Chapter 18
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: An Unfinished Ascension
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Early morning.
Dan Ak-seon woke earlier than usual. It was because of a hammering sound coming from somewhere.
“Wow!”
Stepping out of the pavilion, Dan Ak-seon let out an involuntary gasp of admiration.
It was because the Divine Demon Valley was completely transformed from the day before.
The messy sight was nowhere to be found.
Everywhere he looked was clean and neatly organized. Moreover, Cho Ak-ryang and Beom Gye-wi were bustling about in one corner.
Behind them, a thatched-roof cottage, which hadn't been there before, was being built.
That was why it had been so noisy since dawn.
Dan Ak-seon walked toward the two men. Just then, the cottage door opened and a person walked out.
It was Han Seol-hwa.
*This must be her.*
Dan Ak-seon realized this was the patient Beom Gye-wi had said he would bring.
“Hello.”
Dan Ak-seon bowed his head deeply.
“My name is Dan Ak-seon.”
Han Seol-hwa, who had been staring at Dan Ak-seon with a blank expression, gave a slight nod.
—My name is Han Seol-hwa. You can just call me auntie.
Dan Ak-seon’s eyes widened.
It was because her voice was being transmitted directly into his mind.
“That was a telepathic message, right?”
Dan Ak-seon said in amazement.
“I’ve heard about it from my parents. They said it’s a special skill martial arts masters use to speak secretly. You must be an incredible master too, auntie?”
No sooner had Dan Ak-seon finished speaking than a telepathic message from Beom Gye-wi shot over.
—Hmph! What’s so great about a measly telepathic message?
Dan Ak-seon looked at Beom Gye-wi with surprised eyes.
“Wow, this is really amazing.”
Cho Ak-ryang furrowed his brow.
“If I just recovered my internal energy, something like a telepathic message would be….”
The moment he said it, Cho Ak-ryang regretted it. It was because of Beom Gye-wi, who was preening as he looked at him.
Just then, Dan Ak-seon smiled brightly at Cho Ak-ryang and Beom Gye-wi.
“So you were building a house for auntie to stay in? I see why you’ve been so busy since yesterday.”
“Uh? Oh…”
“Well, something like that…”
As the two men nodded reluctantly with sour expressions, Han Seol-hwa’s telepathic message reached them.
—Hurry up. The roof on that side isn’t finished yet.
At Han Seol-hwa’s command, Beom Gye-wi’s brow twitched.
—Should I tell him you two snuck out last night? You reeked of blood.
At her subsequent message, the two men lifted a log as if nothing had happened.
They continued their work in silence.
Han Seol-hwa, who had been watching them, turned toward the cliff.
*Whoosh.*
A powerful force erupted from the sweep of her sleeve.
A massive whirlwind formed in the distance, scraping against the cliff face.
All sorts of rags and cloth scraps scattered near the cliff were swept up by the wind, soaring high into the sky. When Han Seol-hwa clenched her hand in the air, they were drawn to her as if being sucked in.
At the sight, Dan Ak-seon let out an unconscious gasp.
He finally understood why the valley was so clean.
For a long while, Han Seol-hwa used her martial arts to clean every nook and cranny of the valley.
When the cleaning seemed mostly finished, Dan Ak-seon approached Han Seol-hwa.
He had remembered the reason she came here.
“You must have a place that’s unwell, too, right, auntie?”
Dan Ak-seon smiled gently at Han Seol-hwa, who was watching him with a blank face.
“Let’s go to my pavilion for now. I’ll start by checking your pulse.”
Han Seol-hwa nodded and followed Dan Ak-seon.
* * *
Han Seol-hwa sat in a chair, observing Dan Ak-seon. He sat across from her, his eyes gently closed.
His fingers were placed on her wrist.
It was only after a long time had passed that Dan Ak-seon, who had been deep in thought, opened his eyes.
“Haa…”
Dan Ak-seon let out a sigh.
“Really… I can’t believe it.”
A look of pity filled Dan Ak-seon’s eyes.
“It’s not that you won’t speak, but that you can’t.”
Dan Ak-seon continued.
“The treatment… I don’t even know if I should call this a treatment, but it seems like it will take some time. And honestly, it’s hard to guarantee the results. This is the first time I’ve ever seen a condition like this.”
