Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 1010
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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 1010
A large metal tank specially crafted by Yoo Ho.
It was constructed with Yoo Ho’s ‘resonance’ embedded within, a structure that prevented toxins from escaping.
Inside, water filled it to the brim, sloshing gently.
Yoo Ho and I stood before the tank.
“So, Young Master, I understand you’re placing that toxin into the water in this tank, but how does that make it a refrigerant?”
“Han Bing Toxin. You’ve heard of it?”
“Hmm… I’ve heard of it. They say it’s a toxin among toxins that carries an extremely cold property.”
I nodded, satisfied with his understanding.
“Exactly. Han Bing Toxin is certainly a toxin, but it makes everything around it extremely cold.”
“I’ve heard that those afflicted by it become paralyzed and their entire body freezes over in cold, leading to death.”
‘Though for beings like us, it’s hardly a concern,’ Yoo Ho murmured softly to himself.
I answered him.
“Then what happens if we dilute it in water?”
“Water infused with Han Bing Toxin would become… Ah, I see. You’re using it to lower the temperature of the surroundings, aren’t you?”
Correct.
“…Young Master. You’re going to use such a potent Han Bing Toxin for that purpose?”
“Hey now! Choose your words carefully. Because Han Bing Toxin is so potent, it can be used as medicine too.”
Besides, there’s the Small Ice Pill.
What is Han Bing Toxin?
It’s one of the most coveted poisons among the Assassins of Gangho.
No matter how much one claims to do it for the sake of commoners, to repurpose such a thing as a refrigerant?
This was the most insane thing Yoo Ho had ever heard.
But I remained composed.
‘I’ve read about the history of refrigeration several times in library books.’
William Cullen, a British scientist from the 1700s.
Usually, when the body gets wet and then dries, it feels cool.
He focused on this fact and began his research, and the principle itself was simple.
Latent heat of vaporization.
He observed the process where liquid absorbs heat from its surroundings and transforms into gas, and confirmed that as this vaporization occurs, it steals heat from the surroundings, causing the temperature of objects to drop.
In other words, it becomes cold.
‘This is the principle of latent heat of vaporization.’
To utilize this principle, he used ethyl ether, a type of alcohol, or so the records say.
And.
He thus became the first in human history to successfully create artificial ice!
In other words, the ethyl ether he used was the first refrigerant!
However, discovery, invention, and development are different domains altogether.
The actual development of the refrigerators we use was carried out by others.
Jacob Perkins discovered the technology of vaporizing compressed ether and then condensing it again, laying the foundation for the refrigerator.
And then Willis Carrier unexpectedly applied that technology to create the air conditioner.
‘Praise be to air conditioning!’
Of course, the story doesn’t end there.
‘Oliver Evans, James Harrison, Carl von Linde, and who else was there… They developed various designs and filed patents, I’m sure.’
Thus humanity’s accumulated knowledge built up layer by layer, until eventually Fred Wolf created a refrigerator practical enough for household use.
A product called the ‘Domelre’.
With its gleaming white design and locking mechanisms to prevent raids by dogs and children, along with energy efficiency that was respectable by the standards of that era, even this device had its drawbacks.
It happened to cost more than an automobile of that time.
When people were already struggling to make ends meet, spending an automobile’s worth on a refrigerator was something no sane person would do.
Adoption remained sluggish until a refrigerator called the ‘Monitor Top’ was eventually released.
Well, the risk of refrigerator explosions was a very minor drawback by those standards, so let’s overlook that.
However, the moment the ‘Monitor Top’ arrived, everything changed.
This refrigerator cost one-third the price of its predecessor!
And it came with a rental service to boot.
By allowing people to pay a modest monthly fee to use it, even commoners could afford to take on such an expense.
This refrigerator became a sensation the moment it launched, and subsequent competitors spread across the globe like dandelion seeds, settling into countless homes.
It was truly the opening salvo of world conquest by refrigerator.
In modern times, the rental system is used for water purifiers and massage chairs.
Historically, the rental system and the refrigerator can be said to have a mutually cooperative relationship.
Without the rental system, refrigerators would have spread far more slowly.
