The Physician of Traditional Medicine Returns from Murim

“We haven’t even begun to repay our debt to the Divine Physician, and yet you’re leaving so suddenly.”

The second most beautiful woman in Sichuan, Lady Xu, dabbed her eyes with her sleeve as she wept.

“What better repayment could there be? Your good health is my greatest joy.”

“But if it weren’t for the Divine Physician, my child would never have seen the light of day.”

“That’s right!”

“If I had known you were leaving, I would have done more for you…”

As one person shed tears, even the cheerful maids began to sniffle.

“We’ll miss you!”

“Sob… sob…”

“I bow my head to you once again in gratitude. Thank you.”

Had I really formed connections with so many people?

I had been staying with the Tang Family for quite some time, so it wasn’t surprising that I knew many people as a physician. But I had only contacted about ten close acquaintances, yet dozens had come to see me off.

“With you gone, who will treat my husband’s chronic illness?”

Even the leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult was pouting with folded arms.

The Great Demon, who had made me famous by giving me the title of Divine Physician, had seemed so terrifying when we first met.

But after treating her husband, we had grown close enough to treat each other like old friends.

“Don’t worry about your husband. As I’ve always said, he’ll be fine if he just stops his dawn training.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Oh, and be sure to contact the Cult if you ever come back to the Central Plains.”

I tried to wave her off, but the Heavenly Demon clasped my hand, clearly reluctant to let me go.

“Tch.”

Someone clicked their tongue in disapproval at the sight.

The only man who could boldly frown in front of the Heavenly Demon was the leader of the Murim Alliance.

I quickly stepped between them.

“I trust Young Master Namgung is doing well?”

They wouldn’t cross any lines at a gathering to see me off, but the two absolute masters vying for the title of the world’s strongest were like natural disasters waiting to happen.

“Of course.”

“Ha ha, I’m so glad to hear that.”

“The boy should be here to greet you himself, but he’s not well enough to use his lightness skills yet.”

“He absolutely should be resting!”

Unlike the Heavenly Demon’s husband, whom I had been treating like a personal physician, I had only met the Murim Alliance leader’s son less than a year ago.

He had been barely clinging to life, with severe internal injuries that had greatly damaged his blood and vital essences. There was no way he should be traveling all this way just to see me off.

“The Murim Alliance will always welcome the Divine Physician.”

“I’m truly honored.”

I expressed my heartfelt gratitude to each person who had come to see me off one last time.

But we couldn’t stay like this forever.

“Everyone, take care! Thank you for everything until now!”

If I delayed any longer, I might not be able to leave today. I bowed deeply at a 90-degree angle to everyone.

It might not have been proper etiquette here, but what did it matter?

‘He really didn’t come? Even if he was upset, I thought he’d at least see me off…’

I scanned the crowd one last time, but there was no sign of my master.

Feeling a bit disappointed, I departed using my lightness technique.

It had been 20 years since I suddenly fell into this world straight out of a wuxia novel. I had spent over 10 years of that time right here in Tangjiata.

It was all thanks to my master, who had willingly given me a place in the Tang family’s medical pavilion.

‘Tch, I knew he’d be upset, but…’

He was the only one who knew that my homeland wasn’t just some foreign land.

I had expected him to be quite shocked, but throwing a tantrum about me leaving? What was that about?

Asking me to settle down here permanently?

It was a gracious offer, but… that was out of the question.

For 20 years, without a single moment’s pause, I had longed for my homeland, South Korea.

To be honest, I hadn’t been particularly patriotic when I was in Korea.

Moreover, no master in Murim could pose a threat to me anymore.

Everyone I had met here was precious to me, and the sky-high fame and mountains of gold and silver were beyond comparison.

‘But what good is that? Even if gold is rotting away, you can’t install an internet data network.’

I’m the kind of person who prefers playing games wrapped in a microfiber blanket to wearing silk clothes surrounded by gold.

To reclaim those precious days, I had researched tirelessly.

And finally, I succeeded.

“I’m sorry, Master! I pray for your continued good health. This disciple will be wishing for you from far-off Korea!”

After bowing towards Tangjiata where my master would be.

I unleashed the Great Soul Return Technique.

I had waited and prepared for this day.

