Chapter 307

“The world looks new.”

Those were the first words out of the Luoyang Strange Physician’s mouth when he regained consciousness one shichen¹ later.

His tone and voice were so gentle that I could hardly believe he was the same old man who had been flying into a rage before I returned to the modern world.

“A-are you all right?”

“Of course I’m all right. My head hurts a little, but these things happen.”

I was starting to get scared.

How eccentric did someone have to be for people to call him the Strange Physician to his face?

Yet one flower vase to the head had transformed him into a completely different person.

Even the Sword Saint, Mae Jonghak, who had rushed over after mistaking the commotion for an attack by Dark Heaven, asked him anxiously, “Strange Physician, are you sure you’re all right?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician smiled faintly and nodded.

“Ha-ha, Great Hero Mae. You need not worry about this old man. Just take special care to ensure that this promising young man isn’t injured in the coming war.”

“You…!”

“Elder…!”

This was the greatest physician in Henan. A true doctor!

And I had actually grumbled to Mae Jonghak that such a good man was a quack.

Overcome with emotion and shame, I bowed my head. Then the Luoyang Strange Physician’s voice reached my ears.

“Because if that young man were gravely injured and I had to treat him, I might just drive a large acupuncture needle into one of his lethal acupoints with this very hand. Ha-ha.”

“…”

“…”

“A physician cannot commit murder, can he?”

So that was what he meant by making sure I didn’t get hurt.

A chill ran down my spine as I raised my head. The Luoyang Strange Physician met my gaze and smiled like the kindly old man next door.

“Great Hero Jeok’s Disciple or not, I ought to gouge those eyes right out. Ha-ha.”

“…”

Forget the old man next door. He was more like the murderer next door.

Still wearing a bandage wound tightly around his head and laughing like a lunatic, the Luoyang Strange Physician began the examination of Jeok Cheongang that he had put off for a while.

Whatever his personality, he was the greatest physician in Henan and a medical master counted among the ten best in the world.

But after examining Jeok Cheongang for a little over an hour, he reached much the same conclusion as before.

“I don’t know. This is truly strange.”

“There’s… no way to treat him?”

“You’re asking whether there’s no way to treat him?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician gave me a displeased look before continuing.

“There is no incurable illness under heaven. But how can I find a treatment when I don’t even know the name of the disease?”

This was hopeless.

If we at least knew what the illness was, we might be able to find a treatment somehow. But this meant it was an unknown disease.

I took Jeok Cheongang’s wrinkled hand in mine.

Why can’t someone as strong as you wake up?

Was it because he couldn’t bear the shock of losing his closest friend after already losing his Disciple?

No. The Jeok Cheongang I knew was far more steadfast than that.

Then…

The aftereffects of the Dance of the Fire God and Demon? Or did that bastard Blood Lord pull some kind of trick?

The Dance of the Fire God and Demon was a double-edged sword that consumed even its user’s life. Its power must have been more than the aged Jeok Cheongang could bear.

And the Blood Lord, one of Dark Heaven’s core figures, was exactly the kind of bastard who would resort to some dirty trick.

The Luoyang Strange Physician groaned under his breath.

“No demonic qi has seeped into him, and he hasn’t been poisoned. But if this continues, his qi channels will slowly become blocked. That much is certain.”

Mae Jonghak’s eyes and mine flew open at the same time.

“What? What does that…?”

“Strange Physician, didn’t you say his life wasn’t in danger?”

“You weren’t listening properly. I clearly said his life was not in danger for now.”

The Luoyang Strange Physician continued slowly.

“I could tell from his pulse today that he is different from yesterday. If Great Hero Jeok remains in this state and does not wake up, all his qi acupoints will become blocked, and he will be reduced to an ordinary countryman.”

“Are you saying he won’t regain consciousness until after he loses his martial arts?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician shook his head.

“I cannot guarantee even that. And even if Heaven helps Great Hero Jeok awaken, his body has already outlived its natural span. How much longer could it possibly endure?”

“…!”

I felt as though someone had struck me in the back of the head with a hammer.

As the Luoyang Strange Physician said, Jeok Cheongang had already lived for more than a hundred years.

The Fire King might endure for another ten or twenty years, but only because he possessed tremendous internal energy and martial arts.

How much time would remain for Jeok Cheongang the old man, rather than Jeok Cheongang the Fire King?

“Six months. If we continue guiding his qi through his acupoints, we might buy him another couple of months, but no more.”

“Six months… Is there really no other way?”

“You insolent brat. Do you need to make this old man repeat himself twice before you’ll be satisfied?”

He didn’t know what the disease was, so he didn’t know how to cure it.

The Luoyang Strange Physician’s answer was so firm that it doused the tiny spark of hope.

But he was also the one who rekindled it.

“That is why you must find the Divine Physician.”

“The Divine Physician?”

My mind snapped fully awake, as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over my head. I opened my eyes wide and asked:

“Who is the Divine Physician?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician stared at me in surprise.

“…You don’t know the Divine Physician?”

“He sounds like a physician. A really skilled one.”

“His sobriquet is Divine Physician, so of course he is! Even a stray dog in a back alley would know that much. Great Hero Mae, is this fellow really a martial artist?”

Mae Jonghak, who had been standing a step away, stopped the enraged Luoyang Strange Physician.

“Calm down, Strange Physician.”

“There are limits to ignorance, even for a complete outsider. How can he not know the Divine Physician?”

“Hmm. He must be famous.”

“…What?”

“…Huh?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician and I whipped our heads around at the same time. Mae Jonghak was smiling innocently.

Where have I seen that smile before?

Oh, right.

Wearing a smile exactly like Cheongpung’s, Mae Jonghak said, “I’ve been secluded deep in the mountains for nearly thirty years, you see. Ha-ha.”

