Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 1022

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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 1022
Il-geol had lived as the Tae-sang Bangju of Gaebang and experienced all manner of things this world had to offer.
The divine sword unity and heart-sword realm he had witnessed throughout his life were nothing like this.
Before a colossal adversary, a single draw of the blade had split mountains and altered rivers.
The formidable sword energy they conjured resembled flowers and lightning alike—a landscape he would never forget in all his days.
It was a madness that only those who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts could attain.
That madness placed threads at the end of life itself, pushing the world and transforming it through human will.
It was the power to alter reality and reshape the future.
And those who reached that pinnacle, we revere with the title of Honored One.
‘…They made jellyfish noodles with that?!’
Here stood one who had reached the realm of the Honored One.
And with that world-transforming state of being, they had created a dish.
“Exquisite! The jellyfish is dancing in this world! No, such a texture from starch and flour!”
“Magnificent indeed. Each cross-section reveals countless worlds—for this moment alone, I am Buddha!”
“How can this be a dish made by human hands!”
Among them were the Three Scholars who had successfully drawn lots.
Of course, it helped that the host warrior had given them a subtle wink upon recognizing them—though that was a top-secret matter worth one’s life.
And writing them each a Gangho poem in exchange was classified as ultra-secret!
The Three Scholars each offered their verdict.
“Common cuisine elevated to new horizons—this too is benevolence and righteousness.”
“Common cuisine touching the heavens—this is the Way itself.”
“The ingredients of common cuisine are utterly ordinary, so is this not a technique that has touched the heavens!”
The event coordinator shouted.
“Passed unanimously!”
‘Good.’
Jin Cheon-hee clenched his fist.
Just then, another housekeeper came running, looking distressed.
“I cannot comprehend this. Jellyfish noodles require only extra labor—surely any Gangho housekeeper, anyone at all, can make such a dish!”
“Please, taste it.”
Sim Haksa portioned some into a bowl and offered it.
“….”
The objecting housekeeper swallowed a spoonful with trembling hands.
In that instant, thick tears began streaming down his weathered face.
“…This is the taste… the taste my grandmother made…?!”
‘What grandmother makes such a labor-intensive dish for her own child?’
His spirit was strong.
Jin Cheon-hee was momentarily taken aback.
The man spoke to him.
“I concede!”
Boom!
As I struck the ground, the judge cried out.
“Preliminary round passed! Advancing to the main competition!”
지이이이잉—!
Watching this, Sama Hyeon shouted.
“일 대 삼십 역배당 성공이오오오오오—!”
Even in this chaos, Sama Hyeon was steadily earning money through gambling bets.
The darling of capitalism never rests.
* * *
“The main competition begins in five days. Use that time to prepare!”
All the finalists received the same notice.
Five days.
Long if you think about it, short if you don’t.
The finalists glared at each other’s eyes before rapidly dispersing.
“Kekekkel, this competition is going to be interesting.”
Those watching were none other than the judges.
They were looking down from the roofs of distant pavilions.
Truthfully, they could have simply gone over and waved encouragement to the finalists, but they were judges of the Gangho!
They never reveal themselves so easily!
Those assembled were as follows.
The Elder Tae-sang of Gaebang! Attending as a judge once more!
Now the Grand Master of Delivery! Wuying Touguai attending!
Baekrin’s finest gourmet. Gwak Jangja! Attending!
And the Governor of Gangso Province, the master of Ju Wang’s residence. Ju Wang himself attending!
However, due to his status, a separate judging seat was prepared for Ju Wang. Even so, his vote counts as one.
And hearing this news, he made the journey personally! The leader of Dongchang. The Eunuch General himself!
“Hohoho, I never expected this old man would attend such an honorable gathering.”
Watching this, Namgung Un thought from a distance.
‘…Is the judges’ average age sane?’
Except for Ju Wang, they were all of the same elderly generation.
