The Art of Harmony
Dong, dong...
"...It is time, sir."
"Huh?"
"Chef Yoon, it is time to wake up."
"...Not the sergeant?"
"Pardon?"
"Ah, right. I'm in the Central Plains."
I was still half-asleep, my mind completely in a haze.
When I finally came to, a servant who had been on night watch was waking me up in a voice so dreary it almost triggered my military PTSD. No wonder I mistook this place for the army.
Suddenly, I remembered that crazy junior of mine who used to flash an LED lantern right in my eyes just to 'verify my face' during night duty.
"Yaaawn."
Normally, a good night's sleep would have had me springing out of bed instantly, but I had been sleeping in short, fragmented shifts for the past few days to run some experiments, leaving me utterly exhausted.
Honestly, even if we were talking about 'harmony,' there was no point in creating some monstrosity like a Rosé-Mara-Brown-Sugar-Bburinkle-McCol-Teas'tea-Mint-Choco-Kimchi-Pizza-Tangsuyuk Rice Bowl. That would just be a crime against culinary science.
Clearing my head with a morning session of qi circulation to start the day, I headed briskly toward the Outer Dining Hall kitchen.
*Click!*
Opening the jar I had left in the kitchen, I found it filled to the brim with a dark, thick substance.
This was the fruit of my grueling labor over the past few days.
I scooped a tiny bit up with a chopstick.
It was a reddish-brown paste—neither solid nor liquid, but perfectly viscous.
The color turned out quite nice, didn't it?
"Mmh."
Tasting it, it wasn't bad at all.
Since I had rushed the process, it was a bit on the salty side, but it was still highly flavorful.
Pouring my internal qi into it to force-ferment it over the last few days had definitely paid off.
Now, you might wonder why a nutritionist whose job was to feed growing kids was suddenly making fermented paste. It was all for the dish I planned to use in Elder Cheongjo's lecture.
Since most of the ingredients for the dishes I wanted to make didn't exist in the Central Plains, I had to make all the minor seasonings and pastes from scratch.
I sorely missed modern supermarkets, where you could get any ingredient just by reaching out your hand. *Sniff.*
Trudging over to the Inner Dining Hall to inspect the various wild greens I would use for the lecture...
I walked into the kitchen only to find the servants gathered in a circle, whispering anxiously among themselves.
"What's going on? Why is everyone gathered here?"
"H-Head Chef. Well, you see..."
One of the servants hesitated, shifting from foot to foot.
Why was everyone acting like this?
"You all know me. As long as you do your jobs, I don't micromanage... I mean, I don't bother you. What's the matter?"
Unlike military officers who preached about 'guaranteeing rest' but never actually did, I genuinely kept my word.
But seeing the grim expressions on their faces despite my easygoing tone, I realized something was seriously wrong.
Squeezing my way through the crowd of servants, I saw a large wooden crate filled to the brim with leafy greens.
It was a wild herb that any Korean would instantly recognize.
"We ordered dried bracken, but they sent raw bracken instead."
"Wait, really?"
Peering into the crate, I saw fresh, raw bracken, still smelling of raw earth.
Raw bracken is so toxic that even wild animals avoid eating it; it should never be consumed raw.
It must be boiled and then dried to remove the toxins.
But there was no way the academy's official ingredient supplier didn't know something so basic.
"Are the rest of the ingredients fine?"
"The dried shiitake mushrooms are also in terrible condition. They smell musty, as if they've absorbed moisture."
A servant opened an adjacent crate and lifted a dried shiitake mushroom to show me.
Look at these bastards.
I had specifically requested top-grade ingredients, but they had sent bottom-of-the-barrel trash.
I had emphasized that these were for an official lecture, yet the ingredients were an absolute disaster.
Even the other ingredients, which looked fresh at a glance, were mostly rotten or spoiled on the inside.
"Wasn't today's delivery supposed to come from 'Seonpung Fruits'? They supply the Outer Dining Hall too, so they would never pull a stunt like this."
Given my position, I had to maintain close communication with our suppliers.
They say a master calligrapher doesn't blame his brush, but better ingredients naturally make for better food.
I had completely severed ties with the previous shady supplier and signed a new contract with the reliable merchant group that had been supplying the Outer Dining Hall.
The old supplier, after all, had been deeply entangled with Geum Ho.
So I was baffled as to how this could happen, until a servant answered with an anxious face.
