Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 108

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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 108
The Five Elements Mutual Restraint Poison.
All things in this world are divided into five attributes and two polarities of yin and yang.
Just as spirit pills possess attributes, so too do poisons.
The purpose is to classify the poison’s attribute using the Five Elements Divine Art, then neutralize and expel it from within the body.
I’ve heard that upon reaching perfection, one can even absorb the poison itself.
However, for that to be possible, the poison must be pure and aligned with the Five Elements Divine Art, so most of it would be burned away, leaving only the tiniest fraction.
‘I don’t aspire to perfection. I only need to resist and expel it.’
I sensed the five types of poison qi within the Five Elements Mutual Restraint Poison.
Fire qi that collided as if burning my body, water qi that stole my body heat, wood qi that caused inflammation, and earth qi that hardened into dense masses forming tumors.
Finally, there was metal qi that tore through my meridians and caused blood vomiting.
‘Medicine and poison are one and the same—what determines them is efficacy.’
I sent my own Five Elements true qi toward the Five Elements Mutual Restraint Poison, specifically the Taiji Yin-Yang Five Elements true qi—an evolved form through the Hyeonwon Perfect Elixir Divine Art.
Comprehending the poison through my body and classifying it was brutally difficult work.
‘Poison mastery relies more on sensation than intellect.’
It was interesting, in a way.
I had initially thought I would need to use my mind extensively to research medicinal combinations and their effects on the human body, but spreading the poison and controlling it required pure intuition.
My true qi extended in different directions.
Mutual generation and mutual restraint.
If I used mutual generation here, the poison would only grow stronger.
What I needed was mutual restraint.
Water extinguishes fire, wood grasps earth, earth blocks water’s flow.
Using the subtlety of mutual restraint, I captured each component of the Five Elements Mutual Restraint Poison one by one.
It was like waging guerrilla warfare within my own body.
When I finished containing it.
Sweat poured from my body.
Not cold sweat like before, but greenish sweat carrying the poison.
Soon that bead of sweat vaporized from the heat and rose upward.
The third stage.
The phase of processing the contained poison had begun.
“Remarkable.”
My Master looked down at me sitting in lotus position in the cultivation chamber.
My rate of progress was truly extraordinary.
Yoo Ho let out a bitter laugh.
Time passed in this manner.
I reached the stage of resisting poison without conscious effort.
Hundred Poisons Cannot Penetrate.
I had attained a body that resisted a hundred varieties of poison.
Though not yet at the level of Ten Thousand Poisons Cannot Penetrate, Hundred Poisons Cannot Penetrate was a realm where one could defend against most major poisons.
It was one of the realms all martial artists aspired to reach.
“Master, I have won.”
One week.
My total sleep over those seven days amounted to less than ten hours.
Jegalling sighed.
“Hee, winning is admirable, but living like that—even the Hyeonwon Jeondansin technique won’t save you from overwork death.”
It was a fundamental truth.
Yoo Ho spoke.
“Young Master, are you even human? Is there truly a need to push yourself this ruthlessly?”
That too was a fundamental truth.
A one-week wager.
I had resolved it by the sixth day.
“Then Master, having confirmed victory in the wager, this unworthy disciple shall now rest….”
With those words, I collapsed.
Thud—
“….”
Jegalling sighed at the sight of me, then ultimately lifted me into his arms.
“Let him sleep for two days.”
However, I awoke exactly twelve hours later and ventured outside.
It was truly terrifying determination.
018. Venturing into Gangho
I had a plan.
Had anyone witnessed me, they would say, ‘You truly have everything planned out.’
To name it thus:
‘The Grand Plan for Securing Spirit Beasts and Spirit Medicines First!’
Two spirit beasts controlled by the Blood Immortal Sect.
Four spirit medicines that would eventually fall into the hands of those destined to become Yeo Ha-ryun’s enemies.
Securing these first was of utmost importance.
‘The problem is that these things are scattered in all directions….’
Spirit beasts possessed inner cores.
Spirit medicines were things that, consumed as they were, increased inner force and nourished the body.
Some spirit medicines created by nature surpassed those crafted by humans with an incomparable efficacy that seemed to mock human-made alternatives.
Merely consuming them would grant considerable advancement in inner force.
I clenched and unclenched my fists repeatedly.
‘Am I prepared?’
I was not yet ready to face the spirit beasts.
In the case of Mannyeonhwari, it had been possible through circumstance, but that was because I had judged it feasible based on information from the novel and went to retrieve it.
Had it not been for the abandoned monastery training abandoned by humans and the spirit core of the Jegal Family’s secret techniques, I would have been the one to die.
Mannyeonhwari was originally a carp.
A mutant carp imbued with fire essence, so its combat power was inferior.
It felt like the weakest among the Four Spirit Kings.
‘Of course, not the Four Kings of Heaven.’
To be precise, I was dealing with five.
The remaining five spirit beasts mentioned in the novel were all formidable creatures.
To defeat them, I would need to reach at least the pinnacle of mastery.
How could one achieve such a level?
One would need to possess at least half a decade’s worth of inner energy, and transcend mere sword qi injury to reach the Realm of Sword Threads—where qi flows like silk from the blade.
In other words, one’s power had to extend beyond the sword itself, enabling ranged attacks.
In gaming terms, it was like using a crescent slash technique where a crescent-shaped sword qi erupts outward, bisecting an opponent dozens of meters away.
That was precisely the Realm of Sword Threads.
Naturally, one needed considerable inner energy, and without superior control over qi, such a realm remained impossible to achieve.
And to face these spirit beasts, I had to possess at least this level of ability.
Just looking at the five spirit beasts’ profiles, they all seemed formidably strong.
