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Chapter 279
Chapter 279. Those Who Break Walls (5)
Sima Jeong submitted his resignation immediately.
Although he would be the physician in charge of the Taeul Sect, he had been told that no one would interfere with his relief work, and he had been promised sufficient support in the form of medicinal herbs and funds.
He had been provided with the miraculous medical text called the Secret Record of Ten Thousand Herbs, and on top of that, he would be able to make the Spiritual Pill he had poured his heart into researching. It was an opportunity beyond compare.
On the day his resignation was submitted, the Divine Physician Pavilion accepted it in an unprecedented single day.
Е̂ nũ_m̌ а̌
Perhaps they were delighted that the thorn in their eyes, who had endured even after being pushed into a dead-end post, was finally leaving of his own accord.
According to rumors, that very night, all the physicians of the Divine Physician Pavilion gathered and held a banquet.
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Whether they did or not, Sima Jeong disposed of his few belongings and met Jin So-un.
“What is this?”
“It would be difficult to go to Hefei in the middle of winter, would it not? These are travel expenses.”
“...”
Ẅ еb̄ n ō v е̊l Е n u m̌а̌
Sima Jeong stared intently at the promissory note Jin So-un had held out.
Was it normal to give out an amount like this as “travel expenses”?
“Do you not understand the concept of travel expenses?”
“It is you who does not understand, Physician. Even if the Taeul Sect prepares what it can before you arrive, do you think medicinal herbs or people to help with your work will already be ready? Naturally, you should prepare what can be supplied from a large city before you go.”
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“...Even so, if I were to take this money and run away...”
“What can I do about that? I would have to put a bounty on you and count it as a loss. It would mean I misjudged you.”
Е̌ṅ_ŭ ma . і̇ḋ
Sima Jeong could not understand Jin So-un at all.
It was already strange enough that someone who had only just reached twenty had two thousand gold taels in his hands, but he showed no hesitation at all in using that money.
No, beyond that, he seemed to possess absolute certainty that he would not lose it.
Jin So-un even shrugged, as though he had already seen several moves ahead.
“Even if you run away with that money, Physician, you will use it for relief work, use it to help others, and lose all of it. Then what will you do about the next round of relief work?”
“You mean I would be better off attached to the Taeul Sect?”
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“At least as long as the Taeul Sect does not collapse, you will be able to keep doing the work you want.”
The work he wanted.
It was truly strange.
For some reason, he wanted to believe the absurd words of this strange young man.
“Then I suppose I must also work hard to keep the Taeul Sect from collapsing.”
“As long as you make good Spiritual Pills for us, the Taeul Sect will not collapse easily.”
W̄ ѐb n̈ ovеl̃ Ẽ n̈ um ã
...He also had the feeling that he would be squeezed for far more than he expected.
Sima Jeong shook his head and brushed away that ominous feeling.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
“Ahem, about those Spiritual Pills. Are you certain the Calm Heart Pill will suffice? If the cost is the same, perhaps another Spiritual Pill would be better...”
Since he already knew that the Calm Heart Pill was a failure, continuing to make it was nothing but a waste of time and money.
However, Jin So-un, the investor, was firm.
“For now, we need the Calm Heart Pill. Once all the people of the sect have consumed it, please make a new Spiritual Pill after that. In any case, if you are going to make one that suits the Taeul True Scripture, would you not also need to research internal energy?”
Ẇ.е̊ḃ n̊ о̊v е̃ l Ёn ûm ӑ
Listening to Jin So-un, Sima Jeong nodded.
“Understood. However, there is another problem. It is something I experienced when I made the Calm Heart Pill before... The medicinal ingredients are extremely difficult to obtain.”
They were not difficult to obtain because they were too precious and expensive.
Rather, because few people sought them out and their prices were not particularly high, medicine shops did not handle them, which made them difficult to acquire.
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When simply preparing medicine, there were many substitute ingredients, so there was no problem. But to make Spiritual Pills, those specific ingredients were necessary.
