Chapter 28
Chapter 28
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 28
Chapter Title: Source
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Daoist Master Yulhan felt like he was on the verge of losing his mind over the treatment fee demanded by the Weird Physician.
One guan of gold?
That wasn't even a dog's name.
The standard for one guan was a whopping thousand coins according to the Currency Unification Decree.
Of course, there was a difference between the official standard and the actual weight in circulation.
But that didn't change the fact that it was ten geun, a hundred nyang, and a thousand mun.
Considering silver was valued at roughly a 10:1 ratio to gold, that was a full thousand nyang of silver.
"L-look here, Weird Physician. I know you've used up some gold this time, but one guan is too much, isn't it?"
"What clinic only charges for the medicine?"
You had to account for the labor in the procedure.
"Even so..."
"We'll pay."
It was Pure Void Daoist.
"But I can't pay it all in gold. We'll settle the rest another way."
"With what?"
"My personal insights. Learnings that have nothing to do with Mount Hua Sect—just mine alone."
"Hm..."
The Weird Physician pondered for a moment.
Was it really necessary?
Pure Void Daoist was a transcendent master, the pride of Mount Hua Sect, but with Wi Sowol's talent and growth, she would one day surpass even him.
But that would undoubtedly take time.
And in the Weird Physician's view, time might not be on Wi Sowol's side.
The rampage of the Nine Yin Absolute Meridian, the threats after the Child in the Manger... Considering those future possibilities, the Weird Physician gravely nodded.
"I'll accept. But I must have at least three geun of gold. The rest can be your insights."
If she could stand on the shoulders of a giant like Pure Void Daoist, the time for Wi Sowol to reach even greater heights would be greatly shortened.
For the Weird Physician, a transcendent master who couldn't pass his own martial arts to Wi Sowol, Pure Void Daoist was an excellent substitute.
"You have my word."
Sharing Pure Void Daoist's insights was perhaps more shocking than the one guan.
Daoist Master Yulhan looked utterly stunned, as if he might foam at the mouth.
"M-Master!"
"The Medicine King himself said Yujin's arm is reattached. Does my grand-disciple's arm not warrant that much?"
With a face indistinguishable between emotion and guilt, Daoist Master Yulhan tightly pressed his lips together.
Pure Void Daoist continued.
"We'll draw up a payment vow for the gold. Have the Ha Merchant House guarantee it?"
"That'll suffice."
The Ha Merchant House was the leading merchant group based in Shaanxi Province, representing the Shaanxi—or Qin—merchants, and the largest trading conglomerate.
The name always came with "a thousand gold," and the legend persisted of how they secured salt trading rights by providing massive grain supplies and funding for border fortress construction.
And that was just the beginning.
Rooted in Xi'an, the Ha Merchant House traversed the Silk Road on camels through the desert to the west, and by water routes east and south all the way to the sea.
The Ha Merchant House had deep ties not just with the government, but with the jianghu as well.
They were the key sponsors of the Shaanxi Martial Assembly, hosted by the three great sects—Mount Hua, Zhongnan, and Kongtong—boasting those Nine Great Sects as their backing.
With the Ha Merchant House's guarantee, there was no worry of default.
"Put my disciple's name on the recipient line as well. She contributed to the surgery too."
"Very well."
Having secured even the three geun of gold, the Weird Physician rose from his seat.
It would have been nicer to settle neatly at one guan, but three geun would make for a tidy sum.
'Now, all that's left is to pass on every bit of my medical knowledge through the winter.'
Time was tight.
Even if he crammed in as many teachings as possible over the remaining days, and Wi Sowol absorbed them without waste, transmitting everything by next spring would be a pipe dream.
Even so, that would be enough.
The seed of medicine planted in Wi Sowol would now grow endlessly, nourished by the Weird Physician.
He could only hope.
That his medical arts would serve as good fertilizer for his disciple.
"So, I probably won't be able to come starting tomorrow."
Wi Sowol said this to Seon Ye, the third-generation disciple from Mount Hua Sect who had been visiting her daily lately.
Though "lately" was just a few days.
Still, whenever it wasn't training time, Seon Ye would show up at Zhangshi Pavilion—Wi Sowol's haunt—or the Xixiang Pavilion, the guest quarters for outsiders at Mount Hua Sect, looking for her. It had started to get on Wi Sowol's nerves, just a little.
"Oh...?"
Seon Ye mumbled sullenly.
"Can't be helped... Sowol's the disciple of Weird Physician senior."
Convincing herself like that, Seon Ye quickly shook off her disappointment and clenched her fists with vigor.
"Then as a disciple of Great Mount Hua Sect, I have to work hard too! If Sowol inherits Weird Physician senior's legacy, she'll be a jianghu person! I'll become a proud Mount Hua master so we can meet in the jianghu!"
The spirited vow was nice, but to Wi Sowol's eyes, it seemed unlikely.