"Well... Seonpung Fruits said they were short on stock, so we had to source from another place just for this week."
"Where?"
"From the Hyeondong Merchant Guild..."
"Ugh, those petty bastards."
The moment the name left his mouth, I couldn't help but press a hand to my forehead.
Of all places, it had to be them.
The shady supplier previously connected to Geum Ho that I just mentioned? That was the Hyeondong Merchant Guild.
The reason I had cut ties with them was incredibly simple: they had offered to kick back a certain percentage of the ingredient costs directly to me if I bought from them.
In other words, a bribe.
I didn't reject the kickback out of some noble sense of justice.
It was just that Geum Ho had literally just been kicked out for embezzlement, and I had no desire to follow in his footsteps.
If I was going to get fired, I'd rather it be for something cool.
In any case, having their kickback offer rejected, the Hyeondong Merchant Guild had clearly decided to seek petty revenge. This pile of garbage masquerading as ingredients was undoubtedly their doing.
It was hard to comprehend how people who knew my face could pull such a blatant stunt, but then again, the world was full of idiots who did incomprehensible things on a daily basis.
I would deal with the Hyeondong Merchant Guild later. For now, I had to handle the immediate crisis.
"First, let's see if we can source the rest of the ingredients from the Outer Dining Hall. For whatever we're short on, we'll go out and buy them right now. The fruit and vegetable market in Poeun should be open by now."
I decided to tackle the problems one by one, starting with what was immediately solvable.
Most of the ingredients were easy to find nearby, so that wouldn't be an issue.
Hearing my orders, the servants immediately rushed out of the Inner Dining Hall. However, the remaining servants pointed at the raw bracken with worried faces.
"But dried bracken will be very difficult to find on such short notice..."
"Then we'll just have to parch it ourselves."
"Patch it?"
"No, parch it."
It was probably an unfamiliar term to them. Even I rarely used it in daily life.
"Light the stove and bring me a cauldron large enough to fit all of this bracken."
"Yes, sir!"
Normally, to prepare raw bracken for consumption, you have to blanch it and then soak it in water for an entire day to leach out the toxins.
But we didn't have that kind of time.
This was exactly when I needed to use my trump card: the Medicine Sage's Medicine Formulation Method.
"First, blanch the bracken for about a quarter of a gak."
A quarter of a gak was roughly seven minutes.
While the servants blanched the bracken, I placed a massive cauldron over the roaring fire of the stove.
Master Yakseon, please allow me to be a righteous chef once again today.
Lulupang, Lulupi, Luluyap.
The Medicine Sage's Medicine Formulation Method was fundamentally based on the laws of Yin-Yang and the Five Elements.
This was because the theory originated from the belief that everything in the universe could be explained through these principles.
If one were to categorize the toxicity of bracken—the poison itself—into Yin or Yang, it would undoubtedly fall under Yin.
That was why soaking blanched bracken in water worked; the toxins naturally seeped out into the water, which possessed a much greater Yin energy.
However, that was a method for when time was on your side. The fastest way was to utilize Yang energy.
You simply had to burn away the Yin energy with Yang energy.
For this reason, drying blanched bracken under the sun also eliminated its toxicity.
But the sun hadn't even risen yet, and we couldn't afford to wait all day.
I looked down at my hands.
I couldn't just channel ordinary internal qi from my dantian like I usually did.
I had to extract only the Yang energy from my perfectly balanced qi and channel it into my hands.
"Whew..."
I felt a bit tense. This wasn't a technique I could show off often.
"Head Chef, we've blanched them!"
"Dump them all into the cauldron. Did you shake off the excess water?"
"Yes, we shook them dry!"
The servants dumped the blanched bracken into the piping-hot cauldron.
Now, it was time for my hands to do the heavy lifting.
I can do this. I can do this.
Closing my eyes, I focused all my senses on my hands, untangling the internal qi in my dantian strand by strand like a knotted thread.
Yin and Yang, and then Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth.
Finally, I began to slowly channel the isolated Yang energy into my hands.
If I refined this just a bit more, it would become Extreme Yang energy. With a little more effort, I could even manifest the Samadhi True Fire, the hallmark of an Absolute Master.
But today was not that day. Today was simply about burning away the toxins of the blanched bracken with Yang energy.
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
I began to vigorously toss and stir the blanched bracken with my bare hands.
This was the true art of parching.
With every touch of my hands, acrid smoke billowed up.