However, as though this were not even worth worrying about, Jin So-un answered lightly.
Ẅе̇b ñо́v еl̄ Е num̃ӑ
“If you go to Hefei and open a clinic, I will find the medicinal ingredients and bring them.”
“You will?”
“Yes.”
Sima Jeong did not know how he intended to find medicinal ingredients that even veteran herb gatherers struggled to obtain, but he had no choice except to nod.
After all, he also had many things to prepare.
“Then, for now, as you said, I will begin making the preparations I can.”
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Although Hefei was a large city, it could not compare to Wuhan, so he bought medicinal ingredients and tools that could only be obtained in Wuhan and sent them to the Daecheon Merchant Guild in Hefei.
After he had finished preparing to go to Hefei, a problem arose...
It was that this was currently the winter break.
Not only the regular routes operated by the escort agencies, but even the group travel packages specially operated during winter break had all sold out.
Just as he was worried that he might have to take a horse to Hefei alone despite this being practically his first journey there, Yuhan Escort Agency contacted him.
“You are fortunate. Five seats were canceled all at once just now.”
W̌ еbn̆ о̆v̊ê l Е̄n̄ uṁӓ
“Five seats?”
One or two seats might have been understandable, but how could five seats open up all at once?
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“Well, what was it again? They said their Eldest Senior Brother was going to walk there instead... In any case, they canceled with terribly gloomy faces.”
“To Hefei?”
“That is right. I knew the warriors attending the academy were unusual, but I found myself wondering whether they truly needed to be that unusual. To think they are walking all the way to Hefei in the dead of winter...”
Sima Jeong felt as though he knew who the academy students the Escort was talking about were.
Е n̆ŭm̈а. і̊d̈
“...Indeed.”
The Escort, not knowing of the ominous feeling that had once more raised its head in Sima Jeong’s chest, added as though doing him a favor.
“If you ever meet such people, sir, run away as quickly as possible. It is best not to associate with people like that.”
“...”
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Sima Jeong touched the two-thousand-tael promissory note inside his robe from over his outer garment and seriously wondered whether he had made a grave mistake.
“...”
Е n̄ u mа̃
No matter how long he thought about it, no answer came.
“Haa... Haa...”
Her breath rose to the very tip of her throat.
The act of walking, which she had never once thought difficult before, felt unfamiliar and arduous.
She knew the reason all too well.
‘Damn it, he wants us to move while circulating qi...’
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Hong Sa-ryeon had never cursed aloud no matter what hardship she faced in her life, but after leaving Wuhan, not a single day passed without her spewing curses inwardly.
But only for a moment.
“Ahem! It is slipping again! Again!”
Before she even had time to curse, the stern rebuke came, and the killing intent that constricted her entire body made every hair on her body stand on end.
She had not felt such killing intent even during the martial duels at the academy.
Perhaps if someone killed another person’s parents for no reason, they would receive killing intent like this.
Ẃ е̄ b̀_n о v ёl Еn ũ m̃ а̊
Yet it was exceedingly strange.
She had never even behaved disrespectfully toward Hall Master Jin Tae-san, so why was this mad Senior Brother unleashing such killing intent upon her?
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“Are you not going to do it properly?”
“...”
When they were young, he had certainly been someone with many delicate and gentle sides.
Whenever he was going through something difficult and she offered him comfort, he had forced a smile onto a face so frail it seemed heartbreaking...
Е n̊ ǔ_m а́.і̄d
“Hm? Do you not hear me? You have all grown sloppy! Start again!”
Yet now, for some reason, he had become so savage that if there were a yaksha in hell, surely it would look like that.
‘Haa...’
Early this year, when she met the Gold-Silver-Copper Brothers at the academy, their movements had been exceedingly strange, so she asked them how it had come about.
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That was when she first learned about Moving Exercise.
A Qi Circulation and Breathing method that allowed one to gather internal energy bit by bit all day long.
