"I'm nervous. Normally, family surgeries aren't done by oneself..."
Jin Cheon-hee thought to himself.
It was a lonely feeling, realizing there was no one to take his place.
His fingertips trembled.
This was his master's surgery.
Jin Cheon-hee pressed one hand with the other.
"It's okay. I've prepared everything. That's why I came this far."
He wasn't someone who crumbled under pressure.
He had no intention of breaking.
He clenched and unclenched his cold hands repeatedly.
Strangely, his palms were damp with sweat.
Fear and tension made his palms tingle.
"It's unavoidable. It's okay. I can calm myself down by the time the surgery starts."
This was the moment he needed to show his strongest self.
Jin Cheon-hee took a deep breath.
He felt the air reach the darkest corners of his heart, swelling it up.
Then, he exhaled slowly.
Gradually, his breathing became more regular.
The sensation of his heartbeat also slowly returned to normal.
Once he was sure his inner self had achieved tranquility, Jin Cheon-hee circulated his internal energy.
It marked the beginning of the day.
When the preparations were complete, Jin Cheon-hee stood in his surgical attire.
He passed by the medical staff preparing the surgical tools and entered the room.
This was the place where the head of the medical hall would undergo surgery.
And it was to be performed by his own disciple.
All the medical staff stared at Jin Cheon-hee.
They must have had many questions.
How could such a young child possess so much knowledge? And how could he absorb the medical hall's knowledge so quickly? The former was something he couldn't explain, and the latter was simply due to his hard work.
The medical staff brushed past Jin Cheon-hee.
As he entered the operating room, he saw countless medical staff and Yu Ho.
And there, lying in an anesthetized state, was his master.
With his handsome face, one might mistake him for a gentle soul, but his master was a formidable martial artist.
The sight of his massive frame, nearly 190 cm tall, lying there was overwhelming.
Instead of greeting the medical staff, Jin Cheon-hee asked, "How's his vitality?"
"There are no major fluctuations in his pulse."
"Did you continue with the acupuncture?"
"Yes. He didn't miss a single day."
Before the surgery, they had used acupuncture and moxibustion to slow down his master's circulation.
They needed to stabilize his blood pressure and pulse as much as possible to reduce the pressure on the aortic wall.
The problem was that this would also cause his master's body temperature to drop rapidly.
This was the tricky part of the Nine Yin Meridian.
The balance of yin and yang was severely disrupted, artificially creating cold energy within the body.
Dealing with the severed meridians of martial arts using modern medicine created such a crazy situation.
The solution was the ondol, the heating system.
Jin Cheon-hee had prioritized building the heating system.
"We bought time with internal treatments."
The next task was managing the pain.
The pain caused by aortic dissection was often described as being akin to having one's chest split open with an axe.
It wasn't just pain—it was agony.
His master had lived with the pain of severed meridians since childhood, and now with the aortic dissection, the excruciating pain persisted.
"That pain seems to have greatly influenced his personality, causing misunderstandings among those around him..."
Regardless, managing the pain up to the day of the surgery was a crucial task.
They used acupuncture to the fullest extent, keeping him as still as possible while managing the pain.
Balancing his internal energy with the Five Elements Divine Technique also helped.
Jin Cheon-hee had personally assisted with that.
"We bought precious time."
His master had endured well.
Now it was Jin Cheon-hee's turn to step up.
All their efforts had been for this day.
"The procedure itself is simple. If we don't make any mistakes, there will be minimal aftereffects. We won't be using a knife to cut through bone and flesh like before."
Jin Cheon-hee forced a faint smile.
He was the leader here.
If the surgeon was nervous, the staff would be even more so.
Nervousness led to mistakes.
"Let's finish this quickly and have a meal. I feel like eating meat today."
He spoke with a cheeky tone, pulling at his facial muscles.
Jin Cheon-hee pressed on his master's femoral artery.
The surgery began.
They started by inserting a catheter into the femoral artery.
Jin Cheon-hee followed his master's slow pulse, inserting a thin golden thread that would serve as the guide wire.
"I never imagined I'd be performing such a surgery in the martial world. Not even I did."
He didn't even know he'd be sourcing the materials himself.
A thin tube, about 6mm in diameter, continued to move inward along the aorta.
It was like a salmon swimming upstream.
"Phew..."
Even though he had cultivated his internal energy, he still missed modern medical imaging.
The medical staff watched Jin Cheon-hee's every move.
"A surgery without using a knife? Is this even possible?" What Jin Cheon-hee had brought was a groundbreaking method.
Normally, when there was a problem with the aorta, it was called an internal injury, and death was the usual outcome.
Before the heart stopped, the patient would complain of severe chest pain.
Even if a renowned doctor diagnosed the cause through pulse reading, it would end with acupuncture or herbal medicine.
They would advise the patient to avoid anger, refrain from intense exercise, and stay away from oily foods.
If these methods didn't work, the patient would die in agony.
And more often than not, they didn't work.
The Nine Yin Meridian was even more vicious.
If the same measures were taken, the patient would die from the cold energy.
