Chapter 79. Scent of Snow (2)
Chapter 79. Scent of Snow (2)
3
It was only after a long while that the Heavenly Demon and I were able to return to the group.
"......"
"......"
The two of us were solemn.
As we walked through the cave, the Heavenly Demon said just one thing: "...The path ahead is quite dark, so watch your step." I answered only, "Yes." That was the end of our conversation. The woman's face, glimpsed from the side, was sunken in worry.
The Heavenly Demon, no.
What could my master be thinking?
'Character window.'
There is a saying that a disciple must not even tread on their master's shadow, but I could not endure my curiosity. What if my master had become cautious because I had shown weakness? That was not what I wanted.
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Name: So Baek-hyang (蕭白香)
Favorability: 85
Preferred genres: [Wuxia]
Disliked genres: [Classics], [Mythology], [History], [Fairy Tale]
Preferred characters: [Salt of the Earth], [Rival], [Disciple]
Disliked characters: [Oppressor], [Deceiver], [Idler]
Preferred plots: [All-out contests]
Disliked plots: [Escape], [Oblivion], [Meaningless death]
Mental state: 'Well now. If I reckon how much internal energy I have left... if I use it sparingly, sparingly, I might live another year and six months. A year and a half! Ahh, how difficult! I must pass on everything I have to my disciple within a year and a half......'
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Hmm......
Hmm.
My face stung. It wasn't because I felt guilty for peeking into my master's heart without permission... not only that. Embarrassment. A touch of emotion. I didn't know what it was, but my face grew very hot.
Ah, was I really this weak to people’s goodwill?
-Keuh-heu. Zombie! Today really is the day! Fortune is with us!
Of course, the emotion didn't last long.
A ghost bastard who wasn't even human smashed the whole mood to pieces.
-What! Even if the world is different, those jianghu bastards’ heads are the same everywhere, so it wasn’t much different from our murim. But still, it feels good to read martial arts manuals after so long. Kyaa! Ah, right. So, did you perform the Nine-Bow Rite properly?
"......"
-Huh? What's with that sour look? Your ugly face looks even uglier, zombie. You need to work on your appearance.
If my Favorability score were displayed too, it would have just dropped by about 10 points.
Anyway, ghosts don't understand the human heart.
[Sparkle barely stops sobbing and gazes up at the Hero.]
Sparkle, who had been trembling for a while now, finally stopped.
Indeed, Constellations understand the human heart.
My Favorability toward Sparkle rose by 30.
"Oh, you're back?"
Viper spoke to us. His single eye soon fixed on me.
"Is the Nine-Bow Rite over?"
"Yes, I have formally become a disciple of the Demonic Cult."
"Good, congratulations."
"So, Viper, how did you come to form a master-disciple bond with the Murim Alliance Master?"
Viper smirked and crossed his arms.
"Well, it just sort of happened."
"You said the same thing back then."
"What, do you want to hear the details?"
"If possible."
Viper crossed his arms for show.
He flashed a smile so thick not even a needle could slip through, then shook his head.
"Sorry, but impossible."
Viper continued nonchalantly.
"I simply asked for instruction. Nothing special happened."
Hmm.
Since the sparring was over anyway, I opened Viper's status window.
『Tch. A dying old woman... no. She’s my master now.
Anyway, he says he doesn't have much life left, and he comes and prostrates himself, saying he wants to give the Heavenly Demon a reason to live. How could I refuse that, and how could I say anything?
And that's someone whose skill is far above mine, too......』
I looked at Viper with the feeling of having been struck on the head.
Viper.
He was a 'man'.
『Hoo-ah~ Maybe it's because I lied, but the memories are coming back fresh.
The Murim Alliance Master and the Heavenly Demon spar from time to time. Watching that, I'd been thinking for a while now that these two were something impressive.
So while the two of them were seated, I tried talking about martial arts.
Then the Murim Alliance Master suddenly went, 'Kki-yoot! Hey hey, you, is that true?! A once-in-a-millennium prodigy like you—how blessed is the Outer Regions, I ask you!' and made a huge fuss.
I was just scratching the back of my head thinking, hmm, well, it's only this much...
Then that Medicine King geezer butted in, as if asking what all the fuss was about.
'Ahh, this Heavenly Martial Sect Master fellow, appearances aside, is a precious [comrade] to me. It's only natural that he possesses such skill, character, and looks,' he said.
The Pharmacist also blushed demurely and then.
'Y-yes... H-Heavenly Martial Sect Master, b-big bro... I... Ah, no! Ah, ah, I didn’t say anything! Anyway, the Heavenly Martial Sect Master is a top ranker of our world... I-I mean, an idol that the people of our world look up to! Something like that... Ahaha, ha, ha-kyuu, I-I said something embarrassing!' and covered both cheeks with her hands.
