The Emperor's Secret Bargain
The audience with the Emperor was scheduled for the very next day.
It was a timetable that reeked of desperation — not a single day to spare.
One could tell just how anxious the imperial court truly was.
Ouyang Qiangang set about his preparations in the early morning alongside Sangguan Wan'er.
Mun Hong-seo, Grand Academician of the Hanlin Academy, had come out to greet them in person. Expectation and anxiety crossed and recrossed his face.
"Master Hahu, today my granddaughter's fate rests in your hands."
"I will do my utmost, Grand Academician."
Their destination was Myeonghwa Palace, the residence of Princess Myeonghwa.
The moment they crossed its threshold, an air of lavish stillness enveloped the party. But within that silence lurked the shadow of death.
The faces of the palace maids were dark and sunken, and every step of the eunuchs betrayed a careful, guarded wariness.
Everyone knew that the mistress of this palace, Princess Myeonghwa, was in a perilous state.
In the great hall of Myeonghwa Palace, Emperor Changsung was waiting.
The Emperor, in his early fifties, was a man of dignified bearing — but today, deep worry etched his face.
On either side of him stood Chief Seal-Holding Grand Eunuch Sang On, along with rows of eunuchs and attendants.
Mun Hong-seo stepped forward and made his report with grave formality.
"Your Majesty, this is Hahu Gang, the Life-and-Death Divine Doctor who repelled the plague in Jiangxi."
Changsung Emperor's gaze turned toward Ouyang Qiangang.
Having been informed in advance, he showed no surprise — only a faint glimmer of expectation and hope in his eyes.
"So you are the one they call the Life-and-Death Divine Doctor."
"I am, Your Majesty."
"Can you cure my daughter?"
Instead of answering, Ouyang Qiangang bowed his head.
"Your Majesty, before we speak — I ask that you first permit me to take Her Highness the Princess's pulse."
"You have my leave."
Escorted into the inner chamber, Ouyang Qiangang's eyes fell upon Princess Myeonghwa lying in her bed.
At seventeen, she would have been a beauty to stun the world under any other circumstances — long black hair, refined features, an innate air of noble grace…
But the girl before him now told the story of her illness all too clearly: a face pale as paper, deeply hollowed eyes, wrists grown gaunt and thin.
She was unconscious. The rough breathing that came in ragged intervals and the bluish tinge of her lips laid bare just how dangerous her condition had become.
Ouyang Qiangang carefully placed his fingers on her wrist and began the diagnosis.
Akasha, start the analysis.
> Pulse diagnosis initiated. Commencing nanobot scan.
Before long, Akasha's voice resonated through his mind.
> Doctor, her white blood cells are proliferating abnormally, destroying the function of the bone marrow that produces real blood. In 21st-century terminology, this is terminal acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Is it treatable?
> It is. With nanobot-assisted bone marrow regeneration combined with the pure yang qi of the Transcendent Formless Divine Art, a complete cure is achievable. However, I estimate it will take considerable time.
How long?
> At minimum, one month.
Can't we use pure yin qi instead?
Though the Transcendent Formless Divine Art was a technique founded on the balance of yin and yang, its very origin — created to control his Nine Yin Severed Meridians — made pure yin qi far easier to wield.
> Pure yin qi lowers body temperature. A leukemia patient's immune system is already critically weakened; a drop in body temperature would slow cellular metabolism and blood circulation, further compromising immune function. That would interfere with the treatment.
Got it. Understood.
Having finished the pulse reading, Ouyang Qiangang stepped out of the inner chamber.
Every eye in the hall fixed upon him.
"Your Majesty, I have a report to make concerning Her Highness's illness."
Changsung Emperor leaned forward.
"Speak. Quickly."
"I must respectfully request an audience with Your Majesty — alone."
In an instant, the air in the great hall turned ice-cold.
Grand Eunuch Sang On's face went white.
A man of uncertain standing, daring to remain alone with the Emperor himself? It was unthinkable. Absurd.
Even Mun Hong-seo frowned.
"Insolence! How dare a mere physician presume to—"
Sang On moved to intervene, but Changsung Emperor raised a hand to halt him.
He was a man grasping at straws. His beloved daughter's life hung in the balance.
"Everyone, withdraw. I… must hear what this man has to say."
"Your Majesty! But—"
"I said withdraw!"
