Ten Paths of the Master - Chapter 125

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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 125. What are you scheming?
Half an hour earlier.
Donggwan County, in the territory of Yaozhou.
The medical chamber of Jeseyewon.
Early evening.
Son Gyeongrak wound white cloth around Hyeol Je’s upper body as he spoke.
“They say unfamiliar martial artists have been spotted in Donggwan County lately. It seems they’re staying at the inn across the way—will you be all right?”
“Even if a hundred dogs rushed at me, they couldn’t lay a finger on me.”
“Tsk, tsk! Don’t go making bold promises. In your current state, you’d struggle just to handle a pack of dogs.”
“Dogs are still just dogs, no matter how many.”
“This is no time to be idling away and spouting tiger talk.”
As he spoke, Son Gyeongrak brought his palm down hard against Hyeol Je’s back with a sharp slap.
“Ugh!”
A short cry escaped Hyeol Je as his body trembled.
“You see? Even an ordinary man like me can make you flinch. That’s the state you’re in right now.”
“It’s fine. The dogs won’t even get close. Anyway, it seems about time I left—just prepare some medicine for me.”
“Not yet. You’ll leave only after the basic treatment is complete.”
“Four days of treatment should be enough.”
“It’s not. If you leave now, you’ll collapse before you even fight those dogs. Your Twelve Primary Meridians have suffered grave damage. If you miss this window of treatment, you may never recover.”
……
Hyeol Je said nothing in response.
He hadn’t realized the wounds inflicted by the old master of the Tae Geuk Gung were so severe.
He’d thought his Hoshin Ganggi had blocked them, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
Son Gyeongrak continued speaking.
“To make matters worse, Heat Qi has invaded your Eight Extraordinary Meridians right now. If you don’t bring that under control, your cultivation won’t flow smoothly. You’ll need at least two more weeks of treatment here.”
At that, Hyeol Je jumped to his feet.
“Two weeks is out of the question! You just said unfamiliar martial artists are wandering about, didn’t you? If I stay here two more weeks, Jeseyewon will get dragged into the fighting too.”
“Don’t worry. They wouldn’t go so far as to kill a physician. Hold out as long as you can, and when it’s time to go, then go. Otherwise, you might not survive the year.”
“To that extent?”
Hyeol Je stared at Son Gyeongrak with wide eyes.
He’d known he was badly wounded, but not surviving the year was something else entirely.
“The human body is wondrous—time has a way of setting things right. Medicine merely aids that process. But in your case, Heat Qi is obstructing the healing of your meridian wounds. Depending on how it progresses, recovery could take anywhere from three months to three years.”
“What? Three years at most?”
“I’m sorry.”
Son Gyeongrak let out a long, frustrated sigh.
Hyeol Je, who had been sitting with a stunned expression, slowly rose to his feet.
As Hyeol Je stepped toward the door of the medical chamber, Son Gyeongrak called after him.
“I’ll prepare the herbal prescriptions and medicine separately. If you find you must leave at any moment, just ask and I’ll give them to you.”
Though Son Gyeongrak had said himself that two weeks of treatment was necessary, he understood that the circumstances made it difficult.
Hyeol Je left without answering, trudging out into the street.
He’d rushed to Donggwan County immediately after escaping the Imperial Palace, desperate to treat his wounds.
He’d known Son Gyeongrak for about fifty years.
In his youth, when he’d traveled to Chang An City to broaden his horizons, he’d come through this territory.
At that time, he’d saved a man being robbed by bandits—that man was Son Gyeongrak.
Being of similar age, the two had quickly become friends.
Even after returning to Gangnam, they’d exchanged letters.
But then, when the Five Evil Sword Sect marked him and he became known as a hunted man, he’d stopped writing.
He’d been afraid the Five Evil Sword Sect might target Son Gyeongrak because of him.
The same held true now.
He couldn’t possibly stay here another two weeks.
Those unfamiliar martial artists were likely lackeys of the Five Evil Sword Sect.
There was no immediate cause for alarm, but if they summoned the elders of the Five Evil Sword Sect, everything would change.
