An Investment Is Needed (2)
If we're talking about "investment" in Murim, there's only one thing it could mean.
In a secluded alley of Maeyang County's marketplace stood a small herbal medicine shop.
Various medicinal herbs were laid out for sale, and to someone like me—a man from the modern world—it was a nostalgic sight.
Back in the day, every neighborhood used to have at least one place like this.
As I stood there inhaling the familiar herbal scent, the shop owner, a man surnamed Hwang, who had been slicing herbs with a chopping blade inside, came out, assuming I was a customer.
"Who is it?"
"It's me."
The moment he saw my face, Hwang scowled.
"You again?"
"That's no way to greet someone. It's been a while."
"'Been a while,' my ass."
So rude. What kind of person treats an old acquaintance like this? Hasn't he ever watched Joker to see what happens to rude people?
"I told you last time—I don't need bellflower roots anymore. Even if you bring them, it's useless. Just take them home and season them with soybean paste or something."
Hwang replied curtly, making it clear he had no intention of doing business.
To be fair, he and I had a long-standing relationship.
In my first year after falling into Murim—on my way to a job interview with nothing but a lighter in my pocket—I did just about anything to survive.
Begging, working as a tavern boy, serving as a rich household's servant—I tried everything.
One of those "everything"s included being a root-digger. With no other work available, I climbed the mountains to dig up lingzhi mushrooms, deodeok, bellflower roots—whatever I could find—and sold them to Hwang.
Truthfully, it wasn't profitable once you factored in the labor. But back then, even a few coins to buy a bowl of rice could mean survival.
If Hwang hadn't bought those cheap herbs from me, I probably wouldn't have survived that first year.
Eventually, though, my knees began to ache from all the mountain climbing, and I decided I couldn't keep it up. I quit cleanly.
Hwang, who likely wasn't making much profit anyway, eventually refused to keep buying from me.
You could say our needs no longer aligned.
We'd stopped trading a long time ago, only exchanging occasional greetings in passing.
But I hadn't come today to sell anything.
"I'm not here about that."
"Hmph. Then what?"
"I have something important to discuss. Privately."
I put on a solemn expression. Hwang looked at me like I'd eaten some kind of madness-inducing mushroom in the mountains, but eventually he gestured me inside and offered a cushion.
The cushion's stuffing was cheap. As I sat down and shifted my weight, I shot him a look that clearly asked, No tea?
He ignored it mercilessly.
"Did you find something valuable?"
"No… I'm here to buy something. Something big."
"With what money? Hah. Fine. What are you buying that requires such theatrics?"
He still looked displeased, but at least he didn't throw me out.
It took considerable courage to say it aloud. Swallowing hard, I steeled myself and spoke.
"…Ten-Year He Shou Wu."
"H-Huh?!"
Ten-Year He Shou Wu!
A legendary medicinal root renowned for its potent effects—one that must grow for ten full years in remote mountains, absorbing the essence of nature, untouched by human hands.
It was only natural that Hwang's face turned pale.
"Y-You're buying something that expensive…?"
"Of course. I've brought the money."
I casually opened my pouch and revealed the silver.
The flash of metal made Hwang instinctively reach out—
I slapped his hand lightly.
"Ahem."
Then retied the pouch.
"I will absolutely be purchasing the Ten-Year He Shou Wu today."
"W-What do you even intend to do with it…?"
"That's none of your concern."
My eyes sharpened. Hwang fell silent.
Just as I had no say in whether he made seasoned deodeok or grilled deodeok with what he bought from me, he had no say in what I did with the He Shou Wu.
That was the iron rule of trade.
"Fine. But remember—it's expensive. Two nyang of silver."
"Let's negotiate."
"'Negotiate'? What's that?"
Modern slang slipping out again. Bad habit.
"I mean… lower the price."
Hwang nearly foamed at the mouth.
"Outrageous! You of all people should know how rare Ten-Year He Shou Wu is. And you dare to haggle? I've already discounted it a little for your sake!"
"I'd like to settle this like a man, but two nyang is too steep. One and a half should suffice."
"One and a half, my ass! And what's this 'settle' nonsense?"
After several rounds of raised voices, I realized Hwang's resolve was ironclad. In the end, I only managed to shave off three copper coins—and even then, he substituted them with a few roots of licorice instead of actual cash.
I swallowed my frustration at the excessive expense.
Just moments ago I'd felt rich.
Now I was teetering on the edge of rice poverty.
I shot Hwang a cold glare. He averted his eyes, as if to say, What do you want me to do about it?
When I become a master someday, I'll burn this place down. Miserly old man.
"Fine. Let's… settle it here."
"I'm asking what 'settle' means!"
Ignoring his grumbling, I thrust forward the two nyang of silver with determination.
"Give me the Ten-Year He Shou Wu!"
A spirit medicine.
Among countless herbal substances—many of them even toxic to the liver—only those so potent that they could supposedly revive the dying deserved to be called spirit medicines.
