I Became the Hidden Ruler of the Martial World

Baek Yoonjun, facing the pressing hand of Tang Yuhwa's treatment, made the choice to 'rather die.'

However, can a person die just by making up their mind?

But Baek Yoonjun's rock-bottom self-esteem and the extreme instincts of a homebody introvert began to perform that miracle.

His heartbeat slowed to an extreme, and his body temperature cooled down as if he were a corpse.

His breathing stopped, and every cell in his body ceased its activity as if it had entered hibernation.

A state infinitely close to a corpse.

A state where even a doctor with excellent observation skills would have no choice but to declare, "This is a corpse." Tang Yuhwa's hand touched Baek Yoonjun's wrist.

Tang Yuhwa's firm pupils, which had been quietly checking his pulse, began to shake uncontrollably.

"Master... is dead...?"

Thick teardrops streamed down Tang Yuhwa's eyes.

Thud, thud.

The teardrops continued to hit Baek Yoonjun's chest, and Baek Yoonjun, who was feeling that sensation fully, was startled.

'No, I didn't mean to make her cry?!'

Baek Yoonjun hastily contemplated his own body.

It was a state no different from a corpse.

'Hmm, so I'm not dead, but about a critically ill patient? So I'm not likely to wake up right now, but I'm at least alive?'

Baek Yoonjun frantically racked his brain and finely tuned his body.

As a result, a faint warmth began to circulate in his body, which had been as cold as ice.

Thump.

The pulse that had stopped began to beat again, very faintly.

The first to feel that change was Tang Yuhwa, who still could not take her hand off Baek Yoonjun's pulse.

"Ah...!"

At the faint but definitely beating pulse, Tang Yuhwa unconsciously let out a gasp.

"Master... is alive...?"

Although it was a muttering in a similar context as before, the emotion contained was worlds apart.

If before it was a deep despair like a bottomless pit, the current emotion was relief and joy.

"Master...! Master...!"

Tang Yuhwa took out a needle from her bosom and began to place it on Baek Yoonjun's body.

She densely stuck needles into the acupoints that mainly boost vitality.

Baek Yoonjun, who had become like a hedgehog with needles stuck all over him, pondered.

'That brat Yuhwa... she's making such a fuss, should I just get up?'

A very small amount of courage and conscience raised their heads, but.

"No, this golden toad came out of the bundle that the White Robed Sword Immortal had!"

He soon gave up.

Because the weary man was hugging the golden toad that had fallen on the floor as if covering it with his body and was pointing his finger at Baek Yoonjun, raising his voice loudly.

'If I get up now, I'm screwed... let's just maintain the status quo.'

Baek Yoonjun chose to maintain the status quo.

Naturally, the medical treatment that Tang Yuhwa was desperately performing had no meaning.

Because the current state of his body was the result of Baek Yoonjun's inductive control of everything.

Although Baek Yoonjun did not know it, he was performing the regression from the postnatal to the prenatal that all Taoists dream of.

He was even controlling that state at will.

Just for the one reason that he thought he would be in big trouble if he was caught.

If a Taoist who was training deep in the mountains had seen it, it was a pathetic sight that would have made them fall into qi deviation due to a fit of anger and request a life-and-death duel.

-There's a martial art called the Turtle Breathing Grand Technique that lets you pretend to be dead.

-What kind of petty martial art is that?

-In recent martial arts novels, it's used for that purpose, so it might seem pathetic, but that wasn't its original purpose...

For some reason, a conversation he had with a friend in a corner of his room in his past life flashed through Baek Yoonjun's mind.

Anyway, although he had become like a hedgehog with needles stuck all over his body, Baek Yoonjun had overcome the immediate crisis.

"Phew."

People approached Tang Yuhwa, who had let out a sigh of relief, wiping away her sweat.

"How is Immortal?"

Gu Wolju asked carefully.

His eyes were full of worry for Baek Yoonjun.

Tang Yuhwa, whose worried expression from before was nowhere to be seen and had returned to her usual sullen face, answered.

"It seems he has at least saved his life."

"Ooooh...!!"

