Chapter 152: Chapter 152
The Sichuan Tang Clan.
Throughout its hundreds of years of history, looking down upon Qingcheng and Emei, a prestigious clan among prestigious clans that reigned as the hegemon of Sichuan.
However, that was merely past glory.
Rumors were rampant that the martial artist who had lorded over the world called the Poison King had become an idiot, and the genius Tang Bi-cheon, who was said to succeed him, had died while dreaming of a new heaven.
All that remained were the Young Family Head Tang So-yeon and a few retainers.
Tang So-yeon also had martial talent so good as to enter the Heavenly Tiger Squad upon joining the Alliance, but the prevailing evaluation was that she was still too young.
Thus the Tang Clan declined. Talks were even emerging that they should now yield their seat among the Five Great Clans to families such as the Seok Clan Manor, Baili Clan, Ximen Clan, or Dugu Clan.
While days of enduring such insults were continuing.
“I-Is it true that the Family Head has truly gotten better?”
The retainers were all gathered in the Family Head’s quarters.
Hope was shining on their faces.
The Poison King, who contested for the supreme rank even among martial artists of the Realm Beyond the Heavens.
The expert symbolizing the Tang Clan itself.
They were saying that he might shake off his dementia and rise. Spoken not by any other doctor, but by the Divine Physician called the world’s foremost physician.
“We will only know once he awakens, but if I am not mistaken, it will surely be so. I cannot guarantee a complete cure. However, if he merely opens his eyes, you will be able to see Family Head Tang with a clearer mind than before.”
“Th-Thank you! Thank you!”
The retainers bowed deeply at the waist here and there to express their thanks. The Tang Clan’s pride was famous for piercing the sky, but putting pride aside, they were in a state where they could have performed full prostrations.
Clearing his throat with a dry cough, the Divine Physician continued speaking.
“I did not do anything. It was all accomplished by Dok-ra-su and the Heartless Wanderer. In particular, for this matter, the Heartless Wanderer had Dok-ra-su take the Sun-Rivaling Flower. If you are the Tang Clan who deals with poisons and medicines, you know the value of the Sun-Rivaling Flower better than anyone, do you not?”
At the Divine Physician’s words, the retainers’ mouths fell wide open. It was the same for Tang So-yeon, who had been stroking the sleeping Poison King’s hand the entire time.
Everyone’s gazes turned toward Cheon Woo-jin.
For a moment, Cheon Woo-jin felt as though he was standing before a massive blaze. That was how much the gazes of the Tang Clan people went beyond warmth and were searingly hot.
“In any case, it is an herb that holds no particular meaning even if I take it.”
“No way.”
Cheon Woo-jin spoke the truth, but the Tang Clan took it as humility and consideration. Seeing their gazes grow a notch hotter, Cheon Woo-jin realized his mistake.
But it was already too late.
The Tang Clan had a tradition that had continued for hundreds of years.
“Gratitude and grudges tenfold!”
The disposition of the Tang Clan was originally like that.
If one person was beaten outside, the ones who swarmed out in a flock to pour out poison were the Tang Clan, and if they occasionally received a meal, the ones who left sacks of rice the next day were also the Tang Clan.
Let alone saving the Poison King, the symbol of the Tang Clan.
The hearts of the Tang Clan martial artists had already begun to blaze. Once ignited, their resolve was something that even the Alliance Leader and the Demonic Cult Leader stepping forward simultaneously could not suppress.
“If the Family Head truly awakens sound and well, as an elder representing the Tang Clan, I shall repay Great Hero Heartless Wanderer with my life.”
An elder of a similar age to his masters spoke in an exceedingly polite manner, even using honorifics.
Cheon Woo-jin already put on a fed-up expression.
“There is no need for…”
“If my life is too trifling, I shall offer Third Elder’s life here as well.”
Suddenly singled out, Third Elder stepped back with an expression saying, “That’s a bit much.” At that, First Elder glared fiercely at Third Elder with wide eyes.
Because of the elders who looked ready to slit their bellies on the spot, Cheon Woo-jin forced himself to change the subject.
