The Seizure
A regular Murim Alliance conference was underway.
There, various important and minor agendas were being discussed.
After handling the most critical ones, their significance slowly began to wane.
Jegal Yeong-yeong frowned slightly and offered one final agenda.
“The Fist King requested that we find a suitable disciple for him.”
The Fist King had traveled the world alone, seeking disciples himself.
Not long ago, however, the Blood Cult had attacked, and he had lost his disciples.
Now he had joined the Murim Alliance.
“Oh, the Fist King! Not long ago he lost his disciples and was deeply devastated, but now he seems to have recovered his composure!”
“Indeed. What a fortunate turn of events. The Heavenly Sun Gate lineage will not be severed.”
“Why not select a child from the later-generation qi-talent students we nurture here and see if any suit him?”
“That is an excellent suggestion. Although we have fewer geniuses than in the past, there are still plenty of suitable children in our Alliance.”
The elders nodded in agreement.
The Fist King had overcome the pain of losing his disciples and resolved to take on a new one.
The elders had been delighted to hear the news.
The Heavenly Sun Gate was a single-lineage sect.
The current sect leader was the Fist King, Bukgung Myeong.
To maintain its name, the sect needed to continuously produce great masters.
Even large sects rarely produced anyone who reached the highest peaks from among their hundreds of disciples.
Yet the Heavenly Sun Gate had succeeded.
Their signature martial art, the Great Yang Divine Fist, had produced countless Transcendental Masters and even occasional Grandmasters across generations.
“There is one problem, however.”
All eyes turned to Jegal Yeong-yeong’s lips.
“The Fist King… said that anyone who wishes to cultivate the Heavenly Sun Gate’s Great Yang Divine Fist must possess a Pure Yang Physique.”
The Pure Yang Physique.
Unlike the Pure Yin Physique that only women could receive, the Pure Yang Physique appeared only in men.
It was known to be especially suited for cultivating Yang-type martial arts.
The problem was its rarity.
“Tsk… a Pure Yang Physique… so that was where the great power of the Great Yang Divine Fist lay.”
“Oh dear… what are we to do about this?”
“Even if it is a request from the Fist King, it may be difficult to accomplish in such a short time.”
“The Fist King himself surely doesn’t possess a Pure Yang Physique?”
“No. The Fist King possesses a Pure Yang Physique. The disciple he lost recently was one with a Pure Yang Physique, he said.”
The Pure Yang Physique and similar bodies were known to be especially suited for Yang-type martial arts.
Everyone present knew of the higher-grade physiques, but no one dared mention them.
They were even rarer, and those who carried them were almost always doomed to an early death.
In truth, methods to identify them were few and far between.
“For now, there are no Pure Yang Physique students among the Alliance’s talents. Let us search secretly. We cannot allow the Heavenly Sun Gate lineage to be cut off like this.”
The elders nodded.
Even if the martial arts manuals were passed down in great detail,
it was never easy for later generations to perfectly reconstruct the arts from manuals alone.
Transmitting true comprehension was an even greater challenge.
What was needed in such times was a master of exceptional ability.
That was why large sects and powerful clans that could reliably connect excellent masters with disciples produced the greatest talents.
In reality, even if a master’s manuals from the past were discovered,
without an outstanding innate talent, one could never truly master the arts.
After the Fist King’s death, the Heavenly Sun Gate might well suffer the same fate.
***
Ugiwan raced toward the Murim Alliance with his son U Jin-myeong on his back.
“Jin-myeong-ah, are you all right?”
No answer came, only a thin breath against his neck.
Yet that was enough.
If I can just keep him alive, Yuseong can heal him.
Although he had never experienced his father’s greatness firsthand, having fallen ill before, he had heard that his medical skills transcended the world.
‘The Head of the Medical Pavilion should be here!’
It was not late at night, but the time when everyone had already gone home.
The area in front of the Murim Alliance was unusually deserted, and gatekeepers were visible in the distance.
“Are you not the Ugiwan Young Master? But who is on your back?”
“This is my son! I’m sorry, but my child is critically ill—please let us in!”
The Murim Alliance had strict entry procedures.
Ugiwan would have understood, but a person being carried on his back who was not even affiliated with the Alliance had bypassed the gatekeeper’s authority.
If it were formal procedure, one would need to report to the higher-ups and obtain approval.
“I’m sorry, but I am outside my authority. Perhaps we should fetch the Head of the Medical Pavilion. He is on duty right now…”
The words were perfectly reasonable.
If the man on his back were a spy, the gatekeeper would not have been able to stay alive.
But the child’s breath was nearly gone—did it matter?
Ugiwan, about to explode in anger, quickly changed his tone.
“Yes! Then please bring the Head of the Medical Pavilion! Hurry!”
Realizing that delaying things would only waste time, he switched to a more pleading voice.
One gatekeeper stepped forward and activated his movement technique toward the Medical Pavilion.
“Just hold on a little longer…!”
The breath behind his neck was terrifyingly weak.
The back felt like it was on fire, and the heat coming from his body seemed to be growing worse.
“Are you the Ugiwan Young Master?”
At that moment, a voice came from behind.
Ugiwan turned around in a hurry.
“My son? Why is he like this?”
Physician Cha had been out somewhere and was shocked to see the drenched child.
Even if not on the level of Yuseong, he was still a doctor of the Medical Pavilion.
