Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 145

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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 145
“Ah, so this is what it feels like.”
I broke through the shackles binding both my wrists, and now it was time for the leg irons.
“The leg irons Master created are the problem. The principles should be similar, but the Jegal Family is famous for their mechanical lock designs….”
Unlocking this would be another intellectual game.
I cracked my fingers.
Just as I was about to grab a corner and insert a wire, the door creaked open.
“Brother, it’s time for your meal….”
Yeo Ha-ryun’s eyes, carrying a bowl of rice porridge, met mine directly.
“….”
I quickly spoke to Yeo Ha-ryun, who was slowly lowering the bowl.
“Hey, I’m completely healed! And my fingers! I need to have them sutured!”
“Oh, right.”
“You know I’m fully recovered.”
“But brother. When did you learn such a technique?”
I laughed brightly.
“You learn these things as you live.”
“…I understand that locks aren’t that important to you, brother.”
Next time I’m restrained, won’t it just be solid iron chains?
I felt a chill of dread.
“First, let’s suture my fingers. That’s what worries me most.”
What could be more important to a swordsman than his fingers?
Especially in the Demon Sect, a place of the strong.
There would be no shortage of demon lords who would welcome news of Yeo Ha-ryun’s weakening.
“And… don’t sacrifice your fingers because of me.”
“Brother.”
“It breaks my heart.”
At those words, Yeo Ha-ryun stared at me intently.
I had no way of knowing what thoughts lay behind those dark eyes.
“…Understood. I’ll think about it.”
* * *
That night, Master arrived.
Wearing a human-skin mask and with his hair dyed black, Master looked like a completely different person.
Instead of greeting me, he seized my wrist and took my pulse.
“You’ve fully recovered.”
“It’s fortunate indeed.”
“You unfilial wretch.”
“Hehehehe….”
I laughed good-naturedly on purpose.
As I laughed like that, Jegalling let out a small sigh.
“There’s a saying that no parent can overcome their child, and I’m proving it right now. I resolved to scold you harshly for getting hurt, but seeing you smile like that… my resolve just melts away.”
My Master produced a key and unlocked the shackles around my ankles.
Click—
“Thank you, Master.”
“We have much to discuss, but let’s save that for the journey home.”
I was already dreading the trip back. I decided to worry about that later.
Instead, I simply massaged my ankles diligently.
Behind me, an unfamiliar voice rang out.
“Tsk, tsk. Poor fellow. How did you end up marked by such a monster…”
It was Hyeolsaeng Nogoe.
Somehow learning that I was performing suture surgery, she had dropped everything and rushed to the Demon Sect’s Buntta branch.
The Heukjeon Medical Guild had connections with the Demon Sect, so it wasn’t difficult for her to visit.
Jegalling spoke to Hyeolsaeng Nogoe with a wry smile.
“That’s too harsh. Monster, you say?”
“Then are you in your right mind, Baek Rin?”
With that, Hyeolsaeng Nogoe ruffled my hair.
“And on top of that, you’ve got the Heavenly Killing Star attached to you too. You really are cursed. If you’d just become my disciple from the start and entered the Heukjeon Medical Guild, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”
I shook my head.
“Regardless of who my Master is, I would not have changed.”
After all, saving the child would have remained my purpose.
Hyeolsaeng Nogoe responded to my words.
“What? Even if I taught you corpse puppet techniques? You could just take several corpse puppets with you and trade blows with the Demonic Necromancer! I’m quite good at making corpse puppets!”
Indeed, Hyeolsaeng Nogoe was, in modern terms, a true mad scientist in practice.
She was a budding adult with a keen interest in corpse puppet techniques.
Even if I had interest in corpse puppets, it was purely from a scholar’s thirst for knowledge—to verify hypotheses about their elimination and establish theory through published papers—not to go around trailing behind hopping corpses.
‘And mutual corpse puppet combat at that. This isn’t Pokémon…”
It was a realm beyond my comprehension.
“Master, the fingers are at least intact, yes?”
“Don’t worry. I’m staking my reputation on this, so I can’t be careless. I’ve taken special care to keep them as fresh as if they were just severed.”
“…”
Hyeolsaeng Nogoe wasn’t to blame.
My Master was also a brilliant mad scientist.
Surrounded by these lunatics, I resolved to maintain my sanity alone.
“Ha-ryun. I’ll definitely treat you properly.”
“Brother…”
Yeo Ha-ryun was deeply moved watching me.
* * *
‘Hehe… it really is fresh.’
I wasn’t referring to refrigerator freshness.
Looking at the fingers with their fresh, vital appearance, I felt my mind slipping away.
The severed edges were so clean that it felt like watching a scene from a manga where someone cuts a flower and it remains alive.
‘Is this the realm of a living blade….’
Even examining the cross-section, I struggled to comprehend my Master’s level of mastery.
Thanks to this, the suturing procedure itself proceeded remarkably smoothly.
Normally, I would have faced tremendous difficulty connecting blood vessels, nerves, and muscles.
Moreover, even when connected this way, restoration often failed, making it difficult to guarantee success.
Beside me, my Master continued to assist throughout the procedure.
‘For nerve suturing, the needle is what matters most.’
Even if I could patch the rest with Hyeonwon Jeondan Singeong and the Dual Thought Technique, some things simply cannot be fixed.
Connecting delicate capillaries and nerves required special needles and thread.
What I used here was a goose feather needle—a needle from the Sichuan Tang Family.
