Chapter 103: Level and Realm-3

She placed her hand on his heart and projected her qi.

A martial arts-style medical examination commonly called pulse diagnosis.

Usually, it involves holding the wrist,

feeling the heart’s pulse,

and diagnosing through the pulse, hence the name pulse diagnosis.

But Hae Eung Eung attempted a more daring diagnosis.

‘It’s not easy to read the pulse of someone who’s collapsed while holding their heart.’

By injecting qi directly above the heart,

she read the inside of the body through qi,

and suddenly understood the cause of the pain he was complaining of.

‘The width of his cardiovascular vessels has narrowed.’

Due to extreme stress, his blood vessels had narrowed,

making it difficult for his heart to beat.

“Are you sure we don’t need to call an ambulance?”

[It’s okay.]

Hae Eung Eung replied confidently.

In the first place, the Gu Yin Severed Meridian disease she suffered from also involved symptoms of narrowed or twisted blood vessels, a type of severed meridian disorder.

The method of treating such symptoms

was common knowledge that any Gu Yin Severed Meridian patient

had to know.

But to So Gyeong-seok, who didn’t have such common knowledge,

it just sounded like she was going to quietly bury him.

What medical knowledge would an Awakened One have?

He only saw a future where his heart would stop, he’d be loaded onto a garbage incinerator truck,

and burned to ashes.

“Everyone, don’t disturb Guild Master! Go inside! That’s an order!”

So Gyeong-seok hurriedly took the employees inside to keep them quiet.

‘Good heavens, is Hae Eung Eung trying to kill Shin Seong-gwak?!’

Min Woo-seong, who was waiting inside,

read So Gyeong-seok’s thoughts and was horrified,

secretly reporting it to the National Intelligence Service,

but that was irrelevant for the moment.

Hae Eung Eung began her full-scale internal energy treatment.

‘The procedure is difficult.’

The endpoint phenomenon that Awakened Ones experience.

Due to this, Shin Seong-gwak, whose body, not just his skin, was experiencing hardening,

had a liver and lungs that had hardened and were not functioning properly,

or blood vessel walls that had hardened,

showing symptoms of arteriosclerosis.

If he went to a hospital, they would use thrombolytics

to dissolve foreign substances in the blood vessel walls,

or anticoagulants to prevent blood clots from forming,

but Hae Eung Eung was a martial artist.

She had no choice but to attempt martial arts-style treatment, not modern treatment.

‘Tainted energy, magic disease, hardened blood vessels, and even twisted and hardened blood points… It’s a mess to the point where it’s a wonder he’s still alive.’

The qi of a martial artist, capable of reading symptoms on the spot

without an endoscope with a camera inserted.

Actively using this, Hae Eung Eung burned the blood clots stuck to the blood vessel walls with internal energy,

gently loosened the hardened blood vessels,

and helped the twisted blood vessels return to their proper place.

This was called Jin Gi Do In.

The treatment technique of helping qi find its place

was exceptionally effective,

but with only 14 years of internal energy,

it was impossible to completely cure all the symptoms with a single procedure.

‘For now, I have no choice but to focus on the area around the heart as a matter of urgency.’

Shin Seong-gwak’s complexion became noticeably more comfortable,

and as the internal energy treatment came to an end,

he vomited black blood once

and his breathing returned to normal.

“Cough, cough. You, you saved me.”

Only then did Shin Seong-gwak think that he might have misunderstood Hae Eung Eung.

[Your hasty personality, where you don’t listen to others and just say what you want, brought this on yourself.]

“Haha. I’m embarrassed.”

He said awkwardly, laughing sheepishly.

“Could you call Secretary Im, whom I brought as an attendant?”

Hae Eung Eung called So Gyeong-seok and told him to find and bring Secretary Im.

‘Whew. Hae Eung Eung-nim isn’t completely terrible after all.’

So Gyeong-seok, who had been prepared to see a corpse, secretly deleted the phone number of the garbage incinerator rental vehicle he had been looking into from his screen phone.

With a much lighter heart, So Gyeong-seok went out the front door.

“Hmm? There’s no one here?”

Looking around, his eyes caught

tire tracks deeply etched into the ground,

as if a car had been driven away in a hurry.

“Did the secretary run away?”

Running away meant that she must have seen something.

So Gyeong-seok’s expression hardened.

“This guy, did he run away after only seeing Shin Seong-gwak collapse?”

So Gyeong-seok’s guess was correct.

Secretary Im, who had been waiting outside,

had been secretly recording the scene

from the moment she felt that the situation was turning ominous.

-Having infiltrated Myeongho-dong while going to such lengths to hide her identity, her purpose is clear. She must be intending to swallow the entire Myeongho Guild!

She heard all of Shin Seong-gwak’s cries, which stemmed from his misunderstanding,

and saw him collapse,

and even heard the sound of someone shouting about an ambush.

‘At this rate, I’m going to die too!’

With even the great So Gyeong-seok collapsing,

cutting down one attendant was nothing.

Secretary Im immediately fled to the Myeongho Guild.

“Why are you coming in so hastily, without any decorum?”

