The Cure for Jeolmok Jeong (1)
Abandoned orphan. Magyo assassin. More than any of that, my identity was closer to that of a physician.
My master was the Demon Physician Baek Myeon, but above all, the skill I'd mastered to survive was medicine.
A physician must think logically and systematically, eliminating possibilities one by one to arrive at the truth. Diagnose the illness, then find the treatment. That was the mindset my master had instilled in me as a physician.
It's not enough to just lay a feverish patient down and slap a wet towel on their forehead. The process of using my knowledge and experience to pinpoint that one true answer formed the foundation of my life.
In that sense, right up until this situation arose, I could make various proposals to the father and daughter of Moyong Sega.
There are as many prescriptions as there are illnesses, so I could suggest countless possibilities for the current circumstances. But mentioning those possibilities now was meaningless.
The physician Seok Mu Wol had spent one night with Moyong Sega's forbidden treasure, the Sword Saint's terminally ill daughter Moyong Seol, and her Jeolmok Jeong was cured.
Because I'd blurted that out at a grand banquet attended by representatives from the Nine Great Sects, Five Great Families, and even the imperial palace.
Naturally, I was worried about the fallout.
"Jeolmok Jeong is cured?! Impossible! That's an incurable disease! How many have died from it already?!"
Denial. I worried about the confusion from those whose common sense had been upended overnight. I understood—they were reacting the same way I had at first.
"We can't deny it's cured, but from just one night together? No way. The divine physician must have found some method. There's no way yin-yang union could cure an incurable disease."
"He must have created some incredible medicine. Better than Shaolin's Daehwan-dan... a miraculous drug that cures any illness!"
Skepticism. Different from outright denial, but still refusing to believe Moyong Sega's official announcement. I worried about that reaction too. I understood—I'd rather believe it was the pill my master left behind that had worked.
"Jeolmok Jeong cured...? Is it because Moyong Seol is the daughter of the world's greatest swordsman, the Sword Saint? Or is it thanks to that divine physician Seok Mu Wol over there?"
Analysis. Even in the chaos, speculating on how the cure happened. I worried about that too. I understood—there was only one patient like Moyong Seol, and countless others still suffering.
I figured there would be plenty denying it, casting doubts, and analyzing it. But what worried me even more were the ones like this.
"Listen here, Sword Saint!!"
Their eyes sparkling with hope.
"Tell us the truth! Please!!"
"Calm down, Lord of the Tang Family."
"How can I calm down now?! Jeolmok Jeong has been cured!!"
First came the likes of Sacheon Tang Family head—Poison King Dang Sahyuk—who had crossed the central plains from Sacheon Castle all the way to Yodong Castle.
"If your daughter was cured, then mine can be too, right?!"
Families of Jeolmok Jeong patients.
"Please tell us! What method did you use?! I believe the Sword Saint wouldn't hide a cure for Jeolmok Jeong by using his own daughter!"
"...Brother Dang. You know I wouldn't resort to such tricks."
A few nodded briefly at the Sword Saint's words.
"Does that even make sense?! Curing Jeolmok Jeong by sharing a bed?! Ah, y-you mean... that, right?! Huh?! Holding hands all night and circulating innate true energy, or some special dual cultivation technique?! That's it, right?! Huh?!"
Desperation filled the Poison King's eyes. The usually cold and intellectual man—likened to a venomous snake for his serpentine nature—was rambling incoherently now.
Conflicting emotions clashing at once: wanting to believe, yet unable to accept.
If Moyong Seol's Jeolmok Jeong really improved because she slept with me. And if that method was truly nothing but genuine yin-yang union.
"Does that mean... my daughter could be cured if she spends a night with the divine physician too...? Huh? Is that it...?!"
Hope dawned, but as a father, it was a method that twisted the heart too much to choose.
"......"
The Sword Saint fell silent. Without denying it, he simply nodded quietly.
"Hah, hahaha...."
"Sword Saint."
Thud.
"May this alliance leader speak for a moment?"
Stepping forward with a heavy footfall, Murim Alliance Leader Taesangjingun advanced.
"Everyone is confused now. If we don't resolve this chaos, not just Moyong Sega but all of murim will fall into turmoil. So let's halt the banquet—"
"Halt... the banquet?"
The Sword Saint took one step forward.
Thud!
Several people staggered. It felt like the earth was pulling harder, the air gaining weight that pressed down from above, making bodies heavy.
"Moyong Sega hosted this banquet, so whether it continues is Moyong's decision."
The Sword Saint extended his hand sideways. The sword of blue sword-gang in his grip began emitting black light, his blue eyes flashing as he scanned the assembly.
"Today's banquet celebrates my daughter's cure and publicly announces her engagement to Physician Seok Mu Wol. The vows... have already been exchanged directly from their own mouths."
