"What do you mean...?"
Gu Ryeong-hwa suddenly threw open the door and appeared.
Of all times, she had to appear now.
.
.
.
.....
Damn.
I was hoping she wouldn't show up today if possible.
As soon as Gu Ryeong-hwa saw me, she asked in an agitated tone.
"Is that true...? That you can cure Master?"
"...I'm not certain."
"How can you do such a thing when even the Divine Physician... has given up...?"
Even while speaking, Gu Ryeong-hwa briefly glanced at the Divine Physician's reaction.
To be honest, I wasn't certain that absorbing the demonic qi would cure the Sword Empress's body.
In fact, even as the words left my mouth, I was repeatedly agonizing over it internally.
Whether it was right for me to intervene in such a matter.
If left like this, the Sword Empress would surely die.
Even if a miracle happened and she survived, wouldn't she hide her traces or live quietly?
That's what happened in my past life.
Although the future had already been twisted multiple times by my selfishness.
This was an issue that far exceeded a certain level.
If it concerned the Sword Empress's existence, it was entirely possible.
Was it okay to twist the future like this?
Still, if I did her a favor now, wouldn't it help during the Blood Calamity in the future?
These various concerns were swirling around in my head all at once.
'In truth, I just wanted to create a justification, even if I thought that way.'
Yes, I was making a justification to save her.
So that I could somehow convince myself.
'Even after coming this far, I'm still having selfish thoughts.'
If I wanted to change, I should have done it decisively, yet I felt myself still hesitating.
I looked at Gu Ryeong-hwa, who was making an anxious expression with trembling eyes.
It was a face that held onto hope on one side, even while knowing it was an absurd situation.
It was a detail that made me realize once again that Gu Ryeong-hwa was still a young and tender child.
After observing that closely, I soon spat out my words calmly.
"If you permit me, I would like to try treating the Sword Empress's chronic illness."
Perhaps because he didn't like my words, the Divine Physician scolded me again.
"...You're crossing the line. A guy who hasn't even properly learned medicine is going to treat a chronic illness? Do you know how great a sin it is to make empty jokes in front of a patient whose life is on the line!"
I could understand the Divine Physician's words.
It was natural from his perspective.
If I were in the opposite position, I might have had the same reaction.
In this situation, the Sword Empress was quietly looking into my eyes.
She must still be fighting the demonic qi inside her body, but rather than pain-distorted emotions, her meeting eyes held a faint trace of Dao qi.
The Sword Empress asks me.
"I would appreciate it if you could explain in detail what you mean."
Sword Empress...!
The Divine Physician calls out, seemingly surprised by the Sword Empress's words.
This meant the Sword Empress intended to listen to what I had to say.
Taking it as permission, I began to calmly list the contents of what I had been thinking.
"The Gu Family's heart method can drive out turbid qi through heat."
There was no interruption.
Since it meant they wouldn't interrupt and cut me off, I continued speaking.
"From what I... can feel, the chronic illness eating away at the Sword Empress's lifespan appears to be caused by a certain energy. Isn't that right?"
It was a question directed at the Divine Physician.
At my question, the Divine Physician makes a surprised expression.
The Divine Physician didn't deny it; rather, to my eyes, it was an affirming expression.
'He couldn't detect the demonic qi inside my body, but can he know about the one inside the Sword Empress?'
I swallowed my immediate questions.
I needed to focus elsewhere right now.
"When I made contact with the Sword Empress's hand, I confirmed that I could drive out the turbid qi residing in your body."
Strictly speaking, I was absorbing it, but I felt mentioning that part would have the opposite effect.
When I brought up the sensation I felt when our hands touched earlier, the Sword Empress also seemed to have felt something, as she fell into thought.
There was no way the Gu Family's heart method had such an effect, but I had to do this much to be persuasive.
Tug.
Feeling a slight grabbing sensation, I turned my head to the side and saw Gu Ryeong-hwa tightly gripping my collar.
"...C-Can you save Master...?"
Gu Ryeong-hwa's shivering hand came into view.
"As I said earlier, I'm not certain..."
"Please save her..."
...
... ...
"Our Master... Please save her, Oppa..."
Looking at her tearful eyes, I sighed inwardly. Because I couldn't not know what those eyes held.
'Seriously, she only calls me Oppa when she needs something.'
Still, thanks to Gu Ryeong-hwa, the doubts and hesitations about whether it was right for me to boldly step forward felt somewhat reduced.
The Divine Physician asks me.
"...Not only have I never heard of such an effect being in the Gu Family's martial arts, but are you saying you can do what even that Daoist bastard Maehwa-seon couldn't?"
The Divine Physician's doubt was a valid argument.
Even Maehwa-seon, the absolute master of the Daoist sect, couldn't drive out the Sword Empress's turbid qi, which was why they called the Divine Physician.
Yet here I was, abruptly claiming I could cure it.
As the Divine Physician was about to say something more with his disgruntled face, the Sword Empress, who had been quietly maintaining her silence, opened her mouth.
