Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Very Positive
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"Are you Young Master Byeok Taesan?"
The beautiful woman asked, her eyes sparkling.
Instead of answering, Byeok Taesan once again glanced at the people gathered at the main gate.
A strong scent of medicine filled the air.
"Heavenly Medicine Hall?"
The woman gave a bright smile.
"I knew you'd recognize us."
From her tone and expression, she seemed to think it was only natural that he knew who she was.
"Now that I know, move."
At Byeok Taesan's words, the woman, Cho Seoran, furrowed her brow slightly.
"Isn't that a bit rude?"
"Blocking the path to my own home is what's rude."
Cho Seoran bit her lip slightly and stepped aside. The men with her also cleared a path.
Byeok Taesan strode past them and pushed the gate.
The gate, which should have been locked, opened smoothly.
Just then, the person who had gone inside to announce their arrival was running back.
As soon as he saw Byeok Taesan, he bowed deeply.
"Young Master, you've returned."
Byeok Taesan gave a cursory nod and swept inside. The man quickly went back out to speak.
"I've spoken to the General Manager. Please, come inside. I will show you to the reception room."
Cho Seoran quickly erased the expression Byeok Taesan had caused and stepped into the Golden Jade Manor.
The other seven people followed her.
"If you wait in the reception room, the General Manager will be with you shortly."
Cho Seoran responded with a faint smile and a slight bow of her head.
Arriving at the reception room, they each found a suitable seat and rested.
They were quite tired, having made a grueling journey from the Heavenly Medicine Hall.
It seemed they would need at least a few days of food and rest to recover from their travels.
A short while later, the General Manager arrived.
After exchanging formal greetings, the General Manager looked at Cho Seoran and spoke.
"The Master is currently away, so it will likely be three days before you can see him. I heard you've come to see the Divine Doctor and the Eccentric. Is that correct?"
Cho Seoran nodded.
"That's right."
The General Manager's face lit up as he said.
"In that case, shall I guide you to where they are right now?"
Cho Seoran smiled brightly.
"That's what I was hoping for."
"Please, come this way."
The General Manager quickly led Cho Seoran's group out of the reception room.
As it was, the Divine Doctor of the Ages had been checking and pestering him daily about whether people from the Heavenly Medicine Hall had arrived. He wanted to take them to the Divine Doctor quickly and be free of the nuisance.
In any case, the General Manager hurried as much as possible to guide the guests from the Heavenly Medicine Hall to the garden where the Divine Doctor of the Ages and the One-Needle Eccentric were.
***
The Divine Doctor of the Ages and the One-Needle Eccentric were completely engrossed in the manual they had received from Byeok Taesan.
They had already read it through three times.
The more they read, the more new things they discovered. And the more they read, the more questions they had.
It was just as expected of the martial arts of the Blood Demon and the Demonic Doctor. Its depth and subtlety were beyond description.
"It's about time the Young Master paid us a visit..."
At the Divine Doctor's muttering, the One-Needle Eccentric chided him.
"He already came today to give us this, what makes you think he'd come again? Use your head. Do you really know our Young Master so little?"
"You're the one who doesn't know the Young Master. He's such a meticulous person. He'll surely come to teach us what we don't understand."
"Wanna bet?"
The One-Needle Eccentric said with a grin, and the Divine Doctor scoffed.
"Brother, you still haven't kicked that habit? You ended up in this mess because of a bet, and you want to make another one?"
"Enough of that. Bet?"
Just as he was about to say he'd lose the shirt off his back, the door leading to the adjacent garden burst open.
Both men's gazes snapped in that direction.
The One-Needle Eccentric's heart pounded like crazy. He thought it was Byeok Taesan.
'Shit, if that bastard hadn't said anything, I would've been completely taken in.'
As the One-Needle Eccentric was calming himself, the General Manager suddenly entered through the open door.
"Agh, you scared me."
The Divine Doctor grumbled, and the General Manager said with a bright smile.
"The guests the Divine Doctor has been waiting for have arrived."
"Guests?"
Cho Seoran entered behind the General Manager, followed by seven men.
"Huh? Queen of Medicine?"
At the One-Needle Eccentric's words, the Divine Doctor looked back and forth between him and Cho Seoran.
He never imagined the Queen of Medicine would come in person.
Hearing the commotion, the two physicians from the Heavenly Medicine Hall, who were stirring a cauldron at the edge of the garden, came running with tears in their eyes.
"Sect Leader!"
The two of them rushed over and prostrated themselves before Cho Seoran, wailing loudly.
"Uwaaah! We truly missed you!"
Cho Seoran was genuinely taken aback by the two members' actions.
The people belonging to the Heavenly Medicine Hall were fundamentally outstanding physicians. And physicians had immense pride.
For such physicians to prostrate themselves like that, even before the Queen of Medicine, was by no means a common occurrence.
"Now, calm down and get up."
At Cho Seoran's words, the two physicians hesitantly stood up.
Just as they were about to speak, the Divine Doctor of the Ages and the One-Needle Eccentric approached.
"Do you remember me?"
