WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 31: Plaque (3)

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“Venerable One took a disciple?”

The woman in the bamboo hat released the sword hilt.

Her face, as she looked at me with interest, was truly beautiful.

Yet there was something strangely familiar about her.

The round eyes, the long lashes... If Lady Ha Yeon lost weight, would she look something like this?

“Did that surprise you?”

The woman in the bamboo hat asked me.

Perhaps to hide her chilling red eyes, she pulled her hat lower.

It was better not to meet her gaze.

“You should've said so sooner. I almost killed you for nothing.”

-That woman's a little strange.

No. She was very strange.

It did not sound all that different from saying she would have simply killed me if I had been a training cadet.

“I was about to tell you earlier.”

“Really?”

She did not look old enough to have reached manhood, yet she spoke down to me as though it were only natural.

And somehow, it suited her.

“Venerable One raised a fine disciple. You looked no different from a training cadet.”

I understood why she had said that.

They said skilled masters could instinctively gauge an opponent's strength to some degree.

It was called Ki sense. The Southern Heavenly Steel Sword had told me that, since I cultivated innate life energy rather than internal energy, even a master would have difficulty noticing me if I did not reveal my energy.

“Not bad.”

“What do you mean?”

“You're the first among your peers to stop one of my palm strikes.”

She was overflowing with confidence in her own skill.

Still, she had reason to be.

Even now, her Force of ki was so tremendous that my insides still felt unsettled.

She might have surpassed the level of a Brigade leader.

She was a monstrous woman.

“Venerable One is well, right? Just like the Second Spirit, Venerable One hasn't shown even a glimpse of a face for years.”

She spoke of my master, Evil Heaven, as though speaking to an inferior.

She had even mentioned the Second Spirit, one of the Seven Spirits.

Could this woman be...

Tap!

Someone suddenly appeared beside me.

It was Lady Ha Yeon.

With a face full of displeasure, she glared at the woman in the bamboo hat.

“Didn't you say you were leaving?”

She felt completely different from yesterday.

This was not a momentary flare of anger. She seemed to genuinely despise the woman in the bamboo hat.

The other woman seemed to feel the same way.

“Honestly. Anyone watching would think you owned Blood-Nurturing Valley.”

There was a barb in her blunt tone.

“You know that isn't what I meant.”

“Sure, sure. Of course it isn't.”

“Please leave quickly. I can't escort you far.”

“I'll find my own way out, so stop rushing me. I'm starting to get annoyed.”

The bamboo-hatted woman's hand moved toward her sword hilt.

Swish!

Even Lady Ha Yeon's hands were turning red.

The atmosphere suddenly became murderous, and I felt that I should not be here.

I should have arrived a little later.

Then a helping hand reached me.

“You've come.”

The voice from afar was low and echoed like a cave. It was the Omnipotent Godly Doctor's.

At the Omnipotent Godly Doctor's voice, the bamboo-hatted woman's lips twisted slightly.

She seemed displeased.

Swish!

The woman took her hand from the hilt and looked at me.

“Give Venerable One my regards. And let's meet again.”

Then she raised her bamboo hat slightly and winked one red eye.

It was not pleasant. It was simply unsettling.

-My former master warned me to be wary of women like that.

-With eyes that red, isn't she a nine-tailed fox that's lived a thousand years?

Both swords spoke at once, making my head spin.

The sword seemed to hate the woman because its pained voice continued.

-Kill me...

The sword was still suffering.

What had she done to make it suffer so badly?

The woman turned, returned to the front of the bamboo-hatted people, waved, and shouted.

“Next time we meet, let's have a match.”

Then she leisurely led the bamboo-hatted people out of the main hall.

It felt as though a storm had swept through.

I had been shocked by Evil Heaven's overwhelming martial prowess when I first met him, but this woman was chilling in an entirely different way.

-What will you do? She said she wants a round next time?

-Train diligently.

My head suddenly began to ache.

