The World’s Greatest Junior Martial Brother - Chapter 19

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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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Cheonha Jeil Sajae (19)
Extreme overbearing Qi is no different from demonic Qi.
Baekri Unhak’s condition was grave, so he was under the care of the Junghwan Uigguk, the ward reserved for critically ill patients.
Kwaang!
Jin Muok and Byeok Eunsa burst through the door of the separate hall, and the physicians tending to Baekri Unhak turned their heads.
“Senior Brother!”
Shoving the physicians aside, Jin Muok seized Baekri Unhak’s hand. But Baekri Unhak lay as still as a withered tree, and Jin Muok whipped around.
“What on earth happened? You said his condition had worsened?”
Byeok Eunsa, following close behind, gazed down at Baekri Unhak with his usual melancholy expression.
“You said he was getting better. How can he suddenly be in critical condition? Does that even make sense?”
Jin Muok kept rubbing Baekri Unhak’s hand, pouring out his anger.
“Answer me! How can someone’s condition collapse in a single moment?!”
“Shh!”
Dang Junkyu, a finger pressed to his lips, led the two of them out of the room. True to his own principle that rest comes first for a patient, noise in the sickroom was strictly forbidden.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
Dang Junkyu guided the agitated Jin Muok and the expressionless Byeok Eunsa to a pavilion beside a babbling stream, then told Dang Jong-o, who had followed them out, to brew some tea.
“Calm yourself. Hurrying won’t solve anything.”
He poured the tea for them, but Jin Muok didn’t so much as glance at his cup before asking.
“Tell me about Senior Brother’s condition. How dire is it?”
“Well…”
Beside Dang Junkyu, Dang Jong-o explained in a calm tone.
“Unhak has suffered from a Void Qi illness for a long time, so his body has become extremely fragile. Most likely, it’s the result of a Qi Deviation he never fully recovered from.”
Dang Junkyu took up his son’s explanation.
“Most Qi Deviations tend to let the poison Qi accumulating in the body run unchecked. But the patient, by some stroke of luck, had gathered it all into one place. That’s why he has held on until now.”
Dang Jong-o picked the explanation back up.
“But not long ago, he received a severe shock, and the poison Qi that had been stable began to necrotize. The balance he had barely managed to maintain collapsed, most likely because of that.”
“So why? Why did the balance collapse?!”
“We don’t know.”
Dang Junkyu cut in flatly.
“The human body is intricate and subtle, and sometimes it responds in ways no one could foresee. This patient is exactly such a case.”
Impossible.
“We have yet to fully grasp the mysteries of the human body.”
As Dang Junkyu lifted his teacup with deliberate weight, Dang Jong-o stepped in with a question.
“Has Unhak recently done anything reckless? Mentally or physically?”
Damn it.
Jin Muok ground his molars together, and Dang Jong-o seemed to recall something.
“Now that I think of it, there was an explosion at Guihwa Ridge, wasn’t there? Near where Unhak lives?”
Jin Muok did not look at Dang Jong-o, who was chattering away. His gaze was fixed on Dang Junkyu, who sipped his tea without the slightest movement.
Dang Junkyu, absorbed in his tea ritual like an ink wash painting come to life.
Still, Jin Muok could sense it. The moment Dang Jong-o spoke the name Guihwa Ridge, Dang Junkyu’s aura shifted, subtly.
Of course, the change vanished even faster than it had appeared, but it could not escape Jin Muok’s keen senses, honed on the battlefield.
So Dang Junkyu is hiding something.
Whatever it may be.
“Sounds like he nearly died.”
When Byeok Eunsa’s puppet chattered about what had happened back then, Dang Junkyu nodded heavily.
“He managed to hide in the cave and escape the blast’s aftermath. I didn’t expect Northern Gale Jin Muok to have prepared for something like that.”
“That’s not the point!”
“The patient’s condition.”
Cutting off Jin Muok, Dang Junkyu set down his teacup with a heavy clink.
“At present, it’s difficult to predict. We’ve begun drawing out the poison Qi around the necrotic area, but beyond that, no further treatment is possible.”
“Why is that?”
Jin Muok demanded, as though challenging him.
“Poison Qi left in the body for so long is hard to remove, I understand that. But that’s true for ordinary physicians. Tang Clan could manage it, couldn’t it?”
Glancing back and forth between Dang Jong-o and Dang Junkyu, Jin Muok put force into his voice.
“Wasn’t poison supposed to be the Tang Clan’s specialty?”
“We must account for the adverse effects.”
Dang Junkyu met Jin Muok’s gaze head-on.
“The patient is so weakened that a reckless procedure could easily bring disaster. A cautious approach is essential.”
“If only we had the legendary Great Restorative Pill, things would be much easier,” Dang Junkyu said, shaking his head, and Jin Muok clenched his fist tightly.
“I hear the patient has an unwavering will and a steadfast spirit. Let us hope for natural healing.”
