Chapter 845

“Chew it thoroughly before you swallow.”

“Chew it?”

“Yes. Don’t swallow it whole, and don’t spit it out halfway through. Understood?”

The Divine Physician had arrived at first light with that stern warning. I gave a faint laugh and accepted the pill he held out.

“Of course. I’m not a child, and you made it for my sake.”

The pill was dark and about the size of a marble.

The Appraisal System was still inaccessible, so I couldn’t tell exactly what was in it or what it would do. But the Divine Physician must have spent several sleepless nights making it. The exhaustion around his eyes was proof enough.

He must have had plenty of other patients to care for, too.

The best physician in the world had sacrificed his own time and health to make this pill for me. Even if it was hard as a rock, I planned to chew it until the sweetness came out. It was the least I could do.

And the moment I chewed the pill with heartfelt gratitude—

Crunch.

I realized that being a decent human being could go to hell. This wasn’t something a human being could eat.

Ptooey.

The pill I spat out on instinct stuck fast to the Divine Physician’s pristine white robe.

He gazed mournfully at the pill he’d spent days making. “I told you not to spit it out…”

Still retching and struggling to keep my senses, I spoke from the heart.

“Sorry, but are you out of your mind?”

“I am, and I understand exactly how you feel.”

“Have you tried eating it yourself?”

“I haven’t.”

“Then you have no idea how I feel. None.”

“Medicine that’s good for you is supposed to taste bitter. It always is.”

“This wasn’t just bitter. Did you put poison in it or something?”

“Enough!”

Jeok Cheongang, who’d watched the whole thing, bellowed and glared at me.

“He may not be particularly trustworthy and may seem a bit of a quack, but he made that medicine with care for your sake. Poison? Where did you get the nerve to say such blasphemous nonsense?”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to that quack!”

“Sorry, elder. I misspoke.”

The Divine Physician, who was apparently neither particularly trustworthy nor entirely unlike a quack, looked silently between us.

I could almost feel how badly he wanted to stab one of us with a large acupuncture needle. Fortunately, his martial arts weren’t up to the task. His sobriquet was Divine Physician, not Divine Needle.

He drew a deep breath, as if suppressing the urge to kill, and spoke calmly.

“It’s all right. I’ve devoted the rest of my life to medicine. A physician must put up with unfair and filthy treatment while caring for a patient, mustn’t he?”

“……”

“……”

“Sometimes I do wonder what my Master would think if he were here, but it’s all right. I’m a physician, after all. I should expect a pill I spent several sleepless nights making to be chewed up and spat out. Ha ha ha.”

He did not look all right.

His words didn’t merely have a barb in them. They had an acupuncture needle the size of an awl hidden inside.

Jeok Cheongang and I watched his face and quietly exchanged Sound Transmission.

—This is all your fault.

—If you hadn’t butted in, it wouldn’t have come to this.

—You asked a physician who’d brought you medicine whether he put poison in it. Is that any way for a human being to talk?

—Is calling him a quack any better?

—Why wouldn’t it be?

—He’s the Divine Physician. He might take offense.

—I’m the Fire King.

—I’m the Blazing Flame Divine Dragon.

—How dare a little fucking nobody like you compare yourself to me?

—……

—Anyway, shut up and eat it. It’s all for your sake.

A little fucking nobody? That hurt.

Jeok Cheongang shot me a fierce glare, then made an effort to soften his voice as he addressed the Divine Physician.

“Don’t take it to heart. I’ll give the boy a proper scolding.”

“Then who’s going to scold Sir Jeok…?”

“Hm? What was that?”

“Nothing. I misspoke.”

Lying through his teeth, the Divine Physician peeled the pill off his robe. He stared mournfully at the clear tooth marks I’d left in it and sighed.

“Some of its medicinal properties have leaked out, but it’s not too late. This time, chew it well and swallow it.”

One thing was certain: its medicinal properties weren’t the only thing leaking out.

Jeok Cheongang caught a whiff of the hideous stench escaping from the crushed pill and instinctively stepped back.

“Could this be Formless Ultimate Poison…!”

“I’m done treating him. I’ll throw this pill in the latrine. Find another physician.”

“W-wait!”

The Fire King caught the Divine Physician’s robe as he turned away and spoke through his nose. His other hand had already flashed up to pinch it shut.

“Ah, I didn’t mean to do that. Sorry. But this stench… What in the world did you put in this pill?”

“If I told you, would you understand?”

“……”

“It’s a secret method my Master taught me. Stop asking and let it go. And don’t worry—it isn’t poison.”

The Jeok Cheongang I knew would have answered with a spectacular string of curses and a blazing Flame Divine Palm. But for now, the Divine Physician held all the cards.

As patient and guardian, we kept our mouths shut and nodded. Jeok Cheongang urged me on, looking equal parts worried and curious.

“Do as he says. I’m here, so don’t worry about what happens afterward.”

“……”

Put like that, it really did sound as if I was about to swallow Formless Ultimate Poison.

I gave him a resentful look, then squeezed my eyes shut. Blocking out my senses as best I could, I tossed the pill into my mouth.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

My jaw worked without pause. I curled my tongue as tightly as I could to avoid tasting anything. Then I added a spoonful of desperate effort to keep from retching.

Hnnngh.

I felt like I was going to die. No, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I was already dead.

A hideous stench burst through my mouth with every chew. As some unidentified, thick juice trickled down my throat, my esophagus started doing the Zero Two¹ and my guts launched into the cocaine dance.²

Urgh, shit…!

I swear, I’d never encountered a stench or anything so revolting in my life.

