Thirin Chases the Trend: "Starting Today, I'm an Ultra-Rare Magical Healer and Medical Doctor" (Part 1)
Where does humanity’s greatest progress come from? Some claim it began with the discovery of fire. Others insist it was the invention of language. But after last night’s clinical trials, Thirin had reached a very different conclusion. The true driving force behind human civilization was none other than the desperate, bone-deep refusal to get punched in the gut.
Getting hit meant pain. Pain was what happened right before you got devoured. Therefore, wanting to avoid a beating was the most natural instinct in the world. In the end, evolution was simply the long, unbroken history of humanity asking one question: How can I make this hurt less? And right now, Thirin was experiencing that ancient legacy in real time—directly on her lower abdomen.
She was desperate not to get hit.
“Wait, hold on, Priestess! I can turn it off! I swear I can handle it myself!”
The results, however, were less than ideal. Thirin could ignite the Samadhi True Fire without issue, but controlling it with any precision—let alone extinguishing it—was completely beyond her.
“It refuses to go out? At this rate, Sister, your vitality will be completely exhausted.”
The priestess smiled sweetly.
“Since I can hardly carry you on my back, I’ll disrupt the flow here.”
Thirin felt goosebumps crawl across her skin at that smile.
“No, wait, just wait! Give me a second! I can—urk…!”
Once again, her internal energy flow was forcibly shut down.
“Kuhuk…! I told you I could do it…!”
“Instead of making those pathetic noises, try again.”
“You demon…!”
The priestess tilted her head, watching Thirin clutch her stomach.
“How strange. You know how to emit the flow of vitality, yet you cannot stop it. Just what sort of enlightenment did you reach, Sister?”
“……”
Thirin’s problem was simple. She had somehow figured out how to release her qi and manifest the Samadhi True Fire, but she couldn’t control the flow worth a damn. It was like having a gas pedal and no brakes.
“This is so unfair… so mortifying and unfair…!”
The priestess clicked her tongue.
“Didn’t you say you learned it through self-study? Then this is entirely your own fault. What exactly do you find unfair?”
“Kuhuk… How can you say something so cruel…”
The priestess was right. Thirin had no real grounds to feel wronged. The ultimate purpose of martial arts was the manifestation of one’s inner vision. The root of all martial arts lay in the Muscle Changing and Marrow Washing techniques that Bodhidharma had created after witnessing something wonderful in India. This is good. I want to share it with others. The state of enlightenment had been so precious and beautiful that he couldn’t bear to keep the joy to himself. That pure heart was the seed of every orthodox martial art.
Even though the arts had branched off from Shaolin into countless sects and schools, the essence of true martial arts still lay in those techniques and the mental images they produced. When martial artists spoke of knocking the sun from the sky with a single sword or spreading the fragrance of plum blossoms with every strike, they weren’t suffering from collective psychosis. They were simply trying to express the visions and will they had gained. Because what they had witnessed at the end of that path was too precious, too wonderful not to share.
Of course, not all martial arts were born from such upright intentions. Everything has its shadow. If some created arts to share joy, others created them to seize and destroy. The heretical demonic paths.
Those who tempered themselves with endless patience and restraint gave birth to orthodox martial arts. Those drawn to the destructive ecstasy of power created demonic arts. After all, an impatient person could never master true orthodox techniques, and someone without innate cruelty would never be seduced by the destructive pleasure of demonic ones.
So the question of whether martial arts shaped the person or the person shaped the martial arts was no different from the eternal chicken-and-egg debate. They were simply mirrors reflecting each other.
Therefore, the martial art Thirin had created—Samadhi True Fire—could only reflect her own personality. Looking back on her previous life in that fantasy world, Thirin had never once endured anything. If someone annoyed her, she beat them. If a god displeased her, she called them a worthless bug. If she wanted power, she took the hits first and figured it out later. Her fantasy life had been a runaway train with no brakes.
For someone like that to awaken a power that excelled at release but sucked at control was, perhaps, perfectly natural. Thirin’s martial arts were a mirror of her temperament. In the end, this was simply her reaping what she had sown. The fact that her Samadhi True Fire refused to go out was entirely her own fault.
