Volume 2 Chapter 21 – Medicine King
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Translated by Rain
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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The Medicine King .
A single sentence was enough to explain him.
The pinnacle of all physicians.
He visited Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment.
* * *
The Life-Snatching Ghost Sword whispered to Jeong-ah.
“Is that person really him? The one who is said to be able to save even a dead person, as long as they can take medicine and drink decoctions?”
“Yes. That is what I understand.”
The Life-Snatching Ghost Sword whispered again.
“The one on whom the imperial family directly bestowed the title of Medicine King?”
“Yes.”
The Life-Snatching Ghost Sword shook his head.
“…In my eyes, he just looks like a senile old man, though?”
Where his gaze was directed, there was the figure of the old man diligently teasing the twin maid who was guiding the way.
“Aha, aha. This Medicine King is saying he will diagnose you himself, and you are refusing?”
“…If you lay a hand on my buttocks once more, I will cut off that hand for you.”
“Aigo. A big problem, a big problem. How about the lady walking in front? By any chance, do you have chest pain lately? I can cure it quickly if I just feel it a little?”
Jeong-ah turned back and smiled.
“You do not need to worry, as Master always looks after my health.”
The shabby old man, whose nose was dyed red, jumped up and down.
“No, that fellow directly looks after the lady’s large and soft-looking chest?! What an impudent and utterly enviable fellow!”
Jeong-ah burst into laughter.
The Life-Snatching Ghost Sword sighed.
His medical skills might be one thing, but he was an old man with a serious mental state.
* * *
The point where the old man, who had been chattering dirty jokes for a long time, suddenly stopped was the end of the forest path.
The place where the forest path ended and the Peach Blossom Spring -like scenery of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment began.
At that breathtaking scenery, it was a place where anyone who set foot there had no choice but to stop once.
The twin maid sneered at the Medicine King inwardly.
‘Hmph. Old man, how is the taste of our Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment’s scenery?’
She was putting on airs, despite having arrived barely half a day ago herself.
To check the Medicine King’s expression, she looked up at his face, then turned her head away.
“……”
Around the old man’s eyes as he looked at the scenery, a regret too deep and a longing too dense for the young her to dare measure were smeared.
“…Do you girls know?”
He rubbed his red, swollen nose and continued.
“This Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment was originally So-yu’s residence.”
Jeong-ah, having something in mind, asked.
“If it is Lady So-yu, are you referring to the Medicine Celestial who is the Eldest Young Master’s mother?”
The one who answered those words was the Life-Snatching Ghost Sword.
“That is correct. The Eldest Young Master was born here, and I heard that is also the reason why Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment is still the Eldest Young Master’s property.”
The Medicine King quietly moved his steps.
The others also quietly followed behind him.
In everything his eyes touched, there was no place where the touch of the mother and son had not reached.
Even a single cedar tree and a single flower had all started from their touch.
Everyone was curious about what kind of relationship existed between the Medicine King, the Eldest Young Master, and his mother.
However, there was no one who dared to bring it up.
Although no one guided him, he walked ahead and arrived in front of Yeon So-hyeon’s quarters.
The old man examined every corner of the building for a moment, as if trying to take it all into his eyes.
Just as everyone’s heart was about to ache at that somewhat sorrowful sight, the old man shouted in a loud voice.
“You rascal! Your teacher has come all this way, yet you do not even come out to see me, as if saving your steps!”
It was the moment one of the questions was resolved.
He was indeed Yeon So-hyeon’s teacher.
“What did you say?”
The door slid open, and Yeon So-hyeon, dressed in scholar’s attire as usual, revealed himself.
He continued speaking indifferently.
“Who do you say is my teacher? My medical skills were all realized by myself.”
The question started again.
The old man jumped.
“I taught your mother, and you learned from your mother, did you not?! And you must have also studied by reading the medical books I wrote?!”
Although it was not widely known, it seemed that Yak So-yu, who had been called the manifestation of the Medicine Buddha , was the Medicine King’s disciple.
And Yeon So-hyeon’s medical skills were learned from his mother.
While the others were busy deducing, Yeon So-hyeon snorted again.
“Do not make me laugh. My mother never taught me medical skills. And those medical books of yours were of such low quality that I just glanced over them and used them in the latrine.”
The heads of those who were listening grew dizzy.
“It is starting again! You rude fellow!”
“You are the one who shouldn’t start again! You old geezer!”
The Medicine King shouted to Jeong-ah with a face flushed red with heat.
“Bring all the alcohol there is right now! Today, I will surely show this arrogant fellow who his teacher is!”
Yeon So-hyeon sneered coldly.
“You must have come to waste the alcohol my mother brewed again.”
“You miserly fellow! Do you begrudge a single cup of alcohol to the teacher who came to honor the disciple who left first!”
“You useless drunkard. To you, even a cup of water is a waste.”
Jeong-ah laughed heartily at the sight of the Medicine King shouting and jumping around, and the Eldest Young Master, whose appearance could never normally be seen.
“What a truly affectionate relationship.”
At those words, the twin maid and the Life-Snatching Ghost Sword looked at Jeong-ah with strange eyes.
Jeong-ah ignored their gazes and gave instructions to the twin maid.
“You go take the rest and prepare a grand table of alcohol. I will take care of the alcohol. I have a guess where it is.”
The twin maid nodded and asked.
“In that case, how should we handle the tea service?”
Jeong-ah shrugged her shoulders.
“Perhaps Master will prepare the tea himself.”
“Will he really…?”
The twin maid’s gaze turned toward the two.
“You lecherous old man.”
“You lacking fellow?!”
Yeon So-hyeon spoke coldly.
