A Fortuitous Encounter Born of Goodwill (3)
By Yeo Gwang-rae’s nature, it was impossible to build the sort of warm, brotherly master-disciple relationship that others might have expected.
What he wanted was far simpler: just as he had accepted the legacy of the Medical Buddha, Master Ji-deok, and later passed that skill on to a worthy successor, he hoped Seok Geum-ryong would likewise hone his talent, make his name known far and wide, and then transmit it to the next generation.
This is the chance I wanted more than anything!
Seok Geum-ryong gave no sign of it on the surface, but inwardly he let out a shout of triumph at that once-in-a-lifetime offer.
In truth, he had been desperate for medical skill.
The reason was this: a little less than two years from now, on the day of his thirteenth birthday, the Blue-robed Scholar Gong Sang-pil would die, and the cause of death would be poisoning.
Now that I think about it, if I had superb medical skill when Gong Sang-pil was poisoned...
Then, combining that knowledge with what he already knew of the future, he could not only prevent Gong Sang-pil’s death outright, but perhaps even discover who had mixed the poison in the first place.
And there was one more thing.
I didn’t know it in my previous life, but now that I think about it, there was something odd about Seok Ji-sung’s death.
He had supposedly suffered from an existing illness, but since he had suddenly died of sickness, the truth of it was suspicious.
There was no one in Seokga Manor he could trust, and he could hardly rely on the physicians there, so there was nothing better than learning medicine himself and keeping watch over Seok Ji-sung personally.
“Though I’m lacking in many ways... I will do my utmost to learn medicine.”
Accordingly, Seok Geum-ryong gave Yeo Gwang-rae a respectful martial salute.
If it had been up to him, he would have liked to perform the full nine-bow ritual that marked a formal master-disciple bond, but given the Golden Needle Venerable’s temperament, he was certain the man would hate it.
“Good. Then come here two or three times every seven days. To this poor village. You’ll learn medicine by treating the sick here.”
At those words, Seok Geum-ryong felt overwhelmed with emotion.
He knew the information about the plague, and it pained him to use that knowledge for his own private gain. He wanted to save the wretched instead.
And yet that tiny scrap of goodwill has come back to me as a tremendous opportunity.
They said a good deed was not always rewarded.
But even if Seok Geum-ryong had never gained this fortuitous encounter, he would not have regretted it.
He had gained something in this poor village that even wealthy Seokga Manor could not give him.
“Yes, I’ll remember that well.”
And so Seok Geum-ryong began learning medicine, acupuncture, and concealed-weapon techniques from the Golden Needle Venerable.
“Then from now on, speak comfortably.”
“Yes, Master!”
“Agh!”
“W-What is the matter?”
All of a sudden, Yeo Gwang-rae shouted, and Seok Geum-ryong asked in confusion.
“I can’t stand that itchy little word, ‘Master.’ So just... call me Physician.”
“Hahaha.”
Seok Geum-ryong laughed at the sight of the Golden Needle Venerable, who looked stubborn and eccentric at first glance, but was in fact rather shy.
Now that he looked closely, Yeo Gwang-rae’s face was flushed red.
“Understood, Physician.”
After that, he sent the others away and immediately began teaching the basics of acupuncture.
“To handle needles is to understand both the path of life and the path of death. Do you know what I mean?”
“Yes. If you misplace a strike by less than half a hair’s breadth from the path of life, that point becomes the path of death instead, meaning you hit a pressure point that kills a person. So it means you must know both the pressure points that save lives and the vital spots that take them.”
“...!!”
Yeo Gwang-rae could not hide his astonishment at how much sharper Seok Geum-ryong was than he had expected.
He said he only just turned eleven, didn’t he? To think a child that young could have such insight.
Yeo Gwang-rae realized that his disciple was a prodigy.
But that was only the beginning.
“Yes. You’re right. In the end, the difference between acupuncture that saves and concealed weapons that kill is only a hair’s breadth apart. Now then, I’ll teach you the basics.”
Saying this, Yeo Gwang-rae finally gifted Seok Geum-ryong several of the golden needles that symbolized him.
They looked so thin and sharp at first glance, but because they were made of pure gold, they were surprisingly heavy in the hand.
“First, let’s start with this... throwing the needles!”
Whip-whip-whip-whip!
Yeo Gwang-rae hurled the needles toward a pine tree without the slightest hesitation.
Every single golden needle pierced the pine clean through, and then...
Twitch!
They even went through each and every insect feeding on the tree’s sap, leaving Seok Geum-ryong stunned.
This can’t be!
Witnessing the Golden Needle Venerable’s true skill at such close range, he could feel his own understanding expanding.
Acupuncture was an exceptionally peculiar and subtle field.
No, concealed weapons in general were like that.
Unlike swordplay or blade techniques, which demanded simple, relentless effort, concealed weapons depended heavily on instinct.
That instinct for predicting an opponent’s movement and throwing a weapon at the right instant was not something one acquired through effort alone.
Being smart and having good instincts are not the same thing.
Yeo Gwang-rae truly believed that.
He thought Seok Geum-ryong likely had some talent for instinct, but if it turned out otherwise, he had intended to teach medicine more than concealed weapon arts.
But that was unnecessary worry.
“Would you like to try?”
Looking at Seok Geum-ryong’s astonished face, Yeo Gwang-rae smiled with satisfaction.
Truthfully, he had not expected much.
It would have been enough if the boy had merely touched the pine tree, even if he could not pierce it.