At Tang Yuhwa's answer, which was in a polite tone unlike usual, Gu Wolju and the surrounding people let out a sigh of relief.

"However... I don't know when... he will wake up."

But at the following words, the atmosphere sank heavily again.

"No, why on earth is my golden toad...?!"

Of course, there was also a human who seemed to have nothing to do with the atmosphere, but for the most part, it was a sorrowful atmosphere.

To such a place, two figures approached from a distance.

"No, why is Master?"

"Such a thing to the White Robed Sword Immortal..."

It was Hong Yungae and Zhuge Wuhyun.

They had lost Tagol Hwasang and had been helping people around, and had just joined now.

Hong Yungae approached Baek Yoonjun as if he couldn't believe it.

"That Master has collapsed... that can't be...?"

Hong Yungae, looking at the unmoving Baek Yoonjun.

Although it was definitely a sad situation, for some reason, such an emotion did not arise in his heart.

'For some reason, it feels like he'll get up at any moment...'

In Hong Yungae's mind, his past of pretending to be dead to escape a crisis when he was wandering the streets came to mind.

Although he didn't know why such a thought came to him, it kept overlapping with the current situation.

'No, are Master and I the same? A noble martial artist like Master wouldn't pretend to be dead just because he's in trouble, would he! Moreover, Senior Sister Yuhwa, who is famous as a doctor, even treated him...'

Perhaps because the two had a similar tendency of being strong against the weak and weak against the strong, Hong Yungae surprisingly saw through the essence.

'Sigh, what on earth was I thinking? I'm not crying right now, but let's at least pretend to be sad.'

Hong Yungae bowed his head to the point of looking servile, and with his shoulders trembling, he took a seat next to Zhuge Hwaryeong, who was stealthily wiping away her tears.

And Zhuge Wuhyun, who had just joined here with Hong Yungae.

'No, the fact that Great Hero Baek has collapsed is a problem, but that's not the problem right now!'

The weary man, who had been hugging the golden toad and was confused from before, came into his eyes.

'No matter how I look at it, it doesn't seem like Great Hero Baek intentionally let go of the items... what do I do?'

It wasn't that Zhuge Wuhyun wasn't worried about Baek Yoonjun.

However, since there was a big problem right in front of him, his mind could not help but be drawn to that.

No, in fact, the previous thing was not the problem.

'In a situation like this... it's not good...'

The corners of his mouth stealthily went up.

His brain, which was already pickled in dopamine, was feeling that this situation was very exciting.

'So he got caught red-handed. But if I turn this situation around, that would be really fun...'

His head began to spin furiously.

Zhuge Wuhyun's head was so brilliant that Zhuge Hyun had passed on the position of family head to him.

Although his head was pickled in pleasure and usually flowed in a strange direction, there had never been a case where he could not solve a problem.

Having read hundreds of moves in a short time, he quietly approached the weary man.

Forcibly lowering the corners of his mouth that were going up, he acted out a gloomy expression and politely performed a fist-and-palm salute.

"I can give you the answer to that."

"Zhuge... Family Head?"

At the sudden appearance of Zhuge Wuhyun, the weary man's eyes widened.

"Those documents are items that Great Hero Baek found after beating up a thief."

"But why did he have them until now...?"

The weary man's question was valid.

If he was going to return them, he could have returned them long ago.

The fact that he had them until now was enough to raise suspicion that he had other intentions.

No, even the statement that he had recovered the items as Zhuge Wuhyun had claimed was questionable.

Since Zhuge Wuhyun had also expected such thoughts, he answered calmly, but solemnly.

"Of course, we could have returned the items. However, Great Hero Baek was concerned."

"What concern was there?"

"What was Zhongnan doing before this mess happened? They were divided into two factions and were fighting, and because of that, we had to go up on the stage of a life-and-death duel. Therefore, Great Hero Baek intended to return the divine objects and items to them when this chaos subsided and the rightful owner of Zhongnan was decided."

"That... makes sense, but..."

Although Zhuge Wuhyun's words were a fabrication, they sounded plausible to the listener.

