Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Walnut Tree
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Dan Seoryeong enjoyed life in Luoyang.
She loved the bustling crowds of people in Luoyang and the endless stream of new sights every day.
Working as a carpenter's assistant, planing and shaping wood with an adze and drawknife, suited her perfectly.
But above all, what she loved most was the evenings she spent with Dang Mujin after finishing work.
Not long ago, dinner for Dan Seoryeong had simply been a time to stave off hunger before lying alone at home, waiting for sleep to come.
It was a time to revisit her loneliness, to contemplate the endless road ahead. That had been her life from childhood right up until last summer.
Yet in just a few months, the time she had hated most had become her favorite. Who knew the world could change like that.
'What should we eat today?'
As Dan Seoryeong returned to the inn thinking that, she spotted Dang Mujin anxiously packing and unpacking his belongings over and over.
Her eyes narrowed.
"...What are you doing?"
"Something feels off."
Dang Mujin explained everything to Dan Seoryeong. He had heard that Yi Seon had been murdered by someone, and he was worried that Yi Chung might have gotten caught up in it too.
Dan Seoryeong hadn't traveled with Yi Chung for long. But looking back on what she had seen of him during that time, Dang Mujin's concern seemed a bit excessive.
Wasn't this the man who had subdued the first-rate expert Baek Chaseo like a child and killed off several black-clothed assailants as casually as stretching?
"That old man isn't the type to get caught in trouble—he's the type who causes it, isn't he?"
"You're right. But what he said before we parted is bothering me."
Dan Seoryeong set aside her preconceptions and reorganized her thoughts. It had been an unusually long conversation for him.
And the black-clothed men who had ambushed their group that day. How those black-clothed men had targeted Yi Chung specifically.
Yeah. It wasn't something that could be dismissed as mere old-man worry.
"So what do you think happened?"
"Yi Chung said he had some personal business. I think it was related to Yi Seon."
Dang Mujin drew a map on the ground. It was a surprisingly crude sketch, uncharacteristic of him.
In the southwest of the drawing was Sichuan, southeast was Anhui. And at the top, Luoyang. Dang Mujin drew a line connecting Anhui and Luoyang.
"Now that I think about it, from the time Yi Chung and I took a boat down the Yangtze all the way here, our direction was always northwest. I thought it was natural since we were heading to Luoyang."
Dang Mujin extended the line toward Luoyang a bit further. At the end, a new place name was written: Fengxiang.
"Yi Seon lived in Fengxiang. If we keep going in the direction we've been traveling past Luoyang, we reach Fengxiang. Maybe Yi Chung planned to go there from the start?"
It was a plausible theory. Dan Seoryeong nodded.
"Hmm. And?"
"Yi Chung went to meet Yi Seon, and right then, the black-clothed men or people who hate Yi Chung showed up to take him down. In the chaos, Yi Seon got killed too."
"Did you hear any rumors that Yi Chung was hurt?"
"No. But I haven't heard that he's safe either. That's what's bothering me."
Dan Seoryeong stared straight at Dang Mujin.
It was a theory full of holes. In her view, there was probably no connection between Yi Seon's death and Yi Chung.
Besides, Yi Chung wasn't someone who couldn't take care of himself. He was sly and strong.
But at the same time, she knew all too well that this kind of anxiety wouldn't fade until they confirmed with their own eyes that nothing was wrong.
Dan Seoryeong smacked Dang Mujin hard on the back with a sharp crack. The anxiety in his eyes eased a little, and his usual sharpness returned.
Dang Mujin grumbled.
"Why'd you hit me?"
"What are you moping about? Go to the clinic right now and tell them you'll take some time off. It's better than stewing over it—go check it out."
"What about you?"
"Of course I'm going with you. You weren't planning to leave me behind, were you?"
Even if Dang Mujin's guess was wrong, it didn't matter. It might be cold and tough, but they could treat it like a trip for two.
Dan Seoryeong smiled confidently, as always.
*
He wanted to hitch a ride with a merchant caravan passing through Fengxiang, but that would mean waiting at least five days in Luoyang. In the end, the two left Luoyang immediately and set off on foot.
A few days later, they arrived at a low mountainside clearing—little more than an empty spot—guided by a pathfinder they had paid three copper coins.
"This is where Yi Seon lived."
"...There's nothing here? I heard it was a half-burned house."
"The villagers tore it down. It's better to demolish a place where something sinister happened quickly. And it wasn't in any condition to repair anyway."
Dang Mujin scratched his head vigorously.
"Was there any fighting around here, by chance?"
"No one saw anything like that. It's not deep in the mountains, but it's pretty isolated from the village, so it's hard to know if something happens."
Dang Mujin examined the house site. There were no special traces. Even though he had half-expected this, realizing Yi Chung probably hadn't been caught in any fight eased his mind a bit.
Thinking back now, his guess that Yi Chung had gone to find Yi Seon might have been wrong from the start. Coincidences in direction and timing happen all the time.
"If you'd like to pay respects at Yi Seon's grave, just follow the path that way."
"Got it."
The pathfinder left, and Dang Mujin and Dan Seoryeong headed toward Yi Seon's grave in the direction he had indicated.
One well-kept grave. And one freshly made, with raw earth still exposed. The two graves lay side by side. Nothing but silence and peace.
Dan Seoryeong spoke.
"We heading back now?"
"Hmm... No. Let's go a bit further."
"A bit further? How far?"
"Since we're here, I want to check out Huizhou too."
Yi Chung had said before leaving that he would bury two medical texts under the sect leader's walnut tree.
