The Hour of the Dog and the Wolf [3]

The messages piled up one after another.

Gulp.

Who could have guessed the day would come when that utterly mundane little phrase would make my heart pound like this? Anyone who's ever run a blog has seen it a hundred times.

"Huh?"

But my excitement didn't last. When I opened the neighbors-only category, there were only two posts visible.

No—more precisely...

"No viewing permission?"

"Easy for you to... say, since I'm in a hurry..."

But what could I do? The man handing out the rice cakes had told me to eat slowly, so all I could do was pretend to comply for now.

Which meant what I needed to do right this second was...

"Hwaryong Jinin... then surely—"

The mysterious immortal whom the legendary Sword Immortal Lü Dongbin was said to have met at Mount Lu.

When people thought of Lü Dongbin's master, they inevitably pictured Zhongli Quan, one of the same Eight Immortals. But in a sense, it was Hwaryong Jinin who deserved to be called his true master.

Because the one who had personally taught him the very technique that defined Lü Dongbin—the first thing that came to mind at his name—was none other than Hwaryong Jinin.

"...No, seriously, what's with the ominous warning?"

I'd learned plenty of sorcery by now, but this was the first time I'd been handed a warning this chilling.

"I'd love to follow that advice... but circumstances won't let me, huh..."

With a wry smile, I looked over the training method for the True Immortal Fire-Regulation Method.

The method itself wasn't all that complicated. Where the Seven Animals Frolics, the foundation of all my Do-ryeok so far, had been a dynamic practice centered on movement and breathing, the True Immortal Fire-Regulation Method was a seated meditation—an art of circulating Do-ryeok through the body while locked in the lotus position.

That said, beyond the simple technical instruction, it also included a deep—and mightily tedious—course of mental training.

"Samadhi, huh..."

Samadhi—a term from Buddhist cultivation. It meant going beyond mere concentration, casting off afflictions and stray thoughts to unify the mind into one, until in that stillness my very existence and consciousness became completely one.

"In other words, a mind like still water, a mirror without a single ripple."

It was said that upon reaching samadhi, the heart grows calm and gathered, granting insight sharp enough to see things exactly as they are. Since the True Immortal Fire-Regulation Method was an internal alchemy art built upon samadhi as its root, I could only achieve mastery once I'd awakened its mysteries.

Samadhi was divided into four stages in total, and these stages were called the dhyanas—the meditative absorptions. Reach the fourth dhyana, and it would be fair to say I had fully awakened the method.

"This already feels way too hard..."

But what could I do? To live, you do what must be done. The real problem was that a single mistake could melt my internal organs...

I'll need some kind of 'insurance' in case things go wrong.

And the most fitting 'insurance' for that would be...

"Um... I said I wouldn't live with you because you looked so excited about it, and I wanted to tease you a little."

"Yes, of course."

"Then wilt thou formalize the contract?"

I gave Fey a wry smile at her question. It wasn't that I disliked her, honestly.

Now that the festivals could be replaced with broadcasts, the contract terms were actually quite generous, and her personality and compatibility with me weren't bad either.

The problem was that I had no idea what effect Fey's power entering my body would have on my internal alchemy training.

...Which means, as long as I don't take her power inside me, the contract itself doesn't matter. Making a provisional contract every single time is a pain, so I'll need to find a workaround for that too.

"...Not right now. Nobody gets plastic surgery while they're still growing, do they?"

"What I mean is, I'm at the peak of my growth phase right now, so contracting with a high-ranking fairy like you would affect that growth."

"It definitely could be. But think of it this way—when you grow a plant with a stake, it'll certainly grow straight, but it can never grow beyond the stake. That's what I'm talking about."

"So a full contract is out for now, but in exchange, let's do provisional contracts frequently."

Fey pulled a sour expression, but before long she gave a nod. Seeing that, I felt a little easier in my heart.

"In return, I'll bump up the festival—er, broadcast—count to two per contract, and I'll offer tribute if you want it."

"Tribute?"

"Is there something you'd like?"

Of course, if she demanded gold, jewels, or human lives here, I'd be in a bind. Well, given that I'd been teasing her, I supposed I'd have to swallow gold and jewels if it came to that...

"That much I can do, anytime."

Thankfully, fitting for a fairy, Fey's demands were downright adorable. This much I could provide by the cartload.

Right, then. What I needed to focus on next was the method of accumulating merit points.

What were merit points in the first place?

Merit-demerit accounting was a concept of Daoist practice. Originally, Daoism had prized internal alchemy above all as the road to immortality, but after long exchange with Buddhism, the Buddhist concept of karmic merit was folded in, adding the ethical doctrine that one had to pile up good deeds, not merely train in internal alchemy, to become an immortal. That marriage of ideas was the birth of merit points.

And it wasn't just a vague "do good things" notion—every good deed was scored, and the total score determined the kind of immortal you could become. Three hundred points made you an Earth Immortal, eight hundred a Human Immortal, twelve hundred a Heavenly Immortal—something like that. Of course, those figures weren't absolute; they were simply how certain Daoist scriptures put it.

