Chapter 278: Chapter 278
When the academy’s break began, all of its facilities, including the dormitories, became sparsely populated.
Aside from the few people who remained at the academy, it was practically empty.
The instructors and assistant instructors each left on vacation, and even the school dining hall began its long break with only the minimum number of personnel left behind.
Among all those places, if one had to choose the place that became the most deserted, it would be the Medicine Hall.
During a period without exams or martial duels, almost no one visited the Medicine Hall.
Moreover, even the few remaining students trained alone, in a manner close to seclusion training, so there was little chance of serious injury.
Even so, in case of any unforeseen situation, the Medicine Hall Master and half of the female physicians had to remain, and so the Medicine Hall opened its doors every day despite having no guests.
Today as well, Medicine Hall Master Sima Jeong came to work early in the morning and looked around.
Snow had already piled softly in the Medicine Hall courtyard.
The female physicians and servants tried to clear the snow, but he stopped them.
There were no guests coming anyway, and there was nothing to do, so he wanted at least to look at the piled snow to his heart’s content.
‘What a lonely scene.’
He did not think he had felt this way when he had seen snow before.
Yet the snow this year felt lonelier than any other.
“Should I just quit everything…?”
As Sima Jeong gazed at the softly falling snow, he muttered without realizing it. Beside him, a female physician who had been cutting medicinal herbs cried out in surprise.
“What are you saying, Hall Master!”
“Hm? Ah… you heard that?”
“Please do not say such things, not even by chance. Do you know how many physicians want to enter the Murim Alliance, and the Medicine Hall at that?”
At the female physician’s rebuke, Sima Jeong chuckled.
Indeed, that was true.
He did occupy a position everyone desired.
“Lady Physician. Do you perhaps know how many people die from frostbite in winter?”
“…Pardon?”
“This was while I was still studying. When winter came, I would always be drenched in sweat all day from the patients overflowing before me.”
The female physician, unable to understand the context of what Sima Jeong was saying for a moment, guessed on her own and nodded.
“So you climbed to such a good position after all that hardship.”
Sima Jeong only chuckled without saying clearly whether that was right or wrong.
“That is so.”
Abundant medicinal ingredients and leisurely time for treatment.
During winter or summer break, no one came looking for him, so it was suitable for carrying out separate research as well.
If his master had seen it, he would surely have praised this environment highly.
After all, his master had always said, “This is the sort of thing you should do.”
But perhaps that was why he had wanted to do it even more.
Of course, he had not intended merely to watch patients die in a poor environment, like his master had.
How much helplessness had he felt while watching people die because they could not obtain even one common medicinal ingredient?
That was why he had come to the Murim Alliance.
He wanted to build his skill and reputation here, then treat the poor with the treatment fees he received from the wealthy.
Because if he could do that, he believed he could save more people.
But…
“This place makes me feel as though I have become a physician permanently kept in a rich household.”
The personnel of the Medicine Hall did not treat outsiders.
No, to be precise, it was more accurate to say they could not. After all, outsiders could not enter the Murim Academy in the first place.
At some point, he felt as though he had drifted far away from the journey he had once envisioned.
The female physician cutting herbs stopped her hands, looked at Sima Jeong, and made a fuss.
“That just shows how fortunate you are, Physician. Please keep enjoying this position for a thousand, ten thousand years! We like you very much too.”
“…I suppose I should. Haha. Thank you.”
At that innocent response, Sima Jeong swallowed a bitter smile.
If only he had not made that thing back then.
How good would it have been if he had not grown greedy, saying he would make a gift for promising children? He had repeated that thought to himself again and again.
‘Will I be able to leave this place?’
He liked watching the snow in peace, but he had wanted to become someone who worked while being struck by that very snow.
But how cold would it be to step barefoot upon snowflakes that looked beautiful to the eye?
He could not be certain whether he was a person with that much resolve.
At some point, he seemed to have grown far too weak.
Then—
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
There was a figure approaching, walking over the paper-clean snow.
“Huh?”
The female physician stared at the man with startled eyes.
Then Sima Jeong’s eyes also widened.
“You are…”
“It has been a long time.”
The person who had once come to the Medicine Hall in an exceptionally memorable state was smiling as he stood under the falling snow.
“The tea looks delicious. May I have a cup?”
Snow continued to fall in the Medicine Hall courtyard.
Jin So-un and Sima Jeong sat side by side with the brazier between them and gazed for a long while at the falling snow.
By the time the snow that had piled on Jin So-un’s shoulders and head vanished into droplets of water, Sima Jeong spoke first.
“What brings you here? From the look of it, you do not seem ill… and I doubt you came all this way merely to ask for tea.”
“What do you do during winter?”
“Winter?”
At the abrupt question, Sima Jeong stared intently at Jin So-un.
One needed to know the intention behind a question in order to converse.
But Sima Jeong could not guess the intention behind the question just now.
“Well, I suppose I will pass each day like this, killing time. Did you come all the way here just to ask that?”
“Do you not go out for relief work?”
“…”
Sima Jeong’s face hardened.
“What are you talking about?”