‘Most people don’t know this.’
In any case.
All these refrigerators use electricity.
They work by using an electric motor to drive a heat exchanger, lowering the internal temperature through refrigerant circulation.
But on twenty-first century Earth, there are many regions where electricity isn’t readily available.
In remote areas of developing nations, there are places without a single utility pole.
For such people.
Inventors racked their brains and created refrigerators that required no electricity, operating solely on evaporative cooling.
We call such attempts appropriate technology.
Things like the Pot-in-pot, Mitti Cool, and Coca-Cola Bio-Cooler.
‘Among these, the Pot-in-pot is the easiest to use with current technology.’
The Pot-in-pot is especially useful even if you’re stranded on a deserted island.
1. Prepare one large clay pot and one small clay pot.
2. Fill the large pot with sand or soil.
3. Place the small pot on top.
4. Pour water onto the soil trapped between the small and large pots to dampen it.
5. Place vegetables, fruit, or whatever you want to refrigerate into the small pot.
6. Cover and seal it with a damp cloth.
Profit!
No matter how electricity-starved the country is, or how lacking in plastic, all you need is two clay pots, one bottle of water, and a single cloth.
This way, as the water in the soil evaporates, it continuously draws heat away from the small clay pot.
Fruit that could only be preserved for three days could now remain fresh for over three weeks.
The downside was that since it only worked inside small vessels, the storage capacity was far more limited than one might hope.
Moreover, evaporation worked better in drier conditions, so the efficiency suffered in humid regions.
In such places, I sometimes thought it would be better to simply bury storage jars in the ground.
As a result, distribution proved far more difficult than anticipated.
‘The Mitti Cool could be thought of as a more refined version of the Pot-in-pot.’
It was a rectangular earthenware box with a space at the top for pouring water.
When water was poured there, it would gradually flow throughout the entire Mitti Cool, soaking it completely.
As that water evaporated, it lowered the internal temperature.
The crucial point was that neither required electricity or refrigerant.
So then, what was Coca-Cola’s Bio-Cooler?
This device also resembled a refrigerator, but its distinctive feature was plants growing from its upper section.
When water was poured into the soil where those plants grew, evaporation would lower the internal temperature.
The problem was that this Bio-Cooler had quite high manufacturing costs.
Because compared to the Pot-in-pot and Mitti Cool, it required numerous expensive materials.
Insulating metal. And even cooling mirrors.
Moreover, its boxy, sleek exterior possessed a more refined design.
In short, the unit cost was expensive.
It wasn’t even something that could be manufactured at this martial world’s level of technology.
So.
I had originally planned to create something similar to the Pot-in-pot, but I changed my thinking slightly.
The Heavenly Ilgwang wanted a colder refrigerator!
Therefore!
I came up with the idea of attaching a refrigerant condenser to the Pot-in-pot!
Typical refrigerants include ‘freon,’ ‘ammonia,’ ‘methane,’ ‘ethanol,’ and various others….
I boldly modified Chimjo and Hyeongyeong’s toxin to create Han Bing toxin!
‘If I use this as a refrigerant, I might even be able to create a freezer.’
Of course, even doing this was inferior to the Small Ice Crystal grade.
However, compared to the price of Small Ice Crystals, it was incomparable.
As I explained this, Yoo Ho was thinking.
‘This madman.’
Yoo Ho asked.
“If that breaks, what happens? Won’t the toxin spill out?”
“It’s fine!”
“How is that fine?”
“The Han Bing toxin used as refrigerant will evaporate and disappear the moment it touches air due to its nature, and I’ll only put in an amount that causes stomach upset at most. Well, to get it into your mouth cleanly without touching air, you’d need specialized tools, and consuming that could cause diarrhea.”
“…Such a Han Bing toxin exists?”
At that moment, my eyes glowed blue.
My left arm darkened pitch-black, emanating a chill.
Crackle—
“Yes. Now I understand why Chimjo’s feathers are said to be the greatest toxin under heaven and a treasure of the martial world.”
“…So you’ve gained the ability to manipulate toxins freely?”
