Chapter 233
Chapter 233
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 233
Chapter Title: Different Dreams in the Same Bed
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"Complete, did you hear that?"
"It sounds like she's asking who we are... but I can't place the accent."
The unfamiliar woman spoke again, each word deliberate and measured.
"You lot... who are you... to push through... the blood-splitting worms... and come all the way here?"
Thanks to her slow delivery, Dang Mujin and Mok Wana managed to piece together her meaning.
Dang Mujin replied just as carefully.
"We heard people around here were suffering from some strange illness, so we came to investigate. No idea what you mean by blood-splitting worms."
"The blood-splitting worm is a venomous insect. Tiny, but it can carry all sorts of poisons."
Unable to describe its size precisely, the woman held her thumb and forefinger a short distance apart to show them.
It was such a straightforward gesture that Dang Mujin understood immediately. They were those little rice-grain bugs that had kept latching onto him along the way.
"Those little rice-sized ones? They kept sticking to me, so I brushed them off as I went."
Mok Wana nodded beside him, and the woman's face twisted in disbelief.
"That can't be. I know full well how crude Central Plains poison arts are..."
"We must've just run into amateurs. Sure, those bugs might take down ignorant fools, but they were nothing to us."
"Nonsense. No great tree grows without a vast forest around it. How could a towering expert emerge from the Central Plains, where even basic poison arts are so pathetic? Do you have a blood poison pearl or something?"
"Blood poison pearl?"
Dang Mujin recalled the bead he'd taken from the Demonic Cult. He could barely remember where he'd stashed it now.
Before he could respond, the woman muttered to herself.
"No... blood poison pearls aren't that common, and with poison arts so underdeveloped in the Central Plains, there couldn't possibly be two of them here. What's going on?"
She questioned herself, answered herself, and spiraled into a frenzy. Dang Mujin clicked his tongue.
"Why won't you get it? I trained in medicine until I was twenty, and I've been practicing poison arts ever since. I'm not some novice who'd falter here."
In front of others, he might've kept his poison arts under wraps.
But not now. The situation made it clear enough that she could guess at his skills.
Dang Mujin thought he'd explained plainly and politely, but the woman looked even more flustered.
"You started poison arts at twenty? How old are you now?"
"Just turned twenty-six."
"So you're saying you reached this level in a mere six years?"
She assumed he was lying.
Six years was laughably short to achieve enough mastery to shrug off blood-splitting worms.
Poison arts were powerful. Master a potent venom and how to wield it, and even a novice poisoner could easily kill someone who'd swung a sword for years.
But poison arts were equally perilous. Unlike swordsmanship, they often backfired on the user.
Countless practitioners died failing to control their own toxins, and just as many went mad from poison qi overwhelming them.
To survive those threats demanded bone-grinding effort from childhood. Even that might not suffice to casually dispel the venom in blood-splitting worms.
Deep down, the woman reached her own conclusion.
'Young punk's full of hot air. He must know some poison arts to get past the worms and reach here, but medicine? Doubtful.'
Had Dang Mujin not shown his sword skills, she might've bought it a bit more. But seeing him cut down her bodyguard with a blade changed everything.
A young man like that excelling in both sword and poison was already hard to fathom—adding true medical expertise on top was impossible.
True, medicine and poison shared some foundations.
But delve deeper, and they diverged sharply in purpose and path.
They were as different as carpentry and blacksmithing, or pottery and weaving.
'Even without the medicine part, he's impressive.'
A swordsman who could shake off blood-splitting worm venom. That alone set him apart.
Back home, sword practitioners and poison masters weren't always separate either.
Where there was a dedicated poison expert, bodyguards trained in martial arts were standard.
Occasionally someone dabbled in both, but they were rare. Mediocrity in either was the usual result.
The woman felt a spark of interest in Dang Mujin.
'Sometimes a great tree sprouts alone, drawing a forest in its wake.'
She'd been lost in thought for a while when Dang Mujin spoke up.
"Looks like you're the one who unleashed these venomous bugs around here. Who are you, holing up in Mount Nogun and causing trouble for everyone?"