To reiterate, I had all sorts of worries.
The issue of my Magyo origins hanging over me. The cure for Jeolmok Jeong itself. The world's greatest beauty, whom no one had seen as a marriage pawn because she was doomed to die—now, countless would target Moyong Seol, or me.
And the biggest problem.
Kill Moyong Seol.
The Cheonma's order.
Kill Moyong Cheon's daughter in the most miserable way possible. Make the Sword Saint shed bloody tears, feel pain like losing the world.
That is your reason for living.
Assassins who disobey the order are killed by the demonic spirits sent by the Cheonma. Just like my master had been slain by a Magyo assassin.
But.
What use were such worries?
"I only wish my daughter will never shed tears from pain again, be it of body or heart."
Nine Great Sects, Five Great Families, imperial palace, Magyo, even the Cheonma.
"No one can persecute Moyong. No matter the circumstances."
A greater threat loomed there than the "threat of death" encompassing them all.
"As long as this Moyong Cheon lives and breathes, any who dare act recklessly or shame the Moyong family will face my sword."
Flash.
The moment something blue shimmered behind Moyong Cheon, multiple blue lights began twinkling in his wake.
"Chilseong Geom (Seven Star Sword)...!"
Seven swords formed of sword energy.
They hovered behind him—more precisely, guarding me and Moyong Seol like protective guardians—glimmering fiercely.
"Eogeom technique (Sword Control Technique)...!"
Afloat in the air.
"Any who disrupt the banquet will be cut down by these swords."
The world's greatest.
In some eras, the second might match the greatest evenly. But in this era's murim world, Moyong Cheon was truly like the "heavens."
An untouchable "supreme sovereign."
Who would dare challenge him with force, when he wields seven sword-gangs as independent flying swords?
My master had said it.
The Cheonma was the strongest leader in Ilwol Singyo's history. Without the Sword Saint, the central plains would be under Ilwol Singyo's rule.
...Thanks to the Sword Saint, they call themselves Magyo and bow their heads.
Not a single person here would find it odd to be slain by the Cheonma.
The entire central plains couldn't defeat that Cheonma back then. Yet the Sword Saint Moyong Cheon felled him single-handedly without spilling a drop of blood.
The world's greatest... no, perhaps the greatest in history—the strongest warrior across all murim annals.
Such a man was sparing my life, protecting me.
Let the Cheonma or whoever come.
The swords aimed outward would turn on me only in one moment.
"Moyong Seol."
I grasped Moyong Seol's waist.
"I will ensure no tears ever fall from your eyes."
As long as I didn't make Moyong Seol cry, the Sword Saint's swords wouldn't target me.
"...How will you do that?"
Moyong Seol's eyes were already glistening with tears.
"I'll be so happy every day... I'll end up crying anyway."
Ah.
This woman—was she plotting to assassinate me after all? Or her own father?
Either way.
Her tearful, beaming smile toward me was so breathtakingly beautiful that for a long while, nothing else around me registered—neither sight nor sound.
All my senses were filled with Moyong Seol alone.
* * *
The banquet ended.
Leave for today. I will not forgive any disturbance.
If the commotion causes my daughter's Jeolmok Jeong to relapse, my sword will show no mercy.
Moyong Cheon had declared to the Murim Alliance Leader that the banquet would continue, but that was just pressure to assert Moyong Sega's control over the situation.
Step, step.
Moyong Seol and I quietly followed behind Moyong Cheon.
"F-Family head...! Eek...!"
Everyone we passed on the way cleared aside. Not just retainers in the compound, but even the servants.
"B-Brother!"
The one who mustered courage was Moyong Cheon's blood brother and Moyong Seol's uncle—
"San. We'll talk later. Withdraw for now."
Moyong San.
But Moyong Cheon immediately dismissed him.
"B-Brother! No, family head! What in the world is...!"
Even family members were in the dark.
About Moyong Seol's cure.
"I rushed here when I heard she collapsed, and now this chaos...!"
"In half a shichen, the Murim Alliance Leader, Sinseung, and the Ami Fairy will return as representatives to step through our main gate again. Guide them to the reception hall."
"......Understood."
Moyong San bowed to Moyong Cheon's command.
"But... is it really true? Cured in just one night?"
"......"
"I-I see. I'll follow your orders, brother."
After sending Moyong San away, we walked deep into the Moyong Sega compound before the surroundings finally quieted.
"Moyong Seol, and Physician Seok Mu Wol."
The Sword Saint halted abruptly in place.
"The world will come seeking you two. Especially you, Physician Seok—you must have some inkling already."
"Yes, family head."
"Yet you acted anyway, so your resolve is firm."
