How Could You Be So Generous? (4)
The Medicine Hall.
This place existed for one reason: to treat disciples who had been injured in battle or fallen into deviation while training.
The injuries suffered by martial artists were not the same as those of ordinary folk. That was why the sects that called themselves great and noble all established their own Medicine Halls, research of medicine being one of the very foundations a major sect needed.
In other words, for a prestigious sect, the Medicine Hall was a place that might not stand out, but was absolutely indispensable.
Ah.
Except, of course, for Mount Hua.
The Medicine Hall of Mount Hua was, to put it kindly, a paper tiger with a shiny face; to put it badly, it was no different from a glutton that did nothing but eat for free.
Just think about it.
Where would people have to go in order to get injured? But Mount Hua had, until now, remained in a state of half-seclusion and had not left its gates. So there was nowhere for the disciples to go and get hurt.
More than that, only excessive training could cause deviation, but Mount Hua was in a situation where every single disciple was precious, so they never put the disciples through training that might actually damage their bodies.
Which meant the Medicine Hall’s only job was occasionally prescribing medicine when some uselessly healthy and sturdy disciple got a stomachache.
What use was a Medicine Hall that had no patients to treat and couldn’t even make elixirs?
As a result, over the years, the Medicine Hall had been one of the main causes of Elder of Finance Hyun Young’s stomach trouble.
But!
They said even a mouse hole got sunlight some day, and at long last, the day finally came when Mount Hua poured all of its hopes into that Medicine Hall.
A strange groan drifted out from the noisy hall.
"Uuuuuuunnnnngh."
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh."
"D-don’t stop. Absolutely... absolutely must not stop! Never!"
The veins bulged in Medicine Hall Master Un-gak’s eyes.
The muscles in the forearm stirring the cauldron with an iron ladle stood out like cords of steel.
Yet for all that fierce-looking arm, his face was barely even human anymore. The dark shadows under his eyes had sunk almost to his chin, and his thick, overgrown beard looked ready to greet people first, like some bandit elder.
His sallow, weathered face was difficult to look at, and the sweat that had run down it had dried into white crusts of salt that kept flaking off.
The only thing still alive in Un-gak’s face was his eyes.
"It will... work! It absolutely will!"
His gaze burned with a terrifying light.
He looked utterly haggard, but his will was still burning as fiercely as ever.
"The inner energy must not weaken! Keep the heat steady! Sect Leader! Elder!"
"Uuuuuuunnnnngh..."
"I... think I’m going to die."
Hyun Jong and Hyun Sang were in no better shape.
Clutching the cauldron, the two of them had grown so gaunt they looked half-dead.
The skin-and-bones Hyun Jong, reduced to little more than a walking skeleton, clutched the cauldron with his bony arms and groaned.
"How much longer must we continue?"
"One more day."
"O-one more day..."
Hyun Jong’s face twisted in a way utterly unlike him.
By now, they were less like people and more like human campfires.
They had spent nine full days feeding their inner energy into the cauldron all day long, then recovering for a brief moment by forcing themselves into intense circulation while the other elders took over, and then being thrown right back in again.
The reason they couldn’t fully take turns was simple. There was no one else in Mount Hua who could sustain inner energy like they could.
The other elders couldn’t even last for one shichen. So the two of them had no choice but to spit blood while pouring out their inner energy.
"Uuuuuunnngh..."
As Hyun Jong let out an unbearable groan, a low voice pierced his ear.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What’s so hard about it?"
"...?"
Hyun Jong and Hyun Sang turned their heads, eyes gleaming with killing intent.
"Come on. Open up."
"...Ah."
As Hyun Jong opened his creaking mouth, Hyun Young spooned porridge into it. Since they couldn’t step away from their posts, Hyun Young had been cooking porridge every day, saying they had to eat somehow even if it was only like this.
"You too, Elder. Open up."
"I-I’m fi..."
"Shut up and open your mouth!"
"Nggh."
Hyun Sang, too, obediently accepted the porridge Hyun Young fed him like a baby bird.
At their age—an age when they should have been watching great-grandchildren and feeding them spoonfuls of porridge—they were being fed like children, and a wave of bitter sadness washed over them.
But Hyun Young showed no sympathy at all for those senior brothers.
"Don’t go around saying it’s hard! If it feels hard, then remember three years ago! It’s a hundred times better than ending up sleeping on the street!"
"...Right!"
"That’s true!"
New ferocity returned to the eyes of the two men, which had nearly gone out.
Yes, no matter how hard this was, it was hardship for the sake of the future. What was this compared to the days when they had to beg for loans just to buy grain to feed the disciples?
