The Divine And Demonic Doctor [EN]: Chapter 396

As the Imperial Guard bound and dragged Minister Sa out, Yoon Heum bowed respectfully to Han Seol-hwa.

“I sincerely thank you for your help.”

“……”

Despite Yoon Heum’s extremely respectful attitude, Han Seol-hwa didn’t offer a reply, instead soaring out of the detached palace.

Soon, she discovered Dan Ahk-seon and Yoo Gi-jin entangled in a chaotic battle.

As expected, Dan Ahk-seon was overwhelmingly dominating Yoo Gi-jin from beginning to end.

It was the same even now.

Kwaang!

The force of his strike, clearly exerted with all his might, tore through the air.

A massive shockwave engulfed the area, scattering dust and dirt.

Through it all, Yoo Gi-jin’s figure was pushed back, carving a deep furrow into the ground as he slid.

In contrast, Dan Ahk-seon merely took a light step back.

“Hah, hah.”

Yoo Gi-jin’s eyes wavered as he gasped for breath.

The dark black staff that had been in his opponent’s hand was nowhere to be seen.

It was only when he realized this that the black staff, flying close to the ground, shattered his ankle.

Paak.

“……!”

Ignoring the overwhelming pain, Yoo Gi-jin rolled away.

The black staff, carrying a terrifying force, fell where he had just been standing.

Dan Ahk-seon, having closed the distance in an instant, retrieved the Black Dragon and swung it like lightning.

As Yoo Gi-jin saw the dark flash flying towards him again, twisting its path as if unsatisfied with merely taking his ankle, deep despair washed over his eyes.

Kwajik.

With a crushing impact that shattered his ribs, Yoo Gi-jin’s figure was violently thrown to the ground.

“Cough!”

Yoo Gi-jin, constantly coughing up blood, stretched out on the ground.

It was then that Dan Ahk-seon sensed something was amiss.

Yoo Gi-jin’s breathing was gradually fading.

Dan Ahk-seon had deliberately held back, leaving some leeway in his attacks, as he still needed to extract information from him.

The same was true of the attack just now.

It was intended to incapacitate his opponent, not to inflict a fatal wound.

“Ah!”

Belatedly realizing something, Dan Ahk-seon rushed towards Yoo Gi-jin.

But it was too late.

Yoo Gi-jin’s face had already turned black.

‘Poison!’

Dan Ahk-seon hurriedly checked Yoo Gi-jin’s pulse.

But his face was already covered with a dark shadow of death.

As if pleased by Dan Ahk-seon’s bewildered expression, Yoo Gi-jin smirked.

Then, he twitched intermittently before collapsing.

Dan Ahk-seon frowned as he examined Yoo Gi-jin’s lifeless body.

Inside Yoo Gi-jin’s jaw.

He discovered a crushed poison sac near his molars.

‘He intended to commit suicide from the start?’

Judging from the situation, he must have bitten the poison sac the moment he encountered him.

Fighting him was merely to buy enough time for the poison to spread.

It was then that someone entered the area.

He walked straight towards Dan Ahk-seon.

“He wouldn’t have opened his mouth anyway.”

Yoon Heum spoke again, addressing Dan Ahk-seon, who was sighing.

“Minister Sa has been moved to the North Garrison Warriors’ prison. If we interrogate him, we should be able to find out what we need, so please leave it to me now. I promise to share any information we obtain.”

“Yes. Thank you.”

Dan Ahk-seon cast a complex gaze at the dead Yoo Gi-jin.

That night, Dan Ahk-seon had an audience with the Emperor.

“Minister Sa was colluding with the Demonic Sect… Tell me what you know about him.”

The Emperor seemed greatly shocked, as he had always trusted, cherished, and kept the minister by his side.

To the Emperor, Dan Ahk-seon cautiously made a request.

“Your Majesty, could you dismiss your attendants? There is something I wish to confide in you alone.”

At those words, the Imperial Guards and close attendants immediately protested.

“Your Majesty, that cannot be allowed.”

“This is not something that can be permitted.”

This was a natural reaction from those responsible for the Emperor’s protection.

