Chapter 12
Chapter 12
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 12
Chapter Title: Chang'an Ink Sword Grove (3)
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Seolha's dantian issue was resolved.
From now on, consistent care and the passage of time would make her strong.
She'd probably grow dozens of times faster than ordinary people.
Once she reached a certain level, her progress would slow, but even that would be enough for her to hold her own.
Now it was Namgung Yeonhwa's turn.
I headed to the bed where Namgung Yeonhwa lay with Seolha.
On the way, I grabbed Seolha's butt. She flashed a playful smile and spoke in a sweet, coquettish tone.
"After going at it so fiercely just now..."
"That's how men are."
I replied with a smirk, and Seolha laughed too.
I loved that smile. I could never get tired of looking at it.
Anyway, the problem was Namgung Yeonhwa.
I sat beside her and placed my hand on her abdomen to check more precisely.
Her body was a total mess inside.
Namgung Yeonhwa's dantian was still intact.
The issue was that it was cracked and shattered in places, leaking internal energy everywhere.
It was in worse shape than Seolha's, whose dantian had been completely destroyed.
True energy that should flow properly along the major and minor meridians was escaping into wrong paths, so her body couldn't possibly stay intact.
That's why she was so weak and slept all the time.
The escaped energy was even invading her organs and brain.
A human's organs and brain are extremely fragile.
And uncontrolled true energy could be surprisingly dangerous.
That's why qi deviation happens.
"I need to shatter this girl's dantian."
"Yes, sir hero. If that's what you say, then it must be right."
Seolha had reached the level of absolute faith in me.
Well, anyone would, really.
I'd pulled her back from the brink of death, rebuilt her dantian, and now I was saving her friend too.
"But I can't just smash the dantian recklessly. If done wrong, the shock alone could kill her. She's far too weak for that."
"Then what do we do...?"
"I'll break it bit by bit, in amounts her body can handle without too much strain. In the meantime, we need to restore her body first. We'll have to get some good tonics and feed them to her."
"Won't elixirs work?"
"No. Giving her elixirs now would be worse. What happens if you pour a waterfall into a shattered jar? Even if it were intact, most of it would leak out anyway. Right now, it'd just turn that jar into an even bigger mess."
"Then should we prepare nourishing foods?"
"Exactly. Breaking the dantian little by little will shock her body each time. So we need nourishing foods to help her recover proportionally."
"Then, let me..."
"Do you know how to prescribe medicine or cook?"
Seolha fell silent like a bee that had eaten honey and lost its voice.
Of course. What would a martial artist know about cooking? I hadn't expected it from the start.
Manager Jang would send people anyway, so I'd just ask him to include some skilled chefs.
Alright, shall I make a small adjustment for today?
I observed Namgung Yeonhwa's internals and located the most dangerous part.
For now, at least, I had to stop the energy from reaching her brain.
I sat still, scrutinizing the flow of her true energy.
Then I pinpointed the source feeding toward her head.
Her body was too weak to shatter more of the dantian right now.
So I'd block it first. Sealing her dantian with my energy wouldn't be hard anyway.
I took temporary measures.
The energy heading to her brain was blocked. She wouldn't just sleep all day like before now.
"Phew."
"You must be tired, sir hero."
"It's just a temporary fix. Not a fundamental solution."
I explained what I'd done. Seolha nodded along, then tilted her head curiously.
"Sir hero, you're suppressing the mixed energies of elixirs and true energy in my body with your internal energy, right?"
"That's right."
"Then couldn't you do the same for Yeonhwa? Completely seal her dantian with your energy..."
"That's not feasible. The dantian doesn't just have two simple holes leaking power. It's... a bit more complicated."
"If you say it can't be done, then I believe it can't."
Seolha smiled brightly.
She might not understand, but her faith was unshakable.
Her suggestion was spot on, though. It was just a method to use when shattering Namgung Yeonhwa's dantian.
Shattering a dantian involves immense pain. Wrapping it in my energy while breaking it would at least reduce the shock.
"She won't just sleep all day like before now. She should be able to sleep like a normal person."
"Oh, really!? Thank you, sir hero."
All the worries that had plagued Seolha vanished, and now gratitude was stuck to her lips.
Her positive change was great. Seeing her like this was reward enough in itself.
"Oh, right. Seolha."
"Yes, sir hero."
"I have a question."
"Yes, go ahead."
"Does Luminous Jade Pavilion have no connection at all to the Shadowless Gate?"
At my question, Seolha's expression stiffened slightly before she answered promptly.
"How could a pleasure house have no ties to the Shadowless Gate? But Luminous Jade Pavilion is linked to the merchant world, so their influence is minimal."