His words struck her as insolent; the bodyguard at her side gripped his sword hilt. He might struggle to speak, but he understood just fine.
The woman held him back and said,
"I'm Jiao Buhua of the Five Poisons Sect. This one's name is Jin Ram."
"I'm Dang Mujin. That's Mok Wana. First time hearing of the Five Poisons Sect."
"Not surprising. It's down southwest in Yunnan Province. Even from there, it's a full month's trek south..."
Dang Mujin widened his eyes. He could guess the place she meant. The true Southern Frontier.
People sometimes lumped the Jeomchang Sect's Yunnan region into the Southern Frontier, but locals hated that. The real deal lay beyond.
And the Five Poisons Sect she described was surely in that genuine Southern Frontier.
"What brings you all the way from such a distant land?"
Jiao Buhua hesitated briefly. She wasn't sure if she should spill everything.
But she decided quickly. This wasn't the time to be picky.
"Among the Five Poisons Sect's factions, the one I belong to lost a power struggle. Most of us died. I survived, came here to rebuild my strength, and reclaim dominance over the sect."
To Central Plains eyes, it was barbaric.
Factions within a sect were odd enough—staking lives on infighting? Absurd.
Sensing Dang Mujin's odd look, Jiao Buhua added,
"The Five Poisons Sect isn't like the sects you know. Its members alone could fill several of your massive ones, and its influence is even greater. Not even the royal court dares ignore it."
"That much I get. Why set up shop specifically on Mount Nogun?"
"To retake the Five Poisons Sect, I need venomous creatures. I scoured the Central Plains for the best sources, and this place had the most useful ones. The climate's somewhat like home, too."
Dang Mujin belatedly noticed the dirt on Jin Ram's clothes.
He also spotted what looked like farming tools amid the grass patch. They'd clearly cultivated this field themselves for some reason.
'A plot this size couldn't have sprung up overnight.'
It had been about four years since Dang Mujin holed up on Mount Nogun and clashed with the Imperial Sword Sect Leader.
Back then, no one mentioned fields like this, or sufferers from these bugs. Jiao Buhua and Jin Ram must've slipped in sometime after.
Dang Mujin stared hard at them both.
He'd first planned to drive them off immediately, but hearing their story shifted priorities.
Running into a true Central Plains poison practitioner was rare enough.
And he had endless questions about Southern Frontier poison arts. Just talking could teach him volumes.
'Time to test the waters first.'
Dang Mujin had one trick for winning goodwill. No one turns down a free checkup from a healer.
"You've had it rough, living out here in exile. Any health issues?"
"Not really."
Convinced he was a quack, Jiao Buhua had no intention of discussing symptoms.
But Dang Mujin spotted her slight lean to one side, her movements oddly stiff—especially when twisting or bending her upper body.
'No clue what ails her exactly, but she's not normal.'
Healers often dealt with uncooperative patients.
The trick? Start with obvious symptoms, then tease out the rest.
Dang Mujin broached it casually.
"You can't lie flat or on your left side, right? Always end up on your right."
It was a habit she hadn't noticed. But thinking back, yeah, she always slept on her side that way.
Still, she denied it at first.
"Not always."
"Why hide it? Your balance is off when you walk, too. Upper body tilts just a bit."
Without waiting for her reply, Dang Mujin eyed Jin Ram's face. Patients miss their own tells, but bystanders catch them easily.
Sure enough, a flicker of surprise crossed Jin Ram's features.
"Big bowel movements must be uncomfortable. And back pain flares up periodically?"
For women, bowel trouble was common enough that guessing rarely missed. No way to compare with others' ease anyway.
Back pain was similar. Monthly cycles brought pain regardless, but plenty suffered chronic lower back issues too.
And padding up in thick clothes even in this warm weather? Bound to strain the body.
Doubt crept into Jiao Buhua's voice.
"How'd you spot that?"
"Told you, I'm a physician. Since I'm here, let me examine you properly. Lie down."
The moment a patient's convinced of a healer's skill, control naturally shifts.
Jiao Buhua lay down, swept up in the moment.
