Jin Haryeong’s sword brought forth one variation after another.
Unable to withstand her dazzling sword forms, her opponent at last admitted defeat.
“I have lost.”
As the sword aimed at his throat was withdrawn, Jin Haryeong raised a hand high to everyone.
Thunderous cheers erupted.
“Jin Haryeong is the best!”
“You’re amazing, Jin Haryeong!”
“The champion will be Jin Haryeong!”
“Jin Haryeong, the foremost beauty of Hubei!”
But today, the words she had been waiting for were nowhere to be heard among them. She looked around at the assembled heroes, but Geomyeon was nowhere in sight.
‘Could she be badly hurt?’
She had heard that the young master Geomyeon served had been injured in the quarterfinals. She knew that was probably why Geomyeon had not come, but somehow she still felt disappointed. She had hoped Geomyeon might come, if only for a moment, while she was fighting.
‘Her young master is hurt, so of course she can’t.’
With that lingering regret, she stepped down from the dueling platform, only to find an unexpected person waiting for her.
“Congratulations on your victory.”
It was Jo Sin. Normally, her expression would have hardened at once, but for some reason today she treated him gently.
“Thank you.”
“If Miss Jin wins the championship, I will host a separate banquet to celebrate.”
“Your words alone are enough. Then, I must prepare for my next bout.”
After giving a light cupped-fist salute, Jin Haryeong left the arena.
Jo Sin somehow felt that she had treated him more warmly than usual.
‘Was that fellow right?’
He had claimed to know women well, and sure enough, a single word of congratulation had changed the way she treated him.
‘That bastard is more useful than he looks.’
But that was his misunderstanding.
The reason Jin Haryeong had been at ease was because, during her walk with her grandfather the day before, she had received a firm answer that there would be no political marriage.
In that case, there was no longer any need to stay uncomfortable by clashing with Jo Sin. Once the Little Dragon Tournament ended, she would not have to see his face anyway. She would be joining the Murim Alliance’s elite organization and beginning a new life of activity.
‘My friend, I hope your young master recovers soon.’
Only then would she be able to hear that welcome voice among the cheers of encouragement.
* * *
At that hour, Geom Mugeuk was taking his young master somewhere.
“Aaaaaah! This is too fast!”
Geom Mugeuk was running with Seo Daeryong on his back, using lightness skill. Seo Daeryong, carried on his back, could do nothing but scream.
It was far too fast. Even though he was using lightness skill, Seo Daeryong was shocked that a person could run this quickly. And while carrying him, at that.
Seo Daeryong could not even open his eyes. Even when he barely managed to, the surroundings whipped past so rapidly that it only made him dizzy. What on earth could Geom Mugeuk see that allowed him to run like this? The fear that they would slam into a tree or a rock at any moment nearly made him faint.
What was even more astonishing was that, even in the midst of all this, his own body was utterly comfortable. Psychologically, he was terrified and uneasy, but his injured body was in fact wrapped in Geom Mugeuk’s energy so that it would not be jostled as they ran.
‘This is possible? He’s running this fast and protecting me at the same time?’
It was something he would never have believed if he had not experienced it himself. Seo Daeryong had been amazed by Geom Mugeuk many times, but what was even more amazing was that there were still things left to amaze him like this. No, there was something else to be amazed by. He did not even rest while running. Just how much inner force did he have?
‘Maybe this is a dream. Did I pass out on the dueling platform and start dreaming? Huh! Don’t tell me I died?’
As he was carried on Geom Mugeuk’s back, lost in all sorts of wild imaginings, they finally arrived at their destination. The place the two of them reached was a remote village far away from the Murim Alliance.
“Aaaaah! Is this paradise?”
After getting down from his back, Seo Daeryong staggered and then sank to the ground where he stood. He truly thought he would die from dizziness. He took a deep breath.
“Ah! Now I feel alive. It really is paradise. People are meant to live with their feet on the ground.”
Seo Daeryong swept back his disheveled hair and looked around. Inwardly, he was tense. He had set out prepared to endure hellish training, yet Geom Mugeuk had said they were going to paradise and brought him to a rustic village like this.
“Let’s rest over there for a bit before we go.”
At the entrance to the village stood a flat wooden platform, and a child was lying on it reading a book.
Seo Daeryong felt something strange. They had run all the way here in such a hurry, and now they were going to rest on a platform like this? And one at the village entrance where a child was reading?
Then something even stranger followed. Geom Mugeuk spoke to the child lying on the platform.
“Child, go bring out a bottle of liquor brewed from insects.”
At Geom Mugeuk’s words, the child who had been lying on his stomach reading got up and asked with a yawn.
“Who introduced you?”
From that exchange, Seo Daeryong realized that what Geom Mugeuk had just said was some kind of secret code.
“We came from the Divine Cult.”
When Geom Mugeuk revealed that they were from the Demon Cult, Seo Daeryong was startled. Since this matter had begun, Geom Mugeuk had not once revealed his identity.
The child, on the other hand, did not seem surprised at all, as if he did not know where the Divine Cult was.
