Dokmaeuiseon - Chapter 169
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 169
Jung Myeong examined them one by one.
[Using Analysis.]
Their conditions came into his eyes starkly.
Most of them looked like beggars wandering and begging for food. Every one of them had malnutrition and chronic illnesses embedded in their bodies.
And what was most deeply rooted was none other than despair.
‘They must have failed to overcome the threshold of reality.’
Who would even think of these people as physicians?
Even when he himself was acting as a Gangho Physician, he wasn’t in such a state.
But Jung Myeong saw what lay beyond that.
The calluses embedded in their fingertips. The longing for something deeper than despair.
Those two things caught Jung Myeong’s attention.
“This time too, I searched for those who had the will but lacked the power and were pushed out from outside Hangzhou.”
Perhaps the silence was being interpreted differently.
Strange Madman approached and introduced them.
“But why are they in such poor condition?”
“Ahem. It couldn’t be helped. That one there had his medical clinic taken away for offending the powerful, and that one fell into debt treating the poor.”
“Hmm…”
“I solved their debts and brought them here.”
“A beggar paying off debts for others. That must have been a precious experience.”
“Cough. Even if I am a beggar, saying it like that is a bit much!”
“Haha. I understand.”
“Anyway, put that debt on the commission fee tab. That fellow over there had to fight terrible illness because he couldn’t take care of his own body, and that one there went bankrupt and ended up wandering and begging.”
Each one had their own story.
Those stories weren’t bad ones at all.
They were the kind that only real physicians would have.
‘These are exactly the kind of people I wanted.’
Therefore, Jung Myeong smiled with satisfaction.
He offered a cupped fist salute to those who had made the precious journey.
“My introduction is late. I am Jung Myeong of Jeongjin Medical Clinic.”
A respectful cupped fist salute. How could these people not understand the courtesy contained within it?
The eldest-looking among the group, an old man whose one arm seemed impaired, opened his mouth with a trembling voice.
“I am called Jang Woo-seo. I heard you summoned old and sick stragglers like us. The beggars of the Beggar’s Sect said you would take us in if we only had the heart to practice medical arts, so I came shamelessly, but…”
“That’s correct. You only need to have the heart to practice medical arts.”
“Is that really all that’s needed?”
“Yes. If you couldn’t practice medical arts due to lack of money, I will support you. If you couldn’t do it due to lack of power, I will become your backing. If you couldn’t do it because you were sick… I will treat that as well.”
“Oh my…!”
Jung Myeong’s firm declaration.
Those standing behind also bowed their heads.
Some were wiping away tears.
The world called them failed physicians.
They were those who had withered and died after hitting reality before they could even bloom with the medical arts they possessed.
To such people, saying that only having the heart was enough.
Just those words alone seemed to comfort them.
“You have all come well.”
Jung Myeong led them into the medical clinic.
* * *
As soon as the physicians entered, Manager Jang moved busily.
Since this wasn’t the first time receiving physicians, there was no need to hint at what needed to be done.
“First, let’s all wash up. We can’t see patients in this state, can we?”
“Y-yes, we shall do so.”
Using the bath water prepared in advance, they brightened their appearance.
Starting with those in poor condition, treatment was administered.
“There, this should put out the urgent fire. Ah, please take this as well.”
“Wh-what is this? No matter how I look at it, this is precious medicine…!”
“This is the spirit medicine allocated to Physician Jang this month.”
“Pardon?”
“Please take it.”
“How can I take such a thing…”
“You need to take it and recover quickly so you can treat patients, don’t you?”
“If that’s the case… I gratefully accept.”
He gave them spirit medicine.
Afterward, he also instructed the other physicians who had arrived earlier.
“Please teach them all the heart methods.”
He ordered them to transmit the heart methods they had learned.
“Will leakage be alright?”
“It’s fine. These are heart methods that have already spread everywhere, aren’t they? Haha.”
They were a bit worried.
Secret transmission to non-family members. Heart methods weren’t something to be easily transmitted.
They too had received transmission, but that was through Jung Myeong.
This was the first time physicians were transmitting to physicians in this manner, so they were concerned.
“…Then I’ll do my best to transmit it.”
“I humbly request this of you.”
“Oh my. A request, you say? Please call it an order!”
“Haha. How could I do that to a fellow physician?”
“I don’t know about others, but Physician Sage, you may do so!”
“I understand. I understand. Then I shall call it an order. Please transmit it so they can learn faithfully!”
“I will accomplish it!”
“Good.”
Who would dare defy that order?
