Sichuan's Mad Dragon (Novel) - Chapter 10 - Fake Medical Woman

Chapter 10 – Fake Medical Woman

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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He had established the bond between master and disciple. There was still time before bed.

The Divine Physician explained the outline of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art to Ju-seong right there… the very martial art he had learned from the Right Envoy of Light of the White Lotus Cult. Ju-seong listened to the explanation with some anticipation.

“Flaming crow. The crow is originally an ill omen, but when it turns red, it becomes a symbol of the sun. As you can tell from this, the Flame Crow Six Stage Art is a Yang-dominant art that harnesses yang energy.”

Ju-seong drew upon the name and asked a question.

“So it consists of six stages?”

The Divine Physician nodded.

“To be precise, seven stages. The first stage is the initiation, the stage of creating the dantian. This is called White Egg.”

“A white egg, I see.”

The Divine Physician nodded.

“Having only a dantian is like the state of an unhatched egg. You must now break out of the egg, chirp, and start flapping your wings.”

“Then what is the stage after White Egg?”

“It is called Black Crow, the black crow. Of course, a black crow must not remain black. It must burn its feathers with flame and be reborn.”

“Hmm… What stage are you at, Master?”

“I am at the fourth stage, that is, the Red Crow.”

He was only at the fourth stage, yet he was already powerful enough to overwhelm most martial artists. Ju-seong looked at this martial art with new respect.

The Divine Physician finished speaking and rose from the bed, approaching behind Ju-seong.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

He quickly turned around, on guard.

Ju-seong was a man among men, and he never showed his back to another man.

The Divine Physician struck the back of Ju-seong’s neck with a knife-hand to subdue him, then had him sit cross-legged. He said in a slightly annoyed voice.

“Now, you mad… no, disciple. From now on, I will perform energy infusion guidance on you.”

“What is energy infusion guidance?”

“Even if I recite the formulas of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art to you now, you will not understand even a tenth of its profound mysteries. Is that not so?”

“That is correct.”

Though Ju-seong had learned characters from Old Master Hwang, it was barely enough to get through the Thousand Character Classic. He could only stumble through the Seated Deep Breathing Method. There was no way he could read and understand high-level cultivation formulas.

“So I will directly inject energy into your body and teach you the channels of circulation.”

“Ah, I understand.”

“Good. Close your mouth and eyes, and let your thoughts flow freely. Better if you can achieve the state of no thought.”

Ju-seong was quite good at thinking nothing at all. Of course, he was not sure if that was something to be proud of.

As he closed his eyes and cleared his mind to blankness, something warm seeped into his back.

It was the Divine Physician’s internal energy.

The total amount of internal energy in Ju-seong’s mouse-dropping-sized dantian was less than what the Divine Physician injected for this brief guidance.

A situation where the guide had more money than the employer, with the roles completely reversed.

This thug-like guide wandered around various parts of Ju-seong’s body and finally reached his dantian.

‘Hmm, greetings.’

Just as Ju-seong was about to offer a greeting, the rude guide said nothing and immediately reached out.

And grabbed the dantian by the scruff of the neck and hauled it up.

The energy the Divine Physician had injected began forcibly circulating Ju-seong’s internal energy.

And so Ju-seong’s internal energy, grabbed by the hair by the Divine Physician’s internal energy, was forced to travel around his organs.

It was a kind of pathway, but too complex for Ju-seong to memorize right away. There were many forks, he went back the way he came, went and returned, arrived and departed.

‘I am dizzy! Please stop!’

Ju-seong’s delicate internal energy seemed to scream, but the guide was merciless.

He felt his internal energy growing gradually hotter as it traveled this route. What had been featureless was beginning to take on fire energy.

That was not all. The natural energy from deep breaths began to separate on its own. The separated natural energy was absorbed and began latching onto Ju-seong’s internal energy piece by piece.

His mouse-dropping-sized internal energy had already grown in bulk and also radiated a blazing heat like a bonfire.

Just by circulating energy according to the Divine Physician’s guidance, he was drawing in surrounding natural energy and increasing its quantity.

‘Hmm, but the quantity and quality are still no match for the guide’s.’

The Divine Physician’s internal energy was dozens of times hotter than Ju-seong’s.

‘Mmm…’

Ju-seong further settled his consciousness.

‘Let me imagine I am an old monk meditating in a hermitage.’

