Chapter 848

Every now and then, I found myself wondering.

Just how often did I pass out? How many times had it happened?

If the System window summarized my life, how much of it would be time I’d lost while unconscious?

Damn it. I had no idea.

All that mattered right now was that I’d just woken up—and found myself face-to-face with an ugly bastard who looked like a monster.

“Whoa, shit! You scared me. Who are you?”

The monster answered in a mumble.

“It’s me.”

“Me who?”

An unusual name I’d never heard before, attached to a face I wouldn’t want to see even in my dreams.

Baffled, I asked again.

“Are you from the Sichuan Tang Clan, by any chance?”

“……”

“Tang Me?”

“Captain, that joke’s a bit much.”

Captain. The word from the monster’s mouth left my jaw hanging open.

There was only one person who called me that these days.

“Mujin? Hyuk Mujin?”

“Yes.”

“Good heavens, what happened to your face?”

“Someone beat me up.”

When you’re busy, it’s easy to forget the little things.

Only then did I remember beating Hyuk Mujin black and blue a few days ago. I smiled warmly.

“Ah, I almost didn’t recognize you. You got so handsome.”

“Should I thank you?”

“If you do, I’ll gladly accept. But your face wasn’t this fu—this handsome when I last saw you.”

“Some lunatic tried to put me to sleep forever. I couldn’t do a thing.”

“A lunatic? Who?”

“Some guy whose only goal in life is to stuff himself until he bursts.”

Of the people I knew, only two lunatics came to mind.

Cheongpung. And Taishan.

Of course, Cheongpung was probably traveling all over the land with the Slaughter Saint, searching for traces of Dark Heaven. There was no way he’d just pop up at the Sichuan Tang Clan.

That left one lunatic.

“Can you see my face right now? That lunatic Taishan hit me before the swelling had even gone down. It swelled up three times as much.”

“I get it, you’re three times more handsome. Now get your face out of mine. Or help me sit up.”

“Sorry, but I can’t. If I get any closer, I’ll smell your breath too. It’s hard enough standing here as it is.”

“What?”

At first, I didn’t understand what he meant.

Then the terrible stench hit my nose.

“Ugh.”

I barely held back a gag and pushed myself upright.

As if he’d expected that, Hyuk Mujin nodded and handed me a waterskin and a scrap of cloth.

“It really stinks, doesn’t it? Plug your nose with this, like I did, and rinse your mouth out. And try to cover your mouth when you talk…”

“If you don’t want to get even more handsome, shut up. My stomach’s already turning.”

“Sorry. But your breath really is awful, Captain. What on earth did you eat?”

“Shit.”

“Good heavens, why would you eat that?”

“……”

Was that idiot Hyuk Mujin actually taking me seriously? Or was he just trying to mess with me?

After a moment’s thought, I let out a deep sigh. I stuffed the scrap of cloth he’d given me up my nostrils and rinsed my mouth out several times. Only then did it feel like I could breathe again.

Anyway, what exactly happened?

My last memory was Jeok Cheongang forcing me to swallow that awful pill.

No—to be precise, I’d felt heat seep into my body just before I lost consciousness.

It had been as familiar as coming home. Warm, rather than hot.

It was Old Master’s Scorching Yang Qi. I’m sure of it.

Just as the world held more colors than the seven in a rainbow, qi came in more than one kind.

I didn’t know how many sects in the world used Scorching Yang Qi, but the Fire Gate Clan was its root. The qi I’d felt had unquestionably belonged to Jeok Cheongang.

Which means…

I slowly looked around.

The room was as clean and tidy as when I’d first arrived. But the stench lingering in the air and the dark marks on the floor were still there.

“It took ages to clean that up. It was sticky and smelled so bad I thought I was going to die.”

Hyuk Mujin had caught my gaze and was quick to complain.

“The Divine Physician said impurities came out of your body as a kind of mucus. Um, what did he call it? I knew the term, but it’s slipped my mind. Pushing… pushing…”

“Pushing the meridians and passing through the acupoints.”

At my offhand reply, Hyuk Mujin nodded.

“Oh, right. That thing I’d only ever heard about.”

No wonder he’d only heard of it. Pushing the meridians and passing through the acupoints required considerable preparation and sacrifice. It wasn’t something people attempted lightly.

Not even masters who’d reached Supreme Peak were exceptions.

It took a tremendous amount of mental strength, and the practitioner had to infuse part of their own internal energy evenly throughout the other person’s body.

And if it failed, the damage was severe.

But Jeok Cheongang had performed the treatment while I was unconscious, accepting the risk and the loss of internal energy.

It wasn’t the first time he’d treated me that way, but I couldn’t help feeling grateful—and guilty.

…He didn’t have to go this far.

If I’d been hovering between life and death, I might have asked him to. But until now, I’d been getting by well enough.

And we were in a situation where anything could happen at any moment. For everyone’s sake, it was better to preserve even a little more of the Fire King Jeok Cheongang’s strength than the Blazing Flame Divine Dragon Jin Taekyung’s.

Of course, if I said that in front of Old Master, he’d tear into me.

I let out a quiet laugh and drew up the Scorching Yang Qi. The increase in my internal energy wasn’t enough to show, but I could feel it at once.

Slowly. Carefully.

I sent the Scorching Yang Qi—now a little over three jiazi¹—flowing like lava through every limb and acupoint in my body. At the same time, I quietly examined everything deep within me.

