Cheonwoo's one side of the face was so disfigured that there was a worry he might be ostracized by his peers.
To this, Cheonwoo replied, "I'm... okay, so don't worry about me, brother. You saved my life and changed it too. No matter what happens, I can manage well."
Saying this made his face itch.
Jincheonhee awkwardly laughed and scratched his cheek.
Cheonwoo put on a serious expression.
"If it's alright, can I treat you like my real brother?"
"Huh? Are you saying we should become sworn brothers?"
"... Yes."
Cheonwoo nodded heavily.
It was almost amusing to see a child acting so serious, but he held back his laughter.
Since Cheonwoo had entered the Wudang Sect, he would become a great martial artist, and he knew how significant a sworn brotherhood was to a martial artist.
Jincheonhee said, "I have another sworn brother. If he agrees, then I'll allow it."
Cheonma Yeoharyun.
That guy had already formed a sworn brotherhood with him.
Jincheonhee couldn't decide this on his own here.
"There's another one? Did he also receive the grace of life-saving?"
Cheonwoo asked in surprise.
"I'm a doctor, you know."
"Oh..."
He seemed dissatisfied.
It was understandable to feel that way when you had to get permission from someone you didn't know at all. 'Hmm, I didn't expect there to be a waiting list for sworn brothers.'
Jincheonhee pondered over the unexpected situation. 'Can I just decide this on my own? Isn't that wrong? I've never seen a martial arts novel where they recruit sworn brothers with a time gap like this, so I don't know.'
Jincheonhee spoke to the disappointed Cheonwoo.
"Since I'm the older brother, if I explain well to Yeoharyun, he'll allow it. Don't worry too much."
At his words, Cheonwoo nodded.
"Yes! Even if he doesn't allow it, in my heart, Jincheonhee hyung is my brother, so it's okay."
This guy seemed to take the grace of life-saving seriously too.
His personality was the complete opposite of Cheonma, but in this aspect, they were similar... 'Or maybe not.
Come to think of it, this kid really hit rock bottom and then his life changed...'
The more followers, the better.
Jincheonhee ruffled Cheonwoo's hair.
"Do well."
"Hyung, but I have a request."
"What is it?"
"I don't have a surname, so can I say I'm a Jin too? Since hyung gave me my name."
At those words, Jincheonhee nodded without much thought.
"Sure. It's not like I inherited the surname from my parents either. I'm a Jin without roots, so it's fine."
If you insist on tracing the origin, it's the orphanage Jin.
He had no attachment to the surname.
Cheonwoo's face brightened.
Though his face was distorted by scars, at this moment, he looked like a child, which made Jincheonhee feel good too.
"See you soon. Go to Wudang and become the best master."
"Yes! I'll become a swordsman not lacking for hyung."
The sky above the roof of the medical pavilion was blue.
The guards signaled that it was time to move.
It was good weather for a journey.
Suddenly, Jincheonhee said, "The medicine's name should be Baekrinshindan. When it's in liquid form, Baekrin Oil should do, right?"
"It's a good name, hyung."
The words of the medicine hall master, Manpagok, were right.
Names are important.
If he was going to name it, Jincheonhee wanted to give strength to the place he lived.
So that the whole world would know about Baekrin Medical Pavilion.
Thus, Baekrinshindan was completed.
A few days later.
Yooho began categorizing and organizing the data obtained from this syphilis treatment.
Now it was time to see if it was effective for other diseases.
Having crossed the great mountain that was thought to be an incurable disease, it was now the turn of the medicine hall master, Manpagok.
-Thanks to the pavilion master, we can all relax our faces, so please leave the next step to this old man.
Hohoho!
Thanks to the new medicine, the medicine hall was bustling with energy.
Baekrinshindan.
A so-called conditional panacea.
With the completion of Baekrinshindan, the medicine hall came to trust Jincheonhee even more deeply. 'It's a good thing.'
Jincheonhee sat in meditation, circulating the energy of the newly learned internal cultivation method, the Five Elements Divine Art.
Although both the Five Elements Method and the Five Elements Divine Art seemed to handle the same Five Elements Energy, there was a change in the energy as he learned the Five Elements Divine Art anew.
His master, Jegallin, called it the Taiji Yin-Yang Five Elements Energy, saying it was because the principles of Taiji and Yin-Yang were embedded in the Five Elements Energy, causing a change.
In reality, the energy itself became deeper and more intense.
The fire energy was hotter than warmth, like lava, and the water energy seemed to contain vitality within the coldness of a glacier.
While training, Jincheonhee murmured inwardly. 'By now, Cultivation Slave No. 2 should be switching places with No. 3.'
Currently, there were a total of eight cultivation slaves assigned at Baekrin Medical Pavilion.
After Yooho successfully completed the initial cultivation, some of the medical pavilion members were assigned to take turns embracing the cultivation cauldron and spending time training.
The reason was simple.
To successfully cultivate Baekrinshindan (Penicillin), it was necessary to maintain dissolved oxygen, which required constant circulation of internal energy.
However, this was also effective for training.
Sending energy consistently and continuously was difficult with ordinary concentration.
In modern Earth, computers and machine motors would have done the job.
Since people had to do it, they had to act as both computers and machine motors.
Because the blue mold was so sensitive, if there was even a slight lack of dissolved oxygen, the cultivation would fail.
And that meant a failure in training.
They would be dragged by Yooho and scolded by the head of their department.