'Her aptitude seems a bit lacking...'
From what she saw at the Seven Stars Escort Agency with the Seven Stars Escort, it was... not great.
'Should I give her some advice?'
Words she would have brushed off with "Oh well" and forgotten in her past life.
But now, Wi Sowol found herself considering whether to help.
She had changed.
Realizing that, Wi Sowol was a bit surprised.
But she held back.
She still hesitated to share martial arts knowledge when offering help to others, unlike medicine.
She remembered the repercussions from casually giving martial advice in her past life.
As Wi Sowol listened to Seon Ye's chatter that day...
Jang Rok arrived.
She had called this her secret spot, as told by Seon Ye, but Jang Rok found it right away. As expected.
"Miss, the physician is looking for you."
"Got it. Coming."
Wi Sowol rose without hesitation, and Seon Ye's face fell again.
"...I'll say goodbye before leaving Mount Hua."
At those words, Seon Ye's eyes widened.
A promise to meet again—something she'd never said before.
Even if she couldn't give martial advice, this much should be fine.
Wi Sowol's own compromise.
And that small progress brought great joy to the listener.
"Yeah!"
As winter approached, Wi Sowol completed her training up to Surgical Mastery, which the Weird Physician insisted was the foundation of surgery.
Surgical Mastery was a cutting-edge medical text, written just twenty years ago, yet it monumentalized Eastern surgery like nothing before.
Unlike prior surgical techniques that merely treated surface symptoms technically, Surgical Mastery recognized that surgical issues often stemmed from internal causes, integrating surgery with internal medicine to vastly advance its efficacy and status.
But even that didn't fully satisfy the Weird Physician.
"The author of Surgical Mastery, Master Jinsilgong, is undoubtedly a brilliant physician. He combined internal treatments via drugs and acupuncture with surgical procedures for synergistic effects—and proved it to some degree."
Yet Jinsilgong had his limits.
"He merged internal and external, but never bridged East and West."
At that point, Wi Sowol caught on to what the Weird Physician intended to teach next.
"Now we'll study Western medicine?"
"Exactly. I once told you about the Western physician Viricio and taught you human anatomy charts."
She remembered well.
Wi Sowol had quietly prided herself on knowing a thing or two about the human body, but that illusion shattered in that moment.
The Weird Physician's understanding of the body was nothing short of wondrous.
"Among the physicians of Viricio, there's one named Andreas Vesalius."
Andreas Vesalius—what a monstrous name.
Though, what Western name wasn't?
Even the Weird Physician Ma Yu Seung's surname "Ma" resembled that of the Westerner Mohanmade, whom the Hui people adopted as a surname out of respect. They said "ten times out of ten, a Hui is Ma."
In any case, Wi Sowol listened intently to the Weird Physician's explanation of Andreas Vesalius.
"Just as in our Central Plains, the West distinguishes internal from external medicine."
"You said Western medicine is quite advanced."
"Indeed. Especially in surgery, it's unparalleled. And the reason is this very Andreas Vesalius."
The Central Plains had a deep history in surgery too.
No need to cite Surgical Mastery; advocates of surgery had existed since ancient times.
Even the famed Hua Tuo had records of performing laparotomies—a proud surgeon.
His offer to cut Cao Cao's head might be from wild tales, but Hua Tuo's surgical records were undisputed history.
Yet Hua Tuo's advances were lost, while his contemporary, the Divine Physician Zhang Zhongjing's Treatise on Cold Damage, endured as the foundation of medicine.
Over time, Hua Tuo's miraculous surgeries faded into obscurity, and surgery declined.
Surgery was scorned, dismissed as witchcraft.
Only internal medicine was deemed orthodox, earning the world's respect.
Surgical Mastery elevated surgery's status, but to internal-medicine elitists, it was still ignored.
The West was much the same.
Surgery was despised across East and West.
Until the Divine Surgeon of surgery appeared in the West.
With Andreas Vesalius's emergence, Western surgery finally stood equal to internal medicine, gaining recognition as true medicine.
"Weren't you amazed that intestinal abscesses form at the appendix?"
"Yes."
While other physicians blamed damp-heat or phlegm-stasis for intestinal abscesses,
the Weird Physician stood firm, declaring it was appendix decay that required excision—and Wi Sowol had seen he was right.
"He was the one who revealed that intestinal abscesses come from this appendage at the large intestine's end. Beyond that, he elucidated blood circulation, body mechanics, and the precise roles of each organ."
Through him, they learned which surgeries for which symptoms—and he provided definitive answers about the human body that had long eluded them.
Thanks to this divine physician Andreas Vesalius, Western surgery was established as a true medical art.
But how did he uncover such mysteries of the body?
"How do you think he discovered it?"
"No way..."
"Dissection. He perfected surgery through human dissection."
That knowledge was the legacy of taboo.