The Five Poisons Flying Tiger, Myo Jin
“Will it set?”
“I don’t know about that, but you’ll at least become stronger than you are now. Strong enough to stand above the branch leaders, even.”
At those words, a dry gulp slid down Dan Yeop’s throat.
To become stronger than the branch leaders at only eighteen years old!
Suddenly, Baek Yu-hwa came to mind.
He wondered what kind of expression she would make upon seeing him as a true expert.
A short while later, the investigation team’s carriages began to move.
Dan Yeop’s face as he stared out the window looked somehow troubled.
‘Haa… What even am I?’
When he first experienced cultivation deviation, he had simply thought of the heart demon as an illness that needed to be cured.
Yet now, not only he but even Dan Bul-wi was relying on that very heart demon.
The heart demon handled everything flawlessly, while he himself could not.
‘I’m the normal one, and the heart demon is the one that’s wrong…’
At this point, the very meaning of normal and wrong had lost all significance.
As his mind grew sharper, his thoughts only multiplied.
Not long ago at the high mountain lodge, he had sincerely told Seol Yeon-hui that the heart demon was “the version of myself I wish to overcome.”
‘And yet it feels like I’m the one who’s going to be overcome…’
The fact that he had voluntarily awakened the heart demon after only being conscious for one shichen (two hours) left him with a strange feeling.
‘This time the duration was so short that there’s nothing worth recording in the Hundred Diaries.’
Muttering to himself, Dan Yeop drew in a deep breath.
“Shhh… Hoo—!”
As he exhaled, Genius Dan Yeop awakened.
Dan Yeop scanned the interior of the carriage before turning his gaze out the window.
The sunlight was bright, but it was difficult to tell the exact time from it alone.
‘Why did Dunce Dan Yeop wake me?’
It wasn’t an absolutely critical situation, and there was nothing to do inside the carriage. He couldn’t understand the reason.
For the first time in a while, he decided to simply pass the time doing nothing.
About half a shichen (one hour) passed without incident?
He had been nodding off when the carriage suddenly jolted, startling him awake.
‘Huk!’
Once he regained his senses, a certain realization hit him and he was shocked.
‘Huh? I’m still here?’
Even though he had dozed for a short while, he was still inside the carriage exactly as before.
A strange sense of relief washed over him.
He had always lived fiercely.
Whenever he fell asleep, he worried whether he would be able to wake up again.
Because if Dunce Dan Yeop did not wish it, he could never appear in the world.
That was also why he called himself a heart demon.
So the moment he realized he had only dozed briefly, his heart had sunk.
He had feared that a huge amount of time had passed again.
But it seemed this much was still within the acceptable range.
At that moment, the carriage began to gradually slow down.
It looked like they were going to take a break.
As soon as the carriage stopped, Dan Bul-wi and the warriors also woke from their sleep.
The four of them stepped outside as if by prior agreement.
People poured out from the other carriages as well.
The warriors who had disembarked stretched their stiff limbs or wandered around the area leisurely.
While lightly loosening his body alongside Dan Bul-wi, Dan Yeop spoke.
“Master, did something happen to Dunce Dan Yeop?”
“Huh! Did that fellow use internal energy?”
“Yes. He woke up inside the carriage about half a shichen ago. There was nothing to do and he was so bored he thought he would die.”
“Hmm. So that means he woke you after only one shichen (two hours)… Ah! It must be because of the True Martial Arts.”
“True Martial Arts?”
“I told him about the Jin-chil-sang-do-beop. After that, he said he wanted to learn it quickly so he could teach it to himself as well.”
“Ah, so that’s why he called me out?”
“It’s at most twenty days to Baekwol Kingdom.”
“Understood. I will teach him the True Martial Arts whenever time permits.”
After that, Dan Yeop taught Dan Bul-wi the Jin-chil-sang-do-beop whenever he had a spare moment.
Thanks to that, by the next day Dan Bul-wi had completely mastered the Jin-chil-sang-do-beop.
From then on, Dunce Dan Yeop’s internal energy training returned to a one-day cycle.
That was because he, too, had to learn the Jin-chil-sang-do-beop from Dan Bul-wi.
Just as a river flows from above to below, the Jin-chil-sang-do-beop, Jinbaekryu Dobeop, and Jincheonji Dobeop passed through Dan Bul-wi and reached Dunce Dan Yeop.
