The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim - Chapter 24

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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 24

A few days later. As soon as the weekend arrived, I took an intercity bus to Gyeongju.

‘Was it called Gumisan?’

When I looked at the map at the clinic, it didn’t seem that far, but when I actually got off at the terminal and checked the navigation, there were no proper public transportation options.

‘It’s only about 10km, I can walk!’

Was he training hard in a place that’s difficult for ordinary people to access? Is the old man from Domun?

I climbed the mountain taking the shortest route instead of using the hiking trail. Perhaps because there were few people around, the overflowing energy felt very refreshing.

‘Something about turning right at some valley…’

But the hand-drawn map was quite complicated, so I wandered around for quite a while even after getting close to the area.

“Ah, here… huh?”

But when I finally arrived, wasn’t it just a perfectly normal house with a proper address number next to a road? He could have just given me the address, so why did he tell me about it in such a strange way?

Wondering if this was really the house where the sage lived, I walked around the house once.

‘A BMW?’

The presence of a car hidden behind the house amplified my suspicions even more.

Anyway, since I’d come this far, I should at least go inside. I returned to the front gate and pressed the doorbell.

“Hello, this is Hanyewon who contacted you a few days ago.”

“You must have had a hard time coming all the way here. I’ve prepared some cool scorched rice tea, so drink up. Though it must have been difficult, think of this as part of your training too.”

If an ordinary person had walked this path, they would have been quite exhausted, but for me it was nothing more than a stroll.

‘Still, I should drink it out of courtesy.’

Hmm, no poison.

After I received and drank the scorched rice tea, a man wearing some unidentifiable outfit guided me somewhere.

It wasn’t Silla hanbok, nor was it the commonly seen Ming or Song dynasty clothing.

“You practice here…?”

“That is correct.”

His way of speaking was also somewhat strange. The interior also lacked unity, mixing martial arts-style items with Indian and Mexican-style decorations. Had he been to some fantasy world or something?

“What kind of person was the old man?”

“He was someone who devoted his entire life to martial arts. He spent his whole life creating martial arts manuals from the martial techniques he had learned and developed.”

“I see.”

“I know you came all the way here because you’re interested in the martial arts manuals, but I’d appreciate it if you could first pay your respects.”

In one corner of the house, something resembling a Taoist shrine was set up with a plausible painting. …But isn’t that painting Guan Yu? Where did he buy that?

The man offered Buddhist prayers to it. I followed what he was doing for now.

“This is the martial arts manual that my grandfather created.”

Only after touring the house once was I finally guided to the study. Perhaps thinking I wouldn’t be able to read it since it was written in Chinese characters, the man slowly turned each page to show me the contents.

I took the book and speed-read through it.

I first opened to the section with the characters for “breathing techniques,” but for something that was supposed to be about breathing methods, it was a bit… just a few acupoint locations written down, that was all. When I opened the external martial arts section, it was dozens of pages of the Three Powers Sword Technique written out in a complicated manner.

‘No way?’

No way, could it be. This is just…

“Of course, it won’t be easy to grasp the profound principles just by reading the text. I can help you for a small fee.”

“How much?”

“The basic course until you achieve enlightenment in breathing techniques is 890,000 won for 3 months, and from the intermediate course onwards, it’s 490,000 won per month. Though you graced us with your presence here today to personally feel the blessing, from now on it’s also possible to do it remotely.”

He’s a scammer!

“If you find it burdensome because learning martial arts takes time, there’s also a faster method. Spiritual medicine. It’s wild ginseng dug from Namsan in Gyeongju and bear gallbladder that received energy from Tohamsan – there have been people whose cancer was cured.”

“That’s just deodeok root. And this is pig gallbladder.”

Looking at it from any angle, there was no word that could describe this guy better than scammer.

‘…Was it all lies from the beginning?’

All that stuff about the old man and training?

“Blasphemous! What are you saying!”

The man slammed the desk a beat too late, but I had already detected the sense of defeat on his face.

“Ahahaha.”

Suddenly I remembered what Seo Inae had said about voice phishing scammers – who would actually fall for that?

