WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
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◈ Memoir of a Regressor ◈
Chapter 73: The Divine Physician of a Hundred Herbs
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I came outside supporting Myeong-hyeon.
“...I thought you’d killed them all, but apparently not.”
It was only natural for him to say that.
Twenty martial artists of the Bright Moon Sword Clan were pointing their swords at us.
“...You mad bastard... Do you have any idea where you are to dare pull something like this?!”
I had killed several on the way here. The corpses scattered below were proof enough.
I had not killed them all, but there were more than I expected.
Every one of them had reached the Four Qi-Cultivation Realms.
The strongest had reached Three Flowers Gather at the Crown.
No matter how I looked at it, these twenty were surely their elite.
I set Myeong-hyeon down beside me. I tossed the groaning man the Bone-Melting Needle Crossbow. It was the last one I had left.
Letting the Cloud Dragon Sword hang at my side, I slowly drew up Properly Aligned Qi.
“You asked if I know where this is? Of course I do. This is the Emperor Sword Sect’s secret branch.”
The martial artists flinched.
“I came to take one of mine. If you stop me, I will kill you. I will count to five. Decide before I reach five.”
I counted inwardly.
One.
Two.
That seemed to be enough. The twenty martial artists rushed at me all at once. My eyes flashed as I kicked off the ground and brought down my sword.
The inner energy stretching a full ten feet split into five streams.
Light-Splitting Sword.
Slash!
The martial artist directly before me split into five pieces. Two swords came crashing down toward me. I knocked them away with the Cloud Dragon Sword and spun.
My concentrated force aura took the shape of a dragon.
Great Purity Dragon-Form Sword.
Slash!
Two bodies split in half.
I kicked off the ground and drove up my knee. One martial artist’s face shattered. I reached out and seized the sword thrusting in from the side. The sword aura surrounding it was powerful enough to sting my hand. It had certainly cut me, but I did not show it.
I tightened my grip.
The martial artist trying to pull back the sword panicked. I drove the Cloud Dragon Sword into his throat.
Then my instincts warned me.
Dodge.
I used Heavenly Mechanism Divine Steps to shift forward, but I was a little too late.
Slice.
The area above my shoulder blade was cut. It stung.
I pulled the Cloud Dragon Sword from the martial artist’s throat and swung it behind me.
Clang!
The martial artist at Three Flowers Gather at the Crown, shocked out of his wits, knocked aside the Cloud Dragon Sword.
Strength surged into my legs.
I extended them.
Crunch!
The man’s right thigh bent at an unnatural angle. His balance collapsed.
I brought down my sword.
Crack!
His head split in half.
Two martial artists rushed at me from behind him. I kicked off the ground.
Flying Dragon Chasing Lightning at its utmost mastery.
In an instant, I moved into their blind spots and swung my sword with extreme speed.
Slash!
There was only one sound, but two heads fell.
I reached out, caught one head, and hurled it to the side. A charging martial artist knocked it away.
At the same time, I thrust out the Cloud Dragon Sword.
Thud!
The man impaled through the solar plexus let out a pained groan. I ignored it. I swung wide to the side.
His heart split completely apart.
I took a step forward and raised my sword overhead.
Boom!!
This one had also reached Three Flowers Gather at the Crown. The ground beneath my feet sank in. Even my arm trembled slightly.
I knocked his sword aside. The man regained his balance.
I spun three rings and detonated the Properly Aligned Qi that burst out all at once. The condensed qi and blood accelerated my physical abilities.
“...You’re quite good...”
Slash!
The man’s head fell.
With that, every martial artist at Three Flowers Gather at the Crown was dead. Only those at Five Dragons Honoring the Sage or Twin Sun Manifestation remained.
I turned around. Seven martial artists were backing away. As for the rest, they were writhing in pain around Myeong-hyeon.
I let my sword hang at my side.
“I gave you a chance.”
I kicked off the ground.
Slash.
One head fell.
