The Divine Physician's Obsession (1)
The Divine Physician carried Hyeonsongcheonnyeo in her arms and headed up the mountain. Gyeon Geumsu shouted after me.
"I'll head down for now and come back tomorrow! Miss Dohwa, please make sure to introduce me to your older twin sister later, just like you promised!"
"I will! Thank you!"
I quickly grabbed my bags and hurried after the Divine Physician. As I did, another message popped up before my eyes.
After sending the reply, I swiped the Jin Moorim Gallery interface completely out of sight.
But mobilize her family's power? Is she from some prestigious clan?
I'd have to ask her later. If she was a rich kid, I'd definitely make her buy me dinner.
The Divine Physician entered a secluded mud hut deep in the mountains. Unlike its rugged exterior, the inside was remarkably clean. She laid Hyeonsongcheonnyeo down on a blanket spread out in the corner and took her wrist to feel her pulse.
"..."
The only light came from a single oil lamp. In the flickering orange glow, the Divine Physician's expression grew solemn. The scent of medicinal herbs filled the air—the distinct, bitter aroma of dried plants.
"This is bad."
"...!"
"Her body looks fine on the outside, but her internal injuries are severe. A foul, malicious energy has invaded her system... This is a wound sustained inside a Gate, isn't it?"
"Y-yes, that's exactly right."
The Divine Physician's fingers swept over Hyeonsongcheonnyeo's body, pressing down on specific acupoints.
"Her Taechung point is depleted, and her left guan pulse is sharp. This means the fire energy has severely affected her liver. The direct blows must have landed here, and here."
"..."
"...Hm? Did I misread the signs?"
"No, it's just... I wasn't actually there when the Priestess was injured."
"Ah... I see..."
The Divine Physician looked slightly disappointed. Was she expecting some dramatic reaction like, 'Oh my god! How did you know that just by feeling her pulse? You truly are the greatest physician under heaven!'?
"Wow, b-but still, how did you figure all that out just by taking her pulse once? That's amazing! You really deserve the title of Divine Physician!"
"...Hmph."
Ah. Was that flattery a bit too obvious?
"Not only is the child exceptionally beautiful, but she also possesses a righteous heart and a keen eye."
Huh? That actually worked?
Honestly, even I thought that was incredibly shameless brown-nosed flattery. It wouldn't have been surprising if it backfired.
Is this the power of beauty?
Even the exact same words sound better when they come from a pretty face. From now on, even if I threw out blatant flattery or childish jokes, I might get a much better reaction than before.
Gyeon Geumsu was also incredibly nice to me the moment he saw me...
But people can't see their own faces unless they look in a mirror. Because of that, I still couldn't quite grasp how my appearance looked to others.
Well, come to think of it, I haven't really had the time to process it anyway.
Since turning into a woman, the only people I'd encountered were the Taoists of the Dobong Sect and the lunatics in Paju. The former were ascetics, so they couldn't openly express admiration for a woman's beauty, while the latter...
—"Gahahahaha! Just surrender quietly and spread your legs!"
—"Boss, let us have a taste after you're done with her!"
...They certainly showed an overwhelming amount of interest. It was disgusting, of course. But I made them pay for that disgust with their lives.
And a partial photo of my face was leaked on the Jin Moorim Gallery, too.
The reaction back then had been explosive. Maybe they were still busy analyzing my face on the forums right now?
I need to get a smartphone so I can contact Juyeon...
Speaking of smartphones, a few words came to mind.
...Social media? Instagram? ViewTube? ...
Maybe I should wander around downtown Gaeseong with Gyeon Geumsu tomorrow. In broad daylight.
"...Child," the Divine Physician said, finishing her diagnosis.
"Do you happen to have any spiritual elixirs on you?"
"...Pardon?"
"Never mind. There is no way you would just happen to have a spiritual elixir right when we need one." The Divine Physician sighed. "To heal the internal injuries Hyeonsong has suffered, the best method is to pour pure, refined inner energy into her."
"Do you know Hyeonsongcheonnyeo?"
"Of course I do... At any rate, if we had an elixir, we could use its energy to stabilize her, but of course, you wouldn't have—"
"Actually, I do."
"...Why on earth do you have one?"
I rummaged through my travel bag and pulled it out. It was the spiritual elixir that Sect Leader Jongin of the Dobong Sect had given me, just as promised.
"Give it here!"
Excitedly, the Divine Physician snatched up the pill, which was about the size of a thumb.
"Is this the Hoehondan...?! Yes, this is perfect! Absolutely perfect! Child, does this belong to you, not Hyeonsong?"
"It's mine."
"Child!" The Divine Physician grabbed my hands. "May I use this elixir to save Hyeonsong?"
She quickly added, "If you save Hyeonsong here and now, the favor you bestow upon her will surely return to you tenfold. You know as well as I do that Hyeonsong is not the type of person to just say thank you and wipe her hands clean of the debt, right?"
"Huh?"
