Doctor’s Rebirth - Chapter 165

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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 165
‘Right. For me, completing streptomycin is reward enough.’
The children would leave, but I would remain here forever, bound to this place.
I watched Yoo Ho laboring with a vacant expression.
‘Still, with Yoo Ho here, I’m not lonely.’
At that moment, Yoo Ho seemed to sense my warm gaze and looked at me with a start.
“Ha ha ha, would you mind turning those beautiful eyes away? Before I pluck them out.”
Normally, the lab assistants would have cursed, saying things like “How dare you speak to the Buseol Hall Master!” and “Such insolence…!” but everyone’s expressions were calm.
That was right. Through this grueling work, the two of us had witnessed the depths of human nature.
And the lab assistants had witnessed that very bottom.
They understood the magnitude of this ordeal.
I laughed brightly, unbowed by Yoo Ho’s threat.
“Yoo Ho, thank you for staying with me today too.”
Yoo Ho answered with a nauseated expression.
“Is the interrogation and bloodline training from the wooden dummies insufficient?”
It could be called hellish external martial arts training.
From being beaten so much, my skin had become strong enough to withstand a blade strike once.
To become this strong required harsh external martial arts training.
All of this achievement was thanks to Yoo Ho.
It was also because I had seized Yoo Ho and ground him down.
I answered.
“The wooden dummies improve in performance day by day. It’s fine. Thanks to them, I’m growing stronger like this.”
He’s lost it.
Right. Professor Jin has been losing it for quite some time now.
The nineteen lab assistants pretended not to hear and returned to their posts.
“Sigh, Young Master.”
“What?”
“The external martial arts training seems to be becoming insufficient. Would it be acceptable for me to beat you directly next time?”
“No, wait, Yoo Ho. I don’t think I’ve reached that level yet?”
“I will make a point of remonstrating with the Master about this.”
I’ll kill him.
I’ll chew this damned servant to death.
It’s not just beating—it’s interrogation and bloodline training that targets vital points. And somehow I’ve been getting healthier with each beating, but in any case, the act of beating itself had a purpose.
Yoo Ho contemplated whether to truly show this irritating Professor Jin the taste of fire.
It was the anger of a servant and assistant instructor.
“Consider it an honor. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this angry at a mere human. And count yourself lucky to be alive. My contract as a servant was with Jegalling, not with you.”
“Ah, I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you.”
I covered my ears and activated the technique.
At that sight, Yoo Ho’s thread of reason finally snapped.
Moments later, agonized screams from interrogation and bloodline training echoed through the laboratory.
“Krraaaaaaagh–!”
A grudge that had crawled up from hell itself.
* * *
‘Yoo Ho might not be human.’
Occasionally, when Yoo Ho lost his grip on reason to surging fury, he would say things that made me wonder.
Listening to those words, I couldn’t help but think Yoo Ho might not be human.
In long martial arts novels, demons and immortals appear, and in grand-scale works, one eventually faces beings like the Queen Mother of the West or the Heavenly Sect Master—so it wasn’t strange.
Besides, the ones who cracked my pot were followers of Hyeolseonggyo who revered Yoseon.
At the time, I had clashed poorly with Yoo Ho’s rage and fought timidly, fearing the experimental apparatus and bacterial culture farm would be destroyed. Still, I put up quite a fight, as I hadn’t been eating this master’s internal energy for nothing.
Yoo Ho was the same.
If he were smashed to pieces, I would weep sorrowfully, seize him, and grind him to dust.
I knew what happened when Professor Jin set his mind to it and clung like a leech.
This man pretended to live with detachment, but before appetite and thirst for knowledge, he would go mad. So he couldn’t use his full strength.
The professor and the lab slave engaged in a timid battle.
It was a shameful fight for this master’s internal energy.
Through that struggle, I reached a conclusion.
Yoo Ho might not be human.
When Yoo Ho finally subdued me with his cautious palm technique and resorted to violence under the guise of pressure point torture, there was no opening whatsoever.
It wasn’t martial skill, yet strangely, it was simply strong—overwhelmingly strong.
Incomparable to nine wooden men; truly a time of agonizing pressure point torture.
And from that agony, a conclusion like enlightenment.
‘But do I really need to know that?’
I thought to myself.
If I ever discovered the truth, Yoo Ho would stop hiding that he wasn’t human.
Then wouldn’t he refuse to conduct research on humans?
‘I can’t let him abandon his work. Yoo Ho, you can’t abandon it!’
Hell’s pressure point torture was preferable to that.
At least my external martial arts would improve from it.
Just as I was ground down, Yoo Ho had to be ground down with me.
After organizing my thoughts that way, I never probed into Yoo Ho’s true nature.
Rather, even when Yoo Ho said something that seemed like a clue, I closed my eyes and covered my ears.
Toward Yoo Ho, who occasionally went mad, I simply looked at him with eyes that said, ‘The lab won’t be cold today. Let’s research together today too, baby?’
That’s right. Confucius was correct.
Those who know are inferior to those who love it, and those who love it are inferior to those who enjoy it.
I had adapted to and was enjoying this mad relationship in my own way.
Cultivation, medical studies, surgical medicine transmission, surgery, patient treatment, administrative work.
Administrative work included information exchange and budget meetings among the Four Halls of Medicine.
“The medicinal herbs that came in this time are all of excellent quality, making them easy to brew into decoctions,” said Manpagok, the Herb Guild Master.
