The Divine And Demonic Doctor [EN]: Chapter 418

Three months had passed since he began his revenge.

He had killed four of the Azure Cloud Seven and had just earned the title of Blood Hand Venerable.

During that time, Cho Ak-ryang had faced death several times.

Taking on a massive sect as a lone individual was an incredibly daunting task.

However, he couldn’t abandon his revenge, which was his only reason for living.

One day, as he persistently circled near Azure Cloud Mountain, engaging in hit-and-run guerrilla warfare, he was severely injured and retreated to his hideout.

That was when a person blocked his path.

It was that woman.

She attacked Cho Ak-ryang without warning, and he lamented his misfortune.

His internal injuries were so severe that he couldn’t possibly retaliate.

Cho Ak-ryang, having suffered a devastating blow in an instant, lost consciousness.

And he thought it was the end.

But when he regained consciousness, he was faced with an unexpected situation.

Far from being dead, his entire body was wrapped in bandages.

Moreover, his severe internal injuries had improved.

It was then that he met the woman’s gaze as she glared at him.

When he asked for the reason, she coldly replied that defeating a weakened opponent would not erase the anger she had built up over time.

Realizing that a great elixir [a potent medicinal concoction] had been used to treat his internal injuries, Cho Ak-ryang sincerely apologized for breaking his promise to her long ago.

“That’s when her obsessive and bizarre behavior began.”

The woman stayed near him every day, continuing her surveillance.

He had no way to shake her off.

He needed to focus all his energy on killing the Azure Cloud Seven, so he couldn’t afford to waste his strength on her.

“So the two continued their uncomfortable cohabitation.”

Cho Ak-ryang returned injured almost every day.

Taking care of him became her responsibility.

The regret that naturally arose in the process soon turned into gratitude, and one day, he told her the story of his life.

“Then the woman made him a proposal.”

She would lend a hand in killing the Azure Cloud Seven.

However, he flatly refused.

His master’s revenge had to be achieved by his own hands.

Above all, he already owed her a great debt.

By healing him and giving him precious elixirs, she had already stepped into the conflict between the Azure Cloud Sect and himself.

It would be shameless to drag her in any further.

“Eventually, after hearing that all of the Azure Cloud Seven were dead, the Venerable turned away from Azure Cloud Mountain and faced the woman again.”

Filled with regret and gratitude, Cho Ak-ryang was willing to give her his life.

Having completed his revenge, he had no regrets.

Now that his revenge, which had been his whole life, was over, there was no reason to live any longer.

Moreover, he wouldn’t have been able to achieve even that without her help.

As he closed his eyes and waited for death, the woman said this: if he was going to throw away his life like that, he should give it to her.

Cho Ak-ryang was taken aback.

He belatedly realized where her kindness towards him came from.

He asked the woman for time to think.

He was too mentally and physically exhausted to fully embrace someone at that moment.

“She didn’t give up.”

And time was on the woman’s side.

Eventually, her passionate heart melted the frozen man.

The flames of love began to ignite and grew uncontrollably.

After that, the two traveled the Jianghu [the martial arts world] together, confirming their affectionate feelings for each other.

“That person was Yeon Wol-hong.”

Seol Nan-yeong nodded at Dan Ak-seon’s words.

“The two truly loved each other, so much so that they decided to turn their backs on the world and live in seclusion together.”

Dan Ak-seon was very curious about what happened next.

If the two had ended up together, Cho Ak-ryang wouldn’t have harbored such hatred for the Palace Lord of the Ewha Palace.

Sure enough.

“But that happiness didn’t last long.”

Because a person appeared before them.

It was Yeon Ok-sang.

She had been tracking down her missing junior sister on the orders of her master, the Palace Lord of the Ewha Palace, and eventually found Yeon Wol-hong.

Although they were rivals for the position of the next Palace Lord, the two were closer than blood sisters.

