Chapter 89: Treatment. (1)
About a shichen had passed since I holed up in the room.
Only then did I come out.
My body was tired, but it was also because I had some things to think about.
After roughly sorting out my thoughts and coming out, Wi Seol-ah was outside.
Seeing her sitting quietly on the porch for some reason, I casually sat down next to her.
"What are... what's wrong with you?"
As I tried to casually strike up a conversation, Wi Seol-ah's expression was unusual.
Her eyes were slightly swollen, as if she had been crying a bit. And her expression looked somewhat depressed.
"Did something happen?"
"Nothing happened..."
"Wouldn't it be more convincing if you said it with an expression that says nothing happened?"
"..."
Even normally, with her slightly drooping eyes, her face looks sad when expressionless.
With the corners of her mouth slightly drooping as well, she had the face of someone carrying all the sorrow in the world.
Wi Seol-ah, who had been mumbling, quietly spoke up.
"...I fought with Grandfather."
"...With Elder Wi?"
The Sword Sovereign and Wi Seol-ah? It was an unexpected statement.
From what I could see, the Sword Sovereign was the type to say, 'Oh my, our granddaughter is so pretty!' no matter what Wi Seol-ah did, so to scold her to the point of crying...
'Except for the time she secretly followed me to Sichuan, I don't think I've ever seen her get scolded.'
For Wi Seol-ah to be scolded to the point of looking sullen.
What could have happened?
I asked as nonchalantly as possible.
"Are you okay?"
"...I'm okay."
She didn't look okay at all.
Wi Seol-ah quietly stared at me with a sullen face.
She definitely looked like she wanted to say something.
But in the end, she didn't bring it up.
Wi Seol-ah quietly stood up.
She said it was because she had to go as there was work to do at Hongwa.
"Young Master."
"Yeah...?"
"I will work hard."
"Huh? Right... Work hard."
I didn't know what she meant, but since she said she'd work hard, I cheered her on.
Saying that, Wi Seol-ah ran off quickly.
What exactly did she mean she'd work hard on?
Since she was going to Hongwa, did she mean she'd work hard at her job?
Whatever it was, her sullen face bothered me, so I decided to buy her some sweets later.
I stepped outside the lodging.
A shallow pain still lingered, but I thought it was fine to move around.
I wandered around the mountains of the Huashan Sect, which had become somewhat familiar to me lately.
I went to the training grounds first, but the person I was looking for wasn't there.
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'Found him.'
Fortunately, not long after wandering the mountain, I could spot someone climbing a cliff in the distance.
"Dojang!"
At my call, Yeongpung, who was climbing the cliff, looked at me.
Yeongpung jumped down without hesitation and approached me.
"Gu Sohyeop."
'His expression isn't good either.'
Seeing Yeongpung approach slowly, his face and overall condition weren't very good.
Yeongpung, who usually looked fine even after training all day, was drenched in sweat even though the sun hadn't even set yet.
It meant he was training much more intensely.
As if to prove it, the sandbags attached to his legs and arms were much heavier.
"Did something happen?"
At my question, Yeongpung smiled bitterly.
The expressions of the Huashan Sect disciples I met after waking up were generally like this.
Normally, I would have tried to ignore it, not wanting to get involved, but this time, I suppressed that feeling and asked again.
"I tried asking Plum Blossom Elder, but the dark clouds on her face were so thick that I couldn't ask."
"..."
"If it's something an outsider shouldn't know and you can't tell me, I won't ask any further."
If it was an issue significant enough to postpone the Plum Blossom Ceremony, then it was practically a major crisis.
Seeing that the Sect Leader and all the disciples were in such a state, it was definitely something bad.
Yeongpung pondered my words for a long time before carefully opening his mouth.
"...Do you remember what I said before about disciples going missing?"
"Yes. I remember."
"...We found the ones who went missing a few days ago."
'As I thought...'
The possibility I thought was the highest turned out to be right.
Did the search finally succeed?
They couldn't find them even when the Plum Blossom Sword Guards took turns searching, so how did they succeed?
The problem was that finding them would have been a good thing, but seeing his reaction, it didn't seem like a happy ending awaited them.
Yeongpung's increasingly gloomy expression proved it.
"...At the time of discovery, the Senior Martial Uncles had already passed away."
"Were you also there when they were discovered, Dojang?"
"Yes, because there weren't many Plum Blossom Sword Guards left at the sect right now."
