice. This separates the art's complete twenty-four-form structure from what the student initially receives. Yeowun's later use does not mean Submeng transferred the entire system in one lesson. (Chapter 18)

Meridian-guided instruction

Submeng sends qi through a student's pathways so the body can feel the intended circulation route. This compresses the first stage of learning but is painful and potentially overwhelming for an unprepared novice. Breathing practice and repetition must convert that temporary guidance into self-sustaining cultivation. (Chapter 15)

Stealth and running skill

He can enter and leave the academy without alerting ordinary staff, making him effective at covert instruction and guardian work. The technique is not absolute concealment: elite observers such as Hameng and Marakim can detect or follow him. (Chapter 19)

Deception and battlefield judgment

His drunken manner lowers expectations, while his willingness to delay intervention forces allies or cadets to reveal what they can do unaided. This makes him difficult to read, but it also risks appearing careless when people do not know the larger plan. (Chapters 8, 96)

Relationships

• Chun Yeowun: Submeng gives him his first accelerated internal-energy training and teaches him the Butterfly Blade Dance before becoming a senior ally under his lordship.
• Lee Hameng: A fellow guardian whose stern temperament clashes with his disorderly presentation. Hameng supervises the secret tutoring, and both are later imprisoned by the old regime.
• Marakim: The Great Guardian and another member of the Lord's protective triad.
• Chun Yujong: The Lord whose fairness order begins Submeng's involvement with Yeowun. Submeng later briefs and cares for him without abandoning the new regime.

Items

• Light-Dance Blade: A treasured blade roughly half the ordinary weight. Its low inertia permits the abrupt changes of angle required by the Butterfly Blade Dance, though the weapon alone does not provide the art's footwork or qi circulation. (Chapter 18)