She placed her hand over his chest and projected her energy.
This was a traditional martial arts method of diagnosis known as pulse reading.
Normally, one would hold the wrist, feel the pulse, and diagnose through it—hence the term "pulse reading"—but Hae Eung-eung took a more daring approach.

‘It’s not easy to read the pulse of someone who’s collapsed and has their heart in such a state.’

She injected energy directly above his heart, using it to read the condition of his internal organs.
Suddenly, she understood the source of his pain.

‘The arteries are constricted.’

The extreme stress had caused the blood vessels to narrow, making the heartbeat increasingly difficult.

“Are you sure you don’t need an ambulance?”
[It’s fine.]

Hae Eung-eung answered confidently.
After all, the illness she had been suffering from, the "Goo Eum Jeol Maek" disease, also involved narrowing or twisting of the blood vessels.
The treatment for this was common knowledge for anyone suffering from this illness.
But to So Gyeong-seok, who had no such knowledge,
it only sounded like she was just trying to sweep things under the rug.
What medical knowledge would an Awakener have?
All he could envision was her letting his heart stop, and then throwing him in a trash incinerator, where he’d be burned to ash.

“Everyone, do not disturb the Guild Leader. Please go inside. That’s an order!”

So Gyeong-seok quickly ushered the employees inside to keep them quiet.

‘Oh my god, is Hae Eung-eung trying to kill Shin Seong-gwak?!’

Min Woosung, waiting inside, read So Gyeong-seok’s thoughts and, horrified, secretly reported to the National Security Bureau,
but that was irrelevant for now.
Hae Eung-eung was focused on the treatment, using her internal energy to begin the healing process.

‘This procedure is quite complicated.’

The End Point phenomenon that awakening martial artists like Shin Seong-gwak faced.
As a result, not only his skin but his internal organs had hardened,
with his liver and lungs becoming rigid, unable to function properly,
and his blood vessels had stiffened, showing signs of arteriosclerosis.

If he had gone to a hospital, they would have used blood-thinning agents to dissolve the foreign substances in his blood vessels or anticoagulants to prevent clot formation,
but Hae Eung-eung was a martial artist, not a modern-day healer.
She had no choice but to use martial arts methods to treat him.

‘With the qi sickness and the arteriosclerosis, the blood is all tangled up… It’s a miracle he’s still alive at all.’

Even without an endoscopic camera,
a martial artist could instantly read the condition of the body using their qi.
Using this skill, Hae Eung-eung burned away the clots in his blood vessels with her qi,
gently loosening the hardened arteries and helping the twisted blood vessels return to their proper shape.
This was known as the "Qi Healing Technique."
The treatment method that helps qi find its proper path is effective,
but with only 14 years of internal energy, she couldn’t fully cure everything with just one treatment.

‘For now, I’ll just focus on the heart area.’

As Shin Seong-gwak’s complexion noticeably improved and the treatment neared completion,
he suddenly coughed up black blood,
but after that, his breathing returned to normal.

“Cough, cough. You, you’ve saved me.”

Only then did Shin Seong-gwak realize that he may have misjudged Hae Eung-eung.

[You’re quick to speak and don’t listen to others. That impulsive personality of yours caused the trouble.]
“Haha. I’m sorry.”

He chuckled awkwardly and then spoke quickly.

“Can you call my secretary who I brought with me?”

Hae Eung-eung called So Gyeong-seok to find the secretary and bring them over.

‘Phew. Looks like Hae Eung-eung isn’t all bad.’

Having been prepared to see a corpse, So Gyeong-seok discreetly deleted the number for the incinerator rental he had been secretly looking up.
With a much lighter heart, he headed out to the front gate.

“Hmm? There’s no one here?”

As he looked around,
he noticed deep tire marks on the ground, as though someone had hastily driven away.

“Did the secretary run away?”

If the secretary had run, it meant they must have seen something suspicious.
So Gyeong-seok’s face stiffened.

“Did this bastard see Shin Seong-gwak collapse and then run away?”

4.
So Gyeong-seok’s guess was right.
The secretary, waiting outside, had started secretly recording the situation as soon as it became apparent that things were getting out of hand.

“If they’ve gone to such lengths to hide their identity and infiltrate Myeongho-dong, their goal is clear. They’re definitely trying to swallow this entire Myeongho Guild!”
Having heard Shin Seong-gwak’s misinterpretation of the situation and the shout of "ambush!"
the secretary quickly realized what was going on.

‘I’m going to die too!’

