Chapter 8: Found It
The trading lord’s office of the Eunseong Trading Company was a place that exuded modesty with a subtle air of refinement.
It also reflected the practical personality of the previous trading lord.
Eun Hwaran silently brushed her hand over the rosewood desk, which bore her father's traces.
“Trading Lord, a letter has arrived from the Man Geum Trading Post.”
A wrinkled hand handed over a letter with a soft motion. It was Chief Jin, who oversaw the internal affairs of the trading company.
Man Geum Trading Post (萬金錢莊). The biggest financial institution in the Beijing area.
Their main dealings involved lending and receiving deposits.
In short, they were people who made money with money.
“What do you think it's about?”
Eun Hwaran tapped the letter with her fan as she asked.
“They’re infamous for being unreliable, so perhaps it's news that they're cutting off the funds?”
Hopefully, that wasn’t the case. Hoping Chief Jin’s guess was wrong, she opened the letter.
But ominous premonitions never missed their mark.
The letter contained a notice that the loan term could no longer be extended.
Eun Hwaran bit down on her red lips.
“……You’re quite the fortune teller.”
“You flatter me.”
He really didn’t understand how people worked.
“This is one of those times when being wrong would’ve been better.”
“Heh heh…….”
Moneylenders were said to be the first to smile when things were good and the fastest to turn their backs when things got tough.
True to form for those who played with money, they had not an ounce of loyalty.
“If the Man Geum Trading Post is taking this stance, others will likely follow suit and refuse extensions as well.”
With a distressed expression, Eun Hwaran crumpled the letter.
These loans were originally meant to be renewed on a regular basis.
In this way, the trading post earned interest while the company used the leverage to generate greater profits—a mutually beneficial structure.
However, the company had faltered a few times recently, and rumors of a financial crisis began to spread, causing locks to be placed everywhere.
Thanks to gossip among merchants, the money began to flow out, and the financial crisis that never existed actually became real.
Something unimaginable back when her father, known as the Spring Radiance Tycoon, was still well.
“Even if we explain it's slander, it probably won’t help. It’d be better to resolve one of the company’s issues to persuade the lenders.”
Chief Jin added wisdom born of experience.
They were people who viewed the world in numbers. His suggestion was to resolve the sericulture and escort operation issues and win the lenders over with results, not words.
Eun Hwaran nodded, thinking it wasn’t wrong.
“But while Hwang Noya may help with the escort side... the sericulture business is the problem.”
The sericulture business she had painstakingly obtained from the imperial family was now at risk of being revoked.
She continued with a very worried face.
“The biggest problem is that we might lose the imperial family's trust over this.”
Silk had long been a major means of trade for the imperial family.
A well-made bolt of silk was as valuable as gold, so to prevent technology leaks, business qualifications had been strictly managed.
Every part of the production process was a secret, and hardly anything related to sericulture was ever disclosed.
So when a new company obtained the business rights, it had to pass a verification process called Geumgyeol (錦抉) to prove it could raise silkworms and produce silk properly.
“Who would’ve thought raising bugs could be this hard?”
The silkworms of the Eunseong Trading Company had already died en masse several times, and the project was going nowhere.
Even though officials from the court were scheduled to visit for verification in just a few months.
“Chief Jin, have we still not found that person?”
“We’ve hired scouts to look for him, but it’s as if he’s vanished into thin air. No trace at all.”
Of course, the Eunseong Trading Company had its own misfortunes. The most critical position in sericulture, the Silkworm Breeding Officer, had yet to arrive.
The court insisted it had indeed dispatched him.
“Sigh.”
Eun Hwaran let out a weary groan as she leaned back into her chair.
She had spared no expense in cultivating mulberry trees and investing in facilities to obtain this business license, but at this rate, it would all be recorded as losses.
“Where on earth did the person they sent go?”
She thought to herself how she seemed to be sighing much more lately.
Now that she thought about it, ever since her father secured the sericulture rights from the imperial family a year ago, a string of strange misfortunes had occurred.
So Eun Hwaran considered: what if this string of events wasn’t bad luck, but someone’s malicious scheme?
In that case, the spread of harmful rumors cutting off funding, the destruction of escort operations by the Nangabong monster, and the disappearance of the Silkworm Officer all made a certain degree of sense.
Though there was no hard evidence at the moment to prove it.
“Didn’t Father contact Princess Peach Blossom to obtain the sericulture license?”