Hmm! I fell for a much more old-fashioned method than those modern scams and came all the way here.

“That manual, how many people have you sold it to so far?”

I said with a bright smile.

Did he buy that car outside by doing business with this “just need to catch one sucker” approach?

If this were the Martial Arts World, that guy’s face would already have a sword in it… no wait, I’m not Master or anything. At least a fist would have landed on it.

I should be grateful to be born in a law-abiding country that strictly punishes violence.

Whoosh!

Instead of the scammer, I threw a punch toward empty air.

In simple terms, palm wind. No wait, is it fist wind?

Crash!

With a thunderous sound, one of the three bookcases filling the study collapsed with a crash.

“Huh, what?”

The man turned around in surprise.

“If that really was a martial arts manual, you should be able to block this much, right?”

This time I spread my hand wide and prepared to launch a palm strike. I moved my hand very slowly toward his forehead.

“P-p-p-please spare me!”

“Try to push it away. If you succeed, I’ll pay that money and buy everything.”

“Aaaahhh!”

Whoosh!

Once again, the wind I launched headed toward the wall.

It only grazed past the man and cut a bit of his hair, but he couldn’t come to his senses and trembled violently.

“Don’t overreact. I can sense some internal energy, but haven’t you ever thought you’d run into the real deal while living like this?”

I could sense a faint but different energy from the man compared to ordinary people. Though it couldn’t have come from learning some third-rate martial arts inferior to what rolls around in marketplaces.

That meant his energy perception was above average, and he would have sensitively picked up on my killing intent too.

He opened and closed his mouth with a pale face.

At first he twisted his body trying to escape my grip, but soon his legs completely gave out and he collapsed.

“You can’t move. Since I won, bring me the ledger.”

“Wh-what.”

“Bring me the list of people you sold this to and all the ledgers.”

Though he had never agreed to the bet, I demanded it unreasonably.

This absolutely wasn’t me venting anger. It was implementing justice, something like that.

“Huh, huaaah…”

I snatched his smartphone and used his fingerprint to unlock it. He had organized things well for what it was worth, as I could find the list of people he’d sold garbage to with just a few searches.

“Sigh.”

Fortunately or unfortunately, there weren’t that many victims who had purchased the bogus training courses or elixirs. Well, who would be interested in this kind of thing in the first place.

“Is this all correct? You could buy a Benz with this?”

“It’s, it’s a lease.”

…Oh, right. I see.

I nodded with an extremely pathetic look in my eyes, then opened KakaoTalk.

“Th-the roots are just dug from the mountain, but it’s not all lies!”

“Huh?”

I was checking people’s numbers one by one to create a group chat when the man shouted at me.

What’s this, seeing him talk nonsense, did I not teach him enough of a lesson?

“Old Man really became able to use martial arts after eating wild ginseng! He trained here his whole life, and could launch wind blasts like you!”

Insisting like that now wouldn’t make me not report him. The fact that the manuals and medicinal materials had no value whatsoever didn’t change at all.

I invited all the victims to the group chat and informed them about the fraud scheme. I didn’t forget to mention I’d send evidence if anyone wanted to file charges.

“Yes, yes~. Just live your life properly.”

Ugh!

Even after leaving the fraudster’s house, my anger hadn’t subsided so I stomped my feet.

Hanyewon, have you really hit rock bottom?

I, I what? I didn’t even fall for Master’s temptation to pass down the Tang Clan’s secret arts if I’d change my surname! Yet I fell for some cheap fraudulent manual!

“I should report this to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety too.”

Come to think of it, when I studied medical law, I learned that manufacturing and selling unlicensed herbal medicines was illegal.

I could tell at a glance, but if someone mistakenly ate those unmanaged weeds thinking they were medicinal herbs, they could end up dead. This was all for public health.

While I was at it, I also left comments on his YouTube channel saying he was a fraudster so no one else would be fooled.

‘Hehe… heh.’

Having lost my composure like that, I climbed the mountain while giggling.

Why was I going up?

Because it would be a waste to have come this far!

Since I’d made time to come all the way here, I should at least do some breathing exercises before leaving.

