Chapter 6: Treatment of varicose veins (1)

An abandoned orphan.
An assassin of the Demonic Cult.

But my identity leans more toward ‘physician.’

Part of it is because my master was the ‘Demonic Healer White Mask,’ but more so because the skill I honed to survive is medicine.

“A physician must think logically and systematically, eliminating possibilities to arrive at the correct answer. Diagnose the illness and find the appropriate treatment.”

That was the mindset my master instilled in me as a physician.

When someone has a fever, you don’t just lay them down with a wet cloth on their forehead. The process of finding the single correct answer based on knowledge and experience has been the foundation of my life.

In that sense, until just before this situation arose, I could offer various suggestions to the Moyong father and daughter.
As treatments vary, I could propose numerous possibilities for the current situation.

Those possibilities are now meaningless to mention.

Physician Seok Muwol spent a night with Moyong Seol, the precious daughter of the Moyong Clan, the terminally ill daughter of the greatest under heaven, and her severed meridian syndrome was cured.

That’s what was announced in a grand banquet hall attended by the Nine Great Sects, the Five Great Clans, and even representatives from the imperial palace.

Naturally, I was worried about this situation.

“Cured of severed meridian syndrome?! Impossible! It’s an incurable disease! How many have died from it?!”

Denial. I worried about the reactions of those thrown into confusion by this upheaval of conventional wisdom.

I understand.
That was my first thought too.

“It’s undeniable she’s cured, but because of a night together? No way. The Medicine Dragon must have found some method. A yin-yang union curing an incurable disease? Impossible.”
“It must be an extraordinary medicine. Something greater than Shaolin’s Great Restoration Pill… a miracle drug that can cure any illness!”

Suspicion. Slightly different from denial, I worried about those who couldn’t trust the Moyong Clan’s official statement.

I understand.
I’d rather believe my master’s elixir worked.

“She’s cured of severed meridian syndrome…? Is it because she’s the daughter of the greatest Sword Saint, or is it because of Physician Seok Muwol, the Medicine Dragon?”

Analysis. I worried about those speculating on how the syndrome was cured amidst the chaos.

I understand.
Moyong Seol isn’t the only one with the syndrome, and many others are still suffering.

I expected people to deny, suspect, and analyze.

But more worrisome than them were—

“Look here, Sword Saint!!”

Those with hope gleaming in their eyes.

“Tell us the truth! Please!!”
“Calm down, Tang Clan Leader.”
“Calm down?! When severed meridian syndrome is cured?!”

First among them is the Tang Clan Leader from Sichuan, [Poison King] Tang Sahyeok, who crossed the Central Plains to reach Liaodong.

“If your daughter is cured, doesn’t that mean my daughter can be too?!”

Families of severed meridian syndrome patients.

“Tell me! What method did you use?! I believe you’re not hiding the cure by using your daughter!”
“…Brother Tang, you know I’m not the type to resort to such schemes.”

At the Sword Saint’s words, some nod briefly.

“Does that make sense?! A man and woman sharing a blanket cured the syndrome?! No, it’s something else, right?! Like holding hands all night to channel innate qi, or creating some special inner energy circulation method?! That’s it, right?!”

Desperation fills the Poison King’s eyes.
Known for his cold, rational demeanor, likened to a venomous snake, the Poison King is now babbling incoherently.

He wants to affirm and deny at the same time, torn by conflicting emotions.

If Moyong Seol was truly cured because of our night together, and if that method was genuinely due to ‘yin-yang union’ without any other trickery—

“Then, if my daughter spends a night with the Medicine Dragon, can she be cured too…?”

Hope arises, but the method twists the heart of a father.

“…”

The Sword Saint remains silent, neither denying nor affirming, only nodding quietly.

“Huh, haha…”
“Sword Saint.”

Thud.

“May this Alliance Leader speak?”

Stepping forward with a heavy stride, Martial Alliance Leader Supreme True Lord speaks.

“With everyone in confusion, this chaos must be addressed, or not just the Moyong Clan but the entire martial world will fall into disorder. So, halt the banquet—”
“Halt the banquet?”

The Sword Saint takes a step forward.

Boom!

Some stagger as if the ground pulls them harder, the air growing heavy, pressing down from above.

“The Moyong Clan hosts this banquet, and it is our decision whether to continue.”

The Sword Saint extends his hand.
The blue sword aura in his grip begins to emit a radiant light, and with gleaming blue eyes, he surveys the crowd.

“Today’s banquet celebrates my daughter’s recovery and publicly declares the engagement of my daughter and Physician Seok Muwol. They’ve already… exchanged vows with their own lips.”

Let me say again, I had many worries.

