Death always exists wherever life exists.

And in the gaps between countless deaths, there are always people who move to help others slip past it.

That’s what doctors were where I lived.

And as if this place was also somewhere people lived, the Central Plains had physicians too.

If there was a difference, it was that the medicine practiced here was... different.

That was only natural.

Unlike the world that leaned on modern tools—

This was a world where ordinary people and superhuman martial artists lived side by side.

And because physicians here had to treat superhumans whose bodies carried inner power, the era and the methods were cut from an entirely different cloth.

‘To treat a martial artist, the physician has to use inner power too.’

Just studying medicine wasn’t enough to treat a martial artist.

You had to understand the meridians where inner power flowed.

You had to study, obsessively, how the inner power stored in the dantian moved—and how that flow affected the body.

That was why physicians in this era were all the more precious.

And even among them, there was one physician martial artists treated like a god.

The Medical Immortal.

That was him.

If someone still had breath, he could save them like it was nothing.

And there were even legends that he had saved the dead.

Even—

‘They said he treated people who reached an inner demon... and even people who fell into qi distortion.’

Conditions with almost no treatment at all—things that were supposed to heal only through self-realization and a miracle—

They said the Medical Immortal succeeded anyway.

‘......Does that even make sense?’

Qi distortion was exactly what it sounded like—your meridians and inner power twisting apart until you became little more than a living corpse.

And you’re telling me that was treated here, not even in the modern world I knew?

I’d heard the stories, but I couldn’t believe them.

‘And besides.’

The reason I couldn’t believe it so easily was simple.

‘......Nobody knows who he is.’

No one knew the Medical Immortal’s true identity.

No one knew where he’d gone.

It was ridiculous.

‘How does it make sense that nobody knows who he is?’

There were endless stories about his achievements and his existence—yet nobody knew who the Medical Immortal actually was.

The last time anyone even talked about him was more than ten years ago.

And since then, there hadn’t been a single story of someone being treated by him, or even seeing him.

‘So he either died... or vanished.’

And then, out of nowhere, Jegal Jin brought him up.

Said the Medical Immortal was at Mount Hua.

Told me to persuade him and bring him back.

I had no choice but to panic.

“......The Medical Immortal is at Mount Hua?”

Mount Hua in Shaanxi.

One of the Nine Great Sects that governed the mountain ranges of Shaanxi—famous for the most beautiful swordsmanship.

And just like the Small Moon Unit of the Blue Moon Sect, or the Taiji Sword Unit of Wudang—

A powerful force with the renowned Plum Blossom Sword Unit.

That was Mount Hua in Shaanxi.

‘And the Medical Immortal is there?’

Jegal Jin said the Medical Immortal was at Mount Hua.

‘......Why would the Medical Immortal be there?’

How could someone who vanished end up at Mount Hua?

And how did Jegal Jin even know?

I had a lot of questions, but—

‘The most unsettling part is that he’s making me do it.’

He told me to bring the Medical Immortal.

That was what made my head throb the most.

‘Persuasion...’

He wasn’t telling me to search.

He knew the location—so he wanted me to persuade him and bring him.

Persuade.

My brow furrowed at that word. Which meant—

‘He doesn’t want to come.’

It meant the Medical Immortal didn’t want to come to the Alliance.

And you want me to drag him here?

It was beyond baffling.

The problem was—

‘It means Divine Spear is in a state where it has to be the Medical Immortal.’

Looking at Divine Spear, it meant they’d judged nobody but the Medical Immortal could save him.

How bad did it have to be...

How bad did it have to be for them to ask me?

‘I get it, though.’

I understood the situation.

The situation was the situation—HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE had scattered spies everywhere, and no one could be trusted.

So he was trusting my eyes—the eyes that could supposedly pick out HEAVEN-BREAKING PALACE’s people.

So—

‘He’s using me to save Divine Spear.’

Sending me to the Medical Immortal had to be about that, too.

“I understand it, but still....”

TAP—!

I set the sword I’d been holding down. My hand was trembling.

“Whew—”

I let my breath out low, then wiped the sweat that had been running down.

When I looked out the window, it was already night.

With the moon hanging there, I glanced around.

I was in a training room prepared inside the Alliance.

I’d swung my sword for a bit to sort my thoughts and check my condition.

‘It’s definite.’

Some of the things that were bothering me had been answered.

‘......My inner power increased.’

The amount of inner power I carried had surged.

No matter how I looked at it, at least double.

Compared to what I used to have, it was overwhelming.

And it wasn’t only my inner power.

‘My body’s different, too.’

Not just the white hair.

‘My muscles...’

Tougher. Stronger.

Strength with more flexibility mixed in—hard to put into words, but I could tell my body had strengthened on the external side.

‘That means my realm increased.’

A number far beyond simple pinnacle.

If I had to judge it—

‘Close to supreme pinnacle?’

A stage beyond pinnacle.

I didn’t think I’d reached it, but it felt right to say I was right before it.

‘How did this happen?’

I clenched my fist and thought through the change.

‘If I trace the cause...’

It was probably—

‘Because I swallowed all those malicious ghosts.’

That black ring floating in the sky.

Swallowing the malicious ghosts that had gathered to become a disaster god.

And—

‘Laying them to rest inside.’

I seized every malicious ghost inside my body and laid them to rest.