“Tell them we came privately, not on official business, so they may handle it as usual.”
“Yes. Please wait.”
The child disappeared somewhere. Only then did Seo Daeryong ask Geom Mugeuk.
“Where is this place?”
“The entrance to paradise.”
“It doesn’t look like paradise at all.”
“What kind of place is the paradise you’re thinking of?”
“Well…”
“You just imagined yourself in a room full of beauties, drinking wine over a feast of delicacies, didn’t you?”
Seo Daeryong flinched.
“No, I didn’t.”
Seo Daeryong’s face flushed red as he tried hard to deny it. He had probably imagined an even more indecent paradise.
“Hear me, sentient beings! Most places in this world that look like paradise are all hell. Hohoho.”
“Great monk who has attained enlightenment, please go back inside, and call our Pavilion Master for us. Ah! I asked where this place is!”
“You’ll know once you go in.”
A short while later, the child returned.
“They said to bring you in. Follow me.”
Geom Mugeuk and Seo Daeryong followed the child.
A formation had been installed along the winding path. It was the sort of formation that, if one did not know the precise location of the Gate of Life, would make a person wander endlessly before emerging somewhere else.
After they passed through the formation, there was a vast manor.
The signboard hanging there read:
Paradise Wish (極樂願).
It was not the “won” for manor, but the character meaning “wish.” It meant a wish to be reborn in paradise.
“It really is paradise?”
“I told you we were going to paradise.”
In the place they entered after following the child, an old woman was standing.
At a glance, she possessed an extraordinary bearing, and her back was so straight that the term old woman did not suit her. However, perhaps because she had been badly injured somewhere, bandages were wrapped around her head and arm.
“You came from the Divine Cult?”
“That is correct.”
“Proof that you are from the Divine Cult?”
Geom Mugeuk released demonic energy. It was demonic energy of a force sufficient for her to believe.
“Enough! Why are you spewing out such unpleasant energy? Ptui! Ptui!”
The old woman brought salt and sprinkled it over her body. She showed no sign whatsoever of fearing the Demon Cult.
“For your age, your realm is very profound.”
“Thank you.”
“Why did you bother revealing your identity?”
“Because no matter how much I tried to hide it, you would have found out anyway.”
“You know enough about me, do you? Then this will be simple. What do you want?”
Geom Mugeuk looked at Seo Daeryong and said,
“Please make this friend win the Little Dragon Tournament.”
Seo Daeryong stared at Geom Mugeuk in shock.
“If you ask someone to make me win, I can win?”
“Probably?”
“What?”
The old woman approached Seo Daeryong, whose eyes had gone wide. Perhaps her leg was injured as well, for she was limping.
The old woman held out her hand to Seo Daeryong.
“Hand!”
Since her right arm was injured, she extended her left.
“Ah, my left arm is injured.”
“Then should this old woman hold out her injured arm?”
“No. I mean, can we just not shake hands?”
But the old woman still held out her hand. The moment Seo Daeryong reluctantly took her arm—
The old woman suddenly yanked Seo Daeryong’s injured arm upward.
“Aaaaaagh!”
Despite Seo Daeryong’s scream, the old woman moved his arm this way and that without mercy.
“The arm is attached just fine.”
“Aaaaaaaah! I’m dying!”
“What an exaggeration!”
“I thought I was going to die from the pain!”
“You have a face that looks like it was made for exaggerating.”
Seo Daeryong pouted and looked at Geom Mugeuk. His expression asked who on earth this damned old woman was, but Geom Mugeuk merely smiled.
“Swing your saber once.”
“I don’t want to.”
The old woman seemed to glide toward Seo Daeryong, and then once again grabbed his arm and fluttered it here and there. Her movements were so fast that Seo Daeryong could not even stop her.
“You still don’t want to? Still?”
“Aaaaaaaah! No, I want to! Please spare me! I’ll do it!”
Only then did the old woman let go of his arm.
Wiping away the tears streaming down from the pain, Seo Daeryong drew his saber.
After watching Seo Daeryong’s forms for a while, the old woman shook her head.
“It will be difficult. As you are, you cannot defeat Jin Haryeong.”
The old woman knew well how the Little Dragon Tournament was currently unfolding. She knew the ability of Jin Haryeong, the favorite to win, precisely, and from the sight of Seo Daeryong swinging his saber, she had grasped his skill as well.
“That is why we came, because it is difficult. Are you not someone who makes the impossible possible?”
“That depends on how much money you pay. How much can you offer?”
Geom Mugeuk did not bargain over the price.
He held out the five hundred thousand nyang he had brought to the old woman.
“Five hundred thousand nyang.”
At that, Seo Daeryong was shocked.
“Wait! Don’t tell me that money you went looking for was meant to be spent on me?”
“That’s right.”
“No. Absolutely not!”
Seo Daeryong had thought, up until the point Geom Mugeuk found the money, that it would probably be used for him in some way, but he had never imagined all of that money would be spent.
“It’s my money, so why are you saying no?”
