DR Chapter 38

Of course, Jin Cheon-hee was human too. He disliked those he disliked.

But in the face of performance, he thoroughly killed his emotions and lived on.

He had to perform better surgeries. He had to write better papers.

Performance didn’t lie.

He hated golf until his dying day, but he still had enough coldness and almost shameless sociability to take care of himself.

Getting along moderately with everyone produced quite good results when combined with decent skills.

Even the tenured professor loved him like his own child.

Jin Cheon-hee slowly opened his mouth.

‘Smiling is good. As expected, I’m less shaky after smiling.’

It was the same even in the face of death. Smiling was really good.

Jin Cheon-hee said to Yoo Ho what he had said to his rivals in the past.

“Ultimately, we need to save Master.”

“Pardon?”

“No matter how much I rack my brains, there’s no better card than you.”

The sincere words echoed in the empty birdcage.

Yoo Ho’s body stiffened at the words that contained not an ounce of lie.

“I tried to kill you.”

“Yes, you did.”

“I still haven’t made a decision.”

“Yes. For Master’s sake. By any means necessary.”

“…”

“That’s the same as me. I’ve also risked my life by any means necessary.”

Why? Yoo Ho realized he was being overwhelmed by this boy.

Jin Cheon-hee continued.

“For now, become a nurse, Chief Administrator Yoo Ho. And keep me alive until we save Master. If we can’t save him, then kill me then.”

“What kind of sophistry is that?”

The boy answered nonchalantly.

“Ah, right. After this passes, it seems you won’t have many chances to kill me. Because Phantom Archer, who’s become my loyal subordinate, has reached the Transformation Realm.”

The boy smiled calmly while suppressing his trembling insides. Then he approached him without hesitation.

“Either become a nurse willingly, or kill me here.”

As the boy’s face came closer, Yoo Ho repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist.

It was strange. Even refreshing. The boy’s sincerity was also frightening.

The boy was simply pursuing a patient’s life to the end. It was closer to madness than obsession.

Yoo Ho felt as if this small boy was gripping his lifeline.

A pigeon fluttered and perched on Yoo Ho’s perch.

Yoo Ho realized that he no longer emitted even a trace of killing intent. That’s why…

“I’ve lost, Young Master.”

…he had no choice but to admit defeat.

“Telling someone who’s trying to kill you to become a white-robed warrior, really…”

“It’s not soft emotions like mercy or forgiveness. I’m just doing it because it’s the best option.”

“That’s even scarier.”

Yoo Ho smiled bitterly.

He had bet Jin Cheon-hee’s life.

On the other hand, Jin Cheon-hee had burrowed into Yoo Ho’s space, carrying everything he had. Afraid, yet seemingly unbothered.

It was a fight he could only lose.

Jin Cheon-hee said.

“I’ll treat you properly in front of others. It’s comfortable to maintain the cute Jin Cheon-hee position within the medical pavilion.”

“Are you saying you’ll push me around when we’re alone?”

“Forgot? You’re the one who said you’d kill me. Why should I go easy on you?”

‘I’ll show you something that surpasses the workload of South Korean nurses.’

Jin Cheon-hee thought to himself.

He decided to make this guy a true white-robed warrior.

“I’ll keep saving and saving lives. From today, you’ll have to learn a lot by my side.”

Jin Cheon-hee said this and then walked out of the pigeon coop.

Leaving one last indifferent remark.

“If you have any complaints, kill me now. Before it’s too late.”

Yoo Ho stared at Jin Cheon-hee’s retreating back for a long time.

‘I think I understand a bit. Why Phantom Archer even swore loyalty.’

He had thought it was simply being tricked. But seeing him today, that wasn’t the case.

He had the capacity to approach slyly even while afraid, and even recruit enemies.

At the place Jin Cheon-hee left, Yoo Ho stood in the empty birdcage, unable to leave for a long time.

The boy was a strange rival, unlike any Yoo Ho had ever met before.

***

“He treated severe internal injuries?”

“I heard even her liver and spleen were crushed.”

The medical reports publish new treatment methods developed in the medical pavilions.

Befitting the inhumane martial world, the reports don’t contain very specific treatment methods, but they do describe the patient’s condition and the general flow of treatment in quite detail.

The level of information is somewhere between an academic journal and a magazine.

“Though the patient isn’t specified, it seems to be Wang Gak-yeon, Phantom Archer’s daughter.”

He had already visited numerous medical clinics asking for his daughter’s treatment. There were few doctors who didn’t know about it.

“I heard a medical clinic from Hwaju Medical Pavilion took the case?”

“They tried to treat her for ten days, but when they couldn’t find a solution, they abandoned the patient.”

“What was their excuse?”

“They say the medical pavilion wouldn’t accept her because she wasn’t from the righteous faction.”

“Hmm…”

The information quickly spread through the mouths of numerous doctors in the martial world.

This issue of the White Dragon Medical Report had quite a significant impact.

“I think I understand why the Divine Doctor Baek Rin is so protective of his disciple.”

“I heard he’s not even past his teens.”

“To be able to treat severely injured internal organs… I’d like to go back to White Dragon Medical Pavilion and learn directly…”

It was natural for curiosity about Jin Cheon-hee to grow.

Even medical clinic owners who had left White Dragon Medical Pavilion to open their own practices started sending carrier pigeons to see if they could return to the hall to learn surgery.

