Chapter 62

“Born as the son of a prestigious orthodox sect, pampered and raised, you will have internal energy three—no, four times stronger than your peers who’ve taken every kind of elixir. And do you think it’s only the inner power in your danjeon? Do you know how hard I worked to make even your marrow and every fiber of muscle fill with numinous energy?”

“That…”

“It seems you have forgotten everything this master has tirelessly fed and taught you, seeing how quickly you belittle yourself as nothing,” Cho Yoon remarked.

As the master’s voice bled with unmistakable pride and absolute certainty, the boy’s face turned stark white. He hastily stammered out excuses, though an irrepressible flicker of joy lay hidden beneath his panic.

“Th-that… N-no. No, I didn’t mean that. It was a slip of the tongue, Master.”

But soon, struck by another distressing thought, Sa-hyeon ventured hesitantly. “But… if my mastery is slow, won’t it be even harder to p-protect Noona? I-I am slow… but Noona is always f-fast… By the time I get strong, she will already be s-so much stronger. And now… His Highness the Imperial Prince will even be teaching her directly.”

“Shh, shush. You must never utter a word about knowing that fact,” Cho Yoon hissed.

“Ah!”

Startled, Sa-hyeon slapped both hands over his mouth. Cho Yoon hastily deployed a sound-isolation barrier, verifying no one was around to eavesdrop before giving the boy a curt nod. Only then did Sa-hyeon lower his hands, offering a gloomy apology.

How do I make him understand this? Cho Yoon pondered briefly before speaking in a low, measured tone.

“Sa-hyeon, there are many ways to protect someone. Taking beatings in their stead, fighting their battles, and giving up your own good things—just as your sister did for you—are not the only acts of protection.”

“…”

“Perhaps simply walking your own path with a healthy body, doing everything you wish to do, and living happily is the true way to protect her,” the master explained. “That is likely all Sa-yeong wishes for you. How could anyone rejoice when someone they truly cherish gets hurt in their place?”

Listening to his master’s voice, which drifted into his ears like soft night snow, Sa-hyeon clasped his hands together and fell into deep thought. He vaguely sensed that what his sister wanted for him and what he wanted to do for her were entirely at odds. He also recognized that his burning desire to protect her was tinged with a degree of childish pride.

But he couldn’t easily let go of this wish.

“But I cherish Noona too,” the boy finally confessed.

Without even realizing that his stuttering had vanished, he laid bare the feelings he had kept buried deep inside.

“I cherish her too. I absolutely hate it when Noona gets hurt because of me, and I want to be the one hurting in her place. So, at the very least… I want to become strong enough so that she doesn’t ever need to protect me anymore.”

“…I guarantee you, your sister would still insist on protecting you even if you became the absolute strongest under the heavens,” Cho Yoon sighed.

“That’s… true, but still.”

Gloomily conceding the point, the boy twiddled his clasped hands. He pondered silently for a long moment before blurting out an abrupt question.

“M-Master, the weapon you wield best… is the sword, right?”

“That is correct. It has been a long time since I drew it, but I use a sword if necessary.”

“Am I… suited for the saber?”

“You instinctively know how to crush opponents with raw power rather than relying on agility and flexibility, so gripping a saber is better,” Cho Yoon evaluated. “Using a blunt weapon would also be fine, but its flaws are as great as its strengths, making it unsuitable for building a solid foundation.”

“Then… c-could I also seek out the person who wields the saber best, and b-beg them to teach me?”

Cho Yoon’s jaw dropped inwardly. He couldn’t fathom why the conversation had suddenly leaped in this direction and frantically tried to dissuade his disciple.

“Sa-hyeon, just because I primarily use a sword does not mean I cannot teach you the saber any further. All martial arts ultimately return to a single origin; once your skill reaches the absolute pinnacle in one path, you naturally pierce through the others as well.”

“But… you said that person could teach Noona’s lying better.”

“I did say that.”

“A-and you also said that in fields you don’t know, there would be… another excellent person.”

“…I did.”

“Th-then… couldn’t there also be someone else who could teach me the saber arts… faster and better?”

“…”

As expected of Sa-yeong’s younger brother, once he set his mind to arguing, his tongue proved surprisingly sharp.

“I-I just want to get stronger quickly,” the boy mumbled, hastily tacking excuses onto his sudden boldness. “Just like Noona f-found someone else to teach her and is making a n-new attempt, I want to… try it too. M-maybe it will work out well.”

“…It might be extremely grueling, and you might be separated from Sa-yeong for a long time, you know?” Cho Yoon warned. “There might be competitors even stronger than Cheon-oh in another place, and you might lose all your time to play comfortably like you do now.”

“I-it’s okay. If N-Noona is doing it, I want to accomplish it too.”

