The Coins Float on Their Own
The bundle of copper coins dropped to the floor with a thud.
Clang!
Sowol's gaze landed on Baekya.
"Baekya, quit fooling around."
In open defiance, the bundle of coins floated up again.
"Baekya."
The moment Sowol's voice turned stern, Baekya shook his head with an aggrieved look on his face.
"Baekya didn't do it."
"If it wasn't you, then who's playing this kind of trick?"
"Not Baekya. Baby."
"The baby?"
"Baby did it."
Baekya pointed at the cradle.
The baby, looking entirely innocent of any wrongdoing, was sucking on its fingers.
Sowol furrowed his brow.
Space-Grabbing was no party trick. It was an art only a master who had reached the highest realms could perform. How on earth could a baby manage such a thing?
The instant Sowol opened his mouth to call the nonsense exactly what it was, the inn door burst open.
"Master Yeon, you in there?"
Startled out of his wits, Sowol snatched the bundle of coins out of the air on pure reflex. The coins clinked against one another in his palm.
He turned around awkwardly. Wang Yeom stood in the doorway, holding a small basket.
"What brings you here?"
"Nothing much. I was worried you might be short on baby clothes, so I brought a few sets. They're the ones Danwoo used — still perfectly good."
"Thank you. I'm forever in your debt."
"Debt, nothing. Households with little ones are supposed to help each other out."
Wang Yeom waved off his thanks and stepped inside. Sowol quickly angled his body to hide the long cabinet.
Besides the bundle of coins he'd snatched, a few more loose coins were still scattered across it. If the baby floated them again and Wang Yeom happened to witness it, there would be no end to the trouble.
"Where's the baby? Have you changed the diapers?"
"Just changed them."
"Aigoo, look — he's got your finger in a death grip. Does he know whose hand it is?"
Wang Yeom chuckled and approached the cradle. The moment she leaned over and stroked the baby's head, one of the coins on the long cabinet gave a violent shudder.
The color drained from Sowol's face.
Thankfully, Wang Yeom showed no sign of noticing. Still caressing the baby's cheeks, she kept chatting away.
"Our Danwoo was just like this too, and now look at him, running all over the yard. Two years went by in the blink of an eye."
All the while, Sowol was kicking Baekya's leg and jerking his chin toward the long cabinet.
Coins! The coins!
Sowol pursed and unpursed his lips, but Baekya just stood there blinking his enormous eyes. He clearly had no idea why Sowol was pointing at anything. Sowol pursed his lips again.
Coins!
Only then did Baekya notice the coin on the long cabinet wobbling, hovering on the verge of liftoff, and amble over to it.
"He's a mild little thing, isn't he? Doesn't even cry when he sees a stranger."
"……"
"How much milk do you have left? It's been a while since you bought any, hasn't it?"
"……"
"Master Yeon? Are you listening?"
The moment Wang Yeom spun around —
Baekya snatched the gently rising coin out of the air.
Wang Yeom looked from Sowol, twisting his body into a contortion, to Baekya, standing frozen in an inexplicable pose — then narrowed her eyes.
"Master Yeon, are you feeling unwell?"
"Unwell? I'm fine."
A bead of sweat rolled off Sowol's chin as he answered.
"You're pale as a ghost. If something's wrong with your body, go see Physician Heo. A man your age pushing himself too hard is a recipe for a chronic illness."
"I will. Don't you worry."
Sowol forced a smile and waved his hand. The bundle of coins in his grip jingled.
Wang Yeom pressed him once more.
"Really, you're fine?"
"I'm fine."
Wang Yeom's expression turned odd.
She was starting to suspect this man had lost his mind from the strain of raising a newborn.
"Baekya, you make sure you help him well. Raising a newborn alone with just the two of you — no man stays sane for long."
"Okay."
For all anyone knew, she already thought Sowol's sanity was long gone.
Wang Yeom pressed no further and set the basket down beside the cradle.
"I'll leave this here. I'll be off now."
"Thank you. Get home safe."
Wang Yeom nodded and turned away.
Click.
The door shut behind her.
Only then did Sowol let out a long, long breath. He felt as though ten years had been shaved off his life.
Baekya, mimicking him, let out a soft whew as well.
Wiping the cold sweat from his brow, Sowol spoke.
"Baekya. Not a word to anyone about what you saw today."
"Why?"
"Because the baby will be in danger."
"Danger?"
"That's right. Bad people will try to take the baby away."
At Sowol's answer, Baekya's face darkened into a scowl.
"Baekya hates bad people."
"Then keep your mouth shut nice and tight. And speaking of that — come here. I want you to check whether the baby has any internal energy."
Baekya came over to the cradle without complaint and took the baby's wrist.
"None."
"His dantian?"
