The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 229

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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 229

Nakil Maehwa (Sunset Plum Blossom) Baeksa.

I had already known of her reputation well before meeting Baeksa. I was very interested in the affairs of the martial arts world, and Baeksa was a name that never failed to come up when discussing the next generation’s greatest martial artist.

Stories of her heroic deeds constantly reached my ears – how she had destroyed bandit strongholds here and there, how she had saved innocent people.

Unlike the elders who refrained from outside activities while bearing the honor of their sect, first-generation disciples were naturally more active in their endeavors.

The pride of the elders. And the idol of the still young third-generation disciples.

As the most promising first-generation disciple of Hwasan, it wasn’t difficult to imagine that she carried tremendous expectations from both above and below.

“There seems to be a misunderstanding. My mind and body are stronger than ever.”

And depression was a disease far too unfamiliar to martial artists.

Baeksa wiped away the blood that had burst forth and instead tried to reassure me. She said that getting injured, big or small, during training was extremely common for martial artists, so there was no need to worry.

“I understand that your training intensity is high. If this had happened by chance while trying to surpass your limits, I wouldn’t be saying such things.”

But Baeksa’s training had many strange aspects, even to my eyes which were completely ignorant at the time.

“Does Hwasan’s cultivation method force you not to sleep?”

Since it seemed she wouldn’t listen at all unless I went this far, I brought up her sect, and Baeksa’s face hardened coldly.

“There’s no way they would make us do such nonsense. Even during closed-door training, we sleep.”

I knew this too.

Martial artists are also human. They must eat and sleep.

While they guard against seeking pleasure from food, they supply minimum nutrients through fasting pills.

There are sects that deliberately add sleep-disrupting medicinal ingredients to fasting pills to force hardship, but most belong to evil cults.

Replacing sleep with breathing exercises and qi circulation isn’t omnipotent either.

“Then please close your eyes for even a moment. If anything happens, I’ll wake you immediately.”

“I’ll do so soon. I just can’t close my eyes because I haven’t finished today’s required training, so Doctor, please go to your sleeping quarters first.”

“Isn’t it that you can only fall asleep after exhausting your body? Please let me examine you for just a moment.”

“I am healthy.”

“There must be problems other than sleep as well. Medical treatment…”

“Training until I fall asleep is merely a long-standing habit, so there’s absolutely no need to worry.”

I had a brief argument with Baeksa.

And I learned that her symptoms were so severe that she could barely sleep unless she collapsed from exhaustion.

But at that time, I was also inexperienced and powerless.

If my martial prowess had surpassed Baeksa’s, I would have made her lie down no matter what I had to say, but the physical strength difference at that time was like heaven and earth.

Nor did I have the reputation to make her listen through scolding.

“If Baeksa won’t sleep, then I won’t sleep either.”

So I simply acted stubbornly.

“No, what kind of…”

“I’ll sit here, so train until you feel like it.”

“Doctor, your body can’t endure it!”

“It can’t be helped.”

I was barely able to get her to lie down on the bed.

“Whew.”

Of course, that didn’t mean Baeksa could fall asleep right away.

But I was able to talk with her more while taking her pulse.

“Do you tend to have many stray thoughts when lying still?”

“That’s true. It’s been quite a while since I hit a wall and my martial prowess has been stagnant.”

Though she had insisted she was healthy, fortunately she wasn’t someone who hid her inner thoughts.

She simply thought that hitting walls and experiencing emotional ups and downs as a result were natural occurrences.

“In the end, cultivation will provide the answer, as it always has.”

Hwasan, where the world’s talents gather.

There, Baeksa had not been a particularly outstanding prodigy since childhood, they said.

Though there were countless others overflowing with talent, including the senior disciple, she simply repeated the training her master instructed.

And when she reached her peak by swinging her sword, swinging it, and swinging it again.

Those who had once received expectations crumbled on their own, and everyone was looking at Baeksa.

“I must devote myself even more so as not to shame the name of the great Hwasan Sect.”

That day, I could no longer persuade Baeksa.

Unable to withstand the pouring fatigue, I fell asleep before Baeksa did.

