Mass Recuperation
That afternoon, Nowoon Peak was thrown into utter chaos. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say that every soldier and officer of the Heavenly Phoenix Legion below the Spirit Realm had been thrown into utter chaos.
The spectacular scenes that had unfolded in the bathhouse earlier were now being reenacted all across Nowoon Peak. Everyone who had eaten the nutritional porridge in the mess hall that morning was afflicted.
Can you imagine it? There they were, deep in training, body and mind approaching that sublime state of unity with all things — when suddenly their guts twisted, and an explosion erupted from their rear ends that no amount of willpower could contain. The shock was more than enough to drive a person mad.
Rumor had it that of the several hundred afflicted, a hundred or so had suffered such a violent backlash of Profound Qi that they were left half-paralyzed. The rest had damaged profound meridians and were left drained of strength. Weakness was the least of their worries — it was obvious none of them would be getting out of bed for days.
The two thousand Cheonbong Army troops stationed on Mount Tianyun had taken a devastating blow. Even when they had clashed with savage, bloodthirsty barbarians, they had never been reduced to such a wretched state.
No one could find the cause of this horrific mass food-poisoning. And the people of Cheonun Sect had nothing whatsoever to do with it. The mess hall was run entirely by Cheonbong Army personnel — outsiders never even had a chance to lay a finger on the food.
"That's impossible!"
Word was that Commander Naeng Chu, in a towering rage that evening, smashed several desks to splinters. But what good did that do?
The army physicians reported that some two thousand Cheonbong Army soldiers had been left so extremely weakened that they would need at least three or four days of recuperation. The cause, they estimated, was the ingestion of an excessive quantity of a violently potent laxative. Yet no one could determine where that laxative had come from.
Naeng Chu did not sleep a wink that night. Come morning, he could not bring himself to request more troops from the Military Governor. The autumn hunting tournament had already been reduced to a shambles, and if he could not even keep watch over a single Cheonun Sect that had been on its knees begging for mercy, it would be a complete and utter disgrace.
Fortunately, it seemed everyone would recover after a few days' rest.
"This is an order. All training is suspended for five days!"
Naeng Chu ground his teeth and issued the command. Then, in a voice dripping with murder, he added,
"Investigate and report back to me! Dig up the earth if you have to — find the bastard who laced the food!"
His enraged roar echoed across Nowoon Peak.
The next morning, Yeop Pung sat at ease in the chair in his room, reviewing the Thousand Character Classic that Heukgu had spent the entire night writing out. Just then, Wang Maeng's excited voice rang out from outside.
"Yeop Pung! Yeop Pung! We're actually getting the day off!"
Heh heh.
Yeop Pung smiled, as if he had expected nothing less.
The Cheonbong Army must have been dying yesterday. And this is only the beginning.
Yeop Pung glanced at Heukgu beside him. Eight ants were already under the creature's control, scurrying swiftly back and forth.
Just as Heukgu had claimed, his ability had grown. Overnight, the number of ants he could command had increased by one. Which, if you followed that logic, meant one more ant every night — a hundred ants in a hundred days.
No. That's not something to get my hopes up about.
Heukgu's ability had, it was true, helped them slip out of a tight spot. But a mere five days of rest was not Yeop Pung's goal. What he wanted was to make certain those Cheonbong Army bastards could never harass the people of Cheonun Sect again.
First of all, the Tongcheonsan had only been a trial run. The real thing started now.
That was also why Yeop Pung had deliberately dripped clues to Wang Maeng, little by little. He had wanted to see how Wang Maeng would react once he watched the Cheonbong Army suffer. And now it was obvious — Wang Maeng wanted those people smashed to pieces. Which meant Yeop Pung could bring him in without reservation and ask for his cooperation.
What he needed Wang Maeng for was the second blow he had prepared: Hongranchun. Anyone of a certain age would know exactly what that medicine was for the moment they heard the name.
Hongranchun was a ferocious aphrodisiac. Anyone who ingested it would have the desires in their body erupt beyond all control, reason stripped away until they became a slave to lust. That particular effect, however, applied mainly to ordinary people. In martial artists who had reached the Profound Realm, the suppressing influence of Profound Qi could render it negligible. But that suppression did not last forever.
Far more terrifying was a side effect that even a Profound Realm martial artist could not escape. Anyone poisoned by the stuff broke out in red blotches over their entire body and was tormented by an itching so extreme it was as if the legendary crimson-and-splendid bird, the Hongranseong, had descended upon them. That was how the medicine had earned its elegant name.
The itching was severe enough to drive a person mad, and it took at least a month to subside. Even an expert of the 6th Meridian Mysterious Realm would be helplessly miserable for a fortnight. By Yeop Pung's calculation, that was a solid month of training they could simply throw away.
