One week.
—My son is becoming strange.
Sangwon paused while writing in his journal and looked toward the training grounds.
Seoha was there, groaning as he swung a fifty-geun sword, while beside him the clan head, Lee Kangjin, casually swung a three-hundred-geun sword with a whooshing sound.
Except for the time they spent eating and sleeping, the two of them devoted everything to training.
Just then, Seoha's voice rang out.
"Uahahahaha! I'm happy! I'm so happy!"
"Hahaha! That's right! Training should be done joyfully like that!"
Two people who had clearly lost their minds were swinging their swords with fervor.
"He's going crazier by the day."
Seoha returned home utterly exhausted every day, loosened his muscles in a medicinal bath, and the next day came back exhausted all over again.
No matter how high-grade the medicinal bath was, it wasn't something the body could endure every single day.
Just what on earth had driven Seoha to this point?
It would likely remain a question he'd never know the answer to.
"Good! That's enough for today. Get a massage, then begin internal energy training."
"Thank you."
Seoha forced his body off the ground and walked over, and Sangwon handed his son a bowl of decoction.
"Drink it. It should ease the fatigue at least a little."
"I'm not going to die from this, am I?"
"If you're that worried, why don't you rest a bit? Taking a day off would be fine."
"No. I just need to rest the final week."
He planned to have a recovery period starting one week before the entrance exam.
As soon as he gulped down the decoction, Elder Hwang approached.
"Young Master. Let's go get your massage."
"Please, Master Hwang."
Watching his son being dragged away by Elder Hwang, Sangwon smiled bitterly.
"It's like I'm seeing myself when I was young."
Recalling his own training days and shuddering at the memory, Sangwon buried himself back into his work.
Finally, one week until the entrance exam.
The day of the auction had arrived.
Standing in front of the mirror, I admired my perfectly honed muscles.
"So these are what you call practical muscles?"
When I first started training with a heavy sword, it weighed only fifty geun. Now it had reached one hundred.
That alone had built every muscle necessary to wield a sword.
On top of that, the basic stamina forged by cliff climbing was incomparable to what I'd had two months ago.
"…Hah. It really was brutal."
Even counting my life before regression, I had never trained this hard.
I'd originally planned to do only about half of this, but Grandfather got involved…
No—actually, that made it even better.
No amount of preparation was ever enough for the Seongmu Academy entrance exam.
Then why were tears welling up?
"My internal energy is ready too. Good. Let's go."
After relentlessly training Gangro (强路), I'd finally reached the level of an ordinary genius.
Why only an ordinary genius after all that?
Obviously because my base talent was the worst of the worst.
Even so, this was enough to barely earn the right to stand shoulder to shoulder with the geniuses entering the Seongmu Academy.
"Seoha, are you ready?"
"Yes, Grandfather! I'll be right out!"
And today was finally the day Grandfather would buy the item he'd promised.
When I stepped outside, a carriage was already prepared.
The auction house was located in the capital, about two shijin away by carriage from the Cheongsin Clan estate.
To save time, we chose to ride.
While traveling, Grandfather gave his evaluation of my training so far.
"You've followed the training well until now. For the remaining week, focus on recovery and refining your techniques. Your external training passes."
"Yes, Grandfather."
"However, you haven't passed yet. You seem to have worked hard on your own, but compared to your external training, your internal energy is lacking."
Neither Cheonro nor Gangro were methods for accumulating internal energy.
To truly gather internal energy, I needed to train the third stage.
Chungro (充路), meaning to fill the path.
Opening all developed meridians and gathering internal energy.
But even training Gangro had been a race against time, so there was no room left to accumulate internal energy.
This damned body.
"I'll watch you until the final day, but if your internal energy doesn't rise, I can't allow you to take the entrance exam."
"Yes, I understand."
As Grandfather said, without sufficient internal energy, entering the Seongmu Academy was impossible.
You couldn't compete with the top geniuses of my generation using only external techniques.
That was why this auction was so important.
"I've already thought of a way."
Money wasn't an issue.
This time, I planned to freely use the silver spoon I hadn't been able to use in my previous life.
The capital's auction house was always crowded with fine goods.
