Back to Fifteen (3)
At those words, I quickly straightened my posture.
Hope was in sight.
"I shall listen attentively."
"As I said, the reason you're suffering is that your Present Dragon Physique lacks the water qi it needs to survive. And water is yin energy. So, what must you do?"
The Black-Robed Immortal Physician posed the question like a light Zen koan.
The answer came swiftly.
"Replenish the yin energy... Feed it a spirit elixir brimming with yin qi!"
"Indeed. But your body is already weakened to the extreme. If you consumed a yin-rich elixir now, it couldn't withstand the surge. If only we'd discovered this five or ten years sooner—you could have simply taken the elixir."
"How could that be... Then what should I do? The way you're saying it sounds like there's another method."
The Black-Robed Immortal Physician nodded calmly.
"Correct. You must gradually acclimate your body to yin energy. Once that's done, it should endure the elixir."
"Acclimate to yin energy—does that mean eating cold foods?"
That was the first method that sprang to mind.
"That's one way, but it's too slow and weak in effect."
The Black-Robed Immortal Physician smiled faintly and continued.
"Fortunately, the weather has turned cold enough for ice to form. For the next hundred days, every night at midnight, immerse yourself in ice water and circulate the meditation technique I'll teach you for one hour."
"Understood, but... will that really work?"
He chuckled at my question.
"Doesn't sound hard, does it?"
His words made me flinch.
Because that's exactly what I'd thought.
"You'll know once you try. It's far from easy—especially for you, with all those tonic herbs you've swallowed. It'll be agony enough to make you wish for unconsciousness."
"Pardon? Because of the tonics?"
He explained at my puzzled reply.
"All those precious herbs you took to heal—they were all yang-boosting remedies. They've shortened your lifespan by years."
"......"
I could only sigh.
The expensive medicines I'd scoured the land for to cure my illness had only hastened my end.
But a doubt soon arose.
Why didn't the other physicians notice my constitution when they took my pulse?
When I voiced this to the Black-Robed Immortal Physician, he smirked.
"Because they're not as skilled as I am."
"......Pardon?"
"Unaware of your physique, they mistook it for simple yang deficiency. Tsk tsk."
"I... see."
He spoke comfortingly, as if consoling me.
"In any case, remember: you can't skip even a single day. If you give up or fail, there'll be no time left to heal."
"Yes. I will do it."
I nodded.
What wouldn't I endure if it meant curing my illness?
Hope was in sight.
That day marked the start of my hundred days of torment.
"Ugh!"
The moment I plunged into the ice water, I understood exactly why he'd warned of fainting-level agony.
My skin felt like it was tearing, and every joint screamed as if scraped by blades.
I have to endure. Somehow, I must hold out.
I wanted to live.
To live and become the world's greatest merchant.
And above all, I couldn't bear to wound my family with my death.
In that way, I endured the full hundred days, then consumed the spirit elixir with his aid.
I regained the robust health of my childhood.
Once healthy, I joined the merchant group's operations, and from then on, our group began its meteoric rise.
.
.
.
"Ugh!"
Recalling those past events, I shuddered involuntarily.
That freezing winter night, immersing in ice water for an hour of meditation—it was still a horrific memory.
"But now, I'm fifteen again. Heh heh heh."
That meant I could heal my terminal body with just the elixir, skipping the grueling ice training.
And I knew exactly where that yin-rich spirit elixir was.
I planned to reclaim my health with it.
But it wouldn't happen overnight, so I'd intended to use the winter solstice holiday.
The Eunhae Merchant Group always granted three or four days off then.
My condition wasn't critical yet, so that timing would have worked—but plans changed.
Better to heal quickly, start martial arts sooner. No downside there.
The yin elixir I needed was closer than I'd thought.
In the grandest mountain of Sunyang County, where the Eunhae Merchant Group was based—our backyard mountain.
But night had already fallen.
Climbing a snowy mountain at night in this body would be suicide.
Besides, the elixir I sought bloomed only at Mao Hour.
Tomorrow dawn it is, then.
.
.
.
"Huff, huff."
My breath came ragged.
Masked figures surrounded me on all sides.
Daggers and hidden weapons pierced my body.
Step, step, step.
A man approached. A goatee.
He pointed somewhere, and I looked.
Hanging from a tree.
Dripping blood—they were my family's corpses.
The goateed man grinned wickedly and swung his gleaming blade at me.
.
.
.
"Gasp! Huff... huff..."
I bolted upright, gasping for air.
Trembling hands touched my neck. Still attached.
"A dream...?"
No.
It was a dream, but one reflecting the reality I'd lived through.
I gazed at my still-youthful hands.
Confirming my regression to fifteen was real.
