Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: A Toast in Return
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Thud.
The door opened.
In front of the place the Weird Physician had dubbed the operating room stood two guardians of the patient, rigid as wooden statues.
"Is it over?"
The Nether Luo Sect Lord's question.
Though he was the one who asked, Gu Yang Ho beside him seemed even more desperate for the answer.
And rightly so.
Gu Yang Ho and the Nether Luo Sect Lord were renowned sworn brothers in the martial world.
To him, Mok Ja Un was no different from his own son, a cherished nephew.
Unlike the sect lord, who couldn't ignore his responsibilities as leader, he was free to worry purely for his nephew's sake.
The Weird Physician emerged without his beak mask, his face bare, clad in blood-soaked robes that set Gu Yang Ho's nerves even more on edge.
A calm question met with a calm reply.
"He was lucky."
"He survived."
"Yes."
Just four words, yet their weight surpassed a hundred.
"Kahaha!"
Gu Yang Ho finally exhaled in relief and burst into roaring laughter.
"Brother, see? I told you Ja Un wouldn't die from some puny illness! I've known it from the start. I said he'd shake it off and get right up. I wasn't worried at all! Not one bit! I believed in him!"
His lengthy explanation of what no one had asked only further trampled his dignity as a supreme master—though he seemed oblivious.
More importantly, the Nether Luo Sect Lord turned his attention to Wi Sowol, standing silently behind the Weird Physician.
'She's wearing a mask.'
Unlike the Weird Physician, Wi Sowol still hid her face behind the beak mask.
The Weird Physician must have instructed her to do so.
No matter how aloof he was with women, he would still be mindful of prying eyes.
'Is that why the girl became his disciple? Because he's safe?'
Not many knew that secret.
Even the Nether Luo Sect Lord had learned of it purely by chance.
'But still, Weird Physician. No matter how you hide it, you can't fool the world's eyes forever.'
Another struggle would begin then.
The Nether Luo Sect Lord was certain.
If that girl, Wi Sowol, wandered the world at the Weird Physician's side, the storm surrounding her would one day surely shake the Central Plains.
"Weird Physician. Will you leave right away?"
The Nether Luo Sect Lord's hand twitched toward the saber at his waist, but he consciously restrained it.
If the Weird Physician said yes, he planned to detain him by any means necessary.
Fortunately, it seemed unnecessary.
"No. I need to monitor his progress. I'd like to stay here for ten days and keep an eye on his condition."
"Do so. I'll provide a guesthouse. Speak up if you need anything. I'll prepare it separately from the treatment fee."
"Then, first..."
As the Weird Physician began listing his requirements, Gu Yang Ho interrupted.
"Uh, Weird Physician. Brother. Sorry to cut in, but may I go in now? I want to see how Ja Un is doing."
"That's what he says."
The Nether Luo Sect Lord also betrayed a desire to enter.
The Weird Physician pondered briefly.
If they went in now, they would surely sense the lingering traces of Wi Sowol's Great White Light True Qi.
"No. He needs rest for now. You can see him tomorrow."
"...Is something wrong..."
"Sorry, Weird Physician. Ignore him. You've worked hard—go rest. Shall we keep this room off-limits to everyone?"
"Yes. I'll check on him again before sunset."
"Understood. I just sent a transmission to have a servant guide you to the guesthouse. They'll be waiting outside."
With the situation settled, the Weird Physician bowed in thanks and turned away.
Wi Sowol followed close behind like a baby bird.
As the Nether Luo Sect Lord had said, including Jang Rok, the three were soon escorted to the guesthouse.
"Jang Rok, you worked hard guarding the door. Rest now. Sowol, follow me."
"Yes, Physician."
During the surgery, the Weird Physician had stationed Jang Rok at the door.
Even for a seasoned warrior like Jang Rok, facing off against two supreme masters was no small feat.
Entering the main room of the guesthouse, the Weird Physician cut straight to the point.
"You altered the Great White Light True Qi formula, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Let me see."
At his words, Wi Sowol circulated the Great White Light True Qi through her primary meridians and extended it from her fingertips.
Watching the flow intently, the Weird Physician suddenly sliced open his own forearm and pressed the bleeding limb to her hand.
His blood trickled down her slender fingers.
He observed it briefly before pressing an acupoint to staunch the flow.
"As expected. The qi itself has no restorative properties. But it's markedly different from the first time I saw it."
"I refined the part you mentioned before."
"The body cooling from yin-cold qi is harmful, right?"
"Yes."
When Wi Sowol offered to cleanse his meridians instead, the Weird Physician had warned that yin-cold qi would chill the patient's body.
For a qi-cultivating warrior, it could even provoke internal injuries from clashing with their qi—absolutely not advisable.
Yet to fully learn his medical arts, Wi Sowol had to solve this problem.
Her initial solution had been to expand yang qi using yin qi principles like Nourishing Yin to Supplement Yang.
Not knowing that method, she opted for the next best thing.
Coexistence.
The sun and moon both hang in the same sky—why wound each other?
Instead of amplifying yang with yin like Nourishing Yin to Supplement Yang, she softened the yin qi's nature to foster harmony.
"It already had purity from the start. Now it even achieves harmony. Since my internal energy is lacking, you cleansed the peritoneum and pulse channels in my stead. But what you showed in this surgery seemed a bit different from mere meridian cleansing."
"I applied suction power."
"Suction power?"
"The Nine Yin Absolute Meridian indiscriminately draws in surrounding yin qi. I used that to pull out the stagnant yin from the patient's body with Great White Light True Qi."
"Indeed. You filtered and absorbed the pus poison mixed in the blood that way."
Understanding how Wi Sowol had purged Mok Ja Un's pus poison, the Weird Physician suddenly asked a question that occurred to him.
"That must consume a great deal of internal energy, no?"
