Leisurely Doctor's Life (3)

When the two arrived at Kyosato's home, they found the village chief and his son already there, clearly having waited for some time.

Asking Kyo Yasuhiro to boil a pot of water for him, Bai Sui exchanged brief greetings with everyone before moving to Kyosato's side to examine his injuries.

He removed the medicinal paste applied the previous day to inspect the state of the wound.

Fortunately, while the wound showed no obvious signs of healing, there were no indications of deterioration either, which was good news for Bai Sui.

The hot water was soon ready. After cleaning the wound, Bai Sui sprinkled the wintergreen powder from his jar onto the injury.

Instead of bandaging it immediately, he attempted to channel his Qi using the Earth-style method, coating the wound with it.

It appeared to have no effect, but Bai Sui knew that this Qi had already been stored within the flesh near the wound in a unique form.

From here, it only required quiet rest, waiting for this stored Qi to nourish the growth of the flesh.

Growth?

A thought suddenly surfaced in Bai Sui's mind: since it was about growth, could he use Wood-style Qi to accelerate the process?

He acted on the thought immediately, and since he was watching closely, there would be no accidents.

Transforming the attribute of the Qi in his hand, Bai Sui stared intently at the wound.

Soon, Bai Sui noticed that the wound covered by the medicinal powder began to grow; although the movement was extremely faint, it did not escape his notice.

Sensing the area, he felt the Earth-style Qi previously stored around the wound being consumed rapidly as the flesh grew.

Realizing his hypothesis was correct, Bai Sui withdrew the Wood-style Qi; after all, he didn't want to appear too outlandish.

"It is recovering very well. Apply this medicine for another two or three days, and the wound should close. After that, a period of quiet recuperation will be all that is needed," Bai Sui said calmly, meeting the gazes directed at him.

Upon hearing this, the younger Kyo Yasuhiro was the most overjoyed, immediately running to his brother Kyosato to share the news.

Bai Sui, meanwhile, washed his hands and began chatting with the village chief and his son.

"This old man truly finds Doctor Bai Sui's medical skills to be superb. In the past, when faced with such injuries, we could only pray the patient wouldn't develop a fever. Once a fever set in, a laborer was essentially lost. It really is, sigh..."

"...I wonder what kind of injuries or illnesses Doctor Bai Sui is best at treating? That way, I can inform the villagers and avoid further tragedies."

Bai Sui did not hide anything, replying directly, "Oh, I haven't really kept track of that. Whether it is internal or external injuries, or colds and vomiting blood, I know a little of everything. Though my studies are not exhaustive, I can certainly handle minor ailments."

Hearing this, the eyes of the village chief and his son nearly popped out. The village had been established for nearly ten years, and while no fewer than thirty families had come and gone, fewer than twenty remained.

Although there were various reasons for this, if there had been a general practitioner, surely more lives could have been saved.

For instance, Miki Tatsunori, who had recently joined the hunting party, had lost his father to a fever caused by an infected wound.

It was precisely because of this that he had lost control of his emotions when facing the injured Kyosato in the woods earlier—he had been reminded of his own father's death.

In truth, Bai Sui wanted to spread his medical knowledge as much as possible; being able to save people was always a good thing. However, after considering a few factors, he held his tongue and brought up another matter instead.

"I have observed over the past two days that the children in the village are illiterate. If there is a need, I can teach them to recognize some simple characters."

He had this idea partly to raise his standing in the village, making future activities easier, though his own penchant for teaching and his inclination to help others could not be ignored.

Furthermore, Bai Sui did not wish to wander aimlessly. A small village in such a remote location could be considered a rare place to settle down.

After all, Bai Sui had not yet attained immortality and had not transcended the category of humanity. Humans are social creatures; one cannot completely detach from the crowd.

Though Bai Sui enjoyed quiet, he only desired relative tranquility in his life, not to go decades without seeing another soul—he felt he would go mad if that were the case.

The village chief and his son naturally agreed to Bai Sui's proposal with delight. After all, in this Warring States period, anyone who could read was considered a person of status, if not nobility. Thus, while the two speculated about Bai Sui's background, they kept their thoughts to themselves, continuing to chat with mutual flattery.

Seeing that the sky outside was approaching noon, the group did not linger for a meal at Kyosato's home and instead returned to their respective dwellings.

After returning, Bai Sui tidied up his room, primarily processing the medicinal herbs he had gathered earlier.

He had left in a hurry before and hadn't cleaned up, so with nothing else to do, he naturally wanted to put his home in order.

With everything settled, Bai Sui began to study the application of his Qi.

Through this experimentation, Bai Sui discovered that they did not function like the Five Elements of mutual generation and restriction, but rather resembled the Four Symbols: Lesser Yang, Greater Yang, Lesser Yin, and Greater Yin.

Wood—Lesser Yang, Fire—Greater Yang, Metal—Lesser Yin, Water—Greater Yin.

Furthermore, Lesser Yang, Greater Yang, Lesser Yin, and Greater Yin could represent Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter respectively, but there was no Earth among them.

In the concepts from his past life, there were not only four seasons but a fifth: the Long Summer. The position of the Long Summer fell between each season, as follows:

Spring | Long Summer | Summer | Long Summer | Autumn | Long Summer | Winter | Long Summer | Spring

The Long Summer corresponded to Earth. Bai Sui's experiments confirmed this: Earth-style Qi acted like a catalyst, providing energy to every other attribute and thereby enhancing the effects and power of those corresponding elements.

Earth-style Qi possessed excellent penetrative and adhesive qualities, allowing it to combine well with other types of Qi and physical matter. This meant that if Bai Sui wanted to perform more advanced operations, research into the Earth attribute was indispensable.

With a clear direction for his research, Bai Sui felt even more hopeful about his future.

Days passed one by one, and Bai Sui gained a thorough understanding of the village's composition.

Excluding Bai Sui, there were six occupations in the village: village chief, samurai, craftsman, hunter, fisherman, and farmer.

The village chief's household consisted of three people: the father who served as chief, his son, and his daughter-in-law.

The samurai household consisted only of Kubota Noriyuki, who had come from the Land of Iron and lived alone in the village watchtower.

The hunters were the Yajima, Murai, Kyo, and Miki families he had encountered earlier. They served as the village's semi-armed force, aside from the samurai, as they were among the few in the village who possessed weapons.