Finding Mr. Shin in Sichuan had been a Supreme Peak Grade Quest. With difficulty that vicious, the rewards were bound to be substantial.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
A massive EXP payout and the resulting Level Up. Even an achievement.
I dismissed the incessant System notifications and the holographic windows blocking my view. I couldn’t simply celebrate when the Divine Physician looked so grim.
“What’s wrong? You haven’t changed your mind, have you? You’re not about to tell me you can’t treat him after all, right?”
“Of course not. I may be an old quack, but if I give it my all, there is still plenty of hope.”
“Then why do you look like that…?”
He hesitated before letting out a soft sigh. The faint smile on his lips had vanished, replaced by deeply troubled lines.
“There are too many things we must prepare for the treatment.”
“Oh, if this is about the cost, you don’t need to worry.”
I might not look it, but I was the youngest son of the Jin Family of Taiyuan. It was common knowledge that the Jin Family had amassed a fortune through the northern trade routes over the past few years.
“If things get desperate, I can always borrow some money from this guy’s family. Hey, there are Hyuk Family textile shops in Sichuan too, aren’t there?”
Hyuk Mujin nodded, looking less than thrilled.
“There are. We’re textile merchants. It would be strange if we didn’t have a shop in Sichuan, considering how famous it is for silk.”
“Then let’s borrow some emergency cash. We can sell the shop if we have to, right?”
“Of course not.”
“I’ll pay you plenty of interest.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then I’ll give you plenty of travel money for your journey to the next world.”
“…Just take it all. Go ahead and rip out the very foundations of my family while you’re at it.”
Okay, problem solved.
But for some reason, the Divine Physician’s expression remained dark.
His Master seemed unable to bring himself to speak, so Mungyeong stepped in.
“Um, Young Master Jin.”
“Yes?”
“That isn’t the biggest problem. The treatment will require an enormous amount of money, but some materials would be difficult to obtain no matter how much gold and silver we had.”
“Materials that are difficult to obtain…? Are you talking about an elixir?”
“Yes. Treating Great Hero Jeok requires an elixir that meets certain conditions. Such elixirs are extremely valuable and rare. If we begin searching now, we may have to wait several years before finding one.”
Several years?
That was far too long. Jeok Cheongang had only a few months left to live.
I was struck speechless. The Divine Physician continued in a somber voice.
“I believe a detailed explanation is in order. The patient has not regained consciousness because the balance within his body has been disrupted.”
“His balance?”
“All things in the world contain the energies of the Five Elements and exist in proper balance. The human body is no different. But the patient attempted to wield an enormous force and destroyed that balance.”
An enormous force?
The Divine Physician’s words brought something to mind.
Dance of the Fire God and Demon. The Fire Gate Clan’s ultimate secret technique, which drew out and amplified every ounce of power its user possessed.
So that was the cause.
In the distant past, Jeok Cheongang had earned the name Fire King by using the Dance of the Fire God and Demon against a thousand members of the Demonic Cult. But as the years passed, his old and diseased body could no longer endure that power. It had shattered.
“When a vessel breaks, whatever it held inside will inevitably leak out. Fortunately, there is a way to reverse the damage, but it requires an elixir rarely seen in this world.”
“An elixir rarely seen in this world…”
“And even among such elixirs, it must meet certain conditions.”
“Tell me. I’ll get it, no matter what it takes.”
The Divine Physician sighed and nodded.
“It will be extremely difficult, but what choice do we have? We must place our hopes in you, Young Master. Listen carefully to what I am about to say.”
“Yes.”
In a grave voice, the Divine Physician explained Jeok Cheongang’s condition, the method of treatment, and the requirements for the necessary elixir.
“Will you remember all of that?”
“…”
“Young Master?”
“Oh, yes.”
“I asked whether you remember all of it.”
“Yes. I remember everything. But this is… Whew.”
“……”
“Could you check—I mean, confirm that I heard everything correctly?”
“I was planning to do so anyway. Go ahead.”
I carefully began to speak.
“So, the excessive expenditure of power disrupted his balance, and the harmony between Yin and Yang was particularly badly damaged?”
