The Herb Gatherer
"Since we're on the road, why don't you tell me your story?"
"No, Elder, that's the twentieth time you've said that..."
"You insolent whelp!"
The white-haired elder barked at A-rang.
"I even lit a fire for you! If you can't manage that much, then get lost!"
".....I was born in Honam...."
"Keh keh!"
They say wandering is drifting without purpose while savoring the scenery. Right after descending from the Hyeongsan Sect, A-rang had set out for the Wudang Sect in Hubei. Thinking the distance between Honam and Hubei couldn't be that great, he had started walking.
"In the end, my eyes were gouged out by some ruffians..."
"Keh keh keh!!!"
Yet it turned out to be... quite far. Seeing no end in sight, A-rang had ended up hitching a ride in the cargo hold of a passing carriage after begging the driver.
"Eventually, the lady fed me poison..."
"How amusing, how amusing!"
"....."
Now he wanted to get off. As he let out a long sigh, the old driver shouted loudly.
"I can see 'it' now, so we're almost there!"
"What do you mean, Elder?"
"When you think of Taoism, you think of Wudang, and when you think of Wudang, you think of Taoism, don't you? That Geongon Tower is what announces Hubei. Ten whole stories—imagine how tall that is!"
Indeed, if what he said was true, it deserved to be called a tower that touched heaven and earth. How had they built such a towering structure?
"People are truly remarkable."
While A-rang was marveling, a woman's scream rang out.
—Kyaaaaak!!
Startled by the scream, the driver yanked the reins. The horses faltered. A-rang gripped his sword tightly and stepped down from the cargo hold. Were there bandits even at the border between Honam and Hubei? No matter how chaotic the times, to threaten not just a merchant caravan but a lone woman—how utterly shameless.
"Elder, please go on ahead."
"Y-you..."
"I can look after myself well enough. Worry about your own safety first."
With that, A-rang's figure vanished like a cloud.
* * *
A-rang raced forward using the Yeonobo technique. It didn't take long to reach the source of the scream and understand why it had been made. A woman was crying, and—
—Krrroaaar!
'A tiger!'
A tiger. A-rang immediately drew his sword and hurled it. Extending his index and middle fingers, he guided the blade through the trees until it pierced the tiger's throat. Following the sword's path, he moved swiftly, careful not to let the Cheonjamsa thread tangle. Soon he arrived where the tiger had fallen and spoke to the woman sitting dazed on the ground.
"Are you all right, young lady?"
"A... ah..."
The woman covered her face with trembling hands and began to cry at his gentle words. She wept as if the mountain itself might collapse, then sniffled once her heart had calmed. Death had surely brushed past her eyes.
"Have you calmed down a little?"
"...Y-yes."
The woman looked at A-rang and blushed. It was only natural—she had wept so pitifully before a complete stranger. Catching her breath, she introduced herself with proper courtesy.
"My name is Hong Ryeon-a. May I ask... what is your honorable name, benefactor?"
"I am called Yeon A-rang. More importantly, what brought you to this place, young lady?"
"Ah..."
Hong Ryeon-a's eyes widened at his question. She turned her head this way and that, then spotted the overturned basket and let out a sigh of relief before kneeling down.
"I came to gather medicinal herbs."
She flipped the basket upright and began placing the scattered plants back inside one by one. A-rang approached her carefully.
"....!"
A sudden, sweet fragrance wafted toward him.
—Drip.
"...!"
A-rang quickly turned his head and wiped his mouth with his sleeve. What kind of unseemly behavior was this! He wasn't a beggar, yet here he was drooling over the smell of mere weeds. Had he really been that hungry?
"Benefactor?"
When Hong Ryeon-a finished gathering the herbs and looked up, she saw him frantically rubbing his face with his sleeve.
—Whoosh! When he lowered his hand and met her gaze, Hong Ryeon-a recoiled in shock.
"H-hiiek..!"
Could it be that the one who saved her was a tiger wearing human skin? Staring at her while drooling...
As Hong Ryeon-a backed away, A-rang extended his hand and tried to explain.
"I-it's a misunderstanding!"
"D-don't come any closer!"
"It's not you—it's the scent of herbs coming from that basket that smells so good!"
"H-herbs?"
At A-rang's words, Hong Ryeon-a looked down at the basket in her arms.
"....If you want them, would you like to take them...?"
"Is... is that all right?"
"Yes."
Hong Ryeon-a held out the basket. A-rang slowly reached toward it.
'Thirty-year-old ginseng... I worked so hard to find it...'
She had risked her life climbing the mountain for that very purpose. If she gave it all away, today's outing would have been nothing more than a pointless hike.
'Sigh... Ryeon-a, you're really something. If it weren't for him, you might have lost your life, let alone the ginseng. Why are you even hesitating to give it to him?'
Hong Ryeon-a shook off her thoughts. What was there to regret about giving something to the person who had saved her life?
—Swish. A-rang reached into the basket and picked up a blue flower.
"U-um, benefactor? That's not ginseng, that's Eunbaekcho..."
"...Eunbaekcho! The name alone sounds truly auspicious!"
"....Compared to ginseng, Eunbaekcho is basically a weed...?"
Nonsense. Next to that shabby ginseng, this herb was overflowing with qi. How could anyone call it a weed?
"Young lady, your joke is going too far."
"I-it's true! My grandfather told me!"
