MTLNOVEL 5 - She Lives (4)
Ding.
The black-haired woman playing the pipa pretended to look down while scanning the banquet hall.
The Nine Schools and One Faction, the Five Great Families, the Martial Arts Alliance, and even some from outside the Central Plains known as foreign martial worlds.
Essentially, representatives from every influential faction in the martial world had gathered.
If the people gathered here were to carry out a massacre in the city where the Mo Yong family resided, they could kill a hundred thousand people within an hour—that’s how powerful these martial artists were.
Ding.
The musician, Yu Qing, plucked the strings of her pipa, trying her best not to reveal her identity to them.
“Oh, beautiful music. That woman….”
“She seems to be an imperial musician. If we have a chance later, let’s invite her to a private banquet.”
Fortunately, no one recognized her.
The proof was that the men from influential families thought of her as merely a banquet musician.
-There shouldn’t be any trouble. Tomorrow. Because I’m here.
Except for the family head Mo Yong Cheon, the world’s greatest master, the Sword Star.
-[Imperial First Sword] Yu Qing. If I lose control, then you must kill me.
Musician Yu Qing.
She was one of the imperial inspectors, known in the martial world as [Formless Sword], a transcendent master.
Only Mo Yong Cheon knew her identity.
That’s why she was able to infiltrate the banquet safely under imperial orders with Mo Yong Cheon’s unofficial permission.
She had received three orders.
“Martial Arts Alliance Chief. This time….”
“Ah, it’s been a long time. Sichuan is….”
First, to gather intelligence on the martial world.
Though it was a funeral, it was a rare opportunity for people from distant places to gather in one place.
With the Imperial Guards and East Factory just being rebuilt, they couldn’t casually overlook a gathering of such notable figures from the martial world.
“So even the Mo Yong family couldn’t find a solution?”
“Unless they found the legendary Sun Fire Carp, but they couldn’t find that either.”
“Ah, the carp filled with yang energy like the sun? Indeed. If such a thing existed, someone would have cured meridian blockage by now.”
Second, to collect information about the incurable meridian blockage.
“I heard the imperial palace is also busy trying to find a cure.”
“Shh. Keep it down. There are no meridian blockage patients in the imperial palace.”
“But the current empress….”
“It may or may not happen. Tsk tsk. That’s why they shouldn’t have brought in a woman from the Peng family from the official circles….”
The imperial palace is searching for its own solution to meridian blockage.
Because the only empress, who is even pregnant, was from a martial arts background.
They say officials and martial artists don’t interfere with each other, but where is the boundary between them in a world where men and women live under the same sky?
Especially if they were once comrades who shared life and death together.
“Meridian blockage is ultimately about luck. It’s a disease that affects maybe one in a hundred people. …It’s just that if you get it, you die.”
Yu Qing recalled.
Officially, the number of female children from martial world factions afflicted with meridian blockage, including the Nine Schools and One Faction, the Five Great Families, and even all minor sects, was as many as—
108 people.
How much would this number increase if we included those unofficially hidden or those who had already died?
“Indeed. Surely the empress won’t give birth to a child with meridian blockage? And… she can always have another child.”
Ding.
For a moment, the pipa string trembled, but Yu Qing smoothly concealed the mistake within the wave of music.
“If the Mo Yong family’s precious daughter dies… what will happen to the Medical Dragon?”
“Who knows. No one knows.”
Third, to secure the person just mentioned—the Medical Dragon.
“He only failed with meridian blockage; he’s been quite successful in treating other diseases with his medical skills and medicine.”
“After winning the medical competition three years ago, he became famous for treating the empress’s illness. That fame ends today.”
Medical Dragon Seok Mu Wol.
Although he reportedly dislikes the title, the public has already given him this alias.
Having an alternate name that describes someone is a great honor in the martial world.
Especially if everyone across this vast world knows them by their alias rather than their actual name.
“Should we try to bring him into our family?”
“Calm down. Why invite trouble by bringing this up today? Look how depressed he is with ‘defeat’.”
Yu Qing shifted her gaze to the corner.
There stood a black-haired young man dressed in spotless white clothes.
Objectively, though perhaps not a handsome man that everyone would acknowledge, he had a sufficiently appealing appearance.
His height was above average, but his physique was somewhat slight compared to martial artists with well-developed muscles, though he clearly had some training.
He wasn’t a universally acknowledged handsome man like the Sword Star, nor did he have the thick eyebrows and rugged face of many warriors here, but if you lined up a hundred men, he would probably rank somewhere between thirtieth and fortieth.
“…Hmm.”
No, that’s not right.
With proper grooming, he could easily rise to around twentieth place.
With just a little grooming, he could become more handsome than others in various ways.
The reason for thinking this is the young man’s “ability” that overwhelms his above-average appearance.
He failed to treat meridian blockage.
But he has never failed with other diseases.
Although there were difficulties in obtaining ingredients, he’s skilled enough to alleviate symptoms or cure any disease as long as he has the materials.
While such medical skills might be looked down upon in the martial world, it’s different in the imperial realm—the official domain.
Royal Physician.
