DR Chapter 237

Don’t know how much time has passed…

At least no new patients are coming in now.

Without even time to eat spirit fasting pills, he downed strongly brewed medicinal soup like coffee.

Grinding himself like a millstone was worth it.

Surprisingly.

Not a single death last night.

Two had fingers reattached by Jin Cheonhee and Zhuge Rin, one had an ankle cut off, one had an entire arm severed.

One was rushed in after barging into others’ fights and getting a lung pierced through the ribs.

Two had their intestines pierced.

It’s a miracle. A miracle… A miracle created by people.

Three Seasons Tiger was amazing for tracking them here.

Grateful to the Beggars’ Sect Leader. Grateful to Gongsun Hyeon who accepted his warning, grateful to Gongsun Yeong and the martial artists who rushed out first, and Wang Gak-yeon.

Many from other sects who willingly rushed to help despite the dirty work.

Sama Hyeon, Jin Cheon Woo, Yeo Ha-ryoon.

Master…

And all the medical staff running together without sleep like this.

Not a single one.

They didn’t let a single one die.

Just as a proud feeling welled up, his vision swayed sideways.

The senior physician shouted.

“Minor Pavilion Master! Oh no, Minor Pavilion Master!”

“…I’m fine.”

Jin Cheonhee quickly said.

“Thanks to my internal energy holding up and constantly drinking medicinal soup, I won’t lose consciousness and collapse. This is just… losing balance.”

Three gapja^[1]! My internal energy is three gapja!

Jin Cheonhee blew kisses of gratitude to all the spirit medicines he’d been chugging.

“…If you’re going to be like this, wish you’d just pass out and wake up in a bed.”

Why is everyone looking with such regretful eyes? Eyes saying they want to knock him out right now.

Only then did Jin Cheonhee realize everyone was worried about him.

“You’ve been knocking out martial artists and moving them without treating yourself, Minor Pavilion Master.”

“Among us, only you and the Pavilion Master haven’t slept even a single hour.”

I see.

Jin Cheonhee nodded.

“Then for now… no urgent patients?”

“Four hours, no no, we won’t ask that much. Please sleep at least three hours.”

“Hahaha, you don’t seem to know, but my internal energy…”

I’m telling you it’s three gapja?

“Just please… please rest. Even the Three Venerable masters would die living like this.”

The Medical Pavilion members pushed Jin Cheonhee’s back.

***

Why are they so worried? I have no major injuries and my qi plus my blood are stable.

Jin Cheonhee sprawled against the tea room wall absent-mindedly.

Though he had minor sword wounds from the capture process, he’d done basic treatment and had no particular discomfort in bodily function.

He was going to mention his three gapja internal energy, but when they preemptively brought up the Three Venerable masters, he had no response.

Only then did Jin Cheonhee dress his injured hand.

Couldn’t have anything wrapped on my hands during surgery until now.

If fingertips go numb, patients die. If the injured hand gets a cast, surgery is out of the question.

So he could only do minimal treatment.

Plus from Jin Cheonhee’s perspective as the person involved, it wasn’t a serious injury.

As he was about to cut the bandage after wrapping the wound area, it cut cleanly on its own.

Swoosh-

Looking up, Master was just entering the tea room.

“To cut just the desired part so cleanly. Master, is this also a realm of Realm of the Mind Martials?”

Seeing his disciple admiring the cut surface, Zhuge Rin sighed.

“…You’ll die living like that, Hee-ya.”

The reason Master’s voice was drier than usual was.

While Jin Cheonhee ground himself down, Master had been ground down too.

Because saving people is much harder than killing them, even a top ten master of the world like Master seems to expend much mental energy.

Jin Cheonhee asked.

“No more new patients, right?”

Zhuge Rin said.

“Yes. Someone just came from the Martial Righteous Alliance… saying there won’t be more patients, just expressing gratitude.”

“Kukuku, seems they’re in chaos too.”

His disciple, turned from overwork, gave a bitter laugh.

When seeing him laugh like this pushed to his limits, Zhuge Rin sometimes felt strangely like Jin Cheonhee was a different species.

“Indeed.”

“Are you okay, Master? Any chest pain or…”

“Your treatment was perfect. And don’t even think about playing physician with me now. People need rest sometimes.”

“…I’m fine.”

“Hee. Humans have something called intelligence. When someone who captured raging martial artists all dawn and sent them to the emergency room suddenly tries to do physician work too, anyone would worry.”

“There couldn’t be any deaths. If there were casualties from this, it would fulfill the Blood Immortal Sect’s objective.”

So he read that far.

Zhuge Rin sighed softly.

“Yes. Thanks to that, the Blood Immortal Sect couldn’t gain the advantage. However, as your master, sometimes I wish you were a bit duller.”

Zhuge Rin’s gaze rested on the bandage Jin Cheonhee had wrapped himself.

The interesting thing is this child shows no incompetence even in treating himself.

Though he used so much mental strength, there were no gaps, not a single sloppy aspect.

So even though the four hall masters were sick with worry, they couldn’t easily kick him out.

Though Zhuge Rin helped with surgery, Jin Cheonhee was still needed.

Even in this hellish chaos of flooding patients, Jin Cheonhee never wavered.

