Chapter 22. To Muyang Mountain (4)

My mother, who was generally laissez-faire in my upbringing, had one thing she insisted on: swimming lessons.

Those who have been to a swimming school know that after swimming 50 meters freestyle ten times every day, the sky seems to turn blue. You learn to breathe through your back, so to speak.

As a result, I came to hate swimming every day and tried to quit several times, but my mother was unwavering.

"Joon-ah, everyone must know how to swim."

"Why?"

"Why is a Japanese blanket."

In any case, I swam from elementary school to middle school and became a swimming expert. Back then, many kids came to the pool with similar intentions.

Floods that could submerge Olympic boulevards (it's true, but nowadays kids don't believe it) were frequent, and news of children drowning at the beach because they couldn't swim was common.

Thinking about it now, my mother's rare stubbornness might have been due to such news.

However, the swimming I learned turned out to be useless when I grew up.

How can I go to a pool without abs?

Therefore, I couldn't go to the beach either. So, it's been about ten years since I last swam.

But swimming is a curious thing, similar to riding a bicycle; once you learn it, you don't forget.

That was fortunate.

"Are you alive?"

When I dove into the water, fortunately, the zombies didn't follow me underwater. It was a huge relief. I held Wijieyan and swam frantically, riding the current, and finally managed to climb up to a distant shore.

When I asked Wijieyan, who I had dragged out, she didn't respond. Worried that something might be wrong, I checked her pulse, and her condition was not good.

"She must have swallowed some water."

To be honest, it was a bit dangerous.

I had forgotten how to do freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke, and only remembered dog paddle. Dragging a person while dog paddling is no easy feat.

I now understand why people who try to save others often end up as water ghosts themselves.

When a person falls into the water, they struggle to survive, and the strength they exert is incredible, similar to the superhuman strength people display in fire scenes. If you get caught in that, you might drown together.

That's why, when rescuing someone from the water, you should wait until they are unconscious before pulling them out.

The problem was that I couldn't wait, and the bigger problem was that Wijieyan's strength was much greater than mine.

What kind of girl has such strength?

It felt like a giant tiger was thrashing around.

In a hurry, I applied a rear naked choke, and as the instructor said, she lost consciousness in seven seconds. It was fortunate that the technique worked properly.

Thanks to that, I managed to pull her out of the river.

"Are you okay?"

But she didn't wake up.

Looking to the side, I saw Baekreunghwa sitting down with a drained expression. Fortunately, Pangguiin, whom she had rescued in time, was lying beside her.

"Because of me... Guiin..."

"Baek Leader, are you okay?"

"Ah, help! Guiin isn't breathing."

Baekreunghwa looked like she had lost her country. I quickly put my hand to Pangguiin's nose and found that she wasn't breathing.

"Baek Leader, do you trust me?"

"Trust...? What are you talking about..."

"Do you believe that my actions are to save a noble life and not for any selfish desires?"

"What exactly are you..."

I didn't want to waste the golden time, so I quickly took off Pangguiin's top. When her snow-white chest, which had nothing much to see, was revealed, Baekreunghwa's eyes widened to the size of a fist.

"W-What are you doing!!!"

"It's a life-saving technique!"

Really, it is.

I'm glad I didn't skip my reserve training. I performed the removal of foreign objects, secured the airway, and then did chest compressions with the instructor. As I pressed Pangguiin's chest with both hands, Baekreunghwa shouted in disbelief.

"What kind of... indecent...!!! I, I...!!!"

"In my hometown, we save people who fall into the water like this! Believe me!!"

I don't want to think about how people in pre-modern times would view the act of undressing a drowning woman and massaging her breasts.

Because I have to do something even more extreme after this.

After several chest compressions, I still couldn't revive her, so I performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Baekreunghwa, standing behind me, made a choking sound, but I ignored it.

After repeating this process several times, Pangguiin finally coughed and spat out water. Her breathing had returned, though she hadn't regained consciousness. Just spontaneous breathing was enough.

Baekreunghwa, who had been glaring at me like I was a notorious villain, opened her mouth in amazement.

"How did you do that?"

"This isn't the time to ask such a question."

I had noticed that Wijieyan had also swallowed some water. I checked her nose and found that she wasn't breathing properly. I told Baekreunghwa:

"Please press Wijieyan's chest in the same way I did! You need to apply strong pressure from above to create a shock."

"Like this?"

"Yes, you're doing well. Now I'll perform artificial respiration!"

It felt like a triumph.

* * *

The hiding place I found was a decent-sized cave. Actually, a cave isn't a very good hiding place, but without a shovel, I couldn't dig a hole to hide in.

After placing the still unconscious Wijieyan and Pangguiin, I quietly talked with Baekreunghwa.

"We must keep this a secret from them."

"Which thing...?"

"Obviously, the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation!"

Baekreunghwa's face turned red as she shouted.

"It was a sacred act of saving lives."

"Regardless, if they find out, I can't guarantee your safety."

"That's so unfair. If you saved her, she should be grateful and give you a fortune."

"Then, I won't guarantee the aftermath, so go tell them."

"Let's just keep it a secret as you said."

I'm not willing to bet my life on it.