We have to succeed!
Even if I have to stand here and die, I’ll finish the elixir before I do!
Blood began to stream from Hyun Sang’s nose. But Hyun Young, as if he were used to it, grabbed the cloth beside him and roughly wiped it away.
"Focus! Sect Leader! You must focus!"
Un-gak glared as he kept stirring the cauldron. Moving the ladle at a steady pace, without so much as the slightest variation, there was even madness lurking in his eyes.
"Just one more day! If we endure just one more day, it’s over!"
"Yes! One day!"
"Only one day! Just one!"
They had survived nine days. Why wouldn’t they be able to endure one more?
The Medicine Hall was heated to a fever pitch. The elders of Mount Hua, prepared to sacrifice their own bodies for the future of the sect, began pouring their energy into the Honwon Dan without sparing themselves.
It is definitely becoming something.
The one fortunate thing was that the completion of the Honwon Dan could be seen with the naked eye.
Inside the lavish cauldron made of Ten Thousand Year Cold Iron, a milky-white liquid boiled.
The ingredients they had first put in were no longer recognizable as ingredients at all.
"Hmm. The fragrance is certainly deepening."
Day by day, the liquid in the cauldron had been releasing a richer, clearer aroma. That was definitely proof that something was taking shape.
The three men’s fierce eyes fixed on the cauldron.
Ssssssh.
Ssssssh.
The iron ladle scraped against the cauldron in a steady rhythm. They had heard that sound for nine whole days now; it was starting to feel like it would follow them even into their dreams.
"Elder! Your inner energy is weakening!"
"Uuuunnngh. I’m working on it!"
Hyun Sang, with his face dark as death, pushed more inner energy into the cauldron. Sweat poured down his forehead as if it were raining.
For a man his age to have done this for nine days straight—by now there probably wasn’t a single bone joint left in his body that didn’t ache.
Just as he bit down hard on his lips and tried to steady his mind, a calm voice reached their ears.
"Is it really that hard?"
All three of them turned their heads at once.
The one who had been sitting in a chair and silently watching them the whole time picked up a piece of jerky beside him and started chewing it with an unhurried, contented look.
"...?"
"...?"
Chung Myung.
Of course... well.
Right, he had accomplished a lot over this time. More than a lot, really. So it was understandable that he wanted to watch the Honwon Dan being completed. That I can understand perfectly well...
Then why the hell are you sitting there eating? Why!
When the sect leader and elders’ gazes shifted to the jerky in his hand, Chung Myung smiled brightly.
"Want some?"
"...No."
He was a very kind-hearted kid, but he also had the fatal flaw of being completely oblivious.
Hyun Jong gave an awkward cough and cautiously spoke.
"There doesn’t seem to be anything for you to do, so do you really need to stay there?"
"Ah, I’d like to go too."
"Hm?"
The answer came from beside them.
"Absolutely not!"
Hyun Young glared.
"How can you say that when you know what kind of job this is and then tell us to do it by ourselves?"
"And why again...?"
"Bluntly speaking, has there ever been a single good thing from Senior Brothers and me doing things together with that Un-gak bastard? We’ve only messed it all up and thrown money away!"
"..."
Thinking of those painful disasters from the past, Hyun Jong and Hyun Young couldn’t bring themselves to say a word.
"...But there’s nothing for that brat to do anyway!"
"What, are talismans used for no reason? Rich households don’t keep golden toads for no reason, either! We keep that guy by our side because it makes us feel safe, so don’t even think about chasing him out."
You little punk.
You’re a Daoist.
And you’re saying someone should be used like a talisman? A person? Is that even a sane thing to say?
More and more, Hyun Jong couldn’t shake the feeling that Mount Hua was turning upside down. Still, he also had no intention of forcing Chung Myung out.
Honestly, I’m a little uneasy too.
This was such a huge undertaking that doing it all among themselves felt unsettling. And while their hands were tied like this, what if Chung Myung went and caused some disaster?
Having him right there actually made him feel a little more at ease.
Chomp, chomp, chomp.
...As long as you ignored how infuriating he was to the point of hell itself.
As Chung Myung chewed the jerky with obvious satisfaction, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Medicine Hall Master. I think your hand’s gotten a little slow."
"I-is that so?"
"Elder. Your inner energy is getting a bit weak too."
"...R-really?"
"If it keeps wavering like that, the potency’ll drop, won’t it? The potency! We went to all this trouble gathering good ingredients, and now the medicine’s going to lose its edge?"
"Uuuunngh."
Every word was correct.
