CHAPTER: Chapter 33
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Chapter 33.
“Hurry!”
The moment the Life-and-Death Exalted One shouted, the world turned upside down.
An explosive grip strength that was hard to believe had come from an aged body.
The Life-and-Death Exalted One tucked Uncheon under his arm like baggage and kicked through the iron door of the Inner Archive.
CRASH—!
The heavy iron door bent like a stick of taffy and was torn away.
The long corridor of the Inner Archive was pushed behind them in an instant.
It was not a simple sprint.
It was Lightness Art at its pinnacle, kicking off the air before his toes even touched the ground.
‘The Life-and-Death Exalted One… he isn’t only skilled in medicine!’
They were slicing through the wind so quickly that even breathing was difficult.
But even in the middle of that, Uncheon was calmly reviewing the situation.
‘A reverse flow of qi and blood while operating the Life-Prolonging Breathing Method….’
To begin with, it was impossible to completely control the Yin Severed Meridian Affliction with only a breathing method.
It was merely a stopgap measure that opened a small waterway in a dam.
If a volume that the small waterway could not handle came pouring out, the dike was bound to burst.
THUD!
Before his thoughts could finish, the Life-and-Death Exalted One landed in the courtyard of the Demon Physician Hall.
The inside of the Demon Physician Hall they reached in an instant was filled with a coldness worse than a snowy mountain in the depths of winter.
There was even white frost on the door handles and window frames.
“Uuuh…… Ngh….”
Seolyeong lay in the middle of the room.
Her state was terrible.
Her lips had turned dark bluish, and white frost had settled on her eyelashes.
The Yin-Cold Qi boiling over inside her body was freezing even the air around her.
“Damn it! I cannot stop it with my needles or my medical arts! The energy has clumped together and is squeezing her heart!”
Even the Life-and-Death Exalted One under heaven screamed with trembling hands.
It was a rampage that could not be stopped even when he poured in all his medical arts.
This was no longer an illness, but a calamity.
“It is the Life-Prolonging Breathing Method you created, is it not? Do something somehow!”
The Life-and-Death Exalted One pushed Uncheon toward Seolyeong.
Uncheon staggered up and grabbed Seolyeong’s wrist.
The moment he touched her, a sharp, freezing pain surged through his fingertips.
‘…Too late.’
Uncheon’s brow tightened.
There was no need to take her pulse.
The yin qi had already completely seized her heart meridian.
Every time her heart beat, what spread through her whole body was not the warmth of life, but cold death.
‘This is not a stage that can be managed with the Life-Prolonging Breathing Method.’
The dike had already burst.
If he forced her to operate the breathing method in this situation, her remaining vitality would instead be swept away by the yin qi and exhausted.
The Life-and-Death Exalted One must not have been unaware of that fact either.
And yet the reason he had brought Uncheon here was….
‘He must want to clutch at even a straw.’
The dignity of one of the Five Exalted Ones who commanded the world was nowhere to be seen.
Only an old man stood there, helpless before his dying granddaughter.
‘What if Seolyeong dies?’
The Life-and-Death Exalted One would lose his will to live.
He would put down medicine forever.
With that temperament, he might even be swept into madness, resent Uncheon for teaching her the breathing method, and take him along as company on the road to death.
Even if he did not, if Seolyeong died, the path to treating Uncheon’s own Severed Meridian Affliction would also become distant.
In the end, the answer was simple.
‘She has to live for me to live too.’
Therefore.
‘I have to do it.’
Uncheon made his decision.
This was not the time to weigh possibilities.
He had to create a method, even by force.
“Her heart meridian is freezing. Even with my True Origin Qi, suppressing it will last one double-hour at most….”
At Uncheon’s cold judgment, the Life-and-Death Exalted One’s face turned the color of earth.
“One double-hour…! You mean that is all?!”
“We need a countermeasure within that time. Simply suppressing the energy is not enough. We need a spiritual medicine that can neutralize the yin qi and bolster vitality.”
“Where are we supposed to obtain such a spiritual medicine within one double-hour?!”