They always spoke of how one must die when old, yet they abandoned all dignity and rushed here for this food.
Only Elder Sujje couldn’t be reached for some reason.
And Namgung Un….
‘I absolutely will not serve as a judge!’
Hadn’t I nearly died having my energy drained among the elders last time?
Thanks to stubbornly declining, I managed to escape.
I began distancing myself as far as possible from this insane spectacle.
That was right.
Two from Gangho. One civilian. Two from the government.
Total of five!
In other words. An odd number structure where a winner is inevitably determined!
Amidst such brilliant displays of culinary artistry!
People were abuzz with excitement.
* * *
All the cities surrounding Baekrin Uiseon were in a festive atmosphere.
In fact, one could say the entire Baekrin Group was stirring with festival fervor.
Unlike the modern era with its abundance of entertainment, in this age even such small things were important sources of joy in life.
People woke speaking of this matter, and fell asleep speaking of it.
Each had their favorite competitors, and the informants exaggerated the credentials of the participating cooks.
From here on, it would be decided by the renowned figures of the Central Plains, known for their exacting standards.
Even members of the imperial household came forward to take on the role of judges.
Since no one had anticipated it would grow to such proportions, nowadays the children ran about wearing masks symbolizing Bingho—the ice fox.
Adults began inquiring about rentals of Bingho masks.
Amidst such festive atmosphere.
A middle-aged man was dining at a restaurant on the outskirts of the city.
A woman approached and sat before him.
The man spoke.
“Was it a trap?”
“It was a trap.”
….
At the woman’s answer, the man fell silent for a long while, lost in thought, before asking this:
“Did you not say that Hyeolrin Gwangssal was not present?”
“Yet Ilgwang remains here. And there is Gwangchi who has protected Hyeolrin Gwangssal.”
Who does Gwangchi refer to?
Mad. And mad madness.
Insane, yet insane indeed.
Who bears this bizarre epithet?
Then the man spoke.
“Dokgo Junghu. That old demon still lives….”
Gwangchi was precisely the name given to Dokgo Junghu.
His actions in the past, when he sought to protect Jegalling, had earned him this title.
Now merely a fragment of memory that only the old masters of Gangho recall.
Dokgo Junghu, now the Martial Arts Guild Master who speaks only of retirement, was once Jegalling’s loyal servant and mad hound.
If Jegalling commanded him to bite, he bit. If commanded to kill, he killed. And if asked to offer one of his four limbs, he would unhesitatingly tear off his own arm.
Now both had aged and become leisurely, yet those who remembered the past feared the Martial Arts Guild Master as they did Hyeolrin Gwangssal.
Of course, his martial prowess was considerable, but what they truly feared was that madness in his desire to protect his master.
“That mad hound has now entered the realm of half-step transcendence, I hear.”
“Whether he achieved half-step transcendence or Hyeolrin Gwangssal granted it to him, I cannot say. But that one’s nature is to carry his people to the depths of hell itself.”
“True. Moreover, the obstacles are not merely Baekrin Uiseon.”
The man asked.
“You mean the Porters?”
“That’s right. Individually, they’re weak by Gangho standards, but there are so many of them. An overwhelming number. Enough to make you sick. Whenever even a minor incident occurs, they come rushing like a tidal wave.
And when these guys gather, the formation they use—that formation alone is quite formidable.”
Dealing with a single garrison soldier is manageable.
But when they assemble together, what can be done?
“Killing the Somun-ju would be impossible.”
“Indeed.”
“Master will be disappointed.”
“Unless Master intervenes directly… it’s impossible as things stand. Or if Master’s allies were to come.”
“….”
The two people fell silent, their lips sealed.
On the outskirts of the city.
However, because it was adjacent to Baekrin Medical Guild, even the outskirts bustled with people.
The man spoke.
“For now, we retreat. The damage was significant, but there’s no helping it.”
