I Have Medicine Chapter 1

Gu Zuo hugged a bag of groceries as he trotted home. His family’s house wasn’t close, and it would take another 10 minutes to get there.

He was feeling a bit anxious. His dad should’ve been waiting at home for a while now and wouldn’t have started eating without him. He had stomach problems, and while his other father wasn’t around, only he could take care of his dad.

Thinking this, Gu Zuo sped up.

But just as he crossed the road, an extremely fast truck swerved into the intersection. The driver was clearly drunk out of his mind!

Shocked, Gu Zuo tried to dodge, but there wasn’t enough time and the truck was upon him. He only felt a sharp pain before he blacked out and knew no more.

Before losing consciousness, Gu Zuo failed to notice a twinkling object entering his forehead between his eyebrows. Then his body vanished.

At the same moment, another body replaced him and was crushed beneath the truck.

Soon, a crowd gathered and shouts filled the air…

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Gu Zuo crashed to the ground and grimaced in pain. However, he was still relieved. Whatever happened, he was still alive after being hit by a truck, right?

He got up and dusted himself off. As he looked for the bag of groceries he dropped, he was stunned by the scene around him.

A carved wooden window and antique furniture, what was this place?

Gu Zuo felt anything but reassured. He’d just been hit, but hit by what? There was nothing here that could’ve hit him!

Then as he looked around, he found a young man lying on a bed.

Gu Zuo immediately went over to ask about his situation.

He didn’t feel quite right, the person’s appearance felt off somehow… As soon as he reached the bed and got a clear view of the person lying on the bed, he froze.

Who was this…how could he look exactly like him?

The person on the bed was a teenager. His complexion was deathly pale and eerily still like a pool of stagnant water.

Gu Zuo’s face went pale as well.

This person shouldn’t be dead, right?

Composing himself, Gu Zuo gathered all his courage and waved his finger under the teenager’s nose. Immediately his whole body weakened — fuck [1], he really is dead! If someone walked in, he wouldn’t be able to explain himself even if he had ten thousand mouths! Moreover, he inexplicably came across a dead body that had his face, it felt like he was looking at his own corpse! It was really fucked up!

Gu Zuo retreated a few steps. He walked over to the window and looked outside to see an empty courtyard with glimpses of people flickering in the distance.

At once his mood became even more complicated.

According to his exceptional vision, those flickering silhouettes were wearing ancient costumes!

So to say…

Gu Zuo was reluctant to believe it himself, but he came to a shocking conclusion.

When he was hit by that truck, he was sent hurtling back to ancient times. Everything was happening too fast. His dad was still probably at home waiting for him. He didn’t want to deal with any of this nonsense!

Thinking about his dad who needed assisted living [2], he wondered how sad he’d be when he found his son missing. He felt terrible.

It shouldn’t be like this… Wasn’t he asked to process some medicinal ingredients at Huichun Hall today? How could this have happened? Gu Zuo collapsed onto a bench in a daze. Even getting hit by a truck would’ve been better than this…

Wait a minute!

Gu Zuo’s face paled further.

He was hit.

Yes, he remembered he was clearly hit by that truck and felt intense pain. But now his body was uninjured, it didn’t make any sense!

His whole appearance was unscathed…

It couldn’t be that he crossed over because he had magic powers?

Gu Zuo couldn’t make sense of anything. With his mind in chaos, he didn’t know what to do.

With this dead body that looked exactly like him, was it a coincidence or a deliberate ploy? Was it like those novels where he was supposed to take over the body’s identity?

At this time, suddenly a line of text flashed inside Gu Zuo’s mind.

[Medicine Refining System greets host. Will the host allow this system to bond?]

Gu Zuo stared blankly.

System? What system? What was this thing in his head?

Another line flashed.

[After bonding, this Medicine Refining System can help the host become a master pharmacist [3]. This system program is currently in the host’s mind space, but is not yet activated. When the host faced imminent death, this system teleported the host to the country of Cangyun, located on Tianwu continent. Then the host’s body was restored. Will the host allow this system to bond?]

Gu Zuo was a little confused.

He wrung his fingers to calm down as much as possible before he proceeded to talk to the thing in his head.

He thought in his mind the questions he wanted to ask: how do you bond with a host and what do I get if I become your host? Can I still go back home? And what if I don’t accept you?

[After bonding with the host, this system will provide a step by step guide on how to refine medicine. The host will then complete corresponding tasks and gradually become the world’s greatest pharmacist. If the host works hard enough, you can return home with your own strength. In the case that the host chooses to bond, the host merely needs to give consent to immediately bond. In the case that the host chooses not to bond, this system will automatically separate itself, and the host will have to survive alone.]

Gu Zuo stared blankly again.

The idea of surviving alone…blindly wandering by one’s self?

Although he didn’t know what this Medicine Refining System was, he knew it transported him here and it could turn him into an expert. It could be counted as his golden finger. Naturally he’d accept!

However, Gu Zuo still warily asked: What restrictions do I have if I choose to bond? If I don’t complete my tasks, will my life be in danger?

[If the host doesn’t complete the tasks within the allotted timeframe, this system will obliterate the host.]

