Chapter 99
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 99
Chapter Title: Is There a Way?
"Father-in-law. Is there really a way for me to survive here?"
Gong Mu-hyeok gazed at Mu-chang with a grave expression.
Gong Son Mu-oe nodded.
"If my diagnosis is correct, then heading there is your only path to survival."
Gong Mu-hyeok frowned.
He had simply thought his recent frailty was worsening.
But to think he only had a year left at dawn.
It was a shocking diagnosis.
No physician had ever said such a thing. Not even his own wife could pinpoint the cause.
Yet his father-in-law, who had suddenly appeared, took his pulse and declared he had just one year remaining.
How must Gong Mu-hyeok have felt?
At first, he refused to believe it.
But who was his father-in-law?
The lord of Senyu Valley, no less.
The man hailed as the greatest divine physician in the Central Plains.
His word could not be false.
Once he accepted the reality, despair followed.
He had always known his constitution was weaker than most, but this was something else entirely.
That was when Gong Son Mu-oe spoke gravely, saying there was a way to survive and asking if he would come along.
When pressed for details, that was all he offered.
With nothing more than those words, Gong Mu-hyeok had no choice but to follow him to Mu-chang after much deliberation.
"Can you tell me the reason now?"
Gong Mu-hyeok asked with a serious face.
"We'll talk after meeting Hwa-kyeong and Ji-yu."
It was frustrating, but there was no helping it.
"...Understood."
Gong Mu-hyeok had no choice but to reply as such.
As the two conversed, the carriage slowly passed through Mu-chang's gates.
Escort warriors from the Myriad Things Alliance moved alongside them.
It was only natural, given this was the alliance leader's procession.
However, Gong Son Mu-oe eyed them coldly.
He kept his lips firmly shut.
Having been informed in advance, the coachman had no trouble finding the inn and pulling the carriage to a stop before it.
Gong Son Mu-oe entered the annex with Gong Mu-hyeok, while a dozen or so escorts surrounded the area.
Though eyes turned toward them, Gong Son Mu-oe paid it no mind.
At the annex entrance.
Gong Son Mu-oe halted abruptly and turned to the escorts.
"Only our family is inside. Wait outside."
"We can't do th..."
The escort squad leader immediately objected, but Gong Mu-hyeok raised a hand to silence him.
"My wife, daughter, and niece are all inside. I want some peace myself."
At Gong Mu-hyeok's words, the escorts reluctantly formed a perimeter around the annex.
The commotion outside drew Gong Son Hwa-kyeong and Gong Son Bi-yeon out of the annex.
"Father..."
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong's expression shifted uncertainly at the sight of her husband and father together.
"Let's go inside first."
Gong So-yu was deep in sleep.
Her complexion looked healthy at a glance. Gong Mu-hyeok immediately noticed the change.
"She's grown much healthier. Thank you, Father-in-law."
Gong Mu-hyeok bowed deeply despite his weakened state.
"It wasn't me."
"Pardon?"
"If I could have done it, I would have treated her back at the valley. Why else would I travel all this way, bringing a sick Ji-yu along?"
"Then..."
Gong Mu-hyeok posed the question with puzzled eyes.
"Rest well for today. You need to shake off the travel fatigue. This journey must have been a heavy burden on your body."
"Understood."
Gong Mu-hyeok obeyed without protest.
The relief of arrival had already brought exhaustion crashing over him.
Gong Son Hwa-kyeong led Gong Mu-hyeok to the room she was using.
"What is it, Grandfather?"
Gong Son Bi-yeon asked cautiously, but Gong Son Mu-oe kept his lips sealed.
Ha Mu-baek and Wi Ji-gun stood before the inn, staring intently at the entrance.
"Impressive."
Wi Ji-gun remarked.
"They've been moving sharply since arriving yesterday."
Ha Mu-baek replied to his master's words.
The two had already sensed Gong Son Mu-oe's presence when he entered Mu-chang the day before.
"Who are they from?"
"The Myriad Things Alliance. It seems the Gong Valley Lord went there and came back with their people."
Ha Mu-baek had encountered Myriad Things Alliance warriors during the recent war.
That experience allowed him to identify them by their aura alone.
"There's one with an unusually weak aura... That must be why."
Wi Ji-gun had precisely detected Gong Mu-hyeok's aura and knew it was far from normal.
"Likely the alliance leader. That's why the Gong Valley Lord went there in the first place... but it seems they couldn't find a cure."
"What could it be... Let's go see."
Wi Ji-gun took the lead. There was no issue entering the inn's front gate and heading toward the rear garden path.
But then.
As they approached the path to the annex where the Senyu Valley group was staying.
"Halt. You can't go there."
The Myriad Things Alliance escorts blocked Ha Mu-baek and Wi Ji-gun's path.
Out of a desire not to cause unnecessary trouble, the pair stopped.
"Stand down. These two are my guests."
At that moment, the annex door opened, and Gong Son Mu-oe appeared to call them off.
"But the alliance leader is inside as well. With him present, we must fulfill our duty."
The squad leader stated flatly.
"Stand down. Aren't they guests of Father-in-law?"
Gong Mu-hyeok even stepped out to restrain the squad leader.
Yet he remained unmoved.
"Our duty is to protect the alliance leader's safety. Nothing else matters."
Ha Mu-baek smiled faintly at the squad leader's response.
It reminded him of his own past self. As Hocheon Corps leader, he had been just like that.
Gong Son Mu-oe frowned.
