Chapter 172
Chapter 172
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 172
>Chapter Title: Extreme Demon (2)
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After finishing his advice, Master issued an order.
“Bring some food.”
A health meal was prepared for me, who had been unconscious for nearly a full month.
Of course, since it was food for a patient who hadn’t eaten for a month, it consisted of porridge and finely chopped dishes.
And no sooner had I finished my simple meal than Master spoke.
“Now that you’ve come to your senses, return to the Demonic Path Academy and devote yourself to training. You must never forget this old man’s counsel.”
It was a way of saying to avoid sword training as much as possible and focus only on external and internal arts cultivation.
Before long, martial artists arrived at the infirmary.
Escorted by them, I traversed the Heavenly Myriad Mountains for quite some time. As dusk began to fall, I was finally able to enter the Demonic Path Academy.
The gazes of my fellow cadets and juniors, who had been training vigorously in the training grounds, turned toward me.
But there was a strange sense of distance.
They only watched from afar. No one approached to talk or challenge me to a spar like before.
‘Why?’
As I crossed the training grounds, my eyes met those of juniors who were stealing glances at me, and I vaguely understood the reason.
The way they looked at me was like...
If this were modern times, it was the gaze of fans welcoming a celebrity.
Of course, there had always been a hint of that before, but now it felt much more intense.
Before, it was a look that wanted to get close. Now, it was as if they couldn’t even dream of approaching. It was the gaze one gives to someone from an entirely different world.
On the other hand, my fellow cadets’ reactions were subtly different.
They glanced at me, then quickly ignored me and focused solely on their training.
Each one exuded a solemn atmosphere, as if they were battle-hardened veterans.
‘Must have been quite the shock.’
I couldn’t read the juniors, but I could somewhat understand my fellow cadets’ feelings.
No matter how brutal the Demonic Path Academy’s training was, compared to that battle, it was child’s play.
‘Those crazy fanatic bastards...’
Even now, their shouts echoed in my ears like tinnitus.
The faces laughing even as allied arrows and flames struck their backs, or swords plunged into their bellies.
It wasn’t a phrase they had here, but it was an experience where developing post-traumatic stress disorder wouldn’t be surprising at all.
‘I should talk to Seo Physician about it.’
I was concerned about my own condition, and the others didn’t seem fine either.
As I strolled through the training grounds, scanning the cadets’ faces...
“Young Master!!”
Someone shouted in a bright voice and came running.
It was Joo Seo-yeon, who had taken a curved sword to her side in my place from the leader of those bastards.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Thanks to the Demonic Physician elder doing his utmost to treat me, I returned to the Demonic Path Academy a few days ago.”
Hearing her answer, a thought occurred to me.
‘...If she, whose side was slashed by qi, was unconscious shorter than me, just how serious was my condition?’
I thought it fortunate that I’d only been unconscious, but her following words stirred an ominous premonition.
“Oh, come to think of it, the Demonic Physician elder said this: just as I saved you, Young Master, you saved me.”
“Ahem. I just fought that fanatic because I wanted to live.”
“Ah... That’s not what I meant. He said that if you hadn’t told me how to use that medicine, treatment would have been nearly impossible.”
“Medicine?? What medicine?”
“What was it... Ah! I think it was called ‘ma-yak.’ He said my condition was so severe that he performed the procedure while I was dosed with it. And also some disinfectant alcohol? He kept disinfecting the wound area with that. Both were treasures you discovered, he said.”
It seemed surgeries that were nearly impossible in the past—where nine out of ten would die if attempted—could now be performed relatively safely.
But I had no time to feel any sense of accomplishment from that.
‘Right. I did say it’s okay to use it on someone who might die. Then... did they use it on me too? Was my month-long unconsciousness just me being high on ma-yak?’
It felt unsettling in many ways, but I decided to let it slide for now.
‘As long as there are no addiction symptoms, it’s fine. They prescribe narcotic painkillers to critical patients anyway.’
Sorting my thoughts, I looked ahead to see Joo Seo-yeon chattering on endlessly, staring at me with the eager expression of a dog desperate to poop.
And I easily grasped her intent.
“Don’t worry. If you enter the Silver Wing Pavilion, I’ll make sure to take you as my maidservant.”
“Thank you, Young Master!!”
She wanted confirmation on that promise from back then.
And I couldn’t ignore the pure selfish desire of someone who had risked her life to save me.
‘Sorry, Jin Ha-yeon.’
With a silent apology in my heart, I brushed off the lingering guilt.
Joo Seo-yeon, her worries gone, said brightly.
“Actually, while I was receiving treatment at the main peak, I even got to hear words of thanks from Jin Ha-yeon thanks to you, Young Master!”
“Hm? Did Miss Jin visit?”
I hadn’t even met her yet.
“Yes. While the Lord of Ten Thousand Demons was attending to business, she took time to visit while caring for you.”
Hmm. So she’d been nursing me the whole time I was out.
‘That’s a relief. If she even came to express thanks, they must have gotten somewhat close...?’
As I organized the new information and looked ahead, Joo Seo-yeon said with sparkling eyes.
“I was so overjoyed that I tried to get up and my wound reopened, forcing me to lie in the infirmary a few more days, but that pain was nothing compared to the joy of hearing Ha-yeon’s thanks!”
An expression rivaling those of the fanatics I’d faced this time.
‘...Sh, she’ll be fine, right?’
An inexplicable foreboding crept up, but I decided to ignore it.
“Ahem. No matter what I promised, you can’t neglect your training. Miss Jin might be disappointed.”
