I straightened up right away at his words.
There was hope.
“I’m listening.”
“As I said, the reason you’re sick is because the Black Dragon in you has no water qi to feed on. And water qi is yin qi. So, what should be done?”
It was a question that sounded like a riddle, but the answer came to me quickly.
“Replenish the yin qi… I should take an elixir full of yin qi!”
“Exactly. But your body is already too weak. If you were to ingest such a potent yin elixir now, your body wouldn’t be able to withstand it. If only we’d discovered it five years earlier, the elixir alone might’ve been enough.”
“That can’t be… Then what should I do? From the way you’re speaking, it sounds like there’s another method.”
The Black Flute Physician nodded calmly.
“There is. You’ve got to gradually adapt your body to yin qi. Once that’s done, your body should be able to handle the elixir.”
“Adapting to yin qi… Would eating cold foods or something like that help?”
That was the only idea that came to mind.
“That would work—somewhat. But it’s too slow and not effective enough.”
The Black Flute Physician smiled faintly and continued.
“Fortunately, the weather’s cold enough now for ice to form. For the next hundred days, each night at midnight, submerge yourself in ice water and perform the breathing technique I’ll teach you for one full hour.”
“All right, but… will that really work?”
He chuckled at my question and shot one back.
“Sounds easy, doesn’t it?”
I flinched.
Because honestly, it did.
“You’ll find out soon enough. It’s anything but easy. Especially for you—thanks to all the Elixirs you’ve taken over the years, the pain’ll make you wish you could pass out.”
“Sorry? The Elixirs?”
At my confusion, he explained.
“All those Elixirs you’ve been taking—they all boosted yang qi. That’s shaved several years off your life.”
“…”
I could only sigh.
All the expensive medicines I’d taken to heal myself had been speeding up my death instead.
But a question suddenly came to mind.
‘Why didn’t any of the other physicians notice my condition when they checked my pulse?’
When I asked the Black Flute Physician, he gave a dry laugh and replied.
“Well, none of them were better than me.”
“…Excuse me?”
“They didn’t know your constitution. So they just assumed your yang qi was weak. Tsk tsk.”
“I… I see.”
He added, as if to console me.
“In any case, remember this—if you skip even a single day of this, it’s over. If you fail or give up, you won’t have any time left to fix your body.”
“Yes, I understand.”
I nodded.
If I could heal, there was nothing I wouldn’t do.
There was hope.
That very day, my hundred-day ordeal began.
“Aaagh!”
The moment I first entered the ice water, I realized exactly why he said the pain would make me want to pass out.
My skin felt like it was tearing apart, and every joint screamed like it was being stabbed by knives.
‘I have to endure this. Somehow, I have to hold on.’
I wanted to live.
I wanted to become the greatest merchant in the land.
And more than anything, I couldn’t stand the thought of my death becoming a wound for my family.
So I endured. I survived the hundred days.
With the Black Flute Physician’s help, I took the elixir.
And just like that, I became as healthy as I’d been when I was a child.
With my health restored, I began participating in merchant group operations—and from that point on, our group experienced explosive growth.
.
.
.
“Ughhh!”
Thinking back on it made me shudder involuntarily.
Even now, the memory of immersing myself in ice water during that freezing winter and focusing on my breathing for a full hour remained a nightmare.
“But I’m fifteen again now. Heh heh heh.”
Which meant I could skip that torturous ice-water training and just take the elixir to cure my condition.
And I even knew exactly where to find that yin qi-rich elixir.
I planned to use it to regain my health.
But this wasn’t something that could be done overnight, so I’d originally planned to use the winter solstice break.
Eunhae Merchant Group gave three to four days of leave every winter solstice.
Since my condition wasn’t dire yet, I was going to wait until then—but now, my plans had changed.
‘No harm in getting healthy sooner and learning martial arts earlier too.’
The yin qi-rich elixir I needed was closer than I expected.
It was on the largest mountain in Sunyang County—right behind our merchant compound.
But night had already fallen.
Heading into the snowy mountains at night in this frail body would be suicide.
And the elixir I needed could only be found at Myo-shi (卯時)—between 5 and 7 a.m.
‘I’ll have to go at dawn.’
.
.
.
“Haa… Haa…”
My breath came in ragged gasps.
Masked figures had me completely surrounded.
Knives and throwing weapons pierced my body from every direction.
Step, step, step.
A man walked toward me. The man with the goat beard.
He pointed somewhere, and I followed his hand.
Hanging from a tree were bodies—my family.
Blood still dripped from them.
The goat-bearded man grinned and swung his gleaming sword at me.
.
.
.
“Gah! Haa… Haa…”
I jolted upright, panting hard.
My trembling hands reached for my neck. Still intact.
“A dream…?”
No.
It was a dream—but also a reflection of the horrific reality I’d lived through.
I looked down at my still-immature hands.
I confirmed once again that returning to age fifteen was, without a doubt, real.
I’d be haunted by these nightmares for a while.
That’s how deep the anger ran.
‘Not until I make them pay—really pay.’
I got out of bed and opened the window.
Drumming echoed through the air.
Three chimes of the bell.
It was just after In-shi (寅時)—between 3 and 5 a.m.
If I left now, I’d reach the spot around Myo-shi, when the elixir would appear.
Just then, Palgap’s voice came from outside.
“Young Master! Was that you coughing?”
Just as I’d instructed the night before, Palgap had come to wake me.
“Yeah! I’m up!”
I dressed quickly and stepped out of my room.
.
.
.
Crunch, crunch.
My feet sank deep into the snow.
