Camellia 15

It felt like he was wandering through an endless abyss. His limbs were bound, as if entangled in thick vines.

As if that weren’t enough, a boulder the size of a house was crushing his danjeon, making it impossible to breathe. Seolyeong kept gasping, “Ha, haa… ha, haa…” until a sudden thought crossed his mind.

Wait… where am I ? Is something really pressing down on me?

The unrelenting darkness in front of him felt off. Damn it. He started to wonder if that bastard of a sect leader blinded him?

Just then, Seolyeong jolted awake from the dream. His vision was still hazy, likely from the sudden return of consciousness. While he floated between sleep and wakefulness, a pair of hands smelling of medicinal herbs approached and untied the cloth covering his eyes.

Ah. So it wasn’t that he couldn’t see, it was that his eyes had been blindfolded. Seolyeong felt a little embarrassed. He rolled his eyes around and looked at the woman with a cold expression standing nearby.

“…Are you a physician?”

The woman, who had returned with a brass basin and a wet cloth, nodded as she wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

Seolyeong suddenly felt a chill over his body. When he looked down, he gasped in shock. His abdomen was covered with no less than sixty needles! So many that his skin was barely visible. Alarmed, he tried to sit up.

The woman quickly pressed down on his chest to stop him.

“Don’t move carelessly. You’ll hurt yourself.”

Her voice was gentle and warm. Seolyeong froze halfway through lifting his arm, caught in an awkward pose. When she added pressure to her hand, he instinctively laid back down on the bed.

On the ceiling above, a black wolf was depicted leaping through the clouds with fierce energy.

“Am I still in Yeonhu?”

The first thing Seolyeong worried about was whether he had been kicked out. It wouldn’t have been surprising, considering the sect leader had thrown his bride-to-be into a poisoned lake by the hair.

He grinded his teeth, and he looked to the woman for an answer. Now that he saw her more clearly, her cold, sharp eyes reminded him of someone, but he put that aside when she began to speak.

“Where else would you be? You’re in Yeonhu, of course. Since you’ve married into Cheonma Divine Sect, you are to stay by the Supreme One’s side forever.”

Her voice had a curiously lifeless tone.

Seolyeong felt that she harbored ill feelings toward the sect leader. Everyone else in the sect got aggressive like a mother hen whenever their leader was mentioned, but this woman was the opposite. She seemed like a hen who wanted to kick the rooster out and tear down the coop.

One by one, she began pulling the needles from his stomach. With each one removed, his Qi flowed more smoothly, and his limbs grew lighter.

“Ha, you’re an exceptional physician.”

The woman smiled faintly at his compliment.

“I used all my strength for you, Young Master. The sooner you woke up, the sooner I could prove my usefulness and stay longer on Yeonhu Mountain.”

The tips of the needles had been coated with juice from rare herbs that only grew in Sipman Daesan. The herbal extract helped unblock meridians clogged with poison and realign his Qi flow. Combined with the skilled hands of someone once named as the successor to the Divine Healer, this made for a powerful treatment, strong enough to revive a dying ox.

Rubbing his now bare stomach, Seolyeong asked,

“Does the demonic sect have a medical hall?”

Looking around, he realized that this definitely was one. Glass jars filled with dried herbs, shriveled seedlings with the roots still attached, a full set of needles from short to long, rolls of cloth in all sizes, it had everything.

The woman replied, she sounded amused by such an obvious question.

“This is still a place where people live. Of course we have one. But, Young Master, please refrain from calling it ‘the demonic sect.’ If another member heard that, they’d question your loyalty.”

She held out a bamboo cup of dark brown decoction under his nose. Only then did Seolyeong realize his mistake.

The sect members loathed the term “demonic sect.” For reasons he didn’t fully understand, they insisted on being referred to only as “Cheonma Divine Sect.” Probably because abbreviating the name made it sound like they worshiped a “Demon” rather than the Cheonma (Heavenly Demon).

Seolyeong held the cup in both hands, hesitating. The herbal concoction had an odd, cloudy sediment floating in it, making him uneasy. Still, he figured a physician wouldn’t try to poison him, and gulped it down. To his surprise, it went down smoothly, and he opened his eyes wide.

The moment the cup emptied, the woman stood up.

“Now that you’ve regained consciousness, I’ll go report to the Supreme One.”

Seolyeong grabbed her by the foot “Uh-uh”. The woman frowned slightly at the man’s hand gripping her foot.

“No, wait! The one who threw my delicate body into a poisoned lake, nearly killing me, is…”

“None other than the Supreme One who blooms flowers in frozen skies,” she said, cutting him off. Then she asked,

“So what about it?”

“…If he hears I’ve recovered, won’t he fly back in to throw me in again?”

Seolyeong spoke clearly and firmly. He was absolutely convinced the sect leader had intended to kill him. The first attempt had failed, so surely the villain would try again and drag him back to Suido Peak.

The woman shook off his hand and replied,

“No. I can assure you that won’t happen again.”

Her tone was confident.

“Our lord, Cheonsin, doesn’t kill people the same way twice. If he truly wishes to take your life, he’ll do it in a new and creative way. So don’t worry too much.”

…That wasn’t exactly reassuring.

At this point, Seolyeong gave up. Realizing that words wouldn’t work on her, he decided to run away before his husband showed up. Lying back down, he said politely, “You make a good point. Then I’ll rest here.”

As soon as she left the room, he was determined to run away. It wasn’t fear of the filth, he just didn’t want to deal with it. His earlier resolve to discipline the sect leader had vanished. Seolyeong groaned softly and began drafting his escape plan.

First, he’d hide somewhere remote until he fully recovered. Once his internal energy was back, he’d sneak into Gwanju Hall and bash the sect leader over the head. And not just his head, maybe he should kick his ass and slap his back while he was at it.

A grin crept over Seolyeong’s face at the thought.

Watching his expression shift by the second, the woman suddenly asked,

“Are you… afraid of the sect leader?”

Seolyeong answered without hesitation.

“Of course. He’s the mysterious master who makes all of the martial world tremble.”

“Then… what did you see in your dreams?”

“Hmm?”

“I asked what you saw while you were unconscious.”

It seemed like a strange question. Seolyeong shrugged it off, but the woman looked so serious that he figured he should answer properly.

“Well… hmm. I didn’t see anything.”

“No people, no animals, not even objects?”

“There were only colors. It was all dark, like being trapped in a night sky. I would’ve felt better if there’d at least been stars.”

The woman replied calmly.

“Then that means you’re not afraid of our lord. I’ll report to him with peace of mind. If you don’t want to get on your husband’s bad side, stay right here and wait quietly. Otherwise, your married life will be even harsher.”

The poison the sect leader had used was derived from the Jeongyang mushroom, which grew by feeding on rotting tree roots. Its effect was to push the victim into fear, making them see their greatest terror.

So if Seolyeong had seen nothing, it meant he had nothing to fear.

As the woman stepped out through the sliding door, Seolyeong scratched his brow in frustration.

He was terrified, so why were they insisting he wasn’t?

Seolyeong was afraid he’d lose control of himself, start a full-blown brawl with the sect leader, and become the cause of a second great war between the orthodox and unorthodox sects. Of course, that would only be possible if the Murim Alliance sided with him.