Sama Jeong submitted his resignation at once.

Though he was to be the physician in charge of the Taiyi Sect, he had been told they would not interfere with his relief work, and he had been promised ample support for any medicinal herbs or funds he needed.

He had been given a marvelous medical text called the Records of Ten Thousand Herbs, and on top of that, he could make the spiritual pills he had poured his heart and soul into researching, so it was an opportunity he could not ask more from.

On the day his resignation was submitted, the Divine Physician's Pavilion unusually accepted it in a single day.

Apparently, they were delighted that the thorn in their side, who had stubbornly endured even after being pushed into a dead-end post, was finally leaving of his own accord, or so people said.

According to rumors, all the physicians of the Divine Physician's Pavilion gathered that night and held a banquet.

Whether they did or not, Sama Jeong disposed of what little household goods he had to begin with and met Jin Sowoon.

"What is this?"

"Isn't it difficult to go to Hefei in the middle of winter? It is travel money for that."

"..."

Sama Jeong stared hard at the bank draft Jin Sowoon held out.

Did people usually hand out this much money as "travel money"?

"Do you not understand the concept of 'travel money'?"

"You are the one who does not understand, physician. Even if the Taiyi Sect prepares what it thinks it will need before you arrive, will the medicinal herbs or the people to help with the work be ready? Naturally, you must prepare what can be procured in a large city before going."

"... Even so, what if I take this money and run..."

"Then what can we do? I will have to put out a bounty and write it off as gone. It would mean I misjudged you."

Sama Jeong could not understand Jin Sowoon at all.

It was strange enough that someone who had just come of age had two thousand taels in gold in his hands, yet he showed no hesitation at all in spending that money.

No, beyond that, he even seemed to have the conviction that he would absolutely never lose it.

Jin Sowoon even shrugged, as though he had already seen several moves ahead.

"Even if you run off with that money, you will spend it on relief, spend it on helping people, and squander it all. Then what will you do about the next relief effort?"

"You mean I would be better off clinging to the Taiyi Sect?"

"At the very least, as long as the Taiyi Sect does not fall, you will be able to keep doing the work you want to do."

The work he wanted to do.

It was truly strange.

Strangely enough, he found himself wanting to believe the absurd words of this strange boy.

"In that case, I suppose I must make an effort so that the Taiyi Sect does not fall."

"As long as you make good spiritual pills for us, the Taiyi Sect will not fall easily."

... He also had a feeling he would be squeezed for more than he had imagined.

Sama Jeong shook his head and cast off that ominous(?) premonition.

"Ahem. About those spiritual pills. Will the Jeongsimdan be all right? If the cost is the same, perhaps another spiritual pill would be..."

Now that he already knew the Jeongsimdan was a failure, continuing to make it was nothing but a waste of time and money.

But Jin Sowoon, the investor, was firm.

"We need the Jeongsimdan first. Once everyone in the sect has taken it, please make a new spiritual pill after that. In any case, if you are to make one whose energy suits the Taiyi True Scripture, will you not need to research internal energy as well?"

Sama Jeong listened to Jin Sowoon and nodded.

"Very well. But there is another problem. It is something I went through when making the Jeongsimdan before... the medicinal ingredients are exceedingly difficult to obtain."

It was not that they were so precious and expensive that they were hard to get.

Rather, because not many people sought them and their prices were not particularly high, apothecaries did not deal in them, which made them difficult to obtain.

When simply preparing medicine, there were many substitute ingredients, so it was not a problem, but if one wanted to make a spiritual pill, those medicinal ingredients were absolutely necessary.

Yet as though this was not even worth worrying about, Jin Sowoon answered lightly.

"Go to Hefei and open a clinic. I will find the medicinal ingredients and bring them to you."

"You will?"

"Yes."

He had no idea how Jin Sowoon intended to obtain medicinal ingredients that even seasoned herb gatherers had difficulty finding, but Sama Jeong could only nod.

After all, he too had many things he needed to prepare.

"Then, for now, as you said, I will begin the preparations I can make on my own."

Though Hefei was a large city, it could not match Wuhan, so he bought the medicinal ingredients and tools that could only be obtained in Wuhan and sent them to the Daecheon Merchant Group in Hefei.

After he finished all preparations to go to Hefei, however, a problem arose...

