Chapter 165 - Is This Paradise?

Jin Haryeong's sword shifted through a succession of variations. Unable to fend off her dazzling sword forms, her opponent finally conceded.

"I yield."

Withdrawing the sword she had leveled at her opponent's throat, Jin Haryeong raised a hand high to the crowd. Thunderous cheers erupted.

"Jin Haryeong is the best!"

"Well done, Jin Haryeong!"

"Jin Haryeong for champion!"

"Hubei's Greatest Beauty, Jin Haryeong!"

But today, the words she had been waiting for were missing from the cheers. She searched the gathered martial artists, but Geom Yeon was nowhere to be seen.

'Was he badly hurt?'

She had heard that the young master Geom Yeon served had been injured in the quarterfinals. Although she knew that was probably why he couldn't come, she still felt oddly disappointed. She had hoped he might stop by, even just for her match.

'He can't do that while his young master is hurt.'

Still feeling disappointed, she stepped down from the platform to find someone unexpected waiting for her.

"Congratulations on your victory."

It was Jo Sin. Normally, her expression would have hardened at the sight of him, but for some reason she treated him gently today.

"Thank you."

"If you win the tournament, Miss Jin, I'll hold a celebration banquet for you."

"Thank you for the thought. Now, I need to prepare for my next match."

Jin Haryeong offered a brief fist-and-palm salute and left the arena. Jo Sin felt that she seemed to be treating him more warmly than usual.

'Was that fellow right?'

He had claimed to know women well, and a single word of congratulations had changed the way she treated him.

'The bastard is more useful than he looks.'

But he was mistaken.

Jin Haryeong had been at ease with him because her grandfather had assured her during their walk yesterday that there would be no political marriage. That meant she no longer needed to remain at odds with Jo Sin and make things uncomfortable. Once the Young Dragon Tournament ended, she wouldn't have to see him anyway. She would join an elite unit of the Orthodox Martial Alliance and begin a new chapter of her life.

'My friend, I hope your young master gets well soon.'

Then she would be able to hear that welcome voice among the cheers.

* * *

At that very moment, Geom Mugeuk was taking his young master somewhere.

"Aaaaah! You're too fast!"

Geom Mugeuk raced along using his lightness arts with Seo Daeryong on his back. Seo Daeryong could do nothing but scream.

He was far, far too fast. Even allowing for lightness arts, it was shocking that a person could run this quickly. And while carrying him, no less.

Seo Daeryong couldn't even open his eyes. When he barely managed it, everything around him flashed past so quickly that it only made him dizzy. How could Geom Mugeuk see anything while running like this? The fear that they might crash into a tree or boulder at any moment nearly made him faint.

More astonishing still, his body was perfectly comfortable throughout it all. He was frightened and anxious, yet Geom Mugeuk's qi enveloped his injured body, keeping it from jostling as they ran.

'This is possible? He can protect me while running this fast?'

He would never have believed it without experiencing it himself. Geom Mugeuk had astonished him many times, but the fact that there were still new surprises in store was even more astonishing. No, there was something else, too. He wasn't even stopping to rest. Just how much internal energy did he have?

'Maybe this is a dream. Did I pass out on the platform and start dreaming? Wait! Don't tell me I'm dead!'

After entertaining all manner of wild thoughts on Geom Mugeuk's back, he finally reached their destination: a rural village a great distance from the Orthodox Martial Alliance.

"Aaaaah! Is this paradise?"

Once off Geom Mugeuk's back, Seo Daeryong staggered and sank to the ground. He had truly thought the dizziness would kill him. He took a deep breath.

"Ah! Now I can breathe again. This really is paradise. People ought to live with their feet on the ground."

Sweeping back his disheveled hair, he looked around. Inwardly, he was tense. He had set out prepared to endure hellish training, but Geom Mugeuk had said they were going to paradise and brought him to this backwater instead.

"Let's rest over there for a bit."

A child lay reading a book on a wooden platform at the village entrance.

Seo Daeryong found this strange. After racing here in such a hurry, they were going to rest on a platform like this? At the village entrance, where a child was reading, of all places?

Then something stranger happened. Geom Mugeuk addressed the child on the platform.

"Child, go fetch a bottle of liquor brewed from insects."

The child, who had been reading while lying on their stomach, rose and asked with a yawn,

"Who referred you?"

That exchange told Seo Daeryong that Geom Mugeuk's earlier words had been some kind of code phrase.

"I'm from the Divine Cult."

Seo Daeryong was startled when Geom Mugeuk revealed his affiliation with the Demonic Cult. They had never once disclosed their identities since beginning this mission.

