Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Parting Ways
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The premium noodle soup was delicious.
Even more so than any delicacy from the mountains or seas he'd tasted in his past life.
He ate his fill.
He wanted to devour the whole pot by himself, but Hwang Bo Yun, who had sniffed it out from who-knows-where, swooped in and stole some away.
Was it because his body had recovered? His nose was sharper than a hound's.
With that massive frame of his, he squeezed in and gobbled it down with such relish that Jang Rok watched on fondly, making it hard to say anything.
But he managed to defend one bowl.
"Master."
It belonged to the Weird Physician.
Even Hwang Bo Yun didn't dare eye that one.
The Weird Physician silently stared at the now-cold premium noodle soup.
Cold and congealed noodle soup.
The overlapping image of someone wasn't just a simple illusion.
"He's gone."
"Yes."
"Did you watch?"
"Yes."
"It wasn't a lonely death, then."
The Weird Physician picked up the bowl of noodle soup Jang Rok had left behind and perched on the edge of the central well.
He began eating the completely cold soup without a word.
After taking the first spoonful, he spoke.
"From your expression, it seems you heard everything. Jang Rok wasn't exactly a good man."
"I know."
"But he was also a pitiful soul who wished to be good."
It had been a tragic life.
Extreme circumstances had bred extreme ideologies.
When those beliefs crumbled, Jang Rok must have lived in agony, his life turning into hell itself.
So much so that death must have come as a relief.
"Did Jang Rok offer his body to you?"
"...Yes."
"I figured as much. He probably intended that from the start. If it hadn't been you, he would have offered it to me instead."
Believing even death couldn't atone for his sins.
Even after death, he wished his body to serve as a medical offering, healing as many people as possible.
Hoping it might, in some small way, redeem his past misdeeds.
As Wi Sowol fell silent, the Weird Physician continued.
"If you don't want to dissect it, you can leave it be."
"Pardon?"
"The deceased's wishes must be respected, of course. But funerals are ultimately for the living family, not the dead. They're meant to comfort their grief and help them move on. If that's what puts your mind at ease, then do that."
The Weird Physician had bid farewell to many through death.
Family, friends, comrades...
Yet he had overcome that sorrow and despair to keep living.
He had chosen to live on.
"When I first heard about dissection,"
Wi Sowol said.
"I didn't think much of it. If the reasoning was sound and there was mutual agreement, calling it taboo seemed overly dramatic."
There are far worse things out there, so why make a fuss over dissection?
That had been Wi Sowol's initial reaction upon first hearing about it from the Weird Physician.
But that wasn't the case.
Now Wi Sowol finally understood why dissection was deemed taboo.
"It's heavy, this dissection business."
"If you can feel that weight, then you're qualified to wield the scalpel on the dead."
"......I'll do it."
Jang Rok hadn't mentioned any family.
Whether because there were none left alive, or because he didn't want to burden them with his karma.
He had entrusted only Wi Sowol with his remains.
In that case, she had to honor it.
It was his final wish, after all.
"Teach me."
"I will."
Thud.
The Weird Physician set down the bowl.
The cold noodle soup had been polished clean.
While Wi Sowol entered a secluded retreat—not quite a true one—with the Weird Physician,
Hwang Bo Yun was bored out of his mind.
"What's with her? Off to secluded retreat without a word."
If she had some great insight, she could share it with me.
Hwang Bo Yun had painstakingly explained to Wi Sowol the sensation of the world slowing down during his fight with Pa Gun Do, and the path he'd glimpsed within it.
Of course, to Wi Sowol, it had sounded about as helpful as a toddler learning to walk for the first time: "You just stand up like this and walk like this!"
Unaware that Wi Sowol had already reached the transcendent realm, Hwang Bo Yun couldn't help feeling a bit miffed.
"Baek Geom Hak senior. Don't you think?"
"Insights come in fleeting moments, do they not?"
"Still."
"Haha. Bear with it. Women are as fickle as reeds. She said you're not lovers, but for her to follow you from Gansu to here... Ahem. Let me tell you a bit about myself. This was back when I was in Jeonam, Shandong Province. Ever heard of the Mie Gak Jong? To stop those villains, the Shandong martial artists formed an alliance under the Shandong Wicked Family and Mount Tai Sect. I rose to the call with fervor. And that's when I met her. Ak Gyeong Seo. Surely you've heard of her? The jade flower once called one of the Seven Blossoms of the martial world."
Oh no, I opened the wrong door.
Hwang Bo Yun forced a smile and nodded while searching for an excuse to slip away.
Do Jung Hyun, still believing Hwang Bo Yun's male disguise, seemed fully intent on regaling him with tales of his conquests with women.
As a martial world senior, Do Jung Hyun was generously sharing his manly techniques with Hwang Bo Yun—but unfortunately, they were hard for her to relate to.
Because Hwang Bo Yun was a woman.
She had a strong masculine side and preferred it that way, but she never truly saw herself as a man.
"Senior. How about a spar instead? I had some insights of my own fighting Pa Gun Do."
"Oh? Excellent. You'll have the honor of receiving the fists of the Golden Thunder Hero."
In the battle at Jin Seom Dae Hyeop Valley, Wi Sowol had undoubtedly stolen the spotlight.
But second place surely went to Hwang Bo Yun.
His heroic stand against the infamous Pa Gun Do.
Though pushed back, he'd traded blows evenly in a single exchange.
And his androgynous beauty that transcended gender.
The name of Golden Thunder Hero Hwang Yul was spreading rapidly through Shaanxi's martial world thanks to this fight.
Faster even than Wi Sowol's moniker of Pure Brush Flower starting to circulate from Gansu.
