SSS-Class Revival Hunter

Chapter 79: The Scent of Snow (2)

The Heavenly Demon and I made our way back to the Hunters and the Murim Alliance's leader after a long time.

The two of us were silent as we walked through the cave.

“... It’s very dark in front of us, so be careful where you step,” the Heavenly Demon said.

“Yes, Teacher, ” I replied.

That was the end of our conversation. She looked to be deep in thought. What was the Heavenly Demon—no, what was Teacher thinking?

Show me the character window.

It was said that a disciple shouldn’t even step on their teacher’s shadow, but it was hard to resist my curiosity. Could it be that Teacher had become cautious around me after I showed my weak side? That wasn’t what I wanted.

Name: Soh Baekhyang

Affection: 81

Liked genre: Murim

Disliked genre: Classic, legend, history, fairy tale

Liked characters: Grassroots, rivals

Disliked characters: Oppressors, hypocrites, bums

Liked plot points: Full power fight

Disliked plot points: Fleeing, oblivion, meaningless death

State of mind: Judging from my remaining qi... I’ll be able to live for another year and six months if I use it sparingly. One and a half years! Woah, this is hard! I’ll have to teach everything to my disciple within one and a half years...

Peeking into my Teacher’s mind without her permission made my conscience sting... but that wasn’t the only reason. I felt embarrassed, but I was also a bit touched. I didn’t really understand what I was feeling, but I could feel my face getting warmer. Maybe I really was weak to goodwill.

—Man, Zombie! Today is really my day! I couldn’t have asked for more!

Naturally, the moment didn’t last long because a ghost came along and obliterated the mood.

—Well! It’s a different world, but the murim guys seem no different from those in my murim. The martial arts manuals aren’t that different. Still, it felt good to read them. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that. Man, this is great! Oh, right. Did your Nine Bows go well? the Guardian asked.

—Huh? What’s with that sulky look? You’re already ugly, but you look even uglier with that face, Zombie. You could use some beauty treatments.

If someone could see my affection, they would probably see it drop by ten points right now. Seriously, this ghost didn’t understand human emotions.

[Shiny manages to stop sobbing and looks up at you.]

Shiny finally stopped trembling. As expected, a Constellation understood human emotions. My Affection for Shiny just went up by thirty points. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Hey, you guys are back,” the Viper said, his one eye on me. “Are your Nine Bows over?”

“Yes, I’ve officially become a disciple of the Heavenly Demon Cult.”

“Congratulations.”

“So how did you end up becoming a student of the Murim Alliance's leader?”

The Viper crossed his arms and chuckled. “Well, it just happened.”

“That’s what you said back then.”

“What? You want to hear the details?”

“Yes, if it’s okay.”

Standing like an impregnable wall, the Viper smiled, then shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.” The Viper calmly continued, “I just asked him to be my teacher. Nothing else really happened.”

Since the match was over, nothing held me back from opening the Viper’s character window.

State of Mind: The dying old man... No. He’s my teacher now. Anyway, he’s much more skilled than me but he even bowed to me. He said he doesn’t have much time left to live and he wants to give the Heavenly Demon a reason to carry on. How can I say no to that...?

I felt like someone hit me on the back of my head. The Viper was a real man.

State of Mind: Phew~ Maybe it’s because I lied, but I can remember the moment vividly. I saw the occasional spar between the Murim Alliance's leader and the Heavenly Demon, so I always thought that those guys were amazing. That’s why I discussed martial arts with him when we were sitting together.

Then the Murim Alliance's leader suddenly started shouting: “Ehhhhhh?! Oi, oi. Are you serious? Outer murim is blessed to have a genius like you!”

I scratched the back of my head; it wasn’t really a big deal.

“Ah, the Sect Master is my precious comrade, but I don’t know why you’re making a fuss about it,” the Medicine King interjected. “Isn’t it obvious that he got the skills, the heart, and the looks?”

The Chemist, blushing, joined in: “Yes... Big Brother Vip— Ah, no! Ah, ah, I didn’t say anything! Anyway, the Sect Master is a High Ranker in our world... H-he’s like an idol that people in our world look up to...! Ahh... Ahhhhh... Ahhhhhh... Sob, sob. I’m so embarrassed!”

The truth made my eyes glaze over.

