Chapter 62
The Secret Is Revealed (3)
Baek So-cheon immediately took the two of them to see Zhuge Hyeon.
Zhuge Hyeon was startled by their visit.
He had been pacing anxiously around his room, worried about the Alliance Leader, when Baek So-cheon suddenly brought in a woman whose face was hidden beneath a bamboo hat and a young girl.
“If we want to save the Alliance Leader, we must bring this person to him.”
“Who is she?”
“She is Elder Na of the Assassin Alliance.”
“The Assassin Alliance?”
Zhuge Hyeon was stunned.
Had those words come from anyone else, he would have immediately barked, What kind of nonsense is this?
But they had come from Baek So-cheon, and the Alliance Leader was hovering between life and death.
Zhuge Hyeon already knew of Na Sa-rin. Reports about the ageless old master of the Assassin Alliance had long since reached the Hyeoncheon Intelligence Pavilion.
Then the woman wearing the bamboo hat must be the Assassin Alliance Leader.
He correctly guessed Cheon-geuk's identity as well.
Taking them to the Alliance Leader?
Under normal circumstances, it was completely impossible.
“There’s no time. We have to go immediately.”
“Very well. Let’s go.”
Such a decision would have been unthinkable unless he trusted Baek So-cheon completely.
***
Secret Pavilion Master On Byeok-hwa stood outside the Alliance Leader’s bedchamber.
She had returned and was once again standing vigil.
Zhuge Hyeon addressed Pung Geuk-an.
“I have brought a physician I know. Please allow this person to examine the Alliance Leader.”
Since Na Sa-rin’s true identity could not be revealed, they presented Cheon-geuk as the physician instead. Outwardly, Na Sa-rin merely appeared to be Cheon-geuk’s maidservant.
Even so, bringing in another physician while the Divine Physician was already treating the patient was highly unusual.
It was also a great discourtesy toward the Divine Physician.
Naturally, Pung Geuk-an refused to let them pass.
“She must reveal her face and identify herself.”
Zhuge Hyeon knew that if they admitted she belonged to the Assassin Alliance, they would never be allowed inside.
“For certain reasons, she cannot reveal either her face or her identity.”
“Then she cannot enter.”
“I stake my life on her identity. If she is not allowed to treat the Alliance Leader immediately, His Excellency’s life will be in danger.”
When Zhuge Hyeon declared that he would stake his own life on it, both Pung Geuk-an and On Byeok-hwa were shocked.
As Pung Geuk-an hesitated, On Byeok-hwa stepped forward.
“Given the Alliance Leader’s condition, this is hardly the time to cling to regulations. Since Strategist Zhuge is willing to go this far, I believe we should allow them in.”
Just then, Ban Wol-ryang stepped outside.
“What’s going on?”
The moment his eyes fell upon Na Sa-rin, he froze.
Ban Wol-ryang knew who she was.
He had met her many years ago.
His astonished gaze naturally shifted toward Baek So-cheon.
Meeting his eyes, Baek So-cheon gave him a slight nod.
His look clearly conveyed one message:
Please trust me.
Ban Wol-ryang then looked toward Zhuge Hyeon.
Zhuge Hyeon once again demonstrated his unwavering trust in Baek So-cheon.
“If anything goes wrong, I will take full responsibility.”
Since the Alliance Leader’s life was at stake, those words meant he, too, was wagering his own life.
If even the Grand Strategist was willing to go that far, Ban Wol-ryang concluded these people could not intend any harm.
He turned to Pung Geuk-an.
“Let them in.”
With even the Divine Physician agreeing, Pung Geuk-an could no longer object.
“Then I will accompany them.”
Baek So-cheon nodded.
“Let’s all go in together.”
And so, they all entered.
***
Ak So-gun lay on the bed.
His complexion was deathly pale, and he looked utterly exhausted.
Na Sa-rin approached him and placed a hand on his forehead.
His skin burned with fever.
Ban Wol-ryang said,
“I've used every medicinal herb I could think of to bring down his fever, but nothing has worked.”
“That’s because you misdiagnosed the cause.”
Only then did Pung Geuk-an realize that the person who had come to treat the Alliance Leader was actually the little girl.
He also realized the Divine Physician had known that all along.
“What exactly is going on?”
“I’ll write down a prescription. Prepare it exactly as instructed.”
Na Sa-rin quickly wrote the ingredients and handed them to Ban Wol-ryang.
“Hurry. We don't have much time.”
Given the gravity of the situation, Ban Wol-ryang personally prepared the medicine.
Na Sa-rin pried open the unconscious Ak So-gun’s mouth and forced the medicine down his throat.
She then inserted acupuncture needles throughout his body and pressed his acupoints in a precise sequence.
A moment later...
Something unbelievable happened.
Ak So-gun’s eyes flew open.
He suddenly sat upright.
The next instant—
“Kghhh!”
He vomited violently.
Pung Geuk-an instinctively grabbed the hilt of his sword.
Since Ak So-gun had eaten nothing, what came out was only the medicine mixed with blood.