‘In this weakened state, I can’t face their assassination squad.’
It would be better to move first, before the vanguard found him.
‘Two days—I can manage that much.’
He decided he would undergo intensive treatment for two days and then depart.
A moment later, Hyeol Je opened the side door and stepped outside.
The inn building across the street came into view.
He walked steadily toward the inn.
If his body had been in good condition, he would have waited for the enemy to come to him, but pride was a luxury he couldn’t afford now.
***
Hyeol Je stepped into the inn and cast a quick glance across the dining hall.
Five martial artists in their twenties and thirties came into view.
Three men and two women.
The three men were eating, while the two women sat nursing cups of tea.
Something felt off to Hyeol Je.
The martial artists in this inn carried a different air from the Five Evil Sword Sect’s advance guard.
Hyeol Je approached them and asked bluntly.
“Who are you?”
All five sprang to their feet at once.
The eldest among them, Gwan Seung, answered with a respectful bow.
“All Suffering, Nirvana Stillness. Lord Hyeol Je, we are disciples of Eungyun. We have come to aid you.”
All Suffering, Nirvana Stillness was Cheonryeon’s secret pass phrase, meaning “transcend suffering and enter into the peace of nirvana.”
Hyeol Je—or rather, Hyeol Je himself—examined them carefully.
Now that he’d heard the secret pass phrase, he understood they were truly Eungyun disciples.
Yet something troubled him.
He had received help from Eungyun many times in Gangnam, but never once had they descended on him in such a mob.
Always, a single contact would arrive in secret, pass along urgent intelligence, and vanish.
That was the proper way.
Faced with this departure from their usual method, Hyeol Je’s voice turned glacial.
“How exactly do you intend to aid me?”
“The details will be explained by our Dharma Practitioner, Yuk Gi.”
‘There it is.’
A spark of suspicion flickered behind Hyeol Je’s eyes.
The conduct of these Eungyun disciples was decidedly different from before.
What he needed now was a place to hide while his wounds healed.
There was no reason a Dharma Practitioner would need to appear simply to show him a safe house.
“Is this Dharma Practitioner coming to this inn?”
“Yes.”
The moment the answer left the man’s lips, Hyeol Je moved on him.
Just as he’d thought.
The man retreated quickly and cried out.
“Why would you—!”
Hyeol Je let out a contemptuous snort and pressed his attack.
The other three—two men and a woman—threw themselves toward the stairwell to escape.
Gwan Seung, unable to bear it any longer, drew his sword.
But Hyeol Je paid him no mind and struck the acupoint at his jaw.
“Ugh!”
With a strangled cry, the sword fell from Gwan Seung’s hand.
Hyeol Je’s voice was ice.
“I won’t ask twice. What’s your scheme?”
Gwan Seung, who knew Hyeol Je well, did not resist and answered readily.
“All of this stems from your refusal to obey the Sect Leader’s command. She has decided to punish you herself.”
“So you’ve been hunting me.”
“We have.”
“You’re not all of them. How many have been mobilized for this?”
“Two Law Elders and ten Eungyun disciples. In any case, you cannot escape Cheonryeon’s grasp. I urge you instead to throw yourself upon the Sect Leader’s mercy. Then perhaps she might show you compassion—”
“If she meant to show mercy, she wouldn’t have orchestrated this ambush. Either way, I’ve heard enough. Allow me to extend some mercy to you.”
At those words, hope bloomed in Gwan Seung’s fading face.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me.”
With that, Hyeol Je brought his palm down hard on the crown of Gwan Seung’s head.
Gwan Seung died without so much as a scream, blood streaming from his seven orifices.
The two men and one woman on the stairs saw it and retreated deeper into the building.
Hyeol Je rushed upward like the wind.
Consumed by rage, he cut down every person in the inn.
Since it was impossible to tell friend from foe, he simply killed everyone in sight.
“Ahhh!”
“Someone, help!”
“Argh!”
“Save me……, gasp!”
The four Eungyun members were driven to the far end of the corridor on this floor.