My past with the Demonic Cult.
The cure for severed meridian syndrome itself.
The greatest beauty under heaven, desired by all but overlooked for strategic marriages due to her impending death.

I expected many would come after Moyong Seol—or me.

And the greatest problem.

‘Kill Moyong Seol.’

The Heavenly Demon’s command.

‘Make Moyong Cheon’s daughter die in the most miserable way, so the Sword Saint’s eyes bleed with tears and he feels the pain of losing the world. That is your reason for living.’

A latent poison who disobeys the Heavenly Demon’s command is killed by their assassins.
Just as my master was killed by the Demonic Cult’s assassin.

But what use are these worries?

“I only wish my daughter no longer sheds tears from pain, whether of body or heart.”

The Nine Great Sects, the Five Great Clans, the imperial palace, the Demonic Cult, the Heavenly Demon.

“No one can oppress the Moyong Clan. No matter their reasons.”

A greater threat than all those ‘death threats’ stands there.

“As long as I, Moyong Cheon, live with my eyes open, anyone who dares harm or disgrace my family will face my sword.”

Flash.

As a blue light glints behind Moyong Cheon, multiple blue lights begin to shimmer.

“Seven Star Sword…!”

Seven swords formed of aura.
They gleam behind Moyong Cheon—no, behind Moyong Seol and me, like guardian lions.

“Sword Control Technique…!”

Floating in the air.

“Anyone who disrupts this banquet will be cut down by these swords.”

The greatest under heaven.
In some eras, the second-best might rival the greatest, but in this era, Moyong Cheon is the ‘sky’ itself.

An untouchable ‘supreme.’

‘Who could dare challenge Moyong Cheon with force when he wields seven aura swords with sword control?’

My master said:

‘The Heavenly Demon was the strongest leader in the history of the Sun-Moon Divine Cult. If not for the Sword Saint, the Central Plains would be ruled by the Divine Cult. …Because of the Sword Saint, they call themselves the Demonic Cult and bow their heads.’

Everyone here could have been killed by the Heavenly Demon.

‘No one in the Central Plains could have defeated the Heavenly Demon back then. Yet Sword Saint Moyong Cheon brought him down single-handedly without spilling a drop of blood. The greatest under heaven… no, perhaps the greatest in all martial history.’

Such a man spares and protects me.

‘Come at me, Heavenly Demon or whatever.’

The moment his sword turns toward me will be brief.

“Miss Moyong.”

I hold Moyong Seol’s waist.

“I’ll ensure no tears ever fall from your eyes.”

As long as I don’t make Moyong Seol cry, the Sword Saint’s sword won’t target me.

“…What should I do?”

Moyong Seol’s eyes already glisten with tears.

“I’ll be so happy every day, I might cry.”

Ah.
Is this woman trying to assassinate me?
Or her father?

Either way.

Her radiant smile, with tears in her eyes, is so beautiful that for a long while, nothing else in the surroundings catches my eyes or ears.

All my senses are consumed by Moyong Seol alone.

The banquet ended.

‘Disperse for now. I won’t forgive disturbances. If my daughter’s syndrome relapses due to chaos, my sword will not forgive.’

Though Moyong Cheon told the Martial Alliance Leader the banquet would continue, it was to assert the Moyong Clan’s control.

Step, step.
Following Moyong Cheon, Moyong Seol and I move quietly.

“C-Clan Leader…! Eek…!”

Everyone we pass, from retainers to servants, steps aside.

Even within the estate.

“Brother!”

If anyone dares approach, it’s Moyong Cheon’s younger brother and Moyong Seol’s uncle—

“San. We’ll talk later. Leave for now.”

Moyong San.
But Moyong Cheon immediately dismisses him.

“Brother! No, Clan Leader! What in the world…!”

Even the clan members didn’t know.
About Moyong Seol’s recovery.

“I rushed here hearing she collapsed, but what is this chaos…!”
“In half an hour, the Martial Alliance Leader, the Divine Monk, and the Amithaba Goddess will return to the main gate. Escort them to the reception room.”
“…Yes.”

Moyong San bows to Moyong Cheon’s orders.

“But is it true? That a single night cured her?”
“…”

“I understand. I’ll follow your orders, brother.”

After dismissing Moyong San, we walk deeper into the Moyong Clan estate until it grows quiet.

“Moyong Seol, and Physician Seok Muwol.”

The Sword Saint stops abruptly.

“The world will come for you both. Especially you, Physician Seok. You must already suspect as much.”
“Yes, Clan Leader.”
“And yet you acted, meaning you’re prepared.”
“Indeed.”

The water’s already spilled.
From the moment our yin and yang united, when I confirmed Moyong Seol’s blood vessels cleared and her syndrome vanished, I made up my mind.

