Chapter 53

When did it start?

—I have added White Poria, jujube dates, and ginseng. It is excellent for insomnia.

From the very moment Master pressed those packets of medicine into that man’s hands?

—I must visit a patient tonight.

From the moment he specifically summoned those courtesans to a location outside the brothel to make contact?

No, it goes back even further. Before all of that, at a point in time Cheon-oh couldn’t have even begun to imagine.

—Do you know what plum blossom sores are?

From that very moment under the flickering candlelight, when he casually asked me that question while brewing medicine.

From that very moment, his master’s profound foresight had been fixed upon this exact place. Without that assumption, it was utterly impossible to explain any of this.

In Shaanxi Province, his master had naturally made contact with the Tang Clan’s clandestine merchant guild, subtly steering them into a direct confrontation with the King of Green Forests. Then, after neutralizing the bandit king, he handed him over to the Tang Clan, buying himself precious time to establish contact with yet another faction operating out of the brothel.

Under the flawless guise of treating an illness, every single event had flowed together seamlessly, without a single discrepancy.

[Come to the crimson birch forest on the upcoming night of the new moon. I shall be waiting.]

That single telepathic message the man had left behind echoed endlessly in Cheon-oh’s mind. The only person capable of understanding the reference to the “crimson birch forest” was Cheon-oh himself, who had been present with his master that night.

To phrase it differently, only Cheon-oh was meant to understand it. This inherently meant his master had possessed absolute certainty that his disciples would encounter that man tonight. That was precisely why he had ensured Cheon-oh memorized the man’s face beforehand and had him listen to that specific message.

Knowing full well that the intruders were under strict orders not to harm his disciples, his master had fabricated a convenient excuse to travel a considerable distance away alongside the Single Drop Execution, deliberately creating the perfect opening for the assassins to scale the walls unhindered.

Just how far into the future was he seeing?

What ultimate objective was he striving toward?

Cheon-oh couldn’t even begin to fathom it. He could do nothing but marvel in awe, only ever realizing the truth after his master’s grand designs naturally unfolded. Even constant amazement was supposed to grow tiresome eventually, yet his master…

Master is…

Cheon-oh’s lips parted slightly before pressing firmly together.

His heart was pounding with an erratic, unfamiliar rhythm, and his breath grew shallow. His normally stiff, expressionless lips were twitching, desperately trying to curl upwards into a massive grin.

What exactly was the source of this overwhelming, bubbling joy?

Was it pride?

The profound pride of knowing the man who taught and guided him was this unfathomably brilliant?

Was it awe?

That overwhelming sense of reverence—similar to what he felt when his master first revealed the vast, breathtaking landscape to him—experienced when confronting a being so absolute they could never be surpassed?

No… this was different.

Back then, the extremities of his body hadn’t tingled like this. He hadn’t felt this thrilling, electrifying sensation that made every hair on his body stand on end.

Wrapping his arms tightly around himself, Cheon-oh crouched low to the ground. Heaving increasingly ragged breaths, he laughed silently in the dark.

Only now did the reality truly, deeply set in.

The man who had effortlessly rescued him from those ruins—when he had nothing left to do but await his inevitable, pathetic demise—and breathed life back into him… how terrifyingly brilliant and meticulous was he?

And more importantly, just how deeply did that man trust him, and how incredibly special did he consider him?

“Seomun Cheon-oh.”

A voice as low and gentle as a crisp autumn breeze.

It was exactly what Cheon-oh had been waiting for.

Standing with his back to the night sky, one corner of which was still ablaze with the raging inferno, his master’s form was framed by the rippling, heat-laden wind. Stray embers danced and sparkled against his violently fluttering, snow-white hair.

Approaching with a swift, impossibly light gait, he rapidly assessed the condition of Cheon-oh, who was standing blankly; Sa-yeong, who had slumped to the ground; and Sa-hyeon, who was sobbing heavily.

Upon confirming the children hadn’t sustained any critical injuries, he immediately pulled the two siblings into a fierce embrace, releasing a heavy, trembling sigh of profound relief.

“Thank heavens. Thank heavens. You must have been terrified. I am so sorry.”

He must have known they wouldn’t dare harm his disciples, yet his worry had still compelled him to rush back. And seeing that his anxieties had materialized into a tangible threat, he seemed entirely consumed by devastating regret.

But the ones at fault are those idiotic fools who couldn’t even recognize their target properly.

Cheon-oh, who had been standing perfectly still, staring exclusively at his master this entire time, gracefully dropped to his knees and settled beside him. He threw his arms around his master’s body, burying his face deep into the crisp, white cotton robes. Inhaling the deeply ingrained, comforting scent of medicinal herbs deep into his lungs, Cheon-oh lifted his head to look up at him, flashing a smile more radiant and genuine than any he had ever shown before.

“Master.”

If you are truly this brilliant and omniscient, there must be a profound reason you retrieved me from those ruins as I was dying.

You must already know exactly what I am destined to become, what actions I must take, and what specific role I am meant to play in this world.

Within your mind, there is undoubtedly an incredibly vast, intricate world already constructed, and I am destined to play a crucial part within it.

“I swear to keep this an absolute secret. I will never speak a word of this to anyone.”

Aside from revenge, a secondary purpose for living had just been forged.

From this moment forward, he would never harbor a single shred of doubt.

Laughing with sheer, unadulterated happiness, Cheon-oh affectionately rubbed his cheek against his master’s chest. Not once, even before the Seomun Clan’s catastrophic collapse, had he ever felt a joy this profound. He desperately, fervently prayed that his master would orchestrate the entirety of his future exactly as he desired. He held absolute, unwavering faith that within his master’s grand design, he would remain perfectly safe, flawless, and deeply fulfilled.

