Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Episode 4 - Treatment
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"Hey! Mind if I ask for directions? Is there a doctor around here?!"
"A d-doctor? If you head that way..."
"Thanks!"
"W-wait, but..."
After discovering a village with signs of life, I headed straight for the clinic.
I'd worried it was too small a place to have one, but luckily, there was a doctor after all.
"Owner! You around?!"
"A-are you here with an urgent patient? Please, come inside first."
The person who emerged was surprisingly young and beautiful.
I'd assumed she might be the doctor's daughter or assistant, but once inside, no one else was in sight.
"Do you run this place alone?"
"Ah... Yes. I'm the doctor."
Under normal circumstances, anyone might doubt her skills, but time was of the essence right now.
If there were no other doctors nearby, she was the only one I could trust.
"Even if I look inexperienced, I assure you, I'm confident in my abilities."
"...No need. Who else can I trust if not the doctor?"
She seemed aware of the concern and looked worried herself, but this wasn't my first time seeing a female doctor anyway.
"Cough..."
"Please lay the patient here for now. From the sound of his breathing, he's in bad shape."
I carefully placed him on the mat in the room as she instructed and let out a breath.
It would have been a disaster if there'd been no clinic in this village, but we'd lucked out.
However, what she did next left me so shocked I had to stop her.
"W-wait a minute! What are you doing?!"
"Pardon...? To examine him properly, I have to remove the bloodstained cloak..."
"Th-that..."
She had a point.
His bloodstained cloak was special—it even hid his face under the hood—so yes, it needed to come off for treatment.
But...
"He has his reasons for covering his face... Treating him without seeing it..."
"...Would be impossible... right?"
"...Yeah."
It was obvious.
No matter how skilled the doctor, she couldn't treat a patient whose face was shrouded in darkness.
"I'm sorry... I'm not skilled enough to treat without seeing the face..."
"...No, that was an unreasonable demand. I'm the one who should apologize."
I hadn't asked why he covered his face, but there was surely a reason.
Still, without removing it, treatment was impossible...
'But his life comes first.'
Swish
Vowing to apologize later, I pulled off his hood.
The mysteriously veiled face was laid bare.
"Ugh..."
I still couldn't look straight at it.
Every time, guilt welled up inside me.
"...Ho... That's quite..."
"Hm...?"
"Ah, nothing. Just talking to myself."
I thought she'd said something, but she brushed it off as muttering, so I let it go.
"Cough..."
"Then I'll begin the examination. Please wait a moment."
She started touching various parts of his face.
She inserted a stick between his nostrils, pried open his mouth to peer inside, listened to his heartbeat—it all looked quite professional on the surface.
Things seemed to be going smoothly, but I noticed her expression growing more troubled by the second.
"Is something wrong...?"
"Hm... If you don't mind, could I remove his clothes too?"
"Wh-what...?"
"Don't misunderstand. It's for medical reasons. I need to check certain areas. Just the upper garments."
"...Understood."
Truth be told, I had no right to decide whether to expose his bare body to another person, but I had to save him no matter what.
Besides, it was standard for a doctor to undress a patient during examination.
"Hmm... How does this clothing come off...?"
After removing the bloodstained cloak, she eyed his inner garments, pondered briefly,
Swish
"...It comes off easily?"
Just pulling one string, and the clothes slipped right off.
It looked complicated from the outside, but surprisingly simple to remove.
"Mm..."
She placed a hand on his abdomen and made a troubled noise.
"Has this patient suffered any major injuries in the past?"
"...Kuh..."
I knew exactly what she meant, and her words stabbed my heart like daggers.
"He was injured... His dantian is ruined..."
"I see..."
"...Is it bad?"
"Yes... Let me explain the situation."
She covered Dan Yuseong with a blanket and began describing his condition.
"The symptoms are just a common cold—the mild illness that strikes whenever it finds an opening, regardless of season. But as the name implies, a cold disrupts the flow of qi. For some people, even a simple cold can turn deadly. Like the elderly or infants not yet a year old—a minor cold can put their lives at risk."
"I know that much."
"And... for this patient, his body is extremely weak, just like those cases. Once afflicted, it's incredibly hard for him to fight it off on his own... The best prevention is avoiding it altogether, but life doesn't always go as planned. He's already caught it. Of course..."
"Of course...?"
"There are plenty of weak people in the world besides him. That's what doctors and medicine are for—helping them resist illness. But here's the problem."
The doctor sighed.
"With his dantian damaged, using medicine recklessly is dangerous."
"...!"
