A few days later, as soon as the weekend arrived, I boarded an intercity bus and headed to Gyeongju.
Mount Gumi, was it?
When I'd looked at the map in the clinic, it hadn't seemed that far away. But once I got off at the terminal and plugged the destination into my navigation app, there didn't appear to be any suitable public transportation options.
Ten kilometers? I'll just walk.
Maybe serious cultivators trained in places ordinary people couldn't easily reach. Or perhaps the old man had really been someone from a martial sect.
Ignoring the hiking trails, I headed straight up the mountain by the shortest route. The area was so sparsely traveled that the abundant spiritual energy in the air felt wonderfully refreshing.
"Turn right at some valley and then..."
The hand-drawn map I'd been given was ridiculously complicated. Even after reaching the general area, I spent quite a while wandering around before finally finding the place.
"Ah, here it is... Hm?"
But when I finally arrived, what stood before me was an ordinary house with a perfectly normal street address.
Why didn't he just give me the address?
Suspicious, I circled the house once.
BMW?
The luxury car hidden behind the building only deepened my doubts.
Still, I'd come all this way. I might as well see it through.
Returning to the front gate, I rang the doorbell.
"Hello. I'm Han Yeowon. We spoke on the phone a few days ago."
"You've worked hard to come all the way here. I've prepared some warm scorched-rice tea. Drink it. The journey must have been tiring, but consider it part of your cultivation."
For an ordinary person, the hike would have been exhausting.
For me, it had barely qualified as a stroll.
Still, it would be rude not to drink it.
Hmm. No poison.
As I accepted the bowl, a man dressed in strange clothing led me deeper into the house.
It wasn't traditional Korean attire. Nor was it the sort of Ming or Song dynasty clothing I'd seen before.
"Are you the one who cultivates here?"
"Indeed."
His way of speaking was odd as well.
The interior was even stranger. Martial-arts-themed decorations sat beside Indian ornaments and Mexican-style crafts with no apparent logic tying them together.
What is this? Did this guy travel through a fantasy world or something?
"What kind of person was your grandfather?"
"He devoted his entire life to martial arts. He spent his years recording the martial techniques he inherited and refined, leaving them behind in secret manuals."
"I see."
"I know you came all this way because you're interested in the manuals. But first, I would appreciate it if you showed proper respect."
In one corner of the house stood what looked like a Daoist shrine.
Wait. Isn't that Guan Yu?
Where had he even bought that?
The man bowed and offered prayers. I simply copied what he did.
"These are the martial arts manuals my grandfather created."
Only after we'd toured the house was I finally led into the study.
Perhaps he assumed I wouldn't be able to read the Chinese characters. He slowly flipped through the pages one by one, showing me the contents.
I took the book from him and skimmed through it at lightning speed.
First I opened the section labeled Breath Regulation and Qi Circulation.
But calling it a breathing technique would have been generous.
There were only a few acupoints listed.
When I turned to the external arts section, I found dozens of pages filled with an overly complicated explanation of the Three Talents Sword Technique.
No way.
Surely...
This was just...
"Of course, it isn't easy to grasp the deeper truths merely by reading. For a modest fee, I can guide you."
"How much?"
"The beginner's course to attain enlightenment in qi cultivation is 890,000 won for three months. Intermediate instruction begins at 490,000 won per month. You came here today to experience the blessing in person, but future lessons can be conducted remotely."
A scammer.
A genuine, shameless scammer.
"If learning martial arts seems too time-consuming, there is a faster way. Spiritual medicine. Wild ginseng harvested from Namsan and bear gallbladders infused with the energy of Mount Toham. Some people have even recovered from cancer."
"That's a deodeok root. And that's a pig's gallbladder."
No matter how I looked at it, there was no better word to describe him than fraud.
Was everything a lie from the start?
The grandfather.
The cultivation.
All of it?
"You insolent—! What nonsense are you spouting?!"
The man slammed his hand onto the desk a moment too late.
I'd already seen the panic on his face.
"Ahahaha."
