Because the place where the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng was first discovered—by its original discoverer, Danmokse of the Danmok clan's young master Danmokso—is said to be located within the Inner 48 Scenic Spots , a secret region.
Unlike the outer peaks and ridges, the inner area is a mysterious, untouched paradise rarely disturbed by human hands. Just knowing this allows me to greatly narrow the scope of my search.
Second point:
The Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng does not exist among the peaks surrounding the Huangshan Sect .
From what I've heard, the Huangshan Sect, which is a martial arts clan based in the Huangshan region, only joined the competition much later. The reason for this is simply that their base was quite far from the discovery site.
If I exclude the area around the Huangshan Sect's location from the search range, that eliminates another group of places to search.
Third point:
The Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng was discovered in a place where white and a certain other color of lotus flowers bloom together.
I don't know whether that's meant to be metaphorical or literal, but it was the most concrete piece of information I had. If I just pay attention to that, I'm confident I'll be able to find the ginseng before long.
I laughed lightly to myself as I made plans for my upcoming search.
"If I exchange a single silver ingot at the local market, I should be able to get at least a hundred nyang… That's more than enough for food and search expenses. With a bit of caution, I should be able to find the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng within a year."
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If I exclude the area around the Huangshan Sect's base, the search range would shrink significantly.
If I search one peak a week thoroughly, I felt I could find it within a year or two.
It happened just as I was getting hungry and headed to a nearby inn to get a meal.
That's when I felt a strange sense of foreboding.
"Hey, young man! Nice to see you!"
At the entrance of the inn, a man dressed in a flashy, colorful robe waved at me like we were old friends.
"What the…?"
I didn't recognize him at all and intended to ignore him. But then he said something I couldn't possibly ignore:
"Hey, wasn't your name Baekmong (White Bear)? There's a bounty of several hundred nyang on your head. Be a good lad and stick your neck out for me, will ya?"
Cha-cha-cha-ching!
At that moment, as if it had been prearranged, I heard the clamor of swords being drawn from both the first and second floors of the inn.
From the sound alone, I could sense that there were at least twenty to thirty warriors.
"…What's with that look on your face?"
The warrior in the garish, colorful clothing smirked as he spoke.
"Don't worry, we're not the type who enjoy torture. We'll end it quickly—just one clean cut to the neck."
That was not the least bit comforting.
'Th-this is… not good!'
When I scanned the warriors surrounding the inn, my entire body froze and my mind went blank.
Their stances, the murderous intent in their eyes, the force of their internal energy—none of them were third-rate.
Every one of them was an elite fighter, thoroughly trained.
I seriously doubted I could take on even three of them at once, let alone ten.
If they all came at me at once, I'd be skewered like a shish kebab in seconds.
They were terrifyingly strong.
The real question was: Why would a faction powerful enough to mobilize this many elite warriors be after my head?
With a trembling voice, I asked,
"Who… are you people? And who ordered you to kill me?"
"Oh, of course we should tell you," said the man in the flashy robe, now seated and resting his chin on his hand. "It feels a little wrong to kill a young man without at least giving him an answer."
He added with a smirk,
"We're the Black Night Gate's Assassination Division. Ever heard of us?"
"…The Eight Demon Sects !!"
"Oh, so you have heard of us."
My voice cracked in shock as I screamed.
The Eight Demon Sects!
That name referred to eight major sects of the demonic or unorthodox path, rivaling even the Nine Great Orthodox Clans in power and influence.
Among them, the Black Night Gate specialized in contract assassinations. Their assassins were reputed to have the highest level of martial skill even among the Demon Sects.
In particular, the Assassination Division of the Black Night Gate was so feared—even by the orthodox sects—that they were practically synonymous with death itself.
It was said, almost as an accepted truth, that even the greatest masters had no chance of survival once they were marked by the Black Night Gate's Assassins.
As darkness clouded my vision, I struggled to hold onto my slipping consciousness and asked,
"By the way, I'm the leader of the Assassination Division. Nice to meet you, Baekmong."
The man in the colorful outfit introduced himself with a grin.
It was an introduction I found anything but pleasant.
"Who hired you?" I demanded.
The leader shrugged.
"You probably already know. Who else could it be that holds such a grudge against you?"
"…The village chief."
"Yep. That's how it goes. I'm sure it cost the client dearly—he's probably bankrupt now.
But it seems he was so desperate to get revenge on you that he scraped together every last coin and hired us… even if it meant living in rags afterward."
