Chapter 2
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: A New Resolve
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Wi Ji-cheon returned to his room, dumbfounded.
Everything was just as it had been in his youth.
The state of his room.
The view of the manor.
The familiar faces.
He had truly returned to the past!
How could something like this have happened?
Had the heavens and gods truly granted his final wish?
The important thing was that he now had a chance.
A chance to protect everyone in his family!
Let's get the situation straight.
He sat at his desk and spread out a piece of paper.
If the Medical Examination Ceremony is just around the corner, that means I'm fifteen. It's tight. I wish I could have returned a little earlier.
Still, it was a relief that there was at least a little time left before the White Immortal Medical House began to show its true colors.
However, he didn't have much time.
I have roughly two or three years.
He picked up a brush and wrote the character for White.
White Immortal Medical House.
One of the five great medical houses of the era.
All the terrible nightmares the Medical Immortal Medical House would face were the result of the White Immortal Medical House pulling strings from behind the scenes.
Thankfully, the White Immortal Medical House has its reputation as a prestigious medical house to uphold, so they can't act openly. They just instigate others from the shadows.
Of course, that would change over time.
As the Medical Immortal Medical House stubbornly endured the repeated persecution like a weed, the White Immortal Medical House changed its tactics.
To a more cunning, dirty, and despicable method.
-Are you Wi Ji-cheon? Haha, you may call me Uncle Baek.
Recalling that snake-like voice, Wi Ji-cheon's gaze turned cold.
Before he returned, he had already completed his revenge against the White Immortal Medical House, but he felt his killing intent boiling up once more.
The White Immortal Medical House isn't the only problem. There are true masterminds behind them. Ones I don't know.
There was only one clue he could guess from.
One of the masterminds was a master from beyond the heavens, capable of manifesting a Mind Sword.
There were exactly seven candidates.
Wi Ji-cheon wrote the characters for "Martial," "Sword," "Azure," "Heaven," "Blood," and "Hegemon" on the paper.
Each represented an absolute being who ruled over the martial world.
The mastermind was among them.
I don't know. The Martial Emperor and the Sword Immortal didn't seem like the type to orchestrate something like this from the shadows. Considering the relationship between the White Immortal Medical House and the Family Alliance, is the Azure King the most likely candidate?
No, he shouldn't think so simply.
The treasure of the Medical Immortal Medical House, the Medical Immortal Ki Artsno, the Heavenly Immortal Divine Artswas something that would make any martial artist's eyes glaze over with greed.
I can't rule out the possibility that the Martial Emperor or the Sword Immortal, or in the worst case, the White Immortal Medical House, joined hands with the Unorthodox Alliance, the Demonic Cult, or the Blood Cult.
It meant he had to suspect the entire martial world.
However, Wi Ji-cheon shook his head.
It was fine.
No matter who the opponent was, he would protect them.
First, I need to get stronger. As quickly as possible.
No, it wasn't enough for Wi Ji-cheon to get stronger alone.
I have to strengthen the family's power as much as possible.
A single phrase surfaced in his mind.
The World's Greatest Medical House.
He had to make the family so strong that no one would dare to touch the Medical Immortal Medical House.
Just then, he sensed a presence outside his room. Wi Ji-cheon quickly moved his brush, painting over what he had written on the paper so others couldn't see.
"May I come in?"
"Yes, Brother."
Seeing his older brother, Wi Ji-gang's face, his heart surged with emotion again, and Wi Ji-cheon clenched his jaw.
However, Wi Ji-gang, oblivious to Wi Ji-cheon's inner feelings, frowned irritably.
"What were you doing? Doodling? Have you still not come to your senses?!"
He was being yelled at, but he didn't feel bad.
On the contrary, he felt like laughing.
He missed it.
This scolding.
Because he knew that beneath that gruff voice was a heart full of concern for his younger brother.
Of course, back then, I didn't know my brother's true feelings and resented him a lot. It was only at the very end that I understood his heart.
"Doodling at the desk where you're supposed to be studying medicine. When on earth will you get your act together? Father is so worried about you... blah, blah, blah."
"Do you have any idea what the disciples are whispering about you... blah, blah, blah."
Listening to his brother's affectionate nagging, Wi Ji-cheon's expression became awkward.
The nagging showed no signs of stopping.
He had indeed missed this nagging, but on second thought, it seemed his memories of the past had been slightly glorified.
Still.
I love you, Brother.
It was good.
All of this.
I will protect it, no matter what.
Wi Ji-gang had come because their father had summoned him.
"I called you here to talk about the Medical Examination Ceremony. Cheon, you seem to be under a lot of pressure. How about we postpone the ceremony?"
His father looked at Wi Ji-cheon with eyes full of concern.
"You think I'm feeling pressured by the ceremony?"
"Didn't you suddenly say you loved me and other strange things out of pressure?"
"Just a moment ago, he was grinning while I was scolding him."
"Tsk."
For Wi Ji-cheon, it had been an expression of overwhelming joy from their reunion, but to his family, it seemed they just thought, 'What's wrong with him? Is he sick in the head?'
Isn't this going to be immortalized as an embarrassing memory? Knowing Father's personality, he could tease me about this for ten years.
His father, the head of the Medical Immortal Medical House, Wi Ji-seon.
He was a perfect and respectable man in every way, but he had one flaw.
He had a subtly mischievous personality!
Feeling a sense of crisis, he hurriedly opened his mouth to change the subject.
"It's fine. I'll take the Medical Examination Ceremony as scheduled."
"Hmm, but are you sure? There's no need to push yourself. Of course, there's no precedent in the history of our Medical Immortal Medical House for postponing the ceremony, but precedents are made to be broken, aren't they? Frankly, I think forcing someone to take it at fifteen is a bad custom."