Dang Mujin gently palpated her abdomen.
As a woman, she had little muscle there, but it was taut. No reaction even to light pressure.
'No chest-flank fullness... not sure about lower abdomen tension.'
Subtly, he channeled faint internal energy into her body to probe within.
Her qi resembled Mok Wana's more than his own—laced with poison, a poison core in her dantian.
But there were clear differences from his.
Lingering too long would arouse suspicion.
Dang Mujin tapped her side.
"Roll over."
She complied readily, and he ran his hands slowly along her spine.
When he reached her lumbar region, he found a slight protrusion to the left of the lower vertebrae.
Pressing it firmly elicited a grunt from her.
It was right near the left iliac fossa, where lower abdomen tension often showed.
Without asking permission, Dang Mujin inserted needles as he explained.
"Lower belly feels tight and bloated, yeah?"
"Sometimes."
"More than sometimes... Anyway, that's lower abdomen tension. Stagnant blood pooled near the bladder."
"Is it serious?"
A hint of anxiety tinged her voice. She didn't want to die of illness in this far-off land.
"Not life-threatening. But it'll make lying down properly tough, and back pain'll worsen over time. Eventually walking could get hard, though few reach that stage. Textbook discomfort case."
His hands moved swiftly, placing needles: just below the neck vertebrae, behind the shoulder, a few inches off the spine, and the central popliteal fossa on the leg.
"You said stagnant blood in the bladder—why needles in unrelated spots? Those areas don't bother me."
Dang Mujin traced lines over the needle sites with his fingers. They split into two near the shoulders but soon converged.
"From between the brows, over the head to the waist here. From behind the shoulder to the toes. That's the Foot Greater Yang Bladder Meridian. Instead of treating the site directly, regulate the surrounding qi..."
He paused his explanation to withdraw the needles.
"Huh...?"
Maybe imagination, but Jiao Buhua felt her chronic back pain lighten—something that had plagued her since her indulgent days in the Five Poisons Sect.
Healers there had failed to fix it, yet this distant Central Plains physician did so effortlessly.
Dang Mujin said flatly,
"It's not fully cured, so don't get too excited."
His words assumed the pain had eased—which it had.
And patients naturally trusted a healer's matter-of-fact tone.
While Jiao Buhua sat quietly, Dang Mujin pulled some herbs from his pack and ground them into powder.
Dividing it into a dozen neatly wrapped doses took only as long as a cup of tea.
"Lower abdomen tension responds best to Guide Decoction or Orchid Decoction, but no way to brew soup here, so I made gypsum powder instead. Less potent, but by the time it's gone, you'll feel much better."
"How many times a day?"
"Early morning or lunchtime—whichever hurts more?"
"Usually around lunch."
"Then once daily at lunch. Mix into barley porridge or wash down with tea. I'll stick around a few days to check your progress."
Dang Mujin had smoothly created an excuse to linger and discuss poison arts.
Jiao Buhua and Jin Ram found fresh trust in his demeanor.
The world overflowed with frauds claiming to cure all ills.
They shared one trait: grabbing payment then fleeing with excuses.
But Dang Mujin demanded nothing and offered to stay. Hard not to believe him.
Greed and ambition lit Jiao Buhua's eyes.
'This guy's a genius.'
The world was vast, full of geniuses.
Fools who missed them were even more plentiful.
But Jiao Buhua didn't count herself among them.
'Medicine, poison arts, swordsmanship—all mastered at his age. What else can he do? Doesn't matter. No need for more skills. Focus him solely on poison arts?'
She hadn't even told Jin Ram, but she'd half-abandoned reclaiming the Five Poisons Sect.
Reviving an exiled faction alone? Insane.
Yet seeing Dang Mujin, she glimpsed hope.
No—certainty.
'Dang Mujin, was it? I'll snag him no matter what.'
At the same time, Dang Mujin composed his features into calm.
'No telling how Namgung Myeong will mock me if I lag behind. Need a clue here to advance my poison arts.'
Dang Mujin and Jiao Buhua's eyes gleamed in unison.