The Life-and-Death Exalted One, whose mind was in turmoil, radiated killing intent from his entire body.
At that moment, Uncheon’s eyes flashed.
The gift from Yuha that he had briefly forgotten because the results of their joint research had been so brilliant.
“Senior Life-and-Death Exalted One! The Kongqing Stone Marrow that the Ilwol Merchant Guild is transporting here should have reached the vicinity of the Demonic Martial Hall by now!”
“Kongqing Stone Marrow! Yes! If it is that….”
“It is the only key that can break through the current situation!”
Uncheon looked straight into the Life-and-Death Exalted One’s eyes and shouted.
“I will risk my life and hold on to Lady Seolyeong’s lifeline. You are faster than anyone here, senior, so hurry and bring the Kongqing Stone Marrow!”
The Life-and-Death Exalted One looked Uncheon up and down.
Even with inner arts that had reached the Transcendent Peak, he could not stop Yeong-ah’s rampage.
Yet this boy, who had no inner arts, would endure the cold energy of a rampaging Nine Yin Severed Meridian Affliction for an entire double-hour?
That was no different from suicide.
However, there was not a shred of hesitation in Uncheon’s eyes.
‘This boy… he is serious.’
The Life-and-Death Exalted One asked no more.
Right now, even time spent doubting was a luxury.
“Hold on! I will bring it without fail!”
BOOM!
When the Life-and-Death Exalted One kicked off the floor, the roof of the Demon Physician Hall burst open.
Watching his back vanish as a streak of light, Uncheon let out a hollow laugh.
“He really is fast….”
Then he turned his head again and looked at Seolyeong, who was locked in a death struggle.
Now only the two of them remained.
‘I said one double-hour, but even that is hard to guarantee.’
However, he had to do something.
Uncheon pressed his palm against Seolyeong’s back.
Cold energy surged through his palm and into Uncheon’s body.
‘Damn it, so this is what it means to be chilled to the bone.’
Uncheon gritted his teeth.
A precarious tightrope walk with his life as collateral began.
***
A forest road near the Demonic Martial Hall.
The Ilwol Merchant Guild, one of the Central Plains’ Ten Great Merchant Associations.
A procession flew the banner of the Ilwol Escort Agency under its command.
RUMBLE—!
All at once, thunder rumbled in the cloudless sky.
Along with it, a bolt from the blue struck down.
CRASH—!
The Life-and-Death Exalted One appeared amid a thick cloud of dust, looking like a ghost.
“…Is this the escort mission of the Ilwol Escort Agency headed for the Demonic Martial Hall?”
The escort guards retreated in fright at the savage killing intent the Life-and-Death Exalted One emitted.
At that moment, black and white shadows blocked the Life-and-Death Exalted One’s path.
An old man in white and an old man in black.
They were the two towering mountains that guarded the Ilwol Escort Agency.
“This old man is called Sun Elder. What brings an honored senior here?”
“I am Moon Elder. Are you perhaps… the Life-and-Death Exalted One of our cult?”
The Sun-Moon Twin Elders.
The mere fact that they were personally accompanying the escort mission was enough to tell the value of the cargo.
“The Twin Elders, is it? Then I found the right place.”
The Life-and-Death Exalted One’s eyes flashed.
“This is a matter where every moment counts. Hand over the Kongqing Stone Marrow at once.”
The Kongqing Stone Marrow was a spiritual medicine whose name alone could shake the Central Plains.
Even the escort guards seemed not to have known the identity of the cargo they were transporting, and bewilderment was plain on their faces.
Only the Twin Elders responded with resolute eyes.
“How can an Exalted One of the cult attempt to seize the cargo of the Ilwol Escort Agency?”
“Even if you are the Life-and-Death Exalted One, this is improper.”
The Twin Elders simultaneously drew weapons from inside their robes.
CLACK—!
They were unorthodox weapons with crescent-shaped blades, the Sun-Moon Twin Wheels.
“Everyone of the escort agency! Take up your weapons!”
