NOVEL NEXT Chapter 15
Afternoon.
The Martial World Alliance rented the top floor of a nine-story inn near the Mo Yong Family for several days—well, actually one floor higher, on a rooftop.
In theory, a ‘rooftop’ shouldn’t exist, but this building harbors a secret garden that’s visible from above, accessible through a hidden staircase on the ninth floor.
In that garden, three men and women are seated facing each other.
One is the Martial World Alliance Leader, Grand Master Taesangjin.
Sitting opposite him is a young woman, Jin Hyun, his disciple.
Next to Jin Hyun is a woman with dark gray hair who appears slightly older, though not by much, quietly fiddling with her teacup while dressed in attire typical for a refined lady in her mid-thirties to forties.
“If I may ask, Sword Mistress.”
Grand Master Taesangjin cautiously speaks to the woman, Sword Mistress.
“What will the Haedong Sword Sect do about this situation?”
“…….”
The Haedong Sword Sect! A sect located in Botashan, Southeast Central China, and the Sword Mistress’s sect.
The unique aspect is that, like the Amipa in Sichuan, all its members are women.
“Sword Mistress. Please answer. This is something the Leader needs to know.”
“…….”
“Come now, Geum Jeomri.”
“Silence.”
The Sword Mistress, with wide eyes, warned the Leader against his remarks.
“I don’t know what you mean, but I’d prefer if you spoke carefully.”
“……How about keeping some decorum?”
“If you don’t like it, you can practice Extreme Yang Reversal.”
Sword Mistress.
Her real name is Geum Jeomri.
However, nobody dares to call her by her real name, so in the Martial World, she is referred to either as ‘Sword Mistress’ or ‘Leader of the Haedong Sword Sect.’
Or, someone like Jin Hyun calls her a title reflecting their sect.
“Are you worried someone might overhear, Hyun Ah? Isn’t your master none other than this old lady here?”
“Ha ha, you really make me curse like a practitioner of the path. Does practicing Extreme Yang Reversal mean you’ve got to get all serious and stone-faced?”
“You’ve become younger, so live young, dear Leader. If you start looking old suddenly, you’ll age even faster. Ho ho.”
The Sword Mistress playfully twirled her hair, pulling it into pigtails.
“Seeing a woman over twenty years older than me do such things twists my gut, Sword Mistress.”
“Oh my. When we first met—”
“If I knew you were twenty years older, I wouldn’t have dared approach you calling you ‘sister’!”
The Leader slapped the table with his hand, creating a thundering noise, but naturally, such rough sounds didn’t leak outside.
“Damn it. While some are struggling to tidy up the affairs of the Martial World, others are trying to act like a sister through Extreme Yang Reversal.”
“Precisely, so if you don’t like it, you should practice Extreme Yang Reversal. Leader.”
“Ha, I truly should have stepped down from the position of Martial World Alliance Leader when ‘she’ was murdered last year.”
At the Leader’s lament, Jin Hyun flinched for a moment.
“[Yaksun] you mean, Master?”
“Here, you have two masters, so just call us by our titles comfortably. Yes, our fellow disciple Jin Hyun. And the one referred to as Yaksun…”
“The Witch Doctor. A physician of the Demon Cult, possessing the finest medical skills and pharmacology in the Martial World.”
The Sword Mistress continued in a low voice.
“After visiting Taesang and returning, she was murdered, causing an uproar in Shandong Province.”
“Well, if you’re going to show respect, show respect, and if you want to act your age, speak plainly, Sword Mistress.”
“…There are various stories surrounding the background of the Witch Doctor’s murder, but isn’t there talk that the Killing King was involved?”
The Sword Mistress’s eyes sparkled with excitement as she continued.
“Very few knew that the Witch Doctor belonged to the Demon Cult, but among them were those who bore a grudge against her. Right, Jin Hyun?”
“Yes, Master.”
“You’ve benefited from the Witch Doctor’s treatment and are alive, now hidden in the shadow of the White Path Martial World, and yet you understand how hard it is to escape ‘that’ influence, right?”
“…Yes.”
Jin Hyun placed her hand on her chest.
“The Heavenly Demon injected solitude even into his own daughter. Unless one possesses overwhelming martial arts and internal strength, they must obey the command of that solitude.”
“Exactly. Just as you suppress solitude with the power of the ‘Taiji.'”
The Leader’s gaze fell upon the two swords resting against the wall.
The black and white paired swords belonged to one master—Jin Hyun.
“Those who could not overcome their solitude and were left with no choice but to obey it… some among them have severed the future of the Martial World.”
“Do we need to beat around the bush? The Witch Doctor and her disciple saved those in the hidden realm of Shandong, killing the heir to Shandong Akga. Not just Shandong Akga, but also Jongnam Sect, Hyeongsan Sect, and Jinju Eon Ga.”
“…Yes. While it might be indirect, the justification for revenge is adequate. Adequate, but…”
The Leader shook his head as if something was discomforting.
“The Witch Doctor isn’t an ordinary person, and to have been murdered by the Killing King is indeed remarkable.”
“They said she fell from the cliffs of Taesang and the Killing King pursued her right off that cliff. Moreover, it is said that shortly after, the Killing King was seen in this vicinity.”
