“Hmm?”

“It’s one of the future events I told you about before. Well… it is partly a Blood Immortal Sect trap, but what’s inside is definitely authentic.”

Jin Cheonhee explained how the Blood Immortal Sect had discovered and hidden the secret manual in advance, what kind of manual it was, and why the organization hadn’t taken it.

“…”

After listening for a while, Master finally spoke.

“I see. The Eight Great Divine Arts. Come to think of it, you’ve already mastered one of them, the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts, haven’t you, Hee?”

“Yes, yes.”

“How was it?”

This wasn’t simply asking if the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts was powerful. Jin Cheonhee immediately grasped his master’s intent.

“It’s definitely… a higher-level martial art compared to others. I’ve deconstructed it and am using parts of it now.”

“So it’s impossible to fully master it.”

Correct.

That was the intent behind Master’s question.

To what extent could his disciple master it? How difficult was it?

“Yes… completely mastering it is far beyond me right now. Other martial arts weren’t nearly this difficult.”

This was the case even though he’d memorized it without needing to recite the verbal formula.

That meant other Minor Cult Leaders of the Demonic Cult were likely in the same situation.

Though Yeo Ha-ryoon would become the Heavenly Demon, Jin Cheonhee would inevitably face other Demonic Cult Minor Cult Leaders in the future.

Master smiled wryly looking at his disciple.

Despite having obtained so much, this disciple never became arrogant.

“There’s a reason why the Eight Great Divine Arts are classified separately even among divine arts. They’re that much more demanding and require that much more effort and time. But with your current aptitude, you can progress further. Train diligently.”

This was madness.

Master was casually saying something a righteous-path martial artist should never say.

Perhaps if the ancestors of the exterminated Zhuge clan heard this, they would rise from their graves.

Master merely burns a little incense for the Zhuge clan.

On the day of the clan’s extermination,

All he did was drink a cup of tea and light one stick of incense.

In fact, it was so unremarkable that as a child, Jin Cheonhee didn’t even know Master was performing a memorial ritual.

Other clans would have been busily preparing for ten days before such a ritual.

Master had none of that.

That’s why he wasn’t so attached to his clan’s martial arts either.

Of course, he had pride as a martial artist. But that was a different matter from attachment.

Combined with his strangely twisted temperament and even more twisted mind, it almost seemed normal.

He was a man who had once let go of his attachment to life.

Not simply because he had a terminal illness.

The disciple chattered to such a master about the future.

“Oh, by the way, I have a separate matter to discuss, Master.”

“Separate?”

“Yes. It’s about developing our Medical Pavilion.”

A plan conceived in the Imperial Archives.

Reinforcing and simplifying countless martial arts from miscellaneous techniques to ultimate skills.

These simplified martial arts would then be taught to those capable of learning them.

“Ordinary clans prepare their children from infancy to learn clan martial arts, and Daoist sects take in children and raise them as Daoists, but we’re not like that.”

At earliest, people were twenty years old. Many martial artists were thirty.

A fighting force needed to be created from such people.

They would have learned different martial arts and likely suffered from bad habits.

“Why would people with great aptitude come to us? They’d either become independent martial artists or seclude themselves in the mountains to train.”

The disciple was a pragmatist and a realist.

Zhuge Rin liked that his disciple was unlike typical martial artists.

“True. That’s definitely helpful information. There’s much to apply from it. Let’s discuss this after this secret cave affair is concluded.”

“Yes.”

Jin Cheonhee nodded with shining eyes.

Zhuge Rin found himself wanting to see the future his disciple spoke of.

“Now that you’re here, there’s something you need to do.”

“What is it?”

“Surgery.”

***

Jin Cheonhee immediately began reattaching a severed arm.

I didn’t expect them to procure so many of the Tang clan’s feather needles.

Feather needles received from both the Martial Righteous Alliance and the Unorthodox Alliance.

His hands, having reached the Transformation Realm, began reconnecting nerves and blood vessels.

I suppose it’s fortunate that it was cut so cleanly.

It was somewhat ironic.

With so many masters around, they all used sword energy, and sect leaders even used sword aura.

Naturally, the cut surfaces were clean.

That is, if they didn’t die.

Usually, when facing such masters, one side would die. However, this time, since the opponent was a Daoist, he showed mercy and stopped at cutting off an arm.

The patient was lucky.

As Jin Cheonhee performed the surgery with assistants, sweat beaded on the backs of the physicians.

Somehow… Minor Pavilion Master seems even more skilled now.

The senior physicians who had assisted Jin Cheonhee’s surgeries at Dragon Phoenix Gathering particularly felt this acutely.

Last time, didn’t it take about four times as long?

Is his concentration enhanced? Or his visual acuity? I really don’t know.

There was no visible sign of him using internal energy differently.

He simply performed with no hesitation.

None of the senior physicians could understand what that meant.

“Well now, just need to close up and we’re done~!”

Despite the major surgery, his playful manner remained unchanged.

His face is young, but his occasional manner of speaking is like an old master’s.

No one knew about the Minor Pavilion Master’s past.

They only knew his actions since coming to the White Dragon Medical Pavilion.

However, these occasional age-inappropriate behaviors led everyone to speculate that he might have been raised directly by an elder.

In the past, it was more difficult to adapt to him because he was a child.

