Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Spirit Herb (2)
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“Mm.”
Hwang Jeong, who had closed his eyes and carefully examined Sima Jin’s pulse for a long while, let out a low groan as he opened them again.
His face, which always bore a smile, had hardened rigidly quite some time ago.
“How is it?”
Sima Geon couldn’t hold back and asked.
Seeing Hwang Jeong hesitate to answer easily, Sima Geon and his brothers’ anxiety reached its peak.
“Argh! This is frustrating. Come on, just tell us straight!”
Cheol Woo, who was more impatient than anyone, pounded his chest and shouted.
Though he wasn’t versed in medicine, Sima Geon was more sensitive to energies than most and had already sensed that the yin energy within Sima Jin’s body, which had vanished due to the Celestial Pure Jade Milk and Hwang Yeong’s golden needle technique, was writhing anew. Still, he desperately hoped his judgment was wrong and asked again.
“The Heavenly Yin Divine Meridian... Has its affliction returned?”
“What? Heavenly Yin Divine Meridian? What the hell is that, boss?”
The startled Cheol Woo grabbed his shoulder and demanded.
Sima Geon quietly removed his arm and waited for Hwang Jeong’s response.
Letting out a sigh, Hwang Jeong nodded weakly.
“It appears so. It hasn’t regained its former overwhelming power yet, but this energy is unmistakably...”
Hwang Jeong trailed off, unable to continue, but no one present failed to understand what he meant.
“It seems you already suspected as much. What on earth happened?”
Hwang Jeong asked with an incredulous expression.
He had just returned to the Clear Heart Clinic after finishing his business in Soju after half a month, only to be urgently led by the anxiously waiting Sima Geon and his brothers to examine Sima Jin, who had collapsed two days prior and still hadn’t regained consciousness.
And now, he was confronted once more with the affliction of the Heavenly Yin Divine Meridian, which he had thought cured—at least for the time being, if not permanently—and wouldn’t see again for a long while, perhaps never.
Considering the Celestial Pure Jade Milk and the Living Immortal Medical House’s golden needle technique, this was an utterly incomprehensible turn of events.
Sima Geon shook his head after gathering his thoughts for a moment.
“Nothing particularly problematic comes to mind.”
“Really? That’s strange. Even if it wasn’t a complete cure, the Heavenly Yin Divine Meridian’s yin energy was perfectly suppressed by the Celestial Pure Jade Milk and our clan’s golden needle technique. I can’t believe it flared up so suddenly like this. Think back again. There must have been some trigger.”
At Hwang Jeong’s earnest demeanor, Sima Geon glanced at his younger brothers.
He silently asked with his eyes if they recalled any trigger he might have overlooked, as Hwang Jeong suggested. But they all just furrowed their brows and shook their heads.
“Ha! This is driving me crazy. It doesn’t make sense, boss. Wasn’t that Heavenly Yin whatever thing completely done for? We even fed her the thousand-year flower spirit herb!”
Hwang Jeong’s eyes flashed at Cheol Woo’s excited outburst.
“What did you just say? If I didn’t mishear, you said thousand-year flower spirit herb, right?”
“Yeah. Thousand-year flower spirit herb.”
“You mean she ingested the thousand-year flower spirit herb?”
As Hwang Jeong’s tone grew ominously serious with his repeated confirmation, Cheol Woo glanced at Sima Geon before nodding.
“That’s right. Damn it, we went through hell to get it, but it looks like it didn’t do much.”
“No. That doesn’t make sense.”
Hwang Jeong shook his head in confusion.
“What doesn’t make sense?”
When Sima Geon spoke, Hwang Jeong countered with a face full of disbelief.
“Did she really ingest the thousand-year flower spirit herb?”
“Absolutely. I got it directly from the Ha Hu Clan myself. Isn’t that right, elder?”
Ha Hu Gok, who had been watching from a distance, nodded instinctively at the sudden question.
“Y-Yes, that’s right. This one confirmed it too.”
Ha Hu Gok poked Ha Hu Yeon’s side, who stood beside him.
Ha Hu Yeon now knew that Sima Geon was the winner of the martial tournament and had received the thousand-year flower spirit herb as a prize for his injuries.
“It should be correct. I heard it clearly myself. What they prepared as the prize for the winner from their clan was definitely the thousand-year flower spirit herb.”
At the words “prize for the winner,” Sima Geon and Cheol Woo flinched slightly, and Ha Hu Gok’s eyebrow twitched, but the others showed no particular doubt or reaction.
“That’s truly odd.”