To connect blood vessels with a diameter of 1mm or less, I needed a needle far finer than a human hair.
The Sichuan Tang Family’s goose feather needle was perfectly suited for such delicate microsurgery.
“How did you manage to obtain something like this!”
I asked Hyeolsaeng Nogoe in surprise, and she answered.
“I had business treating someone, and I just shot at the leader point-blank. Hehehehe. Since she gave me such a nice gift, I kept it well stored.”
It seemed she had fired it while resisting at a crossroads between life and death.
I wondered if that unnamed person from the Da Family had received treatment.
I couldn’t know, so I decided not to ask.
Actually, I had extracted it directly from my dantian using the Metal-Generating Qi.
Single silk thread. A thin, single strand of thread.
Its tensile strength would be weaker than composite thread, but its fineness was unparalleled, making it perfect for delicate suturing.
“Once the surgery is complete, you cannot move your fingers for a while.”
“Why?”
“They’ll burst.”
I didn’t specify what would burst. From my expression and tone alone, he could only understand that something terrible would happen.
“Got it, brother.”
Yeo Ha-ryun trusted me.
I had struggled greatly to compose myself before the surgery.
These were my younger brother’s hands. And the hands of a martial artist at that.
My Master said that if I was truly worried, he could do it instead, but what Yeo Ha-ryun wanted was his older brother, me.
So I decided to push through and do it myself.
After long preparation and meditation repeated several times.
Still, I managed to steady my mind somehow.
Maintaining the formation was Hyeolsaeng Nogoe’s role.
Instead of observing the surgery, she prepared her own formation and agreed to maintain it until the procedure was complete.
“It’s the Blood Corpse Formation. It helps prevent corpses from rotting when creating jiangshi. Conversely, it also helps when deploying healing techniques on patients. Young one.”
It was a different method from the Five Elements Formation of the Jegal Family, but it was worth referencing.
After a long time had passed, I finally managed to suture every damaged area.
It was a time of endurance.
How much time had passed? Yeo Ha-ryun opened his eyes and looked down at his own fingers.
He tried to move them, then stopped as he recalled what I had said.
“Wait. Let me examine it first to make sure it’s healed properly.”
I checked that sensation had returned normally to his fingers and examined his blood circulation through pulse diagnosis.
“Good. Now we just need to apply a cast.”
I prepared the cast right away. Yeo Ha-ryun spoke.
“I feel like I could pick up a sword and fight right now.”
I let out a small sigh toward this future Heavenly Demon.
“If you do that, it’ll rupture. Besides, I need to keep monitoring it. I have to watch for any pain.”
“Mm.”
Yeo Ha-ryun’s lips formed a thin line, clearly dissatisfied.
I spoke.
“Since it’s a Spirit Pill wound, once it’s completely healed, you can circulate your energy through it to dissolve and absorb it. Just be patient until then.”
At those words, Yeo Ha-ryun said.
“Brother, don’t worry so much yourself. Even if something goes wrong, it’s fine. After all, I’ve dedicated these fingers to you.”
“…Seeing you like this makes me think I can’t be reckless with my body going forward.”
“Then I’ve won.”
Yeo Ha-ryun lifted his dark eyes and looked up at me.
‘He was so worried about me. This fellow… he would stake himself for my sake.’
It was a way of thinking that was utterly incomprehensible to someone from the modern era.
I clicked my tongue.
“I’ll be careful with my body too, so you be careful with yours.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, now that everything’s done, there are some people who want to become sworn siblings with me.”
“What do you mean…?”
Yeo Ha-ryun furrowed one brow.
* * *
I explained the events that had occurred so far in general terms.
I told him about Cheonwoo, the first candidate for younger brother, and Sama Hyeon, the second candidate for younger brother.
Yeo Ha-ryun furrowed his brow and listened carefully to everything I said, from beginning to end.
“So they’re saying they’ll serve you as an older brother because you saved their lives?”
“Something like that.”
“Brother, don’t be fooled. Those guys are all scheming to take advantage of your medical skills.”
“You also had your life saved by those medical skills. Ha-ryun.”
“I’m different. You proposed it first to me. I’m different from those guys from the start.”
Yeo Ha-ryun insisted that what those two were doing was merely scheming to exploit my medical skills, while he alone represented a genuine bond of brotherhood.
I neither affirmed nor denied what Yeo Ha-ryun was saying.
“Alright. If you don’t like it, we’ll forget about it.”
“What?”
“You said you didn’t like it. I won’t do things you dislike.”
“Wasn’t that exactly what you were asking me to do?”
At those words, I burst into hearty laughter.
“No, Ha-ryun. That was only because Cheonwoo and Sama Hyeon requested it—I asked for your opinion because your wishes come first to me.”
Everything has its proper order.
From my perspective, there would be no regret even if the two boys never became sworn brothers.
We could simply continue our friendship as companions and help each other when needed.
Yet when I, as the elder, so readily agreed, Ha-ryun felt his resolve crumble instead.
“….”
He furrowed his dark eyes in contemplation before speaking.
“…I belong to the Demon Sect, brother. If it becomes known that we’ve become sworn siblings, I could become a public enemy of the martial world.”
“I know.”
“Yes. You knew, yet you still extended your hand to me.”
Ha-ryun fell silent in thought once more before speaking.
“If those two can stake their lives for you, then I’ll reconsider it at that time.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“If they meet me directly in the future without wavering, and possess enough martial strength to protect you, then I’ll grant my approval.”

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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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