At the moment when the moon completely disappeared and the yin energy was at its strongest, I poured out almost all of the inner force I had accumulated over the years.

Whoosh.

A massive light enveloped me.

It was exactly the same sight as when I had been dragged here.

◆◇◆◇◆

A towering 20-story building. Cars moving faster than the lightest qinggong. And people wearing nylon and polyester clothes.

The dream-like world I had longed for all this time.

“Huh? Where did you… No, Yeowon, why are you still here?”

As the hotel door opened, clear Korean words pierced my ears.

How long had it been since I’d heard my native language?

Seeing an old friend’s face almost brought tears of joy to my eyes.

“Didn’t you leave for Sichuan by train earlier? Don’t tell me you missed it?”

“Yeah. The traffic was bad.”

“Oh no, what should we do? Do we need to book the next train?”

My friend panicked and turned on her phone, but I felt like shouting with joy.

I had succeeded.

I had really succeeded in returning!

The fourth weekend of August. Beijing, China.

The time and place were perfect, without even a hair’s breadth of error.

“It’s fine. Since it turned out like this, I’m just going to go back to Korea.”

My name is Han Yeowon, and the friend who called me is Hwang Seoyoung.

We had come to China using our last summer vacation.

It wasn’t just a simple trip.

She and I were fourth-year students in the Korean Medicine department at Korea University, and we had crossed the West Sea to participate in an internship at a Chinese medicine university hospital.

We had followed the curriculum and done our internships at our own university hospital, but we had made the decision to come here wanting to see a wider variety of patients in China.

‘I didn’t know I’d see quite that much variety, though.’

Just because we came for an internship didn’t mean we could only go back and forth to the hospital.

I originally liked wuxia novels, and among them, the Sichuan Tang family was my favorite. Plus, I’m crazy about spicy food like malatang and hot pot.

How could someone like me come all the way to China and not visit Sichuan Province?

“What are you talking about? You’ve been singing about how excited you were for months! There should be tickets left. If not today, then tomorrow.”

Unlike me, who had been so enthusiastic about the trip, my friend was only interested in the internship.

No matter how close we were, she wasn’t willing to change trains several times to accompany me all the way to Sichuan Province, so I had planned to go to Sichuan alone using the last week before classes started again.

No, I actually did go.

It felt like 20 years ago, but from this point of return, it was just a few hours ago.

I had gotten up at the crack of dawn and left for Sichuan Province, and as soon as I arrived, I got lost.

‘Whew.’

Even now, my heart was pounding as I recalled what happened then.

As I was wandering around in a place where I couldn’t communicate, an old man approached me, speaking fluent Korean and telling me to follow him.

I should have been suspicious of the strange atmosphere, but hearing my native language in a foreign land, I let down my guard and followed him.

As we entered a deserted area and I began to feel uneasy, a bright white light enveloped me.

What happened after that… would take 10 books to talk about, so I’ll skip it.

“Okay, okay. I’m not going to Sichuan or anywhere like that. Let’s go back to Korea together.”

The destination I had set for the Great Soul Return Technique was this very hotel in Beijing, just before boarding the train to Sichuan Province.

I wanted to go straight to my home in Korea, but I returned to this exact time to avoid any potential problems with immigration records.

“What? You’re just going to go back to Korea?”

That was the wish I had been longing for over the past 20 years.

I will never set foot in Sichuan Province again. No, I won’t even step on Chinese soil ever again.

I should just finish the rest of my fleeting school days peacefully and live an uneventful life.

“I was feeling too tired to go anyway.”

My resolve was firm, but I just smiled awkwardly.

“What…? You’re not doing this because I said I didn’t want to fly alone, are you?”

“Come on, of course not.”

Hwang Seoyoung frowned and tilted her head.

She seemed unable to understand my sudden change in attitude.

“Alright. I’ll check if there are any seats left on the flight.”

But she didn’t try to stop me any further.

Now that I had already missed the train, what was the point of her going alone?

It seemed she wanted to spend the long flight time together as well.

◆◇◆◇◆

After finishing the complicated boarding procedures, we finally boarded the plane.

“Wow~ It’s a good thing there were seats left.”

I plopped down into the window seat.

