Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 121

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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 121
Gokgol Hyeolma assumed a relaxed stance and spoke.
“I shall grant you the honor of the first strike.”
I responded with the mindset of a modern person.
“Thank you.”
‘Good grief, how generous.’
This was a matter of life and death. Yet because of that creature’s romantic notions, he was offering to forgo striking first. And part of me felt rather conflicted about it.
‘There’s still a hierarchy between us, isn’t there? Shouldn’t you concede at least three moves? According to the novels, your inner energy is one and a half times mine.’
A middle manager’s pettiness was showing.
I sent a brief hand signal to Hwang-gu.
Yelp! – Just contain him? Got it. Here I go!
Hwang-gu launched himself forward lightly.
“Heh, conceding the first move to a dog? Do you mean to insult me?”
Gokgol Hyeolma unleashed a strike toward Hwang-gu.
Hwang-gu twisted his body as if he’d been waiting for it.
Yelp!
Hwang-gu evaded with a graceful twist of his frame. Yet Gokgol Hyeolma’s counterattack was equally formidable, making it perilously close.
‘Indeed, a counter-based second-strike style!’
The Gokgol Hyeolma technique was founded upon skin as hard as steel and overwhelming brute force.
‘The descriptions mentioned that this skin is so hard it can even withstand sword strikes.’
Therefore, his martial arts would naturally rely on counters rather than first strikes—a second-strike methodology was inevitable.
Take some hits, then deliver one decisive blow to end it!
Ordinarily, the Gokgol technique had the weakness of slow speed, but with inner energy at one and a half times mine, even that disadvantage was compensated.
‘Hwang-gu is smaller than a human. Naturally, evading these counters will be easier for him.’
Then my role was singular: a counter-counter.
Seizing the moment when Hwang-gu launched his attack and striking in would be an effective strategy.
Frost began to gather upon my Icy Clarity Sword.
Hyeonwon Danseon Shingong—Ice.
Taeul Danseon Sword.
Initial stance.
Twenty-four Thunder Strikes.
I circulated my dantian to generate frost energy.
The frost energy gathered like snowballs, seeping into the Northern Cold Iron and condensing.
Simultaneously, the twenty-four stances of the Taeul Danseon Sword created afterimages, forming a shifting pattern.
“Hmm. You underestimate my skin far too much. I thought you’d deliver one strong blow.”
When facing such diamond-hard external techniques, the teaching was to neutralize defense with overwhelming force. Yet I did the opposite, launching the shifting pattern infused with frost energy.
Crack-crack-crack!
Frost formed upon Gokgol Hyeolma’s skin. Marks appeared, but it didn’t pierce through.
Only the traces of frost energy remained.
“Did your master not teach you that petty tricks are useless?”
Gokgol Hyeolma’s fist hurtled toward me.
‘Danger!’
I immediately activated Heavenly Foresight, spinning my body in a graceful pirouette to evade the blow.
In that same motion, I pressed the blade of the Icy Frost Sword against Gokgol Hyeolma’s skin—a movement as fluid as peeling an apple.
Only the cold penetrated; the skin remained unbroken.
‘So it has resistance to sword energy too. Damn.’
Though I had drawn blood lines across its surface, without piercing the skin and tearing the muscle beneath, a decisive strike would be impossible.
But that didn’t matter.
Killing this monster in a single stroke was impossible. So I would accumulate damage instead.
As I continued to evade with Heavenly Foresight and scraped away at its skin with the cold infused in my blade, Gokgol Hyeolma grew increasingly irritated.
Like trying to swat a mosquito with bare hands.
One solid punch was all it would take.
Yet Gokgol Hyeolma did not rush.
“Krkrkk. The Jegal Family’s Heavenly Foresight is renowned, but how long can you evade in this narrow alley?”
I knew that too. And I had deliberately stepped into a place where evasion was impossible.
As if waiting for this moment, Gokgol Hyeolma threw its fist with deliberate slowness.
Gokgol Hyeolma Technique.
Transformation.
Collapse Crushing Fist–!
Slow, yet unmistakably heavy with power.
‘If I take it, I die. I can’t deflect it with strength either.’
But this was an alley. The space was cramped.
If I lost my footing trying to dodge, my head would be crushed by the next direct hit.
‘No choice then.’
I rapidly circulated my inner energy through my dantian.
My body, reborn through the Bone Marrow Cleansing, responded to my will.
In an instant, fire energy surged through all three meridians of my body and up the blade of the Icy Frost Sword.
Remarkably, what I executed was a simple straight thrust.
But precisely because it lacked any transformation technique, I poured every ounce of my power into it.
Gokgol Hyeolma’s fist and the tip of the Icy Frost Sword collided head-on.
I didn’t miss the bitter smile that crossed Gokgol Hyeolma’s face just before impact.
It had expected the sword to shatter.
Clang!
Shockingly, it was Gokgol Hyeolma’s fingers that broke instead.
The hard outer shell cracked. And the blade drove deep within.
Tearing through skin and grinding bone, I pushed more fire energy into the blade as it penetrated deeper.
Crackle-crack-crack!
Incredibly, Gokgol Hyeolma’s arm shattered from the inside.
“Krraaaagh! How is this possible?!”
‘Oh. It works. What exactly is that arm made of?’
I employed a simple principle of thermal expansion.
I utilized the property of objects expanding and contracting with heat.
All those times I had mixed in Transformation techniques to infuse cold energy with viscosity and attacked—I had been waiting for that cold energy to seep into Gokgol Hyeolma’s skin and condense.
Just as one pours hot water into a cold glass, I had simply delivered a scorching blade strike to the cooled fist of Gokgol Hyeolma.
Even once would have sufficed.
All I needed was to pierce the skin just a single time.
