"How could a man who isn't even at peak cultivation beat us in drinking?"
"He said that his nickname was Heavy Drinker."
"What about the payment? How did he afford fifty six silver pieces?"
"Well...he seems to have some wealth."
"But...but still, seeing as he took my signature whilst I was unconscious, it's an invalid contract!"
Ok Hae-mi shrugged her shoulders at the teacher's protests.
"If you have an issue, you can just confront him directly."
Another teacher then spoke, "In that case, we will have to protest. Having us sign the contract without our conscious agreement is immoral and invalid!"
The remaining teachers nodded in agreement.
Hwacheon Academy was an academy in Moorim.
The unspoken law of Moorim was that the strongest person reigns as the winner. Therefore, the martial art teachers were confident in their ability to nullify the contract by force.
They weren't going to hold back even if their opponent's cultivation was weak.
Their justification for this was for self-defense.
"Alright! We'll find Kang Seonsaeng and confront him directly. When should we go?"
"I think this evening would be a good time."
"Fine. Let's all meet at his residence this evening."
The teachers collectively nodded with optimism for their victory. Ok Hae-mi looked upon them and sighed.
She recalled her warning to Kang-hyuk about the contract last night.
She had a strong intuition for sensing danger from a young age. It was why she was still alive.
She could feel her intuition warning her all over again.
She sensed that if she got too involved with Kang-hyuk and slipped up, there would be great consequences.
'I even told him to come and find me if he had any problems. I'm done for.'
She raised her hand slightly and spoke, "I'm not going to interfere. This will interrupt my beauty sleep."
***
Kang-hyuk had finished his morning tasks and returned to his residence. As soon as he arrived, he looked over the books that had arrived last evening.
"I'm going to have to study more than I expected I would for this subject."
He began reading book after book, going over every detail meticulously. With each book, his rate of reading accelerated.
His fast-reading ability was thanks to a method he had learned whilst having to go through hundreds of doc.u.ments as the Clan Leader.
By lunchtime, he had gotten through all of the books. His outlook on this was a little underrated.
"Well, that was easy."
After eating the meat dumpling that Baek-gap had brought him, he stepped out of his residence and looked out at the courtyard.
"Ahhh..."
His official job was that of a Horticulture teacher, yet his yard did not even have a single flower nor a tree in sight. He felt that this was rather unseemly.
'Let's not be over ambitious with the entire yard. I'll practice with a small garden instead.'
It was just the right time of year to be sowing seeds and planting trees.
He called Baek-gap over.
"I'm going to Jungcheon so you can accompany me."
"That's fine."
Kang-hyuk and Baek-gap left, heading for the shops of Jungcheon. Kang-hyuk had asked for Baek-gap's accompaniment as he would need a porter for this visit.
Some time had pa.s.sed.
Kang-hyuk returned to his residence with Baek-gap following behind. Baek-gap was carrying on his back three small seedlings, a hoe, and a sickle.
"Shall I put them here?"
"Yes, there should do."
Kang-hyuk was holding a small pouch containing flower seeds. He was planning on establishing his garden by first planting out some trees, then sowing flower seeds after.
"Well, let's start by preparing the soil."
He picked up a hoe and recalled the words of the man that had first taught him how to garden.
Gardening was not in any way new to Kang-hyuk. It was just that he wasn't a technical expert in the field.
'When cultivating the ground, cultivate deep enough that the soil is soft and crumbly!'
He began to dig the ground with the hoe.
Blimey-!
The hoe, not being able to withstand Kang-hyuk's force, began to crack.
"Ah, I should have held back a little! I'm too busy right now to go and get a new one.'
Nonetheless, Kang-hyuk came up with his own solution. He made an invincible hoe by infusing the hoe with his energy.
With this hoe, he would be able to cultivate the ground using all of his strength.
He recalled the words of his gardening teacher once more.
'Aigoo! Didn't I tell you cultivate the ground with the same feeling with which you would prepare bedding for your family!'
He closed his eyes and thought of his family.
He sighed sadly, being unmarried, his only family were his dead parents and brother.
'How would I lay out the bedding for my parents and brother if they were still alive?'
Without him realizing it, a warm loving energy was seeping into the ground as he hoed it.
'The next step is to apply compost.'
He recalled what he had read about compost.
There were many varieties of compost that one could utilize, but animal manure, unless it had sufficiently decomposed, wasn't recommended for use on flower beds, owing to the foul smell it emitted.
'Should I use some neutral smelling decomposed leaf litter?'
The function of compost was to provide nutrients to the plants to ensure their plentiful and healthy growth.
With this in mind, Kang-hyuk felt that it was important to choose a compost that had high Qi energy. After wondering where he could obtain decomposed leaf litter, Kang-hyuk smiled after receiving some inspiration.
'That place has definitely has good energy, and it has plenty of decomposing leaves."
He had no intention of fetching the decomposing leaves by himself. He looked at Baek-gap, who was busy cleaning the house.
"Baek-gap."
"Yes, Seonsaengnim!"
"You can continue with the cleaning later. Fetch a small sickle and a sack, then follow me."
"Yes!"
***
Half an hour had pa.s.sed, and Baek-gap had a frightened expression on his face.
It was due to the destination at which they had arrived.
"Isn't this a forbidden location within the Sung Mountain?"
Kang-hyuk nodded at his question.
"It is forbidden."
"If it's forbidden, doesn't it mean that we shouldn't be here?"
"No, it doesn't. It only means that those who are unqualified to enter shouldn't enter."
"So doesn't that mean the same thing — which we shouldn't enter?!"
Baek-gap felt like falling into the earth.
Sung Mountain.
On the east-side of the Shaolin temple located on the mountain, there was a deep valley.
