Chapter 170

Chapter 170

Ilnachar thought.

That man called Baek Riyun must have lost his mind.

Pajik!

“…Ahak! Are you insane?”

Scattered sparks and collapsing shadow storms.

Having grasped what was happening in the seemingly unremarkable scene before her eyes, Ilnachar let out a genuine laugh while clutching her forehead. Even Ilnachar, who had experienced all manner of bizarre things in her life, was dumbfounded enough to let out a hollow laugh at what was unfolding before her.

“Reading the flow of that much demonic power? And continuously?”

In martial arts, there’s a principle called Saryang-Balcheon-Geun. It’s a martial principle where small force can control great force, and it’s actually used quite often.

Soft arts like Wudang’s Taegeukkwon fundamentally focus on using the opponent’s force against them, so even small force can redirect great force. However, to do that requires being able to see clearly how the opponent’s attack pattern will proceed, so it’s not easy.

But what is this scene before my eyes?

“Interfering before the attack pattern even begins to disrupt and cut off the pattern…?”

Rather than predicting the path after the opponent extends their fist, it’s like already guessing the path when they’re just clenching their fist to extend it. A technique that strikes the axis of power before power even gathers, scattering the gathering force.

At that level, it’s not reading attack patterns. It’s outright precognition.

“What a useless yet tremendous power to use?”

Watching Baek Riyun fighting desperately, Ilnachar rested her chin on her hand and gauged the time. No matter how much he held out like that, reaching his limit was obvious.

‘Strange. Why is he holding out?’

Because he can’t kill the yokai, so he’s enduring?

That doesn’t make sense. With the skill Baek Riyun is showing now, he could literally disassemble the yokai before a hundred cho pass.

Rather, enduring is harder for Baek Riyun. Lightning energy is even more self-destructive than fire energy, so it’s difficult to sustain for long.

Then why is he enduring?

‘Does he believe he can improve this situation?’

The divine beast has become a yokai, and the village boy he cherished has died.

In this situation, no matter how much he improves things, at most he could restore the yokai-turned divine beast to sanity. Even that won’t be easy.

‘The divine beast has already become a yokai. That’s certain.’

It’s not others’ fear. What comprises the girl is her own fear. Fear that if she doesn’t hide behind a shell, she might lose everything. That she might witness it all.

So unless that fear is resolved, the divine beast cannot return from being a yokai. And the only way to resolve that fear would be to revive that dead child.

But would such a thing be possible?

‘Even our cult has no art of returning souls.’

Reviving the dead is impossible even for the Blood Cult followers who are masters of magic arts. No matter what great ritual is used, you cannot bring back someone already dead.

But nevertheless, if revival were possible. If there were a secret art to save that child.

Would Baek Riyun use it?

‘He wouldn’t waste such a secret art on that brat. Because it couldn’t possibly be used multiple times.’

Even if everything went well by saving that child, all that would remain is one powerless young divine beast and one useless kitchen boy. The ‘history’ of the divine beast having fallen to a yokai once can’t be changed anyway, even if it returns from being a yokai.

“So it’s just self-satisfaction?”

The idea of trying as much as he can. Orthodox path people tend to have such inclinations. An inefficient tendency to waste strength on useless things.

“Then I’ll just watch.”

Slowly nodding to herself as if convinced, Ilnachar lowered her eyes to observe Baek Riyun’s skill level more carefully.

Because she lowered her eyes to properly see Baek Riyun, Ilnachar failed to notice.

Above in the heavens.

The positions of the constellations she had been so wary and careful of.

Were changing, little by little.

Sometimes people are born with innate talent.

Those born with innate talent for martial arts can easily read opponents’ movements or freely control their energy flow. Those born with innate talent for scholarship remember poems they glimpsed only briefly.

Those with innate talent for music become masters of the geum and flute after plucking strings only a few times. Those born with innate talent for archery instinctively know the flow of wind without needing to gauge it.

Those born with innate talent. The world elevates and reveres such people as geniuses. A genius who appears once in ten years. A genius who appears once in a hundred years. Such modifiers attach before them.

Right now, for Seohwa’s great fortune, Shinui was a genius more talented in medical arts than anyone else in the world.

Truly, an unrivaled genius who transcended being human.

“Pull. Not that way, upward more.”

“Yes.”

“Strength should be about this much. Pull just a little harder and it’ll tear. The heart I worked hard to make beat will stop too.”

“Yes…?”

“Don’t question, just do it.”

“Ah, yes.”

In the cave.

While disinfecting and suturing Choil’s abdomen opened by Ilnachar with internal energy, and opening the chest to massage the heart, Seohwa obediently followed Shinui’s words and looked at her. Unlike her earlier timid and unconfident appearance, Shinui had completely changed to become proactive once treatment began.

‘Is she… human?’

She knows what she’s doing without looking. She knows exactly how Choil’s condition will change with each action.