A physician who attends to the imperial family.
Yu Qing had received orders from the imperial palace to “bring him to the imperial palace if necessary.”
Not unconditionally, but if necessary.
“If Miss Mo Yong dies, would that physician want to stay with the Mo Yong family?”
“That’s why we need to probe. At least after the banquet, or after the funeral.”
While Yu Qing and others were starting to test the waters.
“Excuse me.”
Ding.
A woman in Point Spear Sect martial robes approached the young man.
Yu Qing hadn’t expected someone to invite him to their side before the banquet even started, but she perked up her ears to focus on their conversation—
“…!!”
But she accidentally broke a string without realizing it.
Rustle, rustle.
Footsteps like walking on ice.
But those footsteps were light and secretive enough that only masters like herself—or sect leaders—would notice.
Moreover—
[Clang!]
“!!”
The senior disciple of Point Spear, Shao Yanchi, had her sword that she was about to draw pushed back with just one finger.
Preventing her from even drawing her sword, pressing it down with “internal power” in a way the opponent couldn’t counter.
“Huh.”
Yu Qing sighed.
Truly the daughter of the world’s greatest master, to have such skill despite not “specially” practicing martial arts.
“What might you be saying right now?”
If she had learned martial arts from childhood, if only she didn’t have meridian blockage, at her current age of twenty, she would already be at a level where it wouldn’t be strange to cross swords with herself, the Imperial First Sword.
“What do you mean, taking ‘my physician’ somewhere?”
“……!”
Yu Qing almost unconsciously extended her sword energy.
That fighting spirit.
For a moment, that sharp killing intent emitted toward Shao Yanchi.
It was too intense to believe it could come from a meridian blockage patient….
“?”
Meridian blockage, patient?
“???”
Yu Qing doubted her own eyes.
That doubt was probably shared not only by Yu Qing but also by other “supreme masters.”
“Why….”
“Life energy…?”
A meridian blockage patient is alive.
Full of vitality, emitting that vitality as fighting spirit and jealousy toward someone.
The characteristic broken flow of energy in meridian blockage was not felt at all.
The woman who should have been emitting coldness like a corpse was instead radiating human warmth, no, showing clear complexion and emitting stronger vitality than anyone else.
There were no symptoms of meridian blockage anywhere.
“!!”
As if the meridian blockage had been completely cured.
Half an hour earlier, after Sword Star Mo Yong Cheon had returned with the wooden box.
-Listen seriously, both of you. Whether your meridian blockage is temporary or permanent, the fact that you’ve ‘recovered,’ even momentarily, will inevitably spread.
Mo Yong Cheon had declared.
-Meridian blockage is a serious illness related to blood vessels and internal energy. And in the banquet hall right now, there are many masters with at least 1 gapja, over 60 years of inner power. They’ll definitely notice.
-Can’t I pretend to be sick?
-Impossible. You might fool one or two people, but even masters at the pinnacle level will immediately notice your condition. Because you’ve become too… healthy.
Despite Mo Yong Cheon’s assertion, Mo Yong Seol wanted to hide the improvement in her condition.
-Alternatively, you could pretend to be dead. Not appearing in front of people and holding a fake funeral would work.
-I don’t want that. Then other people would try to flirt with my physician.
-Indeed.
-That absolutely won’t do. It won’t… Hah, there’s no way.
There’s no way to hide it.
-They’ll definitely try to take my physician away, right?
-Yes. There’s no reason for him to remain with the Mo Yong family anymore.
-…At least thanks to the physician, I’ve spent the last three years in ‘less pain,’ so others with daughters suffering from meridian blockage would want that too. So they could, like me, reduce their suffering a little and leave with a smile until their dying day. …I can’t let the physician go.
Neither Mo Yong Seol, Mo Yong Cheon, nor I wanted the situation that would arise if we tried to hide it.
-Sigh… I didn’t want others to know that my meridian blockage was cured after spending the night with the physician….
Didn’t want.
I had a suspicion there, but the Sword Star didn’t notice Mo Yong Seol’s true feelings.
-…May I ask why? If it’s because you’re embarrassed.
-It’s not that, but other bitch… ahem, other women might get strange ideas.
Correction.
She didn’t want to hide that she spent the night with me.
-What if those women fantasize and think their meridian blockage will be cured ‘just by sleeping with the physician’?
It seems Mo Yong Seol wanted to block any situation where I might spend the night with another woman.
-…Physician Seok. Is that true?
-Pardon?
-I asked if spending the night with you is really the cure for meridian blockage.
-How would I know?
I didn’t know either.
But in that situation, I clearly knew the correct answer I should give.
One.
-If I had known that was the cure, I would have treated Miss Mo Yong’s meridian blockage a year earlier, even at the risk of being stabbed by your sword, Family Head.
-Physician….
The mindset as a physician.
Two.
-Also, to verify that by taking another woman with meridian blockage into my arms? That’s absurd. It’s not respectful to that woman, and especially not to Miss Mo Yong.
-Physician…!
My relationship with Mo Yong Seol.
-I understand. I comprehend your mindsets, so act with dignity no matter what happens from now on.
