Man vs. Wild - 1
I sprawled atop Kki-ing-i, practically draped over its body, staring blankly at the ground. Twenty-four years since reincarnating. And somehow, I'd ended up heading to the fringes of the Central Plains—no, honestly, a backwater so remote it was embarrassing to even call it part of the Central Plains: Yunnan.
It was the kind of forgotten corner where most folks wouldn't hear the name, let alone visit in a lifetime.
'Damn it all.' In my despair, I idly fiddled with Kki-ing-i's neck.
Sichuan and Yunnan bordered each other, but psychologically, they might as well have been opposite ends of the earth. Sichuan felt solidly Central Plains, but Yunnan? Not so much. Still, there was no helping it. Yunnan was Daesong territory, so I'd have to go eventually, and Nang-jung Wang's sudden quest made delaying impossible.
"It's not like I want to hand Samshik over to the Left Vice Inspector General, but passing on a rare spirit beast like a three-headed snake... Even I'm reluctant to just give it away."
"Yunnan's close to Annam, so you see creatures rare in the Central Plains. They say elephants roam around there."
"I'm not asking you to bring back an elephant. Something rare and poisonous like Samshik will do."
"And what counts as 'rare and poisonous'? You'll have to check on-site yourself."
In exchange for a three-headed snake I hadn't even wanted, now I had to hunt down some poison beast in Yunnan. It felt like I'd pissed off both the Primeval Lord of Heaven and the Buddha at once—a wry laugh escaped me.
What the hell qualifies as a 'rare poison beast'?
Soon enough, a flicker of resentment toward Nang-jung Wang arose for his vague orders. Whatever poison beast I had to offer in return for the three-headed snake couldn't be ordinary. To match it, it'd have to be at least a spirit beast. But poison spirit beasts weren't something you found just because you wanted to. And if Nang-jung Wang was sending me all the way to Yunnan, he clearly wanted something beyond Central Plains spirit beasts.
Barring some elephant with venomous tusks, I doubted such a thing existed.
Of course, I couldn't voice that complaint to his face. I'd been too stunned by learning the three-headed snake's hidden name to think straight, but more importantly, this was a spirit beast he cherished like his own child—now in my hands. Swallowing a king's possession and bolting would invite dire consequences.
"You should've just gone back to Daddy's arms."
- Shiiik?
I poked the three-headed snake tucked in my sleeve, and one head tilted quizzically, as if asking where Daddy was.
"Damn you, Samshik."
It was also a reaction insisting it had done nothing wrong. Calling its name got an explosive response from the other two heads:
- Shiiiiiik!
- Siiiieek!
- Shiuuuuuk!
No doubt about it. One reason this thing hadn't returned to Nang-jung Wang's bosom was definitely its name.
How do you name a snake...
Honestly, I didn't want to call it Samshik either. I'd rather go with Shiiik or Snowy—Samshik was just too cruel. But alas, I couldn't rename it. A king had named it. In a world where receiving a surname or given name from a king was an honor, changing one? That was on par with devouring the snake and fleeing.
So, it was Samshik. It would remain Samshik until the world ended—just like Ochuma and Jeokto-ma were eternal.
"If you can't escape it, better accept it."
Pitying it, I stroked Samshik's heads. Still young and timid, but if adolescence hit, at least 80% of the trauma would be from its name.
- Shiiik, shiiiiiik...
Samshik let out a heartbreaking hiss at my touch. Today, the horns on its heads felt especially sharp.
Yunnan had broken from the Central Plains around the Tang era, forming its own power base. Hard to believe a mere region right on the edge could do that, but no dynasty since Tang had fully unified the Central Plains, making it a miracle possible. After centuries of independence, it fell to the Mongols, only to be annexed by Song during Taizu's expulsion of the invaders—more as a bonus than anything.
"Bonus" might sound casual, but borders were arbitrary anyway.
Thus, Yunnan was Daesong land yet alien, and alien yet eagerly absorbing Daesong culture. The center knew of its otherness and pushed active assimilation.
'The common folk still treat it like foreign soil, though.'
The greatest East Asian novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms—tragedy for us officials that its author, Luo Guanzhong, lived in this era.
