Chapter 2

When I woke up, the White-Robed Immortal Physician had already prepared a medicine containing highly concentrated yang energy, just as he had promised.

It was a tiny pill, about the size of the first joint of my finger.

The White-Robed Immortal Physician said that this medicine would be able to solve most of the problem I was suffering from.

“I will guide your true qi through your body. Relax completely and accept the energy as I guide it.”

With his help, I began circulating my qi.

The moment I swallowed the pill, the White-Robed Immortal Physician placed his hand against my back.

An energy that was not merely warm but almost burning hot spread throughout my body, following my meridians.

The goal wasn’t to remove the yin-cold energy.

Instead, the warm yang energy was being introduced into my body so that the two energies could blend together.

‘Is he using yang energy to break through the acupuncture points that were blocked by yin energy?’

It felt painful in some ways, but also strangely refreshing.

Perhaps it was because, as the White-Robed Immortal Physician had said, I still lacked enough understanding.

All I could do was focus on my breathing and follow the guidance of the White-Robed Immortal Physician.

I couldn’t fully understand what was happening inside my own body.

“Hah… Haa…!”

How long had I been concentrating?

When I suddenly opened my eyes, the terrible cold that had been suffocating me had completely disappeared.

“Are you all right?”

And, in complete contrast to how I felt, my clothes were a complete mess.

Just like I had seen in various martial arts novels, impurities had been expelled from my body through every pore along with my sweat.

“Ah! What happened to my clothes…?”

“You succeeded!”

I screamed in surprise, but my father, who had been guarding me nearby, smiled brightly.

“Yes. I have calmed the energy that was running wild inside you. From now on, you should gradually gain a better understanding of your body and learn how to control your internal energy.”

“Thank goodness. Really, thank goodness!”

My father, who had been just as worried as I was, was overjoyed.

He didn’t even care that my clothes were covered in all the impurities that had come out of my body. He simply hugged me tightly.

“Wait a moment!”

Being moved was fine, but there was something I needed to ask.

I immediately stopped the White-Robed Immortal Physician, who seemed ready to leave, and asked him:

“Immortal Physician, what will happen to me from now on?”

I had already prepared myself to hear something shocking.

So I directly asked him about my constitution.

But the White-Robed Immortal Physician shook his head.“It is not yet time. This is a secret I have kept for your sake, so please understand that I cannot speak carelessly about it.”

“I’m really okay!”

I asked him once again to tell me the truth.

But he only said:

“Do not practice the Ice-White Divine Art for the next seven or eight years, until your mind and body have matured. If you do that, then afterward… you should probably be fine.”

The White-Robed Immortal Physician only gave me a gentle smile.

He was clearly choosing his words carefully.

Unfortunately for him, my mind wasn’t that of a child who could be convinced by simply being told, “You’ll be fine after you sleep for a hundred nights.”

Don’t practice the Ice-White Divine Art?

I already had a constitution that made yin-cold energy build up easily.

If I continued practicing an extremely yin-based martial art, wouldn’t the yin energy simply increase again?

“I understand. I will remember your words and follow them exactly. Thank you for saving my life.”

My illness gradually disappeared thanks to the extremely yang medicine prepared by one of the Three Greatest Physicians Under Heaven.

Although the White-Robed Immortal Physician never directly told me what disease I had, I had overheard him discussing it with my father right before I fell asleep.

So I secretly thought that if I simply kept pestering my father, I would eventually find out.

‘I understand that I have too much yin energy. But shouldn’t I at least know whether I have Nine Yin Absolute Meridian, Seven Yin Absolute Meridian, or Three Yin Absolute Meridian?’

But this time, throwing a tantrum didn’t work at all.

My father never told me anything about the Absolute Meridian condition.

“Ahem! You will learn everything when the time comes!”

Whenever I asked about my body, health, or constitution, he would give me an awkward smile and avoid the subject.

“But what if I get sick again?”

“Don’t worry about unnecessary things. Focus on your studies and physical training. He said that as long as we keep your energies balanced, there shouldn’t be any more problems with your health.”

Eventually, whenever I even tried to bring up the subject, he would say he was busy and leave.

Even if I was young, was it really necessary to keep something like this completely secret from me?

If he wasn’t going to tell me, then I had no choice.

I searched through the books in the Ice Palace’s library.

The guards looked surprised that I had suddenly come to the library, but they simply stayed nearby and didn’t stop me.

