Night of the Broken Gliph

Chui Yim nodded on hearing him. In medicine, the four methods of diagnosing were critical. First, observe the patient’s situation; including his complexion and tongue. Secondly, listen to the patient's speech, coughs, and breaths and smell the patient for special odours orally or physically. The third step was to ask for the patient’s condition and medical history. Lastly, feel the patient physically. Such a palpating and measuring of his pulse. 

These were some especially important information that couldn’t be derived from the puppet as the puppet couldn’t talk nor its condition could be reflected on it physically. However, some observations were possible. 

Chui Yim looked toward the stage. There were three slightly red palm marks on every puppet: one on the left chest, back and right ribs. 

Seeing that all the disciples had received a puppet, Ping San Sat spoke. “You have unlimited time to diagnose and treat the patient. When you finish, the puppets will be sent to us one by one, and every disciple has to report their diagnosis and treatment regimen, which all five clan leaders will grade together. 

“You may begin.” Ping San Yat declared. 

All the disciples started their work accordingly. Some observed the puppet quietly, others read its pulse or even inspected the puppet with their energliph. Chui Yim was observing the puppet too, but he couldn’t tell much since the palm marks were only surface level. He needed to inspect the puppet physically to know its actual condition. 

Compared to alchemy and battle, this segment was more boring. There wasn’t much to see, and it was more solemn. To the thirteen medical talents of the respective clans, it wasn’t a medical puppet but an actual patient, and a doctor had to be extremely careful with his or her work. 

At this moment, all the participants put winning aside and focused solely on treating the patient in front of them. Even the white-clothed teenager who was spectating the competition kept his smile, nodding silently.

Indeed the city of medicine. Their attitude alone is one of the reasons why Southern Ping is so well respected in this world. 

Even if Southern Ping were to be placed next to South Imperial City, it still held an irreplaceable position as the home to countless talented doctors and alchemists!

Southern Ping became much more important to the white-clothed teen who was destined to be the next emperor. This city was one that he valued greatly. 

After some time, the participants slowly stopped their work. It was obvious that there were changes to each puppet. On some, the marks had faded, even fully disappearing depending on the treatment and skill of the various doctors. 

“Since everyone is done, we shall start grading now,” Ping San Yat said after taking a look across the arena. The clan’s servants stepped up once more, each taking a wooden puppet and moving to the platform with the disciple behind them. 

“I am Cheung San Yuk.” The disciple bowed to all five clan leaders as his puppet was placed in front of them. “I treated and diagnosed this puppet.” 

“You may describe your treatment,” Ping San Yat nodded and spoke calmly. 

Nodding with a serious look, Cheung San Yuk started. “From what I deduced, the patient was injured by a harmful, fire-attributed gliphility that passed through his body, causing damage to his internal organs.

“I controlled the damage done to him with my energliph and used immortal weed as the main ingredient, pairing it with Chinese bellflower, perlucere, angelica sinensis and a few other herbs to help him recover.”

It was a simple but detailed report, to which all five clan leaders nodded. The marks on his wooden puppet were still present, but all doctors worked differently. Obviously, Cheung San Yuk was a doctor who used herbs to consolidate the patient’s constitution for a steady recovery. There wasn’t a right or wrong in medicine; the only thing that mattered was the patient’s recovery. 

Cheung San Yuk’s method would result in a slow recovery, but it was a reliable solution that couldn’t go wrong. He had already done well to achieve such a result with his stage. 

Cheung San looked at Cheung San Yuk with a satisfied smile. Cheung San Yuk was the disciple best in medicine from the Cheung Clan, and he took after the Cheung Clan’s strength of sticking to the basics and using herbs. 

The five clan leaders said nothing, and Ping San Yat called for the next disciple after a nod. Unlike alchemy which graded the effectiveness and number of pills to decide the winner, the patient’s estimated recovery would decide the winner. 

Other disciples went up one by one to give their report, the five clan leaders only nodding in response, not giving much feedback as they took note of each performance. 

It might have been deliberate, but the last two remaining participants were Ping Man Bun from the Ping Clan and Mo-Yung Kit from the Mo-Yung clan. Even Cheung San Yuk, who felt he did well, paid attention, wanting to hear their reports. 

Ping Man Bun threw Mo-Yung Kit a disdainful look before stepping forward, only receiving a smile in return. Confidently, he stepped onto the stage and stated, “Greetings to the five clan leaders, I am Ping Man Bun.

“Firstly, I’d like to mention that all the previous disciples before me haven’t mentioned a critical point.”

As soon as he spoke, many disciples shot daggers at him. The crowd jeered at him in no time. But he didn’t care as Old Chan had taught him: “If nobody was jealous of you, then you’re stupid.” Since that was his master’s teachings, he strove to achieve that standard. 

The stares were nothing to him as he continued confidently, “The four methods are useless if they aren’t used properly. The three slaps were indeed caused by gliphilities, but it isn’t that simple. The energliph from the slaps weren’t simply just fire-attributed; it took me more time to realise that those slaps weren’t from the same gliphility, but actually two different gliphilities. 

“The one on the left chest was caused by a fire-attributed attack, while the other two slaps were of the agile wind attribute. The slap on the patient’s back was meant to conceal the killing blow, the attack on the left chest. Wind helps fire grow, so suppressing it with energliph and herbs is useless. As soon as the three energies join together, it would light up the fire energy and the patient would die.”

This caused an uproar in the crowd, as everyone, including Cheung San Yuk, had a similar diagnosis despite their different techniques. What Ping Man Bun said just proved them all wrong. 

What if this wasn’t a medical puppet and an actual patient? Under Ping Mun Ban’s diagnoses, they were no different from useless doctors!