The escort captains and escort guards drew their weapons all at once.
CLANG—!
Killing intent stretched taut throughout the forest road.
The Life-and-Death Exalted One bit his lip.
‘There is no time.’
Even at this moment, Yeong-ah’s heart must have been freezing.
‘Just when we had finally begun to find a way…!’
The Sun-Moon Twin Elders, who were experts above the Peak Realm, and three Peak Realm escort captains.
It was indeed an escort procession worthy of transporting the spiritual medicine under heaven, the Kongqing Stone Marrow.
‘Would it be faster to kill them all and take it?’
If he resolved himself, he could break through, but time was the problem.
It was literally a situation where every moment counted.
A fierce light flashed in the Life-and-Death Exalted One’s eyes.
Between the fingers that had slipped into and out of his robe, dozens of Life-and-Death Needles appeared.
‘Even wasting words is a waste of time!’
Just as the Life-and-Death Exalted One resolved to force his way through and was about to launch himself forward.
“Please calm yourself for a moment, Senior Life-and-Death Exalted One.”
A leisurely, low voice cut through the murderous standoff.
Creak.
At the back of the procession, the door of an ornate carriage opened.
A boy in a martial arts uniform as black as ebony walked out, closing his fan with a snap.
Even in this hair-trigger situation, a relaxed smile hung at the corners of his mouth.
“I did not expect you to come personally like this. The situation seems more urgent than I thought.”
It was Yuha, the Young Guild Master of the Ilwol Merchant Guild.
***
While the Life-and-Death Exalted One was away.
The situation inside the stone chamber was worsening at every turn.
“Kugh…!”
A dark-red clot of blood surged up from Uncheon’s mouth with a cough.
He had reached his limit.
The Yin-Cold Qi of Seolyeong’s Nine Yin Severed Meridian Affliction was not simply cold energy.
It was death itself, something that stopped the activities of life.
‘Damn it… this is more vicious than I thought.’
Cold energy circulated through his blood vessels, freezing his five viscera and six bowels one by one.
The time he could endure with a body without inner arts had long since passed.
‘My consciousness… is fading.’
With the Life-Prolonging Breathing Method, he forcibly bolstered his dying True Origin Qi, and by using the principle of handling yin qi, he guided the cold energy circling Seolyeong’s body into his own.
‘I have done everything I can….’
The Heaven-and-Earth Dynamic Art was a martial art with profound functions that sought harmony between yin and yang.
However, even that was insufficient to handle the Yin-Cold Qi of the Nine Yin Severed Meridian Affliction.
‘…Is this as far as I can go from the outside?’
The amount of Yin-Cold Qi he had received with his bare body had long since surpassed a lethal amount.
Even so, Seolyeong did not move at all, like an ice statue.
‘Now whether she wakes or not is up to her….’
Uncheon clung to the thread of consciousness that was about to snap, squeezed out the last of his remaining strength, and shouted toward Seolyeong.
“Lady Seolyeong! Wake up!”
***
A cold prison of ice.
Inside darkness that seemed to last forever.
[Wake up!]
Somewhere, a thunderous voice rang out, awakening Seolyeong’s consciousness.
‘Someone… is calling me.’
She saw it.
A vision of the solid ice wall confining her splitting in two under someone’s desperate shout.
And through that gap poured a warm and desperate breath of life.
“Gasp!”
Seolyeong exhaled harshly and snapped her eyes open.
The first thing she felt was Uncheon behind her, his hand placed on her back as his entire body trembled like aspen leaves.
He was taking her pain onto himself.
With an empty body that had not even learned an inner arts heart method for handling cold energy.
“…Benefactor!”
Seolyeong screamed and tried to push him away.
The moment she touched him, an eerie cold transmitted to her as though her palm would stick fast.
“Benefactor! Let go of me! don’t force yourself to take on my Yin-Cold Qi! At this rate, you really will die!”
But Uncheon shook his head and endured.
No, it seemed he no longer had even the strength to remove his hand.
“First… gather the rampaging energy inside your body.”
