Longevity - Chapter 11

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 11: Enemy in the Darkness
After hearing Jin Ipchoo’s explanation, Jang Saeng glanced back at the monks who had vanished earlier.

“Then right now, monks and Taoists alike have fallen out of favor with the court?”

Jin Ipchoo plucked a blade of grass from the roadside and stuck it between his teeth.

“Whether they’ve fallen from favor depends on what the Emperor decides. The Emperor hasn’t been on the throne long, so no one yet knows how he’ll treat the Buddhist Order or the Taoist School.”

Jang Saeng had never even seen the Emperor’s face. Yet the trust—or lack thereof—of a single man could bring a temple to ruin or have a Taoist arrested. The will of the distant Palace, which had nothing to do with him, had rippled out to divide even a simple greeting between a monk and Na Yangja on the road.
Still, Jang Saeng felt little concern for the plight of monks and Taoists. What lingered in his mind was the Elixir that Jo Gwi-jin had supposedly presented to the Emperor.

“Second Brother, can a Taoist truly make an Elixir of immortality?”
“Ask him over there. He fiddles with that stuff every day.”

Jin Ipchoo jerked his chin toward Yi Joongyong.
When Jang Saeng shifted his gaze, Yi Joongyong coughed softly.

“Alchemy

is an art passed down from ancient times in the Taoist School. It’s not like the tricks or sleight of hand you find in the martial world. One extracts the essence of heaven and earth through the heat of a furnace, harmonizes yin and yang, and balances the Five Elements—”
“And burns down houses and blows up inns.”

Jin Ipchoo cut in abruptly.
Yi Joongyong’s brow furrowed.

“Tch.”
“What are you clicking about? Did I say you didn’t burn the house? That you didn’t blow up the inn?”
“Nothing is accomplished all at once. One must experiment and think for a long time. Besides, what I’m researching isn’t just furnaces and flame. There are far more intricate mechanisms involved.”
“We are martial practitioners. Staring at such things every day is a distraction—hardly our proper calling.”

Yi Joongyong laughed.

“And scattering your affections among a different woman at every stop is your proper calling?”
“You’re both distracted.”

Baturou spoke in his deep voice.

“Our master used to say: a man struggles all his life to master even one thing. Your minds, both of you, are scattered.”

When the senior brother spoke, Yi Joongyong and Jin Ipchoo exchanged glances and fell silent.
The group had no fixed times for rest or meals. They rested when they found a suitable place to lie down, and walked until dusk if no such place appeared. They typically ate twice a day, though on difficult terrain, sometimes they managed only once.
When all of them sat in meditation to train, Jang Saeng withdrew to a distance. He had begun memorizing the incantations of the Hunyuan Divine Technique, but had not yet reached the stage of actually circulating his energy. Rather than clumsily mimicking them by his side, it was more helpful to the group that he refrain from interference and forage for food.
Whenever Jang Saeng entered the forest, he would examine the ground beneath trees, rotting stumps, and dry grass first. It was not the habit of someone sightseeing in the mountains, but of someone seeking something to eat.
That day, while the group rested in a cave at the foot of the mountain, Jang Saeng wandered through the forest alone.
Between the dry branches, he glimpsed dark gray fur.
Jang Saeng stopped.
It was the monkey he had seen in the Pine forest four days ago.
The creature sat atop a large elm, gnawing at something held in its paws. Because Jang Saeng spotted it first, the monkey had not yet noticed him.
He hid his body behind a thick tree trunk and watched for a while.
The monkey had concealed itself among overlapping branches and leaves. The spot was far too advantageous to be a chance resting place. Had it merely tilted its head forward slightly, it would have had a clear view down into the cave entrance where his group was staying.
Even as it gnawed its food, the monkey kept craning its neck toward the cave. When Baturou rose from his seat, it crouched low; when Jin Ipchoo stepped outside the cave, it withdrew behind a thick branch.
Jang Saeng’s lips hardened.
Four days ago, he had thought it merely a beast that had escaped from a trainer. But then, by chance, he had encountered the same monkey again—and it was not merely avoiding people; it was watching only the cave.
It was following them.
Jang Saeng recalled the past four days of travel. His group had chosen mountain paths and shortcuts to avoid the official roads, and changed their resting places each time. For the monkey to have found them again despite all that, the encounter was no accident. Someone else was guiding the creature to them.
Jang Saeng gathered a few stones and tucked them into his belt. The elm’s crown seemed too high to reach from the ground, so he crept cautiously to its base.
He grasped the rough bark and hauled himself upward. His left foot could not gain proper purchase, but he braced his leg and right foot against the trunk and climbed one length at a time.
The monkey was far more alert than he had expected.
Before Jang Saeng had climbed very high, the creature suddenly whipped its head around. The moment their eyes met, the monkey hurled the object in its paw with all its force.
Jang Saeng leaned back, slipping clear of the blow.
In that gap, the creature bounded down the branch and dropped to the ground, then bolted straight into the dense forest.
Jang Saeng fished stones from his sleeve and hurled them in quick succession. One struck a tree; the other grazed the monkey’s flank and buried itself in the grass.
It never looked back once.
Jang Saeng descended from the tree and searched for the object that had flown toward him.
It was a pine cone the size of a fist.
Ordinary pine cones were no larger than an egg, but this one was as big as Jang Saeng’s fist. Between the opened scales lay pine nuts, each the size of a fingernail.
Jang Saeng carried the pine cone straight back to the cave.
Na Yangja listened to Jang Saeng’s account without interruption, then took the pine cone in hand. As he turned it this way and that, his expression gradually hardened.

