Black Cat, Please Remove Your Veil and Deactivate Shadow Image Qi Gong -1
The sudden flood of information left my mind in chaos.
Black Cat was the leader of Wolbokdang? No—what surprised me more was that Wolbokdang, an information organization I had dismissed as baseless rumor on the level of the Shadowless Divine Thief, actually existed.
If I had not learned of the Tae-yang Society’s existence through that hot-headed Da-jeoyong, I might well have decided she was lying.
Even as those critical pieces of information poured out, a clear question rose sharply in my heart.
From the moment I granted enlightenment to Yeo Il-ye, I had steeled myself for the incidents and accidents that would follow from the insights I provided. Among those preparations was the possibility that someone would discover I could give enlightenment at all.
The fact that Black Cat had used a truth serum on me was shocking, but…
I could not deny that things had ended this cleanly only because it was Black Cat who realized I could grant enlightenment to others.
If it had been someone intent on using me instead of Black Cat? Hmm. I would rather not imagine it. Had anyone else learned that I could give enlightenment, I might still be breathing, but Ho Cheon-an’s life would already have been finished.
That was also why I had only nursed suspicions about Black Cat for a short while before dropping them.
Black Cat uses me so that I can give Tang Do-gyeong the enlightenment I want him to receive. In the process she leaves room for herself to be suspected while also burning through expensive rare treasures.
This is… far too devoted, isn’t it? Black Cat is taking nothing but losses, yet she has been acting for my sake.
And it turned out to be true.
Just considering that much, there was no room left to doubt that Black Cat’s attitude toward me was sincere.
I fully understood she had no intention of harming me.
Her wish to travel with me was surely sincere as well.
Sincere… but let’s carefully reexamine this once more.
From the beginning Black Cat had fully grasped the danger of being able to handle another person’s enlightenment. She understood perfectly that it was an untouchable prize.
Unprovable information cannot be sold. In this Murim Cheonha the most common rumors were precisely the ones that inflamed a martial artist’s desires. Some miraculous Taoist left his secret formulas on a cliff. Some warrior ascended to immortality on a certain mountain. Some extraordinary figure granted enlightenment to someone and vanished.
If she merely wanted to peddle rumors, she could have done so. Was there any need for the leader herself to step forward and verify whether the rumor was true?
The fundamental reason Black Cat sought me out. Simple curiosity? It explained things, yet I could not quite accept it.
Had she not said with her own mouth that there had been no solid grounds for infiltrating just to confirm it?
Yet Black Cat had freely slipped into the Wanderer Inn as a Sichuan Nangin.
At that point I became certain. Certain that something she wanted existed inside my information.
So the question inevitably arose.
Something Black Cat herself did not consciously recognize—something she expected and hoped for from me. The real reason she had come looking for me.
What on earth was it?
Having to match a psychology that even Black Cat did not know… this was going to be a very long conversation.
“...A conversation…?”
“Yes. You know almost everything about me. Yet I still don’t know you.”
First I would dig into that Shadow Image Qi Gong and the face veil.
No one remained in the inn. From the moment Black Cat began to shed tears, the cook-cum-proprietor and the waiter had fled somewhere. Sensing that the situation was anything but ordinary, they had immediately vacated their posts—the mark of seasoned innkeepers.
“Still no intention of showing your face?”
“..Anyone who sees my face—especially my eyes—will be enchanted. Even without showing my eyes, they can gradually fall under the charm. If their martial realm is high they usually… have strong resistance, but Senior is…”
“Ha. This body. First-rate.”
Black Cat closed her mouth. The look on her face made it plain that First-rate was nowhere near enough, so I could only scratch my head in awkward silence.
“Haven’t you thought of seeking treatment?”
“Well… it isn’t that I never sought out renowned physicians, but since it isn’t a condition that can be cured overnight, the physicians themselves end up enchanted. There’s no way an enchanted physician would listen if I asked him to remove the very source of the charm.”
That made immediate sense.
“Do you think even the Poison Doctor would be impossible? Why didn’t you at least mention it?”
“I’ve never shown my face to a master I truly couldn’t handle. It isn’t that I disregard the Poison Doctor’s mental fortitude, but among those who have looked into my eyes for any length of time, there has never been one the enchantment failed to affect.”
Hearing that, I had to admit it sounded genuinely dangerous. A Transformation Realm poison master reduced to a state where no one could predict what he might do.
“And Senior’s treatment takes priority… and if the treatment dragged on too long, Senior might abandon me and leave…”
“Haha…”
Black Cat fidgeted with her fingers, murmuring half to herself.
Watching her, I rose from my seat.
“Let’s go.”
Medical questions belonged to medical experts.
The Poison Doctor was drinking tea alone in an open lot a short distance from the inn. He had apparently been giving space until Yeo Il-ye finished her business.
“Haha. So. You’re asking me for a way to remain unharmed while traveling with that young lady who possesses the Great Yin Constitution?”
“Oh—you already know Black Cat’s condition?”
“I knew the moment I laid eyes on her. She simply wasn’t my patient, so I chose not to show it. And you called her Black Cat? You already knew as well, didn’t you?”
Black Cat nodded in silence.
“Is there a method of treatment?”