This smoke was the very toxicity leaving the bracken.
"Don't breathe in this smoke! Open the windows!"
"Yes, sir!"
As the kitchen rapidly filled with the pungent smoke, the servants frantically threw the windows open.
Not stopping there, they even began fanning the air with large wooden trays.
*Sizzle... Sizzle...*
Searing under the intense Yang energy, the bracken was drying up rapidly, looking like martial artists who had just had their energy drained by the Heaven-Absorbing Great Art.
It was a beautiful sight.
"H-Head Chef! Your sleeves! Your sleeves are catching fire!"
"I know!"
Because I was channeling extremely refined Yang energy into my hands, the fabric of my sleeves touching my wrists was beginning to scorch and singe.
But a mere set of clothes didn't matter right now; the lecture did.
Of course, I could have just given up.
To an outsider, this would look like the passionate dedication of a hot-blooded teacher willing to burn himself for his students. But the only thing actually burning here wasn't my passion—it was my hands.
"Ah, hot, hot...!"
A groan escaped my lips from the sheer heat.
I couldn't take it anymore.
I immediately pulled my hands out of the cauldron.
In any case, this was more than enough parching.
Having absorbed a massive amount of Yang energy, the blanched bracken had dried up completely, resembling brittle twigs.
I ordered the servants to transfer the dried bracken to another container while I waved my hands in the air to cool them down.
Despite what I had just done, my hands were only slightly red, without a single blister in sight.
Well, since the Third Stage of the Baekyak-gwonkyeol was said to be capable of shattering solid boulders, I suppose this much was only natural.
Sighing in relief, I looked around at the servants.
Their eyes were wide with awe, staring at me as if I were some legendary master of the martial world.
Hey, I was just trapped in a cave for four years.
"..."
Well, come to think of it, that wasn't exactly normal either, was it?
"Now that the dried bracken is ready, I'll leave the rest of the prep to you all."
"Thank you for your hard work, Head Chef!"
The servants would easily handle the rest of the ingredients.
Now, I could finally focus entirely on the lecture...
Actually, no. There was someone else I needed to pay a visit to.
Hyeondong Merchant Guild.
Just wait until my lecture is over, you bastards.
I waited quietly outside the multi-purpose lecture hall in Soyo Hall.
About half a gak before the lecture was scheduled to begin, students started trickling in.
Seeing a stove and a large iron wok set up inside the classroom—a highly unusual sight—the students wore expressions of utter confusion.
"What's with the iron wok?"
"Don't tell me he's going to force some connection between martial arts and tea leaves again, making us parch tea leaves in a wok?"
"No way, that's ridiculous."
"I'm serious. I heard there was a semester where they did nothing but parch tea leaves the entire time."
"Ugh, please no..."
Listening to their chatter, it seemed Elder Cheongjo's reputation was, unfortunately, that of a tea-obsessed monster—the 'Tea Freak' himself.
"Chef Yoon, everything is ready."
The gyodu of the Western Hall, the department Elder Cheongjo belonged to, approached me with a polite bow.
Today, I planned to conduct the lecture alongside the Western Hall's gyodu without any other instructors present. Oh, and with the kitchen servants helping out, of course.
The moment I stepped into the lecture hall, a wave of murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"Wait, isn't that the guy who cooks at the Outer Dining Hall?"
"No, the servants said he's the Head Chef. The Hall Master of both the Inner and Outer Dining Halls."
"He's so young, though. Wasn't it an old man last year?"
"They changed it starting this year."
I can hear you, you little punks.
Still, 'the guy who cooks'? Really? I was sorely tempted to show them a taste of my Baekyak-gwonkyeol with a swift flick to their foreheads.
Clearing my throat, I stood before the podium and scanned the students.
Since this was a general elective course open to all years, the students varied wildly in both height and age.
"I'm sure you're all wondering why a young man has shown up instead of Instructor Cheongjo."
"Yeees."
"I am Yoon Gomyung, the Inner and Outer Hall Master. I will be conducting today's lecture on Food Culture and Internal Qi: Integration and Understanding on behalf of Instructor Cheongjo."
*Clap, clap, clap!*
The students offered a polite round of applause.
However, when I announced my title, a few of them let out snickers.
It was a blatantly mocking laugh.
The greasy-looking punk sitting right in the middle, and the cronies around him... I've got my eyes on you. Strike one.
