Chapter 308

“Go to Sichuan. If anyone can help him, it will be the Divine Physician.”

The Luoyang Strange Physician was one of the ten greatest physicians under Heaven.

And he had spoken with absolute certainty. Find the Divine Physician. His medical skills were the best under Heaven.

There’s hope.

If I found the Divine Physician, I could save Jeok Cheongang.

I looked at Jeok Cheongang, lying there as peacefully as if he were asleep, then bowed to the Luoyang Strange Physician.

“Thank you. Truly.”

The Divine Physician was a man so shrouded in mystery that no one knew his identity.

Without the token of the Divine Physician that the Luoyang Strange Physician had given me, I would have felt as if I had been dropped into the middle of a vast ocean.

“Ahem. Is that all I get? Words?”

“Would you like me to bring you a souvenir?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician chuckled at my joking reply.

“You insolent brat. Instead of wasting time spouting nonsense, start packing your bags right now.”

“Oh. Right.”

Even by the roughest estimate, the journey from Henan to Sichuan was several thousand li.¹ Even with my movement technique, it would take nearly a month.

And there’s no guarantee I’ll find the Divine Physician right away.

I looked at the Quest window, which I had not yet closed, and muttered inwardly.

System

Quest

Find Mr. Shin in Sichuan

You have acquired the only trace left behind by the Divine Physician.

The Divine Physician is the greatest physician under Heaven. At present, he is the only hope capable of waking Jeok Cheongang.

You must scour the vast land of Sichuan and find him!

Grade: Supreme Peak

Restriction: Possession of Trace of the Divine Physician

Mission: Find the Divine Physician and receive treatment (Incomplete)

Reward: ???

Failure: Jeok Cheongang’s death

Just look at that ridiculous Quest Grade.

I was looking for one person, yet the Grade was Supreme Peak.

Fortunately, the trace he’d left behind years ago had narrowed his whereabouts down to Sichuan. But the place was so damn vast that finding him would still be brutal.

Modern Sichuan Province was about twice the size of the Korean Peninsula, wasn’t it?

Murim and the modern world were completely separate worlds. But from what I’d experienced so far, the size of the land and the way people lived were similar.

The thought of searching all of Sichuan for someone whose name and face I didn’t even know was daunting.

Fuck. It’d probably be easier to find Mr. Kim in Seoul.

But what choice did I have? There was no decision to make. I had to find the Divine Physician, no matter what it took, if I wanted Jeok Cheongang to live.

Jeok Cheongang had six months left.

If I continued guiding qi through his acupoints, I might be able to buy him another month or two. But that was the absolute limit of the time Jeok Cheongang had left.

I’ll find him before time runs out.

To do that, I needed to cut down the time the search would take. My mind raced before I finally spoke.

“May I ask you for a favor?”

It might require an enormous amount of manpower and money.

But the Sword Saint, Mae Jonghak, offered a solution without hesitation.

“I’ll write letters to the Sichuan Tang Clan, Emei, and Qingcheng.”

“Thank you.”

The Sichuan Tang Clan was one of the Five Great Families. If I could also secure the cooperation of the Emei Sect and Qingcheng Sect, both pillars of the Nine Sects and One Gang, the search would become much easier.

But my request didn’t end there.

“Since you’re already helping me, could I ask you to add a few more things?”

“Hm. Everyone is on edge after the bloodbath at Shaolin. With Dark Heaven and the Demonic Cult believed to be on the move, they may not be able to offer much help. For martial artists affiliated with a sect, their own sect must come first.”

“I don’t need that much help.”

“Tell me anything that I—or Huashan—can do.”

“Just assign me a few people. That will be enough.”

“Do you have anyone in mind?”

“Yes.”

I nodded and gave him several names.

A short while later, Mae Jonghak and the Luoyang Strange Physician left the pavilion and walked along slowly as they spoke.

“Are you certain about this? I understand that meeting the Divine Physician has been your lifelong wish.”

“My lifelong wish…”

At Mae Jonghak’s words, the Luoyang Strange Physician gazed into the distance as he recalled the past.

“It was. He was the reason I abandoned my official post and took up acupuncture needles.”

The Luoyang Strange Physician had once been a promising young scholar.

His grandfather had been the head of the Guozijian, the empire’s highest educational institution, and had served as the late Emperor’s tutor when he was Crown Prince.

A scholar’s blood ran true. His father and two older brothers had also entered government service and made names for themselves at court.

If a plague hadn’t broken out the year the Luoyang Strange Physician placed first in the imperial examination, he likely would have followed the same path.

“More people died than I could count. As my duties required, I sorted them into the dead, the survivors, and those destined to die.”

