Ban Yun-saeng (1)
Mount Gireon lay within Gansu, deep in Black Heaven Alliance territory. Most of the martial artists one encountered there belonged to the Alliance.
Of course, that didn't mean everyone living under their influence was a black faction member just because the Alliance had established branches to exert control.
The same held true for the Murim Alliance. The owner of an inn right in front of their headquarters could very well be from the shadows, simply hiding it while going about their life.
Baek So-cheon moved as inconspicuously as possible. He stuck to back roads and cut through mountains rather than main thoroughfares, even shouldering the heavy leather satchel he carried during training. In other words, he turned the journey itself into cultivation.
Once Baek So-cheon resolved to travel without incident, nothing went wrong until he reached the base of Mount Gireon.
What concerned him more was tails. The Black Heaven Alliance or even the Alliance Lord might have eyes on him.
Fortunately, he possessed an innate sense sharp enough to detect even Cheon-geuk's stealth. He was certain no one followed.
Goe-yeo had said Ban Yun-saeng was hiding out on Mount Gireon. If the man was alive, he had to be somewhere on this mountain.
Finding someone amid the vast expanse of Mount Gireon's peaks was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
If fate allows it, we'll meet, Baek So-cheon thought.
He slung his satchel over his shoulder and began the ascent. Climbing sheer cliffs barehanded, no terrain was too treacherous for him.
At the summit, he surveyed the surroundings. Several sub-peaks ringed the main one.
Where on earth are you?
Five days passed since Baek So-cheon arrived on Mount Gireon. He scaled the summits of various peaks, probing carefully for any sign of human presence.
He encountered hunters and herb gatherers but never asked about Ban Yun-saeng. In a situation where he couldn't gauge their connections, it might spook the man into vanishing for good.
Ten days of wandering the mountain left Baek So-cheon despondent for the first time.
I might never find him.
If he had endless time, he'd comb the place for months or years. But he didn't have that luxury.
Demonic thoughts crept in unbidden.
Maybe seeking Ban Yun-saeng proves how weak my resolve has become.
How could Hwan-gol Tal-tae Great Law truly remake one's bones through artificial means?
I should be building stamina instead of wasting time here.
He plunged into deep self-recrimination, only to whip himself harder.
No. Don't give up until the end.
One day, while scouring the mountain as usual and sifting through the woods for signs of life, a pungent, nose-stinging odor wafted from somewhere.
This smell...
He'd smelled it before. The stench of an incredibly potent poison!
Curiosity piqued, Baek So-cheon headed toward it. With his poison-immune constitution, there was nothing to fear.
Pushing through the underbrush, he found a single unfamiliar flower blooming there.
Its petals were blood-red, with a white fruit—or perhaps bud—at the center.
A snake coiled around the plant's base, the source of the toxic reek.
White-Horned Golden-Line Serpent!
The "horn" was more a lump, but it had a white protrusion, and golden lines striped its body. Among poison cultivators, a single gall bladder from this serpent was a dream treasure.
Then that flower...
No ordinary plant. The rare flora guarded by spirit beasts like this was often as precious as their inner cores. The mingled scents—sweet floral nectar from the bloom and venomous fumes from the snake—created an utterly novel aroma.
The White-Horned Golden-Line Serpent reared its head, poised to strike. Baek So-cheon wasn't particularly tense. Poison-proof as he was, and confident he could dodge a serpent's lunge even from a spirit beast.
That was when he sensed someone approaching from behind.
As the presence neared, Baek So-cheon whipped around. Detecting no killing intent, he didn't attack but seized the intruder's wrist and throat in a restraining hold.
Baek So-cheon froze for an instant. The man was an elder, and though he couldn't say why, instinct told him at a glance: this was the one he'd been seeking.
Ban Yun-saeng!
Right then, the serpent lunged from behind.
Shiiik.
"Dodge! You can't let it bite!"
At the elder's shout, Baek So-cheon leaped back with him, evading the strike.
They fled together some distance. The pursuing serpent retreated to its original spot.
"Phew. Lucky. If it'd bitten you, the Eternal Life Poison Forgetting Grass wouldn't have fruited this year."
Come to think of it, the warning hadn't been for his sake. The elder fretted over the snake—and the plant called Eternal Life Poison Forgetting Grass.
Even so, Baek So-cheon bowed politely.
"Might you be Hero Ban?"
"You've come looking for me? Yes, I'm the one called Yun-saeng. And you are?"
Baek So-cheon had expected a madman, but Ban Yun-saeng seemed perfectly sane. He didn't even hide his identity.
"Baek So-cheon."
"Baek So-cheon?"
At the skeptical look, Baek So-cheon clarified.
"If my name brings the Murim Alliance's War God to mind, that's me."
"Really you? How can I believe it?"
"If I explain how I found this place, will you trust me?"
"How did you know?"
"Hero Goe told me."
"Ah!"
Ban Yun-saeng believed him then. Goe-yeo was the only one who knew his whereabouts. He wouldn't have shared with just anyone—only someone like Baek So-cheon. Besides, Goe-yeo was locked in the Murim Alliance's prison; only a figure of Baek So-cheon's stature could visit.