Dan Ak-seon looked at Han Seol-hwa with an apologetic expression.
“I’m sorry.”
Han Seol-hwa silently nodded.
She had held out a sliver of hope, but it was as she’d expected. Even if the Divine Physician and the Demonic Physician were here, the result would have been the same.
She was just a fool for letting her heart be moved by pointless expectations.
“The only thing I can do for you right now is to restore your voice.”
For the first time, a glimmer of what could be called emotion appeared in Han Seol-hwa’s perpetually cold eyes.
—Are you saying I can speak again?
Dan Ak-seon nodded.
“I can’t fix everything at once, but it’s possible to restore things one by one. Of course, this isn’t the ultimate cure.”
Dan Ak-seon continued his explanation.
“The important thing is to block the cold energy flowing from your meridians. After that, I’ll stimulate the nerves and muscles to increase their activity.”
—Is that possible?
Dan Ak-seon nodded. Then he took out the wooden box containing the Immortal Reverence Needles from his robes.
“Shall we begin?”
When Han Seol-hwa nodded, Dan Ak-seon placed needles at several of her vital points.
“Try to make a long ‘ah’ sound. Feel as though you’re slowly drawing up the heavy breath from your lungs and exhaling it.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Han Seol-hwa followed Dan Ak-seon’s instructions.
But no voice came out.
Only a harsh, metallic rasping sound continued.
Dan Ak-seon smiled warmly at her.
“You’re doing well. Keep doing that.”
From then on, Dan Ak-seon continued to apply the needles with a serious expression. About an hour into the treatment…
“…Ah.”
A clear sound flowed from Han Seol-hwa’s lips.
Startled, Han Seol-hwa looked at Dan Ak-seon.
“Did I just make a sound…?”
“You’re doing it right now.”
“…!”
Though her expression remained unchanged, Han Seol-hwa was incredibly shocked at that moment.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had heard her own voice.
They say you only realize the true value of something after you’ve lost it. For her, her voice was one of those things.
Cho Ak-ryang and Beom Gye-wi.
She could finally understand their boundless trust in this child.
Just then, Dan Ak-seon raised his hand and pointed to the bed.
“Could you lie down for a moment?”
Dan Ak-seon spoke with a serious gaze.
“I need to examine your body more closely.”
Han Seol-hwa paused.
—My body?
She was so flustered that she sent a telepathic message without thinking. But Dan Ak-seon’s eyes were as clear and calm as tea.
“I’m not as skilled as Bian Que’s brothers yet.”
Bian Que was a physician, along with Hua Tuo, known as one of the greatest medical masters.
“He was said to have two older brothers. They were also physicians.”
—I know that story.
It was a famous anecdote.
One day, the emperor asked which of Bian Que’s brothers had the greatest medical skill. Bian Que replied that his eldest brother was the most skilled, followed by his second brother.
The emperor then asked why Bian Que’s name was the most famous. Bian Que answered that it was because he cured illnesses with medicine and surgery.
In contrast, he explained that his second brother treated patients when their illnesses were still minor, while his eldest brother could diagnose an illness just by looking at someone’s face and eliminate the cause before it could manifest, so people were unaware of their skills.
*Which means?*
Han Seol-hwa was deeply surprised.
Interpreted differently, Dan Ak-seon’s words meant he possessed medical skills comparable to Bian Que himself.
Han Seol-hwa slowly nodded.
As she lay down on the bed, Dan Ak-seon took her pulse and gave a warning.
“If you feel anything strange, you must not open your mouth or move.”
“Anything strange?”
“Uncle Beom and Uncle Cho were fine, but depending on the person, it might feel ticklish.”
Han Seol-hwa was puzzled, but since she had entrusted her body to him, she decided to trust Dan Ak-seon.
Han Seol-hwa quietly closed her eyes.
At that moment, a faint energy flowed in through her pulse point.
It was an energy so faint and thin that she would have missed it if she hadn’t been concentrating.
Warm and gentle…
An energy that felt like a spring haze.
The energy, which had been moving slowly along her meridians, soon passed through the Eight Extraordinary Meridians and settled at the Yongquan point near the sole of her foot.