“Master, pine cones of this size don’t grow in Deungju,” Yi Joongyong said.

Yi Joongyong spoke up.
Na Yangja pointed to the stem end of the pine cone.

“It was harvested last autumn. This isn’t a twist-break. The cut is clean and straight—made with a blade.”

Jin Ipchoo removed the grass from his mouth.

“The monkey has an owner. This pine cone was given to it as food.”

Na Yangja nodded slowly.
Only then did Jang Saeng grasp the weight of what he had brought back.

“I first saw it four days ago.”
“There was no reason to harbor a vendetta in Deungju.”

Yi Joongyong spoke in a low voice.
Na Yangja waved his hand.

“The monkey’s owner isn’t from Deungju. And spotting the monkey four days ago doesn’t mean it started following us that day either. It could have been watching us far longer—we simply hadn’t noticed.”
“Then the owner must be close by. But why reveal themselves?”
“The time hasn’t come yet.”

Na Yangja’s words settled into silence throughout the cave.

“They may be waiting for their moment to strike, or perhaps their gathered allies haven’t arrived.”

Jang Saeng gazed out from the cave’s mouth into the forest. The ordinary mountain, which had seemed a place to gather food moments before, now looked different. A single swaying branch felt pregnant with hidden eyes.
It could be someone seeking to settle a vendetta. It could be someone coveting the secret techniques the group carried. Either way, the chance of a friend was slim.
The playfulness drained from Jin Ipchoo’s face.

“Master, how should we respond?”

Na Yangja drew his brows together and didn’t answer at once.
Jin Ipchoo turned to Jang Saeng.

“Youngest disciple, did you hit the monkey with the stones you threw?”

Before Jang Saeng could answer, Yi Joongyong shook his head.

“Whether it was hit doesn’t matter. The monkey bolted in fright, so it will tell its master that we’ve caught on.”
“So what if it does? Let them come. I’ll beat them so hard they won’t recognize their own reflection.”

Baturou bared his teeth.
Na Yangja sat in thought for a moment, then set down the pine cone.

“There’s no need to invite more trouble. We leave this place and avoid contact if we can.”

The group immediately began packing their things.
It was some time after midday. Jang Saeng led the group away from the mountain paths and onto open ground, forcing the monkey to abandon its pursuit through the forest. Though the hills around Deungju made it impossible to avoid forests entirely, a beast crossing an empty field was far easier to spot than one skulking between the trees.
They walked thirty *li* without stopping.
As the sun began to sink, they left the official road and entered a forest to the south. Between the highway and the trees lay a broad expanse of open field—ground the monkey would have to cross if it meant to continue trailing them.
At the forest’s edge, the group paused to watch their rear.
Nothing moved but dry grass bending in the wind.
Jin Ipchoo scanned the field’s perimeter several times, while Jeon Jingung climbed a tall tree to survey the distance. Baturou lifted his head each time a bird took flight, but the gray shadow never appeared.
The monkey did not come.
Only then did they turn southwest, pressing another two or three *li* deeper into the forest. Water sounds reached them before they saw it—a clear stream emerged between the trees, its sandy bed and pebbles visible all the way to the bottom.
After half a day of swift travel, they were all parched.
Baturou set down the wooden carrying case first and dropped to his knees at the streamside. Without bothering to cup his hands, he pressed his face to the water and drank in great gulps.
Jeon Jingung filled a ceramic bowl he carried with him and handed it to Na Yangja. Yi Joongyong and Jin Ipchoo moved toward the stream as well.
Jang Saeng bent to drink, but something caught his eye—a small shadow moving in the water.

