Seolgae spoke.
"Old man... what are you talking about...?"
"A mad dog. You’ve already lost your senses since the first day. It’s not uncommon for beggars to get frostbite, and by then, they’ve already given up on their limbs. Keukkeukkeuk... But Baekryong Medical Hall said they could save two of them. You can’t imagine how surprised I was."
"Old man!"
"What is it, mad dog?"
"Are you planning to let go of the Tagu Club?"
"Not just the Tagu Club. I’ll let go of the position of the sect leader too."
The sect leader of the Dog Sect let out a heavy breath.
His breathing was labored through his broken front teeth.
After a while, he spoke as if lamenting.
"Mad dog."
"What? Old man."
"There was a puppy crying at the foot of the mountain, begging to be saved. I knew it wasn’t you, but the way it cried reminded me of you. My body moved on its own. I knew it was a trap from the start. But it looked like you. In that moment, it was the young you."
"......"
"Even as the sect leader who knows everything, I don’t understand why you’ve been consumed by demonic thoughts, mad dog. But I do know one thing."
"......"
The old man looked down at his young disciple.
Her eyes were clearer than snowflakes.
"It’s all my fault."
The sect leader didn’t know why Seolgae had gone mad.
He didn’t know that he had killed her parents.
But it seemed he had some inkling.
"From today, I will step down from the position of the Dog Sect leader. And I will appoint Seolgae as the next sect leader. She’s a smart child, even if she’s lost her way. I believe she’ll do well."
She gritted her teeth.
"Don’t talk nonsense! I’m not qualified!"
"Hohohoho."
The old man laughed.
"This old man, even as a sect leader, was always clumsy at letting things go. But now, I’ve let go of the sect leader position, and I’m letting go of my limbs one by one. I’ve taken a big step forward. Mad dog, being a sect leader means letting go. It’s about knowing when to let go."
This wasn’t a conversation between a grandfather and his mad disciple, but between the former sect leader and the next sect leader of the Dog Sect.
"Do you have something to let go of?"
Seolgae gritted her teeth.
Blood seeped through her teeth.
Under the weight, under the madness.
"......"
She didn’t answer and walked out.
From afar, the sound of a woman’s screams echoed several times.
As if venting her resentment, she screamed and screamed, and then she returned.
Her eyes were swollen with tears, but her face and limbs were clean, as if washed in ice water.
The old man asked, "What drove you into demonic thoughts?"
Seolgae replied, "I can’t say."
Facing her parents’ killer and her master, she chose to remain silent.
The old man said, "Judging by your temperament, it’s clearly a secret for my sake, not yours. Are you afraid that if I learn the cause of your demonic thoughts, I too will fall into demonic thoughts?"
She deliberately spoke coldly.
"What does it matter if you know?"
"Mad dog. A dog that’s gone mad but has never bitten anyone. If you were truly mad, your heart would be at ease... Kkeulkkeulkkeul..."
Jin Cheonhui thought, 'If he knew, the old man would spend the rest of his life in regret.'
No matter how much of a demonic sect leader he was, his disciple was always the most precious.
There’s no master who could kill their disciple’s parents and remain unscathed.
In the face of the Golden Age, not the Golden Age, but the Golden Age, such a burden couldn’t be left behind.
It seemed the mad disciple had decided so.
Seolgae said, "It’s okay. I’ve decided to let go now."
Her voice trembled.
The old man smiled kindly.
"Are you talking about the demonic thoughts?"
Seolgae finally let go of one thing.
"I’ve let it go."
Jin Cheonhui realized she had let go of one of her afflictions.
It had once been everything that made her who she was.
Seolgae, who had been chasing her own tail, decided to let go of her tail.
"Then untie the knot and bow."
She untied the knot at her waist, symbolizing the next generation.
Then she bowed twelve times.
It meant she had to let go of twelve afflictions.
She didn’t know which bow was for her parents.
But from the first bow, it was difficult.
Finally, after finishing all the bows, the old man said, "Take my knot."
The knot symbolizing the Dog Sect leader was passed to her.
Before she could say anything, Jin Cheonhui stopped her.
"We’re starting the surgery. Please leave."
Jin Cheonhui had promised his life and two limbs.
Now it was time to keep that promise.
Jin Cheonhui let out a small sigh.
The Dog Sect leader.
Even Jin Cheonhui didn’t know much about him.
In the martial world, the Dog Sect was rarely used as more than a tool, and since he died so early, there wasn’t much time to learn about him.
"Baekrin raised his disciple well. Don’t look so sad. If letting go of two limbs saves a life, there’s nothing wrong with that."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes. I’ve wandered the martial world for many years. In my old age, being cared for by my disciple is a good thing. What greater blessing is there than growing old and dying in the world of martial arts?"
The old man smiled faintly, but calmly.
The smile was so peaceful that anyone seeing it would think he was going for a bath rather than an amputation.
Jin Cheonhui nodded at his calmness.
Jin Cheonhui still only superficially understood what martial arts meant to a martial artist.
More than martial arts, the fact that his body would be damaged and he’d have to live with a disability was more worrying.
