Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 44

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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 44. Past and Present
After making the lodging arrangement with Son Yu-baek, Dan Yeop returned to the house of Yi, the elderly landlord.
There he informed Yi that he would be moving out.
“When?”
“Now.”
Yi’s expression darkened slightly.
“Now? But you still have ten days left on your lodging contract. You do know I won’t refund your money just because you’re leaving early?”
“That’s fine.”
Though he was breaking the arrangement himself, more than anything else he didn’t want to spend another day shivering in that cramped room.
At his casual acceptance, Yi’s face brightened again.
“Good, good. Go and prosper. I’m pleased to see you leaving in such good health. Moving to a better place, are you?”
“Yes.”
Just then Ma Deung poked his head through the doorway and called out.
“Dan, leaving already? If you need money this summer, come find me. We could go into the water-selling business together for the season.”
“Thank you.”
Shortly after, Dan Yeop stepped through the gate carrying nothing but a single travel pack.
It felt like yesterday when he’d arrived at Yi’s house, yet four months had already passed.
Still, there was one thing to be grateful for—his circumstances had been slowly improving.
‘From a cramped room to a separate wing…’
Even if it was still lodging in someone else’s house, it was something.
Dan Yeop stepped forward with steady resolve into the bitter cold.
***
Seon Pyeong-bang.
Son Taek, the separate wing.
Hour of the Sheep, early (three o’clock in the afternoon).
Dan Yeop entered Son Taek carrying just his travel pack.
The gatekeeper noticed the pack slung across Dan Yeop’s back and asked.
“Is that your only luggage, sir?”
“Yes.”
Hearing himself called “sir” for the first time in his life, Dan Yeop felt an awkward prickling sensation.
As he crossed the courtyard, he suddenly asked.
“Grandfather, do you know who lived in the separate wing before?”
“My name is Jang Mok. You may simply call me Jang. The previous tenant was a scholar preparing for the state examination. He arrived in mid-autumn, a few days before the exam. Tsk! We shouldn’t have taken him in…”
“Why not?”
“Our Son Taek is not ordinarily a lodging house.”
“Is that so?”
“If only the master hadn’t encountered that scholar at the bookshop. Tsk! His circumstances were rather pitiful.”
“A scholar?”
“Yes, he said bandits robbed him of everything on the road to Chang-an. Seeing him at the bookshop afterward, he seemed born to that life. The master took pity on his situation and took him in as a guest scholar.”
“I see…”
“But he repaid kindness with betrayal. When he failed the examination, he… well, something happened in the wing. Let’s leave it at that.”
“I heard something wanders about at night—is that true?”
“Ah! The master put the wing up for lodging precisely because of that. The household was so frightened…”
“Truly?”
“Otherwise why would we rent out the wing? The Huashan School Daoist who advised us said that if we brought in someone with strong qi, it might perhaps improve matters…”
“So you’ve essentially entrusted the tenant with dispelling a curse?”
“Do you believe in ghosts, sir?”
“I’m not certain.”
Dan Yeop gazed at the separate wing with an ambiguous expression.
If he had another personality within himself, why couldn’t a ghost exist?
As he lost himself in thought, Jang lowered his voice.
“I have seen it.”
“…”
A chill ran through Dan Yeop, and the hair on his scalp stood on end.
An eerie silence fell between Jang and Dan Yeop.
Just then, from behind the separate wing came the cry “Caw! Caw!”—and a crow shot up into the air, flapping across the compound.
Jang, who had grown rigid, bowed stiffly to Dan Yeop and then hurried back toward the inner quarters as if fleeing.
Alone now, Dan Yeop entered the separate wing and began unpacking his travel pack.
His luggage amounted to little more than a spare set of clothes, flint, and a single journal.
As he turned the empty pack inside out and shook it, Dan Yeop muttered to himself.
“A ghost…….”
It wasn’t that he felt afraid, but something unsettled him all the same.
His gaze drifted suddenly toward the writing desk.
