Murim School Record - Chapter 67

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 67: Victory (2)

He had gone completely numb.
“Let me speak plainly. There is a Demonic Cult operative hidden within Shaolin itself. If my feigned madness was on account of that man, then you understand how grave this situation truly is?”
Gulp!
“A… Amitabha.”
Both men lost the capacity for speech.
It was absolutely impossible.
The notion that a Demonic Cult operative had infiltrated Shaolin was utterly inconceivable.
The Central Plains is commonly divided into the Orthodox and the Demonic.
Shaolin represents the Orthodox, and the Demonic Cult naturally embodies the Demonic.
The roots of our martial lineage run deep into the Demonic Cult.
It is established doctrine that Dharma Master founded Shaolin specifically to counter the Demonic Cult’s heinous methods and bring them to justice.
“Who is it? Please, tell us which one,” one of them pressed, eyes blazing.
Cheong Ak Seonsa asked with burning intensity in his gaze.
“If I had already identified him, would I have resorted to feigning madness? I have played the fool even now, trying to draw him out, but I have failed.”
“Brother, surely you jest? A Demonic Cult martial master infiltrating our Shaolin… it is beyond comprehension.”
“Who stands to gain by driving Shaolin to the brink? Before I spoke of this, I suspected our rivals—Wu Dang and the other competing sects. But now I know: it is the Demonic Cult. If it were merely ordinary competitors like the Nine Great Sects and One Alliance, why would I harbor such dread?”
Bang!
Suddenly the room grew loud.
The remaining members of the Four Protectors—Cheong Buk, Cheong Nam, and Cheong Seo Seonsa—burst through the door.
“Brother, is it true?”
“What pitiful men you all are.”
He rose from his seat.
Cheong Mong Seonsa then spoke.
“Surely you have more to tell them? It seems you have much to impart.”
“What I am about to say is the limit of what you can comprehend.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“What becomes of a one-bushel sack when you pour two bushels into it?”
Naturally it would overflow.
What spills beyond the sack mingles with earth and must be discarded.
It is waste.
Excess desire brings only harm.
To speak of deeper matters would only unsettle your minds, and failing to find solutions, you would flounder about—perhaps even handing the enemy greater opportunity in your desperation.
“Keep your wits about you. The enemy’s blade draws ever closer to your throats.”
Whoosh!
Cheong Mong Seonsa swept aside the curtain and stepped outside.
It was cold.
Cheong Ak Seonsa had never realized, in all his years, that a room could grow so bitterly cold.
No matter how much he straightened his shoulders, his body trembled.
The weight of Cheong Mong Seonsa’s words was that profound.

