Chapter 94
Chapter 94
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Divine Path
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wi Sowol conveyed exactly what she thought to the Sword King, without addition or omission.
The Sword King nodded, as if not particularly surprised by her saying she'd never seen the illness before.
"Of course. The Divine Physician said the same."
That remark rubbed Wi Sowol the wrong way.
Wasn't it implying that of course the Weird Physician would think the same, just because the Divine Physician had?
Unless it was the other way around.
Wi Sowol simply couldn't accept it.
"Bone flesh tumor, though. Similar to the Divine Physician's diagnosis, but different."
"What did the Divine Physician call it?"
"Bone stone abscess. But even he said it was hard to simply classify as an abscess, so it needed a new name. He called it cancer."
An abscess was a type of boil that burrowed deep into the flesh.
It formed a thick, dark shell, punched through later with honeycomb-like holes.
Abscesses arose in cases of yin deficiency and emptiness, unlike swellings—and stone abscess lived up to its name, hardening like stone.
In Wi Sowol's view, the Sword King's condition wasn't an abscess.
If the Divine Physician had diagnosed bone stone abscess and left it at that, she'd have been deeply disappointed.
By contrast, "cancer"—solid, vicious, a sheer mass—fit quite well.
If someone had asked her to categorize the Sword King's symptoms, cancer would have been on her shortlist.
"Treatment?"
"His first suggestion was to amputate the leg. Symptoms started only in the femur back then."
"Why not?"
Even Wi Sowol thought the Divine Physician's call wasn't bad.
The Sword King gave her a look like you're asking me that? and chuckled dryly.
Come to think of it, the Weird Physician hailed from Wu Medical Academy too—which technically made Wi Sowol and the Divine Physician senior uncle and junior niece.
Were all physicians from there like this?
The Sword King answered with wry disbelief.
"I was on the verge of becoming family head. My father—who'd stepped up to Supreme Patriarch—had everything prepared to hand over. Cutting off my leg would've meant scrapping it all."
"There's the Poison Arm Sword Army precedent."
"You think I didn't know losing a leg hits a warrior's life harder than an arm?"
"You could've overcome it."
The Sword King's talent was extraordinary.
Both his children had earned nicknames symbolizing the pinnacle of the younger martial generation: Dragon and Phoenix.
Yet neither came close to his level.
With the Sword King's gifts and acumen...
...and the resources and manpower commanded by the Nangong family head's seat, overcoming the loss of one leg was entirely feasible.
Wi Sowol never lied.
She never curried favor or read faces.
So the Sword King took her words as utterly sincere.
And sighed bitterly.
"Back then, I was scared. No confidence I could live as a one-legged warrior."
Nangong Do was remarkable.
Even after losing an arm, he'd never quit.
From a branch line, he'd ascended to super-first-rate.
The Sword King couldn't have matched that.
He was too weak.
Weaker still.
Even a transcendent warrior dubbed the Sword King couldn't fully escape fear.
Fear lingered even for super-first-rate masters who'd surpassed human limits.
That was human.
"...If you skipped the amputation, you got another prescription, right? What was it? Did the Divine Physician say it was shareable?"
Knowledge was valuable.
Medical texts had spread widely, publicizing much medical lore.
Unlike martial secrets, medicine freely shared even what could pass for manuals.
Ryu Yeonseo treating patients via the latest syphilis cure in the Brothel Secret Records proved it.
Medical path followers ultimately lived to heal people.
They wanted their skills to save more lives.
So they recorded and disseminated without regret.
No wonder medical halls and physician clans ranked as famed houses.
Some physicians hoarded prescriptions as house secrets.
But not the Divine Physician.
"He shares all his prescriptions. That's the issue."
"Because they vary by patient?"
"Exactly. No imitating the Divine Physician. He tailors herbs and doses completely to constitution."
That made him the Divine Physician.
A perfected master surpassing even the Weird Physician's perfection.
One glance pierced constitution and ailment, yielding the perfect prescription.