"It is."
The water was spilled. From the moment yin and yang united, piercing Moyong Seol's meridians and erasing the Jeolmok Jeong, I'd made up my mind.
"Stay in the safest place in the sega for the time being. The innermost annex."
"Ah, Father. That place is...?"
"The annex where your mother and I lived together."
"Ah... th-then. Um."
Moyong Seol cautiously approached the Sword Saint, clutching his sleeve.
"You said the Jeolmok Jeong cure was because of... that."
"...Yes."
"Th-then... in that house, in that room."
Apparently.
"...Can I keep doing the Jeolmok Jeong treatment with the physician?"
"What?"
Moyong Seol was plotting to assassinate her father too.
"I-I mean. Maybe because some time passed... I feel a slight chill or something... Kyaa?!"
Moyong Cheon seized Moyong Seol's wrist in an instant.
He held it still for a long moment, then with a deeply shocked expression—
"Physician Seok."
"Yes, family head."
"Take her pulse."
He extended her wrist to me.
"......!"
The moment I placed my hand, I knew intuitively.
"This is no joking matter."
It wasn't a complete cure.
Confirmed.
"Ph-Physician?"
"Physician Seok."
"Yes, family head."
Moyong Cheon signaled me discreetly, out of Moyong Seol's sight.
"From now on, with my daughter...."
Grind.
"Investigate the correlation between yin-yang union and Jeolmok Jeong improvement immediately. Confirm if there's any connection. Now."
"D-Dad?! I-I didn't mean I wanted to do this and that in your and Mom's love nest with the physician...!"
"Seol-ah."
Moyong Cheon placed a hand on the flustered Moyong Seol's shoulder.
"If you don't firmly establish that connection, other women will try to 'verify the theory.'"
"!!"
A lie to deceive Moyong Seol, but also a plausible justification.
"They'll attempt treatment with Physician Seok."
Moyong Seol's body stiffened taut. Not even noticing her own claimed "chill" was real.
"You saw Poison King Dang Sahyuk. If I weren't here, Physician Seok might already be kidnapped and dragged to Sacheon by now."
"...I see."
"So you must uncover it somehow."
The thesis.
Is the Jeolmok Jeong cure truly yin-yang union?
If yin-yang union works, is it because the patient is the daughter of the world's greatest?
Or is it a miracle only Physician Seok Mu Wol can perform?
I didn't know for myself, but for Moyong Cheon—showing the face of a father displeased with his daughter's lover physician—the ideal conclusion was one.
"That the improvement was mere coincidence and miracle. Absolutely unrelated to yin-yang union."
Deriving further theories from the thesis would collapse the baseless assumption.
Yin-yang union is unrelated to Jeolmok Jeong treatment—that premise.
"Understood?"
"...Yes!!"
Moyong Seol replied vigorously.
"I'll head to the bedroom with the physician right now! Hurry, Physician!!"
She grabbed my wrist and dashed off, dragging me along.
"...Physician."
Mid-drag, the Sword Saint called me.
"Yes, family head."
"Honestly, I hope it's unrelated, just like the lie you told Seol."
Honestly, I hoped so too.
I'm not in my right mind.
Reason versus emotion, murim common sense versus the world's greatest's intuition on phenomena—they warred wildly within.
My honest feeling was like his: just coincidence and miracle, cured without me.
"What say you? As a physician, as a man. ...Unrelated?"
"As a physician, as a man, without shame before my late master, I speak only the truth."
But I knew.
"There is a connection."
"I see."
The Sword Saint closed his eyes.
"So it is that way...."
Sorry, Father-in-law.
I knew well, having performed the treatment myself.
When exactly the meridians opened.
What decisive trigger improved the symptoms after.
And why yin energy briefly gathered around the meridians.
We slept. It got better.
I'd said it clearly from the start. And she'd answered my examination clearly.
Are you saying my daughter's meridians normalized because you took her virginity?
"Then."
Moyong Cheon pointed ahead.
"I entrust my daughter's treatment to you. Continue well."
The annex filled with memories of him, Moyong Seol's mother—the woman he loved.
"...Wait."
As I approached Moyong Seol waving from the annex entrance, Moyong Cheon grabbed me.
"A theoretical blind spot just occurred to me."
"Yes, family head."
"...Does it have to be inside? If it's infusing yang energy, raising body heat should suffice, no?"
As expected of the world's greatest master.
"Even without inserting the needle... isn't that acupuncture? Right? Huh?"
Not even present, never witnessed it, yet deducing the core of the Jeolmok Jeong treatment from circumstantial evidence alone.
"I'll give it a try."
"...What?"
"Well."
I formed a fist salute toward the Sword Saint and replied.
"I've never tried it outdoors."