Dang Seryeong

Yeon Ihwa was a strong woman. Vicious suited her better than strong — but either way. Hwa Baek believed that if she mastered the Blood Heaven Demon Scripture, she would be able to overcome the Blood Blossoming, and so he decided to do the thing that fell to him.

He had come to a pharmacy in Sichuan. Word was that the helper Yeon Ihwa had sought for the recipe of the Hyeongong Pill could be found here.

Seonseon Pharmacy. The name had a kindly look to it. When Hwa Baek stepped inside, a white-haired old woman came out to receive him.

"...Who're you?"

Age had bent her back until it hooked like a bracket, and her eyes seemed poor as well; a monocle sat over one of them.

"What business you got here?"

"This is a pharmacy, isn't it? I came because I need medicine."

"That so... Been so long now, it's all gone fuzzy on me......"

Scratching at her head, the old woman asked again.

"So. What medicine you come lookin' for?"

"I've come for Gu Noin's golden-wound salve."

"We don't sell no odd-named medicine like that......"

"I need it. I'll pay in gold, so please — give it to me."

"......"

A short silence followed. The old woman slipped the monocle off, turned her back, and went into the inner room.

"Come along in. Happens there's a bit left."

There is a saying. In the murim, one should beware the old, the young, and women. To survive a world where blades and spears run wild, in a body weaker than a grown man's, meant a strength that had already surpassed the ordinary — whether that strength lay in knowledge or in force. And the old woman before him belonged to two of those three at once.

He followed her into the room. Sunlight filtering through the papered walls was cut off, and the surroundings plunged into darkness in an instant. His senses were faintly sealed as well. The moment he crossed the threshold, he seemed to have stepped inside the range of an art.

"Name yourself."

The old woman's voice came from somewhere he could not place. To the sound of qi spread by Six Harmonies Voice Transmission, Hwa Baek answered.

"I travel with the master of Jeokhwaru. She told me that if I insisted to the end on Gu Noin's medicine, I could win your cooperation."

"...I told the master of Jeokhwaru I'd come to her myself. She had no need to go telling you about the golden-wound salve."

Was it his imagination? The old woman's eyes seemed to narrow.

"...I came looking for you entirely on personal business. It is true that I heard of the salve from the master of Jeokhwaru."

"That woman spilled my information to someone else?"

A faint tremor ran through her voice. She was more than a little startled; she clearly knew Yeon Ihwa well. Hwa Baek opened his mouth to explain.

"Yes. But don't misunderstand. I am acquainted with the master of Jeokhwaru, yet I came strictly on personal business, and I have no intention whatsoever of doing you harm."

"......"

The old woman did not look easily convinced. Fair enough. Yeon Ihwa was not a woman who let information slip carelessly — not for her own sake, and not even to purchase another's trust.

"...I'd heard as much. That she wanted to take me away to interpret a pill-refining method."

"So she did."

"And you've come with some other personal request, besides that?"

"It's awkward to call it a request, but we'll say so."

"Let's hear it, then."

With a click, sunlight entered the room. The darkened field of vision brightened, and yet he still could not see well. If anything, his senses felt more tightly sealed than they had in the dark.

"You'd best choose every word with care. In here, no matter how fine a master you are, you can die in an instant."

Hidden weapons had been set all through the room, their killing edges trained on Hwa Baek. At some point the old woman had drawn a dagger, and she was giving off a vicious, snakelike aura. Her realm looked to be past the Peak Realm at the very least.

"I'll say this first. I don't like you. So......"

The moment Hwa Baek spoke a single name.

"......What did you just say."

The back that had stayed bent all this while straightened. Joints cracked as her frame swelled, and she poured out qi to the fullest. That qi seized the space at once and tightened around Hwa Baek's breath.

"You...... So you're no underling of the master of Jeokhwaru. That is a name even she does not know."

...An aura I never felt in the cave.

A crawling sensation, as if a snake's tongue were seeping into every organ in his body. It was kin to a killing intent so vast that an ordinary man would have collapsed where he stood and wet himself — and the old woman handled it with delicate, effortless freedom.

But still. If one asked whether it was a threat, the answer came to him lightly: no. However new it looked, that was as far as it went. Auras of that sort — he had felt them, listened to them, gone so far as to eat them.

Hwa Baek swung his hand, lightly. There was no need to draw a sword. The wind raised by a mere gesture was enough. A low rush of air, and a narrow gap opened in the space she had seized. He forced that gap wider and threw her qi into disorder, then swung his hand once more and scattered everything that remained.

"......What did I just see."

She could not hide her shock. Her pupils trembled. To interfere with an opponent's qi and throw it into disorder required overwhelming internal energy — enough to tear that qi, and to swallow what had been torn.

...Does that mean this man is that much stronger than I am?

By ordinary reasoning, yes. But she could not be certain, because she felt no aura from him at all. No internal energy. No killing intent. No living qi.