Neung Pa, the master of Hwal Ui Dang who wielded acupuncture needles, harbored a single curious thought.
An obsessive one.
Though his medical prowess had become renowned, earning him his post as master of Hwal Ui Dang within the Murim Alliance, he had had one striking realization.
He had never once treated any of the sect leaders themselves.
The Murim Alliance is one family, a unified body.
They communicate with one another, share counsel, and pool their wisdom for the sake of harmony in the martial world.
Yet he had noticed something peculiar.
The leaders of the Nine Great Sects and One Alliance, the Five Great Clans, and every faction of note refused his ministrations.
Not because their own physicians surpassed him in skill.
A sect leader’s health, after all, is inseparable from his faction’s welfare.
Outwardly they smiled and shook hands, but behind closed doors, the competition was ruthless and the schemes among them cruel beyond measure.
That was why they avoided his touch.
For fear that something might slip from his lips.
Yet this patient before him did not hesitate to disrobe fully, but rather spoke of his ailments as though he were confessing them aloud.
The head of the Mo Yong Clan, no less.
And right now, the one stirring the hottest winds across the Martial World.
No small number of people seek to grow close to him.
The reason is simple: they want to know the condition of the rival family’s prominent figure whom he has treated.
A physician must guard the medical secrets of his patients with absolute rigor.
But human lips cannot remain sealed forever.
When the conversation partner is agreeable and understanding flows between them, one speaks what lies in the heart.
Is he not afraid of such things?
“That will do for today.”
Today’s treatment was finished.
Yi Mo Baek rose from the bed and pulled on the upper garment he had removed.
“I think you need not come anymore.”
He was nearly healed.
The rest his body would cure on its own.
“I believe a few more visits will be necessary.”
He had said Yi Mo Baek need not come, yet the man insisted he would visit a few more times.
“That will be sufficient now.”
“I have nothing better to do, so I shall come a few more times. Just place needles here and there, would you?”
“Hmm.”
“You seem reluctant.”
“It is not reluctance — pricking places that do not ache will do no good.”
“About that…”
Suddenly Yi Mo Baek changed the subject and looked toward one of the shelves.
There sat a small box containing various medicinal ingredients, and among them was something that caught the eye.
A long-necked bottle with a faint crack running along its mouth.
“That inside — could it be Dragon Snake Liquor?”
Startled!
Neung Pa was greatly surprised.
“How… how did you…?”
Yi Mo Baek smiled with a knowing grin.
“So it is, then? But have you heard the term Wine Inspector?”
Many called it Wine Drunkard instead.
Wine Drunkard was a vulgar expression for someone fond of drink, while scholars called it Wine Inspector or Liquor Connoisseur.
A person who discerns spirits.
In short, the ability to identify any liquor by scent alone.
Some studied it formally, but most acquired the skill through drinking extensively.
“You mean… you identified it as Dragon Snake Liquor just by smell?”
“I recognized it the very first day you came for treatment.”
Neung Pa’s mouth fell open, his wits scattered.
Among all the courtesies between people, the sharing of wine is the finest.
Even sworn enemies will set aside walls and restraint when seated before a wine table.
Yet there was one wine no one wished to share — Dragon Snake Liquor.
Dragon Snake.
Not the creatures themselves.
But a White Earthworm — an earthworm — and a serpent steeped together in liquor.
The problem was that earthworm and serpent could not be steeped together.
The serpent’s venom and the mucus secreted from an earthworm’s body would never mix.
In the end, steeping both in liquor would not merely cause rot — it would transform into a potent poison.
But there was another crucial element.
Not any earthworm would suffice.
The White Earthworm.
An earthworm with a body entirely white, massive — nearly the size of a serpent itself.
Serpent and White Earthworm.
Add one more ingredient, and everything changes.
Thousand-Year Ginseng.
Though it could not match ten-thousand-year ginseng, thousand-year ginseng was potent enough to contain most poisons.
A faint fragrance emanated from the bottle — almost imperceptible — but its presence meant Dragon Snake Liquor infused with Thousand-Year Ginseng.
“As a physician, there is no need to explain the efficacy of Dragon Snake Liquor to you.”
Yi Mo Baek smiled with an odd expression.
“Mm.”
Neung Pa clenched his back teeth.
Yi Mo Baek was the first to recognize the Dragon Snake Liquor.
That meant something—a connection, a thread of fate.
Life must flow like water.
Following its course…
One should not resist what arises as life unfolds.
Because such things are destined to appear in a person’s life.
To resist them invites calamity.
To call misfortune upon oneself.
Hundred Poisons Cannot Pierce.
Drink the Dragon Snake Liquor and your body becomes immune to all toxins.
“Heh-heh-heh!”
Neung Pa broke into a deep, rich laugh.
“Precisely so. The Dragon Snake Liquor is one of the rare few methods to achieve a body of Hundred Poisons Cannot Pierce. Twenty years ago, I searched hundreds of valleys across Seocheon Mok Mountain gathering the necessary medicinal herbs, and by pure chance, I discovered a White Earthworm as thick as an adult’s thumb.”
But the valley held more than just that creature.
There was also a Human-Faced Blood Snake.
A serpent said to bear the visage of a human.
The White Earthworm and the Human-Faced Blood Snake.
So rare that only legend speaks of them, and no one alive has witnessed them—treated as Spiritual Creatures. The fact that two such beings dwelt together led me to conclude something more must exist nearby, so I searched the area with absolute thoroughness.
My suspicion proved correct.
Not far away grew a Thousand-Year Ginseng.
Each possesses great virtue and efficacy on its own, but when all three merge, they unlock the most extraordinary spiritual power: the ability to brew the Dragon Snake Liquor that creates a body of Hundred Poisons Cannot Pierce.
Yet the Dragon Snake Liquor cannot simply be drunk without preparation—to do so brings instant death.
The liquor must mature.
That ripening means the three Spiritual Creatures have become one.
Even after a hundred years, the distinctive fragrance may never emerge, yet sometimes it rises within ten.
And now, after twenty years, the fragrance has begun to drift forth.
There is one more remarkable thing—the fragrance itself that rises from the Dragon Snake Liquor.
Anyone can smell it, but none can identify what it is.
The fragrance has been rising for about a month now, and many masters of the Murim Alliance have passed through, yet none took notice.
No one even asked what the smell might be.
Only Yi Mo Baek identified it with precision as Dragon Snake Liquor fragrance.
Crack!
Neung Pa retrieved the jar from the shelf and broke open the seal, which he had completely sealed with pine roots and pine resin.
A stronger fragrance poured forth.
“Drink.”
“You mean for me alone?”
“Spiritual elixirs recognize kinship. Not just anyone can partake in such a connection, or calamity will befall them.”
“Ah!”
Yi Mo Baek’s expression turned apologetic.
“To be honest, I didn’t actually identify it by scent alone. It was really my father who—”
“Tell me. Master of the Mo Yong Clan.”
Throughout the treatment until now, Neung Pa had addressed him only as Yi Mo Baek.
But now, for the first time, Neung Pa called him by his true station—Master of the Mo Yong Clan.
It was an acknowledgment earned through days of contemplation and internal struggle, a recognition of Yi Mo Baek’s standing and his own.