He refrained from drawing his blade because the Alliance Leader’s expression had suddenly become remarkably peaceful.
Ak So-gun slowly lay back down and soon fell asleep.
Na Sa-rin picked up a pair of chopsticks and sifted through the vomit.
“Here it is.”
She held up something tiny.
It looked like a small larva.
At first glance, it could easily be mistaken for a grain of rice.
“A Gu.”
Everyone was stunned.
The Gu arts referred to secret techniques that used insects and poisonous creatures.
Over time, those techniques evolved into forbidden arts capable of implanting insects inside a person's body to control them.
They could make someone fall in love, become terrified, or harbor intense hatred.
They were said to exert an even stronger influence over the human mind than Soul-Enthralling Arts.
However, creating Gu was extraordinarily difficult and prohibitively expensive.
Raising a single specimen could cost hundreds of thousands of taels, and the slightest environmental change or mistake could kill it.
Eventually, the art disappeared from the martial world altogether and was believed to have become a lost secret.
Yet now...
One had appeared before their very eyes.
“This Gu,” Na Sa-rin explained, “is the Heavenly Twin Gu, the rarest and most valuable of all Gu.
“If a male and female pair are implanted into two different people, the one carrying the female Gu will gradually come to hate the one carrying the male Gu.
“That hatred will continue growing until the person ultimately kills the other.”
Everyone was shocked to learn that the Heavenly Twin Gu had been inside the Alliance Leader.
“If one is here... then where is the other?”
Asked by the Divine Physician, Na Sa-rin turned toward Baek So-cheon.
“You said the Alliance Leader has kept his distance from you for the past three years, didn't you?”
Everyone gasped in realization.
“Then the male Heavenly Twin Gu must have been inside your body.
“A person carrying the female Gu cannot control the hatred it creates.
“Their mind becomes filled with nothing but negative thoughts toward the other person.
“The Alliance Leader must have imagined your betrayal countless times.
“The only reason he endured for three whole years was because his cultivation was extraordinarily profound, his willpower exceptionally strong, and his trust in you incredibly deep.
“An ordinary person would have killed the other within days.”
Baek So-cheon sighed deeply.
He had never imagined that both he and the Alliance Leader had carried Heavenly Twin Gu.
“I never realized there was a Gu inside me.”
“The Heavenly Twin Gu is the highest form of Gu, one that only true masters of Gu arts can control.
“It is extraordinarily difficult to detect once it enters the body.”
Moreover, Baek So-cheon had lost his internal energy.
He had no chance of discovering the male Gu hidden inside him.
“The Alliance Leader himself probably never imagined that Gu was responsible for his changes.
“After all, this secret art has long since disappeared.”
Because Gu manipulated the human mind, it shared many similarities with Soul-Enthralling Arts.
Na Sa-rin’s own master, who had taught her Soul-Enthralling Arts, had once been obsessed with Gu.
He had researched every known variety and even attempted to cultivate them himself.
In fact, he had succeeded in producing several simpler varieties.
From him, Na Sa-rin had learned how to destroy Gu.
Creating Gu was extraordinarily difficult.
Destroying it, however, was comparatively simple.
Every variety of Gu had medicines it instinctively loathed.
Had destroying them been as difficult as creating them, those who wielded Gu would have ruled the martial world.
Then Na Sa-rin revealed an even more horrifying truth.
“The Heavenly Twin Gu is not merely meant to make one person kill the other.
“If the Alliance Leader had killed you of his own free will, the caster would then have been able to manipulate him through the female Gu still inside his body.
“The Alliance Leader might have resisted for a time...
“But eventually, he would have become the puppet of whoever implanted the Gu.”
No one could speak.
The conspiracy was terrifying.
Their enemies had intended to eliminate Baek So-cheon—the hero who had led the Alliance to victory despite losing his internal energy—and then seize control of the Alliance Leader himself.
“Then why did the Alliance Leader suddenly end up like this?”
Na Sa-rin looked back at Baek So-cheon.
“Your body has undergone some sort of change recently, hasn't it?”
She already knew Baek So-cheon had regained his internal energy.
Naturally, she avoided mentioning that fact.
“Yes.
“I've trained diligently lately, and my body has advanced to another level.”
Because of everyone present, Baek So-cheon gave that answer.
But inwardly, a realization struck him.
Ah... it was because of the Body Reconstruction Art.
Only now did he understand.
During the process of reconstructing his body, the Gu hidden inside him had died.
“That must be why the Gu inside you perished.
“The Alliance Leader was supposed to kill you through his own will, and the satisfaction from doing so would have been transmitted to the Gu.
“But once your Gu died, that process was interrupted.
“Afterward, the female Gu inside the Alliance Leader began going berserk.”
On Byeok-hwa stepped forward.
“That’s right. The Alliance Leader became increasingly irritable not long ago.”
Na Sa-rin nodded politely.
“A female Gu driven into a frenzy continuously harms its host.
“Eventually, after causing three days of burning fever...
“Both the host and the Gu die together.”
Today marked the fourth day.