Frankly, until now I had never once given the concept a second thought. Understandable, really—unlike internal alchemy or other sorcery you could grasp intuitively, it wasn't something you could feel in your body, and even now that I needed to accumulate it, it registered to me as nothing more than the level cap Dongbin's Dao Study Room had imposed.

Naturally, I'd never done a good deed for the points. And yet I had somehow filled my merit gauge past a certain threshold. Which meant...

Something I've been doing all along has been counting toward it.

And judging by the timing of the notification, at least one of those things was obvious.

So exorcising evil counts as merit points, huh.

Is there any other way to fill the gauge besides exorcism?

Ring—

Just then, a message arrived from Nikola's Hyper-Radio Communication.

"Seriously, what is..."

Was this business savvy, or had the man's money-lust finally eaten his brain?

"Well, might as well."

It stung the wallet a bit, but if I was going to be farming merit points from here on out, this was a necessary expense.

With trembling fingers I purchased the plan and checked my recent merit history.

"Wow, I've done more good deeds than I thought?"

As I scrolled through the seemingly endless ledger, one unexpected entry caught my eye.

"Huh? Broadcasts count too?"

Well, making people happy was a perfectly respectable good deed. Even if the exact figure wasn't displayed, the merit earned from broadcasting was probably smaller than those headline-worthy deeds above.

But having a stable, repeatable source of income—merit income, that is—beyond exorcising anomalies was a considerable harvest. I now had a rough idea of what I needed to do going forward.

Stack merit points by running broadcasts and anomaly exorcisms in parallel.

At a glance it looked no different from what I'd been doing all along, but the attitude was completely different. Until now, I'd run into anomalies through bad luck or pure chance. From now ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on, I would go hunting for them.

And the moment that thought landed, the strange benefit of the Anomaly Codex finally made sense to me.

[Encounter Probability Manipulation]

Raise the odds of meeting anomalies, and thereby multiply my chances to earn merit. ...It's all connected, isn't it?

Dongbin's Dao Study Room, Salomon's Anomaly Encyclopedia, Nikola's Hyper-Radio Communication—they had seemed to function independently, but in truth they were all synchronized toward a single purpose.

So what did they want?

For me to stack merit points? To exorcise anomalies? To grow as a sorcerer?

I didn't know.

But one thing was certain: I was already riding the tiger. I had climbed onto the tiger's back, and dismounting now was impossible. Tame the tiger, or be eaten by it—those were the only two options left to me.

Really, though—how on earth had my life become this amazing?

Then a thought suddenly occurred to me. Riding the tiger was, in the end, my problem alone. And the people around me, whether they liked it or not, were going to be dragged into that problem.

Was it right to drag other people into my mess?

After long deliberation, I decided to tell the crew that Cosmos had me in its sights.

"Ah, I'm back."

"There's a vending machine right out front—why are you so late?"

"Oh? Master, did you bring us drinks too!?"

"Whoa, thanks, Teacher!"

"...There's something I need to talk about. Is that all right?"

I looked around at the crew, who were all gazing at me with puzzled eyes. These might be faces I'd never see again. Slowly, I carved each one of them into my memory.

Once I was sure I had their faces fixed, I explained the situation I was in.

"...Things haven't exactly been safe up to now, but if you stay with me from here on, it's going to become dangerous in a way that doesn't even compare to before. So..."

Anyone who wanted to avoid the danger was free to cut ties with me, right now.

At those words, a heavy silence settled over the hideout.

"Tsk. Master, I'm hurt. Aren't we one crew?"

The first to break the silence was Lee Ha-ram.

"Crew?"

"Yes! Don't tell me you don't think of us as one crew, Master?"

"N-no, that's not what I meant! People call streamer groups crews all the time! If anything, think of it as a crew in the sense of a team of psychics!"

As Choi Eun-ha rubbed the goosebumps off her arms and squawked in protest, Lee Ha-ram hurriedly backpedaled. Granted, backpedaling like that was somehow even more pathetic... but crew—it wasn't a bad ring to it at all.

"I'm following you too, Teacher. You're the one who gave ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me a new life, aren't you? If dying for you is what it takes, that's more than enough for me."

"Uh, Min-seo, I appreciate it, but that's way too heavy. Let's aim for surviving, if possible."

"Same here. That's the second time I've owed Master Kim my life already, isn't it? And more than anything, how could Kim Fan #1 possibly bail?"

"M-Momo! If we're ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠being technical, I'm the Teacher's number-one fan here!"

Lee Ha-ram picked a fight, but Momo ignored her outright.

"Well, I'm not as devoted as Momo or Min-seo... but I owe you my life too, and more than anything, I'm curious what happens to you, Yi-yeon."

"Curious?"

"Yep. The world's been going a little off the rails lately, hasn't it? This is just my personal opinion, but... for some reason, the protagonist of this crazy world feels like you, Yi-yeon."

"Me?"

"Yep. So I want to watch till the end—how you change this broken world."

"Ahem. I appreciate the expectations, but don't raise them too high."

"I'll manage my own expectations, so don't you worry."

And then there was Kim Han-soo, last of all...