"Be honest, Father. It would be a bigger problem for him to fail the ceremony than to postpone it. A descendant of the medical house who can't even pass the examination. What would the disciples think of you?"
"Tsk."
In other words.
Everyone was worried about Wi Ji-cheon.
My brother speaks harshly, but in the end, he's just worried I'll completely lose my standing in the family. There are already many disciples who dislike me. And Sister Sang-ah's 'tsk'... that must be a 'tsk' of concern.
Wi Ji-cheon felt a warmth spread through his chest and shook his head.
"I'm really fine. There are still three months until the ceremony, aren't there?"
"This father of yours honestly feels like postponing your ceremony for three years, not three months."
"Be honest, Father. You think even three years isn't enough."
"Tsk."
Everyone reacted as if it was absurd.
In truth, his family's reaction was only natural.
At this time, Wi Ji-cheon's knowledge of medicine was utterly abysmal.
It doesn't get much better with time, either. Someone even called me a Medical Idiot.
It was the same even after he became the Fiend Demon.
He was consumed by revenge, not interested in medicine.
Of course, that didn't mean he was the same pathetic failure he used to be.
Wi Ji-cheon was an absolute master who had surpassed the pinnacle of demonic arts and was half a step into transcendence.
Therefore, when it came to the fundamentals of medicineYin and Yang, the Five Elements, the body's meridians, and blood vesselshe could be said to have a more profound understanding than any physician, even more so than his father, the head of the Medical Immortal Medical House.
However, regarding the 'art of medicine'diagnosing and treating illnesseshe hadn't improved at all from his younger days.
No, now that I think about it, even what I studied as a child is hazy. It's not like I had much in my head to begin with.
Wi Ji-cheon fell silent for a moment.
He was worried if he could really pass the Medical Examination Ceremony in three months.
At this rate, he would definitely fail!
No. I have to pass, no matter what. Only then can I properly cultivate the Heavenly Immortal Divine Arts.
Heavenly Immortal Divine Arts.
The cause of all his calamities.
In the past, Wi Ji-cheon had altered the Heavenly Immortal Divine Arts into the Blood Immortal Demonic Arts to practice it.
It had turned him, someone who had never properly learned martial arts, into a master on the verge of transcendence in just twenty years, so there was no doubting the power of the Blood Immortal Demonic Arts. But this time, he planned to learn the Heavenly Immortal Divine Arts properly, not the Blood Immortal Demonic Arts.
The Blood Immortal Demonic Arts is just a shortcut. To reach transcendence, the perfect state of the Profound Realm, the Blood Immortal Demonic Arts won't be enough.
However, the Heavenly Immortal Divine Arts was a martial art originally based on medical arts.
To comprehend the ultimate secrets of the Heavenly Immortal Divine Arts, experience in caring for patients was a necessary part of the training, and he couldn't see patients if he didn't pass the Medical Examination Ceremony and become an apprentice physician.
He was pondering how to persuade his family.
"Cheon, do you really want to take the Medical Examination Ceremony?"
"Father, surely you're not...?"
His brother, Wi Ji-gang, looked at their father.
His kind father seemed to have softened upon seeing Wi Ji-cheon's insistence.
"How about this? If you can succeed in studying for at least two shichen (four hours) a day for three months, without going to the marketplace, I'll let you take the ceremony."
"For three months study for more than two shichen?"
"Kngh, is the condition too difficult? You'll need rest, too, so I'll allow you to take one... no, two days off every seven days!!"
Wi Ji-cheon wore a dumbfounded expression.
What kind of pathetic failure was I, for them to offer such a condition as if it were difficult?
What was even more absurd was that his brother and sister also nodded in agreement.
With faces that said, 'Study for two shichen a day? As if you could ever do that, hah!'
This is making me a little defiant.
Three months?
This was Wi Ji-cheon, who had once trained in seclusion for ten long years in a deep mountain cave while practicing the Blood Immortal Demonic Arts, surviving only on grain pills.
On the contrary.
If I can surprise my family with something as simple as this, that would be enjoyable too.
His practical medical knowledge was lacking, but when it came to the fundamentals of medicinethe principles of the human body and the universeWi Ji-cheon was more knowledgeable than anyone.
He would be different from the past.
Wi Ji-cheon said in a firm tone.
"I understand. In three months, please look forward to it. I will surprise all of you. I promise."
At Wi Ji-cheon's resolute appearance, his family members glanced at each other as if to say, 'What's gotten into him now?'
His father cleared his throat with a 'keum' and then brought something up.
"Alright, I'll look forward to it. By the way, Cheon. Haven't you forgotten something today?"
"Pardon?"
"I think you forgot to say you love me."
And so, Wi Ji-cheon was given three months.
During that time, besides studying medicine, there was something important he had to do.
He would regain his power.
Henan Province.
The place where Shaolin, the great mountain and northern dipper of the martial world, was located.
However, that didn't mean all of Henan was Shaolin's territory.
Henan Province was vast, and Shaolin, to begin with, did not concern itself much with worldly affairs.
Thus, while the area near Mount Song, where Shaolin resided, was one thing, the rest of the province was a chaotic jumble of various minor factions.
Nanyang, where the Medical Immortal Medical House was located, was no different.
"You want me to take care of the Medical Immortal Medical House?"
Jang Sam, the master of the Black Ghost Sect, an underworld faction in Nanyang, squinted his eyes as he faced the guest who had come to see him.
The visitor was, surprisingly, dressed in the attire of a physician.
"Yes. The Medical Immortal Medical House is disrupting the order of the medical world by treating the poor for free instead of accepting proper payment. We need your help, Great Hero."