Her father had said that to rise beyond being one of the ten great trading companies, they needed to pursue high value-added businesses.
So, after much effort, he had made contact with a certain princess and reportedly even formed a secret pact to secure the silk production rights...
“Could we have unknowingly gotten caught up in some palace intrigue…….”
There’s a saying: keep your relationship with the imperial family neither too close nor too distant.
Too far, and you’ll freeze to death from the lack of warmth. Too close, and you’ll get caught in the vortex of palace scheming and see your household ruined.
But if you’ve already stepped too deep without meaning to, then what? Eun Hwaran massaged her throbbing forehead.
“Chief Jin, please send another notification scroll to our contact in the imperial palace.”
This would be the third notification already. But the palace and its officials had nothing to lose whether this project succeeded or not, so they were dragging their feet.
“I will, but as you know, they’re not the most courteous people, so don’t expect too much.”
Still, she had to try.
She couldn’t let the trading company her father had poured his heart into collapse in her hands.
“We have no choice with the sericulture, so let’s at least expedite the escort operation.”
Despite two major failures, their hundred-year legacy still held value, and there were those who continued to trust them with escort goods.
Yet, she couldn’t shake off a faint anxiety. Could Hwang Noya really defeat that Nangabong monster?
“I’ll press the Chief Escort. The warehouse assistants will probably be half-dead by the end.”
Chief Jin muttered quietly.
Since their livelihoods and the trading company’s fate were on the line, there was nothing to do but hope they could endure a little more.
“By the way, how’s that boy warehouse assistant doing? Is he adapting well to the work?”
She remembered upon hearing the term ‘warehouse assistant.’ A boy who had recently drawn much attention in the company.
Chief Jin nodded as he replied.
“I had my doubts, but he seems like a natural for this kind of labor. He works two or three times harder than others.”
“……Impressive.”
Even robust adult men struggled with warehouse work.
But as expected of a child brought in by Noya, the boy was showing extraordinary adaptability.
“He’s a fine lad. Have you arranged a special bonus for him?”
“I’d like to, but Noya requested otherwise. Said the boy’s in the middle of important training, and shouldn’t be tempted by greed.”
Greed, he had said, was the ‘bud’ of all evil and a shortcut down the path of darkness.
“Seems like he intends to raise the kid to be a poor Taoist like himself.”
A Taoist who, despite possessing such martial prowess, roamed the world always dressed in shabby clothes, without wealth or a home.
“To be honest, living on the streets feels more like misery than modesty… but since his will is firm, there’s no helping it.”
In the Murim, the bond between master and disciple was like that of parent and child. It wasn’t something others should interfere with lightly.
“Then we’ll hold off on the bonus and just keep observing for now.”
“Yes, I’d like to give more, but it can’t be helped.”
The bonus that almost landed in his hand slipped away just like that.
A conversation that would cause someone to shed blood tears if they found out later.
What is Inner Arts?
It’s the act of refining the Qi of nature through breathing and storing it in the Dantian.
Then, what is a cultivation method? It refers to the way to efficiently perform this Qi accumulatio.
The Starfall Heart Cultivation Method, which took the moon as a companion and drew down starlight into one’s power.
Hoping for a profound and secretive training, I left the quarters, but what awaited me at the training grounds was unexpected guerrilla training.
“Run, you brat!”
“Huff, huff!”
Running under the moonlight. My mouth filled with a bitter taste, and sweat poured like rain from my body.
Not far behind me, the weirdo chased with a gourd bottle in hand.
“Hrhr, how can you be slower than a seventy-year-old man!”
If I even slowed down a bit, a flick from the gourd would come flying without fail.
When the base of the bottle struck the back of my head, whatever trick it carried made it feel like my skull was about to crack open.
If I collapsed from exhaustion, then the strength training began.
Push-ups with Hwang Geolgae on my back, or endless squats until my calves hardened like stone.
“……Damn it!”
This wasn’t the picture I had imagined. Where was the mystical training scene from martial arts novels? Why did it feel like I’d re-enlisted in the army?
The glare in Hwang Geolgae’s eyes from up front reminded me of a drill sergeant yelling, ‘Private Owl, are you here to relax?’
“Huff, this kind of stuff—! Huff, just teach me the cultivation method already!”
I needed inner strength to endure this brutal training.
That source of power that made martial artists martial artists. Why was he being so stingy with it?
“This kind of stuff? Looks like you still haven’t come to your senses. Add ten more laps around the training ground.”