State of Mind: Then the Murim Alliance's leader nodded as if everything made sense. “Oi, oi, please!” he said. “You’re the greatest genius of all time, so please be my last direct disciple!”

Phew~ This is a problem. I just want to live quietly, but my life is always in the spotlight.

Okay. I should stop reading this. Regardless, the Viper was a real man.

“Death King and Lady Heavenly Demon.” The real man of this era shrugged. “I have good news and bad news.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“We’ve succeeded.”

The one who answered my question wasn’t Viper. The voice was much softer—it was the Chemist.

The Chemist walked up to me.“I’ve successfully developed a cure, Mr. Death King.”

The reason I didn’t say anything right away wasn’t because I was emotionally overwhelmed by the news. The Chemist was a genius, so I firmly believed that she would develop a cure someday. It was only a matter of time. I had spent a lot of time learning the Demonic Heaven Arts, so it was about time the Chemist finished the cure with the Medicine King’s help.

“What?” Teacher was surprised. “The cure is complete? Is that true? If it’s a lie, then tell me now. I can forgive one lie.”

“... Yes, it’s true,” the Chemist said. “Actually, it was completed yesterday. I waited another day because I needed to wait for the results of the clinical trial.”

“A clinical trial? What do you mean by that?” Teacher asked.

“I tested it on the test subject you and the Murim Alliance's leader donated ... I’m sorry. I injected the cure on who used to be the Wudang Sect’s leader and observed the progress over the course of a day.”

The Chemist seemed to be trying to look nonchalant.

“It’s been too long since he died, so he couldn’t be revived. But the zombie virus—his jiangshi disease is cured, and I’ve confirmed that his body has returned to normal. Yes, there is nothing wrong with the cure.”

“If that’s true, this is an incredibly joyous day!” Teacher exclaimed. “Amazing! All of the doctors and sages in the world tried to find the cure, but they all failed. Yet you managed to make the cure with just the two of you!”

“No, it’s all thanks to the information Mr. Death King provided—”

“You’re being too humble. Please treat Buwolseon right now!” Teacher grabbed the Chemist’s hands. Her joy was clearly evident in every movement. “That old man is acting all tough and mighty, but he doesn’t have much time left. He must have known it to take in a child from outer murim as his disciple. The Jade Emperor has truly blessed us with this timely cure!”

“Yes... Of course I will treat both of you. That’s why I came here...”

“There is something wrong with the cure,” I interrupted. “Am I wrong, Miss Chemist?”

The Chemist’s head drooped, hiding her expression from us. Ever since she had said, “We successfully developed a cure,” the Chemist kept avoiding my eyes, so I had been feeling uneasy.

“No, there’s nothing wrong with the cure... I made it, it's perfect. But...” The Chemist trailed off.

“But what?” I asked.

“They say we have to shut down our dantian,” It was Buwolseon, the Murim Alliance's leader. The old man in the white robe slowly walked toward us. “Demon, I also witnessed his corpse return to normal. We brought in a couple more jiangshi soldiers to test them just in case, but the results were the same. There’s no doubt about the cure’s effectiveness.

“You and I both know that we are already half-corpses. We should have become corpses ages ago, but we’ve been sustaining our bodies against the laws of nature.”

Teacher’s face was dark.

The Murim Alliance's leader stroked his beard. “Haha, it was a miracle that we’ve survived this long. It’s time to pay the price.”

“...It’s been too long since the two of you were infected with the jiangshi disease. If you haven't been infected yet or were only in the early stages of the infection, one shot of the cure would fix you, but you two...”

The Chemist ducked her head.

“There’s nothing wrong with anything above the acupoint between your brain and spine. The cure will return the region to normal, just like before you were infected. However, below the acupoint, the virus—I mean, the corrupted energy—is completely indistinguishable from what you call qi.

“The condition of your lower dantians is especially bad. The corrupted energy travels by the same passages as your qi does. It’s like cleaning a hallway. The cure isn’t a delicate pair of trash tongs, but a broom. You can’t pick out just the dust and sand while sweeping the hallway. Your hallways are covered in too much dust, especially your lower dantians...”

The dantian was where qi accumulated, so it was as precious as life itself to martial artists.

“They need to be taken out.”