Right now, I was climbing the mountain behind the estate with Palgap and a bodyguard dispatched from the Eunpoong Division.
Outside the inner grounds of the merchant group, I always had to be accompanied by a bodyguard.
Not because this area had poor security, but because Eunhae Merchant Group’s influence was significant—there were always a few people targeting our family.
Since I hadn’t been assigned a personal guard yet, I had to request one from the Eunpoong Division, the group’s armed division, whenever I went out.
“Young Master, are you really all right?”
Palgap asked from behind.
“Yeah. I’m fine.”
Maybe because I was born with the Black Dragon Star Body, my memory was excellent—even distant memories remained vivid.
The elixir I was looking for was called Icy Blue Snow Plum Fruit (靑氷雪梅實).
It was a fruit formed from the cold energy gathered in a plum tree that bloomed amid the harsh chill of early spring.
As the name suggested, it wasn’t green or yellow like normal plums, but a transparent blue, like ice.
And it was so filled with yin qi that it was considered a legendary elixir.
‘I heard a single Icy Blue Snow Plum Fruit grants the equivalent of one gapja’s worth of inner energy…’
One gapja—that’s sixty years of inner power.
With just one, a third-rate martial artist could become first-rate, a first-rate could reach peak level, and a peak-level martial artist could step into the realm of the transcendent.
It was on par with Snow Lotus Seed of the North Sea Ice Palace or the mythical Ten-Thousand-Year Ginseng.
As I recalled the past, a bitter smile crept across my face.
‘No wonder a bloodbath happened.’
I was twenty-seven at the time.
The Eunhae Merchant Group was in the middle of preparing for a major trade deal.
And since the incident happened close to our main compound, we had detailed intel on it.
An unorthodox martial artist who’d entered Hubei Province came across the Icy Blue Snow Plum Fruit while hunting.
He got drunk and, caught up in the moment, boasted about the fruit he’d kept hidden.
Naturally, his comrades’ eyes flipped the moment they saw it.
A knife fight broke out instantly.
He lost the fruit but managed to survive and went to seek help from a nearby unorthodox sect.
Things spiraled out of control.
Word reached the Murim Alliance, and they got involved too.
Eventually, the Icy Blue Snow Plum Fruit ended up in the Murim Alliance’s hands.
But in the process, about five hundred people died—many of them innocent civilians.
And the fruit they took was later used as a catalyst in yet another massacre.
‘If I get the Icy Blue Snow Plum Fruit, that future won’t happen, right?’
If so, those five hundred lives could be spared.
‘Still… it’s a little hard to let go.’
A single one of those fruits could’ve elevated me to first-rate martial artist level in an instant.
But it couldn’t be helped.
There were other elixirs out there, but they were either too far away or too expensive to acquire without the right backing.
My symptoms weren’t obvious yet, and no famed physician like the Black Flute Physician had requested one on my behalf.
I decided to see the positive side of it.
If this could cure me quickly and let me start practicing martial arts, I’d gain time instead.
With my thoughts sorted, I pressed on.
The snowy terrain drained my stamina quickly, and I started to pant.
“Young Master, why don’t we turn back now?”
At Palgap’s suggestion, I shook my head firmly. I couldn’t give up after coming this far.
No way.
“No. Just a bit more…”
The bodyguard chimed in.
“I agree with Palgap. I think it’s time to return. The Merchant Lord will be worried. If you insist, I’ll be forced to escort you back.”
He meant it—he’d really drag me back.
“Then… just one gak! Please!”
I put on the most pitiful expression I could manage, and after some hesitation, he relented.
That gave me one gak—roughly fifteen minutes.
I had to hurry.
Heading further north, I spotted a long rock I remembered.
Just like in my memory, I walked fifty steps west from the rock.
There it was—a plum tree growing wild in the mountain.
‘Third from the bottom… That’s the one!’
A transparent blue fruit hung there.
So clear it’d be almost impossible to see unless you knew it was there.
Now, the only challenge was picking it without the guard noticing.
‘Should I have Palgap take the guard elsewhere for a moment?’
But no matter how I thought about it, I didn’t have the stamina to climb up and pick it myself.
My vision began to blur and spin.
I’d only made it this far because the snowy environment helped ease my condition a little.
Maybe because of my constitution, the cold and snow made me feel slightly better.
Either way, I needed to distract the bodyguard—and there was only one way to do that.
I picked up a rock buried in the snow and threw it the moment the guard turned his head.
Thud!
Flap flap flap!
Startled mountain birds took flight.
The guard tensed at the sound.
‘No way he’ll suspect I threw it. Now to nudge him into checking it out.’
I sealed it with a line.
“Huh? What was that? I thought I saw something…”
The bodyguard rushed to my side.
“We need to descend the mountain immediately—just in case.”
Just as I expected.
“Yes… Ugh!”
I collapsed on the spot.
Putting on a sheepish expression, I added,
“Guess I pushed myself too hard. Ha ha… My legs won’t hold me up…”
“Then perhaps Palgap should carry you on his back—”
Palgap shook his head.
“If I slip while carrying the Young Master in this snow, he could get seriously hurt.”
The bodyguard frowned in frustration, then said,
“In that case, I’ll quickly check the area. Stay right here.”
“Okay.”
Once he headed toward the noise, Palgap turned to me and asked,
“So, what should I do?”
He’d realized my actions had been an act to divert the bodyguard’s attention.
Because he looked like a lumbering bear and moved slowly, people often assumed Palgap was dumb—but he wasn’t.
He was clever and perceptive.
Which is probably why Father assigned him to be my attendant.
I leaned in close and whispered,
“See that tree?”
–TL Notes–
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