E nu_ma
Of course she could not help being tempted.
However, when she tried practicing it for the first time, she was so startled that she did not dare attempt it again.
With even the smallest mistake, a sense of danger and fear surged over her as though she might die, and all the strength would drain from her body as easily as when the strength left her muscles.
She had been convinced that maintaining ordinary daily life while doing such a thing was absolutely impossible.
‘I certainly thought that...’
Just as she kept letting out deep sighs, sweating profusely in the middle of winter and gasping for breath, Eun-ho handed her a water flask.
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“Senior Sister, please drink some water.”
Sa-ryeon stared blankly at the water flask Eun-ho held out.
He must have trained so intensely that steam was rising from the hand gripping the water flask.
Sa-ryeon was truly, disgustingly exhausted. She wanted to grab the Eldest Senior Brother by the collar and force him to stop right away.
But she could not bring herself to stop. Because of these children.
“B-Brother... Urk.”
W е̃b̄ñ о v̀е l Е̌ n̂ŭm а
“Huuk! We have to endure...!”
The three brothers wore iron rings on their arms and legs, and their leather vests were fitted with countless steel plates.
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At least half of the slots were still empty for now, but that Yama-like Senior Brother seemed to intend to fill even those soon.
“...”
Seeing her junior brothers follow without complaint despite being in a harder situation than her, she was too ashamed to say that she could not do it.
Sa-ryeon barely shook her stiff neck.
Е ñü m̈ а.. іd̆
“I am fine. Even drinking water is difficult right now.”
It was madness to add unnecessary movement while maintaining Moving Exercise.
Right now, reducing movement as much as possible was more important than anything else.
“Please drink anyway. You need to, so you can endure.”
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“Hm?”
Eun-ho spoke with his shoulders drooping and a gloomy expression.
Ẁ ӗb̃n̈о̇v̇еľ Е̇n̊u̇_mа̄
“In any case, the intensity of the training will not decrease.”
His face looked as though he had already lived through the end of the world...
Suddenly, she became curious.
“You and the others did this training during the Regular Exam as well?”
“Yes.”
“Madness. This is madness...”
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While everyone else made a fuss, saying that devoting all their focus to the Regular Exam was not enough, he had taught them Moving Exercise under the name of training.
At some point, that Yama-like Senior Brother must have gone mad.
No, it was certain. If a person’s memory was too good, their mind must become strange.
When he was young, he had been crushed by bad memories and become frail, and now those bad memories had driven him mad.
There was no other way to explain it.
As Hong Sa-ryeon was constructing her own hypothesis, Eun-ho added,
Ẅè b̊ n о v̄ё ĺ Ё ǹǔ.m а
“Even so, thanks to that, we survived the Regular Exam and made it this far.”
“...”
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“I realized it after entering the academy. From the beginning, for a place like the Taeul Sect... Ah, Senior Sister, I apologize. In any case, for a sect like ours, getting even one person accepted is like plucking a star from the heavens.”
How else could there have been people who did not hesitate to use a trick like deliberately entering an insignificant sect in order to enter the academy through the Special Admission Track? People like Gye Cheol-yeong.
“Four people from such a sect entered through the Regular Exam. So even though it was difficult, I suppose Eldest Senior Brother had a deeper intention. Of course, that must be the same even now.”
“...”
Ẃѐ b n̊òv̀_el̆ Е̂ń u m а̂
Sa-ryeon could not open her mouth.
Those words from Eun-ho’s mouth were originally words she should have said.
Whether he knew of Sa-ryeon’s frustration and shame or not, Eldest Senior Brother’s shout rang out in every direction.
“Lee Eun-ho! Do you want to go again from the beginning?”
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“Ah! Yes! I am going! I am going now! ...Senior Sister, please hold on just a little longer.”
Eun-ho quickly handed her the water flask and began running, stepping through complex directions.
