"Could this be?"

While everyone was staring blankly at the writing on the wall, the caravan member who had found the hut earlier opened his mouth.

"Do you know something?"

"Did you notice something?"

At that, everyone's gaze, including Baek Sowol's, turned to that caravan member.

The caravan member scratched his head awkwardly and said in a voice that seemed to crawl.

"Perhaps it's the insight of the great hero, the White-Robed Sword Immortal? I heard a rumor about something similar once before..."

"What rumor?"

"Well... there's a story passed down in that area that the same phrase was discovered on Mount Hua, which caused a bloodbath on the mountain, dyeing it with blood, and that blood fed the barren rocky mountain, causing plum blossoms to bloom in full."

Baek Sowol frowned at the caravan member's words.

She didn't know the rumor about the place called Mount Hua, but the nickname 'White-Robed Sword Immortal' was familiar.

'White-Robed Sword Immortal? According to Senior Brother, that's Master's nickname, isn't it?'

Then why was a trace of such a master here?

Baek Sowol felt a serious question.

And for good reason. Baek Sowol's party had just entered the Xinjiang region, a place far away from Sichuan where Baek Yoonjun was staying.

The condition of the hut and the writing engraved on the wall was too good for it to have been left in the past.

It looked as if it had been recently engraved.

'An impersonation? Or is there someone else who uses the nickname White-Robed Sword Immortal?'

Baek Sowol looked at the writing on the wall even more intently.

'I don't know the details, but this is different from Master's feeling!'

A ferocious and powerful phrase, as if it would turn you into a handful of blood if you did anything foolish.

It was natural. Because when Baek Yoonjun engraved the phrase, he hadn't performed any martial arts, but had simply engraved a warning.

Whether he intended it or not.

Whatever the intention of the person who engraved it, Baek Sowol felt her body heat up as she looked at the phrase.

Baek Sowol drew her sword.

Chiiing!

A clear sword cry arose from the blade of the White Iron Blue Prefecture.

"Great Hero Baek, what are you doing all of a sudden?!"

"Please step back for a moment."

Baek Sowol ordered the surprised caravan members to step back, and after confirming with her senses that they had retreated, she swung her sword.

The mighty heavy sword she had been swinging until now.

No, that sword was not a heavy sword.

A Tyrant's Sword.

The pressure that seemed to crush the world was imbued in Baek Sowol's sword.

Crack.

The hut exploded in all directions as if crushed by the sky.

At the center of it, Baek Sowol's sword did not stop.

With Baek Sowol at the center, sword strikes spread in all directions as if a storm were rising, devastating the surroundings.

That sword strike continued to stretch out, and eventually.

Crack!

It collapsed a nearby rocky mountain.

Although it was a mountain the size of a hill, far from Mount Tai, the sight of it not just collapsing but being shattered overwhelmed the gazes of everyone there.

Baek Sowol did not stop her sword.

'I can see it.'

She must not stop.

Something was unfolding before Baek Sowol's eyes.

That pitch-black place.

A place that was by no means reality.

Baek Sowol unconsciously understood that place as a space of nothingness.

The one who walks the path of nothingness.

That place where any martial artist above an absolute master walks.

Far from Baek Sowol, familiar footsteps were felt.

Familiar footsteps of martial arts that were far ahead of her.

'Senior Brother.'

A step that was so far ahead that it looked down on her from a dizzyingly high place.

And even from there, in a dizzying place, she could vaguely feel her master's footsteps.

Baek Sowol walked, following that feeling, in that dark place where she could never reach.

In that place like a night sky, Baek Sowol's Tyrant's Sword stretched out in all directions, creating a path.

Before she knew it, Baek Sowol was walking in a place far away from the familiar feelings she had felt.

And in front of her, for some reason, the red-stained river she had seen before was visible.

As Baek Sowol's steps got closer to that place, Baek Sowol knew.

'It's just one step now.'

That the realm called an absolute master was right in front of her.

And that that path would by no means be smooth.

That day, Baek Sowol gained insight, and the caravan members lost their camping spot.

* * *

Baek Yoonjun and Tang Yuhwa returned to their residence and rested well.

And the next day, Tang Yuhwa, whose body was fine.

"Master. Not going for treatment?"

At Tang Yuhwa's indifferent words, Baek Yoonjun's pupils shook violently.

He had already gone on an unwanted outing because of Tang Yuhwa and had even treated numerous people himself.

Even going outside was fatal, but he had come into contact with numerous people.

'If I weren't a homebody introvert who had learned martial arts, I would have died on the road long ago!'

Baek Yoonjun didn't want to go out, even if he died.

