The problem was that the thunder tiger actually needed to eat.
And not just a little. More like enough to move a mountain.
Pung Hyeon had barely caught his breath on a wooded hillside and was just getting to his feet when the thunder tiger let out a low groan and flopped its massive belly onto the ground. It stared up at him with those violet eyes. Anyone could read that look.
"Don't tell me you're expecting me to feed you."
*Grrrr.*
Fortunately, the thunder tiger had no interest in eating people. (That was the first thing Pung Hyeon had confirmed, with considerable desperation.) When Pung Hyeon told it to act its size, it bounded off into the nearby forest and came back having hunted wild boar. Three per meal.
The problem was how spectacularly loud the whole process was. When a boar tried to bolt, the fur along the thunder tiger's spine stood on end—CRACK—and a bolt of blue lightning split the forest and skewered the animal clean through. It was less hunting and more execution, and worse, the flash was bright enough to be seen ten li away.
Pung Hyeon held his head in his hands and thought for a long time. Then, with the grim resolve of a man who had made a decision he didn't love, he turned to the thunder tiger.
"Hey. Hey! Stop eating for a second. Just—does any of this make sense to you?"
*Rrrr?*
"You're enormous, first of all. Second, you eat three boars per meal. Third, when you hunt, you shoot lightning everywhere, which is basically a signal flare announcing exactly where we are no matter how fast we run. Think about it. How am I supposed to travel with you? Infiltrate anywhere? Escape anything? We can't even walk into a town!"
*Grrrrrr……*
"Let me put it simply. You're too big, you eat too much, and you stick out like a bonfire."
Pung Hyeon let out a genuine sigh. He'd brought a sacred beast along to help him escape, and it turned out to be the single most conspicuous creature in the world. He'd thought he'd gained a guardian. What he'd actually done was strap a walking signal tower to his back.
*…If it really comes down to it, maybe I should just let it go and leave it in the mountains.*
That was exactly what he was thinking.
Then the thunder tiger's lip curled into something that looked almost like a smirk.
*WHOOOOSH.*
It wrapped its enormous body in a cocoon of crackling blue current.
"Wha—hey—"
Pung Hyeon stumbled backward and landed hard on his backside. Then, slowly, the light began to shrink. More precisely, the thunder tiger inside the light began to shrink. Mountain-sized became ox-sized. Ox-sized became dog-sized.
*FLASH.*
When the light cleared.
Sitting in front of Pung Hyeon was an adorable little kitten, roughly the size of two palms pressed together.
Silver-white fur. Violet eyes. The blue current that had crackled along its spine was now a faint shimmer of blue fuzz, sparkling softly, and the thunder energy that had leaked between its fangs was gone entirely. It looked exactly like a tiger cub—or honestly, just a slightly unusual cat.
"……Mew."
The miniaturized thunder tiger cried in the most precious little voice imaginable.
Pung Hyeon's jaw dropped.
"……What did you just do?"
"Mrrrow."
The thunder tiger padded over in tiny steps, hopped up onto Pung Hyeon's knee, and curled itself into a ball. A small spark of electricity jumped to his leg—but it didn't sting. It was just warm. And a little ticklish.
"HAHAHA! You could shrink this whole time?! Why didn't you do that sooner?!"
Pung Hyeon was baffled, but honestly, he was impressed. This changed everything. He could keep it tucked against his chest in this tiny cat form during normal travel, and when things got dangerous, it could snap back to its true size. Infiltration, escape, walking into an inn—all of it suddenly became possible.
For a man on the run, there was no more perfect companion.
"Alright. You pass. From now on, unless I'm in danger, you stay in this form."
"Mrrrow!"
The thunder tiger flicked its tail as if it understood completely. A tiny blue ember flickered at the tip, then vanished.
Mageon had been frantically searching for Pung Hyeon ever since he'd left the Namgung Clan, and he'd spotted the lightning from the thunder tiger's hunt from a distance and followed it here. He nearly fainted on the spot when he watched the enormous beast shrink down into a palm-sized kitten.
That night, Pung Hyeon asked him to recommend a good dumpling place, so Mageon had no choice but to lead the group to the best inn in the nearest village. The moment they sat down, Mageon couldn't hold back any longer.
"G-great hero……. That sacred beast—how did it……."
"Oh, this one? Turns out it can get small. Pretty convenient, honestly."
Pung Hyeon said it like it was nothing and settled onto the inn bench. Mageon was quietly murmuring to himself—*"Pung Hyeon of the Cheonroe Sect, commands his sacred beast with such mastery that he controls even its very size"*—but Pung Hyeon didn't bother correcting him. Experience had taught him that corrections only made things worse.
"Three bowls of noodles and two large plates of boiled pork, please!"
Pung Hyeon called out cheerfully. The Gwak Clan gold coins had left his pockets nicely padded.
"Two plates of pork? Isn't that a lot?"
"Nope. She'll eat it."
Pung Hyeon jerked his chin toward the cat on his knee. Mageon looked puzzled. Then the food arrived.
And Mageon, thirty years a veteran of the martial world, witnessed something he had never seen before.
A palm-sized kitten had buried its face in a plate of boiled pork on the table and was eating with tremendous enthusiasm. An absurd amount of food for its body, at an absurd speed—it ignored the noodles entirely and went straight for the meat. It would clamp a piece in its tiny mouth, chew contentedly, and let out a satisfied *mrrrrr* deep in its throat. Every time the pile of meat shrank, the blue ember at the tip of its tail blinked with delight.
"……Great hero. That tiny little thing…… is eating an entire plate of pork……."
"I noticed earlier in the mountains that she really loves meat. Looking at this, I'd say her taste is pretty refined too. Ha."
