“Congratulations, Chilbok.”
The moment I had gathered all the energy flowing out of my body, Dokgorin, who was standing next to me, applauded and congratulated me.
“Ah, thank you.”
I said that while still feeling a bit dazed as I stood up. It felt like being reborn.
My once narrow vision was expanding, and what had seemed impossible before now felt achievable. If I felt this high just from becoming a peak master, I wondered how I would feel when I became a transcendental or a divine master.
While imagining that, I decided to test the privilege known as energy transformation that comes with being a peak master.
Whoooom—
A vivid blue energy gathered atop my fist.
Previously, I couldn’t have wrapped energy like this, but now it was possible.
It seemed to stem from reaching the realm of Samhwa Chijeong, activating my upper dantian.
“How does it feel to be a peak master?”
“Not bad. I’d even say it’s good.”
Dokgorin became a peak master about a year ago. Compared to that, I was a year late.
Of course, considering I used to dream of becoming a peak master, my growth rate now was pretty fast, but I wanted to stand side by side with Dokgorin if possible.
Only then could we seek revenge together.
Knowing this, she was actively helping me.
“It looks like you were just a hair’s breadth away from becoming a peak master.”
Dokgorin said that and brushed her hair aside.
“How do you know that?”
“Well, the energy channels that were blocked throughout your body just got unblocked all at once.”
Perhaps it was because my internal energy surged drastically after consuming the Ji Hwa Dan.
That balanced out the imbalance in my body.
“I see.”
According to what Tang Hochang told me before, once you can freely manipulate your energy, you can become a peak master, yet I wondered why I was still at the first-rate level.
But to learn that the reason was that my physical body hadn’t completed its transformation—well, that felt very hollow.
“Then, while it’s nice to be emotional, let’s head inside. We need to get up early tomorrow morning.”
“Got it.”
Indeed, as Dokgorin said, it was getting late, and I thought that if rumors spread about us being out for too long, it might negatively affect our reputation in class, so we decided to return to our room.
*
The next day.
We gathered early in the morning in the front yard of the Hwasan Sect.
With all the students from the class watching, our homeroom teacher, Soyucheon, cleared his throat and said,
“Yesterday we had a friendly duel with the disciples of the Hwasan Sect, but today we plan to conduct outdoor survival training. Since you will all be wandering this vast martial world someday as martial artists, consider this survival training as a rehearsal for that time.”
Then, one of the students raised their hand and asked.
“What exactly will we do in the survival training?”
“We will pair up six teams of five, mixing genders. Each team will set off sequentially and scatter throughout Hwasan. Once you discover the designated markers, you will camp there and return here with the markers by tomorrow morning. Of course, during that process, you must procure your own food, water, and sleeping arrangements.”
The training sounded far more serious than I had anticipated.
Since martial arts newbies would lack experience in many ways, they would likely face various challenges during the journey, often unable to find suitable solutions or coping methods.
Survival training must have been created to gather opinions from those kinds of people.
“Then, come out one by one and draw lots.”
We followed Soyucheon’s words and stepped up to draw lots in turn.
As a result, my team was the third team, and here are the members:
“Nice to meet you. Esteemed ones.”
The first was Hyecheong, a monk from the Shaolin Temple.
“Uh, nice to meet you…”
Next was Moyong Bi, whom I briefly saw yesterday.
“Well, this lineup isn’t bad.”
Then there was Tang Sosu, who seemed to have faded into the background lately.
“Indeed, Chilbok and I must be connected by a red string.”
Finally, a delighted Dokgorin.
With two guys and three girls, the gender ratio wasn’t too bad. Considering that some teams had all guys or all girls, we fared pretty well.
“Looks like the teams are all settled. Now, let’s begin our journey.”
As Soyucheon clapped, the first team started making their way down the peak.
Being the third team, we would likely set out about 30 minutes later.
‘I hope it ends quickly,’ I thought.
We hadn’t even started yet, but already I felt a sense of annoyance.
*
We set out after the first two teams had departed.
As we made our way down the mountain path, five of us walked side by side, and Tang Sosu asked,
“By the way, what does the marker even look like?”
