Chapter 24
Chapter 24
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Linked Pulses
-----------------------------------------------------------------
'Medicine King? This monk?'
Wi Sowol gave her master a slightly different look upon hearing the title he used for the old monk.
'He doesn't look that strong for someone from Shaolin.'
He appeared remarkably healthy for his age, but he lacked the robust build typical of Shaolin's martial monks.
'Maybe because he's a medical monk.'
Shaolin was vast.
The phrase "All martial arts under heaven come from Shaolin" encompassed not just martial prowess but every form of learning.
Though the warrior monks were famous, Shaolin housed a diverse mix of medical monks, scholarly monks, Zen monks, and more.
Thus, even someone from Shaolin might know nothing of martial arts.
In fact, Wi Sowol knew of Abbot Deung Hwa from Zenith Temple as a prime example.
"Heh... So this old beggar was your disciple? I thought you didn't take any."
"I'm no beggar."
"Hm, my apologies, little lady."
The Weird Physician was quick to correct the misunderstanding about his disciple before anything else.
In response, the Shaolin monk—Medicine King—pressed his palms together toward Wi Sowol.
Wi Sowol mirrored the gesture, bowing her head slightly.
It was a habit ingrained from her time at Zenith Temple.
"It's fine, monk."
At Wi Sowol's response, the Weird Physician's eyebrow twitched.
What was this? Why was she using proper respect with that bald monk right away?
Even he, her master, had to drill it into her to get any decent politeness.
'No. It's because of my teachings that she's showing manners to that monk. He ought to be grateful to me.'
Blissfully unaware of the Weird Physician's inner thoughts, this cheeky disciple chatted amiably (at least in his eyes) with the Shaolin monk.
"Your palms-together bow is quite refined. Do you follow the Buddha's path?"
"No, not really. I just served as a lay worker at a temple for a while."
"I see. Which temple was it? I'd like to visit the high monk who raised such a precious young lady like you and discuss the Dharma together..."
"Stop interrogating someone else's disciple, Medicine King."
Unable to bear it any longer, the Weird Physician wedged himself between Medicine King and Wi Sowol, cutting off the conversation.
As if that quack was trying to stuff strange knowledge into a girl suited to become a fine surgeon.
"Hm? No, Weird Physician. I just wondered if she might be someone I know..."
No way?
Medicine King had wandered the world as much as the Weird Physician. The title wasn't given lightly to just any skilled pharmacist—it required traversing the lands on foot, handling every herb and remedy firsthand.
Even places the Weird Physician hadn't reached, like the far southern Yunnan and Hainan, bore his footprints. Would he have skipped humble Gansu?
As the Weird Physician fell silent, Wi Sowol spoke to the two physicians.
"Let's move first. We seem to have come here for the same reason."
She handed over the care of the boy with the broken ankle to the Mount Hua Sect elders who had arrived late after hearing his story.
With that, Wi Sowol returned to the main purpose of her visit.
Amid thanks and farewells from Seon Ye, Seon Hyu, and the other Mount Hua Sect third-generation disciples, Wi Sowol returned to Hwasun Hermitage with the two physicians.
'Let's play again next time. First one to run, okay?'
Next time.
Next time.
All the way back to Hwasun Hermitage, Wi Sowol rolled Seon Ye's words around in her mind, wondering if there really would be a next time.
Normally, she might have pondered the surgery or asked the Weird Physician questions about it.
'I've gotten sentimental.'
The innocence she thought swept away by worldly trials was like a seed buried in winter soil.
Now touched by spring's breath, it was sprouting bit by bit. Wi Sowol cherished that budding innocence in her heart.
She had no intention of acting on it, but it recalled forgotten joys from her past.
And hadn't it even uncovered a clue about her mother?
Perhaps nurturing this feeling would one day open the path to her mother.
As Wi Sowol gathered her thoughts, the Weird Physician probed at Medicine King.
"You managed to drag those heavy feet of yours here."
It had been three years since Medicine King roamed the world like his own backyard.
After completing his pilgrimage as the Medicine Buddha, he'd stayed within Shaolin's grounds, rarely venturing far from Henan.
"I had some history with Elder Yulhan. And I was planning to visit an old friend in Xi'an anyway, so the timing was perfect."
While in Xi'an, he could stop by Mount Hua to treat patients—good karma, forging virtuous ties, a chance to pray for the sick to find peace.
The Weird Physician readily accepted Medicine King's explanation.
No wonder he'd arrived faster than expected—he must have set out even before the messenger bird arrived.
"You've heard about the patient's condition?"
"Yes. Protruding bones, severed sharp fragments, bone-setting done, and Solitary Yang Pills to restore vitality."
"When I examined him, the bones hadn't fully healed before he kept moving, causing non-union from dead bone marrow. Growth has stopped—no choice but surgery now. This is a surgeon's domain."
Not something medicine alone could fix, said the Weird Physician, but Medicine King didn't seem fazed.
He was a master in his own right.
He'd reference others but wouldn't waver.
Showing the steadfastness of an ancient tree, Medicine King countered.
"Any pus?"
"None."
"Blood stagnation or kidney deficiency?"
