The Venerable's Broken Vow
Having shattered the tablet of his oath, the Life and Death Venerable moved without a moment's hesitation.
Pa-pa-pa-pak—!
In the blink of an eye, with a technique as uncanny as a ghost's, he drove the life-and-death needles into dozens of points across the dying man's body, and Elder Muk Wi-gyu, who had been blackening toward death, vomited up foul blood.
"Uwaaaagh!"
Behind him, Sa Do-myeong's breath returned as well, color flooding back into his cheeks.
"Wh… why am I…?!"
Dragged back from death's threshold by force, Muk Wi-gyu screamed, his face a mask of utter disbelief.
"How can a man of the Life and Death Venerable's standing break a vow he set with his own lips so easily?!"
"Silence! My vow was made for my granddaughter, not for a cur like you. Your life and death are for me alone to decide!"
The Venerable flicked one of the needles embedded in the man's body with his fingertip, twisting it ever so slightly.
A beast-like shriek tore from Muk Wi-gyu's throat.
"Gkkuaaaaak!"
It was agony as if every nerve in his body were being wrenched out by the roots.
"Take your own life? Did you truly believe that was yours to decide? Until I say otherwise, you will live on in torment beyond all measure, unable even to die."
"UaaaAAAAGH…!"
The pain coursing through Elder Muk Wi-gyu was monstrous. A man who had calmly chewed his poison pill and begun to die could no longer endure it — he moaned and convulsed, teetering on the edge of madness.
"Just kill me! No— spare me! Please, spare meee!"
The unbearable agony rampaging through his body made him forget his own resolve to die; his mind began to unravel.
"Venerable Elder, we must interrogate this man. Please — I beg you not to let him go mad."
"…Hmph. Very well. So be it."
At Yun Cheon's request, the Venerable said nothing more — he simply drove in a few more needles.
Only then did Muk Wi-gyu slowly settle into stability.
"Haah… haah…"
Beyond his dimming vision, Yun Cheon's eyes gleamed down at him, cold as frost. And in a haze of belated regret, Muk Wi-gyu lost consciousness.
Damn it all — a brat like this, moving the Life and Death Venerable… I never should have touched him…
Sa Do-myeong came to a beat later than the elder. Reading the situation through sheer situational instinct, he immediately prostrated himself before the Life and Death Venerable and offered his thanks.
"Haah… th… thank you, Venerable Elder. How could I ever repay such a debt?"
"Hmph. If you owe a debt, you owe it to that boy Yun Cheon, not to me. Everything I did was on account of him."
"……! Th… thank you, Young Master Yun Cheon! I will confess everything in full detail!"
And confess he did — everything, from beginning to end.
It had all started with the bribe Elder Muk Wi-gyu had slipped him. The elder's initial request had been simple: find some pretext to pin on Yun Cheon and get him transferred to the Inspection Bureau — that is all. For a man of Sa Do-myeong's position, it should have been an effortless task.
Once a suspect was smeared with a charge and hauled into the Inspection Bureau, the rest was easy. If the boy showed talent, squeeze his weaknesses and raise him into a useful asset; if not, dispose of him quietly. He had done exactly that many times before.
"I am deeply sorry. I thought it would be a simple matter of holding one cadet in my palm and shaking him down…"
Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined the affair would swell until it moved the very Venerable of the Mad Path.
When Sa Do-myeong's confession ended, the assembled spectators seethed with fury toward the Sagalmuk Family and the Inspection Bureau.
"So… so Chief Instructor Gal Mu-heun's suspicion was right from the very beginning?"
"To deceive this many witnesses! The Sagalmuk Family has crossed the line this time!"
"This must be formally raised with the Inspector General!"
Amid the furious shouts of the spectators, Gal Mu-heun drove the final nail in.
"Elder Muk Wi-gyu, and Inspector Sa Do-myeong of the Inspection Bureau. I shall lodge a formal protest with the Inspector General directly, and submit this matter to the main mountain as an official case."
"I… I have committed a crime worthy of death!"
Sa Do-myeong's face drained white — and yet, it was a mercy compared to actually dying. He would no doubt be punished to some degree for accepting bribes, but no punishment outweighed one's life.
"With this, every trace of the accusation of orthodox infiltration cast upon Yun Cheon has been washed clean. Therefore, I hereby dissolve this assembly. As for the disposition of the two men, Muk Wi-gyu and Sa Do-myeong, I, as Pavilion Lord, will take full responsibility and see it concluded."
As Gal Mu-heun brought the proceedings to a close, the spectators drained out of the hall like an ebbing tide.
Only then did Gal Mu-heun approach, wearing a thoroughly satisfied smile, and pat Yun Cheon's shoulder as he spoke in a low voice.
"Haha. I'll tie up those vermin neatly myself, so don't trouble your head over it. For the time being, you devote everything to treating that body of yours."
"Thank you, Pavilion Lord. And thank you for bringing the Venerable Elder here in time."
"That much was promised to Yu Ha regardless. It was entirely your doing that the meeting with the Elder was timed for this very moment."