I reached toward the head of a retreating martial artist and grabbed it. I tightened my grip.
Crunch.
I drove my sword into the heart of the martial artist beside him. As I pulled it free, I threw it at the man fleeing with his back to me.
It embedded cleanly in the back of his head.
I deflected the sword of the man swinging at me in fear, then threw a punch.
Crack.
His jaw shattered.
As he staggered from losing his balance, I brought my heel down on his face.
Crunch!
I turned my head.
Thud.
One martial artist had collapsed onto the ground. I ran over and slammed his head into the earth.
Boom!
The last one crawled away on all fours. I picked up a sword lying on the ground and threw it.
It lodged in the back of his neck.
Hoo.
I panted. There were no survivors.
I poured three Asura Pills and two fifty-year-old Cheonhwa Pills into my mouth.
I could not absorb all their energy, but it was still better than nothing.
Counting the spiritual medicines I had taken on the way here and the ones I had just swallowed, it amounted to over three hundred years’ worth.
I did not regret it. Countless spiritual medicines would fall into my hands anyway.
After retrieving the Cloud Dragon Sword, I supported the collapsed Myeong-hyeon. He blinked.
“...I’m honestly curious. How are you still perfectly fine?”
It was understandable that he would say that.
Baekmun Town was quite far from Jangam County.
I had run the whole way here. That meant I had drawn on my inner energy, and normally, I should have collapsed from exhaustion by now.
It was because of the Celestial Spirit Root Pill I had taken in Jangnyeong County before.
My recovery speed was unparalleled. Properly Aligned Qi also accumulated far faster than before.
Extracting energy from spiritual medicines had become much smoother as well.
That was all.
And I had no intention of explaining that entire story to him now. It was not as though I had time to spare.
Myeong-hyeon let out a sigh.
“You still have so many secrets.”
“Do you regret it?”
“Regret what? I don’t do that.”
We walked on in silence. Myeong-hyeon asked a question.
“Where are we going now?”
I glanced over his body.
He had too many wounds and had lost too much blood. The bleeding from the wound on his face had been somewhat staunched, but it was far too severe. It was not merely cut. Someone had clearly struck the spot repeatedly with their feet and fists.
I could see his teeth.
Not through his mouth, but through his torn cheek.
I thought for a moment.
“Are you wondering whether you accepted me for nothing or something? I’d be hurt.”
I sighed.
I had intended to head straight to Jangam County, but that was uncertain now.
I could not go to the Asura Sword Sect’s main headquarters either. If I brought him to the Medical Classics Pavilion, the whole headquarters would probably be thrown into chaos.
First of all.
I needed to treat Myeong-hyeon’s wounds and completely purify the demonic qi inside him.
I needed to find someone who could do both.
I pulled up my memories.
Someone with an urgent matter at hand.
Someone who had long searched for an answer to something.
Someone so exceptionally skilled in medicine that their reputation had spread throughout the martial world.
And someone independent by nature, belonging nowhere and staying as neutral as possible.
Two people came to mind.
The Sacred Beast Medical Clan of the Wi Martial World.
The White Spirit Medical Clan of the Jeok Martial World.
The Wi Martial World was too far away. The Sacred Beast Divine Physician there could surely heal Myeong-hyeon within a day, but Myeong-hyeon might die on the way.
The closer option was the White Spirit Medical Clan.
As far as I knew, its Divine Physician of a Hundred Herbs had a problem that might trouble him for up to fifteen more years.
“There is someone I need to visit.”
“...Now?”
“Yes. Now.”
“Where are we going?”
“To meet the Divine Physician of a Hundred Herbs.”
Myeong-hyeon was greatly startled.
“...You mean that... old monster?”
The Divine Physician of a Hundred Herbs had another epithet.
The Mad Physician.
He was eccentric, but his skill was beyond question.
“Are you worried?”
“Is that even a question? The rumors about that man are incredible. They say that when someone complained their arm hurt, he claimed to treat them and cut off their leg.”
