Chapter 167 - You Start Aging the Moment You Stop Working

Seo Daeryong was stunned by the words “a body impervious to all poisons.”

Once someone became impervious to all poisons, no poison in the world could affect them. It meant poison could not kill them. Poison was what one had to guard against most carefully in Murim, so his greatest vulnerability would disappear.

“He can achieve that this easily?”

“Your master will achieve it easily enough. But the road that brought me here, to do this for him, has been long and arduous.”

Seo Daeryong found himself marveling at Geom Mugeuk anew. How could he explain a destiny that brought the man here to have him treated, only to gain a body impervious to all poisons himself?

“Envious?”

“Not at all.”

“Why not? You look like a greedy fellow.”

“This greedy fellow knows his limits. I believe everyone has a vessel of a certain size to hold the destiny allotted to them. Mine is just big enough that I have to struggle and give everything I have to win the Young Dragon Tournament. And even that is vastly bigger than it was, thanks to meeting the Pavilion Master. Before, it was barely the size of a soy-sauce dish.”

Thinking back to when he had been gloomy and morose, filled with a thirst for revenge against his senior at Yellow Springs Pavilion and resentment toward the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon, even a soy-sauce dish seemed a generous estimate.

“I've seen how large the Pavilion Master's vessel of destiny is many times. I'm seeing it now, too. Rather than jealous, I'm grateful. It gives me one more story to tell my grandchildren someday, with them sitting on my knees.”

“Then why do you look so anxious?”

“I'm wondering just what he's destined to accomplish, to be following a path like this. Somehow I've ended up as his right-hand man, so I can't escape that destiny either.”

“If you think your vessel's going to break, you can run away.”

“Even if everyone else runs, I can't. He let me see him carry me all the way here without resting for a moment, then hand over five hundred thousand taels. Thanks to him, I'm utterly done for. Since I can't run away anyway, don't you have some other great art that could make him stronger? Please make him even stronger.”

“All the ingredients I've been saving so carefully are going into that vat. Even if I wanted to, there's nothing more I can do now.”

The Insect Physician rubbed her shoulder, as though another wave of pain had struck.

Seo Daeryong began massaging her shoulders for her.

“You can give someone else a body impervious to all poisons, but you can't cure your own aching shoulders?”

The Insect Physician answered with a bitter smile.

“That's how everyone lives, boy. You think you'll be any different? Ah, to the side. A little farther right. Yes, there. Ah, that feels good.”

Geom Mugeuk remained submerged in the vat for another two days.

The Insect Physician kept adding various ingredients, and the stench grew worse and worse.

Then, when she added the final ingredient, something astonishing happened.

The vat, which had been full of a vile stench, began giving off a pleasant fragrance.

It was truly unbelievable. It wasn't as though the last ingredient had a fragrance strong enough to swallow up every foul odor, either.

It felt as though those pungent odors had combined again and again, until the final addition transformed them into something entirely new.

Seo Daeryong placed a hand on the vat and wished fervently in his heart.

'Stay strong, Pavilion Master!'

* * *

At first, I truly thought I would die.

I would sooner have plunged into the filthiest, foulest-smelling place in the world than climbed into that vat. Ah, no, that wouldn't work. The foulest-smelling place in the world had to be this very vat.

“Take this medicine before you get in.”

“What kind of medicine is it?”

“It will kill you for two days. If you're scared, you can still give up.”

“Give up? I'm delighted to have it. There's no way I could get in there alive.”

I took the medicine the Insect Physician gave me without hesitation.

After swallowing it, I closed my eyes once and opened them to find myself lying on a bed.

Only then could I sense that two days had passed. I hadn't dreamed, and I remembered nothing. Apparently, I really had died for two days and come back to life.

When I opened my eyes, this time it was Seo Daeryong looking down at me. After gazing at me in silence, he said with a solemn expression,

“After careful consideration, I've decided not to repay the five hundred thousand taels.”

Seo Daeryong had to be the only person who could make me laugh the instant I woke up.

“I never lent you five hundred thousand taels.”

Just then, the Insect Physician entered the room and said,

“Leave that overthinking little fussbudget here. I'll take him as my disciple.”

Seo Daeryong recoiled in horror.

“I'd love to, but I have something important ahead of me.”