Absorbing that stagnant yin—while it might become internal energy via Great White Light True Qi in the long term—would shorten Wi Sowol's lifespan for now.
Without refining it properly, the accumulated stagnant yin would choke her vitality.
Yet the reason she did it was one she had learned from him.
"It's cheaper than a life."
Oh dear.
Recognizing the words as his own to this clever disciple once, the Weird Physician let out a wry chuckle.
"Yes. You're right."
His throat tightened.
The woman who had once taught him those words seemed to overlap with Wi Sowol's face.
Their features, eyes, and hair color were utterly different—only their age group matched—but he felt her presence in Wi Sowol.
"You've become a physician."
The Weird Physician, Ma Yu Seung, placed his rough hand atop Wi Sowol's head.
"But don't push too hard just because Great White Light True Qi can mimic something like the Firm Chastity Heart Method. It's your lifeline, but it can't escape its pure yin essence. Unlike the balanced harmony of Firm Chastity Heart Method, it will surely clash with opposing energies."
"I won't be able to do it like this then."
Wi Sowol had no intention of getting carried away by her pivotal role in this surgery.
Coldly speaking, she had merely tidied up after the Weird Physician had done the bulk of the work.
What she accomplished wasn't a fundamental cure for the intestinal abscess or peritoneal abscess—it was just completing the meridian cleansing he couldn't finish.
Meridian cleansing was essential but far from omnipotent.
The crucial part was excising and suturing the ruptured abscess. That was the foundation.
Ultimately, medical ingenuity lay in addressing the root cause.
"Especially demonic arts. Those with particularly insidious yin evil qi will be the same. Fortunately, the Nether Luo Sect's arts haven't abandoned self-cultivation. If it were an unorthodox art, harm would surely have befallen you too."
"I'll be careful."
The Weird Physician knew Wi Sowol understood martial arts better than he did.
Still, he explained verbally out of a master's concern.
'Now I understand why my master said raising a disciple is harder than raising a child.'
He suddenly missed the Wu Medical Academy, where his master had said he'd return only after becoming the world's best and fulfilling his vow.
But Ma Yu Seung shook it off. He had accomplished nothing yet. It wasn't time to return.
"It's early, but be especially wary of thunder qi arts. In some ways, thunder arts are worse than unorthodox ones. I'll explain more when I teach you medicine later."
No matter how heaven-defying Wi Sowol's talent, teachings followed steps and sequences.
In his view, she still needed prerequisites before grasping that.
"Now, let's supplement the lecture I couldn't finish."
"About intestinal abscesses?"
"No, something more fundamental."
It was knowledge he had pondered sharing even after she read the four medical texts and built her foundation.
In his planned curriculum, it was essentially the final stage.
But today's events made him reconsider.
Wi Sowol could understand even this teaching.
The Weird Physician decided to impart his forbidden knowledge—the mere existence of which could condemn him—a taboo medical art.
"Have you ever heard of a treatment for intestinal abscesses that involves opening the abdomen to resect the poison-filled intestines?"
An obvious question.
Wi Sowol answered immediately.
"No."
"Yes. Exactly."
It couldn't be otherwise, the Weird Physician thought inwardly.
"It's because we don't truly understand the human body."
A strange statement.
Wi Sowol struggled to accept it, even from him.
Just looking at martial arts showed their profound grasp of anatomy, didn't it?
Muscles and bones. Meridians. Qi and blood. Pulse channels.
Masters memorized the 365 vital points and twelve meridians plus eight extraordinary vessels like the lines on their palms, knowing exactly how muscles moved and where pulse channels made weak points.
Through training, warriors understood their bodies, even transcending human limits.
They were masters of the flesh.
Yet the Weird Physician denied it outright.
"Warriors' understanding is limited to muscles and bones. They lack fundamental insight into the body. Not just warriors—all of the Central Plains. Our study of the body stalled 700 years ago."
In contrast, the Western Regions had continued exploring, so surgical disparities started from knowledge itself.
"From now on, I'll teach you about the human body. I learned this from books but left none behind. Listen to my words and commit them to memory alone."
She didn't know exactly what knowledge he would share, but Wi Sowol sensed one thing.
This was the true beginning of the Weird Physician's teachings.
"This knowledge began in the Western land of Belgium..."
That night.
The three gathered together.
The Weird Physician had just returned after checking on Mok Ja Un.
"The prognosis is good. True to a martial master, his recovery is swift. I probed inside with qi again, and Sowol handled it well. No risk of recurrence."
He had told the Nether Luo Sect Lord ten days, but that assumed the worst case.
Mok Ja Un would wake tomorrow, and by the current state, they didn't need to stay and monitor.
"Jang Rok."
"Yes, Physician."
"Is there a path?"
"Difficult, but with your and the lady's movement arts, we can manage."
"Good."
The Weird Physician knew Jang Rok's skills well.
If Jang Rok said there was a way, there was.
Above all, he just needed to leave this estate.
The Weird Physician announced their next move.
"Once the patient wakes, we leave immediately."
He didn't miss the Nether Luo Sect Lord's gaze toward Wi Sowol.
"Little brother."
"Yes, brother."
"Are the guests being well attended?"
"Of course. I've assigned separate servants to all three."
"Good."
The Nether Luo Sect Lord stared through the wide-open window toward the guesthouse he had provided.
His Dark Void Observation-trained eyes pierced the night, taking in the distant scene.
To celebrate his son's survival and mark another bond and struggle, the Nether Luo Sect Lord sipped his wine.
Across from him sat an untouched cup—not for Gu Yang Ho, but for someone else.
"Shouldn't you hear the gratitude from the one you saved before leaving, Weird Physician?"
The Nether Luo Sect Lord knew why the Weird Physician had made Wi Sowol wear the mask.