Merchants who bought cheap and sold dear, as well as members of powerful clans, filled the place.
But the undisputed main attraction was my grandfather.
"Hey, isn't that the former Captain of the Royal Guard?"
"Is something incredible being auctioned today? Hey, go check!"
Since retiring, Grandfather hadn't shown himself at auction houses or anywhere else, so the staff was in an uproar.
The former Captain of the Royal Guard appearing without warning—of course they'd panic.
"Captain, greetings! I am Choi Gyeongjun, the master of this auction house. Had we known you would be visiting, you could have sent word in advance. We would have welcomed you properly."
"There's no need. I'm just here to quietly buy a gift for my grandson and leave."
"Of course. Please come inside."
Even though the master of the capital's auction house was a notable figure, he couldn't even straighten his back before Grandfather.
It showed just how overwhelming Grandfather's influence still was.
Following the master's guidance, we went inside. The auction had already been underway for some time.
But since the item I wanted would appear last, we waited leisurely.
"So, what is it you want from here? There's even a hundred-year ginseng."
"It's not the hundred-year ginseng."
"Then what? I don't see any elixir better than that."
"This."
I pointed to the final item on the list.
It was a piece of high-quality celadon, beautifully shaped, with a crane painted so vividly it looked ready to take flight.
Anyone would want to display such an elegant object in their room.
However, Grandfather looked at me as if I were strange.
"You truly want that celadon?"
"Yes! I'm very interested in celadon."
"…I see. Very interested. In celadon."
Grandfather fell into thought.
Since he'd promised to buy me whatever I wanted, he didn't say much, but he couldn't hide his dissatisfaction.
He must have thought we'd come to buy an elixir to increase internal energy.
I deliberately offered no explanation.
Once he saw what was inside that celadon, he'd surely be jumping for joy.
"In my previous life, the bad guys took it."
Back then, the one who seized this fortune was a merchant.
After buying the celadon at this auction, the merchant accidentally dropped it on his way out.
Just as he was about to wail in despair, he discovered what was inside, his face lighting up, and decided to sell it to the royal family.
But not long after, the merchant was murdered, and the item vanished.
It was later revealed that the culprit was the Eunwoldan (隱月團).
Because the intended buyer was the royal family, the incident was recorded in detail.
Thanks to that, I was able to snatch it here.
"For the merchant's sake, it's better that I buy it."
After all, life was more precious than money.
As the auction proceeded, the celadon finally appeared, and the auctioneer shouted loudly.
"This celadon was crafted by a renowned artisan and can be said to pursue the pinnacle of beauty. The starting price is fifty jeon."
For something touted as the pinnacle of beauty, it was cheap.
That was because celadon only fetched high prices if it was made by a famous artisan.
Though it was old, no one knew who had made it, so its value was inevitably low.
The merchant back then had bought it for only a hundred jeon.
Considering the item inside was priceless, it was an enormous gain.
"Are you sure this celadon is enough?"
"Yes. That's the one."
"Very well. A promise is a promise."
Grandfather raised his hand.
"Sixty jeon! We have sixty jeon!"
The price rose in ten-jeon increments, and the merchant who had originally bought the celadon joined in, raising the bid.
But when Grandfather called out two hundred jeon, the merchant immediately gave up, and it seemed the celadon would soon be mine.
According to the records, that was how it should have gone.
"Three hundred jeon."
In an instant, a man overturned the table.
Grandfather glanced at him and raised four fingers.
"Yes! Four hundred jeon! Any higher?"
The man in silk clothes tilted his head and shouted,
"One hundred nyang."
Who was this guy?
Judging by his luxurious silk garments, he seemed wealthy enough, but he wasn't anyone famous.
If he were, I would have remembered him.
"Where did he suddenly come from?"
In one leap, the unit skyrocketed.
Since ten jeon made one nyang, one hundred nyang equaled one thousand jeon.
And considering that a small tile-roofed house sold for three hundred nyang, this was an absurd price for a single piece of celadon.
I looked again at the man in silk.
From what I'd seen so far, he wasn't simply trying to buy the celadon.
Then Grandfather spoke.
"Seoha. The price is rising more than expected."
What kind of uncharacteristically weak comment was that?
