Chapter 152
Chapter 152
“Have you arrived? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, but could you treat these guys first.”
“…You’re shameless beyond belief, just like your lord.”
“Thank you for the compliment.”
Watching Hyeon-gang answer confidently, Hwa Ryeong let out a deep sigh.
“What about first aid?”
“It’s all been done. Now they just need treatment.”
“But it seems you have too many companions. With only the people I brought, it will take some time.”
“Now that you mention it, the number of people you brought is smaller than I expected.”
“Yes, I left half of them where the Martial Alliance is…”
“What? Why are you worrying about those bastards?”
Seeing the expression on Hyeon-gang’s face—one that genuinely looked like he didn’t understand—Hwa Ryeong pressed her fingers against her temples as a throbbing headache set in.
“Hyeon-gang, we are physicians.”
“It seems the Martial Alliance didn’t send a messenger pigeon to the Medical Pavilion of Hwa Ryeong? I thought they’d ask for help much faster than I did…”
“Call all the physicians stationed with the Martial Alliance over here.”
One of the senior physicians flinched in surprise and spoke.
“If we do that, we might get dragged into unnecessary rumors.”
Hwa Ryeong snorted as if it were ridiculous.
“They’re the ones who didn’t even say they needed our help in the first place. And that brat Hyeon-gang definitely kept saying they needed physicians. If they still didn’t call us, then that’s their problem.”
“Khh! As expected of Master! That feels incredibly refreshing! By the way, didn’t you bring Seonpung?”
“You mean that White Tiger?”
“Yes.”
“If it’s that one, I entrusted it with a task.”
“A task…?”
What kind of work could they possibly give to the White Tiger…?
“There are such things. It was a bit surprising even for me. Anyway, where is the patient serious enough for someone to say they need me?”
“That person washed up earlier and is sleeping over there.”
When Hyeon-gang pointed at Youngho with his finger, Hwa Ryeong nodded as if she had expected it.
“I knew it would be like this. I figured it out when he was getting beaten by the Heavenly Demon.”
Hwa Ryeong took Youngho’s pulse and began diagnosing him.
It was only a light examination rather than a meticulous observation, yet Hwa Ryeong clicked her tongue and frowned.
“He’s not dead, right?”
“Don’t even mention it. This is already a lot better.”
“This?”
“Yes. It’s still serious now, but before he recovered with the Spirit Pill, his internal injuries were so severe that I thought he was really going to die this time.”
“You foolish bastard. If you keep using your body like this, you’ll lose twenty years of your lifespan.”
“Maybe not that much, but it’s definitely shortened quite a bit. He even used Innate True Qi like he’d lost his mind.”
Hwa Ryeong’s expression repeatedly twisted into something like that of a malicious spirit before returning to a blank face, then turning monstrous again.
Her mind was so disturbed that she pounded her chest and spoke.
“In all my life, this is the first time I don’t want to see a bastard from the Unorthodox Faction die. Just a rough glance is enough to tell. His arms, legs, abdomen—there’s not a single place that’s intact. I’m almost curious how someone could turn their body into a rag like this.”
“Do we have enough medical supplies?”
“I brought as much as I could… but it should work out somehow. Let’s start quickly. At this rate, he might end up living the rest of his life with one disabled arm.”
“Let’s begin.”
Hwa Ryeong pressed several of Youngho’s acupoints firmly, ensuring he wouldn’t wake up no matter what for the time being.
Then the Divine Physician and the Medicine Immortal began performing surgery on Youngho with all their strength.
They became so absorbed in treatment that they lost track of time, and before they realized it, an entire day had passed.
“Thank you for your hard work….”
Hyeon-gang expressed his gratitude to the senior physician assisting him.
However, focusing on surgery for twelve shijin was no easy feat, so the senior physician merely nodded blankly.
“Has the surgery ended well?”
At that moment, a familiar voice came from afar. As always, it sounded warm and gentle, yet the anxiety contained within it made the identity of the speaker confusing.