It was precisely because this was the winter break.

Not only the regular routes run by the escort agencies, but even the group travel packages specially operated during the winter break were all sold out.

Just as he was worrying whether he would have to take a horse and travel alone to Hefei on what was practically an unfamiliar road, word came from the Yuhan Escort Agency.

"You are in luck. As it happens, five seats were canceled all at once."

"Five seats?"

One or two seats would be one thing, but how could five seats be emptied all at once?

"Well, what did they say? They said their Eldest Senior Brother was going to walk there... At any rate, they canceled with terribly gloomy faces."

"All the way to Hefei?"

"That is right. I knew the warriors attending the academy were odd, but did they really need to be that odd? Walking all the way to Hefei in the middle of winter, no less..."

For some reason, Sama Jeong felt as though he knew exactly which academy students the escort warrior was talking about.

"... Indeed."

The escort warrior, not knowing that the ominous premonition was raising its head again in Sama Jeong's heart, added as though doing him a favor.

"Teacher, if you ever meet people like that, run away as quickly as you can. It is best not to associate with such people."

"..."

Sama Jeong touched the two-thousand-tael bank draft in his breast through his outer robe and seriously wondered whether he had made a grave mistake.

"..."

No matter how much he thought about it, no answer came.

#

"Haa... haa..."

Her breath rose to her throat.

Steps she had never once thought difficult before felt unfamiliar and arduous.

She knew all too well what the reason was.

'Crazy. Move while circulating qi...?'

Hong Saryeon had never uttered a curse no matter what hardship she faced in her life, but after leaving Wuhan, not a single day had passed without her spewing curses inwardly.

Only for a moment.

"Hey! You are losing it again, again!"

Before she even had time to curse, the stern rebuke came, and killing intent that constricted her entire body made every fine hair on her body stand on end.

She had never felt such killing intent even during sparring matches at the academy.

Perhaps this was the sort of killing intent one would receive if one killed someone's parents for no reason.

But it was utterly strange.

She had never even been disrespectful toward Hall Leader Jin Taesan, so why was that lunatic Senior Brother shooting this sort of killing intent at her?

"Are you not going to do it properly?"

"..."

When he was young, he had definitely been someone with many delicate and gentle sides.

Whenever there was something difficult and she offered him comfort, he had been someone who forced a smile with an exceedingly frail face...

"Huh? Can you not hear me? You lot have gone slack! Start again!"

Now, for some reason, he had become so ferocious that if there were yakshas in hell, she thought they would look like him.

'Haa...'

At the start of this year, the movements of the Geum-eun-dong Brothers she met at the academy had been more than a little strange, so she had asked them what had happened.

For the first time, she learned about the moving cultivation art.

Qi circulation and breath regulation that could gather internal energy, little by little, all day long.

She could not help being tempted.

But after trying to practice it for the first time, she was so startled that she could not bring herself to attempt it again.

At even the slightest mistake, a sense of crisis and fear that she might die surged in, and it was easy for the strength to drain from her entire body, as though the power had gone out of her muscles.

She had been convinced that it was absolutely impossible to go about daily life while doing such a thing.

'I was certain I thought that...'

Just as she was letting out deep sighs...

As she sweated profusely in the middle of winter and gasped for breath, Eunho offered her a water flask.

"Senior Sister, please drink some water."

Saryeon stared sullenly at the water flask Eunho had offered.

He must have trained so hard that steam was rising from the heat in the hand holding the flask.

Saryeon was truly exhausted as hell.

So exhausted that she wanted to grab Eldest Senior Brother by the collar and make him stop right this instant.

But she could not bring herself to stop.

Because of these boys.

"B-Brother... urgh."

"Hoo! We must endure...!"

The three brothers had iron rings on their arms and legs, and countless steel plates were inserted into the leather vests they wore.

At least half of them were still empty, but that King Yama-like Senior Brother seemed to be thinking of filling even those soon.

"..."

Seeing her junior brothers follow without complaint even in a situation more difficult than her own, she could not bring herself to say she could not do it, if only out of shame.

Saryeon barely shook her stiff neck.

"I am fine. Even drinking water is hard right now."

Adding unnecessary movements while maintaining the moving cultivation art was madness.

Right now, reducing her movements as much as possible was more important than anything.

"Still, please drink. You need to if you want to last."