The child, on the other hand, showed no surprise at all, as though they didn't know what the Divine Cult was.

"Tell your master that this is a personal visit, not official business, so the usual arrangements will be fine."

"All right. Please wait."

The child disappeared somewhere. Only then did Seo Daeryong ask Geom Mugeuk,

"Where are we?"

"The entrance to paradise."

"It doesn't look anything like paradise."

"What sort of place do you think paradise is?"

"Well..."

"You just pictured yourself drinking over a lavish feast in a room full of beautiful women, didn't you?"

Seo Daeryong flinched.

"No, I didn't."

His face flushed as he strained to deny it. Apparently, the paradise he had imagined was even more risqué.

"Hear me, mortal! Most places in this world that look like paradise are actually hell. Ho ho ho."

"Would the enlightened monk kindly leave and send our Pavilion Master back? Oh, come on! Where are we?"

"You'll see when we get there."

A little later, the child returned.

"I've been told to bring you in. Follow me."

Geom Mugeuk and Seo Daeryong followed the child. A formation had been laid along the winding path. Unless one knew the exact location of its gate of life, one would wander endlessly before emerging somewhere else.

Beyond the formation stood an enormous manor.

Its plaque read:

Wish for Paradise.

The final character meant "wish," not "manor." The name expressed a wish to be reborn in paradise.

"It really is paradise?"

"Didn't I tell you we were going to paradise?"

The child led them inside, where an old woman stood waiting. Her extraordinary qi presence was evident at a glance, and her back was so straight that "old woman" hardly seemed to suit her. Yet her head and arm were wrapped in bandages, as though she had suffered serious injuries.

"You're from the Divine Cult?"

"Yes."

"What proof do you have?"

Geom Mugeuk released demonic qi, with enough force to convince her.

"Enough! Why spew so much of that foul qi? Ptoo! Ptoo!"

The old woman fetched salt and sprinkled it over herself. She showed no fear of the Demonic Cult whatsoever.

"Your cultivation is remarkably profound for your age."

"Thank you."

"Why did you bother revealing your affiliation?"

"You would have realized it no matter how hard I tried to hide it."

"So you know enough about me, do you? That makes this simpler. What do you want?"

Geom Mugeuk looked at Seo Daeryong as he spoke.

"Please make this friend of mine win the Young Dragon Tournament."

Seo Daeryong stared at him in shock.

"You can win just by asking her to make you win?"

"Perhaps?"

"What?"

The old woman approached the wide-eyed Seo Daeryong. She limped, as though her leg was injured too. She held out a hand.

"Hand!"

With her right arm injured, she had extended her left.

"Ah, my left arm is injured."

"Then should this old woman offer her injured arm?"

"No. I mean, can't we skip the handshake?"

But she kept her hand out. The instant Seo Daeryong reluctantly took her arm, she jerked his injured arm upward.

"Aaaaagh!"

Ignoring his screams, she moved his arm roughly this way and that.

"The arm's still attached just fine."

"Aaaaah! You're killing me!"

"What a fuss!"

"I thought I'd die from the pain!"

"One look at your face tells me you're the sort to make a fuss."

Seo Daeryong pouted and looked at Geom Mugeuk. His expression demanded to know who the hell this old woman was, but Geom Mugeuk merely smiled.

"Swing your saber for me."

"I don't want to."

The old woman seemed to glide toward him, then seized his arm again and waved it about in every direction. She moved too quickly for him to stop her.

"Still don't want to? Still?"

"Aaaaah! No, I'd love to! Spare me! I'll do it!"

Only then did she release his arm. Wiping away the tears that had streamed down his face from the pain, Seo Daeryong drew his saber.

After watching his moves for a while, the old woman shook her head.

"It'll be difficult. You can't beat Jin Haryeong as you are."

She was well informed about the current state of the Young Dragon Tournament. She knew precisely how skilled Jin Haryeong, a favorite to win, was, and had assessed Seo Daeryong's ability from his saber movements.

"That's why we came. Aren't you someone who makes the impossible possible?"

"That depends on how much you pay. How much can you offer?"

Geom Mugeuk did not haggle. He offered her the five hundred thousand taels he had brought.

"Five hundred thousand taels."

Seo Daeryong was shocked.

"Wait! Don't tell me you withdrew that money to spend on me?"

"I did."

"No. Absolutely not!"

When Geom Mugeuk had withdrawn the money, Seo Daeryong had thought some of it would be spent on him, but he hadn't imagined that he would spend it all.

"It's my money. Why are you telling me I can't spend it?"