He had intended to ask Ha Mu-baek and Wi Ji-gun to treat Gong Mu-hyeok—without the escorts knowing.
Honestly, Gong Son Mu-oe trusted no one from the Myriad Things Alliance at this point.
"Our alliance leader has barely trained in martial arts. That's why we must be extra cautious."
The squad leader continued with an expressionless face.
Gong Mu-hyeok glanced between the squad leader and his father-in-law, then let out a small sigh.
"As alliance leader, I order you: No one enters for the next gak."
"Th-that's..."
The squad leader started to protest, unable to accept it, but Gong Mu-hyeok shook his head firmly.
It was a clear sign he would entertain no further arguments.
Thus, Ha Mu-baek and Wi Ji-gun were allowed inside the annex.
They had only one gak—about half an hour.
Of course, it meant nothing to Ha Mu-baek and Wi Ji-gun.
If they wished, they could subdue all the escorts in an instant.
"I apologize for receiving you like this."
Gong Son Mu-oe bowed his head.
"As you may have heard, this is the Myriad Things Alliance Leader. He's also my son-in-law."
"Gong Mu-hyeok."
A gaunt man with a sickly face clasped his hands in greeting and bowed.
Ha Mu-baek and Wi Ji-gun returned the gesture.
"So..."
Gong Son Mu-oe, about to recount the tale, hesitated while scanning outside.
"Don't worry. No sound from here will reach outside."
Ha Mu-baek had sealed the area with his qi barrier before speaking.
With absolute trust in Ha Mu-baek, Gong Son Mu-oe relaxed and began his story.
Gong Mu-hyeok did indeed have a congenitally frail constitution. However, he had trained in the alliance's poison arts and put in consistent effort, so daily life posed no issues.
That was how he had refined the alliance's hidden weapons and even invented new ones.
But his current condition was different.
"It's poison."
"What?!"
Gong Mu-hyeok was the most shocked.
Poison.
He, the leader of the Myriad Things Alliance, poisoned within his own alliance.
His eyes screamed disbelief.
"My pulse diagnosis confirmed poison. But I couldn't identify what kind... And the symptoms..."
Gong Son Mu-oe paused briefly.
"...matched Pulse Blockage Syndrome."
"?!"
Gong Mu-hyeok stared at Gong Son Mu-oe with an expression drained of even the strength for further shock.
"A poison that induces Pulse Blockage Syndrome..."
Ha Mu-baek muttered gravely.
"I've never seen or heard of it. But there are clear traces of poisoning, and the current symptoms are undeniably Pulse Blockage Syndrome. I detected it using our valley's Great Luo Creation Heart Healing Art, so the poisoning is certain."
The Great Luo Creation Heart Healing Art.
Senyu Valley's unique manual, focused entirely on medicine rather than martial prowess—more accurately called a healing art.
It specialized in infusing inner energy into a patient to diagnose and treat root causes.
Though useless against Pulse Blockage Syndrome itself, it had saved countless lives.
Even Ha Mu-baek's subordinates had benefited from it during his Hocheon Corps days.
If the art's diagnosis pointed to poison, then poison it was.
But the symptoms were peculiar.
Pulse Blockage Syndrome, of all things.
"There are no recent signs of poisoning. Once the syndrome took hold, further doses weren't needed, perhaps. In any case, I couldn't trust anyone from the alliance. The leader was poisoned right in the heart of it."
"How could that..."
Gong Mu-hyeok still looked incredulous, though his father-in-law's actions now made sense.
Given the circumstances, it was understandable.
"That's why I brought him here to ask you two to take a look."
With that plea, Gong Son Mu-oe's account ended.
In his haste, he had spoken quickly—barely one gak had passed.
"Let me see."
Wi Ji-gun stepped forward first, taking Gong Mu-hyeok's wrist. After a moment.
"It closely resembles Pulse Blockage Syndrome, but it's not. What poison could mimic a congenital curse like that... Still, his current state is extremely dire."
Wi Ji-gun nodded for Ha Mu-baek to check as well.
Ha Mu-baek grasped Gong Mu-hyeok's wrist.
Carefully, he channeled his inner energy.
It appeared like Pulse Blockage Syndrome, but it was different.
The meridians were far more devastated. Likely due to the faint poison permeating them.
Ha Mu-baek sensed the toxin, however faintly, in Gong Mu-hyeok's meridians.
That was why Gong Son Mu-oe was certain it was poison.
Wi Ji-gun must have sensed it too.
The weakened meridians were accumulating blockages from the poison, narrowing steadily.
In form, it was textbook Pulse Blockage Syndrome.
However, true Pulse Blockage stemmed from excessive yin or yang qi weakening and clogging the meridians.
Strictly speaking, the cause differed.
"Is there a way?"
Gong Son Mu-oe asked the pair cautiously.
Gong Mu-hyeok watched them with tense eyes.
"This... We'll need to think it over."
Wi Ji-gun said with a complicated expression.
"But the valley lord was wise not to act rashly. Poison permeates his meridians everywhere—it's not something to tamper with lightly."
Gong Son Mu-oe's face brightened slightly at Wi Ji-gun's words.
"As expected. I thought masters like you would sense the poison's traces."
It was a poison barely detectable even with Senyu Valley's unique manual.
Yet these master and disciple had identified it through pulse alone. In that, Gong Son Mu-oe glimpsed a sliver of hope.
"One gak is up."
At that moment, the squad leader's voice came from outside.