Ghost Blood Cave (5)

"The things you brought back from that place?"

The one-armed woman gazed up at the moon for a long moment before answering.

"Now that you mention it... I don't think I ever did tell you about that."

The story goes that Baek Seo-ha and her teammates had barely, bloodily managed to subdue Dang Ak in that place.

"The rewards from that dungeon were worth more than your average A-rank gate."

"One look was enough to leave my jaw hanging open, I swear."

And then I came face to face with it myself.

The treasure vault the Medicine Immortal had so jealously preserved.

Secondhand, the stories had earned nothing more from me than a huh, interesting.

"Unbelievable."

Face to face, it was beyond anything I'd imagined.

"You're telling me all of this is elixirs, herbs, and skill books?"

Beyond the laboratory-like chamber, a deeper room opened up — somewhere the Medicine Immortal had apparently used for his personal work. Every drawer was crammed with herbs that looked priceless at a glance, and the elixirs were stocked by type, each in its place.

"This is...!"

By its appearance, and by that sharp, fizzy scent — there was no mistaking it. This was an elixir I remembered drinking even before my regression.

It wasn't the kind of elixir that inflated your stats or carried any exotic ability — but for restoring an exhausted body, nothing could have been more perfect.

Crunch!

Without ceremony, I popped one into my mouth. The moment I bit down, pure qi slid down my throat and washed through my whole body with a cool rush.

'Recovering fatigue isn't all it does, either.'

Even the mana I'd drained dry unleashing Mad Bull Dance came flooding back in a single gulp. Considering my mana pool wasn't even that large yet, the recovery speed was monstrous.

'If I remember right, sellers outside the gate were asking about 5,000 won a pill — five bucks apiece.'

Not that I could complain about the price. The best potions money could buy only melted away physical exhaustion; not one of them could refill drained inner energy.

If I carted these off to the Tower to sell, I'd be sitting on a pile of gold in no time. Those mages spend all year whining about mana depletion.

'Not that I'm hurting for money.'

This was one of those moments where being a chaebol brat actually paid off. I didn't have to weigh a treasure like this against a price tag.

"I'll take all of these, for starters."

Opening my Subspace Bracelet, I swept every remaining Azure Qi Pill inside without missing a single one. The various skill books laid out in the form of secret manuals went in after them, the whole ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lot.

'What, even if it's a dead immortal's belongings — doesn't your conscience prick at you?'

The dead don't say a word. And besides, rather than let everything he left behind rot away in here, wouldn't it be better for his legacy to be carried on in some other form?

'Hkk.'

With a dry gulp, I scooped up everything that looked valuable. Even so, the true mains — two of them — were still waiting.

'Oh, right. That elixir was here too.'

Clearly.

'I only found it because I stumbled onto that drawer's hidden compartment by sheer luck. Good fortune, that.'

Reach deep into the very bottom drawer, and...

"Oh... ohh. There really is something in here."

Something square bumped against my fingertips, once, twice. I pulled with a firm hand, and a box crowned with a golden dragon came away in my grip.

"This is the one!"

The moment I opened the lid, a fragrance like an entire mountain range compressed into a single breath stabbed straight into my brain.

All I'd done was break the seal.

"The pressure is no joke...?!"

The Medicine Immortal had to have been out of his mind. Storing an elixir this precious in nothing more than a cave like this.

"So it was true — the Heavenly Dragon Elixir really did come from this gate."

An honest-to-god S-rank elixir. A reward almost impossible to believe had come out of a B-rank gate.

'In my past life, a Heavenly Dragon Elixir went up for auction.'

S-rank elixirs saw the light of day once a year, if that. Naturally, a bidding war had erupted across the entire world, and in the end the hammer fell for a British hunter.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The price: roughly 150 billion won — call it 120 million dollars.

A sum ordinary people couldn't even imagine. And yet, years later, the consensus was that he'd gotten it dirt cheap.

That's how much weight an S-rank elixir carries.

