Chapter 7: Seeking the Spiritual Medicine (1)
"Young Lord, but why did you want to come to Mount Dabie?"
The Two Wook Sword Demons were middle-aged swordsmen in their mid-thirties.
So at first, they treated Yong Hwarin not as the young lord of their sect, but merely as the heir of their clan. Yong Hwarin had never given them any reason to trust him, and since they weren’t familiar with each other to begin with, there was always a sense of distance.
On top of that, they subconsciously believed that the second son, Yong Kijoong—who was far more talented in martial arts—was the true candidate to become Sect Leader. Because of that, they couldn’t easily accept Yong Hwarin as the Young Lord.
It was quite the contrast from how naturally Mo Biyoung addressed Yong Hwarin as such.
However, over the past five days, the passion Yong Hwarin showed for martial arts and the speed at which he learned were beyond belief—one had to witness it to believe it.
At first, they thought he was just a clueless young master who'd never stepped outside his chambers. But when they stopped by inns or shops, Yong Hwarin ordered food and negotiated with merchants more skillfully than a seasoned trader.
There was even an incident where one of the Two Wook Sword Demons ate something bad, ended up with a stomach ache, and bought medicine for three silver coins.
Yong Hwarin, upon seeing the medicine, said,
"You two said you were going to get medicine for diarrhea, so why have you brought something meant to make horses mate? Are you planning to become a stallion yourselves?" he lamented.
Then he went to the apothecary himself, got the silver back, and even brought the right medicine. When asked how, he said he threatened to report the apothecary to the authorities, and the physician had immediately returned the money and medicine.
Even after getting everything back, Yong Hwarin still reported the man, and the apothecary was eventually dragged away by constables.
"You can deceive in many ways, but cheating people with medicine is unforgivable. It's always the powerless commoners who suffer. People like that deserve to be punished."
Even in unfamiliar regions where one might easily get scammed, Yong Hwarin never got ripped off once.
Whenever the Two Wook Sword Demons tried to buy local specialties, Yong Hwarin would comment,
"How strange, this county is all plains. How could Sarcodon mushrooms grow here? Those mushrooms are a famed specialty in the next county. They only grow where there are mountains and trees. If you buy them here, you're paying triple what you'd pay in the next county."
He even knew which inns in which regions were famous for what dishes. It was baffling—how could someone who’d never left the clan know so much?
"Not everything needs to be experienced. Some things can be learned just by reading books."
Yong Hwarin tried to excuse it with such explanations, but they weren't children. They didn’t fully believe him. Still, pressing him never changed his answer, so they simply let it be.
‘Do prodigies know even this kind of stuff?’
They eventually just dismissed it like that.
Sensing their suspicion, Yong Hwarin didn’t tell them where the spiritual medicine was.
If someone who'd never left the clan suddenly claimed there was a rare herb hidden somewhere in Mount Dabie, of course it would raise suspicion.
So far, they hadn’t questioned him because there was no proof either way, but if he brought up the spiritual medicine, they certainly wouldn’t overlook the oddity.
"I once read something left behind by a famous herbalist. He wrote that there was not only a trove of hundred-year-old ginseng in Mount Dabie, but also a stash of Hua Liquor that can’t be found easily anywhere else in the Central Plains. So, on our way, I want to check that place out myself. If I dig up ginseng, I plan to give it to my parents. If I find more than one root, I’ll share one each with you. If we find the liquor, we’ll enjoy it together."
Yong Hwarin said this to catch the interest of the Two Wook Sword Demons, knowing from their travels that they were serious lovers of alcohol.
They enjoyed drinking so much that they even argued with Mo Biyoung over failing to properly guard Yong Hwarin because of their drinking.
So, when he mentioned Hua Liquor, they didn’t even question if it was true. Their mouths were already watering.
But Mo Biyoung was different.
"Young Lord, this is Dabie Sect territory. If they find out we’re here, they won’t be pleased. They'll claim we’ve trespassed on their land."
"Hahaha, you're worrying too much, Master Mo. Just because the Wudang Sect is based on Mount Wudang, does that mean the mountain belongs to them? Has the Mount Hua Sect ever claimed Mount Hua as theirs?"
"That's not the point. It’s because Dabie Sect and our Heavenly Central Sect aren’t exactly on good terms. We shouldn’t give them any reason to find fault with us."
"Why would they assume we’re from the Heavenly Central Sect? If we run into them, we’ll just say we’re from another sect."
Mo Biyoung frowned.
"How could the Young Lord of the Heavenly Central Sect say such a thing?"
She was reminding him, in a roundabout way, to uphold the pride of the sect.
"Is such pride really that important? If we encountered a Grand Demonic Master and he asked where I was from, I’d say I was from the Demonic Cult without hesitation if it meant saving my life. Why wouldn’t I lie to survive?"
At that, the Two Wook Sword Demons lowered their heads and chuckled.
They had assumed Yong Hwarin was a fragile bookworm, but here he was, hiking up Mount Dabie and seeking adventure—bold and unconstrained by shallow pride.
Initially, the Two Wook Sword Demons weren’t thrilled about escorting Yong Hwarin to the Jaegal Clan.
