Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 36 - The Heart Beats (3)

Chapter 36 – The Heart Beats (3)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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It was an interesting experience to feel my inner qi increasing little by little each time I completed a circulation. It wasn’t as fast as when it had gone berserk, but even so, one minor circulation now finished in a single chonkak, a minute and a half, so the speed was tremendous. The speed at which inner qi accumulated was fast enough for me to feel it directly.

As I kept repeating the minor circulation like that, an entire night passed in the blink of an eye. Since I had continued regulating and circulating qi, even without sleeping at all my mind remained clear. It was the day I finally understood why martial artists didn’t need much sleep.

“Young man, perhaps…”

Hyeong Tae-seong came to find me early in the morning and began cautiously. I had already known he would come.

“You want me to treat other people too?”

“…How did you know?”

Hyeong Tae-seong had said he was an incorruptible official who cared deeply for the common people. In truth, even if he hadn’t been such an official, it would have been entirely natural for a government official to seek someone who could treat the epidemic.

I was about to nod at once, since I couldn’t let this chance slip, not when it could place the future grand minister in my debt. Unexpectedly, however, Myeong-gyeong spoke before I did.

“No. Junior Brother needs recuperation right now.”

“Hm?”

“You saw the blood in the room, didn’t you? Treating her must have put a huge strain on his body.”

At Myeong-gyeong’s words, Hyeong Tae-seong’s face turned grave. He seemed not to have considered that.

“…I see. Then I must have imposed on you unfairly.”

“Junior Brother. Refuse him.”

Myeong-gyeong was firmer than I expected. His lips were tightly pressed together, as though he wouldn’t allow even the slightest compromise. I found that so adorable that I rested a hand on his head.

“What does a little strain matter? There’s nothing more important than human life.”

“I said no.”

“It’s all right, my lord.”

At my words, Hyeong Tae-seong looked deeply moved. Of course, it wasn’t that I intended to sacrifice myself to save other people. I had Unyielding now, and since I’d already done it once, I was fairly sure I could manage it this time without another bloodbath.

Besides, even without the demonic qi, if I used the purging method and Bupleurum and Poria Decoction, the cases shouldn’t grow serious enough to reach death. The people who had died back then had done so because they had actually been suffering a yang syndrome but were given Aconite Decoction to stoke their yang qi. In fact, as I remembered it, those who had simply held on without receiving any treatment at all had eventually recovered naturally.

So I could just tell them the treatment method and warn them not to prescribe formulas that strengthened yang qi. But this was an opportunity. Only fools let opportunities pass by.

“Naturally I should help.”

“Are you truly sure? If it will strain your body, I have no intention of forcing you.”

“Not at all. Though I may be a lay disciple, I am still a person of Wudang. How could I simply watch while the common people suffer?”

“They say the people of Wudang are truly knightly, and it seems that isn’t wrong at all.”

There was practically honey dripping from Hyeong Tae-seong’s gaze as he looked at me. From his point of view, I had saved his daughter and was now stepping forward to save other commoners too, so I must well have looked like some kind of hero.

But I wasn’t helping from any such lofty motive.

First, Hyeong Tae-seong was someone destined to become a grand minister in the future. If I won his favor now, it was certain to help me one way or another later.

“Then for now, please gather the patients at the Provincial Administration Commission. Using the purging method and Bupleurum and Poria Decoction should at least show some improvement, but to pull out the roots of it, I’ll have to examine them myself.”

“Understood. Leave that to me.”

I smiled at the resolve in Hyeong Tae-seong’s voice.

The second reason was that I intended to use the treatment to build up my inner qi. I could simply prescribe formulas, yes, but I had no idea what the demonic qi inside their bodies might do to them. From the patients’ side, I would be removing an ominous energy from their bodies. From my side, I would be absorbing qi. It was killing two birds with one stone.

“Then there isn’t a moment to waste. Even now the common people are suffering.”

When I stepped outside, a carriage was already waiting, as though they’d expected from the start that I would agree to come.