Jegalling responded, “The contracted merchant guild has been supplying quality herbs. I couldn’t be more grateful. So I’m considering entrusting some distribution of spirit pills to this merchant guild as well.”
“The contracted merchant has been supplying high-quality medicinal ingredients. I can’t tell you how fortunate that is. So I’m thinking of entrusting some of Youngdan’s distribution to this merchant as well.”
“Are you referring to Baekrin’s Wonder Elixir?”
Manpagok’s eyes widened slightly. Jegalling spoke.
“If this were any other Medical Hall, we should have already distributed it long ago. We’ve been verifying it for quite some time, so we’re considerably behind schedule.”
At Jegalling’s words, everyone turned their gaze toward me.
From the perspective of traditional medicine in this world, the verification process of modern medicine was frustratingly tedious.
But this wasn’t merely the level used by doctors trained directly within a Medical Hall—this was official commercial distribution.
I didn’t want to compromise either.
Jegalling continued.
“Of course, that’s not to say it’s a bad thing. The longer we verify, the higher the trust becomes. Currently, even among the great families, many have sent people asking why we’re not releasing Baekrin’s Wonder Elixir sooner.”
Joo Dan-ha, the Chuna Guild Master, answered to that.
“Baekrin Medical Hall has established the impression that it doesn’t compromise on immediate profits. And indeed, that’s what we’ve actually done.”
Jegalling nodded.
“That’s a reputation worth buying for a thousand gold pieces in a Medical Hall. We’ve invested time and effort instead of gold, so it’s a worthwhile exchange. Cheon-hee, then… is there anything else that needs verification?”
At those words, I answered calmly.
“There isn’t. Safety has passed all tests.”
Remarkably, Baekrin’s Wonder Elixir showed no penicillin allergies.
Whether it was due to the unique effects combined with the spirit elixir’s properties, or because the effects were less pronounced than in others, there had never been an allergic reaction.
It was something to be grateful for.
I added one more thing.
“However, though it is a spirit elixir, there have been cases of stomach discomfort when consumed on an empty stomach, so it should be taken after meals.”
“…If the side effects are merely that, the Gangho will be turned upside down and then some. Cheon-hee.”
At Jegalling’s words, all four Guild Masters nodded in agreement.
Over the past several years.
Baekrin’s Wonder Elixir had undergone repeated experimentation and refinement.
What I wanted was a safe spirit elixir with antibiotic properties.
The unit price had been gradually lowered bit by bit.
Of course, it still wasn’t cheap by any means, but we’d succeeded in reducing it to 50% of the original asking price.
Manpagok exclaimed that this was nothing short of a true miracle!
It was because I had ground away everything of myself, and Yoo Ho had ground away alongside me.
Moreover, it contained the sweat and labor of the doctors involved in mass production.
The penicillin team experienced less mental suffering than the streptomycin team, but greater internal energy and physical hardship.
The two teams sympathized with each other.
‘We’re still better off than those working with actinomycetes. When we’re squeezing our internal energy to its limits, I can’t tell if we’re cultivating martial arts or doing hard labor, but at least our minds are at ease.’
‘Senior. Isn’t this place better than where they make Baekrin’s Wonder Elixir? Sometimes it feels like my organs are twisting, but at least we haven’t become human internal energy injection machines.’
Only Yoo Ho and I knew which was less difficult.
Because we were doing both.
Both were saving human lives and pursuing truth—such meaningful work that I loved all my disciples deeply.
It meant I had ground away with love.
They were gladly ground away by the reward of potentially rising to official positions in the future, while I and the doctors under me felt a strange sort of fervor.
‘Seo Baek-ryong is so merciful, so why do all the doctors who enter the Buseol Hall seem to lose their minds?’
‘My skills grow formidable, yet it feels as though I’m losing something precious in the process.’
One’s soul, perhaps. One’s heart. One’s purity.
Regardless, I seemed to shed something with each step forward.
The Acupuncture Guild Master Sama Byeong spoke.
“If we consider only the new revenue excluding what the existing Medical Hall was already generating, that would be Cheongok, Ondol, and the Baekrin Divine Elixir, would it not?”
At those words, the Herb Guild Master Manpagok smiled with a grin.
“Cheongok and Ondol are entirely under the Patriarch of Buseol Hall’s purview, but I would appreciate it if you remembered that the Herb Guild’s efforts are also woven into the Baekrin Divine Elixir.”
‘Indeed. She won’t let this pass without claiming her share.’
I returned her smile.
“Of course. How could I forget the Herb Guild’s contributions?”
They had gathered under the ideal of healing people, yet the desire to secure a larger budget burned equally bright in all their hearts.
The doctors and patients under each Guild Master’s care hung in the balance.
In that sense, Manpagok would want her share as well.
She held the position of overseeing the Herb Guild, after all.
At this exchange, both the Acupuncture Guild Master and the Chuna Guild Master let out sighs.
When I first sought to establish the Baekrin Divine Elixir, neither of those two Guild Masters had lent their hands.
It wasn’t their domain, and they had no desire to bear the burden should the venture fail after they had divided their personnel.
Manpagok, by contrast, was a gambler, and she had drawn a winning hand.
“How much do you wish to claim?”
When I asked directly, Manpagok answered.
“Considering the monthly wages of the senior and junior doctors of the Herb Guild, and the medicinal materials still being consumed, I should rightfully take fifty percent, but that is impossible. I will accept thirty percent.”

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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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