In my past life, I once heard it from Palgap.
“The Murim Alliance’s pavilion caught fire. People burned to death.”
“What? The Murim Alliance?”
“They caught the culprit. His name’s Gusi.”
“Do they know why he did it?”
“No idea.”
It was just an incident that passed like that.
Was it someone else with the same name, Gusi?
I didn’t have time to dwell on it for long. There was too much to do.
As I finished washing the dishes and was preparing to do the laundry, the Ragged Sage Physician approached me.
“It seems the Snowmist Grass alone won’t be enough. We’ll have to notify the Murim Alliance and ask them to supply the necessary herbs.”
What? The Murim Alliance?
No way…
I immediately recalled the name Gusi and the arson incident I’d heard about in my previous life.
Why was his name Gusi?
Why did he set fire to the pavilion?
And why was it specifically the pavilion of the Murim Alliance?
The Murim Alliance is guarded thoroughly by martial masters. To set fire there, he must’ve endured and prepared for a long time.
What in the world could drive someone to withstand that kind of hardship just to do something like that?
There’s a particular emotion that allows a person to endure such things.
Revenge.
Of all types of revenge, what caught my attention was the fact that he chose to burn down the pavilion… with people inside.
That kid was pure enough to believe it when his senior told him his name would be Gusi.
What could possibly happen to turn a kid like that into someone who snaps?
The moment I heard the Ragged Sage Physician say, “We’ll notify the Murim Alliance,” I realized it.
In my previous life, the Ragged Sage Physician surely came to the Thorn Gate Sect just like now.
He must’ve figured out this was a plague that only affects martial artists.
Naturally, needing more herbs, the Ragged Sage Physician would’ve sent a letter requesting support from the Murim Alliance.
It was probably because they’d always responded positively to such requests until then.
But.
Not this time.
The Murim Alliance came up with a far more extreme solution than the Ragged Sage Physician ever expected.
Zhan Cao Chu Gen (斬草除根).
Cut the weeds, remove the roots.
They carried it out exactly as the phrase means.
Maybe it was fear.
A disease that only affected those who practiced internal techniques… If it spread, it could devastate the entire martial world.
Still… even so… that wasn’t something they should’ve done.
If they’d just provided the herbs, the disease could’ve been cured.
I can say that with confidence because I was right here watching.
Given enough time and the right ingredients, no—just with the right herbs—he absolutely could’ve cured it.
But…
What came for that child, who was excited to receive a new name and find belonging, wasn’t the warmth he expected.
Blazing pavilions.
The agonizing screams of people burning alive.
Desperate cries begging for help.
Countless blades swung at those who barely managed to escape.
And the dying, bleeding out at the tip of those blades.
How powerless must he have felt, hiding while witnessing all that, unable to do anything?
Bastards.
No wonder…
When I died, they burned everything—my carriage, my horses, even the bodies. The way they did it… it wasn’t their first time.
Some might accuse me of exaggerating.
Saying there’s no way the righteous Murim Alliance would do that.
Righteousness, my ass.
I can think like this because I experienced it firsthand.
And the Ragged Sage Physician… he must’ve been killed during that too.
The reason I never knew about this was probably because the Murim Alliance covered it up completely. It was a stain on their honor.
That’s likely why even the arson incident involving Gusi in my past life was swept under the rug.
I asked the Ragged Sage Physician,
“Snowmist Grass isn’t enough?”
“Seems so. Since the patients are martial artists, the medicine made for ordinary people doesn’t work well.”
“What other herbs do you need?”
“Why? Is your merchant group going to support us?”
“Hahaha.”
I chuckled awkwardly.
“Forget it. Even if your group was lucky enough to have Snowmist Grass, luck like that doesn’t come twice in a row.”
“Fair point.”
“I need White Tiger Bellflower to calm the rampaging internal Qi, and Snow Ginseng to help the body absorb the medicine. Think your group has anything like that?”