"Wouldn't it be okay... to let him try?"
"You...!"
"Rather than doing nothing, I should at least grasp at a straw. Just as the child said, I actually felt a change in my body when we touched."
"Even if he can truly drive out the turbid qi, I can't just entrust it to a child so readily, and if something goes wrong, even the little time you have left might disappear."
At the Divine Physician's worry, the Sword Empress smiled faintly.
As if saying she was fine.
"I know I don't have much time left anyway. So rather, I want to trust my own will."
At the Sword Empress's elegant yet firm words, the Divine Physician let out a deep sigh.
He wanted to persuade her that it was dangerous, but the Sword Empress had already finished making her choice.
The Divine Physician realized that the point where he could intervene had passed.
"...Can you truly do this?"
The Divine Physician asks me.
His voice still held a mix of doubt.
My answer was the same as in the beginning.
"I don't know. I have to try."
"It may sound arrogant, but it's something even I couldn't do. Before reproaching you, I'm talking about the burden and responsibility you will feel."
Saving someone's life.
To gain the joy or emotion that comes from it, the burden, guilt, and sense of responsibility beneath it must accompany it.
The Divine Physician was worrying whether I could handle the karma that would come if I failed.
I let out a small laugh at the heart contained within the Divine Physician's sharp tone.
Whether it was Maehwa-seon or the Divine Physician.
Somehow, they kept reminding me of Elder Lee.
It was something contained within their roughness.
"It might be something I can achieve, and I don't think I can just stand by and do nothing."
This was something I said to myself rather than to the Divine Physician.
Meaning, don't run away again when it's right in front of my nose.
The Divine Physician met my eyes for a moment before slightly averting his gaze.
"...If it seems like something will go wrong, I will step in immediately."
Finally, the Divine Physician gave his permission.
I barely managed to get through with a half-forced mix of truth and lies.
While I was catching my breath, the Sword Empress asks me.
"How should I be positioned for you to do this comfortably?"
"Just sit comfortably."
Soon, Gu Ryeong-hwa supported the Sword Empress to sit. I carefully moved behind the Sword Empress and sat down.
Before my eyes, the Sword Empress's thin and curved back came into view.
Even as I reached out my hand, I still couldn't shake off the anxiety and fear.
As expected, overcoming all emotions in an instant was difficult.
Even so, I had to do it.
'If I do nothing, it will eventually crumble.'
It was a truth I had realized and turned away from countless times, starting from my past life up to now.
Finally, my outstretched hand touched the Sword Empress's back.
Unlike before, I was worried about whether some special method was needed to absorb it.
Making such worries pointless, the Sword Empress's demonic qi immediately rushed in along my palm.
At the same time, the Guyeonhwarunggong began to rotate on its own.
'Crazy...!'
Perhaps because it rushed in much faster and in greater quantities than expected, it was accompanied by an excruciating pain as if my skin was being torn apart.
A scream was about to burst out from the tip of my throat, but I clenched my teeth and endured it.
The moment I started absorbing the demonic qi, I realized it.
If I move this wrong, I'm screwed.
'If I falter even a little, it will flow backward.'
The absorbed demonic qi followed the path of the Guyeonhwarunggong circulating inside my body and repeated its rotation.
It felt like a typhoon was raging inside my body.
Handling a violent and eccentric energy like demonic qi delicately was an absurd notion from the start.
What made it possible was the influence of the Dao qi lent by the bizarre entity of Mount Hwa, along with the Guyeonhwarunggong.
The Dao qi was helping the demonic qi flow smoothly without sweeping through and destroying my body.
Even so, the pain was intense.
'...Fuck.'
It was at a level even more severe compared to the pain I felt in the past when the Heavenly Demon gave me demonic qi and turned me into a demonic human.
The Sword Empress must be feeling pain no less than this, but she too wasn't letting out a single groan.
'Her body must be in a weak state too.'
Looking at it one way, her body was weaker than an ordinary person's.
With that frail body, the Sword Empress was enduring the pain.
Knowing that, I too squeezed my eyes shut and endured the pain.
It felt like several hours had passed since I started drawing it in, but in reality, not much time had passed.
I could feel the demonic qi entering my body being purified little by little, but before that, such a massive amount was coming in that I couldn't keep up at all.
It was too much; it was way too much.
'Is she saying she endured holding this much quantity in her body...?'
It gave me a slight realization of just how profound the pure internal qi and martial prowess the Sword Empress possessed must have been.
Because it surged in like a wave, I felt like I was slowly losing my mind.
'I have to endure.'
I couldn't let go now.
It wasn't just the Sword Empress's life at stake; I wasn't confident I could handle the demonic qi that would rampage if they tangled together.
'If I make any mistake, it's Qi Deviation.'
Even if I tried to enter Qi Deviation on purpose, it wouldn't be easy.
But whenever I caused an accident, the backlash was always enormous.
'This is my karma too, damn it.'
The demonic qi was endless, and just as I was stepping into my limits.