As a young man newly entered into government service, the Luoyang Strange Physician had believed without question that the august Emperor would order relief grain released and dispatch imperial physicians to bring the plague under control.

He had believed every civil and military official would do everything in their power to save the suffering people.

“I was mistaken. While the people died of plague, the Emperor expanded a detached palace for his new consort, and the powerful divided among themselves everything that should have gone to the people.”

“What did you do?”

“I wrote lies as facts. Under my brush, a hundred thousand seok² of grain, wealth, and medicinal supplies became aid distributed to the sick. The imperial physicians who had been attending the scholar-officials became true physicians laboring to suppress the plague.”

“That must have been painful.”

“It was. When I returned home after leaving the palace, I found imperial physicians sent by the Emperor waiting there. They had come to treat my grandfather’s mild cold.”

That was when he first learned that the world put a price even on human life.

The Luoyang Strange Physician’s knuckles whitened around the cloth bundle containing his acupuncture needles.

“Then I heard about the Divine Physician. A physician who risked death to treat the sick at the very source of the plague. One man who brought the plague under control and saved thousands of lives.”

He immediately returned to the palace, destroyed every record he had written, and left the government.

He had to sever all ties with his family, but he didn’t care.

He traded his brush for acupuncture needles and studied medical texts instead of the Four Books and Three Classics.³

“I was called a quack more times than I can count. Sometimes I saved patients already sitting at death’s door. Many other times, I failed to cure them and had to watch them go.”

As a physician, he witnessed the countless cycles of birth, aging, illness, and death.

Twenty years later, the promising young official had become known as the Luoyang Strange Physician.

“None of it would have been possible without the Divine Physician. Without him, I would have become a puppet of that rotten court.”

Mae Jonghak smiled faintly.

“So one Divine Physician gave rise to another.”

“What nonsense. I’m content to remain the Strange Physician. There is only one Divine Physician under Heaven.”

The eyes of the famously eccentric Luoyang Strange Physician sparkled like a boy’s.

Mae Jonghak couldn’t help laughing at the sight.

“Good grief. Perhaps I should take back the Divine Physician’s token while I still can.”

“Heaven is Heaven because it lies beyond our reach. If I truly wished to find him, I would have left for Sichuan ten years ago, when I first received the token. My place is here. Besides…”

The Luoyang Strange Physician continued with a bitter smile.

“How could an old quack who still cannot cure a single patient dare show his face before the Divine Physician? This is enough for me.”

“Thank you. With hostile forces stirring everywhere, if Great Hero Jeok recovers, the entire Murim will owe you a great debt.”

“Come now, what has gotten into you? That doesn’t suit you at all.”

The Luoyang Strange Physician waved him off with exaggerated modesty. Then a mischievous look crossed his face.

“Are you practicing in advance?”

“Practicing what?”

“Your gravitas as the Alliance Leader. Ha-ha.”

“Ah. That?”

Mae Jonghak scratched the back of his head, looking uncomfortable.

“I have no idea who keeps spreading that rumor. I’ve already turned the position down several times…”

“As things stand, no one is more qualified than you, Great Hero Mae.”

“Don’t say that. Everyone is simply anxious, and their anxiety is driving them to make the wrong choice.”

The bloodbath at Shaolin Temple had sounded the alarm.

A hidden force known as Dark Heaven had emerged.

With the appearance of an enemy whose existence had never before been revealed, the leaders of orthodox Murim had cautiously begun discussing one subject.

The re-formation of the Murim Alliance.

“Someone else is better suited to the position. At the very least, this old man is not.”

“Do you truly believe that?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician raised a hand and pointed toward the sky.

Dawn had only just broken, and the moon and stars still lingered above.

“One God has vanished, and the Ten Kings have grown old. From what I have seen with my own eyes, Great Hero Mae possesses both formidable martial arts and an upright heart. You are the man best suited to lead the Murim Alliance, the symbol of the orthodox faction.”

“Come now. I’ve already told you this old man absolutely cannot do it. With so many people in the world, why would anyone make me the Alliance Leader?”

“Then who do you believe would be suitable?”

“Hm…”

Mae Jonghak thought for a moment before answering.

“Right. Senior Peng, the Thunderbolt Saber King, is nearby.”

“His temperament is far too…”

“What’s wrong with Senior Peng? I like that fiery personality of his. He’s manly.”

“He would make a fiery wreck of the Murim Alliance. In the manliest way possible.”

“Then Senior Zhuge Gonghu would be perfect. He once served as Chief Strategist of the Murim Alliance, and his Supreme Peak immortal arts and outstanding formation techniques earned him a place among the Ten Kings…”

“He’s dead.”