Suddenly, I remembered something Seo In-ae had once said.
"Who actually falls for those voice-phishing scams?"
Well.
Compared to those modern scams, I'd been duped by a far more old-fashioned one.
"How many people have you sold these manuals to?"
I smiled brightly.
So this was how he'd paid for the BMW parked outside?
One sucker at a time.
If this were the martial world, a sword would've already been buried in his face.
No.
I wasn't my master.
At the very least, he would've gotten a fist.
He should be grateful he'd been born in a nation governed by laws rather than martial sects.
FWOOOOSH!
Instead of punching him, I punched the empty air.
A palm strike?
No.
A fist blast.
KRAAAAAASH!
A thunderous explosion shook the room.
One of the towering bookshelves lining the study collapsed into splinters.
"Uh... uh...?"
The man stared in shock.
"If that manual is real, you should be able to block something like this, right?"
This time I spread my fingers and slowly raised my hand.
Very slowly.
I aimed my palm toward his forehead.
"P-Please! Spare me!"
"Try pushing it away. If you succeed, I'll buy everything you're selling."
"AAAAAAAH!"
BOOM!
Once again, the blast veered toward the wall.
It only grazed past him, clipping a few strands of his hair.
Yet he trembled uncontrollably.
"Stop overreacting. You've got a little internal energy in you, but honestly—while pulling scams like this, did it never occur to you that you'd eventually run into the real thing?"
There was indeed a faint trace of qi inside him.
Not enough to suggest he'd learned any worthwhile martial art.
But enough to indicate unusually keen spiritual senses.
Enough to feel my killing intent.
His face turned deathly pale.
At first he struggled to break free from my grip.
Then all strength left his legs and he collapsed to the floor.
"You can't move, can you? I won. Bring me your ledger."
"W-What?"
"The customer list. The accounting records. Bring me everything."
He had never agreed to any wager.
I demanded it anyway.
Not because I was venting my frustration.
Definitely not.
This was justice.
"...Haa... haa..."
I seized his phone and unlocked it with his fingerprint.
To his credit, his records were neatly organized.
After only a few searches, I found a complete list of everyone he'd sold his junk to.
"...Sigh."
Fortunately—or unfortunately—the number of victims wasn't that large.
Then again, who would actually be interested in this nonsense?
"Is this really all of them? You bought a BMW with this?"
"It's... it's leased."
...
Right.
Of course it was.
Giving him the most pitiful look I could manage, I opened KakaoTalk.
"T-The roots were dug from the mountains, but not everything was a lie!"
"Hm?"
While I was adding victims to a group chat, the scammer suddenly shouted.
What now?
Hadn't he suffered enough?
"My grandfather really did gain martial powers after consuming wild ginseng! He trained here his entire life! He could fire palm blasts just like you!"
As if claiming that now would stop me from reporting him.
The manuals and fake medicines were still worthless.
One by one, I invited every victim into the chatroom and explained the scam.
I also offered to provide evidence to anyone interested in filing charges.
"Yeah, yeah. Try living your life honestly for once."
Stomp!
Even after leaving the house, my anger hadn't faded.
Han Yeowon.
You've really hit rock bottom.
I resisted my master's offer to inherit the Tang Clan's secret arts by changing my surname.
And yet I'd fallen for some bargain-bin scam manual?
Me?
Seriously?
"I should report him to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety too."
When I'd studied medical law, I'd learned that manufacturing and selling unlicensed herbal medicines was illegal.
I could tell at a glance what those plants were.
But someone else might swallow those unregulated weeds believing they were medicinal herbs and end up dead.
This was for public health.
Naturally.
While I was at it, I also left comments on his YouTube channel warning everyone that he was a fraud.
"Heh... heh..."
By the time I finished, I was laughing helplessly.
And climbing the mountain.
Why climb it?
Because it'd be a waste otherwise.
I'd already come all this way.
I might as well practice some qi circulation before heading home.
Still, this was a famous mountain in the ancient capital of Silla.