On the very day that Dunce Dan Yeop mastered Haomun’s Jin-sam-dae-do-beop, the investigation team finally arrived in Baekwol Kingdom.
***
That night.
Squad Leader Baek Jin-gang came looking for Dan Bul-wi.
“The trading partner of Manager Seol Gyeong-mun’s party is in a village called Suyanggo in Hwaryeongbu. We must travel one more day from here.”
“Understood.”
“By the way, does Grandmaster Dan have any connections with sects in Namun Castle or Hwaryeongbu?”
Namun Castle was the heart of Baekwol Kingdom, and Hwaryeongbu belonged to it as well.
“None.”
“Ah, I see. Then I will continue to lead the investigation. If you have any questions, please ask me anytime.”
“Let’s do that.”
Squad Leader Baek Jin-gang gave a formal bow—clasping both hands before him and bending at the waist—toward Grandmaster Dan before departing.
Dunce Dan Yeop said to Dan Bul-wi,
“Everyone says our sect is extremely well-informed, yet it seems they know nothing about Baekwol Kingdom because it’s too far?”
“That can’t be. I simply said we had none because there’s no need to show all our cards to the opponent.”
“Ah! So you do have connections?”
“We haven’t formed close ties with any sect, but I have a rough grasp of the situation in Namun Castle. The number one sect in Namun Castle is the Cheongran Gate, and the one that dominates Hwaryeongbu is the Hwaryeong Valley. However, I’ve heard it’s become noisy lately because the Cheongran Gate is trying to expand into Hwaryeongbu.”
Haomun was fundamentally an organization that bought and sold information.
They knew most of what there was to know about the internal affairs of Baekwol Kingdom.
“Could Manager Seol have gotten caught up in their conflict?”
“Who knows. We’ll find out once we reach Hwaryeongbu tomorrow.”
“It wasn’t bandits, right?”
“The fact that all contact has been cut off means there was no one who managed to escape. There is no bandit group in Namun Castle large enough to subdue even the escort warriors of a merchant caravan.”
“I hope Manager Seol is safe.”
“He had better be.”
Dan Yeop, who had been squatting by the campfire, suddenly asked,
“If a fight breaks out… will I be able to fight well?”
“You’ll have to if you want to survive.”
“Haa…”
A heavy sigh escaped Dan Yeop’s lips.
In the past, he had nearly fought the masked men who attacked Byeongmachong, but he had been lucky enough that his turn never came.
Nothing had happened so far, but there was no guarantee that tomorrow would be the same.
Could he truly pull his own weight here?
Just thinking about fighting made his palms sweat already.
At that moment, Dan Bul-wi’s voice reached him.
“Yeop-ah.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t worry too much. At least you have a heart demon who can take your place.”
For a moment, Dan Yeop’s mood soured and he responded provocatively.
“The heart demon is also fighting for the first time, isn’t he?”
“The heart demon will do whatever it takes to survive. Unlike you, every single moment is desperate for him.”
“My life hasn’t been easy either.”
“Yes, yours was difficult too. But at least you can sleep peacefully, can’t you? In all this time, I have never once seen your heart demon rest.”
At those words, Dan Yeop’s heart stung and he firmly shut his mouth.
They said old ginger was the spiciest. It seemed the old man had been watching everything even when it looked like he wasn’t.
Chapter 37. The Five Poisons Flying Tiger, Myo Jin
Hwaryeongbu, Namun Castle.
Dan Yeop’s gaze never left the carriage window.
Baekwol Kingdom resembled Chang’an Castle, yet it had a completely different texture.
To put it simply, even Chang’an Castle was filled with all kinds of people—Han, Tujue (Turks), Tuban (Tibetans), Hu (Sogdians), Farsi (Persians), Daesik (Arabs), and Cheonchuk (Indians).
Baekwol Kingdom was similar.
Miao, Yi, Dong, Bouyei, and so on…
From their appearances to their clothing, everything was different, giving off a feeling much like Chang’an Castle.
However, while the people of Chang’an Castle wore splendid and luxurious attire, the people of Baekwol Kingdom dressed in a manner closer to nature—rough and crude.