Dang Junkyu rose slowly and clapped Jin Muok on the shoulder.
“We’ll do our best on our end, too.”
Just as he was about to head back to the separate annex, Dang Junkyu suddenly turned his head.
“You have a remarkably sturdy body, you know. To be up and about already after taking a hit from the Blood Phoenix.”
“Do you think so?”
“And from what I hear, you even faced the Old Clan Head’s Amyeong Gonghwa, yet you were back on your feet within a single day.”
As expected of Dang Junkyu. He had his finger on the pulse of Jin Muok’s condition as if reading the lines of his own palm.
When Jin Muok gave a vague, muddled answer, Dang Junkyu kept staring at him, then waved a hand, telling him to return to the Infirmary.
They still needed more treatment, he said.
As Jin Muok and Byeok Eunsa turned toward the Infirmary, Dang Junkyu, who had been watching their backs, tossed out one more remark in passing.
“The Blood Phoenix and the Old Clan Head’s Amyeong Gonghwa are the sum of hidden-weapon arts. Unless you have External Martial Arts of unprecedented power, you cannot withstand them.”
“I was under the impression that Bukcheon Sinmun had no External Martial Arts.”
“Looks like it does now.”
Dang Junkyu let out a short laugh, then addressed Dang Jong-o, who was tidying up the table, in a stern voice.
“Get every detail you can from your friend Byeok Eunsa about his encounter with Jin Muok’s disciples. Leave nothing out.”
“Every detail?”
“Yes. Don’t miss even the smallest thing. How else will you treat or operate on a patient unless you know what he has been through?”
“Understood! But, Grandfa— …I mean, the Old Clan Head’s condition hasn’t changed yet?”
“Not yet. But he will recover little by little. So don’t worry yourself, and get on with what you have to do.”
“With all due respect, I’m worried about the Old Clan Head’s well-being. He keeps getting worse.”
“Have you already forgotten what kind of man he is?”
Three thin lines of muscle sharpened along the right side of Dang Junkyu’s jaw as he met Dang Jong-o’s gaze head-on.
“The Old Clan Head is one of the Seven Great Elders of the Murim Alliance, the most unwavering man under the Heaven of Sichuan. He will overcome this Maebyeong soon enough.”
“Yes…”
When Dang Jong-o’s shoulders slumped, Dang Junkyu eased the hardness from his eyes and patted his shoulder.
“Idle worry helps no one. Let us put our faith in the Old Clan Head.”
“Understood.”
Dang Jong-o cleared away the tea things to one side and left the room, his face still clouded with worry. Dang Junkyu watched him go, then turned his gaze to the dusk settling slowly over the land.
“Disciples of Jin Muok, showing up at a time like this.”
A guard from the main gate hurried over to Dang Junkyu, who was narrowing his eyes.
“Head of the household. A letter has arrived from the Namgung Family.”
“The Namgung Family?”
Tilting his head in puzzlement, Dang Junkyu took the letter.
Agyu, it has been some time since we last corresponded.
“So it’s from Ah-gwang.”
Dang Junkyu and Namgung Cheonggwang had been so close since childhood that they were, as the saying went, bosom friends from their bamboo-horse days. They were so intimate they addressed each other as Agyu and Ahgwang.
Though the distance between them was great, they somehow made time to spar, and once the bouts ended, they would share cups of wine and exchange their ambitions and lofty aspirations.
But after both of them inherited the post of clan head, their visits grew few, and eventually they became no more than men who exchanged letters to ask after each other’s health.
“Hmm…”
The rest was mostly polite formalities and a rambling list of everyday trivia, so just as Dang Junkyu was about to fold the letter, his eyes caught on something revealed near the end.
Oh, and I hear an unexpected troublemaker has turned up at Tang Clan?
I’m told he’s an outrageously impudent boy. I wonder how he struck you.
It’s a moniker none of us could ever forget, isn’t it?
Bukjin Gwangpung, I mean.
“Mm.”
When spoken aloud, it hadn’t bothered him, but seeing those four characters in print, they struck with a heavy weight.
Bukjin Gwangpung.
If his youngest disciple is so much the spitting image of that man, one can guess at his temperament and manner of conduct.
But as they say, seeing something once is worth more than hearing about it a hundred times, so I’ll make time to visit Tang Clan before long.
If the boy isn’t there when I come, you’d better be ready to pay dearly for it.
Ah, but of course you know I’m joking?
“Joking, my foot.”
Dang Junkyu, who had been silently staring down at the letter, added in an offhand tone.
“He still can’t shake that self-centered way of thinking, can he?”
As children, they hadn’t realized it. That there was a difference in rank between them. But as time passed, Namgung Cheonggwang and Dang Junkyu came to understand the positions their respective clans held in the Jianghu.
“With that comes a feeling of inferiority, too.”
At some point, Namgung Cheonggwang had begun speaking to Dang Junkyu in a commanding tone.
