The Heaven-Earth Scholar, Part 4
Na Cheon-lip, the Heaven-Earth Scholar, was Chilseonggun Je Seong-cheon’s closest friend.
So how could he possibly fail to recognize his martial art, his famed signature technique?
It’s unmistakable! There’s no doubt he’s the heir who inherited Seong-cheon’s lineage!
What was more, among the single-inheritance martial arts like the Northern Dipper lineage, there was only one such art in all the vast world.
That was why even the suspicious Na Cheon-lip had come to trust Seok Geum-ryong completely the moment he saw the Heaven-Shattering Seven Stars Sword Technique unfold.
Sir Na.
Seok Geum-ryong felt just as moved, his own emotions swelling until they nearly overflowed.
This reunion felt like a happy chance to make up for what had been left incomplete in his previous life.
He soothed Na Cheon-lip, who was shedding thick tears, and helped steady him.
“Just who in the world are you...?”
Once the first surge of emotion had passed, Na Cheon-lip finally asked who Seok Geum-ryong was.
“I am Seok Geum-ryong, the Golden Young Master and the fifth heir of Seokga Manor.”
“Seokga Manor?!”
At the familiar name, Na Cheon-lip’s eyes flew wide in astonishment.
That was only natural, since before coming here, the place where he had spent so long lingering, wasting away his days, had been none other than the gambling house run by Seokga Manor.
“My master, that is, a disciple of the previous generation’s founder, happened to meet me and taught me martial arts.”
Seok Geum-ryong offered a fairly plausible excuse and convinced Na Cheon-lip once again.
“Hmm, what an odd coincidence.... But you said you have materials for the Thousand-Year Great Hope?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Seok Geum-ryong roughly dressed up the story of how he had obtained the corpse of the Thousand-Year Great Hope, which had already fallen into corruption and death, and told it to him.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan, so he had expected the Heaven-Earth Scholar to accept his request without trouble, but no.
“What a pity, what a pity!”
Na Cheon-lip let out a hollow sigh, as if he had never imagined such a good moment would come.
“A pity? What do you mean?”
“The bones, hide, and scales of the Thousand-Year Great Hope are the rarest materials in all the Central Plains, and the most difficult and exacting to work with. In other words, they demand the finest hands.”
“Exactly. That’s why I came looking for you, Sir Na, isn’t it?”
From Seok Geum-ryong’s point of view, however, Na Cheon-lip was simply stating the obvious, and that only deepened his confusion.
“Forgive me, but look at my hands.”
Na Cheon-lip lifted his own weathered hands, his expression twisted with both apology and self-pity.
They trembled violently, wrinkled and shriveled like the hands of a man who had worked the fields for decades without rest.
“Ever since I left the Seokga Manor gambling house and came to the one run by the Black Group, my hands have been like this. My health has been ruined.”
Na Cheon-lip said this with his eyes squeezed shut.
In other words, his once-steadfast hands, as a master craftsman, had already been ruined years ago.
Of course, rotten fish still had some flavor left, and he retained enough skill to take on favors for Hoho-gak or forge weapons for the Cold Blood Sect as he wandered from gambling den to gambling den. But compared to his peak, it was the difference between the sun and a firefly.
If I had known it would come to this, I should have quit drinking and taken better care of myself sooner.
Na Cheon-lip was consumed by regret, then regret again.
He had lived soaked in liquor until the poison of alcohol had invaded his whole body, and he had also come to believe that some circuit in his head had broken from the daily madness of gambling and excitement.
In every sense, he felt his body was no longer intact, and he truly believed he was little more than a walking corpse.
“At best, my current skill is probably only that of a first-class craftsman. And there’s one more important thing.”
His ruined body and stamina were not the only problems.
“Hoho-gak and the Cold Blood Sect have seen my skill, and especially the Cold Blood Sect, the great black faction that rules the back alleys of Xi’an in Shaanxi, will never let me go.”
Na Cheon-lip was right.
Hoho-gak, Xi’an’s finest gambling house, had saddled the Red-Sleeved Old Man who frequented it every day with an enormous debt.
Because they valued his talent, they had not pressed him to pay, but if Na Cheon-lip were to leave with Seok Geum-ryong, it was already a foregone conclusion that they would immediately begin demanding repayment.
More worrying still were the people of the Cold Blood Sect.
The Cold Blood Sect is a truly terrifying bunch, having seized control of Xi’an’s back alleys despite the presence of Shaanxi’s great orthodox sects, the Mount Hua Sect and the Zhongnan Sect.
It had reached the point where even most unorthodox sects did not dare provoke them.
In particular, the Cold Blood Sect was notorious for its tenacity, and once it bit down on something, it would not let go.
“So I’m sorry, but you’d best find another craftsman.”
Na Cheon-lip nodded, as if there was no helping it.
But despite his words, his eyes and face were full of regret.
How wonderful would it have been if he had met Seok Geum-ryong when his body was still healthy and his skill still sharp?
I’ve lived like a fool. Seong-cheon, forgive me. You were right.
Na Cheon-lip thought of his friend Chilseonggun Je Seong-cheon, who had once thundered at him in a fearsome lion’s roar whenever he saw him loitering around gambling houses.
His friend’s warning had been exactly right: gambling would never save anyone, and in the end it would drag every last person down into the pit of ruin.
Smiling faintly, Seok Geum-ryong was in a much brighter mood than Na Cheon-lip, whose heart was heavy with apology and self-loathing.
He had no intention of mocking him.
There was another reason he was smiling.
“Please do not worry.”
“What?”
Na Cheon-lip asked back in surprise at Seok Geum-ryong’s unruffled tone.
“Golden Needle Venerable Physician Yeo Gwang-rae!”