‘There are so many types of special constitutions…’

There were ridiculous-sounding ones like the Empty Spirit Body and the Myriad Poisons Body.

Then I came across a familiar term.

The Heavenly Martial Body.

‘A great master’s talent that possesses the energies of extreme yin, extreme yang, the five elements, and taiji, allowing them to harmoniously practice every kind of martial art… So in this world, even the Heavenly Martial Body seems almost legendary?’

Apparently, there had only been two people with this constitution throughout the entire history of the martial arts world.

In the martial arts web novels I had read in my previous life, protagonists with the Heavenly Martial Body appeared all the time.

But in this world, it seemed to be an incredibly rare constitution, something that might appear only once every thousand years.

I couldn’t help feeling jealous of the protagonists from those old novels.

‘I’m jealous! Why wasn’t I born with the Heavenly Martial Body?’

I was similarly good at accumulating internal energy.

And I also had an excellent natural sense for learning martial arts.

“Ah, found it.”

After turning a few more pages, I finally found information about the Absolute Meridian condition.

Several parts of the meridians were blocked or severed, causing yin energy to expand…

And the person would die before reaching the age of twenty.

It wasn’t much different from what I already knew.

It wasn’t as rare as the Heavenly Martial Body, either, because the explanation was fairly long.

There were even several recorded cases of people who had suffered from Three Yin Absolute Meridian.

Hoping that there might be some kind of cure, I carefully read everything, looking up unfamiliar Chinese characters in a dictionary whenever necessary.

‘So in the end, it’s either a spiritual medicine or a man.’

Unfortunately, the methods of treatment weren’t much different from what I had read about in novels in my previous life.

First, consume the inner core of a spiritual creature possessing powerful yang energy, such as a Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp.

Second, Yin-Yang Union.

This involved physically uniting with a man who had mastered an extremely yang-based martial art, while also exchanging true qi with him to restore the balance between yin and yang.

‘Well, if I had been possessed into a novel, I would obviously search for the male lead…!’

But in real life, neither option was easy.

Forget about finding a Ten-Thousand-Year Fire Carp.

Where was I supposed to find a man who had completely mastered an extremely yang martial art?

And when I imagined an incredibly powerful martial artist who practiced a powerful yang-based technique…

An image of a man showing off enormous muscles automatically appeared in my mind.

‘Agh! Muscular, bulky men aren’t my type!’

But I quickly erased the image from my mind.

The man wasn’t even standing in front of me.

There was no reason to torture myself by imagining a man I wasn’t attracted to in advance.

‘Option one. Definitely option one!’

I would cure my Nine Yin Absolute Meridian with a spiritual medicine.

Then I could fall in love with a handsome, long-haired man and live happily ever after!

‘Find a yang-energy spiritual medicine, be careful not to increase my yin energy, and work on my understanding and physical training.’

…In the end, that was exactly what the White-Robed Immortal Physician had told me.

There was no way an eight-year-old child could run out into the world searching for spiritual medicine.

For now, the only thing I could do, and the only thing I needed to do, was train.

I would extend my life by keeping my energies as balanced as possible.

Once I became strong enough, perhaps I could go out into the world and search for the spiritual medicine myself.

“Young Lady, are you sure you’re well enough to move around now?”

“Of course. Spar with me! Just a training match. Go easy on me!”

I immediately got out of bed and began training.

I was quite confident in my ability to work hard.

Things weren’t as perfect as they had been before I became sick, but I wasn’t necessarily terrified just because I knew my life might be short.

‘As long as I don’t die right away, I’m fine. It’s not like there’s nothing I can do.’

Somehow, I had a vague feeling that things would work out.

Every martial arts novel I had read in my previous life had treated the Absolute Meridian condition as a fatal illness.

But whether the person survived through a spiritual creature’s inner core, a precious medicine, or… some other method…

I had never once seen an Absolute Meridian patient who became involved with the protagonist actually die of old age.

‘Nothing has changed. I’ll train hard, and when I’m a little older, I’ll go out into the world!’

The White-Robed Immortal Physician and my father had probably kept this secret because they wanted me to live happily.

So I should stay cheerful.

With that thought, I strengthened my resolve.

Time passed.

Fortunately, I didn’t suffer a single episode of the Absolute Meridian condition until I turned fifteen.