“…”

With his confidence in his parenting skills temporarily plummeting, Cho Yoon found himself completely cornered by the boy’s persuasive logic. The more he tried to coax Sa-hyeon with lengthy explanations, the more he felt like he was holding the child back, making it impossible to argue further.

Ultimately, carrying a profound sense of despondency, Cho Yoon promised to speak with Hui. Of course, he sternly warned the boy that, unless one was formally hiring an instructor with money, changing masters multiple times constituted a grave martial discourtesy, meaning he must be absolutely certain before making such a decision.

***

“I have laid his foundation with the assumption that he would learn the saber arts, but if you, Sect Leader, determine he has talent elsewhere, it is perfectly fine to change directions. He is not a child lacking in perseverance, so once he finds his true path, he will exert endless effort.”

“If you, the great hero Immortal Healer, saw that Young Hero Lim’s path is the saber, shouldn’t he naturally walk that path?” Hui replied smoothly. “After all, it is the judgment of an exceptionally profound master…”

“I can only exercise a meager bit of skill in what I have personally learned,” Cho Yoon deflected. “If what that child desires lies outside my boundaries, I simply cannot teach him.”

Facing Hui, who wore a deeply worried expression, Cho Yoon silently lowered his gaze. Come to think of it, Sa-hyeon was now thirteen. It was slowly approaching the appropriate age for him to graduate from his master’s direct shadow.

“I believe that you, Sect Leader, who have sought out and raised countless talents, can provide my child with diverse experiences and necessary trials. You do not necessarily need to forge him into a competent and exceptional warrior. I merely hope you can help the boy grow.”

Finishing his request calmly, Cho Yoon raised his gaze.

Hui, dressed in a splendid, opulent outfit entirely different from what he had worn a few days prior, was lightly tapping his lips with his fingertips in contemplation. The rose quartz and beryl stones meticulously embedded in his one-inch-long gold nail guards glittered brilliantly with every movement.

Finishing his calculations, Hui smiled radiantly and nodded. Cho Yoon breathed a silent sigh of relief.

“Alright! Honestly, I don’t possess the confidence to raise the children as flawlessly as you, Immortal Healer, but I will try my utmost using whatever resources I have. Young Lady Lim will also be absolutely thrilled to have her brother nearby. For someone whose object of attachment is family or a lover, they become the healthiest when their counterpart is resting securely within their territory.”

“…Is that so.”

“Yes. Furthermore, since Young Hero Lim seems to harbor a strong sense of indebtedness to his sister, his motivation should be more than sufficient. Hmm, excellent. It will all work out wonderfully as long as I do my part well.”

…Somehow, it truly feels like dropping children off in a thousand-year-old fox’s den, Cho Yoon thought dryly.

At least he possessed the fraudulent reputation of “Immortal Healer Cho Yoon” and his encyclopedic memory of the original novel detailing everything about Hui, allowing him to make this bold gamble.

It was based on the firm belief that, unless Hui actively wished to face a terrifying powerhouse of the Profound Realm head-on, he wouldn’t senselessly harm the siblings.

I should stop by to check on them whenever I come down the mountain to buy groceries… No, if they are going to Guangdong Province, that would be far too difficult. I’ll have to open an account with an escort agency and write letters frequently.

Human hearts were fickle things that could change at any moment; he needed to maintain constant contact.

Solidifying this vow, Cho Yoon clicked open the brass lock of the wooden box with his thumb.

Simultaneously, he cast a thin, seamless sound-isolation barrier around Hui’s room.

“…It seems whatever resides inside that box is quite extraordinary,” Hui noted.

Though Hui outwardly projected the harmless aura of an ordinary person devoid of martial arts, he was secretly cultivating to an incredibly high level. Sensitively detecting the formless energy deploying around the room, he let out a soft murmur of admiration.

For the legendary Immortal Healer to pay this much meticulous attention to an item, it had to be at least a mythical elixir on the level of the Hollow Azure Stone Milk or the Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp.

Bathed in that sparkling, expectation-filled gaze, Cho Yoon slowly lifted the lid of the wooden box.

Inside… sat twenty brown ceramic bottles, each smaller than a fist, neatly arranged in four rows of five.

“…?”

Typically, the moment an exceptional elixir’s seal was broken, an auspicious fragrance should instantly saturate the entire room.

Conversely, a peerless poison would violently seep into the body of anyone standing within a ten-foot radius.

The fact that these bottles emitted absolutely no smell whatsoever meant they were neither here nor there… and there were zero traces of any special array or preservation technique applied to the ceramics.

But the Immortal Healer is not someone who would sprout nonsense.

Restraining his hasty judgment, Hui stared intently at Cho Yoon with deep, brilliantly shining eyes.

Placing his hand on a bottle in the leftmost row—which was bound with a red knotted cord—Cho Yoon finally spoke.