The rain continued to fall, and only grew stronger. Just like Tang Ah’s heart. Finally, Tang Ah lifted her eyes from her sleeve and spoke. “Then I shall be the White-Robed Divine Dragon’s patient, faking an illness.”

“If you must put it that way, then yes.”

“I will not forget this favor, my fated adversary.”

At her words, Jin Cheonhee burst out laughing and, playing along, cracked his knuckles one by one as he made a fist.

“Hahaha, feel. free. to. challenge. me. anytime.”

As if his exaggerated tone had chased away all her tears, Tang Ah burst out laughing. And so, the secret between the two of them began.

***

“Are you truly saying it is possible for our Tang Ah to return to her senses? I find it hard to believe.”

To the Tang Clan Head’s words, Jin Cheonhee calmly replied, “It is not a complete cure. It is more that her personality when she wears the mask and when she is in her daily life will be somewhat separated.”

“Hmm… Is such a thing possible?”

Truly, the head of the Tang Clan. He doesn’t believe…

“…As expected of the Zhuge Clan. What a remarkable ability! So, you are saying she just needs to train in that mind art.”

…He believes it.

Jin Cheonhee had said from the start that there might be no answer, and the Tang Clan had surely done their own research. They must have come this far because no other physician could give them an answer. If there was a chance for Tang Ah to get even a little better than she was now, there was nothing he wouldn’t do as a father.

“However, to think the Profound Origin Technique had such an ability…”

Jin Cheonhee replied with a nonchalant smile, “Of course, the Tang Clan must have researched the Profound Origin Technique, just as other great families have.”

After the Zhuge Clan suffered the calamity of its destruction, its martial arts were torn to shreds and devoured by countless sects. The Tang Clan must have been one of them, taking the Zhuge Clan’s Profound Origin Technique to try and master its principles.

His master had once said calmly, —When the great tiger of the mountain dies, its corpse is devoured by vultures, flies, and wild dogs. There was a time when the Zhuge Clan, too, followed that course.

One of those vultures must have been the Tang Clan before him.

‘My master never wishes to leave any grudges or favors for his disciple to inherit.’

What past he carries, what thoughts he has, what resentments he holds—he hides it all from his disciple, intending to end it all in his own generation. But for some reason, even without knowing the past, Jin Cheonhee would sometimes feel a surge of anger.

“That is not what I meant. Do not misunderstand.”

The current Tang Clan was a great help to the White Dragon Medical Pavilion. Just as his master had settled the grudges of the Zhuge Clan, the Tang Clan Head must have settled the matter of his master having captured and tortured him in the past.

Suddenly, he noticed a familiar scar on the clan head’s knuckles. It was the kind that forms when a sharp needle is inserted, and the clan head himself would not have driven it into his own hand. He could see the traces of it having been driven in to inflict extreme pain, but at a level that would not drive him insane. This was the mark of someone well-versed in the medical arts.

In the entire martial world, the only people who could do such a thing to the head of the Tang Clan were his master or the Bloodborne Elder Eccentric. Seeing as he didn’t have three eyes or three nostrils, it must have been his master’s doing.

‘It’s a wonder he’s alive.’

Yes. His master wasn’t one to just take things lying down either. Living on borrowed time as he was, it was plausible that he might have thought, ‘To hell with the Tang Clan,’ kidnapped their precious heir, and, ignoring all resentments, done a little needlework.

‘However…’

What on earth had happened in the past, before Jin Cheonhee arrived? No, before the novel Supreme Heavenly Demon had even begun? His heart felt heavy, but Jin Cheonhee maintained the gentlest expression he could muster.

“Please do not worry. That was not what I meant to imply, either.”

His heart felt chaotic, as if he had swallowed mud. But he was not so immature as to let it show on his face.

“I’ll be counting on you.”

“Th-there is one thing I would like to ask.”

“Hmm?”

“This may be a sudden question, but what do you think of my master, Clan Head?”

“Hahaha, I was wondering when you would ask. It seems the Divine Doctor White Dragon rarely speaks of the old days.”

The clan head rubbed his chin and then said, “To say he was an enemy and now we are in the same boat… would be insufficient. He is a Crouching Dragon[1].”

A dragon that lies in wait. Crouching Dragon was also the nickname of Zhuge Liang, the founder of the Zhuge Clan.

The clan head continued, “Just saying that will sound insincere. I hope that the Crouching Dragon never rises again. That is why I try not to provoke his anger or drag him into matters of great consequence. I wish for us to remain as suitable allies.”

The clan head closed his eyes and briefly recalled the past. Finally, he opened his mouth. “There is one thing that is certain.”

“What is that?”

“I never want to go through that bastard’s youth a second time.”

‘My master is plenty youn— ah, he only looks young.’

The clan head added one more thing. “As the head of the Tang Clan, I just hope the Crouching Dragon stays as he is, and I am relieved that these days he seems to be maintaining his dignity for the sake of his disciple.”

…Jin Cheonhee was now even more clueless as to what had happened in his master’s youth. But judging by the atmosphere, at least…

‘Roughly… interpreting it in modern terms, they were like shitty team leaders from adjacent departments. It seems they had a few sword dances in their youth and screwed everyone over together. Hmm.’

True to his master’s personality, now that a nice new recruit he likes has come along, he’s maintaining his dignity, but if he gets pissed off, he could go on a rampage again. ‘And then I’ll be screwed too, so please, just stay calm and live like this, okay?’

‘But the problem is that this company has no CEO.’

That was the problem with this company called the martial world.

“Well, I have been as honest as I can be. I do not know if this will be enough.”

“It is more than enough.”