Even sects that had exclusive contracts with other medical pavilions were considering changing their contracts to White Dragon Medical Pavilion.

The reason was simple.

“Although Phantom Archer did many things for the evil faction, didn’t he also work for the righteous faction? It shouldn’t have been so impossible for Hwaju Medical Pavilion to accept him.”

“Perhaps they made that excuse because Hwaju Medical Sage’s skills weren’t enough to treat her?”

At those words, the doctors fell silent. It was shocking. But they had no words to refute.

Keeping a patient for ten days and then refusing treatment at the medical pavilion was that much of a deviation from proper conduct.

The medical clinic owners affiliated with Hwaju Medical Pavilion were burning with anxiety.

“What nonsense! Are you saying Hwaju Medical Pavilion’s skills are inferior to White Dragon Medical Pavilion’s? You think Phantom Archer is called Phantom Archer for nothing? Even if he did work for the righteous faction, wasn’t that just for money? If anything, accepting her for ten days was just out of Hwaju Medical Sage’s kindness, there couldn’t have been any other intention!”

In response to the angry outbursts of the Hwaju Medical Pavilion affiliated clinic owners, martial artists from quite influential sects shrugged their shoulders.

“That’s what people are saying these days. In any case, everyone knows it’s not proper conduct for a doctor to keep a severely injured patient for ten days, right?”

Other martial artists nodded as well.

“If Hwaju Medical Pavilion couldn’t accept her because Phantom Archer was from the evil faction, they should have promptly informed the patient of that fact.”

“What nonsense! Rather, I think this whole situation might be a scheme created by White Dragon Medical Pavilion. Isn’t it written in the medical report as if medical skills are a competition when they’re not?”

There was no mention of Hwaju Medical Pavilion anywhere in the medical report.

To begin with, there was no information about the patient’s identity written anywhere.

Only the minimum necessary information about the patient’s condition for sharing information was written.

“I will report all of this to Hwaju Medical Sage!”

The angry Hwaju Medical Pavilion affiliated clinic owners snorted and fumed.

***

“They treated that?”

The White Dragon Medical Report arrived at Hwaju Medical Pavilion even before this news spread, when the first carrier pigeon arrived. It wasn’t some kind of intelligence gathering.

It was simply a long-standing custom for medical pavilions to share their medical reports with each other.

Sharing and competing with each other’s medical skills in this way often served as quite an important motivation for medical pavilion members.

“We secretly confirmed through the Beggars’ Sect that it’s definitely Phantom Archer’s daughter, Wang Gak-yeon.”

Ma Jinchu, the Chief Administrator of Hwaju Medical Pavilion, suppressed his rising irritation.

“Why on earth would they take such a risk with a patient who had a high chance of failure and create this situation? Does the Pavilion Master know?”

“Yes. He’s furious. Quite a few clinic owners are wavering because of this incident, and several sects are showing interest in White Dragon Medical Pavilion’s new treatment method.”

Chief Administrator Ma Jinchu didn’t have the courage to go meet the Pavilion Master, Medicine Sage Hwaju.

‘If I go up in this state… oh boy.’

The Chief Administrator tapped the table with his fingers.

Getting beaten was inevitable anyway. But there’s a world of difference between getting beaten after at least pretending to try to resolve the situation and just getting beaten.

The medical pavilion member continued.

“Also, White Dragon Medical Pavilion has been weak in surgery until now, so people are wondering how on earth they managed to treat this. The medical report highly praises the disciple Jin Cheon-hee, but some are saying they might have used an unverified surgical method.”

At those words, Ma Jinchu’s eyes lit up.

“You mean they played with the patient’s body using an unverified surgical method?”

“They didn’t go that far in their words, but…”

The medical pavilion member’s words trailed off. From those words, the Chief Administrator grasped the Pavilion Master’s intentions.

“Send some of our medical pavilion members to White Dragon Medical Pavilion. We need to send those who won’t lose in a battle of words.”

“Then, on what grounds should we send them?”

“That they might have put the patient in danger by using an unverified surgical method on a patient we could have treated in twenty days.”

It had been impossible to treat with Medicine Sage Hwaju’s skills. Yet the Chief Administrator shamelessly wagged his tongue, saying they could have treated her if given ten more days.

The medical pavilion member understood his meaning immediately.

“Yes, it was a patient that could have been treated at the clinic level even if not admitted to the medical pavilion. It’s as if Phantom Archer couldn’t wait and left.”

“Right. Well said. Say we came because we were worried about the patient. Then they won’t be able to turn us away.”

“What if they do turn us away?”

“Wouldn’t that be good grounds for spreading rumors? As long as we can tarnish their reputation either way, that’s fine. Then the sects we trade with won’t defect anymore.”

The Chief Administrator said with a grin.

“We must prepare thoroughly.”

The medical pavilion member bowed deeply and went out.

***

At the same time, Jin Cheon-hee was honing himself.

The Master’s condition was worse than he had expected. So he needed to get stronger even faster.

The current Jin Cheon-hee lacked both the internal energy to maintain surgery alone and the understanding of formations.

Jin Cheon-hee operated fire qi, water qi, and wood qi according to the verses.

Wind began to rise around Jin Cheon-hee, who was sitting cross-legged.