“…”
Elder… I think the Eunhae Merchant Group’s luck is about to continue.
When I grinned, the Ragged Sage Physician flinched.
“W-What? Don’t tell me you actually have those?”
Instead of answering, I asked back.
“So, how much do you need?”
“Hem… Just one portion each will do.”
“Got it.”
The problem now was how to request it.
No one here could freely go outside.
The fact that some disciples had gone down to the mountain village raised concerns that the disease might spread.
We needed to address that too.
“This really is a problem.”
“Right? We’ve got the herbs… but no way to request them.”
While we were racking our brains…
“Ku?”
Geumryeong poked its head out from my sleeve. Its tiny tail wiggled, pointing to itself.
“Huh? You?”
“Kuku!”
“You’re saying… you’ll go?”
“Kuku!”
Geumryeong was a spiritual beast, so it wouldn’t carry the disease. But still, could this tiny thing really make it all the way there?
“But you’d have to be fast. How could you possibly—”
“Kkui kkui! Ku!”
“You’re saying… you can do it?”
With eyes sparkling full of certainty, Geumryeong nodded.
“Well… why not?”
Nothing to lose.
I quickly wrote a letter and tied it to Geumryeong’s tail.
“Alright. You can go now.”
The moment the words left my mouth, Geumryeong shot off like an arrow.
Whoosh—!
Before I could even count to ten, it disappeared from view. Watching that, I muttered,
“Holy… That’s crazy fast.”
And the next day—
“Kui!”
Geumryeong came back.
A letter was tied to its tail. I untied it and read.
[Understood. I’ll send the requested herbs.]
It was Father’s reply.
Geumryeong had delivered it perfectly.
Just as the letter said, about seven days later, the herbs I requested arrived.
The Ragged Sage Physician prepared the medicine, and those who took it gradually started recovering.
.
.
.
For the first time in a while, we had some peace.
The Ragged Sage Physician and I sat in the front yard, gazing at the moon.
The autumn sky was high and crystal clear.
Even at night, the clarity made the moon appear especially bright.
The Mid-Autumn Festival was just around the corner.
“What are you planning to do for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Elder?”
“Me?”
The Ragged Sage Physician thought for a moment, then answered.
“Probably just go around treating people… maybe score a few mooncakes along the way.”
He let out a snort and turned his head.
“Just because it’s the Mid-Autumn Festival doesn’t mean people stop getting sick.”
“That’s true.”
I nodded.
I didn’t know what made the Ragged Sage Physician choose this path. But there must be a story behind it.
Maybe that’s why he willingly endures hardships like this.
When he was killed in my past life… I wonder what went through his mind.
Did he regret how he lived?
Or…
I don’t know.
“But why do you ask?”
“I was thinking… If you have time, maybe you could stay at our merchant group for a while.”
“For free?”
I chuckled.
“Not for free. Once word spreads that the Ragged Sage Physician is staying at the Eunhae Merchant Group, people will take notice.”
At my words, the Ragged Sage Physician smirked as well.
He figured out my intentions.
“Hmph. Now I’m curious about the Eunhae Merchant Group. How do you manage to produce all those rare elixirs whenever I mention them?”
“We’ve just been lucky, that’s all.”
I smiled as I answered. The Ragged Sage Physician grumbled at that.
“Stop smiling like that. I’m starting to get attached.”
“Hahaha.”
“But…”
His expression suddenly turned serious.
“No matter how I look at it, this plague spreading in the Thorn Gate Sect didn’t happen naturally.”
“What?”
“There are clear traces of it being man-made. Someone took the plague from Yichang, modified it, and intentionally spread it here.”
“What…?”
I could hear the anger in his voice.
And if I was this angry, how furious must he be?
“Who… Who the hell would do something like this?”
“Got anyone in mind who’d be behind it?”
“There aren’t many with the skills for this. It’s either the Tang Clan of Sichuan or the Poison Sect of Miaojiang.”
“…”
“But the Poison Sect mainly researches poisons. They can’t do something like this.”