And so, for the first time in her life, Thirin was learning how to endure.
She worked desperately, tirelessly, to avoid another gut punch.
“…You still can’t extinguish it?”
“I can! I can do it! Just give me a second!”
“It really doesn’t look like—”
“If you keep threatening me like that, of course it won’t work!”
It seemed the priestess had a genuine fondness for hitting people in the stomach.
How the hell is this woman a religious figure?!
At Thirin’s desperate shout, the priestess finally fell silent.
“There! It’s out! I put it out!”
“…Well done.”
“Why do you sound disappointed?! Am I imagining it?!”
At last, Thirin had gained some measure of control over her qi flow.
Thirin, the martial arts genius. Learning to control her internal energy because she didn’t want to get punched. Well, in classic wuxia stories, countless protagonists gained enlightenment the moment they got beaten anyway. So Thirin was simply walking the authentic path of a true wuxia protagonist—a genuine wuxia girl.
Thus, the first night passed amid a bit of chaos and plenty of stupid conversation.
After that, the days fell into a similar rhythm. They walked diligently during the day, and at night the priestess taught or guided Thirin’s qi flow. The process wasn’t entirely smooth.
“Good. You seem to have grown familiar with the flow of vitality.”
“Thanks to you.”
“Good. Sister, can you feel where the vitality I sent into your body is flowing right now?”
“…Roughly, yeah.”
“Good. That place within you, Sister, is the sacred origin of all life—the holy ground where a new universe is conceived—”
“Why does this always go off the rails when it was going so well?! Can we please just train?!”
Thirin exploded.
The priestess was fine in most respects, but she had an unfortunate tendency to spout nonsense during what should have been solemn training time. This crazy blonde kept trying to steer every conversation toward pregnancy, childbirth, and the mysteries of life.
“If you like giving birth so much, why don’t you do it yourself?!”
The priestess’s face hardened.
“I have no particular desire to do so.”
“Neither do I! What kind of person recommends something they don’t even want to do themselves?!”
“I only recommend it because I believe it is good.”
“Then do it first if it’s so great.”
“I would rather not.”
“This crazy…!”
If giving birth was such a wonderful thing, she should do it herself. So why was she so against doing it?
“……!”
A sudden suspicion flashed through Thirin’s mind.
…Is this woman a lesbian?
Query: Can the priestess’s true intentions be seen through?
NO RESPONSE.
Thirin was disappointed, but she had expected as much.
I knew it.
The Simdeuk System wasn’t some omnipotent mind-reading cheat. It never created something from nothing. If you grabbed a random person and thought, This guy probably had bread and soup for breakfast, the system wouldn’t confirm it. Only after Thirin herself noticed actual clues—bread crumbs on their clothes, faint soup stains around their mouth—would it give her an [OK] confirmation.
In short, the system assisted and amplified her own observation and reasoning. It wasn’t an all-knowing god.
And Thirin simply didn’t have enough clues to confirm that this crazy blonde was a lesbian. Having never met one before, she wouldn’t know what clues to even look for.
Still, she didn’t drop her suspicion. She had a narcissistic, confirmation-biased way of thinking.
What if this priestess really is a lesbian?
Cold sweat ran down her spine. Thirin might have a woman’s body, but her mind was entirely male. She couldn’t carelessly reveal that fact. A lesbian didn’t like men. If Thirin admitted she was male, their friendly relationship could collapse instantly.
…I have to keep this secret.
Whether she sensed Thirin’s resolve or not, the priestess continued.
“Good. This time I will reduce the flow of vitality even further. Follow it only to the extent that it does not consume you.”
“…Got it.”
Regardless, the true qi guidance the priestess provided was meticulously scanning every acupoint in Thirin’s body and showing her the proper paths. Each full circulation taught Thirin how to move her qi more smoothly and how to widen her meridians little by little.
While receiving this precious instruction, the only thought in Thirin’s head was this:
Just you wait. One day I’m definitely going to send my qi into you the same way and make you just as uncomfortable.