"If you're a cultivator, you know this, but the dantian isn't just for martial arts. Yes, we store inner energy there for cultivation, but even non-cultivators have a dantian as the core where their vital qi gathers. It's precious to ordinary folk too, if not as much as to warriors."
"..."
I covered my face with my hands as I listened.
She wasn't wrong about a single thing.
"In his case... the dantian damage has severely disrupted his entire body's qi... Feeding him medicine like this could tangle the energies inside his ruined body, preventing any proper effect. It might even backfire. Truthfully, this is my first time treating someone with a damaged dantian..."
"Then... is there really no way...?"
Again.
Again, because of me.
I failed to protect him, so he caught this illness.
And because of the sin I committed against him in the past, we can't even treat it.
"Any method at all... I'll pay any price... There has to be something..."
My voice trembled as I spoke.
I never imagined reaching this level of cultivation only to feel so fragile.
"...There is one way."
Thankfully, hope hadn't died.
"Wh-what is it?!"
"...Please don't get angry. We're avoiding medicine because his dantian is ruined, right?"
"Yes."
"Women might not know, but... men have another place where strong qi gathers, besides the dantian."
...Hold on.
"Y-you mean the place I'm thinking of...?"
"...You probably know where the yang qi gathers."
"..."
My mouth hung open.
"It's called yin-yang union, usually... Transferring qi that way could safely distribute it through his body, even with the dantian ruined."
"No... I mean, theoretically it makes sense, but..."p>
It's dual cultivation dressed up in fancy terms—intercourse, plain and simple.
I'd heard of cultivation arts practiced by male-female pairs through it, but I'd never learned any such thing myself.
"..."
"..."
As the doctor and I both blushed without a word, she spoke first.
"...I'll do it!"
"...W-what did you just...?"
"It's still a form of treatment! A doctor must do everything to save a patient!"
"No... even so, this is too far..."
"Physical contact with patients is inevitable as a doctor. I swore to my master I'd live as one, so this much..."
Her face flushed, breathing ragged, she moved to straddle him. I grabbed her and spoke.
"...I'll do it."
"...Pardon?"
"This happened because of me... If it must be done, it should be by me."
"B-but you're a Daoist master..."
"Lust brings heavenly punishment, but intercourse itself is how man and woman share love and bring new life—it's not inherently evil."
"Your face is awfully red, Master... Are you sure...?"
"...I'm fine. Anyway, I'll handle it... Could you please step out for a bit?"
"..."
Thump thump thump thump
As I tried calming my wildly racing heart, she left the room.
"Master... You do have the basics down, right...?"
"...I know the minimum. Don't worry."
"Normally, without qi, it wouldn't stand... But when life is threatened, instincts surge for reproduction, so it should work at least once."
"...Thanks for the advice."
In my younger days, maybe not, but during the war with the Blood Cult twenty years ago, I'd seen it all—enough to have the basics.
"......"
I looked down at the collapsed man.
His master taking him while he's down, after nearly being assaulted by his disciple.
Not even cheap market novels had plots like this.
Shiver shiver shiver
Suppressing the rising disgust and revulsion made my head spin.
An inner voice whispered: If it's this hard, just let the doctor do it.
'How can I sacrifice someone else for my mess?'
She said doctors must do anything to save patients, but this went beyond that.
So I had to do it.
Flutter
I swept away the blanket she'd placed over him earlier, revealing his bare upper body.
'Make it quick...'
I pulled down his pants and stared at his fully exposed manhood.
A size that didn't match his small frame.
Made me wonder if all his growth went there instead.
Tap tap
To treat him, I needed to erect it first, so I touched his still-soft member,
'Ah...'
Perhaps from the stimulation—it swelled massively in an instant.
As the doctor said, survival instincts kicking in.
His body emitted a thick, sweet scent incomparable to usual; my mouth fell open unwittingly,
'Wh-what am I doing.'
This wasn't the time.
No matter the instincts, he was a patient now. His qi could destabilize anytime.
Hurry.
'But for proper union, the woman needs lubrication...'
Drawing on knowledge from twenty years ago, I reached worriedly for my own secret folds—
Squelch
'...?'
They were already soaked.
Hah... hah...
Bringing my hand up, a clear thread stretched between my fingers.
I didn't know what was happening, but preparations were done. While his qi held, I quickly shed my clothes and took his manhood inside me.
Squelch
"Hngh...!"
Sharp pain shot through, but compared to what he'd suffered before, it was a mere scratch.
"Huu..."
The unfamiliar sensation had me clamping my mouth with one hand, staring into space.
Regaining composure, I looked down again—his previously closed eyes were half-open.
Our gazes met. Having grasped the situation, what he did was...
Rustle rustle