That made it even more irritating. He finally understood why, since time immemorial, the people who spoke the truth were the ones whose necks got cut off first.
"One day! Just one day now! Don’t leave any lifelong regrets behind! Pour out the very last drop!"
"Uuuuuuuugh!"
It was at that very moment, just as everyone was steeling themselves again, that—
"Uh... uh?"
Un-gak’s arm, gripping the long iron ladle, started trembling violently.
"W-what’s happening... h-h-hah!"
His hands shook as if he were having a seizure. It was no longer possible to keep holding the ladle at all.
"N-no!"
Un-gak cried out, face drained white.
To make the Honwon Dan, the ingredients had to be stirred endlessly at a constant pace. And that wasn’t all. Inner energy had to be infused properly so the energy rising from the cauldron would be forced into the ingredients.
If that process failed, all these ingredients would become nothing but very expensive trash!
But no matter how hard he tried to tighten his grip, his hands no longer listened to him.
Immediately understanding the situation, Un-gak shouted with a face turned blue.
"S-someone! Please, someone else!"
"What?"
"P-please stir this! I can’t do it anymore!"
"Should I call the Medicine Hall disciples?"
As Hyun Young said anxiously, Un-gak shook his head hard.
"They won’t do! It has to be elders! We need someone with abundant inner energy!"
"Then me?"
"An-another elder? Is there anyone else?"
Everyone knew Hyun Young’s martial skill was nowhere near elder level, didn’t they?
"Hurry! N-no, if this goes on, the ingredients!"
At Un-gak’s desperate cry, Chung Myung finally shot to his feet.
"Fine!"
Then he rushed over and snatched the ladle from Un-gak’s hands.
"You’ve only been stirring for a few days and you’re already exhausted?"
"N-no, that’s not it..."
Un-gak, trying to make some kind of excuse, collapsed onto the spot. The moment the tension left him, all the strength drained out of his body and his consciousness began to recede into the distance.
"Uh oh..."
The moment one man began to fall, problems multiplied in quick succession.
"Kkhrrrk."
Thud.
"Oh no! Elder!"
Hyun Sang spewed blood from his nose and fell backward.
Hyun Young, horrified, rushed to Hyun Sang’s side. They had held out until now by pouring in inner energy together with Hyun Jong, but it seemed that was no longer possible.
"H-Hyun Sang... umph?"
Thump.
Hyun Jong, too, collapsed where he stood.
Sweat poured off his entire body like a waterfall. He had managed to replenish his inner energy somehow, but at his age, his physical strength could no longer keep up.
Hyun Young stared blankly at the fallen Hyun Sang and Hyun Jong.
This... this can’t be happening...?
There was only one day left, and now everyone was dropping out. What were they supposed to do about the Honwon Dan? Was this really the end?
Just as Hyun Young was about to sink into despair, he saw something bizarre in his field of vision.
"Damn it! Seriously!"
Chung Myung shouted furiously, grabbed the rim of the cauldron with one hand, and then began to stir the ladle furiously with the other.
"How many times did I have to go through hell to bring this thing back? There’s no such thing as failure, even if I die!"
Hyun Young glared as he looked at Chung Myung’s back, one hand pouring inner energy into the cauldron and the other whipping the ladle around. For a brief moment, it looked as though multiple arms were reaching out from him.
He threw the senior brothers aside without hesitation and rushed to Chung Myung’s side.
"Ch-Chung Myung! Will you be all right?"
"If I’m not all right, then I’ll just have to make it all right!"
"Yes, exactly! That’s right! That’s our Chung Myung!"
"Stay back a little."
"Right!"
Hyun Young jumped back immediately. By now, he no longer asked Chung Myung why he did anything.
"Haaaaaaap!"
With a forceful shout, Chung Myung raised his senses as high as they would go.
Through his perception, the ingredients inside the cauldron came into focus.
On the surface, they were ingredients that had completely melted together, but Chung Myung’s senses did not miss the subtle disturbances in their energy. Some places were too full, others too lacking. Those energies had to be made perfectly even.
That was probably the secret of the Honwon Dan.
"Fine. If it’s come to this, I’ll do it right."
If Yakseon’s Honwon Dan was the crystallization of perfect harmony...
Then I’ll add my own energy to that.
What would happen if the clearest energy in the world were added to that perfect harmony?
Chung Myung slowly slipped into a trance and began to stir the cauldron.
And at that moment, Hyun Jong saw it clearly.
The energy bursting out from Chung Myung’s back shone in luminous five colors.
...
Chung Myung.
Take it easy.
At this rate, you’re going to ascend to heaven.