Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 1007

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 1007
‘Well, having brushed with death, I suppose laughter is warranted.’
I dismissed the thought without concern.
After laughing, I resumed moving my spoon.
Suddenly, something caught against the spoon’s edge with a soft clink.
“Pine pollen pills.”
“Ah yes, I packed those as well.”
“How in the world do you manage to carry all these things?”
“Well, the robes of a Baekrin Uiseon Sojakju have more pockets than they appear, and they don’t show the weight.”
“Usually people carry throwing needles in those pockets, don’t they? You’re carrying pine pollen pills and pepper powder instead?”
“Throwing needles can simply be hurled with qi. Food is far more important. Bam!”
“Kekekek….”
Namgung Un laughed again.
This time he set down his rice bowl and laughed for quite some time.
“?”
“No, it’s just amusing. The Sichuan Tang Family is the same, and my own robes have many pockets too. But I’ve rarely considered putting anything other than throwing needles in them.”
“The reason my Master taught me the Tanjicheon Technique was precisely this—fill the remaining empty pockets with food and medicine as you travel. That was the meaning.”
Namgung Un was aware of Hyeolrin Gwangssal.
He’d heard no small number of tales from the Elders about that past temperament… so he thought it unlikely.
It was probably meant as an instruction to bore holes through the heads of any reckless fools who charged in.
‘In any case, that’s why he carries so much.’
Suddenly, I seemed to remember something and muttered under my breath.
“Item window! Bag! Inventory! Spatial pocket…! Still doesn’t work, does it. As if I’d want to lug everything around like this.”
“….”
I had no idea what he was saying.
But this wasn’t the first or second time he’d done something like that.
I spoke up.
“Still, items that might explode like pine pollen pills—I pack those carefully in wooden containers and store them in my medicine bag. Usually I only keep non-fragile items like dried meat in my pockets. Even if I don’t cause an explosion, pursuers attacking could detonate them, couldn’t they?”
“…I see.”
Truly a madman.
But a madman loved by many.
How could one dislike someone who traveled so far to save your life and now feeds you meals like this?
“…Thank you.”
“Eat well and recover quickly. Since you’re a Kang Ho-in who has mastered Jeong Gong, your recovery is exceptional, but once we leave here, you must visit Bunta for additional treatment.”
After finishing the meal, I handed over medicine.
“Take this.”
The pill I gave him was bitter. But it wasn’t impossible to swallow.
Namgung Un performed light qi circulation and opened his eyes with a noticeably lighter body.
Only then did he have the leisure to look around.
“The bodies of the Demonic Sect members…?”
“I gave them a proper burial.”
I wondered how long I had been unconscious.
I couldn’t say for certain, but it seemed my younger brother had spent that remaining time collecting and burying the bodies.
Focusing my inner sight to examine the surroundings, I could see burial marks in the distance.
However, there appeared to be no grave markers.
When I asked about it, Jin Cheon-hee smiled wryly.
“When I searched their bodies, there was nothing to indicate their identities. Though that’s typical for Demonic Sect members.”
So he had even considered the circumstances of the Demonic Sect members.
“The horse…”
“Ah, I collected and buried that one as well. I dug deep enough that beasts won’t be able to unearth and desecrate it.”
“I see.”
Jin Cheon-hee tossed something to Namgung Un.
Clack—
It was an ornament that had hung from the horse’s mane.
The ornament bore an inscription.
Pungwun—Wind and Cloud.
It was a common name given to the steeds of the great families.
But Pungwun had been named after Namgung Un’s own characters, so he had cherished the horse dearly, and the steed had protected its master with all its strength.
“Even when I loosened the reins and told it to flee, it kept circling around. Perhaps it thought it was searching for where its master had fallen.”
“…”
“It took the hidden weapons meant for me and endured with eyes wide open until the blood assassination ended. And when it realized I had survived, it seemed satisfied and departed.”
“I see.”
“No matter how much I told it to flee, it wouldn’t listen—that stubborn beast. It understood forward, backward, left, and right, but it wouldn’t understand ‘flee.’ Perhaps I simply never taught it that command.”
Jin Cheon-hee replied.
“Perhaps… it understood what you meant by ‘flee’ without you having to say it. After all, it was quite a refined spirit beast, and more importantly, it couldn’t have failed to understand what loosening the reins meant.”
“That stubborn beast… In the end, thanks to its fortune, I alone survived once again.”
Those words had been buried deepest within Namgung Un for the longest time.
Though he had never shown it otherwise, how many companions had he sent off while living in this Gangho?
And now he had even lost a steed that was like family.
Yet still, he had survived.
He had survived this time too.
When Pungwun was dying, his heart had burned with the desire to follow.
He had wanted to entrust everything to his grandfather, Elder Tae-sang, finish his business, and depart to a distant place with Pungwun.
A place without the grudges of Gangho, without pain.
But Pungwun wouldn’t even allow that, keeping its eyes wide open and enduring until its master was safe.
What could Namgung Un do in the face of that?
Nothing but scratch the bridge of its nose and tell it not to worry.
