Ascension of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 185
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 185
After Dang Ihwa entered the room, Zhuge Munhyeon sat in front of the door.
And beside him were various delicacies made from Yunnan specialties and bear bile wine that stuck sweetly to his lips.
“The taste is really good. Why didn’t I know about this before?”
Zhuge Munhyeon continuously exclaimed in admiration as he filled his wine cup.
Mujin, sitting beside him, was restless.
“Um, Young Master Munhyeon.”
“What?”
“I think you should refrain from drinking…”
“Hm?”
“…The stares are a bit much.”
Mujin glanced around as if giving him a hint.
He understood they had to wait.
But drinking was a bit much.
Though the servant girls had brought it, from that moment on, the aura of the guard warriors protecting the manor inside and out began to change little by little.
It was natural.
They had heard that he would treat Beast Palace’s treasure-like woman, but the one who had guaranteed the treatment was just sitting there drinking.
It was like sitting on a bed of thorns.
“Mujin.”
“Yes?”
“There’s no need to be nervous. What crime have we committed?”
“That’s not it, but drinking seems a bit… even from other people’s perspective.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“…”
“Then should I cultivate outside while she’s concentrating inside?”
“That’s…”
“It’s very delicate work. Even small noises from outside could affect it.”
“I know that too. That we need to wait quietly. But even so, drinking is a bit…”
“Then what should I do while waiting? Just stand there staring blankly? Should I pace around pretending to worry? If it was truly impossible, they wouldn’t have brought it when I asked.”
“Of course, but…”
Seeing Zhuge Munhyeon with no intention of listening, Mujin felt like his insides were rotting away.
“Young Master Munhyeon, how about going somewhere else to drink instead?”
“That won’t do.”
“Why not?”
“Because I need to respond. To Ihwa’s words.”
You fool, do you think I’m not nervous?
I’m human too.
In this situation, the most nervous person was himself.
If he failed to keep his promise with the Heavenly Demon, war would break out and more.
Without drinking, he couldn’t shake off his anxiety.
Zhuge Munhyeon tilted his wine cup while looking at the door.
Whether she was undressing, he could hear rustling sounds.
The work of examining Dan Yeonhwa’s body had begun.
He needed to hear firsthand the feeling from the moment Dang Ihwa checked her pulse and examined her body.
Words after a process of contemplation, though logical, lacked immediacy.
He needed to know it raw and unfiltered.
The spirit eyes she had possessed since birth.
‘If my thoughts are correct, the blood vessels of the middle dantian must be forcibly opened.’
He compared it to when he had gained spirit eyes.
His spirit eyes had opened when the energy in his body, transformed into spirit energy, reached the middle dantian (heart) and settled there.
It was an achievement through cultivation.
But she had gained spirit eyes from birth.
Naturally…
In other words, an innate constitution.
Just as people are commonly born with constitutions like the Heavenly Martial Body or Yin-Yang Body, she might have been born with a kind of Spirit Body.
A constitution friendly to spirit energy.
Therefore, at some time she couldn’t remember, she might have been influenced by the energy of spiritual creatures or herbs around her.
Being the daughter of the Heavenly Demon, how many good things must she have encountered from the moment of birth.
That must have become poison.
He suspected she had lost her sight because spirit energy had settled in her body first, causing her to gain spirit eyes.
So he thought about it in reverse.
Originally, where there is forward, there is also reverse.
The Demonic Sect was like that.
The righteous follow forward circulation to gain internal energy and refine it, but the demonic follow reverse circulation.
The paths coming and going aren’t completely the same.
Heaven-defying heart methods were created and continued to develop over long periods of time.
But the source is the same.
When he had changed demonic energy to immortal energy, he had cultivated the process of turning reverse to forward.
It was a hellish moment, but he had ultimately succeeded.
That was energy purification.
Afterward, he had gone through the process of accumulating spirit energy again to achieve unity of the three stages (lower, middle, upper).
If the upper dantian had opened completely, he probably would have been destroyed as the Half-Immortals intended before communicating with heaven.
