ch32
[The Broken Buddha Statue]
Seo-yeon sat at the tea table alongside Geum Jin-song. Geum Jin-song carefully received the teapot from a servant and insisted on pouring the tea himself.
"It's Dragon Well Tea."
The Carving Arts Competition was still a few days away, so they were being treated in a separate villa. Seo-yeon had initially intended to refuse, but Geum Jin-song was so earnest that she somehow ended up here.
Seo-yeon slowly surveyed the glass teacup in front of her and the lavish interior of the villa.
'He must have a lot of money.'
It seemed like he lived with mountains of real gold piled up.
In terms of sheer wealth, he was said to be the best in the Central Plains. It was probably an exaggeration, but it didn't sound like complete nonsense either.
'He said he bought this villa with his own money.'
He had received initial funding, but he claimed that everything he had built since then was due to his own abilities. He was said to have a natural talent for business.
"My fault is great for what you have experienced. At least until the Carving Arts Competition is over, please allow me to help you."
"Wouldn't that be too much trouble...?"
"It's no trouble at all. Please give me a chance to make amends."
"If you put it that way..."
At Seo-yeon's reply, Geum Jin-song made a relieved face and secretly clenched his fist.
He felt like he had fastened the first button correctly.
"I heard you were going to the Longmen Grottoes. I'll assign a servant who knows the way well, so please enjoy the sights with your disciple. I have somewhere to go, so I don't think I can accompany you."
Geum Jin-song said that and left the room. He wanted to go with her more than anything, but he left, thinking it might be a burden. When trying to build a relationship, one had to be careful. He knew that rushing things could push away a connection that could have been.
Of course, as soon as Geum Jin-song went outside, he grabbed one of his trusted subordinates and said,
"Take plenty of money and treat her as a guest of the family. If you run out of money, put it on my tab at any gambling den."
The subordinate blinked. Geum Jin-song preferred earning money to meeting women and had refused marriage proposals with all sorts of excuses. It was only natural that he would seem strange suddenly acting like this.
The subordinate cautiously asked.
"...Who is that person that you're going this far for?"
"She is my benefactor."
"Did pirates perhaps attack when you went boating?"
The subordinate thought it was ridiculous even as he said it. Pirates in Luoyang? Not even a dog would believe that nonsense.
Geum Jin-song replied with a blissful expression.
"She broadened my horizons."
"...Yes?"
"Take plenty of guards with you too. If she refuses, follow her at a suitable distance while concealing your identities. She is someone who is hiding her identity. She must not have to use her own strength. If it seems like trouble is brewing, you should step in beforehand."
Geum Jin-song said that and sighed deeply.
'Ah, I want to go with her.'
Was this why his older brothers frequented the Pavilion Tower so much?
Thinking that, Geum Jin-song slapped his cheeks several times.
'Comparing Seo-yeon to the women of the Pavilion Tower! You were just the same as those men. You stupid fool! It wouldn't be strange to get slapped for being so rude. You deserve it!'
Geum Jin-song sighed again and said to his subordinate, who was staring at him strangely,
"Slap my cheek."
"...Yes?"
"Slap it hard. I'm punishing myself for having such wicked thoughts."
The subordinate hesitated, then tapped Geum Jin-song's cheek. He wondered if his young master had finally lost his mind.
"Hit me harder!"
It seemed like he had really gone crazy. At this point, the subordinate couldn't help but be afraid.
"Young Master. If I have done something wrong, please tell me. How could I possibly hit you?"
"I said hit me!"
"Oh, please don't do this."
The subordinate prostrated himself. What servant in the world would actually hit his master just because he was told to? Still, he had served him since he was young, so he at least pretended to hit him; if it were another servant, they would have prostrated themselves as soon as they were told to hit him.
"Haa..."
Geum Jin-song looked at his subordinate prostrated on the floor and sighed as if the ground would cave in. One side of his face was red from slapping himself repeatedly.
People who fell in love at first sight were said to be fools.
Geum Jin-song was one of those people who thought so, but he never dreamed that he would become one himself.
He had been so focused on making money that he didn't have many close friends, and he had avoided women because he looked down on his older brothers who frequented the Pavilion Tower.
The fact that he wasn't particularly interested in women also played a part. In Geum Jin-song's eyes, all the women who were considered pretty in the village looked the same.
If they had eyes, a nose, and a mouth, he just accepted it.
But Seo-yeon was different. The moment he saw her, he couldn't come to his senses.
Geum Jin-song just kept sighing. He couldn't seem to focus on his work at all.
'This is serious.'
It was because his standards were so incredibly high, but Geum Jin-song never figured out the reason.
Seo-yeon and her party diligently made their way to the Longmen Grottoes. When they arrived at the entrance, pushing through the crowds, Seo-yeon finally realized why the Longmen Grottoes were so famous.
It was said to be a grotto created by a fallen dynasty over hundreds of years, mobilizing tens of thousands of people. The magnificent size was impossible to fathom. The number of grottoes visible right in front of her easily exceeded thousands.
"It would take you ten days to see them all."
The servant that Geum Jin-song had assigned spoke. She was a woman with short black hair and black eyes, and the atmosphere she exuded made her seem like someone who had lived as an Assassin for many years.
Perhaps noticing that air about her, the woman spoke.
"I am called Gyo-gyo. I have no surname, and I have served Young Master Geum Jin-song for a little over fifteen years."
Gyo-gyo glanced around and added as if confessing,
"...I used to work as a bodyguard Assassin. If it bothers you, I can have someone else replace me."
"It's okay."
"Then I will continue to guide you."
As they walked through the grottoes, a loud noise suddenly erupted from somewhere. It was a mix of screams and angry curses directed at someone.
