Chapter 173
Chapter 173
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 173
Chapter Title: Even Fierce Winds Cannot Erase the Scent of Blood (2)
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Jong Ri-yeon's pupils trembled.
Lying before her eyes was Damho. His form was as wretchedly ruined as a rag torn to shreds.
Among those wounds, the most severe was the one on his chest.
A broken sword blade was still embedded in his chest. The blade, which had pierced through his lung, protruded jaggedly from his back. If pulled out recklessly, he could die from massive bleeding before anyone could do a thing.
Even Jong Ri-yeon, called a divine doctor, hesitated to touch it. But she couldn't just leave him like this forever.
No matter how superhuman his stamina or how transcendently trained his body beyond human limits, if left as is, Damho could not escape death.
"Huu! No choice."
Having steeled her resolve, Jong Ri-yeon took a deep breath.
The place where she and Damho now were was a secluded cave in some nameless mountain in northern Anhui Province.
Fearing pursuit from the Namgung Clan, they couldn't stop in any village or place with people. Thus, obtaining herbs needed for his treatment was out of the question.
Jong Ri-yeon pulled a wooden box containing silver needles from her bosom. This was the only thing she had on hand.
She had to save Damho's life with a single silver needle. She might not fully cure him, but at least keep him breathing.
"I must save him. Let's do this, Jong Ri-yeon!"
Encouraging herself, Jong Ri-yeon looked at Damho.
His face was deathly pale, without a trace of color. Even unconscious, his lips were tightly pressed.
"It'll be fine. He's strong."
Muttering thus, Jong Ri-yeon grasped the sword blade embedded in Damho's chest with her small, white hand. Then she yanked it out with all her strength.
Puhak!
As the smooth blade came free, a fountain of blood gushed forth.
Jong Ri-yeon hurriedly discarded the blade and began staunching Damho's wound.
First, she pressed the acupoints. Most wounds would stop bleeding from that alone. But Damho's wound was too large and deep to seal easily.
Jong Ri-yeon's white hands became drenched in blood.
Damho's already pale face grew even whiter. If the bleeding continued just a bit longer, his life was not guaranteed.
"I have to stop the blood fast."
In desperation, Jong Ri-yeon suddenly shed her outer garment.
Tskreek!
She tore it into rags and stuffed them into Damho's wound. The blood, spurting like a fountain, slowed somewhat.
Seizing the moment, Jong Ri-yeon began suturing the wound. First sealing the punctured lung, then stitching the chest and back wounds.
Without a moment to catch her breath, Jong Ri-yeon began inserting silver needles across Damho's entire body.
Life-Death Soul-Suspending Needle.
She applied to Damho the acupuncture technique she had used to save Guo Yan.
Unleashing the Life-Death Soul-Suspending Needle was a great risk even for Jong Ri-yeon. It had been created to save Guo Yan, not tailored for Damho.
Yet she had no choice.
Normally, it required pre-prepared herbs administered thrice in succession. But there was no time for that, nor any herbs.
Jong Ri-yeon carefully applied the Life-Death Soul-Suspending Needle.
Silver needles were densely packed across Damho's body without a finger's width of space. Stagnant blood trickled from where the needles pierced.
Looking down at Damho, Jong Ri-yeon went outside. When she returned sometime later, her hands were full of plantain weeds.
Jong Ri-yeon crushed the plantain with a stone to extract the juice.
"Huu!"
Wiping sweat from her forehead with her sleeve, Jong Ri-yeon carefully extracted the silver needles from Damho's body.
Damho remained utterly still even then.
Jong Ri-yeon slathered the crushed plantain thickly over Damho's wound.
Plantain had long been renowned for staunching blood and disinfecting wounds. It might work on Damho in his near-death state—who knew—but with nothing else available, this was her only option.
"Haa!"
Finally done applying the plantain, Jong Ri-yeon sighed and leaned against the cave wall. Her energy utterly spent, even sitting upright was a struggle.
Leaning against the wall, Jong Ri-yeon gazed down at Damho.
"I've done everything I can. The rest is up to his will and heaven's decree."
Hoping he would survive, she closed her eyes.
In her dream, she met Hwa No.
Hwa No smiled at her.
"You're doing well, right?"
Jong Ri-yeon asked, but Hwa No only smiled in response.
"You look good. While I'm suffering like this."
Jong Ri-yeon whined petulantly.
She knew.
That she was dreaming.
That Hwa No's vivid form was not real.
After her master's death, leaving her alone in the world, Hwa No had cared for her like a daughter. Thanks to that, she could practice medicine freely.
"I'm sorry. And thank you."
Hwa No nodded as if understanding everything.
Jong Ri-yeon reached out to touch Hwa No. But like an illusion, Hwa No's form scattered, and her hand passed through empty air.
"Hwa No!"
Calling loudly, Jong Ri-yeon opened her eyes.
Her fair face was streaked with tears.
"Hic!"
Even after waking, she wept for a long while. Strangely, her emotions surged uncontrollably. Thinking she was alone from now on made it all the sadder.
As she wept thus, suddenly a large hand appeared and wiped her tears.
"Ah!"
Startled, she looked up to see Damho gazing at her.