To the One-Needle Eccentric's question, Cho Seoran answered with a bright smile.
"Of course. Elder Eccentric, have you been well?"
"Me... It's a bit of a stretch to say I've been well. My life got complicated after meeting this guy."
The One-Needle Eccentric said, placing a hand on the shoulder of the Divine Doctor beside him.
"So this is the Divine Doctor of the Ages."
The Divine Doctor of the Ages gave a benevolent smile. Anyone who knew him well would have been wide-eyed.
"A pleasure to meet you. I never expected to meet the Queen of Medicine like this."
"The pleasure is mine. By the way, it's quite surprising. The fact that you two are here together. And this place..."
Cho Seoran looked around. A garden this large, filled with medicinal herbs, was a sight not easily seen even at the Heavenly Medicine Hall.
At those words, the One-Needle Eccentric frowned.
"We have a lot of medicine to make. Anyway... I didn't expect you to come in person. It must be a busy time for you. You joined hands with the Martial Alliance?"
"Yes. That's what happened."
Cho Seoran's expression darkened slightly.
"From your expression, it seems something must have happened. Surely the Martial Alliance didn't persecute you..."
"It's nothing much. It's just... circumstances became difficult, and we needed help."
"Circumstances became difficult? That can't be."
When it came to medicine, the Heavenly Medicine Hall was a sect unparalleled in the world. From elixirs to minor wound salves and ointments, their medicines were superior to any other.
Thus, sales were never an issue.
The demand for the Heavenly Medicine Hall's medicines always outstripped the supply.
So how could he believe that their circumstances had become difficult?
Cho Seoran wore a troubled expression.
"When things go wrong, they really go wrong. We had problems with our herb supply, payments were delayed, and a series of such unfortunate events intertwined, making things difficult."
She could speak of it calmly now, but at the time, it had been truly overwhelming.
Who would have thought the Heavenly Medicine Hall would ever face financial difficulties?
But once the cash flow became tangled, it rarely returned to normal.
Moreover, whenever a solution seemed near, another problem would arise, making the situation progressively worse.
In the end, Cho Seoran broke one of the long-standing rules of the Heavenly Medicine Hall and requested help from the Martial Alliance.
"Still, we haven't gone completely under the Martial Alliance's banner. We've merely promised to cooperate with each other."
As she spoke, her expression was heavy and dark. It seemed that joining hands with the Martial Alliance was not going as smoothly as hoped.
"Well, since it's come to this, just do your best."
"Yes. Thank you for your concern."
After saying that, Cho Seoran's eyes lit up as she looked back and forth between the One-Needle Eccentric and the Divine Doctor of the Ages.
"Have you two decided to join the Golden Jade Trading Company?"
The One-Needle Eccentric shook his head.
"No."
"I knew it. I thought that couldn't be right. It just goes to show that rumors are just rumors."
The One-Needle Eccentric said with a difficult expression.
"We didn't join the Golden Jade Trading Company. We decided to serve our Young Master."
"What?"
"It's not just me; this guy, too."
Cho Seoran looked at the One-Needle Eccentric and the Divine Doctor of the Ages with a bewildered expression.
"You two decided to serve Young Master Byeok Taesan? But why?"
The Divine Doctor of the Ages gazed off into the distance slightly and said.
"Well... you could call it fate."
The One-Needle Eccentric stared at the Divine Doctor as if he were a madman.
"Please, only say things like that to me. Shit, I'm getting secondhand embarrassment."
Cho Seoran covered her mouth and chuckled lightly.
"You haven't changed a bit."
The Divine Doctor of the Ages looked at the One-Needle Eccentric with disbelief.
"Brother, did you really just swear in front of the young lady?"
"That's not swearing, it's just an exclamation! You're being too sensitive!"
"What kind of exclamation is 'shit'?"
The One-Needle Eccentric clenched his fist.
Just then, the Divine Doctor of the Ages looked toward the gate and said.
"Huh? Young Master?"
Byeok Taesan was entering the garden. He had noticed many people there and considered turning back, but came in anyway.
All eyes were fixed on Byeok Taesan.
Byeok Taesan ignored them all and approached the One-Needle Eccentric and the Divine Doctor of the Ages.
"Have you read it?"
"Of course."
The One-Needle Eccentric added to the Divine Doctor's reply.
"We've read it three times."
The two had a mountain of questions for Byeok Taesan, but there were too many people around to ask.
Then, two different telepathic messages flowed into each of their ears.
It was the solution to the parts they couldn't understand and were stuck on.
They were different martial arts, yet he had sent the solutions for both simultaneously via telepathy.
The One-Needle Eccentric and the Divine Doctor of the Ages flinched in surprise and looked at each other.
They soon understood the situation and were astounded.
'How is this even possible? He didn't even ask where we were stuck!'
'Is he really sending two different messages to us at the same time? Does that even make sense?'
A telepathic message hammered into their ears.
-Focus.
The Divine Doctor of the Ages and the One-Needle Eccentric, startled, focused on Byeok Taesan's words. With just his simple explanation, the parts they were stuck on became clear.
