The Treatment Room
Originally, it was a place where acupuncture or moxibustion was used for healing.
However, this time was different.
In the middle of the room, a girl lay on a bed that had been cleaned spotless and disinfected with strong alcohol.
Bai Lin Yishen and Jin Cheonhui were looking down at her.
Yoo Ho stood quietly behind Jegal Lin, as always.
"Is it possible with the medical skills you know?"
"... I can't give a definite answer."
This is a world without X-rays, CT scans, or MRIs.
There are no various medicines, not even IVs or syringes.
'If the descriptions from the novel are correct, maybe...'
Jin Cheonhui spoke.
"First, we need to check how her insides are shaken up. Is that possible, Master?"
Bai Lin Yishen nodded.
"You want to know more than just by feeling the pulse, right?"
"Yes. I still can't perform Jingqi Pulse Diagnosis."
One of the things that surprised Jin Cheonhui the most upon coming to this martial arts world was precisely that.
Jingqi Pulse Diagnosis.
The ability to diagnose the inside of the body using Qi.
It was similar to ultrasound but more accurate because of Qi perception.
It was like flowing Qi through the body and feeling the inside as if touching it with hands.
Jegal Lin placed his hand on the child's abdomen.
There seemed to be a thumping sound, but the vibration transmitted to the belly was almost nonexistent.
A weak internal energy, which ordinary people wouldn't feel, penetrated the stomach like sound waves.
'It's amazing no matter how many times I see it...
I have enough internal energy, so if I try harder, I might be able to use it too?'
Jin Cheonhui also had internal energy equivalent to ten years' worth.
However, he couldn't perform Jingqi Pulse Diagnosis yet because his control over Jingqi wasn't delicate enough.
If he achieved a higher level, he would soon be able to perform such pulse diagnosis.
While Jin Cheonhui was thinking that, Jegal Lin closed his eyes and focused on the sensations at his fingertips.
He felt the returning waves of internal energy and began to draw the patient's condition on rice paper.
Jin Cheonhui watched in a daze at the astonishing skill.
'...
To hear the voice of the gods in the martial world, do you have to be at that level?'
Jegal Lin spoke.
"What I'm about to say must remain between the three of us. Understand?"
Yoo Ho, familiar with such matters, didn't even respond.
Only Jin Cheonhui nodded heavily.
"The one who attacked the child used a rather profound internal injury technique. And there's a unique characteristic left. This is only possible if one has mastered an original martial art."
At those words, Jin Cheonhui recalled the martial arts novels he had read.
There was only one answer.
"Does that mean the culprit belongs to a specific sect?"
"Yes."
In novels, martial arts leave characteristic wounds depending on their origin.
It might look like being clawed by a tiger or leave marks as if sawn.
Characters in novels often exclaim, 'Ha! This is the △ martial art of O sect...! Such wickedness!' upon seeing it.
'Master is one of the three great divine doctors of the martial world.
Inferring martial arts from wounds is natural, but... in the 21st century Earth, it's like identifying a gun type from bullet marks.'
Jegal Lin continued with difficulty.
"It's someone from the righteous sect, the Bai Dao."
The righteous sect.
No matter how much enmity there was, attacking someone's family, especially a child, was unimaginable.
That was something only the most vile of the unorthodox sects would do.
'Things were tangled up complicatedly.'
In the novel, Gung Gui ultimately couldn't find the culprit.
Jegal Lin said, "Hui, I'm sorry to show you something like this."
"It's the world that's bad, not you, Master. And knowing is necessary to do anything."
Humans cannot be defined by one thing.
There could be those in the righteous sect worse than the unorthodox, and conversely, those in the unorthodox better than the righteous.
The same went for doctors.
Some, under the guise of treating patients, were driven solely by money, and some caused medical accidents while operating drunk.
Some lied to bereaved families, saying the illness was too deep to help.
There were those who used anesthetics like drugs in the bathroom.
Conversely, there were those who volunteered to visit impoverished villages without taking a penny.
Some tirelessly saved lives until they died from overwork, even though no one recognized them.
Whether righteous or unorthodox didn't matter.
A group was just a mud pit made of people.
Jin Cheonhui thought, 'If this spreads wrongly, it could become troublesome.'
If the culprit was from the righteous sect, they would do anything to silence it.
Jin Cheonhui said, "That enmity belongs to the man called Gung Gui, not something we should get involved in."
There was a detachment in his voice that was hard to believe came from a child.
Jin Cheonhui's focus was solely on saving the patient.
Jegal Lin somehow felt that Jin Cheonhui resembled his own bad side.
But that was also an important quality of a doctor in the martial world.
'Originally, I wouldn't have taken this patient.'
He had already felt it when he first checked the pulse.
That he couldn't save this child.
And even if he did, it could become very troublesome.
Normally, he wouldn't have even taken a step.
"Let's do that."
If not for his disciple.
