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Chapter 45
A guest room was lent by the White Scroll Antique Bookstore.
Yang-hwi was in the middle of circulating his internal energy and regulating his breath.
“Immortal energy… what a mysterious force.”
The Celestial Core that had suddenly emerged after his regression.
The Celestial Core contained within a spiritual pellet that had popped out from a mysterious iron orb.
Even putting aside the fact that both had exactly the same temperament—
Celestial Core was truly a wondrous energy.
Even for Yang-hwi, who in his past life had seen countless martial arts and come into contact with various energies in his pursuit of martial mastery, this was a feeling he had never experienced before.
He called it Celestial Core, but it wasn’t the same as the virtuous energy typically possessed by martial artists of Daoist sects.
It was purer, deeper, more essential, and more primal.
“This really feels like…”
If an immortal realm truly existed in this world, this energy would surely fill every corner of it.
“Come on, that can’t be real.”
Legends spoke of places where immortals lived together, like the Land of the Immortals or the Peach Blossom Spring.
But myths were just myths—fundamentally different from reality.
There were tales that said enlightenment could elevate one to divine status, and one could ascend to the heavens when they reached the Divine Awakening Realm. But even that was just legend.
And yet, the Celestial Core within Yang-hwi was so mysterious, so potent, it made him question whether those legends and myths might actually be true.
“If it were merely energy, it wouldn’t naturally settle into my body like this and make my flesh tougher and stronger.”
Yes, martial techniques like the Shaolin Temple’s Muscle Transformation Sutra had profound effects like that.
But those effects came only through proper breathing and diligent training—not from the energy itself strengthening the body on its own.
That was something he had never even heard of.
“My internal energy feels equivalent to about twenty years of cultivation. That would place my skill around the entry point of the Second Class. I’ve already reached the level Father had, right after my regression.”
A martial artist who trained from childhood typically reached the Second Class around the age of twenty.
Considering that Yang-hwi was still only eight years old, his progress was simply absurd.
“Ssshh… hoo…”
He slowly exhaled and opened his eyes.
After tidying up his clothes, Yang-hwi stepped outside.
“Ah, Junior brother. You’re awake?”
“Yes, Gu-Hyung.”
Gu-Ak was loosening up his body in the courtyard just ahead.
Beside him, Chudal was bouncing around like the child he was, training in the technique Yang-hwi had taught him on the way here.
In that moment, Yang-hwi was struck by a strange thought.
“Unbelievable. I actually find Chudal’s bratty little self… cute?”
Even this rude, foul-mouthed little brat Chudal could seem cute in his childhood.
-Hehehe, big bro. I’m hungry, got any cash?
-Buy me some booze too, while you’re at it!
It was a mind-breaking realization.
Stepping into the courtyard, Yang-hwi flicked Chudal hard on the forehead for no reason.
Thwack!
“Gyaaah! What was that for?!”
“You brat, being all cheeky with your elder.”
Thwack!
“Ow! Ow! I said stop hitting me!”
Thwack!
“GAAAAAAAAAH! That one was harder!”
Watching Chudal roll on the ground clutching his forehead, Yang-hwi couldn’t help but smile in satisfaction.
Yes, this was the Chudal he knew.
Gu-Ak clicked his tongue at the scene and tossed out a question.
“Junior brother, so what’s your plan? You said you’d help the White Scroll Antique Bookstore out of its troubles, but you’ve barely left the room in days.”
“Well, I did gulp down a delicious little something. Gotta give my body some rest, right?”
At that, Gu-Ak smacked his lips.
The elixir Yang-hwi had casually swallowed in one bite at the Yu Clan Manor was clearly an ancient, heaven-grade medicine.
No matter how much of a prodigy he was, the fact that an eight-year-old could go berserk and massacre assassins after taking it said it all.
“Must be nice. We went through hell together, but you’re the only one who got a treat.”
Grumbling, Gu-Ak sulked.
Yang-hwi grinned.
“You want one of those elixirs too?”
“Elixir? As if you could just hand those out. No way you have any left—wait, judging by your face…”
Yang-hwi wore a smile so transparent it was basically see-through.
His shoulders lifted ever so slightly with pride. His nose practically pointed to the sky.
Gu-Ak felt it in his gut.
This brat definitely knew of some secret stash of elixirs.
“No way. Are you serious?!”
“Yup. Dead serious.”
“How?!”
“Just well.”
In his past life, Yang-hwi had never so much as seen a real elixir.