'I can't stand seeing our department's medical pavilion members falling behind others!' Thanks to this subtle competition, everyone was desperately focused on training.
It was a moment when the master's concern that the medical pavilion members were neglecting internal cultivation was resolved.
As a result, the level of the medical pavilion members increased, and the cultivation speeded up, achieving a win-win outcome.
And the more they did, the more the medical pavilion members were being ground down today as well.
But... 'Even goat milk from the Western Regions (today's Tibet) is processed and used.
Moreover, rapeseed oil... even adding spiritual pill powder was necessary to achieve the desired reaction.' In this world, unlike Earth, penicillin was truly a money-eating monster.
Eight medical pavilion members who had awakened to at least three stars of the Five Elements Method, and two who had awakened to five stars.
A total of ten medical pavilion members had to be ground to make it.
Although their internal energy increased rapidly, the doctors who had mastered internal energy were expensive talents.
Moreover, the ingredients were quite rare, so there was even talk internally that it might be cheaper to manufacture ordinary spiritual pills.
However, the effect was...
Jincheonhee's lips curled into a smile.
They had succeeded in treating syphilis, which was considered an incurable disease.
Although it was still in the experimental stage and needed more observation, the initial complaints had long since disappeared. 'Hahaha, crazy... thanks to the manufacturing cost, there's no worry about resistance.'
It's incredibly good but incredibly expensive! Mass production would only be possible if an industrial revolution occurred in the martial arts world.
Moreover, another effect was discovered.
They found that penicillin not only had a therapeutic effect but also helped in enhancing internal energy.
Truly the last disciple of Baekrin Medical Sage! The disciple that Baekrin Medical Sage, who didn't take disciples, had his eyes on!
Stories like this spread in an instant.
In the midst of this, Jegallin ordered strict information control to prevent the external world from knowing until an environment where more of this medicine could be produced and even pills could be manufactured was completed.
However, everyone knew that it wouldn't last long.
As soon as the treated syphilis patients arrived home, rumors would spread immediately. 'And now, the minimum preparations are complete.
Now, all that's needed is to diligently increase my skills...'
Jincheonhee, still sitting in meditation, thought with his eyes closed.
One by one, preparations were being made. 'It's not far.' The time to save Jegallin, who died early and exited in the original novel's world, was approaching.
008. Wangya's Spring
Ipchun (Beginning of Spring).
Warmth comes, melting the snow and embracing the world.
"Grandma, to come here, you need to send a letter through the local medical office."
"Oh, I'm just here to see my grandchild, why so much fuss!"
The season when life awakens.
Jincheonhee was free from the hellish schedule.
In the early morning, internal energy training, during the day, medical consultations, at night, imparting surgical knowledge and practice, and surgery, and late at night, studying the medical arts of this world with his master.
Even a modern Korean would be astonished by the intensity of the labor, but it was still more relaxed than when he was making penicillin.
In fact, he was even sleeping two hours a day!
For Jincheonhee, wandering around the entire Baekrin Medical Pavilion was now routine.
And now.
Jincheonhee was trying to send a grandma back home.
In the grandma's hands was a large bundle wrapped in cloth.
It seemed she had made a lot of holiday food to give to her grandchild, as it smelled delicious.
Ipchun was quite an important holiday in this world.
At the threshold of welcoming spring after a cold winter.
In this world, it was customary to wrap spring vegetables in meat and feed them to family members, emphasizing nourishment.
But that's the story of ordinary people, not the medical pavilion.
In this place, where they were busy all year round, 24 hours a day, food from the cafeteria was the norm.
Those who managed to get a holiday and go down were lucky, but those who gave up their holidays and worked were just working on this day too.
Naturally, Jincheonhee was busy.
Not only imparting surgical knowledge but also receiving patients who needed surgery and continuing to perform surgeries.
While Jincheonhee was on his way to see a patient he had operated on yesterday.
It was perhaps inevitable that he discovered a grandma looking around as if searching for someone.
Baekrin Medical Pavilion was like a large hospital equivalent to a tertiary hospital in modern Korea.
So, it was natural that its interior was vast.
Occasionally, there were patients who got lost and wandered around.
However, such people were immediately guided by the martial artists patrolling for security.
Baekrin Medical Pavilion had many martial artists, and there were also many who tried to uncover the secrets conducted at Baekrin Medical Pavilion. 'In the past, I wondered why medical pavilions were all in the mountains.
I thought they were crazy to make it hard for patients to come.' But now he knew.
Patients came, but so did assassins and enemies.
The fact that martial artists gathered meant that grudges also gathered.
In a small medical office, they might be divided and hospitalized, but if a tertiary hospital like the medical pavilion was on a main road, it wouldn't be strange for a large-scale bloodshed to occur.
In such a strict medical pavilion, it was natural for Jincheonhee to approach the grandma who hadn't yet been discovered by the martial artists.
"If you give me the package, I'll inspect it and send it to your grandchild."
"No way!" The grandma was stubborn.
Jincheonhee thought.
"Grandma, it's fortunate that I noticed you. If you were caught by other medical pavilion members, you wouldn't even be able to bring in the gift and would be dragged down the mountain."
In this martial arts world, where countless strange poisons abounded, it was natural for the medical pavilion to prohibit the entry of outside food.
Not only that, but without a recommendation letter from the local medical office, outsiders were also prohibited from entering.
This was because there could be ambushes on patients due to the grudges of the martial world.