...Either way, the fact that he is dangerous does not change.

That Hwa Baek was overwhelmingly stronger than she was had to be treated, for now, as a settled fact. Just as her wariness of him was about to climb —

"It's nothing more than a petty trick. More importantly, will you hear me out?"

"......"

Hwa Baek cupped his fist toward her, polite and reverent.

"......"

The old woman knew. If he had meant to kill her, he could have done it already and had strength to spare. And yet he was putting no pressure on her at all. Sensing sincerity in what he did, she nodded.

"You seem to have given me leave, so I'll speak."

One condition for a conversation to hold: to exchange words, the two parties had to stand at the same height. Of course, the higher one stood, the better. That condition seemed, at last, to have been met.

Hwa Baek bore no malice. The old woman knew, beyond any need to say so, that this was the truth — because the art wrapped around the pharmacy did not merely seal the senses.

And so she decided to trust her own instinct and her art, rather than trust Hwa Baek himself. If ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that instinct was right, a martial artist like him might be of tremendous help to Dang Seryeong.

"Madman, that's what you are. Not even talking around it — saying it straight out."

"Because you didn't wish it hidden, madam. And above all, you didn't grow angry at what I said."

On the soil of Sichuan, to speak of killing the head of the Dang Clan was a remark for which summary execution would leave one nothing to plead. The clan's sway over Sichuan in the murim of the present day was stronger than it had ever been.

"Far from anger, I've earned your goodwill. From where I stand, that's as good an outcome as I could ask."

"True enough, that...... Haih... Fine. I've lived past sixty, and I've never seen a fellow like you."

Guided by the old woman, Hwa Baek was passing through the streets of Sichuan. With every step the scenery streamed past like wind, because some unknowable art was at work.

An art like the one in the pharmacy.

The effect might differ a little, but the principle looked much the same. As he was thinking so, the old woman lowered her voice and went on quietly.

"...Strange. To walk so clearly inside the Realm of Null Sensation."

The Realm of Null Sensation was an art devised to seal the senses completely. She found it strange that Hwa Baek could move unimpaired inside such a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠space. For him, an art like this was not the first. And —

"It's an interesting art, but it isn't a technique that seals the senses completely."

Once one knew its essence, the Realm of Null Sensation did not block the senses. It lowered them — darkened the eyes and the ears, numbed the nose, and stopped there.

"I couldn't see or hear as well as usual, but not enough for it to matter."

"Hah...... Just how beastlike are those senses of yours."

"......"

Hwa Baek walked for about ten minutes, trading idle talk with the old woman. The nothing-much they shared was more interesting than he had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠expected. She was only muttering tales of her own old days, but they reminded him of the grandmother who had raised him when he was small, and he listened while missing old ties.

"......"

A few minutes later, the scenery that had been rushing past like the wind regained its ordinary shape. Faced with a place he could not name, Hwa Baek spoke, awkward.

"...Is this it."

A building came into view, clean and refined in its lines. A fair amount of money had clearly been poured into it; it was spacious as well, and the signboard over the main gate bore these words.

This was the main hall of Seonseon Pharmacy. Daughter of Dang Mugi, the Lord of Ten Thousand Poisons — the pharmacy that Dang Seryeong managed and oversaw.

He opened the door and stepped inside, and the smell of ginseng, as if many medicines had been blended together, wrapped his nose. There was a faint scent of blood as well. Quite a few patients seemed to be staying here.

"My guidance ends here. Where the young lady is — you'll have to find that yourself."

"Understood."

With those words she scattered like mist and vanished. Her presence had disappeared completely; she must have used an art. Watching her go, Hwa Baek let out a hollow laugh.

"...A truly unknowable old woman."

An old woman who did not even appear in the original, whose name he did not know. She seemed to be Dang Seryeong's helper, and a person of considerable ability, but as for her true identity he could not even begin to guess.

If fate allows, we'll meet again someday.

Having closed his brief impression of the meeting, Hwa Baek went on into the pharmacy. As he had expected, wounded patients lay inside with their bodies wrapped in bandages. Most of them wore clothes of poor quality. They looked like wanderers, or beggars.

He went from room to room. In most of them at least one patient was lying down. Hwa Baek, who had a little medical knowledge, diagnosed a few and even indicated acupoints good for recovery. After some twenty minutes of moving through the pharmacy and tending the patients, he found her.

A small back. He could see her only from behind, and even that was enough to tell him the woman before him was a considerable beauty. He approached and set his hand to her back. At that her body turned, and her face was revealed.

"...Who might you be?"

A woman whose eyes shone a vivid emerald green. Light-brown hair, bright where the sunlight caught it, was mysterious enough in itself. The round spectacles hooked over both ears called to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mind the old woman and her monocle, and the slender oval of her face could only be called beauty itself.

"How did you get in here...... No — before that, who brought you?"

Hwa Baek drew in a long breath, and answered.