'Thank god I ended the stream.'

I had cut the broadcast before entering this place. The viewers had howled for me to show off whatever I found — but if I'd put this on screen, I'd have been caught in the same frenzy as my past life all over again.

Only after tucking the Heavenly Dragon Elixir into my subspace could I finally turn my eyes toward where the last treasure waited.

"This one is..."

After greedily seeing to every last corner down to the final scraps, I left the room and returned to the chamber from before.

"You're back."

Kang Hwi was standing there, a wry smile on his face as he glanced sideways at the Medicine Immortal's body.

"He must have been a famous immortal."

"I couldn't lie about that."

The corners of Kang Hwi's eyes creased gently.

"Back when I was little, people used to say, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠'Even if it hurts, bear it — the Medicine Immortal will come and make everything whole again.'"

"Sounds like something out of a fairy tale."

In this world, the word immortal carried a great many meanings. Villains who preyed on the weak. Heroes who stood guard against them. Beings of legend and lore. Superhumans who truly existed. Neighbors from the same world.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

That was what they had been, before every last one of them became a wraith. Now they were simply monsters — things to flee from, or to stand against.

"Haha... who could say how it all came to this."

Kang Hwi let out a hollow laugh and leaned his back against the wall.

"You know quite a lot about immortals. Any particular reason?"

"Does your world have no immortals, Foreigner?"

"Beings like them, sure."

Awakened and hunters. Humans who wielded power beyond the human. In some ways, they resembled the immortals of this place.

"Then surely there are those who worship such beings, too."

"There are."

"I'm one of them, to be honest. There was a time I admired those immortals and monks myself."

Kang Hwi confessed it plainly, without pretense.

"I dabbled in the sword hoping for that, imitated the training as best I could — but it was all for nothing. I had no spiritual roots."

Spiritual roots. In our world's terms, it would be the stage of awakening that comes before becoming a hunter. Without them, one cannot wield martial arts — and so one can never become an immortal.

"After that, what was I supposed to live for? When a goal you've held your whole life vanishes in an instant, all that's left is emptiness. I shut myself in my room like a hermit. Wouldn't even help with the farm work."

"......"

"Then, Kang Yul came into my life."

A younger sister, a fair stretch of years between them. Somehow, it didn't feel like someone else's story at all.

"The moment I held her in my arms, I knew. Here was a child I wanted to protect, even if it took every remaining day of my life to do it."

The rest of the story was predictable, if predictable was the word. Losing their parents. The world being eaten away by wraiths. And through it all, he had lived on a single resolve: to protect his sister. And to protect her —

"I have to become... stronger."

His fists clenched tight.

"Honestly, following you today was for that reason too."

"You thought you could learn something from me?"

"...I couldn't fool you after all, could I."

Kang Hwi gave a sheepish smile.

"Your martial arts were never something I could even dream of imitating."

"Obviously. Did you think you'd pick this up over someone's shoulder?"

I humored him, playing along with the rhythm of the conversation — all while pretending not to notice whatever hidden thing he kept fidgeting over, and tossed out a light remark.

"Anyway. Seen everything you needed to see?"

"Yes."

"Then let's head out."

We buried the Medicine Immortal's body in the earth and raised a modest grave for him, and then we left the cave and made our way back to the village.

That night.

Instead of sleeping, I lay staring up at the moon. A golden full moon hanging in the drifting clouds — it was like a painting.

"...I'd say it's about time."

I donned my gear with practiced ease and headed for the village entrance.

Not long after I arrived—

Rustle!

Someone draped in a black cloak came hurrying toward me, footsteps quick and anxious, hurrying toward the world beyond the village. He hadn't noticed me at all.

"And where might you be going in such a hurry?"

The moment my voice rang out, the cloaked figure recoiled backward, frightened out of his wits.

"Wh-who are you...?"

"Out at this hour. Braving the dangerous wilds beyond the village."

Spear in hand, I closed the distance step by step.

"Something about this feels off, doesn't it?"