With Ha Hu Gok and Ha Hu Yeon’s testimony, Hwang Jeong wore a troubled expression.
Given the power and wealth of the Ha Hu Clan in the martial world, there was no doubt the thousand-year flower spirit herb was genuine.
That made it all the more baffling.
The herb used to treat Sima Jin in the past had been flower spirit herb. Though it hadn’t shown remarkable effects, it had undoubtedly helped to some degree.
The thousand-year flower spirit herb was incomparably rarer than ordinary flower spirit herb.
In a state where the Heavenly Yin Divine Meridian’s yin energy was subdued by the Celestial Pure Jade Milk and golden needle technique, it was a herb precious enough to even hope for a full cure. Yet, from the looks of things, the thousand-year flower spirit herb had acted like poison instead.
‘The yin energy, barely clinging to life under the suppression of the Celestial Pure Jade Milk and our clan’s golden needle technique, has revived. For that to happen, it would require ingesting an herb with extreme yin properties. But isn’t the thousand-year flower spirit herb an extreme yang herb? It can’t be the thousand-year flower spirit herb. There must be some other factor at play. Something utterly impossible by common sense...’
Hwang Jeong’s thick brows furrowed in an inverted eight shape as he sorted through his thoughts alone.
Sima Geon, who had been staring intently only at Hwang Jeong with a tense expression, quickly seized on it.
“Does something come to mind?”
“That thousand-year flower spirit herb. Do you remember exactly what it looked like?”
“Pardon?”
As Sima Geon faltered, Sima Ho, who had personally administered the herb, jumped in swiftly.
“The root was yellowish-brown, a little over a handspan long, covered in fine hairs. The stem was light green, but the part connecting to the root was unusually dark. And...”
Sima Ho went on describing the thousand-year flower spirit herb in vivid detail, saliva flying as he spoke at length. It was so precise it felt like seeing it right before their eyes—a stark contrast to his usual frivolous demeanor, which often drew criticism.
Hwang Jeong’s expression, listening intently, had stiffened at some point.
“I need to head to the Clear Heart Clinic for a moment.”
Hwang Jeong shot to his feet and dashed outside.
No one could stop him. They just stood there, staring blankly at one another, passing the time.
Hwang Jeong returned from the Clear Heart Clinic after about two ke (roughly 30 minutes).
“This is flower spirit herb.”
Hwang Jeong placed a cloth-wrapped herb on the table.
Unlike Sima Geon and Cheol Woo, who had never seen it, Sima Hyeon and Sima Ho knew flower spirit herb all too well. It was the herb most frequently used to treat Sima Jin’s affliction.
“Thousand-year flower spirit herb and flower spirit herb look almost identical externally. The biggest difference is the root size. An ordinary flower spirit herb’s root is no bigger than a pinky finger, but one that has endured ages, like the thousand-year variety, is much larger.”
At Hwang Jeong’s words, Sima Ho spread his palm wide.
“The one we gave her back then was this big.”
“Yes. That size confirms it as thousand-year flower spirit herb. But in your earlier description, there was something different from what I know of it.”
“What’s that?”
“The flower’s color. You said the petals were a deep crimson, right?”
“Y-Yes.”
“Seven petals, nine stamens, and two pistils in the center.”
“I didn’t count, so I’m not sure exactly.”
Sima Ho shook his head uncertainly.
“Probably correct. But for thousand-year flower spirit herb—no, flower spirit herb—the stamens number six, not nine. It does have the unusual trait of two pistils. Decisively, the thousand-year flower spirit herb’s petals aren’t crimson.”
“Not crimson?”
“No. The thousand-year flower spirit herb’s flower isn’t crimson.”
“Then does that mean the herb our Jin’er ingested wasn’t thousand-year flower spirit herb?”
Sima Geon asked in shock.
“The odds are high.”
“No way! Flower spirit herb flowers are definitely crimson. I’ve seen it several times before. You have too, brother.”
Sima Ho grabbed Sima Hyeon’s arm and shouted, then pointed at the flower spirit herb Hwang Jeong had just brought.
“Look! These flower spirit herb petals are red too.”
All eyes turned to the flower spirit herb Sima Ho indicated. Though somewhat wilted, the petals clearly held a reddish hue.
“Correct. Flower spirit herb flowers are indeed crimson. But thousand-year flower spirit herb is different. It’s not crimson—it has a faint purple tint.”
At Hwang Jeong’s words, Sima Geon and his brothers wore dazed expressions.
“Then what was the herb that child ingested?”
