The Girl Yeom Woon-hwan
Five days had slipped by before he knew it. In all that time, aside from his cultivation, Yeop Pung had done nothing but lie in wait near the Fire Spirit Flower, preparing to snare spirit beasts.
Drawn by the flower's fragrance, they came one by one. Some were put to work like Brother Tiger and Old Man Armor. The rest became provisions under Yeop Pung's clean, unhesitating hand.
By the evening of the fifth day, four rather well-behaved little creatures had taken up residence in the cave—ones that even did their business in the proper place and helped him haul fertilizer. He found them genuinely, thoroughly admirable.
Brother Tiger, the first of them captured, was especially cooperative. He even used that keen nose of his to warn Yeop Pung whenever another spirit beast was approaching. Yeop Pung rather liked the proactive attitude.
What he didn't know was what Brother Tiger was actually thinking. Having already fallen into the trap himself, the tiger had decided it was only fair to drag a few others down with him.
The herb cultivation was proceeding smoothly. For Yeop Pung, though, this was only the beginning. If he meant to keep this herb garden running for the next hundred years, he was going to need an ally.
First, that ally could not be a spirit beast cowed into obedience by a club, the way Brother Tiger had been. It had to be a creature bound to him through the Spirit Beast Taming Art—a true master-and-servant bond, one that would never betray him, that would guard the entire garden and command the other beasts as their overseer.
Among the spirit beasts he currently kept, Yeop Pung had yet to find a suitable candidate.
Above all, the beast he wanted needed real power. The finest resources of Mount Tianyun were already monopolized by the Cheonun Sect. For all their bluster, Brother Tiger and his pack were only at the 4th or 5th Meridian Mysterious Realm—which was why Yeop Pung had subdued them in a single blow. Whoever he left behind after he was gone would need the strength to overwhelm the likes of them.
The second requirement was even more important. Yeop Pung considered these beasts rather dim. Brother Tiger currently looked like the smartest of the bunch, but in Yeop Pung's estimation he was only a shade brighter than an ordinary wild animal. Forget comparing them to a sharp one like Bone—they fell far short even of the Cheonun Sect's guardian spirit beasts. That wouldn't do.
What Yeop Pung wanted was an ally who could survive the next hundred years, manage the herb garden in his place, and build a hidden spirit-beast force deep in Mount Tianyun to protect the Cheonun Sect. That was work that demanded real intelligence. A stupid beast would never pull it off.
So Yeop Pung waited, patient. A little luck would help—but he still had time.
It was the evening of the fifth day. Yeop Pung was cultivating inside the cave when Brother Tiger came bounding in, face alight with excitement, and blinked rapidly up at him.
"Boss! We got a bite!"
Yeop Pung's eyes snapped open. He grabbed his club and headed outside.
But this time, something he hadn't expected happened. The moment he took a single step, Brother Tiger's face split into a sly grin.
The place Yeop Pung had been hiding was a dirt pit not far from the Fire Spirit Flower—one he had dug himself. The view was wide open, and he had scrubbed away his own scent, so even after the beasts wandered in one at a time they never managed to flee the pit.
He crouched in the hollow, holding his breath, waiting to see who would come bursting out of the forest.
Please let it be a smart one this time… A monkey? A fox? Hell, even a dog would do…
Just then, a rustling sounded from deep in the woods. Someone was coming.
Yeop Pung gripped his wooden club with practiced ease. The next instant, a white shadow shot from the trees like a flash of lightning splitting the night sky, closing the distance to the Fire Spirit Flower in a single bound.
Damn, that's fast!
He narrowed his eyes. This one actually had some power. Out of habit he rose, swinging the club as he shouted,
"Beast! On your knees!"
He was already halfway out of the pit when it hit him. This time, it was a person—a woman in white, long hair streaming behind her.
"Who's there?"
A clear, ringing voice answered from across the way. The white shadow that had been charging toward the Fire Spirit Flower suddenly turned its head.
Before Yeop Pung could even make out her face, a dazzling burst of starlight erupted from her body.
Wait—isn't that Old Man Meng's movement art?
Starlight flared, and in a blink the white shadow vanished from in front of him. At the same instant, a fierce aura pressed in from behind his head.
"You scoundrel—take this!"
Oh, hell. A Cheonun Sect disciple?
Yeop Pung swore inwardly. He'd built a herb garden in a place this remote, and a Cheonun Sect disciple still showed up? It was absurd. But he had no time to dwell on it. Fortunately, the aura at his back wasn't particularly threatening. Her cultivation was at most the 5th Meridian Mysterious Realm—about the same as his own.
He spun and thrust the wooden club as if it were a great blade. A beautiful arc traced itself across the night sky, and golden lightning flashed.
In an instant, Yeop Pung's dazzling sword-light illuminated the beautiful face across from him.
She's actually pretty.
For a single heartbeat, his focus wavered. A startled voice rose from the other side as well.
"Wait—how do you know the Falling Star Sword Technique…?"
