Chapter 1
The Elf Descends the Mountain (1)
The world is a continuous series of unfair misfortunes.
I met a wild boar while hiking, and of course, it had to be the size of a Matiz.
And of course, the boar was starving and blind to everything else, and with a cliff right behind me, I couldn't even dodge. After helplessly getting rammed to death by the boar, I woke up in a martial arts world.
"And I'm an elf, on top of that...?"
Twitch—
The long, pointy ears reflected in the stream water flapped just as I intended.
It felt strange. It was as if my ears had become another organ for expressing emotions. Whenever I tried to make a facial expression, my ears would move—a very bizarre sensation.
"This is driving me crazy."
I examined my face from various angles.
My eyes were as vibrant green as a forest, and my hair was pitch black; it was truly beautiful. My skin was so pale and smooth, rivaling any celebrity. No wonder they tried to kidnap me.
'But when you think of elves, isn't it usually fantasy? No matter how I look at these clothes, they belong in a martial arts world.'
Chinese martial arts style clothing. There was no other way to describe it. Feeling perplexed, I smacked my lips and looked down at my nether regions.
"Ah—"
It's gone. My Excalibur! My sword of promised victory...
"Uh, what do you mean it's gone..."
This was a disaster. The tragedy of a gender swap had occurred. Though, being a man with this face would be even more burdensome...
'But isn't this dangerous?'
Judging by the clothes, it's a martial arts world. I haven't read many martial arts novels, but I vaguely remember. Martial artists are all bad guys, and the people in power are so corrupt that the protagonist ends up killing them all.
It's a world where, just like in movies or dramas, I could be sold off to some old man in power to serve him in bed for the rest of my life or become a concubine.
"R-Right, if this world is a martial arts world."
Dozens of minutes had passed since I fell into this martial arts world. After racking my uncomprehending brain, I came up with an excellent, brilliant move.
"Let's just live in hiding. There's no need to go out."
Who knows what kind of things I might suffer if I went out and got kidnapped?
I slowly looked around. Pricking up my long ears, I listened to the sounds.
Swaaa—
First, I heard the sound of the high wind blowing from the north.
Rustle, rustle—
The sound of animals walking. The babbling sound of water. The chirping of birds...
All the sounds of nature warmly enveloped my long ears.
The greenery of the forest, full of sunlight, was cozy, and the wild grass supporting my hips was as warm as a bed. It felt like a cradle embracing all kinds of life.
Everything was as warm as a mother's embrace.
Perhaps because I had become an elf, just imagining living mixed in with people made me a little afraid. I probably wouldn't even notice the passage of time well. Anyway...
"It's livable enough!"
Dohwa of the Jang-i-jok. Begins her life of seclusion on Dangsan in Sichuan Province.
Time flew by like an arrow.
At some point, I began to hear the sounds of the earth, and the words of animals. Nature had started to treat me as a friend.
Like that. The landscape, which is said to change every ten years, changed several times over.
I lived counting the flow of time by the seasons. Around spring, when the camellia flowers fell and the plum blossoms bloomed, I hung out with small animals like rabbits and sparrows to enjoy the flowers.
When the forest was brimming with vitality and turned vibrant green, I enjoyed playing in the water with roe deer and the Tiger.
When the trees dressed up in their colorful clothes, I gathered fallen leaves, and on days when snowflakes dyed the surrounding land pure white, I tended to the earth to prepare it to receive new life.
My time flowed like that. Long and slowly. Sometimes faster than the wind.
My friends were the forest and the animals, and the earth and sky became my nest. Whenever I approached, the trees would shake their bodies to drop cherries or peaches, making sure I didn't go hungry.
A hundred years of living in harmony with nature like that.
As much as the long years, my knowledge of herbs and medicine, medicine and poisons piled up, so I also started a pastime of teaching the young animals who would just shove any grass they saw into their mouths.
"Roe deer, this is Cho-o. You shouldn't eat it. If you do, your heart might harden like a stone."
The students were mostly wild boars or roe deer. Even though I had lived for a hundred years, I still hadn't seen a wild boar the size of a Matiz. There was one in my past life, though...
Occasionally, if an herb sprouted that sucked up too much of the earth's energy, I would pull it out and make medicine out of it. It was something that happened once every solar term, so it was a pretty special event for me too.
It was also quite enjoyable. Whether it suited my aptitude or I just had a talent for it. Every single one I made was a success.