He didn't want to go out even if thousands of tons of thunderbolt bombs fell on his house.

"There are plenty of people suffering from illness in the Central Plains."

But he was pushed back by the justification. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

In fact, he could just suppress her with the authority of a master, but for Baek Yoonjun, the extreme homebody introvert, it was a forbidden technique he could not use.

Baek Yoonjun desperately racked his brain.

It was a crisis more severe than when he had almost died at the hands of three neighborhood ruffians because he had just obtained internal energy and was so engrossed that he had mistakenly thought he was strong.

'Is there no suitable justification?'

And so, after pondering for about a moment, a flashing thought passed through Baek Yoonjun's mind.

"Today is class."

"We have to treat the sick."

"If your medical skills are meager, you can't even save the sick you could have saved!"

"!"

At the word 'medical skills', Tang Yuhwa immediately became serious.

'As expected, medical skills are a direct hit for this brat.'

Pleased with his own social skills, Baek Yoonjun moved on to the next step.

"What we will learn this time is long-distance acupuncture."

"Oh."

"You need internal energy."

"Ugh."

As the word 'internal energy' came out of Baek Yoonjun's mouth, Tang Yuhwa's face became as if she were booing.

"Uuuugh."

No, she was actually booing.

She looked as if she was very reluctant.

"What? Why are you like that?"

"Internal energy is used to kill people."

"Why do you think so?"

"Martial artists accumulate internal energy."

"That's true."

"Martial artists tear people apart."

At Tang Yuhwa's indifferent words, Baek Yoonjun was at a loss for words.

'That's true, isn't it?'

Just Baek Yoonjun alone had easily surpassed three digits in the number of bandits and ruffians he had cut down so far.

'And I've never even heard of a doctor who accumulates internal energy.'

On top of that, although Baek Yoonjun's outside knowledge was short, he had never heard of a doctor who accumulated internal energy.

'Would a saintess who uses meteors in a fantasy be more convincing?'

In fact, doctors who used martial arts were common in martial arts novels, but since Baek Yoonjun's knowledge of martial arts was non-existent, he had no choice but to judge based on what he had seen and heard here.

'What should I do? How do I persuade her?'

For some reason, seeing Tang Yuhwa packing her medicinal herbs and medical tools, Baek Yoonjun's heart became anxious.

'Damn it! I can't even persuade her of this, so I can't even become second-rate!'

As he became anxious, he got angry at an unrelated place.

And so, as Baek Yoonjun was self-deprecating inwardly, his mind flashed again.

'Martial arts also develop! There's no law that says medicine can't do the same!'

Baek Yoonjun's mind cooled down, and his thoughts were organized.

Having found his composure, Baek Yoonjun opened his mouth triumphantly with a heart full of leisure.

"Who says so?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is there a law that says only martial artists can accumulate internal energy?"

"That's not it."

"A doctor who uses internal energy! Is there a law that says they can't exist?"

"Hmm."

"By using internal energy, the scope of treatment widens! We might be able to cure diseases that couldn't be cured with existing methods by utilizing internal energy, couldn't we!"

"That's persuasive..."

Tang Yuhwa fell into deep thought.

Then she quickly lifted her head and looked at Baek Yoonjun's eyes intensely.

"It is."

"Right?"

Having persuaded Tang Yuhwa, Baek Yoonjun felt genuinely happy.

He planned to ride this momentum and proceed with the class until the sun set, so that he would absolutely not go outside today.

"Alright, then sit in the full lotus position."

Baek Yoonjun's triumphant words.

Hearing those words, Tang Yuhwa.

"What's the full lotus position?"

She tilted her head.

Baek Yoonjun staggered for a moment and then collected himself.

'Come to think of it, if you're not a martial artist, you have no reason to sit in the full lotus position.'

To be precise, it was a martial artist who learned an internal energy cultivation method.

Although Baek Yoonjun was in a state where he could accumulate internal energy without needing to sit in the full lotus position, in his common sense, internal energy cultivation methods started with sitting in the full lotus position.

'It's good that the class is delayed from the first chapter.'

Since his purpose was half to drag out time from the beginning, it was a satisfactory result for Baek Yoonjun, so he sat in the full lotus position with a satisfied heart.

"You just have to sit like this."

"Okay."

Seeing Baek Yoonjun's demonstration, Tang Yuhwa sat down and struggled to get into the full lotus position.

Crack.

But a twisting sound came from Tang Yuhwa's leg joint.

"Master, it hurts."

With her usual sullen expression but with tears welling up in her eyes, Tang Yuhwa rolled on the floor with her legs twisted.

"Uh, um..."