The flow of spiritual energy was excellent.
Far superior even to the hill behind my hometown that had once astonished me.
If the scammer's final claim happened to be true, then even someone without a cultivation method could slowly accumulate a little internal energy merely by staying here.
"HYAAAAH!"
One step.
A punch into empty air.
Another step.
A needless needle strike into a tree.
Repeating the process, I moved deeper into the wilderness.
"Oh, this spot is nice."
Following the mountain's spiritual currents, I eventually found a suitable boulder.
I leapt onto it and sat cross-legged.
First, I opened the meridians used to absorb external qi.
The stagnant energy built up from recent stress began dispersing, flowing along the Ren and Du channels.
The circulating qi vibrated like a swirling vortex before gradually settling into my lower dantian—
"SKREEE! SKREEEE! SKREEEEEE!"
—and then an animal screamed.
"...There's no water nearby. Why does it sound like a duck?"
What was with today?
My luck had been awful from start to finish.
If I'd been fully immersed in cultivation, I wouldn't even have heard it.
But without anyone standing guard, I couldn't afford to lose myself completely.
I'd gone through all the trouble of finding an isolated place.
Should I start over?
Or just call it a day?
"Hm?"
I took a step toward the sound.
The creature immediately retreated by exactly the same distance.
"A squirrel?"
WHOOSH!
The moment I recognized it, I accelerated with lightness techniques.
There's no way I can't catch it.
Yet somehow it remained just out of reach.
Every time I closed the gap, it fled farther away.
"...This feels familiar."
An odd sense of déjà vu washed over me.
Hadn't something exactly like this happened before?
A cultivation session interrupted.
A mysterious animal leading me somewhere.
Then—
Ah.
I remembered.
Back in the martial world, medicinal ingredients weren't purchased.
You gathered them yourself.
These days I bought certified herbs approved by government regulators.
And while staying with the Tang Clan, I could simply select from ingredients gathered by professional herb hunters.
But in the beginning, I had no such luxury.
Back then...
I'd chased a rabbit exactly like this.
"Spirit Herb."
The rabbit had led me to a ginseng saturated with extraordinary spiritual energy.
That herb had revived a dying old man.
And before I learned martial arts, it had protected me.
Without it, surviving among those predatory martial artists would've been much harder.
Could it be...?
Again?
Please.
If I was right, then today's trip wasn't a waste.
It was a windfall.
My heart pounded with anticipation as I chased after the squirrel.
"My God..."
At last, I arrived.
And the sight before me left me speechless.
Deep within the foothills of Mount Gumi stood a colossal pine tree.
It looked as though it had lived for over a thousand years.
Now it was dead.
Its withered form cast a vast shadow over the mountainside.
"What happened to you...?"
There had been no recent disaster.
No catastrophe.
So why?
A tree that had endured the passage of centuries beyond human comprehension had finally exhausted its life.
The elegant branches that once stretched toward the heavens.
The emerald needles that had once flourished.
All had long since surrendered to death.
Anyone witnessing the scene would've felt a pang of sorrow.
Rustle.
The squirrel, however, felt no such sentiment.
It casually slipped between the roots.
Roots so thick and powerful they might once have shattered stone itself.
Snap.
The squirrel plucked a mushroom growing from the root system and carried it away in its mouth.
"Huh?"
Something felt off.
For the briefest instant before the mushroom disappeared into its mouth, I sensed a faint, peculiar aura.
Without hesitation, I brushed away the soil and examined the roots.
THUD! THUD!
At first I kicked away dirt with my feet.
Then I began digging with internal energy.
The deathly aura above ground had been so overwhelming that I'd completely overlooked what lay beneath.
But the deeper I dug, the more extraordinary the energy became.
"...Looks like I'll never have to worry about lacking internal energy again."
Had the pine still been alive, the best I could've done was meditate beneath it.
But this...
This was something far greater.
Beneath the earth lay an enormous mass of Poria cocos—Bokryeong—that had absorbed every last trace of the ancient pine's spiritual essence after its death.