“That is correct.”
“And the cause was an enormous amount of Scorching Yang Qi that had gone out of control.”
“Continue.”
“To restore that broken balance and bring everything back into harmony, we need an elixir—and an incredibly powerful one at that. And for that…”
Mungyeong quickly cut in.
“Among elixirs, it must possess the nature of Yin-Cold Qi. It must also contain at least one jiazi’s1 worth of energy.”
“Four months,” the Divine Physician said heavily. “If we cannot find one within four months, everything else will be pointless.”
At that moment, the conversation came to an end.
Ding.
System
A Chain Quest, Herb Slave of Cold-Ice Land, has been generated.
This is something you must accomplish. You cannot refuse!
System
Quest conditions fulfilled!
Chain Quest, Thirty Thousand Li in Search of an Elixir, successfully completed!
Achievement, Mountain Herb Gatherer, acquired!
A substantial amount of EXP acquired!
Level Up!
System
A Chain Quest, Thirty Thousand Li in Search of an Elixir, has been generated.
This is something you must accomplish. You cannot refuse!
Find an elixir containing at least one jiazi of energy and possessing the nature of Yin-Cold Qi!
System
I stared blankly at the holographic window before finally coming to my senses.
“Will that do?”
“Many other materials are necessary, but this will be the most important one—the core ingredient. You must depart immediately and search for the elixir…”
“Ah, yes.”
And so I departed.
I took two steps toward the Divine Physician, pulled something from inside my robe, and held it out.
“Here.”
“…?”
“…?”
“Take it.”
Master and Disciple stared blankly at me, then simultaneously reached out to accept the object.
“What is this?”
“Master, perhaps you should open it first.”
“W-Well, shall I?”
Click.
The Divine Physician swallowed nervously and carefully opened the wooden box. A pure, clear fragrance that seemed capable of purifying even the coronavirus wafted out as it revealed itself.
“Gasp!”
“Good heavens!”
“It’s a Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng. It contains at least one jiazi’s1 worth of energy and possesses the nature of Yin-Cold Qi. Is this enough?”
Eyes wide, the Divine Physician looked back and forth between me and the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng, then nodded vigorously.
“It is enough!”
Ding.
System
Quest conditions fulfilled!
Chain Quest, Thirty Thousand Li2 in Search of an Elixir, successfully completed!
Achievement, Mountain Herb Gatherer, acquired!
A substantial amount of EXP acquired!
Level Up!
As the System notifications rang out, Ju Hwaran suddenly came to mind.
Thank you, Young Lady Ju.
I let out a wry chuckle as I thought of how she had given it to me while passing the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng off as Hundred-Year-Old Snow Ginseng, worried I might feel burdened and refuse it otherwise.
Now I have a reason to stop by Shaanxi on the way back.
And when I did… I hoped Jeok Cheongang would be healthy again and traveling with me.
I turned to the Divine Physician, who still looked dazed.
“All right, then. What do we do next?”
The Divine Physician carefully tucked the wooden box into his robes and began walking.
“Follow me. Gyeong, remain here and look after the patients.”
“Yes, Master.”
Leaving Mungyeong behind as he answered respectfully, we followed the Divine Physician.
Swish!
A small figure sped along right beside me. Every time he extended one foot, a zhang3 of distance vanished and the wind swept past.
What was truly astonishing was that his feet never touched the ground.
With each faint tap of his toes, the blades of grass bent gently beneath him, then sprang back into place.
I narrowed my eyes.
Flying Over Grass?
Flying Over Grass was a realm in which one ran as though flying while stepping across blades of grass.
Martial artists who had mastered their movement techniques to the Peak realm could perform such feats. Treading Snow Without a Trace, which left no footprints even while running across snow, and Rising on Duckweed, Crossing Water, which allowed one to walk across water as though it were solid ground, worked on similar principles.
Stepping on Empty Air, meanwhile, was a realm attainable only by Supreme Peak masters with internal energy to spare.
Of course, Flying Over Grass isn’t beyond me either if I put my mind to it.
Even so, the sight was astonishing because the person performing it was the Divine Physician.