Gal Mu-heun gazed at Yun Cheon with a warm smile.
"If anything, it is I who should thank you. You saved my face, and on top of that handed me the perfect pretext to press the Inspection Bureau and those arrogant peacocks of the Sagalmuk Family."
"It was all thanks to your consideration, Pavilion Lord."
"Haha. Don't let this opportunity slip, then. The Life and Death Venerable is a far more difficult man than you imagine."
Gal Mu-heun, reading the room, withdrew — and at last, Yun Cheon and the Venerable were left alone.
"I spared those two, just as you wanted. So now it's your turn to listen to me. Let's have a proper, detailed look at this body of yours first."
The Demonic Physician Hall — the dwelling of the Life and Death Venerable. Sealed off utterly from the outside world, the air here carried not the scent of herbs but a chill coldness and a taut, wound-wire tension.
"……Hah."
When the Venerable finished his precise diagnosis, gripping Yun Cheon's wrist, a sigh like wasted breath escaped his lips. As if he could not believe what his own hands told him, he swept the boy's entire meridian network from top to bottom once more.
He had formed a rough idea during the training-ground incident. But now that he examined the body in earnest, it was a complete disaster — and a miracle, all at once.
"The dantian is shattered, and the meridians are so hopelessly tangled they've twisted into something grotesque. And yet…"
The Venerable's eyes sharpened to a blade's edge.
"How in the world is this body still alive at seventeen?"
The yin energy and the yang energy were locked in a struggle to devour one another. And within that precarious tightrope walk, the boy clung stubbornly, tenaciously, to his own life.
This boy's body… it resembles Young-ah's condition somewhere. No — it is far more vicious than hers. If Young-ah is collapsing because she leans toward yin alone, this boy's yin and yang have knotted around each other entirely.
In that instant, a single possibility flashed through the Venerable's mind.
"Don't tell me… the Yin-Yang Great Spirit Blocked Meridians — it truly exists?"
A hunch seized him: the thread that would unravel his granddaughter's illness might lie, of all places, in the way this grotesque boy had managed to stay alive.
"The Yin-Yang Great Spirit Blocked Meridians?"
"…Had I seen it with my own eyes just now, I would say yours is a constitution one might not encounter once in a thousand years. By any ordinary measure, you would have died long before reaching your present age."
Yun Cheon nodded. When he had first opened his eyes in this body, it had been a wreck that could have given out at any moment, and no one would have found it strange.
"But this energy within you — what in the world is it? It's as though it were… stirring and bolstering primal origin qi."
He was speaking of the Life-Prolonging Breathing Technique Yun Cheon had devised in his desperate struggle to survive.
"That is a breathing method I created myself. It was a flailing for survival — nothing more."
"…You created a breathing method? On your own?"
Not a martial art — a breathing method that invigorated primal origin qi. To have devised such a thing unaided was nothing short of the talent of a Grand Master.
In that instant, greed kindled in the Venerable's eyes.
If Young-ah learned the breathing method this boy created…
A breathing technique capable of breathing life into blocked meridians even graver than his granddaughter's. It was, perhaps, a treasure that could stand shoulder to shoulder with the peerless elixir known as the Hollow Azure Stone Marrow.
"…Can you teach me that breathing method?"
The Venerable asked quietly, but desperation bled through his voice. Yun Cheon rejoiced inwardly — and showed none of it. Instead, he pressed the knife in deeper, straight into the old man's sorest wound.
"Before that, there is something I wish to confirm first. Venerable — can you truly 'cure' me?"
A provocative question, flung at the finest physician of the Demonic Cult. Deep furrows carved themselves between the Venerable's brows at once.
"You insolent whelp… are you doubting my medicine?"
"Not doubting — confirming. I heard that even the Demonic Bone Metamorphosis Art could not cure your granddaughter's blocked meridians, and that you swore an oath upon it."
The words struck home. The Venerable bit his lip. He wanted to argue — but there was not a single flaw in the boy's reasoning. If his medicine had been perfect, his granddaughter would already be healed, and he would never have been driven to swear that oath of no more healing.
"…Hmph. Brazen brat."
Swallowing his boiling anger, the Venerable admitted it with bitterness.
"Fine. You're right. To speak plainly — with what I have now, I am not certain I can cure you."
"That was the answer I expected."
"Then what will you do? Do you mean to renege on the bargain? You cannot. I have already broken my oath and spared the MukFamily cur!"
A faint killing intent flickered through the Venerable's voice, but Yun Cheon simply shook his head.
"No. What I mean is that if you cannot guarantee a cure, then you must pay the price in a different manner."
"A different manner?"
"I propose joint research."
The Venerable's eyes went round. Not treatment — research.
"I will teach you the breathing method I devised. In exchange, you share with me the Demonic Bone Metamorphosis Art and the breadth of your medical knowledge."
For a long moment, the Venerable only stared at him, dazed. He thought the boy arrogant. And yet, at the same time, something hot stirred in the corner of his chest. This young boy was offering to share a burden he had shouldered alone for decades.