And when I opened my eyes at dawn.

“…”

Baeksa was holding her sword, looking at the moon, and sobbing without tears.

I wanted to treat her. I couldn’t bear to leave her like that.

If only I could relieve the sadness, burden, and sense of responsibility hidden behind her bright and hearty face.

“I’m completely fine now! There’s absolutely no problem even using lightness skills. Thank you, Doctor.”

A few days later, the martial artist with physical injuries was healed.

“The timing is perfect. Those bothersome events should be ending soon too. Let’s return quickly!”

But I couldn’t even begin treating the martial artist with a wounded heart.

“Take both the decoction and ointment starting with the white ones. The first relieves blood stasis and reduces pain, the second enhances recovery.”

“Yes, I’ll take them properly. Thank you, Doctor.”

“And this is Baeksa’s prescription. Simply think of it as something that will slightly ease what’s weighing on your heart and help your energy circulate.”

“I said I’m fine!”

“It will help with your training. Really. Just try it for a month, think of it as humoring me.”

Baeksa firmly refused, but I secretly gave the medicine to the fellow disciple who accompanied her.

“These are pills modified from Cheongshimhwan. If a situation arises where heart fire surges and qi deviation seems imminent…”

“Qi deviation? For Baeksa?”

“Just in case, really just in case. Other martial artists from Hwasan can use them too.”

“Ah…”

“If such a thing happens, give her the pills first, and please call for me without fail.”

He expressed his gratitude and took both the pills and decoction, and the two left my clinic.

I hoped she would recover after taking the medicine.

Or perhaps, as she said, she would find her own path.

Maybe she would meet a master or encounter some other opportunity to overcome her barriers.

In any case, I sincerely prayed for Baeksa’s recovery.

And less than a hundred days later.

I met her again.

“Please, please save her! If something happens to this child, I… Hwasan will…”

The Jangmunin of Hwasan had come directly, carrying Baeksa in his arms.

* * *

“I heard the physician predicted Baeksa’s qi deviation.”

Jangmunin looked at me desperately, his face contorted with despair.

“What happened? What occurred in the meantime?”

“…It’s all my fault. I pushed all the burden of my failure in raising my eldest disciple onto this child, driving her relentlessly with nowhere to turn.”

“What do you mean.”

“I shouldn’t have said unnecessary things. If I hadn’t pressured her to manifest sword energy before Uncheon of Zhongnan, she wouldn’t have entered closed cultivation…”

“Wait, she entered closed cultivation?”

Closed cultivation.

Training where one locks the door to the world, meets no one, and focuses solely on oneself.

For a depression patient, it was truly the worst possible choice.

“She’s such a strong child, I never imagined she would fall into heart demons.”

“Hah…”

What use was further resentment.

I wanted to shout at him for not seeing her tearless sobbing, but treatment came first.

“You gave her the emergency pills I provided, right?”

“Yes. Two elders and I rushed in and barely managed to subdue her and give her the medicine. We also gave her the decoction you provided separately, but she spilled more than half of it.”

I laid her down and inserted needles while listening to Jangmunin’s story.

It turned out this Jangmunin seemed to be at least thirty percent of the cause of her depression.

After favoring other disciples, when Baeksa excelled, he praised her as Hwasan’s future and greatly elevated her.

When she always said she lacked such ability, he thought it was just lack of confidence and treated her even more strictly, telling her to train harder.

“She should be fine since you gave her the pills immediately. I used a tremendous amount of musk.”

Musk is an extremely powerful aperture-opening medicine and qi-regulating medicine. It opens blocked meridians and awakens the brain.

I used all the musk I had to prepare medicine and asked Jangmunin to obtain as much more as possible.

“Of course I will. Thank you.”

Only then did Jangmunin release the blood he had been suppressing.

* * *

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Blood streamed down from her head.

Though the red liquid obscured her vision, she endlessly banged her head against the cave wall.

She couldn’t sleep.

She couldn’t train.

Now even circulating qi was difficult.

When she lay still and looked up, she saw not the cave ceiling but the inside of her head.