This was the result of repeatedly training to make my body capable of handling the energy I already had, without increasing the amount of yin-cold energy even a little.

While everyone else spent their time practicing qi circulation, I focused mainly on physical training.

As a result, I became extremely strong.

Unlike before, when I had avoided Chinese characters whenever possible, I also began studying more seriously so that I could better understand the concepts described in martial arts manuals.

I even obtained Buddhist scriptures and Daoist texts and read them.

I also learned a few martial arts that weren’t ice-based, which had been gathering dust somewhere in the library.

Thanks to all of this, the yin-cold energy stored in my dantian no longer bothered me at all.

Even without increasing my yin-cold energy, I had reached a level where I could defeat the other children around my age in the Ice Palace.

Then, one day, my father suddenly called me to his office.

“Suryeo, you’re already fifteen this year. In the Central Plains, they call this the age of Ji Hak, the age when a person begins to set their ambitions.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve delayed telling you because I was worried about how you would react while you were still young… But I think it’s finally time to tell you about your constitution.”

Oh.

Finally?

Whenever I asked, he always changed the subject.

Was he finally going to tell me everything?

I had already gone through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and all the other stages long ago.

By now, I had reached acceptance.

So I calmly nodded.

“I already have an idea, Father.”

“…What? You really do?”

My father was shocked.

But honestly, wouldn’t it have been strange if I didn’t know?

I had deliberately avoided using internal energy while training because I was afraid of increasing my yin-cold energy.

Normally, internal energy wasn’t supposed to increase that easily.

Everyone else had to diligently practice qi circulation to build it.

But for some reason, this body of mine kept trying to increase the amount of internal energy in my dantian whenever I even slightly drew upon it.

“I always knew you were unusually intelligent for your age… But this is remarkable. Even after learning about your constitution, you’ve continued training this hard.”

Heh.

I suppose I had lived pretty diligently instead of falling into despair over the possibility that I might die young.

“If I simply lived according to what I was born with, what meaning would life have? I can only do my best with the circumstances I’ve been given.”

I said it confidently.

My father was deeply moved.

He even became teary-eyed, saying that he never expected his daughter to be so mature at such a young age.

He had been carrying the burden of knowing that his young daughter might die soon, unable to bring himself to tell me.

It must have been incredibly painful for him.

I comforted him with a calm smile.

“All right. If you already know, then this will make things easier.”

My father quickly composed himself and grabbed my hand.

“There is something I want you to do.”

Hmm?

What could it be?

Ever since I was very young, my father had never ordered me to do anything.

I could tell that he secretly wanted me to take an interest in martial arts and train hard.

But he had never forced me to do anything or given me any responsibilities.

Could there be something that only someone suffering from the Absolute Meridian condition could do?

I thought through everything I remembered from both my previous and current lives, but I couldn’t think of anything…

Ah.

‘Could it be marriage?’

Suddenly, one possibility came to mind.

There were two main ways to treat the Absolute Meridian condition.

My father loved me dearly, so naturally, he would have considered both possibilities when searching for a cure.

If he had found a spiritual medicine, he wouldn’t be looking at me with tears in his eyes or telling me that there was something I had to do.

‘Did he find a man who has mastered an extremely yang-based martial art?’

I had pushed that possibility to the back of my mind for a long time and focused on training.

But if the situation had suddenly reached this point, I might no longer be able to avoid making a decision.

What should I do?

I needed to survive, so did that mean I had to get married?

Perhaps, if I were incredibly, incredibly lucky…

Maybe the man would actually be my type.

Maybe we could get married first, fall in love afterward, and somehow everything would work out.

But that didn’t feel very hopeful.

That sort of thing only happened in romance-fantasy novels!

I was only fifteen years old.

If the other person had already mastered an extremely yang-based martial art and was an incredibly powerful master…

Wouldn’t he be even older than my father?

Although, perhaps he had used some technique to regain his youth and still looked young?

I was almost panicking.

Should I at least ask to see a portrait of him?

No.

A painting couldn’t necessarily be trusted anyway.

Ah, maybe I could refuse marriage and simply ask for the “Yin-Yang Union” treatment…

But would that be way too unconventional in this era?

I wanted to live.

But I also had an entire future full of possibilities ahead of me…!

“Have you ever heard of Tianmu Academy?”

While I was desperately racking my brain, trying to figure out what I should do, my father suddenly brought up something completely unrelated.