Chapter 57: Gate to the Way of Medicine (3)
Jin Soa glared at Wi Yeonho, his face twisted in frustration.
“Ah, I swear. Don’t look at me like that. It’s really not because I just don’t want to deal with it.”
“I’ve heard that martial artists have cured illnesses even physicians couldn’t!”
“That’s all nonsense.”
“...What?”
“If that were true, don’t you think physicians would learn martial arts instead? Why would they waste time learning weak medicine if martial artists could heal? If martial artists could really cure people, would they risk their lives swinging swords to make money? They’d just become physicians—make good money, live comfortably.”
“...”
“Sounds like you picked up some weird rumor somewhere. All nonsense. Just bluffing from blade-swinging show-offs. Like talking with lime smeared on their throats—it’s nothing but noise.”
Jin Soa stood dazed, listening to Wi Yeonho’s rapid-fire excuses, then suddenly blurted out in urgency.
“Whatever! Just help me already!”
“How? I told you, I really don’t know anything.”
“You know the acupoints, don’t you?”
“That much, yeah.”
“Then check the patient’s acupoints. Hurry!”
Jin Soa nearly shouted with frothing frustration, and Wi Yeonho clicked his tongue before crouching in front of the blood-coughing patient.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“Press the Heaven’s Piercing Point with half strength, and the Central Treasury Point with full strength.”
Wi Yeonho looked at the patient, raised his hand with a sour expression.
“So... half on Heaven’s Piercing, full on Central Treasury...”
He pressed the patient a couple of times, then turned pale as he looked at Jin Soa.
“Hey, something’s wrong with this guy.”
Jin Soa turned his head from tending the wound. The patient’s face was turning blue. Blood-foam was now bubbling at his lips.
“Did you press Heaven’s Piercing with half strength, and Central Treasury with full?”
“I mean, this is Heaven’s Piercing, and this is Central Treasury, right?”
Jin Soa checked where Wi Yeonho was pointing—then screamed.
“That’s Central Treasury?! You, sorry excuse of a human being!”
“That’s a bit harsh...”
“You call yourself a martial artist and don’t even know where Central Treasury is?!”
Wi Yeonho flinched, backing away with his wounded face.
“I didn’t exactly learn it properly. I just kind of figured it out while getting hit. It’s normal to mess up.”
“Can’t you see the patient’s dying?”
Wi Yeonho drooped.
“Sorry.”
“Again! It’s just below that! Try again!”
“Not doing it.”
“What?”
Wi Yeonho collapsed like a withered fern.
“You keep forcing me to do it when I don’t want to, then chew me out when I mess up. What’s the point? I’d rather not.”
Jin Soa grew frantic.
“I won’t say anything this time. Just do it.”
“No thanks. If I mess up again, I’ll just be treated like crap again. I told you I wanted to leave—why hold on to someone trying to go?”
Jin Soa screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Fine! Just press the damn acupoints already! The man’s dying! A person’s dying!”
“Better than me killing him by screwing up.”
Jin Soa instinctively reached into his robe and gripped his golden needle.
If he threw it, would it stick into that obnoxious bastard?
Just then, Jin Yeran stepped in.
“I apologize on my brother’s behalf for his rudeness. But this is a matter of life and death. Please help us now, and scold us later.”
Wi Yeonho reluctantly nodded.
“Well, I’ve got a big heart, so I’ll help. But your brother’s kind of rude.”
Jin Soa, in truth, didn’t care if the patient lived or died—he just wanted to throttle Wi Yeonho—but held back with superhuman restraint.
Wi Yeonho approached the patient again and pressed Heaven’s Piercing and Central Treasury Points. The patient’s complexion stabilized, and a faint, shallow breath escaped.
“He’s breathing now?”
“The airway just widened. You need to press below his solar plexus to make him cough out the blood clot!”
Wi Yeonho pressed the area.
“Nothing’s coming out.”
“Harder!”
“If I press any harder, his guts are going to rupture.”
“Then use another method! If you don’t get it out, he’ll choke again—and he’s going to die!”
“What do I do?”
“Suck it out with your mouth.”
“...What?”
Wi Yeonho blinked wide-eyed and stared at Jin Soa.
“Put your mouth on his and suck it out!”
“Uh... so, what you’re saying is...”
Wi Yeonho glanced at the patient, then grinned brightly.
“You want me to kiss this guy and suck out the blood clot from his throat?”
“Yes.”
“There’s no other way?”
“None! Do it now! Or he’ll die!”
“I mean, his dying is bad, but the death of my one and only pure heart is also a tragedy...”
“What the hell are you babbling about?!”
Wi Yeonho shook his head firmly.
“Nope. I can’t. Damn it, I told you—I’ve never done it before!”
“Never done what, you lunatic?!”
Jin Soa was so furious, he could barely breathe.
“So I just need to pull out whatever’s blocking his throat?”
“Yes! Hurry!”
“Then why didn’t you just say that from the start? Why make me mess with acupoints and get chewed out?”
“What?”
Grumbling endlessly, Wi Yeonho placed his hand on the patient’s mouth.
He spread his palm over the mouth and lifted it—and a dark clot of blood shot into the air from the patient’s mouth.
“Guh?!”
Jin Soa gasped and shouted in shock.
“What exactly did you do?”
“I sucked it out.”