If even Yeongpung, who was still a rising talent, was included, it must have been an emergency.
They were already dead, huh.
Did someone have a grudge against the Huashan Sect itself, or did they only capture the Plum Blossom Sword Guards to weaken the sect's power?
'Whatever it is... it seems like an unreported incident.'
"And."
Yeongpung seemed to have more to say, but he hesitated repeatedly as if he couldn't bring himself to say it.
Soon, he let out a heavy breath and spoke.
"...The discovered corpses had not a single drop of blood left; it had all been drained."
"...!"
At Yeongpung's words, my eyes widened.
No blood in the corpses?
All of it?
Just imagining it was a brutal sight.
If it wasn't enough that the disciples they barely found had lost their lives, but were also in a horrific state...
I could somewhat understand their depression.
However, one question arose.
Not just one corpse, but several, and why would they deliberately drain the blood of the Plum Blossom Sword Guards?
"Dojang..."
"Yes."
With a 'could it be?' thought in mind, I asked Yeongpung.
"Is the place where they were found, by any chance, an area managed by the Black Night Palace bastards?"
At my question, Yeongpung gasped.
"How did you know...?"
Seeing Yeongpung's reaction, it was indeed the Black Night Palace's doing.
I had suspected as much since I ran into them recently.
"The evil path practitioner I encountered last time was from the Black Night Palace, so I asked just in case."
"Ah."
Yeongpung also seemed to know that I had fought with the Night Blood Thief.
The Night Blood Thief was like that, and there were many things that seemed dirty.
'...What exactly is the Black Night Palace doing?'
I thought they were just one of the evil factions that would be pushed out and disappear by the Murim Alliance in a few years.
Even thinking that now, the Night Blood Thief of the Black Night Palace became a demonic practitioner in the future.
And the Black Night Palace bastards already possessed demonic energy from the start.
'Are the Black Night Palace and the Demonic Cult connected? If so, how?'
The Night Blood Thief's goal was the cabin; I heard he did it targeting the Divine Physician there.
Moreover, the Black Night Palace kidnapped the Plum Blossom Sword Guards, killed them, and drained their blood.
Killing them meant they had no intention of using them as hostages.
'What is their plan?'
It was clearly a complicated and heavy matter.
Seeing this, my mind was screaming at me to pull out, saying it was something that would resolve itself.
But now I had realized that I shouldn't turn a blind eye and run away, drunk on peace.
'Do not run away.'
It was the point where I had one more thing to run towards.
"Is that why you changed your training amount?"
"...Yes."
I asked while looking at Yeongpung's sandbags.
Perhaps feeling my gaze, Yeongpung answered my question with a hollow voice.
"...Something, seeing the Senior Uncles who looked so strong leave so vainly, I can't easily fall asleep."
He was exhausted and drenched in sweat, but Yeongpung continued to stretch, intending to train more.
"I lived thinking I was something just because of empty praise, but thankfully, it feels like my eyes have finally been opened."
"..."
"I think I was too lazy. If I had climbed much higher as a martial artist, I might have been able to prevent a situation like this."
I just silently watched Yeongpung spit out those words somewhat calmly, yet resolutely.
I inwardly thought that Yeongpung's belief was nonsense.
In my past life, Wi Seol-ah killed the Heavenly Demon and saved the world. But she couldn't save everyone.
Of course, Yeongpung was the greatest genius of Huashan, but in a few years, when the Demonic Cult emerges into the world, the people he loses will eventually outnumber the ones he saves.
But it wasn't a story for me to presumptuously bring up.
It wasn't something I dared to say to him.
Because it was a path I hadn't walked.
If Elder Shin had been here, what would he have said looking at Yeongpung now?
At best, he would have scolded him, asking why a third-generation disciple was living so heavily.
Or perhaps he would have praised him for having a good mindset.
In my view, it was neither.
He wouldn't have said anything.
He would have just let out a bitter sigh.
That's what I thought.
Yeongpung looked at my face and smiled awkwardly.
Am I making a strange expression again?
"This year has been a year where I could gain many realizations."
Yeongpung, who hid his emotions by speaking with effort, said he needed to train more, so I left him with words to work hard and moved my steps.
My steps headed toward the peak of Yeonhwa Peak.
To think I had to climb to the top of this insanely high mountain, how could it be so damn shitty.
'...It feels like it would be better to just go to the cabin outside the sect.'
I continued moving, spitting out trivial complaints.