So Yeon Wol-hong pleaded with Yeon Ok-sang to turn a blind eye, saying she would give up everything.

And only then did Cho Ak-ryang learn the true identity of his lover.

Her junior sister’s happiness versus her master’s strict orders.
Torn between the two, Yeon Ok-sang eventually decided to take Yeon Wol-hong back to the sect.

Of course, Cho Ak-ryang couldn’t just stand by and watch.

The atmosphere instantly turned hostile, and Cho Ak-ryang and Yeon Ok-sang were about to kill each other.

But he couldn’t do anything.

At the crucial moment, Yeon Wol-hong sealed Cho Ak-ryang’s blood points [pressure points], immobilizing him.

And eventually followed her senior sister.

“She didn’t say it, but she was constantly suffering from deep guilt.”

Before leaving, Yeon Wol-hong promised to confess her sins to the sect, be excommunicated, and return.

“The problem is that the Ewha Palace would never allow it.”

In order to master the Ewha Palace’s martial arts, one had to maintain pure Yin [feminine energy].

Not to mention if that person was a disciple who might inherit the position of Palace Lord.

“The Ewha Palace didn’t want to set a precedent of breaking such taboos.”

After a long wait, Cho Ak-ryang received no news from Yeon Wol-hong, so he began searching all over the Central Plains to find the Ewha Palace himself.

But it was no use.

As time passed, he gradually grew tired.

Around that time, an unexpected war between the Orthodox and Demonic factions broke out.

It was also around that time that ominous rumors began to circulate: the Ewha Palace had suffered near-total annihilation by the Demonic Cult’s vanguard, led by the Heavenly Demon.

And it wasn’t long before this was revealed to be true.

Cho Ak-ryang was devastated.

Yeon Wol-hong was also included in the list of the dead.

It was around that time that he encountered Yeon Ok-sang, who had salvaged the damage and escaped to the rear.

He asked her to tell him where Yeon Wol-hong was buried, but all he received in return was endless resentment and curses.

“Why is that?”

At Dan Ak-seon’s question, Seol Nan-yeong rolled up her sleeve and held out her arm.

A vivid, crimson-red spot near her wrist caught Dan Ak-seon’s eye.

“It’s a Shougongsha [a mark of virginity].”

Dan Ak-seon exclaimed, “Ah! I’ve heard of it.”

Also called a Cinnabar Mole, it was one of the methods used to verify a woman’s chastity—a type of seal that disappears when a woman has relations with a man, using special drugs.

“The Ewha Palace’s internal energy technique, the Myeong-ok Divine Art, is also called the Heavenly Maiden Jade Training Heart Method.”

The reason why they had to maintain pure Yin was also due to the characteristics of that martial art.

Like the Virgin Boy Skill, it involved the side effects of breaking virginity.

They could accumulate power faster and more purely than with ordinary internal energy techniques, but they would lose their power the moment they had relations with a member of the opposite sex.

It was like a tower built with great effort collapsing due to a moment’s choice.

If it hadn’t been for Cho Ak-ryang, Yeon Wol-hong would have maintained her purity, and her martial arts would have been intact.

If that had been the case, she wouldn’t have lost her life so futilely.

Was that why Yeon Ok-sang never told him where Yeon Wol-hong was buried?

Dan Ak-seon nodded.

“So that’s why the two of you hate each other so much.”

Seol Nan-yeong smiled slyly and covered her sleeve.

“Actually, I played a big part in that too.”

“Yes?”

Seol Nan-yeong lowered her voice and whispered to Dan Ak-seon, who was puzzled.

“Actually, my Shougongsha is fake.”

“……?”

“I was once a member of the Ewha Palace. At that time, I used the name Yeon Nan-yeong.”

Dan Ak-seon was startled, because within the Ewha Palace, the Yeon surname was only allowed for the Palace Lord and her direct disciples.

“Then?”

“That’s right. The current Palace Lord of the Ewha Palace, she was my master. Of course, I’ve been excommunicated now.”