‘When you mix turmeric fragrance with Wave Chrysanthemum, it yields the pure scent of bamboo. Should you ever detect that fragrance, implore the keeper by any means.’
‘Why, Father?’
‘Why is why. It is the smell of Dragon Snake Liquor. Spare no method, spare no shame—obtain it and drink it. You must drink it without fail.’
‘And if I do?’
‘You will become immortal. You will gain Hundred Poisons Cannot Pierce.’
‘Truly?’
‘Between father and son, there can be no lies.’

A smile played at the corner of Neung Pa’s mouth.
“What a worthy father you had. Indeed, parents teach their children not only right and wrong, but such generous art of obtaining what one needs is itself a profound education.”
“So I was uncertain, yet it proved true.”
“That is what kinship means. Drink now.”
He continued, turning to Yi Mo Baek, whose eyes held surprise.
“This very moment, you have encountered a Rare Heavenly Opportunity. Some gain legendary martial manuals after falling from cliffs, or obtain the inner core of a Flame Dragon after tumbling into a volcano—only to emerge unscathed. Such are miracles indeed, but this is no less wondrous than those.”
“Together.”
“That won’t do.”
He was resolute.
“After living in this world long enough, one learns when to reach in and when to step back. Today’s fortune belongs to the patriarch of the Mo Yong Clan. I may have helped set it in motion, but I remain an outsider with no right to partake.”
“How strangely things unfold.”
“That’s how life is. It rarely goes as we intend—most often it drifts suddenly, veering off in ways we never predicted. That’s why they say no one can see even a step ahead in this life.”
It was a sizeable gourd bottle.
“It’s better to drink it all at once.”
“You want me to down an entire bottle this size?”
“Do we divide a spiritual elixir among many? There’s no such custom. The proper way is to consume any spiritual medicine on the spot, in one go.”
He had a point.
Treasure invites calamity.
No one can predict what might happen, so when circumstances allow, the way of the Martial World is to handle such things swiftly, completely, without delay.
“Heh… hm!”
It was awkward, all the same.
This was no ordinary drink.
It was an extraordinary spiritual elixir.
In one stroke, he would gain the Hundred Poisons Cannot Pierce constitution.
In truth, the world harbors toxins beyond imagination, and even Hundred Poisons Cannot Pierce is not perfect.
It merely means resistance and immunity to most poisons known to us.
Yet a body forged through consuming spiritual medicine in this manner would be utterly unmoved by ordinary poisons.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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