“... Take it out...? What do you mean when you say ‘take them out’?” Teacher asked.

The Chemist had to force herself to finish the explanation. “They have to be removed through surgery.”

“... Are you saying that you’re going to remove the tumor from our lower dantians? That’s fine,” Teacher said, trying to be optimistic. “We’ll lose some of our qi, but people like us can quickly recover from that much.”

“No, your lower dantians will be removed completely. You don’t have to worry about the surgery failing. A trial surgery has already been done. I’m not a specialist in surgery, but Mr. Medicine King is, and I’m still good enough to assist him, so...”

“Their skills are amazing,” the Murim Alliance's leader interrupted. “I don’t know much, but I think I’ll be looking for a doctor from outer murim the next time I need one. I watched the surgery from the side, and it was incredible. Demon, you should also come and watch when you get the chance.”

“Namgung Woon.” Teacher turned to look at him.

“I...” The Murim Alliance's leader coughed. “I’m going to have the surgery. Even if I’m going to lose my qi, it’s only a handful. It isn’t much to worry about. It’s fortunate that I could take in a disciple near the end. Even after closing my dantian, my mind will still be clear, so I’ll be able to teach my disciple. He’s a genius like no other and absorbs my teaching like a sponge.”

The Murim Alliance's leader looked at his old rival. “We’re martial artists. Martial arts are about the mind. If we still have our clear minds, our martial arts remain. Aren’t I right, Baekhyang?”

Try as she might, Teacher couldn’t answer him.

The Murim Alliance's leader's surgery went on all night. At dawn, the Chemist and the Medicine King told me that the surgery was complete and had been successful.

***

Dawn decorated the snowfield in shadows.

“Teacher.”

She stood alone at the cave’s entrance, looking down at the dimly lit world. As distant as the scene was, she seemed even further away. Her long black sleeves fluttered in the wind.

“Teacher,” I repeated.

“...Is the surgery over?”

“Yes, it is.”

“How did it go?”

“He’s well.”

“Is that so?”

“It went well.”

“I see.” Her gaze was fixed on the air. “My disciple.”

“Yes, Teacher.”

“I wanted to slay all of the cold in the world,” Teacher said. “Since I was young, I resented winter and the snow that fell during the season. Why does the world have to have seasons? And why did winter have to be one of them? Why did people’s lives have to perish at the end of every season? I always wondered.”

The world was now frozen in eternal winter, but the woman born with the Icesnow Body and the Ultimate Yin Body hated the season that was most like her.

“I can’t cut the cold, but I was confident that I could punish those who froze the world. That is when I first went out into murim. It was the middle of winter back then, too.”

I knew that something was different about Teacher. She was holding a sword in her right hand. It had no guard, consisting only of the hilt and the blade. Unlike the other swords that were polished to a mirror sheen, Teacher’s blade was pitch black almost as if it refused to be clear.

I could surmise what the sword was.

“The Bloodbane Demon Sword...”

“When I first went into murim, there was something I tried. I was acting childish, but I embraced the world’s cold literally and decided to cut down a snowy mountain.” Teacher exhaled deeply, her breath emerging as puffs of white.

High, white mountains scraped the bottom of the dawning sky.

“Back then, I couldn’t even cut off the foot of the mountain...” The Teacher raised her sword. “I wonder what I’m like now.”

Teacher slowly swung her sword. Her sleeves were long, so they fluttered behind the blade with an almost exaggerated slowness. It seemed as if time stopped as her sleeves swam through the air.

“Whish, whish, iwish.” The shaman of the sword danced with her sword. “My heart is a candle, and it’ll burn this place.”

And then it was cut. The snowy peak had no trees, exposed rocks, or any significance except for its mere presence, but it was cut down all the same. The mountain’s scream was like thunder. As it echoed outward, a rush of white blood burst out as the peak collapsed; the waves of snow overlapped with one another, furthering the mountain’s fall. A human-made snowstorm blotted out the dawn.

Teacher’s cloudy breath drifted through the air.

“In my mind, I cut down the entire mountain, but I couldn’t. I only managed to cut down the peak this time. I’m far away from achieving Mind-Kill. This is the final level I’ll be able to reach.”

The huge, white mountain crumbled.

“My disciple.” Teacher looked back at me. “I’ll have the surgery.”