"Hm?"

Eunho spoke with a gloomy face, his shoulders drooping.

"The intensity of the training is not going to decrease anyway."

That face looked as if he had already finished living in this world...

Suddenly, she became curious.

"You junior brothers did this training during the standard exam too?"

"Yes."

"Insane. Completely insane..."

While others made a fuss that even pouring all their minds into the standard exam was not enough, he had taught them the moving cultivation art in the name of training.

At some point, that King Yama-like Senior Brother seemed to have clearly gone insane.

No, it was certain.

When a person's memory was too good, his mind clearly went strange.

When he was young, he had been frail because he was crushed beneath bad memories, and now those bad memories had driven him mad.

There was no other way to explain it.

As Hong Saryeon was constructing her own theory, Eunho added.

"Still, thanks to that, we survived the standard exam and made it this far."

"..."

"I learned after entering the academy that, to begin with, a place like the Taiyi Sect... Ah, Senior Sister, I am sorry. ... At any rate, for a sect like ours, getting even one person accepted is like plucking a star from the sky."

That was why some people would even resort to the expedient of deliberately entering an insignificant sect in order to get into the academy through special admission.

Like Gye Cheolyeong.

"Four people from such a sect entered through the standard exam, so even if it was difficult, we have to think Eldest Senior Brother had a deeper intention. Of course, it must be the same now too."

"..."

Saryeon could not open her mouth.

Because the words that had come from Eunho's mouth were originally words she should have said.

Whether he knew of Saryeon's despair and shame or not, Eldest Senior Brother's shout rang out in all directions.

"Lee Eunho! Do you want to go again from the beginning?"

"Ah! Yes! I am going! I am going, sir! ... Senior Sister, please hold on a little longer."

Eunho quickly handed over the water flask and began running while stepping through complicated directions.

Saryeon bit her lip.

While learning the exceedingly complicated movement technique called the World-Traversing Lone Footwork, Eunho had come over to deliver a water flask to her.

'I cannot fall behind. I cannot fall behind, but...'

It was not because of her skill that she had entered the academy through special admission.

It was entirely consideration.

An overwhelming concession she had received because she was the Sect Leader's daughter.

If she had not been the Sect Leader's daughter, would she have been able to stand in the same place as them?

At that moment, the image of Jin Sowoon, whom she had felt closer to than anyone, seemed terribly faint.

'The distance... is too great.'

#

"Snore..."

"Whew..."

"Krk— cough! Krrk—!"

"Is he not going to die like that?"

Jin Sowoon looked at Geumpyo snoring, then tossed a small piece of firewood into the campfire.

A small spark rose, and embers drifted through the air for a moment before vanishing.

"Are you not sleeping?"

When Jin Sowoon turned his head, Saryeon was staring intently into the flames.

"Senior Brother."

"Yes."

A flying ember fell with a soft tap onto Saryeon's sleeve, leaving soot behind.

"Why did you yield to me?"

At the sudden question, Jin Sowoon tilted his head.

"What are you talking about?"

"The special admission... Why did you yield it to me?"

Jin Sowoon's mouth closed tightly.

At that silence, Saryeon's heart dropped with a thud.

Once she realized the truth, a hollow laugh escaped her.

"So that was it after all... Because I am the Sect Leader's daughter... You did not have to."

The cruel truth slashed through her heart.

The soot left on her sleeve only grew darker and darker.

"If you knew I would fall behind like this, you should have sent Yuseong or another disciple. Then I would not have held my senior and junior brothers back..."

She had certainly been full of motivation when she first entered the academy.

After receiving marrow cleansing and instruction from the Divine Sword, she had been confident that she could protect her senior and junior brothers.

But when time passed and she finally came to her senses, she was still being looked after by them.

"If only you had given the chance to another disciple..."

"What are you talking about?"

Jin Sowoon's sharp voice cut off Saryeon's words.

"The special admission was neither yielding nor consideration. That opportunity went to the person who rightfully deserved it."

"... But during the final sparring match, you clearly..."

"You do not know!"

"...?"

Jin Sowoon's gaze tangled with a complicated light.

Longing, regret, even anger...

As though he remembered something she did not know.

At that complicated gaze she could not describe, Saryeon's mind went blank.

"That... was so naturally yours."

"... Senior Brother?"