The leader of the Assassination Division smiled darkly and spoke in a low voice:
"Even though it's just a revenge job, for someone to personally request us—the Eight Demon Sects—that makes him a rare, genuine client. Naturally, we have to honor the contract with everything we've got."
I glanced at him and said,
"If you let me live, I'll pay you double what he did. I mean it."
The assassin leader burst out laughing.
"Hahaha… Even if you're telling the truth, we can't accept it. If we were the type to break contracts just because someone offers more money, who would ever trust us to take on their request again?
Any money you didn't use—consider it funeral expenses."
I'm going to die like this!
As the assassin leader prepared to give the execution order, I panicked and quickly shouted again,
"Then… I have another offer!"
"What is it?"
"If I defeat you in a one-on-one duel, call off the pursuit."
Since the leader would be the strongest among the Assassination Division, he wouldn't be able to easily turn down such a challenge.
It was also the reason why the Black Night Gate wasn't outright hunted by the martial world despite being assassins—they maintained the appearance of martial honor.
They were known to never reject formal martial challenges or duels from other sects.
"…Hmph. I like your guts."
Around us, the assassins looked at me like I'd gone insane.
The assassin leader, however, simply gave a small, amused chuckle.
"Well, if it's your dying wish… Besides, I was planning to personally behead you anyway. This'll save me the trouble."
Shkrrrk—
He slowly drew the longsword from his back and stepped forward to face me.
The other assassins tightened their formation, surrounding the inn to ensure I couldn't escape.
I clenched my weapon tightly in one hand, bit down on my lip, and summoned my fighting spirit.
I have to survive.
I have to fight with everything I've learned, everything I've trained for.
I can't die here.
I haven't even found the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng yet!
"All right then… Let's begin."
The assassin leader grinned and launched his sword at me.
Shushushushuk!
Shuk!
Ten seconds.
In just ten seconds, my sword was broken, and a powerful palm strike to my solar plexus—the Isolating Tiger Palm—lifted me off the ground and sent me flying.
I couldn't even follow his movements with my eyes or reflexes.
The pressure of each technique was overwhelming—his level was simply in a different dimension.
Why was there such a vast difference in skill?
For a moment, I couldn't comprehend it.
"Wh… what?"
This sensation… I had felt it before, somewhere…
Shu-shu-shung.
"Farewell."
And then I saw it—the blue glow of his sword energy.
Only then did I understand.
The leader of the Assassination Division was a peak master on par with, or even above, Master Jin So-cheong.
And then—my head flew off.
A wave of unbearable pain surged through me, followed by the suffocating rush of energy dissipating from my body.
"D-damn it…"
That was the second time I died.
****
5. Retry
Yes. That's right.
"AAAAAAARRRGHHHHHHHH!!!"
A blood-curdling scream erupted from my throat, raw enough to tear my vocal cords.
Even now, I could vividly feel the cold blade slicing clean through my neck.
The feeling of my body losing weight, floating in the air, as my fading vision confronted the icy grip of death—disgust and terror washed over me all at once.
How long had I screamed like that?
I slowly became aware…
I was howling alone under a pitch-black night sky.
"W-what is this…?"
I cautiously touched my throat and the back of my neck.
My neck was completely intact.
A thick, pungent smell filled my nose—it was the stench of cow dung.
The smell was so familiar it made me blink in disbelief.
Carefully, I glanced around.
Familiar cold.
Familiar darkness.
Familiar smell of cow dung.
This was the stable.
It felt exactly like the time and place where I had been revived before.
"…?!"
My mouth fell open in disbelief.
Could this be… a second regression?!
I had to confirm it once the sun rose and I could look more closely, but everything felt too similar.
The sensation was unmistakable.
I touched my body here and there with trembling hands—yes, it was the body of my younger self, the one I had before.
Still shaking, I collapsed to the ground and sat in silence for a long, long time.
Right now, I was overwhelmed by emotions erupting from every corner of my body.
A surge of fierce joy at being able to start over once again.
A wretched despair at having come back to life even after dying twice.
And a boiling rage, so intense it made every vertebra in my spine tremble with fury.
A voice, thick with hatred, spilled from my mouth without hesitation:
"The village chief… you broke our promise…!!"
The one who had commissioned the Black Night Gate's Assassination Division—the Eight Demon Sect's contract killers—was none other than the village chief.
He had paid me back for my vengeance with more vengeance, even after we had agreed to leave everything behind.
In the end, I had been the one who lost. I had actually died.
