“Hahaha! I am truly delighted that we could join forces in this manner!”
Despite Zhuge Rin’s polite objections regarding propriety, Wangya Ju had all but commandeered the White Qilin Divine Physician’s carriage. Her purpose in doing so was perfectly clear—at least to herself—and that was all that mattered.
Jin Cheon-hee and his master exchanged a quiet, knowing glance. Wangya Ju, however—whether genuinely oblivious or merely pretending—claimed the seat of honor without hesitation, fully indulging in what could only be described as her blissful princely outing. Resolving to make the best of the situation, Jin Cheon-hee produced the refreshments he had meticulously prepared in advance: a Castella cake, fresh from the cauldron. He lightly toasted the surface using Fire Vitality before lavishly drizzling it with honey syrup.
“Ooh! As expected of the Blue-Eyed Mad Physician. You never do anything by halves!”
“If Your Highness finds it pleasing, this humble one asks for nothing more.”
“Hm. Well, I appreciate that you didn’t go so far as to say you are unworthy of my grace, but couldn’t you speak a little more casually?”
“Ah. I will make the effort.”
“Good!”
Wangya Ju nodded with satisfaction and took a generous bite of the Castella.
“Mmm! Exquisite! White Qilin Divine Physician, I truly envy you. How did you ever find a disciple who cooks this well?”
“He may appear capable,” Zhuge Rin replied calmly, “but he causes me endless headaches behind the scenes.”
“Even so, if I could eat like this every day, I would endure a little trouble.”
She laughed heartily, her gaze lingering on Jin Cheon-hee with undisguised covetousness. Then, suddenly, she spoke again.
“You little rascal. Write longer replies to Princess So Baek.”
“Pardon?” Jin Cheon-hee’s eyes widened.
“Heavens. How did she ever fall for someone like you? In any case, just make your replies longer.”
I thought I had been responding with proper courtesy. Was it not enough? So this is royalty… was my level of formality truly insufficient? I will have to consult the ancient texts and fill my letters with impeccable etiquette.
Jin Cheon-hee nodded, already imagining Princess So Baek’s frustration if she could hear his frantic inner monologue.
“Understood! I will endeavor to write as elaborately as possible.”
“That will do.”
Her expression softened into one that plainly said, Daughter, this mother has done all she can. Amid these tangled thoughts, only Zhuge Rin concealed his expression behind his fan. For reasons known only to him, the sight of the two seemed to amuse him greatly.
***
Wangya Ju leaned back, eyes half-closed in contentment as the gentle notes of Jin Cheon-hee’s zither filled the compartment.
“You really are like a thief’s hook. Even after we part ways, you linger in the mind. Good grief.”
“Yes. Even the medical staff who once worked under me kept saying they missed my cooking. Hahaha.”
The mood between them was warm and easy.
“You must write plenty of letters to our So Baek,” Wangya Ju reminded him.
“Yes. Leave it to me.”
She hummed softly along with the melody Jin Cheon-hee improvised, then shifted her tone, cutting straight to the point.
“The nomadic tribe rising this time is called the Suksin.”
“The Suksin?” Jin Cheon-hee tilted his head.
Wangya Ju nodded. “Beyond the border, the nomads live in many scattered tribes. But the Suksin have grown exceptionally powerful. They’ve united several others and produced a ‘Khan’—their word for king.”
Jin Cheon-hee, the transplanted soul from Earth, instantly pictured Genghis Khan.
Wangya Ju continued, “That Suksin Tribe is moving south right now. Have you heard how many they number?”
Jin Cheon-hee shook his head while thinking, Hmm. Eun and Geum must have kept it quiet for now. But word will spread soon enough. Secrets like this never stay hidden long.
“I assume it’s not a small force.”
“Correct. Three hundred thousand.”
Three hundred thousand!
Jin Cheon-hee’s stomach dropped.
“That… is an enormous number.”
“Indeed. Terrifying. And do you know what makes it even worse? As nomads, they sustain themselves by looting supplies as they advance south. Their mobility is unmatched. That makes them extraordinarily dangerous.”
