Chapter 2
The moment I held the trembling child in my arms, my heart felt like it was collapsing.
Just how long had the child been abandoned in this harsh snowy field?
Her forehead was burning like a fire, and her lips were blue, almost black, as if she could freeze to death at any moment.
「I must save her!」
But……
And what is this unfamiliar and strange wave of emotion?
The moment I saw the child, a powerful ‘something’ erupted like a volcano from deep within me.
It came like a kind of ‘instinct,’ like hunger or the need for sleep, and the outburst of that instinct was so strong that I clutched my bleeding skull, dragged my fractured leg, and desperately made my way through the snow.
‘What……’
My head was a mess.
No.
To be precise, it would be more accurate to say that my heart was troubled rather than my rational thinking.
In any case.
I didn’t have time to analyze this absurd situation.
“Uh…… uh……”
Had I run about ten li ?
A short breath escaped from the child’s mouth, then ceased.
It was a sign that her life force had reached its limit.
Tata, Tak━!
I quickly pressed on a few of the child’s acupuncture points to stimulate the flow of energy and unblock her meridians , and then I took off my robe and inner clothes to wrap her body.
In times like these, I was grateful that there was a medical component in the assassin training.
If I had needles , I could have improved her condition further, but unfortunately, I had nothing on hand.
‘I’ve only controlled the flow of energy and blood…… but fundamentally, I need to warm her body. Otherwise, she won’t be able to avoid freezing to death .’
I.
I’m fine.
Anyway, I’ve spent 20 years enduring hellish training and honing my body and mind, so I have the ability to withstand any physical pain.
But at this rate, the child will become a cold corpse in just a short time.
‘This is the mountains . I need to find a village.’
While running aimlessly, I stopped for a moment and lowered my posture.
Then, I opened all the sensory doors in my body and focused on my hearing and smell.
This was to use one of my specialties, tracking .
‘D*mn it……!’
But for some reason, my senses weren’t even activated to a tenth of their usual capacity.
The core of my tracking technique is to drastically maximize my physical senses and draw out my sixth sense.
But currently, only very faint sounds and smells, and blurry mental images were flickering, so it was frustrating.
However,
“……”
I can feel it.
A very, very faint sound.
A very, very faint smell.
I followed the arc that the sound and smell painted, lowered my posture, and moved up the snowy mountain.
“……”
Before I knew it, another terrible headache hit me.
Well, I’ll try to endure the pain, but what’s worrisome is the severe bleeding.
A person who loses a lot of blood will inevitably die.
No matter how strong a person’s martial arts are, no matter how strong their iron will is.
It’s the law of nature that if you lose a certain amount of blood, you die, right?
“……”
I hoped that my body would reach a village.
I ran through the falling snow, holding onto my half-conscious mind.
◈ ◈ ◈
“……”
At first, I thought it was a dream.
But I soon came to the conclusion that it wasn’t a dream.
Around the age of 20, when I was promoted to a top-class assassin, I trained to recognize ‘lucid dreams.’
‘Lucid dreaming’ is a part of mental training where you clearly recognize that you are dreaming in a dream and even control that dream. Through this training, I became proficient in ‘dreams,’ which everyone dreams.
In general, dreams have a certain form and rules.
For example, the unique ‘dreamlike’ feeling that you only feel in dreams, or the distorted worldview that defies the laws of reality……
Also, a hazy gray air current always flows constantly, and the actions and words of the characters that appear in the dream are mostly distorted beyond the realm of logic.
But after I finally found a village and fainted, I had to struggle for a while in the depths of the sea of ‘memories’ instead of ‘dreams.’
Then.
Only then did I realize that I had become a reincarnator .
Jin So-cheon.
Coincidentally, the owner of the body my soul possessed was a man named Jin So-cheon.
My name in my past life was also Jin So-cheon, which was surprising, but that feeling soon faded in the face of the bewildering ‘possession.’
But how?
I don’t know how I, who died, came to possess this body.
But since it’s the domain of the gods who govern the world, I quickly erased all questions about it.
Instead,
“So-yun……”
Even without the strength to open my eyes, while confirming the fragments of memories in my unconsciousness, I repeated one person’s name countless times.
Jin So-yun.
The name of the child I was determined to save.
The only blood relative of the body my soul possessed.
She was Jin So-cheon’s daughter.
“So-yun……”
Jin So-cheon was a hunter who raised his daughter alone after his wife passed away from illness.
He had no relatives and couldn’t afford a nanny, so he was attacked by a wolf while hunting with his daughter on his back.
After that, my soul entered the body that had lost its owner……
“So-yun……”
It was funny.
It was clear that the body of the hunter Jin So-cheon was occupied by my soul.
But for some reason, I kept calling out Jin So-yun’s name.
Is a father’s love for his daughter affecting even the soul?
◈ ◈ ◈
“Huhhhhh!”
How long had I been unconscious?
When I opened my eyes again, I felt the cold sweat that had soaked the blanket and looked around.
The faint light of the oil lamp, the pungent smell of moxibustion, the scent of medicinal herbs, various medical tools, and the animal hides hanging on the walls caught my eye. A moment later, an elderly man approached and spoke.
“You’re a truly amazing man. You don’t have a body trained in martial arts…… but how did you survive after losing so much blood? Did you perhaps meet a great immortal?”
I roughly understood.
As the old man said, it’s a miracle that I’m alive.
Of course, if I were an ordinary human, that is.
