“What did you just say?”

Cheonrijinan asked, his face twisted all over.

I flinched when I saw it.

It was a pretty terrifying expression.

[Oh dear.]

Yoo Cheongil also flinched as he looked at Cheonrijinan.

[Kid, be careful. This bastard is angry.]

I could tell that without him saying it.

Who wouldn’t know from looking at that?

“Are you trying to make a joke of this? In the current situation, that would not be a wise choice.”

His face made it clear he had no intention of letting even a joke pass.

No matter what answer I gave, he looked like he wouldn’t accept it.

The bowstring had already been drawn, and the arrow had already been fired.

Nothing I did now could take it back.

Which meant I had to keep moving forward.

“I’m not joking.”

“Not joking...? Then you mean you’re serious. In that case, it would be even less acceptable.”

I had said that I would treat Divine Spear in his place.

At that, Cheonrijinan smiled.

Naturally, it was a cold smile, part of his anger.

Wow.

He was really terrifying.

He wasn’t even a martial artist, so where the hell was that kind of pressure coming from?

“If you disliked being given the mission and are protesting in this manner, I would almost understand it. But to say this is not a joke, that you truly mean it? It would not be unreasonable to take that as you making light of me.”

Someone with absolutely no medical knowledge had stepped forward and said he would treat Divine Spear.

That reaction was only natural.

No, he was probably even angrier because of it.

But.

“What I said, I meant sincerely. If the Medical Immortal has no answer, then the only method left is me.”

“...What are you talking about?”

Cheonrijinan asked.

His voice was cold.

It felt like if I made even the slightest mistake, I would be cut down on the spot.

“The Medical Immortal has passed away. You must already have heard.”

“...”

No answer.

There was no way he didn’t know.

A dispatch had already been sent long ago, and even if not—

There’s no way the Martial Alliance had no people in Shaanxi.

There was no chance the Martial Alliance hadn’t stationed someone there.

Cheonrijinan would have already heard the news.

The Medical Immortal.

More precisely, the story had begun with word that Mount Hua’s sect master had died.

“...I heard.”

After remaining silent, Cheonrijinan answered at last.

Judging by that, it seemed he hadn’t stayed silent because he had nothing to say, but because he had been thinking.

Or maybe he had been waiting.

I couldn’t know what he intended.

What mattered was—

“And what does that have to do with what you just said?”

Neither Cheonrijinan nor I—

That meant we were not in a position to sink into those emotions and talk.

“The Medical Immortal is dead. If that were all, and you said there was no method, I would understand. But what you are saying sounds as though—”

A chilling gaze swept over me.

“—you can take his place.”

Cold sweat gathered on me.

This old man... was it really true that he didn’t know martial arts?

“That is exactly what I mean.”

“Hah.”

Cheonrijinan let out a dry breath.

“You spout nonsense. How dare you—”

“The Medical Immortal left words for me.”

“...What?”

“His own conviction. And since his physical condition meant he could not make the trip to Henan, he wished for me to take his role in his place. The divine pill I brought from Mount Hua is for that reason as well.”

“The Medical Immortal—no matter how unrealistic a man he may have been—do you really ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) think what you are saying makes sense?”

Take over the Medical Immortal’s role.

That meant I would have to possess the medical skill of the greatest physician in the Central Plains.

“I have never heard that you ever studied medicine. Don’t tell me you’re about to claim Yoo Cheongil made you do that too.”

Along with saying he had already looked into my background long ago, it seemed Cheonrijinan had also already grasped the Yoo Cheongil angle.

“There is a limit to how favorably I can look on you. And this is not a joke?”

“But it is the truth. I learned medicine under the Medical Immortal.”

“Are you truly—!”

Just as Cheonrijinan finally seemed ready to shout at me—

“That is why I can also examine your condition now, Strategist. No—Grandfather.”

“...!”

His body froze on the spot.

“You.”

“I will not mention it further. Grandfather would not want that either. For now, I only hope those words lend weight to what I’m saying.”

“...You little bastard.”

Cheonrijinan glared at me with burning eyes.

“That is nonsense. Even if I concede a hundred times and accept that the Medical Immortal passed his art on to you, what could you possibly have learned in so short a time?”

Even if the Medical Immortal had left his medical art to me, that changed nothing.

I needed a way to prove it.

And for that—

“Then let me see the Alliance Leader first. Whether it works or not... I’ll confirm that myself.”

“...”

I had to see Divine Spear.

At those words, Cheonrijinan’s brow tightened.

After that, a short silence passed.

“Know one thing.”

He spoke to me in a cold voice.

“You will absolutely bear responsibility for what you just said.”

“...”

It was a terrifying thing to hear, but—

“Yes.”

I had no intention of backing down either.

The Medical Immortal had made me learn medicine so that I could take his place.

Seventy percent of that was a lie.

It probably wasn’t so I could take his place.

And it wasn’t that he had made me learn his medicine.

This—

I don’t know why either, but...

I had acquired it while Seongheon was passing on.

His medical knowledge.

I possessed it now.

*****

If you grant a ghost’s request, and because of that cause it to pass on, your energy increases.

That much I had already learned from passing on the first evil spirit, and from passing on Poison Venerable.

If not that, then even when I forcibly exorcised evil spirits by destroying them, my energy also seemed to increase, so I had judged that the phenomenon was limited purely to energy.

But—

That wasn’t all.