But thanks to Yu Gilcheon changing a few characters, he had gained a completely different opportunity.
Anyway, what was important now was the stage before that.
If he blocked and sealed the passages through which the spirit energy in Dan Yeonhwa’s body flowed, her sight might return.
Of course, nothing was certain.
It was still just a hypothesis.
That’s why Dang Ihwa’s examination was a very important process.
If she discovered something strange in the three blood vessels he had told her about – Extreme Spring, Central Palace, and Cloud Gate – the hypothesis would become a bit more certain.
Those three places were passages through which spirit energy flowed.
It was around the time one bottle of bear bile wine was emptied while he savored it, hiding his tension.
“…Master Zhuge, are you outside?”
“Speak.”
His heart raced at Dang Ihwa’s voice from inside the room.
Please let her have found something…
“As you said, I examined the three blood vessels in the chest.”
“And?”
“Nothing yet…”
“What?”
“There’s no particular flow. However, the young lady hasn’t learned martial arts, and the three blood vessels you mentioned aren’t used in qi circulation…”
“Ah…”
Disappointment flew over and pierced his chest.
Had he guessed wrong?
In fact, the three blood vessels weren’t used during qi circulation even if one had learned martial arts.
Opening the middle stage meant reaching the level of Gang.
“I think it would be better to examine the blood vessels around the eyes…”
It was when his heart grew heavy with disappointment.
Dang Ihwa stopped without finishing her words.
Silence flowed for a moment.
“…Huh? Wait a moment. This is a bit strange?”
“Why? What?”
Zhuge Munhyeon’s eyes flashed open.
Had she discovered something?
“Well… I don’t know how to express this.”
“Don’t be frustrating and just say what you felt!”
His voice couldn’t help but grow louder.
If he could, he wanted to burst through the door right now and examine her directly.
But he couldn’t do that.
Extreme Spring is located in the armpit depression, Cloud Gate is below the collarbone where it connects to the arm, and Central Palace is below Cloud Gate.
Cloud Gate is the door that contacts the outside world, and Central Palace can be called the storage where energy that enters through the door first settles.
That’s why it’s called a collection point.
These were very important acupoints for warriors who had pioneered the realm of Gang Qi, and when cultivating spirit energy, those places become gateways for energy to flow.
In other words, to examine them, he would have to look at the woman’s chest area, so he could only stomp his feet in frustration.
“Ihwa!”
“Yes?”
“Speak! What’s strange about it?”
“Um… The energy I sent to Cloud Gate is blocked by some unknown elastic resistance and won’t pass through.”
“Elastic resistance?”
“Yes. But Miss Dan said she never learned martial arts, and it’s not even an acupoint used for qi circulation, so this shouldn’t be possible.”
“…!”
Zhuge Munhyeon’s eyes flashed wide.
Spirit energy.
The spirit energy settled in Dan Yeonhwa’s Central Palace acupoint must be trying to lock the door when other energy enters through Cloud Gate.
His heart raced and saliva pooled in his mouth.
He had grasped a clue to the solution.
“Ihwa.”
“Yes.”
“Next is the neck. Examine Shoulder Well, Spirit Path, Great Pouch, Abundant Wind, and Wind Pool completely. Don’t miss even the smallest detail. Examine as carefully as possible.”
“Yes?”
“Quickly!”
It was bustling inside.
If spirit energy was really stored in Central Palace, even if weak, it would need a pathway to reach the eyes.
Precisely the acupoints at the nape of the neck.
If those places were connected to each other, his theory would become truth rather than hypothesis.
And after a moment.
“…I can sense the flow. And the energy I pushed in was repelled again.”
The moment he heard those words, Zhuge Munhyeon couldn’t help but jump to his feet.
The investigation was complete.
He had discovered a secret that no physician would ever know.
A secret that might allow him to treat her eyes.
Perhaps it was fate.
If he hadn’t awakened his spiritual sight in the past, and if his steps hadn’t reached Yunnan Beast Palace.
She would have lived her entire life as a blind person.
