Chapter 61
Chapter 61
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 61
Chapter Title: The Je-yeon Baek Clan
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"Pulse Severance?"
It was a disease Dang Mujin had never heard of before. But not only Yi Chung—the family head of the Je-yeon Baek Clan, Baek Chuseo, looked grave as well.
"Is this the Pulse Severance condition I know?"
"Most likely."
Baek Chuseo glanced at his daughter's face, then lowered his voice and whispered to Yi Chung.
"Can Hyanga survive?"
Yi Chung thought for a moment before replying.
"Has Young Lady Baek ever had a seizure?"
"This past summer, her body stiffened up and she was unconscious for three days."
"Just once... Then there's still hope."
"Hope?"
"If we use the right medicine, she has over an eighty percent chance of survival."
That meant a two-in-ten chance of death. Yet Baek Chuseo's expression brightened slightly, as if he had glimpsed hope.
Until now, every physician they consulted had only made her condition worse. Lately, it had grown even more severe, to the point where she hadn't left the house since last year.
In a world where countless people died from minor illnesses, it had started to seem like dying from such a serious condition wouldn't be strange at all.
"Don't worry about the cost—please treat her. I'll sell every last asset I have to cover the medicine."
"Understood."
With that final response from Yi Chung, the group left the Je-yeon Baek Clan residence.
The moment they stepped out the main gate, Yi Chung noticed Dang Mujin's gloomy expression.
"Why the long face?"
"Pulse Severance is a disease even the family head knows about, despite not being a physician—and I was the only one clueless."
Dan Seolyeong chimed in.
"Don't worry about it. I didn't know either."
"Oh, really? That helps..."
Dan Seolyeong grinned broadly.
Yi Chung gave the two a pitiful look before starting his explanation.
"No need for self-recrimination. Pulse Severance is only known among martial artists—it's not something ordinary physicians would recognize."
"Martial artists know it better than physicians?"
"Exactly. It's a peculiar condition. It's caused by an inborn excess of potent yin energy clogging the meridians. Taiyin Divine Meridian, Nine Yin Blocked Pulse... There are a few types, but they're all much the same. It's so rare that regular physicians never encounter it, and even if they did, they couldn't diagnose it as Pulse Severance."
Dang Mujin reflected on his memory.
He had sensed something off about Baek Hyanga's symptoms because he had mimicked Yi Chung, channeling internal energy into her acupoints.
In other words, an ordinary physician without any internal energy cultivation had no way to detect Pulse Severance.
"When Physician Seop described Young Lady Baek's symptoms yesterday, you suggested prescriptions like Two Extremes Warming Decoction or Astragalus Armor Pill, right?"
"That's right."
"That was the normal reaction. Pulse Severance often gets mistaken for symptoms like severely chilled limbs or coughing up blood. Of course, treating it like another ailment with ordinary medicine would kill her before she hit twenty."
"But the family head knows about Pulse Severance."
"He didn't know his own daughter had it. He just knew the condition existed."
"That doesn't make sense either. How could a disease be more famous among martial artists?"
"It's a feature of the condition itself. How to explain this..."
Yi Chung pondered briefly, then posed a question to Dang Mujin.
"If you found a plant you'd never seen before brimming with immense power, what would people call it?"
"A spirit herb."
"And if an unfamiliar animal carried pure yang energy?"
"A spirit beast, probably."
"What if a bipedal, speaking animal carried pure yin energy?"
"Uh..."
"Between martial artists and physicians, who do you think would know more about such spirit medicines?"
It was a cruel but simple explanation.
From a step removed, someone afflicted with Pulse Severance was no different from a spirit herb or beast.
"No way—do martial artists eat Pulse Severance patients?"
"No. There's a more efficient way to absorb yin energy. Ever heard of Plucking Yin to Nourish Yang?"
"Ah."
Surprisingly, Dang Mujin had known about it even before learning martial arts.
Boys in their stormy adolescence inevitably master knowledge in certain fields.
