The team members who had been scattered throughout the village attending to their tasks began gathering one by one.
“Good morning, Team Leader.”
The first to arrive was Jang Sam who approached with an awkward smile. As if something was bothering him.
“I think we have something to talk about?”
“Ahem! Well, there’s no need to discuss anything separately…”
But when Baek Woo Jin glared at him, he quickly changed his tone.
“We’ll talk about it all in a bit.”
You should’ve just said that from the start.
Just as that conversation wrapped up, Gu Wang Soo appeared. He was cradling the baby white tiger with one hand and waving his other hand.
“You’re awake, Baek Woo Jin!”
Baek Woo Jin motioned for him to come closer with a flick of his finger.
As Gu Wang Soo hesitantly approached, Baek Woo Jin held out his hand.
“Give it to me.”
“Wh-What?”
“Give me the white tiger.”
“Oh… I thought you meant something else.”
Baek Woo Jin had been so worried that while he slept, the white tiger might wake up and mistake Gu Wang Soo who was holding it for its parent.
The white tiger that Gu Wang Soo gave him was still asleep though.
“Hey, has it been sleeping like this ever since I brought it?”
“Yeah… it hasn’t woken up once.”
“Hmm.”
When he tickled the nose of the peacefully sleeping cub, it let out a soft purring sound and started flailing its front paws before curling up and pushing its face even deeper into his arms and continuing its nap.
“Oh, my heart…”
This creature was definitely dangerous. It was so cute it nearly made his heart burst.
Though it was a bit concerning that it had been asleep for days, its steady breathing and immediate reactions to touch reassured him that nothing was wrong with its body, so he decided to leave it be for now.
“Team Leader, everyone’s gathered.”
While he was regaining his composure by looking at the white tiger, the team members had all gathered.
Baek Woo Jin scanned them one by one. Most of them had bright expressions, but Tang Seon Yeong was the only one looking uncomfortable. She even avoided his gaze and turned her head.
Is she embarrassed?
Looking back, the kiss from the previous night had been somewhat impulsive.
He averted his gaze as if it were nothing.
“As most of you probably expected, I called you here to explain the situation from a few days ago.”
He began weaving a story, leaving the truth buried forever in darkness.
It wouldn’t do to tell them about sharing drinks with a giant tiger beast, so he spun a thrilling tale instead. He said that they had fought fiercely, and in a moment of opportunity, he had plunged a sword into the creature’s heart. Just before its death, it had regained consciousness and entrusted him with the White Tiger.
“…After barely winning like that, I lost consciousness on the way back.”
“Oh…! To think you defeated the transformed Calamity Tiger. That’s incredible!”
“You must’ve gone through so much…”
As the team’s praise and concern poured in, Baek Woo Jin felt a slight warmth at the tip of his nose.
Baek Woo Jin asked Jang Sam while he was gently stroking the White Tiger’s fur.
“Have the villagers woken up?”
“They woke up a day after you returned.”
“How’s their condition?”
“I’m not a physician, so I can’t say for sure, but aside from their weakened state from being controlled by the tiger minion, it didn’t seem like there were any serious problems.”
“That’s a relief.”
It truly was fortunate that the mountain god who had now ascended to the heavens wouldn’t have to carry a heavy burden on its shoulders.
“The villagers said they’d like to personally thank you when you wake up.”
“I’ll visit them a little later.”
“Very well.”
After finishing his business with Jang Sam, Baek Woo Jin turned to the other team members.
“Anything unusual to report?”
“No, nothing.”
“Nothing here…”
One by one, the team members shook their heads. Baek Woo Jin nodded in satisfaction, then pointed at Jang Sam with his finger.
“Everyone except him can go and rest. We’ll be heading down the mountain early tomorrow morning, so be ready.”
“Yes.”
The team members smiled brightly at the thought of finally leaving the mountain and left one by one.
Baek Woo Jin then shifted his gaze to Jang Sam, who remained in front of him.
“Spit it out.”
Jang Sam gave an awkward smile; he was clearly feeling uneasy. If Baek Woo Jin had simply asked him directly what he was curious about, Jang Sam could’ve answered and been done with it. But since he was told to spill everything, he didn’t know where to start or how much to say.
“Hoo… Before I begin, could you answer one question for me first?”
“What is it?”
“What exactly did you see in me to choose me as one of your team members?”
It was something that still puzzled him.
“Your aura.”
“My aura …”
“Yeah. The aura surrounding you was a bit different from others.”