Yet someone looked even more troubled than I did.

Lady Ha Yeon's expression as she looked outside the hall was incredibly complicated.

It held both anger and bitterness.

“Lady Ha Yeon?”

She came to her senses at my call.

“Ah, young master.”

“Are you all right, Lady Ha Yeon? That person just now was...”

She cut me off.

“Young master, the Divine Doctor is looking for you.”

It was no different from telling me not to ask.

There was one possibility that came to mind, but if I was right, it was beyond anything I could involve myself in.

Being Venerable One's disciple did not mean I could do anything.

* * *

Only the Omnipotent Godly Doctor and I were in the room within the main hall.

As I looked at the Omnipotent Godly Doctor, something came to mind.

Why had that red-eyed woman been so cautious around him?

-Isn't it because he's the king of connections?

Hmm. Those plaques really were impressive.

As I wondered about it, the Divine Doctor spoke.

“I heard you are Venerable One's disciple, but you have a face that does not belong in a place like this.”

I did not have the face of someone from the force of evil.

After all, I was from the Yiyang So Clan, a respectable force of justice clan.

Before my regression, hardship had sharpened my features considerably.

“...There are some circumstances.”

“Of course. Who has none? Roll up your sleeve and show me your wrist.”

He seemed to be taking my pulse.

When I offered my wrist, the Omnipotent Godly Doctor pressed two fingers against it.

Could he truly repair my dantian?

-Does it really matter if it isn't fixed?

'That's true.'

As the SoDam Sword said, my dantian no longer meant much to me.

Since I was cultivating innate life energy with the completed Innate Cultivation Technique, I did not truly need a dantian.

Still, I needed to restore it to avoid Evil Heaven's suspicions.

“Hmm.”

The Omnipotent Godly Doctor groaned and frowned as he checked my pulse.

Was something wrong?

When I looked at him in confusion, he opened his eyes.

“Strange. Very strange.”

“Is there a problem?”

I was not overly attached to recovering my dantian, but his response made me uneasy.

Had he sensed my innate life energy through my pulse?

-Impossible. Innate life energy is different from internal energy. It cannot be discovered through something like taking a pulse.

'That's what your former master said, right?'

-That is correct.

It trusted its former master deeply.

As I looked at the Omnipotent Godly Doctor anxiously, he ignored my question and spoke.

“Remove your upper garments.”

“My upper garments?”

After hesitating for a moment, I removed them.

Once I did, the Omnipotent Godly Doctor checked the acupoints across my body.

It was frustrating that he continued examining me without saying a word.

After a long while of checking the meridians throughout my body, he withdrew his hand.

“Is there a problem?”

“Have you, by any chance, consumed Hasunbu Seolcho?”

'!?'

It was astonishing.

I had not told him anything, yet he had learned that I consumed Hasunbu Seolcho merely by checking my pulse.

There was a reason he was called the Omnipotent Godly Doctor.

“How did you know?”

“Your meridians contain twice as much cold ki as an ordinary person's.”

He truly was remarkable.

Still, I was troubled to hear that cold ki remained in my body.

After circulating the Innate Cultivation Technique, my body had felt refreshed, so I thought the cold ki had been expelled or resolved.

Apparently, it had not.

“How did you come to consume Hasunbu Seolcho?”

I hesitated slightly at his question.

Would it be better to tell him the truth?

“I am a physician. I will not tell anyone anything concerning a patient, so speak without concern.”

The Omnipotent Godly Doctor spoke as though soothing a child.

Hearing the sincerity in his voice, I could tell that he was different when acting as a physician.

That was likely why so many supreme masters had handed over their plaques as payment.

“I was searching for fully grown Hasunbu Seolcho when I went behind a waterfall.”

I told the Divine Doctor what had happened there.

I told him everything, including how a four-eyed monster with a human face had bitten my instep, and how I consumed the spirit herb to cool the scorching poison.

“You say it had a human face and four purple eyes?”