This time, with Seongheon’s passing, things had changed a little.

The problem was what he had left behind for me as he passed on.

...How did this happen?

Things I would normally never have known.

Things I had never cared about, and had never needed to obtain.

Knowledge called medicine—the knowledge to mend and heal another person.

That existed inside me now.

The moment I sent Seongheon on, information had surged into me like a flood.

I didn’t know whether this was all the knowledge he had built up.

Still—

...I have to try it.

I had gained something, so I had to use it.

This was not just anything else. It was the Medical Immortal’s knowledge.

I already checked whether this was real or not.

The knowledge was real.

Though honestly, it would have been better if he had left me energy or something else instead.

Still, this too held tremendous value.

Especially in a world like the Central Plains, where medicine was underdeveloped.

“Please, come in.”

A martial artist greeted us.

Accepting it, Cheonrijinan and I moved forward.

Inside were forces I could sense and forces I couldn’t.

[A lot of eyes.]

I gave a small nod at Yoo Cheongil’s warning.

It meant there were countless eyes on me that I could not see.

Naturally.

This was the place guarding Divine Spear.

Divine Spear.

The current Alliance Leader of the Martial Alliance, who had been attacked.

This was the place where he now lay.

The information was being kept under the strictest secrecy, and they said only elite forces had been deployed here.

We entered a residence within the Alliance.

Cheonrijinan reached the front and opened the door.

CREEEEAK

The moment the door opened—

Ugh?

A foul stench hit me so suddenly that I had to cover my nose.

Normally, it would have only felt like a bad smell.

“...The scent of leaking qi.”

At my mutter, Cheonrijinan gave me a sidelong glance.

For an instant, his eyes seemed to widen.

The scent of leaking qi was the smell that came when energy escaped like wind.

The energy that should have been wrapped inside a martial artist’s body.

When that energy could no longer be properly contained and leaked outside—

And in that process—

The skin, unable to hold the energy, rotted away and gave off the smell.

In simple terms, it was the stench of rotting flesh.

On top of that, the martial artist’s energy coated it, producing an even stranger odor.

...If it smells like leaking qi...

Then his condition was truly terrible.

Realizing that, I looked inside the residence.

And the next instant—

“Damn.”

I had to let out a breath of disbelief.

Because Divine Spear’s condition, lying there as if dead, was exposed in full.

A huge man was lying collapsed there.

Divine Spear.

His eyes were shut as he lay there.

His abdomen...

The left side of his bare upper body, from the abdomen up to the ribs, was black.

To anyone else, it would look as though it had been burned away.

...That’s the spot.

That was where the energy was leaking out from.

And not only that.

This is...

The transparent energy flowing out of his body.

It was probably energy only I could see.

His life force is leaking away.

Primordial Life Force.

It was steadily flowing out of him.

So death is approaching.

Which meant Divine Spear’s condition was terribly bad.

I could tell the moment I saw him.

That body—

He should already be dead.

A condition so ruined that it would not have been strange if he had died long ago.

It was almost shocking that he was still alive at all.

Tch.

I narrowed my eyes as I looked at him.

His body was that ruined, and yet only that much energy was flowing out?

...Just how exceptional had his body been?

It meant he was forcibly holding it together from the inside.

Even in an unconscious state.

I was taking that into account as I looked when—

“I will ask.”

Cheonrijinan’s voice struck from beside me.

“Now that you have seen that, can you still take responsibility for what you said?”

“...”

A body ruined beyond measure.

After the battle with HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE, it had been damaged to that extent, and he was asking whether I could really save him.

“If it will not work, then do not even try. It would be faster to look for another method instead.”

Cheonrijinan still did not trust me.

That was only natural.

Even I wouldn’t have trusted myself.

And also—

Do I really have to do this?

Seeing that condition, I did regret it a little.

How was I supposed to touch that?

It made me hesitate, wondering if I had spoken up for nothing.

Still—

“...I don’t know about responsibility.”

Even so, my answer stayed the same.

“But shouldn’t I at least try?”

I had to do something.

That feeling brushed past me.

Ridiculous.

My face twisted.

Since when had I become the sort of person who would try to do something like this?

What exactly did you leave in my hands?

Was medicine really all Seongheon had left behind for me?

Did this feeling—this desire to try and save that half-dead man now—really have nothing to do with it?

Who knows.

I didn’t know.

Given that I had stepped forward to do this the moment I acquired the medical knowledge, it didn’t seem like there was no influence at all.

Whether this is...

Because of a faint sense of guilt toward Divine Spear, who had ended up like that while trying to save me—

Or because Seongheon had truly done something—

I didn’t know.

And if Seongheon really had done something, that too was ridiculous.

After all, he himself had said he would not save Divine Spear, only to leave him to me instead.

“If you truly—”

Seeing that I would not back down, Cheonrijinan tried to say more.

But—

Slide.

My body moved toward Divine Spear.

I approached him and reached out my hand.

And then—

SHING—!!!

Something touched my neck.

Martial artists who had been hidden all around us had appeared and leveled their swords at me.

They seemed to be the ones guarding the Alliance Leader.

The blade pressed against my neck.

“Do not move, Moon Hero.”

A cold warning.

Even while hearing it—

Slide.

My hand kept moving.

“Did you not hear me say stop—!”

Cheonrijinan, who had been about to flare up at me—

“...Huh?”

Suddenly stopped speaking.