“Physician Cha! Please help my son! He suddenly started sweating profusely and lost consciousness! H-he seems to have a very high fever… and, and just a moment ago he drank an enormous amount of water…”
“Let me see. First, lay him down. Have you informed the Head of the Medical Pavilion?”
Physician Cha took off his outer robe and spread it on the ground as he asked.
“We’re on our way to fetch him now!”
The boy whose entire body was soaked was placed on the robe.
His eyes were still closed, and his breaths were barely coming.
“Mm…”
Physician Cha, eyes closed, took the child’s pulse and let out a low groan.
“I’m going to circulate qi for a moment—do not touch him.”
He had warned first, then circulated qi.
After a short while, the eyebrows twitched.
“Oh… this is…”
“I-is it that bad?”
“Has this child ever cultivated an internal energy technique?”
“No. He has basic spiritual talent, but he has no aptitude for martial arts, so he never learned any internal energy techniques.”
After asking several questions, Physician Cha lowered the child’s wrist.
He then explained the situation to the anxiously watching Ugiwan.
“The child’s nine major acupoints—Danzhong, Queguan, Mingmen, and so on—are completely burnt out and the meridians are severed. The pulses were already unstable before this, but the final seizure seems to have occurred. Drinking so much water was probably the body’s attempt to survive.”
“W-what kind of illness is this?”
Ugiwan swallowed hard.
“You may have heard of it… Nine Yang Severed Meridians.”
“Nine Yang Severed Meridians? That… Jin-myeong never had any minor illnesses until today! A healthy child with Nine Yang Severed Meridians? That’s a constitution that shortens life by making the body weak!”
It was hard to believe.
Ugiwan denied it.
This healthy child?
Nine Yang Severed Meridians was supposed to be a terrifying disease that killed children with outstanding talent between the ages of fifteen and twenty.
“The Nine Yin Severed Meridians look weak, but the Nine Yang Severed Meridians are even harder to detect. This child was probably more energetic than his peers and had almost no minor illnesses.”
That was true.
Even when the neighbor’s child was sick or most of the village children were down with illness, Jin-myeong never once caught a cold.
“That is why cases of Nine Yang Severed Meridians being overlooked exist.”
“That’s impossible…”
He had casually dismissed it as good luck.
He should have taken him to a doctor long ago…
Ugiwan regretted it.
Physician Cha gently patted his shoulder.
“Even if we had known earlier, there was nothing we could have done. To treat Nine Yang Severed Meridians, an extremely rare spiritual pill is required. As you know, such precious spiritual pills are almost impossible for people like us to obtain unless we are part of a noble clan.”
“…Then what should we do with Jin-myeong?”
Physician Cha smiled faintly.
“But you brought him here safely, didn’t you?”
“Eh? Then the Head of the Medical Pavilion can heal Nine Yang Severed Meridians too?”
Physician Cha had just said that an extremely rare spiritual pill was needed…
The hope mixed in his words made Ugiwan’s expression brighten slightly.
Physician Cha knew that Yuseong could heal any illness.
Meridian Severance?
A man who thought his child was dead from stopped breathing had been saved.
Of course he could be healed.
In the past, acupressure needles were always used, but nowadays, with just one mysterious gesture without needles…
Just as Ugiwan was about to feel relieved,
“Ugh…”
U Jin-myeong, unconscious and trembling, suddenly convulsed.
His whole body thrashed like a fish out of water.
Thud—thud—
His head, back, and limbs slammed violently against the floor.
“W-what is wrong with my Jin-myeong?”
“A seizure! It’s a seizure!”
“Just like before?”
“No, it’s not… if a second seizure comes…”
The words became shorter out of sheer seriousness.
‘This is bad. The Head of the Medical Pavilion hasn’t arrived yet!’
If only he could do something to help.
He had only known about Nine Yang Severed Meridians and had never actually seen it before.
In that moment, when even Physician Cha, Ugiwan, the gatekeeper, and all the people who had rushed over in panic at the commotion outside the Murim Alliance entrance didn’t know what to do…
A dull thud.
U Jin-myeong’s trembling body finally went limp.
Physician Cha quickly checked the pulse again.
“…The pulse has stopped.”
“Ah, no! Jin-myeong!”
Ugiwan dropped to his knees and sobbed in front of his son.
His son, who had always been exceptionally intelligent and made him proud, was now suffering from an illness.
His own child was dying, yet he had been boasting about him without knowing anything.
The fact that he, as a father, had not even realized it filled Ugiwan with despair.
Physician Cha stood a step away and watched the scene with sorrow.
Pulse and breath stopped.
‘Even if the Head of the Medical Pavilion comes now… it’s too late!’
A fragment of memory suddenly flashed through his mind.
The day Yuseong had begun treating patients at the Nakyang Medical Hall.
Physician Cha shouted without hesitation.
“Move aside!”
He had tried to become like Yuseong since his days at the Nakyang Medical Hall.
He had never inherited the knowledge of Divine Physician Yang.
He had also despaired when told that spiritual arts were something one was born with, but…
‘There were medical techniques that didn’t require spiritual arts either.’
The secrets Yuseong had taught him, which he had remembered deep in his heart.
Physician Cha placed both hands over the child’s chest.
He had no idea what condition was inside.
Was the brain already damaged, or had the heart stopped from the severe heat?
‘What was certain was that if he did nothing now, even the Head of the Medical Pavilion arriving would leave no chance for a miracle.’
That fact alone was enough reason to persevere.
Physician Cha straightened his arms, leaned his full weight forward, and pressed down firmly.
The child’s chest caved in.