Chapter 97
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Huh... Huh huh huh
Ha Mu-baek's words prompted Gong Son Mu-oe to concentrate his inner energy into his eyes.
He was already fully focused, but he wanted to see even just a little more.
In truth, he didn't even understand the purpose of the needles inserted into the pressure points right now.
Some positions clearly supplemented the meridians, but others held no meaning whatsoever—and some were even dangerous spots.
After completing the acupuncture treatment, Ha Mu-baek took Gong So-yu's pulse.
Then, he carefully infused his inner energy.
The path of the inner energy followed the route of his school's unique heart method, the Infinite As-You-Will Heart Method.
As it circulated, the needles at the pressure points began interacting with Ha Mu-baek's inner energy.
Only then did the positions where Ha Mu-baek had placed the needles finally take on meaning.
However, Gong Son Mu-oe had no way of knowing that.
He had no method to discern the flow of inner energy.
Still, he did notice that changes occurred in the needles after Ha Mu-baek infused his inner energy.
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong and Gong Son Bi-yeon noticed the same.
The three blood kin of Sunyu Valley poured all their focus into observing Gong So-yu's condition.
"Ung......"
A faint groan escaped from the sleeping Gong So-yu's lips.
Her meridians, stimulated, were registering pain.
Through the interaction between the needles and inner energy, vital energy seeped evenly into the nine currently blocked and weakened meridians.
Those thinned and frail meridians began to recover, bit by bit.
Very slightly, but undeniably better than before.
About half an hour passed like that.
Ha Mu-baek released his hand from Gong So-yu's pulse.
"Whew. We'll end it here for today."
Wi Ji-gun nodded at his words.
"That's for the best. We've pushed her enough for one day."
After Ha Mu-baek withdrew all the needles and stepped back, Gong Son Mu-oe took Gong So-yu's pulse.
His eyes immediately widened in shock.
A single pulse diagnosis had revealed the changes in her meridians.
"Eh, how could this be......"
His voice trembled.
"Her meridians were far too weak. So today, we only supplemented them just a tiny bit—enough to bring the uneven meridians to a uniform state. Anything more, and they wouldn't have held up."
Ha Mu-baek added a brief explanation.
Gong Son Mu-oe blinked in disbelief, his face blank like that of a simpleton.
Once Gong Son Mu-oe released the pulse and stepped back, Gong Son Hwa-kyeong checked her daughter's.
Her reaction matched her father's exactly.
"Huh... Huh huh huh."
Gong Son Mu-oe let out a hollow, dazed laugh.
"I can't believe it. To think something like this could happen so simply......"
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong muttered blankly.
How much worry and trial had gone into trying to uniformly supplement those nine meridians?
All of it had failed.
Yet this man before them had solved it in one go.
"We got lucky. It was the effect of our school's heart method synergizing with the acupuncture."
Ha Mu-baek said calmly.
They couldn't press further. It was his school's heart method, after all.
"Just as Mu-baek says, we were truly fortunate. Thanks to it, I could treat my disciple."
Wi Ji-gun said with a faint smile.
"Fortunately, the Nine Yin Severed Meridians respond much like the Seven Yin Severed Meridians. It can be cured, given time. Have her receive treatments like this every other day."
"We are truly grateful."
Gong Son Mu-oe expressed his thanks at Wi Ji-gun's words.
"As you already know without me saying, eating well is vital to the treatment too. Hold off on medicines for now and focus on her diet."
"We'll keep that in mind."
Gong Son Mu-oe replied to Wi Ji-gun's advice.
"Then we'll take our leave."
Ha Mu-baek and Wi Ji-gun departed.
The three generations of the Gong Son family remained, staring blankly at Gong So-yu.
She slept with the most peaceful expression they'd ever seen.
"Do you get it?"
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong shook her head at her father's question.
"He even used acupuncture on points outside the meridians. No idea what that was about."
Gong Son Mu-oe nodded at her answer.
"We should still study it."
Gong Son Bi-yeon pulled out brush and ink, sketching a human figure and marking every needle position.
There had been countless needles, but she remembered every spot and the sequence.
Gong Son Mu-oe and Gong Son Hwa-kyeong did too.
The three cross-checked their memories to reconstruct the exact positions.
Then they fell into deep contemplation.
Seeking to unravel the meaning behind the sequence and placements.
How much time passed?
"Ung......"
Gong So-yu stirred and awoke.
Two hours had gone by.
"Did the treatment go well?"
She asked her mother cautiously.
"You'd know better than us."
Gong So-yu nodded slightly at Gong Son Hwa-kyeong's words.
"My body feels lighter than usual."
"Looks like a full recovery is possible."
Tears streamed from Gong So-yu's eyes at her grandfather's words.
She had teared up earlier when treatment was first mentioned, but now again.
It was the first time he'd said it so definitively.
The hope that she could live now welled up as tears in her eyes.
"Wasn't it painful during the treatment?"
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong asked carefully.
"I was in such a deep sleep, I don't remember a thing."
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong gave a small nod at her daughter's answer, then embraced her.
"I'm so glad. Truly glad."
"A report: the young lady has headed to Muchang."
Gong Do-hyeok scowled at his subordinate's words.
It wasn't good news—something had changed.
"She left Sunyu Valley? Why?"
Irritation laced his question.
