The Terminally Ill Youngest Daughter of a Medical Dynasty Is a Genius Physician - Chapter 14

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 14
Heo Jin-byeok stepped directly into my path.
“That’s not possible, miss.”
“Move.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“I said move.”
Heo Jin-byeok looked down at me with a hardened face.
But I didn’t shrink back—I met his gaze directly.
“That boy will die if this goes on.”
……
“I need to look at him.”
A brief silence fell between us.
Heo Jin-byeok’s eyes grew distant.
His lips parted as if he meant to speak, but in the end he simply stepped aside.
I pushed through the crowd and approached the collapsed boy.
“What—what is this? She’s just a child?”
“What does a girl know about medicine?”
Murmurs rippled through the onlookers.
The warrior standing watch over the boy caught sight of me and cried out in bewilderment.
“Child, who are you! Don’t you dare lay hands on him!”
“If you want him to live, step aside.”
“What?”
I didn’t wait for an answer—I knelt beside the boy.
Closer now, his condition was far more grave.
His lips had taken on a sickly blue tinge, and cold sweat beaded thickly at the nape of his neck.
I grasped his wrist and felt for his pulse. It was thread-thin and irregular, threatening to slip away entirely.
‘The poison is spreading rapidly.’
But he hadn’t been poisoned long.
There was still time.
Only if we waited much longer would it truly be beyond saving.
“Ryu Jin.”
I kept my eyes on the boy and extended my hand.
“My needles.”
Ryu Jin caught her breath.
“Miss, are you truly—”
“Hurry.”
In that moment, a sharp voice cut through from behind.
“What are you doing, Yeon Ryeong-hwa!”
It was Yeon Do-pyeong.
When I gave no answer, Yeon Hui-cheon’s voice dropped low as well.
“Ryeong-hwa, you are not yet a physician!”
‘I know. I knew this would happen.’
I gripped the boy’s wrist more firmly.
“Ryu Jin.”
This time I spoke lower, more decisively.
“……Yes!”
Ryu Jin seemed to snap to attention, quickly producing my Acupuncture Needle Case from her pouch.
I took it and drew out the finest needle.
The silver tip caught the sunlight, gleaming coldly.
Heo Jin-byeok stirred as if to stop me again, but I raised my hand briefly to forestall him.
Then I drew my breath slowly, steadily.
‘First, I have to slow the spread of the poison.’
The toxin was already racing through his Qi and Blood. I had to open his blocked breath and calm the surging energy that pressed upward.
I guided the needle tip toward the inside of the boy’s wrist.
“……I will save you.”
I didn’t know who I was speaking to.
To the boy before my eyes, perhaps.
Or to myself.
Or to the past—to all those lives in which I’d finally failed to save myself.
At that moment, Ryu Jin hurried closer to my side.
“Is there anything else you need, miss?”
“Push the crowd back a little. And fetch some clean water.”
“Yes, miss!”
Ryu Jin moved at once.
In my past life, I had treated patients in Yeon Do-pyeong’s stead before. But I’d been far more grown then than I was now.
Now I was only seven years old.
The size of my hands, my strength, the concentration my body could sustain—all of it was utterly different from before.
‘I have to do this anyway.’
I drove the first needle home without hesitation.
“Gasp!”
“Is that child really using needles—?!”
Cries of shock erupted from those around us, but I didn’t hear them.
‘I need to open the channels quickly.’
I withdrew the first needle and inserted the second.
The Hegu Acupoint on the back of his hand.
The Taichong Acupoint on the top of his foot.
Each thin needle sank into its target with perfect precision, not deviating a hair’s breadth.
“…….”
As I channeled absolute concentration, the sounds around me faded one by one.
All I heard was the boy’s shallow breathing and the faint pulse thrumming beneath my fingertips.
‘Just a little longer.’
The poison’s flow was slowing, degree by degree. Now I had to draw down the Qi and Blood that had reversed upward.
I raised the final needle.
For a moment I studied the boy’s complexion. His forehead and crown were drenched in cold sweat.
He looked so precarious—as though he might exhale his last breath any instant.
‘You can do this.’
I whispered it to myself.
‘You can.’
And without hesitation, I placed the final needle.
“Hack—!”
In that moment the boy’s body convulsed violently. Dark crimson blood came pouring from his mouth.
“Young master!”
The warrior lurched forward urgently.
“Cough, cough!”
The boy broke into harsh coughing. The breath that had been trapped exploded out all at once.
But there was a difference from before. The blood he spat up was paler than it had been.
‘That’s it.’
The warrior caught the boy’s body, his own face ashen.
The boy still hadn’t regained consciousness. But I could tell.
The breath that had been fading to nothing was steady again.
Color was beginning to return to lips that had been a sickly blue.
“He’s alive?”
“He’s actually breathing?”
Muted exclamations rippled through the crowd.
‘We made it.’
The critical moment had passed. Relief flooded through me, and I exhaled the breath I’d been holding.
Ryu Jin returned with the clean water just then.
I wiped the boy’s lips with a cloth dampened in the water, then carefully withdrew each needle one by one as I monitored his condition.
“Young master, can you hear me?”
The warrior called out anxiously. The boy’s eyelids trembled faintly.
