What emerged from Jin Cheonhee’s hand was an iron coin.
It was the treatment fee forcefully given to Jin Cheonhee by the villagers.
At first, they wanted to empty their savings to give him silver, but when Jin Cheonhee adamantly refused, they eventually forced him to take three iron coins.
Enough for a bowl of noodles at an inn.
He loaded these iron coins into a compound bow and fired.
Tang!
The iron coin imbued with thunder gold energy flew like an arrow.
Bang!
As it ricocheted off a tree and flew behind cover…
“Noe-jin.”
Piiiiieek–!
Noe-jin’s wings instantly turned blue, as if they had been waiting for this moment.
In the village, at the funeral that had become a mass burial, only the sounds of people crying and shouting could be heard.
Jin Cheonhee, its master, merely leaned against a pillar, standing in a daze, while rain fell from the eaves.
Noe-jin enjoys storms.
The spiritual creature, oblivious to human emotions, swallowed the white lightning extending from the sky.
Lightning is good food for a Heavenly Thunder Hawk.
The lightning it swallowed became divine punishment, striking the iron coins imbued with thunder gold energy.
Krrrackoom!
Thus, lightning became chains, electrocuting all those clustered together.
“Arghhhh!”
At that moment, Jin Cheonhee didn’t hesitate.
The second iron coin shot like an arrow.
And finally the third iron coin as well.
The three iron coins guided Noe-jin’s lightning, electrocuting the surroundings like a net.
“Thank you for the noodle money.”
After saying this, Jin Cheonhee staggered slightly.
Fatigue weighed down his entire body.
However, there was still work to be done.
When Jin Cheonhee raised his hand, Noe-jin immediately perched on his shoulder.
“I’ll write a letter, so please call for Police Bureau Chief Jin Seungbae.”
Beep?
“Yes. Human affairs are more complicated than the spirit world, so defeating them doesn’t end things.”
They all need to be bound.
While Noe-jin was away, he would need to seal their danjeon points.
“I’ll take it from here, brother.”
His brother hadn’t been eating or sleeping properly for days now.
Thinking that his brother had become like this because of these damned unorthodox path bastards, Cheon Woo felt his chest boiling with anger.
With these feelings, he wouldn’t be as clean in his methods as his brother, but he still didn’t intend to kill them.
They just needed to be barely alive, right?
***
When Police Bureau Chief Jin Seungbae arrived with his troops, all the bandits had been captured and were lying on the ground.
Every one of them had their limbs shattered, so they could be dragged away as is.
‘We’ll need carts too.’
Most of them couldn’t walk on their own.
“I don’t know how to express my gratitude…”
Jin Cheonhee raised his hand toward the police bureau chief who was trying to show his respect.
Having it widely known that Jin Cheonhee possessed an imperial inspector’s token would be disadvantageous.
The police bureau chief made a surprised expression at Jin Cheonhee’s signal, then nodded.
“His Majesty will not forget the loyalty shown by the White-Robed Divine Dragon.”
“It’s nothing. I just paid for the horses I borrowed.”
“Then would you like to come to the government office with us? You’ve achieved great merit, so a great reward should be bestowed on…”
Jin Cheonhee shook his head wearily at those words.
“I wish to continue to my next destination. I just ask that you handle what follows well.”
‘What an… extraordinary martial artist.’
He never expected someone who had accomplished so much to refuse rewards.
‘As an inspector, he should naturally want to boast about his achievements…’
The White-Robed Divine Dragon spoke calmly. He only wanted to pay for the horses he had borrowed.
“But you’ve avenged the village. If there’s any message you’d like to convey, please tell me.”
“…”
At those words, Jin Cheonhee fell into thought for a moment.
The wind brushed past the elegant profile of the young man. His neatly tied hair swayed briefly. Eventually, the young man opened his lips.
“…Tell them I paid for the three iron coins.”
“Three iron coins?”
“They will understand.”
With those words, Jin Cheonhee turned and left.
Cheon Woo followed his brother with a worried expression.
The police bureau chief watched Jin Cheonhee’s receding figure and muttered.
“Three iron coins…”
It was difficult to understand what it meant at the moment.
Yet somehow it stuck in his heart, and Jin Seungbae found himself repeating “three iron coins, three iron coins…” for quite some time.
“Three iron coins… you say?”
One of the constables who heard his muttering tilted his head.
“Do you know something about this?”
The constable nodded at the question.
“Of course I do. After the massacre and funerals, the villagers had three iron coins left. They tried to give more by borrowing silver, but the White-Robed Divine Dragon said three iron coins was enough and only took those.”
At these words, Police Bureau Chief Jin Seungbae’s eyes widened.
“It was money left after the funerals! Money left after the funerals!”
And those three iron coins were found among the bandits.
It was some time later when Jin Seungbae returned the three coins to the villagers.
After the sentencing of the bandits, the village chief, and the county police bureau chief.
“How should we use this money?”
“But he said he repaid his debt.”
The villagers looked at each other in confusion.
Eventually, the oldest woman in the village spoke up.
“Let’s do this. We’ll keep these three coins, and when a martial artist from the White Dragon Medical Pavilion comes, we’ll give them three iron coins’ worth of noodles?”
“…Noodles, you say?”