The pain was so severe that the patient's pulse would race, creating a vicious cycle.
In the end, the patient would likely pass away before reaching adulthood.
What Jin Cheon-hee had shown them was a medical technique they had never seen before.
Among them, this surgery was the most unbelievable.
Theoretically, it was possible.
But would it actually work?
"He's the disciple favored by the Medical Sage. If he's willing to offer his own body, it must mean it's possible."
"But if this surgery succeeds after the White Phosphorus Divine Pill, what kind of upheaval will it cause in the martial world?" Treating the severed meridians, which were thought to be untreatable.
Jin Cheon-hee had said it wasn't a complete cure.
It was just to relieve some burden and extend his lifespan.
Even that was an unbelievable feat.
Jin Cheon-hee's half-closed eyes opened slightly.
His sharp eyes gleamed with determination.
With a voice so clear it could incite jealousy, he said, "We've finally arrived."
The golden thread had reached the problematic thoracic aorta.
Now it was time to install the stent graft Jin Cheon-hee had prepared.
In martial terms, it was called an artificial blood vessel, but due to old habits, Jin Cheon-hee kept calling it a stent.
The stent had reached the affected area.
The metal mesh inside expanded like a balloon, and the folded stent began to unfold.
Both the metal mesh and the stent were made from the golden thread obtained from the inner core of the Ten Thousand Year Fire Lotus.
As the stent unfolded, Jin Cheon-hee focused even more.
"If it's not fixed properly and blood leaks into the aortic wall, we'll need to perform another surgery. But there won't be a second chance."
They couldn't catch another Ten Thousand Year Fire Lotus, and even if they somehow found one, there was no telling what condition his master's body would be in by then.
When Jin Cheon-hee had slipped away during his closed-door training, his master would have noticed immediately under normal circumstances.
The fact that he couldn't meant his master's condition wasn't good.
"Phew..."
From here on, the sensitivity of his fingertips was crucial.
Jeok Rin opened his eyes.
It was strange.
He wasn't in pain.
There was still a sense of lethargy, but the crushing pain in his chest was gone.
He slowly sat up.
Then, he noticed Jin Cheon-hee sleeping at his knees.
Had he been monitoring his condition after the surgery? Jin Cheon-hee's face was etched with extreme fatigue.
Since making the promise with Jeok Rin, Jin Cheon-hee hadn't had a proper night's sleep.
During those days of what seemed like self-torture, Jin Cheon-hee had done everything he could.
Jeok Rin patted his disciple's back.
"Since you've given everything for me, now I must give everything for you."
Jeok Rin neatly tied back his silver hair.
He laid Jin Cheon-hee down on the bed and then walked outside.
It was the middle of the night, and everyone was asleep.
Outside, Yu Ho was moving something when he noticed Jeok Rin and looked at him in surprise.
"Master."
"My chest doesn't hurt strangely. The effects of the medicine seem to have mostly worn off."
He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
"No, even with the medicine, I've never felt this pain-free before."
"The surgery was successfully completed."
"Yes. My heart is telling me that."
Jeok Rin looked up at the night sky.
"I never knew the stars could shine so brightly. I never knew the air could smell so fragrant."
Jeok Rin muttered as if he had just been born.
Then he said, "Just the absence of pain makes life so delicious. That's how it is."
Creating an artificial blood vessel from the inner core of the Ten Thousand Year Fire Lotus was madness.
But as a result, the fire energy of the Ten Thousand Year Fire Lotus continued to circulate.
Of course, Jeok Rin's internal energy didn't increase.
Trying to increase internal energy by absorbing the artificial blood vessel would just mean death.
But there was no more pain or risk of death.
Jin Cheon-hee had said he hadn't cured the severed meridians, so it wasn't a complete recovery, but even that was enough to bring a gleam back to Jeok Rin's eyes.
"Don't overexert yourself today. Rest, Master."
"Yes. But there's one thing I want to do."
A small smile appeared on Jeok Rin's lips.
A delicious smell wafted through the air.
Jin Cheon-hee slowly opened his eyes.
"Ah, I must have dozed off!"
When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying neatly on his master's bed.
Jin Cheon-hee looked around.
"Master?!"
He sat up abruptly and heard a low laugh.
"Hee-ya."
"Master..."
"I made breakfast. Want to eat?" Jin Cheon-hee sat at the table with his messy hair.
There, a variety of delicious dishes and a particularly large soup bowl sat in the center.
"Master, how's your body?"
"With such delicacies in front of you, and that's the first thing you ask?"
"..."
"If you're too kind, how will you survive in the martial world?" His master clicked his tongue and opened the lid of the soup bowl.
The carp soup revealed itself with a rich aroma.
"I'm fine. I'm well enough to cook medicinal dishes with the flesh of the Ten Thousand Year Fire Lotus."
"Wow, then..."
"Your treatment was successful."
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee's eyes welled up, and Jeok Rin watched as tears formed.
"Eat."
"Master."
"The soup will get cold."
Jin Cheon-hee wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
Then, he picked up a piece of the Ten Thousand Year Fire Lotus's flesh.