On it lay an inkstone, ink, and brushes arranged in neat order.
“Surely these don’t belong to that scholar who hanged himself?”
People fearful of ghosts would have disposed of such things long ago.
He settled into the chair and opened the journal.
Two distinct hands caught his eye—one clumsy, one practiced and flowing.
The clumsy script was his own; the graceful hand belonged to Sim Ma’s records.
The gap between them showed in their writing as plainly as it did in their martial skills.
“Tch!”
He clicked his tongue but turned the pages slowly nonetheless.
They had written whenever something worth remembering happened since Go San-jang.
His own writing was somewhat imperious and stiff, while Sim Ma’s was soft and considerate toward the reader.
By now he knew that Sim Ma posed no threat to him.
If anything, Sim Ma was a help.
Without him, he would never have made it out of Baek Wol-guk alive.
And so, somewhere along the way, he had come to rely on him.
Rely on Sim Ma?
If others heard that, they’d say he’d lost his mind.
After reading to the end, he closed the journal.
He had recorded all the important events so far, but omitted two things.
One was his mother, who visited him often in nightmares; the other was his own feelings toward Baek Yu-hwa.
Even if he was forced to share all of his life with Sim Ma, those two things alone he would keep entirely for himself.
Dreadful as those memories were, his mother belonged to the past, while Baek Yu-hwa was his present.
Past and present.
That was the only way he differed from Sim Ma now.
If he surrendered even that, he would have nothing left to call his own—and that could never be allowed.
Sim Ma was smarter and stronger than him.
Even his foster father, Dan Bul-wi, seemed to favor Sim Ma over him.
One day, everyone might want Sim Ma instead.
“That’s not allowed.”
As dusk settled, his stomach rumbled.
‘What about dinner?’
In Yi’s house, they cooked for themselves in the kitchen.
“Come to think of it, I never asked Jang Mok about that.”
He was just considering whether he should seek Jang Mok out and ask when—
“Young master.”
Jang Mok’s voice came from outside the door.
Dan Yeop sprang to his feet, opened the door, and stepped out.
“Jang Mok, I was just about to ask you something, but you’ve come at the right moment. About dinner—”
“The master requests that you join him for dinner.”
“He provides meals as well?”
Jang Mok smiled faintly and replied.
“The master said to treat you not as a lodger but as a guest scholar. You should dine in the inner hall.”
“Thank you.”
It was a gracious thing to say, yet Dan Yeop felt oddly uncertain.
Free meals?
It confirmed that lodging was merely a pretext—the real purpose was to dispel his misfortune.
The inner hall of An-chae.
Remarkably, Jang Mok had led him not to the outer hall but the inner chambers.
The inner hall was the family’s private space, so this meant he was being treated as a proper guest scholar indeed.
Dan Yeop bowed respectfully toward Son Yu-baek.
“Thank you for inviting me to dinner, sir.”
“Come now. We’ll be dining together from now on, so don’t think of it as an invitation.”
“I’m grateful, though I’m not sure if this is proper.”
“Proper it is. Ten years ago, this house had several guest scholars. As times changed, one by one they left, and now there are none.”
At that moment, Dan Yeop studied Son Yu-baek’s expression.
The way he spoke of changing times—had he been betrayed?
When Dan Yeop didn’t answer, the old lady laughed, thinking he was hesitant to respond.
“Don’t trouble yourself, sir. My husband simply enjoys hearing news of the world, that’s all. If you’d grace us with your company at mealtimes and serve as conversation, that would be more than sufficient.”
“Ah, yes. I’m grateful for your kindness.”
Only then did Dan Yeop take in Son Yu-baek’s family gathered around him.
Son Yu-baek and his wife, a middle-aged woman of striking beauty, and two young people—a man and a woman—both near Dan Yeop’s own age.
The middle-aged woman who had been observing him smiled and asked.
“How old are you, if I may ask?”
“Eighteen this year.”