"Long ago, there was a martial artist called the Sleeping Dragon who cultivated a pure yang technique. Rather than curing Pulse Severance, he saw it as something practical he could use."
"Through Plucking Yin to Nourish Yang?"
"Yes. The Sleeping Dragon sought out women with Blocked Pulse conditions, seduced them with his handsome looks and silver tongue, and through repeated dual cultivation became the world's greatest. Remarkably, most of those women survived. He took their yin energy but shared some of his yang energy in return."
"The treatment sounds simpler than I thought."
"The problem is how rare it is to find someone who's cultivated pure yang internal arts. But plenty covet pure yin energy even without pure yang cultivation."
Those who train pure yang heart methods can take in pure yin to harmonize yin and yang, dramatically boosting their internal energy.
Conversely, those with yin-cold arts can refine their energy purer by absorbing pure yin.
But from the patient's perspective, the outcomes differ wildly.
If the partner trains a hot yang art, the Pulse Severance can improve.
But if a yin-cold art practitioner seeks to Pluck Yin to Nourish Yin, the excess yin overwhelms and kills the patient.
"Now I get why the family head looked so grave. If word got out that his daughter has Pulse Severance..."
"The unorthodox sects would target Young Lady Baek. Maybe not just them."
Those cultivating hot yang or yin-cold arts would come for the Je-yeon Baek Clan, and with his modest skill, Baek Chuseo couldn't protect her.
It was sheer luck that he had encountered Dang Mujin and Yi Chung. Neither cultivated hot yang or yin-cold arts, nor had any intent to harm her for her yin.
"What were those medicines you mentioned to the family head?"
"The fastest, surest cure is the inner core of a Solar Fire Carp, but even a fortune in gold couldn't buy one of those spirit beasts."
"And the next best?"
"Gather loads of yang-natured herbs and minor spirit plants, decoct them into medicine."
There are plenty of hot-natured ingredients, from rarities like deer antler or musk to commons like jujubes or ivy.
Yi Chung instructed Dang Mujin.
"Go to Physician Seop and borrow his two largest decoction pots. I'll gather the ingredients—you decoct day and night."
He could escape Chengdu, but not the decoction pots.
Dang Mujin felt a pang of sorrow.
*
Dang Mujin squinted as he lifted a bright yellow snake.
"Where do you even get spirit medicines and beasts like this?"
"When treating illness, the means don't matter."
It looked stolen from somewhere.
While Dang Mujin and Dan Seolyeong took turns minding the pots, Yi Chung roamed gathering hot-natured ingredients indiscriminately.
Not just shop-bought ones like cinnamon or antler, but plenty laced with poison qi alongside fire essence. Dang Mujin could just suck out the poison.
Even things more spirit herb than medicine cropped up frequently.
That much was expected. The issue was the method, utterly beyond Dang Mujin's common sense.
'Using ingredients like this...'
Ordinary decoctions simmer half to a full hour.
Longer simmering into a concentrate is called a煎 (decoction extract).
Even longer into porridge-thick is飮 (drink), and sticky as honey is膏 (paste).
But what Dang Mujin was making went further.
Make several batches of sticky paste, dissolve gently in warm water, then reconcentrate into new paste—repeat.
Contrary to popular belief, longer isn't always better for decoctions.
Each ingredient has an optimal simmering time; overdo it, and efficacy drops. That's why you add them sequentially.
Yet this pot overcame that simply: by dumping in endless heaps of ingredients, outpacing any lost efficacy.
'All these valuables...'
Still, the potency was incredible. Even Dang Mujin, inured to decoctions, felt dizzy from the scent after prolonged exposure.
He passed the time adjusting the fire under the pot.
*
Ten days passed with fires blazing under the decoction pots.
Soon after Dan Seolyeong, sleepless, went to rest, Yi Chung appeared and peered inside.
"This should do."
Inside the pot sat a jet-black lump.
Despite decoction, it held shape like gruel. Not pill, pellet, or liquid.
Dang Mujin had never made such a medicine before. An unnamed, crude concentration of yang-infused ingredients.