Fortunately, the horse knew nothing of human anguish.
Thinking that Namgung Un’s survival was all that mattered, it departed with a peaceful expression.
And Namgung Un…
I felt death.
Demonic cultivation deviation.
Death that I believed without doubt I could face together.
At its end, my dear friend had grasped the back of my neck and dragged me out beyond the River of Three Paths.
My dear friend, Jin Cheon-hee, handed me the Cheonilchwi.
I knew it wasn’t given to drink.
Namgung Un went to where Pungwun had been buried, poured the Cheonilchwi with a splash, and spoke thus.
“Next time, go to a better place. At least somewhere beyond this Gangho….”
“….”
Jin Cheon-hee gave Namgung Un time to be alone.
Namgung Un collapsed before Pungwun’s grave.
Jin Cheon-hee pretended not to notice and moved as far away as possible.
After some time had passed, when Namgung Un returned, Jin Cheon-hee had a rolled tobacco leaf in his mouth.
“Is that good for your body?”
“Not at all.”
“Then why smoke it?”
“Sometimes stress… or rather, to soothe my mind and body.”
At those words, he let out a soft laugh.
“Give me some too.”
“I cannot.”
Jin Cheon-hee spoke firmly.
“Why?”
“Because it’s bad for your body.”
“But you smoke it?”
“…My Master has permitted it.”
After saying that much, I stubbed out the tobacco leaf.
Namgung Un could say nothing more.
Interestingly, a Master’s permission carried the weight of gold in Gangho.
‘Such a concept is far too different from modern earthlings. This sort of thing.’
But it was a good excuse. And it was the truth besides.
After organizing all the vessels, Namgung Un finally rose to his feet.
“Where are you going, sir?”
“To finish things. You should not follow. This is a matter of my family, and it is a dirty affair. There is no need for you to come along.”
“Namgung hyeong, was that a joke? We’ve come this far. We’re already entangled in this. Let’s go together.”
“Hah…. You won’t listen even if I try to stop you, will you?”
At those words, Jin Cheon-hee burst into laughter.
“No.”
“Then I understand.”
Namgung Un said no more and walked together with Jin Cheon-hee.
After walking quite a distance, we arrived at a deep place that wouldn’t even appear on maps—where the mountains began.
Following that deep mountain valley, we emerged into a basin.
And there to greet us were corpses—countless corpses.
Numerous bodies lay scattered throughout this place like vegetation.
“Did you do this as well, Namgung Hyeong?”
“…I won’t deny it.”
Namgung Un spoke thus and ventured deeper inside.
A brutal battle.
I finally understood why Namgung Un’s body had been reduced to tatters.
Had he carved through all these Demonic Sect members alone, slashing and slashing his way forward?
And at the center where Namgung Un had arrived.
There lay a person who had died with eyes closed in laughter.
It was not a bright smile.
A wild cackle, a mockery of the opponent.
Even in death, the Deceased Person continued to ridicule their adversary.
Whether they had died while channeling demonic energy, their skin had turned pitch black.
It was a face I recognized well.
“Ju Yeong-yeong.”
Indeed, Namgung Un had relaxed his guard and fallen asleep because he had accomplished his objective.
What happened to him afterward would not have mattered.
Namgung Un had thought to himself.
‘I’ve cut down Ja Mokryeon.’
Even in that dream, it was so.
“I told you not to come, for this is not a sight to show one who dislikes watching people die.”
“…No, I’m accustomed to witnessing such scenes.”
I said only that much and held my tongue.
‘The Namgung Family’s thunder technique is truly the natural enemy of demonic energy.’
Since lightning itself carries extreme yang qi, it easily gains the upper hand against the Demonic Sect.
In short, the matchup was favorable.
‘That’s the reason Namgung Hyeong is still alive.’
Without the Namgung Family’s martial arts, he would have died a hundred times over.
No, if he had been the Jicheon Cheonma Namgung Un of that time, even with favorable matchups, fighting Ju Yeong-yeong itself would have been impossible.
That Namgung Un back then lacked enthusiasm for martial arts.
He had no particular reason to live, merely letting time pass until he inherited the position of Gaju and rose to become the Martial Arts Alliance Leader.
‘Of course, that alone was still a remarkable achievement.’
With superior talent, such modest effort was sufficient.
Whether the previous Namgung Gaju of that time had touched demonic energy or not remained unknown.
What was certain was that Namgung Un would not have known that Ju Yeong-yeong was a spy.
Namgung Un withdrew something from his robes and scattered it over Ju Yeong-yeong’s corpse.
Ssshhhhhhh—
With merely the slightest contact, the corpse began dissolving at tremendous speed.
Though I had never seen such a substance before, I immediately recognized it.
‘Bone-Melting Acid! That infamous concoction from the old martial arts novels. A substance used to dissolve corpses and erase all traces….’
Descriptions varied across different stories, but the common depiction was that it caused no particular harm to living skin while dissolving only corpses—a convenient fiction.
Of course, that applied only to skin contact; ingestion would prove fatal.
It was a poison, after all.
Thus, the body would vanish completely.
