The Miracle Worker (2) [Meanwhile, at Mudangpa]
[At that moment, Mudangpa.]
One of the Nine Great Sects, a sect where those who seek to cultivate the Dao and become immortals gather—Mudangpa had also received word of the events unfolding at Moyong Sega.
"Heh heh, the sect leader will have quite the ordeal ahead."
The oldest elder in Mudangpa, a generation above even the sect leader and addressed as the 'Taesang Elder' within the sect, scratched his bald head and chuckled heartily at the news delivered by the messenger pigeon.
"Geomhu—that wild filly finally couldn't suppress her hot blood and caused a scene."
"Taesang Elder. Is it alright to speak of Geomhu in such terms?"
A young Taoist with a handsome face and imposing build asked.
"Listen well, my grand-disciple Changhyeon."
"Yes, Grandmaster."
Mudangpa's chief disciple, Changhyeon, straightened his posture.
"There was a term used for the later-generation talents in the Central Plains martial world, passed down from my era. Do you recall what it was?"
"The young heroes of the martial world were called the Nine Dragons for men, and the Six Phoenixes for women."
"Correct. The Nine Dragons and Six Phoenixes. What do they call them now?"
"The Nine Dragons and Six Flowers."
"Yes. Flowers. Back when Sword Saint Moyong Cheon was active, he once commented on those 'Six Phoenixes.' The character for phoenix implies the male, so why call the most beautiful women the Six Phoenixes? Why not the Six Huang?"
"Are you saying to become strong enough to change even the martial world's long-standing traditions?"
"The conclusion is similar. Do you wish to realize it yourself, or shall I tell you directly?"
"For matters of martial arts, the former; for the principles of life, the latter."
"Very well, then I shall tell you plainly."
Mudangpa's Taesang Elder, the Daoist Dongjeong, spoke with gravity.
"If you're handsome or pretty, you're forgiven first and foremost."
"...Pardon?"
"That's Geomhu for you."
Seeing Daoist Dongjeong's expression, chief disciple Changhyeon had a hunch of 'could it be,' but he quickly schooled his face and bowed his head.
"As a junior in the martial world, it's hard for me to speak freely of a senior, but no matter how lovely she may be, not everything is forgiven, is it?"
"Quite right. But before overwhelming beauty, one's thoughts change. It's because you haven't met a truly beautiful woman."
"You mean..."
Chief disciple Changhyeon subtly stepped back.
"To meet Moyong Sega's daughter, the martial world's top beauty who just cured her Blocked Meridian Syndrome?"
"Hm..."
"Grandmaster?"
"Somewhat similar? No, can she compare?"
"Pardon?"
"You didn't see Geomhu when she first emerged in the martial world."
Daoist Dongjeong rose from his seat, hands clasped behind his back.
"She was like a single blooming phoenix flower. Beautiful enough to make Sinseung contemplate breaking his precepts, enough to make even this Daoist wonder if he should walk the secular path."
"That..."
At that sight, Changhyeon intuited.
"Just how beautiful was she?"
"The world's greatest beauty. The pinnacle of the Six Phoenixes, the Full Sword Flower."
"......."
"If her rejuvenation had turned her not into her mid-thirties appearance, but her early or mid-twenties, countless men in the world would have challenged Geomhu."
"......."
Chanhyeon's expression twisted oddly, but Daoist Dongjeong didn't notice.
"If someone saw her at twenty."
Whoosh.
"Even what wouldn't stand would rise again—a miracle like that would occur."
The few remaining strands of Daoist Dongjeong's hair fluttered in the wind.
"But time is impermanent in the end. How can one grasp what has passed? All that's left is to yearn, to reminisce, and reflect on memories."
Swish.
"How futile to cling to what's already gone. In the natural order, humans are mere transient beings. If such a thing were achieved, it could only be called a miracle aligned with heaven's will."
"......."
Chanhyeon thought his grandmaster's head shone especially brightly today, but he bowed his head silently, steeling his heart once more.
Crystal clear mirror, still waters.
Chanhyeon emptied his mind, gazing at his grandmaster Daoist Dongjeong's bald head, round and radiant like the sun.
A miracle had occurred.
It was true when Blocked Meridian Syndrome was cured, but seeing Geomhu now made it even clearer.
What the hell am I?
What effects do the things from my body produce? No, what the hell is even happening right now?
As a physician, I couldn't believe this situation, and as a martial artist somewhat involved in the jianghu, it was incomprehensible.
"Moyong Seol. Is rejuvenation... this easy?"
"I've never experienced it, but surely not to this extent."
Moyong Seol stared at the bed with a tense face.
Fortunately, she was clothed with nothing exposed, but if rejuvenation had happened while naked, Moyong Seol would have covered my eyes on the spot.
"My god."
Moyong Seol swallowed hard, gazing at Geomhu.
"That's... Geomhu."
"Mm."
I scanned Geomhu up and down.
Her hair had turned a slight gray-white unlike a Blocked Meridian patient, but it wasn't the white of an elder—it held a mystical aura.
And above all, that face and skin.
Even biased toward Moyong Seol, whom I cherished, I'd declare her the best, but asked who came next, I could assert it again.
The woman before me, around twenty(?).
"...First things first."
Geomhu spoke.
"I need to choose a suitable modern name for this body."
Looking at her reflection in the mirror, Geomhu spoke seriously.
"If I go around calling myself Geum Geomnye around like this, everyone will suspect."
"That..."
"If it's about speech, I'm asking you, Physician Seok and Moyong Seol, so of course I'm speaking like this."
She knew.
That her current speech was that of the senior Geomhu herself.
"Did you... speak like this at twenty?"
"...Physician Seok. I understand what you're implying."
Geomhu ran her hand over the shed skin from her body as she replied.
