The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 121

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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 121

“To the prosperity of Seongsoo Oriental Medicine Clinic, cheers~!”

“Cheers!”

Chu Miyoung and I clinked our glasses enthusiastically.

The toast was refreshing, but I only took a sip just in case.

“Hey~ What’s with the sipping? Bottoms up, bottoms up!”

But wouldn’t you know it, Chu Miyoung noticed that right away?

“Haha, I don’t have an incredibly high alcohol tolerance.”

“How much can you handle?”

“Well…”

I don’t really know my exact alcohol tolerance either.

I’ve never drunk whiskey until I got drunk, you know?

Maybe it’s similar to soju? With bamboo leaf liquor that Master likes, even one bottle is a bit tough.

“If you’re not the type to stop at one glass, just drink! We need to get drunk together for the atmosphere!”

“Alright.”

When she put it that way, it was awkward to refuse further.

Well, she probably wants to get closer.

I should be careful to just go with the mood and not overdo it.

I pretended to give in and downed the rest of my glass.

…No matter how I think about it, this is strong.

“Ahh~ At first when you said it was a martial arts concept, I thought ‘what kind of crazy talk is this,’ but now that it’s more concrete, it’s not bad. After talking with you two, your thinking is quite unique, and I think you’ll pull it off well.”

“Right?”

“Doctor Han wouldn’t sign a contract without thinking it through, but I was too worried.”

“Hey, thanks to that we covered all the important points. Thank you for coming all this way to help.”

The conversation flowed to casual topics.

“When the director asks for help, of course I have to come! When I caused trouble, you came to Daegu every week to help me!”

“Well, that was fun for me too.”

Chu Miyoung and I chatted about various things while drinking.

Even though whiskey is strong, she wouldn’t get drunk after just one or two glasses, but perhaps wanting to create a drunk atmosphere, Chu Miyoung kept giggling.

“You know you were really cool when we first met? You fixed my jaw joint just like that!”

“Haha, how is it these days?”

“No more clicking sounds! When it feels a bit stiff, I massage the masseter and lateral pterygoid muscles~”

“That’s a relief.”

“If it weren’t for you, director, I’d still be here with my jaw clicking… dealing with a stalker… hitting the calculator while running at a loss…”

Various stories came tumbling out randomly.

From the 4th branch story to first impressions. And back to the 4th branch again.

Chu Miyoung brought up embarrassing old memories while praising me.

“Since we’ve decided to do this! I’ll help you properly! So you can hit it big!”

“Yes, thank you. I’m always grateful too. Thanks to you, I took my first step into networking…”

“I’m so happy that I was your first!”

Suddenly she pulled me into a hug!

‘What a surprise!’

It wasn’t threatening at all, but I almost reflexively pushed her away without thinking.

A martial artist’s instincts…

“But Director Yu, how are you going to teach martial arts to the former director? Didn’t you say you learned from a martial arts master who dreams of living in seclusion? Is it okay to just teach it like this?”

Chu Miyoung returned to her chair as if nothing happened and fired off questions.

Did I say something like that? I think I made up something random when catching the stalker.

“Director Hwang said you’re really good at the big three exercises. You did kendo or something? Or sword dancing?”

“I did a little kendo. Sword dancing… I guess you could call it dancing?”

Before meeting Master, what I learned with third-rate street martial arts was swordsmanship, so I could say I know a little kendo.

But now that I know what proper martial arts are, looking back at those days, that wasn’t martial arts or anything.

I just copied the movements, so maybe it could be called sword dancing? Though it lacked any artistry, so calling it dance seems wrong too.

“What I’ll teach will be something like sword dancing. Want to see for a moment?”

I thought about what martial arts to teach.

The ‘real’ stuff is obviously out of the question. Setting aside the need for secrecy, they might fall into qi deviation.

In the end, I need to imitate something that’s only flashy on the surface, but Tang Family martial arts aren’t basically flashy enough to catch the eye.

Why do you think hidden weapons are called hidden weapons? Only something like Ten Thousand Flowers Rain, which throws all hidden weapons at once, is visually spectacular.

Then? It has to be the sword. It fits perfectly with the Martial Arts Alliance Leader concept too!