Just as Dang Mujin had traveled from the Yangtze to Luoyang and reached Fengxiang by extending that path, a few more days in this direction would bring them to Huizhou.
Dang Mujin added,
"Turning back now without checking would feel weird. With luck, we might even run into Yi Chung lounging around in Huizhou."
"What are you gonna say if we do?"
"Just that we got bored and came to visit. Saying we were worried would be weird."
"Alright. Let's go. No reason not to see Huizhou when we're this far."
Dan Seoryeong's ready agreement.
Dang Mujin finally felt some peace of mind and looked at her.
He had set out on this trip based on vague guesses and gut feelings alone, yet Dan Seoryeong had followed without a single complaint. Even in this cold weather.
Dang Mujin belatedly felt sorry toward her, and Dan Seoryeong read his expression in an instant.
She smiled.
"What? Sorry now?"
"A little."
Dan Seoryeong looked around. They were the only two on the snowy mountain path.
She held out her left hand to Dang Mujin.
"Then warm my hand up. It's freezing."
Dang Mujin wrapped both his hands around hers. Soft yet calloused.
The two walked slowly along the deserted snowy path, chatting about nothing in particular.
*
Dang Mujin and Dan Seoryeong met a merchant caravan heading to Huizhou, paid the fare, and climbed onto a cart pulled by packhorses. The bumpy ride wasn't exactly comfortable, to put it kindly, but that didn't matter.
Huizhou wasn't a huge city, but it was a place where merchants trading with the Western Regions always stopped to rest.
Of course, he hadn't known that beforehand—it was something the merchants heading to Huizhou had told him.
"What brings you young couple to Huizhou?"
"An acquaintance mentioned there's a remarkable walnut tree there. Thought we'd take a look."
"Walnut tree? There's a big one, sure, but nothing special to see."
"Still, we're here—might as well check it out."
The merchant glanced at Dan Seoryeong and Dang Mujin, then nodded.
"Well, you don't strike me as needing anything spectacular."
The merchants called Dang Mujin and Dan Seoryeong a young couple. They had corrected them several times that they weren't married, but the mischievous merchants stubbornly kept calling them that.
With excuses like, "You're not married now, but you might be someday."
Each time, Dang Mujin checked Dan Seoryeong's reaction. An enigmatic, subtle expression.
But she didn't seem upset.
On the rattling cart, Dang Mujin thought. In this vast world, why had Yi Chung chosen the walnut tree in Huizhou as the meeting spot? The answer was simple: this must be Yi Chung's hometown.
After parting from the caravan, Dang Mujin wandered Huizhou asking if anyone knew Yi Chung. After questioning five or six people, an elderly man reacted to the name.
"Yi Chung? That was the name of a guy who left the village ages ago."
"That's him. Seen him lately?"
The elder shook his head.
"Nope. Never heard he came back."
"Any idea where he lived?"
"House? It's gone. He set fire to it the day he left the village. Nearly spread to ours too. That damn bastard..."
Like old folks reminiscing, the elder's story showed signs of dragging on forever. Dang Mujin gave a light thank-you and excused himself.
There was no need to ask about the biggest walnut tree in Huizhou. Right in front of the village was a low hill, and atop it stood a single massive tree all alone.
The two headed up the hill. In front of the walnut tree were two small mounds: one large grave and one relatively small.
'Yi Chung's wife and daughter, probably.'
Dang Mujin slowly brushed the snow from the graves.
Being winter, the mounds were covered in withered yellow grass.
But the grass wasn't overgrown, and there were no signs of starving wild animals digging them up. Someone must have tended them recently.
Dang Mujin cleared the snow between the two graves and the walnut tree. There were signs that the soil had been dug up once before. He dug into the frozen ground with his scabbard and hands.
Soon, a yellowed book emerged from the earth. Dan Seoryeong knelt and picked it up.
"Looks like the old man was here."
But unlike Yi Chung's promise of two books, there was only one.
Dang Mujin brushed the dirt from the cover and checked the title. Comprehensive Treatise on Ten Thousand Diseases.
He opened the book and skimmed the contents.
Like other medical texts, it described symptoms and treatments, but it wasn't meant to teach medicine to beginners.
Everything assumed the reader had thoroughly mastered classics like the Essential Prescriptions from the Golden Cabinet, Treatise on Cold Damage, and Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon—it was that advanced. Even Dang Mujin found it challenging.
He flipped through slowly.
It seemed compiled by multiple people over time, as the handwriting changed midway.
And each time the handwriting shifted, a name—presumably the contributor—was written: Yang Jun, Yang Sojong, Yang Taegok, and so on.
'I'll read it carefully later.'
As he roughly leafed through to put it away, Dang Mujin's fingertips felt something odd on the last page or two. They didn't turn smoothly but felt stiff, unlike mere cold-weather rigidity.
Dang Mujin examined the final page. There was a dark stain about half a palm-sized, and that spot crackled instead of bending softly.
As if it had gotten wet recently and dried.
Dang Mujin sniffed the dark stain.
Rich earthy scent and old paper smell. Faintly, but unmistakably, a fishy odor mixed in.
"What's wrong? Something weird?"
"Huh? No. Just like the smell of old paper."
Dang Mujin brushed it off casually, took a deep breath, and thought.
'It can't be what I'm thinking.'
Instead of tucking the book away, he flipped it backward.
At the point where the handwriting last changed, the name of the contributor was written.
Yang Heun. The same as Yi Seon's name.
The murdered Yi Seon. The book with Yi Seon's name. The bloodstain on the book.
Dang Mujin understood what had happened.
And even who Yi Chung had gone to find now.