“Come in. It is cold bickering outside.”
“Fine! I brought good tea leaves, so since you seem pitiful, I will specially let you enjoy the aroma!”
“Ha, you are planning to make me out to be a miser who does not even serve tea to a guest!”
At the sight of the two entering inside amicably, the twin maid was dumbfounded.
Jeong-ah showed her a ‘see?’ expression and left the spot.
“I can’t understand it at all.”
Murmuring so, the twin maid also left.
Left alone in that place, the Life-Snatching Ghost Sword muttered.
“…What about me?”
* * *
Jeong-ah spoke as she poured alcohol into the Medicine King’s empty bowl.
“So, you two are good competitors, neck and neck in the stage of medicine, are you not?”
The Medicine King gulped down the bowl and burst into anger.
“What are you talking about?! Even if I have applied acupuncture, I have applied hundreds of millions more needles than that fellow! Can a greenhorn like that even be compared to this Medicine King?!”
Yeon So-hyeon snorted and gulped down the cup of alcohol Jeong-ah had poured for him.
“Doing it accurately even if only prescribing once is what is important, do you think the frequency matters?”
“Ah, so you two are in a relationship where you cover each other’s weaknesses and draw out each other’s strengths!”
“No!”
“Of course not!”
The twin maid who was serving new side dishes shook her head inwardly at Jeong-ah’s words.
‘How can she spin it so well like that?’
Yeon So-hyeon’s eyes gleamed as he provoked the Medicine King.
“If you are so confident in your skill, take this child’s pulse here and guess her constitution!”
“Ha! If you thought I would be flustered by a mere rare constitution, it is a huge miscalculation, you rascal!”
The Medicine King grabbed the wrist Jeong-ah held out and began taking her pulse.
“Oho, this is…”
He smacked his lips.
“First of all, looking at the overall state of the acupoints, it seems like severed meridians. Hmm, it seems to have been treated once.”
He nodded his head repeatedly.
“This skill belongs to that lacking disciple fellow.”
“I am not your disciple.”
Indeed, the Medicine King was the Medicine King.
Jeong-ah was filled with admiration.
“But, this is…?”
His eyes snapped open.
Those deep eyes were filled with strong doubt.
“To harbor a dragon within a human body, what on earth is your identity?”
At that moment, Yeon So-hyeon quickly pulled Jeong-ah and drew her into his embrace.
“Ha! Old man, I knew you wouldn’t know after all.”
The Medicine King jumped up from his spot.
“No, you rascal?! Snatching a patient away during pulse diagnosis, what kind of rule is this under the heavens of the Central Plains?!”
While holding Jeong-ah whose face was flushed red, Yeon So-hyeon spoke to the Medicine King.
“How about it? Do you not want to try curing this child’s severed meridians once?”
He wore a deep smile.
“If we cure these severed meridians, aren’t you curious what will happen to the dragon this child harbors?”
The Medicine King trembled.
He was a person who could never overcome curiosity.
“Y-you rascal. I lost. So let me take the pulse again.”
Yeon So-hyeon wore a smile reminiscent of a villain.
“If you want to make such a request, grant me one request.”
“What?!”
Yeon So-hyeon ignored the old man’s reaction and brought out his requirement.
“Provide the locations or clues of my mother’s acquaintances.”
The old man shouted in frustration.
“You rascal! You know as well, don’t you?! They are all in the Medicine Fairy Sect !”
Yeon So-hyeon shook his head.
“No. I am not talking about those laughably foolish bastards.”
“……!”
Unlike until now, Yeon So-hyeon’s face was serious.
“Not those who do trashy things by putting forward that they are relatives, but my mother’s ‘real’ acquaintances.”
The old man swallowed dry saliva.
“You… what are you plotting?”
Yeon So-hyeon chuckled.
“Because I am tired of this life now. And since they chatter so much about the Swordless or whatever, I am slowly getting ticked off too.”
“Do not joke.”
The old man straightened his face.
“You, who used to spout things like non-action and naturalness day and night as if you were Lao Tzu , no matter who came to persuade you?”
Yeon So-hyeon shrugged his shoulders.
“Am I not also a teenager whose mood fluctuates all the time? I have just come to want to live in a new way.”
The old man put down the bowl he was holding.
“Cut the nonsense and speak properly. What on earth are you thinking?”
Yeon So-hyeon also let go of Jeong-ah whom he was holding.
“…I just want to take responsibility too.”
The old man’s eyes deepened.
“Is it true?”
“It is true.”
The old man hesitated for a long time before speaking.
“…There is no way you do not know what kind of sacrifice your mother made, is there?”
Yeon So-hyeon’s expression stiffened.
He brought out a bundle of documents he had kept in a corner of his room.
“This will serve as an answer.”
The old man untied the documents and began to read.
“Report on the newly emerged Heavenly Killing Star in the due north …!”
Those documents were a report delivered to Yeon So-hyeon, the supervisor of the institution, by the astronomers of the Sword Family’s Astronomical Pavilion .
The old man read and reread the report with an incredulous expression.
“This is…!”
The old man opened his mouth several times, only to close it again.
The old man, who closed his eyes and organized his thoughts for a long time, nodded.
“I understand. I will tell you what I know about them.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
“But before that, I also have a condition!”
The old man’s voice rose.
Yeon So-hyeon’s eyebrows twitched.
“Speak.”
The old man looked at Yeon So-hyeon and spoke.
“Before that, I must take your pulse first.”
Not a single trace of alcohol could be felt on the face of the old man speaking in that manner.
His deep eyes filled with profound mystery were trembling.
“So-hyeon. What on earth did you do to your body?”
At those words, Jeong-ah gasped beside him.