Wе b̆ ňо̆v е l̊ Е̌ǹ uḿ ä
Sa-ryeon clenched her teeth.
Eun-ho had come to deliver the water flask to her while learning the endlessly complex Movement Art called the Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art.
‘I cannot fall behind. I cannot fall behind, but...’
She had not entered the academy through the Special Admission Track because of her skill.
It had been consideration from beginning to end.
A heavy concession she had received because she was the Sect Leader’s daughter.
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If she had not been the Sect Leader’s daughter, could she have stood in the same place as them?
In that instant, the figure of Jin So-un, whom she had felt closer to than anyone, seemed terribly distant.
‘The distance... is too great.’
“SNOOORE...”
“WHOOO...”
“CHOKE— COUGH! COUGHCOUGH—”
Е̂ǹū mа̀
“Is he not going to die like that?”
Jin So-un watched Geum-pyo’s snoring, then tossed a small piece of firewood into the campfire.
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Small sparks rose, drifted through the air for a moment, and vanished.
“Are you not sleeping?”
When Jin So-un turned his head, Sa-ryeon was staring fixedly at the flames.
“Senior Brother.”
Еṅ u̇ mа
“Yes.”
A drifting ember fell with a soft tap onto Sa-ryeon’s sleeve, leaving behind a scorch mark.
“Why did you yield to me?”
At the sudden question, Jin So-un tilted his head.
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“What are you talking about?”
“The Special Admission Track... Why did you yield it to me?”
Е́ ňùm а̌
Jin So-un’s mouth pressed shut.
At that silence, Sa-ryeon’s heart dropped with a thud.
When she soon realized the truth, a hollow laugh escaped her.
“So it was like that after all... Because I am the Sect Leader’s daughter... You did not have to do that.”
The cruel truth carved at her heart.
The scorch mark left on her sleeve only grew darker.
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“If I had known I would fall this far behind, we should have sent Yu-seong or another disciple instead. Then I would not have held our senior and junior brothers back...”
When she had first entered the academy, she had certainly been filled with motivation.
After receiving Marrow-Cleansing and Hair-Shedding from the Divine Sword and learning from him, she had been confident that she could protect her senior and junior brothers.
But once time passed and she came to her senses, she was still receiving consideration from them.
“If only we had given the chance to another disciple instead...”
“What are you talking about?”
W̃е́ b̃ ṅо v̄ e l E n̊ ũ mа̃
Jin So-un’s sharp voice cut off Sa-ryeon’s words.
“The Special Admission Track was neither a concession nor consideration. The opportunity went to the person who deserved to obtain it.”
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“...But during the last martial duel, clearly...”
“You do not know!”
“...?”
Jin So-un’s gaze tangled with a complicated light. Longing, regret, even anger...
Еǹ ŭ m̂ӓ.і̀ ḋ
He looked like someone remembering something she did not know.
Before that indescribably complicated gaze, Sa-ryeon’s mind went blank.
“That was... so naturally yours.”
“...Senior Brother?”
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“Hoo...”
A sorrowful memory rose to mind.
Е̇num̌å
“One hour before training began, you came out first and trained. After training ended, you swung your sword until it was time for dinner.”
“...”
“For the sake of the Taeul Sect, you even considered marrying Gye Cheol-yeong, whom you despised...”
Sa-ryeon’s face flushed hot.
“If... if things had gone according to plan, the one who came to the academy would have been Gye Cheol-yeong.”
“What do you mean...”
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“Later, you would have led the junior brothers as a low-ranking warrior and performed mandatory service in the Murim Alliance.”
“...Senior Brother?”
Sa-ryeon would not know.
That this was not a “hypothetical,” but a “fact.”
That he had personally experienced all of these facts.
“Gye Cheol-yeong would have worked the Taeul Sect’s junior brothers like slaves while filling his own pockets, and you would have stood against him to stop it.”
W е́ b̃nȯ v̂ ѐ l̄ Е̇ ň ū m a
“...”