The physicians who had been prepared in advance took in the physicians who were staring at them with blank expressions.
It was to transmit the Heart Method as he had said.
‘With the Heart Method and even Spirit Medicine provided, anyone will quickly reach third-rate level. That alone will quickly lift them beyond ordinary people.’
At most, one month.
By then, they would be able to wash away all illness and frustration and face him.
In the meantime, Bahn Uiwon, who was entrusted with education, would completely overhaul their minds and medical arts.
By then, there would be no problem deploying them to newly created medical clinics.
‘Good. With this, the medical clinic expansion will continue smoothly.’
Just the medical clinics created last month alone numbered six.
Added to the existing two, that made eight total.
Including Jeongjin Medical Clinic as the main base, a total of nine medical clinics had taken root in Hangzhou.
Adding those who joined today, and those who would come in the future?
‘I can steadily increase the branch offices to fifty.’
He could create as many as fifty medical clinics just within Hangzhou.
Not several cities, but fifty in just one!
It was truly an enormous scale.
Perhaps it seemed excessive.
But Jung Myeong inwardly felt even this was insufficient.
‘The branch offices I’ll create from now on will be medical clinics, but not simple medical clinics, so I need to increase them as much as possible.’
The picture he would paint in Hangzhou was not something to be satisfied with just fifty branch offices.
He was still hungry.
However, being hungry didn’t mean he intended to overextend himself.
‘Anyway, I’ve sown the seeds. Making them grow is ultimately my responsibility.’
Having undertaken various endeavors, he already knew well that forcing things wouldn’t make them work.
As he quietly watched the departing physicians, someone approached him.
“Physician? Could I speak with you for a moment?”
“Hmm?”
* * *
“Miss Ju! Of course it’s possible!”
When he turned his head, he saw Ju In-hye.
She, who possessed a different beauty from Snow Plum Sword Yeo Eun-so, was looking at him with a somewhat sulky expression.
“You provided all the Spirit Medicine again this time, didn’t you?”
“Yes. The newly arrived physicians and those who were already here. Adding the Martial Artists to that, it turned out that way.”
“Whew…”
Adding the Spirit Medicine that had to be given to Strange Madman as commission, there was actually a shortage of Spirit Medicine.
Secret dealings with the Beggar’s Sect, and recruiting new talent.
These were the costs of building a true fortress of physicians that Hangzhou’s corrupt medical clinics could never dare imitate.
‘If I can fill the need for genuine people with Spirit Medicine, there’s nothing cheaper than this.’
Ju In-hye had long agreed with his thinking.
However, since she had to actually do the work, she was sulking like that.
“Then I’ll have to make more again, won’t I?”
“That’s how it turned out, isn’t it?”
She had to perform alchemy equivalent to the Spirit Medicine he consumed.
“…’That’s how it turned out’ and laughing lightly doesn’t seem like something to take lightly.”
“Hahaha. I’m sorry about this.”
“Do you know something?”
“What do you mean?”
“That I feel like these days are more arduous than when I was on the sickbed?”
“Oh my…”
Thinking about it, the hardships she had endured were enormous.
Even while he was away visiting the Jusan Archipelago, she had to continue performing alchemy.
Unlike Jung Myeong who used the System, she had to directly perform the arduous work.
With Divine Power, she could make superior spirit pills.
‘But that doesn’t mean the work isn’t difficult.’
She had more work to do than expected.
Her sulking like that was quite understandable.
What could he do about this?
‘It seems like the next task has naturally been decided?’
He had to step forward and help.
Excluding simple material preparation, the only people in this medical clinic capable of performing alchemy in the Alchemy Room were her and Jung Myeong.
“I’m sorry about this.”
“Just with words?”
“No. Would I just brush it off with words? I was just about to go to the Alchemy Room anyway, so this works out well.”
“You didn’t just suddenly change your plans, did you?”
“How could that be? Miss Ju, please go and rest. I’ll quickly prepare it in the meantime!”
Jung Myeong consoled her and quickly made his way to the Alchemy Room.
* * *
As he opened the door, a massive space was revealed along with the heat that rushed toward him.
It was the newly renovated Alchemy Room.
‘It’s definitely large.’
The previous Alchemy Room hadn’t been small either, but now it was incomparable.
The size of the space had grown several times over.
They had purchased an entire manor and converted it into an Alchemy Room.
In the center stood a massive furnace, and around it, large and small auxiliary furnaces were arranged in orderly fashion according to formation placement.
What had changed most of all was the energy.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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