I Became the Oriental Doctor for Divine Beasts - Chapter 55
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Becoming a doctor of Eastern medicine for Divine Beasts
#55
“…….”
When I asked Ma Yun-sang where he felt uncomfortable, his lips only moved soundlessly.
I asked him carefully as he remained silent.
“When I saw you at the Eastern medicine clinic, there weren’t any major issues with your joints or muscles. What do you think the problem is?”
Yun-sang bit his lip hard and shook his head with a pained expression.
“That’s the problem. I… don’t understand it myself.”
He paused, choosing his words carefully, then added.
“When I play soccer, I know exactly what movements I should make. But my body just won’t follow quite right. The timing gets a little off, and it feels like my strength isn’t transferring properly.”
“Is that so?”
“So I’ve been practicing more and asking people around me to watch my form, but nothing seems to help.”
He laughed bitterly.
“……At this point, I’m starting to wonder if it’s just a slump.”
“Hmm.”
I thought for a moment, then spoke.
“Could it be a problem with your Spiritual Energy? Let me take a look. Give me your wrist?”
“Right here?”
“Yes.”
In the old days, I would have needed to conduct a long consultation and go through several examinations to assess a patient’s Spiritual Energy condition.
But now it was different.
For a patient I’d already gotten to know well, I could read the flow of Spiritual Energy through simple contact alone.
“Give me your hand.”
Yun-sang obediently extended his hand, and I naturally pulled his wrist toward me.
Yun-sang’s fingers stiffened slightly.
“Don’t be nervous.”
I spoke casually and felt for his pulse. Then I focused my gaze.
Swish—
Soon Yun-sang’s Spiritual Energy became vividly apparent above his body. A golden radiance flowing throughout his entire frame.
‘The flow of Spiritual Energy seems fine?’
There was no deficiency, no blockage. Golden currents were circulating vibrantly through his entire body.
I tilted my head in confusion and released his hand.
“How is it, unnie?”
Yun-sang asked with worried eyes.
I told him honestly.
“There’s nothing wrong. I’m not sure what the cause is either.”
“……Just as I thought.”
Yun-sang laughed weakly, disappointment evident in his bearing.
“I guess it’s my own fault. Maybe I really have hit a slump…….”
“…….”
Just as darkness had crept into Yun-sang’s voice and expression, he brightened them deliberately.
“Sorry for worrying you. Oh, this tastes great. Try some too, unnie.”
He smiled and moved his chopsticks again.
I watched him quietly.
His effort to seem too bright made my heart feel even more uneasy.
I put food in my mouth, but unlike before, I couldn’t taste it well.
‘That’s strange.’
Yun-sang felt there was a problem, yet nothing showed in his Spiritual Energy.
It bothered me deeply.
I slowly worked the food in my mouth while my brow furrowed.
‘I’m missing something here.’
What could the problem possibly be?
Throughout the meal, I kept glancing at Yun-sang and turning the puzzle over in my mind.
* * *
After we finished eating.
Ma Yun-sang naturally walked through the Market Alley with Go Yeon-hee.
“Yun-sang, they say that’s famous too. Have you tried it?”
“Seed Hotteok?”
What Yeon-hee was pointing at was hotteok being sold on the street.
Yun-sang hesitated for a moment, then looked down at Yeon-hee and made a suggestion.
“Should we buy one and share it?”
“Just one? Only oooone?”
Yeon-hee’s eyes widened as if that made no sense at all.
Yun-sang felt caught out and spoke defensively.
“I have to watch my weight. I’m an athlete, after all.”
“Come on, someone as muscular as you who runs around all day? One hotteok will barely register on one of your thigh muscles.”
In the end, they each had a hotteok in their mouths. Yeon-hee even bought extras to bring to the people at the workshop.
The two of them walked through the Market eating hotteok.
“It really is delicious.”
“Right, right? If we’d only bought one, you’d be regretting it now, wouldn’t you?”
The crisp summer night air.
The sound of people laughing and chattering.
The lively calls of market vendors.
Blending naturally into such an ordinary scene, Yun-sang found himself thinking.
‘……This is good.’
Walking with someone, making small talk, eating something delicious, laughing.
In his solitary childhood, he had never realized how good such things could be.
“Yun-sang, you’ve got seeds on your mouth. Here, wipe it with this.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
Startled back to awareness by Yeon-hee’s words, Yun-sang quickly wiped the corner of his mouth with the napkin she’d given him.
A faint smile bloomed at the corner of his lips.
The heaviness that had weighed on his heart from recent poor performance was gradually lifting.
“Unnie. Thank you for today.”
When he suddenly spoke, Yeon-hee blinked.
“For what?”
“Just…….”
Yun-sang smiled sheepishly.
“My mood seems a lot better.”
Yeon-hee let out a light laugh and gave his shoulder a playful tap.
“Good, then.”
Time passed quickly.
The lights of the Market were already going out one by one.
In front of the Original Clan Workshop.
“Here we are. Thanks for walking me back.”
Yeon-hee came to a stop.