‘He’ll wake soon.’
That was enough.
I rose slowly to my feet and tucked my Acupuncture Needle Case into my robes.
‘Time to go.’
I wasn’t a licensed physician, and I’d just treated a patient in front of all these people. I’d already drawn more than enough attention.
There was no good reason to stay any longer.
But just as I turned to leave.
“Don’t let yourselves be deceived!”
A sharp voice cut through the center of the Marketplace.
I stopped.
It was Yeon Do-pyeong.
He had stepped forward into the crowd’s view. A twisted smile hung at the corner of his mouth.
Surely not.
“That child is not a physician.”
The marketplace fell silent in an instant.
“What?”
“Not a physician?”
“But he just seemed to save someone’s life….”
Yeon Do-pyeong waited, as though he’d been expecting this moment, and pointed at me with his finger.
“This child of the Yak Ryeong-ga hasn’t even undergone the Formal Initiation Ceremony. An unqualified charlatan who dared place needles in a poisoned patient without authorization!”
My face went rigid.
Yeon Do-pyeong didn’t stop there.
“Surely he was greedy for recognition from the family head. And if something had gone wrong, who exactly would have been held responsible?”
Confusion spread across the faces of the crowd.
“The Yak Ryeong-ga, you say?”
“Is this that child with the terminal diagnosis we heard about?”
“But didn’t he just save the patient’s life?”
“Still, the boy hasn’t even become a physician yet.”
“Was what that child did really safe?”
“What if something had gone wrong….”
The mood shifted in an instant.
I clenched my teeth.
‘Yeon Do-pyeong.’
I’d expected him to run to Grandfather and tattle that I’d broken protocol.
But to drag the Yak Ryeong-ga’s name into it before all these people, to make a mountain out of a molehill — I hadn’t seen that coming.
To destroy the family’s honor just to make my life difficult. It was breathtakingly stupid.
Utterly, comprehensively foolish.
‘I need to shut his mouth right now…’
I was turning my body toward Yeon Do-pyeong when it happened.
“Is what you just said the truth?”
A low, measured voice cut through.
It was the warrior beside the young boy.
He was looking straight at me now. His face was nothing like the desperate expression he’d worn moments before.
His eyes were cold and sharp.
“That you’re not a physician.”
I held my mouth shut for a moment.
Then I nodded.
“…Yes. I haven’t undergone the Formal Initiation Ceremony yet.”
The warrior’s expression hardened.
“And yet you placed needles in our young master?”
“He would have died otherwise.”
“Can you guarantee there were no problems with the treatment?”
“We’ve passed the critical moment for now. But not all the poison has left his system.”
I looked down at the collapsed young boy.
“He needs a proper Pulse Diagnosis as soon as possible and treatment to clear the remaining toxin.”
The warrior’s eyes narrowed.
He didn’t seem to doubt my words. The boy’s breathing, which had been failing moments before, was indeed stabilizing.
Yet an unknown child had treated his master. He seemed at a loss about simply letting me go.
“I understand that you saved our young master’s life.”
The warrior spoke quietly.
“But I cannot simply release you without even confirming your identity in a situation like this.”
……
“You said you’re from the Yak Ryeong-ga? Remain here until our inquiries are complete.”
When the warrior stepped closer, Ryu Jin bristled.
“What kind of talk is that!”
“I mean no disrespect.”
“You’re doing it right now! Miss saved your young master and you’re treating her like this!”
As Ryu Jin pressed further, I raised my hand to stop her.
It was clear he had no intention of backing down.
I glanced quietly around my surroundings.
By then, Yeon Do-pyeong and Yeon Hui-cheon had already vanished into the crowd.
The ones who’d started this mess had slipped away, leaving me to face the consequences alone.
‘The longer I stay here, the more the rumors will spread.’
I forced myself to breathe steadily.
My treatment hadn’t been wrong. If the boy’s condition remained stable, there’d be no reason for anyone to seek me out again.
I caught Heo Jin-byeok’s eye with a subtle glance. He gave the faintest nod in return.
I was reaching for Ryu Jin’s hand, preparing to slip away quietly, when—
Screech.
Steel sang as a blade was drawn from its sheath.
“And where do you think you’re going?”
Heo Jin-byeok immediately unsheathed his own sword and positioned himself between me and the voice.
“Stand down. Don’t lay a hand on her.”
“Not until we’ve verified her identity.”
The Warrior’s voice was ice.
He tightened his grip on the blade. The Qi that poured from him was formidable.
Clang!
In an instant, their swords collided.
“Hmph.”
I’d expected Heo Jin-byeok to overwhelm him—I was sorely mistaken.
The Warrior’s Swordsmanship was exceptional.
His blade moved faster than the eye could follow.
Whoosh!
In that moment, spotting an opening, the Warrior slipped past Heo Jin-byeok’s guard.
“Got you.”
A rough hand seized my shoulder.
“Miss!”
Ryu Jin drew her Short Sword from her sleeve in a panic, but it was already too late.
‘What do I do now?’
Fear made my eyes clench shut without thinking.
Pa-pa-pa-pak!
Then, in utter silence, a figure materialized and swiftly struck the Warrior’s acupoints—the exact points to make his grip fail.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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