But that didn’t mean he was ignorant about them.
He’d often heard the earth-shaking rumors. He’d often burned with envy and jealousy toward those lucky few who stumbled upon such miracles.
‘The Namgeum Trade Guild… Didn’t they go bankrupt fifteen years from now because of elixirs?’
Thinking back on it now, it was absurd.
Of all places, why did those elixirs have to sprout behind the manor where their headquarters was located? Total chaos ensued.
At the time, the Namgeum Trade Guild was swarmed by martial artists and ended up in complete disarray, suffering all manner of abuse and extortion until they were left in shambles.
All because of some elixirs they hadn’t even known existed—the whole guild collapsed. Talk about terrible luck.
Well, now that he knew those bastards were the ones who stirred up the chaos, it kind of served them right.
“Junior brother. So, do you really know where the elixirs are?”
Gu-Ak’s impatient voice snapped Yang-hwi out of his thoughts.
“Yes. I do.”
“How? Don’t tell me you overheard something while begging on the streets. That’d be ridiculous.”
“Of course not. I sensed it through my qi perception.”
“…You’d sound more believable if you just said you heard a rumor. What kind of nonsense is that?”
Yang-hwi simply stared at him in silence, his unusually clear and sparkling eyes locked on Gu-Ak.
“You’re telling me… you’re serious?”
“Gu-Hyung, do you believe that an eight-year-old kid could slaughter over a dozen assassins?”
“…”
What a kid. Really leaves you speechless, Gu-Ak thought, then shouted—
“Then we can’t be sitting around like this! What if someone else gets there first?! We’re leaving right now! Start packing!”
His voice was noticeably high-pitched with urgency.
But Yang-hwi shook his head calmly.
“Gu-Hyung, a true prodigy must always act with the wisdom of killing two birds with one stone.”
“Since when was that an actual rule?”
“It’s a wise saying we should all aspire to. Naturally, it becomes a principle.”
Well… it was indeed a proverb.
A four-character idiom, to be exact.
“As long as we’re going after the elixirs, let’s take down the Namgeum Trade Guild scumbags while we’re at it, Gu-Hyung.”
Seeing Yang-hwi grin wickedly, clearly scheming something, Gu-Ak asked with some hesitation.
“Hey, you’re the heir of the honorable Baek Clan. Are you really okay using words like ‘take them down’?”
“Well, I can’t exactly pat them on the back, can I?”
Fair point. Gu-Ak nodded in reluctant agreement.
Then Chudal jumped into the conversation.
“Hyung-nim! Don’t I get something to do too?”
“You? Of course not. What could a little kid even do?”
“I’m only a year younger than you, you know?”
“You brat, your tone’s getting cockier by the day.”
Chudal quickly covered his forehead.
‘If you weren’t my savior, I’d sock you one. Hasn’t he heard that nice words bring nice responses? What kind of hyung-nim is this?’
‘Always smacking me with those flicks…’
‘And now he’s nagging me about my tone?’
Even at his young age, Chudal felt the heat of pure frustration rise inside him.
Gu-Ak looked at Chudal and felt an odd sense of camaraderie.
“In any case, Hyung-nim and Lord Gu, the grace you’ve shown me—I’d like to repay it. Please, let me help.”
“Hmph. Well, the thought is commendable.”
Yang-hwi stroked his chin for a moment… then suddenly climbed onto Chudal’s back.
“Hop!”
“…What are you doing, Hyung-nim?”
“You said you wanted to repay your debt, didn’t you? Until we wipe out the Namgeum Trade Guild, you’re my mount.”
“…Not even some special mission or anything?”
“What kind of mission could a greenhorn like you possibly handle?”
“Greenhorn?! I’ve at least been trained in an assassin clan!”
What’s with the volume, huh? Want another forehead flick?
But instead of using his hand, Yang-hwi manipulated his internal energy.
Chudal staggered as the weight of Yang-hwi on his back suddenly doubled.
“What the—?!”
“This is a technique called Heavenly Weight Drop, my clueless Junior brother. Your job is to carry me around and train your body while you’re at it. You know—stable comfort, right?”
Though his lips pouted in protest, Chudal didn’t dare speak out loud, afraid the weight would increase again.
“So, what’s the plan then, Junior brother?”
“It’s simple.”
Yang-hwi grinned mischievously and laid out his plan.
In just one sentence.
“Gu-Hyung, time to dust off the old Dark Path Sects look!”
“…?”