“Wait, you can tell the difference?”
Jang Sam’s eyes widened in shock.
Could it be…? Someone who can see and sense spiritual energy actually exists!
It was just as he said. The techniques of the Mosan Sect, which had been scorned as unorthodox, all drew upon more than just natural energy.
Jang Sam called this energy “spiritual energy”, but the amount of spiritual energy mixed within natural energy was extremely small.
As expected, this man is special.
Even masters far beyond Baek Woo Jin’s level had never discovered anything unusual in Jang Sam.
In other words, Baek Woo Jin must possess something unique that no one else had.
“The aura the team leader sensed is probably due to the spiritual energy I use.”
Jang Sam explained.
“Spiritual energy?”
“Yes, as I’ve said all along, our Huangshan Sect is descended from the Mosan Sect.”
“…Was that actually true?”
When Baek Woo Jin asked in disbelief, Jang Sam looked aggrieved.
“It’s nothing but the truth!”
“Uh… fine. Go on, let’s hear the rest.”
Though he was momentarily frustrated by Baek Woo Jin’s attitude of waiting to decide whether to believe after hearing everything, Jang Sam forced himself to calm down and continued in a steady tone.
“The Huangshan Sect inherited the spiritual techniques from the Mosan Sect.”
“Spiritual techniques … does that mean techniques related to the soul?”
“That’s right.”
Jang Sam’s expression faltered. After thinking hard about something, he spoke with difficulty.
“To tell you the truth… I can see souls.”
It was a secret no one knew, except for his master the head of his sect, and his birth parents.
Jang Sam had been born with a spiritual eye that allowed him to see spirits, and his life had been nothing short of tragic.
Since he constantly spoke with things others couldn’t see, he was often treated as insane and his parents regarded him as a burden.
If not for his Master who happened to be passing through their village and took him in, he would surely have been abandoned by his own parents.
“You can see wandering ghosts?”
“I can see them, and I can see other things as well.”
His meaningful gaze landed on Baek Woo Jin.
“…Can you see the souls of the living too?”
“Yes, I can.”
Memories from the past resurfaced in Baek Woo Jin’s mind.
“So I want to ask you something.”
The cold gaze and voice of his lover after she heard from the dragon that there was a soul inhabiting his body.
“Who are you, really?”
That voice overlapped with Jang Sam.
To stop himself from being swept away by the illusion, he bit down on his tongue, and the sharp taste of blood spread through his mouth.
“Who am I, huh…”
Who was he?
It was a question he had thrown out time and again, but he still hadn’t found the answer. From the beginning, it wasn’t an answer he could give himself.
If there was someone who could affirm the self that had settled in this body, perhaps then he could finally find the meaning of who he was.
That was what Baek Woo Jin thought.
“If I tell you, it would be revealing the secrets of the heavens.”
There was a sense of sincerity in that playful tone.
“Well… if that’s the case, I suppose there’s nothing I can do.”
Jang Sam easily accepted it.
He was curious about his true identity, but with talk of revealing the secrets of the heavens, he couldn’t press further. If his soul had been tainted, he might have desperately tried to uncover the truth by any means necessary.
A soul that noble…
The soul he saw was pure without a single blemish. Someone with such a pure soul couldn’t possibly commit evil deeds.
“In any case… if I were to continue, I noticed something strange the moment I entered this village.”
“And yet you kept your mouth shut?”
“Y-Yes. From my perspective, I was curious about the strength the team leader possessed, or why I was chosen.”
It wasn’t hard to understand. Being suddenly picked as a team member by someone he had never met before naturally raised suspicions.
“I don’t intend to argue over what happened this time.”
But.
“If something like this happens again, I’ll have to act differently.”
A sharp gaze bore down on him. Jang Sam felt intense pressure.
“That won’t happen again.”
Through this incident, Jang Sam had made up his mind as well. Despite his sect being scorned as part of the unorthodox, he began to believe that Baek Woo Jin would recognize his abilities and put them to good use.
“Let’s wrap up the conversation here then. We can discuss the rest little by little.”
“Sounds good.”
“I should finish speaking with the villagers now.”
“Shall I come with you?”
“No need.”
Leaving the clingy Jang Sam behind, he stepped out of the house.
As he walked down toward the center where the villagers’ homes were clustered, a woman walking in the opposite direction gasped in surprise and shouted.
“Everyone, come out! Our benefactor has arrived!”
Following her words, the villagers who had been inside their homes rushed out all at once.
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