‘If the sheer hardness makes penetration difficult, what if I try to shatter it through thermal expansion and contraction?’
And just as a glass shatters, Gokgol Hyeolma’s arm shattered to pieces.
The severed section of that arm could hardly be called human.
A chill ran through me.
‘Is this demonic power?’
Though the solid skin of Gokgol Hyeolma’s demonic cultivation appeared to be a solid state, the interior possessed the properties of a liquid—it seemed worth attempting.
And that produced this result.
‘I shouldn’t think of that as a human arm.’
Gokgol Hyeolma swung another fist toward me.
This arm too bore scars created by the cold energy of the Five Elements Divine Technique.
I unleashed the same middle thrust as before.
My dantian tingled from exerting my inner energy to its limit.
Strangely, I felt certain it would work.
Crash!
“Aaaahhh!”
The other arm shattered as well.
It was absurd. Destroyed by inner energy barely exceeding first-rate level.
Yet this surely wasn’t the sword strike he had anticipated.
I took a step toward him, now bereft of both arms.
Thud—
In that moment, Gokgol Hyeolma retreated from me.
“It seems the match is decided, does it not?”
“You… you wretched creature…!”
I made clear that I had no further desire to fight.
“Heukjeon Uiseon might provide you with fine new arms.”
“I shall return for vengeance!”
Normally, losing both arms would render one crippled, yet the fact that he remained alive without spilling a single drop of blood was uncanny.
I nodded.
Heukjeon Uiseon.
If word spread that he had attacked me, whom he had marked as a successor, and came to this end, I cared not what that Hyeolsaeng Nogoe might do.
Only Hyeolsaeng Nogoe himself, myself, Jegalling, and Yoo Ho knew of the intimate relationship between Heukjeon Uiseon and Baekrin Uigak.
Unless one of these four betrayed the secret, neither Hao-mun nor Gaebang could learn of it.
‘The traces of the Five Elements Divine Technique remain in the scars, so he cannot help but notice.’
I wished Gokgol Hyeolma well in his survival.
‘If a long tongue can keep one alive…perhaps?’
I felt no pity.
He had threatened a child, coerced them with threats of death.
He had insulted my Master—I had no intention of letting him live unscathed.
“Brother, are you alright?”
Sama Hyeon rushed toward me.
“….”
I didn’t answer, simply standing there and watching Gokgol Hyeolma disappear completely from sight.
Once he had receded fully beyond my vision, I spoke.
“Get me to Baekrin Uigak in Buntta as quickly as possible. Can you do it?”
“What?”
Cough—!
Black blood poured from my throat in thick clots.
Internal injuries sustained from my confrontation with Gokgol Hyeolma.
‘I managed to face him while appearing fine, but he truly was one and a half ranks stronger….’
With that thought, I collapsed backward.
Sama Hyeon caught my unconscious form and cried out.
“Brother, you’re not dying, right? Brother! Damn it… Ah. Buntta, Buntta!”
Bark!
Hwang-gu barked sharply and firmly at Sama Hyeon, as if urging him to follow.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, I saw the ceiling of a patient’s ward in Buntta.
“Last time you came as a doctor, and now you’ve come as a patient. Seo Baek-ryong.”
“When you arrived unconscious and being carried on that boy’s back, everyone was so shocked.”
The doctors of Buntta broke into hearty laughter.
“Ugh….”
I groaned and looked around.
The doctors of Buntta were watching me.
“We gathered because checking your pulse suggested you’d wake soon.”
“So, how is it? Our treatment skills?”
I clenched and unclenched my fists, then gently circulated my inner energy to examine my body.
“You’ve done well. Both internal and external wound treatment—I’d say you’ve earned a passing grade.”
“Ha ha ha, those words are most welcome.”
Everyone burst into cheerful laughter.
It wasn’t mere flattery. The stitching, the dressing—nothing was lacking. Moreover, the internal injuries had improved considerably.
‘No fever. No signs of infection complications. Hmm. Of course it’s me. I taught them thoroughly.’
Though I never imagined I’d verify it with my own body.
And seeing that shameless grin made me want to hit them.
‘Wait, where have I seen that expression before?’
Knowledge and spirit—they were being passed on clearly.
The eldest senior doctor approached me.
“Fortunately, both bones and organs are unharmed.”
“You must have been quite frightened.”
“What good does mentioning that do? Some of the Medical Assistants were wailing the moment they recognized me.”
‘Haha, I suppose it makes sense—their master was brought in injured, after all.’
A peculiar feeling stirred within me.
‘Just as Jegalling is my master, so too am I theirs.’
I learned what commotion had erupted when I was brought in by Sama Hyeon.
It had apparently been absolute chaos.
Still, the senior doctors had regained their composure first, steadied their trembling hands, and proceeded with treatment.
Recalling everything they had learned, piece by piece.
“Let me take your pulse to confirm your recovery is progressing well….”
“…It’s fine. I’ve already checked my own pulse—everything is normal.”
“Indeed, the teaching that a doctor’s worst patient is another doctor rings perfectly true.”
“Haha. Quite right. And stubborn as they come, too.”
Everyone burst into laughter.
After that, one of the senior doctors spoke with unusual gravity.
“I hope you won’t come to us as a patient again. I have no desire to experience this a second time.”
I offered a bitter smile at those words. The senior doctor added one more thing.
“Should such circumstances ever arise, please make use of our Buntta.”
“….”
I nodded.
“I’ve heard well of how you risked your life protecting the child.”
“I was about to send word to the Patriarch….”
“…That won’t do.”
“Indeed. The Patriarch would abandon the Yongbong Conference and come rushing here at once. Just like last year.”
‘Hmm, my master’s temperament has become known to all. I wonder if he’ll bring the Eternal Iron Shackles this time as well.’
They still don’t know about the upgrade.

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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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