His face, pallid to the point of eeriness without a drop of blood, looked frightening, but even that was welcome to Jong Ri-yeon.
She threw her arms around him tightly without thinking.
Damho's face twisted in pain, but he didn't utter a groan.
He had barely regained consciousness. It was a miraculous feat from his extremely honed body, the Dark Soul Heart Technique, and Jong Ri-yeon's timely treatment.
"I'm sorry."
Realizing her mistake belatedly, Jong Ri-yeon jumped away from Damho. Her face flushed red with embarrassment and shame.
"I owe you."
"No. If anything, I owe you. This is nothing."
Jong Ri-yeon shook her head vigorously.
Damho stared fixedly at her face. Though wounded and exhausted, his gaze burned intensely. Jong Ri-yeon couldn't meet his eyes.
Damho looked away from Jong Ri-yeon. Instead, he examined his own condition.
Setting aside external wounds, even his energy passages and heart meridian were ruined. In this state, he couldn't circulate internal energy normally.
'A mess.'
No, "mess" was too mild. It was the worst. Never since learning martial arts had his body been this wrecked.
Without Jong Ri-yeon's acupuncture, even breathing would have been impossible.
"What of them?"
"Them?"
"The Namgung Clan. Surely a pursuit squad is coming."
"I don't know. I just let the horse go as it would."
"Is Black Ghost outside?"
"Yes! He should still be there."
At Jong Ri-yeon's answer, Damho's eyes gleamed.
Damho exerted force to rise. In that instant, immense pain crashed over him like a tidal wave.
'Kuhk!'
Unthinkingly, Damho bit his lip hard. Even that slight effort felt like his body was tearing apart.
"You can't strain yourself. You mustn't move yet."
"If I don't move, I'm dead."
Staying here meant the Namgung warriors would descend. In his current state, he couldn't handle them.
Ignoring Jong Ri-yeon's pleas, Damho rose.
His legs shook like aspen leaves, cold sweat pouring ceaselessly from his body. Still, Damho gritted his teeth and stood.
"Really?"
Jong Ri-yeon gaped at him in disbelief.
It was an incomprehensible recovery and superhuman will beyond common sense.
Damho steadied himself against the wall and took shaky steps.
Hiiing!
Emerging from the cave, Black Ghost rubbed his cheek against Damho's face in greeting.
Damho silently patted Black Ghost's neck.
"Go."
"Where to?"
"Somewhere to shake their pursuit."
Damho barely mounted Black Ghost. The strain reopened his wounds, blood seeping through.
Sighing at the sight, Jong Ri-yeon said,
"I'll come too."
"It'll be dangerous."
"I know."
But she couldn't abandon Damho, who needed her help. She mounted Black Ghost as well.
Jong Ri-yeon hugged Damho's waist from behind.
"Let's go."
Damho nodded and lightly kicked Black Ghost's belly. Black Ghost shot forward as if waiting.
Damho's eyes glinted ferociously.
'I will become stronger.'
Perhaps he'd felt boredom since entering the world. Never meeting a proper foe.
But now he knew for sure. The world was vast, and true powerhouses had yet to reveal themselves.
He'd found reason to grow stronger. So he would.
Nearly an hour after Damho and Jong Ri-yeon departed, a group appeared at the cave entrance.
"Here. Their tracks lead right up to this place."
The hawk-eyed man at the group's lead pointed at the cave. The apparent leader drew the sword at his waist.
"Everyone, stay alert. The opponent is Fist Demon."
"Yes!"
They were the pursuit squad dispatched from the Namgung Clan. Having tracked faint traces here.
The pursuit squad cautiously entered the cave.
They knew Damho had fatal wounds rendering him immobile, but tension was inevitable.
Mouths parched with extreme caution, they found the cave empty.
The hawk-eyed man examined the traces on the ground.
"They left not long ago. Still warm."
"Is it his trace?"
"Yes. Footprints and cloth scraps match."
"Damn it!"
The leader punched the wall in frustration.
Pusok!
His fist sank into the wall up to the wrist.
The leader's eyes bulged red with burst vessels.
Nonstop pursuit, only for Damho to have left—utter futility.
"We absolutely cannot give him time to recover."
The Namgung Clan was in utmost emergency.
The Sword King Squad, their final bastion, had been annihilated, and clan head Namgung Cheon had returned as a crippled supreme sword.
Namgung Cheon's state was so wretched that full recovery was uncertain. Surviving alone was a miracle.
Over half the clan's forces were gone.
All from one man, Damho. An unprecedented calamity.
Letting him escape now would shatter the clan's prestige, with endless repercussions.
Thus, before losing consciousness, Namgung Cheon had ordered his pursuit and elimination.
The leader man urgently told another warrior,
"We can't let him get away. You, seek cooperation from the Beggars' Sect and Hao Gate to track him."
"Understood."
"The rest, pursue."
"Yes, sir!"
Desperation filled the faces of those giving and receiving orders.
They were afraid.
If they lost Damho now, and he fully recovered, the Namgung Clan would face the worst enemy imaginable.
They had to prevent that.
"We must kill him."
The leader's voice trembled with unease.