“You can come back after you're done. How about it?”

“I'm sorry, but I already have a master. The most frightening person in the world, at that.”

“It's not the insects you're afraid of?”

“Of course I'm afraid of insects, too.”

I could sense a measure of sincerity beneath the Insect Physician's teasing.

Seo Daeryong signaled to me with his eyes. What was I doing? Hurry up and stop her.

Naturally, I did no such thing.

“Trying a new life wouldn't be so bad, would it?”

“You've barely opened your eyes, and you're already trying to cut off your right arm. You can't cut this right arm off. The moment you paid those five hundred thousand taels, my arm turned into ten-thousand-year cold iron.”

Smiling, I told the Insect Physician,

“I'll contact you once that ten-thousand-year cold iron gets rusty and worn enough to fall off.”

Seo Daeryong wouldn't do, but if I found someone else suitable, I would be sure to recommend them as the Insect Physician's disciple.

“Step outside for a moment.”

“Yes.”

The Insect Physician sent Seo Daeryong out.

“You can get up now.”

I sat up in bed. Despite having been unconscious for two whole days, my body felt light. Truly, the power of this profound medical art was remarkable.

“My body smells good.”

“It will keep doing that for a few days.”

“I wish this fragrance would stay.”

“Then you'd never be able to sneak into anywhere for the rest of your life.”

“Couldn't I simply live a life that doesn't involve sneaking into places?”

“True. If you become the Heavenly Demon, you might live that sort of life.”

The Insect Physician brought some liquor and poured me a cup.

“Here, have a drink.”

I drank down the liquor she poured me. She didn't drink any herself, only refilled my cup. She stopped pouring only after I had drunk three cups in succession. I was the one drinking, yet she was the one who opened her heart.

“The truth is, I was very weary. Weary in both body and mind. Perhaps helping those orphans was a desperate attempt to preserve myself. They were a kind of support that kept me from collapsing from exhaustion, or losing control.”

I understood what she meant. I had experienced something similar myself. During my days as a wandering martial artist, Seo Jin had kept me going. While I was gathering the ingredients for the great art, my longing for revenge had served that purpose.

The Insect Physician continued.

“When I saw you, I felt something like destiny. It was a feeling I'd never known in my life. Ah, to be honest, it was when I learned that you'd completely mastered the Thousand-Meridian Strengthening Art. At last, the time had come. At last, indifferent heaven was giving me a chance, too.”

She turned toward the window and looked up at the sky. My gaze naturally followed hers outside.

“That damned heaven has been a real bastard, at least where my research is concerned.”

Her gaze returned to me.

“Do you know what was in the liquor you just drank?”

“I didn't notice anything.”

“It contained Formless Poison.”

I was startled.

Formless Poison was colorless, odorless, and tasteless. It was also so potent that it was called the King of Poisons. It was the Heavenly Demon of the poison world, the greatest martial artist under heaven among poisons. Naturally, it was difficult to make, and even more difficult to counteract.

“I'm perfectly fine.”

“Congratulations. No poison in the world will ever be able to kill you now.”

Her words meant the experiment had succeeded. They also meant I now possessed a body impervious to all poisons.

“Formless Poison? Wasn't that a little too potent for a test?”

“This way, I don't have to test you twice.”

Creating a body impervious to all poisons with her own hands, then performing the final test with Formless Poison, was the crowning achievement of the life she had dreamed of.

I was sharing the moment when a master of her craft fulfilled her lifelong ambition. I could feel her joy and relief, her bittersweet satisfaction and lingering regret. Perhaps these were the emotions I would feel someday, at the moment I killed Hwa Mugi.

I knelt and bowed deeply to her.

“Thank you.”

“I'm grateful to you, too. This was my lifelong ambition. Now I no longer have to roam the world hunting venomous insects.”

The ailments that caused her such pain were ones she had contracted while searching for those insects.

I went over to her and massaged her shoulders.

“Oh, that feels good.”

“Come to think of it, I've never even massaged my father's shoulders.”

“What an unfilial son.”

“You may not realize it, but he's someone I'd have to risk my life to give even one shoulder massage.”

The Insect Physician laughed, amused.

As I stood behind her massaging her shoulders, I sensed that she had less vigor than when we first met. It felt as though she had reached one final peak and was now beginning her descent.