Wow… I hadn’t even considered that angle.
The Suksin Tribe. North of Shanxi Province lay endless grasslands, wastelands, and highlands—cold, vast regions where the Empire estimated millions lived. Compared to the Empire’s total population, it was only about one-twentieth. But every single nomad, from children to the elderly, was trained in horsemanship and archery. On top of that, they had their own inherited martial arts. Individually, those techniques couldn’t match the refined schools of the Central Plains, but combined with expert riding skills, they became devastating.
“I… see.”
“Your face has gone pale, Blue-Eyed Mad Physician.”
“I’m worried about what’s coming.”
“Rest easy. The White Qilin Medical Pavilion will be permitted to stay in the rear and focus solely on treating the wounded. We will not draft your martial personnel into frontline combat units.”
Hmm. First the Admiral Eunuch, now Wangya Ju—everyone keeps saying the same thing. ‘Rest easy. Don’t worry.’ What is this? Are they telling me to bring an umbrella because hellfire is about to rain?
If he were a naive native of this Murim world, he might have wept with gratitude at the assurances from the Emperor’s confidant and an Imperial Prince. But Jin Cheon-hee was an Earthling. He had studied human history. He knew better than to take politicians’ or salespeople’s promises at face value.
How should I arrange my defenses to stay alive?
What worried him most wasn’t even the physical danger. It was whether his mind would hold up. Would they truly keep him in the rear? Still… with Wangya Ju’s level of martial power, wouldn’t it be relatively safe? And Master is coming too…
About two percent of him clung to that faint hope.
“Will Your Highness take command as Commander-in-Chief?”
“No, no. Why would I shoulder such a headache? I’m quite good at killing my fellow citizens of the Empire, but fighting foreign tribes? That’s not my area of expertise.”
She was likely referring—cynically—to the civil war during the succession struggle. Jin Cheon-hee hadn’t expected her to say it so bluntly.
His master spoke up. “Then who will assume the role of Commander-in-Chief?”
“Yuk Heon.”
At that name, Zhuge Rin’s eyes widened just slightly.
“Yuk Heon. So he has already reached the rank of Great General.”
Wangya Ju smiled. “He’s so outstanding it almost feels overdue. Come to think of it, didn’t you, Zhuge Rin, once treat Yuk Heon when he suffered from the Seven Yang Severed Meridians? Yuk Heon—the eldest son of the Yuk Clan, one of the Empire’s most prestigious and powerful clans.”
The Yuk Clan. Descendants of Lu Xun from the Three Kingdoms era. Now one of the great noble houses, producing generations of high officials and quite a few renowned generals.
I didn’t expect Master’s past to come up like this.
Zhuge Rin answered calmly, “Yes. Severed Meridians conditions are not limited to the Yin type.”
“If there is Nine Yin Severed Meridians, there must be its counterpart—Nine Yang Severed Meridians. Yuk Heon’s case wasn’t quite Nine Yang, but Seven Yang Severed Meridians.”
“Fortunately, I was able to treat it back then.”
“You are far too modest. Even if it wasn’t as grave as Nine Yin, wasn’t Seven Yang still considered incurable? Curing it makes you a lifelong benefactor of the Yuk Clan. Truly!”
The Yuk Clan had long been one of the White Qilin Medical Pavilion’s major sponsors. Jin Cheon-hee had assumed some connection to the Zhuge lineage existed, but he hadn’t realized it ran this deep.
Wangya Ju turned to Jin Cheon-hee. “Do you know what happens when Seven Yang Severed Meridians is cured?”
“Hmm… I have no data on that.”
“Hahaha. White Qilin Divine Physician, it seems you haven’t taught your disciple everything yet.”
Zhuge Rin gave a small nod. “In truth, it was because a rare spiritual medicine happened to match perfectly at the time. I cannot claim it as pure medical skill. And that particular herb can no longer be found.”
“Is that so? You are too strict with yourself. If it were me, I would have boasted about it everywhere.”