“I heard that when you were at the Divine Physician Pavilion of the Murim Alliance, you went out for relief work every vacation season… Were you perhaps sent to this academy because you fell out of favor?”
Sima Jeong’s face twisted in displeasure.
Generally speaking, the status of an academy student was something that people active in the murim could not help being mindful of.
However, Sima Jeong was someone who did not care much about such things to begin with.
“Did you investigate my background? Is there something you wish to wring out of me? I am sorry, but things will not go the way you want.”
Perhaps he found it laughable for a mere physician to growl at him.
Jin So-un smiled faintly.
“Of course not. I only asked because I wanted to know what kind of person you were.”
“…”
“I heard the Divine Physician Pavilion is a place where people of the Divine Physician Hall have traditionally occupied most of the important posts. I was told they had great influence even when the name Divine Physician Pavilion was chosen.”
“…”
Those from the Divine Physician Hall mainly took positions in the Divine Physician Pavilion, and they guided and pushed one another forward, firmly securing their influence.
No matter how hard Sima Jeong tried, he could not seep into their midst.
After all, how could he be with people who placed their medical arts on the same level as their wealth?
‘It became an occasion that made me realize once again just how remarkable Master truly was.’
Having grown a little calmer, Sima Jeong spoke.
“I did not mingle with them and visit pleasure houses, and I spent my own wealth to treat the poor. That was more than enough for me to fall out of their favor.”
He breathed out the frustration he had never been able to tell anyone, placing it upon the snowflakes falling in silence.
“In their eyes, I was someone who helped just anyone, someone who made medical arts seem cheap.”
“Hmm… Then were you driven out to the Medicine Hall because of that?”
Sima Jeong slowly shook his head.
“That was not it. I made a Spiritual Pill for prospective academy students, and that became a problem.”
“Do you mean the Calm Heart Pill?”
“…You know of it?”
“Yes. I ate it.”
The corners of Sima Jeong’s eyes drooped.
“How was it?”
“It was excellent.”
Excellent.
Recalling the past for a moment, Sima Jeong let out a faint laugh.
“Do not flatter me. As I said earlier, there is nothing you can wring out of me.”
He did not know why.
Yet without realizing it, he was calmly pouring out to this academy student before him the stories he had never told anyone.
“Compared to the medicinal ingredients and the cost of preparation that went into it, its effect was pathetic. I was punished because of that.”
“For a punishment, your lot in life seems rather pleasant.”
Sima Jeong slowly looked around the courtyard.
On the surface, the snow was piled warmly. But if one stepped on it, it would surely be terribly cold.
“…Can a warm sanctuary for one person not feel like a suffocating prison to another?”
“Is that so?”
After thinking for a moment, Jin So-un nodded.
“In my opinion, Hall Master, you were in the wrong.”
“…What are you referring to?”
“The relief work. From their standpoint, you were clearly selling medical arts they had paid dearly to learn at a cheap price, so would you not have looked like a hypocrite to them?”
Sima Jeong’s brow furrowed deeply.
“Do you know how many people beyond that gate are dying right now because they cannot drink even a single packet of medicine? How many people have to have fingers and toes cut off every time snow falls? Are you someone who swings a sword only to kill people?”
As he spoke, his face gradually flushed scarlet.
As though pouring out all the anger he had held in until now, he pressed Jin So-un hard.
“Medical arts belong to everyone. If one is going to treat only those with money, authority, and strength, then why should medical arts advance at all? Even those with strength will one day lose that strength, so at that time, I suppose their heads should simply be cut off without mercy!”
After his shout rang out in every direction, silence returned once more.
Sima Jeong, who had huffed and poured everything out, thought he had become needlessly agitated.
Because Jin So-un was quietly drinking tea without any change in expression.
“If that is what you think, then should you not be staying away from the Murim Alliance?”
“…”
“You should go out into the streets right now and save people.”
And soon, Sima Jeong realized that he had fallen into self-contradiction by the very logic he had shouted.
Looking at the silent Sima Jeong, Jin So-un smiled gently.
“It seems the weather is too cold for you to do that.”
“…”
Sima Jeong’s face flushed red with shame, and he rose from his seat.
“Yes. As you said, I am a man whose words run ahead of him, and I am a hypocrite. Is that enough? If you feel satisfied now, then please leave.”
Despite the clear order to leave, Jin So-un leisurely toyed with his teacup.
“I have not yet finished what I came to say.”
“Do you still have something to say in this situation?”
“It is because this is the situation that I have something to say.”
“Then say it quickly.”
Sima Jeong urged him on, barely suppressing his anger.
He wanted to get this brat out of his sight even a little faster…
“What do you think of coming to the Taeul Sect?”
“What?”
What did I just hear?
Sima Jeong’s two eyes filled with bewilderment.
From the beginning, it had been unexpected that the Heavenly Mysteries Divine Physician was at the academy.
And when I heard that the reason was the Calm Heart Pill I had taken in the past, I felt as though the pieces of a story I had never known were falling into place.
‘Because later, even when the Murim Alliance begged him desperately, he never made the Calm Heart Pill for them.’