They thought he’d be the kind of scholar who quoted Confucius and Mencius all day.
But Yong Hwarin turned out to be nothing like they expected.
Sometimes he was like a carefree wanderer, sometimes a refined noble, and sometimes even a seasoned merchant.
And most impressively, Yong Hwarin knew his liquor.
No one knew where he’d learned to drink, but if there was a famous dish or drink at any inn, they had to stop by.
At first, the two guided him. Later, Yong Hwarin led the way.
They were surprised to find he knew more than they did. Every time they expressed their surprise, he'd simply say he read it in books or heard it from others—which they had no choice but to believe.
"Master Mo, I heard this is the Young Lord’s first time leaving the clan. It’s only natural that he finds the world fascinating. Since we’re not on a tight schedule, we should let him do as he pleases."
"Hmph, you two just want to drink that Hua Liquor. Back in the clan, they used to call you not the Two Wook Sword Demons, but the Two Wook Booze Demons. Turns out it was true."
Mo Biyoung didn’t like their fondness for alcohol and scolded them.
It could’ve been insulting, but the Two Wook Sword Demons just laughed it off.
"Hahaha, I didn’t expect Master Mo to know even our true outer title!"
They had hardly spoken before, but now they were close enough to joke with each other.
"We're just going to check the place out and leave. No need to worry. Plus, it’s on the opposite side of Dabie Sect's territory, so we won’t run into them. And with the three of you here, what is there to fear?"
With that, Yong Hwarin began climbing Mount Dabie.
Mo Biyoung followed him silently, unsure how to interpret the changes she saw in Yong Hwarin since they left the sect.
He seemed like a child before, but now, suddenly, he was acting like an adult. Each day, he felt like a different person.
"Follow Hwarin’s will as much as possible."
And remembering the Sect Leader’s request, she walked quietly behind him.
*
In his past life, when Yong Hwarin was in the Upper World, he had once obtained Bell Spirit Stone Milk.
Occasionally, herbalists who roamed deep into the mountains looking for ginseng would stumble upon spiritual medicine.
Most of the time, they didn’t know its value and sold it to local physicians, who in turn passed it to merchants.
Physicians avoided giving such things directly to martial artists—they knew they could be killed over it. So they passed them to merchants, who then offered them as gifts to martial families they were connected to.
That was the usual process.
This was why major martial clans and the Nine Great Sects possessed so many rare medicines—most of them were received as gifts this way.
The Heavenly Central Sect was a mid-tier sect among the ten or so martial clans scattered across Henan.
Shaolin Temple, considered the central axis of the martial world, dominated Henan’s martial clans. Almost every spiritual medicine found in Henan ended up in Shaolin.
That’s how Shaolin’s Great Restoration Pills were made.
Because of this, the Heavenly Central Sect had never received spiritual medicine that could boost cultivation by more than ten years.
All the medicine Yong Hwarin took was bought with money, and even then, they were all low-grade.
In fact, the best one he ever took was barely comparable to common tonics used by low-ranking sects.
But Bell Spirit Stone Milk was on a different level. If one could fully refine its energy, it was said to grant half a generation’s worth of cultivation.
Every martial artist dreamed of obtaining it at least once.
Bell Spirit Stone Milk formed in places rich in earth essence and where yin and yang were perfectly balanced—after centuries of water pooling and drying repeatedly, it would condense into this precious liquid.
In his past life, Yong Hwarin regretted obtaining it too late.
By then, his clan had already been destroyed, and he was too old to properly train in martial arts. His body was no longer flexible enough.
So he sold it for profit.
But he had no intention of doing that in this life.
He had lived too feebly in his previous life. In this one, he didn’t want to repeat that mistake.
He recalled the herbalist’s story about where he found the Bell Spirit Stone Milk: near a pond halfway up Mount Dabie, where a tall cliff to the right of the pond remained sunlit until dusk.
At the base of that cliff was an ancient pine tree, hundreds of years old, and underneath its roots was a hole. Following that tunnel, the herbalist had found the Bell Spirit Stone Milk.
Finding the place wasn’t difficult.
There was only one pond in Mount Dabie, and the trail led straight to it.
It matched what the herbalist described in his past life.
"Ah, I was mistaken."
Yong Hwarin muttered in dismay as he saw the ancient pine.
There was no hole near its roots, nor any sign of a cave-in.
‘The herbalist said he went down almost ten jang…’
Digging down ten jang (about 30 meters) by hand was impossible.
‘Ten years later, a natural disaster must’ve caused the ground under this pine to collapse, revealing the cave. Until then, there’s nothing I can do.’
Yong Hwarin had come with high hopes, but he was bitterly disappointed at failing to find the spiritual medicine.
Mo Biyoung and the Two Wook Sword Demons shook their heads at the sight.
There’s a big difference between books and reality, and Yong Hwarin looked like a naïve young man, let down by believing too much in what he’d read.
‘I was too naive.’
It was a gap caused by ignoring the time difference between his past and present life. Accepting he had no fate with the medicine now, Yong Hwarin turned and descended Mount Dabie.
Then he returned to the village inn to retrieve his horse.