“Agh, shit!”
By day, I busied myself with warehouse assistant work while reciting formulas. By night, I was squeezed dry by this grueling training.
Running full speed, walking crouched like a duck, climbing and descending nearby hills, and practicing five hundred punches of gratitude strikes.
With such days repeating, even the body of the Heaven-Slaying Star was reaching its limits and seemed to scream in pain.
It felt like my whole body was creaking.
“A healthy mind dwells in a healthy body.”
The body was the vessel that held the spirit.
Depending on the shape of that vessel, the form of the spirit changed too, which is why this foundational training was so important.
Especially since something terrifying was said to be coiled inside me, it was even more necessary.
Hwang Geolgae, looking quite pleased as I gasped like I was about to pass out, drank his rice wine.
“You lied to me… You said you’d teach me how to cultivate inner strength!”
I protested in a horse stance, like I was sitting on an invisible chair.
In martial arts novels, everyone sits in lotus position and calmly senses the existence of Qi.
Why was I being worked to death instead? How could I possibly sense Qi this way?
“Hrhr, and isn’t that exactly what I’m doing—teaching you how to accumulate Qi?”
“Running for my life in the middle of the night… how is this inner training!?”
At that, Hwang Geolgae paused from chewing the snack he’d stolen from the storehouse and replied.
“You brat, for you, this is the proper training.”
“…Why?”
“The Starfall Heart Cultivation Method works with both seated and movement-based techniques.”
The “movement” in movement techniques literally meant movement. It meant performing physical activity while training breath and visualization.
In short, there was no such thing as easy training.
“Isn’t that lucky? A peerless cultivation method that uses both?”
“…Shit.”
“Hey now, what kind of response is that? Ten more laps around the drill field!”
“Shiiiiiit!”
Hwang Geolgae chuckled and shouted for me to run until my soles caught fire.
“Huff, huff!”
Even while running, I had to recite the formulas and insights he’d passed down.
Apparently, to obtain that inner strength capable of superhuman feats, I had to soak the training field in sweat every time.
Nothing in life came easy.
That was something I had learned since grade school, when someone cursed at me saying I had no parents.
“Seriously, I’m gonna die……”
“You won’t die, brat!”
And that’s when it probably began. Realizing the world was cold and harsh, I decided to live with an equally stubborn will.
I looked down at the training field filled with the sweat of escort warriors.
Then, gasping for breath that reached up to my chin, I sprinted across it at full speed.
As if renewing my resolve, I roared and shook the night-filled manor.
“Guerrilla spirit–! Break the limits–!”
I didn’t know what I was yelling, but seeing my fierce determination, Hwang Geolgae grinned and nodded in satisfaction.
It was autumn, with crickets chirping sadly.
“Short break!”
Training in the dead of night was over, and now it was back to warehouse assistant duty.
Janggwe shouted for a quick rest.
The assistants, who were carrying loads as big as themselves, collapsed here and there like they’d been waiting for it.
I also lay down on the street for a moment, using the load on my back as a pillow.
“…I really might die at this rate.”
The sky looked yellow. It felt like the world was spinning.
It felt like I was tossed into a forced march right after guerrilla training ended.
Every muscle in my body was screaming. I was so exhausted that even in broad daylight, I was seeing stars.
And the food during breaks was absolute garbage.
Some slop that resembled poop soup, a few bits of greens, and rice balls made of stale grains.
“Damn those food patrol bastards.”
How was I supposed to work on this crap? I guess their answer would be, if it’s not enough or you don’t like it, buy your own food with your warehouse pay.
But the Heaven-Slaying Star’s body naturally had terrible fuel efficiency. With monster-like toughness and power came monstrous calorie needs.
If I had to cover that all out of pocket, there was no surviving it.
“A hot bowl of somyeon… isn’t there one somewhere?”
Grrrgle.
No matter how much I ate, it was never enough.
Come to think of it, I once had the chance to enjoy delicacies like meat dumplings or Dongpo pork.
But I got kidnapped on the way to eat, and in the end, I didn’t get a single bite.
Still, I felt a little bad about leaving Ilhong and the others behind. When I thought about it, wasn’t it thanks to them that my head was still attached?
However, Hwang Geolgae told me not to dream of acting freely until he suppressed the Heaven-Slaying Star, so I had no choice.
Whoosh.
My hand instinctively snatched something small and fast that passed in front of me.
