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— — —
When I awoke, the White-Clad Daoist had truly prepared a medicine condensed from the properties of extreme Yang.
It was a small pill, no larger than the tip of a finger.
The White-Clad Daoist said this medicine would resolve a significant portion of my current predicament.
"I shall perform the Circulation of Internal Energy for you. Relax your entire body and accept the flow as I guide it."
With his assistance, I began the circulation.
As soon as I swallowed the pill, the White-Clad Daoist placed his hand on my back.
A warmth, bordering on scorching heat, originated from the pill and spread along the meridians of my entire body. The goal was not to expel the Yin-Cold Qi, but to introduce a warm energy to harmonize with it.
'Is he using Yang energy to pierce the acupoints blocked by the Yin energy?'
It felt both agonizing and refreshing at the same time.
Was it because my enlightenment was lacking, just as the White-Clad Daoist had said?
I simply focused on my breathing and followed the guidance of the White-Clad Daoist.
I could not tell exactly what was happening within my body.
"Hah, hah!"
How long had I been concentrating?
When I suddenly opened my eyes, the cold that had been constricting my breath had vanished as if washed away.
"Are you alright?"
And, in stark contrast to that, my clothes were a complete mess.
Just as I had seen in various martial arts novels, the impurities had been expelled through the sweat pores of my entire body.
"Ugh! What is this on my clothes..."
"It is a success!"
I shrieked in surprise, but my father, who had been standing guard, laughed brightly.
"Yes. I have soothed the unruly energy. From now on, you will be able to handle your internal energy as you gradually attain enlightenment."
"Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness!"
My father, who had been as deeply worried as I was, was overjoyed.
He didn't even mind that my clothes were ruined by the impurities; he simply pulled me into a tight embrace.
"Wait, just a moment!"
The relief was wonderful, but there was something I needed to ask.
I grabbed the White-Clad Daoist, who looked as if he were about to leave immediately, and asked.
"Daoist, what will happen to me from now on?"
I was prepared to hear anything without being shocked.
I asked him point-blank about my constitution.
However, the White-Clad Daoist shook his head.
"It is not yet the time. This is a secret crafted for your sake, so please, I ask for your understanding that I cannot speak of it freely."
"I am truly alright!"
I tried asking him to tell me the truth once more, but.
"Do not practice the Ice Soul Divine Palm for the next seven or eight years until your body and mind have matured. Then, there will be nothing left to worry about."
The White-Clad Daoist only offered a benevolent smile.
"Ah..."
He was sparing with his words.
But unfortunately, my mind was not that of a young child who would believe that everything would be better after a hundred nights of sleep.
Do not practice the Ice Soul Divine Palm?
Even without that, my constitution was prone to accumulating Yin-Cold Qi; if I were to practice a martial art of extreme Yin, the Yin energy would surely expand once again.
"I understand. I will take your words to heart and follow them. Thank you for saving my life."
— — —
* * *
— — —
The illness receded along with the extreme Yang medicine created by one of the three great physicians under heaven.
He did not tell me about the illness directly.
However, just before falling asleep, I overheard my father talking to him about it.
So, I had thought that if I just pestered my father, I would find out soon enough.
'I know I have too much Yin energy. But shouldn't I at least know if it's the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, the Seven Yin Severed Meridians, or the Three Yin Severed Meridians?'
For once, pestering did not work at all.
My father never told me about the Severed Meridians condition.
"Ahem! You will know everything when the time comes!"
Whenever I asked about my body, health, or constitution, he would just offer an awkward smile and brush it off.
"But what if I get sick again?"
"Do not concern yourself with such things and focus on your studies and external martial arts training. There is nothing wrong with your health."
At some point, he began to avoid the topic entirely, claiming he was busy whenever I tried to bring it up.
Even if I was young, was this really something to be covered up and kept secret?
If he wouldn't tell me, I had no choice.
I searched through the Ice Palace's library.