“He will need stability. Given the current situation, we should take our leave and return to the Alliance.”
Having said that, Cheon Woo-jin swiftly made his escape.
The members of the Hidden Dragon Squad also followed behind him after briefly saying their goodbyes to Tang So-yeon.
First Elder’s voice was heard from the receding bedchamber.
“Because you spared that worthless life, did Great Hero Heartless Wanderer not become disappointed! How do you plan to repay that sin!”
“No, older brother…”
“Both of you, please stop. What would Young Hero Cheon do with Uncles’ lives anyway? It would be a different story if it were someone young and pretty like me.”
Cheon Woo-jin tried hard to ignore those sounds and hastened his steps.
.
.
.
Around the time they had just exited the Tang Clan.
There was someone waiting for the Hidden Dragon Squad.
“Thank you. And…”
Dok-ra-su bit his lips several times, then finally apologized in a trailing voice.
Immediately after fleeing like that from the Kunlun Sect, he had regretted it a great deal. To be completely honest, the deaths of the Kunlun Sect martial artists were not so sorrowful. Dok-ra-su was not originally someone of deep affection either.
Therefore, he had thought he would forget that day’s events quickly.
But that was not the case. Whenever he tried to sleep thereafter, the faces of the greenhorns of the Hidden Dragon Squad, Cheon Woo-jin, and Black Elder appeared before his eyes.
“I should apologize someday, yes, someday I should help them greatly and say I am sorry. I thought like that, but had it not been for a chance encounter like this, I probably would not have sought you out.”
He was someone who had been chased out of the Tang Clan as if fleeing in his youth. His was a life of running away even from Black Elder, his sole friend in life. He knew better than anyone that having lived like garbage, he could not suddenly pretend to be virtuous now.
Unable to even properly look at the faces of Cheon Woo-jin and the squad members, Dok-ra-su babbled on.
However, there was hardly any reaction.
Indeed, having had their lives saved and even being gifted the Sun-Rivaling Flower, why would they want to associate with a worm that had run away like that?
Thinking so, Dok-ra-su lifted his head.
“…”
Dok-ra-su’s expression turned strange.
All four people wore puzzled expressions.
Setting aside Cheon Woo-jin who originally had no emotional fluctuation, why were those greenhorns, who had crossed the threshold of death because of him, wearing such expressions?
Rather, Dok-ra-su was even more bewildered.
Cheon Woo-jin suddenly spoke.
“What is wrong with running away?”
“…What?”
“Whether you run away or fight together, that is merely one’s own choice. Rather, had you remained there to keep a loyalty you did not even feel in your heart, everyone would have died.”
The Family Head of the Yeo Clan who had killed the Kunlun Sect Leader at the time.
He had descended Mount Kunlun simply because the remaining martial artists were insignificant. Had a martial artist of Dok-ra-su’s level resisted and fought to the end, even the Hidden Dragon Squad members would have all died on the spot.
“If you die fighting, who takes responsibility for that death? To blame someone for fleeing to live, one must be someone who can take responsibility even for the death that would have occurred had they not fled.”
Of course, there was no person who could take responsibility for another’s death.
In other words, it meant that no one under heaven could blame Dok-ra-su.
While Dok-ra-su remained silent with a complicated expression, Song Yi-yeon beside him chimed in.
“Honestly, it was absurd, but I was not particularly angry or resentful? Had I died there, it would have been because I was weak. I am a martial artist too.”
Whom could a martial artist blame for dying while fighting a stronger person?
Not only Song Yi-yeon, but Jin Un also thought so.
“I would have run away too. Having just stepped into a new realm, dying would be a bit of a waste.”
Even Namgung Jin said that he would have acted like Dok-ra-su.
At that, Jin Un’s and Song Yi-yeon’s eyes narrowed.
Because they felt that it was not words spoken to comfort Dok-ra-su, but truly genuine from the bottom of his heart.
“Wait, Young Hero Namgung, shouldn’t you not be doing that?”
“Why?”
“We are friends, are we not?”
“We are?”
