Rebirth at Mount Hua (1)
The sun had barely risen when I found myself watching over Hwang Jeong-yong and Baek Dan-yeong as they sat in deep meditation.
They would probably remain like this for a full day. They might wake a little earlier than that, but there was no chance they would simply stand up right away.
That was why, around daybreak, a small worry began to creep in.
What about the children sleeping in the next room? What was I supposed to do with them?
I couldn’t just leave. Abandoning two people in the middle of qi circulation was no different from leaving a child unattended by the water’s edge.
If someone so much as bumped them in this state, it would be catastrophic. There was no way I could allow that.
Yet there was no clever solution either. I couldn’t exactly entrust them to someone else.
Well then. It looked like I had suddenly become a babysitter. At least the kids were a bit older. That was something to be grateful for.
By the time the sun properly rose, the children began waking up one by one, shuffling out of their rooms.
Normally, Hwang Jeong-yong would have been up before dawn, rousing them himself.
Since that wasn’t happening today, they wore puzzled expressions. It was written all over their faces: “Sleeping in is the best!”
At the same time, their confusion was mixed with unease.
The oldest-looking boy cautiously peeked in my direction.
He was the one with a dantian the size of a rat dropping, but his skeletal structure wasn’t bad at all.
Hwang Jeong-yong must have taken him in after noticing that potential. Even without inner energy, one could still teach martial arts.
“Huh?!”
The boy jumped in surprise when he saw me. But he didn’t look scared or frightened.
He simply stared at me with open curiosity. After tilting his head a few times, his face suddenly brightened and he asked,
“That uniform! That’s the Mount Hua sect uniform, right?”
“It is.”
“Whoa! It really is! I knew it! Master told me about it! Are you a Plum Blossom Sword Master too, sir?!”
I had no idea what kind of stories Hwang Jeong-yong had been telling them, but this kid had clearly gotten the wrong idea.
Thank goodness I was wearing the Mount Hua uniform. If I hadn’t been, this would have become incredibly complicated.
How was I supposed to explain everything to a child?
“Ahem. What’s your name, kid?”
“Go Myeong-jun, sir! Great Hero! Wait… what should I call you? Senior uncle?”
Now that was a good question. I wasn’t sure myself. How exactly was I supposed to explain things to this friendly little rascal?
“Just call me Great Hero for now. By the way, aren’t you hungry?”
“Oh! That’s exactly why I came out! We have to eat breakfast before training!”
As expected, nothing worked better than food to change the subject.
I didn’t know the exact circumstances that had brought them here, but these children probably hadn’t been connected to Mount Hua originally.
They were likely kids from difficult backgrounds. That would explain why they were so sensitive about meals.
“How old are you?”
“I turned sixteen this year!”
That made sense. He looked exactly that age.
Children who had nothing to do with Mount Hua when it was destroyed.
Hwang Jeong-yong must have gathered talented children from the surrounding area after fleeing here. While I was thinking that, the other kids began drifting over as well.
Hmm. I needed to feed them something. But how was I supposed to know what was available around here?
“Hey, kid.”
“Yes, Great Hero!”
I pulled out a silver coin and tossed it to him. He caught it and his eyes widened in shock.
“I don’t know if you can find anything this early in the morning, but buy plenty of food with that. Can you handle it?”
“Of course! Just wait a little! I’ll be right back! Chan-jeong! Su-tae! You two come with me!”
The little rascal dashed out of the small building with the other two boys in tow.
The remaining children, having seen the silver coin, waited for their senior brother with faces full of anticipation.
Hmm. It really wasn’t that difficult. Money truly was the best. It made everything so much easier.
The boys returned in less than half a shichen, carrying an impressive haul of food.
They had brought a large quantity of dumplings, rice cakes, pickled vegetables, porridge, and more.
Because I had given them quite a bit of silver, they went out again after dropping off the first load and returned with yet another armful.
“Thank you for going through the trouble. Go ahead and eat.”
“Um… but what about Master?”
The other children immediately began devouring the food, but Go Myeong-jun was the one who asked about his master.
“Your master is currently recovering his inner energy. So for now, keep your voices down and stay quiet. Understood?”
The children answered with a bright “Yes!” and went back to eating.
Go Myeong-jun seemed to accept my explanation and moved on as well.
Of course they wouldn’t understand just how serious and incredible this moment was.
Right now, the only thing they needed to focus on was filling their stomachs.
Judging from the state of this place, these children had clearly been living rather meager lives until now.
That was probably why they clutched the food in both hands and wolfed it down, as if afraid someone might snatch it away.
Yesterday must have been the hardest time of their lives. Starting today, things would be very different.
These children were about to become official disciples of Mount Hua.
Once Hwang Jeong-yong became the sect leader, they would be first-generation disciples under him.
Although the food situation was handled, I still had no idea how to keep them occupied for an entire day.
What should I do? Teach them martial arts?
Since Hwang Jeong-yong had already been teaching them, I couldn’t just interfere recklessly.
Today would have to be a special class. More like play than actual training.
I demonstrated a few basic forms and had them copy me.
Because they had already been learning martial arts, their movements were surprisingly clean. They followed along quite well.
Perhaps because I had bought them plenty of food, the seven children followed me quite obediently.
These kids trusted people way too easily. Wasn’t that a problem in itself?