“Do you know what it was?”

“You encountered a Human-Faced Purple-Eyed Snake. That was quite a rare experience.”

“Was it a spiritual beast?”

Since he called it a rare experience, I wondered if it truly was a spiritual beast.

The Divine Doctor shook his head.

“It is not a spiritual beast. It would be more accurate to call it a monster or a demon.”

“A demon?”

“I have heard that the strange snake craves human flesh. It hides in dark places and devours people.”

A chill ran down my spine at his words.

The bones there truly had belonged to people.

Had I not possessed the SoDam Sword and the Southern Heavenly Steel Sword, I might have become its prey as well.

-Ahem.

The SoDam Sword gave an unnecessarily proud sound.

Yes, I survived thanks to you.

“However, the Human-Faced Purple-Eyed Snake detests extreme brightness. If you had carried a torch, you would never have encountered it. You truly have poor luck.”

“...What?”

“Its four eyes are purple because it is accustomed to darkness. That is why ancient texts say that one must not let a fire go out in places likely to contain a Human-Faced Purple-Eyed Snake.”

“Ha...”

It felt a little unfair.

Did that not mean I would never have encountered it if I had simply carried a torch?

Now that I thought about it, before my regression, I had never heard that someone who had found a spirit herb encountered a Human-Faced Purple-Eyed Snake. They must have gone behind the waterfall carrying a torch.

Still, I had encountered a fortuitous opportunity because of it, so I could not be too resentful.

“So that was the reason.”

“What reason?”

“Not only cold ki, but hot Yang ki has settled throughout your meridians as well. That is why I asked what had happened.”

“Could there still be poison in my body?”

The Divine Doctor shook his head.

“That is what I cannot understand.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hasunbu Seolcho is a spirit herb possessing cold Yin ki and cold ki. It has no purifying ability that could detoxify poison. Yet there is no poison remaining in your body.”

That was fortunate.

If poison remained alongside cold ki and Yang ki, I would be nothing more than a walking corpse.

There was one possible explanation for the poison.

'Was it because of my innate life energy?'

When I consumed the Blood Worm, the poison had been naturally detoxified as well.

Perhaps innate life energy possessed powerful resistance to poison, including the Human-Faced Purple-Eyed Snake's venom.

The problem was the cold ki and Yang ki that supposedly remained in my body.

“Sir, are the Yang ki and cold ki all right? If they remain, could something go wrong with my body?”

“Of course something would go wrong.”

“What?”

“If only one of them remained in your body.”

“Then you mean...?”

“The cold ki and Yang ki are balanced and dissolved throughout your meridians. It is no different from consuming an Elixir and accumulating its energy.”

It was no different from consuming an Elixir?

Then was that not a good thing?

Being bitten by the Human-Faced Purple-Eyed Snake had been an incredible fortuitous opportunity for me.

“Then if you treat my dantian, will I be able to build internal energy quickly?”

“If you absorb the two energies dissolved throughout your meridians while maintaining their balance, you will be able to build internal energy faster than others. In the end, it depends on your effort.”

My mouth naturally fell open at the good news.

Even if I restored my dantian, I thought I was too old to accumulate internal energy.

But this changed everything.

I might be able to cultivate my Lower Dantian alongside my Central Dantian.

“Thank you, sir!”

Feeling delighted, I rose to bow.

“Do not do that. I have done nothing.”

The Omnipotent Godly Doctor stopped me, then took something from his robes.

It was a plaque bearing the Omnipotent Godly Doctor's title and name.

“Why is this...?”

“It is the plaque I promised you. Take it.”

“What?”

What was he talking about?

Since the plaque was payment for treating my dantian, there was no reason for him to give it to me. I had no idea why he was doing this.

“You do not need to give it to me if it will be used for the treatment...”

Then unexpected words came from the Omnipotent Godly Doctor.

“How am I supposed to treat an intact dantian?”

'!?'

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