It was because of the divine might Dan Ahk-seon had shown in the process of arresting Minister Sa.

They couldn’t possibly leave the Emperor alone with such a master.

Of course, Dan Ahk-seon had fully anticipated this reaction.

The Emperor, who had been silently watching Dan Ahk-seon, suddenly spoke.

“You do not trust my servants?”

At those words, the faces of the civil and military officials twisted as if they had bitten into a sour persimmon.

But the Emperor was not one to be swayed by the emotions of his subjects.

“Bring brush and ink.”

Following the Emperor’s command, the eunuchs brought brush and ink and placed them before Dan Ahk-seon.

“Write a memorial on the spot. Only I will see its contents.”

Dan Ahk-seon nodded.

Then, he began to write a lengthy text.

After a considerable amount of time, Dan Ahk-seon put down his brush, and one of the eunuchs newly appointed as a close attendant approached him.

He took the memorial that Dan Ahk-seon had written and presented it to the Emperor.

It was then that a look of bewilderment appeared in the Emperor’s eyes.

“This is… a passage from the Elementary Learning [a Confucian primer for children], is it not?”

A textbook on self-cultivation written by Liu Zijing during the Song Dynasty.

But something was strange.

The content was jumbled, and there were occasional incorrect characters mixed in.

The Emperor stared intently at the memorial.

He had heard enough about Dan Ahk-seon’s brilliance.

Therefore, there must be some intention behind it.

It was then that Dan Ahk-seon spoke.

“If you read the misspelled characters in reverse, it will reveal the meaning.”

A gleam appeared in the Emperor’s eyes.

“Hiding a needle in the sand, is it?”

The Emperor exclaimed, then slowly nodded.

It was then that Dan Ahk-seon’s eyes sparkled.

At that moment, he had identified the gaze of one person in particular that was wavering.

It was only possible because he had been focusing solely on that one person in the vast audience hall.

How long had it been?

The Emperor folded the memorial and personally walked towards the large torches illuminating the audience hall.

Whirr.

The Emperor personally burned the document and smiled at Dan Ahk-seon.

“Bring Minister Sa here. I will personally interrogate him.”

At the unexpected words, a look of bewilderment crossed the faces of the civil and military officials.

But given the gravity of the situation, no one dared to oppose the Emperor’s solemn command.

A short while later.

Minister Sa, bound from head to toe, was dragged into the audience hall.

The time he had spent imprisoned in the North Garrison Warriors’ prison was not long, but he looked exhausted, as if he had suffered considerable hardship.

The Emperor cast a brief, pitiful glance at him, but then began the interrogation in a stern voice.

“I have cherished and loved you dearly, so how could you collude with rebellious factions, insult me, and disrupt the discipline of the court?”

Minister Sa, who had been bowing his head, slowly raised his eyes to meet the Emperor’s gaze.

“I dare to say, Your Majesty, please consider the injustice of this humble servant.”

The Emperor silently stared at him, at his unwavering and steadfast gaze.

After a moment.

“The one who accused Minister Sa, step forward.”

As soon as the Emperor’s command fell, one person stepped forward.

It was Yoon Bong, the father of Yoon Heum, who had led this effort, and the newly appointed close attendant to the Emperor, succeeding Minister Sa.

Yoon Bong read out the charges against Minister Sa in a clear voice.

“Are those words undoubtedly true?”

At the Emperor’s subsequent question, Minister Sa sighed, his face despondent.

He realized that there was no way to survive, as the specific circumstances and evidence all pointed to him.

“It is all slander. This humble servant is merely wronged.”

“Then why did you meet with a man named Yoo Gi-jin?”

Minister Sa turned his head to glare at Yoon Bong, who had accused him.

“This humble servant had long suspected the relationship between Yoon Bong and the Black Marketeer [a criminal organization]. Furthermore, it was also because I did not cease to suspect the Martial Guard, who were cooperating with the Black Marketeer.”

At those words, Dan Ahk-seon could understand the meaning of the unsettling gaze that Minister Sa, the close attendant, had cast when he had visited the Martial Guard with the Emperor.

