The Hundred-Year Sleep
At last, in this very moment, Yeop Pung discovered that Yeom Woon-hwan had a streak of mischief and sweetness buried all the way down in her bones. When it came to training Heukgu, she was far more gifted than he would ever be.
"Look, Heukgu. Big Sis made these osmanthus cakes herself. Don't they smell wonderful?"
They did. They smelled wonderful. Heukgu hardly needed to be told — even Yeop Pung, watching from the side, had to swallow a sudden rush of saliva.
"Want some?"
Heukgu had gone five days without sleep and was teetering on the edge of collapse. Even so, he nodded, looking as if he could not possibly hold out any longer.
"That's right. Just keep thinking about it. Yeop Pung, open wide. That's a good boy. I'll feed you!"
What was this?
Heukgu clawed at his own head in mute, boiling outrage.
Using delicious food to torment a person wasn't enough — no, to torment a rat? Did she really have to be this cruel?
"Good boy, Heukgu. Once you've memorized this entire book of war, Big Sis will find you a pretty little lady-rat and have her feed you osmanthus cakes. All right?"
In an instant, Heukgu bounced back as if someone had plugged him in and charged him full.
Lines he had never been able to commit to memory, no matter how hard he had tried, now poured out of him in a single unbroken stream.
Damn it.
Yeop Pung realized he still had a long way to go. He had failed to grasp what his counterpart truly wanted.
And yet it was equally clear that Heukgu himself had proven to be a student worth teaching.
Heukgu had suffered terribly at the beginning, but once he had forced his way through the entire Dao De Jing, his attitude shifted. Yeop Pung could feel the change without any doubt.
The little beast had even looked up at him with curious eyes and asked a question like this:
"Master, are there really people in this world who have comprehended the Dao and become immortals?"
The time was ripe.
A light flashed through Yeop Pung's eyes. He immediately produced the Spirit Beast Inner Core Breathing Art he had chosen with such painstaking care.
"Of course there are. And not only humans. If you cultivate this Mysterious Art with everything you have, you can too."
Heukgu's eyes lit up all over again.
"Really?"
"Of course."
"Then... could I bring home a dozen lady-rats and have them feed me osmanthus cakes every single day?"
Smack!
Heukgu went sailing backward. Yeop Pung clapped a hand over his face, utterly speechless.
There was still a long road ahead.
Ten days passed in the blink of an eye.
Even as he prepared to leave, a corner of Yeop Pung's heart remained uneasy.
He had crammed Heukgu with every kind of knowledge he could think of, but the old saying was not wrong: a creature's nature is hard to change. He could not be certain that the little beast would, this time, devote himself to cultivation without incident and endure the long, long century ahead.
Fortunately, Yeom Woon-hwan had bravely volunteered to keep teaching him. She told Yeop Pung she would come by whenever she had time and supervise Heukgu's studies.
The innocent girl had no idea what any of it was for. She simply thought it was fun.
Or perhaps... all of this was happening for no reason other than that Yeop Pung wanted it so.
On the night of the tenth day, Yeop Pung said his farewell to Yeom Woon-hwan at the mountain's peak.
"This time I might be gone for a very long while. Or I might be back as soon as tomorrow, but..."
He looked into her brimming eyes. At some point, tears had gathered there.
"Mm. I know."
Yeom Woon-hwan nodded, gazing at him — and then, suddenly, she smiled.
"It's strange, actually. Yeop Pung... last time we were only apart for a few days, but it felt like we'd been separated for so long. Like... a hundred years..."
Yeop Pung's body went rigid. If he had not come back this time, the two of them truly would have been parted for a hundred years.
And he already knew the cruel reality waiting on the other side. A century from now, there was no one named Yeom Woon-hwan in the Cheonun Sect. The warm, gentle girl standing before him belonged, inevitably, to a different world than his own.
But then he thought again.
As long as I have Geumban's mysterious power to travel through time, what does it matter if Yun Hwan isn't in the present? I can always return here and see her. Next time, I'll just set the destination a few days later.
For the first time, Yeop Pung tasted a love this young, this tender. Even Geumban made no move to stop him. What reason was there to force him to cut off the warmth standing right in front of his eyes?
"Silly girl."
Yeop Pung smiled.
"Really? Yeop Pung, you can see them?"
A light by the name of hope sparkled in Yeom Woon-hwan's eyes.
"I can. You know... those words aren't just carved in stone. They're carved in my heart, too."
"Heehee."
The girl's face flushed scarlet in an instant.
"You smooth talker!"
"I mean it."
Yeop Pung smiled. Beneath moonlight that shone like a crescent, his eyes were dewy, soft, and shining.
The second slot was full.
In the fold of space and time that carried him back to the present, Yeop Pung confirmed it: the second slot of Geumban's third ring had already filled completely. His time-travel ability had risen once more.
Good.
Yeop Pung nodded.
This modest rise in Geumban's power would not do much for his actual martial strength. But a longer stay in the past was, in itself, an enormous advantage.
Over the last ten days he had, of course, not neglected his cultivation. Training of the fifth meridian was proceeding smoothly.
As the length of each journey continued to grow, he would have a space in which to cultivate for extended stretches of time — and in the real world, all of it would pass in a single instant. How magnificent was that?