“We’re completely leaving Hao-mun, aren’t we?”
“…We’ve already severed ties. That’s why we came to kill Hao-mun’s Somun-ju in the first place.”
At that moment, the server approached.
She had narrow, slender eyes and a beauty mark that drew the gaze in an oddly captivating way.
“Will you be ordering, guests?”
The woman smiled coquettishly.
“No need. We’ll be leaving shortly.”
“Understood.”
The server bowed her head.
But something felt wrong.
The woman blinked—just an ordinary eye movement.
In that instant.
The server’s fingers had already pierced halfway into the woman’s shoulder.
“Wh-when!?”
Crack!
The woman gasped in shock and tried to counterattack, but something was amiss.
Her body convulsed involuntarily, her limbs stiffening rigid.
“Poison!?”
Assassins being assassinated themselves?
In this absurd situation, the server’s grip was already flying toward the man’s throat.
Whoosh!
The man quickly drew a dagger to block. But.
Clang!
The dagger failed to wound the server’s hand in any way and bounced off uselessly.
Before he could even gasp in horror at how a hand made of flesh could escape unharmed from a blade, that grip seized his throat and tightened.
“Gack, guh… How can a person’s grip strength be… this… strong…”
Resistance was futile.
No external martial art could escape from Sama Hyeon’s grip.
Crack—
Thus the middle-aged man was subdued in an instant.
The server laughed.
“Ah~ as expected. I knew you’d come this far. We’ve caught a big fish, haven’t we? The Osalji Faction’s finest assassins—Isal and Sassal, no less. To catch two of them? Now that’s fortune smiling upon us.”
The server withdrew his fingers from the woman’s shoulder. When he brought that blood-stained hand to his face and waved it like a face-changing technique, Sama Hyeon’s visage was revealed.
Sama Hyeon smiled languidly, as though intoxicated by blood.
The woman—or rather, Sassal, one of the Osalji Faction’s supreme assassins—asked in shock.
“How… how did you find us…?”
Sama Hyeon still gripped the middle-aged man’s throat with one hand, while painting his lips with the blood on his fingers as though applying makeup.
Brilliant crimson bloomed across his radiant features.
He was like a flower that drank blood.
“There are many ways. The Osalji Faction’s money comes from the Golden Blood Hall, doesn’t it? And I’ve already worn the face-skin of Samsal. Once you do that, you understand. What the face-skin’s owner was thinking. How they lived.”
Face-skin.
The skin of a face.
Ordinarily, this alone would be incomprehensible.
Yet strangely, the assassin before him immediately grasped Sama Hyeon’s meaning.
Her face began to drench with terror.
“The Thousand-Transformation Sword Demon Art… that cursed… martial technique…”
She trembled with fear, clearly knowing of the Thousand-Transformation Sword Demon Art.
In that moment, Sama Hyeon snapped the middle-aged man’s neck.
Crack. The sound rang out as the corpse’s neck bent at an unnatural angle.
“Don’t worry. I’ll make good use of your faces too. Now only Isal and Osal remain. How delightful. How very delightful.”
With those words, the woman’s life-flame was extinguished.
Sama Hyeon clapped his hands together, watching the falling corpse.
The masked Haowen disciple, making a gurgling sound, appeared and dragged the body away.
“Now that I’ve disposed of three, I suppose I must play a game of breath-holding with the remaining two…? How entertaining.”
Within the festival his brother had created, that shadow.
No one knew what battle he was waging here.
Especially since this battle had ended so secretly that even the Baekrin Group remained unaware.
Yet it was exhilarating.
If his brother was holding his own festival, then Sama Hyeon was holding his.
‘We truly are amusing brothers.’
The Thousand-Transformation Sword Demon Art was a dark art that forever walked the tightrope between madness and reason.
Sama Hyeon smiled widely, intoxicated by blood.
Such a broken visage could never be shown to anyone, yet still.
I missed my brother.

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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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