“Then it’s the Tang Clan?”
“That’s my guess.”
His voice was bitter as he said it.
No way.
There’s no way the Tang Clan would do something like this.
They already get enough criticism for using poison. Deliberately spreading a plague?
Unless they had a death wish, there’s no way they’d do something so insane.
And if it really was them… the Murim Alliance didn’t use that as an excuse to seize control. Instead, they went as far as burning everything to the ground…
Wait.
Honestly, when I first learned about Gusi’s story, I was furious at the Murim Alliance for what they did.
But there was always something that didn’t sit right.
If providing herbs could’ve solved this, then why… why did they go that far?
The answer is simple.
Because they had no choice.
If… this plague was created by the Murim Alliance themselves.
If they were conducting some kind of research here… then the best way to bury the secret, along with the Ragged Sage Physician who discovered it, was to burn it all.
They used the people of this sect as test subjects.
A plague specifically deadly to martial artists.
Then… what the hell were they planning to use it for?
No. That’s not the issue right now.
There’s something more urgent.
I stood up.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m gonna catch the moon.”
“Huh?”
I pointed at the moon.
“Just like the moon’s watching this sect… don’t you think someone else is watching us too?”
“…!”
The Ragged Sage Physician looked startled for a moment, then rose from his seat.
“You’re right.”
Late at night.
While everyone was asleep, someone moved in secret.
He was dressed in clothes embroidered with the symbol of the Thorn Gate Sect.
Looking around nervously, he slipped out of the pavilion and rushed along the mountain path until he reached a tree standing next to a boulder.
He hated this tiny sect.
He wanted to go out into the bigger world.
He resented the master who brought him here as a child… then died, leaving him stuck in this sect.
That’s when they approached him.
The Murim Alliance.
As if they knew exactly what he wanted, they tempted him with dreams and promises.
At first, when they told him to spread a plague in the sect where he’d learned and grown… he was horrified.
“How… How could you ask me to do something like that?”
“This is for the greater good.”
“What about my seniors? My fellow disciples…?”
He resented his master, but it’s not like he hated the disciples he’d lived with all this time.
There was affection there.
“You can’t achieve the greater good if you get hung up on trivial emotions like that.”
“…”
“I promise. Complete this task, and you’ll be made a Commander of the Murim Alliance.”
Commander.
That position required at least Peak-level martial skill.
For someone who hadn’t even reached that yet… Commander?
In the end, he took the bait.
“You swear this won’t threaten their lives?”
“Of course. You just need to document how the disease progresses and leave it at the designated spot.”
He pulled a bamboo tube from his sleeve and placed it into a hollow in the tree.
Inside were records detailing the disease’s progression… and a report on how the Ragged Sage Physician had treated it.
‘Just gotta do this a few more times, and…’
But the moment he turned around—
“…!”
He flinched in horror.
A handsome face was right in front of his nose.
Eun Seo-ho.
The Handsome Young Hero.
Cold sweat dripped down his back.
“What are you doing?”
“W-Wh-Wh-What…?”
At that moment, someone behind him moved.
It was the Ragged Sage Physician.
He walked up and pulled the bamboo tube out of the tree hollow.
Click.
Opening it, he skimmed the report and clicked his tongue.
“You bastard. If you’re gonna write a report, at least do it properly. What is this half-assed mess?”
“…”
“More importantly… Who ordered you to do this?”
“……”
Eun Seo-ho asked, but he didn’t answer.
“You spread this plague here… in exchange for what? What did they promise you?”
“……”
“Let me guess. A Commander’s position?”
“…!”
His eyes widened. Dead on.
“But… Do you really think they’ll keep that promise?”
“Of course they will!”
“What makes you think so? Their name? Their honor?”
“…”
“Did it ever occur to you… that in order to protect that name, they might erase this place completely? Including you.”
No.
That’s impossible.
They exist for the justice of the Murim.
–TL Notes–
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