As if by magic, the martial arts they had studied so diligently that day unfolded in their minds.
When the explanation was over, the One-Needle Eccentric looked at Byeok Taesan with wonder and asked.
"How on earth did you know that was the part I was stuck on?"
Byeok Taesan scoffed.
"It was obvious."
After all the martial arts he had mastered and studied, how could he not know?
Besides, the Ghostly Demonic Arts and the Imperial Pill Arts he had given them were techniques Byeok Taesan had once studied with the Blood Demon and the Demonic Doctor.
The gazes of the One-Needle Eccentric and the Divine Doctor of the Ages remained fixed on Byeok Taesan. The people around them were watching with surprised eyes.
The conversation between Byeok Taesan, the One-Needle Eccentric, and the Divine Doctor was difficult for the onlookers to understand clearly.
However, based on the context, they could only guess that they were discussing martial arts via telepathy.
When the conversation seemed to be wrapping up, the Divine Doctor of the Ages nudged the One-Needle Eccentric in the ribs.
The One-Needle Eccentric glared at the Divine Doctor, who, with a frustrated expression, gestured insistently with his chin and eyes.
Where the Divine Doctor gestured with his chin stood Cho Seoran and the people from the Heavenly Medicine Hall.
Finally understanding, the One-Needle Eccentric cautiously stepped forward.
"Young Master, these are people from the Heavenly Medicine Hall. This child here is the current Master of the Heavenly Medicine Hall."
Cho Seoran quickly greeted Byeok Taesan.
"I am Cho Seoran."
Without even glancing at Cho Seoran, Byeok Taesan asked the One-Needle Eccentric.
"Do you know them?"
The One-Needle Eccentric replied with a troubled expression.
"She is a child with whom I had a slight connection long ago."
"Were you from the Heavenly Medicine Hall?"
"No. I once received great help from the previous Master of the Heavenly Medicine Hall."
"Is that so?"
Only then did Byeok Taesan look at Cho Seoran.
Cho Seoran felt inexplicably tense, her body stiffening slightly. She swallowed dryly and looked at Byeok Taesan.
"Well, have a pleasant stay."
After saying that, Byeok Taesan turned and left.
The expressions of the Divine Doctor and the One-Needle Eccentric brightened slightly. In contrast, Cho Seoran looked bewildered, and the faces of the Heavenly Medicine Hall members soured.
Not knowing Byeok Taesan well, it seemed to them as if he were ignoring Cho Seoran.
"This is good enough. It's very positive."
At the One-Needle Eccentric's words, Cho Seoran stared at him blankly.
The people from the Heavenly Medicine Hall looked at the One-Needle Eccentric as if he had said something utterly absurd.
The Divine Doctor of the Ages offered a supplementary explanation.
"Our Young Master is unskilled at expressing his feelings or emotions, so he can sometimes be misunderstood. But in my view, that was a very good reaction. So don't worry, and let's have a productive, forward-looking conversation."
Though they weren't sure what they weren't supposed to worry about, everyone focused on the Divine Doctor's words at the mention of a "productive, forward-looking conversation."
"How about we physicians build a good relationship by making and researching medicine together? Ah, Brother. You should say something too."
The One-Needle Eccentric nodded with a reluctant expression.
"It's just as he said. There's a medicine we're making. How about we make it together and exchange opinions?"
Hearing the two men's words, Cho Seoran and the people from the Heavenly Medicine Hall looked at the two physicians who had sent them the letter in the first place.
The two physicians looked extremely awkward. But there was nothing particularly strange about it.
"Shall we do that, then? It seems you were making medicine here?"
As Cho Seoran looked around and gave her consent, the corners of the Divine Doctor's mouth stretched into a wide grin.
"Alright, alright, to commemorate our meeting today, let's drink until our noses are crooked. A little alcohol always loosens the tongue and helps people become friends quickly. What does everyone say?"
Naturally, no one objected.
However, the expressions of the two original physicians darkened a bit, but they immediately lowered their heads when their eyes met the Divine Doctor's.
"Alright, then let's go. I'll guide you to a very good place."
Cho Seoran then asked the Divine Doctor.
"By any chance... could Young Master Byeok come with us?"
The bodies of the Divine Doctor and the One-Needle Eccentric instantly stiffened.
"Huh? Our Young Master? Well, I don't know..."
Cho Seoran smiled shyly and said to the One-Needle Eccentric.
"Please go and ask him. It would be nice to get to know Young Master Byeok as well, right? Actually, I have something I'd like to say to him personally."
The Divine Doctor and the One-Needle Eccentric looked at each other, then nodded reluctantly.
"Well... we can ask, but it's best not to get your hopes up."
And a short while later, they left the Golden Jade Manor with Byeok Taesan in tow.
On the way to the drinking party, the Divine Doctor and the One-Needle Eccentric couldn't take their eyes off Byeok Taesan.
"Hey, shouldn't we check if that's really our Young Master?"
The Divine Doctor vigorously agreed with the One-Needle Eccentric's words and nodded.
< Very Positive > End