She was strong-willed and earnest. Once she decided on something, she would see it through even if the heavens turned upside down. Yet, she never insisted on her own way in trivial matters.

Jin Cheon-hee stood up without a word.

“I’ll get ready right away. And I don’t need the money.”

He wasn’t the kind of person to put a price on a friend’s desperate plea.

***

She ran swiftly through the forest, her small form scattering the shadows of light before reappearing, again and again. Jin Cheon-hee followed, never falling behind.

“You can go faster.”

“How did you know?”

She hadn’t been running at full speed, worried Jin Cheon-hee might get tired. If he had, she was planning to carry him on her back.

Jin Cheon-hee answered calmly, “I heard from Elder Phantom Archer that the footwork passed down in the Evil-Shattering Divine Art is unparalleled. I’m fine, so just run.”

Phantom Archer, Wang Chae-baek, had insisted that Jin Cheon-hee continue to call him Phantom Archer. He’d said his moniker was the sum of the deeds he had built up over his life. With such an earnest request, Jin Cheon-hee had no reason to refuse. His daughter, Wang Gak-yeon, also didn’t make a big deal of it, accepting it as something her father had decided.

“Alright.”

She nodded and pushed strength into her legs.

Tung!

The moment she kicked off the ground, her afterimage scattered. She vanished without a trace, as if he’d just imagined her.

Whew, that’s incredible.

Jin Cheon-hee let out a small whistle and circulated his internal energy. He focused the Wind Art and the newly awakened Ice Art of his Five-Elemental Divine Art into his legs. The enlightenment he’d gained from the Three Talents Footwork awakened the boy’s body.

Tak.

With the most minimal of movements, Jin Cheon-hee was right on Wang Gak-yeon’s heels.

The look in Wang Gak-yeon’s eyes as she saw him instantly turned to one of wonder.

“Haven’t you only been learning martial arts for a short time?”

“Half a year.”

“And you can do this?”

His friend’s accomplishment was apparently quite the shock.

The place the two children arrived at was a small cave, nestled between two gorges. It was hidden by tree roots, a location one would never normally find. Even if you did spot it, it looked like a carelessly dug hole, perhaps by some mountain beast. It was a narrow burrow, too small for an adult to enter.

The two of them stopped in front of it.

“The patient is in here?”

“Yes.”

Wang Gak-yeon bent down and crawled into the cave on all fours. She paid no mind to how dirty her expensive silk clothes were getting.

Aigoo, Elder Phantom Archer is going to cry… No. Actually, he’ll probably be proud.

If her clothes are ruined, it gives him another excuse to buy her new ones. That man is already dying to buy her new clothes, but he can’t because of her nagging.

It’s a win-win.

Jin Cheon-hee followed Wang Gak-yeon into the burrow. The two children grunted and crawled, descending for some time. At the very end, a light became visible.

It was a cramped room with a low ceiling. The reason they could see the inside was due to an expensive Night Luminescence Pearl embedded in the wall.

Though it was impossible to tell from the outside, this was an artificial space. It felt as if some long-departed master had constructed it ages ago.

Kkiing—

A bestial whimper sounded from beneath the pearl’s light.

Wang Gak-yeon said, “We’re here.”

He followed her deeper into the room. Curled up in the far corner was a single dog. The smell of blood hung heavy in the air.

Jin Cheon-hee asked, “The one you want me to treat… is this dog?”

“Yes.”

It didn’t look like an ordinary dog. Jin Cheon-hee shuffled closer on his bottom. Three ropes were tied around the dog’s neck. They weren’t strangling snares, but rather a kind of insignia, made to be used as a collar. The knots were tied in a peculiar way, and Jin Cheon-hee studied them closely.

The pavilion members didn’t just learn medicine. Learning the various common customs of the Gangho was basic. In that sense, he had seen this knot before.

“The Beggar’s Sect…? And three ropes with five knots? This is the symbol of a Faction Leader, isn’t it?”

A special-grade messenger dog. And one that carried messages for a Faction Leader of the Beggar’s Sect, at that.

Most sects used carrier pigeons—birds. Their speed was guaranteed since they could fly, and it was difficult for other sects to intercept them. Depending on the sect, some used hawks, crows, or magpies instead of pigeons. Normally, a carrier pigeon could only travel to a set location. But if a highly intelligent bird was raised using a special method, it could become a semi-spiritual beast, capable of traveling to various places. Some could even understand human speech.

The Beggar’s Sect, however, used dogs concurrently. They were slower than birds, but they could move in packs, travel complex routes all at once, and were useful for tracking by scent. They could also use their status as dogs to excel at begging for food. In the Beggar’s Sect, it wasn’t just the people who begged; the dogs did too.

And a messenger dog used by someone of a Faction Leader’s rank was bound to be special.

“This is a spiritual beast, isn’t it?”

Not a semi-spiritual beast. A full-fledged spiritual beast.

Jin Cheon-hee said, “I don’t know how to treat dogs.”

“I thought you’d ask what the story was.”

“I was going to ask that after I saved it.”

Despite claiming he didn’t know how to treat dogs, Jin Cheon-hee was already disinfecting his hands with medical alcohol.

First, body temperature.

Jin Cheon-hee’s index finger prodded the messenger dog’s anus.

Kking!

“Stay still.”

As if it understood, the messenger dog whimpered but didn’t bark again.

I only know the absolute basics, what should I do?

He had studied it for fun, a long time ago. Unlike humans, a dog’s temperature was taken rectally in an emergency. Without a thermometer, he had to judge by touch, but a dog’s normal temperature was already two or three degrees Celsius higher than a human’s.

…But this is way too high. Its pulse is fast, too.