Now he appeared to be a young man with some sly aspects.

The behavior that contradicted his appearance was somewhat amusing.

“Of course I finished so quickly because it’s me. Consider yourself lucky to have found such a skilled physician.”

This self-praise was also a bit funny.

But it wasn’t wrong.

Thanks to the White-Robed Divine Dragon who arrived today, he was able to save his arm.

Jin Cheonhee continued to treat the influx of patients with surgery.

With so many people gathered, disputes between martial artists often led to duels.

Although many patients died before reaching them, many also arrived with severed limbs.

For limb reattachment surgery, only Jin Cheonhee and Zhuge Rin could restore patients to a level where they could wield swords again.

Zhuge Rin limited himself to three major surgeries per day, which required his exclusive skill, but there were more patients than that.

However, it was impossible to do the impossible.

And they couldn’t simply operate on a first-come, first-served basis either.

That might lead to duels being concentrated at dawn, and later, people might start arguing about who was cut first.

It sounds crazy, but in the martial world, such things could happen.

If they prioritized by treatment fee, that would be problematic, and ranking by clan influence would be even worse.

That’s how they came up with the lottery system.

They gave each person one chance to draw from a pool with only three winning lots.

If it was about “luck,” then one could only blame heaven.

However, if a surgery took longer than expected, the number of winning lots would gradually decrease.

That was also luck.

“Even after explaining it’s about luck, they keep adding donations.”

In this world without medical insurance, where physicians trained in internal energy were an extremely small portion of the total population, medical fees were a money pit.

Nevertheless, clans casually sent extra money to the Medical Pavilion.

It might be a large sum immediately, but the wealth they had accumulated was already vast.

Jin Cheonhee was performing surgeries about four times a day.

Even so, patients continued to flood in, and all the Medical Pavilion physicians, both senior and middle-ranked, began to burn out.

In this situation, Zhuge Rin and Jin Cheonhee had to not only perform their own treatments but also command numerous physicians.

Dragon Phoenix Gathering was just a tutorial in gaming terms.

The term “blood storm” was no exaggeration.

And this is just before the main game…

The righteous and unorthodox factions had not yet engaged in full-scale war.

If things escalated in earnest, what would they do then?

When he shared this concern with Master, Master was surprisingly calm.

“It’s alright, Hee.”

“Why?”

“When they enter the secret cave in earnest, patients won’t be able to be brought here.”

It’s fortunate that Yeo Ha-ryoon hasn’t come.

History had changed.

This meant there was no one to order Yeo Ha-ryoon to retrieve the Eight Great Divine Arts.

And it meant Yeo Ha-ryoon’s own achievements were higher than in the original work.

That was good.

Ironically, Yeo Ha-ryoon himself clicked his tongue, saying if he had known his brother would get involved in this, he would have come earlier.

So the ones here are Cheon Woo and Sama Hyeon.

Though both could take care of themselves, he hoped they wouldn’t enter the secret cave.

I don’t want to see those two crossing swords.

But since both had people they were responsible for, it wasn’t up to their personal wishes.

Moreover, the Condor Dragon’s prophecy still weighed on his heart, making his feelings complicated.

What will happen to this world after Yeo Ha-ryoon ascends?

And another thing:

Now that history has changed, will Yeo Ha-ryoon still ascend?

In the novel, Yeo Ha-ryoon had no attachments to the mortal world.

That was natural. There were no relationships left to hold him in this world.

But now things were different.

With these complicated thoughts, Jin Cheonhee continued treating patients.

“White-Robed Divine Dragon! Please! I need the White-Robed Divine Dragon to examine me. I’ll pay any amount!”

A young martial artist from a clan called out, offering money.

However, this martial artist’s injuries were not severe, so it would be better for another senior physician to handle it.

The physicians would certainly convey this message.

“Who do you think I am to ignore me! Is the White Dragon Medical Pavilion daring to disrespect our clan!”

That’s when Yoo Ho stepped forward.

“Please leave.”

“What?”

“Not trusting a senior physician trained by the White Dragon Medical Pavilion means you don’t trust the White Dragon Medical Pavilion itself. If that’s the case, you don’t need to receive a diagnosis.”

At those words, the martial artist’s face turned red and blue with anger.

“You dare speak to me like that!”

At that moment, a clan warrior who had come as an escort drew his sword.

Clang!

Yoo Ho lightly raised his hand and broke the blade in two.

He had severed a sword infused with sword energy using nothing but pure strength.

Naturally, there wasn’t a single scratch on his hand.

With his hands behind his back, Yoo Ho said:

“You’ve used force at the White Dragon Medical Pavilion. Even though this isn’t a place where the sword-sealing pact is enforced, this is still a great discourtesy.”

At Yoo Ho’s gesture, martial artists from the White Dragon Medical Pavilion drew their swords and surrounded them.

Step, step, step.

It was remarkable how a sword formation could be completed in just one second.

Subdued by this display of force, the young martial artist stammered:

“No… that’s…”

Yoo Ho said:

“Leave.”

Boom!

At that moment, something happened around Yoo Ho.

It blasted all three of them out of the tent.

It happened so quickly that no one could see what Yoo Ho had done.

No one except Jin Cheonhee, who had reached the Transformation Realm, raised the Profound Origin Heaven and Earth Divine Technique to the extreme, and artificially enhanced his aptitude.