"D-don't come any closer!"

He raised his sword.

"Suspicious reaction, too. I'd wager you're off to do something shady?"

For instance, say—

"Releasing the seal on the host ahead of the grace period."

"...!"

I'd struck home; the man's voice seized up with panic.

"What are you talking about..."

"Did you know? When a Sugwi — a venom-swallowing demon — bites you, the jiangshi spell etches itself along your blood vessels all the way into your brain."

That wasn't unique to the Sugwi, either. It was a trait you could find without any trouble in undead-type monsters — ordinary jiangshi and zombies alike.

"That said, it doesn't always end in transformation. Call it a kind of incubation period."

If you died from the bite, you became a jiangshi or a Sugwi on the spot. If you survived, you remained human — but only slowly died, the spell still lodged in your skull.

"Once that incubation runs out and you turn, there's no undoing it. By then you're already a walking corpse."

"......"

"But before that point, it can be reversed."

The method was simple. Just as slaying Wengrum had freed the countless phantom knights all at once, destroying the being at the root of the spell made the spell vanish on its own. Those who had already become Sugwi would simply return to being corpses — but those who hadn't yet transformed, who were only wasting away with the spell carved into their brains, could still be saved.

"In the Ghost Blood Cave today, there were all kinds of records the Medicine Immortal left behind. He must have known. That the jiangshi spell had been etched into his own brain. That he was living on borrowed time — and that even his corpse would be desecrated in the end."

And so the Medicine Immortal had sealed himself away in that place, racking his mind, devising method after method. In the end, he reached two conclusions: that the spell could only be dispelled by killing its caster or its host, and how to break the seal on the host imprisoned within the mountain.

"The Blue Moon only rises once a year. Expecting no one could hold out until then, he found a way to break the seal early. He succeeded in leaving the method behind, but..."

I pictured Dang Ak's form, fallen to the Sugwi.

"He didn't have the time left to see it through."

And a short while after, someone with the very same reason to break the seal found that place.

"That someone is you. Kang Hwi."

"...Figured as much."

The prowler of midnight. Kang Hwi pulled off his cloak.

"I'm no match for you, Foreigner."

"Do you understand how foolish what you're doing is?"

"Then why did you turn a blind eye while I stole the Medicine Immortal's research?"

So he had noticed, after all — that I'd been pretending not to see.

"I was curious what choice you'd make."

"A choice... you say?"

The corner of his mouth twisted upward.

"What choice do I even have?!"

"Why wouldn't you have one?"

I came to a stop in front of Kang Hwi. From the flawless moon overhead, light like powdered silver came drifting down.

"Your sister. And the villagers."

It wasn't Kang Hwi who'd been bitten by the Sugwi.

"You had a choice about whom to act for."

The spell carved into a brain belonged to his sister. To Kang Yul.

"Breaking the seal early might save your sister. But if you did, the formation would vanish before anyone was ready. Then everyone in this village dies."

"......"

"Everyone except me."

He meant to unleash a calamity ahead of schedule to save a single girl. Even in the warmest-hearted village in the world, with their own lives hanging in the balance — he'd be lucky not to be beaten and driven out, let alone agreed with.

"Me, I'll take down that host one way or another and open an exit from here."

If the host died, the spell etched into Kang Yul would vanish with it.

Before the incubation ran out.

"Act the other way, and the village's losses shrink — but your sister dies. Those were the choices you were given."

Baek Seo-ha always used to say it — in a voice thick with the bitter taste of regret.

'If only, back then, I hadn't ignored Kang Hwi as he gathered the research materials in Ghost Blood Cave.'

"Foreigner."

'If only I had reached out — paid even the smallest attention to Kang Yul, to Kang Hwi—'

"As I thought, I never had a choice, did I?"

'Then Kang Hwi would never have broken the seal. Never have unleashed the Sugwi upon the village.'

"A choice that put anything — anything — ahead of Kang Yul..."

"It never existed from the very beginning."