[...Ugh.]
A voice was heard from somewhere.
'...Huh?'
[Ugh... Uuuh... ugh.]
'This...'
I instantly forgot the pain.
It was a voice I had definitely heard before.
That incomprehensible voice I heard at the end when I fought the Yahyeoljeok.
The voice I couldn't remember, as if shrouded in fog, suddenly surfaced clearly.
[...Full... I'm full... but... but.]
The crackling, somehow senile-looking voice increasingly brimmed with life as it went on.
A bad premonition crossed my mind.
'...What the hell are you?'
[This... one... is delic...ious, yes?]
Whether it couldn't hear my voice or not, the bastard didn't answer.
[This is... very delicious.]
A voice that seemed to hold back laughter.
At the same time, the demonic qi suddenly surged in like a gust.
'...!'
The demonic qi that entered all at once like an explosion instantly battered my entire body and infiltrated my dantian.
The problem of pain was left behind long ago.
This was death.
It was clearly a matter of life and death.
Drip, trickle. Blood flowed down along the corners of my mouth.
My spirit, which seemed like it would let go at any moment, was barely held together, and my arms, which wanted to detach from the Sword Empress's back, were fixed in place.
It meant that neither my mind nor my body were under my will.
'What... the fuck... is this!'
Kwagagagak!
The demonic qi that had been piercing through my meridians as it pleased and filling up my dantian as if to shatter its vessel.
[Ah.]
It stopped moving at the single exclamation.
[It was delicious.]
A satisfied voice followed soon after.
I lost consciousness at the same time as the strength left my body.
When I opened my eyes again, it was morning.
Startled, I raised my body, and the place was still the hut where I had treated the Sword Empress.
Fortunately, it seemed I hadn't died or become crippled from my qi flowing backward.
'...Was it perhaps a dream?'
I wondered if that might be the case, but after checking my body, I immediately realized it wasn't.
'...There's a ridiculously huge amount.'
Because I could feel the chilling demonic qi roaming around my body.
I even felt like the amount of demonic qi was greater than the internal qi I originally possessed.
Looking around, the Divine Physician and Jegal-hyeok were nowhere to be seen, and Gu Ryeong-hwa was wriggling under the blanket.
'Is it morning...?'
Did I fall asleep for another day or two? That didn't seem to be the case, though.
The Sword Empress was nowhere to be seen, and the Divine Physician was missing along with her, making me slightly anxious.
I wondered if a problem had occurred.
First, I went out of the hut.
Swish-! Swish, swish!
As soon as I opened the door and stepped out, someone was swinging a sword under the sunlight.
Seeing that, I let out a sigh of relief.
Even though she was just lightly swinging her sword, a faint scent of plum blossoms wafted in the air.
Although her sword strokes looked weak, the lines drawn in the void made it clear that the martial arts contained within them were by no means low.
'...Amazing.'
At first glance, her movements looked frail, but watching it, perhaps due to an instinctual aftermath, goosebumps rose along my shoulders.
The sword dance that had bloomed as if scattering flower petals came to a halt before I knew it.
She couldn't be seen properly due to the sunlight, but I could feel her looking this way.
"You must be awake now."
"...Yes."
The white hair that had been dyed grey, as if telling of the years she had endured, had disappeared somewhere, and the hair fluttering in the morning breeze had become a pitch-black hue.
"Seeing you like this, it feels different again."
That's what I should be saying.
I was dumbfounded by her appearance, which was completely different from before I lost consciousness.
I couldn't see her face due to the sunlight, but I could tell just from the atmosphere.
'Hwangol-taltae? It doesn't seem like that though.'
Then did she just return to her original state?
Just from driving out a single demonic qi...?
Creak.
The door behind opened and someone came out.
"...Master...?"
As expected, it was Gu Ryeong-hwa.
I could see Gu Ryeong-hwa's gaze shaking wildly.
As if she had no intention of holding back, she immediately shed tears.
The Sword Empress saw that and laughed out loud.
"If you keep crying like that, your pretty face will get ruined."
At the Sword Empress's joke, Gu Ryeong-hwa ran over and buried herself in her embrace.
Seeing her sobbing in her embrace as soon as she hugged her, I shifted my gaze unconsciously.
'I'm really bad with this kind of atmosphere.'
I just scratched my head awkwardly.
It was an atmosphere I wasn't used to.
I had to listen to the details to know for sure, but fortunately, it seemed like I had successfully untied the knot in the desired direction.
I needed to check my body's condition from now on, and there was also the matter of informing Maehwa-seon about this.
However.
'...I feel like I've forgotten something more important than that.'
I felt a lingering sense of unease, as if I'd forgotten something really important.
And what that unease was about, I realized as soon as I arrived at my quarters.
As soon as I entered, I saw Wi Seol-a and Namgung Bi-a crossing their arms and glaring this way.
Namgung Bi-a glared at me as soon as she saw me and said.
"You were told to come back before dinner... A sleepover?"
... Oops.