In my past life, I learned a demonic internal energy cultivation technique called Nature Meridian in the Demonic Cult.
Nature Meridian is different from ordinary internal energy cultivation techniques. In short, it’s a ‘divine art’ that involves continuously ‘absorbing and releasing’ a systematic and precise ‘breathing’ method to accumulate five attributes corresponding to wind , thunder , water , fire , and force in the body.
Of course, it’s difficult to master, so even in the Demonic Cult, only the Cult Leader, the Four Heavenly Kings, and the elders of the Council of Elders had learned it to some extent. But I had interpreted the secrets of Nature Meridian relatively well, so I had acquired a vast amount of internal energy that I could never have at my age.
In other words.
It’s a hypothesis that the breathing habits of my past life were also activated in this life, and a small amount of the ‘power’ of Nature Meridian was accumulated.
“……”
But I couldn’t mention Nature Meridian.
Nature Meridian is a highly confidential divine art even within the Demonic Cult.
At least for now, it was time to keep my mouth shut.
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you perhaps mute?”
The old man asked rather curtly.
But I wasn’t offended.
I owe him my life.
“Thank you for saving me.”
“No need for thanks. I just couldn’t ignore a man who collapsed in front of my house covered in blood. And you even brought a little child with you, how could I turn you away?”
“The child……!”
“She’s alive.”
“Ah.”
“Actually, it’s a miracle that the child survived rather than you. Her body temperature dropped rapidly, and cold energy invaded her internal organs. But I saw signs that someone had manually stimulated the flow of energy and unblocked her meridians . Was that your doing?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve learned medicine.”
“I learned a little by observing when I was young.”
“That kind of emergency treatment isn’t something you can do with superficial medical knowledge.”
“Ah……”
“Is she your child?”
“Yes. She’s my child.”
“She’s pretty, unlike her father.”
“……”
“I didn’t think you’d wake up. No, to be honest, it’s more accurate to say that I didn’t think you’d survive.”
“……”
“Is it heaven’s will that you survived such a serious injury?”
“Yes……”
“You seem to have a lot of stories, but I won’t ask. But keep this in mind. Don’t ever go hunting with that young child again. You were lucky this time, but if it wasn’t for me, no doctor would have been able to save her.”
“How did you know that I was attacked while hunting……”
“You had twelve bite marks on your body. Judging by their shape, they looked like wolf teeth marks. Isn’t that obvious?”
“……I see.”
“Huh! How can you be so s*upid? How can a father be like this? Tsk tsk.”
The old man kept clicking his tongue at me.
He also blamed himself several times, and I had a guess as to why.
First of all, this old man’s medical skills are truly amazing.
If he could tell that I had stimulated So-yun’s energy flow, it means that he ‘deduced’ all the changes in energy and blood that occurred within at least a short time.
This proves that the old man is not just skilled in acupuncture and moxibustion, but also a renowned doctor and a divine doctor who is well-versed in physiology and anatomy.
But even such an old man wouldn’t know the secrets of my Nature Meridian……
Perhaps he was puzzled that I, who he thought would die, regained consciousness, and at the same time, he felt a sense of exhaustion after realizing that his medical opinion was not entirely accurate.
“Old man.”
“What is it?”
“Where is…… So-yun?”
“I’ve put the child in the water.”
“Huh?”
“The cold energy that has invaded her body doesn’t disappear easily. If things go wrong, your daughter could suffer from chills for the rest of her life.”
“That’s……”
“There’s something called Yanguiboryeoktang. I’m treating your daughter in it, so don’t worry. I’ll eradicate the cold energy that has reached her b*ne marrow.”
“……Can I see her?”
“Can you even get up in that condition?”
“Yes.”
Once again, I was driven by an inexplicable instinct and a longing to see So-yun.
So, I got out of bed with my body, which felt heavier than a thousand pounds, using only my will.
“Huh! This is truly deplorable. A person who should be bedridden for at least seven days and nights is getting up! This is…… it feels like my lifelong medical practice is being denied.”
“I’m sorry.”
“What are you sorry for? It’s not like I’m making fun of you. Follow me.”
Well……
I feel self-conscious around the old man for no reason.
◈ ◈ ◈
The place the old man led me to was a small pond located behind the yard.
The old man’s house was surprisingly large.
There were two separate annexes used as infirmaries, and there was also a separate warehouse for storing medicinal herbs. It was surprising to find such a large manor in the mountains.
I looked at So-yun in the wooden cradle floating in the middle of the pond.
So-yun was lying with her eyes closed on a thick blanket in the cradle, but I couldn’t tell if she was sleeping or unconscious, which was frustrating.
Fortunately, the old man told me about So-yun’s condition before I could even ask.
“The child is holding on well. I’ve filled this pond with medicinal herbs. The steam from the Yanguiboryeoktang is driving out the cold energy, so your daughter will wake up within three days.”
“Can that young child…… be okay even after starving for three days?”
“Of course not.”
“……?”
“But I’ve taken appropriate measures.”
“What kind?”
“Why are you so curious?”
“……”
“I gave her the Gujisinyeopcho elixir. You’ve studied medicine, so you must know about Gujisinyeopcho, right?”
“I do.”
“Then you must know what you have to do now.”
“Huh?”
“Gujisinyeopcho is a high-quality medicinal herb that costs at least 10 silver taels per root.”
“That’s true, but……”
“Pay for the medicine.”