Though the Weird Physician had chosen the path of surgery, he was a true physician who had studied at the Wu Medical Academy—the finest medical school of the era—and even passed the medical exams.
Of course he'd checked the basics.
"A bit of kidney deficiency."
"Dead bone, failed kidneys. When bone dies, kidneys fail. Nourish the kidneys, and the bone lives."
"That'll go well."
"Using moxibustion and acupuncture to boost vitality, plus a bone-mending decoction from the Huihui prescriptions—even a case of non-union for half a year healed."
"How long did you treat?"
"A month."
"Delayed growth or no growth?"
"Strictly speaking, delayed."
"Missed the mark. This is complete non-union. If there was even faint connection, your medicine might coax recovery, but creating bone from nothing? Medicine won't cut it."
"We'll see when we try."
Their exchange ended there.
Arriving at Hwasun Hall, they found Yulhan—the patient's master and the one who'd successfully summoned Medicine King—standing there.
"Hm, the Weird Physician's here too."
"Borrowed your master's hand a bit."
When the Weird Physician credited Pure Void Daoist, the man behind Yulhan let out a hearty laugh.
"Master, my oversight dragged you into the secular world..."
"Enough. Consider it a rare outing. Come in. You all too."
Where two of the world's top six monks gathered, even the dead could revive, or so the rumors went.
Weird Physician and Medicine King.
With these two, Yujin's recovery was only a matter of time.
The two physicians followed Pure Void Daoist and Yulhan inside at once. Wi Sowol started to follow but paused, noticing one person's steps had halted, and turned.
"Jang Rok?"
"Please go ahead. I'll stay here."
And there Jang Rok was, giving a faint smile.
Realizing it himself, he covered his mouth with his hand.
He'd said he'd guard the door as her escort, but he'd never smiled before.
Jang Rok rarely smiled at all, so Wi Sowol tilted her head.
"...Alright."
Whatever it was, she left Jang Rok and entered.
In the center, Elder Yulhan was patting Lay Disciple Yujin's back.
'Sick?'
No.
"What handstand are you doing with that arm!"
"It's fine! I used the good arm!"
Hm, ignore them.
"I told you to rest from training, and you're skipping just that arm. Why didn't you stop him?"
"Heh heh... At least the injured arm's tied down? I taught him daily training—how could I stop him?"
They're not right in the head.
Even Wi Sowol in her past life rested when ill.
She'd even taken a full year off once.
Not just injury—sometimes she just didn't know what to do next.
"Did you hit your head too? Seems like some wind pathogen."
"...I'm fine. You took my pulse."
"Just the arm."
"...I'll check again."
Wi Sowol and the Weird Physician exchanged knowing glances at the farce.
"Daoists, calm down."
"Shameful before Medicine King. My failing as master."
"Yulhan, is he making this old man listen?"
"N-no, Master!"
As Pure Void Daoist laughed heartily and Yulhan flustered, Medicine King began examining the patient.
"Namu Yaksa Yuri Gwangbul... I'll inspect the wound."
"Thank you, virtuous master."
As Medicine King diagnosed Yujin, the Weird Physician murmured to Wi Sowol.
"Played with the Mount Hua kids, huh."
"They were short-handed."
"Left the mask there?"
"Ah... Probably in the Scripture Pavilion."
"Knew it. Jang Rok went to fetch it, so don't leave it lying around anymore."
Ah... So that's why he smiled.
Covering his mouth wasn't to hide a grin—it was pointing out the face mask substitute.
"I get it. Hard to play with peers while masked up."
"It's not... that."
"Did you have fun?"
Have fun?
At first, instinct drew her chasing old nostalgia. Then, she watched the children's games as a clue to faint memories of her mother.
The ending wasn't great, but still.
"Yes."
"Good enough."
The Weird Physician placed his hand atop Wi Sowol's head.
Her answer settled the turmoil in his heart.
'My revenge ends by my hand.'
No matter how vile and brutal those fiends, staining a physician's hands with blood beyond patients'—his own hands sufficed.
"More importantly, Master."
"What?"
"A clue about Mother surfaced. She raised me briefly, it seems. I vaguely recall old tales she told. Games you played as a child—she might have shared them with me."
"...Really? That's good."
Wi Sowol called herself an orphan, but who births without parents?
Dead or alive, they existed.
And the human heart, like salmon swimming upstream, seeks origins even without memories.
Even a heaven-forsaken orphan deserved to see her birth parents' faces.
So if Wi Sowol sought her roots, the Weird Physician was more than willing to help.
'A mirror reversed.'
He, inheriting the dream of medicine from lost family.
She, pursuing medicine's path to find lost family.
The Weird Physician sensed it wasn't mere coincidence.
"Games might help. The Central Plains are vast—same game, different rules by region. Knowing the style could pinpoint Mother's homeland."
The Weird Physician thought the heavens truly capricious.
He didn't believe in heaven, nor trust it if real.
But if some being wove saṃsāra's karma, it had a twisted sense of humor.
'Giving cause for departure?'
Irksome, but he'd play along this time.
Resolving thus, the Weird Physician opened his mouth...
"Sowol. Once Mount Hua business wraps..."
"Sowol, is it? Wi Sowol?"
Medicine King interrupted abruptly.