Slowly lowering his hand that was checking my pulse, he stared intently at my face, then turned his head to examine Hyuk Dojin.

Then, he shifted his gaze back to me and asked with a very serious expression.

“Why, did you fight?”

“What?”

“Both the Young Cult Leader and you. Why are your faces so withered and twisted like dried persimmons, only rolling your eyes? Why? Did something happen? Did you have a fight or something?”

Surprised by his words, I turned my head.

Hyuk Dojin also seemed taken aback and urgently called his name, but the wise insight of the old man who had lived his entire life found an answer even in Hyuk Dojin’s voice.

“If that’s not it, then… I guess you had some embarrassing conversations.”

“…”

They say that the more rice ripens, the more it lowers its head, but even though I wasn’t rice, I endlessly lowered my head to the ground. Seeing my appearance, Hwa Ui chuckled and let go of my wrist he had been holding.

“It’s all like that. Originally, getting married and becoming a couple means that, doesn’t it? Fighting, getting angry, and then saying awkward things, revealing your shortcomings while developing affection. Isn’t that right? Even the food stuck between your teeth looks lovely, that’s what love is, so isn’t it not bad?”

“Hwa Ui… Please stop…”

“Hah, alright. As I get older, I tend to forget about embarrassment.”

“Are you really forgetting it? You were just checking the pulse.”

At Hyuk Dojin’s words, Hwa Ui grinned.

“Let’s skip the personal matters.”

“…”

Hyuk Dojin might have gnashed his teeth, but Hwa Ui remained carefree.

He turned his eyes to look at me, then lowered his head and examined my face from various angles.

“Your complexion looks good.”

“Is that so?”

“It seems to have improved compared to before. There’s a bit of vitality too. Have you been diligently taking the medicine I gave you?”

That question was directed at Joo Hwarin. Joo Hwarin nodded at Hwa Ui’s words.

Hwa Ui quietly observed me with a low groan, then spoke softly.

“I heard you changed your mind.”

I calmly nodded my head. Hwa Ui stared at me intently and pressed his eyelids for a moment, remaining silent.

Hwa Ui had his mouth closed with a very complex expression. As I quietly looked at him, words flowed from Hyuk Dojin, who was sitting behind.

“Is there no way?”

“There are ways. As I said before, even if I don’t know how to completely cure it now, if given time, I can find a way somehow. However, the important thing is not the time it takes to find a method, but whether the Young Miss can endure that pain.”

Hwa Ui sighed heavily as he lowered his hand.

He met my eyes intently. His brow slightly furrowed.

“It will be quite painful. It will be hard for you, Moyong Sowol, who has to endure everything, but it will also be agonizing for the Young Cult Leader, who has to watch it from the side. Can you both endure all of that?”

No answer flowed to his question. Neither I nor Dojin seemed to need an answer. We just looked at each other. As I nodded my head once, Hwa Ui leaned his body back and stroked his beard.

A small groan flowed from his mouth, and soon his lips parted.

“Eclipta prostrata* is not enough. Certainly, the weak yang energy possessed by eclipta prostrata is currently boosting Moyong Sowol’s energy, but that’s not nearly enough. To buy time, more yang energy is needed. It would be good to have pure medicinal herbs that emit strong yang energy thousand-year-old fleeceflower root, but as you know, it’s a very rare medicinal herb that few possess.” (tl/n: commonly known as false daisy)

“Is there nothing else?”

“If we’re talking about something slightly better than eclipta prostrata, the root of a phoenix tree would be alright, and boiling and eating a hundred-year-old mountain amaranth wouldn’t be bad either. But these are all temporary measures. They’ll only provide a slight boost in energy.”

Hwa Ui sighed continuously and narrowed his brow slightly as if contemplating something, then opened his eyes.

“I heard that the Body Refining Pill contains herbs that possess Yang energy… though I’m not sure about the details.”

“The Body Refining Pill… You mean the spiritual medicine of Shaolin Temple?”

“That’s right. The manufacturing method is not known, and the number of people who have taken it is also small, so it’s not certain, but it’s said that various medicinal herbs infused with yang energy are included in the Body Refining Pill. If it can be obtained and given to her, it will definitely have an effect. It’s said that ordinary martial artists can gain 10 years’ worth of internal energy by taking it, so it would be a great help to Moyong Sowol as well.”

“The Body Refining Pill…”

Hwa Ui glanced at Hyuk Dojin, who was quietly murmuring, then shifted his gaze back to me.

He grabbed my thin wrist and checked my pulse again, speaking softly.

“It will be quite difficult. Even for ordinary martial artists, it takes several days to digest all the spiritual medicine in the Body Refining Pill, let alone for Moyong Sowol, whose body is sick, the Body Refining Pill can be either medicine or poison.”

“It’s okay.”

“…To be honest, I’m not sure. I don’t know if what I’m saying is the answer, and I’m not sure if I’m unnecessarily giving Moyong Sowol a terrible pain.”

“Hwa Ui doesn’t need to feel guilty. It’s all something I chose. So, Hwa Ui doesn’t have to feel distressed.”