“You’ve procured something quite precious.”
If human corpses could be disposed of so easily, half the unsolved disappearances in Gangho would have been resolved.
Without knowing whether someone truly died or who killed them, the investigation would merely circle endlessly.
Namgung Un poured the liquor I had given him onto the empty space.
It was the Patriarch’s resolve to leave not even a corpse behind.
And though she had been a spy of the Demonic Sect, it was a libation offered while severing the accumulated affection between them.
“….”
Namgung Un quietly left unspoken words: ‘Farewell. I cannot bring myself to say thank you for all this time. However, I shall take responsibility for raising Namgung Su.’
I deliberately looked away, pretending not to hear.
It was a form of consideration.
Because he understood this, Namgung Un could complete this memorial properly.
“Phew…. It’s finished. It’s finally finished…!”
He spoke loudly with deliberate cheerfulness.
I asked him.
“Did you obtain it from the Tang Family?”
Given its value, the Sichuan Tang Family handled it with considerable strictness.
Not only was the formula closely guarded, but exporting the substance externally was no simple matter.
The fact that the Lord of the Tang Family provided it meant they too had shown considerable sincerity.
“Indeed. This was necessary.”
“To leave no evidence?”
The fact that he had resorted to Bone-Melting Acid meant he intended to be thorough.
“Whether the Demonic Sect knows or not matters little. This is…for the sake of Sua, who remains at the main branch.”
Namgung Su. The son of Ju Yeong-yeong.
And a child who knows nothing.
Namgung Un spoke.
“There is a saying about ‘cutting the grass and removing the roots’…but…how could I possibly kill Sua? Could you do such a thing?”
I smiled faintly.
“A cruel question indeed.”
“It is. Someday, when Sua learns the truth, he will surely seek to kill me. Perhaps his hatred might even transform from hatred of me to hatred of the main branch itself. But….”
Namgung Un laughed bitterly.
“…as Patriarch, I could not simply stand idle. I could not merely watch this unfold.”
I gave Namgung Un a small nod and patted his shoulder.
“Much of the main branch will need to change going forward. The secrets Ju Yeong-yeong sold to the Demonic Sect are not few in number….”
Among them were portions of the Namgung Family’s martial techniques.
“…Will you keep this fact to yourself alone?”
“My grandfather is a ruthless man. If he learns of this, he will surely attempt to kill Su. I cannot allow that. All this burden… I, as Gaju, must bear it.”
To save Namgung Su’s life.
Elder Tae-sang would inevitably kill Namgung Su.
That was the conclusion Namgung Un, as Gaju, had reached.
“I did not know you had not informed him either.”
“There was some… information manipulation involved.”
Namgung Un said no more and closed his mouth.
“Next time, perhaps you should at least bring the Namgung Family’s Shadow Guard with you.”
The Namgung Family’s Shadow Guard.
They were those who protected the Gaju like shadows, and the Namgung Family’s guard unit was particularly renowned for their strength.
“Do you know that my grandfather leads that unit? If they protect me, it means my grandfather’s eyes and ears are at my side.”
“I am aware. However, I cannot guarantee I will arrive on time next occasion.”
“Hmm, I shall give it thought.”
“….”
He did not say he would do it. Yet he did not refuse either.
He merely said he would give it thought.
Namgung Un, who led dozens of masked persons from the shadows.
I could not quite imagine it, but still—did not position make the person?
Soon after, Namgung Un seemed to have made his decision and used his lightning technique to ignite the surroundings.
“I apologize, but unlike before, these Demonic Sect members will be recorded as having burned to death in a mysterious battle.”
“Understood. While you are at it, perhaps you should also erase the traces of the lightning technique….”
“Hmm?”
Watching the lightning Namgung Un was unleashing create flames with no martial technique traces whatsoever—precisely and cleanly—I found myself at a loss for words.
Had this man even studied how to destroy evidence?
Reckless in appearance, yet sharp as a blade when it mattered.
“…No, I will remain here until everything has burned completely.”
The two of us watched as the flames consumed everything.
“I will set one more fire on the way back. At our old campsite.”
That grassland where Namgung Un’s lightning technique had passed through.
The place where I had discovered Namgung Un—he intended to erase that location entirely.
I nodded.
“That region is dry and fires occur frequently there. I have heard grass grows rapidly in such places. In merely a fortnight, no one will know.”
“Good. That is fortunate.”
“The grave as well… was buried deeply, so nothing will reveal what lies beneath. We did not even create a burial mound.”
“Thank you.”
The two of us stood in silence, watching the flames for a long time.
Until the last ember disappeared.
Thus Cheon Hee and Namgung Un gained a secret.
It was the secret of the Namgung Family.
And it was a secret he would carry to his grave, never to be revealed even to Namgung Un.
‘Please, let Namgung Hyeong return safely.’
I offered a quiet prayer.
“By the way, once I return to the Namgung Family, I’d like to repay this debt of life. Is there anything you’d like?”
The hidden circumstances of the Namgung Family.
Namgung Un spoke as if casually pulling spending money from his pocket.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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