Nano Machine Chapter 11: I Will Take You In As My Disciple, Pipsqueak (A)

As Cheon Yeo Woon was being carried out, the Grand Soloist of Eum Ma clan, Hang So Yoo, looked on with a glare of suspicion. At least based on the sheer amount of blood that came out from him, she was able to rule out the fact that he was putting up a show. He definitely had some internal damage dealt to him.

As she thought about this whole situation, West Grand Lord Yi Hwa Myeong instantly found his way back up on the stage.

"You went a little overboard this time."

"What? What do you mean?"

"He was two breaths away from being dead."

Even Hang So Yoo had never in her life seen such grave injuries dealt to a person from the sound waves of a harp. For a second, she narcissistically wondered if it was the result of her own inner power that had gone grown. After a brief moment of feeling embarrassed at West Grand Lord Yi Hwa Myeong's small rebuke, she quietly asked a question.

"The kid… did he really not have any inner power?"

Although she felt a little bit of a relief from seeing Cheon Yeo Woon badly hurt enough to be carried out on a wooden stretcher, she knew the impossibility of someone withstanding, and that too for a solid two hours, the sound waves going out from her harp.

Yi Hwa Myeong put on a perplexed face as he shook his head.

"None."

"Excuse me?"

"He had absolutely no inner power whatsoever. He made good on the pledge."

"How can that be? How can he withstand my sound waves without any inner power?"

The potency inherent in the sound waves of her harp was surely a force to be reckoned with. Even though she did not output all of her inner power into it this time, it was quite apparent from the scenery in the arena that even half of her full output was enough to wreak absolute havoc to an army of strong fighters. After her last performance, there were at best thirty people still standing, and well over half of those were now either completely passed out or barely conscious with vomit all over them.

"If he really doesn't possess any inner power, he should be on the floor like the vast majority."

"He was already stricken with heavy internal damage. The only thing that sustained him the whole time was his mental fortitude."

"What? It was his mental fortitude that sustained him?"

"Yes…. It seems he is no ordinary kid."

It was so extraordinary to Yi Hwa Myeong that he was still in a bit of a state of awe. In fact, he was awe-inspired to the point of wanting to disciple Cheon Yeo Woon as one of his own protégés despite his peculiar heritage as one of the Grand Master's offspring.

However, the Lord of the Underworld Yi Hwa Myeong was a realist to his core. He wasn't going to bring under his wings someone who is considered a thorn in the side of all the six pillar clans of the Ma faction.

*-Glug, Glug!-*

"Puhaha. That's amusing. He survived the first round with just his grit?"

The drunk East Grand Lord Gwang Do Seop Maeng who was sitting on the far right side of the stage holding a gourd bottle began to show some interest in what had just transpired. Besides drinking, the madman typically did not find anything amusing enough to attract his fickle attention.

At his question, Yi Hwa Myeong responded with a strong tone of annoyance.

"It's none of your business. Go away to some remote place and drink yourself to death."

"Hmph! I was going to leave whether your red-haired butt told me to or not."

"Drunk-ass fool."

"Little wussy."

Looking highly annoyed, Seop Maeng turned around and walked off the stage as he grumbled to himself.

Although they were both Grand Lords in the Ma faction, their disparate personalities often led them to clash with one another.

It was a known fact within the clan that at one point there was an intense duel between the two that, if it weren't for the quick intervention of the Grand Lord of lords Ma Ra Gyeom, would have ended with at least one fatality.

"Hm hmm, anyway since it was confirmed that he doesn't possess any inner power, there is nothing to worry about. And, about your indiscrete actions today, unfortunately, they will be reported to the Grand Master's Court.

Despite her nagging suspicion about Cheon Yeo Woon, Elder Oh Hang So Yoo did not refute Yi Hwa Myeong about the matter any longer, especially after hearing that she was about to be reported to the Grand Master's Court.

There is no reason to believe that West Grand Lord would try to cover up for that pipsqueak.

She reasoned that West Grand Lord who maintained cordial relationships with all six of the pillar clans wouldn't let Cheon Yeo Woon off the hook like this if he really had discovered the kid to be treacherous.

After picking up her harp, Hang So Yoo came down from the stage in short, quick steps making her exit from the arena as she repeatedly muttered while peering over at all the bodies lying on the arena floor.

"THAT should've been the normal outcome…"

After Elder Oh Hang So Yoo's exit, West Grand Lord Yi Hwa Myeong fell into a bind as he looked around at the catastrophic scenery before him.

