Chapter 733
"You've had a tough time."
At that moment, Xi'an, who had just finished doing laundry in the yard, entered the morgue.
"I'll take over now, so you should get some rest."
"It's alright."
Bu Eun-seol replied firmly.
"I'll let you know if it becomes too much. So please rest for now."
"These were all patients who fought illness until their last breath."
Xi'an shook his head.
"Unlike those who died away from home, among patients who succumbed to prolonged illness, there are unexpectedly those from respectable families, you see."
Then he added with a concerned expression:
"If the preparation isn't done properly, you'll bear all the blame."
Some patients keep their valuables until death.
Yet sometimes, when bereaved families can't find those items, they harass the undertakers relentlessly.
"It's fine. I've been doing this work long enough."
Bu Eun-seol spoke calmly.
"The burden of proof regarding theft lies with the bereaved. If they persist in making trouble, we can report them to the constabulary."
He continued:
"And families instinctively know too. Whether an undertaker stole or not. During these times, their intuition becomes exceptionally sharp."
"Yes, that's true."
Having worked as an undertaker for many years himself, Xi'an was well aware of this fact.
Still, he'd worried Bu Eun-seol might face trouble.
But seeing how decisively the young man spoke, he realized his concern was unnecessary.
"Still, don't push yourself too hard."
Xi'an let out a sigh.
"It serves no purpose for the living to ruin their health over the dead."
Warm words.
Like something his grandfather used to say.
When Bu Eun-seol met his gaze without showing any sign of fatigue and smiled,
Xi'an shook his head with an apologetic expression.
"I worry if I've sent you down a difficult path for nothing more than a dumpling."
"How could that be? It's truly no trouble at all."
Looking into Bu Eun-seol's bright, clear eyes, Xi'an sighed deeply and nodded.
"Understood."
As Xi'an left the morgue, Bu Eun-seol immediately began examining the corpses.
Swish. Swish swish.
While swiftly preparing the bodies without pause, he simultaneously began analyzing their causes of death.
Not for any particular reason—it was simply a lifelong habit.
Hmm?
But Bu Eun-seol's expression grew solemn as he inspected the bodies.
These were all patients who had died after prolonged illness, as he'd been told.
They were definitely seriously ill. But...
Even without a formal autopsy,
most showed clear signs of having suffered long-term illness—their emaciated frames spoke volumes.
Yet these weren't the bodies of patients who had battled disease to the end.
Their physical condition doesn't match the state when vitality fades.
Patients who fight prolonged illness all share poor complexion.
And from being bedridden so long, their backs and genital areas develop bedsores.
But some of these corpses appeared as if they'd only had mild illness, or showed no signs of immobility—
yet their vitality had vanished, causing instant death.
Having mastered the Bloody Tears Seven Forms, which deals intimately with death,
Bu Eun-seol could perceive the flow of vitality—the fundamental force sustaining human life—more clearly than anyone.
Of course, people can die suddenly. But...
Occasionally, even robust men with no prior illness perish abruptly.
Yet such cases are extremely rare.
For so many patients to die from sudden loss of vitality is anything but ordinary.
I'll need to investigate.
Bu Eun-seol's eyes narrowed.
That wandering physician seemed increasingly suspicious.
Who was this Yeon-wol?
He needed to see firsthand how the man treated patients.
Before the eerie abandoned manor's entrance, people clustered like clouds.
Because inside resided a miraculous physician—wandering the world to heal the sick.
He accepted no payment,
spent his own money on medicines, and when those ran out, gathered herbs himself from the mountains.
He barely slept, constantly treating endless streams of patients.
For the gravely ill with nowhere to go, he'd prepared space inside the derelict building.
—What pointless effort. Nothing will change from this.
But since most patients were destitute beggars or the impoverished,
while some praised his charity, others mocked it as wasted effort.
Regardless, for over six months the physician had stayed at this abandoned manor, silently treating all comers.
Thud. Thud.
Gradually, the line shortened.
Through the lengthy procession, a tall, gray-clad man's turn finally came to enter.
Bu Eun-seol.
"Come in."
When his turn arrived, a middle-aged man emerged to guide him.
"Follow me."
Led inside, he found the manor surprisingly well-maintained despite its abandoned reputation.
Entering the building fronting the yard, he saw inside a plainly dressed...
A strikingly young man sat there with impeccable posture.
His frame was as slender as a woman's, with a prominent nose bridge and skin as white as snow.
This was none other than Yeon-wol, the wandering physician who traveled throughout the Central Plains, healing people wherever he went.
"This gentleman..."
Bu Eun-seol feigned surprise.
Because Yeon-wol's eyes were firmly shut.
"Physician Yeon seems to have trouble with his eyes."
The middle-aged man standing behind Bu Eun-seol approached and whispered to him.