Gu Zuo: “…”

As expected, it is quite dangerous.

Then he shouldn’t bond…since the thing he was most afraid of in the world was dying.

[Disaster and happiness go hand in hand. Host, please consider things carefully. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Furthermore, this continent isn’t safe at all.]

Gu Zuo hesitated.

[Insufficient energy, this system will enter sleep mode in half an hour. Please make your decision as soon as possible. If an answer isn’t provided in half an hour, this system will remove itself by default.]

Gu Zuo hesitated once again.

So if he bonded with the system and failed a task, he would die, but if he doesn’t, he wouldn’t have any protection in this world.

But in the end, how unsafe was this place? Could he survive by himself? How difficult were those tasks? Right now he didn’t know what to do, he didn’t have enough information to make any decisions!

Without a definite grasp of the outcomes, he feared making the wrong choice.

[If the host makes contact with the body on the bed, you can obtain its memories. You can make a decision after watching.]

Gu Zuo felt his mouth twitch.

In this world, people are able to extract memories from dead bodies?

[No.]

Gu Zuo relaxed.

In other words, this was the system assisting him? He warily moved towards the corpse.

The body wasn’t rotting and it wouldn’t get up all of a sudden…

After gathering his courage, Gu Zuo ran passed the corpse and smacked it with the back of his hand.

Sure enough, in the next moment, countless bits of information frantically poured into his mind. A painful headache erupted and he staggered back a few steps. But soon enough, all the information melded into his brain as if it had belonged there all along.

After he looked over the information, a vein on Gu Zuo’s forehead popped up in anger.

…His circumstances were so unlucky!

This world was practically a tragedy; it barely had any laws at all. Although wuxia tales also speak of martial criminals, at least the ‘xia’ (chivalry) was still present there. This place, however, was empty of any good will. Everything was based on the laws of the jungle; only the strong were at the top of the food chain!

If ordinary civilians were killed here, there was no place for redress. Those with higher strength receive respect and attention, they have the power to protect their families and provide for them. Along with the rise of one’s strength, one’s lifespan also increases.

The only thing worth celebrating is that though martial artists were powerful, the continent was still ruled by a humanitarian empire. Although the world existed in feudal times, most cities had some degree of law to allow the common people to prosper adequately.

But still, this continent had an awfully strong martial spirit. For one who didn’t have the means to cultivate their martial strength, if they were lucky they would be mediocre their whole lives, and if they were unlucky, they would perish. They won’t have personal freedom; any wealth would be exploited by those with strength. Any hint of refusal and they’d surely die.

Simply put, it was very easy to die.

However, in addition to martial artists, there’s one other class of people who are regarded even more highly: the pharmacists. During cultivation, martial artists face many bottlenecks when they breakthrough to the next level. In order to supplement their development, one needs dan pills [4], which only pharmacists can refine.

At the same time, becoming a pharmacist is incredibly difficult. A prerequisite to becoming a pharmacist is that one must possess a yao bead [5] located in the acupuncture points of both hands. Otherwise, one will be incapable of harnessing their soul force [6] to properly regulate their medicinal cauldron. Any inferior dan pills made this way would be useless to martial artists.

However, people with yao beads are very rare, perhaps not even one in ten thousand. One can well imagine their high status.

If Gu Zuo bonds with the Medicine Refining System, he’d be able to become a pharmacist. As long as he can become proficient in this skill, he’d be able to ensure his own safety.

Gu Zuo wasn’t stupid. Although he wasn’t a person from here, the system insisted that he could become a pharmacist. Even if he didn’t have yao beads, he was sure that the system would help him acquire them… It seemed that there really weren’t any reasons to avoid bonding.

Rubbing his hands over his face, Gu Zuo resigned himself.

So be it, to traverse this dangerous world, he’d join together with this system.

He spoke, “I agree to become your host.”

At that moment, a strange feeling permeated through his whole body. All of a sudden, he was able to sense something inside his mind.

Moreover, although he couldn’t control the thing in his head, he felt inexplicably connected to it. Truly, it was very…magical.

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[1] 特麼 – Te me, euphemistic equivalent of 他媽的 ta ma de, [fuck] his mother, or shit!

[2] 相依為命 – Xiang yi wei ming – idiom for interdependence, to depend on one another. Didn’t have a good English equivalent that didn’t throw off the whole sentence.

[3] 煉藥師 – Lian yao shi, a medicine refining master. There aren’t many English equivalents that adequately fit into a fantasy story like this. I don’t like apothecary. Pharmacist sounds much more classy and also rhymes with martial artist! Haha.

[4] 丹藥 – Dan yao, self explanatory. I agree with the previous translator from Cherry-Clan Novels that keeping this word as “dan pill” is aesthetically pleasing.

[5] 藥珠 – Yao zhu, also self explanatory and kept as “yao bead” for aesthetics.

[6] 藥氣 – Yao qi, medicinal energy. I chose soul force because it sounds better. Any mention of qi in the future will probably be set as soul force unless the context requires a more straightforward translation.

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This is a re-translation. The original translation for this chapter can be found . Please don’t forget to support the .