The guard looked puzzled as to why I had come to the library, but he only stood watch and did not stop me.
'The types of special constitutions... there are all sorts of them.'
There were absurd things like the Empty Spirit Body or the Myriad Poison Body, while familiar terms like the Heavenly Martial Body also caught my eye.
'A talent of a Grandmaster who possesses the energy of extreme Yin, extreme Yang, the Five Elements, and the Taiji, allowing one to harmonize and master all martial arts... Is the Heavenly Martial Body also a bit of a legend in this world?'
Only two in the entire history of the Murim?
In the martial arts web novels I read in my past life, the protagonist was always born with the Heavenly Martial Body.
In this world, it seemed to be a truly rare constitution, the kind that appears once in a thousand years.
I found myself feeling jealous of the protagonists from the novels I used to read.
'I'm jealous! Why am I not a Heavenly Martial Body?'
The way internal energy accumulates so easily is similar, and the talent for grasping martial arts is the same, too.
"Ah, found it."
As I flipped through a few more pages, I found information on the Severed Meridians condition.
The meridians are severed in places, causing Yin energy to expand... and one dies young before the age of twenty.
It wasn't much different from what I already knew.
Perhaps it wasn't as rare as the Heavenly Martial Body, as the explanation was quite long, and there were even cases mentioned of people who suffered from the Three Yin Severed Meridians.
Hoping there might be a solution, I carefully read through it, looking up unknown Hanja in a dictionary.
'In the end, it's either a spiritual medicine or a man.'
But the treatment methods were not much different from what I knew from the novels of my past life.
First, consuming the inner core of a spiritual beast with Yang-strong energy, like a Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp.
And second, Yin-Yang Harmony.
It was a method of balancing the energy through physical union and the exchange of internal energy with a man who had mastered an extreme Yang martial art.
'No, if I had possessed a character in a novel, I would have found a male lead...!'
In reality, neither the first nor the second option was easy.
The Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp went without saying, and where was I supposed to find a man who had mastered an extreme Yang martial art?
Moreover, thinking of a great master who had mastered a Yang-strong martial art, the image of a man with excessive muscles automatically popped into my head.
'Ugh. I don't have a taste for burly men!'
But I quickly erased that image from my mind.
The target wasn't right in front of me, so there was no need to suffer by imagining a man who wasn't my type.
'Option 1, it has to be option 1!'
I would cure the Nine Yin Severed Meridians with a spiritual medicine.
Then I could just fall in love with a long-haired handsome man and live happily!
'Find a Yang-energy spiritual medicine, be careful not to let the Yin energy amplify, and train in enlightenment and external martial arts.'
...In the end, it was just as the White-Clad Daoist had said.
I couldn't just run off to find a spiritual medicine in an eight-year-old's body.
For now, there was nothing I could do, and nothing I needed to do, other than train.
I had to extend my life by balancing my energy as much as possible.
Perhaps once I became strong enough, I would be able to go out and find the spiritual medicine myself.
"Young Miss, are you alright to move your body now?"
"Of course. Spar with me! A light spar, go easy!"
I immediately shook off the bed and began my training.
I was quite confident in my ability to work hard.
Everything wasn't as perfect as it was before I got sick, but I wasn't afraid just because I was living on borrowed time.
'As long as I don't die immediately, it's fine. It's not like there's nothing I can try.'
I even had a vague feeling that things would work out somehow.
In every martial arts novel I had read in my past life, the Nine Yin Severed Meridians were always accompanied by the setting of an early death.
But whether they survived through the inner core of a spiritual beast or a spiritual medicine, or... used that other method.
I had never once seen a character with the Severed Meridians condition who was involved with the protagonist die of natural causes.
'Nothing has changed. Let's train hard, and when I'm a bit older, let's go out into the world!'
The White-Clad Daoist and my father must have kept it a secret so that I could live happily.
I should live brightly.
I steeled my heart with that thought.
— — —
* * *
— — —
Time passed.