Of course, their colorful fabrics, silver ornaments, and leather decorations offered a unique beauty, but it lacked the refinement of Chang’an Castle.
Instead, it overflowed with vitality.
No, even calling it overflowing felt insufficient.
Everywhere he looked carried the scent of wilderness.
The eyes of the people he occasionally met through the window were like those of wild beasts.
It was as if they were saying, ‘Just try stepping out here and I’ll bite your head off.’
In fact, just a short while ago, arrows had come flying from somewhere, clearly aimed at the lead riders.
Fortunately they had all missed and there were no casualties, but it felt like the kind of greeting Baekwol Kingdom offered to its visitors.
Because of that, the investigation team’s movements became even more cautious.
To call it cautious was generous; they were extremely tense.
The expressions of the warriors sitting across from him were also sour.
“Fuck, it’s so scary I can’t even stick my head out the window.”
“If you do, you’ll get an arrow in the back of your skull. We’ll have to go around asking questions once we reach Suyanggo. I’m already worried.”
“Who shoots arrows in such a bustling place? Are they crazy?”
“It’s Baekwol Kingdom, what do you expect?”
“By the way, who the hell attacked us? We’re flying the Taehwa Trading Company flag. Could it be the same bastards who attacked Manager Seol?”
“Don’t worry about it. Squad Leader Baek said it looked like someone was just testing us. If it had been a real attack, would they have only targeted the lead riders?”
“Testing an armed investigation team in broad daylight? Baekwol Kingdom really does things differently from the start.”
“We’ll have to be careful once we reach Suyanggo.”
At the end of his words, the warrior glanced at Grandmaster Dan and his disciple sitting across from him.
As if he had said it for them to hear.
Dan Yeop pretended to be calm, but his heart was pounding.
He realized he might actually get hit by a stray arrow.
The Baekwol Kingdom he was seeing with his own eyes was far more horrifying than he had imagined.
Around noon.
Three carriages came to a stop in front of a rather large building.
Soon after, Squad Leader Baek Jin-gang approached the carriage carrying Dan Bul-wi’s group and spoke.
“We will eat lunch here before moving on.”
Dan Bul-wi asked through the window,
“How much farther is Suyanggo?”
“About one more shichen should do it. If we hurry, we’ll arrive by the hour of the Monkey (3 p.m.).”
In the meantime, the warriors got off first.
Dan Bul-wi and Dan Yeop, who followed, entered the restaurant together with them.
Dan Bul-wi and Dan Yeop roughly sat down at an empty table.
A short while later, the waiter began carrying the dishes Squad Leader Baek Jin-gang had ordered to their table.
On Dan Bul-wi and Dan Yeop’s table were placed vegetable fried rice, moonflower rice cakes made with fragrant herbs, mountain plum fish soup—a spicy freshwater stew—and white moon fragrant pork, a charcoal-grilled pork dish.
When Dan Yeop sniffed at the unique aroma he had never smelled before, Dan Bul-wi spoke.
“What? Does it not suit your stomach?”
“No, it’s just fascinating.”
The two then began to eat the cuisine of Baekwol Kingdom.
At that moment, a group entered the restaurant.
It consisted of six men carrying curved blades and two women.
All of them wore black floral robes—black hemp cloth embroidered with white floral patterns—and on their arms were bracelets made of poisonous snake skin.
Dan Yeop, who had been looking at them absentmindedly, met eyes with a woman wearing a silver ornamental headband and quickly turned his head away.
The corner of the woman’s mouth lifted slightly.
The eight men and women took seats a little distance away from the warriors.
With such a large group entering, an awkward silence fell over the restaurant.
Both sides had many people, so they were naturally conscious of each other.
The silence did not last long.
One of the eight spoke to a nearby warrior.
“We are people from the White Snake Valley. Where are you from?”
The White Snake Valley was a place where the Miao people gathered.
The warrior hesitated for a moment before looking at Squad Leader Baek Jin-gang.
Baek Jin-gang nodded as if to say it was fine to answer.
Only then did the warrior open his mouth.
“We came from Chang’an Castle.”
At that, the eyes of the man who had spoken—Myo Jin—changed slightly.
“Oh, Chang’an Castle. You’ve come a long way. No wonder your attire looked unusual. But you don’t seem to be merchants. What brings you all the way to Hwaryeongbu—”