No matter how the center proclaimed Yunnan Daesong territory, part of the legitimate Central Plains culture, it was futile. In the novel, Yunnan was a demonic hellscape of poison rivers, blood waterfalls, and rampaging barbarians.
Likely plenty of officials in Kaepyeong or Yunnan wanted Luo Guanzhong dead.
Fortunately, unlike the public's view, Yunnan was smoothly integrating into Daesong.
'Once you move there, it's actually pretty livable.'
Thanks to central assimilation policies, officials posted to Yunnan and forcibly relocated commoners found not a savage frontier, but eternally mild spring cities—perhaps richer than their old homes.
Thus, Yunnan's people settled every corner, burning body and soul, while officials gritted teeth to suppress or co-opt local powers. Decades after Daesong's founding, Yunnan was truly Daesong land.
—Or so I'd thought.
What the hell is this?
Until I arrived in person.
"Wi-cheo."
"Yes, my lord."
"Tell me we're not in Annam instead of Yunnan."
"They speak our language, so it should be Yunnan."
I pinched my brow at that.
Omongbu, the Sichuan-Yunnan border town—Yunnan's gateway. Upon arrival, everything I knew teetered.
Clearly, Yunnan was civilized, not savage. Normal water, not poison; honey from flowers, not blood; eternal spring cities.
- Puuuuh!
"Jang! Control your kid properly!"
"Don't yell at my baby! If it panics and tramples us both, you and O are done for!"
But my eyes beheld an elephant vacuuming up market fruits.
- Kkigik! Kkik! Kkik!
"Back again? Same as usual?"
- Kkik!
A monkey shopping solo.
- Siiik! Siiiieek!
- Siiiiaaak!
"They're fighting again."
"Ignore 'em. They'll slink back to their owners when hungry."
Two pythons bickering mid-street.
A bizarre human-animal coexistence, more rugged safari than gentle spring city. I couldn't even speak.
- Kkiiing?
- Kkiooong...
Even Kki-ing-i and Kki-ong-i gawked. They'd never seen such a menagerie at once.
- Shii, shiiiiiik...
Samshik, spooked by the pythons' cries, burrowed deeper.
I got it. Samshik was a spirit beast, but tiny—python chow if caught between them.
"My word. Look over there."
"What's with the... Hah?"
"Riding a white deer, no less. Marvelous and eerie."
Amid it all, people began whispering about me and Jo Wi-cheo.
Marvelous and eerie, my ass. Ask any outsider: deer-rider or human-animal city—which was weirder?
'Neither's normal.'
Bitter. To others, I was a freak matching this safari town.
"Find us lodging first. Gotta figure how the city got like this."
"Yes, my lord."
Ignoring the murmurs, we sought an inn. This started at Yunnan's Sichuan-border entrance. Were Omongbu folk always beast-cozy? Did other Yunnan towns match?
Priorities.
"Are you from Baek-su-mun, by chance?"
"...Baek-su-mun?"
The ominous name hit right on entering the inn. Baek-su-mun (Hundred Beasts Gate)—sounded like the safari culprit.
I slipped the innkeeper some silver for details.
"Baek-su-mun's a sect in southern Yunnan fringes. Founded after Taizu passed."
"New sect, then. Scale?"
"I'm just a country bumpkin who's never left Omongbu, so details escape me... but in Yunnan, they're big alongside Jeom-cheongpa."
"Jeom-cheongpa?"
My brow furrowed. Baek-su-mun talk veered to Jeom-cheongpa?
"There's Jeom-cheongsan in Yunnan—Jeom-cheongpa was made by its Taoist priests and monks. Even newer than Baek-su-mun, so likely unheard of to you, my lord."
The innkeeper hastened on, seeing my frown at his silver-giver.
Definitely new to me—first since reincarnating.
'Jeom-cheongpa's formed.'
Like no Sichuan Tang family here, no Jeom-cheongpa either. Yunnan joined Central Plains under Yuan, so sparse murim wasn't odd. I'd figured it'd emerge eventually.
Not this soon.
'Baek-su-mun and Jeom-cheongpa.'
If even a Dochalwon official like me hadn't heard, they were very recent. In Yunnan, I'd tangle with them more than poison beasts.