“Show me, show me!”

“It’s a bit awkward here, should we go to the garden… no, to the room?”

We cleaned up what we were drinking and moved together.

“Is there anything I could use as a sword?”

Unfortunately, I don’t carry a sword around.

Well, it’s illegal in South Korea.

Since the weather was clear, I didn’t have an umbrella either.

It would be nice to have a suitable stick, hmm.

I reluctantly took out a water bottle from the refrigerator and gripped it upside down.

“Ooh!”

Excited Chu Miyoung added her cheers, and I lowered my stance.

I extended my left hand forward, and pulled my right arm holding the water bottle back along with my right foot.

“Here, please add blue sword energy with CG.”

Since I hadn’t learned the Namgung family’s mental cultivation method, I couldn’t manifest sword energy.

Pretending there was such a thing, I swung the sword I had pulled back upward to the upper left.

“Oh!”

And then Cheondanse (Heaven Severing Stance).

Grasping the sword that soared high toward the heavens with both hands.

Swoosh!

I swung it down as if crushing everything below.

The Changcheon Namgung Family of the path of supremacy.

The Imperial Sword Form that embodied the mysteries of the heavy sword rather than the swift sword

…one move following that form.

If someone took this sword directly in real combat, that would be the end, but I continued with a few more techniques.

Once horizontally, then twice in an X pattern.

Long ago, there was a day when the Martial Arts Alliance Leader and Cheonma clashed before my eyes.

It was the day my lies about having nothing to do with Cheonma and not knowing her at all were exposed… but watching their swordsmanship then was very educational.

Of course, I couldn’t learn it directly, but I remember the sensation of those very impressive techniques.

“How was that?”

“Uh, uh, uhhhhhh…!”

Chu Miyoung was very flustered.

At the same time, I suddenly sobered up. Drawing up my internal energy, the alcohol left my system and my head cleared.

When I demonstrated martial arts in front of Seo Inae before, I had little internal energy left in my body, but now I had the power I’d steadily accumulated bit by bit through breathing exercises.

‘This level doesn’t look like a particularly difficult movement, so it should be okay…?’

I just showed her swinging downward forcefully—

“Just now, what happened…?”

But Chu Miyoung had an expression as if she’d seen an illusion of blue sword energy.

I didn’t do anything that surprising, did I?

“You asked me to show you martial arts to teach, right? Isn’t it easy? I just tried to capture the feeling a bit.”

“No, earlier when you swung down! It felt like the world almost collapsed? It felt like gravity became three times stronger! I think I saw something like smoke too… what exactly did you do?”

Chu Miyoung opened and closed her mouth, then.

“For a moment it felt like my body was turning upside down… ugh.”

She suddenly covered her mouth with her hand.

“Huh? Are you okay?”

Only then did I check on Chu Miyoung’s condition.

I had been focused only on not getting drunk myself, but her condition didn’t look good.

“Didn’t you drink too much alcohol?”

No wonder the whiskey was so strong!

“Ah, were you dizzy from being too drunk?”

Phew, so it really wasn’t internal energy but alcohol that was the problem!

I thought her energy was too high from the beginning.

“You were drinking so freely, I thought the alcohol was incredibly strong.”

“I usually drink soju well, but this is my first time with cognac, so maybe that’s why… ugh, I’m sorry.”

No need to be sorry.

I wondered why it was so quiet with no patients even though we came all the way to Jeju Island.

“Lean against the bed for a moment. Let me check your pulse.”

Whether my internal energy was the catalyst, or it took time for the alcohol to spread through her body.

Chu Miyoung, who had been giggling until we came up to the room, moved to the bed almost crawling.

“Uh, how is it?”

“Obvious, what else. As expected, your pulse is fluctuating wildly.”

There’s phlegm stuck in the upper gastrointestinal tract.

Actually, I could tell to some extent just by looking at her complexion without checking her pulse.

“Ah… could you buy me some hangover cure? I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

Hangover cure.

When I was at the Tang Family, we kept Daegeum Eumja and Shinseon Bulchwidan stocked at the Medical Institute.