The more she swung her sword, the more resentment welled up.

‘What if Uncheon breaks through first?’

Unable to meet anyone, only thoughts remained ahead, beside, and behind her.

‘That could happen. I just need to follow. I was never the martial artist who led from the front anyway.’

Bang. Bang. Crash.

No matter how hard she tried to erase them, they wouldn’t disappear.

Her energy grew increasingly turbid.

‘But what if I was someone who could never manifest sword energy?’

Not everyone who tries hard can reach the pinnacle of mastery.

It requires a rare combination of talent, endless time, and opportunity. Perhaps the first condition was absent.

‘If I fail forever… Jangmunin will be disappointed. Everyone will mock me. Ah, it would have been better to die early by some bandit’s sword.’

Her chest felt like it would burst.

Something was going terribly wrong.

‘Maybe I should have tried taking that medicine.’

Drip. Liquid flowed from her eyes as well.

It had been ten years since that happened.

At the same time, his energy exploded.

* * *

“The fire originating from the heart seeped into his internal energy, causing his qi to become tangled. Of course, if he were a commoner with virtually no energy in his dantian, the energy wouldn’t burst outward. It would just hurt his own body.”

“So the damage was greater because Baeksa’s qi was strong.”

“That’s right. But he’ll wake up soon, and since we’ve used enough medicine, now…”

“Doctor, ah, Jangmunin!”

In the middle of our conversation, Baeksa opened his eyes.

Even though it wouldn’t be easy for him to sit up yet, he tried to kneel before Jangmunin, apologizing.

“No, I’m the one who’s sorry.”

Jangmunin embraced his disciple tightly.

“I was weak.”

“No, no. That’s absolutely not true. Don’t think about anything and just focus on recovering. Even if you can’t emit sword energy, even if you’re not the best in the world, you are my most precious disciple.”

From eyes that had only been streaming blood, tears finally came.

“Thank you, Doctor.”

Fortunately, everything went smoothly after that.

When Jangmunin persuaded him, Baeksa readily agreed to drug treatment as well.

I did my best within my capabilities to heal her heart.

Then one day.

“I did it!”

Incredibly, Baeksa.

Had broken through the wall in my physician’s backyard.

“Until now, really, nothing I did worked. Even when I stopped eating and drinking, even when I read and reread the oral instructions, even when I swung my sword until my limbs broke…”

“You only did things that were bad for your body…”

“But after taking the medicine the Divine Physician gave me, I could just feel the principle of energy that forms and dissolves in the heart! Enlightenment came to me!”

I didn’t understand it at all at the time.

But it was certainly a very surprising result.

I sincerely congratulated her and felt that I had grown as a physician myself.

“Divine Physician! You are truly a divine physician!”

Though going around the whole neighborhood shouting about the Divine Physician was too much.

While Cheonma had given me that title first, only a limited number of people knew about her.

Unlike the occasional Makyodo who would visit in disguise, the fuss made by Baeksa and Hwasan’s Jangmunin brought all the Jeongpa martial artists to my clinic.

‘And then even Noeok came… Ugh.’

Though he defended me more enthusiastically than anyone, even more than Master, that time was quite difficult for me too.

Well, having gone through such times, I’m not surprised by even slightly difficult patients anymore.

“Clinic Director, Im Juweon is here. Should we consult with her mother together?”

Even Hwang Sanghun and Lee Ahreum found it quite difficult to deal with patients who lacked medical knowledge or had accompanying mental disorders.

But having experienced all sorts of things.

“Let’s see them together, and if necessary, we’ll meet separately again.”

A patient who’s almost convinced and a guardian who loves their child very much are quite manageable now.

“I thought Juweon was having a hard time because she’s stressed as a high school senior, but when you said it was depression, it really seems like that. What should I do? Should I make her stop studying?”

“Ah, Mom. She said it’ll be fine if I take medicine and get treatment.”

I smiled calmly at the mother and daughter.

“That’s right. As I told Juweon, you’ll get better. In the current situation, rather than giving up school and studying entirely, it’s actually better to maintain daily life and meet people.”

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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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