Fortunately, the Severed Meridians condition did not flare up even once until I turned fifteen.
It was the result of my efforts to continue training to handle the Yin-Cold Qi without increasing its amount in the slightest.
Since I focused mainly on external martial arts even during the times others practiced their internal energy circulation, my muscular strength became very strong. Unlike before, when I avoided Hanja, I studied hard to better understand the mental imagery of martial arts manuals, and I even sought out and read Buddhist and Daoist scriptures. I also practiced some martial arts that weren't Ice Palace techniques, which had been buried somewhere in the library.
Thanks to this, the Yin-Cold Qi filling my Dantian could not trouble me at all, and even without relying on it, I had reached a level where I could defeat the children of the Ice Palace of my age.
Then one day, my father suddenly called me to his office.
"Sool-ryeo, you are already fifteen this year. It is the age they call 'the age of learning' in the Central Plains."
"Yes."
"I have put this off until now because I was worried about how you, being so young, would take it... but I think it is time to tell you about your constitution."
Ah, finally?
He had dodged the question every time I asked, so was he finally going to spill the beans?
Having already gone through denial, anger, bargaining, and depression long ago and reached the stage of acceptance, I quietly nodded.
"I have already guessed, Father."
"...What? Is that true?"
My father was startled.
But honestly, it would be strange if I didn't know.
I had been training without even using my internal energy for fear that the Yin-Cold Qi would expand.
Usually, internal energy doesn't increase that easily, even when everyone works hard at their circulation.
But for some reason, this body of mine kept trying to increase its internal energy even when I only drew upon a tiny bit of the energy in my Dantian.
"I always thought you were bright from a young age, but... this is incredible. To have trained so hard even after knowing your constitution."
Hehe, I didn't despair thinking I might die soon, and I did live quite diligently.
"What meaning would there be in life if I only lived according to how I was born? I am simply doing my best in the environment I was given."
I said it confidently, and my father was deeply moved.
He even teared up, saying he hadn't known I would be this mature at such a young age.
He must have had a hard time, unable to bring himself to give his young daughter a death sentence and suffering alone all this time.
I offered a calm smile to comfort my father.
"Yes, if you already know, then this will be a quick conversation."
My father calmed his heart and firmly grasped my hand.
"There is something I need you to do."
Hmm, what could it be?
Since I was very young, my father had never ordered me to do anything.
I could feel his subtle wish for me to take an interest in martial arts and train diligently, but he never forced me or tasked me with anything.
Is there something that only a patient with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians can do?
I searched through the memories of my past and present lives, but nothing of the sort came to mind... Ah.
'Could it be marriage?'
A possibility suddenly occurred to me.
There are two main ways to treat the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
My father, who loves me dearly, must have been searching for a solution with both paths in mind.
If he had found a spiritual medicine, he wouldn't be tearing up, nor would he call it a "task I need you to do."
'Did he find a man who has mastered a supreme Yang technique first?'
I had long pushed that possibility to the back of my mind and focused on my training, but if it were to suddenly arrive like this, I would have no choice but to make a decision.
What should I do?
Should I get married just to survive?
Perhaps, if I am very, very lucky, the man might be a handsome man to my taste, and we could have a "marriage first, love later" situation where everything works out?
It didn't feel very hopeful.
That’s the kind of thing that only happens in romance fantasy novels!
I am only fifteen years old.
If the partner is an incredible master who has already achieved a supreme Yang technique... wouldn't he be older than my father?
Still, would he look young because he has achieved the Rejuvenation of the Old?
I was nearly in a panic.
Should I ask to see a portrait first?
No, you can't trust paintings anyway.
Ah, would it be too radical for this era to ask for just the "Yin-Yang Harmony" without getting married?
I want to live, but I have infinite possibilities opening up in my future...!
"Have you heard of the Heavenly Martial Academy?"
While I was racking my brain, not knowing what to do, my father brought up something completely out of the blue.
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