When Jin Cheon-hee opened his eyes, a familiar ceiling greeted him.

It was the Second White Qilin Medical Pavilion, specifically the annex.

He knew this immediately because he had designed the ceiling himself. The structure of the pillars and the overhead lattice, bizarre to the eyes of any ordinary Gangho warrior, could not belong anywhere else.

The annex was a sanctuary reserved for high-ranking individuals—such as Imperial Royalty or the Martial Righteous Alliance Leader—or those burdened with dangerous secrets. While some officials grumbled about the restricted access, the facility was built for protection. In the Gangho, lying in an unsecured ward could lead to secrets leaking, followed swiftly by the permanent silencing of the patient.

It was a fortress designed to protect both physician and patient, concealed by bamboo groves and delicate array formations.

“Ouch… everything hurts.”

Jin Cheon-hee subconsciously brought his hand to his left arm. To his surprise, there was no trace of poison qi. It seemed he had gained complete control over it.

Turning his head, he saw Yeo Ha-ryoon meditating in the morning sunlight. It resembled standard internal energy cultivation, yet his hair swayed gently despite the absence of a breeze. It was a strange phenomenon, a realm the Heavenly Demon had demonstrated in the past. She exhibited such signs even when drinking wine or eating sweet and sour crab, not just during meditation.

Let’s check my condition first.

Although Cheon-hee had unleashed poison qi against the Ten Heavenly Lords and inhaled some himself, there were no major symptoms of intoxication. Thanks to the venom of the Five Poisons Sect, his Five-Elemental Mutual Overcoming Poison technique had become equally profound.

The pain in the arm has decreased significantly.

Was the answer to unleash it freely rather than merely suppressing it? He knew the theory, but a misstep could have cost him his left arm. Losing an arm meant ending his life as a martial artist. More importantly, it would make performing surgery as a physician of the Surgical Arts Department impossible, which was why he had hesitated.

But firing it off at the last moment with a ‘screw it’ attitude turned out to be the correct decision.

Had Master known, he would have undoubtedly smacked the back of my head with his fan.

His hand was torn, but fortunately, the muscles and bones were intact. It was not a debilitating injury. The bandaged area was almost healed, likely due to the effects of a precious medicinal orb.

Hmm, better than I thought?

Was it because Yeo Ha-ryoon had intervened at the final moment?

Just then, a heavy wave of energy resonated through the room—Vrummm.

Yeo Ha-ryoon’s eyes opened halfway.

“You’re awake. Hyung.”

“Yeah. How did you get here?”

“Dark Cloud was someone I intended to devour for a long time. The place where I was on a mission happened to be close to Hangzhou, and you had already ruined that person. Was there any reason to hesitate?”

“Dark Cloud is… hmm. Dead, I assume.”

“Are you sad? A patient you worked hard to treat met such an end.”

Cheon-hee realized the younger man’s voice wasn’t mocking. He was genuinely curious.

“You… your humanity has worn down even more than before.”

“If you mean the influence of the Star of Heavenly Slaughter, that can’t be helped.”

Yeo Ha-ryoon looked at Cheon-hee as he spoke. He didn’t seem to care whether he received an answer or not.

“However, I need to know if you are distressed by it to adjust my future actions. I would like an answer.”

Is that so?

Did Hyung still remain in that eroded heart? That meant Yeo Ha-ryoon was still holding onto his humanity. Cheon-hee knew he had to answer as honestly as possible. If there was even a speck of falsehood, this sharp child would react to that contradiction.

“First… I realized a lot through this incident. Beating up a patient I treated with my own hands is truly… a shitty feeling. But once the treatment is done and they’re discharged? If returning to the grudges of the Gangho is unavoidable… can you understand that?”

“Hmm.”

It would be easier to explain to a three-year-old. It felt like explaining the color red to a blind person.

“Look. If I start caring about the life and death of every discharged patient, I can’t live as a physician.”

“It doesn’t feel great, but you don’t take it deeply to heart. Is that what you mean?”

“Exactly. Especially with Unorthodox or Demonic Cult patients like this time. What can I do? Saving them in that moment is enough. Their life after that is for them to navigate.”

“I see. So it’s fine.”

Did I convey it well?

Yeo Ha-ryoon continued, “After that, the Heavenly Demon ordered the believers to track down and exterminate the Blood Immortal Cult, making it easy to hunt them. I had a feeling Hyung would be involved somehow, and I was right as always.”

“I see.”

“Especially since Blood Immortal Cultists were discovered within the Demonic Cult, they are priority targets for elimination.”

It was like that in the original novel too. The Blood Immortal Cult had infiltrated not only the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions but even the Demonic Cult. Perhaps that was why, when the time came, they went mad everywhere, clashing with the dark side of the Orthodox factions and causing a massive explosion of violence.

‘Is this the scenery created by the hypocrites and fanatics of the Gangho? Laughable.’

In the original work, Yeo Ha-ryoon was like a god of destruction sweeping them away. It was a common pattern when the protagonist hailed from the Demonic Cult, but regardless, under the name of the Star of Heavenly Slaughter, he judged everything with blood, burning and purifying the filth.

“Then I will go. Hyung.”

“W-Wait, wait! Why the rush?”

Normally, he would try to stay a bit longer if given the chance, but now he was trying to leave first? The reason was obvious.

“The Star of Heavenly Slaughter is really hard on you, isn’t it?”

“There isn’t much left inside me. So, it is better to go where there are no people.”

It meant the impulse to kill Hyung, or commit a massacre in front of Hyung, was becoming too strong. He was leaving before he turned into a butcher of men.

“Wrist.”

“Hmm?”

“Give me your wrist so I can check your pulse.”

At Hyung’s command, Yeo Ha-ryoon eventually offered his arm.