“What goal will you live for now?”

“A goal? I'll just take it easy.”

“You mustn't.”

“Mustn't?”

The moment someone who had devoted herself to something with such passion stopped working, she would begin aging at a frightening pace. Her pain would grow worse, too.

“You should research and develop something new for Murim. And then give that to me, too.”

“So the real greedy fellow was right here.”

I stopped massaging her shoulders, moved in front of her, and took her wrist. She stared at me as I held it as though taking her pulse.

After making a show of examining her pulse, I told her,

“This body will easily see you through another fifty years. Keep working!”

Her expression told me she fully understood why I was saying this.

“Oh, stop it, you! You want me to live another fifty years complaining of aches and pains? Don't curse me like that.”

“I'll come back and make sure I cure you.”

“Even if you don't mean it, thank you.”

“I'm the one who should be thanking you for the rest of my life. Thanks to you, I'll never have to worry about being poisoned again.”

“It could have succeeded or failed. Yet you bravely staked your life on it. Think of it as a reward for that courage.”

“I'll repay this kindness for years to come. If you ever need my help, send word to the West Lake Inn in the Central Plains, and I'll be sure to come to you.”

“I will.”

I went outside with her.

Seo Daeryong greeted us with a delighted expression.

“Congratulations to you both.”

After we had said our farewells and were about to leave, the Insect Physician held out a venomous insect.

“Eat one before you go! It's delicious.”

“I'm sorry, but I don't like insects either.”

I ran off first, and Seo Daeryong raced after me.

Watching the two men recede into the distance, the Insect Physician looked up at the sky.

“I have fulfilled my duty as a physician.”

After gazing up at the sky a little longer, she went inside, rubbing her shoulder out of habit.

“Oh, my arm.”

* * *

I carried Seo Daeryong on my back and raced along using Swift Step.

He found it less taxing than the journey there. He had experienced it once already, and his increased internal energy helped as well.

On my back, he worried about everything imaginable.

“Will I be able to win? Who will my opponent be? What if we arrive too late and I'm disqualified? Or what if I die in the semifinals, just like in my dream?”

“Stop worrying over nothing!”

“It's my own little trick. I keep imagining even the worst possible outcome until I've taken the wind out of it, so it won't happen in reality.”

“Has it worked?”

“I don't know. None of those worst-case scenarios have happened yet.”

“That's why I call it worrying over nothing!”

When we finally made it back just in time, a completely unexpected situation awaited us.

“Huh?”

Seo Daeryong stared in astonishment at a notice posted by the Orthodox Martial Alliance. It announced news concerning the Young Dragon Tournament.

“I've advanced to the final?”

An incident had occurred in the quarterfinal match in the bracket following Seo Daeryong's.

One competitor had suffered a life-threatening injury, and it had come to light that the opponent had inflicted it deliberately. As a result, the person who would have faced Seo Daeryong in the semifinals had been disqualified, sending him straight to the final.

“Didn't I tell you dreams mean the opposite? Didn't I say all those worries were pointless?”

Even as I spoke, Seo Daeryong couldn't tear his eyes from the official notice on the wall.

“Am I... really allowed to reach the final this way?”

“You didn't use any tricks, and you didn't break any rules. Why shouldn't you? They say neither talent nor hard work can beat a lucky bastard.”

“I've never been this lucky.”

“Your luck can change as you go through life.”

Seo Daeryong turned to look at me. His feelings were there in his eyes. All that luck was thanks to you, Pavilion Master.

“When I decided to enter the Young Dragon Tournament, I wanted to win so I could be of help to you. Now there's only one step left.”

“It's that last step that's the problem.”

An opponent against whom luck would be useless had reached the final. Jin Haryeong, the Martial Alliance Leader's granddaughter, had advanced without allowing a single upset.

And so this final would pit Seo Daeryong, the embodiment of upsets, against Jin Haryeong, the unshakable favorite to win.

“What am I going to do? I'm so nervous I don't think I'll even be able to draw my saber.”

“Even if you can't draw your saber, you can still read, can't you?”

“What? What do you mean?”

I took a lucky pouch from inside my robes. It was the very pouch of stratagems the Blood Heaven Saber Demon had given me for Seo Daeryong.

“I mean it's finally time to use this.”