Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Azure Dragon Squad
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My day always began with Bang Soso's body.
I woke each morning to the softness of her skin, after she'd given herself entirely to me through the night. Her full breasts were an inexhaustible spring, and her hot depths a furnace that restored all my energy. After we'd tangled together in a frenzy, exchanging fluids, the vessel of my depleted mental power was always brimming over.
"Mm... Senior Brother..."
A quick kiss to her lips as she whimpered sleepily, then I'd rise, and without fail, the thunderous cheers of the Azure Dragon Squad would come drifting through the window.
That was how my routine started.
The scene at the training grounds as I headed there with Bang Soso had become familiar now. The overwhelming murderous intent I'd first felt had turned into everyday background noise, and the smell of blood and sweat was as natural as the morning air.
My role was simple: treat the squad members injured during training. Bang Soso still smiled like an angel as she meticulously tended to wounds, while I stood beside her, planting light suggestions or realigning dislocated bones. We made a pretty good team of physicians.
And at the end of that routine, there was always that.
"Brother!"
Paeng Daesan, drenched in sweat from head to toe, would toss aside his wooden sword and charge at me. It had become the new signal at the Azure Dragon Squad's training grounds. The moment his voice rang out, the clashing of wooden swords would cease, and everyone would freeze, holding their breath as they stopped what they were doing.
My spar with Paeng Daesan. It had solidified into a bizarre spectacle, an official part of the squad's routine.
For over ten days now, that routine hadn't skipped a single day.
"Please take good care of me today!"
Paeng Daesan shouted with eyes full of anticipation as he assumed his stance. I nodded silently and applied my familiar self-suggestion. Mental power spread through my body, slowing the world around me.
The first few days had been boring. His attacks were so predictable, and one punch from me always sent him flying like a leaf in the wind. But as days passed, something was changing.
The feel of it had changed.
Today, as always, I drove my fist into his abdomen.
Boom!
With a dull explosion, Paeng Daesan's massive frame shot into the air. He flew higher and farther than before, tracing an arc before tumbling across the training ground floor dozens of times before finally stopping.
But I wasn't satisfied.
The sensation at my fist's tip. At first, it had been a sharp strike piercing through bursting flesh to hit bone directly. Now, it was different. I felt thick, tough skin and the resilient muscles beneath absorbing the impact. It wasn't just harder—it was on another level. There was a springy elasticity that absorbed and deflected the shock.
His durability was turning monstrous. By taking my enhanced punches full-body every day, his body was tempering itself in some bizarre way.
"Urgh... As expected of you, Brother...!"
From where he'd crashed across the training grounds, Paeng Daesan barely managed to rise, murmuring faintly. He hadn't passed out yet. Impressive progress.
A shame.
I clicked my tongue. He still hadn't reached the far wall. My modest goal of hitting a home run out of bounds remained unfulfilled.
I walked toward Paeng Daesan as he staggered to his feet. The squad members watched him with eyes mixed awe and a touch of pity.
"You're holding out pretty well today."
As I stood before him, Paeng Daesan grinned broadly before collapsing back to the ground.
"It's all thanks to you, Brother...! Training me like this every day...!"
With those final words, he passed out with a satisfied look on his face.
I slung his body over my shoulder as usual and headed to the temporary clinic. Treating him was part of the routine too. I laid him on the bed, applied a recovery enhancement suggestion, and slathered him with medicinal herbs. It was less treatment and more like animal husbandry.
Just as my bizarre routine was wrapping up for the day...
Maybe raise the angle a bit tomorrow. Or put more twist into my hips. I was seriously pondering how to launch Paeng Daesan beyond that wall when a commotion erupted at the training ground entrance.
"Make way! Clear a path!"
One of the squad members rushed in, shouting. His face was flushed with urgency and excitement.
All eyes in the training grounds turned to him.
The squad member dashed to the center, panting as he cried out.
"The Squad Leader... the Squad Leader is back!"
His urgent shout put a sudden end to my bizarre routine. Every sound in the training grounds was swallowed by those words. Squad members training, physicians treating the injured—even Paeng Daesan, who'd just been thrown my way—snapped their eyes open in surprise.
Everyone's gaze shifted to the entrance.
"Hahaha!"
A booming laugh that shook the earth accompanied a massive shadow striding in. Byeok Cheonwi. The Azure Dragon Squad Leader had returned.
His appearance was overwhelming. His hulking, muscular frame was covered in minor wounds, and his clothes were shredded as if clawed by a wild beast. But his eyes burned brightly without a hint of fatigue, and an even more intense, domineering aura poured from him than before. He was like a starving tiger emerging from a massive storm.
"Everyone, you've worked hard!"
Byeok Cheonwi's voice filled the training grounds. Dozens of squad members who'd gone on the mission with him followed behind, all battered but with eyes blazing like living flames, just like his.
"Squad Leader!"
"Welcome back!"
The squad members clasped their fists in unison to greet their leader. The atmosphere heated up in an instant. I glanced down at Paeng Daesan. He'd already gotten up and was staggering toward his comrades, the clump of herbs I'd just applied comically dangling from his back.
At Senior Physician's command, all us physicians—including me and Bang Soso—rushed to the returning squad members.
"What's the situation!"
"Mostly light wounds, but quite a few with internal injuries!"
We pounded herbs nonstop, wrapped bandages, and straightened meridians. Their wounds were qualitatively different from those from normal spars. A sharp, insidious energy lingered in them, slowing recovery.
The ominous rumors that had circulated among the physicians over the past ten days or so were true, after all.
A mysterious Treasure Map of unknown origin had spread across the Central Plains, drawing countless martial artists from righteous and evil sects like clouds to the Secret Cave it pointed to. Those seeking wealth, divine arts, fame—where all desires tangled, conflict was inevitable. The Martial Alliance Leader had urgently dispatched Byeok Cheonwi and part of the Azure Dragon Squad to prevent clashes and control the situation.
We were in the thick of treating the injured when Paeng Daesan, buzzing with excitement from chatting with the returnees, came rushing over. His face was far redder than usual.
"Brother! Did you hear?!"
His voice trembled with thrill. I replied indifferently while treating a wound on his arm.
"Hear what."
"The Demonic Cult! They say Demonic Cultists showed up at that Secret Cave!"
My hand paused for a split second at Paeng Daesan's words.
"Demonic Cult?"
I echoed. I hadn't been in the Central Plains long, but I knew the weight that name carried.
Paeng Daesan leaned in, whispering as if sharing a grand secret, his eyes sparkling like a boy's.
"That's right! The uncontrollable villains who wield Demonic Energy! They say this is the first time they've stirred since the Righteous-Evil Alliance smashed them! They're after something in that Secret Cave!"
He looked genuinely thrilled, like a villain from a novel had stepped into reality, his face full of pure battle lust for the massive fight ahead.
For some reason, his innocent fighting spirit deflated my own. To this guy, the Demonic Cult's appearance was just a 'stronger, newer enemy'?
I was about to sigh at the thought when—
"Physician Shadowless."
A thick, powerful voice boomed across the training grounds, calling me. I turned to see Byeok Cheonwi, his shoulder bandaged, grinning heartily at me.
I could feel every gaze in the area boring into my back. Awe, curiosity, a hint of jealousy. Paeng Daesan stared at me with near-worship, while the other physicians wore looks of 'what crazy thing is that mad physician up to now?'
...Damn it.