Not even when I was a rookie Hunter and fell nose-first into a goblin’s armpit inside a Gate. Not even when I screamed and flailed so wildly that I accidentally burst the creature’s balls with my bare hand.

“Urk! Uuugh!”

Reason deserted me. My body moved on instinct.

Bent over like a shrimp, I tried to vomit up something hot surging from deep in my stomach.

Tried to.

If someone hadn’t clamped a hand over my mouth and nose at that very moment—

Crack.

My breath caught. I struggled on reflex, but the grip holding me fast stuck like glue.

And there was only one person here who could restrain me so completely.

Old Master?

I forced open the eyes I’d squeezed shut and saw Jeok Cheongang’s eyes glowing red with Scorching Yang Qi.

Then a powerful blow struck my Adam’s apple.

Thwack!

With his hand sealed over my mouth and nose, I couldn’t even scream.

As my newly brightened vision went black, I thought, At this point, that’s closer to poison than medicine.

That was it.

I felt the finely crushed pill mix with my saliva and flow deep into my body. Then I lost consciousness.

Whoosh.

Along with a heat I knew better than anything.

Jeok Cheongang neither panicked nor hesitated.

He had lived for a hundred and several dozen years. The age of fifty, when a man came to understand Heaven’s will and the natural order, lay far behind him. He knew better than anyone what he had to do.

Now.

Scorching Yang Qi seethed through his body, but his mind was as cold as year-round snow.

All trace of his earlier banter gone, he reached toward the unconscious Jin Taekyung, his face grave.

Swish. Tap. Dudududuk!

His movements were as swift as a flash of light, his hands terrifyingly calm.

Every time they blurred, Jin Taekyung’s body jerked. Scorching Yang Qi seeped in with each Pressure-Point Strike, melting the pill and spreading its medicinal effects throughout Jin’s body.

Don’t rush. Stay calm.

Jeok Cheongang repeated the words to himself as if making a vow.

He couldn’t afford the slightest mistake. Humans weren’t so easy to kill, but their bodies were astonishingly sensitive. All the more so when that body held several jiazi³ of internal energy.

Rumble.

Tremendous heat surged around them. The solid wooden floor of the pavilion charred black, and the two men were surrounded by a shimmer like a desert mirage.

Hssssss.

An ordinary physician witnessing the scene would have rubbed his eyes or screamed and fled.

But the Divine Physician was the one physician who did neither.

He had spent decades following his Master and treating countless patients, and his Master’s excellent teaching had given him experience beyond even that. It mattered, too, that the Master in question was the Slaughter Saint.

It’s going as smoothly as it possibly could. Hard to believe, considering the treatment he’s performing.

The Divine Physician watched Jeok Cheongang in wonder.

Working the channels and pressure points was no easy undertaking. The practitioner had to sweep, strike, press, and tap hundreds of points across the body, opening blocked flows of qi and blood and loosening knotted muscles.

That alone consumed enormous concentration and internal energy. A single mistake could seriously injure the practitioner, too.

And this time, he has to spread the pill’s energy to every corner of the body.

It wasn’t merely difficult. It was extraordinarily difficult.

Under normal circumstances, even the Divine Physician wouldn’t have dared treat someone this way.

With the Fire King, Jeok Cheongang, it was different. Of the ten Supreme Peak masters known as kings throughout the world, he alone could be compared to the Three Saints. He was also a Master willing to risk anything for his only Disciple.

Just like the Divine Physician’s own Master.

You’re doing well somewhere, aren’t you? Aren’t you?

The Divine Physician had just thought of the Master he’d parted from four months earlier, almost as if he’d been forced to leave, and smiled faintly when—

Whoosh.

The heat and haze slowly dispersed. Through them, Jeok Cheongang came into view, rising to his feet, his face a little pale.

“Sir Jeok. Are you all right?”

“Don’t make a fuss. This much won’t hurt me.”

“Even so, you should at least—”

“I’m fine. See to that reckless brat first.”

From what the Divine Physician had witnessed, the treatment had been flawless. Yet even after pouring so much into it, Jeok Cheongang still worried.

His insistence that the Divine Physician check Jin again seemed driven less by trust in the physician than by boundless affection for his Disciple.

And the Divine Physician understood Jeok Cheongang’s feelings.

“Understood. I’ll examine him again.”

He went to Jin Taekyung, who lay unconscious, and took his pulse. He was so thorough that half an hour had passed by the time he looked up.

“It’s done. The pill’s medicinal effects have been fully absorbed.”

Only then did life return to Jeok Cheongang’s tired eyes.

“Does that mean…?”

“I’m sorry. He’s still a long way from a full recovery. In fact, I can’t promise he’ll ever recover completely.”

“What?”

“You already know, Sir Jeok. His vital essence has been damaged.”

“…!”

“Even steel bends when it’s heated. In the end, it becomes a lump of molten metal. What chance does a body made of flesh and blood have?”

The Divine Physician looked at Jeok Cheongang gravely. It was hard to meet his trembling gaze, but a physician who lied about a patient’s condition was no physician at all.

“Making this pill made me realize it once again. A full recovery is impossible, but improvement is possible.”

Grind.

Jeok Cheongang clenched his teeth.

He had suspected as much since Nanman. But it was a truth he couldn’t bear to face.

You foolish… foolish boy.

What in the world had happened? How fiercely had Jin fought, again and again, in that place as it became a hellscape?

Jeok Cheongang’s eyes trembled as he watched Jin Taekyung, now sleeping peacefully.

Then—

Crash!

The door flew open, and the rough beat of horses’ hooves sounded beyond the window.