Getting the medicine into them would be even simpler than last time. Hongranchun was prepared as a colorless, transparent ointment that was absorbed the instant it so much as touched the skin. The only catch was that constitutions differed, so the effects manifested differently from person to person.
With Heukgu and the little ants, Yeop Pung might not be able to torment every Profound Realm martial artist in the Cheonbong Army in one stroke the way he had before — but picking off Sa Cheonseong's lot, one by one, would be no problem at all.
There were, however, two problems he had to solve right now.
The most important was how to obtain the spiritual medicines. The last time Old Man Maeng had gone out to gather herbs, Yeop Pung had pretended to request all sorts of miscellaneous ingredients from the Herb Garden while quietly stealing a few things on the side. Thanks to that, when the Cheonbong Army later investigated, suspicion never reached as far as Nagun Peak.
But a stunt like that could only be pulled once. If he tried it again, he would certainly be caught. So this time he had decided to spend the five days making separate purchases from the medicinal merchants in Fengsang Commandery, spreading them out to leave as little room for suspicion as possible.
The second problem was that Hongranchun, unlike Tongcheonsan, could not simply be powdered and mixed. Turning it into an ointment required its own set of decoction tools. Yeop Pung did not have them. Wang Maeng did.
Yeop Pung knew that Wang Maeng enjoyed studying the art of pill refinement in his spare time. The man had even set up a small alchemy chamber in his own quarters, and he lacked for nothing — cauldrons, crucibles, the lot. Since Yeop Pung had no choice but to borrow those tools, he had been thinking of a way to test Wang Maeng, put him at ease, and draw him in.
Yeop Pung handled every part of this with care. Teaching Sa Cheonseong's gang a lesson so they could no longer torment his fellow disciples was important — but so was leaving no trace that might bring the fire down on his own head.
As an ordinary disciple of Cheonun Sect, the most Yeop Pung could do was protect the people around him. Changing the fate of the sect as a whole was a matter that had to be left to Lee Sujol, holed up in his residence on Nagun Peak.
Yeop Pung felt, instinctively, that Lee Sujol was not a man who would casually sell Cheonun Sect down the river. He clearly had something up his sleeve. What that truth was, they would have to wait until Lee Sujol himself chose to reveal it.
Having thought that far, Yeop Pung opened the door and went out to greet Wang Maeng with a broad grin.
"Heh heh. Wang Maeng, I need a favor..."
"Name it, Yeop Pung!"
By now, the mere sight of Yeop Pung was enough to set Wang Maeng's eyes blazing with excitement.
"How did you do it? I heard those Cheonbong Army bastards completely lost their minds yesterday! The whole of Nowoon Peak reeked of shit! Haha, that was amazing!"
"It was nothing, really..."
Yeop Pung gave him a meaningful smile and ushered him into the room.
The next morning, Maeng Chang-haeng slipped out of Nagun Peak with Yeop Pung in tow, unseen by anyone.
For a man of Old Man Maeng's caliber, smuggling Yeop Pung out for a few days was as easy as breathing. In all of Cheonun Sect, there was not a soul who would dare pick a quarrel with his Nagun Peak. Standing on Old Man Maeng's flying sword as it soared above the clouds, Yeop Pung drank in the wide-open vista unfurling beneath them.
When will I be able to fly like that?
Listening to the wind rush past his ears, Yeop Pung found his thoughts turning, unbidden, to his missing parents.
Ordinarily, only those who had reached the Spirit Sea Realm possessed enough Profound Qi to command a Flying Spirit Treasure. The rare few who could take to the sky before that — like Un Cheoncheon with her White Cloud Ribbon — were those born with a highly unusual kind of Profound Qi.
If I could fly freely through the heavens, I could leave Great Jin that much sooner and find the family I love... And...
A pair of eyes, lovely as crescent moons, rose in Yeop Pung's mind.
If I grow stronger still, couldn't I uncover the truth of Yun Hwan's fate from a hundred years ago?
The moment he recalled every mystery of that night — the Tianyun Blood Night — his chest ached again with a familiar, piercing pang. His hunger for the truth burned fiercer than ever.
Heaven had allowed Yeop Pung to transcend time and space to meet Yeom Woon-hwan. He would never leave that warm-hearted girl alone in the strange, cruel fate of a hundred years past.
"Hey, brat, what's got you thinking so hard!"
Up ahead, Maeng Chang-haeng was riding his flying sword in fine style, arms folded across his chest.
Yeop Pung blinked himself free of his thoughts.
"There's something I wanted to ask you, Martial Grand-Uncle."
"Out with it. Between the two of us, what's with all the formality, haha! If it means teaching those Cheonbong Army bastards a lesson, I'll help with anything!"