But if it saved his life, there was no other choice.
The sect leader was saying the same thing.
But still, the heaviness in his heart was unavoidable.
The sorrow of the family of someone who would become disabled was no ordinary matter.
It was the same in his past life.
'Teacher! My child... my child is about to compete in a concert.
They have to compete... but the piano...
Teacher! Please, my child has lived their whole life for that one thing.'
A thirty-year-old child.
To their parents, they were still a six-year-old.
A life dedicated to the piano ended in that moment.
The unconscious child lay on the bed, and the decision was left to the parents.
The parents chose life over the child’s future, but the guilt of blocking their child’s path weighed on them for the rest of their lives.
Even though it wasn’t their fault.
'Hey, you! What were you thinking, rushing in like that! Huh! Now you can’t even move your legs! Who were you trying to save! Uheoheoheong!'
The father of a firefighter who had become paralyzed after rushing into a fire scene collapsed, losing his spirit.
He had saved countless people, but at the cost of his legs.
Life was cruel and long.
Jin Cheonhui was there.
'Anything, anything, just tell me.
I’ll do whatever it takes, just tell me.'
A strong woman and the next successor of the Dog Sect.
She spoke with her heart clenched.
But as a doctor, Jin Cheonhui couldn’t respond to her words.
People are like vessels.
Once broken, it’s impossible to return them to their original state.
Sometimes, it felt like making a deal with the god of death.
Trading the side effects of medicine for a life, sending away a limb to save a life.
'Yes.
I have to do it.
I’m a doctor.'
Life is long and cruel, but you have to live for the occasional ray of sunlight.
You can’t know what the patient will reach at the end, but until then, you have to give as little as possible and save their life.
Jin Cheonhui looked at the Dog Sect leader.
"I’ll check the pulse."
Jin Cheonhui reached out and checked the pulse.
Thanks to the medicine he had taken earlier, just a slight touch was enough to make him lose consciousness and faint.
He blocked the senses by pressing on the pulse point and prepared for the surgery.
The blackened, necrotic limbs were visible.
Then, suddenly, Jin Cheonhui stopped.
"Is this the best we can do?"
Losing martial arts is one thing.
But do we really have to cut off the limbs? Is this really the best we can do?
Suddenly, anger surged.
This is the world of the martial arts.
I’ve learned martial arts, I’ve learned new medical techniques.
Yet, is what I can do still so limited?
Why can’t I treat my patients more?
Why can’t I...?
At that moment.
Whoosh—The Five Elements Divine Energy.
The five energies began to rapidly rotate within Jin Cheonhui.
Yet, Jin Cheonhui was unaware of it.
Among them, the fire energy surged greatly.
The fire energy, stronger than the others, rose in response to the anger.
The fire energy rushed toward his brain.
Using the heated anger as fuel, it began to burn fiercely.
Fire entering the heart!
In a situation where anyone would shout that something terrible had happened, Jin Cheonhui suddenly thought.
'Is my ability only this much? No! I can do more.
There must be a way.
A way.
Yes, there must be a way!'
Extremely cold reason danced with anger.
As hot anger and cold reason came together, the water energy moved greatly in response to the fire energy.
The Five Elements Energy began to run wild in an instant.
And Jin Cheonhui sank deep into himself.
The energy flowed through the meridians in an instant.
Completing the Small Heavenly Cycle, it immediately began the Great Heavenly Cycle.
The five energies merged into one and then scattered again.
In less than a moment.
In that instant, the Five Elements Energy swelled greatly.
The energies that were weaker than the water and fire energies gathered on their own, balancing out, and in an instant, the Five Elements Energy took on a perfect form.
And in that moment.
A flash of light shone from Jin Cheonhui’s eyes.
His body turned red, but Jin Cheonhui didn’t feel his own state at all.
He was completely immersed in what was before him.
The doctors watching also swallowed their saliva.
They sensed that something extraordinary was happening.
'There is a way.
There must be a way!'
Jin Cheonhui reached out and placed his hand on the frostbitten area.
Energy flowed, vividly conveying the patient’s physical information to Jin Cheonhui.
Sensing through energy.
Energy sense is a completely new sense, different from the five senses.
With that sense, Jin Cheonhui felt every detail of the sect leader’s right hand and left foot.
'I’ve seen it in my past life.
The story of someone who climbed Mount Everest and got frostbite.
Everyone said to amputate, but a famous traditional doctor used acupuncture and moxibustion to eventually save the foot.
At the time, I thought it was just an amazing story, but I can do it too.'
Jin Cheonhui’s hand moved like lightning.
'The nerve cells are almost necrotic.
But if I use the Five Elements Energy to stimulate the innate energy, I can maximize the regenerative power.
Like a lizard regenerating its tail, if I can rebuild the body... reconnect the dead blood vessels, make the blood flow...'
It was like a state of no-self.
In an instant, the right foot and left hand were densely packed with acupuncture needles.
"Short needles."
At his words, the doctor waiting beside him as an assistant handed over the shortest needles.
He continued to insert needles into the body.