“For now, stay in the safest place in the clan. The innermost residence.”
“F-Father, that place…?”
“It’s the detached house where your mother and I lived.”
“Ah… then, um.”

Moyong Seol cautiously approaches the Sword Saint, grabbing his sleeve.

“I-I mean, you said my syndrome was cured because of ‘that.’”
“…Yes.”
“S-So… in that house, in that room…”

It seems.

“…Can I keep treating my syndrome with the physician?”
“What?”

Is Moyong Seol trying to assassinate her father too?

“I-I mean, after some time, I feel a slight chill… Eek?!”

Moyong Cheon swiftly grabs Moyong Seol’s wrist.
After a long moment, his face shows profound shock—

“Physician Seok.”
“Yes, Clan Leader.”
“Check her pulse.”

He extends Moyong Seol’s wrist to me.

“…!”

The moment I place my hand, I realize.

“This is no joking matter.”

It wasn’t a complete ‘cure.’ Confirmed.

“P-Physician?”
“Physician Seok.”
“Yes, Clan Leader.”

Moyong Cheon signals me, out of Moyong Seol’s sight.

“From now on, you will stay with my daughter…”

Grind.

“…and investigate whether yin-yang union correlates with improving severed meridian syndrome. Immediately.”
“F-Father?! I-I didn’t mean I wanted to do this and that in your love nest with the physician…!”
“Seol.”

Moyong Cheon places a hand on the flustered Moyong Seol’s shoulder.

“If you don’t definitively establish that correlation, other women will try to ‘verify the theory.’”
“!!”

A lie to deceive Moyong Seol, but a plausible pretext.

“They’ll attempt treatment with Physician Seok.”

Moyong Seol’s body stiffens, unaware that her claimed chill is real.

“You saw the Poison King Tang Sahyeok. If it weren’t me, Physician Seok might already be kidnapped to Sichuan.”
“…I see.”
“So we must find out.”

The question.

Is yin-yang union truly the cure for severed meridian syndrome?
If it is, is it because the patient is the daughter of the greatest under heaven?
Or is it a miracle only Physician Seok Muwol can perform?

I don’t know, but for Moyong Cheon, who dislikes the physician involved with his daughter, the ideal conclusion is one.

“That the improvement of the syndrome is merely a coincidence and miracle, unrelated to yin-yang union.”

The collapse of the basic theory that further speculation is meaningless.
That yin-yang union is unrelated to curing severed meridian syndrome.

“Understood?”
“…Yes!!”

Moyong Seol responds with a resolute voice.

“I’ll head to the bedroom with the physician right now! Let’s go, Physician!!”

Moyong Seol grabs my wrist and runs, dragging me along.

“…Physician.”

As I’m pulled, the Sword Saint calls me.

“Yes, Clan Leader.”
“Honestly, I hope it’s unrelated, as I told Seol.”

Honestly, I hope so too.

‘I’m losing my mind.’

Reason and emotion, the common sense of a martial artist, and the instincts of the greatest under heaven are clashing wildly.
He likely wants to believe, as he told me, that it’s just a coincidence and miracle, that the syndrome was cured without me.

“What’s your opinion? As a physician and a man. …Is it unrelated?”
“As a physician, as a man, and to not shame my late master, I’ll speak only the truth.”

But I know.

“There’s a correlation.”
“Is that so?”

The Sword Saint closes his eyes.

“So it’s like that…”
‘I’m sorry, Father.’

As the one who treated her, I know well.

When her blood vessels cleared.
What triggered the decisive improvement in her condition.
And why, though temporarily, yin energy is gathering around her blood vessels again.

We slept. She was cured.

I said it clearly from the start.
And didn’t she confirm my diagnosis?

‘Are you saying that because you took my daughter’s virginity, her blood vessels normalized?’

“Then.”

Moyong Cheon points ahead.

“Please take good care of my daughter’s treatment.”

To the detached house filled with memories of him and Moyong Seol’s mother, the woman he loved.

“…Wait.”

As I approach Moyong Seol, waving at the detached house, Moyong Cheon stops me.

“There’s a theoretical flaw that just occurred to me.”
“Yes, Clan Leader.”
“…Does it have to be done inside? If it’s about infusing yang energy, couldn’t raising body heat suffice?”

As expected of the greatest under heaven.

“Couldn’t acupuncture… solve it with just needles? Right?”

Even without being there or seeing it firsthand, he grasps the core tablet of the syndrome’s treatment from circumstantial evidence alone.

“I’ll try.”
“…What?”
“Well.”

I bow with clasped hands to the Sword Saint.

“I’ve never tried it outside.”