Every Treasure Has Its Master
Around the guest chamber where Jang Hyeon-nam was receiving treatment, disciples of the Mount Hua Sect and two Tang Clan escort warriors stood watch.
"Hold it!"
The moment Seo Joo-cheon tried to step inside, a Tang Clan warrior barred his path.
"Come now. We're the ones who risked our lives to save Young Hero Jang. And you're going to stop us?"
"Are you not Unorthodox martial artists?"
Dokgo Ho-in bristled at the Tang Clan warrior's words.
"Then why was my arm cut off? Why did our Big Brother get hurt?!"
The commotion outside brought Dang Seol-yong out of the room.
"My apologies. I told them to let no one in, and they've committed this discourtesy. Please, come in."
Kang Chu-mi shot the Tang Clan warrior a withering glare as she strode through the door.
No matter how fiercely they had fought, risking their lives in the doing, to those of the Orthodox martial world an Unorthodox warrior was still someone to be watched. When they entered the guest room where Jang Hyeon-nam was being treated, they found the physician already there, along with Baek I-jin, Baek Seol, and Dang Seol-yong. Even in a situation like this, Dang Seol-yong was still maintaining her male disguise.
"Ah, please come in, Hero Po. But are you all right to be moving about? I received a report that you'd suffered a serious internal injury, and I've been worried."
Baek I-jin had barely finished speaking when Kang Chu-mi answered with a languid, unimpressed drawl.
"For someone that worried, you never even showed your face."
She muttered it from behind them, and Baek I-jin's face flushed red. It wasn't as if she was wrong. But from a Mount Hua disciple's perspective, the life or death of a Wudang disciple naturally outweighed that of an Unorthodox martial artist. Seo Joo-cheon couldn't very well scold Kang Chu-mi for every little thing, so he silenced her with a look.
"I can manage. How is Young Hero Jang's condition?"
Jang Hyeon-nam answered himself.
"I'm sorry to have caused you all such worry. I'll be on my feet again soon, so please don't concern yourselves too much."
A bluish pallor still crept over his entire body — the poisoning was severe — and yet he spoke with a smile. Seo Joo-cheon silently praised that strength of will.
He's a character I created, and yet he's every inch the protagonist. It's hard to believe someone like this could even exist in the real world.
To know you were about to die and still carry yourself with that kind of ease was no small thing. In every respect, he possessed the perfect qualifications of a male lead.
The physician took Jang Hyeon-nam's pulse, then spoke.
"It will be difficult for him to last the night. I will do everything within my power, but this poison cannot be neutralized. A distinguished member of the Tang Clan is present — it would be best to seek this person's aid."
The physician's declaration of surrender hung in the air, and Dang Seol-yong answered.
"I examined Young Hero Jang's poison as well. It's one I've never seen. Of all toxins, insect poison is the most dangerous, and without knowing which venomous insect produced it, I cannot formulate an antidote. The symptoms resemble spider venom, but medicines that ordinarily work against spider venom have had no effect. Given time I would find a way to craft a cure, but the poison is advancing too quickly."
It was a long speech that amounted to a simple truth: even she was powerless against this poison. For the pride of the Tang Clan, she simply could not say outright that she could not detoxify it.
Baek I-jin let out a sigh.
"Ah, if only I still had the Purple Dawn Pill... we might have been able to do something. It was taken from me when I was abducted."
The Purple Dawn Pill was a spirit elixir in which the Mount Hua Sect took great pride. Such an elixir would have been highly effective at delaying the poison or driving it from the body. Masters of a certain caliber could expel even a poison with no known antidote, if they had a spirit elixir to aid them.
"I'm glad to hear Miss Baek thinks so."
The room turned to look at Seo Joo-cheon, wondering what he meant. Deciding it would be better to show than tell, he drew a golden case from his robes.
"Ah? That's—!"
Baek I-jin's eyes went wide at the sight of the golden case.
"I found it when we raided the Gwak Family Manor. One of Macheon Chong's warriors who was guarding the place had it on him, so I took it. I brought it to return it to you, Miss Baek."
Having already spoken, Baek I-jin was in no position to take her words back. For an instant, a look of regret streaked through her eyes like a falling star.
The so-called spirit elixirs of the great sects were treasures that could not be bought for a thousand taels of gold. The Purple Dawn Pill was ordinarily bestowed only upon those who had rendered great service to the sect, upon the designated successor to the sect leader, or upon the commander of the Plum Blossom Swordmasters as they set out into the Jianghu — to be used in a true emergency. And if it went unused, it had to be returned to the sect leader. Now she was about to see that elixir used not on one of her own, but on a disciple of another sect. Of course it pained her.