“Well. Treatment. I understand fundamental treatment is impossible. In the end the Great Yin Constitution has Great Yin energy as the very foundation of the body—true original qi, one might say—so there is nothing to do but manage it carefully.”
“Basically one controls the energy with a stealth art as she is doing now… or, once the realm reaches Transformation, the problem resolves itself. When one awakens to the control of qi, even energy radiating outward can be restrained.”
“...Elder.”
“Haha. Forgive me. But treatment is the process of returning something unnatural to its natural state. Constitution, however, is innate; that condition itself is natural. Artificially altering it to produce a desired effect is truly difficult.”
Transformation Realm was not some stray dog’s name. Even if Black Cat could eventually reach it, closed-door training from this moment onward would still take at least ten years.
“You, however, have no need to worry.”
“...Pardon?”
“It means that even if you travel with that young lady, there will be no particular problem.”
“Is that— is that truly so?”
Just as I was about to ask what he meant, Black Cat rushed forward. The Poison Doctor did not take offense at her impatience; he only laughed heartily.
“Forgive me, young lady. I know you are companions with this friend, yet explaining further is a little difficult.”
“That’s…!”
“Would you mind giving us a moment alone?”
Black Cat nodded weakly, said she would wait in front of the inn, and left. The Poison Doctor let out a long sigh.
“As you may have guessed, the matter concerns blood, so I had no choice but to send the young lady away.”
“What effect does my blood produce?”
“Precisely. As I told you before, countless energies are already melted into your blood. Clumps of vessels packed so tightly that even the qi-reinforcement phenomenon cannot occur. As I once compared it, they also serve as a dam.”
So other energies found it difficult to invade.
“You will still feel the Great Yin Constitution’s influence to some degree. Gaps have appeared, so Great Yin qi will seep in. Yet not only is seepage difficult; even what does enter cannot gather for long, and thus produces no dramatic effect. You will be immune not merely to the Great Yin Constitution but to most enchantment effects as well.”
“Hmm… I see.”
As one’s realm rose, enchantment resistance gradually lessened—was that the idea?
Enchantment resistance… I had obtained completely unexpected information. With this trait there would surely be secret realms or caves I could exploit.
No, no—now was not the time to think of such things.
“Elder, if my condition eases enough for me to reach Peak Realm, how much of that enchantment immunity would remain?”
“Hmm. Peak Realm… Even without the absolute immunity you possess now, by then your own skill will have risen accordingly, so you should at least possess resistance.”
The Poison Doctor laughed as though my question were absurd.
“Is this truly the moment to worry about such things? May this old man offer a word of advice?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Do you have a lover at present?”
“I do not.”
“Then it is not bad. I have seen a great many patients.”
He sighed and drank his tea.
“In truth, treating patients is not a particularly pleasant task. The more serious the illness, the easier it becomes to abandon manners and shame. Physical abnormality twists the heart as well. Even those who lived kindly will rage and cease to consider others when faced with grave disease.”
“A Great Yin Constitution dense with energy like that young lady’s is a body that appears perhaps once in several hundred or a thousand years. Quite apart from the charm, her beauty alone would contend for first under heaven. Because of the Great Yin energy, men flock and women envy; she must have lived a life full of twists and turns.”
“Mm.”
“That young lady has likely had nowhere to rest her heart her entire life. She must have been lonely in every direction. The phrase ‘lonely as the edge of the sky’ suits her well. Yet heaven is not entirely heartless. Is that not so?”
Loneliness.
Loneliness—was that it? The word the Poison Doctor spoke touched the very doubt I had been carrying.
Black Cat had infiltrated in person to confirm whether I truly understood others’ enlightenment. Yes—if I possessed ability as “Ho Cheon-an,” she would have wanted to know whether that ability stemmed from the rare treasures I held or whether I myself was special.
If I was special…
Could she not walk beside someone who, like herself, carried the Great Yin Constitution? Or if not walk beside, at least interact in some fashion? Had she not harbored such an expectation?
Black Cat had been searching for her own kind. A companion with whom she could share something—someone isolated from the world by specialness, just as she was.
“...I’ll be going.”
“Go on.”
The distance had been only about thirty meters to begin with.
Even while walking that short stretch, many thoughts flashed through my mind.
What had I been like that night Black Cat put me to sleep? I had lost the memory, yet she said she had seized me when I was about to leave, hand already on the doorknob.
Had some brilliant idea struck me then? Well. At least until the moment I was swinging firewood, intent on setting the inn ablaze, and Yu Sa-yeon struck me in the side, I had been thinking of nothing at all.
I had probably dashed out with the simple resolve to act first and clean up later.
Perhaps that was why Black Cat stopped me. Because she did not want my specialness to leak out. Because she saw in me someone who could live free of the troublesome affairs that plagued her own life.
I had not walked far before Black Cat’s restless back came into view. She was circling the inn entrance, unable to keep still.
“I kept you waiting.”
Her footsteps halted.
“..Is the talk finished?”
“Yes.”
My resolve was finished as well.
I decided to awaken Black Cat’s heart—the true heart hidden deep in that clumsy cat’s chest, a heart even she herself did not know.
“Black Cat, show me your face.”