Had Na Sa-rin not removed the Gu, the Alliance Leader would never have seen tomorrow’s sunrise.
***
Baek So-cheon asked another question.
“Do you have any idea who might have done this?”
“Although everyone believes the Heavenly Twin Gu has long been lost...
“There was one organization that used it seventy years ago.”
“Who?”
“The Blood Church.”
Everyone was stunned.
The mastermind behind everything had been the Blood Church.
“Among the practitioners of Blood Church sorcery, only Jeok Pa-rap—the master of the current Blood Church Leader, Myeol Saeng—could wield the Heavenly Twin Gu.
“Could that old man, now over a hundred years old, still be alive?
“He accepted only one disciple—the Blood Church Leader himself.
“So either Jeok Pa-rap personally implanted the Gu...
“Or Myeol Saeng did.”
It was no ordinary enemy.
One of the Blood Church’s highest-ranking figures had personally carried out the plot.
“When was the Gu implanted?”
“Judging by its size...
“About three or four years ago.”
That placed it near the final stage of the great war.
Zhuge Hyeon, who had been listening quietly, finally spoke.
“How could they have implanted it?”
Na Sa-rin answered politely.
“Before the Heavenly Twin Gu settles inside the body, it is even smaller than a grain of rice and enclosed within a thick shell.
“Chewing it won't kill it.
“They most likely mixed it into food.
“Once inside, it hides within the blood vessels near the brain and grows there.”
Zhuge Hyeon turned to the Shadow Pavilion Master.
“The investigation into whoever poisoned them falls to the Shadow Pavilion.”
“As you command.”
It meant the culprit could have been anyone inside the Alliance.
Baek So-cheon doubted they would ever find the perpetrator.
More than three years had already passed.
During the final days of the war, meals had been taken wherever possible.
The Alliance Leader had often eaten shoulder to shoulder with ordinary warriors on the battlefield.
For someone as powerful as Myeol Saeng or Jeok Pa-rap, slipping into a military camp unnoticed and secretly mixing Gu into two bowls of food would not have been difficult.
“Will the Alliance Leader recover now?”
“He will be perfectly fine.”
Baek So-cheon immediately knelt and bowed deeply before Na Sa-rin.
“I will never forget this debt.”
Thanks to her, the Alliance Leader’s life had been saved.
And the truth behind everything had finally come to light.
Na Sa-rin took his hands and helped him stand.
“You haven’t forgotten the favor I once asked of you, have you?”
“Of course not.”
“That has always been my only wish.”
She remained the very embodiment of unwavering loyalty.
Cheon-geuk kept her bamboo hat pulled low, so she and Baek So-cheon exchanged no words.
Even so, she could feel his gaze.
It carried greater gratitude than ever before.
“We'll be leaving now.”
Cheon-geuk escorted Na Sa-rin out.
Baek So-cheon...
On Byeok-hwa, who loved the Alliance Leader...
Pung Geuk-an, who blamed himself for failing to protect him...
Zhuge Hyeon, whose relationship with the Alliance Leader had recently grown strained...
Ban Wol-ryang, who had nearly been forced to live with the lifelong regret of failing to save him...
Even Hwang Jong-shin, who, though less deeply connected than the others, still enjoyed the Alliance Leader’s trust—
All of them respected and cared deeply for Ak So-gun.
Together, they bowed toward Na Sa-rin as she departed.
Speaking on behalf of everyone, Zhuge Hyeon raised his voice.
“Thank you.
“The Murim Alliance will never forget the debt we owe you today.”
At least today, it no longer mattered which organization she belonged to.
***
Some time later, after everyone else had left, only Baek So-cheon and Ak So-gun remained.
The others had quietly given them privacy.
Ak So-gun slept peacefully, his face as serene as that of a child.
Baek So-cheon’s emotions were in turmoil.
Above all else...
He felt guilty.
The misunderstanding had been understandable.
Even so, he should have trusted Ak So-gun more.
What if I had never lost my internal energy?
No.
That kind of speculation was meaningless.
Perhaps, in a fit of anger, he might have caused an even greater tragedy.
If he had failed without internal energy, then having it would not necessarily have changed anything.
During the years Baek So-cheon wandered in confusion...
Ak So-gun had undoubtedly been fighting the same battle within his own heart.
Kill Baek So-cheon!
No matter what, I can't kill him.
Just kill him already!
Silence. Even if he truly betrayed me, I will never kill So-cheon.
You fool.
Didn't he get demoted?
Even at the lowest rank, Baek So-cheon is still Baek So-cheon. I look forward to the day he cuts off your head while smiling.
Thinking about how Ak So-gun had resisted the urge to kill him for three long years nearly brought tears to Baek So-cheon's eyes.
An ordinary person would have succumbed within days.
Ak So-gun had endured for three years.
Perhaps reclaiming Baek So-cheon's sword had been the one small comfort that allowed him to keep holding on.
When he awoke, he would learn the entire truth.
Finally...
The words Baek So-cheon had long wished to say from the bottom of his heart quietly escaped his lips.
“...Alliance Leader.”