Hence his other moniker: Divine Eye.
"So what did he prescribe?"
"Medicine based on rui xiang lang du, mixed with huang lian, qing hao, yu jin, and chuan lian zi."
"Harshly toxic."
"Very. More poison than medicine, he said. But essential otherwise."
Rui xiang lang du—dried root of the western catalpa, dubbed "continuing poison" in herbology.
It dispersed knots, stopped pain, expelled phlegm.
Despite being medicinal, its toxicity barred it from pregnant women.
Huang lian epitomized clearing heat, drying dampness, purging fire, resolving toxins.
Dispelling inner damp-heat and toxins—likely to prevent fire poison.
Qing hao, aka mugwort, held yin-within-yang nature: treated emptiness, stanched bleeding.
Yu jin resembled turmeric but cooler; invigorated blood, broke stagnation—better for bruises than hot turmeric.
Chuan lian zi matched: intensely bitter, cold, toxic.
Others were minor: angelica and licorice to mask the bitterness for palatability.
Negligible effect—the core five dominated.
"All yin properties?"
One and all: toxic, cold herbs.
Growth suppression shone clear.
"And you drank liquor?"
Liquor was peak yang-heat drink.
"Couldn't endure sober."
"...Slept with a woman?"
Men built heat in union.
"Family man, aren't I? Duty as family head to sire heirs."
"Smoked opium?"
Opium: warm, toxic drug.
"No choice. Needed it to cling to sanity."
This guy did every thing physicians forbade. Worst patient ever.
Wi Sowol's eyes narrowed suspiciously.
This bastard probably skipped doses too.
"...I took the medicine faithfully. My martial prowess helped me endure, but the Divine Physician's remedy was huge too."
"True enough. The Divine Physician... he's got real skill."
The Weird Physician Ma Yu-seung envied him.
Felt inferior.
To the man who'd claimed his sister's dream: supreme under heaven.
Wi Sowol acknowledging him as such had eased it some, but resentment lingered deep.
'If I cure what the Divine Physician couldn't, doesn't that make Master supreme? No need to wait for that incident—proof for all under heaven.'
Fine.
Let's do it.
Now, how to fix that body...
'Is it even a puzzle?'
The answer was already given.
By the Divine Physician, still bearing the supreme banner.
'Toxicity and cold.'
The yin chill killing the body.
Yet also saving it.
Principle of countering poison with poison.
And flesh-slicing, bone-severing method...
'Or here, bone-killing life-saving.'
Kill the bone to save the life.
The Divine Physician had likely foreseen this at first exam.
Thus urging bold cutoff—at minimal loss, one leg.
Sword King's refusal forced delay via drugs.
But reverse it.
Wi Sowol and Divine Physician alike diagnosed unchecked bone growth.
Why amputate the whole leg? Just discard the bone.
Better yet: excise only the needless, body-eating tumorous parts.
"...Said to cut the flesh?"
"Hm? Checking now?"
"Yes. Cut the flesh. Extract the bone."
"Uh...?"
"The Divine Physician sought to suppress that growth with cold poison. Hence cold, toxic herbs to purge heat."
But no need to rely solely on drug qi.
If cold and poison needed, why not inject directly?
"Infuse the extracted bone with yin chill and toxin to seal growth, trim the overgrown parts. Then reinsert, suture to flesh."
Growth defying even Sword King's qi control.
Sealing it demanded vicious poison, mighty yin cold.
But Wi Sowol was here.
'Told Seon Woo-hyeon it was syphilis cure.'
Wi Sowol let out an absurd chuckle at the irony.
'This time, I'm the living cure.'
Nine Yin Absolute Meridian's yin cold qi.
Gongyatak's yin poison qi.
The cure for Sword King waited in her body.
"Surgery. I'll fix your bone."
The path lay clear.
What irked her slightly: it opened via the Divine Physician.
Yet she saw the answer there.
Curable.
By her alone.
So the price would be steep.