Even though Hyeon-gang saw the figure with his own eyes, he blinked repeatedly as if he couldn’t believe it.
“What is it? Is that the Blade Draw Emperor brat?”
Before Hyeon-gang could speak, Hwa Ryeong said with a tired expression.
“What business do you have?”
“Hmm… I came because I wanted to speak with the Sword Exalted, but since he was undergoing surgery, I simply waited.”
“How long did you wait?”
“Roughly ten shijin.”
“Pfft!”
Hyeon-gang spat out the water in his mouth.
“Cough, cough!”
He coughed repeatedly after choking, but what bothered him more was Han Yonghu’s words.
‘Ten shijin means he basically saw everything!’
Thinking of it as one of the Martial Alliance Leader’s eccentric behaviors might have eased his mind—but Hyeon-gang had seen it.
Hwangbo Nyeong stepping back with an awkward smile.
Hyeon-gang let out a dumbfounded laugh.
“No, why is the Fist Queen here?”
“Well… you might not know this, but Youngho—no, the Sword Exalted—and I are old friends. So I came because I was worried… but it seems the situation has become quite tangled.”
“What? What happened?”
“I’ll explain from here.”
“Sister Muyeon?”
Muyeon had appeared suddenly, but since Hyeon-gang knew that she could pop out from anywhere at any time, he felt more puzzled than surprised.
“Why are you here, Sister?”
“Ah… it’s a long explanation, but just know it’s under the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance’s orders.”
“I see.”
“The Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance sent the First Young Master, along with two units and about twenty experts at the Hall Master Level.”
“…What?”
After grasping the entire situation, Hyeon-gang’s face began turning pale. His trembling eyebrows revealed how anxious he was.
“Where is the Martial Alliance right now?”
“Hyeon-gang, calm down and listen. The Orthodox and Unorthodox have always coexisted. Where the Orthodox Sect exists, the Unorthodox Faction exists, and where the Unorthodox Faction exists, the Orthodox Sect appears as well. Isn’t that the natural order?”
“So the First Young Master is confronting the Martial Alliance right now?”
“That’s right.”
“This is insane! That’s an extremely dangerous situation! Is the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance here?”
“Why?”
“Because there’s no one among us who can face the Alliance Leader! Unless the Young Master has fully recovered!”
“Uh….”
Why does it sound like he’s assuming the Orthodox–Unorthodox War will break out no matter what?
Han Yonghu also looked back and forth between Muyeon and Youngho with a doubtful expression at Hyeon-gang’s words.
Muyeon thought while watching Hyeon-gang—who now possessed a mindset far more fitting of the Unorthodox Faction than even Youngho, who had originally belonged to it.
‘Is this bastard really from the Tang Clan?’
No matter how vicious some people might be, it was still a sect that walked the Righteous Path.
The moment Hyeon-gang read Muyeon’s expression, he immediately understood what she was thinking and said,
“Hey, Sister. Don’t think something rude. In this world, origin isn’t what matters. What matters is the will to live in the present and the ability to build the future.”
Well… that’s technically correct…
“Still, didn’t you used to have pride in the Tang Clan?”
“Sister, the Tang Clan is, you see, a damn awful family.”
“Then what about us?”
“A damn good family.”
So he still wouldn’t remove the “damn,” huh?
“Anyway, the atmosphere is better than you think. It’s not just that swords won’t be drawn immediately—it won’t happen for a while.”
“What? Why?”
“Because we helped the Orthodox Sect? Maybe in the past things were different, but now we’re in a cooperative relationship. Betraying them isn’t something we can do.”
“What? Do you know how many hypocrites there are in the Orthodox Sect? They claim they don’t discriminate by origin, but origin is exactly what they discriminate by the most.”
Were you really on the Orthodox side?
Muyeon swallowed the question that had risen to the tip of her throat.