Meanwhile, having rushed back in a sheer panic after being ambushed by a completely unprecedented disaster in the middle of the night, Cho Yoon was internally sobbing.

Why is this kid looking at me with those crazy, dead eyes again and spouting absolute nonsense?!

***

The following morning, the acrid, suffocating stench of charred wood permeated every corner of the Sichuan Tang Clan estate.

Although the miraculous intervention of the Immortal Healer and the Single Drop Execution, who had sprinted back in a sheer panic, had successfully prevented a total conflagration, thick plumes of white smoke were still steadily rising from the two pavilions, which had both burned down by more than half.

Having stayed awake the entire night, the Tang Clan disciples and martial artists, their complexions completely haggard, sat blankly wherever they could find space.

The second-generation disciples who had abruptly lost their living quarters were either sprawled out sleeping in whatever shaded spots they could find or gloomily mourning the precious belongings they had been forced to abandon in their rooms.

The higher-ranking officials, who had spent the night agonizing over the clan’s devastating property losses and the mysterious disappearance of Baek Ho-cheol, looked as though they were attending a funeral. The sheer magnitude of the damage the Sichuan Tang Clan had suffered in a single night was nothing short of catastrophic.

Meanwhile, those injured during the chaos were lined up in a sprawling queue in front of the Pavilion of Wood. At the very front of the line, several middle-aged individuals, led by the Immortal Healer, were actively tending to wounds. These were the clan’s dedicated physicians and the first-generation disciples who possessed the utmost confidence in their pharmacological skills. Yet, the one drawing the greatest anticipation was, unequivocally, the Immortal Healer Cho Yoon.

“Esteemed Great Hero! We practically overturned the entirety of Chengdu to procure these. Exactly as you instructed, we brought as much rhubarb, fresh plums, hibiscus, calcite, and phellodendron as possible!”

“I see.”

The second-generation disciples, having sprinted back with massive bundles strapped to their backs, unloaded their A-frames and cloth sacks beside Cho Yoon. Glancing briefly at the mountain of herbs, Cho Yoon offered a nonchalant reply before rising from his chair.

“By the looks of it, there is no one here suffering from critical injuries. For those who have merely suffered superficial skin burns, mash the plums, mulberry leaves, arborvitae leaves, and sunset hibiscus flowers together and apply the poultice. If the heat has penetrated deep beneath the skin, combine the rhubarb, bletilla tuber, skullcap, coptis root, and phellodendron, mix it with water, and apply it. That should suffice for a complete recovery.”

“Excuse me? Ah… yes…”

The voices of those who had eagerly anticipated witnessing the Immortal Healer’s miraculous, otherworldly healing arts noticeably deflated. However, since there genuinely wasn’t anyone suffering from life-threatening injuries, they couldn’t exactly find a valid pretext to demand he stay.

The physicians in particular, who had been watching his every move like hawks with eyes wide open, hoping to glean even a sliver of his divine knowledge, released heavy, profoundly disappointed sighs.

Whether they were disappointed or not, Cho Yoon left the dejected crowd behind, tracking the qi signatures of his children and striding away with purposeful steps. Perhaps because an unimaginably massive disaster had struck during the brief window he had stepped away, he was entirely unable to focus on treating patients while his children were left alone. He had only come out because the Tang Clan elders had been practically begging him since the crack of dawn, but the absolute second he confirmed there was no one actively dying, Cho Yoon clocked out immediately.

Huh? They aren’t in the Pavilion of Emerald Pillars?

Due to the devastating incident that had unfolded at the Pavilion of Crimson Wind, the children’s sleeping arrangements had been abruptly relocated to the Pavilion of Emerald Pillars.

Having temporarily moved into the absolute largest and most magnificent structure within the entirety of the Sichuan Tang Clan, the children, who had passed out from sheer exhaustion, immediately became hyperactive upon waking, completely awestruck by the massive crossbeams that dwarfed anything they had seen in the Pavilion of Crimson Wind.

Wow, wow, they had repeatedly gasped, marveling at the pavilion’s grand interior.

Cho Yoon had strictly ordered them not to go poking around someone else’s home uninvited before stepping out to treat the wounded, but it seemed they had simply opted to play outside instead.

Walking briskly past the pavilion and heading around the back, a sprawling rear garden complete with a large pond came into view. It wasn’t just his three children; Tang Woon-geum and Guyang Seon were present as well. Seeing Woon-geum wading into the pond up to her knees, aggressively splashing water at Sa-yeong, Cho Yoon hurriedly approached the group.

“Sa-yeong, Sa-hyeon, did I not explicitly warn you that your wounds must not come into contact with water?”

“Ah, Master.”

Five pairs of eyes instantly snapped toward Cho Yoon.

“I was extremely careful not to get wet. Neither Sa-hyeon nor I entered the water, and we even wrapped our bandages an extra time.”

“Binding them so tightly that absolutely no air can circulate is also detrimental. Applying excessive pressure to the wound is equally harmful.”

Acting like a completely overprotective, doting parent, Cho Yoon meticulously inspected Sa-yeong’s arms and Sa-hyeon’s knees once more. Just as he was confirming that the ointment he had applied remained perfectly intact, Woon-geum, who had been wading in the pond, sloshed out of the water. Standing before Cho Yoon, she nervously clasped her hands together, hesitating before finally speaking.

“Umm… I’m sorry, Great Hero. I was splashing water at eonni without permission… Eonni said she couldn’t go into the pond… so it was just a joke… I’m sorry, Eonni.”

The little girl, with her hair neatly braided and tied into two round buns on either side of her head, looked incredibly precious and endearing as she mumbled her apology.

Because every single adult was exhausted and frantically busy managing the crisis, leaving her with absolutely no one to play with, it seemed she had simply pestered the older kids who were closest to her age and appeared relatively free.