He swiftly directed each physician and treated patients while moving between surgery rooms like performing a trick.

He soothed collapsed physicians exhausted from fatigue and pressure, making them rest, grinding himself during those gap times.

Then when he judged they had recovered, he grabbed them and put them to work.

Seems this wasn’t his first time.

The youth seemed to have gone through this hell dozens, hundreds of times already.

Yet strangely, his attitude was also dry.

“No mental illness came this time, I see.”

Mental illness? Ah… you mean war-related PTSD.

Jin Cheonhee almost broke once at Mount Wudang.

A time when even eating or sleeping was difficult.

Master must be recalling that time.

“This was just martial artists fighting each other.”

“There seems to be a difference.”

A melee is just a melee. Different from real war.

Even Jin Cheonhee finds it difficult to explain this boundary precisely.

If he could clearly identify and draw that line with his own hands, perhaps he could treat this mental illness lodged in his chest too.

“…The smell is just different.”

“…”

It’s different from simple bloodshed.

The smell of burning flesh, spilling brain matter, crushed bones. Buildings burning, food burning too, giving off an oddly savory smell amid it all.

Through those nauseating smells wafts the spicy scent of hatred.

Thinking that far, Jin Cheonhee turned his eyes away.

Because breathing became a little difficult.

“This time wasn’t even worth calling mental illness.”

“…That’s fortunate.”

Watching his disciple’s change, Zhuge Rin answered as dryly as possible.

The disciple realized this was consideration and.

“Kukuku. Fortunate indeed.”

Glossed over it with a bitter laugh.

“How much did the Martial Righteous Alliance tell you?”

“Hahaha, they’re the most chaotic. Rather than telling us anything, we can only observe phenomena, use them as clues, investigate and deduce.”

While patients flooded in, Master was doing his work and thinking that far?

Zhuge Rin said, “The Blood Immortal Sect seems to have done quite a clever thing.”

“Didn’t know such curses existed.”

“Hmm. I knew because I’d seen it in the Zhuge clan archives before. But since they burned, getting that book again would be difficult.”

Master briefly mentioned the Zhuge clan tragedy before continuing.

“Until now, with no one to succeed me, I left it lost, but now that I have you… I should write it anew. I remember all the contents.”

“The White Dragon Medical Pavilion’s library will become abundant.”

As the master considered his disciple’s wounds, the disciple also considered his master’s scars.

“Since there were no deaths, is their scheme completely shattered?”

“Their plan failed, but precisely speaking, only half failed.”

“Why?”

“Though we have Three Seasons Tiger’s report, the problem is there’s no evidence that the Blood Immortal Sect is behind it.”

“It’s a righteous path issue.”

Without physical evidence, acting on suspicion alone is not the way of the righteous path or Martial Righteous Alliance.

They don’t even hope for modern Earth’s scientific investigation. Just witnesses and evidence.

They need at least one of these two to do anything.

Master answered.

“To others, it might look quite frustrating. However, without this process, the Martial Righteous Alliance would ultimately be no different from bandits with swords.”

“Because evidence creates justification.”

No matter what they do behind the scenes, the righteous path must maintain its identity as the righteous path.

-Hypocritical righteous path bastards!

A line that appears at least once in every martial arts novel.

But getting older, he realized even hypocrisy was righteousness.

Even if someone curses when a celebrity donates for their image, money is money, and the life saved with that money is still life.

Death and evil weren’t easy enough opponents to classify goodness by analyzing purity case by case.

“I’ve always thought this, but you don’t seem like a martial artist your age.”

“I hear that a lot.”

Jin Cheonhee smiled bitterly. Zhuge Rin continued.

“Plus, though none died, there are injured ones, right? It’s fortunate if no disabilities remain, but beyond that is beyond what humans can do.”

Though they did their best, poured in all available resources.

Still, some might have aftereffects.

Zhuge Rin added, “…Still, it’s nothing compared to death.”

“We were lucky. But just as we only half won, they only half lost… The Blood Immortal Sect won’t completely give up.”

“Yes. Since the masterminds haven’t completely disappeared. According to Three Seasons Tiger’s prediction, there seem to be about three Blood Immortal Sect executives in the Martial Righteous Alliance. She said they’re likely a small elite force rather than minor pawns, hmm…”

“No evidence this time either?”

“Right. This too is just circumstantial inference from Three Seasons Tiger personally.”

“If we don’t root them all out, it’ll become very troublesome. Ah, come to think of it, is the manual you stol… no, brought from Mount Wudang safe?”

At those words, Master smiled slightly.

“Yes. I’m keeping it safe. And I think we can use it soon.”

Jin Cheonhee nodded.

Zhuge Rin covered Jin Cheonhee’s face with his large hand.

“Stop thinking and just sleep for now.”

“Master.”

“…It’s your master’s order.”

At those words, Jin Cheonhee finally nodded.

Then, worried he might get called, he curled up in a corner of the tea room and began sleeping.

Zhuge Rin sighed at the sight.

“Yes. Sleep even like that.”

If forcibly dragged to his quarters, he’d obviously just barely doze on and off.

Zhuge Rin took off his outer robe and covered his disciple.