So You Should Be Consistent, a Person. (2)
“I’m telling you, that’s not it.”
“…….”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
When Chung Myung asked that with an expression of utter disbelief, Baek Cheon smiled faintly.
“Chung Myung.”
“Yeah?”
“Anyone who knows you would naturally look at you like this.”
“…….”
Even Chung Myung, of all people, was momentarily at a loss for words at that level of certainty.
Baek Cheon stared at him and asked again.
“You really didn’t?”
“No, but what the hell, you guys?”
Chung Myung thumped his chest in grievance and glared at Baek Cheon.
“Do I look like the kind of guy who’d deliberately give someone medicine that’s lost its potency? Do I really seem that lousy to you?”
“Yeah.”
“Yep.”
“You do.”
“Oh, really?”
Chung Myung scratched the back of his head, chuckling awkwardly.
He’d phrased that badly. Heh heh heh.
The other disciples were all looking at him with the same expression one reserved for a crook you couldn’t trust as far as you could throw him. Baek Cheon asked,
“Then why did you give him a different Jaso-dan?”
“Sasuk. Think about it. What kind of illness does that old man have?”
“A Half Yin Severed Meridians and a Half?”
“Nope. It’s Three Yin and a Quarter Severed Meridians.”
“Why does it sound so complicated? Anyway, a fake Nine Yin Severed Meridians.”
Chung Myung nodded.
“Exactly. Nine Yin Severed Meridians. What’s Nine Yin Severed Meridians? It’s a disease where too much yin energy builds up inside the body and blocks the meridians, right?”
“Right.”
“And Ice Crystal? That’s the concentrated essence of the North Sea’s cold energy, right?”
“……Th-that’s right?”
Baek Cheon trailed off as he grasped the thread of the explanation. Chung Myung clicked his tongue and went on.
“If you shove Jaso-dan made with proper Ice Crystal into a body like that, what do you think happens? The cold energy turns toxic and wrecks the body from the inside out.”
“…….”
“I’m telling you, I gave him exactly what his body needed. Good grief, people these days.”
Everyone’s gaze shifted at once to Dang Soso. She was the only one present who could verify the logic from a medical standpoint. Under the weight of all those stares, Dang Soso made a complicated, almost indescribable face.
“Mm… what you’re saying is correct, but this… this isn’t logically wrong, either…”
“But?”
“The person saying it is wrong, so I can’t reach a conclusion.”
“……I understand.”
Words always had to be judged by who said them. No matter how right they were, how could you take them at face value if the bastard speaking them was wrong all by himself?
“So you didn’t give him that on purpose?”
“Ahem! I’m telling you, I made sure everything was tailored for him! That’s exactly the right amount for that guy!”
“Yes, yes. We get it. Our Chung Myung is so kind.”
He didn’t bother mentioning that the treatment wouldn’t work in one dose, that he’d used the most expensive ingredient—Ice Crystal—as if it were cheap scrap, that he’d squeezed every last coin out of them anyway, and that during the refining he’d put the man through hell to the point where he probably wanted to fling himself off a cliff. Aside from those things, he was really quite kind.
He really was kind. It just never showed.
It took real skill for goodwill to fail at looking like goodwill.
“Then what happens to the Green Forest King now? He can’t be cured for life?”
“He just needs three or four more doses. That’s why I made it ahead of time.”
“Then just give it to him now.”
“Tsk tsk. Dong-ryong.”
“You little—”
Baek Cheon’s eyes narrowed sharply, but Chung Myung ignored him and continued.
“What have you been hearing all this time? If he’s already full of yin energy and a ton of Ice Crystal’s cold energy goes in at once, it’ll just damage his body instead. You have to wait until he’s fully recovered and then give it to him again.”
“……How long does he have to wait?”
“About half a year each time?”
“……How many more doses?”
“Uh… four?”
Baek Cheon squeezed his eyes shut.
At minimum, that’s two years locked in place.
If Chung Myung was right, then curing him completely would require at least four more doses. In other words, the Green Forest King would have to spend the next minimum two years as that bastard Chung Myung’s slave.
Baek Cheon seriously pondered it.
Chung Myung had tricked people before—more than once—but somehow his methods seemed to grow more and more ingenious, and Baek Cheon couldn’t decide whether that was his imagination or not.
“So, uh, let me ask you something.”
“Yeah?”
“What happens if he doesn’t keep taking the medicine?”