“What? Since when?”

“More than ten years ago.”

“Good heavens…”

Mae Jonghak had been away for so long that he no longer knew who was alive and who was dead.

After letting out a long groan, he asked, “Do you happen to know what became of the other two members of the Three Saints?”

“The Bow Saint has also been missing for more than twenty years. As for the last one… frankly, he shouldn’t even be considered.”

“Hm? Why not?”

The Luoyang Strange Physician stared at Mae Jonghak in disbelief.

“Who in their right mind would nominate the Slaughter Saint as Alliance Leader?”

“What’s wrong with him? His martial arts go without saying, and he is thorough by nature. He would be perfect as Alliance Leader.”

“The problem is that he uses those martial arts and that thorough nature to murder people for a living. The greatest assassin under Heaven as Alliance Leader? How could that possibly work?”

“Is that so? Now that you mention it, you may have a point.”

Watching Mae Jonghak scratch vigorously at the back of his head, the Luoyang Strange Physician wondered:

Is orthodox Murim really going to be all right like this?

Meanwhile, preparations for Jin Taekyung’s departure were moving at lightning speed.

The first person to come running when he heard I was leaving was Jin Wikyung.

“My youngest.”

I answered while stuffing everything I needed into my traveling bag.

“Yes?”

“This eldest brother has just heard something unbelievable.”

“Believe it. It’s true.”

“W-where did you say you were going?”

“Sichuan.”

“H-how long will you be gone?”

“Six months. Maybe another month or two if it takes longer.”

“No!”

Jin Wikyung cried out as if overcome with grief.

“Where are you going at a dangerous time like this?”

“Sichuan.”

“I know! That is why I cannot let you go!”

“I’m still going.”

With a grim expression unlike any I’d ever seen on him, Jin Wikyung declared, “I forbid it.”

“Oh. Then I’ll veto your veto.”

“With Father away, I am both the Lesser Family Head and acting Family Head! You cannot defy my orders!”

“What happens if I do?”

“I will have no choice but to punish you according to family law.”

“Then strike me from the family register.”

“How can you say such a thing?”

From the look on his face, the world was going to end in ten minutes.

I left Jin Wikyung, who was reeling from the shock, and rose to my feet.

Jeok Cheongang, still unconscious, was secured to the wooden back carrier on my back with silk.

It might be too late if I find the Divine Physician and bring him all the way back here.

That was why I’d chosen this method.

I would take Jeok Cheongang to Sichuan with me.

“Heave-ho.”

This should hold well enough for me to use my movement technique, at least to some extent.

I let out a deep sigh at the pleading look in Jin Wikyung’s eyes.

“Don’t worry so much. Nothing like what you’re imagining is going to happen.”

“Take the Jin Dragon Squad. At least take the Jin Dragon Squad with you.”

The Jin Dragon Squad might be the Jin Family of Taiyuan’s most elite force, but right now they’d only be deadweight slowing me down.

I tossed my fully packed traveling bag to one of the men nearby.

“That’s why I’m taking the Vice Squad Leader with me.”

Hyuk Mujin caught the bag and thumped his chest confidently.

“Leave it all to me, Lesser Family Head!”

“…”

“…Lesser Family Head?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. Please take good care of my youngest.”

Jin Wikyung patted Hyuk Mujin on the shoulder, looking as if he trusted him about as far as he could throw him.

That was when—

“Benefactor! When are we leaving? Huh? Benefactor?”

“…We’re leaving now, so please shut your mouth.”

Was bringing that guy really the right decision?

A sudden wave of regret hit me, but Cheongpung was perfect for this mission, which required a small, elite group.

At least there’s no questioning his strength.

If anything went wrong on the journey, Cheongpung alone would be worth an army.

“Sichuan! The Divine Physician! This is so exciting!”

“…”

It still wasn’t too late. Maybe I should just leave him behind.

Locked in a fierce internal struggle, I left the pavilion.

The final member of our party was waiting at the entrance.

“Long time no see.”

At my greeting, he answered with a gloomy expression.

“Requesting me was a poor choice.”

“No. You have to come with us.”

“My Myriad-Li Chasing Wind Movement Technique…”

“You only learned it to the fifth stage.”

“H-how do you know that?”

“…Have you learned anything past the fifth stage?”

The Oseong-and-Haneum villain.⁴

No, the final member was Gung Gibang, the Successor Beggar of the Beggars’ Sect.

Hyuk Mujin, Cheongpung, and Gung Gibang.

Now that I saw the three of them together, this lineup was no joke.

I sighed.

“All right, let’s go, you three Bermuda Triangle bastards.”