"Ha… what to do…"

In this situation, it was difficult to even assign group numbers to the contestants.

Behind the main training field where all the drama unfolded was the main facility of the academy.

On the second floor of that building was the dispensary where the protégé of Baek Jong Woo, also called the Doctor of Misfortune, was stationed as the chief physician. His name was Baek Jong Myeong.

At his teacher's assurance that at the academy he would have a steady stream of patients coming in for treatment for at least four full years, Baek Jong Myeong had excitedly packed his medical equipment and arrived at the dispensary the night before.

*Knock! Knock!*

At the sound of knocking on his door, Baek Jong Myeong's face lit up.

He thought it was only the first day with the first round of the competition just under way, so what could possibly warrant such an early visit?

"Doctor Baek! We have a patient!"

"A patient? Already?! Hurry on in!"

It'd been really quiet at his own practice recently with the other two factions, Jeong faction and Sa faction, both carrying out their own local competition and training program for their next young generation of fighters.

The academy must truly be where the action is at!

The thought of getting to treat patients right from the start of the competition exhilarated him.

As the door opened, two of the instructors carried in a patient lying on a wooden stretcher. The boy on the stretcher with a completely blood-soaked upper garment was none other than Cheon Yeo Woon.

"What?! How fierce is the competition out there that he has gotten into this state?"

There was no way he could have lost so much blood without having been stabbed in the gut or something of that nature.

At Baek Jong Myeong's question, the two young instructors shook their heads as they gave him a surprising rebuttal.

"He incurred serious injuries to his internal organs. He won't be able to take any serious medicinal herbs because of his lack of inner power, but West Grand Lord personally asked that he be well taken care of."

"All this blood is from internal injuries?"

It was now about ten years since Baek Jong Myeong studied and practiced medicine under the tutelage of Baek Jong Woo, who at times was called the Doctor of Misfortune, but at other times was more appropriately referred to as "God's Hand." He was an experienced doctor, and had treated thousands of patients and all kinds of different medical cases, but it was his first time seeing so much blood loss from a mere internal injury.

"Anyway, since we brought him here to the dispensary as we were instructed, we will be on our way now."

"Okay, please do so."

Since it was time to assign group numbers to the contestants who had made it through the first round, they needed the full complement of staff to be at the arena floor. The instructors hurriedly left Cheon Yeo Woon on the dispensary bed and headed out the door when, suddenly, one of the younger instructors made a sudden stop and tilted his head as though he was thinking about something.

The senior instructor seemed annoyed by his abrupt actions.

"What are you hesitating about? We're busy, let's go."

"Oh…no, it's nothing. Hmm."

It almost seemed like Cheon Yeo Woon's face was looking much better than when he was on the stretcher a few moments ago. However, the junior instructor just assumed it must be the lighting in the room as he set out for the field again.

After the instructors had left, Baek Jong Myeong pulled up his chair closer to the patient lying on the bed and began to feel his pulse.

Hmm.

As Baek Jong Myeong gauged Cheon Yeo Woon's vital signs via his pulse, eyes firmly closed in order to focus on his fingertips, Cheon Yeo Woon opened his eyes half-way and began to stare at him.

He was in so much pain when he was still out on the training field earlier on, but, thanks to the nano machine's auto-recovery mode, he was able to finally gain his composure again.

Ha ah… I didn't think about the dispensary.

As soon as he realized where he had been transported to, he immediately commanded Nano to stop all the healing processes besides the one being done for his esophagus that felt like a fiery furnace. He decided to hold in the pain until the physician was done with diagnosing him.

"His pulse his really erratic and fast, there is no doubt he suffered serious internal injuries."

Baek Jong Myeong wrote down his diagnosis for the boy as "severe trauma to the internal organs." But, one mystery in all of this was the amount of blood that came out. It was truly an anomaly for someone to vomit so much blood out from the inside.

Even if he bit his tongue, he shouldn't have bled quite this much.

Baek Jong Myeong decided to put some acupuncture needles into him as a preliminary treatment.

In that moment, someone abruptly kicked open the door and trudged into the dispensary.

*Bang!*

"Jeebus!"

From the sudden surprise of the uninvited guest, Baek Jong Myeong fell to the ground.

He looked up to see who it was and discovered a raggedly dressed middle-aged man with a gourd bottle in his hand, his nose as red as a strawberry.