“Come on. Why ask something that obvious?”
“So it really just goes back to normal.”
“Nope.”
“Huh?”
When Baek Cheon lifted his brows, Chung Myung flashed him a bright smile.
“Nine Yin Severed Meridians is a condition where yin energy accumulates where it shouldn’t and changes the body according to its own nature, right?”
“Right.”
“If he doesn’t get cured… it’ll erode him even faster than before. It’s like building a bridge over a river after smashing a mountain down first—he’ll be eroded twice as fast and end up worse than before. He’ll be a real Nine Yin Severed Meridians then, and that means…”
With a mischievous grin on his lips, Chung Myung drew a finger across his own throat.
“Gyaaaah.”
“…….”
Baek Cheon’s eyes curved softly as he looked at him.
Our saje… just how vicious can he be?
“……Where is the Green Forest King now?”
“He’s been laid up.”
At Jo Gul’s answer, Baek Cheon wiped the sweat of relief from his heart.
Well, that made sense.
More than enough sense.
By common reasoning, this should be something to celebrate—Three Yin and a… anyway, that meridian disease becoming a one-yin severed meridian was a good thing. But if there was anyone who could turn good news into sorrow, it was Chung Myung.
Terrifying bastard.
Im So-byeong might not be that old, but in the end, he was still the Green Forest King. And yet Chung Myung could toy with a man like that using one spirit medicine…
“Anyway, then the Green Forest business is mostly sorted out now.”
“Sorted out? Not even close. There’s still the accounting. The money we’ve got coming, the money we’ll get after that, and the money after that too. We’ve still got a long way to go before we can even stamp the seal.”
Baek Cheon was briefly at a loss for words.
Sometimes he couldn’t believe that the same blood flowed in that bastard’s body.
“Haa… Fine. Just don’t go too far.”
With a sigh, he jerked his chin toward the sack slung over Chung Myung’s shoulder.
“But why are you carrying that around? It should be stored in the Medicine Hall.”
“Stored, my ass. Whether it’s elixir or food, it works best when it’s fresh and hot right after it’s made. Get the kids together.”
“……Right now?”
“I busted my ass making it, so I have to feed it to them fast. Didn’t you say they’re all weak and can’t even put up any strength?”
“I thought you were going to handle it through actual combat?”
“If the weaklings go out and fight for no reason, only to come back crippled, who’s gonna take responsibility? Combat or whatever, first I need to bulk them up.”
“……Fine.”
Yes, Chung Myung.
At least you weren’t scamming Mount Hua itself, and for that, he was truly grateful.
Truly…
A little later, all the Mount Hua disciples gathered on the training ground and stared ahead in dazed silence. More precisely, they were staring at Chung Myung, who was busily doing something in front of them.
On the large table that had been brought out to the training ground, little round things were lined up one after another.
“……It’s what we’re looking at, right?”
“Yes. Very familiar.”
“Right. It is what we’re looking at, but…”
The Mount Hua disciples gaped at Chung Myung’s actions with blank, bewildered faces.
“Jaso-dan.”
“Yes. Jaso-dan.”
“No matter how I look at it, that’s Jaso-dan.”
If you couldn’t identify the round elixir glowing with a faint purple light, there was no reason to have eyes at all.
Why are there more of them?
Is this how spirit medicines are made? Just like that, anytime?
And not just one or two—what the hell is that?
What, after all, was a spirit medicine?
Even at Shaolin, the wealthiest of all the world’s sects, it was a rare treasure reserved only for prodigies among prodigies. That was why people said Shaolin’s Great Revitalizing Pill couldn’t be bought even with a mountain of gold.
And yet…
“……Is it okay for there to be that many just lying around?”
“……I guess so.”
In front of them, the Jaso-dan—more precious than even Shaolin’s Great Revitalizing Pill, perhaps even more so—were lying around like dog treats in the neighborhood.
“……You can’t just make those if you have money.”
From the little snowball that had started at Yakseon’s tomb, it had rolled and rolled until it now covered Mount Hua.
“But what’s he doing now?”
“Beats me.”
“And what’s in that bottle?”
“……It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Chung Myung treat something that carefully.”
Unlike the Jaso-dan he had casually scattered over the table, the bottle in his hand was being handled with the utmost reverence, as if it were some sacred offering.
Which meant…
“Is it liquor?”
“…….”
That made sense.
Everyone kept whispering and murmuring, but none of it reached Chung Myung’s ears.