“Then, in the end, the engagement would have been broken, and your circumstances would have become harsh. Even so, you would have done your best until the very end to protect the Taeul Sect...”
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Stories Sa-ryeon could not understand continued to spill from Jin So-un’s mouth.
Listening to him, Sa-ryeon felt a strange emotion.
Everything Jin So-un was saying was a matter of “if.”
Yet for some reason, her heart ached.
Е ň u m̆à
And above all...
Because Eldest Senior Brother’s face, as though he had experienced everything himself, was twisted with anger and sorrow to the point that it seemed it might collapse at any moment.
Sa-ryeon could not bring herself to say anything.
“This worthless Senior Brother...”
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Jin So-un bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.
“...would only have run away in order to avoid Gye Cheol-yeong. Because of that, you would have suffered.”
Ẃе̄ bn̊ о v̊ě ĺ Е n̆u mа
“...”
“Because I failed to do what I should have done, in the end, you...”
Jin So-un swallowed the rest of his words and let out a sigh.
Before she knew it, his gaze had returned to normal.
“...In any case, the Special Admission Track was originally yours. It was neither a concession nor consideration.”
What had that been just now?
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It was a strange sensation, as though she had heard of her own life, one that she herself did not know.
While Sa-ryeon remained unable to say a word, Jin So-un’s voice continued.
“Recovering the Taeul True Scripture was pure luck. If we did not have the Taeul True Scripture, I would not even have dared to take the Regular Exam. Then you would still have lived desperately to protect the disciples of the Taeul Sect. Am I wrong?”
“...”
“Do not grow anxious simply because you are a little late. I know how much you care for the Taeul Sect. But if those thoughts go too far and gnaw away at you, then in the end, that will be for no one’s sake.”
Jin So-un’s face, which had been stiff, soon formed a forced smile.
Ẇеbn õ v е̂ l̈ Е̌n ú m̃ а
It was the thin, delicate smile he had often shown in the past.
“Do not worry. You have always done admirably well. Of course, you will continue to do well in the future. I know that better than anyone.”
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Unlike the words “I believe in you” that she had always heard from her father, which had felt like a burden on her shoulders, Senior Brother’s words, “I know,” made her heart swell.
That was why she wanted to receive confirmation even more.
“Can I truly do well?”
Because if Eldest Senior Brother said so, perhaps it really might be true.
Е ňum̀ а́ . id
“Of course! You will have no choice but to do well.”
“But I have no confidence.”
“Do not worry about that.”
Jin So-un spoke in a tone more certain than ever.
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“You will have no choice but to do well.”
“What kind of thing is that to say...”
Eń ù.m̄ а̃
She complained for no reason, but in truth, she felt relieved.
Eldest Senior Brother had, before she knew it, become a pillar firmly supporting the Taeul Sect.
If this person said so, then it truly must be...
“First, put this on.”
Hm?
THUD.
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As though it were nothing much, Jin So-un tossed something in front of Sa-ryeon.
What fell at Sa-ryeon’s feet was...
“It is nothing special. It is what those fellows are wearing too.”
An iron ring and a vest fitted with steel plates.
They were sinking into the ground, unable to withstand their own weight.
“Wh-what... is this...”
Ēǹü m а̂
“Seeing that you have so many distracting thoughts, it seems you have become used to Moving Exercise. First, put those on, and you should also slowly begin learning the Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art.”
Sa-ryeon’s face turned deathly pale.
Dilarang mengopy novel dari Enuma.id.
No, he had been saying such heartwarming things until just now, and then he suddenly did this?
“Do not worry about anything. I will make it so that even if you want to fail, you will not be able to. You simply have to think of nothing and train. Do not worry at all.”
The thin, delicate smile that had rested on Jin So-un’s face had vanished without a trace.
“What are you doing? Put them on.”
Е n ů m ā
...Before she knew it, a yaksha-like smile had risen over his face.
It was a bitterly cold winter day, cold enough to make the flesh ache.
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