Reverse true qi guidance. She would tickle the priestess’s lower dantian until she squirmed. It was Thirin’s new goal and the purest expression of manly revenge. Delusion was a powerful motivator.
“…You learn quickly.”
“I’m kind of a genius.”
“You are indeed a genius, Sister.”
“…When you agree that fast it somehow sounds sarcastic.”
“Even a compliment causes a fuss.”
If one measured Thirin’s current level by murim standards, she had just stepped into the early stage of First-class. In the martial world, there had long been a saying: Beware of women, children, and the elderly. The current Thirin more or less met the criteria for “woman to be wary of.”
Of course, if she had heard that, she would have jumped up in outrage. After all, she firmly believed she was a man.
Anyway, bickering all the while, Thirin and the priestess continued their journey eastward.
“We’re barely seeing any people now.”
“That’s because there’s nothing but the Sea of Trees in the eastern Empire. You seem to have plenty of adventurer experience, Sister, yet you’ve surprisingly never traveled east before?”
“I’m a bounty hunter.”
“?”
“Bandits gather where the people are. And since I’m the one hunting them, I rarely have reason to visit places without crowds.”
“I see.”
The well-maintained imperial highways gradually deteriorated. Weeds pushed through cracks in the stone, and small, long-abandoned shrines stood eerily along the roadside. When night fell, the landscape grew even more desolate. The campfires of travelers that had dotted the suburbs were now so rare they might only appear once or twice along the entire horizon.
“……”
Each night, Thirin silently gathered dry branches and lit a fire. When she traveled alone she never bothered—fires only drew attention, and her beggar disguise technique let her melt perfectly into the darkness. But the blonde priestess beside her seemed vulnerable to the cold.
Thirin glanced at the woman huddled by the flames.
Tsk. I owe her, so I should at least do this much.
She decided on watch rotations. They took turns sleeping, and it was during the deepest hour of the night, when it was Thirin’s turn to stand guard, that she suddenly rose.
Without hesitation, she kicked dirt over the campfire, extinguishing it.
“…What is it?”
The priestess woke from her light sleep and asked quietly.
“Follow me.”
Thirin answered briefly.
“The ground trembled.”
Her sharp senses had caught the faint vibration and distant commotion. The two moved silently through the darkness. Soon, beyond the trees, they saw a large campfire ill-suited to the night and heard shouts. Someone was under attack.
“A bandit troupe.”
Thirin clicked her tongue. Small groups of fewer than ten, scattered to avoid the Empire’s subjugation orders.
“Strange. What could they possibly rob on an empty rural road like this?”
“……”
The priestess seemed to ponder for a moment, but there was no time for leisurely conversation.
“I’ll go first.”
Thirin signaled with her eyes and channeled her qi into the soles of her feet. First-class realm. A stage where internal energy could be used smoothly in every movement and technique.
Following the principles of lightness skill, she sent her qi downward.
-BOOM!
With a single step she shot forward dozens of meters. It wasn’t so much a leap as a straight-line charge, like an arrow skimming the ground.
“Who—!”
“What the hell—!”
Before the bandits could react, Thirin was already among them. The principle of first strike wins was always correct.
-THUD.
Thirin’s body lost balance and tumbled forward in a spectacularly ugly fall.
“……”
She rolled across the dirt, stood up covered in dust, and brushed herself off. She was still clumsy at fine qi control. Thirin—early First-class. The line between First-class and Second-class wasn’t always clear. Sometimes she was still basically Second-class. Today was simply one of those unlucky moments.
“……”
The priestess watched silently, then quietly closed and opened her eyes.
Thirin stood up as if nothing had happened and declared,
“…The Flame Witch has arrived.”
One of the bandits approached, snickering.
“Some insane bitch showed up.”
“……”
“Flame Witch? More like Red-Faced Idiot.”
The bandits stopped swinging their weapons and burst into raucous laughter.
Thirin said nothing.
-CRACK!
The neck of the loudest one twisted at a grotesque angle.
Thirin looked at the remaining bandits.
“Anyone else have something to say?”
“……”
Silence descended.