“Yes. That is evidence that the Witch Doctor was murdered… although the corpse was never found.”
The Leader covered his face with his hand.
“One month before the Witch Doctor went missing, she said something to me.”
“Are you saying there was a message?”
“To be precise, she gave medicine to the White Tiger Lord and spoke such words. So…”
The Leader stroked his beard, searching his memory.
“It was that she would be filled with trouble ahead, so the Leader should simply retire early, return to Kunlun Mountain and practice the path for his mental health. Stop coming for this medicine.”
“…….”
“Do not doubt the medicine of the Witch Doctor, or rather, Yaksun. Regardless of black or white, she treated anyone injured, including the enemies who killed their parents, so she must be ‘Yaksun’. Being the Witch Doctor was because she went to treat people in the Demon Cult.”
“[No one knows the real face of Bai Mian].”
Jin Hyun said quietly.
“…It is truly a mystery.”
“…Well, we can only do our best with the tasks at hand right now.”
The Leader shrugged his shoulders and lifted his teacup.
“Immediately concerning the treatment of Sickness of Absolute Meridians—”
“Excuse me.”
SWISH.
The woman wearing the White Tiger mask, the White Tiger Lord, appeared behind the Leader.
“Is there an urgent matter?”
“It’s an emergency.”
“Emergency…?”
“From the Mo Yong Family.”
Thud.
“What happened at the Mo Yong Family?! Did that girl from the grocery finally…!!”
Jin Hyun’s expression shifted to one of surprise in an instant, but the White Tiger Lord shook her head.
“Jin Hyun. Calm down. The White Tiger Lord will continue with the report.”
“…It’s hard to believe, but I’m reporting the situation as it is.”
“The White Tiger Lord is stalling, so what happened?”
“The treatment of Sickness of Absolute Meridians, the side effects of Extreme Yang Reversal have appeared.”
Jin Hyun froze.
“…Could it be that because of those side effects, the head of the Purple Sword Gate is…?”
“The head of the Purple Sword Gate did hold onto Physician Seok and patted her back, but it wasn’t a side effect that would involve grabbing her by the collar and rushing in with a Sword Saint or anything.”
“So then?”
“She said… ‘Reversal of Aging.'”
Jin Hyun flinched.
“I’ve personally witnessed it. The daughter of the Purple Sword Gate, Yu Giyeon, who took Extreme Yang Reversal… has reverted to her twenties.”
“What?”
CREEK.
“Reversal of Aging…? Wait, are you saying…?”
The Sword Mistress slowly rose from her chair.
“To return to the appearance of someone in their twenties?”
Sword Mistress.
She appeared far more like an older sister than Jin Hyun.
* * *
[At the same time, in another high-rise building overlooking the Mo Yong Family.]
“……What a mess.”
A masked man in black martial attire shook his head in disbelief.
“What shall we do now?”
“…….”
Behind the man.
A woman dressed in completely white, with a white fox mask, twirled a large wine glass in her hand.
“What we will do… is meaningless, Killing King.”
“Even after causing this chaos?”
The Killing King pointed towards the Mo Yong Family.
“Just the treatment of Sickness of Absolute Meridians has already drawn all manner of experts to the vicinity of the Mo Yong Family, but if the side effects become known to even the elderly who desperately wish to return to their youth, wouldn’t the world fall into chaos?”
“…Hehe.”
“Could it be.”
The Killing King’s eyes narrowed slightly above his mask.
“Did you intend to incite this chaos on purpose?”
“There will be greater chaos in the Martial World.”
The woman slightly lifted her fox mask, revealing her red lips, and lightly sipped her wine.
“The side effects of merely treating Sickness of Absolute Meridians won’t end simply with Reversal of Aging.”
“What sort of side effects could there possibly be?”
“Those who have lost their hair will see it grow back, the paralyzed will stand once more, even those who have already grown will grow more as they wish, and if the elderly wish to become young, they will become young?”
“What are you suggesting?”
The Killing King’s eyes trembled.
“What exactly have you created through ‘that’?”
“Create? You’re not wrong, but…”
The woman turned towards the Killing King and crossed her legs.
As she held the bottom of her mask, a ‘clack’ sounded as she lifted it.
“All I did was let the talent they already possessed bloom.”
As she revealed her smooth white legs after removing the mask, her hair, eyebrows, and even eyes all shimmered white.
“Perhaps it is the result of a transformation that ‘contradicts’ the natural order and balance, that is ‘evolution’ against the heavenly principles. For those who partake, it creates the most ‘ideal state’ in the form of a human being.”
“What….”
“Whether it reverses time or invokes some other possibility is something I don’t know. I can only describe it as the ‘actualization of the utopia’ that humanity envisions… Hehe, understood.”
The woman waved her hand lightly towards the Killing King.
“I don’t like talking in circles, so let me put it simply for understanding.”
The only red lips she had curled slightly upwards.
“A panacea.”
“……?”
“That child, Seok Muwol, is a panacea.”
A blush of crimson rose to the woman’s face.
“It is the human elixir sent by heaven to the human world, in itself.”