“That much we can certainly afford to serve. Well, it’s not even one ten-thousandth of the debt he repaid for us. I pride myself on being able to make noodles tastier than any decent inn… cluck cluck cluck.”
Everyone nodded at the old woman’s words.
“Good! Let’s do that!”
Thus a new tradition began in the village, and it wasn’t long before martial artists from the White Dragon Medical Pavilion, who received free noodles without knowing why, learned about Jin Cheonhee’s reputation.
That’s how the heartwarming story began.
It would be much later when the story reached the ears of Jin Cheonhee himself.
***
As soon as they arrived at the new village, they rented a room at an inn, and he slept like the dead.
He didn’t even hear the dogs barking and remained completely defenseless, not waking up.
It was concerning, but his pallid complexion made it clear that sleep was what he needed first.
‘It’s probably more an issue of mind (心) than body (體).’
Even a passing dog would know that his brother had changed somehow after experiencing the massacre.
It was Cheon Woo who stayed by his brother’s side.
Cheon Woo waited until his brother woke up, and as soon as he did, he ordered easily digestible food from the server and fed his brother right away.
“Ah, my body must have been quite weakened.”
That was the first thing his brother said after all that had happened.
“…”
There was much he wanted to say, but his brother wasn’t one to listen.
For now, he remained silent while his brother was eating, as he absolutely couldn’t say anything during meals.
‘He might stop eating to think about work again.’
Finding a delicious inn had been a stroke of genius.
“Wow, this place uses bamboo shoots well.”
He seemed to like it.
His appetite had returned too. At first, he only ate liquid foods like porridge, but now he was devouring everything from braised pork belly to eight treasures stir-fry.
“This place uses meat well too.”
Hunger is the best sauce, and he was eating to make up for all the missed meals.
After tasting the tender braised pork belly, he now placed it on rice like a rice bowl.
After trying the egg soup once, he brought over Szechuan pepper to season it again.
After enjoying all the food, Jin Cheonhee patted his bulging stomach and lay back down on the bed.
“Brother, a letter came from the village while you were unconscious.”
“A letter? How did they know I was here?”
“A relay station official brought it. Considering the reputation you’ve built, it wouldn’t be difficult to find you, right?”
“…?”
Jin Cheonhee had no idea what had happened while he was collapsed from fatigue.
-Have you heard the story of the White-Robed Divine Dragon and the three iron coins?
Story-sellers at the inn are already selling embellished versions of the incident.
-To think that the three iron coins had such meaning…
Martial world reputations always involve some embellishment, and with the story-sellers’ unique sentimentality added, all the martial artists listening were moved to tears.
-To offer a free bowl of noodles… a village that suffered a massacre must be struggling, how could they…
-Even dogs remember kindness, how could humans ignore it? No matter how difficult things are, there’s no need to be stingy with generosity.
-…I hear the noodles in that village are delicious, should we go see?
-Well, I’m not going because of the heartwarming story, but because I heard it’s delicious. Ahem!
-Right. Since I happen to be nearby, I’m just dropping by. Because the noodles are said to be delicious. Ahem!
This is why martial artists and investigators who follow reputations began to move.
The village started recovering faster than expected.
Sending a letter of gratitude was only natural.
Jin Cheonhee received the letter and read it slowly, then his face turned red all the way to his ears.
“Waah! This is too embarrassing!”
“Isn’t it a good thing, brother?”
“Of course it turned out well. It’s a good thing. Urgh… but it’s hard to keep reading.”
Nevertheless, his brother’s eyes returned from blue to their original color.
For the one watching, it was a tremendous relief.
Jin Cheonhee muttered while scratching his head vigorously.
“Aigoo, why would I do something like this…”
He was back to being his usual mild-mannered brother.
The sight brought indescribable relief.
***
After resting well, they began moving again.
There weren’t any major incidents on the way to the Imperial Capital with Cheon Woo.
“White-Robed Divine Dragon! If you wish to cross this bridge, you must defeat me!”
Smack!
Except for the fact that Cheon Woo’s fist flew first the moment those words were spoken.
“Hahaha, even cold water has its hierarchy, so combat challenges should come from those of lower standing!”
The way he grabbed the collar and shook it violently was the very essence of a unorthodox path sect leader.
“Kuk, kuuk… You are…”
“I am Cheon Woo of the Wudang Sect.”
“Wudang Sect? Don’t lie, what kind of Taoist has such bloodthirst!”
“Hahaha, why would you say something that causes misunderstandings?”
Smack, smacksmacksmacksmack!
Originally, Wudang’s fist techniques are based on Taiji’s Yielding to Overcome Hardness, broadly divided into two approaches: Linear Path and Curved Path.
Linear Path involves redirecting an opponent’s attack by wrapping around it once and returning it to their shoulder.
Curved Path involves receiving an opponent’s attack, wrapping around it, and breaking their arm.
However, the Wudang’s Fist Emperor once said:
-Yielding to Overcome Hardness is fundamentally a technique for facing someone stronger than yourself. That’s only when facing the strong. Eh, why use profound martial arts against small fry when you can just beat them up?
Cheon Woo is the Wudang’s Fist Emperor’s top disciple.
It seemed he had inherited some of his master’s temperament. In short, he just hit him.
“Kuheeeeurgh!”