“The man named Yoo Gi-jin said that he would confess the relationship between Yoon Bong, his son, and himself. That is why I went to meet him. In fact, this humble servant saw him for the first time that day.”

Yoon Bong scoffed.

“What can one not say when cornered? Such petty excuses will not evade His Majesty’s wrath.”

In an instant, cold sparks flew from Minister Sa’s eyes.

“I do not fear death, but the only thing this humble servant worries about!”

Minister Sa cried out desperately, squeezing out the last of his strength.

“This humble servant will prove my loyalty to Your Majesty with my death, so please, be wary of whoever takes my place!”

“Why?”

At the Emperor’s question, Minister Sa replied.

“Because he is the one who will gain the most from this humble servant’s death.”

“Are you accusing the one who denounced you, right here, right now?”

The Emperor turned his head to look at Dan Ahk-seon.

When Dan Ahk-seon nodded, the Emperor smiled slightly.

It was then that the Emperor’s booming voice echoed through the audience hall.

“Minister Sa and Yoon Bong, stand before me side by side. Since you have both accused each other, it is my duty to discern the truth. Fortunately, I have a way to discern that truth.”

Yoon Bong, realizing that the situation was taking a strange turn, looked somewhere with a surprised expression.

The place where Yoon Bong’s gaze was directed.

Dan Ahk-seon was standing there.

As expected.

Dan Ahk-seon stepped forward.

“There are suspicious points in this matter?”

At the Emperor’s question, Dan Ahk-seon nodded.

With all the civil and military officials watching, Dan Ahk-seon continued.

“Yoo Gi-jin was a very cautious man. Even the branch leaders within the Black Marketeer did not know his true background. He even perfectly deceived us while staying at the Martial Guard. Moreover, he was thorough enough to take his own life to protect his secrets.”

Having explained that much, Dan Ahk-seon raised a question.

“A man that thorough was exposed to an ordinary person, not even a martial artist, here in Beijing.”

The people in the audience hall nodded.

They also found it difficult to understand his suddenly careless actions.

“It has already been ten days since he escaped from the Martial Guard. But it is strange that he continued to stay here. And the fact that he met Minister Sa as if he had been waiting for me.”

Dan Ahk-seon concluded.

“If it were the man I judged him to be, it was a mistake he would never make.”

“Anyone can make mistakes when cornered. Especially since he must have been confused after his identity was revealed.”

Dan Ahk-seon cut off Yoon Bong’s words.

“Is that really the case?”

Dan Ahk-seon mentioned the smile that Yoo Gi-jin had shown just before his death.

The look in the eyes of a person facing death is more honest than at any other time.

Dan Ahk-seon, who had faced more deaths than anyone else, could assert that much.

“So I checked one thing.”

Dan Ahk-seon approached Yoon Bong and took something out from his chest.

It was a cylindrical container containing the sensory paper used by high-ranking members of the Demonic Sect to communicate with each other.

Dan Ahk-seon looked at Yoon Bong and opened his mouth.

“I secretly delivered this to Minister Sa, who is imprisoned in the North Garrison Warriors’ prison.”

Dan Ahk-seon wrote letters with water directly on the sensory paper and demonstrated how the letters appeared.

―Convey the current location to the guard of the prison cell who is changing shifts at midnight.

The audience stirred at the clearly visible letters.

Ignoring the commotion, Dan Ahk-seon spoke again.

“But Minister Sa did not know how to use this. Because he only saw blank paper, he did not mention anything to the prison guard who was replaced and put in at midnight.”

After explaining the use of the sensory paper, Dan Ahk-seon mentioned another person this time.

Yoon Bong flinched as his eyes met Dan Ahk-seon’s.

“Could it be?”

At Yoon Bong’s question, Dan Ahk-seon nodded.

“I secretly placed sensory paper with specific times and places written on it on someone’s desk. And at that time, he accurately appeared there.”

As soon as Dan Ahk-seon’s words ended, the door to the audience hall opened and one person appeared.

It was Han Seol-hwa.

But in her hand, she was dragging someone whose blood points [vital points in martial arts] were sealed.