Absolutely.
'Her organs are ruptured, and necrosis is happening inside.
The fact that she's still alive must be because of that Qi and the existence of miraculous medicine, right?'
He agrees that it wouldn't be strange if she died at any moment.
Yet, seeing her still breathing, the Qi of this world was indeed fascinating.
'Fortunately, the surgery itself seems somehow possible.
The problem is whether the patient has enough strength to endure the surgery.'
There's no 100% certainty.
Even Jin Cheonhui couldn't guarantee this.
After conveying everything to his master, Jin Cheonhui said, "I think we need the family's consent."
"You're quite systematic."
At those words, Jin Cheonhui flinched.
'No, then how do you perform surgery without guardian consent...
Ah... you don't...
Here, you don't, but then if the patient dies, how... medical lawsuits... don't exist...
It's the martial world, so do they just kill the doctor with a sword according to martial law? Is that something only the unorthodox would do? But looking at that child, there's nothing special about the righteous sect either?'
Thinking that far, Jin Cheonhui immediately said, "All the more reason to tell them."
"Alright. Then will you explain?"
Jin Cheonhui shook his head.
To others, he was just a young disciple, not seen as a doctor.
In times like this, tact was important.
"Please, Master."
At those words, Jegal Lin smiled bitterly.
"Because of you, I've changed a lot too."
Jegal Lin explained as simply as possible to Gung Gui, who had been waiting.
After listening, Gung Gui spoke.
"So there are two options. One is to let her die peacefully. With the divine doctor's acupuncture, she won't feel pain until her last breath, and with a final burst of energy, she can regain consciousness for a short conversation. The deceased's body will also remain clean. Is that correct?"
Jegal Lin nodded.
"Yes, that's correct."
"The other option is to fight the illness to the end. Today is the critical point, and if we use the martial arts, the deceased's body might be damaged if we fail, and my daughter might suffer."
In an era without modern medicine, there was no way to know if surgery would go as desired.
Gung Gui's expression twisted.
Was he recalling his wife, who had passed away painfully?
"You are a divine doctor. Why can't you guarantee it?"
"..."
Jegal Lin's expression turned bitter at those words.
In the silence, Gung Gui spoke.
"Still... you're a hundred times better than the first doctor who confidently claimed he could cure her perfectly."
The man's hands trembled.
"Are you asking me this so that if it fails, I won't blame you?"
Jegal Lin replied, "No. It's because I, a stranger who met the patient for the first time today, cannot choose her fate at will. You know the patient best. What would she want?"
"..."
Gung Gui blankly thought of his daughter.
In the past, his daughter had said to him:
-Disguise? It's okay! I've liked this kind of thing for a long time! I'll make sure the bad guys never find out, so you have to defeat them all, okay, Dad?
His daughter was braver than anyone.
He couldn't bring himself to tell her what he was really doing.
-These days, even heroes make a lot of money.
There must be many good people.
Bodyguards? Do you need those too? It must be hard to meet friends.
It's okay.
They can come over.
And I'm good at playing alone.
He lied to his daughter.
He said he was a hero of the martial world, earning money through heroic deeds.
So she shouldn't worry and should spend the money he earned freely.
The child, innocent to the end, believed him.
-Tell me stories of the martial world, Dad.
Before sleeping, his daughter would pester him.
Listening to stories of great heroes in the martial world, she believed she could become one too.
She wanted to learn martial arts and do heroic deeds with him.
She wanted to become a great hero.
-Why are you so late, Dad...
I couldn't be like you...
But I fought well against the bad guys, right...?
His daughter was colder than usual then.
Her temperature was like his wife's.
Blood seeped from between her clenched teeth.
He was a liar.
And a coward.
He hated suffering from poverty but feared being pointed at by his daughter.
He was such a person.
The man spoke in a suppressed voice, as if shouting.
"Then please let her go peacefully. No more suffering."
At Gung Gui's voice, Jegal Lin asked, "Are you sure about that?"
"If she dies... If she dies, just like my wife..."
He couldn't speak any further.
The man's face was filled with pain.
With trembling lips, he said he couldn't take it anymore.
Jegal Lin sent a glance to Jin Cheonhui.
Jin Cheonhui sighed and nodded.
'Yes.
That too is a choice...'
As Jegal Lin was about to rise, the man shouted. "... Please save her! Just save her...!"
It was the desperate cry of a father who couldn't accept his daughter's life fading away.
He grabbed Jegal Lin's robe.
He had made his choice.
It was something raw and indescribable in human nature.
"Please, just save her. I'd rather be in pain instead. I'd rather die instead... Why does that child have to die when this foolish father is still alive...!"
A parent's cry, thought a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times, came out.
It should have been him who died.
It should have been him, the liar.
Jegal Lin didn't answer.
He simply bowed deeply to the man's choice and stepped outside.
Then he asked, "Hui, do you think the child will survive?"