At the Emperor's thunderous command, every head bowed and the hall emptied. Mun Hong-seo and Sang On, together with all the eunuchs and palace maids, filed out of the great hall.
Soon only Changsung Emperor and Ouyang Qiangang remained.
Akasha, form a soundproof barrier with the nanobots. Make sure the Emperor can sense it.
> Understood. Deploying acoustic isolation field.
Suddenly, Changsung Emperor felt as though something invisible had closed around him.
His expression stiffened, and he asked, "What is this?"
"Your Majesty, I have erected a sound-isolating wall so that our conversation cannot leak outside. It is nothing dangerous."
Changsung Emperor's eyebrows twitched.
A sense of the mysterious stirred within him at this man's abilities.
Medical skill enough to repel a plague, the power to create new diseases, and now a martial art that blocks sound itself… This is truly no ordinary man.
"Can you treat the Princess?"
"I can."
At the conviction ringing in Ouyang Qiangang's voice, the Emperor's eyes widened.
"Truly? You are telling me you truly can save my daughter?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Though it will be no simple course of treatment."
Changsung Emperor spoke. "If you can cure her, what does time matter? Save the Princess, and I shall shower you with rewards."
"I am grateful, Your Majesty. But before that, there is something I must tell you."
"And what is that?"
Ouyang Qiangang slowly removed his Human-Faced Mask.
Seeing the sculpted, strikingly handsome face revealed beneath, the Emperor's brow knit.
"Circumstances forced me to conceal my identity behind the mask — but I could not bring myself to deceive Your Majesty."
"Then… who are you?"
"Ouyang Qiangang, eldest son of the Ouyang Clan of Nanchang."
A memory stirred in the Emperor's mind — the clan he had nearly sent an imperial envoy to visit not long ago, only to cancel the dispatch upon learning that the Life-and-Death Divine Doctor had already departed.
His ministers had certainly said the place was called the Ouyang Clan Manor.
"Hmm…"
Ouyang Qiangang went on. "The Ouyang Clan now stands on the brink of ruin. And my maternal grandfather, Lord Dong Hyeon-do of Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor, among other powers, is hunting for my life. That is why I had no choice but to hide my face."
Changsung Emperor nodded slowly. "So that is why you went by the name Hahu Gang…"
"Yes. But before Your Majesty, I could not deal in falsehood. To deceive the Emperor would be treason itself."
"Very well. I will trust in your sincerity."
"As for my true identity — I ask that you alone know of it, Your Majesty. It is inevitable that the name Hahu Gang, the Life-and-Death Divine Doctor, will become known. But Ouyang Qiangang must remain an absolute secret. Even Grand Eunuch Sang On must be no exception."
It was a demand verging on coercion — the kind of audacity that would have earned a furious rebuke from Sang On or Mun Hong-seo. Yet Changsung Emperor nodded without hesitation.
"Of course. I so promise you. And from what Grand Academician Mun tells me, you desire a salt trade license as your fee for the treatment…"
"That is correct."
"Good. Save the Princess. And if you do, then not only the salt trade license—"
Changsung Emperor's eyes blazed.
"—I will become the shield that guards your house from the shadow of Gold Pagoda Mountain Manor. No one, from that day forward, will dare lay a hand on you or your family lightly."
Ouyang Qiangang's heart pounded.
This was a reward far greater than he had anticipated.
"This shall be a pact between you and me alone."
"I am deeply grateful, Your Majesty."
"Now then — tell me how you intend to treat the Princess."
Ouyang Qiangang answered. "Your Majesty, Her Highness's illness is not a simple deficiency of blood. The disease lies in the very wellspring that makes her blood — the marrow itself."
Changsung Emperor hung on his every word.
"A malignant force has seeped into the marrow, and instead of true blood, it ceaselessly manufactures a false counterfeit — sapping the vitality of her entire body."
"How could you possibly cure such a bizarre affliction?"
"I will single out the roots of that malignant force, excise them, and administer a treatment that enables her body to make pure, healthy blood once more."
"And you claim this is possible?"
"It is. However, the treatment will take over a month, requiring roughly two hours each day."
"I have already told you — time is of no consequence."
"Then I shall begin the treatment tomorrow."
Ouyang Qiangang continued in a calm, measured tone. "Your Majesty, I ask that no one disturb me during the treatments, and that you prepare the special medicinal herbs Her Highness will need to take."