What kind of sinister, ridiculous thing was this cunning little kid plotting now?
Gu-Ak let out a long sigh.
* * *
Drip.
A bead of sweat dropped onto the dirt, leaving behind a round mark.
The sweat belonged to Chudal, who had now been carrying Yang-hwi on his back for three full hours.
“Huff… huff… Hyung-nim…”
“Yes?”
Even after calling out, Chudal couldn’t immediately continue speaking, too breathless to form words.
‘This brat… He’s struggling this much, but he still hasn’t asked to put me down. He’s been stubborn since he was a sprout, huh.’
Even in his previous life, Chudal had been known for his grit and tenacity.
He’d channeled those traits into pursuit techniques so thoroughly that he’d earned the nickname Baek Li-Chudal — Chudal of the Hundred Li.
“Hyung-nim… huff… so how exactly are we getting this ‘two birds with one stone’ thing?”
“You’ll see. Oh, take a right here.”
Chudal, still carrying Yang-hwi, was climbing a rugged hill behind the headquarters of the Namgeum Trade Guild.
For being near such a large city like Namchang, the mountain was surprisingly steep. Because of that, Chudal kept dripping sweat every step of the way.
“Next fork—go left.”
“Pant… where are we even going, really?”
“Where else? To dig up a stalk of elixir.”
At that moment, Chudal’s body hesitated mid-step.
He says we’re looking for an elixir, but all he’s doing is giving half-hearted directions—“go here,” “go there”? Really?
Shouldn’t searching for elixirs require a deep survey of the surroundings and combing the area thoroughly?
While Chudal struggled to make sense of the gap between common sense and current reality—
“Oh. We’re getting close.”
Yang-hwi closed his eyes and sniffed the air.
The sniffing was mostly for show—what he really did was fully open his qi senses to trace the lingering echoes of energy flowing toward him.
‘A slight yin presence… wrapped in thick yang energy. Looks like three types.’
With the yang energy being stronger, it probably wasn’t wild ginseng with yin properties. Most likely, it was an aged ginseng that had evolved into a spiritual herb.
“We’re almost there. Hang in a bit longer, Chudal.”
“Y-yes… sir…”
After more than three long hours of hiking through the forest, Yang-hwi finally spotted something and lightly hopped off Chudal’s back.
‘The natural energies around are converging toward that ravine.’
When energies gathered like that, the area was called a dragon’s vein, or more specifically, the dragon’s blood point—the core of the flow.
After walking just a bit further, a red fruit came into view. Yang-hwi pulled a small spade from his robe and began carefully digging around the stem of the plant bearing the fruit.
“Thick ginseng —not bad.”
It was ginseng with roots thick like radishes, each stem bearing three red fruits. A total of five roots.
According to knowledge from his past life, a single root of this could bestow thirty years’ worth of internal energy.
Combined with other ingredients and refined into a proper elixir, its effect would only be amplified.
‘I was planning to leave it buried for another ten years before harvesting it… but well, feeding this early to my people isn’t a bad thing.’
“Whoa… whoaah… It really was an elixir… huff…”
“Of course it’s real. Your hyung-nim doesn’t lie.”
Leaving the smallest of the five behind, Yang-hwi carefully wrapped the other four in a cloth and tucked them into his bundle.
“Chudal, you asked me earlier how I’d get two birds with one stone, right?”
“Yes… huff… huff…”
“The answer’s simple. Just like how you bait fish, you lay down chum first—and lure the hungry ones in.”
From the bundle, Yang-hwi pulled out the ragged beggar outfit he’d worn back at Drak Path Sect and grinned slyly.
“There are three or four clinics around here. Now, imagine this—a clueless beggar boy shows up saying he found some herbs on the hill out back and wants to sell them. What do you think happens when word spreads?”
Especially if the herb, to a clinic’s eye, turns out to be a spiritual elixir.
And if it’s thick ginseng, a ginseng known to grow in clusters?
“Hehehe… There’s nothing more entertaining than watching a fire, Chudal. Let’s set one.”
The mischievous, almost dangerous smile on Yang-hwi’s face made Chudal shudder.
* * *
Three days later.
“Hey, did you hear that rumor?”
“Rumors? In a place like the marketplace? You’ll have to be more specific.”
“They say… someone discovered an elixir!”
The rumor that an elixir had been found spread like wildfire across the vast streets of Namchang.
And nearby martial artists began to swarm—like flames erupting across dry fields.
---The End Of The Chapter---
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