"Could you give me a little time to think?"

He asked for time. Everyone else had agreed to stay like it was the most obvious thing in the world, but seen a certain way, that was the most normal reaction of the bunch. Standing beside someone targeted by the world's number-one corporation was, by definition, that dangerous.

So, the day after the mood had thawed into something faintly warm and deeply awkward, I threw myself into the new internal alchemy method in earnest.

The True Immortal Fire-Regulation Method. The first step toward the Advanced tier.

The fairy ring Fey painted with water overlapped the formation I had drawn, exhaling a biting wave of cold.

This was the insurance I'd prepared for the worst.

True to its name, the True Immortal Fire-Regulation Method was an internal alchemy art that refined already-Yang-heavy Do-ryeok into an even fiercer Yang force. The reason a mistake could melt my internal organs was surely this monstrous Yang energy.

So I had added Fey's power, the symbol of Water—of Yin—along with a formation that concentrated the surrounding Yin energy. If anything happened to me, Fey would use that condensed Yin to suppress the Yang raging inside me. With this much Yin on hand, even if the worst occurred, I could at least save my life.

"M-Master...!"

"Teacher..."

"I know you're in a hurry, but does it really have to be something this dangerous?"

"I believe in Master Kim."

Wreathed in the crew's encouragement-cum-guardian-watch, I sat down at the center of the fairy ring and formation and folded into the lotus position.

"Agh, damn it, sitting cross-legged is a pain in the ass..."

Having only ever done dynamic practice, switching to seated meditation was agony. But the discomfort was brief; I steadied my breath and began circulating Do-ryeok according to the True Immortal Fire-Regulation Method's formulas.

...This is hard.

It had seemed deceptively easy—all I had to do was circulate the Do-ryeok through a fixed route inside my body—but actually attempting it proved harder than even the Houyeshi, which had required running the Water Person and the spell at the same time.

Worse, with every cycle the Yang energy in my Do-ryeok grew stronger, making it harder and harder to control. A burning heat washed over me, and for the first time, I felt a strange, foreign sense of wrongness within my own power. My teeth were gritted against the pain and the nausea—

Focus.

But precisely because it was difficult, my whole mind converged into a single point, and every complaint naturally drained out of my head. With a mind scoured clean like that, I fixed my concentration to reach samadhi, repeating the circulation of Do-ryeok again and again.

It was probably the first time since I'd been trapped in the Corner Man's alley that I'd thrown myself into training with this much desperation.

Huh. This is actually kind of fun?

Endlessly repeating it, at some point I began to enjoy it. In the stillness born of total focus, a simple, bracing pleasure filled my heart. It was a satisfaction like eternity itself could keep repeating this one moment, and I wouldn't mind at all.

How much time passed?

The way tight shoes soften and stretch to fit your feet—what had been nothing but difficult and uncomfortable slowly began to feel familiar. Mastery still seemed far away, but...

For a first attempt, this is solid. Pushing too hard isn't good either.

There had been a few dicey moments, but the worst-case scenario I'd feared never came, so all in all, everything had gone smoothly. This wasn't a one-or-two-day affair anyway, so I decided to open my eyes and call it there.

And so I opened my eyes, and—

"Ugh...!"

"Huh!? M-Master!?"

Why did my eyes sting so damn much? No, more importantly—why were Ha-ram and Fey freaking out like that? Where was everyone else?

"What's all the fuss ab—"

Stagger—!

The strength vanished from my legs, and I nearly pitched face-first onto the floor.

A cushion Fey had shaped from water caught my body.

Grrrrrrroooowl—

At the same moment, a thunderclap of a stomach growl roared from my belly.

"Teacher, are you okay!? Don't push yourself to get up! You were in the lotus position for a whole week, so your body can't possibly be—!"

"Hold on, a week? I trained in internal alchemy for a week? No—why didn't anyone wake me up halfway through?"

"Well, you know how in martial arts novels, if you disturb someone mid-cultivation they suffer qi deviation? So we couldn't do anything and just took turns waiting for you to wake up, Master. Ah—no, this isn't the time! I need to contact the others right now—!"

Half-dazed, I listened to Ha-ram babble while staring down at my own hands. A week without food or water had left them shockingly gaunt, to the point I hardly recognized them as mine.

But in perfect contrast, inside me I could feel an enormous power, as if about to detonate.

Fwooooooosh—!

My Do-ryeok had always carried strong Yang energy, but that sensation had been closer to warm water. Now it was as if it had stopped being water at all and become flame itself—the very quality of the power had changed. The heat struck me as excessive at a glance, yet it did me no harm whatsoever.

And in that instant, I understood.

The state of being freed from all afflictions, feeling joy in concentration itself. The state ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'd been in, training in the True Immortal Fire-Regulation Method for a week without rest, was exactly that.

And this was the realm of the First Dhyana—the first stage of the meditative absorptions.

On my very first session, I had already achieved the first of the four stages of samadhi.

"...Wow."

I'd always known I had a talent for sorcery. But apparently that talent was a step—or no, several steps—above anything I'd imagined.

"Advanced... was closer than I thought, huh?"