“Ihwa, clean up.”
“Already?”
“Yes. That’s enough.”
“Ah, no… Master Zhuge!”
When her voice full of questions leaked out of the room, Zhuge Munhyeon was already gone.
It was time to meet the father who had worried about his daughter’s blindness his entire life.
And he needed his help.
* * *
Dan Yeonhwa’s room.
Only three people were there.
Not only Mujin and Dang Ihwa, but even the guards had been sent far away.
“…Is what you say truly fact?”
Both Dan Yeonhwa and Dan Chuyeong had flushed faces.
Unable to hide their excitement, their voices trembled finely throughout, and they kept swallowing accumulated saliva.
“It seems to be so.”
“Seems to be?”
“Yes.”
“Seems to be? Seems to be! Didn’t you say you clearly knew the cause of the blindness! Didn’t you say you could treat it!”
His voice immediately rose.
“Please calm down.”
“I’m right now…!”
Dan Chuyeong was about to shout angrily, but Dan Yeonhwa pulled on his sleeve.
“…Ahem.”
Zhuge Munhyeon smiled toward him as he cleared his throat and spoke.
“I understand. I know this is a moment you’ve waited long for. But I still can’t be certain either.”
“What do you mean?”
“Because I didn’t examine her directly myself.”
“…Mm.”
Dan Chuyeong nodded.
A man couldn’t carelessly examine an unmarried woman’s body.
He had already heard that the Tang Family’s daughter had examined his daughter’s chest area.
“But if what I heard is correct, then my hypothesis is also correct, so from now on, Palace Master, you must perform the treatment.”
“Me?”
“Then who else? You’re surely not planning to show your daughter’s bare skin to an outsider, are you?”
“Th-that’s….”
“Also, what needs to be done from now on is something only you can do, Palace Master.”
“Why? Wouldn’t a physician be better than me?”
“Palace Master. Physicians don’t handle energy.”
“Ah….”
“Also, careful attention is needed. Since we must treat by directly touching the meridian pathways, if even the slightest amount of force differs, we don’t know what abnormality might occur in Miss Dan’s body.”
Dan Chuyeong’s face contorted at Zhuge Munhyeon’s words.
Indeed, who would examine her body?
It was him, the most outstanding master in Beast Palace.
Both his understanding of martial arts and his ability to handle internal energy.
But he was worried.
Because he was her father.
He would worry first at even the smallest tremor, so treating his daughter was not something he could easily be confident about.
After long contemplation, his mouth opened.
“Munhyeon.”
“Yes.”
“You do it.”
“…What?”
“You do it.”
“No, but, that would mean your daughter’s bare skin….”
“It’s for treatment. My daughter has blindness like a heavenly punishment. What does it matter if she shows her skin? I’ll treat you as a physician, so you won’t bear any burden.”
“….”
“I ask of you.”
The Heavenly Demon’s head bowed.
This was probably the first time.
The first time he had bowed his head so earnestly to ask someone for something….
The higher one’s position, the more difficult such a thing becomes.
It must be for his daughter’s sake.
‘This reminds me of Father for some reason.’
In his figure, he could see the overlapping image of his father’s back that he had seen one day.
It had been so reassuring.
Perhaps they shared the same heart.
Both the Heavenly Demon and his own father.
However.
“…That’s not for you to decide, Palace Lord.”
“Hm?”
“Isn’t your daughter’s opinion more important?”
“Ah… Yes, that’s right. I was too anxious.”
It was a matter of showing her bare skin.
Not something a father could decide….
Dan Chuyeong and Zhuge Munhyeon looked toward Dan Yeonhwa sitting on the bed.
“Yeonhwa.”
“…Yes.”
“Will you entrust yourself to this young man?”
At the question asking for her opinion, Dan Yeonhwa hesitated.
Since he was a man from outside the family.
But her contemplation didn’t last long.
Perhaps she might encounter a world she could see with her eyes, not just the world she had only drawn in her heart.
Dan Yeonhwa nodded with a reddened face.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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