“Maybe it’s marked with something like a knot or a flag? It should be visible from afar.”
“True, it would be a disaster not to see it and pass it by.”
Nodding in agreement, Tang Sosu suddenly turned to Dokgorin and asked, “Speaking of which, don’t you have good eyesight? How about climbing up somewhere high to get a look around?”
“…That’s not a bad suggestion for you.”
“What?!”
“Nothing.”
After throwing some sarcastic remarks, Dokgorin leaped to the top of a tall tree with a leap.
“See anything?”
When I asked from below, Dokgorin shook her head as she looked around.
It seemed she couldn’t find anything notable.
She jumped back down to the ground.
“Then I guess we just have to look around blindly.”
“Looks like that’s our only option.”
After coordinating our opinions, we decided to move away from the Hwasan Sect.
*
The Hwasan is primarily a rocky mountain.
Thus, as you go higher, the slopes become steeper, while they level out as you descend.
When we set off from the Yeonhwa Peak, it was tough to even just walk, but as we descended further, that feeling dissipated.
“How much longer do we have to go down?”
“Who knows.”
Honestly, I felt we had come down quite a bit.
By now, I thought we should be seeing the markers that Soyucheon mentioned, but I still hadn’t caught sight of anything.
At that moment, Moyong Bi, who had been quietly following us, raised her hand.
“Um…”
“Yeah?”
“Shouldn’t we get off the hiking trail to find the markers? I don’t think they’d hide the markers where people walk.”
“……”
Our team froze, hit by an unexpected revelation.
Thinking about it, we had become so focused on descending that we hadn’t realized we were just following the established hiking path.
“Brilliant.”
Tang Sosu muttered, impressed, while Moyong Bi hurriedly waved her hands.
“Oh, no! Anyone could figure this out with a little thought!”
“……”
I felt somewhat embarrassed.
I hadn’t thought of that little bit and had mindlessly followed the path down.
Regardless, thanks to her, we realized we had been thinking wrong, so we quickly veered off the path to a less-traveled area, and after not much time passed, we managed to locate the marker that Soyucheon mentioned.
*
“It really was a flag.”
The marker Soyucheon referred to turned out to be a flag hanging from a branch.
A red flag with the character “Hwa” inscribed on it.
After unloading our gear under the flag, we decided to spread out to gather supplies for a late lunch.
“First, we should try to catch some meat. If that’s too hard, we can always gather fruits.”
With five of us, we would need a fair amount of food.
“I can’t hunt since it’s against my principles. But you can count on me for anything that requires strength.”
The monk Hyecheong said that, and a beat later, Dokgorin raised her hand.
“Then I’ll go hunting. I can set traps for wild animals.”
“Then Hyecheong, let’s make a campsite together.”
“Sounds good.”
“That leaves just fetching water and gathering fruits, right?”
Tang Sosu said as she grabbed Moyong Bi’s hand and pulled her along.
“Yikes!”
Moyong Bi looked surprised as she stared at Tang Sosu.
“Those two will be responsible for those two tasks.”
“Alright. Then that’s everyone’s roles taken care of.”
Hyecheong and I would set up the campsite for one night, Dokgorin would go hunting, and Tang Sosu and Moyong Bi would gather water and edible fruits.
“We need to move quickly before it gets dark, so let’s scatter.”
As I said that and clapped my hands, the party nodded and dispersed in all directions.
*
To set up a campsite, we needed to find firewood first.
Since outdoors, especially in the mountains, it gets extremely cold at night, a heat source was essential to maintain our body temperature.
Moreover, a campfire was a necessity to keep wild animals at bay.
“Hyecheong, could you gather some usable branches around here? Preferably something very dry.”
“Understood.”
“In the meantime, I’ll dig a pit.”
As Hyecheong went to gather firewood, I took a folding shovel out of my backpack.
I had bought it just in case when I went to the market, but I never thought I would need it so soon.
“Looks like it’s time to do some digging again.”
Time to show off the prowess of a sergeant honorably discharged from the army.
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