“Tsk, tsk. It’s a shame that a young friend lacks etiquette. Back in my day, before entering the board of directors’ office, we would take a deep breath, straighten our posture, and then…”

“Shin Seong-gwak-nim has been ambushed.”

The executives, who had been sitting together in the executive office since midday, drinking tea and killing time,

widened their eyes.

“Here’s a video too.”

The video that Secretary Im had filmed was played.

-Why is that person suddenly like that?

-Could it be that our Guild Master ambushed him?!

-Eeeek! I didn’t even see him draw his sword!

-That means he’s that skilled.

A terrifying master with extreme speed skills, to the point where the movement of swinging his sword couldn’t even be seen!

“Did you see it?”

“No. I didn’t see anything at all.”

“I was confident that even if my skills were lacking, my eyes were still useful, but were we just frogs in a well?”

The executives fell into extreme fear.

Like Shin Seong-gwak, they were 2nd generation Awakened Ones

and some of the few survivors of the previous generation of Awakened Ones,

who had received the title of executive as a courtesy from the guild.

If it was a master who could unleash such a tremendous attack

that they couldn’t even perceive,

their estimated rank would naturally be A-rank.

They must be an extremely powerful master with an incredible level, corresponding to between level 251 and level 300.

“What if that woman comes barging in here now?”

“At this rate, we’re going to die too!”

“I, I have to go out on business!”

“I think the power went out in my refrigerator at home. I have to turn it on right away!”

“Let’s go out for lunch!!”

The executives, making ridiculous excuses, hurriedly ran out of the guild headquarters.

“Oh, Executive Choi! Where are you going!”

“Eeit, don’t be annoying and get lost!”

“Eek!”

Those who pushed aside even the employees they encountered while running away

were the better ones.

“Sell the stock! Sell it all at market price!”

Starting with the person who hastily sold off all their shares, saying that bankruptcy was imminent,

“Alright, I’ve opened the vault! I have to grab everything I can right now and run away.”

“Executive-nim, is this really okay?”

“Don’t complain and sweep it all up. I’ll take care of at least you, my exclusive secretary. We’re running away together.”

Executives fleeing with as much money-making items as possible from the soon-to-be-doomed guild.

“You guys, grab your tools and follow me. We’re going to go around to the businesses, extort some money, and leave Myeongho-dong.”

Even executives who were planning to extort a large sum of money by mobilizing employees

and flee to another neighborhood.

“No, if everyone does this, what will happen to the guild!”

“You’re running away too, so who are you to raise your voice at?”

The board of directors threw Secretary Im, who was fidgeting, aside.

“A giant organization sent an A-rank Awakened One as a vanguard to target the Myeongho Guild, do you think the guys who were demoted to the support dispatch unit can stop that? Even Shin Seong-gwak-elder lost, what will change if we step up!”

In the end, without exception, the board of directors

took everything they could and fled the guild.

As the news about the directors, who had become cowards and thieves, spread,

the executives also became extremely anxious, wondering if the guild would collapse.

“Damn it, we don’t even have anything to steal.”

“Why don’t we have anything? The equipment we’re using now is rental equipment borrowed from the company. We can run away with this.”

“That’s right!”

With the executives running away, there was no way that ordinary guild members wouldn’t be able to read the atmosphere.

“What do we do?”

“If you don’t want to be used as cannon fodder, you have to run away.”

“Empty-handed?”

“Are you crazy? What can a low-level member take? If you don’t want to die, you just have to run.”

From the board of directors to the executives and ordinary guild members.

The Myeongho Guild began to shake from its roots.

Unaware of the situation outside,

Shin Seong-gwak couldn’t help but be amazed.

“You, how did you do this? Even the symptoms of magic disease have been alleviated!”

Hae Eung Eung’s internal energy treatment,

in the process of correcting the blood vessels through pure internal energy,

purified the tainted energy that had accumulated and stagnated in his body,

and performed the first proper treatment on his body, which was dying from magic disease.

It wasn’t an emergency treatment where the blood vessels were temporarily opened

by the tainted energy raging due to level-ups,

forcing its way through the impurities in the body,

but a treatment that alleviated the symptoms of the magic disease itself.

For Shin Seong-gwak, who had been stuck for over a year, despairing before the wall of level 250,

it was a miracle.

[There is a way to cure the magic disease you are suffering from. It may even be possible to eliminate the phenomenon called the endpoint, which is the cause of the magic disease.]

If she could do it once, there was no reason why she couldn’t do it twice.

If Hae Eung Eung set her mind to it,

she could use internal energy to drive out Shin Seong-gwak’s tainted energy

and restore his body,

helping him regain his health.

“I beg you. Could you please heal this old body? I’ll do anything for compensation!”

Faced with Shin Seong-gwak’s desperate plea,

Hae Eung Eung’s heart softened a little.

‘Since I’ve already put my mind to it once, it wouldn’t be bad to use it thoroughly this time.’

Hae Eung Eung opened a notebook page in front of him.

[Become a guest master of the Hainam Sect. If you accept the invitation, I will help you cure your magic disease and eliminate the endpoint.]

The Hainam Sect, which was largely unstable in terms of power except for herself.

Even if they were attacked during the game,

it was a bold recruitment proposal

stemming from the decision that they should secure at least one skilled person who could hold out until they logged out.