“I wonder if they’re doing well.”
He didn’t know who his parents were.
The place where he grew up was a small hermitage called Chuam Temple.
One cold winter day, Monk Myeong-hye picked up the child abandoned at the mountain gate and raised him.
Salk, who had received all the Buddhists’ love for his bright nature, changed when he was in the fourth grade of elementary school.
It was from the time he entered puberty and realized his situation.
Studying was put on the back burner, and he only exercised every day.
In less than a year, Salk became the top dog of the school despite being in the fifth grade.
In middle school, he reigned as the top dog of all the middle schools in the city.
Monk Myeong-hye, who belatedly learned of this fact, entrusted his guidance to Monk Hae-cho, who happened to be visiting the hermitage, in order to set Salk straight.
That day, Salk was soundly beaten for the first time since he learned how to fight.
He learned for the first time how terrifying a single cane could be in the hands of a skinny old man who wouldn’t look out of place dying that very day.
From that day on, Salk learned martial arts from Monk Hae-cho.
Seeing Salk respectfully serving Monk Hae-cho and waking up at the crack of dawn to devote himself to practice, Monk Myeong-hye was relieved, thinking Salk had turned over a new leaf.
But that was her delusion.
Salk had done so only because he coveted martial arts.
When Hae-cho left after staying at Chuam Temple for three years, Salk also left the place under the cover of darkness shortly after.
After that, he wandered here and there until he met Kim Man-bok and built up the Miracle Faction.
Even though he was now leaving for China, as if running away.
“Phew.”
Salk brought his hand to his mouth to relieve his frustrated feelings.
However, the cigarette stuck between his fingers had already burned down in the sea breeze and gone out.
“Son of a bitch.”
A curse popped out of Salk’s mouth as he threw the butt into the sea and took the cigarette pack out of his pocket.
It was completely empty.
The last remaining cigarette was the one from just before.
It felt as if even the cigarettes were mocking his situation of fleeing to China penniless, leaving behind everything he had achieved so far.
Crumple.
Salk crumpled the cigarette pack in a fit of temper, threw it into the sea with all his might, and turned around to enter the cabin.
Whether it was because of the darkness or just because he had turned around, he didn’t realize that the cigarette pack had hit something sticking out of the sea and had bounced off.
Behind Salk, a yellow flame soared above the sea.
‘That bastard…!’