"You just can't. I give up on that path I said I wanted to take. It was all nonsense. I'm happier as I am. Five hundred thousand taels?"

Seo Daeryong sent a sound transmission.

"And isn't that old woman strange? She's clearly a quack pretending to be mysterious. How can she heal anyone when she's in that state herself? She should heal her own... Gah! She just ate a bug!"

Chewing thoroughly on something, the old woman sat on a rock and massaged her arms and legs.

"Investigator Seo. Money can always be earned again, but an opportunity like this won't come twice."

"I don't want it. Don't spend such a fortune on me. Even fifty thousand taels would be a waste."

"It's money well spent. It's the price of a man becoming a true martial artist."

"What a man needs to become a martial artist is determination and courage, not five hundred thousand taels."

"Don't feel burdened. Just work hard as an investigator from now on. And if you ever get the chance to save the Cult from a crisis, save it. That'll do."

"That's exactly the sort of thing that burdens me!"

"Thinking too much makes life hard. Just follow your heart as things come. You said you wanted to win, didn't you? I want to make you win. If we're of one mind, that's all we need."

At some point, the old woman had come over. She snatched the banknote from Geom Mugeuk's hand.

"I'll take him on as a patient."

"No!"

Seo Daeryong stepped toward her to snatch the banknote back, then stopped short. She had merely glanced at him, but the fierceness of that look froze him in place.

"How many days until this crybaby's next match?"

"Seven days."

"Seven days. That's tight. Let's begin at once."

She limped into the building. Once they were alone, Seo Daeryong hurriedly asked,

"Who on earth is she? Please tell her to heal herself first!"

"How's your arm?"

"How do you think? It hurts more. Huh?"

Seo Daeryong moved his injured arm. It moved more freely than when they had first arrived. The old woman hadn't been waving it about at random.

"Wait. It hurts less?"

Then Geom Mugeuk uttered an astonishing name.

"She is the Insect Physician."

Seo Daeryong was startled. It was a name he had heard before.

"She really exists?"

"Yes."

A legend-like rumor circulated through Murim. There was a divine physician adept at handling insects, who used them to cure all manner of illnesses and possessed medical skills great enough to revive even the dead.

Some rumors even claimed she surpassed the Demon Physician of the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon and the Orthodox Martial Alliance's Divine Physician. That had never been proven, but at least one thing was certain. Since the Insect Physician was herself a master who had reached the Peak Realm, she could be said to understand a martial artist's body better than either of the other two.

"But isn't she so obsessed with money that people call her the Moneybug?"

"No one else can heal you in so little time."

"How do you even know someone like her? Ah, forget it. This is too expensive."

"Strictly speaking, not all that money is being spent on you, so you don't have to feel burdened."

"What? What's that supposed to mean?"

Just then, the building's door opened and the Insect Physician shouted,

"What are you waiting for? Time is money too! Money!"

Geom Mugeuk and Seo Daeryong hurried inside. Seo Daeryong's face involuntarily twisted into a grimace. Jars full of insects were everywhere, and all manner of preserved insects covered the walls. The stench was so terrible that he had to hold his nose.

Seo Daeryong was expected to drink whatever medicine she gave him, with no idea what ingredients it contained.

"What if it's poison? No, this is definitely poison! Poison!"

With a desperate expression, he refused to drink.

"Then you'll have paid the highest price in the world for the most extravagant death. It'll go down in Murim history."

The Insect Physician washed away all the wound salve that had been applied and replaced it with a new medicine. Though he couldn't be certain, it had to have been extracted from all manner of insects. She wrapped fresh bandages over it, using a method entirely different from the previous one, then laid him on a hot stone bed.

"Get some good sleep."

Whether from the medicine or the hot bed, Seo Daeryong couldn't resist the overwhelming drowsiness.

"Ah, this isn't right... It isn't... Pavilion Master, we're being duped..."

And so he fell asleep as though bewitched.

While the treatment proceeded, Geom Mugeuk inspected the many insects she raised in the backyard. Hundreds of containers were stacked there, holding every variety of bizarre insect.

The Insect Physician came to stand beside him and spoke as she looked at the insect before them.

"That one may not look like much, but its bite carries a poison that'll kill you within half a quarter-hour. I've built up a resistance to poison, so I'm fine, but you'd be in danger."

Despite calling it dangerous, she opened the box and took the insect out. The venomous creature beat its wings rapidly, eager to dart away. Holding it in front of Geom Mugeuk's face, she asked coldly,

"If you knew about me before coming here, you must have had some idea of my fees. Why did you pay so generously?"