Surely he wasn't planning to back out because it was expensive?
Just as I thought that—
"It seems you have a good eye. Since others want it so badly, I must make sure you get that celadon."
"…Thank you."
That startled me for nothing.
Grandfather wasn't the type to avoid a fight that came to him.
The same held true even at an auction.
Soon, Grandfather spread all five fingers, and the auctioneer swallowed hard.
"Five hundred nyang! Five hundred nyang! Any higher?"
"Six hundred."
The man in silk shouted, and Grandfather immediately raised his hand again.
"One thousand nyang!"
Well done! My grandfather is the best!
Since it was an item worth buying even for a hundred million nyang, the price didn't matter.
"Two thousand nyang!"
The man in silk jumped to his feet and shouted, but Grandfather said calmly,
"Five thousand nyang."
Wasn't that a bit too big of a jump at once?
Even at an auction, Grandfather's personality showed.
He wasn't a merchant, and he'd never been good at this kind of back-and-forth.
As soon as "five thousand nyang" was spoken, murmurs spread through the hall.
Just what was that celadon, to be worth five thousand nyang?
Five thousand nyang was enough to buy an entire small village and still have money left over.
An amount most merchants couldn't even dream of.
The man in silk hesitated, then slumped back down with a smile of resignation.
It was understandable.
At this point, he'd have to compete financially with Cheongsin.
And if Grandfather put his mind to it, he could even open the state treasury and borrow money.
After all, he'd been close friends with the king for forty years.
With Grandfather glaring as if he'd never back down, anyone's knees would go weak.
"Five thousand nyang! Any higher? Three! Two! One! Sold!"
The auctioneer brought the hammer down joyfully, and Grandfather let out a small sigh.
Now that it was decided, he probably wondered what on earth he'd just done.
"…Are you satisfied?"
"Grandfather, you're the best!"
I hugged his arm.
Truly, my grandfather was the best.
Not long after, the celadon was delivered directly to Grandfather.
Given the price, they didn't dare waste time on elaborate packaging—if something went wrong, five thousand nyang would vanish.
Auction master Choi Gyeongjun beamed and bowed repeatedly.
"Ah, thank you! Thank you! An excellent choice indeed. By the way, Captain, do you collect celadon? We have many fine pieces inside as well…"
"It was something my grandson wanted."
"Oh! Your grandson? I see, I see."
Choi Gyeongjun looked at me as though I were a lucky charm.
"You have outstanding taste, young master. Hahaha!"
Since a piece of celadon of unknown origin had sold for five thousand nyang, of course he was delighted.
Unfortunately, it was time to wipe that smile away.
Since we'd bought the celadon for more than expected, it was time—for Grandfather's sake as well—to show what I truly wanted.
"Then I'll carry it!"
Acting innocent, I picked up the celadon.
Then, timing it to when Grandfather was speaking with the auction master, I quietly injected internal energy into both hands.
Crack!
The sound of shattering celadon filled the auction hall, and the auction master and Grandfather turned to look at me.
"Hahaha. It broke."
But their surprise at the broken celadon lasted only a moment.
Both Choi Gyeongjun and Grandfather fixed their gaze on something revealed among the shattered fragments.
Tilting my head, I held out what was in my hands.
"Huh? What's this?"
It looked like the thick root of a plant.
I handed it to Grandfather.
"Grandfather. Something came out of my celadon. Could you take a look?"
I emphasized the word "my" as I handed it over.
After examining the thick object, Grandfather turned to the auction master with a shocked expression.
"There was something like this inside. Something like this… Master, do you know what it is?"
"Well…"
An auction master who dealt with all kinds of goods couldn't possibly fail to recognize it.
"…Isn't that Hasuo?"
"Correct! Hahahaha! Even another five thousand nyang wouldn't be too much for this!"
"Is it good? My plant?"
"Of course! It's the best. The finest elixir there is!"
The smile returned to Grandfather's face, brighter than ever.
And that was only natural.
What I held was the supreme elixir said to grant even ordinary people eternal life if consumed.
The Ten-Thousand-Year Hasuo (萬年何首烏).
"Heaven truly favors you, Seoha! Hahaha!"
Heaven, my foot.
I was the one helping myself.