“In any case, no. I give up on the path I said I wanted to take. It was all nonsense. I’m happier as I am. Five hundred thousand nyang?”
Seo Daeryong sent a voice transmission.
-And that old woman is strange, isn’t she? One look and you can tell she’s a quack pretending to be mysterious. Her own body is that injured, so who is she going to heal? She should heal herself first… Huh! She just ate a bug!
While chewing something thoroughly, the old woman sat on a rock and massaged her own limbs.
“Investigator Seo. Money can always be earned again, but an opportunity like this will not come twice.”
“I don’t want it. Do not spend such a fortune on me. Even fifty thousand nyang would be a waste.”
“It is money with that much value. It is the cost of turning one man into a true martial artist.”
“What a man needs to become a martial artist is not five hundred thousand nyang, but will and courage.”
“Don’t feel burdened. From now on, you only need to work diligently as an investigator. And if a situation comes where you can occasionally save our cult from crisis, then save it. That will be enough.”
“That is a burdensome thing to say!”
“If you think too much, life becomes exhausting. You simply live following your heart as each moment comes. You said you wanted to win, didn’t you? I want to make you win. If our hearts line up perfectly, that is enough.”
At that moment, the old woman, who had arrived without them noticing, snatched the promissory note from Geom Mugeuk’s hand.
“I accept the treatment.”
“No!”
Seo Daeryong stepped forward to take the promissory note back from her, then flinched and stopped.
The old woman had only glanced at him, yet he was overwhelmed by the sharp force of it and his body froze.
“How many days remain before this exaggerator’s next bout?”
“Seven days.”
“Seven days. Time is tight. We begin at once.”
The old woman limped into the building.
Once the two of them were alone, Seo Daeryong quickly asked,
“Who on earth is that person? Please tell her to treat her own body first!”
“How is your arm?”
“What do you mean, how? It hurts even more. Huh?”
Seo Daeryong moved his injured arm. It moved better than when he had first arrived. The old woman had not been flailing his arm around at random after all.
“Huh? It hurts less?”
Then an astonishing name came from Geom Mugeuk’s mouth.
“That person is none other than the Insect Physician.”
Seo Daeryong was startled. It was a name he had heard before.
“She was a real person?”
“Yes.”
There was a rumor like a legend that drifted through the murim. It said there was a divine physician skilled in handling insects, one who used insects to cure all kinds of diseases and whose medical arts were so great she could even bring the dead back to life.
There were even rumors that her skill surpassed the Demonic Physician of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult and the Divine Physician of the Murim Alliance. Whether that was true had not been proven, but at least one thing was certain. Because the Insect Physician herself was an expert who had reached the pinnacle, it could be said that she knew a martial artist’s body better than the other two.
“But isn’t she the person called a money grub because she’s so obsessed with money?”
“If not for this person, no one can restore you in such a short time.”
“How do you even know someone like this? Ah, forget it. It’s too expensive.”
“Strictly speaking, not all of that money is going into you, so don’t feel burdened.”
“What? What do you mean by that?”
Just then, the door to the building opened and the Insect Physician shouted.
“What are you doing not coming in? Time is money too, money!”
Geom Mugeuk and Seo Daeryong hurried into the building.
Seo Daeryong’s expression naturally twisted as he stepped inside. Everywhere, there were jars filled with insects, and all manner of insects had been mounted on the walls. The smell was so terrible that he had to pinch his nose shut.
Seo Daeryong had no choice but to drink the medicine he was given, though he had no idea what ingredients were in it.
“What if it’s poison? No, this is definitely poison, poison!”
With a desperate expression, Seo Daeryong refused to drink.
“Then you will have paid the most expensive price in the world and died in the greatest luxury. It will be a death recorded in murim history.”
The Insect Physician washed off all the Golden Wound Medicine that had been applied and smeared on a new medicine. He could not know for sure, but it was undoubtedly a medicine extracted from all sorts of insects.
She wrapped a new bandage over it, and even the way she wrapped it was completely different from before.
Then she laid him on a stone bed radiating heat.
“Sleep deeply for a while.”
Whether because of the medicine or the hot bed, Seo Daeryong could not resist the drowsiness pouring over him.
“Ah, this isn’t right… It isn’t… Pavilion Master, we’re being decei…”
And so Seo Daeryong fell asleep as if entranced.
While the treatment proceeded, Geom Mugeuk went to the backyard and looked around at all the insects she raised. Hundreds of containers were stacked there, and inside them were all kinds of bizarre insects.
The Insect Physician came to stand beside Geom Mugeuk and, looking at the insect in front of them, said,
“That one may not look like much, but if it bites you, its poison will kill you instantly within half a quarter-hour. I have developed resistance to poison, so I am fine, but it would be dangerous for you.”
Saying it was dangerous, the Insect Physician opened the box and took out the insect. As if eager to fly out at any moment, the poisonous insect beat its wings rapidly. Holding the poisonous insect in front of Geom Mugeuk’s face, she asked coldly,
“If you came knowing about me, then you must have had a rough idea of my fee as well. Why did you pay so generously?”