Yun-sang took off his glasses and handed them to her.
“Unnie, go in safely. And tell the Original Clan people the glasses work great.”
“Will do. You get home safe too~.”
Yeon-hee waved her hand.
“Yes. Go on in.”
The door closed.
Yun-sang stood there for a moment.
Only after confirming that Yeon-hee had gone completely inside did he turn to leave.
That was when it happened.
“Ma Yun-sang. Yun-sang.”
“!”
Yun-sang’s footsteps stopped abruptly.
A low voice came from within the shadowed Alley.
Yun-sang turned his head slowly, his eyes sharp with caution.
From within the Alley.
Someone emerged from the shadow where light did not reach.
It was a middle-aged man with deeply sunken eyes and coarse, bold features—features that resembled Yun-sang’s own.
“……!”
Recognizing the man’s face, Yun-sang’s pupils went cold.
“You……!”
“Tsk.”
The man clicked his tongue.
“That’s no way to greet your father.”
It was him. The man who had handed young Yun-sang over to the Fallen Ones.
Though born into a cadet branch of the Ma Clan, he had obtained treatment nearly equal to a direct lineage member as payment for handing Yun-sang over.
‘What is he doing here all of a sudden?’
Examined more closely under the lamplight, his jawline had grown slack and his belly protruded—different from Yun-sang’s memories.
Seeing the unmistakable signs of a man who had sold his child and lived well and comfortably ever since, Yun-sang’s face twisted with revulsion.
After the Dark Magic experiments, all that remained in Yun-sang was unrelenting pain.
Endless migraines. A crumbling psyche. And a father who watched it all while doing nothing.
Afterward, the Ma Clan declared themselves Fallen and declared war against the Divine Beasts.
Yun-sang became isolated between them, belonging nowhere.
Neither human nor Divine Beast, without family or friends. A life sustained by soccer alone.
Yun-sang spoke through gritted teeth, his voice low.
“Why are you showing up now?”
The man laughed.
It was a grotesquely twisted smile.
“I have something to tell you.”
“I don’t.”
When Yun-sang turned to leave without hesitation, mockery echoed from behind him.
“I heard you’re in crisis these days? Your performance has dropped and the great Ma Yun-sang is facing elimination from the national team?”
Yun-sang turned his head and glared at the man sharply.
“You had me investigated?”
The man shrugged.
“Don’t worry. I can solve your problem as easily as snapping my fingers. With Dark Magic.”
“…….”
“From now on, you won’t need to worry about performance drops. You’ll be able to play the soccer you want, freely.”
His voice fell low, beguiling.
“And if you come back now, I’ll promise you a high position among the Foreseers.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Foreseers? You’re just Fallen Ones.”
Yun-sang stepped forward.
“I don’t need Dark Magic or any of that filthy business. Even without it, I’m enough to play soccer—.”
“And you.”
The man cut off Yun-sang’s words.
“I will formally recognize you as my son.”
“……!”
Yun-sang’s body went rigid.
The man approached and whispered to him.
“That’s right. Good boy.”
“…….”
“You seem quite close with the Purifier, but don’t mistake it. She’s still an outsider. How much could she treasure you, having only just met you? In the end, blood relations are what remain.”
Yun-sang’s pupils wavered.
A sinister smile spread across the man’s face.
“The Purifier and the Divine Beasts are destined to fall. You don’t know how many of the world’s secrets we’ve uncovered. What preparations we’ve made.”
“…….”
“The New World we will create will surely appeal to you as well.”
He stepped closer and extended his hand to Yun-sang.
“Come back to this father’s arms. I will recognize you as my firstborn. Let us be family forever in the New World.”
“…….”
Silence fell.
Yun-sang’s clenched fist trembled.
Family.
Something he had yearned for since childhood but never once possessed.
Something he could not have even now, successful as a soccer player.
And now, with nothing but soccer to his name, even that wavering for reasons he didn’t understand. Sweet promises that he could play soccer freely without worry from now on.
‘The world’s secrets? A New World?’
A voice saying everything would be resolved there.
At last Yun-sang’s mouth opened.
“……Is that really true?”
His head hung low, his expression hidden.
When he looked up again, Yun-sang’s pupils were trembling violently.
“In that New World, could I really… be family with my father?”
Cr-eeeeak.
Seeing that, the man’s lips slowly curved upward.
* * *
When I returned after finishing the meal with Ma Yun-sang, the workshop had a completely different atmosphere than during the day.
Most of the lights were off, and only dim oil lamps were scattered sparsely along the long Corridor.
Only the sound of my footsteps echoed quietly around me.
‘It’s quiet. Everyone must have gone to sleep.’
The space that had been filled with hammer strikes and the roar of furnaces during the day was now eerily silent.
I was quietly making my way to my room, my footsteps muffled.
“Teacher Go. You’re back?”
“!”
When I looked up, I saw Baek Eun-ho leaning against a pillar at the end of the Corridor.
He was dressed comfortably, different from usual, as if preparing for bed.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————