“Hmm…”

Hwa Ui rubbed his chin and closed his eyes tightly. In the silence, I recalled the words Hwa Ui had said. From the beginning, I didn’t expect to be completely cured. If it were easy to recover, I wouldn’t have come here in the first place.

When I recalled my memories of the past years, the illnesses I was currently suffering from were not easy to cure.

So, I planned to progress slowly, one step at a time.

After a deep silence, Hwa Ui broke the stillness and spoke.

“Do you remember what I said before?”

“Pardon?”

“I mean when I said there was someone who suffered from an illness similar to yours.”

I nodded my head. How could I forget? It remained in my memory, albeit faintly. Hwa Ui carefully spoke while alternately observing me and Hyuk Dojin.

“To get straight to the conclusion, that person died. They passed away before even turning twenty years old.”

“…”

At Hwa Ui’s words, Hyuk Dojin’s and my expressions slightly stiffened. We had hoped, but as expected.

However, Hwa Ui didn’t stop there.

“However, they didn’t die because of the illness.”

“Then…?”

“The cause of death was falling. In other words, suicide.”

“Suicide?”

“I heard they consistently had a pessimistic attitude about their illness. Moreover, after the family who had been taking care of them passed away in an accident, they lived with the thought that their family died because of them and eventually left like that… Well, the important part is not this. Anyway, to get straight to the conclusion again, there are similarities between that person’s illness and Moyong Sowol’s.”

A person who suffered from an illness similar to mine. I corrected my posture.

“Did that person also have white hair?”

“No. The difference I mentioned between Moyong Sowol and that person is not limited to external aspects. The most fundamental commonality. It’s that both of them can’t be exposed to sunlight.”

Hwa Ui stroked his chin and nodded his head. His eyes were filled with certainty.

“The imbalance of yin and yang caused by that. That’s the most fundamental difference.”

“That’s…”

“The person who tried to cure that illness at that time was an old acquaintance of mine. That guy entrusted me with a book he had left behind about the contents he had observed and the healing process, but I tried to find it but haven’t found it yet. I probably left it at my family home, so I’ll take some time to go and get it. If you look at that book, there will probably be more detailed treatment methods.”

Hwa Ui smiled and reached out his hand to lightly pat my hand up and down.

“Don’t give up. The human heart is as delicate as it is strong. The fact that a heart that was once broken has been mended means that it has become that much stronger. Don’t give up and keep colliding. Then a path will surely be revealed.”

* * *

“Today, we will learn about how to handle a sword.”

After taking about a week’s rest, I started learning martial arts from Yoo Doha again.

Until now, I had only practiced breathing techniques based on the Primordial Origin scriptures so far, so I was puzzled by his sudden acceleration.

Yoo Doha placed a wooden sword suitable for a young child on my hand and calmly spoke.

“Since you said you have handled a sword before, I will show you first without further ado.”

He picked up a wooden sword similar to mine, stepped back to create some distance, and took a stance. Then, as if a leisurely expression and smile were drawn, the wooden sword moved.

It was soft but concise and heavy as it cut through the wind.

I couldn’t accurately know its depth since I had limited experience handling a sword, but at least I could tell that Yoo Doha was no ordinary person.

Indeed, even in the novel, Yoo Doha was a reliable subordinate whom Hyuk Dojin could entrust his back to.

In the end, he was defeated by Moyong Do, though. Despite the wooden sword moving, the sound of air being split could be heard.

The power he displayed with just the subtle internal energy he infused must be tremendous.

After perfectly demonstrating a total of 128 techniques, Yoo Doha returned with his breathing undisturbed and smiled brightly.

“By any chance, do you know what sword technique I just demonstrated?”

“No.”

“The sword technique I demonstrated is the swordsmanship of Mount Hua.” 

“Mount Hua?”

Surprised to hear about Mount Hua’s swordsmanship in the Demon Cult, I asked back, and Yoo Doha nodded his head.

“The martial arts of the Righteous Sect are a bit bland in terms of taste. They lack destructive power and don’t have added sharpness either. Also, amusingly, they are martial arts based on the internal cultivation methods of the Righteous Sect, but they even lack purity. As a result, martial arts that lack purity are instead poisonous to Moyong Sowol, who builds internal energy based on the Primordial Origin.”

“Then, what about the Mount Hua’s sword technique you just showed?”

Yoo Doha smiled brightly and lightly swung his sword.

“The Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique, which only the masters of Mount Hua Sect can demonstrate. It consists of a total of 24 stances, each with 8 variations, forming a total of one 192 moves, serving as the foundation of Mount Hua’s swordsmanship.”

“But wasn’t it less than that just now?”

“That’s right. What I just showed you is a sword technique that I modified the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Technique to my liking.”

He leisurely put his hand in his bosom and took out a book.

The moment I saw the book, a sense of unease swept over me.

And sure enough, Yoo Doha smiled brightly and held out the book.

“You know, right?”

…

“You have to memorize it all.”