"Your Highness didn't say how to treat it directly, so I'm afraid you don't know yet."
"Hmm? Princess, you are indeed exceptionally intelligent. Don't worry, I have already found your lineage, so the rest will be easy."
I have a miracle doctor by my side.
Kim Seon-a did not respond.
His back was ramrod straight, and the curve of his chin remained perfectly firm.
Gu Moran didn't urge him. He picked up the teacup, blew away the foam, took a sip, and then put it down.
The shouts of drills outside the tent drifted in intermittently, muffled as if muffled by a layer of cotton cloth.
After about half a cup of tea's time, Kim Seon-a finally spoke, her voice lower than before.
"Your Highness, what method did you just use? I couldn't detect the energy within your body."
Gu Moran scraped the rim of his cup with the teacup lid, barely lifting his eyelids. "Does the princess want to know?"
Kim Seon-a didn't say anything, but she slightly lowered her chin.
" The Turtle Breath and Qi Concealment Method."
Kim Seon-a's lips moved slightly. "Turtle breathing..."
"Um."
Gu Moran leaned back in his chair, stretching out his legs, as if he was going to rest there for the day.
"Once the true energy is drawn in, no matter how an outsider probes, they'll find nothing. What did the princess probe with her ' Moon Tiger Listens to the Wind ' technique just now?"
Kim Seon-a pursed her lips into a thin line.
What did she discover?
There was nothing there.
wrong.
It's not just empty.
Another force struck back along the path of her senses, making half of her meridians go numb.
She stared at Gu Moran's face, paused for a few moments, and then spoke, "Your Highness's internal energy... is not right. It's like you've gone into a qi deviation."
Gu Moran tapped his finger on the rim of the teacup. "The princess has a good eye."
Kim Seon-a's breath hitched.
I was right.
This person's meridians were peculiar, unlike those of a Xiantian martial artist. His true energy flowed strangely, as if it were endlessly surging.
An ordinary martial artist would have been unable to control it and would have been paralyzed long ago.
But he's still sitting there, acting like nothing's wrong.
It can also unleash Third Rank energy.
That doesn't make sense.
Unconvinced, she unleashed her inner energy once more and probed a second time.
This time, before even touching the edge of the barrier, an even more powerful force bounced back, pouring into his internal organs along his meridians.
A metallic taste rose in her throat. She turned her face away, clenched her teeth, and forced back the mouthful of blood that surged up.
Gu Moran glanced at her, then placed the teacup on the corner of the table. "Don't try it again. If you do, you'll only hurt yourself."
Kim Seon-a gripped the fabric on her knees, her knuckles tightening and loosening repeatedly, before she could finally calm the churning blood pressure in her chest.
She stared at Gu Moran's profile, a lump forming in her throat, unable to swallow or spit it out.
Gu Moran stood up, walked around the coffee table, and stopped three feet in front of her.
They didn't go any further.
He remembered her rules.
But this distance is enough.
He bent slightly, lowered his gaze, and spoke in a low voice, enunciating each word clearly. "Princess, do you know what your biggest flaw is?"
Kim Seon-a looked up at him, her Adam's apple bobbing, but she didn't say anything.
"Conceited."
Kim Seon-a's eyelashes trembled.
His mouth opened and closed, his tongue pressed against the roof of his mouth, but he couldn't find the words for a long time.
She wanted to argue.
But after racking my brains, I couldn't come up with a single plausible argument.
Take her illness, for example.
Twelve years.
How many people did she ask in secret?
I searched everywhere I could, from the imperial physicians in the palace to the Daoist priests in the mountains and the barbarian sorcerers in the southern harbors.
Everyone gave the same answer: born with the Tiger Spirit Bloodline, a gift from God, which cannot be changed.
She believed for twelve years.
Now this man sits opposite her, and with a few words, he tramples those twelve years of "divine grace" into the mud.
She didn't want to believe it.
But that phrase "can cure" is like a thorn; once it's in, it can't be pulled out.
A spark popped from the candle wick on the table with a crackling sound.
Kim Seon-a lowered her eyes, staring at the folds of her clothes at her knees, counting them one by one, then counting them back.
My mind is completely blank.
Gu Moran withdrew his gaze from her face, sat back in his chair, picked up the now-cold tea, and slowly took a sip.
The fish has taken the bait.
It can't be rushed.
After a long silence, Kim Seon-a finally raised her head, her voice very low. "... What are the conditions?"
Gu Moran the teacup halfway around the table. "Getting impatient?"
Kim Seon-a didn't respond, but her eyes remained fixed on him.
Gu Moran set the teacup down steadily, leaned forward slightly, and dropped the laziness from his tone. "Do me a favor."
Kim Seon-a -ah frowned. "What is it?"
Gu Moran held up a finger and waved it in front of her.
"I'll owe it to you for now. I'll come to the princess to collect it when the time comes."
Kim Seon-a's fingers tightened on her knee for a moment.
This person never intended to reveal their hand from beginning to end.
She lowered her eyes and rubbed her teeth together twice on the inside of her lower lip.
"... good."
Gu Moran withdrew the raised finger and leaned back in his chair. "That felt good."
Kim Seon-a did not speak again.
The curtain was lifted slightly by the wind, letting in a cool breeze carrying the scent of horse hay, before falling back down.
She sat there, her back still straight, her hands resting on her knees, fingers together, her thumb pressing down on the nail of her index finger, pressing it down repeatedly.
Gu Moran didn't look at her.
He lowered his head and fiddled with the overripe tea leaves in the teacup, the smile on his lips barely visible.
That's enough.
The rest, let her slowly work it out herself.
Gu Moran scratched the tea stains on the rim of the cup twice with her fingernail, making a soft scraping sound, before placing the teacup back on the table.
"Let's get down to business. What brings the princess here today?"
Kim Seon-a rested her hands on her knees, her back straight.
"I need the Great Yan army to help Goryeo retake Busanpo."
Gu Moran didn't reply.
He casually opened the sheepskin map that Park Roejang had brought, spread his hands out and pressed it onto the table, using a teacup and an inkstone to weigh down the four corners.
The coastline, outlined in vermilion ink, stretches from north to south, with Busanpo enclosed by a circle, its edges crammed with tiny characters.
Gu Moran glanced at it a few times, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
"So complicated?"
Princess, come, come, take a look at this first. Don't you realize how dangerous Goryeo is?
Kim Seon-a got up, walked around her chair, and stood on the edge of the table.
My gaze followed the port line all the way inland, down to the strait to the north.
He raised his finger to compare, keeping it half an inch away without touching the paper.
Gu Moran poked a blank spot on the drawing with the pen.
"The map says your people are stationed here, a three-day walk from Busanpo."
The pen was swung to the right.
"The Japanese army's supply lines have already crossed the outer harbor of Gyeongju."
Go north again.
Incheon.
Kim Seon-a's gaze was fixed on those three words.
"All the ports in the south have been lost; Incheon is the last place you can dock your large ships."
He tossed the pen onto the table and sighed.
Kim Seon-a became nervous.
"Is it that serious already?"
"Princess, don't panic."
In this way, Great Yan can send troops.
" Incheon, lend me your ships to dock; hand over command of the remnant army, and they are at my disposal during wartime."
Something in the charcoal brazier exploded, sending sparks flying.
Kim Seon-a raised her head very slowly.
"No."
Two words, completely blocked.
" Incheon is the gateway to Gaegyeong by sea, and behind it lies the Jongmyo Shrine. Giving you Incheon is like handing over the keys to Goryeo's ancestral tombs."