Hwang Bo Yun was eager to boast about it.
'When's she coming out for real.'
"Pray. In your own way. Bless his afterlife and give thanks for offering his body."
Before the ritually cleansed corpse of Jang Rok, the Weird Physician reverently clasped his hands and bowed his head solemnly.
Wi Sowol glanced at him, then mimicked the gesture, closing her eyes.
At the Weird Physician's signal, she half-opened her eyes and lifted her head.
"Look your fill. Even when you think you've seen enough, spend another hour. So you'll never forget."
Wi Sowol gazed at Jang Rok's face.
It looked peaceful.
Relief washed over her, tinged faintly with envy.
"Forget the patients. Most of them forget us anyway. But never forget the bodies we cut. If we do, we're no better than butchers, not healers."
"...Yes."
The gravity was different.
The Weird Physician had always been serious when teaching medicine, but never this solemn.
Even he was treating Jang Rok not as before, but with the profound respect due a far nobler soul.
How much time passed?
Only after a long while did the master and disciple finally take up their scalpels toward the man who had walked with them.
"We'll start from the feet. First the limbs, then the internal organs. The head last."
Before applying the blade, the Weird Physician explained the dissection order.
"An Deok Yeol Asa structured his anatomical text Human Body Structure in seven volumes. The first covers the skeleton, the second muscles and ligaments."
"Starting with the limbs follows Human Body Structure's order?"
"Partly. And if there's a mistake, limb bones aren't drastically different from the opposite side, so it's recoverable. The first time is always the hardest."
The Weird Physician continued.
"Volume three covers meridians, four the nerves. Organs in five—that's nearly half the book. Six is heart and lungs. The head is last, in seven."
The Weird Physician's dissection followed the order of a text by An Deok Yeol Asa, a Western surgeon.
With the explanation done, he moved his hand.
At last, the scalpel parted the flesh.
Flames roared.
It was the fire enveloping Jang Rok's corpse.
Despite the dissection, the body had been meticulously sutured into an almost perfectly intact form.
The Weird Physician said even the suturing was part of the dissection.
Dissection to understand the body, suturing to hone technique.
And a final send-off, letting the deceased depart as whole as possible, like others.
The funeral was to be cremation.
Wi Sowol's decision.
This land wasn't Jang Rok's home, and he followed no faith.
So, following Buddha's teachings of compassion, she hoped mercy would reach him even now.
Only Wi Sowol and the Weird Physician attended.
Unlike the grand joint funeral for the warriors fallen at Jin Seom Dae Hyeop Valley, where all survivors paid respects, this was modest.
Wi Sowol felt guilty about that, but it couldn't be helped.
No matter how neatly sutured, dissection traces couldn't be fully erased.
This body couldn't be shown to others.
"What will you do now, Master?"
The war with the Guangzheng Church wasn't over.
But with Jang Rok dead, his personal guard was gone.
Some here had once guarded the Weird Physician, but how long they'd follow was uncertain.
Whether any would give their lives like Jang Rok was unknowable.
Wi Sowol hoped he'd stop here.
Avenging the Pure Annihilation Ghost would make him safer.
But was that selfish?
"Join Mount Hua Sect, I suppose."
The Weird Physician declared plainly he'd continue the fight.
Wi Sowol's lips parted, but words to follow him wouldn't come.
A new destination had taken root in her heart.
The Weird Physician read it.
"You passed the imperial exams?"
"Yes."
"You're a healer now."
"I'm still sorely lacking."
"True enough."
He affirmed it matter-of-factly.
The Weird Physician was straightforward.
It was the truth.
He still had much knowledge to impart to Wi Sowol.
But it didn't have to be him personally.
"Time to leave the mountain."
Wi Sowol whipped around at his words.
Into her view came the Weird Physician's outstretched hand.
In it was a book.
Wi Sowol reflexively took it.
The cover bore its title.
Hundred Blossoms Medical Scriptures.
"First volume. Six in total. The other five are in your room—take good care of them."
"Hundred Blossoms... your sister's name?"
Sharp disciple.
The Weird Physician smiled wryly.
"Yes. Named after my sister. It compiles all my medical arts. Excludes herbs, acupuncture points, and needles—those are in other texts."
Miscellaneous Scriptures (1 vol.), Inner Scriptures (2 vols.), Outer Scriptures (3 vols.).
"You can't trail me forever and end up a side character. You passed the exams, so the state recognizes you as a healer. You've finished dissection, so I recognize you as a surgeon. Now walk your own path."
The flames were dying down.
The cloud bridge sending Jang Rok from earth to the heavens scattered.
Like the impermanence of all bonds.
"I visited my hometown."
"Baek Eun County?"
"Yes. Found the village elder there. He remembered my mother."
Nothing grand.
But a crucial clue.
"Sounded like Gan dialect."
"Gan?"
A southern Central Plains tongue.
The Central Plains were vast; dialects varied greatly by region.
Language was the surest proof of origins.
"Heading south."
"Good."
The fire went out.
Amid the black ashes in the cremation urn gleamed white.
As if saying even after the smoke fades, the light it leaves remains.
"I'll leave tomorrow."
The Weird Physician said.
"Come find me then. I'll give you a parting gift."
The Weird Physician departed.
To the west.
Pursuing unfinished vengeance.
Only Hwang Bo Yun remained by Wi Sowol's side.
"So, this is Master's parting gift?"
Hwang Bo Yun stared at the gift Wi Sowol had brought.
Then voiced his brutally honest impression.
"Is Master Zhuge Liang or something?"
On the desk sat three silk pouches lined up neatly.