As if seeing completely through Choil’s body. Watching Shinui’s eerily glowing eyes, Seohwa trembled slightly. And at that moment, Shinui spoke.

“How much has that brat grown?”

“What? Brat…?”

“I’m talking about your master. Master.”

“Ah, you mean Master?”

“Yeah. That brat being a sect master, time really flies.”

Won’t her concentration break from talking?

At this sudden concern, Seohwa hesitated to answer while gauging Shinui’s mood. But Shinui spoke again as if seeing through Seohwa’s heart.

“This level of surgery is easier than an after-meal snack for me. Feel free to answer. Even if by one in ten million chance something goes wrong, I can immediately recover it.”

“…You can see that?”

“I can see everything. If it’s a human body.”

Shinui answered calmly while using magic arts to briefly stop blood flow and extract blood clots in the blood vessels, then continued speaking.

“It was eight years ago. When I first met that brat.”

“It was a situation like this then too. I had to save a patient I met on the road. It wasn’t an injury like this, but a congenital constitution. Not something that could be resolved with external treatment—a situation where I couldn’t even start treatment without specific medicinal ingredients.”

It wasn’t an important patient. Just an ordinary mountain village elder you could see anywhere. Someone whose natural lifespan had only a few years left anyway.

For an ordinary person, it was an age where dying would be inevitable. Over seventy, so falling ill is natural—they’d say that even for a martial artist, at that age they’ve lived their full natural lifespan.

“He said he’d go get it, you know? That medicinal ingredient that was so rare it didn’t even circulate in the market.”

“Three days and nights. That’s how long that brat searched every mountain looking for the medicinal ingredient.”

It was strange, so she asked why he would go that far for a stranger he’d just met. The elder himself wasn’t afraid of death and accepted it, so why did he search so desperately for the medicinal ingredient.

What was Baek Riyun’s answer then?

“He looked sad, so I did it.”

“Looked… sad?”

“Yeah. That brat wasn’t just looking at the elder but also at my expression. He worried even about me, the physician frustrated at my powerlessness despite being unable to treat the patient. Without even knowing I was Shinui. Just for that one reason—that it was ‘the best’ for everyone—he threw himself into that slim possibility believing in it.”

Huu.

Having successfully sutured the last blood vessel with thread too fine to be visible, while the heart that had stopped began beating evenly again, Shinui sighed and raised her head. Eyes shining brightly despite being soaked in sweat.

“What number disciple of that brat are you?”

“Fi-first.”

“First… That brat is really lucky. Getting a disciple exactly like him from the very first.”

“What?”

“I mean you and your master are alike. I don’t know about ability yet, but your temperament is exactly the same.”

Not compromising and pursuing the best. Not yielding to the walls of reality, and never giving up in any adversity.

They say masters and disciples come to resemble each other, but at this level it’s destiny. People have temperaments that change through teaching, and temperaments that don’t change. Setting aside martial talent, Baek Riyun is extremely lucky to have accepted a disciple resembling himself.

“Treatment is finished. Just need to insert a few needles now.”

“Really!”

“Hiik. Y-yeah. Suddenly sticking your face in my face and…”

Having returned to her timid appearance once treatment ended, Shinui stuck large golden needles here and there in Choil’s body.

“Tr-treatment’s done, so there’s not much time I can stay either. I have a mission too, so I should go back… S-so why did it end up like this? It doesn’t look like a natural wound, and I can see traces of trying to cause maximum pain while keeping him alive as long as possible… A p-pleasure killer…?”

“No. It’s because he became a sacrifice for a ‘ritual.’“

“‘Ritual’? Wh-what kind of nonsense…”

At the unfamiliar term flowing from Seohwa’s mouth, Shinui asked back while packing her bag. And Seohwa explained the situation to her.

“So according to Master, this kid Choil’s younger sister is a divine beast.”

“But to make her fall to become a yokai, they had to offer fear.”

“So they performed the ritual several times, and with just one step left before falling to yokai, Choil was chosen as the final sacrifice…”

“W-wait. A divine beast? And what, falling to yokai…?”

“Yes. Since Master said so, it must be correct…”

“Those damn bastards…!”

“What?”

Suddenly enraged and standing up, Seohwa looked at Shinui with blank eyes and tilted her head. But ignoring that, Shinui contorted her face like an evil spirit with heavy shadows under her eyes.

“Those dog-like… I-I wondered where the last remaining divine beast was… Which bastards made it fall to yokai…!”

“Sh-Shinui-nim?”

“No wonder I couldn’t see it… According to the heavenly signs, I should have been able to find it soon… Why couldn’t I see it, I thought…”

“Shi-Shinui-nim?”

“Guide me.”

“What?”

“Are you already going deaf at your age?”

Grinding her teeth, Shinui rolled up her sleeves. And the next moment.

Shinui’s eyes blazed with fire.

“Guide me right now. To where my disciple is!”