A cornered rat will bite a cat.
These were no ordinary martial artists—the Eungyun members launched an immediate counterattack.
Deung Mu and Sim Yeonhui rushed forward first, seeking vengeance for their fallen comrade Gwan Seung.
Nam Jin and Seok Yeseol pressed behind them.
They believed that if Hyeol Je was gravely wounded, there might still be a chance to survive.
The swords of Deung Mu and Sim Yeonhui drove toward Hyeol Je.
Whoosh! Slash—!
In an instant, Hyeol Je swung his blade with casual grace.
Sword energy bloomed from his tip and sheared through both their blades.
Thud. Thud.
Then the chests of Deung Mu and Sim Yeonhui flushed crimson.
They had been cut clean through—sword and torso both.
As Deung Mu and Sim Yeonhui pitched forward, Nam Jin and Seok Yeseol, who had been charging with momentum, stumbled backward in panic.
Hyeol Je, as though irritated, wielded his blade with the technique of Flicking Sword Invading Darkness.
Screeeee—.
Three dark sword shadows shot toward Nam Jin and Seok Yeseol.
As one shadow flew at her chest, Seok Yeseol desperately deployed the Revealing Present Stance.
Flash—.
A bolt of sword energy struck the shadow like lightning.
Not quite at the Root Skill Level of the Revealing Present Stance, but still—the frontal shadow was shattered.
Yet Nam Jin’s fortune had run dry.
Two shadows had been sent hurtling toward him.
Nam Jin hastily retreated and struck one shadow away.
Crash—!
But the force embedded in it was so tremendous that he froze for an instant.
In that moment, the second shadow pierced his chest.
Thud—!
The impact sent Nam Jin’s body through the window and out into the night.
***
Now.
Hyeol Je turned to Seok Yeseol, who stood alone at the far end of the corridor, and asked:
“What relation do you bear to Geun Jo?”
“He is my grandfather.”
“Tch! It seems I’m about to end Geun Jo’s bloodline.”
Just as Hyeol Je, clicking his tongue with regret, was about to unleash another Flicking Sword Invading Darkness—
Someone swept through the shattered window of this floor and stood before Hyeol Je.
It was Dan Yeop.
In that moment, emotion that had been building erupted from Hyeol Je, and he cried out in fury:
“You rat! How dare you show your face here!”
Instead of answering, Dan Yeop immediately deployed the first form of the Shadowless Heaven-Piercing Sword—Mist Born, Trace Erased.
Tsssss—.
Mist bloomed from his blade’s edge, shrouding the corridor in thick haze.
Hyeol Je did not underestimate it and thrust a vacuum palm into the advancing sword energy.
Slash—! Slash—!
The mist split wide, then vanished without a trace.
But the corridor was empty.
Dan Yeop had scattered that bizarre sword technique and fled with the woman.
“Dan Yeop—! Cough!”
Hyeol Je’s cry of anguish ended in a cough, and blood spilled from his lips.
Intense pain bloomed in his chest, and his complexion drained to ghostly white.
He realized that three days of treatment had been rendered useless.
Worse—the Heat Qi roiled even more violently now.
Trembling, he hurled himself out through the shattered window.
Once back at Jeseyewon, he took from Son Gyeongrak only an herbal medicine prescription and a day’s worth of medicine before hurrying out.
Walking in the moonlight, Hyeol Je suddenly glanced back.
At the sight of Jeseyewon standing quiet and still, his chest grew tight.
Now that the Heat Qi had invaded the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, there was no path to cure it—his remaining time numbered perhaps three months.
Today would be the last time he saw his friend’s face.
Even the medicines from the Herbal Medicine Prescription won’t heal the Twelve Primary Meridians anymore.
The thought that all that remained was to wither away slowly left him breathless.
He’d made enemies of Cheonryeon and the Five Evil Sword Sect—there was no chance of a peaceful death.
And that wasn’t all of it.
With Dan Yeop now heading Haowen, he couldn’t even afford to be seen by people anymore.
“Ha. Life is truly…”

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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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