"Fortunately, treating Pulse Severance isn't as complicated as I feared."
Yi Chung furrowed his brow.
"Not complicated, but no ordinary person could use this method. Selling just the ingredients and spirit herbs in this one batch... And she needs it until fully cured, so only the truly wealthy could afford it."
"True enough."
Genius-built martial legacies vanish with their creator, but genius-earned wealth lingers. Baek Hyanga owed her life to her grandfather's fortune.
Yi Chung patted Dang Mujin's shoulder.
"Pack the medicine. Let's deliver it now."
Yi Chung and Dang Mujin arrived at the Je-yeon Baek Clan and knocked repeatedly on the main gate.
No one came to greet them. The house was large, the staff few—unavoidable.
"We're coming in..."
Luckily, the gate was unlocked. They headed toward the main hall.
Even nearing it, no one appeared.
Dang Mujin called into the hall.
"Family Head Baek? Are you inside?"
No reply. He must have stepped out.
He wanted to rush the medicine to Young Lady Baek, but barging into a lady's private quarters alone could spark rumors.
Resigned, Dang Mujin and Yi Chung wandered the hall grounds.
Then, sounds from behind the hall. Family Head Baek Chuseo was practicing fist techniques.
Baek Chuseo's forms looked somehow clumsy—easy to beat, Dang Mujin thought, averting his eyes. But Yi Chung stared openly.
Dang Mujin nudged Yi Chung's side. Peeking at another's training was grave.
"Master, peeking at someone's practice? Let's head back and wait."
"No, it feels oddly familiar."
"I thought the Je-yeon Baek Clan's arts had no distinctive traits? Just feels that way because it's common, right?"
"No, it's not that... Hmm."
Dang Mujin and Yi Chung returned to the front of the hall and loitered. Eventually, Baek Chuseo appeared, wiping sweat—startled, as if he'd forgotten them.
"Ah, you've arrived. Took longer than expected."
"The efficacy will match the effort."
Yi Chung unwrapped his bundle, revealing a small bowl of medicine. Its dizzyingly intense aroma spread everywhere.
"Let's check its effects right away."
At Yi Chung's suggestion, Baek Chuseo hesitated, then spoke awkwardly.
"Sorry for not mentioning sooner, but the medicine won't be needed."
Dang Mujin and Yi Chung's faces twisted in dismay. Dan Seolyeong's would have too, had she been there.
Baek Chuseo waved his hands hurriedly.
"Of course, I'm not reneging on payment."
"Payment matters, but something else does more. What about Young Lady Baek's Pulse Severance?"
"There's a place called the Sima Family in Luoyang—known in martial circles for the Crimson Flame Divine Art. Talks with them went well, so no need for medicine."
"Ah."
They planned to cure it via marriage to a hot yang art family.
Aside from the haste, a solid choice. Better to utilize her yin than dissipate it.
Marrying into a prominent martial house was ideal for the declining Baek Clan too.
All good, except for the group's wasted effort. They'd get paid, and Baek Hyanga cured.
"What about the medicine?"
"I'd have no use for it, so dispose as you see fit."
"...Understood."
Baek Chuseo summoned the elderly steward from before to pay in hefty gold certificates. Dang Mujin and Yi Chung pocketed them and left.
Outside, Dang Mujin's face lit up. No specific plans for the gold, but holding it felt good.
Yi Chung, however, still looked uneasy.
"What's wrong?"
"That fist technique the family head was practicing bothers me."
"The fist technique? Why?"
"The one Baek Chuseo was practicing earlier—it didn't look like Je-yeon Baek Clan style. More like Blazing Flower Pure Fist."
A technique Dang Mujin had never heard of. He knew few anyway.
"What does it matter what he practices? Probably got a manual somewhere."
"Blazing Flower Pure Fist is a well-known training art. Not for combat, but it aids qi accumulation."
"So he didn't steal it either. No issue, right?"
"The issue is that Blazing Flower Pure Fist only aids accumulation for hot yang heart methods. And the Je-yeon Baek Clan's heart method isn't hot yang."