I knew he had learned martial arts, but his movement technique is especially impressive.
I had realized the Divine Physician knew martial arts the moment we first met.
Though small in stature, he possessed vitality and resilience comparable to a young martial artist’s. The energy stored in his dantian was considerable as well.
His martial arts are First Rate, and his internal energy is probably around Peak.
As I quietly assessed him, the Divine Physician sensed my gaze. He turned his head and smiled.
“What is it?”
I answered honestly.
“Your movement technique is remarkable.”
“Heh heh. No matter how hard this old man tries, how could I compare with you, Young Master? I merely happened to learn it.”
“Honestly, before meeting the Divine Physician—or rather, Old Man Dong—I never imagined you had learned martial arts.”
“You must have been surprised. The others seem to feel the same.”
I glanced behind me. Everyone except Cheongpung looked ready to burst with curiosity.
There was no point being vague now. Better to ask him outright.
“This may be presumptuous, but may I ask how you came to learn martial arts?”
A physician practicing martial arts. It might have been an uncomfortable subject, but the Divine Physician did not avoid the question.
“When I was around twenty, shortly after becoming a medical apprentice, my Master personally instructed me.”
“Then was your Master perhaps…?”
“That is correct. My Master was a martial artist.”
The Divine Physician’s Master had been a martial artist. That was something I had never expected.
Seeing my expression, he let out a hearty laugh.
“Heh heh. There is no need to be surprised. By the time he accepted me as his Disciple, he had already left the Murim.”
“Oh, I see.”
“My Master had reached the highest realm both as a martial artist and as a physician. He told me he had become a physician to atone for all the lives he had taken.”
For some reason, I felt as though I understood.
I had accumulated killing karma too. At first, I swung my spear while thinking only of getting home and believing that this was merely a fictional world created by a game.
But everything was real. They were all living people.
By the time I realized that, it was already too late.
I could not stop, and I did not stop. I killed to survive. I killed because they were my enemies.
In the Murim and in the modern world.
At some point, the scent of blood had seeped deep into my body. It was a stench that no amount of washing could remove.
“…I see.”
At my belated reply, the Divine Physician gave me a gentle smile.
“It was simply a matter of choice. My Master chose the path he believed was right, and I did the same. However, so many people came looking for this old man that I had no choice but to learn martial arts for my own protection. I was born a dullard, so he scolded me quite often. Heh heh.”
Everyone has memories.
Perhaps remembering the days he had spent with his Master, the Divine Physician suddenly stopped walking in the middle of his laughter.
“Well, we have arrived.”
Crack.
A frozen leaf crumbled beneath someone’s foot.
We stood in an unusually cold valley within the Mystic Gate Formation surrounding the Divine Physician’s residence.
“Where exactly are we?”
“I call this place the Cold-Ice Land.”
Cold-Ice Land. A fitting name.
Though something like Yanggu in Gangwon Province or Moscow might have been even better.
I glanced at Hyuk Mujin, who had already begun shivering violently, then asked the most important question.
“What do we do now?”
“You will have quite a difficult time. We must find and dig up various ingredients, including the medicinal herbs needed for the initial stage of treatment.”
“That sounds simpler than I expected.”
“Let me see… A hundred roots of each should be enough.”
“Ah, yes. A hundred roots.”
“I said a hundred roots of each.”
“Yes. That’s what you said. A hundred roots.”
I nodded, then froze.
Wait. What had I just heard?
“A hundred roots each? Not a hundred in total?”
“That is correct.”
The Divine Physician continued with a hearty laugh.
“A hundred roots each of twenty-four different kinds.”
“…!”
Ding.
Footnotes
-
A jiazi is a traditional sixty-year cycle. Here it measures an equivalent amount of accumulated energy. ↩ ↩2 ↩3
-
The quest title uses the Korean ri, a traditional distance unit. One ri is about 393 m (0.244 mi); thirty thousand ri would be about 11,790 km (7,320 mi). ↩ ↩2
-
A zhang is a traditional length equal to ten ja, or about 3.03 m (9.94 ft). ↩
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