I could not exactly deny that.
From an ordinary person’s perspective, he was certainly not an ordinary man.
Beyond the relationships between qi channels, the Mad Physician possessed considerable knowledge of how damage to one part of the body could affect other parts.
He was probably the best in the martial world.
He had done insane things such as cutting off the leg of someone whose arm hurt, or cutting off the arm or gouging out the eyes of someone whose leg hurt.
Still, it would be fine.
“...Can’t I just die like this?”
“I have many things for you to do.”
“...”
“Do not worry.”
“...Yes. Understood. But... do you use a duplication technique?”
I turned to look at him.
There was something strange about Myeong-hyeon’s eyes.
“Uh... Why am I seeing three of you... Now there are four...”
Thud.
Myeong-hyeon collapsed.
I ran a hand through my hair.
Tsk.
I hoisted Myeong-hyeon onto my back and began walking.
The Mad Physician lived in a town called Yongpyeong, roughly four days from Baekmun Town.
Myeong-hyeon’s condition on my back was alarming. Beyond merely trembling, foam gathered at the corners of his mouth.
I could not feed him spiritual medicine now. It would probably tear apart his qi channels from within. He was damaged to that extent.
Slowly injecting my own energy into him, I kicked off the ground.
It seemed I needed to hurry.
* * *
Yongpyeong Town, located in the southeast of the Jeok Nation, was one of the martial world’s rather famous places.
It was not because it had special products, an immensely powerful master, or one of the Eight Great Sects.
The Divine Physician of a Hundred Herbs, Yang Il, lived in Yongpyeong Town.
Yang Il was the head of the White Spirit Medical Clan and the greatest physician in the Jeok Nation. Rumor had it that he could save even someone whose breath had stopped.
In truth, he could not revive the dead. He had merely saved people who had not been dead for very long.
In any case, because he was a man with such ability, many people came from all over the martial world seeking Yang Il.
That was why Yongpyeong Town bustled every day.
But exactly ten days ago, the White Spirit Medical Clan had shut its gates.
Rumor had it that the Divine Physician of a Hundred Herbs had fallen ill and taken to bed. Yet did it make sense for that Divine Physician to become sick?
It was absurd nonsense, but it was true that they had stopped receiving guests. They had even refused a request for an audience from the Sect Leader of the Full Moon Blade Sect, who was said to have been an old friend.
The Southern Full Moon Sect, the Full Moon Blade Sect, even the Yin-Yang Sect.
Despite visits from prestigious clans and renowned masters throughout the martial world, the gates never opened.
It was a fundamental question.
What kind of man was Yang Il, the Divine Physician of a Hundred Herbs?
Each person possessed countless traits. When describing Yi Do, the Cruel Demonic Way, people might say his hand was ruthless, that he was decisive, that he was coldhearted and without tears, that he valued debts and grudges, and so on.
Because there were so many possible answers, it was impossible to define a person with a single word.
Yet everyone who knew Yang Il named one trait in common.
Stubbornness.
Yang Il’s stubbornness was truly without equal.
Once he said he disliked something, he disliked it. Once he said he would not do something, he never would.
He would not do it even if a blade was held to his throat. Though his epithet was the Divine Physician of a Hundred Herbs, that was also why he was called the Mad Physician.
Those in desperate need could have climbed the wall to meet him in person and request treatment or a house call, but not a single one had ever succeeded.
Instead, the White Spirit Medical Clan issued trespass bans to those who climbed the wall and wrote down their names. Over the decades, names had only ever been added to that list, never removed.
That was the kind of man he was.
Therefore, no one climbed the White Spirit Medical Clan’s wall.
And today.
A man carrying a bloodied man on his back climbed over the White Spirit Medical Clan’s wall.
Those affiliated with the White Spirit Medical Clan saw it.
They sighed.
Another name would be added to that list today.
Another ignorant madman was doing something pointless.
Tsk, tsk.
They clicked their tongues.
Still, an intruder was an intruder.