"From now on, I'll live like I did at twenty."
"?"
Her voice changed.
"...I deliberately made my voice heavier before. I've spoken like this since I was twenty."
"That."
Moyong Seol wouldn't either—but she didn't say it.
No matter that the Sword Saint protected me, if Geomhu stabbed me with a sword, he'd say 'that's your fault' and subtly let me be.
"Is it real?"
"Why would this girl lie?"
"......."
"I can't go around saying I'm Geomhu in this form, so from now on, I have no choice but to thoroughly hide my identity as Physician Seok and Moyong Sega suggest, right?"
Geomhu—Geum Geomnye had already steeled her resolve.
"With the white mask Physician Seok uses to cover my face, and a white robe over physician garb, no one will suspect much. Ah, Geomhu's helping with the medical hall while staying at Moyong Sega."
"Wait."
No way.
"You want to become a nurse?"
"That doesn't sound bad."
Geomhu covered her mouth with one hand and smiled faintly.
That look was the very image of a blooming twenty-year-old maiden—snap out of it.
I mustn't be bewitched.
No matter if divine beings like the Primordial Heavenly Venerable or Jade Emperor wrought a second rejuvenation miracle out of pity for Geomhu's plight, the woman before me was eighty-six years old—
"Ah. Come to think of it, even back then, they said I looked younger than my age."
"...So what will you do?"
"Living as seventeen might be fine too, Physician."
"......."
"What do you think, Sister Moyong?"
"Uh, that."
The arrow—no, Geomhu's blade turned to Moyong Seol.
"Sister?"
"Yes. Sister Seol is twenty, and I, Geum Serin, am seventeen."
She'd already picked a name in the meantime.
"One thing I'd like to ask. Geom—no, a new title, no, thoroughly."
Slap.
I swallowed hard.
I slapped my cheek hard, steeling my resolve.
"Nurse Geum."
"Yes, Physician Seok."
My heart stabbed, my gut twisted, but.
"Your body is young, but your martial arts remain the same?"
"Martial arts... yes. The martial arts are unchanged."
Without any preparation, Geomhu extended her hand sideways, and a vivid pink sword aura flowed from her palm, forming a sword.
Gulp.
Moyong Seol swallowed, seeing Geomhu's aura.
"A question."
"Ask freely, Sister Seol."
"...Before the Extreme Yang Pill, your sword aura wasn't this color, right?"
"...Indeed."
Geomhu gazed at her pristine pink sword aura and smiled wistfully.
"Perhaps this is the color I desired."
"......."
"The color from when I was twenty. Untouchable by any, untouched so long it faded with time. Physician. Later, to confirm—"
"Just the results. Results only."
I stood.
"When appearing as Geomhu, use mask and disguise; as Nurse Geum, wear nurse-appropriate attire. For Nurse Geum... say she's a hidden sword of Haedong Geomgak that Geomhu attached."
"Oh, where are you going, Physician?"
"Someone to ask."
I pointed north of Moyong Sega.
"I'll go see the Sword Saint."
Rustle.
Leaves scattered in the wind, dust brushing the tombstone.
The Sword Saint brushed off the dust with his hand, then rose to greet the one entering the pavilion courtyard.
"Physician Seok."
Me, Seok Mu Wol.
"You've already seen, I presume."
"What? The spectacle of a woman whose soul remains but body rejuvenated?"
As expected.
The Sword Saint's sword had already seen everything.
Then conversation shouldn't be an issue.
"...Anyone would desire their youthful body. It might be called rejuvenation, or a miracle."
"What are you trying to say?"
"My blood."
I drew my medical dagger and placed it over my palm.
"I want to check if it works on men too. If my body causes miracles, perhaps..."
"Perhaps?"
"Perhaps this body operates that way."
I lightly cut my palm, letting blood flow.
"A miraculous product that grants desperate wishes."
"...Then let me ask."
The Sword Saint narrowed his eyes at me.
"Why did you, unchanged for three years, suddenly produce such effects?"
"That is."
"For one, it alleviates Blocked Meridian Syndrome; for another, cures it while reverting to twenty; for yet another, over a full cycle—sixty years—back to her most beautiful, youngest prime. And Geomhu wasn't even a patient."
"Yes."
Thus, I had some 'certainty.'
"Do you think yourself some spirit beast, no, divine relic that works miracles on those who consume what comes from your body?"
"To confirm, I request of the Sword Saint."
I extended my hand.
"Will you check?"
"......."
The Sword Saint reached out with a complex expression, using sword control to draw my blood with aura.
"If a miracle occurs. If there's something you most desire."
Handling the blood more preciously than anything, he let it 'drip' onto the base of the tombstone.
"I'll call you son-in-law, son."
Drip.
No change.
"A miracle, eh."
The Sword Saint looked silently to the sky.
"It only works on the living, it seems."
"......."
"What miracle do I desire? Two things."
The Sword Saint turned to me, shaking his head lightly.
"My beloved daughter is already cured of her incurable disease and won't die—that's fulfilled. The other, heaven won't allow."
"......."
"If there were even a corpse, I'd fetch the coffin and try sprinkling on the bones, but even that's impossible. Sadly, no miracle for me."
The Sword Saint sighed deeply and smiled bitterly.
"Thanks for caring."
"Not at all, Family Head."
If the miracle had happened, would he really call me son-in-law or son?
Feeling a step closer, I was truly relieved.
"Right. Then let me ask. What do you think is the reason you became this 'miracle man'?"
Oh.
"The reason you grant the wishes of the living?"
"That is."
Why ask that now?
The mood was good—
"...There's only one change in me."
No helping it.
Only the truth.
"Before that night, I was a virgin."
"......."
"Nothing else about me changed."
Becoming an adult was likely when my constitution shifted.
"Your daughter made me the miracle worker."