"It's done!"
This Dan-yak was made from a hundred-year-old snow ginseng from the Heavenly Mountain in Xinjiang, where eternal snow had piled up thickly for a hundred years. I named it Seolhwadan.
Its surface emitted a clear light like a snowflake, and it was as white and pure as eternal snow.
Hooo—
Every time the chill of the winter mountain swept across its exterior, round patterns spread like petals on its surface, deepening and blooming brightly like a bouquet.
Seolhwadan. The name 'Elixir of the Flower in the Snow' suited it well.
With my delicate, soil-stained hands, ta-da! I presented the clear pill.
"What do you think, guys? Isn't it pretty?"
-Woof! What is it? Can I eat it?-
-It's clear and transparent. If an immortal maiden's jade bead existed, would it look like this? You are amazing.-
The Snake and the Tiger, who had been with me for a long time, clung to me and poured out their praises. Even after living for hundreds of years, I still couldn't get used to such compliments at all, so I smiled awkwardly and hid the medicine in my embrace.
"Tiger, Snake. Even if I wanted to give it to you, I can't."
-Why? Why?-
-Dohwa must have a plan.-
The curious Tiger asked, its white fur shining sleekly. The blue Snake, with a bead at its tail end, scolded the Tiger with its tiny protruding hand. They were both quite cute.
"The masters of the land are changing. I hear the forest crying. Heroes are gathering from all over."
-Dohwa, Dohwa. Are you going to give that to humans?-
"Yes, I am."
It was an era overflowing with martial arts masters dubbed as freaks of nature.
The reality was that the cries of the Heavenly Mountain, from where the snow ginseng was plucked, were carried on the wind every day. Rumors that the heavens had sent down a devil were already famous in the marketplaces.
Because it had even reached me, living in hiding deep in the forest.
-Dohwa, if you're talking about the rumor the white marten mentioned, it's only natural for you to worry. The yellow dog came by a while ago, and he said the martial artists call that person the Heavenly Demon.-
"Thank you for letting me know."
The Snake trembled with a low purr. I stroked my two friends, and the sky I looked up at was red.
The earth's vitality grew weaker by the day. The vegetation at the borders of Dangsan withered, tainted by a sinister energy, and the red sky turned blackish.
The world was dying.
News arrived from below the mountain that the Martial Gods were gathering together. I wanted to lend even my feeble hands to help, but I couldn't bear to leave nature, which had already become my friend, so I couldn't descend the mountain.
All I could do was plant more grass and bolster the earth's energy.
One day, two Martial Gods came to Dangsan. Both were critically injured.
"Are you not the ones doing great work for the land?"
"This Daoist is named Sambong. I have come shamelessly to seek the help of the Jang-i-jok immortal who has settled in Dangsan."
"I am called Bodhidharma. I implore you to lend a hand in sending that devil back to heaven."
The Daoist with grayish hair had a pierced lung, and the senile monk suddenly vomited a mouthful of blood! They said they were the Sect Leader of Wudang and the Abbot of Shaolin, respectively.
I looked around.
I saw the forest that had been my nest and the friends I had let in. The trembling offspring of my friends, and my exhausted friends. I simply couldn't leave this place.
I shook my head side to side. Disappointment spread across the faces of the two Martial Gods.
"It will be difficult for me to leave Dangsan. Therefore, please take these. They are medicines I have crafted, and they will surely be of help."
-Seolhwadan! It's the medicine Dohwa treasured! Lucky them!-
-Don't be jealous over something like that.-
Receiving the Seolhwadan, the expressions of the two men became much more comfortable. I added one more thing.
"Also, if you send an orphaned child to the mountain, I will teach them how to handle medicine and send them back down. I am deeply sorry that this is all I can do in this chaotic time."
"Not at all. You have been a great help."
"We will make sure to send a child up as soon as possible." "Also, I am nothing like an immortal, so please treat me comfortably."
The two, who ate the Seolhwadan in small pieces, deeply bowed their heads as they watched new flesh sprouting, and descended the mountain. It was right after that a child came up.
"...I greet the Mountain God. I am Dang Young-young."
"They handle things incredibly fast."
"Because it is that kind of time, after all."
She looked about fifteen, but she was incredibly mature for her age. And she was so bright; if I taught her one thing, she would understand ten, and in just a year, she became able to handle all kinds of medicine.