I'd be haunted by this nightmare for a while.
I'd been that furious.
Unless I deliver a massive payback first.
I rose from bed and opened the window.
Drums echoed: dong, dong.
Three bell tolls.
Yin Hour early.
Time to head out if I wanted to reach it by Mao Hour.
Then Palgap's voice from outside.
"Young master! Were you coughing, sir?"
As instructed the night before, he'd come to wake me.
"Yeah! I'm up!"
I dressed hurriedly and stepped out.
.
.
.
Crunch, crunch.
My feet sank deep into the snow.
I climbed the backyard mountain with Palgap and a bodyguard dispatched from the Silver Wind Corps.
Outside the compound, escorts were mandatory.
The area wasn't lawless, but our merchant group's prestige drew occasional threats to our family.
No personal guard assigned to me yet, so I requested from the Silver Wind Corps for outings.
"Young master, are you really all right, sir?"
Palgap asked from behind.
"Yeah. Fine."
Was it the Present Dragon Physique granting sharp memory? Even ancient recollections felt vivid.
The elixir I sought was Azure Ice Snow Plum.
Cold qi gathered on plum blossoms in harsh spring chills, forming fruit.
Its trait: as the name implied, not green or yellow, but transparent blue like ice.
And worthy of "spirit elixir," it brimmed with yin qi.
They say one Azure Ice Snow Plum grants a full Jiazi of inner power...
A Jiazi—sixty years of cultivation.
One fruit could elevate a third-rate warrior to first-rate, first-rate to peak, peak to Super First-rate.
Comparable to the Snow Lotus Chamber's elixirs or millennium ginseng.
Bittersweet smile at the memory.
No wonder the Bloodbath happened.
I was twenty-seven then.
The Eunhae Merchant Group faced a major deal.
So close to headquarters, we'd gathered full details.
A black道 warrior drifting into Hubei Province stumbled on it while hunting.
Drunk on liquor and hubris, he boasted to comrades about his hidden prize.
Their eyes flipped at the sight.
Blades flashed instantly.
Robbed but surviving, he sought aid from a nearby black道 sect.
It snowballed uncontrollably.
Word reached the Murim Alliance, drawing their intervention.
Ultimately, the Azure Ice Snow Plum fell to the Alliance.
But at the cost of five hundred lives, many innocent civilians.
And the Alliance's prize sparked another bloodbath.
If I claim the Azure Ice Snow Plum, that future won't happen, right?
Five hundred lives could be spared.
Still... feels like a waste.
One fruit would catapult me to the first-rate realm I'd reached in my future.
No helping it.
Other elixirs existed, but distant or exorbitantly priced.
My illness wasn't visibly dire yet, no famed physician demanding them.
I decided to look on the bright side.
Heal fast, train martial arts—save time overall.
Mind settled, I pressed on.
Snowy path drained stamina fast; breath grew labored.
"Young master, let's head back now."
I shook my head firmly at Palgap. Turn back now? After coming this far? No.
"No. Just a bit more..."
The bodyguard spoke up.
"I agree with Palgap. Best to return. The Chairman will worry. Keep pushing, and we'll carry you back by force."
He meant it.
"Then, just one hour."
I mustered my most pitiful look; he relented grudgingly.
One hour left.
Hurry.
Further north, the elongated rock from memory appeared.
As recalled, fifty paces west from it.
There—the tree.
A wild plum tree.
Third from the bottom... That's it!
Transparent blue fruit hung there.
So clear, easy to miss if unaware.
Now, pluck it without the bodyguard noticing.
Send Palgap to lure him away?
But I lacked the stamina to pick it myself.
Vision spun.
Even reaching here owed to the snow improving my state somehow.
Cold or snow eased my constitution.
Anyway, divert the bodyguard—only one way.
I scooped a snow-buried stone, hurled it when he looked away.
Thwack!
Flutter!
Startled birds took flight.
The bodyguard tensed at the noise.
Won't suspect me—now get him to check.
I added fuel.
"Huh? What was that? Something there?"
He rushed to me.
"To be safe, we descend now."
As expected.
"Yes... Ugh!"
I collapsed dramatically.
"Pushed too hard, I guess. Haha. Legs won't hold..."
"Palgap can carry you..."
Palgap shook his head.
"Slipping on snow with young master on back would worsen it, sir."
Bodyguard looked troubled, then said,
"I'll check it out briefly. Stay put."
"Got it."
As the bodyguard headed off, Palgap asked,
"So, what do you need from me, sir?"
He'd seen through my act to distract.
Palgap looked bearish and slow, dismissed as dim—but no.
Sharp, quick on uptake.
Why Father assigned him as my attendant.
I whispered, drawing close.
"See that tree?"