"Hoo..."

A sorrowful memory rose to mind.

"You came out 2 hours before training began and trained first, and after training ended, you swung your sword until it was time for dinner."

"..."

"For the sake of the Taiyi Sect, you even considered marrying the Gye Cheolyeong you disliked..."

Saryeon's face flushed hot.

"If... if things had gone according to plan, the one who came to the academy would have been Gye Cheolyeong."

"What does that..."

"You would have led your junior brothers as a lower-class warrior and performed compulsory service in the Murim Alliance."

"... Senior Brother?"

Saryeon would not know.

That this was not a "possibility," but a "fact."

That he had personally experienced all of these facts.

"Gye Cheolyeong would have used the Taiyi Sect's junior disciples like slaves to line his own pockets, and you would have confronted Gye Cheolyeong to stop it."

"..."

"Then in the end, the engagement would have been broken off, and you would have ended up in a harsh situation. Even so, you would have done your utmost to protect the Taiyi Sect until the very end..."

Stories Saryeon could not know kept flowing from Jin Sowoon's mouth.

As she listened, Saryeon felt a strange emotion.

Everything Jin Sowoon was saying was hypothetical.

Yet for some reason, her heart ached.

And above all...

Because Eldest Senior Brother's face was contorted with anger and sorrow, as if it might collapse at any moment, like someone who had experienced everything himself.

Saryeon could not bring herself to say anything.

"This worthless Senior Brother..."

Jin Sowoon bit his lip so hard it seemed it might bleed.

"...would have done nothing but run away to avoid Gye Cheolyeong. Because of that, you would have suffered."

"..."

"Because I failed to do what I originally should have done, in the end, you..."

Jin Sowoon swallowed the words that followed and let out a sigh.

Before long, his eyes had returned to normal.

"... At any rate, the special admission was originally yours. It was neither yielding nor consideration."

What had that just been?

A strange sensation, as though she had heard of her own life, one she herself did not know.

While Saryeon could not say anything, Jin Sowoon's voice continued.

"Recovering the Taiyi True Scripture was pure luck. If there had been no Taiyi True Scripture, I would not even have dared to take the standard exam. Then you would still have lived desperately to protect the disciples of the Taiyi Sect. Am I wrong?"

"..."

"Do not grow impatient because you are a little late. I know how much you think of the Taiyi Sect. But if that thought goes too far and gnaws away at you, then in the end, it will not be for anyone's sake."

Jin Sowoon's hardened face soon forced a smile.

The delicate smile he had often shown in the past.

"Do not worry. You have always done splendidly. Of course, you will do well from now on too. I know that better than anyone."

Unlike the words "I believe in you," which she had always heard from her father and which felt like a burden on her shoulders, Senior Brother's words, "I know," made her heart swell.

That was why she wanted confirmation even more.

"Can I really do well?"

Because if Eldest Senior Brother said so, perhaps it really would be true.

"Of course! You have no choice but to do well."

"But I do not have confidence."

"Do not worry about that."

Jin Sowoon spoke in a tone more certain than ever before.

"You will have no choice but to do well."

"What kind of thing is that to say..."

She complained for no reason, but in truth, she felt relieved.

Eldest Senior Brother had somehow become the pillar that firmly supported the Taiyi Sect.

If this person said so, then surely it must really be...

"First, put this on."

Hm?

THUD.

As though it were nothing special, Jin Sowoon tossed something in front of Saryeon.

What fell at Saryeon's feet was...

"It is nothing remarkable. Just what those fellows are wearing too."

It was a leather vest with iron rings and steel plates attached.

They were digging into the ground, unable to withstand their own weight.

"W-What... is this..."

"Seeing as you have so many idle thoughts, it seems you have gotten used to the moving cultivation art. Put that on first, and you should start learning the World-Traversing Lone Footwork soon too."

Saryeon's face turned white.

No, he had told such a heartwarming story until just now, and now he was suddenly doing this?

"Do not worry about anything. I will make you so that even if you want to fail, you cannot. You need only empty your mind and train. Without a single worry."

"..."

The delicate smile that had lingered on Jin Sowoon's face was nowhere to be found.

"What are you doing? Put it on."

... Before she knew it, a yaksha-like smile had appeared on his face.

It was an exceedingly cold winter day, enough to make one's flesh sting.