Jin Cheon-hee said, “You need to find a specialist for this. If you ask me, you’re just getting a quack.”

Wang Gak-yeon asked, “Then where do we go to get a dog treated?”

Right. This world doesn’t have modern veterinary hospitals.

In an age where even human bodies were neglected, finding a physician who treated dogs was even harder.

Jin Cheon-hee sighed.

“Ugh… Then I don’t know, okay? I’ll do what I can, so let’s give it first aid and go back to the pavilion. We can treat it properly there.”

Krrreung!

At those words, the messenger dog tried to bite him.

Startled, Wang Gak-yeon calmed the dog down. “Hwang-gu! Stop it! Stop it!”

So the dog’s name is Hwang-gu. A common name.

Wang Gak-yeon said, “Something must be going on. It seems completely against going anywhere else. I don’t know the details.”

“How did you even find… No, fine. I get it. This is what the ‘patient’ wishes, is that it?”

He’d lived a long time, but he’d never expected to take a dog on as a patient.

Jin Cheon-hee tried to recall any events from the novel that might befall the Beggar’s Sect. This was a Faction Leader’s messenger dog. A spiritual beast like this, risking its life to deliver a message… it couldn’t possibly be trivial.

There are too many possibilities.

And yet, there were far too many. The Beggar’s Sect was about to face numerous storms, each one potentially fatal.

Does the fate of the Beggar’s Sect rest on this dog’s survival?

If the Murim was a living organism, then its messengers were the red blood cells. They transported information instead of oxygen, keeping every corner of the sects alive.

“Do you know how it was injured?”

“I don’t know that either. Honestly, if it hadn’t cried out for help, I would never have known.”

Wang Gak-yeon explained that Hwang-gu was a dog often seen in the neighborhood. She knew it was friendly with the Beggar’s Sect members. Weren’t beggars and dogs in a relationship that was simultaneously competitive and symbiotic?

Hwang-gu was a yellow-furred dog, slightly large. A common dog.

“I knew he was a Beggar’s Sect dog, but I had no idea he was the Faction Leader’s messenger. He was just smart and fast, so all the kids liked him. The ropes around his neck are so shabby, too.”

I only know because I learned about it. If I’d seen this dog without that knowledge, I’d have just thought it was a common countryside mutt.

But it seems this fellow showed up in the neighborhood often. Enough for the local kids to know him…

Wang Gak-yeon continued, “The kids I used to play with called him Hwang-gu. That’s all. Then today, I was hunting in the forest and found him… He led me to this cave. And then he collapsed.”

It seemed he had used the very last of his strength to find her and call for help. To track a familiar scent in this vast forest and ask for help… It truly was a spiritual beast.

Jin Cheon-hee sighed softly and checked its pulse. The Five-Elemental Divine Art seemed to flow into Hwang-gu’s body, then lost its way. The meridians of a dog, not a human. What Jin Cheon-hee knew about dogs, especially large ones, was extremely limited.

He struggled to make a diagnosis.

The wound is infected, and the inflammation is severe. Patellar luxation, a tibial fracture, and… bicipital tenosynovitis?

First, the bicipital tenosynovitis. In humans, it was common in middle-age. But it was also common in large dogs. It was often caused by obesity damaging the biceps tendon and synovial sheath, but in this case, it was from exertion. In other words, it was from an overuse of its front legs.

The fascia damage is severe, too. Ah, I see. He was injured and then forced himself to keep running through the mountains.

This happens when the forelegs are pushed past their limit.

The pain must have been excruciating, but he didn’t give up.

The shin bone was fractured. A broken hind leg normally meant a dog couldn’t run. A wild dog would have sought a place to rest. But Hwang-gu was different. Whether it was the spiritual beast in him or his loyal nature, he had foolishly kept running. But that, too, had its limits. Even a spiritual beast can’t defy the impossible. When he reached his limit, he tracked the closest, most trustworthy scent and asked for help, then hid himself in his own sanctuary.

You’re better than a human. Far better.

What was the message that Hwang-gu had to deliver, that he would go to such lengths?

The fracture… It’s obvious, but it was caused by an impact to the hind leg.

Fortunately, his condition was better than Wangya Ju’s husband, Marquis Yu-rang. But the advanced inflammation was a dangerous sign. Infection prevents bone union, and once it develops into osteomyelitis, it becomes chronic and difficult to cure.

The number of bone fragments was three.

A comminuted fracture.

Wounds tell you a lot. A comminuted fracture is an injury caused by being struck with a blunt object.

From the dog’s injuries, Jin Cheon-hee could deduce the nature of his enemy.

The opponent didn’t use a sword. He used his fists or feet. He was trying to capture the messenger dog alive.

Why? Wouldn’t it be more efficient to kill it and take the message? Why try to take it alive?

Jin Cheon-hee told Wang Gak-yeon what he had inferred from the wounds.

“You can… tell that?”

“Yeah.”

“Is it… like the ‘Thousand-Mile-Eyes’ from the legends?”

“If I had that, I’d be a divine immortal. I’m just looking at the wounds and making a few deductions.”

“A few?”

Keong!

Hwang-gu, startled, let out a small bark.

Seeing their expressions, as if they’d just seen a ghost, Jin Cheon-hee asked, “Does Hwang-gu understand everything people say?”

“Probably. He might pretend not to hear when he’s annoyed, but I think he gets it all. He’s listening to us right now, and we had a simple conversation before I came to get you.”

“A conversation?”

“I’d talk, and he’d answer.”

He can at least manage ‘yes’ and ‘no’ better than anyone.

If that’s the case…

Jin Cheon-hee met Hwang-gu’s eyes.