Judging by Geumban's pace, another five or six trips ought to be enough to fill the third ring completely.
And when that happened... what new ability would unlock?
Yeop Pung's chest swelled with anticipation.
In a blink, Yeop Pung was back in the present, on the rear mountain of Cheonun. He instant-stepped toward the Herb Garden at once and traveled a long, long way.
This time, too, someone else was startled before Yeop Pung had even gathered his wits.
What the—?! What was going on?
Bone's eyes snapped open.
Where had that brat Yeop Pung gone? Had he just... vanished?
Bone's special sense had been telling him, without interruption, that Yeop Pung was right there in the next room. And then, all of a sudden, he was gone — gone completely, beyond the reach of Bone's perception. That was not supposed to be possible.
"Woof?"
Bone got to his feet and began pacing the courtyard, a living question mark. Maeng Chang-haeng pushed the door open with a creak. He seemed to have noticed the hound's strange behavior.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Woof!"
Bone pointed with his nose toward Yeop Pung's room.
"That brat disappeared!"
"Disappeared? How?"
Maeng Chang-haeng strode over, opened the door, and looked inside.
"Damn it. He really is gone!"
He turned and stared at Bone.
"Where'd he go?"
"How should I know."
"Bone. You've changed."
Maeng Chang-haeng regarded him with a grave, assessing look.
Don't even joke about that. Cut it out!
Bone felt the insult down to his bones. He no longer had the slightest intention of explaining himself to Maeng Chang-haeng. He bolted from the courtyard and tore off toward the rear mountain of Cheonun.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?"
Maeng Chang-haeng was still calling after him.
"Woof!"
He's here.
The first thing Yeop Pung felt upon his return was the intimate tether between his soul and Heukgu's. It had not been easy to get this far, and he could have wept.
The little bastard had actually survived all this time. He had to see him. Now.
Yeop Pung unfolded his movement art at once and headed for the cave.
With every step he took toward the mountain valley, familiar scenery unfolded before his eyes, one piece at a time. A swelling, almost unbearable emotion rose in his chest. He had finally accomplished a miracle beyond imagining. He had raised a powerful spirit beast across a span of a hundred years.
How is Heukgu doing now? What realm has he reached? How strong has he become?
And the Nakryeong Root I planted — what quality will it be? There must be several hundred catties of it by now.
Brother Tiger, Old Man Armor, the wild boar — are they all right?
Full of expectation, Yeop Pung looked toward the mouth of the valley.
But in that very instant, something he had not accounted for at all came crashing toward him. The stolid, straightforward Bone was hurtling in his direction at a speed beyond anything Yeop Pung could have imagined — far faster than Maeng Chang-haeng unleashing the Star Spirit Body Art.
"Found you!"
Fangs bared, Bone raced across the treetops.
"This time I'm going to see exactly what that brat is up to!"
Yeop Pung poured on every ounce of speed and plunged into the valley.
A faint herbal fragrance brushed the tip of his nose. The scent of Nakryeong Root.
He had arrived at the herb field he had so desperately wanted to see. And there they were — Nakryeong Roots that had weathered a hundred years of wind and rain, growing lush and dense before his eyes.
"Jackpot!"
Yeop Pung's heart leapt. A field of this scale had to hold at least four or five hundred catties. And every last root was a century-old, third-grade spiritual elixir, more potent than the Spirit Soul Pills he had taken before.
With these alone, my cultivation speed will climb by the day. I might even break through to the Five Meridians Realm in two or three months.
The problem of cultivation resources was solved. Next came finding Heukgu.
Yeop Pung looked toward the cave.
Heukgu's presence was unmistakably inside — and yet something was wrong. Yeop Pung could feel him with perfect clarity, which meant Heukgu ought to be able to feel him in return. So why had he still not shown himself?
Worse, Heukgu was in a very strange state. The pulse of his soul was so utterly tranquil it was as if he were asleep.
Don't tell me he's still sleeping?
Yeop Pung stepped into the cave. The first thing that stopped him cold was the field of Green Root Fruit he had prepared especially for Heukgu. It had gone completely to ruin. The spiritual herbs inside had long since rotted through, and the whole plot had turned into a wasteland.
What is this?
Unlike the Nakryeong Root, which could grow on its own, Green Root Fruit was a spiritual crop that needed careful watering and tending. The scene in front of him made it painfully obvious that Heukgu had not managed the field at all.
Don't tell me that little beast cultivated for a hundred years without eating a single Green Root Fruit?
Puzzled, Yeop Pung pressed deeper inside. At last, in the innermost reach of the cave, he found him.
Heukgu's condition made Yeop Pung's brow furrow all over again.
He really is asleep.
And more than that...
Yeop Pung looked closer.
Heukgu lay sprawled on a great slab of blue stone, dead to the world, a thick coat of dust covering his body. It had piled so heavily it looked like a fall of snow. How long would a creature have to lie perfectly still for that much dust to gather?
Yeop Pung was stunned.
Don't tell me... he slept for a hundred years?
He started forward, meaning to wake Heukgu through the soul seal.
That was when Geumban, who had kept silent until now, spoke for the first time — in a voice heavy as stone.
"Stop! Step back!"