At the sudden shower of facts, I could only stare off at a distant mountain.
Then the Murim Alliance Master nodded as if everything made sense.
'Hey hey, it's a request! This once-in-a-millennium prodigy, please become my last disciple before I die!'
Haa~ This is troublesome.
I just want to live quietly, but really, why is my life never peaceful......』
Right.
Let's stop looking.
Viper.
He was a 'real man'.
"Death King. And Demonic Cult Leader."
The greatest 'real man' of this era shrugged his shoulders and spoke.
"I have one piece of good news and one piece of sad news for you."
"What is it?"
"It succeeded."
The person who answered my question was not Viper. It was a much fainter voice—the Pharmacist’s. Wearing thick-lensed glasses, the Pharmacist was walking toward us.
"The cure. Development, succeeded. Death King."
"......"
The reason I couldn't answer right away was not because I was moved by the declaration of completion.
The Pharmacist was a genius. I had always taken it for granted that she would eventually develop a cure; the only question was how long it would take.
In the meantime, I had spent a great deal of time learning the Demonic Heavenly God Art. With the Pharmacist receiving help from the Medicine King, it was about time for a cure to be developed.
"What? A medicine has been made?"
My master wore a surprised expression.
"Is that truly so? If you lied, confess now. I can forgive one lie."
"...Yes, it's true."
The Pharmacist said.
"Actually, it was developed yesterday. The reason I observed for one more day was that I needed to monitor the clinical trial."
"Clinical trial? What is that?"
"It's testing whether the cure properly exerts its effect. The test subject that the Heavenly Demon and the Alliance Master donated... I'm sorry. I observed the progress for one day using the body of the person who was the Wudang Sect Leader."
The Pharmacist seemed to be forcing a blank expression.
"Revival was impossible because he had been dead for so long, but I confirmed that the zombie virus... the plague was cured and he returned to being an ordinary corpse. Yes, there is nothing wrong with the cure."
"If that is true, is it not a tremendous blessing!"
My master beamed.
"How remarkable! It was a strange disease that all the physicians and Taoists of the jianghu threw up their hands at. For just two people to find the solution—what extraordinary talent!"
"No, it was only thanks to the materials Death King provided......"
"Enough with humility. Treat that old man Bu Wol-seon at once!"
My master seized the Pharmacist’s hands.
My master's joy was vividly felt in every gesture.
"That fellow puts on airs of strength and preens, but in truth he has few days left to endure. He must know it himself, which is why he took a child from the Outer Regions as his disciple. That the medicine was developed before the old man leaves this world is truly the care of the High God!"
"Yes... Of course I will treat him. That's why I came here......"
And then I spoke.
"There's a problem with the cure, isn't there."
"......"
"Isn't that right, Boss?"
The Pharmacist lowered her head. Her complexion was as faint as her voice. From the moment she said, “The development of the cure succeeded,” the Pharmacist kept avoiding my gaze. I had felt uneasy from that moment.
"No, there's nothing wrong with the cure...... I made it, after all. It's perfect. But......"
But.
"But, what is it?"
"They say the dantian must be destroyed."
Step.
A light footstep sounded.
"Demon child, I too witnessed the corpse of the Wudang Sect Leader return to normal. Just in case, I procured a couple more jiangshi patients and tested it, and the result was the same. The efficacy of the medicine this girl made is beyond doubt."
The Murim Alliance Master, Bu Wol-seon.
The old man in white martial robes slowly walked toward us.
"But you must know as well. The two of us are already no different from half-corpses. We forcibly revived bodies that had long since become corpses."
"......"
My master's expression had hardened before I knew it.
The Murim Alliance Master stroked his beard with a hearty air.
"It was already a miracle that we survived this long against the laws of heaven. We must pay the price."
"...It has been too long since both of you were infected with the jiangshi disease."
The Pharmacist spoke.
"For someone not yet infected, or someone infected only recently, one shot of the vaccine would finish both treatment and prevention, but for the two of you......"
The Pharmacist, her head deeply bowed, moved her lips quickly.
"Above the cervical spine point, there is no abnormality. After taking the cure, you will return to normal, as before you were infected. But below the cervical spine point, what you call internal energy is completely indistinguishable from the pathogen... that is, from the turbid qi."
The Pharmacist said the lower dantian was in especially bad shape.
"The pathways through which your internal energy moves coincide with the pathways through which the turbid qi has spread. To put it simply, the hallway needs to be cleaned. But the cure is not a pair of meticulous tweezers; it's a blunt broom. You can't sweep the hallway with a broom and clean the dust and sand grains separately. Your hallway has accumulated too much dust, and especially, the lower dantian is in terrible condition......"