"It seems your grandfather doesn't know much about pharmacology."
"How rude! How rude!"
Hong Ryeon-a flared up.
"My grandfather is the Divine Physician!"
"....Pardon?"
A-rang, who had been smirking at the Eunbaekcho, suddenly stiffened. The Divine Physician? Did she mean the one he knew?
"The Divine Physician who can even bring back the dead?"
"That's an exaggeration. He can pull someone back from the brink of death for about three days."
"....."
Even that was more than enough to earn the title of Divine Physician.
—Ahem. It seemed he had made a verbal slip. A-rang cleared his throat and sat properly.
"Benefactor...? What are you—"
—Crunch.
"Benefactor?!!?!"
When A-rang bit into the raw Eunbaekcho and swallowed, Hong Ryeon-a's face turned pale. Ignoring her reaction, A-rang began circulating his qi.
'True qi is rising...!'
He had never imagined that replenishing his innate true qi—the problem that had plagued him—would be solved this way. This was surely a reward for his good deed. A fortunate encounter.
When A-rang smiled, Hong Ryeon-a let out a piercing scream.
If he thought it was a waste, he should have said so earlier. Was there any need to scream like that?
"Benefactor!! Stop! Please stop! Aaaah! You little brat, stop it!"
She was so reluctant that she even cursed to his face...?
—Drip.
Huh...?
"Kyaaaaak!"
Hong Ryeon-a screamed at the sight of him. She hadn't screamed this loudly even when she nearly died to the tiger. More importantly, what was this flowing liquid?
"Bl-bloodbloodblood!! Blood!"
Ah, so it was blood.
....Blood?
"Why am I bleeding...",
—Thud.
"Kyaaaaak!!!"
A-rang swayed and collapsed.
* * *
A-rang woke up.
"This smell again...?"
He had smelled it so often that the medicinal scent of the clinic now seemed almost pleasant.
"You're awake?"
"Young lady...?"
"Don't move. I have to change the cloth. Not that you could move anyway."
"What do you mean...",
—Zzzzt!!!
"Ugh!!"
A pain like lightning striking through his entire body surged over him.
"See? I told you not to move."
Hong Ryeon-a sighed and replaced the dry cloth on A-rang's forehead with a damp one.
"Grandfather said you were five steps away from death."
She set the water jar down with a thud and spoke with clear displeasure.
"Benefactor, you really almost died."
"Me...?"
"Yes, you. Haah... I've never seen anyone chew raw ingredients for the Hwandan before."
"Hwandan...?"
"Yes! And not just any ingredient—Eunbaekcho, which is over ninety percent fire-attribute! It's a miracle you're even alive, now that I think about it!"
"But you said Eunbaekcho was basically a weed..."
"Compared to ginseng! Compared to ginseng! It's relative! There was even thirty-year-old ginseng in there—why didn't you pick that instead!"
Hong Ryeon-a leaned in close, forgetting all decorum as she scolded him. She had clearly forgotten how reluctant she had been to part with the ginseng earlier.
"Hmph! Anyway, Grandfather wants to see you, so he'll be here soon."
"When you say grandfather..."
"Did you forget? I already told you—he's the Divine Physician that all martial artists are desperate to find."
"Ah...."
A-rang nodded as if remembering, then grimaced as the pain returned.
"Ah! Are you all right?!"
"Haa... haa... Yes, I think I'll feel better if I rest a bit."
"...Don't push yourself."
Hong Ryeon-a glanced at A-rang's sweating face several times before leaving the room. Once silence settled in, A-rang recalled the moment he had eaten the Eunbaekcho. The wild ginseng and other unknown herbs had carried faint traces of qi, but none had been as distinct as the Eunbaekcho.
'My body craved that herb desperately, as if it had been starving for a long time. So I ate it... and this is the result.'
She had said the Eunbaekcho was an ingredient for the Hwandan. He didn't know what kind of pill it was used to make, but he certainly knew what the Hwandan itself was. Even a three-year-old child in the murim would know. There were many rare elixirs said to improve inner energy and even one's constitution. Legendary medicines like Gongcheongseokyu, Ten-Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, and Mita Holy Water existed only in rumors. But the Great Hwandan and Lesser Hwandan of Shaolin—created through the "combination of countless herbs"—were famous. The Lesser Hwandan was one thing, but the Great Hwandan appeared perhaps once every few decades, making its value immeasurable. And only two people in the entire murim knew all the ingredients for the Great Hwandan: the head of Shaolin's Medical Pavilion, and the Divine Physician.
'Did I just chew and swallow an ingredient for the Great Hwandan...?'
Probably not... She had compared it to ginseng and called it a weed. Nothing inferior to ginseng would go into the Great Hwandan.
As A-rang was lost in thought, the door opened and someone entered.
—Step, step.
The footsteps were steady.
'A martial artist...? No, this feels similar to Elder Yul-heo...'
Then came the sound of a chair being dragged. Thud! The sound of someone sitting. A gaze directed at him. The sound of a breath being drawn. Then came the curse.
"Are you the bastard trying to take my granddaughter away?"
...A curse?
And if it was his granddaughter, then perhaps...
"...Could it be the Divine Phys—"
—Thud!
The sound of a sword embedding itself beside his head rang out.
"Not while there's still dirt in my eyes."
So this was the Divine Physician...?