Chapter 15: Chapter 15
Moving towards the upper west part of the Academy were the residences of the teachers — The Myeongwolsa.
The student accommodation was located below, and there were four accommodation buildings, namely the Plum Building, the Orchid Building, the Chrysanthemum Building and the Bamboo Building.
The girls’ accommodation was located within the Plum and Orchid buildings whilst the boys’ accommodation was within the Chrysanthemum and Bamboo building.
The reason as to why the girls’ accommodation was within the Plum and Orchid buildings wasn’t simply due to the pretty sounding names of the buildings. It was also because those buildings were located closer to the teachers’ residences, allowing them further protection and help from the teachers if required.
Located in between the Pavilions and the student’s accommodations was a large training ground.
The area of the ground was so large that two people standing at opposite ends of it would hardly be able to see each other.
Owing to the fact that Hwacheon Academy was an academy of Moorim, the students spent a considerable amount of their day training within the ground.
Located in front of the Pavilions, the training ground, and the students’ accommodation, was a widely spanning forest.
In the middle of the forest, there was a small river, and the students practised camping on its banks.
To the east side of the forest, was the plot of land Kang-hyuk had requested for the day before, the forbidden land.
The reason that the land was generally banned from entry was due to its rough terrain being the cause of many a calamity.
After Oh-Tae had toured the students around the Academy and explained the structures within them, he quickly handed them over to another teacher.
“It’s nice to meet you all. My name is Ok Hae-mi, and I’m going to be your Whip martial arts teacher.”
The students’ eyes widened upon seeing Ok Hae-mi. It was due to her radiant beauty.
Ok Hae-mi bowed to Oh-Tae.
“Thank you for guiding them around.”
“I’ll leave them with you now.”
Her job was to explain the general school timetable to the students.
Every year, Ok Hae-mi took on this job due to her having a more calm personality in comparison to the martial arts subject teachers.
She watched Oh-Tae walking away and smiled. It was due to his frightening of the students that she was able to be calm and composed with them.
It was also why she was nicknamed a fairy by the students.
But what they didn’t know is that her true personality was more like a witch than a fairy.
“Right. I’m going to be talking about your timetable, which will be important to remember, so listen well.”
“Yes!”
“Your day will begin with Qigong practice at around 7.30. If there are any students who have already learned special Qigong practice before this, you will need to report this to the Qigong teacher by this evening.”
Her explanations were easy to understand and retained very well due to their conciseness.
Among the points she iterated to them were: not to draw or obtain weapons without the permission of teachers, what the mealtimes were, and the various teaching methods of the Academy.
In the Academy, the methods by which the Martial and Liberal Arts subjects were taught differed.
The students were able to choose the liberal arts cla.s.ses they wished to study whereas all the martial art subject cla.s.ses were compulsory to attend.
Ok Hae-mi continued with her explanation of the timetable.
Kang-hyuk was heading in the direction of the forbidden land. As he was walking, he saw the new students gathered in the training grounds, and amongst them, he spotted Dang So-mun.
He also saw the boys from the Jaegal and Namgoong families that were fighting in the streets when he had gone to Jungcheon to buy Horticulture books
‘It’s the new students!’
He had only just realized that today was the entrance day for the academy’s new admissions.
There was no special event or party to mark the entrance day. Whilst there was an initiation ceremony, the only person present for it was the princ.i.p.al.
This wasn’t a big issue as all of the teachers were clearly identifiable with their blue uniforms, and once the cla.s.ses began, the students would mingle and get to know one another and the teachers eventually.
Kang-hyuk looked over at the teacher who was standing in front of the students. He could see Oh-Tae rising his energy up to suppress the students.
‘Was his name Oh-Tae? The swordsmanship teacher?’
Regardless of who he was, Kang-hyuk observed his energy as being rather powerful.
He predicted that if Oh-Tae put some extended effort into his cultivation, within five years, he could possibly transcend the peak level of cultivation.
Soon, Kang-hyuk had reached the border of entry into the forbidden land.
As his first cla.s.s was tomorrow, Kang-hyuk intended to clear the area for use as his practice plot.
‘How should I cultivate the land for it to be an optimum practice plot?’
At that moment, he saw a figure in front of him who seemed to be in shock.
“It, it can’t be… I guess it was true.”
It was none other than Baek-gap, who Kang-hyuk had called to help with the clearing of the land.
Baek-gap spoke with a trembling voice, “I heard that you wanted to use the forbidden land as a practice plot, but I dismissed it as a rumour. But now…I guess it wasn’t!”
“Why would you think that?”
“Seonsaengnim! This place is forbidden! Do you know what the meaning of forbidden is? It means that you shouldn’t enter! The princ.i.p.al must have gone mad to have given you a permit, does he have no sense of responsibility?”
“If there is an accident, I will, of course, take responsibility. However, there will be no accidents here.”
Baek-gap was flabbergasted at Kang-hyuk’s calm response.
“What do you mean there will be no accidents? This place is…”
Kang-hyuk put his hands around the back of Baek-gap’s head.
“Let’s go.”
“Seon-Seonsaengnim! I’m not ready to go inside….”
“Shut up lad!”
After some time, Baek-gap had calmed down, and they stood in the middle of an expansive meadow which had a breath-taking scenery.
It had a river flowing on its outskirts, along with a valley and a scattering of various rocks and boulders.