"None."
"……"
Sowol's expression went blank.
A newborn with no internal energy and no dantian, using Space-Grabbing? What kind of dog-chewing-grass nonsense was that?
As a flustered Sowol stood there blinking dumbly, Baekya rubbed the crown of his own head and said,
"Baby — here, it's open."
"Open?"
"Wide open."
"……You mean the Baihui Acupoint is open?"
Baekya nodded.
Sowol pressed a hand to his throbbing forehead.
Beopgong's words came drifting back to him.
'The old master told me to take the child in.'
'The moment you hand him over, they'll try to use him. The great sects especially can't be trusted.'
"That accursed bald bastard…… So that's why you dumped him on me."
Sowol had found it strange that the former abbot of Shaolin would take an interest in the bloodline of a Demon Cult remnant. Now the reason was plain.
Ordinary martial artists built their internal energy inside the vessel of the dantian and channeled that power into their techniques. But one born with an open Baihui Acupoint was different — even without a single wisp of energy stored within, they could wield the natural qi of the outside world as if it were their own strength, or so it was said. Men who devoted their entire lives chasing that realm were a dime a dozen in the Jianghu.
And this child had been born with the gate already open. Of course eyes would turn toward him.
"You poor little thing."
Sowol murmured it with something like pity, then sighed.
He didn't know why the baby's Baihui Acupoint was open, or what the baby was capable of. He knew only one thing for certain: whatever it was, nothing good could come of the Jianghu finding out. For a child with no family, no sect, no adult to protect him, being special was no different from being cursed. Sowol knew that better than anyone — because he himself had lived it.
But that was Beopgong's problem to worry about, not his.
Sowol took out brush, ink, and paper and scrawled off a letter ordering Beopgong to come at once and collect the baby. He did not neglect to add a loving expression of his intent to smash the monk's head in.
Yet even after launching the courier packet into the sky, his heart refused to settle.
How was he supposed to hide this child until Beopgong arrived?
This was an inn. Its doors never closed, and people came and went at all hours. Not that a remote mountain inn saw many guests, but it was hardly the ideal place to keep a secret. And he couldn't simply hide the baby in the depths of a room, either — the moment a person's presence drifted even slightly out of range, the baby would burst into tears.
Swallowing a sigh, Sowol crouched down beside the cradle.
His heart was a tangled mess.
Afterward, Sowol tried to work out exactly under what circumstances the baby used Space-Grabbing. Above all, he wanted to stop the baby from floating objects in front of guests.
But the baby stayed quiet.
No more objects rose into the air, and the child caused no particular mischief. He simply ate, slept, cried — then ate and slept again. He behaved like a perfectly ordinary newborn.
"Baby, float it! Float!"
Baekya coaxed and wheedled too, but the baby only stared at him blankly.
Little by little, Sowol's tension began to ease.
Perhaps he'd simply been too jumpy. Maybe the child possessed no uncanny ability at all, and the objects had floated by sheer coincidence, a collision of circumstances.
Sowol chose to believe that.
Right up until the night a guest woke from his sleep.
2. The Haunted Inn
Deep in the night, when everyone was asleep, the merchant surnamed Han — lodging in the corner room at the end of the inn's second floor — woke abruptly. His throat was parched.
Fumbling around beside his pillow, he found his water vessel, but the bowl his fingers touched was empty. He debated simply lying back down, then slowly hauled himself upright. If he went downstairs, he could at least beg a bowl of leaf tea.
Creeeak.
The moment he opened the door, a chill swept up the dark corridor and washed over him. Trying to shake off the crawling feeling, Han rubbed his bare arms and headed for the stairs.
Creak. Creak.
Every step down made the wooden boards groan with an unsettling sound. A single small lamp burned in the great hall below.
The innkeeper, dozing off with a bobbing head in front of the cradle, lifted his head.
"Something the matter?"
Han hunched his shoulders without quite knowing why. There was something about this innkeeper that pressed down on a man.
"I'm thirsty. Might I trouble you for a bowl of leaf tea?"
"I'll bring it right away."
The innkeeper disappeared into the kitchen. While he waited, Han stole a glance at the cradle.
The baby was looking up at him with wide, bright eyes.
"Well now. Aren't you a cute little thing."
A smile crept across Han's face of its own accord. He had a daughter back home, too — one he'd left behind.
"Peekaboo."
When Han waved his hand, the baby broke into a gummy grin and wriggled its fingers. For an instant, the pitch-black eyes seemed to flash gold.
Then — the sound of a sinister wind brushed past Han's ear.
Every hair on his body stood on end.
Han froze mid-motion and swallowed hard. Something was behind him.
Slowly, he turned his head — and a scream tore from his throat.
"AAAAAGH!"