Still, watching them gave me some insight into Hwang Jeong-yong’s character—his values, the things he emphasized, his discipline, and his manners.
Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any major issues.
I had worried that I might have restored his dantian too hastily after seeing only a fragment of his life, but it seemed that concern was unnecessary.
After all, the fact that he had raised Baek Dan-yeong so well all by himself proved he had a strong sense of responsibility.
Although there was still food left, before the sun set I gave them more silver and told them to buy meat this time.
Three of the boys shot off like they were flying, much faster than they had in the morning.
Was meat really that exciting? Well, I suppose it was only natural that they couldn’t resist it.
Some time later, the three returned carrying a bundle of meat large enough to feed an army.
It looked like pork. They had practically brought an entire pig that seemed to have been boiled whole.
I really had no sense of money in this era. Or maybe things were just cheap around here?
Either way, the children ate without hesitation.
And somewhere along the way, I had become an amazing person in their eyes.
In other words, after their master Hwang Jeong-yong and their beautiful senior sister Baek Dan-yeong, I had become the third most respected person to them.
Good grief. This was exactly why money was wonderful. Though the price of their respect felt a little too cheap.
When the sun finally set, the children went back to sleep.
The day had felt incredibly long. I had somehow gotten through it, but today in particular seemed to stretch on forever.
When I watched Seolha, Yeon-ha, So-hye, and Yang Cheon-hak train, it had never felt this exhausting.
It was clear that a child’s day was definitely not twenty-four hours long.
Had I been like this too? It was so long ago that I could barely remember.
Anyway, once the world grew quiet again, I finally had some breathing room.
Hwang Jeong-yong and Baek Dan-yeong were still deep in meditation.
Baek Dan-yeong looked like she would finish at any moment, and Hwang Jeong-yong seemed to be nearing completion as well.
They would probably open their eyes within half a shichen.
I sat quietly and observed Hwang Jeong-yong.
When I had first seen him at dawn, he had been nothing more than a frail old man in his later years.
But not anymore. As his inner energy began circulating throughout his body, the wrinkles on his face seemed to fade, and vitality overflowed from his expression.
Transformation Realm.
Since he had once been a Plum Blossom Sword Master, his skill was undoubtedly real.
Even though he had lost his dantian and could no longer bloom plum blossoms at the tip of his sword, I doubted he had ever stopped thinking about the sword in his mind since Mount Hua’s destruction.
That was why I was quietly looking forward to this.
It was similar to supercooling.
Water freezes below zero degrees. But it doesn’t suddenly turn into ice the moment it hits zero.
Even when the temperature drops below the freezing point, without a nucleus for ice crystals to form around, it remains liquid.
That supercooled state can undergo rapid phase transition with the slightest shock, freezing instantly.
When all the conditions are perfectly met, even a small jolt can align the molecules and transform liquid into solid.
Hwang Jeong-yong was the same. All the conditions were already in place.
So it was perfectly natural for my heart to be pounding. My intuition regarding martial arts was rarely wrong.
As I continued watching, Baek Dan-yeong finally opened her eyes.
She had fully absorbed the Ja-ha-sin-dan that had entered her body and completed her qi circulation through her properly restored meridians.
Baek Dan-yeong examined her own physical condition, then looked at me with an astonished expression.
“Surprised?”
She nodded vigorously.
“To think you managed to live all this time in that condition.”
Since it wasn’t a yes-or-no question, Baek Dan-yeong simply stared at me intently.
Or… wait. No, that wasn’t it.
This was that look. The one that said she wanted to spar with me, sword in hand.
“You want to go outside and swing your sword?”
She nodded vigorously again.
“Not yet. Wait just a little longer. Hwang Jeong-yong will wake up soon. Then we’ll get to see something good.”
This time she tilted her head and turned her gaze toward Hwang Jeong-yong.
Good heavens. How could such a beautiful and adorable creature exist?
Just the fact that Hwang Jeong-yong had raised a child like this was more than enough reason for him to receive his due reward.
Especially since she wasn’t even his real daughter.
While I waited with Baek Dan-yeong, the scene I had been waiting for finally began.
A vast amount of inner energy bloomed from Hwang Jeong-yong’s dantian.
This was not the kind of power that should come from someone whose dantian had been destroyed and then restored.
This was the process of a single human existing between the connected heavens and earth, drawing energy from both.
Hwan-gol-tal-tae was exactly that.
The human positioned between heaven and earth. The process of reconstructing that human into the most perfect physical state so they could connect the two seamlessly.
Hwang Jeong-yong’s body began to change slowly.
It was as if time itself was rewinding.
His graying hair turned black again. The wrinkles smoothed out. His once gaunt and withered body filled out beautifully, becoming firm and well-proportioned all over.
Baek Dan-yeong watched with her mouth hanging open in awe.
That was understandable. Witnessing the process of Hwan-gol-tal-tae was no ordinary sight.
Interestingly, Hwang Jeong-yong did not become extremely young.
He looked to be in his early thirties.
But that was understandable. One’s own mental image was reflected in Hwan-gol-tal-tae.
It was only natural that the reconstruction of one’s perfect physical state would resemble the peak of their prime.
Having completed his Hwan-gol-tal-tae, Hwang Jeong-yong slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze was sharp and clear. His eyes shone with vigor.
The sight filled me with satisfaction. Today really was a day when a tremendous blessing had come to Mount Hua. I meant that with all my heart.