One of the reasons as to why this beautiful landscape was forbidden, was due to the ‘Wailing Gra.s.s’ that was said to grow within it.
The Wailing gra.s.s was a spiritual plant. More specifically, it was in the cla.s.sification of ‘strange gra.s.ses’.
Baek-gap felt that the gra.s.s resembled radish leaves.
Whilst the Wailing Gra.s.s did somewhat resemble a radish leaf, it had a more sinister attribute of releasing a loud scream if touched.
If one was unfortunate enough to hear the scream of the Wailing Gra.s.s, it would come with unpleasant side-effects. The shrieking sound could cause internal injuries from the blood twisting and there was a high probability of death.
Only a master with a high level of cultivation would be able to withstand the sound without side-effects. However, even a master could only endure for a brief moment before it became too unbearable.
For the Academy to clear the gra.s.s out, countless masters with a high level of cultivation would be required. But, they refrained from doing so as it would hurt the honour of the Academy to have to request so many masters, and those with such a level of cultivation weren’t necessarily found in abundance.
The issue of the forbidden land was quite complicated. Therefore, the Academy had just left it as forbidden for the time being to avoid any calamities.
“Right, let’s begin working.”
‘What…? What!’
Baek-gap was taken aback by the sight of a hoe hurtling towards him in full force. It had been thrown by Kang-hyuk.
‘If this. .h.i.ts me, I’m dead for sure!’
Baek-gap quickly moved in action and moved his hands that were covering his ears to catch the hoe.
He caught the hoe, and yelled out in protestation to Kang-hyuk, “Seo-Seonsaengnim! Why would you throw the hoe at me! Are you doing this because you want to kill me?”
“You didn’t die, so why are you kicking up such a fuss? You can start digging the spot in front of me.”
Baek-gap sullenly threw off his A-frame and sat down.
“I, I know this much. If I dig and trigger the Wailing Gra.s.s, I’ll essentially be committing suicide.”
“From the beginning of this task, you’ve been spouting an incredible amount of rubbish!”
“…?”
“You don’t think the vegetation in front of me is the Wailing Gra.s.s, do you?”
“….”
Kang-hyuk laughed out loud at Baek-gap’s blank face.
He had been the Clan Leader, and therefore he was well aware of the reason as to why the land was forbidden. Despite this, he had requested for the land to use as a practice plot. The reason being that he knew that there was no Wailing Gra.s.s here.
“Good grief! I know the leaf shape resembles Wailing Gra.s.s, but how could you believe it was actually Wailing Gra.s.s?”
“It’s, it’s not Wailing Gra.s.s?”
“It’s the Baby Ginseng plant!”
“What?”
Baek-gap was taken aback.
‘Reflecting on it, the Baby Ginseng does have quite a similar leaf shape and root to the Wailing Gra.s.s. And they should both have a total of nineteen leaves….’
Baek-gap slowly counted the leaves and found that there were exactly nineteen leaves.
In addition, the Baby Ginseng plant was known to have a unique leaf feature- a yellow spot on each leaf.
After further observation, it was clear to him that the plant was indeed Baby Ginseng.
It also had excellent medicinal properties which included increasing the body’s stamina. Many medicines had a tendency to lose a great deal of their potency after their ingestion, whereas the Baby Ginseng had the ability to retain all of its medicinal potency even after its ingestion and absorption. This was why consuming a piece of its root could increase a person’s cultivation by a year.
However, these medicinal effects could only be seen in those under the age of nineteen. It would just be a delicious radish root to anyone who consumed it that was over the age.
Baek-gap, therefore, didn’t have much interest in consuming it, but he did have a query.
‘The Baby Ginseng has no lethal sound emissions, so why is this place forbidden on the grounds of there being Wailing Gra.s.s? Are the other teachers really unaware that this is just Baby Ginseng?’
As Baek-gap pondered his theory to the extent of his head hurting, Kang-hyuk had other thoughts on his mind.
‘How about digging these roots up and putting them in kids’ meals…’
The rumours of there being Wailing Gra.s.s on the land had spread around fifty years ago, when Kang-hyuk had just been appointed as the Leader, and it had since been banned.
However, at the time, there was a bandit rebellion, so he couldn’t pay any immediate attention to the Wailing gra.s.s rumour.
Some days later, when he had free time, Kang-hyuk had inspected the site himself and found that there was no Wailing Gra.s.s, only some Baby Ginseng.
Kang-hyuk felt that this was a little odd, and came to a conclusion.
‘Aha! So they are growing the Baby Ginseng to feed the students, but they spread the rumour so that n.o.body would dare to steal it!’
It was most likely that Eun Myeong-myeong was unaware that there was only Baby Ginseng growing here as he continued the ban on the land.
‘In that case, I should make good use of the Ginseng!’
As time had gone on, the five Baby Ginseng roots that had initially been there had multiplied to hundreds.
‘It feels good to be back here.’
Prior to the ban on the land, it had been renowned for its scenery and untouched landscapes.
Therefore when Kang-hyuk was still the Leader, he would often come to the land to clear his head.
As Kang-hyuk was looking around, he saw a familiar tree that had an outline of a fist imprinted into its trunk.
‘I use to bring quite a few people here for cultivating the stillness of the mind. I wonder how they are doing now.’
The outline of the fist on the tree was none other than Kang-hyuk’s fist.
As he touched the outline of the fist on the tree, he was suddenly startled.