"Go sit beside him and tell him where it hurts."
Bu Eun-seol nodded and took a seat across from Yeon-wol.
At that, Yeon-wol smiled faintly and spoke.
"Your name."
"Seol-so," he replied.
"I see."
Yeon-wol chuckled lightly before saying,
"You may leave now."
"But I haven't even told you where it hurts yet."
Yeon-wol lifted the corner of his lips.
"Your gait is slow yet dignified, like a lion's. Your voice is soft and low, yet clear and refreshing. You possess a body so healthy that no illness could possibly cling to it... You have no need for a physician's touch."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes gleamed.
To assess his condition without even taking his pulse—just by the sound of his footsteps and voice?
Either this man possessed medical skills so profound they were unimaginable—
Or his martial arts were so advanced that his hearing alone allowed him to discern vast amounts of information.
"It's not an ailment of the body, but of the heart."
At Bu Eun-seol's words, Yeon-wol tilted his head curiously.
"An ailment of the heart?"
"Yes."
Bu Eun-seol spoke calmly.
"Every night, I see illusions and suffer nightmares. And the anger in my heart refuses to fade."
Though Bu Eun-seol had never formally studied medicine, in his quest to neutralize the Poison Parasite—
He had read countless Poison Scriptures and medical texts.
Given that he carried vengeance in his very bones, he truly did exhibit symptoms of excessive heart-fire.
If Yeon-wol was indeed a physician, he would naturally be able to diagnose such symptoms.
"Let me see."
Yeon-wol finally took hold of Bu Eun-seol's Pulse Gate.
No matter how high one's realm of Tranquil Stillness, Internal Power could not be completely concealed.
But Bu Eun-seol had mastered the secret of condensing his energy into an Internal Core—
So perfectly that even a Master of the Martial Extreme Realm would never detect the power hidden within his body.
"Hmm. Indeed."
The young physician nodded.
"It seems you suffered a great injustice in the past. If heart-fire is left uncontrolled for too long, Heart-Kidney Disharmony will damage the kidney water."
The physician nodded again.
"You're still young and healthy, so you should be able to earn your keep. I'll prescribe you Heart-Calming Qi-Dispersing Decoction."
With swift strokes, Yeon-wol wrote out a prescription for Bu Eun-seol.
"Brew this into a single dose, and your symptoms should improve significantly."
"Thank you."
As Bu Eun-seol accepted the prescription respectfully, Yeon-wol offered a picturesque smile.
"People with a constitution as robust as yours are rare. I pray for your swift recovery."
"Thank you."
When he stepped outside, the middle-aged man was already ushering the next group of waiting patients inside.
Rather than leaving immediately, Bu Eun-seol took his time observing the interior of the abandoned manor.
Eventually, he discovered what appeared to be a living space where the patients gathered.
After watching them for a long while, a sharp glint flashed through his eyes.
'They didn't separate the patients by severity.'
A typical physician would strictly segregate patients based on the gravity of their conditions.
But the classification method used for the patients staying in this abandoned manor was somewhat unusual.
An elderly man on the verge of death lay beside a young man with a broken leg.
Next to a man writhing in pain, a boy who couldn't have been older than ten sat blinking his eyes.
"AAAAAH!"
Just then, an old patient let out a piercing scream.
The middle-aged man who had been guiding the patients came running in a fluster.
Lingering in such a situation would only invite suspicion.
After one last glance around, Bu Eun-seol had no choice but to turn and leave the abandoned manor.
Returning to Seo An Funeral Home, Bu Eun-seol entered the morgue and carefully examined the corpses of patients said to have died from illness.
'As expected, nothing.'
If Yeon-wol had killed these patients—
If he was a martial arts Master so formidable that he could kill without leaving external wounds—
Even if other undertakers couldn't find evidence, there was no way he would fail to detect it.
Click.
Just then, the door opened, and an old man with eyes that seemed perpetually half-closed entered.
It was Seo An.
"You said you'd be out in the village for a while. Did something happen?"
"I had some complicated thoughts, so I took a walk to clear my head."
"You seem troubled. Your face doesn't look well."
Bu Eun-seol hesitated briefly before speaking cautiously.
"Elder. May I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"Is there a method of killing that leaves absolutely no traces of homicide, even upon autopsy?"
"A method of killing that leaves no traces, even upon autopsy?"
"Yes."
"Why in the world are you thinking about such gruesome things while working with the dead?"
When Seo An recoiled in shock, Bu Eun-seol answered honestly.
"Having worked as an undertaker for so long, I can determine the cause of death just by looking at a corpse."
"But."
"What I'm wondering is—can someone be unmistakably murdered, yet leave no traces of homicide?"
Bu Eun-seol spoke with a meaningful expression, and only then did Seo-an nod as if he finally understood.