It was known as the White Sun Valley. Its unique topography meant that it was a place where there was an intense concentration of the sun's energy.
The plants of the valley were also unusually coloured white — from the branches of the trees to their leaves.
The powerful concentration of the sun's energy also meant that anyone who entered it would catch on fire, and be completely burnt to death.
This was also the reason why no guard was present, as most people were aware of its dangerous reputation and generally kept away.
There aren't a lot of people who wished to be burnt alive whilst climbing a mountain.
Despite this, Kang-hyuk still had the intention of entering the White Sun Valley.
Complaints poured out from Baek-gap's mouth without him even realizing it.
"Aigoo! Seonsaengnim! If you wanted to kill me, you should have said so! Are you killing me after taking me here so there's no evidence?"
Kang-hyuk frowned slightly, and soon, he whacked the back of Baek-gap's head.
"Ouch! Why did you hit me?"
"You're overreacting! Don't worry, I don't have any thoughts of killing you yet."
He dragged Baek-gap by the ears deep inside the White Sun Valley.
"Ugh!"
Feeling the concentrated energy of the sun he was so fearful of, Baek-gap cautiously opened his closed eyes.
"Huh?"
He was a little taken aback by the fact that he was still alive.
"This, how is this possible?"
Seeing his perplexed expression, Kang-hyuk explained, "Whilst this place has a dangerous reputation due to the concentrated sun energy, not everywhere here has the level of concentration that would be harmful."
"So you mean that where we are has a smaller sun energy concentration, so it's safe?"
"You pick up fast! The places of smaller concentrations are bearable, but only if you're a warrior of peak cultivation."
"Ah, I see."
"Don't ever think about coming here alone though. The 'safer' locations with low levels of concentration change by the hour. Anyways, start putting the leaf litter in the sack."
Baek-gap had filled the sack within no time. He then secured the sack with thread, and placed it on his carrying backpack.
"It's all done."
Kang-hyuk nodded, then suddenly frowned.
"Baek-gap, stay back."
"What? Why?"
"There's a slight issue."
As Kang-hyuk spoke, Baek-gap's eyes began to widen.
"Aaahh! That, what on earth is that?"
An enormous white cow stood in front of them.
The cow was ten times the size of an ordinary cow and had huge but sharp horns.
"He's a spiritual animal that resides here. It's usually quite docile, so I don't know why it's acting up today."
"We should run then!"
"Even if we run away, what are we going to do if the creature escapes the Valley running after us?"
"That, well…"
"It's unlikely to leave as it's fond of the Valley, but it doesn't mean it can't leave. I'll need to placate it, so you just stay put over there."
Baek-gap didn't dispute Kang-hyuk's suggestion. Kang-hyuk ushered the cow to the opposite direction with the movements of his hands, making the cow retreat.
But suddenly, the cow had a change of heart, and rushed towards Kang-hyuk.
"This lad!"
Kang-hyuk pushed his fist towards the cow's forehead.
*Bang*
A powerful force was generated from the collision of Kang-hyuk's fist and the cow's forehead. The surrounding trees began to sway.
Baek-gap had his eyes shut, and was holding on tightly to a tree so that he wouldn't fly away.
When he finally opened his eyes, he was met with an unbelievable sight.
The enormous cow, which had seemed so ferocious and wild, had collapsed onto the ground and was crying.
The cow was gazing sadly at its tail, of which only half was remaining.
"Somebody came into the valley, and cut off half of your tail?"
The cow nodded at Kang-hyuk's question.
"I see. I don't know when, but if I ever encounter the criminal that cut your tail off, I'll be sure to give him a blow."
The cow had now completely calmed down, and Kang-hyuk stood up.
He looked at Baek-gap, who was still on the ground.
"Let's go."
"...."
"What are you doing? Get up immediately!"
"Ah, yes!"
Coming out of his daze, Baek-gap stood up, and picked up his backpack.
"I'm going now, I wish you well."
Kang-hyuk gave his farewell greetings to the white cow, and they then departed from the Valley.
'Huh?'
They had walked deep into the forest when Baek-gap tilted his head. He could hear the sound of a girl's laughter.
He looked around, but couldn't see anyone present other than Kang-hyuk.
'Did I mishear?'
Meanwhile, Kang-hyuk looked at the backpack, which Baek-gap seemed to be losing his hold on, then looked back.
'Whatever, but I wonder, who could have cut the cow's tail off?'
***
The white cow had cried for a while now. He suddenly realized that a friend of his in the White Sun Valley had disappeared.
His friend had a playful character and usually complained of being bored.
The cow soon dropped the thoughts of his friend and began chewing some gra.s.s. Whilst his tail was precious to him, he couldn't understand why he was so angry at it being cut off.
However, remembering the promise of the human who had come and said that they would deal with those who cut off his tail made him at ease once more.
He focused on appreciating the delicious leaves of the trees, and the warm sun of White Sun Valley.
***
Kang-hyuk returned to his residence with his compost that was full of the sun's energy.
He immediately resumed his gardening and spread his compost over the cultivated soil.
"Hmm…I've finished spreading the compost. Should I plant out the trees, and sow the seeds?"
The trees he had purchased were trees usually found in a garden. They included a plum tree, a pine tree, and heavenly bamboo. His flower seeds of choice were: hollyhock, trumpet flowers, and rose balsam.
Kang-hyuk diligently planted out all of the trees and sowed the flower seeds.
When he had finished, the sun had begun to set.
It was time for him to go and meet the music teacher, Ju Gung-wol. Having arranged dinner plans with him at his favourite eatery, Ilmibanjeom, Kang-hyuk hurriedly rushed out and headed for Jungcheon.