I hadn't even thought about getting repaid or earning favors.
"It's fine. Go ahead and use it."
"...Child, you truly have a beautiful soul. Do not worry. Even if, by some miracle, Hyeonsong refuses to repay you, I will make sure you are compensated, no matter what it takes."
The Divine Physician carefully took the elixir from me and tossed it straight into her own mouth.
"!?"
What she was doing quickly became clear. The Divine Physician dissolved the elixir's energy within her own body, picked up her acupuncture needles, and began inserting them into Hyeonsongcheonnyeo.
Ah.
Through the needles, the potent energy of the elixir was poured generously into the patient. Neither too little nor too much, she channeled the exact amount of inner energy needed to stabilize the areas weakened by the internal injuries. The Divine Physician's needles plunged precisely along the pathways of the qi and blood.
There is a saying that if someone makes a difficult task look easy, it is because they are a master. They perform it effortlessly due to their supreme skill, but in reality, it is an incredibly difficult feat. The Divine Physician's acupuncture was exactly like that. She reached out and placed the needles without a single moment of hesitation, and with each strike, the blockages within Hyeonsongcheonnyeo's body were perfectly cleared. Sweat began to bead on the Divine Physician's forehead and drip down. She was pouring an immense amount of mental and spiritual focus into this.
...Amazing.
Martial artists and physicians were different. Martial arts and medicine were separate fields. Yet, they shared a common ground in how they manipulated the qi within the body.
Then, the Divine Physician's hand, which had been moving without a single pause, froze in midair. She was hesitating between two points that were incredibly close—less than a millimeter apart. Where should she strike? Which was the acupoint of life, and which was the acupoint of death? The left? Or the right?
Before I could stop myself, the words slipped out.
"...I think the left would be better."
"!"
The Divine Physician blinked. Yet, she didn't look at me at all. Her gaze remained locked entirely on those two points.
"..."
Finally, the Divine Physician struck with her needle. It was the left.
A choked breath escaped Hyeonsongcheonnyeo's lips. "Ugh... cough..."
The Divine Physician quickly turned Hyeonsongcheonnyeo's head to the side. A hazy, grayish turbid qi poured out of Hyeonsongcheonnyeo's small mouth like vomit. The Divine Physician dabbed her finger into the turbid qi and popped it into her own mouth.
Yuck...
That was obviously poison, and she tasted it without a second thought?
She really didn't get the title of Divine Physician for nothing...
I could sense a faint madness in her. It was just fortunate that her madness was directed toward saving lives.
"...Just as I thought."
Rolling the taste on her tongue to complete her analysis, the Divine Physician looked up.
"Young lady."
Her form of address had been upgraded from 'child' to 'young lady'.
"How long has it been since Hyeonsong was injured?"
"In terms of time... it's probably been about four hours."
"If we had been even slightly later, she would have been crippled even if she survived. Any later than that, and she would have been beyond saving."
"...!!"
"You saved Hyeonsong. You have every right to be proud."
Me? Saving an elder of the Bongrae Sect?
As the Divine Physician wiped down Hyeonsongcheonnyeo's body, she asked in a much more relaxed tone, "Young lady, how long have you been studying medicine?"
"...I've never studied it."
"Then when I was hesitating just now, how did you know to point to the left?"
"It just... felt like that side was more blocked..."
"And how did you know that?"
"...I could just feel the flow?"
The Divine Physician's hands paused for a moment.
"...Hmm. Were you born with this gift?"
"No, it's not that..."
Huh? Wait, actually, when did I start being able to do this?
...It was ever since I began cultivating that technique. The Primordial Chaos Great Void Infinite True Scripture.
"Is it acquired... or is it awakening now...?" The Divine Physician seemed to reach her own conclusion and let it go.
"The Priestess is going to be okay now, right?"
"She just needs to rest and stabilize her condition."
"In that case, Divine Physician, can you read Hanja?"
This was perfect. Since she wasn't a martial artist, I could ask her to translate my martial arts manual, which I still couldn't read.
"Strictly speaking, Hanja and Classical Chinese are two different things."
"Pardon?"
"Hanja refers to the individual characters, whereas Classical Chinese is the written language composed of those characters according to grammatical rules. Simply stringing Hanja characters together doesn't make it Classical Chinese. It might be a bit difficult for you to understand—"
"So, you mean Hanja is like the alphabet or English words, while Classical Chinese is like the English language itself? Just like how listing English words randomly without following grammar rules makes an incorrect sentence?"
"..."
"...Divine Physician?"
"You are quick to understand, young lady. And with a mind that sharp, you must be excellent at memorization as well..."
"...Divine Physician?"
Did I make an impolite request? The look in the Divine Physician's eyes was highly unusual.
"Young lady, what is your name?"
"...Cheon Doyeon."
"Doyeon. Doyeon..."
She smiled warmly.
"Doyi. That has a nice ring to it."
Uh, wait. Why is she looking at me like that?