A shiny bald head. His youth was all behind him, his entire life devoted to the Buddha. Dear me, if he did not attain enlightenment before death, it would be a huge loss.

‘So let me settle my mind even deeper, more calmly. I need to reach enlightenment before I die.’

As he calmly settled his consciousness like that, he could see the internal energy the Divine Physician had injected in the form of a mental image.

It was a crow with its wings spread wide, wrapped in hot flames, crying out…

That appearance was both noble and beautiful at first glance. Just as Ju-seong was staring at it, lost in wonder, the Divine Physician’s startled voice came.

“What, how?”

Ju-seong felt the Divine Physician quickly withdraw his energy. The red crow flapped away into the distance.

‘Do not go…’

Ju-seong reached out his hand, but the crow had already left his body. The Divine Physician asked urgently.

“Did you just glimpse my mental image?”

“I believe so… Is that crow not yours, Master?”

“My goodness… A genius indeed, and also a disaster.”

“Um, Master. With respect, you said the same thing twice.”

Ju-seong was worried. Had his master’s memory begun to decline? Of course, that misunderstanding was cleared up by the Divine Physician’s subsequent explanation.

The Divine Physician caught Ju-seong’s head under his armpit and punished the insolent disciple for treating his master like a doddering old man.

“Disciple, your killing intent is constantly stimulating your upper dantian, that is, your brain. Because of this, you are more intelligent than others. You even glimpsed my mental image through a level of meditation impossible for commoners.”

“What is the upper dantian?”

“Simply put, the brain. Anyway, this is your talent, but also a disaster. I am worried.”

Ju-seong pondered the Divine Physician’s words. He was a heaven-sent genius, but also a heaven-sent disaster.

That disaster was like water collected in a reservoir dam. The moment it burst, it would instantly sweep away the villagers below.

Useful water in normal times, but able to harm others easily if control was lost.

In short, the Divine Physician was saying there was more water in Ju-seong’s reservoir than expected.

In the end, the only solution was to constantly patch the cracks and add materials to reinforce it again and again.

For that reason, from that day on, Ju-seong devoted himself to training. He memorized the small circulation pathway of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art in three days.

And then, except for eating and relieving himself, he sat cross-legged and trained like a madman.

-Creak, crack.

“Ow, why is this happening?”

By about the fifth day, Ju-seong’s pelvis and knees were making sounds like old hinges.

The Divine Physician sighed at the sight and dragged him out for physical training. This madman had absolutely no concept of moderation.

“There is energy, and there is the mind that controls that energy. And the vessel that contains both is the body.”

“Hmm, that is true.”

“Disciple, you sat glued to that spot doing only energy circulation, so your commoner body cannot endure it. I commend your dedication, but originally the growth of energy and essence must go hand in hand.”

Essence referred to the human body, and energy was essentially internal energy. And spirit referred to human consciousness.

The Divine Physician said these three must grow in step together, or one would fall into qi deviation.

Ju-seong thought for a moment and answered.

“So essence and energy suppress the killing intent that grows from my spirit.”

The Divine Physician nodded.

“Therefore, I command you from today to do physical training morning and evening. I will teach you how, so follow diligently.”

When it came to training the body of a martial artist, what came to mind first?

It was the horse stance. What the Divine Physician had him do was precisely that.

“When the lower body is strong, the whole body becomes strong. If the lower body cannot support you, even supreme martial arts lose their brilliance.”

“Ughh…”

Even Ju-seong could not joke around during this hard training.

“If you keep your mouth shut, you look quite presentable. Remember this. The will is inherently weaker than the body. I will tolerate your body giving out and collapsing, but I will not tolerate falling by your own will.”

Ju-seong tried to enter a state of no thought to forget the pain of the horse stance, but that was not easy at all. The burning sensation in his thighs was like fire.

‘I will not collapse.’

He could not collapse over a mere horse stance. He only felt his legs give out after half an hour. This was truly unavoidable. His legs simply refused to work anymore.

“Half an hour for someone who is not even a martial artist yet, that is impressive. You have good bones and muscles, and the flexibility of performing tricks is ingrained in your body.”

The Divine Physician looked at him with admiring eyes as he spoke.

His pride was short-lived. The Divine Physician’s next words instantly plunged Ju-seong into an abyss of despair.

“Now the first training exercise is done.”

* * *

A month passed.