Hwa-ryeon asked Seo-yeon. She was short and couldn't see in front of her because she was hidden by the crowd.
"Master, what's going on?"
Seo-yeon frowned as she looked in the direction of the screams. The head of the Vairocana Buddha, which was said to be the pride of the Longmen Grottoes, had fallen off and shattered into pieces. It was so large and heavy that it was smashed beyond repair.
"It looks like a Buddha statue has been destroyed."
The passersby clicked their tongues at the tragic sight.
"How could this happen...?"
"No matter how shallow the recent earthquakes were, how could the Vairocana Buddha, and its head at that, be smashed?"
"Move the people first! At this rate, all the injured people will die!"
"Kkyaaaaak! Kkyaaaaaak!"
"The Emperor has started a war, and the Celestial Worthy is angry!"
"Who is it! Which crazy bastard insulted the Emperor! It's treason!"
The argument quickly turned into a fight. Even the monks who were chanting Buddhist scriptures were busy trying to stop the passersby who had started fighting.
Even though there were quite a few passersby on the verge of death from being hit by the fragments.
Seo-yeon stepped forward, not caring that her white clothes were stained with blood.
She pushed away the heavy fragments in one fell swoop and then blocked the bleeding by striking the Meridians. It was an application of Pressure Point Strike.
There are people who change the atmosphere wherever they go.
The eyes of the people who were looking at their wounds with a mixture of fear and panic widened. The blood had stopped with just a few touches of her fingers.
Even Gyo-gyo, whose facial expressions rarely changed, had her eyes wide open.
"...Were you a doctor?"
"I just temporarily blocked the Meridians. It will only last for two hours at most, so you must take them to a doctor within that time."
Gyo-gyo closed her mouth.
She had blocked the Meridians. The Meridians that had been crushed and torn to pieces by the stone Buddha. She couldn't even imagine how delicate the Inner Energy manipulation had to be to make that possible. At the very least, she wasn't at the level of a so-called late-stage expert.
She would have to be an Inner Energy Expert who had roamed the Martial World for at least decades and experienced all sorts of hardships.
'Young Master Geum. Who exactly did you bring here?'
She hadn't felt any Inner Energy, so she had thought she was an ordinary person, but now she realized that the difference in their levels was so great that she hadn't been able to recognize it. There was also the saying Return to Simplicity.
"Everyone, stop fighting and look over there!"
"Divine Doctor...it's the Divine Doctor...!"
People stopped fighting and whispered. Even the commoners who had been worried about being caught up in the fight gathered one by one.
The Golden Dragon Merchant Guild guards who had been watching from afar also approached. They began to carry the injured under Gyo-gyo's instructions.
"It's the Golden Dragon Merchant Guild!"
"I knew it...I heard that the Divine Doctor was in Henan recently, so did they join the Golden Dragon Merchant Guild?"
Soon, exclamations began to pour out from all directions. It was because people who had thought they were going to die were walking out alive and well.
The families of the injured, who had been nervous, approached Seo-yeon and bowed deeply.
"Doctor! Thank you so much, thank you so much!"
"Sob, you saved my husband."
"She's no different from a fairy...!"
Seo-yeon was about to say that she wasn't a doctor, but she just bowed her head in return. Perhaps it was seen as humility, as the cheers grew even louder.
Seo-yeon watched the injured being carried away and said to Gyo-gyo.
"Please take responsibility for treating those people as well. I will pay for the expenses separately."
"No. Young Master Geum told me to provide unlimited support if there was ever a need to pay for expenses. It's not a loss at all in the first place, so you don't have to worry."
Recently, many people had been dragged into the military, and the public sentiment was about to become turbulent. If they could gain the public's favor by saving a few lives, it would be a profitable deal for the Golden Dragon Merchant Guild.
Gyo-gyo nodded inwardly.
'Is that why he called her his benefactor?'
Of course, she still had to watch her more, but she thought that her young master was indeed born with a talent for business. There was nothing to lose for a merchant family to form a relationship with a high-level expert with a good heart.
'I should think of her as older than she looks. Considering her Inner Energy, she must be at least over forty. But even so, her hands look like those of a young person in their twenties, so it's easy to hide her true abilities.'
Gyo-gyo analyzed Seo-yeon with the eyes of a cold-blooded Assassin.
'She uses her young voice and appearance to create a sense of complacency, planning to strike not only the weak but also the experts... She seems to have a good heart, but she must be very careful and calculating. She would be very dangerous to have as an enemy.'
Of course, she didn't rule out the possibility that she belonged to the Taoist sect, but Gyo-gyo believed that Seo-yeon was more likely to be a martial artist belonging to the orthodox or unorthodox factions. It was because she had brushed off the word Assassin as if it were nothing.
'Maybe she really is the Divine Doctor.'
The Divine Doctor is a person whose gender and appearance are unknown. However, it couldn't be dismissed as a rumor, as famous experts were all praising her, so she must be a real person.
If she was that skilled, she would probably look down on most experts, so it was understandable that she was walking around so confidently.
'I don't know. I should just ask for a raise because this is hard.'
Her thoughts were getting too complicated, and her chest was just feeling stuffy. Gyo-gyo decided to focus on her duties again. That was to guide Young Master Geum's benefactor so that she could comfortably view the Longmen Grottoes.
'That being said, the Longmen Grottoes will be less frequented for a while.'
The face of the Vairocana Buddha, which was more than five yards tall, had been completely destroyed, so the government would definitely step in and block access before any ominous rumors spread.
That was what she was thinking when she looked at Seo-yeon.
Seo-yeon was staring intently at the destroyed Vairocana Buddha.