Dang Seol-yong watched this with a meaningful gleam in her eyes. She, too, had sent her subordinates to search the Gwak Family Manor. They had come away with some intelligence and a sum of money, but what she had wanted was the Purple Dawn Pill.
We searched every last corpse. There was no golden case. They would have had to search the bodies before we did — but they left the manor ahead of us. They shouldn't have had the time. And yet they have it?
Several questions rose in her mind, but she let none of them show on her face.
Baek I-jin's reaction, however, was unexpected. She suddenly flushed and stared at the golden case for a long moment. What had come back to her was the instant Seo Joo-cheon had walked in and found her bound to the bed, without so much as a thread of clothing on her body. She had been so frantic at the time that she had deliberately tried not to think about it. Now a trigger for that memory had appeared, and the scenes of that moment replayed themselves with vivid clarity. The thought that Seo Joo-cheon had seen every inch of her naked body made her shrink in on herself, for no reason she could quite name. Even a woman of the Jianghu could not be entirely unmoved by the fact that she had been exposed, naked, to a man.
Unlike Baek I-jin, however, Baek Seol and Jang Hyeon-nam gazed at Seo Joo-cheon with faces full of emotion.
"Who am I to make use of Mount Hua's precious treasure?"
"Young Hero Jang was poisoned saving us. He is our benefactor — how could we possibly begrudge him a mere elixir? This is precisely why I was carrying it. Please don't feel burdened. If anything were to happen to you, Young Hero Jang, it would be a regret that lasted a thousand autumns."
Baek I-jin persuaded him well, taking care that Jang Hyeon-nam would not feel indebted. Having already committed the elixir to him, she had spoken so that no trace of reluctance would show on her face.
There's an elixir a hundred times more effective than the Purple Dawn Pill waiting for me. Something like this, I can afford to give up.
Seo Joo-cheon went on.
Jang Hyeon-nam seemed deeply moved; a film of moisture rose in his eyes. He was grateful beyond words that Seo Joo-cheon would go to such lengths for him. Who else in this world would think of him this way? The thought made his chest tighten.
Dang Seol-yong gave no outward sign, but it became a moment that made her reconsider Seo Joo-cheon entirely.
Even I searched the Gwak Family Manor because I coveted the Purple Dawn Pill. If I had found it, I never would have given it up. Not even if Young Hero Jang were dying.
A single Purple Dawn Pill could grant decades of inner energy. What martial artist would surrender such a thing?
He keeps stepping outside the bounds of what I can predict. How interesting.
Dang Seol-yong had been watching Po Un — that is, Seo Joo-cheon — closely ever since they had first gone to aid Baek I-jin. She had found him more interesting than Jang Hyeon-nam, and had observed him accordingly. She had first taken notice because his conduct was nothing like an Unorthodox martial artist's — and then she had begun to glimpse something almost heroic in him. At the Gwak Family Manor, even she — a scion of the Tang Clan — had followed his lead.
He offers to sacrifice himself first, so the others have no choice but to follow. He knows how to handle people.
Choosing the most dangerous frontal assault when they raided the Gwak Family Manor. Charging the strongest enemy himself. No martial artist could have failed to see that he was offering himself up. Jang Hyeon-nam was a Wudang disciple, so that was one thing — but these people were Unorthodox martial artists, the kind dismissed as heretics and demons.
And he used my precious sleeping poison to make the battle easy. That alone tells me he's exceptionally capable.
She hadn't realized it at the time, but looking back after they had returned to the inn, it had been one baffling situation after another. Why had she followed Seo Joo-cheon's word when she could simply have said she had no sleeping poison? She asked herself that now. Sleeping poison was exceedingly rare; even she did not carry much of it. And she had used all of it on the raid of the Gwak Family Manor. It still rankled.
"With this Purple Dawn Pill, Young Hero Jang will be able to raise his inner energy and then expel the poison."
At Seo Joo-cheon's words, Jang Hyeon-nam let out a weak protest.
"If I take the Purple Dawn Pill and still fail to expel the poison, a precious elixir will have been wasted."
Seo Joo-cheon spoke as if scolding him.
"Don't entertain such feeble thoughts. If you cannot overcome even this hardship, how can you call yourself a disciple of Wudang? I myself have thrown everything into this because I consider you a chivalrous hero rarely seen in these times. How can Young Hero Jang allow his heart to grow weak?"
It sounded so much like something a venerable elder of his own sect would say that Jang Hyeon-nam's heart, somehow, grew calm.
If Master were here, he would have scolded me just like this.
The thought sent courage welling up in him. He had already been at the stage of abandoning hope and settling his heart for death.
"Hero Po's words have snapped me wide awake. I will accept the Purple Dawn Pill and drive out the poison. And before I do — from this moment on, I will regard Hero Po as my Hyung-nim."
