Chapter 307

“The world looks new.”

Those were the first words spoken by the Luoyang Strange Physician after he came to his senses one shichen 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?

And yet, after taking that flower vase to the head, he had completely transformed into another person.

Even Sword Saint Mae Jonghak, who had rushed over after mistaking the commotion for an attack by Dark Heaven, asked him anxiously:

“Hey, Strange Physician. Are you really 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 does not get injured in the war that will break out in the future.”

“You…!”

“Elder…!”

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

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

With my head bowed from overwhelming emotion and shame, I heard the Luoyang Strange Physician’s voice beside my ear.

“If that young man were to suffer a serious injury and I had to treat him, I might just drive a large acupuncture needle into his stagnant blood with this hand. Ha-ha.”

“…”

“…”

“A physician cannot commit murder, can he?”

So that was what he meant by taking care not to get injured.

Feeling a chill run down my spine, I raised my head. The Luoyang Strange Physician met my gaze and smiled like the kindly old man next door.

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

“…”

He wasn’t an old man next door anymore. He was practically 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 top ten in the world.

However, the conclusion he reached after an examination lasting a little over half an hour was much the same as before.

“I don’t know. It’s truly strange.”

“There’s… no way to treat him?”

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

The Luoyang Strange Physician looked at me with displeasure before continuing.

“There is no incurable illness under heaven. But how can you find a treatment when you do not even know the name of the disease?”

This was desperate.

If we at least knew the name of the illness, we could somehow search for a treatment. 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 caused by the death of his closest friend after 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 use some kind of trick?

The Dance of the Fire God and Demon was a double-edged sword that even ate away at its user’s life. For an already aged Jeok Cheongang, its power must have been more than he could bear.

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

The Luoyang Strange Physician muttered as if groaning.

“It isn’t demonic qi seeping into him, and he hasn’t been poisoned. But if this continues, his qi acupoints will slowly become blocked. That much is certain.”

Mae Jonghak and I both snapped our eyes wide open.

“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.”

“You mean he’ll only regain consciousness after losing his martial arts?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician shook his head at my question.

“I cannot even guarantee that. Even if Heaven helps Great Hero Jeok wake up, his body has already outlived its natural span. How much longer do you think it can hold out?”

“…”

It felt as if I had been struck 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 could probably endure another ten or twenty years, but only while he still possessed powerful internal energy and martial arts.

How much time did the old man named Jeok Cheongang have left—not the Fire King?

“Six months. If we keep guiding his qi through his acupoints, we might buy him another couple of months, but that’s all.”

“Six months… Is there really no way?”

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

He was saying that because he didn’t know the disease, 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 that spark.

“So you must find a Divine Physician.”

“A 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, of course! Even a stray dog in a back alley would know that. 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.”

“Even if he’s a complete outsider, there are limits. Does it make any sense for him not to know the Divine Physician?”

“Hm. He must be famous.”

“…What?”

“…Huh?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician and I both whipped our heads around. Mae Jonghak was smiling with an innocent expression.

Where have I seen that smile before?

Oh, right. I remembered.

With a smile exactly like Cheongpung’s, Mae Jonghak opened his mouth.

“I was 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 was silent for a moment after the Luoyang Strange Physician’s blunt correction. Then he answered:

“Come to think of it, it has been more than forty years for this old man as well. It had been so long that I got confused.”

“…”

“…”

That was dark, Chuseong.

The Divine Physician.

Just as his sobriquet suggested, he possessed medical skills that 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, displayed medical skills approaching a miracle, treated thousands of patients by himself, and subdued an epidemic. That was how he earned the sobriquet Divine Physician.

“After that, the Divine Physician continued to generously share his medical skills. He never turned away a patient who came to him, and he never accepted any form of payment. He was a true physician with a character as lofty as his medical ability.”

“Ooh, a god-tier doctor.”

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

“Ooh, the Medicine Immortal Hong Gil-dong.¹”

“The Divine Physician always covered his face with a white veil, so no one could see 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 slipped out before I knew it.”

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

Mae Jonghak’s eyes lit up as he answered:

“Ooh, the Divine Physician.”

“…”

After that, the Luoyang Strange Physician, who had become half a sage, gave us a brief but thorough explanation of the Divine Physician.

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

And…

“No one knows his identity?”

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

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

To put it bluntly, one 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 find him?”

“The witnesses contradicted one another every time. Some among the common people said the Medicine Immortal was an old man with white hair, while others claimed he was a shaven-headed Buddhist nun. Even when people who had seen the Medicine Immortal were tracked down and coaxed in every way imaginable, their accounts never matched. How could anyone possibly find him?”

“Huh.”

“His reputation among the common people is absolute. So many of them volunteered to become his eyes and ears and hide his identity that even the imperial palace gave up trying to find him.”

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

I looked at the Luoyang Strange Physician, who was smiling proudly, with disbelief.

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

“Oh. That’s true.”

“…”

Was he joking right now?

When I glowered at him, the Luoyang Strange Physician suddenly began to laugh heartily.

“Don’t worry. Would I have brought this up without a plan?”

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

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

“Oh, a medical tour.”

I had heard of such a thing in passing when I was holed up at the Jin Family of Taiyuan. If martial artists went on dueling tours, physicians went on medical tours.

The Luoyang Strange Physician said that he had followed the trail of the Divine Physician’s deeds, crossing the continent from its most remote regions and spending five years on the journey.

“It was a rewarding and joyful journey. However, it was difficult for someone like me who was already over sixty.”

But he had found something at the end of it.

“Something I had only imagined actually happened.”

The unexpected gift he received came from a slash-and-burn farming village in the southern part of the continent.²

The slash-and-burn settlers, who had barely been able to eat or receive an education, told him about a benefactor who had treated their illnesses and left several months earlier.

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

“Um…”

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

“It’s not that. Are you perhaps a physician from Luoyang?”

“Why do you ask?”

“The benefactor who treated us not long ago told us that if a physician from Luoyang with the surname Oh came, we should give this to him.”

They had given him a shard of a porcelain bottle with a jade-like hue. That object was now held in the Luoyang Strange Physician’s hand.

“What is this…?”

“Read what’s written on it.”

Faint writing remained on the shard resting in his wrinkled palm.

Chinese gallnuts from Sichuan are the finest.

What the hell did that mean? As I stared at it in bewilderment, 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 how you got that 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 the hell are you talking about? Great Hero Mae, isn’t this fellow completely insane?”

Mae Jonghak, who looked ready to die of curiosity, asked:

“Just what are these ‘adult videos’?”

“That’s not important right now!”

The Luoyang Strange Physician, who had been hopping mad, placed the shard of the bottle in my palm.

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

“I can feel no such desperate desire…”

It was the exact moment I picked up the shard to inspect it more closely.

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 muttered as I looked at the Luoyang Strange Physician.

“I can feel it. His feelings.”

And I could see it, too.

A way to treat Jeok Cheongang.