When I opened my hand, there was a soft-looking insect with large wings.
“What the, it’s not a grasshopper.”
If I grilled it, it would’ve been nature’s snack.
It wasn’t that guy who used to show up whenever things got tough.
“Is this a silkworm moth?”
Its yellowish fur suggested it was probably a wild silkworm moth.
Seeing one for the first time in a while, it looked kind of cute. I used to raise them and made a decent amount of pocket money back then.
The pupa inside the boiled cocoon was quite the delicacy too.
Truly, an insect with nothing to waste. A creature worthy of the title “Heavenly Bug.”
Flap-flap.
Sensing danger, the silkworm moth hurriedly fled.
“…What a shame.”
I smacked my lips while watching its retreating wings. It would’ve been an excellent protein source. I should’ve just swallowed it whole.
“Break time’s over! Move out again!”
As the warehouse assistants began slacking, the Janggwe clapped loudly to rouse them again.
I channeled my inner hardworking laborer, Mr. Kim, and lifted my weary body.
“This job’s an escort delivery for the Martial Arts Repository! Even during hard times, they’ve given us more work, so not a single scratch!”
I wondered if this was the life of a worker ant. Days spent hauling cargo between merchant halls and shops.
If this were Earth, I could’ve moved this stuff with a forklift. But here, everything was done manually.
“Huff.”
Suddenly, dizziness washed over me, and my once-straight back buckled.
To think I’d falter like this after surviving cliffs and rapids.
It was murderous labor.
Seven-day work weeks with no holidays. We worked non-stop until the sun set.
And I’d been tricked by Janggwe’s claim that hard workers got bonuses, so I’d been working two or three times harder than others. But strangely, there’d been no word yet.
Damn Janggwe. Did he con me?
“That guy’s muttering something.”
“Leave him be. Everyone’s like that at first.”
The veteran assistants shrugged, saying it was just a phase new recruits went through.
Honestly, I had looked down on them at first. But it turned out they were all lean masses of real combat muscle.
While they might lose out to me in raw strength, their endurance was truly admirable.
“I… I want to live.”
My knees were starting to buckle along with my spirit.
Adding non-stop labor to the nightly training really made me feel like dying. It felt like my whole energy was being threshed away.
Was it my life flashing before my eyes, or what? I thought I saw a glimpse of that ever-familiar crimson mist.
The escort cargo weighed as much as a full military loadout.
They say that once you become a master, you can lift a 500-jin iron lump without much trouble.
If only I had that inner strength, maybe things would be different. Even third-rate martial artists moved much more efficiently.
‘As the Seongnyeong unites with the body… as Sujeon Gipase flows with the heavens…’
Human learning accelerates when driven by desperation.
Right now, I needed inner strength.
Not for vague reasons like wanting to become strong or rich.
I needed it just to survive.
‘What pierces through eternity is none other than a resolute heart…’
So I recited the formulas for survival.
My mouth moved like a fish’s, silently mouthing the words, prompting others around me to click their tongues.
“That guy’s finally lost it.”
“Didn’t he say he trains at night too? No sleep at all.”
“He’s doing assistant work too? No wonder he’s losing it.”
The other assistants muttered a few words of pity as they passed by.
To say the Heaven-Slaying Star had finally gone mad was quite the joke.
‘The fire of greed is fervent, the void cannot be measured, and the wind cannot be bound.’
Am I a Taoist? Or a martial artist?
I kept walking, repeating the formulas desperately while carrying my burden.
At some point, I reached a state where my body walked automatically, and my mind detached itself to recite the formulas.
Mind and body became separate. It felt like the out-of-body experience one has during long marches.
‘Clear and singular reason… Heaven and earth form glory…’
Could this be what Hwang Geolgae meant by the separation of soul and flesh?
He had said that to sense the Qi around you, you had to forget the body and keep only the mind clear.
“…Huh?”
While walking, I suddenly realized my steps had become incredibly light.
My knees, which had buckled earlier, were now straightened, and I felt an unknown power spreading through my whole body.
An inexplicable phenomenon. It gave me chills.
“Huhhh?”
Three inches below my navel—my Dantian. A tiny little lump had formed there.
It was only the size of a grain, but glowed distinctly like a firefly.
Pure and upright power that could repel demons. A sensation completely opposite from the evil Qi of the Heaven-Slaying Star.
I jumped in place and shouted.
“Found it…! No, I found my inner strength!”