Even So Gyeong-seok, who had been knocked down, realized that it was easy to take out a single secretary.
The secretary immediately fled to Myeongho Guild.

“What’s going on? Why are you rushing in like this?”
“Ahh, tsk tsk. This young kid has no manners. Back in my day, before entering, we’d take a deep breath, make sure our posture was perfect…”
“Shin Seong-gwak was ambushed.”

The executives who had been lazily sipping tea in their office were stunned.

“There’s footage of it.”

The video the secretary had recorded started playing.

“Why is he acting like this?”
“Did our Guild Leader ambush him?!”
“Eh? We didn’t even see him draw his sword!”
“So that’s how strong he is.”
A terrifying master with such excellent skill, they didn’t even see him draw his sword!

“Did you see anything?”
“No. I didn’t see anything at all.”
“I thought I had good eyesight, but maybe we were all just frogs in a well.”

The executives fell into extreme fear.
Like Shin Seong-gwak, they were second-generation Awakeners,
some of the few survivors from the previous generation of Awakeners who had been appointed to executive positions as a courtesy by the guild.
If someone this powerful, capable of using attacks so deadly they couldn’t even be perceived,
was considered an A-rank, then the level of power they wielded was obviously above the 250-300 level threshold.

“What if that woman comes here?”
“We’re all going to die!”
“I need to go on a business trip!”
“My fridge at home probably lost power. I need to turn it back on immediately!”
“Let’s go out for lunch!!”

The executives rushed out of the building, spouting nonsensical remarks.

“Eh, Chief Executive! Where are you going?!”
“Agh, stop bothering me and get lost!”
“Screaming!”

They shoved past employees as they ran away.
Some were even more cowardly than expected.

“Sell the stocks! Sell everything at market price!”

Fearing the guild was about to go bankrupt,
one of them immediately began selling all their shares.

“Alright, I opened the safe! We need to grab whatever we can and get out of here!”
“Is this really okay?”
“Don’t ask questions, just grab everything. I’ll at least take care of you, my personal secretary. We’re both leaving together.”

Soon, the executives scrambled to gather anything of value and fled the guild.

“You, grab your gear and come with me. Let’s hit up the businesses and take some money before we leave Myeongho-dong.”

Some even gathered employees to make a quick profit before running off to another area.

“No, what about the guild?”
“You’re the one who fled first, so don’t start yelling at me.”

The executives, after gathering everything, fled the guild.
The news of their cowardice spread quickly, and
the remaining executives, realizing the guild might collapse,
were filled with extreme anxiety.

“Shit, we don’t even have anything left to steal.”
“What do you mean we don’t? The equipment we’re using right now is company property. If we take this, we’re good.”
“Oh, right!”

Even the executives, who were running away, could sense the tension among the regular guild members.

“What are we going to do?”
“If you don’t want to be cannon fodder, you need to run.”
“Barehanded?”
“Are you crazy? What would we take? If you don’t want to die, just run.”

From the executives to the regular guild members,
Myeongho Guild was beginning to fall apart from the inside.

5.
Unaware of what was going on outside,
Shin Seong-gwak was still astonished.

“By god, how did you do this? The symptoms of the magical illness have even been alleviated!”

Hae Eung-eung’s internal energy treatment worked by aligning the blood vessels using her pure energy,
purifying the stagnant and accumulated qi in his body,
and for the first time, giving him a proper treatment.
Unlike temporary treatments like those that came with a level-up,
which forcefully pushed through impurities,
Hae Eung-eung’s method alleviated the symptoms of his magical illness itself.
It was a miraculous occurrence for Shin Seong-gwak,
who had been stuck in despair for over a year and nearly at the 250-level wall.

[The magical illness you’re suffering from can be cured. Perhaps even the End Point phenomenon causing it can be eliminated.]

Once she managed it once, there was no reason she couldn’t do it again.
Hae Eung-eung, if she set her mind to it, could use her energy to expel the stagnant qi,
restore his body, and bring his health back.

“Please, can you heal this old body? I’ll do anything as a token of my gratitude!”

Shin Seong-gwak’s desperate plea caused Hae Eung-eung to soften a bit.

‘Since I’ve already started, I might as well finish it properly.’

Hae Eung-eung opened a page in her notebook in front of him.

[Please become a guest master of the Haenampa Guild. If you accept this invitation, I will help cure your magical illness and eliminate the End Point.]

For the Haenampa Guild, other than herself,
there was no real stability in terms of strength.
She had decided it was time to secure a powerful person who could last long enough to help during an ambush.