“You’re really going?”

Myeong-gyeong, who had followed me out, asked in a worried tone. I chuckled.

“It’ll be fine.”

“Then I want to come too.”

“No. Sick people carrying an epidemic will be coming. What if you catch it, Senior Brother?”

“…I’m your senior brother, so why are there so many things I can’t do?”

Myeong-gyeong grumbled. Even so, he was a good child. Once I told him someone had to stay and watch over the girl here, he stopped trying to hold me back.

“Don’t get hurt.”

“Of course.”

I smiled at Myeong-gyeong, then climbed into the carriage with Hyeong Tae-seong. Since time was urgent, the carriage set off the instant I got in.

“Whew.”

When I looked out the window, the streets felt strangely desolate. With an epidemic going around, people simply weren’t coming out.

More than anything, though, I still couldn’t understand why demonic qi had seeped into that epidemic. Was the Demonic Cult really responsible for spreading it? Why would they do such a thing?

Of course, there was something even more important than that. There was demonic qi rooted within my own body.

‘Demonic qi.’

For a Registered lay disciple of the Wudang Sect to possess demonic qi. If that was ever discovered, I would immediately be labeled a spy of the Demonic Cult and executed by the Martial Alliance. There was no way any excuse about having eaten the Divine Demon Pill in a previous life would be accepted.

But the demonic qi was already deeply rooted in my body. If one cultivated inner qi of another kind on top of that, one would fall into deviation. Since things had come to this, I had no choice but to continue accumulating demonic qi.

Wind blew in through the carriage window. Since there was no one in those alleys to share warmth with, the cold air rushing through them felt even more chill.

By the time I had turned such thoughts over and over, we had arrived at the government office. The moment Hyeong Tae-seong got out, he began moving busily. As I had said, it would take many hands to gather the patients together.

“That young man can really cure them?”

“He cured even my daughter. Why would I lie?”

Several officials were suspicious of me. Naturally so. Even the best physicians in Wuhan had found the illness difficult, so how could they not doubt someone claiming to cure it?

But Hyeong Tae-seong’s reputation was even stronger than I had expected.

“If Lord Hyeong says so, then it must be so.”

“We’ll send the constables to post public notices.”

With the full cooperation of the Provincial Administration Commission, notices were quickly posted throughout Wuhan. Fortunately, it seemed the epidemic had not yet spread to the other prefectures of Hubei, so controlling it in Wuhan would be enough. Originally, it was a sickness that had started in Wuhan and then spread through all of Hubei.

“They’re gathering one by one.”

They had originally intended to set up temporary tents outside the Provincial Administration Commission, but the people who came flooding in looked like clouds themselves. There had been more infected people than I had expected.

“…Will this really be all right?”

“It will. Before I examine them myself, have the physicians begin by applying the purging method to the patients and brewing Bupleurum and Poria Decoction.”

The moment the patients began arriving, there was no longer any time to rest. The Provincial Administration Commission summoned nearly every physician in Wuhan to tend to the patients. I handled it by taking the pulse of the patients after the purging was done.

Their symptoms were all exactly alike, as if stamped from the same mold. Unlike with Hyeong Tae-seong’s daughter, I placed my hand on each patient’s back. Laying a hand on the back made it far easier to guide qi than placing a hand on the wrist.

Now that I understood how to handle the inner qi, it was far easier than before. The demonic qi built up inside the patients varied from one person to another, but the demonic qi itself moved so quickly that the time it took to absorb it was broadly similar in each case.

The guardians who had come with the patients confirmed that the limbs which had been cold as ice were warming again, and they kept thanking me one after another.

“Thank you so much, my lord. I truly thought my mother was going to die…”

“I’ve drawn the qi out completely, so now let her recuperate and feed her rice gruel.”

“Thank you. To me, sir, you are Bian Que and Hua Tuo both.”

Some of them even tried to prostrate themselves before me, but the constables at my side stopped them, saying many more patients were still waiting behind.