"Thank you. I will use the pharmacology you taught me to save people. Someday, when the war ends... I will establish a clan under my own name and come find you."
"Return anytime. I will be right here."
Young-young declared her dream and descended Dangsan. A few more years passed again. News arrived that they had successfully subjugated the Heavenly Demon.
For the first time in ten years, the sky cleared up brightly.
This land also began to find peace. The friends from the west, who had come down to the east to escape the devil of the Heavenly Mountain, returned to their own lands, and I regained my daily life.
Young-young did not come.
I prayed every day, hoping she hadn't died.
One day, I planted a fallen seed, and a huge cotyledon sprouted. I named it Saessak-i and raised it with utmost care.
-Dohwa, I am going to the south.-
It was said that if an animal basked in mystical energy for years and lived kindly, it would become a spiritual beast.
The Snake, who had unknowingly become a spiritual beast and taken human form, bid me farewell. Saying that, like Young-young, she would establish her own clan and live as a human.
"Return anytime, Snake."
-I will honor you in the southern lands, Dohwa. So that you can visit anytime, I will build a Heavenly Palace, Namgung.-
Wearing human clothes and carrying a bundle on her back, the Snake said her goodbyes in human speech.
"Farewell, Dohwa."
The Snake left. That night was particularly lonely, even though I had many friends. Now that the fully-grown Tiger hugged me, I was barely able to fall asleep. Just like that—
Ten years passed.
The Tiger also became human and left my side.
-Dohwa, Dohwa! They say there are so many fascinating things in the world. I want to see them all. And then, I want to have a house of my own, just like the Snake who went before me.-
"Return anytime, Tiger."
Having become a hulking, muscular man, the Tiger descended Dangsan with an uncharacteristically bouncy gait.
Living for a long time felt a bit lonely. It was a night where I missed the friends who had passed away to heaven. I couldn't fall asleep that night. Time flows heartlessly. After the Heavenly Demon died, Great Master Bodhidharma and Sambong, who used to visit occasionally, passed away. The disaster recorded in a few lines as the Heavenly Demon Blood Incident was forgotten. Around the time the world began to forget the name Dohwa.
"Saessak-i has grown so big...?"
Saessak-i, whom I had raised with utmost care, watering it with a watering can carved from a dead tree and gathering its fallen leaves to replant around it. Before I knew it, it had grown so large that it could be seen even from outside Sichuan Province. But...
[The earth welcomes its master!]
[The mission of our clan has been handed down!]
[The tree that will mend the broken land!]
[It will rebuild the world destroyed by the heavenly devil!]
The day after Saessak-i fully matured, elves with long ears just like mine flocked over, claiming that the World Tree had appeared, and they uprooted Saessak-i and took it away.
I wanted to stop them, but such was the logic of the world.
Rather than staying on Dangsan, going to the center of the world and bolstering the earth's energy was Saessak-i's role. That's why I could only watch as my kin uprooted Saessak-i.
Accepting something with your head is different from accepting it with your heart.
Just because I had lived for a long time didn't mean the pain of parting was dulled.
That day, I truly felt like I was completely alone, so I wailed and cried. I missed the Snake, the Tiger, and Young-young.
That happened in my four hundred and fifty-fourth year.
"Sob, sob..."
That night. I wiped my eyes with the frayed hem of my clothes and looked down at Dangsan. The mountain I had cultivated for over four hundred years. The mountain where countless friends had passed through. The mountain imbued with countless years.
It seemed the time had finally come for me to leave.
I wanted to see the clans that my old friends, the Tiger and the Snake, had built.
I was also curious about what kind of clan Young-young, who never managed to come find me, had established. I wanted to see how their descendants were living; if they were living well, I would return with a smile, and if they were struggling, I would help them.
The lifespan of a spiritual beast is dozens of times longer than that of a mortal. The Snake and the Tiger might still be alive.
'I must go find my friends.'
All the earth's energy in this land had recovered, and the world was peaceful. Now that even Saessak-i had been uprooted. Since Dangsan had forgotten me...
"I suppose the time has come to go down."
"The Dangsan Immortal...? Aren't they the legendary figure who produced the Divine Physician during the Heavenly Demon Blood War, and elevated Great Master Bodhidharma and Sambong Jinin to the ranks of the greatest of all time? But why...?"
"They say she has descended into the Gangho. But the thing is..."
"Why? What else is there?"
"They say she is unimaginably beautiful."