That fact alone caused murderous intent to surge uncontrollably within me.
But I clenched my teeth and forced myself to calm down, gasping for breath.
My head was spinning, and I could barely stay conscious.
"Huff… huff… huff…!!"
And then—I felt it.
A surge of inner energy erupting from my danjeon (energy core), as if it had been waiting for me.
Sweat poured down my body in rivers.
'As I thought… my internal energy has been preserved!'
Thunder Dragon Unified Qi Technique !
A secret technique of the Blue Dragon Martial Pavilion, renowned as a high-tier internal cultivation method ranked among the best.
In my second life, I had abandoned my old "Three Elements Technique" and spent three years training the Thunder Dragon method with single-minded focus.
And now, that very power was still alive in this body—reborn with me.
That meant my current internal energy was already unmatched among those my age.
Even the more talented warriors in their late teens rarely reached the level of internal energy I now possessed.
In martial arts, age was critical—especially for internal cultivation.
The younger the practitioner, the easier it was to open energy pathways, allowing faster growth of inner strength. Youth also meant faster improvements in physical ability.
If I resumed my intense training in Thunder Dragon Unified Qi starting now, within ten years I might surpass the threshold into true master-level.
But for now… the power of that very technique was tearing me apart.
Because my emotions were fluctuating too violently, the energy was rampaging through my meridians, violently stimulating them.
Left unchecked, I could've easily fallen into qi deviation—a mind-body collapse caused by inner energy spiraling out of control.
In desperation, I bit down hard on my lower lip until it bled, forcing myself to suppress the surge.
"Hrrgh… grrr… AAAAAHHHH!!"
Screaming like a wild beast, I slammed my head into a pile of straw in the stable and pounded my fist into the stone wall beside me.
BOOM!
With just a bare fist—this weak, youthful body—I struck a solid stone wall.
But instead of breaking my hand, the wall itself caved in, leaving behind a deep dent shaped like my fist.
That alone proved how far my internal energy had developed.
Silence stretched on.
Finally, having barely subdued both my power and my fury, I let out a long, deep sigh.
"Haaah… I survived."
If I had slipped into qi deviation right then, it would have been a fate worse than death.
Not only would I have been left crippled, but I would've been doomed to wander life like a broken soul—unable to ever cultivate again.
Because once it happens, it can't be undone.
As soon as I managed to calm my emotions, my mind started to think clearly again.
I wiped the blood running from the corner of my mouth with my hand and collected my thoughts.
'Okay, first things first—calm down.
This is my third life now. If I fail again, there's no chance of living a proper life.
I need to carefully plan ahead.'
Now that I had retained my internal energy, I could take my revenge whenever I wanted.
But at the same time, a pressing question lingered in the back of my mind:
'Why? Why did I regress again this time?
Is there some common factor with the last time?'
I needed to think carefully.
What is the mechanism behind regression?
As I pondered the mystery deeply, one hypothesis began to form.
"The Heavenly Dark Manuscript."
In both regressions, the common denominator was that I died while possessing the Heavenly Dark Manuscript.
Thinking back to the first time, it seemed like just touching the manuscript was enough to trigger its effect.
During the second death, I had been carrying it in my robes.
If there's a common point, that has to be it.
If that's true, then what I need to do next is simple.
Forget everything else.
My first priority is to return to the cave and recover the Heavenly Dark Manuscript, then keep it with me at all times.
No matter how great some other opportunity might seem, this must take precedence. It's a non-negotiable necessity.
But one thing still bothered me.
I frowned, unable to let go of the irritation.
"…Why did the regression start at this specific point? Why here?"
It didn't make sense.
Even if I accept that the Heavenly Dark Manuscript causes regression, why did I return to the moment when I was just a lowly servant, running errands under the village chief's house, during a so-called "picnic"?
Why not back to my 20s or 30s, when I was a seasoned bodyguard?
If I had regressed to that time, I could have handled everything far more easily.
Now, I was trapped again in a weak, undeveloped child's body, and would have to endure years of waiting and grinding.
It was frustrating to no end.
And then it hit me—
To solve this mystery, I needed to decipher the strange characters written in the Heavenly Dark Manuscript.
There had to be important information in there, something I couldn't read yet.
If I could interpret its contents, I might learn more about the manuscript itself—and possibly even the logic behind regression.
Once I organized my thoughts, my mind felt clear again.
And I knew exactly what I had to do first.
"Alright.
It's time to leave this place."
Yes.
That's right.