I gathered dry branches from outside and stacked them in the cave. Then I told Baekreunghwa:

"Baek Leader, can you use Sanmei Zhenhuo?"

"···? How can I...?"

"Huh? You can't?"

"Sanmei Zhenhuo (三昧眞火) requires at least 100 years of internal energy. Even in major sects, only elders can use it..."

Baekreunghwa, with a pained expression, said resentfully. I thought all experts could use it.

"Then, can you give me a fire flint?"

"Because of the water..."

When I opened the fire flint container Baekreunghwa handed me, it was soaked and showed no sign of igniting.

The fire flint, in simple terms, is a fire starter. It's often depicted like a lighter, but it's a bit different.

It stores a spark in an oxygen-free environment, and when you need fire, you open the container, and the spark ignites.

So, when it gets wet, it just becomes a bamboo tube.

"This won't work."

"This is bad. If we stay like this, everyone will catch a cold..."

I could see Wijieyan and Pangguiin shivering. I was worried they hadn't regained consciousness.

'I have a lighter.'

It was the only modern item I still had after falling into this wretched martial world. However, the gas was almost gone, and I wasn't sure if it would ignite.

I clicked the lighter in my pocket for a moment and said:

"Let me think for a moment."

I tried to recall the memory of starting a fire from my military days.

It was when I was a sergeant, during a battalion tactical training. The battalion commander, who had watched some strange movie, threw us some firewood and told us to make a bonfire and cook rice in a mess tin, insisting that soldiers must survive even if they are left alone.

"Platoon leader, is this reasonable?"

"I don't know. Your battalion commander seems crazy."

"···You mean the battalion commander, right?"

About 80 men tried to start a fire with various methods for over an hour.

But how could a tiny lighter ignite a large log? It was impossible without fuel.

One person managed to succeed, and the rest failed. The battalion commander was naturally disappointed.

The lesson learned was to avoid a demoted battalion commander.

'That guy definitely did it.'

The only one who succeeded in the battalion was a camping enthusiast. He taught us how to make a feather stick.

A feather stick is a piece of wood that is shaved to look like feathers to make it easier to ignite when you first start a fire.

This feather stick can ignite with a spark from a flint, and then you transfer the fire to the logs to build it up.

I quickly started making a feather stick with a suitable branch.

Swish, swish.

The cave was so quiet that the sound of shaving the wood echoed. Baekreunghwa, hearing the sound, asked:

"What is that?"

"It makes it easier to start a fire. When you shave it like this, the feather-like parts ignite easily."

"···Platoon leader, you're amazing. How do you know this?"

"From here and there."

I felt like a movie protagonist stranded on a deserted island as I made the feather stick. I asked Baekreunghwa to check on the two and secretly took out the lighter to ignite it.

Fortunately, the feather stick caught fire quickly. It was a success.

I wanted to shout but held back my cheer and used the burning branch to start a bonfire.

The fire quickly warmed the cave. We took out our wet clothes and dried them by the fire while chatting.

"I'm worried that Pangguiin hasn't regained consciousness."

"I agree. It seems... there's another problem besides drowning."

Baekreunghwa, checking Pangguiin's pulse every half hour, seemed to think that the lack of consciousness wasn't just due to swallowing water.

"Is it because of the injury?"

"I think so."

Pangguiin's injury was caused by the nails of that Chelgangshi.

"Is it poison?"

"Perhaps it's a type of corpse poison (屍毒), but I'm not sure. I'm not very knowledgeable about poisons..."

"If she is poisoned... how long do you think she can hold on, according to you?"

"It doesn't look good. We need to give her an antidote as soon as possible."

"The antidote is probably with Yoon Junsup."

People who use poison usually carry an antidote for their own poison.

They might accidentally poison themselves, and without an antidote, negotiations are impossible, so they typically carry one.

"Right. But... we don't have anything to negotiate with, so we'll have to take it by force."

"Do you think we have a chance?"

"Maybe against Yoon Junsup alone, but with Chelgangshi, it's impossible."

Our future looks bleak.

At that moment, a groan was heard. Wijieyan was regaining consciousness.

"Where are we..."

After briefly explaining the current situation, we asked Wijieyan to check her condition. If she was also poisoned, the situation would be serious.

Wijieyan quickly understood the situation, closed her eyes, and circulated her internal energy to check her body.

"I'm also poisoned."

"Are you okay?"

"At this level, I can expel it with my internal energy. Please take care of Guiin."

Wijieyan sat in a lotus position and practiced qigong to expel the poison with her internal energy. Baekreunghwa, meanwhile, sealed Pangguiin's acupoints to prevent the poison from spreading. After about an hour, Wijieyan coughed and spat out black blood.

"The immediate danger is over. It was threatening, even though it was just a scratch."

Wijieyan showed us her arm, where a tiny, barely noticeable scratch was visible. Baekreunghwa, looking pained, sighed and said:

"I'll check outside for a moment."

As Baekreunghwa left, we fell into a moment of silence.

It felt like being with a friend's friend while the friend is away.

Glancing over, I first noticed Wijieyan's pink lips. The thought of the artificial respiration made my face turn red.

...Ignorance is bliss.