"Do you mean that?"
"Quit the nonsense and spit it out!"
"Well... Martial Grand-Uncle, the reason I'm going to Fengsang Commandery this time is to buy spiritual medicines. I'm going to need quite a lot, so I think the money involved will be... considerable..."
"Hmm? Yeop Pung, look over there! A bird! Isn't it pretty?"
Oh, for crying out loud.
Two deep lines carved themselves between Yeop Pung's brows.
If you don't want to give me the money, just say so. What is this subject-changing technique of yours.
"Martial Grand-Uncle, I am going there to take down the Cheonbong Army!"
"Wow! That bird's got black wings!"
Yeop Pung's face hardened. He said nothing. Maeng Chang-haeng's hide was thicker than a fortress wall.
Fortunately, he had packed fifteen hundred-year-old Nakryeong Roots in his Qiankun Ring for this trip. They were 3rd-grade spiritual elixirs, valuable enough that selling them would more than cover the cost of the ingredients for Hongranchun.
"By the way..." Old Man Maeng suddenly asked, "what kind of medicine are you making this time? Nothing they have to eat. From what I hear, those Cheonbong Army bastards have been making people taste-test their food for poison before every meal. You'll want to be careful."
"It's called Hongranchun..."
Yeop Pung saw no reason to hide it.
"You apply it."
Screeech!
Old Maeng's flying sword slammed to a halt so abruptly that Yeop Pung nearly went over the edge.
"Martial Grand-Uncle, what are you—"
Old Maeng's face was wreathed in smiles.
"Haha, Yeop Pung, you're absolutely right! When it comes to punishing those Cheonbong Army bastards, what's yours and mine between us? Here — I've been putting this aside for a long time. Take it all. Ah, and once you make the Hongranchun, you be sure to set a few bottles aside for me!"
This crazy old—!
Yeop Pung very nearly slapped the senile geezer across the face.
Over a hundred years old, and he's going on about Hongranchun?
Old Man Maeng's flying sword was extremely fast. In less than two hours they arrived before the gates of the Bongsang County Seat.
They agreed that Old Man Maeng would return in three days to collect Yeop Pung — a pickup that, of course, included the filthy transaction of three bottles of Hongranchun changing hands.
Yeop Pung entered the city.
Because of its geography, Fengsang Commandery was not a particularly wealthy region of the Great Jin Empire. It sat closer to Nanman than to the capital of Great Jin, and perhaps for that reason its people were a warlike sort. Even the buildings of the county seat were a uniform palette of black and gray, a crude atmosphere with an underlying toughness.
The county seat was vast, spanning a hundred li on every side and holding a population approaching one million. It was also a military stronghold, so the roads had been built exceptionally wide to accommodate carriages.
As Yeop Pung walked the streets, he kept catching sight of military patrols filing past. The whole city seemed to have been steeped in a tense, watchful mood.
Don't tell me they've stationed this many soldiers inside the walls because they're afraid Nanman might invade?
Yeop Pung did not actually know much about such things. He merely found it strange. Then something wriggled against his chest, and a little black-furred head poked curiously out between the folds of his collar.
"Whoa! There are so many people!"
The black fur-ball was Heukgu, seeing a human city for the first time. He could not look around fast enough; two eyes were not nearly sufficient. Yeop Pung ignored the creature swinging its head left and right like a pendulum and quietly asked a passerby for directions.
"Excuse me — would you happen to know which way the Yi Family Escort Agency is?"
Yi Sang of the Yi Family Escort Agency. Yeop Pung had never forgotten the friend who had given him warmth in the hardest of times. The young master of the Yi Family Escort Agency — that sturdy, honest young man, Yi Sang.
At Cheonun Sect, Yi Sang had been, like Yeop Pung, a nobody of a handyman in the Herb Garden, picked on at every turn. But once he returned to his hometown of Fengsang Commandery, he was the proud young master of the Yi family. He had even once boasted that he would find Yeop Pung a job.
Yeop Pung had a particular habit of remembering the people who had treated him well. Coming to Fengsang Commandery this time, he had already decided to give Yi Sang at least five of the fifteen Nakryeong Roots in his Qiankun Ring. A token of his gratitude.
Yeah, five is a lot to give, isn't it?
What? There's still hundreds of pounds more sitting on the back mountain?
You can't count it that way. I've only got fifteen on me right now, and that's a third of my entire fortune! That's genuinely generous!
Yeop Pung gave himself a mental thumbs-up.
But the passerby in front of him changed color slightly, then looked at Yeop Pung and said,
"The Yi Family Escort Agency? The people of that household were all arrested by the Military Supply Bureau not long ago."
"What?"