“Just know that I did not say this with the intention of bad-mouthing your master in front of his disciple. It is merely an old story between people who lived through the martial world of that time.”

The clan head said that much and then sipped his tea with a slurp. “It seems it’s about to rain again; my knuckles are aching.” He happened to be fiddling with the scar where his master had stuck the needle.

“…”

“Please take good care of your master. I do not wish to experience that calamity a second time.”

‘What on earth did my master do in his prime…?’

Why did a chill run down his spine the more he heard?

***

He had heard an old story about his master, but rather than feeling nostalgic, he felt as if he had just watched a snippet of the prelude to a thriller movie.

‘Do the other promising young martial artists… feel this way?’

In the martial arts novels he had read, cases like this…

‘Oh, they’re not non-existent. Right. Cases where the master has a temper, so the disciple has to suffer the consequences of his bad karma.’

Fortunately, Jin Cheonhee hadn’t had to take on his master’s grudges very often. That was partly because he himself was strong, and partly because the “dike project” his master was building was excessively grand.

‘Right. He’s got several hundred martial artists escorting his disciple. What kind of grudge could reach me?’

In the old days, no one knew if his master would live or die, and after that, Jin Cheonhee had become too strong and moved around unpredictably. And now… Jin Cheonhee looked at the sky with an enlightened expression.

‘Even if they want to stick a knife in me, there has to be an opening.’

As Jin Cheonhee returned to the annex, Tang Ah stood with her arms crossed. “I have been waiting, my fated adversary! Was it resolved well!”

“It was resolved well enough. I will teach you a derivative of the Profound Origin Technique, so learn it and pretend to come to your senses at an appropriate time. Keep the mask safe.”

“Hehehet!” Tang Ah stuck out her tongue and laughed, looking pleased.

“What is this derivative of the Profound Origin Technique?”

“Mmm, it’s nothing grand, just a derivative martial art that has the effect of clearing the mind a little and stabilizing one’s internal energy.”

“I thought you would teach me a fake one, roughly.”

“This is a matter concerning the head of the Tang Clan, so I could not do that.”

Tang Ah nodded. She had grown quite a bit since he first saw her, but her large eyes and chubby cheeks remained unchanged. Perhaps because of that, Jin Cheonhee found himself constantly wanting to give her food whenever he saw her.

“Is there anything you’d like to eat?”

“Ice Snow Rice Cake!”

She answered immediately, without even taking a breath. It was a type of snack where ice cream was put inside a rice cake, a surprisingly common form of dessert in the modern era. But here, no such snack existed. In the first place, winter was too cold to eat such things, and in the summer, getting ice was like plucking a star from the sky.

‘As expected, the Five-Elemental Divine Technique is the wisdom of life.’

In that sense, Jin Cheonhee always felt that the Five-Elemental Divine Technique was the greatest martial art under heaven. A martial artist fights for but a moment. But one has to eat three meals a day, don’t they?

Jin Cheonhee, who had mentally recited the “Five-Elemental Divine Technique is number one” theory with his strange approach, decided to make Ice Snow Rice Cake for Tang Ah.

“By the way, it seems my father is planning to push for official trade between the White Dragon Medical Pavilion and Sichuan Province… Is this true? My fated adversary!”

Her voice was still booming. The way she spoke with her cheeks stuffed with rice cake made her look just like an angry hamster.

“Yes. It would be difficult to establish a White Dragon Medical Pavilion branch in Sichuan, but it seems we will be conducting exchanges centered around the Tang Clan’s medical pavilion.”

“It won’t just be an exchange of medicine, I presume.”

Surprisingly, it seemed she had also been diligently studying to be the Young Clan Head.

“That’s about right. If the volume of goods increases beyond what it is now, trade through the Yangtze River will become the main focus, but increasing the number of ships and purchasing ports is no easy task.”

“Hmm.” Her eyes shone faintly. “Will the Tang Clan’s medicinal herbs be traded as well?”

“Yes. The potent herbs that have not left Sichuan Province until now will be released a bit more through this exchange.”

“And poisons, too.”

At those words, Jin Cheonhee replied cautiously, “…That will be the case as well. Medicine and Martial Arts strangely have points in common.”

“Mmm. That is the Tang Clan.” She nodded.

If in the past they had primarily exchanged goods, this time they would be exchanging people as well. For the reclusive Tang Clan, this was quite an unprecedented event.

***

The medical exchange usually lasted for a month. Since it wasn’t easy to come all the way to Sichuan from the White Dragon Medical Pavilion, they had to do as much as they could while they were here. On top of that, due to the nature of medical arts, sharing knowledge with each other was no easy task in itself. Of course, in the past, it had been a nominal exchange, so there were aspects of it that were done perfunctorily. Even that had led to some minor advances in medicine, but now it was different.

‘It’s the Mad Physician! The Mad Physician is heeeere!’ ‘Save meeeee!’ ‘Please, someone, let me out of hereeee!’

It was as if he could see the words behind the backs of the physicians belonging to the Sichuan Tang Clan. For some reason, a sinister, dark energy began to emanate from their backs. Seeing this, the physicians from the White Dragon Medical Pavilion, for some reason, had triumphant expressions, though their eyes were ringed with dark circles like pandas. They looked less like living people and more like hopping zombies.

The reason they were acting so smug in such a state was simple. If you looked inside their heads, this is what was going on:

‘Hahaha! Do you finally understand! The taste of our White Dragon Medical Pavilion’s research division!’ ‘Do you know the taste of the research division?!’ ‘To make such a fuss over just this, you are weaklings! Sichuan Tang Clan, I am disappointed in your grit.’

That was right. These people were phantoms who had become so accustomed to being ground down that they were now one with overwork.