“Yes. Like this...”
Seok Geum-ryong carefully took the golden needles in hand.
His little hand, still childlike and tender, seemed almost absurd as it gripped the needles, each one longer than his fingers, yet the sharpness in his eyes was entirely genuine.
Whoosh!
Then the inner energy in his body, entirely out of scale with his age, surged into the golden needles and shot forward fiercely.
The sound alone was unusual.
Yeo Gwang-rae could tell whether a thrown weapon had hit its mark or whether it carried real force just by listening to the sound it made.
So when he heard the sound of Seok Geum-ryong’s throw, the Golden Needle Venerable shot to his feet and stared, speechless.
Thud-thud-thud!
Sure enough.
Unbelievably, the golden needles Seok Geum-ryong threw not only dug cleanly into the hard bark of the pine without the slightest error, but even lodged deep enough that their handles were buried as well.
What was more astonishing was the accuracy.
He had thrown several needles, not just one, and every single one struck the pine without a single miss.
“M-My heavens!”
Yeo Gwang-rae stood frozen, staring from the pine tree to Seok Geum-ryong and back again at the sheer, impossible talent on display from the very first attempt.
I knew he had learned martial arts, but... I never dreamed his inner energy would be this profound at his age.
Some might object that a top-tier master should be able to tell the level of a lesser practitioner’s inner energy, but that was nonsense.
Who would bother checking the dantian of an eleven-year-old child one by one, wondering how much inner energy he had?
It was only natural to assume a child that age was ordinary.
Yet Seok Geum-ryong’s inner energy surpassed imagination, and even more remarkable was his...
“Your instincts are exceedingly sharp!”
In that instant, Yeo Gwang-rae’s eyes as he looked at Seok Geum-ryong softened and grew warm.
Was this what it felt like to be a master with a genius disciple who understood ten things from one lesson, no, a hundred?
The feeling was no less powerful than a parent looking at a child.
“You praise me too highly.”
Flushed by the Golden Needle Venerable’s praise, Seok Geum-ryong bowed modestly.
The truth was that such instincts were only natural. In his previous life, he had been an outstanding swordsman who had already set foot in the Super Peak realm.
That meant he possessed an instinct and comprehension far beyond what ordinary mortals could even imagine.
So it was only natural that he could grasp the basics of concealed weapon arts from the very beginning.
“No. You are exactly the kind of talent I hoped for. Excellent inner energy, deep thought, and the righteous spirit I value, one that punishes evil!”
Yeo Gwang-rae shuddered with delight and trembled with excitement.
At last, in my twilight years, I’ve found a true genius to whom I can pass everything!
The end of a journey that had followed his own traces backward.
At that end, in a poor village in Hebei, the Golden Needle Venerable Yeo Gwang-rae had found a true treasure.
“Perhaps you’ll even master my acupuncture’s ultimate crystallization, the Heaven-Returning Golden Needle Technique, in no time at all!”
That was the highest praise the typically taciturn Yeo Gwang-rae could offer.
Time once again flew by in a blur, and Seok Geum-ryong reached his twelfth birthday.
His twelfth birthday was celebrated more modestly than any before it.
That was because, in less than a year, Seok Geum-ryong had absorbed the Golden Needle Venerable’s acupuncture and medicine as if he were drinking it in with every breath.
He had even inherited the Heaven-Returning Golden Needle Technique, the very culmination of Yeo Gwang-rae’s life’s work.
His achievement had already reached three stars, and as his mastery of needle arts deepened, his medical skill rose with it.
That did not mean he had neglected martial training in the slightest.
Come to think of it, weren’t concealed weapon arts like the Heaven-Returning Golden Needle Technique martial arts as well?
Seok Geum-ryong devoted himself to both swordplay and the Heaven-Returning Golden Needle Technique.
About a year into that relentless effort, it finally bore fruit.
“Hoo...”
As he did every night, Seok Geum-ryong was deep in cultivation late into the evening, refining his martial arts.
Hm?
Just as he finished regulating his breath and was about to take a moment to rest, he sensed something strange.
What was going on?
Whoosh...
From his Heavenly Spirit Cap, his crown point, all the way down through his body, a mist-like current of energy seemed to seep out.
Don’t tell me...!!
Once again feeling the rise of his realm, Seok Geum-ryong’s heart pounded violently in his chest.
His current level was the Super First-class realm, and the next step was the Zenith Realm.
Heroic novels often described the Zenith Realm as something low, but that was utter nonsense.
In the current Central Plains martial world, reaching the Zenith Realm meant being treated as an expert wherever one went. When people estimated the strength of the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Clans, they counted the number of Zenith masters among their forces.
In other words, it was no exaggeration to call it the first true threshold of mastery.
No! It’s not enough!
Seok Geum-ryong struggled to seize this opportunity with everything he had, but regrettably, he did not make it into the ranks of the Zenith Realm.
Still, he did not despair.
Though he had not reached his grand objective, he had achieved a meaningful result.
He had leaped from the lower-middle tier of Super First-class all the way to the highest tier.
That alone was no different from having saved decades of time.
I’m only twelve years old.
At twelve, he was already Super First-class at the highest tier, which made him arguably the strongest boy under heaven.
So he did not regret failing to reach the Zenith Realm.
“Another chance will come.”
He resolved to seize it next time, and at last he brought his breathing back under control.
The opportunity to truly become a Zenith master would surely come again before long.