…This one is no ordinary child. Even as he finds his own path to survival, he scratches precisely where I itch.
A wry laugh burst from the Venerable's lips.
"Ha! Insolent to the bone… Very well."
"One condition!"
At the very instant the Venerable's assent was about to fall, Yun Cheon added a new term.
"Lady Seol Yeong must take part in the joint research as well."
"…Young-ah herself? Why?"
"I noticed Lady Seol Yeong has been researching a treatise in the Inner Library called the Two Extremes Merging Art — a secret art of the Western Regions that skirts the edge of demonic cultivation."
"What?! How recklessly reckless!"
The Venerable shot to his feet as if he would sprint to the Inner Library that very moment. But Yun Cheon calmed him.
"There is no cause for anger. Because of anyone in this world, it is she who wants most desperately to live."
"……!"
For a moment, the Demonic Physician felt as though he had been struck across the head — a numb, ringing shock.
"While you, Elder, cast aside even your medicine and wandered the world chasing elixirs, she never gave up. She found her own path and kept researching in the Inner Library, day after day."
The Venerable's shoulders sagged, visibly. He was the Demonic Physician renowned throughout the world — and yet the guilt washed over him that he had never once taken his own granddaughter's pulse of the heart.
"…I was arrogant. I lost the physician's first resolve. The one who longs above all to be healed is the patient. I turned even my eyes away from Young-ah's desperate heart…"
The Venerable's wavering eyes steadied and turned to Yun Cheon. In them there remained none of the contempt one holds for a child, none of the suspicion one holds a bargaining partner. In their place rested a strange, quiet expectation.
"Good. You're right. Young-ah belongs here, in this room."
The Venerable at once bellowed loudly enough to shake the entire Demonic Physician Hall.
"Bring Young-ah here, now!"
Before long, the massive door at the back of the hall swung open, and a woman, supported on either side by attendants, walked painfully out.
"Grandfather… did you call for me?"
Though it was not even midwinter, she wore thick fur robes layered one upon another. Skin so pale it seemed translucent, and glacier-blue eyes that carried a chill coldness within them — a maiden of ice.
"My granddaughter… Seol Yeong. The two of you are already acquainted, I believe?"
At those words, she lifted her head with effort and looked forward. And the moment her gaze found Yun Cheon standing at its end, her eyes went wide.
"…Ah?"
She remembered. The corner of the Inner Library — the boy who had picked up the scroll of the Two Extremes Merging Art she had dropped, and handed it back with those weighted words.
[It is because I do not want to die that I flail like this.]
[Just as you do.]
Those words from that day swept through her memory.
"So it was you… the one I met in the Inner Library."
"I told you, did I not — that this boy halted the rampage of your yin-blocked meridians, not with internal force, but with a most peculiar energy."
"Yes, that's right…"
"It is very likely a method of employing primal origin qi. Even this old man has never seen such a breathing method. It seemed it might aid me as well — that is why I called you."
Yun Cheon nodded and spoke.
"Lady Seol Yeong, I will transmit to you the breathing method I devised. This is no heretical shortcut that simply blasts open blocked acupoints. Rather — it is a method that relinks a dying breath, and pries open the blocked seams to let life seep through."
Yun Cheon turned to the Life and Death Venerable and said,
"I call it the Life-Prolonging Breathing Technique."
"…A breathing method you created yourself? And you would give it to me…?"
Seol Yeong's eyes widened in astonishment.
Among martial artists, a breathing method is worth comparing to life itself…
The claim that he had created a breathing method was staggering enough — but that he would transmit it freely, without the slightest hesitation, stunned her all the more.
"This one staked his own body as collateral and survived. He may well be a better man than this old fool who lost the physician's first resolve."
"Grandfather! What are you saying?!"
"…I mean that it was thanks to that boy I found my resolve again. Forgive me, Young-ah. All this time, I failed to understand your heart."
"…Ah… Ahh…"
An apology, offered in complete sincerity.
"How much have you suffered, all this while? From now on, won't you search for the way together — with this old man, and with him?"
As she watched him, moisture gathered in Seol Yeong's eyes, and then fell.
Drip—
"…Yes. Grandfather…"
Wiping away her tears, Seol Yeong turned and met Yun Cheon's gaze head-on. What lay within those eyes was neither pity nor mere curiosity. It was the deep understanding and solidarity that only those who share the same suffering can possess.
Her voice trembling with emotion, Seol Yeong spoke.
"…Thank you. Young Master Yun Cheon."
"Save your thanks for later. Lady or no, you and I are both bodies on borrowed time, racing the hour. We must master the breathing method and stabilize our qi and blood as quickly as possible — today, not tomorrow."
Seol Yeong hurriedly wiped her tears and smoothed her disheveled garments. Yun Cheon, without a moment's delay, crossed his legs and seated himself upon the floor.
"Sit across from me, cross-legged."
Return of the Cloud Dragon
Author | Chu Sang (Autumn Frost)
Publisher | Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
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