Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 143

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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 143
021. The Path Home (歸路), The Path of Ghosts (鬼路)
When I opened my eyes, my gaze met a jet-black dragon emblazoned across the ceiling.
A black dragon with golden borders.
It could only mean one thing.
“The Demonic Sect…?”
As I tried to sit up, the sound of chains rattling filled my ears.
I looked down at my own body.
My limbs were bound to the bed without exception.
‘Damn it, what is this…?!’
As I thrashed about in shock, a pair of pitch-black eyes devoid of any reflection stared down at me.
“Brother, you’re awake.”
“Ha-ryun. I can’t move my body right now.”
“Right. That’s why I tied you up.”
What kind of madness was this?
Moreover, around my ankles was a massive shackle. Engraved upon it was a qilin, the symbol of Baekrin Uigak.
“Don’t tell me this is the Eternal Iron Shackles that Master made…?”
“Tch.”
Yeo Ha-ryun exhaled softly through his teeth.
It sounded less like a human’s breath and more like that of a beast.
“I called you because I needed to treat your wounds. Master was already tracking you to this area anyway.”
“Tracking? Why would Master track me?”
“Probably because he saw this coming.”
Suddenly, I noticed that Yeo Ha-ryun’s left ring finger and pinky were missing.
“…Your fingers were intact when I collapsed. What happened?”
“You’ll suture them back for me.”
“Where are the other pieces?”
“Baek Rin has them.”
“Why?”
“A rental fee. He’s keeping them until you’ve fully recovered here. Ah, he said he’s preserving them with special medicine so they won’t rot, so don’t worry. He guarantees they’ll be as fresh as the moment they were severed.”
I couldn’t follow the logic of this situation.
“What kind of…?”
Clink—
I tried to sit up, but the chains still made movement difficult.
Yeo Ha-ryun, his face expressionless, scooped up some porridge and placed it in my mouth.
Once I swallowed, it became clear this was less porridge and more a mixture of rice flour water with medicinal elixirs and herbal remedies.
“Brother. You had abdominal surgery, so you need to stay in bed.”
Sure enough, there was a blood bag inserted near my navel.
“I know patients need to rest too. Do you think I’d suddenly jump up with a blood bag still attached?”
At those words, Yeo Ha-ryun spoke with genuine sincerity.
“I’m hoping my brother hasn’t actually gone that insane.”
To summarize the situation, it was like this.
I had thought only Yeo Ha-ryun would be nearby, but it seemed my Master had rushed over after finishing business at the Yongbong Assembly.
Yeo Ha-ryun had saved me, but the sword wound I’d sustained was too severe, and there was no Baekrin Uigak branch nearby.
In any case, while trying to carry me to the Demonic Sect’s medical facilities, Hwang-gu found Baek Rin-ui-seon.
Baek Rin-ui-seon was shocked and performed emergency surgery on me, but the relationship between Baekrin Uigak and the Demonic Sect was strictly confidential.
If it were revealed to the outside world, we’d be branded as public enemies of the martial world without hesitation.
If it were just me as the patient, it might have been manageable, but having Jegalling stay for an extended period was something even Yeo Ha-ryun couldn’t easily conceal.
And I couldn’t exactly have my disciple, with a blood bag hanging from his abdomen, resting in some inn room.
So I was secretly placed in the Recovery Room of the Demonic Sect’s branch.
In exchange, he took two of Yeo Ha-ryun’s fingers as a pledge of promise(?).
The fingers of a swordmaster.
Jegalling, who severed them, wasn’t in his right mind, but Yeo Ha-ryun, who offered them up, wasn’t either.
‘So heavy… A martial artist’s pledge is far too heavy to bear.’
And my Master told him to keep the Eternal Iron Shackles fastened until I recovered, so taking that as a lesson, Yeo Ha-ryun had shackled all four of my limbs and anchored them to the bed.
When it comes to prisons, isn’t it always the Demonic Sect? They’re specialists in confinement.
“Ha-ryun. Let me loose so I can use the bathroom.”
“It’s fine. I’ve made arrangements.”
Even a martial artist’s catheter had been installed.
Every possible measure for a critically injured patient had been completed.
‘No, no matter what, I’m not going to escape with a blood bag hanging from my abdomen. My body hasn’t even fully recovered.’
Of course, if I set my mind to it, it would be possible.
The blood bag could be handled by myself since I’m a physician anyway. I could even remove the stitches on my own.
‘…’
Yeo Ha-ryun scooped up more rice porridge with his spoon.
“I told you, brother. That you’d come to the Demonic Sect one day.”
“I didn’t expect to come this way either.”
“I… had a feeling you would.”
“How did you know?”
“Just a feeling. Of course, there will come a day when you visit in a different manner, not like this.”
With those words, he brought the spoon to my lips.
Gulp—
I swallowed the porridge and furrowed my brow.
“This really tastes awful. Even without seasoning, it’s not this bad?”
“If you’re dissatisfied, recover and cook it yourself.”
Damn it, I’ll definitely recover quickly and get out of here!
I ground my teeth.
Yeo Ha-ryun spoke.
“Oh, and there’s also an antidote. That Mihonhyang poison was potent. Since its composition is similar to ours, making an antidote was easy. Taking a few pills should resolve the poisoning symptoms.”
“Got it.”
At my sullen voice, Yeo Ha-ryun replied like this.
“Still, I’m glad you woke up.”
“Yeah.”
I hadn’t seen Yeo Ha-ryun like this in a long time.
Back then, they called him Little Heavenly Demon, but now he had grown far beyond such a title.
With his tall frame and broad shoulders, solid musculature and long limbs, he possessed an excellent physique for a martial artist.