“Then you’re the same age as our Ji-heon. A year older than Yeon-hwa. I do hope you’ll treat them as both friends and siblings.”
At that, the young man beside her—Son Ji-heon—clasped his hands first in greeting and spoke.
“I’m Son Ji-heon. And this is my sister, Yeon-hwa.”
At her brother’s introduction, Son Yeon-hwa performed a slight bow of respect.
Where Son Ji-heon resembled his father in appearance, Son Yeon-hwa took after the beautiful matron—refined and elegant.
Dan Yeop clasped his hands lightly in return toward the siblings.
“I’m Dan Yeop.”
With these brief introductions exchanged, the meal proper began in earnest.
Dan Yeop, accustomed to eating plain flatbread and simple vegetable soup morning and night, ate with genuine appetite.
As befitted a great manor house, the cook’s skill was second to none, rivaling that of any restaurant.
As the meal drew to a close, Son Ji-heon asked a question.
“I’m currently at the National Academy, but my real aim is to become a military official. What are you doing at present?”
“I apprenticed at a cloth merchant’s shop, but I left yesterday. Now I’m searching for new work.”
“I see…”
Son Ji-heon made no further inquiry, as if accepting the answer.
Yet his expression showed clear disapproval.
Then the beautiful matron interjected with a smile.
“Whether it’s scholarship or commerce, what matters is diligence, doesn’t it? Wouldn’t you agree, Father?”
At her question, Son Yu-baek replied in an even tone.
“Why speak of it as if it were strange? Scholars are good, military officials are good, but it is the merchant who brings prosperity to the world. To despise commerce—as if it were the lowest of the four occupations—is foolishness.”
Son Ji-heon’s lips twitched, but he dared not contradict his grandfather.
Shortly after finishing the meal, Dan Yeop returned to the annex.
The annex.
Seated before the small table, Dan Yeop spread open his journal and recorded everything that had occurred thus far.
He documented even the smallest details, hoping that Sim Ma would make no mistakes.
But it was also an act for himself.
Should Sim Ma misspeak, Dan Yeop would need to correct it.
Rising from his seat, he took a walk around the room.
If he minimized his movements, it seemed he might manage martial arts training after all.
‘If I take it slowly, it could work.’
Dan Yeop drew his sword on impulse.
And with measured, restrained motions, he began the Zhengtian Zhidao Method.
Because he paid closer attention to each movement than before, the training felt genuine.
‘It’s better than not practicing at all.’
Of course, if he called upon Sim Ma, he would progress far more rapidly.
But he had no wish to stop training for that reason alone.
Just as he finished the Zhengtian Zhidao Method and was about to move into the Zhenbailiu Dao Method, it happened.
Swish-swish-swish—
Something brushed past outside the window with a faint rushing sound.
Seized by an eerie feeling, Dan Yeop flung the window open.
But he saw nothing.
“Just the wind, I suppose…”
Dan Yeop closed the window again and returned to his place.
Yet the fright had drained away his desire to practice.
He stood with ears pricked, when a strange sound echoed from outside.
Whooooooo—
It sounded like wind, yet also like some creature crying out.
Startled, Dan Yeop rushed through the door and out into the night.
But again, there was nothing.
‘What is this? A ghost?’
Dan Yeop felt his courage falter, but he forced himself to appear calm as he retreated into his room.
As he closed the door, his heart hammered against his ribs.
Convinced this was not something to dismiss, he opened his journal once more.
[He heard footsteps brush past, so he opened the window—but there was nothing. He rushed out at what sounded like a mournful cry, only to find the same emptiness. Could it truly be the ghost of a failed examination candidate haunting the annex?]
He stopped there and climbed onto the bed, lying back.
He intended to leave the rest to Sim Ma.
‘I shouldn’t keep relying on him like this….’
Apart from such reproach, he drew a long, measured breath.
As his consciousness settled into his energy center, a luminous thread surged upward along the conception vessel.
Flash—!
In the instant the light exploded before his eyes, Dan Yeop’s eyes snapped open.

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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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