Rather, Namgung Jin wore a surprised expression. At that, Jin Un and Song Yi-yeon reacted as if asking why he questioned something so obvious.
“If we weren’t friends, why would we include Young Hero Namgung in the Hidden Dragon Squad? You are the weakest among us.”
“I am?”
This time, Namgung Jin’s eyebrows slanted into an inverted ‘V’.
Like that, the three began bickering, each diligently muttering to themselves.
Meanwhile, Dok-ra-su lowered his head deeply.
Though he had thought he had lived like an idiot all his life. It was his first time feeling so ashamed and small like this.
“If you need help, tell me. I will do anything.”
Having said that, Dok-ra-su suddenly entered the Tang Clan.
At that sight, Song Yi-yeon reproached Namgung Jin.
“He got angry because of Young Hero.”
“No, what did I do?”
“Even when doing nothing, Young Hero originally tends to make people angry. In the past, that was how I felt whenever I saw Young Hero.”
Song Yi-yeon clicked his tongue at Namgung Jin.
Then from the side, Jin Un also clicked his tongue together.
Namgung Jin merely wore a thoroughly flabbergasted expression.
* * *
Having entered the Tang Clan, Dok-ra-su sat in a secluded corner where no footsteps passed, his head bowed deeply. As befitting the hegemon of Sichuan, the manor was also overwhelmingly massive, making it perfect for hiding alone.
No one in the Tang Clan looked for Dok-ra-su. It was only natural. Over the past several decades, he had built up notoriety and thoroughly dragged the Tang Clan’s name through the mud.
It was at that moment.
“Are you crying?”
“…”
Dok-ra-su raised his head.
Chuckling, the Divine Physician naturally sat down beside Dok-ra-su.
At their first meeting, he had merely thought of him as a master of poison and medicine with whom conversation flowed, but having stuck together for a long time under the pretext of treating dementia, the two had grown quite close.
“Am I a child? Why would I cry?”
“Then why are you cooped up in a place like this acting all sorrowful? And what is with those moist eyes?”
“…I yawned.”
“How absurd.”
The Divine Physician chuckled and waited in silence for a moment.
How much time passed in that silence?
“It is the first time. In my life, being treated like this.”
“What kind of treatment?”
“Being understood, being defended. I was always an object of contempt, disdain, and mockery to someone.”
“That is because you went around doing things that deserved it.”
“It sounds like an excuse, but I was like that since birth. The Tang Clan had a succession war fiercer than any other clan, and my rival was someone talented enough to become the Poison King later on.”
It was an excuse that the order was different.
Rather than being hated for doing hateful things, it was because people hated him that he came to do such things.
The Divine Physician clicked his tongue.
“Pathetic fool.”
“Then how impressive are you?”
“How many people do you think I have saved? Regardless of righteous, unorthodox, or demonic, even if I go to the Beyond-the-Border regions, there is no place that shuts its doors to me. The Imperial Palace is the same.”
“…”
Dok-ra-su shut his mouth. Thinking about it, even scouring all under heaven, there were few people more impressive than the Divine Physician.
“Damn it. Good for you being so impressive.”
“Yes, it is good. But you know what? Do you know what the greatest achievement in such an impressive life is?”
“How should I know? Instead of fanning the flames of a burning house, go boast to someone else…”
“It was researching and discovering the treatment for dementia. It is trickier than reattaching a severed arm, and closer to a miracle than reviving an already extinguished breath.”
“…”
“Even so, am I the only impressive one? Who was the person who did that work together?”
Dok-ra-su stared blankly at the Divine Physician, then abruptly turned his head and yawned. But whether he was extremely sleepy, his yawns simply would not stop.
Eventually, unable to bear it, Dok-ra-su buried his head between his knees. At the feet of his crouched form, rain thicker than ever before fell.
Gently placing a hand on Dok-ra-su’s heaving shoulder, the Divine Physician spoke.
“Who else, none other than Woo-jin.”
“This old bastard really!”
Dok-ra-su jumped up from his spot, and the Divine Physician’s boisterous laughter echoed long above the skies of the Tang Clan.