That was because he was concentrating to the absolute limit, just as he had when he fought the Bishop in the North Sea.
Plink.
“Ah, shit!”
Chung Myung, who had been focusing with everything he had, suddenly bared his teeth and shouted.
“A little too much went in. I need to scrape off just a tiny bit—like an ant’s eyelash.”
Then, with a prepared needle, he swiftly lifted off the liquid that had fallen onto the elixir and moved it aside.
Unable to watch any longer, Hyun Jong let out a sigh.
“……Must you go this far?”
“Do you even know what this is?”
Chung Myung looked at Hyun Jong with bloodshot eyes blazing.
“Jaso-dan can be made whenever you’ve got the ingredients, but this isn’t something you can just buy with money!”
“Ah, I know.”
Hyun Jong nodded vigorously.
Liquid Sky Essence.
He had only ever heard of it, never seen it with his own eyes—a spirit medicine among spirit medicines.
It just doesn’t feel real.
Liquid Sky Essence, a thing that could provoke bloodshed across the martial world the moment a single drop appeared, was sloshing inside the bottle like liquor. Reality refused to settle around it.
“We have to divide it fairly, fairly! With things like this, if you get even a tiny ant’s eyelash more or less than someone else, resentment stays buried in the heart forever. I know all about how, when the Sect Leader pours tea for Baek Cheon Sasuk, he gives him the good clear top layer and gives me the bitter dregs underneath! I’m never forgetting that!”
“……You leave your tea untouched half the time anyway.”
“It’s the principle of the thing, the principle!”
Petty bastard.
How could he be such a miser? And Hyun Young never even said a word when giving him more meat.
“So not even an ant’s eyelash more or less, got it.”
“Ah, right.”
Hyun Jong answered reluctantly and shook his head. Sometimes Chung Myung was absurdly fixated on the most useless details.
A person ought to have a bit more generosity in him…
“Done!”
Then Chung Myung wiped the sweat from his forehead and straightened his back. Satisfaction overflowed across his face.
“You worked hard. But… why did you set that one aside?”
“Ah, that one’s for the Sect Leader and the elders.”
“……Eh?”
Chung Myung covered his mouth with one hand and whispered quietly.
“I put in exactly two drops of Liquid Sky Essence in those.”
“…….”
“It’s good for the body, so eat it quickly.”
Tears welled up in the corners of Hyun Jong’s eyes all at once.
How polite, how respectful of his elders.
How could we have scolded such a good child?
Emotion surged over him like a tidal wave. Still, Hyun Jong firmly declined his own Jaso-dan.
“What use is this to the likes of us, who are already old? You should set aside a little more for the children.”
“I added more because I heard Liquid Sky Essence also has the effect of extending lifespan.”
“It looks like there’s a little left in the bottle. Since we’ve come this far, perhaps just one more drop…”
“…….”
“…….”
Hyun Jong coughed heavily and turned his head away.
“……I’ll add a little more.”
“Thank you. Cough.”
How adorable, our Chung Myung.
Hyun Jong stepped forward to smooth over his embarrassment and awkwardness, then raised his voice.
“Disciples, listen well!”
“Yes, Sect Leader!”
The Mount Hua disciples standing in formation all dropped to one knee at once and answered loudly.
“These spirit medicines were made from materials our brothers brought back after enduring great hardship in the North Sea. Though it is only natural for martial siblings to help and support one another, we must never forget such kindness.”
“Yes, Sect Leader!”
The eyes of the Mount Hua disciples, fixed on Chung Myung and the others near the platform, shone brightly.
How could they not be grateful?
No one present failed to understand how important spirit medicine was. Even if Mount Hua had acquired a secret that made elixir easier to produce than before, it did not diminish the value of those medicines.
For all his faults, Chung Myung really is the best.
He’s a problem as a human being, but no one thinks about us like Chung Myung does.
Kind, but rotten. Rotten, but kind.
Then Chung Myung looked at them with obvious satisfaction and grinned.
“Eat well, all of you, and make sure it goes down easy. You’ll need it just to survive what’s coming.”
“…….”
“I’m going to work you so hard that you won’t be able to last without medicine.”
Behind Chung Myung, Baek Cheon and the others were smiling.
Truly… in a way that was deeply unsettling.
The Mount Hua disciples somehow felt the world going faint before their eyes and squeezed them shut.
Give medicine, then give illness.
That had become an entirely natural truth in Mount Hua.