Seok Geum-ryong infused his voice with inner power and called out the companion who had traveled all the way with him to Shaanxi.
“Who did you say?!”
At that title and name, Na Cheon-lip was shocked and turned around.
“You called for me, Seok Young Lord.”
Yeo Gwang-rae answered respectfully and stepped forward at Seok Geum-ryong’s call.
“Sir Na. First, your health and your condition will be restored by me and the finest physician here, Golden Needle Venerable Yeo Gwang-rae.”
It was still too early for Na Cheon-lip to be surprised.
“Shadowless One Shin Dan-woo. Moon Spirit Swordswoman Im So-gun.”
Seok Geum-ryong called out the rest of his companions as well.
In total, four of them had come all the way to Xi’an in Shaanxi, including Yeo Gwang-rae.
“Could it be... the Four Honored Guests of Seokga Manor, and the super peak master rumored to be among them...”
Having once frequented the Seokga Manor gambling house as if it were his own home, Na Cheon-lip knew the internal affairs of Seokga Manor well. So when the one among the Four Honored Guests he had only heard rumors about, the Moon Spirit Swordswoman Im So-gun, appeared before him, he was even more astonished.
On top of that, the Shadowless One Shin Dan-woo, who had broken into the peak realm with Seok Geum-ryong’s help and was showing an explosive rise in power, had come as well....
“Add me into the mix, and that makes three peak masters and one super peak master. Gambling houses and black faction sects are nothing to fear.”
Even if they faced a small sect, there was nothing to worry about at all.
“J-Just a moment. Three peak masters? I can accept that Lady Im here is a super peak master, but if there are three peak masters... then could it be you, perhaps!”
Na Cheon-lip, who had been silently counting the numbers, stared at Seok Geum-ryong with even greater shock.
Seok Geum-ryong’s faint smile deepened into something far more meaningful.
“I’m sure Sir Na knows just how profound the Northern Dipper lineage’s martial arts are. And don’t you know what kind of man the previous generation’s founder was?”
Chilseonggun Je Seong-cheon had never sent out either himself or even his disciple into the martial world until the disciple had reached the peak realm.
Since Na Cheon-lip understood better than anyone the principles his friend lived by, he could only fall silent.
“Good heavens! He isn’t even old enough to be in his twenties yet...”
To the astonished Na Cheon-lip, Seok Geum-ryong told him not to be afraid.
“The Northern Dipper martial arts are by no means weak. The ones who should fear and tremble are not us, but Hoho-gak and the Cold Blood Sect, who are exploiting Sir Na through cheap tricks.”
With that bold declaration, Seok Geum-ryong told Na Cheon-lip what was to come.
It was one of the things he had wanted since his previous life: the process of bringing the Heaven-Earth Scholar Na Cheon-lip back to his true self.
“Then... I will begin treatment.”
The first thing to do with Na Cheon-lip was clear: remove the alcohol poison that was threatening his life and restore his health.
It was not an easy treatment, but for Seok Geum-ryong and Yeo Gwang-rae, it was not difficult either.
[Effect description]
Using the Heaven-Returning Golden Needle Technique, Golden Needle Venerable Yeo Gwang-rae first pierced Na Cheon-lip’s acupoints with astonishing precision and expelled the foul energies filled with alcohol poison.
Shaaaaah!
The removal of the vicious alcohol poison lodged throughout Na Cheon-lip’s body was handled by Seok Geum-ryong.
Seok Geum-ryong drew up the blood poison contained in his own blood.
His control over poison was still crude and far from complete, but forcing out something as mild as alcohol poison was simple enough.
Using poison to conquer poison.
The reason Seok Geum-ryong deliberately raised the blood-poison energy of the Thousand-Year Great Hope was precisely because of that method of detoxification: using poison to suppress poison. It was the best way to cleanse a patient’s body by employing a stronger toxin to erase the toxins already within it.
Drip, drip, drip.
Without exaggeration, Seok Geum-ryong’s treatment was perfect.
Even if he could not yet fully wield the blood poison of the Thousand-Year Great Hope, its toxicity was among the strongest in the Central Plains, so the low-grade alcohol poison simply slid away and vanished.
“Sir Na’s complexion is returning!”
“Look at that, he’s got the face of a man who’s come back from the dead!”
In the blink of an eye, his corpse-like pallor changed, and even the color returned to his lips, astonishing everyone present.
The treatment was not over yet.
“Sir Na has neglected his health for far too long. So he must take proper restorative tonics.”
For the poor and unhealthy alike, their most vulnerable point was always nourishment and recovery.
Na Cheon-lip was no exception, having lived for years soaked in liquor and stripped of nearly all his fortune by Hoho-gak and the Cold Blood Sect just so he could continue gambling.
But who was Seok Geum-ryong?
Unlike the timid and shabby heir he had once been called, he was now, beyond dispute, the third most accomplished heir after the first and second sons, and the heir that Lord Seok Ji-sung cherished most.
“He’s not just anyone, he’s one of our Seok Young Master’s precious acquaintances. How could I possibly spare the medicinal herbs?”
One of the best physicians in the martial world, Yeo Gwang-rae, spared no effort or expense, using costly medicinal ingredients and herbs to brew a restorative tonic over three days and three nights, which Na Cheon-lip gulped down in great draughts.
“Mmm... mmm!”
Na Cheon-lip had been living like a corpse with its eyes still open.
Then, all at once, the downtrodden, peasant-like look on his face grew ten years younger, and the lively, spirited vitality of his prime returned to him.
“My hand... my hand doesn’t tremble anymore. It’s normal!”
The finest sense and bodily condition he could imagine, as though he could accomplish anything and create anything.
So long since he had last felt this good that Na Cheon-lip could not help but shed tears once more.