‘A snake, a toad, a centipede, a tiger, and an eagle. Five in total, and they’re all carnivorous? Besides, how was the eagle even captured?’
First, I recalled Samgakhyeolsa, the snake.
It was a serpent with three horns sprouting from its head.
And its size was disgustingly massive.
From my past life’s memories, the longest snake ever recorded in the Guinness Book was over seven meters, but this Samgakhyeolsa exceeded thirty meters.
Because the novel described it exactly this way.
[The serpent possessed scales black as pitch, and from its head extended three horns, each appearing five feet in length. When its body stretched fully, it exceeded fifty feet—truly, what else could it be but an imoogi preparing for ascension?]
Normally, a snake of such length and size would struggle to maintain its own body, but being a spirit beast, this creature’s entire form possessed the elasticity of a spring.
Knowing its own strength, it would perform body tackles with power that made even long-ton impacts seem trivial.
Moreover, its venom was vicious, and its scales wouldn’t even be scratched without sword qi.
And I was supposed to capture such a creature now?
The weight difference alone was far too great.
In fact, the novel itself showed it wasn’t easily captured.
‘Anyway, Yeo Ha-ryun captures the snake later, so that’s settled. The Blood Sect captures the eagle and centipede, right?’
The eagle.
A spirit beast called Cheonryeong.
An eagle imbued with thunder qi, with a wingspan of about thirty feet when fully extended—an enormous bird.
It was even larger than the tent-sized eagle reportedly sighted near the DMZ.
Being a spirit beast, it possessed such strength that it could snatch a person and hurl them from the sky.
Truly, the sovereign of the heavens.
The Blood Sect captured this creature by using Cheonryeong’s offspring as a hostage.
The centipede.
Heukgapoong.
True to its name meaning “black armor,” it possessed an absurdly hardened carapace.
A centipede without venom, but characterized by its strength and durability.
This creature was so resilient that capturing it required either using powerful qi to shatter its carapace or employing internal heavy water techniques to destroy it from within.
With no other distinguishing features, it was a spirit beast that invested everything into durability.
The Blood Sect had sent a cadre-level member to capture this one.
‘I should capture Cheonryeong first, then Heukgapoong afterward.’
I had made my own preparations during this time as well.
I consumed the spirit elixir and underwent a complete physical transformation.
After treating my Master, I trained like a madman once more.
Perhaps in the past I hadn’t fully digested all that inner energy, but over the past few months my cultivation had continued to surge dramatically.
Now my inner energy reserves had skyrocketed to a full forty years’ worth.
Since half a decade of elixir effects equaled thirty years of cultivation, I had effectively gained an additional ten years of true qi.
After that point, the accumulation had proceeded at a normal pace, so I judged that the elixir’s effects had finally worn off.
‘If I consume Cheonryeong’s inner core in my current state? I’ll accumulate at least a decade’s worth of cultivation. After that, I should be able to capture Heukgapoong, and then retrieve the spirit elixirs—the timing works out perfectly. If I consume half of those, my inner energy should reach two decades’ worth, yes? The timeframe is roughly three years.’
Three years.
That’s a long time if you think about it. But since the habitats of spiritual creatures and elixirs are scattered across the realm, there’s no helping it.
Still, it was fast.
Yeo Ha-ryun wouldn’t accumulate two decades’ worth of cultivation for at least another ten years from this point.
In terms of pure cultivation, I now surpassed Yeo Ha-ryun.
At the gates of the Medical Hall.
Among the people coming and going, I finished preparing to depart.
I wore a clean martial robe with a medicine pouch slung across my back—the kind all physicians in this world carried.
The pouch bore an emblem symbolizing Baekrin Uigak.
My martial robe also had the same emblem embroidered on it, which was less conspicuous than the Sichuan Dang family embroidery that Dang-a once wore, but distinctive enough that people would recognize it.
“Master, I didn’t know Baekrin Uigak had such traveling clothes.”
“Normally we’d embroider the scholar’s robe rather than the martial uniform, but when you think about it, aren’t there those like you who wish to practice martial arts? I had this made for that reason.”
In other words, it had been made exclusively for me.
‘It certainly conveys the message: touch this person and Baekrin Uigak will come kill you. Hmm!’
My Master was worried that his disciple might get caught up in the hidden conflicts of Gangho.
‘I’ll change clothes once I head down.’
Being too conspicuous felt burdensome.
That wasn’t all. The medicine pouch I carried on my back was packed with various external and internal injury remedies.
It also contained scalpels, forceps, and sutures for treating patients in the field.
Combined, this pouch itself was worth more than a decent manor.
If I got pickpocketed, I was confident I’d hug my knees and cry like a bear.
At my waist hung the Bingjeong Sword.
Not just any Bingjeong Sword. I had painstakingly modified it in case the Northern Ice Palace might recognize it.
The ornate sword hilt had been replaced with a plain one, and the jewel-encrusted scabbard had been replaced with one made of deer leather.
The white, cool blade forged from Northern Ice steel had been dulled with blade coating to reduce its luster, and unless someone examined it closely, there was no way it would be discovered.
Of course, if a complete stranger carelessly drew a martial artist’s sword and examined it closely, that was the same as asking to be killed, and that—
wouldn’t happen unless something went wrong.
With the Heukcheon Hyeolsa on my wrist, the small sword Gongseon Yeong had gifted me, and the Heuksong Unseom strapped on as well, the weight was considerable.
‘Phew, no wonder my physical strength keeps increasing.’
On the surface, I looked like a physician in martial robes, but in terms of weight, I was in heavy armor.
My Master still seemed uneasy and told me that if I needed anything, I should send word to the Uibang affiliated with Baekrin Uigak at any time.

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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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