And the sword strike he displayed before losing consciousness was so formidable that the title “protagonist” felt entirely fitting.
‘Perhaps he’s become even stronger than in the original story.’
I never imagined he could cleave a Demonic Necromancer blessed by the Hyeolseonggyo in two with a single stroke.
Words like “impressive” or “remarkable” didn’t quite capture it.
‘Terrifying’ or ‘grotesque’ were more apt.
I never expected to feel the same admiration toward Yeo Ha-ryun that his enemies felt when they looked upon him.
“I’m truly grateful you’re my younger brother.”
Future me gave past me a double thumbs up for the choice to make such a monster my brother.
Interpreting my words in his own way, Yeo Ha-ryun brushed my hair once instead of answering.
“Tell me if you need anything else.”
“Then how about unlocking these chains….”
“…Except that.”
“Tch.”
I puffed out my cheeks.
“Even if we reattach your fingers, they might not move like they used to.”
“Really?”
“The human body doesn’t recover that easily. Even if Master says it will be fine, probability always exists. In the worst case, you might have to live without those fingers forever.”
Since Master said he would maintain their freshness by circulating the Five Elements Qi, that much should be preserved.
But even if the fingers look freshly severed, reattachment is another matter entirely.
“….”
Yeo Ha-ryun lowered his gaze.
What could those pitch-black eyes possibly be thinking?
I couldn’t know.
Even back then, there wasn’t much light reflecting in his pupils.
Perhaps that’s why the elders of Pyoguk often said young Yeo Ha-ryun was unsettling.
Now was the time when his heavenly demon nature deepened most intensely.
‘The time when he’d go mad wanting to kill everything.’
A natural part of adolescent growth—not merely the surging desires of puberty.
This one likely lacked such sensations entirely.
The period when his five senses ran wild with the desire to kill, to see blood, to harm anything and everything.
So-called protagonist that he was, instead of going around slaughtering commoners, he only killed martial artists.
Now, thanks to the yoke I had placed upon him, he barely managed to maintain the bare minimum of social conduct as a human being.
Killing twice before restraining himself fell within the acceptable range of demons in the Demonic Sect anyway.
Yet even that required constant suppression, so I thought he must be suffering greatly.
Perhaps because of this, Yeo Ha-ryun, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time, had become a handsome man with sharper features, his eyes grown even darker—as if he could seize someone and drag them toward death at any moment.
Yeo Ha-ryun spoke.
“It’s fine. I gave those two fingers to my older brother anyway.”
“What?”
“A body that my older brother has saved countless times—it’s no loss to give up just two fingers.”
‘How heavy… Yeo Ha-ryun’s brotherly affection is so heavy.’
Clank.
‘If only these chains binding my limbs weren’t here, this would be a far more martial arts-like scene….’
Even if not quite to that vast plain, it was certainly a story worth sharing in the Demonic Sect’s Buntta.
Wasn’t that the elegance of martial arts?
‘Repaying the life-saving grace from childhood with fingers today…. Kwooooo….’
But this was not something to hear while bound in restraints on a hospital bed.
Jin Cheon-hee felt melancholy.
* * *
After regaining consciousness, I conducted a self-diagnosis and examined my body thoroughly.
‘There’s not a single part of me that’s intact.’
It was a natural result, having essentially fought two supreme masters.
If I hadn’t consumed healing elixirs like a madman, I would surely have been offered as a sacrifice by now.
Yeo Ha-ryun must have witnessed his older brother dying or on the brink of death.
Given the nature of the Hyeolseonggyo’s sacrifice ritual, organ display always follows.
Organs from someone who abstained from alcohol and tobacco and ate only the finest foods—the Yoseon would surely appreciate them.
In any case, I won, and the Demonic Necromancer died but rose again through a rule violation, entering what modern raid terminology would call phase two, but Yeo Ha-ryun arrived at just the right moment and we managed to finish it well.
‘My ribs are definitely gone for sure. My internal organs seem to have sustained damage as well.’
Yet my limbs remain unharmed.
My muscles are injured, but this degree of damage is manageable with antibiotics and proper recuperation.
‘Looking at the suture marks, it seems Master didn’t show a moment of tension during the surgery. How remarkable. It wasn’t like that when it was me.’
I know how terrified I was when I treated Jegalling.
What if something went wrong? What if I treated him incorrectly….
There’s a reason why operating on family members is taboo.
A physician loses composure. That leads to serious medical accidents.
Yet Jegalling, upon seeing me collapse, showed no trembling or fear.
‘He might have felt some anger, though.’
I thought it was inevitable—he saved a life and destroyed his own body in the process, so how could he not be furious?
‘In the martial arts world, Master’s sewing is normally just scenes of mending a disciple’s torn martial robes….’
But Jegalling had to stitch together his disciple’s body instead of robes.
There is no greater filial impiety than this.
‘Once I’m fully healed, I’ll remove the stitches with my own hands.’
It was the cry of my last remaining conscience.
‘Anyway, the sutures are better than mine. Better than my work. Even machines would struggle to achieve this. Wow.’
Thanks to that, I don’t think I’ll have a large scar and should heal well.
Click.
The inside of the shackles and manacles were carefully padded with cloth to prevent any abrasions from forming.
In particular, Master’s specially crafted Eternal Iron Shackles fit perfectly around my ankles, and the weight was appropriately balanced—clear evidence of careful consideration.
‘Besides, I have no intention of moving until I’m fully healed anyway.’
What exactly did Yeo Ha-ryun and Jegalling see when they looked at me that made them act this way?
‘Everyone’s being far too cautious.’
I lay back and focused on my recovery with that thought.
Healing came first, no matter what.

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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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