Moreover, the deep grief on his face added to the persuasiveness.

Zhuge Wuhyun squeezed his eyes shut.

In his closed eyes, a tear glittered in the light and then flowed down his cheek.

"Although Great Hero Baek has suffered such a tragedy, perhaps because his will remains here, the items have finally returned to their rightful owner."

Zhuge Wuhyun's brain, pickled in dopamine, made him shed tears freely for the sake of pleasure.

To anyone's eyes, it was the appearance of a sorrowful man shedding tears, feeling sorry for the current situation.

'Humans are creatures that rely on sight, so depending on how it looks, even nonsense can have persuasiveness.'

All of this was a scam carried out under Zhuge Wuhyun's thorough calculation.

A fantastic combination of one who created this mess and was trying to clean it up just for fun, for the sake of fun, and one who had voluntarily entered a comatose state because the situation was burdensome.

"Sob... so that's what it was. That's what it was."

"I don't know how to repay him for sacrificing himself to save us, and yet he even thought of the future of Zhongnan...!"

The surroundings became a sea of tears again.

And Zhuge Wuhyun, who had led this situation, was secretly twitching the corners of his mouth with his head bowed.

'Done.'

A successful instigation.

At that splendid achievement, Zhuge Wuhyun's brain was on the verge of turning white, pickled in pleasure.

And Hong Yungae, who was watching all this situation.

'Why does it all seem like a lie?'

He was unconsciously seeing through Zhuge Wuhyun's scam, but.

'Sigh, what am I thinking, such useless thoughts... it can't be. Let's just quietly pretend to cry.'

His timid nature, which was close to Baek Yoonjun's, held him back, and even though he had come to an answer, he had jumped over that answer and passed by it.

"T-this is not the time for this, shouldn't we attend to the great hero, the White Robed Sword Immortal!"

"That's right! How can we keep the great hero, the White Robed Sword Immortal, on the cold, bare ground!"

Led by the weary man, who was preciously hugging the golden toad, the strong men carefully lifted Baek Yoonjun and moved him to the recovery room of Zhongnan.

Naturally, since Baek Yoonjun was conscious, he was hearing all this situation vividly.

'That, that crazy scammer bastard! When did I ever say such a thing?!'

Baek Yoonjun was insanely resentful.

Although he had overcome the crisis, no matter how he thought about it, it felt as if all the burden had been passed on to him, and only Zhuge Wuhyun had stealthily slipped out.

'I knew it from the time that human was always wearing black clothes and a mask! After stealing, is the next thing you do scamming?! When I meet that man, Zhuge Hyun, I'll tell him everything!'

Baek Yoonjun was laid on a luxurious bed, vowing revenge timidly.

A moment later, after the people had retreated, he thought he had found some stability, but there were problems everywhere.

"You human! Why did you do that then!"

There was a previous guest on the bed near Baek Yoonjun.

"I had no choice for your safety."

And there was also a person who had come to visit that previous guest.

To be precise, it was a person who seemed to like the word 'cost-effective', who was also visiting a patient since he had carried Baek Yoonjun.

"I came as a judge, so if the judge goes down from the stage, who is supposed to judge?!"

"But thanks to that, you were far from the tragedy early on, weren't you?"

"Do you think I'll be grateful for that? I'm also a martial artist who has learned martial arts! I can handle that much on my own!"

"You don't have to be grateful. Because you were safe..."

"I wasn't grateful!"

"So I said you don't have to be grateful."

Ye Eunhee, who had been the judge at the life-and-death duel, and the weary man were engaging in a slug-like display of affection near the bed.

"Y-you fool! You usually look like everything is a bother, but you're only diligent at times like this!!"

"It's not that everything is a bother, I'm just tired."

Just as slugs become more active in places where there are no people, the movements of the two man and woman were also becoming more and more intense.

Blushing and crying, they would pat each other's shoulders or hug each other, completely lost in their own world.

'Ah, I wish all couples would just die...'

Lying on the bed, Baek Yoonjun timidly poured out curses in his heart towards the two slugs.

(End of Chapter)