Ignoring them for now, I continued.
"As the Inner and Outer Hall Master, my job is to design the meals you eat. For example, this morning's breakfast was stir-fried Sichuan xiangchang sausage with vegetables, pickled radish, and chicken congee, correct?"
"Yeees."
"A moderate amount of chicken is especially good in the morning. It's easy to digest and gentle on the stomach, making congee the perfect choice. After all, you can't study well on an empty stomach, can you?"
"That's so trueee."
Very few people dislike good food.
This was especially true for students who were at an age where they could eat a horse.
Naturally, if I connected their favorite subject—food—with martial arts, they were bound to pay attention.
It was time to start using food as an analogy for the profound principles of martial arts.
"But did you know that even that simple chicken congee contains the secrets of the Five Elements?"
"Oh, come on. How can chicken congee have the Five Elements in it? What, did you sprinkle some iron shavings in there?"
*Snicker, snicker.*
Look at this little bastard. Now he was openly mocking me right in the middle of my lecture.
They say patience is a virtue, but my patience was wearing thin.
Strike two. Let's let it slide just one more time.
"Just because the foundation of the Five Elements is based on natural elements, you shouldn't take it so literally as to think we're sprinkling iron and dirt into your food. What is your name?"
When I asked, the boy locked his fingers behind his head and smirked.
"Me? I'm Namgung Geum."
"Ah, the younger brother of Young Master Namgung Mun, the Vice President of the Dongdo Association?"
"That's right. He's my brother."
It seemed the Namgung Clan had suffered a catastrophic harvest when it came to raising children.
Even the second son, Namgung Mun, wasn't entirely right in the head, but compared to this kid, he looked like a saint. How did they manage to produce one spoiled brat after another?
I stared intently at Namgung Geum and replied, "It seems our Young Master Namgung hasn't studied his martial arts as diligently as his brother, so I'll have to ask another fellow student."
"...!"
I wasn't about to let myself be pushed around by the younger brother of Namgung Mun—especially when their cousin Namgung Geuk, despite being from a prestigious noble family, had failed his gyodu exam.
I let out a smirk and snorted at Namgung Geum.
The Five Elements didn't just refer to five physical elements. There were two other ways to represent them.
"Our well-built friend sitting in the front. While the Five Elements are indeed the elements that make up the world, they can also be expressed in two other ways. What are they?"
I directed the question to the largest, most robust student in the front row.
"Uh... D-Directions and colors."
"Correct. What is your name?"
"M-Man Hanseok."
"Come by the Outer Dining Hall later. I'll give you some mooncakes I made myself."
Exactly. This was basic knowledge.
When I offered a reward for answering such a fundamental question, the punk who had been mocking me scowled.
And what are you going to do about it, huh?
"Indeed. They are directions and colors. You can see this just by looking at the Yellow Dragon statue standing at the center of the four academic halls. That structure represents the north, south, east, west, and center through the Five Elements, and the colors of the buildings are also tied to their respective directions."
I hadn't made that chicken congee on a whim.
I held up five fingers and folded them down one by one as I explained.
"The ingredients of the chicken congee are as follows: Green, representing Wood, is zucchini and scallions. White, representing Metal, is the chicken. Red, representing Fire, is the carrots. Black, representing Water, is the black pepper. And though you couldn't see it, Yellow, representing Earth, was substituted with milkvetch root, which was infused into the chicken broth."
"Ooh!"
The students, who had simply eaten the food without a second thought, gasped in admiration. They had never imagined such deep meaning was packed into a simple bowl of congee.
Namgung Geum kept his mouth shut, his face sour.
Good, good.
"As you can see, Yin-Yang and the Five Elements are constantly present in our daily lives, mirroring the profound principles of the Taiji. What is lacking is complemented, and everything harmonizes together."
Now, it was time to prepare today's dish.
*Clap, clap!*
I clapped my hands twice, and the waiting servants stepped forward to arrange various ingredients on the table next to the stove.
"Today's lecture will literally deal with the integration of food and internal qi. Therefore, the dish I will prepare in front of you is..."
An assortment of wild greens, white rice, and a small jar placed right in the center of the table.
As the ingredients for the one dish that best explained the Taiji and the Five Elements were laid out, the students leaned forward, their eyes glued to the table.
With everyone's attention locked onto me, I spoke.
"It is Goldongban."
This was the ultimate dish to illustrate the profound harmony of the Taiji.