For people with severe hangovers with symptoms like vomiting and nausea, we prescribed Daegeum Eumja, and for those whose hangovers came with headaches or mental confusion, we gave Shinseon Bulchwidan.

Daegeum Eumja is based on Pyeongwisan, the most representative digestive medicine, with the dosage of dried tangerine peel, which is excellent for moving qi, increased threefold to release the energy blocked by drinking. It controls phenomena where qi flows backward, like nausea and vomiting.

And in the case of Shinseon Bulchwidan, it contains far more medicinal ingredients than Daegeum Eumja, which consists of only 4 herbs, and true to its name, if you take this medicine and then drink alcohol, you won’t get drunk easily even if you drink like an immortal.

As for hangover cures sold at convenience stores, some drinks contain some of the constituent herbs of Daegeum Eumja while others don’t, but they basically aim to settle queasiness.

“You should have taken it beforehand.”

“Ugh, I didn’t know it would be this strong.”

Chu Miyoung clutched her chest area.

She seemed to be feeling quite uncomfortable in her stomach.

She looked at me with embarrassment, but I hadn’t said it to scold her.

If she had taken something before drinking, or if she was doing relatively fine today and the hangover would hit tomorrow morning, I would have recommended a hangover remedy too.

But right now, the alcohol had just entered her system.

In times like this, other methods are more useful.

“In situations like this, it’s better to vomit.”

The sweating, vomiting, and purging method – making someone sweat, vomit, and have diarrhea to expel pathogenic qi – is a very traditional Korean medicine treatment.

When peaceful, nourish; when disease occurs, quickly drive out the pathogenic qi through the three methods of sweating, vomiting, and purging.

Of course, using it too frequently can cause side effects like inflammation of the esophageal mucosa and disrupted energy flow, but right now, nothing beats the vomiting method.

There’s phlegm stuck right below the heart, around the upper burner – wouldn’t it be faster to bring it up rather than push it down?

“I don’t have any herbs suitable for the vomiting method, but I’ll help you with acupuncture.”

I don’t carry herbs or decoction equipment around, but I always have acupuncture needles in my bag.

“Huh?”

“Please take off your top for a moment.”

She didn’t seem to understand how acupuncture could help with the vomiting method.

It’s not a commonly used approach, after all.

But perhaps because I had instructed her, she took off her clothes as I said.

I helped Chu Miyoung up and moved to the restroom.

I inserted needles into the back-shu points on her back.

Back-shu points are acupoints on the back where organ qi is transported and responds – when a specific organ has disease, the corresponding back-shu point becomes sensitive, serving as a diagnostic point, and when acupuncture is applied, it can treat organ pathology.

Pabababbat!

Pishu and Weishu , which generally regulate the digestive system.

Ganshu and Danshu , positions that can resolve phlegm retention.

I inserted needles into the main acupoints that are originally useful for hangovers too.

If the purpose had been to calm the energy, I would have performed acupuncture at these positions and then waited quietly for the body to find homeostasis.

But now the goal was to induce vomiting.

Hwaaaaak!

I deliberately made the energy flow backward from where I had inserted the needles.

* * *

The next day.

Chu Miyoung, who had refreshingly expelled the pathogenic qi and slept comfortably, woke up and immediately muttered with vacant eyes.

“…I had an incredible dream.”

“A dream? What kind of dream?”

“Clinic Director, you were using real martial arts with a water bottle, and smoke was rising from it… the world was shaking.”

“Oh my! You must have been really drunk yesterday! Are you okay now?”

“Yes. Thanks to you, I’m fine now. If we add CG like what I saw yesterday, it would be perfect.”

“Ahahaha, that would work! You had a good dream!”

Chu Miyoung scratched her head and got up.

When I checked her pulse again, unlike yesterday when it was wildly fluctuating, it was completely stable and calm.

“I’ll wash up quickly! It’s almost time for our appointment.”

Phew, maybe it’s fortunate that Chu Miyoung was so drunk.

But smoke? I didn’t put that much force into it.

…Probably?

I resolved to be more careful in the future as I changed clothes.

I’ll be busy today too, having to teach martial arts techniques and deliver treatment manuals.

After finishing our preparations, we set off toward the planned location for Branch 4.

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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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