“Yes, Young Master! I’ll do my utmost!”
“Then I have somewhere to go, so keep at it.”
After spouting some appropriate encouragement, I quickly walked away to escape her.
And the first place I headed was the Academy Lord’s Hall.
“...The Lord summoned me?”
“That’s right, Academy Lord.”
Was to get me exempted from Demonic Path Academy training schedule.
I didn’t voice that reason.
Academy Lord Yeom Ga-hwi was no small-time old fogey either, so he had to be left entirely to Master.
Old fogeys are best handled by even higher old fogeys. It’s a futile task for a young punk to deal with one.
No matter the logic, it always ended with, “How dare a young punk!”
After briefly reporting my return to the academy and Master’s summons, I left the Academy Lord’s Hall and headed to the infirmary.
“Welcome! Il-mok Young Master!”
Seo Jae-pil the physician greeted me, but something felt off.
“Is something troubling you?”
His face looked strangely melancholic.
At my question, Seo Jae-pil gave a wry smile.
“It’s because of the recent raid.”
“Ah...”
As expected of a mental health physician, he’d realized the cadets’ conditions weren’t good.
‘Ho. Instead of rejoicing at more business, he’s saddened. More decent than I thought.’
I’d assumed he’d be thrilled at the influx of patients.
“I heard there were so many severe casualties this time that the infirmary conducted a series of major surgeries. Especially the Demonic Physician elder—he even performed utterly unprecedented procedures using the ma-yak and disinfectant alcohol you taught us about.”
“......”
“‘Disinfection’—once we understood that concept, he sterilized needles and sutures to stitch up intestines and preserve them, even treating Joo Seo-yeon cadet’s damaged organs. When I heard that, Young Master, I nearly wept blood from my eyes. To think such a sight, like the reincarnation of Hua Tuo, unfolded in this Demonic Path Academy while I was stuck here unable to see it... I couldn’t bear it.”
My hunch was right.
This guy was a medical maniac.
After that, Seo Jae-pil the physician prattled on endlessly about the various surgeries he’d only heard of through letters, not witnessed himself.
His face was like a man who’d lost the woman he’d loved his whole life, on the verge of tears.
My head started spinning.
If I let this guy keep talking, the side effects Master had suppressed might run rampant, so I hurriedly cut him off.
“Stop. Stop right there.”
“But Young Master, a new history you created unfolded in the infirmary.”
I had no memory of creating new history.
I’d only stopped this crazy bastard in front of me from using ma-yak as a psychiatric drug, so it ended up as a painkiller.
And I’d thought of disinfectant alcohol just to solve my damn hygiene obsession.
“Phew. That’s all in the past now. More importantly, isn’t Seo Jae-pil the physician attached to the Serenity Pavilion, not the infirmary? So focus on your duties. The cadets didn’t just suffer physical wounds this time—their minds are injured too.”
“???”
As expected, Seo the physician looked like he hadn’t considered it at all.
“It was most of their first real combat. And in that first battle, they were ambushed by hundreds, faced gore and entrails up close. Plus, many allies were wounded, and plenty were injured themselves. After such an ordeal, how could they not be shaken?”
I explained at length, but Seo Jae-pil still looked puzzled.
“Isn’t that just par for the course in practicing martial arts? Even those Central Plains heretics not of our Divine Cult experience it often, Young Master.”
“......”
Come to think of it, this guy was a Divine Cult physician, for all he was a doctor.
He researched mental illness due to demonic art side effects, but he was still one of the crazies who saw killing and dying as utterly normal.
Pondering how to handle this lunatic, I let out a light sigh and spoke calmly.
“As you say, Seo Physician, they’ll eventually face it. But the problem is they encountered it too soon and too intensely.”
“???”
“Simple principle. Humans are adaptive creatures, but only to what they can endure. If someone who’s never trained tries to lift a five-hundred-catty iron block to build external strength, what happens?”
“Their muscles tear, and they live crippled for life?”
“Mentally, it’s the same.”
“Ah!!”
Only then did Seo the physician’s eyes light up, grasping my point.
Not the dead-fish eyes from moments ago.
“So, the cadets’ minds might be injured from such intense stimulation this time. Like overtraining until muscles tear and becoming crippled.”
“Exactly.”
“But in our Divine Cult, this happens often. Yet everyone lives on fine, don’t they?”
“......”
I wanted to retort, “Do the Divine Cult folks look fine to you?” but let it go.
They’d look fine in his eyes anyway.
“Some are born sturdy and can handle heavy iron from the start or get off with light injuries. Minds are the same. The exceptionally tough might endure, but plenty will break from this. And unlike muscles, mental damage isn’t visible, so it’s hard to notice.”
“So, same event, different reactions per person. Haha. As expected of you, Young Master. Comparing the mind to muscles—brilliant.”
Seo Jae-pil scribbled excitedly on paper, eyes gleaming, then asked.
“Hmm. And with cadets suffering demonic art side effects now, mental injury could amplify the risks.”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
“Hahaha. This definitely has research value, Young Master! I really did well following you!”
“......”
The maniac’s eyes sparkled as he spouted stalker-like lines, giving me chills.
* * *
By the time I left the infirmary, the sky was already dark.
I grabbed patient food from the mess hall and returned to Black Dragon Hall for a short rest. Only late in the evening did I slowly rise and step out of my room.
It was about time for her to be back in her room too.
After crossing Black Dragon Hall’s corridors and passing several rooms...
I arrived at the door marked with a familiar cadet’s name and cautiously spoke.
“Jeong Cadet. Are you inside?”