More importantly, she could see the complicated sympathy in Han Yonghu’s eyes as he looked seriously at Hyeon-gang.
“Just look at me! I was discriminated against and despised for being from the collateral line, and in the end I was framed and expelled! Huh? Come to think of it, I’ve been called the Divine Physician lately. Maybe I should go meet those Tang Clan bastards?”
Seeing Hyeon-gang giggling wickedly, Muyeon shook her head in disgust.
“Still, the atmosphere is better than you think. It’s not just that swords won’t be drawn immediately—it won’t happen for a while.”
“What? Why?”
“You can think of it as a collaboration between the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance and the Alliance Leader. The hierarchy is incredibly strict. It’s even more disciplined than the Imperial Palace’s Imperial Guards.”
“Isn’t it a bit dangerous to compare them to the Imperial Palace?”
“It’s fine if I only mention the Imperial Guards. It becomes serious if I start insulting the higher-ups.”
Muyeon chuckled.
“The Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance will be sending a letter soon. It should arrive any moment now.”
The moment she finished speaking, Hyeon-gang sensed something approaching behind him at incredible speed.
Soon a familiar aura reached him, and his eyes widened.
“Seonpung?”
As soon as he spoke, Seonpung burst through the bushes and arrived before Muyeon. The White Tiger’s elegant white fur usually looked so noble that just seeing it lifted one’s mood.
But…
Seeing the mud covering its body and its fur soaked with water, Hyeon-gang said,
“Did you cross the sea or something?”
“It probably crossed the Yangtze River.”
At Muyeon’s calm reply, Hyeon-gang finally realized and exclaimed.
“Wait, the distance from here to the Unorthodox Alliance is enormous! Why send Seonpung?”
“Because Seonpung is the fastest one who can deliver a letter.”
“Isn’t that too much?”
“It’s better than fighting and killing each other.”
Muyeon opened the bundle Seonpung was carrying and unfolded the letter.
After reading it, she nodded.
“The Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance says to take the Young Master to the Joint Training Ground.”
“Good heavens….”
The Joint Training Ground.
It had a formal name, but it was so complicated that those who used it simply referred to it metaphorically as the Joint Training Ground.
And the training conducted there truly lived up to its name.
It was training where the Orthodox Sect and the Unorthodox Faction joined forces and fought together.
“Didn’t the Lord of the Unorthodox Alliance say the Young Master didn’t have to participate?”
“That’s right.”
“Then why…?”
“Hoo….”
At that moment, Han Yonghu let out a sigh so heavy that anyone could hear the exhaustion within it.
Muyeon, Hyeon-gang, and even Hwangbo Nyeong looked at him with puzzled expressions. Yet Han Yonghu continued to sigh with a dark expression.
“So it has finally come….”
He had always thought something like this would happen.
The man called Cheonung that he knew was someone who practiced the saying “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” exceptionally well.
What mattered now was just how far Cheonung had sharpened his blade.
‘Shaolin… they’ve crossed the line a lot lately. Is he really going to brand the Abbot’s head with the Flame Venerable Art?’
Fortunately, the Abbot’s head already had burn scars.
If Cheonung saw that, there was a decent chance he would burst out laughing and let it pass.
As for the other sects, they were walking a fine line but still technically within bounds.
‘Still, their karma is far too great to escape Cheonung’s wrath….’
If Cheonung had merely been on the level of the Fist King of Shaolin, there would have been no need to worry like this.
‘That idiot is just absurdly strong!’
If Cheonung’s temperament had resembled even a fraction of the Tyrant Sovereign from the Imperial Star in the past, the Orthodox–Unorthodox War would have broken out long ago.
Han Yonghu looked at Youngho with complicated eyes and sighed repeatedly.
He didn’t even notice that Hyeon-gang, Muyeon, and even Hwangbo Nyeong had quietly distanced themselves from him.
“Hoo….”
Once again, Han Yonghu’s sigh echoed through the forest.