Ha Hu Gok asked with a rigidly set face.
As a virtual third party, it wasn’t his place to interject. But with the thousand-year flower spirit herb prepared by the Ha Hu Clan being fake, leading to Sima Jin’s relapse, he couldn’t stay out of it.
Beyond the Ha Hu Clan’s honor, it risked disaster with a monster like Sima Geon.
“I can’t say for certain without seeing it myself, but I have a suspect herb in mind.”
“What is it?”
In response to Ha Hu Gok’s question, Hwang Jeong produced another herb.
“It’s called cold immortal herb. Flower spirit herb is rare, but cold immortal herb is far harder to obtain. Just think of its properties as the complete opposite of flower spirit herb.”
“I think I’ve heard of it somewhere. It does look similar, but not so much that one couldn’t tell them apart. The leaf size and shape differ right away.”
Ha Hu Gok compared the two herbs side by side.
“At first glance, yes. But just as ages turn flower spirit herb into thousand-year flower spirit herb, cold immortal herb endures ages and transforms into a spirit herb rarely seen in the world. That’s called ten-thousand-year ice spirit herb.”
The name alone was extraordinary.
“What? It grows for ten thousand years?”
Hwang Jeong gave a wry smile and shook his head at Ha Hu Gok’s surprise.
“Not quite that long, I’d wager. It’s so hard to find that it’s called that, but honestly, I’ve never seen one myself. Still, I remember the characteristics described in the texts clearly. Unlike cold immortal herb, ten-thousand-year ice spirit herb astonishingly resembles flower spirit herb in nearly everything. Leaf shape, number, stem, root form and size—even petal color. The difference? Ten-thousand-year ice spirit herb has nine stamens and two pistils per flower.”
“So it looks almost exactly like flower spirit herb. Only the number of stamens and pistils differs.”
“Exactly why it’s easy to confuse them. If you don’t know the thousand-year flower spirit herb’s petals are purple, that is.”
“Heavens! So, unless one knows all the traits of cold immortal herb, flower spirit herb, ten-thousand-year ice spirit herb, and thousand-year flower spirit herb, distinguishing them is impossible.”
Ha Hu Gok shook his head in disbelief.
“I don’t get what you’re all yapping about.”
Cheol Woo, who had been racking his brain, bellowed.
“Forget stamens and pistils and all that crap. In short, the herb Jin’er took wasn’t thousand-year flower spirit herb but some lookalike ten-thousand-whatever ice spirit herb, right?”
“Yes.”
“And that damned thing brought back the affliction that had disappeared.”
“Not disappeared, but deeply suppressed within her body...”
“Whatever. It’s the same thing. Without that, everything would’ve been fine, right?”
Cheol Woo’s voice grew rougher by the word. With it, Ha Hu Gok and Ha Hu Yeon’s expressions hardened further.
“Its medicinal power is potent enough to neutralize the Celestial Pure Jade Milk and the Living Immortal Medical House’s technique... No. Hah! Just the name gives me chills.”
A sigh escaped Sima Geon’s lips as he questioned.
“Ten-thousand-year ice spirit herb is far rarer than thousand-year flower spirit herb. Even so, I wouldn’t say it could easily neutralize the Celestial Pure Jade Milk and our clan’s golden needle technique. The issue is the Heavenly Yin Divine Meridian energy suppressed in Lady Sima’s body. On the brink of annihilation thanks to the Celestial Pure Jade Milk and golden needle technique, the ten-thousand-year ice spirit herb’s yin energy would be like a heavenly army and myriad demons to it.”
“Like time that had stopped starts flowing again?”
“That’s...”
“Please tell us.”
After a moment of silence, Hwang Jeong spoke with a gloomy face.
“It’s already flowing. Not as rapidly as before, but.”
Sima Geon clenched his eyes shut.
Everyone listening to the exchange with bated breath let out despairing sighs.
“Still, we have some time. I’ll make sure of it. I’ll inform our clan of the truth and seek their aid.”
Hwang Jeong, aware of Sima Jin’s recent keen interest in medicine, saw this crisis as an opportunity.
The Heavenly Yin Divine Meridian wasn’t just anything—it was the worst heavenly punishment bestowed upon an individual from the heavens. Yet, overcoming that punishment turns it into the greatest blessing.
Hwang Jeong, who had clearly witnessed the abilities it granted even when suppressed, didn’t want to lose Sima Jin like this. More than that, he was determined to make her part of the Living Immortal Medical House. He recalled Hwang Yeong’s earnest plea to persuade her somehow.