But his manner of speaking and acting was so natural that Dang Junkyu let it pass without thinking, and before he knew it, their relationship had turned vertical.
All relationships are unequal. The only difference is whether one acknowledges that or denies it.
Whoosh!
Dang Junkyu, having summoned the pale green Samae Jinhwa, burned the letter with it, then shook out the flame still flickering in his palm and snuffed it out.
“Same as always, ever since we were young. Ever since we were young.”
Dang Junkyu stared straight into the blazing sun. In his eyes flickered a light of emotion so intense it seemed capable of melting even the sunlight.
It was rage and envy.
Dang Junkyu, his whole body consumed by jealousy, let out a single sigh-like word.
“Go on, enjoy it while you can. Namgung Cheonggwang.”
…For now.
* * *
“I never expected treating Senior Brother to be this difficult.”
Jin Muok, resting the back of his head on his interlaced fingers and gazing up at the sky, pushed out his lower lip.
“I heard the Tang Clan has studied every poison in Zhongyuan so thoroughly that they’ve succeeded in separating out even the poison Qi that builds up in the body from Qi Deviation and expelling it.”
He knows everything.
Byeok Eunsa turned his head, but Jin Muok kept muttering.
“And yet they’re being cautious only in Senior Brother’s case? What is this, a fart joke?”
Just as Byeok Eunsa was about to let out a dry laugh at the sight of a ten-year-old boy cracking a middle-aged man’s kind of joke, an unexpected Voice Transmission slipped into his ear.
―How can you say you don’t know why Senior Brother’s body balance collapsed? Of course you know.
‘He’s sending Voice Transmission in the middle of a conversation?’
At present, the two of them were wary of the demonic Qi lingering within the Tang Clan. No one knew who was carrying it or how. So instead of the safe and convenient Voice Transmission, they had resorted to the comparatively tedious method of writing notes on paper.
And yet, all of a sudden, he was using Voice Transmission.
―Walls Have Ears.
(Even a garden wall has ears)
Isn’t it?
The answer lay in the enclosed nature of the space.
Basically, Voice Transmission is the work of concentrating sound into one place, so indoors, where sound does not escape outward, one can be eavesdropped on.
Conversely, in the open air, where it’s wide and clear, sound disperses, so the risk of eavesdropping drops considerably.
Just like now.
‘So this kid is aware of the difference in space?’
Sending Voice Transmission while speaking aloud is an advanced technique, but if he’s a prodigy of the martial arts, he might just manage it somehow.
Still, making use of the surroundings is something only seasoned veterans can pull off.
“What if the boy hasn’t been giving his full effort?”
Dang Jong-o’s words came back to him, and Byeok Eunsa narrowed his eyes. Paying it no mind, Jin Muok continued his Voice Transmission.
―Someone has been tampering with Senior Brother’s body.
In that case, this is no time for idle Voice Transmissions, is it!
Byeok Eunsa spun around in a hurry, but Jin Muok remained composed. Not only that, he radiated an air of ease that overflowed.
A self-assured Voice Transmission, tossed out as if it were an afterthought.
―But the culprit probably had no idea that the moment he laid a hand on Senior Brother’s body, the Bukcheon Yeonhon Daebeop I planted would activate by force.
―…!
―He’ll think things went exactly as he wanted, but the reversal of poison Qi happening in Senior Brother’s body is simply the result of the Bukcheon Yeonhon Daebeop. Nothing has actually changed.
―So?
―He’s wasted his effort, that’s all.
Faced with the schemes of this ten-year-old brat, Byeok Eunsa had no choice but to be impressed.
A monster. This boy is truly a monster.
―Could it be that whoever touched Unhak is spreading an overbearing energy throughout the Tang Clan…
―It’s demonic Qi.
Byeok Eunsa was startled.
―Extreme Overbearing Qi is the same as demonic Qi. Conversely, if you dilute demonic Qi endlessly, it turns into Overbearing Qi.
So the people of the Tang Clan must have mistaken demonic Qi for Overbearing Qi.
―The schemer must have used a Demonic Manual, diluted over many years, to win over the people around him. If it’s a superior martial art, it would exploit the desires of martial people who never stop to think.
The content was grim, yet his expression remained calm.
―And what does that have to do with the Medicine Boy and the others they’re moving around?
Jin Muok turned his head without a flicker of expression, but Byeok Eunsa thought he saw him smile.
―But he would have excluded people like the Uipa or the Medicine Boy
(a young assistant who brews medicine or handles auxiliary duties at a physician’s side)
for various reasons, since they’re the ones shunned within the Tang Clan.
―…!
―I dug into exactly this point. Naturally, the schemer will panic, because a crack has formed on a side he never considered.
A ten-year-old doing this kind of thing? This is high-level psychological warfare.
―Soon the schemer will try to separate me from them even by force. Eliminating me would be the most effective move, but that would risk exposing his own identity, so he’ll likely aim for exclusion instead.
Jin Muok raised his head.
―You’d better steel yourself.

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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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