In the next instant their attacks crashed together.
Yeop Pung hadn't gone all out, and she seemed to have held back as well. Unfortunately, the wooden club he had been treasuring and using for two whole days split with a sharp crack and shattered completely.
After that single exchange, the two of them spun a few times in midair and landed lightly on the ground.
Under a night sky bright with moonlight, Yeop Pung finally got a proper look at her face.
She looked sixteen or seventeen. Her face was a soft oval, and her large, dark eyes shone lucidly in the moonlight. She had wrinkled her straight little nose slightly, as if puzzling over who he was. Beautiful long hair stirred in the night wind, carrying the faint scent of tea flowers.
She was truly lovely. Yeop Pung narrowed his eyes without meaning to. The girl in front of him was not a peerless, nation-toppling beauty the way Un Cheoncheon was. But honestly, he found himself more drawn to this—a beauty that felt human. Especially those eyes, dark as grapes, which held a purity Yeop Pung had lost a long time ago…
"Are you a Cheonun Sect disciple?"
Just as he'd thought.
That very first sentence confirmed his guess. This girl seemed to be a genuinely innocent child, without a shred of ulterior motive. Otherwise she would never have opened by pinning him as one of the good guys. Anyone with even a shred of caution would have asked who he was first and waited for an answer. Handing him the "one of us" card right out of the gate like this—she was clearly an innocent.
Of course, Yeop Pung didn't rule out the possibility that she was a master of acting. So he kept his expression wary as he asked,
"Who are you? How do you know our sect's martial arts…?"
"Don't tell me you recognized the Saint Spirit Physique?"
Just as expected, the big-eyed girl took the bait without a hint of suspicion.
"So you really are one of us too?"
Yeop Pung sighed inwardly. If the other person was too naive, he couldn't even put his acting skills to proper use. He had no idea how to keep the performance going from here.
"Don't change the subject. If you're a Cheonun Sect disciple, show me your identity token. Which peak are you training on, and who's your master?"
In just two sentences, Yeop Pung—the impostor—had ended up interrogating a genuine Cheonun Sect disciple.
But the big-eyed girl stuck out her tongue and laughed, bright and clear, her eyes folding into the shape of crescent moons. That beautiful smile made Yeop Pung's heart skip again.
"Hehe. You're so suspicious…"
She offered him a polite bow.
"I'm Yeom Woon-hwan, disciple of Peak Master Son of Gangun Peak. Here—my identity token. You believe me now, right?"
Yeop Pung genuinely wanted to bury his face in his hands.
Miss, it isn't that I'm overly suspicious. It's that you have absolutely no idea how the world works.
Dumping her entire identity like it was nothing—who on earth would send an innocent child like her into a place this dangerous alone?
But he immediately latched onto the important information. Peak Master Son Bang-hwa of Gangun Peak was famous even within the Cheonun Sect for her severity. And this girl was still so young, which meant her status was likely anything but ordinary.
Wait. Yeom Woon-hwan?
"Hm? Then would you happen to know Martial Aunt Yeom Jin-ri of Gangun Peak?"
"You know my sister?"
The girl's eyes went round again.
So she really was Peak Master Yeom's little sister? Looking at her now, the two of them did share a fair resemblance.
"Ah… I saw her once from a distance, some time ago. I doubt Martial Aunt Jin-ri would remember me."
"Oh, I see. Then what's your name?"
"I'm Yeop Pung. If you're Martial Aunt Jin-ri's little sister, what are you doing in the back mountains of Mount Tianyun in the middle of the night?"
He quickly steered Martial Aunt Yeom's little sister away from probing his identity. Just as he'd expected, she didn't press. Like a good child, she answered his question cheerfully.
"Gangun Peak is so boring. Master and my sister make me do nothing but train every day…"
Yeom Woon-hwan pouted, cute as could be. Yeop Pung blinked despite himself.
It wasn't as if he had never seen a beautiful woman in his life. Come to think of it, even when he'd been held in Un Cheoncheon's arms, he had struggled desperately to get away. No—back then, he really had been trying to escape…
But somehow, every one of this girl's innocent little gestures tickled at his heart. He couldn't explain it, but he felt he could no longer bring himself to lie to her.
Yeom Woon-hwan was still chattering away about the hardships of life on Gangun Peak.
"It's either cultivating the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture, or drilling the Star Spirit Body Art, or practicing the Falling Star Sword Technique… I'm bored to death. Oh, right—Yeop Pung, whose disciple are you? Your Falling Star Sword Technique looked really amazing!"
"Mm… Peak Master Yeo Sogong, I suppose…?"
Every time he lied in front of Yeom Woon-hwan, it felt like committing a crime.
"Wow, so you're Peak Master Yeo's disciple! No wonder you were that good… But what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"
Finally, she asks…
He was just about to answer when Yeom Woon-hwan's eyes flew wide. She pointed at the cave behind him and cried out.
"Kyaa! What is that?!"