And the one now in my hand—
The Ten-Year He Shou Wu—
Qualified.
With this… I can surpass it.
The reason I spent the enormous sum of two nyang was to break through a wall.
The Wall.
All martial artists who step into Murim eventually collide with a limit.
So did I.
After falling into this world, I had been too busy surviving day-to-day to think about cultivation. But once my life stabilized somewhat, I worked tirelessly to learn martial arts.
If you come to Murim, of course you learn martial arts.
It's as natural as learning to use a smartphone if you land in the modern world.
After immense hardship, I managed to obtain a few manuals containing techniques such as the Three Calamities Heart Method. Drunk on dreams of becoming a great master who would shake the jianghu, I practiced every night in my spare moments.
The result of those efforts included techniques like Twin Swallows in Flight.
…But the limit came far too quickly.
A wall blocking my path.
I couldn't help but despair at this tragedy.
At first, I tried to overcome it with sheer effort. But as someone exhausted by earning a living, collapsing into sleep every night, surpassing the limits of martial cultivation was nearly impossible.
I realized that breaking through purely by effort was something only the chosen few—those who could afford to focus solely on training without worrying about survival—could achieve.
The wall all impoverished martial artists wept before.
The Wall of One-Year Internal Energy.
No matter how diligently I regulated my breath and circulated qi, my internal energy would not grow beyond the level between one and two years' worth of cultivation.
I began to understand how people feel when they keep failing the second round of a real estate license exam.
Without overcoming this wall, I could not become an escort.
Any proper escort—any proper warrior—even a third-rate one—had surpassed this one-year barrier.
"Even if it's a shortcut… with this Ten-Year He Shou Wu…!"
Ten-Year He Shou Wu.
As the name suggests, a supreme spirit medicine that had absorbed the essence of nature for ten full years.
They say that when one consumes such a spirit medicine, one can absorb roughly one-tenth of its accumulated essence.
In other words—
If I added one year's worth of internal energy from the Ten-Year He Shou Wu to the single year I had painstakingly built up,
I could finally obtain the two years of internal energy I had longed for.
I stared at the Ten-Year He Shou Wu, still brimming with vital essence.
Its radiant form was almost dazzling.
And I had to eat this?
The image of the two nyang of silver disappearing into Hwang's pouch flickered before my eyes. For a moment, I desperately wanted to demand a refund.
But I quickly firmed my resolve.
There was no reason to hesitate.
This was an investment.
And right now was the perfect time to buy at rock bottom.
It might sting for a moment—but once I secured employment, this would return hundreds of nyang in value.
Decision made, I shoved the Ten-Year He Shou Wu into my mouth without even brushing off the dirt and began chewing.
With dreams of becoming the greatest master under heaven and shaking Murim itself!
—Woooooong!!
"Ghk—Haaah!"
An overwhelming pain struck me.
The moment it slid into my stomach, the immense natural essence contained within the Ten-Year He Shou Wu began assaulting my organs.
If a hedgehog started twerking inside your stomach, maybe it would feel like this.
The natural energy clashed with my existing internal force, tearing through my meridians and disrupting my control over my own body.
My consciousness began to fade.
No!!
The reason one must immediately regulate one's breathing after consuming a spirit medicine is simple: its essence is natural energy. If left alone, it dissipates rather than settling within the body.
Without immediately circulating and refining it into one's own internal force, it simply gets digested and lost.
In other words—
If I passed out now without practicing breath regulation, all that raging essence would turn into nothing but waste.
All the suffering—hauling loads up mountains, fighting bandits—would transform into two nyang worth of excrement!
Unacceptable.
To digest this energy properly, I had to control it through breath regulation.
Even as every instinct screamed at me to black out, I clenched my mind and forced myself to focus.
Fortunately, after about an hour of relentless breathing exercises, the wild natural energy gradually began to settle.
"Inhale… Hoooh… Inhale… Hoooh…"
Now that I had stabilized the energy, the real task began.
I had to transform it into my own internal force.
Drawing energy in through my nose and exhaling through my mouth, I desperately refined the essence through controlled breathing.
Only after a full two hours did the energy finally stabilize completely.
"Hoooo…"
They say trials that do not kill you make you stronger.
That was exactly what this felt like.
I had endured it.
Once even the faintest remnants of stray energy were refined, I circulated my internal force through all my meridians in a full cycle.
And when I felt the clearly enlarged size of my internal energy, confidence surged through me like a man who had just undergone a certain kind of enhancement procedure.
If before it had been the size of a grain of rice—
Now it felt like the size of a bean.
As certainty filled me that I had shattered the Wall of One-Year Internal Energy, I slowly opened my tightly closed eyes.
The world looked different.
"…So this is the view seen by two years of internal energy."
The sun was setting.
The sky burned red with twilight.
It was breathtakingly beautiful.
"Beautiful."
A deep smile spread across my lips.
Like the sunset itself.