Then Seol Nan-yeong smiled brightly.

Dan Ak-seon exclaimed, “Ah! So that’s why you said that.”

She remembered her saying to Cho Ak-ryang, ‘Am I the only one whose life has been ruined by a man?’

“The Venerable saved me from being killed by my master. In the process, I clashed greatly with the Palace Lord of the Ewha Palace, who was my master at the time.”

Dan Ak-seon nodded with a bitter smile.

She could understand Cho Ak-ryang’s feelings.

A relationship he had missed without being able to do anything.

Seol Nan-yeong’s situation, which was similar to Yeon Wol-hong’s, must have overlapped, and he couldn’t help but step in.

“And I told him where my martial aunt was sleeping.”

Only then could Dan Ak-seon recall the words that Cho Ak-ryang and Seol Nan-yeong had once said: ‘So that’s why the last deal was satisfactory to each other.’

Dan Ak-seon now realized the meaning of the conversations that she couldn’t understand at the time.

* * *

A few days later, the leaders and veteran experts of the Nine Great Sects, as well as the elites of each sect, began to gather in Muwi one after another.

The Arhats of Shaolin and the Plum Blossom Swordsmen of Mount Hua.

Not to mention the former masters who had been living in seclusion in the deep valleys of Wudang Mountain, and the nuns of the Emei Sect, led by Jeongyeon Shinni, also left the mountain gate in large numbers.

The Jongnam and Hengshan factions, and the Jeomchang faction also led their experts to join Muwi.

The Gòngtóng faction, which had recently been reclusive, also visited Muwi with all of their Subduing Demon Swordsmen.

Even the Azure Cloud Sect, which had an awkward relationship with Cho Ak-ryang, sent most of their forces.

Although they had been pushed out of the Nine Great Sects by the Hengshan faction, their strength, which had maintained their position as one of the Nine Great Sects for a long time, could not be ignored.

Finally, Kunlun also formed a force with Gwangseongja at the helm and joined the subjugation force.

The situation was not much different for the martial artists of the Unorthodox factions who had settled in Muwi.

With the battle against the Demonic Cult ahead, they decided to temporarily forget their grudges with the Orthodox factions.

And now, putting down the hammers and farming tools that they had become quite familiar with, they picked up the weapons that were once their signature weapons.

The size of the subjugation force that gathered in this way reached a whopping two thousand people.

A conference room was set up in the Sinma Sangdan headquarters.

With the leaders of each faction gathered, Hongjeokmun led the meeting, exchanging opinions based on the information obtained by Dan Ak-seon.

“Then our top priority will be the Divine Land.”

Hwasan Divine Sword Jin Myeong-jin-in, one of the Five Great Masters of the World and the leader of the Hwasan faction, spoke.

Bupryo, the leader of the Arhat Hall of Shaolin, who also held one of the Five Great Masters of the World title, received those words with a low Buddhist chant.

“As time is of the essence, we must aim for their weakness with a quick and decisive strike.”

The two people who said that stared at Dan Ak-seon.

Following those two, the gazes of the leaders of each faction were focused on her.

After staring intently at the map placed on the huge table for a while, Dan Ak-seon raised her finger and pointed to one place: Lanzhou, Gansu Province.

“Let’s each move as secretly as possible and gather here.”

If they were to enter a protracted war, they would have to pay attention to the supply.

They could enter Xinjiang directly without going through a long route, and it would be easy to mobilize the imperial troops if necessary.

With the second gathering place decided in that way and the meeting over, everyone returned to their respective positions.

And Dan Ak-seon also left the conference room.

It was then that Cho Ak-ryang, who was naturally walking with her, raised his eyebrows in doubt.

“Weren’t we heading straight to Lanzhou?”

“There’s a place we need to stop by first.”

“A place we need to stop by?”

Dan Ak-seon nodded.

“I want to meet the head of the Zhuge Family.”