“What are you talking about? It has already been more than forty years since the Divine Physician made his name known throughout the martial world.”

Mae Jonghak fell silent for a moment after the Luoyang Strange Physician’s blunt correction. Then he replied, “Come to think of it, it has been more than forty years for this old man as well. It was so long ago that I got confused.”

“…”

“…”

That was dark, Chuseong.²

The Divine Physician.

Just as his sobriquet suggested, his medical skills had reached the realm of the divine.

It was said that he had appeared at the edge of the continent more than forty years ago and performed feats of medicine bordering on the miraculous. After treating thousands of patients by himself and stamping out an epidemic, he earned the sobriquet Divine Physician.

“Afterward, the Divine Physician continued to share his medical skills freely. He never turned away a patient who came to him and never accepted any payment. He was a true physician whose character was as lofty as his medical ability.”

“Ooh, a god-tier doctor.”

“The powerful figures of the world tried to retain him as an honored guest, but every time, he vanished without a trace. He would say only that he intended to care for patients in the lowest places.”

“Ooh, the Medicine Immortal Hong Gil-dong.³”

“He always covered his face with a white veil, so no one ever saw what he looked like, but…”

“Ooh, the masked physician.”

The Luoyang Strange Physician, who had been about to continue, picked up a large acupuncture needle a handspan long.

“I’ll shut that mouth of yours for you.”

“I’m sorry. It just slipped out.”

“Even with Great Hero Mae here, this young brat’s mouth never stops. Isn’t that right?”

Mae Jonghak’s eyes lit up.

“Ooh, the Divine Physician.”

“…”

After that, the Luoyang Strange Physician, now half a sage, gave us a kind but concise explanation of the Divine Physician.

He was universally recognized as the greatest physician under heaven and a man of noble character.

And…

“No one knows his identity?”

“Did I not tell you that he always wears a veil while practicing medicine?”

“Even so, he’s been active for over forty years. How can no one know what he looks like?”

Seriously, one good gust of wind should have been enough to expose his face.

But the Luoyang Strange Physician shook his head.

“Someone may know. But no one in the world has ever properly identified him.”

“Why? Because he always ran away before anyone could track him down?”

“The witnesses contradicted one another every time. Some commoners said the Medicine Immortal was an old man with white hair, while others claimed he was a shaven-headed Buddhist nun. No matter how people tracked down and cajoled those who had seen the Medicine Immortal, their accounts never matched. How could anyone possibly find him?”

“Huh.”

“His reputation among the common people is absolute. So many of them willingly served as his eyes and ears and helped conceal his identity that even the imperial palace eventually gave up searching for him.”

“I understand that this Divine Physician is impressive, but…”

I stared incredulously at the Luoyang Strange Physician’s pleased smile.

“How am I supposed to find someone even the imperial palace gave up on?”

“Oh. Good point.”

“…”

Was he joking right now?

When my expression darkened, the Luoyang Strange Physician suddenly burst into hearty laughter.

“Don’t worry. Would I have brought him up if I had no plan at all?”

“Just as I thought. I knew I could trust you, Elder.”

“Ten years ago, I heard the tales of the Divine Physician and was so deeply impressed that I set out on a medical tour.”

“Oh, a medical tour.”

I had heard about such things in passing when I was still holed up with the Jin Family of Taiyuan. Just as martial artists went on dueling tours, physicians went on medical tours.

The Luoyang Strange Physician had followed the trail of the Divine Physician’s deeds, crossing the continent from its most remote reaches over the course of five years.

“It was rewarding and brought me great joy. But for a man already past sixty, it was also an arduous journey.”

Still, he had found something at the end of it.

“Something I had only imagined came to pass.”

The unexpected gift had come to him in a slash-and-burn farming village in the southern part of the continent.

The slash-and-burn farmers, who barely had enough to eat and had received no education, told him about a benefactor who had treated their illnesses and departed only a few months earlier.

“You folks have nothing that needs treatment. I’ll leave a few silver coins behind, so use them to restore your strength.”

“Um…”

“What is it? I’m sorry, but this is all the money I have left…”

“That isn’t it. Are you perhaps a physician from Luoyang?”

“Why do you ask?”

“The benefactor who treated us not long ago said that if a physician surnamed Oh came from Luoyang, we should give him this.”

What they handed him was a jade-colored shard from a porcelain bottle.

That shard now rested in the Luoyang Strange Physician’s hand.

“What is this…?”

“Read what’s written on it.”

Faint writing remained on the shard in his wrinkled palm.

Chinese gallnuts from Sichuan are the finest.

What the hell did that mean?

As I stared at it in confusion, the Luoyang Strange Physician explained, “Chinese gallnut is a widely used medicinal ingredient. With this one line, the Divine Physician was subtly telling me that he was in Sichuan.”

“…That’s what you got from it?”

“I’m telling you, that’s what it means.”

“Then if I say Japanese adult videos are the best, does that mean I’m in Japan?”

“What kind of insane nonsense is that? Great Hero Mae, isn’t this fellow completely mad?”

Looking ready to die of curiosity, Mae Jonghak asked, “What in the world are these ‘adult videos’?”

“That’s not important right now!”

The Luoyang Strange Physician, hopping mad, placed the shard in my palm.

“Look closely! Can’t you feel it? The Divine Physician’s desperate desire to exchange medical knowledge with me!”

“What desperate desire…?”

I picked up the shard to examine it more closely.

At that exact moment—

Ding.

System

Quest Item Trace of the Divine Physician acquired!

You can infer his whereabouts from Trace of the Divine Physician!

Quest Find Mr. Shin in Sichuan generated!

I looked at the Luoyang Strange Physician and murmured, “I can feel it. His feelings.”

And now I could see it too.

A way to treat Jeok Cheongang.