Seeing that, Baek Yoonjun was at a loss for words.

'Was sitting in the full lotus position that difficult?'

Baek Yoonjun checked Tang Yuhwa's condition with a complicated heart.

'A dislocation? What did she do to get a dislocation?'

A minor dislocation in her leg.

Baek Yoonjun set Tang Yuhwa's bone with a bewildered heart.

Crack.

"It hurts."

Tang Yuhwa rolled on the floor again.

"Internal energy is difficult."

Looking at Tang Yuhwa lying on the floor in a spread-eagle position, Baek Yoonjun organized his complicated feelings.

'Isn't it the full lotus position that's difficult, not the internal energy?'

Tang Yuhwa, who had a hopelessly bad body shape for her age, had a hopelessly bad flexibility.

'Wouldn't a wooden dummy for training be more flexible than her?'

Baek Yoonjun's gaze landed on the scarecrow-cum-wooden dummy standing in the middle of the field.

He felt his complicated feelings become even more complicated.

Although delaying time was what he wanted, he didn't want a delay accompanied by injury.

As he pondered and pondered, Baek Yoonjun's mind flashed again.

'Do you need the full lotus position for an internal energy cultivation method?'

The only time Baek Yoonjun had sat in the full lotus position and operated an internal energy cultivation method was when he had just started martial arts.

He had rarely sat in the full lotus position recently.

Having reached that thought, Baek Yoonjun changed his mind.

"Sit in the most comfortable position."

"Okay."

At Baek Yoonjun's words, Tang Yuhwa squatted on the floor and hugged her knees.

'She looks like a weak kid who's been excluded from gym class, doesn't she?'

Feeling that something was not right, Baek Yoonjun took a position behind Tang Yuhwa.

"I will directly infuse internal energy into your body and teach you how to move it, so close your eyes and observe well."

"Okay."

Having put aside the thought of the posture for now, Baek Yoonjun placed his hand on Tang Yuhwa's back and infused his internal energy.

'What is this?!'

And he was startled.

Tang Yuhwa's body was full of poison.

'I definitely removed most of the poison?!'

Since removing the poison that had seeped into some organs could be fatal, he had no choice but to give up, but he had removed most of the poison.

But now, Tang Yuhwa's body was full of poison.

It looked as if her organs and blood were all made of poison.

'Forget about operating internal energy, I think I have to remove the poison first, don't I?'

Baek Yoonjun carefully burned, gathered, and pulled out the poison so as not to damage Tang Yuhwa's muscles, bones, and internal organs.

When Baek Yoonjun took his hand off Tang Yuhwa's back, a liquid with all sorts of dangerous-looking colors mixed in was floating in a round shape on Baek Yoonjun's hand.

'Wow, how on earth is she alive?'

Baek Yoonjun infused his internal energy into the liquid that seemed like it would surely kill if eaten or touched the skin and threw it far away.

"Is it over?"

Feeling Baek Yoonjun's hand leave her back, Tang Yuhwa stealthily opened her closed eyes and turned her gaze to Baek Yoonjun.

"It's not over. Close your eyes again and wait."

"Okay."

Baek Yoonjun placed his hand on Tang Yuhwa's back again.

Although poison had seeped into various parts of Tang Yuhwa's interior, most of the internal poison had been removed.

'Good. Her condition is not good, so I'll give up on making her create a dantian on her own and make it myself!'

It was a special measure for Tang Yuhwa, whose poison accumulated for some reason even after it was removed.

Although other martial artists would be terrified, in Baek Yoonjun's common sense, it was a cumbersome but sufficiently possible task.

Baek Yoonjun's internal energy reached Tang Yuhwa's meridians.

But it did not flow smoothly.

'What's with all the poison filling the meridians?!'

Instead of internal energy, Tang Yuhwa's meridians were full of poison.

A state where an ordinary person would have died long ago.

If she hadn't met Baek Yoonjun and received treatment, it wouldn't have been strange if she had died in the near future.

'Phew, let's be calm. It's cumbersome, but it's a possible task.'

Baek Yoonjun operated his internal energy meticulously, burning the poison inside the meridians and moving his internal energy at the same time.

"Ugh."

"Endure it. I'm removing the poison from your meridians."

"Okay."

Time flew by like crazy.

"A little more, a little more."

"I'm going to die."

"Bear with it. It's almost done."

Baek Yoonjun somehow succeeded in the very arduous task.

And inside Tang Yuhwa.

'What is this now?'

Something similar to a dantian had taken root.

'Why is it full of poison instead of internal energy?'

Full of all sorts of poisons instead of internal energy.

(End of Chapter)