"No sense standing here. Come to my home."
"Lead the way."
In a stroke of sheer luck, the spirit grass and beast had led him straight to Ban Yun-saeng.
* * *
Ban Yun-saeng's dwelling was a cave.
Overgrown vines and jutting rocks concealed the entrance. Had he missed him today, Baek So-cheon might never have found it.
The interior dwarfed the modest opening. A wooden bed, shelves, and table filled the space. Books piled everywhere concerned poisons, spirit herbs, anatomy, meridians, and rare ingredients.
"Here, fruit wine I brewed myself. Care for a cup?"
"Please."
Baek So-cheon sipped the offered drink. Sweet and smooth—fine stuff.
"That old monster's still kicking?"
"Locked in the thunder prison. Spry as ever."
"He'd lose his mind over this brew."
The two had bonded once over drink. Ban Yun-saeng loved brewing; Goe-yeo, imbibing. Simple as that.
Goe-yeo was one of the Ten Great Evils, but their friendship—forged through liquor—was pure. Ban Yun-saeng was a lifelong physician-scholar devoted to researching Hwan-gol Tal-tae Great Law.
"No need to worry about his liquor supply. As thanks for pointing me your way, he's probably drinking daily now."
"Is that so? Good, good."
"I'll tell him what a fine man you are when I return."
"What do you mean?"
"He asked if I believed your 'mad ravings.'"
Baek So-cheon smoothly shifted to Hwan-gol Tal-tae Great Law.
Goe-yeo had called it madness many times before, so Ban Yun-saeng smiled and asked,
"And you? Do you believe Hwan-gol Tal-tae Great Law is possible?"
Frankly, Baek So-cheon didn't. Bones and skin remade? Unlikely. If possible at all, it'd require heaven-defying fortune, not mortal artifice.
Then why seek him out?
Baek So-cheon believed in a different kind of transformation.
Even if bones and flesh stayed the same, he yearned for his ruptured dantian to heal, inner power to return.
That alone would be his Hwan-gol Tal-tae.
"I believe those 'mad ravings.'"
Sensing the sincerity in Baek So-cheon's eyes, Ban Yun-saeng's lit with fervor.
No one had ever truly believed him in his lifetime. They pointed fingers or pitied him.
"You really think Hwan-gol Tal-tae Great Law is possible?"
"I'd not be here otherwise."
"What do you mean?"
"Perform Hwan-gol Tal-tae Great Law on me."
Ban Yun-saeng started. He'd suspected, but not that Baek So-cheon came specifically to request it.
"Prove your words right to the world."
Ban Yun-saeng fell silent. A lifelong dream unrealized. He hadn't quit, but knew it futile.
"But why you?"
"Examine my body."
Baek So-cheon extended his hand.
Ban Yun-saeng took his wrist like a pulse-reader.
Infusing a thread of energy, he probed Baek So-cheon's condition.
"I heard rumors you'd lost your qi... It's true. But your body—it's no ordinary one."
"I've trained."
Ban Yun-saeng's gaze sharpened.
"To endure the Great Law, the body must be robust. Yours is ideal."
Three years of grueling training felt like preparation for this moment.
Not the desperate rebirth of a dying man in a pond of ten-thousand-year fire carp or dripping Gong-cheong Seok-yu.
This was artificial Hwan-gol Tal-tae Great Law—days of tormenting ritual demanding endurance.
"That's not all."
"What else?"
"I read your book. It said the subject needs not just a sturdy frame but resistance to toxins."
"Correct."
The reason past attempts failed. No one withstood the poison. Antidotes ruined the rite; without, they died.
"I have a body immune to all poisons."
Ban Yun-saeng's pupils quivered. Few knew Baek So-cheon's trait.
"Earlier, you said if it bit me, the Eternal Life Poison Forgetting Grass would wither fruitless. Is that grass key to Hwan-gol Tal-tae Great Law?"
"Yes. When it fruits every three years, the White-Horned Golden-Line Serpent injects its venom. Only then does the fruit form. One must consume and survive it."
The white bud was fruit, not flower.
"I can endure its toxin."
Ban Yun-saeng believed in fate. Without that faith, he'd never have researched a lifetime.
He'd roamed the Central Plains for spirit beasts and rare herbs tied to Hwan-gol Tal-tae.
He'd secluded here long ago upon finding the Eternal Life Poison Forgetting Grass.
Three years since discovery, no serpent appeared—no fruit. This year, it finally did.
And now Baek So-cheon arrived. How could it not be destiny? Especially as age sapped his own strength to climb.
Ban Yun-saeng asked gravely,
"Can you truly handle it? Failure means death. All my subjects perished."
Baek So-cheon replied calmly,
"Without trying, I'm dead anyway."
The Black Heaven Lord would kill him eventually.
Because he'd shattered his lifelong dream.
Perhaps hatred amused the Lord, letting him live—for a dramatic execution amid war, before all eyes.
Gazing at Baek So-cheon, Ban Yun-saeng steeled his heart.
"Very well. Let's try."