Pung Hyeon slurped his noodles and added a few more slices of pork to the thunder tiger's plate. The thunder tiger let out a happy *mrrrow*.
The sight of a legendary sacred beast sitting at an inn table, eating boiled pork and wagging its tail, was more surreal than any legend the martial world had ever produced.
*……She is kind of cute, though.*
Pung Hyeon smiled before he even realized it.
After they'd eaten their fill, Mageon pulled a thick bundle of papers from inside his robe.
"Great hero. The martial world has been turned upside down again—overnight."
The papers were packed with accounts of Pung Hyeon's exploits—none of which he remembered doing. Apparently, within a single day of his departure from the Namgung Clan, word had spread across all of Anhui Province that Pung Hyeon of the Cheonroe Sect had freed a legendary sealed divine sword and a sacred beast from the greatest sword clan in the land, and had personally imparted wisdom to the proud Namgung Clan. The story had grown layers upon layers, and now Pung Hyeon had become "the wandering hero who rebuked the Namgung Clan's incompetence and hypocrisy before walking away."
"Look at this. People are already placing bets on where you'll go next. Some say the Tang Clan in Sichuan. Some say the Martial Alliance's main hall. Nobody can agree."
Pung Hyeon stared blankly at the papers. It was clearly about him, and yet it felt completely unhinged. All he'd done was thrash around trying not to die—and in the martial world, that thrashing had been translated into grand words like "judgment" and "the path of chivalry."
*……What have I done.*
It was starting to scare him, just a little. The bigger his reputation grew, the more people would come to test him—or worse, to target him. That much was obvious. But at the same time, something else was running through his head, and he couldn't tell if it was the thunder energy rewiring his brain or just his own instincts.
*But this mask… it's getting more useful by the day.*
Everyone believed without question that he was a righteous hero. Doors opened wherever he went. Nobody dared suspect him. The reputation was dangerous, yes—but it was also the thickest armor he'd ever worn. Used right, he could ride this enormous misunderstanding to a safer, more comfortable life.
Danger and advantage, two sides of the same coin. And Pung Hyeon, as always, tilted ever so slightly toward the advantage.
"So, Mageon. About our next destination. What do you think about the Tang Clan?"
"You mean the Tang Clan of Sichuan? The ones famous throughout the land for their poisons and hidden weapons?"
"That's the one."
Mageon's expression tightened slightly. The Gwak Clan and the Namgung Clan were at least orthodox sects that kept up appearances of honor. The Tang Clan was a different breed entirely. Their hidden weapons and poisons killed in silence, and there was a saying that once you earned their grudge, they would chase you to the ends of the earth to settle it. Even for Pung Hyeon, whose escapes were second to none, invisible poison and a hail of hidden weapons were a genuinely tricky problem.
"Great hero. The Tang Clan may be different from what you've faced so far. They don't draw their swords openly—they throw needles from the shadows."
"All the more reason to get there fast, get in, get what I—I mean, deliver my teachings quickly, and get out."
Pung Hyeon shrugged. He looked calm, but inside he was already running calculations: *how do I avoid poison and hidden weapons?* No direct confrontations. Get out before the collision happens. That was the Tao of running away.
Then Mageon lowered his voice.
"Since you put it that way, I'm sure it'll be fine. But there's something else—a strange rumor circulating along the road to the Tang Clan."
"A strange rumor?"
"Yes. Deep in the mountains of Shu, there is said to be a reclusive eccentric who has never shown their face to the world. People call this person the 'alchemist from beyond the world.'"
Pung Hyeon's ears perked up.
An alchemist. Someone who brews elixirs. Someone who crafts miraculous medicines and rare remedies. Pung Hyeon had felt firsthand what a single thousand-year snow ginseng could do for his energy center—and the words "reclusive eccentric who brews miraculous medicines" hit him with roughly the same appeal as "the best food street in the world."
"The rumor says this alchemist doesn't just brew known medicines—they create mysterious elixirs that exist nowhere else in the world. Their whereabouts are so obscure that almost no one has ever seen their face. But those who have all say the same thing……"
Mageon paused for effect, his expression turning oddly cryptic.
"……That there is no celestial maiden in heaven more beautiful."
Pung Hyeon was quiet for a moment. Then, very quietly, deep inside his own head:
*…A reclusive eccentric who brews medicine… and looks like a goddess?*
Not dying. Eating well. Getting stronger. And now, as a bonus, *getting to look at a beautiful woman*. Not a single item on that list conflicted with a fugitive's modest life goals.
Of course, Pung Hyeon had absolutely no idea, at that moment, that this "goddess-like alchemist" was about to turn his entire life inside out.
"Mageon."
Pung Hyeon rose slowly from his seat and slung the Thunderclap Sword across his back. The thunder tiger, who had finished both plates of pork and was patting her belly in satisfaction, gave a quick hop and landed on his shoulder in her tiny form.
"Before we head to the Tang Clan… let's make a stop in Shu first."
"Hm? Why the sudden change?"
Pung Hyeon didn't have a great answer for that.
"Just because."
The stronger he got, the more the world kept dangling interesting things in front of him. And somewhere along the way, Pung Hyeon had become someone who couldn't resist taking the bait.
On his shoulder, the thunder tiger cried *mrrrow*. Mageon exhaled with something like anticipation and gathered his pack. One fugitive, one beggar, and one palm-sized lightning cat with a deep and abiding love of meat—their strange little company turned its steps toward the mist-shrouded lands of Shu.
The fugitive's third chapter was slowly drawing near, drifting toward a destination none of them could quite name.
He didn't yet know what waited there. He didn't even know exactly where he was going.