Right now, I was going to see the Sword Queen.
From what I heard after asking Plum Blossom Elder, she wasn't at the cabin from last time, but was receiving treatment at the place where the Sword Queen originally stayed.
'Why did it have to be at such a high place...'
Since she needed treatment, the Divine Physician must have to come and go too.
How on earth does the Divine Physician travel? It seemed difficult with the body of an old man who wasn't a martial artist...
'Maybe the Divine Physician actually learned martial arts.'
It didn't look like it, but who knows.
Groaning, I finally reached my destination.
The house in front of me looked bigger than the cabin where the Divine Physician stayed.
I carefully approached and knocked on the door.
Creeeak.
The door opened slowly, and the face I met was Jegal Hyuk, the Divine Physician's grandson.
As soon as he saw my face, Jegal Hyuk slightly bowed his head.
It seemed like a greeting.
Wondering how to speak, I just got straight to the point.
"I came to see the Sword Queen... Where is the Divine Physician?"
At my question, Jegal Hyuk made some hand gestures, which I guessed meant the Divine Physician wasn't here right now.
Then he gestured inside the house. Did it mean to come in?
Inside, I could see the Sword Queen lying down as if asleep.
As I carefully stepped into the room...
'...Huh?'
I saw something on the Sword Queen's body.
It was definitely something I couldn't see before, so why was it so clearly visible now?
Seeing that, the corners of my eyes trembled.
Demonic energy.
Demonic energy was writhing on the Sword Queen's body.
Moreover, it wasn't the murky energy that the Black Night Palace bastards possessed.
It was pure demonic energy, like what the Heavenly Demon possessed.
The moment Gu Yang-cheon flinched while looking at the Sword Queen.
The Divine Physician was lost in thought as he looked at the massive large tree of Huashan.
Was there ever such a tall tree in Huashan?
Having such trivial thoughts, he stood quietly with his hands behind his back.
Waiting for someone.
"Divine Physician."
At the voice coming from behind, the Divine Physician turned around and looked at the owner of the voice.
"...I've been looking for you for a long time, Divine Physician."
"Tell me about it. I tried hard to avoid you. How can you be so persistent?"
The one who found the Divine Physician was the Sword Sovereign.
Seeing him, the Divine Physician's frown deepened slightly.
"It's been a long time. Alliance Leader."
At the Divine Physician's address, the Sword Sovereign shook his head.
"I am... no longer the Alliance Leader."
The Sword Sovereign had passed on his position and left the Murim Alliance a long time ago.
But the Divine Physician answered the Sword Sovereign's words firmly.
"To me, the Alliance Leader is still the same person. This means I have not forgotten the things the Alliance Leader has done."
At the Divine Physician's firm voice, the Sword Sovereign couldn't open his mouth.
"I had hoped that at least the Alliance Leader wouldn't look for me."
At the Divine Physician's words, the Sword Sovereign closed his mouth again, which he had tried to speak with.
Because there were no words he could bear to bring up.
The Divine Physician sighed as he looked at the Sword Sovereign, who was avoiding his gaze even slightly.
He wasn't even sure if he was the same person from the past.
The one who had shown the appearance of the sky of the orthodox faction and the supreme absolute being was struggling, having collapsed from a Heart Demon.
'...What that Dohwa bastard said wasn't wrong.'
Looking at Dohwa who visited last night, the Divine Physician had cursed, asking if he was telling him to meet someone right now.
Even while listening to those harsh words, Dohwa persistently asked him to meet the Alliance Leader just once.
Saying that he, too, should be given a chance to atone.
The Divine Physician thought too much time had passed for that. It was a story where the resentment and hatred he had harbored would have worn away and disappeared.
It was too heavy to call it forgiveness.
But to continue resenting him, he understood him a little.
So looking at the collapsing sky wasn't a very welcome feeling for the Divine Physician.
Even though he had once wished for it to collapse like that.
The Divine Physician looked at the Sword Sovereign, eventually let out a deep sigh, and asked.
"Why did you come looking for me?"
The Sword Sovereign looked surprised at the Divine Physician's question.
It was as if he didn't expect to be asked so easily.
Feeling that gaze, the Divine Physician frowned and explained.
"...I am only asking, so please don't put any meaning into it."
"...Thank you..."
The Sword Sovereign expressed his gratitude for the Divine Physician's consideration and slowly began to bring out the words he had held back for a long time.