“Excuse me? With your hand?”
“There’s a thing called Suction Finger Technique. Anyway, it’s done, right?”
“Then leave that patient and move on to the next one beside him. He has the same blockage in his throat—please extract the blood clot.”
Grumbling as always, Wi Yeonho nevertheless followed Jin Soa’s instructions without resistance and treated the patients.
Once the clots were cleared, Jin Soa pulled a golden acupuncture needle from his robes and tossed it over.
Wi Yeonho caught the needle, frowning as he looked at Jin Soa.
“What’s this for?”
“Please insert the needle into the Qi Sea Point and the Great Palace Point of the patient in front of you, to a depth of 1.5 cm.”
“Can’t I just do it the same way as before?”
“Last time, pressing was enough. But this time, the needle needs to stay in for at least two hours. We can’t treat him properly without it.”
Wi Yeonho shook his head.
“I don’t know how to use this. And if the needlework is delicate enough to require something this thin, then I’m not the right person for the job. If I’m even slightly off in direction, it’ll be pointless.”
Jin Soa agreed. In his urgency, he had relied on Wi Yeonho’s help, but when it came to acupuncture, it could backfire if done without training.
Depending on the technique, a life-giving point could become a death point—that’s what acupuncture was.
‘What do I do now?’
He wanted to handle it himself, but if only Jin Yeran and he did all the needling, someone could die from the delay.
“You’re saying I need to apply pressure to the Qi Sea and Great Palace Points, to 1.5 cm depth, for two hours?”
“Yes!”
“So if I can do it without the needle, it’ll be fine?”
“What?”
Wi Yeonho placed a finger briefly on the Qi Sea and Great Palace Points of the patient, then pulled back.
“All set.”
“What do you mean?”
“The pressure should last for about two hours.”
“What are you even talking about?!”
Jin Soa had been about to erupt again, but held his tongue. Come to think of it, Wi Yeonho was a martial artist. Maybe they had their own methods. Hadn’t he just made a man cough up a blood clot using his hand?
“Come here and press down on this patient’s chest!”
“Yeah, yeah, keep using me. Just work me to death and toss me aside when you’re done.”
While Wi Yeonho held the patient down, Jin Soa hurried over to the one Wi Yeonho had treated and checked his pulse.
‘Even without the needle, the acupoints are activated!’
He didn’t know how it worked, but if it was effective, he had no reason not to use it.
“Leave that patient now and go to the next one. Press the Adjoining Gate Point to one 3 cm, Heavenly Pillar Point to 1.5 cm, and the Central Axis Point to one 3 cm.”
Irritation flooded Wi Yeonho’s face.
“Again? More? I’m tired and beat.”
‘Tired and beat? You haven’t done anything!’
Of course, he couldn’t say that out loud.
“Please! This is to save lives!”
“Ugh...”
Wi Yeonho grumbled but still followed Jin Soa’s orders and continued treating patients.
After about an hour of hectic running around, the patients gradually began to stabilize.
Wiping the sweat from his face, Jin Soa stood up.
The patients who had finished their initial treatment had already been moved indoors by servants, leaving only Jin Soa, Jin Yeran, and Wi Yeonho in the courtyard.
Jin Soa glanced at Wi Yeonho.
Wi Yeonho lay sprawled on the ground, his face plastered with irritation and exhaustion, eyes shut. His whole posture screamed, “I’m dead tired, don’t even think about making me move.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
“Peh! After working me to death, all I get is a ‘thanks’?”
Jin Yeran bowed her head to Wi Yeonho.
“Thanks to Young Master Wi, we were able to save those patients. I truly appreciate your help.”
“...Ahem.”
Wi Yeonho still wore a sour expression, but unlike with Jin Soa, he didn’t openly complain to Jin Yeran. Then again, no one could blame him. Anyone seeing Jin Yeran now would’ve held their tongue.
Her face was streaked with sweat and dirt, her once-white robes soaked crimson with the patients’ blood. Her hair, tangled with blood and dust, was a mess.
She looked like she had just barely come of age. Anyone seeing such a girl holding down bleeding patients and placing needles with steady hands would find it impossible to criticize her.
“I’ll have a bath drawn. Please go and wash up.”
“I’m fine...”
Wi Yeonho lowered his gaze to his own clothes and stopped mid-sentence. His robes were caked with blood and pus—no way he could keep walking around like that. Even Wi Yeonho knew the difference between his own sweat and someone else’s blood.
“I’ll wash. But honestly, you look like you need it more than I.”
Jin Yeran shook her head.
“I still need to tend to the patients.”
“You’re going to see patients looking like that...?”
“I can always change. We no longer need your help, Young Master Wi. What you’ve done is more than enough. Please, go and rest now.”
“All right.”
Jin Yeran nodded and turned to leave.
Seeing her sway slightly, Wi Yeonho instinctively reached out his hand.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. Soa, let’s go.”
“Yes, sister.”
Jin Soa and Jin Yeran hurried off toward the treatment room where the patients were.
Wi Yeonho stared blankly at their retreating figures, then let out a sigh.
“So it’s not so easy after all.”
Every job, every path in life had its own burdens. Yet he had dismissed the physician’s life as easy after watching for just a short while. That thought now felt foolish.
Wi Yeonho stared at the backs of the two heading inside, then turned and walked toward the bath.