Then, it began to travel up her ankle and calf, and after examining her body for a long while, it slowly dispersed.
“Haa…”
Dan Ak-seon agonized with a complicated expression.
But at a certain point, his eyes began to shine.
“Returning the spirit to the void…”
A single phrase muttered by Dan Ak-seon.
It was the decisive clue that allowed him to guess Han Seol-hwa’s current state.
A glimmer appeared in Han Seol-hwa’s eyes.
“How did you know that? I heard you haven’t learned martial arts.”
“If you trace medical arts back far enough, they eventually connect with martial arts. Just like how Hua Tuo created the Five Animals Frolics.”
Dan Ak-seon continued to explain.
“Just as there are various internal energy techniques in the martial world, the training methods are also countless. But the core principles within them share many similarities.”
These could be summarized into roughly three stages.
Refining Essence into Qi, Refining Qi into Spirit, and Returning the Spirit to the Void.
Refining Essence into Qi is the process of cultivating essence, or one’s innate congenital energy, to accumulate qi. Refining Qi into Spirit is the process of nurturing the spirit based on the qi accumulated in that process.
Then, transcending existing limitations to achieve a superhuman mind and body in perfect harmony is the state of Spirit. Returning the Spirit to the Void refers to the state of reaching the ultimate by tempering the spirit.
It is the stage of leaping beyond the constraints of the flesh into a realm of transcendence.
Unbound by the limits of the body, one neither ages nor dies. One is literally transformed into an immortal, undying being.
“Taoism has countless sects, but…”
Han Seol-hwa looked at Dan Ak-seon with a puzzled expression.
But from Dan Ak-seon’s next words, she could guess why he had brought up Taoism.
“But the core philosophy that penetrates them all is one and the same.”
Dan Ak-seon smiled gently.
“Immortality and ascension.”
To this end, each sect trained in its own way. While there were slight differences, there were four main methods.
The Alchemy School, which aimed to create elixirs of immortality. The Talisman School, which served ghosts or mountain spirits and controlled evil energies with spells and talismans. The Longevity School, which sought eternal life through the harmony of yin and yang or sexual arts. The Qi Refining School, which practiced dantian breathing and cultivation exercises.
“Most of the existing Taoist sects belong to the Qi Refining School. The spiritual medicines they produce are influenced by the Alchemy School.”
This was evident just by looking at the Huashan Sect, a representative Taoist sect of the current era.
“I suspect that you entered the stage of Returning the Spirit to the Void a long time ago.”
It was only a hypothesis; Dan Ak-seon wasn’t certain either.
He had never personally experienced any case similar to this one.
But other than that, Han Seol-hwa’s condition was impossible to explain.
The cold energy that filled her entire body, including her limbs and every organ. An ordinary person would have died long ago.
She was alive only because she had shed the limitations of her physical body.
“The problem is that it’s unstable. It seems you hastily moved to the next stage without perfectly completing the spirit.”
The reason for her lack of expression, her inability to taste, was that her muscles and nerves had become fixed along with her body’s frozen time.
Han Seol-hwa’s gaze wavered slightly.
Hearing Dan Ak-seon’s words, a long-forgotten memory from the past came to mind.
“Can you fix it?”
At Han Seol-hwa’s question, Dan Ak-seon nodded.
“It will require some research… but I don’t think it’s impossible. As I said at the beginning, it will likely take some time.”
“Time does not matter.”
“Besides, there is a point of concern.”
Dan Ak-seon hesitated with a troubled face.
“It’s alright, tell me.”
At Han Seol-hwa’s words, Dan Ak-seon let out a soft sigh.
“The aging process that had stopped will resume. Your body’s time will begin to flow again.”
Han Seol-hwa nodded for a long moment before speaking.
“That is truly what I desire. To grow old, ordinarily, like everyone else.”
“Really? Don’t most women want their beauty to stop in their twenties? My mother did.”
“My life is not a blessing.”
Staring at Dan Ak-seon, Han Seol-hwa continued.
“If you can free me from this prison of eternal time…”
Han Seol-hwa’s gaze grew sorrowful.
“I will consider you my lifelong benefactor.”