"Everything shall be made ready. I place the Princess in your hands."
Ouyang Qiangang put his mask back on and dissolved the sound-isolating wall.
With the barrier released, ordinary air flowed back into the great hall.
Changsung Emperor called out toward the doors. "All of you, return!"
Mun Hong-seo and Sang On slipped carefully back inside and asked, "Your Majesty, how did it go?"
A satisfied smile spread across the Emperor's face.
"Hahu Gang says he can cure my daughter. Spare no resource in supporting him."
Ouyang Qiangang turned to Sang On. "I will begin the treatment tomorrow. Please see to the necessary preparations."
"I shall see it done."
A bright smile bloomed across Mun Hong-seo's face where he stood beside the eunuch.
Ouyang Qiangang's steps were light as he left Myeonghwa Palace behind him.
He had just concluded an enormous bargain. His heels could hardly drag.
The warehouse at Yeomga Manor.
Ouyang Qiangang remained alone in the warehouse, continuing the work of inscribing the Heavenly Flower Radiant Flame Formation Art.
Moonlight seeped through the gaps in the window, faintly illuminating the invisible nanobots drifting over the oil paper.
The Princess's treatment would occupy two hours a day; for the rest of his time, he worked here, inscribing formation arts and executing the secret techniques.
It happened during his break.
> Doctor, an individual is approaching from the east.
Ouyang Qiangang frowned.
Distance?
> Currently one hundred meters. They are scaling the outer wall using light-foot movement arts. Sound suppression at a level where footsteps are almost entirely inaudible.
Ever since the attack at the Earth Keeper's Blood Point, Akasha had kept a thousand of his nanobots in constant patrol of a hundred-meter radius around the warehouse.
It meant he could no longer throw himself wholly into the inscription work — but to prevent a repeat of the last disaster, he had had no choice.
Rising from his workbench, Ouyang Qiangang settled comfortably into a chair. Then, gazing toward the direction the intruder would come from, he simply waited.
> Fifty meters… thirty meters… the intruder has reached the outer wall of the warehouse.
Shhh—
A faint rustle came as the figure climbed the wall.
A sound no ordinary person could ever have heard, but to Ouyang Qiangang's sharpened hearing it rang out clear as a bell.
> Doctor, the intruder appears set to enter through the roof.
Ssssh…
From overhead came the delicate sound of roof tiles shifting ever so slightly.
Moments later, a masked figure in black dropped from above on movement arts as light as treading on clouds, landing on the floor without a sound.
> Doctor, analyzing the intruder's data. Overall skeletal measurements — height, shoulder width — along with pupillary distance and iris patterns of the two eyes visible beneath the mask match Yeon Sa-hyeok, encountered at the official road, at 99.7% probability. Assessed as the same individual.
Yeon Sa-hyeok, supremely confident in his flawless infiltration, was about to survey his surroundings.
At that very moment—
"May I ask what brings the honored heir of Gold Mountain Tower to sneak over my wall in a mask, looking for me?"
At the calm voice drifting out of the darkness, Yeon Sa-hyeok's body froze.
He turned his head — and there, bathed in moonlight, sat Ouyang Qiangang, at his ease in a chair.
If not for the fact that the man had known he was coming and waited…
Don't tell me… this man is a master high enough to sense my presence?
"What… did you call me?"
Ouyang Qiangang smiled easily. "Young Master Yeon, I am a man with a great deal to do. Which means I absolutely despise wasting time on pointless things. If you can't give me a proper reason for breaking into my warehouse, I'm going to be very angry."
Despite the content of his words, his voice was as gentle as one greeting an old friend.
Yeon Sa-hyeok realized there was no point in deceiving this man any longer.
Clicking his tongue inwardly, he removed his mask.
"Master Hahu, you truly are full of surprises."
The face Yeon Sa-hyeok revealed beneath the moonlight was utterly expressionless.
He, too, was well practiced in keeping his heart hidden.
Ouyang Qiangang gestured to the chair across from him.
"Have a seat. Busy as I am, I might as well hear why you braved such danger to come calling at this hour."
Yeon Sa-hyeok did not sit.
"Master Hahu, might I trouble you for a moment of your time."
Ouyang Qiangang's brow creased. "What is it?"
Yeon Sa-hyeok spoke in an even, unhurried tone.
"There is someone who wishes to meet you."