The Heavenly Mysteries Divine Physician, who had briefly worked in the Murim Alliance, for some reason quit the Murim Alliance, which was considered the finest workplace for a physician, and entered the secular world.
He made his name known exactly ten years later.
It began when those who had taken the Calm Heart Pill escaped Qi Deviation on their own.
Afterward, Sima Jeong was revered enough to be called the Heavenly Mysteries Divine Physician, but he never made Spiritual Pills.
No, even when countless sects and clans came to him carrying bundles of money, he never made Spiritual Pills for them.
Those ten years had been more than enough time for Sima Jeong to turn the Murim Alliance into his enemy.
“Hahaha… hahahahahat!”
Sima Jeong burst into laughter for a long while.
Hmm. Was what I said that funny?
I had not known I possessed a talent for making others laugh. Well, now.
“Krrk…”
After laughing until even his shoulders shook, he finally stopped and asked me,
“You want me to go to the Taeul Sect?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what kind of treatment physicians of the Murim Alliance receive?”
“I know that they begin at Seventh Rank and receive a monthly salary higher than ordinary warriors.”
When I answered fluently, the sneer hanging on his face grew even deeper.
“And you tell someone like me to go to the Taeul Sect?”
“We have a fairly decent amount of money.”
“Huhu… We cannot communicate. Please leave. Talking to you is making my head hurt.”
The reason I had deliberately needled him was to confirm whether his current thoughts were the same as those of the Heavenly Mysteries Divine Physician I knew from my past life.
If his efforts in relief work and helping the poor had only begun after he was driven out of the Murim Alliance, then no matter what conditions I offered now, he would not come.
‘But it seems that is his nature from the beginning.’
If so, bringing him over was no problem at all.
After all, those in this world who did not move for money ultimately moved for something else.
“I will open a clinic for you alone. You can work for our Taeul Sect while also carrying out relief work. The Taeul Sect will bear all the costs.”
Flinch.
Sima Jeong, who had been about to leave, sat down again.
As expected, he bit immediately. Good.
“Do you think I would believe such an absurd story?”
“Why do you think it is absurd?”
“Because it is a promise that is difficult to put into practice from the outset.”
“…”
Why is this man so suspicious?
Well, he is a hundred times more reliable than someone who would accept it readily.
“Anyone can speak with plausible words. But when it comes time to spend money on people who have nothing to do with oneself, it is human nature to quickly feel that it is a waste.”
“That can happen.”
“And you expect me to believe a few words from you and go to the Taeul Sect?”
Before him, who still could not let go of suspicion, I took out the book I had prepared.
“What about this?”
“What is this?”
“You have seen me treat Yayul Geuk before, have you not?”
“…”
His face hardened.
From the beginning, I did not sit down at a negotiation… no, at a place of intimidation without something to rely on.
Just listen to that sound of him swallowing. It is echoing everywhere. He is already a fish in my hand, is he not?
I calmly revealed the book’s identity.
“It is a medical text concerning that.”
Soon, Sima Jeong opened the medical text with trembling hands.
It was one of the three parts into which I had divided the Secret Record of Ten Thousand Herbs.
Forgetting even the fact that I was in front of him, he examined the Secret Record of Ten Thousand Herbs in a frenzy.
“Th-this is…”
“Yes. It records methods for treatment using inexpensive medicinal ingredients.”
“…”
“They say it is called the Secret Record of Ten Thousand Herbs.”
Sima Jeong, who had been turning the pages again and again in visible excitement, asked me with a stiff face.
“You are… giving this to me?”
“Yes. If you wish, I will give you all the later parts as well.”
“Why?”
I shrugged.
“Well, let us call it the price for inviting you to the Taeul Sect.”
“…”
Sima Jeong stared intently at me with eyes that could not understand.
“This… This is an absurd medical text. If even half of what is written here can truly be achieved, it will change the entire landscape of medical arts.”
I think so too.
Perhaps the Murim Alliance had hidden this book away so tightly because it feared that very chaos.
But what use was such excellent medical art if it was not used directly?
Moreover, if it was all going to be lost during the Great Righteous-Demonic War, then it would truly be a case of hoarding it until it turned to dung.
I looked straight into Sima Jeong’s eyes.
“You are the one who should do that, Physician.”
“…You truly do not mind if I use this?”
“Yes. That is why I am giving it to you. Ah, of course, you should proceed with announcing it to the world little by little, very gradually. If you release it all at once, places like the Divine Physician Hall or the Tang Clan will not remain still.”
Sima Jeong kept his mouth firmly shut for a long while.
Then he carefully asked me, “What you want from me in return is the position of physician for the Taeul Sect?”
Surely not. As if that could be all.
“There is one more thing.”
Sima Jeong wore an expression that said he could not understand at all.
“That Spiritual Pill that got you driven out of the Divine Physician Pavilion, Physician.”
“Hm?”
I smiled at him brightly.
“Please make more of that.”
As soon as I finished speaking, Sima Jeong looked appalled.
Come now, what is there to be so shocked about?
“The Calm Heart Pill. Its effect was truly excellent.”
So let us try producing it like mad.