Uncheon’s lips were blue, and they trembled.
“If I take my hand away now… the energy flowing back from me will strike your heart again.”
“What does that matter?! Benefactor is dying in my place!”
The boy before her had taken on her pain without hesitation when her life had hung by a thread.
And as the price, he was dying.
“If you cannot control the Yin-Cold Qi, both of us will die in the end. So… hurry.”
Uncheon’s head dropped with a thud.
He was on the verge of losing consciousness.
Seolyeong’s eyes trembled, then soon hardened with resolve.
‘I have to save Benefactor!’
To do that, there was only one thing she had to do.
This wretched curse.
All she had to do was bring the rampaging Yin-Cold Qi back under her control.
‘I will not… be dragged around anymore.’
Seolyeong closed her eyes and gazed into her own inner self.
Into the savage storm of cold energy she would once have fled from in terror.
‘Return to me.’
It was both a command and a desperate plea.
Her will flowed into Uncheon’s body and seized the rampaging Yin-Cold Qi.
‘Icebound Return to Origin.’
It was a method that forcibly retrieved scattered energy and confined it in the qi center.
Ordinarily, pain that felt as if the blood vessels throughout her entire body were tearing apart should have followed.
But she had no concern for pain.
‘Compared to the pain Benefactor endured… something like this is nothing!’
The wretched fear she had experienced for her entire life since childhood.
It was the moment Seolyeong, who had been buried beneath that fear, decided for the first time to swallow pain not for herself, but for someone else.
It was not so much enlightenment as it was a resolve made with her life on the line.
RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE!
Something miraculous happened.
As if the ebb tide were receding, the rampaging Yin-Cold Qi began to be retrieved into Seolyeong’s qi center without hesitation.
But something was different.
‘…What is this feeling?’
Before, it had felt as if she were forcibly cramming energy into her qi center, but now it was different.
The tiny side paths opened by the Life-Prolonging Breathing Method Uncheon had taught her, and the True Origin Qi he had bolstered.
And the pressure that had lessened because Uncheon had thrown himself in and endured it for her.
Thanks to those things, the energy of the Ice Soul Divine Art began to dig into and circulate through even the minute acupoints it had never been able to reach before.
It was not a return to the painful past.
This was a step forward.
Wooooong—.
‘…The energy is under control. No, my achievement in the Ice Soul Divine Art has actually risen?’
A cool and clear blue light poured from Seolyeong’s entire body.
The sickly girl who had trembled in fear was gone, and standing there was a descendant of Ice Soul who ruled over cold energy.
It was an unexpected blossoming that had arrived in the midst of crisis. Seolyeong clenched the overflowing power tightly in her fist.
Now, it was time to repay the grace.
With her coolly shining blue eyes, Seolyeong stared at Uncheon as he hovered between life and death.
The Yin-Cold Qi that had already penetrated deep into Uncheon could not be retrieved by Seolyeong’s power.
Those energies were tangled with his qi and blood, as if they meant to make Uncheon’s body their new nest.
‘At this rate, Benefactor’s heart meridian will freeze forever.’
There was only one method.
Uncheon himself had to control that energy.
‘Benefactor has no vessel to govern yin qi. If so….’
She made her decision.
The absolute secret art of her family, the Ice Soul Divine Art.
Passing it on to another person was strictly forbidden, but this was not the time to be concerned with such rules.
“Benefactor, can you hear me?”
Seolyeong placed her palm on Uncheon’s chest and shouted as she poured in her inner force.
“From now on, I will recite the formula of my family’s secret art, the Ice Soul Divine Art!”
“……!”
“You must govern the yin qi with it! Otherwise, Benefactor will die!”
Uncheon’s clouded eyes turned toward Seolyeong.
Her eyes were resolute.
It was a will that would break even her family’s taboo if it meant saving Uncheon.
[Let the ice heart be the camp, let cold energy take form….]
Seolyeong’s clear voice rang through Uncheon’s mind.
It was the only lifeline thrown to him at the threshold of death.
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