And something I’d felt since coming here was—

‘When I lay a malicious ghost to rest... no, more precisely.’

When I laid a spirit to rest, it felt like my inner power increased.

It was like that with Poison Sovereign, and it matched the story with Little Azure Sword, too.

‘Lay a ghost to rest, and my inner power increases.’

I didn’t know if it was a reward or some other mechanism, but it seemed to work that way.

Why did it turn out like this?

I couldn’t understand it—and yet—

‘The bigger question is...’

The being I saw during that process.

And—

‘The man I saw in the dream, too.’

A red-eyed man looking down at me.

He’d eradicated all the malicious ghosts inside my body.

‘What was that?’

Not Yoo Cheongil.

So what was it?

Just seeing him felt ominous.

SWISH.

I grabbed my chest with one hand. Anxiety spiked hard.

That was when—

[What are you doing?]

Yoo Cheongil, watching me, asked.

[Does your chest hurt? Why are you grabbing tits you don’t even have?]

“......”

I narrowed my eyes.

Tits. A filthy word I hadn’t heard in a while.

And of course he said it like that.

I ignored him and brought up something else.

“......My body really changed.”

When I mentioned my realm shifting, Yoo Cheongil snorted.

[Yeah. Even I was shocked when I saw it.]

“You didn’t know?”

[At least it wasn’t something I did. Looks like... kid, you noticed too, but that thing back then was the turning point.]

Swallowing the malicious ghosts. He seemed to recognize that part.

[Strange. I didn’t think you’d grow this fast.]

“Nothing’s wrong with my body, right?”

[Normally, there should be. If that much vast energy seeped into your flesh and forced change... externally, your muscles should’ve torn, or there should’ve been damage.]

Yoo Cheongil swept his narrowed gaze over me.

[But just looking, I don’t feel anything obvious.]

“......That’s a relief.”

If Yoo Cheongil said he didn’t see anything, I could believe it.

But—

[That’s only the outside.]

His tone stayed skeptical.

[Inside is different. Your body wouldn’t be strange if it blew up at any moment.]

“What?”

I stared.

Blow up?

“What are you talking about?”

[What do you think I’m talking about? It’s obvious.]

Yoo Cheongil grinned before he spoke.

It was a deeply bad expression.

[You took in inner power that’s double what you originally had. I don’t know why, but it looks like your muscles avoided damage—sure. But that’s only the surface.]

SSSS—!

“Ghk—!?”

Pain exploded out of nowhere.

The sensation ripping up from my dantian made me drop to my knees.

“Huk...!?”

Why did it suddenly hurt this much?

My vision swam, even my fingertips shaking.

[Hurts, doesn’t it?]

With reddened eyes, I glared at him.

Did he do something?

[Don’t glare like that. If anything, I’m not making it hurt—I’m [N O V E L I G H T] keeping it from killing you.]

“...What... do you mean?”

[Your vessel is still too small to hold that much inner power. So it can’t settle—meaning it’s trying to burst out, and I’m forcing it down. If I didn’t—]

Yoo Cheongil brought both hands together and spread them open like flower petals.

[It could go BOOM and you might die on the spot.]

“......”

He said “burst and die” like it was nothing.

While I was still coughing and gasping, the pain finally eased.

“Hah... ha....”

[I couldn’t tell you earlier because you looked busy. But that’s exactly your state.]

“......Then... what am I supposed to do about it?”

So I wasn’t supposed to be happy about gaining inner power.

Staring reality in the face, I asked him for a method.

[What do you do? You take the energy that’s running loose and calmly pack it into your dantian.]

“...And how do I do that.”

I wanted an actual method.

Yoo Cheongil laughed lightly.

[You can’t.]

“...What?”

[At least you and I can’t. If it was a reasonable amount, I’d do it for you myself, but... it’s beyond that.]

“Then are you saying you just have to keep holding it down?”

[That only works if it’s reasonable. Even I have limits. If you let it seep into your body slowly, it’ll settle, but to do that properly would take at least three years.]

“...Three years....”

[Until then, you can’t increase your energy any further. If it grows again, I don’t know what will happen.]

“......”

If I increased it, I’d burst.

And three years?

I had to freeze my inner power for three whole years?

That was too long—

And just as that thought hit—

[But you can’t afford to wait that long. Which is why this is fortunate.]

“......Fortunate?”

[Yeah. You and I can’t do it—but fortunately, you’re going to someone who can.]

“Someone who can...? Ah.”

Don’t tell me—

“......The Medical Immortal?”

[That’s right.]

The Medical Immortal.

If it was him, he could fix what was wrong with me too—that was what Yoo Cheongil was saying.

“......The Medical Immortal can do something like that?”

Not treating a wound—but adjusting my inner power and stabilizing it?

Was that even within a physician’s domain?

[An ordinary physician can’t. But he’s different. In the first place, he’s a martial artist too.]

“The Medical Immortal is a martial artist?”

At my question, Yoo Cheongil tilted his head like I was the strange one.

[Of course. Ah—you don’t know.]

“...What?”

[Do you know why he’s at Mount Hua?]

“......No...?”

Jegal Jin said the Medical Immortal was at Mount Hua.

Now that I thought about it—why Mount Hua?

Right as that question rose, Yoo Cheongil told me.

[Because the Medical Immortal is the Sect Master of the Mount Hua Sect.]

“......Huh...?”

What...?