The dantian is where internal energy accumulates.
To a martial artist, it was a part as precious as life itself.
"That place, all of it, must be removed."
"...Removed, you say."
My master said.
"What do you mean by removed."
"It must be eliminated."
The Pharmacist forced out her voice.
"I will perform surgery."
"...You mean to remove a tumor attached to the dantian? That much is fine. There will be a loss of internal energy, but at our level we can recover quickly."
"No. The entire area will be excised."
"......"
"You need not doubt whether the surgery will succeed. I have already performed clinical surgeries. I am not a specialist in surgery, but the Medicine King elder is skilled. And I-I am capable of supporting him. So......"
"The skill of the procedure was remarkable."
The Murim Alliance Master said offhandedly.
"I don’t know about anything else, but physicians should be sought in the Outer Regions, not the jianghu. Watching from the side, it was fascinating. Demon child, you should observe too if you get the chance."
"Namgung Un."
"I."
The Murim Alliance Master coughed.
"I will undergo the procedure."
"......"
"The internal energy I would lose is only a handful anyway. There is nothing to regret. Nothing to be sorry about. I am fortunate to have taken a disciple in my old age. Even if my dantian is destroyed, my mind for teaching my disciple is sound, and my disciple is a once-in-a-millennium prodigy who understands ten things when told one."
The Murim Alliance Master looked at his old rival.
"We are martial artists. Martial arts are of the mind. If the mind remains, the martial arts remain. Is that not so, Baek-hyang?"
My master could not answer.
Throughout the night, the Murim Alliance Master underwent the procedure. Around dawn, the Pharmacist and the Medicine King came to tell us that the surgery was finished.
The surgery was successful.
4
At dawn, the snowfield held the color of shadow.
"Master."
"......"
My master stood alone at the cave entrance, looking down at the world that had become shadow. Long black sleeves fluttered in the wind.
The scenery was distant.
My master's back looked a little more distant than the scenery.
"Master."
"...Has the result of the procedure come out?"
"Yes."
"How did it go?"
"He is well."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
"So it came to pass."
My master's gaze was nailed to the empty air.
"My disciple."
"Yes."
"I wanted to cut away all the cold in the world."
My master said.
"It has been so since I was young. I resented winter. I hated the snow that fell in winter. I wondered how the world could have seasons, and how among the seasons there could be winter, and how each time a season withered, human lives must wither too."
A world frozen forever into winter.
The woman born with the Body of Ice and Snow and the Body of Extreme Yin hated the season that most resembled herself.
"Even if I could not cut away the cold of the world with a single sword, I was confident that I could at least punish those who froze the world. I remember when I first entered the jianghu. It was midwinter then too."
I realized that something about my master had changed.
A sword.
My master held a sword in her right hand. There was no guard. It was made only of hilt and blade. Unlike the other swords, which were transparent like mirrors, my master's sword was a pitch-black ink color.
A sword that refused to become transparent.
I was seeing it for the first time, but I could guess what that sword was.
"The Blood-Slaying Demon Sword (殲血魔劍)......"
"Yes."
My master murmured low.
"When I first entered the jianghu, there was something I tried. It was the recklessness of a young heart. I took the cold of the world literally as a thing of the world, and sought to cut down a snow mountain."
My master breathed.
The breath she let out at dawn was white.
In the sky where the whiteness touched, a lofty peak rose up.
"In those days, I could not even cut its hem......"
My master raised her sword.
"I wonder how it would fare now. I am curious."
The sword was swung.
It was a slow gesture.
My master's sleeves were long, so they had to flutter for a long while to follow the gesture. When the black sleeves swayed in the empty air, the time of the world seemed to pause for a moment. In the frozen air, my master's sleeve hems swam freely.
"Wish."
Sword dance (劍舞).
"Wish."
Sword Shaman (劒巫).
"I wish."
The sword maiden whirled in the dance of the sword.
"My heart is a candle flame."
And then.
"I shall burn this place."
The snow mountain was cut.
A snow peak that embraced no trees and exposed no rocks, a peak with no meaning except that it was simply there—was cut.
The scream of the snow-laden mountain resembled thunder. Following the echoing scream, a spray of pure white blood burst forth. The snow mountain crumbled from its peak, raising waves of snow, and the waves surged layer upon layer as they descended. It collapsed and collapsed. A blizzard made not by heaven but by a human engulfed the dawn.
"......"
My master's breath flowed.
"I barely managed to cut only the peak. I cut the mountain with my mind, yet could not cut it away—Killing by Intent is still far off. This is my final realm."
"......"
"My disciple."
My master turned to look at me.
A single great mountain was shattering white.
"I will undergo the procedure."