The Divine Physician still went back and forth between the buildings, checking on the mysterious woman’s condition every afternoon.

Ju-seong just kept his mouth shut, eyes closed, and continued training.

This was because training was fun. He was a man who never tried hard at anything that was not fun.

The thing called energy became more profound and mysterious the more he felt it. When he inhaled, natural energy from the air rushed into his lungs.

When he received the natural energy and circulated it along the Flame Crow Six Stage Art’s channels, it somehow took on hot yang energy and settled in his dantian.

A significant portion of natural energy was sacrificed in this process, which meant originally natural energy contained yin, yang, and five-element energies all mixed together.

Among these, only yang and fire energy were accepted and stored. That was the principle of the Flame Crow Six Stage Art.

Physical training also brought joy in its own way.

Following the Divine Physician’s instructions, after body training was done, Ju-seong circulated the Flame Crow Six Stage Art’s healing formula.

The healing formula referred to a formula with the function of healing wounds. The healing portion was not very difficult, so even Ju-seong at his current level could recite it.

-The body grows stronger through repeated destruction and recovery. In other words, as muscles and bones are microscopically broken through training and then healed, they become tougher and larger.

Recalling the Divine Physician’s teaching, he circulated the healing formula. With high-intensity training followed by healing through the formula, the Flame Crow Art’s energy naturally seeped into his muscles and bones.

This simultaneously strengthened Ju-seong’s body to be suitable for the Flame Crow Six Stage Art while also tempering his muscles and bones.

-You are not yet at the age of adulthood, so you have not finished growing in height and your muscles and bones are not yet mature. This is potential. The more you repeat physical training and the healing formula, the more solid your foundation will become.

“Hmm.”

Ju-seong squeezed and released his hand, feeling the strength within. The Flame Crow Six Stage Art was already at the complete first stage, Black Crow.

He had stabilized the first stage within two months of starting. With internal energy and body alone, he could now claim to be a complete third-rate martial artist.

Of course, since he had not learned any fist techniques, footwork, or other martial arts, he was in an ambiguous state to call himself a martial artist.

Ju-seong was now confident he could beat those three third-rate martial artists from the Blood Sword Sect without any tricks.

His mouse-dropping-sized dantian had grown to about mouse-pellet size.

The energy contained within radiated extraordinary heat, so in terms of power, it was on a completely different level from other third-rate martial artists.

Ju-seong had been training all day when a question arose about the healing formula’s circulation, so he left the building to find the Divine Physician.

“Hmm, where did he go?”

He poked around here and there in the clinic but could not find him anywhere.

‘Did he go to that woman’s building?’

He thought of the woman of noble appearance.

She was a person suffering from a condition not easily cured even with the self-proclaimed Divine Physician Wi Ji-baek and the truly divine physician-worthy Seo-baek working together.

He decided to head toward the woman’s building to look for the Divine Physician.

As Ju-seong entered the courtyard, a medical woman happened to be walking toward the building.

‘Hmm…?’

Ju-seong tilted his head in puzzlement.

The medical women here all attended to patients with devotion.

Their conduct never lost propriety, and no matter how low-status the other person was, they treated them with courtesy.

The sick woman was someone of high status using an entire separate building. When attending to her, the medical women would be even more courteous, if anything. They could not be disrespectful.

Yet this woman was about to open the building’s door and enter without so much as a word of notice?

“How strange.”

He had a good memory, and he had never seen that medical woman at the All-Living Clinic. Of course, with permanent staff rotating shifts, someone who spent most of his time in the buildings might not know her.

But given the circumstances, it was suspicious.

He immediately channeled Flame Crow Six Stage Art energy into his thighs and charged at the medical woman’s back.

Fundamentally, action should be taken without hesitation. If this was a misunderstanding, he could apologize.

-Thud! Thud! Thud!

The sound of kicking the ground was crude.

Since he had not learned footwork, his use of internal energy was similar to before. Just recklessly injecting energy into his muscles to contract them.

But circulating energy using the channels as reference made deployment freer. The Flame Crow Art’s energy itself was also remarkably powerful.

The medical woman jumped in surprise at his charging form and widened her eyes.

In Ju-seong’s eyes, her pupils contracted as they fixed on him.

But there was no fear. Even though a large man was charging at terrifying speed.

From that, Ju-seong found certainty and immediately swung his fist.

“You are an assassin! You wench!”