The report that even Sunyu Valley couldn't treat his niece had filled him with hope.
Gong So-yu was the only child, a daughter with no brothers, of Gong Mu-hyeok—the leader of the Myriad Things Alliance.
The sole heir.
If she succumbed to the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, the next in line for Alliance Leader would vanish.
Then it would be him.
Thus, Gong Do-hyeok monitored Gong So-yu's every move.
His brother Gong Mu-hyeok was the greatest genius in Myriad Things Alliance history.
Thanks to him, the Alliance enjoyed unprecedented prosperity.
But Gong Mu-hyeok had a frail constitution.
Innate genius shackled by a weak body that kept him from fully realizing his talent.
His wife's family, Sunyu Valley, devoted all their efforts to his care—that's why he was still this functional.
Otherwise, his health would have been far worse.
His frailty made conceiving another child like Gong So-yu a distant dream.
How arduously they'd obtained that one child.
The leader weak-bodied, the heir with Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
This situation birthed Gong Do-hyeok's ambitions.
And others fanned those flames just right.
"Word is, there's a way to treat Nine Yin Severed Meridians in Muchang."
Gong Do-hyeok's face twisted savagely at his subordinate's reply.
What nonsense.
Sunyu Valley, possessors of the Central Plains' finest medicine, deemed it impossible.
"You think that makes any sense?"
He asked his subordinate in a chilling tone.
"Well... Valley Lord Gong Son Mu-oe headed to Muchang first, then summoned the young lady there."
Gong Do-hyeok furrowed his brow at the response.
Sunyu Valley's Valley Lord wouldn't act recklessly.
Tok. Tok tok.
He drummed his fingers on the desk.
His habit when lost in thought.
"Dig deeper."
The subordinate bowed and left the office at Gong Do-hyeok's command.
"What a pain. I figured waiting it out would suffice......"
Irritation colored his voice.
Gong Do-hyeok's gaze drifted to the scroll hanging on the wall.
Intricate symbols and formulas intertwined upon it.
Like a fragment of something larger.
All he could acquire was this piece.
"Myriad Heavens Binding Shredding Explosive Thunder......"
Gong Do-hyeok muttered.
The scroll was a portion of the Myriad Heavens Binding Shredding Explosive Thunder's blueprint.
The extent of what Gong Do-hyeok could obtain.
The Myriad Heavens Binding Shredding Explosive Thunder was a personal concealed weapon.
To be precise, an explosive-based one—its power so immense the term "personal" rang hollow.
If completed during the last war, it could have turned the tide.
But it was finished just two years ago.
After the war's end.
An upgrade of the Myriad Things Alliance's existing Myriad Heavens Blood Thunder concealed weapon.
Upgrade in name only—it was practically a new creation.
And the man who'd achieved that feat was none other than Gong Mu-hyeok.
Not hailed a genius without cause.
Gong Mu-hyeok himself had sealed the weapon immediately upon completion, awed by its destructive might.
Only a single prototype existed.
Gong Mu-hyeok carried it always, while the blueprints were split into five fragments.
The full design lived solely in his mind; what was recorded had been torn apart, their owners unknown.
Gong Do-hyeok was one of those five holders.
How did they know he possessed a blueprint fragment?
They approached subtly.
Never once mentioning the blueprints.
They merely planted a seed: perhaps he'd be the next Alliance Leader.
As Gong Mu-hyeok's health declined and Gong So-yu's condition worsened...
They visited more often, stoking his ambitions.
Leading to now.
Their scheme had worked; Gong Do-hyeok now believed he rightfully deserved to lead the Alliance.
At this juncture, they revealed their greed.
Yesterday marked the first time they'd brought up the Myriad Heavens Binding Shredding Explosive Thunder.
They hadn't realized the scroll was a blueprint fragment, though.
Naturally so.
Gong Mu-hyeok had encoded it with a cipher unreadable without the decryption key.
To them, it was just a baffling mess of symbols and diagrams.
Gong Do-hyeok had learned the decryption from Gong Mu-hyeok when handed the fragment.
"Even if I become Leader, will I learn where the other four pieces are?"
Gong Do-hyeok murmured softly.
His brother would have encrypted each of the five differently.
Obtaining them wouldn't be easy, even as they wished.
Yet lately, an intense temptation gripped him.
The inner voice of desire, urging him to join hands with them.
He was already fully ensnared in their plot.
"How's the Leader's health?"
Deep into the night.
After Gong So-yu had drifted off, Gong Son Mu-oe asked his daughter.
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong's face darkened.
"He's weakening steadily. We can't pinpoint the cause... His constitution was always frail, but it's worsened lately."
Both her husband and daughter suffered poor health.
"He won't come to the Valley?"
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong nodded at her father's question.
"He just asked us to look after Ji-yu."
"Hmm."
Gong Son Mu-oe let out a heavy, worried groan.
"Even if Ji-yu recovers fully, with Gong son-in-law in that state......"
The title "Leader" had shifted to "Gong son-in-law."
His daughter's husband, after all.
"I'm worried."
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong said, her face shadowed.
"Sigh. It's a joke that Sunyu Valley boasts the Central Plains' supreme medical arts. We can't even properly treat our own son-in-law and granddaughter."
Gong Son Mu-oe muttered in frustration.
"Could the Great One perhaps have a method?"
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong asked, clinging to faint hope.