Wangya Ju rubbed her chin thoughtfully, then explained to Jin Cheon-hee. “When Seven Yang Severed Meridians is cured, the body transforms into a Super Yang Physique—a constitution that rivals the Supreme Yang Physique.”
“Aha…”
“That’s why, if they cultivate martial arts of the Burning Yang True Qi school, they can become extraordinarily powerful. Though becoming a Great General requires far more than raw strength alone.”
“Why is that?” Jin Cheon-hee feigned ignorance and let her continue.
Wangya Ju grew animated. “A Great General must also master the art of war. Without excellence in strategy and tactics, one cannot hold the title! That is why generals are divided into Strategist Generals and Martial Generals. Those who excel at both are exceedingly rare.”
“I see.”
Just like surviving in Earth’s corporate world, Jin Cheon-hee kept nodding and tossing in encouraging sounds. Wangya Ju clearly enjoyed his attentive audience; he was, after all, exactly the kind of talent her estate needed.
She pressed on, “Why was Guan Yu called the Enemy of Ten Thousand? And why do shrines still stand in his honor today as a guardian deity? Because he was both a supreme Martial General and a brilliant Strategist General—and the very symbol of loyalty.”
“Aha…”
“Lu Bu may have surpassed Guan Yu in pure martial might, but he was no genius of strategy.”
“Indeed!”
“They say strategists plan the grand design, but in the heat of tactics—where intellect and martial power meet—the one who possesses both prevails.”
“Then there must also be cases where brilliant strategy collapses because tactics are blocked!”
The ancestor of the Zhuge Clan was, after all, Zhuge Liang. Jin Cheon-hee clapped enthusiastically, practically cheering her on. Wangya Ju shrugged and kept going, his reactions so perfectly timed and genuine that they betrayed the polish of a seasoned social veteran, not a novice.
“Precisely. Strategy is the big picture. Tactics are the tools and maneuvers used on the battlefield—a subset of strategy. Anyone who fails to grasp this can never become a true Strategist General.”
“Ooh…”
Jin Cheon-hee clenched his fists, eyes sparkling.
“In that sense, unless someone masters both strategy and tactics, becoming both a Strategist General and a Martial General, it is nearly impossible to rise to Great General.”
Wangya Ju lectured earnestly to a pair of master strategists. And the master strategists—being strategists—pretended earnestly not to already know every word. Because adaptation was the essence of strategy, no matter how miserable the organization.
Besides, Wangya Ju was a fairly decent lord.
His master fanned himself with a pleased expression. “At the time, I predicted Yuk Heon would become a master someday. I never imagined he would climb all the way to Great General.”
An old acquaintance of Master’s. Perhaps even a friend?
There was a noticeably warmer tone in Zhuge Rin’s voice compared to when he spoke of other martial sects. Since this wasn’t a Murim clan, perhaps fewer grudges were involved.
Wangya Ju laughed. “Hahaha. It was after curing the Seven Yang Severed Meridians that this fellow earned the title White Qilin Divine Physician. No one in the Gangho had ever healed a five-star-or-higher Severed Meridians before. Of course, the Yuk Clan gave their full cooperation.”
“Wow…”
“Hahaha, you flatter me too much. My disciple cured me, with me, a Nine Yin Severed Meridians patient. Isn’t that the true meaning of ‘blue surpassing indigo’?”
In that moment, a soft halo seemed to glow around his master.
As expected, the White Qilin Divine Physician brushes off praise for himself but leaps at any chance to boast about his disciple.
Was the favoritism that obvious?
Regardless, Zhuge Rin continued smoothly, “Ah, is that so? In that case, I was just thinking of bragging about the new sweet treat my disciple created. It’s even shaped like a carp.”
“Ah, no! You must brag! You absolutely must!” Wangya Ju waved her hands in urgent excitement.
As expected, the fastest way to a person’s heart really was through their stomach. Jin Cheon-hee eventually conceded with a nod, internally thinking, Looks like I need to bring out more snacks.
The reason was clear: his master’s disciple-bragging session was only just beginning.