My acupoints were wider and sturdier. My blood had cleared now that the impurities were gone, and my organs were working normally.

I drew in a long breath and sent the Scorching Yang Qi flowing faster.

It didn’t take long for the slow-moving lava to become a blaze sweeping across a plain.

Sssshhhh.

Once around. Twice. Three times.

The circulation of qi that had begun as a Small Circulation became a Great Circulation. The fire dragon swept through hundreds of major and minor acupoints, putting my insides in order once more, then finally returned to my lower dantian and coiled up.

And just when everything seemed perfect—

Throb.

A sudden pain struck my lower dantian. I finished circulating my qi and clicked my tongue bitterly.

So this still isn’t enough.

That horrible pill the Divine Physician had made and Jeok Cheongang’s treatment must have been the best they could do for me right now.

But even with all their efforts, they hadn’t been able to heal me completely.

The price of using power my body couldn’t handle was bitter. Wishing otherwise wouldn’t change the reality.

A vessel faced with more water than it could hold had only two choices.

It could hold what it was able to—or break under the weight of the water pouring in.

I was in the latter situation.

“…It’s only a crack for now, though.”

At my involuntary mutter, Hyuk Mujin, who’d been standing guard, asked, “Huh? What is?”

“You don’t need to know. It’s just something.”

“Wow, that’s cold. Where are you going to find a right-hand man as loyal as me?”

“As I’ve told you time and again, you’re barely my pinky toe.”

“Now that I think about it, that’s not so bad.”

“What?”

“Your pinky toe. It hurts the most when you stub it on a doorframe.”

“……”

Was it just me, or was that guy becoming a formidable opponent?

Briefly at a loss for words, I shook my head.

“Cut the nonsense. Go fetch some water. I need to wash up. I feel disgusting.”

“Now?”

“Yeah. I can’t stand this smell.”

I wrinkled my brow at the stench clinging to my clothes. Hyuk Mujin scratched the back of his head.

“Um, Captain. That might be a little difficult.”

“What did you say?”

I blinked and asked in a serious voice, “Are you talking back to me? Is your face itching because you want to be the most handsome man of all time?”

“Please stop hitting me. I’m begging you.”

“Then why are you talking nonsense?”

“I’m not talking back. I mean we don’t have time. Everyone’s ready and waiting for you to wake up.”

“…Ready? Waiting for me to wake up?”

“Yes. We’ll put up with the smell somehow, so let’s just leave.”

What the hell was he talking about?

As I stared at him, bewildered, Hyuk Mujin hurriedly rummaged through his robes and pulled out a sheet of yellow paper.

“What’s that…?”

“It’s a letter Sir Jeok and the Divine Physician left before they departed. They told us to get everything ready and bring you as soon as you woke up, without wasting any time.”

Jeok Cheongang and the Divine Physician had left ahead of us. And they’d left a letter.

Trying to make sense of the questions that still wouldn’t go away, I unfolded the rough-textured yellow paper. At that moment, a single line written in a strikingly vigorous hand—presumably the Divine Physician’s—seared itself into my eyes.

City Lord of Sichuan Province. Deceased.

“……!”

The Divine Physician suddenly remembered a lesson his Master had once taught him.

His Master had taken a fearsome number of lives, yet rescued countless others from the brink of death.

“What do you think is the most frightening illness in the world?”

“Cancer, I think.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Tumors too small to see with the naked eye grow deep inside the body. You’re fortunate if you notice the signs early, but without a physician of exceptional skill, people often die without ever receiving proper treatment.”

“You’re not wrong. But if you find the right physician in time, it can be cured without help from Heaven.”

“Isn’t that because you’re the Divine Physician, and a martial arts master who’s reached the stature of a grandmaster?”

“No. Any physician whose skill I would recognize could do it. You included.”

“You flatter me, Master. But I still don’t know what answer you’re looking for.”

“Flesh that’s been gouged or torn can be stitched together. Twisted or broken bones can be set. Even if an organ is injured, you can open the body and examine it.”

“Ah, I understand now.”

“What is it?”

“An illness of the mind.”

“That’s right. A sickness of the mind can’t be seen, stitched up, or set. It kills patients more stealthily than an assassin and more cruelly than a fiend.”

“Then how should we treat people like that?”

“First, meet them as one person to another, not as physician and patient. Second, listen without a word. Third, become their friend.”

“And if even that doesn’t help, and the patient chooses to die…”

“Carefully prepare their body for burial, and see them off on their final journey. But whoever the patient may be, always remember one thing.”

“What is it?”

“No one dies without a cause. Find the cause first.”

“……!”

The Divine Physician came back to himself and opened his eyes.

On the broad, lavish bed lay a corpse, as if in a deep sleep.

City Lord of Sichuan Province. Why did you die?

Was it grief over having his beloved concubine taken from him? Or anger at himself for being powerless to stop it?

Or perhaps…

Was it never lovesickness at all, but something else?

The Divine Physician gazed calmly down at the City Lord’s corpse.

A renowned physician from Sichuan had already concluded that the high-ranking man had died suddenly. But after examining the body for more than three shichen,² the Divine Physician disagreed.

What grudge did you incur?

Puk.

He drew a long needle from an acupoint with a question the dead man would never hear. Then he studied the tiny thing writhing on its sharp tip and murmured,

“…Gu poison.”³