"I see. Then there's no way to contact the Shadowless Gate?"
"The Shadowless Gate... why do you want them?"
"Why else seek them out? Information. Stuff like what happened to the Namgung family or details on their missing young master."
"For that, the Shadowless Gate won't do. They're lackeys of the unorthodox evil factions. We need to keep information from reaching them."
"The Shadowless Gate are lackeys of the unorthodox evil factions? Sure, they're considered evil, but aren't they supposed to be strictly neutral? They'd do anything for money, right?"
"No. The Shadowless Gate has become the eyes and ears of the unorthodox evil factions. We can't trust them. Just thinking about what they did to us..."
Seolha ground her teeth.
I see. So things turned out that way in this world?
The Shadowless Gate I knew was treated as evil but despised even by fellow evildoers, keeping relations poor.
Well, situations change, so that could happen.
Fine, set the Shadowless Gate aside for now.
"But why aren't there any of those common beggars around? I mean the Beggars' Sect, with their knotted ropes on their waists. If the Shadowless Gate is out, we should at least get help from the Beggars' Sect."
"The Beggars' Sect... is gone now."
"Hm? Gone?"
"When the Righteous-Demonic Great War broke out, they were the first to be massacred. Because they wandered scattered, each with weak individual strength. Because they had to roam the streets, and anyone could recognize them. They were the first targets of the unorthodox evil factions and the Demonic Cult."
"Ahh."
"If the Beggars' Sect had combed their hair and worn normal clothes, they might not have suffered so much. But they didn't. They fled still dressed as beggars and died that way. So now... the Beggars' Sect is gone. As far as we know."
Her story was utterly ridiculous.
Sure, I understood that their beggar appearance was the Beggars' Sect's identity.
And I got that sometimes you have to uphold your identity even with a knife to your throat.
But there were limits. You needed some flexibility.
Sticking to rules to the point of total annihilation—is that truly the right rule?
"Haa. I see. So the Beggars' Sect is wiped out too."
It felt hopeless.
No way to obtain information at all.
This vast land. Countless people.
Information was essential for anything, but the places that provided it were gone.
I considered using the Xi'an Merchant House's network but dismissed it.
Merchants and the martial world dealt in different kinds of information.
There'd be some overlap, but it wouldn't satisfy.
If desperate, I'd use it, but the Xi'an Merchant House's influence would drop sharply outside Shaanxi Province.
Should I just make my own?
With the Beggars' Sect gone and the Shadowless Gate turned into black faction dogs, there was a vacancy.
Why not create an information network to fill that unclaimed territory?
But that wasn't easy. An information organization wasn't simple to build.
It needed infrastructure and personnel.
What kind of information group would it be if it was crawling with spies from elsewhere?
It'd just be a sucker organization.
"Sir hero."
"Hm?"
I was lost in thought when Seolha called me.
Her expression was a bit serious, like she was pondering something.
"What? You called me—speak up."
"If it's not too impertinent... may I ask something out of curiosity?"
"Go ahead. Why beat around the bush?"
"...What kind of person are you, sir hero?"
"What?"
"You're my benefactor, sir hero. So I don't doubt you at all. I'm just curious. You're incredibly powerful, but you seem completely unaware of certain things."
Sharp one. She noticed that.
Well, I hadn't bothered hiding it around her, so she could pick up on it.
"You're right. Good eye. Mm. I've been in closed-door training until recently and just emerged. So it's natural I don't know what's going on in the world."
"Ahh... I see."
"Yeah. So if there's something I don't know, tell me. I'm not the type to be ashamed of my ignorance."
"Yes, I understand, sir hero."
Straight facts. Pure truth without a hint of lies.
So it resolved simply. That's why I loved wuxia worldviews.
"Haa. Anyway, about that—any good ideas? I want information, but there's no reliable source."
"In that case, you should go to the Shadowless Gate."
Seolha's words made a question mark pop up over my head automatically.
What was she saying? Hadn't she just said with her own mouth that the Shadowless Gate had become evil faction lackeys?
And it seemed they'd suffered at their hands too?
But seeing her light smile, I instantly got it.
A smile tinged with a woman's resentment. The kind that sent chills down your spine.
"Ah, got it. So go to them and 'extract' the information I want, right? Yeah?"
"Yes, exactly. Scum like the Shadowless Gate don't deserve respect."
Whoa, scary. Even scarier when she said it with a smile.
"Good idea. I was overthinking it. I'll check that out. Thanks for the advice."
"No problem."
Seolha beamed, and in that moment, the fate of the Shadowless Gate's Chang'an branch was sealed.
Unfortunately.