"So that's why you quit being an undertaker."
"No, that's not it. But..."
As Bu Eun-seol trailed off, Seo-an crossed his arms with a grave expression.
"A murder that leaves no trace of the method... yet the victim was undoubtedly killed."
He pondered deeply, narrowing his already thin eyes even further.
"In this world, there's only one way to kill without leaving any trace of murder."
Seo-an stared straight into Bu Eun-seol's eyes and said:
"Make the victim choose to kill themselves."
It was an answer that bordered on a riddle.
Frowning, Bu Eun-seol asked again.
"Then, whether it's suicide or murder, is there really no method that leaves no trace?"
"Absolutely no trace...?"
Seo-an stroked his chin for a long moment before suddenly curling his lips into a strange smile.
"There is. The method of killing over time."
He widened his narrow eyes slightly.
"Once, a woman who could no longer endure her husband's violence decided to kill him. But she was afraid she'd be caught and punished, so she sought out a skilled fortune teller."
His voice grew animated with interest.
"After paying a hefty sum, she learned a cursed incantation from the fortune teller—one that could kill her husband."
A faint smile played on Seo-an's lips.
"And every night, as her husband slept, she cast the curse. 'Make him die today,' she chanted."
His lips twitched as if suppressing laughter.
"Fortunately, the curse worked, and eventually, the husband died. The woman was so overjoyed she looked up at the sky and shouted—"
"Thank you! After fifty long years, you've finally granted my wish!"
Seo-an finally burst into a raspy chuckle.
"Well? Isn't that a brilliant way to kill? And not a single trace was left behind."
In the end, instead of an answer, Seo-an had told him an amusing story.
Hearing this, Bu Eun-seol let out a soft laugh—one as innocent as a child's.
For a moment, it felt like he had returned to the days when his grandfather would tell him all sorts of old tales.
'Ah.'
But then, something flashed through Bu Eun-seol's mind.
'Delayed action.'
It was only after hearing Seo-an's jest that he realized why no traces of murder could be found.
"Elder."
"Hm?"
"Where are the people who recently died of illness buried?"
Bu Eun-seol activated his Lightness Art and ascended to the back mountain of the village.
The place he finally arrived at was a public cemetery, where countless people lay buried.
Drawing upon his Empty Mind Spirit Communion, Bu Eun-seol scanned the surroundings before locating a grave from six months prior.
"I seek to reveal your unjust death to the world. Forgive me for disturbing your peace."
Clasping his hands together, he took a deep breath—
Crrrk.
The earth split open, and the coffin within rose into the air.
Click.
Carefully opening the coffin, Bu Eun-seol's eyes narrowed as he observed the corpse inside.
'Just as I thought.'
The body of the old man inside the coffin.
By all accounts, it should have been slowly turning to bones by now—yet it remained as if the person had just died.
Not a single sign of decay.
Bu Eun-seol carefully pried open the corpse's mouth and examined beneath the tongue.
The underside was pitch black.
Death by poisoning.
This old man had died from Extreme Poison, and due to the lingering malice of the toxin, his body had not decomposed.
Thud.
After carefully reburying the coffin, Bu Eun-seol dug up another grave to inspect its contents.
Those who had died long ago showed clear signs of poisoning, while those who had died more recently displayed no such symptoms.
"Delayed-action poison."
Bu Eun-seol murmured under his breath.
"That's how they left no traces."
Poisons, as varied as they are, possess many different characteristics.
Some don't react immediately—only manifesting their effects after a set period.
Moreover, those with delayed toxicity do not inflict fatal damage on the human body right away.
A certain level of exposure is required, and at the time of death, no obvious traces remain.
That way, to anyone who sees it, the death could easily be mistaken for natural causes or illness.
"All those who died within the last six months were poisoned with a delayed-effect toxin... and to use poison at this level means they're not just an expert in toxins, but also deeply knowledgeable about the human body."
In the end, there was only one answer.
There was only one person in this area who was both a poison master and intimately familiar with the human body—and he had arrived in this village six months ago.
Yeon-wol.
The reason patients had been dying one after another was because Yeon-wol had been using poison to kill them without leaving a trace.
Hmm.
As Bu Eun-seol tidied the gravesite, he happened to notice an old iron sword buried nearby.
It was heavily rusted, and the blade reeked of the scent of blood.
Given how badly the edge was damaged, it was likely a weapon once wielded by a third-rate martial artist.
'Is this what I'm meant to use?'
He had been considering retrieving the buried sword he had hidden in the forest.
But the iron sword from the gravesite seemed like a better choice.
Because it would carry the grudges of those who had died unjustly.
Shhk.
Drawing upon his internal energy, the rusted sword settled into Bu Eun-seol's grip.
Now, he would execute the monster disguised as a physician—the one who had been slaughtering helpless patients without reason.