Seo Joo-cheon flinched. And the room fell silent. On every face was the look of someone calculating just how far those words would reach.
Ah, did I underwrite his settings a little? Or did I give him too much of a sentimental personality? Why is he this naive?
Whatever he thought inwardly, Seo Joo-cheon smiled gently and said,
"I'm grateful that Young Hero Jang would think of me that way. But if you say such a thing aloud, there will be no end of trouble. I will simply accept the sentiment."
As if he had expected exactly that answer, Jang Hyeon-nam quietly countered.
"I say this now because I fear I might not live to say it later. From this moment, I will serve Hero Po as my Hyung-nim. When I went to rescue Miss Baek, you fought more bravely than anyone. When I fell into danger there, you were the first to come running and save me. And is that all? At the Suo River, when I encountered the Undying Demon Hyeok Chung and was at death's door, you saved me then as well — you and your brothers. Knowing the Undying Demon was there. The only people who would do that for me are my martial brothers and my master. We barely knew each other, and still you risked your life to save me. If I do not take such a man as my Hyung-nim, then whom should I?"
Kang Chu-mi answered quietly.
"Every word of that's true, you know. Our Big Brother is more of a chivalrous hero than any other chivalrous hero."
Hearing Jang Hyeon-nam praise their Big Brother with such passion, Kang Chu-mi's face filled with a delighted smile. Ham Cheon-yeong looked equally pleased; the corner of his mouth twitched. Dokgo Ho-in, likewise in high spirits, grinned in a way that did not quite fit the gravity of the moment. Only Seo Joo-cheon was thinking something else entirely.
Could this be the reward for this mission? It said I'd gain fame — and by gaining fame, I win the protagonist's heart?
Becoming the protagonist's sworn older brother would be a shocking turn of events.
"We'll discuss that later. Right now, driving out the poison comes first. Don't think about anything else. Devote yourself entirely to expelling the toxin."
At Seo Joo-cheon's words, Jang Hyeon-nam rose and clasped his fists in a formal salute.
"Since my sworn brother has spoken so, this younger brother will obey."
He was already addressing Seo Joo-cheon as his older brother outright, and the room was left speechless. If a disciple of Wudang called an Unorthodox martial artist his older brother, the storms that would follow were obvious. There was nothing anyone could say. The one mercy, if it could be called that, was that Jang Hyeon-nam was a lay disciple rather than a formally initiated one. A lay disciple still enjoyed more freedom of speech and conduct than one who had taken the formal vows.
"Until you have taken the Purple Dawn Pill and expelled the poison, the disciples of our sect will stand guard around you. Please set your mind at ease and drive out the toxin."
Baek I-jin rose as she spoke, and the others all rose with her. And then they stared straight at Seo Joo-cheon's face, their eyes curious about his reaction. They had expected him to be pleased. Instead he looked thoroughly uncomfortable, and that, too, was interesting. It was something anyone would have been glad of — and yet he looked as if he wanted none of it.
Seo Joo-cheon left Jang Hyeon-nam behind and stepped out of the guest room. Somehow, more cold sweat was running down his back now than when he had faced the Undying Demon.
What an utterly outrageous fellow. And he's got that single-minded streak, too.
To go from a man who was supposed to die at the protagonist's hands to a man the protagonist called older brother — Seo Joo-cheon felt a swell of emotion he could not quite name.
"Big Brother, shouldn't you circulate your energy as well? You look like you're having trouble just standing."
At Ham Cheon-yeong's words, Seo Joo-cheon nodded.
"You're right. Let's go back to our room."
They were about to return to their room when martial artists eating and drinking in the inn called out at the sight of Seo Joo-cheon.
"Hero Po!"
He looked toward the voices and saw the warriors who had fought alongside them at the Gwak Family Manor and the Suo River, waving. Their bandages looked rather more impressive than the wounds beneath them — a bit of staging, no doubt, to show off in front of the other martial artists. Seo Joo-cheon could forgive that much as a kind of charm, and he let out a short laugh.
"We're truly relieved to see you unharmed."
This time other martial artists clasped their fists toward Seo Joo-cheon and bowed their heads. It was a greeting that carried genuine respect. Seo Joo-cheon could feel how deeply they esteemed him.
In the space of two days, the Shaanxi Four Fiends had accomplished truly illustrious deeds. They had saved Mount Hua's two most precious jewels, rescued the abducted Baek I-jin, and even pulled back from death's door the warriors who had faced the Undying Demon. That was the conduct of a hero of the Jianghu.
One of the Unorthodox martial artists among them called out.
"Hero Po! Do you know what the martial brothers of the Jianghu are calling you and your brothers?"
At those words, Kang Chu-mi, Ham Cheon-yeong, and Dokgo Ho-in all pricked up their ears.