The White Spirit Medical Clan’s martial artists drew their weapons and pointed them at him all at once.
The man set down the human-shaped lump of flesh he had been carrying on his back.
The description was fitting.
Though it had the shape of a person, it was little more than a lump of flesh. Its entire body was drenched in blood, and the fact that it was alive was practically a miracle.
They could understand why he had intruded.
The man spoke.
“I came to see Yang Il.”
“...Forgive me, but do you not know the rules of the White Spirit Medical Clan?”
“I know them.”
“The Divine Physician has gone into seclusion. It has already been over ten days. No matter how urgent your situation is, if you climb the wall... you know what will happen.”
The martial artists’ realms varied.
Twin Sun Manifestation, Five Dragons Honoring the Sage, Three Flowers Gather at the Crown.
The man speaking was the White Martial Pavilion Lord responsible for the White Spirit Medical Clan’s martial force. He had reached Five Qis Return to Origin.
“Do not tell us who you are. Just... go back. Then your name will not be written on the list.”
The man who met the White Martial Pavilion Lord’s eyes opened his mouth.
“My name is Yi Do.”
The corner of the White Martial Pavilion Lord’s mouth twitched upon hearing that name.
How could he not know it?
That man was the martial world’s current topic of conversation.
Yi Do, the Cruel Demonic Way.
The Asura Sword Sect’s Branch Chief. The seventeen-year-old martial artist who had turned Jangam County of the Yan Kingdom into a wasteland before occupying it.
“...I told you not to say it... If you tell me that, I cannot overlook it.”
“Seomun Hyeok, White Martial Pavilion Lord. Bring Yang Il to me.”
“I cannot do that. Still, since you have come this far, and since I admire the nerve it took to tell us your name, I will call a few physicians from the White Robe Pavilion to treat him. I have my doubts, but it will likely be better than receiving no treatment.”
Yi Do shook his head.
“You are making me repeat myself. Go and deliver this message. Tell him I know the secret of the White Spirit Medical Clan, and if he wants to find its answer, he should come running at once.”
“...You truly are unusual, as expected of the man causing such turmoil in the martial world.”
Yang Il called over a nearby martial artist and whispered into his ear. He ordered him to deliver Yi Do’s words to the Clan Head.
The martial artist ran off at once. Seomun Hyeok turned away.
Yi Do was injecting inner energy into the lump of flesh lying on the ground.
What a pity.
It truly was a pity.
It was not that he doubted the Divine Physician’s ability. The Divine Physician could certainly save that man. But no one else could. Of that, he was sure.
And the Divine Physician was an extremely stubborn man.
No matter what Yi Do knew, the Divine Physician would not bend his stubbornness.
Before long, an elderly man in white robes came shuffling over. The moment they saw him, every martial artist dropped to one knee.
“Greetings, Divine Physician.”
The old man waved a hand.
This man was Yang Il, the Divine Physician of a Hundred Herbs.
The greatest physician in the Jeok Nation.
He looked at Yi Do with an unpleasant expression.
“Was it you who dared climb the wall of the White Spirit Medical Clan and summon me?”
Yi Do smiled.
“You smile? I heard you caused turmoil in the martial world. You are certainly no ordinary fellow. But it means nothing. Leave. And never show your face near the White Spirit Medical Clan again.”
Yi Do spoke to Yang Il.
“Yet you came out, did you not?”
“...”
“You came because you were curious about what I know. Is that not so?”
“...Heh heh... I will not deny it. I came out because I was curious what you could possibly know. The secret of the White Spirit Medical Clan...”
Yang Il could not finish speaking.
Yi Do’s voice transmission rang in his mind.
Seomun Hyeok and the other martial artists tilted their heads.
What was wrong with him?
Moment by moment, Yang Il’s brow furrowed, his eyes widened, and his mouth opened and closed.
Then everyone was shocked by Yang Il’s next words.
“...Follow me.”
The Mad Physician had yielded his stubbornness.
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