Still, as a famous mountain and Silla’s Thousand-Year Capital, the flow of energy was definitely good. It was even better than our Neighborhood Backhill that had surprised me at first sight, so that said it all.

If what the fraudster said at the end was true, even those who didn’t know cultivation methods could accumulate some internal energy just by being here.

“Aaaahhh!”

Taking one step and punching the air.

Taking another step up and randomly shooting acupuncture needles at trees, I repeated this as I moved toward an unpopulated area.

“Oh, this place is nice.”

Following the mountain’s energy like that, I walked a bit and saw a suitable rock.

I leaped up onto the rock and sat cross-legged.

First, I opened the acupoints that receive external energy.

The energy that had been tangled from all kinds of stress scattered and flowed along the Conception and Governing Vessels.

The energy that had been circulating smoothly vibrated like a whirlwind, then stabilized in the lower dantian…

“Quack! Quaack! Quaaaack!”

…I was trying to find stability, but now what animal sounds were these?

“Why is there a duck when there’s no water?”

What on earth was going on? My luck was terrible, absolutely terrible.

If I had been completely focused, I wouldn’t have heard it, but without any guards around, I couldn’t afford to let my guard down that much.

I had finally come to a place with no people. Should I try again? Since it wasn’t my day, should I just get up?

“Huh?”

I took a step closer to identify the animal.

It fled, moving away exactly the same distance I had approached.

“A chipmunk?”

Whoosh!

Having barely confirmed its appearance, I used lightness skill to close the distance.

‘There’s no way I can’t catch up to it, right?’

Strangely, it ran away again to that same distance.

“Something… didn’t this happen before?”

I felt a sense of déjà vu.

Surely I had been interrupted during breathing exercises just like this, chasing after an animal and then… Ah!

I remembered.

In the Martial Arts World, I naturally had to gather and use medicinal herbs myself.

Now I purchase herbal medicines verified by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, and while I was staying with the Tang Family, I selected from herbs that herb gatherers had collected, but initially I had no choice.

Back then, I had chased a rabbit in exactly this way.

“Divine Spirit Herb.”

What I discovered by following that rabbit was wild ginseng with tremendously condensed spiritual energy.

It revived an Old Man who was dying from declining vitality, and became the strength that protected me until I learned martial arts.

Without the Divine Spirit Herb, it would have been difficult to treat patients without cowering among the thug-like martial artists.

Could it be the same this time?

Was today’s terrible luck actually purification for this moment?

Maybe? Please!

If I was right, coming all the way here wasn’t foolishness but a windfall.

I ran after the chipmunk with my heart bursting with expectation.

“My goodness!”

And finally, the place I reached.

I gaped at the scene unfolding before my eyes.

Deep in the foothills of Gumisan Mountain.

A massive pine tree that seemed easily over a thousand years old cast its shadow, withered and dead.

“How did this happen…”

There hadn’t been any particular disasters recently, so why?

A tree that had endured the flow of time beyond human comprehension had lost all its vitality and become a powerless dead pine.

The elegant branches and green leaves that had once stretched toward the sky were now bearing death throughout their body for who knows how many years.

Anyone who saw this scene would have let out a sigh.

Scurry-.

But the chipmunk had no regrets about the old tree.

It casually crawled between the pine tree’s roots that had been thick and strong enough to pierce through rock.

Pluck.

The chipmunk picked a mushroom growing on the tree roots, held it in its mouth, and came out.

“Huh?”

Something was strange.

In the instant before it entered the chipmunk’s stomach, I felt a subtle energy.

I quickly brushed away the dirt and examined the pine tree’s roots.

Thud, thump!

I kicked at it earnestly, but that wasn’t enough, so I even used my internal energy to dig up the ground.

The aura of death cast above ground was so strong that I hadn’t been conscious of what was underground.

But the more I dug, the more an extraordinary energy began to shine.

“…I won’t have to worry about lacking internal energy anymore.”

If the pine tree had been alive, at most I could have done breathing exercises beneath it.

But this was more than that.

Poria that had absorbed all the spiritual energy of the dead pine tree was forming an enormous fungal mass underground.

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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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