While checking his pulse, Yeo Ha-ryoon didn’t say a single word. To soothe the madness of this Star of Heavenly Slaughter protagonist, Cheon-hee knew he had to chatter about something. It would be trouble if the boy lost to the Star later and went around tearing people apart.

“What happened to the Three Perfections Tracking Tiger?”

“…She left with her enemy—no, her younger sister. She said she was going to find the Unorthodox Alliance Leader.”

“Hmm? The Unorthodox Alliance Leader?”

“There were two souls in one body. That can’t be normal. Ah, she drove iron needles into all the tendons of her sister’s limbs.”

“Ah, right.”

“She placed restraints one would only use on a mortal enemy, yet you are not surprised, Hyung.”

“…That too must be the Three Perfections Tracking Tiger’s path.”

“She said she would send something to you soon as thanks through an intermediary. She mentioned finding a supreme artifact while tracking her sister, but I don’t know the details.”

Right.

The Demonic Cult, where artifacts and divine objects were common enough to trip over. A place where everything precious in the world existed, except human life. An ordinary martial artist would have gone wide-eyed, but this guy seemed unimpressed.

Then, Jin Cheon-hee said, “First, removing the brainwashing on her sister would be the priority. But even after that, it’s a problem.”

“Hmm?”

“The probability of suicide is high. Probably. Since the sins accumulated would be immense.”

“In that case, wouldn’t it be right to destroy the Blood Immortal Cult together? Revenge and preventing recurrence would be true repentance.”

That’s a wuxia protagonist for you.

The cliché where a protagonist kidnapped by an assassin group as a child is brainwashed into committing all sorts of evil deeds, then regains their senses and takes revenge on the group that made them that way.

You can do that because you’re the protagonist, Ha-ryoon-ah. Ordinary people aren’t sane by the time the brainwashing breaks.

Explaining this would be meaningless. Wasn’t Yeo Ha-ryoon himself fighting to maintain his reason while being consumed by the Star of Heavenly Slaughter? He was born with the mental fortitude of a protagonist.

“By the way, you’ve become incredibly strong. It hasn’t even been a year, has it?”

“I merely killed those who needed killing. Walking the path of blood, I just arrived here.”

As expected of the Star of Heavenly Slaughter. Did he get stronger the more he killed? Until reaching the Realm of Transformation, he rarely bloodied his hands, but now it seemed he showed no mercy even to other Junior Cult Leaders.

Yeo Ha-ryoon himself seemed to be wandering in a bloodbath.

The Demonic Cult was truly strange; the stronger one became, the more one had to see blood.

Considering the timeline of the original novel, the early part had passed, so was it roughly the middle? The bloody path where he reaches the Realm of Transformation, crushes the Blood Immortal Cult, and kills the corrupt of the Gangho.

In the process, many innocents get swept up and die, and Yeo Ha-ryoon falls into grief but is consumed by the Star of Heavenly Slaughter again, rampaging and killing.

Such was the life of a wuxia protagonist. Especially serious protagonists from the Demonic Cult.

So, Cheon-hee was in no position to say anything to the Three Perfections Tracking Tiger.

The reason he couldn’t tell the Three Perfections Tracking Tiger to abandon her sister was simple: right now, Cheon-hee couldn’t abandon either Yeo Ha-ryoon or Sama Hyeon. Especially Yeo Ha-ryoon, who would be forced to crave blood regardless of his will, living with the Heavenly Punishment that paralyzed reason at the scent of gore.

“How do you create ten Aura Spheres simultaneously?”

“Thanks to Hyung. That bizarre training helped. Thanks to it, I obtained my current martial prowess.”

Oho, my training helped! Indeed!

Cheon-hee had been secretly writing a martial arts manual about this, so that was good news.

After chatting about this and that with Yeo Ha-ryoon, it was time to get to the main point, so Cheon-hee cautiously broached the subject.

“It seems you’ve only been eating Fasting Pills lately. Is your nutrition okay?”

“Hmm.”

Yeo Ha-ryoon in Supreme Heavenly Demon also ate only Fasting Pills. Because he said everything tasted like sawdust. Slaughtering people day after day, it was understandable to have no appetite, but…

Still, now that Yeo Ha-ryoon… although he killed a lot of people, compared to the original work, didn’t he have enough leeway to eat something?

“Hmm…”

Yeo Ha-ryoon didn’t answer, only uttering his characteristic low hum.

“Hyung will cook for you. Wait a moment…”

“It’s fine. Hyung.”

The hand grabbing Cheon-hee’s sleeve felt somewhat desperate.

“What is it?”

Yeo Ha-ryoon sighed and opened his mouth, “I cannot taste anything.”

“What?”

“It’s been a while since the Star of Heavenly Slaughter intensified… Hmm. So ultimately, there is no big difference between eating Fasting Pills or noodles.”

So in the novel, tasting sawdust didn’t mean a loss of appetite, but literally physically tasting sawdust.

“…Is it too strange?”

Seeing no answer, the boy seemed anxious.

“No, no. Uh. Uh… Right. The Star of Heavenly Slaughter is a field not well-researched even within the Medical Pavilion. So if you explain the symptoms clearly, we can invest budget and time to gather cases… and research…”

“…You’re flustered. Hyung.”

“Uh…”

Yeah. Jin Cheon-hee was flustered.

Even if the Star of Heavenly Slaughter was shitty, did it have to take away the joy of eating?

Cheon-hee had thought tasting sawdust was a metaphor. Yesterday his brother had slaughtered a comrade with his own hands, today he slaughtered a traitor—it seemed natural for him to chew on Fasting Pills.

Honestly, if he were eating duck noodles with chili oil after that, he’d be a psychopath, not a protagonist.

“Uh.”

What should I say?