The Tale of the Black Mountain Lord

Lee Yeon, an abandoned child taken in by a childless couple from the riverbank of their village.
With a complexion as fair and beautiful as a lily of the valley, he leads a perilous life as a hunter, repaying his elderly and ailing parents’ debts and supporting them.

One day, as usual, he sets out on a tiger hunt.
He successfully takes down a large tiger but, beneath its corpse, he finds a black tiger cub.

A wave of guilt washes over him—he had killed another mother to save his own.
In the end, he spares the orphaned cub and releases it into the cold mountain wilderness.

From then on, whenever he finds himself in danger, the black tiger appears, offering its help as if repaying a debt.
Though their relationship remains somewhat uneasy, they continue to cross paths—until one fateful day.

A man, dressed in fine attire ill-suited for the deep mountains, suddenly appears before Lee Yeon.

“W-Who are you? Are you even human?”

Though disheveled and slightly bloodstained, the man possesses a beauty as exquisite as a piece of carved jade.
Without a word, he raises his dirt-stained identification tag for Lee Yeon to see.

[Kim Hyeonhak (金玄學)]

And so, Lee Yeon’s peculiar fate with the enigmatic scholar begins.