To my friend Xue Lin, An urgent message has come from the Sect Master, bearing word that the fighting around …
To my friend Xue Lin,
An urgent message has come from the Sect Master, bearing word that the fighting around the Hutuo has grown dire. The dead and wounded lie everywhere, and healers are needed at once. We disciples of Silver Needle have already set out without delay. Yet the road north is long and the mountains many, while saving lives will not wait.
Lin, you always said you were no true physician, and so did not dare follow me into Silver Needle. You also said that the secret manual our master passed on to you was no proper art for healing. But when floodwaters break the dike, whether sand and stone, timber, or flesh and blood, all must be thrown in to hold the breach. So it is with any method that can stop the bleeding and save a life. Save them first. As for whatever troubles may follow, leave them all to me.
Forget talk of holy healers and miraculous hands. Anyone who can snatch a life back from death's edge is a physician of the highest order.