I had been feeling quite tired from trying to gather the little energy left in my dantian.

“Yeah.”

“Are you really okay with the airfare?”

Hwang Seoyoung asked cautiously. If it had been the old penny-pinching me, I would have been shocked at the full-price airfare paid on the day of travel, but now, a few hundred thousand won was not even a concern for me.

“Don’t worry about it. What else could I do after missing the train?”

As she said, it was fortunate that there were seats available. I could worry about my bank balance after returning to Korea.

– Ladies and gentlemen, welcome aboard. Korean Air flight 875 to Incheon Airport will be departing shortly. Please turn off all electronic devices.

Soon after, the in-flight announcement played.

It was heartbreaking that I couldn’t use my phone as soon as I got back.

“What should I do first when I get back to Korea?”

Still, just a few hours of patience and I’d be in the Korea I’d been dreaming of.

“We start school right away, so what time is there to do anything~”

“I should eat kimchi stew first, right? Then hamburgers, and spaghetti. Oh, and tempura udon too.”

Hwang Seoyoung tried to dampen my spirits, but the start of the semester couldn’t stop my excitement.

I muttered a bunch of foods that came to mind as I turned on the screen attached to the seat in front of me.

If I can’t use my phone, I might as well do this.

The graphics were very old, but to someone who had been on a 20-year digital detox, it was incredibly stimulating.

Bang bang bang bang bang!

While chatting with Hwang Seoyoung, I excitedly destroyed enemy fighters.

* * *

About an hour passed like that.

“Is there a medical professional among the passengers?”

I reflexively stood up at the sudden voice of a flight attendant looking for a doctor.

“Yes!”

It was a habit from the days when I would run around trying to save even one more person on battlefields where every second counted.

“Huh?”

Hwang Seoyoung, who had been dozing off, looked up at me in surprise.

“Han Yeowon, what are you doing?”

Hwang Seoyoung’s voice was filled with bewilderment.

Only then did I come to my senses.

‘I’m not the Divine Physician or anything anymore!’

That’s right… What should I do?

I realized belatedly that I had made a mistake, but the flight attendant was already approaching.

I wasn’t worried that it might be a patient I couldn’t treat.

I had the confidence that if I couldn’t do it, no one else could, even if I couldn’t treat every patient in the world.

The problem was the license.

‘I’ve treated all sorts of bizarre diseases, but here I’m just an unlicensed practitioner.’

Carelessly performing medical procedures as a student in the modern world could lead to serious legal trouble.

“There’s a doctor here too!”

Just then, someone in the back row also raised their hand.

Fortunately, it seemed there was another medical professional on the plane.

I secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

“Could both of you please come forward for a moment?”

I went to see the patient with a much more relaxed mind.

Hwang Seoyoung followed me anxiously.

In fact, excluding my experience in the world of martial arts, my practical experience consisted of just a few days of medical volunteering, so it was natural for her to be nervous.

“Huff, huff…”

At the very front of the aircraft, in the space in front of the business class seats, a man in his early thirties wearing a suit was panting.

“Are… are you doctors?”

He was clutching his chest with a very pained expression, but when we appeared, he brightened up as if he had met a savior.

“Yes.”

More precisely, it was the doctor who had raised his hand behind us, not me.

The appearance of a middle-aged man with wrinkles steeped in his dignified age was enough to inspire trust.

“How many years of experience do you have?”

Instead of taking the patient’s hand, that doctor turned to look at me.

It was obvious from his appearance that he had overwhelmingly more years of experience. He meant that he would examine the patient himself.

‘Maybe he had some romance about answering an in-flight doctor call.’

That was what I had been hoping for as well.

“Not yet… mmph.”

I covered Hwang Seoyoung’s mouth as she was about to say we were students and answered politely.

“I haven’t been out of school for long. Please, you should take a look.”

Aside from getting into trouble, there was no need to unnecessarily worry the patient, right?

“Very well.”

His tone was quite annoyed, but even the masters in Murim would often grumble like that when imparting their teachings.

Since putting on airs had little to do with actual skill, I tried to listen to his diagnosis with an open mind.

…But soon I found myself opening my mouth.

The diagnosis, it shouldn’t be going in that direction, should it?