Pleased with that answer, the Sword Star admonished as the head of the Mo Yong family.
-Mo Yong does not retreat in the face of any adversity, nor do we turn our backs and flee.
The mindset one should have as a member of the Mo Yong family.
So I had been pondering.
If other masters saw Mo Yong Seol cured of meridian blockage, how would the world fall into chaos?
“Step back, Point Spear.”
I understand that we’ve gotten into a conflict with the Point Spear Sect.
“The physician was my lover.”
“L-lover…?! And, ‘was’…?”
Cracks appear in Shao Yanchi’s cool face.
And her gaze shifts to the hairpin on top of Mo Yong Seol’s head, who is clinging to my arm, tucking it into her chest.
“Could it be…!”
“That’s right. Now he has become my beloved.”
Grip.
Mo Yong Seol buries my arm in her chest.
I tried to pull my hand out to the side, but she presses it with her thigh to prevent it from escaping and presses her body close.
“!!”
My hand happens to touch an embarrassing area, but Mo Yong Seol instead raises her head high and clings to me more intimately.
“Right, physician? Or should I call you… ‘husband-to-be’?”
“This….”
Many people, including Shao Yanchi, are just looking at each other in confusion.
Some at Mo Yong Seol’s declaration.
Some at Mo Yong Seol’s condition.
“…….”
In that moment, I felt the gazes of young men directed at Mo Yong Seol.
Those who until now had shown no interest, considering her a “dying woman,” immediately began to put strength in their eyes as Mo Yong Seol started showing signs of vitality.
“I prefer the title ‘physician.'”
So I turned toward Mo Yong Seol and slightly bowed my head.
“And since we haven’t held the ‘ceremony’ yet, could you wait until then?”
“That’s correct.”
Thud, thud.
Sword Star Mo Yong Cheon enters the center of the banquet hall.
“Now that everyone has gathered, I shall speak as the host of this banquet.”
Mo Yong Cheon stands in front of Mo Yong Seol and me, then turns to face everyone.
“Today’s banquet is to announce the engagement of my daughter Mo Yong Seol and my s… s….”
Grrr—
“……my daughter’s engagement.”
“Hey, engagement?”
The long-bearded Taoist, the Martial Arts Alliance Chief, jumped forward.
“Listen, Sword Star! What is this all about…? There was no such talk, was there?!”
“Thirteen years ago, when my daughter first contracted meridian blockage. I declared to the martial world, no, to the entire world.”
The Sword Star extends his hand forward.
“That I would give my daughter and all that I have to whoever cures my daughter’s meridian blockage.”
“!!”
Clear blue sword energy flows like starlight under the Sword Star’s hand, forming a sword.
“I will fulfill my promise. I will make Physician Seok Mu Wol my s-in…”
“That’s impossible!!”
Shao Yanchi shouts.
“Ho. What is impossible?”
“Physician Seok Mu Wol has a bright future as the Medical Dragon! Would you have such a person engaged to a woman who will soon die?!”
“I-I say! Miss Shao!”
“It’s alright, Alliance Chief. Today is a joyous day. I’ll forgive the rudeness.”
While others turned their eyes toward Shao Yanchi, I could clearly feel that the Sword Star felt somewhat grateful to Shao Yanchi for interrupting his words.
If not for that, that sword energy would have been aimed at her neck, Point Spear or not.
“I announce the engagement of my daughter and Physician Seok Mu Wol who cured her, and declare Seok Mu Wol as our Mo Yong family’s son-in… son-in….”
“Sword Star.”
This time, the old monk, the Divine Monk, stepped forward.
“I know you dislike having your words interrupted more than anyone, but my common sense has crumbled and my judgment is clouded, so I must ask. Please understand.”
“Please speak freely, senior.”
He keeps fumbling his words and then completely changes the subject.
Perhaps it’s easier to give honest answers about the current situation than to call me his son-in-law.
“Green-clearing and Red-returning, Ginseng-snow and Three Whites, even… Shaolin’s Great Return Pill couldn’t cure meridian blockage. What method of treatment was used?”
“That is—”
“We had sex.”
Mo Yong Seol is no ordinary woman.
“After spending the night with the physician, my meridian blockage was cured.”
At those words, some showed shock, some hope.
Slurp.
Ugh…
And others, a desire to gouge out those eyes immediately.
“Right, physician?”
And I too.
“It was simply.”
I am not the type to retreat or make excuses against those showing lust toward Mo Yong Seol.
The people of the Mo Yong family do not retreat or flee.
“A miracle created by our love, I’m certain.”
I raised my hand to support Mo Yong Seol’s chin and.
Mo Yong Seol quietly closed her eyes and stood on tiptoe toward me.
Smooch—
Crash!
Along with the kiss, the sound of a porcelain cup falling and breaking echoed through the banquet hall.
That day.
Those who gathered for someone’s death witnessed a miracle.
The Sword Star not swinging his sword to behead the bastard who was kissing his daughter—
If that counts as a miracle.
They witnessed.
Smooch, smooch, haah….
A woman, cured of meridian blockage, with clear blushes on her face, kissing her lover.