“Not all toxins. But Han Bing toxin is possible. You haven’t forgotten that my specialty is ice technique, have you?”
This was the path a single disciple had walked to save his master.
The Nine Yin Meridians.
The years I had lived to eliminate the cold qi within my master’s body proved it.
Strangely enough, the very thing I despised most was that cold qi, born of winter itself.
To overcome it, I had conversely come to understand ice technique more deeply than anyone else.
And what I encountered next was toxin technique.
Absorbing Hyeongyeong’s toxin, struggling to survive while feeling the agony of melting flesh—had I not lived through such trials?
In that process, to survive and to prevent harming others, I refined my toxin technique further.
Now I had reached a level comparable to the Sichuan Tang Family when it came to toxin technique.
And to this, I had absorbed all five feathers of Chimjo—a spiritual entity, or in some regions, a sacred being—with these hands.
‘A toxin no mere mortal should be able to bear….’
Yoo Ho thought.
However, most entities are like this.
Especially the greater the being, the less they ever look downward.
They bestow gifts by their own measure, and those gifts become curses to mortals.
But perhaps it was fine.
The one before me was someone who said that even poison becomes medicine if used well.
‘Hatred’ toward ice and ‘fear’ of death.
Had these two things become medicine for the Doctor?
“So you’ve reached the state where you can synthesize and materialize toxins yourself?”
“Yes. It’s what the Sichuan Tang Family calls the Toxin Master’s realm. Limited to Han Bing toxin, though.”
It sounded mad, but that was the truth.
‘Hatred and fear, when used well, become a refrigerator.’
Just as poison becomes medicine.
The pain and suffering within the young man had become, absurdly enough, Han Bing toxin that would create a refrigerator.
‘He could have unified the entire realm with that toxin….’
It wasn’t as though he lacked refrigeration—he had minor ice essence, ice essence, and even primordial ice essence—yet here he was trying to lower costs.
He was insane.
Jin Cheon-hee said as much and pushed the pure essence of Han Bing toxin into the massive water tank.
Then.
The water that had been clear became a dark blue, and simultaneously, frost descended upon the iron tank’s surface as it froze with startling speed.
Yet the Han Bing toxin liquid inside the tank remained unfrozen, sloshing gently.
A wondrous phenomenon!
“Excellent! The refrigerant is complete!”
“So you’re putting it into the cooling mirror?”
The cooling mirror, or what was also called a refrigerant condenser. That too was already prepared.
I brought over something resembling a ladle and scooped one ladleful of the refrigerant—the Han Bing toxin liquid—and poured it into the opening of the cooling mirror.
Then I sealed the entrance shut with a firm press, and it was complete.
“Now, let’s hand this over to the Research Hall.”
“So we’re testing whether it performs according to theory.”
“Right. I said it was safe with my own mouth, but we need to verify the risks and check its durability too.”
As I spoke, something occurred to me, and I added this.
“Still, there might be someone foolish enough to tear it open and eat it, so I should add an emetic as well.”
“No, where in this world would such a person exist….”
Even knowing it wasn’t made to be eaten, there’s someone who would actually put poison in their mouth? Truly?
And it’s designed so even children can’t open it, yet a full-grown adult would do such a thing?
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“Yes. They exist. I’ve seen them.”
Spend just a week in the emergency ward, and you realize humans can harm themselves in truly countless ways.
Sometimes it defies imagination entirely.
‘There was even that gentleman who came in with a fluorescent tube in his mouth.’
I couldn’t fathom why he’d stuffed a fluorescent tube completely inside his mouth.
The important thing was that while he’d inserted it with great confidence, removing it was absolutely impossible with his jaw.
And I didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if we forcibly broke it while pulling it out.
Jin Cheon-hee spoke.
“Humans can do absolutely anything.”
“…?”
This fox doesn’t know because she’s been at the Baekrin Uiseon headquarters.
Once she goes to Bunta and handles even one emergency patient, she’ll understand then.
Soon after, Yoo Ho spoke.
“It would be nice if there was a smell when it vaporizes.”
“Then we’d immediately notice when the cooling mirror breaks. That works.”
One idea began spawning another.
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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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