“Strange. Why aren’t the bottom tiger fish fleeing from us?”

The finger-length fish that hugged the streambed did not dart away even as shadows fell over them.

“What’s strange about it?”

Baturou wiped his mouth with his sleeve.
Jang Saeng rolled up his sleeves and lowered his hand into the water. Moving his palm slowly along the bottom, he caught a small fish in his grip. It wasn’t until the creature emerged into air that it finally twisted in his grasp.

“Back home we call them bottom tiger fish. They dart away before a hand can even get close—yet this one was caught without effort.”

Jang Saeng returned the fish to the water. It drifted sideways, its tail moving only sluggishly. This wasn’t the torpor of winter chill. It made no effort to find the bottom as the current swept it along.
Jin Ipchoo stared into the stream.

“Poison. Could it be poison in the water?”
“Poison?”

Baturou’s eyes widened. But he had already swallowed enough to make his belly swell.
Yi Joongyong withdrew the silver hairpin from his hair and dipped it into the water.

“The color doesn’t change. I don’t think it’s poison.”

Baturou’s hand swept across his chest in relief.

“Then we’re fine. If there were poison, the fish would have died first. The weather’s cold, so the fish probably……”

His words stopped.
From upstream, several belly-up fish drifted toward them.
Yi Joongyong quickly opened his bundle. He withdrew a device that resembled a folded fan and spread it open, revealing five strips of different colored material. He dropped a single drop of stream water onto each strip and watched for changes.

“Not fire poison. Not metal poison. Neither water poison, earth poison, nor wood poison. There’s definitely no toxin here, and yet……”
“Th-then w-why are the f-fish……?”

Baturou’s speech had suddenly become slurred.
Na Yangja had not yet brought the bowl Jeon Jingung gave him to his lips. He studied the water’s color for a moment, then took a small sip. Testing it against his tongue without swallowing, he immediately spat it out.

“Not poison. Paralysis herb.”

He stared upstream.

“Drunken fish grass. A plant that grows in Gangnam, not found in the Northern region. It’s not lethal, but when dissolved in water, fish lose consciousness, and humans who drink it find their limbs go rigid and cease to obey.”

Baturou tried to speak, but his tongue would not cooperate. His body swayed side to side.
Jeon Jingung hurled the bowl’s contents away.

“Master, what should we do?”
“Did any of you drink from the water?”

Jeon Jingung, Yi Joongyong, and Jin Ipchoo shook their heads. Jang Saeng had noticed the fish’s strange behavior and kept his lips sealed.
Baturou was the only one who had drunk from the stream—and more of it than anyone else.
Baturou’s knees buckled.
Yi Joongyong quickly seized his arm and draped it across his shoulders.

“Third brother, you carry the wooden case. I’ll take the senior on my back.”
“You can’t manage alone, second brother. Let me carry him.”

Jin Ipchoo moved toward Baturou.
Na Yangja’s voice dropped low.

“Your strength won’t be enough to carry Baturou and move quickly.”

All eyes turned toward him.
Na Yangja surveyed the stream and the surrounding forest slowly. Behind the clear sound of running water, he heard branches striking against the wind.

“If someone took the trouble to do this much, they already knew we were coming.”

He drew the fire tablet and held it in his right hand.

“There’s no point in running now. We make our stand here.”

Jin Ipchoo set down the wooden case and checked the weapon at his waist. Yi Joongyong lowered Baturou to a sitting position against a large tree. Jeon Jingung silently drew the concealed weapons from his sleeves.
Jang Saeng gripped the stick he had picked up with both hands. He still couldn’t fully deploy martial arts or lightness skill, but he resolved not to miss whatever he could do—just as he had been the first to notice the fish’s distress.
Na Yangja spoke, gazing into the forest depths.

“Those who are coming will come.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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