The patients truly came in like a flood, but I wasn’t particularly tired. That was because I was receiving qi from the patients. So, rather than tiring, I actually grew more vigorous the more of them I treated.

Perhaps because it looked to the constables as though I were overworking myself, one of them even came to advise me.

“The Vice Minister of Revenue says that if it becomes too much, you may rest and continue later.”

“It’s all right. If I rest, won’t that only lengthen the time the patients must continue suffering?”

I said that while wiping imaginary sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. Things like this would all pile up and remain behind as warm stories about me.

I hadn’t intended to act this shamelessly, but the moment I heard that the Vice Minister of Revenue was paying attention, the performance came naturally. A Vice Minister of Revenue was a high official of the third rank. The fact that such a high-ranking official was watching made this an enormous opportunity for me.

I couldn’t even remember how many patients I saw. Once it passed a hundred, I gave up counting. Even so, the more I worked, the faster I became at absorbing demonic qi, so the time per patient shrank.

The treatment that had begun at noon finally ended at in hour. In other words, it had taken half a day and another full shichen. No matter how much demonic qi I absorbed, leaving me free of physical fatigue, mental fatigue had still piled up until I felt utterly spent.

As I lay slumped in the chair, resting in silence, the door opened cautiously.

“All the common people have gone home now. You truly worked hard.”

The one who entered first was Hyeong Tae-seong. Behind him came a middle-aged man I didn’t know, but just from a glance, he was clearly of higher rank than Hyeong Tae-seong, so I straightened and stood at once.

“No need to rise. Stay seated and rest.”

“This is the Vice Minister of Revenue.”

The middle-aged man told me to remain seated, but once Hyeong Tae-seong had identified him, there was no way I could stay sitting.

“I am Muk Hui-yeong.”

“I am Jin Mu-byeok, serving as Vice Minister of Revenue here in Hubei.”

“It is an honor to meet Lord Jin.”

“Honor? You’re the one who made sure my head stayed on my shoulders, my benefactor.”

Jin Mu-byeok stepped up personally, grasped both my hands, and praised my deed. I could feel his gratitude was sincere. Well, if the epidemic had grown and spread across all of Hubei as it had in my previous life, then not only the Vice Minister but even the Provincial Administration Commission itself might have lost their heads.

In truth, I didn’t know the name Jin Mu-byeok from my previous life. Most likely, he had lost his office partway through, which was why I never knew of him then. To him, I was truly his benefactor.

“The epidemic was growing by the day, and everyone was beside themselves with worry, but you put an end to it.”

“We’re fortunate it was stopped before it grew any larger.”

“We truly are. Even the Provincial Administration Commissioner will praise your merits.”

“I only did what I ought to do. Such praise is almost embarrassing.”

“Hoho. Even after accomplishing something so great, you’re still so modest.”

Jin Mu-byeok looked pleased and gave my shoulder a few pats.

“You’ve overworked yourself too much today, and it’s already late, so stay the night here in the government office. We’ve prepared a sleeping place.”

“I can only be grateful for your consideration.”

“No need for thanks.”

Following Hyeong Tae-seong, I entered the guest room prepared in the government office. Normally it was a place where officials on duty rested, but it seemed they had emptied it out for my sake.

Once I was alone, I quietly tested my qi again. My inner qi had increased noticeably. Even if it was only fragmented demonic qi, I had absorbed demonic qi from several hundred people, so that result was only natural.

‘…Could even I become a martial artist?’

Strictly speaking, there were merchants who possessed formidable martial arts. Actually, the All-Under-Heaven Merchant Company, one of the greatest merchant companies in the Central Plains, had a company lord who occupied one of the seats among the Five Great Sword Masters Under Heaven.

There had been times in my life as a merchant when I had envied martial artists who roamed beneath heaven with only a single sword. I had simply given up on the thought early, because it belonged to a realm I could never reach.

But now, it felt as though I could faintly see something.

A sensation I had not felt after I had grown older and established my place.

My heart was beating.